Engineering Design of a Health Service Station Sewage Treatment Station under COVID-19 Epidemic

Health service station is a place in which close contacts with the COVID-19 and other key populations are centralized quarantined for medical observation.A newly built health service station is equipped with 4 700 beds and a supporting sewage treatment station with a designed treatment scale of2 200 m~3/d.The treatment process consists of enhanced biological treatment system,sewage virus disinfection and sterilization system,aerosol disinfection and sterilization system and sludge disinfection and sterilization system.After treatment,the effluent and waste gas can meet the limit specified in Discharge Standard of Water Pollutants for Medical Organization （GB 18466-2005）.The average COD,NH3-N and SS in effluent are 14.53 mg/L,1.26 mg/L and 9.11 mg/L,respectively,and the average concentrations of H2S,NH3 and odor at the outlet are 0.01 mg/L,0.8 mg/L and 6.3,respectively.The sludge is disinfected regularly and then transported outside for disposal.This project can provide reference for sewage treatment design of emergency medical temporary isolation and observation facility and cabin hospital.

Racial-ethnic disparities in psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States: the role of experienced discrimination and perceived racial bias.

BACKGROUND: Research on mental health disparities by race-ethnicity in the United States (US) during COVID-19 is limited and has generated mixed results. Few studies have included Asian Americans as a whole or by subgroups in the analysis. METHODS: Data came from the 2020 Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic Study, based on a nationally representative sample of 2,709 community-dwelling adults in the US with minorities oversampled. The outcome was psychological distress. The exposure variable was race-ethnicity, including four major racial-ethnic groups and several Asian ethnic subgroups in the US. The mediators included experienced discrimination and perceived racial bias toward one's racial-ethnic group. Weighted linear regressions and mediation analyses were performed. RESULTS: Among the four major racial-ethnic groups, Hispanics (22%) had the highest prevalence of severe distress, followed by Asians (18%) and Blacks (16%), with Whites (14%) having the lowest prevalence. Hispanics' poorer mental health was largely due to their socioeconomic disadvantages. Within Asians, Southeast Asians (29%), Koreans (27%), and South Asians (22%) exhibited the highest prevalence of severe distress. Their worse mental health was mainly mediated by experienced discrimination and perceived racial bias. CONCLUSIONS: Purposefully tackling racial prejudice and discrimination is necessary to alleviate the disproportionate psychological distress burden in racial-ethnic minority groups.

A rare case of cardiogenic shock caused by takotsubo syndrome associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection: The value of echocardiography in the diagnosis and monitoring of the efficacy of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mainly invades the respiratory system, but may also cause various cardiovascular complications. We report a rare case of myocarditis associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A 61-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with a positive nucleic acid test for SARS-CoV-2. A sudden increase in troponin level (up to .144 ng/mL) was observed on the 8th day after admission. He developed symptoms of heart failure and progressed rapidly to cardiogenic shock. Echocardiography on the same day showed reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, reduced cardiac output, and segmental ventricular wall motion abnormalities. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection was considered based on the typical echocardiography findings. We immediately started veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) treatment. The patient was successfully withdrawn from VA-ECMO after 8 days following recovery of ejection fraction to 65% and all indicators qualifying the withdrawal criteria. Echocardiography plays an important role in dynamic monitoring of cardiac changes in such cases and can help determine the timing of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment and withdrawal.

Early autoimmunity and outcome in virus encephalitis: a retrospective study based on tissue-based assay.

