Bioactive compounds of Jingfang Granules against SARS-CoV-2 virus proteases 3CLpro and PLpro.

OBJECTIVE: Jingfang Granules have been recommended for the prevention and treatment of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Through chemical analysis and bioactivity evaluation, this study aims to elucidate the potential effective components of Jingfang Granules. METHOD(S): The inhibitory acti-vities of Jingfang Granules extract against 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro), papain like protease (PLpro), spike protein receptor-binding domain (S-RBD) and human cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were evaluated using enzyme assay. The antitussive effects were evaluated using the classical ammonia-induced cough model. The chemical constituents of Jingfang Granules were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS). The 3CLpro and PLpro inhibitory activities of the major compounds were determined by enzyme assay, molecular docking, and site-directed mutagenesis. RESULT(S): Jingfang Granules exhibited 3CLpro and PLpro inhibitory activities, as well as COX-2 inhibitory and antitussive activities. By investigating the MS/MS behaviors of reference standards, a total of fifty-six compounds were characterized in Jingfang Granules. Sixteen of them were unambiguously identified by comparing with reference standards. The contents of the 16 major compounds were also determined, and their total contents were 2 498.8 mug/g. Naringin, nodakenin and neohesperidin were three dominating compounds in Jingfang Granules, and their contents were 688.8, 596.4 and 578.7 mug/g, respectively. In addition, neohesperidin and naringin exhibited PLpro inhibitory activities, and the inhibition rates at 8 mumol/L were 53.5% and 46.1%, respectively. Prim-O-glucosylcimifugin showed significant inhibitory activities against 3CLpro and PLpro, and the inhibitory rates at 8 mumol/L were 76.8% and 78.2%, respectively. Molecular docking indicated that hydrogen bonds could be formed between prim-O-glucosylcimifugin and amino acid residues H163, E166, Q192, T190 of 3CLpro (binding energy, -7.7 kcal/mol) and K157, D164, R166, E167, T301 of PLpro(-7.3 kcal/mol), respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis indicated amino acid residue K157 was a key active site for the interaction between prim-O-glucosylcimifugin and PLpro. CONCLUSION(S): Prim-O-glucosylcimifugin, neohesperidin, and naringin as the major compounds from Jingfang Granules could inhibit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus proteases 3CLpro and PLpro. The results are valuable for rational clinical use of Jingfang Granules.

The First Reported Case of Lorlatinib-Associated Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Introduction: Lorlatinib is a third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS1). Although 2-10% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer developed hyperglycemia in phase 2 and 3 studies of lorlatinib, only one case has subsequently reported hyperglycemia >500 mg/dL, and no cases of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) have been previously reported. Phase 1 trials in neuroblastoma are ongoing. Case Description: A 34-year-old woman with ALK-mutated paraspinal neuroblastoma presented with DKA 14 months after initiation of lorlatinib. Prior to starting lorlatinib, her hemoglobin A1c had been 5.0% (n: < 5.7%). After 12 months of therapy, her A1c increased to 7.8%, prompting the initiation of metformin 500 mg daily. However, two months later she was admitted for DKA with a blood glucose of 591 mg/dL (n: 65-99 mg/dL), CO2 17 mmol/L (n: 20-30 mmol/L), anion gap 18 (n: 8-12), moderate serum ketones, and 3+ ketonuria. Her A1c was 14.8%, C-peptide was 1.2 ng/mL (n: 1.1-4.3 ng/mL), and her glutamic acid decarboxylase-65 and islet antigen-2 autoantibodies were negative. She was also found to be incidentally positive for COVID-19 but was asymptomatic without any oxygen requirement. The patient's DKA was successfully treated with IV insulin infusion, and she was discharged after 3 days with insulin glargine 27 units twice daily and insulin aspart 16 units with meals. One month later, her hemoglobin A1c had improved to 9.4%, and the patient's oncologist discontinued lorlatinib due to sustained remission of her neuroblastoma and her complication of DKA. After stopping lorlatinib, her blood glucose rapidly improved, and she self-discontinued all her insulin in the following 3 weeks. One month later, she was seen in endocrine clinic only taking metformin 500 mg twice daily with fasting and post-prandial blood glucose ranging 86-107 mg/dL. Discussion(s): This is the first reported case of DKA associated with lorlatinib. This case highlights the importance of close glucose monitoring and the risk of severe hyperglycemia and DKA while on lorlatinib therapy. Discontinuation of lorlatinib results in rapid improvement of glycemic control, and glucose-lowering treatments should be promptly deescalated to avoid hypoglycemia.Copyright © 2023

