ABSTRACT
There is a need for rapid, sensitive, specific, and low-cost virus sensors. Recent work has demonstrated that organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) can detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein. Here, a simple and low-cost approach to the fabrication of OECT devices with excellent stability and unprecedented sensitivity and specificity for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus is demonstrated. The devices rely on the engineered protein minibinder LCB1, which binds strongly to SARS-CoV-2. The resulting devices exhibit excellent sensitivity for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD). These results demonstrate a simple, effective, and low-cost biomolecular sensor applicable to the real-time detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus and a general strategy for OECT device design that can be applied for the detection of other pathogenic viruses.
ABSTRACT
Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are currently consumed as live fish, primarily for catering or consumers, as an alternative to salmon in sashimi or dishes. However, Covid-19 has hampered store and restaurant operations. Therefore, developing suitable processing conditions to extend its shelf life, such as online distribution specifications while enhancing the filets' commercial value, would raise its production value. In this study, we investigated the fish filets salted in a 5% salt solution for 2 days and then smoked at 65 degrees C for 4 h under different storage conditions. As result, the higher rate of salt penetration and water loss in the resolved rigor mortis group was associated with tenderization of the meat compared to the rigor mortis group. Thermal-shrinkage and thermal-induced tissue destruction of the smoked fish filets during processing which affects the appearance, flavor, chewiness and overall acceptability. Nevertheless, according to the results of a consumer-type evaluation, the product characteristics of the fish filets from the resolution of rigor mortis group were consistent with those of the rigor mortis group, except for a weaker aroma. Thus, these results explain the relationship between frozen stored fish and the quality of processed products. The economic concept of regulating and distributing scheduling production between raw materials and finished products in the food industry conveys promising findings that will contribute to developing sustainable food processing systems.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 not only led to a significant loss of human lives but also brought indelible economic loss. To transfer the natural disaster risk, a variety of financial instruments written on the environmental phenomena have been developed and issued by financial institutions. The gamma distribution family is characterized by sparsity, heavy tail, and high skewness;thus, it has been widely used to model the data of environmental phenomena. To exploit the versatility of the gamma distribution, Vitiello and Poon propose the pricing model for financial instruments under the general equilibrium risk neutral valuation relationship (RNVR) framework. Though the VP model is capable of pricing financial instruments, their underlying is limited to a single asset. However, the vast majority of firms face various risks and prefer more efficient and cheaper ways to hedge these risks and maintain financial stability. To price multiple-asset financial instruments, this study extends the single-asset VP model to a multi-asset VP model (MVP) under the RNVR framework. Based on the MVP model, this study demonstrates two applications to price basket options and spread options. To manage the pricing of financial instruments that do not have closed-form pricing formulas, this study develops the Monte Carlo simulation method within the MVP model framework. For risk management, this study provides hedge ratios for market practitioners to manage their risk exposures. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
ABSTRACT
With modern technological advancements, the rise of digital learning has helped teachers and students in many ways;for example, learning is becoming increasingly learner centric. In recent years, learning has been compromised because of school suspensions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital learning has helped to reduce the negative impacts on students' learning, and most students have shown a positive attitude toward digital learning. A learning management system provides a platform for learners to learn and interact with teachers or peers without time and space constraints. Moodle is one of the most popular and widely-used learning management systems. It is open source, offers different functional modules, and is available free of charge. However, according to recent literature, Moodle has several disadvantages. First, the topics discussed by students in the Moodle platform are not focused enough and not easy to be discussed in depth. Second, the interaction is not immediate because of a lack of instant notifications. Third, the interface is not user friendly and is thus difficult to operate. These drawbacks can hinder students' learning. Office 365 is another digital system that assists students' learning. Various functions of Office 365, such as Teams's real-time notifications and OneNote's recording function, complement Moodle. This study investigated the effects of after-school activities conducted through different media on students' motivation, learning achievement, and peer interaction. In present study, after-school activities were conducted face-to-face or via two learning platforms, Moodle and Office 365;the learning platform was considered the independent variables. In total, 143 middle school students were recruited as participants for an after-school activity and distributed into the face-to-face, Moodle, or Office 365 group. The quantitative data of three scales concerning with learning motivation, learning achievement and peer interaction were collected to represent their learning performance. Qualitative data were collected through textual analysis based on student responses to open-ended questions. The quantitative and qualitative data were then statistically analyzed with SPSS Statistics 23. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed the following results: (1) No significant difference was observed in learning motivation among the different groups. The reasons for the result may be that students were not familiar with learning management systems, the interface and function of the learning systems were complex, or student motivation to learn English was low. (2) The learning achievement of the face-to-face group was significantly higher than that of the Office 365 group. Office 365 has many functions, but it also increases the cognitive load on students. Additionally, middle school students in Taiwan are inexperienced with using learning management systems because of the lack of opportunities to do so. Furthermore, the focus of this research was not the formal school curriculum but after-school activities;therefore, gauging learning effectiveness was challenging. Finally, students are more familiar with face-to-face discussions, and this comfort increases the effectiveness of this mode of learning. (3) Students in the Office 365 group had a higher tendency to interact with peers than those in the face-to-face group. Interacting through Office 365 (as it provides voice and text input for discussions) removes the stress of public speaking, such as that experienced in face-to-face classes, thus increasing participation. However, the peer interaction in the Office 365 group was not significantly higher than that in the Moodle group because the students using Office 365 mainly used text input, which decreased the efficiency of their discussion. (4) Some groups of students using the learning management system (no matter Moodle group or Office 365 group) posted the answers to assignments in the chat room even before much group discussion, or they divided the work among themselves, and not discussing the assignment at all. The students seemed to be unfamiliar with the way in which group discussions are conducted through digital learning platforms. This inexperience was reflected in their lack of teamwork. (5) The ratio of discussions students posted on the Moodle platform (Moodle group) was positively correlated with their learning achievement and interaction with peers. The ratio of discussions students posted on the Office 365 platform (Office 365 group) was positively correlated with their learning achievement and learning motivation. The results have several implications. First, teachers should consider the most appropriate form of discussion for middle school students when planning group discussion activities during and after lessons. Second, although middle school students are better at learning through face-to-face discussion, the demand for distance learning and the use of digital platforms are increasing. Teachers should encourage the use of digital platforms by planning more exercises to implement through these platforms, thus improving students' learning performance as well as their efficiency in using these platforms. Third, the students in the Office 365 group had a higher tendency to interact with peers than did those in the face-to-face group. Thus, teacher may use Office 365 initially to make students willing to use digital platforms and for them to get familiar with its usage. Once students are comfortable using the platform, teachers can shift the focus to enhancing the effectiveness of learning. Fourth, when students are engaged in group discussions in after-school activities, only a limited number of students may participate, or students may directly provide answers without discussing them with their peers. Providing students with instructions and training on conducting group discussions may help them make more effective use of learning management systems. Finally, regarding the design of learning management systems, the registration and login procedures should be simplified, and the platform interface and operating functions should be more effectively integrated to make them user friendly. Doing so may enable novices to start and consistently use these systems more easily and reduce the time required by users to familiarize themselves with such systems.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To elucidate the relationship between COVID-19 and neurodegenerative diseases. Background(s): Recently, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with neurodegenerative disease, as well as the specific neurological manifestations of COVID-19 have aroused great interests. However, there are still many issues of concern to us that need to be clarified. Method(s): We reviewed the current literature on the complex relationship between neurodegenerative diseases [including Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD)] and COVID-19. We summarized the impact of COVID-19 infection on symptom severity, disease progression and mortality of neurodegenerative disease, and discussed whether COVID-19 infection could trigger neurodegenerative disease. The vulnerability to COVID-19 infection and prognosis of COVID-19 positive individuals in patients with neurodegenerative disease were also included. Modification of care strategy, specific drug therapies and vaccines during the pandemic were also listed. At last, mechanisms underlying the link between COVID-19 and neurodegenerative disease were reviewed. Result(s): There is an interaction between COVID-19 infection and neurodegenerative diseases, including worsening symptomatic severity and accelerating neurodegeneration by COVID-19 infection in PD and AD patients, and vice versa, neurodegenerative diseases increasing the vulnerability to COVID-19 infection and enhancing the risks of hospitalization and death after virus infection. Many potential molecular and cellular pathways were hypothesized to be the link between COVID-19 infection and neurodegenerative diseases, but further studies are still needed to verify the mechanisms. COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the way of medical care, telemedicine, vaccines and specific drug therapies are promising for the better management of PD and AD patients [Table 1] [Table2]. Conclusion(s): COVID-19 and neurodegenerative diseases have reciprocal impact on each other.
