PREVALENCE OF 16 RESPIRATORY VIRUSES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN SOUTHWEST REGION OF KOREA

SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged in January 2020 in Korea, and the COVID-19 pandemic changed quarantine policy, personal hygiene awareness, social contact policy, and so on. Therefore, prevalence of diseases has also changed. We investigated the prevalence of 16 respiratory viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic period. We analyzed 20,513 sputum specimens of patients with acute respiratory symptoms from over 350 hospitals in southwest region of Korea for 2 years (July 2020-June 2022) to determine positive rates of detection using the Allplex Respiratory Panel 1/2/3 (Seegene, Republic of Korea) which is a multiplex real-time PCR assay by month. The positive rate of most respiratory viruses was less than 5% at the early period (July 2020-June 2021) of COVID-19 pandemic, except for adenovirus, human rhinovirus and human bocavirus (hBoV). The positive rate of most respiratory viruses tends to decrease during the period of rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 infections except for coronavirus OC43 and hBoV. The positive rates of respiratory syncytial virus A, respiratory syncytial virus B, and parainfluenza virus 3 increased during the cold season just before the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 infections. Influenza virus positivity was very low (<2%) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The low positive rate of most respiratory viruses in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic may be related to strict quarantine policy at that time. The patterns of outbreaks of other respiratory viruses vary from virus to virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 infections during the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the prevalence of other respiratory viruses. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Infectious Diseases is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Validation of the healthcare workers' version of the Pandemic Grief Scale among frontline nursing professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea.

Introduction: Nurses have been repeatedly exposed to unexpected death and grief during COVID-19 pandemic, and it is necessary to provide grief support for the nurses who have experienced the loss of patients to COVID-19. We aimed to explore the reliability and validity of the Pandemic Grief Scale (PGS) for Healthcare Workers among frontline nursing professionals working in COVID-19 inpatient wards whose patients may have died. Methods: An anonymous online survey was performed among frontline nursing professionals working in COVID-19 wards in three tertiary-level general hospitals in Korea between April 7 and 26, 2021. In total, 229 from participants who confirmed they had witnessed death of patients were employed for the statistical analysis. The survey included demographic characteristics and rating scales, including the Korean version of the PGS for Healthcare Workers, the Fear of COVID-19 scale, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 items, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items. Results: The single-factor structure of the Korean version of the PGS for Healthcare Workers showed good fits for the model. The scale had good internal consistency and convergent validity with other anxiety and depression scales. Conclusion: The Korean version of the PGS of Healthcare Workers was valid and reliable for measuring grief reactions among nursing professionals facing the pandemic. It will be helpful in evaluating the grief reaction of the healthcare workers and providing them with a psychological support system.

Grief Response of Nursing Professionals Is Associated With Their Depression, Loneliness, Insomnia, and Work-Related Stress While Working in COVID-19 Inpatients Wards.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore whether nursing professionals' psychological states affect their grief response for a patient's death in the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) inpatients' ward. METHODS: Survey was conducted among frontline nursing professionals working in COVID-19 inpatients wards at three tertiary-level affiliated hospitals of the University of Ulsan during April 7-26, 2022. Participants' information such as age, years of employment, or marital status were collected, and their responses to rating scales including Pandemic Grief Scale (PGS) for healthcare workers, Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-9 items (SAVE-9), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Loneliness and Social Isolation Scale, and Insomnia Severity Scale (ISI) were collected. RESULTS: All 251 responses were analyzed. We observed that 34% reportedly suffered from depression. The linear regression analysis showed that a high PGS score was expected by high SAVE-9 (ß=0.12, p=0.040), high PHQ-9 (ß=0.25, p<0.001), high loneliness (ß=0.17, p=0.006), and high ISI score (ß=0.16, p=0.006, F=20.05, p<0.001). The mediation analysis showed that the depression of nursing professionals directly influenced their pandemic grief reaction, and their work-related stress and viral anxiety, insomnia severity, and loneliness partially mediated the association. CONCLUSION: We confirm that frontline nursing professionals' depression directly influenced their grief reaction, and their work-related stress and viral anxiety, insomnia severity, and loneliness partially mediated the association. We hope to establish a psychological and social support system for the mental health of nurses working in the COVID-19 wards.

