Indirect Support Research Articles

Problems of Transport of Agriculture on Innovative Development and Mechanisms of State Regulation on Increasing Efficiency of Introduction of Innovation Technologies

Innovative development is a prerequisite for the long-term sustainable functioning of agro-industrial enterprises. Activation of the innovation process, considered as a prerequisite for economic growth, is constrained by the lack of formalized decision-making apparatus and the assessment of its consequences. In order to manage the innovative development of agroindustrial enterprises in contemporary conditions, it is necessary to study the theoretical and methodological foundations of modeling and forecasting of their innovation activity, which has become a characteristic tendency of the economic situation in agriculture in recent years. The complexity of agricultural production and its specificity determine the peculiarity of approaches and methods of managing innovation activity, combining different types of innovations, strengthening the role of the state in their promotion.
 The agrarian sector of the economy is practically completely dependent on foreign manufacturers of technology, which, of course, also reduces the level of food security of our country.
 The existing innovative potential in agriculture in Ukraine is not used in full. The meaning of state innovation policy is that, while maintaining the accumulated scientific and technical potential to the maximum extent, and develop mechanisms that stimulate not only the development of innovative processes, but also the development of their results.
 The main directions of innovation policy in agriculture include:
 
 provision of legal regulation of innovation development and protection of the interests of its participants;
 implementation of direct and indirect support of agricultural producers in the creation and development of innovations;
 definition and implementation of the priority development of agrarian industrial complex;
 development of effective forms of partnership and cooperation, formation of appropriate organizational and economic structures;
 training of personnel in the field of innovation activity;
 priority development of material and technical base;
 development of international cooperation in the field of innovations.
 
 The state, based on the recommendations of science, should be called in a timely manner to send agribusiness clear and clear signals about the most promising areas of production activity, to orientate and direct its business activity in the necessary direction for society, to indicate ways to overcome the lag of our agriculture from the level of highly developed countries of the world.

ГОСПОДАРСЬКО-ПРАВОВІ ЗАСОБИ УПРАВЛІННЯ ПАНДЕМІЧНИМ РИЗИКОМ

The article is devoted to the research of pandemic risk. Its characteristic features are considered: scale, inability to accurately determine the duration, compulsion, spontaneity, the ability to generate other types of risks, high losses, significant impact on the economy and individual businesses. It is concluded that pandemic risk is an objective-subjective category. The possibility of pandemic risk management at the macro- and microeconomic levels is proved. Pandemic risk management at the macroeconomic level is seen as a process aimed at identifying, identifying, assessing pandemic risk, which is carried out on the basis of constant exchange of information between risk assessors, risk managers, stakeholders, selection and implementation of relevant management (control) tools, including regulatory measures, impact on risk in order to avoid, control, minimize or distribute its consequences. Pandemic risk management at the microeconomic level is defined as the activities of economic entities aimed at analyzing, forecasting and assessing the probability of risk in uncertainty with the choice of preventive measures to minimize possible property losses, and in case of their occurrence – the distribution of such losses participants in economic relations, and in some cases, making a profit as a result of proper pandemic risk management. In the conditions of insufficiency of budgetary resources the most expedient for management of pandemic risk are economic and legal ways of indirect state support: changes to the legislation on regulation of economic activity; simplification of permitting and customs procedures; adoption of programs to overcome the negative economic consequences caused by the pandemic; moratorium on inspections of small and medium-sized businesses. Ways of direct state support – tax and customs preferences; exemptions from taxes and fees should be used sparingly. At the microeconomic level, the economic and legal ways of managing pandemic risk are the economic agreement and plans for economic development of the enterprise.

Clinical Course of Unilateral Moyamoya Disease.

The natural history of unilateral moyamoya disease (MMD) progressing to bilateral MMD remains an enigma in modern vascular neurosurgery. Few, small series with limited follow-up have reported relatively high rates of contralateral stenosis progression. To review our large series of unilateral MMD patients and evaluate radiographic and surgical progression rates, and identify any factors associated with progression. We included all unilateral MMD cases treated from 1991 to 2017 in an observational study. We examined time to contralateral radiographic progression and contralateral progression requiring surgery. Using Cox regression analysis, we evaluated factors potentially associated with contralateral progression. There were 217 patients treated for unilateral MMD. About 71% were female, and the average age at first surgery was 33.8 yr. Average follow-up was 5.8 yr (range 1-22 yr). A total of 18 patients (8.3%) developed contralateral progression. And 8 of these (3.7%) developed progression requiring bypass surgery. Baseline stenosis and hyperlipidemia (HLD) were significantly associated with radiographic progression (hazard ratio [HR] = 9.7, P=.006; HR=4.0, P=.024). Baseline stenosis was associated with surgical progression (HR=44.2, P=.002). Results were similar when controlling for possible confounders using multivariate regression. Previous series showed relatively high rates of progression in unilateral MMD (15%-30%), but these studies were small and long-term follow-up was rarely available. Our large series indicates that the rate of progression is lower than previously reported but still warrants yearly noninvasive screening. These data may provide indirect support for statin therapy in MMD.

EEG Characteristics during Short-Term Spontaneous Waking Periods of Different Durations with Changes in Psychomotor Activity Induced by Falling Asleep

Changes in EEG spectral characteristics during periods of recovery of performance in a psychomotor test during spontaneous short-term periods of waking in daytime sleep were studied in 17 healthy subjects. The test consisted of two sequentially alternating tasks: to count from 1 to 10 silently accompanied by synchronized pressing of a button, and silent counting only. The monotonous nature of the test led to a rapid decline in the level of consciousness and, in most cases, induced falling asleep. Presses serves as a behavioral indicator of the recovery of cognitive processes inhibited during sleep. Situations with small (2–5) and relatively large (6–10) numbers of button presses were compared. The start of pressing was preceded by the appearance of generalized α rhythm, which decreased during performance of psychomotor activity. The power of this rhythm was always greater in longer periods of observed behavioral activity. The end of pressing returned α-power indicators to levels seen before waking. The EEG α rhythm in decreased consciousness during short-term waking evidently characterized the action of the thalamocortical activatory mechanism and was a necessary condition for motor interaction of the body with the external environment. The absence of any differences in the frontal areas at the initial stage on performance of short-lived activity and longer-lasting activity, approaching performance of the complete cycle of presses, suggested that they are involved to the same extent during this period regardless of the number of presses. This result may provide indirect support for the notion that the observed psychomotor activity, even with a small number of presses, is not automatic and unconscious but is accompanied by reduced and fragmented consciousness.

Quantitative proteomic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid of women newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis

Purpose The lack of reliable diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarkers for multiple sclerosis (MS) is the major obstacle to timely and accurate patient diagnosis in MS patients. To identify new proteins associated with MS we performed a detailed proteomic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients newly diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and healthy controls. Material Reflecting significantly higher prevalence of MS in women we included only women patients and controls in the study. To eliminate a potential effect of therapy on the CSF composition, only the therapy-naïve patients were included. Methods Pooled CSF samples were processed in a technical duplicate, and labeled with stable-isotope coded TMT tags. To maximize the proteome coverage, peptide fractionation using 2D-LC preceded mass analysis using Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid Mass Spectrometer. Differential concentration of selected identified proteins between patients and controls was verified using specific antibodies. Results Of the identified 900 CSF proteins, we found 69 proteins to be differentially abundant between patients and controls. In addition to several proteins identified as differentially abundant in MS patients previously, we observed several linked to MS for the first time, namely eosinophil-derived neurotoxin and Nogo receptor. Conclusions Our data confirm differential abundance of several previously proposed protein markers, and provide indirect support for involvement of copper–iron disbalance in MS. Most importantly, we identified two new differentially abundant CSF proteins that seem to be directly connected with myelin loss and axonal damage via TLR2 signaling and Nogo-receptor pathway in women newly diagnosed with RRMS.

Financial Support for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in China Amid COVID-19

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital drivers of China’s economy. As in any other country, SMEs in Chinaare exceptionally exposed to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of the paper is to assess the impact of the pandemic on SMEs in China and study the effectiveness of the government’s support for SMEs through the crisis. The methodologies applied by the authors included the historical and logical method, the method of the rising from the abstract to the concrete, synthesis, comparative factor analysis, grouping and graphical methods, as well as a systematic and statistical approach. The authors investigate the main policies and initiatives launched in support of smaller businesses and implemented by the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as well as by the two national regulatory authorities –– China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and China Securities Regulatory Commission. In this paper the authors analyze the direct and indirect support available to SMEs through financial institutions. The study leads to the conclusions that the state support for SMEs has been effective and helped to avoid a sharp decline in production. However, the spread of the disease in other countries may threaten the recovery of the Chinese economy.

