Pupil Trend Reflects Suboptimal Alertness Maintenance over 10 s in Vigilance and Working Memory Performance: An Exploratory Study.

Maintaining concentration on demanding cognitive tasks, such as vigilance (VG) and working memory (WM) tasks, is crucial for successful task completion. Previous research suggests that internal concentration maintenance fluctuates, potentially declining to suboptimal states, which can influence trial-by-trial performance in these tasks. However, the timescale of such alertness maintenance, as indicated by slow changes in pupil diameter, has not been thoroughly investigated.

Predicting tingling sensations induced by autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos based on sound texture statistics: a comparison to pleasant feelings.

Sound serves as a potent medium for emotional well-being, with phenomena like the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) showing a unique capacity for inducing relaxation and alleviating stress. This study aimed to understand how tingling sensations (and, for comparison, pleasant feelings) that such videos induce relate to acoustic features, using a broader range of ASMR videos as stimuli. The sound texture statistics and their timing predictive of tingling and pleasantness were identified through L1-regularized linear regression.

The impact of sinkers on coning issues exhibited by tablets in USP2 dissolution apparatus.

The objective of this research is to explore the impact of sinkers on the dissolution rate of tablets exhibiting coning in paddle dissolution tests. The ICH M9 guideline refers to the use of sinkers to mitigate coning issues. However, the effectiveness of sinkers on coning phenomena has not been comprehensively investigated.

Intrascleral intraocular lens fixation with ab interno trabeculotomy in patients with exfoliation glaucoma with lens subluxation.

Purpose: To evaluate the surgical outcomes of intrascleral intraocular lens (IOL) fixation using ab interno trabeculotomy (LOT) in patients with exfoliation glaucoma with lens subluxation.

Study Design: Retrospective case series.

Methods: Twenty eyes of 18 patients with exfoliation glaucoma and lens or IOL subluxations were included.

Relationship between long-term visual function and the ratio of foveal avascular zone area in eyes with macular hole and healthy fellow eyes.

Purpose: This study is to investigate the relationship between long-term changes in the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and visual function of eyes with macular hole (MH) and compare the relationship between the FAZ of MH eyes and fellow eyes.

Methods: This study included 31 patients with unilateral MH who underwent vitrectomy and their fellow eyes. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and metamorphopsia were measured preoperatively and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively.

Effective treatment of gallbladder neuroendocrine carcinoma with nivolumab.

An 89-year-old patient with gallbladder neuroendocrine neoplasms (GB-NENs) and lung cancer metastasis underwent nivolumab monotherapy, resulting in tumor shrinkage. Surgery and adjuvant nivolumab showed efficiency despite low expression of PD-L1.

Prefrontal GABA and glutamate-glutamine levels affect sustained attention.

Attention levels fluctuate during the course of daily activities. However, factors underlying sustained attention are still unknown. We investigated mechanisms of sustained attention using psychological, neuroimaging, and neurochemical approaches.

Gender prediction based on University students' complex thinking competency: An analysis from machine learning approaches.

This article aims to study machine learning models to determine their performance in classifying students by gender based on their perception of complex thinking competency. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 605 students from a private university in Mexico with the eComplexity instrument. In this study, we consider the following data analyses: 1) predict students' gender based on their perception of complex thinking competency and sub-competencies from a 25 items questionnaire, 2) analyze models' performance during training and testing stages, and 3) study the models' prediction bias through a confusion matrix analysis.

Human-Like Modulation Sensitivity Emerging through Optimization to Natural Sound Recognition.

Natural sounds contain rich patterns of amplitude modulation (AM), which is one of the essential sound dimensions for auditory perception. The sensitivity of human hearing to AM measured by psychophysics takes diverse forms depending on the experimental conditions. Here, we address with a single framework the questions of why such patterns of AM sensitivity have emerged in the human auditory system and how they are realized by our neural mechanisms.

Site-Directed Cross-Linking Between Bacterial Flagellar Motor Proteins In Vivo.

The bacterial flagellum employs a rotary motor embedded on the cell surface. The motor consists of the stator and rotor elements and is driven by ion influx (typically H or Na) through an ion channel of the stator. Ion influx induces conformational changes in the stator, followed by changes in the interactions between the stator and rotor.

In Vitro Flagellar Type III Protein Transport Assay Using Inverted Membrane Vesicles.

The flagellar axial proteins are transported across the cytoplasmic membrane into the central channel of the growing flagellum via the flagellar protein export apparatus, a member of the type III secretion system (T3SS). To reveal the molecular mechanism of protein transport by the T3SS, accurate measurement of protein transport under various conditions is essential. In this chapter, we describe an in vitro method for flagellar protein transport assay using inverted membrane vesicles (IMVs) prepared from Salmonella cells.

Direct chiral separation of abscisic acid by high-performance liquid chromatography with a phenyl column and a mobile phase containing γ-cyclodextrin.

