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Cities become mission-critical zones during pandemics and it is vital to develop a better understanding of the factors that are associated with infection levels. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many cities severely; however, there is significant variance in its impact across cities. Pandemic infection levels are associated with inherent features of cities (e.g., population size, density, mobility patterns, socioeconomic condition, and health environment), which need to be better understood. Intuitively, the infection levels are expected to be higher in big urban agglomerations, but the measurable influence of a specific urban feature is unclear. The present study examines 41 variables and their potential influence on COVID-19 cases and fatalities. The study uses a multi-method approach to study the influence of variables, classified as demographic, socioeconomic, mobility and connectivity, urban form and density, and health and environment dimensions. This study develops an index dubbed the PVI-CI for classifying the pandemic vulnerability levels of cities, grouping them into five vulnerability classes, from very high to very low. Furthermore, clustering and outlier analysis provides insights on the spatial clustering of cities with high and low vulnerability scores. This study provides strategic insights into levels of influence of key variables upon the spread of infections as well as fatalities, along with an objective ranking for the vulnerability of cities. Thus it provides critical wisdom needed for urban healthcare policy and resource management. The pandemic vulnerability index calculation method and the process present a blueprint for the development of similar indices for cities in other countries, leading to a better understanding and improved pandemic management for urban areas and post-pandemic urban planning across the world., Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures

This research presents an improved real-time face recognition system at a low resolution of 15 pixels with pose and emotion and resolution variations. We have designed our datasets named LRD200 and LRD100, which have been used for training and classification. The face detection part uses the Viola-Jones algorithm, and the face recognition part receives the face image from the face detection part to process it using the Local Binary Pattern Histogram (LBPH) algorithm with preprocessing using contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) and face alignment. The face database in this system can be updated via our custom-built standalone android app and automatic restarting of the training and recognition process with an updated database. Using our proposed algorithm, a real-time face recognition accuracy of 78.40% at 15 px and 98.05% at 45 px have been achieved using the LRD200 database containing 200 images per person. With 100 images per person in the database (LRD100) the achieved accuracies are 60.60% at 15 px and 95% at 45 px respectively. A facial deflection of about 30 degrees on either side from the front face showed an average face recognition precision of 72.25% - 81.85%. This face recognition system can be employed for law enforcement purposes, where the surveillance camera captures a low-resolution image because of the distance of a person from the camera. It can also be used as a surveillance system in airports, bus stations, etc., to reduce the risk of possible criminal threats., Comment: Journal, Optics and Photonics Journal

The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic is affecting every facet of human lives (e.g., public health, education, economy, transportation, and the environment). This novel pandemic and citywide implemented lockdown measures are affecting virus transmission, people's travel patterns, and air quality. Many studies have been conducted to predict the COVID-19 diffusion, assess the impacts of the pandemic on human mobility and air quality, and assess the impacts of lockdown measures on viral spread with a range of Machine Learning (ML) techniques. This review study aims to analyze results from past research to understand the interactions among the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown measures, human mobility, and air quality. The critical review of prior studies indicates that urban form, people's socioeconomic and physical conditions, social cohesion, and social distancing measures significantly affect human mobility and COVID-19 transmission. during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are inclined to use private transportation for necessary travel purposes to mitigate coronavirus-related health problems. This review study also noticed that COVID-19 related lockdown measures significantly improve air quality by reducing the concentration of air pollutants, which in turn improves the COVID-19 situation by reducing respiratory-related sickness and deaths of people. It is argued that ML is a powerful, effective, and robust analytic paradigm to handle complex and wicked problems such as a global pandemic. This study also discusses policy implications, which will be helpful for policymakers to take prompt actions to moderate the severity of the pandemic and improve urban environments by adopting data-driven analytic methods., Comment: Machine Learning, COVID_19, Pandemic

This study empirically investigates the complex interplay between the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, mobility changes in retail and recreation, transit stations, workplaces, and residential areas, and lockdown measures in 88 countries of the word. To conduct the study, data on mobility patterns, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of people, lockdown measures, and coronavirus pandemic were collected from multiple sources (e.g., Google, UNDP, UN, BBC, Oxford University, Worldometer). A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique is used to investigate the direct and indirect effects of independent variables on dependent variables considering the intervening effects of mediators. Results show that lockdown measures have significant effects to encourage people to maintain social distancing. However, pandemic severity and socioeconomic and institutional factors have limited effects to sustain social distancing practice. The results also explain that socioeconomic and institutional factors of urbanity and modernity have significant effects on pandemic severity. Countries with a higher number of elderly people, employment in the service sector, and higher globalization trend are the worst victims of the coronavirus pandemic (e.g., USA, UK, Italy, and Spain). Social distancing measures are reasonably effective at tempering the severity of the pandemic., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables

Investigating and classifying sentiments of social media users towards an item, situation, and system are very popular among the researchers. However, they rarely discuss the underlying socioeconomic factor associations for such sentiments. This study attempts to explore the factors associated with positive and negative sentiments of the people about reopening the economy, in the United States (US) amidst the COVID-19 global crisis. It takes into consideration the situational uncertainties (i.e., changes in work and travel pattern due to lockdown policies), economic downturn and associated trauma, and emotional factors such as depression. To understand the sentiment of the people about the reopening economy, Twitter data was collected, representing the 51 states including Washington DC of the US. State-wide socioeconomic characteristics of the people, built environment data, and the number of COVID-19 related cases were collected and integrated with Twitter data to perform the analysis. A binary logit model was used to identify the factors that influence people toward a positive or negative sentiment. The results from the logit model demonstrate that family households, people with low education levels, people in the labor force, low-income people, and people with higher house rent are more interested in reopening the economy. In contrast, households with a high number of members and high income are less interested to reopen the economy. The model can correctly classify 56.18% of the sentiments. The Pearson chi2 test indicates that overall this model has high goodness-of-fit. This study provides a clear indication to the policymakers where to allocate resources and what policy options they can undertake to improve the socioeconomic situations of the people and mitigate the impacts of pandemics in the current situation and as well as in the future.