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Analyses of sea spikes are presented for data measured at low grazing angles using a high-resolution X-band radar. To investigate the spikiness of sea clutter at different range resolutions...

Despite the inhibitory effect of various ginsenosides on neuroinflammation, pharmacological activity of ginsenosides varies depending on their hydrolysis by individual intestinal microbial flora and may not appear in individuals with intestinal microbial deficiency. Herein, we investigated the hydrolytic selectivity of β-glucosidase from Lactobacillus antri toward sugar residues in ginsenoside to selectively enhance the effective minor ginsenoside contents and improve their anti-neuroinflammatory activity in BV2 microglia. The hydrolytic selectivity of β-glucosidase was dependent on the position and linkage type of sugar residues. Hydrolysis of ginseng extract and its mimic indicated that the predominant hydrolytic selectivity of β-glucosidase toward P1 (β1→6 linkage), P4, and P2 residues led to the selective production of minor ginsenoside Rd at the early stage and Rg3, Rh1, and A-PPD at the late stage, which resulted in the enhanced anti-neuroinflammatory activity of hydrolyzed ginseng mimic by inhibiting the production of inflammatory mediators in BV2 microglial cells, particularly at the late stage of hydrolysis. This study suggests that the insight into the hydrolytic selectivity of β-glucosidase will help in selecting appropriate substrates hydrolyzed well and in enhancing the contents of desired deglycosylated compounds, including minor ginsenosides, to improve their efficacy on specific target diseases, including those caused by neuroinflammation.

본 연구는 청소년의 주관적 행복감에 영향을 미치는 요인을 이들의 심신적 건강요인, 운동요인, 의존요인을 통해 탐색하였다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 2016년 질병관리본부가 수행한 제 12차 청소년 건강행태 온라인조사 자료 중 중 · 고등학생 65,528명의 응답치를 분석에 활용하였다. 본 연구는 첫째, 청소년의 주관적 행복감, 심신적 건강요인, 운동요인, 의존요인 관련 변수에 대한 빈도, 백분율, 평균, 표준편차 등의 기술통계치를 측정하였으며, 둘째, 각각의 독립변인에 대한 주관적 행복감의 차이를 t-test와 F-검증을 활용하여 분석하였으며, 셋째, 각 독립변수들이 청소년의 주관적 행복감에 미치는 영향을 다중회귀분석을 활용하여 분석하였다. 그 결과를 통합모형에 의해 정리하면, 심신적 건강요인에서는 주관적으로 건강하다고 느낄수록, 스트레스를 덜 느낄수록, 우울감을 덜 느낄수록, 운동요인에서는 격렬히 신체적으로 활동하면, 근력강화운동을 하면, 도보운동을 한 일수가 많을수록, 의존요인에서는 음주를 하지 않을수록, 흡연을 하지 않을수록, 약물을 사용한 경험이 없을수록, 더 높은 수준의 주관적 행복감을 느끼는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 청소년의 주관적 행복감 증진을 위한 제언과 함의를 전달하였다.

In order to design composites that mimic the remarkable balance of properties such as strength, toughness, and stiffness of staggered platelet structures in nature, it is crucial to understand their load transfer and failure mechanisms. Recently, we proposed an analytical model to predict the stress distribution within staggered platelet structures for a wide range of constituent materials’ moduli and geometric parameters in the elastic response regime. Here, based on the model, a fracture pattern diagram featuring three distinct mechanisms categorized according to the failure sequences of soft tip, soft shear zone, and hard platelet is constructed. The proposed fracture map is capable of capturing the transition of failure mechanisms observed in crack phase field simulations and draws parallels to mechanisms seen in experiments. Our study sheds light on the origin of failure mechanism transitions and enables rational designs of future staggered platelet composites with unprecedented properties.

Objective Endovascular treatment for unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) has been regarded as second to none management nowadays as the result of its proven efficacy and need for less-invasive treatment. Most researchers have focused on the anatomical outcome after endovascular treatment, so in this study we estimated the real incidence of untoward effect and degree of patients' satisfaction based on s survey. Methods This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, and 112 patients treated for saccular UIAs were evaluated among a total of 135 patients. After informed consent was obtained, these patients were sent a questionnaire regarding treatment effectiveness, complications, and patient satisfaction. These data were collected and compared with angiographic and clinical outcome. Results The response rate was 87.5% (98/112). Intracranial complications occurred in 10 aneurysms (10.2%): 7 ischemic and 3 hemorrhagic strokes. Other complications occurred in 30 patients (30.6%): 17 alopecia, 15 bleeding tendency, and 3 puncture-site complications. Overall, 89 (90.8%) patients reported being satisfied with their treatment. Patient satisfaction was closely correlated with clinically successful outcome of treatment. Conclusions Ninety percent of patients were satisfied with the results after endovascular treatment of UIAs. Endovascular coil embolization was effective and safe procedure, with high clinical success rate and degree of satisfaction.

This article analyzes Korea’s recognition of the names of Seokdo and Dokdo before and after the Korean Imperial Decree No. 41. Shimane Prefecture Office intended to insist the Japan’s dominion of Ulleungdo. In this context, this chaotic circumstance was fundamentally derived from the aim of Shimane Prefecture Office that attempted to register two Korean islands in the East Sea, Dokdo and Ulleungdo, into the Japanese territory under the jurisdiction of this prefecture. However, when it was confirmed the historical fact that Ulleungdo had been the territory under the jurisdiction of Korea; the Shimane Prefecture Office aimed to absorb Dokdo its jurisdiction. In order to achieve this goal, it induced the confused situation to the names of Dokdo and Ulleungdo on purpose around 1905. To conclude, in the meantime, both Korea and Japan have sought to maintain their own name for Ulleungdo and Dokdo. The reason for this is that they tried to provide Ulleungdo and Dokdo as the basis for claiming their ownership. However, there is a clear difference between Ulleungdo and Dokdo in Korea and Japan. Korea had a consistency of long naming regulations in the consciousness of its territory. However, Japan changed its name partly because of the consciousness that it should be defined as its own territory. It was because Japan’s political intent was hidden in the name of Dokdo.

Photonic resonances in nanostructures have been exploited in reflective or transmission color filters, which can provide vivid colors. Metallic nanostructures have been widely studied to demonstrate a variety of color filters based on strong light interaction due to plasmonic resonances. However, because of the severe absorption loss of metal in visible light, dielectric nanoparticles having Mie resonances are a popular study focus in recent years to achieve vivid colors. In contrast to the behaviors of point-like electric dipole in metallic nanoparticle, the interplay of the electric and magnetic Mie resonances in dielectric nanoparticle enables a large degree of freedom in manipulating the directivity of light scattering, reflecting/transmitting color, and spontaneous emission rates. Here, we propose a color reflector based on an array of silicon nanoparticles that shows reflectance greater than 70% and vivid colors over the entire visible spectrum range, which covers sRGB color area. Viewing angle dependencies of the color and brightness are also investigated by calculating color-resolved far-field patterns, while exhibiting maintenance of the color and high reflectance over a broad viewing angle.

Dementia is used as a general term to describe chronic disorders of mental processes caused by the deterioration of cognitive functions to the extent that one's ability to perform daily activities is impaired. Currently, age is known to be the main risk factor for dementia, suggesting that the risk of being diagnosed with dementia significantly increases later in one's life. Therefore, there are two approaches one can take when confronting dementia: to cure it when it occurs in late adulthood or to prevent the onset of symptoms beforehand. Recently, the latter strategy of delaying and preventing Alzheimer's disease, the most prevalent form and most studied type of dementia, through both pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical interventions is becoming increasingly recognized. In this review, we discuss studies conducted in various fields that addresses nonpharmaceutical lifestyle interventions, including diet, physical activity, cognitive stimulation, and social engagement, and their effects in preventing and inhibiting dementia.