The Second Amendment as a Guard Against Government-Sanctioned Tyrannous Factions

The rioting and looting that occurred in American cities during the summer of 2020 highlights an heretofore ignored aspect of the Second Amendment—the Framers’ concerns about the danger of factions. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment, through which the Second Amendment applies to the states, witnessed first-hand freedmen and white Republicans being subjected to terrorist campaigns supported or accommodated by local law enforcement which the “Redeemers” controlled politically. Similarly, the riots and looting of 2020 illustrate that even today, local government officials can be complicit in law-enforcement using political, unequal criteria in determining whether and to what extent to preserve and enforce law and order. Reviewing the events of Summer 2020 suggest that the individual right to self-defense is not only still important, but remains a necessary check on violent factions allied with corrupt local government. This paper argues that the Second Amendment carries a particular force and has special application when individuals must defend themselves and their property against tyrannous factions that operate with the direct or indirect support of government. The Second Amendment counters faction in two ways: it protects the individual right of self-defense against violent factions; and it checks the power of government to oppress its citizens through violent factions. Although the Constitution as a whole embodies a concern about faction, the Second Amendment provides unique protections against the abuses of faction by giving citizens the right to defend themselves from criminal aggression when the government will not.

When do solar erupting hot magnetic flux ropes form?

Aims. We investigate the formation times of eruptive magnetic flux ropes relative to the onset of solar eruptions, which is important for constraining models of coronal mass ejection (CME) initiation. Methods. We inspected uninterrupted sequences of 131 Å images that spanned more than eight hours and were obtained by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory to identify the formation times of hot flux ropes that erupted in CMEs from locations close to the limb. The appearance of the flux ropes as well as their evolution toward eruptions were determined using morphological criteria. Results. Two-thirds (20/30) of the flux ropes were formed well before the onset of the eruption (from 51 min to more than eight hours), and their formation was associated with the occurrence of a confined flare. We also found four events with preexisting hot flux ropes whose formations occurred a matter of minutes (from three to 39) prior to the eruptions without any association with distinct confined flare activity. Six flux ropes were formed once the eruptions were underway. However, in three of them, prominence material could be seen in 131 Å images, which may indicate the presence of preexisting flux ropes that were not hot. The formation patterns of the last three groups of hot flux ropes did not show significant differences. For the whole population of events, the mean and median values of the time difference between the onset of the eruptive flare and the appearance of the hot flux rope were 151 and 98 min, respectively. Conclusions. Our results provide, on average, indirect support for CME models that involve preexisting flux ropes; on the other hand, for a third of the events, models in which the ejected flux rope is formed during the eruption appear more appropriate.

Cognitive labor shapes the desire for social and monetary compensation

When do people want something back for their mental labor? Based on equity theory, we propose that conscious experiences of success and effort—which emerge during cognitive work—shape people’s subsequent desire for social and monetary rewards. We examined this idea in a series of experiments, in which participants carried out a cognitive task, in which we manipulated task difficulty (easy vs. difficult) and performance feedback (high vs. low) within subjects. After each trial of this task, we probed people’s desire for compensation, in terms of social appreciation or money. Findings were in line with the entitlement hypothesis, which assumes that the experience of success can cause people to feel entitled to money. However, we found only indirect support for the effort compensation hypothesis, which assumes that the feeling of effort increases the subsequent desire for compensation, and no support for the intrinsic reward hypothesis, which assumes that people desire less social appreciation after already having experienced success. When considered together, our results suggest that labor-related feelings (of success and effort) shape people’s subsequent desire for money and social appreciation in several ways. These findings have potential implications for the effective use of performance feedback in work contexts.

Policy considerations to achieve practical ethics: closing the gap between ethical theory and practic.

Social and professional behaviors are driven by extrinsic as well as intrinsic factors including executive rules and regulations enacted by extrinsic agents through coercion, police force and penalties. Despite their effectiveness, these mechanisms undermine the fact that ethics is an intrinsic human quality. The present study seeks strategies to apply extrinsic coercion as an incentive to direct ethics as an intrinsic value. Ethical behaviors driven by intrinsic motivations are more permanent and less costly. Legal force can either strengthen or weaken intrinsic requirements. Extrinsic conditions such as considering the interests, attitudes and preferences of others, involving people in the regulation and execution of law, justification of law, avoiding excessive punishment or rewards, and indirect support of ethics by establishing the appropriate social context can help boost intrinsic requirements in individuals. Ethics will not be practically established unless we harness individuals’ ‘willingness to act’ as an essential determinant for ethical behavior. This requires adoption of a more psychological approach to ethics. If this aspect of ethical behavior is considered in regulations and executive processes, extrinsic forces can strengthen intrinsic requirements and spread ethics.

