ABSTRACT
As an important extension of college education, study abroad has been consistently attracting American college students in the twenty-first century (for a review, see Institute of International Education, IIE open doors. Retrieved from https://opendoorsdata.org/annual-release/u-s-study-abroad/?tab=us-study-abroad, 2022), allowing students to cross geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. However, the COVID-19 pandemic rerouted most American students back to the U.S. in spring 2020 and led to cancellations of most study abroad programs in the following summer and fall. The ongoing uncertainty of international travel and increasing concern about personal safety due to this pandemic has caused a decline in study abroad enrollments in the U.S. The pandemic has raised a need for reconceptualizing study abroad and reevaluating study abroad curricular requirements. The magnitude and duration of the impact of the pandemic on study abroad, including the current models that have been followed, cannot be properly evaluated without a nuanced understanding of students' willingness to study abroad in the coming years, their perceptions of the role of study abroad in their academic studies, and the impact of study abroad (or possible lack thereof) on their career prospects and life during a time full of uncertainties. This chapter used an online survey to examine 107 U.S. college students' willingness to study abroad and factors that can affect their decisions. Findings suggest that U.S. colleges need to cross boundaries between humanities/social sciences and STEM in curriculum design in order to meet the needs of the increased number of STEM majors who plan to study abroad after the pandemic. Moreover, the traditional Junior Year Abroad model (established in the early 1920s) needs to be modified in order to meet the emergent needs of freshmen and sophomores who are the majority of prospective study abroad students. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Passengers significantly affect airport terminal energy consumption and indoor environmental quality. Accurate passenger forecasting provides important insights for airport terminals to optimize their operation and management. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the uncertainty in airport passenger since 2020. There are insufficient studies to investigate which pandemic-related variables should be considered in forecasting airport passenger trends under the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks. In this study, the interrelationship between COVID-19 pandemic trends and passenger traffic at a major airport terminal in China was analyzed on a day-by-day basis. During COVID-19 outbreaks, three stages of passenger change were identified and characterized, i.e., the decline stage, the stabilization stage, and the recovery stage. A typical "sudden drop and slow recovery” pattern of passenger traffic was identified. A LightGBM model including pandemic variables was developed to forecast short-term daily passenger traffic at the airport terminal. The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values was used to quantify the contribution of input pandemic variables. Results indicated the inclusion of pandemic variables reduced the model error by 27.7% compared to a baseline model. The cumulative numbers of COVID-19 cases in previous weeks were found to be stronger predictors of future passenger traffic than daily COVID-19 cases in the most recent week. In addition, the impact of pandemic control policies and passengers' travel behavior was discussed. Our empirical findings provide important implications for airport terminal operations in response to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022
ABSTRACT
Based on the data of domestic patent transfer/license database, this paper systematically combs and analyzes the transformation of biomedical patent achievements in China. The research shows that although the conversion rate of biomedical patents in China is low at present, and the transformation in some fields lags behind obviously, after the revision of the Law of Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in 2015, all parties actively explore a new mode of transformation of achievements, and the transformation technology trend is basically consistent with the development trend of biomedical industry, indicating that the policy effectively drives the transformation work. It is suggested that relevant departments continue to improve policies, establish a transformation ecosystem, and play a greater role in the transformation of biomedical patent achievements in epidemic prevention and control. © 2022, China Biotechnology Press. All rights reserved.
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Objective: To assess the level of pulmonary ventilation function in patients with COVID‑19 after six months post⁃discharge and analyze the relevant influencing factors. Methods: In November 2020, patients with COVID‑19 were investigated in a district of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Their pulmonary ventilation function indicators were measured, including forced vital capacity of percent predicted (FVC%pred), forced expiratory volume in one second of percent predicted (FEV1%pred), FEV1/FVC ratio (FEV1/FVC%), forced expiratory flow at 50% of percent predicted (FEF50%pred), forced expiratory flow at 75% of percent predicted (FEF75%pred), mean forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of percent predicted (MMEF%pred). The related factors affecting pulmonary ventilation function were analyzed. Results: A total of 151 discharged cases were recruited, which included 64 cases of mild illness, 87 cases of moderate illness. The average age of both men and women in the mild group was significantly higher than that in the moderate group (P<0.05). The mean values of the lung ventilation function indexes were all within the normal range. The FVC%pred in both male and female and FEV1%pred in female were better in the mild group than that in the moderate group (P<0.05). Some patients had mild abnormal pulmonary ventilation function and 11 cases in the mild group, 46 cases in the moderate group. Multi‑factor logistic regression analysis showed that women [OR=3.012, 95%CI(1.249,7.264)], the presence of a previous history of chronic disease [OR=2.739, 95%CI(1.186,6.326)], and cases of moderate illness [OR=6.365, 95%CI(2.730,14.840)] were the risk factors for abnormal pulmonary ventilation function after discharge. Conclusion: Half a year after discharge, the pulmonary ventilation function of both mild and moderate group patients recovered well. Women and those with chronic disease in the past should have more targeted health guidance during the post‑discharge recovery period. © 2022, Editorial Board of Medical Journal of Wuhan University. All right reserved.
