Novel Method for Estimating Time-Varying COVID-19 Transmission Rate

The transmission rate is an important indicator for characterizing a virus and estimating the risk of its outbreak in a certain area, but it is hard to measure. COVID-19, for instance, has greatly affected the world for more than 3 years since early 2020, but scholars have not yet found an effective method to obtain its timely transmission rate due to the fact that the value of COVID-19 transmission rate is not constant but dynamic, always changing over time and places. Therefore, in order to estimate the timely dynamic transmission rate of COVID-19, we performed the following: first, we utilized a rolling time series to construct a time-varying transmission rate model and, based on the model, managed to obtain the dynamic value of COVID-19 transmission rate in mainland China;second, to verify the result, we used the obtained COVID-19 transmission rate as the explanatory variable to conduct empirical research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's stock markets. Eventually, the result revealed that the COVID-19 transmission rate had a significant negative impact on China's stock markets, which, to some extent, confirms the validity of the used measurement method in this paper. Notably, the model constructed in this paper, combined with local conditions, can not only be used to estimate the COVID-19 transmission rate in mainland China but also in other affected countries or regions and would be applicable to calculate the transmission rate of other pathogens, not limited to COVID-19, which coincidently fills the gaps in the research. Furthermore, the research based on this model might play a part in regulating anti-pandemic governmental policies and could also help investors and stakeholders to make decisions in a pandemic setting.

[New characteristics of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant in Guangzhou].

We investigated the types of novel coronavirus strains present during the Omicron epidemic from late 2022 to early 2023, COVID-19 co-infections with other pathogens, and clinical characteristics of patients with novel coronavirus infections. Adult patients hospitalized due to SARS CoV-2 infection in six hospitals in Guangzhou city were included in the study from November 2022 to February 2023. Clinical information was collected and analyzed, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was obtained for pathogen detection using a variety of techniques, including standard methods and mNGS, tNGS. The results showed that the main strain circulating in Guangzhou was Omicron BA.5.2, and the overall detection rate of potentially pathogenic pathogens combined with Omicron COVID-19 infection was 49.8%. In patients with severe COVID-19 infection, special attention should be paid to aspergillosis and combined Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. In additon, Omicron strain infection could cause viral sepsis, which led to a worse prognosis for COVID-19 patients. Diabetic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection did not benefit from glucocorticoid treatment, and caution was necessary when using glucocorticoids. These findings highlighted some new features of severe Omicron coronavirus infection that should be noted.

Review and Reflection on the Prevention of COVID-19 by Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on the Theory of Preventive Treatment of Disease

Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)constitutes a pandemic worldwide, the novel coronavirus(SARS-CoV-2)is still the focus of prevention and control before the full spread of vaccines.Prevention is the key to controlling the epidemic. The Health Management Administration of the various provinces and cities have released the "Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment Programs for New Coronavirus Pneumonia" in response to the epidemic situation, among them including a lot of preventive prescriptions of TCM, which emphasizes to adhere to the advanced disease prevention concept of TCM preventing treatment of disease, and based on the principle of "strengthening vital energy and expelling pathogenic factors", through the methods of taking traditional Chinese medicine, medicated diet, medicated tea, acupuncture and guidance, and actively mobilizes the vital qi of human body and strengthen the physique, so as to achieve the epidemic prevention purpose of "the vital qi is stored in the body, the pathogenic factors cannot". The article reviews the prevention programs of TCM issued by various regions, analyzes and summarizes the rules of preventive medicine of TCM, in order to provide reference for the general public and the front-line clinical prevention of COVID-19. Copyright © 2021, Central Station of Chinese Medicinal Materials Information, National Medical Products Administration. All right reserved.

