Machine Learning Price Prediction During and Before COVID-19 and Consumer Buying Behavior

In the unprecedented situation of COVID-19, the global economy has turned upside down. This has led to sudden and unprecedented pressures on products demand and price forecasting. The study utilized regression techniques to predict product prices during and before COVID-19 using multiple influencing factors such as increase of COVID-19 positive cases on daily basis, number of deaths on a particular day, and government restrictions level. The data was gathered from worldometers website and combined with local store on sales based on the date. The results were eye opening as the product sold in the months of Mach, April, May and June 2020 were different than last year. This means the customers buying habits were totally altered due to many reasons such as job loss, wages reduction due to remote working, or promotions. Moreover, these products prices were directly proportional to increase of new COVID-19 cases, rise of daily deaths and government restriction levels imposed during the pandemic. The study uses machine learning data mining algorithms such as Logistic regression (LR), Decision Tree, Random Forest and K-Nearest Neighbor. Decision Tree and Random Forest works best in the pandemic situation to predict product price as compared to Logistic Regression and KNN. However, different outcomes were recorded when comparing the sales during pandemic and before pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Elderberry Extracts: Characterization of the Polyphenolic Chemical Composition, Quality Consistency, Safety, Adulteration, and Attenuation of Oxidative Stress- and Inflammation-Induced Health Disorders.

Elderberry is highly reputed for its health-improving effects. Multiple pieces of evidence indicate that the consumption of berries is linked to enhancing human health and preventing or delaying the onset of chronic medical conditions. Compared with other fruit, elderberry is a very rich source of anthocyanins (approximately 80% of the polyphenol content). These polyphenols are the principals that essentially contribute to the high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities and the health benefits of elderberry fruit extract. These health effects include attenuation of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and inflammatory disorders, as well as anti-diabetic, anticancer, antiviral, and immuno-stimulatory effects. Sales of elderberry supplements skyrocketed to $320 million over the year 2020, according to an American Botanical Council (ABC) report, which is attributable to the purported immune-enhancing effects of elderberry. In the current review, the chemical composition of the polyphenolic content of the European elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and the American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), as well as the analytical techniques employed to analyze, characterize, and ascertain the chemical consistency will be addressed. Further, the factors that influence the consistency of the polyphenolic chemical composition, and hence, the consistency of the health benefits of elderberry extracts will be presented. Additionally, adulteration and safety as factors contributing to consistency will be covered. The role of elderberry in enhancing human health alone with the pharmacological basis, the cellular pathways, and the molecular mechanisms underlying the observed health benefits of elderberry fruit extracts will be also reviewed.

Exploring the volatile metabolites of three Chorisia species: Comparative headspace GC-MS, multivariate chemometrics, chemotaxonomic significance, and anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential.

Chorisia (syn. Ceiba) species are important ornamental, economic, and medicinal plants that are endowed with a diversity of secondary metabolites; however, their volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been scarcely studied. Therefore, this work explores and compares the headspace floral volatiles of three common Chorisia species, namely Chorisia chodatii Hassl., Chorisia speciosa A. St.-Hil, and Chorisia insignis H.B.K. for the first time. A total of 112 VOCs of varied biosynthetic origins were identified at different qualitative and quantitative ratios, encompassing isoprenoids, fatty acid derivatives, phenylpropanoids, and others. Flowers of the investigated species showed perceptibly differentiated volatile profiles, with those emitted by C. insignis being dominated by non-oxygenated compounds (56.69 %), whereas oxygenated derivatives prevailed among the volatiles of C. chodatii (66.04 %) and C. speciosa (71.53 %). The variable importance in the projection (VIP) in the partial least-squares-discriminant (PLS-DA) analysis described 25 key compounds among the studied species, of which linalool was verified as the most important aroma compound based on VIP values and significance analysis, and it could represent the most typical VOC among these Chorisia species. Furthermore, molecular docking and dynamics analyses of both the major and the key VOCs displayed their moderate to promising binding interactions with four main proteins of SARS-CoV-2, including Mpro, PLpro, RdRp, and spike S1 subunit RBD. The current results collectively cast new light on the chemical diversity of the VOCs of Chorisia plants as well as their chemotaxonomic and biological relevance.

