Trends in treatment for patients with late-onset rheumatoid arthritis in Japan: Data from the NinJa study.

Objectives: Our objective was to investigate trends in the treatment of patients with late-onset rheumatoid arthritis (LORA) using data from the National Database of Rheumatic Diseases in Japan (NinJa).

Methods: Patients registered in the National Database of Rheumatic Diseases in Japan were classified according to the disease onset: at <65 years (young-onset rheumatoid arthritis); at 65-74 years (early LORA); and at ≥75 years (late LORA). Chronological changes in the treatment and disease activity were compared.

The long-term reproducibility of the white-coat effect on blood pressure as a continuous variable from the Ohasama Study.

There is little information about the reproducibility of the white coat effect, which was treated as a continuous variable. To investigate a long-term interval reproducibility of the white-coat effect as a continuous variable. We selected 153 participants without antihypertensive treatment (men, 22.

Developing and validating regression models for predicting household consumption to introduce an equitable and sustainable health insurance system in Cambodia.

Background: Financial protection is a challenge for low- and middle-income countries, where the fiscal space is limited, and majority of the population is engaged in the informal economy. This study developed and validated household consumption predictive models for Cambodia to collect contributions according to one's ability to pay.

Methods: This study used nationally representative survey data collected annually between 2010 and 2017, involving 38,472 households.

Switching dynamics of silicon waveguide optical modulator driven by photothermally induced metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide cladding layer.

We investigated the switching dynamics of optical modulators consisting of a Si waveguide with a VO cladding layer by utilizing the photothermal effect, which induces a metal-insulator transition in VO. The devices exhibited stable optical switching with a high extinction ratio exceeding 16 dB. The switching time of the insulator-to-metal transition (heating process) ranged from tens of nanoseconds to microseconds depending on the incident light power, and that of the metal-to-insulator transition (cooling process) was several microseconds regardless of the incident light power.

An Investigation of Psychosis Subgroups With Prognostic Validation and Exploration of Genetic Underpinnings: The PsyCourse Study.

Importance: Identifying psychosis subgroups could improve clinical and research precision. Research has focused on symptom subgroups, but there is a need to consider a broader clinical spectrum, disentangle illness trajectories, and investigate genetic associations.

Objective: To detect psychosis subgroups using data-driven methods and examine their illness courses over 1.

Implementing a sustainable health insurance system in Cambodia: a study protocol for developing and validating an efficient household income-level assessment model for equitable premium collection.

Background: As elsewhere in low- and middle-income countries, due to limited fiscal resources, universal health coverage (UHC) remains a challenge in Cambodia. Since 2016, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has implemented a social health insurance scheme with a contributory approach for formal sector workers. However, informal sector workers and dependents of formal sector workers are still not covered by this insurance because it is difficult to set an optimal amount of contribution for such individuals as their income levels are inestimable.

Silicon waveguide optical modulator driven by metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide cladding layer.

We have fabricated compact optical modulators consisting of a Si waveguide with a VO cladding layer. These devices showed a sharp decrease in transmittance at around 60 °C, which is attributable to the metal-insulator transition of the VO cladding layer. By systematically varying the length of the device, we evaluated the transmission losses per unit length of the device to be 1.

Broad-band surface optical coupler based on a SiO-capped vertically curved silicon waveguide.

A chip-surface optical coupler based on a vertically curved Si waveguide was demonstrated for coupling with high-numerical-aperture single-mode optical fibers with a mode-field diameter of 5 µm. This device features a dome-like SiO coupler cap, which acts as collimation lens. We succeeded in fabricating this structure using an isotropic SiO deposition technique employing plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and obtained a light output that approximates that of a 5-µm-waist Gaussian beam.

Production of HIV-1 mRNA Is Modulated by Natural Nucleotide Variations and SLSA1 RNA Structure in SA1D2prox Genomic Region.

Genomic RNA of HIV-1 contains localized structures critical for viral replication. Its structural analysis has demonstrated a stem-loop structure, SLSA1, in a nearby region of HIV-1 genomic splicing acceptor 1 (SA1). We have previously shown that the expression level of mRNA is considerably altered by some natural single-nucleotide variations (nSNVs) clustering in SLSA1 structure.

Vertical silicon waveguide coupler bent by ion implantation.

We propose and demonstrate that vertically curved waveguides (VCWs) enable vertical coupling between silicon wire waveguides and optical fibers with low wavelength dependence and polarization dependence for wide telecommunication wavelength band light. To bend these VCWs, we implanted silicon ions into silicon wire cantilevers from the vertical direction. The internal stress distribution that was induced by ion implantation drove the bending force, and we achieved vertical bending of the waveguides, with curvature radii ranging from 3 to 25 μm.

Influence of premature rupture of membrane on the cerebral blood flow in low-birth-weight infant after the delivery.

Cerebral white matter injury, usually called periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), is the most common form of injury to preterm infants that is associated with adverse motor and cognitive outcomes. Intrauterine infection may be an important etiological factor in PVL, and premature rupture of the membranes (PROM) can be identified antepartum. In order to investigate the pathophysiology of cerebral white matter injury induced by PROM, the cerebral blood flow (CBF) of the internal carotid artery and the vertebral artery was measured by neck ultrasonography.

[Differences between primary health care and health promotion from the aspects of population, diseases, and social-political structures].

Primary Health Care (PHC) and Health Promotion (HP) have been adopted as core health strategies for socio-political interventions. Although the two have a lot of similarities in terms of concepts, they, nevertheless, have their differences. The first difference lies in the population and diseases perspectives that PHC and HP are literally defined as just "health care" and "promotion of health", respectively.