Depression and anxiety are common mental health problems that are strongly associated with sleep disturbances, according to community-based researches. However, this association has not been ...investigated among patients admitted for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We examined the prevalence of depression and anxiety in inpatients with various CVDs and their association with sleep disturbances.
This cross-sectional study included 1294 patients hospitalized for CVDs in a Japanese university hospital were evaluated for their mental status using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), for sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) using pulse oximetry, and for sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
Patient characteristics were as below: mean age, 63.9±14.7 years; 25.7% female. Overall, 18.9% had depression (HADS-depression≥8) and 17.1% had anxiety (HADS-anxiety≥8). The presence of depression was associated with female sex, older age, higher plasma brain natriuretic peptide level, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate, and the prevalence of heart failure. Overall, 46.5% patients were categorized as having a poor sleep quality (PSQI>5), and 28.5% patients had SDB (3% oxygen desaturation index>15). Although depression and anxiety were not associated with SDB, they were independently associated with poor sleep quality (OR = 3.09, 95% CI 2.19-4.36; OR = 3.93, 95% CI 2.71-5.69, respectively).
Depression and anxiety were not uncommon in patients with CVDs. Poor sleep quality could be an important risk factor linked to psychological disturbances.
Uterus transplantation (UTx) is now an alternative to surrogacy and adoption for women with uterine factor infertility to have children; however, there are still unresolved clinical and technical ...issues. One of these is that the graft failure rate after transplantation is somewhat higher than that of other life-saving organ transplants, which is a critical concern. Herein, we summarize the details of 16 graft failures after UTx with living or deceased donors using the published literature in order to learn from these negative outcomes. To date, the main causes of graft failure are vascular factors (arterial and/or venous thrombosis, atherosclerosis, and poor perfusion). Many recipients with thrombosis develop graft failure within one month of surgery. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a safe and stable surgical technique with higher success rates for further development in the UTx field.
Aspartate, which is converted from oxaloacetate (OAA) by aspartate aminotransferase, is considered an important precursor for purine salvage and pyrimidine de novo biosynthesis, and is thus ...indispensable for the growth of Plasmodium parasites at the asexual blood stages. OAA can be produced in malaria parasites via two routes: (i) from phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the cytosol, or (ii) from fumarate by consecutive reactions catalyzed by fumarate hydratase (FH) and malate:quinone oxidoreductase (MQO) in the mitochondria of malaria parasites. Although PEPC-deficient Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium berghei (rodent malaria) parasites show a growth defect, the mutant P. berghei can still cause experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) with similar dynamics to wild-type parasites. In contrast, the importance of FH and MQO for parasite viability, growth and virulence is not fully understood because no FH- and MQO-deficient P. falciparum has been established. In this study, the role of FH and MQO in the pathogenicity of asexual-blood-stage Plasmodium parasites causing cerebral malaria was examined.
First, FH- and MQO-deficient parasites were generated by inserting a luciferase-expressing cassette into the fh and mqo loci in the genome of P. berghei ANKA strain. Second, the viability of FH-deficient and MQO-deficient parasites that express luciferase was determined by measuring luciferase activity, and the effect of FH or MQO deficiency on the development of ECM was examined. While the viability of FH-deficient P. berghei was comparable to that of control parasites, MQO-deficient parasites exhibited considerably reduced viability. FH activity derived from erythrocytes was also detected. This result and the absence of phenotype in FH-deficient P. berghei parasites suggest that fumarate can be metabolized to malate by host or parasite FH in P. berghei-infected erythrocytes. Furthermore, although the growth of FH- and MQO-deficient parasites was impaired, the development of ECM was suppressed only in mice infected with MQO-deficient parasites.
These findings suggest that MQO-mediated mitochondrial functions are required for development of ECM of asexual-blood-stage Plasmodium parasites.
The present study was conducted to identify how changes in the vertical dimension of occlusion (VDO) affect the sensory perception and activity of the brain in complete denture wearers using an ...electroencephalogram (EEG).
Subjects were 21 individuals wearing complete dentures who regularly visited the Division of Prosthodontics at Tsurumi University Dental Hospital for checkups (12 males and 9 females, average age: 76.6). Based on their original dentures, two duplicate dentures with different VDO (−3mm and +5mm) were fabricated. EEG activity and occlusal force were measured before and after gum chewing with each denture in all subjects. Negative indicator scores for psychological conditions and stable neuronal activity (Dα) were calculated using EEG data. Statistical analysis was performed using the Wilcoxon test to compare changes in the sensory perception, activity of the brain, and occlusal force (α=0.05).
After gum chewing with the +5-mm denture, a significant increase was observed in the negative indicator score (p<0.05). No significant difference was found in the Dα values before and after gum chewing with any of the dentures (p>0.05). A significant decrease was observed in the occlusal force between the original denture and the −3-mm denture (p<0.05).
Psychological condition and occlusal force were influenced by immediate changes in the VDO of the complete denture.
Purpose
This study explored the effect of improved occlusal force resulting from complete denture treatment on electroencephalogram (EEG) findings to determine if such an outcome is a factor ...contributing to activation of synaptic/neuronal dysfunction in the brain.
Materials and Methods
Twenty‐three individuals with complete upper and lower dentures who visited the Department of Removable Prosthodontics at Tsurumi University Dental Hospital were included in this study. The Dental Prescale Occluzer FPD‐705 system was used to perform an objective measurement of occlusal force before and after denture treatment. EEGs were recorded for 3 minutes in patients receiving complete dentures before and after denture treatment. Then, Dα values were calculated using a diagnosis method of neuronal dysfunction analysis to evaluate changes in synaptic/neuronal dysfunction of the brain. To investigate whether occlusal force affects Dα, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (α = 0.05) was used to test the association between occlusal force (N) and Dα based on the rates of change in occlusal force and Dα calculated by dividing the measurement values after denture treatment by the measurement values before denture treatment.
Results
Medial occlusal force increased from 184.9 N before treatment to 277.2 N after treatment. A statistically significant increase in occlusal force (p < 0.05) was observed, with a total of 22 participants exhibiting increased occlusal force after denture treatment. The medial Dα value increased from 0.943 before treatment to 0.957 after treatment. A statistically significant increase in Dα (p < 0.05) was observed, and a total of 19 participants exhibited increased Dα values after denture treatment. The regression line was calculated as Y = 14.049X – 12.450. As occlusal force increased, Dα values increased as well. A significant positive correlation was observed between occlusal force and Dα (r = 0.498, p < 0.05).
Conclusions
A positive correlation was observed between improved occlusal force attained via complete denture treatment and the activation of Dα. This finding reveals occlusal force as a denture treatment outcome that contributes to the activation of synaptic/neuronal dysfunction in the brain.
<div class=""abs_img""> <img src=""disp_template_path/JRM/abst-image/00270005/04.jpg"" width=""300"" /> Proposed modified-IC method
Output by a photovoltaic array is nonlinear and changes with solar ...irradiation and cell temperature. Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is needed to maximize the energy produced. Most MPPT techniques include the time derivative of current and voltage. These electrical signals are disturbed by high-frequency noise such as from the power device switching. Lowpass filters are used to reduce circuit noise, but estimation error occurs when the maximum power point is calculated. We therefore apply an adaptive observer to estimate the time derivative of noisy signals. Specifically, we propose an auto-tuning velocity estimator with a forgetting factor based on the adaptive observer. We also improve the incremental conductance method by using an auto-tuning velocity estimator.
Soil solarization is an ecologically friendly method of controlling various plant pathogens and pests, but also affects non-pathogenic members of the soil biota. Here, we studied the impact of soil ...solarization on the community structure of soil ciliates using a culture-independent molecular approach, namely denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of targeted 18S rRNA gene fragments. Greenhouse soil with added organic fertilizers was solarized for 33 days at an average temperature of 47–48°C. Solarization caused a drastic change in the ciliate community. The variation between replicates was large, which suggested that the distribution of ciliates was spatially heterogeneous in the soil, probably due to their decreased numbers. In contrast, non-solarized soil had a stable and homogeneous ciliate community during the experimental period. In solarized soil, most of the original ciliate community recovered 76 days after solarization. Sequence analysis of DGGE fragments indicated that both r-selected and K-selected species of ciliates were affected by solarization but recovered with time after solarization. Our results demonstrated both the vulnerability and resilience of the ciliate community to soil solarization and also the utility of using molecular-based analysis of ciliate communities as bioindicators of soil stress caused by solarization.
The concept of gastric-type mucinous carcinoma of the uterine cervix (GAS) has been accepted worldwide because of its aggressive clinical behaviour and the absence of high-risk human papilloma virus ...infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) 2020 classification divides cervical tumours into two categories: human papilloma virus-associated and human papilloma virus-independent. Hence, GAS is now classified as an human papilloma virus-independent gastric type. Because clinical studies have reported that GAS is refractory to conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, especially at an advanced stage, and has aggressive features with widespread dissemination to unusual sites, such as the omentum, peritoneum and distant organs, it is urgent to establish new treatment strategies by comparing the molecular profiles of human papilloma virus-associated adenocarcinomas. A series of genetic mutations characteristic to GAS encourage the development of future treatment strategies such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy.
In wireless sensor network environments where many devices send periodically collected data to a sink node and are controlled by the sink under severe delay constraints, such as IoT for smart ...factories, it is necessary to transmit data while suppressing delay. In this paper, we propose Random-Access MAC Protocol for Delay-Constrained Packet Transfer in IEEE 802.11-based wireless LANs following Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA). Our proposal introduces maximum frame aggregation to delay-constrained packets preferentially on the basis of Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Enhanced Collision Avoidance (CSMA/ECA), developed for low latency transfer. Finally, we evaluate its effectiveness through computer simulations.
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