Clinical Guidelines for Dentistry in China During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Preventing the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the focus of epidemiologists as the highly infectious respiratory disease spreads primarily by close, person-to-person contact via droplets or the skin. Aerosol dissemination may occur in a closed, high-aerosol environment. The aerosols generated in dental procedures can pollute surrounding air and device surfaces. In this paper, we summarize prevention and control measures relating to dentistry. We focus on the relationship between COVID-19 and dental disease prevention and control in dental treatment procedures and imaging examinations, oral health education and perspectives, and guidance for the practice of dentistry during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a consistent and broadly endorsed standard for dental hospital and clinics. Copyright © 2021 Luo, Wang, Tang, Peng, Ma and Wu.

Impact of Digital Industrialization on the Energy Industry Supply Chain: Evidence from the Natural Gas Industry in China

The global economy is moving into a new era characterized by digital and green development. To examine the impact of digital industrialization development on the energy supply chain, in relation to the sustainable development of China's energy security, we discuss the nonlinear impact and transmission mechanism of digital industrialization on the supply chain of the energy industry using a panel threshold regression model based on sample data on the development of the provincial natural gas industry in China from 2006 to 2020. We found that there are multiple threshold effects of digital industrialization level development on energy supply chain length, and the results are statistically significant, i.e., digital industrialization development positively contributes to natural gas supply chain length after digital industrialization is raised to or crosses the critical threshold. Meanwhile, the heterogeneity analysis results show that there are differences in the impact of digital industrialization on the energy supply chain from sub-sectors, regional development differences, and different development periods. Therefore, we provide some factual support and experience for achieving the construction goal of "Digital China" and accelerating the digital reform of the energy supply chain as well as transforming and upgrading the economic structure.

Longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on SMEs: follow-up research in Sichuan Province, China

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are continuing to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as it moves into its third year. The 'dynamic COVID-zero' policy adopted in China from August 2021 to the end of 2022 has inevitably put pressure on local SMEs, which makes the situation in Chinese SMEs not only different from the situation during the initial outbreak, but also unique in the world. In July 2022, an online follow-up questionnaire was conducted on SMEs in Sichuan Province to assess their performances, pressures, and requirements in this particular period of time and compare the results with our findings from 2020 to reveal the longer-term impacts of COVID-19. It was found that: (1) most SMEs had poorer revenue and profit performances;(2) while the pressure of increasing production cost and declining market demand has increased significantly, normal productions and operations are no longer as strongly disturbed;(3) SMEs require more financial support but less operating and employment subsidies;(4) and the SMEs' overall confidence has recovered and the willingness to invest is rising. The situation in different sectors was also analysed and compared, with the results revealing problems within the tertiary industrial sector (wholesale and retail businesses).

Effective Analysis and Investigation in COVID-19 Prevention Policies Based on Population Dynamics Modeling and Simulation

The paper proposes a population dynamics model to simulate the COVID-19 pandemic and analyze the effectiveness of prevention policies in the early stage. The model is designed to aid the decision-making process of policy-making in the early stage. The model is formulated based on the SEIR model to simulate the spread of COVID19 from human to human. By implementing the data in the U.S., the model is first fitted to the data first. Then, the model simulates the number of infected people with the change of time under different levels of social distancing and mask-wearing. © 2022 IEEE.

Long-Term Cardiac and Functional Outcomes of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children

INTRODUCTION: Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) is a hyperinflammatory state involving two or more organs associated with a previous diagnosis of SARSCoV- 2. Cardiac dysfunction is described in 80-85% of cases. Currently, there is a knowledge gap regarding long-term cardiac and functional outcomes in children diagnosed with MIS-C. METHOD(S): We conducted a retrospective chart review of children < 21 years admitted to our hospital for MIS-C between January 2020 and January 2022. We collected demographic, clinical, laboratory, imaging data [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), coronary artery dilation (CAD)], and functional status score (FSS) during hospital stay and long-term (up to 6 months) follow up. Using a student t-test and chi-square test, we compared the outcomes of children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) vs outside the PICU. RESULT(S): Out of the 40 children admitted to the hospital with MIS-C during the study period, 16 (40%) were admitted to the PICU while 24 (60%) were admitted outside the PICU. Of the PICU patients, 13.33% showed CAD and 31.25% had a LVEF <=55% on at least one echocardiogram during their hospital stay. Of the echocardiograms completed on the non-PICU patients (n=22), 18.18% showed CAD and 9.09% had a LVEF <=55% on at least one echo during admission. Between PICU and non-PICU patients, there was a significant (p <= 0.05) difference in mean length of stay (13.56 vs. 6.16 days respectively), lowest LVEF (56.14% vs 62.58%), and change in Functional Status Score (DELTAFSS) (0.5 vs 0.0). Of the 16 PICU patients, 11 had follow-up echocardiogram and none had persistent CAD and/or LVEF <=55%. Of the 20/24 (83.33%) non-PICU patients with echocardiograms at follow-up, 10% displayed persistent coronary artery dilation while none had LVEF <=55%. At follow-up, a significant proportion of non-PICU patients had persistent CAD as compared to PICU patients (p<=0.0001), but there was no difference in LVEF and DELTAFSS amongst the two cohorts. CONCLUSION(S): A significant proportion of children admitted outside the PICU had persistent coronary abnormalities at up to 6 month follow up compared to patients admitted in the PICU. However, none of the patients had persistent low LVEF (<=55%) or functional disability at up to 6 month follow up (DELTAFSS).

