Pipeline Embolization Device for intracranial aneurysms presenting with mass effect: a large Chinese cohort.

BACKGROUND: Unruptured intracranial aneurysm treatment aims to reduce the risk of aneurysm rupture and bleeding, relieves symptoms and improve the quality of life for patients. This study aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of Pipeline Embolization Device (PED, Covidien/Medtronic, Irvine, CA) treatment for intracranial aneurysms presenting with mass effect in real-world settings. METHODS: We selected patients from the PED in China Post-Market Multi-Center Registry Study with mass effect presentation. The study endpoints included postoperative mass effect deterioration and mass effect relief at follow-up (3-36 months). We conducted multivariate analysis to identify factors associated with mass effect relief. Subgroup analyses by aneurysm location, size and form were also performed. RESULTS: This study included 218 patients with a mean age of 54.3±11.8 years and a female predominance of 74.0% (162/218). The postoperative mass effect deterioration rate was 9.6% (21/218). During a median follow-up period of 8.4 months, the mass effect relief rate was 71.6% (156/218). Notably, immediate aneurysm occlusion following treatment was significantly associated with mass effect relief (OR 0.392, 95% CI, 0.170 to 0.907, p=0.029). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that adjunctive coiling contributed to mass effect relief in cavernous aneurysms, while dense embolism impeded symptom relief in aneurysms<10 mm and saccular aneurysms. CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirmed the efficacy of PED in relieving mass effect. The findings of this study provide support for endovascular treatment to alleviate mass effect in unruptured intracranial aneurysms. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03831672.

The impact of CoronaVac on the neutralization breadth and magnitude of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 viruses.

Although immune response enhancement has been reported after primary and booster vaccines of CoronaVac, neutralization breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the neutralization magnitude and breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) in 33 convalescent COVID-19 patients and a cohort of 55 medical staff receiving primary CoronaVac vaccines and an additional homologous booster dose. Results showed that, as compared with the two-dose primary vaccination, the homologous booster dose achieved 2.24-, 3.98-, 4.58- and 2.90-fold increase in neutralization titer against wild-type, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, respectively. After booster dose, neutralization titer reduction for variants was less than that after the primary vaccine or that for convalescents. The proportion of recipients able to neutralize 2 or more variants increased from 36.36% post the primary vaccination to 87.27% after the booster. Significant increase in neutralization breadth of 1.24 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89-1.59) variants was associated with a log10 increase in neutralization titer against the wild-type. In addition, anti-RBD IgG level was identified as an excellent surrogate for positive neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and neutralization breadth of variants. These findings highlight the value of an additional homologous CoronaVac dose in broadening the cross-neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 variants, and are critical for informing the booster dose vaccination efforts.

TCL-458 Real-World Treatment Patterns in Patients With Sézary Syndrome in the United States and the Impact of Covid-19.

BACKGROUND: Sézary syndrome (SS) is an aggressive type of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL). Due to its low prevalence, there are limited data on real-world treatment patterns of available SS therapies. Furthermore, recent approvals of new agents for patients with CTCL as well as COVID-19 likely impacted real-world treatment patterns. OBJECTIVE: To examine real-world treatment patterns and the impact of COVID-19 among SS patients treated in 2018-2020 in the United States. METHODS: Patients in the 2018-2020 Symphony Health Solutions database were classified into 3 groups: ≥1 diagnosis of SS (ICD-10-CM code: C84.1x) in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. Patient characteristics and treatment patterns for National Comprehensive Cancer Network guideline 2.2021 recommended therapies were examined: systemic therapy (e.g., extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP), parenteral, oral agents), skin-directed therapy (SDT, e.g., topical, local radiation, total skin electron beam therapy, phototherapy) and bone marrow transplant. The impact of COVID-19 was assessed using quarterly analysis. RESULTS: The analyses included 869, 882, and 853 SS patients in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively (mean age: 66.3, 66.9 and 67.3 years; male: 54.4%, 54.8%, and 55.6%). Overall, systemic therapy increased from 2018-2020 (41.8% to 46.5%), with increased parenteral (20.7% to 28.7%) but decreased ECP (17.0% to 13.5%) usage. SDT increased from 2018-2020 (48.9% to 52.9%), with increased topical (42.3% to 48.3%) but decreased phototherapy (6.3% to 4.1%) usage. ECP, mogamulizumab, and bexarotene were the most prescribed systemic therapies in 2019-2020, with mogamulizumab being the only one with increased usage over time. Quarterly analysis showed decreasing ECP from Q1 to Q4 within each year, with a notable drop in Q2 2020. For parental systemics, there was an increasing trend in 2019 and 2020, but lower utilization in Q4 2020 than in Q3 2020. For oral systemic, there was a notable drop in Q2 2020 but an increased trend in Q3-Q4 2020. CONCLUSIONS: This claims analysis indicated increased use in systemic and SDT among SS patients in 2018-2020. The quarterly analysis indicated that the drop in ECP and oral systemic usage in Q2 2020 coincided with the onset of the pandemic, but there was a stable use of parenteral systemic during 2020.

