Clinical observation of Suhexiang Pills in treatment of patients with tachycardia after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objective To explore the clinical effect and safety of Suhexiang Pills () in the treatment of patients with tachycardia after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Methods A total of 138 patients with tachycardia after SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to eight hospitals such as 971st Hospital of the PLA Navy, Changzhou Second People's Hospital, Xuzhou First People's Hospital, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Henan Chest Hospital from February 2023 to March 2023 were randomly divided into control group and treatment group, with 87 patients in the treatment group and 51 in the control group. Patients in the control group were po administered with betaloc, once a day, and the initial dose was 23.75 mg, adjusted in time according to the patient's heart rate. Patients in the treatment group were po administered with Suhexiang Pills, 1 pill/time, twice daily. Patients in two groups were treated for 7 d. The clinical efficacy of the two groups was observed, and the heart rate and cardiac function indexes, RR interval, blood oxygen saturation and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups before and after treatment. Results After treatment, the total effective rate of the treatment group was 98.85%, and the total effective rate of the control group was 90.20%, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05). After treatment, heart rates were significantly decreased in both groups (P < 0.05), and the heart rates of the treatment group were significantly better than those of the control group (P < 0.05) on the 7th day of treatment. After treatment, the level of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in both groups was significantly higher than that before treatment (P < 0.05), and there was statistical difference between the treatment group and the control group (P < 0.05). The levels of left ventricular end diastolic dimension (LVEDD) and left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVESD) in the treatment group significantly decreased than that before treatment (P < 0.05), and there was no statistical difference compared with the control group (P > 0.05). After treatment, the maximum RR interval in both groups reached the normal range on the third day, and the treatment group was significantly better than the control group (P < 0.05). Blood oxygen saturation of the treatment group was significantly increased on the 7th day of treatment compared with before treatment (P < 0.05), but there was no statistical significance between the two groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the total incidence of adverse events between the two groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion Suhexiang Pills decrease heart rates in patients with tachycardia after SARS-CoV-2 infection, which was equivalent to the effect of western medicine, and can protect heart, improve heart function to a certain extent.Copyright © 2023 Editorial Office of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. All rights reserved.

Problems and Suggestions on COVID-19’s Quarantine and Isolation from Perspective of Spatial Organization

Quarantine and isolation are effective means to prevent transmission of COVID-19, but the problems arised during the period of quarantine and isolation are worth pondering. This article first streamlines five types of problems during the recent period of quarantine and isolation. Based on a brief review of related research on domestic and international literature, the article argues that it will be a suitable approach to carry out research from the perspective of spatial organization combined with the concept of systems theory. Then, it explores the reasons of the aforementioned problems from the objective laws of spatial organization and systems theory. It points out that the lack of systematical consideration of quarantine and isolation decisions in theory and the absence of preparations for switching from normal to abnormal status in practice are the fundamental reasons. Finally, three policy suggestions have been proposed from the perspectives of the optimization of spatial organization system, the enhancement of infrastructure and capabilities, and the backup mechanism and drills. © 2022, Science Press. All rights reserved.

An interactive knowledge graph based platform for covid-19 clinical research

Since the first identified case of COVID-19 in December 2019, a plethora of pharmaceuticals and therapeutics have been tested for COVID-19 treatment. While medical advancements and breakthroughs are well underway, the sheer number of studies, treatments, and associated reports makes it extremely challenging to keep track of the rapidly growing COVID-19 research landscape. While existing scientific literature search systems provide basic document retrieval, they fundamentally lack the ability to explore data, and in addition, do not help develop a deeper understanding of COVID-19 related clinical experiments and findings. As research expands, results do so as well, resulting in a position that is complicated and overwhelming. To address this issue, we present a named entity recognition based framework that accurately extracts COVID-19 related information from clinical test results articles, and generates an efficient and interactive visual knowledge graph. This knowledge graph platform is user friendly, and provides intuitive and convenient tools to explore and analyze COVID-19 research data and results including medicinal performances, side effects and target populations. © 2022 ACM.

