Moxibustion for COVID-19: a systematic scoping review

Moxibustion has been widely used in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. However, there is no systematic review of current topics and clinical findings on moxibustion for COVID-19. We conducted this scoping review to systematically summarize and analyze the themes and findings of published articles, and to provide an overview of current knowledge and practice of moxibustion for COVID-19.Methods:: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, SinoMed, Wan Fang Data, and VIP databases were searched from inception until April 2022. The relevant data were presented through bar graphs, structured tables, and figures along with descriptive statistics and analysis. This scoping review was conducted based on the PRISMA-ScR Checklist. Results:: A total of 76 articles were reviewed: 47 reviews, 19 clinical research studies, seven systematic reviews (all were protocols), and three guidelines. All the studies were conducted by Chinese researchers and published from January 1, 2020 to March 14, 2022. The feasibility of moxibustion in the prevention and treatment of mild or moderate COVID-19 is based on the consensus of therapeutic mechanisms and effectiveness. The most adopted approach was the suspended and gentle moxibustion, and the most frequently applied or recommended acupoints were found to be ST36, CV8, CV6, CV4, CV12, GV14, BL13, LI4, ST25, and LR3. Conclusions:: As a convenient and safe traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy with its specific feature, moxibustion has been significantly effective at ameliorating mild or moderate symptoms among COVID-19 patients. Further large-scale, well-designed research and international cooperation are still warranted in clinical evaluations of moxibustion. Graphical :: http://links.lww.com/AHM/A35.

A Playbook for Neurosurgical Resident Training in Skull Base Surgery

Introduction: To be adequately prepared for the technical surgical demands and interprofessional teamwork required of the operating room, cadaveric laboratory training is essential.1 A recent survey of neurosurgical residency programs in the United States bore this out: 95.4% of respondents view laboratory dissection as an integral to training and an additional 89.2% would support a national “suggested” dissection curriculum and manual.2 To address this demand, the OHSU Neurosurgery residency program in partnership with OHSU Simulation, the OHSU Body Donation Program, and industry stakeholders have developed, over the past 6 years, an annual three-part cadaveric surgical simulation course series that has provided training in skull base procedures. Methods: Resident surgical education aims to (1) Develop decision-making, complication management and technical surgical abilities in a low-risk environment, (2) review anatomy, and (3) refine interprofessional teamwork typical to the operating room between otolaryngology (ENT) and neurosurgery disciplines. Successful resident education in simulation is dependent on collaboration between neurosurgical faculty, educational support staff, and industry experts. We describe a manuscript for successfully implementing a cadaveric surgical simulation course to meet the educational objectives above. This comprehensive overview details (1) equipment and instrumentation, (2) course maps and photos ([Figs. 1] and [2]), (3) curriculum development, (4) tissue procurement and preparation, (5) communications between major stakeholders, (6) scheduling and logistics, (7) evaluation of resident proficiency, and (8) COVID-19-specific modifications to course curriculum. Results: Course evaluations from 337 OHSU neurosurgery and otolaryngology residents over the past 6 years were collected and analyzed. Means and SDs of Likert's scale questions were calculated and indicated uniformly positive responses ([Table 1]). Free-text responses were analyzed via sentiment analysis. This resultant heat map ([Fig. 3]) indicated positive attitudes, with the lowest value being +0.41 (on a scale of -1.0 to 1.0). Conclusion: We hope this manuscript can serve as a guide for other institutes to develop their own residency educational curriculum in cadaveric skull base procedures. (Figure Presented).

The Physician Scheduling of Fever Clinic in the Covid-19 Pandemic

This article addresses a weekly physician scheduling problem in Covid-19. This problem has arisen in fever clinics in two collaborative hospitals located in Shanghai, China. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the hospitals must consider some specific constraints in the scheduling problem. For example, due to social distance limitation, the patient queue lengths are much longer in the coronavirus pandemic, even with the same waiting patients. Thus, the hospitals must consider the maximum queue length in the physician scheduling problem. Moreover, the fever clinic's scheduling rules are different from those in the common clinic, and some specific regulatory constraints have to be considered in the epidemic. We first build a mathematical model for this problem, in which a pointwise stationary fluid flow approximation method is used to compute the queue length. Some linearization techniques are designed to make the problem can be solved by commercial solvers, such as Gurobi. We find that solving this model from practical applications of the hospital within an acceptable computation time is challenging. Consequently, we develop an efficient two-phase approach to solve the problem. A staffing model and a branch-and-price algorithm are proposed in this approach. The performances of our models and approaches are discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms for real-life data from collaborative hospitals is validated. IEEE

Surveillance of enteric pathogens in imported seafood and environmental surfaces in five seafood markets before the outbreak of COVID-19

To monitor the presence of enteric pathogens in imported seafood, a total of 140 seafood samples imported from eight overseas countries were collected from Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan seafood markets from June to November 2019. Additionally, 116 viral, environmental swab samples were also collected from the Wuhan and Guangzhou seafood markets. Five typical enteric bacterial pathogens (Aeromonas spp., Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Vibrio spp., and Listeria monocytogenes) and four viruses (Rotavirus, Norovirus, Astrovirus, and Sapovirus) were detected positive. Results showed that eight Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates appeared in seafood imported to Dalian, Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. In contrast, Vibrio fluvialis and Aeromonas were isolated in another two samples. Norovirus was detected in one oyster sample imported from France and environmental surface in Guangzhou. The remaining pathogens were negative in all the samples being tested. With 120 V. parahaemolyticus isolates from the above countries, the genomic analysis revealed that sequence type ST1152 isolates imported from Canada were clustered with two V. parahaemolyticus isolates from Canada. This study presented the first microbiological analysis of the Wuhan seafood market before the outbreak of COVID-19, which demonstrated that supervision should be strengthened to prevent enteric pathogens via imported seafood. © 2021

Beyond hypervisibility and fear: British Chinese communities' leisure and health-related experiences in the time of coronavirus. (Special Issue: Leisure in the time of Covid-19.)

This paper examines British Chinese communities' lived experiences of leisure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data that inform this paper are based on my ongoing ethnographic research with British Chinese students in two supplementary schools in the United Kingdom (UK) about their leisure and health-related experiences (supported by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship 2019-2020). The current findings are discussed in relation to my field notes, interviews with the students and their significant others from the schools, and social media sites that report on Chineseness and COVID-19. Results include the participants' change of lifestyles;fear and the pandemic;experiences of racism in relation to their leisure;and leisure and solidarity among Chinese communities. As a Hong Kong Chinese Australian researcher situated in the UK, I have an "insider and outsider" positionality which has an impact on data collection with the participants amidst the pandemic.