The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great risk to older people with hearing impairment, who face a higher threshold of external communication after the implementation of the emergency isolation policy. As part of a study on the optimization of external communication among the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) population in central China, this study employed a qualitative research method based on in-depth interviews to explore the needs and difficulties faced by the older DHH group in external communication during public health emergencies in Wuhan, China, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that older DHH people had weak reception of critical information about the epidemic, and had suboptimal access to medical care during emergency quarantine, which increased interpersonal communication barriers to this group. The current findings highlight the urgent need for targeted strengthening of the original emergency communication and coordination mechanisms in public health emergencies, and for improving policy inclusiveness for older DHH individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic and emergencies alike.

Digital technology can be an effective tool to facilitate emergency assistance in a pandemic, but many deaf and hard-of-hearing elders may experience challenges in using and adopting these technologies. In the context of the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, this study employs a qualitative research method based on in-depth interviews to explore technology challenges among deaf and hard-of-hearing elders in China. The results showed that this group's technology challenges arose mainly from barriers to the mastery of digital technology tools, among which barriers to the use of smartphones, to the accessibility of online medical consultations, and to the presentation of health codes, were most noteworthy. For the informants, these barriers led to social isolation and technology avoidance. What's more, the expectation of individuals to adopt certain types of digital intelligence technologies can inadvertently create inequities for disadvantaged groups and exacerbate the “digital divide.” This study highlights the need for emergency management systems to be inclusive of elders with hearing loss in times of public health crises, by providing effective technology support and training to facilitate individuals' access to services and to safeguard their health, interests, and livelihood.

The formation and continued maintenance of beta diversity are essential factors contributing to the effective conservation of plant community biodiversity and sustainable development of ecosystem functions. While it is widely acknowledged that two different patterns, including turnover and nestedness, strongly influence plant community beta diversity, their relative importance in the unique dry and hot valleys of Southwest China is yet to be fully understood. For this study, we established a 100 km belt transect in the Nujiang dry and hot valley of Southwest China and conducted community investigations. The calculations of species and phylogenetic beta diversity composition patterns allowed us to explore the relative importance of environmental and dispersal limitations in terms of their contributions to beta diversity. The findings indicated that in the Nujiang dry and hot valley of Northwest Yunnan, species and phylogenetic beta diversity in the plant communities were mainly composed of the turnover component. The values of phylogenetic beta diversity and its turnover components were lower than those of species beta diversity. Both environmental and dispersal limitations played a role in partitioning beta diversity in the region, with environmental limitations being more dominant than dispersal limitations. The analysis of specific environmental factors revealed that climate factors, such as mean annual precipitation and Hargreaves reference evaporation, and soil factors, such as pH, were the primary drivers of species and phylogenetic beta diversity in the region. In addition, we observed that various limiting environmental factors related to the growth and development of different life forms existed within the dry and hot valley communities. The study highlighted the potential benefits of establishing conservation reserves featuring multiple dominant shrub species in the Nujiang dry and hot valley of Southwest China for the protection of the vegetation. The findings demonstrated that environmental factors, particularly hydrothermal conditions, played a significant role in constraining the maintenance of beta diversity in plant communities in the dry and hot valley region at a regional scale, given the geological history and environmental changes that have occurred over time.