Mental health status of college students during coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic.

Objective To investigate the psychological characteristics of college students during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), so as to provide a basis for psychological intervention. Methods From May 17, 2020 to Jun. 17, 2020, the adjusted psychological questionnaires for emergent events of public health (PQEEPH) was surveyed among the college students of Beijing Union University. The questionnaire included 5 dimensions: depression, neurasthenia, fear, obsessive-compulsive anxiety, and hypochondriasis. Four grades were scored according to the degree and frequency of emotional responses: 0 means no symptoms, 1 means mild symptoms, 2 means moderate symptoms, and 3 means severe symptoms. Results A total of 3 019 valid questionnaires were collected. During the COVID-19 epidemic, the emotional responses of college students, from the most serious to the least, were fear, neurasthenia, depression, obsessive-compulsive anxiety, and hypochondriasis, with the incidences being 87.7% (2 648/3 019), 44.8% (1 353/3 019), 37.4% (1 129/3 019), 17.3% (522/3 019), and 11.6% (350/3 019), respectively. The fear scores of female students were higher than those of male students (P<0.001), the fear scores of college students from towns/suburbs were higher than those from rural and urban areas (both P<0.017), the scores of depression, neurasthenia and obsessive-compulsive anxiety of college students with confirmed COVID-19 cases around them or their relatives participated in the epidemic prevention and control as medical staff or logistics support personnel were higher than those without such conditions (all P<0.017), and the scores of depression, obsessive-compulsive anxiety and hypochondriasis of college students with suspected COVID-19 cases around them were higher than those without such condition (all P<0.017). Females were more likely to have moderate to severe fear than males (odds ratioOR=1.53, 95% confidence intervalCI1.25-1.88, P<0.001), those with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases around them were more likely to have moderate to severe fear than those without such conditions (OR=2.03, 95% CI 1.29-3.20, P=0.002), and those living in towns/suburbs were more likely to have moderate to severe fear than those living in rural and urban areas (OR=0.72, 95% CI 0.56-0.94, P=0.015;OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.97, P=0.025). Conclusion COVID-19 epidemic has impact on the psychology of college students. It is necessary to pay attention to the mental health of college students and provide targeted psychological counseling for them.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.

Beyond Value Assessment: Payer Perceptions of ICER's Policy Initiatives

Objectives: To assess how the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has evolved its policy scope beyond value assessments in the last 7 years and explore payer perceptions of ICER's new policy initiatives. Method(s): Completed ICER assessments and policy papers published from 2016-2022 were counted to quantify ICER's activities and output. Double-blinded, web-based surveys of US healthcare payers were fielded through Xcenda's research panel, the Managed Care Network, in October 2020 (N=47) and June 2022 (N=51) to explore perceptions of ICER initiatives, including policy papers, Unsupported Price Increase (UPI) reports, and ICER Analytics. Result(s): ICER has published 65 value assessments and 17 policy papers since 2016. ICER's output of policy papers has increased in recent years (mean of 1.3 publications annually, 2016-2018 vs 3.7 annually, 2020-2022), whereas the number of value assessments has remained flat (mean of 9.3 assessments annually, 2016-2018 and 2020-2022). Payers perceive ICER's policy initiatives to be of varying degrees of usefulness. In 2020, the subset of payers reporting familiarity with ICER initiatives found the policy paper on valuing cures to be the most useful initiative (42% reporting extremely or very useful [n=38 reporting familiarity]), followed by the UPI report (40% [n=40]);the policy paper on COVID-19 pricing models was viewed as least useful (22% [n=37]). In 2022, the most useful initiatives among payers reporting familiarity were ICER Analytics (51% [n=49]) and the policy paper on orphan drugs (45% [n=47]);the policy paper on fair access was perceived as least useful (29% [n=44]). Conclusion(s): ICER's output of annual policy papers has increased over time, demonstrating ICER's growing investment in policy initiatives. Payer perceptions of the usefulness of ICER initiatives vary, with ICER Analytics being the most useful in 2022. Additional research is needed to better understand how payers use ICER's policy papers/initiatives to inform decision making.Copyright © 2023

Mental health status of college students during coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic

Objective To investigate the psychological characteristics of college students during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), so as to provide a basis for psychological intervention. Methods From May 17, 2020 to Jun. 17, 2020, the adjusted psychological questionnaires for emergent events of public health (PQEEPH) was surveyed among the college students of Beijing Union University. The questionnaire included 5 dimensions: depression, neurasthenia, fear, obsessive-compulsive anxiety, and hypochondriasis. Four grades were scored according to the degree and frequency of emotional responses: 0 means no symptoms, 1 means mild symptoms, 2 means moderate symptoms, and 3 means severe symptoms. Results A total of 3 019 valid questionnaires were collected. During the COVID-19 epidemic, the emotional responses of college students, from the most serious to the least, were fear, neurasthenia, depression, obsessive-compulsive anxiety, and hypochondriasis, with the incidences being 87.7% (2 648/3 019), 44.8% (1 353/3 019), 37.4% (1 129/3 019), 17.3% (522/3 019), and 11.6% (350/3 019), respectively. The fear scores of female students were higher than those of male students (P<0.001), the fear scores of college students from towns/suburbs were higher than those from rural and urban areas (both P<0.017), the scores of depression, neurasthenia and obsessive-compulsive anxiety of college students with confirmed COVID-19 cases around them or their relatives participated in the epidemic prevention and control as medical staff or logistics support personnel were higher than those without such conditions (all P<0.017), and the scores of depression, obsessive-compulsive anxiety and hypochondriasis of college students with suspected COVID-19 cases around them were higher than those without such condition (all P<0.017). Females were more likely to have moderate to severe fear than males (odds ratio[OR]=1.53, 95% confidence interval[CI]1.25-1.88, P<0.001), those with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases around them were more likely to have moderate to severe fear than those without such conditions (OR=2.03, 95% CI 1.29-3.20, P=0.002), and those living in towns/suburbs were more likely to have moderate to severe fear than those living in rural and urban areas (OR=0.72, 95% CI 0.56-0.94, P=0.015;OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.97, P=0.025). Conclusion COVID-19 epidemic has impact on the psychology of college students. It is necessary to pay attention to the mental health of college students and provide targeted psychological counseling for them.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.

Considerations for the Management of Oncology Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic

[...]we highlight ongoing investigational treatment approaches that are so relevant to the care of oncology patients during this extraordinary pandemic. While many therapeutic strategies are currently being evaluated as possible COVID-19 treatments, there are currently no highly effective antiviral therapies or vaccines available to combat this virus, and mortality in severe disease remains high.6 Risk factors for severe illness resulting from COVID-19 are age greater than 65 years, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and obesity,7 and cancer patients who contract COVID-19, in particular, have been shown to have worse outcomes.8 In the initial experience reported from Wuhan, China, 1% of cancer patients were noted to contract COVID-19, compared with just 0.29% incidence in the general population.8 This may be attributed to greater detection rates in more closely surveilled cancer patients, but it could also be associated with nosocomial exposures and diminished im mune defenses.8 Cancer patients were also observed to be at higher risk for the development of severe COVID-19, which may be due to generally advanced age, increased prevalence of tobacco use, and higher incidence of comorbid pulmonary disease.9 Liang et al also demonstrated that cancer patients were more likely to require intensive care or experience mortality as compared with other COVID-19 patients (39% vs 8%).9 Cancer treatment may also increase COVID-19 susceptibility. Lin et al recommend LMWH at 100 U/kg every 12 hours for at least 3 to 5 days.8 In addition, a study performed in Tongji Hospital in Wuhan reviewed 449 patients with severe COVID-19, with 94 patients receiving LMWH (40-60 mg/day) and 5 receiving unfractionated heparin (1000-15,000 U/day) for 7 days or longer;the results showed that the 28-day mortality for LMWH or unfractionated heparin users with a sepsis-induced coagulopathy score of ≥4 and D-dimers >6 times the upper limit of normal was lower than that of non-LMWH or unfractionated heparin users.14 This has led several institutions, including our own, to institute anticoagulation protocols based on various parameters such as D-dimer levels.17 Pathophysiology of COVID-19 Coronaviruses are large, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA strand that encapsulate within a membrane envelope surrounded by glycoprotein spikes, forming a crown-like appearance.18 Less-pathogenic endemic human coronaviruses such as OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E exist, causing seasonally, self-limited upper respiratory symptoms.19 In contrast, more severe respiratory symptoms are caused by zoonotic human coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus (SARSCoV) discovered in November 2002 in Guangdong, China;Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia;and COVID-19.18 The subfamily, Coronavirinae, is divided into 4 classes of coronaviruses: α, β, δ, and γ. ACE2 has been shown to promote anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects, and it protects these cells from ARDS.19 In SARS-CoV-2, ACE2 ectodomain can shed as a result of spikes from the viral glycoprotein, reducing the catalytic function of ACE2 and promoting ARDS.19 In addition, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to reduce synthesis of interferon-α and interferon-β and to increase inflammatory cytokines and chemokines.20 In lung adenocarcinomas, ACE2 gene expression

How Do Logistics Disruptions Affect Rural Households? Evidence from COVID-19 in China

Using a comprehensive survey of rural households during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, we find that logistics disruptions due to the lockdown have resulted in severe economic losses for rural households. Insufficient production inputs and perishable outputs can aggravate the impact of logistics disruptions on losses, while the purchase of agriculture insurance and higher regional GDP can mitigate this effect. We further examine the mechanisms by which logistics disruptions affect rural households, including both sales and production channels in agricultural supply chains. The former includes changes in product prices and reduced sales, while the latter includes changes in input prices and shortages of raw materials, capital, and labor. Of these channels, logistics has the most severe impact on sales. Opening up the logistics of sales channels is the primary policy choice. More storage warehouses and insurance are also important preemptive measures. Building stable and sustainable agricultural supply chains can ensure rural household viability during the pandemic. © 2022 by the authors.

Impact of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households at early COVID-19 pandemic in China

Purpose: Given the scarcity of data during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, the decision-making for non-pharmaceutical policies was mostly based on insufficient evidence. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of these policies, such as lockdown and government subsidies, on rural households and identify policy implications for China and other countries in dealing with pandemics. Design/methodology/approach: The authors survey 2,408 rural households by telephone from 101 counties across 17 provinces in China during the first stage of the pandemic (March 2020). The authors use the ordered probit model and linear regression model to study the overall impact of policies and then use the quantile regression model and sub-sample regression method to study the heterogeneity of the effects of government policies. Findings: The authors find that logistics disruption due to lockdown negatively affected rural households. Obstructed logistics is associated with a more significant loss for high-income households, while its impact on the loss expectation of low-income households is more severe. Breeding and other industries such as transport and sales suffer more from logistics than cultivation. The impact of logistics on intensive agricultural entities is more serious than that on professional farms. The government subsidy is more effective at reducing loss for low-income households. Lockdown and government subsidies have shown heterogeneous impacts on rural households. Practical implications: The overall economic losses experienced by rural households in the early stages of the pandemic are controllable. The government policies of logistics and subsidies should target specific groups. Originality/value: The authors evaluate the economic impacts of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households and show their heterogeneity among different groups. The authors further demonstrate the policy effectiveness in supporting rural households during the early stages of the pandemic and provide future policy guidance on major public health event. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Are categorical EPU indices predictable for carbon futures volatility? Evidence from the machine learning method

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the categorical Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) indices are predictable for the volatility of carbon futures, in the mixed data sampling (MIDAS) regression framework. The prediction methods include the MIDAS-RV model, the MIDAS models extended by individual categorical EPU index, combination prediction approaches, the MIDAS models extended by dimensionality reduction techniques as well as the machine learning methods on the basis of MIDAS model and Markov regime switching method. We find firstly that categorical EPU indices are predictable for carbon futures volatility, but the predictive power of individual categorical EPU indices is not robust. Secondly, machine learning methods, especially the machine learning method considering the Markov regime switching structure, help to obtain valid information from multiple categorical EPU indices and produce robust and superior prediction accuracy for carbon futures volatility. The results of the extension analysis also found that machine learning methods, especially the machine learning method considering the Markov regime switching structure help to produce higher investment performance and more accurate long-term carbon futures volatility forecasts. Meanwhile, we also find the advantages of the MIDAS based machine learning methods over the traditional AR based machine learning methods. Finally, the forecasting performance of the machine learning method which considering Markov regime switching structure are superior during both the low and high volatility regimes and even during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

Innovative and efficient CNN structure works for chest X-ray images classification

In the era of global transmission of COVID-19, it is a challenge for physicians to efficiently and accurately use chest Xray images to diagnose whether a patient is positive or not. The application of deep learning and computer vision in medical image processing solves this problem, but a highly accurate method is still needed. In this research, we proposed an innovative CNN structure used for chest X-ray classification. Based on deep learning and CNN, this new architecture has an efficient training process and the performance of accuracy is better than other classic nets. The best accuracy on the test dataset is 97.68%. It has competitive advantages over AlexNet, LeNet-5, and Vgg-16. Dropout, Data augmentation, and Grad-CAM technique are added to improve performance. © 2022 IEEE.

Cyber anti-intellectualism and information seeking about SARS-CoV-2 variants

While scientific knowledge acquisition is a vital premise for citizens' self-protection against COVID-19, the impact of anti-intellectualism on scientific information seeking has yet to be fully examined. Based on a cross-sectional survey, this study investigated the association of distrust and stigmatization forms of anti-intellectualism (i.e. AID vs. AIS) with the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) in predicting Chinese netizens' information seeking about SARS-CoV-2 variants. The statistical results show that AIS is positively associated with seeking-related subjective norms and perceived control, indicating that it may boost a sense of self-empowerment. However, AIS is negatively related to affective risk response and the knowledge-sufficiency threshold, suggesting its possible link to overconfidence and trust in government. AID was found to be negatively associated with seeking-related attitudes and perceived control. Because AIS is far more popular than AID among respondents, its contradictory health implications should be brought into the vision of health communicators. © 2023 The Centre for Chinese Media and Comparative Communication Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The influence of product color displayed on online advertisements and consumer personality on purchase intention: The moderating role of age and gender

Consumer purchasing patterns has been affected by COVID-19 health Crisis. Thus, companies must adapt to this change by focusing on understanding the different variables affecting the post pandemic purchase intentions of consumers. Therefore, the basic objective of this study is the development of an integrated framework to investigate the impact of the colors used for products on online advertisement and the consumer personality on the purchase intention of customers in the context of post pandemic. This study will also focus on highlighting the moderating role of age and gender on the relationship between the three constructs. Data were collected from customers of 53 Moroccan textile companies operating in the E-commerce industry. The data was analyzed, and the theoretical model was validated using Partial least square (PLS) and structural equation model (SEM). The findings show that: the color of the product displayed in the advertisement has a high impact on the purchase intention of consumers;the personality of the consumer impact positively the purchase intention of the consumer, and finally, color of the product displayed on the advertisement has a bigger impact on the purchase intention of young people than old people while age doesn't have any significant impact on the relationship between personality and purchase intention. The contribution of this study is to emphasize the roles of understanding the use of colors in advertising and the personality of the consumer, during the post pandemic, on consumer purchasing intention, for companies to innovate and differentiate their offered advertisements to meet the needs and survive the crisis. © 2022 International Consortium for Electronic Business. All rights reserved.

Forecasting the Asian stock market volatility: Evidence from WTI and INE oil futures

This study investigates whether China's crude oil futures (INE) and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) markets hold valuable information for estimating the realized volatility of seven Asian stock markets. This study has several notable findings. First, China's oil futures can trigger forecast accuracy for three equity indices (Nikkei 225, NSEI, and FT Straits Times), whereas WTI helps forecast the volatility of the two indices (KSE 100 and KOSPI). Second, comparing China's crude oil futures with WTI's crude oil futures, we find that the former could be an effective indicator for all seven Asian stock markets during a high-volatility period, while WTI information is helpful in forecasting the volatility of the KSE 100, NSEI, and FT Strait Times during the low-volatility period. Further, information of both oil futures is ineffective for the Hang Seng and SSEC equity indices. Our results are robust in several robustness checks, including alternative evaluation methods, recursive window approach, and alternative realized measures, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Role of pyroptosis in severe COVID-19

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease endangering the respirator)' traet and multiple organs of the whole body caused by severe aeute respirator)' syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2).More than 200 million people in the world have been infected with the disease, which is an unprecedented global plague.Most patients with C0VID-19 only show mild symptoms with a good prognosis, but about 20% of them may develop into severe cases and eause serious compli-cations, including acute respirator)' distress syndrome ( ARDS) , systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) , cytokine release syndrome (CRS) , etc.Pyroptosis is a kind of programmed cell death characterized by significant inflammatory response.It is often mediated by inflammatory caspase and the gasdermin family of membrane perforating proteins is the final effector molecules, resulting in cell membrane swelling and rupture to death, accompanied by the release of a large number of pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-lp and IL-18, etc).Pyropto- sis affects the occurrence, progression and treatment of many diseases due to its inflammatory and morphological characteristics, and also plays an important role in severe COVID-19.Therefore, drugs that target key molecules in the pyroapoptotic pathway could he a promising breakthrough for treating severe COVID-19.This article reviews the role of pyroptosis in severe COVID-19 complications ARDS and CHS. Copyright © 2022 Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.

