Developing deep LSTMs with later temporal attention for predicting COVID-19 severity, clinical outcome, and antibody level by screening serological indicators over time.

OBJECTIVE: The clinical course of COVID-19, as well as the immunological reaction, is notable for its extreme variability. Identifying the main associated factors might help understand the disease progression and physiological status of COVID-19 patients. The dynamic changes of the antibody against Spike protein are crucial for understanding the immune response. This work explores a temporal attention (TA) mechanism of deep learning to predict COVID-19 disease severity, clinical outcomes, and Spike antibody levels by screening serological indicators over time. METHODS: We use feature selection techniques to filter feature subsets that are highly correlated with the target. The specific deep Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models are employed to capture the dynamic changes of disease severity, clinical outcome, and Spike antibody level. We also propose deep LSTMs with a TA mechanism to emphasize the later blood test records because later records often attract more attention from doctors. RESULTS: Risk factors highly correlated with COVID-19 are revealed. LSTM achieves the highest classification accuracy for disease severity prediction. Temporal Attention Long Short-Term Memory (TA-LSTM) achieves the best performance for clinical outcome prediction. For Spike antibody level prediction, LSTM achieves the best permanence. CONCLUSION: The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models. The proposed models can provide a computer-aided medical diagnostics system by simply using time series of serological indicators.

Improving Subnational Input-Output Analyses Using Regional Trade Data: A Case-Study and Comparison.

Environmentally extended input-output analysis (EE-IO) is widely used for evaluating environmental performance (i.e., footprint) at a national level. Many studies have extended their analyses to the subnational level to guide regional policies. One promising method is to embed nationally disaggregated input-output tables, e.g., nesting a provincial level table, into a global multiregional input-output table. However, a widely used approach to environmental assessment generally disaggregates the trade structure at the national level to the provincial level using the same proportions (proportionality assumption). This means that the subnational spatial heterogeneities on international trade are not fully captured. By calculating the Chinese provincial material footprint (MF) based on two approaches-the proportionality assumption and the actual customs statistics-in the same framework, we evaluate the quantitative differences when the proportionality assumption is addressed. By computing MF for 23 aggregated resources across 30 Chinese provinces, our results show for countries with large material flows like China, estimating subnational-level international trade by proportionality assumption may lead to significant differences in material flows at both the disaggregated and aggregated levels. An important follow-up question is whether these differences are also relevant for other footprints.

Provincial and sector-level material footprints in China.

High-income countries often outsource material demands to poorer countries along with the associated environmental damage. This phenomenon can also occur within (large) countries, such as China, which was responsible for 24 to 30% of the global material footprint (MF) between 2007 and 2010. Understanding the distribution and development of China's MF is hence critical for resource efficiency and circular economy ambitions globally. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of China's MF at the provincial and sectoral levels. We combine provincial-level input-output data with sector- and province-specific trade data, detailed material extraction data, and the global input-output database EXIOBASE. We find that some provinces have MFs equivalent to medium-sized, high-income countries and limited evidence of material decoupling. Lower-income regions with high levels of material extraction can have an MF per capita as large as developed provinces due to much higher material intensities. The higher-income south-coastal provinces have lower MF per capita than equally developed provinces. This finding relates partly to differences in economic structure but indicates the potential for improvement across provinces. Investment via capital formation is up to 4 times more resource-intensive than consumption and drives 49 to 86% of provincial-level MFs (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average is 37%). Resource-efficient production, efficient use of capital goods/infrastructure, and circular design are essential for reductions in China's MF. Policy efforts to shift to a high-quality development model may reduce material intensities, preferably while avoiding the further outsourcing of high-intensity activities to other provinces or lower-income countries.

Intratumoral Injection Administration of Irinotecan-Loaded Microspheres: In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation.

