Digital Commons Network^™

Rapid Transition Of A Technical Course From Face-To-Face To Online, Swapna Gottipatti, Venky Shankaraman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Just like most universities around the world, the senior management at Singapore Management University decided to move all courses to a virtual, online, synchronous mode, giving instructors a very short notice period—one week—to make this transition. In this paper, we describe the challenges, practical solutions adopted, and the lessons learnt in rapidly transitioning a face-to-face Master’s degree course in Text Analytics and Applications into a virtual, online, course format that could deliver a quality learning experience.

The New Skill On The Block: Using Social Media In The Law School Classroom To Facilitate Learning, Rosa Castello

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The emergence and rapid growth of technology has dramatically changed society, including the way we communicate and interact. People are gravitating toward shorter forms of written communication, like blogs and tweets. And it seems everyone interacts with others in some way on an online social media platform, exchanging ideas, connecting with friends and colleagues, and offering support.

As a Legal Writing professor, I wonder how this change in written communication will impact legal education and the profession and how I can better prepare my students for a professional environment that embraces these changes. Communication is an essential lawyering skill. …

The Effects Of Covid-19 On The Spaniards’ Reading Habit, Marta Magadan-Diaz, Jesús I. Rivas-García

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The general objective of this work is to analyze the reading habit of Spaniards during and after COVID-19 confinement in the same period of the following year. The specific goals are: first, study the purpose of reading; second, know the type of book form read; third, assess the time spent reading during and after confinement and fourth, identify the motivating factors of reading during the COVID-19 isolation. This research used the online survey method through the Microsoft Forms tool and applied a simple random sampling to 1,251 Spanish citizens of legal age and residents in the country with social networks …

Imaging Patterns Of Encephalopathy In Patients With Covid-19, Kumail Khandwala, Fatima Mubarak, Nadeem Ahmad

Department of Radiology

The aim of this retrospective observational study was to describe the neuroimaging manifestations of patients with COVID-19. This study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan from March to July 2020. COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms and positive neuroimaging were included after confirmation of COVID-19 by polymerase chain reaction test (PCR). In the 12 included patients, seizures and altered mentation were predominant neurological manifestations. Three cases had acute watershed infarcts (25%), two cases had posterior cerebral artery territorial infarcts (16.7%), two cases had periventricular corona radiata infarcts (16.7%), three cases had hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (25%), two cases had …

The Pandemic Of Covid 19 And Role Of Academic Libraries, Navneet Kaur Deol, Khushpreet Singh Brar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The present article highlights the role of libraries and the library staff to be played during the emergency circumstances of the community spread of the virus of the COVID-19 worldwide. The study proposes that the libraries cannot afford to close down their formal duties of providing information to the users. During the situation of lockdown, the libraries can provide the relevant information and knowledge sources to the information seekers including teachers, students and researchers through various online and web sources. The libraries should be in continuous coordination with the researchers conducting research in the field of the cure of the …

Nutritional Aspects Related To Covid-19: A Bibliometric Analysis Using Scopus Database, Arti Muley Dr, Srujana Medithi Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Nutrition therapy has lately gained attention as an effective way of combating the novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), especially to address the immunity in an individual and their overall health. The present study is a bibliometric assessment of research conducted to understand the role of nutrition in treating COVID-19 which was carried out since the pandemic's sudden outburst during 2020 and 2021 and published in the Scopus database. A total of 93 publications were found, and the results were studied by evaluating these documents. The present analysis identifies the active countries where the research was conducted, various types of documents wherein …

Active Learning Strategy For Covid-19 Annotated Dataset, Amril Nazir, Ricky Maulana Fajri

All Works

The efficient diagnosis of COVID-19 plays a key role in preventing its spread. Recently, many artificial intelligence techniques, such as the deep neural network approach, have been implemented to help efficient diagnosis of COVID-19. However, the accurate performance of deep learning depends on the tuning of many hyperparameters and a large amount of labeled data. This COVID-19 data bottleneck also leads to insufficient human resources for data labeling, which presents a challenging obstacle. In this paper, a novel discriminative batch-mode active learning (DS3) is proposed to allow faster and more effective COVID-19 data annotation. The framework specifically designed to suit …

The World Health Organization: A Weak Defender Against Pandemics, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

Why did the World Health Organization (WHO) not act in a timely fashion to declare the coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)? If it had done so, could the United States have heeded the warning and controlled the spread of the virus? Is the WHO's delay a factual cause of the calamities that the United States has suffered? This article addresses these questions. Part I examines the development of the WHO and its governance mechanism, major powers and limits, and past achievements and failures. It also explores how the WHO responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and …

Impact Of Covid-19 On The Us And Texas Economy: A General Equilibrium Approach, Lirong Liu, Steven S. Shwiff, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Maryfrances Miller

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on the US and Texas economy using a computable general equilibrium model, REMI PI+. We consider three scenarios based on economic forecasts from various sources, including the University of Michigan’s RSQE (Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics), IMF, and the Wi orld Bank. We report a GDP loss of $106 million (a 6% decline) with 1.2 million jobs lost (6.6%) in Texas in 2020. At the national level, GDP loss is $996 billion (a 5% decline) with 11.5 million jobs lost (5.5%) in the same year. By 2026, the aggregate total GDP loss in …

Inequalities In Girls’ Learning Opportunities Via Edtech: Addressing The Challenge Of Covid-19, Helen Crompton, Agnes Chigona, Katy Jordan, Christina Myers

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted school closures, which affected nearly 1.5 billion learners globally. Girls are likely to have experienced learning losses during the pandemic to a greater extent, as there are multiple barriers that influence gender disparities in accessing and benefiting from EdTech, including social inequalities or norms and technological constraints. Equity needs to be foregrounded when EdTech interventions are implemented, by considering disparities emerging from digital access, freedom, literacy, pedagogies, and design:

Digital access: Potential gender disparities in digital access, including at home, should be considered when EdTech interventions are designed.

Digital freedom: Social norms, as …

Edtech And Emergency Remote Learning: A Systematic Review, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke, Katy Jordan, Sam Wilson, Susan Nicolai, Christina Myers

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org

When We Breathe: Re-Envisioning Safety And Justice In A Post-Floyd Era, Aya Gruber

Publications

10th Annual David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice delivered on Wed., Oct. 21, 2020 at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Detect Schools Study Protocol: A Prospective Observational Cohort Surveillance Study Investigating The Impact Of Covid-19 In Western Australian Schools, Marianne J. Mullane, Hannah M. Thomas, Melanie Epstein, Joelie Mandzufas, Narelle Mullan, Alexandra Whelan, Karen Lombardi, Tina Barrow, Sherlynn Ang, Adele Leahy, Ewan Cameron, Leanne Lester, Matt Cooper, Paul Stevenson, Mitch Hartman, Anne Mckenzie, Francis Mitrou, Stephen R. Zubrick, Juli Coffin, Donna Cross, Asha C. Bowen, Peter Gething

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Introduction: Amidst the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is key to providing peace of mind for the community and informing policy-making decisions. While available data suggest that school-aged children are not significant spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the possibility of transmission in schools remains an ongoing concern, especially among an aging teaching workforce. Even in low-prevalence settings, communities must balance the potential risk of transmission with the need for students' ongoing education. Through the roll out of high-throughput school-based SARS-CoV-2 testing, enhanced follow-up for individuals exposed to COVID-19 and wellbeing surveys, this study investigates the dynamics …

A Novel Augmented Deep Transfer Learning For Classification Of Covid-19 And Other Thoracic Diseases From X-Rays, Fouzia Atlaf, Syed M. S. Islam, Naeem K. Janjua

