PF-20 Successful Surgical Restoration with Enterorrhaphy after Rectal Prolapse in Experimental Animals

Complete rectal prolapse is the protrusion of the entire thickness of the rectal wall through the anal sphincter complex. Women aged 50 and older are 6 times as likely as men to present rectal prolapse. Two thirds of women patients are multiparous and 15 to 30% report associated urinary dysfunction and vaginal prolapse.The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) has been used increasingly in recent years for studies in bio-medical fields. The primate institute in National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry Japan was founded in 2005. Since then the number of marmoset gradually increased and 320 to 350 marmosets were housed in 2012. Averaged number of housed marmosets throughout the period is about 300. In the history of the institute, two cases of traumatic rectal prolapse, which had not been reported in marmosets, were found. This paper reports the etiology and the possible surgical treatment of marmoset rectal prolapse

Knowledge Sanitization of Large Language Models

We explore a knowledge sanitization approach to mitigate the privacy concerns associated with large language models (LLMs). LLMs trained on a large corpus of Web data can memorize and potentially reveal sensitive or confidential information, raising critical security concerns. Our technique efficiently fine-tunes these models using the Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) method, prompting them to generate harmless responses such as ``I don't know'' when queried about specific information. Experimental results in a closed-book question-answering task show that our straightforward method not only minimizes particular knowledge leakage but also preserves the overall performance of LLMs. These two advantages strengthen the defense against extraction attacks and reduces the emission of harmful content such as hallucinations

Association of food location with biological cues in the macaque monkey

Abstract. Many animal species including humans are endowed with the ability to use biological cues and can extract information by observing other individuals. This study explored whether the macaque monkey could use biological cue to find a hidden target. When the experimenter hid food in one hand and crossed and uncrossed hands quickly, the monkey had no difficulty in finding the food and correctly reached for the baited hand. However, when the food was hidden in one of two cups and the cups were shuffled, the monkey could correctly select the baited cup only at an equal level of luck. These results indicate that the macaque monkey could associate the location of food with a biological cue better than a non-biological cue and keep it in memory when the target was unseen

Excited States of Calogero-Sutherland Model and Singular Vectors of the WNW_N Algebra

Using the collective field method, we find a relation between the Jack symmetric polynomials, which describe the excited states of the Calogero-Sutherland model, and the singular vectors of the $W_N$ algebra. Based on this relation, we obtain their integral representations. We also give a direct algebraic method which leads to the same result, and integral representations of the skew-Jack polynomials.Comment: LaTeX, 29 pages, 2 figures, New sections for skew-Jack polynomial and example of singular vectors adde

Transgenic Monkey Model of the Polyglutamine Diseases Recapitulating Progressive Neurological Symptoms

Age-associated neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and the polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases, are becoming prevalent as a consequence of elongation of the human lifespan. Although various rodent models have been developed to study and overcome these diseases, they have limitations in their translational research utility owing to differences from humans in brain structure and function and in drug metabolism. Here, we generated a transgenic marmoset model of the polyQ diseases, showing progressive neurological symptoms including motor impairment. Seven transgenic marmosets were produced by lentiviral introduction of the human ataxin 3 gene with 120 CAG repeats encoding an expanded polyQ stretch. Although all offspring showed no neurological symptoms at birth, three marmosets with higher transgene expression developed neurological symptoms of varying degrees at 3–4 months after birth, followed by gradual decreases in body weight gain, spontaneous activity, and grip strength, indicating time-dependent disease progression. Pathological examinations revealed neurodegeneration and intranuclear polyQ protein inclusions accompanied by gliosis, which recapitulate the neuropathological features of polyQ disease patients. Consistent with neuronal loss in the cerebellum, brain MRI analyses in one living symptomatic marmoset detected enlargement of the fourth ventricle, which suggests cerebellar atrophy. Notably, successful germline transgene transmission was confirmed in the second-generation offspring derived from the symptomatic transgenic marmoset gamete. Because the accumulation of abnormal proteins is a shared pathomechanism among various neurodegenerative diseases, we suggest that this new marmoset model will contribute toward elucidating the pathomechanisms of and developing clinically applicable therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.ArticleeNeuro.4(2):e0250(2017)journal articl

Imitation of Body Movements Facilitated by Joint Attention through Eye Contact and Pointing in Japanese Monkey

Eye contact and pointing are typical gestures in order to direct another individual’s attention toward a target. We previously investigated on Japanese monkeys whether joint attention ability encouraged by eye contact and pointing was associated with the imitation of human’s actions. The monkeys with the joint attention skills showed the imitation of human’s actions. In the current study, we investigated on a monkey whether joint attention ability also facilitated the imitation of human body-movements. Results showed that the monkey being taught eye contact and pointing showed the imitation of human body-movements. These results suggest that the monkeys have basic potential for following another individual’s motion, and that what imitation expresses depends on where the monkeys are paying attention. Thus, eye contact and pointing ar