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Introduction: Guselkumab (GUS), an IL-23p19 antagonist, had greater efficacy than placebo (PBO) in achieving clinical response and clinical remission atWeek (Wk) 12 in the randomized, controlled Phase 2b QUASAR Induction Study 1 (NCT04033445) in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC).1 Patients who were not in clinical response at Wk 12 received GUS treatment through Wk 24. Here, we report GUS cumulative efficacy and safety results for Induction Study 1. Method(s): Eligible patients had moderately to severely active UC (modified Mayo score of 5 to 9 with a Mayo endoscopy subscore >=2) at baseline. Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to IV GUS 200mg, 400mg, or PBO at Wks 0, 4, and 8. Patients who were not in clinical response to IV induction at Wk 12 received GUS treatment (PBO IV->GUS 200mg IV;GUS 200mg IV->GUS 200mg SC;GUS 400mg IV->GUS 200mg SC) at Wks 12, 16, and 20 and were evaluated at Wk 24 (Figure). Matching IV or SC PBO was administered to maintain the blind. Result(s): Three hundred thirteen patients were randomized and treated at baseline. Demographic and disease characteristics at baseline were similar among the treatment groups, and approximately 50% had a prior inadequate response or intolerance to advanced UC therapy. AtWk 12, clinical response was achieved by 61.4% (62/101) and 60.7% (65/107) of patients randomized to GUS 200mg and GUS 400mg IV vs 27.6 % (29/105) of patients randomized to PBO IV (both p< 0.001). Of the patients in the GUS groups who were not in clinical response at Wk 12, 54.3% (19/35) in the GUS 200mg IV->200mg SC group and 50.0% (19/38) in the GUS 400mg IV->200mg SC group achieved clinical response at Wk 24. Clinical response atWk 12 or 24 was achieved by 80.2% of patients who were randomized to GUS 200mg IV and 78.5% of patients who were randomized to GUS 400mg IV. For patients who received PBO IV->GUS 200mg IV, clinical response at Wk 24 (65.2%) was similar toWk 12 clinical response following GUS 200mg IV induction (61.4%). The most frequent adverse events among all GUS-treated pts (n=274) were anemia (7.7%), headache (5.1%), worsening UC (4.4%), COVID-19 (3.6%), arthralgia (2.9%) and abdominal pain (2.6%) which are consistent with Wk 12 results. Conclusion(s): Overall, approximately 80% of patients randomized to receive GUS achieved clinical response at Wk 12 or 24. Continued treatment with SC GUS allowed 50-54.3% of IV GUS Wk 12 clinical nonresponders to achieve clinical response at Wk 24. No new safety concerns for GUS were identified. (Figure Presented).
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Since inflation of commodities is becoming more and more severe recently caused by many macro events, such as COVID-19 and Russian-Ukrainian conflict, systemic risk of commodity futures market is getting more attention from academic and industrial areas. Instead of using external factors to explain this risk as previous researches, we explain it by internal topology and structures of commodity futures market. This method helps us understand its key driving factors and their different impact to Chinese and international commodity futures markets. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.
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Background: Guselkumab (GUS), an IL-23p19 antagonist, had greater efficacy than placebo (PBO) in achieving clinical response and clinical remission at Week (Wk) 12 in the randomized, controlled Phase 2b QUASAR Induction Study 1 (NCT04033445) in patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC).1 Patients who were not in clinical response at Wk 12 received GUS treatment through Wk 24. Here, we report GUS cumulative efficacy and safety results for Induction Study 1. Method(s): Eligible patients had moderately to severely active UC (modified Mayo score of 5 to 9 with a Mayo endoscopy subscore >=2) at baseline. Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to IV GUS 200mg, 400mg, or PBO at Wks 0, 4, and 8. Patients who were not in clinical response to IV induction at Wk 12 received GUS treatment (PBO IVGUS 200mg IV;GUS 200mg IV->GUS 200mg SC;GUS 400mg IV->GUS 200mg SC) at Wks 12, 16, and 20 and were evaluated at Wk 24 (Figure 1). Matching IV or SC PBO was administered to maintain the blind. Result(s): Three hundred thirteen patients were randomized and treated at baseline. Demographic and disease characteristics at baseline were similar among the treatment groups, and approximately 50% had a prior inadequate response or intolerance to advanced UC therapy. At Wk 12, clinical response was achieved by 61.4% (62/101) and 60.7% (65/107) of patients randomized to GUS 200mg and GUS 400mg IV vs 27.6% (29/105) of patients randomized to PBO IV (both p<0.001). Of the patients in the GUS groups who were not in clinical response at Wk 12, 54.3% (19/35) in the GUS 200mg IV->200mg SC group and 50.0% (19/38) in the GUS 400mg IV->200mg SC group achieved clinical response at Wk 24. Clinical response at Wk 12 or 24 was achieved by 80.2% of patients who were randomized to GUS 200mg IV and 78.5% of patients who were randomized to GUS 400mg IV. For patients who received PBO IV->GUS 200mg IV, clinical response at Wk 24 (65.2%) was similar to Wk 12 clinical response following GUS 200mg IV induction (61.4%). The most frequent adverse events among all GUS-treated pts (n=274) were anemia (7.7%), headache (5.1%), worsening UC (4.4%), COVID-19 (3.6%), arthralgia (2.9%) and abdominal pain (2.6%) which are consistent with Wk 12 results. Conclusion(s): Overall, approximately 80% of patients randomized to receive GUS achieved clinical response at Wk 12 or 24. Continued treatment with SC GUS allowed 50-54.3% of IV GUS Wk 12 clinical nonresponders to achieve clinical response at Wk 24. No new safety concerns for GUS were identified.
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Ventilation improves indoor air quality and reduces airborne infections. It is particularly important at present because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Commercially available ventilation facilities can only be instantly turned on/off or at a set time with adjustable air volumes (high, middle, and low). However, maintaining the indoor carbon dioxide concentration while reducing the energy consumption of these facilities is challenging. Hence, this study developed clustering algorithms to determine the carbon dioxide concentration limit thus enabling real-time air volume adjustment. These limit values were set using the existing energy recovery ventilation (ERV) controller. In the experiment, dual estimation was adopted, and the constructing building energy models from data were sampled at a low rate to compare that the ventilation facilities are only turned on/off. In addition, switching control is closely related to fuzzy control;that is, fuzzy control can be considered a smooth version of switching control. The experimental results indicated that the limits of 600 and 700 ppm were suitable to effectively control the real-time air volume based on the ERV operation. An ERV-based carbon dioxide concentration limit reduced the energy consumption of ventilation facilities by 11%implications of this study. IEEE
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Background: Online learning has recently surged due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Because of the pandemic, many universities were forced to move to online learning, and various online teaching and learning environments emerged, both asynchronous and synchronous. Objective: This study explores how a large university in the Southeastern United States of America converted an in-person Lean Manufacturing professional course into synchronous online learning for industry participants. Method: The study analysed the performance of 212 in-person and 43 online industry participants and examined the views of online participants about the training. Paired t-tests, one-way multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), and univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were utilized to evaluate the performance of the in-person and online groups on the three competencies (Lean culture, problem-solving and Lean systems). Results and Conclusion: Both online and in-person programs performed equally well in two Lean Manufacturing competencies: Lean systems and problem solving. The online program outperformed the in-person program in the third competency, Lean culture. Overall, the participants had a positive experience with the structure and organization of the online program, and their impression of the online learning environment for the program was positive. The study findings indicated that Lean Manufacturing could be trained effectively online and in person. Best practices are suggested for the conversion of in-person to synchronous online engineering continuing education programs. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Nowadays, organic wastes stemming from schools, hospitals, restaurants, workplaces, markets, residences, and wastewater treatment plants are becoming a complex phenomenon, attracting the attention of scientists to convert them into valuable products that can be used to improve soil quality. However, land application of organic waste products (OWPs) is a significant pathway for spreading bio-contaminants such as viruses, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and human pathogenic bacteria (HPB) in the soil environment, which poses a significant concern for the health of human beings if they move into the food chain. In this chapter, the knowledge focused on the effects of bio-contaminants in the products recycled from organic wastes on the soil environment. Herein, the information regarding the types and risks of viruses, ARGs, and HPB in different organic wastes and in different soil regions was substantially introduced, and the emerging bio-contaminants such as SARS-CoV-2 and ARGs were also presented. Moreover, the pollution pathway from OWPs to the soil was detailed. This chapter demonstrates the types of viruses, ARGs, and HPB, soil contamination processes, perspectives, and mitigation measures. This can be used as a guide for protecting human beings when dealing with organic waste. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has directly or indirectly impacted everyone around the globe. However, the pandemic and its long-term consequences have not been distributed evenly within societies. These disparities have in many cases intensified existing social and economic inequalities such as the uptake of novel digital technologies. This study investigates the influence of the pandemic on the acceptance of virtual reality (VR) hardware within the framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the digital divide/inequality scholarship. A survey was designed to examine the perceived impact of COVID-19 on the potential adoption of VR hardware. Specifically, this study included variables related to perceived ease of using VR hardware (ease of use), perceived usefulness of VR hardware (usefulness), intention to use VR hardware (use intention), and intention to purchase VR hardware (purchase intention). The predictors included two digital divide variables (material access and VR experience) and two other variables (COVID-19 and demographic variables). A total of 298 participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results suggest that the perceived impacts of COVID-19 positively predicted participants' perceived usefulness of VR hardware as well as their intention to use and purchase VR hardware. © 2023 SAGE Publications.
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The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic seriously threatens people's lives and health all over the world. Public information service is an important way for the public to understand the pandemic development and pandemic prevention and control measures. However, more people become vulnerable rather than the typical vulnerable groups due to the pandemic encounter difficulties in accessing public information services. To better help vulnerable people during the emergencies, based on related vulnerable groups theory, this chapter identifies two types of vulnerable groups in China. It collects information from news, journal papers, conference papers and other relevant perspectives to examine the difficulties that vulnerable people have encountered. Moreover, this chapter puts forward some suggestions from the aspect of policies and regulations, technologies and information systems, service content, and operating mechanism of public information services to better meet the information needs of vulnerable people. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The wide spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has significantly impacted the global human activities. Compared to numerous studies on conventional air pollutants, atmospheric mercury that has matched sources from both anthropogenic and natural emissions is rarely investigated. At a regional site in eastern China, an intensive measurement was performed, showing obvious decreases in gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) during the COVID-19 lockdown, while it was not as significant as most of the other measured air pollutants. Before the lockdown, when anthropogenic emissions dominated, GEM showed no correlation with temperature and negative correlations with wind speed and the height of the boundary layer. In contrast, GEM showed significant correlation with temperature, while the relationship between GEM and the wind speed/boundary layer disappeared during the lockdown, suggesting the enhanced natural emissions of mercury. By applying a machine learning model and the SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) approach, it was found that the mercury pollution episodes before the lockdown were driven by anthropogenic sources, while they were mainly driven by natural sources during and after the lockdown. Source apportionment results showed that the absolute contribution of natural surface emissions to GEM unexpectedly increased (44 %) during the lockdown. Throughout the whole study period, a significant negative correlation was observed between the absolute contribution of natural and anthropogenic sources to GEM. We conclude that the natural release of mercury could be stimulated to compensate for the significantly reduced anthropogenic GEM via the surface-air exchange in the balance of mercury.
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China's economy underwent a steady recovery in 2021. Investment grew steadily with structural improvement. Exports and imports surged while trade surplus expanded. On the other hand, although labor market conditions improved, income distribution worsened, contributing to sluggish growth in consumption, whereas the gap between consumer price index and producer price index widened, and the profits of enterprises of different sizes diverged, which may go beyond how they are correlated with the locations of the enterprises in the chain of production and trade. While proper liquidity was maintained with prudent monetary policy, risk spillover rose in the financial system, particularly for small and medium-sized banks. Household and local government debts remained at relatively high levels, further dragging down growth in consumption and infrastructure investment. The "dual carbon" goals exerted downward pressure on near-term growth in trading off their long-term benefits. The economy also faced challenges in its external environment in the midst of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic aboard, trade protectionism, and the readjustment of the global value chain. Moreover, excessive supervision and inadequate implementation disturbed China's economy, resulting in declined market vitality and confidence of market participants. Based on the Institute for Advanced Research-China Macroeconomic Model, the baseline real gross domestic product growth rate is projected to be 5.5% in 2022. Alternative scenario analyses and policy simulations are conducted, in addition to the benchmark forecast, to reflect the influences of various risks and possible favorable situations. The findings suggest that China should deepen reform and open up more comprehensively and initiatively, while special effort should be placed on providing accommodative policy and friendly public opinion environment, to facilitate steady growth and propel high-quality development. A comprehensive macroeconomic governance framework with Chinese characteristics must be developed from systems thinking, to resolve the various issues, internal and external, cyclical and secular, structural and institutional, in an all-inclusive and coherent manner.
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Objective To explore the relationship between group risk perception, self-efficacy and attitudes among college students, and its associations with individual prevention and control behaviors regarding COVID-19 pandemic. Methods From October to November 2021, data were collected among 4 092 undergraduate students from eight colleges and universities in Anhui Province, using a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method. A t-teat and analysis of variance were performed for comparison between groups, while multiple linear regression was employed to investigate group risk perception, self-efficacy and attitudes among college students in terms of individual COVID-19 prevention and control measures. Results The total scores of group emotional risk perception (ARP), cognitive risk perception (CRP), distance perception (DIP) and self-efficacy were (19.72±4.01) (14.56± 3.64)(18.04±5.33) and (27.27±6.74), respectively. The total score of attitudes and beliefs was (26.15±4.54), while individual prevention and control behavior was (25.67±4.45). Emotional risk perception (B = 0.16), cognitive risk perception (B = 0.08), attitudes (B = 0.23) and self-efficacy (B = 0.13) were positively correlated with individual prevention and control behaviors of college students(P<0.05). However, distance risk perception had no significant effect (P>0.05). Conclusion Risk perception, self-efficacy and attitude of college students are correlated with individual COVID-19 prevention and control behaviors. Therefore, colleges and universities should strengthen general self-efficacy and attitude, and improve risk awareness towards COVID-19 among college students, and promote the effective prevention and control of campus epidemic. © 2021 Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co.Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Case Diagnosis: A 71-year-old female with 20-year history of controlled seizures experiences breakthrough seizures following the Moderna COVID Vaccine. Case Description or Program Description: The patient presented to the emergency department with chills and tremors 3 hours after her first dose of the Moderna vaccine. After 2 hours, she was discharged after her tremors abated. 7 hours later, the patient was found altered, feverish, and tachycardic. Workup revealed elevated troponin levels and positive E. coli urine culture. She was treated with antibiotics, but family reported she still experienced 'atypical seizures' that subsided after phenobarbital administration. MRI brain, EEG, CT head, and cardiac workup were unremarkable. Her baseline mental status returned 3 days after admission, but she experienced AMS and seizures shortly after discharge, requiring readmission. She was acutely encephalopathic with recurrent rigors, severe fevers, and seizures. Of note, the patient's last seizure was 20 years ago. EEG showed no recurrent seizures, but revealed infective encephalopathy. Following stabilization and discharge to LTAC, the patient suffered a hip fracture secondary to a fall with subsequent transfer to acute rehab. Setting(s): Acute Inpatient Rehab Assessment/Results: The patient remained confused and agitated throughout her course. Her pain was difficult to control, but mobility and self-care did improve. No further epileptic activity was witnessed during her inpatient stay. Unfortunately, she remained max assist with most tasks requiring substantial care upon discharge. Discussion (relevance): This case demonstrates a need for retrospective research of the COVID-19 vaccine among patients with epileptic history. Despite being seizure free for 20 years, she experienced adverse reactions following administration of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine and subsequent devastating sequelae that caused severe deficits in self-care, mobility, and cognition. Conclusion(s): The COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge the safety standards of our current vaccination protocols. This poses a distinct challenge for rehabilitation and indicates a need for further research into adverse effects and contraindications to this vaccine.
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With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval and widespread use of COVID mRNA vaccines (principally the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines), mRNA techniques have become widely recognized by both the media and the general public. Correspondingly, many topics related to these techniques have attracted significant interest in many research areas, including microRNA (miRNA), which regulates many mRNA types. Although miRNA has been researched since early 2000, the studies focused on miRNA in the context of individual diseases are all very recent. What constitutes an appropriate miRNA pair for a biomarker to support disease diagnosis is still an open question in many biochemical and medical investigations, for example, Alzheimer's disease. Sometimes, synthetic (artificial) miRNA is used as a normalizer (denominator of biomarker). Sometimes, a ubiquitous normalizer with a robust concentration value across many pathologies is chosen. In the biomedical field, researchers have selected markers in different ways, often without rigorous mathematical or statistical study. In this paper, instead of using these pathology-insensitive miRNAs as normalizers, we propose a new miRNA-pairs-selection algorithm with a multivariate statistics approach to search for a pair or of pathology-sensitive miRNAs for a given pathology. We demonstrate the performance of this algorithm through a published experiment using published Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) data.
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Introduction/Background Sarcoidosis is a T cell mediated systemic disease of unknown etiology that results in granulomatous inflammation and multiorgan dysfunction. Individuals with sarcoidosis have been shown to be at increased risk for infection arguing the importance of vaccination as a primary prevention strategy. However, current knowledge as to how individuals with sarcoidosis respond to vaccination is limited. Furthermore, proteomic and transcriptomic profiling post vaccination will offer integrated insight into the immune mechanisms that drive sarcoidosis disease. Objective(s) The objective of this study is to determine the quantitative antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination to correlate to the unique proteomic and transcriptomic profiles underlying the immune response. Methods With local institutional review board approval, a prospective case control study was conducted to compare the proteomic and transcriptomic profiles of subjects with and without sarcoidosis before and after vaccination with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. Recruited subjects included individuals -18 years who received two doses of the vaccine at the University of Illinois (UIC). Sixteen subjects with biopsy proven sarcoidosis were recruited, six of whom were not on any treatment while 10 were on immunosuppressive therapy, while 23 age-gender matched healthy controls were recruited. Blood was sampled prior to each vaccine dose as well as one and seven days after vaccination. Anti-spike protein IgG titers and serum cytokine profiles were quantified with ELISA while bulk RNA sequencing was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Results Sarcoidosis subjects had significantly less antibody production after two doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine than controls (p-val 0.0040). A multivariate regression analysis indicated that a sarcoidosis diagnosis (p-val 0.026) was significantly and independently predictive with lower follow up antibody titers, which was more pronounced if subjects were on immunosuppressive therapy (p-val 0.00013). Differential gene expression will compare temporal individual variation after vaccination and identify group differences to identify transcriptomic pathways associated with the diminished antibody response. Weighted gene co-expression analysis will identify likely expressed genes to determine distinct profiles that may be predictive of sarcoidosis disease. Conclusion Subjects with sarcoidosis mount a decreased antibody response to the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine supporting a dysregulated immune response inherent to sarcoidosis pathogenesis. Correlated transcriptomic and proteomic profiling offers a unique opportunity to comprehensively study the genes and pathways underlying the immune response to vaccination in sarcoidosis.
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African Business Magazine is one of market leaders in providing country supplements, industry reports and market intelligence on Africa. African Business was first published in January 1982. Its headquarters are in London. The monthly magazine covers business events, special reports which discuss specific sectors and industries across Africa. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in March 2020, the monthly magazine published 64 reports or articles related to the COVID-19 status in Africa continent. This study tries to retrieve from these reports published on the magazine since March 2022 to study local perspectives on the pandemic event. Africa government's responses to the spread of the COVID-19 and impacts to economy and public health retrieved from the mass medias will be compared with WHO's guidelines under different stages since outbreak of the pandemic to verify whether African's COVID-19 prevention performance can be trusted. This study would add African's viewpoints to prevent COVID-19 under the limits of fragile health system to the existed pandemic studies. © 2022 ACM.
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Background: With the highly effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy, the number of liver transplants for hepatitis C virus (HCV) has decreased worldwide. However, similar to the phenomenon occurring in COVID-19 infection, the residual virus reservoirs in target organ is warranted to be explored due to the potential replication and disease recurrence. Hence, we aim to investigate the significance of hepatic HCV RNA identification as well as the discrepancy between HCV RNA and HCV core antigen (HCV Ag) in native liver of chronic hepatitis C recipients undergoing living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Methods: Between Feb 2016 to Aug 2019, we prospectively enrolled 80 serum anti-HCV positive recipients who underwent LDLT. HCV RNA extracted from the native liver tissues was subjected to one-step reverse transcribed qPCR, using the TopScript One Step qRT PCR Probe Kit with HCV qPCR probe assay and human GAPDH qPCR probe assay on ViiA 7 Real Time PCR System. Hepatic HCV Ag was identified from the native liver tissues by employing the qualitative enzyme immunoassay technique. All experimental steps were based on the protocol provided by Human HCV Ag ELISA Kit (Cat. No. MBS167758). Results: Among 80 recipients, 85% (68/80) positive HCV-RNA was significantly higher in the native liver tissues than in the serum before (29/80, 36.3%;p = 0.000) and after LDLT (3/80, 4.4%;p = 0.000). In contrast, hepatic HCV Ag was 100% negative identified in all 80 explanted native liver. Conclusions: Significant positive HCV-RNA identification in the native liver suggested that pre-LDLT serum HCV RNA should be underestimated in the real status of HCV activity. HCV Ag assay may have lack of sensitivity and negative predictive value in liver tissues. In contrast to serum HCV RNA and HCV Ag, a great discrepancy might be described between hepatic HCV RNA and HCV Ag in the liver tissue. (Figure Presented).
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Misinformation is a pressing issue in modern society. It arouses a mixture of anger, distrust, confusion, and anxiety that cause damage on our daily life judgments and public policy decisions. While recent studies have explored various fake news detection and media bias detection techniques in attempts to tackle the problem, there remain many ongoing challenges yet to be addressed, as can be witnessed from the plethora of untrue and harmful content present during the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave rise to the first social-media infodemic, and the international crises of late. In this tutorial, we provide researchers and practitioners with a systematic overview of the frontier in fighting misinformation. Specifically, we dive into the important research questions of how to (i) develop a robust fake news detection system that not only fact-checks information pieces provable by background knowledge, but also reason about the consistency and the reliability of subtle details about emerging events;(ii) uncover the bias and the agenda of news sources to better characterize misinformation;as well as (iii) correct false information and mitigate news biases, while allowing diverse opinions to be expressed. Participants will learn about recent trends, representative deep neural network language and multimedia models, ready-to-use resources, remaining challenges, future research directions, and exciting opportunities to help make the world a better place, with safer and more harmonic information sharing. © 2022 Owner/Author.
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Background: Waning levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) antibodies, particularly neutralizing, are associated with the risk of breakthrough infections. The impact of immunosuppression on antibody decay kinetics is unclear. We have previously reported a strong correlation between total anti-S antibodies and neutralization titers. Here, we report the decay kinetics in anti-S IgG antibodies across various immunosuppressive medications used in patients with CID. Methods: We recruited a volunteer sample of adults with confirmed CID eligible for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in a prospective observational cohort study at two United States CID referral centers. All study participants received two doses of mRNA vaccine to SARSCoV- 2. To assess the durability of immunogenicity, anti-S IgG were measured at 7 (visit 3), 90 (visit 5), and 120 (visit 6) days after the 2nd dose of mRNA vaccine. The impact of various medications was assessed in repeated measures mixed model with the patient as a random effect, adjusting for gender and age, and using the group of patients on sulfasalazine, NSAIDs, or on no medications as a reference, using STATA. The half-life of anti-S IgG for a 50 percent reduction in titers at visit 3 was calculated for each medication class. Results: A total of 316 CID patients were recruited of which 148 (46.8%) had inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Durability was assessed in 495 samples obtained in 293 patients. The arithmetic mean of anti-S IgG antibodies for each medication class at visits 3, 5, and 6 is shown in Figure 1. Overall, a 2-fold reduction in titers was observed from 7 to 90 days and 90 to 120 days (Table 1). The strongest decline was observed among patients on B cell depleting/ modulating therapies followed by those on combinations of biologics and/or small molecules and antimetabolites (methotrexate, leflunomide, thiopurines, mycophenolate mofetil, and teriflunomide). There was modest decline seen with TNFi (half-life 430.5 days, -2.15, 95% CI - 4.31 to - 1.07, p = 0.03). There was also a modest, but not significant, decline seen with Janus Kinase inhibitor (JAKi). No decline was seen with anti-IL-23 or anti-integrin medication classes. Conclusions: Antibody decay in patients with CID is not observed in patients on anti-integrins or anti-IL-23 while it is seen among patients on TNFi, JAKi, antimetabolites, and combinations of biologics and/or small molecules. Our data and those from other cohorts may be used to prioritize medication classes for boosting immunogenicity with additional doses of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Collection of antibody titers after booster doses is currently ongoing.