Analysis of COVID-19 Prevention and Control Modes and Effects

This study evaluates COVID-19 prevention and control policies. Based on the simulation, we compare the effects of two major policies: contact restriction and active treatment. Through regression and cluster analysis, we classified 169 countries and regions in the world into 10 groups, among which five groups accounted for the major proportion: the ones with the labels “CHN (China) mode,” “SE (South Europe) mode,” “ENE-SSA (East & North Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa) mode,” “US (United States) mode,” and “DEU (Germany) mode”). Differences in the effects of the prevention and control of COVID-19 in typical countries in each mode are comprehensively investigated. The conclusions of this study can be summarized as follows: First, contact restriction outperforms active treatment in curbing the spread of COVID-19. Second, “CHN mode” ranks the highest level of epidemic control and emphasizes epidemic prevention and control more than economic stimulus, which is the opposite of the “US mode”. Regression analysis reveals that the differences in epidemics worldwide are caused by policy differences among modes.

Vocational counseling and the aspiration of achieving a university admission of students with a migratory background in The United States, Latin America, and South Europe. A systematic literature review

There is limited research that considers students with migratory background cultural characteristics within vocational counseling processes in high schools of the United States, Latin America, and South Europe. A systematic literature review was made, guided by the question: In young migrants and second-generation migrants, how vocational counseling influences the achievement of being admitted into a university, comparing their life trajectories during secondary and high school? A total of ten articles, out of three hundred eleven initially found, were selected based on a protocol for the literature review (available on request). All these articles belong to the United States context. One also considered the Spain reality. Based on the protocol used, neither another Southern Europe article, nor any article on the Latin American context was selected. All the analyzed articles pointed up the central role of counseling processes regarding students' vocational decisions. Nonetheless, there is not much attention to counseling processes given to students with a migratory background and their specific needs. Among others, this fact reveals one of the failures of the system in giving post-secondary opportunities to these students. Limitations and recommendations to improve the vocational counseling processes and their influence on the achievement of admission into a university for these students are presented. Besides, some gender differences and the transcendental role of families in the vocational decisions of students are analyzed within the literature review.

Traveling With the Greek Language through Time

Introduction. A language is the fundamental characteristic of a nation’s identity. It can unite the members of an ethic team and set them apart from the members of other ethnic teams. Aim. In this current review, the study presents the evolution of the Greek language from the ancient times, all the way up to today. Methodology. The study’s material consists of articles related to the topic, found in Greek and International και databases, the Google Scholar, and the Hellenic Academic Libraries (HEAL-Link). Results. The Greek language has been used since the third millennia B.C.. During the ancient times, it was the most widely used language in the Mediterranean Sea and South Europe. Until the fifth century B.C., the Greek language was a total of dialects. The Attica Dialect stood out from this dialectical mosaic. Then came the Hellenistic Common, which became the hegemonic language, the lingua franca of the "universe". The Hellenistic Common evolved to the Middle Ages Greek, and later the New Greek (fifth century A.D. - today). Besides, the creation of the New Greek state resulted to the gradual formation of the New Common, which will become the modern New Greek Common, under the effect of the scholar language. Conclusion. The Greek language keeps borrowing and assimilating words from other languages today, just like it did in the past, remaining unbroken for forty centuries.

DNA screening of Drosophila suzukii predators in berry field orchards shows new predatory taxonomical groups

Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing drosophila, SWD) is a pandemic quarantine pest that attacks mostly red fruits. The high number of life cycles per year, its ability to rapidly invade and spread across new habitats, and highly polyphagous nature, makes this a particularly aggressive invasive species, for which efficient control methods are currently lacking. The use of native natural predators is particularly promising to anchor sustainable and efficient measures to control SWD. While several field studies have suggested the presence of potential predatory species in infested orchards, only a few confirmed the presence of SWD DNA in predators’ gut content. Here, we use a DNA-based approach to identify SWD predators among the arthropod diversity in South Europe, by examining the gut content of potential predator specimens collected in SWD-infested berry fields in North Portugal. These specimens were morphologically identified to the family/order, and their gut content was screened for the presence of SWD DNA using PCR. New SWD predatory taxonomical groups were identified, as Opiliones and Hemerobiidae, in addition to known SWD predators, such as Hemerobiidae, Chrysopidae, Miridae, Carabidae, Formicidae and Araneae. Additionally, the presence of a spider family, Uloboridae, in the orchards was recorded for the first time, posing this family as another SWD-candidate predator. This study sets important bases to further investigate the potential large-scale use of some of these confirmed predator taxa for SWD control in South Europe.

Modeling the Invasion of the Large Hive Beetle, Oplostomusfuligineus, into North Africa and South Europe under a Changing Climate

Some beetle species can attack honeybee colonies, causing severe damage to beekeeping. These pests include Oplostomus fuligineus, which is also known as the Large Hive Beetle (LHB). This beetle is native to Sub-Saharan Africa and has recently also been recorded in some parts of North Africa. It feeds mainly on young bee larvae and stored food within the colonies, causing severe damage to weak colonies. The present work sheds light on the current and future distribution (from 2050 to 2070) of this beetle in Africa and South Europe using species distribution modeling. Maxent was used to model the invasion of LHB. The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) 126 and 585 were used to model the future distribution of LHB. The Maxent models showed satisfactory results with a high Area Under Curve (AUC) value (0.85 ± 0.02). Furthermore, the True Skill Statistics (TSS) value was equal to 0.87. The current and future maps showed a high risk of invasion because of temperature variation in most of the parts of North Africa and South Europe. The maps also predicted the future invasion of LHB into other countries, mainly through southern Europe. These predictive risk maps will help quarantine authorities in highly relevant countries to prevent the expansion of this pest outside of its natural range.

Climate impact on radon risk for silty loam soils

<p>Radon isotope <sup>222</sup>Rn constitutes a natural source of radioactivity, which is worldwide extended and can be found, regardless its concentration in almost all soils of the Earth surface. Inhale radon gas is a risk for human health and the World Health Organization, WHO, has concluded the doubtless correlation between long exposure to radon gas and lung cancer; even more, the US-EPA considers it as the second most important cause of lung cancer in USA., The adoption of preventive measurements during building construction is extending in many developed countries because long exposure to radon gas take place mainly in poorly ventilated basements. Generally, these measures are based on radon risk associated exclusively with radon production by soils, but less attention are devoted to the impact of soil gas permeability and, even more, of the variable soil gas permeability because of the different degrees of soil water contents. Soil water content affects soil permeability to both water and vapor phases, and it must be taken into consideration when defining the risk associated to the presence of radon. In the present study, we show the importance of different climate conditions on soil water content and in turn on the gas permeability. We tested with the radon potential risk of building sites of the Czech Republic, which combines both the radon concentration in soil and soil gas permeability (Neznal et al, 2004). According to the Köppen classification, the present study considers different climatic scenarios: Bsk, hot semiarid climate, typical from many regions in South Europe; Csa, temperate Mediterranean climate with dry hot summers and moderate winters, also common in South Europe; Cfb, oceanic humid climate with great extension in France and UK; and finally Dfb, humid continental climate with cool winters and moderate summers, typical from central Europe.</p><p>Soil water content for each scenario was simulated using HYDRUS. Average values were obtained from a 100-year temporal series.  The top most 1-m thick layer was considered as the representative for the soil water content. Results demonstrate the necessity to consider water content when defining the radon risk and their interannual variability, especially for those climates with very clear different precipitation patterns along the different seasons.</p>

Compound heat and ozone pollution events relevant for human health

<p>Temperature extremes and air pollution pose a significant threat to human health. A specific concern applies to heat events and elevated ground-level ozone concentrations, due to the physical relationships between these variables, the single and combined effects of both variables on human health and the anticipated substantial changes in the scope of climate change.</p><p>The present contribution addresses relationships between air temperature and ground-level ozone, the association of these variables with atmospheric circulation patterns, the anticipated changes under future climate change as well as their association with human morbidity (i.e. myocardial infarction frequencies, Hertig et al. 2019) and mortality. The focus is on two climatically different regions in Europe, i.e., Bavaria (Central Europe) and Portugal (South Europe).</p><p>In general, a strong relationship between air temperature and ozone formation became evident. Due to the non-linear nature of the relationship, higher temperatures usually led to substantially enhanced ozone concentrations. In the scope of climate change, considerable increases of maximum temperatures were assessed for Bavaria until the end of the century. Also, future ozone concentrations were projected to rise (Hertig 2020). With respect to spell-length related extremes (heat waves and/ or ozone pollution waves), heat waves were identified as the most frequent wave type for the two European regions under investigation. Waves were associated with in-situ built-up as well as with advection of air masses. Despite different climate settings, a comparable exposure to heat and ozone waves was found in Central and South Europe. In view of excess mortality, the most severe impacts were always associated with compound heat-ozone waves (Hertig et al. 2020).</p><p>Research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under project number 408057478.</p><p>Hertig, E., Russo, A., Trigo, R. (2020): Heat and ozone pollution waves in Central and South Europe- characteristics, weather types, and association with mortality. Atmosphere. doi: 10.3390/atmos11121271</p><p>Hertig, E. (2020): Health-relevant ground-level ozone and temperature events under future climate change using the example of Bavaria, Southern Germany. Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-020-00811-z</p><p>Hertig, E., Schneider, A., Peters, A., von Scheidt, W., Kuch, B., Meisinger, Ch. (2019): Association of ground-level ozone, meteorological factors and weather types with daily myocardial infarction frequencies in Augsburg, Southern Germany. Atmos. Environment. DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.116975</p>