Tokyo Kasei University

IntroductionThis study examined whether fatigue mediates the association between sleep debt and depressive symptoms among municipal employees in Japan.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted as part of the Night in Japan Home Sleep Monitoring Study (NinJaSleep Study) between November 2023 and March 2024 among 1,435 municipal employees in Koka City, Japan. Sleep debt was quantified using the Sleep Debt Index, calculated from self-reported ideal and actual sleep duration. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and fatigue was assessed using the Chalder Fatigue Scale. Mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro (Model 4), adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and occupation. Indirect effects were estimated using bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples.ResultsSleep debt was significantly associated with higher fatigue scores (B = 2.37, p < 0.001), and fatigue was positively associated with depressive symptoms (B = 0.32, p < 0.001). The direct association between sleep debt and depressive symptoms was not statistically significant (B = 0.07, p = 0.36). Mediation analysis indicated that the association between sleep debt and depressive symptoms was significantly mediated by fatigue (indirect effect: B = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.61–0.91).DiscussionSleep debt is associated with depressive symptoms primarily through increased fatigue. These findings highlight fatigue as a key pathway in linking insufficient sleep to mental health outcomes and underscore the importance of addressing fatigue in workplace mental health strategies.

Abstract The development of remote sensing and object detection technologies has advanced benthos surveys. However, challenges remain in accuracy and cost‐efficiency due to environmental interference. A practical method combining drone‐based image acquisition and deep learning techniques for benthos monitoring is presented. Field experiments objecting hermit crabs were conducted at Lake Hamana using drones at altitudes of 2 m, 5 m and 10 m. Super‐resolution reconstruction (SRR) was applied to enhance image quality, followed by small‐object detection using the self‐built V9‐BENTHOS. With a magnification factor × 4, Residual Dense Network (RDN) achieved optimal SRR performance (PSNR: 38.15 dB, SSIM: 88.51%) and V9‐BENTHOS reached a mean average precision of 95.5%. The effects of SRR algorithms and magnification factors on hermit crab detection were discussed. This case study provides a new approach to support benthos ecological monitoring.

• For pack-cooking, the stew being cooked can be a heat source. • Heat-resistant, food-grade high-density polyethylene bags are used for pack-cooking. • No substances from the polyethylene bag leach out during pack-cooking. • No allergen contamination occurred inside the polyethylene bag. • Pack-cooking is a promising method for people with allergies during disasters. Disaster evacuee s with food allergies are at high risk of nutritional deficiencies and allergic reactions, making survival difficult. This study aimed to investigate chemical and allergen contamination when allergen-free foods were cooked in transparent polyethylene bags (pack-cooking) in boiled food (for distribution) to provide individualized disaster food support for food allergy sufferers, assuming limited heat sources and drinking water. Residual evaporation migrating from various polyethylene bags was measured through elution tests using food -simulating solvents , following the Japan Positive List (PL) System guidelines. For evacuees with allergies, samples of pack-cooked rice and allergen-free stew wrapped in two layers of polyethylene bags were cooked with a white stew containing allergenic ingredients (wheat, milk, and eggs). Allergenicity was assessed using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), western blotting kits, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Residual evaporation from all six types of polyethylene bags was below the standard values set by the Japan PL. The protein content derived raw material, measured per gram of sampled weight was significantly lower (p ≤ 0.001) in the pack-cooked meal than in the white stew, with a maximum detected level of 2.5 µg/g for wheat protein in the pack-cooked stew. Thus, the protein content of all pack-cook ed meals was below Japan's labeling threshold (10 μg protein per gram of food). A small amount of wheat-, egg- and milk-derived protein was detected in the ELISA test, but no allergens were identified in the western blotting and PCR. These results suggest that allergen-free meals can be safely prepared using polyethylene bags that can be heated in hot water, even in dishes containing allergens. Pack-cooking may serve as a practical method to support the mental and physical well-being of individuals with food allerg ies sufferers during disasters, when conventional meal preparation is often difficult .

【目的】卒前教育レベルの管理栄養士の基本コンピテンシーと関連する個人特性を学年ごとに横断的に探索すること。

Distributed space antennas enable large apertures for future space missions. However, on-orbit reconfiguration remains challenging due to complex orbital dynamics and stringent fuel constraints. To address this, we propose a fuel-efficient framework integrating trajectory design and beamforming optimization using sequential convex programming. By jointly optimizing satellite trajectories and beamforming to exploit relative orbital drift, numerical simulations of a fault recovery scenario demonstrate a drastic reduction in fuel consumption (approximately 1/40) compared to conventional control. Furthermore, the method successfully restores the degraded side lobe level, establishing a robust foundation for long-life operations of resource-constrained satellite swarms.

Palm fatty acid distillate is a low-cost, sustainable feedstock for biodiesel. A catalyst-free process using a packed bubble column reactor with superheated methanol vapour at atmospheric pressure achieved high conversion.

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks represent a sophisticated and growing danger to modern information systems. While provenance graphs are a promising tool for detecting these complex threats, their effectiveness is often limited by a failure to harness the rich semantic information contained within raw system logs. This paper proposes a novel detection framework that addresses this gap by leveraging a Large Language Model (LLM) to embed deep semantic meaning from system logs directly into the graph's features. Our approach enhances a state-of-the-art Graph Neural Network (GNN)-based method by replacing its simple embedding technique with an LLM-based sentence embedding method, specifically enriching the graph's edge features to capture deeper contextual information. Experimental results on the challenging Unicorn Wget dataset demonstrate the superiority of our method. It surpassed the baseline in all evaluation metrics, achieving an F1-Score of 96.12 % and an AUC of 98.52 %, compared to the baseline's 94.36 % F1-Score and 97.39% AUC. Furthermore, our method achieved a lower false positive rate of 6.68 %, indicating a more precise and reliable detection capability. These findings highlight the value of integrating semantic embeddings from LLMs to improve the detection of stealthy, complex cyberattacks.

α-Linolenic acid (ALA) is an important essential omega-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid for the maintenance of human health. Although ALA has traditionally been obtained from plant sources, microbial fermentation has emerged as a promising alternative for its sustainable and cost-effective production. However, most of the present approaches rely on genetically modified organisms, which present regulatory and consumer-acceptance concerns. In this study, we aimed to develop a high-ALA-producing strain of Aspergillus oryzae, a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) microorganism widely used in food production in Japan, through self-cloning, a form of genetic engineering that utilizes only the host’s own DNA. To achieve this, an endogenous ω-3 desaturase gene (fad3), which catalyzes the conversion of linoleic acid to ALA, was identified via BLASTP analysis. Subsequently, a multicopy A. oryzae strain (Aofad3-MC) overexpressing fad3 was constructed. This strain increased ALA production, with ALA comprising 30.7% of the total lipids. Furthermore, k-mer analysis confirmed the absence of foreign vector sequences, verifying that Aofad3-MC was constructed through self-cloning. In addition to the identification of the A. oryzae ω-3 desaturase gene, this study provides a microbial platform for the sustainable production of ALA, with potential applications across the food, feed, and related industries.

Background: A rapid decline in renal function following surgery can lead to postoperative acute kidney injury (PO-AKI) and the need for urgent dialysis initiation, which is related to shorter time to early mortality compared to chronic dialysis initiation. Body mass index (BMI) has been suggested to be a risk factor for PO-AKI. However, there are no studies assessing the impact of BMI on the incidence of urgent start dialysis. Methods: We utilized data from inpatient databases in Japan (2020–2023), covering nearly 50% of all hospital admissions nationwide. The study included 2,814 non-dialysis-dependent CKD (NDD-CKD) patients and 154,037 non-CKD patients aged 18–89 years who underwent lower gastrointestinal surgery. Patients were categorized into quartiles based on BMI: Q1 (low BMI), Q2 (normal BMI), Q3 (high BMI), and Q4 (obese BMI). The primary outcome was the incidence of urgent hemodialysis following surgery. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to adjust for baseline characteristics. Results: Among NDD-CKD patients, postoperative urgent dialysis was most common in the low BMI group (Q1: 28.1%) compared to normal (Q2: 26.4%), high (Q3: 17.5%), and obese BMI groups (Q4: 18.1%). Adjusted logistic regression showed a significantly lower incidence in the obese group (p < 0.001), with adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of 0.93 (95% CI: 0.883–0.973) for Q4 and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.903–0.994) for Q3, relative to Q2. In contrast, among non-CKD patients, the highest incidence occurred in the obese group (Q4: 0.51%) versus the normal BMI group (Q2: 0.20%), with a significantly higher risk in Q4 (p < 0.001) after adjustment. Conclusion: Higher BMI is associated with a significantly lower incidence of postoperative urgent dialysis in non-dialysis-dependent CKD patients undergoing lower gastrointestinal surgery. In contrast, higher BMI correlates with worse renal outcomes in non-CKD patients. These findings suggest that elevated BMI may contribute to improved renal outcomes following surgery, depending on the presence or absence of CKD.