Effects of a single bout of walking on psychophysiologic responses and executive function in elderly adults: a pilot study

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a single bout of walking on mood, psychophysiologic responses, and executive function in elderly adults.Methods: Twenty healthy, elderly adults (10 women and 10 men; mean age 70.50 ± 3.4 years) participated in this study. Mood, as assessed by the Profile of Mood States, and salivary α-amylase activity were examined before and after walking. Executive functions were also evaluated by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.Results: Negative feeling scores such as tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, and confusion significantly improved after walking. No significant differences were found for either salivary α-amylase activities or Wisconsin Card Sorting Test scores before and after walking. However, the changes in salivary α-amylase activity before and after walking correlated positively with the number of total errors and perseverative errors of Nelson in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.Conclusion: These results suggest that moderate exercise, such as self-paced one-time walking, induces beneficial psychologic effects in elderly adults. Meanwhile, the significant increase in salivary α-amylase activity after walking might temporarily cause deterioration of executive function

子宮内膜症と関連する卵巣癌 : 明細胞腺癌と類内膜腺癌の発癌機序における相違点

The histogenesis of endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer is one of the most mysterious aspects of pathology. To better understand the histogenesis of endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer, we analyzed the possibility of a link of endometrium, ovarian surface epithelium, and a cortical inclusion cyst to ovarian endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer by immunohistochemistry using the epithelial membrane antigen (an epithelial marker), calretinin (a mesothelial marker), and hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-1β (a clear cell carcinoma-specific transcription factor). During ovarian surface epithelium invagination, cortical inclusion cyst epithelial cells may, in some cases, undergo mesothelial–epithelial transition and subsequently differentiate into endometriosis. This case of endometriosis that has undergone Müllerian metaplasia arises from the HNF-1β-negative cells. The remaining endometriosis may develop from the late secretory and menstrual endometria, with HNF-1β-positive staining, by retrograde menstruation. Endometrioid adenocarcinoma and clear cell carcinoma arise from the HNF-1β-negative and HNF-1β-positive epithelial cells of endometriosis, respectively. It has been proposed that clear cell and endometrioid-type adenocarcinomas arise from distinct types of endometriosis with different cells of origin.博士（医学）・乙第1309号・平成25年3月15日©2012 International Society of Gynecological Pathologist

Predominant accumulation of a 3-hydroxy-γ-decalactone in the male rectal gland complex of the Japanese orange fly, Bactrocera tsuneonis

The Japanese orange fly, Bactrocera tsuneonis, infests various citrus crops. While male pheromone components accumulated in the rectal glands are well characterized for Bactrocera, but information regarding the chemical factors involved in the life cycles of B. tsuneonis remains scarce. Herein, several volatile chemicals including a γ-decalactone, (3R, 4R)-3-hydroxy-4-decanolide [(3R, 4R)-HD], were identified as major components, along with acetamide and spiroketals as minor components in the rectal gland complexes of male B. tsuneonis flies. The lactone (3R, 4R)-HD was also identified in female rectal gland complexes. The amount of this compound in mature males was significantly higher than those observed in females and immature males. The lactone (3R, 4R)-HD was detected in flies fed with sucrose only, indicating that this lactone is not derived from dietary sources during adulthood, but biosynthesized in vivo. The predominant accumulation of (3R, 4R)-HD in mature males also suggests a possible role in reproductive behavior

Magnetic interaction in superparamagnetic Co-Pt nanoparticles synthesized in protein crystal

We synthesized Co-Pt nanoparticles in a crystal composed of proteins with a cage structure (i.e., Pyrococcus furiosus virus-like particle (PfV)) and investigated their magnetic interactions. When the soaking concentrations of metal, Co, and Pt ions in the PfV crystal were below 5.5 mM, isolated Co-Pt nanoparticles were formed. The size of the primary particles was 2-3 nm, which was smaller than the inner core size of the cage structure. When the soaking concentrations increased above 11 mM, the Co-Pt nanoparticles formed aggregates exceeding 30 nm in size. The synthesized nanoparticles showed superparamagnetic behavior at 300 K, independent of the soaking concentration. The temperature dependence of the AC magnetic susceptibility and remanent magnetization curve verified the occurrence of magnetic interactions between the Co-Pt nanoparticles. These measurements revealed that the dipolar-dipolar interaction was significant in the closely packed isolated nanoparticles, whereas it was weaker in the aggregated Co-Pt nanoparticles, probably due to the increased distance between the particles.Tagata K., Kanda D., Kobayashi N., et al. Magnetic interaction in superparamagnetic Co-Pt nanoparticles synthesized in protein crystal. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics , (2023); https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2023.3290367

Pulse-Driven Self-Reconfigurable Meta-Antennas

Wireless communications and sensing have notably advanced thanks to the recent developments in both software and hardware. Although various modulation schemes have been proposed to efficiently use the limited frequency resources by exploiting several degrees of freedom, antenna performance is essentially governed by frequency only. Here, we present a new antenna design concept based on metasurfaces to manipulate antenna performances in response to the time width of electromagnetic pulses. We numerically and experimentally show that by using a proper set of spatially arranged metasurfaces loaded with lumped circuits, ordinary omnidirectional antennas can be reconfigured by the incident pulse width to exhibit directional characteristics varying over hundreds of milliseconds or billions of cycles, far beyond conventional performance. We demonstrate that the proposed concept can be applied for sensing, selective reception under simultaneous incidence and mutual communications as the first step to expand existing frequency resources based on pulse width.Comment: 61 pages, 6 figures, 26 supplementary figure

Accuracy management survey of nucleic acid amplification tests using inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in Hiroshima Prefecture

At the beginning of 2020, the number of laboratories performing SARS-CoV-2 testing increased with the rapid expansion of COVID-19 in Hiroshima Prefecture. Thus, it is necessary to compare and verify the validity of the test results among local laboratories. In this study, we distributed the same standard samples to laboratories that performed COVID-19 testing using the nucleic acid amplification method and confirmed the accuracy of the tests. The SARS-CoV-2 strain distributed by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Japan, was used for testing. As measured by RT-qPCR, a specific amount of the virus was inactivated by ethanol and dried as specimens for distribution. This study included 27 tests performed at 15 laboratories conducting or planning to conduct nucleic acid amplification tests (RT-qPCR and LAMP methods) for SARSCoV-2. The detection limit of each test method was set at the value provided by the NIID. The accuracy of the tests was examined to determine whether they met the required accuracy criteria. SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA was reliably detected in all 27 tests. The inactivated specimens used in this study were safe to distribute and could be used as positive controls for all methods.This study was supported by a grant from the Government-Academia Collaboration of Hiroshima Prefecture and by a research grant for COVID-19 from AMED, Japan under Grant Number 20he0622011h0001(to J. T.)

Coherent diffraction of single Rice Dwarf virus particles using hard X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source

Single particle diffractive imaging data from Rice Dwarf Virus (RDV) were recorded using the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). RDV was chosen as it is a wellcharacterized model system, useful for proof-of-principle experiments, system optimization and algorithm development. RDV, an icosahedral virus of about 70 nm in diameter, was aerosolized and injected into the approximately 0.1 mu m diameter focused hard X-ray beam at the CXI instrument of LCLS. Diffraction patterns from RDV with signal to 5.9 angstrom ngstrom were recorded. The diffraction data are available through the Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB) as a resource for algorithm development, the contents of which are described here.11Ysciescopu

Antiatherosclerotic phenotype of perivascular adipose tissue surrounding the saphenous vein in coronary artery bypass grafting

冠動脈バイパス術（CABG）で大伏在静脈（SV）グラフトの血管周囲脂肪組織（PVAT）を温存したまま使用するNo-touch法が良好な成績を収め注目されている．本研究では術中に各種PVATを採取して組織性状と遺伝子発現を比較検討した．SV-PVATは冠動脈や大動脈のPVATに比してM1マクロファージの浸潤や炎症性サイトカイン発現が低く，No-touch法の成績向上に寄与している可能性が示唆された