Efficacy and safety of avacopan in antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis: a retrospective cohort study in Japan.

Background: Avacopan, an oral C5a receptor antagonist, demonstrated efficacy as an alternative to glucocorticoid therapy in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) in the phase 3 ADVOCATE trial. However, limited real-world data exist on the outcomes and experiences associated with avacopan use for AAV in Japan.

Methods: We performed a single-centre retrospective analysis and evaluated 21 patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed AAV who received avacopan.

Changes in nutritional management after gastrointestinal cancer surgery over a 12-year period: a cohort study using a nationwide medical claims database.

Background: Nutritional management in patients after gastrointestinal cancer surgery has changed throughout the 2000s. However, its evolution has not been formally studied. This study aimed to evaluate changes in nutritional management using real-world data.

Impact of diabetes remission or progression on the incidence of cardiovascular disease in Japan: historical cohort study using a nationwide claims database.

Background: Previous studies demonstrated that diabetes remission can occur during intensive intervention and in real-world settings. However, the impact of diabetes remission in real-world settings on the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 299,967 individuals aged 20-72 years who underwent multiple checkups between 2008 and 2020 and completed ≥ 3 years of follow-up.

Diurnal and daily fluctuations in levels of the urinary oxidative stress marker 8-hydroxyguanosine in spot urine samples.

Background: Urinary 8-hydroxyguanosine (8-OHGuo) levels serve as a biomarker for oxidative stress and hydroxyl radical-induced RNA damage. Evaluating the diurnal and daily fluctuations in urinary 8-OHGuo excretion levels is essential for understanding its implications. However, research in this area remains limited.

Restless legs syndrome without insomnia and antenatal depressive symptoms.

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) with insomnia is presumed to be associated with antenatal depression. RLS without insomnia, however, has not been investigated in association with antenatal depression. We aimed to examine whether RLS without insomnia during pregnancy is associated with antenatal depressive symptoms.

Real-world short-term outcomes and treatment regimen comparisons in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with first-line immune combinations.

Background: Immune-combinations have recently become the standard first-line treatment for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). This study evaluated the applicability of the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) risk model in predicting outcomes for patients treated with either immune-oncologic drug doublet (IO-IO) or immune-oncologic drug tyrosine kinase inhibitor combinations (IO-TKI). A secondary objective to compare the effectiveness of IO-IO versus IO-TKI within the IMDC risk groups over a short follow-up period.

Surgery versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy for stage III non-small cell lung cancer: a retrospective study with propensity score matching.

Background: No study has directly compared the outcomes of surgery and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT) in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to date. This study aimed to compare the treatment efficacy of complete resection and definitive cCRT.

Methods: Patients were recruited in this retrospective study from Yokohama Municipal Citizens' Hospital between January 2013 and December 2022.

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae have better clinical outcomes than classical Klebsiella pneumoniae for lower respiratory tract infection patients.

Background: The clinical outcomes and microbiological features of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) caused by hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) and classical Klebsiella pneumoniae (cKp) have not been well understood.

Methods: This study collected 287 non-repetitive Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from 287 LRTI patients. All these strains underwent annotation for resistance and virulence factors, with 141 strains undergoing mouse infection experiments to assess their virulence.

Improved robustness of sequentially deposited potassium cesium antimonide photocathodes achieved by increasing the potassium content towards theoretical stoichiometry.

Alkali antimonide semiconductor photocathodes are promising candidates for high-brightness electron sources for advanced accelerators, including free-electron lasers (FEL), due to their high quantum efficiency (QE), low emittance, and high temporal resolution. Two challenges with these photocathodes are (1) the lack of a universal deposition recipe to achieve crystal stoichiometries and (2) their high susceptibility to vacuum contamination, which restricts their operation pressure to ultrahigh vacuums and leads to a short lifetime and low extraction charge. To resolve these issues, it is essential to understand the elemental compositions of deposited photocathodes and correlate them to robustness.

Development and functional evaluation of a psoralen-conjugated nucleoside mimic for triplex-forming oligonucleotides.

Psoralen-conjugated triplex-forming oligonucleotides (Ps-TFOs) have been employed for the photodynamic regulation of gene expression by the photo-cross-linking of psoralen with the target DNA. However, stable triplex formation requires a consecutive purine base sequence in one strand of the target DNA duplexes. The pyrimidine-base interruption in the consecutive purine base sequence drastically decreases the thermodynamic stability of the corresponding triplex, which hampers the TFO application.

Probing and manipulating the Mexican hat-shaped valence band of InSe.

