Sahos

Aim: To explore the clinical application of DNA methylation affecting thyroid function, we evaluated the association of DNA methylation with free thyroxine (FT4) and TSH measurements in monozygotic twins. Materials & methods: Discordant pairs for FT4 or TSH levels were examined for the relationship between the within-pair difference of each measurement and the DNA methylation levels using epigenome-wide association studies. The contribution of polymorphisms to the methylation sensitivity was also examined...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted public infrastructure and healthcare utilization. However, regional variation in opioid-related harm secondary to COVID-19 remains poorly understood. This study aimed to measure the regional variation in the association between stay-at-home orders (SAHOs) and nonfatal opioid-related emergency medical services (EMS) transfers in the United States. METHODS: In this interrupted time series design, counts of nonfatal opioid overdoses were identified in each week between July 29, 2019 and December 27, 2020 from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System Dataset...

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles (EVs) found in culture supernatants, blood, and breast milk. The size of these nanocomplexes limits the methods of EV analyses. In this study, nitrobenzoxadiazole (NBD), a fluorophore, conjugated endosome-lysosome imager, GIF-2250 and its derivative, GIF-2276, were evaluated for exosome analyses. A correlation was established between GIF-2250 intensity and protein maker levels in bovine milk exosomes. We found that high-temperature sterilization milk may not contain intact exosomes...

BACKGROUND: The genus Aeromonas is increasingly implicated in human infections, but knowledge of its clinical characteristics and antimicrobial resistance profiles has been limited owing to its complex taxonomy. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter prospective cohort study of patients with Aeromonas infections at hospitals across Japan. Patients were eligible for inclusion if they had an Aeromonas spp. strain in a clinical culture and were considered infected at the culture site...

Following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in February 2020, incidences of various infectious diseases decreased notably in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. However, Japan began gradually easing COVID-19 infection control measures in 2022. Here, we conducted a survey of children hospitalized with human metapneumovirus (hMPV), influenza A and B, and respiratory syncytial virus infections in 18 hospitals across Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, spanning from July 2019 to June 2023. From March 2020 to June 2022 (28 months), only 13 patients were hospitalized with hMPV, and two patients had influenza A...

Prior research indicate that emotional states can alter taste perception, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study explores whether taste perception changes due to the mere evocation of emotions or the cognitive awareness of emotions. The first experiment investigated how anxiety affects taste perception when individuals are aware of their anxiety. Participants watched videos inducing relaxation or anxiety, then were divided into groups focusing on their emotions and those who did not, and the taste perception was measure...

Light-responsive hydrogels containing light-thermal convertible pigments have received interest for their possible applications in light-responsive shutters, valves, drug delivery systems, etc. However, their utility is limited by the slow response time. In this study, we investigated the use of micro-nano bubble water as a preparation solvent to accelerate the volume phase transition kinetics of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNIPAM-co-AAc) hydrogels. The hydrogels were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and dissolved oxygen (DO) measurements...

The recent development of the Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan has spurred momentum to promote site-based conservation of red colobus while forging partnerships among researchers and building local capacity. Communities for Red Colobus (C4RC) is a community-centered conservation organization in The Gambia, West Africa, that aims to protect Temminck's red colobus (Piliocolobus badius temminckii) while advancing opportunities for local people. We highlight the inception and initial development of C4RC with its educational and ranger teams and describe how local and international collaborations have positively impacted the organization through training and mentoring programs...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Delays in breast cancer diagnosis can allow the disease to progress to an incurable stage. However, factors that cause patients to delay seeking treatment are unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify behavioral economic factors and personality characteristics of patients with breast cancer who had a delayed diagnosis. METHODS: We analyzed questionnaires completed by 41 patients with breast cancer. A delayed diagnosis was defined if the time between the first symptom and the medical visit was more than 6 months...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has transformed clinical practice and health systems. This paper provides an overview of COVID-19 clinical management and health-care pathway challenges that the World Health Organization and its Member States in the Western Pacific Region have faced. The experiences and lessons identified can help countries to better prepare for future pandemics.

PURPOSE: When a dizzy patient with episodic vertigo has an abnormal caloric and a normal video head impulse test (vHIT), this caloric-vHIT dissociation provides vital information for a diagnosis of Ménière's disease (MD). Endolymphatic hydrops (EH), a histological marker of MD, is hypothesized to be involved in the caloric-vHIT dissociation in MD through hydropic duct distension of the horizontal semicircular canal (SC). This study was designed to determine the impact of EH on the function of horizontal SC during caloric stimulation...

AIM: This study aimed to elucidate whether personality traits modify the relationship between nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) and anxiety, stratified by three pregnancy periods: 5-8 weeks, 9-12 weeks, and 13-20 weeks. METHODS: This longitudinal study was conducted from August 2018 to February 2019 at a perinatal outpatient unit in a general hospital. We included 153 pregnant women aged ≥20 years and under 20 weeks of gestation at their first prenatal visit...

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic heralded a surge in firearm homicides (FH) in many, but not all, urban centers. We aimed to determine the relationship of firearm restrictive legislation, stay-at-home orders (SaHOs), and FH during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in US cities. METHODS: Demographics and socioeconomic data were captured from the 2020 US Census for large (population ≥250,000) cities. FH data were captured from the Gun Violence Archive...

INTRODUCTION: Telehealth can potentially improve the quality of healthcare through increased access to primary care. While telehealth use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, racial/ethnic disparities in the use of telemedicine persisted during this period. Little is known about the relationship between health coverage and patient race/ethnicity after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study examines how differences in patient race/ethnicity and health coverage are associated with the number of in-person vs...

Numerous pathogenic variants of SCN2A gene, encoding voltage-gated sodium channel α2 subunit Nav1.2 protein, have been identified in a wide spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia. However, pathological mechanisms for the schizophrenia-relevant behavioral abnormalities caused by the variants remain poorly understood. Here in this study, we characterized mouse lines with selective Scn2a deletion at schizophrenia-related brain regions, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or ventral tegmental area (VTA), obtained by injecting adeno-associated viruses (AAV) expressing Cre recombinase into homozygous Scn2a-floxed (Scn2afl/fl ) mice, in which expression of the Scn2a was locally deleted in the presence of Cre recombinase...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The odours encountered on a daily basis are dependent on an individual's society and culture. Therefore, when conducting olfactory tests, the odour stimuli utilized must be appropriate for the individual's environment. In this study, we gathered and classified the odours experienced by Japanese individuals in their daily lives through a large dataset of product reviews encompassing food and household items. Specifically, we performed morphological analysis on product review sentences in Japanese that contained odour descriptions, and we compiled the nouns used to describe odours...

BACKGROUND: Little is known about community knowledge and practice towards malaria prevention in Ghindae, Eritrea. METHODOLOGY: A community based cross-sectional study design was employed among 380 households. Participants were selected systematically. RESULT: More than eight-tenth (86.5%) of the respondents had heard information about malaria preceding the survey; health facilities (54.1%), television (23.7%). Majority (94.2%) mentioned mosquito bite as the main mode of malaria transmission...

The objective of this study was to determine the fifth metatarsal strain generation mechanism during cutting motions performed while playing soccer using a finite element foot model. Five collegiate soccer players performed the side-step cutting and the cross-step cutting motions to measure the three-dimensional foot kinematics, ground reaction force, and plantar pressure distribution. In addition, a finite-element model of a foot consisting of bony structures, ligaments, and skin was constructed from computed tomography images...