Identification of differences in the magnitude and specificity of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody responses in naturally infected and vaccinated individuals.

As there are limited data on B cell epitopes for the nucleocapsid protein in SARS-CoV-2, we sought to identify the immunodominant regions within the N protein, recognized by patients with varying severity of natural infection with the Wuhan strain (WT), delta, omicron and in those who received the Sinopharm vaccines, which is an inactivated, whole virus vaccine.Using overlapping peptides representing the N protein, with an in-house ELISA, we mapped the immunodominant regions within the N protein, in seronegative (n=30), WT infected (n=30), delta infected (n=30), omicron infected+vaccinated (n=20) and Sinopharm (BBIBP-CorV) vaccinees (n=30). We then investigated the sensitivity and specificity of these immunodominant regions and analysed their conservation with other SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, seasonal human coronaviruses and bat Sarbecoviruses. We identified four immunodominant regions aa 29-52, aa 155-178, aa 274 to 297 and aa 365 to 388, were highly conserved within SARS-CoV-2 and the bat coronaviruses. The magnitude of responses to these regions varied based on the infecting SARS-CoV-2 variants, >80% of individuals gave responses above the positive cut-off threshold to many of the four regions, with some differences with individuals who were infected with different VoCs. These regions were found to be 100% specific, as none of the seronegative individuals gave any responses. As these regions were highly specific with high sensitivity, they have a potential to be used to develop diagnostic assays and to be used in development of vaccines.

Dynamic returns to scale and geography in U.S. banking: Papers and Proceedings

We observe spatial cost dependence among medium‐sized and large U.S. banks (1998Q1–2020Q4). We contribute to the literature by accounting for this using an accessible dynamic spatial econometric cost model. For a movement along a bank's output expansion path, we calculate the cost returns that spillover to/from the bank. The noticeable impacts of the 2020 COVID pandemic are on the spillover cost returns and not the own returns. These spillover returns suggest the pandemic led to the smallest (largest) banks becoming suboptimally smaller (bigger). A number of banks with high‐ranking spillover returns have geographically concentrated branches and/or specialize in particular activities.Alternate :Se observó una dependencia espacial de los costos entre los bancos estadounidenses medianos y grandes (1998T1–2020T4). El artículo contribuye a la bibliografía al tener en cuenta este hecho mediante un modelo econométrico espacial de costos dinámico y accesible. Para un movimiento a lo largo de la estrategia de expansión de la producción de un banco, se calculan los rendimientos de costos que hacen spillover hacia/desde el banco. Las repercusiones notables de la pandemia de COVID de 2020 se producen en los rendimientos de los costos indirectos y no en los rendimientos propios. Estos rendimientos de los spillovers sugieren que la pandemia llevó a los bancos más pequeños (más grandes) a ser subóptimamente más pequeños (más grandes). Varios bancos con altos rendimientos de spillovers tienen sucursales concentradas geográficamente o que se especializan en actividades concretas.Alternate :抄録本稿では、米国の中規模および大規模銀行のコストの空間依存性を観察する(1998年の第一四半期~2020年の第四四半期)。利用しやすい動的空間計量経済コストモデルを用いてこれを説明し本分野の研究に貢献する。銀行のアウトプット拡張経路に沿った動きに関して、銀行から、又は銀行へのスピルオーバーのコストリターンを計算する。2020年の新型コロナウイルス感染症のパンデミックによる顕著な影響は、自己へのリターンではなく、スピルオーバーのコストリターンに対するものである。こうしたスピルオーバーのリターンから、パンデミックにより最小規模(又は最大規模)の銀行が最適ではない規模にまで縮小(又は拡大)させられたことが示唆される。スピルオーバーのリターンの高い上位銀行の多くは、支店が地理的に集中しているか、特定の活動に特化している。

A functional gene module identification algorithm in gene expression data based on genetic algorithm and gene ontology.

