Mapping current status and emerging trends in NETosis: A bibliometric study.

BACKGROUND: NETosis is a critical innate immune mechanism of neutrophils that contributes to the accelerated progression of autoimmune diseases, thrombosis, cancer, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the relevant literature by bibliometric methods in order to provide a more comprehensive and objective view of the knowledge dynamics in the field. METHODS: The literature on NETosis was downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection, analyzed with VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Microsoft for co-authorship, co-occurrence, and co-citation analysis. RESULTS: In the field of NETosis, the United States was the most influential countries. Harvard University was the most active institutions. Mariana J. Kaplan and Brinkmann V were, respectively, the most prolific and most co-cited authors. Frontiers in Immunology, Journal of Immunology, Plos One, Blood, Science, Journal of Cell Biology, and Nature Medicine were the most influential journals. The top 15 keywords are associated with immunological and NETosis formation mechanisms. The keywords with the strongest burst detection were mainly related to COVID-19 (coronavirus, ACE2, SARS coronavirus, cytokine storm, pneumonia, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio), and cancer (circulating tumor cell). CONCLUSION: Research on NETosis is currently booming. The mechanism of NETosis and its role in innate immunity, autoimmune diseases, especially systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, and thrombosis are the focus of research in the field of NETosis. A future study will concentrate on the function of NETosis in COVID-19 and recurrent metastasis of cancer.

VR-Enhanced Cognitive Learning: Method, Framework, and Application

Both constructivist learning and situation-cognitive learning believe that learning outcomes are significantly affected by the context or learning environments. However, since 2019, the world has been ravaged by COVID-19. Under the threat of the virus, many offline activities, such as some practical or engineering courses, have been subjected to certain restrictions. Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging, promising, and rapidly developing technology that enables users to obtain a near-real immersion experience by combining technologies such as computer science, communication, vision, etc. In the context of COVID-19, the advantages of VR immersive experiences are highlighted. By constructing a virtual learning environment, VR technology can greatly compensate for the shortage of traditional teaching conditions and help learners to carry out cognitive learning better. However, currently, VR-enhanced cognitive learning is still in its infancy, along with numerous problems and limitations. Therefore, this paper first conducted an in-depth study of some related concepts, such as constructivist learning and situated cognition learning. Then it proposes a general VR-enhanced cognitive learning framework and designs the general steps for constructing learning situations with VR technology. Based on the proposed model and framework, it developed a campus knowledge-learning APP using VR tools. Through a case study, it verified the validity and performance of the model and strategies. Questionnaire survey and experimental results show that the new model achieves a good learning effect and improves the efficiency of learning by at least 20% compared to the traditional learning methods.

Intranasal booster using an Omicron vaccine confers broad mucosal and systemic immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants severely attenuated the effectiveness of currently licensed SARS-CoV-2 vaccines based on ancestral strains administered via intramuscular injection. In this study, we generated a recombinant, replication-incompetent human adenovirus type 5, Ad5-S-Omicron, that expresses Omicron BA.1 spike. Intranasal, but not intramuscular vaccination, elicited spike-specific respiratory mucosal IgA and residential T cell immune responses, in addition to systemic neutralizing antibodies and T cell immune responses against most Omicron subvariants. We tested intranasal Ad5-S-Omicron as a heterologous booster in mice that previously received intramuscular injection of inactivated ancestral vaccine. In addition to inducing serum broadly neutralizing antibodies, there was a significant induction of respiratory mucosal IgA and neutralizing activities against Omicron subvariants BA.1, BA.2, BA.5, BA.2.75, BF.7 as well as pre-Omicron strains Wildtype, Beta, and Delta. Serum and mucosal neutralizing activities against recently emerged XBB, BQ.1, and BQ.1.1 could also be detected but were much lower. Nasal lavage fluids from intranasal vaccination contained multimeric IgA that can bind to at least 10 spike proteins, including Omicron subvariants and pre-Omicron strains, and possessed broadly neutralizing activities. Intranasal vaccination using Ad5-S-Omicron or instillation of intranasal vaccinee's nasal lavage fluids in mouse nostrils protected mice against Omicron challenge. Taken together, intranasal Ad5-S-Omicron booster on the basis of ancestral vaccines can establish effective mucosal and systemic immunity against Omicron subvariants and multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants. This candidate vaccine warrants further development as a safe, effective, and user-friendly infection and transmission-blocking vaccine.

