Relocalization evaluation of arbidol in the treatment of COVID-19 (preprint)

Background: The spread of COVID-19 continues, the mutation of SARS-COV-2 is still difficult to control, and the need for antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19 remains urgent. The use of arbidol in the treatment of COVID-19 is limited and controversial. Methods To clarify the efficacy of arbidol on COVID-19, we collected 25 cases and 178 related studies. We analyzed the treatment information of arbidol based on the obtained cases, expanded the scope of the study, and collected current studies on the treatment of COVID-19 in various databases for in-depth analysis. Results History analysis showed that arbidol was effective (76% cure rate) compared with other drugs. However, compared with other antiviral drugs or standard therapy, the arbidol group had no significant advantage in reducing the time to negative virus transformation, length of hospital stays, or improvement in CT (MD=0.22, 95%CI -0.29-0.73; MD = 0.61, 95% CI 1.46 to 2.67; RR=1.15, 95%CI 0.88-1.50); Analysis of adverse events showed no significant difference between the arbidol group and the other groups (RR=0.82, 95%CI 0.25-2.71). Conclusion Our study showed that arbidol had no significant effect on COVID-19, but showed a slight advantage in CT improvement and adverse events. Our study objectively evaluated the efficacy of arbidol in the treatment of COVID-19 and provided some guidance for arbidol in the treatment of COVID-19.

Associations of dyspnea symptoms with lung function in patients with COVID-19 in the acute period (preprint)

Background Currently, the main prevalent strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is Omicron, which shows elevated viral load and spread ability, bringing new challenges to pandemic prevention and control.Objective To examine the associations of dyspnea symptoms with lung function in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients during the acute period.Methods This study included COVID-19 cases diagnosed by real-time PCR (RT-PCR). These patients were divided into the dyspnea and non-dyspnea groups based on whether they had dyspnea symptoms at the time of admission.Results A total of 29 patients with pulmonary function tests (PFTs) were included in this study. Of all patients, 17.24% (5/29) had severe COVID-19, while the remaining cases were mild or moderate. Lung function was normal, with forced vital capacity (FVC) ≥ 80%, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)/FVC ≥ 0.92, and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) ≥ 80% in 96.55% (28/29), 79.31% (23/29), and 72.41% (21/29) of patients, respectively. Computer tomography (CT) findings were normal in 10.34% (3/29) of patients.Conclusions Multivariate analysis showed that lung function and chest CT parameters are not independently associated with dyspnea persistence in acute COVID-19 patients.

Multi-omics profiling reveals phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of neutrophils in COVID-19 (preprint)

Background: Accumulating evidence has revealed unexpected phenotypic heterogeneity and diverse functions of neutrophils in several diseases. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can alter the leukocyte phenotype based on disease severity, including neutrophil activation in severe cases. However, the plasticity of neutrophil phenotypes and their relative impact on COVID-19 pathogenesis has not been well addressed. This study aimed to identify and validate the heterogeneity of neutrophils in COVID-19 and evaluate the phenotypic alterations for each subpopulation. Methods: We analyzed public single-cell RNA-seq, bulk RNA-seq, and human plasma proteome data from healthy donors and patients with COVID-19 to investigate neutrophil subpopulations and their response to disease pathogenesis. Results: We identified eight neutrophil subtypes, namely C1-C8, and found that they exhibited distinct features, including activation signatures and multiple enriched pathways. The neutrophil subtype C4 (DEFA1/1B/3+) associated with severe and fatal disease. Bulk RNA-seq and proteome dataset analyses using a cellular deconvolution approach validated the relative abundances of neutrophil subtypes and the expansion of C4 (DEFA1/1B/3+) in severe COVID-19 patients. Cell-cell communication analysis revealed representative ligand-receptor interactions among the identified neutrophil subtypes. Notably, the C4 (DEFA1/1B/3+) fraction showed transmembrane receptor expression of CD45 and CAP1 as well as the secretion of pro-platelet basic protein (PPBP). We further demonstrated the clinical potential of PPBP as a novel diagnostic biomarker for severe COVID-19. Conclusion: Our work has great value in terms of both clinical and public health as it furthers our understanding of the phenotypic and functional heterogeneity of neutrophils and other cell populations in multiple diseases.

Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir for hemodialysis patients with COVID-19.

