No Causal Association Between Cholelithiasis and COVID-19: A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study (preprint)

Background: Gallstone diseases and cholecystectomy are possibly associated with the severity of COVID-19 bidirectionally, yet the casual association remains unclear. Method: Applying genome-wide association study summary statistics of primarily European individuals, we utilized 2-sample Mendelian randomization to estimate the bidirectional causal effects of cholelithiasis, cholecystitis and cholecystectomy on three COVID-19 phenotypes: SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 hospitalization and severe COVID-19. Results: Inverse variance weighted Mendelian randomization results from the FinnGen consortium showed that none of cholelithiasis, cholecystitis and cholecystectomy was not causally associated with COVID-19 phenotypes, and vice versa. In addition, other methods including MR-Egger, weighted median, weight mode and simple mode exhibited approximate tendency as IVW. These results were all robust to sensitivity analysis. Conclusion:  The forward MR analysis showed no causally significant impact of cholelithiasis, cholecystitis and cholecystectomy on COVID-19 phenotypes. Similarly, reverse MR results also showed no causal association between COVID-19 and cholelithiasis events.

Green bonds' liquidity in COVID-19 and low carbon investments in China: A stochastic trend analysis.

Central banks and regulators increasingly consider climate-related financial risks (CRFR) relevant to their responsibilities for maintaining financial stability and using daily data from 2016 to 2021 for China. Specifically, we used the S&P Green Bond Price Index, the Solactive Global Solar Price Index, the Solactive Global Wind Price Index, and the S&P Global Clean Energy and Carbon Price Index as our data set. We use the TVP-VAR method to probe return spillovers and interconnectedness. We test several portfolio strategies, including the minimum variance portfolio, the minimum correlation portfolio, and the more recent minimum connectedness portfolio. However, the evolving policy structure for dealing with CRFR has generally focused on market-based solutions that attempt to address perceived data gaps that preclude the appropriate pricing of CRFR, even though CRFR is thought to have certain distinctive features. Disclosure and openness fall within this category. We propose limiting the approach's influence since CRFR is characterized by extreme attainability. A 'precautionary' financial policy option is presented as an alternative, providing a conceptual foundation for justifying more aggressive financial policy intervention in the present to better cope with these long-term dangers.

Assessing the nexus between COVID-19 pandemic-driven economic crisis and economic policy: lesson learned and challenges.

This study examines China's budgetary policy during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of China's insufficient ability to deal with a new crisis when the epidemic struck in March 2020 and as a result of the economic crisis that began in China in March 2020. In order to better comprehend China's economic status during COVID-19, the study relies on secondary data. The fiscal response of emerging market economies like India is less than in advanced economies. However, it is generally considered to be in line with the average for emerging market economies. As a result of the Disaster Management authority imposing a rigorous lockdown, unemployment rose, the trade cycle was interrupted, and manufacturing and service activities were affected. According to the study's findings, China's economic policies, namely its fiscal policy, responded in the years leading up to 2019 by increasing health expenditure, income transfer, welfare payments, subsidies, and reducing short-term unemployment. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, China's government has adopted a number of measures to minimize the damage to the economy. This article also focuses on China's numerous budgetary actions with COVID-19.

Does financial inclusion index and energy performance index co-move?

Financing strategies and energy performance have been extensively studied previously, and researchers frequently overlook the co-movements of integration of financial inclusion and energy performance index in the E7 Context. To address this gap, current research estimates the co-movement between the financial inclusion index and sustainable energy performance index to reflect the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. Our findings show that in E7 economies, China exceeds the other nations in terms of energy performance. With a steady score, Russia is second in the group. Indonesia and Turkey are respectively fourth and fifth, and their total results show excellent prospective performances for sustainability. Mexico and Brazil follow this ranking with bad results and the lowest scores reported in the study results. The study findings are helpful for policy formulation and assessment. The study presented recommendations about financial inclusion and energy management practices in COVID-19 and delivered insights about the energy performance index in E7 economies.

Evaluating economic recovery by measuring the COVID-19 spillover impact on business practices: evidence from Asian markets intermediaries

The COVID-19 outbreak significantly affected the global economy and energy markets. To mitigate the shock, maintain financial market stability, and encourage economic recovery, this study investigates the influence of post-COVID-19 on monetary policy transmission to business practices and financial market indicators for green economic recovery. We utilised 37 Asian markets' panel data from 1 January 2020, through 30 December 2020. The empirical findings demonstrate that the pandemic's emergence impeded monetary policy transmission, business practices, and financial markets. Our empirical contribution is to examine the size, sectoral allocation, and implementation options of three leading countries' (China, Japan, and Thailand) green recovery spending plans, which range significantly. However, this effect mainly affects the medium-and-long-term effects, and short-term spillover effects are primarily unaffected by Asian monetary policy uncertainty. Our findings have significant implications for green economic recovery among market players and regulators in the Asian market.

Studying corporate liquidity and regulatory responses for economic recovery in COVID-19 crises.

Many enterprises across the European Union (EU) have been hampered by the massive spread of COVID-19. It has severely impacted revenues and financial flows, potentially leading to an increase in corporate insolvency. This study investigates the influence of this new coronavirus on the solvency status of businesses in EU Member States. Several stress scenarios were constructed for non-financial listed enterprises. The results reveal a gradual surge in the possibility of default, a rise in loan repayment, and coverage being refused. According to our findings, the solvency profiles of all firms are deteriorating. Industries, such as mining, mass production, and retail, are the most susceptible to a drop in sales income and market capitalization. Before COVID-19, previous research had looked at policy options for maintaining solvency. Our data imply that a tax delay is adequate if there is a slight deterioration in the economic outlook. There should be hybrid assistance through loans and equity for even a slight deterioration in the state of an economy. This research will benefit policymakers, corporate executives, and creditors.

Asymmetric impact of pandemics-related uncertainty on CO2 emissions: evidence from top-10 polluted countries.

The recent COVD-19 pandemic has been a major shock, affecting various macroeconomic indicators, including the environmental quality. The question of how the pandemics-related uncertainty will affect the environment is of paramount importance. The study analyzes the asymmetric impact of pandemic uncertainty on CO2 emissions in top-10 polluted economies (China, USA, India, Russia, Germany, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia). Taking panel data from 1996 to 2018, a unique technique, 'Quantile-on-Quantile (QQ)', is employed. CO2 emissions are used as an indicator of environmental quality. The outcomes define how the quantiles of pandemic uncertainty impact the quantiles of carbon emissions asymmetrically by providing an effective paradigm for comprehending the overall dependence framework. The outcomes reveal that pandemic uncertainty promotes environmental quality by lowering CO2 emissions in our sample countries at various quantiles. However, Japan shows mixed findings. The effect of PUN on CO2 is substantially larger in India, Germany, and South Korea and lower in Russia and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the magnitude of asymmetry in the pandemic uncertainty-CO2 emissions association differs by economy, emphasizing that government must pay particular caution and prudence when adopting pandemics-related uncertainty and environmental quality policies.

Compliance with Health Recommendations and Vaccine Hesitancy During the COVID Pandemic in Nine Countries.

Longitudinal data from the Parenting Across Cultures study of children, mothers, and fathers in 12 cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the USA; N = 1331 families) were used to understand predictors of compliance with COVID-19 mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy. Confidence in government responses to the COVID pandemic was also examined as a potential moderator of links between pre-COVID risk factors and compliance with COVID mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy. Greater confidence in government responses to the COVID pandemic was associated with greater compliance with COVID mitigation strategies and less vaccine hesitancy across cultures and reporters. Pre-COVID financial strain and family stress were less consistent predictors of compliance with COVID mitigation strategies and vaccine hesitancy than confidence in government responses to the pandemic. Findings suggest the importance of bolstering confidence in government responses to future human ecosystem disruptions, perhaps through consistent, clear, non-partisan messaging and transparency in acknowledging limitations and admitting mistakes to inspire compliance with government and public health recommendations.

Testing oil price volatility during Covid-19: Global economic impact.

This paper is occasioned by the current events in the crude oil markets throughout the Covid pandemic time. The study analyzes the evolving nature of crude oil cost unpredictability caused by the variations that influence the crude sector throughout the current contagion. Every day's dataset is within the first month of 2020 and December 30, 2021 were measured by applying VAR and GARCH models. The results corroborate that the current contagion has adverse effects on the crude sector, primarily in two ways. It resulted in the headwinds for demand and cut international demand for crude oil, increasing uncertainty for major advanced and developing nations. Next, it resulted in output headwinds as the pandemic caused hydrocarbons conflicts among the leading crude supplying countries. The two headwinds seem to have caused the more than necessary crude unpredictability. Moreover, it was found that the United States output, total requirements, and crude-leaning demand shocks adversely affect the supply unpredictability of the United States and the extractive sectors. The findings depict that crude price instability responded significantly to the contagion caused by crude headwinds. Specifically, the study recorded the effect of uncertainty because of these headwinds beyond financiers' concerns about crude price instability. This study indicates that spillovers do not have meaningful forecast data, igniting critical debates concerning the relevance of the spillover indicator for predicting at minimal sampling occurrence.

