Higher Education Intellectual Performance, Social Network, and Strategies During the Pandemic: A Bibliometric Approach to Online Mathematics Education

The recent COVID-19 pandemic raises challenges and opportunities for higher education researchers worldwide in both research and teaching. As a core curriculum, mathematics education moved online. Despite overwhelming education research on the impact of the pandemic, there is missing knowledge about online mathematics education research. Using bibliometric analysis, this study investigates the impact of the pandemic on the field. Performance analysis reveals an overall increase in scientific production and a change in the most productive actors. Publications also shifted from technology-oriented journals to those in mathematics and sustainability, with reduced international collaboration but greater country and institution diversification. The conceptual structure of research development shows a pre-COVID-19 emphasis evolving from technology- to student- and learning-centered pedagogies. During the pandemic, research expanded towards student affective factors of anxiety, attitude, self-determination, teacher education, and both teacher and student acceptance of technology. The current findings provide researchers, administrators, and policymakers with recommendations for directing future research endeavors and policy ordinances. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Repurposing Anti-inflammatory Agents in the Potential Treatment of SARS-COV-2 Infection

SARS-Cov-2 is the novel coronavirus with predominantly inflammatory pathogenesis. The inflammation can be initiated and finally aggravated through a number of interconnected inflammatory pathways such as NF-κB, JAK-STAT, MAPK TLRs, iNOS, COX, etc. In the current chapter, these signaling pathways which instigate inflammation in SARS-Cov-2 are discussed. Moreover, drugs inhibiting these pathways in other inflammatory conditions or diseases are either in clinical use as COVID-19 therapy, or have been proposed as potential future therapeutic interventions in this chapter. These repurposing strategies can halt the COVID-19 symptoms as well as disease progression. This was demonstrated by establishing a link between the regulatory actions of these molecules or drugs in the inflammatory pathway like cytokine release against the COVID-19-related inflammatory havoc. Hence, the chapter will provide profound insights in the inflammatory control pertaining to COVID-19 severity and complications. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.

Predicting Oxygen Utilization & Nurse Staffing Needs For COVID-19

Supplemental oxygen is an essential part of in-hospital care for most patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. This study seeks to identify hospitalized patients who will require advanced oxygen support (high flow oxygen, CPAP, BiPAP, or mechanical ventilation) within 96 hours of admission using a machine learning model. This information can be useful for hospitals to plan for nurse staffing, as patients will consume more resources and will need more staff assistance.Data from 302 SARS-CoV-2 patients was used to create a classifier to predict whether or not patients would require advanced oxygen support within 96 hours of admission. Of the 302 cases, 211 were randomly selected to train the model, and 91 were randomly selected for testing. Through a labeled dataset, we performed supervised learning by using a random forest ensemble model which included demographic, clinical comorbidities, vitals, and laboratory values. We used 5-fold cross-validation to evaluate our trained model and employed a majority vote decision across the five trained models in order to produce the final prediction for a given patient. Through the models, we yielded results through sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and F1 score with the 91 cases of training data.An additional 24 cases were used to test the validity of the ensemble consensus model. Approximately 40% of all patients progressed to require advanced oxygen support 96 hours after the initial presentation.Although the insight gained from the model may not definitively predict the course of an individual patient, this model may help hospital administrators plan for staffing needs with a 48-hour lead time. Patients on high oxygen support require high acuity beds, which have increased nurse-to-patient ratios. Additional samples may increase its statistical significance. Nevertheless, this model demonstrates the potential and viability of using data science to help manage hospital resources. © 2022 IEEE.

MENTAL HEALTH SOCIAL WORK IN HONG KONG DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Civil unrest during the COVID-19 pandemic, fears of contracting the virus, challenges for families, and disrupted daily routines complicated mental health in Hong Kong. During the pandemic, most professional social workers worked either in overburdened medical settings, or in community settings where services were suspended, and outreach discouraged. Services disproportionally focussed on information giving and essential tangible support, with fewer providing emotional support. Lessons for practice gleaned from experiences thus far include using a strength perspective to build new normal life, improving service coordination, mobilising peer support, strengthening primary prevention, and enhancing crisis intervention capability in social work education. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Patricia Fronek and Karen Smith Rotabi-Casares;individual chapters, the contributors.

Psychological and situational profiles of social distance compliance during COVID-19. (Special Issue: COVID-19 and health inequities: insights from communication research and practice.)

Background: Health advice in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has called upon the public to re-evaluate risk associated with recently routine behavior. However, differences in demographics, situational circumstances, and psychological dispositions create inequities in how people are able to respond to risks presented by the virus. Method: Within a sample of 482 Americans, we examined the frequency of behavior reconceptualized as 'risky' by CDC public health guidelines released on 30 March 2020. We applied a cluster analysis using a data-driven persona framework from the field of user-design research, using only situational and dispositional (i.e. psychological) variables to identify profiles of individuals.

Two Centre Feasibility study of single fraction lung stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR)

Purpose or Objective The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused major disruptions to cancer services worldwide. Many radiation oncology departments have adapted to this by increasing the use of hypo fractionated radiotherapy across multiple tumour sites and indications, including single-fraction Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR). A UK expert group has also now recommended a 30-34Gy single fraction treatment for small lung tumours (<2cm) with limited mobility that are >1cm from the chest wall based on two Phase II clinical trials, the RTOG 0915 and the Roswell Park study. In accordance with the new guidance, we reviewed the feasibility of delivery of single-fraction lung SABR across 2 UK radiotherapy centres. Materials and Methods All patients diagnosed with an early lung tumour, fulfilling the UK expert group's single-fraction SABR criteria, were considered eligible for this study. All patients had a pre-treatment 3D cone-beam computer tomography (3DCBCT) scan for position verification, using soft tissue image matching, followed by a post-treatment 3DCBCT to confirm reproducibility and accuracy of the original match, the coverage of the tumour and intrafraction motion. A pre-correction 4DCBCT was used for 1 patient with a lower lobe tumour. Three sets of criteria was used to document and analyse the data: 1) The intra-fraction movements 2) treatment time calculated from when the patient was on the treatment couch to off the couch 3)acute treatment side effects according to CTCAE v5.0. Results Using each department's planning and treatment delivery systems,13 patients, between May 2020 and January 2021, with early stage lung cancer (T1a-T1b) were found to be treated with 34Gy single-fraction SABR. A review of the data found that in the data set, across all patient data, there was limited intra-fraction movement with sub-millimetre corrections in any axis;pre-treatment corrections were: -0.14+/-0.26, 0.16+/- 0.41 and 0.03+/-0.35 mm (mean+/-SD) for vertical, long and lateral axis respectively. While corresponding post-treatment corrections were -0.04+/-0.21, 0.10+/-0.23 and -0.04+/-0.10 mm. Within the 3 months follow-up period, no patients experienced any acute Grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events. 4 patients (31%) had grade 1 fatigue, 2 patients (15%) had grade 1 cough, 2 patients (15%) had grade 1 dyspnoea and 2 patients (15%) had grade 2 pneumonitis which improved with steroid treatment. The latter 2 patients had corresponding extensive fibrotic consolidative changes at the treatment site evident on the post-treatment CT scan 2-3 months after therapy. Conclusion Our experience with the 34Gy single-fraction SABR to early lung cancers has shown that there is relatively little intra-fraction movement, it requires limited clinician support, it is fast to deliver and it is generally well tolerated. This hypo fractionated schedule is therefore an attractive and convenient treatment option for appropriately selected lung cancer patients.

Toward equitable education in the context of a pandemic: supporting linguistic minority students during remote learning

Purpose: Without universal access to a Covid-19 vaccine, many countries seek to prevent coronavirus outbreaks by closing schools and having students learn remotely. This study aims to examine its challenges for linguistic minority (LM) students and some practical strategies – both generally for all students and specifically for LM students. Design/methodology/approach: This study synthesises the research literature and practices across countries on equity and remote learning. It helps (1) understand the differential difficulties during an epidemic across primary, secondary and tertiary school students, especially LM students from low socioeconomic status (SES) families who lack economic, human, cultural or social capital in family or school contexts, based on Bourdieu's theory, and (2) identify additional resources and flexible, creative solutions for improving access and learning conditions for LM students. The authors discuss examples from 13 countries and territories (including developed and developing economies) of transformations of in-class learning to online learning in part or whole. Findings: The limited economic, cultural and social capital of LM students, especially from low SES families, and their schools, along with communication barriers hinder their remote learning. Crisis-induced school budget shortfalls require creative ways to transition teachers, students and parents to remote learning and to provide customised support for LM students. Schools can (1) partner with non-governmental organisations, religious organisations, businesses and government services to access/share remote learning resources for LM students;(2) help teachers, students and parents develop needed skills (via online systems, peer support groups and hotlines);(3) restructure teacher lessons and duties for remote teaching;and (4) capitalise on technology (e.g. texts, chats, whiteboards) to support LM students' remote learning – some of which can exceed their traditional face-to-face learning experiences. Originality/value: This article is among the first to examine how the Covid-19 crisis disproportionately affects the remote learning of LM students, to specify effective, practical remedies and to inform suitable education and social policies across countries. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.