Hematologic health services and practical characteristics: report of a nationwide survey among Chinese hematologists (preprint)

Background: In the past 40 years, China has experienced tremendous economic development, but the current situation of hematologists has rarely been reported. A landscape survey of human resources is essential for healthcare development and policy formulation in the future. Methods: The Chinese Society of Hematology initiated a survey of Chinese hematologists in mainland China for evaluating demographic and practice characteristics. Respondents were anonymous, and there were no limitations regarding their age, sex, etc. Results: Totally 2032 hematologists responded, with a median age bracket of 36-45 years. Respondents were well engaged into subspecialties, and 28.1% acquired doctorates of philosophy. Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) centers have been established all over China. Higher-GDP regions reported more advantages, including bigger scale of transplant centers (P < 0.001), younger age structure (P = 0.039), better education qualifications (P = 0.001) and less turnover intentions (P = 0.004), despite of increased risk of medical disputes (P = 0.028). Although females accounted for 65.5% of hematologists, males were older (P < 0.001), and had more senior professional titles (P < 0.001), academic positions (P < 0.001), opportunities for continuing education (P < 0.001), and paper publishing in the recent two years (P = 0.001). For turnover intention, the higher GDP regions led to an independently reduced risk (HR = 0.673, 95%CI [0.482-0.940], P = 0.020), whereas medical disputes resulted in an increased the risk (HR = 2.037, 95%CI [1.513-2.743], P < 0.001). Considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of respondents believed that the decline in patient visits and delay in treatment was within 30%. 67.9% of respondents reported a decrease of the use of bone marrow as grafts but 18.8% reported an increase of cord blood units. 35.0% of the respondents switched their daily work to support the anti-epidemic medical activities. Conclusions: We concluded the discipline of hematology in China has flourished in recent years with a young workforce, while regional economic and gender disparities warrant further continuous optimization. Joint efforts against the impact of COVID-19 are needed in the post-pandemic era.

The latest research progress in asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic patients with COVID-19

The asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has no perceptible clinical symptoms and signs, and it is not easy to be detected. The transmission of the virus carried by asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic patients is insidious, which brings great challenges to the control of the epidemic. Due to the length of the incubation period, some studies have failed to distinguish between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections, resulting in a higher proportion of asymptomatic infections. This article reviews the latest research progress of characteristics, transmission, detection and control of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infection.

Research progress on detection methods of the asymptomatic COVID-19 infected persons

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought great harm and challenges to many countries and regions around the world. The majority of COVID-19 patients have typical clinical manifestations, but the number of asymptomatic infections is increasing as COVID-19 research continues and SARS-CoV-2 testing improves. Many asymptomatic COVID-19 patients with no obvious clinical symptoms are able to transmit the virus to others due to the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in their bodies, thus greatly accelerating the worldwide pandemic and posing great difficulty and threat to global epidemic prevention and control. Therefore, early detection and identification of asymptomatic infected persons through various testing methods are effective measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic. This article will provide a brief review of the available methods and techniques for detecting asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

Research progress on the effect of COVID-19 on gastrointestinal tract

The outbreak of COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019 threatens global public health. In the early stage, respiratory symptoms are the most common in patients with new coronal pneumonia, but with the spread of the disease around the world, gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting have attracted more and more attention. And some patients take diarrhea as the first symptom, which is easy to cause missed diagnosis. This paper expounds the close relationship between COVID-19 and gastrointestinal tract, and reviews the research progress of COVID-19's effect on gastrointestinal tract.

Internet and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the UK (preprint)

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet has become a key player in the daily lives of most people. We investigate the relationship between mental health and internet use frequency and purpose six months after the first lockdown in the UK, September 2020. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire and the Internet use module, and controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and personality traits, we find that older individuals (aged 59 or above) have a lower internet use frequency (twice a day or less). Younger women use the Internet for social purposes more than men do, while younger men use the Internet for leisure-and-learning purposes more than women and older men do. Both high frequency internet use and use for social purposes appear to be a protective factor for social dysfunction. Interestingly, high internet use is a protective factor for social dysfunction among younger women, but a risk factor for psychological distress among younger men. Finally, while leisure-and-learning purpose is a protective factor for social dysfunction among younger women, it is a risk factor for social dysfunction among younger men.

Impacts of carbon-based nanomaterials on nutrient removal in constructed wetlands: Microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and metabolism process

The increasing use of raw carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs) will inevitably affect wastewater treatment systems. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are ecological wastewater treatment facilities and can intercept the vast particles pollutant, including CBNs. However, the impacts of CBNs on the treatment performance of CWs have no available knowledge. Therefore, we systematically inspected the effects of single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and MWCNTs) and fullerene nanoparticles (C60) on CW performance under 180-day exposure to 0, 10 and 1000 µg/L concentrations. The results showed that CBNs had marginally adverse impacts on chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorus (TP) removal, whereas nitrogen removal declined by 24.1 %-42.7 % following long-term exposure to CBNs. MWCNTs had the greatest inhibition effect on nitrogen removal, followed by SWCNTs and C60. The CBNs also induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction as the increasing concentration, which confirmed that CBNs have biotoxic effects in CWs. The variation of functional microbial community and the inhibition of enzyme activities were the dominant reasons for the decline in nitrogen removal efficiency. Furthermore, predictive functional profiling showed that CBNs affected functional gene abundance, and caused a decline in the enzymes abundance connected to nitrogen removal by the end of the 180-day exposure period.

Clinical and CT manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019

Objective To evaluate the clinical and CT manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods Serial clinical and CT data of 11 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed. These data were collected in The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from January 24 to February 9, 2020. There were 6 males and 5 females, aged from 17 to 64 years old, with the mean age of 42.27±15.67. Results A majority of the patients fell into mild type and only one was of severe type. Clinical manifestations were mainly fever, fatigue, and dry cough. For laboratory tests, the patients' lymphocyte and eosinophil counts decreased, while their C-reactive protein concentration increased. In terms of CT findings, 7 patients showed bilateral subpleural involvement. The ground glass opacity (GGO) was common in CT findings. Typical crazy paving sign, air bronchogram and halo sign were also found. During the progression of the disease, GGO might be associated with pulmonary consolidation. No enlarged lymph nodes or pleural effusion were seen in all the patients. Conclusion Patients with COVID-19 have distinctly characteristic chest CT manifestations and laboratory examination findings, which play a vital role in diagnosis and prognosis of the disease.

Flocked swab might be one main reason causing the high false-negative rate in COVID-19 screening----the advantages of a novel silicone swab (preprint)

RNA testing using RT-PCR can provide direct evidence for diagnoses of COVID-19 which has brought unexpected disasters and changes to our human society. However, the absorption of cotton swab for RNA lysates may lead to a low concentration of detectable RNA, which might be one of the main reasons for the unstable positive detecting rate. We designed and manufactured a kind of silicone swab with concave-convex structure, and further compared the effects of silicone and cotton swab on RNA extraction. Principal component analysis and Paired Wilcoxcon test suggested that a higher RNA concentration and A260/A280 would be obtained using silicone swab. The results indicated that our silicone swab had a more excellent ability to sample than the cotton swab, characterized by the higher quantity and quality of extracted RNA. Thus, we advised that the current cotton swabs need to be improved urgently in COVID-19 diagnoses and the process of "sample collection" and "sample pre-processing" must be standardized and emphasized. HighlightsThe current cotton swabs need to be improved urgently in COVID-19 screening.