Study on the Comparison of Three Typical Gas Flow Standards for Calibrating Low Gas Flowmeter

A gas flowmeter for measuring low flow rate has been widely used in the field of medical, health, environmental protection, energy industry, aerospace, etc. To against Covid-2019, the requirement on the low flow rate has been increasing dramatically. At present, the typical standard devices for calibrating low gas flowmeter mainly include standard bell provers of gas flow, standard piston provers of low gas flow and standard laminar of low gas flow. Different measuring principles are adopted among these typical standard devices. To ensure the consistency of these typical standard devices, a comparison test is performed. The standard devices used in the comparison are of the same accuracy grade, with an extended uncertainty of 0.2%(k=2). The piston-type gas flow calibrator of grade 1.0 is selected as the transfer standard, and three flow points with high flow rate, medium flow rate and low flow rate are selected for test. The consistency of measurement results is evaluated by normalized deviation En. The comparison results are acceptable which show that three typical standard devices are accurate and reliable. © FLOMEKO 2022.All rights reserved

Predicting the climate impact of aviation for en-route emissions: the algorithmic climate change function submodel ACCF 1.0 of EMAC 2.53

Using climate-optimized flight trajectories is one essential measure to reduce aviation's climate impact. Detailed knowledge of temporal and spatial climate sensitivity for aviation emissions in the atmosphere is required to realize such a climate mitigation measure. The algorithmic Climate Change Functions (aCCFs) represent the basis for such purposes. This paper presents the first version of the Algorithmic Climate Change Function submodel (ACCF 1.0) within the European Centre HAMburg general circulation model (ECHAM) and Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model framework. In the ACCF 1.0, we implement a set of aCCFs (version 1.0) to estimate the average temperature response over 20 years (ATR20) resulting from aviation CO2 emissions and non-CO2 impacts, such as NOx emissions (via ozone production and methane destruction), water vapour emissions, and contrail cirrus. While the aCCF concept has been introduced in previous research, here, we publish a consistent set of aCCF formulas in terms of fuel scenario, metric, and efficacy for the first time. In particular, this paper elaborates on contrail aCCF development, which has not been published before. ACCF 1.0 uses the simulated atmospheric conditions at the emission location as input to calculate the ATR20 per unit of fuel burned, per NOx emitted, or per flown kilometre.In this research, we perform quality checks of the ACCF 1.0 outputs in two aspects. Firstly, we compare climatological values calculated by ACCF 1.0 to previous studies. The comparison confirms that in the Northern Hemisphere between 150–300 hPa altitude (flight corridor), the vertical and latitudinal structure of NOx-induced ozone and H2O effects are well represented by the ACCF model output. The NOx-induced methane effects increase towards lower altitudes and higher latitudes, which behaves differently from the existing literature. For contrail cirrus, the climatological pattern of the ACCF model output corresponds with the literature, except that contrail-cirrus aCCF generates values at low altitudes near polar regions, which is caused by the conditions set up for contrail formation. Secondly, we evaluate the reduction of NOx-induced ozone effects through trajectory optimization, employing the tagging chemistry approach (contribution approach to tag species according to their emission categories and to inherit these tags to other species during the subsequent chemical reactions). The simulation results show that climate-optimized trajectories reduce the radiative forcing contribution from aviation NOx-induced ozone compared to cost-optimized trajectories. Finally, we couple the ACCF 1.0 to the air traffic simulation submodel AirTraf version 2.0 and demonstrate the variability of the flight trajectories when the efficacy of individual effects is considered. Based on the 1 d simulation results of a subset of European flights, the total ATR20 of the climate-optimized flights is significantly lower (roughly 50 % less) than that of the cost-optimized flights, with the most considerable contribution from contrail cirrus. The CO2 contribution observed in this study is low compared with the non-CO2 effects, which requires further diagnosis.

Key performance measurement capabilities for managing distributed teams

Distributed teams are a reality for several companies nowadays, many authors covered their benefits and problems, and the rate of adoption of such team's structure by companies is growing fast. Since these teams are more present in companies, a performance measurement system must get adapted to fulfill the gap of not having a vast theory about the subject. To fill that gap, this paper brings results from previous steps in the research (Systematic Literature Review and Qualitative analysis of the data). It presents to a group of experts to reach a consensus on which capabilities are essential to managing/developing distributed teams' performance. The experts were exposed to the information following a Delphi Panel format and provided output that reached consensus and refined the list. The experts indicated that a group of six capabilities (engagement, development of a culture of performance measurement, organizational learning, alignment between planning and execution, accurate information and consistency) are essential to have their performance measurement system working correctly and reaching all functions. The work also identified the success factors for virtual teams, providing directions for the adoption and the monitoring of this kind of team that gained importance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next normal for business post pandemics: COVID-19

The world's supply chains are changing as both expected and unexpected environmental pandemics occur. Even though some may be expected, the full extent and ramifications a pandemic will have is an estimate at best. Thus, both flexibility and resiliency are becoming crucial to efficient supply chain systems. This study analyses the recent COVID-19 phenomenon and uses it to gauge reactions, best practices, resilience-based issues and operational performance metrics in order to assist with potential future pandemics. Education, as seen, plays a pivotal role in effectively offering options to combat uncertainty and fluid situations. Such dynamic environments have historically posed a serious problem to operations;however, with proper preparation and care taken options are available today that help marginalize harm of future pandemics.

Implementation of Image Quality Improvement Methods and Lung Segmentation on Chest X-Ray Images Using U-Net Architectural Modifications

COVID-19 is an infectious disease that causes acute respiratory distress syndrome due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Rapid and accurate screening and early diagnosis of patients play an essential role in controlling outbreaks and reducing the spread of this disease. This disease can be diagnosed by manually reading CXR images, but it is time-consuming and prone to errors. For this reason, this research proposes an automatic medical image segmentation system using a combination of U-Net architecture with Batch Normalization to obtain more accurate and fast results. The method used in this study consists of pre-processing using the CLAHE method and morphology opening, CXR image segmentation using a combination of U-Net-4 Convolution Block architecture with Batch Normalization, then evaluated using performance measures such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, and IoU. The results showed that the U-Net architecture modified with Batch Normalization had successfully segmented CXR images, as seen from all performance measurement values above 94%.

Disease X Testing: The results of an international external quality assessment exercise

The United Nations Secretary-General Mechanism (UNSGM) for investigation of the alleged use of chemical and biological weapons is the only established international mechanism of this type under the UN. The UNGSM may launch an international investigation, relying on a roster of expert consultants, qualified experts, and analytical laboratories nominated by the member states. Under the framework of the UNSGM, we organized an external quality assurance exercise for nominated laboratories, named the Disease X Test, to improve the ability to discover and identify new pathogens that may cause possible epidemics and to determine their animal origin. The "what-if" scenario was to identify the etiological agent responsible for an outbreak that has tested negative for many known pathogens, including viruses and bacteria. Three microbes were added to the samples, Dabie bandavirus, Mammarenavirus, and Gemella spp., of which the last two have not been taxonomically named or published. The animal samples were from Rattus norvegicus, Marmota himalayana, New Zealand white rabbit, and the tick Haemaphysalis longicornis. Of the 11 international laboratories that participated in this activity, six accurately identified pathogen X as a new Mammarenavirus, and five correctly identified the animal origin as R. norvegicus. These results showed that many laboratories under the UNSGM have the capacity and ability to identify a new virus during a possible international investigation of a suspected biological event. The technical details are discussed in this report.Copyright © 2022

Psychiatric disorders in older adults

With an aging population, health professionals will face a growing cohort of older patients presenting with neurological and psychiatric disorders. The aging process is associated with an increase in chronic medical conditions, sensory impairments, cognitive and functional decline, and bereavement, all of which can impact psychological wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented further, unique challenges for vulnerable older people, although preliminary findings have indicated that older adults have actually been more resilient than younger people in terms of developing mental health conditions during the pandemic. In the present chapter, an overview of common psychiatric disorders in late adulthood is provided, in addition to recommendations for assessment and treatment planning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Development of a behavioral measure of physical distancing: The o'sickey distancing test

