Mixed Modality Research Articles

Dosimetric optimization for dynamic mixed beam arc therapy (DYMBARC).

Non-coplanarity and mixed beam modality could be combined to further enhance dosimetric treatment plan quality. We introduce dynamic mixed beam arc therapy (DYMBARC) as an innovative technique that combines non-coplanar photon and electron arcs, dynamic gantry and collimator rotations, and intensity modulation with photon multileaf collimator (MLC). However, finding favorable beam directions for DYMBARC is challenging due to the large solution space, machine component constraints, and optimization parameters, posing a highly non-convex optimization problem. To establish DYMBARC and solve the pathfinding challenge by employing direct aperture optimization (DAO) to determine the table angles and gantry angle ranges of photon and electron arcs for different clinically motivated cases. The method starts by generating a grid of beam directions based on user-defined resolutions along the gantry and table angle axes for each beam quality considered. Beam directions causing collisions or entering through the end of CT are excluded. For electrons, a fixed source-to-surface distance of 80cm is used to reduce in-air scatter. Electron beam energies with insufficient range to reach the target or beam directions impinging on the table before reaching the patient are excluded. The remaining beam directions form the pathfinding solution space. Promising photon and electron MLC-defined apertures, with associated monitor unit (MU) weights, are iteratively added using a hybrid-DAO algorithm. This algorithm combines column generation to add apertures and simulated annealing to further refine aperture shapes and weights. Apertures are added until the requested number of paths are formed and the user-defined maximum total gantry angle range is reached. Paths are resampled to a finer gantry angle resolution and subject to DAO for simultaneous optimization of beam intensities along the photon/electron arcs. Subsequent final dose calculation and MU weight reoptimization result in a deliverable DYMBARC plan. DYMBARC plans are created for three clinically motivated cases (brain, breast, and pelvis) and compared to DYMBARC variants: colli-DTRT (dynamic collimator trajectory radiotherapy) using non-coplanar photon arcs; and Arc-MBRT (mixed beam radiotherapy) using photons and electrons but restricted to coplanar setup. Additionally, a manually defined volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) setup serves as a reference clinical technique. Dose distributions, dose-volume histograms, and dosimetric endpoints are evaluated. Dosimetric validation with radiochromic film measurements (gamma evaluation, 3% / 2mm (global), 10% dose threshold) is performed on a TrueBeam system in developer mode for one case. While maintaining similar target coverage and homogeneity, DYMBARC reduced mean doses to organs-at-risk compared to VMAT by an average of 3.2, 0.5, and 2.9Gy for the brain, breast, and pelvis cases, respectively. Similar or smaller mean dose reductions were observed for Arc-MBRT or colli-DTRT, compared to VMAT. Electron contributions to the mean planning target volume dose ranged from 2% to 34% for DYMBARC and from 11% to 40% for Arc-MBRT. Measurement validation showed>99.7% gamma passing rate. DYMBARC was successfully established using a dosimetrically optimized pathfinding approach, combining non-coplanarity with mixed beam modality. DYMBARC facilitated the determination of photon and electron contributions on a case-by-case basis, enhancing more personalized treatment modalities.

Antibiotics Removal during Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy in Septic Shock Patients: Mixed Modality Versus "Expanded Haemodialysis".

Renal replacement therapy (RRT) plays a critical role in antimicrobial removal, particularly for low-molecular-weight drugs with low plasma protein binding, low distribution volume and hydrophilicity. Medium cut-off (MCO) membranes represent a new generation in dialysis technology, enhancing diffusive modality efficacy and increasing the cut-off from 30 to 45 kDa, crucial for middle molecule removal. This monocentric randomized crossover pilot study aimed to evaluate the impact of continuous haemodialysis with MCO membrane (MCO-CVVHD) on the removal of piperacillin, tazobactam and meropenem compared with continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration with standard high-flux membrane (HFM-CVVHDF). Twenty patients were randomized to undergo MCO-CVVHD followed by HFM-CVVHDF or vice versa. Extraction ratio (ER), effluent clearance (Cleff) and treatment efficiency were assessed at various intervals. Antibiotic nadir plasma levels were measured for both treatment days. HFM-CVVHDF showed greater ER compared with MCO-CVVHD for meropenem (β = - 8.90 (95% CI - 12.9 to - 4.87), p < 0.001) and tazobactam (β = - 8.29 (95% CI - 13.5 to - 3.08), p = 0.002) and Cleff for each antibiotic (meropenem β = - 10,206 (95% CI - 14,787 to - 5787), p = 0.001); tazobactam (β = - 4551 (95% CI - 7781 to - 1322), p = 0.012); piperacillin (β = - 3913 (95% CI - 6388 to - 1437), p = 0.002), even if the carryover effect influenced the Cleff for meropenem and tazobactam. No difference was observed in nadir plasma concentrations or efficiency for any antibiotic. Piperacillin (β = - 38.1 (95% CI - 47.9 to - 28.3), p < 0.001) and tazobactam (β = - 4.45 (95% CI - 6.17 to - 2.72), p < 0.001) showed lower nadir plasma concentrations the second day compared with the first day, regardless the filter type. MCO demonstrated comparable in vivo removal of piperacillin, tazobactam and meropenem to HFM.

