ABSTRACT
In December 2019, in Wuhan (Hubei, China), the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) have been reported. On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic. On July 1st, 2021, more than 180 million people had developed the disease, with more than 3.9 million deaths. In Italy, the most updated data show that, among all cases (n= 4.218.979) and deaths (n=125.058) due to COVID-19, 5.5% (n= 231.338) with 11 deaths concern the 0-9 years age group, while 9.6% (n= 406.460) with 15 deaths concern the 10-19 years age group. This review aims to present a comprehensive overview of COVID-19 in children. Copyright © by BIOLIFE, s.a.s.
ABSTRACT
This study aims to use a quantitative analysis to explore the effects of openness to Industry 4.0 on the perceived production recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic, mediated by digital and classical reorganization. Openness to Industry 4.0 is measured by the breadth of the number of technologies adopted. The production recovery is measured by the perception of firms that a return to pre-COVID-19 production levels will happen within either 2021, 2022, or 2023. The study takes a representative sample of 2622 manufacturing small and medium en-terprises across Italy (surveyed between October and November 2020) through a mediation analysis based on nonlinear probability models (KHB method). The results of the models show the following. First, openness to Industry 4.0 has a positive and significant direct effect on a perceived production recovery in the short term (within 2021) and medium term (within 2022 and 2023). Further, this effect is accelerated in the short term by digital reorganization and in the medium term by the addition of a classical reorganization. The research pro-vides relevant managerial implications based on a large sample of current empirical data, showing that Industry 4.0 technologies, when adopted in tandem with the digital reorganization of production activity, can accelerate production recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels.
ABSTRACT
Background: It is known that an increase in the risk of asthma exacerbations (AE) requiring emergency department (ED) presentation is demonstrated in children and adolescents exposed to outdoor pollen. On the other hand, COVID-19 lockdown represented a real-life experiment of pollen avoidance for children affected by pollen allergy. This study aims to test if pollen avoidance prevents asthma exacerbations in children affected by pollen allergy in an ED setting. Method: It is a retrospective study involving all children with a known diagnosis of pollen-allergy asthma who attended our ED for an AE in the town of Mantova and its provincies in the period March 09-May 03 of the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. This period was chosen because it coincided with the Italian COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Results: In 2020, 4 (0.7%) children with a known diagnosis of pollen-allergy accessed the ED for an AE. On the other hand, pediatric access for this specific type of illness was a total of 20 (0.5%) and 12 (0.3%) in 2018 and 2019 in the same period. Specifically, the rate of hospitalization was 0 in 2020 versus 3 (15%) and 1 (8.3%) in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Regarding patients' ongoing treatment, 1 (25%) patient was under asthma maintenance therapy in 2020 versus 3 (15%) and 5 (41.6%) in 2018 and 2019, respectively. In addition: the male/female rate was 50% in 2020 versus 55% and 83.3% in 2018 and 2019, respectively. About median age (years), it was 14.7 in 2020 versus 9.5 and 6.8 in 2018 and 2019, respectively (tab. 1). Conclusion: The inevitable pollen avoidance during COVID-19 lockdown could prevent AE in children affected by pollen allergy. Anyway, further study should be performed to confirm this preliminary experience. (Table Presented).