During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Japan, the state of emergency, as a public health measure to control the spread of COVID-19, and the Go To campaign, which included the Go ...To Travel and Go To Eat campaigns and was purposed to stimulate economic activities, were implemented. This study investigated the impact of these government policies on COVID-19 spread.
This ecological study included all 47 prefectures in Japan as samples between February 3 and December 27, 2020. We used COVID-19 cases and mobility as variables. Additionally, places where social contacts could accrue, defined as restaurants, companies, transportation, and tourist spots; mean temperature and humidity; the number of inhabitants in their twenties to fifties; and the number of COVID-19 cases in the previous period, which were factors or covariates in the graphical modeling analysis, were divided into five periods according to the timing of the implementation of the state of emergency and Go To campaign.
Graphical changes occurred throughout all five periods of COVID-19. During the state of emergency (period 2), a correlation between COVID-19 cases and those before the state of emergency (period 1) was observed, although this correlation was not significant in the period after the state of emergency was lifted (period 3). During the implementation of Go To Travel and the Go To Eat campaigns (period 5), the number of places where social contacts could accrue was correlated with COVID-19 cases, with complex associations and mobility.
This study confirms that the state of emergency affected the control of COVID-19 spread and that the Go To campaign led to increased COVID-19 cases due to increased mobility by changing behavior in the social environment where social contacts potentially accrue.
The Japanese government adopted policies to control human mobility in 2020 to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). ...The present study examined the impact of human mobility on COVID-19 cases at the prefectural level in Japan by devising an indicator to have a relationship between the number of infected people and on human mobility. We calculated origin-destination travel mobility within prefectures in Japan from March 1st to December 31st, 2020, using mobile phone data. A cross-correlation function (CCF) was used to examine the relationship between human mobility and a COVID-19 infection acceleration indicator (IAI), which represents the rate of change in the speed of COVID-19 infection. The CCF of intraprefectural human mobility and the IAI in Tokyo showed a maximum value of 0.440 at lag day 12, and the IAI could be used as an indicator to predict COVID-19 cases. Therefore, the IAI and human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic were useful for predicting infection status. The number of COVID-19 cases was associated with human mobility at the prefectural level in Japan in 2020. Controlling human mobility could help control infectious diseases in a pandemic, especially prior to starting vaccination.
During the second wave of COVID-19 in August 2020, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government implemented public health and social measures to reduce on-site dining. Assessing the associations between human ...behavior, infection, and social measures is essential to understand achievable reductions in cases and identify the factors driving changes in social dynamics.
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between nighttime population volumes, the COVID-19 epidemic, and the implementation of public health and social measures in Tokyo.
We used mobile phone location data to estimate populations between 10 PM and midnight in seven Tokyo metropolitan areas. Mobile phone trajectories were used to distinguish and extract on-site dining from stay-at-work and stay-at-home behaviors. Numbers of new cases and symptom onsets were obtained. Weekly mobility and infection data from March 1 to November 14, 2020, were analyzed using a vector autoregression model.
An increase in the number of symptom onsets was observed 1 week after the nighttime population volume increased (coefficient=0.60, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.92). The effective reproduction number significantly increased 3 weeks after the nighttime population volume increased (coefficient=1.30, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.89). The nighttime population volume increased significantly following reports of decreasing numbers of confirmed cases (coefficient=-0.44, 95% CI -0.73 to -0.15). Implementation of social measures to restaurants and bars was not significantly associated with nighttime population volume (coefficient=0.004, 95% CI -0.07 to 0.08).
The nighttime population started to increase after decreasing incidence of COVID-19 was announced. Considering time lags between infection and behavior changes, social measures should be planned in advance of the surge of an epidemic, sufficiently informed by mobility data.
Background:Sodium bicarbonate and ascorbic acid have been proposed to prevent contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN). The present study evaluated the effect of their combined use on CIN incidence.Methods ...and Results:We prospectively enrolled 429 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD: baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2) prior to elective coronary catheterization. CIN was defined as absolute (≥0.5 mg/dL) or relative (≥25%) increase in serum creatinine within 72 h. In the saline hydration (n=218) and combined sodium bicarbonate+ascorbic acid (n=211) groups, a total of 1,500–2,500 mL 0.9% saline was given before and after the procedure. In addition, the combination group received 20 mEq sodium bicarbonate and 3 g ascorbic acid i.v. before the procedure, followed by 2 g ascorbic acid after the procedure and a further 2 g after 12 h. There were no significant differences between the basic characteristics and contrast volume in the 2 groups. CIN occurred in 19 patients (8.7%) in the saline group, and in 6 patients (2.8%) in the combined treatment group (P=0.008).Conclusions:Combined sodium bicarbonate and ascorbic acid could prevent CIN following catheterization in CKD patients.
Understanding urban dynamics and large-scale human mobility will play a vital role in building smart cities and sustainable urbanization. Existing research in this domain mainly focuses on a single ...data source (e.g., GPS data, CDR data, etc.). In this study, we collect big and heterogeneous data and aim to investigate and discover the relationship between spatiotemporal topics found in geo-tagged tweets and GPS traces from smartphones. We employ Latent Dirichlet Allocation-based topicmodeling on geo-tagged tweets to extract and classify the topics. Then the extracted topics from tweets and temporal population distribution from GPS traces are jointly used to model urban dynamics and human crowd flow. The experimental results and validations demonstrate the efficiency of our approach and suggest that the fusion of cross-domain data for urban dynamics modeling is more practical than previously thought.
