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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 has brought tremendous challenges to higher education teaching and learning. Much attention has been put on online course construction and delivery to ensure the effectiveness of online learning. However, higher education assessment deserves more attention as it is also significantly impacted by the sudden switch from face-to-face to online. To examine how higher education institutions responded to the challenges in higher education assessment during the pandemic, this chapter conducted a case study of postgraduate programs at Lingnan University (LU) in Hong Kong to explore an appropriate assessment framework for online learning in a liberal arts education context. Through a quantitative approach, this study surveyed taught postgraduate students to explore the effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness of the assessment approaches applied by LU faculty members in the online and hybrid-mode classes. This case study aims to provide insights for improving higher education assessment under the pandemic crisis. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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In the current environment where COVID-19 is serious, the space, place and resources required for teaching nuclear power plants are restricted to a great extent. To solve such problems and improve the utilization of education resources, this study improved an accident simulator for nuclear power plants based on the concept of cloud technology. We build the Browser / Server architecture so that the platform has successfully implemented multiterminal, multiplatform and multiuser simultaneous applications. Through the simulation results of the Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident (SBLOCA) and the test results of platform performance by PCTran-Cloud, the correctness of PCTran-Cloud in the accident simulation function and results were verified. In general, PCTran-Cloud has the characteristics of high scalability, high concurrency and high security. The platform can provide an environment for the training and education of nuclear power professionals. © 2022 IEEE.
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The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Swedish biologist Svante Pääbo for his decisive contribution to paleoanthropogenomics and human origins. There are various theories about the origin of human beings, and the current mainstream view is: out of the African doctrine. In other words, ancient humans had about three times of migrations. The first time was Homo erectus, the second was Neanderthals and Denisovans, and the third was the ancestors of modern humans. All migrated from Africa to Eurasia. While pioneering a new discipline, paleoanthropogenomics, Svante Pääbo has been refining the "Out of Africa Theory”. With the help of various biological techniques, he delved into the origin of human beings from the perspective of genomics and found that some genetic imprints from ancient humans were retained in our bodies. For example, the STAT2 gene and TLR gene associated with immunity, the EPAS1 gene that contributes to hypoxic respiration and the six genes of chromosome 3 are highly positively correlated with the incidence of COVID-19. This research means that we can go back to the root of certain diseases, rather than limiting our eyes to the genes themselves, and exploring where a gene comes from will be a new way of studying diseases. We summarized his innovations in related biotechnology in the process of research, his exploration of ancient humans based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes and related results, and introduced some genes derived from ancient humans and their related information. © 2022 Institute of Biophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Introduction: To meet the multi-user, cross-time-and-space, cross-platform online demand of work, and professional training teaching in nuclear reactor safety analysis under the normalization of Coronavirus Disease 2019. Method: Taking the nuclear accident simulation software PCTRAN as an example, this study adopts cloud computing technology to build the NasCloud, a nuclear accident simulation cloud platform based on Browser/Server architecture, and successfully realizes multi-user, cross-time-and-space, cross-platform applications. Targeting the AP1000, a pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant, the simulation of cold-leg Small Break Loss of Coolant Accident and cold-leg Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident were carried out to verify the correctness of the NasCloud's accident simulation function. Results: The result shows that the simulation functions and results of the NasCloud in multi-terminal are consistent with the single version of PCTRAN. At the same time, the platform has high scalability, concurrency and security characteristics. Discussion: Therefore, the nuclear accident simulation cloud platform built in this study can provide solutions for the work and training of nuclear reactor safety analysis, and provide reference for other engineering design and simulation software cloud to computing transformation. Copyright © 2023 Chen, Chen, Xie, Xiong and Yu.
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Since late 2019, COVID-19 has quickly emerged as the newest biomedical domain, resulting in a surge of new information. As with other emergent domains, the discussion surrounding the topic has been rapidly changing, leading to the spread of misinformation. This has created the need for a public space for users to ask questions and receive credible, scientific answers. To fulfill this need, we turn to the task of open-domain question-answering, which we can use to efficiently find answers to free-text questions from a large set of documents. In this work, we present such a system for the emergent domain of COVID-19. Despite the small data size available, we are able to successfully train the system to retrieve answers from a large-scale corpus of published COVID-19 scientific papers. Furthermore, we incorporate effective re-ranking and question-answering techniques, such as document diversity and multiple answer spans. Our open-domain question-answering system can further act as a model for the quick development of similar systems that can be adapted and modified for other developing emergent domains.
