Alternation of Sound Location Induces Visual Motion Perception of a Static Object

Background: Audition provides important cues with regard to stimulus motion although vision may provide the most salient information. It has been reported that a sound of fixed intensity tends to be judged as decreasing in intensity after adaptation to looming visual stimuli or as increasing in intensity after adaptation to receding visual stimuli. This audiovisual interaction in motion aftereffects indicates that there are multimodal contributions to motion perception at early levels of sensory processing. However, there has been no report that sounds can induce the perception of visual motion. Methodology/Principal Findings: A visual stimulus blinking at a fixed location was perceived to be moving laterally when the flash onset was synchronized to an alternating left-right sound source. This illusory visual motion was strengthened with an increasing retinal eccentricity (2.5 deg to 20 deg) and occurred more frequently when the onsets of the audio and visual stimuli were synchronized. Conclusions/Significance: We clearly demonstrated that the alternation of sound location induces illusory visual motion when vision cannot provide accurate spatial information. The present findings strongly suggest that the neural representations of auditory and visual motion processing can bias each other, which yields the best estimates of externa

An Evaluation of the Efficacy of Compression Therapy Using Sleeves and Stockings to Prevent Docetaxel-induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Breast Cancer Patients

Taxanes are key drugs for patients with breast cancer. A major adverse effect of taxanes is peripheral neuropathy (PN). To investigate the ability of compression therapy using sleeves and stockings to prevent PN due to the taxane docetaxel, we conducted a single-center historical control trial. Patients receiving docetaxel at 75 mg/m2 every 3 weeks for 4 cycles as first-line chemotherapy for breast cancer were eligible. PN was evaluated using the common terminology criteria for adverse events version 4.0. The primary endpoint was the incidence of allgrade PN until 3 weeks after the fourth docetaxel administration. We evaluated 26 patients in the intervention group and compared their data to those collected retrospectively from 52 patients treated with docetaxel without compression. Neither the incidence of all-grade PN until 3 weeks after the fourth docetaxel administration (63.5% in the control group vs. 76.9% in the intervention group, p=0.31) nor that of PN grade ≥ 2 (13.5% vs. 15.4%, p=0.99) differed between the groups. In this study, the efficacy of compression therapy using sleeves and stockings to prevent PN induced by docetaxel was not demonstrated. Further clinical studies including medications or intervention are needed to reduce the incidence and severity of PN induced by chemotherapy

Serum Level of Soluble CD163 May Be a Predictive Marker of the Effectiveness of Nivolumab in Patients With Advanced Cutaneous Melanoma

Antibodies against programmed cell death protein 1, such as nivolumab and pembrolizumab, are widely used for treating various cancers, including advanced melanoma. Nivolumab significantly prolongs survival in patients with metastatic melanoma, and sequential administration with lipilimumab may improve outcomes when switched at the appropriate time. Biomarkers are therefore needed to evaluate nivolumab efficacy soon after first administration. This study analyzed serum levels of soluble cluster of differentiation 163 (sCD163) in 59 cases of advanced cutaneous melanoma and 16 cases of advanced mucosal melanoma treated using nivolumab. Serum levels of sCD163 were significantly increased after 6 weeks in responders compared to non-responders after initial administration of nivolumab for cutaneous melanoma. In contrast, no significant difference between responders and non-responders was seen among patients with non-cutaneous melanoma. These results suggest that sCD163 may be useful as a biomarker for selecting patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma most likely to benefit from anti-melanoma immunotherapy

人総研シンポジウム抄録 : 福島原発事故12年の経験から学ぶ -当時小学生だった若者達との対話から(第2回)-

departmental bulletin pape

Growth rate, survivorship and stress tolerance of primary polyps of Acropora digitifera infected with zooxanthellae of different genotypes

琉球大学21世紀COEプログラム「サンゴ礁島嶼系の生物多様性の総合解析」平成19年度成果発表会（平成20年3月1日開催）　招待講演会会場：理系複号棟102号室，ポスター発表会場：琉球大学50周年記念館1

Specific Mutations near the Amyloid Precursor Protein Cleavage Site Increase γ-Secretase Sensitivity and Modulate Amyloid-β Production

Amyloid-β peptides (Aβs) are produced via cleavage of the transmembrane region of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by γ-secretase and are responsible for Alzheimer’s disease. Familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) is associated with APP mutations that disrupt the cleavage reaction and increase the production of neurotoxic Aβs, i.e., Aβ42 and Aβ43. Study of the mutations that activate and restore the cleavage of FAD mutants is necessary to understand the mechanism of Aβ production. In this study, using a yeast reconstruction system, we revealed that one of the APP FAD mutations, T714I, severely reduced the cleavage, and identified secondary APP mutations that restored the cleavage of APP T714I. Some mutants were able to modulate Aβ production by changing the proportions of Aβ species when introduced into mammalian cells. Secondary mutations include proline and aspartate residues; proline mutations are thought to act through helical structural destabilization, while aspartate mutations are thought to promote interactions in the substrate binding pocket. Our results elucidate the APP cleavage mechanism and could facilitate drug discovery