ABSTRACT
This study surveyed adult web monitor enrollees about the lives of and stress experienced by Japanese children and adolescents during the prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The survey was conducted on February 10, 2022 (after the sixth wave) and August 19, 2022 (during the seventh wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan), with 231 and 217 survey participants, respectively. The questionnaire was designed so that adults could assess the frequency of exercise, and difficulties experienced by children and adolescents around them. Regarding exercise opportunities, 22% of parents of middle and high school children reported that children's exercise opportunities "stayed the same” or "increased considerably” in the first survey. Whereas, in the second survey, all parents of middle and high school children reported that children's exercise opportunities "decreased.” Regarding stress, 17% of parents of adolescents 18 years and older responded that the stress experienced was the "same as before” or "a little less than before” in the first survey, but all of these parents responded "quite a bit” to the same question in the second survey. The findings suggest that the life changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have a significant impact on children and adolescents and may increase stress. The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents should be further investigated. © Fuji Technology Press Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was announced as an outbreak by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020 and as a pandemic in March 2020. The majority of infected individuals have experienced no or only mild symptoms, ranging from fully asymptomatic cases to mild pneumonic disease. However, a minority of infected individuals develop severe respiratory symptoms. The objective of this study was to identify susceptible HLA alleles and clinical markers that can be used in risk prediction models for the early identification of severe COVID-19 among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. A total of 137 patients with mild COVID-19 (mCOVID-19) and 53 patients with severe COVID-19 (sCOVID-19) were recruited from the Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Tokyo, Japan for the period of February-August 2020. High-resolution sequencing-based typing for eight HLA genes was performed using next-generation sequencing. In the HLA association studies, HLA-A∗11:01:01:01 [Pc = 0.013, OR = 2.26 (1.27-3.91)] and HLA-C∗12:02:02:01∼HLAB∗ 52:01:01:02 [Pc = 0.020, OR = 2.25 (1.24-3.92)] were found to be significantly associated with the severity of COVID-19. After multivariate analysis controlling for other confounding factors and comorbidities, HLAA∗ 11:01:01:01 [P = 3.34E-03, OR = 3.41 (1.50-7.73)], age at diagnosis [P = 1.29E-02, OR= 1.04 (1.01-1.07)] and sex at birth [P = 8.88E-03, OR= 2.92 (1.31-6.54)] remained significant. The area under the curve of the risk prediction model utilizing HLA-A∗11:01:01:01, age at diagnosis, and sex at birth was 0.772, with sensitivity of 0.715 and specificity of 0.717. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article which describes associations of HLA alleles with COVID-19 at the 4-field (highest) resolution level. Early identification of potential COVID-19 could help clinicians prioritize medical utility and significantly decrease mortality from COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Cyber-attacks are on the rise, and the advent of COVID-19 has changed work styles, leading to an increase in cyber-attacks targeting remote workers. This situation is the same in the world and in Japan, and the development of cyber security personnel and their training to face the attackers who can respond to the social situation is desired all over the world. The National Institute of Technology (KOSEN) is known not only in Japan but also in the world as the only institution of higher learning in the world where students can freely study engineering for five years from the age of 15. The technical framework of cybersecurity and the KOSEN education, which is based on the acquisition of practical skills, go hand in hand, and KOSEN is an important higher education institution that plays a part in the cybersecurity human resource development strategy in Japan. In 2015, KOSEN launched the KOSEN Security Educational Community (K-SEC) to initiate cybersecurity education for KOSEN students. This project has two objectives: one is to develop excellent cyber security personnel for qualitative improvement. The second is to develop a large number of KOSEN students who have systematically acquired security knowledge for the purpose of quantitative expansion. In 2019, a new project, Highly Advanced Cybersecurity for KOSEN (HACK), was launched within K-SEC to accelerate the achievement of the two objectives of K-SEC. HACK is a project based on a simple idea: to strengthen KOSEN faculty in order to develop strong students with practical cybersecurity skills. Participating faculty members will develop cyber range materials. The development of the cyber range will contribute to the understanding of both attacker and defender scenarios and the acquisition of advanced security knowledge and skills. In the previous paper, we reported on the results of the first year of HACK (2019). The faculty development plan, which mainly focused on cyber range development, contributed to the motivation and skill development of the faculty. The cyber range as a deliverable was also obtained. This paper reports on the outcomes of the second year (2020) of HACK activities. Within the faculty development plan, which mainly focused on cyber range development as in the first year, we used the deliverables of the first year to give lectures to KOSEN students to measure the educational effects. During the cyber range development, there were some knowledge and skills that the faculty intended to have the KOSEN students improve their skills. Therefore, the focus of the study was to see if the faculty members' intended skills would be improved when they gave lectures to the KOSEN students using the teaching materials. As it turned out, we were able to achieve this goal, and we were able to improve the skills of the KOSEN students as intended by the faculty. Furthermore, it was not only possible to control the skills to be improved by the content of the teaching materials, but also by the way the lectures were delivered. In addition, by selecting the theme of the cyber range development, we were able to achieve the intended skill improvement for the faculty. Through the implementation of HACK until the second year, we were able to identify many factors for skill improvement. In the third and fourth years of the program, we will continue to look for factors that can be used to further improve specific skills, and at the same time, we will explore the relationship with motivation, which is expected to contribute greatly to educational effectiveness. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
No other infectious disease that has had a long-lasting impact on humanity in recent times has caused as much hardship as the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. While several cross-sectional surveys have reported the effects of the pandemic on daily life, there have been very few longitudinal reports from Japan. There-fore, we conducted web-based questionnaire surveys 131 and 610 days after the first case of COVID-19 infection was reported in Japan. There were 244 and 220 participants in the first and second surveys, respectively. The percentage of participants who felt stressed increased from 76 to 97% from the first to the second survey, while the frequency of going out and playing sports/exercising did not change. Regarding the problems faced due to COVID-19, the number of people who mentioned the word “stress” increased significantly in the second survey. The changes in perceived stress under difficult circumstances over a pe-riod of time can aid prediction and support during the COVID-19 pandemic in the future. © Fuji Technology Press Ltd.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To conduct a thorough online workshop on infection control under COVID-19 and to conduct a questionnaire survey on the online workshop. OBJECTIVE: The Tokai University School of Medicine has held 39 workshops to acquire the curriculum planning ability required as a faculty member of the School of Medicine. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year (2020) we were unable to hold a workshop. Therefore, we attempted an online workshop using Zoom. METHODS: To shorten the amount of time required for the workshop, we excluded some content that was used the previous year. The day passed without any major problems, and both the participants and the individuals in charge of the workshop filled out a questionnaire at the end of the day. RESULTS: Conclusion: Online workshops appear to be a very useful tool in terms of infection control under the COVID-19 pandemic.