The Acute Effect of Hot Water Immersion on Cardiac Function in Individuals with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury.

Thermotherapy is expected to assist in the prevention of arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease in individuals with spinal cord injuries. This study aimed to investigate the impact and underlying mechanisms of whole-body heat stress on cardiac function in patients with cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) and healthy controls using head-out hot water immersion (HHWI). Eight male patients with complete motor CSCI and nine healthy controls were recruited.

Prognostic Factors for Mortality in Patients Aged 90 Years and Older with Proximal Femoral Fractures Undergoing Surgery: A Retrospective Study.

Proximal femoral fractures (PFFs) among individuals aged ≥90 years are becoming more common with an aging population and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. This study analyzed the prognostic factors influencing survival in nonagenarian patients undergoing surgery for PFFs. We enrolled 285 patients who underwent surgery between 2016 and 2022.

Usefulness of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in Pediatric Dentistry.

: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT has developed rapidly in recent years, and in the medical field, its usefulness for diagnostic assistance has been reported. However, there are few reports of AI use in dental fields. : We created 20 questions that we had encountered in clinical pediatric dentistry, and collected the responses to these questions from three types of generative AI.

From Omics to Multi-Omics: A Review of Advantages and Tradeoffs.

Bioinformatics is a rapidly evolving field charged with cataloging, disseminating, and analyzing biological data. Bioinformatics started with genomics, but while genomics focuses more narrowly on the genes comprising a genome, bioinformatics now encompasses a much broader range of omics technologies. Overcoming barriers of scale and effort that plagued earlier sequencing methods, bioinformatics adopted an ambitious strategy involving high-throughput and highly automated assays.

Disruption of Sex-Linked Causes ZW Female-to-Male Sex Reversal in the Japanese Frog .

is an ancestral homologous gene of the male-determining in eutherian mammals and determines maleness in medaka fish. In the Japanese frog, , is located on the Z and W chromosomes. To assess the sex-determining function of in this frog, we investigated its expression in gonads during early tadpole development and conducted genome-editing experiments.

Saliva in Balancing Oral and Systemic Health, Oral Cancer, and Beyond: A Narrative Review.

Saliva plays a multifaceted role in oral health and systemic well-being. It supports digestion, protects oral tissues, maintains a healthy oral microbiome, and facilitates wound healing. Additionally, saliva serves as a diagnostic tool that reflects systemic health and disease/therapeutic states.

Intelligibility Sound Therapy Enhances the Ability of Speech-in-Noise Perception and Pre-Perceptual Neurophysiological Response.

Aural rehabilitation with hearing aids can decrease the attentional requirements of cognitive resources by amplifying deteriorated-frequency sound in hearing loss patients and improving auditory discrimination ability like speech-in-noise perception. As aural rehabilitation with an intelligible-hearing sound also can be hopeful, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of aural rehabilitation with intelligible-hearing sound for hearing loss patients. Adult native Japanese speakers (17 males and 23 females, 68.

Verification of an alteration in the gut microbiota that increases nutritional risk in patients on hemodialysis.

In end-stage kidney disease requiring hemodialysis, patients at nutritional risk have a poor prognosis. The gut microbiota is important for maintaining the nutritional status of patients. However, it remains unclear whether an altered gut microbiota correlates with increased nutritional risk in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

The manipulation of top-down interpretation as one's symptomatic body reduces the sense of body ownership.

Sense of body ownership has been studied using rubber hand illusion (RHI) and full-body illusion (FBI). It has recently become clear that consciously interpreting a fake body as one's own in a top-down manner influences these body illusions. Furthermore, a study interestingly found that the influence of top-down interpretation was moderated by the degree of depersonalization, which was a symptom of a lack of sense of body ownership.

Cutoffs on severity metrics for minimal manifestations or better status in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis.

International consensus guidance and Japanese clinical guidelines for myasthenia gravis (MG) recommend achieving minimal manifestations or better status (MM-or-better) as the severity component of the treatment goal. However, the subjective nature of determining MM can result in ambiguity regarding this category in clinical practice and clinical trials. This study analyzed severity metrics in a large number of MG patients to propose criteria for MM-or-better.

Swarm navigation of cyborg-insects in unknown obstructed soft terrain.

Cyborg insects refer to hybrid robots that integrate living insects with miniature electronic controllers to enable robotic-like programmable control. These creatures exhibit advantages over conventional robots in adaption to complex terrain and sustained energy efficiency. Nevertheless, there is a lack of literature on the control of multi-cyborg systems.

Genetic polymorphisms of the Growth Hormone (GH) gene in Damascus and Black Bengal male goats.

Sustainable agriculture approaches necessitate a concerted effort from researchers to establish paths that meet global population needs without compromising environmental resources. Goats are unique among ruminants because of their ability to adapt to some of the harshest environments around the world. Growth Hormone (GH) gene is a major regulator of muscle mass growth.

Pitfalls of the E-Ref Procedure: Tie Values and the Proportion of the Abnormal Data.

Introduction: Extrapolated reference values (E-Ref) procedure is a new method for determining the cutoff value without collecting the control data. We tried to apply this method to determine the cutoff value for the distal motor latency of the median nerve (median DML). During this process, we found two pitfalls of the E-Ref method.

The steatosis-associated fibrosis estimator score is a useful indicator of recurrence and survival after initial curative hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aims: Liver fibrosis predisposes patients to liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. Various markers, which can be calculated easily from serum parameters, have been reported to predict liver fibrosis accurately. This study investigated the prognostic factors, including blood-based markers for liver fibrosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma following initial curative hepatectomy.

Effect of abdominal aortic calcification on long-term outcomes after the first liver resection in very old patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aim: We previously reported that abdominal aortic calcification is associated with poor overall and recurrence-free survival after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the effect of abdominal aortic calcification on cancer-specific prognosis in very old patients with several comorbidities remains unknown. This multicenter study aimed to evaluate the impact of abdominal aortic calcification on the cumulative recurrence rate and recurrence-free survival in patients with HCC aged >80 years.

Predicting Antidepressant Treatment Response From Cortical Structure on MRI: A Mega-Analysis From the ENIGMA-MDD Working Group.

Accurately predicting individual antidepressant treatment response could expedite the lengthy trial-and-error process of finding an effective treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). We tested and compared machine learning-based methods that predict individual-level pharmacotherapeutic treatment response using cortical morphometry from multisite longitudinal cohorts. We conducted an international analysis of pooled data from six sites of the ENIGMA-MDD consortium (n = 262 MDD patients; age = 36.

Clinical diagnostic performance of droplet digital PCR for pathogen detection in patients with Escherichia coli bloodstream infection: a prospective observational study.

Background: Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is a highly sensitive tool for detecting bacterial DNA in bacterial bloodstream infections (BSI). This study aimed to examine the sensitivity and specificity of ddPCR and the association between bacterial DNA load in whole blood and the time-to-positivity (TTP) of blood culture (BC) in patients with Escherichia coli BSI.

Methods: This prospective study enrolled patients with E.

Detecting the articular disk in magnetic resonance images of the temporomandibular joint using YOLO series.

The purpose of this study was to construct an artificial intelligence object detection model to detect the articular disk from temporomandibular joint (TMJ) magnetic resonance (MR) images using YOLO series. The study included two experiments using datasets from different MR imaging machines. A total of 536 MR images were retrospectively examined.

Clinical and microbiological characteristics of granulomatous mastitis caused by Corynebacterium species: a case series.

Corynebacterium species are an important cause of granulomatous mastitis (GM). Although there have been worldwide reports of infections caused by Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii, few cases of C. tuberculostearicum GM have been reported.

Association between increasing institutional experience with ECPR and outcomes in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a nationwide multicenter observational study in Japan (the JAAM-OHCA registry).

Aim: To determine the association between institutional experience with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) and outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

Methods: We analyzed data from the JAAM-OHCA registry, a nationwide multicenter database containing information on patients who experienced OHCA in Japan between June 2014 and December 2020. The study population consisted of patients with OHCA who were in cardiac arrest on hospital arrival and treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Significance of administering postoperative pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy for fat digestion and absorption functions in patients who underwent initial total pancreatectomy.

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of postoperative pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy on fat digestion and absorption in patients following initial total pancreatectomy.

Methods: Data were retrospectively collected from patients who underwent initial total pancreatectomy at our department between 2012 and 2020. Fat digestion, absorption functions, serum nutritional markers, HbA1c levels, and hepatic steatosis before and after the initial total pancreatectomy were evaluated.

Mice born to mothers fed a diet high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy exhibit various behavioral changes including impaired social behaviors and enhanced recognition memory.

Background: Modern dietary trends have led to an increase in foods that are relatively high in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and low in n-3 PUFAs. We previously reported that the offspring of mother mice that consumed a diet high in n-6 linoleic acid (LA) and low in n-3 α-linolenic acid (ALA), hereinafter called the LA/ALA diet, exhibit behavioral abnormalities related to anxiety and feeding.

Objective: We currently lack a comprehensive overview of the behavioral abnormalities in these offspring, which was investigated in this study.

Heterodimeric Ciliary Dynein f/I1 Adopts a Distinctive Structure, Providing Insight Into the Autoinhibitory Mechanism Common to the Dynein Family.

Dyneins are huge motor protein complexes that are essential for cell motility, cell division, and intracellular transport. Dyneins are classified into three major subfamilies, namely cytoplasmic, intraflagellar-transport (IFT), and ciliary dyneins, based on their intracellular localization and functions. Recently, several near-atomic resolution structures have been reported for cytoplasmic/IFT dyneins.