Novel continuous and quantitative intraoperative facial nerve-monitoring system for temporal bone lesions.

Objective: Intraoperative systems for monitoring facial nerve function, in which temporal electrical stimulation is applied to the facial nerve through electrodes, are used in many surgeries requiring facial nerve preservation; however, continuous stimulation or quantitative evaluation of facial nerve function is difficult with this approach. We examined the usefulness of a continuous and quantitative facial nerve-monitoring system for temporal bone lesions by using our experience to modify the existing methods used for cases involving vestibular schwannomas.

Study Design: Retrospective observational study.

Cachectic biomarkers as confounders behind the obesity paradox in patients with acute decompensated heart failure.

Background: Obesity is a risk factor for heart failure (HF) development but is associated with a lower incidence of mortality in HF patients. This obesity paradox may be confounded by unrecognized comorbidities, including cachexia.

Methods: A retrospective assessment was conducted using data from a prospectively recruiting multicenter registry, which included consecutive acute heart failure patients.

Branched-chain amino acids and specific phosphatidylinositols are plasma metabolite pairs associated with menstrual pain severity.

Menstrual pain affects women's quality of life and productivity, yet objective molecular markers for its severity have not been established owing to the variability in blood levels and chemical properties of potential markers such as plasma steroid hormones, lipid mediators, and hydrophilic metabolites. To address this, we conducted a metabolomics study using five analytical methods to identify biomarkers that differentiate menstrual pain severity. This study included 20 women, divided into mild (N = 12) and severe (N = 8) pain groups based on their numerical pain rating scale.

Validation of Machine Learning-assisted Screening of PKC Ligands: PKC Binding Affinity and Activation.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of serine/threonine kinases, and PKC ligands have the potential to be therapeutic seeds for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and human immunodeficiency virus infection. However, in addition to desired therapeutic effects, most PKC ligands also exhibit undesirable pro-inflammatory effects. The discovery of new scaffolds for PKC ligands is important for developing less inflammatory PKC ligands, such as bryostatins.

Clinical value of preoperative circulating tumor DNA before surgery in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Introduction: A precise preoperative tumor monitoring method that reflects tumor burden during neoadjuvant treatment is required to guide individualized perioperative treatment strategies for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). This study examined the clinical significance of preoperative circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the plasma of patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by esophagectomy.

Materials And Methods: Plasma samples were collected longitudinally for ctDNA analysis as well as genomic DNA from primary lesions from patients with histologically confirmed ESCC who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by subtotal esophagectomy.

Differential Stress Responses to Rice Blast Fungal Infection Associated with the Vegetative Growth Phase in Rice.

During vegetative growth, plants undergo various morphological and physiological changes in the transition from the juvenile phase to the adult phase. In terms of stress resistance, it has been suggested that plants gain or reinforce disease resistance during the process of maturation, which is recognized as adult plant resistance or age-related resistance. While much knowledge has been obtained about changes in disease resistance as growth stages progress, knowledge about changes in plant responses to pathogens with progressing age in plants is limited.

A Comprehensive Analysis of a Social Intelligence Dataset and Response Tendencies Between Large Language Models (LLMs) and Humans.

In recent years, advancements in the interaction and collaboration between humans and have garnered significant attention. Social intelligence plays a crucial role in facilitating natural interactions and seamless communication between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI). To assess AI's ability to understand human interactions and the components necessary for such comprehension, datasets like Social-IQ have been developed.

Evaluating the Reliability and Consistency of Treadmill Gait Analysis Using an RGB-D Camera: Effects of Assistance and No Assistance.

This study aimed to assess the intraday reliability of markerless gait analysis using an RGB-D camera versus a traditional three-dimensional motion analysis (3DMA) system with and without a simulated walking assistant. Gait assessments were conducted on 20 healthy adults walking on a treadmill with a focus on spatiotemporal parameters gathered using the RGB-D camera and 3DMA system. The intraday reliability of the RGB-D camera was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC 1, 1), while its consistency with the 3DMA system was determined using ICC (2, 1).

DynamicVLN: Incorporating Dynamics into Vision-and-Language Navigation Scenarios.

Traditional Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) tasks require an agent to navigate static environments using natural language instructions. However, real-world road conditions such as vehicle movements, traffic signal fluctuations, pedestrian activity, and weather variations are dynamic and continually changing. These factors significantly impact an agent's decision-making ability, underscoring the limitations of current VLN models, which do not accurately reflect the complexities of real-world navigation.

Trends in Rheumatoid Hand Surgery: Indications, Techniques, and Outcomes.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes persistent synovitis and arthritis, resulting in joint deformity and destruction throughout the body. As RA medications have evolved over the past 30 years, the surgical indications and techniques for RA joint deformities have changed. The aim of this review article is to summarize the recent trend of surgery for rheumatoid hand/finger deformities in previous reports and to present our recent surgical methods and outcomes for these deformities.

The Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of -Associated Hearing Loss in 15,684 Hearing Loss Patients.

belongs to the unconventional myosin superfamily, and the myosin IIIa protein localizes on the tip of the stereocilia of vestibular and cochlear hair cells. Deficiencies in have been reported to cause the deformation of hair cells into abnormally long stereocilia with an increase in spacing. is a rare causative gene of autosomal recessive sensorineural hearing loss (DFNB30), with only 13 cases reported to date.

Liquid Biopsy and Multidisciplinary Treatment for Esophageal Cancer.

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths globally. Surgery is the standard treatment for resectable EC after preoperative chemoradiotherapy or chemotherapy, followed by postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in certain cases. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and computed tomography (CT) are predominantly performed to evaluate the efficacy of these treatments, but their sensitivity and accuracy for evaluating minimal residual disease remain unsatisfactory, thereby requiring the development of alternative methods.

The Unseen Aftermath: Associations Between the COVID-19 Pandemic and Shifts in Mortality Trends in Japan.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare systems globally, potentially altering mortality trends for non-COVID-19 diseases, particularly in aging populations like Japan's. Assessing these impacts is essential for responsive healthcare planning. We analyzed Japanese vital registration mortality records from January 2018 to December 2021 for adults aged 25 and older, excluding COVID-19-related deaths.

Validity and Advantages of Three-Dimensional High-Frequency Ultrasound in Dermatological Evaluation.

High-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) has been reported to be useful for the diagnosis of cutaneous diseases; however, its two-dimensional nature limits the value both in quantitative and qualitative evaluation. Three-dimensional (3D) visualization might help overcome the weakness of the currently existing HFUS. 3D-HFUS was newly developed and applied to various skin tumors and inflammatory hair diseases to assess its validity and advantages for dermatological use.

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with chondroblastoma undergoing surgery with various adjuvant procedures: a retrospective study of 59 cases.

Background: Chondroblastoma is classified as a benign bone tumor. However, postoperative local recurrence remains a concern. We analyzed the factors contributing to chondroblastoma local recurrence and the clinical challenges associated with treating these patients.

Case review of perivascular epithelioid cell tumor occurring in patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome.

Perivascular epithelioid cell tumors (PEComas) belong to a family of rare mesenchymal tumors composed of histologically and immunohistochemically distinctive perivascular epithelioid cells. Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), an autosomal dominant cancer predisposition syndrome, is caused by a germline variant of the tumor suppressor gene TP53. Here, we report the case of a 20-year-old woman with LFS who developed a PEComa of the liver.

Clinical evaluation of corneal ulcer with a portable and smartphone-attachable slit lamp device: Smart Eye Camera.

Corneal ulcer is one of the most important ophthalmic emergencies. A portable, recordable, and smartphone-attachable slit-lamp device called the "Smart Eye Camera" (SEC) is introduced to compare evaluating corneal ulcers between the SEC and the conventional slit-lamp. A total of 110 participants were included in the study, consisting of 55 patients with corneal ulcers and 55 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers as controls.

Isolation and Total Synthesis of Ukabamide, an Antitrypanosomal Lipopeptide from a Marine sp. Cyanobacterium.

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is one of the most lethal of the neglected tropical diseases. While the discovery of a novel antitrypanosomal drug is highly desired, the creation of a superior lead compound is challenging. Herein we report ukabamide (), which was isolated from a marine sp.

Socioeconomic Inequity in Access to Medical and Long-Term Care Among Older People.

Background: Ensuring equitable access to medical and long-term care (LTC) is critical to enable older people to maintain their health and well-being even after they undergo a decline in their intrinsic capacity.

Methods: We used data from five waves of the National Survey of the Japanese Elderly, conducted between 2002 and 2021, to assess gradients in access to medical care and LTC by income and education among Japanese individuals aged 60 years and above. Specifically, we assessed self-reported unmet needs for medical care and LTC, and public LTC use, and estimated the concentration indices (CI) to evaluate the degree of inequality and inequity.

Real-world effectiveness of mepolizumab in Japanese asthma patients with diverse backgrounds: Improvements in rhinosinusitis imaging (J-Real-Mepo).

Background: Although randomized controlled trials (RCT) have demonstrated the efficacy of mepolizumab for asthma, they have excluded certain patient subgroups. To bridge the gap between RCT and real-world practice, the effectiveness of mepolizumab in a diverse population, including those potentially excluded from RCT, was assessed. Its effects on imaging findings and symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with asthma were also assessed.

Development and application of 3D cardiac tissues derived from human pluripotent stem cells.

Recently human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) have become an attractive platform to evaluate drug responses for cardiotoxicity testing and disease modeling. Moreover, three-dimensional (3D) cardiac models, such as engineered heart tissues (EHTs) developed by bioengineering approaches, and cardiac spheroids (CSs) formed by spherical aggregation of hPSC-CMs, have been established as useful tools for drug discovery and transplantation. These 3D models overcome many of the shortcomings of conventional 2D hPSC-CMs, such as immaturity of the cells.

Comparison of actionable alterations in cancers with kinase fusion, mutation, and copy number alteration.

Kinase-related gene fusion and point mutations play pivotal roles as drivers in cancer, necessitating optimized, targeted therapy against these alterations. The efficacy of molecularly targeted therapeutics varies depending on the specific alteration, with great success reported for such therapeutics in the treatment of cancer with kinase fusion proteins. However, the involvement of actionable alterations in solid tumors, especially regarding kinase fusions, remains unclear.

Clinical Impact of Neoadjuvant Therapy for Resectable Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: A Single-Center Retrospective Study.

Background: Neoadjuvant therapy is recommended for treating resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC); however, its appropriate use in patients with resectable PDAC remains debatable.

Objective: This study aimed to identify independent poor prognostic factors and evaluate the clinical significance of neoadjuvant therapy in patients with resectable PDAC.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed consecutive patients diagnosed with resectable PDAC at our institute between January 2003 and December 2022.

Should the Definition of Low Birth Weight Be Same in Every Ethnicity Considering the DOHaD Concept?

Low birth weight (LBW) is a significant concern not only because of its association with perinatal outcomes, but also because of its long-term impact on future health. Despite the physical differences among individuals of different ethnicities, the definition of LBW remains the same for all ethnicities. This study aimed to explore and discuss this issue.