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This study aims to explore university students' continuous intention toward online learning during COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 120 students enrolled in online learning were surveyed to collect their perception of an extended model by adding task value to the expectation-confirmation model. Structural equation modeling was employed to verify the hypotheses proposed in this study. The results indicated that task value and technology usefulness were significant predictors of students' continuous intention toward online learning. More specifically, technology usefulness had a direct impact on students' continuous intention, while students' perceived task value played an indirect role in the prediction of their continuous intention. However, the impacts of both confirmation and satisfaction were not statistically significant on students' continuous intention. The results suggest that practitioners and researchers should pay special attention to the technological usefulness of online learning environments and task value, especially task value, in order to enhance students' retention of online learning. This study would contribute to implications to better design and implement online learning. © 2023 IEEE.
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Background: Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with adjuvant vinorelbine-platinum chemotherapy experience neutropenia, which may lead to early termination of treatment. However, evidence suggests that survival is superior in patients who complete four cycles of chemotherapy [1]. Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) prophylaxis is used to prevent neutropenia. During the COVID pandemic, the threshold for initiating prophylaxis was lowered to reduce need for hospital attendance with the concomitant risk of hospital-acquired infection [2]. We evaluated whether GCSF prophylaxis supported completion of chemotherapy in patients treated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Method(s): Data was retrospectively collected on the 112 patients with NSCLC who received adjuvant vinorelbine-platinum chemotherapy (total 349 cycles) in the period Jan 2017- Jul 2022. GCSF prophylaxis was prescribed at physician discretion. chi2 tests were carried out using SPSS 28. Result(s): A significantly higher proportion of patients who received GCSF prophylaxis completed four cycles of chemotherapy (chi2=5.120, p=0.024). These patients also experienced a lower incidence of grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (chi2=6.801, p=0.009). Over 5 years, 2/112 (1.75%) patients died, both from neutropenic sepsis;neither of these patients received prophylactic GCSF. GCSF prophylaxis was not associated with increase in the incidence of thromboembolic events (chi2=1.462, p=0.442). Conclusion(s): GCSF is safe and effective as primary prophylaxis in NSCLC patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. Use of GCSF will reduce proportion of post-operative patients considered too high risk for chemotherapy due to concerns about neutropenia. Disclosure: No significant relationships. [Figure presented]Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
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The Covid-19 pandemic ushered in multiple paradigms of personal health data sharing with particular emphasis on Person-to-Institution sharing and Institution-to-Institution sharing. While the data aggregated by technology companies and health authorities was instrumental in the development of vaccines and ultimately flattening the curve of infection rates, egregious abuses of privacy occurred. In many instances acceptable guarantees of appropriate utility for the data were not made available. Personal health data sharing for the containment of infections with privacy limitations present a classic case of collaboration among mutually distrustful entities. In this regard the blockchain network and attendant protocols for data integrity, transaction transmission and provenance can prove useful. Thus, in this paper we present a blockchain-based method for disease surveillance in a smart environment where smart contracts are deployed to monitor public locations instead of individuals. The data aggregated is analysed and tagged with a lifetime commensurate with the time for infection. Once the data utility period has elapsed the monitored data are removed from the active surveillance pool and the entities involved can be notified. Such a method of continual surveillance protects privacy by shifting the emphasis from individuals to locations. Experimental data suggests this method is efficient and can be implemented on top of existing disease surveillance strategies for later pandemics.
