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The Chinese government's rigorous efforts to enhance its soft power have confronted a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to look at how the Chinese soft power changed throughout the pandemic using English news articles that covered China. The research took a data science approach to investigate the contents of articles using machine-learning-based sentiment analysis and Dirichlet-Multinomial Regression (DMR) analysis. The results show a gradual downturn in overall sentiment and that the topics related to political issues made the most significant impact. Nevertheless, the major increase in referencing Chinese social media implied that the sources of Chinese soft power have been diversified throughout the pandemic. In addition, this research has aimed to engage in major debates around soft power theory. Providing a multi-disciplinary approach for analyzing soft power, this research has tackled the difficulties in the quantitative conceptualization of soft power.
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In this paper, we propose a path control framework for guiding and simulating the patient's path of travel to speed up virus testing in pandemic situations, such as COVID-19. We use geographic information and hospital state information to construct graphs to yield optimal travel paths. Pathfinding algorithms A* and Navigation mesh, which have been widely used, are efficient when applied to control agents in a virtual environment. However, they are not suitable for real-time changing cases such as the COVID-19 environment because they guide only predetermined static routes. In order to receive a virus infection test quickly, there are many factors to consider, such as road traffic conditions, hospital size, number of patient movements, and patient processing time, in addition to guiding the shortest distance. In this paper, we propose a framework for digitally twinning various situations by modeling optimization functions considering various environmental factors in real-world urban maps to handle viral infection tests quickly and efficiently.
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The demand for hygiene products has increased worldwide since the outbreak of global COVID-19. As the hygiene products market is expanding, it is necessary to manage microbial contamination in wet towels and wet wipes. This study evaluated pretreatment methods for microbial recovery from wet towels and wipes and microbial contamination levels in wet towels and wipes with the pretreatment method. Escherichia coli (NCCP14038 and NCCP14039), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923 and ATCC29213), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (NCCP10250 and NCCP11229) were inoculated on five fabric materials of wet towels and wet wipes. The recovery rates of the bacteria from wet towels and wet wipes using three pretreatment methods (pummeling, hand shaking, and portion cutting method) were investigated. Using the selected pretreatment method, the contamination levels of E. coli, S. aureus, and P. aeruginosa were evaluated for 238 wet towels and 244 wet wipes, which were collected in April to August, 2019. The presence of toxA and antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa isolated from wet towels were evaluated. The overall recovery rates of the pummeling method and hand shaking method were higher than the portion cutting method. Considering the convenience, the pummeling method was used to investigate the microbial contamination in the wet towels and wet wipes. P. aeruginosa was detected in two wet towels at an average of 9.9x102 CFU/towel. E. coli and S. aureus were not detected in both wet towels and wipes. P. aeruginosa isolates showed no resistances to piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, aztreonam, and gentamicin, but had toxA. The results indicate that the pummeling method is the most appropriate pretreatment method for the recovery of microorganisms, and microbial analysis showed that this method could be useful in monitoring microbial contamination in wet towels and wet wipes.
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We investigated the impact of human activity during COVID-19 on the tropospheric nitrogen dioxide vertical column density (NO2 TropVCD) at three urban sites (Gwangju and Busan in Korea and Yokosuka in Japan) and one remote site (Cape Hedo in Japan) from Multi-Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) and Pandora. Compared to the monthly mean NO2 TropVCD from 2015 to 2018 and in 2019, the values were lower in 2020 due to social distancing in Korea and Japan. High negative relative changes were observed from May to September (-30% to -18%) at the three urban sites;Cape Hedo, a remote site, did not show a significant difference in relative changes between previous years and 2020, suggesting that only anthropogenic emission sources decreased dramatically. In the case of Yokosuka, the 15-day moving average of the NO2 TropVCD exhibited a good relationship with transportation (R = 0.48) and industry (R = 0.54) mobility data. In contrast, the NO2 TropVCD at the Korean sites showed a moderate to low correlation with the industrial sector and insignificant correlations with transportation. The differences in correlations might be caused by the different social distancing policies in Korea (voluntary) and Japan (mandatory). By applying generalized boosted models to exclude meteorological and seasonal effects associated with NO2 TropVCD variations, we revealed that the decreasing trend from 2019 to 2020 was much steeper than that from 2015 to 2020 (a factor of two), and a significant change was identified in January 2020, when the first cases of COVID-19 were observed in both Korea and Japan. This result confirmed that the reduction in NO2 can be largely explained by the NOx emission reduction resulting from social distancing for COVID-19 rather than annual meteorological differences;however, in December 2020, NO2 recovered suddenly to its previous level due to an increase in human activities.
