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The hop variety Sorachi Ace was bred and first licenced in Japan by Sapporo Breweies Ltd. in 1984. Recently, this hop has been used as a 'flavour hop' to give beer a unique characteristic aroma, for example, woody, pine-like, citrus, dill-like and lemon grass-like. In previous study, we identified geranic acid as one of the unique compounds comprising Sorachi Ace. As a result of model sensory evaluations, we reported that geranic acid itself had little flavour, but that this compound could enhance the flavour intensities of other hop-derived flavour compounds in spite of its very low flavour intensity. In this study, the mechanism of Sorachi Ace varietal aroma was further investigated using sensory omission test. The selected 16 compounds were separated to five groups, 'carboxylic acids', 'alcohols', 'aldehydes', 'esters', and 'hydrocarbons'. As a result of the omission test, it was concluded that all groups could affect to the varietal aroma of Sorachi Ace, despite the concentrations of several compounds were at very low levels. In addition, an effect of blend-hopping with Sorachi Ace and other flavour hop varieties was investigated. It was surprisingly found that blend-hopping between Sorachi Ace and certain hop varieties (Kazbek, Hallertau Blanc, and Cascade) could negatively affect to the flavour impression of test-beers. On the other hand, blend-hopping between Sorachi Ace and Citra or Mosaic could positively affect to the flavour impression of test-beers. Because of high concentrations of 4-Methyl-4-sulfanylpentan-2-one (4MSP) derived from these hops, it is assumed that 4MSP containing hops could be effective choice for blending with Sorachi Ace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is characterized by field cancerization, wherein multiple cancers occur in the esophagus, head and neck, and stomach. Synchronous esophageal and colorectal cancers are also encountered with a certain frequency. A good prognosis can be expected if the tumors in both locations can be safely and completely removed. For patients with multiple cancers that occur simultaneously with esophageal cancer, it is necessary to perform a staged operation, taking into consideration the associated surgical invasiveness. It is also necessary to select multidisciplinary treatment depending on the degree of progression of the multiple lesions. We report our rare experience with a staged operation for a patient with synchronous advanced cancers of the esophagus and cecum who had previously undergone total gastrectomy with reconstruction by jejunal interposition for gastric cancer. Case presentation A 71-year-old man with a history of reconstruction by jejunal interposition after total gastrectomy was diagnosed as having multiple synchronous esophageal and cecal cancers. After neoadjuvant chemotherapy, we performed a planned two-stage operation, with esophagectomy and jejunostomy in the first stage and ileocecal resection and jejunal reconstruction with vascular anastomosis in the second. Postoperatively, the patient was relieved without major complications, and both tumors were amenable to curative pathologic resection. Conclusions Our procedure reported here may be recommended as an option for staged resection and reconstruction in patients with simultaneous advanced esophageal and cecal cancer after total gastrectomy.

Abstract Background and Aim Stimulant laxatives may cause electrolyte abnormalities, dehydration, and abdominal pain; their long‐term use can lead to tolerance and subsequent refractory constipation. We investigated the effectiveness, safety, and quality of life after switching from stimulant laxatives to lubiprostone in elderly patients with chronic constipation (CC). Methods This multicenter, interventional, open‐label, single‐arm, before‐and‐after comparison study enrolled 99 Japanese patients aged 65–90 years with CC who took stimulant laxatives for ≥2 weeks prior to switching to lubiprostone monotherapy. Results The mean ± SD spontaneous defecations at Week 1 of 7.8 ± 6.2 times/week was not significantly different from that at baseline (8.3 ± 4.7). Spontaneous defecations were significantly reduced at Weeks 2 (−1.5 ± 4.0, P

Abstract Parsing of human images is a fundamental task for determining semantic parts such as the face, arms, and legs, as well as a hat or a dress. Recent deep-learning-based methods have achieved significant improvements, but collecting training datasets with pixel-wise annotations is labor-intensive. In this paper, we propose two solutions to cope with limited datasets. Firstly, to handle various poses, we incorporate a pose estimation network into an end-to-end human-image parsing network, in order to transfer common features across the domains. The pose estimation network can be trained using rich datasets and can feed valuable features to the human-image parsing network. Secondly, to handle complicated backgrounds, we increase the variation in image backgrounds automatically by replacing the original backgrounds of human images with others obtained from large-scale scenery image datasets. Individually, each solution is versatile and beneficial to human-image parsing, while their combination yields further improvement. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through comparisons and various applications such as garment recoloring, garment texture transfer, and visualization for fashion analysis.

Background: Flavor hops (Humulus lupulus L.) are recognized as key raw materials that impart unique flavors to beer, especially in the emerging craft-beer industry. In this study the sensory evaluation of hop cone aromas using hop water extract by boiling (HWEB) was applied to develop new flavor hop cultivars in a screening from tens of varieties and breeding lines., Results: The sensory scores of HWEB showed a significant correlation with polyfunctional thiol content in hop cones, including substances such as 4-methyl-4-sulfunylpentan-2-one (4MSP) and 3-sulfunyl-4-methylpentan-1-ol (3S4MP), which are known to be difficult to analyze mechanically. As a result of the sensory evaluation of HWEB, a breeding line, 'K906901060' was found to have a strong fruity note. Subsequent chemical analyses revealed that this cultivar had 80-136 μg kg -1 of 4MSP in its cones, which is similar to the concentration present in current leading flavor hop cultivars, such as Citra (37-114 μg kg -1 ) and Simcoe (2-112 μg kg -1 ). Beer late-hopped with K906901060 provoked a greater tropical flavor impression than beer hopped using Nelson Sauvin hops., Conclusion: The sensory evaluation of HWEB was indicated to be useful to search for hops containing polyfunctional thiols. The plant was registered, as 'Furano K906901060 Go' in Japan, in the EU, and in the USA, and the cultivar was given the commercial name 'Furano Magical'. This cultivar was derived from a cross performed in 1989 and had been kept as a mid-mother plant from 1997, until being selected in 2014, as described here. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.)

In recent years, many hop varieties with unique aromas, so-called "flavor hops", have been bred and grown. Here, we investigated the effect of late-harvested hops using three flavor hop varieties; Furano Beauty, Furano Magical, and Cascade. The sample hops were harvested at different days after flowering (DAF): DAF 45 (normal harvest), DAF 65, DAF 75, and DAF 85. We measured the volatile thiols in sample cones. The results indicated that 4-methyl-4-sulfanylpentane-2-one contents showed almost no change or a slightly decrease with a delay in harvest, whereas 3-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-1-ol (3S4MP) content in late-harvested samples increased several fold in comparison with normal-harvested samples. Additionally, 3S4MP contents in the beers brewed with DAF 65 samples were several times higher than those using DAF 45 ones. From these results, we propose a new method to control 3S4MP content in hop cones by changing its harvest date.

A method for the quantitation of six polyfunctional thiols, 4-methyl-4-sulfanylpentan-2-one (4MSP), 3-sulfanyl-4-methylpentan-1-ol (3S4MP), 3-sulfanyl-4-methylpentyl acetate (3S4MPA), 3-sulfanyl-3-methylbutan-1-ol (3S3MB), 3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol (3SH), and 3-sulfanylhexyl acetate (3SHA), in hops and beer without organic mercury compounds was developed. The method employed specific extraction of thiols using a silver ion solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). For all thiols analyzed, good linearity was achieved by adding thioglycerol as an analyte protectant. Recoveries for both hops (74-100%) and beer (79-113%) were acceptable, and the repeatability for both was also good (relative standard deviations of 2.8-8.4%). The limits of detection for the six polyfunctional thiols were below their odor thresholds in beer. The method was applied to quantitation of hops and beer flavored with thiol-containing hop varieties. Due to their detected levels and level variations in different beers, 4MSP and 3S4MP are thought to be important polyfunctional thiols for the characteristic flavor of hop varieties.

High density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol levels are correlated with a low risk of atherosclerosis. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), which catalyses cholesterol transfer between lipoproteins, leads to an increase in HDL-cholesterol and is expected to be the next anti-atherogenic target. This study revealed that xanthohumol, a prenylated chalcone, showed the highest inhibition against CETP from screening of natural products in various plants. We investigated the inhibitory activity of some chalcones and flavanones. Naringenin chalcone showed weak CETP inhibition compared with xanthohumol. In addition, isoxanthohumol and naringenin drastically decreased the inhibitory activity. These results suggest that the prenyl group and chalcone structure of xanthohumol were responsible for the CETP inhibitory activity., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The human thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) gene has been localized to X chromosome (Xq22.2) by in situ hybridization using a biotinylated gDNA probe. This is consistent with previous mapping of the TBG gene to chromosome Xq21-q22.