Insisting with mask or demanding for more: Plights of the transmission of airborne diseases

Airborne transmission is worldwide popular topic with numerous discussion and researches since influenza pandemic could cost the global economy a lot. In this part of research, we mainly focus on the mechanisms of airborne transmission, together with some determinant factors that influence the spread of aerosols like temperature, humidity and particle size. Finally with several existed cases, insisting masks wearing, especially with three-layer masks wearing are necessary in nowadays for efficiently preventing the transmission of airborne diseases up to 90%. Other possible infection control measures like 2m social distancing are also needed as hygiene measures. © 2023 SPIE.

Globalization and Pandemics

We provide theory and evidence on the relationship between global-ization and pandemics. Business travel facilitates trade and travel leads to human interactions that transmit disease. Trade-motivated travel generates an epidemiological externality across countries. If infections lead to deaths, or reduce individual labor supply, we establish a general equilibrium social distancing effect, whereby increases in relative prices in unhealthy countries reduce travel to those countries. If agents internalize the threat of infection, we show that their behavioral responses lead to a reduction in travel that is larger for higher-trade-cost locations, which initially reduces the ratio of trade to output. (JEL D91, F14, F60, I12, N30, N70, Z31)

Assessment of Construction Risk Management Maturity Using Hybrid Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Synthetic Approach: Iraq as Case Study

Knowing and developing the construction organizations' maturity level in risk management is critical to ensure they achieve their strategic objectives. This paper aims to design a new construction organizations' risk-management maturity model (C.ORM3) using new hybrid techniques and a distinct validation strategy based on global and local experience, to assess risk management maturity level in developing countries. A multi-steps methodology was adopted in this research. The study adopted an excessive systematic literature reviews of 22 previous articles on RM maturity and four standards and guidelines for eliciting model components. These components include five attributes with 26 capabilities;24 capabilities identified from literature review and 2 from experts. These capabilities are evaluated against five levels: immature, ad-hoc, standard, managed, and optimized. The authors adopted a new strategy for validating the model by three groups of global and local experts and verifying the proposed model in a realistic-world case study. This study is the first to use a hybrid method based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation (FSE) techniques in evaluating RM maturity (RMM). Iraqi construction organizations validate the practicality of the model. The results showed that the overall RMM level of the Iraqi construction sector is 1.52, between immature and ad-hoc. The model has been converted into a computer template for ease of use by organizations. This study concluded that the suggested C.ORM3 helpful for construction organisations to evaluate their current state of RM and plan for future development © 2023, Mathematical Modelling of Engineering Problems.All Rights Reserved.

Analysis of factors affecting the construction duration of public health emergency medical facilities.

Objectives: This study explores the factors influencing the construction duration of public health emergency medical facilities and the ways in which they can be enhanced. Methods: Combining 30 relevant emergency medical facility construction cases in different cities in China from 2020 to 2021, seven condition variables and an outcome variable were selected, and necessary and sufficient condition analyses of duration influence factors were conducted using the fsQCA method. Results: The consistency of seven condition variables was <0.9, which shows that the construction period of public health emergency medical facilities is not independently affected by a single condition variable but by multiple influencing factors. The solution consistency value of the path configurations was 0.905, indicating that four path configurations were sufficient for the outcome variables. The solution coverage of the four path configurations was 0.637, indicating that they covered ~63.7% of the public health emergency medical facility cases. Conclusion: To reduce the construction duration, the construction of emergency medical facilities should focus on planning and design, the selection of an appropriate form of construction, the reasonable deployment of resources, and the vigorous adoption of information technology.

Brain health and mental health: Common vascular risk factors and practical implications.

The pandemic dramatized the close links among cognitive, mental, and social health; a change in one reflects others. This realization offers the opportunity to bridge the artificial separation of brain and mental health, as brain disorders have behavioral consequences and behavioral disorders affect the brain. The leading causes of mortality and disability, namely stroke, heart disease, and dementia, share the same risk and protective factors. It is emerging that bipolar disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, and some depressions share these risk factors, allowing their joint prevention through a holistic life span approach. We need to learn to focus on the whole patient, not simply on a dysfunctional organ or behavior to mitigate or prevent the major neurological and mental disorders by fostering an integrated approach to brain and mental health and addressing the common, treatable risk factors.

Analyzing and visualizing global research trends on COVID-19 linked to sustainable development goals.

This study is intended to afford a comprehensive overview of the implications of COVID-19 on progress toward achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) set out in the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda and the state of related research activities on COVID-19 linked to the SDGs. Bibliometric techniques and visual mapping are proposed as methodological tools to better approach the objectives of the present work. This includes: retrieving related publications from Scopus database, investigating the trends and growth trajectories of research works, and analyzing the scenarios post-COVID-19 either optimistic or pessimistic outlooks. The national and international contributions and collaboration toward this theme of research are further analyzed at countries, institutions, and sources levels. This analysis indicates that research works conducted on the impacts of COVID-19 on the achievement of the SDGs are still in the immaturity level. The global research productivity on this topic was just 160 documents (0.19% of total global research productivity in all fields of science with relevance to COVID-19). The implications of COVID-19 on good health and well-being, SDG-3, have attracted considerable attention. It is followed by SDG-13 that concerned with climate changes. The post-COVID-19 scenarios showed deep and justified worries in relation to achieving the SDGs by 2030. This study figures the major issues debated in the literature with respect to COVID-19 and its implications on the SDGs. The study, furthermore, attempts to assess the required actions to advance the SDGs post-COVID-19.

Children and adolescents' emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

Brazil has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with one of the largest numbers of youth impacted by school closure globally. This longitudinal online survey assessed emotional problems in children and adolescents aged 5-17 years living in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruitment occurred between June to November 2020 and participants were invited for follow-up assessments every 15 days until June 2021. Participants were 5795 children and adolescents living across the country with mean age of 10.7 (SD 3.63) years at recruitment; 50.5% were boys and 69% of white ethnicity. Weighted prevalence rates of anxiety, depressive and total emotional symptoms at baseline were 29.7%, 36.1% and 36%, respectively. Longitudinal analysis included 3221 (55.6%) participants and revealed fluctuations in anxiety and depressive symptoms during one year follow-up, associated with periods of social mobility and mortality. Emotional problems significantly increased in July and September 2020 and decreased from December 2020 to February 2021 and then significantly increased in May 2021 relative to June 2020. Older age, feeling lonely, previous diagnosis of mental or neurodevelopmental disorder, previous exposure to traumatic events or psychological aggression, parental psychopathology, and sleeping less than 8/h a day were associated with increased rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms at baseline and over time. Food insecurity and less social contact with family and peers were associated with baseline anxiety and depressive symptoms, and lowest socio-economic strata, chronic disease requiring treatment and family members physically ill due to COVID-19 were associated with increasing rates over time. The pandemic severely affected youth, particularly those from vulnerable populations and in moments of increased mortality and decreased social mobility. Results underscore the need for allocation of resources to services and the continuous monitoring of mental health problems among children and adolescents.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Depressive Symptoms in China: A Longitudinal, Population-Based Study.

Objectives: We aimed to examine how COVID-19 incidence is associated with depressive symptoms in China, whether the association is transient, and whether the association differs across groups. Methods: We used a longitudinal sample from 2018 to 2020 waves of the China Family Panel Study. We constructed COVID-19 incidence rates as the number of new cases per 100,000 population in respondents' resident provinces in the past 7, 14, and 28 days when a respondent was surveyed. We performed linear or logistic regressions to examine the associations, and performed stratified analyses to explore the heterogeneity of the associations. Results: Our sample included 13,655 adults. The 7-day incidence rate was positively associated with the CES-D score (coef. = 2.551, 95% CI: 1.959-3.142), and likelihood of being more depressed (adjusted odds ratio = 6.916, 95% CI: 4.715-10.144). The associations were larger among those with less education, pre-existing depression, or chronic conditions. We did not find any significant association between the 14- or 28-day local incidence rates and depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The impact of COVID-19 incidence on mental health in China's general population was statistically significant and moderate in magnitude and transient. Disadvantaged groups experienced higher increases in depressive symptoms.

Evaluation of adverse events of bamlanivimab, bamlanivimab/etesevimab used for COVID-19 based on FAERS database.

BACKGROUND: We study the adverse events (AEs) of bamlanivimab (BAM), bamlanivimab/etesevimab (BAM/ETE) to alert risk factors during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment and provide references for drug safety. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Extract AEs from the COVID-19 Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) Public Dashboard. Disproportionality analysis was performed to discover the potential risks of BAM and BAM/ETE. RESULTS: With COVID-19 drugs as the research background, the number of BAM/ETE signals is about half that of BAM, and 80% of signals overlap with BAM. Signals such as atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, and confusional state are present in BAM but not in BAM/ETE. With BAM and BAM/ETE as the research background, potential safety signals of BAM/ETE such as acute respiratory failure, hypersensitivity, and infusion-related reaction require long-term observation, especially acute respiratory failure which is not in the label. CONCLUSIONS: The AEs report on this study confirm most of the label information of BAM and BAM/ETE. BAM/ETE is relatively safe, while the risk signals such as acute respiratory failure and infusion-related reaction require to be monitored.