Incidence of Hyponatremia Among Critically Ill Patients With and Without COVID-19 Infection at a Community Teaching Hospital.

Background: Various studies have demonstrated the incidence of hyponatremia in patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, to our knowledge, no study has assessed the difference in the incidence of hyponatremia in patients with and without COVID-19. Purpose: To compare the incidence of hyponatremia in patients requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission with and without COVID-19 infection. Methods: This was a single-center, retrospective cohort study of patients with a diagnosis of pneumonia from February 2019 to January 2020, or a diagnosis of COVID-19 from June 2020 to May 2021. Included patients were matched on age and sex. The primary outcome was the incidence of hyponatremia within 72 h of admission. Secondary endpoints collected included severity of hyponatremia, symptomatic hyponatremia, and lowest serum sodium. Results: There were 99 and 104 patients included in pneumonia and COVID-19 arms, respectively. Twenty-nine patients in the pneumonia group and 56 patients in the COVID-19 group had a sodium level <134 mEq/L (29% vs 56%, RR 1.84, P < .01). The mean lowest serum sodium within 72 h of admission was 136.9 mEq/L in the pneumonia group and 134.5 mEq/L in the COVID-19 group (P < .01). Other notable findings included days of mechanical ventilation (3 days vs 8 days, respectively; P < .01), downgrade from the ICU (74.8% vs 59.6%, P = .02), ICU length of stay (4 days vs 10 days, P < .01), hospital length of stay (6 days vs 14 days, P < .01), and mortality (16.2% vs 39.4%, P < .01). Conclusion: Among critically ill patients with COVID-19, the risk of hyponatremia was significantly greater than the risk in critically ill patients with pneumonia.

Truncated expression of S1 protein of Feline infectious peritonitis virus and preparation of its monoclonal antibody

In order to develop monoclonal antibody against Feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) S1 protein, the truncated S1 protein (rS1) was expressed through Escherichia coli and subsequently purified. Then BALB/c mice were immunized with purified rSl. Three hybridoma cell strains, named 2D7,3D8 and 5G1, stably secreting antibodies against rSl were obtained by cell fusion and indirect ELISA screening. The identification of antibody subtype showed that antibody subtypes of 2D7,5G1 and 3d8 strains were IgG2a,IgG2a and IgGl,respectively. And the light chain of those three hybridoma cell strains was Kappa. Result of karyotype identification of hybridoma cells showed that the chromosome numbers of those three hybridoma cells were about 102,101 and 103, which was belonged to the karyotype of hybridoma. The titer of ascites antibody for indirect ELISA was 1 : 204 800, and monoclonal antibodies were purified. Moreover, all of 2D7,3D8 and 5G1 could react with rS1 by Western-blot and FIPV in cells by IFA. These data suggest that three monoclonal antibodies against rSl with good activities were ideal materials in the study of early diagnosis of FIPV and the biological function of FIPV in the future.

Heterogeneously informed trading and the stock market efficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study investigates the U.S. stock market efficiency from the symmetric and asymmetric perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore that the pandemic boosts (hurts) the information role of symmetrically (asymmetrically) informed trading. Specifically, we find that the epidemic outbreak and infection scale strengthen (weaken) the stock return reaction to symmetrically (asymmetrically) informed trading. Evidence also indicates that the effect of symmetrically (asymmetrically) informed trading on stocks' permanent price shocks and price informational efficiency is enhanced (impaired) during the pandemic. Moreover, all these effects are consistently more intensive to informed buys.

Lateral Flow Immunoassay Coupled with Copper Enhancement for Rapid and Sensitive SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Detection.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still raging all over the world. Hence, the rapid and sensitive screening of the suspected population is in high demand. The nucleocapsid protein (NP) of SARS-CoV-2 has been selected as an ideal marker for viral antigen detection. This study describes a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) based on colloidal gold nanoparticles for rapid NP antigen detection, in which sensitivity was improved through copper deposition-induced signal amplification. The detection sensitivity of the developed LFIA for NP antigen detection (using certified reference materials) under the optimized parameters was 0.01 µg/mL and was promoted by three orders of magnitude to 10 pg/mL after copper deposition signal amplification. The LFIA coupled with the copper enhancement technique has many merits such as low cost, high efficiency, and high sensitivity. It provides an effective approach to the rapid screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of the suspected population in the COVID-19 outbreak.

