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Focal brain cooling (FBC) is under investigation in preclinical trials of intractable epilepsy (IE), including status epilepticus (SE). This method has been studied in rodents as a possible treatment for epileptic disorders, but more evidence from large animal studies is required. To provide evidence that FBC is a safe and effective therapy for IE, we investigated if FBC using a titanium cooling plate can reduce or terminate focal neocortical seizures without having a significant impact on brain tissue. Two cats and two macaque monkeys were chronically implanted with an epidural FBC device over the somatosensory and motor cortex. Penicillin G was delivered via the intracranial cannula for induction of local seizures. Repetitive FBC was performed using a cooling device implanted for a medium-term period (FBC for 30min at least twice every week; 3 months total) in three of the four animals. The animals exhibited seizures with repetitive epileptiform discharges (EDs) after administration of penicillin G, and these discharges decreased at less than 20°C cooling with no adverse histological effects. The results of this study suggest that epidural FBC is a safe and effective potential treatment for IE and SE.

Both severe calcified lesions and hemodialysis (HD) are predictors for high rates of restenosis, even in the drug-eluting stent era. We sought to investigate the angiographic and clinical outcome in a population of HD versus non-hemodialysis (non-HD) patients with severe calcified lesions requiring rotational atherectomy. One hundred consecutive lesions (28 lesions in the HD group, 72 in the non-HD group) from 82 patients (19 patients in the HD group, 63 in the non-HD group) requiring rotational atherectomy prior to sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantation were analyzed post-procedure and at 8 months. Clinical outcomes were assessed at 12 months. Inclusion criteria were calcified lesions with >270° of superficial calcification on the intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), lesions that the IVUS could not cross, or undilatable lesions. There were no differences in patient characteristics except for age. Although both baseline and post-procedure angiographic findings were similar between the two groups, late loss in stented segment was significantly greater in the HD group than in the non-HD group (HD vs. non-HD: 0.69 ± 0.74 mm vs. 0.34 ± 0.50; P = 0.030). Also, the HD group revealed significantly worse clinical outcomes. In conclusion, mid-term results of highly complex, severely calcified lesions requiring rotational atherectomy in non-HD patients were permissible as compared to on-label lesions. However, in HD patients, both angiographic and clinical outcomes were still suboptimal in this lesion subset, even using SES.

Genetic algorithm (GA) is search algorithm based on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics. By the way, hardware accelerators for GA are required to reduce an execution time of GA. In the hardware implementation of GA, a circuit design of roulette wheel selection influences the performance of the GA hardware. In this paper, we propose a new roulette wheel selection circuit based on a rough comparison method (RCM), and evaluate effects of the proposed circuit in terms of the execution time and a circuit size.

A 2−r shape of a membership function generator is presented. The proposed membership function generator requires a bit-shifter and a NOR operation only, and thus suits digital hardware implementation well. A fast defuzzification method employing active units is also presented. It reduces a calculation cost for the defuzzification. In this paper, we have successfully applied proposed methods to a self-organizing relationship network. Simulation results show that the proposed method has as good and approximation ability of nonlinear functions as the ordinary method.

Teaching every action to a mobile robot is generally impossible; hence, an autonomous mobile robot is desired. A crucial issue here is to find a mechanism by which a mobile robot becomes autonomous. A promising approach to this end, we believe, is brain-inspired technologies such as a modular network SOM (mnSOM). We briefly present various research results, focusing as a prototype on a task segmentation of a mobile robot based on sensory and motor signals.

The brain, especially the hypothalamo–limbic system, regulates adaptive mechanisms to preserve individuals and species responding to environmental changes through controlling behaviors, visceral functions and higher cognitive functions. The behavioral and visceral outputs induced by hypothalamic actions are evaluated by the limbic system, which induces emotion. Lateral hypothalamic glucose-sensitive neurons produce orexin-A and -B and send fibers to the diverse brain areas, including the limbic system and monoamine systems. A microinjection of orexin-A into the limbic system modulates feeding, exploratory behavior, emotion, learning and memory, suggesting its heterogeneous functions. The brain-inspired information technology based on analyses of neural mechanisms to control motivation and emotion provides good insight in developing emotion detecting and behavior controlling systems. Even simple models based on the brain systems show dynamic properties of complex adaptive control of homeostatic functions.

In this paper, a model of behavior emergence with curiosities is proposed. The proposed model is applied to an agent in “Optimal Patch Use Problem”. The curious agent dynamically changes its action strategy, according to its degree of satiation and its environment at a given point in time. The agent efficiently searches for food by virtue of its diversive and specific curiosities. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified in simulations.

