University of Tsukuba

Regular light-intensity exercise accelerates contextual fear extinction with reduced dorsal CA3 activation in male rats

Exercise has gained attention as a low-cost, non-pharmacological approach for stress-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Regular light-intensity exercise (LIE), which is feasible even for vulnerable populations, has been reported to promote contextual...

Protocol update to: Protocol for rapid manipulation of mitochondrial morphology in living cells using inducible counter mitochondrial morphology

Disruption of mitochondrial morphology occurs during various diseases, but the biological significance is not entirely clear. Here, we describe a detailed step-bystep protocol for a chemically inducible dimerization (CID) system-based synthetic protein device, termed inducible co...

Capturing park-use behavior patterns using volunteered street view imagery: Does the likelihood increase with the volume of contributions

Abstract. Analyzing how citizens experience urban parks can provide valuable information for evaluating the effectiveness of park planning and management decisions to encourage park use. Although crowd-sourced data from social media have been reported to be useful for reflecting...

Daily Happiness in Contexts: Associations of Activities, Social Companions, and Humor Use across Two 2-Month Experience Sampling Studies

Abstract Everyday happiness can be described more informatively by considering both the situations surrounding happiness reports and how people engage with and respond to everyday experience over the relevant assessment interval. The present research examined activity–companion c...

Sensory nerves regulate bone homeostasis in response to mechanical unloading or reloading: evidence from a spaceflight experiment and ground-based mechanical unloading models

Mechanical loading is crucial for maintaining bone mass, and understanding how bone remodels in response to mechanical loading is essential for treating musculoskeletal disorders. Recently, sensory nerves inside bone were identified as mechanical regulators of bone homeostasis. H...

Contralateral vertebral artery dissection after an unprecedented 14-year interval with a persistent intimal flap: A case report

Background: Bilateral vertebral artery dissection (VAD) is infrequent, and when it occurs, both sides typically dissect simultaneously or within days to weeks. Contralateral dissection after more than 1 year is extremely rare, with previously reported intervals frequently ranging...

Nintedanib Treatment of Patients With Interstitial Lung Diseases: A Retrospective Study of Daily Clinical Practice

Background/Aim: Nintedanib, an antifibrotic drug, is expected to slow the progression of interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of nintedanib for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF) who...

A dynamic framework for marine radioactivity baselines: Climate-driven variability of 137Cs in the Pacific Ocean

Radiocesium-137 ( 137 Cs) is a useful tracer of ocean circulation because of its long physical half-life and relatively conservative behavior in seawater. We investigated variability in Pacific 137 Cs concentrations and apparent half-lives using observational datasets and numeric...

Preclinical evaluation of a fully threaded biodegradable magnesium alloy headless compression screw for enhanced fixation in small bones

Background Biodegradable magnesium (Mg) alloys have attracted attention as alternatives to conventional metallic implants; however, their clinical applicability to fully threaded headless compression (HC) screws has been scarcely investigated. Methods In this study, a fully threa...

Cellulose-fueled extracellular electron transfer in termite gut microbes

ABSTRACT Termites decompose billions of tons of lignocellulosic material annually through the cellulolytic metabolism of their gut microbiota. However, the mechanisms by which cellulose degradation drives anaerobic metabolism of the gut microbiome remain poorly understood. Here,...

METTL18 is Required for Developmental, Metabolic, and Endocrine Regulation of Mammalian Growth

ABSTRACT Histidine methylation is an evolutionarily conserved but poorly understood post‐translational modification. METTL18 is known to catalyze histidine N τ‐methylation in vitro, yet its physiological functions in mammals remain unclear. Here we show that mouse METTL18 possess...

Dual-oxygen pancreatic cancer organoids recapitulate basal–classical heterogeneity validated by spatial transcriptomics

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) comprises heterogeneous classical and basal-like subtypes. Although pancreatic cancer organoids (PCOs) are widely used, normoxic cultures preferentially maintain the classical subtype, limiting their ability to represent intrinsic intratumo...

Extended global area search algorithm for unimolecular reactions and multistep conformational transitions

In this study, we propose an extended Global Area Search (GLAS) algorithm for the automatic exploration of multistep transitions without specifying reaction coordinates in advance. The key concept of the original GLAS method is to introduce repulsive interactions among walkers re...

A Gradient-CorrectedPolarizable Continuum Model forImproved Reaction Fields at the SCF Level

Abstract We propose an improved model, termed the gradient-corrected PCM (GCPCM), for improving the energy accuracy of the polarizable continuum model (PCM). Our previous study revealed deficiencies of PCM in describing the reaction field, i.e., the electrostatic potential genera...

Building a Physics-Aware AI Ecosystem for Solid-State Hydrogen Storage Materials

Abstract Hydrogen storage remains a central bottleneck for scalable hydrogen energy systems due to the multiscale and coupled nature of the thermodynamics, kinetics, and microstructural evolution of hydrogen storage materials (HSMs). Although artificial intelligence (AI) has acce...

Stump-related embolism from a thrombosed carotid–subclavian bypass causing large vessel occlusion after thoracic endovascular aortic repair

Background: Kommerell diverticulum frequently requires thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) with carotid–subclavian bypass (CSB). Although CSB is durable, delayed embolic stroke secondary to graft failure is rare. We report a rare case of large vessel occlusion caused by a...

Associations between jump-derived mechanical indicators and sprint performance across sprint sections in baseball players

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between sprint performance across discrete distance sections and mechanical indicators derived from ballistic and reactive jumping tasks in male collegiate baseball players. Sixty-two players performed maximal 40-m sprint...

Multidimensional Social Interaction and School Refusal Tendency Among Elementary and Junior High School Students: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study with an Exploratory Indirect-Association Analysis

Background/Objectives: School refusal tendency is an important school adaptation issue, but its upstream psychosocial correlates remain insufficiently understood. We examined whether baseline multidimensional social interaction was prospectively associated with later school refus...

Tracking the baryon number with nuclear collisions

Baryon quantum number is found to be conserved since baryogenesis in the early Universe. Conventionally, each fractionally charged valence quark is understood to carry one-third of a baryon number. An alternative hypothesis posits that baryon number is instead carried by a baryon...

Prognostic Value of One-Month Postoperative ICIQ-SF Score for Six-Month Urinary Continence After Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy

Background/Objectives: Urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy remains a significant concern affecting postoperative quality of life. This study aimed to investigate whether the early postoperative International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ...