Considering ethnicity and disease heterogeneity, an early predictable index for future diabetes remains a challenge. As such, mathematical model-derived insulin sensitivity (mSI) and beta-cell ...function (mBCF) indices were estimated from oral glucose tolerance tests using the model of Ha and Sherman (AJP Endo 2020). Data from a 14 year longitudinal study in a Korean Population (baseline, Age 51.6±8.8 yrs, Male (50%), BMI 24.5±3.1 kg/m2, Figure A) were analyzed to identify the best predictor among fasting glucose (FG), one hour glucose (1hG), two hour glucose (2hG), HbA1c, and mBCF adjusted for mSI. Both adjusted mBCF and 1hG were the best predictors (adjusted by age, sex and BMI, both P<0.0001 vs. other non-model indices, Figure B). The superior performance of 1hG to the other non-model indices tested likely results from its strong correlation with adjusted mBCF (R2=0.89, P<0.0001). We conclude that beta-cell dysfunction best predicts progression to diabetes in the Korean population.
The Antarctic marine environment is characterized by extreme seasonality in primary production, and herbivores must cope with a prolonged winter period of food shortage. In this study, tissue mass ...and biochemical composition were determined for various tissues of the bivalve Laternula elliptica over a 2 yr period, and its storage and use of energy reserves were investigated with respect to seasonal changes in food level and water temperature. Total ash-free dry mass (AFDM) accumulated rapidly following phytoplankton blooms (with peak values immediately before and after spawning) and was depleted considerably during the spawning and winter periods. Most of the variation was in the muscle, gonads and digestive gland. Spawning peaked in January and February and caused considerable protein and lipid losses in the muscle, gonads and digestive gland. In winter (March to August), the muscle and digestive gland lost considerable mass, while gonad mass increased; this suggests that the muscle tissue and digestive gland serve as major energy depots for both maintenance metabolism and gonad development in winter. There were also marked year-to-year differences in the seasonal patterns of mass variation and reproduction. Overall, the relative and absolute tissue-mass values were positively correlated with chlorophyll concentration, and were not related to water temperature; thus, for the first time, this study clearly shows that food is an important factor governing growth and gonad maturation in this bivalve. It is also noteworthy that protein, constituting ~675% of AFDM, served as the major energy reserve throughout the study, closely following the AFDM variation. In particular, during the winter months, protein comprised > 60% of AFDM loss, while lipids and glycogen served as minor < 20% each) reserves. Protein loss was most substantial in the muscle tissue, which comprised half of the body tissue. Thus, protein use, with muscle tissues as a depot for protein reserves, may be a result of selective pressure on Antarctic marine herbivores undergoing a prolonged period of food shortage in winter.
We report the impact of a copper hexadecafluorophthalocyanine (F
16CuPc) layer inserted between the electrode (Ag and Au) and the pentacene active layer in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The ...electrical characteristics of the transistor are highly improved with the insertion of F
16CuPc in devices having either an Ag or an Au electrode. The threshold voltage was reduced remarkably from −26.20
V to −3.72
V after inserting the F
16CuPc layer in the device with an Ag electrode. In order to examine the effect of the F
16CuPc layer, we evaluated the energy level alignments at the interfaces of pentacene/Ag and pentacene/F
16CuPc/Ag by
in situ ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. The hole-injection barrier from the Ag electrode to the pentacene layer is 0.55
eV with F
16CuPc, while it is 0.80
eV without F
16CuPc. The enhancements in the threshold and turn-on voltages are understood with the energy level alignments at the electrode–pentacene interface.
Mechanistically similar selenophosphate synthetases (SPS) have been isolated from different organisms. SPS from Escherichia coli is an ATP-dependent enzyme with a C-terminal glycine-rich Walker ...sequence that has been assumed to take part in the first step of ATP binding. Three C-terminally truncated mutants of SPS, containing the N-terminal 238 (SPS₂₃₈), 262 (SPS₂₆₂), and 332 (SPS₃₃₂) amino acids of the 348-amino-acid protein, have been extracted from cell pellets, and two of these (SPS₂₆₂ and SPS₃₃₂) have been purified to homogeneity. SPS₂₃₈ has been obtained in a highly purified form. Binding of the fluorescent ATP-derivative TNP-ATP and Mn-ATP to the proteins was examined for all truncated mutants of SPS and a catalytically inactive C17S mutant. It has been shown that TNP-ATP can be used as a structural probe for ATP-binding sites of SPS. We observed two TNP-ATP binding sites per molecule of enzyme for wild-type SPS and SPS₃₃₂ mutant and one TNP-ATP binding site for SPS₂₃₈ mutant. The stoichiometry of Mn-ATP-binding was 2 mol of ATP per mol of protein determined with ¹⁴CATP by HPLC gel-filtration column chromatography under saturating conditions. The binding stoichiometries for SPS₃₃₂, SPS₂₆₂, and SPS₂₃₈ were 2, 1.6, and 1, respectively. The C17S mutant exhibits about one third of wild type SPS TNP-ATP-binding ability and converts 12% of ATP in the ATPase reaction to ADP in the absence of selenide. The C-terminus contributes two thirds to the TNP-ATP binding; SPS₂₃₈ likely has one ATP-binding site removed by truncation.
