Integrated solution for chest X-ray image classification

In this chapter, we present a join solution capable of identifying the symptoms of Covid-19 in lung X-ray images. The design is to study the components of an automatic medical imaging system suited for detecting signs of defection by Covid-19 in the lung area of the images. In contrast to the conventional implementation, the proposed method allows analytical convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to be integrated smoothly with other learning methods. It relies on feature extraction from the medical images to represent latent features as a result of convolution's implication. These features are proposed to be discovered by CNN, which allow the potential detection of abnormal image patterns. We found that within our case study, feature reduction is being adopted for the development of a new efficient realization for a join solution of CNN and support vector machines (SVMs). We demonstrate that features derived from CNN, its dimensions reduction, and classification are comprehensively explainable by Bayesian inference to capture the fundamental analysis flow enabling the classification of medical images. © 2023 River Publishers.

Preservice Teachers' Self-efficacy Through COVID-19: A Large Scale Survey of Students at a Regional University in Australia

Throughout 2020, the world was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of higher education, the pandemic critically affected professional experience, a core component of teacher education. This paper shares data from a large-scale survey about teachers' sense of self-efficacy and the impact of COVID-19 on professional experience. Findings showed that the disrupted context had a moderate effect of pre-service teachers' self-efficacy in relation to their classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement. Qualitative results illuminated that the modes of learning, changing classroom contexts and communication between the pre-service teachers, school and their university were the underlying contextual factors that impacted pre-service teacher's self-efficacy. Implications from these findings challenge universities to consider how to best support pre-service teachers' progression in times of disruption and consider how Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs prepare pre-service teachers to teach in disrupted classrooms. © 2022 Social Science Press. All rights reserved.

Pre-service Teachers' Self-Efficacy during Professional Experience through COVID-19: A Large-Scale Survey of Pre-service teachers at a Regional University in Australia

Throughout 2020, the world was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of higher education, the pandemic critically affected professional experience, a core component of teacher education. This paper shares data from a large-scale survey about teachers' sense of self-efficacy and the impact of COVID-19 on professional experience. Findings showed that the disrupted context had a moderate effect of pre -service teachers' self -efficacy in relation to their classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement. Qualitative results illuminated that the modes of learning, changing classroom contexts and communication between the pre-service teachers, school and their university were the underlying contextual factors that impacted pre -service teacher's self-efficacy. Implications from these findings challenge universities to consider how to best support pre-service teachers' progression in times of disruption and consider how Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs prepare pre-service teachers to teach in disrupted classrooms.

PD1 inhibition effect on immunization with MRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2

Background: We provide care for the rural, low-income, and underserved population of Oroville. The community has a vaccination rate of 50% and booster rate of over 20% in the 3rd year of the ongoing global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2022. During this period, a subset of our cancer patients benefited from the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study of the effectiveness of a mRNA-based vaccine in medical care workers compared to patients with systemic malignancies treated with immunomodulation of PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors. The study was approved by the hospital IRB. We evaluated the total anti-Spike protein antibody titer using a commercial semi-quantitative assay, Labcorp Test #164090. All subjects received 3 doses of the mRNA vaccine. We excluded anyone who was administered therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb) or had a recent infection within 120 days. Results: Subjects with systemic malignancies were significantly older, p = 0.0001 by t-test: median age: 76, range: 64-82, compared to health care workers: median age: 52, range: 21-75. Accrual had to be prematurely stopped upon the arrival of Omicron wave in the community. Out of the seven subjects treated with immunomodulation, six received nivolumab, including two in combination with ipilimumab. One subject received pembrolizumab. Six of the subjects had metastatic disease: one was treated adjuvantly for locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma. The rest had NSCLC and one case of urothelioma. We divided the groups to those who had the highest titer of antibody versus everybody else and found a similar distribution in both groups using the Chi2 test. The vast majority of the healthcare workers, 24/27 or 89%, had above the upper limit antibody titer. Patients with systemic malignancy, 5/7 or 71%, had above the upper limit antibody titer p = N.S. Conclusions: Three doses of the mRNA vaccine provided high titers irrespective of frailty or age. We hypothesize that immunomodulation could favorably affect vaccination response.

Food festival research review in contemporary tourism

Purpose: Food festivals are prevalent for those passionate about food experience globally. More importantly, feedback from food reviewers on mass media platforms has been becoming a critical factor in facilitating the decision-making process of tourists in particular cities. Moreover, stimulating local tourism activities, thanks to food festivals, prove advantageous to the well-being of local habitants. The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with a general overview of food festival research trends in tourist cities, as tourism has the potential to contribute to targets in Goals 8, 12 and 14 on sustainable consumption and production and the sustainable use of resources, respectively, (UNWTO: World Tourism Organization). Design/methodology/approach: This study searched and filtered documents from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, as well as used bibliometric analysis and other mathematical and statistical methods, to better understand the food festival research context between 1970 and 2021. The carriers with mathematical and statistical methods. VOSviewer algorithm was used to identify critical input for visualizing bibliometric networks and to create a framework for this academic food festival research. Findings: The findings are primarily related to pre and post-COVID-19 research on food festivals worldwide. Furthermore, using an inductive approach, this paper reveals the impact of food festivals in cities and tourist behaviors. According to the findings, the food festival research trends are about “food festivals,” “slow food festivals” and “local food festivals.” Factor analysis is one of the most common analyses in this type of research. Other studies could use the findings and limitations to select appropriate themes and analysis approaches for their research topics. Research limitations/implications: Research data sets are mainly from articles that may not account for all actual trends during this pandemic. Originality/value: This review expects to provide insights into food festivals and help future researchers to recognize several research gaps such as the lack of research on food festival manufacturers and producers or the consistency in visitors' aspect research of quality service, visitors' loyal intentions, satisfaction and culinary experience. The tourism industry can find research trends of food festivals and issues following COVID-19 to find their management styles to fit the context of the post-COVID-19 pandemic, facilitating organizing a safe and effective food festival. © 2022, International Tourism Studies Association.

Heritage conservation and tourism: the present and future of the past

This chapter examines the symbiosis of heritage conservation and tourism development at a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) cultural heritage site, one of the most popular touristic sites in Vietnam. Bui, Le and Jones present findings derived from a longitudinal study over 5 years spanning before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2016 to 2020). Although Hoi An has dramatically benefited from mass tourism, the excessive increase in visitor numbers and concentration in the core heritage zone of the city has negatively impacted the economic wealth of the residents of the ancient town. COVID-19 halted the development of tourism, which attracts attention to the overdependence of the city on tourism, and offers an opportunity for administrators to rethink and revise Hoi An's existing tourism policies.

Women's health inequities during covid-19: a rapid scoping review

Objectives: The unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted women disproportionately in all biopsychosocial domains. We undertook a rapid scoping review to determine the extent of impacts to women's health during the pandemic. Methods: Electronic bibliographic databases (EMBASE, CINAHL, Epistemonikos), pre-prints servers (MedRxiv, BioRxiv, and PsyArXiv), and the grey literature (websites for WHO, UN, CDC, NICE, SIGN, SOGC, ACOG, RCOG, RANZCOG) were searched for articles reporting COVID-19's impact on women's health. Findings were organized thematically with narrative synthesis. Results: Of 1,490 abstracts identified using electronic databases, 87 studies were included, along with 88 from grey literature search for final analysis. Most studies were based on a single country (n=82), while others were international from Asia, Europe, North America, and South America (n=5). The majority were original studies in scientific journals (n=83), and others were policy papers (n=4). Six major themes were identified to include the reported health impacts on women: [1] increased proportion of COVID-19 infections, frequency of symptoms, and hospitalization duration (n=8);[2] worsening mental health and substance misuse (n=37);[3] restricted women's health services (family planning, breast/gynecologic cancer, sexual health, and transgender health) (n=7);[4] increased healthcare worker harassment, stigmatization, and burnout among women (n=21);[5] pregnancy specific vulnerabilities (n=10);and [6] increased gender-based violence (n=2). Conclusions: Our review provides a global overview of COVID-19′s impact on women's physical and mental health, and access issues to health services. Our results will inform future quantitative and qualitative research, as well as health system policies and decision-making for women's health during the pandemic.

