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The global tourism industry is struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, daily tourism forecasting is more critical than ever before in supporting decisions and planning. Considering the changes in tourist psyche and behaviour caused by COVID-19, this study attempts to investigate whether the statistical modelling methods can work reliably under the new normal when travel restrictions are eased or lifted. To this end, we first compare the predictivity of daily tourism demand data before and during COVID-19, and observe heterogeneous impacts across different geographical scales. Then an improved multivariate & multiscale decomposition-ensemble framework is proposed to forecast daily tourism demand. The empirical study indicates the superiority and practicability of the proposed framework before and during COVID-19. Finally, we call for more research on the comparability of tourism demand forecasting.
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Ferroptosis is a new type of iron-dependent cell death caused by lipid peroxide (LPO) accumulation and involved in disease of pulmonary infection. The dysregulation of iron metabolism, the accumulation of LPO, and the inactivation and consumption of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) are the crucial cause of ferroptosis. Pulmonary infectious diseases caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are associated with ferroptosis. Ferroptosis may be a potential therapeutic target for pulmonary infectious diseases. However, the mechanisms by which these infections are involved in ferroptosis and whether pulmonary infectious diseases caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Leishmania spp are related to ferroptosis are unclear. Accordingly, more researches are needed.Copyright © 2023 Yurong Zhang et al.
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End-of-life care aims to provide supportive physical, social, mental, and spiritual care for terminally ill patients and their family members. Not only does it help patients approach the end of their lives with dignity and peace, but it also helps family members overcome the grief of losing a loved one. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, ethical dilemmas have emerged within the field of end-of-life care, and it has been challenging to help people experience a good death. This article takes the example of the pandemic-related restrictions in Hong Kong that affected visiting and funeral arrangements. It analyzes the impact of anti-pandemic measures on end-of-life care and the provision of a good death. It examines the ethical justifications of these measures through the Confucian themes of human-orientedness, familism, and death rituals, and it outlines practical implications for end-of-life care under similar circumstances.
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To improve the effect of multimodal negative sentiment recognition of online public opinion on public health emergencies, we constructed a novel multimodal fine-grained negative sentiment recognition model based on graph convolutional networks (GCN) and ensemble learning. This model comprises BERT and ViT-based multimodal feature representation, GCN-based feature fusion, multiple classifiers, and ensemble learning-based decision fusion. Firstly, the image-text data about COVID-19 is collected from Sina Weibo, and the text and image features are extracted through BERT and ViT, respectively. Secondly, the image-text fused features are generated through GCN in the constructed microblog graph. Finally, AdaBoost is trained to decide the final sentiments recognized by the best classifiers in image, text, and image-text fused features. The results show that the F1-score of this model is 84.13% in sentiment polarity recognition and 82.06% in fine-grained negative sentiment recognition, improved by 4.13% and 7.55% compared to the optimal recognition effect of image-text feature fusion, respectively. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
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Objective: To identify which induced the symptoms/signs and laboratory abnormal findings occurred in patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia, by disease itself or by ribavirin and interferon-alpha treatments, through mining the adverse events (AEs) signals of the 2 antivirus agents. Method(s): According to the symptoms/signs and laboratory abnormal findings of novel coronavirus pneumonia mentioned in the literature and "Diagnosis and Treatment scheme of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (trial version 5)", AEs in this study were selected. Related data were collected from the U.S. FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FARES) from Jan 1, 2004 to Dec 31, 2019, and the reporting odds ratio (ROR) method was used for signals detection for the above-mentioned 2 drugs. Result(s): A total of 7 582 463 AEs related to drugs were reported in the FAERS database, of which 31 775 related to ribavirin and 2 345 related to interferon-alpha. The results showed that AEs related to ribavirin in respiratory, thoracic, and mediastinal disorders were nasal congestion, cough, laryngeal pain, pharyngeal oedema, productive cough, and dyspnoea;AEs related to interferon-alpha were laryngeal pain and haemoptysis. In other system organ class, AEs related to above 2 drugs were pyrexia, feeling cold, pyrexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, arthralgia, myalgia, and rash. AEs of laboratory abnormal results related to ribavirin were white blood cell/platelet count decrease and aspartate/alanine aminotransferase increase;AEs related to interferon-alpha were white blood cell/platelet count decrease, aspartate/alanine aminotransferase increase, and lymphocyte count decrease. Conclusion(s): Some AEs induced by ribavirin and interferon-alpha were similar to symptoms/signs and laboratory abnormal findings of novel coronavirus pneumonia, which should be distinguished in the clinical practice.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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As COVID-19 and other infectious diseases continue to spread globally, removing airborne pathogens from confined spaces such as buildings, transportation carriers, and stations is becoming increasingly crucial to curbing transmission and reducing human infection rates. Bioaerosols can act as vectors or media that could store and transport air pollutants and pathogens. To mitigate the adverse effects of bioaerosols and effectively control epidemics, this work reviews the current state-of-the-art air purification processes and technologies available on the market or demonstrated in laboratory and industrial settings, including ozone oxidation, UV disinfection, and photocatalysis. These reactive air purification processes can be used in conjunction with adsorption or filtration-based systems to enhance disinfection besides the physical capture of particulates or the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This review aims to provide a concise yet comprehensive overview of various reactive air purification technologies. Their principles, applications, and limitations are briefly discussed to provide insight and guidelines for further development of new air purification processes to address emerging airborne contaminant issues. © 2023 American Chemical Society.
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Telemedicine has long been of interest to the U.S. general public. Yet, despite the advent of high-speed internet and mobile device technology, telemedicine did not reach its full potential until the COVID-19 pandemic spurred its unparalleled adoption. This sudden shift in the setting of healthcare delivery raises questions regarding possible changes in clinical decision-making. Using a unique set of patient-provider encounter data from the U.S. in 2020 and 2021, we examine the effect of telemedicine on antibiotic prescription errors for urinary tract infections. After accounting for potential endogeneity issues using provider fixed effects and an instrumental variable approach, we find a significantly lower likelihood of prescription errors with telemedicine relative to in-person encounters. We also find heterogeneous effects by a provider's patient volume and the patient-provider relationship. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
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Sexual minorities are increasingly gaining social visibility and legal rights guarantees at the constitutional level across much of the world, from South America, the United States, and Europe to Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on significant mental health challenges for the public due to accompanying social and economic impact and measures, most of them adverse. Given pre-existing studies highlighting the minority demographic's vulnerability to depression and other mental health symptoms, and the increasing availability of accessible NLP tools, datasets, and models, this paper uses an emotional classification model to analyze emotional trends in queer communities on social media. Using KoBERT with a pre-labelled dataset containing some forty thousand scraped social media posts labelled with emotions, patterns of emotional expression on Twitter in the queer community is revealed. Resulting data provided a validation of the viability of this method of analyzing trends in negative and positive emotional expression as well as the impact COVID-19 had on online queer communities in early 2020 but revealed limitations. © 2023 IEEE.
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In order to understand the research status and research hotspots of Scutellariae Radix, and provide intuitive data reference and related suggestions for subsequent research, the literature on Scutellariae Radix in Wanfang Database (Wanfang Data), China Academic Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), VIP Biomedical Database (VIP), China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Web of Science (WOS) database and PubMed medical literature retrieval service system from January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2022 were searched. Bibliometric analysis was performed by presenting a visual map through VOS viewer software. The results showed that the number of published articles of Scutellariae Radix increased with fluctuation in 22 years. Cluster analysis of Chinese and English keywords showed that the current research on Scutellariae Radix was mainly based on chemical composition, pharmacological action and clinical application. The visualization map of keyword superposition time showed that the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus by Scutellariae Radix-Coptidis Rhizoma drug pair and the treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) by Scutellariae Radix were the research frontiers of Scutellariae Radix. Network pharmacology and molecular docking technology are new methods to explore the pharmacodynamic material basis. © 2023 Tianjin Press of Chinese Herbal Medicines. All Rights Reserved.
