ABSTRACT
To understand the influence of coronavirus disease control policies on changes in characteristics of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), concentrations of various PM2.5 components in Jinan city before and after implementation of the epidemic control measures during the 2020 Spring Festival were studied using online monitoring data. Standardized multiple linear regression was used to analyze the contribution of meteorological factors to the variations in concentrations of PM2.5 components. After the epidemic control measures were implemented, the concentrations of PM2.5 components in the area decreased significantly, and the rate at which the daily average concentration was exceeded decreased by 24.8%. The concentrations of all PM2.5 components decreased to various degrees, with those of trace elements (TE), elemental carbon (EC), and nitrate (NO3−) having decreased significantly by 50.3%, 46.8%, and 31.5%, respectively. In terms of component proportions, those of TE and EC decreased after the epidemic control measures were initiated whereas those of ammonium (NH4+), organic matter (OM), sulfate (SO4 2− ), and mineral dust increased;the proportion of NO3 − changed slightly, and the total proportion of secondary ions SO4 2−, NO3−, and NH4 + increased by 14.3%. Comparison of the proportions of PM2.5 components showed that after the epidemic control measures were implemented, the proportions of NO3 − and EC in PM2.5 that cause a light pollution level decreased whereas those of OM, SO4 2−, and NH4 + increased. This indicated that people traveled less, motor vehicle emissions decreased, work at construction sites stopped, and NO3 − proportion was greatly reduced while epidemic control measures were in place. However, afterward, decrease in concentrations of PM2.5 components and increase in secondary transformation of volatile organic compounds led to an increase in OM concentration. Compared with those before the epidemic control measures were implemented, the NO2/SO2 and NO3– /SO4 2− ratios fell significantly, and their average values decreased by 30.0% and 14.0%, respectively, indicating that the contribution of mobile sources (e.g., automobile exhaust) to pollution had decreased during the epidemic control period. Under the influence of the control measures, the OC concentration also decreased for excellent, good, and mild pollution levels;however, the secondary organic carbon concentration increased, indicating that secondary conversions did not decrease under the epidemic control conditions. Standardized multiple linear regression analyses of meteorological factors showed that changes in the height of the boundary layer contributed the most (46.5%) to changes in concentrations of PM2.5 components before the epidemic control measures were implemented;afterward, humidity was the primary factor governing the increase in these concentrations. © 2022, The Science Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The National Institute of Health (NIH) launches the RADx Radical research collaboratives (RADx-rad) to advance new, non-traditional approaches for COVID-19 testing. RADx-rad projects are required to adopt common data elements (CDEs) to collect data to increase data interoperability. To overcome the challenges in finding appropriate CDEs for a wide range of study variables, we create a web application - IMI-CDE to ease the burden of mapping study variables to CDEs from researchers. IMI-CDE can automatically recommend CDE candidates for a study variable based on its name and description. Together with interactive mapping interfaces, IMI-CDE allows researchers to perform variable-CDE mapping with one mouse click. In addition, the IMI-CDE application supports users with multiple roles to work collaboratively on the mapping tasks. We have piloted the IMI-CDE with RADx-rad projects. 22 researchers from 8 different projects have started to use the IMI-CDE system for variable-CDE mappings. The beta-testing evaluators reported the system is intuitive, effective, and easy to use. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Objective: We evaluated clinical outcomes of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients with COVID-19 infection to determine factors associated with poor outcomes. Background: MG is an autoimmune disease affecting the neuromuscular junction. MG patients often manifest dyspnea and dysphagia and have an increased risk of infection due to immunosuppressants use, which may compound the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. A comprehensive understanding of clinical outcomes of MG-COVID patients is crucial in clinical decision making. Design/Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Optum® de-identified COVID-19 Electronic Health Record (EHR) data. Primary outcomes include death, hospitalization, intubation, and ICU stay. We analyzed factors that may affect the outcomes such as age, sex, ethnicity, geographic region, month of COVID-19 diagnosis, comorbidities, and MG-specific treatments. Then, we compared these outcomes with non-MG COVID as well as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus (SLE) and multiple sclerosis (MS) with COVID-19 using a modified multivariable Poisson regression model. Results: Our study includes total of 421,086 individuals with COVID-19 among which 377 were MG-COVID. MG was not associated with increased risk of ventilator use or death but was associated with increased risk of hospitalization (aRR=1.28, 95% CI 1.13-1.46, p <0.001) and ICU stay (aRR=1.51, 95% CI 1.16-1.96, p=0.002) when accounting for the covariates in COVID-19. The mortality of the MG-COVID subgroup was 10%, and it was associated with age 75 or older (aRR=9.57, 95% CI 1.56-58.76, p=0.015) and presence of dysphagia (aRR=1.84, 95% CI 1.06- 3.21, p=0.031) but not immunosuppressants use. The MG-COVID had higher adjusted risks of hospitalization and ICU admission compared to the RA-COVID but similar to the SLE- and MS-COVID subgroups. Conclusions: Our study provides insight into how COVID-19 infection affected MG patients. Neurologists may consider these outcomes when providing MG with COVID-19 patients and their families with treatment options, vaccination counseling, and prognosis.
