An Early Clinical Case of COVID-19 in New York

SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that causes the human disease COVID-19, was determined to be the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China which began in December 2019 [1]. The first case in the United States reportedly occurred on 20 January 2020 in Washington state in a patient with a history of travel to Wuhan [2]. We report an earlier case of COVID-19 in Queens, New York in November 2019. While it is not perfectly clear from the initial November 2019 emergency department case presentation, if the patient had influenza alone, COVID-19 alone, or combined influenza and COVID-19 infection, presenting lung lesions and constitutional symptoms, later follow-up antibody and immune cell analyses, and the possibility of false-positive RIDT, do strongly suggest initial COVID-19 infection (with or without initial influenza infection). This clinical paper becomes important, because it may describe the earliest now-reported COVID-19 case in the United States, and because emergency department and post-emergency department treatments contributed to a successful patient outcome.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey after September 11

Life changed for companies and people throughout the world after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Few felt the impact on its operations as keenly as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. This unique public agency operates vital transportation and trade facilities at the core of the New

Analyzing Cross-domain Transportation Big Data of New York City with Semi-supervised and Active Learning

The majority of big data analytics applied to transportation datasets suffer from being too domain-specific,that is,they draw conclusions for a dataset based on analytics on the same dataset.This makes models trained from one domain(e.g.taxi data)applies badly to a different domain(e.g.Uber data).To achieve accurate analyses on a new domain,substantial amounts of data must be available,which limits practical applications.To remedy this,we propose to use semi-supervised and active learning of big data to accomplish the domain adaptation task:Selectively choosing a small amount of datapoints from a new domain while achieving comparable performances to using all the datapoints.We choose the New York City(NYC)transportation data of taxi and Uber as our dataset,simulating different domains with 90%as the source data domain for training and the remaining 10%as the target data domain for evaluation.We propose semi-supervised and active learning strategies and apply it to the source domain for selecting datapoints.Experimental results show that our adaptation achieves a comparable performance of using all datapoints while using only a fraction of them,substantially reducing the amount of data required.Our approach has two major advantages:It can make accurate analytics and predictions when big datasets are not available,and even if big datasets are available,our approach chooses the most informative datapoints out of the dataset,making the process much more efficient without having to process huge amounts of data.

Co-infection of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in New York City,United States

瞄准：为了学习流行和风险因素，与人的免疫不全与三倍的感染联系了在一张城市的诊所人口的病毒(HIV )/hepatitis B (HBV )/hepatitis C 病毒(HCV ) 。方法：5639 个病人的回顾的图表评论在纽约城市里在圣卢凯斯鲁塞韦尔特医院 HIV 诊所(全面照顾的中心) 列在后面，从 1999 年 1 月的美国到 2007 年 5 月。下列人口统计的特征被分析：年龄，性别，种族和 HIV 冒因素的风险。多重逻辑回归分析被执行在这些病毒的获得上评估人口统计的因素的影响。结果：HIV/HBV， HIV/HCV 和 HIV/HBV/HCV 感染在 252/5639 (4.47%) 被检测， 1411/5639 (25.02%) 和 89/5639 (1.58%) 病人分别地。HIV/HBV 合作感染与男性被联系(或 1.711；P = 0.005 ) ，黑色跑(或 2.091；P 【 0.001 ) ，人与 \O 性交人(MSM )( 或 1.747；P = 0.001 ) ，静脉内的药使用(IDU )( 或 0.114；P 【 0.001 ) ， IDU 和异性爱的活动(或 0.247；P = 0.018 ) ，或未知(或 1.984；P = 0.004 ) 。HIV/HCV 合作感染与男性被联系(或 1.241；P = 0.011 ) ，黑色跑(或 0.788；P = 0.036 ) ， MSM (或 0.565；P 【 0.001 ) ， IDU (或 8.956；P 【 0.001 ) ， IDU 和异性爱的活动(或 9.106；P 【 0.001 ) ， IDU 和 MSM (或 9.179；P 【 0.001 ) ，或输送(或 3.224；P 【 0.001 ) 。HIV/HBV/HCV 合作感染与男性被联系(或 2.156；P = 0.015 ) ， IDU (或 6.345；P 【 0.001 ) ， IDU 和异性爱的活动(或 9.731；P 【 0.001 ) ， IDU 和 MSM (或 9.228；P 【 0.001 ) ，或未知(或 4.219；P = 0.007 ) 。结论：我们的学习证明有 HBV/HCV/HIV 的合作感染显著地与 IDU 被联系。这些结果加亮需要加强教育和综合照顾的最佳的模型，特别地为有 IDU 的人口，到减少病毒的传播的风险。

Estimation of Phosphorus Bioavailability in the Water Column of the Bronx River, New York

Phosphorus (P) is a primary limiting nutrient in rivers and streams, and excessive P results in eutrophication of freshwater systems, in turn, excessive algal growth/toxic algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and water quality degradation. This study analyzed P pool, and hydrolysis of organic P (OP) by native phosphatases (NPase) in the water samples collected in the Bronx River. The soluble reactive P (SRP) of most of the sites’ water collected in 2006 and 2007 were higher (average 67 μg?L–1 and 68 μg?L–1, respectively) than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standard of 15 μg?L–1. The SRP% (SRP/TP%) average was 27% in 2006, much lower than in 2007 of SRP% average 83%. The OP% (OP/TP%) average was 73% in 2006, which was much higher than the OP% in 2007 (which was only 17%). The SRP concentrations and distributions (%), and the total P (TP) concentrations were in substantial amounts compared with other rivers. The NPase hydrolyzed OP % was up to 100% in 2006 and 2007 water samples. The average of NPase% was 59% in 2006 and 73% in 2007. The NPase average concentrations were 348 μg?L–1 in 2006, and 175 μg?L–1 in 2007. The NPase hydrolyzed up to 100% of OP% in the Bronx River water samples at 37?C, indicating a potential threat of eutrophication of freshwater systems as the global rise in temperature may continue to occur.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey after September 11

Lire changed for companies and people throughout the world after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Few felt the impact on its operations as keenly as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. This unique public agency operates vital transportation and trade facilities at the core of the New York/New Jersey region’s infrastructure for the benefit of its 18 million people. These include the three major airports, six

Regeneration of pitch pine (Pinus rigida) stands inhibited by fire suppression in Albany Pine Bush Preserve, New York

The Pine Barrens in New York State are dominated by pitch pine(Pinus ridgida) and scrub oaks(Quercus ilicifolia and Q. prinoides). With fire suppression over the last 90 years or so, P. rigida regeneration has become sparse, even in areas set aside to preserve this type of vegetation. We evaluated the effects of fire and an alternative disturbance(mechanical removal of vegetation)for increasing P. rigida regeneration in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in eastern New York State. By comparing cover, diameter and height of P. rigida, Q. ilicifolia, Q.prinoides, and Vaccinium spp.(blueberry) growing on the sites with a known fire history, we documented structural and compositional changes in the vegetation since its establishment. We also compared sites on which Quercus sprouts were controlled through mechanical removal. In the years following a disturbance, height and cover of Q. ilicifolia increased continuously and the species became increasingly competitive. Both the density of P. rigida seedlings and Vaccinium cover decreased significantly as the diameter and height of Quercus increased. Our results confirmed that the dominance by P. rigida could be attributed to periodic fires at intervals of 20–25 years. We conclude that removing Q. ilicifolia can favor P. rigida dominance on the barren without fire by releasing pine seedlings from competition.

Emotions,Perceptions and Health Behaviors of Adult Congenital Heart Disease Patients during COVID-19 in New York City

Background:Adults with congenital heart disease(ACHD)have increased prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders.There are limited data regarding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and health behaviors of these patients.Objective:The purpose is to evaluate the perceptions,emotions,and health behaviors of ACHD patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods:In this cross-sectional study of ACHD patients,we administered surveys evaluating self-reported emotions,perceptions and health behaviors.Logistic regressions were performed to determine the adjusted odds of displaying each perception,emotion and health behavior based on predictor variables.Results:Ninety-seven patients(mean age 38.3 years,46.4%female,85.6%moderate or complex lesion)completed the survey.The majority of patients reported feeling moderately or very sad(63.1%),and 48.4%of patients identified themselves as feeling moderately or very anxious.The majority of patients perceived their risk of COVID-19 as moderate or high.Females were more likely to report feeling sad and anxious(95%CI 1.06–10.96,p-value 0.039,and 95%CI 1.44–15.30,p-value=0.012,respectively),and were associated with higher odds of having a perceived increased risk of COVID-19(95%CI 1.33–10.59,p-value 0.012).There was no association between ACHD anatomic or physiologic classification and perceptions,emotions and health behaviors.Conclusions:Females were more likely to report feeling sad,anxious and an increased risk of COVID-19 in comparison to males.These findings indicate the need for mental health support and promotion of health behaviors during the pandemic amongst all ACHD patients,regardless of underlying condition.

