Search

Microplastics, a novel global environmental problem, has become a fast-developing research field with worldwide investments. With scientific development, social science studies are expected to contribute to developing more effective communication on microplastics. Among various media, this article focused on Wikipedia and discussed one particular situation—when the language of Wikipedia differs from the language of mainstream information sources. Inspired by actor network theory, we analyzed the revision history of the Japanese Wikipedia article on microplastics from 2014 to 2020 and elucidated how knowledge of microplastics was textually constructed. We found editors' reluctance to disprove and update the latest scientific knowledge in edit actions, as well as problems and flaws existing in the created knowledge that shows limited enforcement of Wikipedia policies. Based on the findings, we urge more attention to improving the public knowledge of fast-developing science, especially when the knowledge construction might encounter a cross-language context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the pattern, appropriateness, and cost of antidiabetic drugs prescribed for patients with Type 2 diabetes at primary healthcare facilities (PHFs) in China. Methods: We collected outpatient‐visit prescriptions from 363 PHFs in 31 cities covering eastern, central, and western regions of China. The visits of adult patients with Type 2 diabetes diagnosis were collected and classified the antidiabetic medication pattern of each patient use as recommended or non‐recommended according to Chinese guidelines. We then calculated the proportion of guideline‐recommended patterns and the average monthly cost for each pattern, overall and by region. Results: Of 33 519 prescriptions for Type 2 diabetes, most (73.9%) were for guideline‐recommended antidiabetic treatments. The proportion of guideline‐recommended prescriptions varied by region (eastern [75.9%], central [87.5%], and western [59.7%]). Metformin monotherapy was the most common guideline‐recommended treatment in all three regions (eastern [20.1%], central [28.0%], and western [24.6%]). The most common non‐guideline‐recommended treatments were monotherapy of insulin (eastern [16.5%], central [5.1%], and western [25.7%]) and traditional Chinese antidiabetic medicines (eastern [5.6%], central [5.7%], and western [11.1%]). The average monthly costs were lower for guideline‐recommended treatments compared to non‐recommended treatments in all regions (eastern [13.6 ± 15.4 USD vs. 28.1 ± 22.0 USD], central [9.8 ± 10.9 USD vs. 28.7 ± 19.4 USD], and western [17.9 ± 21.4 USD vs. 30.3 ± 23.6 USD]). Conclusions: The majority of patients with Type 2 diabetes received guideline‐recommended antidiabetic medications at PHFs in China, with only half of the prescriptions containing guideline‐recommended metformin. Utilization of guideline‐recommended therapies differed across regions. Tailored interventions to promote evidence‐based antidiabetic prescribing are urgently needed, especially in the undeveloped western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoelectric sensors based on charge‐coupled device (CCD) and complementary‐metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) used to be planar image sensors due to the rigidity of the base materials. Moreover, they are limited to a narrow reaction wavelength range. Here, a conformal broad‐spectra laser sensor based on a flexible metal‐ferroelectric‐metal photocapacitor is promoted. The photocapacitance signal is attributed to the photothermal effect of copper (Cu) electrode and gold nanoparticles (Au NP), and the temperature‐dependent property of the dielectric constant of poly(vinylidene fluoride‐trifluoroethylene) (PVDF‐TrFE). Cu/PVDF‐TrFE/Cu and Cu/Au NP@PVDF‐TrFE/Cu flexible photocapacitors have a reliable photocapacitive response from −60 to 60 °C. Meanwhile, both photocapacitors respond from 265 to 980 nm due to the absorption of light by the composite structure, which can be used for broad‐spectra photodetection. The addition of a small amount of Au NP (0.05 vol%) effectively improves the photoresponsiveness of the device. Real‐time photodetection is realized on a hemispherical surface, and these photocapacitors with conformal characteristics are expected to gain application in an omnidirectional broad‐spectra laser alarming system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics, an increasingly widespread environmental problem, have built a high profile on different communication platforms in Japan. Inspired by Davies and Horst's understanding that science communication is constitutive and material, this article empirically analyzed the general situation of microplastics communication in the Japanese context. We examined the development in the meaning of microplastics as the exemplification of the constitutive dimension, as well as its communication stages, authorship, and readership with different interests as the representation of the material dimension. We chose the database National Diet Library Online as representative of Japanese literature. We extracted 190 microplastic-relevant journal articles published in different journal types from 2016 to 2020 and collected 162 online news articles as supplementary material. We found that even though the constitutive meaning of microplastics grew up fast, especially around 2018 and 2019, material factors varied that showed inclinations in practical communications. Despite the similar scale of communication in the specialist and the popular stages, the influences of scientists and interests from scientific fields on microplastics topics were overwhelmingly over the public fields, the divergences of which suggested several difficulties in solving such a complicated environmental problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, published in PLoS Biology, has been retracted due to concerns about the reliability of the data and figures presented. Concerns were raised about several figures, including issues with overlapping panels and discontinuities in the background. The authors provided replacement panels and repeat experiment data for some of the concerns, but were unable to recover the original image data for others. The authors and the editors of PLoS Biology have agreed to retract the article to maintain scholarly ethics. The authors maintain that the errors do not affect the interpretations or conclusions of the published results. [Extracted from the article]

