A Review of Research on Urban Playability from a Social Justice Perspective

Playability is an attribute that refers to the ability to stimulate individual responses or collective action in an immersive activity in an exploratory way. Playability is an important component of the enjoyment and well-being of urban dwellers, has the potential to stimulate urban vitality and is an important expression of the inclusiveness and equity of urban space. The pursuit of economic development and efficiency-oriented urban construction has led to the domination of urban space by overcrowded traffic, economy-oriented commerce and densely populated housing. Moreover, the existence of playable space has become a scarce resource and is seen as a site for the materialisation of social rights. As the haze of the COVID-19 pandemic fades and cities are again exposed to wider and more participatory use, determining how to adapt urban spaces to the playability needs of users of different ages, cultural backgrounds and social classes, and provide them with appropriate site use and experience, is becoming a hot issue of concern for building equitable and high-quality urban spaces. The study of the playability of urban spaces is highly complex, and the related research on social justice is cryptic. In order to better investigate the social equity aspects of urban playability, this paper integrates scientometric and manual methods to review the relevant research. This paper takes 2664 related papers from the Web of Science (WOS) core dataset from 1998 to 2022 as the research object and employs CiteSpace to organise the existing research results of playful urban spaces. Quantitative analysis is used to clarify the theoretical foundations, developments and research hotspots of urban spatial playability, while the manual collation and generalisation of the studies uncover the hidden issues of social justice research. Based on the proposed research method, we summarize the key three research stages related to urban spatial playability and social equity. We also discuss the development of urban spatial playability in the perspective of social justice from three aspects: micro, meso and macro. The results can help readers better understand the current status and development process of research on playful urban space. In particular, we clarify the issues related to social justice under the theme of the playability of urban spaces and provide directions for future research on building playful cities and promoting the development of urban socio-spatial equity.

Epidemiological Population Study of Sars-Cov-2 in Lake County, Illinois: Contact: Health-Related Quality of Life Assessment

Objectives: The prospective, longitudinal, community-based CONTACT study aimed to improve our understanding of COVID-19 immunity, and other characteristics related to SARS-CoV-2 long-term, including the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at baseline and over time by infection status. Method(s): Participants living or working in Lake County, IL were recruited between November 2020 and January 2021. At baseline and follow up visits (3-, 6-, and 9-Months-M-), participants self-reported their occupational exposure, COVID-19 vaccination status and provided nasal and blood serum specimens for molecular (RT-PCR) and serologic (IgG) testing to detect current or previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. HRQoL questionnaires EQ-5D-5L were completed online approximately within two weeks post-testing (at 0.5, 3.5, 6.5, and 9.5 months) after results were communicated. EQ-5D-5L information was described and stratified by COVID-19 status at baseline, 3M, 6M and 9M - software: SAS-v9.4. Result(s): Data from 1008 participants were analyzed. Participants testing positive to COVID-19 were 56/952, 48/751, 40/693, and 19/654, respectively, at baseline, 3M, 6M, and 9M. Of the five domains of EQ-5D-5L, a higher percentage of participants who tested positive for COVID-19 reported having no anxiety or depression versus those who tested negative: at baseline (55.4% [31/56] vs 50.5% [481/952]);3M (68.8% [33/48] vs. 56.3% [423/751]);6M (67.5% [27/40] vs. 56.3% [390/693]);and 9M (73.7% [14/19] vs. 60.4% [395/654]). Median Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score was at least 2 points higher at all time- points for participants who tested positive except at last visit (baseline: 89.0 vs. 87.0;3M: 88.0 vs. 86.0;6M: 87.5 vs. 85.0;9M: 85.0 vs. 87.0) Conclusion(s): This analysis provides insight into participant HRQoL burden at enrollment and over time when a positive test to COVID-19 was communicated. At all time-points, anxiety or depression was experienced by more participants who tested negative versus those who didn't.Copyright © 2023

Rigidity in crisis: The impact of OHSAS 18001 certification on production repurposing during COVID-19

It is important for firms to repurpose production responsively during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to seize the market opportunity and create social value. However, occupational health and safety (OHS) can also be a concern in a crisis, and adherence to OHS management systems can undermine a firm's responsiveness in repurposing decision making. We adopt the "capability-rigidity" lens to construct a connection between OHS management standards (i.e., OHSAS 18001) and firms' adaptation responsiveness. After sampling 734 listed Chinese manufacturing firms, our match-based analysis reveals that firms certified with OHSAS 18001 were less responsive during COVID-19 in terms of production repurposing than those without the certification. Yet, certain experience, namely, prepandemic manufacturing of related products, experience of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, and being geographically located close to firms that produced medical supplies, could attenuate this effect. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of and adding to the literature on safety management, certified management standards, and organizational adaptation and learning.

[Latent period and incubation period with associated factors of COVID-19 caused by Omicron variant].

Objective: To estimate the latent period and incubation period of Omicron variant infections and analyze associated factors. Methods: From January 1 to June 30, 2022, 467 infections and 335 symptomatic infections in five local Omicron variant outbreaks in China were selected as the study subjects. The latent period and incubation period were estimated by using log-normal distribution and gamma distribution models, and the associated factors were analyzed by using the accelerated failure time model (AFT). Results: The median (Q1, Q3) age of 467 Omicron infections including 253 males (54.18%) was 26 (20, 39) years old. There were 132 asymptomatic infections (28.27%) and 335 (71.73%) symptomatic infections. The mean latent period of 467 Omicron infections was 2.65 (95%CI: 2.53-2.78) days, and 98% of infections were positive for nucleic acid test within 6.37 (95%CI: 5.86-6.82) days after infection. The mean incubation period of 335 symptomatic infections was 3.40 (95%CI: 3.25-3.57) days, and 97% of them developed clinical symptoms within 6.80 (95%CI: 6.34-7.22) days after infection. The results of the AFT model analysis showed that compared with the group aged 18-49 years old, the latent period [exp(ß)=1.36 (95%CI: 1.16-1.60), P<0.001] and incubation period [exp(ß)=1.24 (95%CI: 1.07-1.45), P=0.006] of infections aged 0-17 years old were prolonged. The latent period [exp(ß)=1.38 (95%CI: 1.17-1.63), P<0.001] and the incubation period [exp(ß)=1.26 (95%CI: 1.06-1.48), P=0.007] of infections aged 50 years old and above were also prolonged. Conclusion: The latent period and incubation period of most Omicron infections are within 7 days, and age may be a influencing factor of the latent period and incubation period.

Effects of COVID-19 vaccination on chronic urticaria patients: First results of the UCARE COVAC-CU study

Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common chronic inflammatory disease. Vaccination against viral infections including COVID-19 can induce increased CU disease activity. As of now, it is unclear how often CU exacerbations occur after COVID-19 vaccination. Method(s): COVAC-CU is an international, multicenter, observational, cross-sectional study of the global network of urticaria centers of reference and excellence (UCAREs). COVAC-CU evaluates the effects of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with CU including rates and risk factors of CU exacerbation. Here, we analyzed 1857 patients with CU who had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination. Data were collected via a questionnaire and retrieved from patient charts. Result(s): Of 1857 patients with CU (median age: 42 years;range: 18-91 years), 72.1% were female and 71.2%, 14.4% and 14.4% had chronic spontaneous urticaria, chronic inducible urticaria, or both, respectively. Most patients had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine (79.1%), compared to one (9.7%), three (11%), or four (0.3%). Vaccine type included: BTN162b2 (58.4%;BioNTech/Pfizer), ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 (13.8%;AstraZeneca), BBIBP-CorV (8.2%;Sinopharm), Gam-COVID- Vac (8%;Sputnik), mRNA-1273 (5.3%;Moderna), and Ad26.COV 2.5 (4.7%;Janssen/J&J). Less than 10% of patients used premedication, and less than half of patients (44.4%) reported one or more adverse reactions after vaccination. The most common adverse reactions were local injection site reactions (29.6%), fatigue (19.7%), fever (19%), muscle pain (17.9%), headache (14%), and exacerbation of CU (15%). Severe allergic reactions/anaphylaxis were reported by 0.4% of CU patients. In almost all patients who experienced exacerbation of their CU, this occurred within one week after receiving the vaccine, i.e. after 1 to 12 hours (25.8 %), after 12 hours to 48 hours (31.1%) or after 2-7 days (37.9%). Conclusion(s): Most CU patients tolerate COVID-19 vaccination well;severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) rates were similar or lower than the self-reported rates reported in the general population. Exacerbation of urticaria was reported in one in five patients, mostly in a week after receiving the vaccine.

