The Effects of Word Class and Aging on Verbal Fluency in Korean

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of word class and aging on verbal fluency in Korean to compare the results with our previous study in Japanese. Three types of verbal fluency tasks were administered in Korean to 35 healthy young and 35 healthy elderly. Each participant was instructed to generate as many different words as possible for the following five attributes within a 60-second period: (1) common nouns (“animal names” and “vegetable names”), (2) proper nouns (“company names” and “famous people’s names”) and (3) verbs (words about things people do). The results revealed that the elderly group generated significantly fewer correct responses and significantly more incorrect responses in comparison with the young group. For the verb task compared with the common noun task, there were significantly less correct responses and significantly greater incorrect responses due to aging. These poor performances in the verb fluency task because of aging were considered to be resulting from problems in executive function. Cultural influences on some of the verbal fluency performances were also considered a factor

加齢またはアルツハイマー病が語彙・意味機能に及ぼす影響 : 意味的プライミング法による検討

This study aims to clarify the influences of aging and AD on lexical-semantics by assigning a semantic priming paradigm. The following participants are included in the study: 30 young students, 22 early elderly, 19 late elderly, and 14 AD patients. The participants are asked to perform lexical decision tasks. Targets are high-frequency concrete words or nonwords. The primes are controlled with regard to their semantic relevance to the targets as follows: Association (e.g., king - lion), Superordination (beast - lion), Coordination (tiger - lion), Shared feature (eyes - lion), Distinctive feature (mane - lion), or Neutral (XXXX – lion). The participants have to decide whether the stimulus is a real word or not as correctly and as quickly as possible when the targets appeared on a monitor. As the Results, the mean reaction times (RTs) of the elderly groups are significantly longer than those of the young group, and the RTs of the AD group are even longer than those of the elderly groups. In the young and the elderly groups, the RTs for all the related-prime conditions are significantly shorter than those for the neutral-prime conditions (priming effects). The priming effects appears to be greater in the elderly groups. However, when the RTs are taken into consideration (priming rates), the gains are equivalent among young and elderly groups. In the AD group, priming effects are not observed, and noticeable individual differences in the priming rate are seen. The above findings suggest that lexical-semantics are generally preserved from aging. We also discusses that lexical-semantics are impaired in AD, and the diversity of the impairments may be the essence of AD

Relationships between brain-derived neurotrophic factor, clinical symptoms, and decision-making in chronic schizophrenia: data from the Iowa Gambling Task

The levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are significantly decreased in patients with schizophrenia and correlate with impairments in cognitive function. However, no study has investigated the relationship between the serum BDNF levels and decision-making. We compared patients with schizophrenia to healthy controls with respect to their decision-making ability and serum BDNF levels. Eighty-six chronic schizophrenia patients and 51 healthy controls participated in this study. We controlled for gender, age, and estimated intelligence quotient (IQ), and we investigated the differences in decision-making performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) between the schizophrenia patient and control groups. We also compared the IGT scores, the serum BDNF levels, and the clinical symptoms between the groups. The IGT scores of the schizophrenia patients were lower than those of the controls. A negative correlation was detected between the mean net scores on the trials in the final two blocks and the serum BDNF levels（p<0.05）. Multiple regression analysis revealed that depressive symptoms and the serum BDNF levels were significantly associated with the mean net scores on the trials in the final two blocks. Based on these results, impaired sensitivity to both reward and punishment is associated with depressive symptoms and reduced serum BDNF levels in chronic schizophrenia patients and may be related to their poor performance on the IGT

Observation of a Dirac nodal line in AlB2

We have performed angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of AlB2 which is isostructural to high-temperature superconductor MgB2. Using soft-x-ray photons, we accurately determined the three-dimensional bulk band structure and found a highly anisotropic Dirac-cone band at the K point in the bulk hexagonal Brillouin zone. This band disperses downward on approaching the H point while keeping its degeneracy at the Dirac point, producing a characteristic Dirac nodal line along the KH line. We also found that the band structure of AlB2 is regarded as a heavily electron-doped version of MgB2 and is therefore well suited for fully visualizing the predicted Dirac nodal line. The present results suggest that (Al,Mg)B2 system is a promising platform for studying the interplay among Dirac nodal line, carrier doping, and possible topological superconducting properties.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Large-scale structures in the Earth’s interior: Top-down hemispherical dynamics constrained by geochemical and geophysical approaches

Geochemical and geophysical observations for large-scale structures in the Earth’s interior, particularly horizontal variations of long wavelengths such as degree-1 and degree-2 structures, are reviewed with special attention to the cause of hemispherical mantle structure. Seismic velocity, electrical conductivity, and basalt geochemistry are used for mapping the large-scale structures to discuss thermal and compositional heterogeneities and their relations to dynamics of the Earth’s interior. Seismic velocity structure is the major source of information on the Earth’s interior and provides the best spatial resolution, while electrical conductivity is sensitive to water/hydrogen contents. The composition of young basalts reflects the mantle composition, and the formation age of large-scale structures can be inferred based on the radiogenic isotopes. Thus, these different research disciplines and methods complement each other and can be combined to more concretely constrain the structures and their origins. This paper aims to integrate observations from these different approaches to obtain a better understanding of geodynamics. Together with numerical modeling results of convection in the mantle and the core, “top-down hemispherical dynamics” model of the crust-mantle-core system is examined. The results suggest that a top-down link between the supercontinents, mantle geochemical hemisphere, and inner core seismic velocity hemisphere played an essential role in formation of the large-scale structures and dynamics of the Earth’s interior

Сучасні стратегії розвитку науки

Робоча програма з дисципліни «Стратегії розвитку науки» за спеціальністю 6.030302 «Реклама та зв’язки з громадськістю» галузі знань 0303 «Журналістика та інформація», освітньо-кваліфікаційного рівня «бакалавр». – 2016. – 48 с

Proinflammatory Cytokines and Potassium Channels in the Kidney

Proinflammatory cytokines affect several cell functions via receptor-mediated processes. In the kidney, functions of transporters and ion channels along the nephron are also affected by some cytokines. Among these, alteration of activity of potassium ion (K + ) channels induces changes in transepithelial transport of solutes and water in the kidney, since K + channels in tubule cells are indispensable for formation of membrane potential which serves as a driving force for the transepithelial transport. Altered K + channel activity may be involved in renal cell dysfunction during inflammation. Although little information was available regarding the effects of proinflammatory cytokines on renal K + channels, reports have emerged during the last decade. In human proximal tubule cells, interferon-showed a time-dependent biphasic effect on a 40 pS K + channel, that is, delayed suppression and acute stimulation, and interleukin-1 acutely suppressed the channel activity. Transforming growth factor-1 activated KCa3.1 K + channel in immortalized human proximal tubule cells, which would be involved in the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis. This review discusses the effects of proinflammatory cytokines on renal K + channels and the causal relationship between the cytokine-induced changes in K + channel activity and renal dysfunction