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This chapter investigates the xenophobia Korean Argentineans commonly experience in these times of COVID-19 and formulates a theological response. Qualitative research is used to explore the practice of discrimination that Korean immigrants and their descendants experience in Argentina. The chapter also points to the absence of an appropriate theological responses to embedded structures of marginalization that intensify whenever there is a major social upheaval, such as COVID-19. Recent theological responses to the situation seem to focus on God and the pandemic itself, rather than on God and the suffering of a targeted group of people. Indeed, theologians offer creative interpretations of God and the outbreak, but little attention is paid to God and the scapegoated minorities resulting from the outbreak. Such interpretations portray God as the punisher or the healer of the world, but not as a sufferer who suffers with those considered a virus. It is argued here that unless theology critically approaches the structural sin that justifies discrimination, and carefully attends to the suffering of the marginalized, it runs the risk of becoming lost in a maze of ideology, instead of prophetically participating in God's work in the midst of a global crisis. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
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BackgroundLong-term glucocorticoid (GC) exposure leads to systemic bone loss and fracture. In addition, GC is known to increase white blood cell (WBC) amount and change the distribution of differential count (DC). Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been studied as an optimal marker of subclinical inflammation, predicting the prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and even covid-19 infection. For patients under long-term GC exposure, the hemogram change might be a potential parameter to predict prognosis.ObjectivesThis pilot study aims to investigate if GC related WBC-DC change, including NLR, is associated with future fractures during 3 years follow-up.MethodsThis retrospective study is based on a registry, conducted in Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, from September 2014 till April 2021, aimed to monitor bone mineral density (BMD) changes and fractures in patients with autoimmune diseases. All recruited patients were followed at least 3 years and took X-ray images annually to capture new fragility fracture, including morphometric vertebral fractures. We screened participants who used GC continuously at least 3 months before the index day. We recorded the complete blood count (CBC) and WBC-DC values at least twice during the period of 3 months before and after the index day, and excluded patients who were febrile, under infection status, diagnosed as cancers or cardiovascular diseases at the index day. The NLR was calculated by the absolute neutrophil count divided by absolute lymphocyte count individually.ResultsA total of 346 participants were enrolled in current study, and 101 (29.2%) suffered from new fragility fracture in 3 years. Among patients with fracture and non-fracture, conventional fracture risk factors, such as age, BMD, and previous fracture remained significantly different, while the WBC revealed no difference (Table 1). Nevertheless, the absolute neutrophil and lymphocyte count were significantly higher and lower in the fracture group, respectively, and no difference in the monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil count. We compared different WBC ratio, and NLR is significantly higher in the fracture group, providing the odds ratio of 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.07-1.44, p=0.005). Figure 1 showed that the observed fracture risk raised as the NLR values increased.ConclusionIn patients under long-term GC, NLR might be a helpful marker to predict fracture, and higher NLR indicates higher fracture risks.Figure 1.Observed fracture rate is associated with baseline NLR[Figure omitted. See PDF]Table 1.Demographic characteristics of enrolled patients on long-term glucocorticoid.Fracture N=101No-Fracture N=245p-valueAge63.7 ± 9.056.5 ± 9.6<0.001*Sex(women)89(88.1)210(85.7)0.55BMI24.1 ± 3.923.4 ± 3.90.14Previous Fracture64(63.4)55(22.4)<0.001*Total hip BMD0.738 ± 0.1330.790 ± 0.1220.001*Femoral neck BMD0.575 ± 0.1130.626 ± 0.109<0.001*Lumbar BMD0.841 ± 0.2000.855 ± 0.1500.49WBC7.3 ± 2.16.9 ±1.70.14Hemoglobin12.8 ± 1.512.9 ± 1.40.33Platelet239.2 ± 64.7247.9 ± 71.40.30Neutrophil67.3 ± 9.764.3 ± 9.70.009*Lymphocyte24.3 ± 8.726.6 ± 9.50.04*Monocyte6.2 ± 1.86.3 ± 1.60.52Eosinophil1.8 ± 1.81.9 ± 1.30.77Basophil0.4 ± 0.20.4 ± 0.20.18NLR (Neutrophil to lymphocyte)3.3 ± 1.72.8 ± 1.40.004*NMR (Neutrophil to monocyte)11.9 ± 4.511.0 ± 3.60.04*LMR (Lymphocyte to monocyte)4.2 ± 1.74.5 ± 1.90.20AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by funding grant CMRPG8J0331 from the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (https://www.cgmh.org.tw).Disclosure of InterestsNone Declared.
