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This study represents the first systematic account to test the hypothesis of college as the great equalizer in Japan by analyzing the three-way association among class origin, destination, and education. The authors use data from the Social Stratification and Social Mobility surveys and the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys. By applying the entropy balancing technique, the authors estimate the heterogeneous causal effect of college education on occupational attainment by the father’s occupation. The results indicate that college education does not function as a great equalizer in Japan. There is no clear evidence to suggest that the occupational returns to a college education are greater among those from less advantaged families than those from more advantaged families. The authors argue that the equalizing effect of a college education is not apparent, because of the specific institutional arrangements of the educational system and the labor market in society.

This study examines whether the experience of being bullied at school has a long-term impact on three health outcomes in adulthood in Japan: subjective health, mental health, and activity restriction due to health conditions. We employed a random effects model and the Karlson-Holm-Breen method to decompose the total effect of being bullied at school on health inequality into a direct effect and an indirect effect working through intervening factors including education, marriage, economic well-being, and social networks. We used the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys 2007-2020 (waves 1-14), a nationally representative panel data set that includes 2,260 male and 2,608 female respondents. The results demonstrate that for both men and women, the direct effect of being bullied at school was strong and significant. Bullying experiences in childhood had a long-term impact on health outcomes in adulthood, regardless of social background and mediating factors of education, marriage, economic well-being, and social networks. Bullying victimization increased the risk of poor subjective health, low mental health scores, and activity restriction due to health conditions. Intervening factors (especially economic well-being and friendship) mediated the association between bullying experiences and all health outcomes, but their contributions were modest. Policy measures not only to prevent bullying during childhood but also to alleviate its negative consequences in adulthood should be considered to help people who have encountered adverse childhood experiences.

Abstract Background The active hip abduction test (AHAbd) is widely used to evaluate lumbopelvic stability, but the onset of trunk muscle activation during the test in individuals with recurrent low back pain (rLBP) has not been investigated so far. It is important to investigate the pattern of trunk muscle activation during the AHAbd test to provide insight into the interpretation of observation-based assessment results; this may help to create exercise therapy interventions, from a movement control perspective, for people seeking treatment for rLBP. The purpose of this study was to compare the timing of trunk muscle activation between individuals with and without rLBP and to assess potential differences. Methods Seventeen subjects in remission from rLBP and 17 subjects without rLBP were recruited. We performed surface electromyography of the transversus abdominis/internal abdominal oblique, external oblique, erector spinae, and gluteus medius muscles during the AHAbd test on both sides. The onset of trunk muscle activation was calculated relative to the prime mover gluteus medius. The independent-samples t- and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare the onset of trunk muscle activation between the two groups. Results The onset of transversus abdominis/internal abdominal oblique activation on the ipsilateral (right AHAbd: −3.0 ± 16.2 vs. 36.3 ± 20.0 msec, left AHAbd: −7.2 ± 18.6 vs. 29.6 ± 44.3 ms) and contralateral sides (right AHAbd: −11.5 ± 13.9 vs. 24.4 ± 32.3 ms, left AHAbd: −10.1 ± 12.5 vs. 23.3 ± 17.2 ms) and erector spinae on the contralateral side (right AHAbd: 76.1 ± 84.9 vs. 183.9 ± 114.6 ms, left AHAbd: 60.7 ± 70.5 vs. 133.9 ± 98.6 ms) occurred significantly later in individuals with rLBP than in individuals without rLBP (p 0.05). Conclusions Our results suggest that individuals with rLBP possess a trunk muscle activation pattern that is different from that of individuals without rLBP. These findings provide an insight into the underlying muscle activation patterns during the AHAbd test for people with rLBP and may support aggressive early intervention for neuromuscular control.

Abstract This study examines long-term ocean pH data to evaluate ocean acidification (OA) trends at two coastal research institutions located on the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. These laboratories are located away from the influences of large rivers and major industrial activity. Measurements were performed daily for the past 30 years (1980s–2010s). The average annual ocean pH for both sites showed generally negative trends. These trends were – 0.0032 and – 0.0068 year–1 (p

