Qualitative study on delayed experience of seeking medical treatment in patients with advanced lung cancer

Objective To explore the causes and feelings of delayed experience of seeking medical treatment in patients with advanced lung cancer, and to provide new insights for more targeted health education and medical care services. Methods A semi-structured in depth interview based on the theory of planned behavior was conducted among 30 patients with advanced lung cancer who experienced medical delay from November to December in 2021 admitted to First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University. The interview content was analyzed and ed by using Colaizzi phenomenological analysis method and Nvivo11.0 software. Results The delay duration of 30 patients with advanced lung cancer ranged from 90 to 213 days. Four subject groups were extracted by generic analysis: the cause of delay, the cause to seek medical help, the worry about the disease, and solutions. Conclusions The delay behavior of patients with advanced lung cancer is affected by external situational factors such as symptom severity, family economic capacity, social support, accessibility of health services, prevalence of novel coronavirus, and subjective psychological factors such as sense of stigma and burden of disease, it is necessary to reduce the occurrence of medical delay in patients with advanced lung cancer through the comprehensive management strategy of multiple channels. © 2023 Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co.Ltd. All rights reserved.

A retrospective review of primary prophylaxis with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) for patients with genitourinary malignancies receiving chemotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic and implications for the future

Background: To mitigate the risks of chemotherapy associated neutropenia, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all genitourinary (GU) cancer patients treated with chemotherapy at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC) were offered primary prophylaxis with GCSF. We hypothesize that this reduced rates of febrile neutropenia, hospitalizations, healthcare costs and improved overall outcomes, compared to GU cancer patients treated with chemotherapy without GCSF in the 2 years prior to the pandemic. Method(s): We performed a retrospective review of GU cancer patients, receiving curative or palliative intent chemotherapy, with or without primary GCSF prophylaxis between January 2018 and June 2022. GCSF was given either as a single dose or as consecutive doses post chemotherapy. Main outcomes were incidence of febrile neutropenia, hospitalization, health care expenditures as well as disease specific outcomes. Result(s): Overall, 248 patients with prostate cancer (44%), urothelial cancers (33%) germ cell (21%), and rare GU cancers (4%) were identified. Median age was 70 (range 19-91), 92% were male, 65% were ECOG 0/1. Treatment intent was neoadjuvant (13%), adjuvant (20%), or palliative (67%). Main regimens used were docetaxel, cabazitaxel, carboplatin, cisplatin/ etoposide, gemcitabine/cisplatin and BEP. Median follow-up was 10.5 months (0.23-52.3 months). A total of 206/248 received primary GCSF prophylaxis. During chemotherapy, the median white blood cell levels were higher in the GCSF group compared to the non-GCSF group (14.1+/-10+/-9/L vs 2.90+/-10+/-9/L, p<0.0001);and neutropenia rates were markedly lower (2% vs. 93%, P=,0.0001). Hospital admission rates were significantly lower in G-CSF users compared to nonusers (19% vs. 69%, P,0.0001). Symptomatic disease progression 13% was the leading cause of admission in the G-CSF group. Infectious causes such as UTI, pneumonia, COVID-19, and sepsis were seen in only 12% of the G-CSF group compared to 31% in the non-users. G-CSF was generally well tolerated with just 0.97% discontinuing G-CSF. Conclusion(s): During the COVID-19 pandemic, primary prophylactic G-CSF use in GU cancer patients, undergoing chemotherapy significantly lowered rates of both febrile neutropenia and hospitalizations and could be a cost-effective strategy in this patient population that warrants further study.

Effect and mechanism of Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet in treatment of coronavirus infection.

Objective To study the anti-coronavirus effect of Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet (), and provide experimental basis for evaluating its prevention and treatment of coronavirus infection. Methods A total of 96 BALB/c mice with half male and half female were randomly divided into control group, model group, Lianhua Qingwen Capsules (, 0.546 g/kg) group and Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet (8.72, 17.44, 34.89 g/kg) groups with 16 mice in each group. BALB/c mice were infected with ip cyclophosphamide combined with HCoV-229E coronavirus to establish a model of coronavirus infection. The therapeutic effect of Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet was evaluated by body weight, lung index, viral load, hemagglutination titer and pathological changes in lung tissue of mice;Levels of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-4, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in alveolar lavage fluid were detected by ELISA;The proportion of macrophages, lymphocytes (CD3+, CD4+) and NK cells in lung tissue was detected by flow cytometry;Western blotting was used to detect Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MYD88), inhibitor kappa B kinase-beta (IKK-beta), inhibitor kappa B (IkappaB) and p-IkappaB protein expressions in lung tissue. Results Compared with model group, Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet significantly increased the body weight of virus infected mice (P < 0.05, 0.01), decreased lung index and hemagglutination titer (P < 0.01), improved lung disease (P < 0.05), and significantly inhibited viral mRNA expression (P < 0.01);TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta and VCAM-1 levels in alveolar lavage fluid were decreased (P < 0.05, 0.01), IFN-gamma level was increased (P < 0.05);The percentage of macrophages was significantly decreased (P < 0.05, 0.01), percentage of CD3+, CD4+ lymphocytes and NK cells was increased (P < 0.01);MYD88, TLR4, IkappaB and IKK-beta protein expressions in lung tissue were significantly down regulated (P < 0.05, 0.01). Conclusion Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet can inhibit the replication of coronavirus in vivo, reduce inflammatory reaction, protect lung tissue, and has obvious anti-coronavirus effect in vivo. Its mechanism may be related to the regulation of TLR4/MyD88/IKK/IkappaB signal pathway and improving immunity.Copyright © 2023 Editorial Office of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. All rights reserved.

Research Progress and Trend Analysis Based on Bibliometric of the National Key Research and Development Program "animal Project" during the 13th Five-Year Period

The 13th Five-Year National Key Research and Development Program has established a key project of "Prevention and Control of Major Animal Diseases, Efficient and Safe Husbandry Technology Research and Development" (Animal Project), which supported scientific and technological innovation research in the field of animal epidemic prevention and control, efficient and safe breeding and breeding environment treatment. This project carried out the design of "whole chain design and integrated implementation" according to basic research, key technology research and development and integrated demonstration to solve the important basic theory and technical bottleneck of animal breeding in China. Based on the method of bibliometric, a statistical analysis was conducted of the papers supported mainly by the project to master the research progress and hot spots of the special project in basic research and frontier theory. Moreover, the future key research direction and development trend in the field of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine was discussed in combination with the layout of animal husbandry and veterinary related projects in the 14th Five-Year Plan. The results showed that this special funded papers had achieved breakthrough research in the basic research fields of major animal diseases and zoonotic diseases such as the COVID-19, Zika virus and African Swine Fever Achievements: Agriculture-related universities and scientific research institutes cooperate closely and have made great contributions;International cooperation is not only with the United States and other developed countries, but also closely cooperated with developing countries such as Pakistan and Egypt related to the "Belt and Road" initiative. The probability of publishing high-quality papers which cooperated with scientific research teams in developed countries has increased significantly;Research hotspots mainly focus on epidemiology, pathogen replication and evolution, drug resistance, pathogen and host interaction and network regulation, immune and pathogenic mechanisms, cross-species transmission, etc. The livestock and poultry special project focuses on the research direction of the prevention and control of major livestock and poultry diseases and efficient and safe breeding, and has made important research progress in major basic theories, supporting the research and application demonstration of key core technologies. The 14th Five-Year National Key Research and Development Program will make a comprehensive layout in the field of animal seed industry innovation, prevention and control of animal diseases, purification and eradication, nutrition regulation and efficient breeding, waste resource utilization and green breeding, breeding equipment and intelligent breeding. Copyright © 2022 Editorial Board, Institute of Animal Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Dual-Factor WBAN Enhanced Authentication System Based on Iris and ECG Descriptors

At present, COVID-19 is still spreading and affecting millions of people worldwide. Minimizing the need for travel can significantly reduce the probability of infection and improve patients’quality of life. The wireless body area network (WBAN) transmits the patients’physiological data to the doctor remotely through the sensors in a way that minimizes physical contact with others. However, existing WBAN security authentication schemes have core limitation that includes weak authentication performance and over-consumption of resources that precludes their widespread adoption in practical applications. Therefore, in this paper, an enhanced dual-factor authentication system that address the mentioned drawbacks is proposed for securing WBAN resources. By combining iris and electrocardiogram (ECG) features, users would be required to pass the first-level iris authentication before performing the second-level ECG authentication, thus enhancing the overall security scheme of a WBAN system. Furthermore, we examined the existing Inter-Pulse-Intervals (IPI) encoding methods and propose a more efficient ECG IPI encoding algorithm which can effectively shorten the encoding time without affecting the overall encoding performance. Finally, extensive experiments were performed to verify the performance of the proposed dual-factor iris and ECG based WBAN authentication system using public iris and ECG databases. The experimental results show that the false acceptance rate (FAR) is close to 0.0% and the false rejection rate (FRR) is close to 3.2%. Findings from this study suggest that the proposed dual-factor authentication scheme could aid adequate deployment of security schemes to protect WBAN resources in practical applications. IEEE

