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Safe and efficient conservation of cultural artifacts requires preventing artifacts deterioration and energy‐saving environmental control. To achieve this, predicting deterioration caused by environmental conditions is necessary. Predicting the mechanical damage caused by humidity fluctuations necessitates knowledge of the mechanical properties of cultural artifacts materials. Although the mechanical properties of several artifacts have been extensively studied, no investigations have focused on the soils underlying wall paintings. This study aims to clarify some mechanical properties of the upper‐ and middle‐coat soils serving as the substrates for Hiten wall paintings at Horyu‐ji Temple. Mock‐up materials were prepared, and splitting tensile and uniaxial compressive tests were performed. Simultaneously, specimens with various equilibrium humidities were tested to clarify their humidity dependency. The tensile and compressive strengths, Young's modulus, proportional limit, and Poisson's ratio of the upper‐coat soil were 0.103–0.239 MPa, 1.16–2.55 MPa, 0.115–0.209 GPa, and 1.10–2.49 MPa, and 0.152, respectively. Moreover, the humidity‐induced strains for the upper‐ and middle‐coat soils were measured, and the moisture expansion coefficients were approximately 1240 and 2337 μST/−, respectively. The results of this study provide vital data for the conservation of the wall paintings and contribute to a deeper understanding of wall soil properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A plethora of dimeric natural products exist with diverse chemical structures and biological activities. A major strategy for dimerization is aryl coupling catalyzed by cytochrome P450 or laccase. Actinorhodin (ACT) from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) has a dimeric pyranonaphthoquinone structure connected by a C−C bond. In this study, we identified an NmrA‐family dimerizing enzyme, ActVA‐ORF4, and a cofactor‐independent oxidase, ActVA‐ORF3, both involved in the last step of ACT biosynthesis. ActVA‐ORF4 is a unique NAD(P)H‐dependent enzyme that catalyzes the intermolecular C−C bond formation using 8‐hydroxydihydrokalafungin (DHK‐OH) as the sole substrate. On the other hand, ActVA‐ORF3 was found to be a quinone‐forming enzyme that produces the coupling substrate, DHK‐OH and the final product, ACT. Consequently, the functional assignment of all essential enzymes in the biosynthesis of ACT, one of the best‐known model natural products, has been completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The advantage of up‐front neck dissection (UFND) followed by chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for hypopharyngeal cancer (HPC) with advanced neck involvement remains controversial. We aimed to determine the indications. Methods: The data of 41 and 14 patients with stage IVA/B (T1–T3 and ≥N2a) HPC who underwent UFND followed by CRT and received CRT, respectively, were retrospectively analyzed and compared. Results: The 5‐year overall survival (OS) and disease‐specific survival rates for the UFND and CRT groups were 61% and 52% (p = 0.1019), and 89% and 74% (p = 0.2333), respectively. Moreover, patients aged ≥70 years or those with a pulmonary disease history had a significantly poorer prognosis due to aspiration pneumonia in the UFND group. The 5‐year regional control (RC) for the UFND and CRT groups were 92% and 57%, respectively (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: UFND followed by CRT was feasible with satisfactory RC. To further improve OS, aspiration pneumonia prevention is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the prognostic factors in human papillomavirus (HPV)‐positive and HPV‐negative oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) treated with definitive radiotherapy. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 101 patients with OPC who underwent definitive radiotherapy between 2008 and 2018. Results: The median follow‐up period of the surviving patients was 68 months (range, 8–164 months). The 5‐year overall survival rate was 69.8%. Univariate analyses revealed that poor survival was associated with male sex, smoking ≥30 pack‐years, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≥1, tumor‐node‐metastasis (TNM) stage III‐IV (8th edition), HPV‐negativity, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) ≥202, C‐reactive protein/albumin ratio ≥0.15, and lymphocyte‐to‐monocyte ratio <2.90. In multivariate analyses, poor survival was independently correlated with smoking ≥30 pack‐years (p < 0.01) and LDH ≥202 (p = 0.02). Conclusions: The present study suggested that high LDH levels predicted poor survival after definitive radiotherapy for patients with both HPV‐positive and HPV‐negative OPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]