Digital transformation in school management: the legacy that strategic actions in the 2020s leave for future pandemics

With the outbreak of social withdrawal due to the pandemic, many countries have undergone drastic transformations in various spheres. In education, face-to-face classes were transformed into distance learning. However, this sudden change caused several problems for students and teachers. Given these events, the purpose of this article was to propose exceptional actions to improve the transition from face-to-face classes to virtual classes. For this, the elements that positively and negatively impacted education in the Covid-19 pandemic were identified in the literature. These elements were then clustered into four strategies, these being: redesign of pedagogical practices, psychological and social support, technological infrastructure in virtual teaching, and school management to cope with the pandemic scenario. The multiple case study method was used, investigating five technical schools located in the state of São Paulo (Brazil). With this, it was possible to propose 10 exceptional actions aimed at the transition from face-to-face classes to virtual classes. The main novelty of this article was the proposition of actions to motivate the school community against the impacts of the pandemic, building memory in its agents, making them more prepared for unexpected events. © 2022 Brazilian Institute for Information in Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

Visual Analysis Tool for a BLE Technology based Tracking Data

Several systems deal with human mobility. Most of them are for outdoor environments and use mobile phones to capture data. However, there is a growing interest of enterprises to consider indoor movement to take employees and client classes into account. Moreover, they usually want to assign semantics to the visited locations. We propose a visual exploration tool for analyzing the dynamics of individual movements in an indoor environment in this work. We present the use of suitable charts and animations to explore these complex data better. Finally, we argue that one could use our solution to monitor social distancing in indoor environments, which is a sensible thing during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright © 2021 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.

SARS-COV-2 VACCINE SAFETY in ADOLESCENTS with INFLAMMATORY RHEUMATIC and MUSCULOSKELETAL DISEASES and ADULTS with JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC ARTHRITIS

Background: There is a lack of data on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination safety in children and young people (CYP) with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). Current vaccination guidance is based on data from adults with RMDs or CYP without RMDs. Objectives: To describe the characteristics and outcomes of adolescents with infammatory RMDs and adults with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. Methods: We described patient characteristics, fares, and adverse events in adolescent cases under 18 with infammatory RMDs and adult cases aged 18 or above with JIA submitted to the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) COVAX registry. Results: Thirty-six adolescent cases were reported from 4 countries, the most frequent diagnosis was JIA (42%). Over half (56%) reported early reactogen-ic-like adverse events (AEs) experienced within 7 days of vaccination. One mild polyarthralgia fare and one serious AE (malaise) were reported. No CYP reported SARS-CoV-2 infection post-vaccination. In addition to the adolescent cases, eleven countries reported 74 adult JIA cases. Among these, 62% reported early reactogenic-like AEs and two fares were reported (mild polyarthralgia and moderate uveitis). No serious AEs of special interest were reported among adults with JIA. Three 20-30 year old females were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 post-vaccination;all fully recovered. Conclusion: In this observational registry dataset, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines appeared safe in adolescents with RMDs and adults with JIA, with a low frequency of disease fares, serious AEs, and SARS-CoV-2 re-infection seen in both populations.

Gamification for Infectious Diseases Medical Education: Creating a Videogame to Teach COVID 19 Diagnosis and Treatment to Medical Students

Background. Brazillian authorities reported a total of 16.3 million cases and 454. 000 deaths during COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil by may 2021. It became necessary to educate healthcare professionals on diagnosis and treatment of the syndrome. Game based learning surfaced as an effective alternative, since it promotes critical thinking and problem solving skills. A team of Brazilian and Peruvian students, physicians, designers and programmers gathered to create a decision based computer game that simulates a hospital scenario and allows medical students to analise, make decisions and receive feedback. This work describes the creative process and showcase the initial version of the software. Methods. Professors and students of Medicine, Information Technology (IT), Design and Architecture from Brazil and Peru assembled a team in order to develop the computer game. Clinical cases were created by the medical students and professors, comprising medical procedures for the treatment and management of COVID 19, and a video game script was developed exploring gamification principles of challenge, objectivity, persistence, failure, reward and feedback. Algorithms (image 1) were created, under supervision of professors of Medicine, to define possible courses of action and outcomes (e.g. gain or loss of points, improvement or worsening of the patient). Students of Design created artistic elements, and IT students programmed with a game engine software. This fluxogram, written in portuguese, describes in detail all the possible courses of actions that can be exercised by the player. It is created by a team of Professors of Medicine and medical students, in accordance with evidence-based guidelines. Primarily, this document guides the programmers and designers throughout the development phase of the game. Results. Initially, an expandable minimum viable product was obtained. The game, visualized on image 2, consists in a non-playable character and a playable character (i.e. doctor), with a scenario and a dialogue script simulating a clinical examination of a COVID 19 patient. The player can interact with certain elements within the game, e.g. the computer and other characters, to retrieve test results or start dialogues with relevant information. Hospital scenario and dialogue window between doctor (player in black) and patient (non playable character) are displayer in the game engine software (Unity 2D). On the bottom half of the screen, the dialogue box allows the player to collect the patient's medical history. The player can interact with certain elements to obtain relevant information to make decision and progress in the game. Conclusion. The game allows medical students to practice diagnosis and treatment of COVID 19. Future versions will include assessment reports of player's actions, and a new score system will be implemented. New diseases will be incorporated in the gameplay to match the variety of scenarios offered by real hospitals and patients. Artificial intelligence will be employed to optimize gameplay, feedback and learning.

VR training for critical tasks - assembling the INSPIRE emergency pulmonary ventilator for COVID-19 treatment

This paper describes a VR system designed to train health professionals and volunteers to properly assemble the replaceable pneumatic circuit of the Inspire emergency pulmonary ventilator. The simulator's primary goal is to internalize a mindful attitude in the trainee, as even minor mistakes may lead to disastrous consequences during the machine's operation, such as sequels and even patient death. The system was based on the state of the art of medical VR training and proposes innovative ways to communicate and demonstrate instructions, possible repercussions of mistakes, and feedback mechanisms to portray step completion and execution accuracy. The main challenge was dealing with standard VR systems' limitations, particularly the absence of force feedback.

Yet another BLE technology based tracking system

There are numerous systems for analyzing human mobility for outdoor environments at the scale of large regions or entire cities. Most of them use mobile phones to capture data information. However, these systems are agnostic to a specific business field, do not consider indoor movement, do not take into account the participants' employee or client category, and usually do not assign semantics to the visited locations. In this work, we first developed a low-cost tracking system to detect, collect, process, and store users' movement and presence data in indoor environments. Such an approach takes into consideration the users' category and location semantic. We collected these data in two university buildings used by faculty, staff, and students. We suggest that our work could monitor social distancing in indoor environments due to its human presence detection capability, whenever required, such as for the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 Owner/Author.

Osteoporosis management during the COVID-19 pandemic – Position paper

COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased the already large number of victims of osteoporosis in Portugal. Osteoporosis outpatient clinics were either closed or had limited presential appointments. Many hospitals reduced orthopaedic services to make space for patients with COVID-19. In additions the volunteer or forced sedentarism, as imposed by the pandemic, increased the risk of falls and fractures drastically. It urges to intensify the current efforts to improve the management of bone health, and to prioritize fragility fracture care and prevention. This paper addres ses the challenges in osteoporosis management during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides a guidance on osteoporosis management. This position paper is a joint initiative of several health professionals and patients dedicated to osteoporosis. © 2021, Acta Reumatologica Portuguesa. All Rigths Reserved.