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In recent years, environmental degradation and the COVID-19 pandemic have seriously affected economic development and social stability. Addressing the impact of major public health events on residents' willingness to pay for environmental protection (WTPEP) and analyzing the drivers are necessary for improving human well-being and environmental sustainability. We designed a questionnaire to analyze the change in residents' WTPEP before and during COVID-19 and an established ordinary least squares (OLS), spatial lag model (SLM), spatial error model (SEM), geographically weighted regression (GWR), and multiscale GWR to explore driver factors and scale effects of WTPEP based on the theory of environment Kuznets curve (EKC). The results show that (1) WTPEP is 0–20,000 yuan before COVID-19 and 0–50,000 yuan during COVID-19. Residents' WTPEP improved during COVID-19, which indicates that residents' demand for an ecological environment is increasing;(2) The shapes and inflection points of the relationships between income and WTPEP are spatially heterogeneous before and during COVID-19, but the northern WTPEP is larger than southern, which indicates that there is a spatial imbalance in WTPEP;(3) Environmental degradation, health, environmental quality, and education are WTPEP's significant macro-drivers, whereas income, age, and gender are significant micro-drivers. Those factors can help policymakers better understand which factors are more suitable for macro or micro environmental policy-making and what targeted measures could be taken to solve the contradiction between the growing ecological environment demand of residents and the spatial imbalance of WTPEP in the future.
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Governmental attention towards the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin has brought new development opportunities for the hotel industry. This study aims to reveal the spatial-temporal evolution patterns and influencing factors of hotels in the Yellow River Basin from 2012 to 2022, based on economic, social, and physical geographic data of 190,000 hotels in the Yellow River flowing. With the help of a GIS technology system, the spatial-temporal evolution patterns of all hotels, star hotels, and ordinary hotels were explored, respectively. Then, the significant influencing factors of these patterns were revealed by using geographic detector and Person correlation analysis. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) the overall scale of the hotel industry in the Yellow River Basin expanded year by year, achieving rapid growth from 2016, and fluctuating around 2020 due to the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic;the overall spatial distribution had significant regional differences, showing the structural characteristics of "southeast more, northwest less”;(2) there was a great difference in the degree of spatial autocorrelation agglomeration among prefecture-level cities, and the degree of agglomeration of both the hotel industry as a whole and general hotels decreased year by year, showing a random distribution in 2022;star hotels were always distributed randomly. Additionally, a strong synergistic correlation was shown between the number of ordinary hotels and the number of star hotels in local space;(3) overall, the development of the hotel industry was significantly affected by seven factors: structural force, macro force, ecological force, internal power, consumption power, intermediary power, and external power. There were differences in the forces acting on different types of hotels, which gives a pattern recognition in-depth.
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BACKGROUND: With the global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in early 2020, Mongolia implemented rapid emergency measures and did not report local transmission until November 2020. We conducted a national seroprevalence survey to monitor the burden of SARS-CoV-2 in Mongolia in the months surrounding the first local transmission. METHODS: During October-December 2020, participants were randomly selected using age stratification and invited for interviews and blood samples at local primary health centres. We screened for total SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, followed by two-step quantitative SARS-CoV-2 IgG serology tests for positive samples. Weighted and test-adjusted seroprevalences were estimated. We used chi-square, Fisher's exact and other tests to identify variables associated with seropositivity. FINDINGS: A total of 5000 subjects were enrolled. We detected SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in 72 samples. Crude seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was 1·44% (95%CI,1·21-1·67). Population weighted and test-adjusted seroprevalences were 1·36% (95%CI,1·11-1·63) and 1·45% (95%CI,1·11-1·63), respectively. Age, sex, geographical, and occupational factors were not associated with seropositivity (p>0·05). Symptoms and signs within past 3 months and seropositivity were not associated at the time of the survey (p>0·05). INTERPRETATION: SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Mongolia was low in the first year of the pandemic potentially due to strong public health measures, including border restrictions, educational facilities closure, earlier adoption of mask-wearing and others. Our findings suggest large-scale community transmission could not have occurred up to November 2020 in Mongolia. Additional serosurveys are needed to monitor the local pandemic dynamic and estimate how far from herd immunity Mongolia will be following-up with vaccination programme in 2021 and 2022. FUNDING: World Health Organisation, WHO UNITY Studies initiative, with funding by the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) COVID-19 Research and development. TRANSLATION: Cyrillic and Traditional Mongolian translation of abstract is available on appendix section.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has global impacts but is relatively understudied in developing countries. Mongolia, a lower-middle-income country, instituted strict control measures in early 2020 and avoided widespread transmission until vaccines became available in February, 2021. Mongolia achieved its 60% vaccination coverage goal by July 2021. We investigated the distribution and determinants of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Mongolia over 2020 and 2021. Methods: We performed a longitudinal seroepidemiologic study aligned with WHO's Unity Studies protocols. We collected data from a panel of 5000 individuals in four rounds between October 2020 and December 2021. We selected participants through local health centres across Mongolia by age-stratified multi-stage cluster sampling. We tested serum for the presence of total antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain, and levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG and neutralising antibodies. We linked participant data with national mortality, COVID-19 case, and vaccination registries. We estimated population seroprevalence and vaccine uptake, as well as unvaccinated population prior-infection prevalence. Findings: At the final round in late 2021, 82% (n = 4088) of participants completed follow-up. Estimated seroprevalence increased from 1.5% (95% CI: 1.2-2.0), to 82.3% (95% CI: 79.5-84.8) between late-2020 and late-2021. At the final round an estimated 62.4% (95% CI: 60.2-64.5) of the population were vaccinated, and of the unvaccinated population 64.5% (95% CI: 59.7-69.0) had been infected. Cumulative case ascertainment in the unvaccinated was 22.8% (95% CI: 19.1%-26.9%) and the overall infection-fatality ratio was 0.100% (95% CI: 0.088-0.124). Health workers had higher odds for being COVID-19 confirmed cases at all rounds. Males (1.72 (95% CI: 1.33-2.22)) and adults aged 20 and above (12.70 (95% CI: 8.14-20.26)) had higher odds for seroconverting by mid-2021. Among the seropositive, 87.1% (95% CI: 82.3%-90.8%) had SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies by late 2021. Interpretation: Our study enabled tracking of SARS-CoV-2 serological markers in the Mongolian population over one year. We found low SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in 2020 and early 2021, with seropositivity increasing over a 3-month interval in 2021 due to vaccine roll out and rapid infection of most of the unvaccinated population. Despite high seroprevalence in Mongolia amongst both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals by end-2021, the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron immune escape variant caused a substantial epidemic. Funding: World Health Organization, WHO UNITY Studies initiative, with funding by the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) COVID-19 Research and development. The Ministry of Health, Mongolia partially funded this study.
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Introduction: In Mongolia, a total of 922000 patients have had COVID-19 infection in the last 2 years, and 2179 (0.24%) of them have died. Mongolia is considered as one of the countries that has successfully responded to COVID-19 pandemic due to its intensive vaccination, hospitalization of at-risk population and severe patients, and relatively low mortality rate. International studies reported that chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases risk of severe disease, adverse events and complications among COVID-19 patients. We aim to study COVID-19 clinical courses and prognosis in patients with CKD. Method(s): We have collected data from medical records of the First Central Hospital of Mongolia (FCHM) from April, 2021 to March, 2022 and data was assessed with the SPSS program. Result(s): We enrolled 125 patients in our study. Average age was 50.7+/-15.1 and 67(53.6%) of them were male, 58(46.4%) of them were female. 50(40%) patients were in CKD stage 1-4 (non-dialysis patients) and 75(60%) patients were in CKD stage 5 (dialysis patients). Among 125 patients, mild, moderate, severe, very-severe cases were 3(2.4%), 60(48%), 56(44.8%), and 6(4.8%) respectively. 15(12%) patients were treated in ICU, 9(7.2%) patients needed ventilator support, and 5(4%) patients died. Clinically, fever, cough, dyspnea, sore-throat, gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue, and chest pain presented in 49(39.2%), 94(75.2%), 64(51.2%), 29(23.2%), 19(15.2%), 79(63.2%), and 32(25.6%) patients, respectively. 62(49.6% of total) patients were classified as severe and very-severe, 40(32%) of them were in CKD stage 5. 99(79.2%) patients of all patients were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 infection. 90(72%) have received remdesivir, 80(64%) patients have had steroid treatment. Conclusion(s): Dialysis patients had a tendency to have complications of COVID-19. We conclude that hospitalized patients with CKD at risk may have reduced the patient's risk of complications and affected prognosis. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023
