COVID-19: The Essentials of Prevention and Treatment elaborates on the ethology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, treatment principles, rehabilitation and prevention, and prevention and control measures for COVID-19. Aimed at healthcare workers, and written to be a practical guide, six chapters cover the following aspects of COVID-19: respiratory viruses; pathogenesis; case definitions and diagnosis; treatment; prevention and disease control; and prospects for the management and research of respiratory virus infections. This book gives first-hand information on the prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. COVID-19 was recognized as a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization. It is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Physicians working in China, particularly where the outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, have built up knowledge of prevention and control measures, and diagnosis and treatment of this disease. These insights are now globally relevant. The authors of this book are senior physicians specializing in respiratory diseases, pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine, and are all clinical and scientific research experts working in China, with particular experience in Wuhan.

Energy efficiency measures are generally less expensive than a renewable energy (RE) system to provide the same amount of energy saved. The Energy Information Administration reports that, on average, a dollar spent on efficiency saves $2 off the cost of a renewable energy system to provide the same amount of energy [IEA, 2011]. But as the saying goes "you can't save yourself rich" and having installed sophisticated controls and efficient systems, we need some source of energy to power them. On-site renewable energy systems offer several advantages, especially when operated in concert with a larger utility system. The main reasons to consider RE is cost-effectiveness, but other reasons are as diverse as: reduction of atmospheric emissions; compliance with regulations requiring RE; enhanced reliability through redundant energy supply; abate risks related to fuel availability and cost, or risk of fuel-spills during delivery; score points in a sustainability rating; or as a mitigation measure in a larger environmental-permitting process. Renewable energy technologies used on buildings include daylighting; solar photovoltaics; solar water heating; solar ventilation air preheating; passive solar heating and cooling load avoidance; wind power; biomass heat (or cogeneration as discussed in Chapter 8); anaerobic digestion of waste; and geothermal heat. Ground source heat pumps are also often considered, in-part, RE systems. Daylighting and the envelope measures (passive heating and cooling) are often considered efficiency measures, but daylighting is a direct and obvious use of solar energy in buildings, and photovoltaics (PV), Solar Water Heating and Solar Ventilation Air preheating are technologies to consider on any building project. We even consider an example of hydroelectric power on the water supply to a building. We cover the operating principle of each type of system, list components and provide schematic diagram of how components are assembled into systems; provide information for cost estimate and life cycle cost calculation, describe how system size may be optimized to minimize life cycle cost, and we stress the importance of operations and maintenance (O&M) over a long performance period. Significant emphasis is placed on integration of RE into the conventional utility system, at both the site level and from the perspective of the larger utility system, so that savings due to the RE may be realized without compromising the reliability of the system. Case studies are presented to exemplify application of each technology.

Health services are often fragmented along organizational lines with limited communication among the public health-related programs or organizations, such as mental health, social services, and public health services. This can result in disjointed decision making without necessary data and knowledge, organizational fragmentation, and disparate knowledge development across the full array of public health needs. When new questions or challenges arise that require collaboration, individual public health practitioners (e.g., surveillance specialists and epidemiologists) often do not have the time and energy to spend on them. Smart Use of State Public Health Data for Health Disparity Assessment promotes data integration to aid crosscutting program collaboration. It explains how to maximize the use of various datasets from state health departments for assessing health disparity and for disease prevention. The authors offer practical advice on state public health data use, their strengths and weaknesses, data management insight, and lessons learned. They propose a bottom-up approach for building an integrated public health data warehouse that includes localized public health data. The book is divided into three sections: Section I has seven chapters devoted to knowledge and skill preparations for recognizing disparity issues and integrating and analyzing local public health data. Section II provides a systematic surveillance effort by linking census tract poverty to other health disparity dimensions. Section III provides in-depth studies related to Sections I and II. All data used in the book have been geocoded to the census tract level, making it possible to go more local, even down to the neighborhood level.