To facilitate sustainable dairy farming, it is essential to assess and support the mental health of dairy farm workers, which is affected more than that of workers in other industries, as indicated ...by the relatively few studies to date. In addition, the limited investigations on mental health in dairy workers minimize the opportunities to suggest practical approaches of improvement of their mental health. Therefore, further data acquisition and analysis is required. In the present study, we undertook quantitative surveys on 17 management factors and administered a mental health questionnaire to 81 dairy farm managers (80 male, 1 female) in Hokkaido, northern Japan. The management factors were categorized into 3 groups: production input, production output, and facility indicator; mental health was evaluated based on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Principal component analysis assigned the factors into 2 groups: intensiveness factors of dairy production systems (PC1: livestock care cost, fat- and protein-corrected milk, stocking density, medical consultation fee per unit time per animal unit, nonfamily wages, fertilizer and pesticide expenses, and net agricultural income ratio) and basic dairy management factors (PC2: net agricultural income ratio, quantity of concentrate feed, and milk quality variable). The depression symptoms of dairy farm managers were not significantly associated with PC1 and milking methods; however, they were significantly negatively associated with PC2, which integrated 3 management factors, including factors related to finances, feeding, and milk quality. According to the findings of the present study, the efforts needed for stable economic farm management, adequate feed supply, and milk quality maintenance may increase the depression levels of dairy farm managers and negatively affect their mental health. These findings could be the basis for future studies on the relationship between the mental health of farm managers and sustainable dairy farm management and production.
Aims The ability to suppress soil nitrification through the release of nitrification inhibitors from plant roots is termed 'biological nitrification inhibition' (BNI). Here, we aimed at the ...quantification and characterization of the BNI function in sorghum that included inhibitor production, their chemical identity, functionality and factors regulating their release. Methods Sorghum was grown in solution culture and root exúdate was collected using aerated NH₄Cl solutions. A bioluminescence assay using recombinant Nitrosomonas europaea was employed to determine the BNI activity. Activity-guided Chromatographie fractionation was used to isolate biological nitrification inhibitors (BNIs). The chemical structure was analyzed using NMR and mass spectrometry; pH-stat systems were deployed to analyze the role of rhizosphere pH on BNIs release. Results Sorghum roots released two categories of BNIs: hydrophilic- and hydrophobic-BNIs. The release rates for hydrophilic- and hydrophobic- BNIs ranged from 10 to 25 ATUg⁻¹ root dwt. d⁻¹. Addition of hydrophilic BNIs (10 ATUg⁻¹ soil) significantly inhibited soil nitrification (40 % inhibition) during a 30-d incubation test. Two BNI compounds isolated were: sakuranetin (ED₈₀ 0.6 µM; isolated from hydrophilic-BNIs fraction) and sorgoleone (ED₈₀ 13.0 µM; isolated from hydrophobic-BNIs fraction), which inhibited Nitrosomonas by blocking AMO and HAO enzymatic pathways. The BNIs release required the presence of NH₄⁺ in the root environment and the stimulatory effect of NH₄⁺ lasted 24 h. Unlike the hydrophobic-BNIs, the release of hydrophilic-BNIs declined at a rhizosphere pH >5.0; nearly 80 % of hydrophilic-BNI release was suppressed at pH ≥7.0. The released hydrophilic-BNIs were functionally stable within a pH range of 5.0 to 9.0. Sakuranetin showed a stronger inhibitory activity (ED₅₀ 0.2 µM) than methyl 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl) propionate (MHPP) (ED₅₀ 100 µM) (isolated from hydrophilic-BNIs fraction) in the in vitro culture-bioassay, but the activity was non-functional and ineffective in the soil-assay. Conclusions There is an urgent need to identify sorghum genetic stocks with high potential to release functional-BNIs for suppressing nitrification and to improve nitrogen use efficiency in sorghum-based production systems.
