The loss of teeth is known to influence the mastication of foods and nutritional status. Therefore, we hypothesize that poor dentition status can impair the systemic health of the aged. To clarify ...the influence of dentition status on deterioration in physical ability, mental impairment, and mortality, we conducted a six-year prospective cohort study of the institutionalized elderly living in 29 of the 30 institutions for the elderly in Kitakyushu, Japan. Bivariate analysis revealed that worse dentition status at baseline led to significantly worse physical and mental impairment, and higher mortality. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, the physical ability of edentulous subjects without dentures significantly deteriorated compared with that of dentate subjects with 20 or more teeth. The six-year mortality rate of the edentulous subjects without dentures was significantly higher than that of the subjects with 20 or more teeth. Poorer dentition status, especially edentulousness without dentures, may therefore be related to deterioration in the systemic health of the aged.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives: Using multicentre ultrasound (US) cohort data among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we aimed to identify baseline factors that permit differentiation between two patient cohorts ...achieving US remission and clinical remission, and to determine the factors contributing to the discrepancy.
Method: We reviewed 248 Japanese patients diagnosed with RA who underwent treatment with biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs at 13 centres. We performed US assessments of the synovia of 22 joints. We assessed the percentages of patients with clinical remission and US remission, defined as total power Doppler scores of 0 at 12 months.
Results: The 87 patients who achieved US remission were divided into a group that achieved both clinical and US remission (n = 53) and a group that achieved US remission only (n = 34). Baseline factors that were significantly and independently associated with clinical remission at 12 months among patients who also achieved US remission included short disease duration, the presence of concomitant methotrexate use, and low patient global assessment score (p < 0.05, p < 0.05, and p < 0.005, respectively).
Conclusions: RA patients with baseline high patient global assessment scores and long disease duration at baseline were unlikely to achieve clinical remission even after achieving US remission. Objective joint assessments using US provide additional information of potential importance for the management of RA.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
An MgB2 superconducting solenoid magnet has been developed for electron beam focusing in X-band (12 GHz) klystrons for particle accelerator RF systems, to provide a cen-tral field of 0.8 T at 57 A ...and at ≥ 20 K. It has successfully real-ized significant AC-plug power saving in one order of magni-tude compared with that for a conventional Cu solenoid mag-net. A large-scale application may be expected for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) project proposed as a candidate of fu-ture accelerators at CERN. It requires {\sim 5,000} klystrons, and the MgB2 magnet application may realize significant AC-plug power saving. This paper describes progress in a prototype MgB2 superconducting solenoid magnet development and will discuss the future prospect.
We have developed a method to calculate the weak localization and antilocalization corrections based on the real-space simulation, where we provide 147 885 predetermined return orbitals of ...quasi-two-dimensional electrons with up to 5000 scattering events that are repeatedly used. Our model subsumes that of Golub L. E. Golub, Phys. Rev. B 71, 235310 (2005)PRBMDO1098-012110.1103/PhysRevB.71.235310 when the Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is assumed. Our computation is very simple, fast, and versatile, where the numerical results, obtained all at once, cover wide ranges of the magnetic field under various one-electron interactions H^{'} exactly. Thus, it has straightforward extensibility to incorporate interactions other than the Rashba SOI, such as the linear and cubic Dresselhaus SOIs, Zeeman effect, and even interactions relevant to the valley and pseudo spin degrees of freedom, which should provide a unique tool to study new classes of materials like emerging 2D materials. Using our computation, we also demonstrate the robustness of a persistent spin helix state against the cubic Dresselhaus SOI.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
The optimal strategy for difficult-to-treat (D2T) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has not been identified, and the ultrasound characteristics of D2T RA have not been reported. We investigated the clinical ...characteristics and factors contributing to the outcome in D2T RA in a multicentre RA ultrasound observational cohort.
We reviewed 307 Japanese patients diagnosed with RA who underwent treatment with biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs). We compared the differences in patient characteristics between the D2T RA and non-D2T RA groups. We examined the factors contributing to a good response defined as b/tsDMARD continuation and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) ≤ 10 at 12 months in the D2T RA patient group.
Forty-three patients (14%) were categorized as D2T RA and the remaining 264 (86%) as non-D2T RA at baseline. The grey-scale (GS) score, disease duration, and CDAI at the initiation of treatment were significantly higher in the D2T RA group than in the non-D2T RA group. In contrast, the power Doppler (PD) score was not significantly different between the two groups. Of the 43 D2T RA patients, 20 achieved a good response. The introduction of CTLA4-Ig (n = 5) was significantly associated with a good response in analysis based on inverse probability weighting with propensity score. GS and PD scores at baseline were not significantly associated with therapeutic response at 12 months in D2T RA patients.
Patients with D2T RA had high clinical and ultrasound activity and poor responses to treatment with b/tsDMARDs. CTLA4-Ig was associated with a good response at 12 months in D2T RA patients.
