"We Speak Visually": User-Generated Icons for Better Video-Mediated Mixed-Group Communications Between Deaf and Hearing Participants

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing technology has been widely adopted as a convenient, powerful, and fundamental tool that has simplified many day-to-day tasks. However, video communication is dependent on audible conversation and can be strenuous for those who are Hard of Hearing. Communication methods used by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community differ significantly from those used by the hearing community, and a distinct language gap is evident in workspaces that accommodate workers from both groups. Therefore, we integrated users in both groups to explore ways to alleviate obstacles in mixed-group videoconferencing by implementing user-generated icons. A participatory design methodology was employed to investigate how the users overcome language differences. We observed that individuals utilized icons within video-mediated meetings as a universal language to reinforce comprehension. Herein, we present design implications from these findings, along with recommendations for future icon systems to enhance and support mixed-group conversations. © 2023 ACM.

The nursing students' experience of COVID-19 confirmation

This study was conducted to prepare the basic data for the development of practical nursing intervention programs for nursing college students who have been confirmed with COVID-19 since its outbreak in Korea. The subjects of this study were 70 nursing students at the University of Nursing located in Seoul, Gangwon-do, and Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheongnam-do. The data were collected from April 1st through April 30th, 2022, and analyzed it using the content analysis method. The experience of the nursing students infected with COVID-19 was classified and analyzed to draw a total of 187 significant statements and 36 categories. When establishing an infectious disease prevention program for nursing students and developing a practical nursing intervention program, it is necessary to focus on the preventive activities that emphasize personal aspects such as infection control, health management, and self-management, and to strengthen social support systems and improve quality of life. © 2023 The Authors. Published by IASE.

Responding to COVID-19 vaccine-related safety events: WHO Western Pacific regional experience and lessons learned

Problem: Novel vaccines were developed in an unprecedentedly short time in response to the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which triggered concerns about the safety profiles of the new vaccines. This paper describes the actions and outcomes of three major adverse events of special interest (AESIs) reported in the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Western Pacific Region: anaphylaxis, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and post-vaccination death. Context: During the large-scale introduction of various novel COVID-19 vaccines, robust monitoring of and response to COVID-19 vaccine safety events were critical. Action: We developed and disseminated information sheets about anaphylaxis and TTS;provided tailor-made training for anaphylaxis monitoring and response, webinars about TTS and AESIs, and an algorithm to support decision-making about AESIs following immunization;as well as provided country-specific technical support for causality assessments, including for possible vaccination-related deaths. Outcome: Each major vaccine event and situation of high concern was responded to appropriately and in a timely manner with comprehensive technical support from WHO. Our support activities have not only strengthened countries' capacities for vaccine safety surveillance and response, but also enabled countries to decrease the negative impact of these events on their immunization programmes and maintain the confidence of health-care professionals and the general population through proactive delivery of risk communications. Discussion: This paper summarizes selected, major AESIs following COVID-19 vaccination and responses made by WHO's Regional Office for the Western Pacific to support countries. The examples of responses to vaccine safety events during the pandemic and unprecedented mass vaccination campaigns could be useful for countries to adopt, where applicable, to enhance their preparation for activities related to monitoring vaccine safety. © 2023, World Health Organization. All rights reserved.

Corrigendum: Displacement of the Scholar? Participatory Action Research Under COVID-19 (Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, (2022), 6, (762065), 10.3389/fsufs.2022.762065)

In the published article, there was an error in the Funding statement. The funding statement was missing. The correct Funding statement appears below. Copyright © 2023 Auerbach, Muñoz, Affiah, Barrera de la Torre, Börner, Cho, Cofield, DiEnno, Graddy-Lovelace, Klassen, Limeberry, Morse, Natarajan and Walsh.

Clinical characteristics and associated factors of qualitative olfactory dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: Although interest in qualitative olfactory dysfunction (OD), including parosmia and phantosmia, has been increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about the clinical characteristics and associated factors of qualitative OD. METHODS: Adult patients with subjective smell disturbance who underwent both the olfactory questionnaire and psychophysical olfactory function test were retrospectively enrolled. Demographic and clinical characteristics were analysed according to the presence or absence of parosmia or phantosmia. RESULTS: Among a total of 753 patients with self-reported OD, 60 (8%) and 167 (22.2%) patients reported parosmia and phantosmia, respectively. Younger age and female sex were related to both parosmia and phantosmia. The frequency of parosmia was significantly higher in patients with post-viral OD (17.9%) than in patients with the sinonasal disease (5.5%), whereas that of phantosmia was not different according to aetiologies of OD. Patients with COVID-19 had significantly younger ages and higher TDI scores than those with other viral infections. Remarkably, patients with parosmia or phantosmia had significantly higher TDI scores than those without but experienced more disruption in daily life. In the multivariate analysis, younger age and higher TDI score were identified as independent factors associated with both parosmia and phantosmia, while the viral infection was associated with parosmia but not with phantosmia. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with OD who have parosmia or phantosmia have higher odour sensitivity than those who do not, but experience more deterioration in the quality of life. Viral infection is a risk factor for parosmia but not for phantosmia.