Background: Hemodialysis patients have a high risk of severe/critical COVID-19 and related high mortality, but nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is not recommended for hemodialysis patients with COVID-19 infection because of lack of evidence of safety. Objectives: Our study aims to evaluate the minimum plasma concentration (Cmin) of nirmatrelvir and its safety of different doses of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in hemodialysis patients with mild COVID-19. Method: This was a prospective, two step, nonrandomized, open-label study. Participants were treated with nirmatrelvir 150 mg or 300 mg once a day (another 75 mg or 150 mg supplied after hemodialysis) and ritonavir 100 mg twice daily for 5 days, respectively. The primary outcome was the safety of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, including the Cmin of nirmatrelvir and the number of adverse events (AE). The secondary outcome was the time of viral elimination in hemodialysis patients. Results: Adverse events were happened in 3 and 7 participants in the step 1 and step 2 group, respectively (p = 0.025). Among them, 2 and 6 participants were identified as drug-related adverse events (p = 0.054). No SAE or liver function damage happened. The Cmin of nirmatrelvir in step 1 and step 2 group were 5,294.65 ± 2,370.59 ng/mL and 7,675.67 ± 2,745.22 ng/mL (p = 0.125). The Cmin of the control group was 2,274.10 ± 1,347.25 ng/mL (p = 0.001 compared to step 2 and p = 0.059 compared to step 1). Compared to hemodialysis patients without nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, there were no statistical differences in overall viral elimination time (p = 0.232). Conclusion: In our study, two doses of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir appeared to be excessive for hemodialysis patients. Although all of the patients tolerated 5-day administration, nearly half of the patients experienced drug-related adverse events. In addition, the medication group did not show a significant advantage in the time of viral elimination.

Occupancy-aided ventilation for airborne infection risk control: Continuously or intermittently reduced occupancies?

Ventilation is an important engineering measure to control the airborne infection risk of acute respiratory diseases, e.g., Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Occupancy-aided ventilation methods can effectively improve the airborne infection risk control performance with a sacrifice of decreasing working productivity because of the reduced occupancy. This study evaluates the effectiveness of two occupancy-aided ventilation methods, i.e., the continuously reduced occupancy method and the intermittently reduced occupancy method. The continuously reduced occupancy method is determined by the steady equation of the mass conservation law of the indoor contaminant, and the intermittently reduced occupancy method is determined by a genetic algorithm-based optimization. A two-scenarios-based evaluation framework is developed, i.e., one with targeted airborne infection risk control performance (indicated by the mean rebreathed fraction) and the other with targeted working productivity (indicated by the accumulated occupancy). The results show that the improvement in the airborne infection risk control performance linearly and quadratically increases with the reduction in the working productivity for the continuously reduced occupancy method and the intermittently reduced occupancy method respectively. At a given targeted airborne infection risk control performance, the intermittently reduced occupancy method outperforms the continuously reduced occupancy method by improving the working productivity by up to 92%. At a given targeted working productivity, the intermittently reduced occupancy method outperforms the continuously reduced occupancy method by improving the airborne infection risk control performance by up to 38%.

Integrated analyses of single-cell RNA-seq public data reveal the gene regulatory network landscape of respiratory epithelial and peripheral immune cells in COVID-19 patients (preprint)

Introduction: Infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which can result in acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure. However, its comprehensive influence on pathological immune responses in the respiratory epithelium and peripheral immune cells is not yet fully understood. Methods: In this study, we integrated multiple public scRNA-seq datasets of nasopharyngeal swab and peripheral blood results to investigate the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of healthy individuals and COVID-19 patients with mild/moderate and severe disease, respectively. Similar and dissimilar regulons were identified within or between epithelial and immune cells during COVID-19 severity progression. The relative transcription factors (TFs) and their targets were used to construct GRNs among different infection sites and conditions. Results: Between respiratory epithelial and peripheral immune cells, different TFs tended to be used to regulate the activity of a cell between healthy individuals and COVID-19 patients, although they had some TFs in common. For example, XBP1, FOS, STAT1, and STAT2 were activated in both the epithelial and immune cells of virus-infected individuals. In contrast, severe COVID-19 cases exhibited activation of CEBPD in peripheral immune cells, while CEBPB was exclusively activated in respiratory epithelial cells. Moreover, in patients with severe COVID-19, CEBPD upregulated S100A8 and S100A9 in CD14 and CD16 monocytes, while S100A9 genes were co-upregulated by different regulators (SPEDEF and ELF3) in goblet and squamous cells. The cell-cell communication analysis suggested that epidermal growth factor receptor signaling among epithelial cells contributes to mild/moderate disease, and chemokine signaling among immune cells contributes to severe disease. Conclusions: This study identified cell type- and condition-specific regulons in a wide range of cell types from the initial infection site to the peripheral blood, and clarified the diverse mechanisms of maladaptive responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Thermal responses of face-masked pedestrians during summer: An outdoor investigation under tree-shaded areas.

During the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, most citizens were cooperative towards the face-masking policy; however, undeniably, face masking has increased complaints of thermal discomfort to varying degrees and resulted in potential health hazards during summer. Thus, a thermal comfort survey was conducted under tree-shaded areas generally preferred by pedestrians to explore the thermal response of face-masked pedestrians. Thirty-two subjects, with and without masks, participated in walking experiments, and their thermal parameters and physiological indicators were recorded; moreover, the subjects were asked to fill in subjective questionnaires. The results showed that although tree shades significantly reduced the average radiant temperature, dampness in the mask may cause some discomfort symptoms, among which intense sweating (54.55%) and tachycardia (42.18%) accounted for the largest proportion. Based on thermal indices, it could be concluded that face-masking does not significantly affect the thermal comfort of subjects walking in shaded areas. Notably, a 30-min walk in tree-shaded areas with face masking does not adversely affect human health or quality of life. Thus, the present assessment of the thermal safety of humans in shaded environments provides reference data for determining thermal comfort levels during outdoor walking with face masking.

Technical Advantages of Modified Day Surgical Procedures for Penile Reconstructive Surgery During COVID-19 (preprint)

Objective  The modified day surgical procedure was compared with traditional inpatient procedures and standard day surgical procedures to explore the technical advantages of the modified day surgical procedures during COVID-19.  Methods The clinical data of 135 children who underwent the day operation (the day group) and 101 children who underwent the traditional inpatient procedures (the inpatient group) were collected in the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University during COVID-19. The patients' satisfaction surveys were divided into three groups: standard process group, modified process group, and inpatient group. The standard and modified process groups form the day surgical group. The degree of satisfaction among the groups was compared.  Results The average ages of the inpatient and day surgical groups were 8.92 years old and 11.85 years old, respectively. There was no significant difference between these two groups in operation time, bleeding volume, and postoperative complications (P>0.05). Compared with the inpatient group, the average inpatient time and the hospitalization cost of the day group decreased by 69% and 27%, respectively (P < 0.05). The patient's family members in the modified procedure group had the highest satisfaction among the three groups.  Conclusion The penile reconstructive plastic performed by modified day surgical procedures has advantages over the standard and traditional inpatient surgical procedures during COVID-19. The modified day surgical procedure benefits hospitals and patients, which is suitable for being popularized on a large scale during COVID-19.

Occupancy-aided ventilation for airborne infection risk control: Continuously or intermittently reduced occupancies?

Ventilation is an important engineering measure to control the airborne infection risk of acute respiratory diseases, e.g., Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Occupancy-aided ventilation methods can effectively improve the airborne infection risk control performance with a sacrifice of decreasing working productivity because of the reduced occupancy. This study evaluates the effectiveness of two occupancy-aided ventilation methods, i.e., the continuously reduced occupancy method and the intermittently reduced occupancy method. The continuously reduced occupancy method is determined by the steady equation of the mass conservation law of the indoor contaminant, and the intermittently reduced occupancy method is determined by a genetic algorithm-based optimization. A two-scenarios-based evaluation framework is developed, i.e., one with targeted airborne infection risk control performance (indicated by the mean rebreathed fraction) and the other with targeted working productivity (indicated by the accumulated occupancy). The results show that the improvement in the airborne infection risk control performance linearly and quadratically increases with the reduction in the working productivity for the continuously reduced occupancy method and the intermittently reduced occupancy method respectively. At a given targeted airborne infection risk control performance, the intermittently reduced occupancy method outperforms the continuously reduced occupancy method by improving the working productivity by up to 92%. At a given targeted working productivity, the intermittently reduced occupancy method outperforms the continuously reduced occupancy method by improving the airborne infection risk control performance by up to 38%.

