ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the performance analysis of learner behavior through online learning using Learning Management System (LMS). The analysis is performed based on the survey of lecturers and students activities. The parameters of survey consist of the problems discussion which arise in the online learning, the level of student absorption of lecture material, the level of student attendance, and the feedback on lecturer performance carried out by students. Problems that arise in the online learning include lecturers are not being able to control as much as 37%, network disturbances are as much as 22%, students having difficulty understanding lecture material are as much as 19% which are indicated by students with D score of 10%, C score of 60%, and B score of 30%. Meanwhile 17% of students use LMS and the remaining 5% have no problems with the online learning. On the other hand, students have difficulty obtaining connection for online learning of 45%, do not have a quota of 28%, and lazy of 17%. Lecturer performance feedback carried out by students based on competency parameters of pedagogic, personality, professionalism, and social shows very good score. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to report and analyze the double victimization among Asians/Asian Americans during COVID-19, including their vulnerability to infection and anti-Asian racism. We first test the validity of the CDC's SVI (Social Vulnerability Index) in analyzing COVID-19 infections, then construct an Asian-specific Social Vulnerability Index (ASVI) to compare with the CDC SVI, mapping them out nationally to visualize the differential geographical patterns. We then conduct an empirical study of the state of California with correlation analysis, analysis of variance, and GIS mapping to explore the association of ASVI with Asian COVID-19 infection incidence rate, and anti-Asian discrimination incidents. We conclude that the method of constructing ASVI may be applied to other vulnerable groups. The findings contribute to our knowledge of the unequal social outcomes of pandemics across people and place. The chapter ends with summarizing findings and contributions, revealing data limitations, providing policy suggestions and suggesting future research directions. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
For scholars based in North America who study various topics in China, the global spread of COVID-19 and resulting travel restrictions imposed by governments and research institutions have erected new barriers to field sites and local contacts. New disease-related travel restrictions are overlaid upon constrained political conditions for some research activities and a general climate of mistrust between the governments of the United States and China observed in recent years. How have scholars responded to these conditions? What research tools do scholars have at their disposal to see their research through? How has COVID-19 compelled or inspired scholars to reconsider their methods, their research subjects, and the ethics of interacting with people in new ways? This chapter assembles insights from a diverse group of scholars working in North American institutions who are re-tooling their China-related research during these times of great uncertainty. They discuss new methods to allow for continued engagement and note the limitations and possibilities that the pause in fieldwork presents for generating new knowledge. The overall picture is a frank assessment of a research landscape characterized by unprecedented constraints and new types of risks which may persist well into the future. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
Doctor's effort of active stress coping is a key factor for keeping stability of healthcare system in the COVID pandemic. The Internet hospital breaks through the boundaries and expands external resources of the physical hospital, but brings doctors stress and challenges. However, it is not clear how Internet hospital innovation affects doctors' active stress coping effort. To address this question, based on conservation of resource theory (COR), we explore the issue and examine the model through a face-to-face situational investigation of 174 doctors from 66 Internet hospitals with complete online service functions in China. The results show that the personal characteristics and energy resources provided by platform-based hospital will promote doctors to actively respond to stress. The increase in object and condition resources will lead to doctors' avoidance of coping with stress in the short term, but help doctors to actively cope with stress in the long term. We extend the COR theory by considering platform-based feature of Internet hospital and suggest that hospital should continue to promote technological innovation for its long-term benefits. This study contributes to the growing literature on platform-based healthcare innovation and its non-economic benefits for healthcare professionals.
ABSTRACT
Sanrentang,originally contained in the Regulations on Febrile Diseases written by WU Ju-tong in the Qing dynasty,was composed of eight traditional Chinese herbs to treat damp-warm diseases. It is a treatment method of gradually clearing away damp heat of tri-jiao,with characteristics of separating dispersion and mobilizing discharge. "Separating dispersion" means dispersion in separated ways,with different ways to eliminate dampness to export the dampness,heat,evil and turbid out of the body. "Mobilizing discharge" means discharge to stretch and unblock the Qi,to get rid of dampness and evil. It can be seen,Sanrentang,as a desiccating formula,taking "separating dispersion and mobilizing discharge" as the cubic basis,has a significant effect on both internal and external dampness associated with pathogenic heat syndrome,and its clinical application is quite extensive. After consulting the data of the past 10 years,the authors gave a brief overview on the syndrome theory,clinical application and pharmacological effects of Sanrentang, and elaborated the therapeutic effect and pharmacological effect of Sanrentang in the clinical application of upper,middle and lower Tri-jiao respectively,providing theoretical reference for effective development and utilization of Sanrentang. Coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19)swept the world in early 2020 and it is a great challenge for the medical community to seek for effective prevention and treatment methods. For COVID-19,although the cause of the disease belongs to the Qi of "pestilence",many doctors have different opinions on the pathogenic characteristics. However,they all agree with the clinical characteristics of "dampness". COVID-19,which has the attribute of "dampness evil",is so sticky that it can't be cured at once. In addition to the main symptoms such as fever and cough,it is also characterized by the middle-jiao dampness symptoms such as poor appetite,fullness of abdomen,loose stool and diarrhea. It is worthy to further explore the application prospect of Sanrentang in COVID-19 prevention and treatment.Copyright © 2021, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Facing the more contagious COVID-19 variant, Omicron, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were still in place and booster doses were proposed to mitigate the epidemic. However, the uncertainty and stochasticity in individuals' behaviours toward the NPIs and booster dose increase, and how this randomness affects the transmission remains poorly understood. We present a model framework to incorporate demographic stochasticity and two kinds of environmental stochasticity (notably variations in adherence to NPIs and booster dose acceptance) to analyze the effects of different forms of stochasticity on transmission. The model is calibrated using the data from December 31, 2021, to March 8, 2022, on daily reported cases and hospitalizations, cumulative cases, deaths and vaccinations for booster doses in Toronto, Canada. An approximate Bayesian computational (ABC) method is used for calibration. We observe that demographic stochasticity could dramatically worsen the outbreak with more incidence compared with the results of the corresponding deterministic model. We found that large variations in adherence to NPIs increase infections. The randomness in booster dose acceptance will not affect the number of reported cases significantly and it is acceptable in the mitigation of COVID-19. The stochasticity in adherence to NPIs needs more attention compared to booster dose hesitancy. © 2023 American Institute of Mathematical Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Based on a calibrated real options model, this paper examines a tax-subsidy program offered by a government to stimulate corporate investment under business cycles. We derive and discuss optimal incentive policies for different states of the economy. We find that it is optimal for the government to offer a combination of tax cuts and lump-sum subsidy for stimulating levered firms' investment under business cycles. Furthermore, the government should adopt counter-cyclical tax-subsidy policy, namely a higher (lower) tax cuts and a larger (smaller) lump-sum subsidy during recessions (booms). In particular, we provide a possible explanation why many governments around the world have reduced and even implemented negative interest rates to stimulate the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Finally, our conclusions also predict that the break-even tax-subsidy program always provides effective investment stimulus under business cycles. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.
ABSTRACT
Sanrentang,originally contained in the Regulations on Febrile Diseases written by WU Ju-tong in the Qing dynasty,was composed of eight traditional Chinese herbs to treat damp-warm diseases. It is a treatment method of gradually clearing away damp heat of tri-jiao,with characteristics of separating dispersion and mobilizing discharge. "Separating dispersion" means dispersion in separated ways,with different ways to eliminate dampness to export the dampness,heat,evil and turbid out of the body. "Mobilizing discharge" means discharge to stretch and unblock the Qi,to get rid of dampness and evil. It can be seen,Sanrentang,as a desiccating formula,taking "separating dispersion and mobilizing discharge" as the cubic basis,has a significant effect on both internal and external dampness associated with pathogenic heat syndrome,and its clinical application is quite extensive. After consulting the data of the past 10 years,the authors gave a brief overview on the syndrome theory,clinical application and pharmacological effects of Sanrentang, and elaborated the therapeutic effect and pharmacological effect of Sanrentang in the clinical application of upper,middle and lower Tri-jiao respectively,providing theoretical reference for effective development and utilization of Sanrentang. Coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19)swept the world in early 2020 and it is a great challenge for the medical community to seek for effective prevention and treatment methods. For COVID-19,although the cause of the disease belongs to the Qi of "pestilence",many doctors have different opinions on the pathogenic characteristics. However,they all agree with the clinical characteristics of "dampness". COVID-19,which has the attribute of "dampness evil",is so sticky that it can't be cured at once. In addition to the main symptoms such as fever and cough,it is also characterized by the middle-jiao dampness symptoms such as poor appetite,fullness of abdomen,loose stool and diarrhea. It is worthy to further explore the application prospect of Sanrentang in COVID-19 prevention and treatment.Copyright © 2021, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Epidemic forecasting is the key to effective control of epidemic transmission and helps the world mitigate the crisis that threatens public health. To better understand the transmission and evolution of epidemics, we propose EpiGNN, a graph neural network-based model for epidemic forecasting. Specifically, we design a transmission risk encoding module to characterize local and global spatial effects of regions in epidemic processes and incorporate them into the model. Meanwhile, we develop a Region-Aware Graph Learner (RAGL) that takes transmission risk, geographical dependencies, and temporal information into account to better explore spatial-temporal dependencies and makes regions aware of related regions' epidemic situations. The RAGL can also combine with external resources, such as human mobility, to further improve prediction performance. Comprehensive experiments on five real-world epidemic-related datasets (including influenza and COVID-19) demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method and show that EpiGNN outperforms state-of-the-art baselines by 9.48% in RMSE. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Since the first declaration of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, massive number of efforts have been taken to develop and deploy the COVID-19 vaccines. However, there might be hesitation towards the vaccines as there were reports of side effects. This study evaluates the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance of the Malaysian public via an online survey hosted in a COVID-19 vaccination acceptance roadshow event. This study gives an insight to the level of vaccination acceptance of the Malaysian public, while at the same time highlights the possible reasons that vaccination rejection may occur in perspectives that are specific to Malaysians. The overall vaccination acceptance of the Malaysian public is high, as most of them either prefer to get vaccinated or already been vaccinated. Most of them have good knowledge on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and the importance of vaccination. However, the respondents may have differing opinions on their confidence level towards vaccines by specific manufacturers. These findings give an insight into the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance level of the Malaysian public and may possibly aid in effort for vaccination acceptance should there be any form of pandemic as severe as the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in the future. © 2023, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Health awareness has increased worldwide since the COVID 2019 pandemic, creating a strong demand for wearable electronics. Wearable sensors for monitoring a patient's health are prevalent to reduce medical costs and decrease in-person clinic visits. Integrating electronics into clothes is challenging because most fabrics are porous and incompatible with the existing manufacturing methods, such as screen printing. The indirect printing method was employed to fabricate electrical circuitry on a textile substrate by printing it on a heat transfer polymer (HTP) and attaching it to the target cloths by stitching or glueing. Such a fabrication process has the potential to lead the way in developing new intelligent clothes. However, the durability of the printed circuitry in this manufacturing process on a cloth is still unknown and requires investigation. Therefore, this paper's objective is to study the durability of printed circuitries on fabric by applying constant cyclic loading. The test vehicle is a printed conductive silver interdigitating circuitry on fabric. Another test vehicle on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate was fabricated for a benchmark. A constant cyclic loading at 1Hz at a 50% duty cycle was applied to the test vehicles 100,000 times. The printed circuitry was monitored by logging the voltage in an electrical voltage divider configuration while the sensor was pressed and released. The result indicates that the fabric test vehicle can still function after the 100,000 cycles of the cyclic loading test and is comparable to that on the PET substrate. The recorded voltage-to-force values of the printed sensor on the fabric drifted upward and downward up to 3% over the loading cycles. The optical microscope observation on the cyclic loading samples showed signs of shear stresses on the printed silver and electrically conductive films, which could cause the tips of the silver interdigitating fingers to shatter. The study indicates that the properly manufactured circuits on fabric can be reliable and utilized for wearable applications. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
For the rapid development of the cruise industry, the cruise disaster relief supply chain has attracted extensive attention, especially because COVID-19 cases on international cruise ships occurred. In this paper, we propose an idea of coordination layout for cruise ship emergency supplies, the problem optimized two objective functions of maximizing coverage satisfaction and minimizing the total cost, addressing the low efficiency of resource utilization at the same. By applying to cruise ship emergency supplies layout of Northeast Asia cruise port group system, using expert scoring method and AHP to evaluate cruise port security vulnerability. The NSGA-II algorithm is used to solve the multi-objective programming model. A numerical example shows that the optimization design model and method are valid and feasible, and the algorithm is efficient for solving the above collaborative location and allocation problem of sectional reserves, which can also offer a variety of decision-making options. © 2023 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press
ABSTRACT
In our complex social environments, life situations are ever-changing. When dealing with these changes, there is no one-size-fits-all response or regulatory strategy suitable for all situations. Emotion regulation flexibility (ERF)—a framework for understanding individual differences in adaptive responding to ever-changing life contexts—emphasizes that individuals can flexibly deploy and adjust emotion regulation strategies according to specific characteristics of stressful situations in daily life. To achieve regulatory efficacy, it is important that one can utilize a balanced profile of ER strategies and select strategies that fit well with particular stressful situations. Specifically, using multiple ER strategies in daily life, rather than relying on only single-strategies, would indicate higher ERF. Additionally, based on leading models of strategy-situation fit, certain ER strategies are more appropriate for high versus low intensity stressful events. For instance, distraction involves with shielding oneself from negative stimuli and replacing them with irrelevant things, which may have a greater regulatory effect in high-intensity negative situations. Conversely, strategies such as reappraisal, which involves the processing of negative situations through deep cognitive change, may be more effective in lower-intensity negative situations and as a cornerstone of longer-term ER. We used the experience-sampling method (ESM) to quantify individual's ERF;more specifically we assess participants for 1) having more or less balanced ER strategy profiles and 2) showing greater strategy-situation fit, in regard to the use of distraction versus reappraisal in the regulation of high-intensity versus low-intensity negative life events. To test the adaptive value of ERF on negative emotions and mental health, we investigated the influence of ERF on depressive and anxiety symptoms in two samples. We hypothesized that individuals with a more balanced profile of ER strategy use and a great level of strategy-situation fit would have higher levels of mental health, indicated by low levels of anxiety and depressive feelings. In sample 1, two hundred eight college students finished the ESM procedure (2859 beeps). Intensity of negative situations was measured by self-reported negative feelings for the time points where participants reported an adverse event. Simultaneously, we assessed participants' use of two ER strategies (i.e., distraction and reappraisal). Considering the negative impact of COVID-19 on people's daily life, we collected another sample (sample 2, 3462 beeps) with one hundred people who lived in Hubei Province, where Wuhan was in lockdown during the severe phase of COVID-19 (March 7-13, 2020). We measured intensity of negative situations (by averaging individuals' negative feelings), as well as the use of two ER strategies at corresponding time points. After completing the ESM procedure, the participants were asked to fill out a series of emotional health questionnaires, including Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Spielberger State Anxiety Scale. Multilevel models were used to fit the covariation between the use of distraction versus reappraisal ER strategies and the intensity of negative events. Additionally, we used multiple level regression models to test whether high level of strategy-situation fit would result in lower negative feelings. To test whether a single-strategy preference would lead to higher levels of anxiety and depressive feelings compared to a multiple-strategy preference, latent profile analyses (LPA) was used. Results from the LPA indicated that individuals with preferences for rumination and express suppression reported higher levels depression and anxiety than individuals with a multi-strategy preference. In the multilevel models, results of the two independent samples both suggested individuals who were more inclined to use a higher level of distraction in response to high-intensity negative situations (e.g., adverse events or during COVID-19) and use hi her levels of reappraisal during low-intensity situations (i.e., high level of ERF) reported lower levels of anxiety and depressive feelings. On the converse, individuals who tended to use more distraction in low intensity situations and more reappraisal in high intensity situations, (i.e., those showing lower ERF) reported a higher level of negative feelings. Together, our findings revealed a negative relationship between ERF and mental health problems in two samples, suggesting that having balanced ER profiles and flexibly deploying strategies in specific life contexts may have adaptive value in facilitating positive mental health. This work deepens our understanding of the interaction between ER strategies and situational demands, paving the way for future intervention research to help alleviate negative emotions associated with affective disorders or the experience of major traumatic events (such as epidemics, earthquakes, etc.). © The Authors.
ABSTRACT
Background: Cancer patients are at high risk of severe COVID infection and recommended at least three doses of SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccines. Various anti-neoplastic treatments may affect long-term vaccine immunogenicity. Methods: Patients with solid or haematological cancer were recruited from two Singapore hospitals between July 2021 and March 2022. GenScript cPASS surrogate virus neutralisation assays measured antibody responses, which were correlated with clinical outcomes obtained from medical records and national mandatory-reporting databases. Results: In total, 273 patients were recruited (40 with haematological malignancies and the rest solid tumours). Two-hundred and four patients (74.7%) were receiving active cancer therapy: 98 (35.9%) receiving systemic chemotherapy and the rest targeted or immunotherapy. All patients were seronegative at baseline. After receiving one, two and three doses of SARS-CoV-2-mRNA vaccination, seroconversion rate was 35.2%, 79.4% and 92.4% respectively. After three doses, patients on active treatment for haematological malignancies had lower antibodies (57.3%±46.2) as compared to patients on immunotherapy (94.1%±9.56, p<0.05) and chemotherapy (92.8%±18.1, p<0.05). SARS-CoV-2 infection was reported in 77 (28.2%) patients of which 18 were severe. Conclusion: This study demonstrates high immunogenicity of three doses of vaccines and protection against severe infection in cancer patients.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has reached a phase where many have been infected at least once. Healthcare workers were not spared from being infected. This study aimed to determine the period prevalence of COVID-19 among the paediatric healthcare workers in Negeri Sembilan as the country transitioned into an endemic phase of the pandemic. Additionally, we investigate potential sociodemographic and occupational characteristics associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the healthcare workers in the paediatric department at three public specialist hospitals in Negeri Sembilan between 15 and 21 April 2022. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of the 504 eligible healthcare workers, 493 participated in this study (response rate 97.8%). The overall prevalence of COVID-19 (11 March 2020-15 April 2022) among healthcare workers was 50.9%. The majority (80.1%) were infected during the Omicron wave two months before the survey. Household contacts accounted for 35.9% of infection sources. The proportion of non-doctors in the COVID-19-infected group was significantly higher compared to the non-infected group (74.1% vs 64.0%, p=0.016). The COVID-19-infected group had a higher proportion of schoolgoing children (44.6% vs 30.6%, p=0.001) and children who attended pre-school/sent to the babysitter (49.0% vs 24.4%, p<0.001). There were no significant differences between infection rates among the healthcare workers working in the tertiary hospital and the district hospitals. There were also no significant differences in the proportion of COVID-19- infected doctors and nurses when analysed by seniority. CONCLUSION: Our study provided an estimate on the prevalence of COVID-19 among paediatric healthcare workers in Negeri Sembilan and the factors associated with infection, which captures the extent and magnitude of this pandemic on the state's paediatric department. Most infections resulted from household contact, with a higher proportion of infected healthcare workers having young children.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , Child , Child, Preschool , COVID-19/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Prevalence , SARS-CoV-2 , Pandemics , Health PersonnelABSTRACT
In China, due to the large-scale lockdowns and strict prevention policies of COVID-19, Chinese tennis coaches have started to open a new front of their career by offering online tennis training on social media platforms. This study introduces mediatisation theory as a theoretical framework to investigate the mediatisation process of tennis coaching on social media platforms in China. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to analyse three dimensions of Chinese tennis coaches' professional and living conditions: the career trajectory of tennis coaches, the mediatisation of the profession of tennis coaching, and the financial crisis faced by tennis clubs and the tennis industry. We monitored the BiliBili channels of the most popular tennis vloggers on BiliBili and analysed their media practices. We also collected data from job search websites and conducted in-depth interviews with 30 Chinese tennis coaches. The findings are as follows: The new approach has gradually gained the support of coaches thanks to its advantages such as flexibility, accessibility, self-promotion and marketing strategies. The mediatisation of tennis training has accelerated the popularisation of tennis in China, as have relevant government regulations regarding self-promotion platforms.
ABSTRACT
Spontaneous pneumomediastinum has been reported in association with COVID-19. Pneumomediastinum could remain elusive until computed tomogra- phy is performed. Hence, we need to be vigilant even though it generally has a benign clinical course. We presented four confirmed COVID-19 cases with typical ground glass opacity on chest radiograph. All four had the computed tomography that re- vealed pneumomediastinum, pneumothorax and subcutaneous emphysema. Only one patient had pneumomediastinum after intubation. Pneumomediastinum is a devastating finding which should be picked up as early as possible and must be excluded in COVID patients whom deteriorate quickly, as adequate time may pass before any viable intervention can be done to expedite the patients' recovery. Copyright © 2022 Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
ABSTRACT
In our complex social environments, life situations are ever-changing. When dealing with these changes, there is no one-size-fits-all response or regulatory strategy suitable for all situations. Emotion regulation flexibility (ERF)—a framework for understanding individual differences in adaptive responding to ever-changing life contexts—emphasizes that individuals can flexibly deploy and adjust emotion regulation strategies according to specific characteristics of stressful situations in daily life. To achieve regulatory efficacy, it is important that one can utilize a balanced profile of ER strategies and select strategies that fit well with particular stressful situations. Specifically, using multiple ER strategies in daily life, rather than relying on only single-strategies, would indicate higher ERF. Additionally, based on leading models of strategy-situation fit, certain ER strategies are more appropriate for high versus low intensity stressful events. For instance, distraction involves with shielding oneself from negative stimuli and replacing them with irrelevant things, which may have a greater regulatory effect in high-intensity negative situations. Conversely, strategies such as reappraisal, which involves the processing of negative situations through deep cognitive change, may be more effective in lower-intensity negative situations and as a cornerstone of longer-term ER. We used the experience-sampling method (ESM) to quantify individual’s ERF;more specifically we assess participants for 1) having more or less balanced ER strategy profiles and 2) showing greater strategy-situation fit, in regard to the use of distraction versus reappraisal in the regulation of high-intensity versus low-intensity negative life events. To test the adaptive value of ERF on negative emotions and mental health, we investigated the influence of ERF on depressive and anxiety symptoms in two samples. We hypothesized that individuals with a more balanced profile of ER strategy use and a great level of strategy-situation fit would have higher levels of mental health, indicated by low levels of anxiety and depressive feelings. In sample 1, two hundred eight college students finished the ESM procedure (2859 beeps). Intensity of negative situations was measured by self-reported negative feelings for the time points where participants reported an adverse event. Simultaneously, we assessed participants’ use of two ER strategies (i.e., distraction and reappraisal). Considering the negative impact of COVID-19 on people’s daily life, we collected another sample (sample 2, 3462 beeps) with one hundred people who lived in Hubei Province, where Wuhan was in lockdown during the severe phase of COVID-19 (March 7-13, 2020). We measured intensity of negative situations (by averaging individuals’ negative feelings), as well as the use of two ER strategies at corresponding time points. After completing the ESM procedure, the participants were asked to fill out a series of emotional health questionnaires, including Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Spielberger State Anxiety Scale. Multilevel models were used to fit the covariation between the use of distraction versus reappraisal ER strategies and the intensity of negative events. Additionally, we used multiple level regression models to test whether high level of strategy-situation fit would result in lower negative feelings. To test whether a single-strategy preference would lead to higher levels of anxiety and depressive feelings compared to a multiple-strategy preference, latent profile analyses (LPA) was used. Results from the LPA indicated that individuals with preferences for rumination and express suppression reported higher levels depression and anxiety than individuals with a multi-strategy preference. In the multilevel models, results of the two independent samples both suggested individuals who were more inclined to use a higher level of distraction in response to high-intensity negative situations (e.g., adverse events or during COVID-19) and use hi her levels of reappraisal during low-intensity situations (i.e., high level of ERF) reported lower levels of anxiety and depressive feelings. On the converse, individuals who tended to use more distraction in low intensity situations and more reappraisal in high intensity situations, (i.e., those showing lower ERF) reported a higher level of negative feelings. Together, our findings revealed a negative relationship between ERF and mental health problems in two samples, suggesting that having balanced ER profiles and flexibly deploying strategies in specific life contexts may have adaptive value in facilitating positive mental health. This work deepens our understanding of the interaction between ER strategies and situational demands, paving the way for future intervention research to help alleviate negative emotions associated with affective disorders or the experience of major traumatic events (such as epidemics, earthquakes, etc.). © The Authors.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic led to all institutions of education having to transition to fully online learning almost immediately. However, research showed that online learning still lacked adequate interactions with students. This is even more problematic when students are online learning on their own, when adequate online scaffolding activities are absent. This study investigated the impact of chatbots as a scaffolding agent to assist student learning during their independent online learning times. A total of 62 Diploma level students participated in this mixed method research study and presented with a multimedia-based AI chatbot named MERLIN. Data was collected on their attitudes towards using it. Results showed that students were motivated to learn more using MERLIN, improved their learning, and wanted more chatbots in their other courses. These findings have important implications for using AI chatbots as a scaffolding and instructional tool in 21st-century learning environments. © 2022, International Journal of Technology. All Rights Reserved.