Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support can be life-saving in critically ill COVID-19 patients. However, there are many complications associated with this procedure, including ...Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT.) Despite its rarity in ECMO cases, HIT can lead to devastating consequences and is difficult to manage.
In this report, we present a case of a COVID-19 patient on ECMO support who was diagnosed with HIT and required intensive treatment. Initially, HIT was only suspected due to newly-developed thrombocytopenia and oxygenator dysfunction, with thrombi observed later. Regarding his treatment, since there was no recommended replacement to heparin available to us at the time of diagnosis, we decided to use rivaroxaban temporarily. No adverse events were recorded during that period. The patient was able to make a full recovery.
HIT may jeopardize patient's care during ECMO. As COVID-19 may bring about a surge in the number of patients requiring ECMO support, we need consented guidance to optimize treatment in this specific situation.
Objectives
While most individuals infected with COVID-19 recover completely within a few weeks, some continue to experience lingering symptoms. This study was conducted to identify and describe the ...clinical and subclinical manifestations of adult patients from the long-term effects of COVID-19.
Methods
The study analyzed 205 medical records of inpatients (age ≥ 16 years, ≥ 4 weeks post-COVID-19 recovery, and a negative SARS-CoV-2 status at enrollment) at Thong Nhat Hospital, Vietnam, from 6 September 2021 to 26 August 2022, using R language software.
Results
The majority of patients hospitalized with long COVID-19 symptoms (92.68%) had normal consciousness. The most common symptoms on admission were fatigue (59.02%), dyspnea (52.68%), and cough (42.93%). In total, 80% of patients observed respiratory symptoms, primarily dyspnea, while 42.44% reported neurological symptoms, with sleep disturbance being the most common. Noticeably, 42.93% of patients experienced respiratory failure in the post-COVID-19 period, resembling acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Discussion
These findings provide crucial insights into the epidemiology, clinical, and subclinical aspects of post-COVID-19 conditions, shedding light on the prevalence of common symptoms and the demographic distribution of affected patients. Understanding these manifestations is vital for patient well-being, improved clinical practice, and targeted healthcare planning, potentially leading to better patient care, management, and future interventions.
Abstract
Background
Little is known about the natural history of asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.
Methods
We conducted a prospective study at a ...quarantine center for coronavirus disease 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We enrolled quarantined people with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)–confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, collecting clinical data, travel and contact history, and saliva at enrollment and daily nasopharyngeal/throat swabs (NTSs) for RT-PCR testing. We compared the natural history and transmission potential of asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals.
Results
Between 10 March and 4 April 2020, 14 000 quarantined people were tested for SARS-CoV-2; 49 were positive. Of these, 30 participated in the study: 13 (43%) never had symptoms and 17 (57%) were symptomatic. Seventeen (57%) participants imported cases. Compared with symptomatic individuals, asymptomatic people were less likely to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 in NTS collected at enrollment (8/13 62% vs 17/17 100%; P = .02). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 20 of 27 (74%) available saliva samples (7 of 11 64% in the asymptomatic group and 13 of 16 81% in the symptomatic group; P = .56). Analysis of RT-PCR positivity probability showed that asymptomatic participants had faster viral clearance than symptomatic participants (P < .001 for difference over the first 19 days). This difference was most pronounced during the first week of follow-up. Two of the asymptomatic individuals appeared to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to 4 contacts.
Conclusions
Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is common and can be detected by analysis of saliva or NTSs. The NTS viral loads fall faster in asymptomatic individuals, but these individuals appear able to transmit the virus to others.
Forty-three percent (13/30) of confirmed SARS-CoV-2–infected individuals were asymptomatic, with the virus detected in both saliva and nasopharyngeal/throat swabs. Viral clearance was faster in asymptomatic individuals, but they still appeared able to pass the infection to others.
Display omitted
•The novel hybrid nanocomposite AuNPs/Lac/Alg were first prepared.•Its structure was well characterized by various analysis techniques.•Recyclable catalytic activity was performed for ...degradation of four pollutants.•The dispersion solution of nanocomposite was used for detection of Fe3+ ions.
