ABSTRACT
High surface ozone (O3) levels affect human and environmental health. The Fenwei Plain (FWP), one of the critical regions for China's "Blue Sky Protection Campaign", has reported severe O3 pollution. This study investigates the spatiotemporal properties and the causes of O3 pollution over the FWP using high-resolution data from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) from 2019 to 2021. This study characterizes spatial and temporal variations in O3 concentration by linking O3 columns and surface monitoring using a trained deep forest machine learning model. O3 concentrations in summer were 2-3 times higher than those found in winter due to higher temperatures and greater solar irradiation. The spatial distributions of O3 correlate with the solar radiation showing decreased trends from the northeastern to the southwestern FWP, with the highest O3 values in Shanxi Province and the lowest in Shaanxi Province. For urban areas, croplands and grasslands, the O3 photochemistry in summer is NOx-limited or in the transitional regime, while it is VOC-limited in winter and other seasons. Reducing NOx emissions would be effective for decreasing O3 levels in summer, while VOC reductions are necessary for winter. The annual cycle in vegetated areas included both NOx-limited and transitional regimes, indicating the importance of NOx controls to protect ecosystems. The O3 response to limiting precursors shown here is of importance for optimizing control strategies and is illustrated by emission changes during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak.
ABSTRACT
As consumers become ever more conscious of environmental issues, socially responsible corporate practices, and government regulations, companies are increasingly motivated to incorporate reverse logistics (RLs) into their operations, thus raising the question of provider selection. In previous studies, the food industry generally lacked a systematic reference method for RLs provider selection, especially during the post-COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to develop a comprehensive approach that combines a technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and multi-segment goal programming (MSGP) models to select optimal RLs providers. Furthermore, this method will enable decision makers (DMs) to evaluate and select the best RLs provider considering the limited resources of the business. This approach allows DMs to consider both qualitative and quantitative criteria, set multiple target segmentation expectations, and achieve optimal RLs provider selection. This study also provides case studies of applications by food manufacturers. The main finding is that considering multiple criteria in making a decision produces better results than using a single criterion. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
The domestic passenger points layout method of some normally operating city was analyzed in this paper by introducing potential point importance on the regular COVID-19 prevention and control stage. In the case of the abnormal operation scenario of a sudden COVID-19 epidemic in a certain place in the future, a normal operating city with a transport airport in China is taken as the research object, focusing on all the potential destination cities in China. This paper comprehensively considers the key influencing factors such as epidemic prevention and control policy, comprehensive transport demand and comparative advantage of civil aviation, and puts forward the destination importance index to quantitatively evaluate the layout order of each potential destination. Following the qualitative layout principle of the combination of important priority and balanced development, a "two-step" domestic passenger points layout method is established. The empirical analysis shows that for a city owning 30 domestic passenger points in China, within one month after the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic in Shenyang, Yingkou and Hefei, 10 new domestic passenger points are added to achieve the development goal of domestic passenger route network, and the "two-step" domestic passenger points layout method is feasible and effective. © 2021 SPIE
ABSTRACT
To observe the synergistic effect of garlic essential oil in patients with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in addition to the routine treatment, we used garlic essential oil in COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms and compared their results to those of patients who did not receive the essential oil. We conducted a quasi-experimental study with COVID-19 patients from 3 hospitals. In the experimental group, 97 patients received garlic essential oil combined with conventional treatment. In the control group, 100 patients received only the conventional treatment for COVID-19. The effectiveness and safety of the garlic essential oil were assessed. Compared to the control group, the group receiving garlic essential oil showed a shorter duration of symptoms, shorter time to negative nucleic acid testing (NAT) results and shorter time to improvement on the computed tomography (CT). In the same period, the experimental group showed an increase in the rate of the disappearance of symptoms and the improvement rates of NAT and CT. Due to its effectiveness and safety in patients with COVID-19, garlic essential oil is recommended as a preventive measure or a supportive therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Observed daily changes in CO2 emissions from across the globe reveal the sectors and countries where pandemic-related emissions declines were most pronounced in 2020. Day-to-day changes in CO2 emissions from human activities, in particular fossil-fuel combustion and cement production, reflect a complex balance of influences from seasonality, working days, weather and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we provide a daily CO2 emissions dataset for the whole year of 2020, calculated from inventory and near-real-time activity data. We find a global reduction of 6.3% (2,232 MtCO(2)) in CO2 emissions compared with 2019. The drop in daily emissions during the first part of the year resulted from reduced global economic activity due to the pandemic lockdowns, including a large decrease in emissions from the transportation sector. However, daily CO2 emissions gradually recovered towards 2019 levels from late April with the partial reopening of economic activity. Subsequent waves of lockdowns in late 2020 continued to cause smaller CO2 reductions, primarily in western countries. The extraordinary fall in emissions during 2020 is similar in magnitude to the sustained annual emissions reductions necessary to limit global warming at 1.5 degrees C. This underscores the magnitude and speed at which the energy transition needs to advance.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a novel strain of coronavirus, designated as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It has caused a global pandemic rapidly sweeping across all countries, bringing social and economic hardship to millions. Most countries have implemented early warning measures to detect, isolate, and treat patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. This minireview summarizes some of those steps, in particular, testing methods and drug development in the context of chemical biology, and discusses the molecular basis of COVID-19's virulent transmissibility.
ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze and summarize the use and rationality of blood-activating TCM injections in First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 2019 to 2020, so as to provide reference for rational drug use in clinic. Methods The hospital information system and Excel software were used to analyze the use of TCM injections for promoting blood circulation from January 2019 to December 2020. Results In 2020 the application of blood-activating Chinese medicine injections in our hospital decreased by 20.68% compared with 2019, but the proportion of total Chinese patent medicine was basically the same. Xueshuantong (freeze-dried) for injection is the blood activating traditional Chinese medicine injection with the highest sales amount and use frequency in 2019 and 2020. The average daily cost of blood-activating TCM injections in 2020 decreased as a whole, and the synchronization was more reasonable. Although the use of blood-activating TCM injections has been affected by COVID-19, medical policies have a greater impact on the application of traditional Chinese medicine injections. Conclusion Blood-activating traditional Chinese medicine injection is an important part of hospital medication, and its application is relatively reasonable, and continue to improve the level of rational drug use, so that it can play a greater role in clinical practice. © 2022 Tianjin Press of Chinese Herbal Medicines. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) solution and its aerosols are common disinfectants, especially for urgent reuse of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Highly sensitive and selective evaluation of the H2O2 concentration is key to customizing the sufficient disinfection process and avoiding disinfection overuse. Amperometric electrochemical detection is an effective means but poses challenges originated from the precarious state of H2O2. Here, an atomic Co-N-x-C site anchored neuronal-like carbon modified amperometric sensor (denoted as the CoSA-N/C@rGO sensor) is designed, which exhibits a broad detection range (from 250 nM to 50 mM), superior sensitivity (743.3 mu A mM(-1) cm(-2), the best among carbon-based amperometric sensors), strong selectivity (no response to interferents), powerful reliability (only 2.86% decay for one week) and fast response (just 5 s) for residual H2O2 detection. We validated the accuracy and practicability of the CoSA-N/C@rGO sensor in the actual H2O2 disinfection process of personal protective equipment. Further characterization verifies that the electrocatalytic activity and selective reduction of H2O2 is determined by the atomically dispersed Co-N-x-C sites and the high oxygen content of CoSA-N/C@rGO, where the response time and reliability of H2O2 detection is determined by the neuronal-like structure with high nitrogen content. Our findings pave the way for developing a sensor with superior sensitivity, selectivity and stability, rendering promising applications such as medical care and environmental treatment.