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Teleconferencing technology has been widely used in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. However, local and remote participants always have a poorer experience of hybrid discussion for various reasons in the leaderless group discussions with mixed online and offline members. In this paper, this phenomenon is explored through an early pilot study. We found problems with the lack of presence of remote participants in hybrid discussion sessions, as well as unclear information about the status of members. To solve such problems, we've designed a social robot called SNOTBOX. The bot indicates the participation status (marginalized or not) of the remote participant using "Buzzo" and the remote participant's desire to be heard through a "Eureka". We used both representations to attract the attention of local participants as a way to enhance the presence of remote participants in the conference. SNOTBOX is easy to produce and allows for DIY customization, and also supports multi-participant online discussions. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
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Aims: The study aimed to analyze the changes in mental health and social support in patients with cerebral infarction during the recovery period at the early stage of coronavirus disease pandemic. Subjects and Methods: During January-March 2020, 98 patients with cerebral infarction during the recovery period were selected from Wuhan city. Among them, 42 patients were living alone (called the solitary group) and 56 patients lived with their spouses (called the spouse group). The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were used to evaluate anxiety and depression, respectively, and Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), social support for patients. Statistical Analysis Used: The statistical calculations were carried out using GraphPad Prism 5.01 software (GraphPad, San Diego, California, USA). Results: At the early stage of the pandemic, patients with cerebral infarction in the solitary group and the spouse group experienced varying degrees of anxiety and depression. The SAS and SDS scores in the solitary group were significantly higher than those in the spouse group (P < 0.01). The subscale scores of MSPSS in the solitary group were lower than those in the spouse group (P < 0.01). Conclusions: It is necessary for medical staff to help the patients to overcome anxiety and depression and provide more social support to patients, especially for those patients living alone. © 2022 Heart and Mind ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.
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Background: The COVID-19 has a huge negative impact on people's health. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a good effect on viral pneumonia. It is of great practical significance to study its pharmacology. Methods: The ingredients and targets of each herb in Maxing Shigan Decoction which obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, and the related targets of COVID-19 were screened by GeneCards database based on the network pharmacology. Venn was used to analyze the intersection target between active ingredients and diseases. Cytoscape software was used to construct an active ingredient-disease target network. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed by STRING database and Cytohubba was used to screen out the key targets. Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway analysis were performed by DAVID database. Results: In this study, a total of 134 active ingredients and 229 related targets, 198 targets of COVID-19 and 48 common targets of drug-disease were chosen. Enrichment items and pathways were obtained through GO and KEGG pathway analysis. The predicted active ingredients were quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, naringenin, glycyrol, and the key targets involved IL6, MAPK3, MAPK8, CASP3, IL10, etc. The results showed that the active ingredients of Maxing Shigan Decoction acted on multiple targets which played roles in the treatment of COVID-19 by regulating inflammation, immune system and other pathways. Conclusions: The main contribution of this paper is to use data to mine the principles of the treatment of COVID-19 from the pharmacology of these prescriptions, and the results can be provided theoretical reference for medical workers. © The Author (s) 2023. Published by Higher Education Press.
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Surface subsidence is a serious threat to human life, buildings and traffic in Beijing. Surface subsidence is closely related to human activities, and human activities in Beijing area showed a decreasing trend during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). To study surface subsidence in Beijing before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and its causes, a total of 51 Sentinel-1A SAR images covering Beijing from January 2018 to April 2022 were selected to derive subsidence information by Time Series Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (TS-InSAR). The results of surface subsidence in Beijing demonstrate that Changping, Chaoyang, Tongzhou and Daxing Districts exhibited the most serious subsidence phenomenon before the COVID-19 outbreak. The four main subsidence areas form an anti-Beijing Bay that surrounds other important urban areas. The maximum subsidence rate reached −57.0 mm/year. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the main subsidence area was separated into three giant subsidence funnels and several small subsidence funnels. During this period, the maximum subsidence rate was reduced to −43.0 mm/year. Human activity decrease with the COVID-19 outbreak. This study effectively analysed the influence of natural factors on surface subsidence after excluding most of the human factors. The following conclusions are obtained from the analysis: (1) Groundwater level changes, Beijing's geological structure and infrastructure construction are the main reasons for surface subsidence in Beijing. (2) Seasonal changes in rainfall and temperature indirectly affect groundwater level changes, thereby affecting surface subsidence in the area. (3) The COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 reduced the payload of Beijing's transportation facilities. It also slowed down the progress of various infrastructure construction projects in Beijing. These scenarios affected the pressure on the soft land base in Beijing and reduced the surface subsidence trend to some extent. © 2023 by the authors.
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Computed tomography (CT) imaging could be convenient for diagnosing various diseases. However, the CT images could be diverse since their resolution and number of slices are determined by the machine and its settings. Conventional deep learning models are hard to tickle such diverse data since the essential requirement of the deep neural network is the consistent shape of the input data in each dimension. A way to overcome this issue is based on the slice-level classifier and aggregating the predictions for each slice to make the final result. However, it lacks slice-wise feature learning, leading to suppressed performance. This paper proposes an effective spatial-slice feature learning (SSFL) to tickle this issue for COVID-19 symptom classification. First, the semantic feature embedding of each slice for a CT scan is extracted by a conventional 2D convolutional neural network (CNN) and followed by using the visual Transformer-based sub-network to deal with feature learning between slices, leading to joint feature representation. Then, an essential slices set algorithm is proposed to automatically select a subset of the CT scan, which could effectively remove the uncertain slices as well as improve the performance of our SSFL. Comprehensive experiments reveal that the proposed SSFL method shows not only excellent performance but also achieves stable detection results. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Digital business transformation is the use of technology that creates new business models, processes, software, and systems to generate increased revenue, competitive advantage, and efficiency of an Organisation. The emergence of digital business transformation is triggered by dynamic market changes and changes in consumer behavior in the use of technology and is triggered by the Coronavirus Disease 19 (Covid-19) pandemic. The impact of factors mentioned above affects medium-sized enterprises, in this case, the creative agency that is the research object. To assist creative agencies in maintaining their business, a guideline in the form of a digital business transformation framework is needed because there has not been a framework that can provide measurable guidance for digital business transformation in the sector. Researchers developed this framework using Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). Evaluation of the proposed framework using a questionnaire with internal company respondents resulted that the aspect of people stating that 92% helped the digital business transformation in the scope of people's involvement in it. However, there was a percentage of 8% stated that they had not measurably minimized the impact of the change. While the results of the technology aspect stated that 100% had been able to help form a technology change team. Finally, the results of the process aspect stated that 100% had been able to explain and achieve the company's KPIs. The conclusion is that all of these aspects have digital business transformations, and the proposed framework can be used as a guide to influence in a structured and measurable way. © 2022 IEEE.
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Objective: Shiwei Qingwen decoction (SWQWD) is effective in preventing COVID-19. This study examined the active components of SWQWD and its potential targets for preventing COVID-19. The study used network pharmacology and molecular docking technology to verify the role of SWQWD targets through animal experiments and explored the mechanisms that enhance immunity to alleviate mild COVID-19 symptoms. Methods: First, SWQWD- and COVID-19-related targets were retrieved from TCMSP, GeneCards, and OMIM databases. Second, protein-protein interaction networks were established using the String database. The drug active ingredient target network was constructed in Cytoscape to identify the core target proteins. Third, Gene Ontology (GO) Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed to predict the SWQWD mechanism of action. Finally, the targets were validated by molecular docking in an acute lung injury (ALI) rat model. Results: The SWQWD compound target network contained 79 compounds and 277 targets, coinciding with the 73 targets of COVID-19. The most important gene in the core subnetwork was a tumor necrosis factor (TNF). The 3 most potent compounds, quercetin, kaempferol, and luteolin, can enter the active pockets of TNF and have potential therapeutic roles in COVID-19. Conclusion: Quercetin, kaempferol, and luteolin in SWQWD may enhance immunity by regulating multiple TNF signal pathways. After administering SWQWD, the content of tumor necrosis factor-alpha was significantly reduced in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of ALI rats in comparison to the model group. We believe SWQWD is able to prevent and control COVID-19 through the target of TNF.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly and negatively impacted the global stock markets. Hence, we investigated the time-varying impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stock returns during the period from January 27, 2020 to December 23, 2021 using the TVP-VAR-SV model and used G7 countries as our research sample. Our results imply that (i) the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant negative impact on stock returns, but the impact decreases as the time window increases;(ii) the timeliness, compulsoriness, and effectiveness of anti-epidemic policies implemented by governments are the important adjustment factors for stock returns;(iii) the impact of the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock market trend gradually weakens as the intermediate time interval increases. In addition, over time, the duration of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock returns became shorter, and the recovery rate of the impact became faster;(iv) under the managed floating exchange rate regime, the stock returns changed synchronously with the pressures of exchange rate appreciation and depreciation, and under the free-floating exchange rate regime, the effect of the exchange rate on stock returns was almost zero, while the impact of exchange rate channels in eurozone countries was related to the characteristics of national economies. Thus, governments should make greater efforts to improve the compulsion and effectiveness of epidemic prevention policies and strengthen their control over exchange rate fluctuations to alleviate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock markets.
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COVID-19 gave rise to discussions around designing for life during the pandemic, in particular related to health, leisure and education. In 2020, an online survey aimed at university students (N=225) pointed the authors to various challenges related to well-being in terms of studying, socializing, community, and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results shaped the crowdsensing-enabled service design of a mobile application, Tecnico GO!, aimed at supporting students' well-being. Considering the constant changing context caused by the pandemic, we present a study conducted during the academic year 2021-2022 and if/how the App's features continue to respond to student's needs. The evaluation of the App focused on 12 semi-structured interviews and think-aloud protocols. Findings cluster around three themes: a) Supporting the study experience;b) Building a sense of community;c) Improving gamification for better participation. Discussion elaborates on the student's perceptions around well-being during pandemics. Students' insights of the App are overall positive and highlight that crowdsensing-enabled design does contribute to learning, community and safety, but the gamification as currently deployed does not. © 2022 ACM.
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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 has caused a profound impact on economic development. The catering, logistics and tourism industries have suffered a huge blow. This paper selects the catering industry as the research object, selects the 2019 and 2020 annual reports of five representative listed catering companies, classifies and summarizes the stated criteria for determination of the occurrence of self-interest attribution, calculates the degree of self-interest attribution, and compares and analyzes whether the self-interest attribution behavior of the five case companies before and after the COVID-19 pandemic stands out or amplifies the self-interest attribution behavior of the companies. The case studies showed that the degree of self-interest attribution was higher in the poor-performing companies, and that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the self-interest behavior of restaurant companies was prominent, and that the poor external environment was more likely to lead to a higher degree of self-interest attribution behavior. © 2022 IEEE.
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Background: Disasters are broadly defined as “encounters between forces of harm (hazards), and a vulnerable human population in harm's way, that create demands exceeding the coping capacity of the affected community,” (Shultz, 2014). Disasters predictably produce behavioral and psychosocial consequences;in fact, more survivors are affected psychologically than are harmed physically. Type of disaster event, severity and duration of exposure, geographic scope, and extremity of resource losses contribute to distress and diagnosable psychopathology. For persons currently undergoing treatment for disease, injury, or life-changing medical condition, exposure to a disaster may complicate their care, exacerbate their condition, threaten their survival, and trigger psychological reactions. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased baseline population prevalence rates of common mental disorders worldwide, thereby compounding risks for psychopathology among persons whose communities are affected by disaster. The current era, marked by layered stressors, creates a compelling impetus to train upcoming psychiatrists on skills to support disaster survivors, including those with special needs. We are designing and implementing a curriculum to teach the principles of disaster behavioral health to our psychiatry residents based aligned with national guidelines (Flynn and Morganstein, 2020). Method: An electronic survey was distributed to psychiatry residents to assess their current knowledge and skill levels for performing key actions when dealing with disaster survivors, post-impact. Residents were asked to rate their current knowledge regarding disaster behavioral health principles, their confidence for providing psychological support to disaster survivors, and their interest in evidence-based disaster behavioral health training, grounded on national recommendations. Interested residents will participate in an expert-led lecture series that will include pre- and post-training assessment of disaster behavioral health knowledge and skills. Results: The initial interest survey garnered a 40% resident response rate. Apart from rating their ability to “gather information in a disaster situation” at 4-of-5, most residents rated their current knowledge levels and confidence in their skills to provide support to disaster survivors at 2-of-5 or below. Regarding interest in a disaster behavioral health lecture series, 86% indicated they would be interested. Pre- and post-training assessment are pending the delivery and completion of the lecture series. Discussion: Initial resident survey results demonstrate limited knowledge of disaster behavioral health principles, low levels of confidence in skills to support the psychological needs of survivors, and strong interest in receiving training. Conclusion: We will proceed to develop a robust disaster behavioral health training curriculum for our residents, starting with a lecture series featuring experts in the field and rapidly expanding to skills training and real-world disaster deployment/response opportunities. References: 1. Flynn BW, Morganstein JC. Curriculum Recommendations for Disaster Health Professionals: Disaster Behavioral Health, Second Edition, 2020. 2. https://www.usuhs.edu/sites/default/files/media/ncdmph/pdf/ncdmph_csts_revised.pdf 3. Shultz JM. Perspectives on disaster public health and disaster behavioral health integration. Disaster Health. 2014;2(2):69-74.
