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In the development of an inactivated virus vaccine, the isolation of a single virus strain plays a key role in determining potency. The conventional methods of quantification of virus number are mainly based on virus titers, which are subjective and time-consuming, especially in the early stage of virus isolation, in which the titer difference is weak. Previous reports have shown a high correlation between the spike protein and the potency of COVID-19 vaccines. In this paper, we report a novel, fast, and convenient method of screening an Omicron virus strain by quantifying the spike protein content, where the isolated strain shows high affinity to Omicron-specific antibodies and a high titer, and it can induce high levels of neutralization antibodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed enormous pressure on healthcare systems. In the first line of the "war" against the virus, hospitals tried to maintain their general operations, while supplementing their services with COVID-19 patient care. To tackle the new difficulties, hospitals had to develop strategic response plans, and were in need of finding the most effective management structure for their institution. The focus of this paper is the aforementioned management structures. After overviewing the international literature, we identified three different approaches and we named them the Horizontal, Vertical, and Intermedier Approach. The separation is based on the following features: decision making, information distribution, command forwarding, intra-hospital communication channels, hierarchy, and control. After summarizing the international experiences, we introduce a Hungarian centrum hospital's approach, as the institution was assigned to fulfil COVID-19 centrum hospital duties in the middle of the first wave. The North-Buda Szent János Central hospital was in need of restructuring their management structure, and the leadership decided to transform it into a hierarchical, vertical structure, operating with centralized decision making and personal control. This control–command system idea came from the hospital's Internist Head Coordinator Physician, who is the first author of our article, and had serious military medicine experiences (in Afghanistan). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By integrating energy-efficient AIoT-based biosensor networks, healthcare systems can now predict COVID-19 outbreaks with unprecedented accuracy and speed, revolutionizing early detection and intervention strategies. Therefore, this paper explores the rapid growth of electronic technology in today's environment, driven by the proliferation of advanced devices capable of monitoring and controlling various healthcare systems. However, these devices' limited resources necessitate optimizing their utilization. To tackle this concern, we propose an enhanced Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) system that utilizes the networking capabilities of IoT biosensors to forecast potential COVID-19 outbreaks. The system aims to efficiently collect data from deployed sensor nodes, enabling accurate predictions of possible disease outbreaks. By collecting and pre-processing diverse parameters from IoT nodes, such as body temperature (measured non-invasively using the open-source thermal camera TermoDeep), population density, age (captured via smartwatches), and blood glucose (collected via the CGM system), we enable the AI system to make accurate predictions. The model's efficacy was evaluated through performance metrics like the confusion matrix, F1 score, precision, and recall, demonstrating the optimal potential of the IoT-based wireless sensor network for predicting COVID-19 outbreaks in healthcare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper charts the journey from classroom-based training delivery to hybrid and virtual learning opportunities used to overcome the challenges imposed by public health restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The public health measures introduced in March 2020 had a significant effect on the ability of the Children First Information and Advice Service (CFIAS), in Tusla, Ireland's Child and Family Agency, to deliver services. One of the key tools used by the CFIAS to support understanding of responsibilities, and best practice, in child safeguarding by professionals, and within organisations, has been the provision of direct training and information sessions. The introduction of public health restrictions necessitated a complete rethink by the CFIAS on how child safeguarding training and information are delivered. The paper presents an outline of the background and context of child safeguarding in Ireland, followed by a description of some of the challenges experienced by the CFIAS in response to the pandemic public health restrictions. It includes discussion on strategies and solutions considered to overcome these challenges. There is further discussion on the tools and methods eventually used, followed by a reflection on lessons learned by the CFIAS in areas including training delivery and methodology, eLearning, and information provision. The paper provides an analysis of limited qualitative and quantitative data, as well as a reflection on the lived experience of the CFIAS team members responding to the challenges posed during this time period, rather than a preplanned research study on pedagogical approaches in adult learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights curriculum and policy reforms and innovations in a Higher Education (HE) institution in response to undergraduate student perspectives about the phenomenon of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the New Zealand government (2020–2022). The advent of the coronavirus pandemic precipitated unexpected and unprecedented changes in HE learning and in the pedagogy required for undergraduate students. Consequently, HE institutions have had to be agile, resulting in 'emergency' adaptations to curriculum practice and policy implementation. This paper discusses triggers for change, reactions to restrictions, strategic measures, and the emergence of a 'new normal' from an undergraduate student perspective. Local and global concerns about student participation in undergraduate study (in Sport and Recreation), sport, and physical activity during restricted periods prompted the researchers to investigate the challenges these young people faced. Student voice was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, collected