貝原益軒の養生術 : 栄養療法の知的枠組についての研究6

The Goal of this study was to reevaluate the physical and mental health education conceived by Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714) in the light of the art of regimen (diaita in ancient Greek) practiced by Hippocrates. Kaibara Ekken was a humanist equipped with expertise both as physician with the art of preventing diseases and as educator with the art of correcting deviation of one\u27s natural disposition. The goal of his health education is compatible with the idea expressed by Plutarch on the health framed by the art of regimen: "There is nothing better than to devote oneself to humane deeds if one is in good health." As the developmental model by A. H. Maslow is a bottom-up order of needs towards transcendental self actualization starting from basic needs of autonomous person, Kaibara Ekken\u27s art of education for body and mind is top-down order of needs towards humane deeds starting from the heart of the transcendental person corresponding with the heart of heaven and earth. The scope of Ekken\u27s art of education for body and mind will open a new way for today\u27s health education and Shokuiku (food and nutrition education)

Effect of Dietary Protein Restriction and Nutritional Assessment on Early-Stage Diabetic Nephropathy.

We evaluated the effects of a protein-limited diet on renal function, urinary albumin excretion and nutritional status of 16 patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (11 males and 5 females, mean age 60.5 years) had a urinary albumin excretion rate of between 15 and 200μg/min and were c1assified into two groups : group Ⅰ patients were placed on a protein-limited diet (0.77g/kg/day), and group Ⅱ followed a conventional diabetic diet (1.33g/kg/day). After six months, the value of creatinine c1earance was significantly reduced in group Ⅰ, but urinary albumin excretion did not change in either group. Anthropometric measurements revealed no significant change in body weight, body mass index, arm circumference or triceps skinfold thickness in either group during the study period, but the arm musc1ec ircumference significantly increased in group Ⅰ. No significant differences were observed in either group with regard to serum level of protein, in c1uding total protein, albumin, prealbumin or transferrin, In conc1usion, a protein-limited diet was useful for prevention of diabetic nephropathy in patients with early-stage diabetic nephropathy

Enhancing Inverse Problem Solutions with Accurate Surrogate Simulators and Promising Candidates

Deep-learning inverse techniques have attracted significant attention in recent years. Among them, the neural adjoint (NA) method, which employs a neural network surrogate simulator, has demonstrated impressive performance in the design tasks of artificial electromagnetic materials (AEM). However, the impact of the surrogate simulators' accuracy on the solutions in the NA method remains uncertain. Furthermore, achieving sufficient optimization becomes challenging in this method when the surrogate simulator is large, and computational resources are limited. Additionally, the behavior under constraints has not been studied, despite its importance from the engineering perspective. In this study, we investigated the impact of surrogate simulators' accuracy on the solutions and discovered that the more accurate the surrogate simulator is, the better the solutions become. We then developed an extension of the NA method, named Neural Lagrangian (NeuLag) method, capable of efficiently optimizing a sufficient number of solution candidates. We then demonstrated that the NeuLag method can find optimal solutions even when handling sufficient candidates is difficult due to the use of a large and accurate surrogate simulator. The resimulation errors of the NeuLag method were approximately 1/50 compared to previous methods for three AEM tasks. Finally, we performed optimization under constraint using NA and NeuLag, and confirmed their potential in optimization with soft or hard constraints. We believe our method holds potential in areas that require large and accurate surrogate simulators.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

A Study of Lifelong Education for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities at the University Level

Background: In recent years, there has been growing interest in developing lifelong education for persons with disabilities at universities and other institutions of higher learning. However, there is still a lack of practical research on people with intellectual disabilities who participate in lifelong education. Objective: This study analyzes the experiences of participants with intellectual disabilities obtained from the practice of the Lifelong Education Program for Persons with Disabilities (AULEPP). It discusses perspectives for the future development of lifelong education. Methods: Eleven persons with intellectual disabilities who participated in the AULEPP from October 2021 to February 2022 were included in the study. Three surveys were administered to these participants before and after the AULEPP and for each lecture. Results: The average number of participants in each lecture was 5.2, and four participants attended more than eight lectures. Qualitative analysis of the survey results revealed that participants acquired new knowledge, expressed the need for continuous learning, and proposed new questions. The lectures helped them recognize changes in their perspectives on daily life and society. Most of the lectures were conducted online, but there were no negative comments about this modality. Conclusions: The study revealed the need to create opportunities for participants to find meaning in lectures, the effectiveness of online media, and the role of lifelong college education in the community. It is necessary to investigate the transferability of these results to urban areas and explore outcome measures and program content to build an evidence-based lifelong learning program

