ABSTRACT
The market for crypto assets has grown rapidly in the last couple of years. Buzzwords like cryptocurrency, Non-fungible tokens (hereinafter "NFTs") and metaverse have gone viral. Celebrities, artists, pop singers, e-commerce platforms, financial institutes, airlines, and many others are selling NFTs featuring their icons. The prices for NFTs are soaring. "The Merge", created by digital artist Pak, was sold at US$91.8 million, purportedly one of the most expensive NFTs to date. Staggering numbers like this are piquing the public's curiosity in NFTs. As the market for crypto assets expands, disputes are rife. Suitable mechanisms for the resolution of crypto asset disputes are therefore indispensable. This paper will address potential disputes associated with crypto assets, especially NFTs and cryptocurrencies. It will discuss what types of disputes are likely to arise from them, whether and how the disputes may differ from the currently known disputes and the dispute resolution mechanisms that are applicable. This paper aims to explore whether arbitration is a suitable resolution mechanism for such disputes, how the new developments in international arbitration can help resolve them efficiently, and the potential for arbitration proceedings to adapt to them.
ABSTRACT
While the microbiome in indoor environments such as hospitals has drawn increasing attention, the transmission routes especially for pathogens in ICUs remain largely unexamined. In this study, we have explored the distinct bacterial communities of ICU compared with Non-ICU in hospital wards. We have then clarified their different transmission patterns by means of microbial source tracking, with results suggesting that bedrail and inside floor were hubs in two wards, respectively. Streptococcus, Staphylococcus were identified as "Transfer-Easy taxa" that were found in both ICU and Non-ICU settings, with potential pathogenicity and cases recorded. We have also detected another 15 pathogenic genera in hospital environment, including Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter, and charted how these pathogenic microorganisms affect patients, demonstrating that there were far more strong routes for pathogens transmitted from environment to patients in ICU. In summary, this work investigates patterns of bacterial transmission in hospital settings, highlights pathogenic genera that are likely to transfer from the environment to humans and cause nosocomial infection, which could provide guidance for healthcare system monitoring and co-infection avoidance.
ABSTRACT
To explore the relationship between social support and sleep quality of community workers in Wuhan during the coronavirus disease 2019 (the COVID-19 infection epidemic), this research constructed a mediating effect model to explore the mediating psychological mechanism of social support influencing sleep quality of front-line community workers. A total of 500 front-line community workers in Wuhan were investigated. We used the perceived social support scale (PSSS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), the perceived stress scale (PSS), and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) to measure social support, psychological resilience, perceived stress and sleep quality. Specifically, the higher the PSQI, the worse the sleep quality. Pearson correlation structural equation model was used to analyze the relationship between these factors. The results showed that: (1) There was a significant negative correlation between social support, psychological resilience, and perceived stress of community workers and PSQI, that means, the higher the level of social support, psychological resilience, and perceived stress, the higher the sleep quality. (2) Social support positively predicted psychological resilience and perceived stress, and perceived stress negatively predicted PSQI. (3) Social support can affect sleep quality through the mediating role of psychological resilience and perceived stress, and the mediating role includes two paths: the single mediating role of perceived stress and the chain mediating role of psychological resilience-perceived stress. (4) Gender moderates the relationship between social support and perceived stress, and the influence of social support on perceived stress of women is higher than that of men. Gender moderates the relationship between psychological resilience and PSQI, and only women's psychological resilience had a negatively predictive effect on PSQI, while men did not, which means that psychological resilience of female frontline community workers can positively predict sleep quality. This research reveals the relationship between social support and sleep quality and its mechanism and verifies that social support can indirectly affect physical health through psychological resilience and perceived stress. It provides reference suggestions and intervention guidance for improving the sleep quality of community workers.