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1.
Qual Quant ; : 1-19, 2022 Nov 18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2128993

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken not only the global economy but every development field, including all levels of the education sector and in every place in the world. The wide spread of this pandemic disaster has undoubtedly changed the education landscape worldwide. Online teaching and learning become the primary instruction method and the global world of schools, colleges and universities were forced to adapt this model. The first concern about online learning is whether this method is effective compared to traditional face-to-face lessons. In this paper, we carried out a quantitative analysis to explore variations in university students' feedback on learning experience in the context of this new challenging situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By adopting an IRT modeling, we compared the appreciation of some aspects of 41 courses taught at the University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) during the educational emergency with that of the previous year. Overall, from the results of this study, it is arisen that students have given positive feedbacks on their learning experiences and their effectiveness.

2.
Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess ; 36(4): 1083-1101, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1371355

ABSTRACT

Faced with novel coronavirus outbreak, the most hard-hit countries adopted a lockdown strategy to contrast the spread of virus. Many studies have already documented that the COVID-19 control actions have resulted in improved air quality locally and around the world. Following these lines of research, we focus on air quality changes in the urban territory of Chieti-Pescara (Central Italy), identified as an area of criticality in terms of air pollution. Concentrations of NO2 , PM10 , PM2.5 and benzene are used to evaluate air pollution changes in this Region. Data were measured by several monitoring stations over two specific periods: from 1st February to 10 th March 2020 (before lockdown period) and from 11st March 2020 to 18 th April 2020 (during lockdown period). The impact of lockdown on air quality is assessed through functional data analysis. Our work makes an important contribution to the analysis of variance for functional data (FANOVA). Specifically, a novel approach based on multivariate functional principal component analysis is introduced to tackle the multivariate FANOVA problem for independent measures, which is reduced to test multivariate homogeneity on the vectors of the most explicative principal components scores. Results of the present study suggest that the level of each pollutant changed during the confinement. Additionally, the differences in the mean functions of all pollutants according to the location and type of monitoring stations (background vs traffic), are ascribable to the PM10 and benzene concentrations for pre-lockdown and during-lockdown tenure, respectively. FANOVA has proven to be beneficial to monitoring the evolution of air quality in both periods of time. This can help environmental protection agencies in drawing a more holistic picture of air quality status in the area of interest.

3.
Biomedicines ; 9(8)2021 Aug 18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1360721

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic has hit people's health, economy, and society worldwide. Great confidence in returning to normality has been placed in the vaccination campaign. The knowledge of individual immune profiles and the time required to achieve immunological protection is crucial to choose the best vaccination strategy. We compared anti-S1 antibody levels produced over time by BNT162b2 and AZD1222 vaccines and evaluated the induction of antigen-specific T-cells. A total of 2569 anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG determination on dried blood spot samples were carried out, firstly in a cohort of 1181 individuals at random time-points, and subsequently, in an independent cohort of 88 vaccinated subjects, up to the seventeenth week from the first dose administration. Spike-specific T-cells were analysed in seronegative subjects between the two doses. AZD1222 induced lower anti-S1 IgG levels as compared to BNT162b2. Moreover, 40% of AZD1222 vaccinated subjects and 3% of BNT162b2 individuals resulted in seronegative during all the time-points, between the two doses. All these subjects developed antigen-specific T cells, already after the first dose. These results suggest that this test represents an excellent tool for a wide sero-surveillance. Both vaccines induce a favourable immune profile guaranteeing efficacy against severe adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, already after the first dose administration.

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