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BackgroundSARS-CoV-2(Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) has been circulating worldwide for three years. It mainly causes upper respiratory tract infection, which can manifest as pulmonary infection and even respiratory distress syndrome in severe cases. Different autoantibodies can be detected in patients infected with COVID-19.ObjectivesTo explore autoantibodies related to rheumatic diseases after COVID-19 infection.MethodsNinety-eight inpatients were tested for antinuclear antibodies (ANA), antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens(ENA), anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies（ANCA), anticardiolipin antibodies,a-β2GPI (IgG/IgM). They were from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou during the COVID-19 epidemic. Data were described statistically.ResultsNinety-eight hospitalized patients were tested for relevant antibodies. The average age was 50.64±19.54;67 (68.4%) were male, 64 (65.3%) were COVID-19 positive, 90 (90.9%) had rheumatic diseases, and 56 of them were COVID-19 positive patients with rheumatic diseases.There were 76 patients tested for antinuclear antibodies;29 （38.16%）were negative, 18 （23.68%）had a 1/80 titre, and 29（28.16%） had a titre greater than 1:80. The 31 covid patients were positive for ANA. In the high-titer group, 19 patients with rheumatic diseases were positive for COVID-19, and 12 patients had an exacerbation of the rheumatic diseases (6 of whom had previously had pulmonary fibrosis). Of 31 covid patients, only two were non-rheumatic patients, and both were elderly, aged 85 and 100, respectively.Fifty-six patients had ENA results, and 29 for positive antibodies, 8 for ds-DNA antibodies, 2 for anti-Sm antibodies, 6 for anti-nucleosome antibodies, 12 for anti-U1RNP antibodies, 2 for anti-Scl-70 antibodies, 12 for anti-SS-A antibodies, 3 for anti-mitochondrial M2 antibodies, 2 for anti-centromere antibodies, 1 for anti-Po antibodies, and one for anti-Jo-1 antibody. All 56 patients had rheumatic diseases, and no new patients were found.There were 62 patients with ANCA data. P-ANCA was positive in 12 cases(19.35%), and MPO-ANCA was positive in 2 cases. An 85-year-old non-rheumatic COVID-19 patient was P-ANCA positive. She had a history of hypertension, colon cancer, CKD3, coronary heart disease, and atrial flutter.In the anticardiolipin antibodies group, there were 62 patients;only 6 were positive, and 2 were rheumatic patients infected with COVID-19. Antiphospholipid antibodies were detected in 33 patients, and a-β2GPI was tested in one patient, an 82-year-old COVID-19 patient with gout, diabetes, and cerebral infarction in the past. We did not find a statistical difference in the above results.ConclusionWe have not found a correlation between SARS-CoV-2 and serum autoantibodies of rheumatic immune diseases. It needs large samples and an extended follow-up to research.AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by Scientific and Technological Planning Project of Guangzhou City [202102020150], Guangdong Provincial Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund Project [2021A1515111172], National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Fund [82201998] and Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University Cultivating Special Fund Project for National Natural Science Foundation of China [2022GZRPYQN01].Disclosure of Interestsone declared.
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Aiming at the new coronavirus that appeared in 2019, which has caused a large number of infected patients worldwide due to its high contagiousness, in order to detect the source of infection in time and cut off the chain of transmission, we developed a new Chest X-ray (CXR) image classification algorithm with high accuracy, simple operation and fast processing for COVID-19. The algorithm is based on ConvNeXt pure convolutional neural network, we adjusted the network structure and loss function, added some new Data Augmentation methods and introduced attention mechanism. Compared with other classical convolutional neural network classification algorithms such as AlexNet, ResNet-34, ResNet-50, ResNet-101, ConvNeXt-tiny, ConvNeXt-small and ConvNeXt-base, the improved algorithm has better performance on COVID dataset.
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Influenced in recent years by multiple factors in recent years, such as antiglobalization, the return of the state and the major public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the international community has entered a nontraditional security era. In the name of protecting nontraditional security, many countries have actively and frequently adopted abnormal regulatory measures and have attempted to seek exemptions from obligations through article XXI of the GATT or article 73 of the TRIPS (Security Exceptions). A series of economic and trade mega-agreements, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (USMCA), the Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Treaty between the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of India (Brazil-India BIT), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), that have been concluded since 2018 cover more nontraditional security in their security exceptions clauses or essential security interests clauses, possibly leading to more countries expanding the interpretation and application of the security exceptions clause in future practice. The circular promotion of the security exceptions clause in its evolution and textual development may break the overall balance of existing WTO rules and exacerbate further imbalances. This chapter specifically studies the interpretation and logical evolution of security exceptions clauses in the DS512 and DS567, providing an empirical basis for the justification of disputed measures through the invocation of article XXI of the GATT. It is recommended that under the guidance of an overall national security concept, China should consider its national conditions, taking both its present and its long-term interests into account. Regarding China's security laws, policies and practices, it is recommended that the double-edged sword function of the security exceptions clause should be focused on foreign contrasts. That is, the security exceptions clause should be regarded as a defensive clause in terms of its position and content design and should be invoked under a high level of self-restraint in dispute settlement to avoid excessive strengthening or even alienation of national security during execution and to provide institutional support for a more balanced Chinese discourse in the establishment of a new generation of international economic rules. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.
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Objective This study aimed to investigate the immune response of a pregnant woman who recovered from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID_RS) by using single-cell transcriptomic profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and to analyze the properties of different immune cell subsets. Methods PBMCs were collected from the COVID_RS patient at 28 weeks of gestation, before a cesarean section. The PBMCs were then analyzed using single-cell RNA sequencing. The transcriptional profiles of myeloid, T, and natural killer (NK) cell subsets were systematically analyzed and compared with those of healthy pregnant controls from a published single-cell RNA sequencing data set. Results We identified major cell types such as T cells, B cells, NK cells, and myeloid cells in the PBMCs of our COVID_RS patient. The increase of myeloid and B cells and decrease of T cells and NK cells in the PBMCs in this patient were quite distinct compared with that in the control subjects. After reclustering and Augur analysis, we found that CD16 monocytes and mucosal-Associated invariant T (MAIT) cells were mostly affected within different myeloid, T, and NK cell subtypes in our COVID_RS patient. The proportion of CD16 monocytes in the total myeloid population was increased, and the frequency of MAIT cells in the total T and NK cells was significantly decreased in the COVID-RS patient. We also observed significant enrichment of gene sets related to antigen processing and presentation, T-cell activation, T-cell differentiation, and tumor necrosis factor superfamily cytokine production in CD16 monocytes, and enrichment of gene sets related to antigen processing and presentation, response to type II interferon, and response to virus in MAIT cells. Conclusion Our study provides a single-cell resolution atlas of the immune gene expression patterns in PBMCs from a COVID_RS patient. Our findings suggest that CD16-positive monocytes and MAIT cells likely play crucial roles in the maternal immune response against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. These results contribute to a better understanding of the maternal immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and may have implications for the development of effective treatments and preventive strategies for the coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnant women.Copyright © Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
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OBJECTIVE: To establish a rapid detection and genotyping method for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 variants using CRISPPR-Cas12a gene editing technology. METHODS: We combined reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and CRISPR gene editing technology and designed a specific CRISPPR RNA (crRNA) with suboptimal protospacer adjacent motifs (PAM) for rapid detection and genotyping of SARS- CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 variants. The performance of this RT- PCR/ CRISPPR-Cas12a assay was evaluated using 43 clinical samples of patients infected by wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and the Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron BA. 1 and BA. 4/5 variants and 20 SARS- CoV- 2-negative clinical samples infected with 11 respiratory pathogens. With Sanger sequencing method as the gold standard, the specificity, sensitivity, concordance (Kappa) and area under the ROC curve (AUC) of RT-PCR/CRISPPR-Cas12a assay were calculated. RESULTS: This assay was capable of rapid and specific detection of SARS- CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 variant within 30 min with the lowest detection limit of 10 copies/µL, and no cross-reaction was observed in SARS-CoV-2-negative clinical samples infected with 11 common respiratory pathogens. The two Omicron BA.4/5 specific crRNAs (crRNA-1 and crRNA-2) allowed the assay to accurately distinguish Omicron BA.4/5 from BA.1 sublineage and other major SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. For detection of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 variants, the sensitivity of the established assay using crRNA-1 and crRNA-2 was 97.83% and 100% with specificity of 100% and AUC of 0.998 and 1.000, respectively, and their concordance rate with Sanger sequencing method was 92.83% and 96.41%, respectively. CONCLUSION: By combining RT-PCR and CRISPPR-Cas12a gene editing technology, we successfully developed a new method for rapid detection and identification of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 variants with a high sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility, which allows rapid detection and genotyping of SARS- CoV-2 variants and monitoring of the emerging variants and their dissemination.