To reduce the toxic and side effects of intravenous chemotherapeutic drugs on the tumor-patients, the aims of this study were to design and study intratumor-administrated irinotecan-loaded PLGA microspheres (CPT-11-PLGA-MS) in vitro and in vivo according to the structure characteristics of CPT-11. PLGA microspheres containing irinotecan were prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation method and evaluated in terms of their morphology, particle size analysis, in vitro drug release, drug retention and leakage studies in vivo, and pharmacodynamics studies. The CPT-11-PLGA-MS were spherical with mean size of 9.29 ± 0.02 µm, and average encapsulation efficiency were measured of 77.97 ± 1.26% along with the average drug loading of 7.08 ± 0.11%. DSC results indicated that the drug existed in the phase of uncrystallization in the microspheres. The formulation of CPT-11-PLGA-MS could prolong the in vitro drug release to 16 days following Weibull equation. In CPT-11-PLGA-MS after intratumor injection administration was significantly improved. The results demonstrated that the slow-sustained release of CPT-11-PLGA-MS in tumor tissue after intratumor injection of microspheres can reduce the drug leakage to the circulation system, maintain the drug retention, and improve the therapeutic effect, which could become a promising drug delivery system for CPT-11 and could maintain the most effective concentration at the target site to maximum limit.

[The application of barcode technology in management of high value medical consumables].

This article explores the problems of High Value Medical Consumables Management in hospitals, and introduces not only the procedures of high value medical consumables barcode management system based on the application of barcode technology and advanced management philosophy but also the key concrete implementation points in our hospital. The application of barcode technology in the management of high value medical consumables provides hospitals with a new path to modernization and informationization of high value medical consumables management.

[Mixed logit model and its application in insurance choices of the new rural cooperative medical system].

OBJECTIVE: To apply mixed logit model for analyzing the data of new rural cooperative medical with suitability and identify the factors affecting the residents choices of insurance mode. METHODS: Hypothesis test of IIA was performed using the mogtest module of Stata10.0 to test the eligibility of the condition. The mixed logit model was established to allow the parameters to vary in the population using SAS9.1 MDC module. RESULTS: The data in this study did not satisfy the IIA assumption (P<0.01), so that the multinomial logit model was not applicable. The adjusted Estrella of the mixed logit model was 0.6658. CONCLUSION: The mixed logit approach does not rely on the restrictive IIA assumption and allows for correlation patterns between choices and individual variation. This approach can help in the determination of the choices in new rural cooperative medical system.

[Studies on the polysaccharide SGPS2 from the fruits of Siraitia grosvenorii].

OBJECTIVE: To study the structure of the polysaccharides constituents in the fruits of Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) C. Jeffrey. METHODS: SGPS2 was purified by DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-200 column chromatography, the component and structure of SGPS2 were analyzed on the basis of spectral and chemical studies by HPLC, IR analysis, partial hydrolysis with acid, methylation analysis, GC and 13C-NMR. RESULTS: The molecular weight of SGPS2 was 650 000. Polysaccharide was composed of L- made up of (1 --> 2, 4) linked rhamnose, (1 --> 4) linked rhamnose residues in main chain; and (1 --> 2) linked rhamnose, (1 --> 3) linked rhamnose in side chains. Terminal residues attached main chain to rhamnose. CONCLUSION: SGPS2 was composed of rhamnose and curonic acid.

[Clinical application of medial neurocutaneous flap with perforator vessel in upper arm].

OBJECTIVE: To report the application of medial neurocutaneous flap with perforator vessel in upper arm. METHODS: Based on the perforator vessel of medial deep main blood vessel in upper arm and blood supply of neurocutaneous flap, as well as their interrelation with vascularity of fascia skin, we designed the medial neurocutaneous flap with perforator vessel in upper arm to repair skin defects in shoulder, arm and elbow joint in 5 cases. RESULTS: All the flaps survived completely with primary healing. The patients were followed up for 6-12 months. The contour of flaps and the function of shoulder and elbow joint were satisfactory. CONCLUSION: The neurocutaneous flap has a reliable blood supply and easily performed. It is very desirable for repairing skin defect in upper extremity.