The herbivore\u27s dilemma: Trends in and factors associated with heterosexual relationship status and interest in romantic relationships among young adults in Japan-Analysis of national surveys, 1987-2015

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that an increasing proportion of young adults in Japan have lost interest in romantic relationships, a phenomenon termed herbivorization . We assessed trends in heterosexual relationship status and self-reported interest in heterosexual romantic relationships in nationally representative data. METHODS: We used data from seven rounds of the National Fertility Survey (1987-2015) and included adults aged 18-39 years (18-34 years in the 1987 survey; sample size 11,683-17,675). Current heterosexual relationship status (married; unmarried but in a relationship; single) was estimated by sex, age group and survey year, with singles further categorized into those reporting interest vs. no interest in heterosexual romantic relationships. Information about same-sex relationships were not available. RESULTS: Between 1992 and 2015, the age-standardized proportion of 18-39-year-old Japanese adults who were single had increased steadily, from 27.4 to 40.7% among women and from 40.3 to 50.8% among men. This increase was largely driven by decreases in the proportion of married women aged 25-39 years and men aged 30-39 years, while those in a relationship had increased only slightly for women and remained stable for men. By 2015, the proportion of single women was 30.2% in those aged 30-34 years and 24.4% in those aged 35-39 years. The corresponding numbers for men were 39.3% and 32.4%. Around half of the singles (21.4% of all women and 25.1% of all men aged 18-39 years) reported that they had no interest in heterosexual romantic relationships. Single women and men who reported no interest in romantic relationships had lower income and educational levels and were less likely to have regular employment compared to those who reported such an interest. CONCLUSIONS: In this analysis of heterosexual relationships in nationally representative data from Japan, singlehood among young adults had steadily increased over the last three decades. In 2015 around one in four women and one in three men in their thirties were unmarried and not in a heterosexual relationship. Half of the singles reported no interest in romantic relationships and these women and men had lower income and educational levels and were less likely to have regular employment

Fish in the sea: Number, characteristics, and partner preferences of unmarried Japanese adults - analysis of a national survey

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of adults in Japan remain unmarried even though they intend to marry during their lifetime. To provide data for policy makers and those searching for partners in the Japanese marriage market, we estimated the number and characteristics of unmarried women and men with marriage intention and assessed their partner preferences. Based on the findings, we hypothesized regarding potential mismatches between the individuals available in the marriage market and the type of partners they are looking for. METHODS: We used data from the National Fertility Survey (2015), a nationally representative survey in Japan, and included 20,344 participants aged 18-49 years, of which 6,568 were unmarried with marriage intention. We estimated the total number of unmarried women and men who intend to marry, extrapolated their characteristics to the Japanese population, and assessed their partner preferences, as well as their ideal age of marriage and the ideal age of their partner. RESULTS: In 2015, there were 8.48 million unmarried women and 9.83 million unmarried men aged 18-49 years with marriage intention in Japan. Surpluses of around 600,000 men were observed in non-densely inhabited areas (men-to-women ratio: 1.31) and in the Kanto region (1.23). Most of the women and men in the marriage market had annual incomes lower than 3,000,000 JPY (28,000 USD) and only 263,000 women (3%) and 883,000 men (9%) had an income of 5,000,000 JPY (47,000 USD) or more; 167,000 men (2%) had an income of 7,000,000 JPY (66,000 USD) or more, with roughly three-quarters of them having a university degree. When asked about eight items that one may consider in a potential partner, the proportion of women listing an item as important tended to be larger than those of men across all items (education, occupation, finances, personality, mutual hobbies, cooperation/understanding regarding one\u27s work, and attitude towards/skills in housework and childrearing) except appearance. The largest differences were observed for finances (proportion of women vs. men listing the item as important or would consider: 94.0% vs. 40.5%, p\u3c0.001), occupation (84.9% vs. 43.9%, p\u3c0.001), and education (53.9% vs. 28.7%, p\u3c0.001). While women, on average, preferred men who were around 1-3 years older than themselves, men preferred women around their own age until the age of 26 years, at which point men preferred women who were younger than themselves, with the preferred age difference increasing substantially with age. As such, the number of men preferring a younger partner was larger than the number of women who preferred an older partner. CONCLUSIONS: By providing data on the number, characteristics and partner preferences of individuals in the marriage market, our study could inform decisions for those searching for marriage partners in Japan. Moreover, we hypothesize that mismatches in geographical location, the supply-demand disparity for partners with higher income, and age preferences could partly explain the large number of Japanese women and men who remain unmarried despite intending to get married. Further studies are needed to assess if, and to what extent, the identified mismatches may affect marriage rates

