Evolution of Public Opinion on COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan: Large-Scale Twitter Data Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Vaccines are promising tools to control the spread of COVID-19. An effective vaccination campaign requires government policies and community engagement, sharing experiences for social support, and voicing concerns about vaccine safety and efficiency. The increasing use of online social platforms allows us to trace large-scale communication and infer public opinion in real time. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the main themes in COVID-19 vaccine-related discussions on Twitter in Japan and track how the popularity of the tweeted themes evolved during the vaccination campaign. Furthermore, we aimed to understand the impact of critical social events on the popularity of the themes. METHODS: We collected more than 100 million vaccine-related tweets written in Japanese and posted by 8 million users (approximately 6.4% of the Japanese population) from January 1 to October 31, 2021. We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation to perform automated topic modeling of tweet text during the vaccination campaign. In addition, we performed an interrupted time series regression analysis to evaluate the impact of 4 critical social events on public opinion. RESULTS: We identified 15 topics grouped into the following 4 themes: (1) personal issue, (2) breaking news, (3) politics, and (4) conspiracy and humor. The evolution of the popularity of themes revealed a shift in public opinion, with initial sharing of attention over personal issues (individual aspect), collecting information from news (knowledge acquisition), and government criticism to focusing on personal issues. Our analysis showed that the Tokyo Olympic Games affected public opinion more than other critical events but not the course of vaccination. Public opinion about politics was significantly affected by various social events, positively shifting attention in the early stages of the vaccination campaign and negatively shifting attention later. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a striking shift in public interest in Japan, with users splitting their attention over various themes early in the vaccination campaign and then focusing only on personal issues, as trust in vaccines and policies increased. An interrupted time series regression analysis showed that the vaccination rollout to the general population (under 65 years) increased the popularity of tweets about practical advice and personal vaccination experience, and the Tokyo Olympic Games disrupted public opinion but not the course of the vaccination campaign. The methodology developed here allowed us to monitor the evolution of public opinion and evaluate the impact of social events on public opinion, using large-scale Twitter data.

Anti-Zo antibodies in Japanese myositis patients detected by a newly developed ELISA.

OBJECTIVES: The myositis-specific autoantibodies that characterise certain forms of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) are useful for diagnosing dermatomyositis (DM) / polymyositis (PM) and predicting its prognosis. The autoantibody to phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase (anti-Zo) has been identified as a disease marker antibody for anti-synthetase syndrome only in a UK cohort. Here we aim to establish an ELISA for the measurement of anti-Zo and to characterise the clinical features of Japanese patients who have this autoantibody. METHODS: Anti-Zo was investigated by immunoprecipitation with recombinant phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase α/ß proteins. The results were confirmed by immunoprecipitation-Western blotting with cell extract. Sera from patients with DM/PM (n=224) were screened by an ELISA with the recombinant proteins. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed to obtain detailed information on the clinical phenotypes of the anti-Zo-positive patients. RESULTS: Only two male patients were confirmed to have anti-Zo. Both patients had fever, myopathy, interstitial lung disease, and mechanic's hands, and these clinical features are consistent with those of anti-synthetase syndrome. Another patient's serum showed a higher level than the cut-off value for anti-phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase α by our in-house ELISA, but was judged to be negative for anti-Zo by immunoprecipitation-Western blotting. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of anti-Zo-positive IIM patients from Asia. Although Japanese patients with anti-Zo have a clinical phenotype similar to that of Caucasian patients, further large cohort studies are necessary to confirm the frequency of anti-Zo in Japanese IIM patients. Our newly developed ELISA should be validated for sensitivity and specificity in large cohorts.

Cashless Japan: Unlocking Influential Risk on Mobile Payment Service.

In Japan, cashless is not yet popular but government and companies are devoted to the development of mobile payment methods. This research collected 241 Japanese users and applied decision trees algorithm. Six types of perceived risks (financial, privacy, performance, psychological, security, and time) were used and the categorized class is intention to use mobile payment (low, medium, and high). We also compared different competitive models to examine the performance, including decision trees, kNN, Naïve Bayes, SVM, and logistic regression and decision trees outperformed among all models. The findings indicated that privacy and performance risks are import to Japanese users. Safe, secured, reliable, and fast mobile payment environment are more important to low intention users (less concerns about financial risk). Financial loss, safe, secured, reliable, and fast mobile payment environment are more important to medium intention users (less concerns about time and security risk). Monetary loss, safe, reliable, and fast mobile payment environment are more important to high intention users (less concerns about security risk and psychological risk). The results can help Japanese companies unlock the perceived risk on mobile payment and furnish appropriate strategies to improve usage.