Development and validation of an electronic version of the Sydney Swallow Questionnaire

Background and Aim: Accurate assessment of patient-reported oropharyngeal dysphagia (OPD) is essential to guide appropriate management and evaluate its response. The Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (SSQ) is a paper-based 17-item inventory developed and validated to objectively assess OPD. An easy-to-use electronic questionnaire version with automated answer upload has significant potential to streamline remote patient assessment, especially in COVID-19-affected populations. The aim of this study was to develop an electronic version of the SSQ (eSSQ) and validate it against the original paper version. Method(s): The eSSQ was translated from the paper version on the online REDCAP platform and developed to be accessible on computer and mobile devices. Recruited patients with OPD and asymptomatic controls completed both electronic and paper versions in randomized order. Patients with stable symptoms during the study period then repeated the eSSQ after >=14 days for test-retest reliability. Agreement of total scores between both versions and eSSQ test-retest reliability were calculated using two-way mixed-effects intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Result(s): A total of 44 dysphagic patients and 32 controls were recruited. The most common underlying etiology for dysphagia was head and neck cancer. Mean eSSQ total score was 800 in dysphagic patients and 67 in controls. eSSQ had excellent agreement with the paper SSQ in total scores among all participants (ICC, 0.99;95% CI, 0.98-0.99) and in dysphagic patients (ICC, 0.97;95% CI, 0.94-0.98), as well as excellent test-retest reliability (ICC, 0.96;95% CI, 0.90-0.98). Conclusion(s): The newly developed eSSQ shows excellent agreement with the paper SSQ and test-retest reliability. Future applications of its use may allow for more efficient and accessible patient assessment.

STE-COVIDNet: A Multi-channel Model with Attention Mechanism for Time Series Prediction of COVID-19 Infection

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the world. The prediction of COVID-19 can conduct the distribution of medical supplies and prevent further transmission. However, the spread of COVID-19 is affected by various factors, so the prediction results of previous studies are limited in practical application. A deep learning model with multi-channel combined multiple factors including space, time, and environment (STE-COVIDNet) is proposed to predict COVID-19 infection accurately in this paper. The attention mechanism is applied to score each environment to reflect its impact on the spread of COVID-19 and obtain environmental features. The experiments on the data of 48 states in the United States prove that STE-COVIDNet is superior to other advanced prediction models in performance. In addition, we analyze the attention weights of the environment of the 48 states obtained by STE-COVIDNet. It is found that the same environmental factors have inconsistent effects on COVID-19 transmission in different regions and times, which explains why researchers have varying results when studying the impact of environmental factors on transmission of COVID-19 based on data from different areas. STE-COVIDNet has a certain explainability and can adapt to the environmental changes, which ultimately improves our predictive performance. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Understanding consumers' motivations to view travel live streaming: Scale development and validation

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, travel live streaming has been increasingly implemented by online travel agents as an effective approach for economic recovery. However, little is known about users' motivations for participating in this activity. This study aims to understand Chinese customers' motivations by developing a measurement scale based on in-depth interviews and surveys. Eight motivators were extracted: socializing & belonging, media engagement, remuneration, product examination, relaxation & escape, entertainment & novelty, self-development, and immersion experience. This study deepens the understanding of China's live-streaming business and the preferences of tourists, inspiring future product design and marketing. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Privacy preserving IoT-based crowd-sensing network with comparable homomorphic encryption and its application in combating COVID19

IoT-based crowd-sensing network, which aims to achieve data collection and task allocation to mobile users, become more and more popular in recent years. This data collected by IoT devices may be private and directly transmission of these data maybe incur privacy leakage. With the help of homomorphic encryption (HE), which supports the additive and/or multiplicative operations over the encrypted data, privacy preserving crowd-sensing network is now possible. Until now several such secure data aggregation schemes based on HE have been proposed. In many cases, ciphertext comparison is an important step for further secure data processing. However efficient ciphertext comparison is not supported by most such schemes. In this paper, aiming at enabling ciphertext comparison among multiple users in crowd-sensing network, with Lagrange’s interpolation technique we propose comparable homomorphic encryption (CompHE) schemes. We also prove our schemes’ security, and the performance analysis show our schemes are practical. We also discuss the applications of our IoT based crowd-sensing network with comparable homomorphic encryption for combatting COVID19, including the first example of privacy preserving close contact determination based on the spatial distance, and the second example of privacy preserving social distance controlling based on the spatial difference of lockdown zones, controlled zones and precautionary zones. From the analysis we see our IoT based crowd-sensing network can be used for contact tracing without worrying about the privacy leakage. Compared with the existing CompHE schemes, our proposals can be collusion resistance or secure in the semi-honest model while the previous schemes can not achieve this easily. Our schemes only need 4 or 5 modular exponentiation when implementing the most important comparison algorithm, which are better than the existing closely related scheme with advantage of 50% or 37.5%.

