Now is the Time to Improve Cognitive Screening and Assessment for Clinical and Research Advancement.

Wang et al. analyze Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment accuracy as screening tests for detecting dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Such tests are at the center of controversy regarding recognition and treatment of AD. The continued widespread use of tools such as MMSE (1975) underscores the failure of advancing cognitive screening and assessment, which has hampered the development and evaluation of AD treatments. It is time to employ readily available, efficient computerized measures for population/mass screening, clinical assessment of dementia progression, and accurate determination of approaches for prevention and treatment of AD and related conditions.

Comorbid anxiety and depression, depression, and anxiety in comparison in multi-ethnic community of west China: prevalence, metabolic profile, and related factors.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the prevalence, lifestyle factors, chronic disease status, and assessing the metabolic profile, comparing key differences in a cohort of subjects aged at least 50 years old among depression combined anxiety, depression and anxiety in a multi-ethnic population in west China. METHODS: A large multi-ethnic sample of 6838 participants aged 50 years old (mean age 62.4 ± 8.3 years) from West China Health and Aging Trend (WCHAT) study was analyzed. We categorized all participants into four groups: (a) comorbid anxiety and depression symptomology (CAD), (b) anxiety only, (c) depression only, or (d) neither depression nor anxiety. Different variables like anthropometry measures, life styles, chronic disease and blood test were collected. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15). GDS-15 scores ≥5 indicate depression. Anxiety status was assessed using Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) instrument and the scores ≥5 was considered as having anxiety. Different variables like anthropometry measures, life styles, cognitive function and chronic disease comorbidities were collected and serum parameters were tested. Multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity was done to compare between those with the mental outcomes and without. RESULTS: The proportions of CAD, anxiety and depression were 9.0%, 12.8% and 10.6% respectively with ethnic diversity. The 'comorbid' group shown greater frequency of being female, having a lower educational level, higher prevalence of being single/divorced/widowed, drinking alcohol and smoking, more chronic disease profile and cognitive decline compared with individuals with only one disorder. And the metabolic profile showed differences in albumin, total protein, creatinine, uric acid, thyroid hormones in comparing CAD symptomology and the 'neither symptomology'. CONCLUSIONS: Yi, Qiang and Uyghur ethnic groups have a higher prevalence of mental disease compared with Han in west China. And these mental disease had a distinct risk factor profile in age, sex, educational level, chronic disease and cognitive function. Vitamin D levels were lower among those with mental disease compared to those without.

Rapid Visual CRISPR Assay: A Naked-Eye Colorimetric Detection Method for Nucleic Acids Based on CRISPR/Cas12a and a Convolutional Neural Network.

Rapid diagnosis based on naked-eye colorimetric detection remains challenging, but it could build new capacities for molecular point-of-care testing (POCT). In this study, we evaluated the performance of 16 types of single-stranded DNA-fluorophore-quencher (ssDNA-FQ) reporters for use with clusters of regularly spaced short palindrome repeats (CRISPR)/Cas12a-based visual colorimetric assays. Among them, nine ssDNA-FQ reporters were found to be suitable for direct visual colorimetric detection, with especially very strong performance using ROX-labeled reporters. We optimized the reaction concentrations of these ssDNA-FQ reporters for a naked-eye read-out of assay results (no transducing component required for visualization). In particular, we developed a convolutional neural network algorithm to standardize and automate the analytical colorimetric assessment of images and integrated this into the MagicEye mobile phone software. A field-deployable assay platform named RApid VIsual CRISPR (RAVI-CRISPR) based on a ROX-labeled reporter with isothermal amplification and CRISPR/Cas12a targeting was established. We deployed RAVI-CRISPR in a single tube toward an instrument-less colorimetric POCT format that required only a portable rechargeable hand warmer for incubation. The RAVI-CRISPR was successfully used for the high-sensitivity detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and African swine fever virus (ASFV). Our study demonstrates this RAVI-CRISPR/MagicEye system to be suitable for distinguishing different pathogenic nucleic acid targets with high specificity and sensitivity as the simplest-to-date platform for rapid pen- or bed-side testing.

Targeting the coronavirus nucleocapsid protein through GSK-3 inhibition.

The coronaviruses responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV), COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV, and other coronavirus infections express a nucleocapsid protein (N) that is essential for viral replication, transcription, and virion assembly. Phosphorylation of N from SARS-CoV by glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) is required for its function and inhibition of GSK-3 with lithium impairs N phosphorylation, viral transcription, and replication. Here we report that the SARS-CoV-2 N protein contains GSK-3 consensus sequences and that this motif is conserved in diverse coronaviruses, raising the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may be sensitive to GSK-3 inhibitors, including lithium. We conducted a retrospective analysis of lithium use in patients from three major health systems who were PCR-tested for SARS-CoV-2. We found that patients taking lithium have a significantly reduced risk of COVID-19 (odds ratio = 0.51 [0.35-0.74], P = 0.005). We also show that the SARS-CoV-2 N protein is phosphorylated by GSK-3. Knockout of GSK3A and GSK3B demonstrates that GSK-3 is essential for N phosphorylation. Alternative GSK-3 inhibitors block N phosphorylation and impair replication in SARS-CoV-2 infected lung epithelial cells in a cell-type-dependent manner. Targeting GSK-3 may therefore provide an approach to treat COVID-19 and future coronavirus outbreaks.

