关键词： COVID-19   intensive care unit survival   intervention and procedures   medications   variant of concern   SARS-COV-2 INFECTION   OMICRON   OUTCOMES  

摘要： OBJECTIVES: Some studies have examined survival trends among critically ill COVID-19 patients, but most were case reports, small cohorts, and had relatively short follow-up periods. We aimed to examine the survival trend among critically ill COVID-19 patients during the first two and a half years of the pandemic and investigate potential predictors across different variants of concern periods. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Swedish ICUs, between March 6, 2020, and December 31, 2022. PATIENTS: Adult COVID-19 ICU patients of 18 years old or older from the Swedish Intensive Care Register (SIR) that were linked to multiple other national registers. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Survival probability and predictors of COVID-19 death were estimated using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis. Of 8975 patients, 2927 (32.6%) died. The survival rate among COVID-19 critically ill patients appears to have changed over time, with a worse survival in the Omicron period overall. The adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) comparing older and younger ages were consistently strong but slightly attenuated in the Omicron period. After adjustment, the aHR of death was significantly higher for men, older age (40+ yr), low income, and with comorbid chronic heart disease, chronic lung disease, impaired immune disease, chronic renal disease, stroke, and cancer, and for those requiring invasive or noninvasive respiratory supports, who developed septic shock or had organ failures (p < 0.05). In contrast, foreign-born patients, those with booster vaccine, and those who had taken steroids had better survival (aHR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.80-0.95; 0.74, 0.65-0.84, and 0.91, 0.84-0.98, respectively). Observed associations were similar across different variant periods. CONCLUSIONS: In this nationwide Swedish cohort covering over two and a half years of the pandemic, ICU survival rates changed over time. Older age was a strong predictor across all periods. Furthermore, most other mortality predictor

关键词： chronic fatigue   Covid-19   long covid   medical philosophy   professional ethics   public health  

关键词： PLANNED BEHAVIOR   CAMPAIGN THEMES   REASONED ACTION   ADOLESCENTS   IMPACT   NORMS  

摘要： COVID-19 vaccination rates remain lower among adolescents compared with adults. Youth participatory action research (YPAR) offers opportunities to inform youth vaccine communication at the local and population level. However, few studies have integrated systematic health communication research with YPAR. In the current study, a diverse team of paid high school interns, undergraduate student mentors and communication researchers in West Philadelphia YPAR programs developed a theory-informed communication survey to measure teen COVID-19 vaccine beliefs, information sources and behavior. The survey was distributed locally and informed youth-created vaccine campaign messages. In addition, YPAR-derived survey measures complimented a qualitative online elicitation survey with US young adults. Responses were coded using inductive content analysis, informing measures for a subsequent population-level study of young adults. This research followed protocols approved by an Institutional Review Board. Applying a YPAR framework elevated youth voices in the study development process. Communication theory and methods aided the development of survey studies to advance both local YPAR program objectives and population-level research. Future implications are discussed.

关键词： Covid-19   Equity issue   Financial decisions   Financial distress   Stock performance   G10   G30  

摘要： We examine the effect of raising equity during the exogenous shock of Covid-19 economic downturn. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that firms that issue equity during Covid-19 exhibit higher stock performance and lower likelihood of financial distress. Also, issuing firms maintain their payout and investment decisions and increase dividends and R&D through the pandemic. We further show that early issuers use the capital raised to build up more cash reserves while later issuers use the capital to increase investment activities. Firms that issue equity publicly tend to increase their dividend and R&D activities, while private equity issuers tend to increase more their cash reserves. Finally, issuers from industries that were highly affected by the pandemic experience higher stock performance and build more cash reserves, while those from less affected industries exhibit lower likelihood of default and increase dividends and R&D activities.

关键词： Special educational needs   children   COVID-19   social wellbeing   peer relationships   parents   DISABILITIES   STUDENTS   FRIENDSHIPS   INDICATORS   RIGHTS  

摘要： In the spring of 2020, schools across the globe closed as a public health measure to address the growing COVID-19 pandemic. For children and youth with special educational needs (SEN) who rely on specific additional supports and services, and who were more likely than their peers to experience a lack of school success even before COVID-19, gaps in academic and social development are likely to be magnified. The current study explored the perspectives of 36 Canadian parents of children and youth with SEN regarding the impact of COVID-19 on social wellbeing during the first wave in the spring of 2020. Thematic analysis was conducted of the in-depth interviews, and two key narratives were created in order to tell the stories of families. These narratives provide evidence of the five major themes that were identified, namely: a) pathways to friends, b) isolated and disconnected, c) developmental concerns, d) siblings as peer proxies, and e) role of schools. We discuss these themes in relation to the growing body of research documenting the impacts of COVID-19 on the social lives of children and youth.

关键词： COVID-19   Genetic algorithm   Comprehensive evaluation method   Ensemble learning   SHAP  

摘要： The accurate prediction of the severity and prognosis of COVID-19 patients is essential in order to select the ideal treatment plan, which can help reduce mortality rates associated with the virus. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based disease prediction models show potential in diagnosing and prognosis COVID-19 patients. However, their blackbox nature, overfitting, and low accuracy limit their application. To address these challenges, this study proposes a GACEMV ensemble learning framework for building practical and high-precision COVID-19 patient diagnosis models. The GACEMV utilizes genetic algorithm to optimize the hyperparameters of base learners in order to enhance their predictive ability. Additionally, a comprehensive evaluation method is adopted to select the optimal combination of base learners, reducing performance differences and avoiding interference from noisy models. The Ensemble learning model constructed by GACEMV achieved good accuracy in predicting the severity and prognosis of COVID-19 patients through external data sets. Further ablation experiments confirm the necessity of genetic algorithm and comprehensive evaluation method for GACEMV. Moreover, the Ensemble learning model shows outstanding performance in identifying suspected COVID-19 patients in a specific data set, validating its identification ability. Furthermore, the SHAP method identifies a set of biomarkers associated with the severity and prognosis of COVID-19 patients, which are consistent with previous reports.

