The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), originating in Wuhan, China, has become a major public health challenge for not only China but also countries around the world. The World Health ...Organization announced that the outbreaks of the novel coronavirus have constituted a public health emergency of international concern. As of February 26, 2020, COVID-19 has been recognized in 34 countries, with a total of 80,239 laboratory-confirmed cases and 2,700 deaths. Infection control measures are necessary to prevent the virus from further spreading and to help control the epidemic situation. Due to the characteristics of dental settings, the risk of cross infection can be high between patients and dental practitioners. For dental practices and hospitals in areas that are (potentially) affected with COVID-19, strict and effective infection control protocols are urgently needed. This article, based on our experience and relevant guidelines and research, introduces essential knowledge about COVID-19 and nosocomial infection in dental settings and provides recommended management protocols for dental practitioners and students in (potentially) affected areas.
Recent development of dense strong‐motion networks and seismic array processing enables rapid tsunami predictions based on the back‐projection (BP) approach. We develop a multi‐array local BP method ...(MLBP) using seismic networks with epicentral distance from 0.7° to 3.5°. The local BPs using individual arrays are first calculated and are then merged into a single image of the rupture process. This multi‐array approach circumvents the issue of artifact in single‐array BP caused by the overlapping of multiple phases and coda waves. Based on the local BP approach, tsunami predictions are available 7 min after the origin time. Case studies of the 2003 Mw 8.1 Tokachi‐oki and the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquakes show that their rupture zones are well resolved and are comparable with principal slip areas inferred from tsunami observations. The amplitude and arrival time errors of the predicted tsunami waves are within −1.59 to 3.74 m and −10.0 to 10.0 min, which are sufficiently small for warning purposes.
Plain Language Summary
Accurate prediction of tsunami waves for residents who are close to the tsunami source requires fast characterization of tsunami‐genic earthquakes. In this research, we develop a tsunami warning approach based on earthquake source observations using multiple dense clusters of seismic stations installed near the coastal region. At a given stage during an earthquake, the recorded seismic wavefield is back‐propagated to retrieve the direction of the seismic source with respect to each cluster of stations. By combining direction information determined at each station group, we retrieve the principle slip fault area that is most responsible for tsunami generation. A simplified earthquake source model is then constructed to predict the tsunami arrival time and height. By adopting local seismic stations within 80–400 km away from the earthquake sources, we show that the tsunami warning can be issued 7 min after the earthquake origin time. Our case studies of the 2003 Mw 8.1 Tokachi‐oki and the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquakes show that our approach adequately reproduces the tsunami observations. The height errors of the predicted tsunami waves are within −1.59 to 3.74 m; the errors of the arrival times are within −10.0 to 10.0 min, which are sufficiently small for warning purposes.
Key Points
We develop a tsunami warning approach based on a multi‐array back‐projection (BP) method using local seismic networks (0.7°<Δ <3.5°)
The multi‐array BP circumvents the issue of artifacts in single‐array BP caused by the overlapping of multiple phases and coda waves
Case studies of the 2003 M8.1 Tokachi and the 2011 M9.0 Tohoku earthquakes demonstrate fast and accurate predictions for tsunami warning
Objectives
Our aim was to explore the patterns of intrinsic capacity (IC) impairments among community-dwelling older adults and the associations of these different patterns with excessive ...polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and adverse drug reactions in a nationwide population-based study.
Design
A cross-sectional study included older adults from the Taiwan Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) program in 2020.
Setting and Participants
The study subjects comprised 38,308 adults aged 65 years and older who participated in the ICOPE Step 1 screening and assessed six domains of IC following the World Health Organization (WHO) ICOPE approach.
Methods
Latent class analysis was adopted to identify distinct subgroups with different IC impairments patterns. The associations between different IC impairments patterns and unfavorable medication utilization, including excess polypharmacy (EPP), potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), and adverse drug reactions (ADRs), were assessed by multivariate logistic regression models.
Results
Latent class analysis identified five distinct subgroups with different IC impairment patterns: robust (latent class prevalence: 59.4%), visual impairment (17.7%), physio-cognitive decline (PCD) with sensory impairment (12.3%), depression with cognitive impairment (7.7%), and impairments in all domains (2.9%). Compared to the robust group, all other groups were at higher odds for unfavorable medication utilization. The “depression with cognitive impairment” group (EPP: aOR=4.35, 95% CI 3.52–5.39, p<0.01; PIMs: aOR=2.73, 95% CI 2.46–3.02, p<0.01) and the “impairment in all domains” group (EPP: aOR=9.02, 95% CI 7.16–11.37, p<0.01; PIMs: aOR=3.75, 95% CI 3.24–4.34, p<0.01) remained at higher odds for EPP and PIMs after adjustment.
Conclusions
We identified five distinct impairment patterns of IC, and each impairment pattern, particularly the “depression with cognitive impairment” and “impairment in all domains”, was associated with higher odds of EPP and PIMs. Further longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to explore long-term outcomes of different impairment pattern and their reversibility.
The VIIA halogen elements, with the greatest electronegativity, are generally repelled to emerge in conventional phonon-mediated superconductors governed by the electron-phonon coupling mechanism. ...Here we show by first-principles calculations the possibility of unusual halogen-induced high electron-phonon superconductivity exploiting a two-dimensional confinement system. We demonstrate that, in two unique models of fluorinated or chlorinated monolayers of MgB
2
and TiB
2
, the F/Cl halogen adatoms,
via
realigning relevant surface electronic and low-frequency vibrational hybridizations, can strongly intensify the electronic density of states at the Fermi energy level and the electron-phonon coupling, and consequently boost transition temperatures of the intrinsically semi-metallic TiB
2
up to 20 K and of the superconducting MgB
2
from the primary 20 K to over 46 K. Our current results highlight a new way for designing high-
T
c
superconductors in a variety of versatile 2D nanomaterials.
Robust electron-phonon superconductivity in two-dimensional materials by counterintuitive halogen deposition.
Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is the depletion or loss of normal ovarian function, which cause infertility in women before the age of 40 years. Two homozygous germline truncation mutations in ...STAG3 gene had been reported to causes POI in consanguineous families. Here, we aimed to identify the genetic cause of POI in 2 affected sisters manifested with primary amenorrhea and partial development of secondary sexual characters with normal range of height of a consanguineous Han Chinese family. Whole‐exome and Sanger sequencing identified a homozygous donor splice‐site mutation (NM_012447.2: c.1573+5G>A) in the STAG3 gene. RT‐PCR revealed that the mutation causes loss of wild‐type donor splice‐site which leads to aberrant splicing of STAG3 mRNA and consecutive formation of STAG3 alternative transcript (p.Leu490Thrfs*10) . This is the first report of splice‐site mutation of STAG3 gene causes POI in 2 Han Chinese patients.
The development of energy storage technology is beneficial for the efficient use of energy and sustainable development. As an effectual approach for storing and transporting thermal energy, latent ...heat storage using phase change materials (PCMs) has attracted tremendous attention. However, low thermal conductivity, poor stability, and leakages are considerable challenges to the widespread application of solid-liquid PCMs. Composite phase change materials (CPCMs) were prepared by combining expanded graphite (EG) and sodium acetate trihydrate (CH
3
COONa·3H
2
O, SAT). EG as a supporting material plays a crucial part in both enhancing the thermal conductivity and preventing the melted PCMs from leakage. The chemical structure, micromorphology, thermal stability, thermal conductivity, phase change behavior and heat storage performance of SAT/EG CPCMs have been extensively investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal conductivity analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and cycling stability measurement. The results of SEM indicate that EG with a loose and porous layered structure has a good molding effect and can adsorb SAT well. XRD and FTIR results show that only a simple physical combination between EG and SAT exists, and no new substances have been produced. Compared with pure SAT, thermal conductivity and supercooling tests show that the supercooling degree of the CPCMs was decreased and the thermal conductivity was increased by 205.1%. In addition, the addition of 2 wt% of disodium hydrogen phosphate dodecahydrate (Na
2
HPO
4
·12H
2
O, DHPD) as a nucleating agent and 0.5 wt% of gelatin as a thickening agent to SAT could reduce the supercooling degree and inhibit the phase separation well. Based on SAT/EG-8% CPCMs, an oven with phase change energy storage was designed and the heat storage/release performance of the oven was investigated under different operating conditions.
The development of energy storage technology is beneficial for the efficient use of energy and sustainable development.
In order to address the present challenges in generating a sizeable Dirac-cone gap for monolayer graphene, primarily due to the robust symmetry dependency and protection, we intentionally investigate ...ternary graphene lattices by pairing IIIA-VA atom substitution. We demonstrate by first-principles calculations an ordered boron-phosphorus codoped graphene (C
4
BP) monolayer realizing a sizable ∼0.24 eV and simultaneously strain-tunable-reclosed quasi Dirac-cone gap. The peculiar band topology is attributed to unique symmetry breaking of the primary graphene lattice by the ordered doping coordination and resulting electronic couplings, which also endow the material with appealing properties comparable to the parent graphene,
e.g.
, ultrahigh carrier mobility (>10
5
cm
2
V
−1
s
−1
) and Fermi velocity (>0.8 × 10
6
m s
−1
) as well as a topologically nontrivial phase but with a more appreciable SOC gap. The predicted high dynamic, thermal and energetic stabilities support its experimental viability. Our result opens up a new branch for band engineering of versatile graphene.
Density functional theory calculation predicts a novel ordered boron phosphorus codoped graphene realizing a widely tunable Dirac-cone gap.
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