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COVID-19 , Humans , CRISPR-Cas Systems , Genotype , Reproducibility of Results , Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , RNA , COVID-19 TestingABSTRACT
Objective Many mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 have stronger infectivity and immune escape ability. The situation of epidemic evaluation, prevention and control is serious. The aim of the present paper is to track and predict the infectious transmission of COVID-19 through a theoretical model. Methods Based on the grid epidemic model, this paper discussed the relationship between the duration of infection and the effect of group immunity, and on this basis, established the theoretical model of infection transmission of COVID-19. The infectivity parameter A and the immune effect parameter B are introduced to predict the daily variation curve of infection. The parameter (Equation presented)can be used to quantitatively compare the comprehensive infectivity of each mutant, and we also test the conjecture that the infection parameters A and B are not related to regional factors. Results Through the theoretical model of infection transmission of COVID-19, the infectious time was accurately predicted. By analyzing the infectivity and electrical changes of mutant strains, the internal relationship between the infectivity of mutant strains and the electrical changes of mutant residues was pointed out. The parameter changes of mutants were analyzed, and the comprehensive infectivity of each mutant was quantitatively compared. We also verified the conjecture that parameters A and B are only related to the nature of the virus itself and the coexistence of the virus and the human body, but not related to the region where the disease occurs and evaluated and compared the epidemic prevention level of each outbreak region. Conclusion This paper established a theoretical model of infection transmission of COVID-19, which can predict the duration of the epidemic, the number of new infections per day, and evaluate the infectivity of the virus, immune escape ability, comprehensive infectivity, and regional epidemic prevention level. It can also give some suggestions on epidemic prevention countermeasures according to the possible parameter changes caused by virus variation. © 2022 Institute of Biophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Objective: To explore the occurrence of adverse reactions of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Method(s): The medical records of patients with COVID-19 who received LPV/r treatment in the Fourth People's Hospital of Nanning from January 24th to February 6th, 2020 were collected and the occurrence of adverse events during the treatment was retrospectively analyzed. According to the 5 principles of adverse drug reaction correlation evaluation proposed in the Handbook of Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting and Monitoring in China, adverse events that were certainly related, probably related, and possibly related to LPV/r were defined as LPV/r-related adverse reactions. The incidence of adverse reactions was calculated and the main clinical manifestations and severity of adverse reactions [grade 1 (mild), grade 2 (moderate), grade 3 (severe), grade 4 (life-threatening), and grade 5 (death);grade 3-5 was defined as severe adverse reaction] were analyzed. Result(s): A total of 28 patients were enrolled in the analysis, including 13 males and 15 females, aged from 18 to 70 years with an average age of 44 years. The courses of treatment with LPV/r of patients ranged from 2 to 12 days, with a median course of 6 days. Of the 28 patients, 18 developed LPV/r related adverse reactions, with an incidence of 64.3%. The LPV/r-related adverse reactions in 18 patients included gastrointestinal reactions in 14 patients (grade 1 in 13 patients and grade 2 in 1 patient), bradycardia in 2 patients (grade 2 in both patients), and acute hemolysis in 1 patient (grade 3), and liver injury in 1 patient (grade 3), and no grade 4 or 5 adverse reactions occurred. The incidence of severe adverse reactions was 7.1%. Thirteen patients with grade 1 adverse reactions did not affect the treatment, and the symptoms were relieved after 2-7 days of continuous medication. LPV/r was discontinued in 5 patients with grade 2 or 3 adverse reactions, 4 of whom received symptomatic treatment, and the symptoms disappeared 2-10 days later. Conclusion(s): The incidence of adverse reactions in COVID-19 patients treated with LPV/r in our hospital was 64.3%. LPV/r mainly leads to mild gastrointestinal reactions and can also lead to bradycardia, acute hemolysis, and liver injury. Blood routine, liver function, and electrocardiogram need to be monitored during the treatment.