ABSTRACT
Objective: We are investigating whether COVID-19 infection increases the propensity of developing Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) or affects the clinical outcome of GBS. Background: During the pandemic, there have been many case reports and case series of GBS following COVID-19 infection. The causality of COVID-19 in these cases is not clear. There are conflicting reports regarding the incidence of GBS during the pandemic. In prior literature, clinical and electrophysiologic characteristics of GBS in COVID-19 associated cases did not differ from the previously described natural history. Design/Methods: Longitudinal electronic health record database for Optum, which included more than 4.4 million patients who underwent testing for COVID-19, was queried in May 2021 for ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for GBS. Clinical information based on billing codes was acquired. GBS cases within 60 days of the first positive PCR test for COVID-19 were further analyzed. We also evaluated the presence of GBS in patients who tested negative for COVID 19 during the same time frame. Results: There were 725,347 patients in the database with COVID-19 diagnosis. We analyzed 844 patients with GBS, 86 of which occurred within 60 days of COVID-19 diagnosis. The incidence of GBS was not increased among the patients with recent COVID 19 diagnosis, compared to the GBS cases without COVID 19 in the same time frame. In our preliminary analysis, COVID-19 associated cases had higher mortality, intubation rates, and need for posthospital rehabilitation at a facility. Conclusions: Our preliminary analysis of this large database did not show any evidence that COVID-19 increases the propensity for developing GBS. However, when associated with COVID-19 infection, the outcomes for GBS seem to be worse. Further ongoing analyses considering covariates of age, comorbidities, and month of COVID-19 diagnosis is planned.
ABSTRACT
Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are a class of cationic surfactants routinely used for the disinfection of industries, institutions and households, and have seen a sharp increase in use during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, current commercial QACs consist of only stable chemical bonds such as C-N, C-C, and C-H, which makes their natural degradation rather difficult. Recent studies suggest that emerging negative environmental impacts, such as systemic antibiotics resistance and toxicity to living organisms, are directly associated with prolonged exposure to QACs. Here we report a new class of QAC which contains relatively volatile chemical functional groups such as ester and thioether bonds. Degradation kinetics in aqueous solutions suggests that the stability of these QACs depends not only on their intrinsic hydrophobicity but also on external environmental factors such as pH, temperature and ion presence. The microbicidal effects of QACs containing carbon chains with various lengths were also tested, one of which, named "Ephemora", is highly active against a broad spectrum of microbes including fungi, bacteria and viruses, for instance, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The easy synthesis and purification of Ephemora starting from inexpensive commercially available reagents, together with its excellent antimicrobial activity and ability to degrade in natural waters over time, make its large-scale commercial production possible.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: In this paper, based on the age, sex, disease type, and consultation time of dental emergency during COVID-19 epidemic, a comprehensive analysis of dental emergency management and prevention and control of COVID-19 was conducted. METHODS: A total of 739 emergency dental cases were collected from January 29 2020 to February 28 2020. They were divided into 3 groups,including adolescents (<=18 years), young adults (18 ~ 60 years), and elderly ( >=60 years old). The data was analyzed using SPSS 21.0 software package. RESULTS: The ratio of male to female was 1.24:1. There were 655 emergency cases during the day and 84 cases during the night. The types of diseases included pericoronitis (15.83%), apical periodontitis (14.21%), pulpitis (13.40%), periodontitis (12.31%), oral mucosal disease (12.18%), Oral and maxillofacial trauma (10.55%), oral and maxillofacial space infection (8.39%), dental disease in children (5.41%), oral and maxillofacial tumors (2.84%), temporomandibular joint dislocations and disorders (1.76%), and others (3.11%). CONCLUSIONS: Under the epidemic situation of the new coronavirus, as one of the high-risk departments, it is of great significance to enhance the clinical emergency skills and ability of emergency treatment, improve patients' oral health awareness, address the diagnosis and treatment of essential diseases, for the improvement the quality of dental medical care and the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic.