Reducing COVID-19 diagnostic errors with dNTPαSe supplementation.

Timely and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 is critical for controlling the pandemic. As the standard method to diagnose SARS-CoV-2, the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) has good convenience. However, RT-qPCR still has a relatively high false-negative rate, particularly in the case of detecting low viral loads. In this study, using selenium-modified nucleoside triphosphates (dNTPαSe) in the RT-PCR reactions, we successfully increased the detection sensitivity and reduced the false-negative rate in COVID-19 diagnosis. By detecting positive controls, pseudovirus, and clinical samples with the commercial kits, we found that the dNTPαSe supplementation to these kits could generally offer smaller Ct values, permit the viral detection even in single-digit copies, and increase the detection specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy, thereby reducing the false-negative rate. Our experimental results demonstrated that dNTPαSe supplementation can make the commercial kits more specific, sensitive, and accurate, and this method is a convenient and efficient strategy for the disease detection and diagnosis.

A modal shift due to a free within-destination tourist bus scheme: Multimodality and transport equity implications

The idea of the modal shift has been central to transport policymaking in the past few decades. Fare-free public transport (FFPT) schemes are among the potential policy instruments that are expected to promote modal shifts. After the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, FFPT schemes have been implemented in large tourist destination areas in China to attract visitors. However, although FFPT has been practiced across the globe, its effect on travel modal shifts and transport equity is still under scrutiny. This paper, therefore, employs the notion of multimodality and indices for perceived accessibility and equity to investigate whether an FFPT scheme in tourist destination areas encourages a modal shift and promotes transport equity. A two-wave survey was conducted before and after the restoration of within-destination tourist bus tickets in the Mount Yandang Scenic Area, a famous tourist attraction in the Yangtze River delta. Propensity score matching (PSM) was then employed to analyse the treatment effect of the FFPT scheme. Our results indicate that, although the FFPT scheme significantly increased tourists' multimodality, the modal share of within-destination tourist buses was not significantly changed. More surprisingly, we found a modal shift from car-based services such as taxis to informal transportation provided by B&B operators and local residents. Moreover, it is notable that informal transport modes significantly influenced tourists' perceived accessibility and transport equity. Therefore, the tourism industry should encourage the integration of within-destination buses and informal transport modes to encourage multimodal travel, which is more sustainable ecologically and socially.

Transport inequities through the lens of environmental racism: Rural-urban migrants under Covid-19

This paper reconsiders transport inequities through the lens of environmental racism. Based on participant observations of 1972 rural-to-urban migrants at 76 worksites and 25 residential communities in five cities in the Yangtze Delta Region, China, we identified two main challenges facing migrants experiencing ethnic discrimination during Covid-19. First, they were more likely to experience housing eviction and, consequently, bear heavier transport burdens when moving. Second, they were more likely to face difficulties when returning to the cities, such as repeated quarantine and displacement, long-time drifting on the highway and transport-related job uncertainty. Although the long-term effects of these policies on migrants’ everyday activity-travel behaviour may be limited, their experiences during the early phase of Covid-19 had a significant impact on their Spring Festival homecoming the following year. Regionally targeted transport policies to prevent Covid-19 have fuelled ethnic discrimination by officially classifying people from some provinces as “dangerous”. Moreover, transport policies favoured some ethnic groups over others, contributing to environmental racism and exacerbating transport inequity.

Perceived accessibility and mental health consequences of COVID-19 containment policies.

BACKGROUND: Individuals have experienced various degrees of accessibility loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may consequently have influenced their mental health. Although efforts have been made to understand the mental health consequences of the pandemic and corresponding containment measures, the impacts of accessibility loss remain underexplored. METHODS: Based on 186 family interviews, a 569-respondent panel survey was designed and distributed monthly from February to October 2020 in Kunming, China. A 3-wave cross-lagged panel model was developed to understand the causal relationship between mental health and perceived accessibility of daily necessities, key services, and social activities. RESULTS: Goodness-of-fit indicators imply that the hypothesised model fits the observed data well: χ2/df = 2.221, AGFI = 0.910, NFI = 0.907, CFI = 0.933, RMSEA = 0.052. The results indicate that perceived accessibility of daily necessities and social activities had lagged effects on mental health status. The within-wave effects show that perceived accessibility of daily necessities (0.619, p < 0.01) and social activities (0.545, p < 0.01) significantly influenced respondents' mental health during the peak of the pandemic whilst perceived accessibility of social activities dominantly influenced their mental health after restrictions were lifted (0.779, p < 0.01). Perceived accessibility of public services such as healthcare did not significantly influence respondents' mental health in any wave. COVID-19 containment policies had different mental outcomes across population groups. Disadvantaged people experienced mental health issues due to accessibility loss for daily necessities and social activities until the lifting of compulsory QR-code-for-buses, whilst better-off populations had better mental health during the early phase of the outbreak and rapidly recovered their mental health after mobility restrictions eased. CONCLUSION: Reduced perceived accessibility of daily necessities and social activities may be an underlying cause of mental health problems. Relative accessibility deprivation exacerbated mental health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic.