Traveling EEG slow oscillation along the dorsal attention network initiates spontaneous perceptual switching

An ambiguous figure such as the Necker cube causes spontaneous perceptual switching (SPS). The mechanism of SPS in multistable perception has not yet been determined. Although early psychological studies suggested that SPS may be caused by fatigue or satiation of orientation, the neural mechanism of SPS is still unknown. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has shown that the dorsal attention network (DAN), which mainly controls voluntary attention, is involved in bistable perception of the Necker cube. To determine whether neural dynamics along the DAN cause SPS, we performed simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and fMRI during an SPS task with the Necker cube, with every SPS reported by pressing a button. This EEG–fMRI integrated analysis showed that (a) 3–4 Hz spectral EEG power modulation at fronto-central, parietal, and centro-parietal electrode sites sequentially appeared from 750 to 350 ms prior to the button press; and (b) activations correlating with the EEG modulation traveled along the DAN from the frontal to the parietal regions. These findings suggest that slow oscillation initiates SPS through global dynamics along the attentional system such as the DAN

CVIT expert consensus document on primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in 2018

While primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has significantly contributed to improve the mortality in patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction even in cardiogenic shock, primary PCI is a standard of care in most of Japanese institutions. Whereas there are high numbers of available facilities providing primary PCI in Japan, there are no clear guidelines focusing on procedural aspect of the standardized care. Whilst updated guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction were recently published by European Society of Cardiology, the following major changes are indicated; (1) radial access and drug-eluting stent over bare metal stent were recommended as Class I indication, and (2) complete revascularization before hospital discharge (either immediate or staged) is now considered as Class IIa recommendation. Although the primary PCI is consistently recommended in recent and previous guidelines, the device lag from Europe, the frequent usage of coronary imaging modalities in Japan, and the difference in available medical therapy or mechanical support may prevent direct application of European guidelines to Japanese population. The Task Force on Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention of the Japanese Association of Cardiovascular Intervention and Therapeutics (CVIT) has now proposed the expert consensus document for the management of acute myocardial infarction focusing on procedural aspect of primary PCI

EMPRESS. IX. Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies are Very Gas-Rich Dispersion-Dominated Systems: Will JWST Witness Gaseous Turbulent High-z Primordial Galaxies?

We present kinematics of 6 local extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) with low metallicities ($0.016-0.098\ Z_{\odot}$) and low stellar masses ($10^{4.7}-10^{7.6} M_{\odot}$). Taking deep medium-high resolution ($R\sim7500$) integral-field spectra with 8.2-m Subaru, we resolve the small inner velocity gradients and dispersions of the EMPGs with H$\alpha$ emission. Carefully masking out sub-structures originated by inflow and/or outflow, we fit 3-dimensional disk models to the observed H$\alpha$ flux, velocity, and velocity-dispersion maps. All the EMPGs show rotational velocities ($v_{\rm rot}$) of 5--23 km s$^{-1}$ smaller than the velocity dispersions ($\sigma_{0}$) of 17--31 km s$^{-1}$, indicating dispersion-dominated ($v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_{0}=0.29-0.80<1$) systems affected by inflow and/or outflow. Except for two EMPGs with large uncertainties, we find that the EMPGs have very large gas-mass fractions of $f_{\rm gas}\simeq 0.9-1.0$. Comparing our results with other H$\alpha$ kinematics studies, we find that $v_{\rm rot}/\sigma_{0}$ decreases and $f_{\rm gas}$ increases with decreasing metallicity, decreasing stellar mass, and increasing specific star-formation rate. We also find that simulated high-$z$ ($z\sim 7$) forming galaxies have gas fractions and dynamics similar to the observed EMPGs. Our EMPG observations and the simulations suggest that primordial galaxies are gas-rich dispersion-dominated systems, which would be identified by the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations at $z\sim 7$.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; After revisio

Application of layered poly (L-lactic acid) cell free scaffold in a rabbit rotator cuff defect model

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study evaluated the application of a layered cell free poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) scaffold to regenerate an infraspinatus tendon defect in a rabbit model. We hypothesized that PLLA scaffold without cultivated cells would lead to regeneration of tissue with mechanical properties similar to reattached infraspinatus without tendon defects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Layered PLLA fabric with a smooth surface on one side and a pile-finished surface on the other side was used. Novel form of layered PLLA scaffold was created by superimposing 2 PLLA fabrics. Defects of the infraspinatus tendon were created in 32 rabbits and the PLLA scaffolds were transplanted, four rabbits were used as normal control. Contralateral infraspinatus tendons were reattached to humeral head without scaffold implantation. Histological and mechanical evaluations were performed at 4, 8, and 16 weeks after operation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At 4 weeks postoperatively, cell migration was observed in the interstice of the PLLA fibers. Regenerated tissue was directly connected to the bone composed mainly of type III collagen, at 16 weeks postoperatively. The ultimate failure load increased in a time-dependent manner and no statistical difference was seen between normal infraspinatus tendon and scaffold group at 8 and 16 weeks postoperatively. There were no differences between scaffold group and reattach group at each time of point. The stiffness did not improve significantly in both groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A novel form of layered PLLA scaffold has the potential to induce cell migration into the scaffold and to bridge the tendon defect with mechanical properties similar to reattached infraspinatus tendon model.</p

Impurity emission characteristics of long pulse discharges in Large Helical Device

