Resurgence of different influenza types in China and the US in 2021.

Various nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were implemented to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic since its outbreak. The transmission dynamics of other respiratory infectious diseases, such as seasonal influenza, were also affected by these interventions. The drastic decline of seasonal influenza caused by such interventions would result in waning of population immunity and may trigger the seasonal influenza epidemic with the lift of restrictions during the post-pandemic era. We obtained weekly influenza laboratory confirmations from FluNet to analyse the resurgence patterns of seasonal influenza in China and the US. Our analysis showed that due to the impact of NPIs including travel restrictions between countries, the influenza resurgence was caused by influenza virus A in the US while by influenza virus B in China.

The impact of COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Hong Kong SAR China and Singapore.

Background: Vaccination has been the most important measure to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccination coverage was relatively low in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region China, compared to Singapore, in early 2022. Hypothetically, if the two regions, Hong Kong (HK) and Singapore (SG), swap their vaccination coverage rate, what outcome would occur? Method: We adopt the Susceptible - Vaccinated - Exposed - Infectious - Hospitalized - Death - Recovered model with a time-varying transmission rate and fit the model to weekly reported COVID-19 deaths (the data up to 2022 Nov 4) in HK and SG using R package POMP. After we obtain a reasonable fitting, we rerun our model with the estimated parameter values and swap the vaccination rates between HK and SG to explore what would happen. Results: Our model fits the data well. The reconstructed transmission rate was higher in HK than in SG in 2022. With a higher vaccination rate as in SG, the death total reported in HK would decrease by 37.5% and the timing of the peak would delay by 3 weeks. With a lower vaccination rate as in HK, the death total reported in SG would increase to 5.5-fold high with a peak 6 weeks earlier than the actual during the Delta variant period. Conclusions: Vaccination rate changes in HK and SG may lead to very different outcomes. This is likely due that the estimated transmission rates were very different in HK and SG which reflect the different control policies and dominant variants. Because of strong control measures, HK avoided large-scale community transmission of the Delta variant. Given the high breakthrough infection rate and transmission rate of the Omicron variant, increasing the vaccination rate in HK will likely yield a mild (but significant) contribution in terms of lives saved. While in SG, lower vaccination coverage to the level of HK will be disastrous.

Development strategy of crayfish industry under COVID-19 epidemic taking Jingzhou city in Hubei Province as an example

The pandemic situation of COVID-19 has seriously influenced the whole chain of crayfish industry--aquaculture, logistic, processing, and service in Jingzhou. In the short term, each link of the industry was difficult to get well completely, the relevant enterprises and new types of agricultural businesses lack of confidence. After undergoing rapid development for many years, it presented some new changes under the epidemic influence: firstly, the cultivation area tend to be stable and rational, and a large scale of crayfish aquaculture was transformed to high quality aquaculture;secondly, the storage and deep processing industry would be developed rapidly;thirdly, the online consumption mode would become widely accepted. Based on our investigation, some suggestions were put forward for crayfish industry to resume production and to promote the sustainable-healthy development. The first, crayfish aquaculture in paddy field should be changed from high production to high quality;the second, processing and server-side should develop new products and new marketing models;the third, the industry management department should strengthen guidance and supervision, local governments at all levels should strongly support from policy, finance and publicity, so that jointly guide the industry upgrading and create regional brands.

Applicability of Grassland Production Estimation Using Remote Sensing for the Mongolian Plateau by Comparing Typical Regions in China and Mongolia

Grasslands on the Mongolian Plateau are critical for supporting local sustainable development. Sufficient measured sample information is the basis of remote sensing modeling and estimation of grassland production. Limited by field inventory costs, it is difficult to collect sufficient and widely distributed samples in the Mongolian Plateau, especially in transboundary areas, which affects the results of grassland production estimation. Here, considering that the measured sample points are sparse, this study took Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China and Dornogovi Province in Mongolia as the study areas, introduced multiple interpolation methods for interpolation experiments, established a statistical regression model based on the above measured and interpolated samples combined with the normalized differential vegetation index, and discussed the applicability of grassland production estimation. The comparison results revealed that the point estimation biased sample hospital-based area disease estimation method and radial basis function showed the best interpolation results for grassland production in Xilingol League and Dornogovi Province, respectively. The power function model was suitable for grassland production estimation in both regions. By inversion, we obtained annual grassland production for 2010–2021 and the uneven spatial distribution of grassland production in both regions. In these two regions, the spatial change in grassland production showed a decreasing trend from northeast to southwest, and the interannual change generally showed a dynamic upward trend. The growth rate of grassland output was faster in Xilingol League than in Dornogovi Province with similar physical geography and climate conditions, indicating that the animal husbandry regulation policies play important roles beyond the influence of climate change. The study recommended grassland estimation methods for an area with sparse samples and the results can be used to support decision making for sustainable animal husbandry and grassland succession management.

