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Background Fat grafting is a commonly employed aesthetic procedure for contour enhancement. However, outcome prediction is challenging due to the complex regeneration and remodeling processes involved. We investigated whether adenosine improves engraftment and fat graft survival under conditions of obesity. Methods Fat was harvested from mice fed a high-fat diet. This fat was washed with either Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate HEPES buffer (the vehicle group) or a buffer containing 500 nM adenosine (the adenosine wash group). Subsequently, the fat was transplanted into normal mice at 0.2 mL per mouse. In both groups, 50% of the mice were sacrificed at 1 week and the remainder at 4 weeks post-transplantation. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis was conducted during week 1. In week 4, micro-computed tomography, immunofluorescence staining, and RT-qPCR were performed. A sample of the initially harvested fat was set aside for lipolysis assay. Results Adenosine washing improved fat graft retention volumes by up to 50%. One week post-transplantation, the expression of adipogenic and angiogenic genes was found to be upregulated in the adenosine wash group. After 4 weeks, immunofluorescence staining revealed greater adipocyte integrity and an increased number of vessels. Furthermore, adenosine appeared to modulate inflammation by stabilizing the lipolysis rate. Conclusions Adenosine washing increased the fat graft survival rate under conditions of obesity. Clinically, this suggests a simple, cost-effective adjuvant method for improving fat graft survival in individuals with obesity. Further research is warranted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and explore the applicability of this technique for autologous transplantation.

Abstract International trade networks are complex systems that consist of overlapping multiple trade blocs of varying sizes. However, the resulting structures of community detection in trade networks often fail to accurately represent the complexity of international trade. To address this issue, we propose a multiresolution framework that integrates information from a range of resolutions to consider trade communities of different sizes and reveal the hierarchical structure of trade networks and their constituent blocks. In addition, we introduce a measure called multiresolution membership inconsistency for each country, which demonstrates the positive correlation between a country’s structural inconsistency in terms of network topology and its vulnerability to external intervention in terms of economic and security functioning. Our findings show that network science-based approaches can effectively capture the complex interdependencies between countries and provide new metrics for evaluating the characteristics and behaviors of countries in both economic and political contexts.

Inactive cortisone is converted into active cortisol by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1). Excessive levels of active glucocorticoids could deteriorate skin barrier function; barrier impairment is also observed in aged skin. In this study, we aimed to determine whether permeability barrier impairment in the aged skin could be related to increased 11β-HSD1 expression. Aged humans (n = 10) showed increased cortisol in the stratum corneum (SC) and oral epithelium, compared to young subjects (n = 10). 11β-HSD1 expression (as assessed via immunohistochemical staining) was higher in the aged murine skin. Aged hairless mice (56-week-old, n = 5) manifested greater transepidermal water loss, lower SC hydration, and higher levels of serum inflammatory cytokines than the young mice (8-week-old, n = 5). Aged 11β-HSD1 knockout mice (n = 11), 11β-HSD1 inhibitor (INHI)-treated aged wild type (WT) mice (n = 5) and young WT mice (n = 10) exhibited reduced SC corticosterone level. Corneodesmosome density was low in WT aged mice (n = 5), but high in aged 11β-HSD1 knockout and aged INHI-treated WT mice. Aged mice exhibited lower SC lipid levels; this effect was reversed by INHI treatment. Therefore, upregulation of 11β-HSD1 in the aged skin increases the active-glucocorticoid levels; this suppresses SC lipid biosynthesis, leading to impaired epidermal permeability barrier.

Abstract The Patlak-Keller-Segel equation is a canonical model of chemotaxis to describe self-organized aggregation of organisms interacting with chemical signals. We investigate a variant of this model, assuming that the organisms exert effective pressure proportional to the number density. From the resulting set of partial differential equations, we derive a Lyapunov functional that can also be regarded as the free energy of this model, and minimize it with a Monte Carlo method to detect the condition for self-organized aggregation. Focusing on radially symmetric solutions on a two-dimensional disc, we find that the chemical interaction competes with diffusion so that aggregation occurs when the relative interaction strength exceeds a certain threshold. Based on the analysis of the free-energy landscape, we argue that the transition from a homogeneous state to aggregation is abrupt yet continuous.

Abstract Body-mass index, abbreviated as BMI and given by M/H 2 with the mass M and the height H, has been widely used as a useful proxy to measure a general health status of a human individual. We generalise BMI in the form of M/H p and pursue to answer the question of the value of p for populations of animal species including human. We compare values of p for several different datasets for human populations with the ones obtained for other animal populations of fish, whales, and land mammals. All animal populations but humans analyzed in our work are shown to have p ≈ 3 unanimously. In contrast, human populations are different: As young infants grow to become toddlers and keep growing, the sudden change of p is observed at about one year after birth. Infants younger than one year old exhibit significantly larger value of p than two, while children between one and five years old show p ≈ 2, sharply different from other animal species. The observation implies the importance of the upright posture of human individuals. We also propose a simple mechanical model for a human body and suggest that standing and walking upright should put a clear division between bipedal human (p ≈ 2) and other animals (p ≈ 3).

