The Effect of Viscosity of Oral Moisturizers and Residual Ridge Form on the Retention Force of Maxillary Complete Dentures

Aim: To study the effects of viscosity of oral moisturizers and residual ridge form on theretention force of maxillary complete dentures.Methods: Thirty-five maxillary edentulous participants were recruited. Three types of oralmoisturizers with different viscosities, artificial saliva, and denture adhesive were used. Thesewere applied between the intaglio surface of the denture and basal seat mucosa. The centralincisor was loaded 45° upward to the occlusal plane. The force needed to dislodge the denturewas measured using a digital force gauge. Dental impressions of the polished surfaces andintaglio surfaces of the maxillary complete dentures were obtained. Then, duplicate dentureswere cast using auto polymerizing acrylic resin. The buccolingual molar residual ridge form wasassessed using the dental impressions. The duplicate denture was used to measure the positionalrelationship of the central incisor edge, anterior residual ridge crest, and posterior border ofdentures. The effect of residual ridge form on retention force was analyzed.Results: The gel-type oral moisturizer showed significantly greater retention than theother types (P < .05). The retention force and buccolingual molar residual ridge form were notcorrelated. As the ratio of the distance from the central incisor to the anterior residual ridgecrest and the distance from the anterior residual ridge crest to the posterior denture borderincreased, retention force decreased (r = -0.352; P < .01).Conclusion: The results indicate that the retention force of dentures is affected by oralmoisturizer viscosity and the relative position of the anterior residual ridge crest

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

Questions for Literary Texts as English Teaching Materials : In the Case of Hemingway's "A Day's Wait"

In The Course of Study for Upper Secondary School to be implemented in 2013 the overall objective of learning foreign languages is: "To develop students' communication abilities such as accurately understanding and appropriately conveying information, ideas, etc., deepening their understanding of language and culture, and fostering a positive attitude toward communication through foreign languages." We claim that literature can contribute to developing all the abilities articulated here. This paper, however, pays particular attention to the last ability, maintaining that students can foster "a positive attitude" toward reading through literature written in English. To put Roland Barthes' theory simply, a "text" which is open to interpretation gives us "pleasure" of reading. Few people would object that literature is more open to interpretation than any other writing. It follows, therefore, that students, through literature, might find pleasure in reading and foster "a positive attitude" toward it. Many studies emphasize the importance of questions in the instruction of reading. As Fukazawa (2008) and Takehisa & Ono (2010) point out, however, most of the questions in the textbooks authorized by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology can be categorized as "questions requiring literal comprehension of the texts." According to Tsuido (1989), this type of question does not really enhance learners' reading abilities because it only makes them "look for" answers in the text. To make reading more stimulating and beneficial to learners, we maintain that not only literal but also inferential or interpretational questions are needed. And this is particularly true for literary texts, which require us to read between the lines and are open to a variety of interpretations. Hemingway's short story, "A Day's Wait" is included in a textbook for senior high school students published in 2007. The story is put in the original, not being simplified or abridged. The problem is that the text does not have any questions, exercises or tasks that would help students comprehend the story. All it has is a very short introduction to the story and some notes on words or phrases assumed to be difficult for high school students. So, in this paper, we have developed 18 questions which we hope would lead to students' comprehension and appreciation of the story. The questions can be divided into three types, namely (1) Type A: Literal Questions, (2) Type B: Inferential Questions and (3) Type C: Interpretational Questions. The ratio among the three types is 11:6:7. (The total number, 24 does not correspond with the number of the questions, 18. This is because we regarded 6 questions as covering two types.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy increase the risk for chronic kidney disease: A population-based retrospective study

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in later life. However, few studies have investigated the association of HDP with CKD. Moreover, these studies utilized either registry- or clinical-based data and did not include subclinical CKD patients. To address this gap in the literature, we investigated whether HDP is related to CKD, diagnosed based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), in later life. We designed a population-based, retrospective study, and reviewed the results of blood and physiological examinations as well as the results of pregnancy data available in patients’ Maternity Health Record Books for 312 women. We identified 15 women with a diagnosis of CKD based on the eGFR, and 14 women with HDP. We found that women who experienced HDP had a high risk of CKD in later life compared with women without HDP (odds ratio (OR): 4.854; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.042–22.621). Compared with normotensive women, those who were hypertensive at the time of the examination were significantly associated with CKD (OR: 3.109; 95% CI: 1.213–11.510). Awareness regarding the risk for CKD and CVD in a relatively young age can enable women to prevent diseases effectively

New series of avenanthramides in oat seed

<div><p>Avenanthramides are characteristic constituents of oat seeds. We analyzed the methanol extract of oat seeds by HPLC and detected three compounds 1, 2, and 3 eluted at retention times similar to avenanthramides. The three compounds were purified by column chromatography and HPLC. Spectroscopic analyses of 1, 2, and 3 suggested that they are amides of 4,5-dihydroxyanthranilic acid with caffeic, <i>p</i>-coumaric, and ferulic acids, respectively. Their identities were confirmed by comparing spectra and chromatographic behavior with compounds synthesized from 4,5-dihydroxyanthranilic acid and <i>N</i>-hyrdroxysuccinimide esters of hydroxycinnamic acids. LC-MS/MS analysis with multiple reaction monitoring showed that the amounts of 1, 2, and 3 were 16.5–26.9% of corresponding avenanthamides with 5-hydroxyanthranilic acid. Compounds 1, 2, and 3 showed stronger 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging activity than the corresponding avenanthramides with 5-hydroxyanthranilic acid, indicating the involvement of 4,5-dihydroxyanthranilic acid moiety in the scavenging of DPPH radicals.</p></div