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BACKGROUND: Although interest in qualitative olfactory dysfunction (OD), including parosmia and phantosmia, has been increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about the clinical characteristics and associated factors of qualitative OD. METHODS: Adult patients with subjective smell disturbance who underwent both the olfactory questionnaire and psychophysical olfactory function test were retrospectively enrolled. Demographic and clinical characteristics were analysed according to the presence or absence of parosmia or phantosmia. RESULTS: Among a total of 753 patients with self-reported OD, 60 (8%) and 167 (22.2%) patients reported parosmia and phantosmia, respectively. Younger age and female sex were related to both parosmia and phantosmia. The frequency of parosmia was significantly higher in patients with post-viral OD (17.9%) than in patients with the sinonasal disease (5.5%), whereas that of phantosmia was not different according to aetiologies of OD. Patients with COVID-19 had significantly younger ages and higher TDI scores than those with other viral infections. Remarkably, patients with parosmia or phantosmia had significantly higher TDI scores than those without but experienced more disruption in daily life. In the multivariate analysis, younger age and higher TDI score were identified as independent factors associated with both parosmia and phantosmia, while the viral infection was associated with parosmia but not with phantosmia. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with OD who have parosmia or phantosmia have higher odour sensitivity than those who do not, but experience more deterioration in the quality of life. Viral infection is a risk factor for parosmia but not for phantosmia.
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As COVID-19 emerged and prolonged, various changes have occurred in our lives. For example, as restrictions on daily life are lengthening, the number of people complaining of depression is increasing. In this paper, we conduct a sentiment analysis by modelling public emotions and issues through social media. Text data written on Twitter is collected by dividing it into the early and late stages of COVID-19, and emotional analysis is performed to reclassify it into positive and negative tweets. Therefore, subject modelling is performed with a total of four datasets to review the results and evaluate the modelling results. Furthermore, topic modelling results are visualised using dimensional reduction, and public opinions on COVID-19 are intuitively confirmed by generating representative words consisting of each topic in the word cloud. Additionally, we implement a COVID-chatbot that provides a question-and-answer service on COVID-19 and verifies the performance in our experiments.
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Background: To date, over 10 million doses of mRNA vaccines (BNT162b2 mRNA and mRNA-1273) have been administered in Singapore. Initial studies have shown that 0.8% of individuals who received Moderna mRNA vaccine developed delayed injection-site reactions. Reactions to the Moderna mRNA vaccine are thought to be benign and not a contraindication to further doses. Injection-site reactions associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine are less clearly defined. We report the characteristics of mRNA COVID-19 injection-site reactions, comparing the clinical features between Moderna (mRNA-1273) and Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) reactions in the Singaporean adult population. Method(s): We retrospectively reviewed patients referred to the Dermatology Service / Allergy Centre of a tertiary hospital in Singapore for reactions post COVID-19 vaccination between 10 Jan 2021 and 26 Aug 2021. Inclusion criteria were adult patients who developed a localised injection-site reaction after either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. Result(s): 322 patients were referred for post-COVID- 19 vaccine reactions, of which 21 developed injection-site reactions. 11 (52%) had received the Moderna mRNA vaccine while 10 (48%) received the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine. Patients receiving the Moderna mRNA vaccine had a longer mean latency period (p = 0.047) and were more likely to have a latency duration of > 5 days (p = 0.007). Secondary dissemination of the injection-site reaction was seen in 2 patients. 11 (52%) of these reactions resolved without treatment;while the remaining 10 (48%) required symptomatic treatment with topical corticosteroids, antihistamines, or a combination of both. All 21 patients subsequently received the second vaccine dose, of which 2 (9.5%) developed recurrence of the reaction;both of which were mild and did not require treatment. Conclusion(s): Localised injection-site reactions post Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccination are uncommon and appear to be phenotypically different. Such reactions are benign and self-limited. While recurrence of the reaction can arise during repeat vaccine doses, these are mild and self-limited.
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Objective Different hypotheses suggest a contradictory association of statins, angiotensin receptor blockers(ARBs) or angiotensin-converting enzyme(ACE) inhibitors with potential adverse or favorable effects in patients with Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19). This study aimed to compare the association of statins, ARB, and ACE inhibitors in COVID-19 and in pneumonia. Design and Method All patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 through April 16, 2020, in Korea were retrieved. We evaluated the association of statins, ARBs, and ACE inhibitors on COVID-19-related mortality within 60 days. Furthermore, a comparison of hazard ratio (HR) was performed between COVID-19 patients and a retrospective cohort of patients hospitalized with pneumonia between January and June 2019 in Korea. Lastly, meta-analysis was performed to compare the results of this study and other reports. Results The median age of the 10,448 COVID-19 patients was 45 years, and statins, ARBs and ACE inhibitors were prescribed in 533 (5.1%), 1,231(11.8%) and 47(0.4%) patients, respectively. As of April 24, 228 patients (2.2%) succumbed to death. After adjusting age, sex, residential area, the history of comorbidities, Cox regression showed significant decrease in HR by 36% associated with statin use (HR 0.635, 95% CI 0.424 - 0.951, p = 0.0274). However, ARBs group showed neutral association (HR 1.034, 95% CI 0.765 - 1.399, p = 0.8270) and ACE inhibitor groups showed insignificant results mainly due to small sample size (HR 0.736, 95% CI 0.314 - 1.726, p = 0.4810). When comparing the HR between COVID-19 patients and a retrospective cohort of patients hospitalized with pneumonia between January and June 2019, the trend of statins and ACE inhibitors showed similar benefit, whereas the protective effect of ARBs observed in the retrospective cohort was lost in the COVID-19 patients. Meta-analysis including the results of this study showed significant benefit of statins and ACE inhibitors, whereas neutral association with ARBs and the mortality. Conclusions Statins were associated with significantly lower mortality of COVID-19, consistent with usual pneumonia patients. While ARBs or ACE inhibitors were not associated with fatal outcome, the possible beneficial effect of ARBs observed in usual pneumonia was attenuated in COVID-19.
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The lack of accurate data on the rural communities' perspectives of the COVID-19 vaccine impairs the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of vaccine programs. Notably, we do not have adequate data to understand why, although COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted minority populations in these communities, they are reported to be the least likely to be vaccinated. This paper develops a cost-effective community sampling frame based on satellite imagery and machine learning to improve the diversity of data and study the association between household-level visual information and COVID-19 vaccination rates in the Alabama Black Belt. The results provided solid evidence for the hypothesis that high-resolution satellite imagery contains valuable information to understand communities' perspectives on the COVID-19 vaccine. It also generated extra knowledge and implications for community health to help social workers to develop future vaccine promotion strategies in rural America. © 2022 ACM.
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Since the COVID-19 epidemic, the response of educational facilities regarding infectious diseases has been through software quarantine guidelines that involved installing partitions and keeping distance. However, this is a temporary prevention method, and hardware supplementation is needed with consideration of the placement of space or movement path of infectious diseases that could occur in the future. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the infectious disease guidelines of educational facilities that could occur even afterwards, and derive implications through surveys and interviews with related officials and experts. Reports and documents from the Ministry of Education and the provincial education office related to infection prevention management and response manuals were analyzed. This study was divided into institutional and spatial aspects that entailed the prevention of infectious diseases related to school facilities after 2019. Opinions were collected through a survey conducted on operators of these educational facility guidelines and implications were derived from status analysis based upon interviews and surveys taken from architectural design experts. Finally, the direction for improving these guidelines for preventative COVID-19 measures in school facilities was suggested from the responses of school operators and architectural experts. © 2022 Architectural Institute of Korea.
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Taste is one of the fundamental senses that allow us to distinguish nutritious food substances from toxic ones. However, the ability to taste decreases with age or can be lost due to some diseases such as COVID- 19, drugs, and disturbances in the molecular activities in taste homeostasis and renewal. Previous studies have shown the potential role of the Hedgehog signaling pathway in taste papillae homeostasis Therefore, inhibition or stimulation of the Hedgehog pathway can be explored to address taste disturbances. This study investigated photobiomodulation effects on the Hedgehog signaling pathway after inhibition with Vismodegib of taste receptor and geniculate ganglion neuronal cells in vitro and in vivo. Laser treatment performed at 630 and 850 nm, with varying energies of 30, 60, and 120J resulted in the modulation of Hedgehog signaling proteins and genes. Photobiomodulation offers a noninvasive approach with deep penetration in tissue to restore taste by promoting tastebud regeneration and stimulating desensitized afferent nerves.
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Leukocytoclastic vasculitis after the BNT162b2 vaccine and ChAdOxl nCoV-19 Corona Virus vaccine [recombinant] has been observed. Herein, we report two cases of leukocytoclastic vasculitis that developed after the ChAdOxl-S [recombinant] vaccination. A 61-year-old and a 52-year-old woman presented with pruritic purpuric macules and papules on both lower legs. The patients had been vaccinated with the ChAdOxl-S [recombinant] vaccine. The histopathological analyses were consistent with a diagnosis of leukocytoclastic vasculitis. They were treated with oral prednisolone and improved within 1 month of treatment. We assume that the rash had arisen from the deposition of spike protein at the skin tissue induced by the viral vector of the COVID-19 vaccine or hyperimmune responses by excipients present in vaccine preparations. To our knowledge, our cases would be the first Korean cases of leukocytoclastic vasculitis after the ChAdOxl-S [recombinant] vaccination. © 2022 Korean Dermatological Association. All rights reserved.
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Southeast Asian countries have been regarded as popular holiday destinations among Chinese tourists. In recent years, tourism and travel industries in Southeast Asia have benefited from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, drawing a large number of Chinese visitors. This study examined Chinese tourists’ revisit intention towards Southeast Asia via an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model. The added variables (destination attachment and past travel experience) can advance the theoretical understanding of the TPB model. This study also examines the moderating role of destination attachment and past travel experience on attitude towards revisit intention. Questionnaires were designed for data collection with 314 completed responses. The results of the study found that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and destination attachment can determine Chinese tourists’ revisit intention. Tourism practitioners in Southeast Asian countries need to understand tourists’ past behavior and destination attachment on their attitude towards revisiting destination;practitioners can also consider enhancing tourists’ emotional connections and attachments to the destination in the post-COVID era. This study’s implication serves as a reference for other tourism destinations in the world. © 2022 Cognizant, LLC.
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This study evaluated the characteristics of PM2.5 pollution and long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT) at the Baengnyeong and Jeju Air Quality Research Centers in South Korea during 2018~2020. The mean concentration of PM2.5 was constant in Baengnyeong but decreased in Jeju owing to COVID-19. The significant seasonal variations of OC, EC, and NO3- in Baengnyeong and Jeju with the highest concentrations in winter may be due to the influence of high PM2.5 episodes. Meanwhile, the concentrations of SO42- and NH4+ were constant throughout the year in Baengnyeong, resulting from regional inflow from surrounding areas. The influence of anthropogenic sources and secondary formation of PM2.5 increased in summer and decreased in autumn at both sites, which was also observed at other background sites. The dominance of NO3-, K+, and Cl- in Baengnyeong was due to the influence of combustion sources and LRAT. The source of SO42-, NH4+, V, and Ni in Jeju was identified as industrial activities with the highest contribution in summer. The secondary formation of PM2.5 with external inflow effects was dominant in Baengnyeong and Jeju. The main emission source area of PM2.5 for both Baengnyeong and Jeju was East China (Hebei, Shandong, Jangsu, and Anhui), but the chemical composition and sources of PM2.5 were different between Baengnyeong and Jeju. The result of this study can be a basis for future monitoring and modeling studies on the influence of LRAT in background areas. © 2022, Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment. All rights reserved.
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Background: Psoriasis (PsO) and musculoskeletal manifestations are common among patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). A shared-care model between rheu-matologists and dermatologists has been advocated to promote early diagnosis and improve management care. Data from Asia is scanty. Patients' and learners' experience of shared-care models are seldom explored. Objectives: We described the set-up of a new shared-cared PsA-PsO clinic incorporating service, education and research between rheumatologist and dermatologist for PsA. We describe the patients' and learners' experience of this shared-care model. Methods: A combined care clinic was newly set up in 2019. Referrals were Internal through either specialty. Each patient was frst seen by a trainee, followed by both a dermatologist and rheumatologist simultaneously in the same consultation room. We collected patients' and learners' experience through self-administered survey. Results: From May 2019 to January 2020, data from 44 visits (55% new referrals, 45% follow-up) from 28 patients were captured in the PsA-PsO clinic. 50% of cases were referred from either specialty. 34% were referred for diagnostic doubts, 66% were for therapeutic issues. 61% of patients continued follow-up in the PsA-PsO clinic, and 39% discharged back to respective care. From patients' experience rated on scale from 0-10, median (interquartile range, IQR) rating of the care was 8 (7, 8). 69.2% and 96% of patients would recommend the care to others. Free text comments included enhanced convenience, time saving, and having both specialties input on management. From 20 learners (3 medial students, 12 residents, 4 senior residents and one scientist), 95% reported extremely or very benefcial to training, 77.8% reported improved confdence in care for PsA and/or PsO patients. The PsA-PsO clinic was temporally suspended during the Covid-19 viral pandemic since February 2020 due to lack of manpower and not fulflling the spacing out requirement for infectious control. The service was resumed gradually from May 2021. Conclusion: Despite challenges, we report the setup of a new care model between dermatologists and rheumatologists for care of patients with psoriatic disease. The care model was well received by patients. Learners from various levels reported beneft from the learning experience.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and preventive measures such as social distancing and campus closures have brought unprecedented social isolation to college students. Past studies have suggested that being socially isolated may not only have harmful effects on one's mental health but also result in a variety of physical health problems, such as a weakened cardiovascular system. On the other hand, higher perceived social support can lead to more positive health outcomes as it is associated with lower mortality risk and greater use of active coping strategies. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how loneliness and perceived social support are associated with the physical symptoms and coping styles of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated two types of coping strategies: active coping and self-distraction. The variables were measured through an online survey administered across five different time points in 2020 with students (n = 292) enrolled in a university located in Southern California. Linear regression analyses were conducted to predict the students' physical symptoms and coping styles using their levels of loneliness and perceived social support. The analyses used the first wave of data (from May 2020) to predict the second and fifth waves of the survey, which took place in July and December of 2020, in order to examine how baseline levels at the start of the pandemic predicted changes in the beginning of the study compared to at the end of the year. Students who reported higher levels of loneliness in May experienced more physical symptoms in July, b = 2.89, p < .001. However, social support did not significantly predict physical symptoms (p > .05), and neither loneliness nor social support significantly predicted the students' coping styles (ps > .05). When using data from May to predict outcomes in December, there were no significant associations. This study may help improve the physical and psychological well-being of college students during the global health crisis.
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With stringent immigration controls implemented by governments around the world, the year 2020 has seen global aviation and tourism industries grind to a complete halt. However, COVID-19 seems to have been the catalyst for the rise of local tourism around the globe. While the literature has long focused on the demand and supply of international tourism, the significance of local tourism should not be overlooked. This paper uses a novel and comprehensive mixed methods approach that considers (1) internet keyword search trends for tourist destinations, (2) news announcements on social media platforms, (3) ridership data provided by ferry companies and (4) participant observations in the field to examine the growth of local tourism in Hong Kong during the city's first and second waves of COVID-19, shedding light on the growth of rural, island destinations in the city. By investigating the trends and patterns of local tourism in Hong Kong, this article offers recommendations for policymakers and tourism stakeholders not only in Hong Kong but also around the world to facilitate the development of local tourism. The paper concludes by asking readers to consider the myriad possibilities of repositioning tourist destinations to offer alternative tourism forms that are more sustainable and can be resilient to negative events such as COVID-19.
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In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains have become important policy tools to ensure the security and resilience of regional trading blocs of major economies. The US government's focus on supply chains for selected strategic industries and the EU Commission's renewed efforts to strengthen its supply chains using 'sustainability standards' coincides with the global trend in the shift towards digital and low-carbon economies. Furthermore, the rising tensions between the US and China, with no signs of reconciliation over key issues of contention, have emphasized the need for more credibility and trust in global supply chains. However, such policies also have the potential to serve as new barriers to participation in supply chains by less-developed economies which are not yet prepared to meet the high-level sustainability criteria which aim for higher protection of the environment and labor rights. There also seems to be an apparent shift in paradigm supporting the interventionist role of government that emphasize the need for more discretion for policy objectives that pursue societal and democratic values, not to mention national security interests. The current rules of international trade, however, do not sufficiently address these new issues and need to be realigned in order to meet the new demands. The current 'rules of the game' need to be reinforced in order to accommodate the rising need of countries for increased consideration of issues of sustainability and competitiveness. © 2021 Jungseok Research Institute of International Logistics and Trade. All rights reserved.