Introduction: Covid-19 has swept the globe and has disproportionately affected the United States with over 600,000 deaths in just over one year. The Centers for Disease Control recommendations for reducing the spread of Covid-19 have focused on physical distancing (PD), the practice of maintaining a distance greater than 6 feet from individuals not in the same household. When employed, this health behavior has been found to reduce the incidence of Covid-19. A review of the measurement literature evaluating PD indicates that PD has been measured at the community level via GPS, using proxy measures of the behavior, or as a construct. These methods can be useful in some situations;however, PD is an observable health behavior and can be reported as such. This study sought to address the issues in measuring PD by creating a new measure of self-reported PD that was: 1) appropriate for individual level measurement, 2) based on participant's self-report of the behavior of PD, and 3) presented a less ambiguous representation of the self-reported behavior. Method: Fifty college students from the University of New Mexico were sampled at a single time-point to evaluate the convergent and concurrent validity of the O'Sickey Distancing Test (ODT). Analysis Plan: To establish convergent validity, individual violations of PD as measured by the ODT were correlated with the Social Distancing Measure (SDM) and participant steps per day using Spearman's rank correlations and by comparing the correlations between the ODT and the number of participant self-reported steps per day and a measure of social distancing and participant steps per day using Steiger's t-test of correlated correlations within a sample. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

A microfluidic biosensor architecture for the rapid detection of COVID-19

The lack of enough diagnostic capacity to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) has been one of the major challenges in the control the 2019 COVID pandemic;this led to significant delay in prompt treatment of COVID-19 patients or accurately estimate disease situation. Current methods for the diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 infection on clinical specimens (e.g. nasal swabs) include polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods, such as real-time reverse transcription (rRT) PCR, real-time reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (rRT-LAMP), and immunoassay based methods, such as rapid antigen test (RAT). These conventional PCR methods excel in sensitivity and specificity but require a laboratory setting and typically take up to six hours to obtain the results whereas RAT has a low sensitivity (typically at least 3000 TCID50/ml) although with the results with 15 mins. We have developed a robust micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based impedance biosensor fit for rapid and accurate detection of SARS-COV-2 of clinical samples in the field with minimal training. The biosensor consisted of three regions that enabled concentrating, trapping, and sensing the virus present in low quantities with high selectivity and sensitivity in 40 minutes using an electrode coated with a specific SARS-COV-2 antibody cross-linker mixture. Changes in the impedance value due to the binding of the SARS-COV-2 antigen to the antibody will indicate positive or negative result. The testing results showed that the biosensor's limit of detection (LoD) for detection of inactivated SARS-COV-2 antigen in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) was as low as 50 TCID50/ml. The biosensor specificity was confirmed using the influenza virus while the selectivity was confirmed using influenza polyclonal sera. Overall, the results showed that the biosensor is able to detect SARS-COV-2 in clinical samples (swabs) in 40 min with a sensitivity of 26 TCID50/ml.

Systematic Literature Review of Performance Measurement Systems in Health Sector of Pakistan

Building The research study is primarily focused on identifying the parameters of Performance Measurement System within the healthcare sectors of Pakistan. The main purpose is to identify the efficacy of different Performance Measurement Systems within Pakistan, and its impacts on performance of physicians. Considering the current performance and situation in healthcare sector of Pakistan, it has been analyzed that the country has come a long way towards progress, however there is still a major lacking of proper standards and guidelines which must be followed in all the healthcare institutions. The problem statement emphasizes over the need of PMS in the healthcare institutions, with the help of which the improvements and efficacy in performance of the healthcare professionals can be determined. The research objective designed for this study is identify the impact of Performance Measurement Systems on the improvisations in current practices, on patient satisfaction and recovery, changes in patterns of mortality rates and budgetary control within the country for healthcare sectors. In order to conduct this research study, the type of research method which has been mainly opted is qualitative analysis involving the write up of a Systematic Literature Review. This review has been designed on the basis of PRISMA method, and proper skimming of research articles have been performed accordingly. 22 articles have been taken for further investigation, published after the year of 2010. The indicators which have been focused on in this study include Patient Satisfaction, Mortality, Survival rates and Cost Allocation to healthcare sectors of the country. Based on the findings of number of research articles, it has been identified that Patient Satisfaction and Cost Allocation have not been improved via Performance Management System. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mortality and survival rates in the public and private sectors of the country were controlled due to constant supervision by governmental agencies and the use of an effective and efficient Performance Measurement method for staff members in the healthcare industry.

