Clinically Significant Functional Impairments and Symptoms in COVID-19 Survivors: Empirical Research Quantitative.

Background: COVID-19 survivors may experience complex, distressing and persistent symptoms, referred to as long COVID, lasting months or years after diagnosis. More evidence is needed for effective long COVID screening and management.

Aim: To explore the clinical profile of long COVID and factors associated with its development.

Silver-coated PMMA nanoparticles-on-a-mirror substrates as high-performance SERS sensors for detecting infinitesimal molecules.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology has attracted more and more attention due to its high sensitivity, low water interference, and quick measurement. Constructing high-performance SERS substrates with high sensitivity, uniformity and reproducibility is of great importance to put the SERS technology into practical application. In this paper, we report a simple fabrication process to construct dense silver-coated PMMA nanoparticles-on-a-mirror SRES substrates.

Stress coping and resilience of frontline nurses under the emergency infectious disease pandemic: A latent class analysis.

Aim: This study aimed to classify coping strategies and resilience among nurses caring for COVID-19 patients using latent class analysis (LCA), and to compare variations across these subgroups.

Background: The pandemic of emerging infectious diseases is a traumatic stressor for frontline nurses, potentially leading to compassion fatigue. Effective coping strategies and resilience were essential for managing stress, but their nuanced classification and outcomes remain unclear.

4H-SiC Metalens: Mitigating Thermal Drift Effect in High-Power Laser Irradiation.

Enhancing energy density and efficiency in laser processing hinges on precise beam focusing, yet this often causes severe heat absorption and focus shifts in optical lenses. Traditional cooling methods increase cost and complexity, severely limiting versatility. Here, monolithic silicon carbide (SiC) metalens is introduced, which shows unparalleled thermal stability, integrated with a high-power laser.

Nanostructures/TiN layer/AlO layer/TiN substrate configuration-based high-performance refractory metasurface solar absorber.

Metasurface solar absorber serves as a kind of important component for green energy devices to convert solar electromagnetic waves into thermal energy. In this work, we design a new solar light absorber configuration that incorporates the titanium nitride substrate, aluminum oxide layer, titanium nitride layer, and the topmost refractory nanostructures. The metasurface absorber based on this configuration can achieve an average spectral absorption of over 91% and a total solar radiation absorption of 91.

Exploring the characteristics and antecedents of clinically significant long COVID: A longitudinal cohort study.

Background: A significant number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) survivors are experiencing long COVID, with symptoms lasting beyond three months. While diverse long COVID symptoms are established, there are gaps in understanding its long-term trends, intensity, and risk factors, requiring further investigation.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the long COVID characteristics and associated factors by following COVID-19 survivors for one year post-infection and comparing them with healthy counterparts.

Effectiveness and evolution of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein titers after three doses of COVID-19 vaccination in people with HIV.

Background: Real-world vaccine effectiveness following the third dose of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 remains less investigated among people with HIV (PWH).

Methods: PWH receiving the third dose of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 (either 50- or 100-μg) were enrolled. Participants were followed for 180 days until the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 infection, seroconversion of anti-nucleocapsid IgG, death, or loss to follow-up.

Effect of early dexamethasone on outcomes of COVID-19: A quasi-experimental study using propensity score matching.

Background: The RECOVERY trial demonstrated that the use of dexamethasone is associated with a 36% lower 28-day mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 on invasive mechanical ventilation. Nevertheless, the optimal timing to start dexamethasone remains uncertain.

Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental study at National Taiwan University Hospital (Taipei, Taiwan) using propensity score matching to simulate a randomized controlled trial to receive or not to receive early dexamethasone (6 mg/day) during the first 7 days following the onset of symptoms.

Reversibly reconfigurable GSST metasurface for broadband beam steering and achromatic focusing in the long-wave infrared.

Active optical metasurfaces promise compact, lightweight, and energy-efficient optical systems with unprecedented performance. Chalcogenide phase-change material GeSbSeTe (GSST) has shown tremendous advantages in the design of mid-infrared active metasurfaces. However, most of the GSST-based active metasurfaces can only work efficiently within a narrow frequency range.

[Experience Providing Psychological Care to an HIV-Positive Patient With SARS-CoV-2 Infection].

Infectious diseases are often stigmatized and criminalized because of the way they are transmitted. An experience providing care to a 37-year-old patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who was admitted to a medical center's quarantine ward in July 2021 due to SARS-CoV-2 infection is described in this article. This patient lived with his mother, who was later diagnosed with COVID-19 as well.

Dielectric metalens for miniaturized imaging systems: progress and challenges.

Lightweight, miniaturized optical imaging systems are vastly anticipated in these fields of aerospace exploration, industrial vision, consumer electronics, and medical imaging. However, conventional optical techniques are intricate to downscale as refractive lenses mostly rely on phase accumulation. Metalens, composed of subwavelength nanostructures that locally control light waves, offers a disruptive path for small-scale imaging systems.

Frequency-tunable terahertz angular selectivity based on a dielectric-graphene multilayer structure.

