Thusyanthy Lavan, Brett Martin, Weng Marc Lim, Linda D. Hollebeek
This study examines the impact of social isolation on risk-taking behavior in highly uncertain environments with the potential for significant gains and losses. We uncover both direct and indirect effects of social isolation on risk-taking behavior, mediated through perceived stress, sense of control, and neuroticism. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a pertinent context to explore these dynamics, while the volatile cryptocurrency market serves as a topical context for investigation. The analysis based on covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) of survey responses from 216 consumers reveals that social isolation significantly increases risk-taking behavior, primarily mediated by heightened perceived stress. Contrary to expectations, sense of control and neuroticism did not mediate this relationship, indicating specific pathways through which isolation affects risk decision. This finding suggests that while social isolation intensifies perceived stress, yielding riskier purchase decisions, it does not universally impact other psychological aspects like resilience (sense of control) or vulnerability (neuroticism). The observed direct (main) and indirect (mediation) effects highlight the importance of targeted interventions to address psychological well-being, particularly at times of enforced isolation. Understanding these dynamics can help advisors (e.g., financial consultants), marketers, and policymakers (e.g., government agencies/lawmakers) formulate strategies to curb excessive risk-taking among isolated individuals, particularly in high-risk financial settings.
This paper seeks to address which business model in higher education that fosters SDG 4, is adequate for the post-pandemic period. To that end, it introduces the âBlockchain Business Model for Higher Educationâ (BBM-HE) and a transformed business model canvas framework based on existing literature, concepts, theories and findings relating to most of the pressing issues in higher education from the present study. To determine these issues, secondary data is used in the qualitative research design by applying inductive content analysis techniques to online reports. The originality of this study lies in the âadaptiveâ perspective to the requirements of the post-pandemic higher education landscape, which consists of modifications to the core elements of higher education, the integration of blockchain technology into the entire system, and a stronger approach to sustainability practice through sustainability tokens. The envisaged model sets out to provide a roadmap for all stakeholders, but most importantly, âdecentralizedâ higher education institutions of the future and the âemployable skills-seekingâ proactive students all over the world, as opposed to the former âsolely degree-focused and affluentâ consumers of educational offerings. This study contributes to higher education literature in terms of business models, blockchains, pandemics, and sustainability.
During the recent pandemic events and lockdown, most educational institutions have moved into online and distance learning. Certain institutions have been more ready than others to shift into full online learning and teaching mode. However, many technical and security challenges and issues related to the learning management system have been encountered. In this article, we investigate the technical benefits of blockchain, and we propose a secured and trusted online-leaning framework based on blockchain. Our proposal takes advantage of blockchain technology to ensure the expected standard of teaching and fairness of assessment while respecting the schedule of courses and exams. Through blockchainâs reward methods, it also motivates both students and teachers to persist in their efforts, even from home.
Because a fast vaccination rollout against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is critical to restore daily life and avoid virus mutations, it is tempting to have a relaxed vaccination-administration management system. However, a rigorous management system can support the enforcement of preventive measures, and in turn, reduce incidence and deaths. Here, we model a trustable and reliable management system based on blockchain for vaccine distribution by extending the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovery (SEIR) model. The model includes prevention measures such as mask-wearing, social distancing, vaccination rate, and vaccination efficiency. It also considers negative social behavior, such as violations of social distance and attempts of using illegitimate vaccination proofs. By evaluating the model, we show that the proposed system can reduce up to 2.5 million cases and half a million deaths in the most demanding scenarios.
By law, schools are required to protect the well-being of students against problems such as on-campus bullying and physical abuse. In the UK, a report by the Office for Education (OfE) showed 17% of young people had been bullied during 2017â2018. This problem continues to prevail with consequences including depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders. Additionally, recent evidence suggests this type of victimisation could intensify existing health complications. This study investigates the opportunities provided by Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) data towards next-generation safeguarding. A new model is developed based on blockchain technology to enable real-time intervention triggered by IoMT data that can be used to detect stressful events, e.g., when bullying takes place. The model utilises private permissioned blockchain to manage IoMT data to achieve quicker and better decision-making while revolutionising aspects related to compliance, double-entry, confidentiality, and privacy. The feasibility of the model and the interaction between the sensors and the blockchain was simulated. To facilitate a close approximation of an actual IoMT environment, we clustered and decomposed existing medical sensors to their attributes, including their function, for a variety of scenarios. Then, we demonstrated the performance and capabilities of the emulator under different loads of sensor-generated data. We argue to the suitability of this emulator for schools and medical centres to conduct feasibility studies to address sensor data with disruptive data processing and management technologies.
