A case report on ranging pattern of a solitary male macaque in urban area.

Information on the life histories of male macaques after leaving their natal troops is limited. A solitary male Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), estimated to be 5 years old, appeared in the urban area of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, where no troops are distributed, in May 2023. Because the animal was habituated to and fed frequently on garden crops, it likely came from the western part of the prefecture, where multiple crop-feeding troops are distributed.

Barriers to the hospital treatment among Bede snake charmers in Bangladesh with special reference to venomous snakebite.

Snakebite envenoming is a potentially life-threatening global public health issue with Bangladesh having one of the highest rates of snakebite cases. The Bede, a nomadic ethnic group in Bangladesh, traditionally engages in snake-related business such as snake charming. The Bede relies on their own ethnomedicinal practitioners for snakebite treatment while there is a lack of concrete evidence on the effectiveness of such ethnomedicinal treatment.

Diet-related factors strongly shaped the gut microbiota of Japanese macaques.

Although knowledge of the functions of the gut microbiome has increased greatly over the past few decades, our understanding of the mechanisms governing its ecology and evolution remains obscure. While host genetic distance is a strong predictor of the gut microbiome in large-scale studies and captive settings, its influence has not always been evident at finer taxonomic scales, especially when considering among the recently diverged animals in natural settings. Comparing the gut microbiome of 19 populations of Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata across the Japanese archipelago, we assessed the relative roles of host genetic distance, geographic distance and dietary factors in influencing the macaque gut microbiome.

Learners' perspectives on the prevention and management of pregnancy school dropout: a Namibian case.

Background: Namibia has had a problem with the high rate of learner pregnancy and school dropout for many years, despite implementing education sector policy on preventing and managing learner pregnancy. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of school-going learners in Namibia regarding the factors contributing to learner pregnancy and school dropout and propose interventions to address them.

Methods: This qualitative research employed interpretative phenomenological data analysis, with seventeen individual and ten focus group interviews involving 63 school-going learners: adolescents, pregnant learners, and learner parents.

Linguistic representation of vowels in speech imagery EEG.

Speech imagery recognition from electroencephalograms (EEGs) could potentially become a strong contender among non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). In this report, first we extract language representations as the difference of line-spectra of phones by statistically analyzing many EEG signals from the Broca area. Then we extract vowels by using iterative search from hand-labeled short-syllable data.

Traditional knowledge of plants used in hunting and fishing practices among Baka hunter-gatherers of eastern Cameroon.

Background: Baka hunter-gatherers have a well-developed traditional knowledge of using plants for a variety of purposes including hunting and fishing. However, comprehensive documentation on the use of plants for hunting and fishing in eastern Cameroon is still lacking.

Method: This study aimed at recording plants used for hunting and fishing practices, using focus group discussion, interviews and field surveys with 165 Baka members (90 men and 75 women) of different age groups in 6 villages.

Iterated Learning Models of Language Change: A Case Study of Sino-Korean Accent.

Iterated learning models of language evolution have typically been used to study the emergence of language, rather than historical language change. We use iterated learning models to investigate historical change in the accent classes of two Korean dialects. Simulations reveal that many of the patterns of historical change can be explained as resulting from successive generations of phonotactic learning.

Male-male social bonds predict tolerance but not coalition formation in wild Japanese macaques.

Social bonds have been construed as differentiated and enduring affiliative relationships. Strong bonds will improve fitness through interchanging with coalition formation or tolerance over resources. Social bonds have been found in a variety of taxa and predict the formation of coalitions even amongst males.

Three types of logical structure resulting from the trilemma of free will, determinism and locality.

How can one defend free will against determinism? Since quantum mechanics entails non-locality, it enables the co-existence of free will and determinism. Is non-locality in cognition possible, or must quantum mechanics be rejected? Here, we define free will, determinism and locality in terms of a binary relation between objects and representations, and we verify that the three concepts constitute a trilemma. We also show that non-locality in cognition is naturally found in decision making without any assumption of quantum mechanics.

A Dialogic Vaccine to Bridge Opposing Cultural Viewpoints Based on Bakhtin's Views on Dialogue and Estrangement.

