Project description:COVID-19 infection affects different organs of the human body, and blood cells are not an exception. Peripheral blood smear (PBS) is a simple and available method to investigate blood cells' morphologic changes. In this study, we aimed to determine the morphologic changes and abnormalities of COVID-19 patients and their relation to the patients' clinical course. In this prospective cross-sectional study, we included 89 PCR-positive COVID-19 patients. A pathologist examined the PBS findings of these patients. The patients' clinical course, including severity, outcome, intubation, and ICU admission, was extracted from their profiles. The statistical analyses were done to find out the relation between PBS findings and patients' clinical course. Results showed that smudge cells are the most frequent abnormality in our participants. Other findings were schistocyte; atypical lymphocytes; and increased large granular lymphocytes, shift to left of granulocytes, giant platelets, and leukoerythroblastic reaction. Our results did not show any statistically significant relationship between PBS findings and their clinical course. Although other studies suggested PBS as a possible predictive tool for COVID-19 disease, our study showed that these findings could not predict nor relate to the patients' clinical course.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12308-021-00459-3.
Project description:BackgroundClinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic is high risk for medical students. Medical schools in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have limited capacity to develop resources in the face of rapidly developing health emergencies. Here, a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was developed as a COVID-19 resource for medical students working in these settings, and its effectiveness was evaluated.MethodsThe RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of MOOC in teaching medical students about COVID-19. The data sources included the student registration forms, metrics quantifying their interactions within the modules, students' course feedback, and free-text responses. The data were collected from the Moodle learning management system and Google analytics from May 9 to September 15, 2020. The research team analyzed the quantitative data descriptively and the qualitative data thematically.ResultsAmong the 16,237 unique visitors who accessed the course, only 6031 medical students from 71 medical schools registered, and about 4993 (83% of registrants) completed the course, indicating high levels of satisfaction (M = 8.17, SD = 1.49) on a 10-point scale. The mean scores of each assessment modules were > 90%. The free-text responses from 987 unique students revealed a total of 17 themes (e.g., knowing the general information on COVID-19, process management of the pandemic in public health, online platform use, and instructional design) across the elements of the RE-AIM framework. Mainly, the students characterized the MOOC as well-organized and effective.ConclusionsMedical students learned about COVID-19 using a self-paced and unmonitored MOOC. MOOCs could play a vital role in the dissemination of accurate information to medical students in LMIC in future public health emergencies. The students were interested in using similar MOOCs in the future.
Project description:IntroductionThis paper aimed to assess purchasing and drinking behaviour during the first COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in New Zealand.MethodA convenience sample was collected via Facebook from 2173 New Zealanders 18+ years during pandemic restrictions April/May 2020. Measures included: the quantity typically consumed during a drinking occasion and heavier drinking (6+ drinks on a typical occasion) in the past week; place of purchase including online alcohol delivery. Descriptive statistics were generated, logistic and linear regression models predicted heavier drinking and typical occasion quantity, respectively. Weighting was not applied.ResultsDuring pandemic restrictions, around 75% of respondents purchased from supermarkets, 40% used online alcohol delivery services (18% for the first time during COVID-19). Purchasing online alcohol delivery during pandemic restrictions was associated with heavier drinking (75% higher odds) in the past week, while purchasing from supermarkets was not. About 58% of online purchasers under 25 reported no age checks. Sixteen percent of those purchasing online repeat ordered online to keep drinking after running out. Of respondents who had tried to buy alcohol and food online, 56% reported that alcohol was easier to get delivered than fresh food. Advertising for online alcohol delivery was seen by around 75% of the sample. Half of the sample reported drinking more alcohol during the restrictions.Discussion and conclusionsOnline alcohol delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions was associated with heavier drinking in the past week. The rapid expansion of online alcohol delivery coupled with a lack of regulatory control requires public health policy attention.
Project description:As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed in early 2020, social distancing rules and 'lockdowns' brought face-to-face teaching in universities in the UK, and globally, to a halt, leading to an abrupt move to online teaching and learning. This article details student feedback to a course on applied forensic medicine and pathology - framed as 'safeguarding vulnerable patients' - which was adapted for delivery online in response to restrictions imposed by the pandemic. That feedback indicated that the adapted online course was well-received and, overall, it compared favourably with pervious iterations of the blended learning course, which had included a substantial face-to-face teaching component. Students remained engaged with the teaching, and they continued to see the relevance of forensic medicine to their future clinical practice.
Project description:During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries implemented international travel restrictions that aimed to contain viral spread while still allowing necessary cross-border travel for social and economic reasons. The relative effectiveness of these approaches for controlling the pandemic has gone largely unstudied. Here we developed a flexible network meta-population model to compare the effectiveness of international travel policies, with a focus on evaluating the benefit of policy coordination. Because country-level epidemiological parameters are unknown, they need to be estimated from data; we accomplished this using approximate Bayesian computation, given the nature of our complex stochastic disease transmission model. Based on simulation and theoretical insights we find that, under our proposed policy, international airline travel may resume up to 58% of the pre-pandemic level with pandemic control comparable to that of a complete shutdown of all airline travel. Our results demonstrate that global coordination is necessary to allow for maximum travel with minimum effect on viral spread.
Project description:The 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) negatively affected global public health and socioeconomic development. Lockdowns and travel restrictions to contain COVID-19 resulted in reduced human activity and decreased anthropogenic emissions. However, the secondary effects of these restrictions on the biophysical environment are uncertain. Using remotely sensed big data, we investigated how lockdowns and traffic restrictions affected China's spring vegetation in 2020. Our analyses show that travel decreased by 58% in the first 18 days following implementation of the restrictions across China. Subsequently, atmospheric optical clarity increased and radiation levels on the vegetation canopy were augmented. Furthermore, the spring of 2020 arrived 8.4 days earlier and vegetation 17.45% greener compared to 2015-2019. Reduced human activity resulting from COVID-19 restrictions contributed to a brighter, earlier, and greener 2020 spring season in China. This study shows that short-term changes in human activity can have a relatively rapid ecological impact at the regional scale.
Project description:Online college courses can lack much-needed student interactions without live synchronous sessions. The need for socialization is particularly important for first-year students and has been of particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, when isolation is the new norm outside the classroom. Here we provide a perspective on the use of online synchronous sessions in a first-year biology course that encouraged student-student interactions and employed the culturally responsive teaching approach. We used group assignments, modeled on the jigsaw method, during our meetings and provided extra time outside of the dedicated class period to foster student collaboration, conversation, and social presence. We noted high attendance and participation in the synchronous sessions, suggesting effectiveness of the methods we used in student engagement and satisfaction.
Project description:BackgroundPapers on COVID-19 are being published at a high rate and concern many different topics. Innovative tools are needed to aid researchers to find patterns in this vast amount of literature to identify subsets of interest in an automated fashion.ObjectiveWe present a new online software resource with a friendly user interface that allows users to query and interact with visual representations of relationships between publications.MethodsWe publicly released an application called PLATIPUS (Publication Literature Analysis and Text Interaction Platform for User Studies) that allows researchers to interact with literature supplied by COVIDScholar via a visual analytics platform. This tool contains standard filtering capabilities based on authors, journals, high-level categories, and various research-specific details via natural language processing and dozens of customizable visualizations that dynamically update from a researcher's query.ResultsPLATIPUS is available online and currently links to over 100,000 publications and is still growing. This application has the potential to transform how COVID-19 researchers use public literature to enable their research.ConclusionsThe PLATIPUS application provides the end user with a variety of ways to search, filter, and visualize over 100,00 COVID-19 publications.
Project description:BackgroundWe aimed to evaluate how coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions had altered individual's drinking behaviours, including consumption, hangover experiences, and motivations to drink, and changing levels of depression and anxiety.MethodWe conducted an online cross-sectional self-report survey. Whole group analysis compared pre- versus post-COVID restrictions. A correlation coefficient matrix evaluated the associations between all outcome scores. Self-report data was compared with Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores from the 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Multiple linear modelling (MLM) was calculated to identify factors associated with increasing AUDIT scores and post-restriction AUDIT scores.ResultsIn total, 346 individuals completed the survey, of which 336 reported drinking and were therefore analysed. After COVID-19 restrictions 23.2% of respondents reported an increased AUDIT score, and 60.1% a decreased score. AUDIT score change was positively correlated with change in depression (P < 0.01, r = 0.15), anxiety (P < 0.01, r = 0.15) and drinking to cope scores (P < 0.0001, r = 0.35). MLM revealed that higher AUDIT scores were associated with age, mental illness, lack of a garden, self-employed or furloughed individuals, a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and smoking status.ConclusionsCOVID-19 restrictions decreased alcohol consumption for the majority of individuals in this study. However, a small proportion increased their consumption; this related to drinking to cope and increased depression and anxiety.