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Deep learning has provided numerous breakthroughs in natural imaging tasks. However, its successful application to medical images is severely handicapped with the limited amount of annotated training data. Transfer learning is commonly adopted for the medical imaging tasks. However, a large covariant shift between the source domain of natural images and target domain of medical images results in poor transfer learning. Moreover, scarcity of annotated data for the medical imaging tasks causes further problems for effective transfer learning. To address these problems, we develop an augmented ensemble transfer learning technique that leads to significant performance gain over the conventional transfer …

Impact Of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Outbreak Quarantine, Isolation, And Lockdown Policies On Mental Health And Suicide, Balasankar Ganesan, Adel Al-Jumaily, Kenneth N. K. Fong, Palak Prasad, Surendra Kumar Meena, Raymond Kai-Yu Tong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has made a huge impact on people's physical and mental health, and it remains a cause of death for many all over the world. To prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, different types of public health measures (social isolation, quarantine, lockdowns, and curfews) have been imposed by governments. However, mental health experts warn that the prolonged lockdown, quarantine, or isolation will create a “second pandemic” with severe mental health issues and suicides. The quarantined or isolated people may suffer from various issues such as physical inactivity, mental health, economic and social problems. As with …

Covid-19 Disease Severity And Death In Relation To Vitamin D Status Among Sars-Cov-2-Positive Uae Residents, Habiba Alsafar, William B. Grant, Rafiq Hijazi, Maimunah Uddin, Nawal Alkaabi, Guan Tay, Bassam Mahboub, Fatme Al Anouti

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Insufficient blood levels of the neurohormone vitamin D are associated with increased risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality. Despite the global rollout of vaccinations and promising preliminary results, the focus remains on additional preventive measures to manage COVID-19. Results conflict on vitamin D’s plausible role in preventing and treating COVID-19. We examined the relation between vitamin D status and COVID-19 severity and mortality among the multiethnic population of the United Arab Emirates. Our observational study used data for 522 participants who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at one of the main hospitals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Only 464 of those …

Change In Mental Health, Physical Health, And Social Relationships During Highly Restrictive Lockdown In The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Australia, Shane Rogers, Travis Miles Cruickshank

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

A novel coronavirus first reported in Wuhan City in China in 2019 (COVID-19) developed into a global pandemic throughout 2020. Many countries around the world implemented strict social distancing policies to curb the spread of the virus. In this study we aimed to examine potential change in mental/physical health and social relationships during a highly restrictive COVID-19 lockdown period in Australia during April 2020.

Methods

Our survey (n = 1, 599) included questions about concerns, social behaviour, perceived change in relationship quality, social media use, frequency of exercise, physical health, and mental health during COVID-19 lockdown (April, 2020). …

Kynurenic Acid May Underlie Sex-Specific Immune Responses To Covid-19, Yuping Cai, Daniel J. Kim, Takehiro Takahashi, David I. Broadhurst, Hong Yan, Shuangge Ma, Nicholas J. W. Rattray, Arnau Casanovas-Massana, Benjamin Israelow, Jon Klein, Carolina Lucas, Tianyang Mao, Adam J. Moore, M. Catherine Muenker, Ji Eun Oh, Julio Silva, Patrick Wong, Albert I. Ko, Sajid A. Khan, Akiko Iwasaki, Caroline H. Johnson, Yale Impact Research Team

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has poorer clinical outcomes in males than in females, and immune responses underlie these sex-related differences. Because immune responses are, in part, regulated by metabolites, we examined the serum metabolomes of COVID-19 patients. In male patients, kynurenic acid (KA) and a high KA–to–kynurenine (K) ratio (KA:K) positively correlated with age and with inflammatory cytokines and chemokines and negatively correlated with T cell responses. Males that clinically deteriorated had a higher KA:K than those that stabilized. KA inhibits glutamate release, and glutamate abundance was lower in patients that clinically deteriorated and correlated with immune responses. Analysis of …