ABSTRACT
Background: In 2020, the world faced the unprecedented crisis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 infection resulted in many complications for IBD patients. However, the association of IBD patients with COVID-19 who had been vaccinated receiving biologics, immunomodulators, or steroids therapies is lacking in Taiwan. Thus, we hypothesized that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic would have some effects on IBD patients who were vaccinated and performed this retrospective study. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with IBD receiving biologics, immunomodulators, or steroids therapies in a medical center hospital in middle Taiwan. Method(s): From January 1980 to October 2022, a total of 286 consecutive patients with IBD (UC: 184 patients;CD: 102 patients) was enrolled into our current study. There were 155 patients had received vaccine for at least one dose. Finally, 51 patients who were vaccinated still suffered from COVID-19 with an infection rate of 32.9%. We analyzed the clinical manifestations of COVID-19-positive in IBD patients. Clinical characteristic, and treatment outcomes of all patients with COVID-19 who had been vaccinated were analyzed. Result(s): The mean diagnostic age of these enrolled patients was 45.1years. Male accounted for the majority of our all patients in the study (76.5%). There were 54.1% patients had received COVID-19 vaccine for at least one dose. The mean dose of COVID-19 vaccine was 2.16. Patients with UC presented significantly higher infection rate of COVID-19 than patients with CD. (Table 1). The most common clinical manifestations were sore throat, followed by fever, cough, runny nose and fatigue. The most common type of biologics used in these patients with IBD was Vedolizumab, followed by Adalimumab and Infliximab. There were no differences in the COVID-19 infection rate in different treatment groups among patients with UC or CD patients(Table 2, 3). Conclusion(s): Our current study showed the risk of COVID-19 in IBD patients is not specifically higher than the general population. Our 51 patients with COVID-19 infection had a good outcome and none one needed hospitalization. Patients with UC presented significantly higher infection rate of COVID-19 than patients with CD. The use of biologics or immunomodulators was not associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 in patients with IBD. The use of steroids was also not associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 in patients with IBD if steroids were held two weeks or decreased dosage before vaccinations. Furthermore, we found that IBD patients under adequate therapy can reduce the severity of COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
The prevalence of porcine enteric coronaviruses (PECs), including transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), porcine delta coronavirus (PDCoV), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), poses a serious threat to animal and public health. Here, we aimed to further optimize the porcine aminopeptidase N (pAPN) gene editing strategy to explore the balance between individual antiviral properties and the biological functions of pAPN in pigs. Finally, APN-chimeric gene-edited pigs were produced through a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-in strategy. Further reproductive tests indicated that these gene-edited pigs exhibited normal pregnancy rates and viability. Notably, in vitro viral challenge assays further demonstrated that porcine kidney epithelial cells isolated from F1-generation gene-edited pigs could effectively inhibit TGEV infection. This study is the first to report the generation of APN-chimeric pigs, which may provide a natural host animal for characterizing PEC infection with APN and help in the development of better antiviral solutions. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
ABSTRACT
In the past, it was believed that investors may generate abnormal returns (AR) for trading stocks by employing technical trading rules. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, stock markets around the world seem to suffer a serious impact. Therefore, whether investors can beat the markets by applying technical trading rules during the period of COVID-19 pandemic becomes an important issue for market participants. The purpose of this study is to examine the profitability of trading stocks with the use of technical trading rules under the COVID-19 pandemic. By trading the constituent stocks of DJ 30 and NASDAQ 100, we find that almost all of the trading rules employed in this study fail to beat the market during the COVID-19 pandemic period, which is different from the results in 2019. The revealed findings of this study may shed light on that investors should adopt technical trading with care when stock markets are seriously affected by black swan events like COVID-19. © 2023 World Scientific Publishing Company.
ABSTRACT
With modern technological advancements, the rise of digital learning has helped teachers and students in many ways;for example, learning is becoming increasingly learner centric. In recent years, learning has been compromised because of school suspensions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital learning has helped to reduce the negative impacts on students' learning, and most students have shown a positive attitude toward digital learning. A learning management system provides a platform for learners to learn and interact with teachers or peers without time and space constraints. Moodle is one of the most popular and widely-used learning management systems. It is open source, offers different functional modules, and is available free of charge. However, according to recent literature, Moodle has several disadvantages. First, the topics discussed by students in the Moodle platform are not focused enough and not easy to be discussed in depth. Second, the interaction is not immediate because of a lack of instant notifications. Third, the interface is not user friendly and is thus difficult to operate. These drawbacks can hinder students' learning. Office 365 is another digital system that assists students' learning. Various functions of Office 365, such as Teams's real-time notifications and OneNote's recording function, complement Moodle. This study investigated the effects of after-school activities conducted through different media on students' motivation, learning achievement, and peer interaction. In present study, after-school activities were conducted face-to-face or via two learning platforms, Moodle and Office 365;the learning platform was considered the independent variables. In total, 143 middle school students were recruited as participants for an after-school activity and distributed into the face-to-face, Moodle, or Office 365 group. The quantitative data of three scales concerning with learning motivation, learning achievement and peer interaction were collected to represent their learning performance. Qualitative data were collected through textual analysis based on student responses to open-ended questions. The quantitative and qualitative data were then statistically analyzed with SPSS Statistics 23. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed the following results: (1) No significant difference was observed in learning motivation among the different groups. The reasons for the result may be that students were not familiar with learning management systems, the interface and function of the learning systems were complex, or student motivation to learn English was low. (2) The learning achievement of the face-to-face group was significantly higher than that of the Office 365 group. Office 365 has many functions, but it also increases the cognitive load on students. Additionally, middle school students in Taiwan are inexperienced with using learning management systems because of the lack of opportunities to do so. Furthermore, the focus of this research was not the formal school curriculum but after-school activities;therefore, gauging learning effectiveness was challenging. Finally, students are more familiar with face-to-face discussions, and this comfort increases the effectiveness of this mode of learning. (3) Students in the Office 365 group had a higher tendency to interact with peers than those in the face-to-face group. Interacting through Office 365 (as it provides voice and text input for discussions) removes the stress of public speaking, such as that experienced in face-to-face classes, thus increasing participation. However, the peer interaction in the Office 365 group was not significantly higher than that in the Moodle group because the students using Office 365 mainly used text input, which decreased the efficiency of their discussion. (4) Some groups of students using the learning management system (no matter Moodle group or Office 365 group) posted the answers to assignments in the chat room even before much group discussion, or they divided the work among themselves and not discussing the assignment at all. The students seemed to be unfamiliar with the way in which group discussions are conducted through digital learning platforms. This inexperience was reflected in their lack of teamwork. (5) The ratio of discussions students posted on the Moodle platform (Moodle group) was positively correlated with their learning achievement and interaction with peers. The ratio of discussions students posted on the Office 365 platform (Office 365 group) was positively correlated with their learning achievement and learning motivation. The results have several implications. First, teachers should consider the most appropriate form of discussion for middle school students when planning group discussion activities during and after lessons. Second, although middle school students are better at learning through face-to-face discussion, the demand for distance learning and the use of digital platforms are increasing. Teachers should encourage the use of digital platforms by planning more exercises to implement through these platforms, thus improving students' learning performance as well as their efficiency in using these platforms. Third, the students in the Office 365 group had a higher tendency to interact with peers than did those in the face-to-face group. Thus, teacher may use Office 365 initially to make students willing to use digital platforms and for them to get familiar with its usage. Once students are comfortable using the platform, teachers can shift the focus to enhancing the effectiveness of learning. Fourth, when students are engaged in group discussions in after-school activities, only a limited number of students may participate, or students may directly provide answers without discussing them with their peers. Providing students with instructions and training on conducting group discussions may help them make more effective use of learning management systems. Finally, regarding the design of learning management systems, the registration and login procedures should be simplified, and the platform interface and operating functions should be more effectively integrated to make them user friendly. Doing so may enable novices to start and consistently use these systems more easily and reduce the time required by users to familiarize themselves with such systems. © 2022, National Taiwan Normal University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Previous research for adapting a general neural machine translation (NMT) model into a specific domain usually neglects the diversity in translation within the same domain, which is a core problem for domain adaptation in real-world scenarios. One representative of such challenging scenarios is to deploy a translation system for a conference with a specific topic, e.g., global warming or coronavirus, where there are usually extremely less resources due to the limited schedule. To motivate wider investigation in such a scenario, we present a real-world fine-grained domain adaptation task in machine translation (FGraDA). The FGraDA dataset consists of Chinese-English translation task for four sub-domains of information technology: autonomous vehicles, AI education, real-time networks, and smart phone. Each sub-domain is equipped with a development set and test set for evaluation purposes. To be closer to reality, FGraDA does not employ any in-domain bilingual training data but provides bilingual dictionaries and wiki knowledge base, which can be easier obtained within a short time. We benchmark the fine-grained domain adaptation task and present in-depth analyses showing that there are still challenging problems to further improve the performance with heterogeneous resources. © European Language Resources Association (ELRA), licensed under CC-BY-NC-4.0.