The structural effects of Cu doping in (Ru
1−
x
Cu
x
)(Sr
1.47
Ba
0.2
Nd
0.33
)(NdCe)Cu
2
O
10−
δ
(0≤
x
≤0.5) have been investigated by using X-ray and neutron diffraction. X-ray diffraction showed ...that the phase purity of the samples increased as the Cu-doping concentration increased and nearly-single-phase materials could be obtained for samples with
x
≥0.25. The Rietveld refinements of the neutron diffraction data around 5 K for
x
=0.25 and
x
=0.5 samples show that the oxygen vacancies are located on both the O(1) site of the RuO
2
basal plane and the O(4) site of the fluorite-type (Nd,Ce)O
2−
δ
block, and the overall oxygen content is found to decrease with increasing Cu content
x
, mainly due to an increase in oxygen vacancies located on the O(1) site. It is also observed that the rotation angle of the RuO
6
octahedra away from the crystallographic
c
-axis increases as the Cu content
x
increases.
Chemosensory dysfunction has been reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Compared with olfaction, gustatory dysfunction in AD has not been evaluated in depth. We ...reviewed previously published studies regarding gustatory dysfunction in patients with AD compared with healthy controls.
A systematic review was conducted by searching the MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Embase, and PubMed databases covering publications from January 2000 to February 2023. The search was performed using the keyword "Alzheimer* AND (gustatory OR taste OR gustation)." Only studies that performed gustatory function testing and compared the results between patients with AD and healthy controls were included. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed.
Twelve articles were finally included, and various gustatory tests including taste strips, the taste disk test, taste solutions, and subjective questionnaires were applied. Overall gustatory function based on the taste strip test was significantly decreased in patients with AD compared with controls in two out of three papers. The overall gustatory function of patients with AD was significantly decreased in all studies based on the taste disk and taste solution tests. We also found that the sweet taste test showed low heterogeneity across all the included studies, and there was low publication bias. In studies using subjective questionnaires, gustatory function was not significantly different between patients with AD and healthy controls in the meta-analysis.
Based on these studies, gustatory dysfunction diagnosed by gustatory function testing was closely related to AD. However, the results of subjective questionnaires were not significantly different between patients with AD and healthy controls in the current meta-analysis. As the number of studies and enrolled subjects was limited and unified gustatory function testing was lacking, further studies are needed to confirm this relationship.
Dermatological examination is critical for the evaluation of lupus erythematosus. However, little is known about the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of the lupus erythematosus patients that ...visit dermatology clinics with the chief complaint of skin lesions, especially among Asian populations. We performed this study to determine the epidemiology of cutaneous lupus erythematosus for three subtypes: acute cutaneous lupus erythematosus, subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus, and chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus, and for lupus erythematosus non-specific skin disease. Also, we sought to determine the relationship between each type of lupus erythematosus, by the skin manifestations and systemic lupus erythematosus. The medical records of lupus erythematosus patients that were diagnosed by their clinical manifestations, skin biopsy results, and laboratory findings from January 1998 through December 2007 were reviewed. A total of 117 patients were diagnosed with lupus erythematosus; 62 cases had chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus, 11 had subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus, and 41 had acute cutaneous lupus erythematosus. The remaining three had systemic lupus erythematosus features with lupus erythematosus non-specific skin lesions such as Raynaud phenomenon, livedo reticularis/vasculitis, non-scarring alopecia, and periungual telangiectasia. The acute cutaneous lupus erythematosus subgroup showed extreme female predominance (9.2:1) whereas subacute and chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus subgroups did not. Patients with chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus tended to be older than other groups (peak incidence in the fifth decade). Incidence of laboratory abnormalities, including positive connective tissue markers such as antinuclear, double-strand DNA, and Ro/SS-A antibodies, were present in the order acute, subacute, and chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus. Acute cutaneous lupus erythematosus almost always indicated systemic involvement of lupus erythematosus, whereas chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus did not predict the development or existence of systemic lupus erythematosus and had a benign clinical course. Careful consideration of lupus erythematosus non-specific skin lesions may help detect systemic lupus erythematosus regardless of the diagnosis of cutaneous lupus erythematosus. Lupus (2009) 18, 1320—1326.
We previously confirmed that the transgenic rice line, M4, was about 200-fold more resistant to oxyfluorfen than the wild-type (WT) rice in whole-plant bioassays in pots. The transgenic rice line was ...also cross-resistant to other protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PROTOX)-inhibiting herbicides, acifluorfen, carfentrazone, and oxadiazon. The objectives of this research were to (a) verify the resistance of transgenic rice plants to commercial doses of PROTOX-inhibiting herbicides under paddy field conditions, (b) compare the growth, yield, and grain quality of transgenic and WT rice under weed-free conditions in a paddy field, and (c) determine the responses of transgenic and WT rice plants to chilling and drought stress. In the field, M4 was resistant to PROTOX inhibitors oxyfluorfen, acifluorfen, carfentrazone, pyraflufen, and oxadiazon in transplanted and direct-seeded rice culture. The transgenic and WT plants had similar plant heights and number of tillers. However, the yield of M4 at T
4 and T
5 generations was 7–8% less than that of WT plants. This was due to reduced number of spikelets per panicle and reduced grain weight. Head rice yield, immature kernels, damaged kernels, palatability, and protein and amylose contents were similar between M4 and WT rice. There was no difference in chilling injury between WT and M4, but M4 was more tolerant to drought stress than WT plants. PROTOX inhibitor-resistant rice is agronomically viable. It will expand the herbicide options in rice production. Follow-up research is required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the slight yield difference and differential drought response between WT and transgenic rice.
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