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Objective: To investigate how well do the middle school students in Wuhan know and perform COVID-19 prevention behaviors during the epidemic, and to identify the influencing factors that impact the wellness of students' performance on mask-wearing, hand washing, and other health-related behaviors. Method: We surveyed 21 middle schools in Wuhan using a self-developed questionnaire, evaluated the students' prevention behaviors, and used logistic regression to identify the influencing factors. Results: We investigated 6 858 students with an average age of (14. 5±1. 5) years, including 3 584 male students (accounting for 52. 3%). Grade, parents' education, and submission time are significantly related to the wellness of the three types of health behaviors (P<0. 05). Junior high school students showed a better performance in handwashing and other health-related behaviors than senior high school students (P<0. 05). Parents' education showed a significant impact on students' prevention behaviors in all aspects (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Enhancement is needed for the education of prevention behaviors among middle school students. Schools should pay more attention to students whose parents are of the lower level of education. © 2023 Editorial Board of Medical Journal of Wuhan University. All rights reserved.
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Background and Aims: Despite that the epidemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) has been under effective control in China, the number of cases outside our country is continuously growing. So, the prevention and control situation is still grim. This study, taking the Department of Breast Surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University as an example, was designed to analyze and summarize the operations of breast surgery in a comprehensive tertiary hospital during the epidemic, so as to provide effective reference and experiential practice for conducting safe and efficient breast surgery work during epidemic and post-epidemic periods. Methods: Thirty-seven patients with breast cancer admitted in the Department of Breast Thyroid Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University during the COVID-19 epidemic period of January 31, 2020 to February 20, 2020 were selected. The data of the patients including the clinical characteristics, protective measures and treatment effects were retrospectively analyzed. The main points of methods for patients' admission to hospital, preoperative preparation, intraoperative protection and postoperative recovery, as well as the self-protection and psychological counseling of the medical staff were summarized. The effects of specialized treatment and epidemic prevention and control were identified by follow up. The details for how to improve the cognition of potential risk for infectious diseases, and how to strengthen the prevention and control of epidemic disease and occupational protection during the post-epidemic period were analyzed from the aspects of surgical indications, aerosol management and clinic protection in combination with the diagnosis and treatment characteristics of breast surgery. Results: Thirty-seven patients received surgical treatment after the exclusion of the risk of COVID-19. The mean operative time was (152.23±46.19) min, the average intraoperative blood loss was (85.23±23.47) mL, and no intraoperative blood transfusion was required in any of the patients. Among the 37 breast cancer patients, 19 cases underwent 6 to 8 cycles of preoperative neoadjuvant therapy, of whom, complete pathological remission was obtained in 7 cases after surgery. Prolonged fever occurred in 2 patients after operation, which returned to normal after isolation, body temperature monitoring and symptomatic treatment, and COVID-19 was excluded by nucleic acid testing for SARS-CoV-2. After follow-up, no suspected COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough and fatigue were noted in any of the patients or their accompanying relatives, and also no suspected cases were observed among the relevant medical staff. Conclusion: During the epidemic period, on the premise of scientific prevention and control, and full avoidance of COVID-19 infection in both doctors and patients, aggressive treatment can be provided to breast cancer patients according to the local epidemic situation. The principles of "scientific decision-making, and humanistic service" should be continuously followed, and the various prevention and control guidelines and management norms issued by superiors should be strictly obeyed, and the necessary elements such as prehospital screening, preoperative preparation, intraoperative protection and postoperative recovery of the breast cancer patients should be completed according to the actual situation. Rigorous compliance with the protection measures against epidemic in all aspects of the pre-admission and perioperative period of the patients, and coordinated relations of the epidemic prevention and control with the specialized treatment, may maximally ensure the safe completion of breast surgery and protect the health of the patients and medical personnel. © 2020 by the Author(s).
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The electronic informed consent (eIC) system is a product of modernization development of electronic and intelligent technology. In the context of COVID-19, the eIC system can adapt to the epidemic prevention and control requirements, showing its time-space advantages. By introducing the concept, form and the use of eIC system, this paper analyzed the challenges of acceptance, understanding, consent and information security faced by the eIC system. Based on this, some suggestions were put forward, including strengthening the training of the relevant personnel involved in the eIC system, enhancing and improving the functions of the eIC system, and perfecting the relevant laws and regulations of the eIC system, so as to provide reference for the future research and application of eIC. © 2023, Editorial department of Chinese Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.
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The electronic informed consent (eIC) system is a product of modernization development of electronic and intelligent technology. In the context of COVID-19, the eIC system can adapt to the epidemic prevention and control requirements, showing its time-space advantages. By introducing the concept, form and the use of eIC system, this paper analyzed the challenges of acceptance, understanding, consent and information security faced by the eIC system. Based on this, some suggestions were put forward, including strengthening the training of the relevant personnel involved in the eIC system, enhancing and improving the functions of the eIC system, and perfecting the relevant laws and regulations of the eIC system, so as to provide reference for the future research and application of eIC. © 2023, Editorial department of Chinese Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.
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The electronic informed consent (eIC) system is a product of modernization development of electronic and intelligent technology. In the context of COVID-19, the eIC system can adapt to the epidemic prevention and control requirements, showing its time-space advantages. By introducing the concept, form and the use of eIC system, this paper analyzed the challenges of acceptance, understanding, consent and information security faced by the eIC system. Based on this, some suggestions were put forward, including strengthening the training of the relevant personnel involved in the eIC system, enhancing and improving the functions of the eIC system, and perfecting the relevant laws and regulations of the eIC system, so as to provide reference for the future research and application of eIC. © 2023, Editorial department of Chinese Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.
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Our world has been permanently changed by the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 starts around the end of 2019. In the first few months of 2020, the whole world was in urgent need of an effective, easy, and quick method for the identification of the infection of the new virus. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine, which can test DNA samples by rapidly making millions of copies of a specific DNA sample through the PCR process, including the COVID-19 virus, can perfectly fit this demand. In this study, a design project on PCR is introduced for undergraduate education in electrical and mechanical engineering. The objective of this project is to develop a low-cost, ease-of-use, wallet-size, portable real-time PCR (RT-PCR) machine for accurate testing of various bacteria or viruses. The key function of the PT-PCR system is to precisely control and maintain the temperature of the bio-sample solution within a range between 55℃ and 95℃. The RT-PCR system is centrally controlled by a microcontroller Raspberry Pi 3. It receives temperature measurements from thermistors and operates the heating lid, the thermoelectric module, and the cooling fan to regulate the temperatures required in repetitive thermal cycles. This project provides students opportunities in studying and practicing a wide range of engineering technics and skills, including mechanical design, electronics design, microcomputer programming, system control, power electronics, sensors and actuators, data acquisition and processing, cellphone app development. Students can gain comprehensive understanding of the design of multiphysics system after they overcome various challenges emerging in the project. From the view of engineering education, the process of this project development has demonstrated the importance and benefits of adopting complex interdisciplinary engineering problems for student teams to solve, especially those involve contemporary issues. Copyright 2022. © by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics. All rights reserved.
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In this paper, we conduct an empirical study of the impact of language distance on Thailand's foreign trade on the basis of trade data from Thailand and its 21 trade partners within 17 years, by applying the trade gravity model, in which the WALS language index is selected and weighted to measure the language distance and then introduced it into the trade gravity model as explanatory variable. The results show that: (1) language and bilateral trade flow are negatively related;(2) the language distance has negative significant influence on Thailand's bilateral trade flow;(3) language influence on Thailand's foreign trade cannot be overlooked. It should be highlighted by scholars as well as the relevant departments of the country;(4) the decline of global trade volume is seriously affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. © 2022 ACM.
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Study Objectives: In response to worldwide shortages of N95 masks during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has highlighted various conservation and reuse strategies including isolation and vaporized hydrogen peroxide but with limitations of "safe" reuse of N95 masks up to five times. The aim of this project was to evaluate the results of NIOSH quantitative fit testing after five trials of donning on a specific manufacturer's "duckbill" type N95 masks with/without repeated sterilization using vaporized hydrogen peroxide. Method(s): The cumulative effects of both repeated donning and doffing combined with repeated sterilization was evaluated using NIOSH Quantitative fit testing. Quantitative Fit testing generates an objective overall score across five separate tasks using an automated particle detection device to evaluate the integrity of both the mask materials and the seal on the participant. Two cohorts of duckbill type N95 masks were subjected to repeated cycles of 35% vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) sterilization (five and ten cycles) and compared to one cohort of new unsterilized masks. All three cohorts were subjected to five trials of NIOSH quantitative fit testing following the protocol of donning the mask, NIOSH fit testing, then removal of the mask, with isolation for 24hrs. This cycle was repeated for five trials for each mask in each cohort. The fit testing trials were conducted on a single participant who has been fit tested and passed on this type and manufacturer's N95 mask. This repeated-measures design was chosen to remove the variability of facial size/shape for this study. Result(s): Overall, a total of 150 fit testing trials were conducted, 5 trials on 30 total masks, with 10 masks in each cohort (New vs 5x sterilized vs 10x sterilized). There were a total of 21/150 (14%) fit testing trial failures, with 13/30 (43%) individual masks failing at least one fit testing trial and 4/30 (17%) masks that failed a variable number of fit testing trials spread across all five trials per mask. Chi-square analysis showed a significant increase in the percentages of masks that failed fit testing in both mask cohorts which underwent VHP compared to unsterilized/New masks (New p=0.09, 5x p=0.03, 10x p=0.03). Conclusion(s): This data shows that this manufacturer's type and model "duckbill" N95 masks have a variable failure rate across repeated Quantitative NIOSH fit testing. There was an increased failure rate for masks that underwent sterilization. Our partner health system's mask recycling program thus discarded these type masks due to this variable failure rate. Health systems should thus consider individual testing to inform their overall policies on future mask reuse and/or recycling. No, authors do not have interests to disclose Copyright © 2022
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Since the pandemic of COVID-19, several deep learning methods were proposed to analyze the chest Computed Tomography (CT) for diagnosis. In the current situation, the disease course classification is significant for medical personnel to decide the treatment. Most previous deep-learning-based methods extract features observed from the lung window. However, it has been proved that some appearances related to diagnosis can be observed better from the mediastinal window rather than the lung window, e.g., the pulmonary consolidation happens more in severe symptoms. In this paper, we propose a novel Dual Window RCNN Network (DWRNet), which mainly learns the distinctive features from the successive mediastinal window. Regarding the features extracted from the lung window, we introduce the Lung Window Attention Block (LWA Block) to pay additional attention to them for enhancing the mediastinal-window features. Moreover, instead of picking up specific slices from the whole CT slices, we use a Recurrent CNN and analyze successive slices as videos. Experimental results show that the fused and representative features improve the predictions of disease course by reaching the accuracy of 90.57%, against the baseline with an accuracy of 84.86%. Ablation studies demonstrate that combined dual window features are more efficient than lung-window features alone, while paying attention to lung-window features can improve the model's stability. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The arbitrary disclosure of information of people diagnosed with COVID-19on the network will adversely affect personal privacy and even violate the privacy rights of individuals. Through the method of literature analysis and case analysis, the information of the confirmed patients of COVID-19 is studied on the network disclosure. The study found that information disclosure can be divided into disclosable information and non-disclosure information, and make different ways of dealing with sensitive information, sensitive information must be handled with care, personal information processing must take into account the balance between personal interests and public interests. © 2022, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.
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Introduction The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to the world. Due to its transmissible nature, it is essential for radiographers to have a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of COVID-19 to formulate protocols and strategies to ensure the safety of patients and staff. This article aims to present a radiographer's perspective of the impact of COVID-19 on interventional radiology (IR) services in Singapore General Hospital. Methods
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The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly and negatively impacted the global stock markets. Hence, we investigated the time-varying impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stock returns during the period from January 27, 2020 to December 23, 2021 using the TVP-VAR-SV model and used G7 countries as our research sample. Our results imply that (i) the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant negative impact on stock returns, but the impact decreases as the time window increases;(ii) the timeliness, compulsoriness, and effectiveness of anti-epidemic policies implemented by governments are the important adjustment factors for stock returns;(iii) the impact of the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock market trend gradually weakens as the intermediate time interval increases. In addition, over time, the duration of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock returns became shorter, and the recovery rate of the impact became faster;(iv) under the managed floating exchange rate regime, the stock returns changed synchronously with the pressures of exchange rate appreciation and depreciation, and under the free-floating exchange rate regime, the effect of the exchange rate on stock returns was almost zero, while the impact of exchange rate channels in eurozone countries was related to the characteristics of national economies. Thus, governments should make greater efforts to improve the compulsion and effectiveness of epidemic prevention policies and strengthen their control over exchange rate fluctuations to alleviate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock markets.
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Objective To understand the awareness, psychological status and stress reduction of health care workers involved in the emergency response Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak since the “traffic control” in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture on 26 January 2020, in order to inform the development of relevant measures. To provide a reference basis for the development of related measures. Methods The study participants were invited through the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture medical and nursing exchange group by snowball sampling method based on WeChat from February 4 to February 5, and the invited participants filled out the questionnaires online(Questionnaire Star). The invailed questionnaires were strictly eliminated according to the quality control conditions, and the questionnaires that fit the research study were selected for collation, statistical analysis was performed. Results Onerall high awareness of COVID-19 among health care workers after “traffic control” in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, with the highest knowledge of the source of infection was 95.95% and the lowest genotype knowledge rate of 64. 86%. The differences between the different psychological profiles of anxiety and stress, loneliness and depression among health care workers were statistically significant (x2 = 25. 439, P < 0. 01), and the highest percentage of anxiety among health care workers was 79. 73% and the lowest percentage of depression was 50. 85%;health care workers mainly reduced stress by watching TV and surfing the Internet, and the composition ratios of the two main forms of reducing stress were 68.92% and 60. 81%, respectively. Conclusion Different types of mental health problems existed among health care workers of different genders, occupations, titles and marital status after the “traffic control” in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture. Therefore, targeted mental health guidance and interventions for different health care workers. © 2022, Editorial Department of Medical Pest Control. All rights reserved.
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BACKGROUND: COVID-19 may negatively impact the prognosis of patients with chronic HFrEF and vice versa. METHODS: This study included 2 parallel analyses of patients in the United States who were in the TriNetX health database and who underwent polymerase chain reaction testing for SARS-CoV-2 as an inpatient or outpatient between January and September of 2020. Analysis A included patients with positive tests for COVID-19 and compared patients with histories of worsening heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) (hospitalization due to heart failure (HF) or IV diuretic use during the prior 12 months), HFrEF without worsening, and no prior HF. Analysis B included patients with histories of HFrEF and compared patients with positive vs negative COVID-19 tests. Outcomes included mortality and worsening HF. In both analyses, prespecified subgroup analyses were stratified by inpatient vs outpatient settings of the COVID-19 tests. RESULTS: In Analysis A, of 99,052 patients with positive COVID-19 tests, 514 (0.5%) and 524 (0.5%) patients had histories of worsening HFrEF and HFrEF without worsening, respectively. After adjustment, compared to patients without HF, worsening HFrEF (risk ratio [RR] 1.42, 95% CI 1.10-1.83; P< 0.001) and HFrEF without worsening (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.96-1.84; P= 0.06) were associated with higher 30-day mortality rates. Excess risk of mortality tended to be pronounced in patients initially diagnosed with COVID-19 as outpatients (P for interaction, 0.12 and 0.006, respectively). In Analysis B, of 14,838 patients with HFrEF tested for COVID-19, 1038 (7.0%) had positive tests. After adjustment, testing positive was associated with excess 30-day mortality risk (RR 1.67, 95% CI 1.38-2.02; P< 0.001) and worsening HF (RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.17-1.51; P< 0.001). Mortality risk was nominally more pronounced among patients presenting as outpatients (P for interaction 0.07). CONCLUSION: In this large cohort of patients tested for COVID-19, among patients testing positive, a history of HFrEF with or without worsening was associated with excess mortality rates, particularly among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 as outpatients. Among patients with established HFrEF, compared with testing negative, testing positive for COVID-19 was independently associated with higher risk of death and worsening HF.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Heart Failure , Ventricular Dysfunction, Left , Heart Failure/complications , Heart Failure/diagnosis , Heart Failure/epidemiology , Hospitalization , Humans , Prognosis , SARS-CoV-2 , Stroke Volume , United StatesABSTRACT
