The human gut microbiome is closely linked to mental health and sleep. We aimed to verify the efficacy and safety of probiotic NVP-1704, a mixture of Lactobacillus reuteri NK33 and Bifidobacterium ...adolescentis NK98, in improving stress, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances, along with the measurement of some blood biomarkers. A total of 156 healthy adults with subclinical symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia were retrospectively registered and randomly assigned to receive either NVP-1704 (n = 78) or a placebo (n = 78) for eight weeks. Participants completed the Stress Response Inventory, Beck’s Depression and Anxiety Inventory, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, and Insomnia Severity Index at baseline, at four and eight weeks of treatment. Pre- and post-treatment blood tests for biomarkers were conducted. After intervention, gut microbiota composition was quantified by pyrosequencing the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. The NVP-1704 group had a more significant reduction in depressive symptoms at four and eight weeks of treatment, and anxiety symptoms at four weeks compared to the placebo group. Those receiving NVP-1704 also experienced an improvement in sleep quality. NVP-1704 treatment led to a decrease in serum interleukin-6 levels. Furthermore, NVP-1704 increased Bifidobacteriaceae and Lactobacillacea, whereas it decreased Enterobacteriaceae in the gut microbiota composition. Our findings suggest that probiotic NVP-1704 could be beneficial for mental health and sleep.
A self-regulating liquid crystal (LC) smart window whose reflectance changes with ambient conditions is demonstrated. Thermally or optically induced switching between the transparent state and a ...near-infrared (NIR) reflective state can be used for energy-saving windows. Reflection of NIR can reduce the energy used for cooling, while remaining transparent to visible light. By changing the initial alignment of LCs, the window can be switched between hazy-opaque and IR-reflective states to be used for privacy windows.
A light shutter, which consists of a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) layer and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film, for simultaneous control of haze and transmittance is ...demonstrated. In the opaque state, it can not only provide a black color by using the dye-doped ChLCs but also hide the objects behind the display panel by using the PDLC film. The proposed light shutter shows a high haze value of 90.7% with a low specular transmittance of 1.20%. By switching the proposed light shutter placed at the back of a see-through display, we can choose between the see-through mode and the high-visibility mode in a see-through display.
Display omitted
•We propose a light shutter consisting of a dye-doped ChLC layer and a PDLC film.•We can simultaneously control haze and transmittance.•It can provide the black color and hide the objects behind the display panel.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with cognitive decline. Despite worldwide efforts to find a cure, no proper treatment has been developed yet, and the only ...effective countermeasure is to prevent the disease progression by early diagnosis. The reason why new drug candidates fail to show therapeutic effects in clinical studies may be due to misunderstanding the cause of AD. Regarding the cause of AD, the most widely known is the amyloid cascade hypothesis, in which the deposition of amyloid beta and hyperphosphorylated tau is the cause. However, many new hypotheses were suggested. Among them, based on preclinical and clinical evidence supporting a connection between AD and diabetes, insulin resistance has been pointed out as an important factor in the development of AD. Therefore, by reviewing the pathophysiological background of brain metabolic insufficiency and insulin insufficiency leading to AD pathology, we will discuss how can insulin resistance cause AD.
Tear matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 is an inflammatory signal in patients with dry eye (DE). In the present study, to understand the action mechanism of probiotic LB101 ( Lactobacillus plantarum ...NK151 and Bifidobacterium bifidum NK175 4:1 mix) against DE, we investigated its effect on tear amount and inflammatory marker expression levels in mice with unilateral exorbital lacrimal gland excision/atropine-benzalkonium chloride application (EB) or fecal microbiota transplantation from mice with EB (eFMT). Oral gavage of LB101 increased EB-suppressed tear amount and decreased EB-induced blinking number. Furthermore, LB101 decreased EB-induced TNF-α, IL-1β, and MMP-9 expression, TNF-α + and NF-κB + CD11c + cell populations, and edema in the conjunctiva, while EB-suppressed IL-10 and occludin expression increased. LB101 also decreased EB-induced TNF-α and IL-1β expression and NF-κB + CD11c + cell population in the colon. eFMT also decreased tear amount and increased blinking number in the transplanted mice. eFMT increased TNF-α, IL-1β, and MMP-9 expression and TNF-α + and NF-κB + CD11c + cell populations in the conjunctiva and TNF-α and IL-1β expression and NF-κB + CD11c + cell populations in the colon. Oral gavage of LB101 increased eFMT-suppressed tear amount and decreased eFMT-induced blinking number. Furthermore, LB101 decreased TNF-α, IL-1β, and MMP-9 expression, TNF-α + and NF-κB + CD11c + cell populations, and edema in the conjunctiva and TNF-α and IL-1β expression and NF-κB + CD11c + cell population in the colon, while eFMT-suppressed IL-10 and occludin expression decreased. Furthermore, LB101 increased eFMT-suppressed Muribaculaceae , Prevotellaceae , and Lactobacillaceae populations in the gut microbiota, while eFMT-induced Bacteroidaceae population decreased. These findings suggest that DE may cause gut dysbiosis, which may be a risk factor for DE, and LB101 may alleviate DE with gut inflammation by suppressing the expression of MMP-9 and proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β with the regulation of gut microbiota-involved NF-κB signaling.
Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials (double-blind, placebo-controlled RCTs) have reported controversial findings regarding the ...associations between calcium supplements on the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the association between them.
We searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and the bibliographies of relevant articles for double-blind, placebo-controlled RCTs in November, 2020. Relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of cardiovascular disease were calculated using a random effects model. The main outcomes were CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and cerebrovascular disease.
A total of 13 double-blind, placebo-controlled RCTs (
= 28,935 participants in an intervention group and 14,243 in a control group)) were included in the final analysis. Calcium supplements significantly increased the risk of CVD (RR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06-1.25, I2 = 0.0%,
= 14) and CHD (RR 1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.28, I2 = 0.0%,
= 9) in double-blind, placebo-controlled RCTs, specifically in healthy postmenopausal women. In the subgroup meta-analysis, dietary calcium intake of 700-1000 mg per day or supplementary calcium intake of 1000 mg per day significantly increased the risk of CVD and CHD.
The current meta-analysis found that calcium supplements increased a risk of CVD by about 15% in healthy postmenopausal women.
Background
Concern regarding the reliability and accuracy of the health-related information provided by online newspaper articles has increased. Numerous criteria and items have been proposed and ...published regarding the quality assessment of online information, but there is no standard quality assessment tool available for online newspapers.
Objective
This study aimed to develop the Health Information Quality Assessment Tool (HIQUAL) for online newspaper articles.
Methods
We reviewed previous health information quality assessment tools and related studies and accordingly developed and customized new criteria. The interrater agreement for the new assessment tool was assessed for 3 newspaper articles on different subjects (colorectal cancer, obesity genetic testing, and hypertension diagnostic criteria) using the Fleiss κ and Gwet agreement coefficient. To compare the quality scores generated by each pair of tools, convergent validity was measured using the Kendall τ ranked correlation.
Results
Overall, the HIQUAL for newspaper articles comprised 10 items across 5 domains: reliability, usefulness, understandability, sufficiency, and transparency. The interrater agreement for the article on colorectal cancer was in the moderate to substantial range (Fleiss κ=0.48, SE 0.11; Gwet agreement coefficient=0.74, SE 0.13), while for the article introducing obesity genetic testing it was in the substantial range, with values of 0.63 (SE 0.28) and 0.86 (SE 0.10) for the two measures, respectively. There was relatively low agreement for the article on hypertension diagnostic criteria at 0.20 (SE 0.10) and 0.75 (SE 0.13), respectively. Validity of the correlation assessed with the Kendall τ showed good correlation between tools (HIQUAL vs DISCERN=0.72, HIQUAL vs QUEST Quality Evaluation Scoring Tool=0.69).
Conclusions
We developed a new assessment tool to evaluate the quality of health information in online newspaper articles, to help consumers discern accurate sources of health information. The HIQUAL can help increase the accuracy and quality of online health information in Korea.
In the Guidance for Industry from the Food and Drug Administration in 2008, excess cardiovascular risk should be ruled out in trials of all new antidiabetic drugs; however, relatively few studies ...have focused on cardiovascular safety with antidiabetic drug use. We aimed to examine mortality and cardiovascular risk using a network meta-analysis. We searched the Medline, Embase, Cochrane, and ClinicalTrials.gov registry databases in March 2016 to identify randomized controlled trials reporting cardiovascular risk with the following oral antidiabetic drugs: metformin, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinedione (TZD), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitors, and sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. We assessed the differences in the risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular-related mortality, acute coronary syndrome (ACS), and myocardial infarction (MI) among antidiabetic drugs with fixed effect models for direct pairwise comparisons and Bayesian network meta-analyses to integrate direct and indirect comparisons. Of the 101,183 patients in 73 randomized controlled trials, 3,434 (3.4%) died. The relative risks of all-cause mortality with SGLT2 inhibitor use were 0.68 (95% credible interval: 0.57-0.80), 0.74 (0.49-1.10), 0.63 (0.46-0.87), 0.71 (0.55-0.90), and 0.65 (0.54-0.78), compared with placebo, metformin, sulfonylurea, TZD, and DPP4 inhibitor, respectively. The relative risks of cardiovascular-related mortality with SGLT2 inhibitor use were 0.61 (0.50-0.76), 0.81(0.36-1.90), 0.52(0.31-0.88), 0.66(0.49-0.91), and 0.61(0.48-0.77), compared with placebo, metformin, sulfonylurea, TZD, and DPP4 inhibitor, respectively. The relative risks of ACS with SGLT2 inhibitor use was consistent with that of all-cause mortality. SGLT2 inhibitor use was associated with a lower risk of ACS than the other OADs and placebo. The relative risks of MI with SGLT2 inhibitor use were 0.77 (0.63-0.93) and 0.75 (0.60-0.94), compared with placebo and DPP4 inhibitor, respectively. The currently available data provide the evidence of cardiovascular benefit from use of SGLT2 inhibitors to patients with type 2 diabetes, although additional results from ongoing studies will be pivotal.
We propose an optically and electrically switchable cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) cell doped with a push-pull azo dye. When the proposed ChLC cell is exposed to UV light, it is switched from the ...focal-conic to isotropic state by a cholesteric-isotropic phase transition through a
trans
-
cis
photo-isomerization of push-pull azo dye molecules. With removal of UV light, the ChLC cell will rapidly relax back to its initial state without exposure to a second light source that has a longer wavelength. We confirmed that the proposed optically and electrically switchable ChLC cell can be used as a smart window that can be switched on by applying sunlight or an electric field.
We propose an optically and electrically switchable cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) cell doped with a push-pull azo dye.
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