Table tennis players use superior saccadic eye movements to track moving visual targets.

Introduction: Table tennis players perform visually guided visuomotor responses countlessly. The exposure of the visual system to frequent and long-term motion stimulation has been known to improve perceptual motion detection and discrimination abilities as a learning effect specific to that stimulus, so may also improve visuo-oculomotor performance. We hypothesized and verified that table tennis players have good spatial accuracy of saccades to moving targets.

Transcranial static magnetic field stimulation over hMT+ inhibits visual motion discriminability.

Visuomotor performance acting on a moving target is fundamentally based on visual motion discriminability, and its neural basis is presumed to be human MT (hMT+), a motion vision center of the dorsal visual pathway. In this study, we investigated whether and how the accuracy and speed of motion discrimination are affected by applying transcranial static magnetic field stimulation (tSMS) to hMT+, which reduces cortical excitability. Sixteen participants performed a motion direction discrimination (MDD) task using a random dot kinematogram before (Pre-test) and during (During-test) application of the tSMS over left hMT+.

Individual Variation in Adaptive Ability of the Anticipated Postural Stability During a Dual-Task Single-Leg Landing in Female Athletes.

Background: Precise postural control helps prevent anterior cruciate ligament injury. However, it is unknown whether the anticipated postural stability can be improved during a physically uncertain and cognitively demanding task.

Hypothesis: Anticipated postural stability will improve through unanticipated single-leg landing with a rapid foot placement target tracking.

Acute exercise has specific effects on the formation process and pathway of visual perception in healthy young men.

Visual perception is formed over time through the formation process and visual pathway. Exercise improves visual perception, but it is unclear whether exercise modulates nonspecifically or specifically the formation process and pathway of visual perception. Healthy young men performed the visual detection task in a backward masking paradigm before and during cycling exercise at a mild intensity or rest (control).

Daily fluctuations in visual motion discriminability contribute to daily fluctuations in continuous visuomotor performance.

In ball sports such as table tennis, in which a ball moving at high speed is hit, an athlete's brain needs to process the motion information of the ball, predict the arrival point, and form a motor command to direct the racket there. Therefore, day-to-day fluctuations in visuomotor performance may be ascribed to fluctuations in visual motion discriminability, but it is not clear how the two are related. To examine this point, university table tennis players performed a motion direction discrimination (MDD) task and continuous visuomotor (CVM) task over 10 days as an estimation of visual motion discriminability and visuomotor performance, respectively.

Variability in Physical Inactivity Responses of University Students during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Monitoring of Daily Step Counts Using a Smartphone Application.

This study investigated the changes in physical inactivity of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, with reference to their academic calendar. We used the daily step counts recorded by a smartphone application (iPhone Health App) from April 2020 to January 2021 (287 days) for 603 participants. The data for 287 days were divided into five periods based on their academic calendar.

Spatial Accuracy of Predictive Saccades Determines the Performance of Continuous Visuomotor Action.

In a table tennis rally, players perform interceptive actions on a moving ball continuously in a short time, such that the acquisition process of visual information is an important determinant of the performance of the action. However, because it is technically hard to measure gaze movement in a real game, little is known about how gaze behavior is conducted during the continuous visuomotor actions and contributes to the performance. To examine these points, we constructed a novel psychophysical experiment model enabling a continuous visuomotor task without spatial movement of any body parts, including the arm and head, and recorded the movement of the gaze and effector simultaneously at high spatiotemporal resolution.

The combination of acute exercise and eye closure has a synergistic effect on alpha activity.

Acute aerobic exercise increases the brain cortical activity in alpha frequency. Eye closure also increases alpha activity. However, whether the two have an additive or a synergistic effect on alpha activity has never been explored.

The phosphatidylcholine transfer protein StarD7 is important for myogenic differentiation in mouse myoblast C2C12 cells and human primary skeletal myoblasts.

StarD7 is a phosphatidylcholine (PC)-specific lipid transfer protein essential for the maintenance of mitochondrial PC composition, morphogenesis, and respiration. Here, we studied the role of StarD7 in skeletal myoblast differentiation using mouse myoblast C2C12 cells and human primary myoblasts. Immunofluorescence and immuno-electron microscopy revealed that StarD7 was distributed in the cytosol, inner mitochondria space, and outer leaflet of the outer mitochondrial membrane in C2C12 cells.

Characterization of glycerophosphodiesterase 4-interacting molecules Gαq/11 and Gβ, which mediate cellular lysophospholipase D activity.

We previously purified lysophospholipase D (lysoPLD), which hydrolyzes lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC) to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), from rat brain and identified the heterotrimeric G protein subunits Gαq and Gβ1 in the lysoPLD active fractions. Tag-affinity purified Gαq exhibits lysoPLD activity but a mutant that affected cellular localization or interaction with the Gβ subunit reduced lysoPLD activity. Size exclusion chromatography revealed that active lysoPLD is a much higher molecular mass complex than is heterotrimeric G protein, suggesting the presence of other components.

Side-chain oxysterols suppress the transcription of CTP: Phosphoethanolamine cytidylyltransferase and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase by inhibiting the interaction of p300 and NF-Y, and H3K27 acetylation.

CTP: phosphoethanolamine cytidylyltransferase (Pcyt2) is the rate-limiting enzyme in mammalian phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) biosynthesis. Previously, we reported that increasedPcyt2 mRNA levels after serum starvation are suppressed by 25-hydroxycholesterol (HC) (25-HC), and that nuclear factor-Y (NF-Y) is involved in the inhibitory effects. Transcription of Hmgcr, which encodes 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, is suppressed in the same manner.

A simple and rapid measurement method of encapsulation efficiency of doxorubicin loaded liposomes by direct injection of the liposomal suspension to liquid chromatography.

A simple and rapid chromatographic measurement method for determining doxorubicin (DOX) encapsulation efficiency (EE) into PEGylated liposomes using nanoparticle exclusion chromatography (nPEC) was developed. In this work, Doxil and two PEGylated liposomes spiked with DOX were employed as model liposomes, and unencapsulated DOX was measured by high performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detector using an N-vinylpyrrolidone modified nPEC column without any sample pretreatment. Only 5 μL of an intact liposomal suspension and 3 min analysis time were required for the determination of the quantity of unencapsulated DOX.

Abnormal mismatch repair and other clinicopathologic predictors of poor response to progestin treatment in young women with endometrial complex atypical hyperplasia and well-differentiated endometrial adenocarcinoma: a consecutive case series.

Objective: To report the response to progestin therapy in young women with endometrial complex atypical hyperplasia (CAH) or FIGO grade 1 endometrial adenocarcinoma (FIGO 1 EAC) based on clinicopathologic features, including abnormal DNA mismatch repair (MMR) by immunohistochemistry (IHC).

Design: Consecutive case series.

Setting: Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, CA, USA, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

StarD7 Protein Deficiency Adversely Affects the Phosphatidylcholine Composition, Respiratory Activity, and Cristae Structure of Mitochondria.

Phosphatidylcholine (PC) is a major phospholipid of mitochondria, comprising 40-50% of both the outer and the inner membranes. However, PC must be imported from its production organelles because mitochondria lack the enzymes essential for PC biosynthesis. In a previous study, we found that StarD7 mediates the intracellular transfer of PC to mitochondria.

Cholinergic and serotonergic modulation of visual information processing in monkey V1.

The brain dynamically changes its input-output relationship depending on the behavioral state and context in order to optimize information processing. At the molecular level, cholinergic/monoaminergic transmitters have been extensively studied as key players for the state/context-dependent modulation of brain function. In this paper, we review how cortical visual information processing in the primary visual cortex (V1) of macaque monkey, which has a highly differentiated laminar structure, is optimized by serotonergic and cholinergic systems by examining anatomical and in vivo electrophysiological aspects to highlight their similarities and distinctions.

Transcriptional suppression of CTP:phosphoethanolamine cytidylyltransferase by 25-hydroxycholesterol is mediated by nuclear factor-Y and Yin Yang 1.

Pcyt2 (CTP:phosphoethanolamine cytidylyltransferase) is the rate-limiting enzyme in mammalian PE (phosphatidylethanolamine) biosynthesis. Previously, we reported that Pcyt2 mRNA levels increased in several types of cells after serum starvation, an effect that could be suppressed by supplementation with low-density lipoprotein or 25-HC (25-hydroxycholesterol). Transcription of Hmgcr, which encodes 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, is also suppressed by 25-HC in the same dose-dependent manner.

Field-induced quantum criticality and universal temperature dependence of the magnetization of a spin-1/2 heisenberg chain.

High-precision dc magnetization measurements have been made on Cu(C4H4N2) (NO3)2 in magnetic fields up to 14.7 T, slightly above the saturation field Hs=13.97  T, in the temperature range from 0.

Choline kinase alpha expression during RA-induced neuronal differentiation: role of C/EBPβ.

Neuronal differentiation is a complex process characterized by a halt in proliferation and extension of neurites from the cell body. This process is accompanied by changes in gene expression that mediate the redirection leading to neurite formation and function. Acceleration of membrane phospholipids synthesis is associated with neurite elongation, and phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) is the major membrane phospholipid in mammalian cells.

The rhizosphere microbial community in a multiple parallel mineralization system suppresses the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum.

The rhizosphere microbial community in a hydroponics system with multiple parallel mineralization (MPM) can potentially suppress root-borne diseases. This study focused on revealing the biological nature of the suppression against Fusarium wilt disease, which is caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum, and describing the factors that may influence the fungal pathogen in the MPM system. We demonstrated that the rhizosphere microbiota that developed in the MPM system could suppress Fusarium wilt disease under in vitro and greenhouse conditions.

Predictors of residual carcinoma or carcinoma-in-situ at hysterectomy following cervical conization with positive margins.

Objectives: Identify predictors of residual carcinoma or carcinoma-in-situ (CIS) at hysterectomy following cervical conizations with CIS and positive margins or endocervical curettage (ECC) or microinvasive cervical cancer.

Methods: Patients with cervical conization with CIS and positive margins, ECC or microinvasive carcinoma who underwent hysterectomy within 6 months of conization were identified. Conization and hysterectomy specimens were re-reviewed to assess volume of disease, ECC and margin status and residual carcinoma.

[A case of large tracheoesophageal fistula after repair of the right discending aortic arch].

A 77-year-old woman with right aortic arch was diagnosed as aortic dissection (De Bakey IIIb) and hospitalized for conservative treatment. But, her respiratory condition deteriorated due to tracheal stenosis with aortic dissection. Surgical graft replacement of the descending aorta was performed to release tracheal stenosis.

Muscular dystrophy with large mitochondria associated with mutations in the CHKB gene in three British patients: extending the clinical and pathological phenotype.

Three patients with CHKB deficient muscular dystrophy are described which broadens the previously described phenotype. Blood smear in one patient showed Jordans anomaly (vacuolated leukocytes). Gastrointestinal features occurred in two patients and there appeared to be acute deterioration with infection/general anaesthesia.