Association Between Community-Based Self-Reported Covid-19 Symptoms And Social Deprivation Explored Using Symptom Tracker Apps: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study In Northern Ireland, Jennifer M. Mckinley, David Cutting, Neil Anderson, Conor Graham, Brian Johnston, Ute Mueller, Peter M. Atkinson, Hugo Van Woerden, Declan T. Bradley, Frank Kee

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation. Design: Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design. Setting: In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or 'lockdown' in 2020. Participants: Users of …

Can Positive Mindsets Be Protective Against Stress And Isolation Experienced During The Covid-19 Pandemic? A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding Emotional Health And Wellbeing Needs Of Perinatal Women, Jacqueline A. Davis, Lisa Y. Gibson, Natasha L. Bear, Amy L. Finlay-Jones, Jeneva L. Ohan, Desiree T. Silva, Susan L. Prescott

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between emotional health and well-being and support needs of perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to understand their experiences and need for support. This is a potentially vulnerable group and a critical developmental phase for women and infants. A mixed methods design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data that provided a robust insight into their unique needs. A total of 174 women who were either pregnant or post-birth participated. The main findings demonstrated that women in this cohort experienced varying levels of stress and isolation but also …

International Business Education: What We Know And What We Have Yet To Develop, Anton Klarin, Boris Inkizhinov, Dashi Nazarov, Elena Gorenskaia

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

International business education (IBE) scholarship is extensive and is continuously growing. Nevertheless, to date there is no systems perspective overview of the literature dedicated to this topic. Using latest advancements in scientometric analysis, this study structures and visualizes the entire IBE scholarship, which allows to identify gaps in research and propose a number of future research directions. Data extracted from 894 peer-reviewed documents made available through the Scopus database allows to map the scholarship across five identified research directions in IBE – IB, political economy environment, and education; student learning and experience; the lingua franca and communication; interrelationship of IBE …

Extending Micro-Credentials To Micro-Apprenticeships For The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Enhancing Vocational Education And Training In The Post-Pandemic’S ‘New Normal’, Pi-Shen Seet, Janice Jones

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

As noted in the foreword of this Special Issue, COVID-19 has accelerated the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s or Industry 4.0’s disruption to the labour market (Sally, 2021). Beyond Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by enterprises, underscoring the need for workers to continuously upskill their digital competencies in order to remain relevant (Heinonen & Strandvik, 2021). Besides digitisation, organisations have had to innovate and adopt new business models to adapt to the ‘new normal’ of surviving and growing beyond the COVID-19 pandemic (Heinonen & Strandvik, 2021). In countries that largely relied on skilled migration …

Comparison Of Experiences In Two Birth Cohorts Comprising Young Families With Children Under Four Years During The Initial Covid-19 Lockdown In Australia And The Uk: A Qualitative Study, Lisa Y. Gibson, Bridget Lockyer, Josie Dickerson, Charlotte Endacott, Sally Bridges, Rosemary R. C. Mceachan, Kate E. Pickett, Sarah Whalan, Natasha L. Bear, Desiree T. Silva, Susan L. Prescott, Jacqueline A. Davis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study aims to understand the experience and impact of the initial COVID-19 lock-down in young families with children aged below 4 years. Free text questions were administered to participants in the ORIGINS (Australia) and Born in Bradford (UK) cohort studies to collect qualitative information on worries, concerns and enjoyable experiences during the pandemic. A total of 903 (400 for ORIGINS and 503 for BiB) participants completed the two surveys during April 2020. Despite varying in geography, levels of socio-economic disadvantage and their situational context during the pandemic, respondents from both cohorts reported similar worries and challenges during the lockdown …

Communications In The Time Of A Pandemic: The Readability Of Documents For Public Consumption, Catherine Ferguson, Margaret Merga, Stephen Winn

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 The Authors Objective: Government communications in a crisis can influence public health outcomes. This research aimed to investigate if written communications of the most commonly sought sources of COVID-19 information available on the internet have readability levels commensurate with those of the general public. Methods: Online documents from the World Health Organization (WHO), and the governments of Australia, the UK and the US were assessed for readability using an online instrument that calculated scores for the Flesch Reading Ease Score, the SMOG Index and the Readability Consensus Grade Level. Results: Similar to the previous research, most documents assessed …

Public Health Lessons From Crisis-Related Travel: The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jun Wen, Zhaohui Su

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

No abstract provided.

Protocol For Safe, Affordable, And Reproducible 1 Isolation And Quantitation 2 Of Sars-Cov-2 Rna From Wastewater, Monica Trujillo, Kristen Cheung, Anna Gao, Irene Hoxie, Sherin Kannoly, Nanami Kubota, Kaung Myat San, Davida S. Smyth, John J. Dennehy

Publications and Research

The following protocol describes our workflow for processing wastewater with the goal of detecting the genetic signal of SARS-CoV-2. The steps include pasteurization, virus concentration, RNA extraction, and quantification by RT-qPCR. We include auxiliary steps that provide new users with tools and strategies that will help troubleshoot key steps in the process. This protocol is one of the safest, cheapest, and most reproducible approaches for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. Furthermore, the RNA obtained using this protocol, minus the pasteurization step, can be sequenced both using a targeted approach sequencing specific regions or the whole genome. The protocol …

Are Covid-19 Vaccine Boosters Needed? The Science Behind Boosters, Rachel M. Burckhardt, John J. Dennehy, Leo L. M. Poon, Linda J. Saif, Lynn W. Enquist

Publications and Research

Waning vaccine-induced immunity coupled with the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to increases in breakthrough infections, prompting consideration for vaccine booster doses. Boosters have been reported to be safe and increase SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibody levels, but how these doses impact the trajectory of the global pandemic and herd immunity is unknown. Information on immunology, epidemiology and equitable vaccine distribution should be considered when deciding the timing and eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

Covid-19 Impact Research Brief: Virtual Exchanges At Community Colleges, Kimberley Cossey, Heidi Fischer

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected higher education worldwide. Two NAFSA member leaders, Kimberley Cossey, MA, (2021 registrar for Region VIII) and Heidi Fischer, PhD (2021 chair for Region VIII), have coauthored a research brief detailing how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted virtual exchange program development and delivery at community colleges in the United States. The research brief summarizes key takeaways from mixed-methods research (i.e., survey and interviews) with practitioners from U.S. community colleges, requesting information about:

The pandemic's impact on existing virtual exchange programs (VEPs), The impact on developing new VEPs, and New (virtual) models for international education. Key takeaways include …

The International Student Experience At U.S. Community Colleges At The Onset Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Melissa Whatley, Heidi Fischer

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This study’s purpose is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international students who were studying at U.S. community colleges at the onset of this public health crisis. While previous work has explored the impact of the pandemic on international students generally, we argue that community college international students deserve focused attention due to their potentially marginalized status on their campuses. Using a mixed methods research approach, we analyze survey and interview data provided by community college international educators. Our results speak to two overarching themes: the supports provided to students at the onset of the pandemic (and …

Mental Health Consequences Of Covid-19 Media Coverage: The Need For Effective Crisis Communication Practices, Zhaohui Su, Dean Mcdonnell, Jun Wen, Metin Kozak, Jaffar Abbas, Sabina Šegalo, Xiaoshan Li, Junaid Ahmad, Ali Cheshmehzangi, Yuyang Cai, Ling Yang, Yu Tao Xiang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021, The Author(s). During global pandemics, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), crisis communication is indispensable in dispelling fears, uncertainty, and unifying individuals worldwide in a collective fight against health threats. Inadequate crisis communication can bring dire personal and economic consequences. Mounting research shows that seemingly endless newsfeeds related to COVID-19 infection and death rates could considerably increase the risk of mental health problems. Unfortunately, media reports that include infodemics regarding the influence of COVID-19 on mental health may be a source of the adverse psychological effects on individuals. Owing partially to insufficient crisis communication practices, media and news …