A document by Kaoru Toyama. Click on the document to view its contents.

On the basis of the mechanisms of action and characteristics of immune effects, immunity is generally divided into innate and adaptive immunity. Adaptive immunity is associated with the response to non-self entities and is characterized by high specificity and memory. In contrast, innate immunity is believed to lack memory. However, an increasing number of studies have sought to challenge this traditional immunological dogma and have shown that innate immune cells respond to secondary stimulation more strongly and rapidly than to the primary triggers, thus providing evidence of the immune memory in innate immunity. Macrophages, which are among the most important innate immune cells, can also acquire memory that facilitates the mediation of recall responses. Macrophage memory is a relatively new concept that is revolutionizing our understanding of macrophage biology and immunological memory and could lead to a new class of vaccines and immunotherapies. In this review, we describe the characteristics and mechanisms of macrophage memory, as well as its key roles in various diseases.

We have read the article" Prone Positioning and Survival in Mechanically Ventilated Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019–Related Respiratory Failure "by Mathews et al., published in the critical care medicine journal in July 2021(1). We want to congratulate the authors for this successful publication and make some contributions. In the article, it has been mentioned in the conclusion that “In-hospital mortality was lower in mechanically ventilated hypoxemic patients with coronavirus disease 2019 treated with early proning compared with patients whose treatment did not include early proning”. The results showed that" Corticosteroids were used on ICU day one more often in proned versus nonproned patients (21.2% vs. 13.3%)". Reviewing the results and patient characteristics, we found unmatched patient populations in both groups that could potentially affect the results, hence the conclusion \cite{Mathews_2021}.  The evidence of steroids in COVID-19 pneumonia was published in the literature early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The Recovery trial, published in February 2021, showed that the in the dexamethasone group, the incidence of death was lower than that in the usual care group among patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (29.3% vs. 41.4%; rate ratio, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.81) \cite{2021}. A meta-analysis published in September 2020 looked at the association between administering corticosteroids compared with usual care or placebo and 28-day all-cause mortality. It showed the mortality benefit of using steroids (OR, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.53-0.82]); the mortality benefit was consistent with various types of steroids \cite{2020}. We conducted a recent meta-analysis of COVID-19 patients and found no mortality benefit of prone ventilation in intubated COVID-19 patient \cite{Fayed_2022,Fayed_2023}.  We addressed our concerns in other published studies \cite{Fayed_2023a,Fayed_2022a}.  In Mathews et al.'s study, in the prone early group, 149 patients received steroids out of 702 (21.2%), while in the no early prone group, 217 patients received steroids out of 1636 (13.3%). By using the Chi-square analysis, the p-value is < 0.00001. On further looking at the study Supplementary Digital Content, in reviewing table 5, titled "Multivariable Cox model for death among patients included in the target trial emulation of early proning initiation versus non-early proning initiation," when using steroids, the outcome of the study became insignificant with the result of the odds ratio of 1.07 (0.91-1.26) and survival favors non-early prone group. This result concurs with another published study on early-prone ventilation in COVID-19 patients. Among 6350 ICU patients with COVID-19, they found no association between early use of prone positioning and survival in patients on mechanical ventilation with severe hypoxemia on ICU admission \cite{Engerstr_m_2022}. We want to address and express our opinion regarding this limitation that could affect the outcome and the result of the study. The study should have included the difference between both groups in the limitation section. This difference would have affected Mathews et al.'s study outcome, and the conclusion should have been rectified.

Macrophage-dependent microenvironmental changes orchestrate many features of the immune response during inflammation from cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CSA-AKI). IκB kinase α (also known as IKKα) is a key transcriptional regulator of the macrophages., but its role in the pathogenesis of CSA-AKI remains unknown. In our clinical correlation research, cardiac surgery triggered an increased IKKɑ concentrations in serum and peripheral blood macrophages, and patients with high IKKɑ after cardiac surgery had a significantly reduced risk of developing AKI. CSA-AKI was induced by bilaterally clamping renal pedicles for 35 min in wild-type (WT) and myeloid-specific IKKɑ conditional knockout (MθIKKα-/-) mice. Compared to WT mice, MθIKKα-/- mice demonstrated decreased renal function, upregulated early AKI biomarkers such as NAGL, increased the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-ɑ, IL-18 and IL-6, as well as more macrophage infiltration were noted. In addition, these MθIKKα-/- mice exhibited an increase in the regulated cell death (necroptosis and pyrocytosis) and a decrease in efferocytosis. We further demonstrated that myeloid IKKɑ could negatively regulate ASC to inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation and enhance macrophage efferocytosis.Adoptive transfer of containing IKKɑ macrophages could reverse CSA-AKI. Collectively, our findings demonstrated for the first time that IKKɑ could improve the outcome of CSA-AKI by promoting efferocytosis and. inhibiting pyrocytosis.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, worldwide. Little information is available for the temporal trends of cancer in the Mediterranean region, including Cyprus. We aimed to analyze cancer incidence trends overall and by sex for the period 2004-2017 regarding the five most common cancer sites for the population of Cyprus. Data were obtained from the nationwide cancer registry dataset that included 27,017 total cancer cases in Cyprus (2004-2017). We estimated the crude, sex-, and age-specific, as well as age-standardized (ASR) cancer incidence rates and we analyzed the time trends of ASR using the joinpoint regression program. For the general population (0-85+ years of age), the most common cancer sites in descending order, were breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, and thyroid cancer. During the study period, breast and thyroid cancer ASR presented a significantly increasing temporal trend. Lung cancer ASRs seemed to stabilize (no increase or decrease) during the more recent years (2009 onwards) for both sexes; a similar pattern was observed for colorectal cancer in males. The ASRs of prostate cancer in men were in steady decline from 2012 onwards and the same was observed for the female ASRs of colorectal cancer from 2007 onwards. The colorectal cancer ASR temporal patterns overall, during the whole study period appeared unchanged. This temporal analysis would feed into cancer surveillance and control programs that focus on prevention, early detection, and treatment, particularly for cancer sites of higher mortality rates or those with temporally increasing trends.

Environmental variation among isolated populations can drive genetic differentiation by selection, while isolation alone results primarily in genetic drift. Genetic analyses can aid in identifying genetically isolated populations and population structure of a species across its range. Additionally, such analyses can provide indirect evidence of local adaptation through the comparison of allele frequencies at neutral and functional genetic markers, with the aim of identifying outlier loci consistent with the effects of selection. Here, we examine the genetic divergence and patterns of functional divergence among six breeding populations of arctic-breeding snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis). We genotyped 221 birds at 9 microsatellite markers and at 101 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located within known-function genes. We identified substantial population differentiation using both marker types with relatively greater divergence and hence finer population structure using the microsatellite markers. While population structures resulting from the two marker types were in general agreement, functional SNPs showed evidence of stabilizing selection at both global and population pairwise levels, with a few key SNPs showing signatures of pairwise divergent selection, consistent with expectations of local adaptation. The observed complex and inconsistent pattern of pairwise divergence (selection) at key candidate-gene loci may reflect rapid environmental change decoupling locally adapted genotypes from actual local environmental conditions. Our work highlights microevolutionary changes that are likely to be very important not only in arctic-breeding songbirds, but in Arctic and Sub-Arctic vertebrates in general, which are experiencing strong environmental effects from accelerated climate change and human-induced stressors.

Invasive species are predicted to adjust their morphological, physiological, and life-history traits to adapt to their non-native environments. Although a loss of genetic variation during invasion may restrict local adaptation, introduced species often thrive in novel environments. Despite being founded by just a few individuals, the bumblebee Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae) has successfully spread across the island of Tasmania (Australia) in less than 30 years, becoming abundant and competitive with native pollinators. We use RADseq to investigate the neutral and adaptive genetic processes associated with environmental and morphological variation following the invasion of B. terrestris in Tasmania. Across 15 sites, we found high gene flow with low genetic diversity, significant isolation-by-distance, and spatial variation in effective migration rates. A longitudinal band of restricted migration was evident across the mid-central region of Tasmania, corresponding to sites with high elevation, pastural land, low wind speeds and low precipitation seasonality. Tajima’s D indicated a recent population expansion for central sites extending from the south to the north of the island. Significant selection signatures were found for loci in relation to precipitation, wind speed, and wing loading. Candidate loci were annotated to genes with functions related to cuticle water retention, and insect flight muscle stability. Understanding how a genetically impoverished invasive bumblebee has rapidly adapted to a novel island environment provides further understanding about the evolutionary processes that determine successful insect invasions, and the potential for invasive hymenopteran pollinators to spread globally.

This study examined Ethiopian yam genetic diversity and population structure using SSR markers. Ten SSR markers were used to analyze a total of 118 yam genotypes representing six population species that were collected from four zones in western Ethiopia. A total of 92 alleles with an overall mean of 9.2 per locus were detected. The average expected heterozygosity (He) and allelic richness (AR) were 0.88 and 6.30, respectively. All SSR markers were polymorphic and highly informative, with an overall mean polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.87. More ever, all SSR markers discriminated the variations among the studied yam species. The overall mean expected heterozygosity (He) and percentage of polymorphic loci within populations were 0.72 and 98.33, respectively. The highest genetic diversity indices were recorded in the landrace yam populations of D. cayenensis, D. bulbifera, and D. rotundata species. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed a moderate but highly significant genetic differentiation (PhiPT=0.100, p <0.0001). Most of the total genetic variation (91%) accounted for the within-population variation, leaving only 9% for the among-population genetic variation. STRUCTURE analysis based on the Bayesian model weakly inferred two subgroups (K=2), confirming the high potential of genetic admixtures and close relationships among the studied yam genotypes, likely due to the presence of high gene flow (Nm= 2.39). D. alata landraces had the least genetic diversity, inferring the need for strong conservation strategies. This study provided baseline genetic diversity data for yam breeders to selectively breed for desirable agronomic qualities and devise conservation measures.

Ncb5or (NADH cytochrome b5 oxidoreductase) is a cytosolic ferric reductase implicated in diabetes and neurological conditions. Ncb5or comprises cytochrome b5 (b5) and cytochrome b5 reductase (b5R) domains separated by a CHORD-Sgt1 (CS) linker domain. Ncb5or redox activity depends on proper interdomain interactions to mediate electron transfer from NADH or NADPH via FAD to heme. While full-length human Ncb5or has proven resistant to crystallization, we have succeeded in obtaining high-resolution atomic structures of the b5 domain and a construct containing the CS and b5R domains (CS/b5R). Ncb5or also contains an N-terminal intrinsically disordered region of 50 residues with a distinctive, conserved L 34MDWIRL 40 motif that has no homologs in animals but is present in root lateral formation protein (RLF) in rice and Increased Recombination Center 21 (IRC21) in baker’s yeast, and in these proteins, it is likewise attached to a b5 domain. After unsuccessful attempts at crystallizing a human Ncb5or construct comprising the N-terminal region naturally fused to the b5 domain, we were able to obtain a high-resolution atomic structure of a recombinant rice RLF construct corresponding to residues 25-129 of human Ncb5or (52% sequence identity; 74% similarity). The structure reveals Trp120 (corresponding to invariant Trp37 in Ncb5or) to be part of an 11-residue α-helix (S 116QMDWLKLTRT 126) packing against two of the four helices in the b5 domain that surround heme (α2 and α5). The Trp120 side chain forms a network of interactions with the side chains of four highly conserved residues corresponding to Tyr85 and Tyr88 (α2), Cys124 (α5), and Leu47 in Ncb5or. Circular dichroism (CD) measurements of human Ncb5or fragments further support a key role of Trp37 in nucleating the formation of the N-terminal helix, whose location in the N/b5 module suggests a role in regulating the function of this multidomain redox enzyme. This study revealed for the first time an ancient origin of a helical motif in the N/b5 module as reflected by its existence in a class of cytochrome b5 proteins from three kingdoms among eukaryotes.

Background. Attention to the healthcare workforce has increased, yet comprehensive information on migrant healthcare workers is missing. This study focuses on migrant healthcare workers’ experiences and mobility patterns in the middle of a global health crisis, aiming to explore the capacity for circular migration and support effective and equitable healthcare workforce policy. Material and methods. Romanian physicians working in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic served as an empirical case study. We applied a qualitative explorative approach; interviews (n=21) were collected from mid of September to early November 2022 and content analysis was performed. Results and discussion. Migrant physicians showed strong resilience during the COVID-19 crisis and rarely complained. Commitment to high professional standards and career development were major pull factors towards Germany, while perceptions of limited career choices, nepotism and corruption in Romania caused strong push mechanisms. We identified two major mobility patterns that may support circular migration policies: well-integrated physicians with a wish to give something back to their home country, and mobile cosmopolitan physicians who flexibly balance career opportunities and personal/family interests. Health policy must establish systematic monitoring of the migrant healthcare workforce including actor-centred approaches, support integration in destination countries as well as health system development in sending countries, and invest in evidence-based circular migration policy.

Objectives Paediatric feeding difficulties are common, affecting up to 25% of otherwise healthy children, symptoms include food refusal, gagging, choking, and excessive mealtime duration. These symptoms are commonly described in pre-operative discussions about tonsillectomy. This prospective study explores the impact of tonsillectomy on paediatric feeding difficulties. Methods This prospective cohort study invited caregivers of all children undergoing tonsillectomy at our institution to complete a PediEAT questionnaire about their children’s feeding behaviours, pre and post-operatively. The study was completed in two phases with 9 questions administered in phase 1 and three additional questions added for phase 2. A free text comments box was also provided. Responses were graded from 0-5, where 0 is ‘never a problem’ and 5 is ‘always a problem’ with eating behaviours. Results 102 participants were recruited between January 2020 – January 2022. The mean age of participants was 4.1 years, 87% had a concurrent adenoidectomy. The mean time to completion of post-operative questionnaire was 23 weeks after surgery. 9 of the 12 questions showed a statistically significant improvement in post-operative scores using a paired student t-test (p=<0.05). The most significant improvements related to “gets tired from eating and is unable to finish” (1.49 pre-op, 0.91 post op, p<0.01) and “eats food that needs to be chewed” (1.4 pre-op, 0.72 post-op, p<0.01). 13% of participants only underwent tonsillectomy and this group also showed a statistically significant improvement in fatigue during eating (p<0.05). Conclusion Symptoms of fatigue during eating and avoidance of food requiring mastication are most likely to improve following tonsillectomy in children.

This research paper presents a comprehensive literature review of the incoherence and inconsistencies in the use of data in maintenance operations of critical equipment in the weaving section of textile manufacturing processes. The paper begins with an introduction that highlights the shift in maintenance strategies from cost-focused approaches to reliability, downtime, safety, and machine availability. The optimization of maintenance schedules and minimization of downtime have become crucial challenges for industries. Proactive strategies such as predictive and preventive maintenance have played a significant role in maximizing machine availability. The outline of the paper includes a discussion of common maintenance issues in textile manufacturing processes, with a specific focus on weaving machines. Various maintenance strategies, including preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, run-to-failure maintenance, and condition-based maintenance, are explored. The importance of obtaining accurate data for maintenance planning is emphasized, including failure data. The methods reviewed include failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), fishbone diagram, and reliability and response modeling techniques such as mean time between failures (MTBF), regression analysis, the Weibull distribution, and failure rate vs. time plots. Furthermore, the paper delves into the implementation and validation of an optimized maintenance strategy. The process of implementing maintenance optimization and ensuring the effectiveness of the chosen strategy are discussed in detail. Finally, the research identifies gaps in existing literature and points to areas that require further investigation to enhance maintenance operations in the weaving section of textile manufacturing processes.

Autopolyploidy is quite common in most clades of eukaryotes. The emergence of sequence-based genotyping methods with individual and marker tags enables now confident allele dosage, overcoming the main obstacle to the democratization of the population genetic approaches when studying ecology and evolution of autopolyploid populations and species. Reproductive modes, including clonality, selfing and allogamy, have deep consequences on the ecology and evolution of population and species. Analysing genetic diversity and its dynamics over generations is one efficient way to infer the relative importance of clonality, selfing and allogamy in populations. GENAPOPOP is a user-friendly solution to compute the specific corpus of population genetic indices, including indices about genotypic diversity, needed to analyse partially clonal, selfed and allogamous polysomic populations genotyped with confident allele dosage. It also easily provides the posterior probabilities of quantitative reproductive modes in autopolyploid populations genotyped at two-time steps and a graphical representation of the minimum spanning trees of the genetic distances between polyploid individuals, facilitating the interpretation of the genetic coancestry between individuals in hierarchically structured populations. GENAPOPOP complements the previously existing solutions, including SPAGEDI and POLYGENE, to use genotypings to study the ecology and evolution of autopolyploid populations. It was specially developed with a simple graphical interface and workflow, and comes with a simulator to facilitate practical course and teaching of population genetics for autopolyploid populations.

Molecular biosecurity surveillance programs increasingly use environmental DNA (eDNA) for detecting marine non-indigenous species (NIS). However, the current molecular detection workflow is cumbersome, prone to errors and delays, and is limited in providing knowledge about eDNA beyond the spatial and temporal extent of the sampling. These limitations can hinder management efforts and restrict the “opportunity window” for a rapid response to new marine NIS incursions. Emerging innovative field-deployable digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) systems offer improved workflow efficiency by autonomously analyzing targeted free-floating extra-cellular eDNA (free-eDNA) signals. Despite their potential, these systems have not been tested in marine environments. Thus, an aquarium study was conducted with three distinct marine NIS: the Mediterranean fanworm Sabella spallanzanii, the ascidian clubbed tunicate Styela clava, and the brown bryozoan Bugula neritina to evaluate the detectability of free-eDNA in seawater. The detectability of targeted free-eDNA was assessed by directly analyzing aquarium water samples using an optimized species-specific ddPCR assay, without filtration or DNA extraction, so-called, “direct-ddPCR”. The results demonstrated the consistent detection of Sabella spallanzanii and Bugula neritina free-eDNA when these organisms were present in high abundance. Once organisms were removed, the free-eDNA signal exponentially declined, noting that free-eDNA persisted between 24-72 hours. Results indicate that organism biomass, specimen characteristics (e.g., stress and viability), and species-specific biological differences may influence free-eDNA detectability. These results are critical for implementing in-situ nucleic acid automated continuous sensing systems for marine biosurveillance, enabling point-of-need detection and rapid management response to biosecurity threats.

HCV infection is a major global public health concern, being the main cause of chronic liver disease: cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV strains are classified into 8 genotypes and 93 subtypes with different geographic distribution. Genotype 4 is the most predominant in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean where has been reported the highest rates of hepatitis C infection worldwide. An isolate of this study has been unclassified by amplifying and sequencing of three genes. It was identified from a plasma sample of a 64-year-old Saudi man diagnosed with hepatitis C. The objective of the study was to identify a new subtype of genotype 4 of the hepatitis C virus through next-generation sequencing of full genome characterization. The full genome of the HCV isolate (141) was analysed using whole genome sequencing. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on the entire genome of HCV-4 strains showed that the 141-HCV isolate was a separate group within HCV-4, adding this new information on HCV variability.

This study aimed to verify the quality of the soil according to different stages of regeneration. Urban conservation units can be of great importance in land management and in the sustainable development process of cities. Monitoring soil quality in these spaces can help define strategies in the forest recovery process. A management performance evaluation method and consequent soil quality was applied, using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Soil was collected in the three stages of forest regeneration observed: land with established forests, reforested land, and open land, at three different depths (0-10; 20-30 and 40-50 cm). In the set of 54 analyzed observations, soils with low levels of fertility were verified. The area with reforested land showed the best performance in maximizing the selected variables and consequently better soil quality scores. The open lands showed the lowest performance in soil conservation. This quality score can help define soil management strategies.

Global warming, elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, and increased likeliness of extreme drought and wildfires in many regions will likely favour C4 grass species. We explored the effect of the encroachment of an invasive perennial C4 grass, Sporobolus cryptandrus on the composition of soil seed banks in dry sand grasslands in Central Europe. In five mass-locality sites of the species we assessed the composition and vertical segmentation of the soil seed bank in twelve 1-m 2 plots along an increasing cover of the invasive species. We found that the seed bank diversity and density decrease with the increasing sampling depth; the decrease of density is affected by the increasing Sporobolus cover. Neither the diversity nor the seed bank density of other species were affected by increasing Sporobolus cover but, affected by the sampling site. Most of the studied seed bank characteristics were affected by the sampling depth, but none of them were affected by the increasing cover of Sporobolus. Increasing cover of Sporobolus in the vegetation was associated with an increasing proportion of Sporobolus seeds in the seed bank, and we found viable seeds of the species in the soil even in plots with no Sporobolus cover. Given that a decrease in the precipitation of the summer months and an increase in the frequency of droughts is projected in this region, we expect that the accumulated massive seed bank of Sporobolus will facilitate the further rapid spread of the species.

Conductive polymers, owing to their excellent properties such as good conductivity and chemical stability, have been extensively studied for various applications, especially in the fields of energy and environmental science. Three-dimensional (3D) conductive polymer structures, containing interconnected and continuous networks with high specific surface areas, are encouraging platforms with superior performance. Despite the rapid advances in nanofabrication technology, achieving conductive polymer superstructures with ordered features remains challenging, such as in aligned nanochannels. Herein, we report a facile and efficient template synthesis method to fabricate 3D polypyrrole membrane structures. Using flexible, track-etched polycarbonate membranes as the template, polypyrrole nanotube arrays can be synthesized by chemical polymerization with tunable length and diameter. Free-standing, 3D nanotube array membranes with vertically aligned channels and continuous connecting layers were obtained simply by template removal. This “getting membrane with membrane” approach is also scalable and low-cost. We further demonstrated that the delicate membrane structures can be used in various applications, including adsorbents, solar steaming materials, gas sensors, and supercapacitors. It exhibited quick and excellent adsorption performance for Cr(VI) ions; can be directly served as a solar interfacial evaporator without surface modification and substrate support; showed extraordinary sensing response toward NH3, displayed great potential for energy storage materials with satisfactory electrochemical performance. Our work provides a feasible way to fabricate polypyrrole superstructures and expands the applications of 3D conductive polymer materials.

This study explored the link between Perception Attachment Security (PAS), neurobehavioral dynamics during emotion recognition, and social skills using a hierarchical multilinear EEG model. We used facial expression recognition tasks, behavior, and socio-affective measures to model a lower-dimensional parameter (LDP), which we built to encapsulate specific task-related neurobehavioral patterns influenced by personal history. We hypothesized that higher PAS levels would correlate with better emotion recognition performance and social skills. Our results showed an early midline occipital LDP/PAS increase at around 70 and 170 ms, suggesting that attachment security influences the nervous system’s organization and early neurobehavioral processes. We suggest this implies higher attachment security individuals might be better at perceiving and understanding emotions, leading to improved social competence. Social competence was found to affect early LDP dynamics over right hemisphere sensors, emphasizing the role of positive social skills and attachment security in processing facial expressions of emotions. In later temporal stages, LDP dynamics linked with antisocial behavior showed an increase around 200 ms post-stimulus, suggesting cognitive resources might be used to disengage from or maintain emotional processing, possibly hindering the consideration of interpersonal interactions and contextual factors vital for social skill development. This underscores the need to consider a wide range of factors to fully understand social competence.

Early advances in the field of quantum computing have provided new opportunities to tackle intricate problems in diverse areas as cryptography, optimization, and simulation. However, current methodologies employed in quantum computing often require, among other things, a broad understanding of quantum hardware and low-level programming languages, posing challenges to software developers in effectively creating and implementing quantum services. This paper advocates the adoption of Software Engineering principles in the field of quantum computing, thereby establishing a higher level of hardware abstraction that allows developers to focus on application development. With this proposal, developers will be able to design and deploy quantum services with less effort, similar to the facilitation provided by Service-Oriented Computing in the development of conventional software services. The present study introduces a Continuous Deployment strategy adapted to the development of quantum services, which covers the creation and deployment of such services. For this purpose, an extension of the OpenAPI Specification is proposed that allows the generation of services implementing quantum algorithms. The proposal was validated through the creation of an API with diverse quantum algorithm implementations, and evaluated through a survey of various developers and students who were introduced to the tool, with positive results.

Nearly the entire (98%) and over a third of the East Asian population of Brent Geese stage in Notsuke Bay and nearby sites of eastern Hokkaido, Japan, during autumn and spring migration, respectively,. Despite the region’s importance as a refueling site for migrating Brent Geese, little is known about how these migrants use specific sites within this region. In this study, we investigated the seasonal variation in the movements and use of four key sites in the eastern Hokkaido using radio telemetry. Notsuke Bay was the primary staging area for Brent Goose in both seasons, but there were frequent movements between Furen Lake in fall and between Kunashiri Island in spring. The three sites lie in close proximity to one another in the Nemuro Strait, enabling relatively quick (<30 minutes) flights between sites. Consequently, these sites may be considered as one continuous habitat during migration. Brent Geese primarily foraged on eelgrass beds at night in fall and during the day in the spring. The occupancy rates of marked geese within the protected areas of Notsuke Bay and Furen Lake were 74% and 71% during autumn, and 64% and 87% during spring, respectively. However, extending the buffer to 3 km from the boundaries of the protected areas resulted in residency rates exceeding 90% during both seasons. To effectively conserve these important staging sites in the Nemuro Strait, we recommend expanding the protected areas and including connecting waters between Notsuke Bay and Kunashiri Island and Furen Lake.

Recent evidence indicates that measures of brain functioning as indexed by event-related potentials (ERP) on the electroencephalogram aligns more closely to transdiagnostic measures of psychopathology than to categorical taxonomies. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a transdiagnostic, dimensional framework aiming to solve issues of comorbidity, symptom heterogeneity and arbitrary diagnostic boundaries. Based on shared features, the emotional disorders are allocated into subfactors Distress and Fear. Evidence indicate that disorders which are close in the HiTOP hierarchy share etiology, symptom profiles and treatment outcome. However, further studies testing the biological underpinnings of the HiTOP are called for. In this study, we assessed differences between Distress and Fear in a range of well-studied ERP components. Fifty-one patients with emotional disorders were divided into two groups (Distress, N = 26; Fear, N = 25) according to HiTOP criteria and compared against 37 healthy comparison subjects (HC). Addressing issues in traditional ERP preprocessing and analysis methods, we applied robust single-trial analysis as implemented in the EEGLAB toolbox LIMO EEG. Several ERP components were found to differ between the groups. Surprisingly, we found no difference between Fear and HC for any of the ERPs. This suggests that some well-established results from the literature, e.g., increased error-related negativity in OCD, is not a shared neurobiological correlate of the Fear subfactor. Conversely, for Distress, we found reductions compared to Fear and HC in several ERP components across paradigms. Future studies could utilize HiTOP-validated psychopathology measures to more precisely define subfactor groups.

Unselfishness is one of the admired facilitators for human group endeavors, especially in times of urgent calls for global collaboration. Despite its importance, the neural dynamics behind its formation is scarcely understood. With 26 triads interacting as turn-taking pairs in a coordination game, we investigated reciprocal interactions in this tri-fMRI hyperscanning experiment. The critical role of the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) was examined by adopting both time- and frequency-domain analyses. For the former, in the successful versus failed “reciprocity” contrast, brain regions associated with the mirror neuron system (MNS) and the mentalizing system (MS) were identified. In addition, the differences of connectivity between the rTPJ (seed region) and the abovementioned network areas (e.g., the right Inferior Parietal Lobule, rIPL) were negatively correlated with the individual reward. These results both verified the experimental design, which favored ‘reciprocal’ participants/triads with larger gains, and supported the opposition of rTPJ (other-) vs. rIPL (self-concerned) areas during successful social exchanges. Furthermore, the cerebral synchronization of the rTPJs emerged between the interacting pairs, and the coupling between the rTPJ and the right Superior Temporal Gyrus (rSTG) was found between those interacting simultaneously with others of the same group. These coherence findings not only echoed our previous findings, but also reinforced the hypotheses of the rTPJ-rTPJ coupling underpinning simultaneous collaboration and the rTPJ-rSTG coupling for decontextualized shared meaning emergence. Taken together, these results support two of the multi-functions (other-concerning and decontextualizing) subserved by the rTPJ, and highlight its interaction with other self-concerning brain areas in reaching co-benefits.

Objectives: The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a commonly used tool for evaluating executive functions, and the activation of cerebral oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during the test can reflect the participation of executive function. This study aimed to compare the differences in cerebral oxygen metabolism in the PFC between the computer- and paper-based versions of the TMT. Methods: A total of 31 healthy adult subjects completed the computer- and paper-based TMT Types A and B. The cerebral oxygenation changes in the PFC were monitored during the experiment using near-infrared spectroscopy. The average changes of oxyhemoglobin (Δoxy-Hb) in the baseline and activation periods during different types of testing were compared and analyzed. Results: The number of correct connections in the computer-based version Type B was less than that in the paper-based version Type B (p < .05). The task time of the computer-based version was longer than that of the paper-based version (p < .05). The B/A ratio of the number of correct connections in the computer-based version was lower than that in the paper-based version (p < .001). The Δoxy-Hb in the PFC of the paper-based version was higher than that of the computer-based version (p < .001). Conclusions: Significant differences in oxygen metabolism in the PFC were observed between the paper- and computer-based versions. Further optimization of the program design and system configuration may be needed to improve the equivalence and clinical universality of the computer-based version of the TMT