Is your working life good? Alienation in the nexus between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior of hospitality frontline employees

Purpose: This study motivated by humanistic care aims to identify hospitality frontline employees' alienation in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic, and based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the mediating role of alienation between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is discussed. Design/methodology/approach: The authors drew on the JD-R model to delineate the mechanisms by which job demands (including emotional dissonance and work–home conflict) and job resources (including job support, training and possibility for career development) affect OCB through employees' alienation. This study adopted snowball sampling and purposive sampling to conduct a questionnaire survey aimed at Taiwanese hospitality frontline employees. A total of 373 valid questionnaires were retained, and structural equation model was used to test the research hypotheses. Findings: The results revealed that job demands of emotional dissonance and work–family conflict positively affect alienation;job resources of job support, training and possibility for career development negatively affect alienation;alienation negatively affects OCB;and alienation mediates the relationship between job characteristics and OCB fully. Research limitations/implications: Considering that alienation plays a full mediating role between job characteristics and organizational outcomes, this study put forward specific suggestions on how to increase job resources and reduce job demands to weaken alienation and further improve organizational performance in management practices. And practical implications were provided to help hospitality human resource management deal with the issue of talents retention. In addition, "work authenticity” should be introduced as a mediator in the future research. "Work authenticity” reflects employees' positive working life state and is the opposite of "alienation.” The effectiveness of employees' positive and negative working life state in communicating job characteristics and organizational outcomes can be compared. Originality/value: The specific alienation experience of hospitality frontline employees is defined. Moreover, by introducing the alienation theory, this study demonstrates the health impairment path of JD-R model and suggests that job characteristics affect OCB through the full mediation of alienation. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Speculation and clarification announcements on stock price fluctuations: Why are rumours plausible and hard to clarify?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, stock markets were fragile and sensitive to downside news regardless of whether the news was true. In China, stock rumours are increasingly rampant, affecting the sound development of the capital market. By manually gathering a sample of rumours about Chinese A-share firms, this paper studies the effects of stock market rumours and the corresponding rumour clarifications on stock returns. The study suggests that rumours rely on the information environment to persuade the market through the media effect. In terms of information disclosure, for firms that previously disclosed "negative news”, stock prices would experience abnormal drops when negative rumours appear. In terms of the media effect, rumours released by leading media cause even more significant abnormal fluctuations in stock prices. Further study shows that positive rumours significantly cause an abnormal rise in state-owned enterprises' stock prices, while negative rumours significantly cause an abnormal decline in small and medium enterprise board (SME) and growth enterprise market board (GEM) stock prices. From the perspective of the effect of clarification announcements in restraining stock price fluctuations, clear and timely clarifications are recommended. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

[Analysis of the whole genome traceability and transmission path simulation experiment of the local cluster COVID-19 epidemic].

Objective: To trace and characterize the whole genome of SARS-CoV-2 of confirmed cases in the outbreak of COVID-19 on July 31, 2021 in Henan Province. Method: Genome-wide sequencing and comparative analysis were performed on positive nucleic acid samples of SARS-CoV-2 from 167 local cases related to the epidemic on July 31, 2021, to analyze the consistency and evolution of the whole genome sequence of virus. Results: Through high-throughput sequencing, a total of 106 cases of SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequences were obtained. The results of genome analysis showed that the whole genome sequences of 106 cases belonged to the VOC/Delta variant strain (B.1.617.2 clade), and the whole genome sequences of 106 cases were shared with the genomes of 3 imported cases from Myanmar admitted to a hospital in Zhengzhou. On the basis of 45 nucleotide sites, 1-5 nucleotide variation sites were added, and the genome sequence was highly homologous. Conclusion: Combined with the comprehensive analysis of viral genomics, transmission path simulation experiments and epidemiology, it is determined that the local new epidemic in Henan Province is caused by imported cases in the nosocomial area, and the spillover has caused localized infection in the community. At the same time, it spills over to some provincial cities and results in localized clustered epidemics.

