Mobile Health Text Misinformation Identification Using Mobile Data Mining (preprint)

More than six million people died of the COVID-19 by April 2022. The heavy casualties have put people on great and urgent alert and people try to find all kinds of information to keep them from being inflected by the coronavirus. This research tries to find out whether the mobile health text information sent to peoples devices is correct as smartphones becoming the major information source for people. The proposed method uses various mobile information retrieval and data mining technologies including lexical analysis, stopword elimination, stemming, and decision trees to classify the mobile health text information to one of the following classes: (i) true, (ii) fake, (iii) misinformative, (iv) disinformative, and (v) neutral. Experiment results show the accuracy of the proposed method is above the threshold value 50 percentage, but is not optimal. It is because the problem, mobile text misinformation identification, is intrinsically difficult.

Accurate quantification of DNA using on-site PCR (osPCR) by characterizing DNA amplification at single-molecule resolution.

Despite the need in various applications, accurate quantification of nucleic acids still remains a challenge. The widely-used qPCR has reduced accuracy at ultralow template concentration and is susceptible to nonspecific amplifications. The more recently developed dPCR is costly and cannot handle high-concentration samples. We combine the strengths of qPCR and dPCR by performing PCR in silicon-based microfluidic chips and demonstrate high quantification accuracy in a large concentration range. Importantly, at low template concentration, we observe on-site PCR (osPCR), where only certain sites of the channel show amplification. The sites have almost identical ct values, showing osPCR is a quasi-single molecule phenomenon. Using osPCR, we can measure both the ct values and the absolute concentration of templates in the same reaction. Additionally, osPCR enables identification of each template molecule, allowing removal of nonspecific amplification during quantification and greatly improving quantification accuracy. We develop sectioning algorithm that improves the signal amplitude and demonstrate improved detection of COVID in patient samples.

Retention and Critical Outcomes Among New Methadone Maintenance Patients Following Extended Take-Home Reforms (preprint)

Background: Approximately 1,800 opioid treatment programs (OTPs) in the US dispense methadone to upwards of 400,000 patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) annually, operating under longstanding highly restrictive guidelines. OTPs were granted novel flexibilities beginning March 15, 2020 allowing for reduced visit frequency and extended take-home doses to minimize COVID exposure with great variation across states and sites. We sought to use electronic health records to compare retention in treatment, opioid use, and adverse events among patients newly entering methadone maintenance in the post-reform period in comparison with year-ago, unexposed, controls.Methods: Retrospective observational cohort study across 9 OTPs, geographically dispersed nationally, in the National Institute of Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network. Newly enrolled OTP methadone maintenance patients for a new care episode between April 15-October 14, 2020 (post-COVID, reform period) v. March 15-September 14, 2019 (pre-COVID, unexposed controls) were assessed. The primary outcome was 6-month retention. Secondary outcomes were opioid use and critical outcomes including emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and overdose.Findings: 821 individuals were newly admitted in the post-COVID and year-ago control periods, average age 38·3 (SD 11·1), 58·9% male. The only difference across pre- and post-reform groups was the prevalence of psychostimulant use disorder (25·7%v·32·9%,p=0·02)· Six-month retention rates were equivalent between groups (60·0% vs 60·1%) and hazards of discontinuation (HR=1·02,95%CI=0·81-1·27) and adverse events in the aggregate (X2 (1)=0·55,p=0·46) were non-inferior in the post-COVID period. However rates of opioid use throughout care was higher among post-COVID intakes compared to pre-COVID controls (64·8% v 51·1%,p<0·001). Moderator analyses accounting for stimulant use and site-level variation in take-home schedules did not change findings·Interpretation: Meaningful increases in take-home schedules were not associated with worse retention or adverse events despite slightly elevated rates of measured opioid use. Relaxed guidelines were not associated with increased harms and findings could inform permanent system redesign.Funding: SDHHS NIDA CTN UG1 DA013035-15.Declaration of Interest: Dr. Williams receives equity, consulting fees, and travel expenses from Ophelia Health Inc. a telehealth company for the treatment of opioid use disorder. Other authors have no financial conflicts to disclose.Ethical Approval: In accordance with applicable federal regulations (45 CFR 46·116(d)), the study was approved for a waiver of informed consent by the New York University Institutional Review Board.

