Space, Communities and Networks: Emotional Governance Practices in Shanghai under Public Crisis

La gouvernance émotionnelle est devenue une dimension importante au cours du COVID-19. Avec l'avènement de la crise moderne, l'espace communautaire est devenu un champ indépendant, les émotions des résidents sont devenues des émotions communes, et « personne ne doit être infecté » est devenu un objectif commun, et les avantages de la gouvernance émotionnelle basée sur le réseau se reflètent. Dans ce cas, la « persistance » et la « persévérance » de Shanghai sont devenues une pratique raffinée de la gouvernance émotionnelle dans le contexte de la politique du « zéro dynamique ». Dans cet article, nous analyserons la relation dynamique entre le pouvoir, l'espace et l'émotion dans la pratique de la gouvernance populaire à Shanghai en période de crise publique et la manière de construire une structure « individu-groupe-organisation » par le biais de théories spatialement pertinentes, en prenant la crise épidémique comme toile de fond et l'ethnographie communautaire.

Research progress in preparation, properties, and applications of medical protective fiber materials.

A variety of public health events seriously threaten human life and health, especially the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019 has caused a serious impact on human production and life. Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) is one of the most effective ways to prevent infection and stop the spread of the virus. Medical protective fiber materials have become the first choice for PPE because of their excellent barrier properties and breathability. In this article, we systematically review the latest progress in preparation technologies, properties, and applications of medical protective fiber materials. We first summarize the technological characteristics of different fiber preparation methods and compare their advantages and disadvantages. Then the barrier properties, comfort, and mechanical properties of the medical protective fiber materials used in PPE are discussed. After that, the applications of medical protective fibers in PPE are introduced, and protective clothing and masks are discussed in detail. Finally, the current status, future development trend, and existing challenges of medical protective fiber materials are summarized.

Visual Detection of COVID-19 from Materials Aspect.

Abstract: In the recent COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization emphasized that early detection is an effective strategy to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Several diagnostic methods, such as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), have been applied based on the mechanism of specific recognition and binding of the probes to viruses or viral antigens. Although the remarkable progress, these methods still suffer from inadequate cellular materials or errors in the detection and sampling procedure of nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swab collection. Therefore, developing accurate, ultrafast, and visualized detection calls for more advanced materials and technology urgently to fight against the epidemic. In this review, we first summarize the current methodologies for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis. Then, recent representative examples are introduced based on various output signals (e.g., colorimetric, fluorometric, electronic, acoustic). Finally, we discuss the limitations of the methods and provide our perspectives on priorities for future test development.

Ultra-fast bacterial inactivation of Cu2O@Halloysite nanotubes hybrids with charge adsorption and physical piercing ability for medical protective fabrics

Metals have been used for wound treatment and toxicity testing since ancient times. With the development of nanotechnology, metal oxides have been proven to have excellent sterilization and disinfection functions. However, the rapid bacterial inactivation efficiency and trapping physicochemical killing ability remain simultaneously undemonstrated in antibacterial nanohybrids. Here, we demonstrate a method for in-situ reduction of small-sized Cu2O particles on one-dimensional inorganic halloysite nanotubes (HNTs). The resultant Cu2O@HNTs hybrids not only give Cu2O excellent dispersibility, but also exert the synergistic effect of the charge adsorption of metal oxides and the physical piercing effect of the small-sized nanotubes. Furthermore, the release of Cu2+ from hybrids damages cell membranes and denatures proteins and DNA. Through this sterilization mechanism, Cu2O@HNTs allow for the inactivation rate of Escherichia coli to reach 94.5% within 2 min and complete inactivation within 10 min. This excellent sterilization mode makes Cu2O@HNTs exhibit excellent broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and inactivation efficiency, while shows weak cytotoxicity. These hybrids were further applied in the processing of functional antibacterial fibers and fabrics. Thus, we believe that this excellent antibacterial hybrid is practically attractive in this critical time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Study on Weak Edge Detection of COVID-19's CT Images Based on Histogram Equalization and Improved Canny Algorithm.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a substantial threat to people's lives and health due to its high infectivity and rapid spread. Computed tomography (CT) scan is one of the important auxiliary methods for the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19. However, CT image lesion edge is normally affected by pixels with uneven grayscale and isolated noise, which makes weak edge detection of the COVID-19 lesion more complicated. In order to solve this problem, an edge detection method is proposed, which combines the histogram equalization and the improved Canny algorithm. Specifically, the histogram equalization is applied to enhance image contrast. In the improved Canny algorithm, the median filter, instead of the Gaussian filter, is used to remove the isolated noise points. The K-means algorithm is applied to separate the image background and edge. And the Canny algorithm is improved continuously by combining the mathematical morphology and the maximum between class variance method (OTSU). On selecting four types of lesion images from COVID-CT date set, MSE, MAE, SNR, and the running time are applied to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The average values of these evaluation indicators are 1.7322, 7.9010, 57.1241, and 5.4887, respectively. Compared with other three methods, these values indicate that the proposed method achieves better result. The experimental results prove that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect the weak edge of the lesion, which is helpful for the diagnosis of COVID-19.

Differences in the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients in the epicenter and peripheral areas of the pandemic from China: a retrospective, large-sample, comparative analysis.

BACKGROUND: There is limited information on the difference in epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan (the epicenter) and Sichuan (the peripheral area) in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted to investigate the differences in the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 between the epicenter and peripheral areas of pandemic and thereby generate information that would be potentially helpful in formulating clinical practice recommendations to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The Sichuan & Wuhan Collaboration Research Group for COVID-19 established two retrospective cohorts that separately reflect the epicenter and peripheral area during the early pandemic. The epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients in the two groups were compared. Multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with regard to the outcomes. RESULTS: The Wuhan (epicenter) cohort included 710 randomly selected patients, and the peripheral (Sichuan) cohort included 474 consecutive patients. A higher proportion of patients from the periphery had upper airway symptoms, whereas a lower proportion of patients in the epicenter had lower airway symptoms and comorbidities. Patients in the epicenter had a higher risk of death (aOR=7.64), intensive care unit (ICU) admission (aOR=1.66), delayed time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission (aOR=6.29 and aOR=8.03, respectively), and prolonged duration of viral shedding (aOR=1.64). CONCLUSIONS: The worse outcomes in the epicenter could be explained by the prolonged time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission. This could potentially have been associated with elevated systemic inflammation secondary to organ dysfunction and prolonged duration of virus shedding independent of age and comorbidities. Thus, early supportive care could achieve better clinical outcomes.