Correlations between regional characteristics of counties and the ratio of intracounty to extracounty sources of COVID-19 in Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine the correlations between the regional characteristics of counties in Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea and the ratio of intracounty to extracounty sources of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. METHODS: The region of the infectious contact was analysed for each COVID-19 case reported in Gangwon Province between February 22, 2020 and February 7, 2022. The population, population density, area, the proportion of urban residents, the proportion of older adults (>65 years), financial independence, and the number of adjacent counties were assessed for each of the 18 counties in Gangwon Province. Correlation coefficients between regional characteristics and the ratio of intracounty to extracounty infections were calculated. RESULTS: In total, 19,645 cases were included in this study. The population, population density, proportion of older adults, and proportion of urban residents were significantly correlated with the ratio of intracounty to extracounty infections. A stratified analysis with an age cut-point of 65 years showed that the proportion of older adults had a significant negative correlation with the ratio of intracounty to extracounty infections. In other words, the proportions of extracounty infections were higher in countries with higher proportions of older adults. CONCLUSION: Regions with ageing populations should carefully observe trends in infectious disease outbreaks in other regions to prevent possible transmission.

An experimental study of animating-based facial image manipulation in online class environments.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence technology have significantly improved facial image manipulation, which is known as Deepfake. Facial image manipulation synthesizes or replaces a region of the face in an image with that of another face. The techniques for facial image manipulation are classified into four categories: (1) entire face synthesis, (2) identity swap, (3) attribute manipulation, and (4) expression swap. Out of them, we focus on expression swap because it effectively manipulates only the expression of the face in the images or videos without creating or replacing the entire face, having advantages for the real-time application. In this study, we propose an evaluation framework of the expression swap models targeting the real-time online class environments. For this, we define three kinds of scenarios according to the portion of the face in the entire image considering actual online class situations: (1) attendance check (Scenario 1), (2) presentation (Scenario 2), and (3) examination (Scenario 3). Considering the manipulation on the online class environments, the framework receives a single source image and a target video and generates the video that manipulates a face of the target video to that in the source image. To this end, we select two models that satisfy the conditions required by the framework: (1) first order model and (2) GANimation. We implement these models in the framework and evaluate their performance for the defined scenarios. Through the quantitative and qualitative evaluation, we observe distinguishing properties of the used two models. Specifically, both models show acceptable results in Scenario 1, where the face occupies a large portion of the image. However, their performances are significantly degraded in Scenarios 2 and 3, where the face occupies less portion of the image; the first order model causes relatively less loss of image quality than GANimation in the result of the quantitative evaluation. In contrast, GANimation has the advantages of representing facial expression changes compared to the first order model. Finally, we devise an architecture for applying the expression swap model to the online video conferencing application in real-time. In particular, by applying the expression swap model to widely used online meeting platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, we demonstrate its feasibility for real-time online classes.

Characteristics of transmission routes of COVID-19 cluster infections in Gangwon Province, Korea.

This study investigated the characteristics of transmission routes of COVID-19 cluster infections (⩾10 linked cases within a short period) in Gangwon Province between 22 February 2020 and 31 May 2021. Transmission routes were divided into five major categories and 35 sub-categories according to the relationship between the infector and the infectee and the location of transmission. A total of 61 clusters occurred during the study period, including 1741 confirmed cases (55.7% of all confirmed cases (n = 3125)). The the five major routes of transmission were as follows: 'using (staying in) the same facility (50.7%), 'cohabiting family members' (23.3%), 'social gatherings with acquaintances' (10.8%), 'other transmission routes' (7.0%), and 'social gatherings with non-cohabiting family members/relatives' (5.5%). For transmission caused by using (staying in) the same facility, the highest number of confirmed cases was associated with churches, followed by medical institutions (inpatient), sports facilities, military bases, offices, nightlife businesses, schools, restaurants, day-care centres and kindergarten, and service businesses. Our analysis highlights specific locations with frequent transmission of infections, and transmission routes that should be targeted in situations where adherence to disease control rules is difficult.

Visible-to-near IR quantum dot-based hypermulticolor high-content screening of herbal medicines for the efficacy monitoring of hair growth promotion and hair loss inhibition.

There is a growing interest in alopecia prevention strategies, as the number of alopecia patients is increasing. We examine the efficacy of herbal medicine for hair growth promotion/hair loss inhibition in two cell lines via Western blot and high-content screening (HCS). Nine herbal extracts were obtained from three different herbal medicine mixtures using 3 different extraction methods. Five target proteins-IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), TGF-ß2 (transforming growth factor-ß2), VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), DKK-1 (Dickkopf-1), and Wnt5α-were observed for the assessment of hair growth promotion/hair loss inhibition efficacy. The efficacies of nine extracts were compared with minoxidil as control. Efficacy was defined as a rise in the expression levels of IGF-1, VEGF, and Wnt5α but a decrease in DKK-1 and TGF-ß2. Intracellular concurrent imaging of these proteins was successfully achieved using HCS, employing visible-to-near infrared probing based on quantum-antibody conjugates and hypermulticolor imaging.