Analysis of the Relationship between Numbers of Cases and Mortality Rate for COVID-19 in New York City for the Month of April 2020

During the month which began just prior to the start of April 2020, the New York City mortality rate for COVID-19 infection increased continuously and gradually, from 1% - 2% at the beginning of the month, to a peak of about 11% by early May. During this same period, the total number of cases increased from about 20,000 to about 200,000. Since there is no reason, a priori, to expect the mortality rate of any single disease to have any particular mathematical relationship to the number of cases, a statistical analysis would appear to be in order. This analysis is presented, and one possible interpretation is suggested.

Epidemiology of syndactyly in New York State

BACKGROUND There is paucity of literature focusing on the incidence and surgical management of syndactyly. In this study, we describe the incidence and rates of surgical management of patients with syndactyly in New York State.AIM To describe the incidence and surgical management of patients with syndactyly using an America’s population-based database.METHODS We conducted a retrospective study using the New York State Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System. All patients with a diagnosis of syndactyly at birth were identified and followed longitudinally to determine yearly incidence as well as demographic and surgical factors. Descriptive statistics and univariate analyses were used.RESULTS There were 3306 newborns with a syndactyly diagnosis between 1997 and 2014 in New York State. The overall incidence was 0.074% or 7 cases per 10000 live births.A small number of patients underwent surgical correction in New York State(178 patients, 5.4%). Among the surgical patients, most of the operations were performed before the age of two(79%). Approximately 87% of surgeries were performed at teaching hospitals, and 52% of procedures were performed by plastic surgeons. Skin grafting was performed in 15% of cases. Patients having surgery in New York State were more likely to have Medicaid insurance compared to patients not having surgery(P = 0.02).CONCLUSION Syndactyly occurs in approximately 7 per 10000 live births, and the majority of patients undergo surgical correction before age two. There may be severalbarriers to care including the availability of specialized hand surgeons, access to teaching hospitals, and insurance status.

Asthma Hospital Admissions and Ambient Air Pollutant Concentrations in New York City

Air pollution is considered a risk factor for asthma. In this paper, we analyze the association between daily hospital admissions for asthma and ambient air pollution concentrations in four New York City counties. Negative binomial regression is used to model the association between daily asthma hospital admissions and ambient air pollution concentrations. Potential confounding factors such as heat index, day of week, holidays, yearly population changes, and seasonal and long-term trends are controlled for in the models. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) show the most consistent statistically significant associations with daily hospitalizations for asthma during the entire period (1996-2000). The associations are stronger for children (0 - 17 years) than for adults (18 - 64 years). Relative risks (RR) for the inter-quartile range (IQR) of same day 24-hour average pollutant concentration and asthma hospitalizations for children for the four county hospitalization totals were: NO2 (IQR = 0.011 ppm, RR = 1.017, 95% CI = 1.001, 1.034), SO2 (IQR = 0.008 ppm, RR = 1.023, 95% CI = 1.004, 1.042), CO (IQR = 0.232 ppm, RR = 1.014, 95% CI = 1.003, 1.025). In the case of ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM2.5) statistically significant associations were found for daily one-hour maxima values and children’s asthma hospitalization in models that used lagged values for air pollution concentrations. Five-day weighted average lag models resulted in these estimates: O3 (one-hour maxima) (IQR = 0.025 ppm, RR = 1.049, 95% CI = 1.002, 1.098), PM2.5 (one-hour maxima) (IQR = 16.679 μg/m3, RR = 1.055, 95% CI = 1.008, 1.103). In addition, seasonal variations were also explored for PM2.5 and statistically significant associations with daily hospital admissions for asthma were found during the colder months (November-March) of the year. Important differences in pollution effects were found across pollutants, counties, and age groups. The results for PM2.5 suggest that the composition of PM is important to this health outcome, since the major sources of NYC PM differ between winter and summer months.