Ultrafast Nucleic Acid Detection Equipment with Silicon-Based Microfluidic Chip.

Recently, infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, monkeypox, and Ebola, are plaguing human beings. Rapid and accurate diagnosis methods are required to preclude the spread of diseases. In this paper, an ultrafast polymerase chain reaction (PCR) equipment is designed to detect virus. The equipment consists of a silicon-based PCR chip, a thermocycling module, an optical detection module, and a control module. Silicon-based chip, with its thermal and fluid design, is used to improve detection efficiency. A thermoelectric cooler (TEC), together with a computer-controlled proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, is applied to accelerate the thermal cycle. A maximum of four samples can be tested simultaneously on the chip. Two kinds of fluorescent molecules can be detected by optical detection module. The equipment can detect viruses with 40 PCR amplification cycles in 5 min. The equipment is portable, easily operated, and low equipment cost, which shows great potential in epidemic prevention.

Long COVID brain fog and muscle pain are associated with longer time to clearance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from the upper respiratory tract during acute infection (preprint)

The incidence of long COVID is substantial, even in people who did not require hospitalization for acute COVID-19. The pathobiological mechanisms of long COVID and the role of early viral kinetics in its development are largely unknown. Seventy-three non-hospitalized adult participants were enrolled within approximately 48 hours of their first positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test, and mid-turbinate nasal and saliva samples were collected up to 9 times within the first 45 days after enrollment. Samples were assayed for SARS-CoV-2 using RT-PCR and additional test results were abstracted from the clinical record. Each participant indicated the presence and severity of 49 long COVID symptoms at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months post-COVID-19 diagnosis. Time from acute COVID-19 illness onset to SARS-CoV-2 RNA clearance greater or less than 28 days was tested for association with the presence or absence of each of 49 long COVID symptoms at 90 or more days from acute COVID-19 symptom onset. Brain fog and muscle pain at 90 or more days after acute COVID-19 onset were negatively associated with viral RNA clearance within 28 days of acute COVID-19 onset with adjustment for age, sex, BMI over 25, and COVID vaccination status prior to COVID-19 (brain fog: aRR 0.46, 95% CI 0.22 - 0.95; muscle pain: aRR 0.28, 95% CI 0.08 - 0.94). This work indicates that at least two long COVID symptoms, brain fog and muscle pain, at 90 or more days from acute COVID-19 onset are specifically associated with longer time to clearance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from the upper respiratory tract.

Exploring time-varying impact of world pandemic uncertainty on China's commodity prices using TVP-SVAR-SV model.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing body of literature has focused on the impact of the uncertainty of the world pandemic (WPU) on commodity prices. Using the quarterly data from the first quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2020, we run the TVP-SVAR-SV model to study the time-varying impact of WPU on China's commodity prices. Specifically, we select minerals, non-ferrous metals, energy and steel commodities for a categorical comparison and measure the impact of WPU accordingly. The findings are as follows. First, WPU has a significant time-varying impact on China's commodity prices, and the short-term effect is greater than the long-term effect. Second, compared with the global financial crisis in the fourth quarter of 2008 and China's stock market crash in the second quarter of 2015, WPU had a greatest impact on Chinese commodity prices during the COVID-19 pandemic event in the fourth quarter of 2019. Third, significant differences exist in the impact of WPU on the four major commodity prices. Among them, WPU has the largest time-varying impact on the price of minerals but the smallest time-varying impact on that of steel.

Improving Patient Safety Culture During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan

Background and Aim Patient safety culture attitude is strongly linked to patient safety outcomes. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, pandemic prevention has become the priority of hospital staff. However, few studies have explored the changes in patient safety culture among hospital staff that have occurred during the pandemic. The present study compared the safety attitudes, emotional exhaustion (EE), and work–life balance (WLB) of hospital staff in the early (2020) and late (2021) stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and explored the effects of EE and WLB on patient safety attitudes in Taiwan. Materials and Methods In this cross-sectional study, the Joint Commission of Taiwan Patient Safety Culture Survey, including the six-dimension Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) and EE and WLB scales, were used for data collection. Results This study included a total of 706 hospital employees from a district hospital in Taipei City. The respondents' scores in each SAQ sub-dimension (except for stress recognition) increased non-significantly from 2020 to 2021, whereas their EE and WLB scores improved significantly (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). The results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that although a respondent's WLB score could predict their scores in each SAQ sub-dimension (except for stress recognition), EE was the most important factor affecting the respondents' attitudes toward patient safety culture during the later stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion In the post-pandemic, employees' attitudes toward safety climate, job satisfaction, and perception of Management changed from negative to positive. Additionally, both EE and WLB are key factors influencing patient safety culture. The present study can be used as a reference for hospital managers to formulate crisis response strategies.

RNA editing increases the nucleotide diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in human host cells.

SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. It remains unclear whether and to what extent the virus in human host cells undergoes RNA editing, a major RNA modification mechanism. Here we perform a robust bioinformatic analysis of metatranscriptomic data from multiple bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples of COVID-19 patients, revealing an appreciable number of A-to-I RNA editing candidate sites in SARS-CoV-2. We confirm the enrichment of A-to-I RNA editing signals at these candidate sites through evaluating four characteristics specific to RNA editing: the inferred RNA editing sites exhibit (i) stronger ADAR1 binding affinity predicted by a deep-learning model built from ADAR1 CLIP-seq data, (ii) decreased editing levels in ADAR1-inhibited human lung cells, (iii) local clustering patterns, and (iv) higher RNA secondary structure propensity. Our results have critical implications in understanding the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 as well as in COVID-19 research, such as phylogenetic analysis and vaccine development.

Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is expressed in murine cutaneous under single-cell transcriptome resolution (preprint)

Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (Ace2) is widely distributed in human organs, which was identified as a functional receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus in human beings. It was also confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 uses the same cell entry receptor, ACE2, as SARS-CoV. However, related research still not discover the expression data associated with murine skin under single cell RNA resolution. In this study, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on unsorted cells from mouse dorsal skin after 7 days post-wounding. 8312 sequenced cells from four skin samples met quality control metrics and were analyzed.

Delayed rise of oral fluid antibodies, elevated BMI, and absence of early fever correlate with longer time to SARS-CoV-2 RNA clearance in an longitudinally sampled cohort of COVID-19 outpatients (preprint)

BackgroundSustained molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the upper respiratory tract (URT) in mild to moderate COVID-19 is common. We sought to identify host and immune determinants of prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. MethodsNinety-five outpatients self-collected mid-turbinate nasal, oropharyngeal (OP), and gingival crevicular fluid (oral fluid) samples at home and in a research clinic a median of 6 times over 1-3 months. Samples were tested for viral RNA, virus culture, and SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronavirus antibodies, and associations were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. ResultsViral RNA clearance, as measured by SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR, in 507 URT samples occurred a median (IQR) 33.5 (17-63.5) days post-symptom onset. Sixteen nasal-OP samples collected 2-11 days post-symptom onset were virus culture positive out of 183 RT-PCR positive samples tested. All participants but one with positive virus culture were negative for concomitant oral fluid anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The mean time to first antibody detection in oral fluid was 8-13 days post-symptom onset. A longer time to first detection of oral fluid anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibodies (aHR 0.96, 95% CI 0.92-0.99, p=0.020) and BMI [≥] 25kg/m2 (aHR 0.37, 95% CI 0.18-0.78, p=0.009) were independently associated with a longer time to SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA clearance. Fever as one of first three COVID-19 symptoms correlated with shorter time to viral RNA clearance (aHR 2.06, 95% CI 1.02-4.18, p=0.044). ConclusionsWe demonstrate that delayed rise of oral fluid SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies, elevated BMI, and absence of early fever are independently associated with delayed URT viral RNA clearance.

Risk factors of severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019: a meta-analysis

Objective: To analyze the risk factors for severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on current research findings.