Stress and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: The Moderating Role of Communication

To examine how and when stress affect individual (i.e., psychological health) and relationship well-being (i.e., marital satisfaction) during the COVID-19 pandemic, the present study used latent profile analysis to identify the typologies of communication and investigated whether the typologies would moderate the associations between stress and individual and relationship well-being in a sample of adults living in China (N = 3,354). Results revealed that (a) stress was negatively associated with psychological health and marital satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic and that its effect on psychological health was greater than that on marital satisfaction and (b) four profiles were identified: low communication (10%), moderate communication (43%), positive communication (43%), and contradictory communication (5%). Further, the typologies moderated the effects of stress on psychological health and marital satisfaction, but the patterns of moderation differed in psychological health and marital satisfaction. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The effect of air supply rate on indoor infection probability in mixing ventilation

SARS-Cov-2 has caused enormous damage to society and put human health at a hazardous level. Optimizing air distribution patterns is one of the most useful manners to minimize the infection risk of susceptible individuals. Mixing ventilation is widely used, but the effect of air supply rate on indoor infection probability has not been studied yet. Three air supply rates, including 576, 864 and 1152 m3/h were adopted to study this problem in a simulated room, with dimensions of 5m×5m×2.7m. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method was used to consider indoor flow fields under three cases. The infection probability was calculated by the revised Wells-Riley model. The results showed that the overall infection probability decreased as the air supply rate increased. Meanwhile, the infectious air exhaled by the infector would flow along with the supply airflow in a certain direction, resulting in a nonuniform distribution of infection probability in the room. Increasing air supply rate and optimizing workstation layout may be two useful manners to reduce infection probability in mixing ventilation rooms. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Transferable Discriminative Learning for Medical Open-Set Domain Adaptation: Application to Pneumonia Classification

Previous pneumonia classification algorithms have succeeded in the clinic under closed and static environments. However, in the real world, the emergence of new categories (e.g., COVID-19) and changes in data distribution will cause the existing methods to lose their robustness. In this paper, we formalize this problem as medical open-set domain adaptation under open and dynamic environments. The critical challenge of this problem is to accurately detect the open class samples with subtle differences from the common class. To achieve that, we propose transferable discriminative learning that remarkably achieves robust pneumonia classification with distribution shift and open class emerging. First, we propose the transferable high-density clustering module to detect open class samples and obtain reliable common class samples by considering the density degree. Secondly, we present the transferable triplet loss to enlarge the semantic feature difference between common class and open class samples. Finally, we design the transferable scoring function to detect open class samples effectively. A series of empirical studies show that our algorithm remarkably outperforms state-of-the-art methods. This result demonstrates its potential as a clinical tool for medical open-set domain adaptation. © 2022 IEEE.

Disulfiram blocked cell entry of SARS-CoV-2 via inhibiting the interaction of spike protein and ACE2

Disulfiram is an FDA-approved drug that has been used to treat alcoholism and has demonstrated a wide range of anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral effects. In the global COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need for effective therapeutics and vaccine development. According to recent studies, disulfiram can act as a potent SARS-CoV-2 replication inhibitor by targeting multiple SARS-CoV-2 non-structural proteins to inhibit viral polyprotein cleavage and RNA replication. Currently, disulfiram is under evaluation in phase II clinical trials to treat COVID-19. With more and more variants of the SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, it becomes critical to know whether disulfiram can also inhibit viral entry into host cells for various variants and replication inhibition. Here, molecular and cellular biology assays demonstrated that disulfiram could interrupt viral spike protein binding with its receptor ACE2. By using the viral pseudo-particles (Vpps) of SARS-CoV-2, disulfiram also showed the potent activity to block viral entry in a cell-based assay against Vpps of different SARS-CoV-2 variants. We further established a live virus model system to support the anti-viral entry activity of disulfiram with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Molecular docking revealed how disulfiram hindered the binding between the ACE2 and wild-type or mutated spike proteins. Thus, our results indicate that disulfiram has the capability to block viral entry activity of different SARS-CoV-2 variants. Together with its known anti-replication of SARS-CoV-2, disulfiram may serve as an effective therapy against different SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The Hollywood-Chinawood Relationship: Continuities and changes

The Hollywood-Chinawood relationship is defined by an alternately competitive and collaborative partnership. Up to mid-2017, this partnership even entered into an unprecedented honeymoon period, marked by an inpouring of Chinese capital, the acquisition of Hollywood studio shares, and a record high number of film co-productions. However, the drastic turn in US foreign policy and the Trump administration’s trade war fundamentally altered the US-China bilateral relationship, and subsequently changed the context and conditions in which the respective film industries operated. The COVID-19 pandemic further ruined the financial health of both industries, reshaping their market structures. This chapter traces the latest developments in the US-China film relationship from 2015 to 2020, analyzing the continuities, changes, and challenges in this relationship. I argue that changes in the US-China bilateral relationship resulted in serious complications for the relationship between the two film industries, but these cannot shake the market-based and profit-driven nature of the film industry, so that the market logic ultimately rules and serves as the foundation that sustains the continuing partnership. The Hollywood-Chinawood relationship remains mutually dependent, but both sides must face new challenges to diversify content, improve co-productions, and embrace digitalization. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Paul McDonald;individual chapters, the contributors.

Day-Ahead Electricity Demand Forecasting Competition: Post-COVID Paradigm

The COVID-19 related shutdowns have made significant impacts on the electric grid operation worldwide. The global electrical demand plummeted around the planet in 2020 continuing into 2021. Moreover, demand shape has been profoundly altered as a result of industry shutdowns, business closures, and people working from home. In view of such massive electric demand changes, energy forecasting systems struggle to provide an accurate demand prediction, exposing operators to technical and financial risks, and further reinforcing the adverse economic impacts of the pandemic. In this context, the “IEEE DataPort Day-Ahead Electricity Demand Forecasting Competition: Post-COVID Paradigm" was organized to support the development and dissemination state-of-the-art load forecasting techniques that can mitigate the adverse impact of pandemic-related demand uncertainties. This paper presents the findings of this competition from the technical and organizational perspectives. The competition structure and participation statistics are provided, and the winning methods are summarized. Furthermore, the competition dataset and problem formulation is discussed in detail. Finally, the dataset is published along with this paper for reproducibility and further research. Author

Antiviral NL-CVX1 Efficiently Blocks Infection of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Variants of Concern (VOC)

Background. Using a computational approach, NL-CVX1 was developed by Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc. to create a de novo protein that both blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection and is highly resilient to viral escape. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of NL-CVX1 against variants of the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, including important viral variants of concern (VOC) such as B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1. Methods. The relative binding affinity of NL-CVX1 to the SARS-CoV-2 viral spike protein of VOC was measured using biolayer interferometry (Octet). A competitive ELISA measured the ability of NL-CVX1 to compete with hACE2 for binding to the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein from the original strain and VOC. The activity of NL-CVX1 in preventing viral infection was assessed by evaluating the cytopathic effects (CPE) of SARS-CoV-2 in a transmembrane protease, serine 2-expressing Vero E6 cell line (Vero E6/TMPRSS2) and determining the viral load using quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in infected cells. A K18hACE2 mouse model of SARS CoV-2 infection was used to study the dose-response of NL-CVX1 anti-viral activity in vivo. Results. NL-CVX1 binds the RBD of different VOC of SARS-CoV-2 at low nanomolar concentrations (Fig 1;Kd < 1-~5 nM). When competing with hACE2, NL-CVX1 achieved 100% inhibition against hACE2 binding to the RBD of different VOC with IC50s values ranging from 0.7-53 nM (Fig 2). NL-CVX1 neutralized the B.1.1.7 variant as efficiently as the original strain in Vero E6/TMPRSS2 cells, with EC50 values of 16 nM and 101. 2 nM, respectively (Fig 3). In mice, we found that a single intranasal dose of 100 μg NL-CVX1 prevented clinically significant SARS-CoV-2 infection and protected mice from succumbing to infection. Results from additional in vitro and in vivo experiments to be conducted this summer will be presented. Figure 1. NL-CVX1 binds the RBD from multiple strains of SARS-CoV-2 at low nanomolar concentrations. Figure 2. NL-CVX1 achieves 100% inhibition against all strains tested, including SARS-CoV-2 VOC. Figure 3. NL-CVX1 neutralizes the B.1.1.7 variant as efficiently as the original SARSCoV-2 strain. Conclusion. In vitro and in vivo data (Fig 4) demonstrate that NL-CVX1 is a promising drug candidate for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. As a hACE2 mimetic, it is resilient to antibody escape mutations found in SARS-CoV-2 VOC. NL-CVX1 further demonstrates the power and utility of de novo protein design for developing proteins as human therapeutics. Figure 4. NL-CVX1 is effective in preventing clinically significant SARS-CoV-2 viral infection in a K18hACE2 mouse model.

