International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

This article presents the history, contents, structures, functions, and applications of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is a global standard maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO). The article aims to present ICD from the knowledge organization perspective and focuses on the current versions, ICD-10 and ICD-11. It also introduces the relationship between ICD and other health knowledge organization systems (KOSs), plus efforts in research and development reported in health informat-ics. The article concludes that the high-level effort of promoting a unified classification system such as ICD is critical in providing a common language for systematic recording, reporting, analysis, interpretation, and comparison of mortality and morbidity data. It greatly enhances the constancy of coding across languages, cultures, and healthcare systems around the world.

Estimations and Tests for Generalized Mediation Models with High-Dimensional Potential Mediators

Motivated by an empirical analysis of stock reaction to COVID-19 pandemic, we propose a generalized mediation model with high-dimensional potential mediators to study the mediation effects of financial metrics that bridge company's sector and stock value. We propose an estimation procedure for the direct effect via a partial penalized maximum likelihood method and establish its theoretical properties. We develop a Wald test for the indirect effect and show that the proposed test has a (Formula presented.) limiting null distribution. We also develop a partial penalized likelihood ratio test for the direct effect and show that the proposed test asymptotically follows a (Formula presented.) -distribution under null hypothesis. A more efficient estimator of indirect effect under complete mediation model is also developed. Simulation studies are conducted to examine the finite sample performance of the proposed procedures and compare with some existing methods. We further illustrate the proposed methodology with an empirical analysis of stock reaction to COVID-19 pandemic via exploring the underlying mechanism of the relationship between companies' sectors and their stock values. © 2023 American Statistical Association.

[Diagnostic value of rapid antigen testing for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection].

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of rapid antigen test based on colloidal gold immunochromatographic assay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in symptomatic patients. Methods: From May 20 to June 5 2022, 76 hospitalized children and their 55 accompanying family members with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in the COVID-19 isolation unit of the Children's Hospital of Fudan University (designated referral hospital for SARS-CoV-2 infection in Shanghai) enrolled. Their nasopharyngeal swab specimens were consecutively collected. The samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid by real-time quantitative. SARS-CoV-2 antigen was tested by immunochromatography. The correlation between the antigen detection results and the change of the cycle threshold (Ct) values were evaluated, as well as the sensitivity and specificity of SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection at different periods after the onset of the disease. Kappa consistency test was conducted to investigate the consistency between the 2 diagnostic methods. Results: Of the enrolled SARS-CoV-2 symptomatic infections, 76 were children, including 41 males and 35 females, with an age of 5 (2, 9) years; 55 were accompanying families, including 8 males and 47 females, with an age of 38 (32, 41) years. All 478 samples were simultaneously tested for SARS-CoV-2 antigen and nucleic acid. In any period from disease onset to negative conversion of viral nucleic acid, the overall sensitivity of the rapid antigen test was 48.2% (119/247), the specificity was 98.3% (227/231), and antigen test and nucleic acid test showed moderate consistency (κ=0.46, P<0.05). The sensitivity of antigen test was 100% (82/82) when the Ct value was ≤25. And the sensitivity of antigen test was 8/10, 4/15 and 8.3% (3/36) when the Ct value was 26, 30 and 35, respectively. All antigen tests were negative when Ct value was >35. During the period of 1-2 days, 3-5 days, 6-7 days, 8-10 days and >10 days after onset, the sensitivity and specificity of SARS-CoV-2 antigen test were 5/8 and 5/5, 90.2% (37/41) and 5/5, 88.9% (24/27) and 2/5, 45.0% (36/80) and 94.1% (32/34), 18.7% (17/91) and 98.9% (183/185) respectively. The Ct values of nasopharyngeal swabs were<26 during 2 to 7 days after onset, 28.7±5.0 on day 8, 34.5±2.9 on day 13 and > 35 after 14 days, respectively. Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 antigen test in the patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection shows acceptable sensitivity and specificity within 7 days after onset of disease, and the sensitivity was positively correlated with viral load and negatively correlated with onset time.

[Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in children imported from Hong Kong].

Objective: To understand the clinical characteristics of children with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection imported from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted to collect the data including clinical manifestations, outcomes and vaccination of 107 children with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection imported from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to be admitted to the designated referral hospital in Shanghai from February to March 2022. According to the occurrence of clinical symptoms, the cases were divided into asymptomatic group and symptomatic group. According to the age of diagnosis, the cases were divided into <3 years group, 3-<6 years group and 6-<18 years group, and the clinical manifestations in different age group were analyzed with t-test and Mann-Whitney rank-sum test. Besides, to analyze the effectiveness of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in different age group, the cases aged 3-<18 years were also subdivided into unvaccinated group, 1-dose group and 2-dose group, and the relative risk (RR) was used to demonstrate the effectiveness. Results: Among the 107 cases, 66 were male and 41 were female, with infection age of 10 (5, 14) years. There were 29 cases in the asymptomatic group, and 78 cases in the symptomatic group, and no significant difference in the age of infection was observed between the 2 groups (11 (6, 14) vs. 10 (5, 14) years, Z=0.49, P>0.05). And there were no severe cases in symptomatic group. The length of hospitalization was (18±6) days, and was longer in symptomatic group than that in asymptomatic group ((19±6) vs. (16±7) d, t=0.17, P=0.030). Eight-two cases (76.6%) had a history of epidemiological exposure and, among whom, 81 cases (75.7%) were associated with household transmission. Among symptomatic group, 57 cases (73.1%) had fever and 20 cases (25.6%) had cough. Of the 74 cases undergoing chest CT examination, 17 cases (23.0%) showed mild abnormalities. Of the 83 cases who received the lab tests, 23 cases (27.7%) had white blood cell counts<4×109/L, 3 cases (3.6%) had C-reaction protein >8.0 mg/L, and 6 cases (7.2%) had slightly elevated aspartate transaminase and alanine aminotransferase. Among the 92 children aged 3-<18 years, 31 cases were unvaccinated, 34 cases received 1 dose, and 27 cases received 2 doses. The interval between the last vaccination and infection was 2.2 (0.6, 6.0) months; the interval between the last vaccination and infection in the 2-dose group was longer than that in 1-dose group (6.0 (4.5, 7.3) vs. 0.7 (0.3,2.0) months, Z=3.59, P<0.001).The risk of symptomatic infection was reduced by 45% (RR=0.55, 95% CI 0.35-0.87) with two-dose vaccination compared to non-vaccination in cases aged 3-<18 years. All these cases recovered completely. Conclusions: Children infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron are usually mild or asymptomatic. Household transmission is the main pattern of infection with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in children. Two-dose SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in children aged 3-<18 years can provide partial protection against disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron.

DETECTION OF SARS-COV-2 IN STOOL BUT NOT NARES OF NEWBORNS OF MOTHERS WITH COVID-19 DURING PREGNANCY

Purpose of Study To investigate potential evidence of in utero transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the stool of newborns born to mothers with COVID-19 infection during pregnancy. Methods Used We investigated stool from 1 day to 2 months of age from 14 newborns born at 25-41 weeks whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy. Newborns were admitted at delivery to the NICU or newborn nursery of our urban academic hospital from July 2020 to May 2021. A comparison group of 30 newborns had similar GAs and were born to mothers without COVID-19 during pregnancy. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was quantified with quantitative PCR using primers against SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein and non-structural protein 14 (NSP-14), spike protein with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and inflammatory cytokines interleukin- 6 (IL-6) and interferon-g (IFN-γ) elicited by stool homogenates in mouse bone marrow macrophages. This study was IRB approved with parental consent. Summary of Results Despite negative nasal PCRs from all newborns, viral RNAs and spike protein were detected in the stool of 11 out of 14 newborns as early as the first day of life (range 0-2 months, figure 2A and 2B). Stool RNA and spike protein levels increased over time in 2 and 4 newborns, respectively. Stool homogenates from all newborns elicited elevated inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and IFN-γ, from mouse macrophages (figure 1). Most newborns were clinically well except for one death from gestational autoimmune liver disease and one with necrotizing enterocolitis. Conclusions These novel findings suggest risk of in utero SARS-CoV-2 transmission to the premature and term fetal intestine during gestation despite negative postnatal nasal PCRs. It is unclear if the presence of viral RNA and protein within the gut microbiome represents active virus in newborns with clinical hospital courses typical of their gestational age in 12 out of 14 cases. However, increasing levels of viral RNA and protein over time suggest replication in some infants, and their gut microbiome induced inflammation in mouse models. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and spike protein in the intestines of newborns may potentially impact development of the gut microbiome and the immune system and should be further investigated. (Figure Presented).

REAL-TIME MASKED FACE REVEALING FOR VIDEO CONFERENCE

Video conferencing is an essential way for contactless conversation, which conveys abundant multimedia signals. Especially under COVID-19, the video conference has been becoming a common way for daily communications. However, for the sake of plague prevention, it usually happens that the people attending the video conference are wearing a mouth mask, leading to inconvenient communication due to incomplete facial information. To tackle this problem, we develop a novel system that reveals the masked faces in real-time, making each participant feel like the others are mask-free. Moreover, we map the audio to 3DMM expression to guide the generation of various mouth shapes utilizing multi-modal information. Extensive experiments validate the revealing effectiveness and better user experience of the system. Furthermore, by applying lightweight networks design, the proposed system can run in real-time. © 2021 IEEE

International collaboration on a sustainable forest management OER online program - A case study

Forestry education has always had to adapt to global changes and accommodate students and society’s needs. To address the issues of the day, forestry education has cultivated human capacity to understand the complexity of ever-changing environments, master resource management technologies, and engage in global issues. Educational technology and online learning are important in providing flexible, accessible, and effective forest education at the rate and scale needed within the forestry sector. The transition during the COVID-19 pandemic further illustrates the role of online learning in worldwide education. In this context, this paper shares a case study from the Sustainable Forest Management Online Program led by the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia (UBC) and Partner Universities. This study shows that appropriately integrating educational technologies into an internationally developed and recognized high-quality curriculum is an effective way to create accessible and affordable forestry education in meeting the demand of evolving societal and environmental conditions. © 2020, North American Business Press. All rights reserved.

[Clinical analysis of liver chemistries in children and adolescent with 2019-nCoV infection].

Objective: To describe the clinical features of liver involvement in children and adolescent with 2019-nCoV infection. Methods: The clinical data of 77 hospitalized cases admitted to the Children's Hospital of Fudan University were collected from January 19 to November 28, 2020. The characteristics and risk factors of abnormal liver chemistries in children with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection were analyzed. Results: Of the 77 cases, 44 were male (57.1%) and 33 were female (42.9%), with a median age of 10 years. 27(35.1%) were asymptomatic, 28(36.4%) had mild illness, 22(28.6%)had non-severe pneumonia. Hydroxychloroquine was used in 7 cases. Of the 75 children without underlying diseases, alanine aminotransferase was elevated in 1 case (1.5%, during hydroxychloroquine therapy), aspartate aminotransferase was elevated in 7 cases (10.3%), alkaline phosphatase was elevated in 7 cases (28%), and total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, albumin, international normalized ratio were in normal range. There was no statistical difference between the pneumonia group and the non-pneumonia group in term of liver chemistries (P > 0.05), same as between the elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate group and the normal group. There was no aggravation of liver injury in the child with biliary atresia. The child with epilepsy showed no abnormal liver chemistries after infection. Conclusion: Children with 2019-nCoV infection had mild clinical symptoms with few cases of liver injury. The abnormal liver chemistries in children with COVID-19 infection may be related to the underlying disease and the use of antiviral drugs.