Factors Affecting Perceived Health Benefits and Use Behaviors in Urban Green Spaces During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern China Megacities.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has alienated people from urban green spaces (UGSs) that have various health outcomes for humans. However, little is known about the influential factors of perceived health benefits and use behaviors in UGSs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to explore the key factors that influence perceived health benefits and use behaviors in UGSs and to assess the mediating role of place attachment in relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chinese megacities. Methods: We conducted an online questionnaire survey from December 2020 to March 2021 in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, China. Six multiple regression models were constructed to investigate the main factors by which UGSs influence citizens' perceived health benefits and use behaviors. Four mediation models were established using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method to explore the mediating effect of place attachment. Results: A total of 628 questionnaires were included in the analysis. The results revealed that some UGS components (green space access, maintenance, and soundscape) significantly affected perceived health benefits for citizens (physical, mental, and social health) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, use behaviors (frequency of visits, duration of visits, and activity intensity) were mainly affected by the sociodemographic context but less affected by UGS components. In addition, UGS components were found to significantly predict place attachment, which in turn influenced the perceived health benefits, frequency, and duration of visits. Conclusions: This study distinguished the key factors that affect perceived health benefits and use behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: green space access, maintenance, soundscape, and sociodemographic characteristics. Place attachment still needs to be considered when discussing how to encourage citizens to visit UGSs during the pandemic. These findings provide implications for policymakers and landscape planners regarding design and management measures for UGSs that are conducive to coping with pandemics.

Effects of Pandemic Outbreak on Economies: Evidence From Business History Context.

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the capitalist dysfunction showing that considering profit over people can be deadly. The study reveals the LME economies were more responsive toward the impact of the disease outbreaks as compared to the CME economies wherein the impact of the disease was moderated by the government involvement. This allows us to draw that the impact of the disease outbreaks can be moderated by increasing the involvement of the government authorities.

A novel DNA and protein combination COVID-19 vaccine formulation provides full protection against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques.

The current study aims to develop a safe and highly immunogenic COVID-19 vaccine. The novel combination of a DNA vaccine encoding the full-length Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 and a recombinant S1 protein vaccine induced high level neutralizing antibody and T cell immune responses in both small and large animal models. More significantly, the co-delivery of DNA and protein components at the same time elicited full protection against intratracheal challenge of SARS-CoV-2 viruses in immunized rhesus macaques. As both DNA and protein vaccines have been proven safe in previous human studies, and DNA vaccines are capable of eliciting germinal center B cell development, which is critical for high-affinity memory B cell responses, the DNA and protein co-delivery vaccine approach has great potential to serve as a safe and effective approach to develop COVID-19 vaccines that provide long-term protection.

Triterpenoid-Mediated Inhibition of Virus-Host Interaction: Is Now the Time for Discovering Viral Entry/Release Inhibitors from Nature?

Fatal infectious diseases caused by HIV-1, influenza A virus, Ebola virus, and currently pandemic coronavirus highlight the great need for the discovery of antiviral agents in mechanisms different from current viral replication-targeted approaches. Given the critical role of virus-host interactions in the viral life cycle, the development of entry or shedding inhibitors may expand the current repertoire of antiviral agents; the combination of antireplication inhibitors and entry or shedding inhibitors would create a multifaceted drug cocktail with a tandem antiviral mechanism. Therefore, we provide critical information about triterpenoids as potential antiviral agents targeting entry and release, focusing specifically on the emerging aspect of triterpenoid-mediated inhibition of a variety of virus-host membrane fusion mechanisms via a trimer-of-hairpin motif. These properties of triterpenoids supply their host an evolutionary advantage for chemical defense and may protect against an increasingly diverse array of viruses infecting mammals, providing a direction for antiviral drug discovery.

Evaluate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infectivity by pseudoviral particles.

Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in humans in late 2019, it has rapidly spread worldwide. To identify the biological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 in a normal laboratory environment (biosafety level 2 [BSL-2]), a lentiviral-based nucleocapsid was used to carry the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 onto the surface of pseudoviral particles as a surrogate model to evaluate the infective characterization of SARS-CoV-2. This study indicated that SARS-CoV-2 has extensive tissue tropism for humans and may infect monkeys and tree shrews but not rodents. More importantly, the use of pseudoviral particles in this study allows rapid assessment of neutralizing antibodies in serum in a BSL-2 laboratory. This study will provide a quick and easy tool for evaluating neutralizing antibodies in the serum of recovering patients and assessing the potency of candidate vaccines.