Hey Alexa... Examining Factors Influencing the Educational Use of AI-Enabled Voice Assistants during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a rapid growth of online learning. While majority of the current research focus on different learning management systems, massive open online courses, or even specific softwares like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, the use of artificial-intelligence (AI) based voice assistants (VAs) for the purpose of online education is very rare. In this work we propose, validate, and test a research model that explains the continuance usage of VAs by students for learning purpose during their home quarantine period. We consider novel pandemic-specific psychological factors like loneliness and self-quarantine, together with anthropomorphic factors like voice attractiveness of the VAs for proposing the research model. The factors of satisfaction and continuance usage are borrowed from Expectation Confirmation Theory. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling is used for testing the proposed model. © 2023 IEEE.

Applying the Stimulus Organism Response Framework to Explain Student's Academic Self-concept in Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Online learning has been a challenge for the students in times of the pandemic. In this context, academic self-concept (ASC) is an important aspect that has been under-researched. We develop a research model in this work based upon the Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) framework for explaining student's ASC, and how it is formed from four unique engagement types and the quality of the online learning systems. Data is collected from a two country study (India and Thailand) across two big public universities specializing in STEM education. A Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach is used for the purpose of model building and validation. Results indicate that online system quality affects behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement dimensions of students, while these three engagement dimensions further significantly affect the student's ASC. Agentic engagement does not have any role in the entire online teaching–learning process. Based on the results, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Development of gold nanoparticle-based biosensors for COVID-19 diagnosis.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative organism of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which poses a significant threat to public health worldwide. Though there are certain recommended drugs that can cure COVID-19, their therapeutic efficacy is limited. Therefore, the early and rapid detection without compromising the test accuracy is necessary in order to provide an appropriate treatment for the disease suppression. Main body: Nanoparticles (NPs) can closely mimic the virus and interact strongly with its proteins due to their morphological similarities. NPs have been widely applied in a variety of medical applications, including biosensing, drug delivery, antimicrobial treatment, and imaging. Recently, NPs-based biosensors have attracted great interest for their biological activities and specific sensing properties, which allows the detection of analytes such as nucleic acids (DNA or RNA), aptamers, and proteins in clinical samples. Further, the advances of nanotechnologies have enabled the development of miniaturized detection systems for point-of-care biosensors, a new strategy for detecting human viral diseases. Among the various NPs, the specific physicochemical properties of gold NPs (AuNPs) are being widely used in the field of clinical diagnostics. As a result, several AuNP-based colorimetric detection methods have been developed. Short conclusion: The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the development of AuNPs-based biosensors by virtue of its powerful characteristics as a signal amplifier or enhancer that target pathogenic RNA viruses that provide a reliable and effective strategy for detecting of the existing or newly emerging SARS-CoV-2.

Recognition of Natural Products as Potential Inhibitors of COVID-19 Main Protease (Mpro): In-Silico Evidences.

SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) emerged in 2019 and proliferated rapidly across the globe. Scientists are attempting to investigate antivirals specific to COVID-19 treatment. The 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV utilize the same receptor of the host which is COVID-19 of the main protease (Mpro).COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 is burdensome to overcome by presently acquired antiviral candidates. So the objective and purpose of this work was to investigate the plants with reported potential antiviral activity. With the aid of in silico techniques such as molecular docking and druggability studies, we have proposed several natural active compounds including glycyrrhizin, bicylogermecrene, tryptanthrine, ß-sitosterol, indirubin, indican, indigo, hesperetin, crysophanic acid, rhein, berberine and ß-caryophyllene which can be encountered as potential herbal candidate exhibiting anti-viral activity against SARS-CoV-2. Promising docking outcomes have been executed which evidenced the worthy of these selected herbal remedies for future drug development to combat coronavirus disease.

Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.

Feasibility and Consistency of Results with Deployment of an In-Line Filter for Exercise-Based Evaluations of Patients With Heart Failure During the Novel Coronavirus Disease-2019 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Exercise testing plays an important role in evaluating heart failure prognosis and selecting patients for advanced therapeutic interventions. However, concern for severe acute respiratory syndrome novel coronavirus-2 transmission during exercise testing has markedly curtailed performance of exercise testing during the novel coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. METHODS AND RESULTS: To examine the feasibility to conducting exercise testing with an in-line filter, 2 healthy volunteer subjects each completed 2 incremental exercise tests, one with discrete stages of increasing resistance and one with a continuous ramp. Each subject performed 1 test with an electrostatic filter in-line with the system measuring gas exchange and air flow, and 1 test without the filter in place. Oxygen uptake and minute ventilation were highly consistent when evaluated with and without use of an electrostatic filter with a >99.9% viral efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: Deployment of a commercially available in-line electrostatic viral filter during cardiopulmonary exercise testing is feasible and provides consistent data compared with testing without a filter.

Delayed COVID-19 sequel - A challenging case of recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax (preprint)

Pneumothorax, as a consequence of COVID-19 infection, has become an established entity but the delayed occurrence of pneumothorax after recovery from the illness is less commonly reported. We present a case of delayed recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax, presenting four weeks after recovery from COVID-19 in a previously healthy middle-aged gentleman, for which uniportal-VATS pleurectomy was performed but the cause of pneumothorax could not be ascertained. This report brings to light, the importance of continued surveillance of COVID-19 survivors, the unpredictability of the disease process, and the challenges of thoracic surgery in this unique subset of patients.