Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Short-Term Effects Of Fine Airborne Particulate Matter And Climate On Covid-19 Disease Dynamics, El Hussain Shamsa, Kezhong Zhang

Medical Student Research Symposium

Background: Despite more than 60% of the United States population being fully vaccinated, COVID-19 cases continue to spike in a temporal pattern. These patterns in COVID-19 incidence and mortality may be linked to short-term changes in environmental factors.

Methods: Nationwide, county-wise measurements for COVID-19 cases and deaths, fine-airborne particulate matter (PM_2.5), and maximum temperature were obtained from March 20, 2020 to March 20, 2021. Multivariate Linear Regression was used to analyze the association between environmental factors and COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates in each season. Negative Binomial Regression was used to analyze daily fluctuations of COVID-19 cases …

Hyperparameter Optimization For Covid-19 Chest X-Ray Classification, Ibraheem Hamdi, Muhammad Ridzuan, Mohammad Yaqub

Computer Vision Faculty Publications

Despite the introduction of vaccines, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) remains a worldwide dilemma, continuously developing new variants such as Delta and the recent Omicron. The current standard for testing is through polymerase chain reaction (PCR). However, PCRs can be expensive, slow, and/or inaccessible to many people. X-rays on the other hand have been readily used since the early 20th century and are relatively cheaper, quicker to obtain, and typically covered by health insurance. With a careful selection of model, hyperparameters, and augmentations, we show that it is possible to develop models with 83% accuracy in binary classification and 64% in multi-class …

International Consensus On Lung Function Testing During Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond, Aisling Mcgowan, Pierantonio Laveneziana, Sam Bayat, Nicole Beydon, P.W. Boros, Felip Burgos, Matjaž Fležar, Monika Franczuk, Maria-Alejandra Galarza, Adrian H. Kendrick, Enrico Lombardi, Jellien Makonga-Braaksma, Meredith C. Mccormack, Laurent Plantier, Sanja Stanojevic, Irene Steenbruggen, Bruce Thompson, Allan L. Coates, Jack Wanger, Donald W. Cockcroft, Bruce Culver, Karl Sylvester, Frans De Jongh

Articles

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has negatively affected the delivery of respiratory diagnostic services across the world due to the potential risk of disease transmission during lung function testing. Community prevalence, reoccurrence of COVID-19 surges and the emergence of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 have impeded attempts to restore services. Finding consensus on how to deliver safe lung function services for both patients attending and for staff performing the tests are of paramount importance. This international statement presents the consensus opinion of 23 experts in the field of lung function and respiratory physiology balanced with evidence from the reviewed literature. It describes …

An Opportunistic Survey Reveals An Unexpected Coronavirus Diversity Hotspot In North America, Hon S. Ip, Kathryn M. Griffin, Jeffrey D. Messer, Megan E. Winzeler, Susan A. Shriner, Mary Lea Killian, Mia Kim Torchetti, Thomas J. Deliberto, Brian R. Amman, Caitlin M. Cossaboom, R. Reid Harvey, Natalie M. Wendling, Hannah Rettler, Dean Taylor, Jonathan S. Towner, Casey Barton Behravesh, David S. Blehert

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In summer 2020, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detected on mink farms in Utah. An interagency One Health response was initiated to assess the extent of the outbreak and included sampling animals from on or near affected mink farms and testing them for SARS-CoV-2 and non-SARS coronaviruses. Among the 365 animals sampled, including domestic cats, mink, rodents, raccoons, and skunks, 261 (72%) of the animals harbored at least one coronavirus. Among the samples that could be further characterized, 127 alphacoronaviruses and 88 betacoronaviruses (including 74 detections of SARS-CoV-2 in mink) were identified. Moreover, at least 10% (n …

Tocilizumab And Covid-19: A Meta-Analysis Of 2120 Patients With Severe Disease And Implications For Clinical Trial Methodologies, Azza Sarfraz, Zouina Sarfraz, Muzna Sarfraz, Hinna Aftab, Zainab Pervaiz

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background/aim: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, numerous therapies to counteract this severe disease have emerged. The benefits of Tocilizumab for severely infected COVID-19 patients and the methodologies of ongoing clinical trials are explored.
Materials and methods: A systematic search adhering to PRISMA guidelines was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Central, medRxiv, and bioRxiv using the following keywords: “Tocilizumab,” “Actemra,” “COVID-19.” An additional subsearch was conducted on Clinicaltrials.gov to locate ongoing tocilizumab trials.
Results: A total of 13 studies were included in the meta-analysis comprising 2120 patients. The treatment group had lower mortality compared to the control group (OR = 0.42, …

Sars-Cov-2 Transmission In Alberta, British Columbia, And Ontario, Canada, December 25, 2019, To December 1, 2020, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, Yuen Wai Hung, Sylvia Ofori, Kamalich Muniz-Rodriguez, Po-Ying Lai, Gerardo Chowell

Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemiology in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, Canada.

Methods:

Using data through December 1, 2020, we estimated time-varying reproduction number, R t , using EpiEstim package in R, and calculated incidence rate ratios (IRR) across the 3 provinces.

Results:

In Ontario, 76% (92 745/121 745) of cases were in Toronto, Peel, York, Ottawa, and Durham; in Alberta, 82% (49 878/61 169) in Calgary and Edmonton; in British Columbia, 90% (31 142/34 699) in Fraser and Vancouver Coastal. Across 3 provinces, R t dropped to ≤ 1 after April. …

Predictive Modeling And Estimation Of The Doubling Time Of Confirmed Cases Of Covid-19 In Niger, Ibrahim Sidi Zakari, Hadiza Galadima

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Modeling is increasingly used to assess scenarios and make projections on the future course of new coronavirus disease. This allows for better planning of care as well as a relaxation or tightening of the restrictive measures decreed by the government and the health authorities. The data analyzed in this study covers the period from March 19 to June 05, 2020 and allowed predictions of new cases of COVID-19 based on a growth model with a growth rate that changes linearly over time. In addition, we calculated and predicted the doubling time of the number of positive cases in each region …

Modes Of Transmission Of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (Sars-Cov-2) And Factors Influencing On The Airborne Transmission: A Review, Mahdieh Delikhoon, Marcelo I. Guzman, Ramin Nabizadeh, Abbas Norouzian Baghani

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The multiple modes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission including airborne, droplet, contact, and fecal–oral transmissions that cause coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) contribute to a public threat to the lives of people worldwide. Herein, different databases are reviewed to evaluate modes of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and study the effects of negative pressure ventilation, air conditioning system, and related protection approaches of this virus. Droplet transmission was commonly reported to occur in particles with diameter >5 µm that can quickly settle gravitationally on surfaces (1–2 m). Instead, fine and ultrafine particles (airborne transmission) can stay suspended for an extended period of time (≥2 h) …

A Framework For Surveillance Of Emerging Pathogens At The Human-Animal Interface: Pigs And Coronaviruses As A Case Study, Kim M. Pepin, Ryan S. Miller, Mark Q. Wilber

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Pigs (Sus scrofa) may be important surveillance targets for risk assessment and risk-based control planning against emerging zoonoses. Pigs have high contact rates with humans and other animals, transmit similar pathogens as humans including CoVs, and serve as reservoirs and intermediate hosts for notable human pandemics. Wild and domestic pigs both interface with humans and each other but have unique ecologies that demand different surveillance strategies. Three fundamental questions shape any surveillance program: where, when, and how can surveillance be conducted to optimize the surveillance objective? Using theory of mechanisms of zoonotic spillover and data on risk factors, …

Nutritional Approach For Increasing Public Health During Pandemic Of Covid-19: A Comprehensive Review Of Antiviral Nutrients And Nutraceuticals, Vahideh Ebrahimzadeh-Attari, Ghodratollah Panahi, James R. Hébert Scd, Alireza Ostadrahimi, Maryam Saghafi-Asl, Neda Lotfi-Yaghin, Behzad Baradaran

Faculty Publications

Background: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is considered as the most life-threatening pandemic disease during the last decade. The individual nutritional status, though usually ignored in the management of COVID-19, plays a critical role in the immune function and pathogenesis of infection. Accordingly, the present review article aimed to report the effects of nutrients and nutraceuticals on respiratory viral infections including COVID-19, with a focus on their mechanisms of action.

Methods: Studies were identified via systematic searches of the databases including PubMed/ MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar from 2000 until April 2020, using keywords. All relevant clinical and experimental studies …

Investigating The Significance Of Aerosols In Determining The Coronavirus Fatality Rate Among Three European Countries, Wenzhao Li, Rejoice Thomas, Hesham El-Askary, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa, Khaled A. Abdel Ghaffar

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The coronavirus pandemic has not only gripped the scientific community in the search for a vaccine or a cure but also in attempts using statistics and association analysis—to identify environmental factors that increase its potency. A study by Ogen (Sci Total Environ 726:138605, 2020a) explored the possible correlation between coronavirus fatality and high nitrogen dioxide exposure in four European countries—France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Meanwhile, another study showed the importance of nitrogen dioxide along with population density in determining the coronavirus pandemic rate in England. In this follow-up study, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) was introduced in conjunction with other variables …

Combating Covid On College Campuses: The Impact Of Structural Changes On Viral Transmissions, Jared Knofczynski, Aria Killebrew Bruehl, Ben Warner, Ryne Shelton

altREU Projects

One of the most significant issues in the COVID-19 pandemic is the reopening of schools while minimizing the transmission of coronavirus. Opportunities for evaluating the effectiveness of policies that might be utilized at such institutions are limited, as the necessary empirical data has not been gathered yet. Agent-based modeling, where various entities within an environment are simulated as agents, offers an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of various policies in a way that drastically minimizes the health and economic risks involved. Agent-based modeling is common within biology, ecology and other fields; and has seen some use within the coronavirus literature. …

Covid-19: In The Absence Of Vaccination – ‘Mask-The-Nation’, Roy D. Sleator, Steven Darby, Alan Giltinan, Niall Smith

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

“In the absence of a vaccine, or effective antiviral, one of our only remaining strategies for controlling COVID-19 is to physically block the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community”

Busting Myths And Dispelling Doubts About Covid-19, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG) at Singapore Management University (SMU) has embarked over past months on a programme of research designed to confront concerns about the pandemic and its control. Our interest is primarily directed to the ways in which AI-assisted technologies and mass data sharing have become a feature of pandemic control strategies. We want to know what impact these developments are having on community confidence and health safety. In developing this work, we have come across many myths that need busting.

Information Mining For Covid-19 Research From A Large Volume Of Scientific Literature, Sabber Ahamed, Manar D. Samad

Computer Science Faculty Research

The year 2020 has seen an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic due to the outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus in 180 countries. In a desperate effort to discover new drugs and vaccines for COVID-19, many scientists are working around the clock. Their valuable time and effort may benefit from computer-based mining of a large volume of health science literature that is a treasure trove of information. In this paper, we have developed a graph-based model using abstracts of 10,683 scientific articles to find key information on three topics: transmission, drug types, and genome research related to coronavirus. A subgraph is …

Limited Early Warnings And Public Attention To Coronavirus Disease 2019 In China, January–February, 2020: A Longitudinal Cohort Of Randomly Sampled Weibo Users, Yuner Zhu, King-Wa Fu, Karen A. Grépin, Hai Liang, Isaac Fung

Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Objective:

Awareness and attentiveness have implications for the acceptance and adoption of disease prevention and control measures. Social media posts provide a record of the public’s attention to an outbreak. To measure the attention of Chinese netizens to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pre-established nationally representative cohort of Weibo users was searched for COVID-19-related key words in their posts.

Methods:

COVID-19-related posts (N = 1101) were retrieved from a longitudinal cohort of 52 268 randomly sampled Weibo accounts (December 31, 2019–February 12, 2020).

Results:

Attention to COVID-19 was limited prior to China openly acknowledging human-to-human transmission on …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 95, No. 18, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Lamb, Cassady. Posted Up: Local Apartment Complexes Are Suing the United States Post Office
• Williams, Matthew. WKU to be Evaluated by Higher Education Consulting Firm
• Collins, Michael. Strategic Sustainability Plan to be Developed
• Stack, Madalyn. Editorial Cartoon re: Racism
• Black History Month: Past & Present
• Warner, Casey. Kentucky Canabis Laws Are Behind the Times – Marijuana
• Dobbs, Jack. Bitter Sweet – Chocolate Festival, Hospice of Southern Kentucky
• Metcalf, Taylor. Fast Fashion
• Lowe, Julianna. Sustainable On-campus Bathroom Practices, In Public or Private
• Gaylord, Kaden. WKU Softball …