COVID-19 and the Global Shift Progress to Clean Energy

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented us with an unprecedented global emergency that severely threatens the lives of millions of people around the world. In response to this existential crisis, state governments have taken drastic containment measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The consequential lockdowns have disrupted production and economic activity and had profound impacts on major industries. The heightened financial risk has significantly slowed down new investments while stoking fears of a looming economic recession. Indeed, the pandemic-induced strong reduction in global demand has resulted in sharp falls in energy prices leading to a temporary market distortion that may impede progress in the deployment of new renewable energy projects. Besides, some countries could be at risk of falling short of their 2020 national binding targets given the lack of effective policies required to facilitate new renewable energy investments. Considering the present impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global energy market, there are opportunities to highlight the important role of renewables while making the case for clean energy investments, especially in the electricity sector. This review aims to provide important insights by analyzing the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global energy market. On the other hand, sustainable energy strategies are also discussed in detail. Finally, lessons learned amidst the costly battle against this invisible enemy could help policymakers and government leaders in identifying the appropriate renewable energy paths for their countries in a post-pandemic future.

Unmanned ground robot for covid-19 isolated area in vietnam

Covid-19 has a big damage for all of society in the world., it has been taking more than 297,241 lives until now. To protect a society, the isolated area is one of importance solution, which can reduce the spread of the Virus. To keep the distance between the staff and others to prevent the infection, the unmanned robot for online examination is one of a good solution. Realize the importance of the unmanned ground robot, which is limited exit in Vietnam before, we try to develop a supporting doctor robot within a month and apply it to the isolated area. In this manuscript, the design process as well as the algorithm for controlling robot will be shown.Please check and confirm if the authors and their respective affiliations have been correctly identified. Amend if necessary. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.

Air pollution in Vietnam during the COVID-19 social isolation, evidence of reduction in human activities

The COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease) pandemic has been spreading globally and social isolation has been implemented as an effective solution to limit the spread of the pandemic before vaccines are developed successfully. The reduction of human activities during social isolation is leading to an improvement in air quality being observed worldwide. In this study, we analysed satellite TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) and OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) NO2 products obtained from Sentinel-5P and Aura satellites, respectively, during the social isolation from 1 April 2020 to 22 April 2020 in Vietnam where air pollution is a serious environmental issue. Both TROPOMI and OMI NO2 have shown low agreement with local on-ground NO2 concentration (the correlation coefficient r equals 0.4 and 0.3 in 2020, respectively) but have had moderate correlation with each other in 2020 (r equals 0.81 for two annual averaged maps). In addition, the moderate available data ratio over cloudy northern areas were observed, especially for TROPOMI datasets. During social isolation, the national average NO2 decreased by 9.3% for TROPOMI and 7.2% for OMI, respectively, in comparison with the same periods in the previous years. The reduction was stronger in the North than in the South and lasted for one more month after the lockdown period. The decrease of NO2 density during the lockdown was observed strongly in urban areas associated with dense population, traffic density, and industrial zones. Further analysis of NO2 density for Ho Chi Minh city revealed a decreasing trend of NO2 during social isolation (16.62% and 11.77% compared with the previous month and the same period in 2019, respectively). Furthermore, we used a random forest model to estimate the NO2 density (normal life situations) based on daily meteorological data at station. During social isolation, NO2 density observed in Ho Chi Minh city decreased by 26% down to that of normal life situations. The NO2 reduction has shown strong anthropogenic impact on air pollution over the study area. Besides, the first use of TROPOMI and OMI NO2 products together has highlighted potentials of satellite observation for air quality monitoring and analysis in Vietnam where on-ground measurements are very limited. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