Evolution of Mass Spectrometry Instruments and Techniques for Blood Proteomics.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based blood proteomics is a crucial research focus in identifying disease biomarkers. Blood serum or plasma is the most commonly used sample for such analysis; however, it presents challenges due to the complexity and dynamic range of protein abundance. Despite these difficulties, the development of high-resolution MS instruments has made comprehensive investigation of blood proteomics possible. The evolution of time-of-flight (TOF) or Orbitrap MS instruments has played a significant role in the field of blood proteomics. These instruments are now among the most prominent techniques for blood proteomics due to their sensitivity, selectivity, fast response, and stability. For optimal results, it is necessary to eliminate high-abundance proteins from the blood sample, to maximize the depth coverage of the blood proteomics analysis. This can be achieved through various methods, including commercial kits, chemically synthesized materials, and MS technologies. This paper reviews recent advancements in MS technology and its remarkable applications in biomarker discovery, particularly in the areas of cancer and COVID-19 studies.

Heterogeneously informed trading and the stock market efficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigates the U.S. stock market efficiency from the symmetric and asymmetric perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore that the pandemic boosts (hurts) the information role of symmetrically (asymmetrically) informed trading. Specifically, we find that the epidemic outbreak and infection scale strengthen (weaken) the stock return reaction to symmetrically (asymmetrically) informed trading. Evidence also indicates that the effect of symmetrically (asymmetrically) informed trading on stocks' permanent price shocks and price informational efficiency is enhanced (impaired) during the pandemic. Moreover, all these effects are consistently more intensive to informed buys.

EvidenceMap: a three-level knowledge representation for medical evidence computation and comprehension.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a computable representation for medical evidence and to contribute a gold standard dataset of annotated randomized controlled trial (RCT) abstracts, along with a natural language processing (NLP) pipeline for transforming free-text RCT evidence in PubMed into the structured representation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our representation, EvidenceMap, consists of 3 levels of abstraction: Medical Evidence Entity, Proposition and Map, to represent the hierarchical structure of medical evidence composition. Randomly selected RCT abstracts were annotated following EvidenceMap based on the consensus of 2 independent annotators to train an NLP pipeline. Via a user study, we measured how the EvidenceMap improved evidence comprehension and analyzed its representative capacity by comparing the evidence annotation with EvidenceMap representation and without following any specific guidelines. RESULTS: Two corpora including 229 disease-agnostic and 80 COVID-19 RCT abstracts were annotated, yielding 12 725 entities and 1602 propositions. EvidenceMap saves users 51.9% of the time compared to reading raw-text abstracts. Most evidence elements identified during the freeform annotation were successfully represented by EvidenceMap, and users gave the enrollment, study design, and study Results sections mean 5-scale Likert ratings of 4.85, 4.70, and 4.20, respectively. The end-to-end evaluations of the pipeline show that the evidence proposition formulation achieves F1 scores of 0.84 and 0.86 in the adjusted random index score. CONCLUSIONS: EvidenceMap extends the participant, intervention, comparator, and outcome framework into 3 levels of abstraction for transforming free-text evidence from the clinical literature into a computable structure. It can be used as an interoperable format for better evidence retrieval and synthesis and an interpretable representation to efficiently comprehend RCT findings.

Influencing factors of livestream selling of fresh food based on a push-pull model: A two-stage approach combining structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN)

• A New Framework Based on Push-Pull Theory and People-Goods-Scene Perspective. • Using SEM-ANN two-stage method for live broadcast merchandise sales forecast. • Views have the most significant impact on live broadcast sales. • Average dwell time has no significant impact on page views and live streaming sales. • Clean label has a significant impact on live streaming sales. Under the COVID-19, fresh food e-commerce has acquired new sales channels through live shopping, and the use of live broadcasts has become a hot spot in management and practice. However, there is little empirical evidence of the influence of live streaming on sales. This study combines the perspective of People-Goods-Scene and the push-pull theory, and proposes a two-stage method for forecasting sales volumes using structural equation models and artificial neural networks. It was found that the number of page views was the strongest predictor of live broadcast sales, while the numbers of interactive comments, live broadcasts with goods, and videos with goods, together with clean labels were weakly predictive. A comprehensive neural network model showed an accuracy of 83.76% in the prediction of live broadcast sales. These research results provide a theoretical basis for the prediction of fresh food shopping behavior in live-broadcast e-commerce from the perspectives of the consumers and the goods yard and provide ideas for the design of live broadcast content and optimization of user experience. [ FROM AUTHOR]

It is time to improve the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among people with chronic diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

This study aims to investigated COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among people with chronic diseases and the factors correlating with their vaccination hesitancy. The articles were searched in PubMed, Ovid, EMBASE, and web of science databases between December 2019 and October 2022. Cross-sectional studies, including the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine by patients with chronic diseases (≥18 years old), were included in this study. The outcomes included the proportion and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of chronic disease patients willing to be vaccinated and the odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI of correlating factors. The source of heterogeneity was analyzed through meta-regression and subgroup analysis. We included 31 studies involving 57 875 patients with chronic disease. The overall COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among patients with chronic disease was 0.65 (95% CI, 0.59-0.72). The acceptance among the elderly patients was 0.53 (95% CI, 0.26-0.80). South America had the highest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate and Asia the lowest, while on a country level, the United Kingdom had the highest acceptance rate among patients with chronic diseases. People with rheumatic immune diseases had the lowest rate of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Concerns about vaccine safety had a statistically different effect on acceptance. Overall, the health systems ought to focus on educating specific groups of individuals on the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination and addressing safety concerns.

Adapting ethnographic methods in light of the COVID-19 pandemic: Scottish country dancing

This chapter discusses the differences between face-to-face and online ethnographies of Scottish Country Dancing. It draws on fieldwork conducted firstly in Lyon in 2017 and subsequently in Edinburgh in 2017-2018, with further fieldwork in Edinburgh, due to the global pandemic, now taking place online. Online Scottish Country Dancing is challenging, especially given that this social dancing requires a partner and space. Due to the pandemic, how and why individuals do online dancing has shifted because people can now link in and across different locations. As a researcher as well as a dancer, my current project utilises blended ethnography, including textual analysis, fieldnotes, participant observations, interviews and surveys. Conducting online ethnographic practices raises specific ethical considerations and challenges, most notably concerning who is being observed and whether the participants are aware of being observed. This chapter addresses how the research aims to adapt ethnography from face-to-face fieldwork to online situations, in response to the impact of COVID-19 and associated ethical challenges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Risk spillovers in global financial markets: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis

This paper aims to comprehensively investigate the dynamics of short-, medium- and long-term risk spillovers across the major financial markets in the context of COVID-19. Our main empirical findings are as follows. First, we find that the deterioration of the COVID-19 pandemic raised the risk of stock, bond, crude oil, and foreign exchange markets sequentially in the short term. Second, from the perspective of the medium and long term, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered substantial risk spillovers across financial markets, which is also highly correlated with the degree of investor panic. Third, we show that different markets played different roles in terms of risk transmission during the pandemic. Specifically, the stock and crude oil markets acted more as risk senders, the gold and foreign exchange markets acted more as risk receivers, and the bond market served as a transfer station of risk. Finally, we find that containment and health responses can effectively mitigate risk spillovers across markets in the short term, while expansionary fiscal policy can reduce them more effectively in the medium and long term. Our findings have important implications for policymakers and investors who aim to mitigate the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial markets.

The impact of CoronaVac on the neutralization breadth and magnitude of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 viruses

Although immune response enhancement has been reported after primary and booster vaccines of CoronaVac, neutralization breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the neutralization magnitude and breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) in 33 convalescent COVID-19 patients and a cohort of 55 medical staff receiving primary CoronaVac vaccines and an additional homologous booster dose. Results showed that, as compared with the two-dose primary vaccination, the homologous booster dose achieved 2.24-, 3.98-, 4.58- and 2.90-fold increase in neutralization titer against wild-type, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, respectively. After booster dose, neutralization titer reduction for variants was less than that after the primary vaccine or that for convalescents. The proportion of recipients able to neutralize 2 or more variants increased from 36.36% post the primary vaccination to 87.27% after the booster. Significant increase in neutralization breadth of 1.24 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89–1.59) variants was associated with a log10 increase in neutralization titer against the wild-type. In addition, anti-RBD IgG level was identified as an excellent surrogate for positive neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and neutralization breadth of variants. These findings highlight the value of an additional homologous CoronaVac dose in broadening the cross-neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 variants, and are critical for informing the booster dose vaccination efforts.

Influencing Factors of Livestream Selling of Fresh Food Based on a Push-Pull Model: A Two-Stage Approach Combining Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

Under the COVID-19, fresh food e-commerce has acquired new sales channels through live shopping, and the use of live broadcasts has become a hot spot in management and practice. However, there is little empirical evidence of the influence of live streaming on sales. This study combines the perspective of People-Goods-Scene and the push-pull theory, and proposes a two-stage method for forecasting sales volumes using structural equation models and artificial neural networks. It was found that the number of page views was the strongest predictor of live broadcast sales, while the numbers of interactive comments, live broadcasts with goods, and videos with goods, together with clean labels were weakly predictive. A comprehensive neural network model showed an accuracy of 83.76% in the prediction of live broadcast sales. These research results provide a theoretical basis for the prediction of fresh food shopping behavior in live-broadcast e-commerce from the perspectives of the consumers and the goods yard and provide ideas for the design of live broadcast content and optimization of user experience.