31 research outputs found
Seasonal variations of the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its markers using big-data of health check-ups
No full textSeto H., Toki H., Kitora S., et al. Seasonal variations of the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its markers using big-data of health check-ups. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 29, 2 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1265/ehpm.23-00216.Background: It is crucial to understand the seasonal variation of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) for the detection and management of MetS. Previous studies have demonstrated the seasonal variations in MetS prevalence and its markers, but their methods are not robust. To clarify the concrete seasonal variations in the MetS prevalence and its markers, we utilized a powerful method called Seasonal Trend Decomposition Procedure based on LOESS (STL) and a big dataset of health checkups. Methods: A total of 1,819,214 records of health checkups (759,839 records for men and 1,059,375 records for women) between April 2012 and December 2017 were included in this study. We examined the seasonal variations in the MetS prevalence and its markers using 5 years and 9 months health checkup data and STL analysis. MetS markers consisted of waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), fasting plasma glucose (FPG). Results: We found that the MetS prevalence was high in winter and somewhat high in August. Among men, MetS prevalence was 2.64 ± 0.42 (mean ± SD) % higher in the highest month (January) than in the lowest month (June). Among women, MetS prevalence was 0.53 ± 0.24% higher in the highest month (January) than in the lowest month (June). Additionally, SBP, DBP, and HDL-C exhibited simple variations, being higher in winter and lower in summer, while WC, TG, and FPG displayed more complex variations. Conclusions: This finding, complex seasonal variations of MetS prevalence, WC, TG, and FPG, could not be derived from previous studies using just the mean values in spring, summer, autumn and winter or the cosinor analysis. More attention should be paid to factors affecting seasonal variations of central obesity, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance
Four-Dimensional Painlevé-Type Equations Associated with Ramified Linear Equations III: Garnier Systems and Fuji-Suzuki Systems
No full textThis is the last part of a series of three papers entitled ''Four-dimensional Painlevé-type equations associated with ramified linear equations''. In this series of papers we aim to construct the complete degeneration scheme of four-dimensional Painlevé-type equations. In the present paper, we consider the degeneration of the Garnier system in two variables and the Fuji-Suzuki system.The author would like to thank Professor Kazuki Hiroe for his helpful suggestions. The author
would also like to thank Professors Hidetaka Sakai and Akane Nakamura who provided invaluable
comments and continual encouragement
Knockdown of DEAD-box helicase 4 (DDX4) decreases the number of germ cells in male and female chicken embryonic gonads
No full textDEAD-box helicase 4 (DDX4; also known as vasa) is essential for the proper formation and maintenance of germ cells. Although DDX4 is conserved in a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates, its roles differ between species. This study investigated the function of DDX4 in chicken embryos by knocking down its expression using retroviral vectors that encoded DDX4-targeting microRNAs. DDX4 was effectively depleted invitro and invivo via this approach. Male and female gonads of DDX4-knockdown embryos contained a decreased number of primordial germ cells, indicating that DDX4 is essential to maintain a normal level of these cells in chicken embryos of both sexes. Expression of doublesex and mab-3 related transcription factor 1 (DMRT1) and sex determining region Y-box 9 (SOX9), which are involved in testis determination and differentiation, was normal in male gonads of DDX4-knockdown embryos. In contrast, expression of cytochrome P450 family 19 subfamily A member 1 (CYP19A1), which encodes aromatase and is essential for ovary development, was significantly decreased in female gonads of DDX4-knockdown embryos. Expression of forkhead box L2 (FOXL2), which plays an important role in ovary differentiation, was also slightly reduced in DDX4-knockdown embryos, but not significantly. Based on several pieces of evidence FOXL2 was hypothesised to regulate aromatase expression. The results of this study indicate that aromatase expression is also regulated by several additional pathways
Synthesis of unsymmetrical biaryl ketones via palladium-catalyzed carbonylative cross-coupling reaction of arylboronic acids with iodoarenes
No full textConnecting Orbit Structure of Monotone Solutions in the Shadow System
No full textThe shadow system [snip] is a scalar reaction diffusion equation coupled with an ODE. The extra freedom coming from the ODE drastically influences the solution structure and dynamics as compared to that of a single scalar reaction diffusion system. In fact, it causes secondary bifurcations and coexistence of multiple stable equilibria. Our long term goal is a complete description of the global dynamics on its global attractor A as a function of ε, f, and g. Since this is still far beyond our capabilities, we focus on describing the dynamics of solutions to the shadow system which are monotone in x, and classify the global connecting orbit structures in the monotone solution space up to the semi-conjugacy. The maximum principle and hence the lap number arguments, which have played a central role in the analysis of one dimensional scalar reaction diffusion equations, cannot be directly applied to the shadow system, although there is a Lyapunov function in an appropriate parameter regime. In order to overcome this difficulty, we resort to the Conley index theory. This method is topological in nature, and allows us to reduce the connection problem to a series of algebraic computations. The semi-conjugacy property can be obtained once the connection problem is solved. The shadow system turns out to exhibit minimal dynamics which displays the mechanism of basic pattern formation, namely it explains the dynamic relation among the trivial rest states (constant solutions) and the event patterns (large amplitude inhomogeneous solutions)
