Breaking the Ice with Group Flow: A Collaborative VR Serious Game for Relationship Enhancement

It is usually hard for unfamiliar partners to rapidly 'break the ice' in the early stage of relationship establishment, which hinders the development of relationship and even affects the team productivity. To solve this problem, we proposed a collaborative serious game for icebreaking by combining immersive virtual reality (VR) with brain-computer interface based on the team flow framework. We designed a multiplayer collaboration task with the theme of fighting COVID-19 and proposed an approach to improve empathy between team members by sharing their real-time mental state in VR;in addition, we propose an EEG-based method for dynamic evaluation and enhancement of group flow experience to achieve better team collaboration. Then, we developed a prototype system and performed a user study. Results show that our method has good ease of use and can significantly reduce the psychological distance among team members. Especially for unfamiliar partners, both functions of mental state sharing and group flow regulation enhancement can significantly reduce the psychological distance. © 2023 IEEE.

Visualized Analysis of Advances and Hot Spots of Lianhua Qingwen in Recent 10 Years.

Objective: To analyze relevant literature on Lianhua Qingwen preparations and clarify the research advances and hot spots in this field,so as to provide references for clinical rational application and further research. Method(s): Literature related to Lianhua Qingwen preparations in the recent 10 years was retrieved from six databases,including China National Knowledge InfrastructureCNKI,VIP,Wanfang Data, PubMed,and Web of Science,followed by management and analysis by NoteExpress and CiteSpace. Result(s): Finally,344 and 76 Chinese and English research articles were included,and the number of publications increased in recent years. The research articles were published in 162 Chinese and 48 English journals. Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. and Guangzhou Medical University were institutions with the largest number of Chinese and English publications,respectively. LIU Minyan was the author who had published the most articles. Keywords with high frequency included clinical efficacy,Lianhua Qingwen,inflammatory factors,traditional Chinese medicine,and coronavirus disease-2019COVID-19. Nineteen clusters,including clinical efficacy,Chinese medicine,Lianhua Qingwen,COVID-19,and influenza A virus,and 47 emergent keywords,including herpes zoster,pneumonia,inflammatory factors,influenza,and gut microbiota,were generated. Conclusion(s):Cooperation and exchanges in this field are insufficient. Research focuses on the clinical efficacy of Lianhua Qingwen in the treatment of COVID-19 and other diseases,pharmacological action and mechanism of antiviral drugs,and micro-mechanism research focuses on related pathways and target proteins,as well as the combination of Chinese and western medicines.Copyright © 2023, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.

Visualized Analysis of Advances and Hot Spots of Lianhua Qingwen in Recent 10 Years.

[] Objective: To analyze relevant literature on Lianhua Qingwen preparations and clarify the research advances and hot spots in this field,so as to provide references for clinical rational application and further research. Method: Literature related to Lianhua Qingwen preparations in the recent 10 years was retrieved from six databases,including China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),VIP,Wanfang Data, PubMed,and Web of Science,followed by management and analysis by NoteExpress and CiteSpace. Result: Finally,344 and 76 Chinese and English research articles were included,and the number of publications increased in recent years. The research articles were published in 162 Chinese and 48 English journals. Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. and Guangzhou Medical University were institutions with the largest number of Chinese and English publications,respectively. LIU Minyan was the author who had published the most articles. Keywords with high frequency included clinical efficacy,Lianhua Qingwen,inflammatory factors,traditional Chinese medicine,and coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19). Nineteen clusters,including clinical efficacy,Chinese medicine,Lianhua Qingwen,COVID-19,and influenza A virus,and 47 emergent keywords,including herpes zoster,pneumonia,inflammatory factors,influenza,and gut microbiota,were generated. Conclusion:Cooperation and exchanges in this field are insufficient. Research focuses on the clinical efficacy of Lianhua Qingwen in the treatment of COVID-19 and other diseases,pharmacological action and mechanism of antiviral drugs,and micro-mechanism research focuses on related pathways and target proteins,as well as the combination of Chinese and western medicines.Copyright © 2023, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.

Visualized Analysis of Advances and Hot Spots of Lianhua Qingwen in Recent 10 Years.

[] Objective: To analyze relevant literature on Lianhua Qingwen preparations and clarify the research advances and hot spots in this field,so as to provide references for clinical rational application and further research. Method: Literature related to Lianhua Qingwen preparations in the recent 10 years was retrieved from six databases,including China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),VIP,Wanfang Data, PubMed,and Web of Science,followed by management and analysis by NoteExpress and CiteSpace. Result: Finally,344 and 76 Chinese and English research articles were included,and the number of publications increased in recent years. The research articles were published in 162 Chinese and 48 English journals. Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. and Guangzhou Medical University were institutions with the largest number of Chinese and English publications,respectively. LIU Minyan was the author who had published the most articles. Keywords with high frequency included clinical efficacy,Lianhua Qingwen,inflammatory factors,traditional Chinese medicine,and coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19). Nineteen clusters,including clinical efficacy,Chinese medicine,Lianhua Qingwen,COVID-19,and influenza A virus,and 47 emergent keywords,including herpes zoster,pneumonia,inflammatory factors,influenza,and gut microbiota,were generated. Conclusion:Cooperation and exchanges in this field are insufficient. Research focuses on the clinical efficacy of Lianhua Qingwen in the treatment of COVID-19 and other diseases,pharmacological action and mechanism of antiviral drugs,and micro-mechanism research focuses on related pathways and target proteins,as well as the combination of Chinese and western medicines.Copyright © 2023, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.

Visualized Analysis of Advances and Hot Spots of Lianhua Qingwen in Recent 10 Years.

[] Objective: To analyze relevant literature on Lianhua Qingwen preparations and clarify the research advances and hot spots in this field,so as to provide references for clinical rational application and further research. Method: Literature related to Lianhua Qingwen preparations in the recent 10 years was retrieved from six databases,including China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),VIP,Wanfang Data, PubMed,and Web of Science,followed by management and analysis by NoteExpress and CiteSpace. Result: Finally,344 and 76 Chinese and English research articles were included,and the number of publications increased in recent years. The research articles were published in 162 Chinese and 48 English journals. Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. and Guangzhou Medical University were institutions with the largest number of Chinese and English publications,respectively. LIU Minyan was the author who had published the most articles. Keywords with high frequency included clinical efficacy,Lianhua Qingwen,inflammatory factors,traditional Chinese medicine,and coronavirus disease-2019(COVID-19). Nineteen clusters,including clinical efficacy,Chinese medicine,Lianhua Qingwen,COVID-19,and influenza A virus,and 47 emergent keywords,including herpes zoster,pneumonia,inflammatory factors,influenza,and gut microbiota,were generated. Conclusion:Cooperation and exchanges in this field are insufficient. Research focuses on the clinical efficacy of Lianhua Qingwen in the treatment of COVID-19 and other diseases,pharmacological action and mechanism of antiviral drugs,and micro-mechanism research focuses on related pathways and target proteins,as well as the combination of Chinese and western medicines.Copyright © 2023, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.

Hybrid Transfer Learning with ECOC Ensemble Configuration for COVID-19 CXR Detection

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral pneumonia that causes symptoms in the lungs of those infected. The presence of the symptoms must be diagnosed as soon as possible. If no test kits are available, the next best alternative is a computer-aided diagnostic of a patient's chest X-ray scan for a quick and accurate diagnosis. This paper proposes a hybrid transfer learning method with Error-Correction Output Codes (ECOC) by combining networks including GoogLeNet, ResNet-18, and ShuffleNet for feature extraction. X-ray input data are collected from open-source repositories. In this implementations, Support Vector Machine (SVM) as the base classifier. The proposed network attempts to categorize the input data into one of three categories: COVID-19, healthy, and non-COVID-19 pneumonia. The mean accuracy of our method is 96.21%, compared fine tuning existing pre-trained model which yielded 89.1% for GoogLeNet, 88.95% for ResNet-18, and 89.31% for ShuffleNet. © 2022 IEEE.

A Secure Blockchain-based Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management System: Traceability and Detection of Counterfeit Covid-19 Vaccines

Despite the network and internet technologies development, cases of counterfeit medicine still exist and an unreliable pharmaceutical supply chain infrastructure is one of the key factors behind drug counterfeiting. Before reaching the patient, medicines are transferred from suppliers to wholesalers, distributors, and pharmacists. Currently, information is not exchanged between supply chain management systems. Therefore, there is no visibility on the drug supply chain. Drug counterfeiting issue has become more important during the side spread of coronavirus disease due to the high popularity of this disease's vaccine. Even though this vaccine can help millions of people to eliminate coronavirus, the fake vaccine might be killable for them. This paper is proposing a solution by using blockchain technology for developing a secure pharmaceutical supply chain management system. This technology can add visibility, traceability, security, and transparency to the supply chain system. It is considered that to store the transactions, a permissioned blockchain will be used for this system, and only trusted parties will be permissioned to push data to the blockchain. By the end of this paper, a secure blockchain-based drug supply chain management system will be proposed by the researcher. © 2022 IEEE.

Intracranial activity of dacomitinib in treatment naive advanced EGFR mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): Prespecified subgroup analysis of the ATORG-003 trial

Background: Dacomitinib is a second generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved as first-line therapy in advanced EGFR mutated NSCLC. In the phase 3 ARCHER 1050 trial, PFS and OS were improved with dacomitinib compared to gefitinib. However, patients (pts) with central nervous system (CNS) metastases (mets) were ineligible to enroll into the study. ATORG-003 is an ongoing investigator-initiated single-arm phase 2 trial evaluating a dose titration strategy to improve the safety and tolerability of dacomitinib whilst maintaining efficacy. The intracranial activity of dacomitinib was evaluated in a prespecified subgroup analysis. Method(s): ATORG-003 (9 sites, 5 Asian countries) is enrolling newly diagnosed stage IIIB-IV NSCLC pts with EGFR mutations (exon 19 deletion [ex19del] or L858R). Pts receive dacomitinib 30 mg orally once daily for one cycle (4 weeks [wks]), after which pts with grade <=1 toxicity may escalate to 45 mg once daily (investigator/pt decision). A 24 pt subgroup with asymptomatic/controlled CNS mets completed enrollment in Jun2021. CNS mets were assessed by MRI scan at baseline and every 8 wks for 18 months (mo), then every 12 wks with MRI/CT. Key study secondary endpoints include intracranial objective response rate (iORR) and intracranial progression free survival (iPFS). Analyses were based on 7Jun2022 data cutoff date (median 18.7 mo follow-up). Result(s): Of 24 pts with CNS mets, median age was 65 years (range 33-78), ECOG PS 0/1 in 17%/83% and ex19del/L858R/both in 50%/46%/4%. 8/24 (33%) pts had prior intracranial radiotherapy. 2/24 pts dose escalated to 45 mg once daily after Cycle 1. There was measurable (>=10 mm target lesion) CNS mets in 9/24 (38%) pts. The iORR was 67% (1 intracranial CR [iCR], 5 intracranial PR), and median intracranial duration of response (iDoR) was not reached (NR). In 14 pts with non-measurable CNS mets only, iCR was seen in 6 (43%) pts. Median iPFS was NR with only n=5 CNS progression events in the entire cohort and n=7 remain on treatment. Overall (intra and extracranial) ORR was 67% and PFS rate at 12 mo was 42%. Conclusion(s): Dacomitinib has significant intracranial activity with observed durable responses in advanced EGFR mutated NSCLC with CNS mets. Clinical trial identification: NCT04027647. Legal entity responsible for the study: Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group (ATORG). Funding(s): Pfizer. Disclosure: A. Tan: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Amgen, Pfizer, Bayer. D. Kim: Financial Interests, Institutional, Principal Investigator: Alpha Biopharma, Amgen, Astrazeneca/Medimmune, Boehringer Ingelheim, BMS, Bridge BioTherapeutics, Chong Keun Dang, Daiichi-Sankyo, GSK, Hanmi, Janssen, Merck, Merus, Mirati Therapeutics, MSD, Novartis, ONO Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Roche/Genentech, Takeda, TP Therapeutics, Xcovery, Yuhan;Financial Interests, Institutional, Funding: InnoN, Asia Thoracic Oncology Research Group;Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Role: Amgen, AstraZeneca, BMS/ONO Pharmaceuticals, Daiichi-Sankyo, GSK, Janssen, Merck, MSD, Oncobix, Pfizer, SK Biopharm, Takeda;Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Role: Scientific advisor for Health insurance review and assessment service, Korea;Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role: Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group, Korean Association for Lung Cancer, Korean Cancer Association, Korean Society of Medical Oncology. T. Baisamut (Reungwetwattana): Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board, and speaker: Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Roche, MSD, Novartis, BMS, Amgen;Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Yuhan;Financial Interests, Institutional, Invited Speaker: Astrazeneca, Roche, Novartis, MSD. L. Yueh Ni: Financial Interests, Personal, Other, Panel of Discussion for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: AstraZeneca;Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board, Advisory Board Meeting for early breast cancer management in our current practice.: Roche;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A multicentre, open-label, single-arm, lecular profiling study of patient with EGFR mutation-positive locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC treated with Osimertinib: AstraZeneca;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A Phase 3 Double-blinded, Two-arm Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) versus Placebo as Adjuvant Therapy in Participants with Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Complete Radiological Response after Surgical Resection or Local Ablation (KEYNOTE-937): MSD;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A Phase III, Randomized, Double-blind Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Lazertinib versus Gefitinib as the First-line Treatment in Patients with Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Sensitizing Mutation Positive, Locally Advanced or Metastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: YUHAN;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A phase II randomized study of the combination of Ribociclib plus goserelin acetate with Hormonal Therapy versus physician choice chemotherapy in premenopausal or perimenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative inoperable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer - RIGHT Choice Study: Novartis;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A Global, Randomized, Phase 3, Open-Label Study of REGN2810 (Anti-PD-1 Antibody) versus Platinum-Based Chemotherapy in First-Line Treatment of Patients with Advanced or Metastatic PD-L1+ Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Regeneron;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A Phase 3 study to Evaluate Zimberelimab (AB122) Monotherapy Compared to Standard Chemotherapy or Zimberelimab Combined with AB 154 in Front-Line, PD-L1 Positive, Locally Advanced or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Arcus;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A Prospective, Multicenter, Non-Interventional Genomic Profiling Study in Subjects with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) using Foundation Medicine: Roche;Financial Interests, Personal and Institutional, Invited Speaker, Research Title: A Phase 3, randomize, double-blind trial of pembrolizumab (MK-3475) with or without lenvatinib (E7080/MK-7902) in participants with treatment naiv , metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have a tumor proportion score (TPS) greater than or equal to 1% (LEAP-007): MSD. G.F. Ho: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer;Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: Roche, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim;Financial Interests, Personal, Other, Chairperson: Bristol Myers Squibb;Financial Interests, Institutional, Invited Speaker: EliLily, Regeneron, Merck & Co., Inc., AB Science, Astellas, Tessa Therapeutics, Roche, Arcus Bioscience, AstraZeneca, Pfizer;Non-Financial Interests, Institutional, Product Samples: Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Janssen Pharmaceuticals. L.M. Tho: Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, MSD, Pfizer. N. Prasongsook: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Roche (Thailand), Novartis;Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: AstraZeneca. T.S.K. Mok: Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: AbbVie, ACEA Pharma, Alpha Biopharma, Amgen, Amoy Diagnostics, BeiGene, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Daiichi Sankyo, Fishawack Facilitate, InMed Medical Communication, Lunit USA, Inc., Merck Serono, MSD, Roche, MD Health, Medscape/WebMD, PeerVoice, Permanyer SL, Prime Oncology, Research to Practice, Touch Medical Media, Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda, PER, Daz Group, Janssen Pharmaceutical NV, Jiahui Holdings Co., LiangYiHui Healthcare, Lucence Health Inc., Merck Pharmaceuticals HK Ltd., MiRXES, Novartis, OrigiMed Co. Ltd., Pfizer, Shanghai BeBirds Translation & Consulting Co., Ltd., Taih harmaceutical Co., Ltd., AstraZeneca;Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: AbbVie, ACEA Pharma, Alpha Biopharma, Amgen, Amoy Diagnostics, BeiGene, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Blueprint Medicines, Berry Oncology, CStone Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, Fishawack Facilitate, Eisai, Gritstone Oncology, Guardant Health, G1 Therapeutics, Hengrui, Ignyta, IQVIA, Incyte Corporation, Inivata, Janssen, Loxo Oncology, Qiming Dev., Lunit USA, Inc., Merck Serono, MSD, Roche, Mirati Therapeutics, MoreHealth, Novartis, OrigiMed, Puma Tech., Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda, Virtus Medical, Yuhan, Curio Science, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Covidien LP, C4 Therapeutics, Cirina Ltd., Da Volterrra, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd./Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Lucence Health Inc., Medscape LLC / WebMD, MiRXES, OSE Immunotherapeutics, Pfizer, SFJ Pharmaceutical Ltd., Synergy Research, Tigermed, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Berry Oncology, D3 Bio Ltd., Lakeshore Biotech;Financial Interests, Personal, Officer, Chairman: ACT Genomics-Sanomics Group;Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker, Former known as Hutchison Chi-Med: HutchMed;Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: Sanomics Ltd., Biolidics Ltd., Aurora Tele-Oncology, AstraZeneca;Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares, Former known as Hutchison Chi-Med: HutchMed;Financial Interests, Institutional, Funding, For clinical trials performed at CUHK: AstraZeneca, BMS, Merck Serono, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, SFJ Pharmaceuticals, XCovery, Takeda, G1 Therapeutics, Clovis Oncology;Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Role: geneDecode;Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Other, Invited Speaker: AstraZeneca, Aurora Tele-Oncology, Lunit USA, Inc., Sanomics Ltd.;Non-Financial Interests,Personal, Leadership Role, Term ended on 30 June 2022: American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO);Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role: Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group (ATORG), Chinese Lung Cancer Research Foundation Limited (CLCRF), Hong Kong Cancer Fund (HKCF), Hong Kong Cancer Therapy Society (HKCTS), St. Stephen's College & Prep. School (Hong Kong);Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role, Term ended: Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO);Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role, Term ended on 30 April 2019: International Association for he Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). D.S.W. Tan: Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Takeda;Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Role: Novartis, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, AstraZeneca, Eli-Lilly, Loxo, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD;Financial Interests, Institutional, Funding: Novartis, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Pfizer, Amgen. H.H.F. Loong: Financial Interests, Institutional, Invited Speaker: Boehringer Ingelheim, MSD;Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: Eli-Lilly, Illumina, Bayer, Guardant Health;Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Novartis, Takeda. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest. Copyright © 2022