[Effects of vaccines on the viral negative conversion of children with COVID-19].

Objective: To explore the effect of vaccination on viral negative conversion of children with COVID-19. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. A cohort of 189 children aged 3-14 years with COVID-19 admitted to Renji Hospital (South branch) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from April 7th to May 19th 2022 was enrolled in the study. According to the vaccination status, the infected children were divided into an unvaccinated group and a vaccinated group. Age, gender, severity, clinical manifestations, and laboratory tests, etc. were compared between groups, by rank sum test or chi-square test. The effects of vaccination on viral negative conversion were analyzed by a Cox mixed-effects regression model. Additionally, a questionnaire survey was conducted among the parents of unvaccinated children to analyze the reasons for not being vaccinated. Results: A total of 189 children aged 3-14 years were enrolled, including 95 males (50.3%) and 94 females (49.7%), aged 5.7 (4.1,8.6) years. There were 117 cases (61.9%) in the unvaccinated group and 72 cases (38.1%) in the vaccinated group. The age of the vaccinated group was higher than that of the unvaccinated group (8.8 (6.8, 10.6) vs. 4.5 (3.6, 5.9) years, Z=9.45, P<0.001). No significant differences were found in clinical manifestations, disease severity, and laboratory results between groups (all P>0.05), except for the occurrence rate of cough symptoms, which was significantly higher in the vaccinated group than in the non-vaccinated group (68.1% (49/72) vs. 50.4% (59/117),χ2=5.67, P=0.017). The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Cox mixed-effects regression model showed that the time to the viral negative conversion was significantly shorter in the vaccinated group compared with the unvaccinated group (8 (7, 10) vs. 11 (9, 12) d, Z=5.20, P<0.001; adjusted HR=2.19 (95%CI 1.62-2.97)). For questionnaire survey on the reasons for not receiving a vaccination, 115 questionnaires were distributed and 112 valid questionnaires (97.4%) were collected. The main reasons for not being vaccinated were that parents thought that their children were not in the range of appropriate age for vaccination (51 cases, 45.5%) and children were in special physical conditions (47 cases, 42.0%). Conclusion: Vaccination can effectively shorten the negative conversion time of children with COVID-19 and targeted programs should be developed to increase eligible children's vaccination rate for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

Analysis of Epidemic Prevention and Economic Operation Monitoring Based on Electric Power Big Data

Restoring economic development while strictly preventing and controlling the epidemic is the new challenge for the Chinese government under the normal state of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control. This paper constructs an epidemic situation-population flow-consumption climate index model based on K-means clustering analysis algorithm. The model extracts the real-time and historical power consumption of residents, merchants and enterprises as the basic data, selects the epidemic information and user attributes as the classification parameters, applies k-means algorithm for cluster analysis, and finally obtains the relationship between consumption climate index and population flow index which reflects the government's monitoring strength. A case of delta COVID-19 in Hubei from August 1, 2021, to August 16, 2021, was analyzed. The analysis results show that the epidemic prevention and control effect is obvious, and population mobility is significantly reduced. © 2022 IEEE.

Inorganic Coatings and Films for Antibacterial and Antivirus Functionality

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has caused serious harm to people's healthy life and the normal operation of society. People have paid more attention to the prevention and control of microbial contamination such as bacteria and viruses. Blocking the spread of disease-causing microorganisms through indirect contact with humans through contaminated surfaces, or avoiding direct contact with them, is the primary way to protect us from harm. Current solutions include designing antibacterial and antiviral surface coatings and developing personal protective equipment made from self-cleaning films or fabrics. In this paper, the work of several widely studied metals, metal oxides, metal organic framework materials, etc. with antibacterial and antiviral functionality is reviewed, their microbial inactivation mechanisms as well as performance are summarized and discussed. In the end, the future perspectives on emerging research directions and challenges in the development of antibacterial and antiviral coatings and films are presented.

Genome characterization and traceability analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in a local outbreak

Objective To analyze the genome characteristics and variations in nucleotides and amino acids of SARS-CoV-2 causing an outbreak in Henan Province in November 2021 and perform the traceability analysis.Methods In this study, throat swab specimens from cases in the acute phase were collected and tested for the nucleic acids of SARS-CoV-2 by real-time fluorescent RT-PCR.SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid-positive samples were subjected to high-throughput genome sequencing and whole-genome alignment analysis.Results The median Ct values of ORF1ab gene and N gene in 70 positive specimens was 26.41 (15.58 to 39.27) and 24.43 (12.04 to 39.74), respectively.Compared with the sequence of Wuhan-Hu(NC_045512) reference strain, 47 to 49 nucleotide mutations sharing 47 nucleotide mutation and 41 amino acid mutations were found in 63 strains of successfully sequenced SARS-CoV-2.Nine nucleotide mutations and 12 amino acid mutations were found in the spike protein.The index case shared 47 mutations with the Russian imported cases in Henan Province on October 14 and the local cases in Jiangxi Province in October.Moreover, their genomes were highly homologous and they all belonged to the Delta variant (AY.122 evolutionary branch).Conclusions Continuous monitoring of imported COVID-19 cases and prolonging the period of quarantine were needed to reduce the risk of local outbreak and epidemic caused by imported COVID-19 cases.Analysis of the genomic characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and the variations in nucleotides and amino acids was conducive to trace the origin of COVID-19 outbreak quickly and provide reference for precise control.

Complementing RNA Detection with Pharmaceutical Monitoring for Early Warning of Viral Outbreaks through Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

Wastewater-based epidemiology using viral nucleic acids to predict community viral outbreaks has many challenges, including differences in viral shedding of infected individuals and interference from the wastewater matrix. In this study, we demonstrate that monitoring pharmaceutical residues in untreated sewage provides complementary information that correlates with future occurrences of viral outbreaks. We monitored 63 pharmaceutically active compounds, including antivirals used to treat COVID-19 and influenza and over-the-counter drugs commonly used to relieve the symptoms of infection. Weekly sampling was conducted at four municipal sewage treatment plants in Western New York. Residues of drugs associated with managing COVID-19 symptoms were detected, including azithromycin (1.99-5.00 μg/L), chloroquine (0.01-33.00 μg/L), hydroxychloroquine (0.05-30.54 μg/L), and lopinavir (13.75-181.20 μg/L). A significant correlation (p < 0.001) was observed between the total COVID-19-related drugs detected and the 5-day rolling averages of reported cases. Acetaminophen concentrations spiked approximately 2.5 weeks before a spike in SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies in all wastewater treatment plants sampled. The results suggest over-the-counter analgesic concentrations, in particular, acetaminophen in raw sewage to be used to complement viral RNA data as an early warning system for effective management of viral outbreaks at the community level. © 2022 American Chemical Society.

Emerging investigator series: meta-analyses on SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA levels in wastewater and their correlations to epidemiological indicators

