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This study examined the pandemic measures taken by nursing leaders to cope with COVID-19 at a nursing home in Singapore. The pandemic has affected over 215 countries, sparking a series of containment and pandemic measures by governments and healthcare organizations worldwide. Long-term care facilities are especially vulnerable to the pandemic, but little has been reported about the nursing homes' measures in handling the pandemic. The present study used Morley's (2014) three-stage critical reflection method to review meeting minutes, organizational emails, and government advisories on the COVID-19 pandemic measures undertaken by nursing leaders at a nursing home in Singapore between January and June 2020. The pandemic measures were broadly classified into four groups: (1) infection surveillance and containment measures; (2) ensuring continuity in clinical care and operational support; (3) resource and administrative coordination; and (4) staff training and development. Nurses have played a vital role in the fight against COVID-19 by ensuring continuity in patient care and demonstrating clinical leadership in pandemic efforts. This study proposes a useful nursing pandemic structure that outlines a set of functions and measures required for handling a pandemic and that can be applied to various medical emergencies and contingencies.

We report on the illegal trade in live pangolins, their meat, and their scales in the Special Development Zone of Mong La, Shan State, Myanmar, on the border with China, and present an analysis of the role of Myanmar in the trade of pangolins into China. Mong La caters exclusively for the Chinese market and is best described as a Chinese enclave in Myanmar. We surveyed the morning market, wildlife trophy shops and wild meat restaurants during four visits in 2006, 2009, 2013–2014, and 2015. We observed 42 bags of scales, 32 whole skins, 16 foetuses or pangolin parts in wine, and 27 whole pangolins for sale. Our observations suggest Mong La has emerged as a significant hub of the pangolin trade. The origin of the pangolins is unclear but it seems to comprise a mixture of pangolins from Myanmar and neighbouring countries, and potentially African countries. Myanmar, on the basis of its geographic position, size and weak government, has emerged as an important transit country for the smuggling of pangolins to China. Data from 29 seizures from Myanmar and 23 from neighbouring countries (Thailand, India, China) implicating Myanmar as a source of pangolins or as a transit point for pangolins sourced in other countries, in the period 2010–2014, illustrate the magnitude of this trade. Combined these seizures amount to 4339 kg of scales and 518 whole pangolins, with a retail value in Myanmar of US$3.09 million. Trade in pangolins, their parts of their derivatives is illegal in Myanmar and CITES II listing with a zero-quota preclude international trade in them. We urge the Myanmar government to liaise with regional authorities to curb the trade in pangolins and recommend that the Myanmar and Chinese CITES authorities in particular come together urgently as to resolve the illicit trade of pangolins and their parts across their borders.

This is a report on research undertaken by Professor Wendy Olsen, Dr Vanessa Gash, Sook Kim, and Dr Min Zhang on behalf of the Government Equalities Office. The primary aim of this research is to identify the factors that influence the gender pay gap in the UK. The work uses decomposition techniques to analyse the main predictors of the gender pay gap using waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) relating to 2014 to 2015. The gender pay gap is the difference between men's and women's average hourly earnings.

The fast development of LED technology enables its quick penetration into general lighting applications. Especially in China, LED is introduced in road lighting at a high pace due to strong governmental support. However, there is a rising concern about discomfort glare caused by LED road luminaires. Therefore, we conducted a perception experiment to evaluate how LED sources with different Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) and luminance level influenced people's perception of discomfort glare. Both subjective ratings and people's pupil diameters were measured for both young and old people at two different angles between the line of sight and the luminaire. The results show that a LED source with a CCT of 3 000 K is perceived less glary than one with a CCT of 6 000 K. Therefore, LED source with lower CCT is preferred for reducing discomfort glare.

In this paper, the earlier results, which were obtained with the climate model developed at the A.M. Obu khov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences (IAP RAS CM) and related to the impact of the atmospheric sulphur dioxide on terrestrial carbon cycle, are elucidated. Because of the unavailability of the global data for near surface SO2 concentration, it was reconstructed by using statistical model which was fitted employing the output of the atmospheric chemistry-transport model RAMS-CMAQ. The obtained results are in general agreement with those reported earlier. In particular, the most significant SO2 impact on terrestrial carbon cycle is simulated for south-east North America and for Europe. However, such impact for south-east Asia is markedly weaker in comparison to that reported earlier, which is related to excessive moisture content in the atmosphere of this region.