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During the COVID pandemic many centres adopted e-learning as a tool to adhere to social distancing recommendations while continuing to provide ongoing postgraduate medical education. We aimed to complete this scoping review in order to map experience and perceptions amongst surgeons and surgical trainees to remote learning during the COVID pandemic. Using Arksey and O'Malley's five step model for conducting a scoping review, a systematic search strategy was undertaken across three online databases SCOPUS, MEDLINE and Web of Science. Only original articles in English in the field of postgraduate education in surgery were included. 44 studies were selected for review. Of these 44, 21 were studies of perception of a newly developed e-learning tool/platform. 17 were surveys of surgeon's attitudes towards e-learning during the COVID pandemic. The remaining 6 studies were studies of knowledge or skills acquired through new e-learning, which included a survey of experience. The United States was the most common country of origin with General Surgery the most represented surgical speciality. Response rates across all three study subgroups were on average >60%. Surgeon's experience of e-learning was reported in only positive terms in 86% (n = 38/44) of studies. This paper is informative in that it focuses specifically on surgeons' perceptions of a e-learning tools used in addition to skills or knowledge gained. Positive e-learning experience reported in these studies may lead to more blended learning curriculums being developed, deployed and evaluated going forward. • Scoping review of surgeons' perceptions towards e-learning during COVID. • Maps out the wide range of e-learning tools that were used during the pandemic. • Provides subgrouping framework of pandemic era e-learning studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a major life stress event for many adolescents, associated with disrupted school, behaviors, social networks, and health concerns. However, pandemic-related stress was not equivalent for everyone and could have been influenced by pre-pandemic factors including brain structure and sleep, which both undergo substantial development during adolescence. Here, we analyzed clusters of perceived stress levels across the pandemic and determined developmentally relevant pre-pandemic risk factors in brain structure and sleep of persistently high stress during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated longitudinal changes in perceived stress at six timepoints across the first year of the pandemic (May 2020–March 2021) in 5559 adolescents (50 % female; age range: 11–14 years) in the United States (U.S.) participating in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. In 3141 of these adolescents, we fitted machine learning models to identify the most important pre-pandemic predictors from structural MRI brain measures and self-reported sleep data that were associated with persistently high stress across the first year of the pandemic. Patterns of perceived stress levels varied across the pandemic, with 5 % reporting persistently high stress. Our classifiers accurately detected persistently high stress (AUC > 0.7). Pre-pandemic brain structure, specifically cortical volume in temporal regions, and cortical thickness in multiple parietal and occipital regions, predicted persistent stress. Pre-pandemic sleep difficulties and short sleep duration were also strong predictors of persistent stress, along with more advanced pubertal stage. Adolescents showed variable stress responses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some reported persistently high stress across the whole first year. Vulnerability to persistent stress was evident in several brain structural and self-reported sleep measures, collected before the pandemic, suggesting the relevance of other pre-existing individual factors beyond pandemic-related factors, for persistently high stress responses. • The paper reports findings from the ABCD study® on U.S. youth across the first COVID-19 pandemic year: May 2020 – March 2021. • 5% of adolescents reported persistently high stress levels during the first year of the pandemic. • Persistent stress was linked to pre pandemic brain structure, sleep difficulties, and more advanced puberty stages. • The findings inform preventive and treatment approaches for persistent stress during major life stress events like pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science research on polio has been centred in the global south, where countries that remain endemic or vulnerable to outbreaks are located. However, closely-related strains of poliovirus were detected in the sewage systems of several New York State counties and London boroughs in 2022. These detections constituted the first encounters with polio in the United States and United Kingdom for a generation – for both public health agencies and publics alike. This paper takes the transnational spread of poliovirus in 2022 as an opportunity to critique how public health memories of twentieth-century polio epidemics were mobilised to encourage vaccine uptake among groups considered vulnerable to transmission, notably Orthodox Jewish families. The study integrates data collected in London and New York as part of academic engagement with health protection responses to the spread of polio. Methods in both settings involved ethnographic research, and a total of 59 in-depth semi-structured interviews with public health professionals, healthcare providers, and Orthodox Jewish community partners and residents. Analysis of results demonstrate that narratives of epidemiological progress were deployed in public health responses in London and New York, often through references to sugar cubes, iron lungs, and timelines that narrate the impact of routine childhood immunisations. While memories of polio were deployed in both settings to provoke an urgency to vaccinate, vulnerable publics instead considered the more recent legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic when deciding whether to trust recommendations and responses. Critical attention to memory places analysis on the divergences between institutional (public health agencies) and peopled (publics) responses to disease events. Responses to re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks engender a temporal