乳幼児医療費助成制度におけるヤードスティック競争

This paper explored the yardstick competition among Japanese municipalities in providing medical subsidy for infants and children. In recent years, against the background of rapidly declining birthrate in Japan, municipalities aimed to reduce the medical burden of families with small children. Municipalities had actively devised countermeasures to tackle the falling birthrate. In particular, granting of coverage under the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program significantly expanded with the upper limit set by many municipalities being higher than that of corresponding prefectures. In this paper, we have demonstrated how to determine the upper age of the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program by each municipality. Two facts on Japanese Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program have emerged from our estimation results. First, we showed that the upper limit established by municipalities for the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program had been expanded by two contributory factors. One was caused by the expanding of the upper limit by the prefectures, while the other cause was triggered by horizontal externalities. In addition, the effect of the former factor on the expansion was larger than that of the latter. Finally, we obtained the result that the yardstick competition, as was discussed by Besley and Case (1995), had occurred between the municipalities’ Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program. Therefore, the yardstick competition among municipalities in 2010–2012 was considered to be the main reason for the expansion of the upper limit of the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program

妊婦健診公費負担額における相互参照行動

In this paper, the public burden for physical check-up of pregnant women is considered. This is a public expense that must be implemented by local governments independently. Public expenditure in this regard may be determined strategically by local governments to take into account the public behavior of other local governments. Through observation of the public policy levels of neighboring local governments, other local governments within prefectures, and similar local governments, local governments may verify the strength of the impact of public expenditure in other local governments and set their own public expenditure accordingly. Our estimation results make it clear that the policy levels of the neighborhood and similar local governments raise the public expense burden of a municipality. Local policy making is strongly influenced by the public policy levels within the same prefecture, neighboring local governments, and local governments of comparable financial standing and scale. Our results show clearly that cross-reference behavior between local governments raises public expenditure for the physical check-up of pregnant women

乳幼児医療費助成制度におけるヤードスティック競争

This paper explored the yardstick competition among Japanese municipalities in providing medical subsidy for infants and children. In recent years, against the background of rapidly declining birthrate in Japan, municipalities aimed to reduce the medical burden of families with small children. Municipalities had actively devised countermeasures to tackle the falling birthrate. In particular, granting of coverage under the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program significantly expanded with the upper limit set by many municipalities being higher than that of corresponding prefectures. In this paper, we have demonstrated how to determine the upper age of the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program by each municipality. Two facts on Japanese Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program have emerged from our estimation results. First, we showed that the upper limit established by municipalities for the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program had been expanded by two contributory factors. One was caused by the expanding of the upper limit by the prefectures, while the other cause was triggered by horizontal externalities. In addition, the effect of the former factor on the expansion was larger than that of the latter. Finally, we obtained the result that the yardstick competition, as was discussed by Besley and Case (1995), had occurred between the municipalities’ Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program. Therefore, the yardstick competition among municipalities in 2010–2012 was considered to be the main reason for the expansion of the upper limit of the Medical Subsidy for Infants and Children program

X-ray and Optical Monitoring of State Transitions in MAXI J1820+070

We report results from the X-ray and optical monitoring of the black hole candidate MAXI J1820+070 (=ASSASN-18ey) over the entire period of its outburst from March to October 2018.In this outburst, the source exhibited two sets of `fast rise and slow decay'-type long-term flux variations. We found that the 1--100 keV luminosities at two peaks were almost the same, although a significant spectral softening was only seen in the second flux rise. This confirms that the state transition from the low/hard state to the high/soft state is not determined by the mass accretion rate alone. The X-ray spectrum was reproduced with the disk blackbody emission and its Comptonization, and the long-term spectral variations seen in this outburst were consistent with a disk truncation model. The Comptonization component, with a photon index of 1.5-1.9 and electron temperature of ~>40 keV, was dominant during the low/hard state periods, and its contribution rapidly decreased (increased) during the spectral softening (hardening). During the high/soft state period, in which the X-ray spectrum became dominated by the disk blackbody component, the inner disk radius was almost constant, suggesting that the standard disk was present down to the inner most stable circular orbit. The long-term evolution of optical and X-ray luminosities and their correlation suggest that the jets substantially contributed to the optical emission in the low/hard state, while they are quenched and the outer disk emission dominated the optical flux in the intermediate state and the high/soft state.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, ApJ in pres

CNOT1 regulates circadian behaviour through Per2 mRNA decay in a deadenylation-dependent manner

Circadian clocks are an endogenous internal timekeeping mechanism that drives the rhythmic expression of genes, controlling the 24 h oscillatory pattern in behaviour and physiology. It has been recently shown that post-transcriptional mechanisms are essential for controlling rhythmic gene expression. Controlling the stability of mRNA through poly(A) tail length modulation is one such mechanism. In this study, we show that Cnot1, encoding the scaffold protein of the CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex, is highly expressed in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the master timekeeper. CNOT1 deficiency in mice results in circadian period lengthening and alterations in the mRNA and protein expression patterns of various clock genes, mainly Per2. Per2 mRNA exhibited a longer poly(A) tail and increased mRNA stability in Cnot1+/− mice. CNOT1 is recruited to Per2 mRNA through BRF1 (ZFP36L1), which itself oscillates in antiphase with Per2 mRNA. Upon Brf1 knockdown, Per2 mRNA is stabilized leading to increased PER2 expression levels. This suggests that CNOT1 plays a role in tuning and regulating the mammalian circadian clock.journal articl

Quasi-logarithmic spacing law in dewetting patterns from the drying meniscus of a polymer solution

We report on a periodic precipitation pattern emerged from a drying meniscus via evaporation of a polystyrene solution in a Petri dish. It appeared a quasi-logarithmic spacing relation in the pattern as a result of stick-slip motion of the contact line towards the wall. A model based on the dynamics of the evaporating meniscus is proposed

Prediction of age and brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity using ultra-wide-field pseudo-color images by deep learning

This study examined whether age and brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity (baPWV) can be predicted with ultra-wide-field pseudo-color (UWPC) images using deep learning (DL). We examined 170 UWPC images of both eyes of 85 participants (40 men and 45 women, mean age: 57.5 ± 20.9 years). Three types of images were included (total, central, and peripheral) and analyzed by k-fold cross-validation (k = 5) using Visual Geometry Group-16. After bias was eliminated using the generalized linear mixed model, the standard regression coefficients (SRCs) between actual age and baPWV and predicted age and baPWV from the UWPC images by the neural network were calculated, and the prediction accuracies of the DL model for age and baPWV were examined. The SRC between actual age and predicted age by the neural network was 0.833 for all images, 0.818 for central images, and 0.649 for peripheral images (all P < 0.001) and between the actual baPWV and the predicted baPWV was 0.390 for total images, 0.419 for central images, and 0.312 for peripheral images (all P < 0.001). These results show the potential prediction capability of DL for age and vascular aging and could be useful for disease prevention and early treatment