Background: recent applications of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) have demonstrated its ability to track the spread and dynamics of COVID-19 at the community level. Despite the growing body of research, quantitative synthesis of SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater generated from studies across space and time using diverse methods has not been performed. Objective: the objective of this study is to examine the correlations between SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in wastewater and epidemiological indicators across studies, stratified by key covariates in study methodologies. In addition, we examined the association of proportions of positive detections in wastewater samples and methodological covariates. Methods: we systematically searched the Web of Science for studies published by February 16th, 2021, performed a reproducible screening, and employed mixed-effects models to estimate the levels of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA quantities in wastewater samples and their correlations to the case prevalence, the sampling mode (grab or composite sampling), and the wastewater fraction analyzed (i.e., solids, solid-supernatant mixtures, or supernatants/filtrates). Results: a hundred and one studies were found;twenty studies (671 biosamples and 1751 observations) were retained following a reproducible screening. The mean positivity across all studies was 0.68 (95%-CI, [0.52;0.85]). The mean viral RNA abundance was 5244 marker copies per mL (95%-CI, [0;16 432]). The Pearson correlation coefficients between the viral RNA levels and case prevalence were 0.28 (95%-CI, [0.01;0.51]) for daily new cases or 0.29 (95%-CI, [-0.15;0.73]) for cumulative cases. The fraction analyzed accounted for 12.4% of the variability in the percentage of positive detections, followed by the case prevalence (9.3% by daily new cases and 5.9% by cumulative cases) and sampling mode (0.6%). Among observations with positive detections, the fraction analyzed accounted for 56.0% of the variability in viral RNA levels, followed by the sampling mode (6.9%) and case prevalence (0.9% by daily new cases and 0.8% by cumulative cases). While the sampling mode and fraction analyzed both significantly correlated with the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA levels, the magnitude of the increase in positive detection associated with the fraction analyzed was larger. The mixed-effects model treating studies as random effects and case prevalence as fixed effects accounted for over 90% of the variability in SARS-CoV-2 positive detections and viral RNA levels. Interpretations: positive pooled means and confidence intervals in the Pearson correlation coefficients between the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA levels and case prevalence indicators provide quantitative evidence that reinforces the value of wastewater-based monitoring of COVID-19. Large heterogeneities among studies in proportions of positive detections, viral RNA levels, and Pearson correlation coefficients suggest a strong demand for methods to generate data accounting for cross-study heterogeneities and more detailed metadata reporting. Large variance was explained by the fraction analyzed, suggesting sample pre-processing and fractionation as a direction that needs to be prioritized in method standardization. Mixed-effects models accounting for study level variations provide a new perspective to synthesize data from multiple studies.

Evidence of aircraft activity impact on local air quality: A study in the context of uncommon airport operation

Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) was suspended to contain the spread of COVID-19, while Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) saw a tremendous flight reduction. Closure of a major international airport is extremely rare and thus represents a unique opportunity to straightforwardly observe the impact of airport emissions on local air quality. In this study, a series of statistical tools were applied to analyze the variations in air pollutant levels in the vicinity of WUH and SHA. The results of bivariate polar plots show that airport SHA and WUH are a major source of nitrogen oxides. NOx, NO2 and NO diminished by 55.8%, 44.1%, 76.9%, and 40.4%, 33.3% and 59.4% during the COVID-19 lockdown compared to those in the same period of 2018 and 2019, under a reduction in aircraft activities by 58.6% and 61.4%. The concentration of NO2, SO2 and PM2.5 decreased by 77.3%, 8.2%, 29.5%, right after the closure of airport WUH on 23 January 2020. The average concentrations of NO, NO2 and NOx scatter plots at downwind of SHA after the lockdown were 78.0%, 47.9%, 57.4% and 62.3%, 34.8%, 41.8% lower than those during the same period in 2018 and 2019. However, a significant increase in O3 levels by 50.0% and 25.9% at WUH and SHA was observed, respectively. These results evidently show decreased nitrogen oxides concentrations in the airport vicinity due to reduced aircraft activities, while amplified O3 pollution due to a lower titration by NO under strong reduction in NOx emissions. © 2022

MI Diaries: ethical and practical challenges

The Michigan Diaries (MI Diaries) project was developed from late March to early April of 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. MI Diaries is a longitudinal sociolinguistic project, collecting "audio diaries" from participants throughout the pandemic and beyond. As a research project designed to obtain personal narratives from a time of deep anxiety and pain, and during a time where face-to-face data collection was not feasible, MI Diaries was confronted from the outset with a substantial set of both ethical and practical considerations. In this paper, we describe some of these challenges, and our false starts and eventual solutions in response. Throughout, we highlight decisions and methods that may be applicable for future researchers conducting remote fieldwork, navigating a speech community during a disaster, or both.

