'Socially Distanced Community Engagement' -Teaching GIS Site-Analysis during COVID

In the era of COVID, project-based classes that incorporate community engagement (i.e., interacting with both a physical site and members of the community) as part of their learning approach, have taken a significant blow. When connecting with people becomes an unhealthy practice, how can site-based learning remain embedded in engineering teaching and practice while accommodating virtual education instruction? Within civil and environmental engineering (CEE), GIS mapping has allowed students to step outside the classroom and engage with site-based work while focusing on spatial learning technologies. The open-ended processes of spatial data gathering can be used to draw students into community observation, inviting a focus on ecological and social interactions of infrastructure, site, community, and equity. However, in the era of COVID, the full range of site-based learning processes, including community engagement, are impossible to implement. This paper describes two amended processes for site-based learning through GIS data practices during the post-COVID shutdown period. Pre-COVID versions of the exercises asked student teams to explore a single site by observing and mapping infrastructure. This involved documenting community use of space and interacting with the local community to obtain multi-layered data on social equity, economic, and physical aspects of the site. However, two primary changes were made: in one class students were asked to explore their own local environment rather than travel to a shared site of focus. In the other, student teams collected only visual site-data foregoing the community engagement component. These students then connected electronically with community partners to gather social data. The study draws on data from student participation in two different classes: a large introductory class and a smaller advanced class. Data includes a qualitative analysis of exit interviews with a sub-set of both undergraduate and graduate student participants. This paper examines to what extent the site-based practices retain value given the limits imposed by social distancing, and whether these workarounds reveal unexpected strategies which might be applicable to future remote learning, and to community-based learning even when physical reconnection is allowed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Hematological features and risk factors of hospitalized COVID-19 patients: A retrospective analysis

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became pandemic in 2020 and recently, mutated coronaviruses have emerged in many countries. The aim of this study was to identify the clinical characteristics and risk factors for critical illness in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Zhengzhou for clinical prevention and management. Materials and methods: A total of 70 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were enrolled between 21 January and 29 February 2020, in Zhengzhou, China. Clinical characteristics, hematological findings, neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and inflammatory index on admission were obtained from medical records, COVID-19 patients with different outcomes were compared. Results: The median age was 55 years. Forty-three (61.0%) patients were classified as having severe or critical cases. Eighteen (25.7%) patients died in hospital and the remaining 52 were discharged. Patients who died tend to be old with expectoration and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Compared to survivor, non-survivor had significantly higher numbers of leucocytes and neutrophils, NLR, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), prothrombin time, D-dimer, C-reactive protein, and decreased platelets, lymphocytes, uric acid, and albumin (ALB). Logistic regression analysis identified leucocytes, platelets, PLR, NLR, AST, and ALB as independent predictive factors for poor outcomes. The area under curve of the combination of leucocytes, PLR, NLR, and AST was 0.87, with a sensitivity of 0.83 and specificity of 0.81. Conclusion: Our results identified risk factors among COVID-19 patients for in-hospital mortality. Leucocytes, PLR, NLR, and AST could have important reference value for predicting prognosis, especially in low-resource countries.

COVID-19 and travel for people with spinal cord injury

Background: Participation in travel/trips usually lowers for people after SCI. COVID-19 lockdowns have further reduced their travel, including visits to healthcare services. People with SCI are found to have real concerns about their vulnerability to COVID-19, and research is needed to understand their perceptions of future travel participation. Objective: To explore the potential impact of COVID-19 on future travel participation of people with SCI. Design: In-depth interviews over the telephone. Methods: Thirty-eight interviews were conducted between May and August 2020. Respondents were patients enrolled in a SCI Model System who were due for the 5th-year anniversary interview. Results Observed: While more than half of the respondents canceled trips or delayed plans, approximately one in five respondents traveled since March 2020 for leisure and personal business. Many respondents believed social interaction would change in their future travels because of concerns over their compromised immune or respiratory system, other people are not wearing masks or cough/sneeze over their heads, and air exchange rate in closed spaces. Most respondents said they would travel again, but with changes: 1. more careful about protecting themselves from germs/virus, 2. avoid flying and prefer travel in own vehicle, 3. when choosing places to visit, focus more on its set up (if outdoors or socially distanced) and cleanliness, and 4. research on irregular events and restrictions of the area. Conclusions: Information on the travel industry's adjustments made due to COVID-19 should be communicated promptly. Health professionals should develop recommendations on meeting the specific needs of customers with SCI related to COVID-19.

