Final-year medical student Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine synchronous summative tele-assessments during a COVID-19 Delta-variant stay-at-home lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: We describe the planning, process and evaluation of final-year Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine summative assessments in a four-year graduate medical degree program, during a COVID-19 Delta-variant public health stay-at-home lockdown. CONCLUSIONS: We conducted separate written and clinical synchronous (real-time simultaneous) tele-assessments. We used online assessment technology with students, examiners and simulated patients, all in different physical locations. Medical students' examination performance showed a good range. This was comparable to other discipline stations, and performance in previous years. There was no differential performance of students through the day of the assessments.

COVID-19 pandemic modeling is fraught with uncertainties

Policymakers face a plethora of predictions on how the disease will proceed and when it might resurge. Here, Kramer discusses how COVID-19 pandemic modeling is fraught with uncertainties. A self-described optimist, Pinar Keskinocak doesn't like to be the bearer of bad news. But the model she co-developed at Georgia Tech of the COVID-19 pandemic in that state paints a really bleak picture of what lies ahead when physical distancing slowly erodes after shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders end. The model shows that even if lockdowns had been extended through mid-May instead of being lifted 1 May, the rate of new infections would come roaring back once people returned to their daily routines. Many other models forecast new infections and deaths at the international, national, and state levels. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regularly compiles on its website the forecasts of nine COVID-19 models, including LANL's.

Conduct and evaluation of final-year medical student summative assessments in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine during COVID-19: an Australian University Medical School experience.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and share with the medical education community, the conduct and evaluation of summative graduate medical student assessments in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine during COVID-19 at an Australian university. METHODS: Summative assessments were redesigned as follows: written assessments were administered via an online platform (WATTLE), while the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) were conducted via a secure video-conferencing software (Zoom). RESULTS: Our preliminary analysis of the summative assessments indicated that both examiners and students adapted to the format, with overall performance of the students showing no variation due to timing of the assessment (earlier versus later in the day) and performances similar to face-to-face assessments in previous years. Examiners also expressed positive feedback on the assessment process. CONCLUSIONS: Our graduate fourth-year medical student summative assessments were effectively conducted using online and video-conferencing software in accordance with existing COVID-19 pandemic public health measures for physical distancing and hygiene.

Cats and llamas could offer a path to coronavirus therapies

Computation and experimentation also yield possible therapeutic compounds for COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Physics Today is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

World's physics instruments turn their focus to COVID-19

Scientists are employing x rays, electrons, and neutrons to decipher and disable the molecular machinery of the novel coronavirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Physics Today is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Physics-related companies report mostly mild economic symptoms from COVID-19

Most makers of research tools for physical scientists report stable business. Some of their products are being used in the fight against the novel coronavirus. In a collaboration known as Project BreathEasy, OnScale has teamed with Lexma to produce "digital twins" of actual COVID patients' lungs, using computational fluid dynamics and structural analysis of the patients' CT scans and x rays. Sales at OnScale haven't been seriously affected by the coronavirus, says Ian Campbell, CEO of the 35-employee startup. The Silicon Valley CA company builds engineering simulation platforms based on massively scalable multiphysics solvers - mathematical models that embody physics to tackle problems in engineering.