Comparing COVID spread to mask-wearing rates in public transportation using AI detection

The spread of COVID-19 has resulted in several changes worldwide. In particular, border closures and economic stagnation have significantly affected societies. Although the implementation of preventive measures has improved the pandemic scenario in several countries, the effectiveness of vaccines has decreased with the emergence of mutant viruses. With this background, the use of masks is considered the best method for preventing the spread of the virus. Notably, public transportation is closely related to socioeconomic activities, and the spread of infectious diseases is more likely in closed, dense, and congested areas. Moreover, the probability of infection during public transportation also depends on the proportion of commuters wearing masks. Based on the closed-circuit television footage of various public transportation spaces, the number of mask wearers can be analysed using artificial intelligence deep learning, and the probability of COVID-19 spread can be predicted by determining the proportion of mask wearers among the commuters. With this background, in this study, the importance of masks in controlling the spread of the virus is confirmed. In conclusion, appropriate measures can be implemented by determining the probability of infection according to the mask-wearing rate in public transportation spaces. © 2023 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Confirmed Cases and Subway Passengers

COVID-19 is mainly transmitted between people. Therefore, people's movement may cause the spread of COVID-19. Announcing an increase in the number of confirmed cases affects people's behavior and reduces people's movement. We analyzed the correlation between the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and the change in the number of subway passengers in the metropolitan area to promote the understanding of the relationship between public transportation volume and COVID-19 confirmed cases. By using the reference number of subway passengers in 2016–2019, we calculated the decrease in passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic period from April 8, 2020 to July 29, 2021. Changes in subway passengers did not seem to affect the number of confirmed cases significantly. However, announcing an increase in confirmed cases greatly reduced the number of passengers. We also found that people avoided the subway on the basis of their normalized risk perception rather than absolute risk based on the number of daily confirmed cases. © 2022 The Korean Physical Society. All rights reserved.

Bunazosin inhibited axial elongation with an increase of the choroidal blood perfusion in a murine model of myopia

Purpose : The prevalence of myopia is accelerating worldwide possibly because of the decrease in outdoor activity including COVID-19 home confinement. We have reported the effective treatments of suppressing myopia progression, including oral administration of crocetin (Mori K et al. Sci Rep. 2019) and violet light exposure (Jiang X et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2021). In this study, we examined the therapeutic effects of bunazosin, known as one of the α1-adrenergic receptor antagonists, in a lens-induced myopia mouse model. Methods : C57BL/6J mice were induced myopia at 3-week-old by a method established in our research group (Jiang X et al. Sci Rep. 2018). For 3 weeks, mice were equipped with lenses in both eyes, a left for 0 D lens as internal control and a right for -30 D lens as myopia induction. During this period, we administered 0.01% bunazosin hydrochloride solution by intraperitoneal injection (IP group) and eye drop (E group) once a day, and PBS as control. Ocular components including refraction error, axial length, and choroidal thickness before and after myopia induction were measured by an infrared photorefractor and an SD-OCT. The choroidal blood flow was evaluated by an SS-OCT angiography. Results : In the eye with -30D lens of control group, significant changes in a myopic shift of refraction (p < 0.01), axial elongation (p < 0.05), and choroidal thinning (p < 0.01) compared to 0D lens were observed. In contrast, IP or E groups showed no significant difference between both eyes, suggesting myopia progression was suppressed by bunazosin treatment. The choroidal blood flow of the eye with -30D in E group (58.9±8.9%) was higher than that of the control group -30D (44.0±6.4%)(p < 0.05). Conclusions : Bunazosin has a preventive effect on myopia progression by suppressing axial elongation and choroidal thinning together with an increase of choroidal blood flow.

Development and psychometric evaluation of Clinical Practice Self-Efficacy Scale for nursing students

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of nurses' clinical performance, and accordingly, nursing educators have emphasized students' clinical practice and performance. This study developed a Clinical Practice Self-Efficacy Scale for nursing students and examined its psychometric properties. Methods: The authors reviewed instruments for selecting items for the scale in the areas of clinical skills, communication, infection control, safety, and nursing process. After preliminary items were selected, ten experts consisting of nursing professors and clinical nurses reviewed the items considering Korean clinical and educational situations. The data for the psychometric evaluation was collected from 257 nursing students in their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years and then analyzed. Results: The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the goodness of fit of this scale with five factors represented by 40 items was appropriate. The significant positive correlations with general self-efficacy indicated sound construct validity. The senior nursing students showed higher scores than others, as we expected. Cronbach’s alpha was .94. Conclusion: The Clinical Practice Self-Efficacy Scale is appropriate for measuring Korean nursing students' self-efficacy of clinical practice. It is expected to act as a good tool to measure the effects of clinical practice education. Copyright © 2022 Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education.

The Factor Structure of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale Adapted for Korean Preschool Teacher Candidates During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has remarkably challenged preschool teacher candidates, triggering concerns for their psychological well-being and mental health. Valid and reliable instruments to assess elements of mental health are thus required. The self-rating Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale demonstrates promise as an instrument for the identification and quantification of the states of anxiety and depression in non-psychiatric patients. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale is widely applied in both clinical and research contexts. However, no psychometric evaluations have been performed for this instrument with non-clinical samples such as preschool teacher candidates in South Korea. This study purposed to establish the factor structure of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and to validate its Korean version and was conducted online with a sample of preschool teacher candidates during the peak of the coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown. Methods: Data were collected from 359 undergraduates currently enrolled in a 4-year early childhood education degree program at a private university in Korea. The sample was randomly split to perform exploratory factor analysis and then confirmatory factor analysis respectively to test competing models hypothesized to reflect the factor structure of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. Results: Supplemental revisions based on confirmatory factor analysis modification indices demonstrated that a correlated 2-factor model with 1 cross-loaded item offered the best fit to the data with adequate internal reliability estimates. Conclusion: Overall, this study confirms the validity and factor structure of the Korean version of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, which is deemed an acceptable instrument that can be used to measure the symptoms of depression and anxiety in Korean preschool teacher candidates. © 2022, AVES. All rights reserved.

Changes in health-seeking behavior of stroke patients during three covid-19 outbreaks: Data from the Korean stroke registry

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the medical use of stroke patients. This study evaluated the health-seeking behavior of stroke patients and changes in stroke care services at the time of three domestic COVID-19 outbreaks in Korea using the Korean Stroke Registry (KSR) data. Methods: We reviewed data from patients with acute stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) from Jan 2019 to May 2021. There were three domestic COVID-19 outbreaks (1st: Feb to Mar 2020, 2nd Aug to Sep 2020, 3rd Nov 2020 to Jan 2021). Outcomes included patient characteristics, times from stroke onset to hospital arrival, and in-hospital stroke pathways. Results: The study included 34,271 patients who visited hospitals that contribute to the KSR. In the first outbreak, in Daegu city (the main epicenter), the number of patients decreased by two-thirds compared to the pre-COVID period, and the number of TIA patients was particularly decreased (9.97% to 2.91%). Unlike other regions, the median onset-to-door time increased significantly in the epicenter (361 min vs. 526.5 min, p=0.016), and longer times were common for patients with mild symptoms and who were in their 60s or 70s. The median onset-to-door time increased in the epicenter during the second outbreak, but it was not statistically significant. At the third outbreak, the median onset-to-door time was reduced even in the epicenter compared to the previous one. The number of patients decreased with each outbreak compared to the previous one, but the decrease gradually became smaller. Conclusions: Korean stroke patients in a COVID-19 outbreak region showed clear changes in health-seeking behaviors and showed a pattern of adaptation to the COVID-19 environment. There is a need for continued attention to an appropriate triage system and public education on the importance of early treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of grit, gratitude disposition and stress on psychological well-being among nursing students during the Covid-19 pandemic: a structural equation modeling

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to develop and test a model for the effects of grit, gratitude disposition, and stress on the psychological well-being of nursing students during the Coronavirus-2019 pandemic. Methods: The data were collected from June 9 to June 27, 2021. A total of 286 nursing students responded to an online questionnaire. In the hypothesis's model, the exogenous variables were grit and gratitude disposition, and the endogenous variables were nursing students' stress and psychological well-being. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN and AMOS programs. Results: The final model showed the following indices of goodness of fit: χ2=78.30, χ2/df=3.01, GFI=.95, CFI=.96, TLI=.94, SRMR=.05, and RMSEA=.08. Nursing students' psychological well-being was explained by their grit, gratitude disposition, and stress directly and indirectly, with these three variables explaining 56% of psychological well-being. Conclusion: This study identified factors affecting the psychological well-being of nursing students in a state of increased stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study can be a basis for developing and applying a program to enhance nursing students' psychological well-being. Copyright © 2022 Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education.

When and whom should retailers offer price reductions in times of crisis?

Purpose With a decrease in consumer spending during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many retailers are offering price reductions to stimulate demand. However, little is known about how consumers perceive such price reductions executed during turbulent times. The authors examine whether the timing of price reductions and individual differences impact consumers' evaluations of the retailers offering such reductions. Design/methodology/approach Using a longitudinal design, the authors inquire into four retailers' motives that consumers may infer from a price decrease at two different times during the COVID-19 crisis. Findings The authors find that the timing of price reductions plays a key role in shaping consumers' inference of retailers' motives. The authors also uncover individual characteristics that affect consumers' inferences. Originality/value This research advances the literature by demonstrating the critical role of timing and individual characteristics in consumers' perceptions of price reductions during times of crisis. The authors findings also provide retailers with actionable insights for their pricing strategies. The findings may be generalizable to other types of crises that may arise in the future.