Nitrification, a key process in the global nitrogen cycle that generates nitrate through microbial activity, may enhance losses of fertilizer nitrogen by leaching and denitrification. Certain plants ...can suppress soil-nitrification by releasing inhibitors from roots, a phenomenon termed biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). Here, we report the discovery of an effective nitrification inhibitor in the root-exudates of the tropical forage grass Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweick. Named "brachialactone," this inhibitor is a recently discovered cyclic diterpene with a unique 5-8-5-membered ring system and a γ-lactone ring. It contributed 60-90% of the inhibitory activity released from the roots of this tropical grass. Unlike nitrapyrin (a synthetic nitrification inhibitor), which affects only the ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) pathway, brachialactone appears to block both AMO and hydroxylamine oxidoreductase enzymatic pathways in NITROSOMONAS: Release of this inhibitor is a regulated plant function, triggered and sustained by the availability of ammonium (NHFormula: see text) in the root environment. Brachialactone release is restricted to those roots that are directly exposed to NHFormula: see text. Within 3 years of establishment, Brachiaria pastures have suppressed soil nitrifier populations (determined as amoA genes; ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and ammonia-oxidizing archaea), along with nitrification and nitrous oxide emissions. These findings provide direct evidence for the existence and active regulation of a nitrification inhibitor (or inhibitors) release from tropical pasture root systems. Exploiting the BNI function could become a powerful strategy toward the development of low-nitrifying agronomic systems, benefiting both agriculture and the environment.
The clinical analgesic efficacy of buprenorphine Raffa, R. B.; Haidery, M.; Huang, H.-M. ...
Journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics,
December 2014, Letnik:
39, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Summary
What is known and objective
Based on in vitro assays and select animal models, buprenorphine is commonly called a ‘partial agonist’. An implication is that it should produce less analgesic ...effect in humans than so‐called ‘full agonists’ such as morphine or fentanyl. However, buprenorphine has a multimechanistic pharmacology, and thus partial agonism at a specific receptor is not particularly relevant to its overall analgesic action. We review published clinical trials that directly compared the magnitude of buprenorphine's analgesic effect to analgesics commonly considered full agonists.
Comment
Due to different signal transduction pathways, a drug can be a full agonist on one endpoint and a partial agonist on another. Therefore, we limited the present review to buprenorphine's analgesic effect.
What is new and conclusion
Twenty‐four controlled clinical trials were identified, plus a case report and dose–response curve. Based on complete or comparable pain relief, in buprenorphine had full clinical analgesic efficacy in 25 of the 26 studies.
Buprenorphine is commonly called a ‘partial‐agonist’. However, it has a multimechanistic pharmacology, and thus partial agonism at a specific receptor is not particularly relevant to its overall analgesic action. In this review of published clinical trials that directly compared the magnitude of buprenorphine's analgesic effect to analgesics commonly considered full‐agonists buprenorphine had full clinical analgesic efficacy in 25 of the 26 studies.
Few nomograms can predict overall survival (OS) after curative resection of advanced gastric cancer (AGC), and these nomograms were developed using data from only a few large centers over a long time ...period. The aim of this study was to develop and externally validate an elaborative nomogram that predicts 5-year OS after curative resection for serosa-negative, locally AGC using a large amount of data from multiple centers in Japan over a short time period (2001–2003).
Of 39 859 patients who underwent surgery for gastric cancer between 2001 and 2003 at multiple centers in Japan, we retrospectively analyzed 5196 patients with serosa-negative AGC who underwent Resection A according to the 13th Japanese Classification of Gastric Carcinoma. The data of 3085 patients who underwent surgery from 2001 to 2002 were used as a training set for the construction of a nomogram and Web software. The data of 2111 patients who underwent surgery in 2003 were used as an external validation set.
Age at operation, gender, tumor size and location, macroscopic type, histological type, depth of invasion, number of positive and examined lymph nodes, and lymphovascular invasion, but not the extent of lymphadenectomy, were associated with OS. Discrimination of the developed nomogram was superior to that of the TNM classification (concordance indices of 0.68 versus 0.61; P < 0.001). Moreover, calibration was accurate.
We have developed and externally validated an elaborative nomogram that predicts the 5-year OS of postoperative serosa-negative AGC. This nomogram would be helpful in the assessment of individual risks and in the consideration of additional therapy in clinical practice, and we have created freely available Web software to more easily and quickly predict OS and to draw a survival curve for these purposes.
Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has been reported to be associated with a higher complication rate than standard endoscopic mucosal resection. We aimed to clarify the risk factors for delayed ...bleeding after ESD for early gastric cancer (EGC).
1083 EGCs in 968 consecutive patients undergoing ESD during a 4-year period were reviewed. Post-ESD coagulation (PEC) preventive therapy of visible vessels in the resection area, using a coagulation forceps, was introduced and mostly performed during the later 2 years. Various factors related to patients, tumors, and treatment including PEC were investigated using univariate and multivariate analysis with regard to delayed post-ESD bleeding, evidenced by hematemesis or melena, that required endoscopic treatment.
Delayed bleeding occurred after ESD of 63 lesions (5.8 % of all lesions and 6.5 % of patients), controlled in all cases by endoscopic hemostasis; blood transfusion was required in only one case. Tumor location in the upper third of the stomach and PEC were independent factors indicating a lower rate of delayed bleeding according to both univariate and multivariate analysis.
This retrospective study suggested that preventive coagulation of visible vessels in the resection area after ESD may lead to a lower bleeding rate.
Large-eddy simulations were performed for the velocity fields around a 1:1:2 single block model to clarify the effect of the numerical viscosity in different advection schemes. Six types of advection ...schemes with different numerical viscosities were employed: second-order central, first-order upwind, and blending schemes with ratios of 95:5, 90:10, 80:20, and 60:40. The central scheme alone or the blending schemes predicted values of the mean and turbulent kinetic energy that were comparable with those of the experiments, whereas the upwind scheme significantly underestimated the experimental values. In addition to the comparison with the experimental data, the turbulent flow fields among the schemes were compared by deriving the probability and power spectral densities. Blending of the upwind scheme indeed reduced the turbulence energy contribution at high frequency. However, such a reduction in energy became influential to the reproduction of the turbulent flows only when damping of the peak spectral energy occurred. The reduction of the statistical values became ∼10% when blending the upwind scheme by 20%. In contrast, a strong or weak velocity, evaluated by the percentile velocities, was more sensitive to the selection of the advection scheme than the mean velocities.
•Central and blending schemes predict turbulence statistics comparable with experiment.•Blending of upwind scheme reduces turbulence energy contribution at high frequency.•Reduction in TKE influences turbulent flow fields only when peak energy damped.•Percentile velocities are more sensitive to selection of advection scheme.
Global hypomethylation has been suggested to cause genomic instability and lead to an increased risk of cancer. We examined the association between the global methylation level of peripheral blood ...leukocyte DNA and breast cancer among Japanese women.
We conducted a hospital-based case-control study of 384 patients aged 20-74 years with newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed invasive breast cancer, and 384 matched controls from medical checkup examinees in Nagano, Japan. Global methylation levels in leukocyte DNA were measured by LUminometric Methylation Assay. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between global hypomethylation and breast cancer were estimated using a logistic regression model.
Compared with women in the highest tertile of global methylation level, ORs for the second and lowest tertiles were 1.87 (95% CI=1.20-2.91) and 2.86 (95% CI=1.85-4.44), respectively. Global methylation levels were significantly lower in cases than controls, regardless of the hormone receptor status of the cancer (all P values for trend <0.05).
These findings suggest that the global methylation level of peripheral blood leukocyte DNA is low in patients with breast cancer and may be a potential biomarker for breast cancer risk.
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has a major role in cancer progression, as well as normal organ development and human pathology such as organ fibrosis and wound healing. Here, we performed a ...gene expression array specialized in EMT of colorectal cancer (CRC). From a comprehensive gene expression analysis using epithelial- and mesenchymal-like CRC cell lines, and following the ontology (GO) analysis, SIX1 gene was identified to be an EMT-related gene in CRC. Using SW480 cells stably transfected with a SIX1 expression construct and their control counterparts, we demonstrated that SIX1 overexpression represses CDH1 expression and promotes EMT in CRC. SIX1-induced CDH1 repression and EMT in CRC cells were correlated at least in part with posttranscriptional ZEB1 activation and miR-200-family transcriptional repression. In primary tumors of CRC, in accord with the functional findings, aberrant expression of SIX1 in cancer cells was observed at the disruption of the basement membrane and at the tumor invasive front, where tumor cells underwent EMT in vivo. Taken together, SIX1 overexpression is suggested to occur in carcinogenesis, and contribute to repression of CDH1 expression and promotion of EMT partly through repression of miR-200-family expression and activation of ZEB1 in CRC.
The differential modal gain (DMG) in a few-mode erbium-doped fibre amplifier (FM-EDFA) is successfully improved by employing a ring-core FM erbium-doped fibre (RC-EDF). The DMGs between LP01 and LP11 ...mode signals in the FM-EDFA with the RC-EDF are 1.8 and 1.6 dB for LP01 and LP11 mode pumping, respectively, whereas those in a FM-EDFA with a conventional step-index FM EDF are 9.2 and 6.1 dB, indicating 7.4 and 4.5 dB DMG improvement for LP01 and LP11 mode pumping, respectively.
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