The impact on obesity-related quality of life and eating satisfaction in the early period after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.

INTRODUCTION: Obesity impairs patients' quality of life (QoL). Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a common procedure for patients with severe obesity; however, studies reporting changes in obesity-related QoL are limited. The aim of this study was to assess changes in obesity-related QoL and food tolerance in the early postoperative period. METHODS: We included 20 consecutive patients who underwent LSG between May 2021 and July 2023. We evaluated changes in obesity-related QoL 6 months after surgery using an obesity and weight loss QoL questionnaire (OWLQOL) and a weight related symptom measure (WRSM). Additionally, we assessed eating satisfaction and food tolerance after surgery. RESULTS: The percentages of total weight loss and excess weight loss were 28.5% and 79.1%, respectively. OWLQOL scores and WRSM changed from 36.5 to 73.0 points and from 44.0 to 15.0 points (p = .007, .007), respectively. The food tolerance score decreased from 25 to 21.2 points (p < .001), while eating satisfaction showed no significant change (p = .25). CONCLUSION: Obesity-related QoL is enhanced even in the early postoperative period, without sacrificing eating satisfaction. The findings of this study may provide valuable insights for patients when considering LSG.

Evaluating Desk-Assisted Standing Techniques for Simulated Pregnant Conditions: An Experimental Study Using a Maternity-Simulation Jacket.

Lower back pain, a common issue among pregnant women, often complicates daily activities like standing up from a chair. Therefore, research into the standing motion of pregnant women is important, and many research studies have already been conducted. However, many of these studies were conducted in highly controlled environments, overlooking everyday scenarios such as using a desk for support when standing up, and their effects have not been adequately tested. To address this gap, we measured multimodal signals for a sit-to-stand (STS) movement with hand assistance and verified the changes using a t-test. To avoid imposing strain on pregnant women, we used 10 non-diseased young adults who wore jackets designed to simulate pregnancy conditions, thus allowing for more comprehensive and rigorous experimentation. We attached surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors to the erector spinae muscles of participants and measured changes in muscle activity, skeletal positioning, and center of pressure both before and after wearing a Maternity-Simulation Jacket. Our analysis showed that the jacket successfully mimicked key aspects of the movement patterns typical in pregnant women. These results highlight the possibility of developing practical strategies that more accurately mirror the real-life scenarios met by pregnant women, enriching the current research on their STS movement.

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy combined with Toupet fundoplication (T-sleeve): A short report of a Japanese obesity patient with gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is the most frequently performed procedure in bariatric-metabolic surgery (BMS) worldwide, accounting for approximately 90% of BMS procedures in Japan. While numerous studies have reported on the safety and efficacy of LSG, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) remains a major postoperative complication. Although Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is preferred for severe obesity with GERD, it is less suitable for Japanese patients who have a higher risk of gastric cancer due to the remnant stomach which is difficult to observe with esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy. To address de novo and exacerbation GERD after LSG, we conducted LSG with Toupet fundoplication (T-sleeve) for Japanese patients with severe obesity. In our first T-sleeve case, the patient demonstrated sufficient weight loss and improved GERD following surgery. Hence, we suggest that T-sleeve is a feasible option for Japanese patients with obesity and concurrent GERD.

Density predictive model for an outbreak in adult female Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Japan.

We developed a predictive model for activities and outbreaks of female Aedes albopictus Skuse, using meteorological data. The number of Ae. albopictus collected from human bait-sweep net collection (h-BNC) surveillance, conducted by the local government between 2010 and 2019 in Japan, was adopted as a mosquito-activity indicator. The best model was composed of the backward cumulative and backward moving mean of meteorological data (parameters that were measured daily include mean, maximum, and minimum temperature, mean humidity, amount of precipitation, maximum wind speed, and sunshine hours). The root mean squared error (RMSE) and the coefficient of determination (R2) of the best model for the test set, which was not included in the training dataset, were 1.33 and 0.74, respectively. The best model was applied to predict the number of Ae. albopictus obtained from our own h-BNC surveillance in Okazaki City, Japan. RMSE and R2 of the results were 1.17 and 0.92, respectively. The present model, using publicly available meteorological values, can predict the collection number of adult Ae. albopictus using h-BNC surveillance thereby providing information to control mosquito activities and outbreaks. Therefore, it may be possible to mitigate the risk of mosquito-borne infections and secondary adverse effects of mosquito bites, such as infectious impetigo and deterioration of the quality of life.

Pandemic-Induced Occupational Disruption and Association With Health in Japanese Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused occupational disruption and adverse health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. This study aimed to investigate the extent of occupational disruption in older adults and its relationship to health-related quality of life (QOL), depression, and frailty. In this cross-sectional study, retention rates in four activity domains and relationships with health outcomes were examined in Japanese older adults aged ≥65 years (n=163) using canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and mixed linear models. More than 25% of activities were restricted compared with the pre-pandemic period. CCA demonstrated correlations between four retention rates and health outcomes (canonical correlation = .42, p = .0003). Retention in instrumental and social activities independently predicted QOL and depression (p < .05). This study highlights that different activities may have different effects on health outcomes and can provide community occupational therapy practitioners with a perspective to assess occupational disruption and identify activities for intervention.

Pandemic-Induced Changes of Daily Routine and Its Association with Health for Japanese Older AdultsWe investigated the changes in daily activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic among community-dwelling older adults in Japan and examined their association with health outcomes. The results showed that more than 25% of activity was reduced due to the pandemic. There was a moderate association between changes in activity and physical, mental, and subjective health. Especially, instrumental and social activities were strongly associated with mental and subjective health. This study highlights the possibility that different types of activities may have different effects on health. Our study can provide occupational therapy practitioners supporting community-dwelling older adults with a perspective to assess changes in daily activities due to the pandemic and identify activities to target for future intervention. As this study was conducted at a single point in time, future studies should be conducted at multiple points in time.

Identification of Subgroups of Activity Participation in Group of Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Occupational therapy in public health is advancing for groups of older adults, but few studies have focused on measuring population-based activity engagement. This study aimed to identify subgroups based on the daily activity pattern of community-dwelling older adults. Japanese older adults aged ≥65 years responded to a 128-activity-item questionnaire. Sparse principal component analysis was applied to summarize the activities, and k-means clustering was used to identify subgroups. Respondents were divided into three subgroups (subgroup 1: n = 39, high instrumental/leisure and social/cognitive activity; subgroup 2: n = 51, high instrumental/leisure and low social/cognitive activity; subgroup 3: n = 44, low instrumental/leisure and social/cognitive activity). The three subgroups were associated with sociodemographics (sex, area, education, and activity level) (p < .05). This study highlighted the activity-based subgroups of older adults and provided a novel viewpoint regarding occupation-based community assessments in addition to previous community occupational therapy practice.

Types of anomalies in two-dimensional video-based gait analysis in uncontrolled environments.

Two-dimensional video-based pose estimation is a technique that can be used to estimate human skeletal coordinates from video data alone. It is also being applied to gait analysis and in particularly, due to its simplicity of measurement, it has the potential to be applied to gait analysis of large populations. However, it is considered difficult to completely homogenize the environment and settings during the measurement of large populations. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately deal with technical errors that are not related to the biological factors of interest. In this study, by analyzing a large cohort database, we have identified four major types of anomalies that occur during gait analysis using OpenPose in uncontrolled environments: anatomical, biomechanical, and physical anomalies and errors due to estimation. We have also developed a workflow for identifying and correcting these anomalies and confirmed that this workflow is reproducible through simulation experiments. Our results will help obtain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalies to be addressed during pre-processing for 2D video-based gait analysis of large populations.

International remote collaboration enabled inaugural endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty in Japan.

Obesity causes multiple conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and so on, and an intervention is needed for controlling weight and improving metabolic syndrome. However, the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions and pharmacotherapy are restrictive for losing weight. Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) was developed as a new therapy, picking the best of both medication and surgery, less invasive and more effective. Recently, ESG is gradually spreading in Western countries, but there is Case report doesn't need conclusion/result for Japanese patients. We herein reported the first clinical case of ESG in Japan. Given the situation of the pandemic of COVID-19, we could not invite a proctor from Western countries and receive the instruction of the device setting and maneuver face to face. Thus, we conducted the training for device setting, maneuver, and operation under a web-based international remote collaboration. Eventually, we completed ESG without an adverse event. We could prove this web-based proctor system was useful through the introduction of ESG in Japan. The international remote collaboration could become a new normal even in the endoscopy field post-COVID-19 era.

RoDiCE: robust differential protein co-expression analysis for cancer complexome.

MOTIVATION: The full spectrum of abnormalities in cancer-associated protein complexes remains largely unknown. Comparing the co-expression structure of each protein complex between tumor and healthy cells may provide insights regarding cancer-specific protein dysfunction. However, the technical limitations of mass spectrometry-based proteomics, including contamination with biological protein variants, causes noise that leads to non-negligible over- (or under-) estimating co-expression. RESULTS: We propose a robust algorithm for identifying protein complex aberrations in cancer based on differential protein co-expression testing. Our method based on a copula is sufficient for improving identification accuracy with noisy data compared to conventional linear correlation-based approaches. As an application, we use large-scale proteomic data from renal cancer to show that important protein complexes, regulatory signaling pathways and drug targets can be identified. The proposed approach surpasses traditional linear correlations to provide insights into higher-order differential co-expression structures. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: https://github.com/ymatts/RoDiCE. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Characterization of a Novel Thermostable Dye-Linked l-Lactate Dehydrogenase Complex and Its Application in Electrochemical Detection.

Flavoenzyme dye-linked l-lactate dehydrogenase (Dye-LDH) is primarily involved in energy generation through electron transfer and exhibits potential utility in electrochemical devices. In this study, a gene encoding a Dye-LDH homolog was identified in a hyperthermophilic archaeon, Sulfurisphaera tokodaii. This gene was part of an operon that consisted of four genes that were tandemly arranged in the Sf. tokodaii genome in the following order: stk_16540, stk_16550 (dye-ldh homolog), stk_16560, and stk_16570. This gene cluster was expressed in an archaeal host, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, and the produced enzyme was purified to homogeneity and characterized. The purified recombinant enzyme exhibited Dye-LDH activity and consisted of two different subunits (products of stk_16540 (α) and stk_16550 (ß)), forming a heterohexameric structure (α3ß3) with a molecular mass of approximately 253 kDa. Dye-LDH also exhibited excellent stability, retaining full activity upon incubation at 70 °C for 10 min and up to 80% activity after 30 min at 50 °C and pH 6.5-8.0. A quasi-direct electron transfer (DET)-type Dye-LDH was successfully developed by modification of the recombinant enzyme with an artificial redox mediator, phenazine ethosulfate, through amine groups on the enzyme's surface. This study is the first report describing the development of a quasi-DET-type enzyme by using thermostable Dye-LDH.

Clustered Common Factor Exploration in Factor Analysis.

The factor analysis (FA) model does not permit unique estimation of the common and unique factor scores. This weakness is notorious as the factor indeterminacy in FA. Luckily, some part of the factor scores can be uniquely determined. Thus, as a whole, they can be viewed as a sum of determined and undetermined parts. The paper proposes to select the undetermined part, such that the resulting common factor scores have the following feature: the rows (i.e., individuals) of the common factor score matrix are as well classified as possible into few clusters. The clear benefit is that we can easily interpret the factor scores simply by focusing on the clusters. The procedure is called clustered common factor exploration (CCFE). An alternating least squares algorithm is developed for CCFE. It is illustrated with real data examples. The proposed approach can be viewed as a parallel to the rotation techniques in FA. They exploit another FA indeterminacy, the rotation indeterminacy, which is resolved by choosing the rotation that transforms the loading matrix into the 'most' interpretable one according to a pre-specified criterion. In contrast to the rotational indeterminacy, the factor indeterminacy is utilized to achieve well-clustered factor scores by CCFE. To the best of our knowledge, such an approach to the FA interpretation has not been studied yet.