Quantifying the evolutionary mechanism of COVID-19 impact on international construction multi-projects: a risk driver perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to quantify the evolutionary mechanism of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impact on international construction multi-projects. Design/methodology/approach: From three concepts of complexity, stressor and detractor risks, a multi-project simulation model under COVID-19 outbreak is proposed to study the characteristics of contingency with three peaks of ordered and disordered states. Specially, COVID-19 brings forth mitigation fee, epidemic prevention fee, holdup fee and schedule delay fee of multi-projects. By integrating parametric model, Monte Carlo and chaos theory, a comparative analysis of its contingency with or without COVID-19 is conducted. Summarizing the simulated results, their total contingencies at certain risk tolerance are obtained at two status of static at one-time point and dynamic over time. Meanwhile, some major risks including detractors, complexities and stressors are screened out for mitigation, especially for epidemic prevention and control. Eventually, the real case is illustrated to demonstrate its validity. Findings: It provides a quantitative analysis framework for the impact of epidemic, a once-in-a-century black swan event with a long tail, on construction multi-projects. Practical implications: It conduct an effective model to quantify impacts of COVID-19 on international construction multi-projects for implementing effective counter-measures, which lay foundation for claims among different stakeholders. Originality/value: The term of detractor risk is applied to describe COVID-19 and quantify its impact upon international construction multi-projects. Further, a hybrid model by integrating parametric model and Monte Carlo in type I/II model is proposed to simulate their contingencies at disordered states. Finally, the simulated outcomes of these models are used to guide effective risk control to meet the requirements by the client. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake and Its Impacts in a Cohort of Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia.

Successful use of biomedical forms of HIV risk-reduction may have predisposed many gay and bisexual men (GBM) to vaccination against COVID-19, which may, in turn, affect their sexual behavior. A total of 622 Australian GBM provided weekly data on COVID-19 vaccination history and sexual behaviour between 17 January 2021 and 22 June 2021. We identify factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination, and compare sexual behavior before and since vaccination. Mean age was 47.3 years (SD 14.0). At least one-dose vaccination coverage had reached 57.2%, and 61.3% reported that the majority of their friends intended to be vaccinated. Vaccinated men reported a mean of 1.11 (SD 2.10) weekly non-relationship sex partners before vaccination and 1.62 (SD 3.42) partners following vaccination. GBM demonstrated high confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. Their sexual activity increased following vaccination suggesting that greater sexual freedom may be a specific motivation for vaccine uptake among some men.

[Investigation of pathogenic agents causing acute respiratory tract infections in pediatric patients in a children's hospital assigned for case screening in Beijing during the outbreak of COVID-19].

Objective: To investigate the spectrum of pathogenic agents in pediatric patients with acute respiratory infections (ARI) during the outbreak of coronavirus infectious diseases 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: Three groups of children were enrolled into the prospective study during January 20 to February 20, 2020 from Capital Institute of Pediatrics, including children in the exposed group with ARI and epidemiological history associated with COVID-19 from whom both pharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected, children in the ARI group without COVID-19 associated epidemiological history and children in the screening group for hospital admission, with neither COVID-19 associated epidemiological history nor ARI. Only nasopharyngeal swabs were collected in the ARI group and screening group. Each group is expected to include at least 30 cases. All specimens were tested for 2019-nCoV nucleic acid by two diagnostic kits from different manufacturers. All nasopharyngeal swabs were tested for multiple respiratory pathogens, whilst the results from the ARI group were compared with that in the correspondence periods of 2019 and 2018 used by t or χ(2) test. Results: A total of 244 children were enrolled into three groups, including 139 males and 105 females, the age was (5±4) years. The test of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid were negative in all children, and high positive rates of pathogens were detected in exposed (69.4%, 25/36) and ARI (55.3%, 73/132) groups, with the highest positive rate for mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) (19.4%, 7/36 and 17.4%, 23/132, respectively), followed by human metapneumovirus (hMPV) (16.7%, 6/36 and 9.8%, 13/132, respectively). The positive rate (11.8%, 9/76) of pathogens in the screening group was low. In the same period of 2019, the positive rate of pathogens was 83.7% (77/92), with the highest rates for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) A (29.3%, 27/92), followed by influenza virus (Flu) A (H1N1) (19.6%, 18/92) and adenovirus (ADV) (14.1%, 13/92), which showed significant difference with the positive rates of the three viruses in 2020 (RSV A: χ(2)=27.346, P<0.01; FluA (H1N1): χ(2)=28.083, P<0.01; ADV: χ(2)=7.848, P=0.005) . In 2018, the positive rate of pathogens was 61.0% (50/82), with the highest rate for human bocavirus (HBoV) (13.4%, 11/82) and followed by ADV (11.0%, 9/82), and significant difference was shown in the positive rate of HBoV with that in 2020 (χ(2)=6.776, P=0.009). Conclusions: The infection rate of 2019-nCoV is low among children in Beijing with no family clustering or no close contact, even with epidemiological history. The spectrum of pathogens of ARI in children during the research period is quite different from that in the previous years when the viral infections were dominant. MP is the highest positively detected one among the main pathogens during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing where there is no main outbreak area.