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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.
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Purpose: The no-contact and economic downturn caused by COVID-19 have further grown the used market. The second-hand trading industry has established itself as a popular consumption culture, leading to exponential growth in the size of the market. This study aims to identify the types of shopping motivation for used products targeting Korean consumers, and to examine the relationship between shopping motivations for second-hand transactions, consumption values, and re-use intentions. Research design, data and methodology: The first study was conducted on 63 used trading platform users and the second study was conducted on 441 used trading platform users to identify the types of consumers' motivation for shopping for used products. Results: As a result of the first study, the shopping motivation types of Korean used product consumers were classified into convenience motivation, economic motivation, hedonistic motivation, information Acquisition motivation, and free time utilization motivation. As a result of the second study, it was found that convenience motivation had the greatest influence on functional values and hedonic motivation had the greatest influence on emotional values, and that functional values had a great influence on platform reuse intentions. Conclusions: This study provides practical implications for the establishment of marketing strategies for used trading platforms and academic implications for research related to used trading © This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://Creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
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Currently, in the domestic construction market, several companies are actively investing in the proptech sector to develop real estate development and high-tech technology, and the domestic proptech sector is continuously growing. However, the construction market is still dominated by sales projects that rely on short-term finance, and there is a lack of discussion between the government and companies on ways to improve productivity. In addition, productivity improvement, operation, and management are vulnerable due to reckless investment focused only on profitability of small companies, and there are significant differences in productivity, operational efficiency, and size among domestic companies. This study aims to study the operational status and productivity improvement measures of domestic proptech construction companies. Therefore, among domestic construction companies, construction companies belonging to the Korea PropTech Forum were selected as analysis targets and an analysis of corporate productivity was conducted. As an analysis method, the Malmquist productivity index analysis, which can analyze changes in productivity and efficiency over a specific period through various outputs, was used. As variables used in the analysis, capital and number of employees was derived from input factors, assets, operating income, and net income were derived from output factors. Through the Mamquist productivity index analysis, trend analysis was conducted according to time point changes, and the degree of change in productivity between different time points was compared and analyzed. Results show that productivity improved due to the overall increase in MPI by year, but the index of flows such as MPI during the entire period was different by period. This means that the factors affecting productivity improvement have changed by period, sensitively reacting to external factors such as the construction industry or the COVID-19 situation. This study is significant because it identifies changes in the productivity index of proptech construction companies and suggests efficient operation of companies and ways to improve productivity. © 2023, Success Culture Press. All rights reserved.
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COVID-19 has resulted in unprecedented changes in the tourism industry and brought tourists' safety and security issues more important. The travel and tourism competitiveness of India as a tourist destination ranked remarkably high in natural and cultural resources, and price competitiveness but relatively low in safety and security. The research aims to evaluate safe tourism in India with an objective view and suggest directions to restore confidence and restart tourism in India after the pandemic. The research studies on safe tourism are assessed, and the importance of safety and security issues in tourism is addressed. It also analyses India as a safe destination and suggests more focus should be on safety to consolidate the tourist destination image of India. A tourist safety framework composed of safety education, safety technology, safety system and safety regulation is suggested with a case study of South Korea. Focus on domestic tourism, a phased approach for safe tourism, 3S Indian campaign, and networks between public and private sectors are suggested for safe tourism in COVID-19. The research would provide a rationale for safe tourism in India and help government and tourism marketers develop policies, set standards or guidelines for tourists and plan coordination with other bodies or industries. © 2022 Jung Ha Kim.
