FINGER FORCES DURING BASEBALL PITCHING

A 3D force transducer was installed in an official baseball to make a direct measurement of finger force imparting on the ball during pitching. Eight collegiate pitchers threw a 4- seam fastball at their maximal speed. Force was measured separately from each of the index, middle, and ring fingers, and the thumb. Peaks and peak occurrence time of computed resultant and shear forces were evaluated. Index and middle finger forces generally had a bimodal pattern with the first and second peaks appeared at about 80, and 96% of the stride foot contact period, respectively. Their force magnitude reached 90 N. and above. Magnitude of shear force was about half of the resultant force. Forces by the thumb and ring finger were less than those by the index and middle fingers. The findings indicated that the fingers were applying considerably large magnitude of force during pitching

Neural Correlates of Attitude Change Following Positive and Negative Advertisements

Understanding changes in attitudes towards others is critical to understanding human behaviour. Neuropolitical studies have found that the activation of emotion-related areas in the brain is linked to resilient political preferences, and neuroeconomic research has analysed the neural correlates of social preferences that favour or oppose consideration of intrinsic rewards. This study aims to identify the neural correlates in the prefrontal cortices of changes in political attitudes toward others that are linked to social cognition. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments have presented videos from previous electoral campaigns and television commercials for major cola brands and then used the subjects' self-rated affinity toward political candidates as behavioural indicators. After viewing negative campaign videos, subjects showing stronger fMRI activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex lowered their ratings of the candidate they originally supported more than did those with smaller fMRI signal changes in the same region. Subjects showing stronger activation in the medial prefrontal cortex tended to increase their ratings more than did those with less activation. The same regions were not activated by viewing negative advertisements for cola. Correlations between the self-rated values and the neural signal changes underscore the metric representation of observed decisions (i.e., whether to support or not) in the brain. This indicates that neurometric analysis may contribute to the exploration of the neural correlates of daily social behaviour

Functional heterogeneity in the left lateral posterior parietal cortex during visual and haptic crossmodal dot-surface matching

Background Vision and touch are thought to contribute information to object perception in an independent but complementary manner. The left lateral posterior parietal cortex (LPPC) has long been associated with multisensory information processing, and it plays an important role in visual and haptic crossmodal information retrieval. However, it remains unclear how LPPC subregions are involved in visuo‐haptic crossmodal retrieval processing. Methods In the present study, we used an fMRI experiment with a crossmodal delayed match‐to‐sample paradigm to reveal the functional role of LPPC subregions related to unimodal and crossmodal dot‐surface retrieval. Results The visual‐to‐haptic condition enhanced the activity of the left inferior parietal lobule relative to the haptic unimodal condition, whereas the inverse condition enhanced the activity of the left superior parietal lobule. By contrast, activation of the left intraparietal sulcus did not differ significantly between the crossmodal and unimodal conditions. Seed‐based resting connectivity analysis revealed that these three left LPPC subregions engaged distinct networks, confirming their different functions in crossmodal retrieval processing. Conclusion Taken together, the findings suggest that functional heterogeneity of the left LPPC during visuo‐haptic crossmodal dot‐surface retrieval processing reflects that the left LPPC does not simply contribute to retrieval of past information; rather, each subregion has a specific functional role in resolving different task requirements

Proteomic alteration in gastic adenocarcinomas from Japanese patients

BACKGROUND: Gastric adenocarcinomas comprise one of the common types of cancers in Asian countries including Japan. Comprehensive protein profiling of paired surgical specimens of primary gastric adenocarcinomas and nontumor mucosae derived from Japanese patients was carried out by means of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-EP) and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionic tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) to establish gastric cancer-specific proteins as putative clinical biomarkers and molecular targets for chemotherapy. RESULTS: Relatively common alterations in protein expression were revealed in the tumor tissues. Increases in manganese dismutase and nonhistone chromosomal protein HMG-1 (HMG-1) were observed, while decreases in carbonic anhydrases I and II, glutatione-S-transferase and foveolin precursor (gastrokine-1) (FOV), an 18-kDa stomach-specific protein with putative tumor suppressor activity, were detected. RT-PCR analysis also revealed significant down-regulation of FOV mRNA expression in tumor tissues. CONCLUSION: A possible pathological role for down-regulation of FOV in gastric carcinogenesis was demonstrated. Evaluation of the specific decreases in gene and protein expression of FOV in patients may be utilized as clinical biomarkers for effective diagnosis and assessment of gastric cancer

Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia Induced by Minocycline

We report a case of bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) caused by minocycline (MINO). A 59- year-old man visited to our hospital because of flu-like symptoms. He had been treated with MINO for a few weeks for the skin eruption. The chest radiograph showed consolidations in both lung fields. He was admitted to our hospital for further examination. An elevation of lymphocyte percentage was seen in his bronchoalveolar lavage and a diagnosis of BOOP was confirmed by video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy. The symptoms, laboratory and radiological findings gradually improved without steroid therapy. Although the lymphocyte stimulation test (LST) of peripheral blood for MINO was negative, a positive oral provocation test confirmed the role of MINO in the induction of BOOP

Respiratory Bronchiolitis-associated Interstitial Lung Disease

We report a case of respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD). A 57-year-old man with a 74-pack-year smoking history, had cough, stridor, yellow purulent sputum and general fatigue for several days. The symptoms almost improved after treatment. However, chest computed tomography (CT) showed diffuse centrilobular ground glass opacities although the chest X-ray film showed no obvious opacities. Examination of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid showed relative lymphocytosis. Examination of lung biopsy obtained by video-assisted thoracoscopy allowed the diagnosis of RBILD. The opacities on the CT scan were improved spontaneously without any treatment after cessation of smoking

Diagnostic utility of C-reactive Protein combined with brain natriuretic peptide in acute pulmonary edema: a cross sectional study

Introduction Discriminating acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) from cardiogenic pulmonary edema (CPE) using the plasma level of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) alone remains controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic utility of combination measurements of BNP and C-reactive protein (CRP) in critically ill patients with pulmonary edema

Juvenile Idiopathic Nonspecific Interstitial Pneumonia. and Review of Literature

We describe a case of juvenile idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP). This is the first report of a Japanese patient with idiopathic NSIP aged 27 years. A computed tomographic scan of the chest showed groundglass opacities and reticular opacities in subpleural distribution. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid revealed no specific finding except for decreased CD4/CD8 ratio of lymphocyte subset. Histopathological features on examination of thoracoscopic lung biopsy specimens were consistent with those of NSIP group III. The patient was treated with corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, but no clinical improvement was noted and the general condition has gradually worsened. Although the prognosis is generally considered to be good in patients with NSIP, some patients die as a result of progression of the disease. The prediction of prognosis based on histopathological, radiologic, and bronchoalveolar lavage cell findings in NSIP seems to be difficult at present

腹膜および胸膜悪性中皮腫におけるEGFR発現の比較

An evaluation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) phenotypic expression in malignant pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma was undertaken, using immunohistochemical (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis. Thirty-eight malignant mesothelioma (MM) specimens were subjected to IHC staining and FISH to evaluate the expression of EGFR protein and gene status. Overall positive IHC reaction was detected in 20/38 (53%) cases, in 11/22 (50%) pleural MM, and in 9/16 (56%) peritoneal MM. Our study confirmed that EGFR membranous expression is a common feature in MM, but not in benign mesothelial lesion. Thirty-seven cases did not show a gene copy number gain. Only one case showed a copy number gain. The protein overexpression of EGFR was not related to a gene copy number gain.博士（医学）・乙第1299号・平成24年5月28日© 2012 The Authors. Pathology International© 2012 Japanese Society of Pathology and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd