Earable Ω (OMEGA): A Novel Clenching Interface Using Ear Canal Sensing for Human Metacarpophalangeal Joint Control by Functional Electrical Stimulation.

(1) Background: A mouth-free interface is required for functional electrical stimulation (FES) in people with spinal cord injuries. We developed a novel system for clenching the human metacarpophalangeal (MP) joint using an earphone-type ear canal movement sensor. Experiments to control joint angle and joint stiffness were performed using the developed system.

Simplified Attachable EEG Revealed Child Development Dependent Neurofeedback Brain Acute Activities in Comparison with Visual Numerical Discrimination Task and Resting.

The development of an easy-to-attach electroencephalograph (EEG) would enable its frequent use for the assessment of neurodevelopment and clinical monitoring. In this study, we designed a two-channel EEG headband measurement device that could be used safely and was easily attachable and removable without the need for restraint or electrode paste or gel. Next, we explored the use of this device for neurofeedback applications relevant to education or neurocognitive development.

Pathological variants in genes associated with disorders of sex development and central causes of hypogonadism in a whole-genome reference panel of 8380 Japanese individuals.

Disorders of sex development (DSD) comprises a congenital condition in which chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex development is atypical. In this study, we screened for pathogenic variants in 32 genes associated with DSDs and central causes of hypogonadism (CHG) in a whole-genome reference panel including 8380 Japanese individuals constructed by Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization. Candidate pathogenic (P) or likely pathogenic (LP) variants were extracted from the ClinVar, InterVar, and Human Gene Mutation databases.

Analysis for Predictors of Failure of Orthodontic Mini-implant Using Patient-Specific Finite Element Models.

In this study, we analyzed the clinical factors and mechanical parameters for predicting orthodontic mini-implant (OMI) failure in the mandible, which has different properties from the maxilla. A patient-specific finite element analysis was applied to 32 OMIs (6 failures and 26 successes) implanted between the mandibular second premolars and first molars used for anchorage. The peak stress and strain parameters were calculated for each sample.

Does anime, idol culture bring depression? Structural analysis and deep learning on subcultural identity and various psychological outcomes.

Subculture, includes animation, comics, games (ACG), and idol fan culture, is popular among young generations in Japan. Previous studies have shown different psychological outcomes within different subcultural groups; however, underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study proposes that subcultural identity may play a crucial role in mental health outcomes by interweaving social support and reputation.

A computational model to explore how temporal stimulation patterns affect synapse plasticity.

Plasticity-related proteins (PRPs), which are synthesized in a synapse activation-dependent manner, are shared by multiple synapses to a limited spatial extent for a specific period. In addition, stimulated synapses can utilize shared PRPs through synaptic tagging and capture (STC). In particular, the phenomenon by which short-lived early long-term potentiation is transformed into long-lived late long-term potentiation using shared PRPs is called "late-associativity," which is the underlying principle of "cluster plasticity.

A Customer Behavior Recognition Method for Flexibly Adapting to Target Changes in Retail Stores.

To provide analytic materials for business management for smart retail solutions, it is essential to recognize various customer behaviors (CB) from video footage acquired by in-store cameras. Along with frequent changes in needs and environments, such as promotion plans, product categories, in-store layouts, etc., the targets of customer behavior recognition (CBR) also change frequently.

Elucidation of the Correlation between Heme Distortion and Tertiary Structure of the Heme-Binding Pocket Using a Convolutional Neural Network.

Heme proteins serve diverse and pivotal biological functions. Therefore, clarifying the mechanisms of these diverse functions of heme is a crucial scientific topic. Distortion of heme porphyrin is one of the key factors regulating the chemical properties of heme.

Deficiency of , a gene related to intellectual disability, causes impaired neuronal development and a mild behavioural phenotype.

is a gene associated with intellectual disability, which was originally identified as being involved in the maintenance of kinetochore-microtubule attachment. To explore the neuronal defects caused by deficiency, we established mice that lack . Mice that are homozygous knockout for were slightly smaller than wild-type mice and died soon after birth on pure C57BL/6J background.

Transcriptome analysis of Homo sapiens and Mus musculus reveals mechanisms of CD8+ T cell exhaustion caused by different factors.

T cell exhaustion is a state of T cell dysfunction during chronic infection and cancer. Antibody-targeting immune checkpoint inhibitors to reverse T cell exhaustion is a promising approach for cancer immunotherapy. However, molecular mechanisms of T cell exhaustion remain incompletely understood.

Depolarizing Effects in Hydrogen Bond Energy in 3-Helices Revealed by Quantum Chemical Analysis.

Hydrogen-bond (H-bond) energies in 3-helices of short alanine peptides were systematically examined by precise DFT calculations with the negative fragmentation approach (NFA), a modified method based on the molecular tailoring approach. The contribution of each H-bond was evaluated in detail from the 3-helical conformation of total energies (whole helical model, WH model), and the results were compared with the property of H-bond in α-helix from our previous study. The H-bond energies of the WH model exhibited tendencies different from those exhibited by the α-helix in that they depended on the helical position of the relevant H-bond pair.

Localization Detection Based on Quantum Dynamics.

Detecting many-body localization (MBL) typically requires the calculation of high-energy eigenstates using numerical approaches. This study investigates methods that assume the use of a quantum device to detect disorder-induced localization. Numerical simulations for small systems demonstrate how the magnetization and twist overlap, which can be easily obtained from the measurement of qubits in a quantum device, changing from the thermal phase to the localized phase.

Structural investigation of pathogenic variants in dihydropyrimidinase using molecular dynamics simulations.

Dihydropyrimidinase (DHP) is an enzyme that catabolizes the degradation of pyrimidine and fluoropyrimidine drugs such as 5-fluorouracil. DHP deficiency triggers various clinical symptoms and increases the risk of fluoropyrimidine drug toxicity. Various pathogenic variants of DHP cause DHP deficiency, and their catalytic activities have been well studied.

Near-infrared light scattering and water diffusion in newborn brains.

Objective: MRI provides useful information regarding brain maturation and injury in newborn infants. However, MRI studies are generally restricted during acute phase, resulting in uncertainty around upstream clinical events responsible for subtle cerebral injuries. Time-resolved near-infrared spectroscopy non-invasively provides the reduced scattering coefficient ( ), which theoretically reflects tissue structural complexity.

Importance of Rare Genetic Polymorphisms for 5-Fluorouracil Therapy in the Japanese Population.

Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), encoded by the gene, is the rate-limiting enzyme in 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) degradation. In Caucasians, four risk variants are recognized to be responsible for interindividual variations in the development of 5-FU toxicity. However, these risk variants have not been identified in Asian populations.

A model for simulating emergent patterns of cities and roads on real-world landscapes.

Emergence of cities and road networks have characterised human activity and movement over millennia. However, this anthropogenic infrastructure does not develop in isolation, but is deeply embedded in the natural landscape, which strongly influences the resultant spatial patterns. Nevertheless, the precise impact that landscape has on the location, size and connectivity of cities is a long-standing, unresolved problem.

Predicting Reaction Mechanisms for the Threonine-Residue Stereoinversion Catalyzed by a Dihydrogen Phosphate Ion.

The stereoinversion of amino acid residues in proteins is considered to trigger various age-related diseases. Serine (Ser) residues are relatively prone to stereoinversion. It is assumed that threonine (Thr) residues also undergo stereoinversion, which results in the formation of the d--Thr residue, by the same mechanisms as those for Ser-residue stereoinversion; however, d--Thr residues have not been detected in vivo.

Temporal and Directional Cue Effects on the Cocktail Party Problem for Patients With Listening Difficulties Without Clinical Hearing Loss.

Objectives: To evaluate the listening difficulty in a cocktail party environment in the sound field in order to better demonstrate patients' difficulties listening in noise, and to examine temporal and directional cue effects on the speech intelligibility in patients with listening difficulties in noise in comparison with control subjects.

Design: This study examined and analyzed 16 control subjects without any complaints of listening difficulties and 16 patients who had visited the outpatient clinic of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tohoku University Hospital, with complaints of listening difficulties, especially in background crowded conditions, despite having relatively good hearing on routine audiograms and speech audiometry. Using five loudspeakers located in front of the subject and at 30° and 60° to the left and right from the front, word intelligibility for the target voice (female talker) presented from one of the loudspeakers in random order with four distractor voices (male talker) was assessed under the following cue conditions: (1) "no additional temporal/directional cue (only talker sex as a cue)"; (2) "fixed temporal cue without directional cue" (white noise bursts [cue sounds] were presented from the five loudspeakers just before word presentation at 500-ms intervals); (3) "directional + variable temporal cues" [cue sounds were presented from the loudspeaker where the next target word would be presented with a variable inter-stimulus interval [ISI] of 500, 1000, 1500, or 2000 ms between the cue sound and word presentation); and (4) "directional + fixed temporal cues" (cue sounds were presented from the loudspeaker where the next target word would be presented with a fixed ISI of 500 ms).

High levels of chromosomal instability facilitate the tumor growth and sphere formation.

Most cancer cells show chromosomal instability (CIN), a condition in which chromosome missegregation occurs at high rates. Growing evidence suggests that CIN is not just a consequence of, but a driving force for, oncogenic transformation, although the relationship between CIN and tumorigenesis has not been fully elucidated. Here we found that conventional two-dimensional (2D) culture of HeLa cells, a cervical cancer-derived cell line, was a heterogenous population containing cells with different CIN levels.