Composites are ubiquitous throughout nature and often display both high strength and toughness, despite the use of simple base constituents. In the hopes of recreating the high-performance of natural composites, numerical methods such as finite element method (FEM) are often used to calculate the mechanical properties of composites. However, the vast design space of composites and computational cost of numerical methods limit the application of high-throughput computing for optimizing composite design, especially when considering the entire failure path. In this work, the authors leverage deep learning (DL) to predict material properties (stiffness, strength, and toughness) calculated by FEM, motivated by DL’s significantly faster inference speed. Results of this study demonstrate potential for DL to accelerate composite design optimization.

Recent reports have suggested an association between rotavirus infection and a distinctive pattern of white matter injury (WMI) in neonates with seizures; however, the connection between the two is not fully understood. To evaluate the underlying mechanism, we profiled and compared eight cytokines (IL [interleukin]-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IFN-γ [interferon-γ ], MCP-1 [monocyte chemoattractant protein-1], MIP-1β [macrophage inflammatory protein-1β], and TNF-α [tumor necrosis factor-α]) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 33 neonates with seizures who had no other well-known causes of seizures and 13 control patients (rotavirus-induced gastroenteritis but without seizures). Among the 33 neonates with seizures, 9 showed WMI and all were infected with rotavirus (R + W + ). Among the 24 patients without WMI, 11 were infected with rotavirus (R + W − ) and 13 were not (R − W − ).Only MCP-1 and MIP-1β were different between the groups. MCP-1 was increased in R+ W+ compared with R + W− (p

Animals are capable of using visual cues to find the correct route during navigation. These visual cues, which contain spatial information on the direction towards the goal point, are perceived either allocentrically or egocentrically. In this study, we examined how navigating with these two types of visual cues affects the learning processes of rodents. To present egocentrically-stable spatial cues, we devised a head-mounted device that provided discriminative orientation cues that indicated the correct choice at a fork within a double Y-maze. For allocentrically-stable spatial cues, LEDs serving as external route-mark cues were attached to the walls of the double Y-maze and illuminated to indicate the correct pathway. To rule out the possibility of the mice using extra-maze cues, we rotated the entire maze and used different start and goal sites for every trial. Our results revealed that mice using egocentric cues and external route-mark cues both showed a sigmoidal learning process for spatial navigation and that external route mark-based learning, surprisingly, learned faster than egocentric stimulus-based learning in egocentric space.

The filtration effect improves the impedance change through specific binding of target molecules in plasma, and decreases this change by nonspecific binding of matrix factors in plasma (i.e., matrix effect). A difference in dielectrophoresis (DEP) forces applied to target molecules and matrix factors causes the filtration effect. An optimized DEP force affects target molecules, which remain in the reaction region of an interdigitated microelectrode (IME) sensor. Various matrix factors, which are larger than the target molecules, are influenced by a strong DEP force and are filtered out of the reaction region. To demonstrate the filtration effect, the matrix effect was confirmed in standard plasma and in phosphate-buffered saline, based on the detection of amyloid beta (Aβ), an Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated peptide. The filtration effect was verified using the matrix effect factor (MEF), which was calculated from the impedance change values in different detection environments. In standard plasma, the MEF value decreased by approximately 78.12%, and in buffer with heterogeneous Aβ, by approximately 75.43%. Plasma from patients with AD and normal controls (NCs) was analyzed using the value of the impedance change by the filtration effect. The impedance change was enhanced approximately 1.52 ± 0.03-fold in AD plasma, but declined approximately 0.90 ± 0.03-fold in NC plasma. This difference tendency by the filtration effect was the disease evaluation index and used as an important criterion that distinguished between the AD and NC plasma. Plasma-based AD diagnosis may be possible, based on the filtration effect.

This study was carried out to investigate the bread-making properties of rice bread added with naked oat flours (0-15%). The water, crude protein, crude lipid, and crude ash contents of the rice flour used to prepare the rice bread were 11.8, 8.6, 1.8, and 1.3%, respectively, and the contents of total starch, amylose, damaged starch, and dietary fiber contents were 75.7, 23.1, 30.0, and 1.7%, respectively. The crude protein, crude lipid, and crude ash increased, whereas total starch, amylose, and starch damage decreased with increasing addition of naked oat flour in the rice-naked oat composition flour (RNOCF). The pasting properties of RNOCF showed a slight decrease in peak viscosity, trough, final viscosity, and setback with increasing addition of naked oat flour. As the fermentation time increased, the pH of RNOCF dough added with naked oat flour decreased, whereas its expansion ratio significantly increased. The volume, specific volume, and baking loss ratio of the rice bread decreased for 10 and 15% addition, compared to 0 and 5% addition. With increasing addition of naked oat flour, the hardness of rice bread increased, whereas the cohesiveness and springiness were not significantly affected. Results indicated that rice bread added with 5% naked oat flour had the best quality.

OBJECTIVE There is no scale for rating the severity of autoimmune encephalitis (AE). In this study, we aimed to develop a novel scale for rating severity in patients with diverse AE syndromes and to verify the reliability and validity of the developed scale. METHODS The key items were generated by a panel of experts and selected according to content validity ratios. The developed scale was initially applied to 50 patients with AE (development cohort) to evaluate its acceptability, reproducibility, internal consistency, and construct validity. Then, the scale was applied to another independent cohort (validation cohort, n = 38). RESULTS A new scale consisting of 9 items (seizure, memory dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, consciousness, language problems, dyskinesia/dystonia, gait instability and ataxia, brainstem dysfunction, and weakness) was developed. Each item was assigned a value of up to 3 points. The total score could therefore range from 0 to 27. We named the scale the Clinical Assessment Scale in Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE). The new scale showed excellent interobserver (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.97) and intraobserver (ICC = 0.96) reliability for total scores, was highly correlated with modified Rankin scale (r = 0.86, p

Background The problem of organ shortage is an important issue in kidney transplantation, but the effect of kidney donation on AKI is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of acute kidney injury (AKI) on post-transplant clinical outcomes for deceased donor kidney transplantation (DDKT) using standard criteria donors (SCDs) versus expanded criteria donors (ECDs). Methods Five-hundred nine KT recipients receiving kidneys from 386 deceased donors (DDs) were included from three transplant centers. Recipients were classified into the SCD-KT or ECD-KT group according to corresponding DDs and both groups were divided into the AKI-KT or non-AKI-KT subgroups according to AKI in donor. We compared the clinical outcomes among those four groups and investigated the interaction between AKI in donors and ECD on allograft outcome. Results The incidence of delayed allograft function was higher when the donors had AKI within SCD-KT and ECD-KT groups. In allograft biopsies within 3 months, chronic change was more significant in the AKI-ECD-KT subgroup than in the non-AKI-ECD-KT subgroup, but it did not differ between AKI-SCD-KT and non-AKI-SCD-KT group. AKI-ECD-KT showed higher risk for death-censored allograft failure than the other three groups and a significant interaction was observed between AKI in donors and ECD on the allograft outcome. Conclusions The presence of AKI in ECDs significantly impacted the long-term allograft outcomes of kidney transplant recipients, but it did not in SCDs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12882-019-1225-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem of the host body that maintains a balance with its host. In this context, dysbiosis can lead to inflammatory response, immune dysregulation, and various metabolic disorders. Dietary polysaccharides mediate gut microbiota and its metabolites related to host health. In this review, we describe the structural characteristics of pectic polysaccharides and the functional correlation between their structure-specific characteristics and the modulatory activity of gut microbiota. We also discuss the health benefits of pectic polysaccharides on diet-induced obesity and intestinal health based on their source and structure. By regulating gut microbiota, pectic polysaccharides exert a wide range of biological effects, including the inhibition of obesity, fatty liver disease, and inflammation, and the increase in gut barrier function and immune-enhancing activity. This review expected to serve as a valuable resource to further clarity the relationship between pectic polysaccharides and gut microbiota.

