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Density perturbations accompanying seismic waves are expected to generate prompt gravity perturbations preceding the arrival of P-waves. Vallée et al. (Science 358:1164–1168, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao0746) reported the detection of such pre-P-wave signals in broadband seismograms during the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. Kimura et al. (Earth Planets Space 71:27, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-019-1006-x) considered that their detection involved some uncertain points, including a concern regarding their signal processing procedure. Specifically, to remove the instrumental response, Vallée et al. (2017) applied acausal deconvolution to the seismograms truncated at the P-wave arrivals. Generally, acausal deconvolution produces artifacts at the edge of the time window. However, they did not present quantitative assessment whether the detected signals were artifacts due to the signal processing. To avoid this concern, Kimura et al. (2019) employed another procedure that eliminated acausal processes, resulting in the detection of a pre-P-wave signal with a statistical significance of 7σ in stacked broadband seismograms. Subsequently, Vallée et al. (Earth Planets Space 71:51, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-019-1030-x) commented that the procedure employed by Kimura et al. (2019) for the signal detection was inappropriate because it dismissed the low-frequency components of data. Although we admit the loss of low-frequency components in the data in Kimura et al. (2019), Vallée et al. (2019) have not yet provided a full account of the validity of their own procedure. Here, we assessed the validity of the procedure employed by Vallée et al. (2017) by quantitatively evaluating the magnitude of the acausal artifacts. First, we investigated how the input acceleration waveform, having an ideal signal-like shape, was distorted by their procedure. Their acausal deconvolution indeed generated a large-amplitude terminal artifact; however, it was removed by the causal band-pass filtering performed after the deconvolution and consequently became negligible. Next, we constrained the maximum amplitude of the artifact due to the noise in a seismogram and showed that it was sufficiently small compared to the reported signal amplitudes. These results suggest that the signal waveforms seen after their procedure were not artifacts but were representing the input acceleration with sufficient accuracy. Namely, their procedure well functions as a detection method for pre-P-wave signals. In the context of this validation, we replied to the comments of Vallée et al. (2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carcinoma showing thymus-like differentiation (CASTLE) is a rare thyroid cancer. This is the first report of a case of concurrent occurrence of CASTLE with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). A 66-year-old male patient had hoarseness with right vocal cord paralysis. Ultrasonography revealed a hypoechoic nodule in the inferior pole of the right thyroid lobe. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology suggested differentiated thyroid cancer. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy with neck dissection. Pathological examination revealed two different thyroid cancers: a CASTLE and a follicular variant of PTC. Postoperative radiation therapy was performed. The patient was still alive after 5 year following the initial treatment without evidence of recurrence. The oncological management of patients with concurrent occurrence of different thyroid cancers should consider the biological behavior of both tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite tremendous success of pneumococcal conjugated vaccine and antimicrobial treatment by amoxicillin, acute otitis media (AOM) still remains as a great medical concern. Failure of antimicrobial treatment includes several factors. The middle ear cavity is surrounded by bone tissue, which makes it difficult to maintain sufficient concentration of antibiotics. Tympanic membrane of AOM patients thickens and actually becomes a barrier for topical therapy. This review discusses novel antimicrobial treatment strategies based on drug delivery systems (DDS) for AOM. To deliver drugs enough to kill the pathogenic bacteria without systemic side effects, the development of new antimicrobial treatment strategy applying innovative drug DDS has been expected. The sustained-release DDS can achieve sufficient time for antimicrobial concentrations to exceed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for time-dependent antibiotics as well as enough maximum concentration for dose-dependent antibiotics to eradicate causative pathogens in the middle ear. The development of trans-tympanic membranes of DDS, such as hydrogels with chemical permeation enhancers (CPEs), is another attractive strategy. Phage is a promising strategy for developing DDS-based therapies. The DDS formulations enable antimicrobial treatment of AOM by a single dose and thus, an attractive future antimicrobial treatment for AOM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some large earthquakes may have been triggered by large slow slip events (SSEs). This paper studies the time it takes from the most recent SSE to seismic failure in a situation where earthquakes are influenced by periodic SSEs, unlike in earlier studies that investigated the impact of a single SSE imposed at an arbitrary timing during a seismic cycle. A single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) spring-slider model obeying a rate- and state-dependent friction (RSF) law is used to study the time to failure. The results are compared with those in Ohtani et al. which simulates megathrust earthquakes triggered by large, spontaneous SSEs along the deeper extension of a seismogenic zone in a 2-D elastic medium. Suppose a model fault under steady-rate tectonic loading is also impacted by stress steps induced by periodic SSEs. In the absence of SSEs, there is only a unique value of the characteristic slip distance L of RSF for a given seismic return period T. In the presence of SSEs, by contrast, synchronization occurs, and there exists a finite range of L values that corresponds to the same T. The timing (phase difference) of earthquakes relative to the SSEs varies continuously with L within that range. This study focuses on the case where T is triple the SSE return period, T SSE, (T = 3 T SSE) to allow comparison with Ohtani et al. For each value of L in that range, disturbance tests that assign random values to T 0, the timing of the third SSE within the seismic cycle, are conducted to obtain a probability distribution for tf , the time from that SSE to seismic failure. The distribution is converted into P (t; L), the cumulative probability that seismic failure occurs within time t of the SSE. The P (t; L) is averaged over the different L values to produce |$\bar{P}$| (t), which takes account of variability in the strength excess on the seismic fault at the time of the SSE, a parameter that is generally unknown. These numerical disturbance tests are conducted for three different values of an SSE size parameter. It is found that the larger the SSEs, the more intensely seismic failure is concentrated within short time intervals following an SSE. For the largest SSE, whereby a single SSE accounts for 3/10 of the total stress accumulated during a seismic cycle, there is a 50 per cent probability that seismic failure occurs within 132 d. These results contrast with those of Ohtani et al. in which tf was found to be concentrated more intensely within even shorter time intervals following an SSE (80 per cent probability that seismic failure occurs within 2.78 d of the SSE). It is suggested the timing of SSE-triggered seismic failure is concentrated more strongly on a fault embedded in a continuum because of a factor that cannot be taken into account by an SDOF model—a spatial structure of stress concentration that is already there on the fault even before the triggering event, the SSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankai megathrust earthquakes are likely to have been immediately preceded by a huge slow slip event (SSE) in the deeper brittle‐to‐ductile transition zone, which accumulates slip of a meter or more within several days. The present study investigates the interaction between such huge SSEs and the characteristic earthquakes through earthquake cycle simulations obeying the rate‐ and state‐dependent friction. To simulate huge SSEs, we employ a cutoff velocity (Vcx) above which the friction changes from velocity weakening to velocity strengthening. We assume that Vcx decreases from 10 to 10−9 m/s with depth over the transition zone located between 20‐ and 35‐km depths. Depending on the characteristic slip distance L of rate and state friction, simulation results showed three patterns of earthquake nucleation. If L is small, an SSE in the transition zone directly grows into an earthquake without experiencing a separate nucleation at the brittle zone (brittle nucleation). If L is moderate, an SSE triggers brittle nucleation, which develops into an earthquake. If L is large, an SSE occurs but ceases without triggering an earthquake nor brittle nucleation, then slip deficit accumulates further to finally start brittle nucleation without the direct help of SSE, and an earthquake occurs without a large precursor. In addition, isolated huge SSEs, resembling precursory ones, occur in all cases, at most a few times per cycle. Key Points: We investigate the nucleation of characteristic earthquakes in simulated cycles involving deep huge SSEsThree distinct nucleation patterns were found; two involve a huge SSE; a huge SSE does not necessarily trigger an earthquakeSSEs and earthquake nucleation grow huge because of a unique slip profile characterized by a flatter maximum than an ellipse [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously found a trypsin-like proteinase which momentarily appears immediately before DNA synthesis in the cell cycle of Escherichia coli synchronized by phosphate starvation and which is closely related to the initiation of DNA replication (Kato, M., Irisawa, T., Morimoto, Y. and Muramatu, M., unpublished results). The proteinase was named proteinase In. It was purified approximately 2880-fold with a recovery of 15%. The isolated enzyme appeared homogeneous by gel filtration and electrophoresis. Its molecular mass was estimated by analytical gel filtration and SDS/PAGE as approximately 66 kDa. The isoelectric point of proteinase In is 4.9 and its optimal pH is approximately 9. Although protein In hydrolyzes fluorogenic substrate for trypsin, its hydrolytic activity seems markedly affected by amino-acid sequence lying towards the N-terminal from the P1 (lysine, arginine) residue. The proteinase does not hydrolyze N2-benzoyl-D,L-arginine-4-nitronanilide and fluorogenic substrates for chymotrypsin and elastase. The proteinase activity is inhibited by leupeptin, antipain and 4-nitrophenyl 4-guanidinobenzoate, but the effects of tosyl-L-lysine chloromethane, diisopropylfluorophosphate, benzamidine and pentamidine isethionate on the proteinase activity are weak or not inhibitory. Its activity is strongly affected in the presence of NaCl and KCl, and at a concentration of 1.5 M, these increase the activity 14-fold and 13-fold, respectively, above that without salt. Proteinase In was strongly inhibited by various esters of trans-4-guanidinome-thylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid, and their inhibitory effects were roughly correlated with those on growth of E. coli. Proteinase activity was found in the cytoplasmic fraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A driving stress of the Mw5.8 reverse-faulting Awaji Island earthquake (2013), southwest Japan, was investigated using focal mechanism solutions of earthquakes before and after the mainshock. The seismic records from regional high-sensitivity seismic stations were used. Further, the stress tensor inversion method was applied to infer the stress fields in the source region. The results of the stress tensor inversion and the slip tendency analysis revealed that the stress field within the source region deviates from the surrounding area, in which the stress field locally contains a reverse-faulting component with ENE–WSW compression. This local fluctuation in the stress field is key to producing reverse-faulting earthquakes. The existing knowledge on regional-scale stress (tens to hundreds of km) cannot predict the occurrence of the Awaji Island earthquake, emphasizing the importance of estimating local-scale (< tens of km) stress information. It is possible that the local-scale stress heterogeneity has been formed by local tectonic movement, i.e., the formation of flexures in combination with recurring deep aseismic slips. The coseismic Coulomb stress change, induced by the disastrous 1995 Mw6.9 Kobe earthquake, increased along the fault plane of the Awaji Island earthquake; however, the postseismic stress change was negative. We concluded that the gradual stress build-up, due to the interseismic plate locking along the Nankai trough, overcame the postseismic stress reduction in a few years, pushing the Awaji Island earthquake fault over its failure threshold in 2013. The observation that the earthquake occurred in response to the interseismic plate locking has an important implication in terms of seismotectonics in southwest Japan, facilitating further research on the causal relationship between the inland earthquake activity and the Nankai trough earthquake. Furthermore, this study highlighted that the dataset before the mainshock may not have sufficient information to reflect the stress field in the source region due to the lack of earthquakes in that region. This is because the earthquake fault is generally locked prior to the mainshock. Further research is needed for estimating the stress field in the vicinity of an earthquake fault via seismicity before the mainshock alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite endoscopic thyroid surgery contributing to excellent cosmetic outcomes, it requires longer surgical time than open surgery. This study evaluates the factors associated with operative time in video-assisted neck surgery., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent hemithyroidectomy by video-assisted neck surgery at a single hospital between 2017 and 2021. The clinical parameters were evaluated: age, sex, body weight, body mass index, coexistence of Hashimoto thyroiditis, side of operation, surgical approach to thyroid (midline approach or lateral approach), operation time, amount of blood loss during surgery, maximum tumor diameter and tumor volume, and postoperative complications. These parameters were compared to investigate the association of operative time and surgical approach., Results: Seventy consecutive patients were enrolled in this study, the median age at operation was 50 years, and there were 6 (8.6%) men and 64 (91.4%) women. The median body weight and body mass index at operation were 56.6 kg and 21.5, respectively. Coexistence of Hashimoto thyroiditis was found in 17 (24.3%) patients. Significant differences were found between the groups with longer and shorter operation time than median 201 minutes in surgical approaches to the thyroid ( P  < .001) and the amount of bleeding during surgery ( P  = .039). There were no differences in other candidates between the groups. Median operation times were 242 minutes in midline approach and 131 minutes in lateral approach ( P  < .001)., Conclusion: The lateral approach of video-assisted neck surgery to the thyroid can contribute to shortened surgical time in the case of benign thyroid nodules., (© 2022 The Authors.)