Ocean island basalts (OIB) with extremely radiogenic Pb‐isotopic signatures are melts of a mantle component called HIMU (high µ, high 238U/204Pb). Until now, deeply dredged submarine HIMU glasses ...have not been available, which has inhibited complete geochemical (in particular, volatile element) characterization of the HIMU mantle. We report major, trace and volatile element abundances in a suite of deeply dredged glasses from the Tuvalu Islands. Three Tuvalu glasses with the most extreme HIMU signatures have F/Nd ratios (35.6 ± 3.6) that are higher than the ratio (∼21) for global OIB and MORB, consistent with elevated F/Nd ratios in end‐member HIMU Mangaia melt inclusions. The Tuvalu glasses with the most extreme HIMU composition have Cl/K (0.11–0.12), Br/Cl (0.0024), and I/Cl (5–6 × 10−5) ratios that preclude significant assimilation of seawater‐derived Cl. The new HIMU glasses that are least degassed for H2O have low H2O/Ce ratios (75–84), similar to ratios identified in end‐member OIB glasses with EM1 and EM2 signatures, but significantly lower than H2O/Ce ratios (119–245) previously measured in melt inclusions from Mangaia. CO2‐H2O equilibrium solubility models suggest that these HIMU glasses (recovered in two different dredges at 2500–3600 m water depth) have eruption pressures of 295–400 bars. We argue that degassing is unlikely to significantly reduce the primary melt H2O. Thus, the lower H2O/Ce in the HIMU Tuvalu glasses is a mantle signature. We explore oceanic crust recycling as the origin of the low H2O/Ce (∼50–80) in the EM1, EM2, and HIMU mantle domains.
Key Points:
We report geochemical data on the first deeply dredged submarine glasses with a HIMU signature
The HIMU glasses have low H2O/Ce
The low H2O/Ce is interpreted to relate to mantle recycling of pyroxenite
Full text
Available for:
FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
Lupus nephritis (LN) is a major determinant of mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here we evaluated the association between complete renal response (CR) and mortality in LN.
...Methods
We retrospectively analyzed the cases of 172 of 201 patients with LN for whom data on the therapeutic response at 6 and 12 months after induction therapy were available. The patients underwent a renal biopsy at Nagasaki University Hospital and community hospitals in Nagasaki between the years 1990 and 2016. We determined the CR rates at 6 and 12 months after induction therapy initiation and evaluated the predictive factors for CR and their relationship with mortality. We performed univariate and multivariable competing risks regression analyses to determine the factors predictive of CR. The patients' survival data were analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method with a log-rank test.
Results
The median follow-up duration after renal biopsy was 120 months (interquartile range: 60.3–191.8 months). The 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-year survival rates of our cohort were 99.3, 94.6, 92.0 and 85.4%, respectively. During follow-up, nine patients (5.2%) died from cardiovascular events, infection, malignancy and other causes. The multivariate analysis revealed that the following factors were predictive of CR. At 6 months: male gender (odds ratio (OR) 0.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08–0.65, p = 0.0028), proteinuria (g/gCr) (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.71–0.97, p = 0.0098) and index of activity (0–24) (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.71–0.99, p = 0.0382). At 12 months: male gender (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.09–0.67, p = 0.0043) and index of activity (0–24) (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.69–0.98, p = 0.0236). The Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that compared to not achieving CR at 12 months, achieving CR at 12 months was significantly correlated with the survival rate (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04–0.92, p = 0.0339).
Conclusions
Our results suggest that the survival rate of patients with LN is associated with the achievement of CR at 12 months after induction therapy, and that male gender and a higher index of activity (0–24) are the common predictive factors for failure to achieve CR at 6 and 12 months.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Inflammation is hypothesized to play a significant role in the development of type 2 diabetes; however, reports on clinical inflammatory conditions are limited. Studies have suggested that ...periodontitis affects glucose control in diabetics. This community-based study examined the relationship between periodontitis and glucose tolerance status, including changes in status. The relationship between periodontal condition and the results of a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test was examined in 961 adults in 1998. Deep pockets (mean pocket depth > 2.0 mm) were significantly associated with impaired glucose tolerance and with diabetes as compared with shallow pockets (< 1.3 mm). In the subgroup with normal glucose tolerance 10 years previously, subjects who subsequently developed impaired glucose tolerance were significantly more likely to have deep pockets. Deep pockets were closely related to current glucose tolerance status and the development of glucose intolerance.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Flavonoids may exert their health benefit in cardiovascular disease by modulating monocyte adhesion in the inflammatory process of atherosclerosis. Most in vitro studies used forms of flavonoids ...present in food rather than forms that appear in plasma after ingestion.
We tested the effects of plasma metabolites of (+)-catechin and quercetin on the modulation of monocyte adhesion to human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) and on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Plasma extracts of flavonoid metabolites were prepared after intragastric administration of pure compounds to rats. The plasma preparations contained sulfate or glucuronide conjugates or both and methylated forms. We measured adhesion of U937 monocytic cells to HAEC and the production of ROS in HAEC when cells were pretreated with either pure compounds or plasma extracts from control or treated rats. Adhesion assays were performed with HAEC stimulated with interleukin (IL)-1 beta or U937 cells activated with phorbol myristyl acetate; ROS were measured after challenging HAEC with IL-1 beta or hydrogen peroxide.
Pretreatment of HAEC with (+)-catechin metabolites inhibited U937 cell adhesion to IL-1 beta-stimulated cells, whereas pretreatment with intact (+)-catechin had no effect. Generation of ROS in hydrogen peroxide-stimulated HAEC was inhibited by (+)-catechin, its metabolites, and control plasma extract, whereas ROS generation in IL-1 beta-stimulated HAEC was inhibited by (+)-catechin metabolites only. In contrast, quercetin inhibited U937 cell adhesion to IL-1 beta-stimulated HAEC, whereas its metabolites were not effective.
Metabolic conversion of flavonoids such as (+)-catechin and quercetin modifies the flavonoids' biological activity. Metabolites of flavonoids, rather than their intact forms, may contribute to the reported effects of flavonoids on reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PDF
