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Copy_of_KHN_ICU_bed_county_analysis_2 for Rural America’s Hospitals are Not Prepared to Protect Older Adults From a Surge in COVID-19 Cases by Natalie M. Davoodi, Margaret Healy and Elizabeth M. Goldberg in Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

Additional file 2.

Deep economic crises - the global financial crisis and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic - have put some strains on and rekindled an older debate about the costs and benefits of central bank Independence. Central banks have been accorded more independence since the 1970s, which has helped bring down and keep inflation low and reduced the risk of fiscal crises. However, as their interventions in the economy with unconventional policies expand further beyond their original mandate, especially those pertaining to financial stability, critics have called for more oversight of their activities. That is because some of the central banks’ newfound responsibilities such as financial stability does not have a precise and unambiguous target or measure, making accountability difficult. The evidence in support of central bank independence remains strong, as highlighted in this brief. However, in light of the expansion of central banks’ power, reforms should aim to institute oversight of the newfound powers.

Protecting healthcare workers and patients is critical to reduce the spread of the disease. In this brief we highlight three urgent actions : Distribution of infection prevention and control (IPC) policies and guidelines to all health facilities; Manufacturing and distribution of IPC supplies to health facilities; and Mass media hand hygiene behavior change campaigns for health workers and the general population.

Air connectivity is at the center of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis. Global air cargo capacity has dropped substantially since most commercial passenger flights have been cancelled or grounded worldwide. Air cargo operators are trying to satisfy the existing demand, and also support pandemic-related relief efforts, mostly with freighters, and also with repurposed passenger widebody aircrafts (carrying freight in the main cabin). The economic impact for developing countries is likely to be felt directly through the loss of cargo capacity and skyrocketing air cargo rates, as well as cascading effects from all-cargo operations. Governments should coordinate and work with industry to ease regulatory and operational restrictions on air cargo operations to ensure market access, essential operations, and timely turnaround at airports and hubs. Many passenger airlines (responsible for hauling half of air cargo globally) will require financial support or restructuring, in a context of prolonged revenue starvation and assets’ immobility.

The COVID19 (coronavirus) pandemic and associated containment measures are expected to cause far-reaching damage to economies around the world. Firms are suffering from reduced demand due to movement restrictions, from reduced labor supply and from constraints to sourcing material inputs. The breakup of otherwise healthy businesses in response to a temporary shock implies large social costs. Governments are therefore intent on designing emergency policies to keep businesses afloat. In this brief, the authors present simulations using firm-level tax records from Ethiopia, which vary the duration of the lockdown and the relative impact across sectors.

This brief presents the main findings from a rapid phone survey conducted by the World Bank across eight South Asian countries. The primary aim of the survey was to understand changes in the labor market among different groups. Additional questions were included on households’ ability to meet basic needs, safety nets, and coping mechanisms. In Sri Lanka, the survey was implemented between September and December 2020, and therefore helps assess the short-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Tertiary education is vital for producing the caliber and diversity of graduates needed both for the economy that exists today and for economy to which a nation aspires. It fuels competitiveness and growth by preparing professionals, like managers and engineers, medical personal and teachers. Universities are also centers of research and innovation and – working with small and medium size enterprises – support regional development. Tertiary education is both the aspiration of more and more young people around the globe and a fundamental requirement for employment in the industries that drive the global knowledge economy. As such, tertiary education provides unique opportunities for individual development and equality of opportunity as well as promoting shared prosperity. A failure to sustain effective tertiary systems can lead to perilous social upheavals, as youth fall outside the education system, unable to engage in active learning and uncertain about the future of their education and prospects. Societies are, then, confronted with a massive challenge of youth disengagement and deprived of the graduate professionals needed to keep countries on track for social cohesion and growth.

Because of the high sensitivity, molecular specificity, and non-invasive sampling technique, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is one of the most powerful analytical techniques. Additionally, its low interference from water makes SERS uniquely effective for biological sensing. In the last decade, the emergence of life-threatening pathogens and debilitating diseases has outpaced the development of treatments. Detection and monitoring have become the first guard approach to containing the spread of deadly infections such as Ebola, H1N1, and SARS-CoV-2. As a result, recent SERS research has heavily focused on studying biological processes and point of care diagnostics.The choice of the nanostructure of the SERS substrate determines its localized surface plasmon resonance which directly contributes to the overall SERS enhancement. Hollow nanostructures are advantages as SERS substrates due to their highly tunable optical properties, which arise from varying the outer diameter to shell thickness. However, hollow nanoparticles have been underexplored due to a more complex synthesis needed to control their physical dimensions. The work in this dissertation explores using hollow gold nanospheres (HGNs) as a template to synthesize rugose hollow nanostructures. HGNs enabled fine control over the hollow (void space) core. However, isotropic geometry yields a single plasmon mode limiting the number of hot spots for SERS enhancement. Rugose nanostructures have improved electric field strength as compared to smooth nanoparticles. More specifically, spiny nanostructures have better electron confinement at their tips. A multibranched structure has an increased number of hot spots. Multibranched hollow gold nanostructures were synthesized using hollow gold nanospheres as a seed particle. Chapter 1 introduces general concepts of plasmonics applied to Raman spectroscopy, specifically how the nanostructure of noble metals influences the localized surface plasmon resonance. The latter part of chapter 1 discusses the characterization of metal nanoparticles through absorption spectroscopy and electron microscopy. Chapter 2 highlights the use of hollow gold nanostars and PEG-based conjugation to overcome the difficulty of detecting amyloid beta 1-14. As a result, we increased our understanding of the parameters needed to detect low Raman scatterers in aqueous media. The key findings were that hollow gold nanostars enable improved SERS enhancement compared to hollow gold nanospheres and solid gold nanostars. The analytical enhancement factor of the hollow gold nanostars was 1.29 x 109 for the 1367 cm-1 peak in R6G was shown to be 11.5 times increased compared to hollow gold nanospheres. Chapter 3 focuses on developing a new method to detect the SARS-CoV-2 S1 spike protein and the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies by anchoring the his-tagged spike protein to a multibranched gold nanoshell for detection via SERS. Multibranched gold nanoshells were prepared using HAuCl4, AgNO3, and ascorbic acid to improve the optical and morphological properties of smooth ~150 nm gold nanoshells for detecting proteins. The multibranched gold nanoshells were gently mixed with a his-tagged SARS-CoV-2 S1 spike protein, purified, and mixed with Anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies. Raman and SERS measurements of the spike protein and monoclonal antibody with a histidine tag showed a significant increase in peak intensity compared to samples without histidine. Enhanced SERS peaks from the spike protein at 1079, 1178, and 1592 cm-1 are attributed to δ =N-H, νC-N, νC=C, respectively. Enhanced peaks from the Anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody at 861, 1205, 1454, and 1630 cm-1 can be assigned to νN-H, νC-C, C-H def, and νC=O associated with the phenylalanine and tyrosine rich region closest to the binding sites on mAb. Chapter 4 discusses the work to apply fiber-enhanced SERS to monitor the repair process of a self-healing wastewater purification membrane. The use of a SERS substrate with hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HCPCF) as a waveguide increased the signal intensity for major distinguishing hydrocarbon tail peaks at 1436cm-1 (CH2 bend) and 1296cm-1 (CH2 twist) by 1.5 and 2x as compared to SERS alone. The increase in signal for lower intensity C-C peaks such as 1157cm-1 was 14x compared to SERS alone. The results show that SERS coupled with a waveguide can enable highly sensitive in situ measurements.

The game is set on a college campus and starts with the player having an exposure to someone infected with COVID-19. The player then has to make decisions about what to after their exposure.