Since genes do not function individually, the gene module is considered an important tool for interpreting gene expression profiles. In order to consider both functional similarity and expression similarity in module identification, GMIGAGO, a functional Gene Module Identification algorithm based on Genetic Algorithm and Gene Ontology, was proposed in this work. GMIGAGO is an overlapping gene module identification algorithm, which mainly includes two stages: In the first stage (initial identification of gene modules), Improved Partitioning Around Medoids Based on Genetic Algorithm (PAM-GA) is used for the initial clustering on gene expression profiling, and traditional gene co-expression modules can be obtained. Only similarity of expression levels is considered at this stage. In the second stage (optimization of functional similarity within gene modules), Genetic Algorithm for Functional Similarity Optimization (FSO-GA) is used to optimize gene modules based on gene ontology, and functional similarity within gene modules can be improved. Without loss of generality, we compared GMIGAGO with state-of-the-art gene module identification methods on six gene expression datasets, and GMIGAGO identified the gene modules with the highest functional similarity (much higher than state-of-the-art algorithms). GMIGAGO was applied in BRCA, THCA, HNSC, COVID-19, Stem, and Radiation datasets, and it identified some interesting modules which performed important biological functions. The hub genes in these modules could be used as potential targets for diseases or radiation protection. In summary, GMIGAGO has excellent performance in mining molecular mechanisms, and it can also identify potential biomarkers for individual precision therapy.

Dynamic returns to scale and geography in U.S. banking

We observe spatial cost dependence among medium‐sized and large U.S. banks (1998Q1–2020Q4). We contribute to the literature by accounting for this using an accessible dynamic spatial econometric cost model. For a movement along a bank's output expansion path, we calculate the cost returns that spillover to/from the bank. The noticeable impacts of the 2020 COVID pandemic are on the spillover cost returns and not the own returns. These spillover returns suggest the pandemic led to the smallest (largest) banks becoming suboptimally smaller (bigger). A number of banks with high‐ranking spillover returns have geographically concentrated branches and/or specialize in particular activities. [ FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamic pricing model of container liner shipping with overlapping legs on shipping network in a duopoly competition market

Container liner shipping is an important backbone for international trade marine transportation of industry products. After the 2008 financial crisis and especially with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the international liner shipping has been at a low ebb. It has experienced an overall imbalance in the supply and demand of transportation capacity, prolonged recession periods, and low-level fluctuations in freight rates. Moreover, the imbalance between supply and demand has been extremely prominent and the operating cost has risen drastically. Therefore, competition between liner companies has grown fiercer. To reduce operating costs and increase their market share and shipping competitiveness, container liner companies have strengthened their cooperation and formed shipping liner alliances. With dominant ocean carriers and the merger of the carriers′ industry, the carrier competition exhibits an oligopolistic nature. The capital-intensive nature of regular shipping services has led to fierce competition between shipping lines. Low service differentiation in liner shipping implies that competition in this industry is mainly on a cost or price (freight rate) basis. Therefore, how to formulate reasonable container liner freight rates has become a core decision-making issue for shipping companies in an oligopolistic market. Furthermore, with the advent of online booking systems, such as the one operated by Maersk Line, adjusting realtime prices can become less costly, which will make a dynamic pricing strategy possible and necessary. In view of this, this paper focuses on the dynamic pricing strategy of container liner shipping in a duopoly market. This paper makes the following contributions to the literature. (1) It contributes to the literature by expanding the current literature by exploring the dynamic pricing problem that extends from a single origin-destination (OD) stream to multiple OD streams under a liner shipping network. (2) A time-phrased dynamic pricing game strategy is proposed to solve the pricing problem of liner shipping networks with overlapping legs based on the principle of discrete-time dynamic generalized Nash equilibrium. Shipping lines face two types of customer demands: long-term contractual demand and spot market demand. The price of the longterm demand is often fixed and contracted once a year, whereas the price of spot market demand may be agreed upon between shipping lines and shippers (or freight forwarders) dynamically on a daily or weekly basis. The regularity of liner shipping services indicates that liner services are perishable products, which means that unutilized vessel slots will lose the opportunity to generate revenue. Therefore, it is vital for a shipping line to seek an appropriate pricing strategy to maximize its revenue in the competitive and uncertain spot market. In addition, a container liner shipping network operates on multiple routes, and there are overlapping legs. The container freight rates of an OD that flows on different routes should be consistent without affecting the distribution ratio of the customer′s cargo transportation between the overlapping legs of each route. Therefore, from the perspective of customer classification, the focus of container liner shipping pricing decisions is mainly on the dynamic pricing of spot market customers. Based on the actual operation of liner shipping companies in multiple ports and the characteristics of customer classification, this paper studies the dynamic pricing problem of container liner shipping with overlapping legs on a shipping network in a duopoly competition market. The correlations between price sensitivity of customers and competition intensity with container shipping demand and freight rates in a spot market were analyzed. In accordance with the impact of a change in freight rate on freight flow distribution in overlapping segments of the shipping network, a time-phased dynamic pricing model for container liner shipping in a duopoly competition spot market was established while considering the factors of ma ket competition and the rival′s pricing strategy. The model has the essential feature of the generalized Nash equilibrium problem, that is, each participant′ s strategy is dependent on the competitor′s strategy. To prove the existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium solution, the K-T method was employed to solve the discrete-time dynamic pricing model. The research results are as follows. (1) Adopting the dynamic pricing strategy will significantly increase the revenue of the two duopoly shipping companies. (2) The shipping company′s transportation revenue is negatively correlated with the intensity of market competition, and the container freight rate decreases as the intensity of competition in the duopoly market increases. (3) When the intensity of market competition is weak, the shipping company′s transportation revenue has a negative correlation with the customer′s price sensitivity. However, when the market competition is intense, the shipping company′s transportation revenue has a positive correlation with the customer′ s price sensitivity. The meaningful management implications of this paper are as follows. (1) To improve transportation revenue, shipping companies should adopt a flexible dynamic pricing strategy for customers in the duopoly competition spot market by dividing the canvassing period into several periods. (2) Shipping companies should strengthen cooperation by forming liner alliances. This will not only prevent price wars but also reduce the negative impact of market competition intensity on freight rates. (3) Shipping companies should adopt a time-phased pricing strategy to minimize the adverse impact of the price sensitivity of some urgent customers whose canvassing period is approaching on the demand for container transportation so that the shipping company′s transportation revenue would significantly improve © 2022, Journal of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. All Rights Reserved.

