Areas within the United States at the Highest Risk for African Swine Fever, Classical Swine Fever, and Foot-and-Mouth Disease Introduction

Domestic livestock production is a major component of the agricultural sector, contributing to food security and human health and nutrition and serving as the economic livelihood for millions worldwide. The impact of disease on global systems and processes cannot be understated, as illustrated by the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic through economic and social system shocks and food system disruptions. This study outlines a method to identify the most likely sites of introduction into the United States for three of the most concerning foreign animal diseases: African swine fever (ASF), classical swine fever (CSF), and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). We first created an index measuring the amount of potentially contaminated meat products entering the regions of interest using the most recently available Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Monitoring (AQIM) air passenger inspection dataset, the AQIM USPS/foreign mail, and the targeted USPS/foreign mail interception datasets. The risk of introduction of a given virus was then estimated using this index, as well as the density of operations of the livestock species and the likelihood of infected material contaminating the local herds. Using the most recently available version of the datasets, the most likely places of introduction for ASF and CSF were identified to be in central Florida, while FMD was estimated to have been most likely introduced to swine in western California and to cattle in northeastern Texas. The method illustrated in this study is important as it may provide insights on risk and can be used to guide surveillance activities and optimize the use of limited resources to combat the establishment of these diseases in the U.S.

Conclusion

The current (and largely unforeseen) COVID-19 pandemic highlights the value of scenario analysis as a complementary exercise to standard, extrapolative prediction. In this chapter, we review our main findings for geopolitical scenario analysis in general, and for Antarctic geopolitical futures in particular. We conclude that the Antarctic Treaty promotes effective governance of a region described in the Madrid Protocol as ‘a natural reserve devoted to peace and science'. We hope to have shown that a classical geopolitical lens is important and relevant to the study of Antarctic futures. On the specific topic of militarisation, we identified some key driving forces for change and equilibrium. How well the ATS responds to these driving forces will turn on its resilience as a governance system. By this, we mean ‘a capacity to prepare for, to respond to, or bounce back from problems or perturbations and disturbances, which cannot necessarily be predicted or foreseen in advance' (Chandler and Coaffee 2017). As we have seen, scenarios are useful in this zone beyond standard prediction—provided they are plausible, rigorous, and robust. It is our hope that like-minded Parties and researchers might collaborate in scenario work, to contribute to the resilience of the ATS in the challenging years ahead. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Digitalization of Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Process of Accreditation of Nutritionist and Dietetics

With the recent global COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, accreditation delays have become inevitable in lieu of the strict travel restrictions. The usual accreditation inspection process conducted face-To-face was affected. Organizations are shifting to a reliance on technology to adapt to the national emergency. The study aims to bridge the gap by digitalization Professional Regulation Commission's (PRC) monitoring and accreditation system to conduct a virtual inspection and monitoring. With all of these said, the specific objectives of the researchers and developers are to develop an efficient digitized system that captures the original one. In developing the proposed accreditation and monitoring system and document management system (website) for PRC, the group will adapt and take inspiration from the Agile Development Lifecycle methodology, which will help the modification and other functionality of the system by using the iterative style in the development of the system. The proposed digital monitoring system undergoes a cross-browser test, and performance test, i.e., Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). These tests show that the proposed system passed the compatibility for commonly used browsers like Chrome, Edge, Mozilla, and many more. The Final Test in Performance Testing showed that the system RTM functions had passed all final testing. © 2023 IEEE.

Optimal Path Control of a Patient for Rapid Infection Testing

In this paper, we propose a path control framework for guiding and simulating the patient's path of travel to speed up virus testing in pandemic situations, such as COVID-19. We use geographic information and hospital state information to construct graphs to yield optimal travel paths. Pathfinding algorithms A* and Navigation mesh, which have been widely used, are efficient when applied to control agents in a virtual environment. However, they are not suitable for real-time changing cases such as the COVID-19 environment because they guide only predetermined static routes. In order to receive a virus infection test quickly, there are many factors to consider, such as road traffic conditions, hospital size, number of patient movements, and patient processing time, in addition to guiding the shortest distance. In this paper, we propose a framework for digitally twinning various situations by modeling optimization functions considering various environmental factors in real-world urban maps to handle viral infection tests quickly and efficiently.

Quality Management Platform Inspired during Covid-19 Pandemic for Use by Subcontractors in Private Housing Projects

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan, many construction sites must limit the number of people on the jobsite or conduct work independently to avoid the spread of COVID-19. The quality of construction may be in doubt with unclear job handover, especially when workers have COVID-19 infection that should be isolated immediately. On top of that, first-level subcontractor self-inspections are crucial parts of construction process management, and neglecting inspec-tion processes can lead to construction errors and poor quality. To improve current quality inspection methods for private projects, a literature analysis was conducted to identify construction quality management issues that are faced in private housing projects. In-depth interviews with small and medium-sized subcontractors of private housing projects were per-formed to understand the quality management methods that they use in practice. Next, improvement measures for quality management were formulated and a simplified checklist for private project subcontractors, based on the practical feedback obtained, was created. Finally, the AppSheet platform was used to develop an inspection application for construction, and a subcontractor was invited to confirm its feasibility. The paperless design avoids redundant human contact, and the re-sults of this study greatly facilitate construction practice, particularly during the pandemic. The main contribution of this study is its investigation of the procedures that are used by private project subcontractors to inspect their work for quality management;its results can serve as a reference for academics in evaluating construction quality management levels and improving the management of work by subcontractors to promote safety and health.

Randomized regulation: the impact of minimum quality standards on health markets

We report results from the first randomization of a regulatory reform in the health sector. The reform established minimum quality standards for patient safety, an issue that has become increasingly salient following the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics. In our experiment, all 1348 health facilities in three Kenyan counties were classified into 273 markets, and the markets were then randomly allocated to treatment and control groups. Government inspectors visited health facilities and, depending on the results of their inspection, recommended closure or a timeline for improvements. The intervention increased compliance with patient safety measures in both public and private facilities (more so in the latter) and reallocated patients from private to public facilities without increasing out-of-pocket payments or decreasing facility use. In treated markets, improvements were equally marked throughout the quality distribution, consistent with a simple model of vertical differentiation in oligopolies. Our paper thus establishes the use of experimental techniques to study regulatory reforms and, in doing so, shows that minimum standards can improve quality across the board without adversely affecting utilization.

Battling counterfeit masks during the COVID-19 outbreak: quality inspection vs. blockchain adoption

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) threatens people's health. During the COVID-19 outbreak, people are encouraged to wear masks to reduce the spread of the virus. With the strong demand for masks, it has come a boom in counterfeit production. Combating counterfeit masks is vital and urgent to reduce the risks for public health. Motivated by the actual practices during the COVID-19, we examine how quality inspection and blockchain adoption help combat counterfeit masks. We find that quality inspection may not be always effective, as the government will tolerate the presence of counterfeit masks if the presence of the counterfeits is not significant. Comparing quality inspection with blockchain adoption, when the spread of COVID-19 is mild, authentic mask sellers may be encouraged to use the blockchain technology, which can increase their profits and reduce the social health risk. Furthermore, we extend our model to investigate the impacts of endogenous quality. Both quality inspection and blockchain adoption can induce low-quality mask sellers to enhance thequality level. When the number of counterfeit masks is increasing, encouraging the high-quality mask sellers to adopt the blockchain technology is effective to reduce social health risk when the spread of the coronavirus is rapid.

Evaluation of Hand Washing Procedure Using Vision-Based Frame Level and Spatio-Temporal Level Data Models

Hand hygiene is obligatory for all healthcare workers and vital for patient care. During COVID-19, adequate hand washing was among recommended measures for preventing virus transmission. A general hand-washing procedure consisting several steps is recommended by World Health Organization for ensuring hand hygiene. This process can vary from person to person and human supervision for inspection would be impractical. In this study, we propose computer vision-based new methods using 12 different neural network models and 4 different data models (RGB, Point Cloud, Point Gesture Map, Projection) for the classification of 8 universally accepted hand-washing steps. These methods can also perform well under situations where the order of steps is not observed or the duration of steps are varied. Using a custom dataset, we achieved 100% accuracy with one of the models, and 94.23% average accuracy for all models. We also developed a real-time robust data acquisition technique where RGB and depth streams from Kinect 2.0 camera were utilized. Results showed that with the proposed methods and data models, efficient hand hygiene control is possible.

