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The market for on-demand food delivery (ODFD) has increased considerably, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is crucial for transportation and environmental agencies to understand how ODFD has reshaped the travel patterns of people, affecting vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) as well as pollutant emissions in the transportation system. However, the lack of public data from food delivery companies makes it challenging to quantify the impact of on-demand delivery on the real-world transportation network. In this research, we propose a comprehensive framework to quantify the VMT and emissions incurred by ODFD with three main components: (i) a daily activity generation tool, Comprehensive Econometric Micro-simulator for Daily Activity-travel Patterns, to create a simulation scenario of ODFD behaviors based on a real-world roadway network and population demographics in the City of Riverside, California;(ii) an efficient order dispatching and routing algorithm, adaptive large neighborhood search, to obtain a high quality order dispatching and routing plan;(iii) an emission evaluation model, emission factor (EMFAC), to evaluate pollutant emissions from all dining-related trips. Both short-term and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are evaluated. Experimental results show that ODFD has great potential to reduce the dining-related VMT and emissions. The total dining-related VMT in the during-pandemic case decreased by 38% and in the after-pandemic case reduced by 6% to 9%, and the corresponding environmental impacts were reduced accordingly. Meanwhile, emissions reduced significantly with more electric vehicles involved in food delivery. With 100% electric delivery fleet, the ODFD service can save 14% to 22% of emissions after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains a serious global threat. The metabolic analysis had been successfully applied in the efforts to uncover the pathological mechanisms and biomarkers of disease severity. Here we performed a quasi-targeted metabolomic analysis on 56 COVID-19 patients from Sierra Leone in western Africa, revealing the metabolomic profiles and the association with disease severity, which was confirmed by the targeted metabolomic analysis of 19 pairs of COVID-19 patients. A meta-analysis was performed on published metabolic data of COVID-19 to verify our findings. Of the 596 identified metabolites, 58 showed significant differences between severe and nonsevere groups. The pathway enrichment of these differential metabolites revealed glutamine and glutamate metabolism as the most significant metabolic pathway (Impact = 0.5; -log10P = 1.959). Further targeted metabolic analysis revealed six metabolites with significant intergroup differences, with glutamine/glutamate ratio significantly associated with severe disease, negatively correlated with 10 clinical parameters and positively correlated with SPO2 (rs = 0.442, p = 0.005). Mini meta-analysis indicated elevated glutamate was related to increased risk of COVID-19 infection (pooled odd ratio [OR] = 2.02; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-3.50) and severe COVID-19 (pooled OR = 2.28; 95% CI: 1.14-4.56). In contrast, elevated glutamine related to decreased risk of infection and severe COVID-19, the pooled OR were 0.30 (95% CI: 0.20-0.44), and 0.44 (95% CI: 0.19-0.98), respectively. Glutamine and glutamate metabolism are associated with COVID-19 severity in multiple populations, which might confer potential therapeutic target of COVID-19, especially for severe patients.
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The wide spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly threatened public health. Human herd immunity induced by vaccination is essential to fight the epidemic. Therefore, highly immunogenic and safe vaccines are necessary to control SARS-CoV-2, whose S protein is the antigenic determinant responsible for eliciting antibodies that prevent viral entry and fusion. In this study, we developed a SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine expressing the S protein, named pVAX-S-OP, which was optimized according to the human-origin codon preference and using polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid as an adjuvant. pVAX-S-OP induced specific antibodies and neutralizing antibodies in BALB/c and hACE2 transgenic mice. Furthermore, we observed 1.43-fold higher antibody titers in mice receiving pVAX-S-OP plus adjuvant than in those receiving pVAX-S-OP alone. Interferon gamma production in the pVAX-S-OP-immunized group was 1.58 times (CD3+CD4+IFN-gamma+) and 2.29 times (CD3+CD8+IFN-gamma+) lower than that in the pVAX-S-OP plus adjuvant group but higher than that in the control group. The pVAX-S-OP vaccine was also observed to stimulate a Th1-type immune response. When, hACE2 transgenic mice were challenged with SARS-CoV-2, qPCR detection of N and E genes showed that the viral RNA loads in pVAX-S-OP-immunized mice lung tissues were 104 times and 106 times lower than those of the PBS control group, which shows that the vaccine could reduce the amount of live virus in the lungs of hACE2 mice. In addition, pathological sections showed less lung damage in the pVAX-S-OP-immunized group. Taken together, our results demonstrated that pVAX-S-OP has significant immunogenicity, which provides support for developing SARS-CoV-2 DNA candidate vaccines.
