Intergroup Contact, Traditional and Social Media Use, and Attitudes Toward Chinese People in COVID-19: US College Students' Perspective

Guided by cultivation theory and intergroup contact theory, we examined how U.S. college students' traditional media use and social media use for information about COVID-19, and direct contact with Chinese were associated with their behavioral attitudes toward Chinese people in this survey study. Findings indicated that contact quality was positively associated with attitudes toward Chinese people. Moderation analyses indicated that traditional media use negatively predicted behavioral attitudes toward Chinese people for those with no Chinese friends and was a nonsignificant predictor for those with one or more Chinese friends. Furthermore, results indicated that social media use was positively associated with attitudes toward Chinese people for those who had high contact quality with Chinese but was a nonsignificant predictor for those who had low contact quality. Overall findings ruminate the critical role of intergroup contact quality and friendship in reducing intergroup prejudice in COVID-19.

The Impact of Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance on SARS-CoV-2 Variant Detection in Arriving International Air Travelers- United States, November 29, 2021-April 24, 2022

Background. International travel facilitates SARS-CoV-2 spread globally. Early detection of variants among arriving international travelers could provide viral information about introduction of variants with differing infectivity, virulence, and vaccine effectiveness, enabling adjustments to treatment and prevention strategies. We initiated a genomic surveillance program at 4 US airports to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants among arriving international travelers. Methods. Between November 29, 2021-April 24, 2022, we enrolled arriving air travelers (>=18 years) from flights originating in 16 countries on 5 continents. At four airports, participants self-collected nasal swab samples that were pooled with 5-25 other samples by country of flight. Participants were also given a take-home saliva collection kit;saliva was collected 3-5 days after arrival and mailed back to the laboratory. SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed on all samples at the laboratory. Positives underwent whole genome sequencing. Demographic, clinical, and travel information was collected. Results. We enrolled 28,656 travelers;median age was 42 years (interquartile range 31-55), 48% were female, and 99.4% self-reported COVID-19 vaccination. Overall, 19%(504/2,666) of pooled and 7.5%(285/3804) of individual samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2. Highest pool positivity of 46% occurred during January 3-10, 2022 (Figure 1).Omicron variant accounted for 97%of sequences (Figure 2).We detected the earliest reporting of Omicron sub-lineages BA.2 and BA.3 (7 and 43 days earlier than reported elsewhere) in the United States and North America, respectively. During April 4-18, we detected an increasing trend of pool positivity among travelers on South African flights, detecting one of the first US-reported BA.4 sub-lineages consistent with early surge of cases in South Africa. Weekly pooled positivity for travelers on South African flights aligned with World Health Organization (WHO)-reported 7-day COVID-19 incidence rates over the same period (Figure 3). ] Conclusion. This genomic sequencing surveillance platform is a model for traveler-based SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance that can be used as an early warning system to detect future outbreaks and pandemics. (Figure Presented).

Optimal consumption and portfolio choices in the stochastic SIS model

Motivated by the stochastic...... model, this paper aims to incorporate the stochastic transmission shock (e.g COVID- 19) into the standard portfolio theory, and explores the optimal rules with respect to infections. The impact of COVID - 19 is decomposed into two dimensions such as infectivity (denoted by R-0) and infection rate (measured by I). The results indicate that infectivity mainly affects consumption, whereas the investment rule is merely governed by infection rate. Moreover, we find that higher infections lead to less sensitivity and smoother consumption compared with normal times. However, the sensitivity and volatility of investment with respect to infections present a U-shape and hump-shape, respectively. Notably, we shed new lights on the effect of transmission uncertainty and risk-aversion with pandemic shock. The innovative attempt of this paper not only enriches the research of epidemiology in the field of economics, but also provides a paradigm for studying investor's behavior under the normalization of epidemic situations.

Healthy Ways to Cope with Stress: Home exercise advice for people during the COVID-19 By sEMG

Electromyography has been extensively used in a variety of fields. By using feature extraction to detect and analyze the surface EMG signal of Electromyography, muscle fatigue caused by daily life workout could be detected more timely. Here we intend to utilize this feature of using feature extraction on electromyography to offer professional advice for at home work out due to the deduction of outing caused by COVID-19. In this work, multiple time window (MTW) features have been used to distinguish the surface electromyography (sEMG) signals between muscle fatigue during arm movements by using Python. The sEMG signals are monitored from the biceps muscle of 3 healthy subjects. 4 window functions named boxcar function, hamming function, blackman function, and kaiser function and 24 features are extracted. 4 classifiers named Decision Tree, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and Naive Bayes are used in this research. The classifier using MTW features compared with the classifier without MTW feature. The Random Forest classifier has the greatest accuracy of 95.16%.

Factors affecting recurrent positive RT-PCR results in clinically cured COVID-19 patients: a multicenter study

The aim of this study was to evaluate factors affecting the recurrence of positive RT-PCR results. By performing a retrospective analysis, we evaluated the clinical data of recurrent positive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in multiple medical institutions in Wuhan. We recruited COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized from January 1 to March 10, 2020, in three tertiary hospitals in Wuhan, met the discharge criteria and received at least one additional nucleic acid test before leaving the hospital. According to the RT-PCR results, patients were split into a recurrent positive group (RPos group) and a nonrecurrent positive group (non-RPos group). Clinical characteristics, therapeutic schedules and antibody titers were compared between the two groups. AI-assisted chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) technology was applied to investigate pulmonary inflammatory exudation and compare the extent of lung areas with different densities. This study involved 122 COVID-19 patients. There were no significant differences in age, sex, preexisting diseases, clinical symptoms, clinical classification, course of disease, therapeutic schedules or serum-specific antibodies between the two groups. A higher proportion of patients who showed pulmonary inflammatory exudation on HRCT scans were recurrent positive at the time of discharge than other patients (81.6% vs 13.7%, P < 0.01). In addition, the degree of pulmonary fibrosis was higher in the RPos group than in the non-RPos group (P < 0.05). Subpleural exudation at the peripheral edge of the lung and extensive pulmonary fibrosis at the time of discharge represent risk factors for the recurrence of COVID-19.