Why do we focus on common cold and bacterial pneumonia

Common cold and influenza are often complicated by pneumococcal pneumonia, but the complication whereas pneumococcal pneumonia complicating COVID-19 is not common. Both influenza and COVID-19 are respiratory viral infections, and their pathogenesis depends on the host immune response. Therefore, clinically, accurate pathogen diagnosis in the early stage of the clinical course for the purpose of formulating an appropriate treatment plan may contribute to improvement of the patient prognosis. Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in clinical manifestations, epidemiological history, laboratory findings and radiological findings, some of which were different and some of which were similar from influenza or any other common cold. We would like to emphasize the importance of researching the mechanism of pneumonia induced from common cold, influenza, COVID-19 and any other respiratory viral infection. Copyright © 2021 Japan Society of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.

Supporting Emergency Remote Teaching via a Responsive Professional Development Support System

This chapter outlines the design and implementation of an emergency remote teaching (ERT) online support system at a Japanese university. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors, holding the unique position of overseeing professional development and technology, immediately began preparing a training program for teachers to accommodate shifting to online teaching. The authors developed a holistic continuing professional learning and development (CPLD) support system in order to prepare over 70 lecturers for the transition. The approach employed was based on core principles of Drago-Severson’s learning-oriented model of adult learning (Leading adult learning: supporting adult development in our schools. Corwin Press. https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/leading-adult-learning/book230518, 2009), alongside the concepts of distributed leadership (Spillane J, Distributed leadership. Jossey-Bass, 2006) and leadership-as-practice (Raelin JA, Leadership-as-practice. Taylor & Francis, New York, 2016). By conducting ongoing needs analysis throughout the semester, the support team was able to establish a dynamic, responsive system capable of evolving as needs arose. Teachers were surveyed to collect their feedback, and their suggestions for improvement were implemented. The lessons learned here may serve as a foundation for the development of dynamic CPLD programs that prioritize educators’ needs. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Diagnostic performance of computed tomography imaging for COVID-19 in a region with low disease prevalence

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 as an out-break of pneumonia of unknown origin. Previous studies have suggested the utility of chest computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis of COVID-19 because of its high sensitivity (93%-97%), relatively simple procedure, and rapid test results. This study, performed in Japan early in the epidemic when COV1D-19 prevalence was low, evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of chest CT in a population present-ing with lung diseases having CT findings similar to those of COVID-19. We retrospectively included all consecutive patients (18 years old) presenting to the outpatient department of Keio University Hospital between March 1 and May 31, 2020, with fever and respiratory symptoms. We evaluated the perfor-mance of diagnostic CT for COVID-19 by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results as the refer-ence standard. We determined the numbers of false-positive (FP) results and assessed the clinical utility using decision curve analysis. Of the 175 patients, 22 were PCR-positive. CT had a sensitivity of 68% and a specificity of 57%. Patients with FP results on CT diagnosis were mainly diagnosed with diseases mimicking COVID-19, e.g., interstitial lung disease. Decision curve analysis indicated that the clinical utility of CT imaging was limited. The diagnostic performance of CT for COVID-19 was inadequate in an area with low COV ID-19 prevalence and a high prevalence of other lung diseases with chest CT findings similar to those of COVID-19. Considering this insufficient diagnostic performance, CT findings should be evaluated in the context of additional medical information to diagnose COVID-19.

Coppers film fabrication on glass substrate by complex reduction method for rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

A Cu film with the ability to rapidly inactivate the COVID-19 virus was easily fabricated at approximately 23°C on a Na-free glass substrate. The well-adhered Cu films with thickness of approximately 16 μm and surface area of 8.71 10-3 m2 g-1 were obtained by immersion of the glass substrate into an aqueous solution with dissolved Cu (II) complex of ammonia and ascorbic acid. The interface bonded between the film and glass substrate was very strong, such that the film did not peel off even when it was exposed to an ultrasonic wave of 100 mW (42 kHz) in water. The anti-COVID-19 activity in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) is effective within 2 h and is faster than that of commercial copper plates. The changes in the relative abundance of Cu2O and CuO crystallines on the Cu film due to DMEM treatment and those in surface morphology were examined by X-ray diffraction peak analysis and field emission-scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The flame atomic absorption analyses of the recovered solutions after DMEM treatment indicated that the Cu ions from the Cu film with DMEM treatment for 1 hour at a concentration of 0.64 ± 0.03 ppm were eluted 2.3 times faster than those from the Cu plate. The rapid elution of Cu ions from Cu2O crystallines on the film in the early stage is the primary factor in the inactivation of the COVID-19 virus, as elucidated from the time dependence of eluted Cu ions by DMEM treatment. Results from thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) of the powder scratched from the Cu film suggested that a trace amount of organic residues remaining in the Cu film was important in the rapid activity. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Why do we focus on common cold and bacterial pneumonia

Common cold and influenza are often complicated by pneumococcal pneumonia, but the complication whereas pneumococcal pneumonia complicating COVID-19 is not common. Both influenza and COVID-19 are respiratory viral infections, and their pathogenesis depends on the host immune response. Therefore, clinically, accurate pathogen diagnosis in the early stage of the clinical course for the purpose of formulating an appropriate treatment plan may contribute to improvement of the patient prognosis. Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in clinical manifestations, epidemiological history, laboratory findings and radiological findings, some of which were different and some of which were similar from influenza or any other common cold. We would like to emphasize the importance of researching the mechanism of pneumonia induced from common cold, influenza, COVID-19 and any other respiratory viral infection.

Case study of SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk assessment in indoor environments using cloud computing resources

Complex flow simulations are conventionally performed on HPC clusters. However, the limited availability of HPC resources and steep learning curve of executing on traditional supercomputer infrastructure has drawn attention towards deploying flow simulation software on the cloud. We showcase how a complex computational framework-that can evaluate COVID-19 transmission risk in various indoor classroom scenarios-can be ed and deployed on cloud services. The availability of such cloud-based personalized planning tools can enable educational institutions, medical institutions, public sector workers (courthouses, police stations, airports, etc.), and other entities to comprehensively evaluate various in-person interaction scenarios for transmission risk. We deploy the simulation framework on the Azure cloud framework, utilizing the Dendro-ktmesh generation tool and PETSc solvers. The cloud ion is provided by RocketML cloud infrastructure. We compare the performance of the cloud machines with state-of-the-art HPC machine TACC Frontera. Our results suggest that cloud-based HPC resources are a viable strategy for a diverse array of end-users to rapidly and efficiently deploy simulation software. © 2021 IEEE.

Scalable Adaptive PDE Solvers in Arbitrary Domains

Efficiently and accurately simulating partial differential equations (PDEs) in and around arbitrarily defined geometries, especially with high levels of adaptivity, has significant implications for different application domains. A key bottleneck in the above process is the fast construction of a good adaptively-refined mesh. In this work, we present an efficient novel octree-based adaptive discretization approach capable of carving out arbitrarily shaped void regions from the parent domain: An essential requirement for fluid simulations around complex objects. Carving out objects produces an incomplete octree. We develop efficient top-down and bottom-up traversal methods to perform finite element computations on incomplete octrees.We validate the framework by (a) showing appropriate convergence analysis and (b) computing the drag coefficient for flow past a sphere for a wide range of Reynolds numbers (O(1106)) encompassing the drag crisis regime. Finally, we deploy the framework on a realistic geometry on a current project to evaluate COVID-19 transmission risk in classrooms. © 2021 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

The Code of Pangolins Interspecies Ethics in the Face of SARS-CoV-2

More than two decades ago, Levi-Strauss argued that bovine spongiform encephalopathy was the result of forced cannibalism among cattle. He pointed out that not only the consumption of cattle organs by cattle but also the eating of beef by humans is a kind of cannibalism among animals. His argument highlighted the negative aspects of connection and assimilation in the act of eating. Today, several anthropological responses have been evoked to address the social, (bio)political, and economic problems caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Although this article is part of that wider corpus, it focuses not on the novel aspects of the phenomenon but on relatively familiar aspects using "classic" anthropological ideas such as substance code, dividual personhood, and taboo. By comparing the circulation of viruses within and beyond species boundaries with the circulation of substance codes observed in South Asian societies, I point out the imaginariness not of dividual personhood but of our existence as individuals. These examinations raise the significance of the anthropological understanding of people's practices regarding boundary making and unmaking between the human and the wild to consider the problem of zoonoses originating from wild animals.