Daily monitoring of health condition at home is very important not only as an effective scheme for early diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and other diseases, but also for prevention and control of such diseases. From this point of view, we have developed a prototype room for fully automated monitoring of various vital signs. From the results of preliminary experiments using this room, it was confirmed that (1) ECG and respiration during bathing, (2) excretion weight and blood pressure, and (3) respiration and cardiac beat during sleep could be monitored with reasonable accuracy by the sensor system installed in bathtub, toilet and bed, respectively.
To understand rice types that were utilized during postdomestication and in the modern age and the potential of genetic research in aged rice materials, archaeogenetic analysis was conducted for two populations of archaic rice grains from the Mojiaoshan site during the Liangzhu Period in China (2940 to 2840 BC). Sequencing after the PCR amplification of three regions of the chloroplast genome and one region of the nuclear genome showed recovery rates that were comparable to those in previous studies except for one chloroplast genome region, suggesting that the materials used in this work were appropriate for recovering genetic information related to domestication traits by using advanced technology. Classification after sequencing in these regions proved the existence of Japonica and Indica chloroplasts in archaic grains from the west trench, which were subsequently classified into eight plastid groups (type I-VIII), and indicated that these rice grains derived from different maternal lineages were stored together in storage houses at the Mojiaohsan site. Among these plastid groups, type V exhibited the same sequences as two modern Indica accessions that are utilized in basic studies and rice breeding. It was inferred that part of the chloroplast genome of archaic rice has been preserved in modern genetic resources in these two modern Indica accessions, and the results indicated that rice related to their maternal ancestor was present at the Mojiaoshan site during the Liangzhu Period in China. The usefulness of archaeogenetic analysis can be demonstrated by our research data as well as previous studies, providing encouragement for the possibility that archaeogenetic analysis can be applied to older rice materials that were utilized in the rice-domesticated period.
Paleopathological investigations of human remains from the Neolithic Hemudu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in southern East Asia were conducted to clarify the health status of people in early rice-farming societies. Our results show that the occurrence ratios of cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia did not differ significantly between early rice farmers and hunter-gatherers. By contrast, the occurrence ratios of periosteal reactions, dental caries, and antemortem tooth loss in adults were higher among the early rice farmers. Based on these findings and the results of archaeological research on the Hemudu culture, it was suggested that: 1) the Hemudu culture adopted a diversified livelihood strategy that was not overly dependent on rice as a food resource, which did not lead to an extreme decline in health status, 2) the work in the rice fields or the working environment caused stress to the workers, and 3) the rice-farming society’s dietary habits led to a decline in oral health. Our results provide new paleopathological insights into the health status of early rice farmers in East Asia. However, the sample size of early rice farmers used in this study was small, and more data are needed to verify the validity of the views presented here.
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