dissonance when historical narratives are evoked in ways that contrast with the contemporary dilemmas of people and parents. • Memories of past polio outbreaks were deployed to encourage vaccination in 2022. • Vulnerable publics were instead concerned with the legacy of Covid-19 mis/management. • Memory provokes diverging concerns for public health agencies and communities. • Learning from community experiences of outbreaks may inform engagement strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are widely used to model complex dynamics that arise in biology, chemistry, engineering, finance, physics, etc. Calibration of a complicated ODE system using noisy data is generally challenging. In this paper, we propose a two-stage nonparametric approach to address this problem. We first extract the de-noised data and their higher order derivatives using boundary kernel method, and then feed them into a sparsely connected deep neural network with rectified linear unit (ReLU) activation function. Our method is able to recover the ODE system without being subject to the curse of dimensionality and the complexity of the ODE structure. We have shown that our method is consistent if the ODE possesses a general modular structure with each modular component involving only a few input variables, and the network architecture is properly chosen. Theoretical properties are corroborated by an extensive simulation study that also demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method in finite samples. Finally, we use our method to simultaneously characterize the growth rate of COVID-19 cases from the 50 states of the United States. • ODEs are used for modeling complex dynamics in various fields. • Calibrating complex ODE models with noisy data is difficult. • A two-stage nonparametric approach is proposed based on deep learning. • The approach is proven to be consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate and analyze the elevation of localized practices of migrant belonging, social inclusion and refuge in U.S. cities during the COVID-19 pandemic using the lens of citizenship rights and evolution as proposed by T.H. Marshall. While Marshall's focus was national, we argue that this framework can be adjusted to analyze practices of substantive urban citizenship. Our study draws on interviews conducted during 2021 with local government officials as well as leaders of local immigrant-serving NGOs in 16 U.S. cities. We analyze the successes and failures of local governments as well as civil society organizations in treating migrants within their jurisdictions as 'citizens' who belong regardless of their legal status. We pay particular attention to the inter- and multiscalar practices of local, state, and national politics and policies in responding to the immediate needs of non-citizen migrants. The study concludes that Marshall's model has merit but the order he proposed is switched, so that social citizenship is prioritized. The study also emphasizes the importance of strengthening institutional coalitions, especially with migrant organizations in cities. These diverse and expanded partnerships underscore the expansion of citizenship-like practices in many jurisdictions for migrants during the pandemic. • Covid-19 cities enhanced substantive citizenship among vulnerable populations of immigrants and refugees during COVID-19. • Coalitions between civil society and local governments assisted denizens not covered by federal stimulus funds. • In a reserval of Marshall's model of citizenship rights, we found that social citizenship was prioritized during COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze how the associations of built environment and usage of urban space changed due to the social restrictions during COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. A total of 57,185 census block groups (CBGs) in 459 cities were analyzed. Built environment elements including road network, green space, and land use associated with usage of urban space (measured by over two billion mobile phone data) before/during COVID-19 were evaluated at both CBG and city level. Our results showed drastic decreases of urban space usage, ranging from 0.25 % to 76.35 %, among cities during COVID-19 social restriction. Specifically, CBG-level road length-node ratio, road intersection index and land use densities contributed less to usage of urban space during COVID-19. Meanwhile, the heterogeneity of city-level road network, commercial, public places, as well as hospitals and health cares exhibited stronger relationship with usage of urban space. The heterogeneity of green space at both CBG and city level showed less associations with usage of urban space during COVID-19. The discrepancies of the built environment effects on usage of urban space between CBG and city level suggest the importance of varying-scale analysis. Future interventions should consider space usages and health inequality from a space-varying perspective for post-pandemic period. • The changing associations of built environment with usage of urban space during COVID-19 were investigated • The changing associations were evaluated based on the census-block-group (CBG) level and city level in 459 U.S. cities • CBG-level road complexity and urban facility density contributed less on the usage of urban space during social restriction • City-level built environment exhibited stronger relationship with usage of urban space during social restriction [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English-language reporting on the continuing difficulties in accessing Evusheld reflects the marginalization of immunocompromised people in discussions about the public policy response to Covid-19. Moreover, the lack of available data on global Evusheld access, particularly in low-income countries, has emerged as a key form of nonknowledge that must be redressed within public health research. Through examining how knowledge about domestic and global barriers to Evusheld access circulates, and does not circulate, within The New York Times , this paper identifies a case study of the social production of ignorance related to a key issue in the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on science and technology studies, the history of science and media studies, I situate these trends in the context of longer explanatory histories of nonknowledge. First, through a critical discourse analysis of the New York Times' reporting on Evusheld access in the U.S., I trace the individualizing framework evident in many articles to longstanding trends in reporting on health and illness, and to the structural marginalization of immunocompromised people in U.S. Secondly, I argue that the near-total absence of reporting on Evusheld access in low-income countries is consistent with the longstanding structural neglect of health crises in the global south. • New York Times coverage of preventative treatment Evusheld rarely discusses access barriers. • Access barriers discussed are largely logistical rather than structural. • The perspectives of immunocompromised people are rarely included in Times articles on Evusheld. • Failure to include voices from impacted communities contributes to agnogenesis. • Centering the perspectives of constituencies most impacted by a health crisis will advance health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At-home antigen (rapid) tests have been successfully deployed in many countries to quickly detect COVID-19 cases. Whereas antigen tests have multiple advantages, they tend to have higher rates of false diagnosis than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Since individuals tend to process risk non-linearly, an ad-hoc method is required to adequately assess preferences for test features. In this paper, we propose a methodology based on random utility maximization and elements of prospect theory that produces willingness-to-pay estimates for different test attributes while accounting for differences between objective and perceived probabilities of false positive or negative results. We use this methodology to analyze stated preference data for COVID-19 tests in the United States. Results show that, on average, low probabilities were underestimated and mid-range probabilities were overestimated. We also found that false positive results were more burdensome than false negative outcomes, which shows that there is a degree of willful ignorance (Ehrich and Irwin, 2005) in our sample. Finally, our findings indicate that respondents tended to prefer tests with faster turn-around times and less invasive collection methods. In a case study, we show how our results can be used to assess pricing for a given test. • We measure willingness-to-pay for COVID-19 tests as a function of test accuracy. • Method accounts for perceived probabilities of false result. • Respondents preferred faster, less invasive COVID-19 tests. • Low probabilities were underestimated, mid-range probabilities overestimated. • False positives were more burdensome than negatives, suggesting willful ignorance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foresight practice can help societies creatively imagine and prepare for possible futures. The current qualitative study uses a foresight lens to consider the ways communities in the Western United States use mutual aid as a collective care strategy and preparative tool to address social justice challenges. Using Dator's (2009) four futures framework, this study constructed four future scenarios through the creation of composite personas which exemplify scenario archetypes (growth, constraint, collapse, and transformation). The researchers used data from interviews of mutual aid participants and organizers (N = 25) during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic about the future of mutual aid in 5–10 years. Using these interviews, researchers constructed an artifact of a message board where each composite persona exemplifies what happens 10 years post-COVID-19 through a series of message board forums. The paper ends with implications for the use of foresight practice to help prepare researchers, practitioners, and educators interested in understanding mutual aid as community-based solution to the complex crises to come. ● Researchers interviewed mutual aid participants and organizers (N = 25) about the future of mutual aid in 5-10 years. ● Researchers used Jim Dator's (2009) four future scenario archetypes to create composite personas in conversation on a message board artifact. ● Research participants identified each future of mutual aid as part of a changing landscape that centered solidarity and collective care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Close oversight by a Community Coordinator, relationships built with community partners, and the use of telehealth were creative solutions used by the Infant Toddler Court Teams during COVID-19 to support timely access to services. • This study builds on a companion paper that examined receipt and access to child health services at multiple Infant-Toddler Court Teams prior to and during the first year of the pandemic and details the challenges faced and the solutions identified by ITCT partners to support access to child services in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic within the US. • Understanding the challenges and solutions faced by the Infant-Toddler Court Team Community Coordinators during COVID-19 will be important for future pandemics or crises that impact care for child welfare involved children. This qualitative study examines Infant-Toddler Court Teams' (ITCT) responses to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the accessibility and timeliness of services for children involved with an Infant Toddler Court Team (ITCT) within the United States. ITCTs utilize collaborative practice to improve, align, and integrate systems and build community capacity to improve outcomes for very young children and their families. This study reports findings from 350 transcripts of community partner interviews and an analysis of written case notes from ITCT Community Coordinators related to more than 700 instances of child service needs. We describe challenges faced and solutions and innovations developed by ITCTs to support and maintain child health services during the first year of the pandemic, as well as findings related to challenges associated with other types of services that reduced accessibility and timeliness. Understanding the challenges experienced and solutions developed can provide the child welfare field with insight and guidance on how to approach disruptions in care in the future and the persistent lack of service providers for court involved families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]