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Video conferencing has become more common than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes high-resolution video transmission a pressing issue. Although semantic video conferencing (SVC) has achieved a great success to improve the transmission efficiency by only transmitting some keypoints to represent changed expressions, its performance can still be improved by adapting to varying channel scenarios, which is lack of study when designing the whole SVC in the end-to-end manner. In this paper, we first establish a standard SVC-OFDM system. Then, the receiver part of the SVC is added with an adaptive network called Switch-SVC for varying channels and improve the accuracy of the received keypoints. Some parameters in Switch-SVC are trained online so that the receiver can adapt to the current environment. Simulation results show that the proposed method can greatly improve the keypoint reconstruction performance compared to the traditional SVC-OFDM receiver without online training.
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During a large-scale epidemic, a local healthcare system can be overwhelmed by a large number of infected and non-infected patients. To serve the infected and non-infected patients well with limited medical resources, effective emergency medical service planning should be conducted before the epidemic. In this study, we propose a two-stage stochastic programming model, which integrally deploys various types of emergency healthcare facilities before an epidemic and serves infected and non-infected patients dynamically at the deployed healthcare facilities during the epidemic. With the service equity of infected patients and various practical requirements of emergency medical services being explicitly considered, our model minimizes a weighted sum of the expected operation cost and the equity cost. We develop two comparison models and conduct a case study on Chengdu, a Chinese city influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic, to show the effectiveness and benefits of our proposed model. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to generate managerial insights and suggestions. Our study not only extends the existing emergency supply planning models but also can facilitate better practices of emergency medical service planning for large-scale epidemics. © Operational Research Society 2023.
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This study examines the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the performance and stability of the banking sector. Our sample consists of 2073 banks in 106 countries from 2016Q1 to 2021Q2. We employ several alternative bank performance and stability measures for a comprehensive analysis and robustness. The findings show that the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly reduced bank performance and stability. These results are consistently observed across several geographical regions and countries' income classifications. Additional analysis shows that the adverse impact of COVID-19 depends on the characteristics of the bank and market structure. While a better regulatory environment, institutional quality, and financial development have significantly increased the strength and resilience of banks. These findings provide practical implications for regulators and policymakers in the face of unprecedented uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
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Video conferencing has become more common than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes high-resolution video transmission a pressing issue. Although semantic video conferencing (SVC) has achieved a great success to improve the transmission efficiency by only transmitting some key-points to represent changed expressions, its performance can still be improved by adapting to varying channel scenarios, which is lack of study when designing the whole SVC in the end-to-end manner. In this paper, we first establish a standard SVC-OFDM system. Then, the receiver part of the SVC is added with an adaptive network called Switch-SVC for varying channels and improve the accuracy of the received keypoints. Some parameters in Switch-SVC are trained online so that the receiver can adapt to the current environment. Simulation results show that the proposed method can greatly improve the keypoint reconstruction performance compared to the traditional SVC-OFDM receiver without online training. © 2022 IEEE.
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Objective: To explore the mechanism of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power in the treatment of epidemic-closed lung type COVID-19 by network pharmacology. Method(s): The potential blood active components and gene targets of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power were screened and predicted by TCMSP;The angiotensin converting enzyme 2(ACE2)related gene targets were downloaded;The PPI network of components-targets was plotted by STRING database.The intersection of ACE2-related genes and target genes of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power was extracted;The DAVID database was used to analyze and screen the key targets and mechanisms of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power. Result(s): A total of 496 active ingredients related to Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power were retrieved from TCMSP database.According to the pharmacokinetic parameters, 78 active components in blood were screened and 761 targets were retrieved.5 556 ACE2-related genes were downloaded.49 key genes were obtained after the intersection of Chinese medicine component targets and ACE2 related gene targets;The genes affected by Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power were mainly involved in cytoketone metabolism, intracellular protein transport, internal peptidase inhibitor activity and others, which were mainly related to the signaling pathway of the Jak-STAT, the intestinal immune network pathway of producing IgA, complement and coagulation cascade pathway, etc. Conclusion(s): Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power can act on ACE2 through 49 gene loci, and its mechanism is related to cellular ketone metabolism and inhibition of protein entry into cells. Copyright © 2021, Central Station of Chinese Medicinal Materials Information, National Medical Products Administration. All right reserved.
