Frailty goes viral: a critical discourse analysis of COVID-19 national clinical guidelines in the United Kingdom

This paper explores how the rationing of medical care for older people by frailty score was justified and operationalised in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 was expected to overwhelm the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. In March 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the ‘COVID-19 rapid guideline: critical care in adults', which advised that clinicians use the Clinical Frailty Score (CFS) to inform decisions about which patients over the age of 65 should be offered ventilatory support. We present a Foucauldian Critical Discourse Analysis of this guidance and the supporting online resources. Analysis shows how the guidance merchandises the CFS as a quick and easy-to-use technology that reduces social and physical complexity into a clinical score. This stratifies older people by frailty score and permits the allocation of resources along these lines. We show how this is justified through epidemiological discourses of risk, which are merged with the language of individual mortality prediction. We discuss the proceduralisation of the CFS alongside a growing body of research that problematises its application in resource allocation. We argue that the pandemic has increased the use of the concept of frailty and that this effectively obfuscates the concept's limitations and ambiguities;the ageism implicit in the response to COVID-19 in the UK;and the relative resource scarcity facing the UK's NHS.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Legal Information Profession within Law Firms

The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal information profession within law firm libraries in Britain and Ireland. As the pandemic only began the year before commencing this research, few studies had been conducted on the topic, thereby a clear opening for this study emerged. This study uses a survey research strategy comprised of a mixed methods research approach. Desk research in the form of a literature review opens the study. A questionnaire and 5 semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted. To understand the impact of the pandemic on the legal information profession within law firm libraries, the research objectives break the topic down into 4 areas that give insight into the consequences of the pandemic. The research found that A) working from home was the major impact faced due to the lockdown in spring 2020;B) use and spending on print resources declined;C) the role of legal information professionals has not significantly changed;and D) future legal information professionals will need to upskill due to technological developments and improve the image of the profession. Owing to the recent outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to compare the findings of this research to similar future studies to determine the validity of the results.

Multiple face mask wearer detection based on YOLOv3 approach

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In breaking the transmission chain of SARS-CoV-2, the government has made it compulsory for the people to wear a mask in public places to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Hence, an automated face mask detection is crucial to facilitate the monitoring process in ensuring people to wear a face mask in public. This project aims to develop an automated face and face mask detection for multiple people by applying deep learning-based object detection algorithm you only look once version 3 (YOLOv3). YOLOv3 object detection algorithm was concatenated with different backbones including ResNet-50 and Darknet-53 to develop the face and face mask detection model. Datasets were collected from online resources including Kaggle and Github and the images were filtered and labelled accordingly. The models were trained on 4393 images and evaluated based on precision, recall, mean average precision and the detection time. In conclusion, DarkNet53_YOLOv3 was chosen as the better model compared to ResNet50_YOLOv3 model with its good performance on accuracy with a mAP of 95.94% and a fast detection speed with a detection time of 50 seconds on 776 images.

A digital module-based experiential learning in protein biochemistry during the COVID-19 pandemic paradigm.

Experiential learning is compromised in meeting the educational demands of our students during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic. A more inclusive, flexible, and objective-oriented experiential learning environment is required. In this context, module-based experiential learning that is executable on a digital platform was designed. The learning module focused on protein biochemistry, contained a combination of asynchronous and synchronous activities categorized into 'Knowledge Hub' and 'Lab-based Movie', across 5 weeks. Digital and module-based experiential learning provides equitable, inclusive, and flexible access to students at remote locations. Furthermore, it is an objective-oriented and highly organized experiential learning framework that encourages students to engage and participate more in the learning process.

Sistemas de análisis a la implicación de las familias en la educación infantil a distancia

For this reason, the present study describes and analyzes, based on the reports, the implications of mothers on the distance education of their children during the pandemic. Of the 4 subcategories, the involvement of mothers in terms of time and space, use of digital resources and internet connectivity was difficult. [...]during the distance education of children in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers showed greater commitment and accompaniment in learning activities, despite the difficulties in managing virtual resources, inadequate internet connectivity and little time for their daily tasks inside and outside the home. Para la inclusión en la muestra se consideraron dos fases;en la primera fase, se hizo la invitación virtual.

The pandemic of loneliness: designing smart tourism for combating loneliness

Many technologically driven societies currently experience a “pandemic of loneliness“. The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to conceptualize loneliness as a persistent and widespread issue among consumers that has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly spills over into the travel and tourism domain. This issue creates many challenges for smart tourism design as it implies changed consumer perspectives on smart tourism and needs for smart tourist experiences. This viewpoint paper is based on a review of relevant academic literature and online resources regarding the issue of loneliness, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and potential solutions in smart tourism settings. Loneliness has been completely overlooked by the smart tourism research agenda despite its tremendous implications for engagement, value co-creation, and the need for experience enhancement. This viewpoint paper proposes a framework for designing a loneliness-sensitive smart tourism ecosystem (LoSSTE). The purpose of this paper is to start a debate on how to mobilize smart tourism research for combating loneliness in the post-pandemic era and to outline areas for further research.

Using memes to promote student engagement and classroom community during remote learning.

As colleges moved to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, many instructors found it difficult to maintain student engagement and classroom community in the virtual environment. We developed a semester-long activity for a molecular biology research methodology course where students created, and shared original memes related to course content with peers through group chat. Surveys and semi-structured interviews revealed that the exercise was effective in promoting student engagement, a sense of community, and relieving stress.

Training of Students in the Hotel and Restaurant Business during Distance Learning

The peculiarities of the use of Internet resources in the process of teaching students for hotel and restaurant business in the process of their distance learning are revealed in the researching. Scientific publications were analyzed, in which the introduction of distance learning in general and in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic in particular was studied. The potential aspects of using Internet resources in educational process is considered. It includes the following opportunities: search for literature sources according research problem, synchronization of translation work from foreign sources, storage and accumulation of information, organization of communication, graphics, sound effects, distribution, planning, testing and implementation research results.Students should be introduced to the organization of the educational process and material and technical base of the university in the process of distance learning are investigated in this article. In particular, it proposes to do with the help of created viber groups, introductory meetings in ZOOM, 3-D excursions. The study focuses on the use of Internet environments Moodle, ZOOM, Viber, and also revealed methodological aspects of the use of Internet sites in the process of distance learning of individual educational components of future hotel and restaurant professionals. Aspects of the use of the Internet resources during the introduction of students with the infrastructure of hotel and restaurant enterprises are also substantiated;the peculiarities of the organization of hotel and restaurant enterprise and catering are defined;the classification of hotel and restaurant enterprises, analysis of PR-technologies in the hotel and restaurant business are investigated. Approaches to the formation of knowledge the design of objects of the service sector, and training in graphic and design activities using the following software environments Kompass-3D, AutoCAD and NanoCAD are represented. The authors developed a model of using Internet resources in the process of professional training in hotel and restaurant business, which provides for the grouping of methodological aspects of the use of Internet sites in the process of studying disciplines in hotel and restaurant business. The positive and negative aspects of distance learning technology with the use of Internet resources are outlined.

Acceptability and feasibility pilot of co-designed telehealth physiotherapy interventions for children with asthma and dysfunctional breathing

IntroductionRespiratory physiotherapists aim to identify and treat contributory causes of poor asthma control, including dysfunctional breathing which impacts quality-of-life and symptoms. In the post-COVID-19 era new technologies are needed to deliver telemedicine. Before embedding health delivery transformations, it is essential to involve children and young people (CYP) and their carers to gain insight into their priorities in engaging with healthcare.ObjectivesTo co-design tele-physiotherapy services and online resources in partnership with CYP with asthma;to pilot the acceptability and feasibility of these interventions.MethodsCYP were recruited from a severe asthma clinic. Phase I: Co-design online resources and hybrid physiotherapy clinics. Phase II: Pilot tele-physiotherapy clinics via Attend Anywhere video platform and novel resources. Acceptability was assessed using electronic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to service users and providers. Operational feasibility was analysed using website traffic data and hybrid clinic attendance.ResultsPhase I: Eight CYP and their families and 11 team members were recruited to co-design prototype solutions including seven educational online videos and downloadable resources (https://bit.ly/3udKqFU), the development of a new webpage, ‘Asthma Kids’ on the platform www.beamfeelgood.com including patient and parent blogs, and a live online 12-week program.Phase II: 25 CYP aged 7–16 were recruited into the pilot. All completed the course with no adverse events. 18/25 (72%) created profiles on Asthma Kids to join live group classes, watch on-demand videos or pre-set physiotherapy programmes. RBHT website videos had 296 views.Across 32 clinics, 94 physiotherapy consultations took place – 27 in-hospital and 67 virtual. 42% of CYP were not brought to virtual appointments compared to 20% for in-hospital ones. Of those who attended virtually, half experienced technical difficulties on the Attend Anywhere platform. Problems included poor signal, difficulties logging in and difficulty seeing patients using mobiles. Questionnaires showed service users and providers all recommended Asthma Kids and RBHT website resources, found hybrid tele-physiotherapy clinics accessible and flexible, however wanted the choice of in-hospital appointments.ConclusionCo-designed novel telehealth physiotherapy resources are easy for service users and providers to use. Hybrid tele-physiotherapy clinics offer choice, but experiences frequent technical issues and in-hospital appointments remain better attended.Please refer to page A214 for declarations of interest related to this .

Deep Learning Approaches to Automatic Chronic Venous Disease Classification

Chronic venous disease (CVD) occurs in a substantial proportion of the world’s population. If the onset of CVD looks like a cosmetic defect, over time, it might be transformed into serious problems that will require surgical intervention. The aim of this work is to use deep learning (DL) methods for automatic classification of the stage of CVD for self-diagnosis of a patient by using the image of the patient’s legs. The images of legs with CVD required for DL algorithms were collected from open Internet resources using the developed algorithms. For image preprocessing, the binary classification problem “legs–no legs” was solved based on Resnet50 with accuracy of 0.998. The application of this filter made it possible to collect a dataset of 11,118 good-quality leg images with various stages of CVD. For classification of various stages of CVD according to the CEAP classification, the multi-classification problem was set and resolved by using four neural networks with completely different architectures: Resnet50 and transformers such as data-efficient image transformers (DeiT) and a custom vision transformer (vit-base-patch16-224 and vit-base-patch16-384). The model based on DeiT without any tuning showed better results than the model based on Resnet50 did (precision = 0.770 (DeiT) and 0.615 (Resnet50)). vit-base-patch16-384 showed the best results (precision = 0.79). To demonstrate the results of the work, a Telegram bot was developed, in which fully functioning DL algorithms were implemented. This bot allowed evaluating the condition of the patient’s legs with fairly good accuracy of CVD classification.

Pattern and Magnitude of Utilization of Information Resource Facilities and Services at Health Sciences Library in the Midst of COVID – 19 Pandemic

Background: Medical librarians support curriculum and research by delivering appropriate and high-quality information and facilities to students and faculty members. COVID-19 pandemic disrupted physical teaching and learning worldwide endorsing virtual education which was supported by digital information resources. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent of utilization of physical and digital learning resources along with customer satisfaction in a health science library before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An online self-administered questionnaire was administered using Microsoft Forms to students and faculty members. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24. Qualitative variables were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. A Chi-square test was carried out to compare customers' satisfaction with the utilization of information resources before and during the pandemic. A p-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 230 participants were included in the study. The library was visited by 18.7% and 26.1% of customers daily, and weekly respectively before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, none of them used the library daily during a pandemic, while digital library usage increased during this time. A significant reduction in the level of customers' satisfaction was observed with the physical library services in coronavirus outbreaks compared to satisfaction before the pandemic, p=0.028. Participants were satisfied with the utilization of digital library services during the pandemic compared to the prepandemic period, p= 0.024. Conclusion: The use of digital libraries surged during the pandemic resulting in a rapid adaptation of electronic books and journals. Librarians' have played a vital role in the current catastrophe by improving awareness of stakeholders regarding e-resources.

Learning outcomes, learning support, and cohort cohesion on a virtual field trip: an analysis of student and staff perceptions

The rise seen in the use of the virtual field trip in 2020 and 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented. Virtual field trips aim to replicate the learning outcomes and experiences of actual field trips by providing a digital alternative to in-field courses. They provide valuable opportunities for those unable to visit the field and alternative learning experiences for those that can. However, understanding their efficacy in terms of learning outcomes, the effectiveness of the learning support offered, and cohort cohesion generally remains untested. Here, we show how negative aspects of a virtual field trip both pre- and post-course are countered by positive outcomes in terms of the breadth of learning outcomes and experience. As part of our analysis, we tested methods to mitigate barriers to inclusion and learning on a virtual field trip, including internet connectivity and hardware access;the use of printed workbooks;and limitations to interaction, support, and cohort cohesion. Our results show that, although negative perceptions (as evidenced by questionnaire responses) are dominant, with 71 % of the 27 pre-course respondents and 88 % of the 21 post-course respondents commenting on these aspects across both student and staff cohorts, positive aspects of virtual field trips (43 %–57 %) also feature highly. Students show a positive shift in their perception of online teaching and learning over the course, with positive comments moving from 19 % pre-course to 71 % post-course, whereas positive comments by staff are low both pre- and post-course (at 14 %). Printed workbooks, staff-to-student ratios, and interaction are received positively. Overall, we find that negative perceptions of virtual field trips pre- and post-course exist but that both students and staff also identify positive elements, including the breadth of learning outcomes, particularly regarding data synthesis and analysis. We suggest ways to learn from these findings in order to design virtual field trips that deliver effectively in blended learning environments for the benefit of all.

