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The global COVID pandemic of 2020, affected travel patterns across the world. The level of impact was influenced not only by the virus itself, but also by the nature, extent, and duration of governmental restriction on commerce and personal activity to limit its spread. This paper focuses on the interaction between COVID-19 transmission and traffic volume and further explores the impact of traffic control policies on the interaction. Roadway traffic volume was used to quantify and assess the Chinese response to the pandemic; specifically, the relationship between government restrictions, travel activity, and COVID-19 progression across 29 provinces. Space and time distributions of traffic volume across China during the first half of 2020, were used to quantity the response and recovery of travel during the critical initial onset period of the virus. Most revealing of these trends were the impact of the Chinese restriction policies on both travel and the virus as well as the relationship of traffic trends during the closure period with the speed and extent of the recovery "bounce" across individual provinces based on location, economic activity, and restriction policy. These suggest that the most significant and rapid declines in traffic volume during the restriction period resulted in the most pronounced returns to normal (or more) demand levels. Based on these trends a Susceptible Infection Recovery model was created to simulate a range of outbreak and restriction policies to examine the relationship between COVID-19 spread and traffic volume in China.

Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) was suspended to contain the spread of COVID-19, while Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) saw a tremendous flight reduction. Closure of a major international airport is extremely rare and thus represents a unique opportunity to straightforwardly observe the impact of airport emissions on local air quality. In this study, a series of statistical tools were applied to analyze the variations in air pollutant levels in the vicinity of WUH and SHA. The results of bivariate polar plots show that airport SHA and WUH are a major source of nitrogen oxides. NO

Chemical warfare agents (CWAs) are toxic chemicals that have been intentionally developed for targeted and deadly use on humans. Although intended for military targets, the use of CWAs more often than not results in mass civilian casualties. To prevent further atrocities from occurring during conflicts, a global ban was implemented through the chemical weapons convention, with the aim of eliminating the development, stockpiling, and use of CWAs. Unfortunately, because of their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture and effectiveness on mass populations, CWAs still exist in today's world. CWAs have been used in several recent terrorist-related incidents and conflicts (

Japanese cedar (JC, Cryptomeria japonica) pollen allergens are the primary cause of JC pollinosis, a widespread seasonal allergic disorder and a significant public health issue in Japan. Nevertheless, rare information on repressing the pollen allergens released from JC pollen is available. This study aims to validate the repression of allergen Cry j 1 (the dominant JC pollen allergen that triggers JC pollinosis) using todomatsu oil produced from Abies sachalinensis waste, through surface plasmon resonance (SPR) experiments, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and blind docking simulation. The findings revealed that todomatsu oil reduces the antibody reactivity and content of allergen Cry j 1 by 85.96% and 42.12%, respectively. The docking modeling suggested that alkyl hydrophobic forces, pi–sigma bonding, and hydrogen bonding are the principal motivating forces for todomatsu oil components to dock with allergen Cry j 1. More than 50% of the amino-acid residues docked by each todomatsu oil component (except α-pinene) are hydrophobic. Furthermore, oil components, especially β-maaliene, exhibited potent repression of allergen Cry j 1. Consequently, todomatsu oil, due to its inexpensive, available, convenient, and ecologically beneficial nature, is a viable measure to repress allergen Cry j 1.

PDF file - 89K, Enhanced gap filling rates in HER2+ versus HER2- BCSCs