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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Objective To analyze the mental health status of medical staff in the Fourth Branch of National Convention and Exhibition Center Makeshift Hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in Shanghai to lay a theoretical foundation for the mental health and psychological intervention of medical staff in COVID-19 and other public health emergencies. Methods An online questionnaire survey was conducted with the generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7), patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), and Athens insomnia scale (AIS) before medical staff entering the makeshift hospital and one month later. Results The detection rates of anxiety, depression and insomnia were 18.4%, 22.1% and 27.0% respectively before entering the makeshift hospital, and 28.8%, 59.3% and 64.2% respectively during the follow-up period one month later. The GAD-7, PHQ-9 and AIS scores of medical staff after working in the makeshift hospital for one month increased significantly compared with those at the baseline period (P<0.01). Female and previous history of using sedative and hypnotic drugs were risk factors for increased depression level among medical staff in the makeshift hospital. Conclusions The anxiety, depression and insomnia levels of the medical staff in Shanghai increased after working in the makeshift hospital for one month. It is of great significance for the front-line support work to identify the medical staff with serious psychological problems and carry out psychological intervention in the early stage.Copyright © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
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Previous studies extensively examined the role of accessibility to metro in shaping house prices but largely overlooked the contribution of accessibility by metro. In addition, limited studies examined the moderating effect of COVID-19 on the price effects of to-metro and by-metro accessibility. Based on multilevel hedonic price and quantile regression models, this study scrutinizes the association between to-metro accessibility, by-metro accessibility, and house prices in Chengdu, China, and examines the moderating role of COVID-19 in this association. We show that by-metro accessibility significantly influences house prices. COVID-19 significantly influences the value of to-metro accessibility but marginally affects that of by-metro accessibility. The value of to-metro accessibility is disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Specifically, small or low-priced houses are less affected than big or high-priced houses. In other words, the flattening of the to-metro price gradient is more discernible for big or high-priced houses. The changing preference of residents has also been verified by the decreases in house transaction volume in metro-adjacent areas. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
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This work tested the hypothesis that infection causes unexplained production of anti-centromere protein antibodies (ACA) via autoimmune cross-reactivity. To further examine the clinical origin of ACA, the overlapped peptides between human pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and fungi and centromere proteins (CENP-A, CENP-B and CENP-C) were assessed. We found a broad overlap of pathogenetic peptides with human centromere proteins. These data indicate potential immune cross-reactivity between pathogens and human centromere proteins. Additionally, the current findings corroborate a molecular and mechanistic framework for autoimmune disorders related to infection. Moreover, preliminary evidence for a potential role of infection in ACA-related autoimmune diseases was presented. © 2022 The Scandinavian Foundation for Immunology.
