To assess the significance of reversed circadian blood pressure (BP) rhythms as a predictive factor of vascular events in NIDDM, vital status after an average 4-year follow-up was determined in 325 NIDDM subjects in whom the circadian BP profile had been monitored between 1988 and 1996. Circadian BP rhythm was analyzed by the COSINOR (a compound word for cosine and vector) method, as previously described. After exclusion of 37 dropped-out subjects, 288 were recruited to the further analysis, of which 201 had a normal circadian BP rhythm (group N) and the remaining 87 had a reversed one (group R). There was no difference in sex, HbA1c, the prevalence of smokers, serum lipids, or serum electrolytes between groups N and R at baseline, whereas age, the prevalence of hypertension, serum creatinine, and diabetic complications were more pronounced in group R than in group N. During the follow-up period (which averaged 52 months in group N and 36 months in group R), fatal and nonfatal vascular (cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, peripheral vascular arteries, and retinal artery) events occurred in 20 subjects in group N and 56 in group R. Unadjusted survival times and event-free times were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier product-limit method, and there was a significant difference in both unadjusted survival and event-free survival rates between groups N and R (P < 0.001 each; log-rank test). The Cox proportional-hazards model adjusted for age, sex, circadian BP pattern, duration of diabetes, therapy for diabetes, various diabetic complications, and hypertension demonstrated that circadian BP pattern and age exhibited significant, high adjusted relative risks for fatal events, and that diabetic nephropathy, postural hypotension, and hypertension as well as circadian BP pattern exhibited significant, high adjusted relative risks with respect to the occurrence of various nonfatal vascular events. These results suggest that reversed circadian BP rhythm is associated with occurrences of both fatal and nonfatal vascular events in NIDDM subjects.

Monodisperse mesoporous silica hollow capsules (MSHCs) with sizes ranging from 570 to 75 nm were synthesized using the sol-gel method combined with the template-assisted method. Monodisperse polystyrene (PS) particles were used as templates for the hollow structure of the MSHCs, and cylindrical micelles of cationic surfactant were used to create mesopores across the shell of the MSHC. To obtain MSHCs with a degree of polydispersity in diameter comparable to that of the PS templates and spherical in shape with uniform shell thicknesses, the conditions for the synthesis were systematically examined. It was found that the ranges of the reaction conditions to obtain such MSHCs had to be narrow because (1) the colloidal stability of the particles must be maintained before and after the sol-gel reaction and (2) the rate of the silica formation during the reaction must be regulated to attain sufficient shell thickness to retain the hollow structure and to achieve smooth surfaces. The sustained release of dye molecules loaded in the MSHCs was confirmed, indicating that our MSHC is a candidate for use as a drug carrier in drug delivery systems or as a container for microreactors.

Long-range-ordered anodic porous alumina having hole intervals from 25 to 30 nm was prepared in H 2 SO 4 electrolyte. Constant-voltage anodization under high temperature condition in addition to high concentration of H 2 SO 4 generated the long-range-ordered anodic porous alumina having ideally ordered hole configuration with 25 and 30 nm hole intervals at 10 and 12 V, respectively.

In the quest for exotic superconducting pairing states, the Rashba effect, which lifts the electronspin degeneracy as a consequence of strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) under broken inversion symmetry, has attracted considerable interest. Here, to introduce the Rashba effect into two-dimensional (2D) strongly correlated electron systems, we fabricate non-centrosymmetric (tricolor) superlattices composed of three kinds of f -electron compounds with atomic thickness; d-wave heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 sandwiched by two different nonmagnetic metals, YbCoIn5 and YbRhIn5. We find that the Rashba SOI induced global inversion symmetry breaking in these tricolor Kondo superlattices leads to profound changes in the superconducting properties of CeCoIn5, which are revealed by unusual temperature and angular dependences of upper critical fields that are in marked contrast with the bulk CeCoIn5 single crystals. We demonstrate that the Rashba effect incorporated into 2D CeCoIn5 block layers is largely tunable by changing the layer thickness. Moreover, the temperature dependence of in-plane upper critical field exhibits an anomalous upturn at low temperatures, which is attributed to a possible emergence of a helical or stripe superconducting phase. Our results demonstrate that the tricolor Kondo superlattices provide a new playground for exploring exotic superconducting states in the strongly correlated 2D electron systems with the Rashba effect.

Unconventional superconductivity and magnetism are intertwined on a microscopic level in a wide class of materials. A new approach to this most fundamental and hotly debated issue focuses on the role of interactions between superconducting electrons and bosonic fluctuations at the interface between adjacent layers in heterostructures. Here we fabricate hybrid superlattices consisting of alternating atomic layers of the heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn_{5} and antiferromagnetic (AFM) metal CeRhIn_{5}, in which the AFM order can be suppressed by applying pressure. We find that the superconducting and AFM states coexist in spatially separated layers, but their mutual coupling via the interface significantly modifies the superconducting properties. An analysis of upper critical fields reveals that, upon suppressing the AFM order by applied pressure, the force binding superconducting electron pairs acquires an extreme strong-coupling nature. This demonstrates that superconducting pairing can be tuned nontrivially by magnetic fluctuations (paramagnons) injected through the interface.