Abscisic acid (2-cis,4-trans-abscisic acid) is a plant hormone that has an asymmetric carbon atom. We tried to separate the enantiomers of native abscisic acid by HPLC using a phenyl column and a chiral mobile phase containing γ-cyclodextrin. The optimum mobile phase conditions were found to be 0.

A case of bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation with secondary angle closure caused by ciliary body thickening.

Purpose: To describe a case of bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation (BDUMP) with secondary angle closure caused by ciliary body thickening accompanied by intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation after mydriasis.

Observations: A 55-year-old woman with a history of ovarian cancer had blurred vision in both eyes. Fundus examination revealed multiple patchy lesions in both eyes and a nevus-like elevated lesion in the right eye.

Pupillary fluctuation amplitude preceding target presentation is linked to the variable foreperiod effect on reaction time in Psychomotor Vigilance Tasks.

Understanding temporally attention fluctuations can benefit scientific knowledge and real-life applications. Temporal attention studies have typically used the reaction time (RT), which can be measured only after a target presentation, as an index of attention level. We have proposed the Micro-Pupillary Unrest Index (M-PUI) based on pupillary fluctuation amplitude to estimate RT before the target presentation.

Tracing innovation pathways behind fisheries co-management in Vanuatu.

Co-management approaches have become a core part of coastal fisheries policy and planning practice in Vanuatu. With a long history of supporting community based fisheries management (CBFM), we trace its evolution in Vanuatu to understand how new structures and processes become adopted at scale. A theory of scaling for CBFM guides the analysis of regime shifts over time.

RNA-seq analysis, targeted long-read sequencing and in silico prediction to unravel pathogenic intronic events and complicated splicing abnormalities in dystrophinopathy.

Dystrophinopathy is caused by alterations in DMD. Approximately 1% of patients remain genetically undiagnosed, because intronic variations are not detected by standard methods. Here, we combined laboratory and in silico analyses to identify disease-causing genomic variants in genetically undiagnosed patients and determine the regulatory mechanisms underlying abnormal DMD transcript generation.

A nationwide survey of monocarboxylate transporter 8 deficiency in Japan: Its incidence, clinical course, MRI and laboratory findings.

Background: Monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) deficiency is an X-linked recessive developmental disorder characterized by initially marked truncal hypotonia, later athetotic posturing, and severe intellectual disability caused by mutations in SLC16A2, which is responsible for the transport of triiodothyronine (T3) into neurons. We conducted a nationwide survey of patients with MCT8 deficiency to clarify their current status.

Methods: Primary survey: In 2016-2017, we assessed the number of patients diagnosed with MCT8 deficiency from 1027 hospitals.

Comparison of Gastric Emptying Time after the Ingestion of Whisky with Isocalorically Adjusted Glucose Solution.

Previous studies have shown that the liquid gastric emptying mainly depended on energy content, regardless of compositional differences. But the gastric emptying of alcoholic beverages remains unclear. Therefore, we performed the present study to compare gastric emptying times between whisky mixed with water and glucose solution with uniform energy contents and volumes.

Ascending colon stenosis caused by repeated diverticulitis that clinically mimicked advanced colon cancer: A case report.

Introduction: We experienced a rare case of right-sided large bowl obstruction (LBO) of the colon caused by chronic diverticulitis, which was challenging to diagnose.

Presentation Of Case: A young male was admitted to our department with a fever, diarrhea, and right-sided lateral abdominal pain for several days. CT showed a thickened ascending colon wall with stenosis and adjacent retroperitoneal inflammation without marked diverticula.

Two cases of splenic neoplasms with differing imaging findings that required laparoscopic resection for a definitive diagnosis.

Introduction And Importance: Splenic tumors are rare and are sometimes found incidentally. In such cases, laboratory tests and imaging studies should be performed based on the diagnostic algorithm to determine whether the tumor is benign or malignant. However, we clinicians sometimes encounter challenging cases.

Chiral separation of catechin and epicatechin by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography with β-cyclodextrin stepwise and linear gradient elution modes.

Catechin and epicatechin were enantioseparated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a phenyl column and aqueous mobile phases containing 0.05% (w/v) and 0.6% (w/v) of β-cyclodextrin for catechin and epicatechin, respectively.

Dynamic Transitions Between Brain States Predict Auditory Attentional Fluctuations.

Achievement of task performance is required to maintain a constant level of attention. Attentional level fluctuates over the course of daily activities. However, brain dynamics leading to attentional fluctuation are still unknown.

Imaging neural circuit pathology of autism spectrum disorders: autism-associated genes, animal models and the application of in vivo two-photon imaging.

Recent advances in human genetics identified genetic variants involved in causing autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Mouse models that mimic mutations found in patients with ASD exhibit behavioral phenotypes consistent with ASD symptoms. These mouse models suggest critical biological factors of ASD etiology.