Yamaguchi Prefectural University

Many women are aware of feeling cold in their daily lives.To elucidate the interrelationships among having a cold constitution, exercise habits, and sleep, we conducted an Internet survey that included 600 women and 600 men aged 15 to 69 years.The items in the survey included sex, age, coldness, practice of exercise, and sleep condition.The participants answered all questions with a "yes" or "no" answer.In all age groups, women reported a significantly higher number of coldness-related items than men; however, no differences were found among the age groups.Men who exercise regularly reported a higher number of applicable coldness-related items than those who did not (p = 0.027), but this was not found in women (p = 0.208).In both men and women, regular exercise was positively associated with falling asleep (p < 0.05) and getting enough rest through sleep (p < 0.01).These findings suggest that regular exercise is beneficial for sleep in men and women of all ages; however, in men, it is also associated with increased cold-related symptoms.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 85% of kidney tumors, and its incidence is rising. It includes 14 histological subtypes, notably clear cell (KIRC), papillary (KIRP), and chromophobe (KICH) RCC. While RCC generally has a favorable prognosis, the 5-year survival rate drops to ~12% with distant metastasis. Identifying prognostic markers is therefore crucial. DDX39, a DEAD-box RNA helicase, is up-regulated in various cancers, but its prognostic role in KIRP and KICH remains unclear. This study investigates the clinical relevance of DDX39 expression in KIRC, KIRP, and KICH using TCGA bioinformatics data. The University of ALabama at Birmingham CANcer data analysis Portal (UALCAN) platform was used to analyze DDX39 mRNA expression and survival in patients with KIRC, KIRP and KICH from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. DDX39 mRNA levels were found to be significantly higher in KIRC and KIRP tissues compared to normal kidney tissues, and this up-regulation was inversely correlated with prolonged survival in KIRC and KIRP patients. However, DDX39 mRNA levels in KICH tissues were significantly lower than those in normal kidney tissues. Nevertheless, patients with high DDX39 mRNA expression in KICH tissues had significantly shorter survival times. Although the expression levels of DDX39 mRNA in tumor tissues varies depending on the tissue type, expression is inversely correlated with patient prognosis, making it a promising prognostic factor in RCC, including KICH.

BackgroundPreventing oral infections, such as oral caries and periodontal disease, helps reduce the risks of various systemic diseases. In this study, the polysaccharide pullulan produced by the black yeast Aureobasidium pullulans was modified in combination with the cationic surfactant cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) to create a local drug delivery system, and its antibacterial potential on oral bacteria was examined in vitro.MethodsPullulan was phosphorylated at the CH2OH residue of α6 in the maltotriose structure and mixed with CPC. Bacterial attachment of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans on hydroxyapatite plates (HAPs) treated with the phosphorylated pullulan (PP) and CPC compound (0.01% PP and 0.001– 0.03% CPC, and vice versa) was assessed by observing bacteria using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and quantified through 16 S rRNA amplification via real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Additionally, the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) method was employed to evaluate the sustained release of CPC.ResultsPP-CPC compound maintained significant bactericidal activity even at 0.01%, which is one-fifth of the conventional applicable concentration of CPC. Additionally, a residual mixture was detected by the hydroxyapatite sensor of the crystal oscillator microbalance detector, suggesting an unknown molecular interaction that enables the sustained release of CPC after attachment to hydroxyapatite.ConclusionsThe combination of PP and CPC may contribute to the low concentration and effective prevention of oral infections, such as dental caries.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-025-06666-z.

Dichromatic vision is different from trichromatic vision. It is difficult for dichromats to discriminate specific color combinations. Conventional color conversion methods for dichromats tend to produce unnatural color tone and cause degradation due to over enhancement. In this study, we propose a method which converts an input image into the image to facilitate color discrimination in dichromatic vision without changing impression of the input image for dichromats and trichromats. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with the conventional methods.