Positive impact of the first lockdown in patients with chronic inflammatory rheumatism

Background: Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a considerable amount of fear, worry and concern in the general population and among certain groups such as the elderly, healthcare providers and people with pre-existing conditions in particular. Our patients suffering from chronic inflammatory rheumatism (CIR), a group of autoimmune pathologies treated by immunosuppressant medication, are particularly concerned. Actions taken -particularly quarantine and its effects on the normal activities, habits or livelihoods of many people -also have a significant impact. There is little information on the impact of the lockdown in patients with CIR with data measured prospectively, in a standardized way, before and during the first lockdown period. Objectives: The objective of this ancillary study was to evaluate the psychological impact of the first lockdown period (anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, catastrophizing.) as well as the evolution of disease activity in patients suffering from CIR. Methods: At two French university hospitals, adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) according to the ACR-EULAR 2010 criteria, spondyloarthritis (SpA) fulfilling the ASAS 2009 criteria and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) according to the Caspar 2006 criteria were consecutively included in the Catastrophism in Chronic Inflammatory Rheumatism (CRIC) study from September 2019. Sociodemographic data, information on the disease and its treatments were collected as well as questionnaires on disease activity (DAS28, CDAI, BASDAI), function (HAQ), quality of life (SF12, EQ5D), anxiety and depression (HADS, GAD7), insomnia (ISI) and catastrophizing scores (PCS). These data were collected prospectively at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months. In this ancillary study, data from patients with an assessment before and during lockdown were analyzed. Statistical analyses were descriptive with a paired Student's T-test. Results: In all, 140 patients (49 RA, 69 SpA and 22 PsA) were evaluated before and during lockdown. The median age was 53.5 [44-63] years and 60.7% were women;74 patients (53.2%) were professionally active and 102 (72.9%) were living as couples. The majority of patients (92.9 %) had a disease lasting more than 2 years. Concerning treatments, 63 (45%) were treated by bDMARD monotherapy, 40 (28.5%) by bDMARD+ csDMARD, 17 (12.1%) by csDMARD monotherapy and 2 patients by tsDMARD;90.7% were not taking any corticosteroids and 8.6% were taking ≤5 mg/d;30% were on NSAIDs. When comparing before and during lockdown, pain, tender joint count, swollen joint count, disease activity (CDAI, BASDAI) and function (HAQ, SF12 physical component) were similar. However, there was a significant improvement in psychological status, anxiety (HADS, GAD7), the mental component of SF12, catastrophizing and overall quality of life (EQ5D) (see Table 1 below). Conclusion: There are very few prospective, standardized data on the impact of lockdown in patients with CIR with an assessment before and during the first lockdown period. In patients with CIR, the first lockdown period had no impact on the activity of the disease and was well experienced psychologically with less anxiety and an improvement in quality of life.

Crisis information, communication strategies and customer complaint behaviours: the case of COVID-19

Purpose: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic plunged global tourism into a huge crisis in 2020. China was confronted with a wave of cancellations by tourism consumers due to COVID-19 and tourist complaints rose dramatically during this period. Although tourism enterprises have quickly introduced measures in response, the effectiveness of targeted policies is expected to be evaluated. Concerned about this phenomenon, this study aims to provide insights into the dim prospects of the tourism industry and to bridge the gap between tourists and enterprises. Design/methodology/approach: The current study adopts a two-step method that combines automatic and manual content analysis to contrastively analyse 647 complaints from the Sina platform and the measures of five online travel agencies (OTAs) taken to deal with COVID-19. Findings: The results reveal that the COVID-19-related information and policies issued by official departments had a promoting effect on tourist complaints. OTAs were the main target of complainers, and three themes of complaints were identified, namely, cancellation barriers, refund barriers and customer relationship management. Although tourism enterprises’ policies covered most dimensions of the three themes, more detailed and mutually beneficial policies need to be formulated in the face of a new round of cancellations. Originality/value: This research attempts to investigate tourism customer complaint behaviours in the case of COVID-19 and to provide tourism enterprises receiving different complaints with practical insights into crisis management. It contributes to simultaneously minimizing business losses and maintaining customer relationships in the service industry, improving the industry’s performance under potential crises in the future. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

A Rapid Deep Learning Computer-Aided Diagnosis to Simultaneously Detect and Classify the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) becomes recently a global pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. COVID-19 rapidly spread and attacked people in more than 200 countries worldwide. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques has become urgent to prevent the exacerbation of the astounding spread of this pernicious disease. This paper presents a novel rapid deep learning computer-aided Diagnosis (CAD) framework for simultaneously detecting and diagnosing the COVID-19 against different respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, atelectasis, cardiomegaly, infiltration, mass, pneumothorax, nodule, and effusion. To develop a useful patient triage system for detecting COVID-19 in early-stage, rapidly extract the visual diagnosis knowledge from the input chest X-ray (CXR) images is extremely required. The proposed CAD framework shows its capability to automatically detect and diagnose COVID-19 with a detection accuracy of 96.31% and a classification accuracy of 97.40%. Meanwhile, the real-time prediction speed of 0.0093 seconds is achieved for a single testing CXR image. To achieve a high accuracy of the knowledge extraction from the entire CXR images with a high prediction speed would represent a key for developing a comprehensive and useful smart patient triage system in hospitals and healthcare systems. © 2021 IEEE.

Impact du confinement sur les patients souffrant de rhumatismes inflammatoires chroniques : étude prospective de 140 patients

Introduction Depuis le début de l’année 2020, nous traversons une des plus grandes crises sanitaires que l’humanité ait connue due au coronavirus-2019. Cette pandémie suscite un degré considérable de crainte, d’inquiétude et de préoccupation dans la population en général et chez certains groupes en particulier, comme les personnes âgées, les prestataires de soins et les personnes souffrant d’affections préexistantes. Nos patients souffrant de RIC, pathologies auto-immunes traités par immunosuppresseurs, sont particulièrement concernés. Les mesures prises – en particulier la quarantaine et ses effets sur les activités normales, les habitudes ou les moyens de subsistance de nombreuses personnes – ont également un impact important. L’objectif de cette étude était d’évaluer l’impact psychologique (anxiété, dépression, trouble du sommeil, catastrophisme…) de l’épidémie COVID-19 ainsi que l’évolution de l’activité du rhumatisme chez les patients souffrant de RIC pendant le confinement. Patients et méthodes Étude observationnelle prospective bicentrique de patients suivis pour une PR, une SA ou un RPso sur 1 an. Des données sociodémographiques, sur les traitements, la pathologie, cliniques (Échelle Visuelle Analogique [EVA] douleur, EVA globale patient et rhumatologue, nombre d’articulations douloureuses et gonflées) et biologiques (CRP, vitesse de sédimentation) étaient recueillies. Le patient remplissait ensuite des autoquestionnaires sur l’activité de la maladie (BASDAI), le catastrophisme (PCS), le coping (CSQ), la qualité de vie (Sf12, EQ5D), le handicap fonctionnel (BASFI, HAQ), le dépistage de la fibromyalgie (FiRST), l’anxiété et la dépression (HADS, GAD7) ainsi que l’insomnie (ISI). Dans cette étude ancillaire, ont été analysées les données des 140 patients RIC avec une évaluation avant le confinement et une évaluation pendant le confinement (téléconsultations). Les analyses statistiques étaient descriptives avec des tests de Student appariés. Résultats En tout, 140 patients ont été inclus (49 PR, 69 SA, 22 RPso). L’âge médian était de 53,5 [44–63], il y avait 60,7 % de femmes. Le rhumatisme évoluait depuis>2 ans chez 92,9 % des patients. En tout, 72,9 % vivait en couple et 53 % étaient en activité. Lorsque l’on compare avant et pendant le confinement, l’EVA activité (31[15–60] avant vs 40 [20–60] pendant le confinement) et le NAD (1,5 [0,4] avant vs 4 [2–6] pendant) augmentaient légèrement. Le NAG, le HAQ et la composante physique du SF12 restaient semblables. Il n’y avait pas de modification du score d’insomnie. Par contre, il y avait une amélioration significative de l’anxiété, de la composante mentale du SF12 et de la qualité de vie globale (EQ5D). Conclusion Il existe très peu de données sur l’impact du confinement sur les patients souffrant de RIC. Dans cette étude, le confinement a eu peu d’impact sur l’activité de la maladie et a été bien vécu sur le plan psychologique.

Bioinformatics analysis of hematopoietic injury and potential therapeutic drugs associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Objective To analyze and predict hematopoietic injury caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and potential therapeutic drugs, and to provide theoretical basis for clinical treatment of the hematopoietic injury. Methods The gene expression omnibus (GEO) database was used to screen the whole genome expression data related to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The R language package was used for differential expression analysis and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. The core genes were screened by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis using STRING online analysis website. Then the self-developed apparent precision therapy prediction platform (EpiMed) was used to analyze diseases, drugs and related target genes. Results A total of 222 differential genes were screened, including 172 up-regulated and 50 down-regulated. GO enrichment analysis suggested that gene is mainly related to type I interferon response, cell cycle regulation, inflammatory cell migration, innate immune response, secretion of blood particles and vesicles, chemokines and their receptors. KEGG enrichment analysis suggested that gene is mainly related to viral infection, myocardial injury, complement and coagulation cascade, cell chemotaxis, platelet activation, acute inflammation, immune response, cellular signal transduction and so on. Ten core genes such as STAT1, IL-6, IRF7, TNF, MX1, ISG15, IFIH1, IRF9, DDX58 and GBP1were screened by PPI network analysis. EpiMed screened 10 drugs with potential intervention effects, including Rabdosia rubescens, sirolimus, glucocorticoid, Houttuynia cordata, Polygonum multiflorum, Red peony, tretinoin, Glycyrrhiza, cyclosporine A, fluvastatin and so on. Conclusions SARS-CoV-2 infection can damage the hematopoietic system by changing the expression of a series of genes. The potential intervention drugs screened from this have certain reference significance for the basic and clinical research of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). © 2020 People's Military Medical Press. All rights reserved.

Childhood COVID-19: a multicentre retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of paediatric patients with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). METHODS: Paediatric patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between January 15 and March 15, 2020, from seven hospitals in Zhejiang Province, China, were collected retrospectively and analysed. RESULTS: Thirty-two children with COVID-19, ranging in age from 3 months to 18 years, were enrolled. Family aggregation occurred in 87.5% of infant and preschool-aged children (7/8), and also school-aged children (14/16), but in only 12.5% (1/8) of adolescents (p < 0.05, p < 0.001). Most of these patients had mild symptoms: mainly fever (20/32) followed by cough (10/32) and fatigue (4/32). The average durations of viral RNA in respiratory samples and gastrointestinal samples were 15.8 d and 28.9 d, respectively. Detox duration in faeces decreased with age: 39.8 d, 27.5 d and 20.4 d in infants and preschool children, school children, and adolescents respectively (p0-6, -18 <0.01, p0-6, -14 <0.05). Pneumonia was found in 14 children, but there was no statistical significance in the incidence of pneumonia between different age groups. Thirty patients were treated with antiviral drugs, and all patients were stable and gradually improved after admission. CONCLUSIONS: Most children with COVID-19 had a mild process and a good prognosis. More attention should be paid to investigation of household contact history in the diagnosis of COVID-19 in young children. Viral RNA lasts longer in the gastrointestinal system than in the respiratory tract, especially in younger children.