Unusual Situations Research Articles

Application of Modern Development Tools in Increasing the Competence of the Staff

The article substantiates the main components of improving staff competencies in the face of change. It is determined that taking into account and combining "hard skills" and "soft skills" skills allow you to use the acquired knowledge to perform specific tasks in the workplace in a particular professional activity. Modern and traditional models, techniques and tools of personnel management are presented, according to which it is possible to clearly assess the difference in approaches to managing the competence of employees in the conditions of change. Based on the analysis of world practice, a list of methods is presented: discussions, brainstorming, Oxford debates, Case - Study, business and role - playing games, workshops, communication and management training, which are used to develop skills and abilities of employees. These methods allow expanding the educational opportunities of established forms of classes (lectures, seminars). The relationship between the acquisition of new and improvement of existing staff development competencies on the basis of training and coaching is shown. The proposed methods of acquiring competencies allow you to choose those competencies and methods of acquiring them that correspond to the individual characteristics of organizations. It is proved that the acquisition of competencies by staff allows identifying new competencies in employees, to form the need to use modern analytical and behavioral skills, providing greater opportunities for management skills and flexibility, dialectical thinking, ability to make creative decisions in unusual situations. It is substantiated that the combination of the SMART method in the acquisition of competencies significantly expands the possibilities of short-term learning, through the application of the concept of "lifelong learning". Different definitions of the essence of "competence" are analyzed, which allows emphasizing that when choosing different forms of education, in particular, trainings, different types of training it is necessary to use / apply modern methods and techniques. It has been proven that incompetent non-use by a staff of their knowledge, skills, experience and skills often leads to reduced profits and inefficient use of their potential.

Teaching Fieldwork Experience: Experiment, Embodiment, Emotions

The emotional and sensual dimension of fieldwork, as well as the positionality of the researcher are often debated and considered crucial in anthropology. We assume that “good ethnography” includes sensory and bodily fieldwork experience. But how do we address these issues in teaching? How can we teach students to notice, analyse and make sense of their bodily experiences? How do we encourage the awareness of positionality? What practical steps can we take in designing suitable learning experiences that address these points? In this paper, we share our experience of teaching adapted courses that provide students with fieldwork encounters, where the significance of embodied knowledge can be explored, and their ethnographic awareness cultivated. Basing our analysis on the undergraduate Ethnographic Lab and Ethnographic Methods courses taught at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Warsaw, we argue that it is important to put students in uncomfortable or unusual fieldwork and teaching situations, forcing them out of their comfort zone so that they experience fieldwork encounters both emotionally and bodily. Recordings of these encounters and the bodily reactions of themselves and others constitute a core part of the data to be gathered, which prevents students from focusing solely on narratives and discourses.

IMPACT OF HIGH PENETRATION OF BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES ON POWER QUALITY IN CENTRAL AND DISTRIBUTED CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

The increasing penetration with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in public low voltage networks presents a growing challenge for the distribution network operators (DNO). It significantly changes the boundary conditions for network planning in LV networks. The high coincidence of charging of multiple vehicles in the evening can create unusual high demand situations. As many BEVs are still single-phase connected, they can result in increasing voltage unbalance in the network. Furthermore, the power electronic based rectifiers of BEVs can emit significant harmonics and supraharmonics. This paper discusses the impact of BEVs on power quality based on two comprehensive field studies carried out in two different public low voltage networks in Germany.

Measuring Students’ Intention to Use E-Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Technical College of Management – Baghdad

Covid-19 pandemic affected our daily activities. Education is the fastest aspect that has been hindered due to the pandemic. The majority of the schools and universities were prone to global closure. The world turned toward using e-learning as an alternative to traditional learning due to the strict lockdown procedures. This study presents a model to measure the students' intention to use e-learning during the pandemic in Iraq. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is utilized with some external variables. Task Technology Fit (TTF) is also adopted as a moderator for the proposed model. The model is implemented on a sample of students studying at Technical College of Management -Baghdad who have completed the academic year using e-learning. Eighteen hypotheses were formulated;out of them, only two were rejected. The model is tested and evaluated using PLS Tool. The results showed that the students have a positive intention to use e-learning during the covid-19 pandemic;also, most of the external variables were statistically significant. Furthermore, using TTF positively moderates the proposed model. The results open the way to perform more investigations in adopting e-learning during unusual situations. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Music in Quarantine: Connections Between Changes in Lifestyle, Psychological States, and Musical Behaviors During COVID-19 Pandemic.

Music is not only the art of organized sound but also a compound of social interaction among people, built upon social and environmental foundations. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, containment measures such as shelter-in-place, lockdown, social distancing, and self-quarantine have severely impacted the foundation of human society, resulting in a drastic change in our everyday experience. In this paper, the relationships between musical behavior, lifestyle, and psychological states during the shelter-in-place period of the COVID-19 pandemic are investigated. An online survey on musical experience, lifestyle changes, stress level, musical behaviors, media usage, and environmental sound perception was conducted. The survey was conducted in early June 2020. Responses from 620 people in 24 countries were collected, with the large proportion of the responses coming from the U.S. (55.5%) and India (21.4%). Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed causal relationships between lifestyle, stress, and music behaviors. Elements such as stress-level change, work risk, and staying home contribute to changes in musical experiences, such as moderating emotion with music, feeling emotional with music, and being more attentive to music. Stress-level change was correlated with work risk and income change, and people who started living with others due to the outbreak, especially with their children, indicated less change in stress level. People with more stress-level change tended to use music more purposefully for their mental well-being, such as to moderate emotions, to influence mood, and to relax. In addition, people with more stress-level change tend to be more annoyed by neighbors' noise. Housing type was not directly associated with annoyance; however, attention to environmental sounds decreased when the housing type was smaller. Attention to environmental and musical sounds and the emotional responses to them are highly inter-correlated. Multi-group SEM based on musicians showed that the causal relationship structure for professional musicians differs from that of less-experienced musicians. For professional musicians, staying at home was the only component that caused all musical behavior changes; stress did not cause musical behavior changes. Regarding Internet use, listening to music via YouTube and streaming was preferred over TV and radio, especially among less-experienced musicians, while participation in the online music community was preferred by more advanced musicians. This work suggests that social, environmental, and personal factors and limitations influence the changes in our musical behavior, perception of sonic experience, and emotional recognition, and that people actively accommodated the unusual pandemic situations using music and Internet technologies.

Practical ethical challenges and moral distress among staff in a hospital COVID‐19 screening service

The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions to established models of healthcare and healthcare delivery, creating a host of new ethical challenges for healthcare institutions, their leadership and their staff. Hospitals and other large organisations have an obligation to understand and recognise the downstream effects that highly unusual situations and professionally demanding policy may have on workers tasked with its implementation, in order to institute risk‐mitigation strategies and provide additional support where required. In our experience, targeted ethics‐based forums that provide a non‐confrontational platform to discuss and explore the ethical dilemmas that may have arisen have been well received, and can also serve as useful and immediate feedback mechanisms to managers and leadership. Using two case illustrations, this article examines some of the ethical challenges and dilemmas faced by these staff, based on discussions of shared experience during a clinical ethics forum for the Screening Clinic staff at Austin Health, Melbourne, Victoria.

FORMATION OF SELF-DEPENDENCE OF JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN IN THE COMPREHENSIVE SPACE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL

The article highlights that provision of a person with the ability to quickly adapt and solve problems in new, unusual situations is challenge of today. Its implementation starts being provided by the school of the first degree and represents not only filling of knowledge sphere, but also formation of key competences of schoolchildren which promote their activity as participants of effective development and dynamic development of the state.
 Performed analysis of the possibilities of primary education in the implementation of the competency approach, which contributes to the organization of educational activities of primary school students with a predominance of cognitive activity to achieve their independence is provided in the process of acquiring new knowledge and skills. The development of students' self-dependence, their manifestation of initiative, creativity, cognitive interest, etc., is provided by various didactic tools that allow to make learning interesting and exciting not only at the creative and exploratory level, but also in the daily study of subjects.
 It is stated that achieving the required level of education and personal development is impossible without systematic independent work, the need in it lies in the school years. Therefore, the school should pay much attention to self-dependent learning activities of students, this concept means a generalized personality trait, which is manifested in initiative, critical thinking, adequate self-esteem and a sense of personal responsibility for their activities and behavior, which is manifested in thinking, willpower. In view of this, only now is a holistic theory and methodology of this process for educational activities being created.
 It is established that the importance of self work in the educational process is difficult to overestimate, it forms independence, which is a quality of each person and contributes to the achievement of a truly conscious and strong mastery of information. Based on this, it is confirmed that the level of self-dependence is formed in all primary school lessons gradually. That is, this characteristic is the result of constant, persistent, long-term work of teachers, students and all interested participants in the didactic process.
 It is proved that the development of self-dependence is facilitated by a gradual increase in the amount of self work in the classroom, a variety of tasks, the introduction of creative work, combining them with work of a training nature. The ratio of creative and training work in the educational activities of primary school children depends on the stage of study, its content and purpose of the lesson. An essential condition for success is a clear statement of questions, tasks to students. Awareness of their students directs mental activity. The didactic game in the classroom, which not only provides maximum satisfaction to the child is of great importance, but is a powerful means of its development, a means of forming a full-fledged personality. This form promotes the self-dependence of educational activities, promotes the level of skills and knowledge, activates the creative thinking of students and the reserves of their memory, develops interest in the subject, cultivates the ability to work.
 The selection of games and game situations for activation of different types of perception and comprehension at all stages of the lesson is offered. Their use was the most timely and effective compared to other methods, the organization of which does not require, on the one hand, time for the teacher to develop them, and on the other hand, memorizing cumbersome rules by students. The results of their application in the educational process provide a higher level of self-dependence in the experimental groups than in the control and are characterized by emotionality, accessibility, cognitive information. Such work should be based on the proposals of such didactic games, the implementation of which does not allow students to act on ready-made templates, but requires the use of knowledge in new situations.

