A review on quality control, toxicity and clinical application of Amomum tsao-ko Crevost & Lemarie

The dried fruit of Amomum tsao-ko Crevost & Lemarie, a perennial herb of Cardamom in Zingiberaceae, has been widely used in food and as a folk medicine. It is used not only as an important food additive and spice for removing peculiar smell and improving taste, but also as a traditional Chinese medicine with significant efficacy in treating many kinds of disorders. Based on the high edible and medicinal value, large amounts of investigation have been reported for A. tsaoko in the past several years. This review specifically summarises its quality control, toxicology and clinical application, about which no literature had systematically reviewed, based on our best acknowledge. The current quality control of A. tsaoko is based on the content of volatile oil, which should be no less than 1.4% according to the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (2020 edition), while a more possible Q-Markers should be developed to focus on either a specific bioactive ingredient or a component correlated with a certain clinical efficacy. Toxicity research suggests that A. tsaoko actually belongs to the non-toxic substance, although citral and 1,8-cineole, two main components of A. tsaoko, is hepatotoxic for the former and displays low acute toxicity and sub-chronic oral toxicity for the latter, but no obviously accumulative toxicity has so far been discovered for A. tsaoko. In clinical practice, A. tsaoko is often used in treatment of dampness/cold resistance, malaria, vomiting, fullness and epigastric distension across additional disorders, such as SARS, COVID-19 and hepatitis.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)

Research on user satisfaction of sports and healthcare integration system in post-pandemic era

After COVID-19, some initiatives such as Healthy China, and Smart Living have been widely mentioned. This study explored the factors influencing user satisfaction in sports and healthcare integration services to help system builders and interaction designers better seek opportunities and directions for systems construction. Based on grounded theory method, conducted semi-structured interviews with people who have home exercise needs, and then summarised the influencing factors after coding the raw information level by level. It applied the user experience honeycomb to classify potential variables, used principal component analysis (PCA) to extract representative evaluation indicators as observed variables, and followed the construction of a theoretical model of the satisfaction factors. The structural equation model (SEM) was validated and analyzed to prove its scientific validity and reasonableness. Research showed that the core factors affecting the user experience of sports and healthcare integration system include usefulness, interactivity, usability, credibility, and findability, all of which have a positive and significant impact on user satisfaction. According to the results of empirical analysis, A multidimensional design strategy for sports and healthcare integration system is proposed to provide a reference for improving user satisfaction. © 2023 - IOS Press. All rights reserved.

Intervention Effect of Mindful Self-Compassion Training on Adolescents? Psychological Stress during the Pandemic

Background: COVID-19 has been confirmed as a public health emergency and may give rise to adverse emo-tions such as anxiety and fear, and even stress reactions in serious cases. In a critical period of emotional de-velopment, adolescents experience more psychological stress fluctuations. Mindful self-compassion training is a simple and easy psychological assistance technology that has been recognized as effective, but it has not been applied to adolescents' psychological problems caused by the epidemic.Methods: From September 2021 to January 2022, adolescent volunteers were recruited in this study from four communities in Chongqing, China. A total of 107 adolescents volunteered to participate in this intervention experiment and were divided by the table of random numbers into 53 in the experiment group and 54 in the control group. The experiment group was intervened using mindful self-compassion training in combination with aerobic exercise for two months, while no intervention measures were taken in the control group. Stress Appraisal Measure, Profile of Mood States and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were the scales adopted to eval-uate the effect before and after the intervention.Results: The experimental group had significantly lower negative mood, stress, sleep scores than the control group (P < 0.001) and significantly higher differences before and after treatment than the control group (P < 0.001).Conclusion: The intervention in this study can effectively reduce the level of negative mood and stress in in-dividuals, and improve their vitality and sleep quality and provides new insights for the implementation and improvement of psychological assistance technology.

Exploring effective components and molecular targets of Guizhi decoction for treatment of COVID-19 combined with allergic rhinitis based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

Aim To explore the effeetive components and molecular targets of Guizhi decoetion in treating COVID-19 combined with allergic rhinitis.Methods The potential targets assoeiated with Guizhi deeoetion, allergie rhinitis and COVID-19 were sereened from TC- MSP and Gene Cards databases.Draw Venn Diagram website, String database, and Cytoscape software were used to obtain the common targets of drugs and diseases, followed by generation of PPI network and " herbal-active component-target" network as well as screening of core targets and key components based on the degree value.Metascape and KEGG databases were used for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis.Molecular docking was utilized to validate the affinity between the core targets and the key components.Results A total of 127 effective components of Guizhi decoction were screened, of which 108 components could combine with 52 common targets to exert the therapeutic effects.Common targets were mainly enriched in 1523 (X) terms and 145 KEGG signaling pathways.Molecular docking confirmed that the core targets could spontaneously combine with key components.Conclusions Guizhi decoction is mainly involved in the regulation of viral, immune and inflammation-related signaling pathways and biological cellular processes through the binding of active components such as flavonoids, phy- tosterols and phenols to common targets ( IL-6, TNF, MAPK3, etc.) , ultimately achieving the goal of treating COVID-19 and allergic rhinitis. Copyright © 2022 Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.