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The outbreak of COVID-19 has offered a painful lesson to the stakeholders of the travel and hospitality industry. To speed up the recovery of the industry, practitioners need to better understand the factors that influence potential travelers' evaluation of infection risk when traveling abroad. Hence, this study proposes time orientation (future and present orientations) as a robust determining factor. Analyzing 614 pre-pandemic and 606 mid-pandemic survey responses, this study consistently found that future and present orientations positively predict the evaluation of infection risk because of the highly perceived value of cleanliness. The presence of the pandemic amplifies the positive prediction of present orientation on the evaluation of infection risk. These findings extend the literature of time orientation by revealing its influence on travel risk and the psychological mechanisms behind it. Meaningful implications are provided for travel operators to identify the potential travelers. © The Author(s) 2023.
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Non-woven disposable masks play a unique role in reducing the COVID-19 pandemic threat in transmission between people, but the huge amount of disposable non-woven masks generated every day are currently posing a serious challenge to our environment on a global-wide scale. In line with this emerging problem, a series of recycling processes were designed and conducted to evaluate the performance of material recovered from those waste masks for potential use in three-dimensional (3D) printing. A composite filament from recycled polypropylene (rPP) and an additive material, glass fiber (GF), was fabricated by melt-blending processing followed by single-screw extrusion. A variety of material properties, including the chemical/mechanical/microstructure property, thermal stability, printability, rheology performance, and geometrical accuracy toward GF/rPP composite filaments, were comprehensively analyzed. Our results demonstrated that two important mechanical properties, the compression strength and the tensile strength, to a 3D printed object by fused deposition modeling (FDM) from the GF/rPP composite were significantly higher than that of a FDM 3D printed object from GF/polypropylene composites. The specific warpage parameter (Wsp) and the surface roughness (Sa) for a 3D printed object from the GF/rPP composite at 30 wt% GF additive would have printing accuracy of 0.54% +/- 0.0014 and 21.1 +/- 0.76 mu m, respectively, and no clogging phenomenon was observed in the printer nozzle channel during the printing processing, suggested that this recycling method for a large number of non-woven waste masks was potentially applicable in serving as a FDM 3D printing material.
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To control the spread of the virus, mask detection is crucial in public areas, especially after the outbreak of Covid-19 pneumonia. This paper aims to improve the accuracy and precision of mask detection. This study improves mask-wearing detection by adding data augmentation, using the smooth label to replace the one-hot vector, and customizing the network connection of the YOLOv3 network. Through these targeted improvements, the average precision of face with mask detection has been increased by 0.9%, and the average precision of face without mask detection has been increased by 2.9%, which implies that it is a better strategy to do mask detection based on YOLOv3. By inputting photographs, the network can check, with high accuracy, whether the pedestrians in the picture wear masks or not, which will be a good supplementary to epidemic prevention and control. © 2022 SPIE.
