Comparison of cerebral activation between motor execution and motor imagery of self-feeding activity

Motor imagery is defined as an act wherein an individual contemplates a mental action of motor execution without apparent action.Mental practice executed by repetitive motor imagery can improve motor performance without simultaneous sensory input or overt output.We aimed to investigate cerebral hemodynamics during motor imagery and motor execution of a self-feeding activity using chopsticks.This study included 21 healthy right-handed volunteers.The self-feeding activity task comprised either motor imagery or motor execution of eating sliced cucumber pickles with chopsticks to examine eight regions of interest:pre-supplementary motor area,supplementary motor area,bilateral prefrontal cortex,premotor area,and sensorimotor cortex.The mean oxyhemoglobin levels were detected using near-infrared spectroscopy to reflect cerebral activation.The mean oxyhemoglobin levels during motor execution were significantly higher in the left sensorimotor cortex than in the supplementary motor area and the left premotor area.Moreover,significantly higher oxyhemoglobin levels were detected in the supplementary motor area and the left premotor area during motor imagery,compared to motor execution.Supplementary motor area and premotor area had important roles in the motor imagery of self-feeding activity.Moreover,the activation levels of the supplementary motor area and the premotor area during motor execution and motor imagery are likely affected by intentional cognitive processes.Levels of cerebral activation differed in some areas during motor execution and motor imagery of a self-feeding activity.This study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Nagasaki University(approval No.18110801)on December 10,2018.

A method for using video presentation to increase the vividness and activity of cortical regions during motor imagery tasks

In recent years,mental practice(MP)using laterally inverted video of a subject’s non-paralyzed upper limb to improve the vividness of presented motor imagery(MI)has been shown to be effective for improving the function of a paralyzed upper limb.However,no studies have yet assessed the activity of cortical regions engaged during MI task performance using inverse video presentations and neurophysiological indicators.This study sought to investigate changes in MI vividness and hemodynamic changes in the cerebral cortex during MI performance under the following three conditions in near-infrared spectroscopy:MI-only without inverse video presentation(MI-only),MI with action observation(AO)of an inverse video presentation of another person’s hand(AO+MI(other hand)),and MI with AO of an inverse video presentation of a participant’s own hand(AO+MI(own hand)).Participants included 66 healthy right-handed adults(41 men and 25 women;mean age:26.3±4.3 years).There were 23 patients in the MI-only group(mean age:26.4±4.1 years),20 in the AO+MI(other hand)group(mean age:25.9±5.0 years),and 23 in the AO+MI(own hand)group(mean age:26.9±4.1 years).The MI task involved transferring 1 cm×1 cm blocks from one plate to another,once per second,using chopsticks held in the non-dominant hand.Based on a visual analog scale(VAS),MI vividness was significantly higher in the AO+MI(own hand)group than in the MI-only group and the AO+MI(other hand)group.A main effect of condition was revealed in terms of MI vividness,as well as regions of interest(ROIs)in certain brain areas associated with motor processing.The data suggest that inverse video presentation of a person’s own hand enhances the MI vividness and increases the activity of motor-related cortical areas during MI.This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences(approval No.18121303)on January 18,2019.

Providing Infectious Disease Information to Child-Rearing Families and Its Evaluation

Background: Earlier study without actual trial indicated that caregivers needed delivery of information about outbreak situations independently of their job status. This report describes, for about two months in winter, actual delivery outbreak information to families with preschool children. The study objective was to confirm the usefulness of this information delivery. Method: Participants receiving outbreak information were recruited from the Child Care Support Service in a ward in Tokyo, Japan. Outbreak information was obtained from the Nursery School Absenteeism Surveillance System (NSASSy) covering approximately 40% of all nursery schools in Japan, prescription surveillance and other resources. Delivery of outbreak information started in December 2017 and ceased at the end of February in 2018. After the delivery period, a questionnaire survey was administered to participants. Results: For this area, NSASSy showed the most dominant disease was influenza, with 707 patients, followed by group A streptococcal pharyngitis with 98 patients. The outbreak peak was inferred to be as Monday, 22 January, and it was announced by e-mail on 23 January. Of the 202 persons joined this trial, 60 participants responded to the questionnaire survey after the delivery period. Of those respondents, 98% wanted delivery of that information to continue. Conclusion: We found that almost all respondents confirmed usefulness of the information about infectious diseases which was delivered.

Does Family with Children Need Information about Infectious Disease?

This paper reports a study of the necessity of providing information that is of the most concern of caregivers: health management, responses to sudden onset, and outbreaks of infectious diseases. We asked users and providers of Child Care Support Service in ward A of Tokyo, as respondents, whether they would like to receive information related to infectious diseases. Of questionnaires sent by mail to 383 providers and 3101 users, we received 18 responses from providers and 88 responses from users. All providers and users were required to provide information related to infectious diseases. The most often reported responses were “straight-out hand washing, mask wearing, gargling, and disinfection”, followed by “voluntary restraint of outside activities”, and “measures for illnesses of the family or children.” Results show that caregivers would like to receive information about infectious diseases because they have many health management concerns about their children.

Expression of Genes Related to Glycolysis in the Liver and Skeletal Muscle of Rats after Citric Acid Administration

Citric acid is known to alleviate physical fatigue and improve athletic performance;however, the underlying mechanism is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of citric acid administration on the expression of key glycolysis-related genes in the liver and skeletal muscle of rats. Eight-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into two groups—control and citric acid groups. The rats were fasted overnight, after which distilled water or citric acid solution was administered intragastrically;after 150 min, the rats were sacrificed, and the liver and skeletal muscle were collected. In the skeletal muscle, namely soleus and gastrocnemius muscles, the phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase gene expression were significantly decreased by citric acid administration. In contrast, the glucokinase and pyruvate kinase gene expression in the liver was significantly increased. These results suggest that exogenous dietary citric acid suppresses glycolysis in the skeletal muscle at the transcription level.

Double Crossover Points in the DFA of Heartbeats in Patients with Sleep Apnea

Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events have been observed during night-time associated with periodic breathing including sleep apnea and Cheyne-Stokes respiration. Early detection and treatment is important to reduce night-time events. We clarified the characteristics of the dynamic nature of heartbeats associated with periodic breathing by using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). We analyzed heartbeats in eight recordings from the MIT-BIH Polysomnographic database. We observed two crossover points and defined three scaling exponents, β1 (n ≤ 40 beats), β2 (50 ≤ n ≤ 200), and β3 (251 ≤ n ≤ 1584). Compared with β1 (1.21 ± 0.13) and β3 (0.92 ± 0.16), scaling exponent β2 (0.62 ± 0.16) showed the statistically lowest value (p 0.05). And there was a negative relationship between the scaling exponent β2 and apnea/hypopnea index (p 0.05). These results indicate that DFA analysis of heartbeats may be useful for the early detection of sleep associated breathing disorders including sleep apnea and its severity.

Performance of Rural Municipalities After the 2015 Reformation of Long-Term Care Insurance in Japan

Worldwide,welfare is trending from a welfare state model to social participation to ensure the sustainability of health care systems.Japan,where the aging rate will reach 40%by 2060,reformed public Long-Term Care Insurance(LTCI)on a large scale in 2015 and started the Comprehensive Service project(CS project),which emphasizes the prevention of long-term care through social participation in the community.Through this project,communities work to develop prevention efforts revolving around the community salon/caféand mutual support,including all daily tasks that previously were the purview of family members.Each municipality has an obligation to promote a CS project through new community development initiatives among community members.The purpose of this study is to investigate the CS projects performed by rural municipalities and to explore the important factors for their success.The authors used a case study methodology and constant comprehensive methodology for analyzing interview data to pull out the elements of successful initiatives.The study shows that the following factors influence success:recognition of demographic risk,recognition of the ineffectiveness of LTCI services,developing a passionate philosophy and strategy as a municipality,developing community members’initiative,and having many assets and full participation in the community.These factors imply that community development is a critical part of any successful CS project.

Λc重子谱疑难(英文)

Λ_c+重子家族存在一个疑难,也就是重夸克有效理论预言的轨道角动量为L=2的多重态中的态在实验上是缺失的,而且已发现的Λ_c(2765)+和Λ_c(2940)+的JP量子数仍然未知。在本工作中,我们使用双夸克图像计算了重子的质量,研究了Λ_c(2765)+和Λ_c(2940)+的可能归类以及仍缺失的具有L=2和量子数的Λ_c+态,进而指出Λ_c(2880)+的峰结构中实际上已经包含了L=2、这一缺失态,并建议Λ_c(2765)+和Λ_c(2940)+的量子数应分别为2S(1/2+)和2P(1/2-)。

Estimating the production rates of D-wave charmed mesons via the semileptonic decays of bottom mesons

Using the covariant light-front approach with conventional vertex functions, we estimate the production rates of D-wave charmed/charmed-strange mesons via the B_((s)) semileptonic decays. As the calculated production rates are significant, it seems possible to experimentally search for D-wave charmed/charmed-strange mesons via semileptonic decays, which may provide an additional approach for exploring D-wave charmed/charmed-strange mesons.

Derivation of a 1/r^2 potential term for Q in a potential model

We clarify the difference among potential models so far proposed to explain mass spectra of heavylight mesons via transformations of the vacuum.Applying our idea to QQ quarkonium,we obtain the extra term,1/r ^2 with positive coefficient,other than non-relativistic potential terms expected for quarkonium.

Interpretation of Z_b(10610) and Z_b(10650) in the ISPE mechanism and the Charmonium Counterpart

The initial single pion emission （ISPE） mechanism is applied to the processes r（5S）→πB（＊）B-（＊）, whose details have been recently reported at ICHEP2012, and we obtain reasonable agreement with Bell＇s measurements; that is, we succeed in reproducing the enhancement structures of Zb（10610） and Zb（10650）. Inspired by this success, we also predict the corresponding enhancement structures in open charm oue-pion decays of higher charmonia near the thresholds of D＊D- and D＊D-＊.