In August of 2011, a wilting disease of ginseng was observed at Bongwha, Gyeongbuk province, Korea. Affected plants initially show withering symptoms on leaves of ginseng. As the disease progresses, withering leaves spread downward, eventually encompassing the whole plant. Leaves lose vigor but remain pale green. Symptoms of roots were brown, and soft rots characterized by moist and watery decay of the whole ginseng root, which initiated as small brown, water-soaked lesions of hairy roots and enlarged to the entire roots. The causal organism isolated from the infected roots was identified as Serratia plymuthica based on its physiological and biochemical characteristics, by cellular fatty acid composition (GC-FAME), the utilization of carbon sources (BioLog System), and 16S rRNA sequence of the isolated bacterium were 99% homologous to those of Serratia plymuthica strains. Artificial inoculation of the bacterium produced the same brown or soft rot symptoms on the ginseng roots, from which the same bacterium was isolated. This is the first report of bacterial root rot caused by the Serratia plymuthica in ginseng in Korea. Serratia plymuthica has been used as antagonistic microorganism for biological control on several crop plants. But it was proved pathogen of ginseng at humid condition in this study.

Background New-onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) occurs in people without a history of seizures. In these cases, the seizure causes are unclear, and the seizures are not controlled by standard treatment. Autoimmune encephalitis (AIE) can be a cause of NORSE. Cryptogenic NORSE may be associated with AIE, but antibodies associated with the condition have not yet been identified. Primary immunotherapy may not be effective for AIE. Rituximab has improved the prognosis in some cases. Case Report We treated a cryptogenic NORSE patient with a combination of antiepileptic drugs and immunotherapy. On the 13th hospital day, the seizures were controlled, but the patient remained in a coma. The patient rapidly recovered after administration of rituximab started on the 26th hospital day. Conclusion Rituximab may be helpful for cryptogenic NORSE patients in whom primary immunotherapy controls seizures, but fails to improve consciousness.

This paper discusses the two-phase flow pattern and temperature distribution in a loop thermosyphon as a defrost device at the surface of the evaporator in the refrigerator with different heater locations and different heating power. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study was carried out using ANSYS FLUENT 15.0. The volume of fluid (VOF) model was considered to simulate evaporation and condensation at the heater surface using user-defined functions (UDFs). 2D geometries were developed with a heater inserted in the loop thermosyphon. The simulation results were verified using Fadhl’s experimental and numerical temperature data [2]. The maximum difference is 2.4 % between the calculated data and Fadhl’s data. The two-phase flow pattern and the temperature field varied with the different heater locations and heating power values. The thermal performance was evaluated based on the average temperature and temperature uniformity inside the loop thermosyphon.

This paper introduces a design concept for a robot manipulator specific to the curtain wall installation task or any other similar task that is in a dominant task area with a full stretch, high manipulability and motion capability, etc. Fig.19 shows the results of this study. This design concept is based on the following assumptions. 1. The task was assumed to be curtain wall installation during the construction of a tall building. 2. The required DOF of the manipulator is six, with an unchangeable rotational base frame. 3. The end-effecter of the manipulator has a 3-DOF R-P-R type joint, which is also invariant. 4. The previous assumption makes this problem rather simple thus it was handled as a planar manipulator problem.

Obesity is a global health issue associated with increased prevalence of disease and mortality. Molokhia (Corchorus olitorius L.) leaves, used as vegetables in Asia and Africa, comprise abundant water-soluble mucilage polysaccharides. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of molokhia leaf polysaccharide fraction (MPF) on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and gut dysbiosis in mice. A significant decrease was observed in the body weight, adipocyte size, triglyceride serum, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, as well as in the expression of lipid synthesis-related proteins in mice treated with 4 mg/kg of MPF (MPF4). Moreover, the expression of the tight junction protein increased significantly; however, gut permeability and related inflammatory marker levels decreased in the MPF4 group. Furthermore, MPF ameliorated gut dysbiosis, whereas the MPF4 group presented a decreased Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratios and an increased abundance of Akkermansia during exposure to HFD. Our findings reveal that rhamnogalacturonan-Ⅰ rich MPF attenuates obesity in mice subjected to HFD by modulating the gut microbiota.

Two new nonribosomal peptides, bonnevillamides D and E (1 and 2), have been discovered in Streptomyces sp. UTZ13 isolated from the carrion beetle, Nicrophorus concolor. Combinational analysis of the UV, MS, and NMR spectroscopic data revealed that their planar structures were comprised of dichlorinated linear peptides containing nonproteinogenic amino acid residues, such as 4-methylazetidinecarboxylic acid and 4-O-acetyl-5-methylproline. The configurations of bonnevillamides D and E (1 and 2) were determined based on ROESY correlations, the advanced Marfey's method, phenylglycine methyl ester derivatization, molecular modeling, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The nonribosomal peptide synthetase biosynthetic pathway of bonnevillamides D and E has been proposed using bioinformatic analysis of the whole-genome sequence data of Streptomyces sp. UTZ13. Their biological activity toward the aggregation of amyloid-β, which is one of the key pathogenic proteins in Alzheimer's disease, was evaluated using a thioflavin T assay and gel electrophoresis. Bonnevillamides D and E reversed the fibril formation by inducing the monomerization of amyloid-β aggregates.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The first complete chloroplast genome sequence of Jeju Island endemic diploid dandelion, Taraxacum hallaisanense, is reported in this study. The plastome size is 151,554 bp in total length, with one large single copy (LSC; 84,066 bp), one small single copy (SSC; 18,524 bp), and two inverted repeat (IR) regions (IRa and IRb, each with 24,482 bp). The overall GC content is 37.7% and the genome contained 129 genes, including 84 protein-coding with 2 pseudogenes (ycf1 and accD), 37 transfer RNA, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis of 19 representative plastomes of the Asteraceae suggests that Taraxacum is monophyletic with strong bootstrap support and also that T. hallaisanense is closely related to T. mongolicum.

We propose a Fabry-Perot type optical cavity based on an array of double dielectric nano-cylinder arrays. Fabry-Perot cavity at double cylinder array are formed by two dielectric cylinder arrays. Double dielectric nano-cylinder arrays with a period of 660 nm shows high quality factor than 10^6. Also, the Fabry-Perot resonant wavelengths and quality factors can be tuned by controlling the gap between double dielectric cylinders. Specifically, the quality factor and Fabry-Perot resonant wavelengths, which are not much affected by the horizontal alignment of double cylinders. Our structure has simplicity and high efficiency. Which can be used in combination with laser and filter.

Transgenic mouse models recapitulating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology are pivotal in molecular studies and drug evaluation. In transgenic models selectively expressing amyloid-β (Aβ), thioflavin S (ThS), a fluorescent dye with β-sheet binding properties, is widely employed to observe amyloid plaque accumulation. In this study, we investigated the possibility that a commonly used Aβ-expressing AD model mouse, 5XFAD, generates ThS-positive aggregates of β-sheet structures in addition to Aβ fibrils. To test this hypothesis, brain sections of male and female 5XFAD mice were double-stained with ThS and monoclonal antibodies against Aβ, tau, or α-synuclein, all of which aggregates are detected by ThS. Our results revealed that, in addition to amyloid plaques, 5XFAD mice express ThS-positive phospho-tau (p-tau) aggregates. Upon administration of a small molecule that exclusively disaggregates Aβ to 5XFAD mice for six weeks, we found that the reduction level of plaques was smaller in brain sections stained by ThS compared to an anti-Aβ antibody. Our findings implicate that the use of ThS complicates the quantification of amyloid plaques and the assessment of Aβ-targeting drugs in 5XFAD mice.

A novel deep-learning algorithm for artificial neural networks (ANNs), completely different from the back-propagation method, was developed in a previous study. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of using the algorithm for the detection of intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) and the classification of its subtypes, without employing the convolutional neural network (CNN). For the detection of ICH with the summation of all the computed tomography (CT) images for each case, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.859, and the sensitivity and the specificity were 78.0% and 80.0%, respectively. Regarding ICH localisation, CT images were divided into 10 subdivisions based on the intracranial height. With the subdivision of 41–50%, the best diagnostic performance for detecting ICH was obtained with AUC of 0.903, the sensitivity of 82.5%, and the specificity of 84.1%. For the classification of the ICH to subtypes, the accuracy rate for subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) was considerably excellent at 91.7%. This study revealed that our approach can greatly reduce the ICH diagnosis time in an actual emergency situation with a fairly good diagnostic performance.

Plant-derived polysaccharides possess potential health benefits that improve intestinal health and the immune system. Molokhia leaves have a large amount of mucilage polysaccharide; in the present study, crude polysaccharide extract was prepared from molokhia leaves. The molecular weight of molokhia leaf polysaccharide fraction (MPF) was estimated to be 51.2 × 103 Da. Polysaccharide was methylated and the structure of MPF was mainly composed of rhamnogalacturonan-I structure with side chains, such as galactans and linear glucan (starch), as shown by GC–MS analysis. To study the biofunctional effects of MPF, its prebiotic and intestinal immune-enhancing activities were assayed in vitro. MPF exhibited good prebiotic activity, as shown by its high prebiotic scores, and increased contents of total short-chain fatty acids on five probiotic strains. In addition, MPF showed immune-enhancing activity on Peyer's patches, as revealed by the high bone marrow cell proliferating activity and production of immunoglobulin A and cytokines. These results demonstrate that MPF may be a potential beneficial prebiotic and intestinal immune-enhancer, which may have wide implications in the food industry.

In the medical field, various studies using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been attempted. Numerous attempts have been made to diagnose and classify diseases using image data. However, different forms of fracture exist, and inaccurate results have been confirmed depending on condition at the time of imaging, which is problematic. To overcome this limitation, we present an encoder-decoder structured neural network that utilizes radiology reports as ancillary information at training. This is a type of meta-learning method used to generate sufficiently adequate features for classification. The proposed model learns representation for classification from X-ray images and radiology reports simultaneously. When using a dataset of only 459 cases for algorithm training, the model achieved a favorable performance in a test dataset containing 227 cases (classification accuracy of 86.78% and classification F1 score of 0.867 for fracture or normal classification). This finding demonstrates the potential for deep learning to improve performance and accelerate application of AI in clinical practice.

Despite clinical evidence indicating a close relationship between olfactory dysfunction and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), further investigations are warranted to determine the diagnostic potential of nasal surrogate biomarkers for AD. In this study, we first identified soluble amyloid-β (Aβ), the key biomarker of AD, in patient nasal discharge using proteomic analysis. Then, we profiled the significant differences in Aβ oligomers level between patient groups with mild or moderate cognitive decline (n = 39) and an age-matched normal control group (n = 21) by immunoblot analysis and comparing the levels of Aβ by a self-standard method with interdigitated microelectrode sensor systems. All subjects received the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), and the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) for grouping. We observed higher levels of Aβ oligomers in probable AD subjects with lower MMSE, higher CDR, and higher GDS compared to the normal control group. Moreover, mild and moderate subject groups could be distinguished based on the increased composition of two oligomers, 12-mer Aβ*56 and 15-mer AβO, respectively. The longitudinal cohort study confirmed that the cognitive decline of mild AD patients with high nasal discharge Aβ*56 levels advanced to the moderate stage within three years. Our clinical evidence strongly supports the view that the presence of oligomeric Aβ proteins in nasal discharge is a potential surrogate biomarker of AD and an indicator of cognitive decline progression.

Fibrillar aggregates of amyloid-β (Aβ) are the main component of plaques lining the cerebrovasculature in cerebral amyloid angiopathy. As the predominant Aβ isoform in vascular deposits, Aβ40 is a valuable target in cerebral amyloid angiopathy research. However, the slow process of Aβ40 aggregation in vitro is a bottleneck in the search for Aβ-targeting molecules. In this study, we sought a method to accelerate the aggregation of Aβ40 in vitro, to improve experimental screening procedures. We evaluated the aggregating ability of bicine, a biological buffer, using various in vitro methods. Our data suggest that bicine promotes the aggregation of Aβ40 with high speed and reproducibility, yielding a mixture of aggregates with significant β-sheet-rich fibril formation and toxicity.