Correction to: A Comparison of the Bariatric Procedures that Are Performed in the Treatment of Super Morbid Obesity.

On page 2539, in the section "The Perioperative Outcome (Table 3)" in line 8 "LRYGB, 165 ± 42.6" should be corrected to "LRYGB, 160 ± 42.6".

Mid-term results of bariatric surgery in morbidly obese Japanese patients with slow progressive autoimmune diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: Bariatric surgery is recognized as an effective treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus, but data on its efficacy for type 1 diabetes mellitus, especially slowly progressive insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, are limited. METHODS: We investigated five Japanese patients with slowly progressive insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus who underwent bariatric surgery at our center. RESULTS: Five morbidly obese glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-positive diabetic patients underwent two different types of bariatric surgery. The mean titer of anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody was 4.6 U/mL, and the mean preoperative bodyweight and BMI were 113 kg and 39.6 kg/m2 , respectively. The mean hemoglobin A1c was 8.4%. The mean fasting serum C-peptide was 5.0 ng/mL. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy was performed in two patients, while laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy with duodenojejunal bypass was performed in three patients. At one year after surgery, the mean bodyweight and BMI significantly dropped, and the mean percentage of excess weight loss was 96.4%. The mean hemoglobin A1c was 5.7%. This favorable trend was maintained at mid-term. CONCLUSION: Bariatric surgery for morbidly obese patients with anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody-positive type 1 diabetes mellitus, especially slow progressive autoimmune diabetes, seemed effective in achieving mid-term glycemic control. Longer follow-up with a larger number of patients, as well as validation with more advanced patients with slowly progressive insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, will be needed.

Prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease in Morbidly Obese Japanese and the Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Disease Progression.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among Japanese morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery and the impact of bariatric surgery on their renal function has not previously been investigated. OBJECTIVES: The aims were to assess the prevalence of CKD patients who underwent bariatric surgery in our institution and to elucidate the impact of bariatric surgery on their kidney function as measured by the estimated glomerular filtration rate by Cystatin-C (eGFRcys). SETTING: The setting of the study was in a single private hospital. METHODS: Two hundred fifty-four consecutive Japanese patients who underwent bariatric surgery were retrospectively analyzed to elucidate the prevalence of CKD. The eGFRcys was calculated to assess the change in the kidney function for 1 year after surgery. RESULTS: The preoperative prevalence of CKD was as follows: G1, 45.3%; G2, 47.2%; G3, 6.5%; and G4, 0.9%. The eGFRcys values before and after surgery were compared; the G1 and G2 patients showed significantly improved eGFRcys values after surgery (G1 101 [94-108] vs 114 [103-127]; G2 79 [74-84] vs 97 [87-104] ml/min/1.73 m2; p < 0.01) with significant weight loss (G1 38.1 ± 6.2 vs 26.5 ± 3.4; G2 38.5 ± 6.9 vs 26.7 ± 3.6 kg/m2; p < 0.01). Although the renal function of G3 patients was not improved after surgery (44 [42-47] vs 45 [43-63] ml/min/1.73 m2; p = 0.08), successful weight loss was achieved (36.1 ± 6.3 vs 26.6 ± 3.6 kg/m2; p < 0.01). In multivariate analysis, postoperative eGFRcys correlated negatively with proteinuria (p < 0.01), age (p < 0.01), and body mass index (p < 0.01) and positively with persistence of antihypertensive drugs. CONCLUSION: Bariatric surgery resulted in the significant improvement in the eGFRcys values of Japanese patients with morbid obesity, particularly those with pre-CKD (eGFRcys ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2), while the eGFRcys values of CKD patients (< 60 ml/min/1.73 m2) were not ameliorated by surgery.

