Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, the integration of epidemiology and economics that is, economic epidemiology modelling (epi-econ), was relatively limited. The emergence of the Covid-19 crisis has ...prompted an unprecedented surge in this literature. This paper identifies and develops the main conceptual and modelling challenges involved in the expanding epi-econ stream, with a particular attention to the mathematical issues due, in particular, to the non-convex nature of epi-econ models. Recent extensions are also examined and a few future areas of research highlighted.
The taxonomy code(s) associated with each National Provider Identifier (NPI) entry should characterize the provider’s role (e.g., physician) and any specialization (e.g., orthopedic surgery). While ...the intent of the taxonomy system was to monitor medical appropriateness and the expertise of care provided, this system is now being used by researchers to identify providers and their practices. It is unknown how accurate the taxonomy codes are in describing a provider’s true specialization.
Department websites of orthopedic surgery and general surgery from three large academic institutions were queried for practicing surgeons. The surgeon’s specialty and subspeciality information listed was compared to the provider’s taxonomy code(s) listed on the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES). The match rate between these data sources was evaluated based on the specialty, subspecialty, and institution.
There were 295 surgeons (205 general surgery and 90 orthopedic surgery) and 24 relevant taxonomies (8 orthopedic and 16 general or plastic) for analysis. Of these, 294 surgeons (99%) selected their general specialty taxonomy correctly, while only 189 (64%) correctly chose an appropriate subspecialty. General surgeons correctly chose a subspecialty more often than orthopedic surgeons (70 versus 51%, P = 0.002). The institution did not affect either match rate, however there were some differences noted in subspecialty match rates inside individual departments.
In these institutions, the NPI taxonomy is not accurate for describing a surgeon’s subspecialty or actual practice. Caution should be taken when utilizing this variable to describe a surgeon’s subspecialization as our findings might apply in other groups.
Background: Narcissism is a personality disorder that has an impact on interpersonal relationship with friends, family and colleagues. These individuals can be more shy, arrogant or over-sensitive. ...These traits are also present among normal individual. A lot of features of behaviour are still unknown. Objective: To observe the narcissism score among medical and allied health students and the association of narcissism with their academic performance. Study type, settings & duration: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Fatima Memorial College of Medicine & Dentistry, Lahore from March 2019 to October 2019. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study of six months duration the “Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-40)” tool was administrated on 385 medical and allied health undergraduate students. NPI scores were calculated. Comparative analysis was carried out. Multiple linear regression was also performed to observe the dependence of NPI score on demographic variables. Results: NPI score of males were found to be higher (18.27) than females scores (14.66). The odds for NPI were 21.98 times higher in males as compared to females. Similarly, hostilities were 3.42 times at more risk of narcissism. Last exam percentage was significantly associated with narcissism score (0.024). Conclusion: Students of Allied health sciences exhibit more narcissistic traits than MBBS undergraduates. Institutes should encourage student counseling & mentoring sessions and they should have taught to overcome negative personality characteristics.
So far, there have been no published population studies on the relationship between a COVID-19 infection and public risk perception, information source, knowledge, attitude, and behaviors during the ...COVID-19 outbreak in China.
This study aims to understand the relationships between COVID-19 infection; four personal nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs; handwashing, proper coughing habits, social distancing, and mask wearing); and public risk perception, knowledge, attitude, and other social demographic variables.
An online survey of 8158 Chinese adults between February 22 and March 5, 2020, was conducted. Bivariate associations between categorical variables were examined using Fisher exact test. We also explored the determinants of four NPIs as well as their association with COVID-19 infection using logistic regression.