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Background Published studies in comparing pre and post the COVID-19 pandemic depression and anxiety levels among children and adolescents yielded incongruent results. Therefore, there is a necessity to perform a timely meta-analysis to synthesize existing evidence. Methods A total of 10 digital databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus, ScienceDirect, CNKI, WanFang, CQVIP) were fully searched for eligible studies published before November 6, 2021. Based on quality assessment results, relevant data were extracted for eligible studies of higher quality. We combined standardized mean difference (SMD) or prevalence ratio (RR) for anxiety and depression pre and post the COVID-19 pandemic by using random-effects models. Sensitivity analysis was further performed to evaluate heterogeneity of included studies. Results 14,508 articles were preliminarily identified, and after stepwise screening process, 8 articles were included eventually. The results showed that the SMD for post COVID-19 anxiety score measured by GAD-7 was 0.12 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.17), an significant increase compared with pre COVID-19 period;the SMDs and 95% CIs for post COVID-18 depression scores measured by PHQ-9, PHQ-8, and MFQ were 0.17 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.24), 0.23 (95% CI: 0.08, 0.38), and 0.11 (95% CI: 0.06, 0.17), respectively, also significantly increased compared with pre COVID-19 period. The RR for depression was 2.54 (95% CI: 2.48, 2.60) in post COVID-19 period when compared with pre-pandemic. Conclusions Children and adolescents reported deteriorated anxiety and depression levels after the COVID-19 pandemic. More attention should be paid to this vulnerable group. Effective, expedient, and practical intervention measures which are compatible with COVID-19 prevention and control policies should be developed and implemented to maintain mental health wellbeing of the youths.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed and influenced people's attitudes and behaviors toward visiting green spaces. This paper aims to explore the association between residents' health and urban green spaces (UGS) through an in-depth study of changes in residents' use of UGS under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Wuhan East Lake Greenway Park was selected as the location for the field survey and in-depth interviews. At the same time, an online survey was also conducted (total number = 302) regarding participants' physical and mental health and their attitude and behavior toward the UGS. A paired sample t-test and binary logistic regression were performed to investigate the association between participants' health and UGS during COVID-19. The results show that: (1) the COVID-19 pandemic has primarily changed the leisure patterns of parks, with potential impacts on the physical and mental health of participants;(2) the purpose, frequency, timing, and preferred areas of participants' park visits have changed to varying degrees after the pandemic, highlighting the important role and benefits of UGSs;(3) the physical and mental health of participants and urban development issues reflected by UGS use are prominent. This study reveals that awareness of the construction and protection of UGSs is an important prerequisite for ensuring the health of urban residents.
