Sustainable development in natural resources industry: is geopolitical risk a catalyst for corporate excess cash holdings?

With the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, combined with the COVID-19 epidemic and the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike, geopolitical risks have increased sharply, which has brought great pressure on the sustainable development of natural resources industry. This study aims to discuss the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) on corporate excess cash holdings in China's natural resources industry. The findings suggest that GRP can encourage enterprises in the natural resources industry to hold more excess cash. The findings still hold with a suite of robustness tests. The study also evidences that the above effect is more significant for state-owned enterprises, enterprises in the mining industry, and large-scale enterprises. Finally, further results show that with the increase of GPR, enterprises with strong risk-taking capacity tend to hold more excess cash, while enterprises registered in higher market-oriented regions are inclined to retain less excess cash. These findings can conduce to a deep understanding of the influence of GPR on corporate excess cash holdings and serve as a reference for policy-makers to adjust policies. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Potential targets and traditional Chinese medicine treatment strategy of cough after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variants BA.5.2 and BF.7 have become the main epidemic strains in China since the quarantine policy was lifted in 7th December 2022. Cough is one of the main symptoms induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection. SARS-CoV-2 infection-associated cough injuries the lung and upper respiratory tract, while the infected people cough out virus and liquid which forms virus-containing aerosols, a medium for quickly spreading. Furthermore, cough is one of primary sequelae of discharged patients in corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). By now, there are no efficacious drugs for treatment of upper respiratory tract infection associated cough induced by omicron. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history on treating cough. By reviewing the mechanisms of the occurrence of cough after SARS-CoV-2 infection, potential therapeutic targets and cough suppressant herbs with significant efficacy in clinical and basic research, we provide a reference for the treatment of cough after SARS-Cov-2 infection and a basis for the majority of infected patients to select appropriate herbs for cough relief under guidance of physicians.Copyright © 2023 Editorial Office of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. All rights reserved.

Corporate ESG and resilience of stock prices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in China

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both the financial market and the real economy, leading to widespread concern about the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities and shareholders' wealth. This paper examines the relationship between ESG responsibility and stock returns in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and investigates the impact of ESG responsibility on stock price resilience. The results indicate that corporate ESG scores have positive impacts on stock returns during and after the COVID-19 crisis, with the positive impacts of ESG being more significant in the post-crisis period. Among the different ESG dimensions, environmental responsibility (ESG_E) has a more significant impact on stock returns, while social responsibility (ESG_S) and governance responsibility (ESG_G) have mixed impacts during the crisis. Furthermore, during and after the outbreak of COVID-19, the positive impacts of ESG are more pronounced among firms located in low-trust regions and firms with lower analyst coverage. Additionally, the study finds that corporate ESG responsibility help restore the resilience of stock prices during the crisis, with better ESG performance leading to stronger stock price resilience. Overall, the results strongly support the conclusion that ESG has acted as an "equity vaccine” during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Characteristics of skin damage among healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic: an epidemiological survey.

Objective: To investigate epidemiological features of skin damage among front-line healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s): A self-designed questionnaire was released on an online survey website "wenjuan.com", and sent to the front-line medical staff caring for patients with confirmed COVID-19 in 6 infectious disease wards of the General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA via WeChat from March 10th to 20th, 2020. Then, the questionnaires were collected, a database was established, and statistical analysis was performed on the incidence, types and epidemiological characteristics of skin damage among the medical staff. Result(s): A total of about 550 medical staff were surveyed, 404 questionnaires were collected, of which 391 were valid, and 303 cases had skin damage. The survey showed that females, hand cleaning frequency > 10 times per day, wearing three-level protective equipment for more than 6 hours per week were risk factors for skin damage, and frequent use of a hand cream could reduce skin problems. Among the respondents, the incidence of skin damage was significantly higher in the females (79.81%, 249/312) than in the males (38.35%, 54/79;chi2 = 4.741, P = 0.029), and higher in the groups with hand cleaning frequency of 10-20 times per day (79.73%, 118/148) and > 20 times per day (85.71%, 84/98) than in the group with hand cleaning frequency of 1-10 times per day (69.66%, 101/145;chi2 = 9.330, P = 0.009). The incidence of skin damage was significantly lower in the group wearing protective equipment for 1-5 hours per week (64.04%, 73/114) than in the groups wearing protective equipment for 6-10 hours per week (81.48%, 66/81), 11-15 hours per week (95.24%, 20/21), 16-20 hours per week (81.82%, 36/44), 21-25 hours per week (86.49%, 32/37), and > 25 hours per week (80.85%, 76/94;chi2 = 19.164, P = 0.002). Among the 391 respondents, the skin damage related to disinfection and protective equipment mainly manifested as dry skin (72.89%), desquamation (56.78%), skin pressure injury (54.48%), skin maceration (45.01%), and sensitive skin (33.50%);acne (27.11%) was the related skin disease with the highest incidence, followed by facial dermatitis (23.27%), eczematous dermatitis (21.48%), folliculitis (18.92%), dermatomycosis (11.00%), urticaria (9.21%), etc. Conclusion(s): There was a high incidence of skin damage related to protective equipment among the front-line healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19, and strengthening skin protection could markedly reduce the incidence of skin damage.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Ensemble Summarization Models to Leverage Performance

Summaries underpin a majority of relevant information needed to quickly make an informed decision from a large corpus of text;Natural Language techniques have been developed to generate these summaries using either ive or extractive methods. Presently, state-of-the-art approaches involve using neural network-based solutions akin to seq2seq, graph2seq, and other encoder-decoder architectures. These models make different contributions to prediction quality. In this paper, we build a model that ensembles two distinct pretraining NLP models to leverage their summarization performance using a TextRank process we constructed. We evaluate our model using the CoronaNet Research Project COVID-19 dataset, which contains how governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. We compared the ROUGE scores of the individual models on the test set to our ensemble method. The experiment results show that our proposed ensemble method performs better than using the models individually. © 2022 IEEE.

Aggressive banners, dialect-shouting village heads, and their online fame: Construction and consumption of rural Linguistic Landscapes in China's anti-Covid campaign

At the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, the state quickly declared a nationwide anti-Covid campaign. This article looks at how the rural space was transformed during this early anti-Covid campaign. Unlike the official state discourses, rural officials resorted to direct, down-to-earth, and 'cold-hearted' messages to persuade the villagers to comply with the rules. Based on a study of widely circulated banners and videos online, drawing on Linguistic Landscape studies and discourse analysis, I investigate the discursive strategies employed in rural LL. Moreover, I discuss how the intended/imagined audiences of these multimodal signing practices are disconnected from the changed rural population. These discrepancies will be further examined in light of the online subcultural practices of 'tuwei culture'. I will argue that much-needed discussion of the actual difficulties that rural officials face is displaced in the online consumption of rural LL. © John Benjamins Publishing Company.

A delayed modulation of solar ultraviolet radiation on the COVID-19 transmission reflects an incubation period

Laboratory experiments have revealed the meteorological sensitivity of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus. However, no consensus has been reached about how outdoor meteorological conditions modulate the virus transmission as it is also constrained by non-meteorological conditions. Here, we identify the outbreak's evolution stage, constrained least by non-meteorological conditions, by searching the maximum correlation coefficient between the ultraviolet flux and the growth rate of cumulative confirmed cases at the country level. At this least-constrained stage, the cumulative cases count around 1300-3200, and the count's daily growth rate correlates with the ultraviolet flux and temperature significantly (correlation coefficients r = -0.54 +/- 0.09 and -0.39 +/- 0.10 at p<0.01$$ p, respectively), but not with precipitation, humidity, and wind. The ultraviolet correlation exhibits a delay of about 7 days, providing a meteorological measure of the incubation period. Our work reveals a seasonality of COVID-19 and a high risk of a pandemic resurgence in winter, implying a need for seasonal adaption in public policies.

Novel COVID-19 therapy based on natural products with anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019 has so far caused more than 6 million deaths worldwide according to WHO. Currently, there is only one FDA-approved novel antiviral drug therapy (Paxlovid, Pfizer) for treatment of critically ill patients from COVID-19 infection. However, there is a need for a great diversity of antiviral therapies because of the constant mutations of the virus and the possibility of other similar viruses causing similar symptoms in patients. By utilizing natural products from medicinal plants, it is possible to provide a drug, or drug leads for a future novel antiviral therapy. Currently, we are testing isolated and characterized natural products (some novel and some already elucidated) from water lily (Nuphar lutea) and eagle fern (Pteridium aquilinum) on the SARS-CoV-2 virus where we are working on developing a good pipeline to test these compounds in vitro. So far, we have tested the effect of the compounds on inhibition of cell entry using a pseudovirus system and HEK293-FT cells transiently transfected with SARS-CoV-2 receptors ACE-2 and TMPRSS2. Some of the compounds showed a slightly inhibitory effect. Next steps will be to establish a cell line with stable expression of ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 and confirm the results in cells with endogenous expression of these receptors. We will proceed working with different variants of the hospital isolates of the virus within the next months, where we will further analyse the potential effect of these compounds on viral replication. The goal is to determine and understand the mechanism of inhibitory action of the natural products on the virus. In conclusion, we are at an early stage of researching the abundant possibilities of antiviral effects of these natural products on SARS-CoV-2.

A FC-ENHANCED NON-NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODY DELAYS SARS-CoV-2-INDUCED DEATH in MICE

Background: Both neutralizing activity and Fc-mediated effector functions of antibodies are believed to contribute to protection against SARS-CoV-2. However, it is unclear if antibody effector functions alone could protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: We isolated CV3-13 from a convalescent individual with potent Fc-mediated effector functions. Neutralization capacity of this antibody was measured by both a pseudovirus neutralization assay and an authentic virus microneutralization assay. We mutated the Fc-portion of CV3-13 to enhance (GASDALIE) or reduce (LALA) its capacity to mediate antibody dependant cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Structural analysis of CV3-13 was done by cryo-EM to characterize its epitope and its angle of approach. Finally, CV3-13 and CV3-13 GASDALIE were used in vivo in a K18-hACE2 transgenic mouse model challenged with SARS-CoV-2-nLuc to see if they altered viral replication and/or contributed to protection against SARS-CoV-2. Results: While CV3-13 did not neutralize SARS-CoV-2, it demonstrated nanomolar affinity towards the SARS-CoV-2 Spike and mediated strong ADCC. The cryo-EM structure of CV3-13 in complex with the SARS-CoV-2 Spike revealed that the antibody bound to a novel NTD epitope that partially overlapped with a frequently mutated NTD supersite in SARS-CoV-2 variants. Interestingly, this angle of approach was not observed for previously described NTD-directed antibodies. While CV3-13 did not alter the replication dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in a K18-hACE2 transgenic mouse model, a Fc-enhanced CV3-13 significantly delayed neuroinvasion and death in prophylactic settings. Conclusion: CV3-13 represents a new class of non-neutralizing NTD-directed mAbs that can mediate Fc-effector functions both in vitro and in vivo. While effector functions alone did not protect K18-hACE2 mice from SARS-CoV-2-nLuc challenge, our data indicate that along with neutralization, additional antibody properties including Fc-mediated effector functions contribute to limiting viral spread and aid in fighting SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Targeting vimentin impacts multiple cellular processes, blocks the spike protein-ACE2-mediated pseudoviral infection in vitro and reduces the symptom and lung injury in aged mice with mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo

Vimentin intermediate filament is involved in multiple steps of viral infection such as viral entry, trafficking and egress, as well as in various mechanisms of hyperinflammation such as the restraint of Treg cell functions and the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. We evaluated a vimentin-binding small molecule compound ALD-R491 for its effects on cellular processes related to viral infection and for its efficacy in treating SARS-CoV2 infection in vitro and in vivo. In cultured cells, the compound could reduce endocytosis by 10%, endosomal trafficking by 40% and exosomal release by over 30%. In an infection system consisting of a lentiviral pseudotype bearing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and HEK293 cells over-expressing the human ACE2 receptor with multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1, 10 and 100, the compound inhibited the infection up to a maximum of over 90%, with IC 50 < 50 nM, CC50 > 10 μM, and SI > 200. After oral administration of ALD-R491 in rats, the plasma concentration of the compound reached the peak (Tmax) at around 5 h with a half-life (T1/2) of about 5 h. The compound was widely distributed and enriched in tissues in vivo in rats with a volume of distribution (Vd) of over 2,000 ml/kg. The lung and the lymph nodes were among the tissues with high drug exposures. In rats receiving oral gavage of the compound at 30 mg/kg, the drug exposure in the lung and the lymph nodes maintained at levels over 1 μM from 1 h to 6 h after the oral dosing. In the syngeneic mouse tumor CT26 model, ALD-R491 was found to activate regulatory T cells (Tregs) in vivo and enhance de novo generation of Tregs in lymph nodes of the mice. In the Mouse-Adapted SARS-CoV2 model, aged mice (11-12 months) were used to provide a harder test of recovery from infection that reflects the severeness of COVID-19 in old patients. For therapeutic treatment, the mice were orally administered with the compound 24 h after the SARS-CoV2 infection once per day on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 4. At 10 mg/kg, ALD-R491 significantly reduced the body weight loss of the mice (p<0.01 on Day 5 post-infection). At both 3 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg, the compound significantly reduced the hemorrhagic score for the lungs (p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively, on Day 5). These results indicate that vimentin intermediate filament is an effective host-directed antiviral target. Importantly, the vimentin-binding small molecule ALD-R491 impacts multiple aspects of SARS-CoV2 infection, has a favorable oral pharmacokinetics and a wide therapeutic window, and therefore may be a promising therapeutic candidate for treating COVID-19. Statement: Aluda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has utilized the non-clinical and pre-clinical services program offered by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Internet public opinion dissemination mechanism of COVID-19: evidence from the Shuanghuanglian event

Purpose: The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has become a major public health emergency of global concern. Studying the Internet public opinion dissemination mechanism of public health emergencies is of great significance for creating a legalized network environment, and it is also helpful for managers to make scientific decisions when encountering Internet public opinion crisis. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the analysis of the process of spreading the Internet public opinion in major epidemics, a dynamic model of the Internet public opinion spread system was constructed to study the interactive relationship among the public opinion events, network media, netizens and government and the spread of epidemic public opinion. The Shuanghuanglian event in COVID-19 in China was taken as a typical example to make simulation analysis. Findings: Research results show three points: (1) the government credibility plays a decisive role in the spread of Internet public opinion;(2) it is the best time to intervene when Internet public opinion occurred at first time;(3) the management and control of social media are the key to public opinion governance. Besides, specific countermeasures are proposed to assist control of Internet public opinion dissemination. Originality/value: The epidemic Internet public opinion risk evolution system is a complex nonlinear social system. The system dynamics model is used to carry out research to facilitate the analysis of the Internet public opinion propagation mechanism and explore the interrelationship of various factors. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Efficacy and safety of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Ivermectin became a popular choice for COVID-19 treatment among clinicians and the public following encouraging results from pre-print trials and in vitro studies. Early reviews recommended the use of ivermectin based largely on non-peer-reviewed evidence, which may not be robust. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the efficacy and safety of ivermectin for treating COVID-19 based on peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies (OSs). METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE and PubMed were searched from 1 January 2020 to 1 September 2021 for relevant studies. Outcomes included time to viral clearance, duration of hospitalization, mortality, incidence of mechanical ventilation and incidence of adverse events. RoB2 and ROBINS-I were used to assess risk of bias. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted. GRADE was used to evaluate quality of evidence. RESULTS: Three OSs and 14 RCTs were included in the review. Most RCTs were rated as having some concerns in regards to risk of bias, while OSs were mainly rated as having a moderate risk of bias. Based on meta-analysis of RCTs, the use of ivermectin was not associated with reduction in time to viral clearance, duration of hospitalization, incidence of mortality and incidence of mechanical ventilation. Ivermectin did not significantly increase incidence of adverse events. Meta-analysis of OSs agrees with findings from RCT studies. CONCLUSIONS: Based on very low to moderate quality of evidence, ivermectin was not efficacious at managing COVID-19. Its safety profile permits its use in trial settings to further clarify its role in COVID-19 treatment. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The review was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021275302).

Half-year follow-up of patients recovering from severe COVID-19: Analysis of symptoms and their risk factors.

OBJECTIVES: To understand the sequelae of COVID-19. METHODS: We followed up 1174 patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)who were recovered and discharged for 6 months. RESULTS: There were 175 cases with clear IgG results 6 months after discharge, of which 82 (46.9%) were IgG (+) and 16 (9.1%) were IgG (dim+). Four hundred and forty-one participants (55.4%) had some kind of sequelae. The most common symptoms were fatigue (25.3%), sleep disorder (23.2%) and shortness of breath (20.4%). In those who had sequelae, 262 (59.4%) had more than one symptom. Critical cases were more likely to have cough (20.5% vs 11.6%, p = 0.023) and hypomnesis (15.1% vs 8.0%, p = 0.041) than severe cases. Furthermore, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that women are more likely to have multiple symptoms (p = 0.002), fatigue (p = 0.009) and sleep disorder (p = 0.008), whereas critical illness was found as independent risk factor for hypomnesis (p = 0.045). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the duration of antibody and sequelae of COVID-19 and compared the differences amongst different populations.

Characteristics of skin damage among healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic: an epidemiological survey

Objective: To investigate epidemiological features of skin damage among front-line healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A self-designed questionnaire was released on an online survey website "wenjuan.com", and sent to the front-line medical staff caring for patients with confirmed COVID-19 in 6 infectious disease wards of the General Hospital of Central Theater Command of PLA via WeChat from March 10th to 20th, 2020. Then, the questionnaires were collected, a database was established, and statistical analysis was performed on the incidence, types and epidemiological characteristics of skin damage among the medical staff. Results: A total of about 550 medical staff were surveyed, 404 questionnaires were collected, of which 391 were valid, and 303 cases had skin damage. The survey showed that females, hand cleaning frequency >10 times per day, wearing three-level protective equipment for more than 6 hours per week were risk factors for skin damage, and frequent use of a hand cream could reduce skin problems. Among the respondents, the incidence of skin damage was significantly higher in the females (79.81%, 249/312) than in the males (38.35%, 54/79;χ2 = 4.741, P = 0.029), and higher in the groups with hand cleaning frequency of 10-20 times per day (79.73%, 118/148) and >20 times per day (85.71%, 84/98) than in the group with hand cleaning frequency of 1-10 times per day (69.66%, 101/145;χ2 = 9.330, P = 0.009). The incidence of skin damage was significantly lower in the group wearing protective equipment for 1-5 hours per week (64.04%, 73/114) than in the groups wearing protective equipment for 6-10 hours per week (81.48%, 66/81), 11-15 hours per week (95.24%, 20/21), 16-20 hours per week (81.82%, 36/44), 21-25 hours per week (86.49%, 32/37), and >25 hours per week (80.85%, 76/94;χ2 = 19.164, P = 0.002). Among the 391 respondents, the skin damage related to disinfection and protective equipment mainly manifested as dry skin (72.89%), desquamation (56.78%), skin pressure injury (54.48%), skin maceration (45.01%), and sensitive skin (33.50%);acne (27.11%) was the related skin disease with the highest incidence, followed by facial dermatitis (23.27%), eczematous dermatitis (21.48%), folliculitis (18.92%), dermatomycosis (11.00%), urticaria (9.21%), etc. Conclusion: There was a high incidence of skin damage related to protective equipment among the front-line healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19, and strengthening skin protection could markedly reduce the incidence of skin damage. Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Self-rated physical and mental health of community workers during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: The COVID-19 has become a global pandemic and impacts the mental and physical health of all people in the world. In China, the community workers played an important role in the combat against COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate the self-rated physical and mental health of community workers during the COVID-19 outbreak in China, and identify factors associated with differences in self-rated health. Materials and methods: From February 29 to March 27, 2020, an online questionnaire of 12 items Short Form Health Survey was used to investigate the physical and mental health of 702 community workers from Jiangsu Province. The data on working characteristics, social support, Stress Appraisal Measure and socio-demographic variables were collected as well. Multiple linear regression models were fitted to identify predictors of self-rated health among the community workers. Results: The community workers had poorer self-rated physical health, but better self-rated mental health compared to the residents of other places in China. The participants with higher level of education, working in a community with more population, having thought of seeking for help, having more working pressure sources, and having higher Stress Appraisal Measure scores had worse self-rated physical health, while the participants being community work administrators, wearing not disposable protective equipment, having thought of seeking for help, reporting more total working hours since COVID-19 outbreak, reporting more working pressure sources, and having higher Stress Appraisal Measure score had worse self-rated mental health. Conclusion: COVID-19 had great impact on community workers' physical health, but limited on mental health. The associated factors of physical and mental health may have practical implications for public health emergency-associated physical and mental health services planning and implementation.