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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and altered bowel habits. While gut microbiota alterations and metabolic disturbances have been implicated in IBS, their potential role in classification and patient stratification remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of integrating gut microbiota profiling and urinary metabolomics for improved IBS classification. Fifty-four participants (27 healthy controls, 27 IBS patients) were recruited for gut microbiota and urinary metabolite analysis. Gut microbiota composition was assessed via 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and urinary metabolites were profiled using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to assess the predictive accuracy of gut microbiota, urinary metabolites, and their combined model. LEfSe analysis identified that Clostridia and Prevotella as enriched in IBS patients, whereas Bacteroidales and Faecalitalea were predominant in healthy individuals. Urinary metabolite analysis revealed significant alterations in metabolite profiles, with IBS patients exhibiting elevated fructose levels and trends of increased serine, mannose, and galactose. ROC curve analysis demonstrated that urinary metabolomics (AUC = 0.65) outperformed gut microbiota profiling (AUC = 0.54), while a combined approach integrating both datasets achieved the highest predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.74). These findings indicate that integrating urinary metabolomics with gut microbiota profiling may provide preliminary insights into IBS classification. Given the small sample size, potential risk of overfitting, absence of external validation, and possible dietary or medication confounding, the observed performance of the combined approach should be regarded as hypothesis-generating rather than confirmatory. Nevertheless, the results highlight the potential utility of integrative omics strategies in IBS research, underscoring the need for validation in larger, sex-balanced, and clinically diverse cohorts to establish their robustness and broader relevance.

Halitosis is mainly caused by the action of oral microbes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in salivary microbes and metabolites between subjects with and without halitosis. Of the 52 participants, 22 were classified into the halitosis group by the volatile sulfur compound analysis on breath samples. The 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and metabolomics approaches were used to investigate the difference in microbes and metabolites in saliva of the control and halitosis groups. The profiles of microbiota and metabolites were relatively different between the halitosis and control groups. The relative abundances of Prevotella, Alloprevotella, and Megasphaera were significantly higher in the halitosis group. In contrast, the relative abundances of Streptococcus, Rothia, and Haemophilus were considerably higher in the control group. The levels of 5-aminovaleric acid and n-acetylornithine were significantly higher in the halitosis group. The correlation between identified metabolites and microbiota reveals that Alloprevotella and Prevotella might be related to the cadaverine and putrescine pathways that cause halitosis. This study could provide insight into the mechanisms of halitosis.

Background/Objectives: While a growing body of research indicates an increased psychiatric burden, including depression comorbidity, among individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), evidence from large claim-based databases remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the association between IBS and depression among a nationally representative sample of 3.9 million Korean adults. Methods: We used data from the 2021 Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), including a total of 3,864,586 individuals aged 19–64 years who participated in the national biennial health screening exam between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021. Exposures and outcomes were identified based on the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), codes: F32 and F33 for depression and K58 for IBS. Multivariable logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, residential area, comorbidity, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and body mass index was conducted. Results: One-year prevalence of depression among the entire sample was 4.0%. The prevalence among individuals with IBS (7.3%) was significantly higher than that among those without IBS (3.6%, p < 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression analysis confirmed this relationship (OR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.74, 1.79) after adjusting for all covariates. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that individuals with IBS are vulnerable to depression, emphasizing the need for integrated approaches in clinical management and public health policy responding to the rising burden of IBS.

Global competition has increased the importance of patents as a means to protect and strengthen technology and competitiveness. The purposes of our study were to identify what industries in South Korea are strong or weak in terms of patent applications and to identify some strategies to enable weak industries to become strong. For this, we gathered statistics on seven variables as follows: number of businesses, number of employees, research and development investment, number of full-time equivalent researchers, number of research institutions, domestic market size, and number of patent applications. Especially, to compare the ratio of patent applications and the ratio of domestic market size across industries, the industries were classified into the following three categories: strong-, weak-, and no-patent. Furthermore, data envelopment analysis (DEA) suggested some strategies to strengthen patent applications for each industry. In the DEA analysis, the number of patent applications was used as the output variable and the other six variables were used as input variables. Our study will particularly assist industries where protection by patents is an important aspect of their businesses.