HazeL: A Low-Cost Learning Platform for Aerosol Measurements

The switch to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to adapt hands-on environmental engineering experiments to a remote curriculum previously conducted in a laboratory using expensive analytical instruments (> $2000 per device). Here, we describe how we developed a low-cost (<$200) aerosol sensor platform as a successful solution for supporting remote laboratories on air quality for environmental engineering courses in Spring 2021, and continued for in-person classes in Spring 2022. This sensor platform, called HazeL (Haze Laser Sensor), consists of an externally mounted aerosol sensor, a GPS receiver, and temperature and pressure sensors coupled to an Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 microcontroller connected via a Grove system. Using a project-based learning approach and implementing the scientific method, students worked asynchronously to design experiments, collect aerosol measurements, and analyze and visualize data using the R programming language. Students generated hypotheses regarding factors affecting air pollution, measured >= 0.3 mu m particles in different locations, tested differences between samples, and rejected the null hypothesis if appropriate. HazeL was also used for projects on data processing and statistical inference in an upper-level computational course. We present an instructional guide on manufacturing the HazeL platform and using it as a teaching tool for enhancing student experiential learning, participation, and engagement.

Evaluation and Improvement Strategy of Tourism Industrial Park Competitiveness from the Perspective of New Urbanization: Case Study of the Suining Tourism Industrial Park

Since China's reform and opening up, the domestic economic structure has undergone significant changes, and the industrial system has gradually developed to the tertiary industry. As the core of the tertiary sector and service industry, tourism has, therefore, entered a stage of vigorous development. At the same time, in the context of promoting new-type urbanization, industrial parks created by the theory of industry-urban integration have entered a new stage of development. Due to the respective characteristics of industrial parks and tourism, tourism industrial parks with comprehensive coverage and a strong driving ability have gradually formed under the promotion of industry-urban integration. As a new carrier of the tourism industry, tourism industrial parks are being built all over China. However, due to the differences in the development level of each region, how to improve the competitiveness in the construction of tourism industrial parks has become a problem worth studying. Based on the diamond model in the competitiveness theory, this paper first improves the model according to the actual situation and constructs the competitiveness evaluation index system of tourism industrial parks from the perspective of new-type urbanization. Second, the weight of each index is calculated using the Analytic Network Process (ANP), and then the competitiveness evaluation model is constructed by the matter-element method. Finally, the evaluation model is verified by taking the Suining city Tourism Industrial Park as an example, and corresponding improvement suggestions are put forward for this case. At the same time, the feedback from this evaluation process also provides a scientific method and theoretical basis for enhancing the competitiveness of tourism industrial parks and provides a new idea for the future development of such parks. © 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Molecular biological characteristics of the 2019 novel Coronavirus in Shijiazhuang

Objective To analyze the molecular epidemiological characteristics of the Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) cases in Shijiazhuang, which can reveal the origin of the outbreak and provide a scientific basis for COVID‑19 prevention and control. Methods From January 2 to January 8, 2021, a total of 404 samples from 170 COVID‑19 cases were collected from the Shijiazhuang Fifth Hospital. The consensus sequence of 2019 novel Coronavirus(2019‑nCoV) was obtained through multiplex polymerase chain reaction‑based sequencing. The sequences of 170 COVID‑19 cases were analyzed by the PANGOLIN, and the data were statistically analyzed by T‑test. Results Among the 404 COVID‑19 samples, a total of 356 samples obtained high quality genome sequences (>95%, 100×sequencing depth). The whole genome sequences of 170 COVID‑19 cases were obtained by eliminating repeated samples. All 170 sequences were recognized as lineage B1.1 using PANGOLIN. The number of single nucleotide polymorphism arrange from 18-22 and most of the single nucleotide polymorphism were synonymous variants. All of 170 genomes could be classified into 48 sub‑groups and most of the genomes were classified into 2 sub‑groups (66 and 31, respectively). Conclusions All cases in this study are likely originated from one imported case. The viruses have spread in the community for a long time and have mutated during the community transmission.

Short-term Inflation and Long-term Inflation of US Economy since 2021

Since the U.S. government officially paid attention to the Covid-19 epidemic in March last year, the U.S. economy has so far seen a severe stagnation. With the increasing number of vaccine injections and a series of economic stimulus policies, the U.S. economy had begun to recover before Biden took office. The writer will briefly introduce the social situation and financial situation of the United States related to the American Rescue Plan Act 2021, which is the first rescue act that President Biden signed, and discusses the issue of inflation that society is most concerned about. © 2021 ACM.

A wireless, low-power and miniaturized EIT system for remote and long-term monitoring of lung ventilation in the isolation ward of ICU

Individualized lung-protective ventilation strategy is essential for patients with COVID-19. In this study, a wireless, low-power and miniaturized electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system was developed for remote and long-term monitoring of lung ventilation for patients with COVID-19 in the isolation ward of ICU. A new strategy of combining filtering and improved voltage-controlled current was employed to design the current source for a simplified system structure, and a new differential receiver circuit consisting of a buffer amplification and a differential amplification was proposed to design the voltage measurement unit for high precision. Moreover, a Bluetooth interface was adopted for wireless data transmission, and components characterized by low power consumption were selected to minimize the system power consumption. The proposed EIT system occupies a total size of 6.5*4.5*0.6 cm3 and can work stably within 25 m from the wireless terminal installed with host EIT software. The system has a signal-to-noise of 70 dB at 50 kHz, stability of 0.1% relative change, and power consumption of 114 mW, as tested with a resistor phantom. Further, a comparison between the proposed system and a commercial ICU EIT device was conducted on nine healthy volunteers for ventilation monitoring. The correlation between lung volume and relative impedance changes was higher than 0.9 for both EIT systems (p<0.001). The analysis of the corresponding EIT images revealed that both systems delivered comparable images in terms of linearity, repeatability and regional ventilation distribution. The test and experimental results suggested that the proposed system could conveniently provide reliable data acquisition for remote and long-term lung ventilation monitoring. CCBYNCND

Towards a more resilient European Union after the COVID-19 crisis

The pandemic crisis constitutes an unprecedented challenge for the European Union and for the Euro Area. Indeed, the European institutional architecture can be viewed as being halfway between an association of sovereign states (like the United Nations) and a politically integrated federation (like the United States). In this original construction, competences on several matters (such as economic, political, social and health issues) are shared at the European level, but also at the national and local levels, in more complex ways than in fully integrated federations. To improve the European Union’s resilience to violent external shocks, the main objective of this paper is to determine to what extent these competences should be transferred to the federal level. In this respect, we will consider whether a federal leap is necessary in several areas, namely (i) monetary and fiscal policy (rules), (ii) labor markets policy and social models, migratory flows and skill shortages, and cooperation policy and (iii) renewed industrial policy and exchange rates. Despite a highly uncertain context, we outline some perspectives for the future of the European Union. © 2021, Eurasia Business and Economics Society.

Unexpected Receptor Functional Mimicry Elucidates Activation of Coronavirus Fusion

Recent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, along with the threat of a future coronavirus-mediated pandemic, underscore the importance of finding ways to combat these viruses. The trimeric spike transmembrane glycoprotein S mediates entry into host cells and is the major target of neutralizing antibodies. To understand the humoral immune response elicited upon natural infections with coronaviruses, we structurally characterized the SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV S glycoproteins in complex with neutralizing antibodies isolated from human survivors. Although the two antibodies studied blocked attachment to the host cell receptor, only the anti-SARS-CoV S antibody triggered fusogenic conformational changes via receptor functional mimicry. These results provide a structural framework for understanding coronavirus neutralization by human antibodies and shed light on activation of coronavirus membrane fusion, which takes place through a receptor-driven ratcheting mechanism. Structural analysis of the SARS-CoV S and MERS-CoV S glycoproteins in complex with neutralizing antibodies from human survivors sheds light into the mechanisms of membrane fusion and neutralization

Use of convalescent plasma therapy in eight individuals with mild COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still a global epidemic. Several studies of individuals with severe COVID-19 regard convalescent plasma (CP) transfusion as an effective therapy. However, no significant improvements are found in randomized clinical trials of CP treatment. Until now, data for individuals with mild COVID-19 transfused CP were lacking. This study recruited eight individuals with mild COVID-19 who received at least one dose of CP transfusion. After CP therapy, the clinical symptoms of all individuals improved. Lymphocyte counts tended to increase, and lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase and aspartate aminotransferase tended to decrease. However, C-reactive protein increased transiently in three individuals. The median time for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid test to become negative was 2.5 days after CP transfusion. The study shows the potential benefits of CP. Meanwhile, CP probably enhances the inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 temporarily in people with insufficient antiviral immunity. However, the effects of CP are not permanent.