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In light of the fast-spreading number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, contact tracing proved to be an effective measure to slow down the infection rate and mitigate the casualties caused by this virus. However, because of several concerns in terms of privacy, as well as security, several countries and their population around the globe are reluctant to adopt contact tracing solutions to contain the spread of the virus. Because of its distributed, public, and auditable nature, blockchain can be a groundbreaking solution contact tracing, given that it would provide a privacy-oriented contact tracing solution. Therefore, in this chapter, we discuss and compare the two alternatives proposed by the BeepTrace framework, active and passive, and also present some initial results based on an early implementation of it. As it can be seen, by utilizing blockchain together with contact tracing, user privacy, security, and decentralization can be guaranteed, giving back the trust needed for these applications to work. © 2022 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.
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This paper evaluates the stock market performance in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic from January 3, 2020, to April 30, 2021. The study shows daily abnormal returns of stocks declined on the day when the first coronavirus case was detected. The government's actions in implementing lockdown restrictions and providing stimulus packages positively influenced the stock market. However, the early lifting of lockdowns sent a negative signal to investors. Despite the skepticism among the population toward the first coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, the news of its registration, mass vaccination, and Russia's "vaccine diplomacy" contributed to the stock market's growth.
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Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between mental health concerns, positive and negative feelings, and engagement in unhealthy behaviors among US college students during the pandemic. A secondary purpose was to explore positive changes in health and well-being. Methods: College students completed a 45-item online survey in the fall of 2020 that examined demographics, health literacy, health behaviors, overall health and well-being, and academic and financial impacts. Median-unbiased estimation for odds ratio and exact mid-p method inference methods were conducted using R version 4.0.3. We conducted content analysis for qualitative open-ended survey responses. Results: Gender, degree program, and religiosity were associated with having mental concerns. These socio-demographic variables, along with age and ethnicity, were linked to positive and negative feelings. Participants who felt threatened, afraid, stressed, and sad were likely to report mental concerns. Participants who felt cheerful, calm, rested, and full of interests were likely to report no mental concerns. Students who felt sadder, less calm, and less full of interests were likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors. Conclusions: Findings contribute to an increased understanding of mental health and engagement of unhealthy and healthy behaviors among students informing recommendations for services across campuses and communities.
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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano-sized membranous particles secreted by cells. EVs have been classified into subpopulations according to their presumed biogenesis pathway, but their detailed biogenesis mechanisms still need to be fully elucidated. Enveloped viruses are another type of cell-derived nano-vesicles, and their biogenesis processes are much better known than that of EVs. Recently, studies on the similarity between enveloped viruses and EVs have been increasingly reported. The biogenesis of EVs could be better understood if these similarities are adequately investigated. In this study, we utilized a single vesicle imaging technique to visualize the protein expressions of individual nano-sized vesicles and analyzed expression patterns within single vesicles. Using this technique, we identified unique tetraspanin expression patterns in single EVs and that these patterns were closely related to their subcellular origins. The expression of CD9 or CD81 in EVs implied that they originated from the plasma membrane, and the expression of CD63 in EVs implied that they originated from endosomal organelles. We further analyzed the tetraspanin expressions of two different types of virus-like particles (VLPs) and demonstrated that the HIV-Gag-induced VLPs were more similar to EVs than SARS-CoV-2-NP/M/E-induced VLPs. In addition, HIV-Gag-GFP-expressing VLPs were highly colocalized with CD9, CD63, and CD81 signals, whereas SARS-CoV-NP-GFP-expressing VLPs were not. Based on these observations, we could assume that tetraspanin-expressing EVs might be produced through a similar process by which HIV is produced. © 2023
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Purpose: This study was conducted to develop and test the effects of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) education program for nursing students. Methods: This study used a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design. A total of 71 undergraduate nursing students who had completed a fundamental nursing course and were in their third or fourth year of university participated in this study (experimental group n=38, control group n=33). The COVID-19 education program was developed according to the stages of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The program consisted of three weekly sessions that each lasted about two hours. The data were collected from February 26 to March 26, 2022 and were analyzed using the chi-squared, Fisher's exact, and independent t-tests. Results: Knowledge about COVID-19, knowledge about personal protective equipment and attitudes toward COVID-19 were not significantly different between the experimental and control groups. However, significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups regarding their confidence in COVID-19 patient nursing care (t=3.02, p=.004). Conclusion: It was confirmed that the developed program was effective in enhancing the confidence of nursing students in performing nursing for COVID-19. Therefore, it is proposed that the education program developed in this study be used as part of an infection control education program to improve nursing students' abilities to respond to emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Copyright © 2022 The Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education.
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Purpose: This study aimed to identify the educational needs and analyze the priorities of infection control education content related to COVID-19 among nurses at a medium-sized hospital. Methods: In total, 110 nurses at a general hospital in G metropolitan city participated in the survey. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from February 14 to 21, 2022. The priorities of COVID-19 infection control education content were identified using a three-step analysis method, including the paired t-test, Borich priority formula, and the Locus for Focus model. Results: Seven content items with high educational needs were identified using the Locus for Focus model and the Borich priority formula. These included "use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when conducting a COVID-19 test”, "criteria and methods for ventilation of the test space”, "method of disinfecting the test space”, "facility management”, "isolated patient management”, "how to transfer patients within medical institutions”, and "how to transfer patients to other medical institutions”. These content items, as educational needs, should be considered as priorities among the 31 content items of COVID-19 infection control education. Conclusion: The results are significant in that this study investigated the educational needs for responding to and preparing for COVID-19 in nurses, who are directly engaged in conducting COVID-19 infection control activities at a small and medium-sized hospital. Furthermore, a priority analysis of needs for COVID-19 infection control education content was performed to realistically reflect the educational needs. These findings can be used for the development of infection control education programs for nurses. © 2022 Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing.
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Early stage arrhythmia detection is very important to prevent progress. However, under COVID-19 hospital accessibility deeply decreased and the risk of arrhythmia raised. Thus, we attached our activity sensor and environmental sensor attached to commercial tonometry system: Daeyomedi lifeplus. Tonometry system is one of the most accurate cardiovascular diseases detection system but it is very hard to make it portable. Photoplethysmogram sensors are less accurate than tonometry system but they are very small and can fit into the watch size. Environmental sensors are collecting additional data, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level, micro dust and Volatile Organic Compounds. Our IoT sever system collects all data from DMP lifeplus, activity sensor and environmental sensor. Processing data with implemented algorithms for service was developed as well. We successfully attached DMP lifeplus to our activity and environmental sensor. This work shows that our activity and environmental sensors can be attached to other medical system and enlarge the medical service area. © 2022 IEEE.
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A comprehensive education of optical engineers is of paramount importance to the development of the industry. While optical sciences and engineering curricula are set up to teach theoretical concepts comprehensively, there appears to be a lack of required coursework that teaches students how to use industry-standard software that they will inevitably use in their careers. The Practical Optics Workshop (POW) is an initiative at the University of Arizona's Wyant College of Optical Sciences to support the education of students that use optical design software. POW's aim is to bridge the gap between the theory of optical system design and the problems the optical engineers of the future will face daily. POW has principally engaged students through short workshop sessions and optical design problems through inquiry-based learning activities. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic new activities have been designed to support self-paced and virtual learning to ensure the accessibility of Optical Design software education. We present the status of POW's current initiatives and how they have impacted student learning, as well as the design of future initiatives that POW is developing for a self-paced curriculum.
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Objective: There is a growing interest in subacute thyroiditis (SAT), as this self-limited inflammatory thyroid disorder can be one of the manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection or side effects of COVID-19 vaccination. However, studies comparing the clinical characteristics of the SAT patients before and after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic have been scarce. Here, we tried to evaluate the clinical difference of the SAT patients before and after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s): A retrospective study was conducted with SAT patients (n = 51) who visited our outpatient clinic between 2011 and 2021. All the patients were diagnosed as SAT with the modified criteria proposed by Stasiak et al., and all of them had at least two times of thyroid ultrasonographies (initial visit and after resolution). The patients were divided into two groups based on the date of the first reported COVID-19 infection (31 patients before and 20 patients after the first reported infection in South Korea, 8th, January 2020), and comparison study was performed. Result(s): Clinical characteristics such as sex and age were similar between the SAT patients before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Laboratory tests including thyroid function tests, thyroid autoantibodies, complete blood count, inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP) also showed no significant difference. Moreover, the proportion of patients who had bilateral involvement on thyroid ultrasonography, who showed hypothyroid phase during their clinical course and who had persistent hypothyroidism requiring levothyroxine replacement were comparable between the two SAT groups. In addition, the proportion of SAT patients who took prednisolone, their cumulative doses and treatment periods were similar between the groups divided based on the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Thyroid volumes at initial visit and after resolution also showed no significant difference between the two subgroups. Conclusion(s): This study shows that the clinical characteristics of SAT patients have not been notably changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies comparing the SAT patients before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and SAT patients associated with COVID-19 infection are needed to clarify the association between SARSCoV-2 and SAT in more detail.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a global pandemic for over 2 years. During the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant-predominant period in South Korea, confirmed cases among children and adolescents surged. This review found that, although younger children may be less susceptible to COVID-19 than adolescents, more research is needed on the role of children and adolescents in the disease’s spread. Detailed epidemiological information about the transmissibility of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) strain in children and adolescents is currently scarce, and more research is needed on the role of children and adolescents in disease’s spread. There may be a difference in the proportion of cases with severe disease requiring hospitalization depending on the dominant mutant strain;however, COVID-19 generally presents with a mild-to-moderate course in children aged 5–11 years old.