To achieve frequency-tunable angular selectivity at terahertz frequencies, a tunable epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) metamaterial based on a subwavelength dielectric-graphene multilayer structure is designed. The ENZ frequency of the dielectric-graphene multilayer can be dynamically tuned by the gate voltage applied to graphene. Transmittance angular spectra show that only the incident lights close to normal incidence can propagate through the structure while other incident lights cannot, which indicates that our structure can be utilized for frequency-tunable terahertz angular selection.

[Nursing Experience Caring for a COVID-19 Patient With Hearing Loss].

The focus of this article is on a male patient with hearing loss who was diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning to Taiwan from overseas. Due to the severe pneumonia infiltration, the patient received the clinical-trial treatment Remdesivir. In addition to facing the isolation and new-drug-related anxieties of the patient, the medical team faced difficulties in communicating effectively with the patient and in helping him through the isolation period.

Thermal camouflage based on the phase-changing material GST.

Camouflage technology has attracted growing interest for many thermal applications. Previous experimental demonstrations of thermal camouflage technology have not adequately explored the ability to continuously camouflage objects either at varying background temperatures or for wide observation angles. In this study, a thermal camouflage device incorporating the phase-changing material GeSbTe (GST) is experimentally demonstrated.

Circular-polarization-sensitive absorption in refractory metamaterials composed of molybdenum zigzag arrays.

Circularly polarized light (CPL) is utilized in various fields, including optical communication and biological imaging. To overcome the lack of circular-polarization-sensitive absorbers working at high temperature, a refractory and circular-polarization-sensitive absorber comprised of molybdenum zigzag arrays is proposed. At certain resonant wavelengths, one component of circular polarization is absorbed by confining electromagnetic field in the dielectric layer, while the other component is backscattered.

Nonvolatile tunable silicon-carbide-based midinfrared thermal emitter enabled by phase-changing materials.

Polar crystals can enable strong light-matter interaction at an infrared regime and provide many practical applications including thermal emission. However, the dynamic control of thermal emission based on polar crystals remains elusive as the lattice vibrations are solely determined by the crystal structure. Here, a nonvolatile tunable midinfrared thermal emitter enabled by a phase-changing film GeSbTe on silicon carbide polar crystal is demonstrated.

Tunable angle-independent refractive index sensor based on Fano resonance in integrated metal and graphene nanoribbons.

We propose a novel mechanism to construct a tunable and ultracompact refractive index sensor by using the Fano resonance in metal-graphene hybrid nanostructure. Plasmon modes in graphene nanoribbons and waveguide resonance modes in the slits of metal strip array coexist in this system. Strong interference between the two different modes occurs when they are spectrally overlapped, resulting in a Fano-type asymmetrically spectral lineshape which can be used for detecting the variations of ambient refractive index.

Medication-overuse headache in China: clinical profile, and an evaluation of the ICHD-3 beta diagnostic criteria.

Background: Although medication-overuse headache (MOH) is common in China, its clinical profile is not yet fully established. Meanwhile, ICHD-3 beta has been published, but its diagnostic criteria require further validation.

Methods: We retrospectively classified the clinical features of 240 consecutive patients with MOH (55 males, 185 females), whose demographic data, headache features, overused medications (type, quantity, frequency and duration of use), headache-attributed burden, and outcomes were reviewed.

Quantitative measurement of phase variation amplitude of ultrasonic diffraction grating based on diffraction spectral analysis.

A new method based on diffraction spectral analysis is proposed for the quantitative measurement of the phase variation amplitude of an ultrasonic diffraction grating. For a traveling wave, the phase variation amplitude of the grating depends on the intensity of the zeroth- and first-order diffraction waves. By contrast, for a standing wave, this amplitude depends on the intensity of the zeroth-, first-, and second-order diffraction waves.

Higher prevalence of migraine in essential tremor: a case-control study.

Background: The existence of an association between migraine and essential tremor has long been controversial. The prevalence of migraine in essential tremor patients was surveyed to explore the association between the two diseases.

Methods: A case-control clinical study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of migraine in 150 consecutive essential tremor patients and in 150 matched controls without tremor.

Blockade of Nav1.8 currents in nociceptive trigeminal neurons contributes to anti-trigeminovascular nociceptive effect of amitriptyline.

Amitriptyline (AMI), a tricyclic antidepressant, has been widely used to prevent migraine attacks and alleviate other various chronic pain, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Accumulated evidence suggests that the efficacy of AMI is related to the blockade of voltage-gated sodium channels. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of AMI on Na(v)1.

Effects of UCMS-induced depression on nociceptive behaviors induced by electrical stimulation of the dura mater.

The comorbidity between migraine and depression not only provides a major treatment challenge, but also represents a heavy burden on society. However, the relationship between depression and migraine and their molecular biological mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of depression elicited by unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) on trigeminovascular nociception in conscious rats and detected a concentration of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and substance P (SP) in the external jugular vein.

Clinical profile of cluster headaches in China - a clinic-based study.

Background: The clinical profile of cluster headache in Chinese patients have not been fully studied.

Methods: The classification and clinical features of 120 consecutive patients with cluster headache (105 males, 15 females; mean age, 34.9 ± 10.