Cone beam CT based validation of neural network generated synthetic CTs for radiotherapy in the head region.

In the past years, many different neural network-based conversion techniques for synthesizing computed tomographys (sCTs) from MR images have been published. While the model's performance can be checked during the training against the test set, test datasets can never represent the whole population. Conversion errors can still occur for special cases, for example, for unusual anatomical situations. Therefore, the performance of sCT conversion needs to be verified on a patient specific level, especially in the absence of a planning CT (pCT). In this study, the capability of cone-beam CTs (CBCTs) for the validation of sCTs generated by a neural network was investigated. 41 patients with tumors in the head region were selected. 20 of them were used for model training and 10 for validation. Different implementations of CycleGAN (with/without identity and feature loss) were used to generate sCTs. The pixel (MAE, RMSE, PSNR) and geometric error (DICE, Sensitivity, Specificity) values were reported to identify the best model. VMAT plans were created for the remaining 11 patients on the pCTs. These plans were re-calculated on sCTs and CBCTs. An automatic density overriding method ( ) and a population-based dose calculation method ( ) were employed for CBCT-based dose calculation. The dose distributions were analysed using 3D global gamma analysis, applying a threshold of 10% with respect to the prescribed dose. Differences in DVH metrics for the PTV and the organs-at-risk were compared among the dose distributions based on pCTs, sCTs, and CBCTs. The best model was the CycleGAN without identity and feature matching loss. Including the identity loss led to a metric decrease of 10% for DICE and a metric increase of 20-60HU for MAE. Using the 2%/2mm gamma criterion and pCT as reference, the mean gamma pass rates were 99.0 0.4% for sCTs. Mean gamma pass rate values comparing pCT and CBCT were 99.0 0.8% and 99.1 0.8% for the and , respectively. The mean gamma pass rates comparing sCT and CBCT resulted in 98.4 1.6% and 99.2 0.6% for and , respectively. The differences between the gamma-pass-rates of the sCT and two CBCT-based methods were not significant. The majority of deviations of the investigated DVH metrices between sCTs and CBCTs were within 2%. The dosimetric results demonstrate good agreement between sCT, CBCT, and pCT based calculations. A properly applied CBCT conversion method can serve as a tool for quality assurance procedures in an MR only radiotherapy workflow for head patients. Dosimetric deviations of DVH metrics between sCT and CBCTs of larger than 2% should be followed up. A systematic shift of approximately 1% should be taken into account when using the approach in an MR only workflow.

To Study the Impact of COVID-19 on People above 60 Years of Age

Everyone experienced unusual situations during this Pandemic. WHO published special advisory for the people above 60 years, on 3rd of April 2020. They shared that this age group is at higher risk of getting infected with virus because of physiological changes and decreased immunity that takes place during this age. In our country (India) also NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control) published special guidelines especially for the people above 60 years of age mentioning that this age group is at high risk. Guiding them to take precautions and along with it eat correct food, keep hydrated and regularly exercise. This study is conducted to understand the impact of COVID-19, on people above 60 years of age. With the help of Survey method, the data is collected. The sample consists of 75 male and females above 60 years of age. This survey was conducted in month of November/ December 2020. The results obtained show that COVID-19 impacted their physical health, mental health, emotional health and spiritual health.

Virtual team member perspectives on personal development: A sequential explanatory study

The use of virtual teams in organizations has shifted upward exponentially since the onset of COVID-19, yet available research does not include findings based on workplace virtual team members, as opposed to student populations. Research is limited on what virtual workplace team members consider important in the performance coaching and personal development processes. Research on virtual team member perspectives is valuable for human resource professionals and organizational leaders and particularly helpful to organizations struggling to respond to the new work-at-home environment. The purpose of the mixed-methods study was to explore the perspectives of virtual team members about how performance coaching, mentoring, and training contribute to their personal development. Participants for the study were members of social network virtual team groups who have been members of virtual work teams. The sequential explanatory study data was from a sample of 149 virtual team members (12 for the pilot survey and 137 for the full study). The Kruskal–Wallis results led to the rejection of the null hypothesis at an overall significance level of 0.05, with significance levels of 0.014 for coaching and 0.008 for mentoring, indicating a perceived positive contribution from performance development efforts (coaching and mentoring) on the personal development of individual virtual team members. These results on the interpersonal aspects of virtual teams from team members and consideration of perspectives on their personal development provide organizations, leadership, and human resources professionals, valuable information to improve virtual teams and the team member experience in normal and unusual work situations.

Investigating the understanding of Tehran’s second elementary school students of the fraction’s part- whole subconstruct, based on APOS and SOLO theories with using an unusual task

The aim of this research was investigating understanding of Tehran’s second ‎elementary school students of the fraction concept (part-whole subconstruct) based on APOS and ‎SOLO theories. This study’s method was descriptive-survey ‎method, its statistical population was Tehran’s second elementary school students in the academic ‎year 1397-1398 and its sample was 598 people of the statistical population that selected by multistage sampling method. A test with an unusual task used for collecting data. The content validity of the research tools were confirmed by experts and scholars of mathematics education, and the reliability of the research tools was obtained based on Cronbach's alpha of 0.7. Results of this ‎study showed that students have a limited understanding of fraction’s concept and they have common misconceptions. The most common misconceptions ‎found include: (1) Disregarding the requirement of ‎equal parts in part- whole ‎subconstruct; 2- Understanding fraction in part- whole subconstruct as ‎the part-to-part ratio & 3- ‎Using approximate partitioning ‎to determine the exact fraction of the specified part.‎ Analyzing the responses based on the APOS theory also revealed students did not have ability to use this concept in dealing with unusual situations. In analyzing ‎the responses based on the Solo model, more than 60% of the responses were ‎in the multistructural level. The suggestions of this research ‎are not to over-emphasize the part -whole subconstruct, creating ‎equal opportunities for developing other subconstruct‎s of fraction and emphasizing on ‎conceptual learning of procedures and algorithms relative to fraction ‎concept in content and ‎opportunities presented to students.‎

GAN을 사용한 재구성 오차 기반의 이상감지

Anomaly detection is a technique used to identify unusual patterns that do not conform to expected behavior such as defects or unusual situations. Various generative adversarial network (GAN) and autoencoder based methods have been suggested and shown much progress in this field. ABC[5], an existing representative supervised anomalies detection method, generates blur images for normal data, and the distribution of reconstruction errors for normal and abnormal overlaps considerably. In order to solve these problems, we proposed an improved anomaly detection method using autoencoder and GAN. The proposed method combine various loss functions of both supervised and unsupervised anomaly detection utilizing both normal and abnormal training data. We demonstrate the proposed GAN based anomaly detection by performing experiments on Fashion-MNIST, and real-world industrial dataset – metal surface defects. Compared to ABC[5], our model is superior to the previous approach in terms of average area under the ROC curve (AUROC) and distribution of the reconstruction errors for normal and anomaly data.

Organic load removal and microbial disinfection of raw domestic sewage using SrSnO3/g-C3N4 with sunlight.

Sewage treatment and water reuse are, undoubtedly, one of the main points on scientific agenda of the 21st century. Many technologies for sewage treatment are available; however, it is still as an open issue that deserves much attention in order to facilitate their application, develop more effective methods and propose alternative treatment for unusual situations. Developing high performance materials for sewage treatment fits the idea of the development of efficient and alternative methods for microorganism removal and the high organic load of wastewater and is of fundamental importance. In this paper, a heterojunction with perovskite-type strontium stannate (SrSnO3) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) - SrSnO3/g-C3N4 - was synthesized and used for photocatalytic treatment of domestic sewage using only sunlight. Results were accompanied by assessing the total organic carbon decrease and removal of pathogenic microorganisms. X-ray diffraction and X-ray excited photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated that a heterostructure was successfully formed and photocatalytic tests showed an important activity in the visible range, i.e., under sunlight. Exposing raw sewage to 240 min (from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.) in the presence of SrSnO3/g-C3N4, led to a 56.1% mineralization. This process was 2.5 more efficient than photolysis under sunlight. Moreover, the treated sewage showed no coliform growth (either fecal or total) or heterotrophic bacteria. This simple treatment makes sewage suitable and safe for reuse, for example, for agriculture purposes according to Brazilian regulations criteria and could be an alternative for isolated areas in which sewage treatment plants are not available.

U.S. Extreme Precipitation Weather Types Increased in Frequency During the 20th Century

AbstractExtreme precipitation has increased in frequency and intensity across the Conterminous U.S. (CONUS). This trend is expected to continue under future climate change. The cause is a combination of thermodynamic (i.e., warmer temperatures increase the atmospheric moisture content) and dynamic changes (e.g., shifts in cyclone frequency and tracks). It is well‐established that thermodynamic changes will intensify extreme precipitation events, but the impacts of dynamic changes are more uncertain. Extreme events are, per definition, rare and occur in unusual weather situations that are distinctly different from regular day‐to‐day weather. We take advantage of this and identify extreme precipitation‐producing weather patterns (XWTs) for all major watersheds across the CONUS by using a novel algorithm. We show that a set of one to four XWTs per watershed are causing extreme precipitation accumulations. These XWTs can be detected based on their synoptic‐scale fingerprint and are associated with West Coast atmospheric rivers, troughing in the desert Southwest, cutoff lows and troughs in the central and northwestern plains, and tropical cyclones along the Gulf and Atlantic coast. The algorithm is flexible enough to provide reliable results for city to major watershed‐scales and can detect extremes that are unprecedented in the training record. Importantly, this approach allows us to assess long‐term trends in extreme precipitation dynamics and reveal that XWT frequencies increased significantly in most U.S. watersheds during the 20th century indicating that changes in the atmospheric dynamics played an important role in historic extreme precipitation increases.

Person Tracking Using Ankle‐Level LiDAR Based on Enhanced DBSCAN and OPTICS

AbstractAlong with the progress of deep learning techniques, people tracking using video cameras became easy and accurate. However, privacy and security issues are not enough to be concerned with vision‐based monitoring. People may not be tolerated surveillance cameras installed everywhere in our daily life. A camera‐based system may not work robustly in unusual situations such as smoke, fogs, or darkness. To cope with these problems, we propose a two‐dimensional (2D) LiDAR‐based people tracking technique based on clustering algorithms. A LiDAR sensor is a prominent approach for tracking people without disclosing their identity, even under challenging conditions. For tracking people, we propose modified density‐based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) and ordering points to identify cluster structure (OPTICS) algorithms for clustering 2D LiDAR data. We have confirmed that our approach significantly improves the accuracy and robustness of people tracking through the experiments. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Re(thinking) Critical Language Education with Children and Teacher Education During (and After) Pandemic Times

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to discuss teachers’ perspectives on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the teaching of English to young learners (TEYL). We focused on one specific question (from a 10-question online questionnaire) in which participants shared their thoughts, experiences and concerns about TEYL in pandemic times. The answers were analyzed in a qualitative perspective, based on critical literacy research and studies in the field of TEYL. The results indicate the participants’ exhaustion due to dealing with unusual situations, and teaching focused exclusively on content in an attempt to show how teachers are reinventing themselves despite uncertainties and lack of training. The present moment requires reflections about goals and expectations in TEYL and in teacher education.

Оцінка сформованості фахових компетентностей

The article considers the actual problem of pedagogical diagnostics of the formation of professional competencies of engineering students. Based on a thorough analysis of the educational and professional program "Electrotechnics, electric power engineering and electromechanics" twelve professional competencies were identified, they were correlated with the program results defined in the state standard and possible diagnostic tools were proposed, such as tasks on virtual stands, tasks on physical stands, professional-focused tasks. Such an approach was due to the understanding that professional competencies are cross-curricular in nature, and the possession of them involves not only acquired knowledge, skills and abilities, but also the ability to use them in future professional activities, understanding its content and having the ability to overcome problems arising in production. A method of assessment of professional competencies is proposed, which is based on the principle of differentiation and foresees testing each specific competence using three diagnostic tools, which provided the identification of the level of the fundamental and practical knowledge, ability to work with equipment and solve unusual situations that may arise in production. The following methods were used in the study. Theoretical - analysis and synthesis of research related to pedagogical diagnostics, works in which methods of information visualization are analyzed; design for the development of a program-designer "star of competencies" using the software package MATLAB. Empirical - expert assessment to identify tools for diagnosing the formation of professional competencies common among teachers; diagnostics of formation of professional competences of students by means of testing, interrogation. The visual image of the "competence star" is offered, which allowed to solve a number of tasks: to provide ease and speed of perception of the learning outcome; informational content due to the simultaneous presentation of the results of the formation of twelve competencies and the ability to analyze each separately; to realize better the level of achievements according to the formation of the program results defined in the educational standard.

Coping with Teaching and Learning Creative Arts in Malaysian Public Universities in The Time of Covid-19 Pandemic

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the operation of Malaysian public universities and infinitely affected the way academics work. It is a devastating challenge where academics in the field of creative arts strived to cope with a transition from shifting face to face studio-based teaching and learning activities to online teaching and mentoring. This gave rise to a sudden change for them to carry out their administrative duties full-time at home and to re-adjust to alternative academic activities during the cordon sanitaire. This article describes the experiences and unusual situations faced by the academics, as well as their responses to this crisis in different dimensions starting from the initial stage of the Movement Control Order until the period they resumed work in the university office. The discussion proceeds with how the global pandemic has affected their teaching routine in the field of creative arts at present with a focus on music and film specialisations. This phenomenon-derived ethnography significantly employs self-conscious observation along the online teaching process uniquely conducted for a few respective courses in designated Malaysian public universities when the pandemic-triggered disruption was experienced. With a discussion only limited to observation based on the data gathered for the teaching component, the authors hope to recommend a practical approach in reinvigorating academic practices during and post COVID-19 period.

Knowledge and Attitude of Cancer Patients Towards COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives: This study is done to determine knowledge and attitude of cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted at Oncology Department, Mayo Hospital Lahore during August-October 2020. A questionnaire was used to determine knowledge and attitude of cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Data was analyzed using Spss version.23. Descriptive variables like gender, marital status, residence and disease characteristics were reported as means and frequencies. Intergroup analysis was done using Chi square test with p<0.05 taken as significant. Results: Of 269 enrolled patients, majority had advanced/metastatic disease (82.4%) and were being treated on outdoor basis (71.6%). Almost all (99.6%) were aware of COVID, electronic/print media being commonest source of information (62.7%). Though having different views, 81.5% considered it a natural calamity. During first wave,22.4% had delayed their investigations while 34.7% faced treatment interruptions with average duration of delay being 55±27 days. Traveling difficulties due to lock down was common reason of delay (54.8%). During this period 62.4% either noted worsening of symptoms or new symptoms. Despite all chaos, 89.9% selected for treatment continuation if provided with a chance and appropriate facilities. Correlation of delay in therapy with high level of education (p=0.013) and perception about COVID-19 a natural calamity (p=0.041) was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Patients' perspective is important and should be taken into account in special circumstances like COVID. It will help in future in making efficient management planning of disease during unusual situations. Key Words: COVID-19, cancer patients, Knowledge How to cite: Yaqub S., Jamil Z., Butt. B.N., Zafar A., Lodhi R.F., Khokhar A.M. Knowledge and attitude of cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Esculapio 2021;17(01):26-29

Study on the Relationship between Drivers' Personal Characters and Non-Standard Traffic Signs Comprehensibility.

Drivers’ incorrect perception and interpretation of the road space are among reasons for human errors. Proper road markings are elements improving perception of road space. Their effectiveness relies on traffic participants receiving the provided information correctly. The range of signs used is constantly expanding and unusual situations in traffic require use of non-standard signs or an unusual combination of existing standard signs. The aim of this study was to explore the level of comprehensibility of four different types of non-standard signs. The relationship between the level of comprehensibility of these signs and personality traits of the drivers was also studied. A total of 369 drivers were tested using a questionnaire to analyze the traffic signs comprehensibility and Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The obtained results indicate that symbolic signs, unlike symbolic and text ones, are much better comprehended by drivers. Men comprehend the significance of non-standard symbolic regulatory signs better than women. Higher level of comprehensibility of symbolic and text regulatory signs is shown by older, better educated drivers and professional drivers. The study found there is a link between personality traits of the driver and the comprehensibility of symbolic regulatory signs.