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Objective: This study sought to reveale the psychological characteristics of lung cancer patients at different time points of the COVID-19 epidemic. Methods: : This cross-sectional study used data from two different regional medical centers. 128 pairs of lung cancer (LC) patients and non-lung cancer subjects (NLC) were selected through propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. For the longitudinal study, the anxiety and distress state before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were surveyed through a dedicated questionnaire. Results: : A total of 135 LC patients and 165 healthy individuals were included in this cross-sectional study. After PSM analysis, 128 pairs of LC patients and NLC were matched and compared in this analysis. During the uptrend period of COVID-19 epidemic, there were significant differences in anxiety between LC patients and NLC ( P =0.005). For LC patients, the proportions of severe distress differed significantly between the uptrend and the decline period (22.05% vs 11.90%, P =0.032). In two-way repeated ANOVA analysis, no significant main effect for group or group × condition interaction effect has been founded. The distress of LC patients is mainly manifested as worry. Logistic regression showed that gender (OR=41.48, 95% CI: 9.74-17.97), age (OR=0.20, 95% CI: 0.08-0.50), and education level (OR=4.82, 95% CI: 1.98-11.69) were correlated with “worry” and contributed significantly to the model. Conclusions: : This study revealed that lung cancer patients had significant anxiety and distress during the uptrend period of the COVID-19 epidemic. The distress states of LC patients mainly manifested as worry, which was associated with age, gender, and education level.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Anxiety Disorders , Lung NeoplasmsABSTRACT
Developing green and highly efficient water disinfection technique is of great importance to public health. Herein, a near-infrared (NIR) light-triggerable thermo-sensitive defective molybdenum oxide-nitrogen doped carbon (MoO3-x/NCNs) composite was fabricated and applied to water disinfection. With the synergy of photodynamic and photothermal effects, the MoO3-x/NCNs achieve a rapid and effective inactivation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) as compared to photocatalytic treatment or thermal catalytic alone. Particularly, MONC-3 with optimal ratio can completely inactivate 7.6 log of E. coli and S. aureus within 60 min and 100 min, respectively. The MONC-3 hybrid exhibits efficient charge separation and migration ability due to the formation of Schottky heterojunction, resulting in the highly enhanced ·O2– (11.34×10-10 M) generation activity. Meanwhile, excellent NIR light absorption and photothermal conversion efficiency (52.6%) of MONC-3 can generate local high temperature to promote photocatalytic reaction rate and destruct the bacterial integrity. The monitoring of cell damage process confirmed the irreversible death of bacteria. Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculation, the antibacterial mechanism and Schottky effect were clarified. This work provides new insights for constructing a water disinfection strategy based on plasma-induced photothermal synergy catalysis.
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Purpose: The ocular surface is considered an important route for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission. The expression level of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is vital for viral infection. However, the regulation of ACE2 expression on the ocular surface is still unknown. We aimed to determine the change in ACE2 expression in inflamed corneal epithelium and explore potential drugs to reduce the expression of ACE2 on the ocular surface. Methods: The expression of the SARS-CoV-2 receptors ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) was examined by qPCR and Western blotting. The altered expression of ACE2 in inflammatory corneal epithelium was evaluated in TNFα- and IL-1ß-stimulated HCECs and inflamed mouse corneal epithelium, and the effect of resveratrol on ACE2 expression in HCECs was detected by immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis. Results: ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are expressed on the human corneal epithelial cells. ACE2 expression is upregulated in HCECs by stimulation with TNFα and IL-1ß and inflamed mouse corneas, including dry eye and alkali-burned corneas. In addition, resveratrol attenuates the increased expression of ACE2 induced by TNFα in HCECs. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that ACE2 is highly expressed in HCECs and can be upregulated by stimulation with inflammatory cytokines and inflamed mouse corneal epithelium. Resveratrol may be able to reduce the increased expression of ACE2 on the inflammatory ocular surface. Our work suggests that patients with an inflammatory ocular surface may display higher ACE2 expression, which increases the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Subject(s)
Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2/genetics , Enzyme Inhibitors/pharmacology , Epithelium, Corneal/enzymology , Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic/physiology , Keratitis/enzymology , Resveratrol/pharmacology , SARS-CoV-2/physiology , Adult , Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2/metabolism , Animals , Blotting, Western , Cells, Cultured , Epithelium, Corneal/drug effects , Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic/drug effects , Humans , Inflammation/drug therapy , Inflammation/enzymology , Interleukin-1beta/pharmacology , Keratitis/drug therapy , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Microscopy, Fluorescence , RNA, Messenger/genetics , Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction , Receptors, Virus/metabolism , Serine Endopeptidases/genetics , Serine Endopeptidases/metabolism , Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/pharmacology , Up-RegulationABSTRACT
(1) Background: Human mobility between geographic units is an important way in which COVID-19 is spread across regions. Due to the pressure of epidemic control and economic recovery, states in the United States have adopted different policies for mobility limitations. Assessing the impact of these policies on the spatiotemporal interaction of COVID-19 transmission among counties in each state is critical to formulating epidemic policies. (2) Methods: We utilized Moran’s I index and K-means clustering to investigate the time-varying spatial autocorrelation effect of 49 states (excluding the District of Colombia) with daily new cases at the county level from 22 January 2020 to 20 August 2020. Based on the dynamic spatial lag model (SLM) and the SIR model with unreported infection rate (SIRu), the integrated SLM-SIRu model was constructed to estimate the inter-county spatiotemporal interaction coefficient of daily new cases in each state, which was further explored by Pearson correlation test and stepwise OLS regression with socioeconomic factors. (3) Results: The K-means clustering divided the time-varying spatial autocorrelation curves of the 49 states into four types: continuous increasing, fluctuating increasing, weak positive, and weak negative. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that the spatiotemporal interaction coefficients in each state estimated by SLM-SIRu were significantly positively correlated with the variables of median age, population density, and proportions of international immigrants and highly educated population, but negatively correlated with the birth rate. Further stepwise OLS regression retained only three positive correlated variables: poverty rate, population density, and highly educated population proportion. (4) Conclusions: This result suggests that various state policies in the U.S. have imposed different impacts on COVID-19 transmission among counties. All states should provide more protection and support for the low-income population;high-density populated states need to strengthen regional mobility restrictions;and the highly educated population should reduce unnecessary regional movement and strengthen self-protection.
