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Chiharu Wada-Koike,1,&ast; Ryo Terauchi,1,&ast; Kota Fukai,2 Kei Sano,1 Euido Nishijima,1 Koji Komatsu,1 Kyoko Ito,3 Tomohiro Kato,3 Masayuki Tatemichi,2 Yoshiaki Kabata,4,&ast; Tadashi Nakano1 1Department of Ophthalmology, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; 2Department of Preventive Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Japan; 3Centre for Preventive Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; 4Department of Ophthalmology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Daisan Hospital, Tokyo, Japan&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yoshiaki Kabata, Department of Ophthalmology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Daisan Hospital, 4-11-1 Izumihontyou, Komae-si, Tokyo, 125-8506, Japan, Tel +81 3 3480 1151, Fax +81 3 3480 5700, Email kabata22122@gmail.comPurpose: To examine the variability in glaucoma screening using fundus images among physicians, including non-ophthalmologists.Patients and Methods: Sixty-nine eyes from 69 patients, including 25 eyes with glaucoma, were included from the Jikei University Hospital from July 2019 to December 2022. Fundus images were captured using TRC-NW8 (Topcon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan), and were interpreted by 10 non-ophthalmologists, 10 non-specialist ophthalmologists, and 9 specialists for diagnostic accuracy. We analyzed differences in diagnostic accuracy among the three groups. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and Kappa coefficient were compared, using the Kruskal–Wallis test followed by a post hoc Dunn’s test.Results: The sensitivity and specificity were 0.22 and 0.92 for non-ophthalmologists, 0.49 and 0.83 for non-specialist ophthalmologists, and 0.68 and 0.87 for specialists, respectively. Both specialists and non-specialist ophthalmologists showed significantly higher sensitivity than non-ophthalmologists (Dunn’s test, P< 0.001 and P=0.031). There was no significant difference in specificity among the three groups (Kruskal–Wallis test, P=0.086). The PPV did not differ significantly between the groups (Kruskal–Wallis test, P=0.108), while the NPV was significantly higher in specialists compared to non-ophthalmologists (Dunn’s test, P< 0.001). Specialists also had a significantly higher Kappa coefficient than non-ophthalmologists and non-specialist ophthalmologists (Dunn’s test, P< 0.001 and P=0.024).Conclusion: Diagnostic accuracy varied significantly based on the physician’s background.Keywords: glaucoma, fundus images, sensitivity, specificity, health checkup

Yosuke Wada,1,2 Kensaku Shojima,1 Kayoko Tamaki,1 Takara Mori,1,3 Hiroshi Kusunoki,1,4 Masaaki Onishi,5 Shotaro Tsuji,5,6 Ryota Matsuzawa,7 Koutatsu Nagai,7 Kyoko Sano,8 Kana Hashimoto,9 Masashi Goto,10 Yasuyuki Nagasawa,1 Ken Shinmura1,10 1Department of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Hyogo Medical University, Nishinomiya, Japan; 2Roppou Clinic, Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan; 3Amagasaki Medical COOP Honden Clinic, Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan; 4Department of Internal Medicine, Osaka Dental University, Hirakata, Japan; 5Department of Orthopedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Hyogo Medical University, Nishinomiya, Japan; 6Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tatsuno City Hospital, Tatsuno, Japan; 7Department of Physical Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Hyogo Medical University, Kobe, Japan; 8Takarazuka Rehabilitation Hospital, Takarazuka, Japan; 9School of Pharmacy, Hyogo Medical University, Kobe, Japan; 10Department of General Medicine and Community Health Science, Hyogo Medical University, Sasayama Medical Center, Tambasasayama, JapanCorrespondence: Ken Shinmura, Department of General Internal Medicine, Hyogo Medical University, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan, Tel +81-798-45-6865, Fax +81-798-45-6977, Email ke-shimmura@hyo-med.ac.jpPurpose: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between timed up-and-go (TUG) test time and changes in frailty status in a longitudinal cohort study of rural Japanese older adults.Patients and Methods: This prospective cohort study included 545 community-dwelling older adults. Initial and 2-year follow-up surveys were conducted. We compared the number of the Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study components during the follow-up period and classified the participants into three groups: the favorable change, unchanged as prefrail, and unfavorable change groups. Associations between changes in frailty status and TUG time in the first survey were examined. The predictive ability of the TUG test was determined using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results: The favorable change group comprised 315 individuals (57.8%), the unchanged as prefrail group 105 (19.2%), and the unfavorable change group 125 (22.9%). TUG time was associated with the favorable and unfavorable changes after adjustment for covariates (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68– 0.92, P=0.001 and OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.09– 1.49, P=0.002). The ROC curve of TUG time as a predictor of unfavorable changes showed an area under the curve of 0.59. A cut-off point of TUG was calculated as 6.3 s with 49.6% sensitivity and 66.0% specificity.Conclusion: TUG time in the first survey was significantly associated with changes in frailty status 2 years later. However, its predictive value as a stand-alone test is limited and has the potential to predict future changes in the frailty status in older adults in combination with other tests.Keywords: frailty, cardiovascular health study, older adults, physical function, timed up-and-go test

