Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 and Variants in Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a physiological state that predisposes women to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, a disease that can cause adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. The severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease is known to vary by viral strain;however, evidence for the effects of this virus in pregnant women has yet to be fully elucidated. In this review, we describe maternal and perinatal outcomes, vaccination, and vertical transmission, among pregnant women infected with the different SARS-CoV-2 variants identified to date. We also summarize existing evidence for maternal and perinatal outcomes in pregnant women with specific information relating to SARS-CoV-2 variants. Our analysis showed that Omicron infection was associated with fewer severe maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes while the Delta variant was associated with worse pregnancy outcomes. Maternal deaths arising from COVID-19 were found to be rare (<1.0%), irrespective of whether the virus was a wild-Type strain or a variant. Severe maternal morbidity was more frequent for the Delta variant (10.3%), followed by the Alpha (4.7%), wild-Type (4.5%), and Omicron (2.9%) variants. The rates of stillbirth were 0.8%, 4.1%, 3.1%, and 2.3%, respectively, in pregnancies infected with the wild-Type strain, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants, respectively. Preterm birth and admission to neonatal intensive care units were more common for cases with the Delta infection (19.0% and 18.62%, respectively), while risks were similar for those infected with the wild-Type (14.7% and 11.2%, respectively), Alpha (14.9% and 13.1%), and Omicron variants (13.2% and 13.8%, respectively). As COVID-19 remains a global pandemic, and new SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge, research relating to the specific impact of new variants on pregnant women needs to be expanded.Copyright © Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

Viral and Host Small RNA Response to SARS-CoV-2 Infection

After two years into the pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it remains unclear how the host RNA interference (RNAi) pathway and host miRNAs regulate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and impact the development of COVID-19. In this study, we profiled small RNAs in SARS-CoV-2-infected human ACE2-expressing HEK293T cells and observed dysregulated host small RNA groups, including specific host miRNAs that are altered in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. By comparing dysregulated miRNAs in different SARS-CoV-2-infected samples, we identified miRNA-210-3p, miRNA-30-5p, and miR-146a/b as key host miRNAs that may be involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, by comparing virally derived small RNAs (vsmRNAs) in different SARS-CoV-2-infected samples, we observed multiple hot spots in the viral genome that are prone to generating vsmRNAs, and their biogenesis can be dependent on the antiviral isoform of Dicer. Moreover, we investigated the biogenesis of a recently identified SARS-CoV-2 viral miRNA encoded by ORF7a and found that it is differentially expressed in different infected cell lines or in the same cell line with different viral doses. Our results demonstrate the involvement of both host small RNAs and vsmRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify these small RNAs as potential targets for anti-COVID-19 therapeutic development. © 2022 by the authors.

A review of different ventilation methods for controlling the transmission of the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic

With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping worldwide, much attention has been paid to infectious viruses. Because of the different sizes of pathogen-carrying droplets exhaled by individuals infected with COVID-19, the influence of gravity and inertia on the droplets varies, which leads to different modes of transmission of the virus. Ventilation changes the air distribution in a room, and affects virus transmission. An appropriate ventilation method that reduces the floating time of viruses and the exposure rate of the human body should be selected. Although previous studies have extensively reviewed methods to reduce the airborne transmission of viruses, research on ventilation methods remain limited. This review aimed to explore a ventilation mode that could ensure the thermal comfort and maintain low exposure and infection rates in the human body. This study investigated the transmission modes of the virus and the importance of particle size. The effects of mixing ventilation, displacement ventilation, impinging jet ventilation, and stratum ventilation on the removal of different particle sizes and applications at various locations were compared. The results of this study can contribute to reducing the indoor virus concentrations during the COVID-19 pandemic. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Identifying Contingency Liability from P3 Contracts Using Rule-Based NLP

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased contractual concerns under contingencies for public- private partnership (P3) projects. Conventional manual contract extraction is time-consuming and error-prone. Devising a method for automatic contract extraction can support contract management in this aspect. This research proposes a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) approach to extracting contingency liabilities allocated between the public sector and the private sector in the contract. The model consists of a domain-specific lexicon developed based on 21 US transportation P3 concession agreements and a set of matching rules to identify target sentences which fall into five classes, namely remedy entitlement, remedy obligation, liability waiver, mitigation, and termination. This automatic process can reduce the time and cost of the contract review process and help identify issues that the contracting parties should consider going forward in drafting new contracts or in amending existing contracts to avoid potential disputes, in response to consequences of contingencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Facing COVID-19 in China and the US: Do we have the same emotions?

COVID-19, a global pandemic, has provided a unique background for examining the commonalities and differences in the rules of public mood change under different cultures. This study used China and the United States as the representative countries of tight and loose cultures, respectively. We constructed an attention index of the pandemic and five emotion indexes of China and the US, respectively, to examine the commonness of human emotional responses to crises and the gradual change law among different types of emotions, and the influence of tight-loose cultures on various kinds of public emotions. The trend data of Baidu Index and Google Trends was collected for a three-step analysis. First, the time series chart of the attention index and public emotion index of the COVID-19 pandemic in the two countries were compared;Second, the Granger causality test was used to analyze the relationship among different types of emotions. Finally, the differences in the proportion of various emotional indexes during the outbreak period between China and the US were compared using the t-test. The results showed that in both countries, fear was the dominant emotion at the beginning of the pandemic, and it was gradually taken over by depression and sadness. We also found that fear and anger can be used to predict sadness and depression in the middle and long term. Moreover, our data showed that the proportion of anger and fear in China was significantly higher than that in the US, while the proportion of sadness in China was significantly lower. The positive emotion index was significantly higher in China than in the US. The results can relatively verify the response to stress at the group level and the psychological characteristics of tight-loose cultures, which to some extent can be used as a general reference for crisis psychological assistance under different cultures. © 2021 IEEE

Assessing the Impact of the Digital Economy on Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Digital transformation in the energy sector is an essential tool for promoting the construction of a clean energy system in the post-COVID-19 era. Under the background of digital China strategy and sustainable energy transformation in the post-COVID-19 era, it is meaningful to investigate the relationship between the digital economy and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) to better drive the development of the digital economy and improve GTFEE. For this purpose, this study estimates deeply the impact of the digital economy on GTFEE by applying ordinary least squares (OLS), panel vector autoregression (PVAR), panel threshold, and mediation effect models based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2006 to 2018. The statistical results indicate that digital economy is conducive to improving GTFEE. Digital economy can significantly contribute to GTFEE by improving economic growth level, urbanization level, R&D investment, and human capital. The most interesting finding was that there is also a non-linear relationship between digital economy and GTFEE. The effect of digital economy on GTFEE is shown to be first promoted and then inhibited as digital economy level continues to increase. Further, the positive impact of the digital economy on GTFEE is strengthened with increasing levels of economic growth, urbanization, R&D input, and human capital. Finally, A positive correlation was found between digital economy and GTFEE in the eastern and central regions, but insignificantly in other regions.

From “villages of longevity” to “villages of cancer”? The emotional geography of tourism development in Bama, China

Studies on residents' attitudes toward tourism development either assume that residents are unemotional “homo economics” or frame their emotions as forming rigid patterns. Following emotional approach, this study on Bama in China argues that residents' emotions toward tourism development and its environmental impacts are dynamic and ambivalent. Qualitative methods such as semi-structured interview and observation were used to collect data. The results show that during tourism development, interactions with outsiders encouraged the residents to realize the symbolic healing effects of their living environment and develop feelings of amazement and pride. However, continuous development had negative effects on the physical and symbolic environments, which induced complex emotional responses in the residents, including dislike, dissatisfaction, tolerance, anger, and fear. However, in this wealth-building stage, the residents’ ecological grief is compensated by economic growth and has not evolved to resisting actions against development. The emotional ambivalence between eagerness to economic prosperity and concern of ecological loss still exists in Bama and was enhanced in the shutdown of tourism caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research should explore whether, and how ecological concerns about a tourism location may override potential economic gains and encompass anti-development actions. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Medicinal chemistry strategies in seeking coronavirus inhibitors

The epidemic caused by coronavirus poses a serious threat to human health, but there is no specific drug or vaccine for the treatment of this kind of virus infection. Herein, this article selects typical case studies in recent years and reviews the medicinal chemistry strategies of anti-SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and other coronavirus drugs from the perspective of medicinal chemistry, and tries to provide some clues to current drug research against-SARS-CoV-2.