Dietary fiber intake and risk of incident disabling dementia: the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study

OBJECTIVES: It has been hypothesized that dietary fiber intake has a beneficial impact on prevention of dementia, but the epidemiological evidence is scant. We sought to examine whether dietary fiber intake is inversely associated with risk of dementia requiring care under the national insurance (disabling dementia). METHODS: The study setting was the Circulatory Risk in Communities Study, involving 3739 Japanese individuals aged 40-64 years at the dietary surveys (1985-99). Dietary fiber intake was estimated using the 24-hour dietary recall method. Incident disabling dementia was followed up from 1999 through 2020. Disabling dementia was further classified into that with or without a history of stroke. Hazard ratios of disabling dementia according to quartiles of total, soluble, and insoluble fiber intake were calculated using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: During a median 19.7-year follow-up, a total of 670 cases of disabling dementia developed. Dietary fiber intake was inversely associated with risk of dementia: the multivariate hazards ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.83 (0.67-1.04), 0.81 (0.65-1.02), and 0.74 (0.57-0.96) for individuals with the second, third, and highest quartiles of dietary fiber intake, respectively, as compared with the lowest quartile (P for trend = 0.03). The inverse association was more evident for soluble fiber intake and was confined to dementia without a history of stroke. As for fiber-containing foods, potatoes, but not vegetables or fruits, showed a similar association. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary fiber intake, especially soluble fiber, was inversely associated with risk of disabling dementia in a general Japanese population

Decreased expression of lysophosphatidylcholine (16:0/OH) in high resolution imaging mass spectrometry independently predicts biochemical recurrence after surgical treatment for prostate cancer.

Article first published online: 1 SEP 2015[Background]Human prostate cancers are highly heterogeneous, indicating a need for various novel biomarkers to predict their prognosis. Lipid metabolism affects numerous cellular processes, including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and motility. Direct profiling of lipids in tissue using high-resolution matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (HR-MALDI-IMS) may provide molecular details that supplement tissue morphology. [Methods]Prostate tissue samples were obtained from 31 patients, with localized prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy. The samples were assessed by HR-MALDI-IMS in positive mode, with the molecules identified by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). The effect of identified molecules on prostate specific antigen recurrence free survival after radical prostatectomy was determined by Cox regression analysis and by the Kaplan–Meier method. [Results]Thirteen molecules were found to be highly expressed in prostate tissue, with five being significantly lower in cancer tissue than in benign epithelium. MS/MS showed that these molecules were [lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC)(16:0/OH)+H]+, [LPC(16:0/OH)+Na]+, [LPC(16:0/OH)+K]+, [LPC(16:0/OH)+matrix+H]+, and [sphingomyelin (SM)(d18:1/16:0)+H]+. Reduced expression of LPC(16:0/OH) in cancer tissue was an independent predictor of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy. [Conclusions]HR-MALDI-IMS showed that the expression of LPC(16:0/OH) and SM(d18:1/16:0) was lower in prostate cancer than in benign prostate epithelium. These differences in expression of phospholipids may predict prostate cancer aggressiveness, and provide new insights into lipid metabolism in prostate cancer

Realization of Strategic Analysis of Manutan s.r.o. Company

Import 22/07/2015V této práci je popsána strategická analýza firmy Manutan s. r. o. Teoretická část obsahuje vymezení základních pojmů a analýz. Praktická část je zaměřená na aplikaci analýz, vymezení závěru a doporučení pro analyzovanou firmu.In this work is described strategic analysis of the company Manutan s.r.o. The theoretical part defines the basic concepts and analysis. The practical part is devoted to the application of analysis, definition of conclusions and recommendations for the analyzed company.115 - Katedra managementuvýborn

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E  >  2  keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month

Developing horizontal convection against stable temperature stratification in a rectangular container

The effect of background stable temperature stratification in the developing stage of horizontal convection is studied by conducting laboratory experiments. By imposing horizontally differential heating at the top of a layer of low-temperature water, both vertical and horizontal temperature differences are explicitly defined. In developing horizontal convection of the present study, the flow structures are driven only by the baroclinic torque produced by the horizontal temperature difference, and braked by the restoring force of stable temperature stratification. We thus defined a nondimensional stratification parameter, which represents the balance of the braking force and the baroclinic torque, in addition to the Rayleigh number. Various features of the flow structures, maximum velocity, stream function, roll thickness, circulation of the roll, total kinetic energy, and Reynolds number, which are quantified via particle-tracking velocimetry, are summarized in spaces of the two nondimensional parameters. In the developing horizontal convection, the quantified flow features are well organized by power laws of the nondimensional parameters. The finite domain of the fluid container augments the effect of the apparent braking force, and the bulk quantities of the roll structures are suppressed by the stable temperature stratification. These results are the evidences for the significance of the nondimensional stratification parameter in the developing horizontal convection, unlike thermally equilibrated horizontal convection conventionally considering destabilizing thermal buoyancy as the primary driving force