Genetic correlation, causal relationship, and shared loci between vitamin D and COVID-19: A genome-wide cross-trait analysis.

Observational studies have shown that vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection, yet little is known about the shared genomic architectures between them. Leveraging large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, we investigated the genetic correlation and causal relationship between genetically determined vitamin D and COVID-19 using linkage disequilibrium score regression and Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses, and conducted a cross-trait GWAS meta-analysis to identify the overlapping susceptibility loci of them. We observed a significant genetic correlation between genetically predicted vitamin D and COVID-19 (rg = -0.143, p = 0.011), and the risk of COVID-19 infection would decrease by 6% for every 0.76 nmol L-1 increase of serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) concentrations in generalized MR (OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.89-0.99, p = 0.019). We identified rs4971066 (EFNA1) as a risk locus for the joint phenotype of vitamin D and COVID-19. In conclusion, genetically determined vitamin D is associated with COVID-19. Increased levels of serum 25OHD concentration may benefit the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

The effects of pandemic-related fear on social connectedness through social media use and self-disclosure

In light of the prolonged period of social distancing and highly mediated communication patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study sought to understand how pandemic-related fear affects social connectedness. Drawing from the Internet-enhanced self-disclosure and fear-eliciting affiliation hypotheses, survey findings from a stratified sample collected among Hong Kong university students (N = 310) revealed that pandemic-related fear positively influences social connectedness not only through self-disclosure but also through the combination of information seeking and self-disclosure. Social interaction, however, does not mediate the relationship between fear and social connectedness on its own. Overall, we argue that fear motivated people to seek information, self-disclose, and articulate connectedness with society. During this process, social media provided an essential ground and self-disclosure proved a viable tool. This study demonstrated that negative emotions aroused in crisis situations might result in constructive behaviors, which is contingent on how people react to mitigate the negative consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Prevalence and genotypic diversity of Canine Coronavirus in Shandong Province

Objective: To learn the prevalence and genotypic diversity of canine coronavirus(CCoV)in healthy and diarrhea dogs in Shandong Province.

The growth of oil futures in China: Evidence of market maturity through global crises

Chinese oil futures products were created in 2018, and have since presented an alternative, regional exchange through which to invest. This research tests for evidence of developing market maturity during the time since the market was established, specifically focusing on static and time-varying spillovers of higher moments between Chinese oil futures prices and other international crude oil markets. Chinese oil markets are also valuable when considering contagion and informational effects within the COVID-19 outbreak. Results indicate significant evidence of market maturity, to the extent that Chinese oil futures play a dominant role in the risk transmission of volatility, information asymmetry and extreme values, to both the international oil market and China’s domestic energy-related markets before the outbreak of the COVID-19. After the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, such maturity and informational effects deteriorate significantly. Such outcomes suggest that while Chinese oil futures markets were growing at pace to become a leading international oil product, the outbreak of COVID-19 has stalled such progress.

Did COVID-19 tourism sector supports alleviate investor fear?

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a dynamic black-swan event to which governments implemented support programmes to reduce sectoral probability of default. This research analyses investor response to such assistance, designed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic upon international aviation and tourism. Investor confidence in such support schemes is estimated through short-term abnormal returns. Results indicate significant differential behaviour, with fiscal policy found to be a dominant and largely effective mechanism generating median abnormal returns of 2.17 %. Specific assistance programmes relating to COVID-19 loan facilities, and the provision of pandemic relief packages significantly alleviated short-term investor concerns with median abnormal returns estimated between 2.87 % and 3.89 % respectively. Our empirical results offer investors and policymakers an additional layer of information.

Development and validation of predictive models for COVID-19 outcomes in a safety-net hospital population.

OBJECTIVE: To develop predictive models of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes, elucidate the influence of socioeconomic factors, and assess algorithmic racial fairness using a racially diverse patient population with high social needs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data included 7,102 patients with positive (RT-PCR) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 test at a safety-net system in Massachusetts. Linear and nonlinear classification methods were applied. A score based on a recurrent neural network and a transformer architecture was developed to capture the dynamic evolution of vital signs. Combined with patient characteristics, clinical variables, and hospital occupancy measures, this dynamic vital score was used to train predictive models. RESULTS: Hospitalizations can be predicted with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 92% using symptoms, hospital occupancy, and patient characteristics, including social determinants of health. Parsimonious models to predict intensive care, mechanical ventilation, and mortality that used the most recent labs and vitals exhibited AUCs of 92.7%, 91.2%, and 94%, respectively. Early predictive models, using labs and vital signs closer to admission had AUCs of 81.1%, 84.9%, and 92%, respectively. DISCUSSION: The most accurate models exhibit racial bias, being more likely to falsely predict that Black patients will be hospitalized. Models that are only based on the dynamic vital score exhibited accuracies close to the best parsimonious models, although the latter also used laboratories. CONCLUSIONS: This large study demonstrates that COVID-19 severity may accurately be predicted using a score that accounts for the dynamic evolution of vital signs. Further, race, social determinants of health, and hospital occupancy play an important role.

Have crisis-induced banking supports influenced European bank performance, resilience and price discovery?

The ownership structures of European banks are today quite different relative to those before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), particularly due to new takeovers, government guarantees, bailouts, and other defensive market responses post-GFC. These new ownership structures raise questions as to how these banks have performed, particularly during the implementation of non-standard central bank monetary policies in response to crises that have occurred since the GFC. This paper develops a time-varying series of changing government, private and public bank ownership structures, and compares the performance of several major European banking institutions during periods of crises and mitigating central bank actions. We specifically evaluate as to whether crisis-driven changes of ownership structure have influenced the corporate performance, resilience and signals of price discovery generated by these institutions? The COVID-19 pandemic is identified and used as an example of an idiosyncratic shock on which testing procedures are implemented. Significant differentials within the European banking system based on government supports are identified. The data examined show that the information share of price discovery among government-supported European banks is significantly higher in non-crisis periods than non-government supported banks. We present several companion tests consistent with this evidence and discuss a variety of implications for future research and policy.

Optimal Management of the Public and Patients by Pharmacists in the Era of COVID-19: An Evidence-Based Review and Practical Recommendations

Purpose: Currently, managing the public and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic is constituting a health care challenge worldwide. Patient-oriented management is of crucial importance to promote emergency preparedness and response. This study aims to formulate an integrated pharmacist management strategy of the public and patients and to provide evidence-based and practical references. Methods: Evidence-based review and practical analysis were utilized. First, PubMed, EMBASE and Chinese database were searched. Studies about patient management in major public health emergencies were included. Second, the Chinese experience of patient management was analyzed and identified. Finally, combining evidence-based and practical analysis, the pharmacist management strategy of the public and patients was researched and summarized. Results: Regarding the home quarantine period, pharmacist management services should include medication guidance, guidance on risk monitoring, sanitation measures education, health management guidance and psychological support. Regarding the outpatient visit period, pharmacists should participate in the control of in-hospital infections and provide physician-pharmacist joint clinic services, pharmacy clinic services, medication therapy management, medication consultation services, drug supply guarantee and drug dispensing services. Regarding the hospitalization period, pharmacist management services should include monitoring and evaluating the safety and efficacy of medications, providing strengthened care for special populations and other pharmaceutical care. For non-hospitalized or discharged patients, pharmacist management services should include formulating medication materials and establishing pharmacy management files for discharged patients. Conclusion: An evidence-based, patient-centered and entire-process-integrated pharmacist management strategy of the public and patients is established, which remedies the gaps in the existing patient management and can be implemented to support pharmacists' contributions to COVID-19 pandemic control.

An analysis of investor behaviour and information flows surrounding the negative WTI oil price futures event

Intertwined with the persisting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world economy, the price of WTI crude oil futures became negative on April 20, 2020. This anomalous incident has drawn much attention within the literature. This paper attempts to investigate the origins and specific impacts of the negative pricing event on the price discovery of WTI futures by employing a bivariate VECM-DCC-GARCH-SNP model, incorporating Legendre polynomials, where the dynamics of major information share measures at high-frequency time intervals are uncovered. Time-varying patterns of information share are identified across the period surrounding negative WTI prices. In particular, price discovery effects steadily abate after a sharp shock during the eight weeks before the negative pricing event. Peak price discovery differentials then re-occur within the negative-pricing event, before once again abating. Such results verify CFTC concerns surrounding the peculiarity of WTI futures trading conditions, that is, the conditions for the negative pricing event were well-established in the weeks before April 2020. Our results shed light on stylised evidence relating to the information efficiency of the international crude oil market more generally.

The implementation of a FIP guidance for COVID-19: insights from a nationwide survey.

BACKGROUND: The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has established an interim guidance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for pharmacists worldwide. The aim of this study was to identify the implementation of FIP guidance in China and provide applicable strategies for further actions. METHODS: A nationwide cross-sectional survey on Chinese pharmacists was distributed electronically through groups of WeChat between 9 December 2020 and 18 December 2020. The 29-item questionnaire for the survey was designed based on the FIP guidance and knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) framework. RESULTS: A total of 237 responses from 237 pharmacists (69.20% females) were received. Most pharmacists (81.86%) participated in work related to COVID-19. Respondents referred to other guidelines or consensus more than they did to FIP guidance. Most participants were qualified for the knowledge-based questions regarding COVID-19 (67.51%), had positive attitudes towards pharmacists' roles and actions (61.18%), and were qualified in the practices of prevention measures, infection risk monitoring, and pharmacists' advice (50.63%). Several factors were revealed as having impact on pharmacists' KAP, such as the relevance of participating in work related to COVID-19, work entailments, and information source. CONCLUSIONS: The FIP guidance has a certain degree of dissemination and implementation in China, which can be improved through effective actions directed towards impact factors.

COVID-19, Nation-States and Fragile Transnationalism

In this intervention, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has reconfigured transnational mobilities, connections, and solidarities, which reveals the fragility of transnationalism predicated on cosmopolitan ethics but rooted in nation-level politics. We show that as the pandemic severely disrupted transnational (infra)structures predicated on state-centric transnationalism from above, the survival and well-being of diverse transnationally mobile groups, such as refugees, transnational families, and international students, have been placed under unprecedented threat. In doing so, we reflect on the configurations of transnationalism in sociological understandings of globalisation, in and beyond the context of COVID-19. We advance an urgent call for action to address the consequences of the pandemic for vulnerable people who lead precarious lives in a transnational limbo caught in the gaps between nation-states.

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hedging functionality of Chinese financial markets.

In this paper, we investigate both constant and time-varying hedge ratios in terms of the effectiveness of CSI300 index futures during the COVID-19 crisis. Using naïve, OLS and EC/ROLS strategies to estimate constant hedge ratios, results indicate that the CSI300 spot index presents decreased effectiveness using the naïve hedging strategy; however, increased effectiveness of OLS and EC hedge ratios are identified. Differential behaviour is identified when considering five newly introduced COVID-19 concept-based stock indices. Time-varying hedge ratios indicate the weakened effectiveness, ranging between 20% and 40% variance reduction. Evidence suggests that the capability of the CSI300 index futures to hedge against the risks of the COVID-19 is impaired, regardless of whether constant or time-varying hedge ratios are used. Such results provide important implications to both local and foreign investors in the Chinese stock market.

COVID-19, Inter-household Contact and Mental Well-Being Among Older Adults in the US and the UK.

Interacting with family members and friends from other households is a key part of everyday life and is crucial to people's mental well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic severely curtailed face-to-face contact between households, particularly for older adults (aged 60 and above), due to their high risk of developing severe illness if infected by COVID-19. In-person contact, where possible, was largely replaced by virtual interaction during the pandemic. This article examines how inter-household contact in face-to-face and virtual forms, as well as combinations of the two forms of contact, related to older adults' mental well-being during the pandemic. Data from two national longitudinal surveys, collected from the same respondents before (2018-2019) and during (June 2020) the pandemic, were comparatively analysed: the Health and Retirement Study in the US and Understanding Society in the UK. The findings showed a notable increase in loneliness in the US and a decline in general mental well-being in the UK following the outbreak of COVID-19. In both countries, more frequent inter-household face-to-face contact during the pandemic was associated with better general mental well-being, but inter-household virtual contact, via means such as telephone and digital media, was not associated with general mental well-being in either the US or the UK. In the US, older adults who engaged more frequently in virtual contact were more likely to feel lonely during the pandemic, particularly if their face-to-face contact was limited. In both countries, the increase in loneliness following the outbreak of the pandemic was greater for older adults who reported more virtual contact. The findings suggest that household-centred crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic had unintended mental health implications in both the US and the UK, despite contextual differences between the two countries. Although face-to-face contact between households helped to sustain older adults' mental well-being, virtual contact was not a qualitatively equivalent alternative. The findings also provide an important evidence base for informing policy developments and for supporting the mental health of older people during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the longer term.

The Potential of Glycyrrhizinate in the Management of COVID-19: A Systematic Review of the Efficacy and Safety of Glycyrrhizin Preparations in the Treatment of SARS and MERS.

The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in 2019 highlighted the fact that no specific medications providing effective treatment have been identified and approved. We explored the possibilities for COVID-19 by systematically reviewing evidence on the efficacy and safety of glycyrrhizin preparations for SARS and MERS. Electronic databases were systematically searched from inception to February 2020 for eligible studies that evaluated the efficacy and safety of glycyrrhizin preparations for SARS and MERS. A quantitative analysis or descriptive analysis was applied. Five retrospective cohort studies were included, and NOS scores ranged from 5-7 points. The clinical symptoms of dry cough, chest distress and dyspnoea improved quickly, and elevated serum levels of aminotransferase decreased after compound glycyrrhizin treatment. The SARS-CoV antibody appeared earlier in the treated group than in the control group ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]d). Compared to that with conventional medications, the average period from peak to 50% improvement of lesions, in terms of X-ray manifestations, was shorter with compound glycyrrhizin treatment ([Formula: see text]2.1[Formula: see text]d), and treatment reduced the dosage ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mg/d) and duration of the corticosteroids used, without other serious adverse reactions. Based on the available evidence regarding glycyrrhizin preparations for treating SARS and MERS, we infer that compound glycyrrhizin could be an optional therapeutic strategy for SARS-CoV-2 infections, especially those complicated with liver damage. Further research using well-designed randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is warranted to determine the dosage and duration of use of compound glycyrrhizin and to monitor its specific adverse effects.