An emissions inventory using flight information reveals the long-term changes of aviation CO2 emissions in China

The low-carbon development of air transport industry is of great significance for China to achieve the commitment of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. In order to improve the basic data of aviation CO2 emissions, this study continuously collected full flight information in China from January 2017 to December 2020, and established a flight information database and an aircraft-engine parameter database. On the basis of IPCC's Tier 3B accounting method, this study established a long-term aviation CO2 emissions inventory of China from 2017 to 2020 by calculating and accumulating CO2 emissions of each flight. And aviation CO2 emissions of various provinces and cities in China were calculated combined with spatial allocation method. The results showed that aviation CO2 emissions in China was 104.1, 120.1, 136.9, and 88.3 Mt in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively, with annual growth rates of 15.4%, 14.0%, and −35.3% in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, aviation CO2 emissions in all 31 provinces and 93% of cities decreased in 2020 compared with 2019. China is in the stage of rapid development of air transport industry, and aviation fossil energy consumption and CO2 emissions have continued to grow in recent years. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

YoloMask: An Enhanced YOLO Model for Detection of Face Mask Wearing Normality, Irregularity and Spoofing

Wearing of surgical face masks has become the new norm of our daily life in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under many conditions at various public places, it is necessary to check or monitor whether the face mask is worn properly. Manual judgement of mask wearing not only wastes manpower but also fails to monitor it in a way of all-time and real-time, posing the urge of an automatic mask wearing detection technology. Earlier automatic mask wearing methods uses a successive means in which the face is detected first and then the mask is determined and judged followingly. More recent methods take the end-to-end paradigm by utilizing successful and well-known CNN models from the field of object detection. However, these methods fail to consider the diversity of face mask wearing, such as different kinds of irregularity and spoofing. Thus, we in this study introduce a comprehensive mask wearing detection dataset (named as Diverse Masked Faces) by distinguishing a total of five different classes of mask wearing. We then adapt the YOLOX model for our specific task and further improve it using a new composite loss which merges the CIoU and the alpha-IoU losses and inherits both their advantages. The improved model is referred as YoloMask. Our proposed method was tested on the new dataset and has been proved to significantly outperform other SOTA methods in the literature that are either successive or end-to-end. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Fear of cancer recurrence is related to the efficacy of immunotherapy and quality of life in patients with NSCLC during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), making the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) more pronounced. We explored the effects of FCR on immunotherapy efficacy and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic in China among the 124 NSCLC patients enrolled in this study. Quality of life and immunotherapy efficacy were compared between high- and low-FCR groups after completing 4-6 courses of treatment or cancer progression. Worse immunotherapy efficacy and quality of life were reported for the high-FCR group than for the low-FCR group. These findings emphasize the need to pay close attention to the level of FCR in NSCLC patients. Efforts should be taken to alleviate FCR levels among NSCLC patients. Moreover, research is needed to investigate the possible link between immunotherapy efficacy and FCR. Copyright © 2022 E-Century Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

The practice of and reflection on hospital publicity in post-epidemic era

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, only through whole-hearted cooperation and joined efforts can medical institutions, governments, and social organizations cope with emergency, convert the crisis into opportunities, promote modern governance and accomplish high-quality development in the fight against the pandemic. Taking the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University as an example, this paper analyzes the all-media communication matrix of "one network platform, 3W + N" that the hospital established during the pandemic by combining the authoritative official website with WeChat, Wesee, Weibo and that other publicity media. The study explores how to create a publicity brand that is mindful, poignant, compassionate and devoted and maintains its scientific and refined management, so as to achieve the professional goal of educating the public, shouldering the responsibility in the combat against the pandemic, and taking the lead in the research on the pandemic.

Practical barriers to telehealth visits in hepatology

Background: Telemedicine use increased dramatically during the height of the COVID pandemic, revealing both the potential advantages of remote patient-provider visits for managing chronic diseases and the challenges of delivering medical care with current technologies. With the long-term goal of redesigning telehealth hardware and software to enhance their performance, this study aimed to collect data about the perceived strengths and weakness of current telehealth technologies from hepatologists and other healthcare providers. Methods: A cross-sectional 11-question survey of real-life telehealth experiences was developed by a team of physicians, researchers, and engineers and remains open (https://forms.gle/KcADxamNMVbUyTA79). It was completed anonymously on-line by a convenience sample of healthcare providers who were recruited via emails and social media (Twitter). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Of the 72 providers who completed the survey so far, including nine hepatologists, 49% had performed more than 20 remote visits. Providers almost unanimously (94%) reported poor patient and/or provider internet or Wi-Fi connectivity, which resulted in poor quality audio and visual connection. Providers reported that 76% of patients lacked a video-capable device. Many providers felt uncomfortable using current technology for conducting video visits including 78% of hepatologists and 43% of non-hepatologists. Logistic hurdles included patients being in a public place (50%) and lack of technical support to address connectivity problems (42%). Difficulty incorporating support services, such as interpreters and/or aides, was reported by 42% of respondents. Factors identified as likely to increase the effectiveness of remote video visits include the incorporation of additional staff who could orient patients to the devices (70%) and navigate them through the visit (81%), and greater familiarity of patients with information technology, i.e., patients being more tech savvy (84%). Conclusion: This study identifies practical telehealth barriers. The difficulty of incorporating interpreters and aides reveals an important equity limitation of current approaches, which disadvantage non-English speakers and patients with disabilities who require assistance. Lack of access to functional telehealth devices with reliable connectivity, as well as lack of support staff, are barriers that need to be addressed for further equitable and effective expansion and optimization of telemedicine technology.

A Report on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Health and Social Welfare in the County of Maui, Hawai'i

The Community Care Outreach Unit of the Hawai'i Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) Medical/Public Heath Branch conducted a survey to gauge the impact, needs, and threats to the health and social welfare of individuals and their families pertaining to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This article presents key findings for the County of Maui (MC) in the state. A mixed-methods framework was utilized for survey distribution and recruitment of participants from across the state. Recruitment strategies included snowball sampling via website and social media, and paper surveys. Descriptive analysis of the data is presented to give a basic overview of the impact of COVID-19 in MC. A total of 883 participants in MC responded to the survey. Approximately one-third reported that they or family members experienced reduced work hours or lost their job because of COVID-19. In all questions related to paying for essential living needs, the percentage of participants who expected to have future problems was higher than the percentage who reported having current problems. Of those preparing for the fall 2020 school semester, expected challenges included lack of funds to purchase school supplies, lack of face coverings, and language barriers. Most participants in MC perceived the severity of COVID-19 to be moderate to very high, and there was a moderate level of knowledge about which groups are more at risk for contracting severe COVID-19. Less than half would know how to provide care for someone in their family with COVID-19. Several resource barriers for caring for a family member with COVID-19 were identified. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a more severe impact on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander groups compared to others in the county. The results may provide a baseline for understanding the impact, needs, and threats to the health and social welfare of individuals and their families in MC. Local stakeholders can utilize this information to develop priorities, strategies, and programs to address the COVID-19 pandemic response in MC.

[Association of D-dimer, inflammatory markers, cytokines abnormality, and disease severity in COVID-19 severe/critical patients in Wuhan].

Objective: To analyze the association of D-dimer levels, inflammatory indicators, cytokine abnormality, and disease severity in COVID-19 severe/critical type patients. Methods: The medical records of 41 patients were collected from a single center in Wuhan from February 8, 2020 to March 25, 2020. The patients were divided into severe type group (28 patients) and critical type group (13 patients) . The levels of D-dimer, WBC, ANC, PCT, hsCRP, IL-2R, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α were compared among patients with different clinical types of COVID-19 infection. Moreover, the changes in the cytokines were analyzed in patients with different D-dimer levels. And, the levels of D-dimer, IL-2R, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α before and after anticoagulant therapy were assessed. Statistical analyses were performed using Student t test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Chi-square test. Results: Among the 41 patients, 23 were men (56.1%) and 18 were women (43.9%) ; the median patient age was 57 y. The age of the critical type patients [ (61.1±10.4) y] was higher than that of severe type patients [ (52.8±11.7) y]; the difference was significant (t=-2.264, P=0.032) . The proportion of critical type patients with chronic diseases, especially hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease, was higher as compared to that in those with severe type patients; the differences were significant (all P<0.05) . The prevalence of dyspnea, sweats, and fatigue symptoms in the critical type patients was higher than that in those with severe type disease; the differences were significant (χ(2)=14.898, 6.972, 7.823; P<0.001, 0.008, 0.005) . The levels of D-dimer, WBC, ANC, PCT, hsCRP, and IL-8 in critical type patients were higher than those in severe type patients; the differences were significant (all P<0.05) . The levels of IL-2R, IL-8, and TNF-α in patients with abnormal D-dimer were higher as compared to those in patients with normal D-dimer levels; the differences were significant (all P<0.05) . Eight patients were treated with prophylactic anticoagulation; the levels of D-dimer, IL-2R, IL-6 and IL-8 after anticoagulant therapy were lower than those before treatment. Conclusions: COVID-19 critical type patients have more serious coagulation-immune dysfunction and dynamic monitoring of D-dimer and cytokines levels helps in identifying critical type patients as early as possible; anticoagulant therapy may improve the patient's condition by correcting coagulation-immune dysfunction.

Transmission dynamics and control strategies of covid-19 in wuhan, china

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus, SARS-COV-2, was identified among patients in Wuhan, China. Two strict control measures, i.e., putting Wuhan on lockdown and taking strict quarantine rule, were carried out to contain the spread of COVID-19. Based on the different control measures, we divided the transmission process of COVID-19 into three stages. An SEIHR model was established to describe the transmission dynamics and was applied to fit the published data on the confirmed cases of Wuhan city from December 31, 2019 to March 25, 2020 to deduce the time when the first patient with COVID-19 appeared. The basic reproduction number was estimated in the first stage to demonstrate the number of secondary infectious cases generated by an average infectious case in the absence of policy intervention. The effective reproduction numbers in second and third stages were estimated to evaluate the effects of the two strict control measures. In addition, sensitivity analysis of the reproduction number according to model parameters was executed to demonstrate the effect of the control measures for containing the spread of COVID-19. Finally, the numerical calculation method was applied to investigate the influence of the different control measures on the spread of COVID-19. The results indicated that following the strict quarantine rule was very effective, and reducing the effective contact rates and improving the diagnosis rate were crucial in reducing the effective reproduction number, and taking control measures as soon as possible can effectively contain a larger outbreak of COVID-19. But a bigger challenge for us to contain the spread of COVID-19 was the transmission from the asymptomatic carriers, which required to raising the public awareness of self-protection and keeping a good physical protection.