Widening Digital Divide: Family Investment, Digital Learning, and Educational Performance of Chinese High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic School Closures.

The COVID-19 pandemic and school closures highlighted the need for research examining the effects of socio-economic status and digital learning on educational performance. Based on a panel dataset from a Chinese high school during school closures in 2020, our study explored whether the digital divide widened during the pandemic. The results showed that digital learning significantly mediates the association of socio-economic status with educational performance. In contrast, the indirect effects of digital learning were not significant before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these effects immediately became significant during school closures and remote education instruction during the pandemic. After the schools reopened, the indirect effects of digital learning declined or even disappeared. Our findings provide new evidence for a widening digital divide during the COVID-19 pandemic school closures. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11482-023-10191-y.

Anxiety, depression, and related factors in hemodialysis patients during the lockdown period of COVID- 19 in China: a multicenter study.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) made a huge impact on hemodialysis (HD) patients. The aim of the study was to survey the anxiety, depression and related factors of HD patients during the lockdown and to explore the factors that affect their anxiety and depression. From February 1 to 15, 2020, an online survey was conducted in HD patients; the survey collected information on demographic data, epidemic perception, travel status and Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS). The original SAS and SDS data from 96 HD patients gathered between May and August 2018 were retained as data for the control group. A total of 506 HD patients were recruited, and the prevalence of anxiety and depression was 22.33% and 45.45%, respectively. They had significantly higher SAS and SDS scores than the HD patients before the epidemic (p < 0.01; p < 0.05). It was found that self-threat perception, trouble related to transportation and skipping dialysis sessions were factors related to anxiety in HD patients during the lockdown (p ˂ 0.05). Education level, trouble related to transportation and the awareness of the seriousness of the epidemic were factors related to depression (p ˂ 0.05). During the COVID-19 lockdown period, HD patients reported higher levels of psychological distress than HD patients before the pandemic. Psychological support and transport policies should be provided to them.

Early autoimmunity and outcome in virus encephalitis: a retrospective study based on tissue-based assay.

To explore the autoimmune response and outcome in the central nervous system (CNS) at the onset of viral infection and correlation between autoantibodies and viruses. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted in 121 patients (2016-2021) with a CNS viral infection confirmed via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) next-generation sequencing (cohort A). Their clinical information was analysed and CSF samples were screened for autoantibodies against monkey cerebellum by tissue-based assay. In situ hybridisation was used to detect Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in brain tissue of 8 patients with glial fibrillar acidic protein (GFAP)-IgG and nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissue of 2 patients with GFAP-IgG as control (cohort B). RESULTS: Among cohort A (male:female=79:42; median age: 42 (14-78) years old), 61 (50.4%) participants had detectable autoantibodies in CSF. Compared with other viruses, EBV increased the odds of having GFAP-IgG (OR 18.22, 95% CI 6.54 to 50.77, p<0.001). In cohort B, EBV was found in the brain tissue from two of eight (25.0%) patients with GFAP-IgG. Autoantibody-positive patients had a higher CSF protein level (median: 1126.00 (281.00-5352.00) vs 700.00 (76.70-2899.00), p<0.001), lower CSF chloride level (mean: 119.80±6.24 vs 122.84±5.26, p=0.005), lower ratios of CSF-glucose/serum-glucose (median: 0.50[0.13-0.94] vs 0.60[0.26-1.23], p=0.003), more meningitis (26/61 (42.6%) vs 12/60 (20.0%), p=0.007) and higher follow-up modified Rankin Scale scores (1 (0-6) vs 0 (0-3), p=0.037) compared with antibody-negative patients. A Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that autoantibody-positive patients experienced significantly worse outcomes (p=0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Autoimmune responses are found at the onset of viral encephalitis. EBV in the CNS increases the risk for autoimmunity to GFAP.

