Patient attendance at a pediatric emergency referral hospital in an area with low COVID-19 incidence.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of individual infection control measures and physical distancing on pediatric medical care in a local prefecture in Japan, where the incidence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in pediatric patients was extremely low. We extracted data from hospital records on the number of outpatients, inpatients, infectious disease consultations, and consultations for representative pediatric diseases. We compared attendance in 2017-2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2020, when COVID-19 spread to Japan.

Multifaceted intervention for improving antimicrobial prescription at discharge in the emergency department.

The frequent prescription of antimicrobials, such as at discharge from the emergency department, calls for optimizing this practice through modifying physicians' prescribing behavior. A 1-year, multifaceted intervention implemented in an emergency department decreased the mean monthly antimicrobial prescription rate at discharge and increased the proportion of appropriate prescriptions.

Successful Treatment of Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma after Accurate Diagnosis by Immunohistochemistry.

Urothelial carcinoma usually presents with hematuria, but cases of multiple lymphadenopathy with elevated S-pancreas-1 antigen (SPan-1) levels have not been reported. A 62-year-old Japanese man with lymphadenopathies was diagnosed with an adenocarcinoma of unknown origin and transferred to our hospital for further diagnosis. Serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 and SPan-1 levels were extremely elevated.

Modified muscle transposition procedure for a case of inferior rectus muscle aplasia.

Purpose: We report a case of inferior rectus muscle aplasia in a 65-year-old woman.

Methods: Images were obtained using ocular motility photography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and operative findings were analyzed.

Results: A 65-year-old woman presented with marked right hypertropia.

Molecular characterization of Sapovirus detected in a gastroenteritis outbreak at a wedding hall.

Sapovirus (SaV) is an important pathogen of human acute gastroenteritis. A gastroenteritis outbreak occurred at a wedding hall in October 2007 in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. One hundred nine people who had either attended wedding parties or had eaten a box lunch at a conference held at the same hall complained of gastroenteritis symptoms.

Lipase-catalyzed transformation of poly(butylene adipate) and poly(butylene succinate) into repolymerizable cyclic oligomers.

The enzymatic degradation and repolymerization were carried out with the objectives of developing the chemical recycling of aliphatic polyester-type plastics, such as the poly(butylene adipate) (PBA), poly(butylene succinate), and poly(butylene adipate-co-succinate) copolymers which are typical biodegradable plastics. They were degraded by lipase in an organic solvent solution containing a small amount of water to produce cyclic oligomers mainly consisting of the cyclic diester. The produced cyclic oligomer was readily repolymerized by lipase to produce a polyester having an equal or higher molecular weight compared to the parent polymer.