Interferon production by Viral, Bacterial & Yeast system: A comparative overview in 2023.

Interferons play a critical role in the innate immune response against several infections and play a key role in the control of a variety of viral and bacterial infectious diseases such as hepatitis, covid-19, cancer, and multiple sclerosis. Therefore, natural or synthetic IFN production is important and had three common methods, including bacterial fermentation, animal cell culture, and recombinant nucleic acid technology. However, the safety, purity, and accuracy of the most preferred INF production systems have not been extensively studied. This study provides a comprehensive comparative overview of interferon production in various systems that include viral, bacterial, yeast, and mammalian. We aim to determine the most efficient, safe, and accurate interferon production system available in the year 2023. The mechanisms of artificial interferon production were reviewed in various organisms, and the types and subtypes of interferons produced by each system were compared. Our analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences in interferon production and highlights the potential for developing new therapeutic strategies to combat infectious diseases. This review article offers the diverse strategies used by different organisms in producing and utilizing interferons, providing a framework for future research into the evolution and function of this critical immune response pathway.

An Overview

This introductory chapter first discusses some key terms in the book (e.g., remote, distance, and online) and then provides a brief history of remote teaching and learning of Chinese language, including its origin and development over the past 120 years, as well as its relationship to other instructional modes. The chapter then introduces the other 14 chapters, contributed by 21 authors from 10 countries on 5 continents. Next, it discusses four key findings across the chapters. The overview concludes with a summary and remarks on new opportunities and trends that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that we build on what we have learned from the crisis to advance Chinese language education globally. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Monkeypox Virus and Other Emerging Outbreaks: An Overview and Future Perspective.

Monkeypox (MPX) is a zoonotic disease caused by the MPX virus from the poxviridae family of orthopoxviruses. Typically, endemic in central and west Africa, it has now become a matter of concern since cases have been reported in non-endemic countries around mid-June 2022, especially in the European region, with the transmission not related to travel. The diagnosis is made by PCR testing of the skin lesions. Even though treatment is symptomatic, antiretrovirals, such as tecovirimat, are used in severe cases. Vaccination with second and third generation vaccines is approved for prophylaxis in high risk individuals. Unfortunately, these options of treatment and prevention are only available in high income countries at the moment. This review, through a thorough literature search of articles from 2017 onward, focuses on epidemiology, clinical manifestations, challenges, treatment, prevention and control of MPX virus and how they can be corelated with other viral outbreaks including COVID-19, Acute Hepatitis of unknown origin, Measles and Dengue, to better predict and therefore prevent its transmission. The previous COVID-19 pandemic increased the disease burden on healthcare infrastructure of low-middle income countries, therefore, this recent MPX outbreak calls for a joint effort from healthcare authorities, political figures, and NGOs to combat the disease and prevent its further spread not only in high income but also in middle- and low-income countries.

The World Economy's Development After the COVID-19 Crisis: Sustainability and Stability vs. Quick Digital Growth

This paper aims to model the cause-and-effect relationships between the world economy's digital development and sustainable living. A broad selection of developed and developing countries examines what the world economy would have looked like without the crisis in 2020. Drawing on whether the virus is swept off or merely reduced, the dataset contains a forecast of the world economy for 2022. Being aware of alternative scenarios can be helpful in a wide range of scientific studies. The practical implications of the results of the scenario analysis consist in them allowing for the assessment of opportunities to overcome the COVID-19 viral threat with the help of vaccination. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

An overview and trend analysis of research on the relationship between urban streets and residents' health in China pre- and post COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: After the outbreak of COVID-19, the international community has been faced with various problems it has brought to cities. A large number of research projects and corresponding management measures were launched globally, trying to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on society. Among them, exploring how to maintain the health of residents by managing and updating the design of urban streets is one of the important issues regarding urban sustainability in the post-epidemic era. Methods: This study uses bibliometric analysis techniques to obtain an overview of the knowledge structure of 898 Chinese urban streets and residents' health relationship studies from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database for two periods (1999-2019 and 2020-2022). Five aspects were analyzed in terms of the keyword domain co-occurrence network, topic evolution path, emergent terms, hierarchical clustering, and confusion matrix. Results and discussion: The findings revealed that studies focused on six broad themes: community residents, health surveys, health education, COVID-19, healthy city, and public health. Based on these findings, the paper compares and discusses research priorities before and after the outbreak and highlights areas for further research and attention.

Prospects for Digitalization of Rural Areas

The spread of digital technologies is changing modern society and production. Workers with special knowledge are becoming in demand, new jobs are emerging, and the production infrastructure is changing. Rural areas, in comparison with urban areas, use IT to a lesser extent. On the one hand, this hinders the spread of innovations, and on the other, it is due to the specifics of the village. There are factors that hold back the spread of digital technologies in rural areas. Such factors include a lack of specialists, a decrease in agricultural production, and so on. About 15% of rural residents do not want to use means of communication, because "there is no need”. Agricultural organizations are very little provided with digital communication facilities. Restrictions due to the COVID virus have shown that it is necessary to diversify production in order to maintain market positions. Digitalization of production allows to reduce risks, as well as production costs. New technologies allow solving issues faster and are limited to the region. Therefore, the expansion of digital technologies contributes to the development of rural areas. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Introduction

This edited volume provides a unique account of the impact COVID-19 had on the use and adoption of technology among the most marginalized populations worldwide. Older adults were disproportionately at risk during the pandemic because of their infection and mortality rate, and at risk to social isolation due to lower levels of digital literacy, use, and adoption. However, other populations had high levels of social disruption during the pandemic, namely children (and families with children), who had to adapt to rapidly changing new school policies requiring them to use online technologies for education. The changes in course instruction put a strain on the children who may have difficulties learning virtually and the families who assisted the students with technology issues, provided broadband wireless access, and enables a quiet learning environment. This chapter provides a brief overview of the global impact of the pandemic, as well as the response measures which led to a dramatic increase in the worldwide reliance of communications technology. Additionally, this chapter includes a summary of the types of marginalized populations who may have had significant difficulty in use or adoption of technologies for employment, education, or other activities in daily life (such as doctor's visits and government services). Finally, a synopsis of the research studies included in this book are presented. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

New coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Is there an impact on male reproductive health?

The male reproductive health depends on several factors that can be divided into two main groups: the first group, genetic or hereditary (in particular, klinefelter syndrome, etc.), the second acquired factors that depend on the person's lifestyle (bad habits, diet), stress, infectious diseases of the genitourinary system, etc. The presence of infectious and inflammatory diseases of the male reproductive system leads to impaired reproductive and endocrine function, significantly reducing the reproductive potential. In the last three years of our time around the world, including Russia, the number of people who have become ill with a new viral infection (cOVID-19) caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-coV-2), which causes dysfunction and has a negative effect on many organs and organs, body systems. The overview of recent publications is devoted to the study of the effect of SARS-coV-2 on the reproductive health of men. The search was performed using the Medline, PubMed, and EMBASE databases. © 2022 Rostovskii Gosudarstvennyi Meditsinskii Universitet. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The H2020 CIVITAS SUITS project was conceived by Professor Andree Woodcock and colleagues in 2014/15. It was scheduled to run between 2016 and 2020 but owing to the COVID-19 pandemic was extended to spring 2021. The aim of the project was to support capacity building of small–medium local authorities developing sustainable transport measures. This volume provides an account of the outputs of the project, in the form of chapters and recommendations for local authorities and consultants who are entrusted in delivering transport services which are inclusive, fit for purpose and enable accessibility for all. Although larger authorities are relatively well equipped to make these changes, smaller, more traditional local authorities may lack the knowledge, capacity and capability to plan, finance and implement sustainable transport measures at a time of great socio economic, technological and cultural change. Such authorities are also required to adopt new ways of working at the same time as designing and planning multimillion-euro transport projects which will support smart city developments and significantly improve the mobility of their citizens. At the heart of H2020 CIVITAS SUITS is a socio-technical approach, which recognises that capacity building is more than just providing training, and it is about empowering members of an organisation to be innovative. This volume has been written to inform designed to inform the daily practices of transport departments and stakeholder groups engaged in commissioning sustainable transport measures of working on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. © 2023, Transport for West Midlands.

EMOTIONS AND DISRUPTION

Purpose: In this introductory chapter, we establish the basis for the theme of this volume, "Emotions and Disruption.” We discuss how the initial idea for the theme arose during the height of COVID-19. At this time, and as widely reported in the press (e.g., see Grensing-Pophal, 2020), a myriad of workplace disruptions occurred impacting employees' moods and emotions and their subsequent well-being and performance. We open by discussing some key work on emotions research during change and disturbance, followed by a synopsis of each of the chapters in this volume, including discussion of their key contri- butions. This includes an overview of how some of these chapters were first presented as conference papers at the Twelfth International Conference on Emotions and Worklife (EMONET XII), an event that took place for the first time online in response to the turbulence and travel disruptions created by the pandemic. Approach: In this chapter we give an outline of the organization of this book and discuss its four major parts. We then relate each chapter to the relevant part and consider its key contributions in terms of what we have learnt about emotions when applying the lens of disruption. Findings: We conclude that the chapters provide a range of insights and practical solutions for dealing with emotions during different types of disruption that should be helpful to practitioners and academics. Value: The chapters investigate underresearched topics and thus make new and important contributions. While many topics addressed in the chapters are still in their initial stages, they clearly have the potential to make a significant impact on people's work lives. © 2023 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

Taiwan 2021: Heightened geo-economic relevance amid rising cross-strait tensions*

Taiwan remained one of the crossroads of international politics in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-Strait relations with China continued their downward trend, with increasing military tensions in the airspace and waters surrounding the island, leading to speculations of a military takeover. The PLA activism in the Strait was inherently tied, in an action-reaction dynamic, to the further strengthening of relations between Washington and Taipei, with the new Biden administration in the White House operating in broad continuity with the previous Trump administration, albeit with expected differences in style. The Biden administration was instrumental in fostering support among allies to call for «peace and stability» in the Taiwan Strait. In this contest, Taiwan further strengthened relations with Japan, and made inroads in Europe. Partners abroad expanded ties with the island as a result of a broader push back against China's ambitions on the international stage, and the impact of the global supply chain crisis revolving around the shortage of chips. Taiwan's essential role in the supply chain crisis, a result of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's dominance in this strategic industrial sector and of the geographic concentration of chip plants on the island, has presented the Tsai administration with new geo-economic challenges and opportunities. On the domestic front, President Tsai and the DPP obtained an important political victory after the rejection of the referendums on trade, energy, and the electoral law that were supported by the major opposition party, the KMT.

EMOTIONS AND DISRUPTION

Purpose: In this introductory chapter, we establish the basis for the theme of this volume, "Emotions and Disruption.” We discuss how the initial idea for the theme arose during the height of COVID-19. At this time, and as widely reported in the press (e.g., see Grensing-Pophal, 2020), a myriad of workplace disruptions occurred impacting employees' moods and emotions and their subsequent well-being and performance. We open by discussing some key work on emotions research during change and disturbance, followed by a synopsis of each of the chapters in this volume, including discussion of their key contri- butions. This includes an overview of how some of these chapters were first presented as conference papers at the Twelfth International Conference on Emotions and Worklife (EMONET XII), an event that took place for the first time online in response to the turbulence and travel disruptions created by the pandemic. Approach: In this chapter we give an outline of the organization of this book and discuss its four major parts. We then relate each chapter to the relevant part and consider its key contributions in terms of what we have learnt about emotions when applying the lens of disruption. Findings: We conclude that the chapters provide a range of insights and practical solutions for dealing with emotions during different types of disruption that should be helpful to practitioners and academics. Value: The chapters investigate underresearched topics and thus make new and important contributions. While many topics addressed in the chapters are still in their initial stages, they clearly have the potential to make a significant impact on people's work lives. © 2023 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

Transfer Learning using BERT & Comparative Analysis of ML Algorithms for Opinion Mining

Sentiment Analysis is an ongoing field of research in text mining that is concerned with the computational treatment of textual views, sentiments, and subjectivity. It's the task of distinguishing between positive and negative viewpoints, emotions, and assessments. Sentiment analysis has been the topic of intensive research since its inception. During COVID-19, there has been a subtle increase in the usage and the time spent on the social networking sites by people as most of the daily operations have moved online. Moreover, in addition to the illness itself, the pandemic has led to dread, anxiety, stress, concern, repugnance, and poignancy in individuals all around the world. Considering these indicators, experts are paying close attention to Twitter data analysis during this pandemic. BERT is used as a transfer learning model and this work analyses the efficacy of fine-tuning it for the task of opinion mining by comparing it to a baseline model that includes a TF-IDF vectorizer and a Naïve Bayes classifier. Its performance is also compared to that of Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression, K Nearest Neighbor, Decision Tree and XGBoost classifier. To determine the most effective settings for the BERT model, hyper-parameter tweaking is used. After two epochs of training at a learning rate of le-5 and batch size of 16, the maximum accuracy of 87.6% is attained. These results outperform all of the machine learning models examined in this study. This work tackles a comprehensive overview of the last update in this field. It can be beneficial to scholars in this domain because it encapsulates the most well-known Sentiment analysis methodologies and their comparison in single research work. © 2022 IEEE.

