Research advances in coronavirus disease 2019 - related liver injury.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID - 19) pandemic has brought great threats and challenges to global public health and has changed the priorities of medical resource allocation. A considerable proportion of patients with liver injury is observed during the clinical diagnosis and treatment of COVID -19, especially in those with a severe or critical illness. This article summarizes the epidemiology, mechanism, clinical features, and treatment of liver injury caused by COVID -19, in order to help clinicians with decision making and treatment optimization.Copyright © 2022 Editorial Board of Jilin University. All Rights Reserved.

Native Advertising Discourse During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of We Chat Official Accounts

Social distancing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted offline and outdoor advertising significantly, forcing many advertising activities to move online. Native advertising, a new form of advertising, is regarded as complementary to traditional advertising. The term native advertising refers to a relationship between an advertiser and a publisher whereby the advertiser pays to distribute content on the publisher's platform, thereby taking advantage of the format and substance of the publisher's content. Most of the previous research on native advertising is based on western media platforms. In China, Tencent's WeChat is the largest social media platform. This chapter focuses on native advertising on Tencent's WeChat official accounts (WOAs). It employs qualitative discourse analysis to understand how native ads on WOAs address the pandemic while seeking to persuade consumers. Referencing Burke's theory of identification and Green's theory of narrative transportation, we argue that native ads enjoy the advantage of generating emotional resonance with consumers by talking about pandemic-related topics. However, they risk being perceived as deceptive and manipulative. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.

Research progress of COVID‑19 vaccination in organ transplant recipients

The pandemic has been relieved all over the world with the popularity of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, transplant recipients are still at risk of COVID-19 because they require lifelong immunosuppressive therapy, and the effectiveness and safety of vaccination are often lower than that of the normal population. Meanwhile, the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccination have not yet been demonstrated in the immunosuppressive population, due to the lack of proper clinical trials on this group. Therefore, the present study reviews the current situation and concept of vaccination for patients after organ transplantation, and the effectiveness and safety of the new coronavirus vaccine which has been put into use in China, so as to provide a theoretical basis for the vaccination of COVID-19 vaccine for these patients, and to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection in these patients. © 2022 Editorial Board of Medical Journal of Wuhan University. All rights reserved.

SERS/photothermal-based dual-modal lateral flow immunoassays for sensitive and simultaneous antigen detection of respiratory viral infections

Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) is one of the most common analytical platforms for point-of-care testing (POCT), which is capable of large-scale primary screening and home self-testing of infectious diseases. However, the sensitivity of conventional AuNPs-based LFIA is relatively low and more prone to false negatives. Herein, we report a novel LFIA based on gold-core-silver-shell bimetallic nanoparticles (Au4-ATP@Ag NPs) emitting Surface-enhanced Raman scatting (SERS) and Photothermal (PT) effect, named SERS/PT-based dual-modal LFIA (SERS/PT-dmLFIA), for the antigen detection of infectious diseases pathogens, which displayed an excellent performance. For influenza A virus (IAV), influenza B virus (IBV), and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) N protein detection, the limit of detections (LoD) with Raman as signal were 31.25, 93.75, and 31.25 pg mL-1 respectively, and the LoDs with temperature difference (∆T) as signal were as low as 15.63, 187.5, and 15.63 pg mL-1 respectively, which were over 4-fold more sensitive than visual-based LFIA. The proposed SERS/PT-dmLFIA was used for detecting virus antigen in pharyngeal swabs and showed ideal coincidence rate of over 95% compared to the commercialized assays. In addition, we explored the development of multiplex SERS/PT-dmLFIA that can detect IAV, IBV, and SARS-CoV-2 antigens simultaneously without cross reactivity. Overall, the SERS/PT-dmLFIA for antigen detection not only exhibits high sensitivity, accuracy and specificity, but also have characteristics of rapidity and simplicity, which holds high potential for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases in laboratory testing, mass screening, and home self-testing. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

STRESS AND RESILIENCE ACROSS PHASES OF COVID-19: A QUALITATIVE STUDY WITH OLDER CHINESE IMMIGRANTS

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged older Chinese immigrants' lives in physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects. This study employed a socioecological perspective of resilience to examine how older Chinese immigrants perceived and navigated through pandemic-related adversities. We conducted a time-bound retrospective qualitative investigation to capture participants' lived experiences between December 2019 to August 2021. Three phases of the pandemic-related adversities were identified, including uncertain threats and psychological impacts at the beginning, unmet needs and fatigue at 2nd and 3rd wave of infections, and benefit-risk balance after vaccinated. Despite adversities, the integration of strengths, opportunities, and social services at the individual, interpersonal, and neighborhood levels allows participants to appraise and individualize their problem-focus coping (e.g., risk mitigation), selective engagement (e.g., maintaining habits through other means), or emotion-focus coping strategies (e.g., acceptance). Findings highlight the importance of personal and community resources in fostering resilient responses.

SOCIAL NETWORK AND MENTAL HEALTH OF OLDER CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AFFORDABLE SENIOR HOUSING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Chinese older immigrants who live in senior housing communities are at high risks of experiencing discrimination and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines how and to what extent the pandemic has affected this population's social network and mental health. Participants reported a decrease in social contact with their family and friends. Before the pandemic, many paid regular visits back to the home country and could not do so in the past two years. The loss of connection left some feeling despaired and expressed uncertainty on whether they could ever go back "home” before death. Participants also reported being in a low mood and feeling bored constantly. Participants reported resilience generated from their religious beliefs, having neighbors as role models, and wisdom learned from past life experiences. Knowledge produced in this project can inform the planning for responding to future crises in affordable senior housing.

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN COVID-19 PERCEPTIONS AND PREVENTIVE BEHAVIORS IN DEMENTIA CAREGIVING DYADS

This study adopted a dyadic perspective to examine how the perceptions of COVID-19 (i.e., anxiousness & hopefulness) of dementia caregiving dyads are associated with their engagement in personal (e.g., washing hands, wearing mask) and social (e.g., avoiding physical contact and going restaurants/bars) preventive behaviors. Multiple cross-sectional Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIMs) were estimated using data from the 2020 NHATS/NSOC COVID-19 Supplements (N=1565). In the anxiousness models, participants' own feeling of anxiousness was associated with their own engagement in personal preventive behaviors (actor effects), and the perceived anxiousness of PLWD was associated with personal preventive behaviors of caregivers (partner effect). In the model on social preventive behaviors, both actor and partner effects were found on dementia caregiving dyads. No effect was found in the models on hopefulness. Our findings extend understandings of mutual influence within the caregiving dyads and demonstrate the possibility of developing interventions for caregivers to promote PLWD's health behaviors.

DISCRIMINATION AND COPING AMONG OLDER CHINESE IMMIGRANTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Discriminatory events against Asians, especially Chinese, became rampant during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is difficult for older Chinese immigrants to effectively protect themselves from racism-related attacks due to their personal and social disadvantages. This study explored older Chinese immigrants' experience of discrimination and coping strategies, as well as factors that influence their perceptions, attitudes, and coping preferences. Among 27 interviewees, 11 experienced discriminatory incidents themselves or known people around had been discriminated against during the pandemic. Thematic analysis revealed negative psychological impact of discrimination risk or experience. Most participants tended to adopt disengagement coping styles, such as avoidance, rationalization, and reducing social participation. Three primary influencing factors are: (1) perceived unkindness from government and public opinions;(2) concern for own health;(3) limited acculturation. Our findings suggest needing efforts to protect the safety of older Chinese immigrants, and raise their awareness and ability to defend themselves from racism and discrimination.

The Dilemma Faced by Dongguan Foreign Trade Companies in the Post-epidemic Era and Transformation Development Research

The gradual increase in China's economic strength has driven the economic development of the foreign trade industry. However, due to the impact of the new coronavirus in 2020, many countries and cities have suffered economic recession, companies have closed down, and flights have been suspended. Therefore, the development of Dongguan's foreign trade enterprises has also been hit to a certain extent, and many problems have appeared. During the post-epidemic period, Dongguan foreign trade companies faced problems such as lack of human resources, difficulties in resuming work and production, obstacles in logistics and transportation, and substantial increase in costs. This article analyzes the difficulties faced by Dongguan's foreign trade enterprises, and puts forward countermeasures to seek the transformation and development of foreign trade enterprises. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.

SARS-CoV-2 RBD and its variants can induce platelet activation and clearance: Implications for vaccinations and antibody therapy against COVID-19

Background: Severe COVID-19 is associated with platelet activation, thrombosis, and thrombocytopenia, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Similarly, very rare cases of COVID-19 vaccine-induced-thrombotic-thrombocytopenia (VITT) are also poorly understood. Both infection and vaccination utilize the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein for virus-host cell entry and to elicit an immune response, respectively. Interestingly, the RBD contains an RGD integrin-binding motif that may facilitate platelet binding. Aim(s): To determine whether the RBD binds platelets and causes platelet activation/clearance. Method(s): We intravenously injected different doses (0.25, 0.5, 1.0mug/g) of recombinant RBD into mice and measured platelet counts post-injection using a Z2 Series Coulter. Flow cytometry detected RBD/RBD variants binding to platelets and associated platelet activation, apoptosis, and desialylation. Human gel-filtered platelet aggregation was induced by ADP, Collagen and Thrombin. Six anti-RBD monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were generated and tested in a SARS-CoV-2 Vero cell infection model with the envelop gene quantified by RT-qPCR to determine the virus replication. Result(s): RBD injection caused platelet clearance in a dose-dependent manner. The RBD could also bind to platelets, induce activation and potentiate platelet aggregation in vitro. Our preliminary data also showed the RBD Delta variant has greater potential in inducing platelet activation. Interestingly, the RBD bound beta3-/-platelets ~50% less relative than wildtype mice. Consistently, mutating the RGD motif to RGE, and preincubating platelets with the beta3 inhibitor Eptifibatide also reduced RBD binding to platelets. Our novel anti-RBD mAbs 4F2 and 4H12 inhibited RBD-induced platelet activation and RBD-potentiated platelet aggregation in vitro, and prevented RBD-induced platelet clearance in vivo. Importantly, these mAbs also inhibited SARS-CoV-2 viral replication in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion(s): Our data demonstrate that the RBD could directly bind to platelets partially via beta3 integrin. RBD-induced platelet activation and clearance may contribute to thrombosis and thrombocytopenia observed in clinical cases of COVID-19 and VITT.

Inequitable COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Rehabilitation Patients

Background and/or Objectives: There is a paucity of studies evaluating adult vaccine uptake in patients seen by a physiatrist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial for physiatrists who regularly care for patients with neurological and musculoskeletal medical conditions to determine if COVID-19 vaccination disparities among these populations may exist. The objective of our study was to evaluate the rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake in patient seen in an outpatient rehabilitation clinic. Design(s): Retrospective single center study. Setting(s): Outpatient rehabilitation clinic. Participant(s): Adults with neurological or musculoskeletal medical conditions seen at an outpatient rehabilitation clinic between December 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 with an active Wisconsin Immunization Registry. Intervention(s): Not applicable. Main Outcome Measure(s): The primary outcome was completion of a COVID-19 primary vaccine series in adults seen in an outpatient rehabilitation clinic. Result(s): 1362 patients met the inclusion criteria. 82.6% (n = 1125) completed a COVID-19 vaccination series. We found that those who had not completed a COVID- 19 vaccination series were more likely to be younger (46.6 +/- 14.8 vs 54.3 +/- 15.7;95% Confidence Interval (CI) [0.96-0.98], p< 0.001), identify as non-white (OR 0.50, 95% CI [0.31-0.80], p = 0.004), or be a current smoker (OR 1.80, 95% CI [1.20-2.71], p=0.005). Those who resided in an urban zip code (OR 0.54, 95% CI (0.40-0.72), p < 0.001), received an influenza vaccine during 2019-2020 (OR 0.19, 95% CI [0.14-0.26], p< 0.001), or had a higher comorbidity score (Charleson Comorbidity Index >2) (OR 0.35 [0.23-0.52];p < 0.001) were more likely to be fully immunized. Conclusion(s): There was a high rate of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among patients seen in a rehabilitation clinic, though racial, ethnic and geographic disparities did exist. Further studies are needed to determine why these disparities exist and investigate interventions to increase vaccine uptake in these populations.

REGIONS OF THE WORLD AND THE COVID-19 HEALTH EMERGENCY

Chapter 2 takes readers on a journey through world regions during the first six months of the pandemic, a period shaped by vastly different approaches between and within countries ranging from denial, mitigation to suppression. Some countries had to deal with major weather events and other disasters while also managing the health emergency. The ideologies of governments came to the fore influencing whether health or economies were prioritised, the science was accepted, and whether approaches were informed by individualism or collective responsibility. The first six months of the pandemic highlighted vast inequalities and established the global conditions for the emergence of new variants. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Patricia Fronek and Karen Smith Rotabi-Casares;individual chapters, the contributors.

Providing Evidence for Dogma: Risk of Epistaxis Increases After COVID-19 Nasal-Screening Swab

Introduction: While there is anecdotal evidence that a SARSCoV- 2 (COVID-19) reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction screening nasopharyngeal swab confers an elevated risk of epistaxis, no studies substantiate this. We aim to assess the association between epistaxis and exposure to a provideradministered COVID-19 swab. Method(s): A paired-exposure crossover cohort design was used among all patients who received a single COVID-19 swab between April 2020 and March 2021. Occurrence of epistaxis was compared during the hazard period, the 7 days following the index COVID-19 swab, to the control period, the 7 days preceding the index COVID-19 swab. McNemar test was used to compare rates of control- and hazard-period epistaxis. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate sociodemographic and clinical risk factors for epistaxis. Result(s): A total of 827,987 participants were included, with 1047 epistaxis encounters. The prevalence of epistaxis during the hazard and control periods were 0.08% and 0.04%, respectively. Swab exposure was associated with 1.92-fold odds of epistaxis in the hazard period (95% CI, 1.73, 2.12];P<.01). Older age (odds ratio [OR] 1.07;95% CI, 1.02, 1.75), Asian ancestry (OR 1.68;95% CI, 1.40, 2.02), men (OR 1.33;95% CI, 1.16, 1.54), anticoagulation/antiplatelet use (OR 2.88;95% CI, 2.11, 3.92), hypertension (OR 2.31;95% CI, 1.92, 2.78), and prior facial trauma (OR 1.63;95% CI, 1.21, 2.19) were associated with significantly increased odds of epistaxis during the hazard period (P<.01). Conclusion(s): COVID-19 nasal swabs are associated with increased risk of epistaxis. Physicians should provide additional counseling to patients, particularly those at highest risk, including those on anticoagulants/antiplatelets or with hypertension, prior to undergoing a COVID-19 nasal swab.

Research on online Course Teaching of Public Physical education in Universities Under the Pandemic Situation

After the implementation, the online and offline teaching modes are compared and analyzed. In the special social environment, in order to ensure the normal teaching order, the university public sports online course is constructed. The construction research mainly includes the necessity of online physical education course, the design of teaching scheme, teaching objectives, teaching mode, extracurricular sports activities, assessment methods, the connection and comparison of online and offline courses, etc. The purpose is to build a set of practical online course systems of university public physical education, make up for the deficiency of offline course teaching, and realize the sharing of educational resources among students in different regions at the same time, in order to provide reference for the normal development of physical education in special environments such as an epidemic situation. Copyright © 2022, IGI Global.

Impact of Patient Transferto an External ICU Hospital for Post-Operative Monitoring after EndovascularIntervention

Objective: To assess safety and outcomes of immediate post-operative transferring of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) patients to an external hospital ICU. Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital patient volumes increased significantly, resulting in a shortage of ICU beds in various NYC hospitals including the Mount Sinai Hospital system. Patients in the system were often transferred within the network after mechanical thrombectomy was complete if bed availability at EVT site was unavailable. Design/Methods: Reviewed all consecutive EVT cases from January1 2020 - July 31 2021 at the Mount Sinai System for intersystem transfers. Out of the 353 thrombectomy cases that took place between this time frame, 27 patients were transferred to an outside ICU hospital. Patient demographics, co-morbid stroke risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia), stroke metrics such as modified rankin score, NIHSS, and TICI score were evaluated for each patient. Key safety outcomes were symptomatic hemorrhage (sICH), groin hematoma requiring manual compression, and unanticipated extubation or hemodynamic instability within the first 24 hours of transfer. Symptomatic ICH was defined as new intracranial hemorrhage associated with NIHSS increase >4 points. Results: Transferred patients were mostly male (n=18) with a mean age was 67.9 years. Twenty- five out of 27 (92.6%) patients achieved a TICI core of 2b or higher. Major neurological improvement, defined as an NIHSS of 0-1 or ≥ 8 point improvement at 24 hours, was achieved in 51.8% of transfer patients. sICH occurred in 3 out of 27 (11%) of patients. There were no unexpected extubation or hemodynamic instability within the first 24hours. All transfer cases had a mRS of 0-3 upon discharge. Conclusions: Transfer post EVT to an outside hospital for close ICU monitoring is associated with 11% sICH risk without any apparent cardiopulmonary risk.

The impact of COVID-19 on the attention to sustainable clothing consumption: Analysis of Baidu indexes on old clothes recycling, old clothes renovation and old clothes donation

The COVID-19 epidemic has exerted tremendous impact on the public lifestyle. Due to the shortage of living materials, people have consciously saved the necessities of life, indirectly cultivating the environmental protection awareness and sustainability awareness. However, the public attention to clothing sustainability has been inclined. To explore the impact degree, the Baidu indexes on old clothes recycling, old clothes renovation and old clothes donation were analyzed. The STL algorithm was used for the decomposition of the time series of the public attention to isolate the trend components that can reflect the change trend;the index weights of the specific behaviors of sustainable clothing consumption before and after the COVID-19 epidemic were calculated using entropy method. The results have shown that the COVID-19 epidemic has increased the public attention to sustainable clothing consumption;during the post-epidemic period, the public have paid more attention to the sustainable behavior of old clothes recycling, and the attention to old clothes renovation and donation has declined. Therefore, according to the trend of change, targeted suggestions were proposed on the implementation of sustainable clothing consumption behaviors during the post-epidemic period. © 2021 China Silk Association. All rights reserved.

Design of AGV Structure and Control System for Hospital Drug Delivery

Because of the outbreak of COVID-19, “contactless distribution” will become the main direction of future medical logistics and transportation. In order to realize the distribution mode, the hospital drug delivery AGV is designed, including structure design and control system design. The structure design adopts induction line pilotage, wheel structure of three row-six wheel and double-wheel differential driving structure, and uses 3D software for structure modeling. The design of the control system adopts fuzzy control to adjust AGV wheel speed to realize the automatic deviation correction function when AGV is running, and the simulation of the automatic deviation correction control system is carried out. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

A Stochastic Model with Optimal Control Strategy of the Transmission of Covid-19

In this work, a stochastic differential equation model about the novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is introduced to describe the transmission dynamics of that disease among the susceptible person. By taking the social distance, musk wearing, and other human behavior as a control strategy and introducing an objective function which both considers the limitation of social distance and minimizes the infection population, an optimal control strategy is given numerically. This result gives a new numerical method to simulate the epidemic model and make a new insight into the control strategy choice of the pandemic control under the environments and conditions of different countries. © 2021 IEEE.

Characteristic and quantifiable COVID-19 like abnormalities in CT- and PET/CT-1 imaged lungs of SARS-CoV-2 infected crab eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing an exponentially increasing number of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) cases globally. Prioritization of medical countermeasures for evaluation in randomized clinical trials is critically hindered by the lack of COVID-19 animal models that enable accurate, quantifiable, and reproducible measurement of COVID-19 pulmonary disease free from observer bias. We first used serial computed tomography (CT) to demonstrate that bilateral intrabronchial instillation of SARS CoV-2 into crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis) results in mild-to-moderate lung abnormalities qualitatively characteristic of subclinical or mild-to-moderateCOVID-19 (e.g., ground-glass opacities with or without reticulation, paving, or alveolar consolidation, peri-bronchial thickening, linear opacities) at typical locations (peripheral>central, posterior and dependent, bilateral, multi-lobar). We then used positron emission tomography (PET) analysis to demonstrate increased FDG uptake in the CT-defined lung abnormalities and regional lymph nodes. PET/CT imaging findings appeared in all macaques as early as 2 days post exposure, variably progressed, and subsequently resolved by 6-12 days post exposure. Finally, we applied operator-independent, semi-automatic quantification of the volume and radiodensity of CT abnormalities as a possible primary endpoint for immediate and objective efficacy testing of candidate medical countermeasures.

Virtual weight loss in times of COVID

Background: Phentermine is the most commonly prescribed anti-obesity medication for weight loss. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, most US States required in-person visits to prescribe phentermine. However, in the face of COVID-19, these laws were loosened, allowing for the prescribing of phentermine via virtual visits. A comparison of weight loss outcomes between the virtual and in-person visit prescribing of phentermine have not been reported. Methods: We compared weight loss of patients who received in-person visits plus phentermine to those who received virtual visits plus phentermine at the Cleveland Clinic Endocrine and Metabolism Institute during the period of January 2019 to February 2020 for in-person visits, and March 2020 to October 2020 for virtual visits. Patients were included if they completed at least one month of phentermine and up to three consecutive months (the maximum allowed in the State of Ohio). The data was analyzed using a mixed model for repeated measures (MMRM) for percentage change from baseline in weight in kilograms. Results: A total of 911 patients attended in-person visits and 96 attended virtual visits. The majority were female (87% vs 92%), with an average age of 46.8 vs 44.7 years. The baseline mean weight was 107kg (SD 24.3kg) in the in-person group and 104.4kg (SD 24.4) for the virtual group (P value = 0.9007). Each group had statistically significant percentage declines in weight at 1 month -2.2%(P < .0001) and -2.6% (P < .01), 2 months -3.65% (P < .0001) and -4.7% (P < .01) and 3 months -3.73% (P < .01) vs -3.34% (P > 0.05 -not significant). Between groups we saw a greater decline in weight in the virtual group in months 1: -0.39% (P = value 0.3644) and month 2: 1.03% (P = 0.0252, statistically significant difference), but a greater, though not statistically significant decline in weight in the in-person group: 0.3987% decline (P = 0.67). Although by month 3 only 10 patients remained in the virtual group. Overall, among in-person patients, 40% experienced >5% weight reduction, 5.1% had >10% weight reduction, and 0.5% had >15% weight reduction. Among the virtual visit group, 45% experienced a >5%, 12.5% had >10%, and 1.3% had >15% weight reduction. Conclusions: Our results suggest that virtual weight loss visits combined with phentermine use are similarly effective when compared to in-person visits for achieving weight loss.