Humanitarian health education and training state-of-the-art: a scoping review.

In the past decade, humanitarian emergencies have been increasing, leading to an higher demand for humanitarian health professionalization. Education and training are critical for preparing these workers to provide effective care during crises. Understanding the current state-of-the-art in humanitarian health education is essential to inform research and development of future educational programs. This review surveys the peer-reviewed literature to provide insights into the current thinking in the field. A review was conducted in March 2023 and updated in May 2024 using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Education Resources Information Center databases for English-language peer-reviewed articles published since January 2013. The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and presented as a narrative descriptive summary. After screening, 32 articles met the inclusion criteria. The themes of the selected articles focus on education and training frameworks, mapping, and programs. Despite the growing opportunities, most education and training programs are based in the Global North. The gaps identified include a lack of standardized curriculum or competency frameworks and evaluation frameworks to guide the development and evaluation of further standardized training programs. Interdisciplinary and collaborative partnerships, iterative design, and mixed teaching methods and modalities, including e-learning, facilitated successful training. However, logistical and technical constraints and the lack of standardized training frameworks were barriers to developing, implementing, and evaluating such training programs. This review provides an overview of the humanitarian health education trends over the last decade and identifies key areas for future educational development and research. The findings emphasize the importance of adapting interdisciplinary and collaborative partnerships and prioritizing the training of local staff through regional centers, local leadership, and accessible e-learning, including e-simulation. The review also highlights the need for continued research and evaluation of humanitarian health education and training programs with standardized metrics to evaluate training programs and identify areas for improvement. These steps will help ensure that humanitarian health professionals receive adequate training to provide effective healthcare in crisis situations.

Cardiac signals classification via optional multimodal multiscale receptive fields CNN-enhanced Transformer

The advancement in medical data collection technology has propelled an increase in demand for modeling cardiac physiological signals. However, current research primarily focuses on unimodal signals, leaving a gap in the study of more comprehensive multimodal signals. Directly applying late fusion specific to modalities or early fusion mixing modalities fails to adequately capture crossmodal information. This paper proposes an optional multimodal CNN-enhanced Transformer fusion network based on multiscale receptive fields. Introducing a switching modal experts for stage-wise representation, the first stage excavates modality-specific features and balances intermodal relationships, while the second stage captures crossmodal interaction information in a shared latent space, promoting deep modality fusion. Due to the flexibility of the switching modal experts, the model can be applied not only to multimodal data but also to unimodal data. Additionally, to address the performance disparity between Transformers and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), we combine the advantages of CNN to construct a CNN-enhanced Transformer. Specifically, improving patch embedding introduces multiscale receptive fields and integrates convolution and residual connections into the feed forward network (FFN) to assist the FFN in learning complex non-linear features and aggregating local features. Experimental results demonstrate that our model achieves outstanding performance in both unimodal and multimodal modes across different datasets, surpassing a range of CNNs, Transformers, and CNN-Transformer hybrid networks.

Left alone and behind: Experiences of living with incontinence in a Sudanese refugee camp and how WASH practitioners can support

ABSTRACT Being able to manage incontinence with dignity is intrinsically linked to access to appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services; yet it is overwhelmingly overlooked in humanitarian contexts and not consistently included in WASH interventions. A mixed-methods study (including market assessment) was conducted in two refugee camps in eastern Sudan in late 2022. Tigrayan refugees with incontinence faced extreme challenges to managing it, including no or limited access to necessary hygiene products (such as mattress protectors, toilet chairs, and soap), a lack of water for personal hygiene and washing, and long distances to communal sanitation facilities and distribution sites (or markets) where they often needed to queue or lacked privacy. Refugees with incontinence faced high levels of stigma, shame, and isolation. WASH practitioners need increased awareness of incontinence to carry out quality WASH assessments, to better understand and support people with incontinence. WASH interventions must include appropriate hygiene and non-food items (NFIs) to enable people to manage incontinence at home, and accessible toilets, water points and hygiene and washing facilities. A mixed modality of both in-kind and cash or voucher support can help to ensure hygiene and NFI items are accessible and meet the needs of people living with incontinence.

Effect of different inoculation strategies of mixed culture Saccharomyces cerevisiae/Oenococcus oeni on the aroma quality of Chardonnay wine

There has been growing interest in the use of mixed cultures comprised of Oenococcus oeni and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce wine with local style and typicality. This study has investigated the influence of the inoculation protocol of O. oeni on the fermentation kinetics and aromatic profile of Chardonnay wine. The one selected autochthonous O. oeni strain (ZX-1) inoculated at different stages of the alcoholic fermentation process successfully completed malolactic fermentation (MLF). Co-inoculum of S. cerevisiae and O. oeni enabled simultaneous alcoholic fermentation and MLF, leading to at least a 30 % reduction in the total fermentation time when compared to the sequential inoculation process, which was attributed to the lower ethanol stress. Meanwhile, co-inoculum stimulated the accumulation of volatile aroma compounds in Chardonnay wine. In particular, the mixed modality where the O. oeni strain ZX-1 was inoculated 48 h after S. cerevisiae allowed higher levels of terpenes, acetates, short-chain, and medium-chain fatty acid ethyl esters to be produced, which may result in the enhanced floral and fruity attributes of wine. Aroma reconstitution and omission models analysis revealed that the accumulation of linalool, geraniol, isoamyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate, and ethyl caprylate during the mixed fermentation process enhanced the stone fruit, tropical fruit, and citrus aromas in Chardonnay wine. Therefore, the simultaneous fermentation of S. cerevisiae and autochthonous O. oeni ZX-1 has a positive effect on MLF and contributes to producing wines with distinctive style.

Predicting CBT modality, treatment participation, and reliable improvements for individuals with anxiety and depression in a specialized mental health centre: a retrospective population-based cohort study

BackgroundCognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is one of the most successful therapeutic approaches for treating anxiety and depression. Clinical trials show that for some clients, internet-based CBT (eCBT) is as effective as other CBT delivery modes. However, the fidelity of these effects may be weakened in real-world settings where clients and providers have the freedom to choose a CBT delivery mode and switch treatments at any time. The purpose of this study is to measure the CBT attendance rate and identify client-level characteristics associated with delivery mode selection and having reliable and clinically significant improvement (RCSI) of treatment in each delivery mode in a real-world CBT outpatient program.MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort analysis of electronic medical records collected between May 1, 2019, and March 31, 2022, at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences. Regression models were used to investigate the impact of individual client characteristics on participation and achieving RCSI of different CBT delivery modes.ResultsOur data show a high attendance rate for two and more CBT sessions across all modalities (98% of electronic, 94% of group, 100% of individual, and 99% of mixed CBT). Individuals were more likely to enter mixed and group CBT modality if they were younger, reported being employed, and reported higher depression severity at the baseline. Among the four modalities of CBT delivery, group CBT clients were least likely to have RCSI. Of those who started sessions, clients were significantly more likely to experience RCSI on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7 if they were employed, reported more severe symptoms at baseline, and were living in the most deprived neighborhoods.ConclusionsThis study will contribute to the body of knowledge about the implementation and treatment planning of different CBT delivery modes in real-world settings. With the changing clinical environment, it is possible to advocate for the adoption of the eCBT intervention to improve therapy practices and achieve better treatment success. The findings can help guide future CBT program planning based on client socio-demographic characteristics, allowing the optimal therapy type to be targeted to the right client at the right time.

Personal identification using frontal sinus coding methods: The effect of mixed image modality comparisons.

Several code-based methods have been created for comparing the frontal sinus in skeletal identification scenarios. However, little is known regarding matched-pair accuracy rates of these methods or how varying image modalities may affect these rates. The goals of this study were to validate the exclusion rates and to establish matched-pair accuracy rates of two well-cited coding methods, Cameriere etal. [23] and Tatlisumak etal. [24]. Additionally, individual variables were assessed for consistency in scoring between image modalities. Using a sample of U.S. African American, Native American, and European American females and males (n = 225), we examined individual variable scoring and string codes between two different image modalities (radiographs and CT-based 3D models). Arcades showed poor scoring consistency between modalities (p < 0.001). Although exclusion rates were similar to those reported in the original studies (93%-96%), matched-pair accuracy rates were low (13%-18%). None of the demographics (collection, sex, age, ancestry, and orientation) had an effect on the odds of a match. Interobserver and intraobserver analyses showed moderate to near-perfect agreement for all variables except supraorbital cells, which had minimal to no agreement. Currently, we do not recommend the application of these frontal sinus coding methods independent of other supporting identification methods given low variable consistency and accuracy rates. Visual identification should still be used to include or exclude an identification when using the frontal sinus.

