Deviance and Pearson Residuals-Based Control Charts with Different Link Functions for Monitoring Logistic Regression Profiles: An Application to COVID-19 Data

In statistical process control, the control charts are an effective tool to monitor the process. When the process is examined based on an exponential family distributed response variable along with a single explanatory variable, the generalized linear model (GLM) provides better estimates and GLM-based charts are preferred. This study is designed to propose GLM-based control charts using different link functions (i.e., logit, probit, c-log-log, and cauchit) with the binary response variable. The Pearson residuals (PR)- and deviance residuals (DR)-based control charts for logistic regression are proposed under different link functions. For evaluation purposes, a simulation study is designed to evaluate the performance of the proposed control charts. The results are compared based on the average run length (ARL). Moreover, the proposed charts are implemented on a real application for COVID-19 death monitoring. The Monte Carlo simulation study and real applications show that the performance of the model-based control charts with the c-log-log link function gives a better performance as compared to model-based control charts with other link functions. © 2023 by the authors.

Extending the Protection Ability and Life Cycle of Medical Masks through the Washing Process.

The reuse of decontaminated disposable medical face masks can contribute to reducing the environmental burden of discarded masks. This research is focused on the effect of household and laboratory washing at 50 °C on the quality and functionality of the nonwoven structure of polypropylene medical masks by varying the washing procedure, bath composition, disinfectant agent, and number of washing cycles as a basis for reusability. The barrier properties of the medical mask were analyzed before and after the first and fifth washing cycle indirectly by measuring the contact angle of the liquid droplets with the front and back surface of the mask, further by measuring air permeability and determining antimicrobial resistance. Additional analysis included FTIR, pH of the material surface and aqueous extract, as well as the determination of residual substances-surfactants-in the aqueous extract of washed versus unwashed medical masks, while their aesthetic aspect was examined by measuring their spectral characteristics. The results showed that household washing had a stronger impact on the change of some functional properties, primarily air permeability, than laboratory washing. The addition of the disinfectant agent, didecyldimethylammonium chloride, contributes to the protective ability and supports the idea that washing of medical masks under controlled conditions can preserve barrier properties and enable reusability.

[The wave train of COVID-19 infections]. / COVID-19: il treno di onde dei contagi.

The present work studies the epidemic curve of COVID-19 in Italy between September 2020 and mid-June 2021 in terms of poussées, that is successive waves. There is obviously only one pandemic, although the virus has spread in the form of several variants, but the daily incidence trend can also be read in terms of overlapping of events that are different from each other or, in any case, induced by various phenomena. It can be hypothesized that in this way a succession of various waves was generated, which are modelled here using appropriate adaptation curves used in the study of epidemic data. Each curve corresponds approximately to the situation that would have occurred if no element had intervened to prevent the decrease of infections after the relative peak, while their overlap is considered to describe the subsequent increases. This interpolation has no predictive purpose, being purely descriptive over the time window under consideration. The discrepancies between the superposition of the modelling curves and the real epidemic curve are therefore also highlighted, especially in the transition periods between the various poussées. Finally, the analysis carried out allows to match the trend of the epidemic in the period considered with, on one hand, the series of events and, on the other, with the containment measures adopted which may have determined the succession of increases and decreases in the incidence of infections.

Hygiene of cell phones of health care workers from NICU of a hospital in Zhejiang Province

OBJECTIVE: To understand the status of pollution of cell phones of health care workers from neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) and explore the effect of frequency of regular disinfection on hygiene of cell phones so as to reduce the pollution of cell phones. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted for the status of use of cell phones among the health care workers, the samples were collected from the cell phones of three groups of health care workers that were disinfected with different frequencies by using sterile sponge sticks. Chi square test was carried out to analyze the impact of use habit of cell phones on the hygiene and the impact of different frequencies of disinfection on the hygiene of cell phones. RESULTS: A total of 46 health care workers were enrolled in the study, all of them used touch-screen cell phones, 97.83% of the health care workers used the cell phone when working, 17.39% used sometimes;13.04% of the health care workers never carried out hand hygiene after they used cell phones, only 1(2.17%) health care worker carried out hand hygiene every time after use;the frequency of regular cleaning of cell phones was less than once per day among 69.57% of the health care workers. The majority of the health care workers used disposable disinfectant wipes for the cleaning of cell phones;15.22% of the health care workers used disposable protective covers. The cell phones of 32 health care workers were sampled, the qualified rate of the samples was 34.38%, and pathogens were not isolated. The cell phones maintained clean by using the disposable protective covers. There was no significant difference in the qualified rate of hygiene among the cell phones with different frequencies of disinfection. CONCLUSION: The regular cleaning and disinfection of the cell phones may effectively reduce the bacterial colonization on the surfaces of cell phones, and the use of disposable protective covers may keep the cell phones relatively clean.

The role of automated evaluation techniques in online professional translator training.

The rapid technologisation of translation has influenced the translation industry's direction towards machine translation, post-editing, subtitling services and video content translation. Besides, the pandemic situation associated with COVID-19 has rapidly increased the transfer of business and education to the virtual world. This situation has motivated us not only to look for new approaches to online translator training, which requires a different method than learning foreign languages but in particular to look for new approaches to assess translator performance within online educational environments. Translation quality assessment is a key task, as the concept of quality is closely linked to the concept of optimization. Automatic metrics are very good indicators of quality, but they do not provide sufficient and detailed linguistic information about translations or post-edited machine translations. However, using their residuals, we can identify the segments with the largest distances between the post-edited machine translations and machine translations, which allow us to focus on a more detailed textual analysis of suspicious segments. We introduce a unique online teaching and learning system, which is specifically "tailored" for online translators' training and subsequently we focus on a new approach to assess translators' competences using evaluation techniques-the metrics of automatic evaluation and their residuals. We show that the residuals of the metrics of accuracy (BLEU_n) and error rate (PER, WER, TER, CDER, and HTER) for machine translation post-editing are valid for translator assessment. Using the residuals of the metrics of accuracy and error rate, we can identify errors in post-editing (critical, major, and minor) and subsequently utilize them in more detailed linguistic analysis.

Assessing and managing SARS-CoV-2 occupational health risk to workers handling residuals and biosolids.

Current wastewater worker guidance from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) aligns with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommendations and states that no additional specific protections against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infections, are recommended for employees involved in wastewater management operations with residuals, sludge, and biosolids at water resource recovery facilities. The USEPA guidance references a document from 2002 that summarizes practices required for protection of workers handling class B biosolids to minimize exposure to pathogens including viruses. While there is no documented evidence that residuals or biosolids of any treatment level contain infectious SARS-CoV-2 or are a source of transmission of this current pandemic strain of coronavirus, this review summarizes and examines whether the provided federal guidance is sufficient to protect workers in view of currently available data on SARS-CoV-2 persistence and transmission. No currently available epidemiological data establishes a direct link between wastewater sludge or biosolids and risk of infection from the SARS-CoV-2. Despite shedding of the RNA of the virus in feces, there is no evidence supporting the presence or transmission of infectious SARS-CoV-2 through the wastewater system or in biosolids. In addition, this review presents previous epidemiologic data related to other non-enveloped viruses. Overall, the risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2, or any pathogen, decreases with increasing treatment measures. As a result, the highest risk of exposure is related to spreading and handling untreated feces or stool, followed by untreated municipal sludge, the class B biosolids, while lowest risk is associated with spreading or handling Class A biosolids. This review reinforces federal recommendations and the importance of vigilance in applying occupational risk mitigation measures to protect public and occupational health.