Difference in NaCl tolerance of membrane-bound 5′-nucleotidases purified from deep-sea and brackish water Shewanella species

Shewanella species are widely distributed in sea, brackish, and fresh water areas, growing psychrophilically or mesophilically, and piezophilically or piezo-sensitively. Here, membrane-bound 5′-nucleotidases (NTases) from deep-sea Shewanella violacea and brackish water Shewanella amazonensis were examined from the aspect of NaCl tolerance in order to gain an insight into protein stability against salt. Both NTases were single polypeptides with molecular masses of ~59 kDa, as determined on mass spectroscopy. They similarly required 10 mM MgCl2 for their activities, and they exhibited the same pH dependency and substrate specificity for 5′-nucleotides. However, S. violacea 5′-nucleotidase (SVNTase) was active enough in the presence of 2.5 M NaCl, whereas S. amazonensis 5′-nucleotidase (SANTase) exhibited significantly reduced activity with the same concentration of the salt. Although SVNTase and SANTase exhibited high sequence identity (69.7%), differences in the ratio of acidic to basic amino acid residues and the number of potential salt bridges maybe being responsible for the difference in the protein stability against salt. 5′-Nucleotidases from these Shewanella species will provide useful information regarding NaCl tolerance, which may be fundamental for understanding bacterial adaptation to growth environments.This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [No. 26240045], a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [No. 25-1446], and The Salt Science Research Foundation [No. 1655]

Neuroradiological and neurofunctional examinations for the patients with 22q11.2 deletion

Since neuroradiological features of patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome are not well-understood, examinations using functional imaging were performed in this study. Brain magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy(MRS) were performed using a clinical 3-tesla MR imager in 4 patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (2 boys and 2 girls; 2~6 years.) and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects. Furthermore, interictal 123I- iomazenil (IMZ) single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) was examined in two of the four patients. Among 4 patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, 2 patients showed polymicrogyria and 1 patient showed agyria. Those patients with brain malformations also showed abnormal brain artery and decreased accumulation of IMZ in 123I-IMZ SPECT. Although all 4 patients showed epileptic discharges in electroencephalogram(EEG), one patient with polymicrogyria had no seizure episode. Decreases in γ-aminobutyric acid(GABA) corresponding to the areas of polymicrogyria and/or epileptic discharges in EEG were shown in all patients except for the patient with agyria. Although consistent evidence was not seen in patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome in this study, brain malformations and disturbances of the GABAergic nervous system would be underlying mechanisms of the neurodevelopmental abnormalities in this syndrome

Evaluation of the GABAergic nervous system in autistic brain : 123I-iomazenil SPECT study

Purpose: To evaluate the GABAA receptor in the autistic brain, we performed 123I-IMZ SPECT in patients with ASD. We compared 123I-IMZ SPECT abnormalities in patients who showed intellectual disturbance or focal epileptic discharge on EEG to those in patients without such findings. Subjects and methods: The subjects consisted of 24 patients with ASD (mean age, 7.3±3.5years), including 9 with autistic disorder (mean age, 7.0±3.7years) and 15 with Asperger’s disorder (mean age, 7.5±3.2years). We used 10 non-symptomatic partial epilepsy patients (mean age, 7.8±3.6years) without intellectual delay as a control group. For an objective evaluation of the 123I-IMZ SPECT results, we performed an SEE (Stereotactic Extraction Estimation) analysis to describe the decrease in accumulation in each brain lobule numerically. Results In the comparison of the ASD group and the control group, there was a dramatic decrease in the accumulation of 123I-IMZ in the superior and medial frontal cortex. In the group with intellectual impairment and focal epileptic discharge on EEG, the decrease in accumulation in the superior and medial frontal cortex was greater than that in the group without these findings. Conclusion The present results suggest that disturbance of the GABAergic nervous system may contribute to the pathophysiology and aggravation of ASD, since the accumulation of 123I-IMZ was decreased in the superior and medial frontal cortex, which is considered to be associated with inference of the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of others (Theory of Mind)