关键词： Vaccination-effectiveness   Vaccine-efficacy   COVID-19-infection-protection   COVID-19-death-protection  

关键词： COVID-19   Delta   Omicron BA.1   Omicron BA.2   Omicron BA.4   Omicron BA.5   Clinical severity   HUG  

摘要： Introduction We aimed to compare the severity of the Delta variant and the Omicron sub-lineages BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/5 in patients hospitalized directly because of COVID-19 at the largest university hospital in Switzerland. Methods We conducted a retrospective monocentre cohort study including patients recorded in the COVID-19 Hospital Based Surveillance system hospitalized because of a Delta or different Omicron sub-lineages infection from July 1, 2021 to September 28, 2022. Multinomial regression models with propensity score weighting to balance for confounding were used to assess the clinical severity of each variant. Additional time-to-event analyses were performed using Kaplan-Meier methodology. Results The minimum number of eligible patients before variable imputation amounted to 1,475 (320, 340, 164 and 299 infected by Delta, Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/5 respectively). Over time, the hospitalized populations became older and more frequently vaccinated (p < 0.001). No statistical significance was observed in the clinical severity among the three Omicron sub-lineages. In comparison to being infected with Delta, being infected with all tested Omicron lineages was associated with a decreased probability of severe or critical disease. The odds ratios for severe or critical disease, respectively, were as follows: (OR 0.33 (95 % CI 0.13; 0.83, p = 0.005) and 0.27 (95 % CI 0.10; 0.75, p < 0.001) for Omicron BA.1); (0.37 (95 % CI 0.14; 0.97, p = 0.020) and 0.23 (95 % CI 0.08; 0.70, p < 0.001) for Omicron BA.2); and (0.33 (95 % CI 0.13; 0.83, p = 0.005) and 0.12 (95 % CI 0.03; 0.41, p < 0.001) for Omicron BA.4/5). Discussion Our study confirmed the decreased severity of Omicron in hospitalized patients and highlights the burden of COVID-19 for older adults who require hospitalization even when presenting with mild disease, mainly because of a decompensation of an underlying disease.

关键词： Long-distance travel   COVID-19   Risk perception   Hierarchical information integration   Latent class choice model  

摘要： Long-distance / International travel has seen little attention in the past, largely due to the irregular and sporadic nature of such trips. And yet, a single long-distance trip can amount to a distance equivalent to a year’s worth of commute trips, resulting in a similar, if not worse, environmental footprint. Understanding travellers’ behaviour is therefore just as relevant for such trips, as it is for everyday commute trips. As international travel is slowly picking up from the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been marred by an abundance of national and regional pandemic-related safety measures. While their primary goal is to protect the local population from infection, these safety may also make travellers feel safer while travelling. This perceived safety can differ from the true efficacy of the measures. In this research, we investigate people’s perception of eight COVID-19-related safety measures related to long-distance trips and how subjective perception of safety impacts their mode choice among car, train and aircraft. We employ a Hierarchical Information Integration (HII) approach to capture subjective perceptions and then model the obtained data by means of a Latent Class Choice Model, resulting in four distinct segments. To extrapolate the segments onto the rating experiment of HII, we apply a weighted least squares (WLS) regression, to obtain segment-specific safety perception. Two segments show a relatively high value-of-time (72€/h and 50€/h), tend to be more mode-agnostic and prefer determining the level of risk by themselves (relying primarily on infection and vaccination rate). The remaining two segments have a lower value-of-time (38€/h and 15€/h) and have strong mode affinity, for the train and car respectively. Future research could look into a way that segments the sample based on both the mode choice and rating experiment, providing additional insights into the heterogeneity of individuals in their perceptions.

关键词： Antidepressants   Anxiolytics   COVID-19 pandemic   Mental health  

摘要： Objectives This study explores the mental health situation in Kosova and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Marketed quantities of antidepressants (N06A) and anxiolytics (N05B) from 2017 to 2022 were analyzed using the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical/Defined Daily Doses (ATC/DDD) methodology. Caution is advised as these quantities may not directly reflect patient usage and could include uses for conditions outside their primary indications. Results Prior to the pandemic, antidepressant quantities remained relatively stable, but rose from 6.8 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in 2019 to 9.7 in 2020 and 12.4 in 2021, before returning to pre-pandemic levels of 6.8 DDD in 2022. Over 80 % of these were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Meanwhile, anxiolytic quantities initially decreased from 17.4 DDD in 2017 to 9.9 in 2019, then rebounded to 17.9 DDD in 2020. Notably, alprazolam usage surged from 2.9 in 2017 to 6.9 in 2021, subsequently dropping to 2.0 in 2022. Conclusions The volatile trends in medication quantities during the pandemic suggest a fragile mental health landscape in Kosova—a developing, post-conflict country with a youthful population—underscoring the need for proactive interventions in similar contexts globally.