Aim Emergency physicians (EPs) often treat anterior shoulder dislocation, but epidemiology of anterior shoulder dislocation in the emergency department of Japan remains unclear. In this study, we clarified the success rate of anterior shoulder reduction performed by EPs. Methods This single‐center cohort study included patients with anterior shoulder dislocation for whom the EP performed initial reduction. The period was from January 2006 to March 2021 and we used the electronic medical record data of the tertiary care hospital. Our primary outcome was the success rate of the shoulder reduction performed by EP. The secondary outcome was to compare the success of reduction with the failure of the reduction. Results In total, 293 eligible patients were identified. Of these patients, 244 were included in this study. The success rate of the shoulder reduction performed by EP was 92.2% (225/244). EPs failed in successfully performing reduction in 19 (7.8%) cases of anterior shoulder dislocations. The failure group was older (P = 0.017), had a higher frequency of fall down in the mechanism of dislocation (P = 0.019), used intravenous analgesics more frequently (P = 0.004), used peripheral nerve blocks more frequently (P = 0.006), and had fewer patients who did not use drugs (P = 0.002). We could not perform statical adjustment because the sample size was small. Conclusion The success rate of the shoulder reduction performed by EPs was 92.2%. Older age might be associated with failure of shoulder reduction.

Aim Tracheostomy is a common procedure for intubated patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the intensive care unit (ICU) but optimal timing and the predictors of tracheostomy are still unclear. The aim of our study was to explore whether the traumatic variables of head injury predict the need for tracheostomy in intubated TBI patients. Methods A single‐center, retrospective observational study including a series of TBI patients admitted to Fukui Prefectural Hospital from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2020 was carried out. Our primary outcome was tracheostomy. Patients with TBI who were intubated and admitted into the ICU within 24 h after injury were enrolled. Exclusion criteria were age less than 18 years, pregnancy, mortality within 24 h, post‐cardiac arrest syndrome, and patients for whom life‐sustaining interventions were withheld. Radiologic images were also reviewed and the morphology of the head injury was categorized. Results Seventy‐six patients were included. Forty‐six patients (60.5%) underwent tracheostomy and 30 patients (39.5%) were successfully extubated. Calvarial fracture (odds ratio [OR] 0.34; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.13–0.88; P = 0.03), Injury Severity Score (OR 1.07; 95% CI, 1.00–1.15; P = 0.04), and Glasgow Comas Scale score (OR 0.84; 95% CI, 0.73–0.96) were statistically significant in the univariable analysis. Multivariate logistic regression identified calvarial fracture as an independent predictor for tracheostomy. The model involving calvarial fracture, Injury Severity Score ≥16, and Glasgow Coma Scale score ≤8 showed the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the model was 0.737 (95% CI, 0.629–0.846). Conclusions The absence of calvarial fracture could predict the necessity for tracheostomy in intubated TBI patients when combined with other factors. Further prospective randomized trials are necessary to confirm the findings.

Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) has been used as a method of controlling intraabdominal bleeding in case of hemorrhagic shock and an adjunct to improve traditional advanced cardiac life support in non-traumatic cardiac arrest. Partial REBOA is proposed as an alternative method to regulate low-volume continuous blood flow across the area of occlusion with the aim of minimizing the risk of ischemia-reperfusion injury. An 82-year-old male suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest due to massive gastric bleeding. He was initially resuscitated with partial REBOA but died of non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI) or rebleeding. REBOA was performed during his cardiac arrest and deflated after the return of spontaneous circulation. We aimed for a proximal arterial pressure of 70–80 mmHg and a distal arterial pressure of 20–30 mmHg. The total time of REBOA was 25 min of complete occlusion and 88 min of partial occlusion. The possible causes of NOMI were age of the patient, the low flow state with prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the lower proximal-to-distal gradient of the partial REBOA, and the longer duration of total occlusion. Further studies may be required to determine the optimal distal pressure during partial REBOA to limit the burden of mesenteric ischemia.

This paper describes the utilization of the downwashes of multicopters for gas-sensing applications. Multirotor drones are an attractive platform for sensing applications. Their high maneuverability enables swift scanning of a target area with onboard sensors. When equipped with a gas sensor and used for gas-sensing applications, however, the strong downwash produced by the rotors poses a problem. When a multicopter is hovering at a low altitude, gas puffs leaked from a gas source on the ground are all blown away. Here, we propose to use two multicopters connected by a rod or a string and place a gas sensor at the midpoint of the rod/string. The downwash generated by each multicopter spreads radially after it impinges on the ground. When two multicopters are connected, the airflows spreading radially along the ground from the two multicopters impinge at the center and are deflected in the upward direction. Gas puffs wafting near the ground surface between the two multicopters are carried by this upward airflow to the gas sensor. Experimental results are presented to show the soundness of the proposed method. The connected quadcopters hovering over an ethanol gas source was able to detect the gas even with a moderate cross-flow.

Here, we report on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations conducted to develop a chemical sample collection device inspired by crayfish. The sensitivity of chemical sensors can be improved when used with a sniffing device. By collecting fluid samples from the surroundings, all solute species are also collected for the sensor. Crayfish generate jet-like water currents for this purpose. Compared to simply sucking water, food smells dissolved in the surrounding water can be more efficiently collected using the inflow induced by the jet discharge because of the smaller decay of the inflow velocity with the distance. Moreover, the angular range of water sample collection can be adjusted by changing the directions of the jet discharge. In our previous work, a chemical sample collection device that mimics the jet discharge of crayfish has been proposed. Here, we report CFD simulations of the flow fields generated by the device. By carefully configuring the simulation setups, we have obtained simulation results in which the angular ranges of the chemical sample collection in real experiments is well reproduced. Although there are still some discrepancies between the simulation and experimental results, such simulations will facilitate the process of designing such devices.

Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Neural Networks (CNN-LSTM) are a variant of recurrent neural networks (RNN) that can extract spatial features in addition to classifying or making predictions from sequential data. In this paper, we analyzed the use of CNN-LSTM for gas source localization (GSL) in outdoor environments using time series data from a gas sensor network and anemometer. CNN-LSTM is used to estimate the location of a gas source despite the challenges created from inconsistent airflow and gas distribution in outdoor environments. To train CNN-LSTM for GSL, we used temporal data taken from a 5 × 6 metal oxide semiconductor (MOX) gas sensor array, spaced 1.5 m apart, and an anemometer placed in the center of the sensor array in an open area outdoors. The output of the CNN-LSTM is one of thirty cells approximating the location of a gas source. We show that by using CNN-LSTM, we were able to determine the location of a gas source from sequential data. In addition, we compared several artificial neural network (ANN) architectures as well as trained them without wind vector data to estimate the complexity of the task. We found that ANN is a promising prospect for GSL tasks.

Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a Ca2+-permeable non-selective cation channel that transmits pain signals. TRPV1 is activated by multiple stimuli such as capsaicin, acid, and heat. During inflammation, TRPV1 is reported to be sensitized by protein kinase C (PKC) in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons, which leads to reduction in the threshold of the temperature for TRPV1 activation to body temperature. This sensitization is considered to contribute to chronic inflammatory pain. In a previous study, we discovered orally active 5,5-diarylpentadienamide TRPV1 antagonists. To examine the effects of our TRPV1 antagonists on PKC-sensitized TRPV1, we developed an in vitro assay system to monitor the TRPV1 sensitization by PKC. In this assay system, our TRPV1 antagonists, such as (2E,4Z)-N-[(3R)-3-hydroxy-2-oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-5-quinolyl]-5-(4-isopropoxyphenyl)-5-(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)-2,4-pentadienamide (K-685), inhibited the activation of TRPV1 sensitized by PKC. The potentiation of heat-induced inward currents by PKC was seen in rat DRG neurons, and K-685 attenuated these currents. Furthermore, K-685 reversed the thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in a rat complete Freund’s adjuvant–induced inflammatory pain model. These results therefore suggest that K-685 has a strong potential as a new analgesic drug for the treatment of inflammatory pain. Keywords:: TRPV1 antagonist, pain, protein kinase C (PKC), inflammation, complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)

Study region: Gin River Basin, Sri Lanka. Study focus: The individual and combined effects of climate and land-use changes on flood flow and inundation in the Gin River basin, Sri Lanka, were assessed. Downscaled, bias-corrected future precipitation projected by an ensemble of general circulation models (GCMs) under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 emissions scenario was input into a flood model developed using the Rainfall Runoff Inundation (RRI) model. Possible flood mitigation measures were identified based on flood simulations through the integrated assessment incorporating future climate and land-use projections. New hydrological insights for the region: The basin is projected to receive increased rainfall during the southwest monsoon (9.7 %) and second inter-monsoon (15.7 %) seasons, excluding March and April, in the future. Human settlements will expand in the downstream areas of the basin, while a significant share of agricultural land (27 %) in the basin will be converted into shrublands by 2050. High flows are predicted to increase by 16 % and 4 % at the upstream and downstream gauging stations, respectively, while mean river flow is expected to decrease by 25 % (upstream) and 34 % (downstream). In addition, a 3.5 % increase in annual maximum inundation extent is projected. However, the total inundation extent in the basin can be reduced by 1.3 % by regulating land-use changes, particularly the conversion of agricultural land into riparian forests.