Effects of jigsaw strategy into flipped learning on efl pre-serviced kindergarten teachers‟ english attitude and motivation with online-based classroom

This research applied a jigsaw strategy in flipped learning to improve English attitude and motivation of EFL pre-kindergarten teachers. For this purpose, online-based flipped learning was planned and executed by dividing 48 pre-serviced kindergarten teachers into an experimental group (n=25) and a control group (n=23). In particular, the jigsaw strategy was applied by differentiating the discussion method between the experimental group and the control group, and various topics for 'English in Early Childhood' lecture were provided for about 10 weeks. As a result, the English attitude and motivation post-scores of the experimental group were improved, and there were significant differences between the experimental group and the control group. Accordingly, this research verified the effectiveness of the teaching method to encourage learners' participation in the distance learning environments caused by COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, this research also significant in that it has prepared new alternatives to EFL English learners that rely on the face-to-face educational methods. © 2021 by the authors.

Consideration of Convolutional Neural Networks for Image Processing of Capillaries

The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is an effective algorithm in deep learning and the performance which the CNN brings in life problem is recognized worthily. Tobacco is one of the biggest public health threats and results in 8 million deaths every year through cardiovascular diseases, lung disorders, cancers, diabetes, and hypertension. There are several methods used in hospitals for inspecting their own health, however, they are difficult to use in daily life because all inspecting devices are large-scale and complex. Thus, the purpose of this study was to propose a new method to self-check the effect of smoking on capillaries and surface skin in daily life, then evaluate the usefulness of the proposed method. The dataset was collected from the 26 human subjects through the capillaroscopy;13 subjects were the smoker and the 13 were the non-smoker. Through all of the results for the recognition of the difference between smokers and non-smokers, it was confirmed that conventional methods to extract featured points from the edge or corner points such as ssim (structural similarity) and sift (scale-invariant feature transform) was not so good for the image processing of capillaries. However, it was found that CNN worked well with over 80% accuracy. It was discussed that efficientnet with the compound scaling was so good for the small dataset with the comparison of resnet50, vgg16, densenet121 with one scaling factor, although COVID-19 virus affected the dataset making procedure measured from human subjects directly.

Changes in stroke patient's health-seeking behavior by COVID-19 epidemic regions: Data from korean stroke registry

Background and purpose: With the wide spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) around the world, not only patients with COVID-19, but also patients with other disease such as stroke have undergone many changes in their health-seeking behavior. Between late February and March 2020, COVID-19 was epidemic in the community of Daegu city and Gyeongsangbuk-do region (D-G region) in Korea. We aimed to clarify the changes in the health-seeking behaviors of stroke patients and stroke care services by region in Korea through analysis of data from Korean Stroke Registry (KSR). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data with acute stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients between 2019 and 2020. We compared the stroke onset to hospital arrival (onset-todoor) time of these patients in the D-G region and other regions in Korea during the epidemic period in 2020 (post-COVID-19: February 18-March 31, 2020) and the same period in 2019 (Pre-COVID- 19). In addition, we investigated the in-hospital stroke pathways with the patients. Results: 1,792 patients in pre-COVID-19 and 1,555 patients in post-COVID-19 who visited KSRregistered hospitals were analyzed. Compared to pre-COVID-19, the number of patients registered in KSR decreased in most regions in post-COVID-19. In the D-G region, the number of registered patients decreased by two thirds, and the proportion of patients with TIA decreased significantly. (9.97% to 2.91%). Unlike other regions, the median onset-to-door time increased significantly in the D-G region (361 versus 526.5 minutes, p=0.0084). The proportion of patients with onset-to-door time within 3 hours also decreased significantly (36.45% versus 28.16%, p=0.0485). Patients in their 60s and 70s and mild symptoms (NIHSS score 0 to 3) came to the hospital later. As a result, the patients who underwent thrombectomy also decreased, but the treatment time did not differ between the two periods. Conclusion: During the epidemic of COVID-19, the patients residing in the epicenter showed distinct changes in health-seeking behavior. Appropriate public education about stroke is needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clinical Presentation and Outcomes of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the Republic of Korea

Background: From May to July 2015, the Republic of Korea experienced the largest outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outside the Arabian Peninsula. A total of 186 patients, including 36 deaths, had been diagnosed with MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection as of September 30th, 2015. Materials and Methods: We obtained information of patients who were confirmed to have MERS-CoV infection. MERS-CoV infection was diagnosed using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. Results: The median age of the patients was 55 years (range, 16 to 86). A total of 55.4% of the patients had one or more coexisting medical conditions. The most common symptom was fever (95.2%). At admission, leukopenia (42.6%), thrombocytopenia (46.6%), and elevation of aspartate aminotransferase (42.7%) were observed. Pneumonia was detected in 68.3% of patients at admission and developed in 80.8% during the disease course. Antiviral agents were used for 74.7% of patients. Mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and convalescent serum were employed for 24.5%, 7.1%, and 3.8% of patients, respectively. Older age, presence of coexisting medical conditions including diabetes or chronic lung disease, presence of dyspnea, hypotension, and leukocytosis at admission, and the use of mechanical ventilation were revealed to be independent predictors of death. Conclusion: The clinical features of MERS-CoV infection in the Republic of Korea were similar to those of previous outbreaks in the Middle East. However, the overall mortality rate (20.4%) was lower than that in previous reports. Enhanced surveillance and active management of patients during the outbreak may have resulted in improved outcomes. FAU - Choi, Won Suk