Racism and Resilience: Counter-Narratives of Asian International College Students in the Age of COVID-19

Using Asian Critical Race Theory and Resilience Theory, this qualitative study explores how Asian international college students experienced racism before and after the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they developed and used resilience to counteract that racism. Eleven Asian participants shared their counter-narratives through semi-structured interviews. Results reveal that, before the pandemic, participants were regularly subjected to racist acts and attitudes grounded in a deficit view of Asians that treated them as inscrutable foreigners, blamed them as individuals for perceived shortcomings in their home countries, dismissed their expertise outside of technical STEM fields, and failed to recognize their abilities in creative and leadership roles. During the pandemic, the racist acts and attitudes experienced by Asian international college students greatly exacerbated the unprecedented challenges of isolation, limited access to university space and resources, and financial and physical insecurity caused by the pandemic. Results also indicate that Asian international students developed resilience grounded on their life experiences and community assets to counteract racism.

VMS - Visitation Management System

Under the growing uncertainties prevailing around the world, one of the most debated topics that have brought worldwide medical facilities to the test would be the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic devastating people from all walks of life. The constant intake of chronically ill or possible Covid19 infected patients into the hospital along with the high influx of visitors is harming the safety and wellbeing of both the front liners and patients especially when hospitals are one of the most important facilities to combat the spread of Covid-19 into the community. Concerning this, the researcher proposes a Visitation Management System (VMS) that solves certain key problems arising due to the high influx of hospital's visitors that causes a significant risk of Covid-19 infection, additional hospital staff to cope with the high influx of visitors at the entrance of the hospital, the difficulty of identifying high-risk Covid-19 infection locations in the hospital, as well as risk of shutting down hospitals if there are Covid-19 clusters found while losing profits or income. Apart from that, this research uses Rapid Application Development as the system development methodology for the development of VMS. Both requirement gathering methods via interview and questionnaire have been applied among various users. This research has included the findings of the collected analytical data to highlight the user requirements of VMS and a system providing proof of concept to underline the implementation of VMS to help curb the spread of Covid-19 in hospitals. © 2021 IEEE.

Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) Progressing to Collapsing Glomerulopathy in Renal Transplant Recipients With and Without COVID-19 Infection.

BACKGROUND: Collapsing glomerulopathy (CGN) secondary to HIV or COVID-19 infection mainly occurs in patients of African American descent due to APOL-1 gene mutations, but CGN is occasionally reported in white patients. CGNs are rarely reported in renal transplant biopsies and their association with idiopathic focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patient #1 was a 48-year-old Caucasian white man who had a renal transplant 8 years ago and was recently diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Two weeks post infection, his serum creatinine (SCr) increased to 2.01 mg/dL from a baseline of 1.40 mg/dL, and he developed concomitant nephrotic range proteinuria. The first renal transplant biopsy showed FSGS. Four weeks later, his sCr level increased to 2.65 mg/dL with worsening proteinuria, and a second renal transplant biopsy revealed CGN. Patient #2 was a 32-year-old African American man whose native renal biopsy revealed primary FSGS. He received a renal transplant with initial post-transplant sCr level at 1.17 mg/dL. Four months later, his sCr and protein-to-creatinine ratio began to rise. Sequential biopsies revealed that the patient had developed recurrent FSGS, which progressed to show features of CGN. The CGN was further confirmed in his transplant kidney graft at autopsy later. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first case report of CGN in a white renal recipient with COVID-19 infection. The pathologic presentations of FSGS progressing to collapsing FSGS in our 2 renal transplant recipients suggest that FSGS and GGN may share a common pathophysiologic mechanism of podocytopathy.

Discovery of potential SARS-CoV-2 M protease inhibitors by virtual screening, molecular dynamics, and binding free energy analyses①

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) gained tremendous attention due to its high infectivity and pathogenicity. The 3-chymotrypsin-like hydrolase protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 has been proven to be an important target for anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. To better identify the drugs with potential in treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 and according to the crystal structure of Mpro, we conducted a virtual screening of FDA-approved drugs and chemical agents that have entered clinical trials. As a result, 9 drug candidates with therapeutic potential for the treatment of COVID-19 and with good docking scores were identified to target SARS-CoV-2. Consequently, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed to explore the dynamic interactions between the predicted drugs and Mpro. The binding mode during MD simulation showed that hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions played an important role in the binding processes. Based on the binding free energy calculated by using MM/PBSA, Lopiravir, an inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease, is under investigation for the treatment of COVID-19 in combination with ritionavir, and it might inhibit Mpro effectively. Moreover, Ombitasvir, an inhibitor for non-structural protein 5A of hepatitis C virus (HCV), has good inhibitory potency for Mpro. It is notable that the GS-6620 has a binding free energy, with respect to binding Mpro, comparable to that of ombitasvir. Our study suggests that ombitasvir and lopinavir are good drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19, and that GS-6620 has good anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. © 2021 Fujian Institute of Research of the Structure of Matter. All rights reserved.