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It has been reported that the disc-fovea angle (DFA), a measure of objective cyclotorsion, increases with age. DFA was measured in three age groups of adults and the effects of age, sex, and laterality on DFA is reported.A retrospective study was performed on patients who had a glaucoma checkup or who visited for suspected cataract, who underwent fundus photography between 2013 and 2021. Patients with visual acuity0.7, axial length27 mm, strabismus or ocular diseases affecting fusion were excluded. DFA was measured from digital fundus photographs obtained from 249 participants comprising three age groups (group I, 44.4 ± 0.5 years, n = 58; group II, 63.7 ± 3.6 years, n = 129; group III, 81.0 ± 3.8 years, n = 62). The sum of right- and left-eye DFAs is named as total DFA.Dunnett's post-hoc test after ANOVA showed that the left-eye DFA and total DFA of group III were significantly larger than those of group I (p = .01 and p .01, respectively). Total DFA of female participant (15.6 ± 4.7°, n = 168) was significantly larger than that of male participant (13.9 ± 4.3°, n = 81) (p .01). The DFA of the left eye (8.2 ± 3.5°, n = 249) was significantly larger than that of the right eye (6.8 ± 3.3°, n = 249) (p .001). Group III was subdivided based on eye dominance (right eye dominance, n = 36; left eye dominance, n = 13; NA, n = 13). The DFA in the nondominant eye (9.7 ± 4.6°) was significantly larger than that in the dominant eye (7.4 ± 3.7°) (p .01).This study found a slight increase of DFA with age. Furthermore, DFA in female or DFA in the left-eye was larger than DFA in male or in the right-eye.

Age-related distance esotropia (ARDE) is thought to be caused by sagging eye syndrome. Sagging of the lateral rectus derives from the naturally occurring aging process and induces excyclotorsion of the eye. To date, no study has compared the cyclodeviation in ARDE with that in the age-matched individuals without strabismus. This study aimed to measure the objective cyclotorsion on fundus photographs of ARDE patients and compare the findings with those for normal age-matched individuals. Objective cyclotorsion was measured by determining the disc-to-fovea angle (DFA) on fundus photographs, which were obtained from two groups: 38 consecutive patients with ARDE (age, 74.1 ± 7.9 years), 76 normal age-matched controls (age, 73.9 ± 8.1 years). DFA in ARDE patients was not different from that in the control group (Welch's t-test: ARDE vs Control, right eye; 7.7° ± 2.9° vs 6.8° ± 3.9°, p = .18. Left eye; 10.0° ± 4.5° vs 9.4° ± 3.6°, p = .54. Sum of both eyes; 17.6° ± 5.8° vs 16.2° ± 4.7°, p = .21). These findings suggest sagging of the lateral rectus is not the sole cause of ARDE. Another aging-related factor, such as decreased phoria adaptation, might also be responsible for ARDE.

In the Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation NETwork (IUGONET) project, we have been creating metadata for ground observation data in space physics and populating them into the database since 2009 (http://www.iugonet.org/). These metadata followed the IUGONET metadata schema version 2.4.0.1, which is an extension of the SPASE (Space Physics Archive Search and Extract) metadata schema version 2.4.0.The IUGONET metadata database is very useful for researchers to search for data that they need and to obtain detailed information about data, but the metadata search is available only through the IUGONET page or NASA Heliophysics Data Portal. To promote data usage by a wider research community or the general public, it is needed to convert the metadata database from SPASE to more general schema so that the metadata can be ingested into other metadata databases. For that purpose, we developed a mapping table from SPASE to the JPCOAR (Japan Consortium for Open Access Repository) schema, which has been widely used for scholarly communication and data publication in Japan. Based on the mapping table, we converted part of our metadata, which describe data created in Nagoya University, to those in the JPCOAR schema. The converted metadata were registered in the institutional repository of Nagoya University (https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/). These metadata are consequently harvested by Institutional Repositories DataBase (https://irdb.nii.ac.jp/), Data Catalog Cross-Search System (https://search.ckan.jp/), and Google Dataset Search (https://datasetsearch.research.google.com/). We plan to do the same action for the other IUGONET metadata. This will significantly enhance findability and accessibility of the IUGONET metadata and their describing data., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

To study the effect of eye dominance on excyclotorsion in unilateral superior oblique palsy (USOP).Retrospective clinical study METHODS: Objective excyclotorsion was measured as the disc-to-fovea angle by fundus photography OU. Subjective excyclotorsion was determined with a major amblyoscope based on the difference in the earth vertical and subjective visual vertical. Eye dominance was determined by the hole-in-the-card method. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Data of 24 USOP patients were retrospectively collected. The diagnosis was mainly made by the Parks 3-step method, history and the presence of characteristic excyclotorsion. When possible, orbital magnetic resonance imaging findings were obtained.The median angle of objective excyclotorsion in the paretic eyes was significantly larger than in the nonparetic eyes. Both median angles of objective/subjective excyclotorsion in the dominant eye were significantly smaller than those of the non-dominant eye. Patients were subdivided into two groups: group A, those whose paretic eye was the dominant eye (n = 13); group B, those whose paretic eye was the non-dominant eye (n = 11). The objective/subjective excyclotorsional angles of the paretic eye were significantly larger than of the non-paretic eye only in group B.In USOP the angle of excyclotorsion in the dominant eye is smaller than in the non-dominant eye. This may imply that the vertical sense of visual space is mainly adapted to the dominant eye, keeping the subjective vertical close to the earth vertical.