Therapeutic prospects of ceRNAs in COVID-19

Since the end of 2019, COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has spread worldwide, and the understanding of the new coronavirus is in a preliminary stage. Currently, immunotherapy, cell therapy, antiviral therapy, and Chinese herbal medicine have been applied in the clinical treatment of the new coronavirus;however, more efficient and safe drugs to control the progress of the new coronavirus are needed. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs) may provide new therapeutic targets for novel coronavirus treatments. The first aim of this paper is to review research progress on COVID-19 in the respiratory, immune, digestive, circulatory, urinary, reproductive, and nervous systems. The second aim is to review the body systems and potential therapeutic targets of lncRNAs, miRNAs, and circRNAs in patients with COVID-19. The current research on competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) (lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA) in SARS-CoV-2 is summarized. Finally, we predict the possible therapeutic targets of four lncRNAs, MALAT1, NEAT1, TUG1, and GAS5, in COVID-19. Importantly, the role of PTEN gene in the ceRNA network predicted by lncRNA MALAT1 and lncRNA TUG1 may help in the discovery and clinical treatment of effective drugs for COVID-19.

Integrated system of exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution for energy-efficient provision of outdoor air.

A large outdoor air supply is required to control the airborne infection risk of respiratory diseases (e.g., COVID 19) but causes a high energy penalty. This study proposes a novel integrated system of the exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution to energy-efficiently provide outdoor air. The system energy performances are evaluated by the experimentally validated thermodynamic model of heat pump and heat removal efficiency model of advanced air distribution. Results show the exhaust air heat pump with advanced air distribution can save energy because of three mechanisms. First, the exhaust air heat pump reuses the exhaust air to reduce the condensation temperature, thereby improving the coefficient of performance. Second, advanced air distribution reduces ventilation load. Third, advanced air distribution reduces the condensation temperature and enhances the evaporation temperature, thereby improving the coefficient of performance. The exhaust air heat pump saves energy by 18%, advanced air distribution saves energy by 36%, and the integrated system of the exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution can save energy by 45%. As a specific application, compared with the conventional system (i.e., the outdoor air heat pump with mixing ventilation), the exhaust air heat pump with stratum ventilation saves energy by 21% - 35% under various outdoor air ratios and outdoor air temperatures. The proposed integrated system of the exhaust air heat pump and advanced air distribution contributes to the development of low-carbon and healthy buildings.

The Impact of Psychological Resilience on Chronic Patients’ Depression During the dynamic Zero-COVID policy: The Mediating Effect of Stigma and the Moderating Role of Sleep (preprint)

Objective Chronic patients are experiencing depression caused by themselves or the surrounding environment, how to cope with the change of mentality and adjust the psychological stress response, especially under the background of the current dynamic Zero-COVID policy in China, is a problem worth further discussion. The researchers constructed a mediating regulation model to test the influence of psychological resilience on depression of chronic patients during dynamic Zero-COVID, as well as the mediating role of stigma and the regulating role of and the moderating role sleep.Method From October 2021 to February 2022, a multi-stage stratified sampling method was used to collect data in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. We used the random number table method. Firstly, a third-class hospital was randomly selected from Shangcheng District. Secondly, departments were randomly selected from the hospital. Thirdly, survey points were set up in each department, and chronic patients were randomly selected from each survey point. In addition, chronic medical illness burden was assessed using the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatrics (CIRS-G), psychological resilience was measured by the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), stigma was measured by the Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness (SSCI), sleep was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and depressive symptoms were estimated by the Patient Health Questionaire-9(PHQ-9). SPSS (version 21) and PROCESS (version 4.0) were used for correlation analysis, mediation analysis, and mediated moderation analysis.Results Psychological resilience was negatively correlated with depression, stigma and sleep. Depression was positively correlated with stigma and sleep. Stigma and sleep were positively correlated; Stigma played a mediating role in the relationship between psychological resilience and depression; Sleep moderated the first half of the pathway " psychological resilience → stigma → depression" .Conclusion Psychological resilience affected depression directly and also indirectly through stigma. At the same time, sleep played a moderating role between psychological resilience and depression. The correlation between psychological resilience and stigma was stronger when levels of sleep levels were higher.

Ventilation indices for evaluation of airborne infection risk control performance of air distribution.

Air distribution is an effective engineering measure to fight against respiratory infectious diseases like COVID-19. Ventilation indices are widely used to indicate the airborne infection risk of respiratory infectious diseases due to the practical convenience. This study investigates the relationships between the ventilation indices and airborne infection risk to suggest the proper ventilation indices for the evaluation of airborne infection risk control performance of air distribution. Besides the commonly used ventilation indices of the age of air (AoA), air change effectiveness (ACE), and contaminant removal effectiveness (CRE), this study introduces two ventilation indices, i.e., the air utilization effectiveness (AUE) and contaminant dispersion index (CDI). CFD simulations of a hospital ward and a classroom served by different air distributions, including mixing ventilation, displacement ventilation, stratum ventilation and downward ventilation, are validated to calculate the ventilation indices and airborne infection risk. A three-step correlation analysis based on Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation coefficient, and goodness of fit and a min-max normalization-based error analysis are developed to qualitatively and quantitatively test the validity of ventilation indices respectively. The results recommend the integrated index of AUE and CDI to indicate the overall airborne infection risk, and CDI to indicate the local airborne infection risk respectively regardless of the effects of air distribution, supply airflow rate, infectivity intensity, room configuration and occupant distribution. This study contributes to airborne transmission control of infectious respiratory diseases with air distribution.

