Overview of Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe (2020) and enlightenment to China's pharmaceutical field.

Under the background of major innovations and changes in international pharmaceutical technology, the continuous development of informatization and digitalization of drug R & D, technology, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission (EC) issued the pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe (PSE) at the end of 2020 in order to meet the unfinished clinical needs, stimulate industry innovation, enhance the adaptability of the regulatory system, and consolidate the international status of the EC drug regulatory system. PSE is regarded as the "cornerstone" of European health policy in the next five years, which has important guiding significance for the development and management of European pharmaceutical industry. This paper combs and analyzes the background, development strategic objectives and specific measures of PSE, and puts forward policy suggestions in combination with the actual work of China's epidemic prevention and control and industry development, pharmaceutical scientific supervision and encouraging innovation.Copyright © 2022 by the Author(s).

Effect of an Internet-based Intervention on Motor Behavior in Patients after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background During the containment of COVID-19，the traditional face-to-face interventions conducted at the rehabilitation center were plagued by many limitations，while internet-based interventions can overcome the limitations of geographic location，working hours and transportation，with less medical costs. Objective To examine the effects of internet-based interventions on knowledge，attitude/belief and practice（KAP） toward rehabilitation exercises，physical activity（PA）level，and exercise compliance inpatients after PCI. Methods The subjects were 76 patients who received their first PCI in Department of Cardiology，Tangshan Gongren Hospital from November 2021 to June 2022. They were randomly and equally divided into two groups to receive either internet-based intervention with routine nursing（experimental group） or routine nursing （control group）. Before and three months after the intervention，the Rehabilitation Exercise Knowledge-Belief-Practice Scale for Patients with Coronary Heart Disease（REKBPCHD），the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form （IPAQ-SF），and Patients' Exercise Log were used to assess the KAP level，PA level，and exercise adherence，respectively. The impact of network intervention on exercise adherence in patients after PCI by univariate Logistic regression analysis. Results After 3 months of intervention，a significant increase was found in the average total score of REKBPCHD，and the average scores of the knowledge dimension，attitude dimension and practice dimension of the scale in the experimental group（P<0.05），and the increase was more notable than that in the control group（P<0.05）. Moreover，both post-intervention low PA level and total PA level in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group（P<0.05）. Both post-intervention low PA level and total PA level were higher than the baseline levels in the experimental group（P<0.05）. The post-intervention exercise compliance of experimental group were higher than that in the control group（P=0.003）. Univariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of non-adherence to exercise in the experimental group was relatively lower than that in the control group 〔OR=0.143，95%CI（0.034，0.594），P=0.007〕. Conclusion Theinternet-based intervention can effectively improve the KAP level toward rehabilitation，PA level，and exercise adherence in patients after PCI. © 2023 Chinese General Practice. All rights reserved.

Blockchain-enabled COVID-19 Contact Tracing Solutions

In light of the fast-spreading number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, contact tracing proved to be an effective measure to slow down the infection rate and mitigate the casualties caused by this virus. However, because of several concerns in terms of privacy, as well as security, several countries and their population around the globe are reluctant to adopt contact tracing solutions to contain the spread of the virus. Because of its distributed, public, and auditable nature, blockchain can be a groundbreaking solution contact tracing, given that it would provide a privacy-oriented contact tracing solution. Therefore, in this chapter, we discuss and compare the two alternatives proposed by the BeepTrace framework, active and passive, and also present some initial results based on an early implementation of it. As it can be seen, by utilizing blockchain together with contact tracing, user privacy, security, and decentralization can be guaranteed, giving back the trust needed for these applications to work. © 2022 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

Appropriateness and Completion of Multitarget Stool DNA Testing in Primary and Subspecialty Care

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer in the United States, with a 4% lifetime incidence. While more clinicians have begun ordering multitarget stool DNA (mt-sDNA) testing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, adherence to guidelines on mt-sDNA and rates of subsequent follow-up testing has not been well studied. We assessed the appropriateness of mt-sDNA orders and rate of high-quality colonoscopy completion following a positive result in a large academic medical center. Method(s): We identified patients ordered for mt-sDNA in primary care and gastroenterology clinics at our institution between April 2020 and July 2021. For each case, we reviewed the appropriateness of mtsDNA testing, documentation of shared decision making, result of testing, and subsequent follow-up. Appropriateness was defined in accordance to the most recent American College of Gastroenterology guidelines on mt-sDNA use for CRC screening. Result(s): Of the 797 patients in our study, 685 (86%) met all appropriateness criteria for mt-sDNA testing (Table). Shared decision making was documented in 488 (62%) cases, and the most common reason for ordering mt-SDNA was hesitancy for colonoscopy. 483 patients (61%) completed mt-sDNA testing, of which 74 cases (15%) were positive. Rates of positivity were higher in cases of inappropriate (28%) rather than appropriate (13.7%) orders (p = 0.01). Colonoscopy was ordered in 73 cases (99%) and completed by 59 patients (80%). Of the 56 patients who underwent colonoscopy at our institution, most had documentation of a high-quality colonoscopy, defined as adequate prep (84%), cecal intubation (93%), visualization of the appendiceal orifice and ileocecal valve (94%), and right colon retroflexion (83%). Sixteen patients (29%) were found with advanced adenomas and 19 (34%) had other adenomas or sessile polyps. Among the 409 patients with negative tests, a 3-year follow-up recommendation was documented for 369 patients (90%). Conclusion(s): Most clinicians at our institution identified appropriate patients for mt-sDNA testing and provided appropriate follow-up< and the majority of patients who underwent colonoscopy had documentation of a high-quality colonoscopy. In contrast, there were suboptimal rates of mt-sDNA completion and documentation of shared decision making. Further studies are needed to identify barriers to documentation of shared-decision making and to completion of high-quality colonoscopies in patients being screened with mt-sDNA.

Online teaching self-efficacy of Chinese university teachers amidst Covid-19: its changes and the moderation of adaptability and administration quality

Teacher self-efficacy is among the most valued teacher motivational constructs. However, little is known about university teachers' self-efficacy and even less about changes to it throughout the Covid-19-related online teaching. This study applied a retrospective pre- and post-design to investigate changes in online teaching self-efficacy (OTSE) during Covid-19. Participants included 160 Chinese university teachers, who reported their OTSE before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns, adaptability and administration quality together with demographic information. The self-efficacy for online instruction failed to increase significantly over this period (β=.21, p =.083), whereas that for online technology applications increased significantly (β=.329, p <.01). Individual adaptability and administration quality significantly moderated the changes in OTSE. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Fortification is required in the rear to win the battle of epidemic prevention and control.

The current epidemic of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a serious threat to people's health and lives. Following the national policies and deployment, medical community in China invests large amounts of medical resources to help Hubei. However, some hospitals nationwide have suspended outpatient and inpatient services. The authors analyze the underlying causes of suspension of medical services and its harm to patients, and summarize the optimization of disease diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak. In further, they propose reasonable suggestions on safe medical management in general hospitals outside the epidemic area, in order to attract the attention of medical institutions and medical colleagues.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Promiscuous Biological Features of Newly Emerged SARS-CoV-2 Facili-tate its Unrestrained Outbreak: An Update

The unrelenting protraction of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), inflicted by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is tending to craft havoc all over the world for the past few months. Considering the looming repercussions due to this deadly virus worldwide, there is an impending necessity to comprehend this newfangled contagion. To develop an effective eradication measure and preventive strategy, knowledge about the virus structure, life cycle, and metabolism is imperative. Better insight into the virus life cycle helps us to identify and design drugs that can hit crucial targets of this dreadful virus. The close genetic similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, which triggered an outbreak in the year 2003, could be of great strategic importance in designing effective drug formulations. This will also help in the development of leveraging immunological measures to develop an effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. This eventually will help us to progress our strategies related to the virus. Not on the positive side, there is some misinformation going all around the world despite the strict regulations from the WHO and other government agencies to inform the citizens to abstain from the rumour-mongering regarding COVID-19. Further, evidence needs to be gathered on vaccine strategies to cure the patients suffering from COVID-19. This information will also help us in designing both drug inhibi-tors as well as prophylactic measures against SARS-CoV-2.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.

Ligand-based discovery of coronavirus main protease inhibitors using MACAW molecular embeddings

Ligand-based drug design methods are thought to require large experimental datasets to become useful for virtual screening. In this work, we propose a computational strategy to design novel inhibitors of coronavirus main protease, M(pro). The pipeline integrates publicly available screening and binding affinity data in a two-stage machine-learning model using the recent MACAW embeddings. Once trained, the model can be deployed to rapidly screen large libraries of molecules in silico. Several hundred thousand compounds were virtually screened and 10 of them were selected for experimental testing. From these 10 compounds, 8 showed a clear inhibitory effect on recombinant M(pro), with half-maximal inhibitory concentration values (IC(50)) in the range 0.18-18.82 μM. Cellular assays were also conducted to evaluate cytotoxic, haemolytic, and antiviral properties. A promising lead compound against coronavirus M(pro) was identified with dose-dependent inhibition of virus infectivity and minimal toxicity on human MRC-5 cells.

Satellite-based estimates of daily NO2 exposure in urban agglomerations of China and application to spatio-temporal characteristics of hotspots

The analysis of the daily spatial patterns of near-surface Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations can assist decision makers mitigate this common air pollutant in urban areas. However, comparative analysis of NO2 estimates in different urban agglomerations of China is limited. In this study, a new linear mixed effect model (LME) with multi-source spatiotemporal data is proposed to estimate daily NO2 concentrations at high accuracy based on the land-use regression (LUR) model and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) products. In addition, three models for NO2 concentration estimation were evaluated and compared in four Chinese urban agglomerations from 2018 to 2020, including the COVID-19 closed management period. Each model included a unique combination of methods and satellite NO2 products: ModelⅠ: LUR model with OMI products;Model Ⅱ: LUR model with TropOMI products;Model Ⅱ: LME model with TropOMI products. The results show that the LME model outperformed the LUR model in all four urban agglomerations as the average RMSE decreased by 16.09% due to the consideration of atmospheric dispersion random effects, and using TropOMI instead of OMI products can improve the accuracy. Based on our NO2 estimations, pollution hotspots were identified, and pollution anomalies during the COVID-19 period were explored for two periods;the lockdown and revenge pollution periods. The largest NO2 pollution difference between the hotspot and non-hotspot areas occurred in the second period, especially in the heavy industrial urban agglomerations. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Accurate flight emission inventory estimation of Chinese civil aviation flights with QAR data

Rapid growth of emissions from Chinese civil aviation in recent years has largely accompanied with its fast expansion，and accurate emission inventory estimation is necessary for assessing the environmental impacts of the domestic civil aviation industry. To address the shortcomings of current studies in terms of accuracy and coverage， we proposed a bottom-up approach to estimate fuel consumptions and emissions， including HC，CO，NOx，PM，SO2，and CO2 from each individual flight with finer-scaled quick access recorder（QAR）data，collected from the domestic flights from January 2018 to November 2021. In this study，the durations of each flight phase were concerned with respect to various aircraft types，take-off and landing airports. Results show that the larger the airport is and the higher the emissions from this single flight is，and emissions during the CCD phase are the most important part and positively related to the flight duration. Emissions from 2018 to 2019 shew increasements，where the total emissions of CO2 were 73.17 ×106 t and 76.85 ×106 t，respectively. However，unexpected fluctuations occurred since the end of 2019 due to the outbreak of Covid19 epidemic，where the emission of CO2 were 61.51 ×106 t and 60.08 ×106 t in 2020 and 2021（January to November）. To explore the impacts of the Covid19 on flight emissions，an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average（ARIMA）model was used to estimate emissions after December 2019 with assuming the absence of Covid19，and results show that total emissions decreased by about 20% up to November 2021. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Pattern Classification and Herbal Medicine for COVID-19: A Comparative Study of Data from Different Sources

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) plays a crucial role in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective: The study aimed to reveal the distribution characteristics of COVID-19 TCM syndrome types and syndrome elements and the law of TCM treatment and medication. Methods: The TCM diagnosis and treatment protocol for COVID-19 and clinical research data were obtained through network retrieval, and Revman 5.3 and SPSS 23.0 were employed to analyze the composition of TCM syndromes and the situation of TCMs in meta and frequency. Results: The top three TCM syndromes of COVID-19 included damp-heat accumulation in the lung pattern, damp abundance due to spleen deficiency, and epidemic toxin invading the lung pattern, while the syndrome elements were dampness, heat, and toxin. Gypsum fibrosum, Pogostemonis herba, and Armeniacae semen were identified as the commonly used drugs. Different syndrome elements were identified at lung disease location: Forsythiae fructus, Glycyrrhizae radix, and Armeniacae semen can be used for "wind;" Glycyrrhizae radix, Armeniacae semen, and Scutellariae radix can be used for "Heat;" Armeniacae semen, Sheng Gypsum fibrosum, and Ephedrae herba can be used for "Toxin;" Ephedrae herba, Armeniacae semen, and Atractylodis rhizome can be used for "Damp;" Magnoliae officinalis Cortex, Ephedrae herba, and Zingiberis Rhizoma recens can be used for "cold;" and Armeniacae semen, Gypsum fibrosum, Ephedrae herba, and Lepidii/Descurainiae semen can be used for "epidemic. " Conclusion: The establishment of a treatment scheme based on the classification of disease syndrome elements should be considered for sudden infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Pogostemonis herba, Armeniacae semen, Gypsum fibrosum, and Glycyrrhizae radix should be considered as effective drugs from TCM for the treatment of COVID-19.

Transformer for one stop interpretable cell type annotation.

Consistent annotation transfer from reference dataset to query dataset is fundamental to the development and reproducibility of single-cell research. Compared with traditional annotation methods, deep learning based methods are faster and more automated. A series of useful single cell analysis tools based on autoencoder architecture have been developed but these struggle to strike a balance between depth and interpretability. Here, we present TOSICA, a multi-head self-attention deep learning model based on Transformer that enables interpretable cell type annotation using biologically understandable entities, such as pathways or regulons. We show that TOSICA achieves fast and accurate one-stop annotation and batch-insensitive integration while providing biologically interpretable insights for understanding cellular behavior during development and disease progressions. We demonstrate TOSICA's advantages by applying it to scRNA-seq data of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and CD14+ monocytes in COVID-19 to reveal rare cell types, heterogeneity and dynamic trajectories associated with disease progression and severity.

Discussions of Chemical, Biological, and Economic Features of two FDA Authorized Antivirals Against COVID-19: Molnupiravir and Paxlovid

Molnupiravir from Merck and Paxlovid from Pfizer are both promising. Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic due to infection of SARS-CoV-2 has posed a challenge to global healthcare systems. Although vaccines and potential treatments have been developed, there are still many unknown areas of this virus, and people are still searching for efficient ways to treat the disease. Recently, two oral antivirals for COVID-19, Molnupiravir from Merck and Paxlovid from Pfizer, were developed and given emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. FDA to reduce hospitalizations and death from COVID-19. Though the mechanism of action of the two drugs is very different, both drugs have shown promising efficacy in treating COVID-19 infections. This paper will compare these two drugs in various aspects, including their chemical structures, mechanism of action, efficacy and safety, and drug economics. © 2022 ACM.

Collaborative adoption of blockchain technology: A supply chain contract perspective

The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly affected the development of enterprises. In the post-pandemic era, blockchain technology has become one of the important technologies to help enterprises quickly gain market competitiveness. The heavy investment required of supply chain stakeholders to employ blockchain technology has hindered its adoption and application. To tackle this issue, this study aims to facilitate the adoption of blockchain technology in a supply chain consisting of a core enterprise and a small/medium-sized enterprise through an effective supply chain contract. We analyze the performance of a cost-sharing (CS) contract and a revenue-sharing (RS) contract and propose a new hybrid CS-RS contract for better performance. We conduct comparative analyses of the three contracts and find that the hybrid CS-RS contract can more effectively incentivize both parties to reach the highest level of blockchain technology adoption and achieve supply chain coordination.

Specificity of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid detection kit (fluorescence PCR)

Objective To evaluate the specificity of three consecutive batches of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid detection kit (fluorescence PCR) manufactured by Shanghai GeneoDx Biotech Co., LTD. Methods A total of 55 common respiratory pathogens, including endemic human coronaviruses (HKU1, OC43, NL63 and 229E), severe acute respiratory syndrome conronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), seasonal influenza virus, rhinovirus, adenovirus, Klebsiella pneumonia and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, were grouped and used for verification of cross reactivity of the detection kit. According to the requirements in the Key Points of Technical Review for Registration of 2019 New Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Detection Reagents issued by Center for Medical Device Evaluation, National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), human mucoprotein, human blood, phenylephrine, oxymetazoline, sodium chloride (including those as preservatives) and other 29 interfering substances were selected to verify the anti-interference substances of this kit. Results In the verification for cross reactivity, the test results of mixed positive samples by the three consecutive batches of kit were positive, while those of negative samples were negative, indicating a coincidence rate of accuracy of 100%. The cross-reactive substances showed no effect on the test result by the kit. All the test results of positive and borderline positive samples were positive, while those of negative samples were negative, indicating a coincidence rate of accuracy of 100%. All the 29 kinds of endogenous / exogenous interfering substances showed no influence on the test results by this kit. Conclusion Hie new coronavirus 2019-nCoV nucleic acid detection kit (fluorescence PCR method) manufactured by Shanghai GeneoDx Biotech Co., LTD. showed no cross-reactivity with 55 common respiratory pathogens, while showed anti-interference properties against endogenous and exogenous interfering substances such as host tissue, common respiratory pathogen and common drugs for respiratory diseases in clinic. The specificity test result of the kit met the requirements for registration of 2019 new coronavirus nucleic acid detection reagents. The test results of three consecutive batches of kits were highly stable. Copyright © 2021 Changchun Institute of Biological Products. All rights reserved.

Robot Musical Theater for Climate Change Education

The use of social robots has recently been investigated in various areas, including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and artistic performances. To inform children of the seriousness of climate change and awareness that they can make change, we created the Robot Musical Theater performance. In this project, natural elements (wind, earth, fire, and water) were anthropomorphized and represented by humanoid robots (Pepper, Milo, and Nao). The robots were designed to motivate audience to participate in the action to prevent climate change. Because of COVID, only fourteen visitors as a single group were allowed to participate in real-time and posted to YouTube, where at the time of submission, 141 people have viewed the performance. The participants provided positive comments on the performance and showed their willingness to participate in the movement to prevent climate change, and expressed their further interest in STEM learning. This performance is expected to contribute to enhancing informal STEM and robotics learning, as well as advancing robotic arts. © 2022 IEEE.