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Background: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) are associated with broad immunosuppression, conferring a greater risk for infection-related morbidity and mortality. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, patients with these conditions have been shown to be more susceptible to severe cases of infection. Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 generally protects against severe disease, but there is scarce data on immune response in those with lymphoid malignancies. Our study aims to analyze antibody (Ab) response to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with CLL, Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) and other NHLs. Methods: 398 patients with lymphoid malignancies seen between January and October 2021 were screened for eligibility. Ab titers using the Access SAR-COV-2 assay developed by Beckman Coulter Inc were obtained after the completion of a vaccination series with Pfizer (n=146), Moderna (n=90), Johnson & Johnson (n=1) or multiple brands (n=3). A response was defined as a positive total Ab or spike protein Ab. Groups were compared using chi-square tests, and a p-value of <0.05 was statistically significant. Results: 240 patients with postvaccination SARS-CoV-2 Ab results were included. Ab response was 50% in CLL, 67% in WM, and 71% in the remaining NHLs. In the CLL cohort (n=181), current or prior cancer therapy at any time led to a lower rate of positive Ab's compared to treatment-naïve patients (36% vs. 68%;p=0.000019), and response was particularly low in patients who had received anti-CD20 immunotherapy at any time (28% vs. 61%;p=0.000032). There was a trend towards lower Ab response in patients who received anti-CD20 agents within a year from vaccination compared to those who had these therapies more than one year prior (20% vs. 37%;p=0.14). For CLL patients, there was a significant difference in Ab response when receiving the Moderna series (61%) compared to Pfizer (44%) (p=0.028). More information is summarized in Table 1. Conclusions: This study provides data from a large cohort of patients with CLL and other NHLs on Ab response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Active or prior therapy for CLL was associated with lower rates of Ab response to vaccination, especially when treated with anti-CD20 therapy, which is consistent with prior publications. However, we also found a significant increase in Ab response rates after Moderna SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in treated CLL patients compared to other vaccination series.
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Changzhou, a typical industrial city located in the center of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, has experienced serious air pollution in winter. However, Changzhou still receives less attention compared with other big cities in YRD. In this study, a four-month PM2.5 sampling campaign was conducted in Changzhou, China from 1 November 2019, to 1 February 2020. The period covers the entire wintertime and includes first week of the Level 1 response stage of the lockdown period due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The mean PM2.5 concentrations were 67.9 +/- 29.0 mu gm(-3), ranging from 17.4 to 157.4 mu gm(-3). Secondary inorganic ions were the most abundant species, accounting for 37 and 50% during the low and high PM2.5 pollution periods, respectively. Nitrogen oxidation ratio (NOR) during the high PM concentration level period was twice the low PM concentration period whereas sulfur oxidation ratio (SOR) showed a less significant increase. This represents that nitrate formation is potentially the predominant factor controlling the occurrence of PM pollution. The analysis of NOR, SOR as functions of relative humidity (RH) and ozone (O-3) concentrations suggest that the sulfate formation was mainly through aqueous-phase reaction, while nitrate formation was driven by both photochemistry and heterogeneous reaction. And, excess ammonium could promote the formation of nitrate during the high PM period, indicating that ammonia gas played a critical role in regulating nitrate. Furthermore, a special period-Chinese New Year overlapping first week of COVID-19 lockdown period, offered a precious window to study the impact of human activity pattern changes on air pollution variation. During the special period, the average PM2.5 mean concentration was 60.4 mu gm(-3), which did not show in a low value as expected. The declines in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions led to rapid increases in O-3 and atmospheric oxidizing capacity, as well as sulfate formation. The chemical profiles and compositions obtained during different periods provide a scientific basis for establishing efficient atmospheric governance policies in the future.
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Purpose of Study Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common abdominal surgical emergency in pediatrics. There was a precipitous drop in pediatric visits to hospitals, including the emergency department, since the US declared COVID-19 a national emergency. Managing AA during the pandemic remains a challenge as fear of COVID exposure can lead to delays in presentation and surgery, as well as a shift to conservative management. Alvarado score (AS) is a ten-point clinical scoring system to identify AA and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) grading system (I-V) are validated tools for AA diagnosis and severity. There are no studies on prevalence and severity of AA during the COVID- 19 pandemic in an urban multiethnic community. Objective To compare prevalence and severity of AA before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Used This was a retrospective chart review of patients admitted to Flushing Hospital Medical Center and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center with the diagnosis of AA from March 2018 to March 2021. Charts were reviewed for demographics, clinical, imaging and surgical data to determine AS and AAST. AS grouped from 1-6 (less likely to require surgery) and 7-10 (more likely to require surgery). AAST scoring was based on most severe criteria if grading discrepancies were found between pathology, surgical and computed tomography findings. Leukocytosis was defined as white blood cell count >10. G1 identified AA cases March 2018 - February 2020 and G2 March 2020 - March 2021. Data was analyzed using SPSS software, p<0.05 considered significant. Summary of Results Of 239 patients with AA over 3 years, G1 totaled 184 (77%) in 2 years pre-pandemic and G2 had 55 (23%) during first year pandemic. Mean age, gender and ethnicity were similar for G1 and G2. AS and AAST were compared for G1 and G2, table 1. G2 had significantly greater overall AS of >7 (p=0.038) and higher AAST (p=0.016). Only three patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and 9 (16%) of G2 were transferred to a tertiary care center. Conclusions Although there was a decline in number of AA evaluated in our emergency department, the severity of AA was heightened during the pandemic. Healthcare providers need to have a high index of suspicion of increased severity with complications of AA. (Table Presented).
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Media plays an important role in the information society and therefore, it should be fair, just, and objective. Media has been influencing the public's cognition of COVID-19 and their views of the actions taken by the government of different countries in 2020. After analyzing more than 260 thousand reports collected from search engines and published by both the Chinese and Western media about 10 countries, we found that Western media has prejudice when reporting the epidemic in China, and there exist obvious abnormal features when they reporting the epidemic in the United States. In addition, compared to Western media, Chinese media are more consistent and objective with the actual development of the epidemic in different countries. © 2022, Science Press. All right reserved.
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OBJECTIVE: Isatidis Radix is the dried root of Isatis indigotica Fortune of Cruciferae. As a representative traditional Chinese medicine for heat-clearing and detoxification, Isatidis Radix and its preparations are widely used in the prevention and treatment of all kinds of colds and have played an active role in the prevention and treatment of SARS, H1N1 and COVID-19. Although the chemical ingredient of Isatidis Radix has been studied deeply, there is no information bank, website or literature that can comprehensively query the information of all compounds at home and abroad, which is not conducive to the development of related research. So establishment of the chemical composition information bank is in need. METHODS: According to the category of chemical ingredients, the Chinese and English names, molecular formulas, exact molecular weights, structural formulas and references of nearly 400 chemical components in Isatidis Radix were comprehensively sorted out, and the chemical composition information bank of Isatidis Radix was constructed. RESULTS: By September 2020, a total of 392 compounds in 17 categories had been extracted, isolated and identified from Isatidis Radix. CONCLUSIONT: The established chemical composition information bank can provide the basis for the separation and identification of chemical components, quality control, material basis mining, network pharmacology research and so on. Copyright 2022 by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.
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What enabled the widespread transmission of Covid-19 in most affected countries that brought about the current pandemic is the loose border control and travel restrictions. Several countries have at least mitigated the onset of transmission with the utilization of application that tracks the arrival and mobility of travellers. As the first line in defence for a local community outbreak, this study proposes a travel and mobility management system that aims to ease the application and coordination of travellers with local government units (LGUs). The proposed work implements a mobile application for travellers and a web-based dashboard for local government units and other important entities. The study is envisioned as a complementary tool in local disease outbreak control and mitigation utilizing the traveller's mobility history (entry and exit points) that can become the basis to easily identify and trace possible close contacts of positive cases. © 2022 Seventh Sense Research Group®.