Does the neighborhood built and social environment reduce long-term care costs for Japanese older people? The JAGES2010-2019 cohort study.

Japan's population has been aging steadily, evidenced by it spending JPY 11 trillion (USD 110 billion) on annual long-term care (LTC) costs in 2021. In this context, understanding the factors influencing LTC costs has become increasingly vital. Although studies have reported positive relationships between neighborhood environment and health outcomes, the connection between LTC costs and neighborhood environment remains unclear. To address this gap in the literature, this cohort study, conducted from 2010 to 2019 across seven Japanese municipalities and involving 34,982 older people, examined the relationship between eight neighborhood environment elements and the mean monthly cumulate costs (MMCC) of LTC. The results showed that older people who reported the presence of fresh food stores nearby and dangerous places for walking alone at night in the neighborhood had lower MMCC, by JPY 1,367.6 and 1,383.3 per month, respectively, than respondents who did not report the presence of these neighborhood elements. Meanwhile, older people whose neighborhoods had easily accessible facilities had higher MMCC of JPY 739.4. This study's key findings reveal significant relationships between neighborhood environment elements and LTC costs and can be used to support developments in urban design to support healthy aging and reduced LTC costs.

A Smartphone-Based Shopping Mall Walking Program and Daily Walking Steps.

Importance: Because shopping malls are considered safe places for walking, several mall walking programs have been developed. Research on the association between the use of walking programs and the number of daily steps taken is limited. Objective: To evaluate the association between use of a smartphone-based shopping mall walking program and daily steps taken after the COVID-19 pandemic. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study evaluated a nationwide longitudinal data set of 217 344 registered smartphone app users at least 18 years of age residing in Japan. Daily step counts were collected from January 1 to December 31, 2021. Exposures: The mall walking program Mall Challenge integrated a global positioning system with a smartphone app's incentive system to reward achieving a goal of 1000 daily steps with lottery-based coupons to win from 0 to 500 shopping points (1 point equaled 1 yen or approximately US $0.01). Main Outcomes and Measures: Daily step records were collected from the smartphone app's walking program and adjusted for gender and age. Multilevel analyses using mixed-effect linear regression models were used to estimate the coefficients for the association between daily participation in the walking program and daily step counts. Cross-level interaction terms of age and gender by walking program participation were included in one model. Results: Among the 217 344 registered mall app users (23 638 110 daily step records; 154 616 [71.1%] women; 18 014 [8.3%] participants 65 years or older, and 199 330 [91.7%] adults younger than 65 years), the mean (SD) daily steps were 7415 (4686) on walking program participation days and 5281 (4339) on days without participation in the program. Walking program participation days were associated with 1219 additional daily steps (95% CI, 1205-1232) compared with nonparticipation days after adjusting for gender and age. By geographic region, participation in the walking program was associated with 1130 (95% CI, 1113-1146) more steps in rural malls, 1403 (95% CI, 1379-1428) more steps in suburban malls, and 1433 (95% CI, 1408-1457) more steps in urban malls than nonparticipation. Moreover, participation in the walking program was associated with 1422 (95% CI, 1405-1439) more steps in large malls and 1059 (95% CI, 1041-1077) more steps in small malls compared with nonparticipation. Regarding cross-level interactions, women were associated with walking 728 (95% CI, 698-758) more steps than men, and older adults were associated with walking 228 (95% CI, 183-273) more steps than younger adults on walking program participation days. Conclusions and Relevance: This cohort study found that the use of a smartphone-based mall walking program combined with physical shopping mall facilities and lottery-based digital incentive coupons may motivate people to increase their daily number of walking steps.

Does disaster-related relocation impact mental health via changes in group participation among older adults? Causal mediation analysis of a pre-post disaster study of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake.

BACKGROUND: Disaster-related relocation is associated with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially in older adults. Disaster-related relocation often deprives survivors of opportunities for social group participation, potentially deteriorating their mental health. On the contrary, the relocation could also be an opportunity for optimizing social relationships, ending/reducing unwanted participation. This study examined the potential mediation effects of changing participation for the link of disaster-related relocation to mental health. METHODS: We analyzed a pre-post disaster dataset of functionally independent older adults from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study. Following the 2013 survey, a follow-up survey was conducted seven months after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (n = 828). RESULTS: The causal mediation analyses indicated that compared to no relocation, the relative risk for experiencing major depressive episodes among those relocating to temporary housing was 3.79 [95% confidence interval: 1.70-6.64] (natural direct effect). By contrast, the relative risk for those renewing (either ceased or started) group participation was 0.60 [95% CI: 0.34-0.94] (natural indirect effect). CONCLUSIONS: Optimization of social ties according to a renewal of group participation status might have protected older adults in temporary housing against depression.

