Awareness of the epidemiological investigation tasks of the nurse in charge of COVID-19 epidemiological investigations

Purpose: This qualitative study was to understand the awareness of epidemiological investigation tasks for nurses who were in charge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemiological investigations. Methods: Before data collection, written consent was obtained from 13 participants, and the data were then collected from September 1 to December 31, 2021. Individual interviews were conducted and recorded by video interview using Zoom, and data were transcribed verbatim. Four themes were derived by using the qualitative thematic analysis method. Results: The participants perceived that epidemiological investigations were burdensome but that the field work was important, and that expertise and collaboration were required. The participants started work without preparation due to the explosive increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and they recognized work conflicts, unstable employment, and exhaustion as obstacles to their work performance. On the other hand, the participants took pride in contributing to the national epidemiological investigation and control and felt a sense of responsibility as nursing professionals. Finally, participants mentioned that the training of infectious disease practitioner was important for work improvement. Conclusion: Further research is needed on the development of standardized manuals for the training of nursing personnel as infectious disease specialists through the job analysis of epidemiological investigators. Copyright ©2022 The Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education.

Coronavirus Disease 2019-Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, a new disease, COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), is on the rise. CAPA is a secondary fungal infection in patients with critical COVID-19 receiving mechanical ventilation in intensive care units (ICUs). Although the incidence rate of CAPA is estimated to be 10.2% in ICU patients, CAPA appears to be associated with an increase in overall mortality. CAPA is like classical invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) but has an ambiguous clinical manifestation and occurs without typical host factors. It is also like influenza-associated pulmonary aspergillosis but differs in clinical characteristics. For research and clinical practice, the European Confederation for Medical Mycology and the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology proposed novel case definition criteria for CAPA. Although CAPA management is not much different from typical IPA, areas of uncertainty remain that require further investigation. Copyright © 2022 by The Korean Society for Medical Mycology. All right reserved.

Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Probable Coronavirus Disease 2019-associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis at a Tertiary Care Hospital in the Republic of Korea: A Case Series

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) is a life-threatening invasive fungal infection in critically ill patients with COVID-19. However, only a few studies have reported CAPA in the Republic of Korea. Objective: To describe clinical characteristics of CAPA in patients at a tertiary care hospital in the Republic of Korea. Methods: This retrospective, observational consecutive case series study was conducted by reviewing the electronic medical records of patients who developed CAPA at Seoul National University Hospital from January 1, 2020, to August 31, 2021. CAPA was defined by European Confederation of Medical Mycology/International Society for Human and Animal Mycology (ECMM/ISHAM) consensus criteria. Patient demographics, comorbidities, corticosteroid use, clinical presentation, treatment, and outcomes were investigated. Results: Eleven patients were diagnosed with probable CAPA according to the ECMM/ISHAM criteria. One patient had classical host factor for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis before admission. All patients received corticosteroid therapy before CAPA diagnosis. The mean total corticosteroid administered before CAPA diagnosis was 220 mg of dexamethasone equivalent dose (range, 80~572 mg), and the mean duration of steroid therapy was 15 days (range, 4~34 days). The median time from intensive care unit admission to CAPA diagnosis was 12 days (range, 5~36 days). All individuals showed aggravation on chest X-rays. Ten patients were diagnosed with positive serum galactomannan (GM), and one was diagnosed with positive GM in a bronchoalveolar lavage specimen. Of the 11 patients, 8 received voriconazole-based antifungal therapy for a median of 30.5 days. Only two patients survived after antifungal treatment. Conclusion: These cases illustrate CAPA complicated in critically ill COVID-19 patients. The challenges in diagnosis and poor outcomes of CAPA emphasize the clinical suspicion and needs for further investigation. Copyright@2022 by The Korean Society for Medical Mycology. All right reserved.

RESILIENCE AMONG RESIDENTS, THEIR FAMILY, AND STAFF OF A CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

There is emerging literature about older adults' experience of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic in long term care (LTC) facilities due to isolation protocols. Additionally, staff challenges while providing care for older adults in LTC has also been highlighted. While the literature emphasizes negative pandemic experiences, a gap exists with understanding resilience during the pandemic in LTC settings. The aim of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the experience of resilience in a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) among residents, their family members, and staff. We conducted 19 in-person interviews and 1 via Zoom in fall 2021 with 5 residents (65 and older), 5 family members, and 10 staff (e.g., administrators, nurses, nursing assistants). A conventional content analysis was employed. While we did hear how the pandemic had a negative impact on everyone, the main themes of resilience identified were: 1) overcoming the pandemic together (sense of community);2) experience and adaptation (over time being able to adapt to the disruption in their life);3) staying safe (engaging in precautions and self-care strategies);and 4) positivity (mindset of getting through anything and relying on spirituality). Study findings can inform CCRC administrators on how to support residents, their family, and staff during future pandemics and other challenging times that may disrupt normal routines.

Adsorption of benzalkonium chlorides onto powdered activated carbon: mechanisms and detoxification

Because disinfectants have been essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, the global demand for benzalkonium chlorides (BACs) has significantly increased. BACs can inactivate coronaviruses, but are known as toxic. In this study, we investigated the adsorption mechanisms of BAC12, BAC14, and BAC16 in water using powdered activated carbon (PAC). The effects of the reaction time, pH, and temperature on the adsorption kinetics of BACs were examined. The adsorption reaction followed pseudo-second-order kinetics, and better fitted to the Langmuir isotherm than the Freundlich isotherm. The best adsorption of BACs was achieved at neutral pH conditions. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that adsorption of BACs onto PAC is a spontaneous and endothermic process. Competitive adsorption experiments revealed that BACs with longer alkyl chains were adsorbed more effectively onto PAC than shorter alkyl chain BACs, implying that, while the electrostatic interaction is an important adsorption mechanism for BAC12, van der Waals interaction plays a more important role during the adsorption of BAC14 and BAC16. Finally, we observed the partial detoxification (69%) BAC in adsorption treated water with PAC using a Microtox test. © 2022 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers.

Changes in residents' attitudes toward tourism and perceptions of tourism contribution pre- and peri-Covid-19 pandemic: role of perceived gratitude and damage

This study adopts a retrospective pretest-posttest design to investigate the effects of perceived gratitude and damage on changes in residents' attitudes toward tourism and the mediating role of residents' attitudes on their perceptions of tourism contribution before and amid COVID-19 targeting the city of Wuhan. The results indicate that residents' attitudes are positively changed after COVID-19. Gratitude significantly improves residents' attitudes when they perceive high damage, whereas the effect of gratitude was meager when perceived damage was low. This study provides a better understanding of residents' attitudes and tourism contribution and suggests guidelines to recover from the negative event.

Pandemic Transit: A National Look at the Shock, Adaptation, and Prospects for Recovery

While the COVID-19 pandemic in some way affected every person and enterprise on the planet, the temporary hollowing out of concentrated economic, political, and cultural agglomerations in cities dealt a devastating and potentially enduring blow to the public transit systems that depend on them for so many of their customers. This chapter draws on a survey of 72 U.S. public transit systems and semi-structured interviews with 12 transit agency staff, both conducted in the late summer and early fall of 2020, to consider how the pandemic shocked the transit industry at the outset, and how the industry adapted to deliver transit services. We find that: transit agencies adapted quickly, and many of their changes are now standard operating procedure;the pandemic tended to affect large and small transit agencies differently;transit’s role as a social service provider took on increased visibility and importance;and financial collapse has been averted, but funding shortfalls may become a pressing issue in the years ahead when federal emergency funding runs out. We conclude that while transit systems have adapted remarkably to dramatic change and that federal funding has largely forestalled fiscal crises, the longer term future of public transit in the U.S. remains very uncertain. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Changes in College Students’ Body Mass Index, Physical Activity, and Motivation before and during the COVID-19 Third-wave Lockdown

Background: It is less known how the constraints placed upon public spaces and social interaction have impacted college students’ motivation to be physically active. Objective: This study examined, first, the changes in college students’ body mass index (BMI), physical activity (PA), and self-determined motivation before and during the COVID-19 third-wave lockdown and, second, the role of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and self-determined motivation on BMI during the lockdown. Method: This study was a longitudinal prospective study with two data collection phases. A sample of 104 college students (69 females, 35 males, Mage = 18.19[1.5]) completing both pre- and posttest data turned in self-report data on BMI, PA (vigorous PA - VPA, moderate PA - MPA), MVPA, and self-determined motivation. Results: The results showed a statistically significant increase in participants’ BMI (t[79] = 4.70[2.98], p =.001, d =.11) but no statistically significant changes in PA. The findings demonstrated changes in college students’ integrated regulation (↓;t[78]= -3.20[.16], p =.002, d =.35), identified regulation (↓;t[76] = -4.07[.16], p <.001, d =.52), extrinsic regulation (↑;t[78] = 2.28[1.80], p =.025, d =.02), and amotivation (↑;t[78] = 4.42[1.21], p <.001, d =.48). Finally, neither PA nor self-determined motivation played a role in BMI, but the previous MVPA and BMI did. Conclusion: This study suggests that COVID-19 had a negative impact on self-determined motivation decreasing adaptive and increasing maladaptive motivation. However, neither MVPA nor self-determined motivation played a role in BMI during the COVID-19 lockdown. Instead, pre-COVID BMI (large effect) and MVPA (small effect) determined students’ BMI during the lockdown. Copyright (c) the author(s).

