Dynamic Emergency Transit Forecasting with IoT Sequential Data

Medical emergency transit counts minutes as real human lives. It is important to plan emergency transport routes according to real-time traffic flow status which leads to the the essential requirement of correct dynamic traffic prediction. Many Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been employed to assist emergency transit. Dynamic traffic flow patterns can be better predicted using data given by those devices. In small cities, however, the data are sent into separated management offices or just saved inside edge devices due to system compatibility or the cost of mobile network to computer centres. This condition leads to small and local datasets. Making full use of small local data to conduct prediction is one way to solve local emergency planning problems. In this work, we design a dynamic graph structure to work with Graph Neural Network (GNN) algorithm to forecast traffic flow levels considering this scenario. The proposed graph considers both geographical and time information with the potential to grow within a local mobile communication network. The commonly used Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) is included in the comparison. Experimental results show that our new design provides high prediction efficiency and accuracy.

Establishment and application of semi-nest RT-PCR for detection of Transmissible gastroenteritis virus

In order to establish an efficient, sensitive and specific semi-nest RT-PCR method for the detection of Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), three specific primers were designed according to the N gene published by GenBank, the reaction system was established and optimized, and specificity and sensitivity were detected. The results showed that the method could successfully amplify the bands of 483 bp and 338 bp, and had good specificity to TGEV, there is no cross reaction with PEDV, PRov, PBov and PDCov, and the lowest sensitivity was 1.86 x 10-1 pg/L. The semi-nest RT-PCR shown the positive rate was 36% in 50 samples of pig diarrhea, which was higher than that of common RT-PCR, and then the positive samples coincidence rate was 100%. This semi-nest RT-PCR method has high sensitivity and specificity, and can accurately diagnose TGEV infection, which provides an effective method for clinical detection and epidemiological investigation of TGEV.

Clinical analysis of severe COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: Patients with unexplained pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, Hubei Province at the end of 2019. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical data of patients with severe COVID-19. METHODS: Medical records of 28 severe patients admitted to the intensive care unit of Wuhan Xinzhou District People's Hospital were collected from January 31 to March 17. RESULTS: The mortality rate of severe patients in our study was 39.3%. There were statistically significant differences in age, admission systolic blood pressure, lymphocyte count, albumin, total bilirubin, and lactate dehydrogenase between the death group and the survival group (P< 0.05). There were statistically significant differences in APACHE II, CURB-65, SOFA, respiratory frequency, systolic pressure, platelet, procalcitonin, albumin, creatinine, creatine kinase isoenzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, chloride ion, prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, arterial partial pressure of oxygen, and FiO2 at ICU between the death group and the survival group (P< 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Fever and cough are the main symptoms, which is useful for predicting the prognosis to dynamically measure the APACHE II, CURB-65, SOFA, respiratory frequency, lymphocyte count, platelet, lactate dehydrogenase, and coagulation tests. The drugs that protect the liver and heart may improve the survival rate of patients with severe COVID-19.

Analysis of Anxiety and Depression Status in Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy During the COVID-19 Epidemic.

Background: The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) had caused a global pandemic and disrupted millions of lives. Cancer patients are a special group at greater risk of contracting viruses. This study aimed to evaluate the anxiety and depression status of cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy during the COVID-19 epidemic. Methods: 396 cancer patients who underwent radiotherapy were enrolled in this study. The self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS) were used to evaluate patient anxiety and depression, respectively. 373 cancer patients completed the questionnaires. Results: During the COVID-19 outbreak, the incidence of anxiety and depression in cancer patients were 34.9 and 33.8%, respectively. Approximately 31.4% of tumor radiotherapy patients had anxiety and depression. Based on univariate analysis, age, work status, education level, and clinical stage were related to anxiety and depression in cancer patients. Based on multiple regression analysis, age and clinical stage were related to anxiety, but only age was related to depression. Conclusions: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer patients experienced increased psychological problems. Our results have contributed to a better understanding of these psychological problems in cancer patients and provide a basis for psychological counseling and intervention.

Ultrasound Imaging Findings of Acute Testicular Infection in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Single-Center-Based Study in Wuhan, China.

OBJECTIVES: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a global pandemic, raising widespread public health concerns. Our team treated hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, where the outbreak first began, and we suspected that SARS-CoV-2 may cause testicular infection in male patients. We conducted this study to explore that observation. METHODS: We enrolled male patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and performed a bedside ultrasound (US) examination of the scrotum, focused on findings of acute inflammation such as tunica albuginea thickening, enlargement and heterogeneous echogenicity of the testis, epididymis, or both, an abscess, scrotal wall edema, and hydrocele. Then we compared the proportions of observed epididymo-orchitis in patients from different age groups and COVID-19 severity groups. RESULTS: A total of 142 patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in our study, and 32 (22.5%) patients had acute orchitis, epididymitis, or epididymo-orchitis on scrotal US imaging, according to the diagnosis criteria. The observed risk of acute scrotal infection increased with age, with the incidence reaching 53.3% in men older than 80 years. We also observed that men with severe COVID-19 had a significantly higher possibility of epididymo-orchitis compared to the nonsevere COVID-19 group (P = .037). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows US imaging evidence that SARS-CoV-2 may cause infection of the testis or epididymis, and the risk is worthy of the attention of clinicians.

Relationship Between the ABO Blood Group and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Susceptibility.

To explore any relationship between the ABO blood group and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) susceptibility, we compared ABO blood group distributions in 2173 COVID-19 patients with local control populations, and found that blood group A was associated with an increased risk of infection, whereas group O was associated with a decreased risk.

Impact of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic on Radiotherapy-Treated Patients with Cancer: A Single-Center Descriptive Study.

INTRODUCTION: The present study investigated hospitalization data of patients receiving radiotherapy at Anhui Cancer Hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic and analyzed the impact of the epidemic on the clinical data of radiotherapy patients to provide references for the feasibility and safety of radiotherapy at other medical institutions. METHODS: The present study performed a retrospective analysis of hospitalization data of patients undergoing radiotherapy at the Radiation Department (from January 5 to March 19, 2020 according to the Chinese lunar calendar), who were defined as the epidemic group. Hospitalization data for patients undergoing radiotherapy during the same period in 2019 were used as the control group for comparison with the epidemic group in terms of sex, age, distribution of various cancer types, hospitalization costs, average length of stay, completion rate of radiotherapy, treatment mode, and purpose of radiotherapy. RESULTS: A total of 79 and 115 patients received radiotherapy in the epidemic group and control group, respectively. The number of patients who received radiotherapy declined 31.3% during the epidemic period. The number of head and neck cancer patients who received radiotherapy was 36 (45.57%) in the epidemic group and 32 (27.83%) in the control group, which was a significant difference (χ2 =6.476, P=0.011). The proportions of patients with other types of cancer decreased, with no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05). No significant differences between the two groups were found in terms of other hospitalization data (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: The total number of patients who received radiotherapy decreased during the epidemic period, but the proportion of head and neck cancer increased. The epidemic had no significant effect on other hospitalization data. While strengthening prevention and control measures, we should actively perform radiotherapy to ensure that cancer patients receive timely and safe treatment.

Semiquantitative lung ultrasound scores in the evaluation and follow-up of critically ill patients with COVID-19: a single-center study.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Chest CT is not suitable for critically ill patients with COVID-19 and lung ultrasound (LUS) may play an important role for these patients. In this study, we summarized the findings of LUS and explore the value of semiquantitative LUS scores in evaluation and follow-up of COVID-19 pneumonia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospectively studied the LUS and chest CT imaging of 128 critically ill patients with COVID-19. The imaging data were reviewed to acquire the LUS and CT scores. The correlation between LUS scores and CT scores were made to evaluate the accuracy of LUS. A cut-off point of LUS score was calculated to distinguish critical-type patients from severe-type patients. LUS follow-up of 72 patients were compared with the gold standard chest CT. RESULTS: The most common LUS features of COVID-19 pneumonia were crowded or coalescent B-lines with multifocal small consolidations in multi-zone. The mean LUS score was 8.1 points in severe-type patients and 15.7 points in critical-type patients (P<0.05). The correlation between LUS scores and CT scores was high (r=0.891, p<0.01) and it was higher in critical-type patients than that in severe-type patients. The LUS score higher than 10.5 points had a 97.4% sensitivity and 75.0% specificity to distinguish critical-type patients. The consistency of LUS and chest CT in follow-up was 0.596, with higher consistency in diagnosis of lesion progression (Kappa values was 0.774). CONCLUSION: Our scoring system provides a more quantitative use of LUS findings and accurate evaluation of lung damage for critically ill patients with COVID-19.