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After the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwan has implemented rigorous border control and taken specific measures such as virus detection, contact tracing, and quarantine since 2020. Its epidemic prevention performance has been quite outstanding. Even in May 2021, when the epidemic situation worsens, the people in Taiwan fully cooperate with the government's control measures so as to successfully alleviate and control the epidemic in less than three months. Among them, the detection policy has played a pivotal role. We analyze and discuss the false positive and false negative problems from rapid antigen and PCR detection in the screening policy as well as the timing of using these two instruments. This paper provides theoretical verification of the appropriateness of screening policy in Taiwan, offering a few feasible suggestions for related policies in other countries or regions at different stages of this and other potential epidemics. (c) 2022 by the authors;licensee Growing Science, Canada.
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Objective: To evaluate the household secondary attack rates of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant and the associated factors. Methods: A COVID-19 outbreak caused by the Delta variant occurred in Nanjing in July 2021. A total of 235 cases with current addresses in Nanjing were reported from 171 households. The subjects in this study were selected from household close contact(s) of infected cases. The information on household index cases and their contacts were collected, and the household secondary attack rate (HSAR) and the risk factors were analyzed by the multi-factor logistic regression model. Results: A total of 234 cases of household close contacts and 64 household secondary cases were reported from 103 households, and the HSAR was 27.4% (64/234, 95%CI:22.0% to 33.4%). The proportions of household size for 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and 6 to 9 were 64.1% (66), 26.2% (27) and 9.7% (10), respectively. A total of 35 cases of household cluster outbreaks were reported (35/103, 34.0%). The number of the first case in the household (FCH) was 103 and males accounted for 27.2% (28 cases), with the median age (Q1, Q3) of 49 (9, 56). The number of household close contacts was 234 and males accounted for 59.0% (138 cases), with the median age (Q1, Q3) of 42 (20, 55) and the median exposure period (Q1, Q3) of 3 (1, 3) days. The multi-factor logistic regression model showed that the higher HSAR was observed in the FCH with the features of airport staff (OR=2.913, 95%CI:1.469-5.774), detection from home quarantine screening (OR=6.795, 95%CI:1.761-26.219) and detection from mass screening (OR=4.239, 95%CI:1.098-16.368). Meanwhile, higher HSAR was observed in cases with longer household exposure (OR=1.221, 95%CI:1.040-1.432), non-vaccination (OR=2.963, 95%CI:1.288-6.813) and incomplete vaccinations (OR=2.842, 95%CI:0.925-8.731). Conclusion: The generation interval of the Delta variant is shortened, and the ability of transmission within the household is enhanced. In the outbreak in Nanjing, the associated factors of HSAR are occupation, detection route, vaccination and exposure period.
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COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Male , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Incidence , Family CharacteristicsABSTRACT
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the itinerary card has become so pertinent to our lives that we need to show our itinerary card whether we take public transport or enter public places. The traditional way to manually check and record the information on the itinerary card is inefficient. It easily leads to congestion at the entrance, especially in high-traffic areas. In addition, some people even falsify their itinerary codes to evade mandatory testing or quarantine for COVID-19. Therefore, an efficient itinerary checking method is needed to alleviate the crowded problem, reduce cross-infection, and intelligently detect itinerary cheating. To address these issues, we propose a deep-learning-based method combined with OCR techniques. This method consists of five parts, including ROI locating, color classification, OCR, information pooling, and anti-cheating. The proposed scheme can extract the itinerary information on the itinerary card and check it. It also provides a certain anti-cheating function. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can efficiently check the information on the itinerary card with high accuracy. © 2022 IEEE.
