The association between earlobe crease (ELC) and coronary and aortic atherosclerosis in 100 autopsied men ranging in age from 50 to 79 years, who died free of vascular diseases or related conditions, was studied in conjunction with blood pressure and serum total cholesterol (TC) levels. Earlobe crease was graded and defined as groups 1, 2, and 3 according to the depth and length in both ears. The extent of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries and aortas was visually graded. Coronary atherosclerosis was significantly more severe in group 3 in all the decades examined than in groups 1 or 2. Aortic atherosclerosis in group 3 was significantly greater than in group 1 in all the decades examined, and was greater than in group 2 in the seventh and eighth decades. The TC level was significantly higher in group 3 than in groups 1 or 2 except in the sixth decade. Multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that the degree of ELC was dependent on the extent of coronary and aortic atherosclerosis, but was independent of age. Conversely, the extent of coronary atherosclerosis was dependent on the degree of ELC, but was independent of age. The extent of aortic atherosclerosis was, however, dependent not only on the appearance of ELC and TC, but on age. It is thus concluded that ELC provides a significant external marker for atherosclerosis and may reflect a persistent overload of atherosclerosis risk factors, such as TC.

No abstract

The creation of atomically-ordered Si{111}7 × 7 facet structures on a Si(110) substrate is realized for the first time. Au was deposited on atomically-flat {111} facet surfaces. The resistance of Au wires crossing over three-dimensional (3D) facet edges with an angular shape is intrinsically sensitive to the edge alignments in electric path: the resistance in crossing the facet edges was 3–10 times larger than that along the facet edges. We suggest the enlargement of the resistance originated from conduction electron scattering along the angular path. This work pioneers the fundamental understanding of electron transport in 3D angular metal-interconnects.

Neodymium nickelate (NdNiO 3 : NNO), which is a typical strongly correlated metal oxide, has attracted considerable attention because of its large resistance changes due to its metal-insulator transition (MIT). Since MIT in NNO is quite sensitive to the stoichiometry, we precisely fabricated four NNO thin films with different Nd:Ni ratios and comprehensively studied stoichiometry-dependent MIT properties using a temperature-dependent resistance measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and a first-principles density functional calculation. We found that the resistance change in MIT is strongly enhanced when the Ni 2+ /(Ni 2+ + Ni 3+ ) component and estimated oxygen deficiency are sufficiently reduced by optimizing Ni/Nd. The relative change in resistance was sensitive to the Nd:Ni ratio of the NNO thin films, varying from 1 (no transition) to 42 of the resistance change ratio. XPS studies revealed that the cationic deficiency from stoichiometry in NNO films led to the deviation of the Ni valence from 3+. DFT calculations supported that a lack of Ni causes metallicity due to a reduction in the Ni valence from 3+ to 2+ and the collapse of the band gap, followed by oxygen defect introduction, which causes the degradation or absence of MIT properties.