Skin-to-Skin Contact and Diaphragm Electrical Activity in Preterm Infants During Noninvasive Pressure Control.

BACKGROUND: Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is widely implemented in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) due to its established role in reducing mortality and morbidity. However, the impact of SSC on diaphragmatic electrical activity (Edi) in premature infants undergoing noninvasive pressure control (NIV-PC) for respiratory management remains insufficiently explored. PURPOSE: To assess the effects of SSC on Edi and vital signs in preterm infants managed with NIV-PC. METHODS: A prospective, observational, crossover study was conducted, involving preterm infants admitted to a level III NICU between May 2020 and August 2021, who were receiving respiratory support with NIV-PC. Data were collected at 3 distinct time points: before SSC (pre-SSC period), during SSC (SSC period), and after SSC (post-SSC period). Thirty-minute periods of stable data were extracted for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 21 SSC sessions were performed on 14 preterm infants, with a median age at the initiation of SSC of 62 days. The median (interquartile range) Edi peak (in microvolts) before, during, and after SSC was 7.1 (5.8-10.8), 6.8 (4.3-8.8), and 7.1 (5.5-8.8), respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed in Edi peak or minimum values during SSC, when compared with the periods before and after the SSC procedure. Likewise, no significant changes were noted in respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, heart rate, or the incidence of apnea. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND RESEARCH: SSC in preterm infants undergoing NIV-PC does not exacerbate their clinical condition. Further investigations involving diverse patient cohorts are warranted.

Depression detection using virtual avatar communication and eye tracking.

Globally, depression is one of the most common mental health issues. Therefore, finding an effective way to detect mental health problems is an important subject for study in human-machine interactions. In order to examine the potential in using a virtual avatar communication and eye tracking system to identify people as being with or without depression symptoms, this study has devised three research aims; 1) to understand the effect of different types of interviewers on eye gaze patterns, 2) to clarify the effect of neutral conversation topics on eye gaze, and 3) to compare eye gaze patterns between people with or without depression. Twenty-seven participants - fifteen in the control group and twelve in the depression symptoms group - were involved in this study and they were asked to talk to both a virtual avatar and human interviewers. Gaze patterns were recorded by an eye tracking device during both types of interaction. The experiment results indicated significant differences in eye movements between the control group and depression symptoms group. Moreover, larger gaze distribution was observed when people with depression symptoms were discussing neutral conversation topics rather than those without depression.

Differentiating depression using facial expressions in a virtual avatar communication system.

Depression has a major effect on the quality of life. Thus, identifying an effective way to detect depression is important in the field of human-machine interaction. To examine whether a combination of a virtual avatar communication system and facial expression monitoring potentially classifies people as being with or without depression, this study consists of three research aims; 1) to understand the effect of different types of interviewers such as human and virtual avatars, on people with depression symptoms, 2) to clarify the effect of neutral conversation topics on facial expressions and emotions in people with depression symptoms, and 3) to compare verbal and non-verbal information between people with or without depression. In this study, twenty-seven participants-fifteen in the control group and twelve in the depression symptoms group-were recruited. They were asked to talk to a virtual avatar and human interviewers on both neutral and negative conversation topics and to score PANAS; meanwhile, facial expressions were recorded by a web camera. Facial expressions were analyzed by both manual and automatic analyses. In the manual analysis, three annotators counted gaze directions and reacting behaviors. On the other hand, automatic facial expression detection was conducted using OpenFace. The results of PANAS suggested that there was no significance between different interviewers' types. Furthermore, in the control group, the frequency of look-downward was larger in negative conversation topics than in neutral conversation topics. The intensity of Dimpler was larger in the control group than in the depression symptoms group. Moreover, the intensity of Chin Raiser was larger in neutral conversation topics than in negative conversation topics in the depression symptoms group. However, in the control groups, there was no significance in the types of conversation topics. In conclusion, 1) there was no significance between human and virtual avatar interviewers in emotions, facial expressions, and eye gaze patterns, 2) neutral conversation topics induced less negative emotion in both the control and depression symptoms group, and 3) different facial expressions' patterns between people with, or without depression, were observed in the virtual avatar communication system.

Difficulty with the preceding visual search affects brain activity in the following resting period.

It has been well-documented that brain regions related to a task are activated during the task performance. We investigated whether brain activity and functional connectivity during the rest period are affected by the preceding task. Participants performed visual search tasks with three search conditions, which were followed by a rest period. During the rest period, participants were asked to look at the display that did not show any visual stimuli. In the result, brain activity in occipital and superior parietal regions would be deactivated by the preceding task during the rest period after visual search tasks. However, the activity of the inferior frontal gyrus during the rest period, which is also part of the attention network, was not affected by the brain activity during the preceding visual search task. We proposed a new model for explaining how the cognitive demands of the preceding visual search task regulate the attention network during the rest period after the task. In this model, the cognitive demand changes with task difficulty, which affects the brain activity even after removing the visual search task in the rest phase.

Non-goal-driven eye movement after visual search task.

We investigated the functions and mechanisms of non-goal-driven eye movements, which are defined as eye movements induced when looking at visual stimuli on a display without engaging in a specific task or looking at a display without any visual stimuli or tasks. In our experiment, participants were asked to perform a visual search task on a display, which was followed by a rest period in which stimuli remained on the display or all stimuli were erased. During the rest period, the participants were asked to only look at the displays without engaging in any visual or cognitive tasks. We mainly analyzed the gaze-shift patterns in both task and rest periods, in which eye movements were classified in accordance with the angles of saccade directions in two consecutive saccades. The results indicate a significant difference between goal-driven eye movements, which were observed in the task period, and nongoal- driven eye movements, which were observed in the rest period. Scanning gaze-shift patterns dominated the task period, and backward and corrective-saccade-like gaze-shift patterns dominated the rest period. The gaze-shift pattern was affected by the task-difficulty during the task period. From these findings, we propose a model describing the oculomotor system in terms of goal-driven and non-goal-driven eye movements. In this model, the engagement levels of top-down and bottom-up control change along with task difficulty and are affected by the gaze-shift patterns during a visual search task. Decoupling of top-down control from the oculomotor system during a rest period induces backward saccades, resulting in fixation around the central part of a display. Therefore, we suggest that non-goaldriven eye movements play a crucial role in maintaining the readiness of the oculomotor system for the next search task.

Quantum polyamorphism in compressed distinguishable helium-4.

We demonstrate that two amorphous solid states can exist in 4He consisting of distinguishable Boltzmann atoms under compressed conditions. The isothermal compression of normal or supercritical fluid 4He was conducted at 3-25 K using the isobaric-isothermal path integral centroid molecular dynamics simulation. The compression of fluid first produced the low-dispersion amorphous (LDA) state possessing modest extension of atomic necklaces. Further isothermal compression up to the order of 10 kbar to 1 Mbar or an isobaric cooling of LDA induced the transition to the high-dispersion amorphous (HDA) state. The HDA was characterized by long quantum wavelengths of atoms extended over several Angstroms and the promotion of atomic residual diffusion. They were related to the quantum tunneling of atoms bestriding the potential saddle points in this glass. The change in pressure or temperature induced the LDA-HDA transition reversibly with hysteresis, while it resembled the coil-globule transition of classical polymers. The HDA had lower kinetic and higher Gibbs free energies than the LDA at close temperature. The HDA was absent at T ≥ 13 K, while the LDA-HDA transition pressure significantly decreased with lowering temperature. The LDA and HDA correspond to the trapped and tunneling regimes proposed by Markland et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 136, 074511 (2012)], respectively. The same reentrant behavior as they found was observed for the expansion factor of the quantum wavelength as well as for atomic diffusivity.

Effects of skin-to-skin care on electrical activity of the diaphragm in preterm infants during neurally adjusted ventilatory assist.