Educational experience in mixed modality in the modular system in Statistics

Educational experience in mixed modality in the modular system in Statistics

Simian Episteme, circa 1200

This article examines intersensory practices between seeing and hearing surrounding the medium of painting in middle-period China. Deviating from the better-known pictorial practice in which a mimetic image of a sound maker provides an entryway into a fictive soundscape, the central work discussed in this article depicts only a listener, and an unusual one at that: a seated monkey at the intersection of poetic, religious, and ecological boundaries. Attentive to the puzzling nonhuman form of the represented subject as an unlikely listener, it probes how the interplay between seeing and hearing gave rise to a complex sonic environment in pictorial medium. The unveiling of the mixed modality steers us toward an underrecognized role of painting in Chinese history as a material stimulus for multisensorial experiences, beyond the rhetoric of “soundless poetry” that has often stifled such dynamic potential of the medium.

Machine Learning Approaches to Identify Affected Brain Regions in Movement Disorders Using MRI Data: A Systematic Review and Diagnostic Meta-analysis.

Movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease are associated with structural and functional changes in specific brain regions. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques combined with machine learning (ML) are promising tools for identifying imaging biomarkers and patterns associated with these disorders. We aimed to systematically identify the brain regions most commonly affected in movement disorders using ML approaches applied to structural and functional MRI data. We searched the PubMed and Scopus databases using relevant keywords up to June 2023 for studies that used ML approaches to detect brain regions associated with movement disorders using MRI data. A systematic review and diagnostic meta-analysis. Sixty-seven studies with 6,285 patients were included. Studies utilizing 1.5T or 3T MR scanners and the acquisition of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), structural MRI (sMRI), functional MRI (fMRI), or a combination of these were included. The authors independently assessed the study quality using the CLAIM and QUADAS-2 criteria and extracted data on diagnostic accuracy measures. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the curve were pooled using random-effects models. Q statistics and the I2 index were used to evaluate heterogeneity, and Begg's funnel plot was used to identify publication bias. sMRI showed the highest sensitivity (93%) and mixed modalities had the highest specificity (90%) for detecting regional abnormalities. sMRI had a 94% sensitivity for identifying subcortical changes. The support vector machine (93%) and logistic regression (91%) models exhibited high diagnostic accuracies. The combination of advanced MR neuroimaging techniques and ML is a promising approach for identifying brain biomarkers and affected regions in movement disorders with subcortical structures frequently implicated. Structural MRI, in particular, showed strong performance. 1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

Contribution of peer-feedback to the development of teamwork skills

Peer-feedback is a widely-used strategy at the university level for its positive impact on student learning and its multifaceted advantages encompassing social, cognitive, and metacognitive development. However, few studies have assessed its contribution to the development of teamwork skills. This study analyzes students’ perception of how peer-feedback contributes to the development of teamwork skills by comparing the results of two class groups that have taken the same subject, though with different feedback experience designs (face-to-face and mixed feedback vs. non-face-to-face and written feedback, with or without consensus among group members). At the end of the study, 82 participants completed a questionnaire to assess their perception of the peer-feedback experience and its impact on learning and the development of teamwork skills. The findings reveal that students perceive that giving and receiving feedback in face-to-face mixed modality contributes more to developing teamwork skills; however, the presence or absence of consensus among group members to give or receive feedback does not appear to exert a clear impact on the development of these skills. Additionally, the findings suggest that students perceive a greater development of teamwork skills by giving feedback rather than receiving it. These results highlight the importance for teachers to consider such aspects when designing peer-feedback experiences, aiming to maximize the impact on the development of teamwork skills.

A meta-analytic review of the implementation characteristics in parenting interventions to promote early child development.

