This article discusses the quantitative analysis of verbal expressions of comments from the evaluation committee reviewers for 8 years (FY2001—FY2008) at the Japanese Public Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). First, the terms often appearing in the comment sheets were observed. Moreover, gradually increasing terms every year and suddenly emerging terms after the beginning of the second research phase are examined. Finally, the terms related closely to the output evaluation are considered. By properly setting the evaluation items, the comments along a specific direction can be obtained from the reviewers. Moreover, the permeation of an idea or concept can also be found by measuring the time variance of the frequency of specific terms in the comment sheet.
To deter the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many countries have imposed a lockdown with restrictions. On 7 April 2020, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak. Japan was in "mild lockdown" which was not enforceable and non-punitive with the declaration. We conducted an online survey to investigate factors associated with psychological distress in the "mild lockdown" under a declared state of emergency for COVID-19. We collected data on 11,333 inhabitants (52.4% women, 46.3 ± 14.6 years) living in the seven prefectures where the declaration was first applied. The investigation dates of this study, 11 and 12 May 2020, were in the final phase of the state of emergency. The survey was conducted in real-time to minimize participants' recall bias. In addition to psychological inventories often used worldwide, the questionnaires used in this survey included lifestyle and stress management items related to COVID-19 and various socio-demographic items including occupation (e.g. healthcare worker) or income.
To deter the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many countries have imposed a lockdown with restrictions. On 7 April 2020, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak. Japan was in "mild lockdown" which was not enforceable and non-punitive with the declaration. We conducted an online survey to investigate factors associated with psychological distress in the "mild lockdown" under a declared state of emergency for COVID-19. We collected data on 11,333 inhabitants (52.4% women, 46.3 ± 14.6 years) living in the seven prefectures where the declaration was first applied. The investigation dates of this study, 11 and 12 May 2020, were in the final phase of the state of emergency. The survey was conducted in real-time to minimize participants' recall bias. In addition to psychological inventories often used worldwide, the questionnaires used in this survey included lifestyle and stress management items related to COVID-19 and various socio-demographic items including occupation (e.g. healthcare worker) or income.
Abstract Temporal prediction ability is vital for movement synchronization with external rhythmic stimuli (sensorimotor synchronization); however, little is known regarding individual variations in temporal prediction ability and its neural correlates. We determined the underlying neural correlates of temporal prediction and individual variations during auditory-motor synchronization. We hypothesized that the non-primary motor cortices, such as the premotor cortex and supplementary motor area, are the key brain regions that correlate individual variations in prediction ability. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (7T) was performed for 18 healthy volunteers who tapped to 3 types of auditory metronome beats: isochronous, tempo change, and random. The prediction ability was evaluated using prediction/tracking ratios that were computed based on cross-correlations between tap timing and pacing events. Participants with a higher prediction/tracking ratio (i.e. stronger predictive tendency) tapped to metronome beats more accurately and precisely. The prediction/tracking ratio was positively correlated with the activity in the bilateral dorsal premotor cortex (PMd), suggesting that the bilateral PMd explains the individual variation in prediction ability. These results indicate that the PMd is involved in generating a model for temporal prediction of auditory rhythm patterns and its activity would reflect model accuracy, which is critical for accurate and precise sensorimotor synchronization.
Abstract We previously showed that cognitive performance declines when the retrieval process spans an expiratory-to-inspiratory (EI) phase transition (an onset of inspiration). To identify the neural underpinning of this phenomenon, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants performed a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) recognition memory task with a short delay. Respiration during the task was monitored using a nasal cannula. Behavioral data replicated the decline in memory performance specific to the EI transition during the retrieval process, while an extensive array of frontoparietal regions were activated during the encoding, delay, and retrieval processes of the task. Within these regions, when the retrieval process spanned the EI transition, activation was reduced in the anterior cluster of the right temporoparietal junction (TPJa, compared to cases when the retrieval process spanned the inspiratory-to-expiratory phase transition) and the left and right middle frontal gyrus, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and somatosensory areas (compared to cases when the retrieval process did not span any phase transition). These results in task-related activity may represent respiratory interference specifically in information manipulation rather than memory storage. Our findings demonstrate a cortical-level effect of respiratory phases on cognitive processes and highlight the importance of the timing of breathing for successful performance.
Abstract Background In the past, different stress generation studies have used self-report measures comprising different items to assess each category of negative events. Moreover, the validity of these scales has not been adequately investigated. Therefore, we developed a self-report measure dedicated to assessing experiences of negative interpersonal dependent events, negative non-interpersonal dependent events, and negative independent events in university students, which was named the Negative Independent/Dependent Events Scale.
Methods Japanese undergraduate students (N = 247; mean age = 19.18 years, SD = 3.08) responded to the Negative Independent/Dependent Events Scale, which had items selected for adequate content validity. They also responded to self-report measures of depressive symptoms, reassurance-seeking behaviors, inattention, and lack of perseverance.
Results All the negative events subscales had moderate positive correlations with depressive symptoms. In addition, the negative interpersonal dependent events subscale showed a moderate positive correlation with reassurance-seeking behaviors, and the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale showed a strong positive correlation with inattention. Furthermore, the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale was more strongly correlated with inattention than the other two negative events subscales. In contrast, the negative interpersonal dependent events subscale was more strongly correlated with reassurance-seeking behaviors than with the negative independent events subscale but not more strongly than with the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale.
Conclusions These findings indicated the acceptable construct validity of the Negative Independent/Dependent Events Scale. However, further research is necessary to establish the discriminant validity of the negative interpersonal dependent events subscale and the negative non-interpersonal dependent events subscale.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is today the biggest public health challenge in the world (Park, 2020). The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed on December 8, 2019, in Hubei province, China. From that day, in just over 3 months, the virus has spread to more than 177 countries/areas/territories around the world, with more than 266,073 confirmed cases and 11,184 deaths, according to WHO on March 21, 2020 (WHO, 2020). The most common clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are mild flu-like illness, potentially lethal acute respiratory distress syndrome, or fulminant pneumonia. As a result, numerous countries have decided to implement (some by government decrees, as well as martial laws) the establishment of mandatory social distance in a family environment, closing non-essential commercial environments, in an attempt to reduce the peak of the infection curve (Lewnard and Lo, 2020). We know that a large part of the world population is far from the minimum conditions of physical exercise recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to improve the health component (Katzmarzyk et al., 2019). This fact would give important relevance to the level of physical activity exercised by the population throughout the day.However, once the extreme hypokinetic behavior is implemented as a result of the quarantine, a cycle of perverse events begins, making part of the population more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of acute and chronic diseases, including respiratory tract infections (Hall et al., 2020). In a recent position paper presented by Chen et al. (2020), the authors try to propose to the general population to continue exercising regardless of the current moment the world is living. In fact, as the authors mention, based on other researchers, "anything is better than nothing," and the sedentary lifestyle is something that should not be encouraged, i.e., any energy expenditure added to the routine of these people would be significant. Recommendations for the population to keep regularly active highlight only a minimum applicable technical basis, without presenting any suitable parameters for carrying them out. From the initial positioning of Chen et al. (2020), the ACSM via publication on the website of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (ACSM, 2020; WHO, 2020), as well as other institutions (ACSM, 2020; WHO, 2020), expanded the proposal about the practice of physical exercise to be performed at home. Tasks such as brisk walking, up and down stairs, dance, jump rope, yoga exercises, and bodyweight strength training are also recommended for indoor workout (Table 1). ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
