Factors involved in the movement of the center of mass in healthy women

妊娠中の体形変化は姿勢変化をもたらし、このためにおこる重心移動がマイナートラブルを起こす原因となることが考えられる。そこで、健康女性37人を対象に、重心動揺を起こす因子と考えられる体型要因に着目した基礎的研究を行い、以下の結果を得た。1）重心動揺測定項目の中で、重心動揺距離、包絡面積、重心動揺面積の項目は開眼時より閉眼時が有意に数値が大きく、X軸方向動揺平均、Y軸方向動揺平均の項目は、開眼時と閉眼時とで差がなかった。2）ロンベルグ姿勢での開眼及び閉眼重心動揺検査では、座高、下肢長に正の相関が、肥満度に負の相関があるこが示唆された。During the period of pregnancy, movement of the center of mass due to changes in the posture results from the changes in the body form, and this may cause minor troubles. In this study, we examined body form factors which may be involved in the movement of the center of mass in 37 healthy womem, and obtained the following results. 1) In the examination items of the movement of the center of mass, the moving distance of the center of mass, the envelope area and the area of moving of the center of mass were significantly larger when measured with the eyes open than when measured with the eyes closed, while there were no differences in the means of moving in the x-axis direction and in the y-axis direction whether the eyes were open or closed. 2) The moving examinations of the center of mass in the Romberg's posture with open or closed eyes suggested positive correlations with the sitting height and the length of the inferir limb and a negative correlation with the obesity level

Perioperative use of eicosapentaenoic acid and patency of infrainguinal vein bypass: A retrospective chart review

AbstractBackground:A significant proportion of autogenous vein grafts fail in the long term. Currently, there is no treatment to improve graft patency.Objective:This study was designed to assess the effectiveness of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to prevent late failure of an autogenous vein graft and other perioperative risk factors affecting long-term patency.Methods:A retrospective chart review was performed on grafts of patients who underwent infrainguinal bypass surgery using autogenous vein grafts for peripheral arterial disease in a lower limb. Patients were stratified by the perioperative use of EPA. The EPA group was those patients who administered EPA ≥1 time within 3 months of surgery. The non-EPA group was made up of those patients who did not administer EPA within 3 months of surgery. Primary, assisted primary, and secondary patency rates of the grafts in each group were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. To evaluate the effect of other perioperative risk factors, a Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed.Results:One hundred sixty-one grafts were analyzed from 159 patients who underwent surgery between July 1991 and July 2005. The primary patency rates of the EPA and non-EPA groups were 93% and 86%, 89% and 74%, and 83% and 68% at 1, 3, and 5 years, respectively. In terms of primary patency, the EPA group was significantly better than the non-EPA group (P=0.042). There was no significant difference between the groups in either assisted primary or secondary patency. A Cox proportional hazard analysis found that the minimum graft diameter and perioperative use of EPA were significant factors for primary patency (P=0.002 and P=0.004, respectively). Graft diameter was the only significant factor for assisted primary and secondary patency (P=0.021 and P=0.003, respectively).Conclusion:Although graft diameter was the most important factor for long-term patency of infrainguinal vein bypass grafts, the perioperative use of EPA significantly improved primary patency among these subjects

Korean Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3: Its Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity in Non-Clinical Samples

ObjectiveaaThe aim here is to examine the factorial structure, internal consistency, and concurrent validity of the Korean version of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (K-ASI-3) in student samples in Korea. Also, we investigated the cross-cultural differences in the Social Concerns factor. MethodsaaK-ASI-3 was administered to non clinical samples in Korea. Internal consistency, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were undertaken to examine the factorial structure and reliability of the K-ASI-3. ResultsaaResults from CFA comparing our data to factor solutions commonly reported as representative of European-American samples indicated an adequate fit. The K-ASI-3 showed good performance on the indices of internal consistency and concurrent validity. In addition, using regression analyses, we found the Social Concerns factor is most strongly related to life satisfaction and worry. However, we found no evidence that Korean college students express more Social Concerns than their European Caucasian counterparts. ConclusionaaThe authors demonstrate that the K-ASI-3 has highly internally consistent and psychometrically sound items, and that it reliably measures three lower-order domains assessing Physical, Social, and Cognitive Concerns. Psychiatry Investig 2012;9:45-53 Key Wordsaa�Anxiety sensitivity, Factor structure, Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3, Cross-cultural difference, Korean

Diagnostic Value of 3D Fast Low-Angle Shot Dynamic MRI of Breast Papillomas

Purpose: To evaluate the value of breast MRI in analysis of papillomas of the breast. Materials and Methods: From 1996 to 2004, 94 patients underwent surgery due to papillomas of the breast. Among them, 21 patients underwent 3D fast low angle shot (FLASH) dynamic breast MRI. Eight masses were palpable and 11 of 21 patients had nipple discharge. Two radiologists indifferently analyzed the location, size of the lesions and shape, margin of the masses, multiplicity and ductal relation. The MRI findings were categorized according to breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS) lexicon. The amount and pattern of enhancement and associated findings were also evaluated according to BI-RADS. We then compared the MRI findings with galactography, mammography and breast ultrasonography (US) and examined histopathologic correlation. Results: On breast MRI, the lesion size was 0.4-1.59 cm, and 18 patients showed subareolar location. On 4.25 cm (mean 1.54) dynamic enhanced images, imaging findings showed mass (n = 10), intracystic mass (n = 3), focus (n = 5), ductal enhancement (n = 2), and segmental enhancement (n = 1). In cases of the masses, the shapes of the masses were roun

Role of membrane sphingomyelin and ceramide in platform formation for Fas-mediated apoptosis

Engagement of the Fas receptor (CD95) initiates multiple signaling pathways that lead to apoptosis, such as the formation of death-inducing signaling complex (DISC), activation of caspase cascades, and the generation of the lipid messenger, ceramide. Sphingomyelin (SM) is a major component of lipid rafts, which are specialized structures that enhance the efficiency of membrane receptor signaling and are a main source of ceramide. However, the functions of SM in Fas-mediated apoptosis have yet to be clearly defined, as the responsible genes have not been identified. After cloning a gene responsible for SM synthesis, SMS1, we established SM synthase–defective WR19L cells transfected with the human Fas gene (WR/Fas-SM(−)), and cells that have been functionally restored by transfection with SMS1 (WR/Fas-SMS1). We show that expression of membrane SM enhances Fas-mediated apoptosis through increasing DISC formation, activation of caspases, efficient translocation of Fas into lipid rafts, and subsequent Fas clustering. Furthermore, WR/Fas-SMS1 cells, but not WR/Fas-SM(−) cells, showed a considerable increase in ceramide generation within lipid rafts upon Fas stimulation. These data suggest that a membrane SM is important for Fas clustering through aggregation of lipid rafts, leading to Fas-mediated apoptosis

Optical Properties of Correlated Materials -- or Why Intelligent Windows may look Dirty

Materials with strong electronic Coulomb correlations play an increasing role in modern materials applications. "Thermochromic" systems, which exhibit thermally induced changes in their optical response, provide a particularly interesting case. The optical switching associated with the metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide, for example, has been proposed for use in numerous applications, ranging from anti-laser shields to "intelligent" windows, which selectively filter radiative heat in hot weather conditions. Are present-day electronic structure techniques able to describe, or -- eventually even predict -- such a kind of behavior ? How far are we from materials design using correlated oxides ? These are the central questions we try to address in this article. We review recent attempts of calculating optical properties of correlated materials within dynamical mean field theory, and summarize results for vanadium dioxide obtained within a novel scheme aiming at particularly simple and efficient calculations of optical transition matrix elements within localized basis sets. Finally, by optimizing the geometry of "intelligent windows", we argue that this kind of technique can in principle be used to provide guidance for experiments, thus giving a rather optimistic answer to the above questions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, Phys. Status Solidi B 246, in print (2009), also available as psi-k Scientific Highlight of the Month, no. 88, August 2008, http://www.psi-k.org/newsletters/News_88/Highlight_88.pd

Computation of Conformational Coupling in Allosteric Proteins

In allosteric regulation, an effector molecule binding a protein at one site induces conformational changes, which alter structure and function at a distant active site. Two key challenges in the computational modeling of allostery are the prediction of the structure of one allosteric state starting from the structure of the other, and elucidating the mechanisms underlying the conformational coupling of the effector and active sites. Here we approach these two challenges using the Rosetta high-resolution structure prediction methodology. We find that the method can recapitulate the relaxation of effector-bound forms of single domain allosteric proteins into the corresponding ligand-free states, particularly when sampling is focused on regions known to change conformation most significantly. Analysis of the coupling between contacting pairs of residues in large ensembles of conformations spread throughout the landscape between and around the two allosteric states suggests that the transitions are built up from blocks of tightly coupled interacting sets of residues that are more loosely coupled to one another