Psychological health intervention for children and adolescents during outbreak of novel coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected people's daily life globally, especially for the physical and mental health of children and adolescents, the vulnerable group. This paper reviews the studies, up to August 24, 2020, focusing on the following four aspects. Firstly, the mental stressors among children and adolescents are discussed from national and society, school and community, family and individual perspectives, such as the social isolation, the health care facility closures, the school closures, the economic deterioration, the home quarantine, the domestic violence and abuse, the increased screen time, and others. Secondly, the main types of psychological problems in teenagers during the COVID-19 are discussed. Emotional problems mainly include the anxiety, the depression, the loneliness, the sleep problems, the psychosomatic problems and the stress-related problems. Behavioral problems mainly include:the internet addiction, the sexual abuse behaviors, the parent-child conflicts, and others. Finally, children and adolescents are divided into five categories according to different risks under the background of COVID-19:the ordinary children, the children living in high exposure risk areas, the children with their caregivers being affected or being frontline workers, the quarantined children, the children with other diseases and the infected children. And intervention recommendations include the health education, the epidemic prevention, the knowledge popularization, the parent accompaniment;the hospital 24-hour on-duty nursing system, the online consultation and the online pharmacy;the remote interactive online education, the remote psychiatry, the book therapy, the music therapy, the emotion-focused therapy (EFT), the parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), the cognitive behavioral writing therapy(CBWT), the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and the drug therapy.

Recent Advances in the Molecular Design and Delivery Technology of mRNA for Vaccination Against Infectious Diseases

Vaccines can prevent many millions of illnesses against infectious diseases and save numerous lives every year. However, traditional vaccines such as inactivated viral and live attenuated vaccines cannot adapt to emerging pandemics due to their time-consuming development. With the global outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the virus continues to evolve and mutate, producing mutants with enhanced transmissibility and virulence;the rapid development of vaccines against such emerging global pandemics becomes more and more critical. In recent years, mRNA vaccines have been of significant interest in combating emerging infectious diseases due to their rapid development and large-scale production advantages. However, their development still suffers from many hurdles such as their safety, cellular delivery, uptake, and response to their manufacturing, logistics, and storage. More efforts are still required to optimize the molecular designs of mRNA molecules with increased protein expression and enhanced structural stability. In addition, a variety of delivery systems are also needed to achieve effective delivery of vaccines. In this review, we highlight the advances in mRNA vaccines against various infectious diseases and discuss the molecular design principles and delivery systems of associated mRNA vaccines. The current state of the clinical application of mRNA vaccine pipelines against various infectious diseases and the challenge, safety, and protective effect of associated vaccines are also discussed.

How to build a novel burst disease diagnostics for hunting potential infection source: the enlightenment from screening patients via combining viral and antibody testing at the COVID-19 pandemic early stage (preprint)

Purpose: We aimed to summarize the diagnostic strategies used to identify potential patients with COVID-19 among inbound overseas travelers in Xiamen, China.Methods: From October 2020 to December 2020, 180,000 inbound overseas travelers were subjected to government quarantine in Xiamen, China. We evaluated the screening efficiency of combining viral and antibody testing strategies to identify potential patients with COVID-19. Results: The COVID-19 positive rate was 0.17% (306/180,000). There was no difference between the combined PCR and antibody and the PCR testing strategy for screening COVID-19(2.0 [IQR,2.0–3.0] vs. 2.0[IQR,2.0–2.0]; P= 0.175). The results for the combined screening strategy were available 4 days earlier than those for the PCR testing strategy (3.0 [IQR, 3.0–3.0] vs. 7.0[IQR, 7.0–14.0], P=0.000). Compared with the non-key screening population, the key screening population showed less PCR rounds (2.0 [IQR, 2.0–2.0] vs. 2.0[IQR, 2.0–3.0]; (P=0.008) and time (3.0[IQR, 3.0–3.0] vs. 7.0[IQR, 7.0–14.0]; P=0.000) for screening COVID-19. Conclusion: Combining viral and antibody testing strategies is effective; it allows timely identification of the source of COVID-19 infection. Moreover, this strategy can be used for close contacts or sub-close contacts of patients with COVID-19 to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Study on Invulnerability of Material Emergency Transportation System Based on Three-Layer Interdependent Network

