Factors explaining seasonal variation in energy intake: a review

Maintaining a balance between energy intake and expenditure is crucial for overall health. There are seasonal variations in energy intake, with an increase during spring and winter as well as a decrease during summer. These variations are related to a combination of environmental factors, including changes in temperature and daylight hours; social factors, including events and holidays; and physiological factors, including changes in physical activity and emotions. Accordingly, this review aimed to summarize the environmental, social, and physiological factors that contribute to seasonal variations in energy intake. A review of the current literature revealed that changes in temperature and daylight hours may affect eating behavior by altering homeostatic responses and appetite-related hormones. Additionally, increased participation in events and frequency of eating out, especially during winter vacations, may contribute to increased energy intake. Notably, these findings may not be generalisable to all populations since environmental and social factors can vary significantly depending on the local climatic zones and cultural backgrounds. The findings of the present review indicate that seasonal climate, events, and associated hormonal changes should be taken into account in order to maintain adequate energy intake throughout the year

PALF: Pre-Annotation and Camera-LiDAR Late Fusion for the Easy Annotation of Point Clouds

3D object detection has become indispensable in the field of autonomous driving. To date, gratifying breakthroughs have been recorded in 3D object detection research, attributed to deep learning. However, deep learning algorithms are data-driven and require large amounts of annotated point cloud data for training and evaluation. Unlike 2D image labels, annotating point cloud data is difficult due to the limitations of sparsity, irregularity, and low resolution, which requires more manual work, and the annotation efficiency is much lower than 2D image.Therefore, we propose an annotation algorithm for point cloud data, which is pre-annotation and camera-LiDAR late fusion algorithm to easily and accurately annotate. The contributions of this study are as follows. We propose (1) a pre-annotation algorithm that employs 3D object detection and auto fitting for the easy annotation of point clouds, (2) a camera-LiDAR late fusion algorithm using 2D and 3D results for easily error checking, which helps annotators easily identify missing objects, and (3) a point cloud annotation evaluation pipeline to evaluate our experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm improves the annotating speed by 6.5 times and the annotation quality in terms of the 3D Intersection over Union and precision by 8.2 points and 5.6 points, respectively; additionally, the miss rate is reduced by 31.9 points

Two-Fermi-surface superconducting state and a nodal d-wave gap in the electron-doped Sm(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-d) cuprate superconductor

We report on laser-excited angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) in the electron-doped cuprate Sm(1.85)Ce(0.15)CuO(4-d). The data show the existence of a nodal hole-pocket Fermi-surface both in the normal and superconducting states. We prove that its origin is long-range antiferromagnetism by an analysis of the coherence factors in the main and folded bands. This coexistence of long-range antiferromagnetism and superconductivity implies that electron-doped cuprates are two-Fermi-surface superconductors. The measured superconducting gap in the nodal hole-pocket is compatible with a d-wave symmetry.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev. Let

Validity and Reliability of the Japanese Version of the 12-item Self-administered World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) 2.0 in Patients with Schizophrenia

It is necessary to assess functional impairment when treating schizophrenia. The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) has been adopted as a measure of functional disability in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. This study was a secondary analysis from a cross-sectional study of health-related behaviors among patients with schizophrenia. We examined the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the 12-item WHODAS 2.0 when self-administered by such patients. Participants were 350 outpatients with schizophrenia from a psychiatric hospital. The standard six-factor structure of the WHODAS 2.0 showed a good fit for these participants. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.858, showing good internal consistency. The WHODAS 2.0 showed moderate correlations with the modified Global Assessment of Functioning and Kessler 6 scales (r=−0.434 and 0.555, respectively). The results of this study show that the Japanese version of the 12-item self-administered WHODAS 2.0 has good internal consistency and convergent validity among patients with schizophrenia. Further exploration of the usefulness of WHODAS 2.0 in clinical settings is needed

Diagnostic Value of DCE-MRI for Differentiating Malignant Adnexal Masses Compared with Contrast-enhanced-T1WI

Purpose: To compare the diagnostic performance of dynamic contrast-enhanced-MR (DCE-MR) and delayed contrast-enhanced (CE)-MRI added to unenhanced MRI, including diffusion weighted image (DWI) for differentiating malignant adnexal tumors, conducting a retrospective blinded image interpretation study. Methods: Data of 80 patients suspected of having adnexal tumors by ultrasonography between April 2008 and August 2018 were used for the study. All patients had undergone preoperative MRI and surgical resection at our institution. Four radiologists (two specialized in gynecological radiology and two non-specialized) were enrolled for blinded review of the MR images. A 3-point scale was used: 0 = benign, 1 = indeterminate, and 2 = malignant. Three imaging sets were reviewed: Set A, unenhanced MRI including DWI; Set B, Set A and delayed CE-T1WI; and Set C, Set A and DCE-MRI. Imaging criteria for benign and malignant tumors were given in earlier reports. The diagnostic performance of the three imaging sets of the four readers was calculated. Their areas under the curve (AUCs) were compared using the DeLong method. Results: Accuracies of Set B were 81%–88%. Those of Set C were 81%–85%. The AUCs of Set B were 0.83 and 0.89. Those of Set C were 0.81–0.86. For two readers, Set A showed lower accuracy and AUC than Set B/Set C (less than 0.80), although those were equivalent in other readers. No significant difference in AUCs was found among the three sequence sets. Intrareader agreement was moderate to almost perfect in Sets A and B, and substantial to almost perfect in Set C. Conclusion: DCE-MR showed no superiority for differentiating malignant adnexal tumors from benign tumors compared to delayed CE-T1WI with conventional MR and DWI

Differential Changes of Aorta and Carotid Vasodilation in Type 2 Diabetic GK and OLETF Rats: Paradoxical Roles of Hyperglycemia and Insulin

We investigated large vessel function in lean Goto-Kakizaki diabetic rats (GK) and Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty diabetic rats (OLETF) with possible roles of hyperglycemia/hyperosmolarity and insulin. Both young and old GK showed marked hyperglycemia with normal insulin level and well-preserved endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent vasodilation in aorta and carotid artery. There were significant elevations in endothelial/inducible nitric oxide synthase (eNOS/iNOS) and inducible/constitutive heme oxygenase (HO-1/HO-2) in GK. The endothelium-dependent vasodilation in GK was inhibited partly by NOS blockade and completely by simultaneous blocking of HO and NOS. In contrast, OLETF showed hyperinsulinemia and mild hyperglycemia but significant endothelium dysfunction beginning at early ages with concomitantly reduced eNOS. Insulin injection corrected hyperglycemia in GK but induced endothelium dysfunction and intima hyperplasia. Hyperglycemia/hyperosmolarity in vitro enhanced vessel eNOS/HO. We suggest that hyperinsulinemia plays a role in endothelium dysfunction in obese diabetic OLETF, while hyperglycemia/hyperosmolarity-induced eNOS/HO upregulation participates in the adaptation of endothelium function in lean diabetic GK

Ictal direct current shifts contribute to defining the core ictal focus in epilepsy surgery

難治てんかん焦点の新しいバイオマーカー「発作時DC電位」 --国内5施設の共同研究での世界初の成果--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-09-05.Identifying the minimal and optimal epileptogenic area to resect and cure is the goal of epilepsy surgery. To achieve this, EEG analysis is recognized as the most direct way to detect epileptogenic lesions from spatiotemporal perspectives. Although ictal direct-current shifts (icDCs; below 1 Hz) and ictal high-frequency oscillations (icHFOs; above 80 Hz) have received increasing attention as good indicators that can add more specific information to the conventionally defined seizure-onset zone, large cohort studies on postoperative outcomes are still lacking. This work aimed to clarify whether this additional information, particularly icDCs which is assumed to reflect extracellular potassium concentration, really improve postoperative outcomes. To assess the usefulness in epilepsy surgery, we collected unique EEG datasets recorded with a longer time constant of 10 sec using an alternate current amplifier. 61 patients [15 with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and 46 with neocortical epilepsy] who had undergone invasive presurgical evaluation for medically refractory seizures at five institutes in Japan, were retrospectively enrolled in this study. Among intracranially implanted electrodes, the two core electrodes of both icDCs and icHFOs were independently identified by board-certified clinicians based on unified methods. The occurrence patterns, such as their onset time, duration, and amplitude (power) were evaluated to extract the features of both icDCs and icHFOs. Additionally, we examined whether the resection ratio of the core electrodes of icDCs and icHFOs independently correlated with favorable outcomes. A total of 53 patients with 327 seizures were analyzed for wide-band EEG analysis, and 49 patients were analyzed for outcome analysis. icDCs were detected in the seizure-onset zone more frequently than icHFOs among both patients (92% vs. 71%) and seizures (86% vs. 62%). Additionally, icDCs significantly preceded icHFOs in patients exhibiting both biomarkers, and icDCs occurred more frequently in neocortical epilepsy patients than in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Finally, although a low corresponding rate was observed for icDCs and icHFOs (39%) at the electrode level, complete resection of the core area of icDCs significantly correlated with favorable outcomes, similar to icHFO outcomes. Our results provide a proof of concept that the independent significance of icDCs from icHFOs should be considered as reliable biomarkers to achieve favorable outcomes in epilepsy surgery. Moreover, the different distribution of the core areas of icDCs and icHFOs may provide new insights into the underlying mechanisms of epilepsy, in which not only neurons but also glial cells may be actively involved via extracellular potassium levels