Objective: To analyze the course of disease and epidemiological parameters of COVID-19 and provide evidence for making prevention and control strategies. Methods: To display the distribution of course of disease of the infectors who had close contacts with COVID-19 cases from January 1 to March 15, 2020 in Guangdong Provincial, the models of Lognormal, Weibull and gamma distribution were applied. A descriptive analysis was conducted on the basic characteristics and epidemiological parameters of course of disease. Results: In total, 515 of 11 580 close contacts were infected, with an attack rate about 4.4%, including 449 confirmed cases and 66 asymptomatic cases. Lognormal distribution was fitting best for latent period, incubation period, pre-symptomatic infection period of confirmed cases and infection period of asymptomatic cases; Gamma distribution was fitting best for infectious period and clinical symptom period of confirmed cases; Weibull distribution was fitting best for latent period of asymptomatic cases. The latent period, incubation period, pre-symptomatic infection period, infectious period and clinical symptoms period of confirmed cases were 4.50 (95%CI:3.86-5.13) days, 5.12 (95%CI:4.63-5.62) days, 0.87 (95%CI:0.67-1.07) days, 11.89 (95%CI:9.81-13.98) days and 22.00 (95%CI:21.24-22.77) days, respectively. The latent period and infectious period of asymptomatic cases were 8.88 (95%CI:6.89-10.86) days and 6.18 (95%CI:1.89-10.47) days, respectively. Conclusion: The estimated course of COVID-19 and related epidemiological parameters are similar to the existing data.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Contact Tracing , Cohort Studies , Humans , Incidence , Prospective StudiesABSTRACT
Background and purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was spreading all over the world. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) primarily invades and infects the lungs of humans leading to COVID-19. Mild to severe clinical symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath were existed in those patients. One of the most common changes in these patients was abnormal blood routine. However, uncertainty remains regarding the dynamic characteristics of platelet in COVID-19 patients due to limited data. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the association between dynamic characteristics of blood platelet and disease severity, and to identify new monitoring indicators to treat the COVID-19 patients.Methods:In this cohort study, 398 COVID19 patients treated in the Shenzhen Third People's hospital from December 16, 2019 to March 26, IP: 182.75.148.10 On: Thu, 20 Jan 2022 08:58:32 Copyright: American Scientific Publishers 2020 were collected and participated. All data of participants including the clinical characteristics, Delivered by Ingenta imaging and laboratory information were collected. All patients included in our study were classified as four groups (mild, common, severe, and critical types) regarding clinical symptoms and relevant severe failures based on the Diagnosis Criteria. Platelet count was examined at the baseline and every 3-5 days during hospitalization. Results: The platelet count varied with clinical classifications. The platelet count in mild type was normal without significant fluctuation. While the blood platelet count of most common and severe patients had obvious fluctuations, showing as a dynamic change that first rose and then fell to the level at admission, which was consistent with the trend of lung inflammation. Bone marrow smears further showed that bone marrow hyperplasia was normal in mild, common and severe type patients, and megakaryocytes and their platelet-producing functions were not abnormal. Conclusions: Our results suggested that the dynamic changes of platelet count might be a predictor of lung inflammation alteration for COVID-19 patients. The changes in platelet count might be a responsive pattern secondary to lung inflammation. The function of bone marrow may be slightly affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Introduction: COVID-19 may negatively impact prognosis for patients with chronic HFrEF, and vice versa. However, large-scale data characterizing the interplay of COVID-19 and HFrEF on clinical outcomes are scarce. Methods: We examined the TriNetX health database from January 2020-September 2020 to conduct 2 analyses. Analysis A excluded patients with HFpEF and included patients with a positive inpatient or outpatient test for COVID-19, with a 3-way comparison of patients 1) without prior HF, 2) HFrEF without recent worsening HF event (WHFE) (i.e., no HF hospitalization or outpatient IV diuretic within prior 1 year), and 3) worsening HFrEF (i.e., HF hospitalization or outpatient IV diuretic within prior 1 year). Outcomes included mortality at 30 days and composite all-cause mortality or hospitalization following COVID-19 test. Analysis B included patients with HFrEF who underwent PCR testing for COVID-19, and compared patients with a positive versus negative test. Outcomes were mortality at 30 days and worsening HF (i.e., HF hospitalization or outpatient IV diuretic use). Results: In analysis A, 98,014 (99%) patients had no prior HF, 524 (0.5%) had HFrEF without WHFE, and 514 (0.5%) had worsening HFrEF. After adjustment for confounders, compared with patients without HF, worsening HFrEF was independently associated with excess mortality (p<0.01), whereas HFrEF without WHFE was not statistically significant (p=0.06) (Table). In analysis B, 1,038 (7%) had a positive test for COVID-19 and 13,800 (93%) had only negative tests. After adjustment, testing positive for COVID-19 was independently associated with mortality and worsening HF (all p<0.01). Conclusions: In this US population of ambulatory and hospitalized patients, after accounting for confounders, worsening HFrEF was independently associated with excess mortality after COVID-19 infection. Among patients with HFrEF, COVID-19 infection was associated with higher risk of death and worsening HF events.