The material transportation capacity under emergency conditions is an important guarantee for the country to deal with war, epidemic outbreak, and other crisis situations. Under emergency conditions, some nodes of the material transportation system may fail to work normally, which may lead to the collapse of the whole system. Based on analyzing the characteristics of the material emergency transportation system, this article builds a three-layer interdependent network model and uses the improved M-L model to describe the failure propagation mechanism of node damage in the three-layer network. Then, the network model is attacked randomly, and the relationship between invulnerability of the three-layer network and the three main indexes of network flow, average degree, and probability of interdependence are studied. Afterwards, the propagation of cascading failure among three subnetworks in the interdependent network is analyzed and compared. This article provides a theoretical basis for building an efficient and robust material emergency transportation system.

A Smarter and Greener Olympics: Mediatization and Public Reception in the Preparation Stage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

In the post-COVID-19 era, the mediatization of sports mega-events is timely and notable. This study focuses on the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing and investigates how mediated processes influenced the Olympics. The data were gathered in two ways: we examined 783 WeChat posts from three salient Chinese media institutions, namely, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Organising Committee (BOCOG), China Central Television (CCTV), and Beijing Television (BTV), as well as conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with BOCOG staff and members of the general public. We discovered that the Games were narrated around two major themes?the development of technology and ?going green??both of which were heavily influenced by the country?s national agenda. As a result, the Chinese public was thoroughly immersed in the tech-savvy Olympics scenario, and the Green Olympics concept was widely shared in their daily practices. This study adds to the literature by incorporating communicative figuration as an analytical framework to improve the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of media saturation theory. Additionally, this research sheds light on the study of sports mediatization in China in the context of a pandemic.

Adaptation and Validation of the COVID-19 Stigma Instrument in Nurses:A Cross-sectional Survey (preprint)

Background: Stigma is a prominent issue among nurses working with patients with infectious diseases, but the unavailability of validated measures of such stigma. The aim of our study was to adapt, modify, and validate the COVID-19 Stigma Instrument-Nurse -Version 3 (CSI-N-3) with both classical test theory and item response theory (IRT) analysis.Methods: We administered the scale to 249 eligible nurses who worked in a COVID-19 designed hospital in Shanghai, China. Results: The two-factor structure was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The 15-item CSI-N-3 achieved Cronbach's α of 0.64 to 0.84. Convergent validity was also demonstrated. In IRT analysis, the CSI-N-3 has ordered response thresholds, with the appropriate item difficulty and infit and outfit mean squares. Self-reported social support was the only factor influencing nurses' COVID-19 stigma (standardized coefficients β=-0.21). Conclusions: The CSI-N-3 is an instrument with sound psychometric properties that can be used to measure COVID-19 stigma during the COVID-19 outbreak or afterward among nurses. 

Probable cross-corridor transmission of SARS-CoV-2 due to cross airflows and its control.

A COVID-19 outbreak occurred in May 2020 in a public housing building in Hong Kong - Luk Chuen House, located in Lek Yuen Estate. The horizontal cluster linked to the index case' flat (flat 812) remains to be explained. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted to obtain the wind-pressure coefficients of each external opening on the eighth floor of the building. The data were then used in a multi-zone airflow model to estimate the airflow rate and aerosol concentration in the flats and corridors on that floor. Apart from flat 812 and corridors, the virus-laden aerosol concentrations in flats 811, 813, 815, 817 and 819 (opposite to flat 812, across the corridor) were the highest on the eighth floor. When the doors of flats 813 and 817 were opened by 20%, the hourly-averaged aerosol concentrations in these two flats were at least four times as high as those in flats 811, 815 and 819 during the index case's home hours or the suspected exposure period of secondary cases. Thus, the flats across the corridor that were immediately downstream from flat 812 were at the highest exposure risk under a prevailing easterly wind, especially when their doors or windows that connected to the corridor were open. Given that the floorplan and dimension of Luk Chuen House are similar to those of many hotels, our findings provide a probable explanation for COVID-19 outbreaks in quarantine hotels. Positive pressure and sufficient ventilation in the corridor would help to minimise such cross-corridor infections.