A postgraduate training program for early career psychiatrists serving patients with bipolar disorder

Introduction: Beyond a significant psychological burden in lives of patients with bipolar disorders, the COVID-19 outbreak created a significant obstacle in accessibility to mental health services, which raised a need for a country-wide network of healthcare providers for bipolar disorders in Turkey. The Bipolar Disorders Chapter of Turkey organized a training program for excellence in diagnosis and management of bipolar disorders in order to train early career psychiatrists who carry out mental services all over the country. Method: We announced a training program consisting of four modules including interactive Zoom lessons giving the theoretical baseline 48 hours), and a supervision module that includes case discussions with experts (96 hours). The lectures and discussions were moderated by leading specialists in bipolar disorders in Turkey. The theoretical modules focused on diagnosis and classification, pharmacological treatment, psychosocial interventions, and special populations (elders, pregnants, patients with comorbidity etc.) in bipolar disorders. Results: We trained 40 early career psychiatrists (14 men, 26 women;between ages of 27-40) from 18 different cities of Turkey. 37 of them have successfully completed the four modules, passed the final examination, and qualified for the supervision module. Most participants agreed that the program enhanced their clinical skills perfectly (satisfaction over 90%). Conclusion: This might be a good example of a postgraduate training program for clinicians serving patients with bipolar disorders. Such training programs might create a basis for building country-wide networks of healthcare professionals for bipolar disorders.

Virtual Dissection Activities as a Strategy for Blended Synchronous Learning in the New Normal

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought severe disruption to the classroom learning, with much of the learning being carried over to the virtual environment. However, for courses with heavy hands-on active and collaborative elements, such activities cannot be easily replaced by pure online teleconference mode of instruction. In this pilot study, we report on a virtual dissection activity that was developed and implemented in an undergraduate year 1 engineering course in thermodynamics and energy systems using a blended synchronous learning environment. Through the analysis of the video capture, worksheet on the online collaborative board, post-activity survey, and observation by the researchers who are not part of the course, we have distilled the affordance and challenges of implementation in this pilot study. In particular, we recognize that the use of virtual dissection activity and virtual collaborative environment are useful for both the on-site and online students to sustain their social and cognitive presence. © 2022 IEEE.

Multi-Sensor Based IoT Indoor Localization

A typical indoor localization system relies on the availability of infrastructure such as Wi-Fi Access Points, blue-tooth beacons or antenna arrays. This increases the overall system cost and it may not be feasible for deployment in real environments such as shopping malls. A practical indoor localization system should be one that can function with mini-mum existing infrastructure. The proposed system in this paper leverages on the embedded sensors in off-the-shelf Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as smartphone in conjunction with Quick Response (QR) codes which are widely deployed under the authorities requirement due to COVID-19 pandemic. Our proposed stationary inertial measurement unit (IMU) feature is implemented through a first order finite impulse response (FIR) filter that works along with the QR codes. It has successfully reduced the drift errors suffered by IMU. The performance was evaluated in the testing environment at an university campus. From the evaluation results, the proposed method outperformed the conventional method (IMU only) and hybrid model (IMU + QR code) by 94.9% and 57.7% respectively, making the proposed method a promising technique that can be readily applied to other indoor environments. © 2021 IEEE.

