Anti-photoaging effect of fermented agricultural by-products on ultraviolet B-irradiated hairless mouse skin

Processed products from agricultural produce generate a large number of agricultural by‑products that contain a number of functional substances. These are often discarded owing to the lack of suitable processing methods. The present study investigated the anti‑photoaging properties of fermented rice bran (FRB), soybean cake (FSB) and sesame seed cake (FSC) on ultraviolet B (UVB)‑irradiated hairless mouse skin. Results indicated that the oral administration of FRB, FSB and FSC effectively inhibited the UVB irradiation‑induced expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‑2, MMP‑9, MMP‑3 and MMP‑13. Reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction results also demonstrated that FRB, FSB and FSC significantly inhibited the UVB‑induced expression of the genes encoding tumor necrosis factor‑α, inducible nitric oxide synthase, interleukin (IL)‑6 and IL‑1β when compared with the UVB‑vehicle group (P\u3c0.05). Additionally, collagen degradation and mast cell infiltration were reduced in hairless mouse skin. Furthermore, UVB‑induced wrinkle formation was also significantly reduced in mouse skin compared with the UVB‑vehicle group (P\u3c0.05). These results reveal that fermented agricultural by‑products may serve as potential functional materials with anti‑photoaging activities

Five-Year Subjective Outcomes of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Surgery: A Multiinstitutional Study

ObjectivesTo evaluate the effect of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) surgery on long-term (5-year) subjective outcomes, including sleep disordered breathing (SDB) symptoms and other complications, in patients with OSA.MethodsWe enrolled patients who underwent diagnostic polysomnography for OSA between January 2006 and December 2006 in ten hospitals. Patients either were treated for OSA or were not treated for OSA. All patients completed a brief telephone survey regarding their SDB signs and symptoms (e.g., snoring, apnea, nocturnal arousals, and daytime sleepiness), positive airway pressure (PAP) compliance, and any adverse effects of either the surgery or PAP. A positive subjective outcome for either surgery or no treatment was taken to be the alleviation of apnea, defined as a ≥50% increase in score. A positive subjective outcome (compliance) for PAP was defined as a PAP usage of ≥4 hours per night and ≥5 days per week.ResultsA total of 229 patients were included in this study. Patients were divided into three groups: a surgery group (n=87), a PAP group (n=68), and a control (untreated) group (n=74). The surgery group exhibited significant improvement in all SDB symptoms compared with the control group. The long-term subjective outcomes of the surgery (52.9%) and PAP (54.4%) groups were significantly better than those of the control group (25.0%). The subjective outcome of the surgery group was not significantly different from that of the PAP group. The overall surgical complication rate was 23.0% (20 of 87) in the surgery group, and 55.0% (22 of 40) of all patients with PAP experienced adverse effects.ConclusionThe extent of SDB symptoms was consistently improved in patients with OSA at 5 years postsurgery. Information about the potential long-term subjective outcomes should be provided to patients when considering surgery

Interferometric Fiber Optic Sensors

Fiber optic interferometers to sense various physical parameters including temperature, strain, pressure, and refractive index have been widely investigated. They can be categorized into four types: Fabry-Perot, Mach-Zehnder, Michelson, and Sagnac. In this paper, each type of interferometric sensor is reviewed in terms of operating principles, fabrication methods, and application fields. Some specific examples of recently reported interferometeric sensor technologies are presented in detail to show their large potential in practical applications. Some of the simple to fabricate but exceedingly effective Fabry-Perot interferometers, implemented in both extrinsic and intrinsic structures, are discussed. Also, a wide variety of Mach-Zehnder and Michelson interferometric sensors based on photonic crystal fibers are introduced along with their remarkable sensing performances. Finally, the simultaneous multi-parameter sensing capability of a pair of long period fiber grating (LPG) is presented in two types of structures; one is the Mach-Zehnder interferometer formed in a double cladding fiber and the other is the highly sensitive Sagnac interferometer cascaded with an LPG pair

Search for strongly interacting massive particles generating trackless jets in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV

A search for dark matter in the form of strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs) using the CMS detector at the LHC is presented. The SIMPs would be produced in pairs that manifest themselves as pairs of jets without tracks. The energy fraction of jets carried by charged particles is used as a key discriminator to suppress efficiently the large multijet background, and the remaining background is estimated directly from data. The search is performed using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 16.1 fb - 1 , collected with the CMS detector in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed above the expected background. For the simplified dark matter model under consideration, SIMPs with masses up to 100 GeV are excluded and further sensitivity is explored towards higher masses

A New Method For Estimating The Number Of Objects Satisfying An Object-Oriented Query Involving Partial Participation Of Classes

The intermediate result cardinality -- the number of objects satisfying a condition given in a query -- is an important factor for estimating the cost of the query in query optimization. In this paper we show that an object-oriented query often involves partial participation of classes in a relationship. We then present a new technique for estimating the intermediate result cardinality in such a query. Partial participation has not been considered seriously in existing techniques. Since the proposed technique uses detailed statistics to accommodate partial participation, it estimates the intermediate result cardinality more accurately than existing ones. We also show that these statistics are easily obtained by using inherent properties of object-oriented databases. Key words: object-oriented databases, query optimization, cost model, selectivities, intermediate results 1. INTRODUCTION Object-oriented database management systems (OODBMSs) are adequate for supporting new database appli..

Deep Learning Based Improvement in Overseas Manufacturer Address Quality Using Administrative District Data

Validating and improving the quality of global address data are important tasks in a modern society where exchanges between countries are due to active Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and e-commerce. Addresses may be constructed with different systems for each country; therefore, to verify and improve the quality of the address data, it is necessary to understand the address system of each country in advance. In the event of food risk, it is important to identify the administrative district from the address in order to take safety measures, such as predicting the contaminated area by tracking the distribution of food in the area. In this study, we propose a method that applies a deep learning approach to verify and improve the quality of the global address data required for imported food-safety management. The address entered by the user is classified to the administrative division levels of the relevant country and the quality of the address data is verified and improved by converting them into a standardized address. Finally, the results show that the accuracy of the model is found to be approximately 90% and the proposed method is able to verify and evaluate the overseas address data quality significantly

Estimating Nested Selectivity in Object-Oriented Databases

A search condition in object-oriented queries consists of nested predicates, each of which is a predicate on a path expression. In this paper, we present a new selectivity estimation technique for nested predicates. Selectivity of a nested predicate, nested selectivity, is defined as the ratio of the number of qualified objects of the starting class in the path expression to the total number of objects of the class. The new technique takes into account the effects of direct representation of many-to-many relationships. Many-to-many relationships frequently occur in object-oriented databases, but have not been properly handled in conventional selectivity-estimation techniques. For many-to-many relationships, we generalize the block-hit function originally proposed by B. Yao allowing the cases where one object belongs to more than one block. The most significant advantage of our technique is that the accuracy of the estimation is far enhanced with only a small additional overhead. We present an efficient method for obtaining the statistical information that is needed for our estimation technique. We analyze the accuracy of our estimation technique and compare the result with those of conventional ones. The experimental result shows there is a significant deviation in the estimation obtained by conventional ones, confirming the advantage of our technique