Can Social Media Data Be Utilized to Enhance Early Warning: Retrospective Analysis of the U.S. Covid-19 Pandemic

The U.S. needs early warning systems to help it contain the spread of infectious diseases. Conventional early warning systems use lab-test results or dynamic records to signal early warning signs. New early warning systems can supplement these data with indicators of public awareness like news articles and search queries. This study aims to explore the potential of utilizing social media data to enhance early warning of the COVID-19 outbreak. To demonstrate the feasibility, this study conducts a retrospective analysis and investigates more than 14 million related Twitter postings in the date range from January 20 to March 10, 2020. With the aid of natural language processing tools and machine learning classifiers, this study classifies each of these tweets into either a signal or a non-signal. In this study, a "signal" tweet implies that the user recognized the COVID-19 outbreak risk in the U.S. This study then proposes a parameter "signal ratio" to signal warning signs of the COVID-19 pandemic over periods. Results reveal that social media data and the signal ratio can detect the hazards ahead of the COVID-19 outbreak. This claim has been validated with a leading time of 16 days through the comparison to other referenced methods based on Google trends or media news.

Aplasia cutis congenita: clinical analysis of 258 cases reported in China / 中华围产医学杂志

Objective To summarize the pathogenesis,diagnosis and treatment of aplasia cutis congenita (ACC) in China.Methods We reviewed and summarized all published ACC cases in China in the past four decades from China National Knowledge Internet(CNKI),Wan-Fang Medical Database and VIP database.Results Totally,258 cases were included,consisting of 144 males,95 females and 19 of unknown gender.Fifteen cases reported family history,16 had maternal morbidity during pregnancy,17 exposed to maternal medication or toxic material.Skin lesions of ACC occurred on the scalp (39 cases,15.1％),trunk (8 cases,3.1％) or limbs (107 cases,41.5％) and sometimes were manifested as multiples skin defects (104 cases,40.3％).Eighty-nine cases (38.4％) were presented with isolated skin defect,and 169 (61.6％) were complicated by other abnormalities or congenital defects.Totally,235(91.1％) cases were treated conservatively,15 cases with dural defect,skull defect or defect area ＞ 10％ underwent dermatoplasty,and the other eight cases refused any treatment.Among the 248 cases being followed up,233 (93.95％) healed after treatment for one week to four months,three had scar contracture,four developed joint contracture,and eight (3.2％) died of hemorrhage or infection.Conclusions ACC is a congenital skin defect which might involve skin,bone and multiple parts of the body,often complicated with other abnormalities.Superficial and small skin defect maybe managed conservatively,while for patients with bone exposure or defect,large area skin defect,surgical management is recommended.Appropriate management can ensure good outcomes in most cases.

Research progress of long-wavelength light-triggered photodynamic therapy for malignant tumor treatment / 国际生物医学工程杂志

Malignant tumor is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Researches focus on finding tumor therapy with better therapeutic efficiency and fewer side effects. Improving the therapeutic effect and reducing the side effects are the two hot topics in the field of malignant tumors treatment. As one of the new methods for non-invasive treatment of malignant tumors, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has the advantage of low cytoxicity and low drug resistance. PDT induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by irradiating light to specific sites, causing tumor cell apoptosis and necrosis, and achieving therapeutic purposes. Compared with the traditional PDT, long-wavelength light-triggered photodynamic therapy has deep tissue penetration and less cytoxicity. In this paper, the technical development of the long-wavelength light-triggered PDT was summarized including photosensitizers, two-photon activated PDT and upconversion PDT. The research progress of this therapeutic method in the treatment of malignant tumors was also reviewed.

Significance of serum adenosine deaminase level in type 1 diabetes patients with acute or chronic diabetes complications / 实用医学杂志

Objective To investigate the significance of serum adenosine deaminase level in type 1 diabe-tes patients(T1DM)with acute or chronic diabetes complications. Methods One hundred and eighty-four cases of type 1 diabetes patients were divided into three groups:T1DM without any complications(n = 55),T1DM with acute diabetes complications(n = 47)and T1DM with chronic diabetes complications(n = 82). We also enrolled 108 healthy persons as the control group.The clinical and biochemical data were collected and the influencing fac-tors of serum ADA were analyzed. Resultes(1)Serum ADA level of T1DM patients was higher than that of the healthy control people.T1DM patients with acute diabetes complications had lower serum ADA level compared with T1DM patients with chronic complications.(2)Results of Pearson correlations analysis showed that serum ADA level had positive correlation with fasting blood glucose.(3)Logistic regression analysis showed that the increase of serum ADA level was an independent risk factor in patients with chronic diabetes complications(OR:1.159,95% Cl:1.044~1.286),while it was a protective factor in patients with acute diabetes complications(OR:0.857,95% Cl:0.748~0.981). Conclusions High serum ADA level was observed in type 1 diabetes patients. The serum ADA level was an independent risk factor for T1DM patients with chronic diabetes complications,while it was a protective factor for T1DM patients with acute diabetes complications.

Establishment of a HL-60 cell line with stable RYBP silencing / 白血病·淋巴瘤

Objective To establish stable HL-60 cell line with stable RYBP gene silencing using lentivirus-mediated RNA interference. Methods Five special shRNAs for RYBP gene were cloned to lentivirus vector.Recombinate lentivirus vectors were packed into lentivirus,which were used to infect HL-60 cells, and took empty vector and non-specific shRNA as control groups. Stable infected cells were selected with puromycin in 8 μg/ml concentration.The expression levels of RYBP were analyzed by Western blot,and confirmed the most effective RYBP shRNA.Then the level of mRNA was analyzed by real-time PCR.Results Stable infected cells were selected by puromycin successfully.Comparing to control groups,the expression of RYBP were reduced at different degrees (P ＜ 0.01). And RYBP shRNA2 took the most silencing effect, the RYBP mRNA was decreased by more than 95 ％ (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The shRNA2 targeting RYBP gene can effectively inhibit the expression of RYBP. HL-60 cell line with stable RYBP gene silencing were constructed successfully,which had provided experiment fundament for further studying the function of RYBP.