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This research study compared the perceived performance of interior design students participating in Classroom Learning Versus Online Learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Jordan. The survey results suggest that first-year students had higher satisfaction ratings than third-year students. Second-year students had a medium level of expectations and perceptions regarding both online and classroom learning. The reasons for this difference in perceived performance could be attributed to a variety of factors, such as the novelty of online learning, the more complex coursework of third-year students, and the difficulty of conveying concepts in an online learning environment. In order to ensure that all students are receiving an equitable education, regardless of their year level, it is important to understand the root causes of the difference in satisfaction between first-and third-year students and to develop strategies to address any issues that arise. The findings of this study provide insight into the factors affecting student satisfaction with online learning and can inform the development of strategies to support students in their learning during the pandemic.
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Background: COVID-19- related systemic cytokine response induces the production of procoagulant factors, which predisposes patients to a prothrombotic state. CRP, the main acute inflammatory protein, has been related to the disease outcome. CWA is the global hemostatic assessment that evaluates clot formation kinetics during routine clotting tests. Aim(s): To investigate the ability of CWA parameters to predict the severity of CoVID-19. Method(s): In this retrospective observational study, we evaluated 227 CoVID-19 patients upon hospital admission, prior to the initiation of anticoagulation therapy. CWA were performed on BCSXP System(SIEMENS). The measured CWA parameters of PT, aPTT and Fifrinogen(FIB) were the change in Absorbance(dmA) and the time difference from the starting time of the reaction (mixing of reagent and sample) until a specific absorbance change (absorbance threshold). The patients were divided into 5 groups based on the CRP values:A: < 6mg/l(n = 17), B:6-25mg/ l(n = 51), C:25-50mg/ l(n = 53), D:50-100mg/ dl(n = 43) and E:>100mg/l (n = 58). Variables were tested with Student's t-test or Mann-WhitneyU test for differences in distributions of dmA and dsec among five groups. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used for comparison of the above parameters of 227 patients and their CPR values. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Result(s): A gradual increase in the values of dmA was detected from A to E group. Statistical significance was present in aPTT among all groups, in PT in groups compared with D and E and finally in FIB in groups compared only with E. In the comparison of dsec, statistical significant decrease was observed in PT among A and C, D, E and between B and E, while in FIB among all groups. The comparison between CoVID-9 patients and duration of hospitalization revealed statistical significant correlation in aPTT (both dsec and dmA) and in dmA of PT(p < 0.001). Conclusion(s): CWA variables upon admission in COVID-19 patients may be used for the prognosis of the patient outcome.
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Background: Recent evidence has suggested the presence of unique coagulation abnormalities in patients with COVID-19. Clot waveform analysis (CWA) has not been adequately described as a tool for the evaluation of coagulation. Aim(s): To comparatively assess the changes in clot waveform analysis (CWA) parameters between COVID-19 patients upon hospital admission and healthy individuals. Method(s): In this retrospective observational study, we evaluated 227 CoVID-19 patients upon their hospital admission, prior to the initiation of anticoagulation therapy relative to 84 healthy individuals. Coagulation tests and CWA were performed on BCS XP System (SIEMENS). The CWA parameters of PT, aPTT and Fifrinogen (FIB) were the change in Absorbance (dmA) and the time difference between the starting time of the reaction (mixing of reagent and sample) until a specific absorbance change (absorbance threshold). All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS27. Variables were tested with Student's t tests or Mann-Whitney U tests for differences in distributions of dmA and dsec of PT, aPTT and FIB between two groups. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Result(s): A statistically significant increase in the dmA values of PT, aPTT and FIB was detected in CoVID-19 patients compared with the healthy individuals (p < 0.001) (fig.1). A statistically significant decrease in CoVID-19 patients was found only for the dsec values of FIB (p < 0.001) (fig.2). Conclusion(s): CWA variables upon admission in COVID-19 patients may be used for the evaluation of their inflammatory response or/ and hypercoagulopathy. Our results may help to identify patients at a high risk of thromboembolism. (Figure Presented).
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Background: The activation of coagulation is one of the most severe complications of CoVID-19. The automatic optical end-point coagulation analyzers have the ability to present the clot reaction curve of the PT, APTT and Fibrinogen(FIB) which is referred as a clot waveform analysis (CWA). Aim(s): To investigate the ability of CWA parameters for the prognosis of the length of hospital stay of CoVID-19 patients. Method(s): Coagulation tests and CWA on BCSXP System (SIEMENS) were performed in 268 CoVID-19 patients upon hospital admission and prior to the initiation of anticoagulation therapy. The measured CWA parameters of PT, aPTT and FIB were the change in Absorbance(dmA) and the time difference from the starting time of the reaction (mixing of reagent and sample) until a specific absorbance change (absorbance threshold). The patients were divided into 3 groups depending on the duration of hospitalization: A: < 5 days (n = 42), B:6-10 days (n = 81), C:>10days (n = 145). Variables were tested with Student's t-test or Mann-WhitneyU test for differences in distributions of dmA and dsec among three groups. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used for comparison among the above parameters of 268 patients and their days of hospitalization. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS27. Result(s): A gradual increase in the values of dmA was detected from A to C group. Statistical significance was present in aPTT and PT among all groups but in FIB only between B and C. From the comparison of dsec, statistical significant decreased values were found only in FIB between A and C (p = 0.027) and B and C (p = 0.002). The comparison between CoVID-19 patients and duration of hospitalization revealed statistical significant correlation of dmA in PT, aPTT (p < 0.001) and in FIB (p = 0.01). Conclusion(s): CWA variables upon admission in COVID-19 patients, may be utilized for the prognosis of the duration of hospitalization.
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Although the current management of COVID-19 is mainly focused on efficacious vaccine and infection control, the most common psychological reactions (such as fear and anxiety) associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have not been investigated and even neglected in patients with heart failure who are at greater risk for morbidity and mortality. We assessed COVID-19 related fear and anxiety among patients with heart failure and determined their associated factors. A cross sectional survey was conducted among 300 consecutive patients with heart failure during the period of March 2021-June 2021. Almost 50.7% of patients had fear of COVID-19 and 36.3% had coronavirus anxiety. Age > 55 was significantly associated with increased odds of fear (OR = 2.6) and anxiety (OR = 4.3). Patients with angina were more likely to have fear (OR = 3.0) and anxiety (OR = 2.2) and patients with chronic lung disease were more likely to have fear (OR = 3.0) and anxiety (OR = 3.3). Increased age, having angina, and having chronic lung disease were associated with increased odds of fear of COVID-19 and coronavirus anxiety. Psychological support needs to be integrated in patient care with special attention to physiological risk factors that are associated with COVID-19 comorbidities.
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Aims By necessity, our trust was unable to complete gold standard ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) assessments as part of the ASD diagnostic pathway during the Coronavirus pandemic. We, therefore, implemented the BOSA as a stop-gap. This retrospective audit compares the need for further assessments and the outcomes from BOSA assessments against those achieved by our unit when the 'gold standard' ADOS was in use. Our audit standard was to achieve equivalent results pre- and during the pandemic. Methods Data from a random sample of 120 children who completed an ADOS assessment August - December 2019 was compared with data from a random sample of 118 children who completed a BOSA August 2020 - January 2021. Statistical analysis was performed using the 2 tailed Fisher's exact test. Results In school age children, further assessment was significantly more likely to be required when a BOSA assessment was used (25.6% vs. 8.9%, p=0.01). There was a less significant difference between the need for further assessment in the pre-school age group between the ADSO and BOSA groups (14.3% vs. 0%, p=0.048). In this audit, the wait time for a BOSA assessment was 372 days vs. for an ADOS assessment 278 days. However, due to the complex disruption caused by the pandemic, any difference in pathway duration could not meaningfully be evaluated by this audit. An additional ADOS was needed in 14.3% of cases undergoing the BOSA assessment. This will have affected the duration of the assessment process due to delays in arranging and completing further assessments. Children were slightly more likely to receive a positive autism diagnosis using the BOSA. However, this was not statistically significant (p=0.31 for school age, p= 1.0 for preschool age). Conclusion The BOSA assessment seems to be effective when used with pre-school children, with a minimally significant difference in rates of children requiring further assessment and no significant difference in final diagnosis rates. BOSA assessment appears to be less useful in school age children - with a greater proportion then requiring a subsequent ADOS assessment, but, again, with no significant difference in final diagnosis rates. This audit supports the recommendation that the BOSA assessment is not intended to be used long-term or to replace the ADOS, which remains the gold standard assessment. However, in the context of a pandemic, where ADOS assessments were not possible, the BOSA assessment allowed 86% of preschool age and 74% of school age children to receive a confirmed diagnosis (positive or negative), using an assessment method whose diagnosis rates were similar to the ADOS assessment.
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Background: TAVR has emerged as a revolutionary treatment for patients with symptomatic and severe AS, irrespective of surgical-risk profile. Novel transcatheter heart valves (THV) with a lower profile, ease of use and expected longer durability are being developed to target younger and low-risk population. Myval is a 14Fr-balloon expandable THV with a skirt to minimize the occurrence of paravalvular leak (PVL), and has been recently approved for commercial use in Brazil. We sought to report our initial experience with this novel device. Methods: Single-center, single arm, open label prospective registry encompassing all consecutive patients referred to TAVR in our Institution between December 2020 and November 2021. Indication for TAVR was according to current international guidelines. Clinical and echocardiographic outcomes were defined accordingly to VARC-III criteria. Results: A total of 39 patients were enrolled so far. Mean age was 79.5 years, 42% were female and mean STS score was 4%. Pre-procedures mean gradient and aortic valve area were 53.3 mmHg and 0.7cm2, respectively. All procedures were performed under minimalist approach using percutaneous, femoral access. Two patients were treated for bicuspid aortic stenosis and four patients underwent a valve-in-valve procedure. Procedure success was achieved in 100% of the cases, and post-procedure echocardiogram revealed a mean residual gradient of 5 mmHg, with PVL greater than mild in a single case. Permanent pacemaker was required in only 2 patients, and mean hospital stay was 3.1 days. At 30-days, there were two deaths, one due to COVID in a patient who presented major access bleeding requiring prolonged hospital stay, and another one a cardiovascular death. Conclusion: In our initial experience with the Myval THV, valve performance and 30-day clinical results were encouraging. Low rates of complications were observed, comparable to the best last-generation THV. At the time of the meeting, three-month clinical and echocardiographic FU will be available.
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Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles coated on textile fabrics have showed remarkable antibacterial characteristics, suggesting that they could be utilized to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 and reduce outbreaks. Textile materials, such as medical cloths and cleaning workers, could help to stop the spread of the COVID-19 Corona Virus in health institutions. Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) coated cotton/starched cotton, as well as their functionalized CuO–Ag nanocomposites and Cu(II)-curcumin complex, were synthesized in this study. CuO-NPs are less likely to leach when starched cotton materials are used instead of unstarched cotton. The none-toxic biocompatible starch material has improved the adhesion properties of the cotton fibers and enhanced its durability towards CuO-NPs. Deposition of CuO has improved by 39.5% after 3 wt% starch was used and its antimicrobial activity of CuO-coated cotton has increased by 50% for E. coli and by 23% for S. aureus. The functionalization of CuO-coated cotton with curcumin or Ag nanoparticles has enhanced the antimicrobial performance of the fabric because of the synergistic behavior of CuO, Ag, and curcumin. The results have showed excellent antimicrobial activity against E. coli and S. aureus.
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Background: TAVR has emerged as a revolutionary treatment for patients with symptomatic and severe AS, irrespective of surgical-risk profile. Novel transcatheter heart valves (THV) with a lower profile, ease of use and expected longer durability are being developed to target younger and low-risk population. Myval is a 14Fr-balloon expandable THV with a skirt to minimize the occurrence of paravalvular leak (PVL), and has been recently approved for commercial use in Brazil. We sought to report our initial experience with this novel device. Methods: Single-center, single arm, open label prospective registry encompassing all consecutive patients referred to TAVR in our Institution between December 2020 and November 2021. Indication for TAVR was according to current international guidelines. Clinical and echocardiographic outcomes were defined accordingly to VARC-III criteria. Results: A total of 39 patients were enrolled so far. Mean age was 79.5 years, 42% were female and mean STS score was 4%. Pre-procedures mean gradient and aortic valve area were 53.3 mmHg and 0.7cm2, respectively. All procedures were performed under minimalist approach using percutaneous, femoral access. Two patients were treated for bicuspid aortic stenosis and four patients underwent a valve-in-valve procedure. Procedure success was achieved in 100% of the cases, and post-procedure echocardiogram revealed a mean residual gradient of 5 mmHg, with PVL greater than mild in a single case. Permanent pacemaker was required in only 2 patients, and mean hospital stay was 3.1 days. At 30-days, there were two deaths, one due to COVID in a patient who presented major access bleeding requiring prolonged hospital stay, and another one a cardiovascular death. Conclusion: In our initial experience with the Myval THV, valve performance and 30-day clinical results were encouraging. Low rates of complications were observed, comparable to the best last-generation THV. At the time of the meeting, three-month clinical and echocardiographic FU will be available.
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In March 2020, cities across Canada locked down in an effort to control the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The containment measures forced many disruptive societal changes, with the virtual delivery of medical education being one example. Many of the resulting educational changes will persist for the foreseeable future. As students at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, we have observed first-hand the transition to a virtual curriculum. Preclerkship medical students have been unable to participate in clinical observerships as part of early career exploration throughout the duration of the pandemic. These clinical experiences offer more than just opportunities to narrow career options, they also serve as a critical part of our development as future physicians. Given the continued need to preserve personal protective equipment and comply with physical distancing guidelines, we believe innovative solutions are needed to restore this critical component of our medical education. Our student-led research group has described a novel use of a point-of-view livestreaming technology that allows physicians to demonstrate physical exams while teaching clinical skills to medical students as one possible solution. As the pandemic continues to threaten global health, a clear need exists to identify and implement creative innovations to prepare future physicians.
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In the recent year, people had to work from home due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the majority of the family members are working online, the bitrate experienced by the average user may drop, especially if some members have to work in rooms that suffer from weak coverage. Benefiting from the emerging concept of Reflective Intelligent Surfaces (RIS), the network coverage in our houses can be greatly improved. This paper presents a study of an RIS-assisted system for an indoor scenario operating at 2.4GHz. We propose an RIS placement approach that is based on minimizing the pathloss of the channel, to enhance the rate of bad coverage rooms, while taking into consideration their user occupancies. The proposed approach, which we refer to as the Weighted RIS Placement, is modeled and simulated for a single RIS. The problem is then extended to a two-RIS scenario. Our results show that the Weighted RIS placement provides significant rate gains. Also, this is the first work that models the communication channels for the individual rooms, using corresponding Rician K-factor values that reflect the indoor layout. © 2021 IEEE.
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This article is devoted to the study of trends in the management of global economic development in the post-pandemic period. The paper developed recommendations for further development of countries in the context of the recurrence of pandemics. With this in mind, the main trends in the development of countries during the pandemic were considered and the impact of quarantine on the economies of various countries was determined. To model the future actions of states, based on studies of the historical preconditions for the development of countries in the post-crisis period, the basic patterns were identified, allowing to predict different scenarios of world economic development. The article introduces a forecasting method of global economic development based on the quadrant of trust and affluence of the population, which allows predicting various options for post-pandemic development according to four possible scenarios. The first option is a rapid V-shaped growth, which is based on the fact that with a sufficient level of public confidence in the government, as soon as the quarantine restrictions expire, the economy will gain momentum. The second one is the long-term U-shaped growth, which is expected to take place in terms of insufficient public confidence in the government, with a population reluctant to invest in economic growth. The third one is the L-shaped development, which does not provide for economic recovery in the short run due to public distrust and the impossibility of business recovery. Finally, the fourth scenario is the worst one: it's the way of development, that occurs in case of impossibility of survival and complete distrust to the government;the population will be forced to organize protests and revolutions, thus making the economy operate even worse. According to the expectations of international regulators, V or U-shaped recovery of the world economy after the COVID-19 pandemic is expected nowadays. Most businessmen believe that post-pandemic development will be U-shaped. To improve the mechanisms of managing the development of world economies, the directions of development are proposed focused not on capitalist, but social goals. The state should occupy an important place in this process acting as a guarantor of efficient allocation of resources and providing social guarantees to the population during possible further cataclysms.
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Nowadays, meta-heuristic algorithm (MA) succeeded in optimizing many engineering problems. Ions motion optimization (IMO) algorithm is a MA that inspired its search strategy from ions attraction based on force law. IMO has good exploration capability but poor exploitation of the search space. The performance of IMO was tested for implementing fragmented local aligner technique (FLAT) which is a local aligner method for finding the longest common consecutive subsequence (LCCS) between pair of biological sequences. Due to the huge length of sequences FLAT based on IMO produce poor results due to the poor exploitation which need to be enhanced by adding particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm which has efficient exploitation capability. The enhanced version of IMO (IMO-PSO)was merged as two layer (bottom layer for exploration using IMO and the upper layer exploit the best solution founded from the bottom layer). This hybrid scheme increase the diversity of solutions which increase the quality of solutions. FLAT based on IMO-PSO was tested on real biological sequences gathered from NCBI versus IMO and the standard local alignment algorithm. Besides, COVID-19 was analyzed against other viruses to detect the LCCS between it. FLAT based on IMO-PSO produced an enhancement of the performance of IMO for finding LCCS between biological sequences. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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COVID-19 is a pandemic that broke out throughout the world and has a high mobility to transfer between humans. Developing intelligent bioinformatics tools is a mandatory to aid in the analysis of the disease. One of these tools is local aligner which aims to find the longest common subsequence between two biological sequences. Fragmented local aligner technique (FLAT) was developed based on meta-heuristic algorithms to accelerating the alignment process, especially for sequences with huge length. In this paper, the performance of ions motion optimization (IMO) algorithm for implementing FLAT was measured. The performance was poor, and a chaotic parameter was added in the exploration equations of IMO to enhance its performance for FLAT. A set of real proteins having a product length which ranges from 250,000 to 9,000,000 were used as a dataset to test the performance of IMO and its developed version. Besides, COVID-19 virus was aligned using FLAT according to IMO and chaotic IMO to verify the enhancement of IMO. All results were compared to the results founded by Smith–Waterman approach. The tests prove the superiority of chaotic IMO over IMO for implementing FLAT on all datasets. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.