Dynamic changes of IgM and IgG antibodies in asymptomatic patients as an effective way to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, and close contacts and asymptomatic patients are worthy of attention. METHODS: A total of 1844 people in close contacts with 76 COVID-19 patients were investigated, and nasopharyngeal swabs and venous blood were collected for centralized medical quarantine observation. Real-time fluorescence was used to detect SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in nasopharyngeal swabs of all close contacts, and the colloidal gold method was used to detect serum-specific antibodies. Levels of IgM- and IgG-specific antibodies were detected quantitatively through chemiluminescence from the first nucleic acid turned negative date (0 week) and on weekly intervals of ≤1 week, 1-2 weeks, 2-3 weeks, 3-4 weeks, 4-5 weeks, 5-6 weeks, and 6-7 weeks. RESULTS: The total positive rate of the colloidal gold method (88.5%, 23/26) was significantly higher (χ2  = 59.182, p < 0.001) than that of the healthy control group (2.0%, 1/50). There was significant difference in IgG concentration at different time points (0-7 weeks) after negative nucleic acid conversion (χ2  = 14.034, p = 0.029). Serum IgG levels were significantly higher at weekly time points of 4-5 weeks (Z = -2.399, p = 0.016), 5-6 weeks (Z = -2.049, p = 0.040), and 6-7 weeks (Z = -2.197, p = 0.028) compared with 1-2 weeks after negative nucleic acid conversion. However, there was no significant difference (χ2  = 4.936, p = 0.552) in IgM concentration between time points tested (0-7 weeks) after negative nucleic acid conversion. The positive rates of IgM and IgG in asymptomatic patients (χ2  = 84.660, p < 0.001) were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group (χ2  = 9.201, p = 0.002) within 7 weeks of negative nucleic acid conversion. CONCLUSIONS: The IgG concentration in asymptomatic cases remained at a high level after nucleic acid turned negative. Nucleic acid detection combined with IgM and IgG antibody detection is an effective way to screen asymptomatic infections.

Trustworthy and Intelligent COVID-19 Diagnostic IoMT Through XR and Deep-Learning-Based Clinic Data Access.

This article presents a novel extended reality (XR) and deep-learning-based Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) solution for the COVID-19 telemedicine diagnostic, which systematically combines virtual reality/augmented reality (AR) remote surgical plan/rehearse hardware, customized 5G cloud computing and deep learning algorithms to provide real-time COVID-19 treatment scheme clues. Compared to existing perception therapy techniques, our new technique can significantly improve performance and security. The system collected 25 clinic data from the 347 positive and 2270 negative COVID-19 patients in the Red Zone by 5G transmission. After that, a novel auxiliary classifier generative adversarial network-based intelligent prediction algorithm is conducted to train the new COVID-19 prediction model. Furthermore, The Copycat network is employed for the model stealing and attack for the IoMT to improve the security performance. To simplify the user interface and achieve an excellent user experience, we combined the Red Zone's guiding images with the Green Zone's view through the AR navigate clue by using 5G. The XR surgical plan/rehearse framework is designed, including all COVID-19 surgical requisite details that were developed with a real-time response guaranteed. The accuracy, recall, F1-score, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) area of our new IoMT were 0.92, 0.98, 0.95, and 0.98, respectively, which outperforms the existing perception techniques with significantly higher accuracy performance. The model stealing also has excellent performance, with the AUC area of 0.90 in Copycat slightly lower than the original model. This study suggests a new framework in the COVID-19 diagnostic integration and opens the new research about the integration of XR and deep learning for IoMT implementation.

Dynamics of the Upper Respiratory Tract Microbiota and Its Association with Mortality in COVID-19.

Rationale: Alteration of human respiratory microbiota had been observed in coronavirus disease (COVID-19). How the microbiota is associated with the prognosis in COVID-19 is unclear. Objectives: To characterize the feature and dynamics of the respiratory microbiota and its associations with clinical features in patients with COVID-19. Methods: We conducted metatranscriptome sequencing on 588 longitudinal oropharyngeal swab specimens collected from 192 patients with COVID-19 (including 39 deceased patients) and 95 healthy controls from the same geographic area. Meanwhile, the concentration of 27 cytokines and chemokines in plasma was measured for patients with COVID-19. Measurements and Main Results: The upper respiratory tract (URT) microbiota in patients with COVID-19 differed from that in healthy controls, whereas deceased patients possessed a more distinct microbiota, both on admission and before discharge/death. The alteration of URT microbiota showed a significant correlation with the concentration of proinflammatory cytokines and mortality. Specifically, Streptococcus-dominated microbiota was enriched in recovered patients, and showed high temporal stability and resistance against pathogens. In contrast, the microbiota in deceased patients was more susceptible to secondary infections and became more deviated from the norm after admission. Moreover, the abundance of S. parasanguinis on admission was significantly correlated with prognosis in nonsevere patients (lower vs. higher abundance, odds ratio, 7.80; 95% CI, 1.70-42.05). Conclusions: URT microbiota dysbiosis is a remarkable manifestation of COVID-19; its association with mortality suggests it may reflect the interplay between pathogens, symbionts, and the host immune status. Whether URT microbiota could be used as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of respiratory diseases merits further investigation.

Design and Evaluation of Multiplex One-Step Reverse Transcription PCR-Dipstick Chromatography Method for the Analysis of Seven Respiratory Pathogens.

Influenza A, influenza B, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Chlamydophila pneumoniae are common pathogens that can cause severe pneumonia and other symptoms, resulting in acute lower respiratory tract infections. The objective of this study was to design and evaluate a sensitive and specific multiplex one-step reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR)-dipstick chromatography method for simultaneous rapid detection of these seven pathogens. Streptavidin-coated blue latex particles were used to read out a positive signal. Based on the DNA-DNA hybridization of oligonucleotide sequences (Tag) for forward primer with the complementary oligonucleotide sequence (cTag) on the dipstick and biotin-streptavidin interactions, PCR products were able to be illuminated visually on the dipstick. The specificity and the limit of detection (LOD) were also evaluated. Moreover, the clinical performance of this method was compared with Sanger sequencing for 896 samples. No cross reaction with other pathogens was found, confirming the high specificity of this method. The LOD was 10 copies/µL for each of the tested pathogens, and the whole procedure took less than 40 min. Using 896 samples, the sensitivity and specificity were shown to be no lower than 94.5%. The positive predictive value was higher than 82.1%, and the negative predictive value was higher than 99.5%. The kappa value between the PCR-dipstick chromatography method and Sanger sequencing ranged from 0.869 to 0.940. In summary, our one-step RT-PCR-dipstick chromatography method is a sensitive and specific tool for rapidly detecting multiplex respiratory pathogens.

Matrix metalloproteinase 3 as a valuable marker for patients with COVID-19.

The situation of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to evolve, our study explored the significance of serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) as a marker for patients with COVID-19. Sixty-two COVID-19 patients in the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine and Loudi Center for Diseases Prevention and Control, from January to March 2020, were sampled as the novel coronavirus pneumonia infected group. One hundred and thirty-one cases from the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, including 67 healthy individuals and 64 non-COVID-19 inpatients, served as the noninfected group. Approximately every 5 days, sera from 20 cases were collected and analyzed three times, using an automatic biochemical analyzer, to detect serum MMP3 concentrations. Correlation was analyzed between MMP3 and other proinflammatory cytokines. Following normality tests, differences in serum MMP3 levels between the infected and noninfected group were analyzed via SPSS (version 25.0) software, using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The MMP3 concentration was 44.44 (23.46 ~ 72.12) ng/mL in the infected group and 32.42 (28.16 ~ 41.21) ng/mL in the noninfected group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (Z = -2.799, P = .005 < .05). A positive correlation was found between MMP3 and interleukin 1ß (IL-1ß; r = .681, P = .000 < .05), and IL-6 (r = .529, P = .002 < .05). Serum MMP3 concentration, measured over three separate time points, were 55.98 (30.80 ~ 75.97) ng/mL, 34.84 (0.00 ~ 51.84) ng/mL, and 5.71 (0.00 ~ 40.46) ng/mL, respectively. Detection of serum MMP3 levels may play an important role in the development of therapeutic approaches for COVID-19 and may indicate the severity of disease.

Mental Health and Psychological Impact on Students with or without Hearing Loss during the Recurrence of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China.

BACKGROUND: This study compares the mental health and psychological response of students with or without hearing loss during the recurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, the capital of China. It explores the relevant factors affecting mental health and provides evidence-driven strategies to reduce adverse psychological impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We used the Chinese version of depression, anxiety, and stress scale 21 (DASS-21) to assess the mental health and the impact of events scale-revised (IES-R) to assess the COVID-19 psychological impact. RESULTS: The students with hearing loss are frustrated with their disability and particularly vulnerable to stress symptoms, but they are highly endurable in mitigating this negative impact on coping with their well-being and responsibilities. They are also more resilient psychologically but less resistant mentally to the pandemic impacts than the students with normal hearing. Their mental and psychological response to the pandemic is associated with more related factors and variables than that of the students with normal hearing is. CONCLUSIONS: To safeguard the welfare of society, timely information on the pandemic, essential services for communication disorders, additional assistance and support in mental counseling should be provided to the vulnerable persons with hearing loss that are more susceptible to a public health emergency.

MINERVA: A Facile Strategy for SARS-CoV-2 Whole-Genome Deep Sequencing of Clinical Samples.

Analyzing the genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from clinical samples is crucial for understanding viral spread and evolution as well as for vaccine development. Existing RNA sequencing methods are demanding on user technique and time and, thus, not ideal for time-sensitive clinical samples; these methods are also not optimized for high performance on viral genomes. We developed a facile, practical, and robust approach for metagenomic and deep viral sequencing from clinical samples. We demonstrate the utility of our approach on pharyngeal, sputum, and stool samples collected from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, successfully obtaining whole metatranscriptomes and complete high-depth, high-coverage SARS-CoV-2 genomes with high yield and robustness. With a shortened hands-on time from sample to virus-enriched sequencing-ready library, this rapid, versatile, and clinic-friendly approach will facilitate molecular epidemiology studies during current and future outbreaks.

The Exploration and Research of Blended Teaching Mode Based on “Internet+” Big Data Cloud Platform

In the light of problems in online teaching of new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic period in advanced mathematics curriculum, this paper analyzes the teaching effect of short-term one-way online education mode in the teaching practice of concrete courses by using the real-time data of “rain classroom” teaching management platform. Above that this paper explore and practice the hybrid teaching mode based on “Internet+” big data cloud platform, aiming at promoting the “Internet+Education” information technology and curriculum teaching depth integration, improving the teaching effect, and promoting education and teaching reform.

Strategies, Practice and Lessons Learned from Remote Teaching of the General Chemistry Laboratory Course at Brown University

Abrupt disruptions to academia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, have brought unprecedented challenges in teaching, yet it has brought many lessons, driving the development of strategies in response to the crisis. The general chemistry laboratory course is often considered difficult to teach, due to students heterogeneous chemistry backgrounds and learning levels, and transitioning from in-person to remote teaching made it even more challenging. In this communication, we will share our experiences, strategies, and lessons learned from the remote teaching of a large general laboratory course at Brown University (Providence, RI, USA) during the pandemic. Future improvements to maximize student learning will also be outlined. Several novel approaches have been applied to our remote teaching;interactive lab videos, created prior to the pandemic through a collaborative effort for students to visualize the experimental procedures, enabled a less stressful transition to remote teaching for this large laboratory course. Furthermore, our hybrid lab reports, along with other online materials, helped students to better understand how experiments are conducted. The lessons learned from this pandemic prompted further improvement to the pedagogy of remote teaching. Such experiences and reflections will benefit other educators to combat pandemic crises in the future.

Immunogenicity and safety of a recombinant adenovirus type-5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine in healthy adults aged 18 years or older: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial.

