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Mobility management is a transportation policy aiming to change travel behavior from car use to sustainable transportation modes while increasing people's physical activity. Providing pedometers and visualizing step counts, popular interventions in public health practice, may constitute a mobility management program. However, the ease of modal shifts and changeability of walking habits differ across neighborhood environments. Using questionnaire data from 2023 middle-aged and older participants from Yokohama, Japan, in May 2017, this study examined (1) the relationship between the physical and social environments of Yokohama Walking Point Program participants who volunteered to use free pedometers and their modal shifts from cars to walking and public transport, and (2) whether participants' modal shifts were associated with increases in step counts. Multivariate categorical regression analyses identified the frequency of greetings and conversations with neighbors as well as health motivation as important explanatory variables in both analyses. Participants living in neighborhoods far from railway stations and in neighborhoods with a high bus stop density tended to shift to walking and public transport, a modal shift that was highly associated with increased step counts. These results suggest that mobility management should be promoted in collaboration with public health and city planning professionals.

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We previously reported that carbonated water ingestion induced fullness and gastric motility. In order to determine whether such satiating effects occur through oral carbonic stimulation alone, we conducted modified sham-feeding (SF) tests (carbonated water ingestion (CW), water ingestion (W), carbonated water sham-feeding (CW-SF), and water sham-feeding (W-SF)), employing an equivalent volume and standardized temperature of carbonated and plain water, in a randomized crossover design. Thirteen young women began fasting at 10 p.m. on the previous night and were loaded with each sample (15ºC, 250 mL) at 9 a.m. on separate days. Electrogastrography (EGG) recordings were obtained from 20 min before to 45 min after the loading to determine the power and frequency of the gastric myoelectrical activity. Appetite was assessed using visual analog scales. After ingestion, significantly increased fullness and decreased hunger ratings were observed in the CW group. After the load, transiently but significantly increased fullness as well as decreased hunger ratings were observed in the CW-SF group. The powers of normogastria (2-4 cpm) and tachygastria (4-9 cpm) showed significant increases in the CW and W groups, but not in the CW-SF and W-SF groups. The peak frequency of normogastria tended to shift toward a higher band in the CW group, whereas it shifted toward a lower band in the CW-SF group, indicating a different EGG rhythm. Our results suggest that CO2-induced oral stimulation is solely responsible for the feeling of satiety. Moreover, different gastric-contraction rhythms (slow or fast) were induced by oral carbonic stimulation alone and carbonated water ingestion.

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OBJECTIVES: To quantitatively describe the recent longitudinal trend in road injuries involving school children while commuting to and from school in Japan and to identify groups or situations with particularly large or small decreasing trends. METHODS: Data on the number of children aged 6-15 years who sustained road injuries while commuting were obtained, stratified by year, demographic characteristics, mode of transport and other variables. The rates of killed or seriously injured (KSI) children were calculated from the number of KSI cases (the numerator) and the product of population and the proportion of each mode of transport estimated using the Person Trip Survey data (the denominator). We conducted descriptive analyses of the longitudinal trend in KSI rates stratified by the variables, and Poisson regression analyses were employed to quantify the annualised changes in the rates. RESULTS: During the study period, 166 children were killed and 8484 children were seriously injured; the KSI rate decreased approximately 30%. The KSI rate was almost 10 times higher among cyclists than pedestrians. In cyclists, the decrease in the KSI rate among children aged 12-15 years was smaller in boys than in girls (estimated change -14% vs -30%). The KSI rate of male pedestrians aged 6-7 years was larger than female and older pedestrians, with a large decrease of 48%. CONCLUSIONS: Although the overall rate of road injuries among children while commuting was decreasing, cyclists were at a much greater risk than pedestrians, and the improvements for cyclists occurred at a slower pace.

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In aging societies, increasing numbers of older drivers are involved in motor vehicle collisions (MVCs), and preserving their safety is a growing concern. In this study, we focused on whether older drivers were more likely to cause MVCs and injuries than drivers in other age groups. To do so we compared at-fault MVC incidence and resulting injury risks by drivers' ages, using data from Japan, a country with a rapidly aging population. The at-fault MVC incidence was calculated based on distance traveled made for non-commercial purposes, and the injury risks posed to at-fault drivers and other road users per at-fault MVCs. We used MVC data for 2010 from the National Police Agency of Japan and driving exposure data from the Nationwide Person Trip Survey conducted by a Japanese governmental ministry in 2010. The at-fault MVC incidence showed a U-shaped curve across the drivers' ages, where teenage and the oldest drivers appeared to be the highest risk groups in terms of causing MVCs, and the incidence was higher for female drivers after age 25. The injury risk older drivers posed to other vehicle occupants because of their at-fault MVCs was lower than for drivers in other age groups, while their own injury risk appeared much higher. As the number of older drivers is increasing, efforts to reduce their at-fault MVCs appear justified.

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In non-white populations, acral skin is the most prevalent site of malignant melanoma. Early melanomas of this anatomic site are often misdiagnosed as melanocytic nevi, which are not uncommon on acral skin. In fact, clinical and/or histopathological features of melanocytic nevi occasionally mimic those of early acral melanoma and vice versa, and thus differentiation of early acral melanoma from melanocytic nevus is sometimes very difficult for clinicians as well as for histopathologists. Our dermoscopic investigation has revealed that the parallel ridge pattern, a band-like pigmentation on the ridges of the skin markings, is highly specific to malignant melanoma in situ on acral volar skin. In the present study, we reviewed 22 acral melanocytic lesions that showed the parallel ridge pattern on dermoscopy but had very subtle clinical and/or histopathological presentations. We diagnosed 20 of them as early melanoma in situ by careful histopathological examination, which revealed histopathological features very similar to those seen in macular portions of overt acral melanoma, but fundamentally different from features found in melanocytic nevi on acral skin. In correspondence with their dermoscopic pattern, in these early lesions of acral melanomas, proliferation of solitary arranged melanocytes was mainly detected in the crista profunda intermedia, the epidermal rete ridge underlying the ridge of the skin marking. The two remaining lesions were diagnosed as possible cases of acquired melanocytic nevus because of the formation of well-demarcated nests of melanocytes in the epidermal rete ridges. We propose that a finding of preferential proliferation of solitary arranged melanocytes in the crista profunda intermedia is an important clue for the histopathological diagnosis of early phases of acral melanoma.

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