The effect of multi-cultural inter-facility endocrine video case conferencing – A novel model of education during the COVID pandemic

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought not only physical and mental health problems but also negative impacts on social, economic and educational activities. Trainees, including medical students, residents, and clinical fellows had fewer opportunities to see and discuss patients with supervisors in person. In contrast, recent advances in technology have made it possible to review cases with overseas experts through online conferences. We launched a biannual inter-facility endocrine case review meeting in a video conference format during the pandemic of COVID-19. Here we present the format of our inter-facility online case conference and its impact on trainees. Methods: The conference was organized by clinical faculty members from Japan, USA and Canada. For each conference, each facility prepared one to two cases in English. Four to five cases were presented and discussed with participants and guest commentators. After completion of the 4th conference, an anonymous multiple-choice online survey was administered to all attendees, and data was collected and analyzed by the committee members. Differences in responses before and after attendance were analyzed by paired t-test. Results: Four conferences were held between July/31/2020, and Dec/10/2021 (CST). The facilities participating was as follows: University of Minnesota, Hokkaido Univ., University of Alberta, and Kobe Univ. Participants included medical students, residents, endocrine fellows, and faculty. Presenters were medical students (n=1), endocrine fellows (n=15), and neurosurgery faculty (n=1). Presented topics included the following: 11 cases with pituitary disorders, 3 cases with neuroendocrine tumors, 2 cases with adrenal disorders and 1 case of thyroid disorder. Sixty-two percent of the attendees stated that 3-4 facilities are an ideal size of the collaborations in inter-facility case conference, and 82% of the attendees felt twice a year is an appropriate frequency of the conference. Ninety-seven percent of the participants indicated their willingness to continue to attend. The survey results also revealed that the conference has a positive impact on trainees’ clinical practice and career development. Furthermore, the confidence in presenting skills in English significantly increased after the conference (p<0. 01). Conclusion: Under the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched a new format of inter-institutional case review meeting using a video conferencing system that transcends national boundaries. This represents a new educational method for trainees. A small-scale (3-4 facilities) international collaboration in a video format may provide opportunities for learning rare endocrine cases, cultural diversity of endocrine care, enhanced active learning for trainees, and the opportunity for international presentation. This may lead to the development of a novel educational system in the future.Presentation: No date and time listed

CoAvoid: Secure, Privacy-Preserved Tracing of Contacts for Infectious Diseases

To fight against infectious diseases (e.g., SARS, COVID-19, Ebola, etc.), government agencies, technology companies and health institutes have launched various contact tracing approaches to identify and notify the people exposed to infection sources. However, existing tracing approaches can lead to severe privacy and security concerns, thereby preventing their secure and widespread use among communities. To tackle these problems, this paper proposes CoAvoid, an edge-based, privacy-preserved contact tracing system that features good dependability and usability. CoAvoid leverages the Google/Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) API to achieve decent device compatibility and operating efficiency. It utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to detect close contact with other people and leverages GPS with fine-grained matching algorithms to verify user information. In addition, to enhance privacy protection, CoAvoid applies fuzzification and obfuscation measures to shelter sensitive data, making both servers and users agnostic to information of both low and high-risk populations. The evaluation demonstrates good efficacy and security of CoAvoid. Compared with four state-of-the-art contact tracing applications, CoAvoid can reduce the size of upload data by at least 90% and reduce the verification time by 92%. More importantly, CoAvoid can preserve user privacy and resist replay and wormhole attacks in all analysis scenarios. IEEE

[Bioactive compounds of Jingfang Granules against SARS-CoV-2 virus proteases 3CL(pro) and PL(pro)]

OBJECTIVE: Jingfang Granules have been recommended for the prevention and treatment of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Through chemical analysis and bioactivity evaluation, this study aims to elucidate the potential effective components of Jingfang Granules. METHODS: The inhibitory acti-vities of Jingfang Granules extract against 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL(pro)), papain like protease (PL(pro)), spike protein receptor-binding domain (S-RBD) and human cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were evaluated using enzyme assay. The antitussive effects were evaluated using the classical ammonia-induced cough model. The chemical constituents of Jingfang Granules were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS). The 3CL(pro) and PL(pro) inhibitory activities of the major compounds were determined by enzyme assay, molecular docking, and site-directed mutagenesis. RESULTS: Jingfang Granules exhibited 3CL(pro) and PL(pro) inhibitory activities, as well as COX-2 inhibitory and antitussive activities. By investigating the MS/MS behaviors of reference standards, a total of fifty-six compounds were characterized in Jingfang Granules. Sixteen of them were unambiguously identified by comparing with reference standards. The contents of the 16 major compounds were also determined, and their total contents were 2 498.8 μg/g. Naringin, nodakenin and neohesperidin were three dominating compounds in Jingfang Granules, and their contents were 688.8, 596.4 and 578.7 μg/g, respectively. In addition, neohesperidin and naringin exhibited PL(pro) inhibitory activities, and the inhibition rates at 8 μmol/L were 53.5% and 46.1%, respectively. Prim-O-glucosylcimifugin showed significant inhibitory activities against 3CL(pro) and PL(pro), and the inhibitory rates at 8 μmol/L were 76.8% and 78.2%, respectively. Molecular docking indicated that hydrogen bonds could be formed between prim-O-glucosylcimifugin and amino acid residues H163, E166, Q192, T190 of 3CL(pro) (binding energy, -7.7 kcal/mol) and K157, D164, R166, E167, T301 of PL(pro)(-7.3 kcal/mol), respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis indicated amino acid residue K157 was a key active site for the interaction between prim-O-glucosylcimifugin and PL(pro). CONCLUSION: Prim-O-glucosylcimifugin, neohesperidin, and naringin as the major compounds from Jingfang Granules could inhibit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus proteases 3CL(pro) and PL(pro). The results are valuable for rational clinical use of Jingfang Granules.

Modeling Student Discourse in Online Discussion Forums Using Semantic Similarity Based Topic Chains

Students’ conversations in academic settings evolve over time and can be affected by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we employ a Contextualized Topic Modeling technique to detect coherent topics from students’ posts in online discussion forums. We construct topic chains by connecting semantically similar topics across months using Word Mover’s Distance. Consistent academic discourse and contemporary events such as the COVID-19 outbreak and the Black Lives Matter movement were found among prominent topics. In later months, new themes around students’ lived experiences emerged and evolved into discussions reflecting the shift in educational experiences. Results revealed a significant increase in more general topics after the onset of pandemic. Our proposed framework can also be applied to other contexts investigating temporal topic trends in large-scale text data. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Research on the Construction Method of Knowledge Graph

With the continuous innovation of Internet technology, the explosive growth of information has become one of its most obvious characteristics, and how to break through the problem of data storage has become an urgent challenge to be solved. The knowledge graph proposed by Google can intuitively describe the relationship between entities in the objective world in the form of a graph, which is of great help in solving this problem. Firstly, the basic concept of knowledge graph is expounded, and include the key steps of knowledge extraction, knowledge fusion, knowledge storage, etc. Taking the relationship between confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) in a certain city over the recent period as an example, a knowledge graph of case relationship is constructed. The results indicated that the knowledge graph intuitively shows the transmission path of the epidemic, which can provide certain help for the effective prevention and control of the epidemic. © VDE VERLAG GMBH - Berlin - Offenbach.

