First molecular phylogenetic insights into the evolution of Eriocaulon (Eriocaulaceae, Poales)

Eriocaulon is a genus of c. 470 aquatic and wetland species of the monocot plant family Eriocaulaceae. It is widely distributed in Africa, Asia and America, with centres of species richness in the tropics. Most species of Eriocaulon grow in wetlands although some inhabit shallow rivers and streams with an apparent adaptive morphology of elongated submerged stems. In a previous molecular phylogenetic hypothesis, Eriocaulon was recovered as sister of the African endemic genus Mesanthemum. Several regional infrageneric classifications have been proposed for Eriocaulon. This study aims to critically assess the existing infrageneric classifications through phylogenetic reconstruction of infrageneric relationships, based on DNA sequence data of four chloroplast markers and one nuclear marker. There is little congruence between our molecular results and previous morphology-based infrageneric classifications. However, some similarities can be found, including Fyson’s sect. Leucantherae and Zhang’s sect. Apoda. Further phylogenetic studies, particularly focusing on less well sampled regions such as the Neotropics, will help provide a more global overview of the relationships in Eriocaulon and may enable suggesting the first global infrageneric classification

Development the Care Evaluation Scale Version 2.0: a modified version of a measure for bereaved family members to evaluate the structure and process of palliative care for cancer patient

BackgroundThe Care Evaluation Scale (CES1.0) was designed to allow bereaved family members to evaluate the structure and process of care, but has been associated with a high frequency of misresponses. The objective of this study was to develop a modified version of CES1.0 (CES2.0) that would eliminate misresponses while maintaining good reliability and validity.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey by mail in October 2013. The participants were bereaved family members of patients who died from cancer in seven institutions in Japan. All family members were asked to complete CES2.0, the short form CES1.0, items on overall care satisfaction, the Family Satisfaction with Advanced Cancer Care (FAMCARE) Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Brief Grief Questionnaire (BGQ). To examine test-retest reliability, all participants were asked to complete a second CES2.0.ResultsOf 596 questionnaires sent, 461 (77%) were returned and 393 (66%) were analyzed. In the short form CES1.0, 17.1% of the responses were identified as misresponses. No misresponses were found in CES2.0. We identified 10 CES2.0 subscales similar to those in CES1.0 using exploratory factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.96, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.83. Correlations were found between CES2.0 and overall satisfaction (r = 0.83) and FAMCARE (r = 0.58). In addition, total CES2.0 scores were negatively correlated with the PHQ-9 (r = −0.22) and BGQ (r = −0.10).ConclusionThese results suggest that CES2.0 eliminated misresponses associated with CES1.0 while maintaining good reliability and validity and greatly improving test-retest reliability

Anomalous atrium associated with persistent left superior vena cava

Persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC) is the most common venous anomaly with an incidence of 0.3–0.5% in the general population. Here, we report a rare case of PLSVC with anomalous atrium in a cadaver during the student′s dissection session at the University of Tsukuba. In this case, the coronary sinus had merged with the right atrium to form an enlarged sac-like structure and received systemic venous flow including inflow from the PLSVC. The roof of the coronary sinus with the right atrium was thicker than that of the control cases. We further found that the distance between the sinoatrial node and the opening of the coronary sinus was slightly more than half of that in control cases. This variant appears interesting and is worth reporting for developmental and clinical consideration.Published online 24 January 2021.journal articl

Encoding temporal regularities and information copying in hippocampal circuits

Discriminating, extracting and encoding temporal regularities is a critical requirement in the brain, relevant to sensory-motor processing and learning. However, the cellular mechanisms responsible remain enigmatic; for example, whether such abilities require specific, elaborately organized neural networks or arise from more fundamental, inherent properties of neurons. Here, using multi-electrode array technology, and focusing on interval learning, we demonstrate that sparse reconstituted rat hippocampal neural circuits are intrinsically capable of encoding and storing sub-second-order time intervals for over an hour timescale, represented in changes in the spatial-temporal architecture of firing relationships among populations of neurons. This learning is accompanied by increases in mutual information and transfer entropy, formal measures related to information storage and flow. Moreover, temporal relationships derived from previously trained circuits can act as templates for copying intervals into untrained networks, suggesting the possibility of circuit-to-circuit information transfer. Our findings illustrate that dynamic encoding and stable copying of temporal relationships are fundamental properties of simple in vitro networks, with general significance for understanding elemental principles of information processing, storage and replication

Feature of Autonomic Nerve Activity while People Evaluate Geometric Patterns

Session: Global prospection of Art and Design researches : cross-linking of Academia government and Industry by art and design ; September 18 2016 Conference: Tsukuba Global Science Week 2016 (TGSW2016) Date: September 17-19 2016 Venue: Tsukuba International Congress Center Sponsored: University of Tsukubaconference pape

感性を通して直感的に「惹かれる」物に対する行動選択思考メカニズムの脳機能的解明

科学研究費助成事業 研究成果報告書：基盤研究(B)2015-2017課題番号 : 15H0276

A Case of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome Associated with Acute Pancreatitis

A 52-year-old man was admitted to our department for acute pancreatitis. He developed adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) on the 2nd hospital day, and was treated with respiratory management using positive endexpiratory pressure (PEEP) in addition to pharmacologic therapy for pancreatitis. The treatment was very effective, and he was discharged on the 72nd hospital day

Crystal Structure of New Heusler Compounds

International audienceHeusler compounds are promising materials in many fields of contemporary research. The spectrum of their possible applications ranges from magnetic and magneto-mechanical materials over semiconductors and thermoelectrics to superconductors. An important feature of the Heusler compounds is the possibility of controlling the valence electron concentration by partial substitution of elements. On the other hand, the properties also depend on the degree of ordering of the the crystal structure. In general, Heusler compounds crystallize in the Cu2MnAl-type structure but in many cases certain types of disorder are observed. In this paper a detailed description of the different types of disordered structures is given. Additionally, the synthesis of new Heusler compounds is reported. The prepared compounds contain ternary Cr-, Rh-, Ru-, Ni-, Pd-, and Pt-based Heusler systems as well as quaternary Co2-based compounds and compounds of the general formula XX’YZ. The crystal structure was determined by XRD measurements and the structural ordering of the compounds is discussed