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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses serious challenges to the healthcare systems worldwide. Multiple factors and activities contribute to the development and spread of antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms. Monitoring progress in combating AMR is fundamental at both global and national levels to drive multisectoral actions, identify priorities, and coordinate strategies. Since 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) has collected data through the Tracking AMR Country Self-Assessment Survey (TrACSS). TrACSS data are published in a publicly-available database. In 2023, 71 (59.9%) out of 177 responding countries reported the existence of a monitoring and evaluation plan for their National Action Plan (NAP) on AMR, and just 20 countries (11.3%) the allocation of funding to support NAP implementation. Countries reported challenges including limited financial and human resources, lack of technical capacity, and variable political commitment. Even across the Group of Seven (G7) countries, which represent some of the world's most advanced economies, many areas still need improvement, such as full implementation of infection prevention and control measures, adoption of WHO access/watch/reserve (AWaRe) classification of antibiotics, effective integration of laboratories in AMR surveillance in the animal health and food safety sectors, training and education, good manufacturing and hygiene practices in food processing, optimising pesticides use and environmental residues of antimicrobial drugs. Continuous and coordinated efforts are needed to strengthen multisectoral engagement to fight AMR.

To understand the self-healing property of an engineered barrier for radioactive waste disposal, the hydraulic conductivity of compacted bentonite–sand mixtures saturated with artificial seawater (SW) before and after gas migration was examined. Na- and Ca-bentonites were mixed with fine sand at a ratio of 70% bentonite in dry weight. Two aspects were considered during the experiment: the hydraulic conductivity of the specimen that was resaturated after gas migration and the distribution of water content immediately after gas migration to study gas migration pathways. The gas migrated through the entire cross-section of the specimen, and gas breakthrough occurred in the equilibrium swelling pressure range approximately. Subsequently, the gas flow rate reached a sufficient large value when the gas pressure was approximately twice the equilibrium axial pressure (the sum of swelling and confining pressures), which excluded the back pressure. Although the gas migration pathway was not visible when the specimen was observed immediately after gas migration, the water content distribution showed that several parts of the specimen with lower water content were connected in the direction of gas migration. After resaturation, the change in permeability was within a limited range—two to three times larger than that before gas migration for each type of bentonite in SW. This slight change suggests that gas migration creates a pore structure that cannot be sealed via crystalline swelling of montmorillonite in SW, even if highly compacted bentonite is used under a constant-volume condition.

Preoperative diagnosis of the presence of anomalies or abnormalities of the cervical vessels is important to safely perform neck dissection in patients with head and neck cancer. We present a case of cervical lymph node metastasis from carcinoma of unknown primary origin in a 72-year-old man. The patient had a huge lymph node metastasis in his right neck that was more than 90° adjacent to the common carotid artery. Imaging studies incidentally revealed right internal carotid artery hypoplasia. Internal carotid artery hypoplasia is a very rare vascular anomaly with an incidence of

Summary: Plasticity during the critical period is important for the functional maturation of cortical neurons. While characteristics of plasticity are diverse among cortical layers, it is unknown whether critical period timing is controlled by a common or unique molecular mechanism among them. We here clarified layer-specific regulation of the critical period timing of ocular dominance plasticity in the primary visual cortex. Mice lacking the endocannabinoid synthesis enzyme diacylglycerol lipase-α exhibited precocious critical period timing, earlier maturation of inhibitory synaptic function in layers 2/3 and 4, and impaired development of the binocular matching of orientation selectivity exclusively in layer 2/3. Activation of cannabinoid receptor restored ocular dominance plasticity at the normal critical period in layer 2/3. Suppression of GABAA receptor rescued precocious ocular dominance plasticity in layer 4. Therefore, endocannabinoids regulate critical period timing and maturation of visual function partly through the development of inhibitory synaptic functions in a layer-dependent manner.

The genus Cordyceps and its specific ingredient, cordycepin, have attracted much attention for multiple health benefits and expectations for lifespan extension. We analyzed whether Cordyceps militaris (CM), which contains large amounts of cordycepin, can extend the survival of Dahl salt-sensitive rats, whose survival was reduced to ∼3 months via a high-salt diet. The survival of these life-shortened rats was extended significantly when supplemented with CM, possibly due to a minimization of the effects of stroke. Next, we analyzed the effect of CM on hypertension-sensitive organs, the central nervous systems (CNS), heart, kidney and liver of these rats. We attempted to ascertain how the organs were improved by CM, and we paid particular attention to mitochondria and autophagy functions. The following results were from CM-treated rats in comparison with control rats. Microscopically, CNS neurons, cardiomyocytes, glomerular podocytes, renal epithelial cells, and hepatocytes all were improved. However, immunoblot and immunohistochemical analysis showed that the expressions of mitochondria-related proteins, ATP synthase β subunit, SIRT3 and SOD2, and autophagy-related proteins, LC3-II/LC3-I ratio and cathepsin D all were reduced significantly in the CNS neurons, but increased significantly in the cells of the other three organs, although p62 was decreased in its expression in all the organs tested. Activity of Akt and mTOR was enhanced but that of AMPK was reduced in the CNS, while such kinase activity was completely the opposite in the other organs. Together, the influence of CM may differ between mitochondria and autophagy functioned between the two organ groups, as mitochondria and autophagy seemed to be repressed and promoted, respectively, in the CNS, while both mitochondria and autophagy were activated in the others. This could possibly be related to the steady or improved cellular activity in both the organs, which might result in the life extension of these rats.