This study uses text and data mining to investigate the relationship between the text patterns of annual reports published by US listed companies and sales performance. Taking previous research a step further, although annual reports show only past and present financial information, analyzing text content can identify sentences or patterns that indicate the future business performance of a company. First, we examine the relation pattern between business risk factors and current business performance. For this purpose, we select companies belonging to two categories of US SIC (Standard Industry Classification) in the IT sector, 7370 and 7373, which include Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, etc. We manually collect sales and business risk information for a total of 54 companies that submitted an annual report (Form 10-K) for the last three years in these two categories. To establish a correlation between patterns of text and sales performance, four hypotheses were set and tested. To verify the hypotheses, statistical analysis of sales, statistical analysis of text sentences, sentiment analysis of sentences, clustering, dendrogram visualization, keyword extraction, and word-cloud visualization techniques are used. The results show that text length has some correlation with sales performance, and that patterns of frequently appearing words are correlated with the sales performance. However, a sentiment analysis indicates that the positive or negative tone of a report is not related to sales performance.

Background Physicians classify irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea symptoms under the label IBS-D which represents a gastrointestinal disorder that meets specific functional diagnostic criteria. Studies show acupuncture helps manage IBS-D symptoms though researchers do not understand if specific treatment points in the abdomen provide better outcomes than standard acupuncture points in the lower body regions. The study investigates the effects acupuncture treatments using local and systemic needling techniques have on IBS-D symptom expression and gut microbial diversity features. Methods The study employs a randomized controlled single-blinded exploratory clinical trial design which includes 36 participants diagnosed with IBS-D via Rome IV criteria. Participants are randomly allocated to one of three groups: abdominal acupuncture, lower limb acupuncture, or standard treatment. Participants who receive acupuncture treatment receive eight sessions which are distributed throughout 4 weeks as clinicians activate specific points connected to gastrointestinal function. Lifestyle education and approved medications with symptom management make up the standard treatment provided to participants. The main outcome measures assess IBS Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) score changes from baseline at Week 5. Additional evaluation measures in this study comprise stool consistency examination alongside patient global assessments and cold-heat surveys along with EQ-5D-5L quality of life assessment and gut microbiota examination as secondary outcomes. Results Research has been designed to evaluate how abdominal and lower limb acupuncture techniques compare in symptom relief and microbiota adaptation outcomes. The preliminary data is expected to reveal distinct patterns between local and wide-reaching effects which suggests that IBS-D treatment should be tailored on a personal basis. Conclusion The comparison of abdominal and lower limb acupuncture treatment efficacy adds to our understanding of acupuncture therapy benefit for IBS-D. The results will help guide clinical practice and support the creation of tailored acupuncture treatments.

Purpose – This study aims to contribute to the comprehension of managerial implications in all the new convergences fields: bioinformation technology (BIT), nanoinformation technology (NIT), nanobiotechnology (NBT) and bioinformation–nanotechnology (BINT). The phenomenon of convergence that significantly impacted economies and societies in the information technology era has continued to be combined with new technologies such as nanotechnology and biotechnology. Many countries have tried to seize the initiative to strengthen the future competitiveness, and it become increasingly important for roles of companies to expand applications of the new convergence. Design/methodology/approach – From a company-based perspective, the study quantifies leading companies’ degree of influence in each convergence field. Findings – However, the result shows that companies’ influences are not mature enough to transfer the initiatives from both the NBT and BINT convergence fields. In addition, this study presents a perceivable framework for companies/institutions by identifying which technological fields the companies/institutions are influential in and what degrees of technological impact are shaped among them. As a result, this allows companies/institutions to recognize their environments squarely. Originality/value – This study applied the replacement process that can reinforce the investigation of the extent to which a firm has a significant ability to influence others directly and indirectly. From the methodology perspective, such replacement can intensely display the structure and the extent of competition among firms. Therefore, the results provide an explicit information to understand the overall business situation. Paper type – Research paper

The effectiveness of molecular targeted agents is modest in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Efficacy of molecular targeted therapies has been better in cancer patients with high expression of actionable molecules defined as cognate target molecules. However, patient stratification based on the actionable molecules dictating the effectiveness of targeted drugs has remained understudied in HCC. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN & RESULTS: Paired tumor and non-tumoral tissues derived from a total of 130 HCC patients were studied. Real-time RT-PCR was used to analyze the mRNA expression of actionable molecules in the tissues. mRNA levels of EGFR, VEGFR2, PDGFRβ, FGFR1, and mTOR were up-regulated in tumors compared to non-tumors in 35.4, 42.3, 61.5, 24.6, and 50.0% of patients, respectively. Up-regulation of EGFR was observed at early stage and tended to gradually decrease toward late stages (BCLC stage A: 41.9%; B: 30.8%; C: 17.6%). Frequency of VEGFR2 expression in tumors at stage C was lower than that in the other stages (BCLC stage A: 45.9%; B: 41.0%; C: 29.4%). PDGFRβ and mTOR were observed to be up-regulated in more than 50% of tumors in all the stages whereas FGFR1 was up-regulated in only about 20% of HCC irrespective of stages. A cluster analysis of actionable gene expression revealed that HCC can be categorized into different subtypes that predict the effectiveness of molecular targeted agents and combination therapies in clinical trials. Analysis of in vitro sensitivity to sorafenib demonstrated that HCC cells with up-regulation of PDGFRβ and c-Raf mRNA are more susceptible to sorafenib treatment in a dose and time-dependent manner than cells with low expression of the genes. mRNA expression analysis of actionable molecules could provide the rationale for new companion diagnostics-based therapeutic strategies in the treatment of HCC.

In order to reduce the exhaust emissions of a spark ignition engine, it is important not only to improve the catalyst conversion efficiency, but also to directly reduce the engine-out exhaust emissions during a cold starting of the engine and warm up periods. The purpose of this study is to evaluate feasibility of a glow plug for an early fuel evaporator. In order to promote atomization, gasoline is injected on the glow plug with room temperature (20°C) and high temperature (250°C). To analyze the spray behavior characteristics, a PMAS is used to measure the SMD and the dropsize distribution of an impinging spray and a free spray. Results show that the evaporation rate of the impinging spray on the high temperature surface of the glow plug was higher than that of the free spray on the room temperature surface.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Purpose Although transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the most common treatment option in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its clinical benefits remain still controversial. Since TACE induces hypoxic necrosis in tumors, hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) could critically affect biology in residual tumors after TACE treatment and subsequent prognosis. However, HIF-1α and its prognostic relevance in TACE have rarely been examined in human specimens. In the current study, we investigated the prognosis and expression of genes regulated by HIF-1α in HCC patients receiving preoperative TACE for the first time. Methods In total, 35 patients with HCC (10 patients undergoing preoperative TACE) were retrospectively studied. The prognostic significance of TACE was analyzed using Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression models. Protein levels of HIF-1α and mRNA levels of HIF-1α-associated genes were examined using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and real-time RT-PCR, respectively. Results Preoperative TACE was significantly associated with increased 2-year recurrence rate (80 vs. 36 %, P  = 0.00402) and shorter disease-free survival (DFS) time (11.9 vs. 35.7 months, P  = 0.0182). TACE was an independent prognostic factor for recurrence ( P  = 0.007) and poor DFS ( P  = 0.010) in a multivariate analysis. Immunohistochemical staining revealed in vivo activation of HIF-1α in human specimens treated with TACE. Notably, protein levels of HIF-1α were significantly increased in TACE tissues demonstrated by IHC. Transcriptional targets of HIF-1α showed mRNA expression patterns consistent with activation of HIF-1α in TACE tissues. Conclusions Our findings collectively demonstrate that preoperative TACE confers poor prognosis in HCC patients through activation of HIF-1α.