Reduced contribution of the ipsilateral primary motor cortex to force modulation with short-term motor learning in humans: An NIRS study

How is muscle force modulated during hand exercise? Oxygenation in the contralateral primary motor cortex (M1) has been observed to vary considerably across trials of repetitive handgrip exercise. No linear relationship was observed between the average value of oxygenation determined by a block design study and the force of the handgrip. We found reduced oxygenation in the ipsilateral M1 and unchanged oxygenation in the contralateral M1 during repetitive static handgrip exercises (40% and 60% maximal voluntary contraction; 10 s exercise/75 s rest; 5 sets), which might be due to short-term motor learning. These results support the hypothesis that the ipsilateral M1 might functionally compensate for the contralateral M1 in force modulation during unilateral exercises

Distance to G14.33-0.64 in the Sagittarius Spiral Arm: H2O Maser Trigonometric Parallax with VERA

We report on trigonometric parallax measurements for the Galactic star forming region G14.33-0.64 toward the Sagittarius spiral arm. We conducted multi-epoch phase-referencing observations of an H2O maser source in G14.33-0.64 with the Japanese VLBI array VERA. We successfully detected a parallax of 0.893+/-0.101 mas, corresponding to a source distance of 1.12+/-0.13 kpc, which is less than half of the kinematic distance for G14.33-0.64. Our new distance measurement demonstrates that the Sagittarius arm lies at a closer distance of ~1 kpc, instead of previously assumed ~2-3 kpc from kinematic distances. The previously suggested deviation of the Sagittarius arm toward the Galactic center from the symmetrically fitted model (Taylor & Cordes 1993) is likely due to large errors of kinematic distances at low galactic longitudes. G14.33-0.64 most likely traces the near side of the Sagittarius arm. We attempted fitting the pitch angle of the arm with other parallax measurements along the arm, which yielded two possible pitch angles of i=34.7+/-2.7 degrees and i=11.2+/-10.5 degrees. Our proper motion measurements suggest G14.33-0.64 has no significant peculiar motion relative to the differential rotation of the Galaxy (assumed to be in a circular orbit), indicating that the source motion is in good agreement with the Galactic rotation.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, to appear in PASJ Vol. 62, No.

Global Production Linkages and Stock Market Comovement

Although real integration conceptually plays an important role for the comovement of international equity markets, documenting this link empirically has proven challenging. We construct a new dataset of theory-guided, relevant measures of bilateral trade in final and intermediate goods and services. With these measures, we provide evidence of a strong link between changes in international trade – in particular global value chains – and equity market comovement.These results suggest that supply chain disruptions and reshoring, for instance due to political tensions, war, and the COVID-19 crisis, might affect the interconnections between stock markets via rippling through the global production network

Essays in financial economics

In the first chapter, I study the exchange-traded fund (ETF) market from two perspectives. First, I study its contagion, and I show that the network of the ETF market — the linkages between ETFs based on portfolio weights — catalyzes the propagation of price dislocations, the gaps between prices and their fundamental values. Arbitrage trading induces price dislocations in connected ETFs, followed by responses in returns and subsequent reversals with a sizable effect of 4-6% per year. The findings suggest that arbitragers create externalities from trading. Finally, the ETF market works as a stabilizer for price dislocations, but induced returns can incur unexpected fluctuations. Another is information embedded in ETFs. By extracting information in ETFs, I uncover the risk neutral covariance of global asset returns and currency returns to understand risk premium and exchange rate risk in the global financial market better. The measure captures some economic policy uncertainty in real time. The second chapter studies the futures markets. The literature has documented that the inflow of institutional money into the commodity market led to so-called financialization of commodities and hence the higher correlation between equity and commodity. However, the correlation is highly timevarying, and it had decreased once before it has faced another surge. I find this time-varying correlations between equity and commodity as well as between commodity and bond are driven by the net trading positions for corresponding pair of asset classes. Exploiting this, I construct the measure that signals mispricing of large investors, and I find cross-sectional predictability for future returns with this measure. I also investigate the role of the limit to arbitrage in the currency market in a relation to return spillovers from the commodity market empirically and theoretically. In the third chapter (co-authored with Raphael Auer, Andreas Schrimpf, and Alexander Wagner), we study how the international trade network can affect financial markets. In contrast to the earlier literature, our measure shows the trade flows in global value chains affect equity market comovements strongly. One standard deviation increase in our trade intensity measure leads to roughly 0.05 to 0.1 increase in correlations. Our results hold after controlling for financial integration and other factors that could affect the international asset market comovements

Tandem chemoselective Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling enabled by nucleophile speciation control

Control of boronic acid speciation is presented as a strategy to achieve nucleophile chemoselectivity in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. Combined with simultaneous control of oxidative addition and transmetallation, this enables chemoselective formation of two C-C bonds in a single operation, providing a method for the rapid preparation of highly functionalized carbogenic frameworks

The distinct distribution of two Dictyostelium Talins

Although the distinct distribution of certain molecules along the anterior or posterior edge is essential for directed cell migration, the mechanisms to maintain asymmetric protein localization have not yet been fully elucidated. Here, we studied a mechanism for the distinct localizations of two Dictyostelium talin homologues, talin A and talin B, both of which play important roles in cell migration and adhesion. Using GFP fusion, we found that talin B, as well as its C-terminal actin-binding region, which consists of an I/LWEQ domain and a villin headpiece domain, was restricted to the leading edge of migrating cells. This is in sharp contrast to talin A and its C-terminal actin-binding domain, which co-localized with myosin II along the cell posterior cortex, as reported previously. Intriguingly, even in myosin II-null cells, talin A and its actin-binding domain displayed a specific distribution, co-localizing with stretched actin filaments. In contrast, talin B was excluded from regions rich in stretched actin filaments, although a certain amount of its actin-binding region alone was present in those areas. When cells were sucked by a micro-pipette, talin B was not detected in the retracting aspirated lobe where acto-myosin, talin A, and the actin-binding regions of talin A and talin B accumulated. Based on these results, we suggest that talin A predominantly interacts with actin filaments stretched by myosin II through its C-terminal actin-binding region, while the actin-binding region of talin B does not make such distinctions. Furthermore, talin B appears to have an additional, unidentified mechanism that excludes it from the region rich in stretched actin filaments. We propose that these actin-binding properties play important roles in the anterior and posterior enrichment of talin B and talin A, respectively, during directed cell migration

Postoperative recurrence and the role of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma

ObjectivesThe prognosis for patients with large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is generally very poor. In this study, we describe the clinical features of recurrent tumors of large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma and discuss the role of adjuvant chemotherapy and management of recurrence in patients with large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed clinical data from 79 patients and evaluated the prognosis of patients with platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy, recurrence patterns, patient response to chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and prognosis in patients who experienced relapse.ResultsOf 72 patients, 36 had confirmed recurrent tumors upon follow-up examinations. Of those with recurrent tumors, 33 patients (91.7%) had their first recurrent tumors within 3 years. Patients who underwent platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy had a significantly lower rate of tumor recurrence and a higher rate of disease-free survival than those who had non–platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy or no adjuvant chemotherapy. Multivariate analyses revealed that platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy, pathologic stage, and the presence of second cancer are independent prognostic factors. Three patients with limited resection of the primary tumor had poor prognosis with recurrence. Postoperatively, 11 of the 36 patients without recurrence (30.6%) had metachronous second primary cancers, of which 4 patients had more than 1 site.ConclusionsPatients with large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma had frequent recurrence following resection of the primary tumor, and those without recurrence often developed metachronous second primary cancers. Platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery may be useful for preventing recurrence in patients with large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma