Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

ICT readiness in teaching and learning as perceived by technical and vocational education teachers in Malaysia

The purpose of this study was to determine the information and communication technology (ICT) readiness and the use of ICT in teaching by technical and vocational teachers in Malaysia. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher and administered to 329 technical and vocational teachers who were teaching engineering subjects in Malaysian technical and vocational schools. Descriptive and inferential statistic analyses were used to analyze the data such as t-test, ANOVA, MANOVA, Chi-Square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA). The findings of this study indicated that the majority of the teachers in terms of their readiness had moderate level about ICT knowledge, moderate skillful level about ICT skills, and possessed positive attitudes towards ICT use in teaching. The findings indicated that there were no statistically significant differences of gender, type of training, administrative support and ICT availability with ICT knowledge level. However, there were statistically significant differences of age, years of teaching experience, and level of qualification with ICT knowledge level. While the findings also indicated that there were statistically significant differences of gender, age, years of teaching experience, and type of training with ICT skills level. In addition to that, there were no statistically significant differences on the level of qualification, administrative support, and ICT availability with ICT skills level. Moreover, there was no significant difference between both gender and administrative support with teachers’ attitudes. While, there were no significant differences between attitudes and teachers’ age, years of teaching experience, level of qualification, type of training and ICT availability. The results of MANOVA indicated that there was significant relationship between demographic characteristics by gender only with teachers’ overall readiness (ICT knowledge, ICT skills, and attitudes). However, there were no significant relationship between teachers’ education background and overall support with teachers’ overall readiness. For level of using ICT in teaching among the teachers, the majority of teachers indicated to be using ICT very frequently with heavy users’ level. Moreover, only one variable, that is, level of qualification appeared to have some influence on the teachers’ ICT use in teaching. Only those with a bachelor degree tend to use ICT more frequently than the others. The results of correlations measured were significantly positive between ICT use and ICT skills as well as ICT use and attitudes. The correlation also was positive between ICT skills and attitudes. The results of Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) found that the variables ICT skills and attitudes were the best predictors among other variables in ICT use

RGO-Based Memristive Sensor for Rapid Hydrogen Detection at Room-Temperature

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in investigating the potential of emerging memristor (MR) devices for gas sensing applications, particularly at room temperature. This article reports on a planar Au/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Au memristive hydrogen sensor, fabricated on a cost-effective cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) substrate, and utilizing the rGO green carbon material as its active sensing element. The sensor's performance is evaluated using two different testing modes: conventional chemiresistive testing under a constant voltage bias (CVB) and voltage pulse (VP) modes. The CVB mode demonstrates high repeatability, selectivity, response time, and recovery time, indicating the sensor's reliable gas sensing capabilities. In addition, the VP mode significantly enhances the sensor's relative percentage response, indicating its potential for improved gas sensing performance. To optimize the sensor's response, the impact of hydrogen exposure on the MR resistive switching is studied, revealing that the effect is contingent on the VP amplitude. Specifically, gas-enhanced resistive switching is achieved at lower voltage levels, whereas at higher voltage levels, gas exposure slows down the rate of resistive switching. Consequently, voltage-pulse testing is conducted at two voltage magnitudes, low (2.5 V) and high (4.5 V), and the sensor's response is enhanced from 0.5% under CVB mode to 786% under VP mode.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Computer Engineerin