Measles

Regarding measles outbreak going on in TX and vaccination, this site should be worth reading through. Very informative and easy to understand. 

It is noteworthy the outbreak has occurred in the area most unvaccinated. It is regrettable it may spread world wide anytime.

 https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/a-child-is-dead-from-measles

During the course of the infection, the patient could be immunocompromised and could get infected with some bacteria leading to serious complication.

In addition to her description, when an infant gets infected, he/she would suffer from a fatal neurodegenerative disease named SSPE in several years or later. No effective treatment. It occurs only with a few cases in 100,000 patients. Not so many but still notable for pediatric field. I have seen a few patients in my resident days and know how miserable it is to children. IT IS PREVENTABLE with vaccine.  

If your children should get ill with measles, I am afraid, the top of HHS won't save them or take responsibility for that by himself.

Prof. Isoyama's 8th anniversary and encountering a few people related with him

It was 10 years ago today when I travelled to Toyama for a concert of Matthew's Passion by the local orchestra and choir. It was the only chance for me to listen to Prof. Isoyama giving us a short lecture. I knew that concert in his blog and decided to go there at once. I often visited his blog and enjoyed his erudition in music, especially, Bach's works. He was a man of good sense of humor. 

 http://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-concert-of-matthews-passion-in-toyama.html

It was Feb 22 of 8 years ago when he died due to fatal trauma on head fallen on an icy street. As I wrote before, it was right after completing his book on Johannes Passion. Even though his passing was an abrupt happening to us, he had lived a completed life. 

I might have mentioned about it before but remember he was an alumni of a high school in Nagano which a good friend of mine, a proficient pianist, graduated from. About 20 years or so ago, she has invited me to play Cantiqua de Jean Racine by Faure et al at an orchestra organized by the alumni of the orchestra. It seemed to be a commemoration of the orchestra. It was the time when I had regularly enjoyed chamber ensemble with her and other company in Tokyo. 

Prof. Isoyama was another graduate of that high school a bit older than my friend. He must be interested in classical music by that time and could be probably involved in the orchestra. I have learned about this story later than that chance of performance. I felt the world was small and we have been united by some means.  The cellist guy at the seat of the same row was a professor in music at certain university, maybe, vocal or other instrument. A very humble person. He must not be very happy to play the program next to me, an amateur cellist, but never showed disgusted look to me there.

Whether I like it or not, I should often mention those who had passed away in this blog. I am living such a chapter in the journey of life for now. Only thankful for every encounter with the people.

Inpatient sick children

At pediatric inpatient ward in a big hospital like a university facility, sick children are living tiring lives. They could hardly make friends there. They sure need friends to share pleasant things together and to grow together. Their parents or family members are visiting them only for a few hours late in the afternoon. In such a facility, the patient kids are always suffering from serious and/or long lasting diseases and it is inevitable that they should live in that way. 

What a pleasure it is for them to have an unusual event like having a singer visiting there! The guest sings some well known songs in solo or together with them. This is a singer named Hitoto Yoh visiting the inpatient ward at Nagoya University; the photos courtesy by Nagoya University. She has been not only a famous singer but also a poet/actress. Her bio says she has done volunteer activity for sick or handicapped children since her young days. 

Her countenance is fascinating. So are their audience children's. I was deeply moved by them all. 

I have spent several years as a resident and later a staff at two different medical school hospitals. I know it was meaningless and boring to children to spend days or weeks at the inpatient ward, where only the monitor of vital signs or respirators making beep noise endlessly at regular interval. Otherwise some crying. I could imagine what joy these children must have had at this event. In my experience, I also have played cello or string quartet with med students in the inpatient ward at such as Christmas event etc those days. I don't know how the children and their family members have enjoyed it. They have quietely listened to us then. The photos shown above have reminded me of that.

I often remember of the patients in the charge of me. I could not recall most of their names. I still own a file of resume of the patients I took care of those days. When I read them, their faces come back to my mind. I only wish they have recovered fully and are spending happy lives. Most of them must be around 40 years of age or so by now. The only defect of pediatrician as a career is that we could hardly know how the patients are spending their lives. It doesn't belong to us anyway.

 

 

Toru Takemitsu's 29th anniversary

The older I get year by year, the more I realize of the fact that life goes with death side by side. I may die anytime. Prepare for that. In such an attitude, everything I experience everyday would look brilliant and fascinating to me. 

The song I quoted in this post for Takemitsu's 22nd anniversary sounds not only a dirge but a song spiritually supportive to those destined to die in the future even if the lyrics doesn't say that. 

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-22nd-anniversary-of-tohru-takemitsu.html

It is his 29th anniversary today. Far long, I have lived since I heard of his death.