This paper examines the trends and prospects of medical history in Japan. The study of medical history in Japan has developed in various periods and themes. In particular, many studies period have actively made full use of old documents and materials that have been well-preserved. This paper introduces the research trends of medical history in Japan, while discussing the issues surrounding the concept and designation of medical history in present day Japan. This can be seen as an inevitable phenomenon that emerged as methods of medical history research have become diversified, and there are many suggestions related to the future direction of this study. Based on this, this paper points out the characteristics of medical history research conducted in each period since the first half of the twentieth century. In particular, this investigation confirmed that the subjects and research methods of medical history became diversified under the influence of the nation state theory. Furthermore, this study also found that the major topics of medical history research are analysis of medical books, doctors and medical personnel, the starting point of modern medicine, the establishment and change of the medical system, the social impact of infectious diseases, and the discipline and management of the national body. In addition, studies are being conducted to compare how the regulations and operations of medicine and medical and hygiene systems are being developed in the context of “East Asia.”

Amyloid-β (Aβ) tracers have made a significant contribution to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by allowing a definitive diagnosis in living patients. Unfortunately, they also detect tau and other protein aggregates that compromise test accuracy. In AD research, there has been a growing need for in vivo Aβ imaging by two-photon microscopy, which enables deep-brain-fluorescence imaging. There is no suitable neuritic Aβ probe for two-photon microscopy. Here we report PyrPeg, a novel two-photon fluorescent probe that can selectively target insoluble Aβ rather than tau and α-synuclein aggregates in the AD model brain and postmortem brain. When injected intravenously, PyrPeg detects the neuritic plaques in the brain and olfactory bulb of the AD model. PyrPeg may serve as a useful blood-brain-barrier-penetrating diagnostic tool for optical and functional monitoring of insoluble forms of Aβ aggregates in the living AD brain.

Necrostatins (Necs) have been developed as a receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) inhibitor, thus inhibiting necroptosis. In this current study, we have investigated the possible involvement of necroptosis in the hair cycle regulation and further examined its underlying molecular mechanisms. Diverse RIPK1/3 inhibitors and siRNA were tested in the human outer-root sheath (ORS) cells and animal models. The expression and hair cycle-dependent expression of RIPK 1, respectively, were investigated in the hair follicles (HF) of human, pig, and the mouse. Resulting from the experiment, Nec-1s was most effective in the hair growth promotion among several inhibitors. Nec-1s induced the ORS cell proliferation and migration, and increased the HF length in mouse and pig organ cultures. In addition, it accelerated the telogen-to-anagen transition and elongated the anagen period in the mouse model. Both apoptosis and necroptosis were detected in hair cycle. RIPK1 and RIPK3 were highly expressed in ORS cells during the hair regression period. Nec-1s upregulated the mRNA expression of Wnt3a and Wnt5b, and the activity of β-catenin. Collectively, Nec-1s promotes hair growth through inhibiting necroptosis and activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Necroptosis is involved in hair cycle regression, and Nec-1s is a promising target for hair-loss treatment.

Stress-strain curves are an important representation of a material's mechanical properties, from which important properties such as elastic modulus, strength, and toughness, are defined. However, generating stress-strain curves from numerical methods such as finite element method (FEM) is computationally intensive, especially when considering the entire failure path for a material. As a result, it is difficult to perform high throughput computational design of materials with large design spaces, especially when considering mechanical responses beyond the elastic limit. In this work, a combination of principal component analysis (PCA) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) are used to predict the entire stress-strain behavior of binary composites evaluated over the entire failure path, motivated by the significantly faster inference speed of empirical models. We show that PCA transforms the stress-strain curves into an effective latent space by visualizing the eigenbasis of PCA. Despite having a dataset of only 10-27% of possible microstructure configurations, the mean absolute error of the prediction is