Oxybis(dimesitylborane) dichloro­methane hemisolvate

The title compound, C36H44B2O·0.5CH2Cl2, contains an almost linear O—B—O linkage [177.23 (15)°] and approximately orthogonal [interplanar angles 89.49 (5) and 80.77 (4)°] trigonal planar B centers, consistent with the previously reported non-solvated structure [Cardinet al. (1983). J. Chem. Res. (S), p. 93]. Inter­molecular C—H⋯π inter­actions exist between mesityl groups, with a C—H⋯centroid separation of 3.6535 (18) Å. The dichloromethane mol­ecules lie on twofold rotation axes

Amplitude death in a ring of nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with unidirectional coupling

We study the collective behaviors in a ring of coupled nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with unidirectional coupling, of which natural frequencies are distributed in a random way. We find the amplitude death phenomena in the case of unidirectional couplings and discuss the differences between the cases of bidirectional and unidirectional couplings. There are three main differences; there exists neither partial amplitude death nor local clustering behavior but oblique line structure which represents directional signal flow on the spatio-temporal patterns in the unidirectional coupling case. The unidirectional coupling has the advantage of easily obtaining global amplitude death in a ring of coupled oscillators with randomly distributed natural frequency. Finally, we explain the results using the eigenvalue analysis of Jacobian matrix at the origin and also discuss the transition of dynamical behavior coming from connection structure as coupling strength increases.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

VR/AR head-mounted display system based measurement and evaluation of dynamic visual acuity

This study evaluated the dynamic visual acuity of candidates by implementing a King–Devick (K-D) test chart in a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR HMD) and an augmented reality head-mounted display (AR HMD). Hard-copy KD (HCKD), VR HMD KD (VHKD), and AR HMD KD (AHKD) tests were conducted in 30 male and female candidates in the age of 10S and 20S and subjective symptom surveys were conducted. In the subjective symptom surveys, all except one of the VHKD questionnaire items showed subjective symptoms of less than 1 point. In the comparison between HCKD and VHKD, HCKD was measured more rapidly than VHKD in all tests. In the comparison between HCKD and AHKD, HCKD was measured more rapidly than AHKD in Tests 1, 2, and 3. In the comparison between VHKD and AHKD, AHKD was measured more rapidly than VHKD in Tests 1, 2, and 3. In the correlation analyses of test platforms, all platforms were correlated with each other, except for the correlation between HCKD and VHKD in Tests 1 and 2. There was no significant difference in the frequency of errors among Tests 1, 2, and 3 across test platforms. VHKD and AHKD, which require the body to be moved to read the chart, required longer measurement time than HCKD. In the measurements of each platform, AHKD was measured closer to HCKD than VHKD, which may be because the AHKD environment is closer to the actual environment than the VHKD environment. The effectiveness of VHKD and AHKD proposed in this research was evaluated experimentally. The results suggest that treatment and training could be performed concurrently through the use of clinical test and content development of VHKD and AHKD

Mutant pattern of p53 predicts local recurrence and poor survival rate in gastric cancer

Background. TP53 mutation is a poor prognostic factor for various organ malignancies such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma and clinical pathologists previously evaluated it using immunohistochemistry for p53. The clinicopathologic significance of p53 expression in gastric cancer remains unclear due to inconsistent classification methods. Methods. Immunohistochemistry for p53 protein was performed using tissue microarray blocks generated from 725 cases of gastric cancer, and p53 expression was divided into three staining patterns using a semiquantitative ternary classifier: heterogeneous (wild type), overexpression, and absence (mutant pattern). Results. Mutant pattern of p53 expression had a male predominance, greater frequency in cardia/fundus, higher pT stage, frequent lymph node metastasis, local recurrence clinically, and more differentiated histology microscopically compared with wild type. In survival analysis, p53 mutant pattern was associated with worse recurrent-free survival and overall survival rates, and significance was maintained in subgroup analysis of early versus advanced gastric cancers. In Cox regression analysis, p53 mutant pattern was a significant predicting factor for local recurrence (relative risk (RR=4.882, p<0.001)) and overall survival (RR=2.040, p=0.007). The p53 mutant pattern remained significant for local recurrence (RR=2.934, p=0.018) in multivariate analyses. Conclusions. Mutant p53 pattern on immunohistochemistry was a significant prognostic factor for local recurrence and poor overall survival in gastric cancer

Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Display System-based Developmental Eye Movement Test

By transplanting the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test chart to a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR HMD) system, this study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the DEM test for measuring dynamic visual acuity.Thirty-nine adults aged 20–39 years of both genders were the subjects of the study. After undergoing measurement of their visual function, through medical questionnaire, interpupillary distance, near point of convergence (NPC), near point of accommodation (NPA), and far and near phoria, the correlation between the tests was analyzed performing DEM vertical, horizontal test and VR HMD DEM (VHD) vertical, horizontal test.NPC and NPA decreased significantly after the VHD test, while phoria did not. The horizontal was quicker than the vertical in the DEM test, and vice versa in the VHD test. DEM was quicker than VHD in both the vertical and horizontal directions. There was no notable difference in error frequency between DEM and VHD. In terms of DEM and VHD test, there was no notable difference in the short-range IPD and subjective symptoms of the top 10 and bottom 10 subjects. There was also no notable difference between the exercise and non-exercise groups and the game and non-game groups.The performance time for VHD, in which the chart must be read while moving the body, was longer than that of DEM. Therefore, based on the consistency of the results of both tests and the lack of a difference in error frequency and subjective symptoms, the VHD equipment proposed in this thesis is as effective as dynamic visual acuity measurement equipment. In addition, the lack of a difference between the exercise and non-exercise groups and the game and non-game groups demonstrated that the amount of exercise and game by an ordinary person does not influence their dynamic visual function

Prediction of a time-to-event trait using genome wide SNP data

BACKGROUND: A popular objective of many high-throughput genome projects is to discover various genomic markers associated with traits and develop statistical models to predict traits of future patients based on marker values. RESULTS: In this paper, we present a prediction method for time-to-event traits using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We also propose a MaxTest associating between a time-to-event trait and a SNP accounting for its possible genetic models. The proposed MaxTest can help screen out nonprognostic SNPs and identify genetic models of prognostic SNPs. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through simulations. CONCLUSIONS: In conjunction with the MaxTest, the proposed method provides more parsimonious prediction models but includes more prognostic SNPs than some naive prediction methods. The proposed method is demonstrated with real GWAS data

Bis(μ-dimesitylborinato-κ2 O:O)bis­[(2-methyl­pyridine-κN)lithium]

The title compound, [Li2(C18H22BO)2(C6H7N)2], is a lithium dimesitylboroxide dimer in which the lithium cation is also coordinated by one mol­ecule of 2-methyl­pyridine. At the core of the structure is an Li2O2 four-membered ring. The structure is centrosymmetric with an inversion centre midway between two Li atoms. Inter­molecular C—H⋯π inter­actions and π–π inter­actions between the 2-methyl­pyridine rings exist [centroid–centroid distance = 3.6312 (16) Å]

Effect of an Ethanol Extract of Scutellaria baicalensis on Relaxation in Corpus Cavernosum Smooth Muscle

Aims of study. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether an ethanol extract of Scutellaria baicalensis (ESB) relaxes penile corpus cavernosum muscle in organ bath experiments. Materials and methods. Changes in tension of cavernous smooth muscle strips were determined by penile strip chamber model and in penile perfusion model. Isolated endothelium-intact rabbit corpus cavernosum was precontracted with phenylephrine (PE) and then treated with ESB. Results. ESB relaxed penile smooth muscle in a dose-dependent manner, and this was inhibited by pre-treatment with NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), a nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor, and 1H-[1, 2, 4]-oxadiazolo-[4,3-α]-quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), a soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) inhibitor. ESB-induced relaxation was significantly attenuated by pretreatment with tetraethylammonium (TEA), a nonselective K+ channel blocker, and charybdotoxin, a selective Ca2+-dependent K+ channel inhibitor. ESB increased the cGMP levels of rabbit corpus cavernosum in a concentration-dependent manner without changes in cAMP levels. In a perfusion model of penile tissue, ESB also relaxed penile corpus cavernosum smooth muscle in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion. Taken together, these results suggest that ESB relaxed rabbit cavernous smooth muscle via the NO/cGMP system and Ca2+-sensitive K+ channels in the corpus cavernosum