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Study Design: Retrospective, cohort study Objectives: First, to investigate the prevalence of new DMSA abnormalities by age in patients with spina bifida, and second, to evaluate the age differences in risk factors for new DMSA abnormalities. Setting: Children’s hospital in Yokohama, Japan Methods: All patients with spina bifida requiring clean intermittent catheterization who visited from 2009 to 2021 were enrolled. Inclusion criteria consisted of having at least two DMSA scans performed at age ≤12 years and ≥13 years. Patients with no sequential data from video urodynamic studies were excluded. Risk factors for new DMSA abnormalities were evaluated in two different growth stages (age ≤12 years, age ≥13 years). Results Fifty-seven patients with a median follow-up of 18 years were included. At the end of the study, 22 patients (39%) had DMSA abnormalities. The number of patients having new DMSA abnormalities in childhood (age ≤12 years) and in young adulthood (age ≥13 years) was 10 (18%) and 12 (21%), respectively. After the LASSO logistic analysis, three variables (maximum detrusor pressure, vesicoureteral reflux, and bladder trabeculation) were identified as factors related to new DMSA abnormalities in children. On the other hand, vesicoureteral reflux was the only related factor in young adults. Conclusions: In children with spina bifida, there was no age tendency in the development of new DMSA abnormalities. Vesicoureteral reflux was related to new DMSA abnormalities in both childhood and young adulthood. However, video urodynamics parameters were related to new DMSA abnormalities only in childhood.

This study investigated the second language (L2) acquisition of Japanese case markers among children in naturalistic environments. L2 Japanese children with Chinese backgrounds (n = 187) and monolingual Japanese children (n = 280) were tested on their productive knowledge of four case markers: ga, o, ni, and de. Test scores correlated more strongly with length of residence (LOR) than age of acquisition in the current L2 group (LOR mean = 4.98 years). Most L2 children reached age-matched monolingual norms after an LOR of 2–5 years, although some did not reach the norms within this time frame. The nominative and accusative case markers, ga and o, were generally easier than the other two case markers, even though there are no equivalent morphological markers in Chinese. This indicates that the absence of these markers in the first language is not always a determining factor for the difficulty in naturalistic child L2 acquisition.

Many second language (L2) studies have shown that naturalistic L2 acquisition beginning from childhood leads to nativelike proficiency. The current study investigated whether the acquisition of such proficiency would be guaranteed, by examining a potential gap in the seemingly nativelike L2 proficiency of child L2 starters. At issue was the productive knowledge of noun–verb collocations by child L2 starters of Japanese (n=74, age 13–18) whose age of arrival (AOA) was between 0 and 11 and whose length of residence (LOR) was between 5 and 18 years. The collocation test included only items that were easy for native speakers (NSs) (n=162, age 13) age-matched for the youngest L2 participants. About one-third of the L2 participants, including the earliest arrivals, scored below the NS range on the collocation test. The current study concludes that early L2 onset does not guarantee nativelike productive knowledge of collocations, even when the collocations in question are very easy for NSs. The study also discusses pedagogical implications for child L2 starters, who are generally believed to become nativelike with ease.

Many age-related second language (L2) studies have confirmed that young children have a better chance to become nativelike in L2 acquisition than adults. The current study investigated whether age effects exist in the L2 acquisition of Japanese and whether nativelike proficiency is guaranteed for early child L2 starters after constant target language (TL) exposure. The TL proficiency of L2 learners (n = 47) first exposed to the TL at various ages was examined using (i) impressionistic judgments of overall proficiency, (ii) relative clause (RC) comprehension, and (iii) RC production tasks in experimental settings. The RC tasks were designed to linguistically challenge the L2 learners, many of whom appeared to be nativelike in the impressionistic judgments. The impressionistic judgments confirmed the advantage afforded to earlier L2 starters, while the RC tasks revealed that nativelilke proficiency is not guaranteed even in early child L2 acquisition. Some child L2 starters in the current study qualitatively differed from native speakers in the RC production task even after many years of rich and sustained TL exposure.

Epidemiological studies suggest that the consumption of flavonoid-rich diets decreases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, the target sites of flavonoids underlying the protective mechanism in vivo are not known. Quercetin represents antioxidative/anti-inflammatory flavonoids widely distributed in the human diet. In this study, we raised a novel monoclonal antibody 14A2 targeting the quercetin-3-glucuronide (Q3GA), a major antioxidative quercetin metabolite in human plasma, and found that the activated macrophage might be a potential target of dietary flavonoids in the aorta. Immunohistochemical studies with monoclonal antibody 14A2 demonstrated that the positive staining specifically accumulates in human atherosclerotic lesions, but not in the normal aorta, and that the intense staining was primarily associated with the macrophage-derived foam cells. In vitro experiments with murine macrophage cell lines showed that the Q3GA was significantly taken up and deconjugated into the much more active aglycone, a part of which was further converted to the methylated form, in the activated macrophages. In addition, the mRNA expression of the class A scavenger receptor and CD36, which play an important role for the formation of foam cells, was suppressed by the treatment of Q3GA. These results suggest that injured/inflamed arteries with activated macrophages are the potential targets of the metabolites of dietary quercetin. Our data provide a new insight into the bioavailability of dietary flavonoids and the mechanism for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Epidemiological studies suggest that the consumption of flavonoid-rich diets decreases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, the target sites of flavonoids underlying the protective mechanism in vivo are not known. Quercetin represents antioxidative/anti-inflammatory flavonoids widely distributed in the human diet. In this study, we raised a novel monoclonal antibody 14A2 targeting the quercetin-3-glucuronide (Q3GA), a major antioxidative quercetin metabolite in human plasma, and found that the activated macrophage might be a potential target of dietary flavonoids in the aorta. Immunohistochemical studies with monoclonal antibody 14A2 demonstrated that the positive staining specifically accumulates in human atherosclerotic lesions, but not in the normal aorta, and that the intense staining was primarily associated with the macrophage-derived foam cells. In vitro experiments with murine macrophage cell lines showed that the Q3GA was significantly taken up and deconjugated into the much more active aglycone, a part of which was further converted to the methylated form, in the activated macrophages. In addition, the mRNA expression of the class A scavenger receptor and CD36, which play an important role for the formation of foam cells, was suppressed by the treatment of Q3GA. These results suggest that injured/inflamed arteries with activated macrophages are the potential targets of the metabolites of dietary quercetin. Our data provide a new insight into the bioavailability of dietary flavonoids and the mechanism for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Crystalline derivatives of the following L-amino acids modified by 3,5-dinitro-4-pyridone have been prepared: glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, serine, threonine, tyrosine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid, glutamine, tryptophan, histidine, arginine, methionine and lysine. The modified L-amino acids (DNPY-L-amino acids) could be purified by recrystallization and were characterized by 1H-NMR, IR and UV spectral data. The molar rotation of the DNPY-L-amino acids varied from 2 to 100 times those of the parent amino acids. The effectiveness of 3,5-dinitro-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-4-pyridone as an amino-protecting reagent of L-amino acids is described.