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BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced hospital infection control practices. AIM: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in intensive care units (ICUs). METHODS: A retrospective analysis using data from the Korean National Healthcare-Associated Infections Surveillance System was conducted. Comparisons between incidence rates and micro-organism distributions of bloodstream infection (BSI), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were performed according to hospital size. FINDINGS: The incidence rate of BSI significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID-19 period (1.38 vs 1.23 per 10,000 patient-days, relative change -11.5%; P < 0.001). The incidence rate of VAP (1.03 vs 0.81 per 1000 device-days, relative change -21.4%; P < 0.001) significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, whereas rates of CLABSI (2.30 vs 2.23 per 1000 device-days; P = 0.19) and CAUTI (1.26 vs 1.26 per 1000 device-days; P = 0.99) were similar between the two periods. The rates of BSI and CLABSI significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID-19 period in large-sized hospitals, whereas these rates significantly decreased in small-to-medium-sized hospitals. The rates of CAUTI and VAP significantly decreased in small-sized hospitals. There were no significant changing trends in the rates of multidrug-resistant pathogens isolated from patients with HAI between the two periods. CONCLUSION: The incidence rates of BSI and VAP in ICUs decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. This decrease was mainly seen in small-to-medium-sized hospitals.
ABSTRACT
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic, teachers quickly adapted to an Edutech-based. Many teachers began experiencing a high level of depression and doubted their own teaching competence. Therefore, this study examines the dual mediation of technology readiness (hereinafter referred to as TR) and readiness for change (hereinafter referred to as RC) in the relationship between Edutech competence and depression in South Korean teachers. Questionnaires regarding Edutech competence, TR, RC, and depression were distributed to 382 teachers (136 males and 246 females). A survey was administered to middle and high school teachers in South Korea using a mobile URL of Google from July 2022 to August 2022, and 382 complete responses were analysed. It analysed survey data through frequency, correlation analysis and structural equation modelling using SPSS 26.0 and Amos 25.0. The results indicate that, first, depression has a negative and significant correlation with Edutech competence, TR, and RC. Second, the results of structural equation modeling verify the mediating effect of TR and RC in the relationship between teachers' Edutech competence and depression. Finally, Edutech competence has a statistically significant impact on TR and RC but does not affect depression. Therefore, improving TR and RC, rather than merely acquiring Edutech competence, is necessary to address depression in South Korean teachers in the post-COVID-19 scenario. © 2023, Auricle Global Society of Education and Research. All rights reserved.
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Incidences of major feline viral diseases provide basic information for preventing viral disease in cats. Despite the growing interest in feline viral diseases, sero-surveillances have been lacking. In this study, we analyzed the diagnoses of feline viral diseases and conducted a sero surveillance of feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), feline calicivirus (FCV), feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1), and feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) in Korean cats. Of the 204 confirmed cases since 2015, the numbers of diagnoses for FPV, FIPV, FCV, feline influenza virus, and FHV-1 were 156, 32, 12, 3, and 1 case, respectively. In total, 200 sera, collected between 2019 and 2021, were screened for the presence of antibodies against FPV, 2 FCVs, FHV-1, and FIPV using a hemagglutination inhibition test and a virus-neutralizing assay (VNA). The overall seropositive rates in cats tested for FPV, the 2 FCVs, FHV-1, and FIPV were 92.5%. 42.0%, 37.0%, 52.0%, and 14.0%, respectively. A low correlation (r = 0.466) was detected between the VNA titers of 2 FCV strains. The highest incidence and seropositive rate of FPV reveal that FPV is circulating in Korean cats. The low r-value between 2 FCVs suggests that a new feline vaccine containing the 2 kinds of FCVs is required.
ABSTRACT
Background. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced hospital infection control practices. We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in the intensive care unit. Methods. We conducted a retrospective analysis using data from the Korean National Healthcare-Associated Infections Surveillance System (KONIS). KONIS has conducted nationwide prospective surveillance of HAIs in intensive care units. Comparisons of incidence rates of bloodstream infection (BSI), central lineassociated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) before (Jan 2018-Dec 2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (Jan 2020-Jun 2021) were performed according to hospital size. The microorganism distributions in BSI, urinary tract infection, and pneumonia were compared between the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results. The incidence rate of BSI significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the pre-COVID-19 period (1.38 vs. 1.19 per 10,000 patient-days;P < 0.001) [Table 1]. Incidence rates of CLABSI (2.30 vs. 2.17 per 1,000 device-days;P = 0.03) and VAP (1.03 vs. 0.81 per 1,000 device-days;P < 0.001) decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the pre-COVID-19 period, whereas that rate of CAUTI was similar between the two periods. The annual trends of incidence rate of CLABSI and VAP also has decreased (Figure 1). According to the hospital size, the incidence rate per 1,000 device-days of CLABSI significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the pre-COVID-19 period in small to medium-sized hospitals (300-699 beds). The incidence rate per 1,000 device-days of VAP significantly decreased only in small-sized hospitals (200-449 beds). The microorganism distributions in HAIs did not change significantly. Conclusion. The incidence rates of CLABSI and VAP decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the pre-COVID-19 period, which was attributable to the changes in small to medium-sized hospitals. (Figure Presented).
