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What kind of legacy does war violence leave for future societies? Among many factors that humans can control, war often affects the highest number of people; several studies have looked at the long-term effects of war violence on present socioeconomic outcomes. The conclusions, however, are generally divided into two competing claims, namely those that emphasize the proactive consequences of war violence and those that emphasize negative legacies. This is one of the first studies to provide empirical evidence of a negative association between war violence and human well-being. I used historical data from WWII strategic bombing of Japan to calculate the extent of war destruction and suicide rates as an inverse index of human well-being. The panel data analysis, which used the originally-constructed historical aggregated data set of Japanese prefectures, reveals that the suicide rates of several decades later are greater in areas where people have experienced higher levels of house loss. According to the survey data analysis, the air raids may have undermined the communal relationships of the bombed districts. Although the effect is small and declining with time, this study adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the long-term persistence of war legacies.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on regular clinic visits among people with diabetes and to elucidate the factors related to visit patterns among these patients during the pandemic.This was a longitudinal study using anonymized insurance claims data from the Joint Health Insurance Society in Tokyo from October 2017 to September 2020. First, we identified patients with diabetes who were fully enrolled in the health plan from fiscal year 2017 until September 2020 and who were regularly receiving glucose-lowering medications (every 1–3 months) from October 2017 to September 2018. We divided follow-up into the pre-pandemic period (October 2018 to March 2020) and the pandemic period (April 2020 to September 2020). A multilevel logistic regression model was used to determine the risks of delayed clinic visits/medication prescriptions (i.e., >3 months after a previous visit/prescription) during the pandemic period.We identified 1118 study participants. The number of delayed clinic visits/medication prescriptions during the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods was 188/3354 (5.6%) and 125/1118 (11.2%), respectively. There was a significant increase in delayed clinic visits during the pandemic (adjusted odds ratio 3.68 (95% confidence interval 2.24 to 6.04, P< .001), even after controlling for confounding factors. We also found a significant interaction between sex and delayed visits; women had significantly fewer clinic visits during the COVID-19 pandemic than men.We clarified the relationship of the COVID-19 pandemic with delays in regular clinic visits and medication prescriptions among people with diabetes. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic differed between men and women.

This study uses historical data from the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) to examine the effect of strategic policy making on policy outcomes. Strategic policy making refers to the exploitation of future policy resources by an incumbent government when it anticipates the policy change by a future government. In the South, the segregationist governments immediately after the enactment of the VRA still stayed in office but anticipated the future policy change that would result from minority voters acquiring the right to franchise. This political context provides an ideal setting for testing the theory of strategic policy making. Through analysis of county panel data analysis from the 1960s, this study finds that segregationist governments with large budgets increased long-term debts, education spending, and highway spending significantly when compared with the rest of the country. This finding supports a version of strategic policy making, namely, strategic use of debts, and is consistent with anecdotal evidence indicating that resistance to school integration through the creation of all-white suburban schools is one of the primary motives for bond issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people change their healthcare behavior when a public health crisis occurs? Within a year of its emergence, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has gradually infiltrated our lives and altered our lifestyles, including our healthcare behaviors. In Japan, which faces China across the East China Sea and accepted 924,800 Chinese tourists in January 2020, the emergence and spread of COVID-19 provides a unique opportunity to study people's reactions and adaptations to a pandemic.

Design, synthesis, and structure−activity relationships of thieno[2,3-b]pyridin-4-one-based non-peptide luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) receptor antagonists are described. Starting with the thienopyridin-4-one derivative 26d (T-98475) an optimization study was performed, which resulted in the identification of a highly potent and orally bioavailable LHRH receptor antagonist, 3-(N-benzyl-N-methylaminomethyl)-7-(2,6-difluorobenzyl)-4,7-dihydro-2-[4-(1-hydroxy-1-cyclopropanecarboxamido)phenyl]-5-isobutyryl-4-oxothieno[2,3-b]pyridine (33c). Compound 33c displayed subnanomolar in vitro activities for the human receptor and its oral administration caused effective suppression of the plasma LH levels in castrated male cynomolgus monkeys. Furthermore, SAR studies revealed that a hydroxyalkylamido moiety on the 2-phenyl ring is virtually equivalent to an alkylureido moiety, at least in this series of compounds.

By the indirect immunofluorescence technique, IgM antibodies to the cell surface of an Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) producer cell line, P3HR‐1, were detected in sera from infectious mononucleosis (IM) patients but not in sera from patients with Burkitt lymphoma or nasopharyngeal carcinoma nor in sera from healthy adult donors having antibodies to EBV‐specific viral capsid antigen (VCA). Titers of the IgM antibodies were higher in the earlier stages of IM, a pattern similar to that for IgM antibodies to VCA. The IgM antibodies to the cell surface were identified as being those against the EBV‐specific membrane antigen (MA) by the following criteria: (1) The antibodies were reactive to MA‐positive cell preparations but not to MA‐negative cell preparations. (2) Titers of the IgM antibodies were not significantly affected after absorption of sera with sheep red blood cells which could completely eliminate heterophil antibodies in the same sera. Detection of the IgM antibodies to MA may have a particular diagnostic value for providing evidence of a recent EBV infection.

The anti-trans azobenzene monoclonal antibody was found to bind to a lipid monolayer carrying peptides containing a trans p-phenylazophenylalanine group on a mica surface. The binding of the antibody was directly observed by an atomic force microscope technique. The hapten-specific binding was also followed on lipid bilayers containing azobenzene groups developed on a quartz surface by using the quartz crystal microbalance technique. The binding was controlled by the cis-trans photoisomerization of the azobenzene group. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biopoly 47: 159–165, 1998

Monoclonal antibodies against a tetrapeptide carrying a photochromic azobenzene moiety (Glu–azoAla–Gly–Gly, azoAla = l–p–phenylazophenylalanine) were prepared under conditions where the azobenzene moiety was in the transform. The binding of the hapten peptide to the antibody was investigated by fluorescence quenching of the antibodies by the hapten peptide. The results indicated that the antibodies bind the hapten peptide when the azobenzene moiety is in the transform, but release the peptide in the cisform. The mechanism of photoreversible binding and release was studied using a pulsed laser light. Photoisomerization of the hapten peptide was found to occur inside the binding site, indicating that the latter is flexible enough to allow the trans–cisphotoisomerization within a few ten picoseconds.

The change of bone density in five patients with solitary bone cysts (SBC) was directly measured by microdensitometry (MD). Standard plain radiographs could not always predict the strength of the bone, but with MD, smaller changes in bone density could be found quantitatively. The density of the lesion temporarily decreased just after steroid injection and began to increase to maximum level in $4 or 5 months. However, in two patients, the density decreased gradually to the first MD levels and refractured. In this article we stress the usefulness of direct MD in detecting the strength of the lesion.

A monoclonal antibody (Z1H01) for an oligopeptide carrying an azobenzene group, was prepared under conditions where the azobenzene group is in the transform. The antibody bound the hapten peptide effectively when the hapten peptide is in the transform (K=5 × 107M−1), but the antibody released the hapten under irradiation with UV light where the hapten is in the cisform. The antibody bound the hapten again, when the hapten reverted to the transform after irradiation with visible light.

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