Deep Learning at a Distance: Remotely Working to Surveil Sharks

In the months following the novel Coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the world has seen an immediate and unprecedented global shift towards remote learning and working. In the academic field, it has fundamentally shifted how the process of learning happens. Throughout the summer of 2020, we experienced how doing research remotely affects the complicated dynamics of working in a cross-disciplinary team. Our project centered around utilizing machine learning technologies to detect sharks in videos taken from drones, as well as a few possible applications of this technology. A project of this nature demands resources for high-performance computing, large amounts of quality data, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Acquiring and using all of these resources, led to creative solutions and workflows that we feel would be beneficial to future groups willing to do similar projects remotely. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the epidemiology of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced epidemiology through direct and indirect effects, yet the impact on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the incidence, characteristics, and clinical outcomes of OHCA. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that compared to the pre-pandemic period, the COVID-19 pandemic period was associated with increased incidence and case fatality rate (CFR) of OHCA, as well as decreased rates of intermediate clinical outcomes (termination of resuscitation [TOR], return of spontaneous circulation [ROSC], survival to hospital admission, and survival to hospital discharge). We further postulated that there was a change in the etiologies of OHCA during the pandemic as well as a decline in the rate of shockable rhythm as the initial presenting rhythm. Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, five scientific databases were searched from inception to May 3, 2021. Meta-analyses were performed for the primary outcomes, secondary outcomes, and clinical characteristics. This study was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (CRD42021253879). Results: The search yielded 966 articles. 20 articles were included for analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 39.5% increase in pooled annual OHCA incidence (p<0.001). Pooled CFR was increased by 2.65% (p<0.001), with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.95 for mortality (95% confidence interval [95%CI] 1.51-2.51). There was increased field TOR (OR=2.46, 95%CI 1.62- 3.74). There were decreased ROSC (OR=0.65, 95%CI 0.55-0.77), survival to hospital admission (OR=0.65, 95%CI 0.48-0.89), and survival to discharge (OR=0.52, 95%CI 0.40-0.69). There was decreased shockable rhythm (OR=0.73, 95%CI 0.60-0.88) and increased asphyxial etiology of OHCA (OR=1.17, 95%CI 1.02-1.33). There was moderate-to-high statistical heterogeneity. Findings were robust to sensitivity analyses, with no publication bias detected. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with significant changes in OHCA epidemiology. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the pandemic period was associated with increased OHCA incidence and worse outcomes.

Bringing Physical Physics Classroom Online - Challenges of Online Teaching in the New Normal

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 greatly impacted all forms of social activities globally, including traditional classroom activities across all levels of instruction (kindergarten to universities). While online and blended learning (including MOOCs) have been an active subject of research and discourse during the pre-pandemic days, onset of the pandemic created an immediacy to such means of course delivery better than any administrator or teaching committee could have. This created both a gap and tension in terms of successful and engaging content delivery, where traditional modes of synchronous content delivery were forced online. This situation provided educators with an opportunity to explore the merits and weaknesses of online learning. Thus, this article seeks to outline the challenges and paradigm shifts involved in such synchronous online learning as a replacement for traditional classroom learning, following our experience at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) of conducting a full 13-week online physics course between May to August 2020. At the same time, we reflect on the merits brought about by the availability of such technologies that can potentially be translated back to the physical physics classroom. © 2021 Author(s).

Wi-Sneeze - Sneeze Sensing using Wi-Fi Signals

Sneezes play a key role in transferring respiratory diseases such as COVID-19 between infectious and susceptible individuals where the timely monitoring and alerting for sneezes can be important in preventing the spread of such diseases. This paper presents Wi-Sneeze, a Wi-Fi based passive radar for sneeze sensing using Wi-Fi signals, as a promising solution to detect the potentially harmful exhaled volume-based sneeze droplets. Using the size distributions of the droplets exhaled by sneezes, an accurate volume RCS for the sneeze droplets is calculated, leading to the computation of the SNR which enable the range prediction for detecting the sneeze droplets. Experimental trials are conducted for real human sneezes and using the associated signal processing schemes, the Doppler frequency of the sneeze droplets can be prominently detected and localized in range. In addition, advanced signal processing techniques are used to improve the performance of the sneeze droplets detections. These promising results clearly validated the concept and feasibility of Wi-Sneeze in a practical environment.