DISTRIBUTION OF GAMMA RADIATION DOSE RATE AND ACTIVITY CONCENTRATION IN SOIL RELATED WITH NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES ON TAIWAN MAIN ISLAND.

To enable precise assessment of health impacts following a nuclear power plant accident, extensive and detailed data on environmental radiation levels are needed. This study was undertaken to investigate the air and the soil radiation levels using a car-borne survey on the main island of Taiwan where no extensive environmental radiation distribution survey had been conducted before. The mean air absorbed dose rate on this island was 57 ± 10 nGy h-1. The measured dose rate distribution varied depending on the geology of the soils, and ranged from 22 to 113 nGy h-1. The mean radiation level in soil was 539 ± 124 Bq kg-1 for 40K, 23 ± 8 Bq kg-1 for 238U and 41 ± 22 Bq kg-1 for 232Th. The air absorbed dose rate (58 nGy h-1) calculated from these data of mean radiation level in soil was comparable to that determined by the car-borne survey method. Thus, this study yielded detailed data on air absorbed dose rate depending primarily on the geology of the soils on the main island of Taiwan.

Long-term effects of exercise and amino acid supplementation on muscle mass, physical function and falls in community-dwelling elderly Japanese sarcopenic women: A 4-year follow-up study.

AIM: To determine the long-term effects of interventions carried out for the improvement of muscle mass, strength, walking ability and fall rate, 4 years after the completion of the intervention. METHODS: Out of 304 elderly sarcopenic women aged over 75 years, 155 participated in an intervention and 149 were excluded from the intervention. Those excluded were considered as non-participants and included in the analysis. Follow-up data were available for 259 women (135 intervention participants; 124 non-participants). Muscle mass was determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Physical fitness measurements and interview surveys were carried out at baseline and at 4-year follow up. RESULTS: Compared with the non-participants, women in the intervention group had significantly smaller reductions in measures of muscle mass, strength and walking speed from baseline to follow up. The absolute mean difference between the two groups was 3.7% (95% confidence interval -6.5 to -0.8; P = 0.012) for leg muscle mass, 10.7% (-21.0 to -0.3; P = 0.011) for knee extension strength and 8.4% (-16.0 to -0.9; P = 0.029) for usual walking speed. Instrumental activities of daily living disability significantly increased in both participants and non-participants in 4 years. The fall rate of the previous 1 year in intervention participants was 18.5% in 2008 and 23.0% in 2012 (χ(2) = 2.122, P = 0.145), and 17.7% in 2008 and 29.0% in 2012 among non-participants (χ(2) = 15.415, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Participation in an intervention could prevent significant declines in lower extremity muscle mass, strength and mobility, even in the long-term, and might be beneficial in suppressing otherwise significant rises in fall rates.

Effectiveness of exercise with or without thermal therapy for community-dwelling elderly Japanese women with non-specific knee pain: a randomized controlled trial.

UNLABELLED: Knee pain is a common health problem in the elderly population, for which non-invasive treatments are recommended as a first line treatment in the management of knee pain. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine the effects of exercise with or without thermal therapy in community-dwelling elderly women with chronic knee pain. Women over 75 years of age with knee pain (n=150) were randomly assigned into four groups; exercise (Ex) and heat/steam generating sheet (HSGS) (n=38), Ex (n=37), HSGS (n=38), or health education (HE) (n=37). The Ex group attended a 60-min comprehensive training program twice a week for 3-months. The HSGS group placed two sheets on the knee for five hours per day. Functional fitness, visual analog scale (VAS), and Japanese knee osteoarthritis measure (JKOM) were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. The results showed VAS improvements in the Ex+HSGS and HSGS groups. Total JKOM score, muscle strength, and functional mobility significantly improved in the Ex+HSGS group compared with the HE group. The odds ratio (OR) for VAS and functional mobility improvement was more than eight times as great in the Ex+HSGS group (OR=8.60, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.82-32.73) compared with the education group. Ex or HSGS alone were insufficient in enhancing functional fitness or improving pain and quality of life. The combined effects of both Ex and heat therapy seems to have an added benefit of decreasing pain, improving physical function and increasing quality of life. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: JMA-IIA00110.

Effects of a comprehensive intervention program, including hot bathing, on physical function in community-dwelling healthy older adults: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To study the effects of a comprehensive intervention program comprising exercise, diet, and hot bathing in community-dwelling older adults by using a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: The program included 61 community-dwelling healthy older adults (mean [SD] age, 69.9 [5.3] years) who were using a hot bath facility. The participants were randomly assigned to four groups as follows: an exercise, diet, and hot bath intervention group (A); an exercise and diet intervention group (B); a hot bath intervention group (C); and a control group (D). Individuals in groups A and B participated in a comprehensive intervention program (including exercise and diet classes) twice a week for 3 months, and those in groups A and C took hot baths. RESULTS: After 3 months, the participants in groups A and B showed a significantly greater improvement in their timed up and go test and stepping test scores than the participants in groups C and D. However, the participants in groups A and C did not show any dependent or independent effects of hot bathing. Three months after the intervention, a follow-up assessment indicated that the group A participants maintained the effect of the intervention and showed improved lower extremity function and health-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that a comprehensive intervention program involving hot bathing may improve lower extremity function and that its effects can be maintained even in healthy older adults. However, the dependent or independent effects of hot bathing may not be expected for healthy older adults.

Effects of exercise and tea catechins on muscle mass, strength and walking ability in community-dwelling elderly Japanese sarcopenic women: a randomized controlled trial.

AIM: To investigate the effects of exercise and/or tea catechin supplementation on muscle mass, strength and walking ability in elderly Japanese women with sarcopenia. METHODS: A total of 128 women aged over 75 years were defined as sarcopenic and randomly assigned into four groups: exercise and tea catechin supplementation (n = 32), exercise (n = 32), tea catechin supplementation (n = 32) or health education (n = 32). The exercise group attended a 60-min comprehensive training program twice a week and the tea catechin supplementation group ingested 350 mL of a tea beverage fortified with catechin daily for 3 months. Body composition was determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Interview data and functional fitness measurements, such as muscle strength, balance and walking ability, were collected at baseline and after the 3-month intervention. RESULTS: There were significant group × time interactions observed in timed up & go (P < 0.001), usual walking speed (P = 0.007) and maximum walking speed (P < 0.001). The exercise + catechin group showed a significant effect (odds ratio 3.61, 95% confidence interval 1.05-13.66) for changes in the combined variables of leg muscle mass and usual walking speed compared with the health education group. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of exercise and tea catechin supplementation had a beneficial effect on physical function measured by walking ability and muscle mass.

Effects of a comprehensive intervention program, including hot bathing, on overweight adults: a randomized controlled trial.

AIM: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive overweight intervention program, which utilizes hot bathing, on overweight, community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: The program was carried out in a hot bath facility and included 66 community-dwelling middle-aged and older Japanese adults (mean age 61.6 years, SD 7.5, 77.3% were women). The participants were randomly assigned to an exercise, diet and hot bathing intervention group (group A), exercise and diet intervention group (group B), a hot-bathing intervention group (group C) and a control group (group D). The participants in groups A and B participated in a comprehensive intervention program (including exercise and diet classes) twice a week for 3 months, and groups A and C had hot bathing. RESULTS: After 3 months, the participants in group A showed a reduction in weight, abdominal circumference, body mass index and body fat percentage compared with the other intervention groups. And the lower extremity function (i.e. walking speed) had greater improvement in the participants in groups A and B compared with groups C and D. In group C, in which only hot bathing was the intervention, there were no significant improvements in measurement items. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides preliminary evidence that a comprehensive intervention program, including hot bathing, is useful for community residents with a tendency toward overweight.

Effects of exercise and amino acid supplementation on body composition and physical function in community-dwelling elderly Japanese sarcopenic women: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of exercise and amino acid supplementation in enhancing muscle mass and strength in community-dwelling elderly sarcopenic women. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Urban community in Tokyo, Japan. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred fifty-five women aged 75 and older were defined as sarcopenic and randomly assigned to one of four groups: exercise and amino acid supplementation (exercise + AAS; n = 38), exercise (n = 39), amino acid supplementation (AAS; n = 39), or health education (HE; n = 39). INTERVENTION: The exercise group attended a 60-minute comprehensive training program twice a week, and the AAS group ingested 3 g of a leucine-rich essential amino acid mixture twice a day for 3 months. MEASUREMENTS: Body composition was determined using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Data from interviews and functional fitness parameters such as muscle strength and walking ability were collected at baseline and after the 3-month intervention. RESULTS: A significant group × time interaction was seen in leg muscle mass (P = .007), usual walking speed (P = .007), and knee extension strength (P = .017). The within-group analysis showed that walking speed significantly increased in all three intervention groups, leg muscle mass in the exercise + AAS and exercise groups, and knee extension strength only in the exercise + AAS group (9.3% increase, P = .01). The odds ratio for leg muscle mass and knee extension strength improvement was more than four times as great in the exercise + AAS group (odds ratio = 4.89, 95% confidence interval = 1.89-11.27) as in the HE group. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that exercise and AAS together may be effective in enhancing not only muscle strength, but also combined variables of muscle mass and walking speed and of muscle mass and strength in sarcopenic women.

A significant relationship between plasma vitamin C concentration and physical performance among Japanese elderly women.

BACKGROUND: Maintenance of physical performance could improve the quality of life in old age. Recent studies suggested a beneficial relationship between antioxidant vitamin (eg, vitamin C) intake and physical performance in elderly people. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between plasma vitamin C concentration and physical performance among Japanese community-dwelling elderly women. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study involving elderly females residing in an urban area in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2006. We examined anthropometric measurements, physical performance, lifestyles, and plasma vitamin C concentration of participants. RESULTS: A total of 655 subjects who did not take supplements were analyzed. The mean age (±standard deviation) of participants was 75.7 ± 4.1 years in this study. The geometric mean (geometric standard deviation) of plasma vitamin C concentration was 8.9 (1.5) µg/mL. The plasma vitamin C concentration was positively correlated with handgrip strength, length of time standing on one leg with eyes open and walking speed, and inversely correlated with body mass index. After adjusting for the confounding factors, the quartile plasma vitamin C level was significantly correlated with the subject's handgrip strength (p for trend = .0004) and ability to stand on one leg with eyes open (p for trend = .049). CONCLUSIONS: In community-dwelling elderly women, the concentration of plasma vitamin C related well to their muscle strength and physical performance.

[A randomized controlled trial of the effects of a comprehensive intervention program for community-dwelling older adults].

AIM: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive intervention program named SPRING, which utilizes a hot spring facility, in community-dwelling older adults in a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: A total of 60 community-dwelling elderly people (mean age, 72.7±6.0 years) participated in this program. After baseline investigation, participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=31) or a control group (n=29). The intervention group participated in a comprehensive intervention program (including exercise classes, nutrition classes and bathing) twice a week for 3 months. After 3 months and 6 months, we evaluated the effects of the intervention. RESULTS: The attendance rate of the intervention group was 76%, and there were no accidents or injuries associated with this program. After 3 months, grip strength and one-leg standing with eyes-open scores significantly improved among the intervention group, compared with the control group (p=0.028; p=0.003, respectively). On follow-up, grip strength, one-leg standing with eyes-open scores and the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) scores were statistically significantly maintained or had improved in the intervention group (p=0.001; p=0.024; p=0.027, respectively). CONCLUSION: The comprehensive intervention program SPRING may improve physical function among community-dwelling older adults. In addition, SPRING may have long-term beneficial effects for older adults.

PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE SYNTHASE1 is required for microspore development in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Phosphatidylserine (PS) has many important biological roles, but little is known about its role in plants, partly because of its low abundance. We show here that PS is enriched in Arabidopsis floral tissues and that genetic disruption of PS biosynthesis decreased heterozygote fertility due to inhibition of pollen maturation. At1g15110, designated PSS1, encodes a base-exchange-type PS synthase. Escherichia coli cells expressing PSS1 accumulated PS in the presence of l-serine at 23°C. Promoter-GUS assays showed PSS1 expression in developing anther pollen and tapetum. A few seeds with pss1-1 and pss1-2 knockout alleles escaped embryonic lethality but developed into sterile dwarf mutant plants. These plants contained no PS, verifying that PSS1 is essential for PS biosynthesis. Reciprocal crossing revealed reduced pss1 transmission via male gametophytes, predicting a rate of 61.6%pss1-1 pollen defects in PSS1/pss1-1 plants. Alexander's staining of inseparable qrt1-1 PSS1/pss1-1 quartets revealed a rate of 42% having three or four dead pollen grains, suggesting sporophytic pss1-1 cell death effects. Analysis with the nuclear stain 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) showed that all tetrads from PSS1/pss1-1 anthers retain their nuclei, whereas unicellular microspores were sometimes anucleate. Transgenic Arabidopsis expressing a GFP-LactC2 construct that binds PS revealed vesicular staining in tetrads and bicellular microspores and nuclear membrane staining in unicellular microspores. Hence, distribution and/or transport of PS across membranes were dynamically regulated in pollen microspores. However, among unicellular microspores from PSS1/pss1-2 GFP-LactC2 plants, all anucleate microspores showed little GFP-LactC2 fluorescence, suggesting that pss1-2 microspores are more sensitive to sporophytic defects or show partial gametophytic defects.

Evaluation of chest and abdominal exposure dose appropriate for a digital image reader system incorporating a columnar-crystal structured phosphor plate and a contrast-detail phantom.

We evaluated a newly developed digital image reader incorporating a columnar-crystal structured phosphor plate (CPP) to determine its effectiveness for chest and abdominal exposures by assessing contrast-detail (C-D) curves and image quality figure values obtained from a C-D phantom. With the help of five radiologic technologists with 5 years or more of experience in the interpretation of plain radiographs, we assessed chest and abdominal radiographic films that had undergone image processing. The exposure dose required for obtaining the same image quality under chest exposure conditions (110 kV) was 66% of that necessary for a conventionally used computed radiography system incorporating a powder phosphor plate, whereas the percentage under abdominal exposure conditions (85 kV) was 82%. The rate of dose reduction varied depending on the anatomic region radiographed, the exposure conditions applied, and the method of image processing employed. Because the CPP has a higher X-ray detection efficiency than the hitherto-used powder phosphor plate, its use has to potential to reduce the patients' radiation exposure dose.

Green tea polyphenols inhibit metalloproteinase activities in the skin, muscle, and blood of rainbow trout.

We have investigated the inhibitory effects of polyphenols from natural products, such as green tea, bilberry, grape, ginkgo, and apple, on rainbow trout gelatinase activities. Gelatinases from the skin, muscle, and blood of rainbow trout contained serine proteinase, metalloproteinase, and other proteinase activities as measured by gelatin zymography. The polyphenols of green tea caused the strong inhibition of some gelatinase activities when compared with those of the other products. This inhibition was quite similar to that of metalloproteinase by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, suggesting that the effects of green tea polyphenols on proteinase activities are specific for metalloproteinases. The major catechins of green tea polyphenols were then separated and identified by reverse-phase chromatography to be (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (-)-epigallocatechin, (-)-epicatechin gallate, and (-)-epicatechin. The effects of these catechins on gelatinase activities were examined; the most potent inhibitor of metalloproteinase activities was found to be EGCG. These results have indicated that green tea polyphenols including EGCG are useful for regulating metalloproteinase activities of fish meat.