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Background. Scarcity of therapeutics to treat Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant raised concerns that structural inequities would decrease access to these medications for racial minorities and patients with lower socioeconomic status. We hypothesized that screening plus outreach would increase identification of eligible patients in these vulnerable patient populations when compared to referrals alone. Methods. A retrospective cohort study of COVID medication allocation was performed at a quaternary pediatric medical care facility between 1/1/22-2/15/22. The two cohorts were patients referred for COVID therapy and patients identified via screening followed by outreach. Screening plus outreach included daily review of laboratory reports for new positive cases of SARS-CoV-2, followed by chart review for high-risk conditions, and communication with providers or directly with eligible patients to offer therapy. Demographic characteristics, chronic medical conditions, socioeconomic parameters, and medication receipt were compared between the two groups. Results. Overall, 51 and 94 patients were identified via referral and screening plus outreach, respectively. Thirty-two patients received medication of which eight (25%) were identified by screening plus outreach alone. Compared to referred patients, patients in the screen plus outreach group were more likely to have moderate, low, or very low childhood opportunity index (COI) scores (74.5% vs 52.9%%, p = 0.009);public health insurance (69.1% vs 37.5%, p < 0.001);asthma/obesity (63.8% vs 21.6%, p < 0.001), and race/ethnicity other than White, Non-Hispanic (79.8% vs 54.9%, p = 0.002). Patients in the referral group were more likely to receive medication (47.1% vs. 8.5%, p < 0.001). Conclusion. Compared to referral, screening plus outreach for COVID medications can increase identification of patients who are racial minorities, have asthma/ obesity, and have lower socioeconomic status. Future studies should investigate communication strategies to improve uptake of these medications after outreach. (Figure Presented).
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Persistent air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) has become an extremely complex challenge due to the combined effects of industrial structure, regional characteristics, weather and climate, and development. Although China's air pollution levels have reduced significantly since the Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan and the Blue Sky Protection Campaign were implemented, the BTH remains a sensitive and vulnerable area. Such large decrease in primary pollution was mainly attributed to the substantial reductions in economic activities and associated emissions during the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, i.e., around the Chinese New Year of 2020. Yet two consecutive severely polluting weather processes occurred in the BTH around the Chinese New Year of 2020, which have seeded doubt among the Chinese public and policymakers regarding the current scientific understanding of the mechanisms of haze pollution. The causes of formation and maintenance of pollution processes can differ significantly. The formation and maintenance of heavy pollution weather is caused by various factors, which is a complex process. Thus, it is crucial to distinguish the contribution of emissions and meteorological conditions on polluting weather, as well as distinguish the contribution of various meteorological factors on the formation and maintenance of polluting weather, for conducting effective attribution diagnostic analysis in actually environmental and meteorological impact assessment operation systems, especially in areas that are sensitive or vulnerable to air pollution. Identifying the specific meteorological conditions formed by polluting weather and establishing a comprehensive model for discriminating atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics can provide a scientific basis for improving numerical models for air pollution potential forecasting in the future. Therefore, in this study, we focused on two consecutive severely polluting weather processes in BTH around the 2020 Chinese New Year (January to February 2020), as an ideal and unique field experiment for the prevention and control of current severe air pollution. We explored the reasons for the formation and maintenance of continuous severely polluting weather in the context of "continuous emissions reduction" and "relatively low social activity levels" from the perspective of the abnormal structure of the high-low atmospheric circulation system. Based on comprehensive diagnostic analyses, we quantified the relative contribution of each key meteorological factor to the continuous severely polluting weather in BTH by using the standardized multiple linear regression method. The results indicated that stable maintenance of low-level coastal high-pressure systems led to higher relative humidity at ground level compared with normal years and blocking systems, which are two key meteorological factors that induced persistent polluting weather in BTH. The abnormally stable blocking situation provided a special circulation background for the occurrence and maintenance of persistent heavy air pollution in BTH. The continuous and stable easterly and southerly water vapor transportation structure provided the BTH with more moisture than normal years, and it was conducive to increased moisture absorption by aerosols, especially under blocking. The "subsidence warming" effect of the high-level blocking high-pressure system facilitated the production of a "warm cover" structure in the middle of the troposphere. The presence of the anomalous warm cover structure in the troposphere facilitated the establishment of stable and high humidity weather, which was conducive to the accumulation of pollutants and continued air pollution. Dynamic systems (blocking systems) and water vapor transportation factors directly explained 46.8% of the meteorological causes of persistent heavy air polluting weather events around the 2020 Chinese New Year in BTH.
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Personal protective clothing (PPC) protects healthcare workers from infectious diseases such as COVID-19;however, there are limited technologies regarding the production of breathable and adaptive thermo-responsive personal protective clothing, which can improve the wearers' comfort. In this chapter, the development of such breathable and adaptive thermo-responsive personal protective clothing is described, and recent trends in material development for preparing such clothing are also presented. This review chapter also considers related technology for the fabrication of such breathable and adaptive thermo-responsive personal protective clothing. Finally, the future outlook regarding personal protective clothing is discussed. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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AIM: This study aimed to explore the thoughts and feelings of Asian American nursing students regarding Anti-Asian racism that they might anticipate or experience during their clinical training. BACKGROUND: Asian Americans have long been viewed as perpetual foreigners and coronavirus disease 2019 has reinforced that negative view. Asian American nursing students may anticipate and experience racial discrimination during their clinical training, which could negatively affect their mental health. DESIGN: This is a qualitative research study using focus group discussions. METHOD: Focus group discussions were conducted over Zoom and audiotaped. The audiotapes were transcribed and validated for accuracy. A thematic analysis was performed using NVivo10. Emerging themes and subthemes were compared and discussed until agreements were made. RESULTS: Nineteen students participated in four focus group meetings, of which, 13 (68 %) had clinical training and six (32 %) were preclinical students. Four major themes emerged: (a) looking forward to hands-on learning opportunities, (b) enduring racial microaggressions, (c) maintaining professionalism in the face of racial microaggressions and (d) standing up for oneself and other Asian American healthcare workers. Preclinical students were anxiously waiting for clinical training so that they could have hands-on learning experiences. They anticipated that anti-Asian racism in clinical settings would be similar to what they had experienced on the streets and therefore, they were not afraid of it. Students who had clinical training reported experiencing a variety of racial microaggressions that varied from "side-eyes" to "verbal assault" and occurred at three levels: patients, nurses and clinical instructors. They reported that most of the microaggressions were familiar to them, but some, especially coming from their clinical instructors, were unique to clinical settings. CONCLUSION: Asian American nursing students experienced racial microaggressions during their clinical training which came from patients, nurses on the unit and their clinical instructors. Nevertheless, the students strove to maintain professionalism and stand up for themselves and other Asian healthcare workers as they gained confidence in clinical knowledge and skills.
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COVID-19 , Racism , Students, Nursing , Aggression/psychology , Asian/psychology , Focus Groups , Humans , Microaggression , Pandemics , Racism/psychologyABSTRACT
Shared micromobillity has been extensively developed globally in the past few decades, but its impact on the environment remains unclear. This study quantitatively estimates the effects of global shared micromobillity programs on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using a life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective. Specifically, it takes major countries and cities around the world as examples to empirically analyze the impact of station-based bike-sharing (SBBS), free-floating bike-sharing (FFBS), free-floating e-bike sharing (FFEBS), and free-floating escooter sharing (FFESS) programs on the GHG emissions of urban transportation. The results show that, with the exception of SBBS, the other shared micromobillity programs have not achieved desirable GHG emissions reduction benefits. Contrarily to subjective expectations, although the rapid progress of technology in recent years has promoted the vigorous development of shared micromobility, it has brought negative impacts on the GHG emissions rather than the positive benefits claimed by related promoters and operators. The overcommercialization and low utilization rate makes shared micromobility more likely to be an environmentallyunfriendly mode of transportation. In addition, the regional differences in mode choice, operational efficiency, fleet scale, and market potential of shared micromobility and the corresponding impacts on GHG emissions vary greatly. Therefore, authorities should formulate appropriate shared micromobility plans based on the current conditions and goals of the region. This empirical study helps to better understand the environmental impact of the global shared micromobility program and offers valuable references for improving urban sustainability.
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Background The BC Cancer Hereditary Cancer Program (HCP) is a consultative service providing hereditary cancer genetic counselling and testing across BC and Yukon. Risk management is available for a subset of patients through the HCP High-Risk Clinic;however, the majority of individuals with hereditary cancer risk are followed by their primary care providers. To better understand barriers and gaps in accessing follow-up care, the HCP launched a clinical pilot, the Hereditary Cancer Follow-up Initiative (HCFI). Methods Between July 2020 to March 2021, 3826 eligible individuals (19 and over) were contacted by email or mail and invited to complete an online questionnaire. Information was obtained on access and frequency of cancer surveillance/screening, risk reducing surgeries, family communication about genetic risk and additional support needs. Completed surveys were reviewed by a genetic counsellor (GC) who provided phone appointments to those who reported screening discordant with current recommendations or who requested follow-up for additional support. Results To date, 885 (23%) surveys have been completed. Response rates were higher for patients contacted by email as compared to mail (51% vs 18%). Of the completed surveys, 60% (528) of respondents required additional GC follow-up. 228 individuals (26%) reported screening inconsistent with current recommendations. Reasons for delayed or missed screening included lack of access to a health care provider to organize screening, lack of clarity or knowledge regarding screening recommendations, difficulty traveling to appointments and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions Preliminary results show a positive impact of the HCFI and highlight the need for improved continuity of care. Data gathered by this initiative will be used to advocate for resources to improve access to early detection and preventive measures, facilitate cascade carrier testing and provide additional psychosocial supports for high-risk patients and families, ultimately reducing risk and improving quality of life for these individuals.
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Purpose: The deployment of vaccines is the primary task in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to understand the public’s opinions on vaccines and then design effective interventions to promote vaccination coverage. Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes a research framework based on the spatiotemporal perspective to analyse the public opinion evolution towards COVID-19 vaccine in China. The framework first obtains data through crawler tools. Then, with the help of data mining technologies, such as emotion computing and topic extraction, the evolution characteristics of discussion volume, emotions and topics are explored from spatiotemporal perspectives. Findings: In the temporal perspective, the public emotion declines in the later stage, but overall emotion performance is positive and stabilizing. This decline in emotion is mainly associated with ambiguous information about the COVID-19 vaccine. The research progress of vaccines and the schedule of vaccination have driven the evolution of public discussion topics. In the spatial perspective, the public emotion tends to be positive in 31 regions, whereas local emotion increases and decreases in different stages. The dissemination of distinctive information and the local epidemic prevention and control status may be potential drivers of topic evolution in local regions. Originality/value: The analysis results of media information can assist decision-makers to accurately grasp the subjective thoughts and emotional expressions of the public in terms of spatiotemporal perspective and provide decision support for macro-control response strategies and risk communication. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Methods: This was a program evaluation study at a large urban VA medical center, where clinician-referred Veterans participated in virtual delivery of CIH interventions e.g. mindfulness and meditation, Yoga, horticultural therapy, nutritional education, etc delivered via cohort design. Using validated clinical assessment instruments reduction in severities of depression, PTSD symptoms, pain, and sleep disturbance, and improvements in stress and coping skills were measured to evaluate program effectiveness. Results: Data was collected from 66 participants (26 females and 40 males) across 7 cohorts. However, data is presented for 34 participants with available pre-post data for all clinical assessments. Among these 34 participants, 30% had a prior history of suicide ideation or attempt. We found statistically significant reduction in depression and PTSD severity across all Veteran participants. In Veteran participants with prior history of suicide ideation or attempt, improvements in stress and coping skills were also detected. Background: CIH interventions are promising therapies in suicide prevention, critical in transitioning vulnerable veterans into mental health care who do not consistently engage in mental health services, often citing stigma as a barrier. In previous work, we have shown that in-person programming of CIH interventions resulted in significant improvement in suicidal ideation and associated mental health risk factors, with high veteran engagement. In this pilot program evaluation driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigated whether the virtual delivery of this multimodal CIH intervention was similarly effective. Conclusion: The virtual delivery of the CIH interventions resulted in significant improvement in mental health symptoms. These findings underscore the importance and utility of CIH interventions in suicide prevention efforts to improve overall wellness and broaden access to care in at-risk populations experiencing health disparities.