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The Covid-19 pandemic catalyzed many exciting forms of health data sharing. Aside from the institution-to-institution health data sharing among cooperating institutions for research and discovery of insights in healthcare, individual-to-many and individual-to-individual health data sharing also came to the fore. However, the security risks involved here are substantial since health data disclosures can lead to privacy and security breaches or complications. In this research, we present a scheme to enable individuals to share details of medical experiences with other individuals or interested groups. Our system provides the sharing entities with anonymity and thus, facilitates rapid dissemination of empirical insights during public health emergencies like Covid-19.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the mobility, accessibility, and behaviors of visitors dramatically. Under the impact of COVID-19, the social carrying capacity and emotion dynamics in parks and recreation areas are expected to change due to the uncertainty of health risks associated with visitors' behaviors. This study con-ducted an on-site visitor survey at Leiqiong Global Geological Park, a national park located in urban-proximate areas in Haikou, China. This study aims to examine factors impacting visitors' perceived crowding and emotions under varying levels of visitor use in urban national parks in the context of COVID-19. Study results suggest that visitors have the highest level of motivation for scenery and culture viewing and are generally satisfied with the environmental quality and design and COVID-19 prevention strategies and implementation efforts within the park. Moreover, this study suggests that the level of crowding and COVID-19 prevention strategies and imple-mentation can affect visitors' emotions in urban natioanl parks significantly. These findings highlight the importance of enforcing the social carrying capacity limits and COVID-19 prevention strategies for urban parks and protected areas to mitigate physical and mental health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Management implication: This study is one of the pilot studies that examines the social carrying capacity and emotion dynamics in urban national parks under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study results identify the thresholds of social carrying capacity and visitors' positive emotions based on the indicator of People Per View (PPV). Moreover, COVID-19 prevention strategies (e.g., mask-wearing and social distancing) can reduce visitors' perceived crowding and enhance positive emotions. These findings suggest that urban national parks should monitor visitor use levels based on the social carrying capacity framework to reduce visitors' perceived crowding and maintain positive emotions in the post-COVID-19 era.
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The Covid-19 pandemic ushered in multiple paradigms of personal health data sharing with particular emphasis on Person-to-Institution sharing and Institution-toInstitution sharing. While the data aggregated by technology companies and health authorities was instrumental in the development of vaccines and ultimately flattening the curve of infection rates, egregious abuses of privacy occurred. In many instances acceptable guarantees of appropriate utility for the data were not made available. Personal health data sharing for the containment of infections with privacy limitations present a classic case of collaboration among mutually distrustful entities. In this regard the blockchain network and attendant protocols for data integrity, transaction transmission and provenance can prove useful. Thus, in this paper we present a blockchain-based method for disease surveillance in a smart environment where smart contracts are deployed to monitor public locations instead of individuals. The data aggregated is analysed and tagged with a lifetime commensurate with the time for infection. Once the data utility period has elapsed the monitored data are removed from the active surveillance pool and the entities involved can be notified. Such a method of continual surveillance protects privacy by shifting the emphasis from individuals to locations. Experimental data suggests this method is efficient and can be implemented on top of existing disease surveillance strategies for later pandemics. © 2023 IEEE.
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Two female patients (patient 1, 22-year-old;patient 2, 50-year-old) received IV infusion of ribavirin injection (4 g in the first dose and the next day 1.2 g thrice daily), oral 2 lopinavir and ritonavir tablets twice daily, and aerosol inhalation of recombinant human interferon alpha2b for injection for novel coronavirus pneumonia. There was no obvious abnormality in blood routine and liver function before treatment. Laboratory tests showed red blood cell count (RBC) 2.89x1012/L, hemoglobin (Hb) 75 g/L, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 22.8 U/L, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) 33.9 U/L, total bilirubin (TBil) 71.2 mumol/L, and indirect bilirubin (IBil) 63.5 mumol/L in patient 1 on the 2nd day of treatment, and RBC 3.46x1012/L, Hb 95 g/L, ALT 17.7 U/L, AST 21.3 U/L, TBil 86.1 mumol/L, and IBil 67.1 mumol/L in patient 2 on the 3rd day of treatment. The direct antiglobulin test was positive, indirect antiglobulin test was negative, and antinuclear antibody test was negative in both patients. They were diagnosed as having acute hemolytic anemia. Con-sidering the relationship to ribavirin, ribavirin was given in reduced dose and then finally discontinued in patient 1, and was discontinued directly in patient 2. On the basis of continued use of the other 2 drugs, both of them were treated with ursodeoxycholic acid. The Hb and bilirubin level of the 2 patients gradually returned to normal.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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This book focuses on the progress of G20 members on entrepreneurship services since the G20 Entrepreneurship Action Plan was issued at the G20 Hangzhou Summit in China. The authors analyse the similarities and differences of policy measures taken by G20 members from five aspects of entrepreneurship services: government services, fiscal and financial supports, entrepreneur services, entrepreneurship education, and fair competition for SMEs. The book aims to bridge academic research with the multilevel and diverse practice in entrepreneurial activities and explores how national policies and conditions can promote entrepreneurship among G20 members. This book will inspire the policy- makers, stakeholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystems and scholars on entrepreneurship research as well, on how to promote the entrepreneurship as an effective way to stimulate employment growth, boost innovation development, and realize economic recovery in the post- COVID-19 era. © Tsinghua University Press 2022. All rights reserved.