The external quantum efficiency (EQE) and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of radiation are quantified by omnidirectional photoluminescence measurements using an integrating sphere for two types of GaN crystals with different carbon concentrations ([C] = 1 × 10 14 cm − 3 , 2 × 10 15 cm − 3 ). In the sample with lower [C], when the excitation density is 140 W cm − 2 , the EQE and IQE for near-band-edge (NBE) emission are 0.787% and 21.7%, respectively. The relationship between [C] and the IQE for NBE emission indicates that carbon impurities work as effective nonradiative recombination centers (NRCs) in n-type GaN, and major NRCs switch from carbon impurities to intrinsic NRCs, such as vacancies, when [C] falls below 3.5 × 10 14 cm − 3 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acquired idiopathic generalized anhidrosis (AIGA) leads to heat intolerance due to the loss or reduction in thermoregulatory sweating over an extensive area of the body. The pathomechanism of AIGA is still unclear but is believed to be autoimmune. Objectives: We investigated the clinical and pathological features of inflammatory AIGA (InfAIGA) and noninflammatory AIGA (non‐InfAIGA) within the skin. Methods: We compared anhidrotic and normohidrotic skin samples from 30 patients with InfAIGA and non‐InfAIGA, as well as skin samples of melanocytic nevus as a negative control. We conducted morphometric analysis and immunohistochemical analysis of cell types and expression of inflammatory molecules (TIA1, CXCR3 and MxA). MxA expression was used as a proxy for type 1 interferon activity. Results: We found that tissue samples from patients with InfAIGA exhibited inflammation within the sweat duct and atrophy of the sweat coil, whereas patients with non‐InfAIGA exhibited only atrophy of the sweat coil. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration and MxA expression were only observed in the sweat ducts of patients with InfAIGA. Conclusions: InfAIGA is associated with increased sweat duct inflammation and sweat coil atrophy, whereas non‐InfAIGA is only associated with sweat coil atrophy. These data suggest that inflammation leads to epithelial destruction of sweat ducts associated with the sweat coil atrophy and subsequent loss of function. Non‐InfAIGA may be regarded as a postinflammatory state of InfAIGA. These observations indicate the contribution of both type 1 and type 2 interferons to sweat gland injury. The mechanism involved is similar to the pathomechanism of alopecia areata (AA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scattered sunlight from the interplanetary dust (IPD) cloud in our solar system presents a serious foreground challenge for spectrophotometric measurements of the extragalactic background light (EBL). In this work, we report on inferred measurements of the absolute intensity of the zodiacal light (ZL) using the novel technique of Fraunhofer line spectroscopy on the deepest 8542 Å line of the near-infrared Ca ii absorption triplet. The measurements are performed with the narrow band spectrometer (NBS) on board the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment sounding rocket instrument. We use the NBS data to test the accuracy of two ZL models widely cited in the literature, the Kelsall and Wright models, which have been used in foreground removal analyses that produce high and low EBL results respectively. We find a mean reduced χ2 = 3.5 for the Kelsall model and χ2 = 2.0 for the Wright model. The best description of our data is provided by a simple modification to the Kelsall model, which includes a free ZL offset parameter. This adjusted model describes the data with a reduced χ2 = 1.5 and yields an inferred offset amplitude of 46 ± 19 nW m−2 sr−1 extrapolated to 12500 Å. These measurements elude to the potential existence of a dust cloud component in the inner solar system whose intensity does not strongly modulate with the Earth's motion around the Sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Multilayered thermoelectric material bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) is widely used in engineering owing to its exceptional thermoelectric performance at room temperature. However, Bi2Te3 is prone to cracks, voids, or other defects due to its multilayered structure, leading to decreased device lifetime and reliability. Objective: This paper aims at stably and precisely measuring the interlaminar fracture toughness (IFT) of multilayered Bi2Te3 for the reliability evaluation of Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric devices. In addition, we seek a method to stably measure the IFT even for very brittle materials. Methods: We developed a tapered cantilever bending (TCB) experiment to obtain the IFT. The experimental specimens were fabricated using a focused ion beam (FIB) technique at the micro scale, and the initial interlaminar crack was introduced by the notch method. Results: By performing the TCB experiment, we created an ideally sharp pre-crack and observed stable crack propagation. The critical energy release rate (ERR) for crack propagation obtained in the present paper is around 0.51–0.53 J/m2, which agrees reasonably with theoretical van der Waals (vdW) interlaminar interaction energy. Conclusions: The proposed method can be well-applied in assessing IFTs of multilayered materials, even for very brittle multilayered 2D materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]