Multi-element protocol on IR experiments stability: Application to the TREC-COVID test collection

The evaluation of information retrieval systems is performed using test collections. The classical Cranfield evaluation paradigm is defined on one fixed corpus of documents and topics. Following this paradigm, several systems can only be compared over the same test collections (documents, topics, assessments). In this work, we explore in a systematic way the impact of similarity of test collections on the comparability of the experiments: characterizing the minimal changes between the collections upon which the performance of IR system evaluated can be compared. To do that, we create pair instances of sub-test collections from one reference collection with controlled overlapping elements, and we compare the Ranking of Systems (RoS) of a defined list of IR systems. We can then compute the probability that the RoS are the same across the sub-test collections. We experiment with our framework proposed on the TREC-COVID collections, and two of our findings show that: a) the ranking of systems, according to the MaP, is very stable even for overlaps smaller than 10% for documents, relevance assessments and positive relevance assessments sub-collections, and b) stability is not ensured for MaP, Rprec, Bpref and ndcg evaluation measures even when considering large overlap for the topics. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Funder priority for vaccines: Implications of a weak Lockean claim.

The development of some COVID-19 vaccines by private companies like Moderna and Sanofi-GSK has been substantially funded by various governments. While the Sanofi CEO has previously suggested that countries that fund this development ought to be given some priority, this suggestion has not been taken seriously in the literature. Considerations of nationalism, sustainability, need, and equitability have been more extensively discussed with respect to whether and how much a country is entitled to advance purchase orders of the vaccine under conditions of absolute scarcity. Yet, little attention has been paid to whether prior investment into developing a vaccine entitles a country to some priority with respect to these orders. Moreover, while not a majority view, some survey results show that a significant minority of the populace does endorse some view like this. This article argues that the minority have a point: recognizing funder countries some priority is justified by the weak Lockean claim (WLC). According to the WLC, the fact that someone has contributed to the development of something gives them some entitlement to the resultant product. This article will defend the WLC, and address objections to the argument, including those pertaining to questions of historical injustice and medical need. This argument does not imply an unconstrained entitlement. Rather, contribution to development is one morally relevant factor that must be tempered by and weighed against potentially more substantial claims to priority based on need, equity, and other considerations.

COVID-19 Mimicking Hemolysis, Elevated Liver Enzymes and Low Platelets (HELLP) Syndrome: A Case Report

Background & aim: Hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets syndrome (HELLP) was mimicked by several infectious conditions. It is critically important to distinguish these two, since their management and course differs, substantially. Case report: The case was a 27-year-old gravid patient with gestational age of 30 weeks who initially presented with headache and lower limb pain as well as leukopenia (and lymphopenia), normochromic normocytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, abnormal liver enzymes, increased lactate dehydrogenase enzyme and C-reactive protein. The patient was initially managed for HELLP syndrome, but due to the atypical presentation (low blood pressure and an episode of delirium when admitted), the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), realtime reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) was requested for the patient that was positive. The spiral lung high-resolution computed tomography scan revealed changes compatible with COVID-19 diagnosis. Finally, the patient underwent uncomplicated normal vaginal delivery at 39th gestational week. Conclusion: It is important to consider the COVID-19 in differential diagnosis of patients suspected to HELLP syndrome, as the isolation and treatment of the patient is different and time-sensitive. © Journal of Midwifery and Reproductive Health.All rights reserved.

Hydrophobic Alpha-Helical Short Peptides in Overlapping Reading Frames of the Coronavirus Genome.

In this study, we show that the coronavirus (CoV) genome may encode many functional hydrophobic alpha-helical peptides (HAHPs) in overlapping reading frames of major coronaviral proteins throughout the entire viral genome. These HAHPs can theoretically be expressed from non-canonical sub-genomic (sg)RNAs that are synthesized in substantial amounts in infected cells. We selected and analyzed five and six HAHPs encoded in the S gene regions of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), respectively. Two and three HAHPs derived from SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV, respectively, specifically interacted with both the SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV S proteins and inhibited their membrane fusion activity. Furthermore, one of the SARS-CoV-2 HAHPs specifically inhibited viral RNA synthesis by accumulating at the site of viral RNA synthesis. Our data show that a group of HAHPs in the coronaviral genome potentially has a regulatory role in viral propagation.

Functional and structural segregation of overlapping helices in HIV-1.

Overlapping coding regions balance selective forces between multiple genes. One possible division of nucleotide sequence is that the predominant selective force on a particular nucleotide can be attributed to just one gene. While this arrangement has been observed in regions in which one gene is structured and the other is disordered, we sought to explore how overlapping genes balance constraints when both protein products are structured over the same sequence. We use a combination of sequence analysis, functional assays, and selection experiments to examine an overlapped region in HIV-1 that encodes helical regions in both Env and Rev. We find that functional segregation occurs even in this overlap, with each protein spacing its functional residues in a manner that allows a mutable non-binding face of one helix to encode important functional residues on a charged face in the other helix. Additionally, our experiments reveal novel and critical functional residues in Env and have implications for the therapeutic targeting of HIV-1.

COVID-19: A Cause of HELLP Syndrome? A Case Report.

Purpose: There are still many unexplained points about how COVID-19 affects pregnant women and what kind of clinical and laboratory findings it reveals. These findings can become clinical conun drums when there is significant overlap with known and serious syndromes in pregnancy. The aim of this study is to report a case with a laboratory-proven diagnosis of COVID-19 and HELLP syndrome hypothesis. Case Presentation: A 30-year-old multigravida (g3p2, repeated cesarean section) 32-week pregnant patient reported to the emergency service with complaints of chills, cough and shortness of breath that started 6 days ago. Following comprehensive screening tests for the differential diagnosis of lymphopenia, high liver enzymes, low platelets, abnormal coagulation panel, high D-dimer, high total bilirubin, high LDH and HELLP syndrome in the laboratory examinations of the patient, the patient's laboratory findings were evaluated as compatible with HELLP syndrome. Emergency cesarean section was performed on the patient because of maternal hypoxemia. The finalization of the microbiological diagnosis of COVID-19 resulted to start conventional COVID-19 treatment. The fetus was also confirmed to be positive for COVID-19, and the newborn died on the 5th postnatal day. Unfortunately, our mother patient died on the 10th day of her hospitalization. Conclusion: This report describes a case of multigravida, 30 years old, who presented with respiratory tract infection symptoms and hypothesized HELLP syndrome, who later tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The distinction between these two etiologies and onset times is extremely difficult. However, given the sequence of events in this case, it is reasonable to consider that COVID-19 may be an etiological factor associated with the pathophysiology of HELLP, despite the lack of conclusive evidence.

COVID-19: Detecting depression signals during stay-at-home period.

The new coronavirus outbreak has been officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. To grapple with the rapid spread of this ongoing pandemic, most countries have banned indoor and outdoor gatherings and ordered their residents to stay home. Given the developing situation with coronavirus, mental health is an important challenge in our society today. In this paper, we discuss the investigation of social media postings to detect signals relevant to depression. To this end, we utilize topic modeling features and a collection of psycholinguistic and mental-well-being attributes to develop statistical models to characterize and facilitate representation of the more subtle aspects of depression. Furthermore, we predict whether signals relevant to depression are likely to grow significantly as time moves forward. Our best classifier yields F-1 scores as high as 0.8 and surpasses the utilized baseline by a considerable margin, 0.173. In closing, we propose several future research avenues.

Moving between experiences and new psychoanalytic frontiers

This article aims to dialogue with psychoanalysis in a frontier zone to show how a fundamental concept, such as the unconscious, has been transformed and expanded throughout the history of the psychoanalytic movement. Also, in the border area, we highlight Freud's thinking when he analyzes the civilization and its discontents, indicating that, considering the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe that we are living under the same aegis of the three sources of suffering mentioned in that work. Issues such as our own helplessness and our patients' helplessness, the impossibility of maintaining the traditional asymmetry, as well as the necessary adaptations to non-face-to-face sessions, are some of the topics addressed. We present theoretical perspectives that examine the mental state produced by the "overlapping worlds phenomenon", when the material brought to the session touches elements common to the lives of both patient and analyst. Clinical vignettes are introduced to illustrate this phenomenon Another frontier is also presented, which its heuristic value concerns the support of the articulator of uncertainty, understood as what presents itself as the new, the unpredictable, and its status and contribution to the psychoanalytic theory. The article ends by presenting a vivid picture of the reactions of patients and analysts, the framework and the analytical fields, from the beginning of the pandemic to the present moment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Portuguese) O presente artigo visa dialogar com a psicanalise em zona de fronteira, refletindo sobre alguns temas como, por exemplo, o conceito de inconsciente e o quanto este foi se transformando e sendo ampliado ao longo da historia do movimento psicanalitico. Tambem em zona de fronteira, destacamos o pensamento de Freud quando analisa O malestar na civilizacao, indicando que, face aos acontecimentos atuais e na vigencia da pandemia Covid-19, acreditamos estar vivendo sob a egide das mesmas tres fontes de sofrimento citadas naquela obra. Questoes como o nosso proprio desamparo e o de nossos pacientes, a impossibilidade de manter a tradicional assimetria e as adaptacoes necessarias as sessoes nao presenciais sao alguns dos temas abordados. Sao apresentadas perspectivas teoricas que examinam o estado mental produzido pelo fenomeno dos mundos superpostos quando o material trazido a sessao apresenta elementos comuns a vida de ambos, paciente e analista. Vinhetas clinicas sao relatadas para ilustrar esse fenomeno acontecendo no tempo presente. Tambem e apresentada outra fronteira, cujo valor heuristico diz respeito a sustentacao do articulador incerteza, entendido como aquilo que se apresenta como o novo, o imprevisivel, e qual o seu estatuto e contribuicao para a teoria psicanalitica. O artigo finaliza apresentando um quadro vivido sobre as reacoes de pacientes e analistas, sobre o enquadre e sobre os campos analiticos desde o inicio da pandemia ate o momento atual. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) Este articulo tiene como objetivo dialogar con el psicoanalisis en territorio de frontera, reflexionando sobre algunos temas como, por ejemplo, el concepto de inconsciente y cuanto ha ido cambiando y ampliandose a lo largo de la historia del movimiento psicoanalitico. Tambien en territorio fronterizo, destacamos el pensamiento de Freud al analizar el malestar en la cultura, indicando que, dados los acontecimientos actuales y la pandemia del Covid-19, creemos que vivimos bajo la egida de las mismas tres fUentes de sufrimiento mencionadas en aquella obra. Cuestiones como nuestro propio desamparo y el de nuestros pacientes, la imposibilidad de mantener la tradicional asimetria y las adaptaciones necesarias a las sesiones no presenciales son algunos de los temas tratados. Se presentan perspectivas teoricas que examinan el estado mental producido por el "fenomeno de los mundos superpuestos" cuando el material traido a la sesion presenta elementos comunes a la vida tanto del paciente como del analista. Se relatan vinetas clinicas para ilustrar ese fenomeno que tiene lugar en el tiempo presente. Tambien se presenta otra frontera, cuyo valor heuristico concierne a la sustentacion del articulador incertidumbre, entendido como lo que se presenta como lo nuevo, lo impredecible, y cual es su estatuto y contribucion a la teoria psicoanalitica. El articulo finaliza presentando un cuadro vivido de las reacciones de pacientes y analistas, sobre el encuadre y los campos analiticos desde el inicio de la pandemia hasta el momento presente. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Using Combined Bus Rapid Transit and Buses in a Dedicated Bus Lane to Enhance Urban Transportation Sustainability

Combined bus rapid transit and buses in a dedicated bus lane (CBBD) is a measure that bus rapid transit (BRT) operators implement to reduce overlapping routes between BRT and fixed-route buses. The CBBD measure can combine the passengers of both systems on the same route, which helps increase passenger demand for the BRT, and reduce fuel consumption and emissions from utilizing the exclusive lanes for the combined route. However, the CBBD could affect some bus and BRT passengers in terms of either losing or gaining travel time-saving benefits depending on their travel pattern. This research proposed a methodology to determine the travel distance initiating disadvantage for BRT passengers (DDB) to justify the potential success of the CBBD operations. The number of passengers gaining a benefit from the CBBD was sensitive to the distance between the CBBD stops and the operational period of the CBBD. The CBBD reform would be beneficial to transit agencies to improve the travel time of passengers and be able to promote environmental sustainability for the public transportation system in urban cities.

A Theoretical Approach in Explaining the Impact of Remittances on the Macroeconomy: Evidence From an Overlapping Generations Model for the Philippines

Despite the constraints posed by the coronavirus pandemic on the global movement of migrant workers, cash remittance inflows remained to be a significant component of the Philippine economy. It still comprises a significant proportion of the economy’s gross domestic product and exceeds the influx of overseas development assistance and foreign direct investments. On top of the various empirical studies discussing the effects of remittances on the macroeconomy, I took the theoretical approach in explicating its impact on the macroeconomy. Through a micro-founded macro-model overlapping generations model, I trace the effects of remittances on the path of steady-state aggregate income, capital accumulation, and consumption. Calibration results indicated that remittances increase steady-state consumption of remittance-recipient households, stimulate growth in steady-state aggregate income, and drive faster capital accumulation. Such results call for policymakers to revisit policies to manage remittances in light of their economic effects. © 2022 by De La Salle University.

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 in Bangladesh: the crossroad of the governance and performance

Purpose - This paper aims to assess the performance of achieving the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by aligning with the recent initiatives taken by different ministries and divisions in Bangladesh. It also examines the institutional challenges associated with the implementation of SDGs. Design/methodology/approach - Both primary and secondary data were analysed by applying different techniques. The initiatives taken by various ministries and divisions of Bangladesh resonated partially with 84 targets of SDGs. Findings - Ambiguous mandates of different ministries and divisions have caused overlapping jurisdiction, followed by conflicts of interest and lack of cohesion. Inaccurate stakeholder analysis, data unavailability, lack of competency and accountability, and a top-down policy approach can be considered as the major institutional bottlenecks in achieving SDGs. Originality/value - This paper advocates revising the map to incorporate the right stakeholders to avoid erroneous monitoring, evaluation, and finally, inaccurate reporting. The reallocation of business for ministries and divisions is warranted to abolish jurisdictional overlapping and conflict of interests and make SDGs friendly. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic recession, Bangladesh may be able to multiply its achievement with the same resources and efforts by addressing those drawbacks.

Sharp schedule compression in urgent emergency construction projects via activity crashing, substitution and overlapping: a case study of Huoshengshan and Leishenshan Hospital projects in Wuhan

Purpose To meet the rapidly increasing demand for medical treatment during the outbreak of COVID-19, Huoshengshan and Leishenshan Hospital are rapidly built (9-12 days) in Wuhan. These two urgent emergency projects are unprecedented. In general, substantial literature suggests that the possibility of shortening a schedule by more than a quarter of its original duration is implausible. By contrast, the two projects had successfully compressed the schedules from months and years to about ten days. This study aims to investigate how this was done and provide references for future projects. Design/methodology/approach The study uses qualitative case study techniques to analyze the project practices in two urgent emergency projects. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and archival research. During interviews, interviewees were asked to describe the project practices adopted to overcome the challenges and freely share their experiences and knowledge. Findings The results illustrate that a high degree of schedule compression is achievable through tactful crashing, substitution and overlapping applications. The successful practices heavily rely on the high capacity of participants and necessary organization, management and technology innovations, such as three-level matrix organizational structure, reverse design method, site partition, mock-up room first strategies and prefabricated construction technology. For instance, the reverse design method is one of the most significant innovations to project simplification and accelerate and worthy of promotion for future emergency projects. Practical implications The empirical findings are significant as they evoke new thinking and direction for addressing the main challenges of sharp schedule compression and provide valuable references for future emergency projects, including selecting high-capacity contractors and replacing the conventional design methods with reverse design. Originality/value Substantial studies indicate that the maximum degree of schedule compression is highly unlikely to exceed 25%, but this study suggests that sharp compression is possible. Although with flaws in its beauty (i.e. compressing schedule at the expense of construction cost and quality), it is also a breakthrough. It provides the building block for future research in this fertile and unexplored area.

Analysis of COVID-19 college testing facility during move-in days using discrete event simulation model

With COVID-19 still present, bringing students safely back to campus is a critical task. COVID-19 testing has become synonymous with controlling an outbreak;however, concerns about how to safely test numerous students in a short amount of time have arisen. Simulation modeling and analysis provide valuable solutions by giving clear insights into complex systems. A discrete event simulation (DES) model is used to study a COVID-19 testing facility at a university. The aim of the simulation study is to optimally allocate limited resources, identify bottlenecks, and propose an alternative scheduling strategy to improve system performances. COVID-19 testing completion time, waiting time in queue, and throughput are assessed for efficiency and safety. The optimal ratio of resources allows for efficient allocation of resources, without reducing system capability. With standard scheduling of arrivals, long queues in the first 10 minutes increase the risk of COVID-19. Overlapping scheduling is a method of scheduling with overlapping time blocks that distributes arrivals more evenly. The proposed alternative of overlapping scheduling addresses the issue of long queues, potential close contacts, and low system operational efficiency. The proposed alternative reduces the maximum arrival queue by 64.51% and the maximum COVID-19 testing time by 16.67%. The proposed alternative can handle a 33.33% increase in demand, resulting in equal average COVID-19 testing times as the baseline model. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.

Overlapping community detection in complex networks using fuzzy theory, balanced link density, and label propagation

Complex networks represent various real‐world systems. Overlapping community detection is one of the critical tasks in studying these networks and has significance to a wide variety of applications, including the exploration of online social networks because of the natural attitude of persons to participate in multiple communities at the same time. Despite a large number of existing community detection algorithms for detecting disjoint communities, the efficient and fast uncovering of overlapping communities has remained a challenging problem. To provide an efficient solution, on the one hand, the balanced link density label propagation (BLDLP) algorithm, proposed by the authors of the current study, is a fast, stable, and efficient method for disjoint community detection. On the other hand, the fuzzy theory is a worthwhile approach for overlapping community detection since it provides the membership rate of the overlapping nodes as well as the detection of overlapping communities. Hence, in this paper, based on the synergy of the BLDLP algorithm and the fuzzy theory, a novel method, called fuzzy BLDLP, for overlapping community detection is proposed. Fuzzy BLDLP is fast and efficient. The proposed method needs no prior information about the number of network communities to discover them. The experiments on both synthetic and real‐world known networks, including Zachary, Dolphins, and COVID‐19 Co‐authorship, have revealed that the proposed method successfully detects the overlapping nodes and communities and hence is comparable with the state‐of‐the‐art overlapping community detection algorithms in terms of recall, precision, F‐score and overlapping normalized mutual information. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Expert Systems is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Prediction of two novel overlapping ORFs in the genome of SARS-CoV-2.

Six candidate overlapping genes have been detected in SARS-CoV-2, yet current methods struggle to detect overlapping genes that recently originated. However, such genes might encode proteins beneficial to the virus, and provide a model system to understand gene birth. To complement existing detection methods, I first demonstrated that selection pressure to avoid stop codons in alternative reading frames is a driving force in the origin and retention of overlapping genes. I then built a detection method, CodScr, based on this selection pressure. Finally, I combined CodScr with methods that detect other properties of overlapping genes, such as a biased nucleotide and amino acid composition. I detected two novel ORFs (ORF-Sh and ORF-Mh), overlapping the spike and membrane genes respectively, which are under selection pressure and may be beneficial to SARS-CoV-2. ORF-Sh and ORF-Mh are present, as ORF uninterrupted by stop codons, in 100% and 95% of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes, respectively.