A Comparison of the Bariatric Procedures that Are Performed in the Treatment of Super Morbid Obesity.

BACKGROUND: We have experienced numerous cases of super morbid obesity (SMO), defined by a BMI of ≥50 kg/m2, in which laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) was not able to achieve a sufficient weight loss effect. However, the most appropriate procedure for the treatment of SMO has not yet been established. METHODS: The subjects included 248 successive patients who underwent surgery at our hospital from June 2006 to December 2012. We divided the subjects into an SMO group (BMI, 50 to <70 kg/m2) and a morbid obesity (MO) group (BMI, 35 to <50 kg/m2). The subjects underwent LSG, LSG with duodenojejunal bypass (LSG/DJB), or laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB). The weight loss effects, safety of surgery, and metabolic profile changes were compared. RESULTS: Sixty-two subjects were classified into the SMO group (25%). The percent excess weight loss (%EWL) after LSG among the patients in the SMO group was not significantly different from that of patients who underwent other procedures. LSG was associated with a significantly lower success rate in terms of weight loss (%EWL ≥ 50%), in comparison to the weight loss at 1 year after LRYGB and at 2 years after LSG/DJB and LRYGB. Among the patients in the MO group, the %EWL and the rate of successful weight loss did not differ to a statistically significant extent. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that in patients with SMO, LSG/DJB and LRYGB can achieve superior weight loss effects in comparison to LSG.

Development of flexible nanocarriers for siRNA delivery into tumor tissue.

Various non-viral delivery systems for small interfering RNAs (siRNA) have been developed. Such delivery systems generally exhibit tightly formed spherical structures. While such carriers have demonstrated good transfection activity in mono-layered cell systems, effects against solid tumors are often less apparent and difficult to demonstrate, likely due to the rigid structures of the carriers, which may prevent penetration to deeper regions within tumor tissue. Herein, we developed a flexible nanocarrier (FNC) system that is able to penetrate to deeper regions within tumor tissue. Specifically, we employed previously found flexible polyplexes comprised of siRNA and poly-l-lysine as wick structures for the preparation of FNCs. FNCs were constructed by coating the wick structures with lipids using a liposomal membrane fusion method. The diameters of the resulting FNCs were ca. 170nm, and the shapes were non-spherical. Lipid coating was confirmed using a nuclease resistance assay. Furthermore, FNCs showed significant RNA interference effects, comparable to Lipofectamine 2000, in a mono-layered cell system. To accelerate tumor penetration, the FNC surface was modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and the tight junction opener peptide AT1002. Surface-modified FNCs demonstrated effective penetrability into a cancer spheroid. Thus, we developed a novel and unique tumor-penetrable siRNA FNC system.

Coordinated movements of the head and body during orienting behaviour in the praying mantis Tenodera aridifolia.

The visual orienting behaviour towards prey in the free-moving mantis was investigated with a high-speed camera. The orienting behaviour consisted of head, prothorax, and abdomen rotations. Coordinated movements of these body parts in the horizontal plane were analysed frame-by-frame. Rotations of these body parts were initiated with no or slight (≤40 ms) differences in timing. The initiation timing of prothorax-abdomen rotation was affected by its initial angle before the onset of orienting. There were positive correlations in amplitude among head-prothorax, prothorax-abdomen, and abdomen rotations. The ratio of these rotations to total gaze rotation was affected by the initial prothorax-abdomen angle before the onset of orienting. Our data suggest that coordinated movements of the head, prothorax, and abdomen during orienting are ballistic events and are pre-determined according to visual and proprioceptive information before the onset of orienting.