Voluntary blinks and eye-widenings, but not spontaneous blinks, facilitate perceptual alternation during continuous flash suppression.

The fact that blinks occur more often than necessary for ocular lubrication has led to the proposal that blinks are involved in altering some aspects of visual cognition. Previous studies have suggested that blinking can modulate the alternation of different visual interpretations of the same stimulus, that is, perceptual alternation in multistable perception. This study investigated whether and how different types of blinks, spontaneous and voluntary, interact with perceptual alternation in a multistable perception paradigm called continuous flash suppression.

Mapping Drug Terms via Integration of a Retrieval-Augmented Generation Algorithm with a Large Language Model.

Objectives: This study evaluated the efficacy of integrating a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) model and a large language model (LLM) to improve the accuracy of drug name mapping across international vocabularies.

Methods: Drug ingredient names were translated into English using the Japanese Accepted Names for Pharmaceuticals. Drug concepts were extracted from the standard vocabulary of OHDSI, and the accuracy of mappings between translated terms and RxNorm was assessed by vector similarity, using the BioBERT-generated embedded vectors as the baseline.

Color-binding errors induced by modulating effects of the preceding stimulus on onset rivalry.

Onset rivalry can be modulated by a preceding stimulus with features similar to rivalrous test stimuli. In this study, we used this modulating effect to investigate the integration of color and orientation during onset rivalry using equiluminant chromatic gratings. Specifically, we explored whether this modulating effect leads to a decoupling of color and orientation in chromatic gratings, resulting in a percept distinct from either of the rivalrous gratings.

Uptake, Elimination and Metabolism of Brominated Dibenzofurans in Mice.

Polybrominated dibenzofurans (PBDFs) are major brominated dioxins in the environment, but information on their bioaccumulation potential and toxicokinetics is limited. This study conducted oral exposure experiments with C57BL/6J mice to investigate the uptake ratios, distribution in the liver, plasma and brain, metabolism, and elimination kinetics of four bromine/chlorine-substituted dibenzofurans (TrBDF: 2,3,8-tribromo, TeBDF: 2,3,7,8-tetrabromo, PeBDF: 1,2,3,7,8-pentabromo, TrBCDF: 2,3,7-tribromo-8-chloro) in comparison with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). The hepatic uptake ratios of 2,3,7,8-substituted dibenzofurans were lower than that of TCDD (up to 84% of the administered doses) and decreased with the number of Br substitutions (42%, 33%, and 29% for TrBCDF, TeBDF, and PeBDF, respectively).