ABSTRACT
It is widely accepted that a liberal state has a general duty to protect its people from undue health risks. However, the unprecedented emergent measures against the COVID-19 pandemic taken by governments worldwide give rise to questions regarding the extent to which this duty may be used to justify suspending a vaccine rollout on marginal safety grounds. In this chapter, I use the case of vaccination to argue that while a liberal state has a general duty to protect its people’s health, there is a limit to the measures this duty can be used to justify. First, I argue that since every available option involves different risks and benefits, the incommensurability of the involved risks and benefits forbids the prioritisation of a particular vaccine. Second, I argue that given epistemic limitations and uncertainty, policies that favour certain vaccines are not only epistemically ill-founded but also morally unacceptable. I conclude that in a highly uncertain situation such as the unfolding pandemic, the duty a liberal state ought to uphold is to properly communicate the knowns and unknowns to the general public and help people decide which option to choose for themselves. I call this duty the duty to facilitate risk-taking. © 2022, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Computational methods have gained importance and popularity in both academia and industry for materials research and development in recent years. Since 2014, our team at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has consistently worked on reforming our Materials Science and Engineering curriculum by incorporating computational modules into all mandatory undergraduate courses. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education as on-campus resources and activities became highly restricted. Here we seek to investigate the impact of the university moving online in Spring 2020 and resuming in-person instructions in Fall 2021 on the effectiveness of our computational curricular reform from the students' perspective. We track and compare feedback from students in a representative course MSE 182 for their computational learning experience before, during and after the pandemic lockdown from 2019 to 2021. Besides, we survey all undergraduate students, for their online learning experiences during the pandemic. We find that online learning enhances the students' belief in the importance and benefits of computation in materials science and engineering, while making them less comfortable and confident to acquire skills that are relatively difficult. In addition, early computational learners are likely to experience more difficulties with online learning compared to students at late stages of their undergraduate education, regardless of the computational workload. Multiple reasons are found to limit the students' online computational learning, such as insufficient support from instructors and TAs, limited chances of peer communication and harder access to computational resources. Therefore, it is advised to guarantee more resources to students with novice computational skills regarding such limiting reasons in the future when online learning is applied. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
ABSTRACT
Rationale Per the CDC, Since the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 25,000 pregnant women have been hospitalized in the USA, with almost 4% requiring ICU admission. Care of the critically ill pregnant patient is distinct and complex due to changes in physiology, cardiovascular demands, and changes in immune system function. Though cardiac arrest in a pregnant patient is fortunately rare, a poor outcome can be devastating. Existing literature suggests that providers have knowledge deficits regarding recommended resuscitation practices of parturients (Cohen). Additionally, in simulated scenarios, teams exhibit significant deficiencies when scored on Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) metrics when responding to a simulated pregnant patient in cardiopulmonary arrest (Lipman). We developed a high fidelity simulation in accordance with the 2020 American Heart Association (AHA) ACLS guidelines, with the hope that deliberate practice would improve response to future resuscitation efforts (Panchal). Methods Between October and December 2021, we recruited eighty-six Internal Medicine residents at a large university hospital program to complete knowledge (multiple choice) and confidence (Likert scale) assessment before and after participation in a maternal arrest simulation. For the knowledge assessment component, we utilized questions relating to the resuscitation of a pregnant patient previously published in the anesthesia literature (Cohen). Questions were derived from high yield practices highlighted in the 2020 AHA guidelines for ACLS in the peripartum patient. Data were compared using a two-tailed t-test with unequal variance. Results Regarding clinical knowledge, participants showed significant improvement in correct patient positioning (+34.5%, P = 0.00), epinephrine dosing (+10.53%, P = 0.01), and timing of perimortem delivery (+22.5%, P = 0.00). Participants also had significantly improved confidence in approaching peripartum scenarios (+53%, P = 0.00) and general ACLS scenarios (+63%, P = 0.00). Conclusions Following participation in our simulation, residents demonstrated increased confidence and increased medical knowledge related to the resuscitation algorithm utilized when caring for pregnant patients. In the future, we plan to survey residents to determine if this knowledge and confidence persists or decays over time. (Table Presented).