Most basic thing among people

I am still almost addicted with Faure's nocturne. This No 11 in f sharp minor is most poignant and moving one. It is titled by Faure as "à la mémoire de Noémi Lalo". Noemi is told to be his friend's wife.

I don't know why but always feel relieved as well as soothed at this piece. It is a typical elegy still providing us with calmness. 

I am only ingnorant of musicology and am not capable of analyzing compositions. But they say some of Faure's works are based on Gregorian mode which he has been trained at Ecole Niedermeyer in his young days. And, as I recently heard from a musicologist, certain old Japanese mode has something common with Gregorian. I got inspird that there had been some mode in music common all over the world. Music must be originally born imitating sounds of nature and putting our emotion to them. It could be brought birth at various places in the history but that progress may not be so different in the beginning everywhere. The idea of similarity of modes in music has lead me to such a fanciful thought.

If this idea is right, why are people still fighting or even killing each other in the world? They emphasize the difference of races or cultures as the reason. They insist owning certain land on the globe, which only a few previous generations of their ancestors have had. When we leave this earth, what does it mean to own some land or resource in the world? We should return to the most basic emotion we share as mankind.  

What's going on in the world

It was an awful news that Trump would negotiate on cessation of the invasion to Ukraine by Russia in disregard of Ukraine. Trump seems unconcerned about Budapest memorandum which detrmined the security of Ukraine between Ukraine and the other related countires. While Trump said the US won't commit the peace keeping after cessation of the war, he requires the right for the rare-earth elements in the eastern part of Ukraine.

The vice president of the US told the leaders in Europe that the biggest security threat was not military aggression by Russia or China but their suppression of free speech. Free speech in his context includes blocking ultra right parties like AfD in Germany from governments. 

The chief prosecutor of International Criminal Court has been designated to be an objective for sanctions by the US government. Likelily, it was due to the determination of Putin as well as Netanyafu for war criminal by ICC. Trump seems to believe Putin has never committed war crime at all. 

 

These news seem to mean the Trump administration would cooperate with the other dictatoship in the world and approve their invasivions abroad. It may extend to illegal invasion to Greenland or Panama by the US. It will be an era of new imperialism. Those dictators have forgotten or neglected the history leading to the democracy and the international law ensuring the frame of democracy. 

Thinking the situation in this way, I feel almost cramped and depressed. What will the next generation experience in this world? It would be the world of "1984" by George Orwell. Dictators with power only rule and there is no ethics or moral in the international society. 

I don't believe this regime won't last too long. But destruction of the administration in the US and the international society would be serious and takes a long time and energy to recover, I am afraid.  

Izumi Tateno A pianist with the Left Hand

Izumi Tateno is an 88 years old pianist. I listened to him playing a piano quintet together with Iwamoto Mari string quartet, which I wrote about in a previous post. It was at a hall in Tokyo in early '70s.

He must be in his late '30s of age. He has confidently showed up on the stage. Maybe, it was not too long after he had started his career as a pianist. I must admit I could not recall of what composer's quintet he had played. Possibly, Sinding. I am not sure. The scene of the rendition is still clear in my memory. 

He might have achieved a fame as a pianist for Scandinavian composers. Having lived either Japan or Finland alternatively, he has done a great job. But in 2002, he has suddenly suffered from cerebral vascular accident which left him right paresis. It was an almost deadly trouble for a professional pianist. I heard of the news with deep sadness. 

He has revived as a left hand pianist not too far from that event. I have listened him playing the Concerto for the Left Hand by Ravel either on radio or TV. He seemed to have lost his Finnish wife recently. In a recent interview to him, losing his wife, he told he had been doing house chores by himself and was living by himself. He was telling that in a gentle smile. He was still practising piano for 3 hours everyday. It might be short for a professional pianist. But considering of his age, it's still amazing. He still carries on playing piano at various places, either in Japan or even in overseas.

In a concert cerebrating his 88th of birthday, he has played 4 pieces. Two of them were works composed by Northern European composers. The last two, one an arrangement of a nursery rhyme by Kohsaku Yamada, and the other Ave Maria by a baroque composer Caccini arranged for the left hand, are most impressive.

He said, in the end of the concert, his age might prevent him from visiting there again, far from his home. In a few seconds, he denied that and would visit there again in the future. In a big smile all through that statement.

What is making him so positive for the future? Despite of his handicap, or the event which looks like a handicap to us, and loss of his beloving one, he is still going ahead with that big smile. It seemed like a miracle to me.

  

Half a century since I listened to him in live! Wishing him good health and mellow performance activities. 

An unforgettable ham friend Bob W7AYN

As I told in the post regarding Jim K9JWV, I have always been thrilled and enjoyed to work with QRP stations. Especially, since I was equipped with standard or above standard set up. It might because that it brought me back to the beginner days when I struggled with the same kind of tiny and simple radio/antenna.