Screening for improved activity of a transglutaminase from Streptomyces mobaraensis created by a novel rational mutagenesis and random mutagenesis
No full textMicrobial transglutaminase (MTG) has been used extensively in academic research and the food industries through its cross-linking or posttranslational modification of proteins. To improve MTGT, a novel method of rational mutagenesis, called WASH-ROM (Water Accessible Surface Hot-space Region Oriented Mutagenesis), was first attempted. Based on the three-dimensional structure of MTG, 151 point mutations were selected at 40 different residues bearing high solvent accessibility surface area, within a 15 Å of the active center site nucleophile, Cys64. Among them, 32 mutants showed higher specific activity than the wild type enzyme. We found that beneficial mutations are distributed in two regions and with distinctive amino acid substitutions. Next, random mutagenesis was applied to the entire MTG region by developing a new plate assay-based screening system, using Corynebacterium glutamicum as the secretion host strain. This in vivo screening system allowed us to readily distinguish the change in enzymatic activity upon mutation by monitoring the intensity of enzymatic reaction-derived color zones which appeared around the recombinant cell colonies on the plate. From the library of 24,000 clones, 10 mutants were finally selected as beneficial enzymes exhibiting higher specific activity than wild type. Notably, most of the mutations differed from those obtained by WASH-ROM, except for H289Y. Beneficial mutations were distributed in two other regions as well. Furthermore, we found that the FRAP-S199A mutant (FRAP: N-terminal four amino acid residues extension) showed the highest specific activity (45 U/mg: 1.7 times higher than the wild type enzyme). Through these different mutation approaches, various beneficial positions leading to increased specific activity of MTG were surveyed
Author Correction: Gradient boosting decision tree becomes more reliable than logistic regression in predicting probability for diabetes with big data
No full textEffects of Mobile Health Care App "Asmile" on Physical Activity of 80,689 Users in Osaka Prefecture, Japan: Longitudinal Observational Study
No full textBackgroundLifestyle-related diseases can be controlled by improving individuals’ lifestyles; however, improving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is difficult. Mobile health (mHealth) applications have recently attracted attention as tools for maintaining and improving health, and their use may also increase physical activity.
ObjectiveThis study aimed to verify the effect of registration in Asmile, an mHealth application provided by the Osaka Prefectural Government, on step counts using a Causal Impact approach based on the step count data recorded in the Asmile application.
MethodsThis observational study included Osaka residents aged 20-79 years, newly registered to Asmile, between the fiscal years 2020 and 2023. Of these, 80,689 participants with step count records for 4 weeks before and after the day they registered to Asmile were included in the analysis. We used daily step counts that were automatically transferred from a standard smartphone health care app into Asmile. We used a Causal Impact model to estimate the increase in step count after registration to Asmile.
ResultsOf the 80,689 participants analyzed, 38.5% (31,082/80,689) were men, and the mean age was 51.6 (SD 13.2) years. The mean step count before registration was 5923 (SD 4860) steps per day, with the highest proportion of new users registered in spring (38,389/80,689, 47.6%) and in fiscal year 2020 (34,491/80,689, 42.7%). The analysis revealed that the effect of Asmile registration on step counts was 360 steps (95% CI 331-389) per day and 10,041 steps (95% CI 9632-10,450) over 4 weeks. Stratified analysis showed that the impact of increased step count was more pronounced in younger groups and groups with fewer step counts before registration. Conversely, the effect of registration on step count was relatively minor in the groups registered in summer or winter.
ConclusionsThis study demonstrates increased physical activity among users registered with the Asmile app. These findings suggest that mHealth apps such as Asmile can effectively promote healthier lifestyles and potentially reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases
Mechanistic insights into the oxidation of copper(i) species during NH3-SCR over Cu-CHA zeolites : a DFT study
No full textSelective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides using ammonia (NH3-SCR) over Cu-exchanged zeolites proceeds via reduction of Cu(ii) to Cu(i) and subsequent reoxidation of Cu(i) to Cu(ii). Although the mechanism of reduction half cycle has been relatively well established, reoxidation pathways of Cu(i) to form the original Cu(ii) species are highly complicated and remain unclear. Herein, oxidation mechanisms of Cu(i) to Cu(ii) species in CHA zeolites during the NH3-SCR process were investigated by periodic DFT calculations. The NH3-solvated Cu(i) and Cu(ii) species were considered for exploring the oxidative activation reaction pathways. The results show that, with O-2 as the sole oxidant, Cu(i) can be effectively oxidized to Cu(ii) via multinuclear Cu-oxo intermediates with moderate reaction barriers. The NO-assisted oxidation of Cu(i) was found to favor the formation of Cu nitrate/nitrite species, which seem to only act as off-cycle resting states. We propose that reoxidation of Cu(i) to Cu(ii) with O-2 as the sole oxidant plays a key role in the oxidation half cycle under standard NH3-SCR conditions