Lifecycle-oriented design of ceramic tiles in Sustainable Supply Chains (SSCs)

Purpose \u2013 The purpose of this paper is to analyse the production cycle of glazed porcelain stoneware, from the extraction of raw materials to the packaging of the finished product, with the aim of verifying the effects of integrating an environmental impact assessment into the decision-making process for managing the life cycle, tomake it economically and ecologically sustainable, in a holistic approach along the supply-chain. Design/methodology/approach \u2013 The research is performed using the life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methodologies, to identify environmental impacts and costs, that occur during extraction of raw materials, transportation, ceramic tiles production, material handling, distribution and end-of-life stages within a cradle to grave perspective. Findings \u2013 Through the use of a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact assessment and related externalities, three possible strategic options to improve the environmental performance and costs of ceramic tile production were formulated, leveraging sustainability as a competitive advantage

Hypertension, Diabetes and Overweight: Looming Legacies of the Biafran Famine

Early life environment has in previous research been linked to risk of disease in adulthood. This thesis investigated three types of early life exposures and their potential associations with adult life cardiovascular risk. It has been proposed that early life malnutrition underpins the ongoing epidemic of lifestyle-related diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. We examined the association between exposure to the Biafra famine (1968-1970) and cardiovascular risk in 1,339 Nigerians. Individuals exposed to famine in fetal-infant life had higher blood pressure, plasma glucose and BMI compared to individuals born after the famine. Malnutrition in early life may contribute to the burden of lifestyle- related disease in Sub-Saharan Africa (Paper I). Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent among women of childbearing age worldwide. Adult vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, impaired glucose tolerance and obesity. We aimed to assess whether vitamin D status at birth is related to cardiovascular risk in adulthood. In paper II, neonatal vitamin D concentrations from stored blood samples were measured and cardiovascular risk markers assessed in 275 individuals aged 35 years born either in the end of the summer or in the end of the winter. We found no associations between low neonatal vitamin D status and cardiovascular risk at 35 years of age. However, men and women in the highest neonatal vitamin D quintile were at higher risk of being overweight (Paper II). The prime determinant of vitamin D status is exposure to sunlight. Month of birth is a proxy for a number of seasonally dependent environmental exposures including nutrition, infections, lifestyle factors – and vitamin D. At high latitudes, vitamin D levels in populations are lower in the winter compared to the summer due to scarce sunlight exposure. In the Swedish population aged 30 or above (>6 million individuals), followed from 1991 during 20 years, individuals born during autumn months lived longer than those born during spring months. The association between month of birth and mortality was particularly pronounced in the age-span 50 to 80 years and not significant before 50 years (Paper III). In the age-span 50 to 80 years, cardiovascular mortality was increased among spring-born compared to autumn-born. (Paper IV) Although individuals born in Sweden during the spring had an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in ages 50 to 80 years (paper IV), the effect sizes were small. The lack of an association between low neonatal vitamin D status and adult cardiovascular risk in paper II indicate that vitamin D levels at birth may not be of sizeable importance to adult life cardiovascular health

Mental well-being among the oldest old: revisiting the model of healthy ageing in a Finnish context

Purpose: This study aimed to examine how participants aged 80 years old or over describe their mental well-being-exploring the suitability of the model of healthy ageing when outlining the mental well-being concept.Methods: Six structured focus group interviews with 28 participants were conducted in Western Finland in 2017. Qualitative content analysis was performed, where both manifest and latent content was considered in a process involving meaning condensation and coding, followed by categorization.Results: The healthy ageing model constituted a useful framework for the conceptualization of mental well-being, illustrating the links between these two constructs. The analysis resulted in a four-dimensional model of mental well-being in oldest old age, the key components being: Activities-enjoyment and fulfilment; Capability-functioning and independence; Orientation-awareness, shifted perspectives and values; and Connectedness-sense of belonging.Conclusions: Although functional status plays an important role for well-being in general, it is not the principal component of self-reported mental well-being within the heterogeneous group of the oldest old. Further, many persons in this age group do not view themselves as passive or dependent, on the contrary, they underline the importance of empowering attitudes, a positive mindset and actively creating circumstances which support their mental well-being

Distribution of caveolin isoforms in the lemur retina

The distribution of caveolin isoforms was previously evaluated in the retinas of different species, but has not yet been described in the primate retina. In this study, the distribution of caveolins was assessed via immunochemistry using isoform-specific antibodies in the retina of the black-and-white ruffed lemur. Here, we report the presence of a variety of caveolin isoforms in many layers of the lemur retina. As normal human retinas were not available for research and the retinas of primates are fairly similar to those of humans, the lemur retina can be utilized as a model for caveolin distribution in normal humans

Endocytosis restricts Arabidopsis KNOLLE syntaxin to the cell division plane during late cytokinesis

Cytokinesis represents the final stage of eukaryotic cell division during which the cytoplasm becomes partitioned between daughter cells. The process differs to some extent between animal and plant cells, but proteins of the syntaxin family mediate membrane fusion in the plane of cell division in diverse organisms. How syntaxin localization is kept in check remains elusive. Here, we report that localization of the Arabidopsis KNOLLE syntaxin in the plane of cell division is maintained by sterol-dependent endocytosis involving a clathrin- and DYNAMIN-RELATED PROTEIN1A-dependent mechanism. On genetic or pharmacological interference with endocytosis, KNOLLE mis-localizes to lateral plasma membranes after cell-plate fusion. Fluorescence-loss-in-photo-bleaching and fluorescence-recovery-after-photo-bleaching experiments reveal lateral diffusion of GFP-KNOLLE from the plane of division to lateral membranes. In an endocytosis-defective sterol biosynthesis mutant displaying lateral KNOLLE diffusion, KNOLLE secretory trafficking remains unaffected. Thus, restriction of lateral diffusion by endocytosis may serve to maintain specificity of syntaxin localization during late cytokinesis

Generation of hypoimmunogenic induced pluripotent stem cells by CRISPR-Cas9 system and detailed evaluation for clinical application

In order to expand the promise of regenerative medicine using allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), precise and efficient genome editing of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes would be advantageous to minimize the immune rejection caused by mismatches of HLA type. However, clinical-grade genome editing of multiple HLA genes in human iPSC lines remains unexplored. Here, we optimized the protocol for good manufacturing practice (GMP)-compatible CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to deplete the three gene locus (HLA-A, HLA-B, and CIITA genes) simultaneously in HLA homozygous iPSCs. The use of HLA homozygous iPSCs has one main advantage over heterozygous iPSCs for inducing biallelic knockout by a single gRNA. RNA-seq and flow cytometry analyses confirmed the successful depletion of HLAs, and lineage-specific differentiation into cardiomyocytes was verified. We also confirmed that the pluripotency of genome-edited iPSCs was successfully maintained by the three germ layers of differentiation. Moreover, whole-genome sequencing, karyotyping, and optical genome mapping analyses revealed no evident genomic abnormalities detected in some clones, whereas unexpected copy number losses, chromosomal translocations, and complex genomic rearrangements were observed in other clones. Our results indicate the importance of multidimensional analyses to ensure the safety and quality of the genome-edited cells. The manufacturing and assessment pipelines presented here will be the basis for clinical-grade genome editing of iPSCs