BackgroundWe examined whether an aerobic exercise intervention in young women with cold sensitivity symptoms improves sleep quality and decreases cold complaints. Furthermore, we examined the association with increased foot skin temperature (Tsk) before falling asleep and decrease in sensitivity to cold in the brain.MethodsWe recruited 16 female adult volunteers who had cold sensitivity and were not engaged in daily exercise training, and they were divided into an exercise group (EXE) and a control group (CON). EXE was given a 2-week exercise intervention that consisted mainly of walking and jogging. Before and after the intervention, temperature sensation and body temperature parameters were measured just before bedtime; electroencephalogram measurements were taken during sleep; and subjective sleep surveys, including Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi (OSA) sleep inventory (middle-aged and aged version) and visual analogue scale (VAS), were conducted immediately after waking up. All experiments were performed in the winter season.ResultsIn EXE, overall and foot warmth and comfort increased (p < 0.05) after the 2-week exercise intervention. The exercise intervention also decreased (p < 0.05) the scores for cold feeling in the fingertips, feet, and toes. In the OSA sleep inventory, factor IV (refreshing) and factor V (sleep length) were increased (p < 0.05) by the exercise intervention. Subjective sleep quality evaluated by VAS increased (p < 0.05) with exercise intervention. The exercise intervention in EXE shortened middle awake time after sleep onset (p < 0.05) and prolonged deep sleep length (p < 0.05). The exercise intervention increased (p < 0.05) alpha-wave power before sleep. In CON, all variables remained unchanged throughout the 2-week control period.ConclusionShort-term aerobic exercise alleviated peripheral extremity cold sensitivity symptoms and improved subjective sleep quality. Our findings suggest that these improvements were not due to increased Tsk at rest before bedtime but to decreased sensitivity to cold in the brain that was expressed as increased alpha activity.

Moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (PA) may reduce the risk of dementia; however, few studies have examined the effects of PA intensity on dementia risk. To prospectively examine the dose-response relationship of PA intensity with the incidence of suspected dementia in community-dwelling older adults. We conducted a baseline mail survey with an 8-year follow-up of 3,722 older adults in Japan. We assessed PA levels using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short form and calculated the amount of time per week spent performing moderate- and vigorous-intensity PA (VPA). Information regarding suspected dementia was obtained from the city database during the follow-up period. Cox proportional-hazard models with age as time scale, and delayed entry and restricted cubic spline regression as variables were used to estimate risk of developing suspected dementia, excluding cases occurring < 1 year after baseline evaluation. The cumulative incidence of suspected dementia during the follow-up period was 12.7%. Compared with those who did not practice moderate-intensity PA (MPA), those who practiced≥300 min (hazard ratio, 0.73; 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.95) of MPA showed a lower risk of developing suspected dementia. Furthermore, when the dose-response relationship was examined, the hazard of developing suspected dementia decreased almost linearly with MPA. A significantly lower hazard was observed from 815 minutes/week. There was no significant association between VPA and suspected dementia. This study suggested that MPA is often practiced in older adults and this PA intensity has a sufficiently favorable effect on dementia prevention.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate paternal depression occurring during a partner’s pregnancy in the Chugoku region of Japan, as well as to examine the factors associated with paternal depression and its possible relevance to the attachment with the child. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to assess depression in men. Sociodemographic details and background factors from previous studies on paternal depression included. In particular, relevant scales were used to assess occupational stress, occupational satisfaction, marital relationship, and mother-to-infant bonding (Japanese version of the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale). The participants were 64 men whose partners were in their third trimester of pregnancy. Descriptive statistics were calculated and subsequently analyzed by bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis using IBM SPSS® Statistics version 24.0 and EZR [1], with P

As substances corresponding to annulenes in Y-aromatic compounds, tridentenes were proposed by the authors. In this description, by revision of existing papers, a discussion on the magic number of tridentenes, which corresponds to Hückel’s 4N+2 rule, and arguments regarding typhoon tridentene and cyclone tridentene, which are expected to have stereoselective inclusion forming ability, are presented.

In this study, we present a method of chroma enhancement in the CIELAB color space and compare it with that in the RGB color space. Color image enhancement using the CIELAB color space has the disadvantage that the color gamut problem occurs because the conversion to the RGB color space is necessary to display the image. However, since the CIELAB color space is based on human visual perception, the quality of the resulting images is expected to be higher than that of the RGB color space. In the method using the CIELAB color space, we introduce a lookup table to reduce the calculation costs. Experiments comparing image enhancement results obtained from two color spaces are performed using several digital images.