An Approach to Outpatient Screening, Treatment, and Community Health Outreach during the Coronavirus Epidemic in New York City

The emergence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia, also referred to as COVID-19 in New York City in March 2020, has put an overwhelming strain on the healthcare system in the city. Many local hospitals have reported a surge of cases, with most cases presenting with severe respiratory complications. We aim to present a comprehensive surge filter protocol for outpatient programs to mitigate the surge of cases admitted in the emergency rooms and intensive care units (ICUs) of local hospitals in our community. Our surge filter protocol was developed based on a detailed review of how South Korea and Spain mounted their outpatient surge responses. Our preliminary findings revealed that our Four-Ts approach (i.e., Test, Treat, Track, and Teach) has resulted in none of our patients reaching a clinical requirement for inpatient care.

Development of Chinese Medicine Education in the United States:Two Examples of Pacific College of Health and Science New York and Eastern School of Acupuncture and Traditional Medicine

Chinese medicine originated in China and has taken root all over the world.In the United States,Chinese medicine belongs to the category of complementary and alternative medicine and has a history of over 50 years as a recognized profession.The education of Chinese medicine is undoubtedly the foundation for the development and growth of Chinese medicine practice.In this article,we briefly introduced the history of acupuncture profession and its development in the United States.Pacific College of Health and Science New York and Eastern School of Acupuncture and Traditional Medicine were discussed and analyzed.This article aims to discuss two examples of acupuncture schools in the United States to provide an overview of the history and current development of Chinese medicine education in the United States.

Rising Thyroid Cancer Incidence Proximate to a New York City-Area Nuclear Power Plant

Thyroid cancer incidence has risen steadily in the US for several decades. While any cause of this trend has yet to be clearly identified, most analyses have concluded that there are factors other than improved detection accounting for the increase. Since exposure to radioactive iodine is the only acknowledged root cause of thyroid cancer, a review of temporal trends in incidence since the late 1970s near the Indian Point nuclear power plant, just 23 miles from the New York City border, was conducted. Rates in the four counties closest to Indian Point, where virtually the entire population resides within 20 miles of the plant, were compared with national trends in the US. The relative ratio in the local area was 0.778 in the period 1976-1981, or 22.2 percent lower than the national rate. This ratio increased steadily, to 1.579 (57.9 percent greater than the US) by the period 2000-2004, which slightly declined to 1.515 (51.5 percent greater) in the latest period available (2010-2014). Significant increases occurred for both males and females, and in each of the four counties. Annual new cases diagnosed among residents of the four counties increased from 51 to 412 between 1976-1981 and 2010-2014. Because the two large reactors at Indian Point began operations in 1973 and 1976, and exposures to radioiodine isotopes can manifest as cancer from five years to several decades after exposure, iodine emissions from Indian Point emissions should be considered as a potential factor in these trends. More studies near Indian Point and other nuclear installations should be conducted to further explore this potential association.

Speciation and Mobility of Phosphate in the Eutrophic Ponds at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York, USA

The water system at the Prospect Park ponds of Brooklyn, NY has been receiving chronic loads of orthophosphate from the municipal water since the mid ’90s. The ponds are currently eutrophic with degraded water quality and high levels of P in the sediment. In this study, the distribution and speciation of P within the water column was examined. The dominant form of P in the water was found as soluble reactive phosphate (SRP) and the temporal change of SRP indicated significant internal loading from the sediment during late summer in the ponds downstream. Lake sediment was investigated for P fractionation and phosphate bound to Fe-hydroxides was the dominant form of P in the sediment. Both external and internal P pools are important and should be taken into consideration when planning for restoration.

Phosphorus Flux from the Pelham Bay Wetlands, Bronx, New York

Phosphorus (P) released and transported from wetlands affects wetland ecosystems and surrounding water systems. Sediment samples from the Pelham Bay wetlands in the Bronx, NY, have been collected and analyzed. Analysis of the sorption characteristics, P compound identification and P mineralization, showed significant correlations between the sorption maximum (Smax) and Ox-Fe (r = 0.894), ash-TP and HCl-Ca (r = 0.94), ash-TP and TOC (r = 0.96), as well as TOC vs HCl-Ca (r = 0.93). These results indicate that mineral content affects the OP content and the sorption process. P sorption maxima Smax ranged from 70.4 to 1667 mg/Kg, and the equilibrium P concentration EPC0 ranged from 0.09 to 0.2 mg/L. The high Smax in most of the sites, fairly high EPC0 and high percentages of Pr (>96%), indicate substantial amounts of P could be bioavailable for plant uptake in the water column under changing hydro-climatic conditions. Dominant P compounds are dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), phosphoenolpyruvates (PEP), inosine monophosphate (IMP), glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), nucleoside monophosphates (NMP), glycerophosphate (GlyP), polynucleotides (PolyN), and pyrophosphates (Pyrop). The active P pool could maintain substantial P bioavailability and potentially cause eutrophication. The mineralization of 7, 15 and 30 days in laboratory experiments indicates a decrease of NaHCO3 and HCl, and an increase of NaOH.

Initiation of a Greenhouse Gas Monitoring System in New York City

Highly urbanized and industrialized cities across the globe have been known for a long time to be major anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), yet there is still no consensus on an adequate methodology to monitor their ambient concentration. This work describes the initiation of a GHG monitoring program at Bronx Community College (BCC) of the City University of New York (CUNY) in Bronx, New York using a Picarro GHG monitor (Model g2301). Results show average atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) that are above 400 and 2.0 ppmv, respectively. Similar daily fluctuations, with peaks levels resulting from emissions likely occurring during morning rush hour, indicate that there are common sources for both gases. This monitoring system is replicable, sustainable and scalable and will make it possible to more quantifiably link emissions produced in New York City to their material sources. As more data is collected, reduction projections for GHG-producing materials will more accurately be associated to reduction projections for atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels originating in New York City. In the process, empirical models on air exchange rates and convective boundary layer homogenization through turbulence could also be improved.

Detection and Characterization of β-Lactamase Encoding Genes in Carbapenem Non-Susceptible Gram-Negative Bacteria and Susceptibility of Isolates to Ceftazidime-Avibactam at a New York City Community Hospital

A surveillance study was undertaken to identify prominent β-lactamase encoding genes in 131 carbapenem non-susceptible gram-negative clinical isolates at a New York City community hospital. KPC carbapenemases were detected in 89% of Enterobacteriaceae as well as additional TEM, SHV, and CTX-M class A enzymes. OXA-23 and OXA-24 were the prevalent class D carbapenemases identified in Acinetobacter species. One OXA-23 in M. morganii and one OXA-48 in K. pneumoniae were also identified. Among class C β-lactamases CMY, ACT/MIR, DHA, and FOX were detected. The in vitro activity of ceftazidime-avibactam by E-test methodology was tested with minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of ≤3 μg/ml for 97.8% of all Enterobacteriaceae, MIC50/90 of 16/>256 μg/ml for carbapenem non-susceptible Acinetobacter, and 3/6 μg/ml for carbapenem non-susceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Periodic surveillance of isolates to characterize current and emerging β-lactamase genotypes present in local isolates may help identify outbreak situations, provide assistance to infection control and antibiotic stewardship programs, and potentially improve patient outcomes.

Disease clearance in ulcerative colitis:A new therapeutic target for the future

Advancements in murine modeling systems for ulcerative colitis have diversified our understanding of the pathophysiological factors involved in disease onset and progression.This has fueled the identification of molecular targets,resulting in a rapidly expanding therapeutic armamentarium.Subsequently,management strategies have evolved from symptomatic resolution to well-defined objective endpoints,including clinical remission,endoscopic remission and mucosal healing.While the incorporation of these assessment modalities has permitted targeted intervention in the context of a natural disease history and the prevention of complications,studies have consistently depicted discrepancies associated with ascertaining disease status through clinical and endoscopic measures.Current recommendations lack consideration of histological healing.The simultaneous achievement of clinical,endoscopic,and histologic remission has not been fully investigated.This has laid the groundwork for a novel therapeutic outcome termed disease clearance(DC).This article summarizes the concept of DC and its current evidence.