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Introduction: Telecytology (TC) has been used in rapid onsite evaluation (ROSE) of touch preparations (TPs) from core biopsies and smears from fine-needle aspiration (FNA) procedures. Although TC was established at our institution in 2010, utilization has fluctuated. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of TC for maintaining high-quality patient care with the advantages of minimizing contact with hospital personnel and patients, conserving personal protective equipment (PPE), and saving cytopathologists' time. However, the accuracy of TC compared to on site evaluation by cytopathologists has been a concern. This study aimed to address this question. Material(s) and Method(s): 697 ROSEs were identified from our quality assurance (QA) data base in 2021 (Q2-Q4) including 1) TC;2) onsite cytopathologist (OC);and 3) onsite cytotechnologistonly (OCT). Discrepancy rates between ROSE and final diagnoses were compared between TC and OC groups. A student T-test was performed to determine the statistical significance of the discrepancy rate between TC and OC. Result(s): Results are summarized in Table 1. On average, there were 26% FNA and 74% Cores by TP. The difference in discrepancy rates between TC and OC during the 3 quarters in 2021 is not statistically significant (p=0.5012). The type of discrepancy for TC was all minor while 17% major and 83% minor for OC. Conclusion(s): The value of TC for ROSE was highlighted during the pandemic, allowing cytopathologists to participate in ROSE while minimizing interpersonal contact at procedures, conserving PPE, and saving cytopathologists' time. TC provides as high quality as OC for ROSE service with statistically insignificant minor discrepancies with the final diagnosis. Although pandemic-related restrictions are easing, we anticipate that TC will continue to play a major role in ROSE.
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Chlorine-containing disinfectants have been widely used around the world for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, at present, little is known about the impact of residual chlorine on the soil micro-ecological environment. Herein, we treated an experimental soil-plant-microbiome microcosm system by continuous irrigation with a low concentration of chlorine-containing water, and then analyzed the influence on the soil microbial community using metagenomics. After 14-d continuous chlorine treatment, there were no significant lasting effect on soil microbial community diversity and composition either in the rhizosphere or in bulk soil. Although metabolic functions of the rhizosphere microbial community were affected slightly by continuous chlorine treatment, it recovered to the original status. The abundance of several resistance genes changed by 7 d and recovered by 14 d. According to our results, the chlorine residue resulting from daily disinfection may present a slight long-term effect on plant growth (shoot length and fresh weight) and soil micro-ecology. In general, our study assisted with environmental risk assessments relating to the application ofchlorine-containing disinfectants and minimization of risks to the environment during disease control, such as COVID-19. © 2022, Higher Education Press.
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Restrictions on travel and in-person commercial activities in many countries (e.g., the United States, China, European countries, etc.) due to the global outbreak and rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have severely impacted the global supply chain and subsequently affected freight transportation and logistics. This chapter summarizes the findings from the analysis of truck axle and weight data from existing highway detector infrastructure to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on freight trucking activity. Three aspects of COVID-19 truck impacts were explored: drayage, long and short-haul movements, and payload characteristics. This analysis revealed disparate impacts of this pandemic on freight trucking activity because of local and foreign policies, supply chain bottlenecks, and the dynamic changes in consumer behavior. Due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19, it is not yet possible to distinguish between transient and long-term impacts on freight trucking activity. Nonetheless, a future expansion of the study area and the incorporation of other complementary data sources may provide further insights into the pandemic’s impacts on freight movement. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Besides being a threat to public physical health, COVID-19 may also bring harm to peoples’ mental health as well. This preliminary study aimed to explore how different levels of social exposure might result in different mental health outcomes (e.g., burnout) on frontline metro staff, who guarantee the efficiency and safety of urban transportation. Three positions of frontline metro staff with different levels of social exposure, namely station attendants, train drivers, and maintenance workers. Two waves of cross-sectional studies were conducted at two time points, one was shortly after the lockdown in 2020, the other was 5 months later in July 2020. Results showed that there is no significant difference between stress levels after the lockdown. However, a significant difference was observed in the burnout levels after several months of operation. Staff with more contact with passengers (i.e., station attendants) reported the highest level of burnout. Staff with less contact with passengers (i.e., maintenance workers) reported the lowest level of burnout. A possible explanation of such phenomenon was that higher social exposure during the pandemic may cause more anxiety and fear to be infected as well as more emotional labor to deal with people wearing masks. We also discussed possible methods to improve the well-being of metro staff. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Objective To study the dynamic trajectories of quantitative immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers of hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and reveal the immune process of the organism after infection. Methods The clinical data and quantitative IgG titers at different time points of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital and Guanggu Branch of Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital of Hubei Province from Feb. 5 to Apr. 15, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify the subgroups from time-series data of patients’ antibody titers, and then the clinical characteristics and outcomes were compared among these trajectory groups. Results Totally, 734 patients who met the criteria were included. Three IgG trajectory groups were identified from the antibody data: group 1 (consistently low group, 60 cases［8.17%］), group 2 (moderate group, 38 cases ［5.18%］) and group 3 (high group, 636 cases［86.65%］). The hospitalization days and the virus clearance time of patients in the 3 groups were significantly different (both P＜0.001), those in group 1 were the shortest, while the all-cause mortality and disease deterioration rate had no significant difference in the 3 groups (both P＞0.05). Conclusion Patients with different IgG antibody developmental trajectories may have heterogeneous prognosis and immune process. Patients with consistently higher longitudinal antibody titers may require more medical attention.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide better service to hotel customers during the COVID-19 era. Specifically, this study focuses on understanding the changes in hotel customer satisfaction during the epidemic and formulating effective marketing strategies to satisfy and attract guests. Design/methodology/approach: As the first victim of the COVID-19 virus, China’s hotel industry has been profoundly affected and customer satisfaction and needs have also changed. Taking 105,635 hotel reviews obtained from Tripadvisor.com in Beijing and Shanghai as samples, this study explores the changes in consumer satisfaction by using text-mining methods. Findings: The results suggest that there are significant differences in overall ratings, spatial distribution and ratings of different traveller types before and after the epidemic. Generally, customers have higher “tolerance” and are more inclined to give higher ratings and pay more attention to hotel prevention and control measures to reduce health risks after the COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: This paper proves the changes in customer satisfaction before and after the COVID-19 at the theoretical level and reveals the changes in customer attention through the topic model and provides a basis for guiding hotel managers to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Practical implications: Empirical findings would provide useful insights into tourism management and improve hotel service quality during the COVID-19 epidemic era. Originality/value: This research explores the hotel customer satisfaction in the field of hotel management before COVID-19 and after COVID-19, by using text mining to analyse mandarin online reviews. The results of this study will suggest that the hotel industry should continuously adjust its products and services based on the effective information obtained from customer reviews, so as to realize the activation and revitalization of the hotel industry in the epidemic era. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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With the rapid development of information technology in recent years, learning and teaching approaches are facing profound changes. One of the changes that have come to play an increasingly important role in education is blended learning. Blended learning is a new method of teaching that combines online education with traditional classroom instruction. The new approach not only gives students more flexibility to personalize their learning experience, but also gives teachers chances to have live, interactive, effective, face-to-face instruction with students. This study is a classroom action research. It aims to investigate the effect of problem-based blended learning in undergraduate students' achievement in international economies course. The results of this study show that problem-based blended learning is effective in improving students' achievement scores and developing students' high-order thinking skills. We hope by adopting this new problem-based blended learning method, we can mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 lockdown as much as possible and make the new approach to education to 'the New Normal'. © 2021 IEEE.