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As the world grapples with the COVID-19 and its variants, multi-user collaboration by means of cloud computing is ubiquitous. How to make better use of cloud resources while preventing user privacy leakage has become particularly important. Multi-key homomorphic encryption(MKHE) can effectively deal with the privacy disclosure issue during the multi-user collaboration in the cloud computing setting. Firstly, we improve the DGHV homomorphic scheme by modifying the selection of key and the coefficients in encryption, so as to eliminate the restriction on the parity of the ciphertext modulus in the public key. On this basis, we further propose a DGHV-type MKHE scheme based on the number theory. In our scheme, an extended key is introduced for ciphertext extension, and we prove that it is efficient in performance analysis. The semantic security of our schemes is proved under the assumption of error-free approximate greatest common divisor and the difficulty of large integer factorization. Furthermore, the simulation experiments show the availability and computational efficiency of our MKHE scheme. Therefore, our scheme is suitable for the multi-user scenario in cloud environment. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
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Objective: To investigate the clinical value of outpatient screening in department of general surgery during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Method(s): The retrospective and descriptive study was conducted. The clinical data of 57 patients who visited surgery clinic and emergency department of Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology between February 1st and 26th in 2020 were collected. There were 30 males and 27 females, aged (53+/-16)years, with a range from 17 to 87 years. All the 57 patients were measured score of outpatient screening in department of general surgery. The score >=3 indicated high risk and the score < 3 indicated low risk. Observation indicators: (1) clinical data of patients;(2) score of outpatient screening for COVID-19 of patients. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean+/-SD, and comparison between groups was analyzed by the t test. Measurement data with skewed distribution were described as M (IQR), and comparison between groups was analyzed by the rank sum test. Count data were described as absolute numbers, and comparison between groups was analyzed using the chi-square test. Result(s): (1) Clinical data of patients: of the 57 patients, there were 12 males and 14 females of the 26 confirmed or suspected cases, versus 18 males and 13 females of the 31 non-infection cases, showing no significant difference between the two groups (chi2=0.805, P>0.05). The 26 confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 had an age of (57+/-16)years, and 31 non-infection cases had an age of (50+/-16) years, with no significant difference between the two groups (t=-1.646, P>0.05). (2) Score of outpatient screening for COVID-19 of patients: the score of outpatient screening for COVID-19 of the 26 confirmed or suspected cases was 3.0(4.0), versus 1.0(1.0) of the 31 non-infection cases, showing a significant difference between the two groups (Z=-3.695, P<0.05). There were 17 and 9 of the 26 confirmed or suspected cases with high risks and low risks, respectively, versus 3 and 28 of the 31 non-infection cases, with a significant difference between the two groups (chi2=19.266, P<0.05). Conclusion(s): During the COVID-19 outbreak, outpatient screening in department of general surgery can effectively screen out high-risk patients.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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Healthcare workers (HCWs) assessed by dermatologists during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had high rates of irritant hand dermatitis, facial dermatitis and acne triggered by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) (Ferguson FJ, Street G, Cunningham L et al. Occupational dermatology in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: a report of experience from London and Manchester, UK. Br J Dermatol 2021;184: 180-2). We report data from a tertiary National Health Service trust during the second COVID-19 wave in winter 2020-21. At its peak, the Trust had 835 COVID-positive inpatients and 263 intensive care unit (ICU) beds - one of the largest ICUs in Europe. Building on the published experience of dermatology units, we ran 30 dermatology pop-up clinics over 3 weeks in allocated rest areas across the Trust: 08.00-09.00 h and 13.00-14.00 h on weekdays, from 18 