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Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide and causes high mortality of elderly patients. High-flow nasal cannula therapy (HFNC) is an oxygen delivery method for severely ill patients. We retrospectively analyzed the course of illness and outcomes in 110 elderly COVID-19 patients (≥65 years) treated with HFNC from 6 hospitals. 38 patients received HFNC (200 mmHg < PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 300 mmHg, early HFNC group), and 72 patients received HFNC (100 mmHg < PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 200 mmHg, late HFNC group). There were no significant differences of sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores and APECH II scores between early and late HFNC group on admission. Compared with the late HFNC group, patients in the early HFNC group had a lower likelihood of developing severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), longer time from illness onset to severe ARDS and shorter duration of viral shedding after illness onset, as well as shorter lengths of ICU and hospital stay. 24 patients died during hospitalization, of whom 22 deaths (30.6%) were in the late HFNC group and 2 (5.3%) in the early HFNC group. The present study suggested that the outcomes were better in severely ill elderly patients with COVID-19 receiving early compared to late HFNC.

AbstractCoronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide. High-flow nasal cannula therapy (HFNC) is a major oxygen supporting therapy for severely ill patients, but information regarding the timing of HFNC application is scarce, especially in elderly patients. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 110 elderly patients (≥65 years) who received HFNC from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, People’s Hospital of Xiantao City and Chinese Medicine Hospital of Shishou City in Hubei Province, China, and from Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, People’s Hospital of Yangjiang City, People’s Hospital of Maoming City in Guangdong Province, China.Of the 110 patients, the median age was 71 years (IQR, 68-78) and 59.1% was male. Thirty-eight patients received HFNC when 200 mmHg < PO2/FiO2 ≤ 300 mmHg (early HFNC group), and 72 patients received HFNC treatment when 100 mmHg < PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 200 mmHg (late HFNC group). Compared with the late HFNC group, patients in the early HFNC group had a lower likelihood of developing severe ARDS, longer time from illness onset to severe ARDS and shorter duration of viral shedding after illness onset, as well as shorter lengths of ICU and hospital stay. Twenty-four patients died during hospitalization, of whom 22 deaths (30.6%) were in the late HFNC group and 2(5.3%) in the early HFNC group. It is concluded that the Prognosis was better in severely ill elderly patients with COVID-19 receiving early compared to late HFNC. This suggests HFNC could be considered early in this disease process.

Flour is an essential ingredient in human daily diet, thus it is crucial to measure its moisture content. However, current detection methods are time‐consuming and labor‐intensive, hindering quick measurement. Here we demonstrate the measurement of moisture content in flour via gas in the scattering media absorption spectroscopy (GASMAS) technique. A compact sensor that includes distributed feedback laser driver, cuvette, photodetector, analog lock‐in amplifier, and analysis processing module is developed. We measure the equivalent mean path length of various flour samples, and verify the measurement sensitivity of GASMAS by studying its dependence on moisture content. A linear relationship between path length and moisture content is established by least‐squares curve fitting, corresponding to a correlation coefficient of 0.996. Compared to the drying method, our method shows a maximum error range of 6.1% for all samples, providing a highly accurate and reliable measurement of water content in flour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temperature measurement of Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a crucial parameter for accurately determining its concentration, particularly in high‐temperature environment. Herein, it is realized by using three different techniques, which are direct absorption spectroscopy, wavelength modulation spectroscopy and non‐calibration wavelength modulation spectroscopy based on the bispectral lines temperature measurement method. The bispectral lines of SO2 locates at 1396.844 and 1396.921 cm−1, respectively. The gas temperature in the absorption cell was also measured with K‐type thermocouple and compared with these three spectral measurements. The linearities corresponding to these three techniques are 99.71%, 99.8%, and 99.88%, respectively. Their average relative error between the spectral measurement results and the linear fitting value of the three techniques is 1.15%, 0.86%, and 0.57%, respectively. It is illustrated the feasibility of the bispectral lines method for high‐temperature measurement. These investigations provide methods for temperature measurement in high‐temperature coal‐fired boilers, potentially for investigating other sulfide gas molecules such as SO3 and H2S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squeezing transformation as an essential component of quantum information processing, gives rise to the possibility to perform various tasks such as distributed quantum computation and the quantum‐logic gate. However, the reported squeezing gate with best performance so far is realized with low success probability, while the performance of the deterministic ones is currently circumscribed by the limited squeezing degree of the nonclassical ancilla. To address this issue, a new scheme of deterministic and universal quantum squeezing gate with the property of nonlocal operation owing to the teleportation‐like protocol is developed and demonstrated. A high‐fidelity squeezing operation, even when the level of target squeezing being up to 10 dB, is demonstrated where a squeezed state with nonclassical noise reduction of 6.5 dB is directly observed. Moreover, a high‐fidelity complex operation including a Fourier transformation and a phase squeezing gate are performed, exploring the potential of implementing the complex task of quantum information processing with the presented functional unit. The method can be applied to distributed quantum processor, the creation of exotic nonclassical states, and quantum error correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]