Self-assembly vascularized human cardiac organoids model cardiac diseases in petri dishes and in mice (preprint)

In this study, we generated self-assembly cardiac organoids (COs) from human pluripotent stem cells by dual-phase modulation of Wnt/{beta}-catenin pathway, utilizing CHIR99021 and IWR-1-endo. The resulting COs exhibited a diverse array of cardiac-specific cell lineages, cardiac cavity-like structures and demonstrated the capacity of spontaneous beating and vascularization in vitro. We further employed these complex and functional COs to replicate conditions akin to human myocardial infarction and SARS-CoV-2 induced fibrosis. These models accurately captured the pathological characteristics of these diseases, in both in vitro and in vivo settings. In addition, we transplanted the COs into NOD SCID mice and observed that they survived and exhibited ongoing expansion in vivo. Impressively, over a span of 75-day transplantation, these COs not only established blood vessel-like structures but also integrated with the host mice's vascular system. It is noteworthy that these COs developed to a size of approximately 8 mm in diameter, slightly surpassing the dimensions of the mouse heart. This innovative research highlighted the potential of our COs as a promising avenue for cardiovascular research and therapeutic exploration.

Drivers of Global Banking Stability in Times of Crisis: The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

This study examines the effect of environmental and social (ES) activities on global banking stability in the shadow of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using a sample of 244 commercial banks across 52 countries from 2002 to 2020, we provide evidence that during the global health crisis, banks with higher levels of ES activities are more financially stable (i.e. lower credit and liquidity risk exposures). Drawing on social capital and stakeholder theories, we find that ES activities increase firm‐level social capital and establish a stakeholder‐centred culture within a bank, strengthening social trust and public confidence in the bank's risk oversight. Accordingly, ES activities constrain excessive and aggressive bank risk‐taking during turbulent times when short‐termism prevails. Our additional analysis reveals that investors value such beneficial effects of ES activities. The findings offer new insights into the increasingly significant roles of social capital creation and stakeholder‐centred culture in maintaining banks' financial stability.

Environmental contamination and evaluation of healthcare-associated SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk in temporary isolation wards during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Temporary isolation wards have been introduced to meet demands for airborne-infection-isolation-rooms (AIIRs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental sampling and outbreak investigation was conducted in temporary isolation wards converted from general wards and/or prefabricated containers, in order to evaluate the ability of such temporary isolation wards to safely manage COVID-19 cases over a period of sustained use. METHODS: Environmental sampling for SARS-CoV-2 RNA was conducted in temporary isolation ward rooms constructed from pre-fabricated containers (N = 20) or converted from normal-pressure general wards (N = 47). Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was utilized to ascertain health care-associated transmission when clusters were reported amongst HCWs working in isolation areas from July 2020 to December 2021. RESULTS: A total of 355 environmental swabs were collected; 22.4% (15/67) of patients had at least one positive environmental sample. Patients housed in temporary isolation ward rooms constructed from pre-fabricated containers (adjusted-odds-ratio, aOR = 10.46, 95% CI = 3.89-58.91, P = .008) had greater odds of detectable environmental contamination, with positive environmental samples obtained from the toilet area (60.0%, 12/20) and patient equipment, including electronic devices used for patient communication (8/20, 40.0%). A single HCW cluster was reported amongst staff working in the temporary isolation ward constructed from pre-fabricated containers; however, health care-associated transmission was deemed unlikely based on WGS and/or epidemiological investigations. CONCLUSION: Environmental contamination with SARS-CoV-2 RNA was observed in temporary isolation wards, particularly from the toilet area and smartphones used for patient communication. However, despite intensive surveillance, no healthcare-associated transmission was detected in temporary isolation wards over 18 months of prolonged usage, demonstrating their capacity for sustained use during succeeding pandemic waves.

The COVID-19 pandemic and unemployment: Evidence from mobile phone data from China.

Based on mobile phone records for 71 million users and location tracking information for one million users over almost three years, this study examines the labor market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in China's Guangdong province, whose GDP is larger than that of all but the top 12 countries in the world. Using a standard difference-in-differences framework, our analysis shows dramatic and protracted effects of the pandemic on the labor market: it increased unemployment by 72% and unemployment benefits claims by 57% even after the full reopening in 2020 relative to their levels in the same period in 2019. The impact was also highly heterogeneous, with women, workers older than 40, and migrants being more affected. Cities that rely more on export or that have a higher share of the hospitality industry in GDP but a lower share of the finance and healthcare industries experienced a more pronounced increase in unemployment. The lingering impact likely reflects the global transmission of the pandemic's effects through the supply chain and trade channels.

