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This article addresses the work of Chinese American interdisciplinary artist Patty Chang over a 25-year period that begins with her groundbreaking short form videos in the 1990s, and considers transitional works in the mid-2000s that led the artist to create two major bodies of work connecting identity issues with climate change since 2009. I discuss Chang's influence on subsequent generations of Chinese American and Asian American artists, her prescient use of online aesthet-ics and her complex engagement with the political, social and ecological realities of mainland China and neighbouring Uzbekistan. After contextualizing Chang's influence through the lens of her inclusion in the group exhibition Wonderland with nine other Chinese Diasporic artists, I consider the impact of COVID-19 and anti-Asian violence in the United States and globally on the direction of Chang's work and discuss the experience of curating her recent project during the pandemic shutdown. © 2022 Intellect Ltd Article. English language.
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This study aims to model the dynamic relationships between the number of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths in all the districts of Kerala state, India, from January 2021 to December 2021 based on the panel vector auto-regressive model. The random effect panel vector auto-regressive model of order two was found suitable to model dynamic relationships. This model explains 62 % variations in the endogenous variable, deaths (number of deaths). The exogenous variable deaths (-1) are highly significant, whereas the exogenous variable cases (-1) are significant at a 5% level. Both of these exogenous variables positively influence the endogenous variable. The other exogenous variables, viz., deaths (-2) and cases (-2), are non-significant. The Durbin-Watson test statistic value confirms the independence of the residuals, and the Wald test confirms the validity of the significance of the estimated regression coefficients.
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BACKGROUND AND AIM: Evidence for therapies for pediatric COVID-19 is limited. Primary aim was to study the effect of steroid administration within 2 days of admission for pediatric non-MIS-C-COVID-19 on hospital and ICU length of stay (LOS). The secondary aim was to study its effect on inflammation and fever defervescence. METHOD(S): A retrospective study of 1163 children hospitalized with non-MISC-COVID-19, from 03/20 to 09/21, from 58 hospitals (7 countries, 92% US), in the Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness Universal Study (VIRUS) registry. Effect of steroid administration <= 2 days of admission on hospital and ICU LOS was studied using intention to treat analysis, adjusted for confounders by multivariable mixed linear regression. RESULT(S): Median age was 7(IQR 0.9,14.3) years. 184(15.8%) children who received steroids within <= 2 days were compared to 979 (84.1%) children who did not. 56.5% (n=658) required respiratory support. Patients in the steroid group were older, with higher severity of illness. A greater proportion required respiratory and vasoactive support. On multivariable linear regression with random intercept for site (Table), there was no significant difference in hospital LOS (exponentiated [exp] co-efficient 0.92, 95%CI = 0.77, 1.10, p=0.374) or ICU LOS (exp co-efficient 1.02, 95%CI = 0.78, 1.34, p=0.864) between the groups. There was no significant difference in time to fever defervescence and normalization of inflammatory mediators by Day 3. CONCLUSION(S): In pediatric non-MIS-C COVID-19, steroid treatment <= 2 days of hospital admission did not show a statistically significant effect on hospital or ICU LOS. (Table Presented).
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Background: Platelets are effectors of hemostasis and play a major role in coordinating immune and inflammatory activities. Suitable animal models are needed to study COVID-19-associated coagulopathy and platelet effector functions in COVID-19, which are currently poorly understood. Aim(s): We aimed to characterize alterations of platelets isolated from K18-hACE2 transgenic mice infected with SARS-CoV-2. Method(s): Heterozygous K18-hACE2 (human ACE2) and C57BL/6J mice were used to study SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Lung infection, infiltration, and platelet aggregation were characterized with histology and immunohistochemistry. Platelet response to SARS-CoV-2 infection was quantified by mass spectrometry analysis of proteomics and phosphoproteomics. Western blotting, ELISA, and multiplex plasma profiling were performed to validate the proteomics and phosphoproteomics data. Result(s): SARS-CoV-2 inoculated (10E6PFU, i.n.) K18-hACE2 mice started to lose weight at 4 days post-infection (dpi) and showed 90% lethality at 7-dpi in association with viral neuroinvasion. Histopathologic findings of infected K18-hACE2 mice included progressive lymphohistiocytic interstitial pneumonia with absence of diffuse alveolar damage. Lungs of infected K18-hACE2 mice (2-/ 4-dpi) showed mild increase in CD61+ aggregates compared to sham mice, but no overt tissue thrombosis. Gene ontology and pathway analyses of platelet proteomics and phosphoproteomics revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly upregulates the complement-coagulation cascades (F2/12/13, Tfpi, C1ra, Cd55, C4bp) and platelet activation-adhesion-degranulation proteins (Vwf, Itgb3/5, Selp, Pecam1) and chemokine (Pf4, Cxcl5/12) signaling at 2-dpi. However, interferon (Ddx58, Trim25, Mapk3) signaling was dominant at 4-dpi. Activation of proteomics and phosphoproteomics protein markers were highly correlated with platelet activation and interferon signaling at 2-/ 4-dpi, respectively. Plasma chemokine (e.g., Ccl8 and Pf4) and cytokines (e.g., IL6) were significantly elevated at 2-/ 4-dpi. SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was abundant at 2-/ 4-dpi in the lungs but not in platelets and kidneys, which correlated with no infectious virus in the serum. Conclusion(s): Platelet re-programming towards activation-degranulation-aggregation is likely attributable to a pneumonia-induced elevated circulatory factors (e.g., cytokines)-driven response rather than direct platelet infection.
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This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between the number of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths in all the districts of Karnataka state, India, from July 2020 to December 2021 based on the panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The panel GMM model with the first difference transformation was found suitable for studying the dynamics of the number of deaths due to COVID-19 infections over time. The one-period lag (DEATHS (-1)) has a positive and significant effect on the number of deaths (DEATH). The Wald test confirms the validity of the coefficients' significance and adds explanatory power to the model. The correlation between number of fatalities at time t positively correlated with the number of deaths in the previous period. Also, the number of infected cases positively and significantly influences the number of deaths over time. Granger pairwise causality test reveals the existence of bi-directional causality relationships between the COVID-19 infected cases and deaths.
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COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel ß-coronavirus, belonging to the same subgenus as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. Remdesivir, an investigational broad-spectrum antiviral agent has previously demonstrated in vitro activity against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and in vivo efficacy against other related coronaviruses in animal models. Its safety profile has been tested in a compassionate use setting for patients with COVID-19. The current therapeutic studies demonstrate clinical effectiveness of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients by shortening time to clinical recovery, and hospital stay. In this review, we critically analyze the current evidence of remdesivir against COVID-19 and dissect the aspects over its safety and efficacy. Based on existing data, remdesivir can be regarded as a potential therapeutic agent against COVID-19. Further large-scale, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials are, however, awaited to validate these findings.