Changes in work and life patterns associated with depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: an observational study of health app (CALO mama) users.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people refrained from going out, started working from home (WFH), and suspended work or lost their jobs. This study examines how such pandemic-related changes in work and life patterns were associated with depressive symptoms. METHODS: An online survey among participants who use a health app called CALO mama was conducted from 30 April to 8 May 2020 in Japan. Participants consisted of 2846 users (1150 men (mean age=50.3) and 1696 women (mean age=43.0)) who were working prior to the government declaration of a state of emergency (7 April 2020). Their daily steps from 1 January to 13 May 2020 recorded by an accelerometer in their mobile devices were linked to their responses. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Two-Question Screen. RESULTS: On average, participants took 1143.8 (95% CI -1557.3 to -730.2) fewer weekday steps during the declaration period (from 7 April to 13 May). Depressive symptoms were positively associated with female gender (OR=1.58, 95% CI 1.34 to 1.87), decreased weekday steps (OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.45) and increased working hours (OR=1.73, 95% CI 1.32 to 2.26). Conversely, starting WFH was negatively associated with depressive symptoms (OR=0.83, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased weekday steps during the declaration period were associated with increased odds of depressive symptoms, but WFH may mitigate the risk in the short term. Further studies on the longitudinal effects of WFH on health are needed.

Peptidomic Analysis of a Disintegrated Surimi Gel from Deep-Sea Bonefish Pterothrissus gissu.

Surimi gel is a commonly found gelled product in Japan. Disintegration of the surimi gel is mainly caused by proteolytic degradation of the myosin heavy chain (MHC) under an inappropriate heating process. Many studies have reported the decrease in MHC in the disintegrated surimi gel but the mechanistic details of this degradation remain unclear. This study employed peptidomic analysis of disintegrated surimi gels from deep-sea bonefish Pterothrissus gissu to reveal the MHC cleavage causing gel disintegration. More peptides derived from an MHC rod were found in the disintegrated P. gissu surimi gels than in the integrated gel. Most MHC peptides were derived from the Src homology 3 domain or near the skip residues. The results of the terminome analysis suggest that the catalytic type of the proteases is responsible for light meromyosin cleavage activated at ∼35 °C. These results showed the temperature-dependent cleavage of the MHC rod, causing disintegration of the P. gissu surimi gel.

The effects of endogenous proteases within abdominal muscle parts on the rheological properties of thermally induced gels from white croaker (Pennahia argentata).

Three types of material meats were prepared from a so-called normal muscle part of white croaker (Pennahia argentata) containing 0, 4.2 and 8.4% of an abdominal muscle part. Thermally induced gels were then prepared from these materials by pre-heating at 65 °C for 30 or 60 min and subsequent heating at 85 °C for 20 min. The breaking strength and breaking strain rate of thermally induced gels decreased with increasing contamination levels of the abdominal muscle part, in which degradation of myosin heavy chains was observed. The proteolytic activity in the abdominal muscle part homogenate was highest at 62.5 °C. These results suggest that the abdominal muscle part contains proteases that induce the modori phenomenon. Technical experts assume that a contaminated abdominal muscle part leads to quality deterioration in surimi production industries. Our findings will aid the production of high-quality surimi-based products.

Characterization of the finch embryo supports evolutionary conservation of the naive stage of development in amniotes.

Innate pluripotency of mouse embryos transits from naive to primed state as the inner cell mass differentiates into epiblast. In vitro, their counterparts are embryonic (ESCs) and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs), respectively. Activation of the FGF signaling cascade results in mouse ESCs differentiating into mEpiSCs, indicative of its requirement in the shift between these states. However, only mouse ESCs correspond to the naive state; ESCs from other mammals and from chick show primed state characteristics. Thus, the significance of the naive state is unclear. In this study, we use zebra finch as a model for comparative ESC studies. The finch blastoderm has mESC-like properties, while chick blastoderm exhibits EpiSC features. In the absence of FGF signaling, finch cells retained expression of pluripotent markers, which were lost in cells from chick or aged finch epiblasts. Our data suggest that the naive state of pluripotency is evolutionarily conserved among amniotes.

Retinoic acid regulates olfactory progenitor cell fate and differentiation.

BACKGROUND: In order to fulfill their chemosensory function, olfactory neurons are in direct contact with the external environment and are therefore exposed to environmental aggressive factors. Olfaction is maintained through life because, unlike for other sensory neuroepithelia, olfactory neurons have a unique capacity to regenerate after trauma. The mechanisms that control the ontogenesis and regenerative ability of these neurons are not fully understood. Here, we used various experimental approaches in two model systems (chick and mouse) to assess the contribution of retinoic acid signaling in the induction of the olfactory epithelium, the generation and maintenance of progenitor populations, and the ontogenesis and differentiation of olfactory neurons. RESULTS: We show that retinoic acid signaling, although dispensable for initial induction of the olfactory placode, plays a key role in neurogenesis within this neuroepithelium. Retinoic acid depletion in the olfactory epithelium, both in chick and mouse models, results in a failure of progenitor cell maintenance and, consequently, differentiation of olfactory neurons is not sustained. Using an explant system, we further show that renewal of olfactory neurons is hindered if the olfactory epithelium is unable to synthesize retinoic acid. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that retinoic acid is not a simple placodal inductive signal, but rather controls olfactory neuronal production by regulating the fate of olfactory progenitor cells. Retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 3 (RALDH3) is the key enzyme required to generate retinoic acid within the olfactory epithelium.

Enantiocontrolled total syntheses of breviones A, B, and C.

Enantiocontrolled total syntheses of the breviones A, B, and C have been accomplished using a highly diastereoselective oxidative coupling of an α-pyrone with a tricyclic diene prepared from an optically pure Wieland-Miescher ketone derivative through the 7-endo-trig mode of acyl radical cyclization.

Solid-state characterization of an NR2B selective N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist polymorphs.

(-)-6-[2-[4-(3-Fluorophenyl)-4-hydroxy-piperidin-1-yl]-1-hydroxyethyl]-3,4-dihydro-quinolin-2(1H)-one (compound A) is an NR2B selective N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist that has shown at least two polymorphs, forms I and II. In this report, we prepared two polymorphs, forms I and II and their crystal forms were identified and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffractometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and variable temperature powder X-ray diffractometry (VT-PXRD). The results of DSC and VT-PXRD suggested that compound A has at least three polymorphic forms: I, II and a new form III, and that forms II and III showed an enantiotropic relationship. We also performed single crystal X-ray analyses of specific conditions based on the results of VT-PXRD. The unit cell dimensions in crystallographic parameter and molecular arrangements of form I were quite different from forms II and III. Whereas, the crystal structures of forms II and III were similar with the exception of the C58-C59-C61-C62 torsion angle.

Prostaglandin E receptor EP1 controls impulsive behavior under stress.

Animals under stress take adaptive actions that may lead to various types of behavioral disinhibition. Such behavioral disinhibition, when expressed excessively and impulsively, can result in harm in individuals and cause a problem in our society. We now show that, under social or environmental stress, mice deficient in prostaglandin E receptor subtype EP1 (Ptger1(-/-)) manifest behavioral disinhibition, including impulsive aggression with defective social interaction, impaired cliff avoidance, and an exaggerated acoustic startle response. This phenotype was reproduced in wild-type mice by administration of an EP1-selective antagonist, whereas administration of an EP1-selective agonist suppressed electric-shock-induced impulsive aggression. Dopamine turnover in the frontal cortex and striatum was increased in Ptger1(-/-) mice, and administration of dopaminergic antagonists corrected their behavioral phenotype. These results suggest that prostaglandin E(2) acts through EP1 to control impulsive behavior under stress, a finding potentially exploitable for development of drugs that attenuate impulsive behavior in humans.

Impaired adrenocorticotropic hormone response to bacterial endotoxin in mice deficient in prostaglandin E receptor EP1 and EP3 subtypes.

Sickness evokes various neural responses, one of which is activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This response can be induced experimentally by injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1. Although prostaglandins (PGs) long have been implicated in LPS-induced HPA axis activation, the mechanism downstream of PGs remained unsettled. By using mice lacking each of the four PGE receptors (EP1-EP4) and an EP1-selective antagonist, ONO-8713, we showed that both EP1 and EP3 are required for adrenocorticotropic hormone release in response to LPS. Analysis of c-Fos expression as a marker for neuronal activity indicated that both EP1 and EP3 contribute to activation of neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN). This analysis also revealed that EP1, but not EP3, is involved in LPS-induced activation of the central nucleus of the amygdala. EP1 immunostaining in the PVN revealed its localization at synapses on corticotropin-releasing hormone-containing neurons. These findings suggest that EP1- and EP3-mediated neuronal pathways converge at corticotropin-releasing hormone-containing neurons in the PVN to induce HPA axis activation upon sickness.