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continually poses serious threats to global public health. The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 plays a central role in viral replication. We designed and synthesized 32 new bicycloproline-containing Mpro inhibitors derived from either boceprevir or telaprevir, both of which are approved antivirals. All compounds inhibited SARS-CoV-2 Mpro activity in vitro, with 50% inhibitory concentration values ranging from 7.6 to 748.5 nM. The cocrystal structure of Mpro in complex with MI-23, one of the most potent compounds, revealed its interaction mode. Two compounds (MI-09 and MI-30) showed excellent antiviral activity in cell-based assays. In a transgenic mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, oral or intraperitoneal treatment with MI-09 or MI-30 significantly reduced lung viral loads and lung lesions. Both also displayed good pharmacokinetic properties and safety in rats.
Subject(s)
Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , COVID-19 Drug Treatment , Coronavirus 3C Proteases/antagonists & inhibitors , Protease Inhibitors/pharmacology , Animals , Antiviral Agents/chemistry , Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use , COVID-19/pathology , COVID-19/virology , Cell Line , Cell Survival/drug effects , Chemokine CXCL10/metabolism , Disease Models, Animal , Drug Design , Humans , Interferon-beta/metabolism , Lung/immunology , Lung/pathology , Lung/virology , Mice , Mice, Transgenic , Oligopeptides , Proline/analogs & derivatives , Protease Inhibitors/chemistry , Protease Inhibitors/therapeutic use , Protease Inhibitors/toxicity , Rats , Rats, Sprague-Dawley , Viral Load/drug effects , Virus ReplicationABSTRACT
Background Although novel pneumonia associated with the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) suddenly broke out in China, China has controlled this epidemic effectively. Therefore, evidence-based descriptions of medical and clinical characteristics in China are necessary.Methods Literatures have been systematically performed a search on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, GreyNet International, and The Cochrane Library from inception up to March 15, 2020. Quality of evidence was evaluated according to the STROBE checklist, and publication bias was analyzed by Egger’s test. In the single-arm meta-analysis, A random-effects model was used to obtain a pooled incidence rate. We conducted subgroup analysis according to geographic region and research scale.Results A total of 30 Chinese studies and 1969 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The valid pooled incidence rates of symptoms were as follows: rhinorrhea 5.1% (95% CI: 3.7–6.8, I2 = 31.90), diarrhea 11.0% (95% CI: 9.3–12.9, I2 = 16.58), pharyngalgia 9.4% (95% CI: 7.5–11.7, I2 = 36.40), headache 9.5% (95% CI: 8.5–11.1, I2 = 5.7), and lymphocytopenia 36.7% (95% CI: 33.8–39.8 I2 = 28.73). Meanwhile, 4.3% (95% CI: 3.5–5.4, I2 = 0.00) of patients were found without any symptoms, although they were diagnosed by RT-PCR. In terms of lung CT imaging, most of the patients showed bilateral mottling or ground-glass opacity, and 7.7% (95% CI: 4.4–12.9, I2 = 35.64) of patients had a crazy-paving pattern. In subgroup analysis, the pooled incidence rate of normal CT presentations in the Wuhan area and outside Wuhan area was 2.3% (95% CI: 1.4–3.6, I2 = 24.78) and 5.8% (95% CI: 4.4–7.7, I2 = 32.76) respectively (P = 0.001).Conclusions The findings suggest that although most of the COVID-19 patients have symptoms or abnormal CT imaging presentations, a few of them accompany with no symptoms or abnormal CT imaging results should also be noticed. The digestive symptoms and lymphocytopenia may be the potential clinical characteristics, especially for patients with a history of contact with COVID-19. Additionally, the incidence rate of ARDS in the Wuhan area and outside Wuhan area was different; however, the reasons for this phenomenon are unclear.
Subject(s)
Headache , Kallmann Syndrome , Lymphopenia , Pneumonia , Virus Diseases , COVID-19 , DiarrheaABSTRACT
Objective@#In order to master the epidemic trend of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and evaluate the effect of prevention and control, we evaluate the epidemic dynamics of COVID-19 in mainland China, Hubei province, Wuhan city and other provinces outside Hubei from January 16 to February 14, 2020.@*Methods@#We collected the daily number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid detection reported by the National Health Commission from January 16, 2020 to February 14, 2020. The analysis includes the epidemic curve of the new confirmed cases, multiple of the new confirmed cases for period-over-period, multiple of the new confirmed cases for fixed-base, and the period-over-period growth rate of the new confirmed cases.@*Results@#From January 16 to February 14, 2020, the cumulative number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in mainland China was 50 031, including 37 930 in Hubei province, 22 883 in Wuhan city and 12 101 in other provinces outside Hubei. The peak of the number of new confirmed cases in other provinces outside Hubei was from January 31 to February 4, 2020, and the peak of new confirmed cases in Wuhan city and Hubei province was from February 5 to February 9, 2020. The number of new confirmed cases in other provinces outside Hubei showed a significant decline (23% compared with the peak) from February 5 to February 9, 2020, while the number of new confirmed cases in Wuhan city (30% compared with the peak) and Hubei Province (37% compared with the peak) decreased significantly from February 10 to February 14, 2020.@*Conclusion@#The epidemic prevention and control measures taken by the state and governments at all levels have shown very significant effects, effectively curbing the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in China.
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Background:A Novel pneumonia associated with the 2019 coronavirus infected pneumonia (NCIP) suddenly broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019. 37287 confirmed cases and 813 death case in China (Until 8th/Feb/2019) have been reported in just fortnight. Although this risky pneumonia with high infection rates and high mortality rates need to be resolved immediately, major gaps in our knowledge of clinical characters of it were still not be established. The aim of this study is to summaries and analysis the clinical characteristics of 2019-nCoV pneumonia. Methods: Literature have been systematically performed a search on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, GreyNet International, and The Cochrane Library from inception up to February 8, 2020. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess quality, and publication bias was analyzed by Egger test. In the single-arm meta-analysis, A fix-effects model was used to obtain a pooled incidence rate. We conducted subgroup analysis according to geographic region and research scale. Results: A total of nine studies including 356 patients were included in this study, the mean age was 52.4 years and 221 (62.1%) were male. The pooled incidences rate of symptoms as follows: pharyngalgia (12.2%, 95% CI: 0.087-0.167), diarrhea (9.2%, 95% CI: 0.062-0.133) and headache (8.9%, 95% CI: 0.063-0.125). Meanwhile, 5.7% (95% CI: 0.027-0.114) of patients were found without any symptoms although they were diagnosed by RT-PCR. In the terms of CT imaging examination, the most of patients showed bilateral mottling or ground-glass opacity, 8.6% (95% CI: 0.048-0.148) of patients with crazy-paving pattern, and 11.5% (95% CI: 0.064-0.197) of patients without obvious CT imaging presentations. The pooled incidence of mortality was 8.9% (95% CI: 0.062-0.126). Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first evidence-based medicine research to further elaborate the clinical characteristics of NCIP, which is beneficial to the next step of prevention and treatment.