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A case study of a 68-year-old male with Parkinsonian type multiple system atrophy (MSA) who achieved remission of psychosis after treatment with modified electroconvulsive therapy (mECT) following unsuccessful antipsychotic treatments. It mentions that MSA is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can be challenging to manage because it is frequently accompanied by other symptoms, including psychosis, postural instability, urinary incontinence, depression, and sleep disturbances.

Miso, the Japanese fermented soybean paste, an essential seasoning for preparing washoku, is gaining increased international recognition. Miso quality is normally evaluated by a panel of sensory assessors, which is a time-consuming and costly procedure. The final quality of miso products depends on the complex interactions of color, taste, flavor, and aroma. This study aimed to use visible/near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy combined with a partial least-square regression (PLSR) algorithm to develop a rapid method for predicting the sensory qualities of miso products. The full Vis/NIR spectrum with nine different pretreatment methods was used to build calibration, cross validation and prediction models. The best performance was achieved by a PLSR model with the first derivative pretreatment of the spectra, giving the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and bias values of 25 and 13, respectively, for the validation test. This model effectively classified miso products into different grades. An investigation of particular spectral regions revealed that a similar performance to the best PLSR model was obtained using just the spectra from 400 to 1100 nm with first derivative pretreatment or combined with multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), and standard normal variate (SNV) methods. The study demonstrated that Vis/NIR spectroscopy has the potential for evaluating miso quality with the advantages of being rapid, accurate, low cost, and nondestructive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective We report longitudinal changes in neuroimaging and neuropsychological measurements in a case of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning showing reversible changes in hippocampal volume, which was closely linked to the degree of memory impairment. Methods The current study presents a female in her early 20s, with a high school level of education. She became aware of headaches and drowsiness while working in a restaurant that operated charcoal braziers, and she was urgently transported to our hospital. Her high blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration led to a diagnosis of CO poisoning, but no obvious abnormalities were found by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and physical examinations. She underwent a series of hyperbaric oxygen therapies. One year after CO poisoning, she consulted a psychiatrist due to her own awareness of gradually worsening memory function. She was assessed by brain MRI and standard neuropsychological tests every 6 months for 1 year. Results Her neuropsychological profile showed the impairment of memory function according to a low score of Delayed Recall Index of Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. At 320 days after CO poisoning, her hippocampal volume had decreased by 3%. Her memory function was found to have improved at 530 days after CO poisoning. Of note, during this period, her hippocampal volume had increased by approximately 7%. Conclusions This report suggests that a clinician should conduct careful neuropsychological examinations to avoid overlooking mild sequelae of CO poisoning, even if a general assessment of brain MRI is normal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effect of chemical characteristics on sensory evaluation elucidates the classification of soy sauce quality. In this work, 16 koikuchi soy sauces (the major form of Japanese soy sauce) from the Akita Prefectural Miso and Soy Sauce Products Committee were comprehensively studied. The results suggested that good quality soy sauce should possess a color with relatively high +a* and +b* values. Moreover, the ratio between the +L* value and +C* value had a negative influence on the external appearance. Furthermore, the soluble salt-free solids content of high-ranking soy sauce was much higher than that of low-ranking soy sauce, especially in the top three ranked soy sauces (at greater than 40%). The salt content not only negatively affect the soy sauce taste, but also played an essential role in improving the soy sauce flavor. Further study of the amino acid content showed that the glutamic acid content in high-ranking soy sauces was significantly lower than that in low-ranking soy sauces. In particular, the interaction between proline and glucose was also observed to improve soy sauce aroma. Finally, the principal component analysis was performed to reconfirm the main attributes for the sensory classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel brief screening scale, Tokyo Metropolitan Distress Scale for Pandemic (TMDP), for assessing mental and social stress of medical personnel in COVID-19 pandemic The purpose of this study was to develop a new scale, termed the Tokyo Metropolitan Distress Scale for Pandemic (TMDP), which can concisely evaluate pandemic-related mental health and social factors. Next, we conducted convergent validity analysis of the TMDP versus the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7 Scale (GAD-7), and the Perceived Stress Scale - 10 (PSS-10). [Extracted from the article]

Competing Interests: Genichi Sugihara and Takashi Takeuchi are the Editorial Board members of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Reports and co‐authors of this article. To minimize the bias, they were excluded from all editorial decision‐making. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) are key parasites of grazing sheep worldwide. To understand the factors influencing GIN infections, we examined the relationships among infection and nutrition, foraging behavior, and animal performance. Further, the parasitism and nutrition of sheep between improved and semi-natural pastures in Japan were compared. Sheep were grazed for 1 month each, first on an improved and then on a semi-natural pasture. Afterward, vegetation surveys, forage analyses, and (plant) nematode larval counts were conducted in both pastures, and fecal egg counts, biochemical analyses, and bite counts were completed for each sheep. The semi-natural pasture had diverse plant species, though it contained less crude protein, and nematode larvae were rarely observed on bamboo. Consequently, fecal egg per gram decreased after grazing on the semi-natural pasture. White blood counts, hematocrit, and glucose also decreased and body weight increased after grazing on this pasture. Principal component and correlation analyses revealed a significant relationship between GIN infection and behavior, but not between nutrition and either behavior or infection. As parasitized animals may become more aggressive feeders to compensate for their reduced nutritional uptake, grazing sheep on semi-natural pastures may facilitate more stable performance due to the lower risk of nematode infection from wild plants., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest associated with the paper., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)