Post-pandemic adopted learning approach to promote architectural education: statistical approach

PurposeOnline learning has many limitations in studio-based courses, such as architectural design courses, considering the challenges during post-pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to propose a post-pandemic adopted learning approach, which integrates flipped classrooms (FC) with project-based learning (PBL). In addition, this study evaluates the perceptions of students based on and the effects of the proposed learning approach in architectural design.Design/methodology/approachThis study provides a mixed methodology based on a literature review on the topic to bridge the gaps in previous studies regarding the FC and PBL. In addition, a case study survey including semi-structured interviews, observations questionnaire recruited undergraduate students to generate both qualitative and quantitative data to investigate the perceptions of students based on post-pandemic adopted learning approach.FindingsThis study has highlighted the significance of post-pandemic adopted hybrid learning method, especially in architectural education, whereas the research finds that FC is an appropriate solution to improve design courses with online technologies.Practical implicationsThe proposed approach provides specialists to develop and integrate proposals and strategies to enable a better online practice for students and instructors. The proposed approach can enhance the students' interpersonal skills, hence active online learning related architectural design projects.Originality/valueRecognizing the significance of e-learning in response to the post-pandemic scenario, this study developed and assessed new learning technique that combines online learning with traditional design studios via hybrid learning method.

A Problem and Project-Based Learning Strategy to Promote Students’ Motivation in Post-pandemic Graduation Design Studio: A Prospective Comparative Study

Applying educational computing strategies and student-centered learning has shown wide global attention within higher education institutes, especially after covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, innovative approaches, such as experiential-based learning, project-based learning and problem-based learning have positively affected the students’ motivation of an exact topic. Consequently, integrating these techniques in architectural education can resolve the difficulties of educational computing using blended learning, like losing motivation and complex problem solving, as many scholars identified them as meta competencies facing architectural design online learning. This paper discusses the application of problem and project-based learning (PPBL) to assist students in solving online education obstacles for architectural engineering students of Port Said University. The strategy is an innovative invention comprises a comprehensive learning system and a practical step by step learning process called 5 Ladders of Active Learning. A total of 26 students were asked to evaluate the proposed technique that integrates PPBL in their blended learning course, and then they were asked to rank its advantages and disadvantages. The results show that most student agreed that PPBL enhanced blended learning and developing affective skills such as student motivation, communication skills, soft skills and leadership in graduation project course. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Simultaneous analysis of two drugs used as supportive treatment for COVID-19: comparative statistical studies and analytical ecological appraisal.

Pharmaceutical quality control products (QC) demand quick, sensitive, and cost-effective methods to ensure high production at a low cost. Green analytical methods are also becoming more common in pharmaceutical research to cut down on the amount of waste that goes into the environment. Meclizine hydrochloride (MZH) and pyridoxine hydrochloride (PYH) are reported to be excellent for calming down COVID-19. As a result, the amount of MZH and PYH manufactured by multinational pharmaceutical organizations has increased considerably during the last several months. The present work proposes three environmentally friendly, straightforward, and sensitive spectrophotometric procedures for quantification of MZH in the presence of PYH in a pure and marketable formulations. The approaches under examination include ratio subtraction (RSM), induced dual wavelength (IDW), and Fourier self-deconvolution (FSD). PYH, on the other hand, was directly quantified at 290 nm. For both drugs, the procedures follow Beer's law in the range of (5-50 µg/mL). The RSM, IDW, and FSD methods, as well as the zero-order approach for PYH, have all been verified in accordance with ICH standards. The ecological value of established methodologies was determined using four distinct ways: the national environmental methods index (NEMI), the analytical Eco-scale, the Analytical Greenness Metric (AGREE), and the green analytical process index (GAPI). Comparing the findings to those of the previously described spectrophotometric technique, no major changes were identified.

Is Remote Learning Becoming the New Norm? A Survey-based Study on the Causes Behind the Poor In-person Classroom Attendances During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has impeded the education process in many ways. It has been reported that both instructors and students have dreaded the transformation to online platforms and have deemed the emergency classes ineffectual. However, by the end of the first year of the pandemic, when in-person attendance was permitted through hybrid classrooms, poor in-person classroom attendances were commonly reported. In this study, the instructors and students are surveyed to reveal the challenges of the transformation to online classes, and to induce the causes behind the poor in-person attendance of classes during the pandemic. This study is a work in progress.

A survey-based study of students' perspectives on remote electronics and electronics lab courses during COVID-19 pandemic

Electronics courses were commonly completed with hardware and software labs to complement teaching electronics theory and enrich the learning experience for students. The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the practical implementation of electronic circuits and the quality of electronics teaching. In this survey-based study, instructors of electronics book courses and labs, during the first year of the pandemic, discuss how to alleviate the limitations of the pandemic on electronics teaching. This study is a work-in-progress.

Students' Perspectives on Online Lecture Delivery Methods for Programming Courses: A Survey-based Study during COVID-19

This Research to Practice Full Paper presents a detailed study on the perspectives of students on different online lecture delivery method for programming classes, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During the period of spring, summer, and fall 2020, a total of 770 students across six different courses, and spanning the freshman, sophomore, and junior years, were surveyed to express their opinions in three different online lecture delivery methods, in the school hosting this study. The survey was designed to capture the main problems and obstacles the student had faced in an online learning environment. The authors analyze the obtained results and recommend best practices to successfully lead programming classes in an online learning environment.

A Computational Study of COVID-19 Detection using Colorimetric Plasmonic Sensors

Traditional molecular techniques for COVID-19 viral detection are time-consuming and can exhibit a high probability of false negatives. In this work, we present a computational study of COVID-19 detection using plasmonic gold nanoparticles. The resonance wavelength of a COVID-19 virion was recently estimated to be in the near-infrared region. By engineering gold nanospheres to bind with the outer surface of the COVID-19 virus specifically, the resonance frequency can be shifted to the visible range (380 nm-700 nm). Moreover, we show that broadband absorption will emerge in the visible spectrum when the virus is partially covered with gold nanoparticles at a certain percentage. This broadband absorption can be used to guide the development of an efficient and accurate colorimetric plasmon sensor for COVID-19 detection. © 2021 IEEE.

Post-COVID depression among a sample of Egyptian patients and its associated factors

Background Depression is classified as a mood disorder. It may be described as feelings of sadness, loss, or anger that interfere with a person's everyday activities. Nowadays, we are in COVID-19 pandemic. From practice after COVID-19 illness resolves, some of the recovering patients return back smoothly to their pre-illness life. Others experience different mood changes. Anxiety and depression are the most common. Those patients with improving general health, radiology, and oxygenation have different somatic complaints such as sensation of dyspnoea. Psychological support and psychiatric evaluation can help them to overcome this situation and get rid of dyspnoea sensation. This work aimed to evaluate the relation between COVID-19 survivors and depression and to how extent this could affect functional status of the study participants. Results This work recruited 102 adult patients as a sample of Egyptians who were positive PCR for SARS-COV2, turned negative and free of symptoms for 1 month or more which include physicians, nurses, employees, and literate health care workers of Ain Shams University hospitals attending chest outpatient clinic for follow-up. The majority were 47.1% in age group (35-55 years), sixty two (60.8%) participants were females, 74.5% had high education, and 24.5% were smokers. The most frequent symptom reported by study participants as the most annoying COVID-19 symptom was fever (32.4%). Beck depression inventory score showed that 59 (57.8%) participants had no depression, 24 (23.5%) had mild depression, 16 (15.7%) had moderate depression, and only 3 (2.9%) participants had severe depression. Logistic regression analysis was done to measure effect of steroid use and grade of dyspnoea on development of moderate or severe post-COVID depression and showed that higher grades of dyspnoea were associated with higher probability of development of moderate or severe post-COVID depression (p value < 0.05). Conclusion As predicted, COVID-19 survivors presented a high prevalence of psychiatric sequelae. Age, sex, and education level were important association factors. Higher educational level was associated with higher score of depression due to increased awareness of the current pandemic issue. Steroids' use was proposed as a cause of depression since the majority of moderate or severe depression group were on steroids. Higher grades of dyspnoea were associated with higher probability of development of moderate or severe post-COVID depression. It is suggested that COVID-19 survivors should be assessed, to properly diagnose and treat any psychiatric conditions, to reduce the disease burden.

Efficient inactivation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in human apheresis platelet concentrates with amotosalen and ultraviolet A light.

OBJECTIVES: The detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in blood and platelet concentrates from asymptomatic donors, and the detection of viral particles on the surface and inside platelets during in vitro experiments, raised concerns over the potential risk for transfusion-transmitted-infection (TTI). The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of the amotosalen/UVA pathogen reduction technology for SARS-CoV-2 in human platelet concentrates to mitigate such potential risk. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Five apheresis platelet units in 100% plasma were spiked with a clinical SARS-CoV-2 isolate followed by treatment with amotosalen/UVA (INTERCEPT Blood System), pre- and posttreatment samples were collected as well as untreated positive and negative controls. The infectious viral titer was assessed by plaque assay and the genomic titer by quantitative RT-PCR. To exclude the presence of infectious particles post-pathogen reduction treatment below the limit of detection, three consecutive rounds of passaging on permissive cell lines were conducted. RESULTS: SARS-CoV-2 in platelet concentrates was inactivated with amotosalen/UVA below the limit of detection with a mean log reduction of>3.31±0.23. During three consecutive rounds of passaging, no viral replication was detected. Pathogen reduction treatment also inhibited nucleic acid detection with a log reduction of>4.46±0.51 PFU equivalents. CONCLUSION: SARS-CoV-2 was efficiently inactivated in platelet concentrates by amotosalen/UVA treatment. These results are in line with previous inactivation data for SARS-CoV-2 in plasma as well as MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1 in platelets and plasma, demonstrating efficient inactivation of human coronaviruses.

Efficient inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in human plasma with amotosalen and ultraviolet a light treatment

Background/Case Studies: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in January 2020 as the responsible agent for COVID-19. First recognized in late 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic developed into a pandemic with, as of July 23, 2020, more than 15 million cases and 600,000 deaths reported globally. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in blood samples and blood components from asymptomatic blood donors including frozen plasma units and platelet concentrates. This suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may be a potential bloodborne pathogen and pathogen reduction offers potential to reduce the risk of transfusion transmission. We investigated the efficacy of amotosalen/UVA light to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 in human plasma. Study Design/Methods: Five pools of whole-blood derived human plasma units (630-650 mL each) were inoculated with a local clinical isolate (SARS-CoV-2/ human/SAU/85791C/2020) with a 1:100 dilution. Spiked pools were used to evaluate the efficacy of amotosalen/ UVA treatment (INTERCEPT® Blood System, Cerus Corporation, Concord, U.S.A.) to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 in plasma. Infectious and genomic viral titers were assessed by plaque assay and quantitative PCR (Altona Diagnostics, Hamburg, Germany), respectively, in spiked and treated samples in parallel with positive and negative controls. Results/Findings: Treatment of spiked plasma (titer of the viral stock: 5.6±0.2 log10 pfu/mL) with amotosalen/ UVA light resulted in complete inactivation of infectious viral titer with mean log reduction of >3.3±0.2 log10 pfu/mL. No viral replication or cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed in cells inoculated with inactivated samples even after 9 days of incubation and three successive passages. Evaluation of genomic titer expressed in genome equivalent (GEq/mL) in inactivated samples showed equivalent reduction to the limit of detection of 7.10±0.2 log10 GEq/mL. Conclusions: Complete and efficient inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 was observed with amotosalen/UVA light treatment of spiked human plasma units suggesting that treatment of plasma with this pathogen reduction technology could reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted SARS-CoV-2 infection. These findings are consistent with prior inactivation data with amotosalen/UVA for other human-pathogenic coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV) in platelets and plasma.

A Controllability Algorithm to Minimize the Spreading chance of COVID-19 in Individual Networks

After the spread of the coronavirus. It became necessary to presenting artificial intelligence algorithms to study social contact between people. On the other hand, social network considers as a complex network. The situation became urgent to reduce these networks and reduce links between people inside each network while maintaining full controllability of the networks to reduce the number of real contact and minimize the cost of the networks especially in these bad days, which the world lives in due to the spread of epidemics, viruses, and infection. This paper aims to present a model that computes controllability on real contact people's networks to reduce touches and keep the network in a controlled manner based on three ways. a structural controllability approach is using by applying the Bipartite-graph algorithm and the Hopcroft-Karp algorithm. In order to determine the drive nodes that must be controlled to gain full control of the network, normal driver nodes and weak driver nodes. Weak driver nodes can remove to enhance controllability. As a result, network controllability increased by 12.8%, reduced rate of drive nodes, reduced the chance of spread of infection by 67%. © 2020 IEEE.

Fecal Calprotectin as a Predictor of COVID-19 Severity

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is highly transmittable through contact with respiratory droplets. The virus is also shed in fecal matter. Some patients may present with effects in more than one system;however, there are no defined biomarkers that can accurately predict the course or progression of the disease. The present study aimed to estimate the severity of the disease, to correlate the severity of the disease with biochemical predictors, to identify valuable biomarkers indicative of gastrointestinal disease, and to determine the cutoff values. A cross-sectional study was conducted on COVID-19 patients admitted to the Kafrelsheikh University Hospital (isolation unit) between July 10, 2020, and October 30, 2020. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was confirmed via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which was employed for the detection of the viral RNA. We conclude that lymphopenia, elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level, and liver enzymes were among the most important laboratory findings in COVID-19 patients. Statistically significant differences in platelet count, neutrophil count, D-dimer level, and fecal calprotectin levels were observed among patients presenting with chest symptoms only and patients with both chest and gastrointestinal symptoms (p = 0.004;< 0.001;0.010;0.003;and < 0.001, respectively). C-reactive protein, D-dimer, and fecal calprotectin levels positively correlated with disease severity. The cutoff value for fecal calprotectin that can predict gastrointestinal involvement in COVID-19 was 165.0, with a sensitivity of 88.1% and a specificity of 76.5%. © 2021 Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.