10-year survival outcome after clinically suspected acute myocarditis in adults: A nationwide study in the pre-COVID-19 era.

BACKGROUND: Clinical courses of acute myocarditis are heterogeneous in populations and geographic regions. There is a dearth of long-term outcomes data for acute myocarditis prior to the coronavirus disease pandemic, particularly in the older and female population. This study aimed to provide the nationwide epidemiologic approximates of clinically suspected acute myocarditis across adults of all ages over the long term. METHODS: From the nationwide governmental health insurance database, a retrospective cohort comprised all patients aged 20-79 who were hospitalized for clinically suspected acute myocarditis without underlying cardiac diseases from 2006 to 2018. The complicated phenotype was defined as requiring hemodynamic or major organ support. Over 10 years, all-cause mortality and index event-driven excess mortality were evaluated according to young-adult (20-39 years), mid-life (40-59 years), and older-adult (60-79 years) age groups. RESULTS: Among 2,988 patients (51.0±16.9 years, 46.2% women), 362 (12.1%) were of complicated phenotype. Of these, 163 (45.0%) had died within 1 month. All-cause death at 30 days occurred in 40 (4.7%), 52 (4.8%), and 105 (10.0%) patients in the young-adult, mid-life, and older-adult groups, respectively. For 10 years of follow-up, all-cause death occurred in 762 (25.5%). Even in young adult patients with non-complicated phenotypes, excess mortality remained higher compared to the general population. CONCLUSION: In hospitalized patients with clinically suspected acute myocarditis, short-term mortality is high both in young and older adults, particularly those with comorbidities and severe clinical presentation. Furthermore, excess mortality remains high for at least 10 years after index hospitalization in young adults.

Identifying online learning experience of architecture students for a smart education environment

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant change in the field of architecture and design education. Students and educators have been forced to rapidly adopt virtual courses, and returning to the physical classroom in the near future is still uncertain. This study investigates the recent remote learning experiences of tertiary students in Architecture programs through a questionnaire. In addition to the three dimensions of the community of inquiry (CoI) framework, including teaching, social, and cognitive presences, spatial presence is explored in this research because learners' presence of space can affect their learning experience. The findings indicate that first- and second-year students have significantly different remote learning experiences than third- to fifth-year students, depending on their experience in face-to-face classes. The extended survey concludes with a discussion of three approaches to reflective learning in online architectural design education. This paper provides systematic knowledge of students' perceptions of distance learning during the pandemic and contributes to developing smart education environments in architectural pedagogy.

Smart Homes Supporting the Wellness of One or Two-Person Households.

The reduction in face-to-face contact and the increase in time spent at home during the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic have resulted in increasing interest and demand for smart homes. Further, the rapid increase in the number of one-person and two-person households in Korea recently has led to these becoming representative household types. This study identifies the wellness characteristics of such households and proposes a direction for smart home development to help them lead healthy, happy lives. It focuses on mapping residents' perceptions and experiences to scenarios and on identifying the functions required in smart homes and the technologies needed to provide these functions. It uses data from a survey to investigate and analyze the wellness characteristics of one- and two-person households in five dimensions and develops five scenarios of representative household types. By analyzing the developed scenarios, this study proposes smart homes that support the wellness of such households in six categories: exercise/sports, hobby/entertainment, social communications, occupation/work, self-development/education, and energy conservation. These households are exposed to digital environments from an early age and are familiar with the internet and technologies. Therefore, they are likely to adopt innovative technologies in housing. Thus, the smart home development proposed in this study is a promising strategic approach to housing planning.

Intelligence Sensors and Sensing Spaces for Smart Home and Environment.

Practitioners in the domains of architecture, engineering, and construction have conducted considerable research on smart homes and smart environments [...].

A User-Centered Approach to the Application of BIM in Smart Working Environments.

Considerable research has been performed on smart working environments in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, with building information modeling considered as a critical element for implementing intelligent working systems. Although much software has been developed, a lack of understanding inhibits a user-centered approach to the application of building information modeling in architectural design offices. This study focuses on usability factors for the development of software and proposes a direction for the adoption of building information modeling in architectural design offices. This study adopts a persona method that focuses on user experience, starting with a survey conducted in two large domestic architectural offices. For developing the persona scenarios, this study provides a conceptual framework of usability, identifies user demands, and characterizes user experience. Four representative personas were developed for the representative types of users in smart working environments. The persona scenarios provide a basis that directly reflects user needs and experiences regarding the use of building information modeling software in architectural design offices. Two implications of the application of building information modeling are proposed based on the scenarios: a user-friendly working environment for smart workflows and a customized training program focusing on user experience for the use of building information modeling software.

