The impact of COVID-19 on extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA): A single centre study

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting everything including ECMO service. At the moment we have to equip PPE before ECPR and we thought it may influence on time to establish venoarterial ECMO and patient outcomes. Method(s): We compared OHCA-patients who underwent ECPR in our hospital before (January 2015 - March 2020) and after (April 2020 - December 2022) the Government of Japan declared a state of emergency in relation to COVID-19. Result(s): There were 32 and 9 patients in the pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic sample. Of these, 9 (28.1%) vs. 5 (55.6%) survived extracorporeal life support (ECLS), p=0.23, and 4 (12.5%) vs. 2 (22.2%) had good neurologic outcomes (cerebral performance category 1- 2) after ECLS. Seven (21.9%) vs. 1 (12.5%) were discharged or transferred alive from the hospital (one patient of the post-COVID-19 cohort has been still hospitalised for rehabilitation), p>0.99. Mean values of low-flow time were respectively 67.3 minutes (SD 18.3) and 55.6 minutes (SD 17.1), p=0.091, and median values of time to establish ECMO from admission were respectively 32.5 minutes (IQR 15.8) and 26.0 minutes (IQR 4.0), p=0.23. Conclusion(s): There were no differences in time-toECMO or outcomes in patients who underwent ECPR for refractory OHCA before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stillbirth Rates before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Manitoba (Canada) and Japan

Background: Conflicting evidence exists on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on stillbirth rates in developed countries. We aimed to examine and compare the incidence rates of stillbirth before and after the implementation of COVID-19 measures in Canada and Japan. Method(s): We conducted two populationbased studies using mother-infant linked data from JMDC hospitalizations database (JMDC Inc.) in Japan and administrative health databases in Manitoba, Canada, from October 2016 to March 2021. We used interrupted time series analysis (generalized linear models) to investigate the immediate change in level and rebound change in quarterly rates of stillbirth (fetal death > 20 weeks of gestation). We modeled the forecasted trends based on prepandemic data via autoregressive moving average models. Result(s): We included 70,931 and 169,883 pregnancies in Manitoba and Japan during the study period, respectively. On average, stillbirth rates were 0.66% in Manitoba and 0.31% in Japan. The pandemic restrictions were associated with an immediate relative increase in stillbirths in Japan by 19.19% (beta2=0.05;p=0.5693) and in Manitoba by 18.6% (beta2=0.12;p=0.4434). However, the quarterly stillbirth rates decreased (beta3=0.1625, p=0.5066) in Japan and Manitoba (beta3=0.011, p=0.8296) during the pandemic period. During the first quarter of 2021, the absolute differences in the observed and forecasted rates in Manitoba and Japan were 0.04% and -0.05%, respectively. Conclusion(s): Although various approaches were implemented to address the pandemic in Manitoba (Canada) and Japan, we found no evidence of a significant increase in the incidence of stillbirth rates during the first year of the pandemic. Healthcare services in Canada and Japan have experienced substantial changes since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with little influence on stillbirth rates at population level. This study will further examine the effect of the pandemic measures on other adverse pregnancy outcomes in both countries.

Proposal and Demonstration of Robot Collaboration Architecture Using RSNP

Nowadays, service robots are highly anticipated in an aging society with low birthrates due to a shortage of human workers. Furthermore, COVID-19 avoids daily human communication in person. To utilize service robots in such a society, several types of robots are necessary to cope with the aforementioned society's various problems. Through collaboration with various types of robots, we have proposed and demonstrated an architecture for providing a broader range of services through this study. This architecture eliminates robot interface differences and allows the connection of various robots with a common communication protocol. In the teleoperation experiment, we could connect various types of robots manufactured by different companies using a general-purpose interface unit and we could teleoperate them via the Internet. We also confirmed in the collaboration experiment that the robots can be connected regardless of their functions by managing them according to their functions. Our architecture has verified the function to make collaboration of different types of robots both in teleoperation and collaborative tasks by different robots. In the future, we will conduct experiments to evaluate the practical services that service robots can provide in actual facilities such as shopping malls. © 2023 IEEE.

Persistent microscopic hematuria in IgA nephropathy and frequency of gross hematuria following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination

Introduction: There have been scattered reports of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients with gross hematuria and acute deterioration of urinary findings and kidney function following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination ("vaccination"). Recent case series studies have indicated a possible link between remission of urinary findings at the time of vaccination and subsequent appearance of gross hematuria. In this study, we aimed to determine whether the remission status of pre-vaccination urinary findings is associated with gross hematuria following vaccination in patients with already diagnosed IgAN. Method(s): Outpatients with IgAN who had been followed for at least 6 months after biopsy diagnosis were included. We analyzed the association between remission of microscopic hematuria (urine sediment <5/HPF) or proteinuria (<0.3 g/gCr) before vaccination and gross hematuria following vaccination. Remission of urinary findings was evaluated based on the criteria proposed by the Japanese Society of Nephrology in patients who had undergone at least three urine tests in the 6 months before the first vaccination. Result(s): A total of 372 patients with IgAN (mean age 53 years, 53 % female, eGFR 56 mL/min/1.73 m2) were included. The frequency of gross hematuria following vaccination was higher in 21/140 patients (15%) without remission of microscopic hematuria than in 4/232 patients (2%) with remission of microscopic hematuria prior to vaccination (p < 0.001). There was no association between remission of proteinuria before vaccination and gross hematuria following vaccination. After adjustment for potential confounders such as gender (female), age (<50 years), eGFR (>=60 mL/min/1.73m2), histories of tonsillectomy and corticosteroid therapy, non-remission of microscopic hematuria was still associated with gross hematuria following vaccination (OR 6.97, p < 0.001). Conclusion(s): Patients with IgAN who have not achieved remission of microscopic hematuria prior to vaccination are at higher relative risk of gross hematuria following vaccination regardless of treatment history for IgAN. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023

A Crisis of Japanese Studies: How Japan’s Border Restrictions Have Affected Research in the Field

How did Japan’s border restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic affect Japanese studies? To answer this question, this essay discusses the results of a survey conducted in August 2022. © 2022, Asia-Pacific Journal, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Dual-Comb Biosensing for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2

We demonstrated rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein antigen by dual-comb biosensing with surface modification of its corresponding antibody. A sensitivity close to that of RT-PCR was achieved, thanks to the use of active-dummy temperature compensation. © Optica Publishing Group 2022, © 2022 The Author(s)

Inactivation of SARS-COV-2 by various surfactants

Introduction: The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing the global pandemic is an enveloped virus and expected to be susceptible to some surfactants. The efficacy of the commercially available disinfectants and cleaners against this virus has been well examined so far, but only few reports mentioned about the efficacy of each surfactant alone. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the virucidal efficacy of various surfactants against SARS-CoV-2 (JPN/TY/WK-521). In addition, it also aimed to examine the presence of correlation between the virucidal efficacy and cytotoxicity of each surfactant. Methods: For this study, the experiments dealing with the novel coronavirus were carried out at the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases (Osaka University), while the cytotoxicity tests were performed at the Saraya Microbiologicial Research Center (Saraya Co., Ltd). The virucidal efficacy of each surfactant (cationic, anionic, amphoteric and non-ionic surfactant;0.01% ∼ 5.00%) was evaluated according to EN 14476 (dirty conditions). Their cytotoxicity was then examined by MTT assay. Results: The performance of EN 14476 with SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated that the cationic surfactant showed high virucidal efficacy. Although not as high as that of the cationic surfactant, some nonionic and amphoteric surfactants also showed relatively good virucidal efficacy, while the rest did not. After evaluation of cytotoxicity, a good correlation between the virucidal efficacy and the cytotoxicity of each surfactant was observed;the higher the cytotoxicity, the higher the virucidal efficacy. Conclusion: All of the tested cationic surfactants showed high virucidal efficacy and some nonionic and amphoteric surfactants had relatively highly virucidal efficacy. The evaluation of this strain has been finished. Further studies on the comparison of surfactant efficacy to other enveloped viruses with the original strain would bring some new insights to this research.

A first case of meningitis/encephalitis associated with SARS-Coronavirus-2. (Coronavirus (COVID-19) collection.)

Novel coronavirus (SARS-Coronavirus-2:SARS-CoV-2) which emerged in Wuhan, China, has spread to multiple countries rapidly. We report the first case of meningitis associated with SARS-CoV-2 who was brought in by ambulance due to a convulsion accompanied by unconsciousness. He had never been to any foreign countries. He felt generalized fatigue and fever (day 1). He saw doctors nearby twice (day 2 and 5) and was prescribed Laninamivir and antipyretic agents, His family visited his home and found that he was unconsciousness and lying on the floor in his vomit. He was immediately transported to this hospital by ambulance (day 9). Under emergency transport, he had transient generalized seizures that lasted about a minute. He had obvious neck stiffness. The specific SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in the nasopharyngeal swab but was detected in a CSF. Anti- HSV 1 and varicella-zoster IgM antibodies were not detected in serum samples. A brain MRI showed hyperintensity along the wall of right lateral ventricle and hyperintense signal changes in the right mesial temporal lobe and hippocampus, suggesting the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 meningitis. This case warns the physicians of patients who have CNS symptoms.

Remote Virtual Counseling and Effects of Embodied Cues: Toward Casual On-Line Counseling Under COVID-19 Situation

Some embodied cognition literature has shown that some environmental factors contribute to reducing client protective attitude. We have applied this aspect to counseling in VR. The aims of this paper are (1) to confirm VR environmental factors affect the subject’s sense of openness, (2) explore the relationship between self-disclosure attitudes and environmental factors, and (3) investigating remote and semi-automatic counseling possibilities in this COVID-19 affected stressed world via virtual psychological experiment. We proposed the hypothesis: the large room would promote self-disclosure to a NPC virtual counselor more than the small room. We have made a “VRChat” based counseling rooms with the NPC virtual counselor. On self-disclosure attitude, the results of the Mann-Whitney U test showed that the large room promotes self-disclosure more than in the small room (U = 216, p =.01, d = −.657). These results suggest the potential for a remote and easy-to-participate virtual environment for casual counseling. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Position sensing for surgical robots using time of flight sensor

Since the spread of COVID 19 worldwide, information and communication technology has been accelerating in the medical field. It is easy to switch to online medical interviews, but it is difficult to go online for biological examinations and surgical procedures. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for automatic handling of living organisms in the medical and bioengineering fields. Although surgical robots, such as the da Vinci, reduces labor, it is necessary to accurately measure the position and posture of organs and blood vessels for complete automation, and such technology has not been applied to surgical robots. There are methods for creating a three dimensional model of an organ by measuring it beforehand using magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography, and to reflect the information during surgery by using augmented reality and other methods. However, there is currently no technology for automatically determining the position of organs and blood vessels in real time during surgery. To automate the grasping motion of a forceps type manipulator used with surgical robots, we applied a time of flight, ToF, sensor to obtain the position and orientation of a blood vessel. We developed a method for detecting blood vessels from the points measured using a ToF sensor and estimating their thicknesses and directions. We evaluated the effectiveness of our method in an experiment involving a simulated blood vessel. © 2021 Proceedings of the 21st International Conference of the European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology, EUSPEN 2021. All rights reserved.