Transporting and Storing COVID-19 Vaccines

Differing storage temperature requirements are not the only concern for COVID-19 vaccines. The entire vaccination process-from the original manufacturing to final vaccine administration-involves various refrigerated transportation and storage systems. This article describes various vaccine refrigerated transportation and storage technologies and systems recommendations for the general public and vaccine transport-related professionals.

Purchasing Power to the People: An Agent-Based Simulation of Pandemic Economic Recovery

This paper applies an agent based model to estimate the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the US economy. In order to overcome uncertainty over the impact of the pandemic on employment and consumer spending this analysis employs a range of potential levels of resulting unemployment, levels of job return after the pandemic and impacts on consumer spending. Results indicate that while the immediate level of unemployment impacts the initial magnitude of the economic effects post-pandemic economic performance and recovery is largely driven by changes in consumer spending. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Frontiers: Virus Shook the Streaming Star: Estimating the COVID-19 Impact on Music Consumption

Many have speculated that the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a surge in the use of online streaming services. However, this assumption has not been closely examined for music streaming services, the consumption patterns of which can be different from video streaming services. To provide insights into this question, we analyze Spotify's streaming data for the weekly top 200 songs for two years in 60 countries between June 2018 and May 2020, along with varying lockdown policies and detailed daily mobility information from Google. Empirical evidence shows that the COVID-19 outbreak significantly reduced music streaming consumption in many countries. We also find that countries with larger mobility decreases saw more notable downturns in streaming during the pandemic. Further, we reveal that the mobility effect was attributable to the complementarity of music consumption to other activities and likely to be transient rather than irreversible. Alternative mechanisms, such as unobservable Spotify-specific factors, a demand shift from top-selling songs to niche music, and supply-side effects, did not explain the decline in music consumption.

Surface engineering of plasmonic gold nanoisland platforms for high-sensitivity refractometric biosensing applications

Plasmonic chips comprising gold nanoisland structures that are fabricated by solution-phase seeding, have demonstrated excellent promise as high-sensitivity substrates for molecular detection and medical diagnostic applications. Even so, there still remains an outstanding need to examine the potential utility of these plasmonic chips for label-free refractometric biosensing and to understand how nanostructure design principles affect measurement sensitivity. Herein, we developed a thiol-based surface functionalization strategy to fabricate gold nanoislands on a functionalized glass surface with improved fractional surface coverages and inter-island gap distances of 80–85% and 5–10 nm, respectively, as compared to values of 50–65% and 15–20 nm for gold nanoislands on bare glass substrates. By tuning the gap distance, it was possible to adjust the bulk refractive index sensitivity of the measurement signal from ∼99 nm per refractive index unit (nm/RIU) for gold nanoislands on a non-functionalized glass surface to ∼180 nm/RIU for gold nanoislands on a functionalized glass surface. The nanoplasmonic biosensing capabilities of the latter plasmonic chip were further investigated and demonstrated larger measurement responses for detecting bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein adsorption compared to other types of plasmonic gold nanostructures. It was also possible to detect antigen-antibody interactions related to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), especially binding events that occurred near the sensor surface. These findings demonstrate the broad application possibilities of gold nanoisland platforms for refractometric biosensing and emphasize the importance of finetuning nanostructure dimensions to optimize sensing performance. © 2021

Robust optimal parameter estimation for the susceptible-unidentified infected-confirmed model

In this study, we consider a robust optimal parameter estimation method for the Susceptible-Unidentified infected-Confirmed (SUC) epidemic dynamics model. One of the problems in determining parameter values associated with epidemic mathematical models is that the optimal parameter values are very sensitive to the initial guess of parameter values. To resolve this problem, we fix the value of one parameter and solve an optimization problem of finding the other parameter values which best fit the confirmed population. The fixed parameter value can be obtained using data from epidemiological surveillance systems. To demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of the proposed method, we perform various numerical experiments with synthetic and real-world data from South Korea, the United States of America, India, and Brazil. The computational results confirm the potential practical application of the proposed method. © 2021

Impact of COVID-19 on TB epidemiology in South Korea.

