Mobilising Cross-Sectoral Collaboration in Creating Age-Friendly Cities: Case Studies from Akita and Manchester.

Developing Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCCs) is an increasingly popular policy response to supporting ageing populations. AFCC programmes rely on cross-sectoral collaboration, involving partnerships among diverse stakeholders working across sectors to address shared goals. However, there remains a limited understanding of what mechanisms and strategies drive collaboration among diverse actors within age-friendly cities.

Impact of body-height increase on gastrocnemius muscle stiffness in children with cerebral palsy: A one-year prospective cohort study.

Objective: To investigate whether the impacts of height increase on gastrocnemius muscle (GM) stiffness are greater in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) than in those with typical development (TD).

Design: This one-year cohort study enrolled children (CP, 23; TD, 23) who underwent two measurements conducted at entry and after one year. Lateral and medial GM-strain ratios representing muscle stiffness were obtained using elastography.

Influence of Change in Echo Intensity of the Pretalar Fat Pad in Young Individuals With Chronic Ankle Instability.

This study aimed to investigate the echo intensity (EI) of the pretalar fat pad (PFP) in young individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) and clarify the relationship between changes in the PFP and the clinical characteristics of CAI. Using the Identification of Functional Ankle Instability (IdFAI) scores, 26 limbs of 15 participants were divided into CAI (IdFAI score ≥11, male: eight limbs, female: six limbs, age: 21±1 years) and normal (IdFAI score <11, male: nine limbs, female: three limbs, age: 20±1 years) groups. The EI of the PFP was measured, and the luminosity ratio (LR) to the EI of the subcutaneous adipose tissue was calculated.

Strategies for unplanned gait termination at comfortable and fast walking speeds in children with cerebral palsy.

Collision avoidance while walking is necessary for safe living, and faster walking speeds tend to increase collision risk. However, gait termination strategies for patients with cerebral palsy (CP), from comfortable to faster speed, remain unexplored. This study aimed to analyze these strategies in children with CP compared to typically developing (TD) children at two different speeds.

Social Self-Sorting of Quasi-Racemates: A Unique Approach for Dual-Pore Molecular Crystals.

Despite recent advances in porous organic molecular crystals, the engineering of dual-pore systems within the intermolecular voids remains a significant challenge. In this study, we have achieved the crystallization-induced social self-sorting of "quasi-racemic" dialdehydes into a macrocyclic imine. X-ray crystallographic analysis unambiguously characterizes the resulting structure as incorporating two quasi-racemate pairs with four diamine molecules.

Loss of connectin novex-3 leads to heart dysfunction associated with impaired cardiomyocyte proliferation and abnormal nuclear mechanics.

Connectin (also known as titin) is a giant striated muscle protein that functions as a molecular spring by providing elasticity to the sarcomere. Novex-3 is a short splice variant of connectin whose physiological function remains unknown. We have recently demonstrated using in vitro analyses that in addition to sarcomere expression, novex-3 was also expressed in cardiomyocyte nuclei exclusively during fetal life, where it provides elasticity/compliance to cardiomyocyte nuclei and promotes cardiomyocyte proliferation in the fetus, suggesting a non-sarcomeric function.

Simultaneous Acquisition of T790M Mutation and SCLC Transformation during Targeted Therapy in EGFR-Mutated Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Rare Case Report.

BACKGROUND Various resistance mechanisms of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) have been reported, and approximately half of the cases show a T790M point mutation as resistance to EGFR-TKI. In addition, 3-14% of cases of non-small cell lung cancer transform into small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) during treatment. However, there are few reported cases in which 2 mechanisms of resistance have been observed simultaneously.

The experience of a tele-operated avatar being touched increases operator's sense of discomfort.

Recent advancements in tele-operated avatars, both on-screen and robotic, have expanded opportunities for human interaction that exceed spatial and physical limitations. While numerous studies have enhanced operator control and improved the impression left on remote users, one area remains underexplored: the experience of operators during touch interactions between an avatar and a remote interlocutor. Touch interactions have become commonplace with avatars, especially those displayed on or integrated with touchscreen interfaces.

Comparative analysis of ventricular stiffness across species.

Investigating ventricular diastolic properties is crucial for understanding the physiological cardiac functions in organisms and unraveling the pathological mechanisms of cardiovascular disorders. Ventricular stiffness, a fundamental parameter that defines ventricular diastolic functions in chordates, is typically analyzed using the end-diastolic pressure-volume relationship (EDPVR). However, comparing ventricular stiffness accurately across chambers of varying maximum volume capacities has been a long-standing challenge.

Advancing Genetic Alphabet Expansion: Synthesis of 7-(2-Thienyl)-Imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (Ds) and 4-(4-Pentyne-1,2-diol)-1-Propynyl-2-Nitropyrrole (Diol-Px) for Use in Replicable Unnatural Base Pairs for PCR Applications.

Expanding the genetic alphabet enhances DNA recombinant technologies by introducing unnatural base pairs (UBPs) beyond the standard A-T and G-C pairs, leading to biomaterials with novel and increased functionalities. Recent developments include UBPs that effectively function as a third base pair in replication, transcription, and/or translation processes. One such UBP, Ds-Px, demonstrates extremely high specificity in replication.