Bob W7AYN was one of such QRP operators. I have frequently seen him as NF7H in '80s through '90s. Later, he got his last call sign, W7AYN, which had been owned by his father. 

With stable and beautiful keying from a bug he has inherited also from his father, he always showed up on 40m early in morning in his time. We have talked a lot on trivial matters or family things. It was amazing his barefoot from a tiny Icom transciever shown in the photo with a wire barely above the roof was coming through and good enough for us to chat for a while. I have really appreciatd his keying from that old bug. I believed it was an art. 

He seemed to have had a lot of problems in his life. Regarding his family, his health and so forth. He never complained of those things but just simply told me as they were. He always remembered of what I had told him and asked about that later. It was not what I could expect from old timers.

In the last few years, he has moved to a new home near to his children. He could not put up an outdoor antenna but used a tiny loop in garage. We have often discussed with correspondence by e mail how to improve his antenna. But it was what he could afford those days. It was still tough for us then to chat like before.

He has had a lot of illnesses, I know. I remember whenever we met, he almost got a new health issue. As told above, he reported it only as a fact. He never complained of those things. In the end, he has suffered from heart attack. Our mutual friend, probably, WA7GIL, has let me know of his passing which arrived him all of sudden. It seemed like a fatal arrhythmia. It was 2017. I still miss this good friend of mine and would go after him. Before it gets too late, I should prepare a simple tiny station after him.     

Ambiguity in Bach's music

Whenever I listen to music by J.S. Bach, I notice ambiguous emotion in each melody of his most works. It could be called as a kind of polysemy in music. Whatever brilliant and pleasant music it might be, a kind of sorrow or sadness is on the background at the same time. I have reiterated about this double emotion in his music before. That characteristics makes his music sound serious and profound.

Professor Isoyama whom I also mentioned about a lot of times in this blog, a famous scholar on Bach used to say it was due to a couple of circumstances he had lived. First, it was soon after the Thirty Years' War, destructive and miserable to people all over in Germany. In the era of Bach, he must be influenced by the aftershock of that war. Second, Bach has lost his family early in his life. By age of 9 years, he has lost his parents and has had to live with his elder brother. Losing his parents, he must have felt he had to live helpless life. Lastly, Christianity of protestant by Luther taught him eschatological way of life, I believe. This might be the base of dual emotion in his music as well.

The final chorus of Matthew's Passion sounds a typical example of ambiguity to me. For a music of funeral, it sounds brilliantly radiant. The basso continuo still sounds full of sadness. What a great Aufhebung between opposite two emotions! I am always amazed at it when reaching to this final chorus. An irreplaceable comfort to me!

It will be his 7th anniversary on the 22nd of this month. He was lying on death bed around this time after having severly injured on the snowed street back home after serving as a referee at a chorus competition. It will be the 28th anniversary for Tohru Takemitsu as well. He has loved Matthew's Passion so much and has spent the last night on the earth listening to it as his wife used to tell. 

Tariff diplomacy? For what?

What is Trump's tariff diplomacy? In order to mess up the world economy? Or is he in a kind of memory dysfunction? So far, it serves only to make him look an idiot.

 

Probiotics would work when fiber rich food is taken together

Ultra prcessed food consumption may lead to higher all cause mortality, even if the degree of association is not high. 

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38719536/

Natual fiber rich meal could redress certain species of intestinal microbiome and reverse the adverse effects of industrialized food. 

 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)01477-6?fbclid=IwY2xjawIPQYFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTS52XB6KEbQD05wbP-urkIBqTrq6eg_3GggXNGcSOzzm38hEqCkkUyk9A_aem_9Bd9GYgEfs3FF53G4JfzRw

Reduction of chronic non communicable diseases may improve life expectancy since such chronic inflammatory conditions have been revealed to be one of the causes of aging.

Intake of only probiotics won't give us lasting beneficial effect. Such as ameriolating chronic inflammatory conditions including cardiovascular events and also cancer. We need taking fiber rich food in addition to them. 

Industrialization has made our lives convenient and easy going. But it could change our internal milieu, that is, intestinal microbiota into wrong way. 

Preference to sweets

Preference to sweets differs from one person to another. It may be related only with personal inherent preference but also with occurrence of type II diabetes mellitus and its control. When we try dieting, that could be the highest wall to overcome.

An article in recent Nature Microbiology reported that carbohydrate preference is regulated by the following mechanism. It is not confirmed by the other researchers yet and there could be other pathways of regulation. It is still an interesting finding.

Various long chain free fatty acids are contained in foods. Unsaturated free fatty acid may work as the starter of this pathway. At first, I thought long chain free fatty acid rich, that is, gourmet meal might upregulate the prefernce. But, in reality, it is the opposite. When we take the gourmet meal, it may down regulate appetite for sweets. 

The mechanism could be summarized as below;

A receptor for free fatty acid, FFAR4 reacts with long chain fatty acid on intestinal wall. >A bacterial flora in intestine, Phocaiecola vulgatus, proliferates. This is one of the intestinal microbiome. Breast milk feeding is believed to increase it. >Panthoteinic acid is produced by Phocaiecola vulgatus. >A gut hormone, GLP1, is secretd from intestinal secretary cell through panthoteinic acid. >A growth factor, FGF21, is produced in liver and circulates to brain by the function of GLP1. >At hypothalamus, carbohydrate preference is down regulated by FGF21.

Among the substances or hormone involved in this pathway, GLP1 or GLP1 agonist has drawn attention as a drug for type II diabetes mellitus and as a dieting drug. The researchers who have found this substance/function and its clinical use have recently been awarded for Laskar award in the US. It is an advantageous point as a drug for diabetes mellitus that GLP1 won't cause hypoglycemia on human in hunger. 

I was impressed at what elaborate pathway is present in living body. There could be other pathways as told before. With more amount of knowledge gained, we could control our health/disease. Intestinal microbiota has been believed to work as an internal milieu. It is believed to have immunological function on living body as well. With breast milk fed infants, intestinal normal flora may determine even preference of sweets. It's surprising a flora in intestine could work as a component of this cascade. 

When I was a med student, none of these findings were known. Nowadays, med students should understand and memorize them to be a doctor. Huge amount of new knowledge piled up. What a big task for them! 

An old logbook

 Before I started using a digitalized log, I had kept notebook logs in analogue since I started radio in 1963. Ordinary A4 sized notebooks with horizontal rule lines. Until I transfered from them to PC log in around 2010, when I realized my memory had got too rusty to remember even QSOs with old friends, I had kept almost 100 of the notebook log. 

One reason why I made so many log notebooks is that I have written down some key words in the conversation in the remarks. Some QSOs have taken a page or so to record them. That memo was quite imcomplete and sometimes difficult to recall of what I talked about with the partner. Still some are quite informative and make me recall vividly of the QSOs.

From the bookshelf, I took one of them dated from March to May in 1981. It is numbered Nr4. There were several I kept in '60s in addition to 90 plus after 1980. It made me chuckle at myself how long I have spent with ham radio those days. One note book for a couple of months. I was a senior resident by that time and was accoustomed with normal routine at work. That may be why. But how about the home chores? I have spent almost all my free time for ham radio.

A lot of old and fond call signs were there. W4BW, WA6IVN, W7KRU, VK2DO, 9V1UY, WB6BFR, K6TS and many more, whom I chatted with for a long time and each remarks space of over half a page or more was spent for a QSO. Most of the operators were older than me and have started ham radio in 1930s or even earlier. Real ham radio pioneers were still active those days. I was only in my early '30s of age. 

I was using only TS830 and a vertical on the roof those days. I could work with all over the world including the East Coast and Africa etc. It is amazing I often worked with Africans, mostly, southern part like ZS, ZE, 8Q, FB8 etc with that small set up. I still remember seeing Frank ZE1FN, ex G2DGJ. He was on the air, mainly, 20m when sun was sinking the horizon, that is, our mid night. Steve, WA0UIR, was active from Seattle, almost finishing his graduate school and starting his research career. There will be 3 decades of hiatus before we again meet often. He is now KW7Q retired in Colorado. In early spring, 20m was vigorously open to Europe. There are records of a lot of QSOs with Eu in a row on 20m. I stayed up early in the morning. Thar good conditions might have driven me crazy. Lireterally, crazy and hectic days. 

Again, I could not help asking myself if it was worth spending time and energy for this hobby that way. I could have done more with academic career or caring for family etc. Knowing that I got crazy for this hobby like in my teenage days, how much my parents have worried about me and my family! At least, I haven't ruined my life with it. But still that addiction in this hobby questions to me if it was good or not.

It was a good training for communication in English. I was reading professional papers in English. But, without ham radio, my ability in it won't stay as well as at present. I should admit knowledge in the colloquial English in ham radio was not so  practical in ordinary life.

Last but not least, friendships with those old friends and their memories have been indispensable for me. Living lives together, even apart each other, with someone away throuout our lives is an experience difficult to have for anyone. Throughout our lives in fact. Yes the relationship could be superficial in a sense. But through that life long relationship, we could know each other so well. This should be the best thing ham radio has brought to me.

So what to do with these 100 notebooks, worn and a bit dirty? I may preserve them until end of my life. My family may discard them then. Together with all my pleasure and dream since young days.