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Objectives: In the integrated management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), health education plays an important role and directly affects patients' blood glucose level control, pregnancies, and neonatal outcomes. The rapid growth of the internet has ushered in an era of big data and the rational use of the internet. Meanwhile, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, onsite education has been forced to adapt to online programs, including the health education of GDM. Methods: We developed an innovative mobile application (app) that combines a teaching model of the flipped classroom and GDM management, which allows pregnant women to learn knowledge about GDM and prevent GDM to a certain degree. It turns passive learners into active learners, leads them to preview before class, and takes the lead in the classroom, mobilizing learners' enthusiasm to achieve good teaching results. Results: The implementation of the online gestational diabetes flipped classroom is an innovative attempt in this field. The described approach is especially relevant in the context of the ongoing global pandemic, accelerates knowledge transfer, improves patients' learning motivation, has a health promotion effect, and boosts patients' self-management efficiency. This app can overcome the treatment barriers for those patients that cannot go to the hospital, enhance health promotion efforts, and improve GDM management. Mobile healthcare promotes doctor-patient interaction, facilitates the monitoring of and feedback on conditions, and facilitates the adjustment of patient treatment plans. Conclusions: This model of combining gestational diabetes health education with a mobile app is an exemplary approach now, and it can be promoted to other disciplines.
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We investigate the effect of the governments' responses to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on the returns in the stock market index. Panel data of 20 countries are used spanning January 2 to July 21, 2020, for the dynamic panel model. The results indicate that the overall government response, containment and health, and stringency indices have a significantly positive effect on stock market returns. Specifically, government policy responses of shutting down workplaces, canceling public events, restricting public gatherings and international travel, providing income support, and implementing fiscal measures can increase stock market returns. Our evidence shows that the stock market does not react significantly to government interventions in the health system. We believe that our findings provide valuable information for policymakers and financial investors around the world.
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During the COVID-19, we conducted a questionnaire survey among undergraduates from Zhuhai College of Jilin University to investigate their learning schedules as well as their needs and suggestions. Guided by the student-oriented principle, we explored the online and offline mixed teaching of data structure for better course delivery. By studying elements such as the education ideology, teaching design, design and utilization of online resources, as well as student evaluation of the course, we aimed at integrating online and offline resources for mutual complementation and extending the depth and breadth of the course restricted by limited credit hours to make the course more challenging and higher-order. © 2020 IEEE.
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The research and development of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is being carried out globally. Although vaccine research and development technology has made great progress, the possibility of obtaining a safe and effective vaccine that can control the global epidemic in a short period of time is still low due to the antibody-dependent enhancement effect (ADE) of the vaccine and the mutation of the virus. In the absence of specific treatment for COVID-19, finding other alternative protection schemes has become another treatment idea. Epidemiological studies have found that, in this COVID-19 epidemic, countries with long-term Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination policies have relatively less cases and lower mortality rates than countries without relevant policies. This phenomenon may be related to the "training immunity" effect of BCG. In order to further clarify the preventive and protective effects of BCG vaccine on SARS-CoV-2 infection, a number of clinical trials are underway.
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Supply chain finance plays an important role in alleviating the fund shortage of small and medium-sized enterprises and optimizing the fund flow of supply chain. At present, the development of supply chain finance is facing an important point: The Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) has a wide impact on the global economy, which not only generates the strong demand for supply chain finance, but also brings new uncertainty. At the same time, the accelerated development of Fintech provides more possibilities and tools for supply chain finance model innovation and risk management. This paper summarizes the current situation of supply chain finance from two aspects of practical development and theoretical research, and analyzes its future development trend. First of all, the practical development of supply chain finance is sorted out and divided into four stages for analysis. Secondly, with the help of bibliometrics tools, this paper analyzes and compares English and Chinese literature, and summarizes the theoretical research status from three aspects: Theoretical basis, optimization decision-making and risk management. Finally, there are three development trends of supply chain finance in the future, that is, the formation of healthy network ecosystem is an important basis for the development of supply chain finance, the adoption of modern Fintech enabling is a powerful tool for the development of supply chain finance, and bearing the social responsibility of sustainable development is the long-term goal of supply chain finance development. Meanwhile, it gives five key research issues that deserve attention. © 2020, Editorial Board of Journal of Systems Engineering Society of China. All right reserved.