A novel virtual reality blowgun game for rehabilitation of older adults: A preliminary case series.

Patients: Three residents of a long-term care home volunteered to participate in a rehabilitation program involving a virtual reality blowgun game. The participants played the game 5 days a week as a new exercise routine. After 4 weeks of intervention, tongue pressure and forced expiratory volume in 1 s improved in all participants.

On-Surface Metathesis of an Ionic Liquid on Ag(111).

We investigated the adsorption, surface enrichment, ion exchange, and on-surface metathesis of ultrathin mixed IL films on Ag(111). We stepwise deposited 0.5 ML of the protic IL diethylmethylammonium trifluoromethanesulfonate ([dema][TfO]) and 1.

Adsorption, Wetting, Growth, and Thermal Stability of the Protic Ionic Liquid Diethylmethylammonium Trifluoromethanesulfonate on Ag(111) and Au(111).

We have studied the adsorption, wetting, growth, and thermal evolution of the protic IL diethylmethylammonium trifluoromethanesulfonate ([dema][TfO]) on Au(111) and Ag(111). Ultrathin films were deposited at room temperature (RT) and at 90 K, and were characterized by angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For both surfaces, we observe that independent of temperature, initially, a closed 2D wetting layer forms.

[A Case of Rheumatoid Arthritis Caused by Pembrolizumab Treatment for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer].

A man in his 40s underwent a transbronchial lung biopsy and received a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the right upper lobe of the lung(cT4N0M0, Stage Ⅲ)with no EGFR gene mutation, no ALK fusion gene, no ROS1 fusion gene, and a tumor proportion score(TPS)of 50-74%. During the postoperative follow-up period, enlarged right supraclavicular lymph nodes and right upper and lower paratracheal lymph nodes were detected, diagnosed as recurrence by positron emission tomography-computed tomography. Although a positive rheumatoid factor test, as the patient had no symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis(RA), treatment with pembrolizumab was initiated.

A 63-Year-Old Woman With an Acute Exacerbation of Interstitial Pneumonia.

A 63-year-old, non-smoking Asian woman presented to our hospital due to abnormal findings on chest radiography. She had no history of dust exposure. Chest radiography and CT imaging showed patchy ground-glass attenuation (GGA) in the bilateral lower lung lobes, a ground-glass nodule in the right lower lung lobe (diameter, 9.

Severe and progressive platythorax disproportionate to lung fibrosis: A rare variant of idiopathic pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis.

A 57-year-old man was referred to our department because of progressive shortness of breath and emaciation. He had experienced pneumothorax three times in the past five years. The patient radiologically showed mild upper-lobe predominant airspace consolidation and severe platythorax and was clinically diagnosed with idiopathic pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (PPFE).

Physiological Criteria Are Useful for the Diagnosis of Idiopathic Pleuroparenchymal Fibroelastosis.

Background: Diagnostic criteria of idiopathic pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (IPPFE) were recently proposed, including physiological criteria of the body mass index (BMI) and percentage of the predicted values of residual volume (RV)/total lung capacity (TLC) (RV/TLC %pred.). The aim of this study was to evaluate (i) whether the physiologic criteria are useful for the diagnosis and (ii) whether the flat chest index, defined as the ratio of the anteroposterior diameter to the transverse diameter of the thoracic cage, could be an alternative parameter to RV/TLC %pred.

Neutropenia related to an azathioprine metabolic disorder induced by an inosine triphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase (ITPA) gene mutation in a patient with PR3-ANCA-positive microscopic polyangiitis .

A 68-year-old Japanese man was monitored for chronic kidney disease (CKD), with unknown primary disease starting in 2014. His serum creatinine (sCr) was stable at ~ 2.5 mg/dL for ~ 2 years.

Nab-paclitaxel maintenance therapy following carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel combination therapy in chemotherapy naïve patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: multicenter, open-label, single-arm phase II trial.

Background A global multicenter study demonstrated superiority of carboplatin + nab-paclitaxel (PTX) therapy compared to carboplatin + PTX in terms of response rate (RR) and non-inferiority in terms of progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in untreated patients with stage IIIB/IV non-small cell lung cancer; no clinical findings have so far been reported on maintenance therapies with nab-PTX. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety of maintenance therapy with nab-PTX following carboplatin + nab-PTX combination therapy. Methods Carboplatin (AUC 6) was administered on Day 1; and nab-PTX 100 mg/m on Days 1, 8, and 15, and dosing was repeated in 4 courses of 4 weeks each.

Ir-Catalyzed Synthesis of Substituted Tribenzosilepins by Dehydrogenative C-H/Si-H Coupling.

The Ir-catalyzed intramolecular reaction of 2',6'-diaryl-2-(hydrosilyl)biphenyls gave substituted tribenzosilepins by direct dehydrogenative C-H/Si-H coupling. This is the first example of catalytic construction of the tribenzosilepin skeleton. Enantiomerically pure tribenzosilepin was prepared by optical resolution using chiral HPLC, and its inversion barrier was calculated by measurement of rate of racemization using the Eyring kinetic equation under heating conditions.

Generation of apodized X-ray illumination and its application to scanning and diffraction microscopy.

X-ray science has greatly benefited from the progress in X-ray optics. Advances in the design and the manufacturing techniques of X-ray optics are key to the success of various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques practiced today. Here the generation of apodized X-ray illumination using a two-stage deformable Kirkpatrick-Baez mirror system is presented.

Pt-Catalyzed Enantioselective Cycloisomerization for the Synthesis of Planar-Chiral Ferrocene Derivatives.

Enantioselective cycloisomerization of 2-ethynyl-1-ferrocenylbenzene derivatives proceeded by using a chiral cationic platinum catalyst at room temperature. The intramolecular reaction gave planar-chiral naphthalene- and anthracene-fused ferrocene derivatives with high to excellent ee.

Enantioselective synthesis of planar-chiral benzosiloloferrocenes by Rh-catalyzed intramolecular C-H silylation.

The first synthesis of planar-chiral benzosiloloferrocenes was achieved by the intramolecular reaction of 2-(dimethylhydrosilyl)arylferrocenes. The enantioselective cross dehydrogenative coupling of an sp(2) C-H bond of ferrocene with a Si-H bond proceeded efficiently with the use of a Rh-chiral diene catalyst.

Development of the ultra-miniaturized Inertial Measurement Unit WB3 for objective skill analysis and assessment in neurosurgery: preliminary results.

In recent years there has been an ever increasing amount of research and development of technologies and methodologies aimed at improving the safety of advanced surgery. In this context, several training methods and metrics have been proposed, in particular for laparoscopy, both to improve the surgeon's abilities and also to assess her/his skills. For neurosurgery, however, the extremely small movements and sizes involved have prevented until now the development of similar methodologies and systems.

Biodegradation and bioabsorption innovation of the functionally graded bovine bone-originated apatite with blood permeability.

Bioabsorbable and functionally graded apatite (fg-HAp) ceramics were designed using bovine bone by the calcination and partial dissolution-precipitation methods. The fg-HAp ceramics that were developed had gradual distributions of the degree of crystallinity and the grain size of single-phase hydroxyapatite from the surface layer of the pore wall to the bulk structure region. Calcination at 1073 K gave a specific surface area of 30 m2 x g-1 and porosities of 60-80%.