A Spike-destructing human antibody effectively neutralizes Omicron-included SARS-CoV-2 variants with therapeutic efficacy.

Neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) are important assets to fight COVID-19, but most existing nAbs lose the activities against Omicron subvariants. Here, we report a human monoclonal antibody (Ab08) isolated from a convalescent patient infected with the prototype strain (Wuhan-Hu-1). Ab08 binds to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) with pico-molar affinity (230 pM), effectively neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern (VOCs) including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Mu, Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, and to a lesser extent for Delta and Omicron BA.4/BA.5 which bear the L452R mutation. Of medical importance, Ab08 shows therapeutic efficacy in SARS-CoV-2-infected hACE2 mice. X-ray crystallography of the Ab08-RBD complex reveals an antibody footprint largely in the ß-strand core and away from the ACE2-binding motif. Negative staining electron-microscopy suggests a neutralizing mechanism through which Ab08 destructs the Spike trimer. Together, our work identifies a nAb with therapeutic potential for COVID-19.

Social Capital, Trust, and Bank Tail Risk: The Value of ESG Rating and the Effects of Crisis Shocks

Using a global sample of 244 banks in 52 stock markets, we investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on bank tail risk in normal and turbulent times. Our analysis shows no significant evidence that CSR intensity protects banks from tail risks ex ante or during the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. However, investors appear to become more tolerant and more lenient towards banks with stronger CSR post ante economic recession by reducing the likelihood of extreme devaluation of banking stocks. Socially responsible banks with higher social capital and trust (associated with superior CSR performance) experience lower idiosyncratic and systematic tail risks even in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Our empirical evidence implies that the trust between banks and investors started to build through banks' investments in social capital through committed CSR performance since the credit crunch erupted.

Adverse effect signature extraction and prediction for drugs treating COVID-19.

Given the considerable cost of drug discovery, drug repurposing is becoming attractive as it can effectively shorten the development timeline and reduce the development cost. However, most existing drug-repurposing methods omitted the heterogeneous health conditions of different COVID-19 patients. In this study, we evaluated the adverse effect (AE) profiles of 106 COVID-19 drugs. We extracted four AE signatures to characterize the AE distribution of 106 COVID-19 drugs by non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). By integrating the information from four distinct databases (AE, bioassay, chemical structure, and gene expression information), we predicted the AE profiles of 91 drugs with inadequate AE feedback. For each of the drug clusters, discriminant genes accounting for mechanisms of different AE signatures were identified by sparse linear discriminant analysis. Our findings can be divided into three parts. First, drugs abundant with AE-signature 1 (for example, remdesivir) should be taken with caution for patients with poor liver, renal, or cardiac functions, where the functional genes accumulate in the RHO GTPases Activate NADPH Oxidases pathway. Second, drugs featuring AE-signature 2 (for example, hydroxychloroquine) are unsuitable for patients with vascular disorders, with relevant genes enriched in signal transduction pathways. Third, drugs characterized by AE signatures 3 and 4 have relatively mild AEs. Our study showed that NMF and network-based frameworks contribute to more precise drug recommendations.

The Relationship between Cyberbullying Training Experience, Gender, and Depression among the Malaysian Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The introduction of the online educational system during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the vulnerability to cyberbullying incidents among adolescents. This study examined the relationship between cyberbullying training and depression among Malaysian adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1356 Malaysian adolescents participated in the online survey. Results revealed that depression was significantly associated with cyberbullying training. This study concluded that cyberbullying training can protect individuals from depression caused by cyberbullying. Female adolescents were found more vulnerable to depression than males during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we advocate that cyberbullying training is essential to be enforced in the current Malaysian schools' curriculum.

Factoring and correlation in sleep, fatigue and mental workload of clinical first-line nurses in the post-pandemic era of COVID-19: A multi-center cross-sectional study.