This review summarizes the implementation characteristics of parenting interventions to promote early child development (ECD) outcomes from birth to 3 years. We included 134 articles representing 123 parenting trials (PROSPERO record CRD42022285998). Studies were conducted across high-income (62%) and low-and-middle-income (38%) countries. The most frequently used interventions were Reach Up and Learn, Nurse Family Partnership, and Head Start. Half of the interventions were delivered as home visits. The other half used mixed settings and modalities (27%), clinic visits (12%), and community-based group sessions (11%). Due to the lack of data, we were only able to test the moderating role of a few implementation characteristics in intervention impacts on parenting and cognitive outcomes (by country income level) in the meta-analysis. None of the implementation characteristics moderated intervention impacts on cognitive or parenting outcomes in low- and middle-income or high-income countries. There is a significant need in the field of parenting interventions for ECD to consistently collect and report data on key implementation characteristics. These data are needed to advance our understanding of how parenting interventions are implemented and how implementation factors impact outcomes to help inform the scale-up of effective interventions to improve child development.

Mixed modality training (MMT) and resistance training: impact on changes in sleep, mood, fatigue and chronotype

Mixed modality training (MMT) and resistance training: impact on changes in sleep, mood, fatigue and chronotype

Enhancing prompt perception in dementia: a comparative study of mixed reality cue modalities.

Dementia impacts millions worldwide and is challenging individuals' ability to engage in daily activities. Active living is crucial in mitigating dementia's neurodegenerative effects, yet people with dementia often struggle to initiate and complete tasks independently. Technologies offer promising solutions to engage people with dementia in activities of active living and improving their quality of life through prompting and cueing. It is anticipated that developments in sensor and wearable technologies will result in mixed reality technology becoming more accessible in everyday homes, making them more deployable. The possibility of mixed reality technologies to be programmed for different applications, and to adapt them to different levels of impairments, behaviours and contexts, will make them more scalable. The study aimed to develop a better understanding of modalities of prompts that people with dementia perceive successfully and correctly in mixed reality environments. It investigated interactions of people with dementia with different types of visual (graphics, animation, etc.) and sound (human voice, tones, etc.) prompts in mixed reality technologies. We used the Research through Design (RtD) method in this study. This paper describes the findings from the user research carried out in the study. We conducted observation studies with twenty-two people with dementia playing games on off-the-shelf mixed reality technologies, including both Augmented Reality (HoloLens, ArKit on iPhone) and Augmented Virtuality (Xbox Kinect and Osmo) technologies. The interactions with the technologies during the gameplay were video recorded for thematic analysis in Noldus Observer XT (version 16.0) for successful and correct perception of prompts. A comparison of the probability estimates of correct perception of the prompts by people with dementia suggests that human voice, graphic symbols and text are the most prominently perceived modalities of prompts. Feedback prompts for every action performed by people with dementia on the technology are critical for successful perception and should always be provided in the design. The study has resulted in recommendations and guidelines for designers to design prompts for people with dementia in mixed-reality environments. The work lays the foundation for considering mixed reality technologies as assistive tools for people with dementia, fostering discussions on their accessibility and inclusive design in technology development.

Research on the Path of English Translation Teaching and External Communication Based on the Multimodal Analysis Method

Abstract With the development of the times and the continuous innovation of modern education technology, the multimodal theory is developing deeply in the field of education. The first step in this study is to use the optimization principle to select modes that meet the needs of English translation teaching and then develop a multimodal analysis framework for external communication that incorporates multimedia communication methods. Then, we constructed an emotion recognition model for English translation teaching by using speech recognition and expression recognition combined with convolutional neural networks for the students’ classroom situation and attitude and carried out the empirical analysis. The recognition accuracy of the emotion recognition system constructed in this paper is 86.4%. In the multimodal analysis of English translation teaching, the teacher who uses the linguistic modality type for the most number of times 387 times, and the teacher who uses the mixed modality for the most number of times 271 times, the students have the best classroom status. It has been stable at about 5 points, which is a “more positive” state. The students in the class had the highest level of motivation. Through the analysis, it is found that multimodal teaching can effectively improve the students’ status in class and keep their attention, which verifies the appropriateness of the external communication path combined with multimedia communication in multimodal English translation teaching. It provides a practical path for the development of English translation teaching.

Telephone cord blister formation in solvent swollen elastomer films.

Video imaging was used to study large-slope folded telephone cord blister formation in solvent swollen films of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers. Chlorobenzene, chloroform, heptane and toluene were used to swell PDMS films with thickness values in the range 15 μm < h < 223 μm supported on glass substrates. Measurements of the blister width, corrugation wavelength and blister growth speed were studied as a function of the film thickness for all four solvents. Modified theories of buckling were shown to accurately predict the film thickness dependence of the width and corrugation wavelength and a modified fracture mechanics approach was shown to reproduce the non-monotonic thickness dependence of the blister growth rates. Two critical thickness values were identified for telephone cord blisters formed on solvent swollen PDMS films-one corresponding to a lower critical thickness for blistering and the other corresponding to a peak in the thickness dependent blister growth rates. Blister formation is shown to be consistent with the existence of mixed modality in the growth of the crack tip at the film-substrate interface. Both critical thickness values are shown to depend upon the strength of the adhesive interactions between the film and the substrate and the Young's modulus of the films. A simple method of patterning surfaces with telephone cord blisters is also introduced.

Surviving and thriving: How changes in teaching modalities influenced student satisfaction before, during and after COVID-19

This paper leverages analytics methods to investigate the impact of changes in teaching modalities shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate students’ satisfaction within a Spanish brick-and-mortar higher education institution. Unlike research that has focused on faculty- or programme-level data, this study offers a comprehensive institutional perspective by analysing large-scale data (N = 83,532) gathered from satisfaction surveys across all undergraduate courses in eight faculties from 2018 to 2021. The longitudinal analysis revealed significant changes (p &lt; 0.05) in satisfaction indicators, particularly overall satisfaction and perceived workload. During the emergency remote teaching period, there was a significant decrease in satisfaction and high levels of variability across courses. However, a year after emergency remote teaching, with increased implementations of technology-supported online and mixed teaching modalities, satisfaction measures not only recovered but exceeded pre-COVID levels in the aforementioned indicators when the teaching modality was fully co-located. The variability of answers also reached historical lows, reflecting more uniform student experiences. These findings highlight the resilience of educators and the current higher education system and suggest a capacity to learn and improve from disruptive pedagogical changes. The study also provides insights into how data analytics can help monitor and inform the evolution of teaching practices. Implications for practice or policy Higher education institution administrators should improve the understanding of the effects derived from changes in their teaching and learning models, for example, in teaching modalities and related technology support. Student satisfaction data analytics offer useful indicators to study the impact of those effects. Higher education institutions should provide support for educators to ensure minimal deviations from expected averages of educational quality indicators regardless of the educators’ capacity to adapt to changes in the teaching models.

A tale of four studios: Evolving planning and architecture education towards mixed modality in a post-pandemic world

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic imposed urgent challenges for educational institutions. The sudden shift from on-site teaching to online distance learning offered the possibility to examine new settings of the studio, a core element of planning and architecture education. Although the pandemic is now over, online learning has secured a fixed place in university education, and consequently, educational institutions need to reconsider studio education based on the lessons learned during the pandemic. Through studying four studios taught at Aalto University, Finland, in 2020 and 2021, this article examines student-teacher experiences, and proposes opportunities for evolving studio education. The findings show that distance learning has in general sustained the objectives of studio education. However, challenges remain especially regarding the social aspects of learning. The degree of success of online teaching varied greatly depending on the tasks and the orientation of the studio (design or strategy). Technological aids and devices also had an influence on fulfilling the pedagogical objectives of learning. Professional socialization was highly affected by the online environment both in design and planning studios and the architectural representation witnessed difficulties specifically in design studios. To evolve the studio setting, the article suggests a mixed modality model supporting the social dimension of studio teaching by combining on-site and online learning activities to enrich the learning process. Such a model can harmonize the intended learning objectives and activities with the teaching methods and modality, thus improving the social dimension of studio teaching.

Niveles de Rendimiento y Satisfacción Laboral, en trabajadores en diferentes modalidades en una muestra Argentina

In the present investigation, the relationship between the levels of work performance and their respective dimensions with respect to job satisfaction is studied, comparing said levels in face-to-face, mixed and hybrid workers after returning to work in the context of the Covid-19 post-pandemic. An ad-hoc questionnaire, the Argentinian adaptation of the Koopmans Job Performance Scale and the Mac Donald and Mac Intyere Generic Job Satisfaction Scale were applied, and 500 Argentine workers were surveyed (M= 33.52, SD= 10.43). The results reflected a positive relationship between performance and job satisfaction and an inverse relationship between Satisfaction and counterproductive behaviors. On the other hand, it was found that satisfaction is lower in those who carry out their work in person with respect to the other modalities. Finally, it is concluded that satisfaction is a crucial indicator for companies and employers, which is, determinant on their performance. On the other hand, the mixed modality is the one that presents the highest levels of performance and satisfaction, as a consequence of the benefits that this modality offers the worker.