This work presents a simply new method for in situ synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using the biodegradable polysaccharides. A novel composite of lactose/alginate (Lac/Alg) could be prepared easily through ionotropic gelation mechanism which can reduce in situ gold ions into AuNPs. Lactose plays a crucial role as a reducing reagent which are demonstrated by FTIR analysis. The crystalline structure of AuNPs with a mean size of 10 nm has been confirmed by analysis techniques. The nanocomposite powder possesses highly catalytic performance for degradation of contaminants including 4-nitrophenol, methyl orange, rhodamine 6 G and rhodamine B. The dispersion solution of AuNPs@Lac/Alg was used as an effective probe for highly selective detection of Fe3+ ions. The detection mechanism replies on the aggregation of nanocomposite in the presence of Fe3+ ions. LOD value was found to be 0.8 μM in a linear range of 2.0–80.0 μM.
Energy Consumption and Bitcoin Market Huynh, Anh Ngoc Quang; Duong, Duy; Burggraf, Tobias ...
Asia-Pacific financial markets,
03/2022, Volume:
29, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This paper is the first empirical paper to study the relationship between Bitcoin energy consumption and its market. Using the variance decompositions in combination with realized semi-variances for ...daily data, we find a relationship between Bitcoin energy consumption and its returns as well as volumes. Additionally, the directional impact from Bitcoin trading volumes to its energy consumption is higher than returns in the long run. The second Bitcoin crash also induces a higher connectedness of energy usage. Finally, we found the predictive power of energy on Bitcoin returns and volume. It holds true for the opposite predictive direction. Our results draw a challenge to the cryptocurrency ecosystems to sustainably innovate to impede their carbon footprint.
A decoupled analytical technique based on the Stokes-Mueller matrix decomposition method extracts polarization properties of human blood plasma, collagen solution, and calfskin. The proposed method ...is applied initially to extract the nine effective optical parameters of human blood plasma samples containing D-glucose powder with concentrations ranging from 0-1 M. The optical rotation angle of circular birefringence (CB) increases linearly with the glucose concentration in human blood plasma samples (r
=0.9782) and in tissue phantom samples (r
=0.9939). Meanwhile, the phase retardance of linear birefringence (LB) increases slightly from 0° to almost 2° as the D-glucose concentration increases. However, for the plasma samples, the optical rotation angle increases by 1.07±0.1 deg for each additional mole of D-glucose, while, for the tissue phantom samples, the optical rotation angle increases by 0.75±0.1 deg. For collagen solutions with concentrations ranging from 0 to 2 mg/mL, a strong linear relationship (r
=0.9936) is observed between the phase retardance of linear birefringence and the collagen concentration. Finally, for the calfskin samples, the linear birefringence reduces exponentially (r
=0.9689) over time following collagenase treatment. Overall, the decoupled analytical model provides a reliable and straightforward technique for detecting the optical properties of laboratory and natural biological samples. As a result, it has significant potential for diagnostic applications and the structural analysis of biological tissues.
Streptococcus suis is a pathogen of major economic significance to the swine industry and is increasingly recognized as an emerging zoonotic agent in Asia. In Vietnam, S. suis is the leading cause of ...bacterial meningitis in adult humans. Zoonotic transmission is most frequently associated with serotype 2 strains and occupational exposure to pigs or consumption of infected pork. To gain insight into the role of pigs for human consumption as a reservoir for zoonotic infection in southern Vietnam, we determined the prevalence and diversity of S. suis carriage in healthy slaughterhouse pigs. Nasopharyngeal tonsils were sampled from pigs at slaughterhouses serving six provinces in southern Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City area from September 2006 to November 2007. Samples were screened by bacterial culture. Isolates of S. suis were serotyped and characterized by multi locus sequence typing (MLST) and pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Antibiotic susceptibility profiles and associated genetic resistance determinants, and the presence of putative virulence factors were determined. 41% (222/542) of pigs carried S. suis of one or multiple serotypes. 8% (45/542) carried S. suis serotype 2 which was the most common serotype found (45/317 strains, 14%). 80% of serotype 2 strains belonged to the MLST clonal complex 1,which was previously associated with meningitis cases in Vietnam and outbreaks of severe disease in China in 1998 and 2005. These strains clustered with representative strains isolated from patients with meningitis in PFGE analysis, and showed similar antimicrobial resistance and virulence factor profiles. Slaughterhouse pigs are a major reservoir of S. suis serotype 2 capable of causing human infection in southern Vietnam. Strict hygiene at processing facilities, and health education programs addressing food safety and proper handling of pork should be encouraged.
The global market of the medicinal plant ginseng is worth billions of dollars. Many ginseng species are threatened in the wild and effective sustainable development initiatives are necessary to ...preserve biodiversity at species and genetic level whilst meeting the demand for medicinal produce. This is also the case of
Panax vietnamensis
Ha & Grushv., an endemic and threatened ginseng species in Vietnam that is locally cultivated at different scales and has been the object of national breeding programs. To investigate the genetic diversity within cultivated and wild populations of
P. vietnamensis
we captured 353 nuclear markers using the Angiosperm-353 probe set. Genetic diversity and population structure were evaluated for 319 individuals of Vietnamese ginseng across its area of distribution and from wild and a varying range of cultivated areas. In total, 319 individuals were sampled. After filtering, 1,181 SNPs were recovered. From the population statistics, we observe high genetic diversity and high genetic flow between populations. This is also supported by the STRUCTURE analysis. The intense gene flow between populations and very low genetic differentiation is observed regardless of the populations' wild or cultivated status. High levels of admixture from two ancestral populations exist in both wild and cultivated samples. The high gene flow between populations can be attributed to ancient and on-going practices of cultivation, which exist in a continuum from understorey, untended breeding to irrigated farm cultivation and to trade and exchange activities. These results highlight the importance of partnering with indigenous peoples and local communities and taking their knowledge into account for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development of plants of high cultural value.
The combination of polarized imaging with artificial intelligence (AI) technology has provided a powerful tool for performing an objective and precise diagnosis in medicine.
An approach is proposed ...for the detection of hepatitis B (HB) virus using a combined Mueller matrix imaging technique and deep learning method.
In the proposed approach, Mueller matrix imaging polarimetry is applied to obtain
Mueller matrix images of 138 HBsAg-containing (positive) serum samples and 136 HBsAg-free (negative) serum samples. The kernel estimation density results show that, of the 16 Mueller matrix elements, elements
and
provide the best discriminatory power between the positive and negative samples.
As a result,
and
are taken as the inputs to five different deep learning models: Xception, VGG16, VGG19, ResNet 50, and ResNet150. It is shown that the optimal classification accuracy (94.5%) is obtained using the VGG19 model with element
as the input.
Overall, the results confirm that the proposed hybrid Mueller matrix imaging and AI framework provides a simple and effective approach for HB virus detection.
Gallium (Ga)-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (GZO-NPs) have been synthesized using a heating-up method. The Ga doping concentration strongly affected the particle size, distribution, and bandgap ...energy of the GZO-NPs. When the Ga concentration was increased from 0% to 5%, the average size of the GZO-NPs decreased from 57 nm to 16 nm while the bandgap increased from 3.14 eV to 3.26 eV. On further increase of the Ga content to 7% and 9%, the particle size increased while the bandgap narrowed. The GZO-NPs synthesized with 5% Ga showed the best uniformity and smallest average diameter of approximately 16 nm. The GZO-NPs with 5% Ga were applied to reduce the mechanical contact between the AgNWs in GZO/silver nanowire (AgNW) composite for application as a transparent conductive electrode, yielding
R
SH
= 18.1 Ω/□,
T
= 77.8% at 550 nm, and
σ
DC
/
σ
Op
= 77.53. These results indicate that such GZO-NPs are a very promising nanocrystalline ink precursor for printing thin films for application in nanocomposite transparent conductive electrodes.
PDF
