ABSTRACT
Monitoring of viral signal in wastewater is considered a useful tool for monitoring the burden of COVID-19, especially during times of limited availability in testing. Studies have shown that COVID-19 hospitalizations are highly correlated with wastewater viral signals and the increases in wastewater viral signals can provide an early warning for increasing hospital admissions. The association is likely nonlinear and time-varying. This project employs a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) (Gasparrini et al., 2010) to study the nonlinear exposure-response delayed association of the COVID-19 hospitalizations and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater viral signals using relevant data from Ottawa, Canada. We consider up to a 15-day time lag from the average of SARS-CoV N1 and N2 gene concentrations to COVID-19 hospitalizations. The expected reduction in hospitalization is adjusted for vaccination efforts. A correlation analysis of the data verifies that COVID-19 hospitalizations are highly correlated with wastewater viral signals with a time-varying relationship. Our DLNM based analysis yields a reasonable estimate of COVID-19 hospitalizations and enhances our understanding of the association of COVID-19 hospitalizations with wastewater viral signals.
ABSTRACT
A 100 million ton crude oil purchases and sale contract signed between China and Russia, and the crude oil will pass through Kazakhstan and flow along the Alashankou-Dushanzi-Urumchi crude oil pipeline to western Region. As an important crude oil import channel, this paper analyzes the current situation of Alashankou-Dushanzi-Urumchi crude oil pipeline and puts forward some countermeasures. Both Russia and Kazakhstan are major crude oil exporters, with internal demand for exporting crude oil to China. There is a huge gap between domestic crude oil demand, and social and economic development depends on crude oil import. The geographical environment of the crude oil pipeline is conducive to pipeline protection. The security environment of Xinjiang has improved. The situation in Russia and Ukraine and the civil strife in Kazakhstan have limited impact on the pipeline which will have good development opportunities. Thus, this paper proposes the following management strategies. First of all, strengthen communication and coordination between upstream and downstream enterprises. Second, reduce cost and increase efficiency. Third, attach importance of the application of new technologies. Fourth, establish emergency plans and hold emergency drills for emergencies such as COVID-19 outbreak and pipeline leakage. Fifth, strengthen anti-terrorism and riot control. Sixth, strengthen corporate culture and talent team construction. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
ABSTRACT
Wild animals are considered reservoirs for emerging and reemerging viruses, such as the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Previous studies have reported that bats and ticks harbored variable important pathogenic viruses, some of which could cause potential diseases in humans and livestock, while viruses carried by reptiles were rarely reported. Our study first conducted snakes' virome analysis to establish effective surveillance of potential transboundary emerging diseases. Consequently, Adenoviridae, Circoviridae, Retroviridae, and Parvoviridae were identified in oral samples from Protobothrops mucrosquamatus, Elaphe dione, and Gloydius angusticeps based on sequence similarity to existing viruses. Picornaviridae and Adenoviridae were also identified in fecal samples of Protobothrops mucrosquamatus. Notably, the iflavirus and foamy virus were first reported in Protobothrops mucrosquamatus, enriching the transboundary viral diversity in snakes. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis revealed that both the novel-identified viruses showed low genetic similarity with previously reported viruses. This study provided a basis for our understanding of microbiome diversity and the surveillance and prevention of emerging and unknown viruses in snakes.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown of cities have led to the rapid growth of online food delivery (OFD). Moreover, there are concerns that OFD platforms may impose offers on users in order to continue to increase their market share, leading to numerous environmental issues such as overconsumption and a significant increase in plastic packaging waste. Most studies have focused on the environmental impacts associated with food packaging and have been mostly limited to China. However, less research has been carried out on the overall CO2 emissions of an OFD order including food. In this study, the CO2 emissions of an OFD order were assessed by considering the production, distribution, consumption and disposal of the ingredients, based on lifecycle thinking and existing secondary data, for three representative food groups (Western food, Japanese food and Chinese food) in Japan. This study found that the food production of an OFD order accounts for more than 70% of the CO2 emissions of the entire process, especially food ingredient production. Policy support and initiatives such as OFD platforms being able to serve different quantities of food based on actual consumer demand to avoid food waste, as well as changes in delivery methods, would help reduce the CO2 emissions of OFD. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, the DEA-Malmquist model is used to evaluate static and dynamic efficiency of 30 civil airports in China from 2016 to 2021. The developments of airports in different regions are discussed from these aspects: the impact of local government policies and COVID-19 on changes of airports' total factor productivity, and differences in operating efficiency of airports in different regions. The results show that: there are great differences in the operating efficiency of airports in China, and the low pure technical efficiency is the main reason leading to the low technological efficiency. The stagnation of total factor productivity of Chinese airports is mainly influenced by technological progress, and its negative effect drags down the stable technical efficiency and scale efficiency. There are obvious differences in operating efficiency among different regions. Airports in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have the highest efficiency, the Chengdu-Chongqing region has the fastest development, and the northeast region has the slowest development and the lowest operating efficiency. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Introduction/Aim: A chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) criteria-led discharge (CLD) pathway created on evidence-based guidelines was introduced at Canterbury Hospital to reduce unwanted clinical variation detected during a previous Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) audit. This audit aims to review whether adherence to COPD evidence-based guidelines improved after the CLD introduction. Method(s): The electronic medical records of patients admitted to Canterbury Hospital between 14/02/2022 and 01/08/2022 with a diagnosis of COPD, defined as DRG codes E65A and E65B, were reviewed. Data including patient demographics, admission dates, vaccination status, smoking status and cessation counselling, oxygen targets, inhalers, antibiotics, steroids and referrals on discharge were recorded in REDCap. Deidentified data was extracted into excel, grouped based on admission date being pre or post the CLD implementation date of 09/05/2022. The chi square test was used to determine significance. Result(s): A total of 66 patients were included for analysis (n = 25 pre-intervention, n = 39 post-intervention). Appropriate steroid discharge plans and inhaler technique reviews improved post CLD implementation. Antibiotic usage was more consistent with community acquired pneumonia guidelines rather than infective exacerbation of COPD for both groups. Vaccination documentation was generally poor aside from for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), though there was significant improvement in the discussion of influenza vaccine post CLD. Documentation of oxygen targets did not improve. Referrals to outpatient respiratory services were high in both groups. Conclusion(s): Introduction of a COPD CLD improved adherence to some aspects of COPD evidence-based management at Canterbury Hospital. Further initiatives should be considered targeting appropriate antibiotic usage, oxygen targets and discussion of preventative measures such as vaccination.
ABSTRACT
Signal detection in a label-based immunoassay is performed normally when the antigen/antibody binding reaction reaches the equilibrium state during the incubation period of an assay process. Shortening the incubation period in an assay helps reduce the turnaround time and is particularly valuable for point-of-care testing, but the cost is the reduction of signal level and, possibly, measurement precision as well. This work demonstrates that the signal loss could be offset by the stronger emission of an electronically neutral ruthenium(II) complex label, Ru(2, 2′-bipyridine) (bathophenanthroline disulfonate)[4-(2, 2′-bipyridin-4-yl)butanoic acid], used in the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunoassay. Combined with the uniquely well-established flow-through washing process in the automated ECL analyzers and the precise control over liquid handling, the assays performed with a 5-minute incubation period showed the same signal level and measurement precision as those of conventional ECL assays. Additionally, the absence of biotin and streptavidin components in the reagent formulation avoids the biotin-streptavidin interaction during assay incubation and fundamentally eliminates the interference of biotin, especially when used in some high-dose therapies. The results obtained from the procalcitonin prototype kit and the supporting evidence from other preliminary reagents (for SARS-CoV-2 N protein and troponin T) are general. The nonequilibrium detection, along with the downsized instrument design, makes the enhanced ECL (EECL) technology a fast high-performance POCT platform that provides the same high-quality data as those generated from the widely deployed [Ru(bpy)3]2+ based laboratorial ECL systems. The anticipated regulatory approval and follow-up clinical implementation will be a significant stride in the decade-long pursuit of novel ECL labels. © 2023 The Author(s)
ABSTRACT
The great challenge to prevent transmission makes widespread of respiratory infectious diseases easily occur. Intranasal immunization is considered to be a promising route of vaccination to prevent it. Different from parenteral vaccines, intranasal vaccines can induce mucosal immune in respiratory tracts in addition to systemic immune, which provide the first line of defense against respiratory pathogen infection and further prevent transmission. Safe and effective intranasal spray flu vaccines have been licensed. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, intranasal administration has been applied in different vaccine platforms. This article has reviewed the progress of intranasal vaccines for respiratory infectious diseases that have been licensed or are under evaluation in the clinical trials, meanwhile discusses its unique advantages and challenges faced. © 2023, Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and information pandemics have a profound impact on people's information behavior and emotion change. In order to explore the trend of the interaction between information behavior and emotion change, and its influencing factors in the context of a PHEIC, we focused on middle-aged people who are regarded as one of the most affected by a PHEIC but are under-represented in research, as an exemplar. In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted among middle-aged people in various regions of China, to obtain data regarding their information behavior and emotions in the COVID-19 PHEIC throughout its different stages. Then the data was analyzed using grounded theory, which included open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. An interaction model was created, integrating demands for health information throughout the PHEIC. The information need for relevant statistics, prevention and control measures, and other information has always been high. At the remission stage of the PHEIC, the demand for information on resumption of work, production, and school received higher attention. The sentiments associated with the PHEIC had an interactive effect on related information behavior. The emotions of middle-aged people included positive, neutral, and negative sides, among which anxiety was dominant at different stages of the PHEIC. This work brings insights into exploring the changes in information behavior and related sentiments, from the perspective of dynamic and different stages of the PHEIC for various stakeholders to optimize health information service. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Shengnan Yang, Xiaohua Zhu and Pnina Fichman;individual chapters, the contributors.
ABSTRACT
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Several studies have confirmed that intestinal microflora dysbiosis correlates with the severity of COVID-19 patients. Clinical meta-analysis and our data show that the circulating miRNAs like miRNA-146 and the levels of serum cytokines in the peripheral blood are closely related to mild to moderate COVID-19 patients. Despite the widespread use of traditional herbal medicine for COVID-19 in China, the mechanisms remain largely uncovered. Aim of the study: We conducted an observational case-control study to verify the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese herbal medicine Qushi Jianpi Hewei Decoction (QJHD) for mild to moderate COVID-19 patients, and investigated the potential biomolecular mechanisms through metagenomics and transcriptomic sequencing methods. Material(s) and Method(s): QJHD was given orally twice a day individually for 14 to 28 days. A total of 10 patients were enrolled in the study and given QJHD. We observed advantages in clinical cure time rate, and the relief of gastrointestinal symptoms as compared with reports in the literature. The metagenomics sequencing data of fecal microflora and transcriptomic sequencing data of blood cell in patients with SARS-Cov-2 infection patients were selected compared to the healthy control donors. Result(s): No serious adverse events were reported. Meanwhile, the transcriptome analysis showed a decrease of the hsa-miR-21-5p expression in peripheral blood without QJHD. The species composition analysis showed an increase in the expression of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the intestinal tract;The interleukin-10 (IL-10) expression also in COVID-19 patient decreased in peripheral blood compared with healthy control donors. And we found an improvement in these parameters in patients taking QJHD. Conclusion(s): Our findings show that QJHD could improve clinical outcomes of mild to moderate COVID-19 patients, probably through beneficial immunomodulatory effects by regulating Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the intestinal tract and hsa-miR-21 and IL-10 expression in peripheral blood. (chictr.org.cn, ChiCTR2000030305)Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)
ABSTRACT
The great challenge to prevent transmission makes widespread of respiratory infectious diseases easily occur. Intranasal immunization is considered to be a promising route of vaccination to prevent it. Different from parenteral vaccines, intranasal vaccines can induce mucosal immune in respiratory tracts in addition to systemic immune, which provide the first line of defense against respiratory pathogen infection and further prevent transmission. Safe and effective intranasal spray flu vaccines have been licensed. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, intranasal administration has been applied in different vaccine platforms. This article has reviewed the progress of intranasal vaccines for respiratory infectious diseases that have been licensed or are under evaluation in the clinical trials, meanwhile discusses its unique advantages and challenges faced.Copyright © 2023, Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to severely impact healthcare systems around the world, and patients with cancer are even worse affected owing to compromised immune status and greater exposure risk. In the present review, we retrieved the relevant literature including guidelines and consensuses directly related to the purpose of this study from the PubMed database, and then summarized the research data on cancer and COVID-19, aiming to discuss the personal protection, systemic anti-cancer therapy, outcome of co-infection, and the clinical management strategy in this population. We found that patients with malignant tumors had a higher chance of suffering COVID-19, co-infection of whom had an even worse clinical prognosis, especially for those with lung cancer or hematologic cancers. Systemic chemotherapy may delay the clearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus of human body, and thus have a negative impact on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19, while certain endocrine therapy and targeted drugs having limited or no impact. There has been no sufficient evidence for the impact of immune checkpoint therapy on the outcomes of COVID-19 till now. It is of great value to strengthen the personal protection of patients, adjust the anti-tumor treatments rationally and optimize the clinical management processes.Copyright © 2022, Editorial Office of China Oncology. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Since 2020, with the global spread of major respiratory infectious diseases, such as COVID–19, the demand and consumption of personal protective equipment, such as masks, have increased dramatically worldwide. The environmental pollution caused by numerous waste disposable face masks has gradually attracted people's attention. In this study, the mechanical properties of mask–chip–reinforced soil are evaluated from a new perspective, through the uniaxial, biaxial, conventional triaxial, and true triaxial compression tests on reshaped sandy soil samples mixed with different contents of mask chips. The experimental results show that the mechanical properties of the sandy soil can be improved by the mask chips. With the proper content of mask chips, the failure strength is substantially improved, and the failure of soil is delayed. Meanwhile, the strength and stiffness are significantly affected by the stress path and the content of mask chips, even if the soil samples with the same mask–chip content can also show different mechanical properties under different stress paths. Additionally, the mechanical properties of soil are not necessarily improved constantly with the increasing content of mask chips. The failure strength of sandy soil samples under conventional and true triaxial stress paths decreases when the mass content of mask chips exceeds 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. This study confirms the potential of mask chips applied to subgrade, slope, and other engineering construction fields in a sustainable way. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
Targeted therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 virus caused COVID-19 are in urgent need. Chansu has been reported to have broad-spectrum antiviral effects and widely used in Southeast Asian countries. This study aims to assess the efficacy of Chansu injection in treating patients with severe COVID-19. A randomized preliminary clinical trial was conducted and eligible patients were allocated to receive general treatment plus Chansu injection or only general treatment as control for 7 days. The primary outcomes of the oxygenation index PaO2/FiO2 and ROX, secondary outcomes of white blood cell count, respiratory support step-down time (RSST), safety indicators, etc were monitored. After 7 days of treatment, the oxygenation index was improved in 95.2% patients in the treatment group compared with 68.4% in the control group. The PaO2/FiO2 and ROX indices in the treatment group (mean, 226.27+/-67.35 and 14.01+/-3.99 respectively) were significantly higher than the control group (mean, 143.23+/-51.29 and 9.64+/-5.54 respectively). The RSST was 1 day shorter in the treatment group. Multivariate regression analysis suggested that Chansu injection contributed the most to the outcome of PaO2/FiO2. No obvious adverse effects were observed. The preliminary data showed that Chansu injection had apparent efficacy in improving the respiratory function of patients with severe COVID-19.Copyright © 2021 The Authors
ABSTRACT
COVID-19, as a rampant health crisis, lies at the basis of fluctuating perceptions affecting decreased demand among travelers. Recent studies have witnessed a growth of interest in the interactions between tourists' behaviors and other factors with the potential to moderate such behavior during travel. However, it remains to be discussed whether the influence of demographic aspects, especially cultural and gender differences, on tourism behaviors will be more prominent during COVID-19. The current empirical research aims to integrate demographic variables, including gender and culture, with tourists' behavior in terms of their choice of companions, travel destinations, and mode of transportation. According to the research findings, people in other countries have greater desire to travel than Chinese tourists who, in any case, prefer to travel with friends. Tourists from other countries are more willing to travel by plane and by car. Males show a more positive attitude than females to these means of transportation. Moreover, the interactive effect of gender and nationality reveals that female travelers from mainland China put the train or bus top on their agenda. These theoretical findings have the potential to provide actionable insights into how policymakers and service providers can make adjustments to bring back tourism stifled by COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking is becoming more popular, with the exposed attack surface of the internal network expanding. Once outsiders personate accounts or insiders conduct illegal operations, the data security in teleworking with traditional border protection will be broken. Therefore, it is necessary to implement fine-grained and dynamic access control to protect data from malicious access. Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is ideal, where authorization is performed through attributes and rules. On this basis, risk assessment, context awareness, and machine learning are supplemented for dynamic access control. However, these methods have their limitations due to the requirement of sufficient prior knowledge and massive label-classified data. Moreover, it is challenging to obtain the samples of attack behaviors, and the attack behaviors may change frequently to evade detection. In contrast, the normal behaviors are relatively stable except for the update of network services. We propose a dynamic access control model, ABAC-IntroVAE, to address the above issues. ABAC-IntroVAE judges users' requests through rule matching and behavior analysis based on the attributes of the requests. It first filters out requests against the rules by rule matching. Then, the introspective variational autoencoder (IntroVAE) is used for behavior analysis to realize dynamic access decisions. Requests classified as normal can be authorized for access. ABAC-IntroVAE only needs samples of normal requests for training, avoiding the difficult task of collecting massive and frequently changing samples of attack requests. Meanwhile, the IntroVAE model is updated through continual learning to adapt to new-style normal behaviors due to the update of network services. Our experiment study suggests that our proposed ABAC-IntroVAE can effectively perform dynamic access control. It achieves an accuracy of 97.2% in abnormal detection and maintains an accuracy of over 97% through continual learning, despite the addition of new-style user behavior patterns. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Background:Pre-existing liver disease is a risk factor for the worse prognosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We aimed to evaluate whether chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) affect the expression of viral receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) in the liver.Methods:Twelve pairs of matched liver tissues of HCC and para-carcinoma were collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. And 20 liver biopsies from CHB patients were collected from Peking University People's Hospital. The expression of ACE2 and TMRPSS2 were detected using immunofluorescence staining, western blot, and RT-qPCR. The effects of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication or interferon on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression were tested in hepatic cell lines.Results:The mRNA expression of TMPRSS2 in HCC tissues was six-fold higher than that of para-carcinoma tissues (P = 0.002), whereas that of ACE2 was not statistically different between HCC and para-carcinoma tissues. Hepatocellular ACE2 expression was detected in 35% (7/20) of CHB patients and mostly distributed in the inflammatory areas. However, there was no difference in TMPRSS2 expression between areas with or without inflammation. IFN-α2b slightly induced ACE2 expression (2.4-fold, P = 0.033) in HepG2 cells but not in Huh-7, QSG-7701, and L-02 cells. IFN-α2b did not affect TMPRSS2 expression in these cell lines. In addition, HBV replication did not alter ACE2 expression in HepAD38 cells.Conclusions:Although HBV replication does not directly affect the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2, intrahepatic inflammation and carcinogenesis may increase their expression in some patients, which, in turn, may facilitate SARS-CoV-2 infection in hepatocytes. © 2021 The Chinese Medical Association, Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
ABSTRACT
Over the past two years, COVID-19 has led to a widespread rise in online education, and knowledge tracing has been used on various educational platforms. However, most existing knowledge tracing models still suffer from long-term dependence. To address this problem, we propose a Multi-head ProbSparse Self-Attention for Knowledge Tracing(MPSKT). Firstly, the temporal convolutional network is used to encode the position information of the input sequence. Then, the Multi-head ProbSparse Self-Attention in the encoder and decoder blocks is used to capture the relationship between the input sequences, and the convolution and pooling layers in the encoder block are used to shorten the length of the input sequence, which greatly reduces the time complexity of the model and better solves the problem of long-term dependence of the model. Finally, experimental results on three public online education datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model. © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.
ABSTRACT
Through a case study of Kunshan, China, this paper shows how a local state utilised place-based leadership to enhance regional economic resilience under the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It unpacks how Kunshan effectively mitigated early economic disturbances induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, by two ways of leadership actions, namely, enacting jurisdictional power (that is formal leadership), and mobilising wide official and interpersonal networks (that is network leadership). Four specific local-state-led adaptive resilience processes or strategies are identified: stabilising labour supply, mitigating supply-chain disruptions, alleviating financial strains and reconfiguring market orientations. Through these proactive endeavours, the local state played an enabling role in aligning diverse stakeholders and resources across places, scales and sectors, thereby allaying economic shocks and enhancing regional economic resilience. This study contributes to the resilience literature by developing an agency-centric perspective to understanding regional economic resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The theory of New Urbanism, which promotes high-density, mixed zoning, and high walkable communities, has had a profound influence on the design of many cities globally and played a certain positive role in urban health. However, under the current COVID-19 pandemic, this theory faces new challenges. This paper aims to analyze the influence of New Urbanism on urban health from different spacial scales and reflect on whether these design methods still apply to the post-pandemic era. A series of recommendations for urban systems at different levels are proposed for further improving health of cities and residents. A real-world scenario-based design case is used to demonstrate ideas for optimizing public spaces in the districts. This paper is expected to provide ideas for future urban development and renewal design leading to a healthier and more sustainable city. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.