The last decade saw a 32 percent increase in the number of immigrant children and youth in Japan and the educational difficulties they experienced. Part‐time high schools have played a critical role in furthering equity and inclusion by securing ibasho (places where one feels comfortable, safe, and accepted) toward these students. Drawing on the participatory action research approach, we collaborated with a part‐time high school and a nonprofit organization, and developed an afterschool program that aimed to nurture ibasho among immigrant youth through intercultural and language exchanges. This article, collaboratively written by a faculty member and former university students, explores the possibilities and challenges of the "ibasho creation project" which took place from 2017 to 2018 in Tokyo. Specifically, it reflects on how we attempted to develop ibasho that responded to the needs and strengths of high school students and dealt with the dilemmas associated with ibasho creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To identify the patterns of antibiotic use and irrational antibiotic prescriptions in primary healthcare institutions (PHIs) in Dongcheng District of Beijing, China.Materials and Methods: All primary healthcare institutions (7 community healthcare centres and 59 community healthcare stations in total) in Dongcheng District were included in the study. Prescription data from January 2015 to December 2018 was derived from the Beijing Prescription Reviewing System of Primary healthcare institutions and analysed retrospectively. The antibiotic prescription rate was calculated and cases of irrational antibiotic prescriptions were identified.Results: We extracted 11,166,905 prescriptions from the database. Only 189,962 prescriptions were included in the study, among which 9167 (4.8%) contained antibiotics. The antibiotic prescription rate fell from 5.2% in 2015 to 4.1% in 2018 while irrational antibiotic prescription rate increased from 10.4 to 11.8%. Acute Bronchitis was the most prevalent diagnosis (17.6%) for antibiotic prescriptions, followed by Unspecified Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (14.4%), Acute Tonsillitis (9.9%), and Urinary Tract Infection (6.4%). Around 10% of the prescriptions for the top 7 diagnoses identified were rated as irrational. Cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and macrolides were the most prescribed antibiotics, which accounted for 89.3% of all antibiotic prescriptions. Of all the antibiotic prescriptions, 7531 were reviewed, among which 939 (12.5%) were rated as irrational because of antibiotic use. Among all the irrational prescriptions, prescriptions with inappropriate antibiotic use and dosage accounted for the majority (54.4%).Conclusion: Although a relatively low level of antibiotic utilization was found in PHIs in Dongcheng District of Beijing, the utilization patterns differed considerably from developed countries and irrational prescriptions remained. Considering the imbalanced allocation of medical resources between primary healthcare setting and secondary and tertiary hospitals, there need to be more efforts invested in regions with different levels of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Subject and Methods Results Conclusions To analyze trends of antibiotic consumption and expenditure in Chinese stomatology hospitals between 2014 and 2018 with a longitudinal study design, and show the impacts of the comprehensive policy on dental antibiotic use in China.Consumption was quantified as the number of daily defined doses (DDDs) and expenditure as the procurement costs, using medical institutions' drug procurement data from the Chinese Monitoring Network for Rational Use of Drugs. Descriptive statistics was employed and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated to show the average annual growth rate.Between 2014 and 2018, overall antibiotic consumption increased from 842.6 thousand DDDs to 1376.7 thousand DDDs (p < 0.001) and expenditure increased from 11.6 million RMB to 20.9 million RMB (p < 0.001), where other β‐lactam antibacterials accounted for the largest proportion of total consumption (37.1%–50.1%) and expenditure (52.9%–66.6%), and also increase the largest (CAGR = 18.4%, p < 0.001). The proportion of oral antibiotics was nearly 9 times of parenteral antibiotics in consumption (CAGR = 0.3%, p = 0.023) and only 2 times in expenditure (CAGR = −1.7%, p = 0.112). The non‐restricted group accounted for more than 90% of consumption (CAGR = 0.6%, p < 0.001). In 2018, oral first‐generation cephalosporins (22.8%), oral imidazole derivatives (22.3%), and oral second‐generation cephalosporins (19.2%) were the most frequently used antibiotic classification, while parenteral second‐generation cephalosporins were top one (19.8%) for expenditure. At chemical substance levels, the consumption of oral cefradine ranked top one (21.4%) and parenteral cefuroxime accounted for the largest proportion of expenditure (14.5%) in 2018. Oral cefradine, oral metronidazole, and oral cefaclor were the top three frequently consumed antibiotics throughout the five years.Despite the potential antibiotic overuse, the comprehensive antibiotic stewardship regulations of China got a satisfactory and better performance in dental practices. More effort is needed to establish more explicit guidelines to improve antibiotic stewardship, such as priority recommending amoxicillin and its derivatives for endodontic infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]