Recommended operating room practice during the COVID‐19 pandemic: systematic review
Background The COVID‐19 pandemic poses a critical global public health crisis. Operating room (OR) best practice in this crisis is poorly defined. This systematic review was performed to identify contemporary evidence relating to OR practice in the context of COVID‐19. Methods MEDLINE was searched systematically using PubMed (search date 19 March 2020) for relevant studies in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Documented practices and guidance were assessed to determine Oxford Centre for Evidence‐Based Medicine (OCEBM) levels of evidence, and recommendations for practice within five domains were extracted: physical OR, personnel, patient, procedure, and other factors. Results Thirty‐five articles were identified, of which 11 met eligibility criteria. Nine articles constituted expert opinion and two were retrospective studies. All articles originated from the Far East (China, 9; Singapore, 2); eight of the articles concerned general surgery. Common themes were identified within each domain, but all recommendations were based on low levels of evidence (median OCEBM level 5 (range 4–5)). The highest number of overlapping recommendations related to physical OR (8 articles) and procedural factors (13). Although few recommendations related to personnel factors, consensus was high in this domain, with all studies mandating the use of personal protective equipment. Conclusion There was little evidence to inform this systematic review, but there was consensus regarding many aspects of OR practice. Within the context of a rapidly evolving pandemic, timely amalgamation of global practice and experiences is needed to inform best practice.
Welsh Surgical Research Initiative (WSRI) Collaborative
Prediction of COVID-19 From Hemogram Results and Age Using Machine Learning
Introduction: The rapid global dissemination of COVID-19 culminated in the mobilization of great technological efforts aimed at its better understanding and control. In this context, Machine Learning gains notoriety, and its application has been widely documented for pathophysiological, diagnostic, therapeutic, prognostic and monitoring of COVID-19 purposes. The present study aimed to build a model for the prediction of the diagnosis of COVID-19 based on blood count results and age of patients and to identify the main characteristics taken into account by the algorithm for the predictive decision. Material and Methods: Anonymous data from 1157 patients made available by the COVID-19 Data Sharing / BR repository were used. The work took place in two distinct stages: description and analysis of the data; and construction of the predictive model. Results: With the exception of hemoglobin measurement, mean corpuscular volume, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, there was a statistically significant association of all other hematological parameters assessed with COVID-19. The predictive model developed from the XGBoost classifier reached an accuracy of 80.0% with a sensitivity of 75.6% and specificity of 82.0%. The variables that had the greatest influence on the predictive decision were basophil, eosinophil and leukocyte measurements. The present study confirms the potential of using blood count results, a widely available and accessible test, in the context of the diagnostic evaluation and pathophysiological investigation of COVID-19. Conclusion: This work highlights the relevance of the systematization and dissemination of data related to COVID-19 for use in new research.
Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics, Bibliography. Library science. Information resources
Group Testing-Based Robust Algorithm for Diagnosis of COVID-19
covid-19, Diagnosis, group testing, Robust algorithm, posterior probability
At the time of writing, the COVID-19 infection is spreading rapidly. Currently, there is no vaccine or treatment, and researchers around the world are attempting to fight the infection. In this paper, we consider a diagnosis method for COVID-19, which is characterized by a very rapid rate of infection and is widespread. A possible method for avoiding severe infections is to stop the spread of the infection in advance by the prompt and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19. To this end, we exploit a group testing (GT) scheme, which is used to find a small set of confirmed cases out of a large population. For the accurate detection of false positives and negatives, we propose a robust algorithm (RA) based on the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP). The key idea of the proposed RA is to exploit iterative detection to propagate beliefs to neighbor nodes by exchanging marginal probabilities between input and output nodes. As a result, we show that our proposed RA provides the benefit of being robust against noise in the GT schemes. In addition, we demonstrate the performance of our proposal with a number of tests and successfully find a set of infected samples in both noiseless and noisy GT schemes with different COVID-19 incidence rates.
How COVID-19 impacts the U.S. economy and predictions about the future
The spread of COVID-19 is one of the most impactful global events in recent years. It has destroyed the U.S. economy and financial market. In just several months, the stock market experienced major fluctuations, the entire economy has basically stopped, and the unemployment rate peaked. Its severity even penetrated people’s daily lives; many are not getting basic requirements needed for survival. As cases increase daily, more and more are concerned with how the future will look like and what this pandemic will do to the economy in the long run. Faced with many uncertainties in macroeconomic trends and the continuous spreading of the virus, I have compared this current crisis with the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. With a goal to reasonably forecast future developments of the U.S. economy, from both micro and macro perspectives, financial market trends and government actions have been analyzed. Specifically, the two events’ causes, essences, policies’ effectiveness, and other factors have been evaluated and suggestions in adjusting government policies have also been made. Unlike the 2008 crisis, this crisis will require longer, more complex, and more flexible processes and regulations to recover, and citizens should be prepared for this slow recovery. But overall, a promising outlook for the U.S. economy still stands in the long-run.
Investment Opportunity in Online Survey Industry under COVID-19
The COVID-19 outbreak left the world an island shrouded in repression, causing great losses to the world economy and blowing numerous investors in the financial market. However, at the same time, emerging online industries also bring them new investment opportunities. This article would analyze the operation condition and forecast the growth potential of three enterprises, Zoom Video Inc., Shanghai Yaoji Technology Co., Ltd, and 51Talk, which specialize in Online Entertainment, Online Education, and Office Online. Through analyzing operating profit growth rate and net profit growth rate of Zoom Video Inc., classifying Shanghai Yaoji Technology Co., Ltd in terms of ROIC and increase rate of main business revenue, and predicting stock returns of 51 talk using Baidu Index, short-term and long-term investment strategies can be provided. With the above evidence, it is proposed that Shanghai Yaoji Technology Co., Ltd is worthy to invest in the short run, while Zoom Video Inc. and 51Talk have larger profitability in the long term. Besides, the future of those online industries is predicted.
Collision of Fundamental Human Rights and the Right to Health Access During the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic
coronavirus infections, jurisprudence, Right To Health, human rights abuses, court decisions
Introduction: COVID-19 requires governmental measures to protect healthcare system access for people. In this process, the collision of fundamental rights emerges as a crucial challenge for decision-making.Policy Options and Implications: This policy review analyzes selected articles by the PubMed searcher about extreme measures taken in several countries during precedent pandemics and the current pandemic, and selects hard decisions relating to the exceptional measures taken by judicial departments in Brazil, connecting them to the “collision of fundamental rights and law principles.” The collision of rights and principles imposed on decision makers a duty to provide balanced rights, and to adopt the enforcement of some rights prioritization. Ethical concerns were also verified in this field involving rights limitations. During a pandemic, the importance of extreme measures to protect health rights and healthcare systems is instrumental for focused, fast, and correct decision making to avoid loss of life and the collapse of healthcare systems. The main goals of this research are to discuss the implications and guidelines for public health decision making, the indispensable ethical and legal aspects for safeguarding health systems and the lives of people, and the respect of the Justice principle and of fundamental health and dignity rights. We conclude that COVID-19 justifies the prioritization of collective and individual health access rights. Acceptable standards of fundamental rights restrictions are established at the constitutional and international levels and must be enforced by rules and governmental action, to ensure fast and accurate decision making during a pandemic. Freedom rights exercises must be linked to solidarity for the realization of social welfare, for the health rights of all individuals and for health systems to function well during a pandemic.Actionable Recommendations: All individuals are free and equal, therefore social exclusion is prohibited. Institutions must consider social inequalities when discussing public health measures and be guided by ethical standards, by law principles, and rules recognized by constitutional and international law for the benefit of all during a health pandemic.Conclusions: Collective and individual health rights prevail over the collision of rights when facing pandemic occurrences, case by case, in health systems protection, based on the literature, on precedent pandemics and on legitimate Public Health efforts.
José Luiz Gondim dos Santos, Paulo André Stein Messetti, Fernando Adami, Italla Maria Pinheiro Bezerra, Paula Christianne G. G. Souto Maia, Elisa Tristan-Cheever, Elisa Tristan-Cheever, Luiz Carlos de Abreu, Luiz Carlos de Abreu, Luiz Carlos de Abreu, Luiz Carlos de Abreu
Commonalities and Differences of Cluster Policy of Asian Countries; Discussion on Cluster Open Innovation
The article aims at investigating the commonalities and differences between cluster policies in selected East Asian and Southeast Asian countries: Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, and China, to outline the Asian model of a cluster policy. Clusters play a significant role in the economic development of these countries, and some practical experiences from Asia may be used to shape the cluster policy in the recovery process after the COVID-19 pandemic. The conducted research contributes to a better understanding of the cluster formation process, cluster development, and policy aims in the analyzed countries. In Singapore and South Korea, which are among the most innovative countries in the global economy, cluster policy is to a great extent part of innovation policy, focusing on facilitating the networking and cooperation between science and business, the flow of knowledge, transfer of technology, and developing innovative technologies of key economic importance. In China and Thailand, which are developing countries, there is a much stronger role of foreign direct investments, which take the central place in the cluster structure. However, one common characteristic of cluster development patterns in all the analyzed countries is a top-down approach, where clusters are emerging and developing mostly as a result of governmental decisions and public programs.
Arkadiusz Michał Kowalski, Marta Mackiewicz
Business, Management. Industrial management
BUSINESS FORECASTING OF MARKETING ACTIVITY RISKINESS OF COMPANIES IN MARKETS
coronavirus disease (covid-19), marketing activity, business forecasting, riskiness, dynamic multidiscipline marketing researches, multidiscipline crises, k-shaped recovery
Companies have faced with the ultimate and unprecedented multidiscipline type of the pandemic crises that concerns economic, social, technological, political macro-marketing environments. Most scientists and market experts highlighted that this global event had been unexpected for all companies in every market and it created unexpected crisis consequences for the future. According to this point of view, this makes it possible for market experts to implement in order to the pandemic of the coronaviruse diseaseCOVID-19 the term “the black swan” which the appearance is impossible to predict. But it is necessary for not only companies and entrepreneurs, but also for scientists, politicians, world leaders and global social organizations to implement business forecasting into their marketing activities effectively to avoid such kind the multidiscipline crises in the future. In the article some global facts, forecasts and the dynamic of the global risks were separated and analyzed. The pandemic of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 simultaneously corresponds with some early predicted the most likelihood global risks such as the social risks, natural disasters and weapons of mass destruction. In contrast to popular presumption, these global macro-marketing factors have predicted earlier the influenza pandemic and the next global economic crisis by 2020. On the basis of the conducted study the forecast of new influenza pandemics during the next three decades was proposed. There is a trend of unsynchronization of the global economy that is also intensified on the basis of the social, technological, political and economic consequences of the pandemic of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 in contrast to the fact that this crisis has started synchronic. In was demonstrated on the basis of the study of economy recovery processes of the different countries that the global economy future recovery would follow the K-shaped recovery. It was shown that companies will have to learn how to prepare themselves to such kind of marketing riskiness and big global challenges and work out appropriate long-term marketing strategies on the basis of analogies with successful experience of the Asian countries. The article demonstrates the necessity and importance for the companies to conduct the long-term dynamical multidiscipline marketing researches covering different branches of science and the global economy.
Ekonomìčnij Vìsnik Nacìonalʹnogo Tehnìčnogo Unìversitetu Ukraïni Kiïvsʹkij Polìtehnìčnij Institut""
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
Contextualizing Parental/Familial Influence on Physical Activity in Adolescents before and during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Analysis
Risk factors, social distancing, crisis, Puberty, parenting, Protective factors
Parental and familial factors influence numerous aspects of adolescents’ lives, including their physical activity level (PAL). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in PAL which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to evaluate influence of sociodemographic and parental/familial factors on PAL levels before and during pandemic in adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sample included 688 adolescents (15–18 years of age; 322 females) who were tested on two occasions: in January 2020 (baseline; before the COVID-19 pandemic) and in April 2020 (follow-up; during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown). Variables included PAL (measured by the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents–PAQ-A) as well as sociodemographic-, parental-, and familial factors. A significant decline in PALs was recorded between baseline and follow-up (t-test: 11.88, p < 0.001). Approximately 50% of adolescents underwent sufficient PAL at baseline, while only 24% of them were achieving sufficient PAL at the time of follow-up measurement. Paternal education was positively correlated (OR (95%CI): baseline: 6.63 (4.58–9.96), follow-up: 3.33 (1.19–7.01)), while familial conflict was negatively correlated (baseline: 0.72 (0.57–0.90), follow-up: 0.77 (0.60–0.99)) with PALs before and during the pandemic. This study highlights the importance of the parent–child relationship and parental/familiar support in promoting physical activity both during regular life and during crises and health challenging situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Damir Sekulic, Barbara Gilic, Ljerka Ostojic, Marin Corluka, Tomislav Volaric
Putative SARS-CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitors from an In-House Library of Natural and Nature-Inspired Products: A Virtual Screening and Molecular Docking Study
coronavirus, infectious diseases, molecular docking, covid-19, molecular modeling, natural products library
A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2) has been the cause of a recent global pandemic. The highly contagious nature of this life-threatening virus makes it imperative to find therapies to counteract its diffusion. The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is a promising drug target due to its indispensable role in viral replication inside the host. Using a combined two-steps approach of virtual screening and molecular docking techniques, we have screened an in-house collection of small molecules, mainly composed of natural and nature-inspired compounds. The molecules were selected with high structural diversity to cover a wide range of chemical space into the enzyme pockets. Virtual screening experiments were performed using the blind docking mode of the AutoDock Vina software. Virtual screening allowed the selection of structurally heterogeneous compounds capable of interacting effectively with the enzymatic site of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. The compounds showing the best interaction with the protein were re-scored by molecular docking as implemented in AutoDock, while the stability of the complexes was tested by molecular dynamics. The most promising candidates revealed a good ability to fit into the protein binding pocket and to reach the catalytic dyad. There is a high probability that at least one of the selected scaffolds could be promising for further research
Stefania Mazzini, Loana Musso, Sabrina Dallavalle, Roberto Artali