Prospective Investigation of Postoperative Complications in Anterior Decompression with Fusion for Severe Cervical Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament: A Multi-institutional Study.

Study Design: A prospective multicenter study.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the postoperative complications of anterior decompression with fusion (ADF) for the treatment of cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL).

Summary Of Background Data: Surgical treatment for cervical OPLL has a high risk of various complications.

Narrative Constructions for the Organization of Self Experience: Proof of Concept via Embodied Robotics.

It has been proposed that starting from meaning that the child derives directly from shared experience with others, adult narrative enriches this meaning and its structure, providing causal links between unseen intentional states and actions. This would require a means for representing meaning from experience-a situation model-and a mechanism that allows information to be extracted from sentences and mapped onto the situation model that has been derived from experience, thus enriching that representation. We present a hypothesis and theory concerning how the language processing infrastructure for grammatical constructions can naturally be extended to narrative constructions to provide a mechanism for using language to enrich meaning derived from physical experience.

Microbial Community Analysis of Colored Snow from an Alpine Snowfield in Northern Japan Reveals the Prevalence of with Snow Algae.

Psychrophilic algae blooms can be observed coloring the snow during the melt season in alpine snowfields. These algae are important primary producers on the snow surface environment, supporting the microbial community that coexists with algae, which includes heterotrophic bacteria and fungi. In this study, we analyzed the microbial community of green and red-colored snow containing algae from Mount Asahi, Japan.

Geographic Distribution of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea along the Kuril Islands in the Western Subarctic Pacific.

Community composition and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the ocean were affected by different physicochemical conditions, but their responses to physical barriers (such as a chain of islands) were largely unknown. In our study, geographic distribution of the AOA from the surface photic zone to the deep bathypelagic waters in the western subarctic Pacific adjacent to the Kuril Islands was investigated using pyrosequencing based on the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A () gene. Genotypes of clusters A and B dominated in the upper euphotic zone and the deep waters, respectively.

Observed and Normative Discount Functions in Addiction and other Diseases.

The aim of this paper is to find a suitable discount function able to describe the progression of a certain addiction or disease under treatment as a discounting process. In effect, a certain indicator related to a disease decays over time in a manner which is mathematically similar to the way in which discounting has been modeled. We analyze the discount functions observed in experiments which study addictive and other problematic behaviors as well as some alternative hyperbola-like discount functions in order to fit the patience exhibited by the subject after receiving the treatment.

A Novel Approach to Predict the Growth of on Rice Cake.

This study aimed to investigate the growth kinetics of on rice cake and to determine the shelf life based on the probability model of the increase in contamination on rice cake. Secondary models were developed based on the growth parameters derived from the Baranyi model at constant temperatures (15, 25, 35, and 45°C). External validation was then conducted using additional data under experimental conditions not used in development of the models to verify the performance and reliability of the developed model through different goodness-of-fit indices.

Preventive Effect of SBT2171 on Collagen-Induced Arthritis in Mice.

We recently reported that the intraperitoneal inoculation of SBT2171 inhibited the development of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), a murine model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the present study, we evaluated the effect of the oral administration of SBT2171 on CIA development and on the regulation of antigen-specific antibody production and inflammatory immune cells, which have been implicated in the development of RA. Both oral administration and intraperitoneal inoculation of SBT2171 reduced joint swelling, body weight loss, and the serum level of bovine type II collagen (CII)-specific antibodies in the CIA mouse model.

Determination of Leaf Water Content by Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometry and Multivariate Calibration in .

Leaf water content is one of the most common physiological parameters limiting efficiency of photosynthesis and biomass productivity in plants including . Therefore, it is of great significance to determine or predict the water content quickly and non-destructively. In this study, we explored the relationship between leaf water content and diffuse reflectance spectra in .

Two Parallel Olfactory Pathways for Processing General Odors in a Cockroach.

In animals, sensory processing via parallel pathways, including the olfactory system, is a common design. However, the mechanisms that parallel pathways use to encode highly complex and dynamic odor signals remain unclear. In the current study, we examined the anatomical and physiological features of parallel olfactory pathways in an evolutionally basal insect, the cockroach .

Exosomes as Carriers of Alzheimer's Amyloid-ß.

The intracerebral level of the aggregation-prone peptide, amyloid-ß (Aß), is constantly maintained by multiple clearance mechanisms, including several degradation enzymes, and brain efflux. Disruption of the clearance machinery and the resultant Aß accumulation gives rise to neurotoxic assemblies, leading to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In addition to the classic mechanisms of Aß clearance, the protein may be processed by secreted vesicles, although this possibility has not been extensively investigated.

Production and Reutilization of Fluorescent Dissolved Organic Matter by a Marine Bacterial Strain, .

The recalcitrant fraction of marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays an important role in carbon storage on the earth's surface. Bacterial production of recalcitrant DOM (RDOM) has been proposed as a carbon sequestration process. It is still unclear whether bacterial physiology can affect RDOM production.

Animal Models of Emerging Tick-Borne Phleboviruses: Determining Target Cells in a Lethal Model of SFTSV Infection.

The pathogenesis of clinical manifestations caused by newly emerging tick-borne phleboviruses [i.e., Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) and Heartland virus (HRTV)], such as severe thrombocytopenia and lymphocytopenia, are not yet fully understood.

Tracking the Evolution of Polymerase Genes of Influenza A Viruses during Interspecies Transmission between Avian and Swine Hosts.

Human influenza pandemics have historically been caused by reassortant influenza A viruses using genes from human and avian viruses. This genetic reassortment between human and avian viruses has been known to occur in swine during viral circulation, as swine are capable of circulating both avian and human viruses. Therefore, avian-to-swine transmission of viruses plays an important role in the emergence of new pandemic strains.

Striatal and Tegmental Neurons Code Critical Signals for Temporal-Difference Learning of State Value in Domestic Chicks.

To ensure survival, animals must update the internal representations of their environment in a trial-and-error fashion. Psychological studies of associative learning and neurophysiological analyses of dopaminergic neurons have suggested that this updating process involves the temporal-difference (TD) method in the basal ganglia network. However, the way in which the component variables of the TD method are implemented at the neuronal level is unclear.

Activation of NO-cGMP Signaling Rescues Age-Related Memory Impairment in Crickets.

Age-related memory impairment (AMI) is a common feature and a debilitating phenotype of brain aging in many animals. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying AMI are still largely unknown. The cricket Gryllus bimaculatus is a useful experimental animal for studying age-related changes in learning and memory capability; because the cricket has relatively short life-cycle and a high capability of olfactory learning and memory.

Tolerance to Excess-Boron Conditions Acquired by Stabilization of a BOR1 Variant with Weak Polarity in Arabidopsis.

Boron (B) is a metalloid that is essential for plant growth but is toxic when present in excess. Arabidopsis BOR1 is a borate exporter, facilitating B translocation from root to shoot under limited-B conditions. BOR1 shows stele side polar localization in the plasma membrane of various root cells, presumably to support B translocation toward the stele.