Impact of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households at early COVID-19 pandemic in China

Purpose Given the scarcity of data during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, the decision-making for non-pharmaceutical policies was mostly based on insufficient evidence. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of these policies, such as lockdown and government subsidies, on rural households and identify policy implications for China and other countries in dealing with pandemics. Design/methodology/approach The authors survey 2,408 rural households by telephone from 101 counties across 17 provinces in China during the first stage of the pandemic (March 2020). The authors use the ordered probit model and linear regression model to study the overall impact of policies and then use the quantile regression model and sub-sample regression method to study the heterogeneity of the effects of government policies. Findings The authors find that logistics disruption due to lockdown negatively affected rural households. Obstructed logistics is associated with a more significant loss for high-income households, while its impact on the loss expectation of low-income households is more severe. Breeding and other industries such as transport and sales suffer more from logistics than cultivation. The impact of logistics on intensive agricultural entities is more serious than that on professional farms. The government subsidy is more effective at reducing loss for low-income households. Lockdown and government subsidies have shown heterogeneous impacts on rural households. Practical implications The overall economic losses experienced by rural households in the early stages of the pandemic are controllable. The government policies of logistics and subsidies should target specific groups. Originality/value The authors evaluate the economic impacts of lockdown and government subsidies on rural households and show their heterogeneity among different groups. The authors further demonstrate the policy effectiveness in supporting rural households during the early stages of the pandemic and provide future policy guidance on major public health event.

The dark side of remote working during pandemics: Examining its effects on work-family conflict and workplace wellbeing

While remote working has been applied as an emerging flexible modern work arrangement and as an effective way to maintain social distancing during pandemics, it may result in negative workplace outcomes. Despite the eulogy on remote working, more research is needed to examine its possible negative effects on employees in the workplace. This study aims to fill these gaps by examining the effects of remote working on work-family conflict and workplace wellbeing during pandemics, and how such effects are moderated by employees’ general self-efficacy and job autonomy. Survey data was collected from 399 Chinese employees during COVID-19. The results show that remote working has a positive effect on work-family conflict, which in turn decreases workplace wellbeing. Further analyses show that while the work-family conflict dimension of family interfering with work (FIW) has a negative effect on wellbeing, the effect of the work-family conflict dimension of work interfering with family (WIF) on wellbeing is not significant. Besides, the effect of remote working on FIW is positively moderated by general self-efficacy and job autonomy. Lastly, the effect of remote working differs depending on the extent to which remote working is implemented. Our study contributes to the literature by explaining the negative effect of remote working on workplace wellbeing during pandemics and clarifying its boundary conditions. Our results provide managers useful guidelines regarding how to implement remote working. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Calming Effect of Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music for Patients Admitted to Epilepsy Monitoring Unit during COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and mechanism of Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music (CDIM) to induce calmness and stress relief in patients admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). Background: Epilepsy monitoring requires simulating seizure-inducing conditions which frequently causes discomfort to EMU patients. COVID-19 hospital restrictions added another layer of stress upon hospital admission. The purpose of this research was to provide evidence that CDIM brings relief to EMU patients. Design/Methods: Five individuals with epileptic seizures in the EMU during the COVID-19 lockdown participated in the study (average age+ SD=30.2 + 6). Continuous video EEG and heart tracing were obtained before, during, and after live CDIM. CDIM consisted of 40 minutes of virtual calming music played by a music practitioner on viola. Post-intervention surveys assessed patients' emotional state. Alpha/beta power spectral density ratio was calculated for each subject across the brain and was evaluated using one-way repeated analysis of variance, comparing 20 minutes before, during, and 20 minutes after CDIM. Post-hoc analysis was performed using paired t-test. Results: Patients reported enhanced emotional state (9.25/10), contentment (9.5/10), and decreased restlessness (8.75/10) on a 10-point Likert scale. Compared to baseline, all experienced decreases in heart rate during CDIM. Alpha/beta ratio increased at whole-brain and regional levels during CDIM and persisted post-intervention. There was a significant main effect of CDIM on alpha/beta ratio (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Consistent with investigations in patients with depression and anxiety, we found positive effects of music as reported by patients, a decrease in heart rate, an increased alpha/beta ratio due to calming effect in response to CDIM. These effects persisted for at least 20 minutes post-intervention. Our study provides proof of concept that live CDIM provided demonstrable comfort for patients admitted in the EMU during the COVID-19 pandemic.