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This study examines the case of a shopping mall in Seoul, South Korea, based on its offline retail sales data during the period of the enforcement of the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing policy. South Korea implemented strict social distancing, especially in retail categories where people eat out, due to the danger of spreading infectious disease. A total of 55 retail shops' sales data were analyzed and classified into five categories: fashion, food and beverage (f&b), entertainment, cosmetics and sport. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and exponential smoothing (ETS) models were employed, and the autocorrelation (ACF) and partial autocorrelation (PACF) of each retail category's sales data were analyzed. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was used to determine the most suitable forecasting model for each retail category. In this way, the f&b and entertainment retail categories, in which people eat out, were found to have been significantly impacted, with their 2022 sales forecasted to be less than 80% of their 2018 and 2019 sales. The fashion retail category was also significantly impacted, slowly recovering sales in 2022. The cosmetics and sport retail categories were little impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, with their retail sales having already recovered by 2022. © 2023 by the authors.
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Background: The transmission and the fatality rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are high enough to cause the strain of intensive care resources, and even influence the treatment and prognosis of non-COVID-19 patients. Therefore, the collateral damages to non-COVID-19 critically ill patients before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated. Method(s): Demographic data, severity, clinical course, and prognosis of non-COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) via the emergency room (ER) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were acquired from electronic medical records from three university-affiliated tertiary hospitals. Result(s): A total of 619 patients before and 542 patients during the pandemic were enrolled. During the COVID-19 pandemic, simplified acute physiology score (SAPS) 3 and the sequential organ failure assessment score (SOFA) on ER admission (SAPS3 72.7 +/- 20.3 versus 65.9 +/- 18.6, p <0.001, respectively;SOFA score 8.1 +/- 4.2, versus 7.2 +/-4.2, p <0.001, respectively) were significantly higher than those before the pandemic. The length of stay in the ER, ICU, and hospital was longer (p<0.05 in all). Finally, the hospital mortality rate was significantly higher during the pandemic than those before (39.7% versus 28.4%, p<0.001). The overall survival in the Kaplan-Meier curve analysis with log-rank test was significantly higher during the pandemic (p=0.04). Conclusion(s): These result of increased severity, hospital day and mortality in non-COVID-19 patients indicate the collateral damage to non-COVID-19 patients due to shortages in medical resources for them. Strategic management of medical resources is required to halt these consequences.
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Background: Shoulder joint diseases such as rotator cuff tear, adhesive capsulitis, calcific tendinitis, shoulder instability, and glenohumeral osteoarthritis often require surgical treatment. Surgical outcomes can change significantly depending on whether the postoperative rehabilitation was appropriately performed. Current Concepts: The focus of postoperative rehabilitation should be to remove pain and restore functional movement through improving the dynamic stability of the rotator cuff and shoulder muscles. However, rehabilitation should not include activities that aggravate the injury. Therefore, rehabilitation treatment should be carried out with gradual increments in exercise intensity. Postoperative rehabilitation is not only related to exercise but may also include drug administration, such as steroid injection. In particular, many investigations have been performed to identify the clinical risks and benefits of steroid injection after rotator cuff repair. Notably, telemedicine can be used as a solution for the problematic situations that have been caused by coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Discussion and Conclusion(s): A thorough understanding and appropriate application of postoperative rehabilitation protocols are essential to improve surgical outcomes.Copyright © Korean Medical Association.
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Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is an attractive target for developing immune modulators to enhance innate immunity against ssRNA virus infections, including hepatitis C and COVID-19. Ten 3-(5-hydroxyphenyl)-5-phenyl-2-pyrazolines were tested using TLR7 reporter cells, overexpressing TLR7 and the NF-B-inducible SEAP reporter gene to discover a novel TLR7 agonist enhancing innate immunity. Of these, 2-(3-(2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)-5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)thiazol-4(5H)-one (compound 6) showed the best TLR7 agonistic activity, and further experiments were carried out to study the immune-modulatory capability of compound 6. Treatment with compound 6 rapidly induced phosphorylation of IRAK4, IKKα/β, IBα, and p65/RelA in THP1 monocytic cells. In addition, it increased the expression of NF-B-regulated innate cytokines, such as TNFα and IL1β, in THP1 monocytic cells. These data suggest that compound 6 induces an innate immune response by agonizing TLR7 activity in THP1 human monocytic cells. Therefore, compound 6 can be used as an innate immune modulator to develop antiviral agents and vaccine adjuvants. © 2023 Ji Hwan Kim et al.
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Purpose: This study was to identify how a nursing management practicum was operated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea. Methods: This study surveyed instructors teaching the nursing management practicum with a questionnaire covering five domains and 42 items. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results: The practicum was performed mainly by mixed methods (40.8% and 38.5%), in hospitals only (30.8% and 60.4%), online only (19.8% and 1.1%) in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The mixed methods were most frequently used for instructor teaching and conferences (43.9% and 58.3%). and the average teaching time per week was 9.40 and 8.69 hours per week, respectively. Taking charge in one to three core nursing skill items, 87.8% and 90.1% of the respondents each year performed face to face evaluation for the skills. Four to six out of 12 POs were covered by 58.2% and 54.9% of the participants, respectively, in 2020 and 2021. The greatest difficulty under the pandemic was securing students' hospital assignments. Conclusion: The nursing management practicum needs to adopt various digital technologies, and create new education models including hybrid ones combining both contact and untact methods to improve the educational effect for the post COVID-19 era. © 2022 Korean Academy of Nursing Administration.
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Sexual minorities are increasingly gaining social visibility and legal rights guarantees at the constitutional level across much of the world, from South America, the United States, and Europe to Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on significant mental health challenges for the public due to accompanying social and economic impact and measures, most of them adverse. Given pre-existing studies highlighting the minority demographic's vulnerability to depression and other mental health symptoms, and the increasing availability of accessible NLP tools, datasets, and models, this paper uses an emotional classification model to analyze emotional trends in queer communities on social media. Using KoBERT with a pre-labelled dataset containing some forty thousand scraped social media posts labelled with emotions, patterns of emotional expression on Twitter in the queer community is revealed. Resulting data provided a validation of the viability of this method of analyzing trends in negative and positive emotional expression as well as the impact COVID-19 had on online queer communities in early 2020 but revealed limitations. © 2023 IEEE.
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This paper considers the contribution of North-South partnerships in conducting ethical and policy-relevant research in times of uncertainty. Using collaborative autoethnography, we critically reflect on our experience conducting two related research projects in Ethiopia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss how our research has adapted to take account of changing policy priorities in response to the crisis, how we implemented careful research practices, and which strategies we adopted to ensure providing timely and quality evidence for the governments, schools and parents. Importantly, we reflect on how our North-South partnerships and our close engagement with the Ethiopian government play a pivotal role in overcoming the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and adapting our research to meet the needs of key stakeholders. Grounded in our reflections, we provide a set of guidelines to establish equitable research partnerships in times of uncertainty. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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OBJECTIVE: To perform a systematic review of case reports or case series regarding thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) related to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination to address the clinical features, laboratory findings, treatment modalities, and prognosis related with CVT. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We included 64 TTS patients from 19 articles, 6 case series and 13 case reports, in which thrombosis occurred after the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination published up to 30 June 2021 in Embase, ePubs, Medline/PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. RESULTS: Of the 64 TTS patients, 38 (59.3%) had CVT. Patients with CVT were younger (median 36.5 vs. 52.5 years, p<0.001), had lower fibrinogen levels (130 vs. 245 mg/dL, p=0.008), had more frequent history of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and had higher mortality rate (48.6% vs. 19.2%, p=0.020) than that of patients without CVT. In multivariable analysis, the possibility of presence of CVT was higher in younger age groups [odd ratio (OR): 0.91, 95% confidence interval (CI): (0.86-0.97, p<0.001)] and those with accompanying intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) (OR: 13.60, 95% CI (1.28-144.12, p=0.045). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that CVT related to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination was associated with younger age, low levels of fibrinogen, presence of ICH and more frequent mortality compared to those of non-CVT. If TTS occurs after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination, the presence of CVT in patients with young age or ICH should be considered.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an unprecedented increase in the level of political blame attributed to China for the health crisis and other associated xenophobic discourses. Although previous research has revealed the effects of perceived outgroup threats on popular support for policies that control outgroups, threats posed by foreign countries have received little empirical attention. This study advances previous research by focusing on the independent effects of the perceived China threat to public support for restrictive immigration control during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample drawn from the 2020 American National Election Studies, the results showed that the perceived China threat substantially heightened public support for restrictive immigration control. More importantly, demand for restrictive immigration control intensified when individuals had stronger perceptions of threats and conspiracy beliefs about the virus leak from a Chinese lab. Taken together, our findings demonstrate the roles of politically constructed threats and conspiracy beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing new mechanisms of popular attitudes toward social control. © The Author(s) 2022.
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As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread worldwide, variants viruses are constantly emerging. And there has been a growing interest in the study of variant viruses, for the necessity of response to emergence and diffusion of new coronavirus variants. So, we conducted a survey of variant proportions of SARS-CoV-2 on positive samples of confirmed cases by Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (Real-time PCR). From December 26, 2021 to April 2, 2022, a total of 819 SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) were identified in COVID-19 positive samples. In the 2nd week of January 2022, detection rate of the Omicron subvariant BA.1 was 58.1%, overtaking Delta variant to become dominant type. However, in the 5th week of March, detection rate of another Omicron subvariant BA.2 was 75.9%, became dominant variant. These results imply that BA.1 was a dominant variant for two months and after that, omicron BA.1 was rapidly replaced by omicron BA.2. This research is valuable because it provided information which is helpful to response diffusion of new variants. Compared to Delta variant, a large number of mutations in the spike gene(S) of Omicron variant were detected. It raises concerns about changes in pathogenicity and transmissibility in new COVID variants. Therefore, we should develop new strategies against emergence and diffusion of SARS-CoV-2 variants throughout monitoring appearance of the new variants, analyzing the characteristics of new things. In this respect, the results of this research are useful because they offered good basic data for appreciating characteristics of new COVID variants by monitoring the emergence of Delta and Omicron variant. Copyright © 2022 Journal of Bacteriology and Virology.
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Background: Shoulder joint diseases such as rotator cuff tear, adhesive capsulitis, calcific tendinitis, shoulder instability, and glenohumeral osteoarthritis often require surgical treatment. Surgical outcomes can change significantly depending on whether the postoperative rehabilitation was appropriately performed. Current Concepts: The focus of postoperative rehabilitation should be to remove pain and restore functional movement through improving the dynamic stability of the rotator cuff and shoulder muscles. However, rehabilitation should not include activities that aggravate the injury. Therefore, rehabilitation treatment should be carried out with gradual increments in exercise intensity. Postoperative rehabilitation is not only related to exercise but may also include drug administration, such as steroid injection. In particular, many investigations have been performed to identify the clinical risks and benefits of steroid injection after rotator cuff repair. Notably, telemedicine can be used as a solution for the problematic situations that have been caused by coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Discussion and Conclusion: A thorough understanding and appropriate application of postoperative rehabilitation protocols are essential to improve surgical outcomes. © Korean Medical Association.