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Half-Heusler compound has drawn attention in a variety of fields as a candidate material for thermoelectric energy conversion and spintronics technology. When the half-Heusler compound is incorporated into the device, the control of high lattice thermal conductivity owing to high crystal symmetry is a challenge for the thermal manager of the device. The calculation for the prediction of lattice thermal conductivity is an important physical parameter for controlling the thermal management of the device. We examined whether lattice thermal conductivity prediction by machine learning was possible on the basis of only the atomic information of constituent elements for thermal conductivity calculated by the density functional theory in various half-Heusler compounds. Consequently, we constructed a machine learning model, which can predict the lattice thermal conductivity with high accuracy from the information of only atomic radius and atomic mass of each site in the half-Heusler type crystal structure. Applying our results, the lattice thermal conductivity for an unknown half-Heusler compound can be immediately predicted. In the future, low-cost and short-time development of new functional materials can be realized, leading to breakthroughs in the search of novel functional materials.

Background Undernutrition and underweight are osteoporosis risk factors. Therefore, improving the health of underweight young women in Japan is an important medical issue. However, few studies have evaluated the association between being preconception underweight and postnatal osteoporotic fractures in young women. Methods This retrospective cohort study used a Japanese nationwide claims database (JMDC Inc.) to evaluate the effect of preconception underweight on the incidence of osteoporotic fracture within two years after delivery. Data from 16,684 mothers who delivered their first singleton babies between January 2006 and December 2020 were analysed. The combination of disease codes of fractures at sites associated with osteoporosis and medical procedures for fractures was defined as the incidence of osteoporotic fractures, whereas the body mass index (BMI) recorded 12–36 months before delivery was used as the exposure. We estimated the incidence of osteoporotic fractures by BMI category using a Kaplan–Meier curve and examined the fracture risk using Cox hazard regression analyses. Results Fifty-one women (0.31%) were affected by osteoporotic fractures within two years of delivery. More than 80% of these were rib fractures, and approximately 65% of fractures occurred after the first year postpartum. Preconception underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m 2 ) was significantly associated with the incidence of postpartum osteoporotic fractures. There was no significant association between low BMI and postnatal fractures, as analysed via multiple categorical logistic regression analysis. Conclusion Appropriate control of preconception weight might be critical to improving the postpartum quality of life, subsequent bone health, and neonatal care environment.

Background Many studies have demonstrated positive effects of physical activity on children’s health such as improved cardiorespiratory function and decreased obesity. Physical activity has also been found to have positive effects on academic achievement and cognitive function. However, there are few high quality RCT studies on this topic at present and the findings remain controversial. Methods This protocol describes cluster randomized controlled trials assessing the impact of school-based exercise intervention among children in Mongolia. The intervention consists of 3-min sessions of high intensity interval training combined with music implemented two times a week at school during study periods. The participants are children in the fourth grade in public elementary schools in the Sukhbaatar district in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The participants are cluster randomized by school and allocated either to the intervention or control group. The primary outcome is academic achievement. Secondary outcomes are obesity/overweight, physical fitness function, lifestyle, mental health, and cognitive function. Discussion This cluster-RCT is designed and implemented to assess the effectiveness of exercise intervention on academic achievement, cognitive function, and physical and mental health among school-age children in Mongolia. This study will provide evidence to promote physical activities among children in low- and middle- income countries. Trial registration UMIN: UMIN000031062 . Registered on 1st February 2018.

In comparison to a singleton birth, pregnancy, delivery, and child rearing in families with multiples is more complicated and is associated with more difficulties. This study sheds light on how parenting support hubs all over Japan recognize the difficulties of families with multiples, and how they support them. A questionnaire was distributed to regional parenting support hubs in Japan. The questionnaire coverage included rural to urban areas in all parts of Japan. The questionnaire was presented and answered using Google Forms, a website, a fax, or an e-mail attachment (n = 522). A factor analysis and t-tests were used to analyze the data. Regional parenting support hubs recognized that families with multiples have more difficulties and needs that require support than those with singletons, during both pregnancy and child rearing. However, they did not recognize any marked economic difficulties, which has been demonstrated to be an issue that affects families with multiples. Most regional parenting support hubs did not provide helpful support regarding speaking to parents of multiples, holding social events, or cooperating with other support groups, or rearing support hubs. When the helpful support measures that are recognized by parenting support hubs during the pregnancy/delivery period and the child-rearing period for families with multiple children are in comparison, such parenting support hubs recognized that families with multiples require more support during the pregnancy/delivery period. Parenting support hubs required information on the difficulties in supporting families with multiples and also required guidance on how such support should be provided. Parenting support hubs that cooperated with other hubs gave more support than those that did not. To link the recognition of the difficulties and needs of families with multiples to concrete measures, sufficient information on what is needed and how to support families with multiples should be provided. When presenting information on child rearing support for families with multiples, the importance of support during the child-rearing period should receive more attention. We found that cooperation is an important factor for enhancing parenting support.

There is little evidence regarding the effects of individual and group intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on important outcomes. We performed meta-analyses using a random effects model to investigate the effectiveness of the individual and group intervention studies and to compare the effectiveness of these two types if possible. The main analysis which excluded studies at a high risk of bias (Analysis I) included 14 randomised controlled trials targeting children with ASD≤6 years of age (594 children). The results suggested that both individual and group interventions showed significant effects compared to the control condition on \"reciprocity of social interaction towards others\" (standard mean difference[SMD] [95%confidence interval{CI}] = 0.59[0.25, 0.93], p = 0.16; 0.45[0.02, 0.88], p = 0.39, respectively). Only individual interventions showed significant effects compared to the control condition on \"parental synchrony\" (SMD [95%CI] = 0.99 [0.70, 1.29], p<0.01). Our results showed no significant differences between individual and group interventions in effects on \"autism general symptoms\" (no study available for group intervention), \"developmental quotient\" (no study available for group intervention), \"expressive language\" (p = 0.56), \"receptive language\" (p = 0.29), \"reciprocity of social interaction towards others\" (p = 0.62), or \"adaptive behaviour\" (p = 0.43). We also performed sensitivity analyses including studies that had been excluded due to being at a high risk of potential bias (Analysis II). The results suggested that \"reciprocity of social interactions towards others\" showed significant effects for individual intervention compared to the control condition (0.50[0.31,0.69], p<0.001) but not for group intervention (0.23[-0.33, 0.78], p = 0.42). Individual intervention also showed significant effects on \"parental synchrony\" (0.98[0.30,1.66], p = 0.005) in the sensitivity analysis. The results also suggested no significant difference on all the outcomes between the individual and group interventions. We also reanalysed the data using cluster-robust standard errors as sensitivity analyses (Analysis III). Analysis III showed no significant effects in the intervention condition compared to the control condition on all the outcomes for both individual and group interventions. When Analysis II was reanalysed using cluster-robust standard errors (Analysis IV), individual interventions showed significant effects compared to the control condition on \"reciprocity of social interaction towards others\" and \"parental synchrony\" (mean estimate[95%CI], robust standard error, p = 0.50[0.20, 0.81], 0.13, 0.006; and 1.06[0.08, 2.05], 0.42, 0.04, respectively), and none of the outcomes showed significant effects under the intervention condition compared to the control condition for group interventions. The discrepancies in the results between the main analysis (Analysis I) and the sensitivity analyses (Analyses II, III, and IV) may be due to the small number of included studies. Since the outcome of \"reciprocity of social interaction towards others\" can be a dependent variable that is usually measured in a context-bound setting with the child's parent, we cannot conclude that individual interventions for pre-school children with ASD have significant effects on generalised skills for engaging in reciprocal interactions with others, even if the interventions have significant effects on the outcome. However, the outcomes of \"reciprocity of social interaction towards others\" may be promising targets for both individual and group interventions involving pre-school children with ASD. \"Parental synchrony\" may also be a promising target for individual interventions. (CRD42011001349).

Purpose Umbilical venous flow volume (UVFV) measured using ultrasound can be used to assess placental circulation in a fetus. UVFV measured at the intra-abdominal portion using half the maximum flow velocity of the umbilical vein (UV) has good reproducibility with low variance. However, reference values in previous reports were based on a small number of cases with a wide reference range. In the present study, we evaluated UVFV standard values measured at the intra-abdominal portion in normal Japanese fetuses. Methods Measurements were performed on normal pregnant women during routine ultrasound screening at around 20 or 30 weeks of gestation. The diameter and flow velocity of the UV were measured at the fetal abdomen point between the insertion of the UV and branches of the portal vein. UVFV (ml/min) was calculated as follows: (UV diameter [cm]/2) 2  × maximum velocity [cm/s] × 0.5 × 3.14 × 60). Results A total of 278 pregnant women were included in the study. UVFV increased with gestational weeks, and UVFV per estimated fetal weight (EFW) slightly decreased with increasing gestational weeks. The 50th (10th–90th) percentiles of UVFV per EFW at 20, 25, and 30 weeks of gestation were 130 (105–165), 123 (94–147), and 104 (80–131) ml/min/kg, respectively. Conclusion New UVFV reference values measured at the intra-abdominal portion of fetuses using large-scale samples were established. Future studies should assess fetuses under pathologic conditions using UVFV reference values.

This study examines the near-net-shape fabrication, by flash sintering, of a sintered body for use in a thermoelectric module. Gas-atomized Fe2VAl powder was sintered with a current feed, for a duration on the order of seconds, using an apparatus specially devised for flash sintering. This produced sintered bodies in columnar form, with a diameter and height on the order of millimeters, which can be used for constructing thermoelectric modules without the need for a machining process, such as cutting or dicing. Although a slight reduction in density is observed, the crystal structure is unaffected by rapid heating and cooling. The magnitude of electrical and thermal conductivity is reduced, while the value of Seebeck coefficient is identical to that of a sample sintered by using conventional current sintering at 1373 K for 10 min. The significantly shorter sintering time can reduce energy consumption to less than 1 Wh, compared with the several hundred Wh required for conventional current sintering. Although it is still necessary to optimize the sintering conditions to overcome the reduction in density, the significant energy-conservation benefits of flash sintering have great practical appeal, especially for fabricating sintered bodies constituting thermoelectric power generation devices used for energy recovery.

Background During the perinatal period, suicides are more likely to occur in those with depression and who are not receiving active treatment at the time of death. Suicide is a common outcome in people with suicide ideation. We developed an intervention program taking care of comprehensive perinatal maternal mental healthcare to prevent suicide ideation. We hypothesized that our intervention program could reduce postnatal suicide ideation and improve maternal mental health. Methods We performed a controlled trial to examine the usual postnatal care plus a maternal suicide prevention program (the intervention group) compared with usual postnatal care alone, which comprised home visits by public health nurses without mental health screening (the control group) in Nagano city, Japan. In total, 464 women were included; 230 were allocated to the control group and 234 to the intervention group. The intervention had three components: 1) all the women received postnatal mental health screening by public health nurses who completed home visits during the neonatal period, 2) the intervention was administered by a multidisciplinary clinical network, and 3) systematic follow-up sheets were used to better understand bio–psycho–social characteristics of both the mothers and their infants and develop responsive care plans. We measured the participants’ mental health at 3–4 months postpartum (T1) and 7–8 months postpartum (T2) using the Japanese version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Results Suicidal ideation was significantly lower in the intervention group compared with the control group at T1 ( p  = 0.014); however, this significant between-group difference did not continue to T2 ( p  = 0.111). We measured the intervention effects on maternal mental health using the total score of the EPDS, which was significantly improved in the intervention group compared with the control group at T1. Here, the significant difference continued to T2 ( p  = 0.049). Conclusions Our results indicate that our program may reduce maternal suicidal ideation at 3–4 months postnatally and improve women’s mental health during the postnatal periods of 3–4 to 7–8 months. Postnatal maternal mental healthcare, including services to reduce suicide ideation, should be included as an important component of general postnatal care. Trial registration Name of registry: A multidisciplinary intervention program for maternal mental health in perinatal periods. UMIN Clinical Trials Registry number: UMIN000033396 . Registration URL: https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgibin/ctr/ctr_view_reg.cgi?recptno=R000038076 Registration date: July 15, 2018. Registration timing: retrospective.

We investigated Heusler-type Ru2VAl, a candidate material for next-generation thermoelectric conversion, by first-principle calculations of its thermoelectric conversion properties and direct experimental observations of its electronic structures, employing photoemission and infrared spectroscopy. Our results show that Ru2VAl has a wider pseudogap near the Fermi level compared to Fe2VAl. Accordingly, a higher thermoelectric conversion performance can be expected in Ru2VAl at higher temperatures.

Head trauma in children is one of the most common causes for emergency department visits. Although most trauma cases are minor, identifying those patients who have clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI) is challenging. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) head trauma prediction rules identifying children who do not require cranial computed tomography (CT) were validated and are used all over the world. However, these rules have not been validated with large cohort multicenter studies in Asia. To investigate whether the PECARN rules can be safely applied to Japanese children. We conducted a multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study. We included children younger than 16 with minor head trauma (Glasgow Coma Scale ≥14) who presented to the six participating centers within 24 h of their injuries between June 2016 and September 2017. The primary analysis was set to calculate the negative predictive value of the patients with very low risk by the PECARN rules, compared with a preset threshold of 99.85%. We included 6585 children of which 463 (7.0%) had head CT scans performed and 23 (0.35%) had ciTBI. There were two patients with ciTBI who were classified as very low risk. The negative predictive value, calculated as 99.96% (95%CI: 99.86–100.00; P = .019), was significantly superior compared with the preset threshold of 99.85%. The PECARN head trauma prediction rules seemed to be safely applicable to Japanese children. Further studies are needed to determine safety in hospitals where physicians do not have expertise in managing children.