Objective　In Japan, the revised Health Promotion Act and the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance to Prevent Exposure to Second-hand Smoke have been in place since April 1, 2020. However, regional differences in the prohibition of smoking in restaurants have raised concerns that some restaurants are not regulated by the smoke-free legislation. In addition, outdoor smoking rules have been in place in municipalities prior to the smoke-free legislation, so smoking outside restaurants may occur, and this may obstruct progress in the prohibition of smoking. In this study, we examined the indoor smoking rules before and after the enforcement of the smoke-free legislation, as well as what influenced the changes in these rules.Methods　We conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey in 6,000 restaurants in Tokyo, Osaka, and Aomori prefectures from February to March 2020. We examined the indoor smoking rules before and after the enforcement of the smoke-free legislation and calculated the proportion of change by categori and sales due to the prohibition of smoking, and the existence of outdoor smoking rules prior to the smoke-free legislation may obstruct progress in the prohibition of smoking. It will be important to examine changes in the number of customers and sales resulting from changes to the indoor smoking rules to deal with smokers when smoking is prohibited, and to improve environments set as public smoking spaces in Japan.Objectives　The purpose of this study was to assess the situation of regional cancer screening of individuals in Sapporo city through an independent survey and to identify groups with low cancer screening rates.Methods　We conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey on 3,000 men aged 40 to 69 years and 4,000 women aged 20 to 69 years living in Sapporo (response rate = 32.4%). The contents of the survey were quoted from the health slips of the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions related to cancer screening, as well as basic and cancer-related attributes. We analyzed the relationship between cancer screening participation rate, basic attributes, and cancer-related attributes using the χ2 test or logistic regression analysis.Results　The screening rates recorded in this study for gastric, colon, and lung cancers were 67.4%, 59.2%, and 66.1%, respectively in men, and 48.7%, 47.7%, and 53.4%, respectively in women. The screening rates were 52.7% and 56.1% for uterine and breast cancers, respectively.　Thegnize the Sapporo city cancer screening (regional screening). The characteristics of the group with low participation status in Sapporo city, which was the only parameter not reported in the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions, has been clarified.Objectives　Social security costs related to the healthcare and long-term care of patients with cardiovascular diseases is a national burden that is expected to grow as Japan's population ages. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/glx351322.html Nutritional policies for improving the nation's diet could prevent cardiovascular diseases, but scientific evidence on their costs and outcomes is limited. This study gives an overview of health economic evaluation studies on population-wide dietary salt-reduction policies that have been instituted for the purposes of cardiovascular disease prevention. Thus, this study provides background information for the development of evaluation methods that can be utilized in Japan for analyzing the effects of nutritional policies on public health and social security cost containment.Methods　We extracted representative health economic simulation models that are used for predicting the effects of cardiovascular disease-related interventions Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model, IMPACT Coronary Heart Disease Policy and Prevention Modntent of processed foods.Conclusion　Health economic simulation modeling is actively being used to evaluate scientific evidence on the costs and outcomes of national dietary salt-reduction policies. Similarly, leveraging simulation modeling techniques could facilitate the evaluation and planning of dietary salt-reduction policies and other nutritional policies in Japan.Objectives　Despite suggested associations among smoking exposures and the prevalence of allergic diseases in children, studies examining the effect of prenatal maternal smoking and secondhand smoking on the occurrence of these diseases in children are limited. Our study aimed to investigate the association between prenatal maternal smoking as well as secondhand smoking and the incidence of asthma or atopic dermatitis in children.Methods　We included checkup data of a total of 53,505 children living in Kobe, Japan, without missing values for exposure or outcome, between April 1, 2004, and March 31, 2013. The exposure variables were prenatal maternal smoking, prenatal secondhand smoking, and postnatal secondhand smoking till 4 months, which were assessed by maternal notification form and exclusively classified into eight categories. The outcome variables were the incidence of asthma or atopic dermatitis in the respective children up to 3 years of age assessed by a checkup questionnaire. The association between t, the adjusted odds ratio increased to 1.86 (95% CI 1.42-2.44) in children exposed to both prenatal maternal smoking and secondhand smoking. In contrast, no statistical significance was observed among the smoking exposures and the incidence of atopic dermatitis in the children.Conclusions　Our study confirmed that prenatal maternal and secondhand smoking were associated with the incidence of asthma in children. These findings suggest a need to focus on smoking cessation by pregnant women as well as by family members living together to prevent the development of asthma in children.Objectives　By targeting the public health nurses (PHNs) who are expected to be actively involved in the implementation of community DOTS practices, we evaluated the quality of the regional DOTS practices based on the three aspects of "enhancing tuberculosis (TB) treatment adherence," "patient-centered support other than treatment," and "coordination with related organizations." We examined the individual and organizational factors that affect the quality of these practices. Further, we clarified the challenges related to the abilities of PHNs.Methods　A self-report questionnaire survey of 958 PHNs from local governments with a TB incidence rate of 15 or more was administered in 2015. This resulted in there being 410 valid responses with a valid response rate of 42.8%.　The quality of the community DOTS practices was evaluated based on the three aspects by reviewing the literature on expert PHNs for TB patient support. After a preliminary survey, each was evaluated based on a scale of 10 points. A multiple regreort plan for TB patients" (β=0.112-0.270), "reporting own practices at the DOTS conference as a responsible PHN" (β=0.113-0.173), "attending cohort study meetings" (β=0.129-0.167), and the individual factor of "many years of experience as a PHN" (β=0.210-0.316). Additionally, in the model of "coordination with related organizations," "reading specialized books and journals" (β=0.108) was found to be significant and positively related.Conclusion　To improve the quality of the community DOTS practices based on the self-evaluation of PHNs, "patient-centered support" with a low score and high relevance to other aspects is a priority. It was also suggested that it would be useful if the PHNs participated in DOTS evaluations, developed individual patient support plans, presented support plans, and participated in performance evaluations to improve the quality of DOTS practices.The COVID-19 pandemic has affected not only the emergency medical system, but also patients' regular ambulatory care, as such decrease in the number of patients visiting outpatient clinics decreased in 2020 than in 2019, or the ban lifting of subsequent visits by telephone for outpatient clinics since March 2020 in lieu of ambulatory care for chronic diseases. In this context, we investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ambulatory care at Japanese outpatient clinics for patients with chronic neurological diseases during 2020. We collected data from the administrative claims database (DeSC database) covering more than 1 million individuals. Serial changes in the frequency of subsequent outpatient visits to clinics or hospitals (excluding large hospitals) for chronic ambulatory care of epilepsy, migraine, Parkinson's disease (PD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 2020 were measured. As a result, since April 2020, the monthly outpatient visits for epilepsy, PD, and AD decreased slightly but significantly (approximately 0.90 in relative risk [RR]) but visits for migraine increased (RR = 1.15). Telephone visit was most frequently used in April-May, in less than 5% of monthly outpatient clinic visits for the examined neurological diseases. Outpatient visits for migraine treatment were more likely to be done by telephone than in case of other diseases (adjusted Odds ratio = 2.08). These results suggest that the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on regular ambulatory care for several chronic neurological diseases yielded different effect depending on the disease, in terms of the frequency or type of outpatient visits.This study aimed to investigate the effect of mydriasis using topical rocuronium bromide on electroretinography (ERG) in domestic pigeons (Columba livia). Scotopic mixed rod and cone, photopic cone, and photopic flicker ERG were performed on nine eyes of nine healthy adult pigeons under sedation. Each pigeon underwent two sets of ERG recordings. First, without the induction of mydriasis (control) and the second time with the induction of mydriasis using topical rocuronium bromide (treatment). The results were compared using either the Student's t-test or Wilcoxon rank-sum test, where a P-value of less then 0.05 was considered statistically significant. No significant differences were observed in the a- and b-wave implicit times and amplitudes during scotopic ERG between the two groups. The a- and b-wave amplitudes in the photopic cone were significantly higher in the treatment group (63.83 ± 32.33 and 191.75 ± 94.46 µV) compared to the control group (46.15 ± 27.60 and 116.76 ± 70.65 µV; P=0.045 and P=0.032, respectively). The photopic flicker amplitude was also significantly higher in the treatment group (76.23 ± 48.56 µV) than in the control group (42.18 ± 31.18 µV; P=0.044). No statistically significant differences were observed in the photopic cone and flicker implicit times between both groups. In conclusions, mydriasis induced by rocuronium bromide in pigeon resulting in higher amplitudes during the photopic ERG but not scotopic ERG.During oocyte growth and follicle development, oocytes closely communicate with cumulus cells. We examined the effects of oocyte-derived growth factors, growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) and bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15), on the growth and acquisition of meiotic competence of porcine oocytes collected from early antral follicles (1.2-1.5 mm). First, we confirmed that GDF9 and BMP15 mRNAs were expressed almost exclusively in the oocytes. Oocyte-cumulus cell complexes (OCCs) collected from early antral follicles were cultured in growth medium supplemented with 0-100 ng/ml of GDF9 or BMP15 for 5 days. GDF9 dose-dependently increased the OCC diameter, while BMP15 did not. GDF9 and BMP15 had no significant effects on oocyte growth (P > 0.05). When OCCs that had been cultured with 50 and 100 ng/ml BMP15 were subjected to a subsequent maturation culture, they expanded fully by gonadotropic stimulation and 49% and 61% of oocytes matured to metaphase II (MII), respectively. In contrast, GDF9 did not promote cumulus expansion, and less then 10% of oocytes matured to MII.