Influencing factors of humanistic care ability and its dimensions among mental health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: an online cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: In psychiatric services, humanistic care ability significantly affects the quality of the therapeutic relationship and thus affects the therapeutic outcomes for patients. Mental health workers may be confronted with more obstacles in humanistic care during the COVID-19 pandemic wherethe authors aimed to explore the capacity level of humanistic care among mental health workers and its potential influencing factors. METHOD(S): An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among 262 mental health workers working in Chongqing, China, from December 2020 to January 2021. Data were collected by the Caring Ability Inventory (CAI), the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-24), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised, and the Short Scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC). Multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of humanistic care ability. RESULTS: Mental health workers' humanistic care ability is at a low level, with a score of 186.47 ± 21.34. Psychological capital is positively associated with humanistic care ability (ß[95%CI] = 0.41 [0.46-0.77], p < 0.001), and its two dimensions (cognition: ß[95%CI] = 0.51 [0.30-0.47], p < 0.001; patience: ß[95%CI] = 0.48 [0.17-0.28], p < 0.001). Psychoticism is negatively associated with humanistic care ability (ß[95%CI] = -0.28 [-5.18 - -2.51], p < 0.001) and its three dimensions (cognition: ß[95%CI] = -0.12 [-1.57 - -0.17], p < 0.05; courage: ß[95%CI] = -0.17 [-1.7 - -0.32], p < 0.01; patience: ß[95%CI] = -0.19 [-1.33 - -0.36], p < 0.01). Extroversion is positively associated with humanistic care ability (ß[95%CI] = 0.19 [0.69-2.08], p < 0.001), and its two dimensions (cognition: ß[95%CI] = 0.19 [0.32-1.05], p < 0.001; courage: ß[95%CI] = 0.27 [0.5-1.23], p < 0.001). Neuroticism is negatively associated with humanistic care ability (ß[95%CI] = -0.13[-1.37 - -0.19], p < 0.01) and its one dimension (courage: ß[95%CI] = -0.25 [-0.98 - -0.35], p < 0.001). CONCLUSION(S): The research has found that the humanistic care ability of mental health workers is at a low level, and the psychological capital and personality traits are significant factors influencing the humanistic care ability and its sub-dimensions. Interventions to improve the psychological capital of mental health workers or to promote the change of personality traits they want are recommended, thereby to promote humanistic practice.

Automatic range of motion measurement via smartphone images for telemedicine examination of the hand.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine support virtual consultations and evaluations in hand surgery for patients in remote areas during the COVID-19 era. However, traditional physical examination is challenging in telemedicine and it is inconvenient to manually measure the hand range of motion (ROM) from images or videos. Here, we propose an automatic method using the hand pose estimation technique, aiming to measure the hand ROM from smartphone images. METHODS: Twenty-eight healthy volunteers participated in the study. An eight-hand gestures measurement protocol and the Google MediaPipe Hands were used to analyze images and calculate the ROM automatically. Manual goniometry was also performed according to the guideline of the American Medical Association. The correlation between the automatic and manual methods was analyzed by the intraclass correlation coefficient and Pearson correlation coefficient. The clinical acceptance was testified using Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS: A total of 32 parameters of each hand were measured by both methods, and 1792 measurement results were compared. The mean difference between automatic and manual methods is -2.21 ± 9.29° in the angle measurement and 0.48 ± 0.48 cm in the distance measurement. The intraclass correlation coefficient of 75% of parameters was higher than 0.75, the Pearson correlation coefficient of 84% of parameters was over 0.6, and 40.6% of parameters reached well-accepted clinical agreements. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method provides a helpful protocol for automatic hand ROM measurement based on smartphone images and the MediaPipe Hands pose estimation technique. The automatic measurement is acceptable and comparable with existing methods, showing a possible application in the telemedicine examination of hand surgery.

Identification of Asymptomatic COVID-19 Patients on Chest CT Images Using Transformer-Based or Convolutional Neural Network-Based Deep Learning Models.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread throughout the world; however, it is difficult for clinicians to make early diagnoses. This study is to evaluate the feasibility of using deep learning (DL) models to identify asymptomatic COVID-19 patients based on chest CT images. In this retrospective study, six DL models (Xception, NASNet, ResNet, EfficientNet, ViT, and Swin), based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) or transformer architectures, were trained to identify asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 on chest CT images. Data from Yangzhou were randomly split into a training set (n = 2140) and an internal-validation set (n = 360). Data from Suzhou was the external-test set (n = 200). Model performance was assessed by the metrics accuracy, recall, and specificity and was compared with the assessments of two radiologists. A total of 2700 chest CT images were collected in this study. In the validation dataset, the Swin model achieved the highest accuracy of 0.994, followed by the EfficientNet model (0.954). The recall and the precision of the Swin model were 0.989 and 1.000, respectively. In the test dataset, the Swin model was still the best and achieved the highest accuracy (0.980). All the DL models performed remarkably better than the two experts. Last, the time on the test set diagnosis spent by two experts-42 min, 17 s (junior); and 29 min, 43 s (senior)-was significantly higher than those of the DL models (all below 2 min). This study evaluated the feasibility of multiple DL models in distinguishing asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 from healthy subjects on chest CT images. It found that a transformer-based model, the Swin model, performed best.

Humoral immunity and transcriptome differences of COVID-19 inactivated vacciane and protein subunit vaccine as third booster dose in human.

Under the background of the severe human health and world economic burden caused by COVID-19, the attenuation of vaccine protection efficacy, and the prevalence and immune escape of emerging variants of concern (VOCs), the third dose of booster immunization has been put on the agenda. Systems biology approaches can help us gain new perspectives on the characterization of immune responses and the identification of factors underlying vaccine-induced immune efficacy. We analyzed the antibody signature and transcriptional responses of participants vaccinated with COVID-19 inactivated vaccine and protein subunit vaccine as a third booster dose. The results from the antibody indicated that the third booster dose was effective, and that heterologous vaccination with the protein subunit vaccine as a booster dose induced stronger humoral immune responses than the homologous vaccination with inactivated vaccine, and might be more effective against VOCs. In transcriptomic analysis, protein subunit vaccine induced more differentially expressed genes that were significantly associated with many important innate immune pathways. Both the homologous and heterologous boosters could increase the effectiveness against COVID-19, and compared with the inactivated vaccine, the protein subunit vaccine, mediated a stronger humoral immune response and had a more significant correlation with the innate immune function module, which provided certain data support for the third booster immunization strategy.

Influencing factors of burnout and its dimensions among mental health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM: To examine the demographic and work characteristics of mental health workers associated with burnout during the COVID-19 epidemic and to examine the relationship between burnout and humanistic care ability. DESIGN: Online cross-sectional design. METHODS: 270 mental health workers in Chongqing, China, were recruited via WeChat from 1 to 31 December 2020. Online self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by t-tests and one-way analyses of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health workers had a high prevalence of burnout and a low level of humanistic care ability. Work factors including profession, work shift, work pressure, work-family conflict, practice environment satisfaction, salary satisfaction, and humanistic care ability were significantly associated with burnout and its subdimension.

Regulation of Mindfulness-Based Music Listening on Negative Emotions Related to COVID-19: An ERP Study.

The current study aimed to explore the behavioral and neural correlates of mindfulness-based music listening regulation of induced negative emotions related to COVID-19 using the face-word Stroop task. Eighty-five young adults visited the laboratory and were randomly assigned to three groups: a calm music group (CMG: n = 28), a happy music group (HMG: n = 30), and a sad music group (SMG: n = 27). Negative emotions were induced in all participants using a COVID-19 video, followed by the music intervention condition. Participants underwent the face-word Stroop tasks during which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The N2, N3, P3, and late positive component (LPC) were investigated. The results showed that calm music and happy music effectively regulate young adults' induced negative emotions, while young adults experienced more negative emotions when listening to sad music; the negative mood states at the post-induction phase inhibited the reaction of conflict control in face-word Stroop tasks, which manifested as lower accuracy (ACC) and slower reaction times (RTs). ERP results showed negative mood states elicited greater N2, N3, and LPC amplitudes and smaller P3 amplitudes. Further studies are needed to develop intervention strategies to enhance emotion regulation related to COVID-19 for other groups.

An adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine confers protection from SARS-COV-2 challenge in rhesus macaques.

The rapid spread of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 greatly threatens global public health but no prophylactic vaccine is available. Here, we report the generation of a replication-incompetent recombinant serotype 5 adenovirus, Ad5-S-nb2, carrying a codon-optimized gene encoding Spike protein (S). In mice and rhesus macaques, intramuscular injection with Ad5-S-nb2 elicits systemic S-specific antibody and cell-mediated immune (CMI) responses. Intranasal inoculation elicits both systemic and pulmonary antibody responses but weaker CMI response. At 30 days after a single vaccination with Ad5-S-nb2 either intramuscularly or intranasally, macaques are protected against SARS-CoV-2 challenge. A subsequent challenge reveals that macaques vaccinated with a 10-fold lower vaccine dosage (1 × 1010 viral particles) are also protected, demonstrating the effectiveness of Ad5-S-nb2 and the possibility of offering more vaccine dosages within a shorter timeframe. Thus, Ad5-S-nb2 is a promising candidate vaccine and warrants further clinical evaluation.

A novel biparatopic hybrid antibody-ACE2 fusion that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection: implications for therapy.

In the absence of a proven effective vaccine preventing infection by SARS-CoV-2, or a proven drug to treat COVID-19, the positive results of passive immune therapy using convalescent serum provide a strong lead. We have developed a new class of tetravalent, biparatopic therapy, 89C8-ACE2. It combines the specificity of a monoclonal antibody (89C8) that recognizes the relatively conserved N-terminal domain of the viral Spike (S) glycoprotein, and the ectodomain of ACE2, which binds to the receptor-binding domain of S. This molecule shows exceptional performance in vitro, inhibiting the interaction of recombinant S1 to ACE2 and transduction of ACE2-overexpressing cells by S-pseudotyped lentivirus with IC50s substantially below 100 pM, and with potency approximately 100-fold greater than ACE2-Fc itself. Moreover, 89C8-ACE2 was able to neutralize authentic viral infection in a standard 96-h co-incubation assay at low nanomolar concentrations, making this class of molecule a promising lead for therapeutic applications.