January 2021. HCWs requiring formal dermatology referral were provided with letters to their line managers. In 3 weeks, 401 HCWs were assessed: 327 females and 74 males (mean age 35 2 years). The most frequently seen occupation was nurses (n = 130;32 4%) followed by doctors (n = 74;18 4%). On average, staff spent 9 5 h in PPE per shift. Consistent with the existing literature, the most common diagnosis was irritant hand dermatitis (n = 186;46 4%). There was an increased incidence of acne (n = 171;42 6%) vs. the first wave, where the reported incidence was 17% in a multicentre study (O'Neill H, Narang I, Buckley DA et al. Occupational dermatoses during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multicentre audit in the UK and Ireland. Br J Dermatol 2021;184: 575-7). Less common in the second wave was facial eczema (n = 50, 12 5%) and pressure injury (n = 30;7 5%). Thirty-one (16 7%) of the HCWs with hand dermatitis required the prescription of potent topical corticosteroids, suggesting at least moderate symptoms. The majority received emollient samples. It was rare for HCWs to require formal referral (n = 11;2 7%). In our cohort, at least four (1 0%) HCWs required time off work owing to their skin problems. Our data support previous reports of increased occupational dermatoses in HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight the sheer scale of the issue, with 401 HCWs presenting for dermatological assessment in only 3 weeks in one trust. Compared with our experience during the first wave, acne exacerbated or precipitated by masks is increasingly common, which may be due to emollient use to prevent facial eczema or injury when wearing masks.
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Background Because of limited access to gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to prioritize procedures to avoid negative health impacts from delays. Ontario Health (OH) has provided guidance to facilities to prioritize colonoscopies in people with an abnormal fecal immunochemical test (FIT) result, based on the high likelihood to detect invasive colorectal cancer (CRC) and recommends FIT for screening people at average risk of CRC and those with prior low-risk adenoma. Purpose To measure the invasive CRC detection rate (CDR) of colonoscopies performed in Ontario by indication, setting, age, and sex over a 31-month period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method We calculated the CDRs among outpatients ages 18 and over who had colonoscopies performed in a hospital or private clinic setting from June 2019 to December 2021. We identified hospital colonoscopies from OH's GI Endoscopy Data Submission Portal and clinic colonoscopies from Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) data (OHIP code E749A). Invasive CRC was identified from the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR) as: ICD-O-3 codes C18.0, C18.2-C18.9, C19.9, C20.9, a morphology indicative of CRC, microscopically confirmed and with a pathology report. CRCs were included if diagnosed 7 days before and up to 183 days after colonoscopy. Colonoscopy volumes and CDRs were stratified by age and sex (all volumes), and, for hospital colonoscopies, by indication. Result(s) During the study period, 984,109 colonoscopies were performed (638,900 in hospitals;345,209 in clinics). Patients who had their colonoscopies in clinics were younger than those who had them in hospitals (Table 1). In both settings, colonoscopies were evenly distributed by sex. Overall, 12,021 CRCs were detected (CDR: 1.22%);9,451 CRCs in hospitals (CDR: 1.48%), and 2,570 CRCs in clinics (CDR: 0.74%). CDRs at any age were lower in clinics as compared to hospitals. In hospitals, CDRs by colonoscopy indication were: 5.16% for FIT+, 1.93% in symptomatic patients, 0.52% in surveillance, 0.70% in average-risk screening, and 0.35% in screening due to family history. FIT+ colonoscopies accounted for the smallest proportion of colonoscopies (6.2%) but the 2nd largest proportion of CRCs detected (Figure 1). Hospital-based CDR increased during the period of observation from 1.23% pre-pandemic (June-December 2019) to 1.55% during the pandemic (January-December 2021). Clinic CDR was 0.71% pre-pandemic and 0.75% during the pandemic. Image Conclusion(s) In Ontario, colonoscopy yield (CDR) is highest in FIT+ patients;just over one in 20 colonoscopies will yield a diagnosis of CRC. In contrast, primary screening and surveillance indications have very low CRC yields. The overall yield of colonoscopies in clinics, for all age groups, is lower than in hospital setting. There was a slight increase in CDR during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic, in both settings. Please acknowledge all funding agencies by checking the applicable boxes below Other Please indicate your source of funding;Ontario Health - Cancer Care Ontario Disclosure of Interest None Declared
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Background: Understanding the key factors affecting case fatality rates (CFRs) of COVID-19 is essential to guiding national response to pandemics. We aimed to investigate the country and period features of CFR in COVID-19 and predict the changes in CFR. Method(s): Cross-temporal and cross-country variations in CFR were identified by Extreme Gradient Boosting models using multiple features, and the effects of features were explained by applying SHapley Additive exPlanations. Result(s): The determinants of CFR changed during the COVID-19 pandemic from health conditions to a mixed effect dominated by vaccination rates (Fig 1). Overall, most countries have concurrent risk factors besides the main risk factors, and 156 countries were grouped into five clusters based on key CFR risk factors (Fig 1). A low vaccination rate drove cluster 1 was found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Aging drove cluster 2, primarily distributed in the high-income European countries, and a high burden of disease characterises cluster 3 and low GDP related cluster 4 were scattered across continents. Furthermore, simulating a 5% increase in vaccination rates resulted in a 31.2% and 15.0% change in CFR for cluster 1 and cluster 3, respectively, but only 3.1% for cluster2. (Fig 1). Conclusion(s): The features affecting COVID-19 CFRs show diversity across countries, and declining CFRs require more than increasing vaccination coverage. (Figure Presented).
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Objective To analyze the potential factors influencing the viral shedding time (duration of nucleic acid positivity) in elderly patients with mild and asymptomatic infection. Methods The clinical data of 1141 elderly (>=60 years) patients with mild and asymptomatic Omicron infection who were admitted to National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) Cabin Hospital from April 14, 2022 to May 1, 2022 were retrospectively collected, viral shedding time of patients were compared between different groups (age, gender, number of vaccination, hypertension, diabetes). Pearson analysis was adopted to analyze the relationship between age and viral shedding time. Kaplan-Meier curve and Log-rank test were used to evaluate the viral shedding time in elderly patients with different clinical characteristics. Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards regression model was adopted to analyze the factors influencing viral shedding time in elderly patients with Omicron. Results Among 1441 patients, 791(54.9%) males and 650(45.1%) females. There were 513(35.6%) patients receiving 0 dose of vaccine, 29(2.0%) patients received 1 dose of vaccine, 405(28.1%) patients received 2 doses of vaccine, 494(34.3%) patients received 3 doses of vaccine. Compared with patients aged 60 to 70 years, patients aged 70 to 80 years had longer viral shedding time (P<0.001). The viral shedding time in patients with hypertension and diabetes was longer than that in patients without hypertension and diabetes (P<0.05). In terms of vaccination, the viral shedding time of patients receiving 2 or 3 doses of vaccine was significantly shorter than that of patients receiving 1 dose of vaccine or none (P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between patient age and viral shedding time, with an R2=0.029 (P<0.001). Kaplan-Meier curve showed that there existed significant difference in viral shedding time between the patients with different vaccination doses (P<0.001), and patients with age >=70, hypertension and diabetes were all associated with prolonged viral shedding time (P<0.05). Cox regression analysis showed that the age >=70 years was a risk factor for prolonged viral shedding time, and 2 or 3 doses of vaccine was a protective factor for prolonged viral shedding time (P<0.05). Conclusions Among the elderly population, the viral shedding time would gradually increase with age. Patients who received >=2 doses of vaccine would have reduced viral shedding time compared with those who received <2 doses of vaccine.Copyright © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
