Possibilities of web-conferencing systems for disabled students

This paper deals with issues of web-conferencing systems accessibility and usability. These systems and applications are becoming increasingly popular in the educational process. Unfortunately, the majority of webconferencing systems are not designed for users with disabilities. The aim of this paper is to describe possibilities of web-conferencing system for teaching handicapped students and explain the benefits of using this solution for common education. The main part of testing the hypothesis and possibilities were carried out in the Adobe Acrobat Connect system which is commonly used in the educational process at CULS.Accessibility, web-conferencing system, education, assistive devices Anotace, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, GA, IN,

ICT helps to overcome disabilities

As a result of technological progress ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) has created the so-called „digital divide“. Some people are unable to individually respond to this progress, but the proper use of ICT can help them overcome this handicap. One of the possibilities is to create accessible and usable applications depending on the character and level of disability. In accordance with the European CertiAgri project, e-learning tools are used for integrating people with disabilities into the horticultural area. The paper specifically describes examples of simple teaching aids from the practical „green care“ course, which focus on the skills of people with mental disabilities.ICT, mental disability, educational materials, CertiAgri, accessibility, usability., Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, GA, IN,

Are temporal trends in retained foreign object rates after surgery in Switzerland impacted by increasing coding intensity? A retrospective analysis of hospital routine data from 2000 to 2019.

OBJECTIVES Retained foreign objects (RFOs) after surgery can cause harm to patients and negatively impact clinician and hospital reputation. RFO incidence based on administrative data is used as a metric of patient safety. However, it is unknown how differences in coding intensity across hospitals and years impact the number of reported RFO cases. The objective of this study is to investigate the temporal trend of RFO incidence at a national level and the impact of changes in coding practices across hospitals and years. DESIGN Retrospective study using administrative hospital data. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS 21 805 005 hospitalisations at 354 Swiss acute-care hospital sites PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: RFO incidence over time, the distribution of RFOs across hospitals and the impact of differences in coding intensity across the hospitals and years. RESULTS The annual RFO rate more than doubled between 2000 and 2019 (from 4.6 to 11.8 with a peak of 17.0 in 2014) and coincided with increasing coding intensity (mean number of diagnoses: 3.4, SD 2.0 in 2000; 7.40, SD 5.2 in 2019). After adjusting for patient characteristics, two regression models confirmed that coding intensity was a significant predictor of both whether RFO cases were reported at the hospital level (OR: 12.94; 95% CI: 7.38 to 22.68) and the number of reported cases throughout the period at the national level (Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR): 5.95; 95% CI: 1.11 to 31.82). CONCLUSIONS Our results raise concerns about the use of RFO incidence for comparing hospitals, countries and years. Utilising coding indices could be employed to mitigate the effects of coding intensity on RFO rates

Signal and noise of Diamond Pixel Detectors at High Radiation Fluences

CVD diamond is an attractive material option for LHC vertex detectors because of its strong radiation-hardness causal to its large band gap and strong lattice. In particular, pixel detectors operating close to the interaction point profit from tiny leakage currents and small pixel capacitances of diamond resulting in low noise figures when compared to silicon. On the other hand, the charge signal from traversing high energy particles is smaller in diamond than in silicon by a factor of about 2.2. Therefore, a quantitative determination of the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of diamond in comparison with silicon at fluences in excess of 10$^{15}$ n$_{eq}$ cm$^{-2}$, which are expected for the LHC upgrade, is important. Based on measurements of irradiated diamond sensors and the FE-I4 pixel readout chip design, we determine the signal and the noise of diamond pixel detectors irradiated with high particle fluences. To characterize the effect of the radiation damage on the materials and the signal decrease, the change of the mean free path $\lambda_{e/h}$ of the charge carriers is determined as a function of irradiation fluence. We make use of the FE-I4 pixel chip developed for ATLAS upgrades to realistically estimate the expected noise figures: the expected leakage current at a given fluence is taken from calibrated calculations and the pixel capacitance is measured using a purposely developed chip (PixCap). We compare the resulting S/N figures with those for planar silicon pixel detectors using published charge loss measurements and the same extrapolation methods as for diamond. It is shown that the expected S/N of a diamond pixel detector with pixel pitches typical for LHC, exceeds that of planar silicon pixels at fluences beyond 10$^{15}$ particles cm$^{-2}$, the exact value only depending on the maximum operation voltage assumed for irradiated silicon pixel detectors

Production and characterization of micro-size pores for ion track etching applications

For many years the applications of ion track etch materials have increased considerably, like charged particles detection, molecular identification with nanopores, ion track filters, magnetic studies with nanowires and so on. Over the materials generally used as track detector, the Poly-Allyl-Diglycol Carbonate (PADC), offers many advantages, like its nearly 100 % detection efficiency for charged particle, a high resistance to harsh environment, the lowest detection threshold, a high abrasion resistance and a low production costs. All of these properties have made it particularly attractive material, even if due to its brittleness, obtaining a thin film (less than 500 μm) is still a challenge. In this work, PADC foils have been exposed to a-particles emitted by a thin radioactive source of 241Am and to C ions from the Tandetron 4130 MC accelerator. The latent tracks generated in the polymer have been developed using a standard etching procedure in 6.25 NaOH solution. The dependence of the ion tracks' geometry on the ion beam energy and fluence has been evaluated combining the information obtained through a semiautomatic computer script that selects the etched ion tracks according to their diameter and mean grey value and nanometric resolution images by atomic force microscopy

Broad Efficacy of a Computationally Designed ACE2 Decoy Against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variants and Related Viruses In Vitro and In Vivo

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant (B.1.1.529) and its sublineages are currently the dominant variants in the United States accounting for 100% of COVID-19 cases. Problem: The S protein receptor-binding domain (RBD), located in the S1 subunit of the S protein, binds the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) leading to S1 shedding and proteolytic processing of S2 that is important for membrane fusion and release of viral RNA. Various neutralizing therapeutics including protein minibinders, peptides, monoclonal antibodies, and nanobodies have been developed to block the critical interaction between the RBD and hACE2. However, these therapeutics are often developed against the S protein of wildtype or a specific variant of SARSCoV- 2, making them highly susceptible to mutational escape.1 Solution: A strategy employed by our group includes using sACE2 (soluble dimeric ACE2 that contains both the protease and dimerization domains) with enhanced S RBD affinity to outcompete native ACE2 expressed on host cells, acting as a ‘decoy’ to block the interaction between the RBD and hACE2 (Figure 1). sACE2 has moderate affinity for the S protein (~20 nM)2. Therefore, sACE2 must be engineered (by introducing affinity enhancing mutations) to bind with tighter affinity to outcompete membrane bound ACE2-S interaction and rival the potency of mAbs. These sACE2 derivatives maintain close similarity to the native ACE2 receptor making them extremely resistant to virus escape. Any mutation in the RBD that limits binding to the sACE2 derivative will likely have reduced binding towards native ACE2 receptors potentially making the virus unfit to propagate.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/aoa_research_symposium_posters/1000/thumbnail.jp