This study examined the relationship between mentor trust, protégé internal locus of control, and the mentoring functions reported by protégés. The matched mentor-protégé sample came from a formal mentoring program in China. We found a positive relationship between protégés' internal locus of control and the extent of mentoring functions they reported receiving. Mentors' affect-based trust was positively related to the extent of mentoring functions protégés reported receiving regardless of their internal locus of control. However, mentors' cognition-based trust was positively related to protégés' report of the extent of mentoring functions only for protégés who were lower in internal locus of control. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

We discuss a pandemic management framework using symptom-based quick response (QR) codes to contain the spread of COVID-19. In this approach, symptom-based QR health codes are issued by public health authorities. The codes do not retrieve the location data of the users; instead, two different colors are displayed to differentiate the health status of individuals. The QR codes are officially regarded as electronic certificates of individuals’ health status, and can be used for contact tracing, exposure risk self-triage, self-update of health status, health care appointments, and contact-free psychiatric consultations. This approach can be effectively deployed as a uniform platform interconnecting a variety of responders (eg, individuals, institutions, and public authorities) who are affected by the pandemic, which minimizes the errors of manual operation and the costs of fragmented coordination. At the same time, this approach enhances the promptness, interoperability, credibility, and traceability of containment measures. The proposed approach not only provides a supplemental mechanism for manual control measures but also addresses the partial failures of pandemic management tools in the abovementioned facets. The QR tool has been formally deployed in Fujian, a province located in southeast China that has a population of nearly 40 million people. All individuals aged ≥3 years were officially requested to present their QR code during daily public activities, such as when using public transportation systems, working at institutions, and entering or exiting schools. The deployment of this approach has achieved sizeable containment effects and played remarkable roles in shifting the negative gross domestic product (–6.8%) to a positive value by July 2020. The number of cumulative patients with COVID-19 in this setting was confined to 363, of whom 361 had recovered (recovery rate 99.4%) as of July 12, 2020. A simulation showed that if only partial measures of the framework were followed, the number of cumulative cases of COVID-19 could potentially increase ten-fold. This approach can serve as a reliable solution to counteract the emergency of a public health crisis; as a routine tool to enhance the level of public health; to accelerate the recovery of social activities; to assist decision making for policy makers; and as a sustainable measure that enables scalability.

UNSTRUCTURED We discuss a pandemic management framework using symptom-based quick response (QR) codes to contain the spread of COVID-19. In this approach, symptom-based QR health codes are issued by public health authorities. The codes do not retrieve the location data of the users; instead, two different colors are displayed to differentiate the health status of individuals. The QR codes are officially regarded as electronic certificates of individuals’ health status, and can be used for contact tracing, exposure risk self-triage, self-update of health status, health care appointments, and contact-free psychiatric consultations. This approach can be effectively deployed as a uniform platform interconnecting a variety of responders (eg, individuals, institutions, and public authorities) who are affected by the pandemic, which minimizes the errors of manual operation and the costs of fragmented coordination. At the same time, this approach enhances the promptness, interoperability, credibility, and traceability of containment measures. The proposed approach not only provides a supplemental mechanism for manual control measures but also addresses the partial failures of pandemic management tools in the abovementioned facets. The QR tool has been formally deployed in Fujian, a province located in southeast China that has a population of nearly 40 million people. All individuals aged ≥3 years were officially requested to present their QR code during daily public activities, such as when using public transportation systems, working at institutions, and entering or exiting schools. The deployment of this approach has achieved sizeable containment effects and played remarkable roles in shifting the negative gross domestic product (–6.8%) to a positive value by July 2020. The number of cumulative patients with COVID-19 in this setting was confined to 363, of whom 361 had recovered (recovery rate 99.4%) as of July 12, 2020. A simulation showed that if only partial measures of the framework were followed, the number of cumulative cases of COVID-19 could potentially increase ten-fold. This approach can serve as a reliable solution to counteract the emergency of a public health crisis; as a routine tool to enhance the level of public health; to accelerate the recovery of social activities; to assist decision making for policy makers; and as a sustainable measure that enables scalability.

BACKGROUND: Before December 2019, white lung patients with symptoms similar to COVID-19 pneumonia were found in the United States and some European countries. After COVID-19 pneumonia was diagnosed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, almost all countries or regions in the world have successively reported cases of COVID-19 pneumonia. 2020 is the most critical year for all mankind to fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic. There are many prevention and control measures adopted by various countries or regions for the epidemic of new coronavirus pneumonia, and digital financial behavior (DFB) is an important evaluation index for effective prevention and control measures, which is of very Chinese characteristics. METHODS: DFB is defined by the Digital Financial Inclusion Payment Index, although there may be various versions of the understanding and definition of DFB. The data of the new crown pneumonia is calculated and accumulated through the real-time monitoring data published on the website of the health commissions of 31 provinces and municipalities directly under the central government every month, and is the first-hand raw data. Under the strict prevention and control measures adopted by China, these real-time data on new crown pneumonia released by various places are objective, true and comprehensive. The analysis methods adopted in this paper mainly include statistical analysis methods, econometric models such as logarithmic linear regression model, exponential model simulation method, etc. RESULTS: The diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia infection is a random variable, and there is a nonlinear random exponential relationship between it and DFB. The empirical study found that the least square estimation of COVID-19 infection diagnosis and DFB constitute a statistically significant exponential function relationship. This index model has successfully measured the effect of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control in China with statistical significance, which indicates that DFB plays a positive role in improving the effect of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control in China. The nonlinear exponential relationship between individuals with cumulative diagnosis of COVID-19 infection and DFB in 31 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government of China, excluding Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province, has proved that this relationship is robust. Through regression analysis, it is found that the number of people infected with COVID-19 is significantly increased by one person for every additional unit of DFB. However, the similarity of DFB in 31 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government of China indicates that the number of COVID-19 infected individuals in 31 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government is increasing slowly. This result is very consistent with the distribution of actual statistical data, although the relevant data have certain regional differences. CONCLUSION: With extensive and in-depth practical basis and practical significance in all levels of Chinese society, DFB can measure the positive effect of the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic in China. Based on the positive role of DFB, there is every reason to believe that DFB will be one of the indispensable and trustworthy factors to improve its prevention and control performance in the face of similar social highly infectious diseases that may occur in the future. Whether the research method here has wider applicability, that is, whether it has a statistically significant positive effect on the prevention and control of epidemics in other countries or regions, should be a question that needs to be further explored in the future.