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Once thought to be sterile, the human lung is now well recognized to harbor a consortium of microorganisms collectively known as the lung microbiome. The lung microbiome is altered in an array of lung diseases, including chronic lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and bronchiectasis, acute lung diseases caused by pneumonia, sepsis, and COVID-19, and other lung complications such as those related to lung transplantation, lung cancer, and human immunodeficiency virus. The effects of lung microbiome in modulating host immunity and inflammation in the lung and distal organs are being elucidated. However, the precise mechanism by which members of microbiota produce structural ligands that interact with host genes and pathways remains largely uncharacterized. Multiple unique challenges, both technically and biologically, exist in the field of lung microbiome, necessitating the development of tailored experimental and analytical approaches to overcome the bottlenecks. In this review, we first provide an overview of the principles and methodologies in studying the lung microbiome. We next review current knowledge of the roles of lung microbiome in human diseases, highlighting mechanistic insights. We finally discuss critical challenges in the field and share our thoughts on broad topics for future investigation. © 2022 The Authors. iMeta published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of iMeta Science.
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The COVID-2019 pandemic has a huge impact on tourism industry, and mastering the spatial and temporal characteristics of tourists' travel behavior during the period is very crucial for the recovery and the development of the tourism industry. This study adopts time series statistics and complex network analysis to compare and examine the network evolution features of Hong Kong before and during the COVID-19 pandemic based on the comments data generated from TripAdvisor website in 2019 and 2020. The results show that: (1) Tourists' travel behavior patterns have changed to a certain degree, and they prefer to visit a small number of destinations during an itinerary. (2) Key destinations still play important roles in connecting other destinations, but the tourism community formed around the key destinations has varied from extremely dense to relatively sparse gathering. (3) The number of tourists in extremely hot destinations has been greatly declined, those destinations with fewer tourists and relatively far away from the downtown have attracted more attention. Moreover, industrial destinations have been always the most popular type of tourism destination. © 2022, Science Press. All rights reserved.
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Objective To analyze the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in household environment and public place environment of Huangpu District, and describe the feature of SARS-CoV-2 contamination in the environment exposure to the infected cases, so as to support the control strategies such as disinfection and health communication. Methods The results of RT-PCR test for the environmental samples exposure to the cases infected by SARS-CoV-2 during February 1 to March 31 2022 in Huangpu District of Shanghai were collected as the research data. Pearson χ2 was used to test the significance of the differences between positive rates of SARS-CoV-2 contamination. Results From February 1 to March 31, household environment samples had a higher positive rate (6.47%, 234/3 618) of SARS-CoV-2 contamination while the public place samples had a lower one (1.22%, 47/3 582) in Huangpu District of Shanghai (χ2=141.908, P<0.01). Among the household buildings, the lane houses of old style representing poorer living condition had the highest positive rates (8.31%, 96/1 155) of SARS-CoV-2 contamination while the apartments representing better living condition had the lowest (3.59%, 22/612) (F=5.25 P<0.05). Among the samples from household environment, samples regarding sewerage had the highest positive rates (13.30%, 58/436) of SARS-CoV-2 contamination, while samples regarding the tool of cooking and sweeping had the lowest (3.10%, 17/548) (F=9.84 P<0.01). Among the samples from public place environment, samples regarding entertainment tools had the highest positive rates (13.33%, 2/15) of SARS-CoV-2 contamination, while samples regarding the tool of cooking and sweeping had the lowest (0.62%, 4/646) (F=4.22 P<0.01). Conclusion In the environment exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 infected cases, the disinfection, ventilation and cleaning should be intensified strictly. SARS-CoV-2's surviving in sewage environment should be evaluation dynamically. More health communication should be pushed to people of poorer living condition. © 2022 Editorial Office of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control. All rights reserved.
