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Background: Identifying accurate prognostic factors is crucial for postoperative management of early gastric cancer (EGC) patients. Skeletal muscle quality (SMQ), defined by muscle density on computed tomography (CT) images, has been proposed as a novel prognostic factor. This study compared the prognostic significance of SMQ changes with the well-established factor of body weight (BW) loss in the postoperative EGC setting. Methods: This single-center retrospective study included 297 postoperative EGC patients (median age 69 years, 68.4% male) who had preoperative and 1-year-postoperative gastrectomy CT images. SMQ was defined as the modified intramuscular adipose tissue content (mIMAC = skeletal muscle density—subcutaneous fat density on CT images) and the change as ΔmIMAC. Log-rank test, Kaplan-Meier survival, and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to assess the associations between prognosis and either ΔmIMAC or BW change (ΔBW). Prognosis prediction by ΔmIMAC and ΔBW was compared by using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: ΔmIMAC was significantly associated with prognosis (log-rank test; P = 0.037), but ΔBW was not (P = 0.243). Prognosis was significantly poorer in the severely decreased mIMAC group than in the preserved group (multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis; P = 0.030) but was unaffected by BW changes (P = 0.697). The AUC indicated a higher prognostic value for ΔmIMAC than ΔBW (ΔmIMAC: AUC = 0.697, ΔBW: AUC = 0.542). Conclusions: One-year post-gastrectomy SMQ changes may be better prognostic EGC predictors than BW changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ark shell Scapharca broughtonii population has decreased markedly in recent years in Nanao Bay, a semi-enclosed embayment in Japan. Continuous measurement of dissolved oxygen (DO) at the bottom of Nanao Bay was performed, and S. broughtonii survival rates were investigated experimentally and in situ. In summer the DO concentration showed diel variation, with generally sufficient oxygen during the day but concentrations < 2 mg/l at night. In rearing experiments to investigate their physiological state, ark shells were placed in a tank designed to produce hypoxic conditions at night. Blood succinate levels in the ark shells increased, and all individuals were dead after 35 days. The results of the study indicate that the main cause of mortality of S. broughtonii on the seabed in Nanao Bay is hypoxia at night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea surface salinity (SSS) in coastal oceans is a direct indicator of riverine plumes and provides essential information about the ocean environment and ecosystem, which affects coastal fisheries, aquaculture, and marine harvests. However, to accurately capture SSS patterns in coastal oceans, high temporal and spatial resolutions are required. This paper introduces a methodology to produce high-resolution (~ 500 m) SSS maps for analysis of river plumes in coastal oceans based on hourly chromophoric dissolved organic matter data collected by the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager. Osaka Bay, located in the eastern Seto Inland Sea, was selected as a pilot region. A comparison between the initial estimates and calibrated SSS data showed a substantial decrease in estimation error, by up to 71%, over a wide range of salinity (20-34) using in situ SSS data collected through an automated observation system. Calculating the salinity anomaly based on the SSS map to identify plume areas, we evaluated the impact of a large runoff event induced by a super typhoon on the river plumes. After the plume formed in the estuary, it extended southward to the bay mouth along the southeastern coast. The plume area during the post-typhoon period covered half of the bay, approximately 1.5 times the area during the pre-typhoon period. The post-typhoon, low-SSS period continued for approximately 2 weeks. Our approach can be of practical use for analyzing the dynamics of river plumes in coastal oceans, leading to the development of coastal ocean prediction models related to operational oceanography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution mapping along the coast and time-series measurements of the radon-222 (Rn) concentrations in the shallow zone in a semi-enclosed sea, Obama Bay, Japan, were undertaken in 2013. The temporal and spatial variations in the Rn concentrations were analyzed in parallel with meteorological conditions, physical-biogeochemical characteristics, and the submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) flux measured with a seepage meter. These data indicate that the groundwater influences the water properties of the bay and that the groundwater supply pathways are not limited to the local SGD. The concentrations of Rn flowing into the bay from rivers was known to be relatively high because groundwater seeps from the river bed. High-Rn water was almost always present around the river mouth, and northward advection of the water affected the distribution of Rn concentrations in the bay. The southward wind suppressed the advection of the high-Rn water and largely controlled the temporal variations in Rn concentrations at a station located on the north side of the river mouth, whereas the local SGD affected the short-term changes in the Rn concentrations. The concentrations of Rn and chlorophyll-a, an indicator of phytoplankton biomass, show a significant positive correlation in the surface layer along the coastline in seasons when the nutrient supply was the main factor limiting primary productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We carried out a seasonal study of fresh submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and associated nutrient fluxes in a semi-enclosed bay along a tideless coastal zone using a Rn and salinity mass balance model for a whole bay scale. The resulting SGD rates showed large intra-annual variability from 0.05 × 10 to 0.77 × 10 m day, which were controlled by seasonal changes in the interaction of multiple driving forces, including water table height and seawater level. The highest SGD rate in early spring was induced by heavy snow and low sea level, whereas the seasonal increase in sea level gradually suppressed fresh SGD rates. In summer, an elevated water table may induce higher SGD rates (approximately 0.4 × 10 m day) regardless of high sea levels. The highest SGD fraction in total terrestrial freshwater fluxes also occurred in summer (>40 %), due to the decreasing rate of surface river discharge. The seasonally averaged SGD rate was 0.36 × 10 m day. This value was similar to the annual groundwater recharge rate (0.33 × 10 m day) estimated by the water balance method in the basin. Nutrient fluxes from SGD were approximately 42, 65, and 33 % of all terrestrial fluxes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen, phosphorous, and silicate, respectively. The average fraction of SGD in the water fluxes including terrestrial and oceanic water was low (0.3 %), but that of nutrient fluxes increased to 20-38 %. Higher nutrient concentrations in groundwater compensated for the lower volumetric flux of groundwater. Because primary production was mostly restricted by phosphorous throughout the year, phosphorous-enriched nutrient transport via SGD would play an important role in biological production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated which cognitive characteristics, including cancer phobia, self-efficacy, pain-related catastrophizing, and anxiety sensitivity, affect burning mouth syndrome (BMS) symptoms in the Japanese population. A total of 46 BMS patients (44 women and 2 men; mean age, 59.98 ± 9.57 years; range, 30–79 years) completed a battery of questionnaires, including measures of pain severity, oral-related quality of life (QOL), stressresponse, pain-related catastrophizing, self-efficacy, anxiety sensitivity, and tongue cancer phobia. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), and Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) scores in the BMS patients were compared with the scores of Japanese healthy participants (PCS, n = 449; GSES, n = 278; ASI, n = 9603) reported in previous studies. Catastrophizing and anxiety sensitivity were significantly higher in the BMS patients than in the healthy subjects ( P < 0.001). In BMS patients, catastrophizing was significantly correlated with pain severity, stress-response, psychological disability, social disability, and handicap. Cancer phobia was significantly correlated with psychological disability and handicap. Since catastrophizing showed a higher correlation with BMS symptoms than cancer phobia, catastrophizing might be a more significant cognitive factor affecting symptoms than cancer phobia in BMS patients in the Japanese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We observed tidal currents, turbulent energy dissipation and water column stratification at the entrance of a narrow strait (Neko Seto) in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan, using a free-falling turbulent microstructure profiler (TurboMAP) and acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). The variation in turbulent energy dissipation at the entrance of the strait was not at quarter-diurnal frequency but at semi-diurnal frequency; turbulent energy dissipation was enhanced during the ebb tide, although it was moderate during the flood tide. This result is consistent with the results of Takasugi (1993), which showed the asymmetry of tidal energy loss during a semidiurnal tidal cycle using control volume analysis. It is suggested that significant turbulent energy dissipation is generated in the strait, which influences the properties of water outside the strait when tidal currents flow out from the strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spawning season and grounds of red sea bream in Hiuchi-nada, the central part of the Seto Inland Sea, were described using a new method based on monoclonal antibodies for identifying Pagrus major eggs, and the daily egg production (standardized by the incubation time and survival rate) was estimated. At the peak of spawning (May), the ranges of sea temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll a where red sea bream eggs occurred were 14.8–17.4°C, 32.0–33.0, 0.5–4.4 μg/L, respectively. The main spawning grounds of the red sea bream were confirmed as being the areas near the Geiyo Islands, Misaki Peninsula, Saijyo, Niihama. The spatial spread of red sea bream eggs increased with the egg developmental stage. The ranges of daily egg production in 2005 and 2006 were 0.3–19.3 and 0.2–6.7 × 109 eggs/day, respectively. In Hiuchi-nada, aquaculture farms are located close to the spawning grounds, and the potential spawning population from the aquaculture farms equaled or exceeded that of the estimated spawning population obtained by the egg production method. Red sea bream eggs in Hiuchi-nada might be produced by both wild and aquaculture-based spawning populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2.6 Definition of plume boundaries, the following sentence "... salinity anomaly I s i = ( I S i SB a sb - I S i SB i sb )/( I S i SB a sb - I S i SB i sb )..." should have read as follows "... salinity anomaly I s i = ( I S i SB a sb - I S i )/( I S i SB a sb - I S i SB i sb )...". The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-017-0459-4. [Extracted from the article]