Preliminary Study on Biosensor-Type Time-Temperature Integrator for Intelligent Food Packaging.

A glucose biosensor was utilized as a platform for the time-temperature integrator (TTI), a device for intelligent food packaging. The TTI system is composed of glucose oxidase, glucose, a pH indicator, and a three-electrode potentiostat, which produces an electrical signal as well as color development. The reaction kinetics of these response variables were analyzed under isothermal conditions. The reaction rates of the electrical current and color changes were 0.0360 ± 0.0020 (95% confidence limit), 0.0566 ± 0.0026, 0.0716 ± 0.0024, 0.1073 ± 0.0028 µA/min, and 0.0187 ± 0.0005, 0.0293 ± 0.0018, 0.0363 ± 0.0012, 0.0540 ± 0.0019 1/min, at 5, 15, 25, and 35 °C, respectively. The Arrhenius activation energy of the current reaction (Eacurrent) was 25.0 ± 1.6 kJ/mol and the Eacolor of the color reactions was 24.2 ± 0.6 kJ/mol. The similarity of these Ea shows agreement in the prediction of food qualities between the electrical signal and color development. Consequently, the function of the new time-temperature integrator system could be extended to that of a biosensor compatible with any electrical utilization equipment.

Association between the duration of palliative care service and survival in terminal cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Preliminary studies of early palliative care showed improved quality of life, less medical cost, and better survival time. But, most terminal cancer patients tend to be referred to palliative care late. For the proper care of terminal cancer patients, it is necessary to refer to hospice and palliative care timely. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of the duration of palliative care services on the survival in terminal cancer patients. METHODS: We reviewed 609 patients who had died from terminal cancer between January 2010 and December 2012. We analyzed correlations of age, first Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) level, duration of palliative care service, and survival time. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used for both univariate and multivariate analyses of survival. RESULTS: Duration of palliative care services was significantly correlated with survival time. In univariate Cox regression analysis, age, and each group of duration of palliative care service showed significant associations with survival. Final multivariate Cox regression model retained four parameters as independent prognostic factors for survival (age HR = 0.99 (p = 0.002), 1∼10 days HR = 2.64 (p < 0.001), 11∼30 days HR = 2.43 (p < 0.001), 31∼90 days HR = 1.87 (p < 0.001)). CONCLUSIONS: Shorter duration of palliative care services showed poor prognostic factor. Timely referral system from the end of chemotherapy is warranted.

Association between Alcohol Drinking Status and Depressive Symptoms in Korean Adults.

We investigated the association between alcohol drinking status and depressive symptoms in a representative sample of South Korean adults using data from the 2017 Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS), which included 216,771 participants (99,845 men and 116,926 women). Depression was defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score of ≥10. Multivariate logistic regression using sampling weights was used to assess the relationship between alcohol drinking status and depression after adjusting for potential confounders. Alcohol intake was nonlinearly associated with depression; the risk of depression was the lowest in men who were moderate drinkers and women who were light drinkers. In men, heavy drinkers (odds ratio [OR] 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.19-1.67), light drinkers (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.94-1.36), infrequent drinkers (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.00-1.73), and lifetime abstainers (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.09-1.75) were at a higher risk of depression than moderate drinkers. In women, moderate drinkers (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02-1.40) and heavy drinkers (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.33-1.84) were at a higher risk of depression than light drinkers; however, infrequent drinkers and lifetime abstainers were not at a high risk of depression. In both men and women, former drinkers were at a higher risk of depression (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.34-1.93 and OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.09-1.43, respectively). In conclusion, the association between alcohol drinking status and depression was nonlinear in both sexes. Further investigation of age- and sex-specific factors related to the association between alcohol use and depression is needed.

Screening for Atrial Fibrillation Using a Smartphone-Based Electrocardiogram in Korean Elderly.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is responsible for 10-20% of cerebral infarctions. Several mobile devices have been developed to screen for AF and studies of AF screening have been conducted in several countries to evaluate the applicability of these mobile devices. In this tradition, we conducted a community-based AF screening using an automated single-lead electrocardiogram (SL-ECG). This survey examined 2,422 participants in a community dementia screening program who were aged 60 years or older in the preliminary study, and 5,366 participants at 9 Senior Welfare Centers aged 60 years or older in the expanded study. AF screening was conducted using an automated SL-ECG (Kardia Mobile, AliveCor, Mountain View, CA, USA). AF was confirmed with a 12-lead electrocardiogram in subjects classified as having AF on the SL-ECG. In the preliminary study, of the 2,422 subjects, 124 had AF on the SL-ECG. The prevalence of AF was 3.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.4-3.8). The positive predictive value (PPV) of SL-ECG was 58.9% (95% CI: 50.1-67.1). Of the subjects diagnosed with AF, 65.8% (95% CI: 54.3-75.6) were newly diagnosed. In an expanded study, of the 5,366 subjects, 289 had AF on SL-ECG. The prevalence was 2.6% (95% CI: 2.2-3.1) and PPV of SL-ECG was 48.8% (95% CI: 43.1-54.5). In this community-based AF screening, we found that AF is underdiagnosed and undertreated. These results suggest that the early detection of AF using mobile devices is needed in Korea.

Ginsenoside Rh2 ameliorates scopolamine-induced learning deficit in mice.

To understand memory-enhancing effect of red ginseng biotransformed by Bifidobacterium longum H-1 (RGB), which more potently improved scopolamine-induced learning deficit than red ginseng in the preliminary experiment, its main constituents, ginsenosides Rb1, Rg3 and Rh2, were isolated and their memory-enhancing effects investigated in scopolamine-treated mice by using passive avoidance and Y-maze tests. Among them, ginsenoside Rh2 most potently reversed memory impairment caused by scopolamine. Ginsenoside Rh2 also significantly shortened the escape latencies prolonged by scopolamine in the Morris water maze test (p<0.001) and increased the swimming time shorten by scopolamine within the platform quadrant (p<0.05). The ginsenoside Rh2 (3 muM) reversed scopolamine (10 muM)-induced suppression of long-term potentiation. It recovered field excitatory post synaptic potential (fEPSP) amplitude potentiation to 152.3+/-8.7% of the control (p<0.05). Based on these findings, RGB and its main constituent, ginsenoside Rh2, might improve learning deficits. Also the memory-enhancing effects of RGB may be dependent on the content of ginsenoside Rh2.

Measurement of cooked rice stickiness with consideration of contact area in compression test.

The cooked rice stickiness is conventionally measured as the maximum detachment force required to separate the probe from the sample, after compression on the platform of a texture analyzer. A corrected stickiness (the measured stickiness force divided by the contact area) was newly created to avoid the deviation of stickiness influenced by the contact area varying with the rice sample's irregularity, regarding shape and size. The contact area could be estimated from the volume, density, and thickness of the samples. The compression force triggering the stickiness was also converted to the corrected compression force (the force divided by the contact area). Two varieties of rice (short-grain rice and glutinous rice) were cooked with different amount of water to prepare the samples with various stickiness levels. The contact area was mostly higher in the glutinous rice than short-grain rice. The contact area increased with the cooking water amount. Three parameters were compared such as the stickiness (the measured force), the primarily corrected stickiness (the corrected stickiness at a fixed value of compression force), and the secondarily corrected stickiness (the corrected stickiness at a fixed value of the corrected compression force). The difference between the rice samples was the most pronounced in the secondarily corrected stickiness. The correlation between the instrumental and sensorial stickiness was also the highest in the secondarily corrected stickiness. Conclusively, the new corrected parameters enhanced the sample discrimination capability and the agreement with the sensorial stickiness than the uncorrected stickiness. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Stickiness is the important quality factor associated with cooked rice preferences. Instrumental stickiness is a detaching force of the preliminarily compressed rice grain by cylindrical probe of texture testing equipment. When it comes to a force measurement, the contact area is usually considered to convert the force to stress. But, for the samples like cooked rice grain, with smaller contact area than that of probe, the contact area is not easy to know because it is not simply the probe bottom area. So the contact area had not been employed to measure cooked rice stickiness. In this study, an established method was devised to figure out the contact area. The corrected stickiness by considering the contact area proved to be more accurate than the original stickiness through sensory evaluation.

The Association between Phase Angle of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis and Survival Time in Advanced Cancer Patients: Preliminary Study.

BACKGROUND: A frequent manifestation of advanced cancer patients is malnutrition, which is correlated with poor prognosis and high mortality. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is an easy-to-use and non-invasive technique to evaluate changes in body composition and nutritional status. We investigated BIA-derived phase angle as a prognostic indicator for survival in advanced cancer patients. METHODS: Twenty-eight patients treated at the hospice center of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital underwent BIA measurements from January, 2013 to May, 2013. We also evaluated palliative prognostic index (PPI) and palliative performance scale to compare with the prognostic value of phase angle. Cox's proportional hazard models were constructed to evaluate the prognostic effect of phase angle. The Kaplan Meier method was used to calculate survival. RESULTS: Using univariate Cox analysis, phase angle (hazard ratio [HR], 0.61/per degree increase; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42 to 0.89; P = 0.010), PPI (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.47; P = 0.048) were found to be significantly associated with survival. Adjusting age, PPI, body mass index, phase angle significantly showed association with survival in multivariate analysis (HR, 0.64/per degree increase; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.95; P = 0.028). Survival time of patients with phase angle ≥ 4.4° was longer than patients with phase angle < 4.4° (log rank, 6.208; P-value = 0.013). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest BIA-derived phase angle may serve as an independent prognostic indicator in advanced cancer patients.

Sasa borealis leaves extract improves insulin resistance by modulating inflammatory cytokine secretion in high fat diet-induced obese C57/BL6J mice.

Obesity is considered a mild inflammatory state, and the secretion of inflammation-related cytokines rises as adipose tissue expands. Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interlukin 6 (IL-6) and monocyte-chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), are modulated by adipose tissue and known to play an important role in insulin resistance which is the common characteristics of obesity related disorders. In this study we analyzed the effects of Sasa borealis leaves extract on inflammatory cytokines and insulin resistance in diet induced obese C57/BL6J mice. The obese state was induced by a high fat diet for 20 weeks and then the mice were divided into two groups; obese control group (OBC, n = 7) and experimental group (OB-SBE, n = 7). The OBC group was fed a high fat diet and the OB-SBE group was fed a high fat diet containing 5% Sasa borealis leaves extract (SBE) for 12 weeks. We also used mice fed a standard diet as a normal control (NC, n = 7). The body weight and adipose tissue weight in the OB group were significantly higher than those in the NC group. The effects of the high fat diet were reduced by SBE treatments, and the body weight and adipose tissue deposition in the OB-SBE group were significantly decreased compared to the OBC group. The OBC group showed higher serum glucose and insulin levels which resulted in a significant increase of incremental area under the curve (IAUC) and HOMA-IR than the NC group. Also, serum leptin, TNF-alpha, and IL-6 levels were significantly higher in the OBC group than in the NC group. In contrast, the OB-SBE group showed a reversal in the metabolic defects, including a decrease in glucose, insulin, IAUC, HOMA-IR, TNF-alpha, IL-6 and leptin levels. These results suggest that BSE can suppress increased weight gain and/or fat deposition induced by a high fat diet and theses effects are accompanied by modulation of the inflammatory cytokines, TNF-alpha and IL-6 secretion resulting in improved insulin resistance.

Magnolol and honokiol: inhibitors against mouse passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reaction and scratching behaviors.

The antiallergic effects of magnolol and honokiol, isolated from the bark of Magnolia obovata (family Magnoliaceae), were investigated both in vitro and in vivo. Magnolol and honokiol potently inhibited passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reactions in mice induced by IgE-antigen complex as well as compound 48/80-induced scratching behaviors. These constituents exhibited not only potent inhibitory activity on the degranulation of RBL-2H3 cells induced by IgE-antigen complex, with IC(50) values of 45 and 55 muM, respectively, but also inhibited the protein expressions of IL-4 and TNF-alpha. Based on these findings, magnolol and honokiol may improve IgE-induced allergic diseases.