An interactive memorial for healthcare workers who lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID -19 started spreading in the U.S. at the beginning of 2020. During 18 months of trauma, more than 3,600 U.S. health care workers perished on the frontline in the first year of the pandemic. We are losing our guardians who fight against the disasters and save human beings\u27 lives. With deeply in pain the lost, survived people desire to remember and perpetuate the history. However, there is less data support to track health worker deaths in the nation, limited places to gather for the vigil, extend heartfelt condolences and remember the deceased. We want to know what health care workers have done to take care of their patients and let future generations remember those who put their life in harm’s way to make today what it is. This project, which explores a new experience to remember and memorialize their stories, builds an interactive digital memorial that offers people a window to honor thousands of nurses, doctors, and support staffers\u27 sacrifices during COVID -19. It helps us transform our private pain into public dignity and to carry forward the legacies of those we’ve lost

Nowcasting ETAS Earthquakes: Information Entropy of Earthquake Catalogs

Earthquake nowcasting has been proposed as a means of tracking the change in large earthquake potential in a seismically active area. The method was developed using observable seismic data, in which probabilities of future large earthquakes can be computed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) methods. Furthermore, analysis of the Shannon information content of the earthquake catalogs has been used to show that there is information contained in the catalogs, and that it can vary in time. So an important question remains, where does the information originate? In this paper, we examine this question using statistical simulations of earthquake catalogs computed using Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) simulations. ETAS earthquake simulations are currently in widespread use for a variety of tasks, in modeling, analysis and forecasting. After examining several of the standard ETAS models, we propose a version of the ETAS model that conforms to the standard ETAS statistical relations of magnitude-frequency scaling, aftershock scaling, Bath's law, and the productivity relation, but with an additional property. We modify the model to introduce variable non-Poisson aftershock clustering, inasmuch as we test the hypothesis that the information in the catalogs originates from aftershock clustering. We find that significant information in the catalogs arises from the non-Poisson aftershock clustering, implying that the common practice of de-clustering catalogs may remove information that would otherwise be useful in forecasting and nowcasting. We also show that the nowcasting method provides similar results with the the ETAS models as it does with observed seismicity.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Water isotope technology application for sustainable eco-environmental construction: Effects of landscape characteristics on water yield in the alpine headwater catchments of Tibetan Plateau for sustainable eco-environmental construction

Topography-climate-vegetation-runoff relationships are important issues in hydrological studies. In this paper, based on analyzing water isotope characteristics of river water, the influence of these variables on the relative contribution of rain to river water was investigated during one rain event in the Heishui Valley of the upper Yangtze River in China. During one rain event on August 19, 2005, a total number of 182 river water samples were collected at 13 sampling sites located along the principal river course and its tributaries. The analysis of water isotopes in the principal river course and its tributaries showed that new rain water and secondary evaporation precipitation caused great variation in values of delta D and high d-excess increased with altitude. Based on calculations of two-component hydrograph separation using delta O-18, the results showed that the biggest relative contribution of new rain to river water (43%) was found in tributary B, while the smallest contribution (less than 5%) was found in tributary I. According to stepwise linear regression analysis, topography (elevation and slope) was the most important factor affecting the contributions of new rain to river water. When only vegetation variables were considered in the regression model, alpine shrub coverage proved to be negatively correlated with the contributions of new rain to river water, while alpine meadow coverage was positively correlated with the contributions of new rain. This would imply that increasing the relative coverage of alpine shrubs in this mountainous region of China may decrease the risk of flooding. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A Room-Temperature Ferroelectric Resonant Tunneling Diode

Resonant tunneling is a quantum-mechanical effect in which electron transport is controlled by the discrete energy levels within a quantum-well (QW) structure. A ferroelectric resonant tunneling diode (RTD) exploits the switchable electric polarization state of the QW barrier to tune the device resistance. Here, the discovery of robust room-temperature ferroelectric-modulated resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance (NDR) behaviors in all-perovskite-oxide BaTiO3/SrRuO3/BaTiO3 QW structures is reported. The resonant current amplitude and voltage are tunable by the switchable polarization of the BaTiO3 ferroelectric with the NDR ratio modulated by ≈3 orders of magnitude and an OFF/ON resistance ratio exceeding a factor of 2 × 104. The observed NDR effect is explained an energy bandgap between Ru-t2g and Ru-eg orbitals driven by electron–electron correlations, as follows from density functional theory calculations. This study paves the way for ferroelectric-based quantum-tunneling devices in future oxide electronics

Inequalities in the commuting burden: Institutional constraints and job-housing relationships in Tianjin, China

Encouraging transport equality is vital in order to create a liveable city. However, the burden of commuting has become a key concern in urban areas, particularly in developing countries. Inequalities in the commuting burden are accompanied by inequalities in housing and employment, because these institutions have a significant impact on individuals' choices of accommodation and jobs, thus shaping commuting behaviour and causing imbalances in job-housing relationships. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the role of employment and housing system constraints in the unequal commuting burden by using Tianjin as a case study. The results of the study show that the effects of institutional factors, such as Hukou and the Danwei system, help to explain imbalances in the job-housing relationship and the unequal commuting burden. Some commuters are employed by Danweis or have Tianjin Hukou, and can, therefore, live in Danwei housing, which means that Danweis provide effective solutions for some people in terms of their accommodation, enabling them to significantly decrease the time they spend commuting. Moreover, our study provides new evidence that institutional barriers constrain the job-housing balance in the case of high-skilled immigrants, while local residents and low-skilled immigrants can avoid institutional barriers by returning to Danwei housing and choosing to live in informal housing. In terms of suggesting measures for improving commuting inequalities, commuters generally wanted to eliminate the housing benefits resulting from the legacy of the Danwei system and for equal housing subsidies to be implemented. At the same time, they appealed for improvements to be made in terms of housing benefits, the quality of public transport and mixed housing-workplace planning. This study finds that institutional discrimination causes social inequalities in relation to the commuting burden, which could continue to worsen unless the influence of institutional factors is eliminated. The findings could be used to assist planners and decision makers in developing effective strategies to promote sustainable urban development

Environment-economy tradeoff for Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei’s exports

The trade of goods among regions or nations associated with large environmental consequences. Yet balancing economic gains and environmental consequences induced by trade is still hindered by a lack of quantification of these two factors, especially for the environmental problems those are more locally oriented, such as the atmospheric pollution. Based on an environmental input-output analysis for 2010, we contrast economic gains (value added) against atmospheric pollutant emissions (sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NOx), primary fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC)) and the widely concerned CO2 emissions associated with international and interprovincial exports from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), the most polluted area in China. Our results show that exports contributed 55-62% of BTH's production emissions and 54% of its total value added. BTH's large exports of metals and metal products, nonmetal mineral products, chemical and transportation and warehousing, generated a larger share of pollutant emissions (36-46% of BTH's total) than that of value added (17%) along the supply chain. Most of BTH's embodied emissions in exports go to neighboring provinces and the developed east coastal regions in China, although the economic returns are comparatively low. Among BTH, industrial production in Beijing and Tianjin lead to more pollutant emission than value added in Hebei, due to reliance on pollution-intensive product imports from Hebei. Our results call for refocusing and restructuring of BTH's industry and trade structures to balance the economic gains and environmental losses for each region

Studies About A biocompatible Maleimide-modified Dextran And Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel System

This article discussed a novel hydrogel, which was created through Michael addition. Two precursors dextran functionalized maleimide groups and hyaluronic acid functionalized thiol groups were designed, prepared, and characterized by NMR. The formed hydrogels were investigated by gelation time, swelling studies, viscoelastic properties, degradation rate. Based on gelation time observation, we detected that the hydrogel gelation time could be varied with diffident weight percentage of precursors. Based on previous research, we measured that 2% dextran with maleimide groups and 2% hydronic acid with thiol groups is the optimal formular for the biomedical application and this formular was also investigated by other studies. The swelling study indicated hydrogel has good flexibility and the degradation test indicated hydrogel is biodegradable. The viscoelastic test indicated hydrogel is elastic solid. From these studies, this a novel hydrogel could be potential for biomedical applications