ObjectivesLimited evidence is available regarding the financial relationships between gastroenterologists and pharmaceutical companies in Japan. This study analysed the magnitude, prevalence and ...trends of personal payments made by major pharmaceutical companies to board-certified gastroenterologists in Japan in recent years.DesignCross-sectional analysisSetting and participantsUsing payment data publicly disclosed by 92 major pharmaceutical companies, this study examined the non-research payments made to all board-certified gastroenterologists by the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe primary outcomes were payment amounts, the prevalence of gastroenterologists receiving payments, yearly trends in per-gastroenterologist payment values and the number of gastroenterologists with payments. Additionally, we evaluated the differences in payments among influential gastroenterologists, including clinical practice guideline authors, society board member gastroenterologists and other general gastroenterologists.ResultsApproximately 52.8% of all board-certified gastroenterologists received a total of US$89 151 253, entailing 134 249 payment contracts as the reimbursement for lecturing, consulting and writing, from 84 pharmaceutical companies between 2016 and 2019. The average and median payments per gastroenterologist were US$7670 (SD: US$26 842) and US$1533 (IQR: US$582–US$4781), respectively. The payment value per gastroenterologist did not significantly change during the study period, while the number of gastroenterologists with payments decreased by −1.01% (95% CI: −1.61% to −0.40%, p<0.001) annually. Board member gastroenterologists (median: US$132 777) and the guideline authoring gastroenterologists (median: US$106 069) received 29.9 times and 17.3 times higher payments, respectively, than general gastroenterologists (median: US$284).ConclusionMost gastroenterologists received personal payments from pharmaceutical companies, but only very few influential gastroenterologists with authority accepted substantial amounts in Japan. There should be transparent and rigorous management strategies for financial conflicts of interest among gastroenterologists working in influential positions.
It has been difficult to reproduce an arbitrary value of a membrane potential in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for lipid bilayer systems because the membrane potential is sensitively affected ...by the net charge difference. The membrane potential and membrane properties depend on the intra- and extracellular ion concentrations. In this paper, we present a simple procedure to reproduce an arbitrary value of the membrane potential by all-atom MD simulations for two POPC bilayers system. The calculated membrane capacitance is consistent with an experimental result for the POPC. We show a correlation between the ion imbalance and the number of lipid molecules per leaflet to reproduce an arbitrary value of the membrane potential in MD simulations. Moreover, we show an asymmetry of lipid head group induced by the electronic polarizability and an asymmetry of lipid tail and water molecules on the membrane surface induced by the ion concentration gradient.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Platelet distribution width (PDW) and red cell distribution width (RDW) are readily obtainable data, and are reportedly useful as prognostic indicators in some cancers. However, their prognostic ...significance is unclear in gastric cancer (GC).
We enrolled 445 patients with histopathological diagnoses of gastric adenocarcinoma who had undergone curative surgeries.
According to the optimal cut-off value of PDW and RDW by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, we divided patients into PDW
(≥ 16.75%), PDW
(< 16.75%), RDW
(≥ 14.25%), and RDW
(< 14.25%) subgroups. Overall survival (OS) was significantly worse in patients with PDW
than in those with PDW
(P = 0.0015), as was disease specific survival (P = 0.043). OS was also significantly worse in patients with RDW
than in those with RDW
(P < 0.0001), as was disease specific survival (P = 0.0002). Multivariate analysis for OS revealed that both PDW and RDW were independent prognostic indicators. Patients were then given PDW-RDW score by adding points for their different subgroups (1 point each for PDW
and RDW
; 0 points for PDW
and RDW
). OS significantly differed by PDW-RDW score (P < 0.0001), as did disease specific survival (P = 0.0005). In multivariate analysis for OS, PDW-RDW score was found to be an independent prognostic indicator.
The prognosis of GC patients can be precisely predictable by using both PDW and RDW.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Little is known about the regulation of cortical bone. This genetic study showed that suppression of Wnt-signaling pathways by secreted frizzled-related protein 4 was critical to cortical-bone ...formation and strength.
Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease that is characterized by low bone mass, defective bone structure, and a high risk of fracture. Cortical-bone mass is a major determinant of bone strength and therefore of susceptibility to fractures. With aging, the mass of cortical bone may decrease more than the mass of trabecular bone, and fractures occurring in older persons result mostly from cortical-bone fragility. Although progress has been made in therapeutic approaches to reducing the risk of vertebral fracture (which occurs at sites rich in trabecular bone), currently available treatments do little to reduce the risk of nonvertebral fracture, which results . . .
