Quantitative CT imaging features for COVID-19 evaluation: The ability to differentiate COVID-19 from non- COVID-19 (highly suspected) pneumonia patients during the epidemic period

Objectives COVID-19 and Non-Covid-19 (NC) Pneumonia encountered high CT imaging overlaps during pandemic. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of image-based quantitative CT features in discriminating COVID-19 from NC Pneumonia. Materials and methods 145 patients with highly suspected COVID-19 were retrospectively enrolled from four centers in Sichuan Province during January 23 to March 23, 2020. 88 cases were confirmed as COVID-19, and 57 patients were NC. The dataset was randomly divided by 3:2 into training and testing sets. The quantitative CT radiomics features were extracted and screened sequentially by correlation analysis, Mann-Whitney U test, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression (LR) and backward stepwise LR with minimum AIC methods. The selected features were used to construct the LR model for differentiating COVID-19 from NC. Meanwhile, the differentiation performance of traditional quantitative CT features such as lesion volume ratio, ground glass opacity (GGO) or consolidation volume ratio were also considered and compared with Radiomics-based method. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis were conducted to evaluate the predicting performance. Results Compared with traditional CT quantitative features, radiomics features performed best with the highest Area Under Curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in the training (0.994, 0.942, 1.0 and 0.965) and testing sets (0.977, 0.944, 0.870, 0.915) (Delong test, P < 0.001). Among CT volume-ratio based models using lesion or GGO component ratio, the model combining CT lesion score and component ratio performed better than others, with the AUC, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 0.84, 0.692, 0.853, 0.756 in the training set and 0.779, 0.667, 0.826, 0.729 in the testing set. The significant difference of the most selected wavelet transformed radiomics features between COVID-19 and NC might well reflect the CT signs. Conclusions The differentiation between COVID-19 and NC could be well improved by using radiomics features, compared with traditional CT quantitative values.

Association of neighborhood greenness with severity of hand, foot, and mouth disease

Background Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is an epidemic infectious disease in China. Relationship of neighborhood greenness with human health has been widely studied, yet its association with severe HFMD has not yet been established. Methods Individual HFMD cases that occurred in Guangdong province in 2010 were recruited and were categorised into mild and severe cases. Residential greenness was assessed using global land cover data. We used a case-control design (i.e., severe versus mild cases) with logistic regression models to assess the association between neighborhood greenness and HFMD severity. Effect modification was also examined. Results A total of 131,606 cases were included, of whom 130,840 were mild cases and 766 were severe cases. In an unadjusted model, HFMD severity increased with higher proportion of neighborhood greenness (odds ratio, OR = 1.029, 95%CI: 1.009–1.050). The greenness-HFMD severity association remained (OR = 1.031, 95%CI: 1.006–1.057) after adjusting for population density, demographic variables and climate variables. Both population density (Z = 4.148, P < 0.001) and relative humidity (Z = -4.297, P < 0.001) modified the association between neighborhood greenness and HFMD severity. In the stratified analyses, a protective effect (OR = 0.769, 95%CI: 0.687–0.860) of greenness on HFMD severity were found in the subgroup of population density being lower than and equal to 5 ln(no.)/km2. While in both the subgroups of population density being higher than 5, the greenness had hazard effects (subgroup of > 5 & ≤7: OR = 1.071, 95%CI: 1.024–1.120; subgroup of > 7: OR = 1.065, 95%CI: 1.034–1.097) on HFMD severity. As to relative humidity, statistically significant association between greenness and HFMD severity was only observed in the subgroup of being lower than and equal to 76% (OR = 1.059, 95%CI: 1.023–1.096). Conclusions Our study found that HFMD severity is associated with the neighborhood greenness in Guangdong, China. This study provides evidence on developing a prevention strategy of discouraging the high-risk groups from going to the crowded green spaces during the epidemic period.

Pediatric Training Crisis of Emergency Medicine Residency during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging viral disease that has caused a global pandemic. Among emergency department (ED) patients, pediatric patient volume mostly and continuously decreased during the pandemic period. Decreased pediatric patient volume in a prolonged period could results in inadequate pediatric training of Emergency Medicine (EM) residents. We collected data regarding pediatric patients who were first seen by EM resident physicians between 1 February 2019, and 31 January 2021, which was divided into pre-epidemic and epidemic periods by 1 February 2020. A significant reduction in pediatric patients per hour (PPH) of EM residents was noted in the epidemic period (from 1.55 to 0.81, p < 0.001). The average patient number was reduced significantly in the classification of infection (from 9.50 to 4.00, p < 0.001), respiratory system (from 84.00 to 22.00, p < 0.001), gastrointestinal system (from 52.00 to 34.00, p = 0.007), otolaryngology (from 4.00 to 2.00, p = 0.022). Among the diagnoses of infectious disease, the most obvious drop was noted in the diagnosis of influenza and enterovirus infection. Reduced pediatric patient volume affected clinical exposure to pediatric EM training of EM residency. Changes in the proportion of pediatric diseases presented in the ED may induce inadequate experience with common and specific pediatric diseases.

How New Technologies Could Help Improve Healthcare, Teaching, and Sensitization During Pandemics Like COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has, over the last few months, forced us to modify the way we interact with each other both in the delivery of healthcare services and in medical education. Nowadays, telehealth has globally emerged as the most appropriate approach for care, teaching, healthcare professional meetings, and advocacy. This chapter outlines the value of telemedicine, information and communication technologies during such critical situations. The authors draw in this report various experiences from countries belonging to different economic categories and describe how ICT could be a convenient solution in care, monitoring of symptom, treatment management, teaching, sensitization, and continuing education during the epidemic period of COVID-19. In conclusion, with countries facing challenges in dealing with the current situation, they need to encourage the use of ICT in remote health services and to share relevant data for the prevention, mitigation, and monitoring of the pandemic.

A Reliable Iterative Transform Method for Solving an Epidemic Model

The main purpose of the work is to apply a new method, so-called LTAM, which couples the Tamimi and Ansari iterative method (TAM) with the Laplace transform (LT). This method involves solving a problem of non-fatal disease spread in a society that is assumed to have a fixed size during the epidemic period. We apply the method to give an approximate analytic solution to the nonlinear system of the intended model. Moreover, the absolute error resulting from the numerical solutions and the ten iterations of LTAM approximations of the epidemic model, along with the maximum error remainder, were calculated by using MATHEMATICA® 11.3 program to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.

Impact of Consumer Health Awareness on Dairy Product Purchase Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a reduction in the overall consumption of dairy products in China. How to restore the consumption potential of dairy products and alleviate the serious impact on the dairy market in the post-epidemic period is an urgent problem that needs to be resolved. Based on the survey data of 1780 consumers in 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of China, the Heckman two-stage model was used to empirically test the impact of consumer health awareness on dairy product purchase behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and to further analyze the differences in factors affecting dairy product purchase behavior with the restriction of consumer health awareness. The results showed that the overall level of consumer health awareness after the outbreak of COVID-19 was relatively high. A total of 79% of consumers preferred to buy dairy products after the COVID-19 outbreak, and the proportion of purchased dairy products increased by an average of 17.49%, compared with that before the COVID-19 outbreak. Health change perception, health concern degree, and health habit development in consumer health awareness all have important impacts on the purchase behavior of dairy products. Among them, health change perception and health habit development both positively and significantly affected the purchase intention. Moreover, all three aspects of consumer health awareness positively increased the proportion of dairy product purchases. Difference analysis showed that there were obvious differences among consumer groups with different health awareness in dairy product purchase decisions. Component factor analysis found that, overall, consumer health awareness directly affected the purchase intention and increased the purchase proportion of dairy products. Therefore, policy recommendations are proposed to increase the consumption momentum of dairy products by raising consumer health awareness in the post-epidemic period.

Evaluation of Universities’ Distance Education by Students and Academicians in the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Period: A Qualitative Research

The aim of the study is to evaluate the perspectives of students and academicians about distance education implemented by universities in the epidemic period and to determine the advantages and disadvantages of distance education to get an overall perspective. In the study, the data were obtained as a result of in-depth interviews with 12 students and 13 academicians. MAXQDA analysis program was used to analyze the data. The coded data were themed and analyzed. As a result of the analysis, concept maps were created and the analysis process was completed with interpretation. Conclusion of this study, the advantages and disadvantages of distance education applied by universities during the coronavirus period were evaluated. Recording the classes within the scope of distance education has given students the opportunity to review the classes. In this process, it is seen that education/training activities continue without any limitations on time and place. With distance education, it became possible to teach more than one class simultaneously. In this way, it became possible to reach more students in a shorter time. However, it has been found that the level of interaction between the academician and the student decreases in the distance education classes. As such, a decrease in motivation has been detected. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid transition to distance education was made, and this rapid transition caused infrastructure and system problems. On the other hand, it is understood that a sound measurement and evaluation cannot be made in the exams applied in the distance education process.

Negative Emotions in Chinese Frontline Medical Staff During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Epidemic: Status, Trend, and Influential Pathways Based on a National Investigation

Objective: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), declared as a major public health emergency, has had profound effects on public mental health especially emotional status. Due to professional requirements, medical staff are at a higher risk of infection, which might induce stronger negative emotions. This study aims to reveal the emotional status of Chinese frontline medical staff in the early epidemic period to better maintain their mental health, and provide adequate psychological support for them.Methods: A national online survey was carried out in China at the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic. In total, 3025 Chinese frontline medical staff took part in this investigation which utilized a general information questionnaire, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ).Results: At the early stage of COVID-19, anxiety was the most common negative emotion of Chinese medical staff, followed by sadness, fear, and anger, mainly at a mild degree, which declined gradually over time. Nurses had the highest level of negative emotions compared with doctors and other healthcare workers. Women experienced more fear than men, younger and unmarried medical staff had more anxiety and fear compared with elders and married ones. Risk perception and emotional expressivity increased negative emotions, cognitive reappraisal reduced negative emotions, while negative emotions led to more avoidant behavior and more physical health disturbances, in which negative emotions mediated the effect of risk perception on avoidant behavior tendency in the model test.Conclusion: Chinese frontline medical staff experienced a mild level of negative emotions at the early stage of COVID-19, which decreased gradually over time. The findings suggest that during the epidemic, nurses' mental health should be extensively attended to, as well as women, younger, and unmarried medical staff. To better ensure their mental health, reducing risk perception and improving cognitive reappraisal might be important, which are potentially valuable to form targeted psychological interventions and emotional guidance under crisis in the future.

Investigations on the Control of COVID-19 and Suggestions for Re-Open Based on Model Study

Data-based analysis gives out an estimation of the incubation period. A dynamic model is established and discussed. Disease reproduction number reveals the high probability of COVID-19 pandemic, but strengthening the exposure of asymptomatic people will help to curb the transmission, and measures of contact-tracking and stay-at-home play a replaceable role. Discussions point out that social disruption can be avoided if the contact tracking rate can be more than 0.5. Investigations for re-opening show that a city of the same size as Wuhan can be reopened if new cases are continuously below 1000 for a few days and when they are less than 500, with the assurance of contact tracking associated with extensive testing. In short, tracking and testing are the prioritized strategies, while maintaining awareness can shorten the epidemic period and mobility restrictions can be avoided.

Education in the Pandemic

The education sector in Ukraine, as in most other countries of the world, is facing a global challenge due to the spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Educational institutions are in an emergency situation and are forced to switch to distance or mixed learning. As a result, there were difficulties with the implementation of a new alternative model, according to which educational institutions have started to work and provide a wide range of their services. The purpose and novelty of the article is a systematic generalization of the results of the extreme mode of operation of educational institutions during the pandemic to adapt them to the extraordinary situation of functioning and further development. The method of research is the systematization of empirical data on individual practices of different types of educational institutions and, on this ground, determination of the possibility of combining in a holistic operation mechanism in terms of the social justice and effi ciency principles. Th e article analyzes the readiness of the education system for distance learning in the context of a pandemic, determines positions for the regulation and sustainable adjustment of educational institutions, ensuring fair access for various segments of society to online resources, the formation of positive scenarios for the education functioning in the epidemic and post-epidemic period. The paper uses the main theoretical positions formulated in the monograph “COVID 19. Great Overload” by Klaus Schwab, economist, founder and president of the World Economic Forum in Davos since 1971, and his co-author Thierry Muller, a publicist and researcher. One of the main provisions concerning education and its long-term development is that the current crisis is forcing society to realize that most decisions are based on moral and fair choices, and that in the future it is possible to move away from personal interests and create a more harmonious society. The UN materials on the analysis of the COVID-19 consequences for the education system and its reconstruction in the future are also used. The study identifies the dynamics of processes throughout the pandemic. Positive and problematic practices are given. The findings obtained from research and experience can be the basis for developing measures to help education institutions to overcome the “transition period”. The key factors of their stability are the general education services (digital libraries, online education platforms), mobilization of teaching and student contingents to work in new conditions, compliance of financial and distribution mechanisms with the requirements of the time.