BACKGROUND: Skin-to-skin care (SSC) reduces neonatal mortality and morbidity and is widely implemented in the neonatal intensive care unit. However, changes in respiratory effort during SSC in ventilated preterm infants remain unclear. AIMS: To evaluate the effect of SSC on electrical activity of the diaphragm (Edi) and vital signs in premature infants who are intubated and under neurally adjusted ventilatory assist ventilation. STUDY DESIGN: We performed an observational cross-over study. Data were measured in three periods: before (pre-SSC period), during (SSC period), and after (post-SSC period) SSC. Stable 30-min data in each period were extracted. SUBJECTS: Thirty-four SSC procedures were performed in 14 preterm infants with a median gestational age of 25.3 weeks (interquartile range, 24, 26.4) and a birth weight of 659 g (566, 694). The median postnatal age was 41 days (31, 53) at the study with a median postmenstrual age of 31.3 weeks (30.4, 32.5). OUTCOME MEASURES: Median values of Edi peak, Edi minimum, respiratory rate, SpO2, and heart rate were measured in each condition. The Kruskal-Wallis test with Bonferroni multiple comparisons was used to compare each parameter in each period. RESULTS: Median Edi peak and Edi minimum values were significantly lower during SSC compared with pre- and post-SSC, without any change in respiratory rate, SpO2, or heart rate. CONCLUSIONS: Respiratory efforts as evaluated by Edi are significantly reduced during SSC in ventilated preterm infants.

Quantumness and state boundaries hidden in supercritical helium-4: A path integral centroid molecular dynamics study.

Isothermal-isobaric path integral centroid molecular dynamics simulations were conducted for fluid 4He at more than 600 state points in the proximity of the critical point to reveal the detailed states and relevant quantumness underlying the supercritical state. Through intensive analyses of the thermodynamic, dynamic, and quantum properties, we revealed the hidden state boundaries that separate the liquid-like and gas-like states in the supercritical region of this fluid. The Widom line, defined as the locus of the maxima of isobaric heat capacity C P , is also the quantum boundary at which there are changes in the isobaric temperature-dependence of the quantum wavelength, λ quantum, i.e., maximum amplitude of the Feynman imaginary-time paths (necklaces) of individual atoms. The Frenkel line, the famous dynamic state boundary, was observed to start from nearly the same point, 0.73-0.76 T c, on the P-T plane as observed for classical fluids. Several state boundaries based on the new criteria were found to emanate from the critical point or its vicinity on the P-T plane and are discussed in comparison with these boundaries. The quantumness of this fluid was expressed as (a) non-classical significant depression of C P observed in the liquid-like state; (b) the depression of the slopes dP/dT of the Widom line and the liquid-gas coexistence line near the critical point; and (c) the depression of the heat of pseudo-boiling across the Widom line. This is explained in terms of the decreasing kinetic energy with temperature observed in the liquid-like state below the Widom temperature T Widom, or alternatively in terms of the lattice model heat capacity, including the λ quantum.

Cilia play a role in breaking left-right symmetry of the sea urchin embryo.

Left-right asymmetry of bilaterian animals is established during early development. In mice, frogs and fishes, the ciliated left-right organizer plays an essential role in establishing bilateral asymmetry, and leftward flow of extracellular fluid generated by ciliary motion results in Nodal activity on the left side. However, H(+) /K(+) -ATPase activity is also involved in the determination of left-right asymmetry in a variety of animals, and it has been thought to be an ancestral mechanism in deuterostomes. In sea urchin, the determination of the left-right asymmetry based on H(+) /K(+) -ATPase activity was already clarified, but it remains to be uncovered whether ciliary motion is involved in the left-right asymmetry of the embryo. Here, we show evidence that ciliary motion is involved in the establishment of left-right asymmetry of sea urchin embryo. Furthermore, we show that the initial cilia generated on small micromeres during the early stage of embryogenesis may be involved in this process. These results suggest that the cilia-mediated mechanism for the determination of left-right asymmetry may be acquired at the base of the deuterostomes.

Efficient improved extraction of tomato saponin using shock waves.

In the conventional method of mixer blending extraction, the yields of the tomato-saponin, esculeoside A, in the mini and middy tomatoes were found to be 0.043% and 0.046%, respectively. In order to improve the yields, we attempted a more efficient extraction using shock waves. The yields of esculeoside A were 0.0987% in air after 1 shock, 0.0792% in air after two shots, 0.0648% in half water after 1 or 2 shocks, and 0.0599% in water after 1 or 2 shocks. The yields obtained by the proposed method were approximately twice those of the conventional mixer blending method; therefore, this method is regarded to be very efficient. Moreover, two spirosolane glycosides, tomatine and lycoperoside A, were obtained for the first time from the ripe tomato fruit in this method. To date, these compounds have not been obtained with the mixer blending method. However, whether these glycosides are produced from esculeoside A or are newly extracted from the plant organ by the shock wave is still unclear.