Suchergebnisse

The field of local news is often associated with news deserts, commonly defined as geo-based communities without newspapers or other legacy media as providers of locally oriented news and civic information. This phenomenon is expanding in global society due to the diminishing presence of newspapers at moments of accelerated digitization. This study examines the multiplex nature of news deserts in rural and suburban areas in China. Data were collected through a multi-methods approach combining two focus groups and 44 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Patterns of engagement among interviewees reveal that smartphone-based social media applications and digital platforms function as viable sources of news, and incidental exposure to news has become the norm of digital news use. Government-orchestrated convergent media services and WeChat channels are preferred choices by most research participants for local news. We argue that a media ecology perspective may be a productive approach to understanding community news and local newspapers.

Chinese herbs are thought to be effective for type A H1N1 influenza. Series of Chinese herbs have been authorized recommended by the Chinese government, and until now a number of clinical trials of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza have been conducted. However, there is no critically appraised evidence such as systematic reviews or metaanalyses on potential benefits and harms of medicinal herbs for H1N1 influenza to justify their clinical use and their recommendation. CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, VIP, China Important Conference Papers Database, China Dissertation Database, and online clinical trial registry websites were searched for published and unpublished randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza till 31 August, 2011. A total of 26 RCTs were identified and reviewed. Most of the RCTs were of high risk of bias with flawed study design and poor methodological quality. The combination of several Chinese herbal medicines with or without oseltamivir demonstrated positive effect on fever resolution, relief of symptoms, and global effectiveness rate compared to oseltamivir alone. However, only one herbal medicine showed positive effect on viral shedding. Most of the trials did not report adverse events, and the safety of herbal medicines is still uncertain. Some Chinese herbal medicines demonstrated potential positive effect for 2009 type A H1N1 influenza; however, due to the lack of placebo controlled trial and lack of repeated test of the intervention, we could not draw confirmative conclusions on the beneficial effect of Chinese herbs for H1N1 influenza. More rigorous trials are warranted to support their clinical use.

Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) is the recommended first line therapy for patients with HIV. Since 2004, Chinese government has provided free Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for Chinese HIV/AIDS patients. Data of living patients with HIV from the NFTCMP database and Center for Disease Control (CDC) database during 2003–2016 in Guangxi province was obtained and compared. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to their recorded treatment regimens. A total of 2954 patients with their treatment recorded in the two databases were included for analysis, their median age was 46 years (IQR = 36–59), and 64.63% were male. CHM regimens users had baseline CD4 cell counts (380.11 ± 240.59 cell/μL), approximately 100 cell/μL significantly higher than patients receiving CHM combined with ART regimens or only ART regimens. There was no significant difference in mortality among groups. All three regimens improved patients' CD4 cell counts. Compared to the sharp improvement in ART group during the first 6 months, CD4 cell counts of patients in CHM group and CHM combined with ART group showed a smooth and steady rise. CD4 cell counts of the combined group remained much lower than ART group in the first 3 years, but overtook ART group in the fourth year.