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on electricity demand in the UK based on multivariate time series forecasting with Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory.

Due to lockdown measures taken by the UK government during the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the national electricity demand profile presented a notably different performance. The Coronavirus disease 2019 crisis has provided a unique opportunity to investigate how such a landscape-scale lockdown can influence the national electricity system. However, the impacts of social and economic restrictions on daily electricity demands are still poorly understood. This paper investigated how the UK-wide electricity demand was influenced during the Coronavirus disease 2019 crisis based on multivariate time series forecasting with Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory, to comprehend its correlations with containment measures, weather conditions, and renewable energy supplies. A deep-learning-based predictive model was established for daily electricity demand time series forecasting, which was trained by multiple features, including the number of coronavirus tests (smoothed), wind speed, ambient temperature, biomass, solar & wind power supplies, and historical electricity demand. Besides, the effects of Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the Net-Zero target of 2050 were also studied through an interlinked approach.

Clinical characteristics and risk factors for mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 in intensive care unit: a single- center, retrospective, observational study in China.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a potentially life-threatening contagious disease which has spread all over the world. Risk factors associated with the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 pneumonia in intensive care unit (ICU) have not yet been well determined. METHODS: This was a retrospective, single-centered, observational study, in which 47 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were consecutively enrolled from February 24 to April 5, 2020. The patients were registered from the ICU of Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China. Clinical characteristics and outcomes were collected and compared between survivors and non-survivors. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to analyze the risk factors of death in patients with COVID-19. RESULTS: The study cohort included 47 adult patients with an average age of 70.55±12.52 years, and 30 (63.8%) patients were men. Totally 15 (31.9%) patients died. When compared to survivors, nonsurvivors showed a higher proportion of septic shock [6 (40%) patients vs. 3 (9.4%) patients], disseminated intravascular coagulation [3 (21.4%) vs. 0], and had higher score of APACHE II (25.07±8.03 vs. 15.56±5.95), CURB-65 {3 [2-4] vs. 2 [1-3]}, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) {7 [5-9] vs. 3 [1-6]}, higher level of D-dimer {5.74 [2.32-18] vs 2.05 [1.09-4.00]} and neutrophil count {9.4 [7.68-14.54] vs. 5.32 [3.85-9.34]}. SOFA score (OR 1.47; 95% CI: 1.01-2.13; P=0.0042) and the lymphocyte count (OR 0.02; 95% CI: 0.00-0.86; P=0.042) on admission were independently risk factors for mortality. Patients with higher lymphocyte count (>0.63×109 /L) and lower SOFA score (≤4) on admission had a significantly better prognosis than those with lower lymphocyte count (≤0.63×109 /L) and higher SOFA score (>4) in overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Higher SOFA score and lower lymphocyte count at admission were connected with poor prognosis of patients with COVID-19 in ICU. Lymphocyte count may serve as a promising prognostic biomarker.

Post-COVID-19 Epidemic: Allostatic Load among Medical and Nonmedical Workers in China.

BACKGROUND: As the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic continues, medical workers may have allostatic load. OBJECTIVE: During the reopening of society, medical and nonmedical workers were compared in terms of allostatic load. METHODS: An online study was performed; 3,590 Chinese subjects were analyzed. Socio-demographic variables, allostatic load, stress, abnormal illness behavior, global well-being, mental status, and social support were assessed. RESULTS: There was no difference in allostatic load in medical workers compared to nonmedical workers (15.8 vs. 17.8%; p = 0.22). Multivariate conditional logistic regression revealed that anxiety (OR = 1.24; 95% CI 1.18-1.31; p < 0.01), depression (OR = 1.23; 95% CI 1.17-1.29; p < 0.01), somatization (OR = 1.20; 95% CI 1.14-1.25; p < 0.01), hostility (OR = 1.24; 95% CI 1.18-1.30; p < 0.01), and abnormal illness behavior (OR = 1.49; 95% CI 1.34-1.66; p < 0.01) were positively associated with allostatic load, while objective support (OR = 0.84; 95% CI 0.78-0.89; p < 0.01), subjective support (OR = 0.84; 95% CI 0.80-0.88; p < 0.01), utilization of support (OR = 0.80; 95% CI 0.72-0.88; p < 0.01), social support (OR = 0.90; 95% CI 0.87-0.93; p < 0.01), and global well-being (OR = 0.30; 95% CI 0.22-0.41; p < 0.01) were negatively associated. CONCLUSIONS: In the post-COVID-19 epidemic time, medical and nonmedical workers had similar allostatic load. Psychological distress and abnormal illness behavior were risk factors for it, while social support could relieve it.

Corona Virus International Public Health Emergencies: Implications for Radiology Management.

The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pneumonia was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019 and has spread internationally. This article discusses how radiology departments can most effectively respond to this public health emergency.