Predicting habitual water intake from lifestyle questions.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have used selective recall and descriptive dietary record methods, requiring considerable effort for assessing food and water intake. This study created a simplified lifestyle questionnaire to predict habitual water intake (SQW), accurately and quickly assessing the habitual water intake. We also evaluated the validity using descriptive dietary records as a cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: First, we used crowdsourcing and machine learning to collect data, predict water intake records, and create questionnaires. We collected 305 lifestyle-related questions as predictor variables and selective recall methods for assessing water intake as an outcome variable. Random forests were used for the machine learning models because of their interpretability and accurate estimation. Random forest and single regression correlation analysis were augmented by the synthetic minority oversampling that trained the model. We separated the data by sex and evaluated our model using unseen hold-out testing data, predicting the individual and overall habitual water intake from various sources, including non-alcoholic beverages, alcohol, and food. RESULTS: We found a 0.60 Spearman's correlation coefficient for total water intake between the predicted and the selective recall method values, reflecting the target value to be achieved. This question set was then used for feasibility tests. The descriptive dietary record method helped to obtain a ground-truth value. We categorized the data by gender, season, and source: non-alcoholic beverages, alcohol, food, and total water intake, and the correlation was confirmed. Consequently, our results showed a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.50 for total water intake between the predicted and the selective recall method values. CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesize that dissemination of SQW can lead to better health management by easily determining the habitual water intake.

Effect of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor Administration on Cardiac Rehabilitation in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with Heart Failure.

Cardiac rehabilitation in patients with diabetes mellitus and heart failure may be affected by anti-diabetic drugs. However, there are few reports on the effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors on cardiac rehabilitation. Thus, we retrospectively investigated the patient backgrounds and effects of cardiac rehabilitation in 44 patients admitted to our hospital with heart failure and pre-existing diabetes mellitus. Our results showed that the patients tended to be older, and those who received SGLT2 inhibitors had lower systolic blood pressure and left ventricular ejection fraction on admission than those who did not. Cardiac rehabilitation significantly improved the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) score in all patients, and there was no significant difference in body mass index or in body weight. There were no significant differences in SPPB score at admission, discharge, or change from admission to discharge with or without SGLT2 inhibitors. These results suggest that SGLT2 inhibitors do not affect the change in SPPB scores. SGLT2 inhibitors may thus be used safely without affecting cardiac rehabilitation while adhering to the necessary safety precautions.

Prediction of nodal metastasis based on intraoral sonographic findings of the primary lesion in early-stage tongue cancer.

The aim of this study was to clarify the correlation between imaging findings obtained using intraoral ultrasonography (US) and pathological findings of tongue cancers, and to examine the predictive value of intraoral US findings with respect to occult nodal metastasis. This was a retrospective study based on the medical records of 123 patients with T1-2N0 tongue cancer. The depth of invasion (DOI) on intraoral US was positively correlated with the pathological invasion depth (PID) (ρ = 0.7080, P < 0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic analyses revealed an optimal DOI cut-off value of 4.1 mm and optimal PID cut-off value of 3.9 mm to detect nodal metastasis. Regarding the margin shape of the primary tumour on intraoral US, the incidence of nodal metastasis was significantly higher for the permeated type than for the pressure type (P < 0.001) and wedge-shaped type (P = 0.002). Furthermore, tumours with peritumoural vascularity assessed by power Doppler US had a significantly higher incidence of nodal metastasis than tumours without (P = 0.003). The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the permeated type to predict nodal metastasis was 53.6%, 95.8%, and 86.2%, respectively. These results suggest that intraoral US findings closely reflect pathological findings and could be useful to predict occult nodal metastasis in patients with early-stage tongue cancer.

Salivary Alpha-Amylase Activity and Mild Cognitive Impairment among Japanese Older Adults: The Toon Health Study.

BACKGROUND: There is growing interest in examining objective markers for early identification and behavioral intervention to prevent dementia and mild cognitive impairment in clinical and community settings. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between salivary alpha-amylase as an objective measure of psychological stress response and mild cognitive impairment for the implication of psychological stress in the development of mild cognitive impairment. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study involved 865 participants aged ≥ 65 years. A saliva sample was collected in the morning, and the levels of salivary alpha-amylase were assayed. Mild cognitive impairment was evaluated using the Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment; a score < 26 was indicative of mild cognitive impairment. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to examine the association of salivary alpha-amylase and mild cognitive impairment after adjusting for age, sex, current drinking status, current smoking status, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, physical activity, education, social support, social network, and heart rate variability. RESULTS: Salivary alpha-amylase was associated with mild cognitive impairment (the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval] for the 1-standard deviation increment of log-transformed salivary alpha-amylase was 1.24 [1.07-1.44]). This significant association persisted after adjusting for various confounding factors. CONCLUSION: Elevation of salivary alpha-amylase was associated with mild cognitive impairment among Japanese community-dwelling older adults. This suggests that salivary alpha-amylase is a useful objective marker of psychological stress responses associated with mild cognitive impairment.

Direct observations of energy transfer from resonant electrons to whistler-mode waves in magnetosheath of Earth.

Electromagnetic whistler-mode waves in space plasmas play critical roles in collisionless energy transfer between the electrons and the electromagnetic field. Although resonant interactions have been considered as the likely generation process of the waves, observational identification has been extremely difficult due to the short time scale of resonant electron dynamics. Here we show strong nongyrotropy, which rotate with the wave, of cyclotron resonant electrons as direct evidence for the locally ongoing secular energy transfer from the resonant electrons to the whistler-mode waves using ultra-high temporal resolution data obtained by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission in the magnetosheath. The nongyrotropic electrons carry a resonant current, which is the energy source of the wave as predicted by the nonlinear wave growth theory. This result proves the nonlinear wave growth theory, and furthermore demonstrates that the degree of nongyrotropy, which cannot be predicted even by that nonlinear theory, can be studied by observations.

Magnetically Hidden State on the Ground Floor of the Magnetic Devil's Staircase.

We investigated the low-temperature and high-field thermodynamic and ultrasonic properties of SrCu_{2}(BO_{3})_{2}, which exhibits various plateaux in its magnetization curve above 27 T, called a magnetic Devil's staircase. The results of the present study confirm that magnetic crystallization, the first step of the staircase, occurs above 27 T as a first-order transition accompanied by a sharp singularity in heat capacity C_{p} and a kink in the elastic constant. In addition, we observe a thermodynamic anomaly at lower fields around 26 T, which has not been previously detected by any magnetic probes. At low temperatures, this magnetically hidden state has a large entropy and does not exhibit Schottky-type gapped behavior, which suggests the existence of low-energy collective excitations. Based on our observations and theoretical predictions, we propose that magnetic quadrupoles form a spin-nematic state around 26 T as a hidden state on the ground floor of the magnetic Devil's staircase.

Quantifying the Size and Duration of a Microburst-Producing Chorus Region on 5 December 2017.

Microbursts are impulsive (<1 s) injections of electrons into the atmosphere, thought to be caused by nonlinear scattering by chorus waves. Although attempts have been made to quantify their contribution to outer belt electron loss, the uncertainty in the overall size and duration of the microburst region is typically large, so that their contribution to outer belt loss is uncertain. We combine datasets that measure chorus waves (Van Allen Probes [RBSP], Arase, ground-based VLF stations) and microburst (>30 keV) precipitation (FIREBIRD II and AC6 CubeSats, POES) to determine the size of the microburst-producing chorus source region beginning on 5 December 2017. We estimate that the long-lasting (∼30 hr) microburst-producing chorus region extends from 4 to 8 Δ MLT and 2-5 Δ L. We conclude that microbursts likely represent a major loss source of outer radiation belt electrons for this event.

PREMATURE MENOPAUSE AND OBESITY DUE TO OOCYTE LOSS IN FEMALE MICE CHRONICALLY EXPOSED TO LOW DOSE-RATE γ-RAYS.

In previous reports, the authors showed a significant overall increase in neoplasms originating from the ovaries (2007) and increased body weights (2007, 2010) in female B6C3F1 mice chronically exposed to low dose-rate γ-rays at 20 mGy/day (total doses = 8 (2007) or 6 Gy (2010)), as well as significant increases in serum leptin, total cholesterol, adipose tissue deposits and liver lipid content (2010). The present study chronicles the progression of ovarian failure in relation to obesity and dyslipidemia in female B6C3F1 mice chronically exposed to low dose-rate of γ-rays from 9 to 43 weeks of age (total dose = 4.8 Gy). We monitored changes in body weights, estrus cycles, ovarian follicle counts, serum cholesterol and serum leptin. The number of mice with irregular estrus cycles and increased body weights (with increased fat deposits) significantly increased from 30-36 weeks of age. Depletion of oocytes in ovaries from irradiated mice at 30 weeks of age (accumulated dose = 3 Gy) was also observed. Findings suggest that obesity in female B6C3F1 mice continuously irradiated with low dose-rate of γ-rays at 20 mGy/day is a consequence of premature menopause due to radiation-induced oocyte depletion.