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Objective Many mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 have stronger infectivity and immune escape ability. The situation of epidemic evaluation, prevention and control is serious. The aim of the present paper is to track and predict the infectious transmission of COVID-19 through a theoretical model. Methods Based on the grid epidemic model, this paper discussed the relationship between the duration of infection and the effect of group immunity, and on this basis, established the theoretical model of infection transmission of COVID-19. The infectivity parameter A and the immune effect parameter B are introduced to predict the daily variation curve of infection. The parameter A/B23 can be used to quantitatively compare the comprehensive infectivity of each mutant, and we also test the conjecture that the infection parameters A and B are not related to regional factors. Results Through the theoretical model of infection transmission of COVID-19, the infectious time was accurately predicted. By analyzing the infectivity and electrical changes of mutant strains, the internal relationship between the infectivity of mutant strains and the electrical changes of mutant residues was pointed out. The parameter changes of mutants were analyzed, and the comprehensive infectivity of each mutant was quantitatively compared. We also verified the conjecture that parameters A and B are only related to the nature of the virus itself and the coexistence of the virus and the human body, but not related to the region where the disease occurs and evaluated and compared the epidemic prevention level of each outbreak region. Conclusion This paper established a theoretical model of infection transmission of COVID-19, which can predict the duration of the epidemic, the number of new infections per day, and evaluate the infectivity of the virus, immune escape ability, comprehensive infectivity, and regional epidemic prevention level. It can also give some suggestions on epidemic prevention countermeasures according to the possible parameter changes caused by virus variation.
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The incompleteness of patient health data is a threat to the management of COVID-19 in Africa and globally. This has become particularly clear with the recent emergence of new variants of concern. The Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN)-Africa has studied the curation of patient health data in selected African countries and identified that health information flows often do not involve the use of health data at the point of care, which renders data production largely meaningless to those producing it. This modus operandi leads to disfranchisement over the control of health data, which is extracted to be processed elsewhere. In response to this problem, VODAN-Africa studied whether or not a design that makes local ownership and repositing of data central to the data curation process, would have a greater chance of being adopted. The design team based their work on the legal requirements of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR);the FAIR Guidelines on curating data as Findable, Accessible (under well-defined conditions), Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR);and national regulations applying in the context where the data is produced. The study concluded that the visiting of data curated as machine actionable and reposited in the locale where the data is produced and renders services has great potential for access to a wider variety of data. A condition of such innovation is that the innovation team is intradisciplinary, involving stakeholders and experts from all of the places where the innovation is designed, and employs a methodology of co-creation and capacity-building. © 2022 Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
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The new crown pneumonia epidemic (COVID-19) has been a global pandemic for more than two years since the outbreak began in late 2019, with far-reaching effects on people's social lives as well as their mental health. At present, science and technology, bioengineering, materials and other disciplines have been integrated into protective materials, medical equipment and other items just needed for the epidemic from many aspects, but there are still not enough humane, direct technical interventions lack of human fit, not able to meet the user's sense of experience, etc., and design has the advantage of technical integration and system integration, which can assist in quickly and efficiently providing effective epidemic-related products, environments, and services solutions. This paper first analyzes and summarizes the transmission pathway and infection process of the new coronavirus, and divides the pre- and mid-epidemic period according to the data, and analyzes the design of protection and disinfection category in the pre-epidemic period, the design of treatment-related category in the mid-epidemic period, and the design of psychological healing category in the post-epidemic period. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and analyze design research results related to the new crown epidemic at home and abroad, and then explore how design can better provide new solutions to the problems caused by the epidemic. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Emission inventories are essential for modelling studies and pollution control, but traditional emission inventories are usually updated after a few years based on the statistics of "bottom-up"approach from the energy consumption in provinces, cities, and counties. The latest emission inventories of multi-resolution emission inventory in China (MEIC) was compiled from the statistics for the year 2016 (MEIC_2016). However, the real emissions have varied yearly, due to national pollution control policies and accidental special events, such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. In this study, a four-dimensional variational assimilation (4DVAR) system based on the "top-down"approach was developed to optimise sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by assimilating the data of SO2 concentrations from surface observational stations. The 4DVAR system was then applied to obtain the SO2 emissions during the early period of COVID-19 pandemic (from 17 January to 7 February 2020), and the same period in 2019 over China. The results showed that the average MEIC_2016, 2019, and 2020 emissions were 42.2×106, 40.1×106, and 36.4×106 kg d-1. The emissions in 2020 decreased by 9.2 % in relation to the COVID-19 lockdown compared with those in 2019. For central China, where the lockdown measures were quite strict, the mean 2020 emission decreased by 21.0 % compared with 2019 emissions. Three forecast experiments were conducted using the emissions of MEIC_2016, 2019, and 2020 to demonstrate the effects of optimised emissions. The root mean square error (RMSE) in the experiments using 2019 and 2020 emissions decreased by 28.1 % and 50.7 %, and the correlation coefficient increased by 89.5 % and 205.9 % compared with the experiment using MEIC_2016. For central China, the average RMSE in the experiments with 2019 and 2020 emissions decreased by 48.8 % and 77.0 %, and the average correlation coefficient increased by 44.3 % and 238.7 %, compared with the experiment using MEIC_2016 emissions. The results demonstrated that the 4DVAR system effectively optimised emissions to describe the actual changes in SO2 emissions related to the COVID lockdown, and it can thus be used to improve the accuracy of forecasts. Copyright: © 2022 Yiwen Hu et al.
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With the acceleration of economic globalization and the intensification of global climate change, the risks faced by agriculture are also increasing, which has seriously affected the improvement of farmers' living standards and the development of the national economy. In particular, in recent years, the global COVID-19 has had a certain impact on various industries, among which the impact on the agricultural economy presents a short-term diversified trend. How to reduce the impact of agricultural risks on agricultural economy is an urgent problem to be solved in China's agricultural development. Establishing a complete set of perfect agricultural risk management system plays a vital role in reducing agricultural risks, improving economic benefits and the production efficiency. At the same time, it is conducive to improve China's agricultural risk environment, narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and improving China's agricultural competitiveness. Therefore, this paper discusses the current situation of China's agricultural risks, the causes of agricultural risks and the necessity of establishing an agricultural risk management system. The agricultural information collection system based on RFID technology is proposed, which can effectively improve the ability of farmers to resist risks. Finally, from the formulation and implementation of agricultural protection policies, the improvement of agricultural risk early warning and prevention management system, the establishment of a complete agricultural risk guarantee system, the construction of a futures market in line with China's rural reality improve the dissemination channels of agricultural information and improve the construction of agricultural infrastructure, and put forward suggestions on the construction of China's agricultural risk management system. © 2022 SPIE.
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BACKGROUND: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic profoundly impacted delivery of health care. South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) experienced some of the highest cases, admissions and deaths during the Delta and Omicron waves in New South Wales. This study aims to determine the impact of the pandemic on emergency surgery services for adults presenting with acute appendicitis. METHODS: A retrospective review of patient records was performed of adults presenting with acute appendicitis between 1st March 2021 and 31st March 2022, which was compared to a pre-COVID control period of the same dates in 2019-2020. Patients managed operatively or conservatively were included. RESULTS: 1556 patients were included in the operative arm; 723 and 833 respectively in the study and control groups, which were comparable at baseline. 1.66% were COVID positive. During the pandemic, patients were significantly more likely to be investigated with computered tomography (CT) scan (p ≤ 0.001), present with complicated appendicitis (p = 0.03), and require caecectomy (p = 0.005). They had higher American Society of Anaesthesiology (ASA) scores (p = 0.001) and significantly lower negative appendectomy rates (p = 0.001). Fifty-two patients were included in the conservative arm; 29 and 23 respectively in the pandemic and control groups. Patients were comparable at baseline. There were two COVID positive patients. During the pandemic, there was a significant reduction in complications (p = 0.033), readmissions (0.044) and interval appendicectomy (p = 0.0044). CONCLUSION: We identified higher rates of complicated appendicitis, caecectomies and greater reliance on CT imaging preoperatively during the pandemic in SWSLHD.