Procurement and commissioning during COVID-19: reflections and (early) lessons

This commentary reflects on some common themes that are starting to emerge in the early analysis of the healthcare procurement and commissioning response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it largely results from the observation of the situation in the English NHS, the most salient issues are common to procurement in other EU healthcare systems, as well as more broadly across areas of the public sector that have strongly relied on the extremely urgent procurement exception in the aftermath of the first wave of the pandemic. Given the disfunction and abuse of ‘unregulated procurement’ in the context of COVID-19, the commentary reflects on the longer term need for suitable procurement rules to face impending challenges, such as Brexit and, more importantly, climate change.

Unsupervised Clustering in Epidemiological Factor Analysis

Background: The analysis of epidemiological data at an early phase of an epidemiological situation, when the confident correlation of contributing factors to the outcome has not yet been established, may present a challenge for conventional methods of data analysis. Objective: This study aimed to develop approaches for the early analysis of epidemiological data that can be effective in the areas with less labeled data. Methods: An analysis of a combined dataset of epidemiological statistics of national and subnational jurisdictions, aligned at approximately two months after the first local exposure to COVID-19 with unsupervised machine learning methods, including principal component analysis and deep neural network dimensionality reduction, to identify the principal factors of influence was performed. Results: The approach and methods utilized in the study allow to clearly separate milder background cases from those with the most rapid and aggressive onset of the epidemics. Conclusion: The findings can be used in the evaluation of possible epidemiological scenarios and as an effective modeling approach to identify possible negative epidemiological scenarios and design corrective and preventative measures to avoid the development of epidemiological situations with potentially severe impacts.

Role of Leptin with hypothyroidism in Iraqi diabetic type 2 patients

In thyroid subjects, leptin hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone levels connect; both are emphatically corresponding with adiposity. “Leptin hormone was essentially raised in the hypothyroid topic,” to levels like those seen in corpulent thyroid topic. This study aimed to determine leptin hormone levels, T3, T4, TSH, HbA1c %, FBG, lipid profile in diabetic and diabetic with hypothyroidism patients and compare the outcome with the healthy group. 90 samples were registered in this study with their ages ranging between (40 - 65) years that dole out into 3 groups as follows: thirty healthy groups (G1), thirty patients with diabetes (G2), and category three (G3) include diabetic patients and hypothyroidism as an associated disease. This study revealed a slightly significant elevated leptin in G3, contrasting to G2 and G1. Meantime no significant elevated spotted between G2 and G1. The conclusion could be from this investigation that leptin levels were changed in patients’ gatherings that might be utilized in checking and early analysis of thyroid dysfunction in these patients relying upon the significant connection for leptin chemical with T3, T4, and TSH.

Alterations in Circulating Monocytes Predict COVID-19 Severity and Include Chromatin Modifications Still Detectable Six Months after Recovery

An early analysis of circulating monocytes may be critical for predicting COVID-19 course and its sequelae. In 131 untreated, acute COVID-19 patients at emergency room arrival, monocytes showed decreased surface molecule expression, including low HLA-DR, in association with an inflammatory cytokine status and limited anti-SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response. Most of these alterations had normalized in post-COVID-19 patients 6 months after discharge. Acute COVID-19 monocytes transcriptome showed upregulation of anti-inflammatory tissue repair genes such as BCL6, AREG and IL-10 and increased accessibility of chromatin. Some of these transcriptomic and epigenetic features still remained in post-COVID-19 monocytes. Importantly, a poorer expression of surface molecules and low IRF1 gene transcription in circulating monocytes at admission defined a COVID-19 patient group with impaired SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell response and increased risk of requiring intensive care or dying. An early analysis of monocytes may be useful for COVID-19 patient stratification and for designing innate immunity-focused therapies.

Analysis of rope load sharing on multi-rope friction winders

Ensuring that all the head ropes on a multi-rope friction winder share the load equally has been a design and maintenance issue since they were first developed. Accurate machining of the rope grooves is necessary to meet this objective. Early analysis of the change of rope loads for ropes in grooves that are mismatched in depth treated the grooves as rigid. Groove depth tolerances deduced from this analysis are stringent and difficult to achieve in practice. Test work indicated that the inherent flexibility of groove lining materials alleviates the load-sharing problem. However, no analysis of rope load changes due to mismatched flexible grooves has been published. In this paper we develop new equations for the rope load variation for flexible grooves. By allowing flexibility to reduce to zero, the corresponding rigid rope groove equations are obtained. New criteria for tolerable groove depth variations are developed from this analysis, which depend on the flexibility of the groove lining material.

NOT FAR ENOUGH: HOW WORKPLACE HARASSMENT POLICIES FAIL TO PROTECT SCHOLARS FROM ONLINE ABUSE

Over the last decade online spaces and digital tools have become a central part of scholarly work and research mobilization (Carrigan, 2016). However, the integration and reliance on these technologies into scholars’ work lives have heightened their online visibility, which has opened the door to new experiences of online abuse. Previous research shows that online abuse has negative impacts on scholars’ work, and that they are left to deal with the consequences of online abuse primarily on their own, with little support from their institution (Authors, 2018a; 2018b). Given the importance of online spaces/tools in scholars' lives and the detrimental impacts of harassment, colleges and universities must recognize the risks associated with online visibility and have policies in place that address those risks. In this paper we analyze 41 workplace policies that deal with harassment and discrimination from Canadian Universities and Colleges to understand what these institutions propose to do about online abuse. We use Bacchi’s (2012) ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach. This approach encourages examination of the assumptions and conceptual logics within the framing of a problem in order to understand implicit problem representations. Early analysis identified two problems common across the 41 policies that limit their ability to offer protection and/or support in many cases of online abuse: the first limitation focuses on who the policies apply to, and the second on where the policies apply.

Early reports of epidemiological parameters of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: The emergence of a new pathogen requires a rapid assessment of its transmissibility, to inform appropriate public health interventions. Methods: The peer-reviewed literature published between 1 January and 30 April 2020 on COVID-19 in PubMed was searched. Estimates of the incubation period, serial interval and reproduction number for COVID-19 were obtained and compared. Results: A total of 86 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 33 estimated the mean incubation period (4–7 days) and 15 included estimates of the serial interval (mean 4–8 days; median length 4–5 days). Fifty-two studies estimated the reproduction number. Although reproduction number estimates ranged from 0.3 to 14.8, in 33 studies (63%), they fell between 2 and 3. Discussion: Studies calculating the incubation period and effective reproduction number were published from the beginning of the pandemic until the end of the study period (30 April 2020); however, most of the studies calculating the serial interval were published in April 2020. The calculated incubation period was similar over the study period and in different settings, whereas estimates of the serial interval and effective reproduction number were setting-specific. Estimates of the serial interval were shorter at the end of the study period as increasing evidence of pre-symptomatic transmission was documented and as jurisdictions enacted outbreak control measures. Estimates of the effective reproduction number varied with the setting and the underlying model assumptions. Early analysis of epidemic parameters provides vital information to inform the outbreak response.

COVID-19’s Impact on Anti-Trafficking Efforts: What do we know?

Early analysis indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency public health measures, and the consequent socio-economic context1 have increased individual vulnerability to human trafficking. It also indicates an impact on anti-trafficking efforts both in the short and the longer term. This article explores some of those impacts, identifies issues to look out for moving forward and examines the applicability and resilience of existing legal frameworks.