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A 61-channel superconducting quantum interference device-based MEG measurement system cooled by a hybrid Gifford-McMahon/Joule-Thomson cryocooler has been fabricated. The system is capable of conforming to a human head due to the 61-channels of axial gradiometers arranged on a spherical surface. The system was demonstrated by applying it for faint biomagnetic field measurements of the human brain.

The design, construction and characterization of a superconducting magnet built for superconducting magnetic energy storage are presented. The magnet, which consists of 18 double-pancake type coils, has a pulse-discharge speed of 10T/s and a transport current of 350 A. It has also undergone charge-discharge tests and forced-deenergizing tests to quantify its insulation, cooling, mechanical strenth and quench properties.

We have developed a new, to the best of our knowledge, beam swinging coherent Doppler wind lidar (BS-CDWL) by employing a wavelength switching method using mass-produced components for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical communication systems. This BS-CDWL also has a single and position-to-angle conversion telescope for multiple LOS measurement which contributes to cost-effectiveness. Preliminary wind sensing result is shown with measurable range of up to 350 m.

Background/aim: Sarcopenia is a progressive and generalized muscle disorder correlated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including falls, fractures, physical disability and mortality. Moreover, sarcopenia is associated with short- and long-term outcomes after surgery in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. Additionally, severe skeletal muscle loss after surgery reduces quality of life. In this study, we analyzed the perioperative risk factors for skeletal muscle loss after gastrectomy in elderly patients undergoing radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer., Patients and Methods: In this case-control study, we enrolled patients aged ≥75 years who underwent radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer between January 2014 and December 2020 at our Institution. The psoas muscle index was used to assess skeletal muscle mass. They were divided into two groups-muscle depletion (D group) and no depletion (ND group)-depending on the ratio of skeletal muscle loss before and after gastrectomy., Results: The D and ND groups comprised 34 and 41 patients, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that open gastrectomy was a potential risk factor for postoperative skeletal muscle loss in elderly gastric cancer patients (p=0.017). In multiple logistic regression analysis using the following variables: sex, operation and approach, the D group had a significantly higher proportion of patients who underwent open surgery than the ND group (p=0.032)., Conclusion: Open gastrectomy is an independent risk factor for the progression of sarcopenia after gastrectomy in elderly patients with gastric cancer. Laparoscopic surgery is an eligible method for preserving skeletal muscle mass in elderly patients with gastric cancer., (Copyright © 2023 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)

T cells are a critical component of the response to SARS-CoV-2, but their kinetics after infection and vaccination are insufficiently understood. Using "spheromer" peptide-MHC multimer reagents, we analyzed healthy subjects receiving two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine. Vaccination resulted in robust spike-specific T cell responses for the dominant CD4 + (HLA-DRB1 ∗ 15:01/S191) and CD8 + (HLA-A ∗ 02/S691) T cell epitopes. Antigen-specific CD4 + and CD8 + T cell responses were asynchronous, with the peak CD4 + T cell responses occurring 1 week post the second vaccination (boost), whereas CD8 + T cells peaked 2 weeks later. These peripheral T cell responses were elevated compared with COVID-19 patients. We also found that previous SARS-CoV-2 infection resulted in decreased CD8 + T cell activation and expansion, suggesting that previous infection can influence the T cell response to vaccination., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests V.M. and M.M.D. are inventors on a patent application (PCT/US2021/064378) on the spheromer technology described in this work., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, novel and traditional vaccine strategies have been deployed globally. We investigated whether antibodies stimulated by mRNA vaccination (BNT162b2), including third-dose boosting, differ from those generated by infection or adenoviral (ChAdOx1-S and Gam-COVID-Vac) or inactivated viral (BBIBP-CorV) vaccines. We analyzed human lymph nodes after infection or mRNA vaccination for correlates of serological differences. Antibody breadth against viral variants is lower after infection compared with all vaccines evaluated but improves over several months. Viral variant infection elicits variant-specific antibodies, but prior mRNA vaccination imprints serological responses toward Wuhan-Hu-1 rather than variant antigens. In contrast to disrupted germinal centers (GCs) in lymph nodes during infection, mRNA vaccination stimulates robust GCs containing vaccine mRNA and spike antigen up to 8 weeks postvaccination in some cases. SARS-CoV-2 antibody specificity, breadth, and maturation are affected by imprinting from exposure history and distinct histological and antigenic contexts in infection compared with vaccination., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests S.D.B. has consulted for Regeneron, Sanofi, Novartis, and Janssen on topics unrelated to this study and owns stock in AbCellera Biologics. K.C.N. reports grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), End Allergies Together (EAT), National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). K.C.N. is Director of FARE and World Allergy Organization (WAO) Center of Excellence at Stanford; Adviser at Cour Pharmaceuticals; Cofounder of Before Brands, Alladapt, Latitude, and IgGenix; National Scientific Committee member for the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) of NIAID; recipient of a Research Sponsorship from Nestle; Consultant and Advisory Board Member at Before Brands, Alladapt, IgGenix, NHLBI, and ProBio; and Data and Safety Monitoring Board member at NHLBI. J.L.W., J.N.W., and G.B.S. are employees of Meso Scale Diagnostics (MSD)., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Different SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are approved in various countries, but few direct comparisons of the antibody responses they stimulate have been reported. We collected plasma specimens in July 2021 from 196 Mongolian participants fully vaccinated with one of four COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, and Sinopharm. Functional antibody testing with a panel of nine SARS-CoV-2 viral variant receptor binding domain (RBD) proteins revealed marked differences in vaccine responses, with low antibody levels and RBD-ACE2 blocking activity stimulated by the Sinopharm and Sputnik V vaccines in comparison to the AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. The Alpha variant caused 97% of infections in Mongolia in June and early July 2021. Individuals who recover from SARS-CoV-2 infection after vaccination achieve high antibody titers in most cases. These data suggest that public health interventions such as vaccine boosting, potentially with more potent vaccine types, may be needed to control COVID-19 in Mongolia and worldwide., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests S.D.B. has consulted for Regeneron, Sanofi, and Novartis on topics unrelated to this study and owns stock in AbCellera Biologics; B.P. and P.S.A. are inventors on a provisional patent application (no. 63/026,577) submitted by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA, that covers the use of “Therapeutic Methods for Treating COVID-19 Infections”; B.P. serves on the External Immunology Network of GSK and on the Scientific Advisory Board of Medicago and Boehringer Ingelheim; and K.C.N. reports grants from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), End Allergies Together (EAT), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). K.C.N. is Director of FARE and World Allergy Organization (WAO) Center of Excellence at Stanford, Advisor at Cour Pharmaceuticals, Cofounder of Before Brands, Alladapt, Latitude, and IgGenix, National Scientific Committee member for the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) of NIAID, recipient of a Research Sponsorship from Nestle, Consultant and Advisory Board Member at Before Brands, Alladapt, IgGenix, NHLBI, and ProBio, and Data and Safety Monitoring Board member at NHLBI; R.S. Chinthrajah receives grant support from CoFAR National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Aimmune, DBV Technologies, Astellas, AnaptysBio, Novartis, and Regeneron and is an advisory board member for Alladapt Immunotherapeutics Inc., Novartis, and Genentech. J.L.W., J.N.W., and G.B.S. are employees of Meso Scale Diagnostics (MSD). The rest of the authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to this manuscript., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Vaccination and infection promote the formation, tissue distribution, and clonal evolution of B cells, which encode humoral immune memory. We evaluated pediatric and adult blood and deceased adult organ donor tissues to determine convergent antigen-specific antibody genes of similar sequences shared between individuals. B cell memory varied for different pathogens. Polysaccharide antigen-specific clones were not exclusive to the spleen. Adults had higher clone frequencies and greater class switching in lymphoid tissues than blood, while pediatric blood had abundant class-switched convergent clones. Consistent with reported serology, prepandemic children had class-switched convergent clones to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 with weak cross-reactivity to other coronaviruses, while adult blood or tissues showed few such clones. These results highlight the prominence of early childhood B cell clonal expansions and cross-reactivity for future responses to novel pathogens., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

