Cardiovascular events tend to occur in the morning, along with a peak in ambulatory BP, 6 and of clinic, 24-hour, awake, sleep, evening, preawake, and morning BP, morning systolic BP (SBP) is the strongest independent predictor for stroke. Therefore, antihypertensive treatment for morning hypertension is likely to offer greater benefit in preventing cardiovascular events.Abstract-This study aimed to investigate the relationship between on-treatment morning home blood pressure (HBP) and incidence of cardiovascular events using data from the

ABSTRACT. Although a number of measurements have been made on radiocesium concentrations in aquatic organisms, no clear agreement has been reached on the factors affecting accumulation of these radionuclides. Natural variations in the concentration of the long-lived artificial radionuclide '37Cs in marine organisms and factors affecting variations in marine fishes were investigated through long-term and systematic measurements in coastal waters of Japan from 1984 to 1995. Concentrations of 13' Cs were measured in more than 30 species of crustaceans, cephalopods and teleosts considered representative of the marine biotic community. A clear positive correlation (p < 0.05) was found between mean weight and concentration of 137Cs in 276 fish samples. However, different relationships between 137Cs concentration and weight of fish were observed in different species. Within 16 studied species I3'cs concentration increased with growth for 4 species, while no specific correlation was observed in the remaining species. These different patterns depended on a change of food habits with growth. Analysis of 6066 stomach contents of fish samples together with '37Cs concentrations in the stomach contents demonstrated that 137Cs concentration increased with rising trophic level and that the biomagnification factor (13'cs in p r e d a t~r / '~~C s in prey) was 2.0 (95% confidence interval 1.8 to 2.2). From the yearly change of '37Cs in 24 marine fish species, a mean effectlve environmental half-life of I3'Cs of 13 * 3 yr (range 10 to 17 yr) was calculated.

Intervention of executive function during early childhood is an important research topic. This study examined the effect of a child-friendly intervention program, where children interacted with a doll or a puppet. Children were presented with cognitive shifting tasks before and after an intervention. In the intervention, children interacted with a doll or a puppet, and taught rules of the cognitive shifting tasks to the object. As the results, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly improved the performances and strengthened activations in the lateral prefrontal regions as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. The results suggest that interaction with a doll or a puppet may have a significant impact on the development of executive function.

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Morning home blood pressure (BP) levels are more closely associated with cardiovascular risk than clinic BP levels. However, control of morning home BP has been worse than that of clinic BP in clinical practice. We examined the effects of olmesartan-based treatment using data (n=21 341) from the first 16 weeks of the Home BP measurement with Olmesartan Naive patients to Establish Standard Target blood pressure (HONEST) study, a prospective observational study for olmesartan-naive patients with essential hypertension. After 16-week olmesartan-based treatment, the clinic and morning home systolic BP (SBP) lowered from 151.6±16.4 and 153.6±19.0 mm Hg to 135.0±13.7 and 135.5±13.7 mm Hg, respectively (P<0.0001). The achievement percentage of target morning home SBP (<135 mm Hg) in all patients, those with diabetes mellitus (DM), and those with chronic kidney disease (CKD) increased from 13.5, 16.4 and 17.2% to 50.8, 47.9 and 48.8%, respectively, and the proportion of patients with well-controlled hypertension (clinic SBP<140 mm Hg and morning home SBP<135 mm Hg) increased from 7.9, 9.2 and 10.2% to 38.9, 34.5 and 36.3%, respectively. After 16-week olmesartan-based treatment, the proportion of patients with masked and white coat hypertension changed from 11.8 to 24.2% and 5.6 to 11.9%. In conclusion, both clinic and morning home BP in all, DM and CKD patients improved with 16-week olmesartan-based treatment in the ‘real world', and the results showed a sustained 24-hour BP-lowering effect of olmesartan. Decrease in clinic and home BP resulted in an increased rate of masked and white coat hypertension, and further management is needed in those patients.

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Ceramics of LaxSr1−xNbyTi1−yO3 (LSNT) were synthesized under various reducing atmospheres. Covering the specimens with graphite carbon felt under an Ar‐gas flow during sintering drastically enhanced the electrical conductivity, σ. Ti K‐edge absorption spectra indicated the presence of Ti3+ for heavily reduced specimens. The increase in conductivity was attributed to the 3d band of Ti3+. The maximum value for the figure of merit, ZT, was obtained for strontium titanate ceramics modified with both 5 mol% La and 5 mol% Nb, namely 5/5‐LSNT, exhibiting a ZT value of ~0.221 at 473 K. This high ZT value was almost 1.5 × larger than that of the conventional 10 mol% La‐doped sample, 10/0‐LSNT (ZT~0.144), and was mainly attributed to the larger Seebeck coefficient of the material.

The effects of abiotic and biotic factors on the population dynamics of roti fers were investigated over two years in mesotrophic Lakes Ohnuma and Konuma (Hokkaido, Japan). Four rotifer species, Po lyarthra vulgaris, Trichocerca rousseleti, Keratella cochlearis and Filinia longiseta, dominated rotifer assemblages of both lakes. Their population densities changed seasonally with species-specific trajectories, but these dynamics were not related to seasonal variations in water temperature and dissolved oxygen content. Analysis of the population dynamics revealed that the instantaneous death rate affected the rate of the density change more strongly than the instantaneous birth rate in all dominant rotifer species. The estimated daily ration of predatory rotifers and copepods was higher than the estimated fi nite death rate of the rotifers in most cases. Effects of food limitation and competition with herbivorous crustaceans seemed to be less important compared to that of the invertebrates preda tion. These results indicate that in Lakes Ohnuma and Konuma the population dynam ics of rotifers were mainly determined by invertebrate predators through top-down control.