A novel magnetic respiratory sensor for human healthcare

Breathing is vital to life. Therefore, the real-time monitoring of a patient′ s breathing pattern is crucial to respiratory rehabilitation therapies, such as magnetic resonance exams for respiratory-triggered imaging, chronic pulmonary disease treatment, and synchronized functional electrical stimulation. While numerous respiratory devices have been developed, they are often in direct contact with a patient, which can yield limited data. In this study, we developed a novel, non-invasive, and contactless magnetic sensing platform that can precisely monitor a patient′ s breathing, movement, or sleep patterns, thus providing efficient monitoring at a clinic or home. A magneto-LC resonance (MLCR) sensor converts the magnetic oscillations generated by a patient′ s breathing into an impedance spectrum, which allows for a deep analysis of one′ s breath variation to identify respiratory-related diseases like COVID-19. Owing to its ultrahigh sensitivity, the MLCR sensor yields a distinct breathing pattern for each patient tested. It also provides an accurate measure of the strength of a patient′ s breath at multiple stages as well as anomalous variations in respiratory rate and amplitude. The sensor can thus be applied to detect symptoms of COVID-19 in a patient, due to shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, as well as track the disease′ s progress in real time. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Social Density Monitoring Toward Selective Cleaning by Human Support Robot with 3D based Perception System

Monitoring the safe social distancing then conducting efficient sterilization in potentially crowded public places are necessary but challenging especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work presents the 3D human space-based surveillance system enabling selective cleaning framework. To this end, the proposed AI-assisted perception techniques is deployed on Toyota Human Support Robot (HSR) equipped with autonomous navigation, Lidar, and RGBD vision sensor. The human density mapping represented as heatmap was constructed to identify areas with the level being likely the risks for interactions. The surveillance framework adopts the 3D human joints tracking technique and the accumulated asymmetrical Gaussian distribution scheme modeling the human location, size, and direction to quantify human density. The HSR generates the human density map as a grid-based heatmap to perform the safe human distance monitoring task while navigating autonomously inside the pre-built map. Then, the cleaning robot uses the levels of the generated heatmap to sterilize by the selective scheme. The experiment was tested in public places, including food court and wet market. The proposed framework performance analyzed with standard performance metrics in various map sizes spares about 19 % of the disinfection time and 15 % of the disinfection liquid usage, respectively. CCBY

Support for doctoral candidates in Australia during the pandemic: the case of the University of Melbourne

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a real–albeit rare–test for human and organisational resilience worldwide, including those in the higher education sector. In this paper, I reflect on my observations of the pandemic’s impacts that have rippled through the university sector in Australia in the first three quarters of 2020. The pandemic has not only heightened existing issues in universities, such as the tensions between university management, union, and part of university staff, but also posed new ones, such as supporting doctoral students to overcome research disruptions at an unprecedented scale. In terms of supporting doctoral students, the case of the University of Melbourne, one of the largest Australian universities, shows that there are still hidden issues even with a relatively flexible approach based on good intention. Given the uncertainties caused by the pandemic, the sustainability and effectiveness of the university’s current support measures remain to be seen. © 2020 Society for Research into Higher Education.

A remarkable review of the effect of lockdowns during COVID-19 pandemic on global PM emissions

COVID-19 was labeled as a global pandemic when it caused a larger number of death cases in the world. Facing the dangerous and serious global pandemic, many countries have issued the nationwide lockdown, resulting in the shutdown in all places of social gatherings, the traffic, and industrial and manufacturing activities, causing negative impacts on the socio-economical activities. However, a noticeable reduction in NO2, CO2, and PM emissions was globally recorded although this reduction was different for each nation. In this paper, an overall picture of global PM pollution was exhibited during the city-to-nation lockdowns in the COVID-19 period. Overall, the obtained results in this current work might provide confidence to the stakeholders associated with the development of policy for air quality control aiming to achieve a significant improvement in air quality when better control strategies for air pollution are strictly executed. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Proceedings from the OMS Resurgence Conference for resuming clinical practice after COVID-19 in the USA.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered and reshaped the delivery of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) over the past few months. As the USA gradually lifts restrictions and re-opens, surgeons must adjust accordingly. Therefore, the OMS Resurgence Conference: Safely Resuming Practice with a New Normal was organized for 11 May 2020 to gather and disseminate expert opinions and recommendations for OMSs to thoughtfully resume work with efficiency and safety. This manuscript offers a summary of the highlights from the conference discussion.