The impact of CoronaVac on the neutralization breadth and magnitude of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 viruses.

Although immune response enhancement has been reported after primary and booster vaccines of CoronaVac, neutralization breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the neutralization magnitude and breadth of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) in 33 convalescent COVID-19 patients and a cohort of 55 medical staff receiving primary CoronaVac vaccines and an additional homologous booster dose. Results showed that, as compared with the two-dose primary vaccination, the homologous booster dose achieved 2.24-, 3.98-, 4.58- and 2.90-fold increase in neutralization titer against wild-type, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, respectively. After booster dose, neutralization titer reduction for variants was less than that after the primary vaccine or that for convalescents. The proportion of recipients able to neutralize 2 or more variants increased from 36.36% post the primary vaccination to 87.27% after the booster. Significant increase in neutralization breadth of 1.24 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89-1.59) variants was associated with a log10 increase in neutralization titer against the wild-type. In addition, anti-RBD IgG level was identified as an excellent surrogate for positive neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and neutralization breadth of variants. These findings highlight the value of an additional homologous CoronaVac dose in broadening the cross-neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 variants, and are critical for informing the booster dose vaccination efforts.

A novel hybrid multi-thread metaheuristic approach for fake news detection in social media.

In fake news detection, intelligent optimization seems to be a more effective and explainable solution methodology than the black-box methods that have been extensively used in the literature. This study takes the optimization-based method one step further and proposes a novel, multi-thread hybrid metaheuristic approach for fake news detection in social media. The most innovative feature of the proposed method is that it uses a supervisor thread mechanism, which simultaneously monitors and improves the performance and search patterns of metaheuristic algorithms running parallel. With the supervisor thread mechanism, it is possible to analyse different key attribute combinations in the search space. In addition, this study develops a software framework that allows this model to be implemented easily. It tests the performance of the proposed model on three different data sets, respectively containing news about Covid-19, the Syrian War, and daily politics. The proposed method is evaluated in comparison to the results of fifteen different well-known deep models and classification algorithms. Experimental results prove the success of the proposed model and that it can produce competitive results.

Post-Covid- 19 Cholangiopathy:A Systematic Review.

Objectives: Post COVID-19 cholangiopathy is a rare but poorly understood and serious complication of COVID-19 infection. We sought to better understand the epidemiology, mechanism of action, histology, imaging findings and outcomes of post-COVID-19 cholangiopathy. Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science from December 2019 to December 2021. Mesh words used "post-Covid-19 cholangiopathy", "COVID-19 liver injury"," Covid-19 and cholangiopathy", and COVID-19 liver disease". The data on epidemiology, mechanism of action, histology, imaging findings and outcomes were collected. Results: Post COVID-19 cholangiopathy was reported in 30 cases during the study period. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) age was 53.7 (5). Men accounted for cases (83.3%). All patients had required intensive level of care and mechanical ventilation. Mean (SD) number of days from COVID infection to severe disease or liver disease was 63.5(38). Peak mean (SD) alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin were 2014 (831.8) U/L, 1555 (2432.8) U/L, 899.72 (1238.6) U/L, and 10.32 (9.32) mg/dl, respectively. Four patients successfully underwent liver transplantation. Conclusion: Post COVID-19 cholangiopathy is a severe and progressive complication of COVID-19 infection. More research is needed to better understand the pathophysiology and best treatment approach. Clinicians should suspect post COVID-19 cholangiopathy in patients with cholestatic liver injury following COVID-19 infection.

Achieving sustainability: Determinants of conscious green purchasing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, resulting in crises in public health and sustainable development. Aimed at understanding the determinants of conscious green purchasing behavior (GPB), this paper developed a comprehensive framework linking the moderating effect of negative environmental affective reactions (NEAR) to COVID-19 based on the S-O-R paradigm. Using randomly selected urban residents from China's Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Rim regions, the empirical study was conducted using 559 valid responses. The results show that media and peers are the major social forces activating altruistic and egoistic motivations, while family influence was not significant. Dual motivations significantly mediated the relationships of unconditional and conditional GPB with media exposure and peer influence. Contrary to expectations, NEAR negatively moderated the formation process of conscious GPB. The findings indicate that the influence of peers on conscious GPB through dual motivations is stronger compared to media. Negative affective reactions to COVID-19 were also found to inhibit the impact of peer influence on altruistic and egoistic motivations, as well as the path of altruistic motivation on unconditional GPB. The results of this study have important theoretical and practical implications for enterprise marketing and environmental campaigns, and narrowing the green attitude-behavior gap.

Waste management model for COVID-19: recommendations for future threats.

The change in habits and lifestyle of citizens during health crisis like COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the struggles for solid waste management across the globe. Not only underdeveloped and developing economies are struggling with the challenges posed by mounting piles of infectious waste but even developed countries are adversely affected in similar manner. The routine waste management strategies followed by various countries are overturned due extremely altered trends in the amount and type of waste generated by households and medical facilities. The aim of this paper is to study and list the best available waste management policies adopted by some developing, developed and underdeveloped economies. The listed case studies were selected due to some unique steps undertaken for solid waste disposal during pandemic. The findings revealed that the guidelines issued by WHO for waste management of corona virus infected waste were followed by these nations and certain additional preventive steps were taken. Due to unavailability of single framework as prescribed by international authorities, various sustainable steps taken by individual countries to curb the pandemic menace can be useful in the present context. Few of these measures can be permanently adopted at global level by other nations for handling the pandemic like situations efficiently in pandemic situations.

Single-shot AAV-vectored vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 with fast and long-lasting immunity.

Due to the insufficient long-term protection and significant efficacy reduction to new variants of current COVID-19 vaccines, the epidemic prevention and control are still challenging. Here, we employ a capsid and antigen structure engineering (CASE) strategy to manufacture an adeno-associated viral serotype 6-based vaccine (S663V-RBD), which expresses trimeric receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike protein fused with a biological adjuvant RS09. Impressively, the engineered S663V-RBD could rapidly induce a satisfactory RBD-specific IgG titer within 2 weeks and maintain the titer for more than 4 months. Compared to the licensed BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm, China), a single-dose S663V-RBD induced more endurable and robust immune responses in mice and elicited superior neutralizing antibodies against three typical SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses including wild type, C.37 (Lambda) and B.1.617.2 (Delta). More interestingly, the intramuscular injection of S663V-RBD could overcome pre-existing immunity against the capsid. Given its effectiveness, the CASE-based S663V-RBD may provide a new solution for the current and next pandemic.

Air dispersal of respiratory viruses other than severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the implication on hospital infection control.

BACKGROUND: Air dispersal of respiratory viruses other than SARS-CoV-2 has not been systematically reported. The incidence and factors associated with air dispersal of respiratory viruses are largely unknown. METHODS: We performed air sampling by collecting 72,000 L of air over 6 hours for pediatric and adolescent patients infected with parainfluenza virus 3 (PIF3), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rhinovirus, and adenovirus. The patients were singly or 2-patient cohort isolated in airborne infection isolation rooms (AIIRs) from December 3, 2021, to January 26, 2022. The viral load in nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) and air samples were measured. Factors associated with air dispersal were investigated and analyzed. RESULTS: Of 20 singly isolated patients with median age of 30 months (range, 3 months-15 years), 7 (35%) had air dispersal of the viruses compatible with their NPA results. These included 4 (40%) of 10 PIF3-infected patients, 2 (66%) of 3 RSV-infected patients, and 1 (50%) of 2 adenovirus-infected patients. The mean viral load in their room air sample was 1.58×103 copies/mL. Compared with 13 patients (65%) without air dispersal, these 7 patients had a significantly higher mean viral load in their NPA specimens (6.15×107 copies/mL vs 1.61×105 copies/mL; P < .001). Another 14 patients were placed in cohorts as 7 pairs infected with the same virus (PIF3, 2 pairs; RSV, 3 pairs; rhinovirus, 1 pair; and adenovirus, 1 pair) in double-bed AIIRs, all of which had air dispersal. The mean room air viral load in 2-patient cohorts was significantly higher than in rooms of singly isolated patients (1.02×104 copies/mL vs 1.58×103 copies/mL; P = .020). CONCLUSION: Air dispersal of common respiratory viruses may have infection prevention and public health implications.