Debulking before Initiation of Venetoclax Therapy in Untreated Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Results from a Phase 3b Study

Background: Venetoclax (VEN), an oral B-cell lymphoma 2 inhibitor, is approved for use in adult patients (pts) with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). As a targeted and highly active antitumor agent, VEN induces rapid and profound tumor reduction. Inpatient monitoring for initial doses of VEN is recommended by US Prescribing Information for pts with medium tumor burden and reduced renal function or high tumor burden. Administration of debulking agents, such as obinutuzumab (G), help reduce tumor burden and, consequently, facilitate subsequent administration of VEN in the outpatient setting. However, tumor reduction data are needed to definitively establish the utility of a debulking strategy. This study performed disease restaging after every 2 cycles of debulking to evaluate the safety and efficacy of G ± bendamustine (B) as a debulking regimen before VEN treatment in the outpatient community setting. The safety and efficacy of subsequent VEN+G treatment after debulking was also evaluated. Methods: This open-label, Phase 3b study (NCT03406156) enrolled adult pts with previously untreated CLL/SLL (except those with 17p deletion) who had medium (any lymph node [LN] 5 to <10 cm or absolute lymphocyte count [ALC] ≥25×10 9/L) or high (any LN ≥10 cm or any LN ≥5 cm and ALC ≥25×10 9/L) tumor burden. A maximum of six 28-day cycles of G±B were administered, and disease restaging was performed after every 2 cycles. Once low tumor burden was achieved (all LN <5 cm and ALC <25x10 9/L), VEN+G was administered for 5 cycles followed by VEN monotherapy for a total time on VEN of up to 1 year. Disease assessments were performed at the end of combination therapy (EoCT;5 mo after last dose of G) and at the end of therapy (EoT;3 mo after last dose of VEN), and peripheral blood was collected for assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD) using the clonoSEQ assay (Adaptive Biotechnologies). Undetectable MRD was defined as <1 CLL cell/10 4 leukocytes (<10 -4;uMRD4), <10 -5 (uMRD5), or <10 -6 (uMRD6). The primary endpoints were the percentage of pts achieving low tumor burden after 2, 4, and 6 cycles of G±B debulking and complete remission (CR) and CR with incomplete marrow recovery (CRi) rates among pts receiving VEN. Results: Of 120 pts treated, 81 received G for debulking and 39 received G+B. As of 13 May 2021, 2 pts remained on study treatment, 108 were in posttreatment follow-up, and 10 had discontinued the study for reasons including death (n=7), withdrawn consent (n=2), and COVID-19 infection (n=1). At baseline, 82.5% of pts had ALC ≥25x10 9/L, 33.3% had LN ≥5 cm, and 24.2%/75.0%/0.8% had high/medium/low tumor burden, respectively. Low tumor burden was achieved in 91.6% (109/119) of evaluable pts receiving G±B debulking. In the all-treated population (N=120), the objective response rate (ORR) was 90.0% and the CR/CRi rate was 35.8%. Among pts receiving VEN with disease assessment at EoT (N=76), the ORR was 98.7% and the CR/CRi rate was 44.7% (Table). The best uMRD4 rates in peripheral blood were 89.2% (107/120) for all-treated and 98.2% (107/109) for evaluable pts. Among evaluable pts, the uMRD4 rates were 100% (100/100) and 97.1% (68/70) at EoCT and EoT, respectively. Among pts with MRD assessments at both timepoints (N=67), 19.4% had a deepening of their MRD response from EoCT to EoT, and 67.2% maintained the same MRD level (Figure). At a median follow-up of 24.0 mo, 7 deaths (6 related to COVID-19 infection and 1 from cardiac complication after pancreatic mass resection) and no incidences of disease progression were reported;the estimated 18-mo PFS was 94.1%. In pts treated with G vs G+B debulking, respectively, the incidences of Grade ≥3 TEAEs were 71.6% vs 84.6% (most common was neutropenia at 28.4% vs 41.0%) and serious AEs were 23.5% vs 17.9% (most common were pneumonia and COVID-19 pneumonia, each at 3.7% vs 2.6%). Conclusion: In this study, most (91.6%) pts achieved low tumor burden after debulking. The uMRD4 rate was 98.2% among MRD-evaluable pts (89.2% among al pts), with 100% and 97.1% uMRD4 rates at EoCT and EoT, respectively. Overall, these results highlight the utility of G±B as an effective debulking strategy that can facilitate VEN treatment initiation in the outpatient setting. The efficacy and safety results are consistent with other VEN+G trials. Preventive measures for COVID-19 should be continuously emphasized for pts with CLL. [Formula presented] Disclosures: Flinn: AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Merck: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Karyopharm Therapeutics: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Teva: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Janssen: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Genentech: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Trillium Therapeutics: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;BeiGene: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Novartis: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Loxo: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Yingli Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;ArQule: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Celgene: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Roche: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Constellation Pharmaceuticals: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;AbbVie: Consultancy, Other: All Consultancy and Research Funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Portola Pharmaceuticals: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Rhizen Pharmaceuticals: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Incyte: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Infinity Pharmaceuticals: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;IGM Biosciences: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Forty Seven: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Forma Therapeutics: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Curis: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Verastem: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Seagen: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Juno Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Gilead Sciences: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Acerta Pharma: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Agios: Other All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Calithera Biosciences: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Takeda: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Pfizer: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Iksuda Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Unum Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;TG Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie Company: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;MorphoSys: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy and research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Nurix Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Great Point Partners: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Triphase Research & Development Corp.: Other: All research funding payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Century Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Hutchison MediPharma: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Vincerx Pharma: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah CannonResearch Institute;Sarah Cannon Research Institute: Current Employment;Servier Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Yingli Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Seagen: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Servier Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute;Unum Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: All consultancy payments made to Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Research Funding;Johnson & Johnson: Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company;Seattle Genetics: Research Funding. Andorsky: AbbVie: Research Funding;Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy;Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding;Epizyme: Research Funding;AstraZeneca: Other: served on steering committees;AbbVie: Consultancy. Melear: TG Therapeutics: Speakers Bureau;Astrazeneca: Speakers Bureau;Janssen: Speakers Bureau. Manda: Morphosys: Honoraria;Genmab: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Kolibaba: TG Therapeutics: Current Employment, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company, Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company;Atara Biotechm: Consultancy;McKesson Specialty Health: Consultancy;Sunitomo Dainippon Pharma: Consultancy;Tolero Pharma: Consultancy, Other: TRAVEL, ACCOMMODATIONS, EXPENSES. Yimer: GSK: Speakers Bureau;Beigene: Speakers Bureau;Janssen: Speakers Bureau;Astrazeneca: Speakers Bureau;Karyopharm: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company, Speakers Bureau;Sanofi: Speakers Bureau;Amgen: Speakers Bureau;Pharmacyclics: Speakers Bureau;Texas Oncology: Current Employment. Burke: Kura: Consultancy;Epizyme: Consultancy;Kymera: Consultancy;Adaptive Biotechnologies: Consultancy;Roche/Genentech: Consultancy;Beigene: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau;MorphoSys: Consultancy;Verastem: Consultancy;AstraZeneca: Consultancy;AbbVie: Consultancy;Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy;X4 Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy;SeaGen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Fanning: BMS: Speakers Bureau;TG Pharma: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bur au;Genmab: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;ADC Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Sanofi: Speakers Bureau;Takeda: Speakers Bureau;Genentech: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Islas-Ohlmayer: OHC/USON: Current Employment;AbbVie: Honoraria;Rigel: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Vizkelety: AbbVie: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Pesko: AbbVie: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Chyla: AbbVie: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Jiang: AbbVie: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Sharman: Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie Company: Consultancy;BMS: Consultancy;Lilly: Consultancy;BeiGene: Consultancy;Centessa: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;AstraZeneca: Consultancy;TG Therapeutics: Consultancy;AbbVie: Consultancy.

Dynamics of Stress and Emotional Experiences During COVID-19: Results From Two 14-Day Daily Diary Studies

Pandemics create many rapid changes and unstable situations to all individuals, which cause great fluctuations in emotional experiences among individuals. To further advance the understanding of the psychological impact of pandemics, the present study examined the relationship between the fluctuation of perceived stress and emotional variability during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Two 14-day daily diary studies were conducted between February and March 2020 to track the dynamics of perceived stress and emotional states among individuals. Study 1 with a student sample in Hong Kong revealed that greater fluctuations of perceived stress associated with COVID-19 were correlated with greater emotional variability, especially when the intensity of stress was high. Study 2 with a community sample in mainland China replicated the findings. It further revealed that the moderating effect of stress intensity was not significant when the stressor was not specified, suggesting the specificity of psychological impact of the pandemic. The present research highlights the importance of understanding the nuanced role of different stressors in shaping individuals' emotional experiences during the pandemics.

New wine in old bottles: Ga-68-PSMA-11 PET/CT reveals COVID-19 in patients with prostate cancer

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to influence every aspect of human life across the globe. It was reported that vascular angiogenesis of COVID-19 was elevated in patients with equally severe influenza virus infection. In this issue of AJNMMI, Farolfi et al. reported that there was lung uptake not related to prostate cancer in almost all COVID-19 patients who performed Ga-68-PSMA-11 PET/CT scans and most of the lung uptake lesions were matched with typical CT patterns of COVID-19. With the advantages of having various tracers for whole-body imaging, PET provides opportunities to study the mechanism of COVID-19 from different aspects and obtain patterns of extra-pulmonary lesions in COVID-19, which helps explore more effective treatments for the patients. This case series opened the door to many future studies. Furthermore, such a multi-national/multi-institutional collaboration in the pandemic truly encouraged us that science is indeed without borders.

A Health-friendly Speaker Verification System Supporting Mask Wearing

We demonstrate a health-friendly speaker verification system for voice-based identity verification on mobile devices. The system is built upon a speech processing module, a ResNet-based local acoustic feature extractor and a multi head attention-based embedding layer, and is optimized under an additive margin softmax loss for discriminative speaker verification. It is shown that the system achieves superior performance no matter whether there is mask wearing or not. This characteristic is important for speaker verification services operating in regions affected by the raging coronavirus pneumonia. With this demonstrationl, the audience will have an in-depth experience of how the accuracy of bio-metric verification and the personal health are simultaneously ensured. We wish that this demonstration would boost the development of next-generation bio-metric verification technologies.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wellbeing of international fellows training in hematology/oncology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC)

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant disruptions across all levels of medical training. International fellows in subspecialty training programs are essential members of the frontline physician workforce, who may be facing additional and unique challenges being far away from their home country. We aimed to understand the impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing of current international fellows in the Hematology/Oncology training program. Methods: We conducted an online survey of 52 international fellows at the PMCC from July 6-August 10, 2020. There were 60 questions divided into 4 sections: demographics, wellbeing assessment using the validated Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS), fellowship specific questions (personal and professional) and coping strategies using the validated brief COPE scale. Results: Response rate was 46% (n = 24). Relevant demographics include: married (65%), male (54%), age between 31-35 years (48%), have children (48%), and home country from Asia (48%). Mean SWEMWBS score was 21, indicating lower overall wellbeing than the general population (23.6). Compared to pre-COVID-19, many reported a decline in their wellbeing (63%), sense of guilt for not being with their family (45%) or helping their country (41%), stress in personal relationships (26%), fatigue (50%), sleep disorders (38%) and loss of interest in daily activities (38%). Personal events were altered by almost 80% and 20% plans to extend their fellowship. According to the Brief- COPE scale, most fellows used more adaptive coping mechanisms (mean score 39.2) as opposed to maladaptive ones (mean score 21.8). Conclusions: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the overall wellbeing of international fellows. Understanding the specific challenges and coping mechanisms of international fellows may help Institutions develop better targeted strategies to promote their overall wellbeing, professional development and highquality patient care during these unprecedented times.

Invited perspective: Mapping covid-19 with nuclear imaging: From infection to functional sequelae

The pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, or coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19) has been raging all over the globe for more than one year. COVID-19 virus can attack multiple organs through binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors and further induce systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation. In the last issue of 2020 AJNMMI (http://www.ajnmmi.us), Lima et al. summa-rized current biological complications of COVID-19, their underlying mechanisms, and our options of mapping these functional sequelae using nuclear imaging techniques. Four major organs, including the lung, heart, kidney, and endothelium, were identified as most vulnerable to COVID-19 viruses in severe patients. Nuclear medicine proved accurate and sensitive in assessing the onset, progression, and treatment of COVID-19 patients. By choosing the most appropriate radiotracers and imaging methods, clinicians and researchers are able to analyze and monitor the presence of inflammation, fibrosis, and changes of metabolic rates in organs of interest. With these desirable nuclear imaging methods, systematic evaluation of COVID-19, from its onset to functional sequela, can be achieved with rational patient stratification and timely treatment monitoring, which we believe will eventually lead to full vic-tory against the pandemic.