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In this article, we analyze the change in anthropogenic seismic noise level within a frequency range of 4-14 Hz, through a survey of seismic stations in California, United States, New York City, United States, and Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico from early December 2019 to late April 2020. Our analysis shows that some stations recorded a drop in anthropogenic seismic noise during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the timing of the anthropogenic noise decrease typically correlates with the timing of a strict curtailment of personal and economic activity issued by the local government. In other locations, the drop in the anthropogenic seismic noise appears not to follow the lockdown timing perfectly.Duringour analysis,weobservedthatmanystations didnot recordadropduring the early stageofCOVID-19pandemic. Ofthe 19 stationsof the Southern California Seismic Network that were surveyed, we found that only five show a similar extent of drop in anthropogenic seismic noise comparable to the Christmas holiday break in 2019. This suggests that the human activity that caused seismic noise did not significantly reduce during the COVID-19 pandemic near most surveyed stations in southern California. A further analysis implies that the primary seismic noise source in southern California might be traffic, and the continuation of industrial traffic, such as cargo transportation, during the COVID-19 pandemic may be the reason why many stations did not record a noise drop. Our results show that the anthropogenic seismic noise recorded by seismic stations is capable of indicating human activity, and that thismetric is, particularly, powerful inmeasuring how localized communities initially responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 Seismological Society of America. All rights reserved.
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This research was conducted to identify problems and improvement measures that the current residential space has by diagnosing the perception and demand for Korean dwellers. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 850 residents of apartment in korea aged 20 to 70. The survey consisted of the questionnaire category;household status, location, space usage behavior, preferred housing type, etc. Based on the data out of the survey, statistical analysis are conducted to find out significant pattern of respondents’ percepion and satisfaction. First, it was found that there is a correlation between the time the respondents stay in and the perception of the most important space in residential. The longer the repondents stayed in the house, the more they chose the kitchen‧dining room and living room. Secondly, satisfaction degree of residential and the influencing factors were investigated. Even though the overall satisfaction was 3.44 points in average, there was a difference in satisfaction by region. In particular, the score was lower in metropolitan areas such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Busan compared to Sejong City where new housing was actively supplied, which is indicating that the location the respondets live had an effect on housing satisfaction. Next, we looked at the demand for housing scale expansion. The gap between the current and desired residentaial size was the highest on 20s single-person households, which suggests that it is necessary to check that sufficient residential space is provided to young single-family households with relatively low economic efficiency. The survey also includes the spatial composition preference of the residential, showing that most prefered residentaial is the type the space is divided into 3 part;the living room, bedroom, and kitchen/dining(51.5%). Although there is a typical preferred spatial composition type across all respondents, the preferences are diverse even in the same age group and family composition. Accordingly it is necessary to reconsider the way of constructing apartment that are currently uniformly supplied by typical type. Considering the current situation of COVID-19 and the rapid change in the residential paradigm, this study was meaningful in deriving implications based on the perception survey related to residential spaces in Korea. © 2021 Architectural Institute of Korea.
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Recently, indoor activities have increased due to the harmful effect of the fine dust and Covid-19, accordingly, interest in creating a safe indoor environment is emerging. Even though there are various causes of indoor air contamination, and indoor smoking, which is both illegal and violent to health, and it needs to be regulated. In this paper, we use IoT sensors for detecting indoor smoking and predict it in the time series method. IoT sensors feature a large number of devices and a large amount of data. Therefore, the time series method is suitable even though it has limitations in predicting and analyzing data on a short-term basis. The aim of our paper is to predict the accuracy of data through a time series method. As a result, considering the characteristics of cigarettes was found to be the most effective with Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) Models. © 2020 Pushpa Publishing House, Prayagraj, India.
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Various types of vaccines are under pre-clinical and clinical development to address the recent appearance of Middle East respiratory syndrome or MERS, an emerging infectious disease that has already caused over 600 deaths and remains a threat to world health. The causative agent for this respiratory disease is a member of the betacoronavirus genus, phylogenetically closely related to the SARS coronavirus that caused an international health emergency in 2002. With lessons learned from the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, and with undeniable technological advances, vaccine development against MERS was initially fast-paced and has produced several DNA and protein vaccine candidates with promising results during early pre-clinical testing. At least one vaccine candidate has even entered first-in-humans clinical trials now. With the number of MERS cases declining though and other infectious diseases attracting increased attention, the question remains, whether, similar to the situation after the SARS pandemic, vaccine development is halted or remains the priority it rightfully should. FAU - Lee, Hai Yen