Combination Immune Therapies for Acute Management of Mis-C and Longterm Outcomes

INTRODUCTION: Since the recognition of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), different immune therapies have been utilized as monotherapy (MT) or combination therapy (CT). Currently there is a lack of sufficient literature examining the long-term cardiac and functional outcomes in children following MT versus CT for MIS-C. METHOD(S): We conducted a retrospective chart review of children < 21 years old admitted to our tertiary care children's hospital for MIS-C from January 2020 to January 2022. We collected clinical data, especially cardiac imaging data [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), coronary artery dilation (CAD)], and functional status scores (FSS) during hospital stay and long-term (up to 6 months) follow up. We then compared the long-term outcomes of children who received three different treatment regimens during hospitalization: Steroid only (S), Steroid and IVIg (S + IVIg), and Steroid, IVIg, and Anakinra (S + IVIg + Ana), using a student t-test and Fisher's exact test. RESULT(S): Of the 40 children admitted with MIS-C during the study period, one who did not receive any immune therapy was excluded and of the remaining 39, the number of patients in each treatment group (S, S+IVIg, S+IVIg+Ana) was 13 (33%), 14 (36%) and 12 (31%) respectively. During hospitalization, among the S, S+IVIg, and S+IVIg+Ana groups, the mean (SD) LVEF were 63.9 (4.9)%, 60.0 (7.2)%, 55.9 (9.1)% respectively and CAD was documented in 1/11 (9.1%), 3/14 (21.4%) and 2/11 (18.2%) patients, respectively and at up to 6-month follow-up, the mean (SD) LVEF were 63.9 (2.8)%, 63.5 (4.0)%, and 66.3 (3.1)%, respectively, and CAD was documented in 0/11 (0%), 0/10 (0%), 2/10 (20%) patients, respectively. There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients with persistent low (<= 55%) LVEF or CAD across the groups at long-term follow-up (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in DELTAFSS across the 3 groups at discharge [mean (SD): S 0 (0), S+IVIg 0.3 (1.1), and S+IVIg+Ana 0.3 (0.9)] as well as at follow-up [mean (SD): S 0 (0), S+IVIg 0 (0), and S+IVIg+Ana 0.3 (0.7)]. CONCLUSION(S): In our cohort of MIS-C patients, cardiac and functional outcomes were favorable at follow-up irrespective of combination of immune therapies offered during hospitalization.

[Kinetics of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies among inactivated COVID-19 vaccine recipients, SARS-CoV-2 natural infection cases, and breakthrough cases].

Between August and September, 2021, this study included 605 SARS-CoV-2 natural infection cases and 589 SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough cases from Nanjing and Yangzhou, as well as 690 inactivated COVID-19 vaccine recipients from Changzhou, China. In SARS-CoV-2 natural infection cases, the age range was 19-91 years (median age: 66 year), and the medians(Q1,Q3) of IgG titers were 0.19 (0.06-1.31), 3.70 (0.76-69.48), 15.31 (2.59-82.16), 4.41 (0.99-31.74), 2.31 (0.75-13.83), 2.28 (0.68-9.94) and 2.80 (1.00-9.53) at one to seven weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection, respectively. In SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough cases, the age range was 18-76 years (median age: 45 year), and the medians(Q1,Q3)of IgG titers were 1.93 (0.34-26.67), 38.87 (7.90-121.0), 75.09 (11.85-123.70), 21.97 (5.20-95.58), 13.97 (3.47-46.82), 9.56 (2.48-33.38) and 4.38 (1.87-11.00) at one to seven weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection, respectively. In inactivated COVID-19 vaccine recipients, the age range was 18-87 years (median age: 47 years), and the medians(Q1,Q3)of IgG titers were 16.22 (15.84-33.42), 5.35 (2.96-13.23), 3.30 (2.18-6.18), 3.14 (1.16-5.70), 2.77 (1.50-4.52), 2.72 (1.76-4.36), 2.01 (1.27-3.51) and 1.94 (1.35-3.09) at one to eight months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, respectively. The results suggested that IgG antibodies increased gradually within two weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection, then declined gradually at three to seven weeks in SARS-CoV-2 natural infection cases. In SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough cases, IgG antibodies increased rapidly within two weeks, then declined gradually at three to seven weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, IgG antibodies decreased rapidly within three months, then decreased gradually and remained at a low level within three months after immunization.

DSAFF-Net: A Backbone Network Based on Mask R-CNN for Small Object Detection

Recently, object detection based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) has developed rapidly. The backbone networks for basic feature extraction are an important component of the whole detection task. Therefore, we present a new feature extraction strategy in this paper, which name is DSAFF-Net. In this strategy, we design: 1) a sandwich attention feature fusion module (SAFF module). Its purpose is to enhance the semantic information of shallow features and resolution of deep features, which is beneficial to small object detection after feature fusion. 2) to add a new stage called D-block to alleviate the disadvantages of decreasing spatial resolution when the pooling layer increases the receptive field. The method proposed in the new stage replaces the original method of obtaining the P6 feature map and uses the result as the input of the regional proposal network (RPN). In the experimental phase, we use the new strategy to extract features. The experiment takes the public dataset of Microsoft Common Objects in Context (MS COCO) object detection and the dataset of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) image classification as the experimental object respectively. The results show that the average recognition accuracy of COVID-19 in the classification dataset is improved to 98.163%, and small object detection in object detection tasks is improved by 4.0%. © 2023 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Mechanism of Xuanbai Chengqi Decoction and Sangbei Power in Treating Epidemic-closed Lung Type COVID-19

Objective: To explore the mechanism of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power in the treatment of epidemic-closed lung type COVID-19 by network pharmacology. Method(s): The potential blood active components and gene targets of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power were screened and predicted by TCMSP;The angiotensin converting enzyme 2(ACE2)related gene targets were downloaded;The PPI network of components-targets was plotted by STRING database.The intersection of ACE2-related genes and target genes of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power was extracted;The DAVID database was used to analyze and screen the key targets and mechanisms of Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power. Result(s): A total of 496 active ingredients related to Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power were retrieved from TCMSP database.According to the pharmacokinetic parameters, 78 active components in blood were screened and 761 targets were retrieved.5 556 ACE2-related genes were downloaded.49 key genes were obtained after the intersection of Chinese medicine component targets and ACE2 related gene targets;The genes affected by Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power were mainly involved in cytoketone metabolism, intracellular protein transport, internal peptidase inhibitor activity and others, which were mainly related to the signaling pathway of the Jak-STAT, the intestinal immune network pathway of producing IgA, complement and coagulation cascade pathway, etc. Conclusion(s): Xuanbai chengqi decoction and Sangbei power can act on ACE2 through 49 gene loci, and its mechanism is related to cellular ketone metabolism and inhibition of protein entry into cells. Copyright © 2021, Central Station of Chinese Medicinal Materials Information, National Medical Products Administration. All right reserved.

Meta Analysis of the Efficacy and Safety of Rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone System Iinhibitors in Patients with COVID-19 Associated with Hypertension