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The integration of STEM education has been promoted to improve the quality of education in the 21st century, with its usage leading to emphasis on the factors influencing the intentions of preservice teachers. Therefore, this study aims to determine the factors influencing preservice teachers' intentions, as well as the effects of gender and age on the implementation of STEM education. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was adopted to predict the relationship between knowledge, social influence, attitude, perceived usefulness, control, and behavioral intention (BI) of using STEM education among preservice secondary school teachers. A total of 30 item questionnaires on behavioral intentions were distributed to 201 respondents, with data being analyzed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results showed that perceived usefulness had a positive significance, and a relationship with the attitudes of preservice teachers toward STEM education. Habit had a positive significance in influencing teachers' behavioral intentions and implementation. Subjective norms did not have a significant correlation with BI and implementation. These results are recommended for providing solutions to analytical problems, and to successfully improve future learning through an educational approach.
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Background: Cardiac injury associated with multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) has been extensively reported but the impact of cardiac injury in children with SARSCoV-2 infection in the absence of MIS-C has not been well described. In this study we describe the cardiac involvement found in children with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests and evaluate the association of cardiac injury with severe outcome in this population. Methods: A retrospective chart review of all patients ages 0-21 presenting to the emergency department or admitted at our institution during and just beyond the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic at our institution was performed. We excluded patients with MIS-C, cardiomyopathy, or complex congenital heart disease. Cardiac injury was defined as elevated high sensitivity troponin and/or N-terminal pro-brain type natriuretic peptide above 99th percentile. Severe illness was defined as need for advanced respiratory support (positive pressure or mechanical ventilation above baseline), inotropic or vasopressor support, and/or death from any cause during admission. Results: During the study period there were 103 patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR, 17 of whom were excluded for MIS-C, 4 of whom were excluded for cardiomyopathy, 2 for complex congenital heart disease including one with repaired Taussig-Bing anomaly and one with double outlet right ventricle who underwent Fontan surgery. Of the 80/103 (78%) patients remaining in the analysis, 31/80 (39%) were female and the median age was 12.5 years (IWR 1.9-17.5). High-sensitivity troponin T and/or NT-proBNP were measured in 27/80 (34%) patients and abnormalities were present in 5/27 (19%), all of whom had underlying comorbidities such as lung disease, diabetes, or genetic syndromes. Severe outcome occurred in 14/27 (52%) patients and 5/5 (100%) of those with cardiac injury as compared to 9/22 (41%) patients without cardiac injury (p<0.05). Advanced respiratory support was more common in those with cardiac injury as compared to those without, occurring in 5/5 (100%) patients with cardiac injury and in 8/22 (36%) patients without cardiac injury (p<0.05). Electrocardiographic abnormalities were identified in 14/38 (37%) studies and no left ventricular dysfunction was identified on echocardiography. Conclusion: During the initial peak of the pandemic at our institution, cardiac injury was present in 19% of those for whom high-sensitivity troponin and/or NT-proBNP were measured. Presence of cardiac injury was associated with greater risk of severe outcomes including advanced respiratory support. Larger studies to determine the true incidence of cardiac injury in children with COVID-19 would be useful to guide recommendations for standard workup and management.
