ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, most countries are still suffering from the virus, and human society has been greatly changed. As the new virus is highly contagious, many people are still infected with the virus every day, and even face death in serious cases. However, there are still a lot of people who do not realize the harm of the virus, in order to make people more intuitive feel the spread of the virus in a certain period, this paper will use two classic epidemiological mathematical models based on the Markov chain called SEIR and SEIRS model for simulating the virus spread in New York City in 180 days. In both models, there are four states: Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, and Recovered. At first, Markov chain was used to randomly generate a populous population, and only one person in the population was infected, and then the changes in the number of people in these four states were observed over time. In addition, by incorporating certain coefficients in the models into a formula, an index for measuring infectious diseases called Reproduction number (R0) will be obtained. The R0 of Covid-19 in New York City is about 5.93, much greater than 1. Indicating that on average one person can infect about six people, which is highly contagious, so measures need to be taken to reduce this number. Finally, the SEIRS model is more suitable by comparing these two models since people do get re-infected over time. © COPYRIGHT SPIE.
ABSTRACT
Student motivation in the Programming Fundamentals (CS1) course in our college has long been a problem. Our project utilized both peer modeling and game development to increase students' curiosity for programming and help them enjoy the learning process. Our project involved peer mentors in every aspect of the game development workshops. We guided peer mentors to design, develop and deliver game development workshops. The main goal is to motivate and retain early college IT students, especially traditionally underrepresented groups, such as females and underrepresented minorities (URM) in IT. The second goal is to improve peer mentors' professional development and career readiness. We conducted a pilot study in spring 2020. Shortly after the peer mentors conducted the first workshop in person in classrooms, the classes were moved online due to the COVID pandemic. The remaining workshops were forced to be converted to the online asynchronous format. This adaptation in fact gave us a unique opportunity to observe the difference of the two modalities. Survey data show that our approach was effective at increasing students' curiosity and enjoyment of programming. Female and URM students responded especially well to workshops conducted by peer mentors in the in-person sessions, better than their counterparts. However, the benefit seemed greatly reduced for them when the remaining workshops were forced to be converted to the online asynchronous format when classes were moved online. Our survey data also showed that 91% of students prefer the in-person workshop to the standard class format, while only 56% of students preferred the online asynchronous workshops to a standard programming assignment. The contrast between the two modalities shed light on the elements, such as peer modeling and personal interaction that are especially effective for increasing motivation and improving learning for underrepresented students in IT. A larger scale implementation is in planning and what we learned in the pilot study will help guide the project in the future for both the delivery and assessment of the workshops. © 2021 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Immunofluorescence lateral chromatography (IFLC) is a quantitative detection technique used to screen C-reactive protein and procalcitonin (PCT) monoclonal antibodies with high efficiency and specificity. This study investigated the application value of IFLC combined with the detection of hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and PCT in patients with mental diseases associated with COVID-19 infection. Sixty-four patients with mental disease admitted to our hospital from January to April 2020, were selected as research subjects. Based on the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19 in the “Corona Virus Disease 2019 Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme (Byass, P., 2020. Eco-epidemiological assessment of the COVID-19 epidemic in China, January- February 2020. Global Health Action, 13(1), p.1760490.) version 6, all patients were tested using the nucleic acid amplification test for COVID-19 and were divided into two groups of 6 infected and 58 non-infected patients. Subsequently, the patients’ hsCRP and PCT levels were measured using IFLC and an automatic biochemistry analyzer (BA). The results showed that the hsCRP and PCT levels in the infected group were higher than the non-infected group. Additionally, the analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of hsCRP were higher than PCT. The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of hsCRP+PCT measured jointly were significantly higher than hsCRP and PCT measured separately. The BA results showed that the AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of hsCRP were higher than PCT. The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of hsCRP+PCT measured jointly were significantly higher than hsCRP and PCT measured separately. Comprehensive analysis showed that the AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of hsCRP+PCT tested using IFLC were significantly higher than using the BA. All of the above differences were statistically significant (P <0.05). It was concluded that the joint detection of hsCRP and PCT by IFLC helped identify and diagnose mental diseases associated with COVID-19 infection. © 2021 by American Scientific Publishers.
ABSTRACT
Among the staff of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, who received the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on January 30 in 2021, 28 recipients were selected for this research. Samples for nucleic acid tests were collected from the surface of the recipients' both hands before and after vaccination. The hemostatic stickers used after the inoculation were also collected for nucleic acid tests. The nucleic acid tests of the samples collected from the surface of both hands of the 28 recipients before vaccination were all negative. After vaccination, the nucleic acid tests of the samples collected from the surface of both hands of recipients were positive in 3 cases, and suspicious in 8 cases, with a positive rate of 10.7%. A total of 25 hemostatic stickers used were collected, 24 of them had positive nucleic acid tests, and the rest one had suspicious nucleic acid test result, with a positive rate of 96%. The hemostatic stickers used after the inoculation have the risk of nucleic acid contamination.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Hemostatics , Nucleic Acids , COVID-19 Vaccines , Humans , SARS-CoV-2 , VaccinationABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has elevated mortality in severe and critical patients globally. This study examined the effect of glucocorticoids (GCS) on the time of virus clearance and absorption of lung lesions in severe and critical COVID-19 patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Severe and critical COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital from January 7 to February 10, 2020 were analyzed. The generalized linear model was utilized to assess the effects of GCS therapy on the times of nucleic acid test turning negative and improved pulmonary imaging, respectively. RESULTS: Of 66 patients, 51 (77.3%) and 15 (22.7%) were severe and critical cases, respectively, and aged 62 ± 11 years. A total of 58 patients (87.9%) tested negative, and 56 (84.8%) showed improved lung imaging. Age, thrombocytopenia, CD8 + T cell count, course of GCS therapy, and total dose were correlated with the time of nucleic acid test turning negative (p < 0.05), and sex was correlated with the time of initial pulmonary imaging improvement (p < 0.05). The time of nucleic acid test turning negative in individuals with GCS therapy course ≤ 10 days was shorter than that of the GCS therapy course > 10 days group (p=0.001). No statistical difference was found in the dose, course of GCS, and initial time of improved lung imaging. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the dose of GCS and prolonging the course of treatment do not shorten the time of nucleic acid test turning negative or improved absorption of pulmonary lesions. Thus, the rational use of GCS is particularly important.