How do carbon, stock, and renewable energy markets interact: Evidence from Europe

In a low-carbon context, the connectedness among carbon, stock, and renewable energy markets has been strengthening. This study examines the effect of Brexit, the launch of the European Green Deal and the COVID-19 pandemic on the connectedness among carbon, stock, and renewable energy markets by employing Time Varying Parameter -Vector Auto Regression (TVP-VAR). First, equal interval impulse response analysis shows that in the short term, the renewable energy market suffers from a positive shock from the carbon market and this shock gradually decreases from the initial 1.6×10−3. In the long run, the connectivity between the carbon market and the stock market, and between the carbon market and the renewable energy market is almost 0. Second, we can conclude that the positive connectivity between stock market to carbon market and renewable energy market to carbon market is enhanced by COVID-19 in the short term, with values of 7.5×10−3 and 3.6×10−3 respectively. Finally, renewable energy market received a greater negative impact from the carbon market during COVID-19 than during the release of the European Green Deal, while Brexit allowed positive carbon price spillover to renewable energy price. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Analysis of the Impact of COVID-19 on the Development of National ICT Industry

The raging of COVID-19 has caused a huge impact on all countries. This paper selects China, which has adopted a "strict strategy” in response to the epidemic, to observe the correlation between changes in COVID-19 data and ICT statistics, so as to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the ICT industry. Due to availability of the data, this paper mainly analyzes the impact on telecommunication industry, mobile Internet, Internet business and software industry, which are more consumption-oriented in the ICT industry. In this paper, data from different fields at different time periods are collected and organized into four sets of graphs, and each graph is analyzed using pearson correlation data model and simple linear regression model. It can be concluded that the revenue of ICT industry in different fields was affected differently during the epidemic period. The specific impact needs to be discussed according to the different types of business in relation to the development of the epidemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Maritime Disruption Impact Evaluation Using Simulation and Big Data Analytics

Disruptions in maritime networks may cause significant financial burden and damage to business. Recently, some international ports have been experiencing unprecedented congestions due to the COVID19 pandemic and other disruptions. It is paramount for the maritime industry to further enhance the capability to assess and predict impacts of disruptions. With more data available from industrial digitization and more advanced technologies developed for big data analytics and simulation, it is possible to build up such capability. In this study, we developed a discrete event simulation model backed with big data analytics for realistic and valid inputs to assess impacts of the Suez Canal blockage to the Port of Singapore. The simulation results reveal an interesting finding that, the blockage occurred in the Suez Canal can hardly cause significant congestion in the Port of Singapore. The work can be extended to evaluate impacts of other types of disruptions, even occurring concurrently. © 2022 IEEE.

PVT-COV19D: COVID-19 Detection Through Medical Image Classification Based on Pyramid Vision Transformer

