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The 17th National Annual Conference on Neurological Infectious Diseases and Cerebrospinal Fluid Cytology of the Chinese Medical Association Neurology Branch was successfully held in Wuhan, Hubei, China. During the conference, many well-known neurology experts in China conducted in-depth and detailed discussions on the research progress of infectious diseases of the nervous system and cerebrospinal fluid cytology, which benefited the participants a lot.Copyright © 2021
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Objective To study the anti-coronavirus effect of Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet (), and provide experimental basis for evaluating its prevention and treatment of coronavirus infection. Methods A total of 96 BALB/c mice with half male and half female were randomly divided into control group, model group, Lianhua Qingwen Capsules (, 0.546 g/kg) group and Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet (8.72, 17.44, 34.89 g/kg) groups with 16 mice in each group. BALB/c mice were infected with ip cyclophosphamide combined with HCoV-229E coronavirus to establish a model of coronavirus infection. The therapeutic effect of Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet was evaluated by body weight, lung index, viral load, hemagglutination titer and pathological changes in lung tissue of mice;Levels of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-4, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in alveolar lavage fluid were detected by ELISA;The proportion of macrophages, lymphocytes (CD3+, CD4+) and NK cells in lung tissue was detected by flow cytometry;Western blotting was used to detect Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MYD88), inhibitor kappa B kinase-beta (IKK-beta), inhibitor kappa B (IkappaB) and p-IkappaB protein expressions in lung tissue. Results Compared with model group, Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet significantly increased the body weight of virus infected mice (P < 0.05, 0.01), decreased lung index and hemagglutination titer (P < 0.01), improved lung disease (P < 0.05), and significantly inhibited viral mRNA expression (P < 0.01);TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta and VCAM-1 levels in alveolar lavage fluid were decreased (P < 0.05, 0.01), IFN-gamma level was increased (P < 0.05);The percentage of macrophages was significantly decreased (P < 0.05, 0.01), percentage of CD3+, CD4+ lymphocytes and NK cells was increased (P < 0.01);MYD88, TLR4, IkappaB and IKK-beta protein expressions in lung tissue were significantly down regulated (P < 0.05, 0.01). Conclusion Qingre Xiaoyanning Tablet can inhibit the replication of coronavirus in vivo, reduce inflammatory reaction, protect lung tissue, and has obvious anti-coronavirus effect in vivo. Its mechanism may be related to the regulation of TLR4/MyD88/IKK/IkappaB signal pathway and improving immunity.Copyright © 2023 Editorial Office of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. All rights reserved.
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Plastic waste pollution is becoming one of the most pressing environmental crises due to the large-scale production without satisfactory recycling schemes, especially with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. Upcycling of plastic waste into valuable chemicals powered by solar energy presents a substantially untapped opportunity to turn waste into treasure. In this review, the fundamental principles from plastic nonselective degradation to selective synthesis are first clarified. Then, we aim to outline the representative recent advances in photoredox-based catalytic plastic waste conversion. Particular emphasis is placed on the valorization of plastic waste regarding nonselective degradation versus selective synthesis. Finally, we present challenges and individual insights for further exploration of the plastic waste conversion domain. It is anticipated that this timely and critical review would provide an instructive direction and foresight on the selective conversion of plastics to value-added chemical feedstocks, thus stimulating the development of a circular and sustainable plastic economy in the coming decades. © 2023 American Chemical Society.
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Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the association among framed messages (egoism-, altruism-, and loss-framed information), perceived net benefits (PNB), and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: A between-subject survey experiment was designed to assess the above association. A total of 1,316 individuals were included in this study. The participants were randomly assigned to one control group (receiving non-framed information) and three experimental groups (receiving egoism-, altruism-, and loss-framed information). The participants then reported their vaccination willingness and perceived effectiveness and side effects of vaccination. PNB was determined by subtracting the perceived side effects from perceived effectiveness. Results: Compared with the control group, participants in the experimental groups exhibited stronger vaccination willingness. Higher PNB levels were associated with enhanced vaccination willingness. However, only loss-framed messages indirectly affected vaccination willingness through PNB. Conclusion: PNB can mediate the impact of message framing on vaccination willingness. However, the mediation effect of PNB was only found in the relationship between loss-framed messages and vaccination willingness. Copyright © 2023 Li, Gong, Tang and Zhou.
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The COVID-19 pandemic spreads rapidly and globally. To quell the pandemic propagation, rapid and accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 is urgently needed. Here, we present a nanopore coupled RT-LAMP method for SARSCoV-2 detection. After comparing all information from the nanopore experiment, we develop a method to use the event rate change of the amplicons translocation event to measure the amplification. As a result, our platform can distinguish positive from negative samples in 15 min with around 65 copies/reaction limit of detection and 100% specificity. We believe that the nanopore coupled RT-LAMP platform would provide a sensitive and specific detection for SARS-COV-2. © 2021 MicroTAS 2021 - 25th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences. All rights reserved.
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The current outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 caused the COVID-19 disease to spread rapidly globally. Specific and sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 is needed to prevent the disease from spread. Here, we present a solid-state CRISPR-Cas12a-assisted nanopores (SCAN) system to detect SARS-CoV-2. We introduced a new scheme using current drops and dwell times of ssDNA reporter translocation events to estimate the cleavage activity. We validated this scheme by a statistical model approximating the reporter length distribution over the cleavage reaction. We believe that the SCAN would provide a sensitive and specific detection method for SARS-COV-2. © 2021 MicroTAS 2021 - 25th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences. All rights reserved.
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The upheaval brought by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to bring fresh challenges over the past two years. During this COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a need for rapid identification of infected patients and specific delineation of infection areas in computed tomography (CT) images. Although deep supervised learning methods have been established quickly, the scarcity of both image-level and pixel-level labels as well as the lack of explainable transparency still hinder the applicability of AI. Can we identify infected patients and delineate the infections with extreme minimal supervision? Semi-supervised learning has demonstrated promising performance under limited labelled data and sufficient unlabelled data. Inspired by semi-supervised learning, we propose a model-agnostic calibrated pseudo-labelling strategy and apply it under a consistency regularization framework to generate explainable identification and delineation results. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model with the combination of limited labelled data and sufficient unlabelled data or weakly-labelled data. Extensive experiments have shown that our model can efficiently utilize limited labelled data and provide explainable classification and segmentation results for decision-making in clinical routine.
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Location fingerprinting based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) has become a mainstream indoor localization technique due to its advantage of not requiring the installation of new infrastructure and the modification of existing devices, especially given the prevalence of Wi-Fi-enabled devices and the ubiquitous Wi-Fi access in modern buildings. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) technologies like Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) makes location fingerprinting more accurate and reliable, especially for large-scale multi-building and multi-floor indoor localization. The application of DNNs for indoor localization, however, depends on a large amount of preprocessed and deliberately-labeled data for their training. Considering the difficulty of the data collection in an indoor environment, especially under the current epidemic situation of COVID-19, we investigate three different methods of RSSI data augmentation based on Multi-Output Gaussian Process (MOGP), i.e., by a single floor, by neighboring floors, and by a single building;unlike Single-Output Gaussian Process (SOGP), MOGP can take into account the correlation among RSSI observations from multiple Access Points (APs) deployed closely to each other (e.g., APs on the same floor of a building) by collectively handling them. The feasibility of the MOGP-based RSSI data augmentation is demonstrated through experiments using a recently-published work based on Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) indoor localization model and the UJIIndoorLoc, i.e., the most popular publicly-available multi-building and multi-floor indoor localization database;the RNN model trained with the UJIIndoorLoc database, augmented by using the whole RSSI data of a building in fitting an MOGP model (i.e., by a single building), outperforms the other two augmentation methods and reduces the mean three-dimensional positioning error from 8.62 m to 8.42 m in comparison to the RNN model trained with the original UJIIndoorLoc database. © 2022 IEEE.
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Thailand plays an important role in BRI due to its strategic location in the China-Indo-China Peninsula Economic Corridor, as well as the strategic fit between BRI and Thailand 4.0 & EEC. COVID-19 dragged the Thai economy into deep contraction and surfaced or intensified challenges to BRI, with both negative and positive implications. The positive implications include a sense of connection, opportunities for supply chain integration and capacity cooperation, and new businesses responding to new behavior of consumers and organizations. BRI in Thailand showed reasonable resilience, demonstrated by the progress of key BRI projects, the momentum of EEC investment, the positive growth of export of Thailand to China and the leading position of Chinese FDI in Thailand. Despite of future uncertainties, the case of Thailand shows there is a bright future for globalization and BRI in the new normal of Covid-19, if countries may join their hands to meet the challenges of supply chain restoration and re-configuration, as well as share the benefits of globalization among the majority of the population. © Joseph Chinyong Liow, Hong Liu and Gong Xue 2021.