Ferroelectrics based on van der Waals semiconductors represent an emergent class of materials for disruptive technologies ranging from neuromorphic computing to low-power electronics. However, many theoretical predictions of their electronic properties have yet to be confirmed experimentally and exploited. Here, we use nanoscale angle-resolved photoemission electron spectroscopy and optical transmission in high magnetic fields to reveal the electronic band structure of the van der Waals ferroelectric indium selenide (α-InSe).

Sex-specific effects of prenatal bisphenol A exposure on transcriptome-interactome profiles of autism candidate genes in neural stem cells from offspring hippocampus.

Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting chemical, is increasingly linked to the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study investigates the effects of prenatal BPA exposure on neural stem cells (NSCs) from the hippocampi of rat offspring, a brain region critical for neurodevelopment and implicated in ASD. Pregnant rats were administered with BPA or vehicle control once daily via oral gavage from gestational day 1 until parturition.

Presenteeism caused by health conditions and its economic impacts among Japanese workers in the post-COVID-19 era.

Objectives: This study investigated the common health conditions leading to presenteeism and the economic impact among Japanese workers in the post-COVID-19 era.

Methods: Between February and March 2023, 10,000 workers responded to a web-based, cross-sectional survey on health problems that interfered with their work, degree of presenteeism, and teleworking status.

Results: Approximately 35.

Epidemiological characteristics of injury in 7-22-year-old badminton players by age and sex.

Badminton-related injury is thought to happen with increasing incidence among badminton players. Literature shown injury incidence across age is scarce. The objective was to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of badminton-related injuries among badminton players broken down by age and sex.

An educational case of toluene intoxication: importance of kidney function and timing in diagnosis.

Metabolic acidosis (MA) is common in daily clinical settings and requires evaluation not only by serum anion gap (AG) but also by urine AG (UAG) and urine osmolal gap (UOG) to investigate potential causes and determine appropriate treatment. Herein, we report an educational case of non-gap (normal AG) MA (pH 7.16, HCO 8.

Dairy consumption has a partial inverse association with systolic blood pressure and hypertension in populations with high salt and low dairy diets: cross-sectional data analysis from the Iwaki Health Promotion Project.

The prevalence of hypertension in Japan remains high, owing to the high salt content of the typical Japanese diet. Dairy-based foods may reduce blood pressure and hypertension risk. However, dairy consumption is low in Japan, and the relationships between dairy intake and blood pressure or the mechanisms by which dairy products affect blood pressure are not fully understood.

A network analysis of postpartum depression and mother-to-infant bonding shows common and unique symptom-level connections across three postpartum periods.

Postpartum depression and mother-to-infant bonding difficulties (MIBD), two issues crucial to maternal and infant mental health, often coexist and affect each other. Our study aims to dissect their complex relationship through a graphical LASSO network analysis of individual symptoms in 5594 Japanese postpartum women, whose geographical distribution was nationally representative. We identified 'fear', 'enjoyment', 'overwhelm', and 'insomnia' as common bridge symptoms linking postpartum depression and MIBD across three distinct postpartum periods.

Isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia and three-year neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Background: To retrospectively investigate the developmental outcomes at 3 years of age in patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) using a multicenter collaborative research approach.

Methods: We evaluated patients with CDH and no other malformations born between 2010 and 2016 in seven facilities in the Japanese CDH Research Group. The developmental quotient (DQ) at 3 years of age was evaluated using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development 2001, the most standardized scale in Japan.

Moiré-driven topological electronic crystals in twisted graphene.

In a dilute two-dimensional electron gas, Coulomb interactions can stabilize the formation of a Wigner crystal. Although Wigner crystals are topologically trivial, it has been predicted that electrons in a partially filled band can break continuous translational symmetry and time-reversal symmetry spontaneously, resulting in a type of topological electron crystal known as an anomalous Hall crystal. Here we report signatures of a generalized version of the anomalous Hall crystal in twisted bilayer-trilayer graphene, whose formation is driven by the moiré potential.

Extended quantum anomalous Hall states in graphene/hBN moiré superlattices.

Electrons in topological flat bands can form new topological states driven by correlation effects. The pentalayer rhombohedral graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moiré superlattice was shown to host fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (FQAHE) at approximately 400 mK (ref. ), triggering discussions around the underlying mechanism and role of moiré effects.

Genomics yields biological and phenotypic insights into bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a leading contributor to the global burden of disease. Despite high heritability (60-80%), the majority of the underlying genetic determinants remain unknown. We analysed data from participants of European, East Asian, African American and Latino ancestries (n = 158,036 cases with bipolar disorder, 2.