Mental wellbeing;Human reliability assessment of seafarers during the COVID-19 era

The COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm and disrupted global trade and maritime activities. Seafarers suffered immensely as most of their activities were affected due to the lockdown and travel restrictions placed by most governments to protect their borders. This had an impact on mostly their mental health as most of their routine became disrupted, travel plans were cancelled, and some fear of losing their jobs due to uncertainty. This research focuses on the impact the lockdown had on the mental health of seafarers and how it affects their human error probability value during COVID-19 by utilizing the HEART methodology. The conventional HEART technique is not precisely developed to be applied in the marine and offshore sector, so it was imperative to modify it to capture the key factors this research would be measuring which include fatigue, poor communication, depression, sleep deprivation, and how they influence the Human Error Probability (HEP) value of seafarers. To properly factor in these influencing factors, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to expert seafarers to weigh each factor in other to develop the Error Influencing Factor (EIF) table to further boost the accuracy of this research. For this research, the scenario used is a pre-mooring task carried out by seafarers. The result shows that the HEP value changes by over 55% from 6.1676E–2 before covid-19, to 6.1960E–1 during covid-19. Event Tree analysis was also carried out using the individual HEP values to calculate the probability of failure of the mooring ropes. The result shows that the probability of failure during COVID-19 is higher when compared. The application of this modified HEART technique confirms that COVID-19 lockdown had a negative impact on these factors that influence the mental well-being of seafarers. © 2023 Crown Copyright. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Health-management experiences among older women living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic: A photovoice study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the health-management experiences of older women living alone during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through the photovoice method. The research question was as follows: "What were the physical, psychological, and social health management experiences of older women living alone during COVID-19?” Methods: Data collection was conducted by a photovoice method. We visited the homes of 8 participants aged from 80 to 89 years old in the city of Daejeon between June 23 and July 14, 2022 using purposive sampling. Results: As a result of the photovoice study, 125 photos, 15 sub-themes, and four themes were derived. The first theme was "loneliness deepened by COVID-19”, which consisted of the following sub-themes: "lack of communication due to COVID-19”, "staying in nature”, and "aggravated loneliness during COVID-19”. The second theme was "difficulty getting out of the residence”, which included the following sub-themes: "relief stress from COVID-19”, frustrated by the difficulty of going out”, "decreased orientation and going out less frequently”, and "avoiding going out for fear of falling”. The third theme was "health-care lost”, which involved the following sub-themes: "silence as giving up on life”, "asthenia due to lack of appetite”, "painful body”, "many medications and poor health”, and "treatment that doesn't help”. The last theme was "something to depend on during COVID-19”, which consisted of the following sub-themes: "gratitude to care givers”, "longing for a bereaved family”, and "precarious place of residence”. Conclusion: Older women living alone experienced aggravated vulnerability and difficulty with health management due to a lack of social support during the COVID-19 period. This study suggests the need for a social safety network and vividly reveals the necessity of caregivers' support and policy assistance for socially vulnerable populations. © 2023 Korean Gerontological Nursing Society.

The Effect of COVID-19 on Foreign Direct Investment

This study empirically examines how the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has impacted foreign direct investment (FDI), using the quarterly data on bilateral FDI flows from 173 home to 192 host economies from the first quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2021. The severity of COVID-19 in host economies adversely affected FDI in the manufacturing sector regardless of the entry mode, but the effect of home economies' COVID-19 situation on FDI was insignificant. On the other hand, in the services sector, the severity of COVID-19 in both host and home economies has significantly negative impact on greenfield FDI, not on cross-border M&A.

OLDER CANCER SURVIVORS' POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Older adults and immune-compromised individuals (e.g., cancer survivors) were quickly identified as high-risk groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research has examined adverse psychological consequences due to the pandemic in older adults with chronic conditions. However, no research has examined the potential for positive consequences of COVID-19 in older adults with cancer. The current study examined the association between COVID-19 risk, stress, exposure, and perceived post-traumatic growth (PPTG) in adults with cancer. Cancer survivors (n = 231) enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study completed a one-time COVID-19 experience assessment, including PPTG as a result of the COVID pandemic. Participants (mean age = 68 years) had completed primary treatment for breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer within the past two years. On average, survivors reported modest PPTG related to COVID-19 (mean = 6.03, range = 0–20). Using linear regression, we found that gender, cancer type, and marital status were related to PPTG. Higher COVID-19 risk, more COVID-19 stressors, and higher illness exposure (e.g., having had COVID-19) were significantly positively associated with PPTG scores (ps < .05). In spite of the potential adverse psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, these results suggest adults with cancer, in our sample, report modest PPTG. Higher COVID-19-related perceived risk, stress, and exposure predicted higher PPTG scores. These findings are interesting in light of studies that suggest PPTG occurs only after time passes from the stressor. Future research could examine how coping with cancer may influence coping with a co-existing or subsequent stressor and its relationship to PPTG.

Using an Ecological Approach to Explore Teacher Agency during the Implementation of a Citizen Science Education Program Using Arduino

Citizen science education is a new approach in science education for promoting scientific inquiry related to localized problems and for engaging in social action based on inquiry results. Using agency as a lens for understanding teachers' practices when using this approach is important. In this ethnographic case study, a teacher implementing a citizen science education program using Arduino was investigated from an ecological approach using temporal and relational dimensions of agency. In the iterational dimension, the teacher's own experiences and traits from life and professional histories were identified. His identity as a teacher and his religious values formed the projective dimension. Encouraging administrators, the financial difficulties of the school, and the COVID-19 pandemic were major elements of the practical-evaluative dimension. Findings reveal the complex array of the teacher's agency in the context of implementing citizen science education with Arduino with students, which contributes new understandings about science teacher agency. © 2022 by Na et al.

Remote SpO2 Estimation using End-to-End CNN Model

Blood oxygen speed (SpO2) is an indicator of the normal presence or absence of the respiratory function. This is attracting the attention of researchers since it could monitor the patient conditions of the chronic pulmonary diseases and covid-19. Covid-19 patients have the symptom of the significant SpO2 drop. This study tries to develop an early and easy checkup system of the continuous SpO2 using an RGB camera. Unlike the contact SpO2 measurement using the conventional optical sensor on a fingertip, the remote SpO2 sensor system is proposed using the facial video stream. The facial images are trained for the convolutional neural networks to implement the non-contact SpO2 estimation model, which is designed based on the architecture of the conventional remote photoplethysmography model. © 2022 IEEE.

INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS DIFFER AMONG HOSPITALIZED VETERANS INFECTED WITH COVID-19 VARIANTS

The SARS-CoV-2 infection pathogenesis reported a complex interplay between virus and host immune response. In this study, we hypothesized that Omicron variant causes less inflammation and cytokine release than Delta and Alpha variants as measured by the first laboratory biomarkers during hospitalization. This is a retrospective cohort study of veterans who tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized at the Veterans Health Administration due to COVID-19 infection. We defined three groups of patients based on highly likely period representing variants: Alpha (12/01/2020-05/31/2021), Delta (09/01/2021-11/30/2021), and Omicron (02/01/2022-07/11/2022). The risk of abnormality levels in biomarkers (C-reactive protein [CRP], ferritin, albumin, alanine aminotransferase [ALT], aspartate transaminase [AST], and lactate), as well as in-hospital mortality, were calculated using logistic regression adjusted by age, sex, body-mass-index, race, Charlson comorbidity index, VA frailty index, and vaccine record status. Of 414,213 Veterans tested for COVID-19, 74,342 Veterans (age: 67.8±14.3 years, BMI: 29.4±7.1 kg/m2) met the criteria: Alpha, 18,159 (34.4%);Delta, 23,414 (44.4%);Omicron, 11,207 (21.2%). Compared with Omicron, we observed significantly higher odds of abnormality levels in CRP (Alpha, adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=1.38;Delta, aOR=1.74), ferritin (Alpha, aOR=2.02;Delta, aOR=2.33), albumin (Alpha, aOR=1.16;Delta, aOR=1.15), ALT (Alpha, aOR=1.13;Delta, aOR=1.12), AST (Alpha, aOR=1.31;Delta, aOR=1.57), and lactate (Alpha, aOR=1.62;Delta, aOR=2.27) as well as mortality (Alpha, aOR=2.19;Delta, aOR=2.95). Veterans infected with Omicron showed less severe biomarkers' responses compared to Alpha and Delta and lower mortality risk. Understanding the biomarkers' responses of each patient across the different variants could be used to enhance acute patients' management.

SCREENING OF US VETERANS AT HIGH RISK FOR OUTCOMES FOLLOWING COVID-19 BY FRAILTY STATUS

Frailty increases risk of adverse outcomes in the presence of stressors such as COVID-19 infection. We examined the association between different levels of frailty and outcomes following COVID-19 infection. This is a retrospective cohort study of US Veterans aged ≥50 years, active Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care users, and tested positive for COVID-19 between 02/15/2020 and 09/30/2021. VHA frailty index (VA-FI) was calculated from one year prior to the COVID-19 testing and divided into three groups: robust (≤0.1), prefrail (0.1-0.2), and frail (>0.2). The risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, ventilator use, and in-hospital mortality were calculated using logistic regression adjusted by age, sex, body-mass-index, and race. The performance of VA-FI in predicting outcomes was compared to age or Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) using area under the curve (AUC). Of 204,426 COVID-19 positive Veterans, 32,965 were hospitalized (age: 71.4±10.4 years, BMI: 29.5±7.1 kg/m2). We observed higher odds of hospitalization (frail, adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=8.64;prefrail, aOR=2.57), ICU admission (frail, aOR=1.58;prefrail, aOR=1.32), ventilator use (frail, aOR=1.97;prefrail, aOR=1.57), and mortality (frail aOR=2.15;prefrail, aOR=1.55) in frail and prefrail compared to robust Veterans. We observed that VA-FI had higher AUC in predicting hospitalization (AUC 0.75) independent of age (0.59) and CCI (0.63). Veterans with COVID-19 who were frail and prefrail had a higher risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, ventilator use, mortality compared to robust. VA-FI may be a useful tool at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis to triage patients at risk for adverse outcomes.

Relationships Between Gratitude and Mental Health Difficulties During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Southern Region of the United States

Introduction: The extensive disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to heightened concerns about mental health sequelae. There has been significant interest in identifying factors associated with psychosocial vulnerability or resilience. Aims: This study examined associations of trait grat-itude with mental health difficulties among community residents in a southern state of the US. Methods: In this cross-sectional online investigation, 543 adults were assessed during an earlier phase of the pandemic, characterized by the reopening of facilities but mounting infection rates. Participants were evaluated using a validated measure of trait gratitude and clinically relevant screening assessments of depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. Results: After adjusting for a range of pandemic-associated burdens and sociodemographic factors, multivariable analyses indicated that gratitude was significantly related to diminished levels of depression, anxiety, and trauma. These effects remained significant after additional adjustment for other psychosocial resources (religiousness and perceived support). Conclusions: Findings provide novel information regarding relationships between gratitude and reduced mental health difficulties among community residents during a stressful period early in the pandemic. Results set the stage for longitudinal research. A disposition to identify and appreciate beneficial experiences might contribute to more favorable adaptation to communal crises, and warrants further investigation.

Proposed Integration for AICC-based Chatbot Improvement

Artificial intelligence is the foundation of the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and has been applied to variou sfields. Among them, there are many fields that use artificial intelligence-based chatbots, such as finance, medical care, etc. C hatbots are also used in call centers, where the turnover rate of call center counselors is traditionally 13 times higher than tha tof other industries. In addition, it is difficult to maintain stable counseling due to realistic difficulties such as time and invest ment costs even when professional counselors are continuously fostered in call centers. Therefore, practical measures are requir ed to stabilize the supply and demand of manpower in the call center industry and support continuous growth. In this study, we present a customized AICC operation service structure that can alleviate the difficulties of call center counselors, receive c ustomer requests, and provide answers in the most similar form to humans instead of counselors. Until now, chatbots functios were based on voice recognition ARS, TTS, and ERMS for a quick response to simple services and connection to counselors. In contrast, the contents presented in this study suggest a service structure that can respond to customers within 1.4 seconds a fter a phone call by combining STT, NLU, and TTS with an AICC-based counseling task automation environment. The establ ished system can secure work efficiency and strengthen expertise, and a plan is presented for a system structure that enables future customer communication in the non-contact era as COVID-19. © 2022, Ismail Saritas. All rights reserved.