With the outbreak of COVID-19, a large number of relevant studies have emerged in recent years. We propose an automatic COVID-19 diagnosis model based on PVTv2 and the multiple voting mechanism. To accommodate the different dimensions of the image input, we classified the images using the Transformer model, sampled the images in the dataset according to the normal distribution, and fed the sampling results into the PVTv2 model for training. A large number of experiments on the COV19-CT-DB dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Our method won the sixth place in the (2nd) COVID19 Detection Challenge of ECCV 2022 Workshop: AI-enabled Medical Image Analysis - Digital Pathology & Radiology/COVID19. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/MenSan233/Team-Dslab-Solution. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Effect of an Intensive Nurse Home Visiting Program on Adverse Birth Outcomes in a Medicaid-Eligible Population: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Mortality, morbidity, and childhood developmental challenges can all result fromadverse birth outcomes. In regard to these outcomes, the United States exhibits significant racial and socioeconomic inequities, and effective interventions targeting lowincome pregnant people are necessary. A recommendation for expanding home visiting programs has been provided with the hope of improving newborn andmaternal outcomes, and substantial federal funding is granted to these programs via theMaternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program. The Nurse-Family Partnership program is a nurse home visiting service targeting nulliparous low-income families during pregnancy and early childhood. The state of South Carolina's preterm birth rate in 2016 was the sixth highest in the United States, which motivated the state to offer program services to Medicaid-eligible nulliparous women through aMedicaid waiver. This study's objective was to determine effects of intensive nurse home visiting programs on the composite outcome of small for gestational age, low birth weight, preterm birth, and perinatal mortality. This randomized clinical trial assigned participants in a 2:1 ratio to either a control group or an intervention group, which was offered access to the program. The control group was offered a list of community-based resources available to them, and all participants received usual care for South Carolina. Inclusion criteria were nulliparous pregnancy of less than 28 weeks' gestation, income-eligible for Medicaid during pregnancy, and residence in a program-served county. Self-referral, or referral through schools, clinicians, and Medicaid led patients to 1 of 9 program-implementing sites. The intervention, which consisted of a prenatal and early childhood home visiting program, was carried out by nurses conducting home visits with participants from pregnancy through the first 2 years of the child's life. The nurses used activities tailored to the clients' strengths, preferences, and risks via educational tools, motivational interviews, goal setting related to prenatal health, health assessments, maternal life course, and child health and development. Utilization of health care was encouraged when needed, coupled with referrals to health and social services. Ideal visits ranged from weekly 60- to 90-minute sessions for 4 weeks following enrollment and then every other week leading up to delivery. Nurse training encouraged flexible support of clients for more or fewer visits as necessary, with services provided in both Spanish and English, with other translation options. Enrollment for the study began on April 1, 2016, but concerns for the COVID-19 pandemic led to a recruitment halt on March 17, 2020. However, 95% of the target recruitment goal had already occurred, and the remaining home visits were conducted via telehealth. A total of 3319 patients were eligible and opted for enrollment. Upon time of enrollment, 18% of participants were younger than 19 years, with 54.8% of them between 19 and 24 years old. Self-reported race and ethnicity statistics were reported as 55.2% non-Hispanic Black, and 22.4% had not completed high school. Body mass index of greater than 30 kg/m2 was present in 34.5%, and smoking 3 months before pregnancy was reported in 25.8% of participants. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

A multi-parameter-level model for simulating future mortality scenarios with COVID-alike effects

There has been a growing interest among pension plan sponsors in envisioning how the mortality experience of their active and deferred members may turn out to be if a pandemic similar to the COVID-19 occurs in the future. To address their needs, we propose in this paper a stochastic model for simulating future mortality scenarios with COVID-alike effects. The proposed model encompasses three parameter levels. The first level includes parameters that capture the long-term pattern of mortality, whereas the second level contains parameters that gauge the excess age-specific mortality due to COVID-19. Parameters in the first and second levels are estimated using penalised quasi-likelihood maximisation method which was proposed for generalised linear mixed models. Finally, the third level includes parameters that draw on expert opinions concerning, for example, how likely a COVID alike pandemic will occur in the future. We illustrate our proposed model with data from the United States and a range of expert opinions.

How Situational Cognition, Communication Behaviour and Public Trust of NPOs Affect Individual Donation Intention: The Case of Anti-COVID-19 in China

By investigating the relationship between information dissemination behaviour, public trust in NPOs and individual donation, this study seeks to expand our knowledge of individuals' donation behaviour in NPOs' charitable crowdfunding. Through an online quantitative study nationwide from April to July in 2020, we find that the public's situational cognition has a great impact on their information dissemination behaviour, and the public's trust in NPOs plays a moderating role in the interaction between information dissemination and donation behaviour. For academia, this study helps to better understand the individuals' decision-making behind donation. Our model can help researchers understand individuals' philanthropic behavior by providing empirical explanations for the relationship between information dissemination behaviour, public trust in NPOs and individuals' donation behavior. For practitioners, the research suggests appropriate design, launch, and operation strategies to facilitate individuals' donation behavior in the future.

Roles of Primary Care in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic Defined in Policy Documents

Background: The major promise for promoting primary care intuitions to take the initiative to play an active role in containing the COVID-19 pandemic is defining the duties and roles that they should undertake. Objective: To review the policy documents related to COVID-19 issued by China's health administrative departments to make a systematic summary of the responsibilities and duties that should be undertaken by primary care institutions, offering guidance for COVID-19 containment in various regions of China. Methods: In August 2021, we searched the official websites of the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China(PRC)and its subordinate institutions for policy documents related to COVID-19 using "primary careinstitutions" "prevention and control at the community level" "COVID-19" and "COVID-19 prevention and control" as the main search terms. The policy documents containing "COVID-19 prevention and control" and "primary careinstitutions" were sorted out in chronological order of publication, and their contents were intensively reviewed, organized, summarized and analyzed. Results: Thirty-four policy documents extracted from the official websites of the National Health Commission of the PRC and its three subordinate institutions(Department of Primary Health, the former Bureau of Medical Administration and the former Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control)were finally enrolled. They were mainly formulated by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council in Response to the COVID-19, General Office and Department of Primary Health of the National Health Commission of the PRC. According to these policy documents, the major responsibilities of primary care institutions in containing COVID-19 include: early detection and reporting the suspected COVID-19 cases;receiving trainings regarding knowledge related to COVID-19 containment and emergency preparedness drills for coping with the pandemic;strengthening nosocomial COVID-19 infection containment and personal protection against the pandemic;cooperating with the community in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic;implementing health education about COVID-19 containmentusing a scientific approach;health management of priority populations;collecting and submitting nucleic acid samples;COVID vaccination. Conclusion: Primary care institutions play a vital role in containing COVID-19 in China. The local governments should follow policy guidelines, and take measures according to the local conditions to facilitate the primary care in stitutions to better their performance in response to COVID-19 as frontline responders. Copyright © 2022 by the Chinese General Practice.

[Analysis on the imported Coronavirus Disease 2019 related cluster epidemic in rural areas of Chengdu].

An epidemiological investigation was carried out on a local cluster of outbreak caused by imported cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in rural areas of Chengdu in December 2020, to find out the source of infection and the chain of transmission. According to Prevention and Control Protocol for COVID-19 (Version 7), field epidemiological investigation was adopted, combined with big data technology, video image investigation, gene sequencing and other methods to carry out investigation into COVID-19 cases and infections source tracing, analyze the epidemiological association, and map the chain of transmission. From December 7 to 17, 2020, 13 local COVID-19 confirmed cases and 1 asymptomatic case were diagnosed in Chengdu, of which 12 cases (85.71%) had a history of residence and activity in the village courtyard of Taiping (TP), Pidu (P) District, Chengdu. From November 8, 2020 to November 28, 2020, a group of inbound people form Nepal were transferred to the designated entry personnel quarantine hotel of P District which was adjacent to the TP village. During quarantine, there were 5 cases who tested positive for COVID-19. Through gene sequencing alignment, genes of local cases and Nepalese imported cases from the same period are homologous, all belong to the lineage of L2.2.3 (B.1.36 according to Pangolin lineage typing method). According to the results of field epidemiological investigation and gene sequencing analysis, the index case was most likely infected by contact with household waste of quarantine site. Under the situation of normalization prevention and control of COVID-19, sentinel monitoring of fever clinics in primary medical institutions is the key to early detection of the epidemic. The multi-department joint epidemiological investigation and the application of gene technology are the core links of the investigation and traceability of modern infectious diseases. The allocation of public health resources in rural areas needs to be strengthened. We need to improve the capacity for early surveillance and early warning of the epidemic in rural areas.

A Clinical Decision-Making System for COVID-19

An outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, at the end of 19 was followed by a national and global epidemic. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The COVID-19 virus is transmitted from person to person by droplets or direct contact, and there is no possibility of symptomatic transmission. It is a great threat to human life and health and affects the development of the global economy. It is at the background, a system is needed to predict COVID-19, so a clinical decision-making system based on deep learning for COVID-19 was proposed. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Characteristics and Sources of Single Particles in the Urban Liaocheng of North China during the Heating Period

Liaocheng represents one of the most serious polluted cities in Northern China. To investigate the impact of residential heating activities on atmospheric particles, the chemical composition, size distribution, and evolution process of single particles collected during the wintertime of 2019 were investigated using a single-particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS). The results showed that the concentrations of four air pollutants including PM2.5, SO2, NO2, and CO during the heating period were 1.1-1.2 times higher than those before the heating period largely due to the increase of pollutant emissions from coal combustion, while O-3 concentration during the heating period decreased by 40.2%. The mass spectra and unscaled size distributions of single particles suggested that the particles had undergone a significant aging process during the whole observation period. The acidity of single particles was calculated by the relative acidity ratio (R-ra), which increased from 36.1 +/- 13.9 before the heating period to 64.8 +/- 43.9 during the heating period, implying that the single particles were more acidic and less aged during the heating period, mainly due to the enhanced formation of sulfate and nitrate and the decreased O-3 concentration during the heating period. Moreover, R-ra decreased from clean days to polluted days before and during the heating period, suggesting that the atmospheric particles in polluted days were less acidic and more aged. The percentage of elemental carbon (EC) particles increased by 13.6% and 11.5% from clean days to polluted days before and during the heating period, respectively, suggesting the significant contribution of EC particles to the polluted days. Source identification results showed that single particles before the heating period were mostly derived from secondary inorganic source (26.5%) and vehicle exhaust (21.4%), whereas those during the heating period were largely from coal combustion (24.0%) and secondary inorganic source (21.4%).

Study on the Financing Efficiency of SMEs under the Epidemic Situation of COVID-19 Based on DEA-Malmquist Model

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) play significant roles in the development of the Chinese Economy Nowadays. However, SMEs still face many financing difficulties. Moreover, the explosion of the COVID-19 epidemic makes their living environment worse. Based on this, firstly, we collect the panel data from the first half of 2018 to the first half of 2020 of 1531 SMEs;Second, use the DEA-Malmquist model to calculate the financing efficiency of those SMEs;Then, analyze the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic situation on the finance for SMEs according to various industries. It can be revealed that the financing efficiency of SMEs tends to down on the whole. Among them, the financing efficiency of the industries like wholesale-retail trade, the manufacturing industry declined the most. From the perspective of the internal construction of the financing efficiency, the scale efficiency tends to be stable, which shows the good effect of the policy of supporting the loan;The decrease in the pure technical efficiency is the main reason behind the decrease in the financing efficiency. Finally, this paper puts forward suggestions to enhance the financing of SMEs considering the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic situation. © 2021 ACM.

Study on the optimization path of SME financing services in the context of the epidemic

The status of SMEs in the national economy has become increasingly prominent, but due to the factors like their small scale, imperfect information disclosure, the problem of financing difficulty and high financing has always restricted the health of SMEs in China. This report takes Wuhan as an example, which is the earliest affected by the COVID epidemic, starting from the new financing difficulties and the development of banking business of SMEs in Wuhan under the background of the epidemic, explores the methods to guide the three parties of banks, enterprises and governments to improve services, so as to better play the role of alleviating the new financing pressure of SMEs, and puts forward some suggestions, such as promoting the interaction of government and banks' information, establishing an efficient punishment mechanism for enterprises' dishonesty, and strengthening the supervision A series of countermeasures and suggestions, such as accurate product service innovation of fast financial institutions, guiding the docking of supply chain and bill financing platform. These suggestions have important reference significance and practical reference value for better adapting to the new characteristics of financing in the post epidemic era and alleviating the financing pressure of SMEs. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021.

Cognitive status and factors influencing hospital infection prevention and control among medical staff in Shaanxi Province during the epidemic of COVID-19

Objective: To understand the current status of medical staff's awareness of hospital infection prevention and control during the epidemic of COVID-19 in Shaanxi Province and analyze its influencing factors. Methods: The questionnaire was designed on the "Questionnaire Star" website. Based on the WeChat platform, a voluntary sampling method was used to invite online questionnaires. From March 13 to 29, we collected a total of 8037 questionnaires, 30 of which did not meet the requirements and had logical problems, and finally 8 007 valid questionnaires were obtained. Results: A total of 8 007 medical staff were surveyed. Among them, Medical staff of Grade 3A, Grade 3B, Grade 2A, and Grade 2B hospital accounted for 39.6%, 2.3%, 55.3%, and 2.6%, respectively. The average age of the respondents was (32.1±7.2) years old, including 7 199 nurses and 501 doctors. The training effect was statistically significant in different regions, different hospital levels, whether it was a designated hospital and whether there were sensor control supervisors, as well as medical staff of different specialty, professional title, and work area (all P<0.01). The basic cognitive situation of the surveyed subjects showed that most medical staff in Shaanxi Province had a correct rate of less than 30% in whether they needed to disinfect before de-protection and how to disinfect the hospital environment. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that the cognition level of medical staff in Grade A hospitals was significantly lower than that in Grade A hospitals (P<0.01). The cognition level of medical staff in designated hospitals was significantly higher than that of others (P<0.01). The cognition level of medical staff in hospitals with sensory control supervisors was significantly higher than that of others (P<0.01). The cognition level of people aged 25-34 and 35-44 was significantly lower than those aged 45 and above (all P<0.01). The cognition level of medical technicians and service personnel was significantly lower than that of doctors (P=0.02 and <0.01, respectively). The cognition level of medical staff with intermediate, associate senior, and senior professional titles was significantly higher than the cognition level of those with junior and below professional titles (all P<0.01). The cognition level of medical staff in fever clinics, emergency departments, isolation wards, ICU and other surgeries was significantly higher than that of those working in ordinary outpatient department (P=0.01, 0.03, <0.01, 0.02, and <0.01 respectively). Conclusion: Most medical staff in Shaanxi Province have misunderstandings about whether they need to disinfect before de-protection and how to disinfect the hospital environment. Moreover, we found that the awareness of medical staff in Shaanxi Province of hospital infection prevention and control during the epidemic of COVID-19 was affected by the hospital's level, whether it was a designated hospital, whether there were sensor control supervisors, as well as the age, specialty, professional title and work area of the medical staff. © 2021, Editorial Board of Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University (Medical Sciences). All right reserved.

Mechanism prediction of Zhikepipa Mixture in the treatment of COVID-19

Objective: To explore the effect of Zhikepipa Mixture on the treatment of COVID-19 through network pharmacology analysis and molecular docking technology. Methods: First, we performed the network pharmacology method to screen active compounds and targets so as to explore the mixture's potential mechanisms in the treatment of COVID-19. In line with ADME screening index, like oral bioavailability (OB) ≥30% or drug likeness index (DL) ≥0.18, the active compounds against COVID-19 related targets were selected to construct the 'herb-compound-target' network. Mechanism prediction of Zhikepipa mixture in the treatment of COVID-19 was analyzed by the interaction of the target sites, the bioinformatic annotation, and the metabolic pathway. Then, we used a molecular docking model to evaluate the binding ability between active compounds and 2019-nCoV (SARS-CoV-2) 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CLpro) receptor-binding domain (PBD ID 6LU7), which was involved in mediating viral replication and transcription functions. Results: The'herb-compound-target' network showed 34 key compounds and 30 disease targets after overlapping with disease targets. The network topology analysis showed that those selected compounds with higher degree would produce marked anti-inflammatory effects by regulating 30 targets like PTGS1, IL1B, IL6, IL10, CXCL8 and JUN. AGE-RAGE signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway were involved in regulating hepatitis B and diabetic complications. In addition, Folium eriobotryae and Radix stemonae played important roles in the network. The molecular docking results showed that nine compounds were identified with higher docking score rank against 2019-nCoV 3CLpro protease, and most of them were attributed to flavonoids. Conclusion: Zhikepipa Mixture could exhibit both anti-inflammatory and anti-virus actions through multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway. © 2021, Editorial Board of Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University (Medical Sciences). All right reserved.

[Clinical features of 141 fatal cases of coronavirus disease in Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China].

Objective: To describe the epidemiological characteristics and clinical features of patients with fatal coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in order to provide evidence for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Methods: In this retrospective study, we analyzed data on 141 fatal cases of confirmed COVID-19 that occurred among patients in Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China, from January 20 to March 6, 2020. We analyzed their epidemiological characteristics, clinical and radiological features, laboratory results, and treatment. Results: Of the 141 patients (49 females, 92 males), the median age was 77 years (range: 24-92 years). The most likely source of exposure included the Huanan seafood market (n=3, 2%), family members (n=6, 4%), and hospital-acquired infection (n=8, 6%). The remaining 116 patients (72%) had no known source of exposure. Of the patients, 101 (72%) had chronic diseases. The most common comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease. The most common clinical manifestations were fever (n=121, 85%), dry cough (n=77, 54%), shortness of breath (n=23, 16%), and chest pain (n=15, 10%). Less common clinical manifestations included fatigue (n=7, 4%), headache (n=3, 2%), disorders of consciousness (n=2, 1%), diarrhea (n=2, 1%) and lumbago (n=1, 0.7%). In terms of laboratory tests, the absolute value of lymphocytes in most patients was reduced (n=132, 94%), but C-reactive protein (n=141, 100%), procalcitonin(n=121, 89%), serum amyloid (n=140, 99%) were significantly increased. The most common findings on imaging of the lungs were bilateral multiple mottling and ground-glass opacity (n=101, 72%), mainly in the lower lobes (n=15, 10%), with lesions being more common on the right. Other imaging findings included diffuse consolidation (n=4, 3%), ground-glass opacity and consolidation (n=20, 14%), and pneumothorax (n=1, 0.7%). All patients were treated with antibiotics and antiviral drugs. Other treatments included immunoglobulin (n=49, 35%), corticosteroids (n=45, 32%), continuous renal replacement therapy (n=24, 17%), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (n=12, 9%). All patients were treated with oxygen therapy. The mode of administration included invasive mechanical ventilation (n=61, 43%), noninvasive mechanical ventilation (n=65, 46%), and nasal catheter oxygen inhalation (n=15, 11%). The direct causes of death were acute respiratory distress syndrome (n=90, 64%), multiple organ failure (n=24, 17%), sudden cardiac arrest (n=11, 8%), viral myocarditis (n=8, 5%), acute myocardial infarction (n=4, 3%), cerebrovascular accident (n=3, 2%), and acute gastrointestinal bleeding (n=1, 0.7%). Conclusions: Risk factors for death due to COVID-19 included older age, male sex, and the presence of comorbidities. The most common direct causes of death were acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiple organ failure, sudden cardiac arrest, and viral myocarditis.

Risk Mitigation Measures for Coronavirus Disease 2019

Since December 2019, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in China and soon spread worldwide. The once-in-a-century pandemic brought unexpected effect on both economy and health globally. Up to August 12, 2020, more than 20 million cases have been diagnosed across nearly 200 countries. In some countries such as the United States and India, confirmed cases are still increasing substantially. However, China, as the most severe one in the early stage of the outbreak, has curbed epidemic and saved lives rapidly. The intention of this review is to discuss effective risk mitigation measures, with the main focus on those applied in China, aiming to provide actionable and achievable guidance for the fight against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the world. We analyzed, evaluated and summarized the crucial strategies, including risk communication, quarantine and isolation, vaccine and antiviral administration. The above risk mitigation measures have proven to be effective in fighting against the epidemic in China. In light of specific conditions, we believe these effective risk mitigation measures can be well applied in other countries. In this paper, we will analyze the solution to control the worldwide pandemic and even the epidemic occurring in the future. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.