Factors involved in maintaining Karnofsky Performance Status (≥ 50%) in glioblastoma, IDH-wildtype patients treated with temozolomide and radiotherapy.

Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) is a widely used scale to assess performance status. KPS ≥ 50% implies that patients can live at home. Therefore, maintaining KPS ≥ 50% is important to improve the quality of life of patients with glioblastoma, whose median survival is less than 2 years.

Longitudinal changes following the introduction of socially assistive robots in nursing homes: a qualitative study with ICF framework and causal loop diagramming.

Background: Socially assistive robots introduced in nursing care settings have multidimensional psychological impacts on care recipients and caregivers. This study aims to explore the longitudinal changes induced by socially assistive robots, focusing on a chain of human behaviors.

Methods: In this qualitative study, nine participants from two nursing homes who had experience in manipulating socially assistive robots were interviewed in a semi-structured focus group using a topic guide to explore the changes in care recipients and caregivers.

Meta-learning of human motor adaptation via the dorsal premotor cortex.

Meta-learning enables us to learn how to learn the same or similar tasks more efficiently. Decision-making literature theorizes that a prefrontal network, including the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, underlies meta-learning of decision making by reinforcement learning. Recently, computationally similar meta-learning has been theorized and empirically demonstrated in motor adaptation.

The other person's smiling amount affects one's smiling response during face-to-face conversations.

Introduction: Smiling during conversation occurs interactively between people and is known to build good interpersonal relationships. However, whether and how much the amount that an individual smiles is influenced by the other person's smile has remained unclear. This study aimed to quantify the amount of two individuals' smiles during conversations and investigate the dependency of one's smile amount (i.

Positive Emotional Responses to Socially Assistive Robots in People With Dementia: Pilot Study.

Background: Interventions and care that can evoke positive emotions and reduce apathy or agitation are important for people with dementia. In recent years, socially assistive robots used for better dementia care have been found to be feasible. However, the immediate responses of people with dementia when they are given multiple sensory modalities from socially assistive robots have not yet been sufficiently elucidated.

Gamified exercise for the distal upper extremity in people with post-stroke hemiparesis: feasibility study on subjective perspectives during daily continuous training.

Introduction: Dose (number of repetitions) has been suggested as a key element in the effectiveness of rehabilitation exercises to promote motor recovery of the hemiparetic upper limb. However, rehabilitation exercises tend to be monotonous and require significant motivation to continue, making it difficult to increase the exercise dose. To address this issue, gamification technology has been implemented in exercises to promote self-engagement for people with hemiparesis in continuing monotonous repetitive movements.

Body fluid volume calculated using the uric acid kinetic model relates to the vascular event.

Purpose: We developed a method to measure the extracellular and intracellular fluid volumes using the kinetics of uric acid in the bodies of Japanese patients undergoing dialysis. In this research, we aimed to assess the prognosis of vascular events using this uric acid kinetic model method.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 1,298 patients who were undergoing hemodialysis or predilution online hemodiafiltration at the end of December 2019 at 13 institutions in Japan.

Resting echocardiographic parameters to detect patients with less symptomatic primary mitral regurgitation who require exercise stress echocardiography.

Objectives: We aimed to identify which resting echocardiographic parameters can detect asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients with primary mitral regurgitation (MR) who require exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) to determine their suitability for surgery.

Methods: We examined 56 consecutive patients with primary moderate/severe MR who underwent ergometer-based ESE. Patients who met the surgical indications at rest were excluded.

Determinants of Gait Parameters in Patients With Severe Hip Osteoarthritis.

Objective: To investigate the characteristics and symptoms of patients with hip osteoarthritis that are associated with spatiotemporal gait parameters, including their variability and asymmetry.

Design: A retrospective, cross-sectional study.

Setting: University hospital.

Direction-dependent differences in the quality and quantity of horizontal reaching in people after stroke.

Arm reaching is often impaired in individuals with stroke. Nonetheless, how aiming directions influence reaching performance and how such differences change with motor recovery over time remain unclear. Here, we elucidated kinematic parameters of reaching toward various directions in people with poststroke hemiparesis in the subacute phase.

Changes in trends of pediatric β- and γ-herpesvirus infections during the COVID-19 pandemic: A single-center observational study.

Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control COVID-19 have decreased the incidence of many pediatric infectious diseases. The epidemiology of β- and γ-herpesvirus infections might have been affected by NPIs. The aim of this study was to elucidate changes in trends in β- and γ-herpesvirus infections and complex febrile seizures (cFS) of viral etiology before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Association Between Body Tilt and Egocentric Estimates Near Upright.

The mechanisms underlying geocentric (orientations of an object or the body relative to 'gravity') and egocentric estimates (object orientation relative to the 'body') have each been examined; however, little is known regarding the association between these estimates, especially when the body is nearly upright. To address this, we conducted two psychophysical experiments. In Experiment 1, participants estimated the direction of a visual line (subjective visual vertical; SVV) and their own body relative to gravity (subjective body tilt; SBT) and the direction of a visual line relative to the body longitudinal axis (subjective visual body axis; SVBA) during a small-range whole-body roll tilt.

Computation of group-level electric field in lower limb motor area for different tDCS montages.

Objective: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) injects a weak electric current into the brain via electrodes attached to the scalp to modulate cortical excitability. tDCS is used to rebalance brain activity between affected and unaffected hemispheres in rehabilitation. However, a systematic quantitative evaluation of tDCS montage is not reported for the lower limbs.

Association Between Dietary Potassium Intake Estimated From Multiple 24-Hour Urine Collections and Serum Potassium in Patients With CKD.

Introduction: Limited and inconclusive evidence for the association of dietary potassium intake with serum potassium in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have been shown, though restricting dietary potassium has been recommended for CKD patients to prevent hyperkalemia. Multiple 24-hour urine collections are necessary to adequately assess potassium intake. We investigated associations of 24-hour urinary potassium excretion (UKV) with serum potassium in CKD outpatients based on multiple 24-hour urine collections.

Psychophysical evidence for the involvement of head/body-centered reference frames in egocentric visuospatial memory: A whole-body roll tilt paradigm.

Accurate memory regarding the location of an object with respect to one's own body, termed egocentric visuospatial memory, is essential for action directed toward the object. Although researchers have suggested that the brain stores information related to egocentric visuospatial memory not only in the eye-centered reference frame but also in the other egocentric (i.e.

Effects of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation on upper limb motor function after stroke: study protocol for the pilot of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique that can noninvasively modulate neural states in a targeted brain region. As cerebellar activity levels are associated with upper limb motor improvement after stroke, the cerebellum is a plausible target of tDCS. However, the effect of tDCS remains unclear.

Systematic determination of muscle groups and optimal stimulation intensity for simultaneous TMS mapping of multiple muscles in the upper limb.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation has been used to assess plastic changes in the cortical motor representations of targeted muscles. The present study explored the optimal settings and stimulation intensity for simultaneous motor mapping of multiple upper-limb muscles across segments. In 15 healthy volunteers, we evaluated cortical representations simultaneously from one muscle in the shoulder, two in the upper arm, two in the forearm, and two intrinsic hand muscles, using five stimulation intensities, ranging from 40% to 100% of the maximum stimulator output.

Development of an assessment form for the performance of public transportation use in individuals with stroke.

Purpose: To develop a new assessment form that is assessed by therapists for the performance of public transportation use for stroke survivors through content validation.

Materials And Methods: The items for the tentative assessment form were selected using hierarchical clustering analysis on previous records of 76 field-based training sessions for public transportation use for stroke survivors. After the modification of the tentative form based on 6 months of clinical use, the final form was developed through content validation using the Delphi method by 71 therapists who had been working at the hospital for more than 2 years and had experience with training for public transportation use.

Colonic Lymphoid Follicle Hyperplasia after Gastrectomy in Rats.

Nodular lymphoid hyperplasia (NLH) of the human colon has been associated with multiple diseases and symptoms. Causes include food allergies, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, and immunodeficiency, and gastrectomy is not usually considered to be the etiology. Nine rats two weeks after total gastrectomy and 12 control rats were sacrificed and submitted for histological examination.