Internet use has increased rapidly over the past 20 years, accompanied by a growing number of individuals whose Internet use has adverse effects on their lives. Yet no study to date has administered the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in the United States, nor has the reliability been assessed in a U.S. population. Thus, we aimed to: (a) assess the reliability of the instrument and (b) examine sociodemographic characteristics associated with the Internet addiction score. Participants included young adults 21-28 years of age, the third generation of a 50-year longitudinal cohort, the New England Family Study. The mean weighted kappa across all 20 items of the instrument was 0.45 and the median was 0.46. To examine correlates of the addiction score, we examined age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, partnership status, employment, social support, and depression diagnosis. In the fully adjusted model, those with social support had-3.96 (95% CI:-6.52 to-1.41) lower Internet addiction scores on average compared to those without social support. Also, those with a depression diagnosis had 3.28 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-5.84) higher Internet addiction scores on average compared to those without a depression diagnosis. Study findings suggest that Young's IAT had good reliability in a U.S. young adult population. Therefore, this measure can be a useful tool to measure Internet addiction in young adult populations in the United States. Future studies should examine the potential benefits of social support and depression treatment in Internet addiction among young adults in the United States.

The coronavirus disease 2019 , caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), induces coughing, vomiting, or fever. The occurrence, duration, and severity of these symptoms vary from person to person, which makes symptoms of the COVID-19 infection ranging from those of a mild cold to death in severe cases. The cause of these differences can be found in individual characteristics of the patient. Age, former diseases of the patient, and they medications they took can such characteristics. As the SARS-CoV-2 affects the lung, diseases related to the lung such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis, moderate to severe asthma, pulmonary hypertension, and pulmonary embolism are especially more dangerous to the human body when infected by the SARS-CoV-2. In this paper, through various methods including comparing the characteristics of mutant viruses and subunits of COVID-19, we aimed to describe the risk factors and deterioration of COVID-19 and the strain of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technical Barriers to Trade are on the rise at a time when the ghost of protectionism looms large across the world economy. They are allegedly trade restrictive and some of them are more burdensome than others, particularly to foreign suppliers. The leading question of this study is who embraces technical barriers to trade better than others and why. This study examines how different countries have reacted to the REACH regulations of the European Union and what factors have motivated some, if not all, of them to harmonize their domestic policies with REACH regulations. With a random-effects ordered logistic regression analysis, this study finds strong statistical support for two out of three diffusion mechanisms – that is, transnational communication and competition pressure for exports market. The causal relationship between intergovernmental institution and the level of harmonization is found statistically insignificant. These findings imply that technical regulations, if understood correctly through communication and/or motivated by strong commercial incentives, can create upward pressure for global regulatory harmonization.

What is already known on this topic?The Framingham risk score is a robust algorithm to predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk based on demographic and clinical factors among European Americans.