Pass-through Effects of Oil Prices on LATAM Emerging Stocks before and during COVID-19: An Evidence from a Wavelet-VAR Analysis

Vector Auto regression model (VAR) a time-varying parameter is applied to study the effect of oil price shocks on the returns of stocks in the LATAM (Latin American) markets. Coherent Wavelet analysis highlights possibilities of connectedness of the oil price and LATAM stock markets through the presence of different patterns in a time series. The structural demand shocks standard deviations during the COVID-19 era remain high and the pass-through effects on stock returns due to oil prices differ for different time frames. The fundamental linkages are demonstrated due to oil market specific demand. The main motive of the research work is to identify the influence of oil price on stocks and identify the fundamental source of contagion.A random effects model is applied to the panel data of LATAM markets with the Global stock market index, MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index), domestic money market rates and currency exchange rates during the period of study, 15 March 2019 to 31 July 2021 with 684 observations of controlled non-observed characteristics from individual country. The findings of this research recommend the pass-through effect of the oil prices on the stock market returns are based on time frequency. The contribution of this paper helps the policy makers to restore the confidence amongst the investors in the stock markets and strategies to be adopted by the investors to mitigate the risk by ideal portfolio management. © 2023, Econjournals. All rights reserved.

Study of Abdominal findings by ultrasound in COVID- 19 patients at King Fahd Specialist hospital Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This was a study to evaluate abdominal pathology by the use of ultrasound that was done at King Fahd Specialist Hospital -Tabuk -Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from January 1, 2022 to May 2022. The problem of the study was to know the negative impact of the COVID-19 virus on the digestive system, especially the abdomen, and its problems, which became clear and its importance in reducing risks. The intended aim of this study was to demonstrate the role of ultrasound in diagnosing abdominal outcomes in a COVID-19 patient. The data collected by the Designed clinical data collection sheets containing all study variables of 41 patients came to the ultrasound department to perform an abdominal ultrasound in the study area. The data was analyzed using Excel to give a more accurate analysis of the data. According to the results of the clinical data collection sheet, ultrasound has an effective role in assessment of the negative impact of COVID-19 virus on the digestive system and abdomen with great confidence, Overall, the researchers recommended that ultrasound imaging it is better to detect the circumference of the abdomen, especially liver and gallbladder diseases and digestive problems, which are more accurately and accurately shown in ultrasound..

Impact of COVID - 19 Pandemic on Teaching Strategy methods among Students in higher education Institutions in Jeddah City

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most learning strategies have been transitioned to an online setting across the world. Students and teachers who previously relied on traditional learning are now confronted with a new challenge. This dramatic adjustment may have an impact on their teaching strategy methods, learning habits, and willingness to embrace the change. A descriptive cross sectional online survey was used among students in selected higher education institutes in Jeddah city. The intended aim of this study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on selecting teaching strategy methods and to measure the students' perceptions. Using the Non-Probability Snowball Sample technique, 220 student participants were chosen, and the results were then analyzed using the SPSS program. According to the students' results of the survey, although the participant faces difficulties from the virtual transition classes (42.7%), the teaching strategy in online transition seems to be more beneficial in the future and it will continue after COVID- 19 with (65.5%) of student's approval. Overall, the modern teaching strategy methods that have been measured on students in Jeddah city demonstrated a highly positive impact in higher education institutions. Keywords: Assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, teaching strategy methods, virtual transition classes, students' results of the survey.

Characterization of regulatory T cells in SARS-CoV-2 infected hemodialysis patients: relation to clinical and radiological severity.

BACKGROUND: Disordered Treg counts and function have been observed in patients with SARS-Cov-2 and are thought to contribute to disease severity. In hemodialysis patients, scarce data are available on the Treg response to SARS-CoV-2 or its relation to the clinical presentation. METHODS: A cross-sectional study included one hundred patients divided into three groups, thirty SARS-CoV-2-infected hemodialysis patients (COV-HD), and thirty confirmed SARSCoV-2 infected patients (COV), and forty non-infected hemodialysis patients (HD). Flow cytometric analysis of CD4, CD25, FoxP3, and CD39+ Tregs was done for all patients and tested for correlation to in-hospital mortality, clinical, radiological severity indices. RESULTS: COV-HD and COV patients had significantly lower Treg cell count than HD patients (Median value of 0.016 cell/ µl vs 0.28 cell/ µl, respectively- P: 0.001). COV-HD patients had higher CD39+ Tregs (median value of 0.006 cell/ µl vs 0.002 cell/ µl, respectively- P: 0.04). COV-HD patients had significantly lower hospital stay (median value of 3 vs 13 days, P:0.001), ICU admission rates (26.5% vs 46.7%, P:0.005) and in-hospital mortality (20.7% versus 43.3%, P:0.003) than COV patients. Treg and CD39 expressing Treg counts were not correlated to severity indices in both groups. A high neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is strongly correlated to disease severity in COV-HD patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence of T-cell, particularly T-regulatory cell decline in SARS-CoV-2 and suggests that hemodialysis per se does not distinctively impact the T-cell response. COV-HD patients exhibited a higher CD39+ Treg count and a better clinical profile, however, larger studies are needed to extrapolate on these findings.

