Brain2Music: Reconstructing Music from Human Brain Activity

The process of reconstructing experiences from human brain activity offers a unique lens into how the brain interprets and represents the world. In this paper, we introduce a method for reconstructing music from brain activity, captured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Our approach uses either music retrieval or the MusicLM music generation model conditioned on embeddings derived from fMRI data. The generated music resembles the musical stimuli that human subjects experienced, with respect to semantic properties like genre, instrumentation, and mood. We investigate the relationship between different components of MusicLM and brain activity through a voxel-wise encoding modeling analysis. Furthermore, we discuss which brain regions represent information derived from purely textual descriptions of music stimuli. We provide supplementary material including examples of the reconstructed music at https://google-research.github.io/seanet/brain2musicComment: Preprint; 21 pages; supplementary material: https://google-research.github.io/seanet/brain2musi

Biocompatible nanostructured solid adhesives for biological soft tissues

Over the past few years, the development of novel adhesives for biological soft tissue adhesion has gained significant interest. Such adhesives should be non-toxic and biocompatible. In this study, we synthesized a novel solid adhesive using nanostructured hydroxyapatite (HAp) and evaluated its physical adhesion properties through in vitro testing with synthetic hydrogels and mouse soft tissues. The results revealed that HAp-nanoparticle dispersions and HAp-nanoparticle-assembled nanoporous plates showed efficient adhesion to hydrogels. Interestingly, the HAp plates showed different adhesive properties depending upon the shape of their nanoparticles. The HAp plate made up of 17 nm-sized nanoparticles showed an adhesive strength 2.2 times higher than that of the conventional fibrin glue for mouse skin tissues

気管支喘息の low attenuation are (LAA) に対する長期喫煙の影響-4年間の経過観察-

Background-The influence of cigarette smoking on the pathogenesis of asthma in the elderly remains controversial. This study attempts to estimate longitudinal changes in HRCT (high resolution computed tomography) parameters and pulmonary function parameters obtained for ex-smokers and never-smokers in asthmatics during 4-yr follow-up period. Methods-Fourteen asthmatics (6 ex-smokers and 8 never-smokers) were studied to determine the influence of aging and cigarette smoking on pulmonary function, and mean lung density (MLD) and the relative area of the lung showing attenuation values less than -950 HU (RA950) on HRCT scans. Results-The values of FVC and FEV1, were significantly more decreased in asthmatics without a smoking history during 4-yr follow-up period. The values of FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC and DLco/VA were significantly decreased and RV/TLC were significantly increased in asthmatics with a smoking history over 4 years, and annual decline in FEV1 ex-smokers was larger than that in never-smokers. In the upper lung field, inspiratory MLD was observed to shift in a negative direction and inspiratory RA950 was found to increase during 4-yr observation period in ex-smokers, but not in never-smokers. In the middle lung field, inspiratory RA950 was significantly enhanced in both two groups. Although expiratory MLD, expiratory RA950 and exp RA950/ins RA950 were observed to change significantly during the observation period in ex-smokers, no changes were observed in never-smokers. Conclusion-These results suggest that aging augments airspace enlargement predominantly in the middle lung field, while long term cigarette smoking further worsens emphysematous alterations in the upper lung field.気管支喘息患者の肺高分解能CT所見に対する長期喫煙の影響を検討することを目的とした｡非喫煙喘息患者8名,喫煙歴を有する喘息患者6名を対象として,肺機能,肺平均CT値(MLD),-950HU以下のlow attenuation area(RA(950))について4年間の経過観察を行った｡ 4年間の観察中,非喫煙喘息患者では努力肺活量,1秒量の低下を認めた｡喫煙歴を有する喘息患者では努力肺活量,1秒量,1秒率,肺拡散能 の低下および残気率の増加を認めた｡喫煙歴を有する喘息患者では吸気において,上肺野MLDの有意の低下,RA(950)の有意の上昇を認めたが,非喫煙喘息患者では有意の変化は認めなかった｡中肺RA(950)は喫煙歴を有する喘息患者,非喫煙喘息患者ともに有意の上昇を認めた｡また,呼気において,喫煙歴を有する喘息患者でMLDの有意の低下,RA(950)の有意の上昇を認めたが,非喫煙喘息患者では有意の変化は認めなかった｡喘息患者において,加齢は主に中肺野のlow atenuation area,喫煙は上肺野のlow atenuation areaに影響を及ぼすことが示唆された

How to Make a Secure Index for Searchable Symmetric Encryption, Revisited

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) enables clients to search encrypted data. Curtmola et al. (ACM CCS 2006) formalized a model and security notions of SSE and proposed two concrete constructions called SSE-1 and SSE-2. After the seminal work by Curtmola et al., SSE becomes an active area of encrypted search. In this paper, we focus on two unnoticed problems in the seminal paper by Curtmola et al. First, we show that SSE-2 does not appropriately implement Curtmola et al.\u27s construction idea for dummy addition. We refine SSE-2\u27s (and its variants\u27) dummy-adding procedure to keep the number of dummies sufficiently many but as small as possible. We then show how to extend it to the dynamic setting while keeping the dummy-adding procedure work well and implement our scheme to show its practical efficiency. Second, we point out that the SSE-1 can cause a search error when a searched keyword is not contained in any document file stored at a server and show how to fix it

The impact of contour maps on estimating the risk of gastrointestinal stromal tumor recurrence: indications for adjuvant therapy: an analysis of the Kinki GIST registry

The version of record of this article, first published in Gastric Cancer, is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10120-023-01444-8Introduction: Contour maps enable risk classification of GIST recurrence in individual patients within 10 postoperative years. Although contour maps have been referred to in Japanese guidelines, their usefulness and role in determining indications for adjuvant therapy is still unclear in Japanese patients. The aims of this study are to investigate the validity of contour maps in Japanese patients with GIST and explore the new strategy for adjuvant therapy. Materials and methods: A total of 1426 Japanese GIST patients who were registered to the registry by the Kinki GIST Study Group between 2003 and 2012 were analyzed. Patients who had R0 surgery without perioperative therapy were included in this study. The accuracy of contour maps was validated. Results: Overall, 994 patients have concluded this study. Using contour maps, we validated the patients. The 5-year recurrence-free survival rates of patients within the GIST classification groups of 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–40%, 40–60%, 60–80%, 80–90%, and 90–100% were 98.1%, 96.6%, 92.3%, 48.0%, 37.3%, 41.0% and 42.4%, respectively. We confirmed that this classification by contour maps was well reflected recurrence prediction. Further, in the high-risk group stratified by the modified National Institutes of Health consensus criteria (m-NIHC), the 10-year RFS rate was remarkably changed at a cutoff of 40% (0–40% group vs. 40–100% group: 88.7% vs. 50.3%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Contour maps are effective in predicting individual recurrence rates. And it may be useful for the decision of individual strategy for high-risk patients combined with m-NIHC

Expanding the Repertoire of Optogenetically Targeted Cells with an Enhanced Gene Expression System

Optogenetics has been enthusiastically pursued in recent neuroscience research, and the causal relationship between neural activity and behavior is becoming ever more accessible. Here, we established knockin-mediated enhanced gene expression by improved tetracycline-controlled gene induction (KENGE-tet) and succeeded in generating transgenic mice expressing a highly light-sensitive channelrhodopsin-2 mutant at levels sufficient to drive the activities of multiple cell types. This method requires two lines of mice: one that controls the pattern of expression and another that determines the protein to be produced. The generation of new lines of either type readily expands the repertoire to choose from. In addition to neurons, we were able to manipulate the activity of nonexcitable glial cells in vivo. This shows that our system is applicable not only to neuroscience but also to any biomedical study that requires understanding of how the activity of a selected population of cells propagates through the intricate organic systems

Experimental model for the irradiation-mediated abscopal effect and factors influencing this effect

Radiotherapy (RT) is the primary treatment for cancer. Ionizing radiation from RT induces tumor damage at the irradiated site, and, although clinically infrequent, may cause regression of tumors distant from the irradiated site-a phenomenon known as the abscopal effect. Recently, the abscopal effect has been related to prolongation of overall survival time in cancer patients, though the factors that influence the abscopal effect are not well understood. The aim of this study is to clarify the factors influencing on abscopal effect. Here, we established a mouse model in which we induced the abscopal effect. We injected MC38 (mouse colon adenocarcinoma) cells subcutaneously into C57BL/6 mice at two sites. Only one tumor was irradiated and the sizes of both tumors were measured over time. The non-irradiated-site tumor showed regression, demonstrating the abscopal effect. This effect was enhanced by an increase in the irradiated-tumor volume and by administration of anti-PD1 antibody. When the abscopal effect was induced by a combination of RT and anti-PD1 antibody, it was also influenced by radiation dose and irradiated-tumor volume. These phenomena were also verified in other cell line, B16F10 cells (mouse melanoma cells). These findings provide further evidence of the mechanism for, and factors that influence, the abscopal effect in RT