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Since the first edition of the handbook, important new research findings on climate change have been gathered. The evidence has further solidified, and the effects have become more visible. Both mitigation and adaptation of climate change are more important than ever before. The handbook in its presently third edition was completely updated and extended in coverage. Climate change is a fact, and aspects of "doing business in climate change” were included alongside scientific evidence on climate change, mitigation technologies – both established and novel – and adaptation measures to provide maximum benefit to its readers. The impacts of climate change have made it into our daily lives. All human beings, in turn, can contribute to the mitigation and adaptation of climate change. Consequently, these topics are discussed in schools, in private settings, in research, and in the business world. We can see solid implications of climate change. The 2020 COVID-19 crisis has paralyzed the entire world almost instantly. Climate change is slower and subtler, but even more severe in its potential and factual consequences, where no "fix” like a vaccination exists to return to the previous state. This handbook is more necessary than ever before. Over the last several million years, there have been warmer and colder periods on Earth, and the climate fluctuates for a variety of natural reasons, as data from tree rings, pollen, and ice core samples have shown. However, human activities on Earth have reached an extent that they impact the globe in potentially catastrophic ways, in terms of magnitude and irreversibility. Mitigation and adaptation are the two principal routes of our responses to climate change, and they, in fact, can be best achieved collectively by world citizens, scientists and nonscientists, in our daily lives. This chapter is an introduction to climate change and the handbook in its third edition. Current state of the arts of climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches are discussed. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights are reserved.
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Ribavirin is an important antiviral with demonstrated activity against coronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and coronavirus disease 2019 virus. However, abuse of ribavirin will cause great environmental damage and threaten human health owing to its reproductive toxicity and teratogenicity. Therefore, an innovative detection method is demanded for simple and sensitive detection of ribavirin. This work reports an imprinted colloidal crystal array (ICCA) for ribavirin sensing. The building blocks of the ICCA are ribavirin imprinted spheres, which possess superior binding efficiency toward ribavirin. Benefiting from the highly ordered structure, the ICCA exhibits optical properties which change upon binding ribavirin. The changes in reflectance wavelength enable a fast and label-free detection of ribavirin between 21 and 245 μmol L−1. Moreover, the sensor shows excellent selectivity for ribavirin detection in river water. Overall, all the results reported in this work demonstrate that the ICCA should be a promising detection tool for antivirals. © 2023 Society of Industrial Chemistry. © 2023 Society of Industrial Chemistry.
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Objectives: To describe the IPT collaborative approach for peripartum women with COVID-19 on ECMO and report the intervention outcomes. Method(s): A retrospective electronic health record review was performed from January 2020 through January 2022. All peripartum women on ECMO with COVID19 admitted to the cardiothoracic intensive care unit (CTICU) were included. The IPT came together to coordinate peripartum care and delivery. An algorithm was created to outline the roles and workflow in the care of these patients. The outcomes evaluated included delivery method, timing, and location, maternal survival at discharge, maternal ICU length of stay (LOS), and neonatal survival Results: Thirteen Peropartum women were placed on ECMO (5 antepartum and 8 postpartum, ages 27-42). None had been vaccinated against COVID-19. All received femoral vessel cannulation (11 venovenous and 2 venoarterial). Four patients underwent Caesareansection delivery while on ECMO. Maternal survival to hospital discharge was 84.6%. All neonates survived with COVID-19 negative status. Conclusion(s): The collaborative IPT approach with a structured algorithm facilitated survival outcomes. This report adds to the limited literature on peripartum. ECMO and provides insights to consider in planning for the care of these patients.
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During COVID-19 pandemic Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) faced challenges that hinders the business continuity as well as the delivery of teaching programmes. Information Technology has become more important than ever and enabled HEIs to remain functional and operating. However;HEIs used IT as a solution to overcome the risk situation and actions were taken on day-to-day rather than based on effective IT governance that is established. IT governance is one of the key challenges in HEIs that it involves policies and procedures, leadership and infrastructure. Some efficient practices adapted by HEIs during the pandemic. A question still arise whether these practices are sustainable post COVID-19. This chapter will demonstrate a proposed model for Sustainable Information Technology Governance that is developed based on best practices and extensive literature. The proposed model will be useful for HEIs leading to digital transformation and sustainable HEIs performance. The outcome of this chapter will provide insights for leaders in HEIs and IT practitioners to identify a full-fledged model to improve efficiency and HEI performance towards sustainable education. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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The removal and defense mechanisms of the respiratory system of patients with pneumoconiosis are impaired. Once patients with pneumoconiosis and other underlying lung diseases are infected with novel coronavirus, they are likely to progress to severe cases with COVID-19, a tough condition with a high mortality and poor prognosis. Herein we presented a case of pneumoconiosis and tuberculosis complicated with severe COVID-19. Active administration of anti-viral, anti-infection, phlegm-removing, anti-asthmatic, and high-flow oxygen therapies did not alleviate the patient's acute respiratory distress syndrome symptoms. Then tracheal intubation, ventilator assisted breathing, and lung protective ventilation were given but did not effectively treat the patient's respiratory failure. Finally, the patient died clinically despite use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).Copyright © 2021, Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated disease surveillance using group testing. Novel Bayesian methods using lattice models were proposed, which offer substantial improvements in group testing efficiency by precisely quantifying uncertainty in diagnoses, acknowledging varying individual risk and dilution effects, and guiding optimally convergent sequential pooled test selections. Computationally, however, Bayesian group testing poses considerable challenges as computational complexity grows exponentially with sample size. HPC and big data stacks are needed for assessing computational and statistical performance across fluctuating prevalence levels at large scales. Here, we study how to design and optimize critical computational components of Bayesian group testing, including lattice model representation, test selection algorithms, and statistical analysis schemes, under the context of parallel computing. To realize this, we propose a high-performance Bayesian group testing framework named HiBGT, based on Apache Spark, which systematically explores the design space of Bayesian group testing and provides comprehensive heuristics on how to achieve high-performance, highly scalable Bayesian group testing. We show that HiBGT can perform large-scale test selections (> 250 state iterations) and accelerate statistical analyzes up to 15.9x (up to 363x with little trade-offs) through a varied selection of sophisticated parallel computing techniques while achieving near linear scalability using up to 924 CPU cores. © 2022 IEEE.
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Intro: Oral antiviral agents with differing modes of action are now available for the treatment of COVID-19. However, potentially life-threatening drug-drug interactions (DDIs) may occur if patients' underlying co-morbidities are treated with medications that are contraindicated with ritonavir-containing antivirals. This study evaluated the prevalence and severity of potential DDIs (pDDIs) with ritonavir-containing COVID-19 oral antiviral therapy among the Australian population. Method(s): Adult patients supplied with >=1 medication between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, were identified in the PBS10 dataset, a longitudinal, random 10% sample of the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data for supplied prescriptions. Patients receiving medications that have pDDIs with a ritonavir-containing COVID-19 antiviral treatment were classified as the pDDI group, using data sources from University of Liverpool, Lexicomp, or the US Food and Drugs Administration. Finding(s): Over 1,434,000 patients in the PBS10 were supplied with >=1 medication during the study period. The majority (58.8%) had been prescribed at least one medication with pDDI with ritonavir-containing treatment. Among all patients with pDDIs, 43.3% of them were major or contraindicated, followed by moderate (15.1%), and minor pDDIs (1.9%). Patients with cancer had the highest prevalence of contraindicated or major pDDIs (79.5%), followed by dementia and/or Alzheimer's (77.2%), and diabetes (73.8%). Elderly patients (>=60 years old) also had a higher prevalence of contradicted or major pDDI (65.4%) than the general patient population. Conclusion(s): Our results demonstrated that one-third of the Australian adult population in the PBS10 dataset may be classified as contraindicated with ritonavir-containing COVID-19 therapies. The prevalence of pDDI is much higher in elderly patients and in patients with certain co-morbidities. Health care providers will need to evaluate patients carefully should they be eligible for COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments. Alternative therapies should be considered as patients may be precluded from being treated with ritonavir-containing therapies owing to pDDIs.Copyright © 2023
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Due to the impact of the COVID-19, online teaching has become a common teaching method at present, and in-depth research on online teaching methods is of great practical significance. In the computer network course, we organize the online teaching process according to the BOPPPS model combined with online teaching tools such as DingTalk and Rain Classroom. We use Rain Classroom to seize the pre-class preview and use DingTalk to achieve participatory online interactive teaching and complete homework correction and online Q&A. The results of the questionnaire show that the above-mentioned teaching organization method can enable students to actively participate in interactive teaching, and students' approval of online teaching is relatively high. © 2022 IEEE.
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To prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and enhance the nutrition management for patients, the Beijing Quality Control and Improvement Center for Clinical Nutrition Therapy organized relevant experts to formulate "The Nutrition Management of Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 in the Hospital: An Expert Opinion (2020)". It clearly stated that food safety, food hygiene, and nutrition management should be incorporated into the whole process of prevention, control, treatment, and rehabilitation of COVID-19. The reasonable and standardized pathway of nutrition management, which includes nutrition-risk screening, malnutrition diagnosis, nutritional support therapy and nutrition monitoring, should be established to improve the immune status, clinical outcome, and quality of life of patients with COVID-19.Copyright © 2021, Peking Union Medical College Hospital. All rights reserved.
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The growth of healthcare waste (HCW) was driven by the spread of COVID-19. Effective HCW eradication has become a pressing global issue that requires immediate attention. Selecting an effective healthcare waste treatment technology (HCWTT) can aid in preventing waste buildup. HCWTT selection can be seen as a complex multi-criteria group evaluation problem as the process involves multiple types of criteria and decision-makers (DMs) facing uncertain and vague information. The key objective of this study is to create a useful tool for the evaluation of HCWTT that is appropriate for the organization's needs. A novel index system for assessing the HCWTT during the decision-making evaluation process is first presented. Then a new approach based on entropy measure, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), and game theory for the integrated weighting procedure (IWP) is presented under a Fermatean fuzzy environment. A multi-criteria group analysis based on IWP, a technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and grey relational analysis (GRA), named IWP-TOPSIS-GRA framework suited to Fermatean fuzzy evaluation information, is developed. In a real-world case of HCWTT selection, through comparative analysis and sensitivity analysis, it is verified that the presented method is feasible and robust. © 2023 by the authors.
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Objective: To evaluate the imaging features of CT scan in patients with COVID-19. Method(s): Clinical data of 56 patients with COVID-19 from January 17 to 19, 2020 admitted to Wenzhou Central Hospital and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University were retrospectively reviewed. The clinical manifestations, lung imaging characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with different severity were analyzed with SAS software. Result(s): Fever (92.8%, 52/56), dry cough (75.0%, 42/56) and asthenia (58.9%, 33/56) were the first symptoms in most of the patients;some patients also had shortness of breath (25.0%, 14/56) and pharyngeal pain (10.7%, 6/56). Chest high-resolution CT scan showed that in 42 moderate patients, ground glass-like high-density shadows in the lung were observed in 30 cases (71.4%);localized plaque consolidation shadows and bronchial inflation signs were observed in 10 cases (23.8%). In 12 severe patients, 11 had high-density patches involving multiple lung lobes (>=3). In 2 critically ill patients the patches and stripes involving the entire lung were observed;and cord-like high-density shadow, local consolidation and fibrosis were also shown. Conclusion(s): The multiple ground-glass changes outside the lungs are early imaging manifestations of COVID-19 patients. The increase in pulmonary lobe consolidation and fibrosis may indicate the disease progression, and the degree of lung consolidation and fibrosis is closely related to the disease severity.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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Purpose: This study aims to empirically examine the relationships among perceived environmental uncertainty (EV), the level of knowledge distance (KD) and the impact of value network on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: The quantitative analysis is based on data from 243 Chinese companies with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings: The two dimensions of value network [network centrality (NC) and network openness (NO)] have a different impact on firm performance [financial performance (FP) and market performance (MP)]. NC has a positive impact on FP, but not on MP. NO has a positive effect on MP, but not on FP. A reduced KD mediates the relationship between value network and firm performance. Moreover, it fully mediates the relationship between NC and MP, NO and FP. Finally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, only EV has a moderating effect on KD and MP. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited in terms of data set because it relies on a limited amount of cross-sectional data from one specific country. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications: The present findings suggest that EPC professionals should pay more attention to the EV, which may be impacted by policy, technology and the economy. This research has actionable implications for the reform of EPC in the construction industry, and practical recommendations for EPC firms to improve their corporate performance. Originality/value: The results measure the complementary effects of both dimensions of value network (NC and NO) on two distinct aspects of firm performance (MP and FP) and assess the moderating effect of EV and KD in the context of the COVID-19 pandemics. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, there is a strong demand for pharyngeal swab sampling and nucleic acid testing. Research has shown that the positive rate of nasopharyngeal swabs is higher than that of oropharyngeal swabs. However, because of the high complexity and visual obscuring of the interior nasal cavity, it is impossible to obtain the sampling path information directly from the conventional imaging principle. Through the combination of anatomical geometry and spatial visual features, in this paper, we present a new approach to generate nasopharyngeal swabs sampling path. Firstly, this paper adopts an RGB-D camera to identify and locate the subject's facial landmarks. Secondly, the mid-sagittal plane of the subject's head is fitted according to these landmarks. At last, the path of the nasopharyngeal swab movement in the nasal cavity is determined by anatomical geometry features of the nose. In order to verify the validity of the method, the location accuracy of the facial landmarks and the fitting accuracy of mid-sagittal plane of the head are verified. Experiments demonstrate that this method provides a feasible solution with high efficiency, safety and accuracy. Besides, it can solve the problem that the nasopharyngeal robot cannot generate path based on traditional imaging principles. It also provides a key method for automatic and intelligent sampling of nasopharyngeal swabs, and it is of great clinical value to reduce the risk of cross-infection. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Ecological studies suggested a link between air pollution and severe COVID-19 outcomes, while studies accounting for individual-level characteristics are limited. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the impact of short-term ambient air pollution exposure on disease severity among a cohort of 569 laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to designated hospitals in Zhejiang province, China, from January 17 to March 3, 2020, and elucidate the possible biological processes involved using transcriptomics. Compared with mild cases, severe cases had higher proportion of medical conditions as well as unfavorable results in most of the laboratory tests, and manifested higher air pollution exposure levels. Higher exposure to air pollutants was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 with odds ratio (OR) of 1.89 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 3.53), 2.35 (95% CI: 1.20, 4.61), 2.87 (95% CI: 1.68, 4.91), and 2.01 (95% CI: 1.10, 3.69) for PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and CO, respectively. OR for NO2 remained significant in two-pollutant models after adjusting for other pollutants. Transcriptional analysis showed 884 differentially expressed genes which mainly were enriched in virus clearance related biological processes between patients with high and low NO2 exposure levels, indicating that compromised immune response might be a potential underlying mechanistic pathway. These findings highlight the impact of short-term air pollution exposure, particularly for NO2, on COVID-19 severity, and emphasize the significance in mitigating the COVID-19 burden of commitments to improve air quality. © 2022
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The COVID-19 pandemic not only fueled the explosive growth of Zoom but also led to a major privacy and security crisis in March 2020. This research examines Zoom's response to this privacy and security crisis with the aid of a producer's perspective that aims to direct attention to institutional and organizational actors and draws on theories of privacy management and organizational crisis communication. We primarily use data from 14 weekly Ask Eric Anything webinars from April 8 to July 15, 2020, to illustrate the strategies of Zoom's crisis response, especially organizational representation, the contours of its analytic account acknowledging and minimizing responsibility, and patterns of corrective and preventive action for user education and product improvement. Results demonstrate the usefulness of the producer's perspective that sheds light on how Zoom navigated the privacy and security crisis. Special attention is paid to the mobilization of networks of executives, advisors, consultants, and clients for expertise, endorsement, and collaboration. It is argued that Zoom's response strategies have contributed to Zoom's organizational mission and culture and reframed the crisis from a growing pain to a growth opportunity relating to privacy and security. Zoom's nimble, reasonable, collaborative, interactive yet curated organizational response to the privacy and security crisis can be seen as an unintended consequence of its sudden rise amid a global pandemic. It offers a useful model for tech firms' crisis response at a crucial moment for the tech industry around the world. © 2023 SAGE Publications.
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Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are frequently exposed to a variety of difficulties during global epidemic crises like coronavirus (COVID-19), which may even threaten their lives. The purpose of this study explores the influencing factors of Taiwan's companies between small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises on the choice of the cross-border e-commerce platform. The findings are defined as taking into account small and medium-sized businesses and microenterprises when choosing cross-border e-commerce through a literature review and an examination of secondary data among the 10 participating businesses through interviews in various regions and business sectors in Taiwan. In this case we used study-based research, which included five small, medium-sized, and micro-enterprises, as well as five cross-border e-commerce projects and the company's management senior officers. According to the study's emphasis on the economic, social, technological, and legal aspects of various firms, these factors lead to a variety of decisions regarding the best cross-border e-commerce platform. The case study approach was utilized in this investigation to confirm the consideration of micro-and small-sized businesses that took part in cross-border e-commerce project counseling. This study summarizes five types of enterprises with different capabilities: product enhancement, marketing enhancement, cross-border potential, knowledge-based enhancement, and cross-border start-up. According to the results, it was found that different enterprise capabilities will affect the choice of cross-border e-commerce platforms. These five capabilities also have different types of consideration factors;among them, SMEs pay attention to marketing, pricing, market analysis, culture, customer service, payment, logistics, certification, taxation, etc. In addition to theoretical implications, this research also gives small and medium enterprises and micro-enterprises practice when choosing cross-border e-commerce platform, as well as suggestions for future research. © 2023 by the authors.
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Wearing respirators and face masks is effective for protecting the public from COVID-19 infection. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the performance of the commonly used respirators and face masks. Two experimental systems were developed to investigate seven different mask materials, which have a fiber size range from 0.1 µm (100 nm) to 20 µm (20,000 nm). One of the systems is a computer-controlled setup for measuring the filtration performance, including size-dependent filtration efficiency and pressure drop, while the other system is for testing the fiber shedding behavior of the materials. The technique of scanning electron microscope (SEM) was applied to observe the dimensions and structures of those materials, which are made of nonwoven-fabrics electret-treated media, cotton woven fabrics, or nanofiber media. The study indicated that the 3M N95 respirator has the best overall filtration performance with over 95% efficiency and low pressure drop of 74.1 Pa. The two commercial cotton face masks have the worst filtration performance in general, with a filtration efficiency of around 25%. No broken fibers from by the seven tested respirator and face mask materials were discovered;however, dendrite structures likely shed by the SHEMA97 face mask with a size comparable to its nanoscale fibers were identified. The reason for this phenomena is presented. © 2023, AAGR Aerosol and Air Quality Research. All rights reserved.
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X-ray imaging is an important method for the diagnosis of corona virus disease(COVID-19), but there is a risk of nosocomial infection during X-ray imaging and diagnosis. By analyzing the process of X-ray imaging & diagnosis and the possible exposure factors in hospital, Jiangsu province took the lead in issuing the guideline for the nosocomial infection prevention and control of COVID-19 during X-ray imaging and diagnosis. This guideline clarifies the basic requirements for controlling infections during X-ray imaging and diagnosis, the specific measures for staff protection, disinfection of personnel and sites, and the protection and disinfection of subjects, which is instructive for on-site work. It is worth noting that while focusing on controlling infections, the principle of optimal protection for medical exposure cannot be ignored.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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Objective: To survey and supervise the risk of infection control and radiation safety in the radiological diagnostic workplace for COVID-19, and provide data support for the safety protection of radiographers and related staff. Method(s): 4 emergency hospitals for COVID-19 including 2 makeshift hospitals, module hospital and brick pattern hospital in Hubei province were performed for testing and evaluation of imaging performance and radiological protection for the 8 new installed CT scanners and places according to the national standards of WS 519-2019 and GBZ 130-2013. The infection control safety factors such as the layout of the equipment room were monitored and investigated. Two COVID-19 designated hospitals including general hospital and infectious disease specialized hospital were selected to carry out field investigation and sampling of environmental biological samples for 4 CT rooms. Then the samples were detected for the nucleic acid of novel coronavirus. The results of radiodiagnostic workplace overall arrangement, infection prevention and the nucleic acid testing were analyzed, and the biological safety reliability and risk point were evaluated. Result(s): The indicators of imaging performance and radiation protection for 8 CT scanners in emergency hospitals could meet the requirements of national standards.Each of 2 makeshift hospitals had 3 CT rooms with the area of 38.8 m2 and 4 mm Pb equivalent thickness of protective shielding. The CT rooms in module hospital and brick pattern hospital were 20.0 m2, and 35.8 m2 in areas, with 4 mm Pb equivalent and 3 mm Pb equivalent thickness of protection shielding, respectively. The 8 radiological diagnostic workplaces of the emergency hospitals were designed and constructed based on " three zones with two passage ways". The result of the nucleic acid test indicated that the positive samples were found at the multiple sites such as scanning bed, internal of gantry and ground touched by patients in CT scanning room. The areas such as console panel and ground were risked of pollution by the virus infected hands and feet of radiographers. In addition, the similar positive samples were found in the areas in scanning room with no touch of patients, such as observation window and air outlet. Conclusion(s): 8 CT scanners and rooms in 4 emergency hospitals basically meet the requirements of imaging performance and radiation protection. The disinfection of COVID-19 radiodiagnostic workplace should be standardized.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.