ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought chaos on education systems worldwide, affecting several billion students all over the world. This had far-reaching consequences in every part of our life. Traditional educational techniques have been considerably disrupted because of social alienation and restricting mobility policies. Innovation, implementation of alternative educational systems and evaluation methodologies are in demand. The COVID-19 outbreak has given us a chance to lay the groundwork for digital learning. The Army Educational Research Program (AEOP) is a summer internship program that allows students to do research in a real laboratory environment with the help of a professional STEM mentor and researcher. For the past 12 years, this program has been delivered as an in-person apprenticeship at Texas Tech University (TTU). Face-to-face apprenticeships were canceled and shifted online because of the pandemic, resulting in the emergence of online learning, which has allowed learners to complete their study. Students, instructors, administrators, and education leaders faced several issues because of the abrupt shift from face-to-face to online learning. This article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transition of the AEOP program from face-to-face to an online teaching mode at TTU. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the construction industry, the full extent and scope of which are still being felt and evaluated. These impacts came in many forms;chief among them are the practical and legal repercussions of the pandemic that raised the question of who is responsible for the expected delays to construction projects. To that end, the research methodology will include a review of relevant contract clauses as well as a focus on the act of God and force majeure clauses and whether COVID-19 provides contractual protection to contractors under two state agencies' standard specifications. The essential declaration of construction in Illinois exasperated the legal and contractual questions. Upon examination of both state highway agencies' specifications, the documents appear to indicate that COVID-19 would be an acceptable trigger under the act of God clause. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
ABSTRACT
Background: Several reports have suggested that cancer patients are at increased risk for contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and suffering worse coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of cancer status on presentation and outcome. Here, we report on the association between cancer status and survival in hospitalized patients who tested positive for SARSCoV- 2 during the height of pandemic in New York City. Methods: Of the 6,724 patients who were hospitalized at NYU Langone Health (3/16/20 -7/31/20) and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, 580 had either active cancer (n = 221) or a history of cancer (n = 359). Patients were classified as having active malignancy if they either received treatment within six months of their COVID-19 diagnosis or they had measurable disease documented at the time of their hospitalization. Patients were categorized as having a history of cancer if there was no evidence of measurable disease or there were no treatments administered within six months of their COVID-19 diagnosis. We compared the baseline clinicodemographic characteristics and hospital courses of the two groups, and the relationship between cancer status and the rate of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), use of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and all-cause mortality. Results: There was no differences between the two groups in their baseline laboratory results associated with COVID- 19 infection, incidence of venous thromboembolism, or incidence of severe COVID- 19. Active cancer status was not associated with the rate of ICU admission (P =0.307) or use of IMV (P = 0.236), but was significantly associated with worse all-cause mortality in both univariate and multivariate analysis with ORs of 1.48 (95% CI: 1.04-2.09;P = 0.028) and 1.71 (95% CI: 1.12- 2.63;P = 0.014), respectively. Conclusions: Active cancer patients had worse survival outcomes compared to patients with a history of cancer despite similar COVID-19 disease characteristics in the two groups. Our data suggest that cancer care should continue with minimal interruptions during the pandemic to bring about response and remission as soon as possible. Additionally, these findings support the growing body of evidence that malignancy portends worse COVID-19 prognosis, and demonstrate that the risk may even apply to those without active disease.
ABSTRACT
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged as a small outbreak in Wuhan rapidly progressing into the deadliest pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918. The disease was deemed trivial in children, until the reporting, few days ago, of an emerging pediatric multi-inflammatory syndrome mimicking Kawasaki disease (KD). Main body: This report reveals that coronaviridae were implicated in induction of several post-infectious vasculitides, namely, KD, AHEI, and HSP. This occurs in genetically susceptible individuals to vascular inflammation. Shared genetic susceptibilities between KD and CoV include genes encoding for CD 40, HLAB-15:03, and ACE. This leads to augmented inflammation with hypersecretion of cytokines especially IL-6. Conclusion(s): The revealed relationships between KD and CoV can help to predict the risk of KD in COVID-19 patients through screening levels of upregulated cytokines. It might also signify that classic treatment of KD with IVIG might need to be replaced with anti-cytokine therapy in COVID-19 patients. Copyright © 2020, The Author(s).