Association Between Olfactory Test Data with Multiple Levels of Odor Intensity and Suspected Cognitive Impairment: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Olfactory function decline has recently been reported to be associated with a risk of cognitive impairment. Few population-based studies have included younger adults when examining the association between olfactory test data with multiple odor intensities and suspected cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the association between high-resolution olfactory test data with fewer odors and suspected cognitive impairments. We also examined the differences between older and younger adults in this association. METHODS: The Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J) was administered to 1,450 participants, with three odor-intensity-level olfactometry using six different odors. Logistic regressions to discriminate suspected cognitive impairment were conducted to examine the association, adjusted for age, sex, education duration, and smoking history. Data were collected from the Program by Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, with an additional olfactory test conducted between 2019 and 2021. RESULTS: We generally observed that the lower the limit of distinguishable odor intensity was, the higher the MoCA-J score was. The combination of spearmint and stuffy socks contributed most to the distinction between suspected and unsuspected cognitive impairment. Furthermore, the association was significant in women aged 60-74 years (adjusted odds ratio 0.881, 95% confidence interval [0.790, 0.983], p = 0.024). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate an association between the limit of distinguishable odor intensity and cognitive function. The olfactory test with multiple odor intensity levels using fewer odors may be applicable for the early detection of mild cognitive impairment, especially in older women aged 60-74 years.

dbTMM: an integrated database of large-scale cohort, genome and clinical data for the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project.

To reveal gene-environment interactions underlying common diseases and estimate the risk for common diseases, the Tohoku Medical Megabank (TMM) project has conducted prospective cohort studies and genomic and multiomics analyses. To establish an integrated biobank, we developed an integrated database called "dbTMM" that incorporates both the individual cohort/clinical data and the genome/multiomics data of 157,191 participants in the Tohoku Medical Megabank project. To our knowledge, dbTMM is the first database to store individual whole-genome data on a variant-by-variant basis as well as cohort/clinical data for over one hundred thousand participants in a prospective cohort study. dbTMM enables us to stratify our cohort by both genome-wide genetic factors and environmental factors, and it provides a research and development platform that enables prospective analysis of large-scale data from genome cohorts.

Cellular inertia.

It has been experimentally reported that chemotactic cells exhibit cellular memory, that is, a tendency to maintain the migration direction despite changes in the chemoattractant gradient. In this study, we analyzed a phenomenological model assuming the presence of cellular inertia, as well as a response time in motility, resulting in the reproduction of the cellular memory observed in the previous experiments. According to the analysis, the cellular motion is described by the superposition of multiple oscillative functions induced by the multiplication of the oscillative polarity and motility. The cellular intertia generates cellular memory by regulating phase differences between those oscillative functions. By applying the theory to the experimental data, the cellular inertia was estimated at [Formula: see text] min. In addition, physiological parameters, such as response time in motility and intracellular processing speed, were also evaluated. The agreement between the experiemental data and theory suggests the possibility of the presence of the response time in motility, which has never been biologically verified and should be explored in the future.

Correlations and responses for a system of n coupled linear oscillators with asymmetric interactions.

We focus on the asymmetry of the interaction in the optimal velocity (OV) model, which is a model of self-driven particles, and analytically investigate the effects of the asymmetry on the fluctuation-response relation, which is one of the remarkable relationships in statistical physics. By linearizing a modified OV model, i.e., the backward-looking optimal velocity model, which can easily control the magnitude of asymmetry in the interaction, we derive n coupled linear oscillators with asymmetric interactions. We analytically solve the equations of the n coupled linear oscillators and calculate the response and correlation functions. We find that the fluctuation response relation does not hold in the n coupled linear oscillators with asymmetric interactions. Moreover, as the magnitude of the asymmetry increases, the difference between the response and correlation functions increases .

Analysis of dynamically stable patterns in a maze-like corridor using the Wasserstein metric.

The two-dimensional optimal velocity (2d-OV) model represents a dissipative system with asymmetric interactions, thus being suitable to reproduce behaviours such as pedestrian dynamics and the collective motion of living organisms. In this study, we found that particles in the 2d-OV model form optimal patterns in a maze-like corridor. Then, we estimated the stability of such patterns using the Wasserstein metric. Furthermore, we mapped these patterns into the Wasserstein metric space and represented them as points in a plane. As a result, we discovered that the stability of the dynamical patterns is strongly affected by the model sensitivity, which controls the motion of each particle. In addition, we verified the existence of two stable macroscopic patterns which were cohesive, stable, and appeared regularly over the time evolution of the model.

Hopf bifurcation analysis for a dissipative system with asymmetric interaction: Analytical explanation of a specific property of highway traffic.

A dissipative system with asymmetric interaction, the optimal velocity model, shows a Hopf bifurcation concerned with the transition from a homogeneous motion to the formation of a moving cluster, such as the emergence of a traffic jam. We investigate the properties of Hopf bifurcation depending on the particle density, using the dynamical system for the traveling cluster solution of the continuum system derived from the original discrete system of particles. The Hopf bifurcation is revealed as a subcritical one, and the property explains well the specific phenomena in highway traffic: the metastability of jamming transition and the hysteresis effect in the relation of car density and flow rate.

Flow instability originating from particle configurations using the two-dimensional optimal velocity model.

The two-dimensional optimal velocity model has potential applications to pedestrian dynamics and the collective motion of animals. In this paper, we extend the linear stability analysis presented in a previous paper [A Nakayama et al., Phys. Rev. E. 77, 016105 (2008)] and investigate the effects of particle configuration on the stability of several wave modes of collective oscillations of moving particles. We find that, when a particle moves without interacting with particles that are positioned in a diagonally forward or backward direction, the stable region of the particle flow is completely removed by the elliptically polarized mode.

The 3rd DBCLS BioHackathon: improving life science data integration with Semantic Web technologies.

BACKGROUND: BioHackathon 2010 was the third in a series of meetings hosted by the Database Center for Life Sciences (DBCLS) in Tokyo, Japan. The overall goal of the BioHackathon series is to improve the quality and accessibility of life science research data on the Web by bringing together representatives from public databases, analytical tool providers, and cyber-infrastructure researchers to jointly tackle important challenges in the area of in silico biological research. RESULTS: The theme of BioHackathon 2010 was the 'Semantic Web', and all attendees gathered with the shared goal of producing Semantic Web data from their respective resources, and/or consuming or interacting those data using their tools and interfaces. We discussed on topics including guidelines for designing semantic data and interoperability of resources. We consequently developed tools and clients for analysis and visualization. CONCLUSION: We provide a meeting report from BioHackathon 2010, in which we describe the discussions, decisions, and breakthroughs made as we moved towards compliance with Semantic Web technologies - from source provider, through middleware, to the end-consumer.

BioCichlid: central dogma-based 3D visualization system of time-course microarray data on a hierarchical biological network.

SUMMARY: BioCichlid is a 3D visualization system of time-course microarray data on molecular networks, aiming at interpretation of gene expression data by transcriptional relationships based on the central dogma with physical and genetic interactions. BioCichlid visualizes both physical (protein) and genetic (regulatory) network layers, and provides animation of time-course gene expression data on the genetic network layer. Transcriptional regulations are represented to bridge the physical network (transcription factors) and genetic network (regulated genes) layers, thus integrating promoter analysis into the pathway mapping. BioCichlid enhances the interpretation of microarray data and allows for revealing the underlying mechanisms causing differential gene expressions. AVAILABILITY: BioCichlid is freely available and can be accessed at http://newton.tmd.ac.jp/. Source codes for both biocichlid server and client are also available.