Inductive Graph-based Knowledge Tracing

The rise of virtual education and increase in distance, partly owing to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, has made it more difficult for teachers to determine each student's learning status. In this situation, knowledge tracing (KT), which tracks a student's mastery of specific knowledge concepts, is receiving increasing attention. KT utilizes a sequence of studentexercise interactive activities to predict the mastery of concepts corresponding to a target problem, recommending appropriate learning resources to students and optimizing learning sequences for adaptive learning. With the development of deep learning, various studies have been proposed, such as sequential models using recurrent neural networks, attention models influenced by transformers, and graph-based models that depict the relationships between knowledge concepts. However, they all have common limitations in that they cannot utilize the learning activities of students other than the target student and can only use a limited form of exercise information. In this study, we have applied the concept of rating prediction to the studentexercise knowledge tracing problem and solved the limitations of the existing models. Our proposed Inductive Graph-based Knowledge Tracing (IGKT) designed to integrate structural information and various unrestricted types of additional information into the model through subgraph sampling, has been found superior over the existing models across two different datasets in predicting student performances. © 2023 IEEE.

Why do we vent our emotions and blame others during the coronavirus pandemic? The role of emotional clarity in the United States and South Korea

People have been experiencing more negative affect (NA) during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic than prior to its onset. This may increase instances of people venting their emotions and blaming others to relieve the flood of unregulated NA. This study examined individuals' venting and blaming processes within the context of the pandemic and explored the mediating role of emotional clarity across cultures. We conducted an online survey with 210 and 197 participants from the US and South Korea, respectively. The results of the moderated mediation analysis showed that individuals' NA during the pandemic significantly affected their venting and blaming via emotional clarity among US participants. This finding implies that when people in individualistic cultures do not fully understand their emotions, they are more likely to vent to or blame others. This can serve as a potential risk factor for hate crimes during the pandemic. Conversely, the mediation effect of emotional clarity was not significant among South Korean participants, suggesting dissimilar roles played by emotional clarity in individualistic versus collectivistic cultures in managing NA. © 2023 Fundacion Infancia y Aprendizaje.

Study of Ge-As-Se system with high refractive index for infrared glass molded lens

For chalcogenide-based infrared glass materials, the need was emphasized along with the spread of thermal imaging cameras in COVID 19 environment. Commercial Ge-As-Se glass system exhibits a dispersion value of 100 similar to 180 and a refractive index of 2.5 or more, and is suitable for the glass molding process, so it is used as an aspherical infrared lens for various thermal imaging cameras. However, some compositions are not suitable for glass molding process. In this study, the composition of the long wavelength infrared glass melting was designed based on the Ge-As-Se system with a Ge composition range of 0 similar to 35 at%, As composition range of 20 similar to 40 at%, and Se composition range of 25 similar to 60 at%. As a result of XRD analysis for each Ge-As-Se-based composition, it was confirmed that all amorphous grains were obtained in the developed composition area. For the Ge-As-Se glass-forming composition region, the glass transition temperature ranged from 180 to 425 degrees C. The refractive index was measured using the prism method in the 3 to 12 mu m wavelength band. The refractive index (lambda=10 mu m) of Ge5As40Se55 and Ge5As35Se60 was 2.6913 and 2.6538, respectively. Moldability test was performed using a glass molding press. As a result of observing whether the lens has internal defects and microcracks after molding, it was confirmed that there was no abnormality and that it was suitable for glass molding process.

STEREOTACTIC PELVIC ADJUVANT RADIATION THERAPY IN CANCERS OF THE UTERUS (SPARTACUS): A MULTI-CENTRE PROSPECTIVE TRIAL EVALUATING ACUTE TOXICITIES AND PATIENT REPORTED OUTCOMES