Background Using a controlled trial, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of adhesive strapping to improve the natural healing rate of umbilical hernia. Methods This prospective, observational study included 128 patients from Kumamoto, Japan (97 in the adhesive strapping group, and 31 in observation group), from 2012–2015. The duration from first hospital visit to the hernia orifice closure was compared between the two groups. Result Kaplan‐Meier curves showed that the probability of umbilical hernia in the adhesive strapping group was lower until approximately 200 days, but it was not statistically significant in the log rank test. According to multivariate Cox proportional hazard models, the hazard risk of umbilical hernia in the adhesive strapping group was significantly higher within 0–60 days after adjusting for confounding factors such as hernial cavity and hernia orifice area (P < 0.0001). Conclusion Adhesive strapping of umbilical hernia was significantly associated with earlier closure of the hernia orifice from baseline until at least 60 days.

The filling behavior of Fe-Ni-Mo steel powder for sintered machine parts is simulated using our original DEM (Discrete Element Method) code based on FDPS (Framework for Developing Particle Simulator). The difference between the simulated and experimental apparent densities after self-weight filling is only -6.7%, which is a significantly higher prediction accuracy than the prior study. This result is obtained by only calculating the repulsive force, viscous damping, friction force and gravity using the actual Young's modulus. This is due to using the experimental friction coefficients and the upper limit setting of the distance between the particle surfaces based on the experimental study. This method can be used to simulate the porosity, especially the low density region, in the actual filling process.

In inflammatory bone diseases such as periodontitis, the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain, leucine-rich repeat, and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome accelerates bone resorption by promoting proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β production. However, the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in physiological bone remodeling remains unclear. Here, we investigated its role in osteoclastogenesis in the presence and absence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a Gram-negative bacterial component. When bone marrow macrophages (BMMs) were treated with receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) in the presence of NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors, osteoclast formation was promoted in the absence of LPS but attenuated in its presence. BMMs treated with RANKL and LPS produced IL-1β, and IL-1 receptor antagonist inhibited osteoclastogenesis, indicating IL-1β involvement. BMMs treated with RANKL alone produced no IL-1β but increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. A ROS inhibitor suppressed apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-1 recruitment domain (ASC) speck formation and NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors abrogated cytotoxicity in BMMs treated with RANKL, indicating that RANKL induces pyroptotic cell death in BMMs by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome via ROS. This suggests that the NLRP3 inflammasome promotes osteoclastogenesis via IL-1β production under infectious conditions, but suppresses osteoclastogenesis by inducing pyroptosis in osteoclast precursors under physiological conditions.

Background Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease initiated by dental deposits. Microorganisms in the dental biofilm induce cell death in epithelial cells, contributing to the breakdown of epithelial barrier function. Recently, dental calculus has also been implicated in pyroptotic cell death in oral epithelium. We analyzed the cytotoxic effects of dental calculus and freeze-dried periodontopathic bacteria on oral epithelial cells and macrophages. Methods HSC-2 human oral squamous carcinoma cells and PMA-differentiated THP-1 macrophages were exposed to dental calculus or one of two species of freeze-dried bacterium, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Fusobacterium nucleatum. Following incubation for 24 h, we measured cytotoxicity via lactate dehydrogenase release. Cells were then incubated with glyburide, an NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor, to assess the potential role of pyroptosis. We also conducted a permeability assay to analyze the effects on epithelial barrier function. Results Dental calculus induced dose-dependent cell death in HSC-2 cells, whereas cell death induced by freeze-dried bacteria was insignificant. Conversely, freeze-dried bacteria induced more cell death than dental calculus in THP-1 macrophages. Cell death induced by dental calculus but not by freeze-dried bacteria was inhibited by glyburide, indicating that these are different types of cell death. In the permeability assays, dental calculus but not freeze-dried bacteria attenuated the barrier function of HSC-2 cell monolayers. Conclusion Due to the low sensitivity of HSC-2 cells to microbial cytotoxicity, dental calculus had stronger cytotoxic effects on HSC-2 cell monolayers than freeze-dried A. actinomycetemcomitans and F. nucleatum, suggesting that it plays a critical role in the breakdown of crevicular/pocket epithelium integrity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor (DPP-4i) alogliptin is an oral, antidiabetic treatment that is approved in many countries to treat patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), including the USA, Europe, and Japan. Alogliptin is efficacious both as monotherapy and as add-on/combination therapy with other commonly prescribed T2DM treatments, such as metformin and pioglitazone. Overall, alogliptin is well-tolerated in patients with T2DM, including older patients, those with renal and/or hepatic impairment, and those at high risk of cardiovascular events. There is a low risk of hypoglycemia, weight gain, acute pancreatitis, and gastrointestinal adverse events with alogliptin treatment, as demonstrated in long-term trials (lasting up to 4.5 years) and in a real-world setting. Additionally, alogliptin has a generally favorable or similar safety profile in comparison to other antidiabetic agents (metformin, thiazolidinediones, sulfonylureas, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, α-glucosidase inhibitors, and insulin). However, further evaluation would be required to determine the mechanism and effect of alogliptin on heart failure, bullous pemphigoid, and inflammatory bowel disease. Of note, due to the ethnic diversity in the epidemiology of T2DM, alogliptin has been shown to be more efficacious in Asian patients than in non-Asian patients with T2DM, but with a similar tolerability profile. These data indicate that DPP-4is, including alogliptin, are important treatment options, especially for Asian patients with T2DM, for whom they have potential as a first-line therapy. This benefit-risk assessment aims to place alogliptin within the current armamentarium of T2DM and aid physicians when choosing optimal diabetes treatment for their patients. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s40264-019-00857-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.