Exploration of High School Science Teachers' Perceptions on Instruction and Assessment of Science II Elective Courses in the 2015 Revised Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to examine the status of the field application of the Science II career electives with the application of the 2015 revised curriculum up to the 3rd year of high school. This study focused on examining high school science teachers' perceptions of the student-participatory class and process-centered assessment in Science II subjects, which are career-intensive high school science electives. A total of 192 science teachers responded to the survey questionnaire, and 12 teachers participated in interviews. In the in-depth interviews conducted to supplement the survey results, questions were asked about changes in the overall class, the status of student-participatory classes, and changes in the assessment of Science II subjects due to the emphasis on process-centered assessment. The main research results included teachers'perceptions of changes in teaching and assessment methods with the application of the revised curriculum, the degree to which the eight skills used in Science II classes develop the key competencies of science, and the teaching and assessment methods commonly used in Science II classes. Science teachers generally agreed with the purpose and necessity of introducing student-participatory classes and process-centered assessment, which are the core purpose of the 2015 revised curriculum. However, they had difficulties in practice due to the excessive content of Science II subjects. Problems were also encountered with securing objectivity and fairness during assessments and the operation of online science classes due to COVID-19.

Treatment experience of regdanvimab for mild to moderate COVID-19 hospitalized patients in the Delta variant-predominant period in Korea

Background. Regdanvimab is the only monoclonal antibody available in Korea that targets the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2. Although the efficacy of regdanvimab against the original and beta variant viruses was demonstrated, it remains uncertain whether it has therapeutic effect on delta variant in the real world. Methods. We retrospectively evaluated the characteristics and clinical outcome of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and treated with regdanvimab in two university-affiliated hospitals between September and December 2021, during the delta variant-predominant period in Korea. Results. A total of 374 mild to moderate COVID-19 patients treated with regdanvimab were included in this study. The median age was 65 (interquartile range, IQR 17-92) and 178 (47.6%) patients were male. A total of 322 (86.1%) patients had median 2 (IQR 1-3) risk factors for disease progression. The most common underlying disease was cardiovascular disease (198, 52.9%), followed by diabetes mellitus (95, 25.4%), cancer (40, 10.7%), chronic lung disease (34, 9.1%), immunosuppression (1 7, 4.5%), and chronic kidney disease (12, 3.2%). There were 43 (11.5%) patients with a body mass index >= 30. The median time to regdanvimab treatment from symptom onset was 4 (IQR 2-6) days. 226 (60.4%) patients were fully vaccinated, and 109 (29.1%) were not vaccinated at all. 185 (49.5%) patients had pneumonia. Most (342/374, 91.4%) patients improved without any other treatment for COVID-19 and were discharged. Only 32 (8.6%) patients required other therapeutic agents such as remdesivir, corticosteroids or oxygen therapy after regdanvimab administration. The time from regdanvimab infusion to addition of other therapeutic agents was median 5 days (IQR 3-6.5). When comparing the characteristics of 32 patients who needed other treatment with those who improved only with regdanvimab treatment, there was a significant difference in the presence of pneumonia (27/32, 84.4% vs. 158/ 342, 46.2%, P< 0.001) and there was no significant difference in vaccination status (15/ 32, 46.9% vs. 211/342 61.7% P=0.101). (Figure Presented) Conclusion. This study shows the potential clinical benefits of regdanvimab in mild to moderate COVID-19 patients in the real world during the delta variant predominant period in Korea.

Building IoT-based Zero-Contact Experimental Environment for Studying Picture Preference under Various Illumination Conditions

We propose a zero contact experiment environment like a living room at home using 'Internet of Things'-based light devices, display and smart-phone or tablet. For our experimental environment, we constructed a large room that has specific lighting systems on the ceiling. For providing a general look-and-feel of living room condition, we also prepared the room with neutral-colored wallpaper and placed the display in the room. Subjects and Experimenters can tap on buttons on the smart-phones or tablets for adjusting the illumination conditions and picture options of the display. Under various illumination conditions, subjects are asked to choose the best preferred picture mode set while watching ten kinds of test images. All these series of our experiments are conducted under no-contact experimental environment thanks to the wireless applications loaded onto the smart-phone, tablet and display. These applications: (i) collect the data;(ii) automatically build a dataset;(iii) analyze the data by using machine learning techniques. By employing our system, large datasets that contain participants' preferences for the given display under various illumination conditions are collected safely and easily without risking COVID-19 spread. As a result, after finishing our experiment, most participants, specifically color scientists, praised our zero-contact experimental solution which can be used for other perceptual experimental processes by providing an easy way to build and analyze databases. © 2021 IEEE.

The practical impacts of exercise-intervention on COVID-19 pandemic

PURPOSE: Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) was first reported in China at the end of 2019. COVID-19 infected people increased and spreads COVID-19 rapidly across the globe. Finally, this outbreak turn into a pandemic and yields national crisis and finally to endemic. Most individual are exposed to stressful situation because of unknown duration of COVID-19. Most of all, smoking, obesity, metabolic syndromes, lowered immunity such as decreased natural killer (NK) cell, T cell activity were significantly correlated with the COVID- 19 incidence. However, all this variables were concerned with exercise habit and exercise-intervention, therefore, the present study aimed to assess the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and physical activity status. METHODS: PubMed database was searched from December 2019 to August 2020 using predefined search terms “COVID-19”, “exercise”, and “immunity”.Based on reference search, more than 65 articles were identified whereas 50 papers (36 references) met the inclusion criteria and were well connected with COVID-19 and physical exercise with immunity.We analyzed the connections between exercise and COVID-19 with many variables, and dealtabout COVID-19 prevention and exercise-intervention programs in the main text. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: Smoking, obesity, metabolic syndromes, reduced respiratory muscle mass, lowered immunity such as decreased natural killer cell and T cell activity were significantly correlated with the COVID-19 infection.However, all this variables were also concerned with exercise habit and exercise-intervention.Regular physical activity have shown to be an effective prescription for obesity, many metabolic syndromes and good immunity. However, physical inactivity and chronic metabolic syndromes were associated with reduced immunity such as reduced NK cell activity, uncontrolled T cell immunity, decreased respiratory immunity and even URTIs (upper respiratory track infection) for elite athletes. Multicomponent exercise program is considered especially for the elderly people, 5 days per week, 40-60% HRR (heart rate reserve) intensity, and 150-300 minutes aerobic and resistance training (200-400 minutes/week under the quarantine period) were recommended. Moreover, all form of psychological support also to increase immunity against COVID-19.More mechanism studies are urgently needed to determine which mode and which duration exercises are best most suited, and effective for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. © 2020 Korean Society of Exercise Physiology.