Disentangled Representation Learning in Heterogeneous Information Network for Large-scale Android Malware Detection in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond

In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, many social activities have moved online;society's overwhelming reliance on the complex cyberspace makes its security more important than ever. In this paper, we propose and develop an intelligent system named Dr.HIN to protect users against the evolving Android malware attacks in the COVID-19 era and beyond. In Dr.HIN, besides app content, we propose to consider higher-level semantics and social relations among apps, developers and mobile devices to comprehensively depict Android apps;and then we introduce a structured heterogeneous information network (HIN) to model the complex relations and exploit meta-path guided strategy to learn node (i.e., app) representations from HIN. As the representations of malware could be highly entangled with benign apps in the complex ecosystem of development, it poses a new challenge of learning the latent explanatory factors hidden in the HIN embeddings to detect the evolving malware. To address this challenge, we propose to integrate domain priors generated from different views (i.e., app content, app authorship, app installation) to devise an adversarial disentangler to separate the distinct, informative factors of variations hidden in the HIN embeddings for large-scale Android malware detection. This is the first attempt of disentangled representation learning in HIN data. Promising experimental results based on real sample collections from security industry demonstrate the performance of Dr.HIN in evolving Android malware detection, by comparison with baselines and popular mobile security products.

Real world population-based assessment of COVID-19 outcomes among rheumatoid arthritis patients using biologic or synthetic DMARDs

Background: While some risk factors for severe COVID have been identified for patients with rheumatic diseases,1 few studies have investigated whether outcomes differ based on the type of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment. Most existing reports have been limited to individual centers or voluntary reporting registries.2,3 Objectives: To compare the occurrence of hospitalizations following COVID-19 diagnosis among patients with RA treated with various classes of DMARDs. Methods: A cohort of patients with confirmed COVID-19 (ICD10 diagnosis code or positive PCR or antigen test result) were identified within a large US electronic health record (EHR) dataset (Optum, Inc.) during the time period Feb 1, 2020 through Oct 14, 2020. From these, we identified RA patients (ICD10 RA diagnosis code) with treatment (most recent of JAK inhibitor [JAKi], biologic [bDMARD] or conventional synthetic [csDMARD] only) within the 12 months prior to COVID-19 diagnosis (i.e., index). The primary outcome was any hospitalization on or within 30 days after COVID-19 diagnosis. Multivariable logistic regression models compared users of JAKi's to non-TNFi bDMARDs and csDMARDs (separately), as well as users of TNFi's to non-TNFi bDMARDS and csDMARDs (separately), and were adjusted for age, gender, index month and baseline corticosteroid use. Sensitivity analyses included restriction of prevalent treatment use to within 180 days prior to COVID-19 diagnosis and restriction of csDMARDs to a group without hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. Results: The study included 910 RA patients on DMARD treatment who were diagnosed with COVID-19 (mean age ± SD: 61±15, 80% female, 62% white. Of those, 26% (n=240) were hospitalized on or within 30 days after COVID-19 diagnosis. The proportion of patients hospitalized was highest in non-TNFi bDMARD users (37/87;43%), followed by csDMARDs users (161/581;28%) and lowest in JAKi (13/68;19%) and TNFi users (29/174;17%). In multivariable-adjusted models, no differences in risk of hospitalization were found comparing JAKi users to csDMARD users (aOR=0.71;95% CI 0.37-1.36) or TNFi users to csDMARD users (aOR=0.67;95%CI 0.43-1.06). Compared to non-TNFi bDMARD users, JAKi use and TNFi use was associated with reduced risk of hospitalization (JAKi aOR=0.32;95%CI 0.14-0.71;TNFi aOR=0.34;95%CI 0.18-0.62). Age and corticosteroid use were positively associated with 30-day hospitalization in all models. Results of sensitivity analyses were consistent with the main findings. Conclusion: In this study, roughly a quarter of RA patients with recent DMARD treatment were hospitalized within 30 days after COVID diagnosis. Patients treated with JAKi and TNFi therapies experienced the lowest risk of hospitalization, with risk of hospitalization significantly lower than non-TNFi bDMARDs. However, recent therapy recorded in the EHR may not reflect exposure at time of COVID-19 diagnosis and small sample size per treatment may limit interpretation.