Is Online Learning Better than Offline Learning?

Traditional classroom infrastructure has been completely replaced by digital platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and others during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary objective of this research is to empirically verify the research question "Is online learning providing better academic performance than offline (face-to-face) learning?". Statistical tools and methods such as descriptive analysis, independent t-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to validate our research question. The research findings show that a marginal positive impact is evidenced in offline learning and there is no gender-based performance differences in online learning. The insights of this research are useful for institutional heads for policy and strategic decision making, to create an interactive learning environment.

Enriching STEM Curricula with Electronic Resources for Teaching Online

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed many aspects of people’s lives, including all forms of education. Online studies and distance learning have become a reality across the globe. This study offers a detailed review of the effectiveness of “traditional” virtual class activities (online lectures with recordings, video conferencing, and virtual lab demonstrations) as well as openly-accessed educational resources (digital libraries, collections of the digitized films and videos, free-license software tools, hands-on lab tutorials, and project-development environments and infrastructures) that could be effectively used by instructors and students to enrich STEM educational activities. The case studies overview the necessity of improving students’ self-study skills, online tutoring, faculty training, new partnerships between academic institutions and high-tech companies, the role of multimedia platforms, and financial-support opportunities. The challenges of unresolved issues (remote internship, constraints of old-style professional certification examinations and learning-outcome assessments, and violations of students’ privacy in Cloud and social-media communications) are addressed.

Virtual transition to leadership course: supporting senior house officers to step up as registrar in paediatric training through the COVID-19 pandemic

AimsTransition to Leadership course (T2L) is a well-established educational programme endorsed by RCPCH, aimed to guide senior house officers (SHOs) developing into paediatric registrars. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this face-to-face course was converted to the free virtual 3 days course since 2020, open to paediatric trainees national-wide. This course offered easily accessible online resources with educational materials and recordings, serial webinars and small group working based on clinical scenarios. The first course in 2020 was well-received with positive impacts (published in 2021 RCPCH conference). The faculty has taken recommendations from the candidates and modified the course contents in line with efficient virtual teaching with more comprehensive online resources. We evaluated the effectiveness of this virtual training, especially in boosting a confidence level in candidates in multiple domains in becoming a paediatric registrar.MethodsWe hosted two online courses in 2020 and 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, made available national-wide. For the 2021 course, candidates were asked to fill two questionnaires based on the 4-point Likert scale, before and after the course. The questionnaire entailed 10 domains of being a great paediatric registrar such as dealing with common neonatal and paediatric presentations, leading resuscitations, child death, conflict, leading at night, dealing with mistakes, consents, calling consultants, safeguarding. We asked candidates in their confidence level before and after the course and their responses have been analysed using a paired T-test.ResultsA total of 39 anonymised and paired responses was received for analysis from pre and post course questionnaires. There was a significant increase in candidates’ confidence in almost all the domains;common neonatal problems, knowing when to call consultants, leading a team, dealing with mistakes and coping with a greater amount of responsibility and accountability (p<0.05). Even more significant benefit was seen in domains such as managing cases with safeguarding concerns, difficulties regarding consent and death in children (p<0.005). Confidence in dealing with common paediatric problems and leading a resuscitation did not change significantly, since SHOs are more frequently exposed to these scenarios. The difference in pre and post course survey on their overall confidence level to a specific question ‘How well prepared do you feel to become a paediatric registrar?’ was extremely statistically significant (p-value = 0.0002, confidence interval: -0.93 to -0.31).In the post course questionnaire of 60 responses, 56% would like to attend the course face-to-face, which remained similar to the last year of 53%. A remarkable 98% of candidates agreed that this course should be a mandatory training to aid the transition from SHOs to paediatric registrars.ConclusionFor 2 years in a row, T2L course from LSP helped SHOs transitioning to become paediatric registrars in a virtual set-up during the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrated that candidates gained significant confidence in multiple domains in their preparation to step up to a senior role.As we are rising from the pandemic as a society, we envisage to offer a hybrid programme with our well-established online resources, face-to-face peer discussion and networking in the future.