Today, we face global conflicts between opposing ideologies that may be described in terms of cultural viewpoints and value judgments. It is difficult for individuals to determine whether ideologies are right or wrong because each ideology has its own worldview and sense of justice. Psychologists have an urgent mission to defuse the likelihood of fatal clashes between opposing cultural perspectives (ideologies), and to propose paradigms for peaceful coexistence.

Comparing generativist and constructivist accounts of the use of the past tense form in early child Japanese.

The present study investigated children's early use of verb inflection in Japanese by comparing a generativist account, which predicts that the past tense will have a special default-like status for the child during the early stages, with a constructivist input-driven account, which assumes that children's acquisition and use of inflectional forms reflects verb-specific distributional patterns in their input. Analysis of naturalistic data from four Japanese children aged 1;5 to 2;10 showed that there was substantial by-verb variation in the use of inflectional forms from the earliest stages of verb use, and no general preference for past tense forms. Correlational and partial correlational analyses showed that it was possible to predict the proportional frequency with which the child produced verbs in past tense versus other inflectional forms on the basis of differences in the proportional frequency with which the verb occurred in past tense form in the child's input, even after controlling for differences in the rate at which verbs occurred in past tense form in input averaged across the caregivers of the other children in the sample.

Association of protein intakes and variation of diet-scalp hair nitrogen isotopic discrimination factor in Papua New Guinea highlanders.

Objectives: We present new nitrogen isotopic discrimination factor between diets and scalp hairs (Δ(15) NHair-Diet : δ(15) NHair - δ(15) NDiet ) for indigenous residents in three communities in the Papua New Guinea Highlands who consumed various amounts and qualities of protein. The Δ(15) N is important for precise evaluation of the dietary habits of human populations; in both contemporary and traditional lifestyles. Several hypotheses have been proposed regarding factors that affect Δ(15) N values, based largely on observations from animal feeding experiments.

Characterization of the gut microbiota of Papua New Guineans using reverse transcription quantitative PCR.

There has been considerable interest in composition of gut microbiota in recent years, leading to a better understanding of the role the gut microbiota plays in health and disease. Most studies have been limited in their geographical and socioeconomic diversity to high-income settings, and have been conducted using small sample sizes. To date, few analyses have been conducted in low-income settings, where a better understanding of the gut microbiome could lead to the greatest return in terms of health benefits.

[Effects of PAC (personal attitude construct) analysis in counseling].

The aim of the present study is to prove that the use of PAC Analysis will enhance and facilitate counseling effects. Eleven functions were hypothetically presented: (1a) Intake Facilitation Function, (1b) Self-Disclosure Facilitation Function, (1c) Trust Formation Function, (1d) Dialogue Development Function, (2a) Mutual Understanding Function, (2b) Clarification Function, (2c) Self-Understanding Facilitation Function, (2d) Counselor's Awareness Function, (3a) Descriptive Documentation Function, (3b) Practical Explanation Function, and (3c) Evaluation-Assessment Function. By examining two case studies of international students' counseling process, these functions were analyzed.

[Acculturation attitudes and mental health of international students in their first year].

The aim of the present study was to show relationship between acculturation attitudes and mental health of international students in their first year in Japan. Of 53 new international students at a university, 50 (36 male and 14 female), 19.2 years old on average, completed a questionnaire in May (one month after the arrival), October (six months later), and March of the following year (the last month of the first academic year).

Relation between creatinine and uric acid excretion.

The relation between creatinine and uric acid metabolism was analysed in 77 male patients with primary gout and 62 healthy male subjects. Significant positive correlations between 24 hour urinary creatinine and uric acid excretion were shown in both groups. The mean urinary creatinine and uric acid excretions in the patients with gout were significantly increased as compared with those of normal male controls.

Inhibition of lipid peroxidation by methylated analogues of uric acid.

The effects of purines and methylated purine analogues on hydrogen peroxide- and ozone-induced lipid peroxidation in human erythrocyte membranes were studied in-vitro. Many purines and purine analogues showed a suppressive effect on the formation of thiobarbituric acid reactive materials. 1,3-Dimethyluric acid and 1,3,7-trimethyluric acid showed high potency in prevention of lipid peroxidation.