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Pulmonary medical image processing is an effective diagnostic method for COVID-19, and CapsNet-based methods have achieved good performance. However, as cost-blind methods, these diagnostic methods only consider immediate and deterministic decisions, which easily lead to misdiagnosis and high costs. Therefore, based on a revised CapsNet, we propose a cost-sensitive three-way decision (3WD) method for COVID-19 diagnosis, named as Caps-3WD. To enhance the feature extraction ability for pneumonia areas, we introduce a Restage module to improve convolution layer of the original CapsNet. Further, to lighten the model, we introduce depth wise separable convolution to reconstruct decoder. Additionally, three options are considered in the decision set: infected, normal, and suspected, which are given different costs, respectively. The lowest-cost decision is chosen for each input. In the experimental analysis, we compare Caps-3WD with CNN-based and CapsNet-based methods on COVID-CXR dataset, which proves the effectiveness of 3WD and the superiority of Caps-3WD in COVID-19 diagnosis. © 2022 SPIE. Downloading of the is permitted for personal use only.
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In the COVID-19 pandemic, control measures including wearing masks, ensuring hand hygiene, and maintaining a physical distance of at least 1 m were recommended to prevent the spread of virus. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of face mask, approach pattern and participants’ gender on interpersonal distance in the pandemic environment. Virtual reality (VR) technology was applied to build the experimental environment. This study recruited 31 participants including 17 males and 14 females, who were asked to interact with virtual confederates with and without a face mask. The interpersonal distance was recorded when participants actively walk towards the virtual confederate or approached passively by the confederate. Three-way ANOVA results showed that face mask and approach pattern had significant effects on interpersonal distance. The distance when facing the confederate with a face mask was significantly closer than without a face mask. Moreover, participants preferred a significantly larger distance in the passive pattern than in the active pattern. The participants’ gender showed no significant effect on interpersonal distance and no interaction effects were found. The findings in this study helped to further investigate the nature of interpersonal distance and contributed to a better understanding of the human behaviors in the pandemic environment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Purpose: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply chain of the anti-seizure medication has been challenged. On the other side, the “4+7” drug procurement reform launching in China also force the promotion of generics. This study is aimed to investigate the attitude and efficacy of the antiseizure drug levetiracetam and its genric production in Chinese people with epilepsy. Method: The study is conducting in the clinic in 10 epilepsy centers in Westchina.The inclusion criteria are 1) diagnosed with epilepsy for more than 3 months;2) has started standard levetiracetam treatment for more than 3 months during the course;3) informed consent was obtained. Participates were consecutively recruited. The data is collected through fact-to-face interview and self-report surveys. Result: This ongoing study has currently enrolled 40 people with epilepsy. The average age is 24.3 yrs, the median age is 25.0 yrs. 72.5% of them was female. Twenty-eight of them were diagnosed with focal onset seizure, four has generalized onset seizure. Of 39 patients who are currently using levetiracetam, 29 (74.3%) were using the brand drug. 30% of patients had switch the brand without discussion with doctors. Mainly because of the unstabled supply and expenses. In 3 cases, participates complains the difference in efficacy of the treatment. Only 40% of the participates agree that the efficacy and safety of generic drugs are equal to the brand product. Conclusions: From the preliminary results, there are a large proportion of people with epilepsy has switched the brand of their levetiracetam drug. While a limited number of cases showed differences in efficacy and safety, most of the patients doubt the equivalence.
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Objective: To explore the clinical characteristics and risk factors of patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) when developing multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Methods: Data from 458 inpatients of confirmed COVID-19 in Wuhan, Shanghai and Tongling from December 29, 2019 to March 24, 2020 were retrospectively collected. COVID-19 was confirmed by real-time RT-PCR of throat swab samples. Data of demographics, clinical presentation, laboratory tests, imaging findings, treatment and prognosis were obtained from medical record and compared between COVID-19 patients with and without MODS. Risk factors for the development of MODS were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: Of the 458 COVID-19 patients (266 from Wuhan, 208 from Shanghai, and 24 from Tongling), 103 developed transient or persistent MODS in the course. More male patients were found in those with MODS (72.8% vs 54.6%, P=0.001). And MODS patients were of older age (72.8% vs 54.6%, P=0.001), more chronic comorbidities (68.0% vs 43.4%, P<0.001), and longer onset-to-admission interval (9.0 vs 7.0 d, P<0.001). In addition, patients with MODS had more expectoration (45.6% vs 29.9%, P=0.003) and shortness of breath (52.4% vs 19.4%, P<0.001), dysfunction of various systems, decreased cellular immunity and elevated IL-6 (9.6 vs 7.6 g/L, P=0.015) in laboratory tests, isolation of other pathogens (18.4% vs 5.6%, P<0.001), and infiltration of all five lobes (75.3% vs 57.6%, P=0.003). During hospitalization, patients with MODS needed a higher proportion of comprehensive treatment and reached a mortality rate of 66.0%. Independents risk factors for development of MODS in COVID-19 patients were: onset-to-admission interval>7 days (OR=2.17, 95%CI: 1.11-4.22, P=0.023), shortness of breath (OR=3.19, 95%CI: 1.60-6.37, P=0.001), lymphocyte count<1×109/L (OR=2.67, 95%CI: 1.31-5.46, P=0.007), blood urea nitrogen>7mol/L (OR=6.27, 95%CI: 2.80-14.08, P<0.001), procalcitonin>0.1 ng/mL (OR=2.48, 95%CI: 1.20-5.13, P=0.014), and C-reactive protein>10 mg/L (OR=3.92, 95%CI: 1.41-10.89, P=0.009). Conclusions: COVID-19 patients with MODS were of higher severity and mortality. Early identification of high-risk groups with MODS according to risk factors may be helpful for early treatment.
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COVID-19 , Insuficiencia Multiorgánica , Anciano , China/epidemiología , Humanos , Masculino , Insuficiencia Multiorgánica/epidemiología , Estudios Retrospectivos , Factores de Riesgo , SARS-CoV-2RESUMEN
This paper introduces a general question answering (QA) framework for Chinese domain knowledge graphs to serve various industries. The question is analyzed by shielding invalid characters in this framework, and the TransE calculation of entities and relations is used to search answer, rather than traditional logical queries that rely heavily on predefined rules. In this way, the QA framework can be easily applied to different fields with little manual participation, and reduce the migration cost caused by the lack of scalability of the existing QA systems, which are designed only for specific domains. Then, the proposed framework is operated on the space launch knowledge graph and has achieved HITS@1, HITS@3, HITS@5 scores of 60.60%, 80.87%, 85.61% separately, which is competitive with other restricted domain knowledge graphs. In addition, numerical results on the knowledge graph of the Three Kingdoms and the COVID-19-Character verified the scalability of the QA framework. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
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Objective: To establish a detection method for the methylene blue residues in inactivated plasma against SARS-CoV-2, and to apply the method to inactivated plasma of different dosages. Methods: Methylene blue in plasma was absorbed using solid phase extraction cartridge, and the absorbance at 654 nm was measured by UV-2550 spectrophotometer. The absorbance of the eluate extract from standard control plasma and virus inactivated plasma by solid phase was measured, and the methylene blue residue in the test plasma was calculated based on the ratio of the absorbance. Then, linearity-range, precision, accuracy and quantitative limit of the method are validated based on 11 batches of inactivated plasma in specifications of 50, 75 and 100 mL. Results: The detection method of methylene blue residue, was established within the linear range of 0.01~0.05 μmol•L-1. The verification standards are as follows: R value is 0.994 4;precision is 7% and accuracy is between 102%~110%;and the quantitative limit is 0.013 μmol•L-1;the quantitative detection CV is less than 5%, all of which are in conformity with requirements of Pharmacopoeia of PRC (Edition 2015). The levels of methylene blue residue in inactivated plasma of each specification were within the detection range of the developed method, and the residue levels were much lower than that in standard(≤0.30 μmol•L-1). Conclusion: The method can be successfully applied for the detection of methylene blue residues in the inactivated plasma against SARS-COV-2 of different specifications.
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In Wuhan, China, the first case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was reported on December 8, 2019. The patient's symptoms included fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. According to the sixth China version of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) diagnostic criteria, some patients with COVID-19 may present atypical symptoms and have negative nucleic acid tests (NATs), possibly leading to misdiagnosis and viral transmission. Our patient was a 29-year-old woman who complained of a three-day history of nasal obstruction, and no fever, coughing or breathing difficulties were noted. Physical examination revealed no obvious signs of pneumonia. On January 16, 2020, the patient flew from Wuhan to Germany for a business trip and returned to Shanghai on January 28, a passenger on her flight was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 later. Although two consecutive NATs performed at an interval of 24 h were negative, considering her direct contact with a SARS-CoV-2-infected individual, a 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scan showed a few scattered ground-glass nodules in the left lung, suggesting possible viral pneumonia. Given the clinical characteristics, epidemiological records, CT findings and a third positive NAT, our patient was diagnosed with COVID-19. The combination of history of epidemiology, clinical symptom, lung CT scan and routine blood test will improve the clinical diagnosis of asymptomatic COVID-19, but the early diagnosis of COVID-19 can be confirmed only by the repeated NATs.