Preferences for Hotels with Biophilic Design Attributes in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Since the COVID-19 crisis has caused the cancellation of a great number of travel plans in the last two years, this study examines the prospects of the post-COVID-19 era, during which we expect tourism will return strongly. The impact of the epidemic on people's attitudes toward tourism, particularly their tourist choices, appears to be a major challenge for post-COVID-19 international tourism development. Very little is known about tourists' accommodation preferences during the period emerging after the COVID-19 crisis. With a long and challenging experience of lockdowns, stress, and fear of disease, the current study attempts to examine peoples' preferences for hotel attributes during the post-COVID-19 era. It examines factors contributing to peoples' preferences for hotels with biophilic attributes. A total of 507 Iranian undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study. They answered questions on their perceived stress, level of depression, the specific burden of COVID-19, the perceived benefits of nature, and their preferences for biophilic design attributes in their accommodation. The online survey was conducted from August to October 2021. We found that the burden of COVID-19 increased the stress level of the respondents, which consequently increased the chance of depression. We further found that perceived stress and the benefits of nature significantly affect tourists' preferences for exposure to nature and hotels with biophilic attributes. Based on the data, we suggest that the demand for biophilic buildings will be strongly increased during the post-COVID-19 era.

Identifying Health Care Environment Contradictions in Terms of Infection Control during a Pandemic with a Focus on Health Workers’ Experience

During the past year, health care environments have struggled to cope with the various impacts of COVID-19 around the world. Health care facilities need to help strengthen resistance to pathogen threats and provide care for patients and health workers in the safest possible way. Architectural design strategies can play a significant role in infection prevention and control. The current study aims to examine the experiences of health workers with hospital spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying the difficulties they face, the present study attempts to shed light on the role of the health care layout configuration in combating pandemics. The authors conducted observations at four hospitals and a series of online semi-structured interviews with 162 health care staff from March to May 2020. The study indicated that space configuration and the hospitalization of patients, layout and circulation of the environment, operation services such as indoor environment conditions, maintenance of health care system, and organizational support for health care staff were the most critical factors affecting infection control in health care environments. The initial zoning and separation of patients were the most effective methods of controlling infection. Hospitals with clustered plan layouts were found to be the most effective buildings for the zoning of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic and for infection control.

Development of a SARS-CoV-2-specific biosensor for antigen detection using scFv-Fc fusion proteins.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerged human infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In a global pandemic, development of a cheap, rapid, accurate, and easy-to-use diagnostic test is necessary if we are to mount an immediate response to this emerging threat. Here, we report the development of a specific lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA)-based biosensor for COVID-19. We used phage display technology to generate four SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP)-specific single-chain variable fragment-crystallizable fragment (scFv-Fc) fusion antibodies. The scFv-Fc antibodies bind specifically and with high affinity to the SARS-CoV-2 NP antigen, but not to NPs of other coronaviruses. Using these scFv-Fc antibodies, we screened three diagnostic antibody pairs for use on a cellulose nanobead (CNB)-based LFIA platform. The detection limits of the best scFv-Fc antibody pair, 12H1 as the capture probe and 12H8 as the CNB-conjugated detection probe, were 2 ng antigen protein and 2.5 × 104 pfu cultured virus. This LFIA platform detected only SARS-CoV-2 NP, not NPs from MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, or influenza H1N1. Thus, we have successfully developed a SARS-CoV-2 NP-specific rapid diagnostic test, which is expected to be a simple and rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19.

Rapid Detection of COVID-19 Causative Virus (SARS-CoV-2) in Human Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens Using Field-Effect Transistor-Based Biosensor.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerging human infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, previously called 2019-nCoV). Based on the rapid increase in the rate of human infection, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Because no specific drugs or vaccines for COVID-19 are yet available, early diagnosis and management are crucial for containing the outbreak. Here, we report a field-effect transistor (FET)-based biosensing device for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples. The sensor was produced by coating graphene sheets of the FET with a specific antibody against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The performance of the sensor was determined using antigen protein, cultured virus, and nasopharyngeal swab specimens from COVID-19 patients. Our FET device could detect the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein at concentrations of 1 fg/mL in phosphate-buffered saline and 100 fg/mL clinical transport medium. In addition, the FET sensor successfully detected SARS-CoV-2 in culture medium (limit of detection [LOD]: 1.6 × 101 pfu/mL) and clinical samples (LOD: 2.42 × 102 copies/mL). Thus, we have successfully fabricated a promising FET biosensor for SARS-CoV-2; our device is a highly sensitive immunological diagnostic method for COVID-19 that requires no sample pretreatment or labeling.