Build an Agent-Based Model for COVID-19 Effect of Mitigation Policies

Non-Drug Intervention (NDI) is one of the important means to prevent and control the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and the implementation of this series of measures plays a key role in the development of the epidemic. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of different mitigation measures on the situation of the COVID 19, and effectively respond to the prevention and control situation in the "post-epidemic era". The present work is based on the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Remove-Susceptible (SEIRS) Model, and adapted the agent-based model (ABM) to construct the epidemic prevention and control model framework to simulate the COVID-19 epidemic from three aspects: social distance, personal protection, and bed resources. The experiment results show that the above NDI are effective mitigation measures for epidemic prevention and control, and can play a positive role in the recurrence of COVID-19, but a single measure cannot prevent the recurrence of infection peaks and curb the spread of the epidemic;When social distance and personal protection rules are out of control, bed resources will become an important guarantee for epidemic prevention and control. Although the spread of the epidemic cannot be curbed, it can slow down the recurrence of the peak of the epidemic;When people abide by social distance and personal protection rules, the pressure on bed resources will be eased. At the same time, under the interaction of the three measures, not only the death toll can be reduced, but the spread of the epidemic can also be effectively curbed. © 2022 ACM.

USE OF ANGIOTENSIN-CONVERTING ENZYME INHIBITORS (ACEIs) AND ANGIOTENSIN-RECEPTOR BLOCKERS (ARBs) AND INCIDENCE OF PNEUMONIA OR INFLUENZA OR COVID-19: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

Introduction: The respiratory tract infections (RTIs), including pneumonia, influenza and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), are the leading cause of hospitalization and mortality worldwide, contributing to elevated healthcare and societal costs. There is conflicting evidences about the effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEIs) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) on the susceptibility of RTIs. Method(s): Systematic review of interventional and observational studies that reported use of ACEI or/and ARB on incidence of pneumonia or influenza or COVID-19. Searching was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), including the Cochrane Library until April 2022, and references of retrieved relevant articles. We assessed the quality of included studies by using Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias tool for Randomized Controlled Trials and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for observational studies. DerSimonian Laird random-effects meta-analysis was conducted to pool effects for the incidence of pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19. Subgroup analyses were carried according to baseline morbidities (hypertension or cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and other non-communicable diseases). Pooled estimates of odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed, and heterogeneity among studies was assessed using Cochran's Q test and the I2 metrics, with two tailed P values. Result(s): 73 studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 38 studies assessed the odds of pneumonia, 32 studies assessed Covid-19 and 3 studies assessed influenza. The quality of included studies was moderate. Use of ACEIs was associated with a significantly reduced odds of pneumonia (23 studies: OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.85;I2=76.8%), of COVID-19 (24 studies: OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.92;I2=81.9%) and influenza (3 studies: OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.98, I2=97.7%), compared with control treatment. Use of ARBs was also associated with reduced odds of COVID-19 (25 studies: OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.97;I2=91.9%), but not with odds of pneumonia or influenza. These findings remain consistent in the community population, patients with history of cerebrovascular diseases or cardiovascular diseases, but not in those with CKD, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Conclusion(s): The current evidence favours a putative protective role of ACEIs, not ARB in odds of pneumonia, COVID-19 and influenza. Patient populations that may benefit most are those within the community, history of cerebrovascular diseases and cardiovascular diseases. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023

Mediating role of psychological resilience between social support and negative emotions in nursing interns in the post-COVID-19 era: A cross-sectional survey

Background: The increasing burden of mental health problems continues in the post-COVID-19 era, and nursing interns were particularly likely to experience negative emotions during the pandemic. Both psychological resilience and social support affect negative emotion, but the relationship among the three has not been explored in nursing interns in the postpandemic era. Objectives: To explore the current prevalence of negative emotions among nursing interns and the role of psychological resilience in mediating the relationship between social support and negative emotions in the postpandemic era. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 788 nursing interns was conducted. The instruments included Psychological Resilience Scale, Social Support Scale, Beck Anxiety Scale and Beck Depression Scale. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the mediating role of psychological resilience. Results: The prevalence of anxiety disorder among nursing interns was 24.7%, while that of depression was 10.5%. Pearson correlation analysis showed that both social support and psychological resilience negatively correlated with negative emotions, while psychological resilience positively correlated with social support. Psychological resilience showed a partial mediating effect (53.9%) between social support and negative emotion, with an effect value of −0.1456. Conclusion: Psychological resilience and social support protect nursing students from negative emotions, and psychological resilience partially mediates the relationship between social support and negative emotion in the postpandemic era. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Stability analysis of time-delayed SAIR model for duration of vaccine in the context of temporary immunity for COVID-19 situation

As the COVID-19 continues threatening public health worldwide, when to vaccinate the booster shots becomes the hot topic. In this paper, based on the characteristics of COVID-19 and its vaccine, an SAIR model associated with temporary immunity is proposed to study the effect on epidemic situation. Second, we theoretically analyze the existence and stability of equilibrium and the system undergoes Hopf bifurcation when delay passes through some critical values. Third, we study the dynamic properties of Hopf bifurcation and derive the normal form of Hopf bifurcation to determine the stability and direction of bifurcating periodic solutions. After that, numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the application of the theoretical results. Particularly, in order to ensure the validity, statistical analysis of data is conducted to determine the values for model parameters. Next, we study the impact of the infection rates on booster vaccination time to simulate the mutants, and the results are consistent with the facts. Finally, we predict the mean time of completing a round of vaccination worldwide with the help fitting and put forward some suggestions by comparing with the critical time of booster vaccination.

Cross-Language Vocabulary Teaching Based on Information Network Technology: The Example of Loanwords

Loanwords have always been a hot topic in the study and teaching of Chinese as a foreign language, but there are also many different views and debates. This article summarises and outlines the hotspots of research into and teaching of loanwords in linguistics in recent decades and discusses the current issues of language teaching and cross-linguistic education in the context of the new COVID-19 pandemic in relation to information network technology. First, the concept and scope of loanwords are defined, and the rationale of loanwords is discussed from the perspective of word formation. On this basis, the characteristics of loanwords are summarised, the online teaching of loanwords in the context of the new pandemic is discussed from the perspective of information technology and the Sinicization of loanwords is discussed from the perspective of language development. © 2022 ACM.

Transition to Disease-Site Specific Chart Rounds: An Evaluation of Impact on Quality and Perceptions of Practitioners

Although chart rounds is an established quality assurance process, there remains minimal evidence on various forms of peer review, and some studies report relatively low error-detection rates. One question faced by both academic and community practices is whether to structure chart rounds as practice-site specific (PS) or disease-specific (DS). The global COVID pandemic may also offer new opportunities for structuring peer-review by enhancing virtual connectivity of people and practices. The purpose of this study was to determine if changes to treatment plans were recommended more often and assess perceptions following the transition to DS chart rounds. Data was prospectively collected for 6 months before and 6 months after transition to DS chart rounds at a multi-practice institution. Observed data included frequency of questions asked, educational remarks, and recommended changes to the presented plan or future patients. Time spent per case was recorded. Participants were not aware of data collection. Following 10 months of practicing DS chart rounds, a survey was distributed to faculty, dosimetrists, and trainees to assess perceptions of DS chart rounds. Two-tailed t-testing and chi-square testing were used to analyze the data. Criteria for statistical significance was p<0.05. The study was IRB-approved. Over 1 year, 1460 patients were peer reviewed;781 were reviewed by PS chart rounds and 679 by DS chart rounds. A question was asked more often in DS (49.3%) than PS (31.9%) chart rounds (p<0.001). A change to a presented plan was recommended more often in DS (4.9%) than PS (1.4%) chart rounds (p<0.001). A change was recommended for future patients more often in DS (4.4%) than PS (0.9%) chart rounds (p<0.001). An educational point was raised more often in DS (12.5%) than PS (9.3%) chart rounds (p=0.05). Time spent per case was more for DS (2.7 min) than PS (1.6 min) chart rounds (p<0.001). Overall, there were 35 survey respondents (54% response rate). Among attendings, the response rate was 74%. Of all respondents, 89% agreed DS chart rounds improve the quality of patient plans, 83% agreed DS chart rounds improve patient safety, 86% agreed DS chart rounds encourage more discussion, and 77% agreed DS chart rounds are more educational. Only 37% of respondents agreed DS chart rounds are more time efficient;however, 95% of attendings and 89% of all respondents favored continuing DS chart rounds;no respondents disagreed. Time efficiency was not associated with preference for continuing DS chart rounds (p=0.10). Favoring continuing DS chart rounds was associated with the belief that DS chart rounds improve patient safety (p<0.001), quality of patient plans (p<0.001), and education (p<0.001). DS chart rounds were associated with more discussion and recommended changes to treatment plans than PS chart rounds. Most respondents favored continuing DS chart rounds and reported that this format improved the quality of patient treatment plans and safety. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