Asteroid systems such as binaries and pairs are indicative of the physical properties and dynamical histories of small solar system bodies. Although numerous observational and theoretical studies ...have been carried out, the formation mechanism of asteroid pairs is still unclear, especially for near-Earth asteroid (NEA) pairs. We conducted a series of optical photometric and polarimetric observations of a small NEA 2010 XC15 in 2022 December to investigate its surface properties. The rotation period of 2010 XC15 is possibly a few to several dozen hours and the color indices of 2010 XC15 are derived as g − r = 0.435 ± 0.008, r − i = 0.158 ± 0.017, and r − z = 0.186 ± 0.009 in the Pan-STARRS system. The linear polarization degrees of 2010 XC15 are a few percent at the phase angle range of 58°–114°. We found that 2010 XC15 is a rare E-type NEA on the basis of its photometric and polarimetric properties. Taking the similarity of not only physical properties but also dynamical integrals and the rarity of E-type NEAs into account, we suppose that 2010 XC15 and 1998 WT24 are of common origin (i.e., an asteroid pair). These two NEAs are the sixth NEA pair and first E-type NEA pair ever confirmed, possibly formed by rotational fission. We conjecture that the parent body of 2010 XC15 and 1998 WT24 was transported from the main belt through the ν6 resonance or Hungaria region.
The phytohormone 7-iso-(+)-jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine (JA-Ile) mediates plant defense responses against herbivore and pathogen attack, and thus increases plant resistance against foreign invaders. ...However, JA-Ile also causes growth inhibition; and therefore JA-Ile is not a practical chemical regulator of plant defense responses. Here, we describe the rational design and synthesis of a small molecule agonist that can upregulate defense-related gene expression and promote pathogen resistance at concentrations that do not cause growth inhibition in Arabidopsis. By stabilizing interactions between COI1 and JAZ9 and JAZ10 but no other JAZ isoforms, the agonist leads to formation of JA-Ile co-receptors that selectively activate the JAZ9-EIN3/EIL1-ORA59 signaling pathway. The design of a JA-Ile agonist with high selectivity for specific protein subtypes may help promote the development of chemical regulators that do not cause a tradeoff between growth and defense.
Little is known about how crises might affect the long-term uptake of breast cancer screening programs. This study aimed to clarify the long-term trend of breast cancer screening program uptake in ...Minamisoma City following the 2011 Triple Disaster in Fukushima, Japan (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster), and to evaluate the factors associated with this uptake. This study retrospectively analyzed data from the Basic Resident Registry and Breast Cancer Screening Program in Minamisoma City following the Triple Disaster. We calculated the annual breast cancer screening uptake rate for women aged 40-74 years who were of an even-numbered age at the end of each fiscal year and the incidence of at least one instance of uptake of the breast cancer screening initiative during the biennial intervals. We further performed cross-sectional and longitudinal regression analyses for the biannual screening uptake and investigated its associated factors. Breast cancer screening participation rates were 19.8% and 18.2% in 2009 and 2010, respectively. They decreased to 4.2% in 2011, and gradually increased thereafter, reaching the pre-disaster level of 20.0% in 2016. Similar but longer decrease of the uptake was observed in the biannual screening uptake rate. No pre-disaster screening uptake between 2009 and 2010, those living alone, or those who were evacuated, were factors that were found to be associated with non-uptake of the breast cancer screening program following the 2011 disaster. This study showed a long-term decline in breast cancer screening uptake in the area affected by the Triple Disaster, which was the most severe among those under evacuation, those who were isolated, and those without previous uptake. The insights emerging from this study could be used to increase awareness of this issue and establish potential countermeasures.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this study, we used 454-pyrosequencing to report the highly diverse diazotroph communities in the Kuroshio and its adjacent waters along a transect across the Tokara Strait, Japan. Terrestrial ...input from the islands resulted in a highly heterogeneous diazotroph community within a relatively small geographic region, which was presumably caused by the remarkably different responses of UCYN-A2, UCYN-C and Trichodesmium to the steep environmental gradient. On the other hand, most major cyanobacterial OTUs found in this study were also detected in an unpublished dataset from the upstream Kuroshio, which suggests transportation of diazotrophs by the Kuroshio in large geographic scale. A significant amount of UCYN-C was found in the Kuroshio and offshore stations, suggesting the importance of this potentially overlooked group in the western North Pacific Ocean (WNPO). Moreover, a novel sublineage of UCYN-B was defined, which was predominant in an oligotrophic water sample; and it was also found to be widely distributed in oceanic waters. In addition, the apparent increase in relative abundance of UCYN-A2 from offshore to near-shore water provides evidence for the earlier and under-debating view that UCYN-A2 prefers coastal conditions. Our report provides new knowledge for understanding the phylogeny and ecology of unicellular cyanobacterial diazotrophs in WNPO.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