关键词： COVID-19   Spatial Durbin model   Direct and indirect effect   Australia  

摘要： An outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was experienced all around the world. Identifying the spatial prevalence of this disease can lead to more effective management and control of this outbreak. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the spatial effects of COVID-19 from early June 2020 to mid-August 2020, in Australia. For this purpose, the effect of hospitalized Intensive Care Unit (ICU) cases, death cases, active cases, and recovered cases on confirmed COVID-19 cases was estimated using the Spatial Durbin Model. The empirical results reveal a significant positive relationship between confirmed COVID-19 cases and death cases, active cases, and ICU hospitalizations. Also, the recovered cases have a significant negative effect on confirmed COVID-19 cases. In addition, hospitalized ICU cases have the biggest effect on confirmed COVID-19 cases in the short and long run. These results can help healthcare providers in managing the demand for healthcare services throughout the country. Moreover, government officials and policymakers can use the findings of this study in the effective application of quarantine practices as well as resource allocation in different states during this pandemic.

关键词： autonomic nervous system   fatigue   long COVID   physiology   psychology   sensory processing   somatosensory system   HOSPITAL ANXIETY   PERCEPTION   MOVEMENT   WALKING   PEOPLE  

摘要： Fatigue is prevalent amongst people with long COVID, but is poorly understood. The sensory attenuation framework proposes that impairments in sensory processing lead to heightened perception of effort, driving fatigue. This study aims to investigate the role of somatosensory processing impairments in long COVID fatigue and quantify how sensory processing relates to other prominent symptoms of long COVID including autonomic dysfunction, mood and illness beliefs in driving the experience of fatigue. We will recruit 44 individuals with long COVID fatigue and 44 individuals with neither long COVID nor fatigue (controls). Our primary objective is to compare baseline somatosensory processing between individuals with long COVID fatigue and controls. Additionally, we will explore the associations between somatosensory processing, fatigability and the level of fatigue induced by cognitive and physical exertion. Due to the complex nature of fatigue, we will also investigate how long COVID, state fatigue, perceived effort, mood, illness beliefs, autonomic symptoms and autonomic nervous system function interact to predict trait fatigue. This comprehensive investigation aims to elucidate how sensory processing and other prominent symptoms interact to impact the experience of fatigue.

关键词： COVID-19 Model   Mittage-Leffler Kernel   Fractal-fractional derivative   Existence and uniqueness   Ulam-Hyers Stability   Newton polynomial interpolation  

摘要： One of the global problems and a number of societal challenges in the areas of social life, the economy, and international communications is COVID-19. In order to counteract the impact of sickness on society, we created a deterministic COVID-19 model in this study that uses real data to assess the impact of disease, dynamical transmission, quarantine impact, and hospitalized treatment. The model includes a generalized form of the fractal and fractional operator. This study aims to develop a fractal-fractional mathematical model suitable for the lifestyle of the Thai population facing the COVID-19 situation. The model divides the incubation period into the quarantine class and the exposed class, which later moved to the hospitalized infected class and the infected class. The fractal-fractional derivative is used to analyze the dynamics of the population in these classes, providing a more detailed understanding of the epidemic's progression and the effectiveness of control measures. The existence and uniqueness of the solution were also determined with the Lipschitz condition and fixed point theory. With the use of simulations and functional analysis tools like Ulam-Hyers, we examine the sensitivity analysis of the fractal-fractional model with respect to each parameter effect. We develop a numerical scheme for the fractal-fractional model based on Newton polynomial for computational analysis and convergence solution to steady-state points of real data COVID-19 in Thailand. The verification of the examined fractional-order model with actual COVID-19 data for Thailand demonstrates the potential of the suggested paradigm in forecasting and comprehending the dynamics of the pandemic. Furthermore, the fractal fractional-order derivative gives rise to a range of chaotic behaviors that show how the species has changed over place and time. Fractional-order epidemiological models may help predict and understand the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide relevant manageme

关键词： COVID-19   Nurses   Pandemics   Public health   Quarantine   South Australia   BURNOUT  

摘要： Background: Until late 2021, mandatory quarantine for travellers returning to Australia was an important part of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Australia, a nurse-led quarantine medihotel model was used. Aim: To explore the lived experiences of nurses who worked in South Australian quarantine medihotels at the height of the pandemic. Methods: The study employed a qualitative research design using van Manen's phenomenology of practice method. Findings: Four themes emerged: united on the frontline, moving in sync with traveller's needs, the paradox of being yet not being right in it, and feeling let down by organisational systems. These themes emerged from the organisational structures, work design, and public understanding of the COVID-19 risk. Discussion: Clashing priorities of the travellers and the organisation, travellers' physical and psychological adjustments to quarantine, and substantial public anxiety around COVID-19 contributed to high levels of stress experienced by the quarantine medihotel nurses and presented challenges to uphold an image of nursing as a caring profession. Understanding, which was driven by novel ways of multi-agency problemsolving and compassionate provision of care, made it possible for nurses to act authentically and in ways congruent with their professional values. Conclusion: Cross-functional teams will be required when responding to increasingly more complex problems, including future pandemics. Enhancing cross-functional leadership capacity through support and skills development promotes frontline pandemic nurses' response capability. Opportunity exists to learn from the nurse's experiences, mitigate the negative mental health impact, and support the longer-term wellbeing of the quarantine medihotel nurses. (c) 2024 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd.