Upgrading Island Tourism Value from the Perspective of the Tourist Experience—A Case Study of Tianheng Island, China

Although island tourism is vital to the economy of developing countries, many islands with great potential for tourism development do not plan for it adequately. The objective of this paper is to establish an island tourism value mining and promotion model from the tourist perspective by selecting the status value indicators of basic conditions, vacation tourism resources, and sightseeing tourism resources, as well as the promotion indicators of five types of recreational fisheries, including beach activities, recreational fishing, marine sports, rock climbing, and sightseeing platforms. Then, we evaluate the whole island and develop suitable areas by using an analytic hierarchy process. This study took Tianheng Island as an example and divided the study area into grids and land use types. The results indicate that the basic conditions and tourism resources of Tianheng Island are in a general level, and the vacation tourism resources are in high quality, while there is further room to improve them. We identified that the island has four areas which are suitable for scenic development, two sandy beaches, two recreation fishing areas, one marine sports area, and one island rock climbing area. Our findings are consistent with the actual situation in Tianheng Island, demonstrating that the model is practical and can provide an essential reference for the scientific protection and utilization of island tourism resources.

Clinical Analysis of Kidney Injury in Elderly Patients with COVID-19

Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the clinical features of elderly patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to explore the relationship between COVID-19 patients and kidney injury. Methods: A total of 188 elderly patients with confirmed COVID-19 enrolled in this study were hospitalized for at least 1 week in the Central Theater Command General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army from January 3, 2020 to March 14, 2020. The recorded information included clinical data and results of kidney-related laboratory tests. Retrospective analysis was performed. Results: The median age of the patients was 69 years (interquartile range 65–78, range: 60–97 years);31.4% were 60–74 years old, and 68.6% were over 75 years old. A total of 12.8% and 18.6% of the patients were in critical and severe stages of COVID-19, respectively. The proportions of patients using mechanical ventilators and deaths were 9.5% and 8.5%, respectively. A total of 26.1% and 8.5% of the patients showed mild elevation of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (SCr) levels at admission. A total of 18.6% and 5.9% of the patients had elevated BUN and SCr 1 week after admission, respectively. A total of 3.1% of the patients were diagnosed with acute kidney injury, and 75% of those patients had chronic kidney disease before admission. Compared with the patients aged 60–74 years, those over 75 years exhibited significantly increased proportions of elevated BUN levels, critical illness, use of mechanical ventilated, and death. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that an elevated BUN level at admission and 1 week after admission were independent risk factors for death in the elderly patients with COVID-19. Conclusion: There were more critical cases and a high mortality in elderly patients with COVID-19. An increased BUN level was an independent risk factor for death in elderly patients with COVID-19.

Severe Type of COVID-19: Pathogenesis, Warning Indicators and Treatment.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is a major public health issue. The epidemic is unlikely to be contained until the global launch of safe and effective vaccines that could prevent serious illnesses and provide herd immunity. Although most patients have mild flu-like symptoms, some develop severe illnesses accompanied by multiple organ dysfunction. The identification of pathophysiology and early warning biomarkers of a severe type of COVID-19 contribute to the treatment and prevention of serious complications. Here, we review the pathophysiology, early warning indicators, and effective treatment of Chinese and Western Medicine for patients with a severe type of COVID-19.

ZoomQA: residue-level protein model accuracy estimation with machine learning on sequential and 3D structural features.

MOTIVATION: The Estimation of Model Accuracy problem is a cornerstone problem in the field of Bioinformatics. As of CASP14, there are 79 global QA methods, and a minority of 39 residue-level QA methods with very few of them working on protein complexes. Here, we introduce ZoomQA, a novel, single-model method for assessing the accuracy of a tertiary protein structure/complex prediction at residue level, which have many applications such as drug discovery. ZoomQA differs from others by considering the change in chemical and physical features of a fragment structure (a portion of a protein within a radius $r$ of the target amino acid) as the radius of contact increases. Fourteen physical and chemical properties of amino acids are used to build a comprehensive representation of every residue within a protein and grade their placement within the protein as a whole. Moreover, we have shown the potential of ZoomQA to identify problematic regions of the SARS-CoV-2 protein complex. RESULTS: We benchmark ZoomQA on CASP14, and it outperforms other state-of-the-art local QA methods and rivals state of the art QA methods in global prediction metrics. Our experiment shows the efficacy of these new features and shows that our method is able to match the performance of other state-of-the-art methods without the use of homology searching against databases or PSSM matrices. AVAILABILITY: http://zoomQA.renzhitech.com.

Explainable DCNN based chest X-ray image analysis and classification for COVID-19 pneumonia detection.

To speed up the discovery of COVID-19 disease mechanisms by X-ray images, this research developed a new diagnosis platform using a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) that is able to assist radiologists with diagnosis by distinguishing COVID-19 pneumonia from non-COVID-19 pneumonia in patients based on chest X-ray classification and analysis. Such a tool can save time in interpreting chest X-rays and increase the accuracy and thereby enhance our medical capacity for the detection and diagnosis of COVID-19. The explainable method is also used in the DCNN to select instances of the X-ray dataset images to explain the behavior of training-learning models to achieve higher prediction accuracy. The average accuracy of our method is above 96%, which can replace manual reading and has the potential to be applied to large-scale rapid screening of COVID-9 for widely use cases.

The common risk factors for progression and mortality in COVID-19 patients: a meta-analysis.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), has affected more than 50 million patients worldwide and caused a global public health emergency. Therefore, there is a recognized need to identify risk factors for COVID-19 severity and mortality. A systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library) for studies published before September 29, 2020, was performed. Studies that investigated risk factors for progression and mortality in COVID-19 patients were included. A total 344,431 participants from 34 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Regarding comorbidities, cerebrovascular disease (CVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), coronary heart disease (CHD), and malignancy were associated with an increased risk of progression and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Regarding clinical manifestations, sputum production was associated with a dramatically increased risk of progression and mortality. Hemoptysis was a risk factor for death in COVID-19 patients. In laboratory examinations, increased neutrophil count, decreased lymphocyte count, decreased platelet count, increased C-reactive protein (CRP), coinfection with bacteria or fungi, increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and creatine kinase (CK), increased N-terminal pronatriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and bilateral pneumonia in CT/X-ray were significantly more frequent in the severe group compared with the non-severe group. Moreover, the proportion of patients with increased CRP and total bilirubin (TBIL) was also significantly higher in the deceased group than in the survival group. CVD, CKD, sputum production, increased neutrophil count, decreased lymphocyte count, decreased platelet count, increased CRP, coinfection with bacteria or fungi, increased ALT and CK, increased NT-proBNP, and bilateral pneumonia in CT/X-ray were associated with an increased risk of progression in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, the proportion of patients with increased sputum production, hemoptysis, CRP and TBIL was also significantly higher in the deceased group.

COVID-19 Infection Risk and Depressive Symptoms Among Young Adults During Quarantine: The Moderating Role of Grit and Social Support.

Prior research has demonstrated that the adverse consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may go beyond its economic hardships and physical health concerns, having a significant influence on psychological distress for individuals under quarantine. Nevertheless, relatively little attention has been paid to exploring the risk and protective factors in the link between COVID-19 infection risk and psychological distress among young adults. Following a socioecological framework, the current study examines the moderating role of grit (perseverance and consistency) and social support in the association between COVID-19 infection risk and depressive symptoms. A sample of 1,251 young adults under home quarantine (62.6% female; M age = 20.92 years, SD = 1.47; age ranged from 18 to 25 years) was involved in this study, and they were asked to complete a set of self-reported questionnaires online. Results of a linear regression analysis exhibited that COVID-19 infection risk was positively associated with depressive symptoms in young adults in quarantine. Moreover, moderation analyses showed that this association was moderated by perseverance and social support. To be specific, for those reporting higher levels of social support, this linkage was not significantly positive; in contrast, for those reporting lower levels of social support, perseverance was a significant protective factor for depressive symptoms when young adults were exposed to a high infection risk of COVID-19. The current study suggests that greater social support is essential to helping young adults deal with possible negative emotions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, university-based counseling services should pay specific attention to those young adults with relatively insufficient social support resources and low levels of perseverance.