Chitin hydrogel and hydrogel-based products are some of the frequently reported biomaterials for biomedical applications. Yet there is a void in understanding chitin's dissolution mechanism and its most suitable solvent system(s). Chitin is a natural polysaccharide polymer which can be dissolved in solvents such as calcium chloride- methanol, sodium hydroxide/urea (NaOH/urea), lithium chloride diacetamide (LiCl/DMAc), ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Peritonitis is a significant complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD). Additionally, in severe or prolonged cases of peritonitis, the structure and function of the peritoneum may change, making it difficult to continue PD. Thus, identifying the causative agent and early administration of antibiotics are essential to minimize the risk of treatment failure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFigure-ground (FG) segregation is a crucial step towards the recognition of objects in natural scenes. Gestalt psychologists have emphasized the importance of contour features in perception of FG. Recent electrophysiological studies have identified a neural population in V4 that shows FG-dependent modulation (FG neurons).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStructural adhesives are currently applied in the assembly of automobiles, aircraft, and buildings. In particular, epoxy adhesives are widely used due to their excellent mechanical strength and durability. However, cured epoxy resins are typically rigid and inflexible; thus, they have low peel and impact strength.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn proton craniospinal irradiation (CSI) for skeletally immature pediatric patients, a treatment plan should be developed to ensure that the dose is uniformly delivered to all vertebrae, considering the effects on bone growth balance. The technical (t) clinical target volume (CTV) is conventionally set by manually expanding the CTV from the entire intracranial space and thecal sac, based on the physician's experience. However, there are differences in contouring methods among physicians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDecidualization of the human endometrium is critical for establishing pregnancy and is entailed by differentiation of endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) into decidual cells. During decidualization, the actin cytoskeleton is dynamically reorganized for the ESCs' morphological and functional changes. Although actin dynamically alters its polymerized state upon external stimuli not only in the cytoplasm, but also in the nucleus, nuclear actin dynamics during decidualization have not been elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is increasingly recognized as a significant cause of lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) in older adults. The Ad26.RSV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate the agreement between 24-2 visual field (VF) test results obtained using the gaze analyzing perimeter (GAP; Findex) and the Humphrey field analyzer (HFA; Carl Zeiss Meditec).
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Participants: Patients underwent HFA 24-2 for suspected or confirmed VF loss and were treated at the Kyoto University Hospital between December 2022 and July 2023.
Visual information is processed in hierarchically organized parallel streams in the primate brain. In the present study, information segregation in parallel streams was examined by constructing a convolutional neural network with parallel architecture in all of the convolutional layers. Although filter weights for convolution were initially set to random values, color information was segregated from shape information in most model instances after training.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKey Clinical Message: Pseudohypoaldosteronism (PHA) carries a good prognosis if treated early and appropriately, but some cases can have life-threatening events. We underscored the need to consider secondary PHA as one of the differential diagnoses of hyponatremia and hyperkalemia in infancy.
Abstract: Pseudohypoaldosteronism (PHA) type 1 has two classifications; the primary type, caused by genetic abnormalities that develop during neonatal and infancy periods, and the secondary type, caused by urinary tract malformation and urinary tract infection.
This retrospective treatment-planning study was conducted to determine whether intensity-modulated proton therapy with robust optimization (ro-IMPT) reduces the risk of acute hematologic toxicity (H-T) and acute and late gastrointestinal toxicity (GI-T) in postoperative whole pelvic radiotherapy for gynecologic malignancies when compared with three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT), intensity-modulated X-ray (IMXT) and single-field optimization proton beam (SFO-PBT) therapies. All plans were created for 13 gynecologic-malignancy patients. The prescribed dose was 45 GyE in 25 fractions for 95% planning target volume in 3D-CRT, IMXT and SFO-PBT plans and for 99% clinical target volume (CTV) in ro-IMPT plans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to analyze the trends and factors influencing the number of ophthalmic surgeries in Japan using the open data from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. We calculated the number of cataract, glaucoma, and vitreoretinal surgeries, categorized by sex, age, and surgical type, for the fiscal years (FY) 2014 to 2020. The number of cataract surgeries remained stable at approximately 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Childhood-onset glomerular disease often requires ongoing treatment and follow-up into adulthood. However, few studies have analyzed the associated impact and distress experienced by patients with this condition during the transition from childhood to adolescence and adulthood.
Methods: At three facilities, we recruited patients who developed idiopathic nephrotic syndrome or IgA nephropathy during childhood and were at least 18 years old at the time of study entry.
A 79-year-old male with effort angina was admitted to receive optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention for restenosis of an everolimus-eluting stent implanted to the left anterior descending artery (LAD) eight years ago.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To investigate the prevalence and incidence of strabismus in the Japanese population by age group and to estimate the subtype proportions.
Design: A nationwide population-based cohort study.
Methods: This study investigated the number of cases with previous and new diagnoses of strabismus by age group between 2009 and 2020 using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan, which includes almost all (≥95%) medical claims data.
Though vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) and other proangiogenic factors, such as angiopoietins (Ang), may be involved in the development of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD), only drugs that inhibit the VEGF family are available for the treatment. The newly approved anti-VEGF drug faricimab, which also inhibits Ang-2, is expected to be effective in patients with AMD refractory to conventional anti-VEGF drugs. Therefore, we prospectively investigated the efficacy of faricimab in the treatment of aflibercept-refractory nvAMD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCongenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (CNDI), a rare hereditary disorder, is characterized by the inability of the kidneys to concentrate urine in response to the antidiuretic hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP); as a result, large volumes of unconcentrated urine are excreted. In addition to the clinical manifestations of CNDI, such as dehydration and electrolyte disturbances (hypernatremia and hyperchloremia), developmental delay can result without prompt treatment. In approximately 90% of cases, CNDI is an X-linked disease caused by mutations in the arginine vasopressin receptor 2 () gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: We aimed to describe the epidemiology of angioid streaks (AS) and pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), which are rare diseases, using a national claims database.
Design: This was a population-based longitudinal cohort study.
Participants: A total of 126 million individuals were covered by the universal health coverage system in Japan.
During free viewing, we move our eyes and fixate on objects to recognize the visual scene of our surroundings. To investigate the neural representation of objects in this process, we studied individual and population neuronal activity in three different visual regions of the brains of macaque monkeys (): the primary and secondary visual cortices (V1, V2) and the inferotemporal cortex (IT). We designed a task where the animal freely selected objects in a stimulus image to fixate on while we examined the relationship between spiking activity, the order of fixations, and the fixated objects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To investigate the predictors of macular chorioretinal atrophy, consisting of patchy atrophy (PA) at the macula and choroidal neovascularization (CNV)-related macular atrophy (CNV-MA), during treatment with ranibizumab or aflibercept for myopic CNV (mCNV) and its impact on visual outcomes.
Methods: This retrospective study included 82 eyes with treatment-naïve mCNV who were treated with pro re nata injections of ranibizumab or aflibercept.
Results: Nine eyes (11.
Background: Spinal metastasis pain includes both inflammatory and neuropathic pain, and opioids, which have only a μ-opioid receptor-stimulating effect, are generally less effective in neuropathic pain. However, no previous study has been conducted for the comparisons of the efficacy of opioids in treating spinal metastasis pain.
Objective: To compare the efficacy of tapentadol and methadone with other opioids for back pain caused by a metastatic spinal tumor.