Policymaker and Practitioner Perceptions of Parks for Health and Wellbeing: Scoping a Holistic Approach

Urban parks provide a multitude of health benefits for citizens navigating the challenges of 21st-century living. And while this is well known by both scholars and practitioners, there is less understanding about the differential impacts of park size, type of facilities, community accessibility, and management. This is the central concern of the research reported here, which is a part of a larger project titled 'Better Parks, Healthier for All?' funded under the UKRI-NHMRC Built Environment and Prevention Research Scheme 2019. Within this broader context, the current paper discusses the results of a focus group to better understand how different park qualities promote physical and mental health. Using a COVID-safe research approach, we brought key park providers, park policymakers, and green and open space designers from New South Wales, Australia, together to participate in an online focus group in May 2021. The recruitment was based on the domain expertise and practitioner knowledge of the issues at hand. The ensuing discussion canvassed three areas of interest: What is park quality? How is park quality associated with health? How can we assess park quality and its ability to deliver health outcomes? A thematic analysis of the group's deliberations reveals a very holistic appreciation of park quality. The ability of a park network to provide a range of health outcomes is central to this view, with each park playing a role in delivering different benefits across the network. Our findings indicate that there are many opportunities to enhance the myriad of benefits and multiple ways to gain them. Co-design is essential to ensure that parks best suit the local context and provide relevant benefits to all stakeholders. In this way, local communities can gain ownership and enhanced agency in relation to using and enjoying their parks. We conclude that delivering locally networked parks and associated spaces for community health and wellbeing are essential in the broader context of global environmental sustainability.

Clinical Classification and Diagnosis of COVID-19

The latency of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is usually 1–14 days. Most patients show symptoms within 3–7 days based on the report from the current epidemiological survey. In the early stage of the disease, fever, dry cough, and fatigue are the main manifestations. Some patients may also experience additional symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, pharyngeal pain, myalgia, and diarrhea. However, there are a significant number of individuals carrying SARS-CoV-2 who may not exhibit these symptoms. It is particularly important to identify these asymptomatic patients (asymptomatic infections) due to their potential close contact with healthy populations and possible transmission of SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 patients in the severe condition often have dyspnea and/or hypoxemia one week after the disease onset. Severe patients can rapidly develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock, metabolic acidosis, coagulation dysfunction, and multiple organ failure (MOF). It is worth noting that severe and critical patients may only present moderate and low fever, or even no obvious fever. The symptoms of children are relatively mild. Some children and newborns may have atypical symptoms, such as vomiting, diarrhea, and other abnormal digestive tract conditions, or only show poor energy and shortness of breath. Mild es may only show low fever, mild fatigue, and other symptoms, such as mild weakness, without pneumonia. Overall, most patients have a good prognosis, while a few patients were in the critical condition. The prognosis of the elderly and those with chronic basic diseases is poor. The clinical progress of COVID-19 in maternal women is similar to that of the same age group. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Imaging Features of COVID-19 in Children

The incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus name of COVID-19) infection for children is significantly lower than that for adults with clear characteristic of clustering in terms of the incidence rate of such disease. A definite history of aggregation in infected families can be found for most children who are suffering from such disease [1–5]. Comparing with the clinical characteristics of adult patients, the clinical symptoms of the confirmed child es are relatively mild with fast recovery, shorter detoxification time, and favorable prognosis. Most child patients only show the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection and are also self-limiting, while for some children and newborn babies, their symptoms may not typical, including emesis, diarrhea, etc., the symptoms of digestive tract, or merely weak in spirit and tachypnea [6]. An epidemiologic study of 2135 es of children (less than 18 years old) infected with COVID-19 has found that more than 90% of the child patients are either patients with no symptom or patients with mild to average symptoms, wherein the asymptomatic es account for about 13% [5]. Though the incidence rate of severe or critical e is low for children, the pediatricians still need to attach importance to and have close monitoring of it, especially for child patients with certain underlying medical conditions, efforts should be made to ensure early identification and timely medical treatment. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Differentiating COVID-19 CT Manifestations from Other Types of Pneumonia

In the early days of COVID-19 pandemic in China, the RT-PCR test reported only 59–71% positive es among those tested [1, 2]. However, among the patients admitted to the hospitals, there were some patients with typical imaging features of viral pneumonia, but negative test results for RT-PCR tests, even after being tested for several times. The accuracy of nucleic acid RT-PCR test depends on the time of infection, samples and sampling method, quality of the reagent, and different interpretation standards. Thus, RT-PCR tests are often conducted repeatedly if patients have the typical imaging features of pneumonia. The CT manifestations of COVID-19 are mainly that of interstitial pneumonia. The distribution, shape, density, and bronchial and vascular manifestations of lesions are typical, but not specific to COVID-19. Therefore, it is necessary to make differential diagnosis to distinguish COVID-19 from other lung infections with similar CT manifestations, such as pneumonia caused by influenza A (H1N1), avian influenza (H7N9), influenza B, adenovirus, cytomegalovirus, and others (Table 8.1). The application of thoracic CT to COVID-19 diagnosis and imaging assessment of pulmonary infection and damage can add value to clinical management of patients with COVID-19. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Overview of the COVID-19

The novel coronavirus that caused pandemic in 2020 started from a number of cases of unexplained pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December of 2019. Unlike the other human coronavirus previously reported, this new strain of coronavirus is much more contagious and rapidly spread in the city of Wuhan and subsequently various regions of China from the epicenter of Wuhan. Within several weeks, many countries of Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania reported the confirmed cases with the worldwide total number quickly rising to over 5.35 million and more than 343,000 deaths on May 24, 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) initially named this novel coronavirus as "2019 Novel Coronavirus” (2019-nCoV) on January 12, 2020. National Health Commission of China named the pneumonia caused by 2019-nCoV as Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) on January 20, 2020. In the meantime, National Health Commission of China issued an announcement to include this disease in the category B infectious diseases as stipulated in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, but to manage this disease according to Class A infectious diseases. On February 11, 2020, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, announced the revised name of the pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus as "Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19). At the same time, the International Committee for Virus Classification named the novel coronavirus "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2). Given the high incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the rapid increase of the cases globally, WHO officially declared on March 11, 2020 in Geneva that the COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has the characteristics of a global pandemic. At present, the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is still under investigation. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Typical es of COVID-19 Pneumonia in Adult

Medical History and Clinical Manifestation © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Diagnostic Imaging of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia

This book presents radiological findings in patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19). It starts with a general review of COVID-19 Pneumonia discovery, including etiology characteristics, transmission routes and pathogenic mechanisms. In the following chapters, details in clinical classification, imaging manifestations in different groups, and imaging features of family aggregated coronavirus pneumonia are introduced. In addition, key points in differential diagnosis of COVID-19 Pneumonia are summarized in the last chapter. The book provides a valuable reference source for radiologists and doctors working in the area of COVID-19 Pneumonia. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Imaging Features of COVID-19 in Elder People

It has been generally reported that elderly individuals, especially those with underlying disease, are most vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. After being infected with SARS-CoV-2, elderly patients, typically aged over 65, are more prone to severe symptoms and conditions, requiring care at the intensive care unit (ICU) [1, 2]. The elderly COVID-19 patients usually have poor outcomes with higher mortality than other age groups. A recent report from studying 339 elderly COVID-19 patients found that more than 70% of the enrolled patients were in severe or critical conditions, while 42.8% developed complication with bacterial infection. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was reported in 21.0% of these patients. The mortality rate was 19.2% [3]. Another retrospective study on 113 deceased patients found that more than 83% of them were aged 60 or older [4]. This may be related to the weakened immune system and respiratory function of the elderly. Accordingly, the CT imaging manifestation of elderly patients appears severer and more progressive than that of young and middle-aged patients. The inflammation is mostly subpleural and often involving bilateral lungs, mainly presenting as ground-glass opacities (GGO) and consolidations in pulmonary CT. As the disease is rapidly progressive, diffuse bilateral lesions could develop in 4–7 days [5]. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.

Implementation of radiotherapy in a tertiary hospital in Zhejiang province during the epidemic of COVID-19.

Objective: To explore the clinical practice of delivering radiotherapy during the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19). Method(s): During this epidemic period, available method including but not limited to: strict disinfection, body temperature monitoring and staff training of relevant knowledge, were used to ensure the safety of radiotherapy treatment. Statistical analysis was performed to study the relevant data including proportion of patients receiving radiotherapy for different purposes, time from scanning to the first time of radiation delivery and degree of satisfaction in the view of staffs and patients, respectively. Result(s): A total of 60 patients received radiation therapy in the department of radiotherapy of Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital (2020-02-11). Compared with the same period in 2019 (after the Spring Festival), the total number of patients receiving radiotherapy was decreased from 72 to 60(83.3%). Among them, the number of patients receiving palliative radiation therapy decreased significantly, while the proportion of radical, preoperative and/or postoperative radiotherapy/radiochemotherapy did not significantly decrease. There was significant difference between two years (chi2=6.967, P<0.05). The median time for newly admitted patients to receive radiotherapy was two days, which was not significantly longer than the interval in 2019 (P>0.05). Staff and patients were generally satisfied with the current prevention measures. Conclusion(s): Using a variety of prevention and control method, and taking full account of medical safety and patient benefits, radiation-related activities can be carried out during the epidemic.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Airport terminal passenger forecast under the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks: A case study from China

Passengers significantly affect airport terminal energy consumption and indoor environmental quality. Accurate passenger forecasting provides important insights for airport terminals to optimize their operation and management. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the uncertainty in airport passenger since 2020. There are insufficient studies to investigate which pandemic-related variables should be considered in forecasting airport passenger trends under the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks. In this study, the interrelationship between COVID-19 pandemic trends and passenger traffic at a major airport terminal in China was analyzed on a day-by-day basis. During COVID-19 outbreaks, three stages of passenger change were identified and characterized, i.e., the decline stage, the stabilization stage, and the recovery stage. A typical "sudden drop and slow recovery” pattern of passenger traffic was identified. A LightGBM model including pandemic variables was developed to forecast short-term daily passenger traffic at the airport terminal. The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values was used to quantify the contribution of input pandemic variables. Results indicated the inclusion of pandemic variables reduced the model error by 27.7% compared to a baseline model. The cumulative numbers of COVID-19 cases in previous weeks were found to be stronger predictors of future passenger traffic than daily COVID-19 cases in the most recent week. In addition, the impact of pandemic control policies and passengers' travel behavior was discussed. Our empirical findings provide important implications for airport terminal operations in response to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022

Cryptocurrency spectrum and 2020 pandemic: Contagion analysis

While several studies evaluate the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic on different markets, it is worth the while to also examine its contagion (fractal) effect on the top (based on their market capitalization) twenty cryptocurrency markets. These cryptocurrency markets' information (return and volatility) were sampled for both the ex-ante and ex-post coronavirus outbreak periods for this event study analysis. The detrended cross-correlation approaches are employed for both the main and robustness analyses. The results are robust and confirm a significant fractal contagion effect of the pandemic on the cryptocurrency space through their return and volatility. The contagion effect is relatively stronger for the crypto markets' volatilities compared to the returns, nonetheless. Hence, this study supports the contagious effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the cryptocurrency markets and its policy implications for investors in the crypto space. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

Cryptocurrency spectrum and 2020 pandemic: Contagion analysis

While several studies evaluate the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic on different markets, it is worth the while to also examine its contagion (fractal) effect on the top (based on their market capitalization) twenty cryptocurrency markets. These cryptocurrency markets' information (return and volatility) were sampled for both the ex-ante and ex-post coronavirus outbreak periods for this event study analysis. The detrended cross-correlation approaches are employed for both the main and robustness analyses. The results are robust and confirm a significant fractal contagion effect of the pandemic on the cryptocurrency space through their return and volatility. The contagion effect is relatively stronger for the crypto markets’ volatilities compared to the returns, nonetheless. Hence, this study supports the contagious effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the cryptocurrency markets and its policy implications for investors in the crypto space.

Optimal Epidemic Control as a Contextual Combinatorial Bandit with Budget

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is an open challenge and critical practical problem to find a optimal way to dynamically prescribe the best policies that balance both the governmental resources and epidemic control in different countries and regions. To solve this multi-dimensional tradeoff of exploitation and exploration, we formulate this technical challenge as a contextual combinatorial bandit problem that jointly optimizes a multi-criteria reward function. Given the historical daily cases in a region and the past intervention plans in place, the agent should generate useful intervention plans that policy makers can implement in real time to minimizing both the number of daily COVID-19 cases and the stringency of the recommended interventions. We prove this concept with simulations of multiple realistic policy making scenarios and demonstrate a clear advantage in providing a pareto optimal solution in the epidemic intervention problem. (1)

The Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement with Ballistocardiogram and Photoplethysmogram

In order to decrease the infection of COVID-19 virus, people must frequency wash the hands or decrease the times of touching the public things. The blood pressure (BP) and weight are the important parameters under the healthy management. The goal of this study is to measure BP with a weight scale. The Ballistocardiogram and photoplethysmogram (PPG) were measured to extract the pulse transit time (PTT) that was used to estimate BP. The results show that the performances of proposed method were close to the reference method, using the electrocardiogram and PPG. Thus, the proposed method can decrease the infected risk when measuring BP with the cuff. © 2022 IEEE.

Work in Progress: Programmable Online Experiment Platform for Intelligent Information Network Courses: A Case Study

Engineering practice education for college students is very important in the higher education system. It requires students to carry out practical and innovative learning except for knowledge. However, the traditional offline education cannot provide enough practice opportunities for students, which limits students' in-depth concept understanding and restricts their practical ability and innovative thinking. During the period of COVID-19 spreading, the course can be taken online;but it will be quite difficult for conducting experiments, especially for the courses in the electronic and telecommunication systems, which usually requires expensive equipment. In this paper, taking the course "Intelligent Information Network" as example, we designed and implemented an online experiment platform, including optical switching equipment and data packet network equipment. Using remote programmable techniques and separated Algorithm Center, this platform allows students to deploy their own algorithm into the physical telecommunication equipment in web-based approach, and validate the network performance.

Practical Analysis on the Integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture into Ideological Education in Colleges and Universities

Colleges and universities are not only an important base for cultivating young talents, but also the forefront of ideological education. Strengthening ideological education in colleges and universities is related to the long-term peace and stability of the party and the country. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a great creation of the Chinese nation and a treasure of ancient Chinese science. In the face of COVID-19, the TCM delivered in a satisfactory answer, which once again blessed the life and health of the people. TCM culture condenses the experience and wisdom of the Chinese nation for nearly one thousand years, and has unique national characteristics and spiritual pursuit. It is a great creation of Chinese culture. In the context of the new era, integrating TCM culture into ideological education in colleges and universities and giving full play to the function of TCM culture as the “key” of Chinese civilization is not only the urgent call of moral education in colleges and universities, but also the realistic development requirement of contemporary China. © 2022, Editorial department of Chinese Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.

The past and beyond of mobile payment research: a development of the mobile payment framework

Purpose: Mobile payment (m-payment) has existed for over 25 years;however, there is no standard framework to guide scholars and practitioners in advancing m-payment research in the digital accelerated era. With this, this study aims to develop an m-payment framework and to analyse the evolution of m-payment research from 1997 to 2021. These were achieved by identifying the motor themes, basic and transversal themes, the emerging/declining themes and the highly developed but isolated themes. In addition, the publication trends of m-payment research were also identified. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 1,999 articles of m-payment were identified from the Scopus database and 8,125 keywords were grouped into 483 word groups for the co-word analysis. Thematic networks were generated based on density and centrality. Performance analysis was performed on the themes of the four quadrants in the strategic diagrams. The m-payment framework was then developed based on the evolution map and a practical guide was built from the framework. Findings: The m-payment framework consists of four dimensions, namely behaviour, technology, risk, and context. Some themes were declining while at the same time, m-payment remains strongly relevant and can stand the test of time. Several new themes have emerged in the 2013–2021 sub-periods. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited in that the study only investigates from the context of m-payment. Practical implications: This study has provided a research framework (i.e. the m-payment framework) with a practical guide for scholars and practitioners to refer to, thus enabling them to embark on future studies without any hassle. The m-payment framework was developed based on empirical data using science mapping analysis of 1,999 articles. Social implications: The proposed m-payment research framework contributes towards more understanding of m-payment ten, usage amongst consumers and thus will help to reduce the rate of COVID-19 infection because m-payment is a contactless payment. Hence, the study may help in creating a safer and healthier society amid the unprecedented pandemic. Originality/value: This study developed the m-payment framework based on empirical co-word analysis. A practical guide to extending the framework is also provided to guide the scholars and practitioners. Moreover, the evolution map for m-payment was created to understand the evolution of m-payment research. Practitioners may conduct market studies to unveil the factors that contribute to consumers' behaviours in m-payment in order to gain more understanding of the reasons behind their behaviours. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Revealing the linguistic and geographical disparities of public awareness to Covid-19 outbreak through social media

The Covid-19 has presented an unprecedented challenge to public health worldwide. However, residents in different countries showed diverse levels of Covid-19 awareness during the outbreak and suffered from uneven health impacts. This study analyzed the global Twitter data from January 1st to June 30(th), 2020, to answer two research questions. What are the linguistic and geographical disparities of public awareness in the Covid-19 outbreak period reflected on social media? Does significant association exist between the changing Covid-19 awareness and the pandemic outbreak? We established a Twitter data mining framework calculating the Ratio index to quantify and track awareness. The lag correlations between awareness and health impacts were examined at global and country levels. Results show that users presenting the highest Covid-19 awareness were mainly those tweeting in the official languages of India and Bangladesh. Asian countries showed more disparities in awareness than European countries, and awareness in Eastern Europe was higher than in central Europe. Finally, the Ratio index had high correlations with global mortality rate, global case fatality ratio, and country-level mortality rate, with 21-31, 35-42, and 13-18 leading days, respectively. This study yields timely insights into social media use in understanding human behaviors for public health research.