post lockdown periods. Research findings, elicited from lecturers using a collaborative auto-ethnographical method, along with interpretative analysis (hermeneutic phenomenology) of students' perspectives about the four pillars of lifestyle, active lives, learning, and livelihood provide insights about the impact of unexpected curriculum and policy change for HE students in New Zealand. This research provides real-time data to inform recommendations on policy and practice in HE institutions, to enhance student wellbeing in times of crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the subjective realities of female students in higher education as they navigated their well-being and active lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological framework, which confronts an often-neglected dimension of our experience—the lived body and the phenomenal world—we aim to inform the development of targeted support and interventions to address the specific needs of female students, in future pandemic times. By exploring how three female students studying sport and recreation in higher education perceived their experiences, this article seeks to shed light on the unique challenges faced by these women in maintaining physical activity, coping with isolation and a change in social networks, and managing their mental health in the context of the pandemic. Understanding these subjective realities (such as isolation, restricted physical activity, and loss of social connections) and interpreting the three students' lived habitats, their bodily responsiveness, and their spontaneity ensures that their experience is heard, and appropriate future support can be given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rationale for this review paper is to take stock of the current knowledge in the literature on the intersection of telework and work–life balance—an area that has grown in importance due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The review also considers the context of the government's role in pursuing policies to reduce the impacts of the pandemic in order to improve societal if not personal resilience, as these policies sometimes had unintended adverse impacts. After a section on the literature search method, sections follow on the literature considering telework/working from home, stress, and gender; work–life balance figures prominently in the papers reviewed. An additional category for the government and its role in concerns related to this topic follows. For future research, the differences between groups in responding to the demands of telework and work–life balance, particularly in regard to gender, are worth further investigation, as the COVID-19 pandemic has offered great challenges but also immense opportunities to learn and prepare organizations for future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated sensitive, fast, and inexpensive testing for the virus in 2020 prior to the widespread availability of vaccines. Early testing efforts were limited by bottlenecks on reagents, low-throughput testing options, and the slow return of test results. In this paper, we detail the testing pipeline we established at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for rapid, inexpensive, and sensitive surveillance testing for SARS-CoV-2, and we highlight the strengths of the platform that would allow it to be applied to other disease surveillance projects, SARS-CoV-2 variant testing, or future pandemics. This pipeline can be quickly established for further accreditation and clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the world at large with over 750 million cases and almost 7 million deaths reported thus far. Of those, over 100 million cases and 1 million deaths have occurred in the United States of America (USA). The mental health of the general population has been impacted by several aspects of the pandemic including lockdowns, media sensationalism, social isolation, and spread of the disease. In this paper, we examine the associations that social isolation and COVID-19 infection and related death had with the prevalence of anxiety and depression in the general population of the USA in a state-by-state multiple time-series analysis. Vector Error Correction Models are estimated and we subsequently evaluated the coefficients of the estimated models and calculated their impulse response functions for further interpretation. We found that COVID-19 incidence was positively associated with anxiety across the studied period for a majority of states. Variables related to social isolation had a varied effect depending on the state being considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many in the West, paternalism manifest as state interference carries a pejorative connotation, as it is often taken to entail unjustified restrictions on autonomy and self-determination and frequently believed to precipitate bureaucracy, corruption, and inefficiency. Meanwhile, uncritical deference to policies in which individual liberties remain essentially unchecked by state oversight has faced renewed scrutiny since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many across the globe are now coming to believe that we must accept greater governmental intervention in our lives, particularly during times of widespread health crises. This paper explores normative considerations justifying state intervention with respect to public health policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of Confucian paternalism, which is distinguished from a more general concept of paternalism widely used in contemporary philosophical discourse. It argues that the "soft" paternalism apropos to Confucianism has pragmatic benefits for the development of healthcare policies due to which it is not only morally warranted but even preferable to alternatives in terms of safeguarding population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the recent COVID-19 pandemic has aptly demonstrated, emergency scenarios concerning public health and safety may require citizens to remain at home even as patients, potentially in the context of a municipal or national lockdown. Homestay patients may require real-time monitoring, which will offer not only communication but also empirical data and will contribute to developing their personalized electronic health record in knowledge bases. Our paper features an extensive RF coverage design for such a municipally deployed and administered 5G-enabled smart city network, supporting a broadband monitoring service. The antenna deployment for the outdoor urban topology is analytically described (for the downlink channel), and the intrinsic indoor propagation characteristics are considered for the uplink channel. A digital baseband signaling scheme is assumed on the basis of a user-customized health-related monitoring service. Path loss and fading calculations consider the potential worst-case propagation conditions so that the RF coverage will be reliable, leading to a resilient city-wide municipal network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing has been sporadic since the beginning of 2022 and has become increasingly severe since October. In China's policy of insisting on dynamic clearance, fine-grained management has become the focus of current epidemic prevention and control. In this paper, we conduct a refined COVID-19 risk prediction and identification of its influencing factors in Beijing based on neighborhood-scale spatial statistical units. We obtained geographic coordinate data of COVID-19 cases in Beijing and quantified them into risk indices of each statistical unit. Additionally, spatial autocorrelation was used to analyze the epidemic risk clustering characteristics. With the multi-source data, 20 influencing elements were constructed, and their spatial heterogeneity was explored by screening 8 for Multiscale Geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model analysis. Finally, a neural network classification model was used to predict the risk of COVID-19 within the sixth ring of Beijing. The MGWR model and the neural network classification model showed good performance: the R2 of the MGWR model was 0.770, and the accuracy of the neural network classification model was 0.852. The results of this study show that: (1) COVID-19 risk is uneven, with the highest clustering within the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing; (2) The results of the MGWR model show that population structure, population density, road density, residential area density, and living service facility density have significant spatial heterogeneity on COVID-19 risk; and (3) The prediction results show a high COVID-19 risk, with the most severe risk being in the eastern, southeastern and southern regions. It should be noted that the prediction results are highly consistent with the current epidemic situation in Shijingshan District, Beijing, and can provide a strong reference for fine-grained epidemic prevention and control in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 represents the greatest health crisis in recent human history. To date, it is still difficult to estimate its impact on mortality. This paper investigates the excess crude mortality in 27 European countries. The differences between the values observed in 2020 and 2021 with those predicted by a joinpoint regression model were evaluated. A multi-regression analysis was implemented to assess the relationship between health variables and excess mortality. Europe experienced a marked and surprising (S-value > 52) increase in crude mortality during 2020 (Δ% = +10.0%, 95% CI: [2.5; 18.7]) and 2021 (Δ% = +12.1%, 95% CI: [4.3; 21.2]). The difference between average excesses of Eastern and Western countries was not surprising (S < 2) and had little relevance (ΔE-W = −2.4, 95% CI: [−2; 7]) during 2020 but was more pronounced (S = 15, ΔE-W = +17.2, 95% CI: [11.0; 23.5]) during 2021. Excess crude mortality increased in 2021 (Δ% = +65%, 95% CI: [12.6; 118], S = 5.9). Evidence has been found for a surprising and marked negative linear relationship between COVID-19 vaccinations and excess mortality ("2021 excess mortality = A + BX4", with "A = 58 ± 7, S = 28" and "B = −0.65 ± 0.10, S = 22, Radj2 = 0.65, 95% CI: [0.38; 0.82]). In light of the current literature, these findings provide solid evidence of the substantial role of COVID-19 in the unexpected and marked excess mortality recorded in Europe. COVID-19 vaccinations have appeared to be one of the main determinants for reducing mortality. Future research should explore these aspects in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equality through the empowerment, representation, and provision of equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender, is increasingly recognised as a driver of social outcomes and a fundamental human right. This study explores the longitudinal (2006–2018) relationship between gender equality, human development, and education results as measured by PISA. Gender equality and human development are consistently correlated with PISA scores at each time point; however, when controlling for starting values and country effects only change in gender equality positively predicts change in PISA scores (F = 22.6, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.58). Research and policy implications for the longitudinal interpretation of the relationship of PISA results with system-level factors as well as the relationship between gender equality and education are discussed in this paper. In consideration of the impact of COVID-19 on education and gender equality, the findings from this study support continued political effort towards gender-equal human development in a post-COVID-19 world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) became a globally leading public health concern over the past two years. Despite the development and administration of multiple vaccines, the mutation of newer strains and challenges to universal immunity has shifted the focus to the lack of efficacious drugs for therapeutic intervention for the disease. As with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and other non-respiratory viruses, flavonoids present themselves as a promising therapeutic intervention given their success in silico, in vitro, in vivo, and more recently, in clinical studies. This review focuses on data from in vitro studies analyzing the effects of flavonoids on various key SARS-CoV-2 targets and presents an analysis of the structure-activity relationships for the same. From 27 primary papers, over 69 flavonoids were investigated for their activities against various SARS-CoV-2 targets, ranging from the promising 3C-like protease (3CLpro) to the less explored nucleocapsid (N) protein; the most promising were quercetin and myricetin derivatives, baicalein, baicalin, EGCG, and tannic acid. We further review promising in silico studies featuring activities of flavonoids against SARS-CoV-2 and list ongoing clinical studies involving the