Facilitating Community Risk Communication for Wide-Area Evacuation during Large-Scale Floods.

Large-scale floods have been occurring more frequently in Japan as a result of current global weather anomalies, yet evacuation procedures face several issues. These include low evacuation rates of citizens, wide-area evacuation by car, and residents who cannot evacuate on their own. For example, in the Kofu Basin, Yamanashi Prefecture, due to the size of the potential inundation area and a population that exceeds 300,000 people spread across 10 municipalities, a large number of residents would have to evacuate across municipal boundaries by car.

Acute stress increases the synthesis of 7α-hydroxypregnenolone, a new key neurosteroid stimulating locomotor activity, through corticosterone action in newts.

7α-Hydroxypregnenolone (7α-OH PREG) is a newly identified bioactive neurosteroid stimulating locomotor activity in the brain of newt, a wild animal, which serves as an excellent model to investigate the biosynthesis and biological action of neurosteroids. Here, we show that acute stress increases 7α-OH PREG synthesis in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) through corticosterone (CORT) action in newts. A 30-min restraint stress increased 7α-OH PREG synthesis in the brain tissue concomitant with the increase in plasma CORT concentrations.

Biosynthesis, mode of action, and functional significance of neurosteroids in the purkinje cell.

The brain has traditionally been considered to be a target site of peripheral steroid hormones. In addition to this classical concept, we now know that the brain has the capacity to synthesize steroids de novo from cholesterol, the so-called "neurosteroids." In the middle 1990s, the Purkinje cell, an important cerebellar neuron, was identified as a major site for neurosteroid formation in the brain of mammals and other vertebrates.

Evaluation of low-dose propofol preadministration to attenuate vascular pain during induction of anesthesia.

Study Objective: To determine whether a small dose of propofol before induction decreases pain with injection using two different formulas of propofol-10% long-chain triglycerides (LCT) and medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) and LCT.

Design: Prospective, randomized, comparative study.

Setting: University-affiliated hospital.

[Blood lactate levels during fast-track cardiac anesthesia].

Background: Lactate is a very sensitive marker of outcomes in critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of blood lactate measurement during fast-track cardiac anesthesia.

Methods: We examined arterial blood lactate levels of 12 patients following coronary artery bypass graft surgery under intermittent aortic cross clamping with fast-track cardiac anesthesia.