Laavanya Rachakonda, Anand K. Bapatla, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos
Considering today's lifestyle, people just sleep forgetting the benefits sleep provides to the human body. Smart-Yoga Pillow (SaYoPillow) is proposed to help in understanding the relationship between stress and sleep and to fully materialize the idea of âSmart-Sleepingâ by proposing an edge device. An edge processor with a model analyzing the physiological changes that occur during sleep along with the sleeping habits is proposed. Based on these changes during sleep, stress prediction for the following day is proposed. The secure transfer of the analyzed stress data along with the average physiological changes to the IoT cloud for storage is implemented. A secure transfer of any data from the cloud to any third party applications is also proposed. A user interface is provided allowing the user to control the data accessibility and visibility. SaYoPillow is novel, with security features as well as consideration of sleeping habits for stress reduction, with an accuracy of up to 96%.
In late 2019 the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China, causing severe respiratory illness with persistent person-to-person transmission.1â3 The first diagnosed case in the United States was reported in late January, sparking an initial US public health response that included restricted travel, traveler screening, and required quarantine.1 Because of the growing number of cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency on January 30, 2020; on March 11, 2020, the WHO issued a pandemic declaration.4,5 With the disease showing a high transmission rate, atypical symptoms, high rates of mortality, and documented transmission from patient to health care worker, fear grew as countries hurried to prepare.3When a previously unknown pathogen causes an epidemic rate of infection, the success of national health systems relies on reserves of health care supplies and their appropriate allocation.4 Effective distribution, training, and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is key to preventing spread between patients and health care workers.4 In the setting of COVID-19, PPE that was once taken for granted as a disposable commodity quickly became a treasured resource to maintain the personal health and safety of health care workers.4Patients who contract COVID-19 experience a wide spectrum of symptom severity that requires care ranging from at-home symptom management to inpatient intensive care.6 The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a need to increase hospital intensive care capacity rapidly in order to be able to provide adequate care for the patients presenting with this disease.2 Although SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is primarily transmitted via droplets, aerosol-generating procedures can cause the virus to remain in the air for up to 3 hours and be infective through simple inhalation.7,8 Aerosol-generating procedures performed on patients positive for COVID-19 present an elevated infection risk for health care workers.5,8 Most studies suggest that aerosol-generating procedures include preintubation ventilation, intubation, tracheostomy, open-airway suctioning, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and noninvasive ventilation.8In order to provide the complex care required by critically ill patients infected with the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2, frontline clinicians have had to implement practice changes to address patient care needs while simultaneously conserving PPE and reducing personal exposure risk. One of the resultant practice changes was to move medical devices, most commonly intravenous (IV) infusion pumps, away from the bedside and into the anterooms or hallways outside of patient rooms. This article aims to provide nurses with the information needed to support clinical decision-making during IV infusion therapy when IV infusion devices are located away from the patient bedside.Adversity drives people to change habits, adjust protocols, and innovate. In the case of COVID-19, the scarcity of PPE pushed health care workers to conserve and make do with what was available. As a result, health care workers were quickly required to balance unimaginable clinical demands for the sickest patients while also preserving personal safety.In intensive care units (ICUs), where the most-critical patients go for care, aerosol-generating procedures are required frequently and, in some cases, continuously. To mitigate the risk of exposure and effectively manage the use and conservation of PPE, the doors to patient rooms must be kept closed, and nurses and other clinicians must limit contact frequency and time in COVID-19 isolation rooms. With the doors closed and PPE required to enter, nurses are unable to enter into patient rooms quickly or easily to manage the multiple lines and infusions required to care for critically ill patients. For very sick patients, even a brief pause in a life-sustaining infusion from an occlusion, air in the line, or the completion of a medication bag can have dire consequences. Because infusion pumps cannot be controlled without direct device interaction, the use of longer-than-usual extension tubing allows for placement and operation of the pumps outside of patient rooms. This practice has been rapidly adopted for care of critically ill patients with COVID-19 and is permitted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the duration of this public health emergency under Emergency Use Authorization.9 One goal of this FDA policy is to âhelp foster technologies that maintain a safer physical distance between the health care provider and patient affected by COVID-19.â9 A modification that the FDA determines would not create undue risk is âremote monitoring and/or manual control of infusion pumps to manage the care of a patient without physically entering a patientâs room.â9The complex care of critically ill patients often requires the simultaneous administration of multiple IV medications using large-volume IV smart pumps (IVSPs). Under normal circumstances, most IVSPs are located at the bedside only a few feet from the patient, where the nurse can see the patient and the pump when administering and adjusting medications. Frequent nursing intervention is necessary to manage concurrent IV medication administration, including infusion titrations, bolus/loading of medication doses, and intermittent medication dosing. Nursing intervention is also necessary to ensure that the correct volume of each individual infusion is completely delivered through the lengthy extension tubing. Managing IVSPs outside the rooms of patients with COVID-19 may also entail infusing multiple compatible medications together to reduce the use of extension tubing and the potential need to attend to frequent nuisance alarms or other tasks necessary to ensure continuous flow. Even when IVSPs are located at the bedside, IV infusion is associated with high rates of adverse drug events and medication errors, many of which can be life threatening.10 Remote IV infusion also makes it more difficult to verify patient identity during dual nurse medication checks. Operation of the IVSP in these circumstances is intricate, requires high levels of cognitive attention, and can be error prone.10,11 Nurses must recognize the potential for error associated with IV infusion under normal circumstances and keep in mind the added risk when moving the IVSPs farther from the patient, especially when both cannot be seen concurrently.Moving IVSPs outside of patient rooms requires modifications to allow the IV tubing to reach the patient; the Figure includes images of real-world use and modifications. Various methods for increasing the length of IV tubing are now being used so patients can continue to receive their medications even while the IVSPs are placed outside the room at distances of 15 feet or more. Placing the pumps outside the rooms improves nursing workflow when managing patients with COVID-19 in isolation, allows for easier interaction with the IVSP, and helps reduce risk of exposure for the nurses. Although this practice can be effective in helping to manage competing patient care demands, it is important for nurses to understand the safety implications in order to ensure that medications are still being delivered as expected.BD Alaris, Baxter Sigma, B. Braun Space Series, and ICU Medical Plum Series are the 4 most commonly used IVSPs in US acute care. The BD Alaris, Baxter Sigma, and B. Braun IVSPs use peristaltic pump technology to infuse fluid, whereas the ICU Medical Plum Series pumps use cassette-based volumetric technology. The Ivenix IVSP, which is not yet in clinical use but has recently received FDA approval, also uses cassette-based volumetric technology. A peristaltic pump uses rollers to propel fluid forward by pinching down on the length of tubing.12,13 Cassette-based pumps contain a flow regulator and a set of valves to administer fluids properly.13,14 Refer to the Table for additional definitions and technology features.With peristaltic IVSPs, flow rate accuracy of the pumping segment is impacted by variations in system resistance in the form of intake and outlet pressures.14 When intake pressure decreases and/or outlet pressure increases during IV medication administration, decreases in both flow rate and flow rate accuracy will occur.14 Most troubling is that the IVSP will continue to display the intended flow rate, making these errors extremely difficult to detect. When volumetric delivery is provided by cassette-based systems (eg, ICU Medical Plum Series or Ivenix IVSPs) the IV infusion is delivered at the programmed rate regardless of system resistance.14In addition to changes in system resistance, increasing the tubing length between the IVSP and patient presents additional challenges that must be considered. There is a significant increase in tubing dead volume, increased priming requirements, and elevated risk for air in line and medication adhering to the tubing because of increased tubing surface area. All of these factors can lead to portions of medication doses being left nonadministered or underinfused, which presents various safety concerns for the patient. Overinfusion may also be a concern in the setting of large amounts of medication left in the dead volume and then subsequently flushed into the patient at a higher-than-intended flow rate. A discussion of clinical implications, ways to mitigate effects, and dosing considerations is provided in the Table.New practice norms will no doubt continue to develop to address the complex care requirements for patients with COVID-19. The remote use of IVSPs addresses many salient clinical and workflow issues. As the primary users of IVSPs, nurses must be aware of the impact of this practice on the accuracy of IV medication administration and the increased potential for error. The most important aspects of IV medication administration should be patient safety, delivery of medication dosing as intended, and achievement of the desired therapeutic effect and/or measurable patient outcome. Improved understanding of the impact of remote IVSP system set-up can help the health care team make more informed decisions for individual patients and situations. With education and continued vigilance regarding the implications these changes can have, nurses can take steps to decrease risk of flow inaccuracy and other complications to support the safest and most accurate remote IVSP medication administration practices.The authors wish to thank Michelle Mandrack, MSN, RN, Director of Consulting Services for the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, for her generosity and expertise in providing a review of this brief report. Also thanks to to Robert Butterfield of RDB Consulting for his ongoing willingness to share his expertise.
Dinh C. Nguyen, Ming Ding, Pubudu N. Pathirana, Aruna Seneviratne
The beginning of 2020 has seen the emergence of coronavirus outbreak caused by a novel virus called SARS-CoV-2. The sudden explosion and uncontrolled worldwide spread of COVID-19 show the limitations of existing healthcare systems to timely handle public health emergencies. In such contexts, innovative technologies such as blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have emerged as promising solutions for fighting coronavirus epidemic. On the one hand, blockchain can combat pandemics by enabling early detection of outbreaks, protecting user privacy, and ensuring reliable medical supply chain during the outbreak tracking. On the other hand, AI provides intelligent solutions for identifying symptoms caused by coronavirus for treatments and supporting drug manufacturing. Motivated by these, in this paper we present an extensive survey on the use of blockchain and AI for combating coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemics based on the rapidly emerging literature. First, we introduce a new conceptual architecture which integrates blockchain and AI specific for COVID-19 fighting. Particularly, we highlight the key solutions that blockchain and AI can provide to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. Then, we survey the latest research efforts on the use of blockchain and AI for COVID-19 fighting in a wide range of applications. The newly emerging projects and use cases enabled by these technologies to deal with coronavirus pandemic are also presented. Finally, we point out challenges and future directions that motivate more research efforts to deal with future coronavirus-like epidemics.
Open access
5 source records
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
COVID-19 diagnosis using AI
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education