How aviation market is influenced by political policy- the case of Taiwan and China

This article seeks to analyse how the aviation market is influenced by political policies. It begins by introducing the background of aviation regulation and the negotiations that have taken place between Taiwan and China over the past decades. It reviews what happened during the past decades, in particular the Cross-Strait Air Transport Agreement reached between Taiwan and China in January 2005. It also highlights the restricting factors of Cross-Strait aviation development and define the problems related to air freedoms. It goes on to measure the dependency degree that Taoyuan Airport relied on Chinese Airports in recent years. Finally, the impact on cross-strait aviation market due to Chinese political policies and the influence on air routes as a consequence of China military drills have been analysed. It concludes that the increased routes of direct flights have attracted Taiwanese passengers to transfer via Chinese airports to the US and Europe. However, the limitation of Chinese passengers to travel to Taiwan since 2019 and the spread of COVID-19 from 2020, destinations of Cross-Strait direct flights have reduced from sixty-one to four. The military drills in August 2022 also severely deteriorated the relation of the two sides. It seems that the development of the Cross-strait aviation market has gone back to the drawing board after fifteen years of success due to the current circumstances. From the case of Taiwan and China, the aviation market is indeed significantly influenced by the political policies. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.

Using Deep Learning Algorithms in Chest X-ray Image COVID-19 Diagnosis

We are experiencing heavy COVID-19 outbroke globally since January 2020. In Taiwan, because its low infection rate (< 0.01%), there was not enough evidence for diagnosis through medical imaging. At present, chest X-ray is widely used in lung infection diagnoses. This study uses deep learning methods to assist doctors in classifying COVID-19 disease from chest X-ray images. After pre-processing, the images were put into the VGG16 model to automaticallyclassify into three categories to assist the radiologist in the treatment of the disease. The results show that the classification accuracy was 78%. Detail analyses disclosed that this accuracy can be improved by rectifying the unbalanced images problem. In addition, choosing proper image pre-processing algorithms has a high tendency to generate better results. © 2021 ECBIOS 2021. All rights reserved.

Accelerating domestic and international dual circulation in the Chinese shipping industry—An assessment from the aspect of participating RCEP

In the context of increasing uncertainties in the global political and economic situation, the signing of the RCEP marks an initial victory for multilateral trade and economic globalisation. This has also been welcomed by China's shipping industry and has eased the decline in the shipping market, which had resulted from the economic downturn and the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. In order to realise the stable development of the shipping industry, however, it is not only necessary to make full use of the policy dividends resulting from the RCEP but also to recognise the higher requirements that the RCEP places on the shipping industry, in the new norms of international cooperation. It is suggested that, driven by the RCEP, building international shipping hubs, using new technologies to promote the development of the shipping industry and related service industries and forming a domestic and international dual-circulation industry development structure, are the main directions for the future development and the sustainability of China's shipping industry. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Novel Coronavirus and Emerging Mental Health Issues—A Timely Analysis of Potential Consequences and Legal Policies Perspective

The present outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has swiftly crossed borders, and inflicted the global mental health issues. It is also affecting peoples’ daily behaviours, economics, prevention strategies and decision-making among policymakers, healthcare organisations and medical centres that may unintentionally weaken COVID-19 control strategies and lead to increased morbidity, as well as mental health care needs globally. Ultimately, this outbreak is leading to further health complications worldwide, such as stress, fear of the unknown, anger, anxiety, denial, depression symptoms, and insomnia. Notwithstanding all the resources used to counter the spread of the virus, further universal strategies are desirable to address the associated mental health problems. The present study uses the qualitative means to investigate the potential impact of COVID-19, the consequences and legal aspects, then recommend policy implications, in an attempt to cover any apparent loopholes. It presents a unique analysis of its kind on the policy and legal aspects of the ongoing pandemic, as regards mental health. It concludes that there is an acute need to prioritising the health care and curative issues, strengthen awareness and address the psychological syndromes or similar complications afflicting members of the general public during this pandemic. © 2021, Fudan University.

Detection of spike-specific mutations in serotype i feline coronaviruses in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue

Previously, the M1058L and S1060A amino acid mutations in the spike protein of feline coronavirus (FCoV) have been shown to distinguish feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) from feline enteric coronavirus (FECV) in >95% of serotype I FCoV (FCoVI)-infected cases, serving as potential FIP diagnostic markers. However, the finding is recently challenged by the demonstration that these markers are merely indicative of systemic spread of FCoV from the intestine, rather than a mutated FIPV with the potential to cause FIP. The aim of this study is to design a modified spike mutation-detection nested RT-PCR to distinguish FIPV from FECV in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues from cats confirmed with FIP and controls. While none in the control group was tested positive by the nRT-PCR, FCoVI RNA was detected in 20 of 23 FIP cases. Of the positive samples, 19/20 (95%) FIP cats bore one of the two mutations in the spike gene. The sensitivity and specificity of this test reached 87% (95% CI: 65-97) and 100% (95% CI: 82-100), respectively. The high positive predictive values of 100% (95% CI: 80-100) and the negative predictive values of 88% (95% CI: 68-97) were determined. By using the conventional nested RT-PCR method in FFPE tissue, we revealed the spike gene-mutated FCoVs could be detected in FFPE tissues from FIP-confirmed cats, but could not be amplified from cats without FIP. Our result supports that detection of the two critical mutations correlates the presence of serotype I FIPV in FIP cats.