关键词： COVID-19 transmission   Healthcare capacity   Air transportation network   Airline passengers  

摘要： This study examines the effectiveness of public health infrastructure, specifically hospital and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) capacities, in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in various US counties. We use the air transportation network to quantify the risk of importing COVID-19-infected passengers to a given county in the United States. Utilizing a dataset that encompasses COVID-19 case rates, healthcare resources, and socioeconomic and transportation-related variables across multiple destination counties, we found that increased availability of hospital and ICU beds is statistically significantly associated with a reduced risk of COVID-19 spread, after controlling for origin county infection rates, travel patterns, and socioeconomic factors. These findings underline the critical role of robust healthcare infrastructure in public health crisis management and suggest targeted policy interventions to bolster healthcare capacity as a viable strategy for mitigating pandemic impacts.

关键词： Digitalization   E-commerce   Resilience   Supply chain   Digital transformation   Natural disasters   E22   G01   G30   O30  

摘要： Over the last decades, firms have been incorporating digital technologies into their operations, a process known as digitalization. Nevertheless, understanding the link between digitalization and firm performance remains challenging. We propose a new firm-level measure of digital intensity based on textual analysis of business descriptions and quarterly earnings calls. To overcome endogeneity, we use two quasi-natural experiments: the COVID-19 pandemic and shocks involving suppliers affected by U.S. natural disasters. Non-technological firms with higher pre-shock digital intensity experience higher abnormal returns, higher profitability, and higher revenue growth during the shocks. The supply chain is one of the areas through which digitalization contributes to significantly mitigate the effects of these shocks, thereby enhancing firm resilience.

摘要： The study explores the relationship between the determinants and the ridership decrease incorporating spatial heterogeneity. ARIMA model is utilized to estimate the normal ridership assumed absence of COVID-19. Geography weighted regression (GWR) with Gaussian kernel function is constructed for regression. The K-means algorithm is applied to cluster the stations based on coefficients. Stations of Tokyo case are clustered into 2 groups: city area and western ward which represents mainly suburban areas. City stations are mainly influenced by the number of transfer lines, distance to the CBD, number of jobs and residents. In the western ward, the level of importance that residents place on public health primarily influences the ridership decrease. The implementation of work-from-home policies makes number of jobs a positive impactor on the decrease in ridership, with a greater impact observed on urban stations compared to suburban stations. City residents tend to engage in more travel than suburban residents because of less spacious living environments, which partially offsets the decrease in ridership. The findings offer parameters for predicting ridership of both city and suburban stations during public health emergency events, such as COVID-19. They can assist URT operators in developing strategies for balancing passenger demand and operational costs.

关键词： Airborne transmission   Contaminant removal effectiveness   Dilution ratio   Air distribution   Infection probability  

摘要： The performance of two types of air diffusers, a perforated duct and a low-velocity unit coupled with local exhausts, on airborne transmission and cross-infection was investigated in a meeting room. The effect of air diffusers’ locations on airborne transmission was investigated. Six local exhausts were installed above six workstations at 2.0 m height. Respiratory-generated airborne pathogens were simulated using SF 6 in the exhaled air of the manikin acting as an infected person. The SF 6 concentration in the inhaled air of five susceptible persons remained steady with perforated duct located on the ceiling and at 1.7 m height attached to the corridor wall, but fluctuated greatly when perforated duct were located on the floor, although with a much lower concentration level. The perforated duct under the warm window showed the best potential for mitigating airborne transmission. The concentration in the inhaled air was varied with horizontally supplied low-velocity unit, but much steadier with low-velocity unit at 1.7 m attached to the wall. With an adjusted airflow pattern from low-velocity unit, the inhaled concentration was much lower and uniform among the five susceptible persons. The contaminant removal effectiveness (CRE) was 4.3 with perforated duct under a warm window on the floor. With an adjusted airflow pattern from low-velocity unit, the CRE was much more consistent and increased from 2.1 to 3.9 with an airflow rate from 61 l/s to 116 l/s. The infection probability was the lowest with the perforated duct on the floor and adjusted low-velocity unit.