Sapporo City Research Articles

Comparison Study of Self-Sampled and Physician-Sampled Specimens for High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Test and Cytology

Objective: The objective of this study was to calculate the positive rate and overall concordance rate of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) test and cytology using self-sampled and physician-sampled cervicovaginal tests and to compare both specimens. Methods: In collaboration with 3 private hospitals in Sapporo city, 300 women visiting these organizations were enrolled in the study by previously signing an informed consent. From these women, both types of samples (self-obtained and physician-sampled) were obtained at the same time. HrHPV test and cytology were performed on both specimens, and the positive rate and overall concordance rate were calculated to compare both specimens. Results: HrHPV-positive women were 13.7% in physician-sampled specimens and 14.7% in self-sampled specimens, with an overall concordance rate of 96.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 94–98%). On the other hand, the positive rate of the cases higher than or equal to atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) on cytology was different between both groups, that is, 12.3% in physician-obtained and 5.3% in self-sampled specimens; the overall concordance rate was 90.7% (95% CI: 87–94%), indicating an apparent decrease in the positive rate of cytology in self-obtained specimens. Conclusion: HrHPV test and cytology were performed on parallel samples obtained by the patients with a self-sampling tool and by the physician. The positive rate of cytology was considerably different between these specimens, while almost equivalent results were obtained for hrHPV test in both specimens. It was concluded that hrHPV test may be safely and accurately performed on self-obtained cervicovaginal samples by the help of a self-sampling device in the Japanese population as a first screening tool, with equivalent results to physician-obtained specimens.

Characterization of tick-borne encephalitis virus isolated from a tick in central Hokkaido in 2017

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a zoonotic virus in the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. TBEV is widely distributed in northern regions of the Eurasian continent, including Japan, and causes severe encephalitis in humans. Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) was recently reported in central Hokkaido, and wild animals with anti-TBEV antibodies were detected over a wide area of Hokkaido, although TBEV was only isolated in southern Hokkaido. In this study, we conducted a survey of ticks to isolate TBEV in central Hokkaido. One strain, designated Sapporo-17-Io1, was isolated from ticks (Ixodes ovatus) collected in Sapporo city. Sequence analysis revealed that the isolated strain belonged to the Far Eastern subtype of TBEV and was classified in a different subcluster from Oshima 5-10, which had previously been isolated in southern Hokkaido. Sapporo-17-Io1 showed similar growth properties to those of Oshima 5-10 in cultured cells and mouse brains. The mortality rate of mice infected intracerebrally with each virus was similar, but the survival time of mice inoculated with Sapporo-17-Io1 was significantly longer than that of mice inoculated with Oshima 5-10. These results indicate that the neurovirulence of Sapporo-17-Io1 was lower than that of Oshima 5-10. Using an infectious cDNA clone, the replacement of genes encoding non-structural genes from Oshima 5-10 with those from Sapporo-17-Io1 attenuated the neuropathogenicity of the cloned viruses. This result indicated that the non-structural proteins determine the neurovirulence of these two strains. Our results provide important insights for evaluating epidemiological risk in TBE-endemic areas of Hokkaido.

Origins of Nonnative Populations of Bufo japonicus formosus (Amphibia: Bufonidae) in Hokkaido, Japan, as Inferred by a Molecular Approach

The Eastern-Japanese common toad, Bufo japonicus formosus, is distributed from southern Hokkaido to Kinki district of northeastern Honshu, Japan. However, Hokkaido populations are suspected to be nonnative and derived from relatively recent artificial introduction from Honshu. To clarify the origin of Hokkaido populations, we analyzed sequence variations of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in the toads from Hokkaido and compared the sequence data from previous studies. We obtained ten haplotypes from six sites on Hokkaido. Samples from the sites located along Ishikari river system, Asahikawa, Ebetsu, and Ishikari cities, had six haplotypes. Only one haplotype was obtained in Sapporo city and it was genetically far from Ishikari river's ones. Hakodate and Muroran cities samples had one and two haplotypes, respectively. All ten haplotypes from Hokkaido were genetically identical or close to haplotype data from Kanto district or Shizuoka Prefecture, mid-eastern Honshu, far from Hokkaido. Therefore, the toad populations of Hokkaido were considered to be nonnative and multiple introductions from eastern Honshu to Hokkaido were implied.

