COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity or Challenge: Applying Psychological Distance Theory and the Co-Benefit Frame to Promote Public Support for Climate Change Mitigation on Social Media

The current study employs psychological distance theory and the co-benefit frame to explore message framing strategies on social media to promote public support in climate change mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This online 2 x 2 x 2 experiment recruited 708 Chinese college students to examine the effect of temporal distance (2025 vs. 2050), spatial distance (China vs. the global), and the co-benefit frame (present vs. absent) on behavioral intentions to mitigate climate change and policy support in climate change mitigation. Unexpectedly, the MANOVA results showed that the co-benefit frame of COVID-19 and climate change did not have main or interaction that affect behavioral intention and policy support. However, close temporal distance increases support for climate change mitigation. Meanwhile, temporal and spatial distance have an interaction on behavioral intention. Our results suggest that strategies to reduce psychological distance on social media are effective, especially on temporal distance, but bonding two events through psychological distance to promote support for climate change mitigation must be reconsidered.

[Research progress on the relationship between COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases].

Different autoantibodies can be detected in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is reported that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection could induce autoimmune diseases (AID), including children's multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), Guillain Barre syndrome (GBS), Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and thyroid autoimmune diseases. This article mainly reviews the similarities between COVID-19 and AID, the possibility of COVID-19 inducing AID, the risk of AID patients infected or vaccinated against COVID-19. The purpose is to provide strategies for the prevention, management and treatment of AID during the epidemic.

Relationship of college students' risk perception of COVID-19 and their anxiety and depression: A moderated mediation model.

Objective To explore the effects of perceived risk of COVID-19 of college students on their anxiety and depression, as well as the roles of attention to negative information and perceived social support, so as to provide theoretical basis for colleges and universities to formulate corresponding intervention measures. Methods By the convenience sampling method, totally 1 404 college students from Shaanxi and Henan provinces were investigated online by using General Information Questionnaire, Perceived Risk of COVID-19 Pandemic Scale, Attention to Negative Information Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Perceived Social Support Scale. SPSS 20. 0 was used for data analysis, Pearson correlation method was used to explore the correlation between variables. The mediating effect of attention to negative information and the moderating effect of perceived social support were analyzed by PROCESS. Results The scores of anxiety and depression of the 1 404 college students included in the study were 4.03 +/- 4.48 and 6.21 +/- 5.41, respectively. The detection rate of anxiety symptom was 29.9%, and that of depression symptom was 44.4%. The risk perception of COVID-19 epidemic of the college students was positively correlated with attention to negative information (r = 0.373, P<0.001), anxiety (r = 0.227, P<0.001), and depression (r = 0.226, P<0.001). Anxiety (r = 0.553, P<0.001) and depression 0 = 0.497, P<0.001) were positively correlated with attention to negative information, while perceived social support was negatively correlated with the risk perception of the COVID-19 (r = - 0.154, P<0.001), attention to negative information (r= - 0.259, P<0.001), anxiety (r = - 0.321, P<0.001) and depression (r=- 0.278, P<0.001). The risk perception of COVID-19 affected the anxiety and depression of the students mainly through the mediating effect of attention to negative information. The total effect of risk perception of COVID-19 and anxiety was 0. 227, and the mediating effect accounted for 80. 18% of the total effect. The total effect of risk perception of COVID-19 and depression was 0. 228, and the mediating effect accounted for 90. 35% of the total effect. Perceived social support played a moderating role in the last half of this mediating model. Conclusion Risk perception of COVID-19 indirectly affects the occurrence of anxiety and depression in college students through attention to negative information, and perceived social support plays a moderating role in this mediating model. The findings suggest that when a risk event occurs, colleges and universities should pay attention to guiding students to adjust their attentional bias to external information, and give students enough care and support to improve their mental health.Copyright © 2023 Xi'an Medical University. All rights reserved.

Determination of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activity of Compounds Based on Machine Learning

In 2020, the outbreak of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus spread rapidly all over the world. In the absence of a specific drug, novel coronavirus is still pandemic all over the world. In this paper, we proposed an improved molecular activity prediction model by adding feature selection method on the basis of comparing different methods to extract molecular features and machine learning models. We first used the anti-SARS-CoV-2 compounds reported in recent literatures to construct the data set, and then constructed three machine learning models. In addition, we tried to use three methods to extract molecular features in each model. In order to further improve the performance of the model, we add three feature selection methods. Through the comparison of different models, finally, we used FCFP to extract molecular features and added lasso feature selection method to establish the SVM model. Its test set accuracy is 90.0%, and the AUC value is 0.961, which could well predict the anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of the compound. Our model can be used to speed up the research and discovery of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs. © 2022 IEEE.

Shifts in Public Transit Equity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Riverside, California

A prime component of any effective public transportation system is equitable access for all riders within the community. Building transportation networks with equity in mind can boost ridership and transit network coverage. The problem of social equity in transportation is further exacerbated by historically auto-dependent cities and the pandemic restrictions from COVID-19. This paper aims to quantify transit equity using a disadvantage index. These results are then applied to different periods of a transit system throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to see how it affected social equity in public transportation as part of a case study in Riverside, California. Heat maps are overlaid on the transit network's lines and stops using geographic information systems (GIS) software to visualize the variables associated with transit equity calculations. Publicly released General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data is used to plot the state of the transit network at different points in time. The results show that route changes during the COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable but minimal effect on social equity in transportation.

Relationship of college students' risk perception of COVID-19 and their anxiety and depression: A moderated mediation model

Objective To explore the effects of perceived risk of COVID-19 of college students on their anxiety and depression, as well as the roles of attention to negative information and perceived social support, so as to provide theoretical basis for colleges and universities to formulate corresponding intervention measures. Methods By the convenience sampling method, totally 1 404 college students from Shaanxi and Henan provinces were investigated online by using General Information Questionnaire, Perceived Risk of COVID-19 Pandemic Scale, Attention to Negative Information Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Perceived Social Support Scale. SPSS 20. 0 was used for data analysis, Pearson correlation method was used to explore the correlation between variables. The mediating effect of attention to negative information and the moderating effect of perceived social support were analyzed by PROCESS. Results The scores of anxiety and depression of the 1 404 college students included in the study were 4.03 ± 4.48 and 6.21 ± 5.41, respectively. The detection rate of anxiety symptom was 29.9%, and that of depression symptom was 44.4%. The risk perception of COVID-19 epidemic of the college students was positively correlated with attention to negative information (r = 0.373, P<0.001), anxiety (r = 0.227, P<0.001), and depression (r = 0.226, P<0.001). Anxiety (r = 0.553, P<0.001) and depression 0 = 0.497, P<0.001) were positively correlated with attention to negative information, while perceived social support was negatively correlated with the risk perception of the COVID-19 (r = - 0.154, P<0.001), attention to negative information (r= - 0.259, P<0.001), anxiety (r = - 0.321, P<0.001) and depression (r=- 0.278, P<0.001). The risk perception of COVID-19 affected the anxiety and depression of the students mainly through the mediating effect of attention to negative information. The total effect of risk perception of COVID-19 and anxiety was 0. 227, and the mediating effect accounted for 80. 18% of the total effect. The total effect of risk perception of COVID-19 and depression was 0. 228, and the mediating effect accounted for 90. 35% of the total effect. Perceived social support played a moderating role in the last half of this mediating model. Conclusion Risk perception of COVID-19 indirectly affects the occurrence of anxiety and depression in college students through attention to negative information, and perceived social support plays a moderating role in this mediating model. The findings suggest that when a risk event occurs, colleges and universities should pay attention to guiding students to adjust their attentional bias to external information, and give students enough care and support to improve their mental health. © 2023 Xi'an Medical University. All rights reserved.

Parents' digital Labor and disrupted parent-teacher relationships: theorizing Chinese parents' voices from the home-based online learning

The digital age has fundamentally altered the distribution of work and responsibilities in schools. Parents, as important stakeholders in schooling, are taking on more digital labour and facing changing roles. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, parents' digital labour often remained overlooked as they were not able to observe or participate in the whole process of schooling in the school. However, home-based online learning during the pandemic lockdown has created a rare situation of integrating technology into schooling, expanding parental involvement, and providing an opportunity to systematically explore the digital labour of parents and the influence of parent-teacher power relations in this regard. Using qualitative data from an open-ended parent survey in China, this study finds that parents take on the dual roles of regular parent and "surrogate teacher” in home-based online learning during the pandemic. Behind these two roles is a spectrum of digital labour ranging from technical support, notification delivery, and homework submission to monitoring and guiding school learning, learning content and time management, and learning-related communications with teachers. While technology strengthens existing unequal power relations, it also breaks teachers' monopoly over teaching affairs. Parents thus experience mixed emotions and develop a sense of shared responsibility and empathy with teachers. © 2023 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Feature-Modified SEIR Model for Pandemic Simulation and Evaluation of Intervention Approaches

SEIR (susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered) model has been widely used to study infectious disease dynamics. For instance, there have been many applications of SEIR analyzing the spread of COVID to provide suggestions on pandemic/epidemic interventions. Nonetheless, existing models simplify the population, regardless of different demographic features and activities related to the spread of the disease. This paper provides a comprehensive SEIR model to enhance the prediction quality and effectiveness of intervention strategies. The new SEIR model estimates the exposed population via a new approach involving health conditions (sensitivity to disease) and social activity level (contact rate). To validate our model, we compare the estimated infection cases via our model with actual confirmed cases from CDC and the classic SEIR model. We also consider various protocols and strategies to utilize our modified SEIR model on many simulations and evaluate their effectiveness. © 2022 IEEE.

Analysing the factors affecting medical waste generation in China

Medical waste deserves particular attention due to its potential for causing serious damage to people and the environment. Although the factors influencing the generation of medical waste are critical for designing policies aimed at effectively reducing medical waste and improving medical waste management, they have not been extensively studied. The rapid development of China's medical and health services and the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 have brought significant challenges to managing medical waste in China. Therefore, based on panel data from eight cities in China from 2013 to 2019, this study used a fixed-effects model to investigate the influencing factors of medical waste generation (MWG) in China, and tested the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The results show that there is a non-linear N-shaped curve relationship between MWG and per capita gross domestic product (GDP);MWG will continue to increase with economic growth, but the growth rate will slow down from fast to slow, and then from slow to fast with economic growth. The analysis also reveals that implementing a tiered diagnosis and treatment policy may negatively affect MWG by reducing the waste of medical resources and thus reducing the generation of medical waste. The positive effect of population size on MWG is also highly significant, so when the aging of the population increases, the generation of medical waste also increases. The three policy suggestions are provided: 1) improve the disposal capacity and efficiency of medical waste;2) give full play to the advantages of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policy;3) improve the management level of medical waste in primary medical institutions. © 2023

Research update on association of physical activity with physical and mental health among children and adolescents

In recent decades, there is a decreasing trend in physical activity, which might be associated with decline in physical and mental health among children and adolescents in China. The outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 further aggravated this trend. Under the background of normalized epidemic prevention and control, in order to deeply understand the relationship between physical activity and physical and mental health of children and adolescents, this study sorted out relevant domestic and foreign literatures, and analyzed the effects of physical activity on children and adolescents' health and fitness. The positive effects of physical activity, cognition, and mental health were found to be significantly different in the type, intensity, and time of physical activity in the related health effects. © 2022 Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Bioinformatics analysis on structure and function and expression vector construction of SARS-CoV-2 related protein TMPRSS2

Aim Human TMPRSS2 is a transmembrane serine protease.In this paper, the structure and function of the protein were systematically analyzed by bioinformatics, the codon was optimized and the pro- karvotie expression vector was constructed to explore the molecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infecting host cells.Methods The recombinant expression vector pET-22b-TMPRSS2 was generated by molecular cloning technology.The homology, functional sites, subcellular localization, three-dimensional structure and evolutionary characteristics of TMPRSS2 protein were systematically analyzed by using analytical tools such as Protparam, NetPhos3.1, Blast, Clustal X2 and MEGA7.0.Results The prokarvotic expression plas- mid was constructed correctly;TMPRSS2 belongs to medium molecular weight protein, which is composed of 492 amino acid residues.The theoretical isoelectric point is 8.12, the molecular extinction coefficient is 118 145 L * mol~1 * cm"1 , and the half-life is 30 h;TMPRSS2 has 15 potential glycosylation sites and 49 possible phosphorylation sites.It is a transmembrane hydrophilie protein without signal sequenee.In addition, the protein has 13 potential B-cell epitopes and 7 T-eell epitopes.Seeondarv structure analysis showed that random coil accounted for the highest proportion of TMPRSS2 protein ( 0.453 3) , followed by extended strand (0.252 0).Sequence comparison and evolutionary analysis showed that the highest sequence consistency and closest genetic relationship with human TMPRSS2 was Pan troglodytes, followed by gorilla.Conclusions Human-derived TMPRSS2 protein is ev- olutionarilv conserved and functionally important.Hie results of this study can help to reveal the structure and mechanism of action of TMPRSS2 protein, provide ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of COYID-19, and accelerate the research and development process of new drugs targeting TMPRSS2 protein. Copyright © 2022 Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 protective textiles for breathable face masks

At the end of the year 2019, a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV (COVID-19) with high infectivity and lethality swept across the globe. At the time of writing, nearly 100 million people had been infected and more than two million had died from COVID-19. COVID-19 enters the human body through the nose, mouth and eyes, with lung infection being the main route for its rapid spread and pathogenicity. In the past year, wearing breathable face masks and social distancing have played important roles in curbing the spread of COVID-19. Even so, despite the growth of the epidemic over a long time, the production of masks is still not enough to meet demand. This chapter introduces the potential applications of protective textiles from natural resources (PTNR) for COVID-19 breathable face masks. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantifying Movement Motivations, Demand, and Inflow-Outflow Dynamics in Four Cities (New York, Chicago, Austin, and San Diego) during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted a wide range of human activities, from food delivery habits to major moving and travel decisions. Results indicate multiple pandemic-related factors have influenced millions of relocation decisions by Americans (e.g., health risk, financial pressures, more space, and employment), and there are various positive economic and social outcomes of this influence (e.g., remote work and education), enabling more affordable living and opportunity. This paper addresses COVID-19 impacts on mobility, especially involving permanent relocations. Survey design and data analysis with U-Haul targeted customers in Austin, New York, San Diego, and Chicago to understand mobility, new moving dynamics, and motivations. © ASCE. All rights reserved.

Shifts in Public Transit Equity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Riverside, California

A prime component of any effective public transportation system is equitable access for all riders within the community. Building transportation networks with equity in mind can boost ridership and transit network coverage. The problem of social equity in transportation is further exacerbated by historically auto-dependent cities and the pandemic restrictions from COVID-19. This paper aims to quantify transit equity using a disadvantage index. These results are then applied to different periods of a transit system throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to see how it affected social equity in public transportation as part of a case study in Riverside, California. Heat maps are overlaid on the transit network's lines and stops using geographic information systems (GIS) software to visualize the variables associated with transit equity calculations. Publicly released General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data is used to plot the state of the transit network at different points in time. The results show that route changes during the COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable but minimal effect on social equity in transportation. © ASCE. All rights reserved.

Modeling the External, Internal, and Multi-Center Transmission of Infectious Diseases: The COVID-19 Case

We used the Bass model to investigate the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 taking the United States and China as examples. The Bass model was originated from business literature and initially modeled the process of new products getting adopted by the population with an external and internal influence term. First, we fit the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in 8 major cities in the United States with the Bass model. The external and internal parameters of Bass were calculated and correlation analyses were performed between the parameters and the volume of traveling across different cities and within a city. The results show that the Bass model fits the epidemics data better than the logistic distribution which only has an internal influence term and the SIR model which is a classical infectious disease model. Besides, there is a significant positive correlation between the external parameter of Bass and the number of passengers at the airport as well as between the internal parameter of Bass and the number of short-distance trips in a city. Therefore, it is closer to true circumstances considering both external and internal transmission rather than assuming a region to be isolated. The external infection rate rises as the number of enplanements rises and the internal infection rate rises as the number of short-distance trips in a city rises. Second, we put forward an adapted multi-center Bass model for the multi-chain COVID-19 transmission in China and compared it with the original Bass model. The results indicated that the accuracy of the multicenter Bass model was higher than that of the original Bass model. In conclusion, the Bass model distinguishes the external and internal effects and is suitable for simulating the spread of COVID-19 and analyzing the infection rate caused by social interactions among different regions and inside a region. The adapted multi-center Bass model commendably described disease transmission when there is more than one transmission center. Our research proves the Bass model to be a useful tool for fine-level analyses on the transmission mechanism of COVID-19. © 2020 Tsinghua University Press.

Technology-Enhanced Student-Centric Learning in Information and Multimedia Technologies in the New Normal Era

Information and multimedia technologies (IMT) teaching requires theoretical and practical sessions. The practical sessions are essential for students to build an in-depth understanding of the principles and theories. Unlike some other areas where practical sessions require completely face-to-face teaching. Information and multimedia technologies area is unique such that practical sessions can be delivered in online mode via innovative approaches, thereby the overall purely face-to-face contents can be reduced.​ The purpose of this study proposes decomposed teaching strategy with virtualized practical sessions as the innovative approaches in the new normal era. The proposed strategy is composed of two phases: (1) decompose of the teaching content into theoretical sessions and software and hardware related practical sessions. (2) deliver the software and hardware related part via virtualization tools to maximize the understanding of the practical implementation. A pilot study of 31 IMT students for 14 weeks is conducted to find out the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Learn Programming In Virtual Reality? A Case Study of Computer Science Students

This paper presents the development of a new learning platform in Virtual Reality to create a more immersive and intuitive learning experience for introduction of programming courses at an intermediate level. This platform is designed to create a central hub for interactive courseware and facilitate distance learning in our post COVID world. Utilizing Virtual Reality, the application teaches specific topics in Computer Science using scripted animations, tutorials, and interactive games. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the user experience and learning outcomes. Participants of this study reported they were more engaged and motivated in learning programing concepts. We found the virtual learning modules helped to explain concepts and provided better hands-on experiences. © 2022 IEEE.

Broad and Potent Activity Against Sars-Like Viruses by an Engineered Human Monoclonal Antibody

The recurrent zoonotic spillover of coronaviruses (CoVs) into the human population underscores the need for broadly active countermeasures. We employed a directed evolution approach to engineer three SARS-CoV-2 antibodies for enhanced neutralization breadth and potency. One of the affinity-matured variants, ADG-2, displays strong binding activity to a large panel of sarbecovirus receptor binding domains (RBDs) and neutralizes representative epidemic sarbecoviruses with high potency. Structural and biochemical studies demonstrate that ADG-2 employs a distinct angle of approach to recognize a highly conserved epitope overlapping the receptor binding site. In immunocompetent mouse models of SARS and COVID-19, prophylactic administration of ADG-2 provided complete protection against respiratory burden, viral replication in the lungs, and lung pathology. Altogether, ADG-2 represents a promising broad-spectrum therapeutic candidate against clade 1 sarbecoviruses.

The Adaptation of Online Project-Based Learning in Computer Engineering Education Settings

While many universities offered some online courses in computer engineering prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, few offered project-based courses in a fully virtual mode. This has changed with pandemic-related restrictions. When converting to an online-only mode, active-learning projects and lab components of computer engineering courses pose additional challenges because they require face-to-face interaction and specialized equipment. In this paper, we present how we adapted a year-long capstone course to be fully online at a public university in California, U.S., and report our findings based on students’ perceptions. Our major findings are: 1) students’ satisfaction rates of online courses improved over the one year of online-only learning, and 2) students tended to prefer synchronous lectures, but the difference in preference between synchronous vs. asynchronous teaching was not significant. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.