Disease Prevalence and Fatality, Life History Strategies, and Behavioral Control of the COVID Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise and raised many questions. One of the questions is whether infectious diseases indeed drive fast life history (LH) as the extent research suggests. This paper challenges this assumption and raises a different perspective. We argue that infectious diseases enact either slower or faster LH strategies and the related disease control behavior depending on disease severity. We tested and supported the theorization based on a sample of 662 adult residents drawn from all 32 provinces and administrative regions of mainland China. The findings help to broaden LH perspectives and to better understand unusual social phenomena arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adolescent Positivity and Future Orientation, Parental Psychological Control, and Young Adult Internalising Behaviours during COVID-19 in Nine Countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many young adults' lives educationally, economically, and personally. This study investigated associations between COVID-19-related disruption and perception of increases in internalising symptoms among young adults and whether these associations were moderated by earlier measures of adolescent positivity and future orientation and parental psychological control. Participants included 1329 adolescents at Time 1, and 810 of those participants as young adults (M age = 20, 50.4% female) at Time 2 from 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Drawing from a larger longitudinal study of adolescent risk taking and young adult competence, this study controlled for earlier levels of internalising symptoms during adolescence in examining these associations. Higher levels of adolescent positivity and future orientation as well as parent psychological control during late adolescence helped protect young adults from sharper perceived increases in anxiety and depression during the first nine months of widespread pandemic lockdowns in all nine countries. Findings are discussed in terms of how families in the 21st century can foster greater resilience during and after adolescence when faced with community-wide stressors, and the results provide new information about how psychological control may play a protective role during times of significant community-wide threats to personal health and welfare.

Digital finance innovation in green manufacturing: a bibliometric approach.

In the era of Industry 4.0, the innovative applications of the industrial internet of things continue to deepen, and the trend of digital transformation of the green manufacturing industry continues to expand. In this context, the study of digital finance innovation in green manufacturing enterprises is conducive to transforming and upgrading enterprises and national economic development. In order to review the theoretical foundations and the current state of research under this topic, this paper provides an overview of digital finance innovation in green manufacturing companies based on 296 papers published between 1900 and 2021 through bibliometric and scientific visualization methods. This paper uses HistCite to identify the most influential authors, institutions, and countries and uncover the lineage of research on digital finance innovation in green manufacturing companies. At the same time, VOSviewer is used to identify research hotspots and research clusters under the topic. Finally, on this basis, this paper classifies the types of digital innovation from the perspective of value creation. It proposes a theoretical framework for the realization path of digital finance innovation in green manufacturing enterprises based on intelligent servitization and orchestration capabilities. The findings of this paper enrich the existing innovation theory and facilitate scholars to conduct future research more effectively.

Pre-pandemic psychological and behavioral predictors of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in nine countries.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents (N = 1,330; Mages = 15 and 16; 50% female), mothers, and fathers from nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, United States) reported on adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, adolescents completed a lab-based task to assess tendency for risk-taking, and adolescents reported on their well-being. During the pandemic, participants (Mage = 20) reported on changes in their internalizing, externalizing, and substance use compared to before the pandemic. Across countries, adolescents' internalizing problems pre-pandemic predicted increased internalizing during the pandemic, and poorer well-being pre-pandemic predicted increased externalizing and substance use during the pandemic. Other relations varied across countries, and some were moderated by confidence in the government's handling of the pandemic, gender, and parents' education.

Slow Life History Strategies and Increases in Externalizing and Internalizing Problems During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is but one of many instances of environmental adversities that have recurred in human history. Biobehavioral resource allocation strategies, known as fast (reproduction-focused) versus slow (development-focused) life history (LH) tradeoff strategies, evolved to deal with environmental challenges such as infectious diseases. Based on 141 young people and their mothers observed prior to (ages 9 and 13) and during (age 20) COVID-19, we investigated longitudinal relations involving slow LH strategies. The results support the adaptive role of slow LH strategies in reducing COVID-related increases in externalizing problems. In addition, the effect of early adversity on COVID-related increases in externalizing was mediated, and the effect on COVID-related increases in internalizing was moderated, by slow LH strategies.

Acceptance of Society-Level and Individual-Level Preventive Measures during the COVID-19 Pandemic among College Students in Three Societies

Drawing from social domain theory, this study examined people?s evaluation of society-level disease-prevention regulations (e.g., school closure) and personal precautions (e.g., wearing a facemask) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, as assessed in Spring, 2020. Participants from three countries (United States [US], China, and Japan;N?=?528) rated their acceptance of a range of society-level and individual-level preventive measures and then indicated their main reasons for these ratings, which were categorized as moral, societal, personal, and prudential based on social domain theory. Consistent with this theoretical framework, we found both similarities and differences across the three societies. Specifically, we found that, across the three societies, moral considerations predicted higher acceptance of society-level preventive measures, whereas personal considerations predicted lower acceptance of both society-level and individual-level preventive measures. However, a stronger link between societal considerations and higher acceptance of society-level preventive measures was found for Chinese participants than for US and Japanese participants.

N-protein presents early in blood, dried blood and saliva during asymptomatic and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an unprecedented impact on societies and economies worldwide. There remains an ongoing need for high-performance SARS-CoV-2 tests which may be broadly deployed for infection monitoring. Here we report a highly sensitive single molecule array (Simoa) immunoassay in development for detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (N-protein) in venous and capillary blood and saliva. In all matrices in the studies conducted to date we observe >98% negative percent agreement and >90% positive percent agreement with molecular testing for days 1-7 in symptomatic, asymptomatic, and pre-symptomatic PCR+ individuals. N-protein load decreases as anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike-IgG increases, and N-protein levels correlate with RT-PCR Ct-values in saliva, and between matched saliva and capillary blood samples. This Simoa SARS-CoV-2 N-protein assay effectively detects SARS-CoV-2 infection via measurement of antigen levels in blood or saliva, using non-invasive, swab-independent collection methods, offering potential for at home and point of care sample collection.

Disease History and Life History Predict Behavioral Control of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

It is puzzling why countries do not all implement stringent behavioral control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 even though preventive behaviors have been proven to be the only effective means to stop the pandemic. We provide a novel evolutionary life history explanation whereby pathogenic and parasitic prevalence represents intrinsic rather than extrinsic mortality risk that drives slower life history strategies and the related disease control motivation in all animals but especially humans. Our theory was tested and supported based on publicly available data involving over 150 countries. Countries having a higher historical prevalence of infectious diseases are found to adopt slower life history strategies that are related to prompter COVID-19 containment actions by the government and greater compliance by the population. Findings could afford governments novel insight into the design of more effective COVID-19 strategies that are based on enhancing a sense of control, vigilance, and compliance in the general population.

Investigation on the psychological status of college students during the coronavirus disease-2019 epidemic.

This study is designed to investigate the mental health status of college students under the current coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and explore potential influential factors. We surveyed 1128 people including 435 medical students and 693 nonmedical students by a self-designed questionnaire containing general demographic characteristics, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale, and Chinese Perceived Stress Scale. SPSS 23.0 software was used for statistical analysis. The incidence of anxiety, depression, and perceived stress were 8.4, 22.7, and 42.9% among college students during the COVID-19, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed that sex, specialty, and Family conflict were all positively associated with SAS, SDS, and CPSS (p<0.05). Stepwise linear retrospective analysis showed that family conflicts and specialty were the influencing factors of SAS, SDS, and CPSS. There were significantly differences between medical students and nonmedical students in the frequency of SDS abnormality score (Z=-4.125, p<0.001) and the frequency of CPSS abnormality (χ2=7.836, p=0.005). According to the results, we can come to the conclusion that college students have different degrees of psychological problems during the COVID-19. Family conflicts and specialty were the influencing factors of anxiety, depression, and perceived stress.

Urine proteome of COVID-19 patients.

The atypical pneumonia (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 is a serious threat to global public health. However, early detection and effective prediction of patients with mild to severe symptoms remain challenging. The proteomic profiling of urine samples from healthy individuals, mild and severe COVID-19 positive patients with comorbidities can be clearly differentiated. Multiple pathways have been compromised after the COVID-19 infection, including the dysregulation of complement activation, platelet degranulation, lipoprotein metabolic process and response to hypoxia. This study demonstrates the COVID-19 pathophysiology related molecular alterations could be detected in the urine and the potential application in auxiliary diagnosis of COVID-19.

Debate: Facing uncertainty with(out) a sense of control - cultural influence on adolescents' response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about healthcare, economic, and psychological crises around the world. The psychological impact on adolescents is likely going to be uneven across different societies, as cultures vary in terms of their dominant learning style that may influence how people cope with uncertainty and perceive their sense of control. We postulate that for adolescents in individualistic cultures where individual learning prevails, their sense of control might be undermined by societal disease-control regulations that restrict personal freedoms, while adolescents' sense of control might increase via participating in societal preventive efforts in collectivistic cultures where social learning is more prevalent. Individual differences regarding one's sense of control would, in turn, have implications for adolescents' short-term adjustments to COVID-19-related challenges and their future development.