therapeutic potential of flavonoid-rich extracts in combination with synthetic drugs or other polyphenols and suggest prospects for the future of flavonoids against SARS-CoV-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is an emerging disease of global public health concern. As the pandemic overwhelmed emergency departments (EDs), a restructuring of emergency care delivery became necessary in many hospitals. Furthermore, with more than 2000 papers being published each week, keeping up with ever-changing information has proven to be difficult for emergency physicians. The aim of the present review is to provide emergency physician with a summary of the current literature regarding the management of COVID-19 patients in the emergency department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the paper is the issue of restrictions on religious freedom during the COVID-19 pandemic imposed by European countries. The period under examination covers the interval from March to December 2020. The issue is analyzed from the point of view of respecting human rights in a situation of conflict between the values of public health and religious freedom. In this context, the perception of importance and urgency regarding the values that should be protected and the concept of "essential goods", which are understood differently in secular and religious perspectives, are of particular importance. Another essential issue is not only the scope but also the "depth" of state intervention in the life of religious communities. In Europe, there was a wide variety of national approaches to restricting religious freedom in order to ensure public health. Some of them pursued a very restrictive policy in this area, others moderate, and others very soft. One also could observe the difference in decisions made by most countries during the first and the second waves of the pandemic. A significant element enabling a possible evaluation of the applied solutions is the matter of their duration. Are the introduced limitations only temporary, implemented due to the extraordinary situation, or should they be view as a part of a "radical political experiment", as a result of which the very understanding of religious freedom and its place in the hierarchy of human rights will change. The arguments of a philosophical, theological, legal and sociological nature are analyzed issuing methods appropriate to each of these disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic (16 March–5 May 2020), the Greek government took measures to close churches in order to protect the public health of the population. In this case, the purpose of this paper is to explore the response of Greek believers and Churches to the measures of the state, and whether these attitudes are affected by sociodemographic characteristics. Moreover, there was a collection of data on the attitudes of 353 believers through questionnaires, and the proper examination of these data through descriptive analysis and cross-tabulation analysis. The survey results showed that most believers are convinced that national measures are necessary, and they also revealed that believers' attitudes vary according to demographic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation learning plays an important role in social work education, allowing students to explore how theory and practice parameters can be integrated into actual situations they are likely to experience in the field. The arrival of COVID-19 and the sudden cessation of in-field practicum opportunities raised challenges for students to gain needed practice experience. Simulation offers an opportunity to enhance learning in place of some direct experience when that is not available. This paper reports on a simulation development practicum, where students, not able to be in an agency, sought out ways to achieve learning through the development and implementation of simulation learning. This was combined with a literature review. Results showed that student-generated simulation could be used to support direct practice learning. This project also illustrated that social work simulation can be used to help students safely explore areas of practice that they may not be exposed to in practicum through scenarios that cause them to examine how to work with clients where cross-cultural needs exist, and challenge ethical dilemmas in a 'real-world' situation while being required to face their biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)", the novel coronavirus, is responsible for the ongoing worldwide pandemic. "World Health Organization (WHO)" assigned an "International Classification of Diseases (ICD)" code—"COVID-19"-as the name of the new disease. Coronaviruses are generally transferred by people and many diverse species of animals, including birds and mammals such as cattle, camels, cats, and bats. Infrequently, the coronavirus can be transferred from animals to humans, and then propagate among people, such as with "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV)", "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV)", and now with this new virus, namely "SARS-CoV-2", or human coronavirus. Its rapid spreading has sent billions of people into lockdown as health services struggle to cope up. The COVID-19 outbreak comes along with an exponential growth of new infections, as well as a growing death count. A major goal to limit the further exponential spreading is to slow down the transmission rate, which is denoted by a "spread factor (f)", and we proposed an algorithm in this study for analyzing the same. This paper addresses the potential of data science to assess the risk factors correlated with COVID-19, after analyzing existing datasets available in "ourworldindata.org (Oxford University database)", and newly simulated datasets, following the analysis of different univariate "Long Short Term Memory (LSTM)" models for forecasting new cases and resulting deaths. The result shows that vanilla, stacked, and bidirectional LSTM models outperformed multilayer LSTM models. Besides, we discuss the findings related to the statistical analysis on simulated datasets. For correlation analysis, we included features, such as external temperature, rainfall, sunshine, population, infected cases, death, country, population, area, and population density of the past three months—January, February, and March in 2020. For univariate timeseries forecasting using LSTM, we used datasets from 1 January 2020, to 22 April 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]