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In the latter half of the 1980s, PM2.5 pollution in Beijing became a serious problem, and there were concerns about health hazards. It was expected that China's emissions must be reduced from 2013 to 2016, and the lockdown effect of Covid-19 would bring about an end, but it is still reluctant to regulate CO2 emissions. Again, in Beijing in November 2021, a visibility of 500 m or less has been observed, then road traffic is dangerous in addition to health. After that, the center of pollution has moved from India to Mongolia, and now Nepal, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The situation is still serious in developing countries. Image restoration to remove the effects of haze and fog has been a long-standing concern of NASA, and their original Visual Servo has been put into practical use. Though the mainstream moved to the technique based on atmospheric physics. He et al.'s Dark Channel Priority (DCP) logic has had a certain effect on heavily polluted PM 2.5 scenes, but there is a limit to the restoration of detailed visibility. The observed images are affected by two spatial inhomogeneities of 1) atmospheric layer and 2) illumination. As a countermeasure, we have improved DCP process with the help of Retinex and introduced the veil coefficient as reported in CIC24. Recently, a variety of improvements in single image Dehazing, using FFA-net, BPP-net, LCA-net, or Vision-based model are in progress. However, in each case, visibility of details is still a common problem. This paper proposes an improvement in detail visibility by (1) joint sharpness-contrast preprocess (2) adjustment in Dehaze effect with veil coefficient v Lastly, we challenge numerical evaluation of improvement in detail visibility by the two ways of attenuation of high-frequency Fourier spectrum and the expansion rate of the color gamut. © 2022 Society for Imaging Science and Technology.
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In many low and middle-income countries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in providing employment, increasing the level of gross domestic product and export share, and in alleviating poverty and inequality. Therefore, governments and international donor organizations take action to diversify and provide access to sustainable financial means for SMEs and support them in many ways. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted all-sized enterprises including micro, SMEs, large enterprises, and MNEs negatively, especially in the least developed and developing countries. This is because micro-sized and SMEs were more vulnerable to the pandemic due to their limited financial resources and low resilience capability. Resilience capabilities and innovative characteristics are crucial for SMEs to survive and to respond quickly to sudden phenomena unpredictable in advance. Big enterprises with financial and other resilience capabilities typically address and solve any issue in a timely manner. Even if the theoretical framework of the enterprises' resilience is well-grounded and studied extensively, most literature in the field mainly focuses on large entities, and only few have explored SMEs. Thus, this study can significantly contribute to practical and theoretical knowledge, especially for SMEs in landlocked countries such as Mongolia and Kazakhstan. This research helped to develop recommendations that are helpful for SMEs to survive during potential threats such as COVID-19, natural disasters, extreme weather conditions (EWCs), and economic recessions.
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Background: Stigma and discrimination during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have increased precipitously worldwide. This multinational study examines how stigma, blaming groups for virus spread, concern regarding contracting the virus, resource loss, life satisfaction, and protective behaviors that help control the spread of COVID-19 are associated with post-traumatic stress and vaccine intent in Mongolia, India, and the United States. Method: 1429 people in Mongolia, India, and the United States completed measures assessing stigma during the COVID-19 pandemic, post-traumatic stress, blame, protective behaviors, and vaccine intent. Results: Mean post-traumatic stress scores in all three countries exceeded the cut-off that is commonly used to determine probable post-traumatic stress. Post-traumatic stress was associated with COVID-19 stigma experience, personal behavior change due to COVID-19 stigma, blaming groups for the spread of COVID-19, fear of COVID-19, and resource loss. In India and the United States, personal behavior change due to COVID-19 stigma, anger at individuals spreading COVID-19, and perceived susceptibility to illness were positively associated with vaccine intent. Conclusions: Stigma is a collateral stressor during the pandemic. The findings underscore the importance of prompt action to address stigma as a deleterious consequence of the pandemic. The findings illuminate potential barriers to receiving the vaccine and provide direction for future research to address barriers.
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COVID-19 , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic , Humans , United States/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19 Vaccines , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/epidemiology , Pandemics , Mongolia , VaccinationABSTRACT
Based on the big data sample, we found that during the first year of Covid-19, although per month, per person expenditures of female-headed households were higher, on average, compared with male-headed households in Mongolia, but it is not because of the gender of the household head, but because these heads of households on average have more education, smaller household sizes, and living more in urban areas. They also register their expenditures in the VAT e-receipts system more consistently, which means that male-headed households' expenditures are underestimated. Overall, expenditure of both male- and female-headed households has increased in 2020 compared with 2019, while poverty slightly declined. The major reasons for expenditure increase and poverty decline in 2020 a rapid rollout of a fiscal stimulus with a sizable social protection component.
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The results of a study conducted in 2021 and devoted to the analysis of the current position of the Russian language in Mongolian society is presented in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the need to analyze the changes taking place in the minds of the Mongols regarding the Russian language, and to search for further prospects for its functioning in Mongolia. The impossibility of conducting a mass questionnaire survey due to the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection led to the choice of an expert survey as the main research method. The factors leading to the weakening of the Russian language positions, which include, first of all, the change in Mongolia's foreign policy priorities, the search for new partners, the decrease in Russia's influence, and the processes of globalization are considered in the article. It was revealed that, despite the narrowing of the spheres of functioning of the Russian in Mongolia, its socio-cultural potential in the Mongolian society has not been exhausted. The factors restraining the growth of negative trends are highlighted, namely the presence of the Russian in the educational sphere, the presence of specialists with Soviet and Russian education, a common historical memory based on friendship and trust. Analysis of the results of the study shows that the further development of cooperation between Russia and Mongolia in all spheres of public life, the strengthening of political union, economic cooperation and cultural interaction can allow the Russian language to become one of the leading foreign languages in modern Mongolian society.
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The study aims to reveal the impact of three sequential strict-lockdowns of COVID-19 measures on the air pollutants including NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia during November 2020–February 2021 based on air quality network and satellite data. Based on measurements of automatic air quality sites in Ulaanbaatar, we found a substantial decrease in NO2 (up to 45%), PM10 (72%), and PM2.5 (59%) compared to the same periods in the previous five years. On the other hand, up to a threefold increase in SO2 concentration was seen. Compared to 2015–2020, the number of days exceeding the national air quality standard level of NO2 decreased by 55% during November 2020–February 2021. A similar trend was observed for PM10 and PM2.5 (30% and 14%, respectively). Conversely, days exceeding the national air quality standard level of SO2 increased by 58%. The third strict-lockdown exhibited significant reductions in pollutant concentrations. The percentage exceeding the national standard level for NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 constituted 23%, 50%, and 67% during the lockdown periods while it was 89%, 84%, and 91%, respectively, for the same periods in the previous five years. Even though Sentinel 5P-TROPOMI data do not fully reflect the above findings, they add valuable insights into the spatial pollution pattern during strict-lockdown and non-lockdown periods. The study demonstrates that measures taken during the strict-lockdown periods clearly influenced the values of daily patterns of NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 concentrations. On the contrary, it is important to note that SO2 concentration increased during the last two winter months after 2019.
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A knowledge gap exists concerning how chemical composition and sources respond to implemented policy control measures for aerosols, particularly in a semi-arid region. To address this, a single year's offline measurement was conducted in Hohhot, a semi-arid city in northern China, to reveal the driving factors of severe air pollution in a semi-arid region and assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown measures on chemical characteristics and sources of PM2.5. Organic matter, mineral dust, sulfate and nitrate accounted for 31.5 %, 14.2 %, 13.4 % and 12.3 % of the total PM2.5 mass, respectively. Coal combustion, vehicular emission, crustal source and secondary inorganic aerosols were the main sources of PM2.5 in Hohhot, at 38.3 %, 35.0 %, 13.5 %, and 11.4 %, respectively. Due to the coupling effect of emission reduction and improved atmospheric conditions, the concentration of secondary inorganic components, organic matter and elemental carbon declined substantially from the pre-lockdown (pre-LD) period to the lockdown (LD) and post-lockdown (post-LD) periods. The source contribution of secondary inorganic aerosols increased (from 21.1 % to 37.8 %), whereas the contribution of vehicular emission reduced (from 35.5 % to 4.4 %) due to lockdown measures. The rapid generation of secondary inorganic components caused by unfavorable meteorological conditions during lockdown led to serious pollution. This study elucidates the complex relationship between air quality and environmental policy.