Publications by authors named "SHIBATA K"

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults, and inflammation and oxidative stress contribute to DR development. However, no effective treatments are currently approved for DR. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of SMTP-44D-a Stachybotrys microspora-derived compound with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties-on DR in in vivo and in vitro models.

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Background: The JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial demonstrated improved overall survival (OS) with maintenance avelumab in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma UC (la/mUC) who achieved disease control following first-line platinum-based chemotherapy (1 L-PBC). However, real-world data on eligibility, utilization, and outcomes of maintenance avelumab therapy remain limited.

Methods: This retrospective study included patients with la/mUC who received 1 L-PBC.

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Background: Few studies have examined the prognosis of long-term gastric cancer (GC) survivors after gastrectomy. This study aimed to identify the prognostic factors for 5-year recurrence-free survivors after gastrectomy for GC.

Methods: A total of 721 patients with pathological stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ GC who underwent gastrectomy between 2005 and 2018 and survived for 5 years without recurrence were enrolled.

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The motility of biological molecular motors has typically been analyzed by in vitro reconstitution systems using motors isolated and purified from organs or expressed in cultured cells. The behavior of biomolecular motors within cells has frequently been reported to be inconsistent with that observed in reconstituted systems in vitro. Although this discrepancy has been attributed to differences in ionic strength and intracellular crowding, understanding how such parameters affect the motility of motors remains challenging.

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In many plant species, the application of exogenous phytohormones is crucial for initiating de novo shoot regeneration. However, ipecac [Carapichea ipecacuanha (Brot) L. Andersson] has a unique ability to develop adventitious shoots on the epidermis of internodal segments without phytohormone treatment.

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An 87-year-old man with complaints of palpitations and digestive bleeding previously visited another hospital. He was referred to our hospital because of anemia. Small bowel endoscopy revealed an elevated lesion with bleeding from the ileum.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) characterized by an abundant cancer stroma is an aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis. Periostin (Pn) is a key extracellular matrix (ECM) protein in various tumor progression. Previously, we described the role of Pn alternative splicing variants (ASVs) with specific functional features in breast cancer.

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Parasitic myoma is a relatively rare disease in which one or more leiomyomas form outside the uterus; however, the detailed causes are unknown. Few sporadic reports are available, and per our research, the maximum number of parasitic myomas reported to date was 26, and almost all cases were treated by surgical resection. We report a rare case of numerous parasitic myomas in the abdominal cavity, possibly including an intrathoracic lesion, which could not be resected completely.

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Objective: Loss-of-function mutations in the GIRDIN/CCDC88A gene cause developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) in humans. However, its pathogenesis is largely unknown. Global knockout mice of the corresponding orthologous gene (gKOs) have a preweaning lethal phenotype with growth failure, preventing longitudinal analysis.

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Background: The third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) osimertinib is widely used as a first-line treatment for -mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, there is no established treatment for osimertinib resistance, so second-generation afatinib is an alternative treatment option. The purpose of this study was to elucidate gene alterations associated with afatinib efficacy and resistance by analyzing cell-free DNA (cfDNA) obtained from patients with -mutated NSCLC.

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Cord blood (CB)-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-natural killer (NK) cells targeting CD19 have been shown to be effective against B cell malignancies. While human CD56 NK cells can be expanded , NK cells can also be differentiated from hematopoietic progenitor cells. It is still unclear whether CAR-NK cells originate from mature NK cells or NK progenitor cells in CB.

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Masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou) are the only Pacific salmon endemic to Asia. Some researchers prefer to categorize these salmon into four subspecies (masu - O. m.

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Background And Objectives: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) includes different clinical syndromes with distinct patterns of symptoms and neuroanatomical locations of neurodegeneration. However, FTLD is clinically heterogeneous (with overlapping symptoms across several domains) and neuroanatomically heterogeneous (with brain atrophy in different locations in different patients). Traditional methods struggle to fully account for this heterogeneity.

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β-lactoglobulin (BLG), a major protein in whey, was conjugated with high methoxy pectin (HMP) by the Maillard reaction to improve emulsifying property and reduce allergenicity of BLG. The Maillard reaction was carried out at a weight ratio BLG: HMP = 1:4.15 and 1:6 at 60 °C at a relative humidity of 79% for 5 days.

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Background And Aims: Although the phase angle (PhA), a measure of frailty and sarcopenia, determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis has been reported as a prognostic factor after cardiovascular surgery, few studies have reported the trajectory of the PhA after discharge. In this study, we examined the trajectory of the PhA along with conventional physical function measures and explored the factors associated with recovery for 6 months after hospital discharge in patients who had undergone cardiovascular surgery.

Methods: We included 116 patients who underwent elective cardiovascular surgery and cardiac rehabilitation after discharge.

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Here we provide a database comprising electronic band structures of 9,004 layered intercalation compounds, where atoms are intercalated into a host layered compound with different intercalant atoms, along with 468 structures related to the layered host compounds. Additionally, we provide properties derived from the electronic states such as band gap as well as stability-related properties like formation energies. Direct comparison of the band structures before and after intercalation is generally challenging due to changes in their space group and k-path.

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Working memory (WM) and reinforcement learning (RL) both influence decision-making, but how they interact to affect behaviour remains unclear. We assessed whether RL is influenced by the format of visual stimuli held in WM, either feature-based or unified, object-based representations. In a pre-registered paradigm, participants learned stimulus-action combinations that provided reward through 80% probabilistic feedback.

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Purpose: To investigate the relationships among eye dimensions in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans by sex, age, and strabismus type in Japanese patients with acquired strabismus and high myopia.

Study Design: Retrospective clinical case series.

Methods: We included 58 eyes of 29 patients with acquired strabismus and high myopia (mean age ± standard deviation: 60.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focused on the rate of force development (RFD) in older patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) to assess its reliability and validity as a measure of muscle contraction during rehabilitation.
  • It involved 30 outpatients and 30 inpatients over the age of 76, measuring quadricep RFD at three different time intervals and evaluating physical performance with the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB).
  • Results showed excellent reliability for RFD in older patients and a positive correlation between RFD values and physical function indicators, indicating RFD's potential effectiveness for assessing physical rehabilitation in this population.
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Article Synopsis
  • Elderly patients often face feeding and swallowing issues, leading to the use of the simple suspension method where tablets are dissolved in warm water for tube administration without crushing.
  • A study using verapamil revealed that drug release was faster from crushed tablets than from the simple suspension or intact tablets, indicating significant differences in dissolution profiles.
  • While both crushing and simple suspension methods can safely help patients with dysphagia, they may also increase the risk of side effects, so it's advisable to avoid altering medications before giving them.
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We encountered a rare case of appendiceal carcinoma associated with Amyand's hernia, which was difficult to diagnose preoperatively. A 74-year-old man presented to our hospital with right lower abdominal pain. A hard mass was palpable in the right lower abdomen, and blood tests showed a slightly elevated inflammatory response.

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Flexible action selection requires cognitive control mechanisms capable of mapping the same inputs to different output actions depending on the context. From a neural state-space perspective, this requires a control representation that separates similar input neural states by context. Additionally, for action selection to be robust and time-invariant, information must be stable in time, enabling efficient readout.

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ELNES/XANES spectra can be observed using TEM or synchrotron radiation and can elucidate the unoccupied state electronic structures of an excited states. The computation of their features is usually demanding substantial computational resources due to the requisite structure optimization and electronic structure calculations. Herein, we leverage a machine learning technique alongside an atomic-coordinate-independent descriptor, SMILES, to yield the ELNES/XANES spectra, directly, with heightened precision.

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(1) Background: Periostin (Pn) is a secreted protein found in the extracellular matrix, and it plays a variety of roles in the human body. Physiologically, Pn has a variety of functions, including bone formation and wound healing. However, it has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various malignant tumors and chronic inflammatory diseases.

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Article Synopsis
  • Extensive practice improves task performance by leading to automaticity, but there are differing theories on which aspects of task representation (like low-level features or high-level memories) are affected by practice.
  • Using recent developments in neural population dynamics, the study hypothesized that practice refines neural representations by optimizing their geometry to focus on the most critical task features while discarding irrelevant ones.
  • Experimenting with 40 participants over 3 days, results showed that as performance improved, the highest-level context-specific representations became stronger and more stable, which directly correlated with better task efficiency and reduced errors when switching tasks.
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