Changes in health care access during the COVID-19 pandemic: Estimates of national Japanese data, June 2020-October 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health care access around the world, both for inpatients and outpatients. We applied a quasi-Poisson regression to national, monthly data on the number of outpatients, number of inpatients, length of average hospital stay, and the number of new hospitalizations from March 2015 to October 2021 to assess how these outcomes changed between June 2020 to October 2021. The number of outpatient visits were lower-than-predicted during the early phases of the pandemic but normalized by the fall of 2021. The number of inpatients and new hospitalizations were lower-than-predicted throughout the pandemic, and deficits in reporting continued to be observed in late 2021. The length of hospital stays was within the predicted range for all beds, but when stratified by bed type, was higher than predicted for psychiatric beds, lower-than-predicted for tuberculosis beds, and showed variable changes in long-term care insurance beds. Health care access in Japan was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic

How to evaluate science problem solving in a computerized learning environment? Construction of an analyzing scheme

Περιέχει το πλήρες κείμενοThis paper describes the construction of a ‘computerized science problem solving’ scheme, which enables analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of science problem-solving by junior high-school students working in a computerized learning environment. The scheme was based on observations of 187 students as they solved qualitative science problems taken from a specific computerized learning environment. Students were also interviewed before and after the problem solving. The scheme is presented on two levels. The large-scale comprises 11 main categories, each sub-divided into sub-categories to yield the detailed-level. The sub-categories were based on a repertoire of activities found in the observation protocols, and were approved by external judgement and a validation process. The detailed-level scheme enables evaluation and statistical analysis of the participants' problem-solving effectiveness, providing substantial evidence for the construct validity of the scheme, and demonstrating its potential as a valid analyzing and evaluative tool for computerized science problem solving

Effect of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games on COVID-19 incidence in Japan: A synthetic control approach

BACKGROUND: The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games (23 July-8 August 2021) were held in the middle of Japan\u27s fifth wave of COVID-19, when the number of cases was on the rise, and coincided with the fourth state of emergency implemented by the host city, Tokyo. AIM: This study aimed to assess whether the hosting of the Games was associated with a change in the number of COVID-19 cases in Japan using a synthetic control method. METHODS: A weighted average of control countries with a variety of predictors was used to estimate the counterfactual trajectory of daily COVID-19 cases per 1 000 000 population in the absence of the Games in Japan. Outcome and predictor data were extracted using official and open sources spanning several countries. The predictors comprise the most recent country-level annual or daily data accessible during the Games, including the stringency of the government\u27s COVID-19 response, testing capacity and vaccination capacity; human mobility index; electoral democracy index and demographic, socioeconomic, health and weather information. After excluding countries with missing data, 42 countries were ultimately used as control countries. RESULTS: The number of observed cases per 1 000 000 population on the last day of the Games was 109.2 (7-day average), which was 115.7% higher than the counterfactual trajectory comprising 51.0 confirmed cases per 1 000 000 population. During the Olympic period (since 23 July), the observed cumulative number of cases was 61.0% higher than the counterfactual trajectory, comprising 143 072 and 89 210 confirmed cases (p=0.023), respectively. The counterfactual trajectory lagged 10 days behind the observed trends. CONCLUSIONS: Given the increasing likelihood that new emerging infectious diseases will be reported in the future, we believe that the results of this study should serve as a sentinel warning for upcoming mega-events during COVID-19 and future pandemics

Small data global existence for the semilinear wave equation with space-time dependent damping

In this paper we consider the critical exponent problem for the semilinear wave equation with space-time dependent damping. When the damping is effective, it is expected that the critical exponent agrees with that of only space dependent coefficient case. We shall prove that there exists a unique global solution for small data if the power of nonlinearity is larger than the expected exponent. Moreover, we do not assume that the data are compactly supported. However, it is still open whether there exists a blow-up solution if the power of nonlinearity is smaller than the expected exponent

Early SNS-based monitoring system for the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan: a population-level observational study

Background: The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Large-scale monitoring for capturing the current epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in Japan would improve preparation for and prevention of a massive outbreak. Methods: A chatbot-based healthcare system named COOPERA (COvid-19: Operation for Personalized Empowerment to Render smart prevention And care seeking) was developed using the LINE app to evaluate the current Japanese epidemiological situation. LINE users could participate in the system either though a QR code page in the prefecture’s website, or a banner at the top of the LINE app screen. COOPERA asked participants questions regarding personal information, preventive actions, and non-specific symptoms related to COVID-19 and their duration. We calculated daily cross correlation functions between the reported number of infected cases confirmed by PCR and the symptom-positive group captured by COOPERA. Results: We analyzed 206,218 participants from three prefectures reported between March 5 and 30, 2020. The mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 44.2 (13.2). No symptoms were reported by 96.93% of participants, but there was a significantly positive correlation between the reported number of COVID-19 cases and self-reported fevers, suggesting that massive monitoring of fever might help to estimate the scale of the COVID-19 epidemic in real time. Conclusions: COOPERA is the first real-time system being used to monitor trends in COVID-19 in Japan, and provides useful insights to assist political decisions to tackle the epidemic

Common Variants in the COL4A4 Gene Confer Susceptibility to Lattice Degeneration of the Retina

Lattice degeneration of the retina is a vitreoretinal disorder characterized by a visible fundus lesion predisposing the patient to retinal tears and detachment. The etiology of this degeneration is still uncertain, but it is likely that both genetic and environmental factors play important roles in its development. To identify genetic susceptibility regions for lattice degeneration of the retina, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using a dense panel of 23,465 microsatellite markers covering the entire human genome. This GWAS in a Japanese cohort (294 patients with lattice degeneration and 294 controls) led to the identification of one microsatellite locus, D2S0276i, in the collagen type IV alpha 4 (COL4A4) gene on chromosome 2q36.3. To validate the significance of this observation, we evaluated the D2S0276i region in the GWAS cohort and in an independent Japanese cohort (280 patients and 314 controls) using D2S0276i and 47 single nucleotide polymorphisms covering the region. The strong associations were observed in D2S0276i and rs7558081 in the COL4A4 gene (Pc = 5.8×10−6, OR = 0.63 and Pc = 1.0×10−5, OR = 0.69 in a total of 574 patients and 608 controls, respectively). Our findings suggest that variants in the COL4A4 gene may contribute to the development of lattice degeneration of the retina

The Japanese space gravitational wave antenna; DECIGO

DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space gravitational wave antenna. DECIGO is expected to open a new window of observation for gravitational wave astronomy especially between 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz, revealing various mysteries of the universe such as dark energy, formation mechanism of supermassive black holes, and inflation of the universe. The pre-conceptual design of DECIGO consists of three drag-free spacecraft, whose relative displacements are measured by a differential Fabry– Perot Michelson interferometer. We plan to launch two missions, DECIGO pathfinder and pre- DECIGO first and finally DECIGO in 2024