Complexity of Body Movements during Sleep in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Recently, measuring the complexity of body movements during sleep has been proven as an objective biomarker of various psychiatric disorders. Although sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and might exacerbate ASD symptoms, their objectivity as a biomarker remains to be established. Therefore, details of body movement complexity during sleep as estimated by actigraphy were investigated in typically developing (TD) children and in children with ASD. Several complexity analyses were applied to raw and thresholded data of actigraphy from 17 TD children and 17 children with ASD. Determinism, irregularity and unpredictability, and long-range temporal correlation were examined respectively using the false nearest neighbor (FNN) algorithm, information-theoretic analyses, and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Although the FNN algorithm did not reveal determinism in body movements, surrogate analyses identified the influence of nonlinear processes on the irregularity and long-range temporal correlation of body movements. Additionally, the irregularity and unpredictability of body movements measured by expanded sample entropy were significantly lower in ASD than in TD children up to two hours after sleep onset and at approximately six hours after sleep onset. This difference was found especially for the high-irregularity period. Through this study, we characterized details of the complexity of body movements during sleep and demonstrated the group difference of body movement complexity across TD children and children with ASD. Complexity analyses of body movements during sleep have provided valuable insights into sleep profiles. Body movement complexity might be useful as a biomarker for ASD.     

Pulsed laser deposition of pure fluoroapatite film without OH groups

The relation between O₂ pressure and composition in the pulsed‐laser deposition of fluoroapatite was investigated using both on‐axis and off‐axis methods to determine the optimal conditions for obtaining a pure fluoroapatite film without OH groups. Through this, it was found that an O₂ pressure of 10 Pa, combined with an off‐axis method, results in P/Ca and F/Ca values (0.6 and 0.2, respectively) that match closely with a stoichiometric composition of Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆F₂. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis confirmed that this optimized film was almost pure fluoroapatite, with no evidence of any OH groups originating from hydroxyapatite. X‐ray diffraction also revealed that this fluoroapatite film crystallizes with a c‐axis orientation perpendicular to its surface.     

Regio-selective cyanation of (Z)-(1,2-dibromo-2-arylvinyl)triisopropylsilane with suppression of halogen elimination

Highly regio-selective cyanation of vicinal (Z)-dibromoalkenyl silanes was achieved by a vinylic Rosenmund-von Braun reaction, significantly suppressing side-production of alkyne. The alkyne was generated by a halogen elimination side-reaction that is an intrinsic problem in metal-activation of vicinal dihaloalkenes. We have studied to overcome the problem, and finally found the combination of CuCN and O = PPh₃ in toluene solvent effectively controlled the production of byproducts. The resultant single isomer has significance in potentially application as a multi-tunable synthetic scaffold.     

Quantum mechanics based force field for carbon (QMFF-Cx) validated to reproduce the mechanical and thermodynamics properties of graphite

As assemblies of graphene sheets, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes become components of new nanotechnologies, it is important to be able to predict the structures and properties of these systems. A problem has been that the level of quantum mechanics practical for such systems (density functional theory at the PBE level) cannot describe the London dispersion forces responsible for interaction of the graphene planes (thus graphite falls apart into graphene sheets). To provide a basis for describing these London interactions, we derive the quantum mechanics based force field for carbon (QMFF-Cx) by fitting to results from density functional theory calculations at the M06-2X level, which demonstrates accuracies for a broad class of molecules at short and medium range intermolecular distances. We carried out calculations on the dehydrogenated coronene (C24) dimer, emphasizing two geometries: parallel-displaced X (close to the observed structure in graphite crystal) and PD-Y (the lowest energy transition state for sliding graphene sheets with respect to each other). A third, eclipsed geometry is calculated to be much higher in energy. The QMFF-Cx force field leads to accurate predictions of available experimental mechanical and thermodynamics data of graphite (lattice vibrations, elastic constants, Poisson ratios, lattice modes, phonon dispersion curves, specific heat, and thermal expansion). This validates the use of M06-2X as a practical method for development of new first principles based generations of QMFF force fields.     

Electroreductive intramolecular coupling of aliphatic cyclic imides with ketones and O-methyloximes

The electroreductive intramolecular coupling of aliphatic cyclic imides with ketones in isopropanol gave five- and six-membered cyclized products. Similarly, the electroreductive intramolecular coupling of aliphatic cyclic imides with O-methyloximes afforded five-, six-, and seven-membered cyclized products. These reactions provide a useful method to synthesize azabicyclo[n.m.0] compounds. The bicyclic products were stereoselectively transformed to the corresponding deoxylated compounds by reduction with NaB(CN)H₃ or Et₃SiH/BF₃·Et₂O.     

Polarity determination of wurtzite-type crystals using hard x-ray photoelectron diffraction

The surface structure of a single-crystal ZnO wafer was studied by angle-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) using synchrotron radiation. As a result, well-defined x-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) patterns were obtained for the (0001) and (000$\overline{1}$) polar surfaces using the photoemission from the Zn 2p_3/2 and O 1s core levels. The XPD patterns were indexed assuming forward scattering of photoelectrons by neighboring ions. Further, the XPD patterns for the (0001) and (000$\overline{1}$) surfaces were different from each other, indicating the possibility for using the XPD technique for polarity determination.     

A case of Budd-Chiari syndrome: Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MR findings

Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) is a rare disorder caused by the obstruction of hepatic venous outflow, leading to sinusoidal congestion, ischemic injury to liver cells and portal hypertension. Long-term survival largely depends on whether hepatocellular carcinoma occurs. A recently available liver-specific contrast medium, gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA), reportedly has high diagnostic capability for detection of malignant liver tumors. However, there has been no report of the sue of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for BCS. We present a case of chronic BCS who underwent both gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) and Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI. Hepatic congestion and edema were seen as slightly hypointense areas on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced hepatobiliary-phase images, although these areas were observed as slightly hyperintense on previously obtained Gd-DTPA-enhanced delayed-phase image. Reduced uptake of Gd-EOB-DTPA by hepatocytes in the region of congestion or edema may account for this difference, which should be recognized in image interpretations.     

Aggregated structure analysis of polymer-protected platinum/ruthenium colloidal dispersions using EXAFS, HRTEM, and electron diffraction measurements

Polymer-protected platinum/ruthenium colloidal dispersions were prepared by refluxing mixed solutions of hexachloroplatinic(IV) acid and ruthenium(III) chloride in a mixture of ethanol/water (1/1 v/v) in the presence of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone). The electronic spectra and transmission electron micrographs suggested that the colloidal dispersions are almost composed of the mixture of the small monometallic Pt and Ru clusters over all the ratio of Pt/Ru compositions. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure analyses and high resolution electron microprobe analyses indicated that no Pt/Ru alloy clusters exist in the dispersions, and the aggregation occurs between small monometallic Pt clusters (diameter ca. 15 A) and partially oxidized Ru microclusters (diameter less than 10 A). Electron diffraction measurements also suggested that the diffraction pattern of aggregated Pt/Ru cluster particles prepared by the simultaneous reduction of Pt and Ru ions is the same as that of the physical mixture of the small monometallic Pt and Ru clusters separately prepared. Therefore, it can be concluded that the aggregated Pt/Ru cluster particles, with 10 to 60 A in diameter, are built up by small monometallic Pt clusters and partially oxidized Ru microclusters, and that Pt/Ru alloy clusters are not formed.