ABSTRACT
RATIONALE: Over 400,000 individuals are estimated to have been exposed to the fallout of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster. The incidence of acquired allergy and lung injury among rescue and cleanup workers exposed to the WTC fallout has been established. Briefly, rescue and cleanup workers exposed to the WTC fallout had a high incidence of allergic hypersensitivity and permanent small airways dysfunction characterized by distal airways narrowing and airway hyperresponsiveness. The current study sought to quantify the utilization of allergy/immunology services among rescue and cleanup workers exposed to the WTC fallout. METHODS: Subjects (N=65) were referred from the WTC Health Program to a multispecialty allergy/immunology and pulmonology clinic for provision of allergy-immunology specialty services. Electronic health records of all subjects were retrospectively reviewed from the date of first referral to March 2020-when routine care was interrupted due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic-to quantify utilization of allergy/immunology and pulmonology services;10 subjects were excluded from analysis due to incomplete health records. RESULTS: On average, time to referral for allergy-immunology services by the WTC Health Program was 15.2 years (SD=1.7). The majority of the subjects were male (89.1%), police officers (67.3%) who never smoked (65.5%) and had no history of allergic or respiratory disease prior to being exposed to the WTC fallout. Most were found to have environmental allergies (83.6%);the most common comorbidities were allergic rhinitis (89.1%), asthma (67.3%), and chronic sinusitis (63.6%). All subjects underwent environmental allergy testing. Most subjects-35 of 55 (63.6%)-were prescribed an epinephrine autoinjector for environmental allergies. Regarding allergic immunotherapy (IT), 33 of 55 (60.0%) received IT;additionally, 7 subjects (12.7%) were determined to be IT candidates but did not receive IT. The most common monoclonal antibody therapy used in this cohort was omalizumab (18.2%). Only 11 (20.0%) and 3 (5.5%) underwent serum IgE and IgG testing, respectively. CONCLUSION: Rescue and cleanup workers referred to a multispecialty allergy/immunology and pulmonology practice from the WTC Health Program not only had a high incidence of acquired allergies to environmental allergens, but the majority were prescribed and epinephrine autoinjector and either received or were candidates to receive allergy immunotherapy. Given that hundreds of thousands of individuals were exposed to the WTC fallout and exposure is an independent risk factor for developing allergic disease, this research may have identified ways we may be falling short in providing allergy/immunology services to exposed individuals.
ABSTRACT
Wuhai City is an important coal resource area in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. High-intensity underground mining will cause large land subsidence. Differential SAR Interferometry (D-InSAR) is a popular monitoring method of land subsidence in recent years. This paper uses two-pass D-InSAR method to monitor land subsidence in Wuhai City. The experimental data selects 7 scenes of C-band Sentinel-1A images from September 2019 to March 2020. The final deformation results are shown in the Figure 3. The two-pass D-InSAR processing flow includes data focusing, baseline estimation, interferogram generation, adaptive filtering and coherence generation, phase unwrapping, orbit refining and re-flattening, deformation map generation. The result shows: During the monitoring time, the most serious subsidence areas are concentrated near the mine clusters on the east and west sides of Wuhai City. Maximum settlement value up to 242 mm. The subsidence values in heavy industrial and residential areas are slightly smaller compared to the former. Settlement values are generally ranged from 56 to 87 mm. The settlement is lightest in the southern part of Hainan district. It indicates that mining can greatly accelerate surface subsidence. Meanwhile, human activities and groundwater extraction can increase subsidence. From the perspective of time, Settlement in Wuhai City is more pronounced during September to December 2019 but it decreases sharply in January 2020.This should be related to the outbreak of COVID-19. The subsidence value increased slightly from February to March 2020, which showed that the epidemic had been preliminarily controlled and people began to return to work.
ABSTRACT
The development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the emergence of COVID-19 vaccine data. Timely access to COVID-19 vaccine information is crucial to researchers and public. To support more comprehensive annotation, integration, and analysis of COVID-19 vaccine infor-mation, we have developed Cov19VaxKB, a knowledge-focused COVID-19 vaccine database (http://www. violinet.org/cov19vaxkb/). Cov19VaxKB features comprehensive lists of COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine for-mulations, clinical trials, publications, news articles, and vaccine adverse event case reports. A web-based query interface enables comparison of product information and host responses among various vaccines. The knowledge base also includes a vaccine design tool for predicting vaccine targets and a statistical analysis tool that identifies enriched adverse events for FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines based on VAERS case report data. To support data exchange, Cov19VaxKB is synchronized with Vaccine Ontology and the Vaccine Investigation and Online Information Network (VIOLIN) database. The data integration and analytical features of Cov19VaxKB can facilitate vaccine research and development while also serving as a useful reference for the public. (c) 2022 University of Michigan. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).