Migration patterns of pregnant women after disasters

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (within Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi prefectures) was a complex disaster; it caused a tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, resulting in radiation exposure. This study investigated the earthquake’s effects on the migration patterns of pregnant women and their concerns regarding radiation exposure. We also considered the following large-scale earthquakes without radiation exposure: Great Hanshin-Awaji (Hyogo prefecture), Niigata-Chuetsu, and Kumamoto. Pregnant women were categorized as outflow and inflow pregnant women. Data on the annual number of births three years before and after the earthquake were used as a denominator to calculate the outflow and inflow rates per 100 births. The odds ratios of annual outflow and inflow rates after the earthquake, using three years before the earthquake as the baseline, were calculated. The odds-ratio for outflow significantly increased for Hyogo, Fukushima, Miyagi, and Kumamoto prefectures after the earthquake, particularly for Fukushima, showing a significant increase until three years post the Great East Japan Earthquake (disaster year: odds-ratio: 2.66 [95% confidence interval: 2.44–2.90], 1 year post: 1.37 [1.23–1.52], 2 years post: 1.13 [1.00–1.26], 3 years post: 1.18 [1.05–1.31]), while the remaining three prefectures reported limited increases post one year. The inflow decreased after the earthquake, particularly in Fukushima, showing a significant decrease until 2 years post the Great East Japan Earthquake (disaster year: 0.58 [0.53–0.63], 1 year post: 0.76 [0.71–0.82], 2 years post: 0.83 [0.77–0.89]). Thus, pregnant women’s migration patterns changed after large-scale earthquakes, suggesting radiation exposure concerns possibly have a significant effects. These results suggested that plans for receiving assistance and support that considers the peculiarities of disaster related damage and pregnant women’s migration patterns are needed in both the affected and non-affected areas

Color superconductivity on the lattice -- analytic predictions from QCD in a small box

We investigate color superconductivity on the lattice using the gap equation for the Cooper pair condensate. The weak coupling analysis is justified by choosing the physical size of the lattice to be smaller than the QCD scale, while keeping the aspect ratio of the lattice small enough to suppress thermal excitations. In the vicinity of the critical coupling constant that separates the superconducting phase and the normal phase, the gap equation can be linearized, and by solving the corresponding eigenvalue problem, we obtain the critical point and the Cooper pair condensate without assuming its explicit form. The momentum components of the condensate suggest spatially isotropic s-wave superconductivity with Cooper pairs formed by quarks near the Fermi surface. The chiral symmetry in the massless limit is spontaneously broken by the Cooper pair condensate, which turns out to be dominated by the scalar and the pseudo-scalar components. Our results provide useful predictions, in particular, for future lattice simulations based on methods to overcome the sign problem such as the complex Langevin method.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures, 1 table, v2: A.3 modified, Ref. [57] adde

Major Causes of Death among Older Adults after the Great East Japan Earthquake : A Retrospective Study

This retrospective study investigated the 3-year impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) of 2011 on deaths due to neoplasm, heart disease, stroke, pneumonia, and senility among older adults in the primarily affected prefectures compared with other prefectures, previous investigations having been more limited as regards mortality causes and geographic areas. Using death certificates issued between 2006 and 2015 (n = 7,383,253), mortality rates (MRs) and risk ratios (RRs) were calculated using a linear mixed model with the log-transformed MR as the response variable. The model included interactions between the area category and each year of death from 2010 to 2013. The RRs in the interaction significantly increased to 1.13, 1.17, and 1.28 for deaths due to stroke, pneumonia, and senility, respectively, in Miyagi Prefecture in 2011, but did not significantly increase for any of the other areas affected by the GEJE. Moreover, increased RRs were not reported for any of the other years. The risk of death increased in 2011; however, this was only significant for single-year impact. In 2013, decreased RRs of pneumonia in the Miyagi and Iwate prefectures and of senility in Fukushima Prefecture were observed. Overall, we did not find evidence of strong associations between the GEJE and mortality

Vasopressin-oxytocin–type signaling is ancient and has a conserved water homeostasis role in euryhaline marine planarians

Vasopressin/oxytocin (VP/OT)–related peptides are essential for mammalian antidiuresis, sociosexual behavior, and reproduction. However, the evolutionary origin of this peptide system is still uncertain. Here, we identify orthologous genes to those for VP/OT in Platyhelminthes, intertidal planarians that have a simple bilaterian body structure but lack a coelom and body-fluid circulatory system. We report a comprehensive characterization of the neuropeptide derived from this VP/OT-type gene, identifying its functional receptor, and name it the “platytocin” system. Our experiments with these euryhaline planarians, living where environmental salinities fluctuate due to evaporation and rainfall, suggest that platytocin functions as an “antidiuretic hormone” and also organizes diverse actions including reproduction and chemosensory-associated behavior. We propose that bilaterians acquired physiological adaptations to amphibious lives by such regulation of the body fluids. This neuropeptide-secreting system clearly became indispensable for life even without the development of a vascular circulatory system or relevant synapses