ダウン症候群児の咀嚼機能獲得に関連する要因の検討

Down syndrome (DS) has the highest prevalence of any chromosomal abnormality identified in newborns. DS children have specific eating and swallowing difficulties such as poor tongue control, mouth opening, swallowing food without chewing, and both facial and occlusal abnormalities. DS children are also at high risk of aspiration, and swallowing food without chewing is considered to be a factor associated with increased risk of aspiration and eating problems. This study aimed to identify factors preventing the acquisition of masticatory function in DS children. The subjects were 75 outpatient DS children (44 males, age range 12 to 36 month-old, mean age 33.0 ± 7.0 month­-old; 31 females, age 12 to 36 month-old, mean age 20.8 ± 8.0 month-old), who had not yet acquired masticatory function, out of 319 who visited the clinic between October 2012 and October 2017. The information necessary for assessment was retrospectively extracted from the medical records of the subjects. The items examined included age, birth weight, nutritional intake, picky eating, tactile hyperesthesia, cognitive development assessed by Ohta stage, gross motor function, occlusal condition by Hellman's dental age, and tongue thrust/lip closure/mastication while eating. The relationships between the acquisition of masticatory function and these items were investigated after one year of rehabilitation. The revealed age, low birth weight, picky eating, and gross motor function to be relevant factors. Among these, gross motor function was found to be the factor most strongly associated with acquisition of masticatory function

Estimates of GHG emission reduction potential by country, sector, and cost

In this study, emission reduction potentials in greenhouse gases (GHG) are assessed by country, sector, and cost using a GHG emission reduction assessment model with high resolutions with respect to region and technology and high consistency in terms of assumptions, interrelationships, and solution principles. Model analyses show that large potential reductions can be achieved at low cost in developing countries and power sectors. In addition, cost-efficient emission reductions were evaluated for some international emission reduction targets that have been derived on the basis of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities among developed and developing countries. If (1) emission reduction measures at negative costs and below 50 $/tCO2 for developed countries, (2) intensity improvement measures for selected sectors at negative costs and below 20Â$/tCO2 for major developing countries, and (3) all emission reduction measures with negative costs for other developing countries in 2020 are adopted, then emission reductions of 8.9, 14.8, and 27.7 GtCO2 eq./yr compared to the technology-frozen case can be expected in developed countries, major developing countries, and globally, corresponding to a 11% decrease, 40% increase, and 17% increase from 2005 levels, respectively. Large-scale emission reductions can be achieved even if CO2-intensity targets for major sectors are assumed for major developing countries.Climate change Emission reduction cost Sectoral approach

Adherence and feasibility of 2 treatment schedules of S-1 as adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with completely resected advanced lung cancer: a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background We conducted a multicenter randomized study of adjuvant S-1 administration schedules for surgically treated pathological stage IB-IIIA non-small cell lung cancer patients. Methods Patients receiving curative surgical resection were centrally randomized to arm A (4 weeks of oral S-1 and a 2-week rest over 12 months) or arm B (2 weeks of S-1 and a 1-week rest over 12 months). The primary endpoints were completion of the scheduled adjuvant chemotherapy over 12 months, and the secondary endpoints were relative total administration dose, toxicity, and 3-year disease-free survival. Results From April 2005 to January 2012, 80 patients were enrolled, of whom 78 patients were eligible and assessable. The planned S-1 administration over 12 months was accomplished to 28 patients in 38 arm A patients (73.7%) and to 18 patients in 40 arm B patients (45.0%, p = 0.01). The average relative dose intensity was 77.2% for arm A and 58.4% for arm B (p = 0.01). Drug-related grade 3 adverse events were recorded for 11% of arm A and 5% of arm B (p = 0.43). Grade 1–3 elevation of bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine transaminase were more frequently recorded in arm A than in arm B. The 3-year disease-free survival rate was 79.0% for arm A and 79.3% for arm B (p = 0.94). Conclusions The superiority of feasibility of the shorter schedule was not recognized in the present study. The conventional schedule showed higher completion rates over 12 months (p = 0.01) and relative dose intensity of S-1 (p = 0.01). Toxicity showed no significant difference among the shorter schedule and the conventional schedule, except for grade 1–3 elevation of bilirubin. Trial registration This randomized multicenter study was retrospectively registered with the UMIN-CTR (UMIN000016086, registration date December 30, 2014)

An LH1–RC photocomplex from an extremophilic phototroph provides insight into origins of two photosynthesis proteins

Rhodopila globiformis is the most acidophilic of anaerobic purple phototrophs, growing optimally in culture at pH 5. Here we present a cryo-EM structure of the light-harvesting 1–reaction center (LH1–RC) complex from Rhodopila globiformis at 2.24 Å resolution. All purple bacterial cytochrome (Cyt, encoded by the gene pufC) subunit-associated RCs with known structures have their N-termini truncated. By contrast, the Rhodopila globiformis RC contains a full-length tetra-heme Cyt with its N-terminus embedded in the membrane forming an α-helix as the membrane anchor. Comparison of the N-terminal regions of the Cyt with PufX polypeptides widely distributed in Rhodobacter species reveals significant structural similarities, supporting a longstanding hypothesis that PufX is phylogenetically related to the N-terminus of the RC-bound Cyt subunit and that a common ancestor of phototrophic Proteobacteria contained a full-length tetra-heme Cyt subunit that evolved independently through partial deletions of its pufC gene. Eleven copies of a novel γ-like polypeptide were also identified in the bacteriochlorophyll a-containing Rhodopila globiformis LH1 complex; γ-polypeptides have previously been found only in the LH1 of bacteriochlorophyll b-containing species. These features are discussed in relation to their predicted functions of stabilizing the LH1 structure and regulating quinone transport under the warm acidic conditions

HCV Infection Enhances Th17 Commitment, Which Could Affect the Pathogenesis of Autoimmune Diseases

<div><p>Background</p><p>Various kinds of autoimmune diseases have been reported to have a significant relationship with persistent hepatitis c virus (HCV) infection and Th17 cells. Previously, our group reported that the existence of HCV in T lymphocytes could affect the development of CD4⁺ helper T cells and their proliferation, in addition to the induction of immunoglobulin hyper-mutation.</p><p>Methods</p><p>Therefore, we analyzed the relationship between persistent infection of HCV and the mechanism of Th17 cell induction <i>ex vivo</i> and <i>in vitro</i>.</p><p>Results</p><p>The prevalence of autoimmune-related diseases in chronic hepatitis c patients (CH-C) was significantly higher than in other types of chronic hepatitis (hepatitis B and NASH). A significantly higher frequency of IL6 and TGF-β double-high patients was detected in CH-C than in other liver diseases. Moreover, these double-high patients had significantly higher positivity of anti-nuclear antibody, cryoglobulinemia, and lymphotropic HCV and higher amounts of IL1-β, IL21, IL23. In addition to the previously reported lymphotropic SB-HCV strain, we found a novel, genotype 1b lymphotropic HCV (Ly-HCV), by deep sequencing analysis. Lymphotropic-HCV replication could be detected in the lymphoid cells with various kinds of cytokine-conditions including IL1β, IL23, IL6 and TGF-β in vitro. Infection by HCV could significantly enhance the development of Th17 cells. The HCV protein responsible for inducing the Th17 cells was HCV-Core protein, which could enhance the STAT-3 signaling and up-regulate the expression of RORγt as a Th17 master gene.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Infection by lymphotropic HCV might enhance the Th17 development and contribute to understanding the pathogenesis of autoimmune-related diseases.</p></div

The frequency of Strand specific-HCV-RNA positive CD4+ T cells and CD19+ B cells.

<p>St-specific HCV-RNA were detected by nested PCR with rTth polymerase.</p><p>Double high indicates that the amount of IL6 and TGF-β are high.</p