Background: A better understanding of the factors and their correlation with clinical first-line nurses' sleep, fatigue and mental workload is of great significance to personnel scheduling strategies and rapid responses to anti-pandemic tasks in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. Objective: This multicenter and cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the nurses' sleep, fatigue and mental workload and contributing factors to each, and to determine the correlation among them. Methods: A total of 1,004 eligible nurses (46 males, 958 females) from three tertiary hospitals participated in this cluster sampling survey. The Questionnaire Star online tool was used to collect the sociodemographic and study target data: Sleep quality, fatigue, and mental workload. Multi-statistical methods were used for data analysis using SPSS 25.0 and Amos 21.0. Results: The average sleep quality score was 10.545 ± 3.399 (insomnia prevalence: 80.2%); the average fatigue score was 55.81 ± 10.405 (fatigue prevalence: 100%); and the weighted mental workload score was 56.772 ± 17.26. Poor sleep was associated with mental workload (r = 0.303, P < 0.05) and fatigue (r = 0.727, P < 0.01). Fatigue was associated with mental workload (r = 0.321, P < 0.05). COVID-19 has caused both fatigue and mental workload. As 49% of nurses claimed their mental workload has been severely affected by COVID-19, while it has done slight harm to 68.9% of nurses' sleep quality. Conclusion: In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, the high prevalence of sleep disorders and fatigue emphasizes the importance of paying enough attention to the mental health of nurses in first-class tertiary hospitals. Efficient nursing strategies should focus on the interaction of sleep, fatigue and mental workload in clinical nurses. In that case, further research on solutions to the phenomenon stated above proves to be of great significance and necessity. Clinical trial registration: [https://clinicaltrials.gov/], identifier [ChiCTR2100053133].

Drivers of global banking stability in times of crisis: The role of corporate social responsibility

This study examines the effect of environmental and social (ES) activities on global banking stability in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 244 commercial banks across 52 countries from 2002 to 2020, we provide evidence that during the global health crisis, banks with higher levels of ES activities are more financially stable (i.e. lower credit and liquidity risk exposures). Drawing on social capital and stakeholder theories, we find that ES activities increase firm-level social capital and establish a stakeholder-centred culture within a bank, strengthening social trust and public confidence in the bank's risk oversight. Accordingly, ES activities constrain excessive and aggressive bank risk-taking during turbulent times when short-termism prevails. Our additional analysis reveals that investors value such beneficial effects of ES activities. The findings offer new insights into the increasingly significant roles of social capital creation and stakeholder-centred culture in maintaining banks' financial stability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Dual Mode pHRI-teleHRI Control System with a Hybrid Admittance-Force Controller for Ultrasound Imaging.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented extreme pressure on the medical system due to the physical distance policy, especially for procedures such as ultrasound (US) imaging, which are usually carried out in person. Tele-operation systems are a promising way to avoid physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). However, the system usually requires another robot on the remote doctor side to provide haptic feedback, which makes it expensive and complex. To reduce the cost and system complexity, in this paper, we present a low-cost, easy-to-use, dual-mode pHRI-teleHRI control system with a custom-designed hybrid admittance-force controller for US imaging. The proposed system requires only a tracking camera rather than a sophisticated robot on the remote side. An audio feedback is designed for replacing haptic feedback on the remote side, and its sufficiency is experimentally verified. The experimental results indicate that the designed hybrid controller can significantly improve the task performance in both modes. Furthermore, the proposed system enables the user to conduct US imaging while complying with the physical distance policy, and allows them to seamlessly switch modes from one to another in an online manner. The novel system can be easily adapted to other medical applications beyond the pandemic, such as tele-healthcare, palpation, and auscultation.

Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children with COVID-19 in Selangor, Malaysia.

Objective: To describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at Hospital Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia. Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed on children aged <12 years diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection between January 25 and December 31, 2020. A comparative analysis was undertaken between asymptomatic and symptomatic children, as well as a sub-analysis of their caretakers' COVID-19 status. Results: A total of 1498 children were included, 48.7% female and 51.3% male. Their mean age was 5.6 years (standard deviation 3.5 years). Overall, 82.3% were detected through contact tracing of positive family members or from the same household. Fifty-seven percent were asymptomatic. The most common symptoms reported were fever, nasal congestion/rhinorrhoea, and cough. Compared to asymptomatic children, those who were symptomatic had higher reported comorbidities, lower total white blood cell (WBC), absolute lymphocyte, and absolute neutrophil counts, raised C-reactive protein (CRP), and raised aspartate transaminase (P < 0.05). The median duration of illness was 10 days (interquartile range 3 days). Overall outcomes were good. Only 19 (8.2%) negative caretakers seroconverted prior to discharge. Conclusions: The majority of the children in the State of Selangor experienced mild COVID-19 illness in 2020, and they did not appear to be key drivers in the transmission of the disease.

Neutralizing Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Selected from a Human Antibody Library Constructed Decades Ago.

Combinatorial antibody libraries not only effectively reduce antibody discovery to a numbers game, but enable documentation of the history of antibody responses in an individual. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has prompted a wider application of this technology to meet the public health challenge of pandemic threats in the modern era. Herein, a combinatorial human antibody library constructed 20 years before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is used to discover three highly potent antibodies that selectively bind SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and neutralize authentic SARS-CoV-2 virus. Compared to neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 patients with generally low somatic hypermutation (SHM), these three antibodies contain over 13-22 SHMs, many of which are involved in specific interactions in their crystal structures with SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain. The identification of these somatically mutated antibodies in a pre-pandemic library raises intriguing questions about the origin and evolution of these antibodies with respect to their reactivity with SARS-CoV-2.

Satellite Retrieval of Air Pollution Changes in Central and Eastern China during COVID-19 Lockdown Based on a Machine Learning Model

With the implementation of the 2018–2020 Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) the and impact from COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, air pollution emissions in central and eastern China have decreased markedly. Here, by combining satellite remote sensing, re-analysis, and ground-based observational data, we established a machine learning (ML) model to analyze annual and seasonal changes in primary air pollutants in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019 over central and eastern China. The root mean squared errors (RMSE) for the PM2.5, PM10, O3, and CO validation dataset were 9.027 μg/m3, 20.312 μg/m3, 10.436 μg/m3, and 0.097 mg/m3, respectively. The geographical random forest (RF) model demonstrated good performance for four main air pollutants. Notably, PM2.5, PM10, and CO decreased by 44.1%, 43.2%, and 35.9% in February 2020, which was likely influenced by the COVID-19 lockdown and primarily lasted until May 2020. Furthermore, PM2.5, PM10, O3, and CO decreased by 16.4%, 24.2%, 2.7%, and 19.8% in 2020 relative to the average values in 2018 and 2019. Moreover, the reduction in O3 emissions was not universal, with a significant increase (~20–40%) observed in uncontaminated areas.

Rethinking the Role of Grain Banks in China’s Agriculture

Grain banks are an organizational innovation and unique phenomenon in China that help reduce food losses and food security costs. It collects scattered food from the farming community into centralized storage and circulates it, thereby realizing asset mobilization and appreciation. This article first elaborates on the definition, function, and evolution of China’s grain banks through a literature review. Then, we used survey data of face-to-face interviews and field visits to a grain bank company in Hubei Province to analyze the economic rationale of grain bank development, including micro and macro conditions of grain bank development and its operating mechanisms. In addition, from the perspective of key stakeholders such as farmers, grain bank companies, and the government, we also studied the challenges of grain banks. We found that, in addition to providing many economic and social benefits in the form of food security and improved farmer income, grain banks still face many challenges in the new era. These include the ambiguity of property rights, lack of institutional structure, low efficiency of state-owned grain banks, and exploitation of loopholes by grain dealers. We propose to implement the supply-side reforms, clarify property rights, improve the supervision and management of grain banks, promote the privatization of grain banks, and take advantage of rural finance to realize the industrialization of the whole sector.

Global Banking Stability in the Shadow of Covid-19 Outbreak

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been exerting negative effects on several economies in 2020. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to examine the impact of this pandemic on the global banking stability and to assess any potential recovery signals. This study is timely, in that we consider 1090 banks from 116 countries for quarterly periods across 2019–20. The results provide strong empirical evidence that, in the global banking sector, the Covid-19 outbreak has had detrimental impacts on financial performance across various indicators of financial performance (i.e., accounting-based and market-based performance measures) and financial stability (i.e., high-risk indicators including default risk, liquidity risk and asset risk). These results are consistently observed for various regions, countries (US, China and others), and different bank-level characterises, and across income-generation levels among countries. We also find differential effects of the pandemic on alternative banking systems (i.e., conventional and Islamic). Moreover, our trend analysis, based on bank average performance and financial stability over quarterly periods, identifies a signal of recovery for bank stability during the second quarter of 2020. The findings presented in this study offer important financial observations and policy implications to many stakeholders engaging with global banking.