Of 8158 adults included, 57 (0.73%) were infected with COVID-19. The overwhelming majority of respondents showed a positive attitude (n=8094, 99.2%), positive risk perception (n=8146, 99.9%), and high knowledge levels that were among the strongest predictors of the four adopted NPIs (handwashing: n=7895, 96.8%; proper coughing: 5997/6444, 93.1%; social distancing: n=7104/8158, 87.1%; and mask wearing: 5011/5120, 97.9%). There was an increased risk of COVID-19 infection for those who did not wash their hands (2.28% vs 0.65%; risk ratio RR 3.53, 95% CI 1.53-8.15; P=.009), did not practice proper coughing (1.79% vs 0.73%; RR 2.44, 95% CI 1.15-5.15; P=.03), did not practice social distancing (1.52% vs 0.58%; RR 2.63, 95% CI 1.48-4.67; P=.002), and did not wear a mask (7.41% vs 0.6%; RR 12.38, 95% CI 5.81-26.36; P<.001). For those who did practice all other three NPIs, wearing a mask was associated with a significantly reduced risk of infection compared to those who did not wear a mask (0.6% vs 16.7%; P=.04). Similarly, for those who did not practice all or part of the other three NPIs, wearing a mask was also associated with a significantly reduced risk of infection. In a penalized logistic regression model including all four NPIs, wearing a mask was the only significant predictor of COVID-19 infection among the four NPIs (odds ratio 7.20, 95% CI 2.24-23.11; P<.001).
We found high levels of risk perception, positive attitude, desirable knowledge, as well as a high level of adopting the four NPIs. The relevant knowledge, risk perception, and attitude were strong predictors of adapting the four NPIs. Mask wearing, among the four personal NPIs, was the most effective protective measure against COVID-19 infection, with added preventive effect among those who practiced all or part of the other three NPIs.
The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and ubiquitin-like protein (UBL) conjugation pathways are integral to cellular protein homeostasis. The growing recognition of the fundamental importance of ...these pathways to normal cell function and in disease has prompted an in-depth search for small-molecule inhibitors that selectively block the function of these pathways. However, our limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms and biological consequences of UBL conjugation is a significant hurdle to identifying drug-like inhibitors of enzyme targets within these pathways. Here, we highlight recent advances in understanding the role of some of these enzymes and how these new insights may be the key to developing novel therapeutics for diseases including immuno-inflammatory disorders, cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
Abstract Drawing on evidence from the scope patterns and the availability of negative polarity item (NPI) licensing of the negation marker ma‐ , we show that NegP is realized in Ewe (Tongugbe) ...agentive nominals. We conclude that agentive nominals accommodate sentential negation, posing a challenge to previous assumptions. The implication of this work is that agent nominalizations can be more verb‐like than what has been reported in the literature. We further examine where the Ewe agentive suffix ‐lá resides in syntax based on the argument structure of the predicates realized inside agentive nominals.
Extant research on COVID-19 suggests that many socio-economic determinants, by affecting personal behavior, have influenced the evolution of the pandemic. In this paper we study the role played in ...this regard by average levels of self-esteem in the public. There are reasons to believe that both low and very levels of self-esteem may have an effect on the spread of COVID-19, for opposite reasons. On the one hand, people with low self-esteem may not worry enough to behave in the way recommended (and prescribed, through non-pharmaceutical interventions) by the authorities; people with very high self-esteem, on the other hand, may be over-confident and fail to follow the prescriptions, believing that they do not need them. In this study we test this hypothesis by means of a quantitative cross-country analysis, using a hybrid model and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Our results suggest the existence of a U-shaped relationship between the trend of COVID-19 and average levels of self-esteem in a country.
•Self-esteem played a positive role in containing COVID-19 pandemic contagion when is at a low level.•There is empirical evidence of a transformation of this relationship with higher levels of self-esteem.•The relationship is therefore U-shaped.•This finding confirms previous results regarding the negative effects of high levels of self-esteem on social outcomes.
Abstract
This paper focuses on nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to explain fertility dynamics during the pandemic, while considering countries’ institutional context. We argue that containment ...policies disrupted people's lives and increased their uncertainty more in countries with weak welfare support systems, while health‐related and economic support NPIs mitigated such disruptions much more there, as they were less expected by citizens. We estimate monthly “excess” crude birth rates (CBRs) and find that countries with low public support—Southern Europe, East Asia, and Eastern Europe—experienced larger decreases and less of a rebound in CBRs than countries with histories of high public spending—Western, Central, and Northern Europe. However, in low support countries, NPIs are much more strongly associated with excess CBRs—containment NPIs more negatively and health and economic support NPIs more positively—with the exception of the one‐month lag of containment NPIs, for which the opposite holds. When putting these coefficients into broader perspective, our findings suggest that the actual implementation of all NPIs taken together mitigated fertility declines. This is especially the case for low public support countries, whereas one might have seen a birth decline even in high support countries if the NPIs were not implemented.
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