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Ethnopharmacological relevance: Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi. contains varieties of function compounds, and it has been used as traditional drug for centuries. Baicalein is the highest amount of flavonoid found in Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi., which exerts various pharmacological activities and might be a promising drug to treat COVID-19. Aim of the study: The present work aims to investigate the metabolism of baicalein in humans after oral administration, and study the pharmacokinetics of BA and its seven metabolites in plasma and urine. Materials and methods: The metabolism profiling and the identification of baicalein metabolites were performed on HPLC-Q-TOF. Then a column-switching method named MPX™-2 system was applied for the high-throughput quantificationof BA and seven metabolites. Results: Seven metabolites were identified using HPLC-Q-TOF, including sulfate, glucuronide, glucoside, and methyl-conjugated metabolites. Pharmacokinetic study found that BA was extensively metabolized in vivo, and only 5.65% of the drug remained intact in the circulatory system after single dosing. Baicalein-7-O-sulfate and baicalein-6-O-glucuronide-7-O-glucuronide were the most abundant metabolites. About 7.2% of the drug was excreted through urine and mostly was metabolites. Conclusion: Seven conjugated metabolites were identified in our assay. A high-throughput HPLC-MS/MS method using column switch was established for quantifying BA and its metabolites. The method has good sensitivity and reproducibility, and successfully applied for the clinical pharmacokinetic study of baicalein and identified metabolites. We expect that our results will provide a metabolic and pharmacokinetic foundation for the potential application of baicalein in medicine. © 2022
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Objective To analyze the potential factors influencing the viral shedding time (duration of nucleic acid positivity) in elderly patients with mild and asymptomatic infection. Methods The clinical data of 1141 elderly (>=60 years) patients with mild and asymptomatic Omicron infection who were admitted to National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) Cabin Hospital from April 14, 2022 to May 1, 2022 were retrospectively collected, viral shedding time of patients were compared between different groups (age, gender, number of vaccination, hypertension, diabetes). Pearson analysis was adopted to analyze the relationship between age and viral shedding time. Kaplan-Meier curve and Log-rank test were used to evaluate the viral shedding time in elderly patients with different clinical characteristics. Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards regression model was adopted to analyze the factors influencing viral shedding time in elderly patients with Omicron. Results Among 1441 patients, 791(54.9%) males and 650(45.1%) females. There were 513(35.6%) patients receiving 0 dose of vaccine, 29(2.0%) patients received 1 dose of vaccine, 405(28.1%) patients received 2 doses of vaccine, 494(34.3%) patients received 3 doses of vaccine. Compared with patients aged 60 to 70 years, patients aged 70 to 80 years had longer viral shedding time (P<0.001). The viral shedding time in patients with hypertension and diabetes was longer than that in patients without hypertension and diabetes (P<0.05). In terms of vaccination, the viral shedding time of patients receiving 2 or 3 doses of vaccine was significantly shorter than that of patients receiving 1 dose of vaccine or none (P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between patient age and viral shedding time, with an R2=0.029 (P<0.001). Kaplan-Meier curve showed that there existed significant difference in viral shedding time between the patients with different vaccination doses (P<0.001), and patients with age >=70, hypertension and diabetes were all associated with prolonged viral shedding time (P<0.05). Cox regression analysis showed that the age >=70 years was a risk factor for prolonged viral shedding time, and 2 or 3 doses of vaccine was a protective factor for prolonged viral shedding time (P<0.05). Conclusions Among the elderly population, the viral shedding time would gradually increase with age. Patients who received >=2 doses of vaccine would have reduced viral shedding time compared with those who received <2 doses of vaccine. Copyright © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
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In this paper, we proposed COVID-19 lung CT (computed tomography) images recognition with superscalar winograd circuit based on VGG19. We adopt the VGG-19 machine learning architecture to recognize lung CT images and speed up neural network operations through Superscalar Winograd Circuit. After a series of experiments, our proposed method has a high pneumonia recognition rate and high computational efficiency. © 2022 IEEE.