Cultural competence education for undergraduate medical students: An ethnographic study

The COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of the Black Lives Matter Movement worldwide have foregrounded the long-standing inequality in society and healthcare. The provision of culturally competent care has become more necessary than at any other time. However, cultural competence (CC) education remains inconsistent across medical schools, and little is known about how students develop their CC through campus-based classroom teaching. We took an ethnographic approach to study students' development of CC in campus-based formal classroom teaching. This study was conducted in a large London medical school in England. We triangulated data collected from 6-month participant observation, 25 individual interviews, and three focus groups to generate reliable accounts of students' CC developmental experience. Thick descriptions were developed through iterative, inductive, interactive, and reflexive review and interpretation of data using NVivo 11. The results show that students undergo staged cultural learning throughout their undergraduate medical curriculum through bespoke CC lectures, workshops, clinical/research projects, and integrated clinical simulations that incorporate CC and other clinical subjects. The early learning mainly takes place in the pre-clinical year of the curriculum, among which a range of valued-based sessions is observed as conducive to students' development of CC. As they progress, students develop their CC by attending clinical sessions with embedded cultural content. The curriculum in senior years presents reduced mandatory teaching, but more clinical exposure and opportunities to reach out to other subjects and disciplines. It means students start to have more diverse and dispersed learning experiences based on their individual choices, some of which may contribute to their development of CC. This study provides a rare insight into medical students' CC development through participation in campus-based classroom teaching. Various learning opportunities contribute to different aspects of CC development and cater to different learning preferences of the diverse student population. To support students' comprehensive development of CC, educators need to work collaboratively and use overt signposting to related disciplines and subjects. There needs to be recognition of students' learning not only in the formal curriculum but also in the informal and hidden curricula.

Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 and Non-Pharmaceutical for Perception Tourism Using Frequentist PLS-SEMs

The pandemic Covid-19 has been changing tourist behavior to visit a tourism destination. This study aims to investigate tourist’ visit intention after Covid-19 pandemic period in Indonesia by addressing the Covid-19 phenomenon, health consciousness and theory planned behavior framework. To answer hypotheses in this study, Confirmatory Factor Analysis-Structure Equation Model is used with quantitative approach. The research model is examined by SEM-PLS, using SmartPLS-3 software to analyze research framework. The results show that Covid-19 perception had not significantly impacted attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and intention. However, the perception of Covid-19 has a significant impact on non-pharmaceutical intervention, which in turn delivers a significant impact on attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control and visit intention. The hypothesis presumes that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control all have significant impact on intention to visit. In contrast, variable of health consciousness works less impact on intention to visit. This study makes significant contribution to the tourism literature by considering health issue and tourist visit behavior after Covid-19 period in Indonesia. © 2021 by the authors.

Image Segmentation of Throat Swab Sampling Based on Mask R-CNN

This study aims to provide a feasibility bask for image processing for automatic throat swab robot sampling. For target segmentation and identification in the oral environment, we use a robust instance segmentation algorithm Mask R-CNN. In order to solve the insufficiency of the data used, we use data augmentation methods based on the original data to increase the available effective data. Experiments have proved that good results have been achieved for the segmentation of the throat swab and the posterior pharyngeal wall.

[Analysis of bronchoscope-guided tracheal intubation in 12 cases with coronavirus disease 2019 under the personal protective equipment with positive pressure protective hood].

Endotracheal intubation is an independent risk factor for respiratory infectious diseases. We conducted a retrospective study in 12 cases with COVID-19 who underwent endotracheal intubation at ICU of the Guangzhou eighth hospital from January 20 to February 10, 2020. The intubation procedure, anesthetic regimen, and complication were collected and analyzed. The 9 healthcare workers who involved in intubation received virus nucleic acid test and 14 days temperature monitoring. All 12 patients were successfully intubated under the guidance of bronchoscope, without any complications. Midazolam, Propofol and Morphine or fentanyl were used for sedation and analgesia, avoiding patients cough and agitated during the procedure. The 9 healthcare workers were protected under the Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) with positive pressure protective hood. The detection of oropharyngeal swab virus nucleic acid were negative in all 9 healthcare workers, none of them had fever or any respiratory symptoms. The PPE with positive pressure protective hood should be needed to perform bronchoscope-guided endotracheal intubation in patients with COVID-19, it could strengthen to protect healthcare workers from virus exposure.