The platformization of China's film distribution in a pandemic era

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed global media industries' practices and altered audiences' media consumption habits. The film industries have shortened theatrical windows and expanded streaming services to cope with this reality, which has accelerated the so-called digital distribution revolution. This study focuses on the transformation of China's film distribution and exhibition sector before and during the pandemic. Specifically, the study tracks the strategies of China's digital giants, iQIYI, Tencent-backed Maoyan, and Alibaba-backed Tao Piao Piao, for promoting and exhibiting films. By integrating digital media studies and industrial studies, the study seeks to tackle the issue of whether distributional platformization can serve as the infrastructure of the film industry and usher in a new era of the digital entertainment revolution. The findings indicate that digital corporations' strategies have accelerated the platformization of the distribution infrastructure of the film industry. However, current industrial practices nourish the prospect of coexistence in the foreseeable future.

Outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis receiving ofatumumab: Data from the ALITHIOS study and post marketing surveillance

Introduction: Per WHO, >190 million people worldwide have been affected by COVID-19 as of 20-Jul-2021. Although people with MS are not at a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, factors such as age, comorbidity, MS severity and treatment with DMTs may affect COVID-19 severity and outcomes. Understanding the risks, severity and outcomes of COVID-19 in people with MS receiving DMTs, including anti-CD20 DMTs, is important to healthcare practitioners (HCPs) managing MS. Objectives: To report the characteristics and outcomes of COVID- 19 adverse events (AEs) in relapsing MS (RMS) patients taking ofatumumab enrolled in the ongoing, open-label, long-term extension Phase 3b ALITHIOS study and from post-marketing surveillance of people receiving ofatumumab 20 mg subcutaneously. Methods: Patient demographics, baseline characteristics, incidence of COVID-19 AEs, seriousness category (including hospitalization), severity, outcomes, ofatumumab exposure before the start of infection, and action taken with ofatumumab were assessed. Results: As of 29-Jan-2021, 139/1703 (8.2%) patients enrolled in ALITHIOS (mean±SD age at baseline: 37.7±8.7 years;female, 64%) treated with ofatumumab reported COVID-19 AEs (confirmed: 115 [82.7%];suspected: 24 [17.3%]). Of these, 10 (7.2%) experienced COVID-19 serious AEs and all 10 (7.2%) were hospitalized. Most AEs reported were mild (Grade [G] 1;69 [49.6%]) or moderate (G2;62 [44.6%]) in severity. Severe (G3) and life threatening (G4) AEs were reported in 6 (4.3%) and 2 (1.4%) patients, respectively. One (0.7%) patient (48-year-old at COVID- 19 onset;BMI 28.3 kg/m2;recent MS relapse) with confirmed COVID-19 and pneumonia had a fatal outcome. At data cut-off, most patients (128 [92.1%]) had recovered from COVID-19 AEs;2 (1.4%) were recovering, 4 (2.9%) had recovered with sequelae and 4 (2.9%) had not recovered. COVID-19 AEs led to temporary interruption of ofatumumab in 22 (15.8%) patients. As of 31-Jan- 2021, an additional 28 RMS patients with COVID-19 AEs were identified in the Novartis safety database. Further details to be presented. Conclusions: In ALITHIOS, 139 RMS patients on ofatumumab reported COVID-19 AEs (as of 31-Jan-2021). Most (94%) COVID-19 cases were mild or moderate in severity. There were few hospitalizations but one fatal outcome. At data cut-off, most (92%) patients had recovered/resolved from COVID-19. ALITHIOS data extends the understanding of the long-term safety profile of ofatumumab in people living with MS.

Characteristics and outcome of COVID-19 in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis receiving Ofatumumab

Objective: Report characteristics of COVID-19 infections in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) receiving subcutaneous 20mg of atumumab, a human anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, every 4 weeks. Background: A global pandemic of COVID-19 has resulted in over 40 million cases as of 19 October 2020. Risks of COVID-19 in pwMS receiving disease-modifying therapies are of increased interest, but still under investigation. Design/Methods: Demographics, COVID-19 seriousness category, of atumumab treatment duration and action taken with of atumumab, interventions and COVID-19 outcomes were recorded for pwMS in the open-label extension study ALITHIOS or in the post-marketing setting. Results: As of 28 September 2020, 12/1623 pwMS (5/12 females;9/12 white) in the ALITHIOS study were reported to have laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Mean age was 37.8 years (median 44 years, range 25-51 years), disease duration 3 to 23 years, and EDSS score 0-5.5. Ofatumumab exposure range was 8.5-13.8 months (n=6 who received of atumumab only in ALITHIOS) and 17.4-44.2 months (n=6 who continued of atumumab from prior trials). One of 12 had COVID-19 seriousness grade 3-A 39 year old white male with bilateral pneumonia requiring hospitalization who recovered with normal follow-up chest X-ray. The remaining 11 cases were non-serious grades 1 or 2: Seven reported as completely recovered, one recovering, two as ongoing and one asymptomatic with SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG positive. Six patients were treated with anti-infectives (three received both antivirals and antibacterials and three received antibacterials). Ofatumumab treatment was unchanged in seven and interrupted in four (resumed in three;information not available for one) patients;action unknown in one. To date, no post-marketing COVID-19 cases have been reported. Conclusions: We report 12 cases (11 non-serious;one serious hospitalized for bilateral pneumonia) of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in pwMS treated with of atumumab. More surveillance data are needed to determine the risks associated with COVID19 in pwMS treated with of atumumab.

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on github developers: A preliminary study

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impact almost every aspect of human lives profoundly. This paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the activity and contribution of open source software (OSS) developers. Specifically, we make great efforts to harvest the information of all the developers (over 25 million) on GitHub and their contribution activities. With such a large-scale dataset, we perform analysis from four perspectives, including the overall ecosystem level, country level, organization level and developer level, to characterize the impact of COVID-19 on the OSS community. We have revealed a number of interesting observations and trends, which are crucial to understanding the OSS contributors and supporting the collaboration to combat global crisis like COVID-19. © 2021 Knowledge Systems Institute Graduate School. All rights reserved.

Application of Disaster Management Information for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since end of 2019, because of the worldwide spread of COVID-19, the whole world has been struggling for solutions to mitigate adverse impacts and worsening situations, which demonstrate very dynamic characteristics requiring high integration among government agencies to make decisions and deliver operation. Within countries around the world, most of disaster management agencies are the primary institutions working with health agencies to cope with health emergencies. To comparing disaster management with public health management, there are lots of common grounds like procedures to deal with emergency and allocations of resources. However, the differences between the two fields offer an opportunity for mutual leaning on best practices of emergency management. For example, in case of disaster event, for better response and control, commanding officials usually dispatch several teams and concentrate resources as much as possible to effectively respond to emergency. According to reports on containing COVID-19 spread, whenever any decisions should consider social distancing first that limits operational space because of safety reason. This paper explores possible collaboration between disaster management with public health management and discusses direction about how to apply information of disaster risk management for public health events. More focal topics concentrate on data processing of population distribution and information integration. © 2021, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON MANUFACTURER OPERATIONS: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

The COVID-19 outbreak has spread globally at an extremely fast pace and has seriously affected the economic development and stability of the social order in various countries, impacting the normal business operations of manufacturers. In this study, a sample comprising 1329 manufacturers in Hangzhou, China is analysed using logistic regression and path analysis methods to identify the main factors related to COVID-19 that affect manufacturers' operations, as well as the possible causal relationships between them. The empirical results of the logistic regression reveal that COVID-19 primarily affects the operating performance of manufacturers in five regards: business continuity, capital chain gap, supply chain integration, laborforce availability, and stimulating policies. The conclusions derived from the path analysis indicate that the degree of traffic and logistics congestion is a key factor, as it hinders manufacturers' business continuity, which ultimately causes a gap in the capital chain and determines manufacturers' demand for stimulating policies. Based on the research results, we propose recommendations to support manufacturers in their efforts to resume operations and realise economic recovery.

Masks prevent hospital-acquired COVID-19: A single hospital experience in Taiwan

To estimate the hospital attack rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the stratified basic reproduction number (R0) of its causative agent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a hospital setting in Taiwan. A total of 138 healthcare workers (HCWs) in a hospital who were exposed to COVID-19 within a patient household (January 14 to March 7,2020) were divided into two groups, based on their exposure level. All HCWs received throat swab SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR detection twice. Routine infection control policies included environmental disinfection, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and hand hygiene per Taiwan Centers for Disease Control guideline. The estimated attack rate and the R0were calculated. Compared with the "low-risk" exposure group, the "high-risk" exposure group was less likely to have used partial PPE, and more likely to have had contact time >1 hour, performed "aerosol-production" tasks, and developed symptoms during quarantine. None of the HCWs in either group acquired COVID-19. All HCWs wore surgical masks and performed routine environmental disinfection. Estimated R0was 1.46 and 0 for household and HCW models, respectively, implying that the index patient did not transmit COVID-19. Using masks may help prevent hospital-acquired COVID-19. © 2021 Society of Internal Medicine of Taiwan. All rights reserved.

