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This work describes a novel methodology for unequivocal identification of chemical constituents in Zhimu-Baihe herb-pair (ZMBHHP). Compounds were removed from ZMBHHP by ultrasonic extraction with 70% ethanol, and then analyzed by fast high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS). The accurate-mass capability of the TOF analyzer allowed reliable confirmation of the identity of the detected compounds, normally with mass errors below 3 ppm in routine analysis. This mass accuracy was sufficient to verify the elemental compositions of the chemical constituents in ZMBHHP. With dynamic adjustment of fragmentor voltage in TOFMS, an efficient ion transmission was achieved to obtain the best sensitivity and abundant fragmentation. By accurate mass measurements for each molecular ion and subsequent fragment ions, a reliable identification and differentiation of 24 saponins, 3 xanthones, 1 anthraquinone and 2 alkaloids was described here, including four groups of isomers. It is concluded that this fast and sensitive HPLC/ESI-TOFMS technique is powerful in qualitative analysis of complex herbal medicines in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, resolving power, time savings and lower solvent consumption. Furthermore, the data gathered in this study may be helpful for understanding the synergistic nature of this herb pair in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and further pharmacokinetic studies of ZMBHHP.

Food selling platforms are facing both challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 outbreak as the enforcement of social distancing protocols has pushed consumers with serious health and safety concerns to shop online. Observing that platforms and their suppliers have adopted blockchain technologies and linked selected information nodes separately to foster consumers’ trust, we establish a game-theoretic model to study the operations decisions and blockchain adoption strategies for a food supply chain consisting of one platform and one supplier. We explore the values and impacts of blockchain on the retailing platform, supplier, and consumers, respectively. An all-win situation is achieved when both members of the supply chain adopt blockchain. We further propose that not all prevalent supply chain contracts can achieve supply chain coordination in the presence of blockchain. In extended studies, we examine the incentives of the supply chain members’ blockchain implementation with consideration of the fixed cost of such adoption, product infection, and tampered information.

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Introduction Early in the epidemic of corona virus disease 2019, the Chinese government recruited a proportion of healthcare workers to support the designated hospital (Huoshenshan Hospital) in Wuhan, China. The majority of front-line medical staff suffered from adverse effects, but their real health status during COVID-19 epidemic was still unknown. The aim of the study was to explore the latent relationship of the physical and mental health of front-line medical staff during this special period. Methods A total of 115 military medical staff were recruited between February 17th and February 29th, 2020 and asked to complete questionnaires assessing socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, self-reported sleep status, fatigue, resilience and anxiety. Results 55 medical staff worked within Intensive Care and 60 worked in Non-intensive Care, the two groups were significantly different in general fatigue, physical fatigue and tenacity (P<0.05). Gender, duration working in Wuhan, current perceived stress level and health status had significant differences in fatigue scores (P<0.05), the current perceived health status (P<0.05) impacted on the resilience and anxiety of participants. The structural equation modeling analysis revealed resilience were negatively associated with fatigue (β=-0.52, P <0.01) and anxiety (β=-0.24, P <0.01), and fatigue had direct association with the physical burden (β=0.65, P <0.01); Fatigue mediated the relationship between resilience and anxiety (β=-0.305, P =0.039) as well as resilience and physical burden (β=-0.276, P =0.02). Conclusion During an explosive pandemic, motivating the effect of protective resilience and taking tailored interventions against fatigue are promising ways to protect the physical and mental health of the front-line medical staff.

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Grit, as a positive psychological trait, could affect the stability of nursing workforce and nurses’ physical and mental health continuously. The Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) with fewer items than the original Grit Scale was widely used to measure individual trait-level grit. However, the psychological properties of Grit-S among Chinese nurses have not been verified. A self-designed sociodemographic questionnaire was used to investigate 709 Chinese nurses in the study, and Grit-S, Big Five Inventory-44, Brief Self-Control Scale, 10-item Connor-Davidson resilience scale, and Task Performance Scale were adopted to collect information of grit, personality, self-control, resilience, and work performance. The confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to verify the psychometric properties of the Grit-S. The results demonstrated that the Grit-S had sound validity and reliability among Chinese nurse samples and had good measurement invariance across nurses in general hospitals and psychiatric hospitals. The results of this study provide confidence in using the grit measurement among Chinese nurse in the future.

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