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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.
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CASE: A 61-year-old male with no prior medical history presented with hematochezia, significant weight loss, and abdominal cramping for the past three months. Abdominal pain was predominantly present in the suprapubic area and alleviated with bowel movements. He reported acute worsening of diarrhea frequency with 15 episodes of bowel movement daily. He had similar symptoms in the past when he was diagnosed with a parasitic infection. Physical exam demonstrated diffuse, mild tenderness in all four abdominal quadrants with hyperactive bowel sounds. Infectious workup was negative at the time for stool parasites or bacteria. Lab results were significant for elevated non-specific inflammatory markers including ESR and CRP. CT abdomen revealed diffuse circumferential wall thickening of the entire colon and rectum and multiple associated pericolonic adenopathies, consistent with an inflammatory process. The patient was admitted for management of ulcerative colitis for intractable pain and worsening diarrhea. Of note, he was also found to test positive for COVID19, without significant respiratory symptoms. Colonoscopy confirmed active ulcerative colitis throughout the colon. He was subsequently treated with a course of steroids and initiated on mesalamine upon discharge. Four months later, he was readmitted for an acute flare-up;he developed increased frequency of bowel movements and severe abdominal pain despite adherence with his medication regimen. He was found to have a new COVID19 infection. Other infectious work up was once again negative, with no evident exacerbating factors for his new flare. He was started on adalimumab with routine infliximab infusions with effective control of symptoms. After resolution of his COVID-19 infection, he since then had no further flares from his ulcerative colitis. IMPACT/DISCUSSION: Studies have now demonstrated links between COVID-19 and the sequelae of certain systemic inflammatory pathologies. Here, the evident trigger for our patient's flares were his underlying, concurrent COVID-19 infections. Even though this may initially appear coincidental during his index hospitalization, his later flare highlights a plausible clinical correlation. Though the pathophysiology of COVID-19 associated inflammatory states remains unclear, it could very likely be implicated in primarily exacerbating ulcerative colitis flare ups. CONCLUSION: Ulcerative colitis flares in the inpatient setting require urgent clinical attention, yet often the exacerbating trigger may be unknown. Here, we describe the importance of taking into consideration COVID-19 infection as an independent risk factor for ulcerative colitis flares.
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Deep learning based models on the edge devices have received considerable attention as a promising means to handle a variety of AI applications. However, deploying the deep learning models in the production environment with efficient inference on the edge devices is still a challenging task due to computation and memory constraints. This paper proposes a framework for the service robot named GuardBot powered by Jetson Xavier NX and presents a real-world case study of deploying the optimized face mask recognition application with real-time inference on the edge device. It assists the robot to detect whether people are wearing a mask to guard against COVID-19 and gives a polite voice reminder to wear the mask. Our framework contains dual-stage architecture based on convolutional neural networks with three main modules that employ (1) MTCNN for face detection, (2) our proposed CNN model and seven transfer learning based custom models which are Inception-v3, VGG16, denseNet121, resNet50, NASNetMobile, XceptionNet, MobileNet-v2 for face mask classification, (3) TensorRT for optimization of all the models to speedup inference on the Jetson Xavier NX. Our study carries out several analysis based on the models' performance in terms of their frames per second, execution time and images per second. It also evaluates the accuracy, precision, recall & F1-score and makes the comparison of all models before and after optimization with a main focus on high throughput and low latency. Finally, the framework is deployed on a mobile robot to perform experiments in both outdoor and multi-floor indoor environments with patrolling and non-patrolling modes. Compared to other state-of-the-art models, our proposed CNN model for face mask recognition based on the classification obtains 94.5%, 95.9% and 94.28% accuracy on training, validation and testing datasets respectively which is better than MobileNet-v2, Xception and InceptionNet-v3 while it achieves highest throughput and lowest latency than all other models after optimization at different precision levels.
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Purpose: This paper aims to examine the joint role of the pandemic-induced source of crisis (i.e. health and social crisis) based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and message appeal in customer perception of and behavioral intention toward a restaurant. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a 2 (source of crisis: social, health) × 2 (message appeal: social, health) between-subjects factorial design. A total of 181 samples was collected and data was analyzed by using ANCOVA and PROCESS. Findings: The results showed a significant two-way interaction between source of crisis and message appeal on to-go intention. With the potential effect of risk aversion being controlled, message appeal significantly impacted perceived competence, which influenced both dine-in and to-go intentions. Practical implications: The research findings suggest a crucial role of perceived fit between message appeal and customer concerns during crises. Therefore, restaurant managers should actively communicate their safety practices with their customers to inspire customer confidence. Originality/value: This study identifies crisis dimensions based on human needs during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which determines the persuasiveness of marketing messages. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.