Association Between Ethnicity and Severe COVID-19 Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: This article evaluates if ethnicity is an independent poor prognostic factor in COVID-19 disease. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, WHO COVID-19 databases from inception to 15/06/2020 and medRxiv. No language restriction. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and GRADE framework were utilised to assess the risk of bias and certainty of evidence. PROSPERO CRD42020188421. RESULTS: Seventy-two articles (59 cohort studies with 17,950,989 participants, 13 ecological studies; 54 US-based, 15 UK-based; 41 peer-reviewed) were included for systematic review and 45 for meta-analyses. Risk of bias was low: median NOS 7 of 9 (interquartile range 6-8). Compared to White ethnicity, unadjusted all-cause mortality was similar in Black (RR: 0.96 [95% CI: 0.83-1.08]) and Asian (RR: 0.99 [0.85-1.16]) but reduced in Hispanic ethnicity (RR: 0.69 [0.57-0.84]). Age- and sex-adjusted risks were significantly elevated for Black (HR: 1.38 [1.09-1.75]) and Asian (HR: 1.42 [1.15-1.75]), but not for Hispanic (RR: 1.14 [0.93-1.40]). Further adjusting for comorbidities attenuated these associations to non-significance: Black (HR: 0.95 [0.72-1.25]); Asian (HR: 1.17 [0.84-1.63]); Hispanic (HR: 0.94 [0.63-1.44]). Subgroup analyses showed a trend towards greater disparity in outcomes for UK ethnic minorities, especially hospitalisation risk. CONCLUSIONS: This review could not confirm a certain ethnicity as an independent poor prognostic factor for COVID-19. Racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes may be partially attributed to higher comorbidity rates in certain ethnicity.

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ETHNICITY AND SEVERE COVID-19 DISEASE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS. (preprint)

BackgroundMultiple reports suggest a disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minorities. Whether ethnicity is an independent risk factor for severe Covid-19 disease is unclear. PurposeReview the association between ethnicity and poor outcomes including all-cause mortality, hospitalisation, critical care admission, respiratory and kidney failure. Data SourcesMEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register, WHO COVID-19 Global Research Database up to 15/06/2020, and preprint servers. No language restriction. Study SelectionAll studies providing ethnicity-aggregated data on the pre-specified outcomes, except case reports or interventional trials. Data ExtractionPairs of investigators independently extracted data, assessed risk of bias using Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS), and rated certainty of evidence following GRADE framework. Data SynthesisSeventy-two articles (59 cohort studies with 17,950,989 participants; 13 ecological studies; 54 US-based and 15 UK-based; 41 peer-reviewed) were included for systematic review and 45 for meta-analyses. Risk of bias was low, with median NOS 7 of 9 (interquartile range 6-8). In the unadjusted analyses, compared to white ethnicity, all-cause mortality risk was similar in Black (RR:0.96 [95%CI: 0.83-1.08]), Asian (RR:0.99 [0.85-1.16]) but reduced in Hispanic ethnicity (RR:0.69 [0.57-0.84]). Age and sex-adjusted-risks were significantly elevated for Black (HR:1.38 [1.09-1.75]) and Asian (HR:1.42 [1.15-1.75]), but not for Hispanic (RR:1.14 [0.93-1.40]). Further adjusting for comorbidities attenuated these association to non-significance; Black (HR:0.95 [0.72-1.25]); Asian (HR:1.17 [0.84-1.63]); Hispanic (HR:0.94 [0.63-1.44]). Similar results were observed for other outcomes. In subgroup analysis, there was a trend towards greater disparity in outcomes for UK ethnic minorities, especially hospitalisation risk. LimitationsPaucity of evidence on native ethnic groups, and studies outside the US and UK. ConclusionsCurrently available evidence cannot confirm ethnicity as an independent risk factor for severe Covid-19 illness, but indicates that disparity may be partially attributed to greater burden of comorbidities. RegistrationPROSPERO, CRD42020188421 Funding sourcenone