(Table Presented) (Figure Presented) Figure 1: Durability of anti-spike IgG antibodies after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with Chronic Inflammatory Disease
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In this paper, we use the permutation entropy algorithm to derive the static and dynamic permutation entropy of commodity futures, and to evaluate the effectiveness of main products in China's commodity futures market. The intraday data of six varieties belonging to six categories in China's commodity futures market are taken as samples. We find the following: (1) The return distribution of the main varieties shows high peaks, fat tails and asymmetry, and follows the biased random walk distribution characteristics;(2) The permutation entropy of all varieties decreases significantly in the same time window, during which the price volatility of major commodity markets rises. And the time window coincides with the impact time of COVID-19 epidemic;(3) By comparing the distribution of permutation entropy of main varieties in different stages of event shock, we found that the mean value of permutation entropy decreases significantly during the process of event shock, and the price fluctuates greatly. Therefore, the significant decrease of permutation entropy is a valuable warning signal for regulators and investors.
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Background: recent applications of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) have demonstrated its ability to track the spread and dynamics of COVID-19 at the community level. Despite the growing body of research, quantitative synthesis of SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater generated from studies across space and time using diverse methods has not been performed. Objective: the objective of this study is to examine the correlations between SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater and epidemiological indicators across studies, stratified by key covariates in study methodologies. In addition, we examined the association of proportions of positive detections in wastewater samples and methodological covariates. Methods: we systematically searched the Web of Science for studies published by February 16th, 2021, performed a reproducible screening, and employed mixed-effects models to estimate the levels of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA quantities in wastewater samples and their correlations to the case prevalence, the sampling mode (grab or composite sampling), and the wastewater fraction analyzed (i.e., solids, solid-supernatant mixtures, or supernatants/filtrates). Results: a hundred and one studies were found;twenty studies (671 biosamples and 1751 observations) were retained following a reproducible screening. The mean positivity across all studies was 0.68 (95%-CI, [0.52;0.85]). The mean viral RNA abundance was 5244 marker copies per mL (95%-CI, [0;16 432]). The Pearson correlation coefficients between the viral RNA levels and case prevalence were 0.28 (95%-CI, [0.01;0.51]) for daily new cases or 0.29 (95%-CI, [-0.15;0.73]) for cumulative cases. The fraction analyzed accounted for 12.4% of the variability in the percentage of positive detections, followed by the case prevalence (9.3% by daily new cases and 5.9% by cumulative cases) and sampling mode (0.6%). Among observations with positive detections, the fraction analyzed accounted for 56.0% of the variability in viral RNA levels, followed by the sampling mode (6.9%) and case prevalence (0.9% by daily new cases and 0.8% by cumulative cases). While the sampling mode and fraction analyzed both significantly correlated with the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA levels, the magnitude of the increase in positive detection associated with the fraction analyzed was larger. The mixed-effects model treating studies as random effects and case prevalence as fixed effects accounted for over 90% of the variability in SARS-CoV-2 positive detections and viral RNA levels. Interpretations: positive pooled means and confidence intervals in the Pearson correlation coefficients between the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA levels and case prevalence indicators provide quantitative evidence that reinforces the value of wastewater-based monitoring of COVID-19. Large heterogeneities among studies in proportions of positive detections, viral RNA levels, and Pearson correlation coefficients suggest a strong demand for methods to generate data accounting for cross-study heterogeneities and more detailed metadata reporting. Large variance was explained by the fraction analyzed, suggesting sample pre-processing and fractionation as a direction that needs to be prioritized in method standardization. Mixed-effects models accounting for study level variations provide a new perspective to synthesize data from multiple studies.