Purpose: Adjuvant radiation plays a significant role in reducing loco-regional recurrences in uterine cancers. Standard treatment consists of daily radiation for five weeks which can be challenging for patients and the healthcare system, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hypofractionated radiotherapy has been evaluated and established in other pelvic malignancies. This study aims to evaluate the acute urinary and bowel toxicities, and patient reported outcomes following stereotactic hypofractionated adjuvant radiation for endometrial cancer. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective phase I/II trial in which patients with endometrial cancer planned for adjuvant radiation received 30Gy in 5 fractions, every other day or once weekly. Treatment was delivered at two centres with volumetric arc radiation therapy with a body-vacuum immobilization, bowel enema and 3D image-guidance. Toxicity assessment, outcomes and patient reported quality of life (QOL, EORTC core QLQ-C30 and endometrial EN24) were collected at baseline, fractions (F) 3 and 5, and at regular follow-up intervals. Higher scores represent better global QOL/health status or worse symptoms (scale 0 -100). Changes in QOL over time were investigated with linear mixed-effects models. A p-value threshold of 0.05 was used for statistical significance. A change in QOL score of > 10 points was considered clinically significant. Results: The median age of the 41 enrolled patients is 66 (range: 51 - 88). Histologies included 29 endometrioid adenocarcinoma, eight serous/clear cell, one carcinosarcoma, and three dedifferentiated. Thirty patients had Stage I disease while three had Stage 2 and eight Stage 3. Seven patients received sequential chemotherapy and 3 had additional vault brachytherapy. Median follow-up is nine months, with worst toxicity (GI or GU) of Grade 1 and 2 in 63% and 24% respectively. No patients have experienced a Grade 3 or higher toxicity. Patient-reported diarrhea and gastrointestinal domain scores were statistically significantly worse than baseline at F5 (mean paired difference = 27.2;8.7, p<.005) and six weeks (mean paired difference = 7.9;5.1, p<0.05), and returned to baseline levels at 12 weeks. The only clinically significant change (>10) from baseline was in diarrhea at F5. There were no significant changes in urinary domain, overall health and quality of life scores. No loco-regional recurrences have been found;three patients recurred distantly, of which two died of metastatic disease. Conclusions: Stereotactic hypofractionated radiation is feasible and well-tolerated with short-term follow-up. Longer follow-up and future randomized studies are needed to further evaluate this treatment.

Epidemiological characteristics of 17 Coronavirus disease 2019 in Puyang, Henan

Objective To explore the epidemiological characteristics of confirmed cases of coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) in Puyang, Henan Province, so as to provide basis for diseases control and preventive. Methods The epidemiological data of 17 cases of COVID-19 in Puyang were collected, and the time, regional and population distribution characteristics of COVID-19 were described and analyzed by drawing disease sequence diagram and case relationship diagram. Results Among the 17 cases, 7 were male (41.2%);the median age was 36 years old with age ranged from 12 to 66 years. A total of 4 clustered outbreaks occurred, involving 12 cases (70.6%), all of which were family recurrent cases. The median incubation period was 6.5 days, the shortest 3 days and the longest 13 days. The onset time of a second-generation case was 11 days earlier than that of the indicator case. The median time between onset and treatment was 4 days, the shortest was 0 days and the longest was 12 days. Of the 17 cases, 6 had a sojourning history in Hubei Province within 14 days, and 1 had a history of overseas tourism. The other cases were all local infections, 8 of them were close contacts of the confirmed cases, and 2 of them were from unknown sources. Among the close contacts, the cases involved in the family clustering epidemic were transmitted through close contact and respiratory tract. After detailed investigation and inquiry, it was inferred that the transmission route was the staircase droplet transmission. Conclusion In Puyang City, most of the cases were from Hubei Province, and was dominated by family clustering epidemic. There was a possibility of infection in the incubation period. © 2021, Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.

Chemoradiation With or Without Metformin in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer: Phase II Randomized Trial

