As one approach to exploring whether the mitochondrial DNA 5178 adenine/cytosine (mt5178 A/C) polymorphism is associated with atherosclerosis, we genotyped 461 healthy Japanese individuals and studied the relationship of mt5178 A/C genotypes to serum lipid levels. Blood specimens were obtained after at least a 12-h fasting period from the subjects. The mt5178 A/C was genotyped by the polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The relative frequency of mt5178 A was 41.6% (192/461) and of mt5178 C was 58.4% (269/461). After adjustments for age and body mass index, the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration in males carrying mt5178 A was significantly higher than that in males carrying mt5178 C ( P=0.026). The tryglyceride (TG) concentration in females carrying mt5178 A was significantly lower than that in females carrying mt5178 C ( P=0.012). This difference in the TG level between the two genotypes was more evident in postmenopausal females than in premenopausal females. Mt5178 A seems to have an antiatherogenic effect. This is the first genetic epidemiological report on the association of mt5178 A/C polymorphism with serum lipid levels in the Japanese population.

Taxonomic studies were performed on ten hydrogen-oxidizing, facultatively chemolithotrophic bacteria that were isolated from volcanic mudflow deposits derived from the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that these isolates belonged to the genus Cupriavidus of the Betaproteobacteria; sequence similarity values with their nearest phylogenetic neighbour, Cupriavidus basilensis, were 97.1–98.3 %. In addition to phylogenetic analysis, results of whole-cell protein profiles and biochemical tests revealed that these strains were members of two distinct species. DNA–DNA hybridizations and whole-cell protein profiles enabled these isolates to be differentiated from related Cupriavidus species with validly published names. The isolates were aerobic, Gram-negative, non-sporulating, peritrichously flagellated rods. Their G+C contents ranged from 65.2 to 65.9 mol% and their major isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone Q-8. On the basis of these results, two novel species are proposed, Cupriavidus pinatubonensis sp. nov. [nine strains, with 1245T (=CIP 108725T=PNCM 10346T) as the type strain] and Cupriavidus laharis sp. nov. [one strain, the type strain 1263aT (=CIP 108726T=PNCM 10347T)]. It is also suggested that Ralstonia sp. LMG 1197 (=JMP 134) should be included in the species C. pinatubonensis.

Objective: To investigate the personal features associated with dropout from regular outpatient care among persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).Methods: A total of 160 DM patients were enrolled in the study. As a retrospective analysis, outpatient's clinical characteristics, lifestyle, or social features were gathered from their medical records or interview sheets. All the subjects were divided into two groups by adherence to diabetic care, namely, 'dropout case' (DC) or 'ongoing case' (OC), and were subjected to comparative analysis. We called the patients who did not receive outpatient treatment from the clinic on a regular basis, including treatment from other clinics or dropout of diabetic care, as DC. In contrast, patients who regularly visited the clinic were defined as OC. An unconditional multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the association of adherence to diabetic care with several personal features.Results: Sixty-eight of 160 subjects (42.5%) were recognized as DC. The remaining 92 subjects (57.5%) were considered as OC. Young age (p=0.045), low plasma glucose (p=0.005) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels (p=0.005), nonmedication (p<0.001) and no past history of DM (p=0.007) at the initial visit were the features related to dropout by crude analysis. Even after adjustment for age and gender by multivariate analysis, there remained significant inverse associations of dropout with HbA1c level, medical treatment (oral agents or insulin) and previous DM history. Neither occupation, distance from residence to clinic, smoking habit nor drinking habit was associated with dropout. Dropout mostly occurred after the initial or second visit.Conclusions: A mild condition of DM may be related to dropout from regular outpatient care. It may be necessary to clearly show the objectives and importance of regular visit to an outpatient clinic for diabetic care, particularly for screened mild DM cases in public health activities.

No abstract

This study had developed a raster-based tool in order to automate the soil erosion vulnerability assessment. The tool that designed based on the empirical USLE (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978) was built using various available GIS geoprocessing tools. The data used in this study were prepared using Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS softwares. The cluster Municipalities of Real, Infanta and General Nakar (REINA), Quezon, Philippines were selected as study area as it was previously hit by strong typhoon that led to severe landslide and deluge in 2004. Damages to lives and properties were remarkably the biggest in the history of these Municipalities. Using the raster-based tool, erosion vulnerability was assessed. The results were categorized into six (6) classes. It showed that None to slight covers 33.42% of the total area while Very severe ranked second with 23.83%. Other categories were Moderate with (2.26%), High (14.05%), Very high (18.80%) and Severe (7.63%) respectively. Higher percentage of None to slight can be justified by the fact that the area is still having 47% dense vegetation. However, high percentage of Very severe was attributed to presence of hundreds of bare/eroded areas in the mountain created by landslide due to heavy rain during a disaster in 2004. The developed tool is believed to be useful in the current situation wherein the country is on the process of nationwide hazard mapping.