Studying Communication Problems for Emergency Management of SARS and H7N9 in China

Digital-based emergency prevention and control system: enhancing infection control in psychiatric hospitals

BACKGROUND

The practical application of infectious disease emergency plans in mental health institutions during the ongoing pandemic has revealed significant shortcomings. These manifest as chaotic management of mental health care, a lack of hospital infection prevention and control (IPC) knowledge among medical staff, and unskilled practical operation. These factors result in suboptimal decision-making and emergency response execution. Consequently, we have developed a digital-based emergency prevention and control system to reinforce IPC management in psychiatric hospitals and enhance the hospital IPC capabilities of medical staff.

METHODS

The system incorporates modern technologies such as cloud computing, big data, streaming media, and knowledge graphs. A cloud service platform was established at the PaaS layer using Docker container technology to manage infectious disease emergency-related services. The system provides application services to various users through a Browser/Server Architecture. The system was implemented in a class A tertiary mental health center from March 1st, 2022, to February 28th, 2023. Twelve months of emergency IPC training and education were conducted based on the system. The system's functions and the users' IPC capabilities were evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 116 employees participated in using the system. The system performance evaluation indicated that functionality (3.78 ± 0.68), practicality (4.02 ± 0.74), reliability (3.45 ± 0.50), efficiency (4.14 ± 0.69), accuracy (3.36 ± 0.58), and assessability (3.05 ± 0.47) met basic levels (> 3), with efficiency improvement and practicality achieving a good level (> 4). After 12 months of training and study based on the system, the participants demonstrated improved emergency knowledge (χ2 = 37.69, p < 0.001) and skills (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study indicate that the digital-based emergency IPC system has the potential to enhance the emergency IPC knowledge base and operational skills of medical personnel in psychiatric hospitals. Furthermore, the medical personnel appear to be better adapted to the system. Consequently, the system has the capacity to facilitate the emergency IPC response of psychiatric institutions to infectious diseases, while simultaneously optimising the training and educational methodologies employed in emergency prevention and control. The promotion and application of this system in psychiatric institutions has the potential to accelerate the digitalisation and intelligence construction of psychiatric hospitals.

From SARS to COVID-19: Digital infrastructures of surveillance and segregation in exceptional times

The COVID-19 pandemic, an exceptional crisis, sparked the introduction of new digital infrastructure to halt the novel coronavirus's spread. This paper explores how such digital infrastructure's impact might reverberate over the long term, by comparing Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China's utilization of digital technology in response to the 2003 SARS outbreak, and their responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. We find that advancements in digital technology since 2003 have boosted governments' surveillance and segregation abilities substantially-most dramatically so in China. Even though some of these new digital interventions are ostensibly designed to be temporary ones to address the needs of the immediate crisis, we argue that the resultant extensions of state power experienced during COVID-19 are likely to have profound long-term effects because they fundamentally affect sociopolitical contexts, institutional capabilities, and digital cultures. We also find that the extent to which governments can extend digital surveillance and segregation abilities during the pandemic is contingent on their respective sociopolitical, institutional, and digital cultural contexts.

Mesenchymal Stem Cell in Mice Uterine and Its Therapeutic Effect on Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a silent disease caused by low bone mineral density and is complicated by fractures. This study was designed to examine the differentiation of uterine stem cell-derived osteoprogenitor cells (UOPCs) both in vitro and in vivo, assessing their effectiveness in treating osteoporosis. CD271⁺/CD45^- UOPCs were isolated from the endometrial tissue of inbred Balb/c mice through magnetic activated cell sorting. Stem cell differentiation assays were used for CD271⁺/CD45^- UOPCs in vitro. In vivo, the UOPCs were implanted into mouse osteoporosis models through tail-vein injection for 8 weeks. Osteogenic differentiation was examined by X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans. Enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-labeled UOPCs, obtained from C57BL/6-Tg (ACTb-EGFP) 1Osb/J mice, were used to assess cell survival in the osteoporosis model. The levels of osteogenic markers were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In vitro, UOPCs were able to form into typical spheres and various differentiations. In vivo, implantation of UOPCs into osteoporosis model significantly increased bone mineral densities and bone microstructure parameters. The levels of a biochemical marker of bone metabolism, Semaphorin-3A, increased significantly. However, levels of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand decreased. Immunofluorescence staining of osteoporosis mice injected with green fluorescent protein+ UOPCs showed their survival for up to 7 days. In conclusion, stem cells with osteogenic differentiation potential can be isolated from uterine or endometrial tissue. These UOPCs can stably proliferate and differentiate in vitro or in vivo, which can inhibit bone resorption and osteoclast marker expression. In vivo, UOPCs significantly improved reduction in bone density caused by reduced estrogen levels. Such cell transplantation approach is potentially useful in the treatment of osteoporosis.

COVID-19 pandemic preventive behaviors and causal beliefs among Italian community dwelling adults

In an online sample of 1054 Italian community-dwelling adults, we assessed the relationships between the frequency of implementation of practices intended to prevent COVID-19 infection, degree of agreement with theories about the origin of the infections, and the frequency of use of different sources of information concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that participants' COVID-19-related preventive behaviors and causal beliefs were significantly associated with selected demographic variables and frequency of use of specific sources of information (e.g. scientific journals vs social media).