CheetahKG: A Demonstration for Core-based Top-k Frequent Pattern Discovery on Knowledge Graphs

Knowledge graphs capture the complex relationships among various entities, which can be found in various real world applications, e.g., Amazon product graph, Freebase, and COVID-19. To facilitate the knowledge graph analytical tasks, a system that supports interactive and efficient query processing is always in demand. In this demonstration, we develop a prototype system, CheetahKG, that embeds with our state-of-the-art query processing engine for the top-k frequent pattern discovery. Such discovered patterns can be used for two purposes, (i) identifying related patterns and (ii) guiding knowledge exploration. In the demonstration sessions, the attendees will be invited to test the efficiency and effectiveness of the query engine and use the discovered patterns to analyze knowledge graphs on CheetahKG. © 2022 IEEE.

REMOVAL OF BUBBLES UTILIZING A MEMBRANE-BASED DEBUBBLER

In many microfluidic applications, unwanted bubbles can be formed in the microfluidic device and adversely affect device operation. In this work, a novel membrane-based debubbler is developed to remove bubbles in the microfluidic device quickly and efficiently. Our experiments show that this new debubbler can perform well at a flow rate of up to 500 µl/min, and have a very small dead volume of less than 0.35µl. Besides, it has also been verified to be workable on a PCR assay for the SARS-CoV-2 test. © 2021 MicroTAS 2021 - 25th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences. All rights reserved.

SARS-CoV-2 membrane protein is incompetent at inducing antibody-dependent enhancement though Fc receptor pathway

Objective To investigate the immune characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 membrane (M) protein, especially the possibility of inducing antibody-dependent enhancement effect (ADE) .Methods Full-length SARS-CoV-2 M protein was prepared by prokaryotic expression system and purified.BALB/ c mice were immunized subcutaneously three times (on day 1, day 14 and day 21) by purified M protein.Serum samples were collected before immunization and after each immunization.The specificity of immune sera against M protein was identified by Western blot, and the antibody titers were detected by ELISA and neutralization test.In the presence of anti-M protein serum, the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 in dendritic cells, nature killer cells, T and B cells was detected in vitro.Results The immune sera from BALB/ c mice immunized with purified full-length M protein of SARS-CoV-2 specifically recognized viral M protein.The titer of anti-whole virus antibody in immune sera was about 1 ∶ 400, but the antibody could not neutralize live virus.Moreover, the antibody could not help the virus to infect and proliferate in the various types of immune cells with Fc receptor (FcR).Conclusions Non-neutralizing antibody induced by M protein could not cause ADE through FcR pathway.

Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 infected with Delta variant in Guangzhou:A real-world study

Objective To summarize the clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infected with Delta variant, so as to provide further references for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Methods A real-world study was conducted to analyze the characteristics of 166 COVID-19 patients infected with Delta variant at Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University. Results The study enrolled 5 asymptomatic cases, 123 non-severe cases (mild and moderate type), and 38 severe cases (severe and critical type). Among these patients, 69 (41.6%) were male and 97 (58.4%) were female, with a mean age of 47.0±23.5 years. Thirty-nine cases (23.5%) had received 1 or 2 doses of inactivated vaccine. The incidence of severe COVID-19 cases was 7.7% in 2-doses vaccinated patients, which was lower than that of 11.5% in 1-dose and 26.8% in unvaccinated patients. The proportion of severe cases in 2 dose-vaccinated patients was 7.7%, which was lower than that of 11.5% in 1-dose vaccinated patients and 26.8% in unvaccinated patients, but the difference was not significant (P>0.05). The most common clinical symptom was fever (134 cases, 83.2%), and 39.1% of cases presented with high-grade fever (≥ 39 °C);other symptoms were cough, sputum, fatigue, and xerostomia. The proportion of fever in severe cases was significantly higher than that of non-severe cases (97.4% vs. 76.4%, P<0.01). Similarly, the proportion of severe cases with high peak temperature (≥ 39 ℃) () was also higher than that of non-severe cases (65.8% vs. 30.9%, P<0.01). The median minimal Cycle threshold (Ct) values of viral nucleic acid N gene and ORFlab gene were 20.3 and 21.5, respectively, and the minimum Ct values were 11.9 and 13.5, respectively. Within 48 h of admission, 9.0% of cases presented with decreased white blood cell counts, and 52.4% with decreased lymphocyte counts. The proportions of increased C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A, interleukin 6, and interleukin 10 were 32.5%, 57.4%, 65.3%, and 35.7%, respectively. The proportions of elevated C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A and interleukin-6 in severe cases were significantly higher than those in non-severe cases (P<0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that older age and higher peak temperature were associated with a higher likelihood of severe cases (OR>3, 95% CI: 2-7, P<0.01). In terms of treatment, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was used in 97.6% of non-severe cases and 100% in severe cases. Other treatments included respiratory and nutritional support, immunotherapy (such as neutralizing antibodies and plasma of recovered patients). The median times from admission to progression to severe cases, of fever clearance, and of nucleic acid conversion were 5 days, 6 days and 19 days, respectively. No deaths were reported within 28 days. Conclusions The symptoms of Delta variant infection in Guangzhou are characterized by a high proportion of fever, high peak temperature, long duration of fever, high viral load, a long time to nucleic acid conversion, and a high incidence of severe cases. The severe cases exhibit a higher percentage of elderly patients, a longer duration of fever and have a higher fever rate and a higher hyperthermia rate than non-severe cases. Age and hyperthermia are independent risk factors for progression to severe disease. The combination of TCM and Western medicine can control the progression of the disease effectively. © 2021 Chinese Medical Association. All rights reserved.

The effect of the specific discount pattern of cosmetic retailers in China during the COVID-19

This chapter aims to study female consumers' perceptions of buying cosmetic products during the COVID- 19 pandemic in terms of specific discount strategies. Different types of discount patterns have a positive relationship with perceived price attractiveness and purchase intention. The results show that the most effective way to motivate Chinese customers to purchase cosmetics during the epidemic is the price discount. Therefore, this study will help the cosmetic industry better understand consumers' perception and shopping behaviors towards cosmetics, especially when all people are in lockdown and must wear masks on many occasions and in public areas. Simultaneously, it can be a reference for cosmetic companies to study and better grasp consumer consumption behavior changes during a crisis. © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2021. All rights reserved.

[Preliminary clinical analysis of direct renin inhibitor aliskiren in the treatment of severe coronavirus disease 2019 patients with hypertension].

Objective: To explore the feasibility of direct renin inhibitor aliskiren for the treatment of severe or critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with hypertension. Methods: The antihypertensive effects and safety of aliskiren was retrospectively analyzed in three severe and one critical COVID-19 patients with hypertension. Results: Four patients, two males and two females, with an average age of 78 years (66-87 years), were referred to hospital mainly because of respiratory symptoms. Three were diagnosed by positive novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) nucleic acid or antibody, and the critical patient with cardiac insufficiency was clinically determined. Two patients were treated with calcium channel antagonist (CCB), one with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), and one with angiotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist (ARB). After admission, ACEI and ARB were discontinued, one patient with heart failure was treated by aliskiren combined with diuretic.Three patients were treated with aliskiren combined with CCB among whom two withdrew CCB due to low blood pressure after 1 to 2 weeks. Based on comprehensive treatment including antiviral and oxygenation treatment, blood pressure was satisfactorily controlled by aliskiren after three to four weeks without serious adverse events. All patients were finally discharged. Conclusion: Our preliminary clinical data shows that antihypertensive effect of aliskiren is satisfactory and safe for severe COVID-19 patients complicated with hypertension.

Who Lost Most Wages and Household Income during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Rural China?

China managed to eliminate all extreme poverty in rural areas in 2020. Poor households, however, may risk falling back into poverty due to the COVID-19. This paper examines the impacts of the pandemic on wages and household incomes among different groups in poor areas of rural China. Using a unique dataset from five poverty-stricken counties, we found that the pandemic has had large negative effects on wage income for migrant workers and workers in manufacturing, the private sector, and small enterprises. Compared with households relying on wage income, households relying on small businesses have suffered much more from the pandemic, whereas households depending on farming or transfer payments have been less affected. Although poor and ethnic minority households lost significant amounts of wage income due to the pandemic, they did not lose more household income than nonpoor and nonminority households. We conclude that support from the government has kept vulnerable households from suffering more than other households from the effects of COVID-19. Our findings suggest that the government can play a strong role in alleviating the negative impacts of the COVID-19.

Document classification for COVID-19 literature

The global pandemic has made it more important than ever to quickly and accurately retrieve relevant scientific literature for effective consumption by researchers in a wide range of fields. We provide an analysis of several multi-label document classification models on the LitCovid dataset, a growing collection of 23,000 research papers regarding the novel 2019 coronavirus. We find that pre-trained language models fine-tuned on this dataset outperform all other baselines and that BioBERT surpasses the others by a small margin with microF1 and accuracy scores of around 86% and 75% respectively on the test set. We evaluate the data efficiency and generalizability of these models as essential features of any system prepared to deal with an urgent situation like the current health crisis. We perform a data ablation study to determine how important article titles are for achieving reasonable performance on this dataset. Finally, we explore 50 errors made by the best performing models on LitCovid documents and find that they often (1) correlate certain labels too closely together and (2) fail to focus on discriminative sections of the articles;both of which are important issues to address in future work. Both data and code are available on GitHub1 © 2020 Association for Computational Linguistics

Fast core-based top-k frequent pattern discovery in knowledge graphs

Knowledge graph is a way of structuring information in graph form, by representing entities as nodes and relationships between entities as edges. A knowledge graph often consists of large amount of facts in real-world which can be used in supporting many analytical tasks, e.g., exceptional facts discovery and fact check of claims. In this work, we study a core-based top-k frequent pattern discovery problem which is frequently used as a subroutine in analyzing knowledge graphs. The main challenge of the problem is search space of the candidate patterns is exponential to the combinations of the nodes and edges in the knowledge graph.To reduce the search space, we devise a novel computation framework FastPat with a suite of optimizations. First, we devise a meta-index, which can be used to avoid generating invalid candidate patterns. Second, we propose an upper bound of the frequency score (i.e., MNI) of the candidate pattern that prunes unqualified candidates earlier and prioritize the enumeration order of the patterns. Lastly, we design a join-based approach to compute the MNI of candidate pattern efficiently. We conduct extensive experimental studies in real-world datasets to verify the superiority of our proposed method over the baselines. We also demonstrate the utility of the discovered frequent patterns by a case study in COVID-19 knowledge graph. © 2021 IEEE.

High-Flow Nasal Cannula for COVID-19 Patients: A Multicenter Retrospective Study in China

Background: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) may help avoid intubation of hypoxemic patients suffering from COVID-19;however, it may also contribute to delaying intubation, which may increase mortality. Here, we aimed to identify the predictors of HFNC failure among patients with COVID-19.

Conclusion

This final chapter reflects on the arguments made in this volume and considers how strategic narrative analysis can offer analytical traction to study the future evolution of EU–China relations. We outline how the chapters in this volume have explored how Chinese narratives are presented in European news media—and how European narratives about China are reported too. We highlight how the contributors pay attention to geographical spaces in Europe, to third party spaces in Africa, and to policy forums in which businesses, NGOs and other stakeholders compete to reframe issues and contribute to strategic narrative formation. Finally, we argue that a failure to forge a renewed EU–China strategic narrative will hinder the international response to the Covid-19 crisis of 2020. © 2021, The Author(s).