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had severe health impacts worldwide. We aim to provide suggestions to the government for managing serious infectious disease outbreaks in remote regions having relatively poor medical resources. Basic reproduction number (R0), incubation period, time from symptom onset to confirmation, and duration of hospitalization were analyzed. We compared the compositions of imported and local secondary cases and cases with mild/common and severe/critical illnesses according to age, sex, and clinical symptoms. From January 23 to February 19, 2020 (less than one month), 75 local COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Inner Mongolia. Among these, the median age was 45.0 years, and 33 (44.0%) were imported cases. More than 80.0% cases had mild/common illness. The case fatality rate was 1.3%, and R0 was estimated to be 2.3. The median incubation period was 8.5 days. There was a significant difference in the incubation period between imported and local secondary cases (P < 0.001). Early and mandatory control strategies implemented by the government were associated with a rapid reduction in COVID-19 incidence in Inner Mongolia.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , China/epidemiology , Government , Humans , Middle Aged , Pandemics/prevention & control , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
This work aims to optimize and innovate the protection, inheritance, and dissemination of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Based on the Internet of Things (IoT), this work designs the music ICH development path under the cultural concept by integrating music ICH with the tourism industry in the smart city environment. Specifically, it innovatively proposes the integration mechanism of immersive scene design of music ICH with smart city’s tourism industry in the Internet of Things (IoT) context. Consequently, the music ICH brand equity evaluation model is built. This model can evaluate the importance of cultural and asset value of music ICH. The comprehensive evaluation index system of music ICH mainly includes four primary indexes (with eight secondary indexes): the live performance, historical value, music audience, and the tourism industry integration. In addition, at the beginning of the model iteration, the pattern recognition accuracy of the traditional model is only 67.5%. Then, the recognition accuracy of the traditional model can reach 72.5% at the 500th iteration. In contrast, the average recognition accuracy of the improved model can reach 80%, and the highest can reach 82.5%. This work can provide technical support and guarantee for formulating and optimizing music ICH protection strategies.
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The world today is facing turbulence and change, and global development is at a crossroads. At this critical juncture, President Xi Jinping put forth the Global Development Initiative (GDI) with the theme "implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda for more robust, greener and healthier global development" at the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations, which sheds light on the direction of global development. The GDI, proposed by China, has galvanized support from the international community as an international public goods to promote common development. Following the historical trends of human development, the GDI breaks through the limitations of the hegemonic stability theory and the free-riding curse to expand and innovate the theoretical perception of international public goods with the right approach to principles and interests. With a people-oriented approach and the basic principles of green and innovative development, the GDI both addresses urgent challenges and attaches importance to enhancing development capabilities and creating supporting conditions to offer a holistic solution to global challenges. Through the implementation of multiple pathways under international cooperation, the GDI will build a consensus on global development, increase the momentum of global development, and play an important role in creating a community with a shared future for mankind.
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This study discusses changes in the open economy model in supporting economic stability after the COVID-19 7H-countries, where the countries are Turkey, Uruguay, Belarus, Kenya, Mongolia, Indonesia, and Mexico. This research uses the simultaneous regression analysis method and ARDL Panel. The study results show that consumption, investment, government spending, and Inflation are open economic models that can support financial stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the leading indicators on the panel only affect the Long Run, namely GDP, consumption, and exports. At the same time, for the Short Run, the open economy variables have not been able to become leading indicators of economic stability.
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Wildlife tour operators often visit natural habitats regularly and remote ones less often. Academic researchers and their students often do not have the budget to do so, or to send research assistants. Keepers in wildlife parks and zoos and ecolodge managers often have the opportunity to observe animals almost daily, but may lack the time to sit and watch for many hours. There would appear to be much scope for tour operations and their tourists to participate in citizen science. There are already numerous examples, from day-trippers photographing whale tails on cruises to help monitor migratory individuals, to experiences such as 'Wildlife of the Mongolian Steppes', a two-week citizen science excursion run by the Earthwatch Institute and Denver Zoo to collect data on Mongolian wildlife in cooperation with local researchers. Potential and actual problems of using tourists and tour operators as citizen scientists have been voiced, but there are ways of overcoming at least some of them. Tour operators looking for ways of engaging domestic tourists now that Covid-19 lockdown prevents many international visits may consider the potential for incorporating citizen science activities that offer their guests a food learning experience, a sense of achievement and perhaps a closer look at some species than would normally be possible.
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Objective: To assess the global epidemic of Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)in January 2022 and the risk of importation.