Rapid land use change has taken place in many mega cities of China such as Beijing over the past two decades. In this paper, land use change dynamics were investigated by the combined use of satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS). The results indicated that there had been a notable and uneven urban growth and a major loss of cropland loss between 1986 and 2001. Most of the urban growth and loss of agriculture land occurred in inner and outer suburbs. Land use change was projected for the next 20 years using Markov chains and regression analyses. The further integration of remote sensing and GIS technologies with Markov model and regression model was found to be useful for describing, analyzing and predicting the process of land use change.

BackgroundPrevious studies suggest that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a systemic infection involving multiple systems, and may cause autonomic dysfunction.ObjectiveTo assess autonomic function and relate the findings to the severity and outcomes in COVID-19 patients.MethodsWe included consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to the 21st COVID-19 Department of the east campus of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from February 6 to March 7, 2020. Clinical data were collected. Heart rate variability (HRV), N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), D-dimer, and lymphocytes and subsets counts were analysed at two time points: nucleic-acid test positive and negative. Psychological symptoms were assessed after discharge.ResultsAll patients were divided into a mild group (13) and a severe group (21). The latter was further divided into two categories according to the trend of HRV. Severe patients had a significantly lower standard deviation of the RR intervals (SDNN) (P < 0.001), standard deviation of the averages of NN intervals (SDANN) (P < 0.001), and a higher ratio of low- to high-frequency power (LF/HF) (P = 0.016). Linear correlations were shown among SDNN, SDANN, LF/HF, and laboratory indices (P < 0.05). Immune function, D-dimer, and NT-proBNP showed a consistent trend with HRV in severe patients (P < 0.05), and severe patients without improved HRV parameters needed a longer time to clear the virus and recover (P < 0.05).ConclusionHRV was associated with the severity of COVID-19. The changing trend of HRV was related to the prognosis, indicating that HRV measurements can be used as a non-invasive predictor for clinical outcome.

The global pandemic caused by the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to a dramatic increase in medical waste worldwide. This tremendous increase in medical waste is an important transmission medium for the virus and thus poses new and serious challenges to urban medical waste management. This study investigates the response of medical waste management to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent changes in Wuhan City based on the most detailed data available, including waste generation, storage, transportation, and disposal. The results show that despite a 5-fold increase in the demand for daily medical waste disposal in the peak period, the quick responses in the storage, transportation, and disposal sectors during the pandemic ensured that all medical waste was disposed of within 24 hours of generation. Furthermore, this paper discusses medical waste management during future emergencies in Wuhan. The ability of the medical waste management system in Wuhan to successfully cope with the rapid increase in medical waste caused by major public health emergencies has important implications for other cities suffering from the pandemic and demonstrates the need to establish resilient medical emergency systems in urban areas.

Fixation of CO2 on the occasion of its generation to produce advanced energy materials has been an ideal solution to relieve global warming. We herein report a delicately designed molten salt electrolyzer using molten NaCl-CaCl2-CaO as electrolyte, soluble GeO2 as Ge feedstock, conducting substrates as cathode, and carbon as anode. A cathode-anode synergy is verified for coelectrolysis of soluble GeO2 and in situ–generated CO2 at the carbon anode to cathodic Ge nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon nanotubes (Ge@CNTs), contributing to enhanced oxygen evolution at carbon anode and hence reduced CO2 emissions. When evaluated as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, the Ge@CNTs hybrid shows high reversible capacity, long cycle life, and excellent high-rate capability. The process contributes to metallurgy with reduced carbon emissions, in operando CO2 fixation to advanced energy materials, and upgraded conversion of carbon bulks to CNTs.