Humans can use recursive combination operation in various behaviors; other primates, however, rarely perform thisoperation. In our previous research, using an evolutionary simulation of combination behavior, we showed that recursive com-bination was more adaptive than repetitive combination in cases where the robustness of production or the diversity of productswas required. In this research, we examined the evolvability of recursive combination in combinatorial space parametrizedby kinds of elemental materials and the number of elements per product. Recursive combination evolved in the region of lowkinds of elemental materials and large number of elements per product. This region may be compared with the situation of themiddle stone age when invented diversified tools with limited kinds of materials such as stone, bone, and woods. The recursivecombinatorial operation could scaffold the evolution of general recursive combination abilities including language, technology,music, and mathematics.

Pursuing the mechanisms and methods to improve the creative potential in team activities becomes significant in modern society. One candidate of the creative method is LEGO Serious Play (LSP), where intuitive modelling with LEGO blocks, corresponding to Play in LSP, is considered effective in teams’ creative problem-solving. To understand the mechanism for Play to influence creativity in interpersonal interactions, we compared Play (intuitive modelling) and Non-Play modelling with LEGO blocks. Our experiments consisted of two phases, individual and collaborative modelling, and two groups conducted the former phase, intuitive modelling before thinking (Play) and thinking before modelling (Non-Play). We found that Play significantly promoted utterances about abstract concepts during the collaborative phase, while utterances about concrete models showed no difference between the two groups. This finding suggests that the interplay between mentioning abstract concepts and handling concrete objects may be a mechanism of Play as intuitive modelling to improve team creativity.

Human communication, known to occur between two individuals using various modalities, has attracted significant interest, particularly in the context of neural dynamics' studies. Embodied communication, especially in cooperative or competitive situations, has been a focal point of these studies. However, the neural activity during this process is not well understood from the viewpoint of motor intention in communication. It is crucial to note that intentional motor switching occurs following motor coordination within a pair. In this study, we conducted a simultaneous recording of EEG, motion, and gaze of two players engaged in our newly devised coordination game involving bodily motions. We observed significant differences in time-frequency power during cooperative and competitive situations in intentional motor switching. This finding suggests that the EEG power differences in local brain regions and in the alpha and high-frequency bands are effectively related to the process of intentional motor switching.

Plant cells form acentrosomal spindles with microtubules (MTs) converged toward two structurally undefined poles by employing MT minus end-directed Kinesin-14 motors. To date, it is unclear whether the convergent bipolar MT array assumes unified poles in plant spindles, and if so, how such a goal is achieved. Among six classes of Kinesin-14 motors in Arabidopsis thaliana, the Kinesin-14A motors ATK1 (KatA) and ATK5 share the essential function in spindle morphogenesis. To understand how the two functionally redundant Kinesin-14A motors contributed to the spindle assembly, we had ATK1-GFP and ATK5-GFP fusion proteins expressed in their corresponding null mutants and found that they were functionally comparable to their native forms. Although ATK1 was a nuclear protein and ATK5 cytoplasmic prior to nuclear envelop breakdown, at later mitotic stages, the two motors shared similar localization patterns of uniform association with both spindle and phragmoplast MTs. We found that ATK1 and ATK5 were rapidly concentrated toward unified polar foci when cells were under hyperosmotic conditions. Concomitantly, spindle poles became perfectly focused as if there were centrosome-like MT-organizing centers where ATK1 and ATK5 were highly enriched and at which kinetochore fibers pointed. The separation of ATK1/ATK5-highlighted MTs from those of kinetochore fibers suggested that the motors translocated interpolar MTs. Our protein purification and live-cell imaging results showed that ATK1 and ATK5 are associated with each other in vivo. The stress-induced spindle pole convergence was also accompanied by poleward accumulation of the MT nucleator γ-tubulin. These results led to the conclusion that the two Kinesin-14A motors formed oligomeric motor complexes that drove MT translocation toward the spindle pole to establish acentrosomal spindles with convergent poles.

The establishment of symbolic communication system, i.e., making a shared meaning system from meaninglesssignals, is studied in experimental semiotics (Galantucci, 2005). Local neural activities within a brain region during a symboliccommunication task (Konno et al., 2013), where two participants try to establish a symbolic communication system fromscratch, has been studied (Li et al, 2015). It is, however, not certain how information bindings between different brain regionsis involved in a cognitive process associated with the establishment process. We analyzed EEG phase synchronization, as ameasure of functional connectivity, of participants engaged in the symbolic communication task. We found the recruitmentof fronto-occipital synchronization at 40 Hz frequency (gamma band), when a symbolic message was displayed, became fastwhen establishing a symbolic communication system. This finding suggests that frontal-occipital information binding by phasesynchronization becomes efficiently used in the course of mutual understanding of symbolic messages.

What is necessary for robots to coexist with human beings? In order to do so, we suppose, robots must be moralagents. To be a moral agent is to bear its own responsibility which others cannot take for it. We will argue that such anirreplaceability consists in its having an inner world — one which others cannot directly experience, just as pleasure and pain.And personality of a moral agent, which is to be irreducible to a mere difference of traits or features of individuals, is firmlyrooted in such an inner world.We will support our theses by referring to our experiment in which humans and robots interact with each other doing acoordination task. This experiment will provide an empirical analysis of the human-robot relationship with regard to learningmechanism, moral judgement, and the ascription of the inner world.

Background

Paraneoplastic pemphigus (PNP), also called paraneoplastic autoimmune multiorgan syndrome (PAMS), is a rare autoimmune disease with mucocutaneous and multi-organ involvement. PNP/PAMS is typically associated with lymphoproliferative or haematological malignancies, and less frequently with solid malignancies. The mortality rate of PNP/PAMS is elevated owing to the increased risk of severe infections and disease-associated complications, such as bronchiolitis obliterans.

Objectives

These guidelines summarize evidence-based and expert-based recommendations (S2k level) for the clinical characterization, diagnosis and management of PNP/PAMS. They have been initiated by the Task Force Autoimmune Blistering Diseases of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology with the contribution of physicians from all relevant disciplines. The degree of consent among all task force members was included.

Results

Chronic severe mucositis and polymorphic skin lesions are clue clinical characteristics of PNP/PAMS. A complete assessment of the patient with suspected PNP/PAMS, requiring histopathological study and immunopathological investigations, including direct and indirect immunofluorescence, ELISA and, where available, immunoblotting/immunoprecipitation, is recommended to achieve a diagnosis of PNP/PAMS. Detection of anti-envoplakin antibodies and/or circulating antibodies binding to the rat bladder epithelium at indirect immunofluorescence is the most specific tool for the diagnosis of PNP/PAMS in a patient with compatible clinical and anamnestic features. Treatment of PNP/PAMS is highly challenging. Systemic steroids up to 1.5 mg/kg/day are recommended as first-line option. Rituximab is also recommended in patients with PNP/PAMS secondary to lymphoproliferative conditions but might also be considered in cases of PNP/PAMS associated with solid tumours. A multidisciplinary approach involving pneumologists, ophthalmologists and onco-haematologists is recommended for optimal management of the patients.

Conclusions

These are the first European guidelines for the diagnosis and management of PNP/PAMS. Diagnostic criteria and therapeutic recommendations will require further validation by prospective studies.