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Purpose: Over the past decade, we collected the cases where patients underwent decompressive cranioplasty for the treatment of mild metopic suture synostosis (mild trigonocephaly) with developmental delays. To evaluate the effectiveness of this surgery, we administered several developmental and psychological examinations to children with this condition who underwent decompressive cranioplasty. Methods: Thirty-four children (32 boys and 2 girls) who had developmental disorders with mild trigonocephaly underwent four different tests at three different time points (pre-operation, 3 and 6 months after surgery) including the: (a) Kyoto form developmental test (2001) to calculate the developmental quotient (DQ), (b) National Rehabilitation Center Sign-Significance Test (NRC S-S test) to evaluate the patients' language use and acquisition, (c) Pervasive Developmental Disorders Autism Society Japan Rating Scale (PARS) to identify autistic tendencies, and (d) Japanese Child Behavior Checklist (J-CBCL) to evaluate behavioral problems. The scores were initially analyzed using analyses of variance. When significant results were observed, Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison tests were applied for further statistical evaluation. Results: Significant DQ improvements were observed, as assessed by the Kyoto form developmental test. Additionally, significant improvement in the expression of words (measured with the NRC S-S test), the scores on PARS, and some behavioral factors (measured with the J-CBCL) were observed. Conclusions: The results in this cohort suggest that decompressive cranioplasty may play an important role in supporting the improvement of developmental delays in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Detection of significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from DNA microarray datasets is a common routine task conducted in biomedical research. For the detection of DEGs, numerous methods are proposed. By such conventional methods, generally, DEGs are detected from one dataset consisting of group of control and treatment. However, some DEGs are easily to be detected in any experimental condition. For the detection of much experiment condition specific DEGs, each measurement value of gene expression levels should be compared in two dimensional ways, or both with other genes and other datasets simultaneously. For this purpose, we retrieve the gene expression data from public database as possible and construct "meta-dataset" which summarize expression change of all genes in various experimental condition. Herein, we propose "two-way AIC" (Akaike Information Criteria), method for simultaneous detection of significance genes and experiments on meta-dataset. Results: As a case study of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we evaluate whether two-way AIC method can detect test data which is the experiment condition specific DEGs. Operon genes are used as test data. Compared with other commonly used statistical methods (t-rank/F-test, RankProducts and SAM), two-way AIC shows the highest specificity of detection of operon genes. Conclusions: The two-way AIC performs high specificity for operon gene detection on the microarray metadataset. This method can also be applied to estimation of mutual gene interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series of gene expression often exhibit periodic behavior under the influence of multiple signal pathways, and are represented by a model that incorporates multiple harmonics and noise. Most of these data, which are observed using DNA microarrays, consist of few sampling points in time, but most periodicity detection methods require a relatively large number of sampling points. We have previously developed a detection algorithm based on the discrete Fourier transform and Akaike's information criterion. Here we demonstrate the performance of the algorithm for small-sample time series data through a comparison with conventional and newly proposed periodicity detection methods based on a statistical analysis of the power of harmonics. We show that this method has higher sensitivity for data consisting of multiple harmonics, and is more robust against noise than other methods. Although "combinatorial explosion" occurs for large datasets, the computational time is not a problem for small-sample datasets. The MATLAB/GNU Octave script of the algorithm is available on the author's web site: http://www.cbrc.jp/%7Etominaga/piccolo/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judgment periodicity of biological time series data is important and done widely to find the circadian expression of genes, monthly change of hormones, etc. To keep complete reproducibility of judgment is a problem because popular judgment methods such as curve fitting, Fourier analysis, etc. need judgment criteria determined by analysts considering experimental conditions and results (level, S/N, distribution, etc.) based on their experience. Judgment results are often affected by analysts' subjects. Reproducible criterion determination is therefore strongly needed. We propose introducing the information criterion to replace analysts' criteria. A judgment algorithm by combining Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and discrete Fourier transform (DFT) has been developed and has proved its ability through application to mice microarray data and finding of circadian genes. Our method, named "Piccolo", shows higher sensitivity than the simple DFT (without BIC) method with reproducibility, and can be fully automated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Nobody knows whether cognitive dysfunction affects survival. Furthermore, it is unknown whether the dysfunction is caused by the tumor itself or by its treatment. Methods: Patients with 20 gliomas (LGG, 7; MG, 13 [AG, 4; GM, 9]) in the right brain (nondominant) and 11 gliomas (LGG, 1; MG, 10 [AG, 6; GM, 4]) in the left brain (dominant) were studied. Thirty-four patients with meningioma were also studied. Cognitive function was evaluated by the 3MS examination, and propriety of radical resection of tumor was reviewed. Results: Cognitive function pre-Op and post-Op was normal in patients with LGG and MGs in the right brain but decreased before an Op in all patients with MG in the left brain, and they did not normalize after Op. In patients with MG in left brain, the test of temporal and spatial orientation, first recall, similarities, 4-legged animals, mental reversal, and writing decreased after Op. Cognitive hypofunction before or after Op did not correlate with tumor malignancy and degree of tumor resection. Conclusion: Firstly, radical Op should aim at improvement of cognitive function for patients with glioma in the right brain, and for patients with glioma in the left brain, QOL should be thought about without expecting improvement of cognitive function. Secondly, improvement of cognitive function cannot be anticipated in patients with meningioma in the left brain. Aged patients older than 75 years require carefulness in Op. Then, damage of the cingulated gyrus and corpus callosum should be avoided in the left brain. This study emphasizes that clinicians should be careful in the evaluation of cognitive function in glioma and meningioma treatment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Measuring the concentrations of metabolites and estimating the reaction rates of each reaction step consisting of metabolic pathways are significant for an improvement in microorganisms used in maximizing the production of materials. Although the reaction pathway must be identified for such an improvement, doing so is not easy. Numerous reaction steps have been reported; however, the actual reaction steps activated vary or change according to the conditions. Furthermore, to build mathematical models for a dynamical analysis, the reaction mechanisms and parameter values must be known; however, to date, sufficient information has yet to be published for many cases. In addition, experimental observations are expensive. A new mathematical approach that is applicable to small sample data, and that requires no detailed reaction information, is strongly needed. S-system is one such model that can use smaller samples than other ordinary differential equation models. We propose a simplified S-system to apply minimal quantities of samples for a dynamic analysis of the metabolic pathways. We applied the model to the phenyl lactate production pathway of Escherichia coli. The model obtained suggests that actually activated reaction steps and feedback are inhibitions within the pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we demonstrated the pervasiveness of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) among a selection of Japanese patients as well as evaluated and compared the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the International HIV Dementia Scale (IHDS) for use as a screening tool among combination anti-retroviral therapy (cART)-naïve and cART experienced patients. The MMSE and the IHDS have both been used as HAND screening tests around the world with variable success. It has been reported the increased usage of cART the utility of these screening tests may have been diminished due to the decreased severity of impairment and the altered pattern of neurocognitive impairments in cART era HAND patients. It is therefore possible the MMSE and the IHDS may still be useful among cART-naïve patients even in the cART era. However, only one study has investigated and compared the screening results of the IHDS among cART-naïve and cART experienced patients. All HIV positive patients who visited, or were admitted, to the Ryukyu University Hospital between January 2009 and March 2014 were evaluated for inclusion. Selected patients (n = 49) had data without omission for all tests. The overall prevalence of HAND in our cohort was 44%. The area under the curve (AUC), for all subjects using the MMSE and the IHDS, were 0.60 and 0.69, respectively. However, the AUC among cART-naïve patients were 0.58 and 0.76 for the MMSE and the IHDS, respectively. Whereas, cART experienced patients had an AUC of 0.60 and 0.61, respectively. Overall, the MMSE demonstrated a poor screening ability for HAND, regardless of cART usage (the cut-off value of 27 had a Youden's J-Index of 0.1, in all groups). Alternatively, the IHDS was moderately useful for HAND screening among cART-naïve patients (the cut-off value of 11 had a Youden's J-Index of 0.4), but performed poorly as a screening test among cART experienced patients (the cut-off value of 11 had a Youden's J-Index of 0.1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cerebellum is a crucial structure for cognitive function as well as motor control. Benign brain tumors such as schwannomas, meningiomas, and epidermoids tend to occur in the cerebellopontine angle cisterns and may cause compression of the posterior lateral cerebellum near the superior posterior fissure, where the eloquent area for cognitive function was recently identified. The present study examined cognitive impairment in patients with benign cerebellar tumors before and after surgical intervention in order to clarify the functional implications of this region in humans. Patients with cerebellar tumors showed deficits in psychomotor speed and working memory compared with healthy controls. Moreover, these impairments were more pronounced in patients with right cerebellar tumors. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of a lure task also demonstrated that cerebellar tumors affected pattern separation or the ability to distinguish similar experiences of episodic memory or events with discrete, non-overlapping representations, which is one of the important cognitive functions related to the hippocampus. The present findings indicate that compression of the human posterior lateral cerebellum affects hippocampal memory function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Three-Component Domino Process for the Pyrrolizine Skeleton via [3 + 2]-Cycloaddition-Enamine Cyclization Triggered by a Gold Catalyst" by Kenji Sugimoto and colleagues is presented.