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Relationship between oral hypofunction and salivary biomarkers in older adults : a cross‑sectional study
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Oral health problems have increased among older adults. Oral hypofunction is characterized by seven signs and symptoms: oral uncleanness, oral dryness, decline in occlusal force, decline in the movement function of the tongue and lips, decline in tongue pressure, decline in masticatory function, and decline in swallowing function, the latter being a significant risk factors for oral frailty. Recent research has suggested that salivary biomarkers can be used to assess not only oral diseases, including dental caries and periodontitis, but also systemic diseases, such as cancer and diabetes mellitus. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between oral hypofunction and the levels of salivary biomarkers.
Methods
In total, 116 patients, aged 65 years or older, were included in this cross-sectional study. If three or more signs or symptoms in seven kinds of tests met the criteria of each test, oral hypofunction was diagnosed. The levels of biomarkers in the saliva collected from the patients were analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Results
In total, 63.8% of patients were diagnosed with oral hypofunction. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that calprotectin levels in the saliva were significantly related to oral moisture and masticatory function. Furthermore, 8-OHdG levels in saliva were associated with the movement function of the tongue and lips and oral hygiene level, and salivary AGE correlated only with the movement function of the tongue and lips. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that calprotectin levels in the saliva were significantly correlated with the prevalence of oral hypofunction, even after adjusting for age, sex, and periodontal status. However, none of the biomarker levels in the saliva had a significant relationship with the number of examinations outside the reference range.
Conclusions
Calprotectin, 8-OHdG, and AGE levels are associated with oral hypofunction in older adults.doctoral thesi
発話を受けた聞き手の端的な感想に基づく例えツッコミ文の生成
No full text対話システムを利用することで，ユーザは時間や場所を問わず対話的な情報収集が可能になる．ただし，素っ気ない応答や無機質なインタフェース等によりシステムへの親近感が低くなる場合，利用機会の減少や対話持続の困難さが懸念される．そこで，本研究では対話を通してユーモアを喚起してシステムへの親しみを感じさせるために，ツッコミ手法の中で生成する難易度が高い型である例えツッコミを対象として，発話を受けた聞き手の端的な感想に基づく例えツッコミ文の生成手法を提案する．具体的には，Twitter のTweet・Reply 文に対して構文解析や依存構造解析，関連度の算出等により学習資源を収集して，発話文に対するツッコミ対象の推論機能を開発する．また，インターネット上で公開されている例文を基に言語モデルを用いて例えツッコミ文を拡充して，ツッコミ対象に基づく例えツッコミ文の生成機能を開発する．主に高校生を対象にした評価実験の結果，学習資源を収集するための各処理方法は適切なツッコミ対象の推論に有効であり，例えツッコミ文を交えた雑談対話はユーモアが喚起されてシステムへの親しみが感じられること等が示された．This study proposes a method for generating tatoe-tsukkomi sentences based on the listener's straightforward impression of the utterances, targeting tatoe-tsukkomi, to evoke humor and give users familiarity with the systems through dialogues. Specifically, training data based on syntactic analysis and dependency structure analysis, relevance calculations for Tweet and Reply sentences on Twitter are collected, and an inference function of the tsukkomi targets against the utterances is developed. In addition, tatoe-tsukkomi sentences are expanded based on example sentences on the Internet by a language model, and a function to generate tatoe-tsukkomi sentences based on the tsukkomi-targets is developed. The results of evaluation experiments, mainly targeting high school students, showed that each processing method for collecting training data was effective in inferring appropriate tsukkomi targets, and that chat dialogues with tatoe-tsukkomi evoked humor and showed familiarity with the systems.journal articl
International Student Policies : Perspectives from the United States, Europe, China, and Japan
Get PDFInternational student mobility has become a significant aspect of higher education policies worldwide, contributing to cultural exchange, economic growth, and knowledge sharing. We conducted a comparative analysis of international student policies in four major regions: the United States, Europe, China, and Japan. This paper aims to offer insights into the diverse approaches taken by these regions to attract and retain international students.留学生の流動性は世界中の高等教育政策の重要な側面となっており、文化交流、経済成長、知識の共有に貢献しています。そこで、米国、ヨーロッパ、中国、日本の4つの主要地域における留学生政策の比較分析を実施した。留学生を引き付け、維持するためにこれらの地域がとっている多様なアプローチから、これら政策の戦略、課題、成果を考察した。departmental bulletin pape
Objective Evaluation of the Effects of Human-Robot Communication Using Gaze and Cerebral Blood Flow
Get PDFAim: With the rapidly declining birth rate and population aging in Japan, the government supports the use of robots to address the problems of insufficient human resources and economic funding to provide adequate care to older adults. This study aimed to analyze the changes in eye gaze and cerebral blood flow during conversations between humans and robots to objectively evaluate its impact on humans.
Methods: The research was conducted from April to December 2022. The study participants were three nursing students in their 20s to 40s at University A. PALRO (Fujisoft) was used as the communication robot (CR). The participants wore a HOT-2000 (NeU) brain activity meter and had a 15-minute conversation with the CR after resting for 15 min in a room separate from the experimental room. The gaze data were divided into six areas, and descriptive statistics were obtained.
Results: The cerebral blood flow (right and left) was categorized into that obtained at rest time, during the conversation, and during characteristic scenes (scenes from which participant smiles and laughter were extracted). Welch’s one-way ANOVA was performed. The participants most commonly gazed at the area around the face, even if the other party was the robot. Blood flow was significantly higher during scenes involving laughter than during other scenes. The heart rate also increased, suggesting an effect on the human autonomic nervous system.
Conclusion: Although the participants who experienced this experiment were not older adults, many communication robots have been installed in facilities for the elderly in Japan. This result considers that conversations with a robot are effective in preventing lonely older adults from decreasing their activities and the resultant decline in activity of daily living (ADL) and function.journal articl
The Activities of Children in Tokushima for Peace and International Friendship : Creating and Exchanging Goodwill Albums
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Bilateral Prefrontal Cortex Blood Flow Dynamics during Silent and Oral Reading Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Get PDFThis study aimed to investigate blood flow dynamics in the bilateral prefrontal cortex during silent and oral reading using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The subjects were 40 right-handed university students (20.5 ± 1.8 years old, 20 men and 20 women). After completing the NIRS measurements, the subjects were asked to rate their level of proficiency in silent and oral reading, using a 5-point Likert scale. During oral reading, the left lateral prefrontal cortex (Broca’s area) was significantly more active than the right side. During silent reading, prefrontal cortex activity was lower than that during oral reading, and there was no significant difference between both sides of the brain. A significant negative correlation was found between the change in oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration in the left and right lateral prefrontal cortex during silent reading and silent reading speed. In addition, students with lower self-reported reading proficiency had significantly greater changes in oxy-Hb concentrations in the left and right lateral prefrontal cortex during silent/oral reading than did students with higher self-reported reading proficiency. Reading task assessment using NIRS may be useful for identifying language lateralization and Broca’s area. The results demonstrate that NIRS is useful for assessing effortful reading and may be used to diagnose developmental dyslexia in children.doctoral thesi
Characterization of Outer Membrane Vesicles Produced by Vibrio vulnificus
Get PDFVibrio vulnificus (V. vulnificus) is a halophilic gram-negative bacterium that inhabits coastal warm water and induce severe diseases such as primary septicemia. To investigate the mechanisms of rapid bacterial translocation on intestinal infection, we focused on outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), which are extracellular vesicles produced by Gram-negative bacteria and deliver virulence factors. However, there are very few studies on the pathogenicity or contents of V. vulnificus OMVs (Vv-OMVs). In this study, we investigated the effects of Vv-OMVs on host cells. Epithelial cells INT407 were stimulated with purified OMVs and morphological alterations and levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release were observed. In cells treated with OMVs, cell detachment without LDH release was observed, which exhibited different characteristics from cytotoxic cell detachment observed in V. vulnificus infection. Interestingly, OMVs from a Vibrio Vulnificus Hemolysin (VVH) and Multifunctional-autoprocessing repeats-in -toxin (MARTX) double-deletion mutant strain also caused cell detachment without LDH release. Our results suggested that the proteolytic function of a serine protease contained in Vv-OMVs may contribute to pathogenicity of V. vulnificus by assisting bacterial translocation. This study reveals a new pathogenic mechanism during V. vulnificus infections.doctoral thesi
