Evaluation of the usefulness of sentinel lymph node mapping using indocyanine green in patients with cervical and endometrial cancers: A single-center prospective exploratory study.

Aim: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping using indocyanine green (ICG) is an alternative for reducing comprehensive lymph node dissection and its associated morbidity. This trial aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of ICG for SLN detection in patients with cervical and endometrial cancers at a single academic teaching hospital.

Methods: This single-arm, open-label trial conducted at Chiba University Hospital included patients with endometrial or cervical cancer, aged 20-70 years, with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1.

Associations among motor competence, health-related fitness, and physical activity in children: A comparison of gold standard and field-based measures.

This study compared the associations among motor competence, health-related fitness, and physical activity measured by gold standard and field-based methods in children. A total of 248 first-grade children (153 boys) aged 6-7 years participated in the study. Motor competence was assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development, Second Edition (TGMD -2).

Downregulation of SPARC Expression Enhances the Fusion of BeWo Choriocarcinoma Cells.

Syncytiotrophoblasts, which are formed by the fusion of villous cytotrophoblasts, play an essential role in maintaining a successful pregnancy. Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is a non-structural Ca-binding extracellular matrix glycoprotein involved in tissue remodeling and cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration. Previous studies have revealed that SPARC is expressed in villous and extravillous cytotrophoblasts in the first trimester and that RNA interference targeted at SPARC significantly inhibited invasion of human extravillous trophoblast HTR8/SVneo cells.

Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide Induces PD-L1 Expression and an Invasive Phenotype of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells.

Background: Expression of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) is related to the prognosis of many solid malignancies, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but the mechanism of PD-L1 induction remains obscure. In this study, we examined the expression of PD-L1 and partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition (pEMT) induced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in OSCC.

Methods: The expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) recognizing LPS in OSCC cell lines was analyzed.

Difference in the Electromyographic Behavior of the Masticatory and Swallowing Muscles During Cued Versus Spontaneous Swallowing.

The risk of dysphagia and/or aspiration is determined using screening tests, such as the repeated saliva swallowing test and modified water swallowing test, which evaluate cued swallowing. However, humans masticate and swallow foods with various consistencies, forms, and amounts, without conscious awareness. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the difference in the behavior of masticatory and swallowing muscles during spontaneous versus cued swallowing through a series of mastication and swallowing processes by evaluating surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals.

Multidrug-resistant mutations to antiviral and antibody therapy in an immunocompromised patient infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Background: Antiviral and antibody therapies for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are being recommended for high-risk patients, but the potential for the development of multidrug-resistant mutations in immunocompromised patients is unclear.

Methods: To investigate the treatment course in cases of prolonged viral shedding in an immunocompromised patient with SARS-CoV-2 infection, we conducted longitudinal measurements of laboratory tests, chest computed tomography (CT) image evaluations, antibody titers, and antigen levels in nasopharyngeal swabs. Furthermore, we performed whole-genome sequencing and digital PCR analysis to examine the mechanisms of drug resistance.

Automatic adaptive emotion regulation is associated with lower emotion-related activation in the frontoparietal cortex and other cortical regions with multi-componential organization.

Although some researchers consider automatic adaptive emotion regulation to be an automatized strategy whereas others consider it to be implicit disengagement of deliberative process, to date, its neural correlates have been poorly investigated. In addition, the valence specificity of automatic adaptive emotion regulation and levels of activation relative to the neutral condition are controversial; the former is relevant to the attribution of resilient emotion regulation to positivity bias or emotional stability, and the latter to determining whether regulation is based on emotion-specific or emotion-non-specific processes. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we presented positive and negative emotional pictures to healthy young participants and investigated the neural correlates of automatic adaptive emotion regulation in spontaneous emotional response.

Lung tropism in hospitalized patients following infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants from D614G to Omicron BA.2.

Background: The genetic and pathogenic characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 have evolved from the original isolated strains; however, the changes in viral virulence have not been fully defined. In this study, we analyzed the association between the severity of the pathogenesis of pneumonia in humans and SARS-CoV-2 variants that have been prevalent to date.

Methods: We examined changes in the variants and tropism of SARS-CoV-2.

Does earlier acquisition of motor competence promote pubertal physical activity in Japanese elementary school children: A 4-year follow-up study.

This 4-year follow-up study investigated which profile of motor competence (MC) in early childhood more strongly correlated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in early pubescence. A total of 247 first-grade children (152 boys) aged 6 to 7 years old participated in the baseline measurement. MVPA was measured using an accelerometer annually until the fifth grade.

Mercury levels in hair are associated with reduced neurobehavioral performance and altered brain structures in young adults.

The detrimental effects of high-level mercury exposure on the central nervous system as well as effects of low-level exposure during early development have been established. However, no previous studies have investigated the effects of mercury level on brain morphometry using advance imaging techniques in young adults. Here, utilizing hair analysis which has been advocated as a method for biological monitoring, data of regional gray matter volume (rGMV), regional white matter volume (rWMV), fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), cognitive functions, and depression among 920 healthy young adults in Japan, we showed that greater hair mercury levels were weakly but significantly associated with diminished cognitive performance, particularly on tasks requiring rapid processing (speed measures), lower depressive tendency, lower rGMV in areas of the thalamus and hippocampus, lower rWMV in widespread areas, greater FA in bilaterally distributed white matter areas overlapping with areas of significant rWMV reductions and lower MD of the widely distributed gray and white matter areas particularly in the bilateral frontal lobe and the right basal ganglia.

Loneliness inside of the brain: evidence from a large dataset of resting-state fMRI in young adult.

Although loneliness itself is a natural emotion, prolonged loneliness is detrimental to human health. Despite its detrimental effect, few loneliness-related neuroimaging studies have been published and some have limitations on the sample size number. This study aims to find the difference in resting-state functional connectivity associated with loneliness within a big sample size via the seed-based approach.

Shame proneness is associated with individual differences in temporal pole white matter structure.

Shame and guilt are distinct negative moral emotions, although they are usually regarded as overlapping affective experiences. Of these two emotions, shame is more closely related to concerns about other people's judgment, whereas guilt is more related to concerns about one's own judgment. Although some studies have tried to identify the psychological process underlying shame as opposed to guilt, there is no clear evidence of brain regions that are specifically relevant to the experience of shame rather than guilt and, more generally, self-blame.

Brain structures and activity during a working memory task associated with internet addiction tendency in young adults: A large sample study.

The structural and functional brain characteristics associated with the excessive use of the internet have attracted substantial research attention in the past decade. In current study, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and multiple regression analysis to assess the relationship between internet addiction tendency (IAT) score and regional gray and white matter volumes (rGMVs and rWMVs) and brain activity during a WM task in a large sample of healthy young adults (n = 1,154, mean age, 20.71 ± 1.

Association Between Age of Achieving Gross Motor Development Milestones During Infancy and Body Fat Percentage at 6 to 7 Years of Age.

Objectives: The later achievement of gross motor milestones during infancy is associated with adiposity in early childhood. However, the associations between gross motor development and adiposity after entering primary school are unclear. This study examined the associations between the ages at which six gross motor milestones were achieved and adiposity during early school years.

Polygenic risk score for bipolar disorder associates with divergent thinking and brain structures in the prefrontal cortex.

It has been hypothesized that a higher genetic risk of bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with greater creativity. Given the clinical importance of bipolar disorder and the importance of creativity to human society and cultural development, it is essential to reveal their associations and the neural basis of the genetic risk of bipolar disorder to gain insight into its etiology. However, despite the previous demonstration of the associations of polygenic risk score (PRS) of BD and creative jobs, the associations of BD-PRS and creativity measured by the divergent thinking (CMDT) and regional gray matter volume (rGMV) as well as regional white matter volume (rWMV) have not been investigated.

Cortico-striatal-thalamic loop as a neural correlate of neuroticism in the mind-body interface.

Objective: Although brain structural studies have demonstrated the neural correlates of neuroticism, the outcomes are not easily identified because of the various possible brain regions involved, low statistical power (low number of subjects), and brain structural measures available, such as mean diffusivity (MD), which are more suitable than standard regional measures of grey and white-matter volume (rGMV, rWMV) and fractional anisotropy (FA). We hypothesized that neuroticism neural correlates could be detected by MD and differentially identified using other measures. We aimed to visualize the neural correlates of neuroticism.

Brain microstructural properties related to subjective well-being: diffusion tensor imaging analysis.

Although it is known that health is not merely the absence of disease, the positive aspects of mental health have been less comprehensively researched compared with its negative aspects. Subjective well-being (SWB) is one of the indicators of positive psychology, and high SWB is considered to benefit individuals in multiple ways. However, the neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in SWB remain unclear, particularly in terms of brain microstructural properties as detected by diffusion tensor imaging.

High prevalence of pulmonary embolism prior to cancer therapies in patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers detected by contrast-enhanced CT using D-dimer as an index.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of pulmonary embolism (PE) before cancer therapies in patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers with enhanced computed tomography (CT) using D-dimer (DD), and determine the optimal cut-off level of DD.

Methods: Since 2009, we have performed preoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) screening of patients with ovarian and endometrial cancer. For patients with DD levels of more than 1.

General Intelligence Is Associated with Working Memory-Related Functional Connectivity Change: Evidence from a Large-Sample Study.

Psychometric intelligence is closely related to working memory (WM) and the associated brain activity. We aimed to clarify the associations between psychometric intelligence and WM-induced functional connectivity changes. Here we determined the associations between psychometric intelligence measured by nonverbal reasoning (using the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices) and WM-induced changes in functional connectivity during the N-back paradigm, in a large cohort of 1221 young adults.

Sex-Dependent Effects of the APOE ɛ4 Allele on Behavioral Traits and White Matter Structures in Young Adults.

The APOE ɛ4 allele is associated with a risk of Alzheimer's disease in the elderly, with the association being pronounced in females. Conversely, findings of the effects of the APOE ɛ4 allele in young adults are mixed. Here, we investigated the sex-genotype interaction effects of the APOE ɛ4 allele on cognitive functions as well as brain structures among 1258 young adults.

The associations of BMI with mean diffusivity of basal ganglia among young adults with mild obesity and without obesity.

Obesity causes a wide range of systemic diseases and is associated with mood and anxiety disorders. It is also associated with dopaminergic reward system function. However, the relationships between microstructural properties of the dopaminergic system and body mass index (BMI) have not been investigated.