Patient preference and choice of healthcare providers in Shanghai, China: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess patients' healthcare-seeking preferences in mild, chronic, and serious illness; identify influential factors; and examine the reasons underlying patients' healthcare-seeking preference.

Design: A retrospective study.

Setting: The study was conducted in 14 tertiary hospitals in Shanghai, China.

Practices and attitudes of doctors and patients to downward referral in Shanghai, China.

Objectives: In China, the rate of downward referral is relatively low, as most people are unwilling to be referred from hospitals to community health systems (CHSs). The aim of this study was to explore the effect of doctors' and patients' practices and attitudes on their willingness for downward referral and the relationship between downward referral and sociodemographic characteristics.

Methods: Doctors and patients of 13 tertiary hospitals in Shanghai were stratified through random sampling.

Modulating gut microbiota as an anti-diabetic mechanism of berberine.

Berberine, one of the main constituents of a Chinese traditional herb used to treat bacterial diarrhea, has an effect of lowering glucose, which has been recently confirmed by many studies. However, the mechanism of berberine's antidiabetic effect has not yet been well explained. Recent evidence suggests that the gut microbiota composition is associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, which are closely associated with a low-grade inflammatory state.

[Study on the injurious effect of a self designed micro-skin machine on the epithelia].

Objective: To observe the injury on micro-skin induced by a self designed micro-skin machine.

Methods: Micro-skin was produced either with the machine or by hand. Cells at the edge of micro-skin were observed by transmission electron microscope.