Blockchain-Based Security Check Framework in the State of the COVID-19 Epidemic

At present, one of the effective ways to deal with the widespread of COVID-19 is to control the source of infection. As the gate of population flow in various places, the security inspection department plays a vital role in screening positive patients in the population;To solve the problems of credibility and lack of human resources, this paper establishes a security check framework based on the blockchain and combines machine learning with the blockchain: the blockchain records the abnormal results of COVID-19 nucleic acid detection and the abnormal conditions detected by the security inspection system (such as no mask, high temperature);Use machine learning to realize mask recognition and other functions. The architecture, data flow, and key elements are presented and discussed. The study findings could solve the security problem under the epidemic and provide relevant enlightenment for the effective combination and application of machine learning and blockchain. © 2022 IEEE.

YOLO V7 and Computer Vision-Based Mask-Wearing Warning System for Congested Public Areas

The impact of Covid 19 cases is increasing worldwide due to not complying with social distancing and mask-wearing rules in congested areas such as hospitals, schools, and malls where people have to be together. Although the authorities have taken various precautions to prevent not wearing masks, it is challenging to inspect masks in crowded areas. People who do not wear masks can be unnoticed by visual inspections, which is a critical factor in the increase of the epidemic. This study aims to create an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based mask inspection system with the YOLO V7 deep learning method to ensure that overcrowded public areas are protected from the Covid-19 epidemic. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Hastane, okul, alışveriş merkezi gibi insanların bir arada olması gereken kalabalık alanlarda sosyal mesafe ve maske takma kurallarına uyulmaması nedeniyle dünya genelinde Covid 19 vakalarının etkisi artıyor. Yetkililer her ne kadar maske takılmamasını engellemek için çeşitli önlemler alsalar da kalabalık ortamlarda maske denetlemesi güç olmaktadır. Ínsan eli ile yapılan denetimlerde maske takmayan kişiler gözden kaçabilmekte olup bu durum salgının artışında önemli bir etken olmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı yoğun insan trafiğinin olduğu kalabalık ortamlarda insanların Covid-19 salgınından korunmalarını sağlamak için son teknolojik algoritma olan YOLO V7 derin öğrenme yöntemi ile Yapay Zeka (YZ) destekli maske denetleme sistemi oluşturmaktır. (Turkish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of the Institute of Science & Technology / Fen Bilimleri Estitüsü Dergisi is the property of Igdir University, Institute of Science & Technology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Editorial Research: Music education in a time of pandemic

This article, written at the time it was taking place, discusses the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on music education in schools, focusing on the UK. It discusses how schools and teachers have had to make a sudden shift to a largely on-line modality, and the effects of these on teaching and learning in music. It asks questions of curriculum and assessment, especially with regard to the fact that classroom teachers in England are having to use their professional judgment to provide grades for external examinations, where hitherto these would have come from examination boards. It questions the ways in which teachers have been inadequately prepared and supported for this, by years of neoliberal undermining of confidence. It goes on to question accountability, and teacher training, raising issues which, at the time of writing, are of significant concern or music education.

L'impôt cet inconnu

La crise sanitaire du Covid-19 porte de nombreuses interrogations fiscales auxquelles les pouvoirs publics ont apporté des réponses denses mais aussi parcellaires. L'analyse des difficultés et des mesures fiscales permet de mesurer l'étendue réelle ou supposée de l'inconnu fiscal.Alternate : The Covid-19 health crisis raises many fiscal questions to which the public authorities have provided dense but also fragmented responses. The analysis of difficulties and tax measures makes it possible to measure the real or supposed extent of the tax unknown.

HYBRID AUDIT AS AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH IN THE AUDIT PRACTICE OF FORESTRY

Auditing has undergone many changes in the context of globalization and digitalization. Under the influence of the COVID-19 health crisis, additional restrictions are introduced, which are related to the impossibility of physical inspections (desk cheks or on-site ones). This has a significant effect on the activities of sectors and enterprises where on-site inspections are a priority, like in forestry. In order to answer the current challenges, the Forest StewardshipCouncil introduces a new audit approach, called "hybrid audit". The main goal of the study is to analyze the benefits and risks of hybrid audits in forestry. This will be done by (1) performing a comparative analysis with other types of audit (particularly financial and IT audit) and (2) deriving the characteristics and requirements of the hybrid audit. The study is conducted based on the scientific methods of analogy, analysis and synthesis, induction, deduction, and logical approach. The results of the study outlined the need for specific, local forestry-related rules and methodology of the procedures for the hybrid audit to be developed. Additionally, there is a risk of gaps in the check and verification of the forestry documentation and resources when using the hybrid audit. © 2022 15th International Scientific Conference WoodEMA 2022 - Crisis Management and Safety Foresight in Forest-Based Sector and SMES Operating in the Global Environment. All rights reserved.

Floating Structure Integrity Management Program (FSIMP) Towards Digitalization

The objective of the paper is to demonstrate digitalization of Floating Structures Integrity Management Program (FSIMP) and its application for the structural integrity of floating structure assets. The framework of FSIMP is being developed by adopting Risk Based Inspection (RBI) methodology and complemented with technical know-how and industry best-practices. Implementing the methodology provides strategic planning for maintenance by reducing the anticipated risk. Hence, ensuring uninterrupted service of the floating structure assets throughout the service life. This paper presents a systematic approach for digitalization of the integrity management program for a nominated floating structure asset. The methodology offers a procedure to acquire necessary data management gathering, risk assessment, and RBI survey plan to maintain the structural integrity in the centralized web-based platform of FSIMP. RBI process is adopted into the FSIMP to investigate all deterioration and failure mechanisms. These structures will be identified by qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methods. The implementation of FSIMP offers a wide range of capabilities in structural integrity management such as integrating all floating structure fleet assets in a single dashboard of web-based platform, clear line of sight for reliable structural integrity, and an holistic overview across all levels of management. FSIMP with RBI methodology evaluates all data gathering to optimize inspection resources based on the risk assessment through an optimum combination of inspection methods and frequencies. The whole process is aligned to the requirements from Classification to ensure reliability for continuous operations. It also observes the essential need of digitalization for FSIMP during the time of post-COVID19 pandemic and the ever-expanding offshore oil, gas and energy frontiers that demand the adoption of new and advanced technologies, especially in the field of digitalization. It is shown that FSIMP has great potential as a digitalization tool and system to integrate with the RBI risk assessment that aligns to the requirements from Classification. It is strategically to maximize the effectiveness and improved efficiency for inspection and monitoring plan. The paper provides information on the solution of digitalization to the Floating Structures Integrity Management Program (FSIMP) in ensuring that the integrity of floating structure asset during the service life is intact for continuous operation and a holistic overview for all the assigned fleet assets in a centralized dashboard web-based platform. In addition to that, RBI is as added benefit to the FSIMP with its structure methodology of data evaluation and risk assessment in order to objectively optimizing inspection and maintenance resources. Copyright © 2023, International Petroleum Technology Conference.

Data stories and dashboard development: a case study of an aviation schedule and delay causes

In this case study, five key processes in modelling a data story of aviation data patterns during COVID-19 have been executed. It started with the collection of secondary data from relevant sources. Data inspection, transformation, and preparation activities, including data cleaning, filtering, and sampling, are all included in this work. Iterative exploratory data analysis (EDA) has been conducted to determine the pattern of each independent attribute, followed by an assessment after the data story is modelled and integrated on a dashboard. The questionnaire has been distributed and the visuals were assessed by giving respondents a few tasks to interpret stories based on their comprehension. The result shows that the data stories have been interpreted in a similar narrative by all the respondents. The overall mean score is 4.71, and this significantly shows that the respondents agree and strongly agree that the visual objects help in communicating patterns and stories. The overall process gives researchers experience and guidelines for future work. Overall, the objectives of the study have been met. Nevertheless, it gives researchers a lot of experience in interpreting data, cleansing and transformation, analysis, modelling the visualisation by selecting suitable charts, and integrating the objects together into a dashboard.

Covid-19 pandemic induced measures in food industry improves food safety as perceived by food business operators in Finland.