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To investigate whether the laboratory specimens preserved in Beijing Hospital Biobank during a specific period had been contaminated by SARS-Cov-2 through a cross-sectional study, and to establish a retrospective biobank safety screening system. Laboratory specimens were collected from the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and the Fever Clinic of Beijing Hospital from November 1, 2019 to January 22, 2020, nucleic acid and serological antibody testing were performed for SARS-CoV-2 in these specimens (including 79 serum, 20 urine, 42 feces and 21 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid specimens). The safety of the stored samples during this period was defined by negative and positive results. Both the nucleic acid test and serological antibody test showed negative for SARS-CoV-2, indicating that these specimens were safely stored in the biobank. High-risk specimens collected in our hospital during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak are free of SARS-CoV-2, and a safety screening strategy for the clinical biobank is established to ensure the biosafety of these samples.
Subject(s)
Biological Specimen Banks , COVID-19 , Cross-Sectional Studies , Hospitals , Humans , Retrospective Studies , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Many universities around the world arc now providing online courses on platforms of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, it is important for universities to quantify student-learning effectiveness based on MOOC. However, its operation faces many challenges to educational administrators and teachers. The most important thing is that the completion rate of learners is usually low, and therefore it is not comprehensive and objective to directly use online data to assess and predict the student-learning effectiveness. In order to assess multi-stage learning effectiveness of students in MOOC comprehensively, we proposed MOLEAS, a multi-stage online learning effectiveness assessment scheme. First, MOLEAS uses matrix completion to predict missing learning data of students. We take two open courses offered in the icourse MOOC platform as examples to analyze online data, and then we study the student-learning effectiveness using the matrix completion. The prediction results prove the effectiveness and reliability of our model. Then, combined with the prediction, MOLEAS utilizes the influencing factors of student-learning effectiveness, and a series of measures to improve the entire learning effectiveness of students in MOOC. What is more, we design a simulation practice platform which presents strong support to practice online teaching.
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This paper addresses the reactions of domestic helpers to the Wuhan (Hubei Province) lockdown that began on January 23, 2020. We use a novel dataset containing the information of over 40,000 Chinese domestic helpers registered on a leading professional website from November 2019 to June 2020. The results indicate a declining pattern of short-term labor supply of domestic helpers across 11 major Chinese cities, which shows an increase in the expected monthly wage of domestic helpers in these cities. More importantly, using a difference-in-difference (DID) model, this paper provides some evidence on the existence of labor market discrimination against domestic helpers born in Hubei Province due to employers’ fear of infection. © 2020 Higher Education Press Limited Company. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic on the disease status of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) through a questionnaire survey and to study the factors that cause its impact. Methods: The questionnaire included the Harvey-Bradshow index (HBI), 6-point Mayo score, the short inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire (SIBDQ), self-evaluations of the disease status, and COVID-19 epidemiological related information problems. Questionnaires were distributed to IBD patients in Hubei Province every month within 4 months after the outbreak. Based on the results of the monthly questionnaire survey, we compared and analyzed the patient's disease status. Then positive feedback would be given to guide the self-management of IBD patients during the epidemic after the results were obtained. Results: A total of 65 qualified questionnaires were included during the four questionnaire analyses. No one of the patients self-reported a diagnosis of COVID-19. Our results showed that the disease activity of IBD patients was the worst in the second month, which was statistically different from the results of the other 3 months'. Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) were mainly the deterioration of the patients who had activity, while patients with Crohn's disease (CD) mainly enter the active stage from remission. Failure to seek medical advice during the epidemic was a risk factor for disease activity (OR = 10.765, P = .049), and maintenance medication regimen was a protective factor for disease activity (OR = 0.264, P = .048). The number of patients who changed the medication regimen in the second month was the largest (30.77%), which was significantly different from the other 3 months. Among the reasons for changing the medication regimen, “unable to go to the hospital for routine treatment” was consistent with the change in the number of medication regimens. The use of Remicade in CD patients was minimized in the second month, and the use of adalimumab gradually increased within these 4 months. In the second month, the use of Remicade and adalimumab was significantly different from that before the outbreak (P = .065). The seeking for medical advice of these patients was most affected in the second month, the number of people who were completely unable to seek medical advice was the largest in the second month, which was significantly different from the subsequent survey results. The number of patient with good quality of life were the least in the second month, and the median SIBDQ score was the lowest, but no significant statistical difference was obtained. Conclusions: The disease status of IBD patients in Hubei Province had been affected to varying degrees within 4 months of the COVID- 19 epidemic. The patient's disease activity, quality of life, medical and medication conditions were most affected in the second month. This circumstance might be because the first 2 months of our investigation coincided with the period when Hubei traffic control was implemented. According to our survey results, doctors should try their best to ensure IBD patients could seek medical advice smoothly during the epidemic, methods such as online medical treatment could be used to maintain doctor-patient communication. Meanwhile, ensure patients maintain medication plans were also important.