Search

The purpose of this study was to examine the responses of a Steller sea lion to two consecutive commands. We conducted this study on one same subject, Hama, as a continuation of Sasaki et al. (2022), which examined whether the Steller sea lion can discriminate human vocal commands. In Sasaki et al. (2022), commands were presented individually to examine the accuracy rate for each command. In the present study, we observed how Hama responded to the rapid presentation of two consecutive commands. The commands were presented in 20 different orders and combinations as 20 command combination patterns using five different commands. The results showed that Hama responded to 12 command combination patterns by performing behaviors corresponding to two consecutive commands. Hama performed the two behaviors in sequence in 8 of the 12 command combination patterns. The responses to the other four command combination patterns were combined single behaviors that combined the behaviors indicated by the two consecutive commands and that were already connected to different single commands. Although the combined single behaviors were not simple combinations of behaviors induced by the two consecutive commands, the combined single behaviors included the common body parts (e.g., fore flippers) or common action types (e.g., rotation) of behaviors induced by each command in the two consecutive commands. These results not only indicate that Hama could understand multiple linguistic information, but also suggest the possibility that Hama spontaneously formed categories based on the learned commands.

This study examined how vowel length in words affects the gustatory imageries (i.e., sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, sourness, and spiciness). We presented pseudowords with long and short vowels to native Japanese speakers using different modalities and instructions. The stimuli were presented visually (Studies 1, 3, and 4) or auditorily (Study 2). In addition, half of participants in Study 3 were instructed to subvocalize the stimuli and the other half were instructed not to subvocalize. Words with long vowels were associated with sweetness when presented in katakana characters (Studies 1 and 3). Words with short vowels were associated with saltiness and bitterness when presented in katakana characters (Study 3). Our findings revealed a role of vowel length in taste-sound correspondences in Japanese. It advances the understanding of how people obtain information about the taste expectations from word forms.

This study investigated the effects of consonant alliteration and meter on valence, arousal, and aesthetic evaluations. In Study 1, native Japanese speakers evaluated valence, arousal, beauty, and understandability of classical Japanese poems after listening to both alliterated and non-alliterated versions. The alliterated poems were rated as slightly calmer than the non-alliterated ones, although the difference was not statistically significant. In Study 2, native Japanese speakers listened to poems that consisted of pseudowords. The poems used as stimuli were systematically made in terms of alliteration and meter. The metered poems were perceived as more preferable, calmer, and more beautiful than the non-metered ones, regardless of the presence or absence of alliteration. Additionally, the alliterated and metered poems were perceived as more exciting than non-alliterated and metered poems. These results suggest that metered poems make people feel beautiful and comfortable. It might be applicable to clinical treatment.

The existing literature on reading motivation primarily focuses on monolingual children and adolescents using quantitative approaches. To date, there is an absence of qualitative studies exploring bilingual college students' reading motivation that can provide details of participants' views, beliefs, and experiences related to reading motivation. To meet this need, this qualitative study used the bioecological model of human development to explore sociocultural impacts on multidimensions of reading motivation in Latinx college students. Twenty-eight Latinx bilingual college students participated in individual and semi-structured interviews and generated written literacy journeys that focused on understanding factors affecting the multidimensionality of their reading motivation and ways to motivate them. Our data suggest Latinx college students' reading motivation was influenced by the three systems of the bioecological model of human development: "microsystem, exosystem," and "macrosystem." Furthermore, we found that reflective, autonomous, and interactive learning environments were effective for enhancing their reading motivation.

Mariko Kozaru, Hiroko Kambara, Akari Higuchi, Tatsuki Kagatsume, Keiko Hosohata Education and Research Center for Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-1094, JapanCorrespondence: Keiko Hosohata, Education and Research Center for Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 4-20-1 Nasahara, Takatsuki, Osaka, 569-1094, Japan, Tel +81-72-690-1271, Fax +81-72-690-362, Email keiko.hosohata@ompu.ac.jpBackground: The P2Y12 receptor inhibitors clopidogrel and prasugrel are widely used. Clopidogrel and prasugrel have different metabolic pathways, but whether their adverse event (AE) profiles differ significantly is unclear.Objective: This study aimed to compare the possible AEs induced by clopidogrel and prasugrel and to assess the rank-order of their AEs submitted to a spontaneous reporting database.Materials and Methods: Data were extracted from the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database (JADER). Reports of AEs associated with clopidogrel and prasugrel were analyzed to calculate the reporting odds ratios (RORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).Results: Based on 5869 reports for clopidogrel (69.6%, men) and 513 reports for prasugrel (74.1%, men), 703 and 135 different AEs were identified, respectively. Bleeding complications including hemorrhage were commonly reported for both clopidogrel and prasugrel. As for AEs related to clopidogrel, unexpected AEs such as interstitial lung disease (227 reports; ROR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.49– 2.10), abnormal hepatic function (137 reports; ROR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.07– 1.51), and hepatocellular injury (96 reports; ROR, 120.0; 95% CI, 94.9– 151.8) ranked at relatively high positions based on the number of occurrences, unlike prasugrel.Conclusion: This analysis of the national pharmacovigilance database highlights distinct AE profiles for clopidogrel and prasugrel. Unexpected AEs associated with clopidogrel were identified, providing valuable insights for clinical monitoring and patient safety.Keywords: P2Y12 platelet inhibitor, pharmacovigilance, adverse events, reporting odds ratio, signal detection, spontaneous reporting system

Abstract Background Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma is a rare tumor that is resistant to cytotoxic agents. This observational study aimed to evaluate the detection rate of driver gene alteration and the efficacy of targeted therapy for pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma. Methods We established a database of patients with pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma and their clinical information, including EGFR mutation, ALK fusion gene, ROS1 fusion gene, BRAF mutation, and MET exon 14 skipping mutation. The present study retrieved and analyzed the data of patients with pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma in whom driver gene alterations were evaluated, and the survival duration after the initiation of treatment with targeted therapy was examined. Results A total of 44 patients were included in the present study. The EGFR mutation, ALK fusion gene, and MET exon 14 skipping mutation were detected in 2/43 patients (4.7%), 2/34 patients (5.9%), and 2/16 patients (12.5%), respectively. The ROS1 fusion gene (0/18 patients) and BRAF mutation (0/15 patients) were not detected. Female patients (P = 0.063, Fisher’s exact test) and patients without smoking history (P = 0.025, Fisher’s exact test) were the dominant groups in which any driver mutation was detected. Five patients with driver gene alterations were treated with targeted therapy. Progression-free survival (PFS) was 1.3 months and 1.6 months in 2 of the patients treated with gefitinib. Two patients with the ALK fusion gene showed 2.1 and 14.0 months of PFS from the initiation of treatment with crizotinib, and a patient with the MET exon 14 skipping mutation showed 9.7 months of PFS from the initiation of treatment with tepotinib. Conclusion The EGFR mutation, ALK fusion gene, and MET exon 14 skipping mutation were detected in patients with pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma in clinical practice, and some patients achieved long survival times after receiving targeted therapy. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate the efficacy of targeted therapy for pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma.

Studies have found that problems exist with respect to elementary school teachers' understanding of proportions and their knowledge of the appropriate methods for teaching the concept. This study aims to help aspiring elementary school teachers form a healthy mathematical identity and deepen their understanding of mathematics. This quantitative study employed the descriptive-research survey method, surveying 86 students in 2019 and 110 students in 2021. Data were gathered using a survey questionnaire designed by Kumakura et al. (2019), with minor modifications made by the author. A major finding was that many students want to become elementary school teachers but are uncomfortable with the concept of proportions. Another important finding is that it is a challenge for students who wish to become elementary school teachers at a traditional school (University A) to hone their ability to use mathematical expressions and develop their sense of quantity. The findings suggest that it is important to help such students understand the content and refine their expressions.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the in-hospital evolution of patients undergoing percutaneous stent placement in the carotid arteries. METHODS: From August 1996 to April 2001, we studied 86 patients with carotid arterial obliterative lesions > 70% who were treated with percutaneous stent placement in the carotid arteries. We assessed the rate of success of the implantation and of the procedure, the types of stents used, mortality rate, and neurological complications. RESULTS: Successful implantation was obtained in 98.9% of the cases, and the procedure was successful in 91.8%. The Wallstent was the most frequently used stent (73 patients - 77%). Cerebral strokes occurred as follows: 3 (3.2%) transient ischemic attacks, 1 (1.1%) minor stroke, and 3 (3.1%) major strokes. One (1.1%) patient died during hospitalization. CONCLUSION: The high rate of success of stent implantation (98.9%) in addition to the low rate of cerebral stroke/death (4.2%) showed the efficiency and safety of percutaneous stent placement in carotid arteries.

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum, also known as Cenchrus americanus) is a cereal crop that has a C4 photosynthesis system and that can grow and develop seeds even under stressed conditions including drought-stressed, high temperature-stressed and nutrient-poor conditions. In previous studies, transcriptomes of pearl millet were studied by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to understand mechanisms regulating its development and tolerance to such stressed conditions. Here, RNA-Seq reads from 565 pearl millet samples from 25 projects in the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) BioProject database were collected and mapped to the pearl millet reference genome to obtain read counts and transcripts per million (TPM) for each pearl millet gene. The count and TPM data for all the 565 samples as well as the attributes of those samples and projects were deposited in the figshare repository (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24902100).

Abstract The integrated model of rumination argues that two trait factors—negative thinking habits and processing modes—get people stuck in maladaptive rumination. There is little evidence showing whether these factors influence the daily dynamic associations between rumination and negative moods. To address this, in this study, we conducted an experience-sampling method on Japanese university students. We recruited 92 Japanese university students and assessed their daily rumination and negative affect (NA) eight times a day for seven days. We examined the effects of habits and processing modes on the dynamic associations between rumination and negative moods using dynamic structural equation modeling. We found that individuals were more likely to ruminate when they experienced NA. However, contrary to previous findings, this study’s participants did not experience NA after engaging in rumination. Moreover, we did not detect any significant trait factor effect on these dynamic associations. Our findings imply that individuals are more likely to engage in rumination after experiencing NA, but the reverse association, particularly the autoregression of rumination, may not be maintained in natural daily life. Furthermore, negative thinking habits and processing modes may not influence the daily dynamic associations between rumination and NA among Japanese university students.

Abstract Objective Hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase (HIF-PH) inhibitors are a new class of anti-anemia agents. We retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of HIF-PH inhibitors in patients with heart failure (HF) complicated by anemia associated with chronic kidney disase. HIF-PH inhibitor treatment was initiated in 32 patients with chronic HF complicated by renal anemia and were followed up for 3 months. Results Hematocrit and hemoglobin levels markedly improved 3 months after HIF-PH inhibitor treatment. However, levels of NT-proBNP, which is an indicator of HF, did not decrease considerably. Based on the rate of change in NT-proBNP, we divided the patients into “responder” and “non-responder” groups. The results showed that considerably more patients had a ferritin level of less than 100 ng/mL in the non-responder group at baseline. There were substantially more patients with TSAT of less than 20% in the non-responder group at 1 month after HIF-PH inhibitor treatment. The cut-off values to maximize the predictive power of ferritin level at baseline and TSAT value at 1 month after treatment were 41.8 ng/ml and 20.75. HIF-PH inhibitor treatment can be expected to be effective for improving both anemia and HF if ferritin≥41.8 ng/ml at baseline or TSAT≥20.75 at 1 month after treatment.

Introduction Oligometastatic prostate cancer can be well‐controlled through combined local and metastasis‐directed therapies. However, the effects of cytoreductive radical prostatectomy and metastasectomy remain unclear. Case presentation A 52‐year‐old man presented with prostate cancer and isolated bone metastasis to the thoracic spine. Six months after neoadjuvant hormonal therapy, the patient underwent cytoreductive radical prostatectomy and total en bloc spondylectomy. The postoperative course was uneventful. Hormonal therapy was terminated 5 years after surgery, and no biochemical or radiological progression was observed at 7 years postoperatively. Conclusion Although careful patient selection is necessary, cytoreductive radical prostatectomy and metastasectomy are effective treatments for well‐selected patients with oligometastatic prostate cancer.

There is an absence of cross-cultural qualitative research exploring sociocultural factors affecting reading motivation. To address the gap, the present study adopted the Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development to investigate factors impacting reading motivation across American and Japanese fourth grade students. Additionally, we aimed to identify ways to motivate both students to read. Semi-structured interviews for 12 students in each country were conducted. Our study identified a consistent pattern in which the reading motivation of both American and Japanese students was directly influenced by the "microsystem." Our findings also suggest distinct patterns between American and Japanese students. While American students exhibited a direct impact from the "microsystem," Japanese students' reading motivation was influenced by several systems, including the "microsystem," "exosystem," and "macrosystem." We explained that the observed unique patterns between American and Japanese students could be due to cultural differences. We identified several effective ways to motivate students to read.

In Japan, many high school students have severe depression. Preventive interventions for school-based cognitive-behavioral depression are effective countermeasures against depressive problems among high school students. However, since high school curriculums are time-consuming, such interventions are less common among high school students. Therefore, we conducted a long-term but low-frequency intervention that divides the program content through several grades. We examined the effectiveness of our intervention based on the data obtained by a survey during the two-year intervention period and one-year follow-up period for 225 students who had enrolled in 2014-2019. Three-level hierarchical linear model analysis showed that students who participated in the program had improved depressive symptoms and related factors over these three years. The Welch test and chi-square test showed fewer depressive symptoms and a lower percentage of students with depression than the 608 Japanese students who did not receive the intervention; data were collected through an online survey at the end of the program and one year after the intervention ended. The results suggest that a school-based cognitive-behavioral depression prevention program using a long-term but low-frequency approach may effectively reduce the implementation burden into the school curriculum, promote sustained implementation, and prevent depression among high school students.