Inherited chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 and autoimmune connective tissue diseases.

BACKGROUND: Entire genome of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) that integrates into human chromosomes is called chromosomally integrated HHV-6 (ciHHV-6). Several viral infections have been suggested to be involved in autoimmune connective tissue diseases (CTDs). Reactivated HHV-6 from the integrated viral genome can induce immune responses against the virus. Thus, it is plausible that ciHHV-6 is associated with autoimmune CTDs. OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine whether the prevalence of ciHHV-6 was significantly higher in patients with autoimmune CTDs than in a healthy population. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 846 peripheral blood samples collected from autoimmune CTD patients were analyzed. Since there was a large number of samples, they were pooled into 24 samples per group. Copy numbers of HHV-6 DNA were measured by real-time PCR. The threshold level for distinguishing between ciHHV-6 and active viral infection and the reliability of pooled DNA analysis were examined as initial validation experiments. RESULTS: The threshold level was 1.6 × 10^6 copy/mL in whole blood. The reliability of pooled DNA analysis to identify one ciHHV-6 sample among 23 HHV-6 DNA-negative samples was high. No HHV-6 DNA was detected in any of the pooled DNA samples collected from the patients. The probability of the present study including the 846 autoimmune CTD patient's samples was statistically not different with a healthy Japanese population which was 0.2 % or 0.6 %. CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference in the prevalence of ciHHV-6 between a healthy population and patients with autoimmune CTDs.

Pterygium surgery using the principle of contact inhibition: results of 13 years' experience.

PURPOSE: To report a technique to prevent pterygium recurrence using the principle of contact inhibition. METHODS: Two hundred and fifteen patients (232 eyes; average age, 64.1 years) with primary pterygia who underwent pterygium surgery at the Hara Eye Hospital between 1999 and 2012. We retrospectively evaluated the patients who underwent the following procedure to prevent pterygium recurrence. The surface conjunctiva on the pterygium body was not removed. After removing the pterygium body, by placing a narrow pedicle autoconjunctival flap along the corneal limbus and tying it tightly to the front area of the residual conjunctiva, there is no room for the active residual tissue to proliferate, thus preventing a recurrence by contact inhibition. The key factor is conjunctival suturing, which establishes face-to-face contact of both areas of cut conjunctival tissue. Mitomycin C is applied locally for 3 min intraoperatively and 5 days postoperatively. The main outcome measure was the prevention of pterygium recurrence using this technique. RESULTS: By the end of the average follow-up of 5 years 4 months, three eyes (1.3%) had a recurrence. Among the 232 eyes, 23 eyes had large pterygia extending to the pupillary area. Using the surgical technique, there were no recurrences. No specific characteristic of the recurrence was found in association with the eye, sex, and preoperative grade. CONCLUSIONS: This surgery has three relevant features: (1) reconfirmation of the effect of contact inhibition, (2) the anatomic structure of the conjunctival sac scarcely changes postoperatively, because the surface conjunctiva of the pterygium body is not removed, and (3) a low recurrence rate.

Posterior capsular opacification in highly myopic eyes with an endocapsular equator ring.

PURPOSE: Closed 9.5-mm-diameter endocapsular equator rings (E-rings) prevent posterior capsular opacification (PCO). However, in our research, some highly myopic patients unexpectedly developed late, extensive PCO that required capsulotomy. We also report for the first time how the capsule reacted to neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) laser shots. METHODS: Sixty-two eyes (39 patients; average age, 48 ± 13.2 years) were implanted with a closed, square-edged silicone E-ring (outer diameter, 9.5 mm) and an intraocular lens between April 16, 2008, and November 30, 2011. RESULTS: During the postoperative, minimal 2-year follow-up, PCO requiring Nd:YAG laser capsulotomy developed in six (9.7 %) of 62 eyes, of which five had -8.75 to -12.5 diopters (D) of myopia preoperatively. The axial lengths of those eyes ranged from 25.86 to 29.97 mm. However, none of the 13 eyes with higher myopia had severe PCO that required capsulotomy. All capsulotomies were performed uneventfully. CONCLUSION: The standard 9.5-mm-diameter closed E-ring does not prevent extensive PCO in eyes with preoperative myopia ranging between -8.75 and -12.5 D and an axial length between 25.86 and 29.97 mm. Posterior capsulotomies were performed safely. Further study is needed to determine why PCO did not occur in more high myopic eyes (larger axial length eyes).

Structure of the entire capsular bag containing an endocapsular equator ring and intraocular lens.