Tumor hypoxia is associated with poor response to radiation (RT) and chemotherapy, and worse treatment outcome. We previously discovered a novel mechanism of metformin in a xenograft model: enhancing tumor RT response by inhibiting tumor cell oxygen consumption. Our population-based study showed that cumulative dose of metformin after cervical cancer diagnosis was independently associated with a decreased risk of cervical cancer-specific mortality in diabetic women. Based on the pre-clinical and retrospective data, we hypothesized that metformin would decrease tumor hypoxia and improve tumor response to RT in locally advanced cervical cancer. A window-of-opportunity, phase II randomized trial was performed in women with stage IB-IVA cervical adenocarcinoma, squamous cell or adenosquamous carcinoma. Patients underwent screening positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with hypoxia tracer fluoroazomycin arabinoside (FAZA). Those with non-hypoxic tumor (no FAZA uptake) were excluded. Patients with FAZA uptake were randomized centrally in a 2:1 ratio (in favor of metformin) to receive either metformin in combination with standard chemoRT or standard chemoRT alone. Metformin was started at 850mg once daily x 3 days, followed by 850mg twice daily throughout the entire duration of external radiotherapy. A second FAZA-PET/CT scan was performed after 1 week of metformin or no intervention in control group, just before start of chemoRT. The hypoxic volume was defined as all voxels within a tumor with standardized uptake values (SUVs) greater than 3 standard deviations (SD) from the mean gluteus maximus muscle SUV value. The hypoxic fraction (HF) was defined as the ratio of the number of hypoxic voxels to the total number of tumor voxels. The primary endpoint was absolute mean change in HF between the two FAZA-PET scans, compared using the Wilcoxon sign rank test. Disease-free survival (DFS) was defined as the duration of time from randomization to the time of relapse or death and compared using the log-rank test. Target accrual was 48 patients;the study was closed early to accrual due to FAZA availability and the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the twenty patients who consented, 6 were excluded due to no FAZA uptake and 1 withdrew. The median age of the 13 enrolled patients was 52;8 (62%) had squamous cell carcinoma and 8 had stage IIB disease. HF of the 10 patients in the metformin arm decreased by an average of 10.2% (from 44.4% to 34.2%) ± SD 16.9% after 1 week of metformin, compared to an average increase of 4.7% (from 29.1% to 33.8%) ± 11.5% for the 3 patients in the control arm (P = 0.027). With a median follow-up of 2.8 years, the 2-year DFS was 67% for the metformin arm vs 33% for control (P = 0.09). Metformin decreases cervical tumor hypoxia with a trend towards improved DFS in this trial. A larger confirmatory trial is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Stereotactic Pelvic Adjuvant Radiation Therapy in Cancers of the Uterus (SPARTACUS): A Multicenter Prospective Trial Evaluating Acute Toxicities and Patient Reported Outcomes

Adjuvant radiation plays a significant role in reducing locoregional recurrences in uterine cancers. Standard treatment consists of daily radiation for 5 weeks which can be challenging for patients and the healthcare system, especially during the COVID pandemic. Hypofractionated radiotherapy has been evaluated and established in other pelvic malignancies. This study aims to evaluate the acute urinary and bowel toxicities, and patient reported outcomes following stereotactic hypofractionated adjuvant radiation for endometrial cancer. This is a prospective phase I/II trial in which patients with endometrial cancer planned for adjuvant radiation received 30 Gy in 5 fractions, every other day or once weekly. Treatment was delivered at two centers with volumetric arc radiation therapy with a body-vacuum immobilization, bowel enema and 3D image-guidance. Toxicity assessment, outcomes and patient reported quality of life (QOL, EORTC core QLQ-C30 and endometrial EN24) were collected at baseline, fractions (F) 3 and 5, and at regular follow-up intervals. Higher scores represent better global QOL/health status or worse symptoms (scale 0 – 100). Changes in QOL over time were investigated with linear mixed-effects models. A P -value threshold of 0.05 was used for statistical significance. A change in QOL score of ≥ 10 points was considered clinically significant. The median age of the 41 enrolled patients is 66 (range: 51 – 88). Histologies included 29 endometrioid adenocarcinoma, 8 serous/clear cell, 1 carcinosarcoma, and 3 dedifferentiated. Thirty patients had stage 1 disease while 3 had stage 2 and 8 stage 3. Seven patients received sequential chemotherapy and 3 had additional vault brachytherapy. Median follow-up is 9 months, with worst toxicity (GI or GU) of grade 1 and 2 in 63% and 24% respectively. No patients have experienced a grade 3 or higher toxicity. Patient-reported diarrhea and gastrointestinal domain scores were statistically significantly worse than baseline at F5 (mean paired difference = 27.2;8.7, P <.005) and 6 weeks (mean paired difference = 7.9;5.1, P < 0.05), and returned to baseline levels at 12 weeks (Table 1). The only clinically significant change (≥ 10) from baseline was in diarrhea at F5. There were no significant changes in urinary domain, overall health and quality of life scores. No locoregional recurrences have been found;3 patients recurred distantly, of which 2 died of metastatic disease. Stereotactic hypofractionated radiation for uterine cancers is feasible and well-tolerated with short-term follow-up. Longer follow-up and future randomized studies are needed to further evaluate this treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Predicting Interactions Between Pathogen and Human Proteins Based on the Relation Between Sequence Length and Amino Acid Composition

Aim: Both bacterial infection and viral infection involve a large number of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between a pathogen and its target host. Background: So far, many computational methods have focused on predicting PPIs within the same species rather than PPIs across different species. Methods: From the extensive analysis of PPIs between Yersinia pestis bacteria and humans, we recently discovered an interesting relation;a linear relation between amino acid composition and sequence length was observed in many proteins involved in PPIs. We have built a support vector machine (SVM) model, which predicts PPIs between human and bacteria using two feature types derived from the relation. The two feature types used in the SVM are the amino acid composition group (AACG) and the difference in amino acid composition between host and pathogen proteins. Results: The SVM model achieved high performance in predicting bacteria-human PPIs. The model showed an accuracy of 96%, sensitivity of 94%, and specificity of 98% in predicting PPIs between humans and Yersinia pestis, in which there is a strong relation between amino acid composition and sequence length. The SVM model was also tested in predicting PPIs between human and viruses, which include Ebola, HCV, and SARS-CoV-2, and showed a good performance. Conclusion: The feature types identified in our study are simple yet powerful in predicting pathogenhuman PPIs. Although preliminary, our method will be useful for finding unknown target host proteins or pathogen proteins and designing in vitro or in vivo experiments.

Analysis of COVID-19 genetic risk susceptibility using UK Biobank SNP genotype data

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. Here, we performed a study on host susceptibility to COVID-19 infection using COVID-19 test results and genomic data released by UK Biobank until early October of 2020. The data consisted of 27,713 samples including 2740 positive cases. We employed genome-wide association study, gene-level association and pathway analyses using common and rare variants. Among these analyses, only pathway analysis based on rare variants found seven significant pathways. Among them, the JAK-STAT pathway and glycolipid biosynthesis pathway have been reported to be associated with a viral infection, especially COVID-19 infection. Further, we found new pathways that were not previously reported, including pathways related to cellular signalling like NLR signalling pathway. Additional experiments and studies of these pathways may unveil the pathophysiological of COVID-19 and identify highly susceptible groups. Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The teaching design and application of online - Offline hybrid curriculum under the influence of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic

This paper analyzes the differences between online and offline courses in teaching organization, course content and practice, as well as the differences between hybrid teaching and hybrid courses in concept and emphasis. This paper puts forward the basic principles and requirements of hybrid courses teaching design, and discusses the key points and application scenarios of hybrid courses teaching design from three aspects: teaching objectives, teaching elements and teaching activities. And the key issues that need to be figured out are explained. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021.

Fall prevention among veterans in a skilled nursing facility

Background: In skilled nursing facilities (SNF), 50-70% of residents fall per year. SNF residents with dementia are more prone to fall, with an annual incidence of 60%. The Community Living Center (CLC) at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC), reported annual fall rate of 50%, compared to the national VA fall rate of 42%. Our goal was to reduce the rate of fall by 20% compared to fiscal year 2019. Methods: We conducted process mapping with CLC interdisciplinary team members to identify barriers to fall prevention. The barriers included staff, patient population-specific challenges, environmental obstacles, and documentation, communication, and care protocol. Studies have shown that multi-pronged approaches yield the best results. We implemented 3 interventions: fall education, purposeful huddles, and toilet seat risers. Physical therapists and occupational therapists stated that low toilet seats were fall risk for Veterans. Results: We partnered with the CLC's nurse educator to adapt the “5 P's Proactive Patient Rounding” education tool as a pocket card for the CLC nursing staff. By end of May 2020, all CLC nurses were educated in these 5 P's and fall prevention. Watch List Huddle was started in January 2020, to discussed care plans for residents who nurses were concerned about. Every resident who fell were discussed during these rounds which met three times a week. Lastly, toilet seat risers were placed in each bathroom in July 2020. Implementation of our interventions lead to 40% decrease in the average number of falls. Conclusion: Re-training in fall prevention, improving communication and care plan after fall and raising the toilet seats significantly reduce the rate of falls by 40%. This result was much larger than our goal 20% reduction. An increase in nursing staff hiring and a decreased census within the CLC due to COVID-19 quarantine may have contributed to better than expected outcome.