Background The spreading epidemic of novel coronavirus (corona virus disease 2019, COVID-19) pneumonia poses a serious challenge to global life health and disease control, with significantly higher mortality rates among individuals infected with COVID-19 comorbid underlying disease. Inhibitors of the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAASi), an important class of anti-hypertensive drugs, have been found to increase the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19. This study aimed to clarify the efficacy and safety of RAASi treatment in COVID-19 patients with hypertension. Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of RAASi therapy in COVID-19 patients with hypertension. Methods PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were searched from inception to January 2022. A publicly available case-control studies of COVID-19 patients with hypertension treated with RAASi versus non RAASi therapy were included, and outcome measures were overall mortality, incidence of critical illness, incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), incidence of myocardial injury, and incidence of renal injury, with meta-analysis performed using Revman 5.3. Results Seventeen studies with a total of 5 689 patients were included, of whom 2 168 received RAASi therapy and 3 521 did not. Meta analysis showed that overall mortality was lower in COVID-19 comorbid hypertensive patients treated with RAASi compared with non RAASi treated patients 〔OR=0.54, 95%CI (0.41, 0.72), P<0.000 1〕;Between RAASi treated and non RAASi treated COVID-19 patients associated with hypertension, the incidence of critical illness 〔OR=0. 92, 95%CI (0.79, 1.08), P=0.30〕, the incidence of ARDS 〔OR=0.81, 95%CI (0.57, 1.13, P=0.22〕, the incidence of myocardial injury 〔OR=1.03, 95%CI (0.83, 1.27), P=0.82〕, and the incidence of kidney injury 〔OR=1.13, 95%CI (0.78, 1.66), P=0.52〕, differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion Treatment with RAASi in COVID-19 patients with hypertension reduced the overall mortality rate, and did not increase the incidence of critical illness, ARDS, myocardial injury, and renal injury in COVID-19 patients with hypertension. RAASi therapy is effective and safe in treating patients with COVID-19 combined with hypertension. © 2022 Chinese General Practice. All rights reserved.

Improving Business Process Resilience to Long-tailed Business Events via Low-code

Among different types of changes, a specific type named long-tailed change (LTC), induced by wide-spectrum and sporadic events (hereafter long-tailed business events (LBEs), poses fresh challenges to available change management solutions in business process management. The disorder in economic and social life caused by the competition of COVID-19 epidemics and countermeasures all over the world fully demonstrates the impact of this new change management problem. Based on the principle of separation of concerns, this paper proposes a systematic framework to solve the above problem. The solution consists of a low-code mechanism for process adaptation and business policy conformance. As a result, front-line practitioners can quickly react to changes by using a domain-specific language (DSL) while a corresponding verification of functional and non-functional attributes maintains compliance with business constraints. We validate the solution through a case study of an e-commerce scenario during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 IEEE.

IMPROVING COMPLIANCE WITH CONTINUOUS ANTERIOR CHEST COMPRESSION IN ARDS CAUSED BY COVID-19: A CASE SERIES

SESSION TITLE: Lessons Learned from Critical Care Cases SESSION TYPE: Rapid Fire Case Reports PRESENTED ON: 10/18/2022 12:25 pm - 01:25 pm INTRODUCTION: Local compression of the anterior chest wall (CACC) or abdomen has been shown to unexpectedly improve respiratory system compliance in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The mechanism is thought to be similar to prone positioning, causing a redistribution of transpulmonary pressures. Limited data exists regarding this topic, particularly as it applies to COVID-19. We describe two cases of improved compliance and oxygenation with CACC in individuals with COVID-19 related ARDS, including one with prior lung transplantation. CASE PRESENTATION: Case 1: The patient was an unvaccinated 79 year-old man diagnosed with COVID-19 on admission. One week later, he progressed to requiring CPAP therapy. He was intubated the following week. Prone ventilation was initially attempted, but this was discontinued due to hemodynamic instability. Despite neuromuscular blockade and lung-protective ventilation, the patient's respiratory mechanics continued to worsen. CACC was then initiated using a 10 lb sandbag on the upper thorax, resulting in improved compliance (8 to 11.4 mL/cmH2O) and driving pressure (30 to 21 cmH2O). While CACC allowed room to adjust PEEP, there was no significant change in oxygenation or paCO2. Case 2: The patient was a fully vaccinated 46 year-old man with a history of bilateral lung transplant for cystic fibrosis, who tested positive for COVID-19 and was treated with sotrovimab as an outpatient. Despite early treatment, the patient had worsening hypoxia necessitating admission, treatment with bilevel PAP therapy, and subsequent intubation. Prone ventilation was initiated, but discontinued after 1 day due to worsening hemodynamics and poor improvement. CACC was then employed using two 5 lb sandbags with an improvement in compliance (16.7 to 21.1 mL/cmH2O). There was also a significant improvement in oxygenation (P/F ratio 115 from 86) and a decrease in paCO2. Following this favorable response, prone positioning was resumed, demonstrating similar improvement in respiratory mechanics. DISCUSSION: These cases demonstrate improved respiratory mechanics with CACC, which may be due to a reduction in end-inspiratory over-distention. In the first case, CACC allowed for an increase in PEEP when prone ventilation was not tolerated. In the second case, it was a tool that directed clinicians to resume prone positioning, with favorable improvement in oxygenation. The decrease in paCO2 may signify improved V/Q matching and dead space ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: This case series illustrates CACC as a potential therapeutic and diagnostic tool for clinicians to make lung-protective ventilator adjustments in responders. Trials of CACC may improve compliance and oxygenation in these patients, and may indicate those who would benefit from further prone positioning. Additional investigation is needed to clarify the clinical role of CACC for the management of COVID-19 related ARDS. Reference #1: Marini JJ, Gattinoni L. Improving lung compliance by external compression of the chest wall. Crit Care. 2021;25(1):264. Published 2021 Jul 28. doi:10.1186/s13054-021-03700-8 DISCLOSURES: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau relationship with boehringer ingelheim Please note: $5001 - $20000 by Brad Bemiss, value=Travel and payment for lecture No relevant relationships by Anila Khan No relevant relationships by Rishi Mehta No relevant relationships by Jason Peng

