Depression and Anxiety Correlate Differently with Salivary Free Cortisol in the Morning in Patients with Functional Somatic Syndrome

Patients presenting with functional somatic syndrome (FSS) are common, and the symptoms are persistent and difficult to treat for doctors and costly for society. The aim of this study was to clarify the common pathophysiology of FSS, especially the relationship between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and psychological characteristics of patients with FSS. The subjects were 45 patients with FSS and 29 healthy controls. Salivary free cortisol was measured in the morning, and psychological tests examining depression, anxiety and quality of life (QOL) were performed on the same day. In patients with FSS, depressive scores showed a significant negative correlation with salivary free cortisol in the morning, although in healthy controls, cortisol showed a significant positive correlation with depressive scores. In addition, the correlation between other psychological test scores and cortisol secretion in patients with FSS contrasted with that of controls. The relationship between cortisol and depression, anxiety or QOL, suggests that the HPA axis of patients with FSS is dysfunctional and does not function properly when patients with FSS are under stress. This dysfunction may explain the pathology of medically unexplained persistent symptoms of patients with FSS

Revealing the molecular signatures of host-pathogen interactions.

Advances in sequencing technology and genome-wide association studies are now revealing the complex interactions between hosts and pathogen through genomic variation signatures, which arise from evolutionary co-existence

Evaluation of urinary hydrogen peroxide as an oxidative stress biomarker in a healthy Japanese population

The usefulness of urinary hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an oxidative stress biomarker was evaluated in 766 healthy Japanese. The mean level of urinary concentrations of H2O2 was 5.66 +/- 8.27 mu mol/g creatinine, and was significantly higher in females than in males. Significant correlations of H2O2 were observed with age, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), insulin, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), and exercise habit in females. In both sexes, H2O2 showed a significant correlation with 8-OHdG. By a multiple logistic regression analysis, urinary H2O2 was positively associated with urinary 8-OHdG and TC and was inversely associated with insulin. By stratification of sex and age, the association of urinary H2O2 with TC was positive in both sexes under 50 years old and was inverse in males over 50 years old, and that with insulin was inverse in males over 50 years old and in females under 50 years old. Moreover, by stratification of sex and age, a positive association of H2O2 with exercise and an inverse association of H2O2 with alcohol consumption became clear in males under 50 years old, although there were no significant odds for H2O2 after adjustment for covariates. In conclusion, the present results suggest that urinary H2O2 is a useful biomarker for oxidative stress, showing an association with 8-OHdG, TC, and insulin independently

Myosin heavy chain and physiological adaptation of the rat diaphragm in elastase-induced emphysema

BACKGROUND: Several physiological adaptations occur in the respiratory muscles in rodent models of elastase-induced emphysema. Although the contractile properties of the diaphragm are altered in a way that suggests expression of slower isoforms of myosin heavy chain (MHC), it has been difficult to demonstrate a shift in MHCs in an animal model that corresponds to the shift toward slower MHCs seen in human emphysema. METHODS: We sought to identify MHC and corresponding physiological changes in the diaphragms of rats with elastase-induced emphysema. Nine rats with emphysema and 11 control rats were studied 10 months after instillation with elastase. MHC isoform composition was determined by both reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunocytochemistry by using specific probes able to identify all known adult isoforms. Physiological adaptation was studied on diaphragm strips stimulated in vitro. RESULTS: In addition to confirming that emphysematous diaphragm has a decreased fatigability, we identified a significantly longer time-to-peak-tension (63.9 ± 2.7 ms versus 53.9 ± 2.4 ms). At both the RNA (RT-PCR) and protein (immunocytochemistry) levels, we found a significant decrease in the fastest, MHC isoform (IIb) in emphysema. CONCLUSION: This is the first demonstration of MHC shifts and corresponding physiological changes in the diaphragm in an animal model of emphysema. It is established that rodent emphysema, like human emphysema, does result in a physiologically significant shift toward slower diaphragmatic MHC isoforms. In the rat, this occurs at the faster end of the MHC spectrum than in humans

KAGRA: 2.5 Generation Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector

The recent detections of gravitational waves (GWs) reported by LIGO/Virgocollaborations have made significant impact on physics and astronomy. A globalnetwork of GW detectors will play a key role to solve the unknown nature of thesources in coordinated observations with astronomical telescopes and detectors.Here we introduce KAGRA (former name LCGT; Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitationalwave Telescope), a new GW detector with two 3-km baseline arms arranged in theshape of an "L", located inside the Mt. Ikenoyama, Kamioka, Gifu, Japan.KAGRA's design is similar to those of the second generations such as AdvancedLIGO/Virgo, but it will be operating at the cryogenic temperature with sapphiremirrors. This low temperature feature is advantageous for improving thesensitivity around 100 Hz and is considered as an important feature for thethird generation GW detector concept (e.g. Einstein Telescope of Europe orCosmic Explorer of USA). Hence, KAGRA is often called as a 2.5 generation GWdetector based on laser interferometry. The installation and commissioning ofKAGRA is underway and its cryogenic systems have been successfully tested inMay, 2018. KAGRA's first observation run is scheduled in late 2019, aiming tojoin the third observation run (O3) of the advanced LIGO/Virgo network. In thiswork, we describe a brief history of KAGRA and highlights of main feature. Wealso discuss the prospects of GW observation with KAGRA in the era of O3. Whenoperating along with the existing GW detectors, KAGRA will be helpful to locatea GW source more accurately and to determine the source parameters with higherprecision, providing information for follow-up observations of a GW triggercandidate

Diabetes Ther

INTRODUCTION: Type 2 diabetes represents a significant public health issue, with increasing prevalence in developing countries while adherence to insulin treatment remains a challenge. No studies have evaluated the relationship between adherence to insulin, diabetes-related distress, and trust in physician among persons with diabetes. Our objectives were to evaluate treatment adherence to insulin, emotional distress (using the Problem Areas in Diabetes Questionnaire, PAID), trust in physician, and to examine associations between them among Lebanese patients with diabetes. METHODS: This cross-sectional study, conducted in all districts of Lebanon between August 2016 and April 2017, enrolled 135 adult patients. RESULTS: The mean percentage score of adherence to insulin was 79.7 +/- 19.94. A significantly higher mean adherence score was found in non-sedentary (81.96) compared to sedentary patients (67.41) (p = 0.017), with no difference between gender, employment, rural vs non-rural residence, or familial history of diabetes. In addition, no significant relationship was seen between adherence score and education level, smoking, or alcohol intake. A significant positive association was found between trust in physician and adherence scores, whereas a significant but negative one was found between PAID and adherence scores. The results of linear regressions showed that a secondary level of education (beta = - 13.48) significantly decreased the trust in physician score, whereas the total number of oral antidiabetics (beta = 0.93) increased it. Having a sedentary lifestyle (beta = - 12.73) and smoking < 3 waterpipes/week compared to no smoking (beta = - 16.82) significantly decreased the adherence score. Female gender (beta = 10.46), smoking < 3 waterpipes (beta = 27.42) and 3 + waterpipes/week (beta = 17.95) significantly increased the PAID score. CONCLUSION: Trust in physician is associated with an increased adherence and with decreased diabetes-related distress. This distress was also associated with poor adherence in our study

Application of independent component analysis to the iKAGRA data

We apply independent component analysis (ICA) to real data from a gravitational wave detector for the first time. Specifically, we use the iKAGRA data taken in April 2016, and calculate the correlations between the gravitational wave strain channel and 35 physical environmental channels. Using a couple of seismic channels which are found to be strongly correlated with the strain, we perform ICA. Injecting a sinusoidal continuous signal in the strain channel, we find that ICA recovers correct parameters with enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, which demonstrates the usefulness of this method. Among the two implementations of ICA used here, we find the correlation method yields the optimal results for the case of environmental noise acting on the strain channel linearly