Investigating the serial psychological processes of workplace COVID-19 infection risk and employees' performance.

Drawing on concepts from conservation of resources theory, this study examines the effects of perceived workplace COVID-19 infection risk on employees' in-role (i.e., task), extra-role (i.e., OCBs: organizational citizenship behaviors), and creative performance via three mediators, namely, uncertainty, self-control, and psychological capital (i.e., PsyCap), and the moderation of leaders' safety commitment. Three sets of surveys were collected from 445 employees and 115 supervisors working in various industries during the 2021 COVID-19 (Alpha and Delta variants) outbreak in Taiwan, when vaccinations were not yet readily available. The Bayesian multilevel results reveal that COVID-19 infection risk (Time 1) is negatively associated with creativity (Time 3) as well as supervisor-rated task performance and OCBs (Time 3) via PsyCap. Additionally, the relationship between COVID-19 infection risk and creativity is mediated by the serial psychological processes of uncertainty (Time 2), self-control (Time 2), and PsyCap (Time 3). Furthermore, supervisors' safety commitment marginally moderates the relationships between uncertainty and self-control and between self-control and PsyCap. Conditional indirect results show that the effect of uncertainty on PsyCap via self-control is significant for supervisors with high-level safety commitment, and the effect of self-control on creative performance via PsyCap is significant for supervisors with both high- and low-level safety commitment. In summary, workplace COVID-19 infection risk stimulates a tandem psychological process and impairs employees' work-related performance; PsyCap plays a dominant role in this context. Leaders may prevent similar negative impacts by committing to ensuring workplace security to compensate for employees' resource loss when facing future crises or threats. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04583-4.

The clinical and virological features of two children's coinfections with human adenovirus type 7 and human coronavirus-229E virus

Objective Human adenovirus (HAdV) coinfection with other respiratory viruses is common, but adenovirus infection combined with human coronavirus-229E (HCoV-229E) is very rare. Study design and setting Clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, and disease severity were compared between three groups: one coinfected with HAdV-Ad7 and HCoV-229E, one infected only with adenovirus (mono-adenovirus), and one infected only with HCoV-229E (mono-HCoV-229E). Results From July to August 2019, there were 24 hospitalized children: two were coinfected with HAdV-Ad7 and HCoV-229E, and 21 were infected with a single adenovirus infection. Finally, one 14-year-old boy presented with a high fever, but tested negative for HAdV-Ad7 and HCoV-229E. Additionally, three adult asymptotic cases with HCoV-229E were screened. No significant difference in age was found in the coinfection and mono-adenovirus groups (11 vs. 8 years, p = 0.332). Both groups had the same incubation period (2.5 vs. 3 days, p = 0.8302), fever duration (2.5 vs. 2.9 days, p = 0.5062), and length of hospital stay (7 vs. 6.76 days, p = 0.640). No obvious differences were found in viral loads between the coinfection and mono-adenovirus groups (25.4 vs. 23.7, p = 0.570), or in the coinfection and mono-HCoV-229E groups (32.9 vs. 30.06, p = 0.067). All cases recovered and were discharged from the hospital. Conclusion HAdV-Ad7 and HCoV-229E coinfection in healthy children may not increase the clinical severity or prolong the clinical course. The specific interaction mechanism between the viruses requires further study.

Genome-wide analysis of protein-protein interactions and involvement of viral proteins in SARS-CoV-2 replication (preprint)

Analysis of viral protein-protein interactions is an essential step to uncover the viral protein functions and the molecular mechanism for the assembly of a viral protein complex. We employed a mammalian two-hybrid system to screen all the viral proteins of SARS-CoV-2 for the protein-protein interactions. Our study detected 48 interactions, 14 of which were firstly reported here. Unlike Nsp1 of SARS-CoV, Nsp1 of SARS-CoV-2 has the most interacting partners among all the viral proteins and likely functions as a hub for the viral proteins. Five self-interactions were confirmed, and five interactions, Nsp1/Nsp3.1, Nsp3.1/N, Nsp3.2/Nsp12, Nsp10/Nsp14, and Nsp10/Nsp16, were determined to be positive bidirectionally. Using the replicon reporter system of SARS-CoV-2, we screened all viral proteins for their impacts on the viral replication and revealed Nsp3.1, the N-terminus of Nsp3, significantly inhibited the replicon reporter gene expression. We found Nsp3 interacted with N through its acidic region at N-terminus, while N interacted with Nsp3 through its NTD, which is rich in the basic amino acids. Furthermore, using purified truncated N and Nsp3 proteins, we determined the direct interactions between Nsp3 and N protein. In summary, our findings provided a basis for understanding the functions of coronavirus proteins and supported the potential of interactions as the target for antiviral drug development.

Evolving Epidemiology and Impact of Non-pharmaceutical Interventions on the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China (preprint)

BACKGROUND We described the epidemiological features of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak, and evaluated the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the epidemic in Wuhan, China. METHODS Individual-level data on 25,961 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases reported through February 18, 2020 were extracted from the municipal Notifiable Disease Report System. Based on key events and interventions, we divided the epidemic into four periods: before January 11, January 11-22, January 23 - February 1, and February 2-18. We compared epidemiological characteristics across periods and different demographic groups. We developed a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered model to study the epidemic and evaluate the impact of interventions. RESULTS The median age of the cases was 57 years and 50.3% were women. The attack rate peaked in the third period and substantially declined afterwards across geographic regions, sex and age groups, except for children (age <20) whose attack rate continued to increase. Healthcare workers and elderly people had higher attack rates and severity risk increased with age. The effective reproductive number dropped from 3.86 (95% credible interval 3.74 to 3.97) before interventions to 0.32 (0.28 to 0.37) post interventions. The interventions were estimated to prevent 94.5% (93.7 to 95.2%) infections till February 18. We found that at least 59% of infected cases were unascertained in Wuhan, potentially including asymptomatic and mild-symptomatic cases. CONCLUSIONS Considerable countermeasures have effectively controlled the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. Special efforts are needed to protect vulnerable populations, including healthcare workers, elderly and children. Estimation of unascertained cases has important implications on continuing surveillance and interventions.