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Setting modified-callers-queries (MCQ) was recommended for emergency medical dispatch (EMD) for COVID-19 risks screening during the outbreaks. For out-of-hospital cardiac arrest calls, the adherence to MCQ and its influence to dispatcher-assisted CPR were not known. Materials and methods: A COVID-19-risk MCQ protocol was designed for EMD for safer corresponding response. The three major additional queries included A. The quarantine status of patient/family, B. Patient symptoms (i.e., fever/or respiratory complaints), C. TOCC situations in the recent 14-day period of patient/family including: recent travel (T) to the epidemic regions, occupations (O) with high risk for client contact such as healthcare provider, flight attendant, etc., any close contact (C1) with confirmed COVID-19 patient or person been quarantined, and close contact with a cluster (C2) of people with similar symptoms. The dispatchers’ adherence to the COVID-19-risk MCQ during the outbreaks for EMS calls of non-traumatic OHCA was retrospectively evaluated using audio records. Data were analyzed using Pearson's chi-squared test and Kruskal-Wallis test with SPSS-Version-22. Results: For totally 153 eligible OHCA calls, the adherence to querying were noted for A. quarantine on 44 (28.8%) cases, for B. symptoms on 82 (53.6%), for C. any TOCC on 105 (68.6%) cases – T: 102 (66.7%), O: 31 (20.2%), C1: 71 (46.4%), C2: 26 (17.0%);and completed TOCC on only 14 (9.2%) cases. Completed MCQ (all three A, B, C) were adhered on only 10 (6.5%;[95%CI: 3.6–11.6%]) cases, and 45 (29.4%;[95%CI: 22.8–37.1%]) cases failed to receive any COVID-19-risk MCQ. Eight cases (8/105, 7.6%) inadequately received TOCC queries prior to recognizing patient consciousness. The time intervals (median, IOR) for call-to-chest-compression and total MCQ of those completely queried cases were 290 (206, 334) s. and 52 (22, 94) s. Conclusions: The EMD adherence to COVID-19-risk MCQ would be unsatisfied to achieve under the circumstances of OHCA. MCQ would influence call-to-compression for dispatcher-assisted CPR.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The impact of emerging infections disease pandemic such as COVID-19 on bystander CPR performance is not well known. Materials-and-methods: This was an observational database prospectively collected from National Registry for DACPR (dispatcher-assisted CPR), a continuous quality control for OHCA by audio records analyses of EMS calls. The performance of DACPR before and after the COVID-19 epidemic was compared among four individual EMS systems (three metropolitan and one suburban). The bystander chest compressions (BCC) rate prior to the call, successful delivery of BCC after dispatcher-assisted, and the continuity of CC until hand-over by the paramedics after arrival (HCC) as the categorical indicators, and the operational time interval corresponding to call-to-compression were evaluated and analyzed using Pearson's chi-squared test, Independent t-test, and Kruskal–Wallis test with SPSS Version 22. Results: In a total of 3263 eligible patients from four EMS systems, for patients already receiving BCC prior to the call, though showing a tendency of decrease, there were no significant differences after the epidemics (A: 3.6% vs. 5.7%, p = 0.13;B: 4.5% vs. 6.1%, p = 0.46;C: 6.0% vs. 6.6%, p = 0.71;D: 6.8% vs. 10.7%, p = 0.59;Total: 4.9% vs. 6.4%, p = 0.11). For dispatcher-assisted BCC delivery, a metropolitan (B) significantly decreased and the suburban (D) significantly increased (A: 55.0% vs. 56.1%, p = 0.72;B: 41.8% vs. 52.3%, p = 0.03;C: 60.6% vs. 56.5%, p = 0.19;D: 83.0% vs. 60.2%, p < 0.01;Total: 56.8% vs. 55.6%, p = 0.53). For continuity of HCC, a metropolitan(C) and the suburban (D) both significantly increased as well as the total cases (A: 43.9% vs. 46.4%, p = 0.43;B: 28.5% vs. 31.0%, p = 0.56;C: 54.0% vs. 40.0%, p < 0.01;D: 77.4% vs. 59.3%, p = 0.02;Total: 47.4%vs.41.3%, p < 0.01). For call-to-compression interval, all regions showed a tendency to be faster without significance (A: 185 vs. 189 s, p = 0.8;B: 141 vs. 156 s, p = 0.19;C: 173 vs. 182 s, p = 0.12;D: 156 vs. 171 s, p = 0.27;Total: 164 vs. 172 s, p = 0.19). Conclusions: The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic showed a tendency to decrease BCC prior to dispatcher-assisted, and were significantly varied for dispatcher-assisted BCC among different EMS systems, however the timely BCC would not be delayed. Continuity of BCC even significantly increased under the national continuous auditing.