Practical Utility of a Clinical Pathway for Older Patients with Aspiration Pneumonia: A Single-Center Retrospective Observational Study.

: Clinical pathways (CPWs) are patient management tools based on a standardized treatment plan aimed at improving quality of care. This study aimed to investigate whether CPW-guided treatment has a favorable impact on the outcomes of hospitalized older patients with aspiration pneumonia. : This retrospective study included patients with aspiration pneumonia, aged ≥ 65 years, and hospitalized at a community hospital in Japan.

Application of deep neural survival networks to the development of risk prediction models for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.

Objectives: : Although numerous risk prediction models have been proposed, few such models have been developed using neural network-based survival analysis. We developed risk prediction models for three cardiovascular disease risk factors (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia) among a working-age population in Japan using DeepSurv, a deep feed-forward neural network.

Methods: : Data were obtained from the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health Study.

[A Case of Advanced Lung Adenocarcinoma in an Elderly Patient Who Maintained Responsiveness after Discontinuation of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors].

An 81-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of an abnormal opacity on the chest radiograph. She was diagnosed with cT3N3M1a, Stage ⅣA left lower lung lobe adenocarcinoma, and the PD-L1(22C3)expression was high (tumor proportion score[TPS]: 100%). She was administered with pembrolizumab monotherapy because her performance status(PS)was PS 1.

Systematic Mutation and Unnatural Base Pair Incorporation Improves Riboswitch-Based Biosensor Response Time.

Engineered RNAs have applications in diverse fields from biomedical to environmental. In many cases, the folding of the RNA is critical to its function. Here we describe a strategy to improve the response time of a riboswitch-based fluorescent biosensor.

Strict Interactions of Fifth Letters, Hydrophobic Unnatural Bases, in XenoAptamers with Target Proteins.

XenoAptamers are DNA fragments containing additional letters (unnatural bases, UBs) that bind specifically to their target proteins with high affinities (sub-nanomolar values). One of the UBs is the highly hydrophobic 7-(2-thienyl)imidazo[4,5-]pyridine (Ds), which significantly increases XenoAptamers' affinities to targets. Originally, Ds was developed as a third base pair with a complementary UB, 2-nitro-4-propynylpyrrole (Px), for replication, and thus it can be used for aptamer generation by an evolutional engineering method involving PCR amplification.

Effects of appearance and gender on pre-touch proxemics in virtual reality.

Virtual reality (VR) environments are increasingly popular for various applications, and the appearance of virtual characters is a critical factor that influences user behaviors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of avatar and agent appearances on pre-touch proxemics in VR. To achieve this goal, we designed experiments utilizing three user avatars (man/woman/robot) and three virtual agents (man/woman/robot).

Gait velocity control using projection mapping for children with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy.

Background: Gait characteristics in children with cerebral palsy vary according to their individual walking speed. As such, establishing methods to maintain a consistent gait velocity are necessary to evaluate specific intervention effects in this clinical population. Our study aim was to validate the accuracy of projection mapping for guiding gait velocity to a control gait velocity.

A multicentric consortium study demonstrates that dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 2 is not a dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase.

Dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1 (DDAH1) protects against cardiovascular disease by metabolising the risk factor asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA). However, the question whether the second DDAH isoform, DDAH2, directly metabolises ADMA has remained unanswered. Consequently, it is still unclear if DDAH2 may be a potential target for ADMA-lowering therapies or if drug development efforts should focus on DDAH2's known physiological functions in mitochondrial fission, angiogenesis, vascular remodelling, insulin secretion, and immune responses.

Relationship between the knee valgus moment and the hip abductor and adductor activity during single-leg landing.

Objectives: To reveal the relationship between the knee valgus moment (KVM) and the hip abductor and adductor activity during single-leg landing.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: Laboratory-based, between April 2020 and May 2021.

Two is better than one: Apologies from two robots are preferred.

Although the capabilities of service robots are increasing, avoiding any mistakes is difficult. Therefore, strategies for mitigating mistakes, such as apology behavior designs, are essential for service robots. Past studies reported that costly apology is perceived as more sincere than non-costly ones and more acceptable.

Structural basis of transcription recognition of a hydrophobic unnatural base pair by T7 RNA polymerase.

Bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase (T7 RNAP) is widely used for synthesizing RNA molecules with synthetic modifications and unnatural base pairs (UBPs) for a variety of biotechnical and therapeutic applications. However, the molecular basis of transcription recognition of UBPs by T7 RNAP remains poorly understood. Here we focused on a representative UBP, 7-(2-thienyl)-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (Ds) and pyrrole 2-carbaldehyde (Pa), and investigated how the hydrophobic Ds-Pa pair is recognized by T7 RNAP.

Success probability of high-affinity DNA aptamer generation by genetic alphabet expansion.

Nucleic acid aptamers as antibody alternatives bind specifically to target molecules. These aptamers are generated by isolating candidates from libraries with random sequence fragments, through an evolutionary engineering system. We recently reported a high-affinity DNA aptamer generation method that introduces unnatural bases (UBs) as a fifth letter into the library, by genetic alphabet expansion.