Purpose
Our aim was to elucidate the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after repeated pulmonary vein isolation (PVI).
Methods
We conducted a ...non-randomized observational study, with the data prospectively collected. One hundred patients (paroxysmal AF,
n
= 89) underwent PVI using a contact force–sensing catheter. All patients underwent an electrophysiological study and additional ablation for left atrium-pulmonary vein (PV) reconnection and non-PV foci, 6 months after the first treatment session, regardless of AF recurrence. Those with an apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 15 were diagnosed with OSA. Continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) therapy was initiated after the second treatment session, based on results of a sleep study. For analysis, patients were classified into the non-OSA (
n
= 66), treated OSA (OSA patients undergoing CPAP;
n
= 11), and untreated OSA (
n
= 23) groups, and between-group differences evaluated.
Results
After the first session, AF recurrence was observed in 18.2% (12/66) and 14.7% (5/34) of patients without and with OSA, respectively (
P
= 0.678). After the second procedure, the rate of AF recurrence was 12.1% (8/66) in the non-OSA group, 9.1% (1/11) in the treated OSA group, and 8.7% (2/23) in the untreated OSA group (log-rank
P
= 0.944).
Conclusions
The rate of AF recurrence might not be greater in patients with untreated OSA than in those without OSA and those with treated OSA after repeated PVI, using a contact force–sensing catheter, for patients with paroxysmal or short-term persistent AF.
Utilizing semi-cylindrical patterns of negative resist SU-8, lenticular lens arrays with a fine lens pitch of 100 µm were fabricated. The patterns were formed on 240-µm thick quartz plates coated ...with 100-µm thick SU-8 by the defocused projection exposure using a normal reticle with 50-µm line-and-space (L&S) patterns. Because the SU-8 was almost transparent for visible light with wavelengths longer than 400 nm, the patterns were directly used as lenticular lens arrays as they were. Next, a lenticular lens array set was assembled by placing a quartz plate with the lens patterns on an apple picture covered with a film reticle of 50-µm L&S patterns. When the set was observed with great interest, two scenes of an apple and all black were successfully switched alternately. Because the lens pitch of 100 µm was considerably smaller than the conventional one of 254 µm, smoothness of the picture edge was notably improved especially at inclined parts of the pictures. However, the angle for switching the two scenes was as small as approximately 6º. It was discussed that the small angle switching was caused by the substantial thickness of the lens array set including thicknesses of the quartz plate and the reticle film, and the angle might be controllable by decreasing the thickness.
Japan has responded to the spread of COVID-19 through declaration of a state of emergency to regulate human mobility. Although the declaration was enforced by the government for prefectures, there is ...limited evidence as to whether the public complied with requests for voluntary stay at home. In this study, we evaluated the impact of declaring a state of emergency on human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.
We utilized daily human mobility data for 47 prefectures in Japan. Data were collected via mobile phone from February 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021. Difference-in-difference analysis was utilized to estimate the effects of the declaration of a state of emergency on prefectures in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba) in comparison to other prefectures where the state of emergency was first lifted (Osaka, Hyogo, Fukuoka, and Aichi).
Human mobility was suppressed during the second state of emergency, from January 8 to March 21, 2021. However, the impact was weaker for the second state of emergency compared to the first.
In Japan, government requests for stay at home, such as the declaration of a state of emergency, were temporarily able to control human mobility. However, the second state of emergency was not as effective as the first. If additional need to regulate human mobility arises, self-restraint with stronger enforcement should be considered.
Purpose
Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a risk of sudden cardiac death due to polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation with unusual monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (MVT). ...Detailed characteristics of MVT and long-term outcome of catheter ablation are still unknown. This study is aimed to identify the detailed characteristics and long-term follow-up of catheter ablation in BrS patients.
Methods
We evaluated 188 patients who were diagnosed with BrS from March 1999 to March 2018. Of those, patients who developed MVT and underwent catheter ablation were included. We identified eight MVTs in seven BrS patients.
Results
Three of them already had implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, and MVTs were terminated by cardioversion or anti-tachycardia pacing. Four patients presented with MVT originating from the right ventricular outflow tract, one patient had MVT arising from the LV septum, one patient had MVT arising from the tricuspid annulus, and one patient had bundle branch reentry ventricular tachycardia. All MVTs were successfully treated by catheter ablation in the acute phase, and seven of eight (87.5%) were free from ventricular tachyarrhythmia during the long-term follow-up (median, 7.2 years).
Conclusions
All MVT cases were successfully treated by catheter ablation. We observed high ventricular arrhythmia free rate following catheter ablation during the long-term follow-up period. BrS patients who developed MVT should consider catheter ablation.
A 73‐year‐old woman was admitted for atrial tachycardia (AT) ablation. The activation map and pacing study indicated that the AT propagated around the left pulmonary vein and that the Marshall bundle ...(MB) bypassed the scar area of the left pulmonary vein ridge and mitral isthmus. The Rhythmia Mapping System revealed double potentials propagated along the assumed position of the MB. The mapping system includes a confidence mask that can be used to visually identify low‐confidence areas of the map based upon extremely low‐voltage signals. Given the low‐voltage area in the endocardial side, the epicardial conduction was emphasized.
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