COVID-19 & cancer prevention in Texas: Reasons cited for HPV vaccination hesitancy and refusal during the pandemic

Background: HPV vaccination is highly effective at preventing several squamous cell carcinomas. However, the uptake of this vaccine remains sub-optimal in the US, with further exacerbation of this poor uptake during the pandemic. This study aims to describe changes and barriers to HPV vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic as observed by healthcare professionals (HCPs) in the state of Texas. Methods: Data for this study were derived from a statewide cross-sectional survey of HCPs in the state of Texas (n=1283). Survey instruments were developed at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and reviewed by its IRB. Survey frequencies were used to estimate for the proportional distribution of changes as observed by HCPs regarding HPV vaccination i) uptake ii) hesitancy and iii) refusal during the COVID-19 pandemic. HCPs who observed increases in vaccination hesitancy or refusal, were then asked for the reasons cited by their patients. Survey frequencies were then used to determine the proportional distribution of the reasons cited for HPV vaccination hesitancy and refusal during the pandemic. All statistical analysis were conducted using R version 3.5.2. Results: Overall, 730 HCPs responded to the study questions of interest. A predominant proportion of respondents were employed in group practice settings or university teaching/affiliated hospitals. About 20% of HCPs in Texas observed decreases in HPV vaccination uptake. Observed increments in HPV vaccination hesitancy and refusal were reported by 17.1% and 14.8% of HCPs, respectively. Among HCPs who observed increased hesitancy and refusal, difficulties in scheduling clinic visit during the pandemic and fear of contracting corona virus during the clinic visit were the most cited reasons. Discussion: Findings of the index study suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on HPV vaccination in Texas. Results identify perceived barriers to HPV vaccination unique to the pandemic. With the pandemic still ongoing, amid the emergence of novel strains with heightened virulence, despite the presence of highly effective FDA-approved vaccines, findings of this study provides useful insight for public health interventions, as well as to guide physician-patient interactions around HPV vaccination.

Study of Fluorescence Immunochromatography Based on Quantum Dots for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 anti-N Protein IgG Antibody

Background: Based on the current prevalence of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), early diagnosis, isolation, and treatment are important methods to prevent and control infectious diseases. The establishment of convenient and efficient immunochromatographic detection techniques is essential for the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic. Objective: To establish a method for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 anti-N protein IgG antibody by immun of luorescence chromatography method based on quantum dots labeling technology in August, 2020. In order to determine whether the detected persons had been infected with COVID-19 or been injected with SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine. Methods The prepared rat anti-human secondary antibody and anti-N protein antibody were immobilized on a Nitrocellulose (NC) membrane as detection line (T) and quality control line (C), respectively. Then the SARS-CoV-2 N protein labeled by quantum dots was evenly sprayed on glass fiber, which was assembled, cut and packaged into test strips after drying. The test strips were used to detect the clinical serum of 35 COVID-19 patients and 50 healthy individuals, the results of the initial screening of the ELISA kit were used as a control to calculate the detection specificity and sensitivity of quantum dots fluorescence immunochromatography. The sensitivity of the test strip was detected by using the N protein antibody standard. Results The specificity and sensitivity of the strip were 100.00%, 94.29%, and the susceptibility was 8.53-17.06 ng/ml antibody concentration. Conclusion: The detection of anti-N protein IgG antibody in serum by quantum dots labeling is simple, fast, with strong sensitivity and specificity. Copyright © 2022 by the Chinese General Practice.

Risk and Protective Factors of College Students' Psychological Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Emotional Stability, Mental Health, and Household Resources

Colleges and universities have increasingly worried in recent decades about college students' well-being, with the COVID-19 pandemic aggravating these concerns. Our study examines changes to undergraduate emotional sentiments and psychological well-being from before to after the onset of the pandemic. In addition, we explore whether certain risk factors (i.e., prior mental health impairments, trait emotional stability) and protective factors (i.e., subjective socioeconomic status, parental education, household resources) predicted students' emotions and their intraindividual changes due to the pandemic onset. We compared experience sampling method data from 120 students from before and after the pandemic onset, examining intraindividual trajectories. There was only little change in students' emotions. Prior mental health impairment and trait emotional stability predicted students' emotions, averaged across time points, but not emotion changes. Few associations with emotions were found for subjective socioeconomic status and parental education, but study-related household resources predicted levels and changes in emotions.

IWILDS'21: Second International Workshop on Learning during Web Search

Web search is one of the most ubiquitous online activities and often used as a starting point to learn, i. e., to acquire or extend one's knowledge about certain topics or procedures. When learning by searching the Web, individuals are confronted with an unprecedented amount of information in various forms and varying quality. Thus, successful learning on the Web requires high degrees of self-regulation and should be supported by the adequate design of search, recommendation, and training tools. This creates a highly interdisciplinary research area at the intersection of information retrieval, human-computer interaction, psychology, and educational sciences. Search as Learning (SAL) research examines the relationships between querying, navigation, media consumption behavior, and the learning outcomes during Web search, how they can be measured, predicted, and supported. Building on the growing SAL research community, IWILDS provides an interdisciplinary forum in a workshop that includes keynotes, paper presentations, and discussion. This year, IWILDS'21 specifically invites submissions focussing on challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, investigating, for instance, health-related information acquisition on the Web and the pandemic-induced digitalization of formal learning. © 2021 Owner/Author.

The 4th International Workshop on Epidemiology meets Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery (epiDAMIK 4.0 @ KDD2021)

The 4th epiDAMIK@SIGKDD workshop is a forum to discuss new insights into how data mining can play a bigger role in epidemiology and public health research. While the integration of data science methods into epidemiology has significant potential, it remains under studied. We aim to raise the profile of this emerging research area of data-driven and computational epidemiology, and create a venue for presenting state-of-the-art and in-progress results-in particular, results that would otherwise be difficult to present at a major data mining conference, including lessons learnt in the 'trenches'. The current COVID-19 pandemic has only showcased the urgency and importance of this area. Our target audience consists of data mining and machine learning researchers from both academia and industry who are interested in epidemiological and public-health applications of their work, and practitioners from the areas of mathematical epidemiology and public health. © 2021 Owner/Author.

A green and high-yield route to recycle waste masks into CNTs/Ni hybrids via catalytic carbonization and their application for superior microwave absorption

With the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, a tremendous amount of face masks have been consumed and discarded, resulting in serious environment pollution and infectious hazards. Herein a green and high-yield route has been developed to recycle waste masks (WMs) into CNTs/Ni hybrids via catalytic carbonization. Our results exhibited that the yield of carbon was as high as 64.4 g/100 g WMs. Furthermore, the as-fabricated CNTs/Ni hybrids were applied for microwave absorption, which displayed superior performances, including a strong reflection loss of -56.3 dB and an absorption bandwidth of 4.3 GHz with absorber thickness of only 2.0 mm. The mechanism was mainly ascribed to the favorable synergistic effects of CNTs and Ni on conduction and magnetic losses, dipolar polarization, interfacial polarization and impedance matching. Thus, this work provides an environmentally friendly, scalable and cost-effective strategy for recycling waste masks into high-valuable carbon nanomaterials, and exploits their potential application for microwave absorption. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Study on mechanism of fangyi qingfei decoction against Covid-19 associated lung and kidney injury based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

Introduction: The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The present study aims to explore the potential antiviral and lung or kidney tissue-protecting mechanisms of Fangyi Qingfei Decoction (FYQFD) on COVID-19 based on network pharmacology and molecular docking method. Materials and methods: Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) was used to search the compounds and targets of FYQFD, and GeneCards database was used to search the pathological targets of acute lung or kidney injury;The intersection method was used to obtain the targets related to the therapeutic effect of FYQFD. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by Search Tool For Recurring Instances of Neighbouring Genes (STRING) database and the hub target genes were identified by calculating node degree. Molecular docking was performed based on the hub compounds and hub target genes and the SARS-CoV-2 3CL hydrolase (SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro) and angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), respectively. Results: Total 159 potential active components, corresponding to 203 targets associated lung and kidney injury, were screened from FYQFD. GO function enrichment analysis revealed 123 biological process (BP) items (P < 0.05), 75 signal pathways (P < 0.05) were screened out after KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Furthermore, molecular docking indicated that main active compounds kaempferol, quercetin, wogonin, luteolin and acacetin in FYQFD exhibited higher affinity among AKT1, ALB, IL6, TP53, VEGFA, TNF, JUN, CASP3, EGFR, MAPK1 with SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro and ACE2. Conclusion: By this procedure, the present study enhanced the understanding of the potential therapeutic mechanism of FYQFD, that the partial compounds in FYQFD can bind with SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro and ACE2, and acting on many targets to regulate multiple signaling pathways, thus exerting the therapeutic effect on COVID-19.

Rapid and severe worsening of diabetes in a heart transplant recipient after Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine administration

The COVID-19 vaccines are usually safe, effective, and well-tolerated by the general population. After the COVID-19 vaccines are widely used, rare and potentially severe vaccine complications become more manifest. Here reported is a case of rapid and severe worsening of diabetes after the Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (J&J COVID vaccine) administration. A 55-year-old male heart transplant recipient with metformin (500 mg twice daily)-controlled mild diabetes started to have flu-like symptoms a few days after receiving the J&J COVID vaccine. His fasting glucose levels had ranged between 130-150 mg/dL (normal 65-99) before he received the J&J COVID vaccine. The fasting glucose rose to ~200 mg/dL one day after the vaccine administration and gradually rose to ~400 mg/dL over the next few weeks. He presented to the endocrine clinic urgently. Point-of-care fasting glucose was 382 mg/dL and A1c 13.0 (which was 6.7 six months before). Bicarbonate and anion gap were normal, insulin and C-peptide in the low normal range, and β cell autoantibodies negative. Multi-dosing insulin treatment was immediately started and the doses titrated up to insulin glargine 30 units daily and insulin lispro 10 units before each meal. He improved clinically with well-controlled glycemia. The rapid and severe worsening of his diabetes after the vaccination suggests that the J&J COVID vaccine could severely deteriorate diabetes control in some patient populations.

Data-driven mobility models for COVID-19 simulation

Agent-based models (ABM) play a prominent role in guiding critical decision-making and supporting the development of effective policies for better urban resilience and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many ABMs lack realistic representations of human mobility, a key process that leads to physical interaction and subsequent spread of disease. Therefore, we propose the application of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a topic modeling technique, to foot-traffic data to develop a realistic model of human mobility in an ABM that simulates the spread of COVID-19. In our novel approach, LDA treats POIs as "words"and agent home census block groups (CBGs) as "documents"to extract "topics"of POIs that frequently appear together in CBG visits. These topics allow us to simulate agent mobility based on the LDA topic distribution of their home CBG. We compare the LDA based mobility model with competitor approaches including a naive mobility model that assumes visits to POIs are random. We find that the naive mobility model is unable to facilitate the spread of COVID-19 at all. Using the LDA informed mobility model, we simulate the spread of COVID-19 and test the effect of changes to the number of topics, various parameters, and public health interventions. By examining the simulated number of cases over time, we find that the number of topics does indeed impact disease spread dynamics, but only in terms of the outbreak's timing. Further analysis of simulation results is needed to better understand the impact of topics on simulated COVID-19 spread. This study contributes to strengthening human mobility representations in ABMs of disease spread. © 2020 ACM.

Factors Affecting Trends in Societal Indicators of Ageing Well in Hong Kong: Policies, Politics and Pandemics.

OBJECTIVES: To document the trend in a quality of life indicator for the older Hong Kong population as an assessment of the impact of age friendly city policies, political conflicts and the covid-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Random telephone survey and collection of government data over four years (2017-2020). SETTING: Community living older people. PARTICIPANTS: People aged 50 years and over. MEASUREMENTS: The Hong Kong Quality of Life Index covering four domains of in income security, health status, capability and enabling environment. RESULTS: From 2017-9, improvements were seen in various domains in parallel with the adoption of the World Health Organization's Age Friendly City concept by government policy together with a territory wide initiative supported by a major philanthropic organization. However scores of all domains dropped markedly as a result of political conflicts as well as the onset of the pandemic. CONCLUSION: The documentation of the trend in HKEQOL shows that while it may be used as a macro indicator that is able to reflect policies affecting the well-being of older people, it is also able to reflect the impact of societal unrest and pandemics, and that the latter may override the effect of existing ageing policies. It also follows that during social unrest and pandemics, specific policies targeting older people may be needed to maintain well-being.