HIGH-FLOW NASAL CANULA AND INHALED EPOPROSTENOL RESPONSE IN COVID-19

SESSION TITLE: Medications and Pulmonary Rehabilitation in COVID-19 Posters SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Posters PRESENTED ON: 10/18/2022 01:30 pm - 02:30 pm PURPOSE: The use of inhaled epoprostenol (iEPO) has demonstrated improvement in outcomes for patients with pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure. iEPO has been used as a rescue therapy for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and has been shown to improve oxygenation, reduce shunting, and decrease pulmonary artery pressures. However, pulmonary vasodilators do not improve mortality in patients with ARDS. Furthermore, there is currently little data on the efficacy of iEPO via high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) for ARDS patients. Here, we describe our experience with iEPO in our patients with COVID-19-related ARDS on HFNC in a Northern California county hospital. METHODS: From March 2020 to December 2021, 74 patients with COVID-19 infection and related ARDS were placed on HFNC and received iEPO, at a public tertiary care center. A positive response to iEPO was defined as an increase P/F ratio of 10%, increase in PaO2 of 20%, decrease in FiO2, or reduced flow rate within 24 hours of initiation of iEPO. Non-parametric statistics were used to compare groups. RESULTS: 21 women and 53 men with COVID ARDS ranging from 30-86 years of age (mean age 60.1 ± 13.9) received iEPO while on HFNC. The mean hospital length of stay was 36.3 ± 43 days. All patients received steroids and 83.8% received antibiotics. 55.4% of all patients in the study (n=41) progressed to mechanical ventilation and 58.1% (n=43) survived to discharge, mean age 57 ± 14 years. 20.3% (n=15) of patients showed a response to iEPO. Patients who responded to iEPO were significantly less likely to progress to mechanical ventilation (13% vs 66%, p=0.0003) and more likely to survive to discharge (93% vs 49%, p=0.0021). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with COVID ARDS on HFNC, patients who respond to iEPO are less likely to progress to mechanical ventilation and more likely to survive to discharge. Our study is limited by small sample size and lack of randomization. Use of iEPO in the right subset COVID ARDS on HFNC may improve outcomes. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Patients on HFNC selected for initiation of iEPO had a poor overall prognosis, with 41.9% not surviving to discharge and 55.4% requiring mechanical ventilation. iEPO response correlates with not requiring mechanical ventilation and with increased likelihood of survival to discharge. DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Heng Duong No relevant relationships by Craig Ivie No relevant relationships by Neharika Khurana No relevant relationships by Connie Park No relevant relationships by Natasha Puri No relevant relationships by Adam Thompson No relevant relationships by John Wehner

Effect of Cancer-Related Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep on Fear of Cancer Progression in the Coronavirus Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore clinical correlates of fear of progression (FoP) among patients with cancer during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and examine the mediation effect of cancer-related dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (C-DBS). METHODS: Medical charts of patients with cancer who visited a psycho-oncology clinic between July and November 2021 were reviewed. Baseline socio-demographic and cancer-related variables were collected. Patients' self-report questionnaires, regarding FoP, depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items; PHQ-9), viral anxiety (Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 items; SAVE-6), C-DBS, and other distress, were investigated. Pearson's correlation and linear regression were performed to examine the risk factors of FoP. Mediation effect analysis with the bootstrap method with 2,000 resamples was implemented. RESULTS: A total of 231 patients were included in the analysis. Linear regression revealed that FoP was predicted by age (ß = -0.14, P = 0.003), PHQ-9 (ß = 0.48, P < 0.001), SAVE-6 (ß = 0.34, P < 0.001), and C-DBS (ß = 0.15, P = 0.005). FoP was directly influenced by SAVE-6 and mediated by C-DBS, while it was directly influenced by PHQ-9 with no mediation effect. CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FoP of patients with cancer was associated with younger age, depression, viral anxiety, and C-DBS. Depression and viral anxiety directly influenced FoP, while C-DBS mediated the association between viral anxiety and FoP. Therefore, oncology healthcare professionals are recommended to assess C-DBS of their patients when they are highly distressed from FoP.

Comprehensive assessment of vertical variations in urban atmospheric CO2 concentrations by using tall tower measurement and an atmospheric transport model

In this study, we performed a comprehensive assessment of the vertical CO2 concentration in the urban atmosphere using measurements at two different heights (113 m and 420 m) in Seoul, South Korea. The difference in CO2 concentration between the two altitudes (△CO2 = CO2 at 113 m minus CO2 at 420 m) showed a significant diurnal variation, with the highest at 07:00 (19.9 ppm) and the lowest at 16:00 (3.9 ppm). When the planetary boundary layer (PBL) rose above the two sites (daytime), the CO2 concentrations at the two altitudes were highly correlated (r = 0.87) with low △CO2. In contrast, when the PBL was located between the two sites (night time), the correlation coefficient of the CO2 concentration between the two altitudes decreased by 0.55 with a high △CO2. To explain the cause of this variation in △CO2 according to PBL, we performed Weather Research and Forecasting-stochastic time-inverted Lagrangian transport (WRF-STILT) simulations. Simulations showed that CO2 measurements at two different heights were influenced by the same nearby urban areas during the daytime. However, the site above the PBL only measured the CO2 of air transported from the outside downtown area during the night time. Consequently, the observed night time △CO2 is explained by the difference in air mass between the two measurements owing to PBL variations. The night time △CO2 further implicates the local attribution of observed CO2 below the PBL by removing the effect from the remote area. Because of this unique night time characteristic of △CO2, we evaluated the changes in CO2 concentration in Seoul during the COVID-19 period. Compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, △CO2 clearly decreased from 26.5 ppm to 6.2 ppm with the implementation of social distancing, thus confirming the decreasing local influence of CO2 concentrations. Our findings highlight the potential of atmospheric CO2 monitoring at high altitudes as an observation-based method to assess the effectiveness of local carbon management. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.