Is digital transformation a barrier to export reduction during COVID-19? The case of a developing country

This paper investigates the impact of digital transformation on export reduction during COVID-19 by using unique data from Vietnamese manufacturing firms. Digital transformation reflects whether firms had already introduced digital technology before the COVID-19 outbreak or started using digital technology during the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, an export reduction is a partial de-internationalization in which firms decrease overseas sales. Estimation results from the instrumental variable probit method show that digital transformation has a negative effect on the probability of export reduction. This effect becomes particularly strong for micro, small and medium enterprises. Our findings have managerial implications for firm managers. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Usefulness of day-one chest X-ray score for predicting mortality and ICU admission in COVID-19 patients

We aimed to investigate the performance of a chest X-ray (CXR) scoring scale of lung injury in prediction of death and ICU admission among patients with COVID-19 admitted at Vinmec Central Park hospital (HCM City, VN) during the peak epidemic in 2021. X-ray images and clinical data were collected from patients with SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive from July to September 2021. Three radiologists independently assessed the CXR score at admission which is the sum of severity and extent of lung injuries on four lung quadrants (maximum score = 24). Among 219 patients included, 28 died including 25 from 34 patients admitted to the ICU. There was a high consensus for CXR scoring among radiologists (kappa = 0.90;CI95%: 0.89-0.92). CXR score was the strongest predictor of mortality (tdAUC 0.85;CI95%: 0.69-1) within the first 3 weeks after admission. Multivariate model with adjustment for age confirmed a significant effect of increased CXR score on mortality risk (HR = 1.33, CI95%: 1.10 to 1.62). At a threshold of 16 points, the CXR score allows predicting in-hospital mortality and ICU admission with good sensitivity (0.82 (CI95%: 0.78 to 0.87) and 0.86 (CI95%: 0.81 to 0.90)) and specificity (0.89 (CI95%: 0.88 to 0.90) and 0.87 (CI95%: 0.86 to 0.89), respectively). The day-one CXR score is a reliable predictor of the risk of death and ICU admission and could be used to identify high-risk patients in needy countries like Vietnam.

Category-specific EPU indices, macroeconomic variables and stock market return predictability

This paper mainly investigates whether the category-specific EPU indices have predictability for stock market returns. Empirical results show that the content of category-specific EPU can significantly predict the stock market return, no matter the individual category-specific EPU index or the principal component of category -specific EPU indices. In addition, the information of category-specific EPU indices can also have higher eco-nomic gains than traditional macroeconomic variables, even considering the trading cost and different investor risk aversion coefficients. During different forecasting windows, multi-period forecast horizons and the COVID-19 pandemic, we find the information contained in category-specific EPU indices can have better performances than that of the macroeconomic variables. Our paper tries to provide new evidence for stock market returns based on category-specific EPU indices.

Caps-3WD: A three-way diagnostic CapsNet for COVID-19

Pulmonary medical image processing is an effective diagnostic method for COVID-19, and CapsNet-based methods have achieved good performance. However, as cost-blind methods, these diagnostic methods only consider immediate and deterministic decisions, which easily lead to misdiagnosis and high costs. Therefore, based on a revised CapsNet, we propose a cost-sensitive three-way decision (3WD) method for COVID-19 diagnosis, named as Caps-3WD. To enhance the feature extraction ability for pneumonia areas, we introduce a Restage module to improve convolution layer of the original CapsNet. Further, to lighten the model, we introduce depth wise separable convolution to reconstruct decoder. Additionally, three options are considered in the decision set: infected, normal, and suspected, which are given different costs, respectively. The lowest-cost decision is chosen for each input. In the experimental analysis, we compare Caps-3WD with CNN-based and CapsNet-based methods on COVID-CXR dataset, which proves the effectiveness of 3WD and the superiority of Caps-3WD in COVID-19 diagnosis. © 2022 SPIE. Downloading of the is permitted for personal use only.

Collection and quality characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 convalescent plasma

Objective To explore the application and safety of apheresis technology in collection of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) convalescent plasma (CP), and to analyze the quality characteristics of the plasma. Methods The general data of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CP) donors, including gender, age, date of discharge or release from medical isolation, were collected based on informed consent. After physical examination, the CP was collected by apheresis technology with plasma separator, inactivated with methylene blue, and determined for severe acute respiratory symptom Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid and specific antibody (RBD-IgG) against SARS-CoV-2. Results The collection process went well, and no serious adverse events related to plasma collection were reported during or after the collection. The average age of COVID-19 CP donors was 38 years (n = 933). The distributions of blood groups A, B, AB and 0 in RhD (+) COVID-19 CP were 33. 4%, 29. 2%, 10% and 27. 2% respectively. The plasma donation date was 18 d from the discharge date in average. All the test results of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in CP were negative, while the proportion of plasma samples at SARS-CoV-2 antibody titer of more than 1: 160 was 92. 60%. Conclusion Apheresis technology was safe and reliable. The COVID-19 CP contained high titer antibody. Large-scale collection and preparation of inactivated plasma against SARS-CoV-2 played an important role in the treatment of COVID-19.

Identification of public opinion on COVID-19 in microblogs

The development trend of public opinion on the Internet plays a very important role in social stability. During the outbreak of the Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19), all kinds of information flooded the cyberspace, increasing social instability. Timely understanding of online public opinion is therefore of great use to the government in easing social tensions. In this paper, we try to analyze the characteristics of hot topics on the Internet and give some advices for the government to effectively guide public opinion. The comment texts of the crisis events reported by mainstream Chinese media People's Daily during the novel coronavirus pneumonia were selected on Microblog first, a total of 40, 241 comments. The collected comment texts were subjected to word frequencies statistics, and then the LDA topic model was used to find out hot topics in the comments by the public, which were divided into six topics. The characteristics of six different hot topics are analyzed at last. © 2021 IEEE.

Clinical Determinants Differentiating the Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Cancer Patients: Hospital Care or Home Recovery.

Background: Cancer patients may carry a worse prognosis with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of the previous studies described the outcomes of hospitalized cancer patients. We aimed to study the clinical factors differentiating patients requiring hospital care vs. home recovery, and the trajectory of their anti-cancer treatment. Methods: This study was conducted in a community cancer center in New York City. Eligible patients were those who had cancer history and were diagnosed of SARS-CoV-2 infection between March 1 and May 30, 2020, with confirmatory SARs-CoV-2 virus test or antibody test. Four groups were constructed: (A) hospitalized and survived, (B) hospitalized requiring intubation and/or deceased, (C) non-hospitalized, asymptomatic, with suspicious CT image findings, close exposure, or positive antibody test, and (D) non-hospitalized and symptomatic. Results: One hundred and six patients were included in the analysis. Thirty-five patients (33.0%) required hospitalization and 13 (12.3%) died. Thirty (28.3%) patients were asymptomatic and 41 (38.7%) were symptomatic and recovered at home. Comparing to patients who recovered at home, hospitalized patients were composed of older patients (median age 71 vs. 63 years old, p = 0.000299), more who received negative impact treatment (62.9 vs. 32.4%, p = 0.0036) that mostly represented myelosuppressive chemotherapy (45.7 vs. 23.9%, p = 0.0275), and more patients with poorer baseline performance status (PS ≥ 2 25.7 vs. 2.8%, p = 0.0007). Hypoxemia (35% in group A vs. 73.3% in group B, p = 0.0271) at presentation was significant to predict mortality in hospitalized patients. The median cumulative hospital stay for discharged patients was 16 days (range 5-60). The median duration of persistent positivity of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was 28 days (range 10-86). About 52.9% of patients who survived hospitalization and required anti-cancer treatment reinitiated therapy. Ninety-two percent of the asymptomatic patients and 51.7% of the symptomatic patients who recovered at home continued treatment on schedule and almost all reinitiated treatment after recovery. Conclusions: Cancer patients may have a more severe status of SARS-CoV-2 infection after receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy. Avoidance should be considered in older patients with poor performance status. More than two thirds of patients exhibit minimal to moderate symptoms, and many of them can continue or restart their anti-cancer treatment upon recovery.

Chemotherapy Treatment Modifications During the COVID-19 Outbreak at a Community Cancer Center in New York City.

PURPOSE: As a result of their immunocompromised status associated with disease and treatment, patients with cancer face a profound threat for higher rates of complications and mortality if they contract the coronavirus disease 2019 infection. Medical oncology communities have developed treatment modifications to balance the risk of contracting the virus with the benefit of improving cancer-related outcomes. METHODS: We systemically examined our community cancer center database to display patterns of change and to unveil factors that have been considered with each decision. We studied a cohort of 282 patients receiving treatment and found that 159 patients (56.4%) had treatment modifications. RESULTS: The incidence of treatment modification was observed in patients undergoing adjuvant and neoadjuvant (41.4%), palliative (62.9%), or injectable endocrine or bone-modulating only (76.0%) treatments. Modifications were applied to regimens with myelosuppressive (56.5%), immunosuppressive (69.2%), and immunomodulating (61.5%) potentials. These modifications also affected intravenous (54.9%) and subcutaneous injectable treatments (62.5%) more than oral treatments (15.8%). Treatment modifications in 112 patients (70.4%) were recommended by providers, and 47 (29.6%) were initiated by patients. The most common strategy of modification was to skip or postpone a scheduled treatment (49%). Among treatment with no modifications, treatment regimens were maintained in patients who tolerated treatment well (37.0%), in treatments with curative intent (22%), and in symptomatic patients who required treatment (14%). CONCLUSION: Our observation and analysis suggested that the primary goal of treatment modification was to decrease potential exposure. The pattern also reflected the negative impact of the pandemic on health care providers who initiated these changes. Providers have to consider individualized recommendations incorporating multiple factors, such as tolerance, potential toxicity, treatment nature and route, and disease severity.

Defining heart disease risk for death in COVID-19 infection.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) was in common in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and associated with unfavorable outcomes. We aimed to compare the clinical observations and outcomes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected patients with or without CVD. METHODS: Patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were clinically evaluated at Wuhan Seventh People's Hospital, Wuhan, China, from 23 January to 14 March 2020. Demographic data, laboratory findings, comorbidities, treatments and outcomes were collected and analyzed in COVID-19 patients with and without CVD. RESULTS: Among 596 patients with COVID-19, 215 (36.1%) of them with CVD. Compared with patients without CVD, these patients were significantly older (66 vs. 52 years) and had higher proportion of men (52.5% vs. 43.8%). Complications in the course of disease were more common in patients with CVD, included acute respiratory distress syndrome (22.8% vs. 8.1%), malignant arrhythmias (3.7% vs. 1.0%) including ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation, acute coagulopathy(7.9% vs. 1.8%) and acute kidney injury (11.6% vs. 3.4%). The rate of glucocorticoid therapy (36.7% vs. 25.5%), Vitamin C (23.3% vs. 11.8%), mechanical ventilation (21.9% vs. 7.6%), intensive care unit admission (12.6% vs. 3.7%) and mortality (16.7% vs. 4.7%) were higher in patients with CVD (both P < 0.05). The multivariable Cox regression models showed that older age (≥65 years old) (HR 3.165, 95% CI 1.722-5.817) and patients with CVD (HR 2.166, 95% CI 1.189-3.948) were independent risk factors for death. CONCLUSIONS: CVD are independent risk factors for COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 patients with CVD were more severe and had higher mortality rate, early intervention and vigilance should be taken.