Alexa,Siri, Cortana,and More: An Introduction to Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are software agents that can interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices. Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s Assistant are the most popular voice assistants and are embedded in smartphones or dedicated home speakers. Users can ask their assistants questions, control home automation devices and media playback via voice, and manage other basic tasks such as email, to-do lists, and calendars with verbal commands. This column will explore the basic workings and common features of today’s voice assistants. It will also discuss some of the privacy and security issues inherent to voice assistants and some potential future uses for these devices. As voice assistants become more widely used, librarians will want to be familiar with their operation and perhaps consider them as a means to deliver library services and materials.     

Critical communication pedagogy and service learning in a mixed-method communication research course

ABSTRACT

Course: Mixed-Method Communication Research Methods

Objective: The purpose of this semester-long activity is to provide students with opportunities to cultivate mixed-method communication research skills through a social justice-informed service-learning format. Completing this course, students will be able to: recognize the unique strengths of quantitative and qualitative research methods; locate, evaluate, and utilize scholarly literature for a literature review; conduct an original research project using quantitative and qualitative research methods to gather and analyze data; and raise self and community awareness about a social issue through collaboration with a community organization.     

Print Media Standardisation and Professionalism

The independence of the media under Ghana’s Fourth Republic is assessed from the perspective of standards and professionalism. Using a qualitative method, the study shows that unethical practices are evident in the print media landscape in Ghana, and argues that this can be traced to four major spheres: educational qualification, existence of several professional associations, a weak regulatory body and “money matters”. Overall, the study argues that legalities form a minimal part of the independence of the Ghanaian media but concerns about freedom seem to be self-inflicted by the very media practitioners through their actions and sometimes questionable reportage.     

Circulating Cell-Free DNA Level in Prediction of COVID-19 Severity and Mortality: Correlation of with Haematology and Serum Biochemical Parameters

Lymphocyte dysregulation in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a major contributing factor linked to disease severity and mortality. Apoptosis results in the accumulation of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in circulation. COVID-19 has a heterogeneous clinical course. The role of cfDNA levels was studied to assess the severity and outcome of COVID-19 patients and correlated with other laboratory parameters. The current case series included 100 patients with mild COVID-19 (MCOV-19) and 106 patients with severe COVID-19 (SCOV-19). Plasma cfDNA levels were quantified using SYBR green quantitative real-time PCR through amplification of the β-actin gene. CfDNA level was significantly higher in SCOV-19 at 706.7 ng/ml (522.6–1258) as compared to MCOV-19 at 219.8 ng/ml (167.7–299.6). The cfDNA levels were significantly higher in non-survivor than in survivors (p = 0.0001). CfDNA showed a significant correlation with NLR, ferritin, LDH, procalcitonin, and IL-6. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of cfDNA in the discrimination of SCOV-19 from MCOV-19 were 90.57% & 80%, respectively. CfDNA showed a sensitivity of 94.74% in the differentiation of non-survivors from survivors. CfDNA levels showed a significant positive correlation with other laboratory and inflammatory markers of COVID-19. CfDNA levels, NLR, and other parameters may be used to stratify and monitor COVID-19 patients and predict mortality. CfDNA may be used to predict COVID-19 severity with higher diagnostic sensitivity.