Understanding Digital Identity during the Pandemic: An Investigation of Two Chinese Spanish Teachers

During combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, the most widespread change in Spanish as a foreign language instruction is imperative online teaching. It demands that language teachers move all teaching activities to virtual platforms, facilitating the construction of their digital identities. However, there is scarce attention on Spanish teachers' professional development, given the necessity of understanding the evolvement of their identities across virtual learning platforms. Through the lens of a case study, this research explores the digital identities of Spanish as a foreign language teachers during the school lockdown in 2022. The data includes semi-structured interviews, virtual classroom discourse, lesson plans, and reflective writing. The results show that Spanish teachers formed multiple digital identities, including curriculum innovators, vulnerable actors, involuntary team workers, overseas returnees, and academic researchers. Among them, the first three are core identities, while overseas returnees and academic researchers are peripheral identities. Regardless, they were formed and negotiated under the influence of teachers' past experiences, the exercise of agency, emotional vulnerability, and social context. In addition, a contradictory belief in teaching was also identified during the formation of Chinese Spanish teachers' digital identities.

Understanding resource deployment efficiency for ESG and financial performance: A DEA approach

COVID-19 has stimulated additional research interest on economic sustainability and ESG in both academia and industry. This study adopts a DEA approach to examine the efficiency of achieving ESG targets and their relationships with financial performance. Using MSCI ESG data from 2015 to 2019 on 1108 Chinese firms, we examine the ESG proportional and pillar mix efficiencies. The dominant strategies for our sampled firms are to improve overall ESG performance by enhancing the E and S pillars through sacrificing G's performance. The second result shows a positive relationship between proportional efficiency and financial performance while a mixed relationship between pillar mix efficiency and financial performance. However, for the technology sector, there exists some trade-offs between ESG performance and financial performance. Specifically, relative to non-technology firms, improving proportional and pillar mix efficiencies for technology firms could result in some sacrifice in stock valuation. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

The ID Physician Is Out: Are Remote ID E-Consults an Effective Substitute?

Background. Telemedicine (TM) can provide specialty ID care for remote and underserved areas;however, the need for dedicated audio-visual equipment, secure and stable internet connectivity, and local staff to assist with the consultation has limited wider implementation of synchronous TM. ID e-consults (ID electronic consultations or asynchronous™) are an alternative but data are limited on their effectiveness, especially patient outcomes. Methods. In the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic and ID physician outage, we were asked to perform ID e-consults at a 380-bed tertiary care hospital located in Blair County, PA. We performed retrospective chart reviews of 121 patients initially evaluated by ID e-consults between April 2020 and July 2020. Follow-up visits were also conducted via e-consults with or without direct phone calls with the patient. Key patient outcomes assessed were length of stay (LOS), disposition after hospitalization, 30-day mortality from initial ID e-consult and 30-day readmission post-discharge. Results. The majority of patients were white males and non-ICU (Table 1). The most common ID diagnosis was bacteremia (27.3%, 33/121), followed by skin and soft tissue infections (15.7%, 19/121) and bone/joint infections (14.9%, 18/121) (Figure 1). Table 2 shows patient outcomes. Average total LOS was 11 days and 7 days post-initial ID e-consult. 48.7% (59/121) of patients were discharged home and 37.2% (45/121) to a post-acute rehabilitation facility. 2.5% (3/121) of patients required transfer to a higher level of care facility;none of which were to obtain in-person ID care. The index mortality rate was 3.3% (4/121), which appears to be lower than published data for in-person ID care. The 30-day mortality rate was 4.1% (5/121), which is also comparable to previously reported for ID e-consults. 25.6% (31/121) of patients required readmission within 30 days but only 14.0% (17/121) were related to the initial infection. Conclusion. We believe that this is the first report of the implementation of ID e-consults at a tertiary care hospital. Mortality rates appear to be comparable to in-person ID care. In the absence of in-person ID physicians, ID e-consults can be a reasonable substitute. Further study is required to compare performance of ID e-consults to in-person ID consults.

Patterns of COVID-19 on computed tomography imaging.

PURPOSE: As the designated tertiary referral centre for infectious diseases in Hong Kong, our hospital received the city's first group of patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Herein, we studied the earliest patients admitted to our centre in order to clarify the typical radiological findings, particularly computed tomography (CT) findings, associated with COVID-19. METHODS: From 22 January 2020 to 29 February 2020, 19 patients with confirmed COVID-19 underwent high-resolution or conventional CT scans of the thorax in our centre. The CT imaging findings of these patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Hong Kong were reviewed in this study. RESULTS: Ground-glass opacities (GGO) with peripheral subpleural distribution were found in all patients (100%). No specific zonal predominance was observed. All lobes were involved in 16 (84.2%) patients, focal subsegmental consolidations were observed in 14 (73.7%) patients, and interlobular septal thickening was present in 12 (63.2%) patients. No mediastinal lymph node enlargement, centrilobular nodule, or pleural effusion was detected in any of the patients. Other imaging features present in several patients include bronchial dilatation, bronchial wall thickening, and crazy-paving patterns. CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral subpleural GGO without zonal predominance in the absence of centrilobular nodule, pleural effusion, and lymph node enlargement were consistent findings in patients with confirmed COVID-19. The observed radiological patterns on CT scans can help identify COVID-19 and assess affected patients in the context of the ongoing outbreak.

Laboratory findings and a combined multifactorial approach to predict death in critically ill patients with COVID-19: a retrospective study.

To describe the laboratory findings of cases of death with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to establish a scoring system for predicting death, we conducted this single-centre, retrospective, observational study including 336 adult patients (≥18 years old) with severe or critically ill COVID-19 admitted in two wards of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, who had definite outcomes (death or discharge) between 1 February 2020 and 13 March 2020. Single variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify mortality-related factors. We combined multiple factors to predict mortality, which was validated by receiver operating characteristic curves. As a result, in a total of 336 patients, 34 (10.1%) patients died during hospitalisation. Through multivariable logistic regression, we found that decreased lymphocyte ratio (Lymr, %) (odds ratio, OR 0.574, P < 0.001), elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (OR 1.513, P = 0.009), and raised D-dimer (DD) (OR 1.334, P = 0.002) at admission were closely related to death. The combined prediction model was developed by these factors with a sensitivity of 100.0% and specificity of 97.2%. In conclusion, decreased Lymr, elevated BUN, and raised DD were found to be in association with death outcomes in critically ill patients with COVID-19. A scoring system was developed to predict the clinical outcome of these patients.