Quantifying Contributions of Local Emissions and Regional Transport to NOX in Beijing Using TROPOMI Constrained WRF-Chem Simulation

Air quality is strongly influenced by both local emissions and regional transport. Atmospheric chemical transport models can distinguish between emissions and regional transport sources in air pollutant concentrations. However, quantifying model inventories is challenging due to emission changes caused by the recent strict control measures taken by the Chinese government. In this study, we use NO2 column observations from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument to retrieve top-down nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions and quantify the contributions of local emissions and regional transport to NOx in Beijing (BJ), from 1 November 2018 to 28 February 2019 (W_2018) and 1 November 2019 to 29 February 2020 (W_2019). In W_2018 and W_2019, the BJ bottom-up NOX emissions from the multi-resolution emission inventory for China in 2017 were overestimated by 11.8% and 40.5%, respectively, and the input of NOX from other cities to BJ was overestimated by 10.9% and 51.6%, respectively. The simulation using our adjusted inventory exhibited a much higher spatial agreement (slope = 1.0, R-2 = 0.79) and reduced a mean relative error by 45% compared to those of bottom-up NOX emissions. The top-down inventory indicated that (1) city boundary transport contributes approximately 40% of the NOX concentration in BJ;(2) in W_2019, NOX emissions and transport in BJ decreased by 20.4% and 17.2%, respectively, compared to those of W_2018;(3) in W_2019, NOX influx substantially decreased (-699 g/s) in BJ compared to that of W_2018 despite negative meteorological conditions that should have increased NOx influx by +503 g/s. Overall, the contribution of intercity input to NOx in BJ has declined with decreasing emissions in the surrounding cities due to regional cooperative control measures, and the role of local emissions in BJ NOx levels was more prominent. Our findings indicate that local emissions may play vital roles in regional center city air quality.

COVID-19 Severity and Neonatal BCG Vaccination among Young Population in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Data have not been reported to explore the relation between COVID-19 severity and BCG vaccination status at the individual patient level. METHODS: Taiwan has a nationwide neonatal BCG vaccination program that was launched in 1965. The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control established a web-based National Immunization Information System (NISS) in 2003 and included all citizens' BCG vaccination records in NISS for those born after 1985. We identified COVID-19 Taiwanese patients born after 1985 between 21 January and 19 March 2021. Study participants were further classified into ages 4-24 years (birth year 1996-2016) and 25-33 years (birth year 1986-1995). We described their clinical syndrome defined by the World Health Organization and examined the relation between the COVID-19 severity and BCG vaccination status. RESULTS: In the 4-24 age group, among 138 BCG vaccinated individuals, 80.4% were asymptomatic or had mild disease, while 17.4% had moderate disease, 1.5% had severe disease, and 0.7% had acute respiratory distress syndrome but none of them died. In contrast, all 6 BCG unvaccinated individuals in this age group experienced mild illness. In the 25-33 age group, moderate disease occurred in 14.2% and severe disease occurred in 0.9% of the 106 patients without neonatal BCG vaccination records, as compared to 19.2% had moderate disease and none had severe or critical disease of the 78 patients with neonatal BCG vaccination records. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding indicated that BCG immunization might not relate to COVID-19 severity in the young population.

Changes of air pollutants emission from vehicles on national and provincial roads of Hebei during the COVID-19 epidemic in China

In order to investigate the changes of air pollutants emissions from vehicles on national and provincial roads in Hebei province during the COVID-19 epidemic in China, the emission inventory of on-road mobile sources was established based on the daily traffic flow monitoring data of national and provincial roads from Jan. to Mar. of 2019 and 2020, respectively. The total traffic flow from Jan. to Mar. in 2020 decreased for 38.1% compared with that in 2019, while the emission intensity of CO, VOCs, NOx, PM2.5, PM10 decreased 31.3%, 32.7%, 19.1%, 20.2%, 20.0%, respectively. The total traffic flow on ordinary roads kept decreasing tendency in the first quarter of 2020, while for the national and the provincial highway, this number increased for 5.6% and 37.2% in Mar., respectively. During the Spring Festival travel rush of 2020, the total traffic flow of passenger cars and trucks was the 44.2% and 51.0% of that in the same period in 2019, and the emitted CO, VOCs, NOx, PM2.5, PM10 was 51.4%, 50.6%, 52.6%, 52.3%, 52.3% of that in last year, respectively. Passenger and truck traffic flow began to recover gradually from Feb. 14 in 2020, and at the end of Mar., the total traffic flow was 46.6% of that in last year, passenger cars and truck was 34.5% and 70.3% of that in last year, respectively. © 2021, Science Press. All right reserved.