Introduction

The H2020 CIVITAS SUITS project was conceived by Professor Andree Woodcock and colleagues in 2014/15. It was scheduled to run between 2016 and 2020 but owing to the COVID-19 pandemic was extended to spring 2021. The aim of the project was to support capacity building of small–medium local authorities developing sustainable transport measures. This volume provides an account of the outputs of the project, in the form of chapters and recommendations for local authorities and consultants who are entrusted in delivering transport services which are inclusive, fit for purpose and enable accessibility for all. Although larger authorities are relatively well equipped to make these changes, smaller, more traditional local authorities may lack the knowledge, capacity and capability to plan, finance and implement sustainable transport measures at a time of great socio economic, technological and cultural change. Such authorities are also required to adopt new ways of working at the same time as designing and planning multimillion-euro transport projects which will support smart city developments and significantly improve the mobility of their citizens. At the heart of H2020 CIVITAS SUITS is a socio-technical approach, which recognises that capacity building is more than just providing training, and it is about empowering members of an organisation to be innovative. This volume has been written to inform designed to inform the daily practices of transport departments and stakeholder groups engaged in commissioning sustainable transport measures of working on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. © 2023, Transport for West Midlands.

An overview and analogy of pedagogical approaches in online-offline teaching tactics in COVD-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Learning helps acquire knowledge or skills. COVID-19 outbreak severely affected the progress of education all across the globe. Pandemic-induced alternative methods of teaching promoted the progress of online education. Hence, this study is undertaken to assess an overview of teaching learning strategies in the COVID-19 pandemic so as to explore the direction of medical education and help perk up the teaching learning methods in medical education. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The cross-sectional study involves first year medical undergraduate students of 2020-2021 batch studying at Dr.VMGMC, Solapur. It involves complete enumeration of students of 2020-2021 batch. Due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic hematology, classes were continued and completed by the same faculty by online live teaching using Microsoft teams. As this being an online survey, it was ethically exempted. A comparison of questionnaires between offline and online classes was done by using χ2test and a P value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Quantitative data generated by the dichotomous question and five-point Likert scale questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics and frequency analysis. Out of 189 respondents, majority of students preferred traditional offline classes over online classes. Self-directed learning was feasible in both methods of teaching. DISCUSSION: Traditional offline classes were more interactive and enthusiastic than online classes. Offline classes helped students to revise, recollect, and reproduce necessary information as their attention span was better in offline teaching than online teaching. CONCLUSION: Holistic understanding and better learning were experienced through traditional offline classes. Although teachers take double efforts for online teaching, the overall learning effect and impact of traditional offline classes were much better than online classes. It definitely motivates andrgaogy and helps understand the concept on their own.

The past and present of Indian civil society

To mitigate the effects of the epidemic, Member States have taken specific measures, which are detailed in a separate section of each country's report. Digitalization plays a key role in the economic recovery, as the European Council and the Commission are committed to structuring support for the recovery in line with the dual transition to the pursuit of carbon neutrality and a flexible digital transformation, planned for 2050. In this context, the digitalization of 5G technology, Very High Capacity Networks (VHCN), digital skills, businesses and public administrations is essential for a solid recovery. DESI (Digital Economy and Society Index) will monitor progress in this respect in each Member State. The article presents the current situation according to DESI for Romania.

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Citrus fruits are grown in more than 140 countries around the world. Total citrus production is nearing the mark of 145 million tons (present production 143.75 million tons in 2019–20 which was 100 million tons during 2007–08). Including sweet oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, grapefruit, pummelo, their hybrids, locally grown numerous species, tart fruits and citrons, citrus is the largest fruit industry in the world. The second edition of “Citrus fruit—Biology, Technology and Evaluation” contains 533 additional references apart from previous 1400 references, thus making it very rich and comprehensive single source of information on the subject. Updated data and statistics of production and area including an overview of latest citrus postharvest management are covered in the introduction chapter. This edition covers two new chapters—“Alternative strategies for postharvest disease management” and “Impact of climate change and covid-19 pandemic on citrus industry”.

[Overview of Meta-analysis of Lianhua Qingwen preparations in treatment of viral diseases].

This study aims to obtain higher-level evidence by overviewing the Meta-analysis of Lianhua Qingwen preparations in the treatment of viral diseases including influenza, coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), and hand, foot and mouth disease(HFMD). CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, China Clinical Trial Registry(ChiCTR), PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for the Meta-analysis about the treatment of viral diseases with Lianhua Qingwen preparations from the database establishment to April 1, 2022. After literature screening and data extraction, AMSTAR2 and the grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluations(GRADE) system were used to assess the methodological quality and evidence quality, respectively, and then the efficacy and safety outcomes of Lianhua Qingwen preparations in the treatment of viral diseases were summarized. Thirteen Meta-analysis were finally included, three of which were rated as low grade by AMSTAR2 and ten as very low grade. A total of 75 outcome indicators were obtained, involving influenza, COVID-19, and HFMD. According to the GRADE scoring results, the 75 outcome indicators included 5(6.7%) high-level indicators, 18(24.0%) mediate-level indicators, 25(33.3%) low-level evidence indicators, and 27(36.0%) very low-level indicators.(1)In the treatment of influenza, Lianhua Qingwen preparations exhibited better clinical efficacy than other Chinese patent medicines and Ribavirin and had similar clinical efficacy compared with Oseltamivir. Lianhua Qingwen preparations were superior to other Chinese patent medicines, Oseltamivir, and Ribavirin in alleviating clinical symptoms. They showed no significant differences from Oseltamivir or conventional anti-influenza treatment in terms of the time to and rate of negative result of viral nucleic acid test.(2)In the treatment of COVID-19, Lianhua Qingwen preparation alone or combined with conventional treatment was superior to conventional treatment in terms of total effective rate, main symptom subsidence rate and time, fever clearance rate, duration of fever, time to fever clearance, cough subsidence rate, time to cough subsidence, fatigue subsidence rate, time to fatigue subsidence, myalgia subsidence rate, expectoration subsidence rate, chest tightness subsidence rate, etc. Lianhua Qingwen preparations no difference from conventional treatment in terms of subsiding sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, loss of appetite, headache, and dyspnea. In terms of chest CT improvement rate, rate of progression to severe case, cure time, and hospitalization time, Lianhua Qingwen alone or in combination with conventional treatment was superior to conventional treatment.(3)In the treatment of HFMD, Lianhua Qingwen Granules was superior to conventional treatment in terms of total effective rate, average fever clearance time, time to herpes subsidence, and time to negative result of viral nucleic acid test.(4)In terms of safety, Lianhua Qingwen preparations led to low incidence of adverse reactions, all of which were mild and disappeared after drug withdrawal. The available evidence suggests that in the treatment of influenza, COVID-19, and HFMD, Lianhua Qingwen preparations can relieve the clinical symptoms, shorten the hospitalization time, and improve the chest CT. They have therapeutic effect and good safety in the treatment of viral diseases. However, due to the low quality of available studies, more high-quality clinical trials are needed to support the above conclusions.

Judicial Oversight in Times of a Pandemic

This paper focuses on judicial decision-making during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the area of judicial oversight or review of various restrictive measures adopted in order to protect public health. A pertinent question is how well-equipped courts are to protect individual rights from excessive interference by public authorities at a time when a lot of essential information about nature and severity of the threat, and which counteractions would be the most suitable, is unavailable. Is it a valid point that law is prepared for usual, nonexceptional circumstances, but fails in times of a true crisis? For this purpose, the paper analyses selected case law and evaluates how it approaches a problem which most developed countries are currently attempting to resolve. © 2021, Czech Society of International Law. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Living Overview of Evidence repository is highly comprehensive and can be used as a single source for COVID-19 studies.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 Living OVerview of Evidence (COVID-19 L·OVE) is a public repository and classification platform for COVID-19 articles. The repository contains more than 430,000 articles as of September 20, 2021 and intends to provide a one-stop shop for COVID-19 evidence. Considering that systematic reviews conduct high-quality searches, this study assesses the comprehensiveness and currency of the repository against the total number of studies in a representative sample of COVID-19 systematic reviews. METHODS: Our sample was generated from all the studies included in the systematic reviews of COVID-19 published during April 2021. We estimated the comprehensiveness of COVID-19 L·OVE repository by determining how many of the individual studies in the sample were included in the COVID-19 L·OVE repository. We estimated the currency as the percentage of studies that was available in the COVID-19 L·OVE repository at the time the systematic reviews conducted their own search. RESULTS: We identified 83 eligible systematic reviews that included 2,132 studies. COVID-19 L·OVE had an overall comprehensiveness of 99.67% (2,125/2,132). The overall currency of the repository, that is, the proportion of articles that would have been obtained if the search of the reviews was conducted in COVID-19 L·OVE instead of searching the original sources, was 96.48% (2,057/2,132). Both the comprehensiveness and the currency were 100% for randomized trials (82/82). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 L·OVE repository is highly comprehensive and current. Using this repository instead of traditional manual searches in multiple databases can save a great amount of work to people conducting systematic reviews and would improve the comprehensiveness and timeliness of evidence syntheses. This tool is particularly important for supporting living evidence synthesis processes.