SETTING: Five referral hospitals, South Korea.OBJECTIVE: To assess epidemiological changes in TB before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.DESIGN: This was a multicentre cohort study of 3,969 patients diagnosed with TB.RESULTS: We analysed 3,453 patients diagnosed with TB prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2016-February 2020) and 516 during the pandemic (March-November 2020). During the pandemic, the number of patients visits declined by 15% from the previous 4-year average, and the number of patients diagnosed with TB decreased by 17%. Patients diagnosed during the pandemic were older than those diagnosed before the pandemic (mean age, 60.2 vs. 56.6 years, P < 0.001). The proportion of patients to have primary TB at a younger age (births after 1980) among those diagnosed with TB was significantly lower during the pandemic than before (17.8% in 2020 vs. 23.5% in 2016, 24.0% in 2017, 22.5% in 2018, 23.5% in 2019; P = 0.005).CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction in the number of visits to respiratory departments, leading to fewer patients being diagnosed with TB. However, our results suggest that universal personal preventive measures help to suppress TB transmission in regions with intermediate TB burden.

Global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stroke care and intravenous thrombolysis

Objective: The objectives of this study were to measure the global impact of the pandemic on the volumes for intravenous thrombolysis (IVT), IVT transfers, and stroke hospitalizations over 4 months at the height of the pandemic (March 1 to June 30, 2020) compared with two control 4-month periods. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread repercussions on the delivery of health care worldwide. Design/Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective study across 6 continents, 70 countries, and 457 stroke centers. Diagnoses were identified by ICD-10 codes and/or classifications in stroke center databases. Results: There were 91,373 stroke admissions in the 4 months immediately before compared to 80,894 admissions during the pandemic months, representing an 11.5% (95%CI,-11.7 to-11.3, p<0.0001) decline. There were 13,334 IVT therapies in the 4 months preceding compared to 11,570 procedures during the pandemic, representing a 13.2% (95%CI,-13.8 to-12.7, p<0.0001) drop. Interfacility IVT transfers decreased from 1,337 to 1,178, or an 11.9% decrease (95%CI,-13.7 to-10.3, p=0.001). There were greater declines in primary compared to comprehensive stroke centers (CSC) for stroke hospitalizations (-17.3% vs-10.3%, p<0.0001) and IVT (-15.5% vs-12.6%, p=0.0001). Recovery of stroke hospitalization volume (9.5%, 95%CI 9.2-9.8, p<0.0001) was noted over the two later (May, June) versus the two earlier (March, April) months of the pandemic, with greater recovery in hospitals with lower COVID-19 hospitalization volume, high volume stroke center, and CSC. There was a 1.48% stroke rate across 119,967 COVID-19 hospitalizations. SARS-CoV-2 infection was noted in 3.3% (1,722/52,026) of all stroke admissions. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a global decline in the volume of stroke hospitalizations, IVT, and interfacility IVT transfers. Primary stroke centers and centers with higher COVID19 inpatient volumes experienced steeper declines. Recovery of stroke hospitalization was noted in the later pandemic months, with greater recovery in hospitals with lower COVID-19 hospitalizations, high volume stroke centers, and CSCs.

Let Nagasaki Be the Last! Nineteen Pandemic-Nuclear Nexus Policy Measures in Northeast Asia

In October–November 2020, RECNA-Nagasaki University and Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN) with the support of Nautilus Institute convened the Nagasaki 75th Anniversary scenario workshop to address the pandemic-nuclear nexus. About fifty participants of diverse background explored the future of nuclear war and nuclear disarmament in light of the uncertainty created by the global coronavirus pandemic. Their specific task was to develop four scenarios to identify the opportunities driven by global pandemics for Northeast Asian governments, civil society and market actors to reduce nuclear risk and resume nuclear disarmament. Based on these scenarios, the workshop recommended sixteen urgent steps that could be implemented globally and in particular, in Northeast Asia. With three more policy measures added after the workshop, this article elaborates nineteen policy recommendations. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Nagasaki University.