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With the recent societal impact of COVID-19, companies and government agencies alike have turned to thermal camera based skin temperature sensing technology to help screen for fever. However, the cost and deployment restrictions limit the wide use of these thermal sensing technologies. In this work, we present SIFTER, a low-cost system based on a RGB-thermal camera for continuous fever screening of multiple people. This system detects and tracks heads in the RGB and thermal domains and constructs thermal heat map models for each tracked person, and classifies people as having or not having fever. SIFTER can obtain key temperature features of heads in-situ at a distance and produce fever screening predictions in real-time, significantly improving screening through-put while minimizing disruption to normal activities. In our clinic deployment, SIFTER measurement error is within 0.4°F at 2 meters and around 0.6°F at 3.5 meters. In comparison, most infrared thermal scanners on the market costing several thousand dollars have around 1°F measurement error measured within 0.5 meters. SIFTER can achieve 100% true positive rate with 22.5% false positive rate without requiring any human interaction, greatly outperforming our baseline [1], which sees a false positive rate of 78.5%. © 2022 IEEE.
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Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes various neurological symptoms in children, as well as respiratory symptoms, and the number of reported cases is increasing with the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants. This study aimed to investigate the neurological symptoms and incidence in pediatric patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients under the age of 18 diagnosed with COVID-19 and admitted to National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital using real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction from December 2020 to March 2022. We reviewed data on the age of confirmed COVID-19 patients, fever, and respiratory, gastrointes-tinal, and neurological symptoms. We evaluated the chief complaints of hospitalization and classified them as non-neurological or neurological, according to the chief complaints that caused the most discomfort. Results: Among 376 patients, 63 (16.8%) and 313 (83.2%) patients were classified as having neurological and non-neurological symptoms, respectively. The most common neurological symptoms were headache (49, 13.0%), followed by seizures (39, 10.4%), myalgia (24, 6.4%), and diz-ziness (14, 3.7%). Additionally, there were patients with anosmia (nine, 2.4%), ageusia (four, 1.1%), and visual disturbance (two, 0.5%). Of the 39 patients who experienced seizures, 15 (15/39, 51.7%) had no symptoms except fever, and seizures were the only main presenting symptom of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusion: Neurological symptoms are common in pediatric COVID-19 patients. Seizures can be an early symptom of SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be underestimated during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 Korean Child Neurology Society.
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This article examines global vaccine inequity during the COVID-19 pandemic. We critique intellectual property (IP) law under the 1994 WTO TRIPS Agreement, and specifically, the role that IP has played in enabling the inequities of production, distribution and pricing in the COVID-19 vaccine context. Given the failure of international response mechanisms, including COVAX and C-TAP, to address vaccine inequity, we argue the TRIPS waiver proposal should be viewed as offering a necessary and proportionate legal measure for clearing IP barriers that cannot be achieved by existing TRIPS flexibilities. Finally, we reflect on the waiver debate in the wider context of TRIPS and the need to boost global pandemic preparedness.
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In recent years, the relationship between agricultural commodities and crude oil has become increasingly close with the promotion of biofuel policies. This study examines the dynamic correlation between global crude oil futures and seven agricultural commodity futures by applying the consistent dynamic conditional correlation and dynamic equicorrelation models. The empirical results show that the dynamic correlation between the global crude oil futures market and China's agricultural futures market is weak compared to the global agricultural futures market. In particular, soybean oil has the strongest correlation with crude oil, while Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) corn and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange wheat have the weakest correlation with crude oil. There is an indirect linkage between crude oil futures and DCE soybean meal and DCE soybean oil. Moreover, the dynamic correlation between crude oil and agricultural commodities increased during the financial crisis, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, and the crude oil crash crisis. Brent crude oil has a stronger co-movement with China's agricultural commodities than West Texas Intermediate crude oil and can better hedge the risk of agricultural commodities. The findings of this study provide some insights into the contagion risk management of crude oil futures and agricultural futures markets. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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With the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has experienced unprecedented crises especially in economy. The United States is more seriously affected. In order to more clearly show the current situation of the U.S. economy affected by the epidemic from the data level, the author completes the paper by using the research method of big data processing and experimental analyses to show that how Coronavirus influences economy, that is, the impact on GDP and the exchange of volume of stock shares and the impact on unemployment rate which can be shown in specific data. The author also discusses the degree of influence on different industries. The result shows that COVID-19 has seriously affected the overall economy of America. The specific data performance is the decline of GDP (about 5%) and the rise of unemployment (about 15%). The stock price has dropped significantly, even affecting the overall stock trading volume (declined by 55%). The purpose of this paper is to clearly show the specific influence on the US economy from the data level. The result can provide a specific data reference for the formulation of American economic policy in the next few years and provide a data basis for the study of the economic situation after the epidemic in the United States. © 2021 IEEE.