Abstract Background Serum bone turnover markers offer limited insight into metabolic activity at the individual vertebra level in osteoporosis. This study introduces a novel image-derived bone turnover marker for individual vertebrae to address this limitation, utilizing volumetric density-adjusted quantitative bone single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) with [99mTc]Tc-DPD. This retrospective study included 177 lumbar vertebrae from 55 postmenopausal South Korean women. The mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean, g/cm3) and volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD, mg/cm3) were determined within a 2-cm³ volume of interest in the trabecular portion of each vertebra using quantitative SPECT and CT. The density-adjusted mean standardized uptake value (dSUVmean) was calculated by dividing the SUVmean by the vBMD and multiplying by 1,000. Results SUVmean correlated positively with vBMD (r = 0.60, p

Background: In Taekwondo athletes, ankle sprain is the most common risk factor for injury. Repeated ankle injuries lead to weakness and imbalance of the ankle muscles, resulting in chronic ankle instability (CAI). Both the ankle and toe muscles contribute to the inversion and eversion of the foot at the subtalar joint. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the ankle and toe joint positions when measuring ankle invertor and evertor strength. Objects: This study aimed to compare the muscle strength and ratio differences of the ankle invertor and evertor muscles in both the toe and ankle positions between the CAI and unin-jured sides in Taekwondo athletes. Methods: Fifteen Taekwondo athletes participated in this study. The isometric strengths of both the ankle invertor and evertor were determined in different ankle and toe positions (dor-siflexion with toe extension, dorsiflexion with toe flexion, plantarflexion with toe extension, and plantarflexion with toe flexion). Paired t-tests were used to determine the differences be-tween the ankle invertor and evertor in strength and ratio according to toe and ankle positions between the ankle CAI side and the uninjured side. Results: The results demonstrated that ankle evertor strength significantly decreased in all ankle and toe positions on the CAI side (p < 0.05). In addition, significant differences were observed in the ratios of the ankle invertor and evertor strengths in the dorsiflexion with toe flexion, plantarflexion with toe extension, and plantarflexion with toe flexion positions (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that athletes, trainers, and clinicians should consider ankle and toe positions when measuring invertor and evertor strength and develop ankle rehabilitation protocols for Taekwondo athletes with CAI.

The gravity model (GM) analogous to Newton’s law of universal gravitation has successfully described the flow between different spatial regions, such as human migration, traffic flows, international economic trades, etc. This simple but powerful approach relies only on the ‘mass’ factor represented by the scale of the regions and the ‘geometrical’ factor represented by the geographical distance. However, when the population has a subpopulation structure distinguished by different attributes, the estimation of the flow solely from the coarse-grained geographical factors in the GM causes the loss of differential geographical information for each attribute. To exploit the full information contained in the geographical information of subpopulation structure, we generalize the GM for population flow by explicitly harnessing the subpopulation properties characterized by both attributes and geography. As a concrete example, we examine the marriage patterns between the bride and the groom clans of Korea in the past. By exploiting more refined geographical and clan information, our generalized GM properly describes the real data, a part of which could not be explained by the conventional GM. Therefore, we would like to emphasize the necessity of using our generalized version of the GM, when the information on such nongeographical subpopulation structures is available.

The use of energy storage systems (ESSs) is increasing in the industry as part of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In particular, large-capacity ESSs that adopt lithium-ion batteries, which have high energy density characteristics, are being used not only in stationary applications but also in mobility industry fields such as vehicles and ships. However, ESSs with lithium-ion batteries have a high risk of fire and failure, which reduces the reliability of the system. This paper studies the redundant type ESS configuration and its fault tolerance control method for enhanced reliability of ESSs to which lithium-ion batteries are applied. Hence, we present a new control method for improving the cycle life of ESSs. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is validated using a 10S-1P configuration lithium-ion battery module, with reference to the operating profile of railway vehicles.

We investigate the structure of the profit landscape obtained from the most basic, fluctuation based, trading strategy applied for the daily stock price data. The strategy is parameterized by only two variables, p and q Stocks are sold and bought if the log return is bigger than p and less than -q, respectively. Repetition of this simple strategy for a long time gives the profit defined in the underlying two-dimensional parameter space of p and q. It is revealed that the local maxima in the profit landscape are spread in the form of a fractal structure. The fractal structure implies that successful strategies are not localized to any region of the profit landscape and are neither spaced evenly throughout the profit landscape, which makes the optimization notoriously hard and hypersensitive for partial or limited information. The concrete implication of this property is demonstrated by showing that optimization of one stock for future values or other stocks renders worse profit than a strategy that ignores fluctuations, i.e., a long-term buy-and-hold strategy.

How to distribute welfare in a society is a key issue in the subject of distributional justice, which is deeply involved with notions of fairness. Following a thought experiment by Dworkin, this work considers a society of individuals with different preferences on the welfare distribution and an official to mediate the coordination among them. Based on a simple assumption that an individual's welfare is proportional to how her preference is fulfilled by the actual distribution, we show that an egalitarian preference is a strict Nash equilibrium and can be favorable even in certain inhomogeneous situations. These suggest how communication can encourage and secure a notion of fairness.

The study of human mobility is both of fundamental importance and of great potential value. For example, it can be leveraged to facilitate efficient city planning and improve prevention strategies when faced with epidemics. The newfound wealth of rich sources of data—including banknote flows, mobile phone records, and transportation data—has led to an explosion of attempts to characterize modern human mobility. Unfortunately, the dearth of comparable historical data makes it much more difficult to study human mobility patterns from the past. In this paper, we present an analysis of long-term human migration, which is important for processes such as urbanization and the spread of ideas. We demonstrate that the data record from Korean family books (called “jokbo”) can be used to estimate migration patterns via marriages from the past 750 years. We apply two generative models of long-term human mobility to quantify the relevance of geographical information to human marriage records in the data, and we find that the wide variety in the geographical distributions of the clans poses interesting challenges for the direct application of these models. Using the different geographical distributions of clans, we quantify the “ergodicity” of clans in terms of how widely and uniformly they have spread across Korea, and we compare these results to those obtained using surname data from the Czech Republic. To examine population flow in more detail, we also construct and examine a population-flow network between regions. Based on the correlation between ergodicity and migration in Korea, we identify two different types of migration patterns: diffusive and convective. We expect the analysis of diffusive versus convective effects in population flows to be widely applicable to the study of mobility and migration patterns across different cultures.

An allometric height–mass exponent γ gives an approximative power-law relation 〈 M 〉∝ H ^γ between the average mass 〈 M 〉 and the height H for a sample of individuals. The individuals in the present study are humans but could be any biological organism. The sampling can be for a specific age of the individuals or for an age interval. The body mass index is often used for practical purposes when characterizing humans and it is based on the allometric exponent γ = 2. It is shown here that the actual value of γ is to a large extent determined by the degree of correlation between mass and height within the sample studied: no correlation between mass and height means γ = 0, whereas if there was a precise relation between mass and height such that all individuals had the same shape and density then γ = 3. The connection is demonstrated by showing that the value of γ can be obtained directly from three numbers characterizing the spreads of the relevant random Gaussian statistical distributions: the spread of the height and mass distributions together with the spread of the mass distribution for the average height. Possible implications for allometric relations, in general, are discussed.

Objective: To assess the metabolic effects of adrenalectomy in patients with mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS). Background: Despite retrospective studies showing the association of adrenalectomy for MACS with beneficial metabolic effects, there have been only 2 randomized prospective studies with some limitations to date. Methods: A prospective, multicenter study randomized 132 patients with adrenal incidentaloma without any features of Cushing syndrome but with serum cortisol >50 nmol/L after a 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test into an adrenalectomy group (n = 66) or control group (n = 66). The primary outcomes were changes in body weight, glucose, and blood pressure (BP). Results: Among the 118 participants who completed the study with a median follow-up duration of 48 months (range: 3–66), the adrenalectomy group (n = 46) exhibited a significantly higher frequency of improved weight control, glucose control, and BP control (32.6%, 45.7%, and 45.7%, respectively) compared with the control group (n = 46; 6.5%, P = 0.002; 15.2%, P = 0.002; and 23.9%, P = 0.029, respectively) after matching for age and sex. Adrenalectomy [odds ratio (OR) = 10.38, 95% CI = 2.09–51.52, P = 0.004], body mass index (OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.08–1.79, P = 0.010), and cortisol after a 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test levels (OR = 92.21, 95% CI = 5.30–1604.07, P = 0.002) were identified as independent factors associated with improved weight control. Adrenalectomy (OR = 5.30, 95% CI = 1.63–17.25, P = 0.006) and diabetes (OR = 8.05, 95% CI = 2.34–27.65, P = 0.001) were independently associated with improved glucose control. Adrenalectomy (OR = 2.27, 95% CI = 0.87–5.94, P = 0.095) and hypertension (OR = 10.77, 95% CI = 3.65–31.81, P < 0.001) demonstrated associations with improved BP control. Conclusions: adrenalectomy improved weight, glucose, and BP control in patients with MACS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of baffle arrays behind a rigid barrier is an effective method to reduce impact force by dissipating flow energy with filtering boulders from debris flows. To prevent structural damage of the rigid barrier, appropriate configurations of the baffle arrays are needed; however, design guidelines for the geometric construction of baffle arrays have not yet been proposed. One of the major challenges in designing multiple structures (baffles and a rigid barrier, etc.) is to set up a framework for a safe and economical design. The flow–structure interaction and impact force of debris flows on a rigid barrier are affected by the configuration of baffles installed behind the rigid barrier. In this study, to evaluate the flow behavior and the dynamic impact force on the terminal barrier after the flow has passed through the baffle arrays, we conducted a series of small-scale flume tests under various baffle heights and a number of rows. The test results revealed that the installation of baffles reduced the run-up height and the impact force on the terminal rigid barrier. The flow impedance induced by baffles had a significant influence on the dissipation of the kinetic energy of debris flows. Moreover, additional baffle rows produced a greater reduction in the run-up and impact force by decreasing debris flow and boulder mobility.

Background and Aim. The prevalence of obesity is increasing globally as is the prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Herein, we sought to evaluate the characteristics and prognosis of IBD in patients with obesity. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of IBD patients who visited Asan Medical center. We used a large, well-characterized referral center-based cohort. The clinical features of IBD patients with body mass index (BMI) over 30 and matched controls with BMI under 30 were compared. Results. Among the 6,803 IBD patients enrolled in the Asan IBD Registry between June 1989 and December 2016, we identified 16 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and 27 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) whose BMI was over 30 at the time of diagnosis. Their clinical characteristics and course were compared with those of 64 and 108 matched patients with CD and UC, respectively. There were no significant differences in the risk of using steroids (hazards ratio (HR) = 0.633 and P=0.254), immunomodulators (HR = 0.831 and P=0.517), and anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy (HR = 1.539 and P=0.351) and risk of bowel resections (HR = 1.858 and P=0.231) between CD patients with BMI over 30 and those with BMI under 30; similarly, UC patients did not show significant differences in the risk of using steroids (HR = 0.613 and P=0.145), immunomodulators (HR = 0.492 and P=0.111), anti-TNF therapy (HR = 0.385 and P=0.095), and risk of colectomy (HR = 0.262 and P=0.104). In the subgroup analysis, under-weight UC patients had a higher cumulative probability of needing steroids (HR = 0.2510 and P=0.042), needing immunomodulators (HR = 0.097 and P=0.014), and a higher risk of receiving colectomy (HR = 0.024 and P=0.019) than obese UC patients. Conclusions. Obese IBD patients with CD or UC did not show significantly different clinical features from nonobese IBD patients.

This article discusses the concept of osteosarcopenia, which refers to the simultaneous loss of bone and muscle mass and strength, particularly among older individuals. The article emphasizes the importance of studying both bone and muscle in order to effectively prevent fractures and promote healthy aging. Factors such as sedentarism, inadequate nutrition, hormonal changes, and aging contribute to the development of osteosarcopenia. The article highlights the need for comprehensive interventions that target both bone and muscle health. However, there are challenges in diagnosing osteosarcopenia and developing effective treatments. Further research in this field is necessary to improve the understanding and management of osteosarcopenia. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Despite the protective effects of stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) in stimulating muscle regeneration shown in experimental research, there is a lack of clinical studies linking circulating SDF-1 concentrations with muscle phenotypes. In order to elucidate the role of SDF-1 as a potential biomarker reflecting human muscle health, we investigated the association of plasma SDF-1 levels with sarcopenia in older adults. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 97 community-dwelling participants who underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment at a tertiary hospital in South Korea. Sarcopenia was defined by specific cutoff values applicable to the Asian population, whereas plasma SDF-1 levels were determined using an enzyme immunoassay. Results: After accounting for sex, age, and body mass index, participants with sarcopenia and low muscle mass exhibited plasma SDF-1 levels that were 21.8% and 18.3% lower than those without these conditions, respectively (P=0.008 and P=0.009, respectively). Consistently, higher plasma SDF-1 levels exhibited a significant correlation with higher skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) and gait speed (both P=0.043), and the risk of sarcopenia and low muscle mass decreased by 58% and 55% per standard deviation increase in plasma SDF-1 levels, respectively (P=0.045 and P=0.030, respectively). Furthermore, participants in the highest SDF-1 tertile exhibited significantly higher SMI compared to those in the lowest tertile (P=0.012). Conclusion: These findings clinically corroborate earlier experimental discoveries highlighting the muscle anabolic effects of SDF-1 and support the potential role of circulating SDF-1 as a biomarker reflecting human muscle health in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]