Guidelines for patient-practitioner contact and tcm management in post-covid syndromes

COVID-19 is an infectious disease that has been spreading throughout the world since the beginning of 2020, becoming a pandemic. As reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), by 10th January 2021 the disease had spread to more than 200 countries, infecting more than 88 million people and claiming nearly two million lives. These figures are increasing daily. In the UK at the time of going to print, there have been more than three million cases, more than 80 thousand confirmed deaths and more than 50 thousand people are infected daily. With such a large number of cases, post-COVID syndromes are also emerging, where patients who recover from the disease-with or without undergoing medical treatment-still suffer symptoms, some of which are serious and could affect them for the rest of their lives. Traditional Chinese medicine can offer significant help. In this article I discuss some of the presentations of post-COVID syndrome that I have treated: reduced lung function, gastrointestinal tract dysfunction, psychiatric disorders, post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic inflammation of the sexual organs;I describe how they were managed with Chinese herbal medicine alone, as the cases were seen during the first UK lockdown when clinics had to close to face-to-face consultations. Traditional Chinese medicine, whenever possible with the full spectrum of its treating modalities, can play an important role in the treatment of post-COVID syndromes. © 2021, Journal of Chinese Medicine. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of traditional chinese medicine for covid-19 pneumonia: Two case reports

Coronavirus disease, COVID-19, is a new viral illness that was initially identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. It causes an extremely high incidence of pneumonia, is highly infectious and has spread quickly throughout the world. The treatment of viral conditions is well established within the context of Chinese Medicine. Here we report two successful cases, including CT scans of the patient’s chest and temperature charts from before, during and after treatment to demonstrate the benefits achieved. Because traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shows a positive effect in the treatment of COVID-19, it is highly recommended that TCM is incorporated early in the treatment of patients affected by this disease.

Potential SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors selection from TCMSP platform by molecular docking approach [Chinese]

Objective: To identify potential SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors from the traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP) by molecular docking approach. Method(s): To alternate extensive compounds experimental screening processes, a Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) based molecular docking technology was performed to explore existing drug repurposing possibilities. Molecular docking model with Schrodinger suit 2018 was used to evaluate the binding abilities between TCMSP 13 143 compounds and SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease receptor-binding domain (PBD ID 6LU7), which involving in mediating viral replication and transcription functions. According to the constructed docking system, potential compounds were screened according to docking score, oral bioavailability (OB), and drug-likeness (DL). At last, a compounds-herb-target organ-function network was constructed. Result(s): Compared with 6LU7 original ligand docking score (-7.734), a total of 498 compounds were identified with lower docking score against 6LU7 targets. These compounds were further reduced to 60 high-priority compounds, based on OB (more than 30) and DL (more than 0.18). Meanwhile, these 60 compounds were found to interact with the amino acid residues (GLU166, GLY143, ASP187, CYS145, GLN189, LEU141, etc.) which were critically involved in the 6LU7 domain mainly by hydrogen-bonded interaction. The network exploring results revealed that these potential compounds were mainly attributed to Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Mori Cortex, Rhododendron dauricum, Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix, and Plantaginis Herba, etc., which associates with acute lung syndromes induced by SARS-CoV-2, with the effect of clearing heat and removing toxin, relieving cough and dispelling phlegm and lung-draining and relieving asthma. Conclusion(s): Molecular docking method provides a useful tool for the screening of SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors from TCMSP platform. Copyright © 2020, Editorial Office of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. All right reserved.

Research Progress in Coronavirus and its Therapeutic Drugs

Beginning at the end of 2019, corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19) caused by sevare acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus(SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan, China, and spread rapidly across the country. Prior to this, there had been two outbreaks in the world that caused serious consequences by different coronaviruses: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This article introduces the structure and classification of coronaviruses, discusses the origin, virological characteristics, and epidemiological overview of three coronaviruses-SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, and reviews the drugs that are currently on the market and are being developed to treat coronavirus infections, in order to explain the characteristics of coronavirus and provide new ideas for the prevention and control of 2019-nCoV and new coronavirus.