This study examines the response of food business operators (FBOs) to the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to food safety and FBOs' experiences of remote inspections performed by official food control. The study was conducted between November and December 2020 with a web-based questionnaire for food processing businesses in Finland. Most of the 60 responded FBOs had made changes to many own-check sectors such as working hygiene (83.4%) and preparedness for special situations (78.0%). Of the FBOs, 47.1-83.0% assessed that the changes in the own-check sectors had a positive impact on food safety and 43.2-100.0% believed that some of the changes would remain after the pandemic. Of the FBOs, 69.8% found on-site inspections at least partially replaceable with video inspection of the production areas. This study shows that, although the pandemic seriously interfered with food production, it also induced FBOs to take measures that promote food safety.

A full genome tiling array enhanced the inspection and quarantine of SARS-CoV-2.

As the worldwide spreading epidemic of SARS-CoV-2, quick inspection and quarantine of passengers for SARS-CoV-2 infection are essential for controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2, especially the cross-border transmission. This study reports a SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing method based on a re-sequencing tiling array successfully used in border inspection and quarantine. The tiling array chip has four cores, with one core of 240,000 probes dedicated to the whole genome sequencing of the SAR-CoV-2 genome. The assay protocol has been improved to reduce the detection time to within one day and can detect 96 samples in parallel. The detection accuracy has been validated. This fast and simple procedure is also of low cost and high accuracy, and it is particularly suitable for the rapid tracking of viral genetic variants in custom inspection applications. Combining these properties means this method has significant application potential in the clinical investigation and quarantine of SARS-CoV-2. We used this SARS-CoV-2 genome re-sequencing tiling array to inspect and quarantine China's entry and exit ports in the Zhejiang Province. From November 2020 to January 2022, we observed the gradual shift of SARS-CoV-2 variants from the D614G type to the Delta Variant, and then to the dominance of the Omicron variant recently, consistently with the global emergency pattern of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant.

Post-market surveillance of medical devices: A review.

BACKGROUND: Medical devices (MDs) represent the backbone of the modern healthcare system. Considering their importance in daily medical practice, the process of manufacturing, marketing and usage has to be regulated at all levels. Harmonized evidence-based conformity assessment of MDs during PMS relying on traceability of medical device measurements can contribute to higher reliability of MD performance and consequently to higher reliability of diagnosis and treatments. OBJECTIVE: This paper discusses issues within MD post-market surveillance (PMS) mechanisms in order to set a path to harmonization of MD PMS. METHODS: Medline (1980-2021), EBSCO (1991-2021), and PubMed (1980-2021) as well as national and international legislation and standard databases along with reference lists of eligible articles and guidelines of relevant regulatory authorities such as the European Commission and the Food and Drug Administration were searched for relevant information. Journal articles that contain information regarding PMS methodologies concerning stand-alone medical devices and relevant national and international legislation, standards and guidelines concerning the topic were included in the review. RESULTS: The search strategy resulted in 2282 papers. Out of those only 24 articles satisfied the eligibility criteria and were finally included in the review. Papers were grouped per categories: medical device registry, medical device adverse event reporting, and medical device performance evaluation. In addition to journal articles, national and international legislation, standards, and guidelines were reviewed to assess the state of PMS in different regions of the world. CONCLUSION: Although the regulatory framework prescribes PMS of medical devices, the process itself is not harmonized with international standards. Particularly, conformity assessment of MDs, as an important part of PMS, is not measured and managed in a traceable, evidence-based manner. The lack of harmonization within PMS results in an environment of increased adverse events involving MDs and overall mistrust in medical device diagnosis and treatment results.

Audits and COVID-19: A paradigm shift in the making.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the obsolescence and vulnerability of many existing auditing practices. Whilst some progressive practices have been implemented (i.e., remote audits using rudimentary Information & Communication Technologies), a new paradigm is needed to not only account for the risk of repeated lockdowns, but also to align practices with the level of digitalization, automation, and use of artificial intelligence in the current business environment. In this paper, we argue that the adoption of new technologies requires a fundamental rethinking of how auditing services are delivered. We argue that new technological possibilities have implications for five other auditing elements that enable a shift from the old to the new paradigm of auditing, namely actors, processes, spaces, training and skills development, and services. We explain how non-financial audits conducted under the new paradigm are key enablers of a firm's ability to participate and thrive in a competitive international marketplace.