During the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, new vaccine strategies including lipid nanoparticle delivery of antigen encoding RNA have been deployed globally. The BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 encoding SARS-CoV-2 spike protein shows 95% efficacy in preventing disease, but it is unclear how the antibody responses to vaccination differ from those generated by infection. Here we compare the magnitude and breadth of antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, and endemic coronaviruses, in vaccinees and infected patients. We find that vaccination differs from infection in the dominance of IgG over IgM and IgA responses, with IgG reaching levels similar to those of severely ill COVID-19 patients and shows decreased breadth of the antibody response targeting endemic coronaviruses. Viral variants of concern from B.1.1.7 to P.1 to B.1.351 form a remarkably consistent hierarchy of progressively decreasing antibody recognition by both vaccinees and infected patients exposed to Wuhan-Hu-1 antigens., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests S.D.B. has consulted for Regeneron, Sanofi, and Novartis on topics unrelated to this study, and owns stock in AbCellera Biologics. K.C.N. reports grants from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), End Allergies Together (EAT); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). K.C.N. is Director of FARE and World Allergy Organization (WAO) Center of Excellence at Stanford; Advisor at Cour Pharmaceuticals; Cofounder of Before Brands, Alladapt, Latitude, and IgGenix; National Scientific Committee member for the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) of NIAID; recipient of a Research Sponsorship from Nestle; Consultant and Advisory Board Member at Before Brands, Alladapt, IgGenix, NHLBI, and ProBio; and Data and Safety Monitoring Board member at NHLBI.

B cells in human food allergy have been studied predominantly in the blood. Little is known about IgE + B cells or plasma cells in tissues exposed to dietary antigens. We characterized IgE + clones in blood, stomach, duodenum, and esophagus of 19 peanut-allergic patients, using high-throughput DNA sequencing. IgE + cells in allergic patients are enriched in stomach and duodenum, and have a plasma cell phenotype. Clonally related IgE + and non-IgE-expressing cell frequencies in tissues suggest local isotype switching, including transitions between IgA and IgE isotypes. Highly similar antibody sequences specific for peanut allergen Ara h 2 are shared between patients, indicating that common immunoglobulin genetic rearrangements may contribute to pathogenesis. These data define the gastrointestinal tract as a reservoir of IgE + B lineage cells in food allergy., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Monochromatic elliptically polarized (CP) ultrashort extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source with higher ellipticity than 0.80 is developed for the investigation of molecular chirality and electromagnetic phenomena. Elliptically polarized 47-nm high harmonic (HH) is monochromatized from the comb spectrum of HHs by a time-delay compensated monochromator (TDCM) consisting of a pair of Pt-coated toroidal gratings. The ellipticity of EUV light, which is higher than 0.10 at high harmonic generation, is compensated by the anisotropies of the diffraction efficiency and of the phase shift of the toroidal gratings. The degree of polarization is also improved by the diffraction on the gratings. Prior to the polarization compensation, the unknown optical parameters of the toroidal grating at 47 and 50 nm were determined using CP light source and Mueller matrices. The optical parameters were found to be close to those of coated substance Pt. The single-order CP HH light source will be versatile both for spectroscopy and for diffractive imaging.

The key to improve the quality of life of people with dementia and caregivers is whether caregivers can understand the meanings of the puzzling words and deeds of people with dementia. Therefore, 2 of the authors observed and wrote down the puzzling words and deeds of 28 people with dementia in eating scenes, and these words and deeds were interpreted using our original model consisting of "theory of mind," "self-evaluation," and "self-consciousness." The results indicated that the bases for why caregivers perceive the words and deeds of people with dementia in eating scenes as puzzling are (1) those unable to pass the task of self-evaluation cannot evaluate their own eating situations in comparison with social standards, and the food culture collapses and (2) those unable to pass the task of self-consciousness cannot perceive through their senses.

We experimentally demonstrate a two-color two-photon resonant excitation of the doubly excited 2p2 1S state in helium atoms by the combination of 19th and 21st harmonic photons of a Ti:sapphire laser. Production of the 2p2 1S state is confirmed by the experimental observation that the electron emission from this state does not depend on the direction of harmonic polarization. Our ab-initio theoretical results through the solution of time-dependent Schrödinger equation are consistent with the experimental results and confirm the first successful production of a doubly excited state by high-harmonic pulses.