STAD: State-Transition-Aware Anomaly Detection Under Concept Drifts

The detection of temporal abnormal patterns over streaming data is challenging due to volatile data properties and lacking real-time labels. The abnormal patterns are usually hidden in the temporal context, which can not be detected by evaluating single points. Furthermore, the normal state evolves over time due to concept drift. A single model does not fit all data over time. Autoencoders are recently applied for unsupervised anomaly detection. However, they usually get expired and invalid after distributional drifts in the data stream. In this paper, we propose an autoencoder-based approach (STAD) for anomaly detection under concept drift. In particular, we use a state-transition-based model to map different data distributions in each period of the data stream into states, thereby addressing the model adaptation problem in an interpretable way. We empirically demonstrate the state transition process and evaluate the anomaly detection performance on the Covid-19 dataset of Germany. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)

Exploring Formative Assessment Possibilities: Building a 'Teamwork Discourse' with First-Year Engineering Students Online

Effective teamwork is one of the Engineering Council of South Africa's (ECSA) exit-level outcomes. To achieve this outcome, one has to learn specific discourses and behaviours related to teamwork. Professional Orientation is a first-year engineering module offered in an extended engineering degree programme at a residential university in South Africa. This module assists students in developing a `teamwork discourse', using engineering-based projects that follow the CDIO framework. In 2020, these projects transitioned fully to a virtual environment due to Covid-19 restrictions. The iPeer Learning Management System tool for peer- and self-assessment was used in this research to investigate whether first-year students were able to apply the teamwork discourses taught to them when completing the projects online. A quantitative analysis of the iPeer results reflected that while 54% of the students remained consistent in the two projects, 16% showed an improvement, and 30% showed a decrease. The reasons for these results could be varied. Thus, a qualitative analysis of the students' comments for increased and decreased marks was also conducted to assess how the relevant teamwork discourses were applied and to what extent. These findings confirmed that teamwork discourses could effectively be applied by a smaller percentage of first-year students.

Changes in Shopping Behavior Under the Aspect of Sustainability and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the beginning of 2020, governments around the world have taken measures to contain the novel COVID 19 pandemic. These measures have changed many aspects of public life. The introduction of mask requirement in points of sale and the call for social distancing raises the question of how these conditions affect the shopping behavior of consumers. As part of this study, a written online survey was carried out with students from the Schwabisch Hall campus of Heilbronn University. The aim is to research the adapted purchasing behavior under the new situation towards increased online shopping as well as the inclusion of sustainability aspects in the purchase decision. In summary, it can be stated that consumers mainly order clothing, electronics and books online. Since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, more and more online purchases have been made across all product groups, with those articles that were previously in greater demand online recorded the greatest relative growth in the pandemic situation. The main reasons for this are the fact that shopping is simple and uncomplicated as a hybrid between the advantages of online trading and COVID 19 related measures. The willingness to support the local brick-and-mortar retailers who switched to online sales in the wake of the pandemic is only present to a limited extent.

Organ transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic - impact on deceased organ donor referrals and consent rates in the Western Cape, South Africa.

BACKGROUND: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on transplantation is multifactorial. This study reports on its influence on deceased donation for transplantation in the Western Cape. METHODS: The volume of referrals and those who were consented for organ donation in the province in the pre-pandemic period of May 2017 to February 2020 were compared to those of the initial pandemic period (March through December 2020). RESULTS: Prior to the pandemic, there were 201 deceased donor referrals in the Western Cape province - 152 (75.6%) and 49 (24.4%) in public and private sectors, respectively. The mean referral rates ranged between 59-69 referrals per year, translating into a monthly rate of 4.8 (range 2.8-5.8). During the first 10 months of the pandemic, there were 18 referrals - 12 (66.7%) and six (33.3%) in the public and private sectors; a decrease of 63%, with a mean monthly referral rate of 1.8. The overall consent rate prior to the pandemic in the public and private sectors was 36.6% (38% and 27%, respectively) with an increase to 44.4% (37.5% and 62.5%) during the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Despite a 10% increase in consent rate for deceased donation during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant decrease in the number of potential donors referred. Strategies to improve organ donation and transplantation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic are required.

The mechanics of setting up a COVID-19 response: Experiences of the COVID-19 epidemic from Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has challenged the provision of healthcare in ways that are unprecedented in our lifetime. Planning for the sheer numbers expected during the surge has required public hospitals to de-escalate all non-essential clinical services to focus on COVID-19. Western Cape Province was the initial epicentre of the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa (SA), and the Cape Town metro was its hardest-hit geographical region. We describe how we constructed our COVID-19 hospital-wide clinical service at Groote Schuur Hospital, the University of Cape Town's tertiary-level teaching hospital. By describing the barriers and enablers, we hope to provide guidance rather than a blueprint for hospitals elsewhere in SA and in low-resource countries that face similar challenges now or during subsequent waves.

[ECMO Therapy in a Case of Severe ARDS Related to COVID-19]. / ECMO als Therapie des schweren Lungenversagens bei COVID-19.

We report the case of a 60-year old female patient with advanced severe lung injury as a consequence of COVID-19-pneumonia. The patient was initially treated with highflow oxygen via nasal cannula (HFNC) and CPAP for two days but had to be intubated and mechanically ventilated. After failure of mechanical ventilation because of persistant severe hypoxemia treatment was switched to ECMO which was applicated for 24 days. Prognostic parameters indicated a favourable trend after day 14. After discontinuation of ECMO and 11 days of intermittent assisted ventilation via tracheostoma and low dose oxygen (1 l/min), the patient could be transferred to rehabilitation. The last chest radiograph prior to transferral revealed a nearly complete resolution of bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. Our case demonstrates that severe COVID-19-associated lung injury can be reversible even after prolonged ECMO.

ECMO als Therapie des schweren Lungenversagens bei COVID-19

We report the case of a 60-year old female patient with advanced severe lung injury as a consequence of COVID-19-pneumonia. The patient was initially treated with highflow oxygen via nasal cannula (HFNC) and CPAP for two days but had to be intubated and mechanically ventilated. After failure of mechanical ventilation because of persistant severe hypoxemia treatment was switched to ECMO which was applicated for 24 days. Prognostic parameters indicated a favourable trend after day 14. After discontinuation of ECMO and 11 days of intermittent assisted ventilation via tracheostoma and low dose oxygen (1 l/min), the patient could be transferred to rehabilitation. The last chest radiograph prior to transferral revealed a nearly complete resolution of bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. Our case demonstrates that severe COVID-19-associated lung injury can be reversible even after prolonged ECMO.