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Background: To assess the efficacy and safety of corticosteroids in COVID-19 patients compared with standard care or placebo. Methods: Electronic databases were searched to identify relevant studies. The mortality, adverse events, and other data from studies were pooled for statistical analysis. Results: Ten randomized clinical trials were eligible for inclusion. Corticosteroid treatment in COVID-19 patients did not significantly reduce the risk of death (RR: 0.93; CI: 0.82, 1.05) and the need for mechanical ventilation (RR: 0.82; CI: 0.62, 1.08). No mortality reduction was also observed in the subgroup of patients requiring mechanical ventilation (RR: 0.90; CI: 0.79-1.03). The use of corticosteroids increased mortality in the subgroup of patients not requiring oxygen support (RR: 1.24; CI: 1.00-1.55). The survival benefit was observed in a low dosage of corticosteroids (RR: 0.90; CI: 0.84-0.97) and dexamethasone (RR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.79-1.04). There was no difference in the rates of adverse events (RR: 1.13; CI: 0.58, 2.20) and secondary infections (RR: 0.87; CI: 0.66, 1.15). Conclusion: Corticosteroid treatment did not convincingly improve survival in severe COVID-19 patients. Low-dose dexamethasone could be considered as a drug for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. More high-quality trials are needed to further verify this conclusion. Expert Opinion: The effect of corticosteroids on patient survival highly depended on the selection of the right dosage and type and in a specific subgroup of patients. This meta-analysis, which included more RCTs, evaluated the safety and efficacy in severe COVID-19 patients and analyzed the effects of different types of corticosteroid treatments. Corticosteroid treatment did not convincingly improve survival in severe COVID-19 patients. But the low dose dexamethasone appear to have a role in the management of severe COVID-19 patients.

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The future of social work research relies on the intellect and competence of current doctoral students. These future scholars who receive doctoral education that values qualitative inquiry will create a system where qualitative research traditions receive the same privilege as quantitative research traditions. Project-based learning provides learning opportunities that can challenge assumptions about what academia considers “real” research. This descriptive qualitative study explored key attributes of using project-based learning within two consecutive social work doctoral courses to encourage qualitative research skill development. Students and instructors participated in ideawriting and focus groups to assess the usefulness of PBL within these courses. The findings suggested that PBL may be useful for deepening knowledge about qualitative inquiry and reducing epistemological unconsciousness.

Improving the water use efficiency in agriculture is an important way to solve the problem of water shortage in agricultural areas and to improve the efficiency of water resource utilization. An evaluation indicator system of regional agricultural water use efficiency was constructed using data from 13 cities in Heilongjiang Province from 2013 to 2015. In addition, the comprehensive ranking of agricultural water use efficiency in each year was obtained by using an iterative combination method to correct the evaluation of individual models, including the analytic hierarchy process), matter element model and projection pursuit model (PPM). The results showed that the agricultural water use efficiency in Heilongjiang Province exhibited some regional differences in the 3 years evaluated spatially. And then, factors that influenced agricultural water use efficiency were analysed according to various criteria, and the rankings of cities and strategies were proposed to improve the agricultural water use efficiency according to this analysis. The results of the present study will have important theoretical and practical significance for guiding the scientific and rational formulation of agricultural water use strategies and improving the efficiency of agricultural water use in Heilongjiang Province.