A cobalt-N-heterocyclic carbene catalyst generated from CoBr2 , imidazolium salt, and cyclohexylmagnesium bromide was found to promote the imine-directed C2-alkylation of indoles with nonconjugated arylalkenes through a tandem alkene isomerization-hydroarylation process, affording 1,1-diarylalkanes with exclusive regioselectivity. The feasibility of the tandem catalysis was demonstrated for allyl-, homoallyl-, and bishomoallylbenzene derivatives. The catalytic system is also applicable to a variety of β-substituted styrene derivatives. Mechanistic experiments using deuterium-labeled indole substrate and Grignard reagent provided insight into the cobalt-mediated C-H activation step, which likely involves exchange of the C2-hydrogen atom of the former and the β-hydrogen atoms of the latter.

A cobalt–N-heterocyclic carbene catalytic system promotes pyridine-directed olefinic C–H alkylation reactions using a variety of primary and secondary alkyl chlorides under mild conditions. Radical clock experiments suggest that the reaction involves single-electron transfer from the cobalt intermediate to the alkyl chloride.

An iron–N-heterocyclic carbene catalyst generated from an iron(III) salt, an imidazolinium salt, and a Grignard reagent promotes alkylation and alkenylation reactions at the indole C2-position with vinylarenes and internal alkynes, respectively, via imine-directed C–H activation. The former reaction affords 1,1-diarylalkane derivatives with exclusive regioselectivity. Deuterium-labeling experiments suggest that these reactions involve oxidative addition of the C–H bond to the iron center, insertion of the unsaturated bond into the Fe–H bond, and C–C reductive elimination.

Aryl imines, 2-arylpyridine, and related N-heterocycles are selectively monoalkylated using alkyl halides in the presence of Co/N-heterocyclic carbene catalytic systems.

A Self-Organizing Relationship Network (SORN) can approximate the desirable input/output (I/O) relationship of a target system from not only good examples but also bad ones. The learning of SORN is achieved with employing the soft-max adaptation rule of Self-Organizing Maps (SOM). In this paper, we simplify the learning law by employing the soft-max adaptation rule of Neural Gas Network. This modification improves the approximation performances and lightens burdens imposed on a network designer in the design process of SORN.

In this paper, we propose a new updating method considering usability of each element of inputs and apply it to the reproduction of the GA to achieve more effective search than the traditional reproduction. In the proposed updating method, the order of updating elements is decided by averaging the corresponding elements multiplied by fitness values of the chromosomes. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed updating method, the GA with the modified reproduction is applied to 0–1 knapsack problem.

In this paper, a feedback adaptive subspace self-organizing map (FASSOM) which is a hybrid system of feedback SOM (FSOM) and adaptive subspace SOM (ASSOM) is proposed. The FSOM has an ability of classification of spatio-temporal patterns, and classification by the FSOM is robust for expansion and contraction of patterns. The ASSOM facilitates robust pattern classification even when the patterns are shifted. The FASSOM inherits these merits of ASSOM and FSOM. The effectiveness of the FASSOM is verified by applying it to spatio-temporal pattern classification problems.

We survey swarm intelligence from microorganisms (bacteria phenol/genotypes of Myxococcus xanthus , and marine light quorum sensing in V. fischeri ) to colonizing insects (ants, bees, termites) and flocking animals (pelicans). All seem to rely on some sensors for communication including local chemical pheromone secretions. We conclude that swarming robots prefer to operate at the equilibrium, at minimum free energy H = E − T o S , in cases of truly unsupervised learning among teammates without constant attention of human master.

In this paper, the self-organizing relationship (SOR) network with fuzzy inference-based evaluation is proposed. The SOR network can extract a desired I/O relationship using I/O vector pairs and their evaluations. The evaluation values have to be given as quantitative values; however, in many applications as it is difficult to calculate the evaluation value using simple evaluation. We propose the SOR network in which the evaluation values are calculated using fuzzy inference. The proposed system is applied to design the trailer truck backup controller.

ortho-Alkenylation of a variety of aromatic aldimines with internal alkynes is developed using a catalyst generated from CoBr2, triarylphosphine and iPrMgBr.

Various polysubstituted dihydropyridine derivatives are synthesized by the title reaction under mild conditions.

To elucidate a relationship between changes in focal brain temperature and severity of abnormal brain activity, epileptiform discharges and behavioral seizures were induced by Penicillin G in anesthetized rats, and focal brain-temperature was measured. Penicillin G was injected into the right primary sensorimotor cortex (400 IU/μl). After the injection, epileptiform discharges induced a temperature increase gradually by 0.65 ± 0.24 °C. Moreover, when behavioral seizures were induced by reducing the anesthesia level, the temperature was raised by 0.26 ± 0.22 °C. These results suggest that elevation of the focal brain temperature is associated with the severity of epileptic activity.

Title reactions proceed with complete ortho-selectivity in the presence of an iron—diamine catalyst and dichloro-2-methylpropane as an oxidant under mild conditions within short reaction times.

Substitution reactions of acetals with carbon nucleophiles are fundamental and conventional organic reactions. We succeeded in the preparation of an optically active acetal, which reacted with a silyl enol ether smoothly to afford the desired adducts in racemic forms. By comparison of the ees of the products with the ees of the recovered acetals, we concluded that the aldol-type reactions proceeded not via direct displacement (SN2) or contact ion pairs (intimate ion pair) (SN1) but by a free oxocarbenium ion (SN1) mechanism. Next, a study to achieve asymmetric catalysis of the acetal substitution reactions was conducted. After many trials, it was found that a chiral niobium complex prepared from pentamethoxyniobium [Nb(OMe)5] and a tetradentate BINOL derivative could achieve high enantioselectivities. Asymmetric aldol-type reactions of acetals with silyl enol ethers proceeded smoothly to afford the corresponding aldol-type adducts in good yields with high enantioselectivities.

BACKGROUNDS AND METHODS: A higher degree of clinical efficacy with olmesartan compared with other angiotensin receptor blockers, has been reported by several sources. In this study of 31 examples of cases of essential hypertension, Holter electrocardiogram, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements were performed before and after substituting olmesartan 20 mg for candesartan 8 mg antihypertensive drug therapy.Following the therapeutic change, daily average systolic and diastolic blood pressures were decreased by 6.7 +/- 9.3 mmHg and 3.6 +/- 8.3 mmHg, respectively, with olmesartan 20 mg; PWV was also significantly decreased. Holter electrocardiogram heart rate variability spectral analysis demonstrated that none of the very low frequency (VLF), high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF)/HF components were significantly altered. However, a significant correlation was observed between the LF/HF component and blood pressure difference, when blood pressure and heart rate variability components in each individual case were studied.This study shows that olmesartan has a stronger antihypertensive effect in comparison to candesartan, and does not generate reflex sympathoexcitatory activity.

This paper describes an identification method of a landmark in a roentgenographic cephalogram by employing the input-correlated wavelet neurons. For the purpose of improvement of identification precision, a novel pattern matching method, named "wavelet neuron matching (WNM)," is proposed in this paper. Furthermore, the "weighted window", which is proposed in this paper, enables us to consider the orthodontists' knowledge on local information as precisely as possible. The effectiveness and the validity of the proposed method have been verified by the experiments to identify a landmark called Menton.

In this tutorial, the utility of a fuzzy system is demonstrated by providing a broad overview, emphasizing analog mode hardware, along with a discussion of the author's original work. First, the difference between deterministic words and fuzzy words is explained as well as fuzzy logic. The description of the system using mathematical equations, linguistic rules, or parameter distributions (e.g., neural networks) is discussed. Fuzzy inference and defuzzification algorithms are presented, and their hardware implementation is discussed. The fuzzy logic controller was used to stabilize a glass with wine balanced on a finger and a mouse moving around a plate on the tip of an inverted pendulum. >

It is essential technique to accurately localize a signal source in a brain for successful surgery of intractable epilepsy patients. In order to improve the accuracy of the localization, in this paper, we will introduce a localizing method by using Self-Organnizing Relationship (SOR) network. The SOR network has a feature of realizing an approximation of a desirable input/output relationship of a target system. We think that the feature can be also applied the signal source localizing.

This paper describes a fuzzy sets method which is very useful for handling uncertainties and essential for knowledge acquisition of a human expert. Kinetics of a reactor is often complex and not trivial to describe by mathematical equations. Reactor control by traditional control technology is therefore difficult. A novel technology is presented. In the following a fuzzy inference (approximate reasoning) is used for decision making in analogy to human thinking, facilitating a more sophisticated control. Readers of this paper do not need any advanced mathematics beyond the four basic operations in arithmetic (+,−, ×, ÷) and using the maximum and minimum values. This fuzzy inference is introduced to construct a fuzzy logic controller which is suitable for a nonlinear, multivariable and time variant system applied to a bioreactor.

Bilirubin and its photoisomers in the biological fluids of a hyperbilirubinaemic newborn infant before and during phototherapy were analyzed by a recently improved HPLC method. In the serum, the percentages of (EZ)- and (ZE)-bilirubin in the total bilirubin concentration before phototherapy were approximately 10% and on average increased over 1.5-fold at 2 h after initiation of phototherapy. The percentage of the (EZ)-cyclobilirubin in the serum bilirubin was under 1%. In the bile, the mean concentration of (ZZ)-bilirubin, derived mainly from (ZE)-bilirubin, nearly tripled during phototherapy. The (EZ)-cyclobilirubin concentration in the bile was very low before phototherapy, increased nearly ten-fold at 3 h after initiation of phototherapy, and was 5- to 6-fold as high as that of (ZZ)-bilirubin. In the urine, upon exposure to light, the urinary concentration of (EZ)-cyclobilirubin is apparently equivalent to half of the biliary concentration of (ZZ)-bilirubin and one-fifth of that of (EZ)-cyclobilirubin. It was concluded that during phototherapy of neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia the structural photoisomer [(EZ)-cyclobilirubin] predominates considerably over the geometric photoisomer [(ZE)-bilirubin].