Impact of Government Response to COVID-19 on the Role of GVC and Transportation*

Purpose - study aims to investigate the relationships between global value chain (GVC)-and transportation-related determinants and economic performance. Also, moderating effects of COVID-19 on the relationships are theoretically and empirically discussed. A limitation of previous studies includes their over-reliance on the opportunities of GVC participation and larger transportation. This study represents the challenges associated with them. Also, it shows how GVC and logistics can be difficult in case of a market fluctuation such as COVID-19.Design/methodology - The sample for this study includes 828 observations from 138 countries. A semi-panel data set has been used. Six observations for each country are used to empirically test the hypotheses and a Two-way cluster model is conducted.Findings - It is confirmed that GVC forward participation contributes more than the backward participation to enhance performance. Transportation infrastructure is critical, but large scales of marine and air transportations are not positive in terms of economic performance. Stricter government response to COVID-19 negatively moderates economic performance by GVC backward participation and transportation infrastructure.Originality/value - The spread of COVID-19 is causing a severe collapse of GVC and transportation. This study empirically verifies the moderating effects of the government stringency on GVC and transportation. Previous studies usually discuss a positive impact of GVC and transportation size on economic performance. However, this study aims to show various challenges behind GVC participation and large scale transportation.

Localization using Multi-Focal Spatial Attention for Masked Face Recognition

Since the beginning of world-wide COVID-19 pandemic, facial masks have been recommended to limit the spread of the disease. However, these masks hide certain facial attributes. Hence, it has become difficult for existing face recognition systems to perform identity verification on masked faces. In this context, it is necessary to develop masked Face Recognition (MFR) for contactless biometric recognition systems. Thus, in this paper, we propose Complementary Attention Learning and Multi-Focal Spatial Attention that precisely removes masked region by training complementary spatial attention to focus on two distinct regions: masked regions and backgrounds. In our method, standard spatial attention and networks focus on unmasked regions, and extract mask-invariant features while minimizing the loss of the conventional Face Recognition (FR) performance. For conventional FR, we evaluate the performance on the IJB-C, Age-DB, CALFW, and CPLFW datasets. We evaluate the MFR performance on the ICCV2021-MFR/Insightface track, and demonstrate the improved performance on the both MFR and FR datasets. Additionally, we empirically verify that spatial attention of proposed method is more precisely activated in unmasked regions. © 2023 IEEE.

Acupuncture for olfactory dysfunction in infected COVID-19 patients: Study protocol for a randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial

Background: Olfactory dysfunction (OD) is a common symptom of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is defined as the reduced or distorted ability to smell during sniffing (orthonasal olfaction) and represents one of the early symptoms in the clinical course of COVID-19 infection. A large online questionnaire-based survey has shown that some post-COVID-19 patients had no improvement 1 month after discharge from the hospital. Objective: To explore the efficacy of acupuncture for OD in COVID-19 infected patients and to determine whether acupuncture could have benefits over sham acupuncture for OD in post-COVID-19 patients. Methods: This is a single-blind, randomized controlled, cross-over trial. We plan to recruit 40 post-COVID-19 patients with smell loss or smell distortions lasting for more than 1 month. Qualified patients will be randomly allocated to the intervention group (real acupuncture) or the control group (sham acupuncture) at a 1:1 ratio. Each patient will receive 8 sessions of treatment over 4 weeks (Cycle 1) and a 2-week follow-up. After the follow-up, the control group will be subjected to real acupuncture for another 4 weeks (Cycle 2), and the real acupuncture group will undergo the 4-week sham acupuncture. The primary outcomes will be the score changes on the questionnaire of olfactory functioning and olfaction-related quality of life at week 6, 8, 12, and 14 from the baseline. The secondary outcomes will be the changes in the olfactory test score at week 6 and 12 from the baseline measured by using the Traditional Chinese version of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT-TC). Discussion: The results of this trial will help to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture for OD in post-COVID-19 patients. This may provide a new treatment option for patients.