Three-way decision theory based on interval type-2 fuzzy linguistic term sets

This study examines decision theory based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets with linguistic information for the three-way decision approach by addressing the challenge of uncertainty for information analysis and fusion in subjective decision-making processes. First, the interval type-2 fuzzy linguistic term sets (IT2 FLTSs) are defined to represent and normalize the uncertain preference information in linguistic decision-making. Subsequently, perception computing based on computing with words paradigm is introduced to implement information fusion among different decision-makers in the linguistic information-based fuzzy logic reasoning process. Then, a three-way decision (3WD) theory based on IT2 FLTSs with fuzzy neighborhood covering is proposed, and the corresponded tri-partitioning strategies that satisfy Jaccard similarity of membership distributions are given. Finally, 3WD theory is applied to multi-criteria group decision-making with linguistic terms, and the algorithm steps are illustrated by a promising application under the background of coronavirus disease 2019 to reveal the feasibility and practicability of the proposed approach. © 2022 - IOS Press. All rights reserved.

A multiple centers real-world study of regorafenib treatment modalities in Chinese metastatic colorectal cancer patients

Background: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of different treatment modalities of regorafenib in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in the real-world setting. Methods: Individual patient data were retrieved from three leading oncology centers in China from January 2016 to March 2021. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS), and secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and safety. Results: The characteristics of patients who received treatment are shown in the table. Twenty-one patients received regorafenib combined with capecitabine as the second-line treatment for those who cannot visit hospital for their chemotherapies because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The median PFS and median OS were 8 (95% CI 4.36 -11.00) months and 26.9 (95%CI 20.54 -NR) months. 101 patients received regorafenib and 69 patients received regorafenib plus immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICIs) as third or higher line treatment, the overall response was 4.1%(7/170), including one complete response. Patients combined with ICIs have longer PFS than those with regorafenib monotherapy (median PFS = 3.3 versus 2.1 months;p = 0.01). Starting dose was 80, 120 and 160 mg in 64, 40 and 39 patients, respectively. Dose reduction was observed in 43.3% (39/79) of patients receiving 120 and 160 mg as the initial dose. Conclusions: Different treatment modalities of regorafenib all showed promising efficacy and safety in the treatment of mCRC. Regorafenib combination is better than regorafenib monotherapy. Regorafenib combined with capecitabine provided a new treatment strategy during the epidemic but requires further investigation.

Integrating network pharmacology and molecular docking to explore the potential mechanism of Xinguan No. 3 in the treatment of COVID-19

Xinguan No. 3 has been recommended for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19);however, its potential mechanisms are unclear. This study aims to explore the mechanisms of Xinguan No. 3 against COVID-19 through network pharmacology and molecular docking. We first searched the ingredients of Xinguan No. 3 in three databases (Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform, Traditional Chinese Medicines Integrated Database, and The Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine). The active components and their potential targets were predicted through the SwissTargetPrediction website. The targets of COVID-19 can be found on the GeneCards website. Protein interaction analysis, screening of key targets, functional enrichment of key target genes, and signaling pathway analysis were performed through Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes databases, Metascape databases, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway databases. Finally, the affinity of the key active components with the core targets was verified by molecular docking. The results showed that five core targets had been screened, including MAPK1, NF-kappa B1, RELA, AKT1, and MAPK14. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that the key targets were associated with inflammatory responses and responses to external stimuli. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that the main pathways were influenza A, hepatitis B, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway. Therefore, Xinguan No. 3 might play a role in treating COVID-19 through anti-inflammatory, immune responses, and regulatory responses to external stimuli.

Neutralizing Antibody Response to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Multiple Sclerosis

Objective: To investigate the humoral immune response following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) and to determine the effect of disease modifying therapies (DMT) on the vaccination response. Background: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVD-19), a highly transmissible and potentially fatal illness caused by SARS-CoV-2, emerged as a global pandemic in early 2020. Several vaccines, including 2 innovative mRNA vaccines, were developed against this virus. To reduce relapse rates and slow disability accumulation, pwMS are often treated with DMTs which have anti-inflammatory properties and regulate adaptive immunity. An important clinical issue concerns the impact of DMTs on the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, and the eventual need for booster doses. In this study, we measured the titers of anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) in pwMS following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Design/Methods: We conducted a prospective longitudinal study in pwMS at the Ohio State University (OSU) MS Center. Longitudinal serum samples were obtained from pwMS prior to and after the administration of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. These samples were analyzed for nAbs against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using a novel pseudotyped-lentivirus-based virus neutralization assay. OSU health care workers (HCWs) served as healthy controls. Results: Of eighty-three consented subjects, fifty-two had post vaccination serum samples analyzed. Although pwMS did not exhibit drastically different nAb titers compared to HCWs, 21% (n=11) did not have detectable nAb titers post-vaccination (NT50 < 40)-including 9 patients on B-cell depleting therapies, 1 on sphingosine 1-phosphate modulator, and 1 on no DMT. Compared to patients not on DMT, pwMS on B-cell depleting therapies exhibited 7-fold lower nAb titers, while those on fumarates or beta-interferon exhibited no significant difference to patients not on DMT. Conclusions: Humoral immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine may be attenuated by certain DMTs, most notably B-cell depleting drugs. Further studies are underway to determine the effect of booster vaccine on nAb levels.

PP-HumanSeg: Connectivity-Aware Portrait Segmentation with a Large-Scale Teleconferencing Video Dataset

As the COVID-19 pandemic rampages across the world, the demands of video conferencing surge. To this end, real-time portrait segmentation becomes a popular feature to replace backgrounds of conferencing participants. While feature-rich datasets, models and algorithms have been offered for segmentation that extract body postures from life scenes, portrait segmentation has yet not been well covered in a video conferencing context. To facilitate the progress in this field, we introduce an open-source solution named PP-HumanSeg. This work is the first to construct a large-scale video portrait dataset that contains 291 videos from 23 conference scenes with 14K fine-labeled frames and extensions to multi-camera teleconferencing. Furthermore, we propose a novel Self-supervised Connectivity-aware Learning (SCL) for semantic segmentation, which introduces a self-supervised connectivity-aware loss to improve the quality of segmentation results from the perspective of connectivity. And we propose an ultra-lightweight model with SCL for practical portrait segmentation, which achieves the best trade-off between IoU and the speed of inference. Extensive evaluations on our dataset demonstrate the superiority of SCL and our model.

Impacts of advisory perception and cultural distance on travel intention: evidence from China

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of travel advisory perception and cultural distance on travel intention based on the push and pull theory, the stimulus-organism-response model and protection motivation theory. Design/methodology/approach The paper conducts an empirical test with a questionnaire survey. The authors asked respondents to answer questions on a five-point Likert-type scale, which included threat severity, threat susceptibility, advisory perception, perceived cultural distance, travel motivation and travel intention. Findings In this paper, through a questionnaire of 424 respondents, the authors found that threat severity has a positive impact on advisory perception and perceived cultural distance, and that advisory perception indirectly affect travel intention through travel motivation. Originality/value Previous literature has discussed the influencing factors of travel intention but rarely does it consider the intrinsic relationship and interaction between advisory perception and cultural distance. The results of this study help fill some gaps in the research on advisory perception and perceived cultural distance, guide governments on how to better formulate travel advisories and provide a new perspective for tourism industry practitioners to improve their travel products after the COVID-19 pandemic especially.

Thoughts on the Innovation of Health Education Advertisement Communication of COVID-19 from the Internet Perspective Based On Network Technology

The purpose is to effectively analyze the dissemination of public service announcements (PSAs) for the COVID-19 under the Internet medium. Based on the methodological basis of excellent PSAs works, this paper will analyze the communication characteristics of PSAs such as narrative spreading positive energy, government-led public welfare and systematic pandemic prevention and control, put forward the communication innovation methods of Internet new crown pandemic PSAs, and elaborate the strategic thinking of anti-pandemic advertising communication innovation from four aspects, including innovation of communication perspective, innovation of creative thinking, innovation of artistic expression and innovation of media release. © 2021 IEEE.