Postal reminder with reduced burden of clinic information seeking for equitable participation in general health check-ups: A randomized controlled trial

High participation rate and low inequality in participation are key to the program success of general health check-ups in Japan. This study examined the effectiveness of a postal reminder including nearest clinic information, compared to the standard postal reminder including details of all local clinics, on participation rate and income-based participation rate in general health checks. This was a single-blind, two-arm, prospective, randomized controlled study conducted at the Fukuoka Branch of Japan Health Insurance Association. Dependents (family members) of insured persons aged 40–69 years were randomly assigned (1:1) to the intervention group that received a tailored postal reminder intervention (showing information on the nearest clinic from each participant's address) or to the control group that received an original template postal reminder (containing just the URL of the website listing all available clinics). Allocation was concealed from participants and service providers of general health check-up. The primary outcome was participation in general health check-ups within 1 month of intervention. Between February 1 and February 10, 2017, 21, 017 were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 10, 474) or control (n = 10, 543) group. The participation rate in the intervention group was higher than control group (3.2% vs. 2.1%; OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.31–1.85, P < 0.001). The intervention effect was estimated to decrease as the income category increased (P for interaction = 0.037). Tailored postal reminders with information on the nearest clinic were able to improve the overall participation rate and reduce income-based inequality in participation for general health check-ups in Japan

Biocompatible Poly(catecholamine)-Film Electrode for Potentiometric Cell Sensing

Surface-coated poly(catecholamine) (pCA) films have attracted attention as biomaterial interfaces owing to their biocompatible and physicochemical characteristics. In this paper, we report that pCA-film-coated electrodes are useful for potentiometric biosensing devices. Four different types of pCA film—L-dopa, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine—with thicknesses in the range of 7–27 nm were electropolymerized by oxidation on Au electrodes by using cyclic voltammetry. By using the pCA-film electrodes, the pH responsivities were found to be 39.3 to 47.7 mV/pH within the pH range of 1.68 to 10.01 on the basis of the equilibrium reaction with hydrogen ions and the functional groups of the pCAs. The pCA films suppressed nonspecific signals generated by other ions (Na+, K+, Ca2+) and proteins such as albumin. Thus, the pCA-film electrodes can be used in pH-sensitive and pH-selective biosensors. HeLa cells were cultivated on the surface of the pCA-film electrodes to monitor cellular activities. The surface potential of the pCA-film electrodes changed markedly because of cellular activity; therefore, the change in the hydrogen ion concentration around the cell/pCA-film interface could be monitored in real time. This was caused by carbon dioxide or lactic acid that is generated by cellular respiration and dissolves in the culture medium, resulting in the change of hydrogen concentration. pCA-film electrodes are suitable for use in biocompatible and pH-responsive biosensors, enabling the more selective detection of biological phenomena

Prospect for Future MeV Gamma-ray Active Galactic Nuclei Population Studies

While the X-ray, GeV gamma-ray, and TeV gamma-ray skies have been extensively studied, the MeV gamma-ray sky is not well investigated after the Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) scanned the sky about two decades ago. In this paper, we investigate prospects for active galactic nuclei population studies with future MeV gamma-ray missions using recent spectral models and luminosity functions of Seyfert and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). Both of them are plausible candidates as the origins of the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background. If the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background radiation is dominated by non-thermal emission from Seyferts, the sensitivity of 10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 is required to detect several hundred Seyferts in the entire sky. If FSRQs make up the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background, the sensitivity of ~4 x 10^-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1 is required to detect several hundred FSRQs following the recent FSRQ X-ray luminosity function. However, based on the latest FSRQ gamma-ray luminosity function, with which FSRQs can explain up to ~30% of the MeV background, we can expect several hundred FSRQs even with the sensitivity of 10^-11 erg cm^-2 s^-1 which is almost the same as the sensitivity goal of the next generation MeV telescopes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Three-dimensional crystalline carbon: Stable polymers of C20 fullerene

We report on a first-principles total-energy calculation that provides the energetics and electronic structure of stable polymerized fullerites consisting of the smallest fullerene C20. We find that the C20 fullerene has periodic three-dimensional covalent networks with orthorhombic and tetragonal symmetries. Both are found to be energetically stable and to be elemental semiconductors with a moderate energy gap of about 1.5 eV. Substantially high peaks of the density of states are found to appear below the top of the valence band, suggesting that these materials under hole-doped conditions are candidates for superconductors

Effect of Mo on Phase Separation in Fe-40 at% Cr Alloys Based on Numerical Solutions of the Cahn Hilliard Equation

Effect of Mo on phase separation behavior of Cr in Fe-40 at%Cr-Mo ternary alloys was investigated with use of a model based on the CahnHilliard eqaution. Simulation result indicates that the addition of a small amount of Mo to an Fe-40 at%Cr binary alloy was found to accelerate phase separation. With addition of small amount of Mo up to 5 at%, the rate of phase separtion concentration of Cr along the trajectory of its peak top increases with time. Mechanism of this acceleration behavior of Cr was analyzed by using a theory on asymptotic behavior of substitutional element in ternary alloy proposed by the present authors