Flexible Scheduling Model of Bus Services between Venues of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games

Traditional buses travel on fixed routes and areas, which cannot satisfy the flexible demands of athletes in the context of COVID-19 and the closed-loop traffic management policy during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games (BWOG). This study predicts the travel demands based on the characteristics of athletes' daily travel demands and then presents a flexible bus service scheduling model for cross-region scheduling among Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou to provide high-level service. The flexible bus service is point-to-point and avoids unnecessary contact, which reduces the risk of spreading COVID-19 and ensures athletes' safety. In this study, the flexible bus scheduling model is established to optimize scheduling schemes, whose object is to minimize the cost of the system based on some realistic constraints. These constraints consider not only the preferred time windows of athletes' demand but also the vehicle's capacity, depot, minimum load factor, total demands, etc. In addition, a genetic-simulated annealing hybrid algorithm (GSAHA) is designed to solve the model based on the characteristics of the genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing. To assess the feasibility and efficiency of the model and algorithm, a case study is conducted in the Beijing-Yanqing area. Furthermore, the travel time of the flexible bus is compared to that of the traditional bus, according to the results of the case study. Moreover, the sensitivity of the model and algorithm are analyzed. The experimental results show that the proposed model and algorithm can dispatch buses with superior flexibility and high-level services during the BWOG. [ FROM AUTHOR]

A non-ACE2 competing human single-domain antibody confers broad neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 and circulating variants.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has heavily burdened the global public health system and may keep simmering for years. The frequent emergence of immune escape variants have spurred the search for prophylactic vaccines and therapeutic antibodies that confer broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Here we show that the bivalency of an affinity maturated fully human single-domain antibody (n3113.1-Fc) exhibits exquisite neutralizing potency against SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, and confers effective prophylactic and therapeutic protection against authentic SARS-CoV-2 in the host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) humanized mice. The crystal structure of n3113 in complex with the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2, combined with the cryo-EM structures of n3113 and spike ecto-domain, reveals that n3113 binds to the side surface of up-state RBD with no competition with ACE2. The binding of n3113 to this novel epitope stabilizes spike in up-state conformations but inhibits SARS-CoV-2 S mediated membrane fusion, expanding our recognition of neutralization by antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Binding assay and pseudovirus neutralization assay show no evasion of recently prevalent SARS-CoV-2 lineages, including Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), and Delta (B.1.617.2) for n3113.1-Fc with Y58L mutation, demonstrating the potential of n3113.1-Fc (Y58L) as a promising candidate for clinical development to treat COVID-19.

Complementary and alternative therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder. While bringing psychologic pain to patients, it also damages their social function, which is a great threat to people's life and health. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies have been used clinically to treat PTSD; however, the selection strategies of different CAM interventions in clinical practice is still uncertain, and the purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of different CAM therapies using systematic review and network meta-analysis. METHODS: According to the strategy, the authors will retrieve a total of 7 electronic databases by June 2020. After a series of screening, the 2 researchers will use Aggregate Data Drug Information System and Stata software to analyze the data extracted from randomized controlled trials of CAM therapies for the PTSD. Finally, the evidence grade of the results will be evaluated. RESULTS: This study will provide a reliable evidence for the selection of CAM therapies for PTSD. CONCLUSION: The results of this study will provide references for evaluating the influence of different CAM therapies for PTSD, and provide decision-making references for clinical research.

Potent binding of 2019 novel coronavirus spike protein by a SARS coronavirus-specific human monoclonal antibody.

The newly identified 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has caused more than 11,900 laboratory-confirmed human infections, including 259 deaths, posing a serious threat to human health. Currently, however, there is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine. Considering the relatively high identity of receptor-binding domain (RBD) in 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV, it is urgent to assess the cross-reactivity of anti-SARS CoV antibodies with 2019-nCoV spike protein, which could have important implications for rapid development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies against 2019-nCoV. Here, we report for the first time that a SARS-CoV-specific human monoclonal antibody, CR3022, could bind potently with 2019-nCoV RBD (KD of 6.3 nM). The epitope of CR3022 does not overlap with the ACE2 binding site within 2019-nCoV RBD. These results suggest that CR3022 may have the potential to be developed as candidate therapeutics, alone or in combination with other neutralizing antibodies, for the prevention and treatment of 2019-nCoV infections. Interestingly, some of the most potent SARS-CoV-specific neutralizing antibodies (e.g. m396, CR3014) that target the ACE2 binding site of SARS-CoV failed to bind 2019-nCoV spike protein, implying that the difference in the RBD of SARS-CoV and 2019-nCoV has a critical impact for the cross-reactivity of neutralizing antibodies, and that it is still necessary to develop novel monoclonal antibodies that could bind specifically to 2019-nCoV RBD.