Planning Virtual Science Fairs

The explicit function of a science fair, submission of a final product, can be achieved easily, but what likely gives many would-be virtual fair directors pause are the implicit expectations that are part of a fair experience. In our years of experience, a lack of quality feedback is the factor that elicits the most negative responses from students and parents. * Students expect to receive results and prizes. Judges reported their assessments using a Google Form rubric (shown in Figure 2 with a link in Online Resources), which fed automatically into a spreadsheet, and category judges reported the special award winners through a shared document. Per the baseline guidelines, these videos should cover the same information as an oral presentation during an in-person fair, whatever is required by your fair's rules. Because of the medium, though, there are other considerations students may have when they are being recorded.

Leverage the Data You Have

The output attributes from the simulation run include the glucose molecules absorbed by cells, oxygen molecules absorbed by cells, amino acid molecules absorbed by cells, oxygen molecules taken in per breath, heart rate, breath rate, cellular respiration, and change in stored glucose molecules. Next, I wrote the instructions and questions for the activity (available in the class worksheet in Supplemental Materials). Because many of my students at this point in the year were focused on finding the "right" answer, I created questions that prompted them to think creatively about the data. Because we had shifted to fully remote instruction due to the pandemic, I used Google Meet and Classroom to begin and end each class period with full group discussions;during the rest of the class, students worked independently. To support the special education students and ELLs, we worked with them in small groups and provided them with sentence starters designed to help them start answering each of the worksheet questions (see sentence starters in Supplemental Materials).

Closing the Achievement Gap by Bringing STEM Kits Home

According to Quinn and Polikoff (2017), "summer slide" is a phenomenon in which students' academic skills regress over the summer. To assist students who do not have internet connectivity during extended breaks, the authors created STEM kits in which educational materials and directions are placed in a bag and provided to students who would be most at risk of falling behind academically. Because these activities were aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS;NGSS Lead States 2013) and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS-M;NGAC and CCSSO 2010), the STEM kits helped students to continue their academic progress through hands-on activities. In these cases, teachers can have materials available, and students can help package them before leaving for break. [...]the STEM kits can also be used to complement instruction in an online or hybrid format. [...]the authors encouraged students to use their cell phones to create a short video or share

Student use of digital libraries during COVID-19: structural equation modelling in Indonesian and Malaysian contexts

Purpose>This paper aims to examine the determinants that drive digital library use by university students in Indonesia and Malaysia during COVID-19. A proposed model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model-2 was implemented.Design/methodology/approach>A pilot study was conducted prior to the main data collection to examine the reliability of the instrument. For the structural model assessment, 1,168 responses were analysed through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and importance and performance analysis (IPMA). A t-test was also conducted to support the main findings.Findings>Most hypotheses are confirmed by the significant results reported through the PLS-SEM. The strongest determinant of behavioural intention is habits. Digital library use is most significantly predicted by behavioural intention. Through IPMA, habits are reported to be the most important determinant for behavioural intention. Performance expectancy obtains the highest performance in the IPMA procedure. Behavioural intention and digital library use are significantly different based on the respondents’ location.Originality/value>This study addresses the research gap (comparative studies between two countries) by evaluating digital library use among students in two universities in Indonesia and Malaysia during COVID-19. Findings could facilitate policymakers with insights into digital library use determinants and initiate effective and efficient policies to improve digital library use, especially during school closures due to certain situations or conditions.

Determinants of continuous usage of library resources on handheld devices: findings from PLS-SEM and fuzzy sets (fsQCA)

Purpose>This study aims to investigate the key factors that motivate learners to use handheld devices to access library resources. To do so, this study integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the DeLone and McLean information systems success (D and M-ISS) model.Design/methodology/approach>The relationship between the causes and the outcomes may not be symmetrical. To test this proposition, data were collected from 210 respondents in a Gulf country and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) and complemented by fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).Findings>The SEM results revealed that three constructs – perceived ease of use (PEOU), service quality (SQ) and system quality (SEQ) are strong drivers of students’ continuous intention to use handheld devices to access library resources. However, perceived usefulness (PU) and information quality (IQ) do not significantly influence students’ intentions. Besides, SQ and PEOU are positively related to PU. Furthermore, fsQCA results show that two different conjunctions, PU*PEOU*IQ*SEQ and PEOU*SQ*IQ*SEQ, cause the students to show a continuous intention to use handheld devices to access library resources.Originality/value>Unlike previous studies on mobile library resource utilization, this analysis extends TAM to investigate the linear additive influence of two basic TAM constructs: PEOU and PU, and three constructs, namely, SEQ, SQ and IQ of the ISS model, on students’ library resource utilization. Furthermore, the findings of SEM were complemented by a set theory-based configuration method, fsQCA, to investigate the asymmetrical, equifinal and configurational causation leading to the desired outcome. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications.