The behavioral immune system and use of transportation services during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Effects of Mobile AR-based Biology Learning Experience on Students' Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and Attitudes in Online Learning

The purpose of this study is to enhance online biology learning with mobile augmented reality (AR) applications and to assess the impact of mobile AR applications on students' motivation, self-efficacy, and attitudes toward biology learning. Students were interviewed, and the usefulness of mobile AR applications was evaluated using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest approach. The study group consists of 71 high school students, 26 in the control group and 45 in the experimental group, attending a public high school in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey during the academic year 2020-2021. The self-efficacy ratings of the experimental group of students who participated in mobile AR-based biology learning were statistically higher than those of the control group after a 12-week trial. However, there were no statistically significant differences between experimental and control group students' motivation and attitudes toward biology learning. In addition, as a result of student interviews, mobile AR applications were deemed innovative, non-distracting, successful in knowledge acquisition, engaging, intriguing, and entertaining, boosting information retention, concretizing the subject, and facilitating learning.

COVID-19 pandemic impact on ocular trauma in a tertiary hospital

AIM

To analyze the impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the presentation and characteristics of patients hospitalized for ocular trauma in a tertiary hospital in China between 2019 and 2020.

METHODS

A retrospective case study was designed to collect information on all cases of ocular trauma in a tertiary hospital from 2019 to 2020 and compare differences in inpatients' data (age, sex, admission vision acuity, type of diagnosis, hospital stays, mechanism of injury and location of injury).

RESULTS

The total number of patients admitted to the Ophthalmology Department was 883 (mean 73.58±11.25 patients per month) in 2019 and 714 (59.50±17.92 patients per month) in 2020. The injury number of in work was also the most within the four types of location in this two year (42.36% in 2019, 43.84% in 2020). The mean hospital stays were 12.66d in 2019 and 10.81d in 2020. The highest incidence of ocular trauma was the middle-aged (41-65y) groups in 2019 and 2020. The most common cause of ocular trauma was sharp object in 2019 (47.34%) and 2020 (47.58%). The mechanical ocular trauma reaches 98.98% in 2019 and 99.72% in 2020.

CONCLUSION

The number of patients with ocular trauma decreased in 2020, but middle-aged (41-65y) are still high incident groups. Mechanical ocular trauma remains the leading cause of hospitalization for ocular trauma patients and the proportion of patients injured at home increases. It is necessary to arouse social attention and the public's awareness of eye trauma protection should be strengthened during the pandemic.