Call for reimagining institutional support for PAR post-COVID

Although we believe academic researchers have a critical role to play in transformative systems change for social and ecological justice, we also argue that academic institutions have been (and continue to be) complicit in colonialism and in racialized, patriarchal capitalism. In this essay, we argue that if academia is to play a constructive role in supporting social and ecological resilience in the late stage Capitalocene epoch, we must move beyond mere critique to enact reimagined and decolonized forms of knowledge production, sovereignty, and structures for academic integrity. We use the pandemic as a moment of crisis to rethink what we are doing as PAR scholars and reflect on our experiences conducting PAR during the pandemic. A framework is presented for the reimaging of institutional support for the embedding of scholars in local social systems. We propose an academy with greater flexibility and consideration for PAR, one with increased funding support for community projects and community engagement offices, and a system that puts local communities first. This reimagining is followed by a set of our accounts of conducting PAR during the pandemic. Each account begins with an author's reflection on their experiences conducting PAR during the pandemic, focusing on how the current university system magnified the impacts of the pandemic. The author's reflection is then followed with a "what if” scenario were the university system changed in such a way that it mitigated or lessened the impacts of the pandemic on conducting PAR. Although this framework for a reimagined university is not a panacea, the reliance on strong in-place local teams, mutually benefiting research processes, and resources for community organizations putting in the time to collaborate with scholars can overcome many of the challenges presented by the pandemic and future crises. Copyright © 2022 Auerbach, Muñoz, Walsh, Affiah, Barrera de la Torre, Börner, Cho, Cofield, DiEnno, Graddy-Lovelace, Klassen, Limeberry, Morse and Natarajan.

Pediatric Covid-19 Mortality: Twosided Challenges from Health Resource Disparity

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted high (HICs) and low to high- middle income countries (LHMICs) disproportionately. We sought to investigate factors contributing to disparate pediatric COVID-19 mortality. METHOD(S): We used the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 database, and stratified country group defined by World Bank criteria. All hospitalized patients aged less than 19 years with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis from January 2020 through April 2021 were included. RESULT(S): A total of 12,860 patients with 3,819 cases from HICs and 9,041 cases from LHMICs were included in this study. Of these, 8,961 (73.8%) patiens were confirmed cases and 2444 (20.1%) were suspected COVID19. Overall in-hospital mortality was 425 (3.3%) patients, with 4.0% mortality in LHMICs (361/9041), which was higher than 1.7% mortality in HICs (64/3819);adjusted HR (aHR) 4.74, 95%CI 3.16-7.10, p<0.001. There were significant differences between country income groups in the use of interventions, with higher use of antibiotics, corticosteroid, prone position, high flow nasal cannula, and invasive mechanical ventilation in HICs, and higher use of anticoagulants and non-invasive ventilation in LHMICs. Infectious comorbidities such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS were shown to be more prevalent in LHMICs [2 (0.0%) vs 171 (1.9 %), 1 (0.0%) vs. 149 (1.6%) patients, respectively]. Mortality rates in children who received mechanical ventilation in LHMICs were higher compared with children in HICs [89 (43.6%) vs. 17 (7.2%) patients, aHR 12.0, CI95% 7.2-19.9, p<0.001]. CONCLUSION(S): Various contributing factors to COVID-19 mortality identified in this study may reflect management differences in HICs and LHMICs. (Figure Presented).

CHANGES IN RURAL AND URBAN FAMILY CAREGIVING NETWORKS IN THE MIDWEST DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This study elucidates the changes in family caregiving networks during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on caregiver well-being. Eighty-two caregivers of individuals diagnosed with dementia within the past 2 years participated in this study to test a post-diagnosis intervention that provides a community care planning service that connects caregivers directly to community-based services. Caregivers completed telephone surveys at baseline and 3- and 6-month follow-up. The number of network members engaging in malfeasant (negative) social interactions increased by 0.798 every 3 months (p=0.002). Members engaging in uplifting interactions decreased, especially among intervention participants, by 1.93 every 3 months (p=0.047);urban caregivers reported greater decrease than rural (p=0.006). Participants in intervention group showed a trend for greater decrease in COVID-19 related distress (10-point scale) over time compared to control group (p=0.059);those with more members engaging in uplifting interactions reported lower distress (p=0.017) regardless of intervention status, network size, and rurality.

Public Libraries and COVID-19: Perceptions and Politics in the United States

ABS T RACT Public librarians across the United States found themselves in different political environments that challenged their ability to serve their communities, to provide the information that was needed, and to fight disinformation regarding the pandemic. Researchers at the University of Missouri ex-amined how and what librarians communicated to the public about COVID-19. A survey was sent to a systematic sample of libraries from all states and service-area sizes, carried out from January 24 to February 7, 2022. A total of 106 responses were received, with 66 respondents having answered every question. Analysis of closed-and open-ended survey responses points to public librarians' concerns about (a) local government officials and their decisions, (b) resistance on the part of pa-trons to accurate information, and (c) problems disentangling the local conversation from national media (and social media) perspectives. © 2023 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published by The University of Chicago Press.

De Novo ANCA (-) Pauci-Immune Crescentic Glomerulonephritis After Injection of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine

Introduction: To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinations have been authorized for emergency use and implemented worldwide. As with the others, COVID-19 vaccines are known to cause mild and transient side effects such as fever, myalgia, and fatigue, but severe and consistent adverse events have rarely been reported. We present a case of de novo glomerulonephritis after injection of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, BNT162b2 (BioNTech, Pfizer, NY, USA). Case Description: A 48-year-old man with no past medical history was referred for suddenly and persistently worsening renal insufficiency for only a month and a half after the second dose injection of the vaccine. He presented with arthralgia and skin rash a week after the vaccination. Abdominal pain and diarrhea started two weeks later, and he was admitted to the hospital for enteritis treatment. Upon colonoscopy, multiple ulceration and petechiae suggestive of vasculitis were observed in the terminal ileum. While taking prednisolone for a few weeks the gastrointestinal symptoms improved, but the renal function continues to deteriorate. A kidney biopsy was performed for the rapid decline in renal function accompanying nephrotic-range proteinuria (urine protein to creatinine ratio 3389mg/gCr), and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-negative pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis was diagnosed. He started treatment with high-dose steroid pulse therapy and oral cyclophosphamide, and then gradually took steroid tapering, showing improvement in proteinuria and renal function over several weeks. Discussion(s): To date, several cases of glomerulonephritis suspected to be related to the COVID-19 vaccine have been reported. This is the first case report of ANCAnegative pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis with extrarenal involvement after COVID-19 mRNA vaccine injection. It is difficult to find definite evidence to suspect or prove the causal relationship, except when there is a temporal association after vaccination or when the disease manifestations are unusual compared to well-known pathologic findings. Further in-depth studies are needed for de novo glomerulonephritis that occurs after vaccination and COVID-19 infection.

A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Multiple Ascending Dose Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics of HM15136 in Obese or Overweight Subjects with Co-morbidities

HM15136 is a novel long-acting glucagon analogue with an extended half-life. In vivo efficacy studies of HM15136 in animal models showed its therapeutic potential in obesity, and treatment requiring hypoglycemia. We enrolled an obese and overweight subjects without diabetes (study Part 1) and with diabetes (study Part 2) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to assess the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of multiple subcutaneous doses of HM15136 for 12 weeks (NCT04167553). In Part 1, a total of 36 non-diabetic subjects randomly received HM15136 or its matching placebo in a ratio of 9: 3 in 3 cohorts (0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 mg/kg). The baseline mean age was 37.5 years, BMI was 33.9 kg/m2, and Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) was 92.3 mg/dL. The FPG increased with escalating doses of HM15136. The mean (SD) changes from baseline in FPG at week 12 were -1.0 (13.0) mg/dL for 0.02 mg/kg, 12.0 (10.7) mg/dL for 0.04 mg/kg, 17.9 (16.9) mg/dL for 0.06 mg/kg vs. 0.6 (6.5) mg/dL for placebo group. The FPG had returned to baseline at 3 weeks after study drug discontinuation. The presence of Anti-Drug Antibodies (ADAs) was confirmed in 5 subjects (18.5%) but dose-dependency was not observed. One (1) out of 5 ADA positive subjects had neutralizing ADA activity with no cross reactivity to endogenous glucagon. The most frequent Treatment Related Adverse Event (TRAE) was injection site erythema (11.1%), the frequency of TRAEs was not dose dependent. Throughout Part 1 and Part 2, all TRAEs were mild except for moderate hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes. Part 2 was completed earlier than planned due to the impact of COVID-19 and discontinued subjects due to the hyperglycemia. Part 2 was not included in this presentation because the interpretability of the data was limited. In conclusion, HM15136 was safe and well tolerated in non-diabetic obese subjects during the 12-week treatment at various dose levels. Treatment with HM15136 showed a dose dependent blood glucose increase. These results suggest future development opportunities for the management of treatment requiring hypoglycemia. A phase 2, Proof-of-Concept study in patients with congenital hyperinsulinism is currently ongoing (NCT04732416).Presentation: Sunday, June 12, 2022 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Multimodal imaging case series of acute macular neuroretinopathy secondary to COVID-19 infection

Purpose : Understanding of the ocular manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is continuing to develop. While ocular symptoms, chiefly conjunctivitis, have been reported, retinal pathologies have been suggested as a rarer complication and are hypothesized to derive from a combination of the inflammatory and vasculopathic effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Using a retrospective, observational case series design, we describe a series of four eyes in three patients with acute macular neuroretinopathy (AMN) and paracentral acute middle maculopathy (PAMM) associated with COVID-19 illness. Methods : Our practice's electronic medical record (EMR) was retrospectively queried for patients from April 2020 to December 2021 who had been diagnosed with AMN or PAMM and COVID-19 illness. Three patients were identified by this method. Patient demographic information, physical exam, optical coherence tomography (OCT), infrared reflectance (IR), and fluorescein angiography (FA) studies were all used for analysis. Results : Imaging signs of AMN were revealed in four eyes in three female patients, aged 22, 32, and 64 years old, all with confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 corresponding to the start of visual symptoms. The average onset of visual symptoms from COVID-19 illness was 14 days (range 0-56). 4/4 eyes were symptomatic for scotomata. Average logMAR visual acuity was 0.024 (Snellen 20/21, range 0-0.097). 4/4 eyes demonstrated typical findings of AMN: IR imaging with prominent dark petaloid or ovoid parafoveal lesions and corresponding disruption of the ellipsoid zone on OCT (Fig. 1). FA imaging did not show any abnormal fluorescence pattern. Autofluorescence in 1/4 eyes demonstrated hyperautofluorescence corresponding to the abnormal area on IR imaging (Fig. 2). Two month follow-up showed persistent symptoms of scotomata with unchanged findings on follow-up imaging in 100% of cases. Conclusions : This series demonstrates that, although rare, SARS-CoV-2 infection may result in microvasculopathic injuries to the retina, namely AMN and PAMM. (Figure Presented).

Changes in clinical features and outcomes in three major critical diseases after COVID-19 pandemic: acute myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiac arrest

A few months after the onset of the coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the worse prognoses of acute myocardial infarction, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, and cardiac arrest were reported. This study aimed to investigate the changes in the characteristics and prognoses of these diseases in the emergency department (ED) over a year after pandemic’s onset. This was a retrospective observational study. The year 2019 was defined as the pre-period, while the year from February 2020 to January 2021 was defined as the post-period. Adult patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, or cardiac arrest during the study period were included. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Time series analyses using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA)(p,d,q) model were performed to evaluate the changes between periods. A multivariable logistic regression analysis of factors affecting in-hospital mortality was performed. The proportions of patients with acute myocardial infarction (0.8% vs. 1.1%, p < 0.001), hemorrhagic stroke (1.0% vs. 1.2%, p = 0.011), and cardiac arrest (0.9% vs. 1.1%, p = 0.012) increased in the post-period. The post-period was independently associated with in-hospital mortality in acute myocardial infarction (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.54, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.06–6.08, p = 0.037) and hemorrhagic stroke (aOR 1.74, 95% CI 1.11–2.73, p = 0.016), but not for ischemic stroke or cardiac arrest. Over a year after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea, the number of patients with acute myocardial infarction, hemorrhagic stroke, and cardiac arrest in the ED increased. An independent association between the post-period and mortality was observed for acute myocardial infarction, and hemorrhagic stroke. This study provides important information for future studies and policies. ©2022 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.

Healthcare utilisation for elderly people at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea.

BACKGROUND: At the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health care systems were severely disrupted in many countries and in particular, elderly people vulnerable to COVID-19 may have been reluctant to receive their medical treatment. METHODS: We conducted interrupted time series analyses (ITSA) using nationwide medical claim data between January 2020 and July 2020, with focus on different disease categories for the patients of 65 to 84-year-olds, i.e., acute upper respiratory infections (AURIs) vs. chronic diseases. RESULTS: AURIs and chronic diseases showed a sharp contrast with respect to the change in healthcare service utilisation. First, the utilisation rate for chronic diseases changed little whereas for AURIs it dropped by 20.4% year-over-year (yoy) at the onset of the pandemic (week 6, 2020). Second, as social distancing relaxed (week 17, 2020), the AURIs patients trended up and even reached to 7.8% above yoy whereas no significant change found for chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: The uninterrupted treatment for chronic diseases in contrast to the AURIs implies that the governmental and public responses to the pandemic outbreak worked for efficient healthcare provision to patients in needs of regular check-ups and treatment in the middle of an infectious disease crisis.