Determinants of residents’ intention to use pro-environmental transportations at Makomanai district, Sapporo city

Determinants of residents’ intention to use pro-environmental transportations at Makomanai district, Sapporo city

Prevalence of Dental Caries in Deciduous Teeth and Associated Risk Factors among Nursery School Children in Sapporo City

Prevalence of Dental Caries in Deciduous Teeth and Associated Risk Factors among Nursery School Children in Sapporo City

平成30年北海道胆振東部地震での札幌市豊平区・清田区における液状化—流出・噴出した盛土の粒度分析と顕微鏡観察による発生要因の検討—

平成30年北海道胆振東部地震での札幌市豊平区・清田区における液状化—流出・噴出した盛土の粒度分析と顕微鏡観察による発生要因の検討—

Results and future directions of simulation education in psychiatric mental health nursing at Sapporo City University

Results and future directions of simulation education in psychiatric mental health nursing at Sapporo City University

Geo-disasters induced by the recent earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia

This paper is focusing on the geo-disasters induced by the 2018 Hokkaido Iburi-tobu earthquake in Japan and the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake in Indonesia. The Hokkaido Iburi-tobu earthquake occurred at east of Iburi region in Hokkaido, Japan on September 6th, 2018. Tremendous number of landslides occurred in the mountain areas at Iburi region. Uplift and sinking of road and inclination of houses were caused by liquefaction in the south eastern part of Sapporo city. The Sulawesi earthquake happened at Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia on September 28th 2018. The ground displacement triggered by the fault movement caused damage to roads and houses. The large scale ground flows induced by liquefaction occurred in some different sites. This paper reviews the damage induced by the geo-disasters and considers the lessoned learnt from the damaging earthquakes happened in 2018.

Understanding services from ecosystem and facilities provided by urban green spaces: A use of partial profile choice experiment

This study aims to understand the preferences regarding 15 services in ecosystem and facilities provided by urban green spaces using a partial profile choice experiment. The method is one type of discrete choice experiment in which researchers present respondents with only a subset of all the attributes under consideration. Therefore, it has the advantage of valuating large numbers of attributes simultaneously. In Northern Japan's Sapporo city area, which is the site of our study, the future vision for urban green spaces needs to be revised, and thus a valuation of the services from ecosystems and facilities provided by urban green spaces is necessary. The survey was conducted in December 2017 by a contracted research company. Respondents were members of the general public that were registered at the research company and live in the study site. The results showed that overall, services from the ecosystem were preferred over those from facilities. “Forming the landscape” and “Providing places to interact with the forest,” which are generally considered requirements of urban green spaces, were highly valuated, as were “Conserving biodiversity” and “Providing evacuation sites,” neither of which have been previously considered major services in the context of Japan's urban green space management. Finally, despite Japan's declining birth rate and aging population, “Providing facilities for the elderly” was valuated lower than “Providing facilities for children.”

Incidence of anti-NMDAR encephalitis in patients undergoing resection of ovarian teratoma in a single institution

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to determine the incidence of anti-NMDAR encephalitis in patients in whom a teratoma was removed. As far as we know, there has been no report on the incidence of anti-NMDAR encephalitis in patients in whom a teratoma was removed. MethodsThis study was a single-institutional observational study. We enrolled patients who were diagnosed with teratoma in the Department of Pathology, Sapporo City General Hospital during a nine-year period between January 2008 and December 2016. ResultsIn Sapporo City General Hospital, 6 NMDAR encephalitis cases were detected during the 9-year period. In the same 9-year period, a pathological diagnosis of teratoma was made in 343 cases in the hospital. Anti-NMDAR encephalitis patients with a teratoma accounted for only 1.17% of all teratoma patients. Three of the 4 anti-NMDAR encephalitis patients with a teratoma underwent second removal of a teratoma, and no nervous tissue was detected pathologically. ConclusionsIn this study, we determined the association between teratoma with anti-NMDAR encephalitis and teratoma without anti-NMDAR encephalitis in cases in a single institution. As far as we know, this report is the first report on the incidence of anti-NMDAR encephalitis in teratoma patients.

Liquefied embankment with volcanic ash in Toyohira-ku and Kiyota-ku, Sapporo City in the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake:

Liquefied embankment with volcanic ash in Toyohira-ku and Kiyota-ku, Sapporo City in the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake:

Inclination of houses induced by liquefaction in the 2018 Hokkaido Iburi-tobu earthquake, Japan

BackgroundOn September 6th, 2018, at 3:07 local time, a strong earthquake of magnitude Mw = 6.6 struck the east Iburi region in Hokkaido, Japan. Many serious damages such as landslide, liquefaction and collapse of houses occurred from this earthquake. Liquefaction caused road deformation and inclination of houses in Sapporo city, Hokkaido. In order to understand the damage caused by the earthquake, and find a solution to mitigate the liquefaction-induced damage in Sapporo city, a preliminary investigation of the 2018 Hokkaido Iburi-tobu earthquake was conducted from 18 to 20 September 2018.ResultsThe damages to the houses at Satozuka town and Utsukushigaoka town in Sapporo city are focused on. The damage at Satozuka was so enormous that the residents could not continue to live in their houses. Although the inclination of houses can be seen by visual inspection at Satozuka, there were few houses where the inclination can be judged visually at Utsukushigaoka. Therefore we did a field survey of inclined houses by using a digital angle meter at Utsukushigaoka.ConclusionsThe inclination of 57 houses at Utsukushigaoka was measured, and the maximum value and direction of inclination are shown on the map. The houses located at the reclaimed land of the former river and former valley plain were inclined. Therefore, the old terrain greatly affected to the inclination of houses. These liquefaction-induced damage occurred in the same area where liquefaction occurred during the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake.

Incidence of cancer-associated thromboembolism in Japanese gastric and colorectal cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: a single-institutional retrospective cohort analysis (Sapporo CAT study)

ObjectiveFew data regarding the incidence of cancer-associated thromboembolism (TE) are available for Asian populations. We investigated the incidence of TE (TEi) and its risk factors among gastric and colorectal cancer...

Analysis of children’s future map drawings in Sapporo City

Abstract. This paper aimed at measuring children’s idealized future map drawings of urban and natural surroundings in their neighbourhood, analyzing their drawings in local area. As a result of this study, 3,368 elements were extracted out from children’s drawings, and multivariate analysis revealed that children’s drawings could classify into four types, according to those elements as analysis values. Moreover, natural elements were drawn not only “Nature-oriented” type drawings but also “Urban-oriented” type drawings, even if many of latter cases were recognized as background elements in urban area.

The Spatial Relationship between Land Surface Temperature and Land Use/Cover Types in Sapporo City, Japan

Abstract. Land surface temperature (LST) has received a significant attention for urban health and sustainable development. In recent years, with the rapid urbanization and industrialization, urban heat island phenomenon has prevailed in many cities in developed countries and caused excessive energy consumption, and climatic and environmental deterioration. It is expected that to optimize the composition of land use/cover distribution can reduce the urban heat island phenomenon. Therefore, monitoring the spatial changes and analysing its effects on land surface temperature are crucial for maintaining the healthy urban development in the near future.Based on the above background, this study tried to geographically examine the relationship between the LST and land use/cover changes in Sapporo which is the fifth largest city and a gateway city on the northern island in Japan. We investigated the LST in each land use/cover category from 1985 to 2015 by using Landsat data. The results show that: (1)the land use/cover types and spatial distribution have a great influence on the formation of the LST; (2) the expansion of built-up area is the most significant factor affecting urban heat island during the past 30 years; and (3) the green space and water area help cool the urbanized area. By revealing a spatial relationship between the land use/cover distribution and the LST, this analysis could open an avenue to scientific research on future LST simulation and scenario based on land use/cover changes.Our research goal does not only contribute to the urban health and sustainable development but also provide an important insight into the consequence of the strong city competence.

Town-Watching Workshop Using Disaster Information Tweeting and Mapping System

Self- and mutual-help by citizens are important as well as social-help from the local governments, for disaster prevention and mitigation. Then, town watching and disaster prevention map-making workshops are held to review the town and promote self- and mutual-help by citizens. On the other hand, the use of social media for information sharing during and after disasters has been gaining attention. To facilitate information sharing in disasters, we developed a web system, Disaster Information Tweeting and Mapping System (DITS/DIMS). From the above background, we organized a town-watching workshop using DITS/DIMS in October 2018 in Minami Ward, Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan; affected area of the Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake in September 2018. In this paper, we explain the workshop procedure, outcome, questionnaire survey results, and post-meeting. The questionnaire survey result shows that the workshop educated the participants about posting useful information on social media during a disaster. In addition, at the post-meeting, the participants recognized that they had reviewed the town only from the perspective of “daily life” convenience before the earthquake, and they had not evaluated the “emergency viewpoint.” Therefore, the workshop was a meaningful opportunity for the participants to review the town in terms of disaster prevention and mitigation.

SAT-002 Measurement of Visceral Fat Using Computed Tomography in Two Subtypes of Primary Aldosteronism

Context: A strong association between excess visceral fat and the presence of metabolic factors, hypertension and type 2 diabetes have been demonstrated. Patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) are complicated by metabolic syndrome more frequently than those without PA. Aldosterone-induced mineralocorticoid receptor activation has been reported to impair insulin sensitivity in adipocytes and skeletal muscle. An excess of visceral fat has been hypothesized to cause an elevation of aldosterone secretion, and to cause insulin resistance in patients with PA. Objectives: To clarify the role of visceral fat in the pathophysiology of PA, we investigated the correlation of visceral fat parameters with plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC), and the correlation of visceral fat parameters with homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-R) in patients with PA. Materials and methods: This retrospective observational study comprised 131 patients diagnosed with PA between 2007 and 2017 at Sapporo City General Hospital. We divided participants into two subtypes, aldosterone producing adenoma (APA, n = 47) and idiopathic hyperaldosteronism (IHA, n = 84), utilizing adrenal venous sampling. We excluded patients with suspected autonomous cortisol secretion, defined as serum cortisol levels ≧ 3 μg/dL after a 1-mg dexamethasone suppression test. We analyzed the correlations of visceral fat percentage (VF%), visceral fat area (VFA) evaluated by computed tomography studies and PAC, and the correlations of VF% and VFA with HOMA-R in each subtype group. Results: Age and sex distribution was not different between patients with APA and patients with IHA (p = 0.85, p = 0.18, respectively). PAC was significantly higher in patients with APA than patients with IHA (p < 0.001). Serum potassium levels were significantly lower in patients with APA than patients with IHA (p < 0.001). Body mass index was not different between these two subtypes (p = 0.87). VF% was significantly higher in patients with IHA than in those with APA (p = 0.02). The number of patients treated as type 2 diabetes mellitus with oral medicine, HbA1c, and HOMA-R were not different between these two subtypes (p =0.76, p =0.22, p = 0.12, respectively). Patients with IHA showed a positive correlation of VF% with PAC (r = 0.377, p < 0.001), and VFA with PAC (r = 0.443, p < 0.001). In contrast, patients with APA showed no significant correlation of VF% and VFA with PAC. Patients with APA and patients with IHA showed a positive correlation of VF% and VFA with HOMA-R. Conclusions: Between two subtypes of PA, the association of visceral fat on insulin resistance was not different. The association of visceral fat on PAC was different in two subtypes of PA. Only in patients with IHA, visceral fat may play a role in regulation of aldosterone secretion.

Variation of traffic flow due to accumulated snow formation on road

Sapporo City has one of the heaviest snowfalls worldwide, and the road conditions in winter are getting remarkably worse. Snow removal works in winter are indispensable in order to secure traffic functions in the city. Snow accumulates on roads as soon as it is removed. It is also a problem that the deposited snow protrudes into the lanes of roads and the traffic flow drops. This study analyzed the size of deposited snow formation and the variation of traffic flow. We set up a camera for a four-lane road managed by Sapporo City (two lanes per side) and observed two seasons continuously. Width of deposited snow and traffic performance (Traffic Volume - Velocity) were analyzed based on the acquired images. The width of deposited snow was from 1.0 m to 2.5 m. When the width of the deposited snow exceeded approx.1.5 m, it was indicated that only one lane of the road will be in operation if it is originally operated as two lanes per side, with about 70% of the traffic volume and about 80% of the speed. In addition, based on the actual situation of use of bicycles and pedestrians in autumn, we propose redistribution of road cross-sections considering snow coverage width.

平成30年北海道胆振東部地震での札幌市豊平区・清田区における液状化：流出・噴出した盛土の顕微鏡観察と粒度分析による発生要因の考察

平成30年北海道胆振東部地震での札幌市豊平区・清田区における液状化：流出・噴出した盛土の顕微鏡観察と粒度分析による発生要因の考察

Gatekeeper training for suicide prevention in Sapporo city: An interactive training involving local residents as facilitators

Gatekeeper training for suicide prevention in Sapporo city: An interactive training involving local residents as facilitators