Line spectra from intrinsic impurity ions have been monitored during the three kinds of long-pulse discharges (ICH, ECH, NBI). Constant emission from the iron impurity shows no preferential accumulation of iron ion during the long-pulse operations. Stable Doppler ion temperature has been also measured from Fe XX, C V and C III spectra

Fermi Large Area Telescope Constraints on the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe

The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) includes photons with wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared, which are effective at attenuating gamma rays with energy above ~10 GeV during propagation from sources at cosmological distances. This results in a redshift- and energy-dependent attenuation of the gamma-ray flux of extragalactic sources such as blazars and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi detects a sample of gamma-ray blazars with redshift up to z~3, and GRBs with redshift up to z~4.3. Using photons above 10 GeV collected by Fermi over more than one year of observations for these sources, we investigate the effect of gamma-ray flux attenuation by the EBL. We place upper limits on the gamma-ray opacity of the Universe at various energies and redshifts, and compare this with predictions from well-known EBL models. We find that an EBL intensity in the optical-ultraviolet wavelengths as great as predicted by the "baseline" model of Stecker et al. (2006) can be ruled out with high confidence.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figures, accepted version (24 Aug.2010) for publication in ApJ; Contact authors: A. Bouvier, A. Chen, S. Raino, S. Razzaque, A. Reimer, L.C. Reye

Frontal-to-Parietal Top-Down Causal Streams along the Dorsal Attention Network Exclusively Mediate Voluntary Orienting of Attention

Previous effective connectivity analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have revealed dynamic causal streams along the dorsal attention network (DAN) during voluntary attentional control in the human brain. During resting state, however, fMRI has shown that the DAN is also intrinsically configured by functional connectivity, even in the absence of explicit task demands, and that may conflict with effective connectivity studies. To resolve this contradiction, we performed an effective connectivity analysis based on partial Granger causality (pGC) on event-related fMRI data during Posner's cueing paradigm while optimizing experimental and imaging parameters for pGC analysis. Analysis by pGC can factor out exogenous or latent influences due to unmeasured variables. Typical regions along the DAN with greater activation during orienting than withholding of attention were selected as regions of interest (ROIs). pGC analysis on fMRI data from the ROIs showed that frontal-to-parietal top-down causal streams along the DAN appeared during (voluntary) orienting, but not during other, less-attentive and/or resting-like conditions. These results demonstrate that these causal streams along the DAN exclusively mediate voluntary covert orienting. These findings suggest that neural representations of attention in frontal regions are at the top of the hierarchy of the DAN for embodying voluntary attentional control

Distribution and Effects of Nonsense Polymorphisms in Human Genes

BACKGROUND: A great amount of data has been accumulated on genetic variations in the human genome, but we still do not know much about how the genetic variations affect gene function. In particular, little is known about the distribution of nonsense polymorphisms in human genes despite their drastic effects on gene products. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To detect polymorphisms affecting gene function, we analyzed all publicly available polymorphisms in a database for single nucleotide polymorphisms (dbSNP build 125) located in the exons of 36,712 known and predicted protein-coding genes that were defined in an annotation project of all human genes and transcripts (H-InvDB ver3.8). We found a total of 252,555 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 8,479 insertion and deletions in the representative transcripts in these genes. The SNPs located in ORFs include 40,484 synonymous and 53,754 nonsynonymous SNPs, and 1,258 SNPs that were predicted to be nonsense SNPs or read-through SNPs. We estimated the density of nonsense SNPs to be 0.85x10(-3) per site, which is lower than that of nonsynonymous SNPs (2.1x10(-3) per site). On average, nonsense SNPs were located 250 codons upstream of the original termination codon, with the substitution occurring most frequently at the first codon position. Of the nonsense SNPs, 581 were predicted to cause nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) of transcripts that would prevent translation. We found that nonsense SNPs causing NMD were more common in genes involving kinase activity and transport. The remaining 602 nonsense SNPs are predicted to produce truncated polypeptides, with an average truncation of 75 amino acids. In addition, 110 read-through SNPs at termination codons were detected. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our comprehensive exploration of nonsense polymorphisms showed that nonsense SNPs exist at a lower density than nonsynonymous SNPs, suggesting that nonsense mutations have more severe effects than amino acid changes. The correspondence of nonsense SNPs to known pathological variants suggests that phenotypic effects of nonsense SNPs have been reported for only a small fraction of nonsense SNPs, and that nonsense SNPs causing NMD are more likely to be involved in phenotypic variations. These nonsense SNPs may include pathological variants that have not yet been reported. These data are available from Transcript View of H-InvDB and VarySysDB (http://h-invitational.jp/varygene/)

Recent Results from LHD Experiment with Emphasis on Relation to Theory from Experimentalist’s View

he Large Helical Device (LHD) has been extending an operational regime of net-current free plasmas towardsthe fusion relevant condition with taking advantage of a net current-free heliotron concept and employing a superconducting coil system. Heating capability has exceeded 10 MW and the central ion and electron temperatureshave reached 7 and 10 keV, respectively. The maximum value of β and pulse length have been extended to 3.2% and 150 s, respectively. Many encouraging physical findings have been obtained. Topics from recent experiments, which should be emphasized from the aspect of theoretical approaches, are reviewed. Those are (1) Prominent features in the inward shifted configuration, i.e., mitigation of an ideal interchange mode in the configuration with magnetic hill, and confinement improvement due to suppression of both anomalous and neoclassical transport, (2) Demonstration ofbifurcation of radial electric field and associated formation of an internal transport barrier, and (3) Dynamics of magnetic islands and clarification of the role of separatrix