Japanese urban household carbon footprints during early-stage COVID-19 pandemic were consistent with those over the past decade.

As urbanization accelerates worldwide, substantial energy and services are required to meet the demand from cities, making cities major contributors to adverse environmental consequences. To bridge the knowledge gap in the absence of fine-grained city-level climate protection measures due to data availability and accuracy, this study provides a detailed carbon emission inventory for analyzing the monthly fluctuations based on citizens' daily consumption behaviors. Here, carbon emissions embodied in approximately 500 household consumption items were calculated in 47 prefectural-level cities in Japan from 2011 to June 2021. We analyzed the results considering the regional, seasonal, demand, and emission way-specific aspects, and compared the emission before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, the carbon footprints during the pandemic were consistent with the previous level despite downtrends in specific categories. This study provides an example of utilizing city-level emission data to improve household green consumption behavior as references for enriching city-level decarbonization paths.

Negligible impacts of early COVID-19 confinement on household carbon footprints in Japan

The rapid and extensive changes in household consumption patterns during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic can serve as a natural experiment for exploring the environmental outcomes of changing human behavior. Here, we assess the carbon footprint of household consumption in Japan during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (January–May 2020), which were characterized by moderate confinement measures. The associated lifestyle changes did not have a significant effect on the overall household carbon footprint compared with 2015–2019 levels. However, there were significant trade-offs between individual consumption categories such that the carbon footprint increased for some categories (e.g., eating at home) or declined (e.g., eating out, transportation, clothing, and entertainment) or remained relatively unchanged (e.g., housing) for others. Furthermore, carbon footprint patterns between age groups were largely consistent with 2015–2019 levels. However, changes in food-related carbon footprints were visible for all age groups since March and, in some cases, since February. Graphical Science for society Households are major sources of greenhouse gase (GHG) emissions both directly through energy use for transport, heating, and other activities and indirectly through emissions embedded in the goods and services they consume. Changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns can have major ramifications for GHG emissions. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed profound and rapid lifestyle shifts, which makes it a natural experiment for studying the outcomes of such changes for GHG emissions. Despite shifts in the work, socialization, and consumption practices of Japanese households during the early stages of the pandemic (January–May 2020), the overall changes in carbon footprints were negligible. Despite some trade-offs between consumption categories, the general carbon footprint patterns remained similar to 2015–2019 trends and are consistent among age groups. This has implications for decarbonization efforts in that the environmental benefits of changes in consumption patterns might not materialize automatically and be easily reversible. The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant changes in the lifestyles and household consumption patterns of Japanese households. However, these changes had negligible effects on household carbon footprints both on aggregate and in age-differentiated terms. Despite some trade-offs between consumption categories, carbon footprints reversed rapidly to the levels observed in previous years.

Negligible impacts of early COVID-19 confinement on household carbon footprints in Japan.

The rapid and extensive changes in household consumption patterns during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic can serve as a natural experiment for exploring the environmental outcomes of changing human behavior. Here, we assess the carbon footprint of household consumption in Japan during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (January-May 2020), which were characterized by moderate confinement measures. The associated lifestyle changes did not have a significant effect on the overall household carbon footprint compared with 2015-2019 levels. However, there were significant trade-offs between individual consumption categories such that the carbon footprint increased for some categories (e.g., eating at home) or declined (e.g., eating out, transportation, clothing, and entertainment) or remained relatively unchanged (e.g., housing) for others. Furthermore, carbon footprint patterns between age groups were largely consistent with 2015-2019 levels. However, changes in food-related carbon footprints were visible for all age groups since March and, in some cases, since February.

Prediction-based analysis on power consumption gap under long-term emergency: A case in China under COVID-19.

With the coronavirus pandemic wreathing havoc around the world, power industry has been hit hard due to the proposal of lockdown policies. However, the impact of lockdowns and shutdowns on the power system in different regions as well as periods of the pandemic can hardly be reflected on the foundation of current studies. In this paper, a prediction-based analysis method is developed to point out the electricity consumption gap resulted from the pandemic situation. The core of this method is a novel optimized grey prediction model, namely Rolling IMSGM(1,1) (Rolling Mechanism combined with grey model with initial condition as Maclaurin series), which achieves better prediction results in the face of long-term emergencies. A novel initial condition is adopted to track data with various characteristics in the form of higher-order polynomials, which are then determined by intelligent algorithms to realize accurate fitting. Historical power consumption data in China are utilized to carry out the monthly forecasts during COVID-19. Compared with other competitive models' prediction results, the superiority of IMSGM(1,1) are demonstrated. Through analyzing the gap between predicted consumption values and the actual data, it can be found that the impact of the pandemic on electricity varies in different periods, which is related to its severity and the local lockdown policies. This study helps to understand the impact on power industry in the face of such an emergency intuitively so as to respond to possible future events.

Analysis of early chest high resolution CT images of novel coronavirus pneumonia / 中华放射学杂志

Objective@#To investigate the first chest HRCT imaging manifestations infected with novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP).@*Method@#A retrospective analysis of the first chest HRCT images of 106 patients with NCP clinically diagnosed in our hospital from January 3 to 25, 2020. Lesion distribution, morphology and surrounding involvement were analyzed.@*Result@#Lesions were found in the first lung HRCT of 106 patients, with unilateral lung distribution in 11 cases (10.4%), bilateral lung distribution in 95 cases (89.6%), and peripheral distribution of lung in 65 cases (61.3%). 41 cases (38.7%) were distributed at the same time; 8 cases (7.5%) were 1 lesion, 5 cases (4.7%) were 2 lesions, 93 cases (87.8%) were multiple lesions, and 12 cases were nodular lesions (11.3%). 94 cases of ground-glass lesions (88.7%), 7 cases of cord-like lesions (6.6%), 15 cases (14.2%) of coexisting lesions of two or more forms; 10 cases (9.4%) involving one lung lobe There were 96 cases (90.6%) involving two or more lung lobes; 24 cases (22.6%) with enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes (19 cases over 60 years old, accounting for 79.2%); 3 cases with pleural effusion (2.8 %), 1 case had pericardial effusion (0.9%), and 2 cases had pleural involvement / thickening (1.9%). Patients over 60 years of age mostly present with multiple lesions, multiple morphology, peripheral and central distribution of lungs, involving multiple lung lobes, and enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes.@*Conclusions@#Lung lesions of NCP patients can be detected for the first time by chest HRCT, which is the preferred imaging method. Thoracic HRCT scans play an important role in the early diagnosis of new coronavirus (NCP). .