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Objective To analyze the molecular epidemiological characteristics of the Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) cases in Shijiazhuang, which can reveal the origin of the outbreak and provide a scientific basis for COVID‑19 prevention and control. Methods From January 2 to January 8, 2021, a total of 404 samples from 170 COVID‑19 cases were collected from the Shijiazhuang Fifth Hospital. The consensus sequence of 2019 novel Coronavirus(2019‑nCoV) was obtained through multiplex polymerase chain reaction‑based sequencing. The sequences of 170 COVID‑19 cases were analyzed by the PANGOLIN, and the data were statistically analyzed by T‑test. Results Among the 404 COVID‑19 samples, a total of 356 samples obtained high quality genome sequences (>95%, 100×sequencing depth). The whole genome sequences of 170 COVID‑19 cases were obtained by eliminating repeated samples. All 170 sequences were recognized as lineage B1.1 using PANGOLIN. The number of single nucleotide polymorphism arrange from 18-22 and most of the single nucleotide polymorphism were synonymous variants. All of 170 genomes could be classified into 48 sub‑groups and most of the genomes were classified into 2 sub‑groups (66 and 31, respectively). Conclusions All cases in this study are likely originated from one imported case. The viruses have spread in the community for a long time and have mutated during the community transmission.
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N95 mask has been shown to reduce lower airway infections requiring hospitalization, mortality and exacerbation frequency in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), and therefore is recommended for all COPD patients by guidelines. However, the coverage of influenza vaccination in Chinese COPD patients is far from satisfactory. The large-scale COVID-19 vaccination may have a positive impact on the attitude towards influenza vaccines, and healthcare professionals should take active measures to improve the physical activation in patients with COPD.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Influenza, Human , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive , COVID-19 Vaccines , Humans , Influenza, Human/prevention & control , N95 RespiratorsABSTRACT
The emergence of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious global public health problem. The mystery around the causative agent was revealed on 7 January 2020 when the pathogen was isolated by Chinese scientists and named as novel coronavirus-2019 (2019-nCoV). With quicker reaction to the contagion, the number of scholarly research publications have increased exponentially, which calls for bibliometric analysis and review of the incipient studies. Therefore on 7 Feb 2020, the English language and Chinese publications on COVID-19 were retrieved from PubMed and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). A retrospective bibliometric analysis was performed to gauge the output, language, document type, journal, authorship, geographical distribution, research focus, resulting in a total of 154 papers comprising 100 papers in English and another 54 in Chinese. There were 30 journals published at least 2 papers, and the Journal of Medical Virology published the most papers (11). China and USA were the most productive countries, and there were 24 international collaborative papers. Fudan University contributed the most papers. Isaac I. Bogoch, Kunling Shen, Xingguang LI, Hongzhou Lu were the most active authors as first authors, with 2 papers respectively. Among the 154 publications, 35 were opinions papers, and 30 were research articles. Papers were categorized by research areas, and five research foci were identified. Our study offers an overview of the incipient publications and quantitative information for future research on coronavirus. Besides, Chinese publications were also retrieved for an integrated data analysis and diversity comparison.
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BACKGROUND Abnormal liver function is frequently present in patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), and the reasons for abnormal liver function are still largely unknown. In the present study, we performed a retrospective analysis of COVID-19 cases to identify the risk factors for liver injury. AIM To identify the risk factors for COVID-19-related liver injury. METHODS One-hundred patients with confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized at Huoshenshan Hospital between February 4 and February 29, 2020 were included. Basic information and laboratory parameters (liver function tests) were collected and analyzed. RESULTS Of the 100 COVID-19 patients included, 54% were male and 46% were female. The average age was 59.89 ± 13.07 years. The patients had clinical manifestations of fever (81%), cough (64%), and limb fatigue (52%) at preadmission. Abnormal liver function was observed in 38 patients, including elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT;28 patients), aspartate aminotransferase (AST;10 patients), and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT;20 patients). Patients who had elevated ALT, AST, or GGT were significantly more often present in male patients (P < 0.001, P = 0.006 and P < 0.001, respectively). There was no statistical difference in liver function parameters between patients who received and did not receive prehospital treatment. CONCLUSION Abnormal liver function is more likely to be observed in male patients with COVID-19.