Comparative analysis of kidney function prediction: traditional statistical methods vs. deep learning techniques.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) represents a significant public health challenge, with rates consistently on the rise. Enhancing kidney function prediction could contribute to the early detection, prevention, and management of CKD in clinical practice. We aimed to investigate whether deep learning techniques, especially those suitable for processing missing values, can improve the accuracy of predicting future renal function compared to traditional statistical method, using the Japan Chronic Kidney Disease Database (J-CKD-DB), a nationwide multicenter CKD registry.

Synthesis and crystal structure of 1-1,2,4-triazole-3,5-di-amine monohydrate.

The title compound, a hydrate of 3,5-di-amino-1,2,4-triazole (DATA), CHN·HO, was synthesized in the presence of sodium perchlorate. The evaporation of HO from its aqueous solution resulted in anhydrous DATA, suggesting that sodium perchlorate was required to precipitate the DATA hydrate. The DATA hydrate crystallizes in the 2/ space group in the form of needle-shaped crystals with one DATA and one water mol-ecule in the asymmetric unit.

Frequency and amplitude dependence of nuclear displacement and phase delay in mechanical vibrations for determining cellular natural frequency.

Cultured cells biochemically respond to mechanical vibrations. However, the mechanisms of sensing mechanical vibrations and transducing biochemical responses remain unclear. A previous study reported that the expression of the alkaline phosphatase gene of osteoblastic cell under mechanical vibrations peaks at 50 Hz, which seems like a resonance curve in the mechanical vibration theory.

Synthesis of environmentally friendly energetic cocrystal derived from commodity chemicals.

Ammonium nitrate (AN) is a green oxidizer in the field of energetic materials. However, hygroscopicity and phase transitions have prevented AN from being put into practical use. To address these two drawbacks, a cocrystallization technique was applied to AN in this study.

Warming suppresses grassland recovery in biomass but not in community composition after grazing exclusion in a Mongolian grassland.

We conducted a 4-year temperature manipulation experiment in a Mongolian grassland to examine the effect of daytime and nighttime warming on grassland recovery after grazing exclusion. After constructing a livestock exclusion fence in the grassland, we established daytime and daytime-and-nighttime warming treatments within the fenced area by a combination of open-top chambers (OTC) and electric heaters. We measured the numbers of plants and aboveground biomass by species after recording percentage vegetation cover every summer for three warming treatments inside the fence-non-warming, daytime warming, and daytime-and-nighttime warming-and for the grassland outside of the fence.

Parameters of 150 temperate and boreal tree species and provenances for an individual-based forest landscape and disturbance model.

Understanding the impacts of changing climate and disturbance regimes on forest ecosystems is greatly aided by the use of process-based models. Such models simulate processes based on first principles of ecology, which requires parameterization. Parameterization is an important step in model development and application, defining the characteristics of trees and their responses to the environment, i.

Urbanization alters the relative importance of local and landscape factors affecting plant communities in the Tokyo megacity.

Plant communities are impacted by local factors (related to environmental filtering) and landscape factors (related to dispersal limitation). While many studies have shown that the relative importance of these factors in understanding plant community dynamics due to urbanization, little is known about how they are altered by urbanization-a significant threat to biodiversity. This study evaluates the relative importance of local environmental (local factors), landscape, and spatial (landscape factors) variables that influence plant communities in 34 urban green spaces comprising two different habitats (forests and grasslands) along the urban-rural gradients in the Tokyo megacity, Japan.

Beyond resilience: Responses to changing climate and disturbance regimes in temperate forest landscapes across the Northern Hemisphere.

Climate change has profound impacts on forest ecosystem dynamics and could lead to the emergence of novel ecosystems via changes in species composition, forest structure, and potentially a complete loss of tree cover. Disturbances fundamentally shape those dynamics: the prevailing disturbance regime of a region determines the inherent variability of a system, and its climate-mediated change could accelerate forest transformation. We used the individual-based forest landscape and disturbance model iLand to investigate the resilience of three protected temperate forest landscapes on three continents-selected to represent a gradient from low to high disturbance activity-to changing climate and disturbance regimes.

Distribution and geochemical speciation of metals in the sediments of marine aquaculture areas in Japan.

Metal contamination is a crucial environmental issue because of its persistence and toxicity, which can have deleterious effects on aquatic ecosystems. Coastal sediments serve as reservoirs for metals. Aquaculture is an important human activity in coastal areas; however, the actual status of metal distribution in these areas has not been well characterized.

Size-specific variations in the length-weight relationship and relative condition factor of Hilsa shad () across its habitats in Bangladesh.

The length-weight relationship (LWR) and relative condition factor are widely used as the most important biological parameters to infer the growth pattern and well-being of fishes. The aim of our study was to investigate the growth parameters of the LWR in different growth phases of Hilsa (), a flagship species of Bangladesh, and compare its relative condition factors across its major habitats. Fish from various rivers in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal were sampled, their length-weight growth parameters were measured and subjected to statistical analysis with pooled data from other studies.

Real-time imaging of intracellular deformation dynamics in vibrated adherent cell cultures.

Mechanical vibration has been shown to regulate cell proliferation and differentiation in vitro and in vivo. However, the mechanism of its cellular mechanotransduction remains unclear. Although the measurement of intracellular deformation dynamics under mechanical vibration could reveal more detailed mechanisms, corroborating experimental evidence is lacking due to technical difficulties.

Persistence of the Antibacterial and Antiviral Effects after Skin Cleansing ~A New Approach to Suppress the Contact Infection~.

Handwashing represents an important personal hygiene measure for preventing infection. Herein, we report the persistence of antibacterial and antiviral effects after handwashing with fatty acid salt-based hand soap. To this end, we developed a new in vitro test method to measure persistence, utilizing coacervation formed by anionic surfactants and cationic polymers to retain highly effective soap components against each bacterium and virus on the skin.

Investigation of Motor Learning Effects Using a Hybrid Rehabilitation System Based on Motion Estimation.

Upper-limb paralysis requires extensive rehabilitation to recover functionality for everyday living, and such assistance can be supported with robot technology. Against such a background, we have proposed an electromyography (EMG)-driven hybrid rehabilitation system based on motion estimation using a probabilistic neural network. The system controls a robot and functional electrical stimulation (FES) from movement estimation using EMG signals based on the user's intention, enabling intuitive learning of joint motion and muscle contraction capacity even for multiple motions.

A biogenic geodesic dome of the silica skeleton in Phaeodaria.

Unique architectures of microbial skeletons are viewed as a model for the architectural design of artificial structural materials. In particular, the specific geometric arrangement of a spherical skeleton 0.5-1.

Aridity-dependent shifts in biodiversity-stability relationships but not in underlying mechanisms.

Climate change will affect the way biodiversity influences the stability of plant communities. Although biodiversity, associated species asynchrony, and species stability could enhance community stability, the understanding of potential nonlinear shifts in the biodiversity-stability relationship across a wide range of aridity (measured as the aridity index, the precipitation/potential evapotranspiration ratio) gradients and the underlying mechanisms remain limited. Using an 8-year dataset from 687 sites in Mongolia, which included 5496 records of vegetation and productivity, we found that the temporal stability of plant communities decreased more rapidly in more arid areas than in less arid areas.

Probability Density Functional Method of Enzyme Effect on Denatured Protein Soil.

Protein soils must be removed for both appearance and hygienic reasons. They are denatured by heat treatment or bleaching and cleaned using enzymes. Among the various types of protein soils, blood soils are the most noticeable and known to be denatured by heat and bleaching by oxidation.

Three polymorphs of a new N,N'-dipropylated isoindigo derivative.

A newly synthesized N,N'-dipropyl-substituted isoindigo derivative, namely, 1-propyl-3-(1-propyl-1,2-dihydro-2-oxo-3H-indol-3-ylidene)-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one, CHNO, was found to have three polymorphic forms (denoted Forms I, II and III) under various crystallization conditions. Crystal structure analysis indicated that Form III had a significantly different molecular conformation from the other two polymorphs. Their different packing arrangements were correlated with differences in the intermolecular interactions.

Introduction and scientific justification of data transportability for confined field testing for the ERA of GM plants.

The concept of Data Transportability (DT) of Confined Field Testing (CFT) to support the Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) of Genetically Modified (GM) plants was first introduced in the literature by Garcia-Alonso et al., in 2014. Since then, DT has been discussed in many countries and regions as a concept to prevent duplication of regulatory studies without compromising quality of the ERA.

Determination of potential dermal exposure rates of phosphorus flame retardants via the direct contact with a car seat using artificial skin.

Dermal exposure to phosphorus flame retardants (PFRs) has received much attention as a major alternative exposure route in recent years. However, the information regarding dermal exposure via direct contact with a product is limited. In addition, in the commonly used dermal permeability test, the target substance is dissolved in a solvent, which is unrealistic.

Exploration capacity versus specific enzymatic activity of ectomycorrhizas in response to primary productivity and soil phosphorus availability in Bornean tropical rainforests.

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are functionally important in biogeochemical cycles in tropical ecosystems. Extracellular enzymatic activity of ECM on a ground-area basis is the product of two attributes; exploration capacity (ECM surface-area) and specific enzymatic activity. Here, we elucidated which attribute better explained the ECM enzymatic activity in response to different levels of soil phosphorus (P) and Nitrogen (N) availability in five Bornean tropical rainforests.

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure.

Springtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised.

Improving the Removability of Mud Stains by Combining a Homopolymer and a Chelating Agent.

To improve the detergency of mud stains without triphosphate, we developed a new composition that enhances the detergency of mud stains more efficiently. To develop the composition, a new correction method based on the probability density functional method was used to compare the results of approximately 100 cleaning tests conducted on different days using various active ingredients. As a result of various evaluations, it was found that the combination of a homopolymer with a molecular weight of approximately 2000 and a chelating agent can effectively improve the detergency of particle stains.

Analysis of Cleaning Power Using New Cleaning Kinetics and Interfacial Science Studies on Aquatic Toxicity of Surfactants.

Studies devised through the fusion of cleaning and environmental sciences can be summarized as follows: new cleaning kinetics applying a probability density function and a surface chemical approach to the aquatic toxicity of surfactants. Cleaning power analysis using the probability density functional method combines conventional cleaning kinetics using a first-order reaction equation with a risk analysis method using a probability density function. It is possible to analyze the cleaning mechanism from the obtained parameter values.