Foundations of a we-perspective

What enables everyday collective attitudes such as the intention of two persons to go for a walk together? Most current approaches are concerned with full-fledged collective attitudes and focus on the content, the mode or the subject of such attitudes. It will be argued that these approaches miss out an important explanatory enabling feature of collective attitudes: an experiential state, called a “sense of us”, in which a we-perspective is grounded. As will be shown, the sense of us pre-structures collective intentional states and is thus relevant to an adequate understanding of collective attitudes. The argument receives indirect support by insights into distortions of interaction due to implicit stereotypes.

Mid-Cenozoic climate change, extinction, and faunal turnover in Madagascar, and their bearing on the evolution of lemurs

BackgroundWas there a mid-Cenozoic vertebrate extinction and recovery event in Madagascar and, if so, what are its implications for the evolution of lemurs? The near lack of an early and mid-Cenozoic fossil record on Madagascar has inhibited direct testing of any such hypotheses. We compare the terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Madagascar in the Holocene to that of early Cenozoic continental Africa to shed light on the probability of a major mid-Cenozoic lemur extinction event, followed by an “adaptive radiation” or recovery. We also use multiple analytic approaches to test competing models of lemur diversification and the null hypothesis that no unusual mid-Cenozoic extinction of lemurs occurred.ResultsComparisons of the terrestrial vertebrate faunas of the early Cenozoic on continental Africa and Holocene on Madagascar support the inference that Madagascar suffered a major mid-Cenozoic extinction event. Evolutionary modeling offers some corroboration, although the level of support varies by phylogeny and model used. Using the lemur phylogeny and divergence dates generated by Kistler and colleagues, RPANDA and TESS offer moderate support for the occurrence of unusual extinction at or near the Eocene-Oligocene (E-O) boundary (34 Ma). TreePar, operating under the condition of obligate mass extinction, found peak diversification at 31 Ma, and low probability of survival of prior lineages. Extinction at the E-O boundary received greater support than other candidate extinctions or the null hypothesis of no major extinction. Using the lemur phylogeny and divergence dates generated by Herrera & Dàvalos, evidence for large-scale extinction diminishes and its most likely timing shifts to before 40 Ma, which fails to conform to global expectations.ConclusionsWhile support for large-scale mid-Cenozoic lemur extinction on Madagascar based on phylogenetic modeling is inconclusive, the African fossil record does provide indirect support. Furthermore, a major extinction and recovery of lemuriforms during the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) would coincide with other major vertebrate extinctions in North America, Europe, and Africa. It would suggest that Madagascar’s lemurs were impacted by the climate shift from “greenhouse” to “ice-house” conditions that occurred at that time. This could, in turn, help to explain some of the peculiar characteristics of the lemuriform clade.

Counterintuitive Effects of Individualistic Diversity Discourse on “Generation Bataclan”

Coverage by international broadcasters and other media of the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 made extensive use of mainstream diversity discourse to describe the victims and venues targeted by jihadists, emphasizing the unique preferences, unconventional life plans and individuality of victims. Based on sociological accounts, this paper sees that discourse as part and parcel of an individualistic ideology of diversity, which celebrates individual uniqueness and espouses relativism on the value of differences across individuals and groups. The two studies presented here address the consequences of framing the events in Paris in individual diversity (ID) ideological terms and question their impact on lay representations of the events and on support for antiterrorist policies by Greek university students. In Study 1, personal endorsement of ID ideology was associated with indirect support for strict border controls. Study 2 manipulated descriptions of victims and found that priming ID themes directly produced increased support for strict border controls and an increased understanding of the main symbolic target of the attacks as an assault against the West. The results extend the past work on the effects of ID ideas on lay representations of social discrimination.

Quantifying factors for understanding why several small patches host more species than a single large patch

Several small habitat patches typically contain more species than a single large patch of comparable area. This pattern has fueled controversy over reserve design (the SLOSS debate); yet its causes remain poorly understood, limiting discussion of any broader biodiversity implications. Using 44 published faunal metacommunity datasets from fragments, islands and habitat islands, we test four hypotheses to explain differences in species richness (SRd) between several small patches and a single large patch: (i) beta diversity (BD); (ii) evenness of species abundance distributions (EV); (iii) size bias in sampling efficiency (SE); and (iv) taxonomy. We used individual-based null models and confirmatory path analysis to compare direct and indirect support for these non-exclusive hypotheses. Broad taxonomic grouping (invertebrates > birds = non-volant vertebrates) accounted for most of the variation in SRd, while BD, EV and SE had smaller, but comparable, direct effects (standardized coefficients = 0.42, 0.31 and −0.26 respectively). Within a taxonomic group, larger SRd occurred when both BD and EV increase. Although sampling bias probably overstates the difference in SRd, it does not explain the pattern. Beyond reserve design, the SLOSS pattern implies potential principles for managing biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. Whether this pattern should inform conservation requires greater understanding. We confirm beta diversity is the major contributor, but it is mediated by increases and decreases in evenness among small patches. Attention to how sub-division alters relative abundances (e.g., by biotic relaxation or altering competitive outcomes) might help clarify how the SLOSS pattern arises.

Pattern of paresis in ALS is consistent with the physiology of the corticomotoneuronal projections to different muscle groups

ObjectiveA recent neuroanatomical staging scheme of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) indicates that a cortical lesion may spread, as a network disorder, both at the cortical level and via corticofugal tracts,...

Friend or Foe? Orb-Weaver Spiders Inhabiting Ant-Acacias Capture Both Herbivorous Insects and Acacia Ant Alates.

The orb-weaver spiders Eustala oblonga (Chickering) and Eustala illicita (O. Picard-Cambridge) (Araneae: Araneidae) inhabit the ant-defended acacias Vachellia melanocerus (Beurling) and Vachellia collinsii (Safford) (Fabales: Fabaceae), respectively, in Panama. These spiders do not capture patrolling Pseudomyrmex ants but exploit their plant-protection services to escape predation. What effect the spiders have on the ant-acacia mutualisms is unknown. They may provide an additional layer of plant defense by capturing flying herbivorous insects in their webs. Alternatively, the spiders may disrupt the ant–acacia mutualisms by capturing alate acacia ants during nuptial flights. We evaluated these two hypotheses by sampling insects flying through acacia foliage and by identifying prey remains in webs. The proportions of insects captured on sticky card traps and in webs varied with taxonomic order and ecological role. Herbivorous insects greatly outnumbered other groups captured on sticky cards and were captured in spiders’ webs in both acacia species but made up a minority of prey remains in webs. Instead, insect predators and parasitoids made up the majority of prey remains and were comprised primarily by alate ant mutualists of the host acacias. These results provide indirect support for both hypotheses and suggest that the spiders potentially both benefit and harm their host ant-acacia mutualisms. The net effect of spider exploitation, however, is unclear and is likely based on both the effectiveness of plant protection from herbivory provided by the spiders relative to that provided by acacia ants, as well as the overall proportion of the ant reproductive caste the spiders actually capture.

Enhanced dielectric and magnetic properties in Mn-doped bismuth ferrite multiferroic nanoceramics

Multiferroic nanoparticles of manganese doped bismuth ferrite with the chemical formula, Bi1-xMnxFeO3, with x values of 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075 and 0.1, were synthesized by sol–gel autocombustion method. X-ray diffraction measurements and Rietveld structural refinements were performed on the samples to ensure the formation of rhombohedrally distorted perovskite phase for all the samples. Dielectric measurements of the samples have been carried out in a wide range of frequencies from 1 to 40 MHz and at different temperatures in the range from 30° to 450 °C. Temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies were observed and the same were attributed to structural inhomogeneities at around 150°–270 °C, and to typical free charge carrier hopping mechanisms and anomalies at around 270°–420 °C. Impedance analysis of the samples provides indirect support for the reasons discussed in the dielectric properties and the corresponding electrical conductivity behaviour in these samples. Magnetic measurements were carried out to understand the influence of Mn ions on the magnetic behaviour of the studied multiferroics. The results of all these measurements are well discussed, and they indicate a considerable enhancement in the magnetic order with Mn doping and also a decrease in the dielectric loss with an evidence magnetoelectric coupling and thus making them useful for device applications.

Fire support with Gaussian estimation of environmental conditions based on single or multiple target registration

Indirect support fire is of primary importance in the operation of ground forces as a whole. However, the artillery predicament of “first round in the target” has not yet been achieved for unguided projectiles. Consequently, a method that employs data gathered in fire adjustment for one target for immediate fire-for-effect on another target is highly coveted. In this paper, we propose a method that is based on conditional expectation in multivariate normal analysis and on viewing the miss coordinates of predicted (initial) fire as linearly dependent on the vector of errors in the pertinent environmental conditions. This method is easily generalizable to multiple registration targets. We include some numerical examples to demonstrate the promise of this approach.

Procedural justice and legal compliance

Research SummaryIn 2017, we published an essay (Nagin & Telep, 2017) that challenged the widely held view that research had plausibly demonstrated that procedurally just treatment of citizens by police increased the citizen's willingness to comply with the law and thereby reduced crime rates. This article updates Nagin and Telep (2017) with new evidence that has appeared since its publication, while exploring in more depth our critiques of the existing procedural justice evidence base. Overall, we reach a similar conclusion concerning the impact of procedurally just treatment on crime but with the qualification that the rapid growth in the literature offers some encouraging evidence on the effectiveness of procedural justice training in affecting officer's attitudes and the effectiveness of community policing infused with elements of procedural justice in improving citizen perceptions of police. Research on body‐worn cameras also provides indirect support that respectful police–citizen interactions have salutary impacts. We also set out a revisionist perspective on procedural justice that emphasizes the social value of procedural justice in its own right but also makes more modest predictions about impacts on legal compliance.Policy ImplicationsOur critical assessment of the evidence on the crime prevention efficacy of procedurally just treatment, and even more fundamentally our skepticism about whether procedurally just treatment will reduce mala in se crimes against person and property, does not, however, mean that procedural justice should be relegated to a secondary status in policy discussion about effective policing. To the contrary, as we have argued and continue to argue, procedurally just treatment of citizens has social value independent of its impact on crime. Yet those benefits are still to be demonstrated. Police executives should, therefore, be cognizant that the effectiveness of this approach to policing should be closely monitored.

Frequency, Risk Factors, Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Spontaneous Pneumothorax in Patients with COVID-19 Results of the UMC-19-S7

Objective: We investigated the incidence, risk factors, clinical characteristics and outcome of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) in COVID-19 patients attended in emergency departments (ED) before hospitalization. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all COVID patients diagnosed with SP (case group) in 61 Spanish EDs (20% of Spanish EDs), during the first two months of the COVID outbreak and compared them with two control groups: COVID patients without SP (control group A) and non-COVID patients with SP (control group B). Relative frequencies of SP were estimated in cases and control group B. Unadjusted comparisons between cases and controls included 52 clinical, analytical and radiological characteristics and 4 outcomes. Results: We identified 40 SP in 71,904 patients with COVID-19 attending EDs (0.56‰, 95%CI=0.40-0.76‰). This incidence was higher than that observed in non-COVID patients (387/1,358,134, 0.28‰, 95%CI=0.26-0.32; OR=1.93, 95%CI=1.41-2.71). In COVID patients the characteristics associated with a higher risk of SP were: male sex, shorter symptom length, less fever, greater dyspnea, tachycardia, tachypnea and hypoxia, higher hemoglobin, leukocyte count, D-dimer and LDH, and lower lymphocyte count. Compared to control group B, case group patients were older, more frequently had obesity, asthma, dyspnea, tachycardia, tachypnea, hypoxia and analytical disturbances, and less frequently diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoker habit, and chest pain. All the outcomes measured, including in-hospital death, were worse in cases than in control groups A and B. Conclusions: SP as a form of COVID presentation is unusual (<1‰ cases) but is associated with worse outcomes than SP developed in non-COVID patients and in COVID patients without SP. Funding Statement: The present work was performed without any direct or indirect financial support. Declaration of Interests: No author reports any conflict of interest directly or indirectly connected with this manuscript. Ethics Approval Statement: The UMC-19 project was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Spain), with the reference number HCB/2020/0534, and acted as the central ethical committee. Under the exceptional circumstances generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgent need to obtain feasible data related to this new disease, and the non-interventional and retrospective nature of the project, the requirement of obtaining written patient consent to be included in the study was waived.