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Background & Aims: Poor oral status during stroke recovery can cause malnutrition, which can markedly affect activities of daily living and prevent patients from being discharged home. Therefore, prompt evaluation and treatment of oral disorders immediately after stroke is essential. This study aimed to examine the impact of poor oral status on the post-stroke recovery of independence in activities of daily living and home discharge., Methods: This single-center retrospective observational study included 137 patients with acute stroke, divided into two groups based on their Oral Assessment Guide (OAG) scores: the normal OAG group (score = 8) and the impaired OAG group (scores ≥9). Propensity-score matching was performed to minimize confounding variables. The χ2 test and odds ratios were used to compare the percentage of independence and home discharges between the two groups., Results: The normal and impaired OAG groups exhibited no difference in neurological severity or nutritional intake after matching. The percentage of patients achieving independence in activities of daily living in the normal OAG group (86.8 %) was significantly higher than that in the impaired OAG group (65.8 %) (p = 0.03, odds ratio [OR] 0.29, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 0.09-0.92). Conversely, no significant difference in the percentage of patients discharged home was found (p = 0.15, OR 0.49, 95%CI 0.19-1.29)., Conclusions: This study found that poor oral status after stroke onset was an independent factor affecting independence in activities of daily living at discharge, irrespective of neurological severity and dietary intake., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest HO received a lecturer's fee from Nestle Japan, Ltd. All other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have become a significant global problem. Health behaviors are associated with NCDs, and characterizing populations using a public health approach can help provide specific interventions according to their characteristics. This study aims to examine the formation of clusters of health behavior combinations in the Japanese working population at risk of NCDs, taking into account the influences of age and gender, using latent class analysis., Methods: Participants were individuals at risk for NCDs but had not previously been diagnosed with any. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to study clustering based on basic characteristics and health behaviors. All statistical analyses were conducted using R (Version 4.0.4) and the "poLCA" package (Version 1.6.0)., Results: This study included 12,168 participants. LCA compared models with one to six latent classes. The five-class model was determined to be the most appropriate based on Bayesian Information Criterion, Akaike Information Criterion, and G^2 values, as well as distinguishable cluster characteristics. Cluster 1: "having healthy lifestyles but disliking hospitals"; Cluster 2: "women with healthy lifestyle behaviors"; Cluster 3: "general population"; Cluster 4: "middle-aged group in need of lifestyle improvement"; Cluster 5: "a group receiving treatment for lifestyle-related diseases.", Conclusions: This study reveals discernible health behavior patterns in a sample of the Japanese population using large real-world data, suggesting the effectiveness of distinct approaches when considering a population approach to public health., Competing Interests: MK. is a non-regular staff member of PREVENT Inc. YH is a founder and stockholder of PREVENT Inc. TM, KT, KY and MI are employees of PREVENT Inc., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Energetic ion beam experiments with major space radiation elements, 1 H, 4 He, 16 O, 28 Si and 56 Fe, have been conducted to investigate the radiation shielding properties of composite materials. These materials are expected to be used for parts and fixtures of space vehicles due to both their mechanical strength and their space radiation shielding capabilities. Low Z materials containing hydrogen are effective for shielding protons and heavy ions due to their high stopping power and large fragmentation cross section per unit mass. The stopping power of the composite materials used in this work is intermediate between that of aluminum and polyethylene, which are typical structural and shielding materials used in space. The total charge-changing cross sections per unit mass, σ UM , of the composite materials are 1.3-1.8 times larger than that of aluminum. By replacing conventional aluminum used for spacecraft with commercially available composite (carbon fiber / polyether ether ketone), it is expected that the shielding effect is increased by ∼17%. The utilization of composite materials will help mitigate the space radiation hazard on future deep space missions., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to investigate the possible shielding materials of aluminum, polyethylene, hydrides, complex hydrides and composite materials for radiation protection in spacecraft by considering two physical parameters, stopping power and fragmentation cross section. The dose reduction with shielding materials was investigated for Fe ions with energies of 500 MeV/n, 1 GeV/n and 2 GeV/n which are around the peak of the GCR energy spectrum. Fe ions easily stop in materials such as polyethylene and hydrides as opposed to materials such as aluminum and complex hydrides including high Z metals with contain little or no hydrogen. Attenuation of the primary particles in the shielding and fragmentation into more lightly charged and therefore more penetrating secondary particles are competing factors: attenuation acts to reduce the dose behind shielding while fragmentation increases it. Among hydrogenous materials, 6 Li 10 BH 4 was one of the more effective shielding materials as a function of mass providing a 20% greater dose reduction compared to polyethylene. Composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic and SiC composite plastic offer 1.9 times the dose reduction compared to aluminum as well as high mechanical strength. Composite materials have been found to be promising for spacecraft shielding, where both mass and volume are constrained., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)