Associations between social fragmentation, socioeconomic deprivation and suicide risk across 1887 municipalities in Japan, 2009-2017 : a spatial analysis using the Bayesian hierarchical model

Funding This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Award Number 18K10080).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Geography of suicide in Japan : spatial patterning and rural-urban differences.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Award Number 18K10080). Funding This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Award Number 18K10080).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates in Japan through December 2021 : An interrupted time series analysis.

Acknowledgments This work is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Award Number 21K10462). We thank Dr Paul Corcoran for kindly responding to our email questions about his paper, which was very useful in the analysis of this paper.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Relationships between road-distance to primary care facilities and ischemic heart disease and stroke mortality in Hokkaido, Japan : A Bayesian hierarchical approach to ecological count data.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(C) (Grant Number 15K08797) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Related Perfluorinated Compounds in Human Maternal and Cord Blood Samples: Assessment of PFOS Exposure in a Susceptible Population during Pregnancy

Fluorinated organic compounds (FOCs), such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and perfluorooctane sulfonylamide (PFOSA), are widely used in the manufacture of plastic, electronics, textile, and construction material in the apparel, leather, and upholstery industries. FOCs have been detected in human blood samples. Studies have indicated that FOCs may be detrimental to rodent development possibly by affecting thyroid hormone levels. In the present study, we determined the concentrations of FOCs in maternal and cord blood samples. Pregnant women 17–37 years of age were enrolled as subjects. FOCs in 15 pairs of maternal and cord blood samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography–electrospray mass spectrometry coupled with online extraction. The limits of quantification of PFOS, PFOA, and PFOSA in human plasma or serum were 0.5, 0.5, and 1.0 ng/mL, respectively. The method enables the precise determination of FOCs and can be applied to the detection of FOCs in human blood samples for monitoring human exposure. PFOS concentrations in maternal samples ranged from 4.9 to 17.6 ng/mL, whereas those in fetal samples ranged from 1.6 to 5.3 ng/mL. In contrast, PFOSA was not detected in fetal or maternal samples, whereas PFOA was detected only in maternal samples (range, < 0.5 to 2.3 ng/mL, 4 of 15). Our results revealed a high correlation between PFOS concentrations in maternal and cord blood (r(2) = 0.876). However, we did not find any significant correlations between PFOS concentration in maternal and cord blood samples and age bracket, birth weight, or levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone or free thyroxine. Our study revealed that human fetuses in Japan may be exposed to relatively high levels of FOCs. Further investigation is required to determine the postnatal effects of fetal exposure to FOCs