A rotationally focused flow (RFF) microfluidic biosensor by density difference for early-stage detectable diagnosis

Label-free optical biosensors have received tremendous attention in point-of-care testing, especially in the emerging pandemic, COVID-19, since they advance toward early-detection, rapid, real-time, ease-of-use, and low-cost paradigms. Protein biomarkers testings require less sample modification process compared to nucleic-acid biomarkers'. However, challenges always are in detecting low-concentration for early-stage diagnosis. Here we present a Rotationally Focused Flow (RFF) method to enhance sensitivity(wavelength shift) of label-free optical sensors by increasing the detection probability of protein-based molecules. The RFF is structured by adding a less-dense fluid to focus the target-fluid in a T-shaped microchannel. It is integrated with label-free silicon microring resonators interacting with biotin-streptavidin. The suggested mechanism has demonstrated 0.19 fM concentration detection along with a significant magnitudes sensitivity enhancement compared to single flow methods. Verified by both CFD simulations and fluorescent flow-experiments, this study provides a promising proof-of-concept platform for next-generation lab-on-a-chip bioanalytics such as ultrafast and early-detection of COVID-19.

[Epidemic characteristics and trend analysis of the COVID-19 in Hubei province].

Objective: By describing and analyzing the epidemic characteristics and trends of the attack rate, the crude mortality and relevant indexes in Hubei province during the pandemic of COVID-19 to provide comprehensive evaluations of the epidemic trends and the effects of intervention measures. Methods: Based on the case data reported in Hubei province during the COVID-19 epidemic, combined with the important time of major interventions and event, the cumulative attack rate, the sequential increase rate of new cases, baseline increase rate of new cases, the observation- confirmed case conversion rate, the cumulative crude mortality, the daily severe case rate, and the ratio of death to severe were used to describe and analyze the epidemic characteristics in different phases of the COVID-19 epidemic. Results: The epidemic experienced an outbreak phase from January 10 to February 3 with large amount of case reported, a peak phase from February 4 to February 19 with continuous increasing number of new cases and deaths, a platform phase from February 20 to March 3 with balanced diagnosis and treatment number, and a descending phase from March 4 to March 18 with decreased diagnosis and increased treatment number. Up to March 18, the cumulative attack rate of the COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei province increased from 0.03/10 000 on January 19 to 11.46/10 000, from 0.04/10 000 on January 10 to 45.13/10 000 in Wuhan city, and from 0.002/ 10 000 on January 20 to 3.70/ 10 000 in other areas of Hubei province other than Wuhan city. The increase rate of new cases fluctuated during the epidemic period and reached the highest at February 12 in Hubei province. The cumulative crude mortality in Hubei Province increased rapidly from 1.01% on January 19 to 5.13% on January 26, then decreased to 2.54% on February 13, and then slowly increased to 4.62% on March 18, and similar trend was also observed in Wuhan city. The daily severe rate in Hubei Province increased from 26.88% on January 27 to 34.27% on March 18. The ratio of death to severe decreased from 7.37% on January 23 to 0.35% on March 18. Conclusions: The epidemic cycle of COVID-19 in Hubei province proposed to be 60 days, which was about 1.76 times of the combination of the longest incubation period or isolation period (14 d) and the average hospitalization time of confirmed patients in Hubei province (20 d). It suggested that the major anti-epidemic decisions made in China were effective.