To explore the autoimmune response and outcome in the central nervous system (CNS) at the onset of viral infection and correlation between autoantibodies and viruses. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted in 121 patients (2016-2021) with a CNS viral infection confirmed via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) next-generation sequencing (cohort A). Their clinical information was analysed and CSF samples were screened for autoantibodies against monkey cerebellum by tissue-based assay. In situ hybridisation was used to detect Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in brain tissue of 8 patients with glial fibrillar acidic protein (GFAP)-IgG and nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissue of 2 patients with GFAP-IgG as control (cohort B). RESULTS: Among cohort A (male:female=79:42; median age: 42 (14-78) years old), 61 (50.4%) participants had detectable autoantibodies in CSF. Compared with other viruses, EBV increased the odds of having GFAP-IgG (OR 18.22, 95% CI 6.54 to 50.77, p<0.001). In cohort B, EBV was found in the brain tissue from two of eight (25.0%) patients with GFAP-IgG. Autoantibody-positive patients had a higher CSF protein level (median: 1126.00 (281.00-5352.00) vs 700.00 (76.70-2899.00), p<0.001), lower CSF chloride level (mean: 119.80±6.24 vs 122.84±5.26, p=0.005), lower ratios of CSF-glucose/serum-glucose (median: 0.50[0.13-0.94] vs 0.60[0.26-1.23], p=0.003), more meningitis (26/61 (42.6%) vs 12/60 (20.0%), p=0.007) and higher follow-up modified Rankin Scale scores (1 (0-6) vs 0 (0-3), p=0.037) compared with antibody-negative patients. A Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that autoantibody-positive patients experienced significantly worse outcomes (p=0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Autoimmune responses are found at the onset of viral encephalitis. EBV in the CNS increases the risk for autoimmunity to GFAP.

Omicron subvariant BA.5 efficiently infects lung cells.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.2 exhibit reduced lung cell infection relative to previously circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, which may account for their reduced pathogenicity. However, it is unclear whether lung cell infection by BA.5, which displaced these variants, remains attenuated. Here, we show that the spike (S) protein of BA.5 exhibits increased cleavage at the S1/S2 site and drives cell-cell fusion and lung cell entry with higher efficiency than its counterparts from BA.1 and BA.2. Increased lung cell entry depends on mutation H69Δ/V70Δ and is associated with efficient replication of BA.5 in cultured lung cells. Further, BA.5 replicates in the lungs of female Balb/c mice and the nasal cavity of female ferrets with much higher efficiency than BA.1. These results suggest that BA.5 has acquired the ability to efficiently infect lung cells, a prerequisite for causing severe disease, suggesting that evolution of Omicron subvariants can result in partial loss of attenuation.

The impact of CoronaVac on the neutralization breadth and magnitude of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 viruses.

Although immune response enhancement has been reported after primary and booster vaccines of CoronaVac, neutralization breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the neutralization magnitude and breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) in 33 convalescent COVID-19 patients and a cohort of 55 medical staff receiving primary CoronaVac vaccines and an additional homologous booster dose. Results showed that, as compared with the two-dose primary vaccination, the homologous booster dose achieved 2.24-, 3.98-, 4.58- and 2.90-fold increase in neutralization titer against wild-type, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, respectively. After booster dose, neutralization titer reduction for variants was less than that after the primary vaccine or that for convalescents. The proportion of recipients able to neutralize 2 or more variants increased from 36.36% post the primary vaccination to 87.27% after the booster. Significant increase in neutralization breadth of 1.24 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89-1.59) variants was associated with a log10 increase in neutralization titer against the wild-type. In addition, anti-RBD IgG level was identified as an excellent surrogate for positive neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and neutralization breadth of variants. These findings highlight the value of an additional homologous CoronaVac dose in broadening the cross-neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 variants, and are critical for informing the booster dose vaccination efforts.

Digital Inclusive Finance, Financing Constraints, and Technological Innovation of SMEs—Differences in the Effects of Financial Regulation and Government Subsidies

Deepening the development of digital inclusive finance, dredging the impact of digital inclusive finance on the innovation path of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and strengthening financial supervision and government support are of great significance to promoting the technological innovation of SMEs. This paper selects listed companies on the New Third Board as research samples and analyzes and empirically tests the relationship between digital inclusive financial and technological innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises. The results show that digital inclusive finance can significantly promote the technological innovation level of SMEs, especially the higher the degree of digitalization, the more obvious the promotion effect. Upon further testing, it was more pronounced in the sample of high-tech industries and eastern SMEs. Digital inclusive finance can effectively alleviate the financing constraints of SMEs, thereby promoting the technological innovation of SMEs. Reasonable financial supervision and adaptive government subsidies have a positive regulating effect on the innovation incentive effect of digital inclusive finance.

COVID-19 and commodity pricing premium: Evidence from the Chinese market.

Our paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on commodity pricing premiums in the Chinese commodity futures market. After summarizing the explanatory power of documented benchmark pricing factors, we apply the difference-in-difference regression for our event study. We document a substantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increasing the commodity basis premium by at least 30%. Basis-momentum premium, especially for agriculture futures, also increases during the epidemic. The results are robust and validated by sub-sample regressions. The influence of COVID-19 on the commodity market is more prevailing than the trade war.

Plasma cell-free DNA promise monitoring and tissue injury assessment of COVID-19.

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a complex disease that affects billions of people worldwide. Currently, effective etiological treatment of COVID-19 is still lacking; COVID-19 also causes damages to various organs that affects therapeutics and mortality of the patients. Surveillance of the treatment responses and organ injury assessment of COVID-19 patients are of high clinical value. In this study, we investigated the characteristic fragmentation patterns and explored the potential in tissue injury assessment of plasma cell-free DNA in COVID-19 patients. Through recruitment of 37 COVID-19 patients, 32 controls and analysis of 208 blood samples upon diagnosis and during treatment, we report gross abnormalities in cfDNA of COVID-19 patients, including elevated GC content, altered molecule size and end motif patterns. More importantly, such cfDNA fragmentation characteristics reflect patient-specific physiological changes during treatment. Further analysis on cfDNA tissue-of-origin tracing reveals frequent tissue injuries in COVID-19 patients, which is supported by clinical diagnoses. Hence, our work demonstrates and extends the translational merit of cfDNA fragmentation pattern as valuable analyte for effective treatment monitoring, as well as tissue injury assessment in COVID-19.

Human Endogenous Retrovirus, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV Promote PAH via Inflammation and Growth Stimulation.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a pulmonary vascular disease characterized by the progressive elevation of pulmonary arterial pressures. It is becoming increasingly apparent that inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of PAH. Several viruses are known to cause PAH, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), human endogenous retrovirus K(HERV-K), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), in part due to acute and chronic inflammation. In this review, we discuss the connections between HERV-K, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, and PAH, to stimulate research regarding new therapeutic options and provide new targets for the treatment of the disease.

Analysing transcriptomic signatures and identifying potential genes for the protective effect of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines.

Inactivated vaccines are one of the most effective strategies for controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the response genes for the protective effect of inactivated vaccines are still unclear. Herein, we analysed the neutralization antibody responses elicited by vaccine serum and carried out transcriptome sequencing of RNAs isolated from the PBMCs of 29 medical staff receiving two doses of the CoronaVac vaccine. The results showed that SARS-CoV-2 neutralization antibody titers varied considerably among individuals, and revealed that many innate immune pathways were activated after vaccination. Furthermore, the blue module revealed that NRAS, YWHAB, SMARCA5, PPP1CC and CDC5L may be correlated with the protective effect of the inactivated vaccine. Additionally, MAPK1, CDC42, PPP2CA, EP300, YWHAZ and NRAS were demonstrated as the hub genes having a significant association with vaccines. These findings provide a basis for understanding the molecular mechanism of the host immune response induced by inactivated vaccines.

Impacts of androgen deprivation therapy on the risks and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with prostate cancer.

Studies have investigated the effects of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) use on the incidence and clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, the results have been inconsistent. We searched the PubMed, Medline, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science databases from inception to March 2022; 13 studies covering 84 003 prostate cancer (PCa) patients with or without ADT met the eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. We calculated the pooled risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to explore the association between ADT use and the infection risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and severity of COVID-19. After synthesizing the evidence, the pooled RR in the SARS-CoV-2 positive group was equal to 1.17, and the SARS-CoV-2 positive risk in PCa patients using ADT was not significantly different from that in those not using ADT (P = 0.544). Moreover, no significant results concerning the beneficial effect of ADT on the rate of intensive care unit admission (RR = 1.04, P = 0.872) or death risk (RR = 1.23, P = 0.53) were found. However, PCa patients with a history of ADT use had a markedly higher COVID-19 hospitalization rate (RR = 1.31, P = 0.015) than those with no history of ADT use. These findings indicate that ADT use by PCa patients is associated with a high risk of hospitalization during infection with SARS-CoV-2. A large number of high quality studies are needed to confirm these results.

Long COVID Symptomatology After 12 Months and Its Impact on Quality of Life According to Initial Coronavirus Disease 2019 Disease Severity.

Background: "Long COVID" is characterized by a variety of symptoms and an important burden for affected people. Our objective was to describe long COVID symptomatology according to initial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity. Methods: Predi-COVID cohort study participants, recruited at the time of acute COVID-19 infection, completed a detailed 12-month symptom and quality of life questionnaire. Frequencies and co-occurrences of symptoms were assessed. Results: Among the 289 participants who fully completed the 12-month questionnaire, 59.5% reported at least 1 symptom, with a median of 6 symptoms. Participants with an initial moderate or severe acute illness declared more frequently 1 or more symptoms (82.6% vs 38.6%, P < .001) and had on average 6.8 more symptoms (95% confidence interval, 4.18-9.38) than initially asymptomatic participants who developed symptoms after the acute infection. Overall, 12.5% of the participants could not envisage coping with their symptoms in the long term. Frequently reported symptoms, such as neurological and cardiovascular symptoms, but also less frequent ones such as gastrointestinal symptoms, tended to cluster. Conclusions: Frequencies and burden of symptoms present 12 months after acute COVID-19 infection increased with the severity of the acute illness. Long COVID likely consists of multiple subcategories rather than a single entity. This work will contribute to the better understanding of long COVID and to the definition of precision health strategies. Clinical Trials Registration: NCT04380987.

On airborne transmission and control of SARS-Cov-2.

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a havoc situation across the globe that modern society has ever seen. Despite of their paramount importance, the transmission routes of SARS-Cov-2 still remain debated among various sectors. Evidences compiled here strongly suggest that the COVID-19 could be transmitted via air in inadequately ventilated environments. Existing experimental data showed that coronavirus survival was negatively impacted by ozone, high temperature and low humidity. Here, regression analysis showed that the spread of SARS-Cov-2 was reduced by increasing ambient ozone concentration level from 48.83 to 94.67 µg/m3 (p-value = 0.039) and decreasing relative humidity from 23.33 to 82.67% (p-value = 0.002) and temperature from -13.17 to 19 °C) (p-value = 0.003) observed for Chinese cities during Jan-March 2020. Besides using these environmental implications, social distancing and wearing a mask are strongly encouraged to maximize the fight against the COVID-19 airborne transmission. At no other time than now are the scientists in various disciplines around the world badly needed by the society to collectively confront this disastrous pandemic.

Risk assessment of imported COVID-19 in China: A modelling study in Sichuan Province.

The importation of COVID-19 cases in China is due to the returning of Chinese citizens abroad, where the majority of cases stand. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of importing COVID-19 into the Sichuan Province of China and conduct a short-term risk prediction assessment and analysis. Data on COVID-19 cases in each country and Sichuan were collected, as well as visitors to Sichuan, population, area, and medical resources in each city in Sichuan province. According to different control strategies of entry aviation and quarantine control, we built models of epidemic transmission to estimate the risk for imported COVID-19 cases in 21 cities of Sichuan. Within 140 days of the policy change's implementation, the number of susceptible, infected, and recovered people in all cities followed the same pattern over time: (1) the number of susceptible people declined slowly at first, then accelerated to reach a stable value; (2) the number of infections gradually increased to a peak, then decreased; and (3) the number of recovered patients gradually increased to a stable value. Under the four different scenarios, there were no significant differences between the risk peaks because the social distance did not change. However, the peak time would be delayed due to the implementation of flight control and nucleic acid detection measures. The improvement of foreign epidemics (reduction of attenuation factors) all delayed the arrival of the peak risk value in Chengdu by about 20 days; however, the size of the peak value did not change significantly. The improvement of nucleic acid detection accuracy delayed the arrival of the peak risk value in Chengdu, but the size of the peak value did not change significantly. Therefore, flight control and the improvement of nucleic acid detection accuracy and overseas epidemic situations have positively affected the prevention and control of the epidemic in Sichuan.

NSUN2-mediated M5c methylation of IRF3 mRNA negatively regulates type I interferon responses during various viral infections.

5-Methylcytosine (m5C) is a widespread post-transcriptional RNA modification and is reported to be involved in manifold cellular responses and biological processes through regulating RNA metabolism. However, its regulatory role in antiviral innate immunity has not yet been elucidated. Here, we report that NSUN2, a typical m5C methyltransferase, negatively regulates type I interferon responses during various viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2. NSUN2 specifically mediates m5C methylation of IRF3 mRNA and accelerates its degradation, resulting in low levels of IRF3 and downstream IFN-ß production. Knockout or knockdown of NSUN2 enhanced type I interferon and downstream ISGs during various viral infection in vitro. And in vivo, the antiviral innate response is more dramatically enhanced in Nsun2+/- mice than in Nsun2+/+ mice. The highly m5C methylated cytosines in IRF3 mRNA were identified, and their mutation enhanced cellular IRF3 mRNA levels. Moreover, infection with Sendai virus (SeV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), or Zika virus (ZIKV) resulted in a reduction of endogenous NSUN2 levels. Especially, SARS-CoV-2 infection (WT strain and BA.1 omicron variant) also decreased endogenous levels of NSUN2 in COVID-19 patients and K18-hACE2 KI mice, further increasing type I interferon and downstream ISGs. Together, our findings reveal that NSUN2 serves as a negative regulator of interferon response by accelerating the fast turnover of IRF3 mRNA, while endogenous NSUN2 levels decrease during SARS-CoV-2 and various viral infections to boost antiviral responses for effective elimination of viruses.

Biparatopic antibody BA7208/7125 effectively neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron BA.1-BA.5.

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants have demonstrated extensive evasion from monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) developed for clinical use, which raises an urgent need to develop new broad-spectrum mAbs. Here, we report the isolation and analysis of two anti-RBD neutralizing antibodies BA7208 and BA7125 from mice engineered to produce human antibodies. While BA7125 showed broadly neutralizing activity against all variants except the Omicron sublineages, BA7208 was potently neutralizing against all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants (including Omicron BA.1-BA.5) except Mu. By combining BA7208 and BA7125 through the knobs-into-holes technology, we generated a biparatopic antibody BA7208/7125 that was able to neutralize all tested circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. Cryo-electron microscopy structure of these broad-spectrum antibodies in complex with trimeric Delta and Omicron spike indicated that the contact residues are highly conserved and had minimal interactions with mutational residues in RBD of current variants. In addition, we showed that administration of BA7208/7125 via the intraperitoneal, intranasal, or aerosol inhalation route showed potent therapeutic efficacy against Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 in hACE2-transgenic and wild-type mice and, separately, effective prophylaxis. BA7208/7125 thus has the potential to be an effective candidate as an intervention against COVID-19.

Investigating Derivatives of Tanshinone IIA Sulfonate Sodium and Chloroxine for Their Inhibition Activities against the SARS-CoV-2 Papain-like Protease.

SARS-CoV-2 has caused a global pandemic of COVID-19, posing a huge threat to public health. The SARS-CoV-2 papain-like cysteine protease (PLpro) plays a significant role in virus replication and host immune regulation, which is a promising antiviral drug target. Several potential inhibitors have been identified in vitro. However, the detailed mechanism of action and structure-activity relationship require further studies. Here, we investigated the structure-activity relationships of the series of derivatives of tanshinone IIA sulfonate sodium (TSS) and chloroxine based on biochemical analysis and molecular dynamics simulation. We found that compound 7, a derivative of chloroxine, can disrupt PLpro-ISG15 interaction and exhibits an antiviral effect for SARS-CoV-2 variants (wild type, delta, and omicron) at the low micromolar level. These studies confirmed that inhibiting PLpro-ISG15 interaction and, thus, restoring the host's innate immunity are effective methods for fighting against viral infection.

Study on fire evacuation in public places during COVID-19 epidemic control

In order to explore the influence of the opening state of safety exits in public buildings on the personnel evacuation during the COVID-19 epidemic control, the evacuation management of public buildings and the opening state of safety exits were understood through the field investigation.The Pathfinder was used to simulate the fire evacuation of an office building in a university before and after the COVID-19 epidemic control, and the total length of individual congestion, the longest continuous congestion duration and the evacuation route in the personnel evacuation process were analyzed.Three recommended exits opening schemes were proposed, and the optimal scheme was obtained by Pathfinder simulation.The results showed that during the period of epidemic control, all the public buildings closed partial safe exits for the body temperature detection.The length of personnel congestion increased significantly during the epidemic control period, the per capita congestion time was 16.01 s, and the longest individual congestion time was 120.45 s before COVID-19,while the per capita congestion time was 23.92 s, and the longest individual congestion time was 168.23 s after COVID-19.Some personnel in region A converged to region B,resulting in an increase in the personnel density of stair 2 and the congestion of stairs on the 2～3 floors.The scheme Ⅲ with opening exits Ⅰ and Ⅳ simultaneously was the optimal opening scheme.