Virus-like Particle Vaccines and Platforms for Vaccine Development.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) have gained a lot of interest within the past two decades. The use of VLP-based vaccines to protect against three infectious agents-hepatitis B virus, human papillomavirus, and hepatitis E virus-has been approved; they are very efficacious and offer long-lasting immune responses. Besides these, VLPs from other viral infectious agents (that infect humans, animals, plants, and bacteria) are under development. These VLPs, especially those from human and animal viruses, serve as stand-alone vaccines to protect against viruses from which the VLPs were derived. Additionally, VLPs, including those derived from plant and bacterial viruses, serve as platforms upon which to display foreign peptide antigens from other infectious agents or metabolic diseases such as cancer, i.e., they can be used to develop chimeric VLPs. The goal of chimeric VLPs is to enhance the immunogenicity of foreign peptides displayed on VLPs and not necessarily the platforms. This review provides a summary of VLP vaccines for human and veterinary use that have been approved and those that are under development. Furthermore, this review summarizes chimeric VLP vaccines that have been developed and tested in pre-clinical studies. Finally, the review concludes with a snapshot of the advantages of VLP-based vaccines such as hybrid/mosaic VLPs over conventional vaccine approaches such as live-attenuated and inactivated vaccines.

Prevalence, correlates, and network analysis of depression and its association with quality of life in survivors with myocardial infarction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Depression is common among myocardial infarction (MI) survivors and is strongly associated with poor quality of life (QOL). The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence, correlates and the network structure of depression, and its association with QOL in MI survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional study evaluated depression and QOL in MI survivors with the Chinese version of the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), respectively. Univariable analyses, multivariable analyses, and network analyses were performed. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression (PHQ-9 total score ≥ 5) among 565 MI survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic was 38.1 % (95 % CI: 34.1-42.1 %), which was significantly associated with poor QOL. Patients with depression were less likely to consult a doctor regularly after discharge, and more likely to experience more severe anxiety symptoms and fatigue. Item PHQ4 "Fatigue" was the most central symptom in the network, followed by PHQ6 "Guilt" and PHQ2 "Sad mood". The flow network showed that PHQ4 "Fatigue" had the highest negative association with QOL. CONCLUSION: Depression was prevalent among MI survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic and was significantly associated with poor QOL. Those who failed to consult a doctor regularly after discharge or reported severe anxiety symptoms and fatigue should be screened for depression. Effective interventions for MI survivors targeting central symptoms, especially fatigue, are needed to reduce the negative impact of depression and improve QOL.

A data-driven analysis on the mediation effect of compartment models between control measures and COVID-19 epidemics (preprint)

We make a retrospective review on various control measures taken by 127 countries/territories during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic until July 7, 2020, and evaluate their impacts on the epidemic dynamics quantitatively. The SEIR-QD model, as a representative for general compartment models, is used to fit the epidemic data, enabling the extraction of crucial model parameters and dynamical features. The mediation effect of the SEIR-QD model is revealed by using the mediation analysis with structure equation modeling for multiple mediators operating in parallel. The inherent impacts of these control policies on the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 epidemics are clarified, and compared with results derived from both multiple linear regression and neural-network-based nonlinear regression. Through this data-driven analysis, the mediation effect of compartment models is confirmed, which provides a better understanding on the intrinsic correlations among the strength of control measures and the dynamical features of COVID-19 epidemics.

Changing legislative thinking in China to better protect wild animals and human health

The COVID‐19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of China's legal protection of wildlife. Long‐standing illegal wildlife trade in China and worldwide increases the risk of zoonotic infectious diseases. We sought to improve the understanding of China' legal system for the protection of wildlife, which has at its core the wildlife protection law, by systematically evaluating the laws and regulations of China's Wildlife Protection Framework. We examined how existing legal documents (e.g., the Wildlife Protection Law 2018) are directly or indirectly related to wildlife conservation. The inherent defects of wildlife protection legislation include a narrow scope of protection, insufficient public participation, and inconsistent enforcement among responsible agencies. Solutions to improve China's Wildlife Protection Law include expanding the legal protection of wildlife, and improving monitoring of wildlife protection. Strengthening legislation will be the basis for effective regulation of the use of wild animals. We advocate the establishment of a sound wildlife protection legal system for resolving conflicts between humans and wild animals and preventing zoonotic disease, such a system will have a profound impact on the sustainable development of China's wildlife resources.

Potential Applications of Thermophilic Bacteriophages in One Health.

Bacteriophages have a wide range of applications such as combating antibiotic resistance, preventing food contamination for food safety, and as biomarkers to indirectly assess the quality of water. Additionally, bacteriophage components (endolysins and coat proteins) have a lot of applications in food processing, vaccine design, and the delivery of cargo to the body. Therefore, bacteriophages/components have a multitude of applications in human, plant/veterinary, and environmental health (One Health). Despite their versatility, bacteriophage/component use is mostly limited to temperatures within 4-40 °C. This limits their applications (e.g., in food processing conditions, pasteurization, and vaccine design). Advances in thermophilic bacteriophage research have uncovered novel thermophilic endolysins (e.g., ΦGVE2 amidase and MMPphg) that can be used in food processing and in veterinary medicine. The endolysins are thermostable at temperatures > 65 °C and have broad antimicrobial activities. In addition to thermophilic endolysins, enzymes (DNA polymerase and ligases) derived from thermophages have different applications in molecular biology/biotechnology: to generate DNA libraries and develop diagnostics for human and animal pathogens. Furthermore, coat proteins from thermophages are being explored to develop virus-like particle platforms with versatile applications in human and animal health. Overall, bacteriophages, especially those that are thermophilic, have a plethora of applications in One Health.

FSA-Net: Rethinking the attention mechanisms in medical image segmentation from releasing global suppressed information.

Attention mechanism-based medical image segmentation methods have developed rapidly recently. For the attention mechanisms, it is crucial to accurately capture the distribution weights of the effective features contained in the data. To accomplish this task, most attention mechanisms prefer using the global squeezing approach. However, it will lead to a problem of over-focusing on the global most salient effective features of the region of interest, while suppressing the secondary salient ones. Making partial fine-grained features are abandoned directly. To address this issue, we propose to use a multiple-local perception method to aggregate global effective features, and design a fine-grained medical image segmentation network, named FSA-Net. This network consists of two key components: 1) the novel Separable Attention Mechanisms which replace global squeezing with local squeezing to release the suppressed secondary salient effective features. 2) a Multi-Attention Aggregator (MAA) which can fuse multi-level attention to efficiently aggregate task-relevant semantic information. We conduct extensive experimental evaluations on five publicly available medical image segmentation datasets: MoNuSeg, COVID-19-CT100, GlaS, CVC-ClinicDB, ISIC2018, and DRIVE datasets. Experimental results show that FSA-Net outperforms state-of-the-art methods in medical image segmentation.

Development of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, using a high-throughput single-B-cell cloning method.

Background: Rapid and efficient strategies are needed to discover neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) from B cells derived from virus-infected patients. Methods: Here, we report a high-throughput single-B-cell cloning method for high-throughput isolation of nAbs targeting diverse epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2-RBD (receptor binding domain) from convalescent COVID-19 patients. This method is simple, fast and highly efficient in generating SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 patients' B cells. Results: Using this method, we have developed multiple nAbs against distinct SARS-CoV-2-RBD epitopes. CryoEM and crystallography revealed precisely how they bind RBD. In live virus assay, these nAbs are effective in blocking viral entry to the host cells. Conclusion: This simple and efficient method may be useful in developing human therapeutic antibodies for other diseases and next pandemic.

Correlation between CD4 T-Cell Counts and Seroconversion among COVID-19 Vaccinated Patients with HIV: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the potential factors for predicting seroconversion due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine in people living with HIV (PLWH). METHOD: We searched the PubMed, Embase and Cochrane databases for eligible studies published from inception to 13th September 2022 on the predictors of serologic response to the COVID-19 vaccine among PLWH. This meta-analysis was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022359603). RESULTS: A total of 23 studies comprising 4428 PLWH were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled data demonstrated that seroconversion was about 4.6 times in patients with high CD4 T-cell counts (odds ratio (OR) = 4.64, 95% CI 2.63 to 8.19) compared with those with low CD4 T-cell counts. Seroconversion was about 17.5 times in patients receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (OR = 17.48, 95% CI 6.16 to 49.55) compared with those receiving other types of COVID-19 vaccines. There were no differences in seroconversion among patients with different ages, gender, HIV viral load, comorbidities, days after complete vaccination, and mRNA type. Subgroup analyses further validated our findings about the predictive value of CD4 T-cell counts for seroconversion due to COVID-19 vaccines in PLWH (OR range, 2.30 to 9.59). CONCLUSIONS: The CD4 T-cell counts were associated with seroconversion in COVID-19 vaccinated PLWH. Precautions should be emphasized in these patients with low CD4 T-cell counts, even after a complete course of vaccination.

Chinese young people's perceptions and preferences with regard to various edible urban plants. / 中国年轻人对各种可食用城市植物的看法和偏好.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO, 2017), and mental health is defined as not only the absence of mental illness, but also the presence of psychological well-being. An expanding body of evidence highlights the relationship between nature (such as urban greenspace) and health (Li et al., 2019; Flaxman et al., 2020). However, human development and subsequent effects such as climate change and epidemic disease (COVID-19) lead to altered living environments and lifestyles. Expanding cities and urban residents have inequitable access to nature, particularly in areas of greater depriv­ation, where both public and private greenspaces are less available (Feng et al., 2021). In addition, young people spend more than 80% of their time indoors due to constant use of electronic devices for work, study, and entertainment (Klepeis et al., 2001). Mobile phones, personal computers, and video-game devices have become the main means for them to release stress. Excessive use of these electronic devices may affect normal brain activity, increasing the risk of Internet addiction and producing a range of physical and mental problems (Tran et al., 2017). These signal the pressing need for scientific investigation of efficient and convenient ways to increase contact with nature, or alternatively, to better regulate emotions indoors.

Potato Processing Industry in China: Current Scenario, Future Trends and Global Impact.

Potatoes play an important role in ensuring food security. During the COVID-19 epidemic, consumption of processed potato products decreased, and consumption of fresh potatoes increased. China is the world's largest potato producer with more than 4.81 million hectares of area under potato production and 90.32 million metric tonnes of potatoes produced in 2018. This accounts for 27.36% of the world's planting area and 24.53% of the world's potato production. The proportion of potatoes processed in China was about 12% in 2017, mostly dominated by starch production. However, the recent policy of the Chinese government to popularise potato as a staple food has created new markets for processed potato products other than starch. A very few reports have analysed these future trends of the rapidly growing Chinese potato processing industry and its impact within and outside China. This paper provides an overview of the latest developments with a focus on processed potato products such as potato chips, French fries and dehydrated potatoes, and also, due to the unique Chinese diet culture, it highlights the need for more scientific research dedicated towards the development of novel potato-based healthy foods.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Hypoxic Environments Based on Water Splitting-Assisted Electrocatalysis

Conventional enzyme-based continuous glucose sensors in interstitial fluid usually rely on dissolved oxygen as the electron-transfer mediator to bring electrons from oxidase to electrode while generating hydrogen peroxide. This may lead to several problems. First, the sensor may provide biased detection results owing to fluctuation of oxygen in interstitial fluid. Second, the polymer coatings that regulate the glucose/oxygen ratio can affect the dynamic response of the sensor. Third, the glucose oxidation reaction continuously produces corrosive hydrogen peroxide, which may compromise the long-term stability of the sensor. Here, we introduce an oxygen-independent nonenzymatic glucose sensor based on water splitting-assisted electrocatalysis for continuous glucose monitoring. For the water splitting reaction (i.e., hydrogen evolution reaction), a negative pretreatment potential is applied to produce a localized alkaline condition at the surface of the working electrode for subsequent nonenzymatic electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose. The reaction process does not require the participation of oxygen;therefore, the problems caused by oxygen can be avoided. The nonenzymatic sensor exhibits acceptable sensitivity, reliability, and biocompatibility for continuous glucose monitoring in hypoxic environments, as shown by the in vitro and in vivo measurements. Therefore, we believe that it is a promising technique for continuous glucose monitoring, especially for clinically hypoxic patients.

Prevalence of depression and its association with quality of life in patients after pacemaker implantation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A network analysis.

Background: This study was designed to investigate the prevalence and predictors of depression in patients after pacemaker implantation during the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to identifying specific depressive symptoms associated with quality of life (QOL) using network analysis (NA). Methods: This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted in China between July 1, 2021, and May 17, 2022. Descriptive analysis was used to calculate depression prevalence. Univariate analyses were used to compare differences in demographic and clinical characteristics between depressed and non-depressed patients following pacemaker implantation. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess factors independently associated with depression. Network analysis "expected influence," and flow function indexes were used to identify symptoms central to the depression network of the sample and depressive symptoms that were directly associated with QOL, respectively. Network stability was examined using a case-dropping bootstrap procedure. Results: In total, 206 patients implanted with a pacemaker met the study entry criteria and completed the assessment. The overall prevalence of depression (PHQ-9 total score ≥ 5) was 39.92% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 29.37-42.47%]. A binary logistic regression analysis revealed that patients with depression were more likely to report a poor health status (p = 0.031), severe anxiety symptoms (p < 0.001), and fatigue (p < 0.001). In the network model for depression, "Sad mood," "Poor Energy," and "Guilt" were the most influential symptoms. "Fatigue" had the strongest negative association with QOL, followed by "Sad mood" and "Appetite". Conclusion: Depression is common among patients having undergone pacemaker implantation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety, central symptoms of depression (i.e., "Sad mood", "Poor Energy", and "Guilt") and depressive symptoms linked to QOL (i.e., "Sad mood", "Appetite", and "Fatigue") identified in this study are promising targets for interventions and preventive measures for depression in patients who have undergone pacemaker implants.

Synthesis of maleimide-braced peptide macrocycles and their potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 mechanisms.

Macrocycles often exhibit good biological properties and potential druggability, which lead to versatile applications in the pharmaceutical industry. Herein, we report a highly efficient and practical methodology for the functionalization and macrocyclization of Trp and Trp-containing peptides via Pd(II)-catalyzed C-H alkenylation at the Trp C4 position. This method provides direct access to C4 maleimide-decorated Trp-containing peptidomimetics and maleimide-braced 17- to 30-membered peptide macrocycles. In particular, these unique macrocycles revealed low micro- to sub-micromolar EC50 values with promising anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities. Further explorations with computational methodologies and experimental validations indicated that these macrocycles exert antiviral effects through binding with the N protein of SARS-CoV-2.

Cross-protective humoral immunity to coronaviruses from SARS coronavirus 2-naïve sera of children with Kawasaki disease.

OBJECTIVES: SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-associated multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children indicates that viruses can trigger a Kawasaki disease (KD)-like hyperinflammation. A plausible hypothesis was that coronavirus-specific 'holes' in humoral immunity could cause both diseases. METHODS: To determine whether SARS-CoV-2-naïve patients with KD have inferior humoral immunity for the novel coronavirus, sera of children with KD and control children from year 2015 to 2021 were subjected to ELISA, microwestern, and neutralization assays to evaluate the capabilities in recognizing the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2, spotting spike proteins of three respiratory syndromic coronaviruses, and blocking SARS-CoV-2 from binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptors in vitro, respectively. RESULTS: 29 patients with KD before 2019, 74 patients with KD in 2019 or 2020, 54 non-febrile controls, and 24 febrile controls were included in the study. SARS-CoV-2 was recognized on ELISA for both patients with KD in 2016 and those with KD in 2020. Microwestern demonstrated cross-reactive IgG in an all-or-none manner towards three spike proteins of syndromic coronaviruses regardless of sample year or KD status. The ratio between the sera that recognized all spike proteins and those that recognized none (51 vs. 47) was significantly higher from patients with KD than from non-febrile controls (17 vs. 32; p 0.047) but not from febrile controls (13 vs. 11; p 0.85). Most positive sera (12 of 17 controls, 5 of 8 patients with KD before 2019, and 28 of 33 patients with KD in 2019 or 2020) offered protection comparable to low-titre sera from the WHO reference panel. DISCUSSION: Humoral immunity of SARS-CoV-2-naïve children with KD was not inferior to that of controls in offering cross-protection against the novel coronavirus.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy responses on non-COVID-19 healthcare utilization in China.

We investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy responses on non-COVID-19 healthcare utilization (i.e., different types of outpatient care) up to October 2020 in China. Using an administrative database from a large prefecture-level city, we find that both direct exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict containment policy responses led to reductions in outpatient care utilization. The largest decline during the lockdown was observed in preventive care visits, which nevertheless recovered to pre-pandemic levels 2 months after the lockdown. The disruptions in prenatal care visits could not be offset by the recovery later on. Chronic care and emergency department visits had not returned to pre-pandemic levels as of October 2020, which may be driven by extended days' supply of prescription medication, increased use of telemedicine, and improved health-protective behaviors. In the reopening period, there were increases in visits for mental and sleep disorders, especially among children, and for medical abortion. Among health facilities at all levels, primary care facilities saw the least reductions in total outpatient visits. Our results emphasize the need for strategies to ensure access to urgent or essential care services when managing the current epidemiologic transition and future crises.