BACKGROUND: This is the first randomised controlled trial for assessment of the immunogenicity and safety of a candidate non-replicating adenovirus type-5 (Ad5)-vectored COVID-19 vaccine, aiming to determine an appropriate dose of the candidate vaccine for an efficacy study. METHODS: This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial of the Ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine was done in a single centre in Wuhan, China. Healthy adults aged 18 years or older, who were HIV-negative and previous severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-free, were eligible to participate and were randomly assigned to receive the vaccine at a dose of 1 × 1011 viral particles per mL or 5 × 1010 viral particles per mL, or placebo. Investigators allocated participants at a ratio of 2:1:1 to receive a single injection intramuscularly in the arm. The randomisation list (block size 4) was generated by an independent statistician. Participants, investigators, and staff undertaking laboratory analyses were masked to group allocation. The primary endpoints for immunogenicity were the geometric mean titres (GMTs) of specific ELISA antibody responses to the receptor binding domain (RBD) and neutralising antibody responses at day 28. The primary endpoint for safety evaluation was the incidence of adverse reactions within 14 days. All recruited participants who received at least one dose were included in the primary and safety analyses. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04341389. FINDINGS: 603 volunteers were recruited and screened for eligibility between April 11 and 16, 2020. 508 eligible participants (50% male; mean age 39·7 years, SD 12·5) consented to participate in the trial and were randomly assigned to receive the vaccine (1 × 1011 viral particles n=253; 5 × 1010 viral particles n=129) or placebo (n=126). In the 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles dose groups, the RBD-specific ELISA antibodies peaked at 656·5 (95% CI 575·2-749·2) and 571·0 (467·6-697·3), with seroconversion rates at 96% (95% CI 93-98) and 97% (92-99), respectively, at day 28. Both doses of the vaccine induced significant neutralising antibody responses to live SARS-CoV-2, with GMTs of 19·5 (95% CI 16·8-22·7) and 18·3 (14·4-23·3) in participants receiving 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles, respectively. Specific interferon γ enzyme-linked immunospot assay responses post vaccination were observed in 227 (90%, 95% CI 85-93) of 253 and 113 (88%, 81-92) of 129 participants in the 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles dose groups, respectively. Solicited adverse reactions were reported by 183 (72%) of 253 and 96 (74%) of 129 participants in the 1 × 1011 and 5 × 1010 viral particles dose groups, respectively. Severe adverse reactions were reported by 24 (9%) participants in the 1 × 1011 viral particles dose group and one (1%) participant in the 5 × 1010 viral particles dose group. No serious adverse reactions were documented. INTERPRETATION: The Ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine at 5 × 1010 viral particles is safe, and induced significant immune responses in the majority of recipients after a single immunisation. FUNDING: National Key R&D Programme of China, National Science and Technology Major Project, and CanSino Biologics.

Psychological impact of coronavirus disease (2019) (COVID-19) epidemic on medical staff in different posts in China: A multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE: An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health emergency of international concern and poses a big challenge to medical staff and general public. The aim is to investigate psychological impact of COVID-19 epidemic on medical staff in different working posts in China, and to explore the correlation between psychological disorder and the exposure to COVID-19. METHODS: A multicenter WeChat-based online survey was conducted among medical staff in China between 26 February and 3 March 2020. Medical staff deployed to Hubei province from other provinces and medical staffs in different posts outside Hubei were selected to represent diverse exposure intensities to the threat of COVID-19. Anxiety, depression, sleep quality, stress and resilience were evaluated using scales including GAD-7, PHQ-9, PSQI, PSS-14, and CD-RISC-10. Latent class analysis was performed to identify potential staff requiring psychological support. RESULTS: A total of 274 respondents were included, who serving at 4 posts as follows, staff backing Hubei province, isolation wards outside Hubei, fever clinic and infectious disease department, and other departments outside Hubei. The total scores of anxiety, depression, sleep quality and stress were statistically different among groups, meanwhile an increasing tendency of anxiety, depression and sleep quality scores with increasing risk of exposure to COVID-19 was found (p < 0.05). Subsequent post-hoc analysis indicated that the staff backing Hubei had higher scores of anxiety, depression, sleep quality and perceived stress (adjusted p < 0.05). The combined prevalence of anxiety, depression and insomnia of staff backing Hubei reached as high as 38%. Four-class latent class analysis showed 3 categories of population (69.4%) may need psychological support. CONCLUSIONS: High prevalence of anxiety, depression and insomnia exist in medical staff related to COVID-19. The higher the probability and intensity of exposure to COVID-19 patients, the greater the risk that medical staff will suffer from mental disorders, suggesting continuous and proper psychiatric intervention are needed.