UNLABELLED: We report in vivo observation of a capsular bag containing an endocapsular equator ring and intraocular lens that was explanted 5 years after the initial surgery. The capsule equator remained completely circular. The inside of the capsular bag retained the open space, and the endocapsular equator ring blocked proliferative tissue under the anterior capsule at the equator and prevented posterior capsule opacification. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.

Long-term study of posterior capsular opacification prevention with endocapsular equator rings in humans.

OBJECTIVE: To confirm the effect of a square-edged, closed endocapsular equator ring (E-ring) for preventing posterior capsular opacification (PCO) after cataract extraction. METHODS: Fifty-one eyes underwent cataract surgery associated with E-ring implantation between October 2002 and March 2008. Group 1 included 14 patients (14 eyes) who received an E-ring and intraocular lens (IOL) in 1 eye before March 2006. Their fellow eyes received only an IOL as controls. Group 2 included 23 patients (37 eyes) who received an E-ring and IOL in 1 or both eyes after March 2006 and another 37 age-matched control eyes with only IOL implants. After cataract removal, the E-ring (1.0 mm wide and thick and 9.0 or 9.5 mm long) was implanted in the capsule and an IOL was fixed in the ring. In the control eyes, only an IOL was implanted. The follow-up periods were 2 to 7 years. The PCO value was determined using the Hayashi method. RESULTS: Two years postoperatively in group 1, the PCO value in the central area of the eyes with an E-ring was significantly lower than in the controls (4.4 vs 11.4, respectively; P = .005). No eyes with an E-ring required Nd:YAG laser posterior capsulotomy postoperatively compared with 23 of 51 control eyes (45%). The posterior capsule in the eyes with an E-ring remained transparent without touching the IOL optic. The 9.5-mm ring fit all eyes. CONCLUSION: The 9.5-mm E-ring, which fit all eyes, prevented PCO in human eyes 2 to 7 years postoperatively.

Infero-eyebrow blepharoplasty for the upper eyelids of elderly patients.

AIMS: To describe a procedure for removing excess wrinkles from the upper lids of elderly patients. METHODS: Excess wrinkles were resected with a razor blade and scissors or CO(2) laser along the lower eyebrow margin. Ninety-five patients (average age 74 ± 8.1 years) (157 eyes) underwent this procedure and were followed for at least 6 months postoperatively. RESULTS: The average size of the excised skin was 40 ± 9.7 × 12 ± 3.9 mm. Complications included under-resection, which required another resection in six eyes (4%) and a subcutaneous haemorrhage in two eyes (1%). All patients expressed satisfaction with the final cosmetic results. The incision faded almost completely by 6 months postoperatively without camouflage. CONCLUSION: The design and technique were extremely uncomplicated. The main drawbacks were the long incision line under the eyebrow, a slightly slimmer eyebrow and postoperative brow drop. However, all incision lines faded almost completely by 6 months postoperatively, and brow drop was not problematic in bilateral surgeries. This procedure does not replace the current popular procedure for lid crease formation. However, general ophthalmologists can perform the current simple procedure to remove excess wrinkles from the upper lids of elderly patients.

[Short and long-term hypotensive effect of timolol-gel and latanoprost instillation in normal-tension glaucoma].

PURPOSE: To confirm the predictive value of the results of a 4-week trial of latanoprost alone, timolol-gel alone, or a combination of the two in normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) patients, when compared with the hypotensive response after a 6-month trial using the same combination of eye drops for the same patients. METHODS: One eye each of 45 NTG patients was used in a prospective 4-week trial of latanoprost alone, timolol-gel alone, or a combination of the two. Patients continued using the eye drops for 6 months, according to the results of the trial. The correlation of the results of the 6-moth use and the baseline data, and the baseline data and the results of the 4-week trial were evaluated by the paired-t test. RESULTS: The intraocular pressure(IOP)s of patients using timolol-gel alone were 13.9 mmHg at the base line, 9.7 mmHg after the trial, and 12.0 mmHg after 6-month use(baseline, trial: p < 0.05). IOPs when using latanoprost alone were 15.3 mmHg at baseline, 11.7 mmHg after the trial, and 11.5 mmHg after 6-month use(baseline: p < 0.05, trial: p = 0.33). IOPs using timolol-gel and latanoprost in combination were 14.8 mmHg at baseline, 11.4 mmHg after the trial, and 12.0 mmHg after 6-month use (baseline: p < 0:05, trial: p = 0.14). CONCLUSION: The result of the 4-weeks trial of latanoprost alone or in combination with timolol-gel can be indicative of the IOP after 6-month use.