An Evaluation of Quality Metrics for Distance and Blended Teaching

This study discusses evaluating the service quality in higher education institutions (HEIs) or the teaching quality of hybrid learning. Following COVID-19, most HEIs have shifted from face-to-face learning to blended and online learning in a synchronous or asynchronous form. The disadvantage of online learning is the absence of face-to-face and social interaction, which is why blended learning has become more popular. However, there are methodological and theoretical issues. Methodologically, to evaluate teaching delivery, either qualitative or quantitative research can be employed. Univariate analysis can be utilised to investigate the relationship among metrics. Alternatively, a multivariate analysis such as Structural Equation Modelling could be used when there is a complex interaction between metrics. Other methodological issues relate broadly to sampling, such as which metrics should be evaluated, whose opinions should be shared between students and lecturers and when to evaluate the survey using pre-learning or post-learning metrics in terms of module quality, module relevance, module intellectual, module infrastruc-ture, module success rate, module engagement, module support, module feedback and overall satisfaction. Theoretically, additional metrics such as aesthetic tech-nology and co-creation dynamics should be utilised in evaluating blended learning because institutions and clients simultaneously produce education. Moreover, based on the constructive alignment theory, several metrics can be used to evaluate teaching performance, such as learning-objectives metrics, learning-activities metrics and feedback metrics. In addition, new metrics have also been developed based on the behaviourists, constructivists and social constructionists, including content metrics, instruction-quality metrics, teaching-climate metrics, online-management metrics, professionalism metrics and classroom-management metrics. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Validation of CES-D8 among Czech university students during COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives: Due to the rise of depressive symptomatology especially among vulnerable populations such as young adults during the COVID-19 outbreak, a reliable measuring tool is needed. Because of the lack of such studies, the authors decided to validate the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 8) among Czech university students capturing the beginning of lockdown experience. Statistical analyses: Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and structural equation modelling with diagonally weighted least squares estimation using lavaan was employed. Different hypotheses about the dimensionality of the CES-D 8 scale were tested. The authors assessed the measurement equivalence of the CES-D 8 scale according to gender using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The effect of socio-demographic and COVID-19 issues variables on depression was examined. Results: One dimensional model with correlated errors showed sufficient validity and therefore, the best fit. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis results revealed that the factor structure is invariant across gender. Women and those who reported financial distress and academic stress showed a higher level of depressive symptomatology. On the other hand, relationships proved to have a protective effect. Limitations: The sample came from an online survey, respondents were self-selected. There was a gender imbalance in the sample that cannot be explained by a higher number of women in the Czech university environment. Conclusions: The CES-D 8 proved to be a useful instrument for measuring depressed mood that opens further possibilities for depression research in the university environment and during pandemic situations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Czech) Cile: Vzhledem k narustu depresivni sympto-matologie behem pandemie covid-19 zejmena u zranitelnych skupin, jako jsou mladi dospeli, narostla potrebnost spolehliveho nastroje na mereni depresivity. Z duvodu chybejici validizace se autori rozhodli overit osmipolozkovou skalu Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 8) u ceskych vysokoskolskych studentu v dobe sameho pocatku pandemie. Statisticke analyzy: Byla provedena konfirmacni faktorova analyza za pouziti strukturniho modelovani metodou DWLS (diagonally weighted least squares) pomoci baliku laavan. Byly testovany ruzne hypotezy o dimenzionalite skaly CES-D 8. Pomoci MCFA (multigroup confirmatory factor analysis) autori posuzovali ekvivalenci mereni skaly CES-D 8 podle pohlavi. Byl zkouman vliv sociodemografickych promennych a promennych tykajicich se problematiky covid-19 na depresivni symptoma-tologii. Vysledky: Jednodimenzionalni model s korelo-vanymi rezidualnimi rozptyly u dvou polozek prokazal dostatecnou validitu a nejlepe odpovidal datum. Vysledky MCFA ukazaly, ze faktorova struktura zvoleneho modelu byla invariantni vzhledem k pohlavi. Zeny a osoby, ktere byly ve financni nouzi nebo prozivaly zvyseny stres ze studia, vykazovaly vyssi uroven depresivni symptomatologie. Naopak partnersky vztah se ukazal mit protektivni efekt. Limity prace: Vzorek pochazi z online pruzku-mu, respondenti byli vybrani samovyberem. Nadreprezentaci zen-studentek v datech nelze zduvodnit vyssim podilem zen na ceskych univerzitach. Zaver: CES-D 8 se ukazal byt uzitecnym nastro-jem pro mereni depresivity, jenz otevira dalsi moznosti pro vyzkum deprese v univerzitnim prostredi a behem pandemickych situaci. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Hypertension News-Screen: Common surgical masks and unattended blood pressure changes in treated hypertensive patients.

Although the effect of face masks on preventing airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is well studied, no study has evaluated their effect on blood pressure (BP). Therefore, we investigated the effect of surgical masks on BP in 265 treated hypertensive patients. Following the routine mask-on office BP measurement, patients were left alone and randomized to automated office BP measurement, with measurements taken after first wearing a mask for 10 min, then without wearing the mask for 10 min, and vice versa. Among the participants, 115 were women (43.4%), the mean age was 62 +/- 12 years, and the mean office BP was 134 +/- 15/81 +/- 12 mmHg. There was no significant difference between mask-on unattended systolic BP (133 +/- 15 mmHg) and mask-off unattended systolic BP (132 +/- 15 mmHg) (P = 0.13) or between mask-on unattended diastolic BP (77 +/- 13 mmHg) and mask-off unattended diastolic BP (76 +/- 13 mmHg) (P = 0.32). Surgical masks had no effect on BP in treated hypertensive patients.Copyright © 2022 Krause und Pachernegg GmbH. All rights reserved.

An examination of the association between learning modality and academic achievement during the Covid-19 pandemic

This causal-comparative ex-post-facto study examined the association between learning modality and academic achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic created an environment in which multiple modalities of learning, including blended and remote classrooms, were occurring simultaneously, challenging the existing practices of the in-person model, around which most K-12 education is organized. This study analyzed a total of 3,182 public and charter K-8 schools in Illinois to determine how school-level teacher assessments of Ambitious Instruction, as measured by the 5Essentials, and student performance on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) math and reading assessments changed from 2019, prior to the pandemic, to 2021 by learning modality. The study also examined the impact of socioeconomic status and building enrollment on these changes. Although Ambitious Instruction ratings and IAR math and reading proficiency decreased across all learning modalities from 2019 to 2021, significantly greater decreases were observed among schools that chose remote learning, while in-person schools experienced the least decline. No statistically significant differences based on the socioeconomic status or size of the schools were observed, although a significant association between socioeconomic status and modality was observed, with poorer schools more likely to opt for remote learning than richer schools, suggesting that challenges to implementation may have negatively impacted the potential effectiveness of this modality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Surveying over the counter and prescription only medication misuse in treatment services during COVID-19

Background: A greater understanding of Over the Counter (OTC) and Prescription Only Medication (POM) misuse amongst adults accessing substance misuse services (SMS) during COVID-19 is required to identify how SMS can better meet the needs of the people who require treatment. Aim: To use a questionnaire to explore OTC/POM misuse during COVID-19 in adults accessing community SMS in England. Methods: In 2020 to 2021 anonymous self-administered online/paper questionnaires which collated quantitative and qualitative data were completed. They were piloted for suitability and ethical approval was obtained. Thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data and chi-square tests used to assess the relationship between quantitative variables. Results: Participants were Caucasian (94.6% British), majority male (58.9%), aged 18 to 61 years. Most were prescribed medication for problematic substance use, with a 92.5% self-reported adherence rate. The misuse of benzodiazepines (22.2%) codeine products (30.8%) and pregabalin (14.5%) predominated and 37.5% misused 2 or more medicines. Administration was usually oral and concomitant use of other substances was common: alcohol 44.6% (52% daily), tobacco/vaping 73.2% and illicit substances 58.9%. There were statistically significant associations identified, including between changes during COVID-19 to OTC/POM misuse and illicit use. Only 56 questionnaires were included in the analysis: we believe this low number was because of infection control measures, limited footfall in services, pressures on staff limiting their capacity to distribute the paper questionnaires and reliance upon telephone consultations limiting online distribution. Increasing OTC/POM misuse and obtaining illicit supplies were reported when access to usual supplies were restricted;however, changes to doses/dispensing arrangement liberalisation in response to COVID-19 were positively viewed. Conclusion: OTC/POM misuse, including polypharmacy and concomitant use of other substances occurred during COVID-19: SMS need to be vigilant for these issues and mitigate the associated risks for example with harm reduction interventions. Further qualitative research is required to explore the issues identified. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Tangible Rewards for More Than Just Productivity: Examining Canadian Public Accounting Firms' Rewards Programs*

Companies spend significant amounts of money on tangible rewards programs, even during the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence, growth, and significance of these expenditures highlight the importance of understanding the purpose and use of these programs by organizations. Research on public accounting (PA) firms' compensation plans has focused on the balance between professional and commercial incentives in partner profit-sharing schemes but has failed to examine the incentives for nonpartner audit professionals. However, it is exactly these professionals who do a substantial amount of work on audit engagements. This paper has three main purposes. First, we investigate the nature and composition of PA firms' tangible rewards programs and provide a detailed description. Second, we examine the use of firms' tangible rewards programs to provide evidence of what actions are being rewarded. We use Almer et al.'s (2005, Behavioral Research in Accounting 17: 1-22) framework, which presents dimensions of the auditors' professional contribution, and explores whether firms recognize these dimensions using tangible rewards. Third, we develop future research questions to help explore the use of tangible rewards in firms without structured output. We collect archival data on the use of tangible rewards from each of the Big 4 PA firms and three of the next four largest international accounting firms in Canada. We find that firms use their tangible rewards programs for "building a culture of recognition," for performance incentives, and for employee and firm development, thus rewarding a broad set of measures beyond the incentive measures for hours worked.

Soft Ionization: Improving Indoor Air Quality

In this paper we report two applications of a subcategory of air cleaning devices based on soft ionization that do not cause molecular fragmentation. A system that includes two unipolar ionizing modules has been used to simultaneously produce positive and negative ions in the air. In one set of experiments a large chamber (28 m3) was used to study the effect of ions on reducing PM1.0 particles produced by a research grade calibrated cigarette. The data presented in this paper were obtained using a carbon-brush-based bipolar ionizer and a MERV 10 filter with electret media in a recirculating HVAC system. Significant improvement in removal rate of fine and ultrafine particles was achieved when using the bipolar ionizer in conjunction with the MERV 10 filter. The second set of experiments were conducted using a 36 m3 chamber, following BSL-3 standards, to study the effect of ions on aerosolized SARS-CoV-2. Results of these investigations reveal the inactivation rate of SARS-CoV-2 are enhanced when ions are introduced in the air;inactivation rates were increased by more than 60%and 90%for ion densities of 10,000/cc and 18,000/cc. IEEE

Disparities in COVID-19 Related Outcomes in the United States By Race and Ethnicity: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses

Objectives: Meta-analyses have investigated associations between race and ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes. However, there is uncertainty about these associations' existence, magnitude, and level of evidence. We, therefore, aimed to synthesize, quantify, and grade the strength of evidence of race and ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes in the US. Method(s): In this umbrella review, we searched four databases (Pubmed, Embase, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Epistemonikos) from database inception to April 2022. The methodological quality of each meta-analysis was assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews, version 2 (AMSTAR-2). The strength of evidence of the associations between race and ethnicity with outcomes was ranked according to established criteria as convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive, weak, or non-significant. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022336805 Results: Of 880 records screened, we selected seven meta-analyses for evidence synthesis, with 42 associations examined. Overall, 10 of 42 associations were statistically significant (p <= 0.05). Two associations were highly suggestive, two were suggestive, and two were weak, whereas the remaining 32 associations were non-significant. The risk of COVID-19 infection was higher in Black individuals compared to White individuals (risk ratio, 2.08, 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.60-2.71), which was supported by highly suggestive evidence;with the conservative estimates from the sensitivity analyses, this association remained suggestive. Among those infected with COVID-19, Hispanic individuals had a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization than non-Hispanic White individuals (odds ratio, 2.08, 95% CI, 1.60-2.70) with highly suggestive evidence which remained after sensitivity analyses. Conclusion(s): Individuals of Black and Hispanic groups had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. These associations of race and ethnicity and COVID-19 outcomes existed more obviously in the pre-hospitalization stage. More consideration should be given in this stage for addressing health inequity.Copyright © 2023

Assessment of 21st Century skills in a computing programme during the Covid-19 pandemic

Within higher education, the suspension of face-to-face instruction due to the Covid-19 pandemic has created numerous challenges, one of which is the assessment of student learning. In this article, the author examines the effectiveness of an existing assessment method, the computing professional skills assessment (CPSA) within a fully on-line environment in a computing programme at a university in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of the CPSA is to measure students' proficiency in the 21st Century or professional skills - skills that are essential to life and workplace success, such as teamwork, communication and problem solving. The CPSA is designed as a small group assessment, where through an on-line asynchronous discussion students attempt to develop solutions to a computing-related problem that crosses disciplinary boundaries and to which there is no single correct answer. Results indicate that students performed consistently at or near the desired proficiency level. Based on these findings, it appears that the CPSA is an effective assessment for the 21st Century skills in a fully on-line environment. © 2022 WIETE.