COVID-19 REINFECTION BETWEEN DOSES OF VACCINATION: CASE REPORT IN A CITY OF BRAZIL’S SOUTHEAST

Vaccination against COVID-19 is happening worldwide, with most vaccines requiring 2 doses to reach its maximum potential. It is the most efficient measure to prevent new cases of COVID-19, both of infection and reinfection. This case reports the reinfection of a female receptionist at an urgent care facility, where the research group was testing and monitoring symptoms of patients with flu syndrome, in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil, where she reinfected between the two preconized doses. Her initial infection occurred in September 2020 and reinfection in February 2021, 14 days after the first dose - both confirmed by RT-PCR - with reportedly worse symptoms on the latter. We warn for the possibility of reinfection episodes even after the first dose of vaccination, differently from what literature stated so far, so that health agents can organize more effective security measures, in a context of viral mutation and of new strains.

Analyzing methods of determining pre-destruction of blast hole vicinity

The level of deformation of the rock massif of a blasted slab must be planned in advance, depending on the required results of blasting. Thus the energy costs of barren rock overfilling as part of preparing for overburden excavation are inefficient. On the contrary, an increase in the blast energy spent on degrading and breaking the ore mass is an efficient measure of preparing for the excavation of mineral wealth. There are currently two methods used to determine the pre-destruction of a blasted rock massif. The first one is based on determining the number of strain waves passing through locations of borehole charges. However, this method fails to determine the preliminary rock destruction level. The second method is based on determining coefficients of the pre-destruction of a rock massif by these strain waves. The merit of this method is that it allows evaluating the quality pattern of the pre-destruction of a rock massif. The procedure of considering the fraction of energy of the strain waves, reflected by the shielding rock mass to the destructive amount of blasting charges and refracted to this destroyed rock, is proposed.

A single item measure of self-control – validation and location in a nomological network of self-control, boredom, and if-then planning

Self-control is a highly adaptive human capacity and research on self-control is booming. To further facilitate self-control research, especially in conditions where time-constraints might render the use of multi-item measures of self-control problematic, a validated time-efficient single item measure would be an asset. However, such a measure has not yet been developed and tested. Here, we address this gap by reporting the psychometric properties of a single item measure of self-control and by assessing its localization within a larger theorized psychometric network consisting of self-control, boredom and if-then planning. In a high-powered (N = 1553) study with paid online workers from the US (Gender: 47.3% female, 51.7% male, 1% other; Age: 40.36 ± 12.65 years), we found evidence for the convergent validity (Brief Self-Control Scale), divergent validity (Short Boredom Proneness Scale and If-Then Planning Scale), and criterion validity (objective and subjective Socio-Economic Status) of the single item measure of self-control (“How much self-control do you have?”). Network psychometrics further revealed that the single item was part of the self-control subnetwork and clearly distinguishable from boredom and if-then planning, which together with self-control form a larger psychometric network of psychological dispositions that are relevant for orienting goal directed behavior. Thus, the present findings indicate that self-control can be adequately captured with the single item measure presented here, thereby extending the methodological toolbox of self-control researchers by a highly-time efficient measure

The effect of building retrofit measures on CO2 emissions reduction – A case study with U.S. Medium office buildings

Building retrofit has great potential to reduce CO2 emissions since buildings are responsible for 36% of emissions in the United States. Several existing studies have examined the effect of building retrofit measures on CO2 emission reduction. However, these studies oversimplified emission factors of electricity by adopting constant annual emission factors. This study uses hourly emission factors of electricity to analyze the effect of building retrofit measures on emission reduction using U.S. medium office buildings as an example. We analyzed CO2 emission reduction effects of eight building retrofit measures that related to envelop and mechanical system in five locations: Tampa, San Diego, Denver, Great Falls, and International Falls. The main findings are: (1) estimating CO2 emission reduction with constant emission factors overestimates the emission reduction for most measures in San Diego, while it underestimates the emission reduction for most measures in Denver and International Falls; (2) The same retrofit measure may have different effects in CO2 emission reduction depending on the climates. For instance, improving lighting efficiency and improving equipment efficiency have less impacts in emission reduction in cold climates than hot climates; and (3) The most energy efficient measure may not be the most emission efficient measure. For example, in Great Falls, the most energy efficient measure is improving equipment efficiency, but the most emission efficient measure is improving heating efficiency.

Landscape depressions can create silent zones in noise polluted parks

Excessive road traffic noise exposure in (sub)urban parks hinders its restorative function and will negatively impact the number of visitors. Especially in such green environments, noise abatements by natural means, well integrated in the landscape, are the most desired solutions. Although dense vegetation bordering the park or raised berms could come first in mind, local landscape depressions are typically underused. In this work, a case-study of a small suburban park, squeezed in between two major arterial roads, is analyzed. The spatially dependent road traffic noise exposure in the park is assessed in detail by mobile sound pressure level measurements. Local reductions of up to 6-7 dBA are found at landscape depressions of only a few meters deep. It can therefore be concluded that this is an efficient measure and should be added to the environmental noise control toolbox for noise polluted parks.

Autoencoder based local T cell repertoire density can be used to classify samples and T cell receptors

Recent advances in T cell repertoire (TCR) sequencing allow for the characterization of repertoire properties, as well as the frequency and sharing of specific TCR. However, there is no efficient measure for the local density of a given TCR. TCRs are often described either through their Complementary Determining region 3 (CDR3) sequences, or theirV/J usage, or their clone size. We here show that the local repertoire density can be estimated using a combined representation of these components through distance conserving autoencoders and Kernel Density Estimates (KDE). We present ELATE–an Encoder-based LocAl Tcr dEnsity and show that the resulting density of a sample can be used as a novel measure to study repertoire properties. The cross-density between two samples can be used as a similarity matrix to fully characterize samples from the same host. Finally, the same projection in combination with machine learning algorithms can be used to predict TCR-peptide binding through the local density of known TCRs binding a specific target.

Measuring the Belief System of a Person

Theories of belief system structure and dynamics assume that belief systems are an person-level construct. However, measures of belief system structure do not measures the structure of person-level belief systems and instead measure aggregated belief system structure (e.g., the belief system in a particular country). In this paper I show that a measure of conceptual similarity between attitudes and identities of a belief system works as a valid, reliable, flexible, and efficient measure of person-level belief system structure. In Studies 1 (N = 387) and 2 (N = 389), I show conceptual similarity judgments are reliable and are related to measures of political engagement, issue consistency, and preference congruence as predicted by theories of belief system dynamics. In Studies 3 (N = 981) and 4 (N = 983), I show that conceptual similarity judgments are affected by partisan frames and that changes in conceptual similarity judgments are associated with attitude change as predicted by theories of belief system dynamics. Conceptual similarity judgments can be used with a variety of attitudes and identities in easy to administer studies. It provides a tool to fill an empirical gap identified by theories of belief system dynamics.

Evaluation of Contact-Tracing Policies against the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Austria: An Agent-Based Simulation

Background Many countries have already gone through several infection waves and mostly managed to successfully stop the exponential spread of SARS-CoV-2 through bundles of restrictive measures. Still, the danger of further waves of infections is omnipresent, and it is apparent that every containment policy must be carefully evaluated and possibly replaced by a different, less restrictive policy before it can be lifted. Tracing of contacts and consequential breaking of infection chains is a promising strategy to help contain the disease, although its precise impact on the epidemic is unknown. Objective In this work, we aim to quantify the impact of tracing on the containment of the disease and investigate the dynamic effects involved. Design We developed an agent-based model that validly depicts the spread of the disease and allows for exploratory analysis of containment policies. We applied this model to quantify the impact of different approaches of contact tracing in Austria to derive general conclusions on contract tracing. Results The study displays that strict tracing complements other intervention strategies. For the containment of the disease, the number of secondary infections must be reduced by about 75%. Implementing the proposed tracing strategy supplements measures worth about 5%. Evaluation of the number of preventively quarantined persons shows that household quarantine is the most effective in terms of avoided cases per quarantined person. Limitations The results are limited by the validity of the modeling assumptions, model parameter estimates, and the quality of the parametrization data. Conclusions The study shows that tracing is indeed an efficient measure to keep case numbers low but comes at a high price if the disease is not well contained. Therefore, contact tracing must be executed strictly, and adherence within the population must be held up to prevent uncontrolled outbreaks of the disease.

Salt Removal by Combining a Permanent Skip Furrow Irrigation and Salt Removal Sheet

Skip furrow irrigation (SFI) can save water by irrigating every alternate furrow. Usually, irrigated furrows are alternated at each irrigation event under SFI. If irrigated furrows are fixed (permanent SFI, PSFI), more water may be saved by reducing the wetting area, and salts may accumulate on the dry side of the ridge. Salt removal sheet, a method of collecting salts on the sheet laid on the soil surface utilizing high evaporation demand in drylands, may be an efficient measure for removal of accumulated salt under PSFI. We evaluated salinity movement and water saving under PSFI through a field experiment in Uzbekistan. In addition, a salt removal sheet was applied to the shoulder of the ridge on the drier side under PSFI to evaluate its potential in removing salt from the soil with the practice. The results showed that salts tend to accumulate on the dry side of the ridge, and the amount of irrigation water was halved without a large crop yield reduction. The PSFI + Sheet was able to catch 6.4% of salts in the top 10 cm soil layer.

Geopolymer binder for pervious concrete

Construction of pervious concrete (PC) pavements is an exclusive and efficient measure for solving environmental problems while also contributing to sustainability. Pervious concrete enables rainwater to percolate into soil thus reducing the storm water runoff and assisting in ground water recharge. It is used for the construction of pedestrian pathways, parking lots, and in various other applications. During the research, the content of coarse aggregate grains in geopolymer binder was varied in order to investigate pervious concrete properties. It was established that pervious concrete with geopolymer binder containing fly ash meets requirements set in regulations, and that it can be used for sustainable pavement construction.