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Currently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains a global pandemic, but the prevention and control of the disease in various countries have also entered the normalization stage. To achieve economic recovery and avoid a waste of resources, different regions have developed prevention and control strategies according to their social, economic, and medical conditions and culture. COVID-19 disparities under the interaction of various factors, including interventions, need to be analyzed in advance for effective and precise prevention and control. Considering the United States as the study case, we investigated statistical and spatial disparities based on the impact of the county-level social vulnerability index (SVI) on the COVID-19 infection rate. The county-level COVID-19 infection rate showed very significant heterogeneity between states, where 67% of county-level disparities in COVID-19 infection rates come from differences between states. A hierarchical linear model (HLM) was adopted to examine the moderating effects of state-level social distancing policies on the influence of the county-level SVI on COVID-19 infection rates, considering the variation in data at a unified level and the interaction of various data at different levels. Although previous studies have shown that various social distancing policies inhibit COVID-19 transmission to varying degrees, this study explored the reasons for the disparities in COVID-19 transmission under various policies. For example, we revealed that the state-level restrictions on the internal movement policy significantly attenuate the positive effect of county-level economic vulnerability indicators on COVID-19 infection rates, indirectly inhibiting COVID-19 transmission. We also found that not all regions are suitable for the strictest social distancing policies. We considered the moderating effect of multilevel covariates on the results, allowing us to identify the causes of significant group differences across regions and to tailor measures of varying intensity more easily. This study is also necessary to accomplish targeted preventative measures and to allocate resources.
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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused increasing concern over health care, part of which involves the role of nutrition. In this study, a nutrition educational board game, featuring quantitative computation, was designed to help students acquire nutrition knowledge and improve dietary behaviors. A group of 22 students in grade 7 of a middle school in Beijing were selected as the participants. A single-group pre-and post-test quasi-experimental design was adopted. Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) questionnaires and interviews were used to investigate students’ changes in dietary knowledge, attitude, and behavior. The influence of gender and body mass index (BMI) on the teaching effectiveness was also explored. The results showed that some dimensions of knowledge, attitude, and behavior significantly increased in the students. Their changes in behavior were mainly related to some aspects that were easier to adjust. In addition, the study also found that females and students with abnormal BMI were more likely to be influenced by the educational game to make positive changes in attitude and behavior. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
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This article explores sovereign immunities in relation to the most recent litigation against China for damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These proceedings will inevitably encounter the initial obstacle of state immunity, which is difficult to overcome. It is a recognized principle in international law that a sovereign and its assets are immune from jurisdiction and execution of other sovereigns. This principle is recognized in US domestic law in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act 1976 (FSIA) . Although the US has adopted the principle of restrictive immunity and allows lawsuits brought against a foreign sovereign in exceptional circumstances, these exceptions are interpreted restrictively. Neither the commercial activity nor the territorial tort exception applies to these proceedings. Even if the US courts assert jurisdiction under the FSIA, enforcement of judgments would be difficult. Although the US Congress has the power to revise the FSIA by inserting a unique COVID-19 exception against China, it may be cautious about taking this radical step. Firstly, this exception may violate customary international law. Secondly, it may trigger a series of serious political and diplomatic consequences and may bring about countermeasures. The legal barriers and diplomatic consequences suggest that attempting to initiate domestic actions against China is neither wise nor pragmatic. The only appropriate means to settle such disputes or seek remedy for damages caused by COVID-19 is through international law mechanisms, including diplomatic means or international adjudication based on consent.
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Introduction Traditional methods of addressing gastroenterology referrals involve giving the referred patient an in office clinic appointment and waiting until the appointment to make consultant recommendations. In September 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), our institution started an e-consult system for gastroenterology referrals where every referral was reviewed by a gastroenterologist and decision was made to direct the patient to telemedicine visit or in office visit. We aim to compare the outcomes of this e-consult system with traditional referral response methods. Methods Retrospective cohort study comparing econsults with traditional methods. We randomly selected 350 referrals from September 2019 through January 2020 to form the e-consult cohort and 350 referrals from January 2018 through May 2019 to form the traditional methods cohort. Outcomes of primary interest were observed for one month after referral. Primary outcome was number of patients with emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for primary gastroenterology complaints within 30 days of referral. Secondary outcomes included mean time to first consultant recommendations, endoscopies, and in-person appointments. First consultant recommendations are defined as the first instance of recommendations (such as labs, imaging, endoscopy, or verbal instruction to the patient or referring physician) by a gastroenterology provider pertaining to the referring question after initial referral. Results E-consults were associated with significantly fewer ED visits (4% vs 7.7%, P=0.036) and fewer hospitalizations (1.4% vs 4.3%, p=0.023) within 30 days of referral. E-consults resulted in significantly higher proportion referrals receiving consultant recommendations within 30 days (87% vs 39%, P<0.01). Recommendations were also made in significantly less time with e-consults (4.3 vs 42 days, P<0.01). E-consults were also associated with a greater proportion for endoscopy performed within 30 days (17% vs 4%, P<0.01). Endoscopies were able to be performed in significantly less time after referral with e-consults (61 vs 96 days, P<0.01). Conclusions Gastroenterology referrals seen with e-consults were associated with significantly fewer ED visits and hospitalizations within 30 days of referral when compared to traditional methods. E-consults were also associated with dramatically shorter wait time for consultant recommendations and endoscopies as well as decreased need for in-person clinic appointments. (Table Presented) (Table Presented)
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Animals have many uses as a kind of natural resource. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, a series of legislations related to animal are published to protect animal resource, regulate animal breeding, and prevent public health risks caused by animal epidemics. In particular, since the outbreak of COVID-19, the strictest utilization regime of wild animals in history has been established and the revision of several legislations has been initiated, which will also make the utilization of animal traditional Chinese medicine (animal TCM) face stricter scrutiny. In this paper, the influence of existing legislations related to animal on the utilization of animal TCM was discussed, and some suggestions were put forward for the development of animal TCM.
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Epidemics and other public health emergencies significantly impact medical and health service systems. The exploitation of some advanced technologies in Fangcang shelter hospitals - emergency medical service solutions adopted in China during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic - was found to successfully relieve the treatment pressures. However, the implementation of the intelligent Fangcang shelter hospital system remains in the exploratory stage. Herein, this paper aims to obtain experience in the development and utilization of an intelligent system in a Fangcang shelter hospital. To achieve this, a single case study method was adopted to analyze a real case in the Optics Valley Fangcang Shelter Hospital. There were two data collection methods in the case study: (1) interviews;and (2) investigation, including some documents, models, sensors, and the platform. The main contribution of this paper is that it provides qualitative insights on how to implement an intelligent Fangcang shelter hospital system, including the development process and challenges and identifying lessons learned through the utilization of intelligent Fangcang shelter hospital systems. This paper can give a solid reference for the operation of COVID-19 field hospitals and provide clear theoretical guidance for the implementation and development of intelligent Fangcang shelter hospitals. This will help better respond to COVID-19 and similar major public health emergencies in the future. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Objective: To explore the effect of Zhikepipa Mixture on the treatment of COVID-19 through network pharmacology analysis and molecular docking technology. Methods: First, we performed the network pharmacology method to screen active compounds and targets so as to explore the mixture's potential mechanisms in the treatment of COVID-19. In line with ADME screening index, like oral bioavailability (OB) ≥30% or drug likeness index (DL) ≥0.18, the active compounds against COVID-19 related targets were selected to construct the 'herb-compound-target' network. Mechanism prediction of Zhikepipa mixture in the treatment of COVID-19 was analyzed by the interaction of the target sites, the bioinformatic annotation, and the metabolic pathway. Then, we used a molecular docking model to evaluate the binding ability between active compounds and 2019-nCoV (SARS-CoV-2) 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CLpro) receptor-binding domain (PBD ID 6LU7), which was involved in mediating viral replication and transcription functions. Results: The'herb-compound-target' network showed 34 key compounds and 30 disease targets after overlapping with disease targets. The network topology analysis showed that those selected compounds with higher degree would produce marked anti-inflammatory effects by regulating 30 targets like PTGS1, IL1B, IL6, IL10, CXCL8 and JUN. AGE-RAGE signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway were involved in regulating hepatitis B and diabetic complications. In addition, Folium eriobotryae and Radix stemonae played important roles in the network. The molecular docking results showed that nine compounds were identified with higher docking score rank against 2019-nCoV 3CLpro protease, and most of them were attributed to flavonoids. Conclusion: Zhikepipa Mixture could exhibit both anti-inflammatory and anti-virus actions through multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway. © 2021, Editorial Board of Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University (Medical Sciences). All right reserved.
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In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese government imposed stringent lockdown measures to minimize the spread of the disease. This paper shows that under these measures, the PM2.5 concentrations were lower in February 2020 than in February 2019. However, after the measures were removed, the PM2.5 concentration returned to the same level as in the previous year, thus implicating that the reduction was temporary. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Two adaptive group testing models are studied based on zero-error criterion in this paper. Firstly, for the single-stage group testing model, the analytical expression of optimal number of grouping members without integer constraints is given. Secondly, the optimal number of grouping members with integer constraints are given by numerical calculation. Finally, a grouping coefficient-based multistage model and the principles for selecting optimal grouping coefficient are proposed. The results of this paper can help medical institutions to improve group testing efficiency of infection detection of COVID-19. © 2020 IEEE.
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The COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 has aroused wide public concern. Both 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV belong to the coronaviridae family, and invade target cells through ACE2.So an in-depth understanding of ACE2 and a series of pathophysiological changes caused by the virus invading the human body may help to discover and explain the corresponding clinical manifestations and then deal with them timely. In addition, ACE2 is a potential therapeutic target, according to this, we can find the corresponding treatment strategy. This article explains the role of ACE2 in multiple organ damage caused by 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV, and blockers targeting ACE2, and inflammation inhibitors, with a view to providing a basis for subsequent related research, diagnosis and treatment, and drug development. Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese General Practice.