Effect of COVID-19 infection on psychological aspects of pre-schooler children: a cross-sectional study

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a tremendous effect on individual's lives worldwide. The pandemic's significant socioecological impact is one of the many burdens children confront in the current crises. As a result, this study was designed to determine the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on preschoolers, particularly the consequences of COVID-19 infection. This study involved 138 children aged 2-5.11 years old who were classified into two groups based on their COVID-19 infection history, which was documented via a PCR test. All participants were assessed by the Socioeconomic Scale and The Children's Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Results COVID-19 infection was found in 21.7% of the children who participated in this study. Furthermore, children with COVID-19 had a higher percentage of clinical rating on the CBCL Profile of DSM-5 scales for affective problems (13.3 vs. 7.4%), anxiety problems (13.3 vs. 9.3%), pervasive developmental problems (20 vs. 13%), and oppositional defiant problems (6.7 vs. 5.6%) than children without COVID-19. Anxiety and somatic problems had a positive correlation with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of children. Conclusions Children infected with COVID-19 were more likely to have psychological issues, such as affective disorders, anxiety problems, pervasive developmental problems, and oppositional defiant problems. These psychological issues had a relationship with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of children.

SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Foodborne Pathogens: Intriguing Commonalities and Obvious Differences.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in tremendous human and economic losses around the globe. The pandemic is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a virus that is closely related to SARS-CoV and other human and animal coronaviruses. Although foodborne diseases are rarely of pandemic proportions, some of the causative agents emerge in a manner remarkably similar to what was observed recently with SARS-CoV-2. For example, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), the most common cause of hemolytic uremic syndrome, shares evolution, pathogenesis, and immune evasion similarities with SARS-CoV-2. Both agents evolved over time in animal hosts, and during infection, they bind to specific receptors on the host cell's membrane and develop host adaptation mechanisms. Mechanisms such as point mutations and gene loss/genetic acquisition are the main driving forces for the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and STEC. Both pathogens affect multiple body organs, and the resulting diseases are not completely cured with non-vaccine therapeutics. However, SARS-CoV-2 and STEC obviously differ in the nature of the infectious agent (i.e., virus vs. bacterium), disease epidemiological details (e.g., transmission vehicle and symptoms onset time), and disease severity. SARS-CoV-2 triggered a global pandemic while STEC led to limited, but sometimes serious, disease outbreaks. The current review compares several key aspects of these two pathogenic agents, including the underlying mechanisms of emergence, the driving forces for evolution, pathogenic mechanisms, and the host immune responses. We ask what can be learned from the emergence of both infectious agents in order to alleviate future outbreaks or pandemics.

A review of solar chimney for natural ventilation of residential and non-residential buildings

The requirement for passive cooling strategies in buildings has great attention in almost all countries, where hot temperatures are predominant throughout the year. The ventilation process is a crucial necessity for a healthy lifestyle and its significance is additionally highlighted through the contemporary universal outbreak of Covid-19. One of the promising applications for cooling residential buildings is the solar chimney (SC) that is particularly convenient for hot and humid climates. The solar chimney is a natural draught passive method that utilizes available solar energy to build up the stack pressure. The solar chimney participates in elevating the cooling and heating efficiency of residential/non-residential spaces. The present article introduces an overview of the operation and performance of the SC. Studying the potential design and operating parameters influencing the SC performance for natural ventilation (NV) compared to the electrical high-energy technologies to sustain the acceptable indoor climatic conditions is important. As well, the natural ventilation for harsh climate conditions using SC only is not applicable so the enhanced solar ventilation systems are studied. Combined enhanced cooling/heating energy systems based on the solar chimney are considered as an effective strategy towards low-energy consuming buildings.

SAR and QSAR of COVID-19 Main Protease-Inhibitor Interactions of Recently X-ray Crystalized Complexes.

COVID-19 is still widespread worldwide and up to now there is no established antiviral able to control the disease. Main protease is responsible for the viral replication and transcription; thus, its inhibition is a promising route to control virus proliferation. The present study aims to examine detail interactions between main protease and recently reported ninety-seven inhibitors with available X-ray crystallography to define factors enhance inhibition activity; thirty-two of most potent inhibitors were examined to identify sites and types of interaction. The study showed formation of covalent bond, H-bond and hydrophobic interaction with key residues in the active side. Covalent bond is observed in seventeen complexes, all of them by attack of the 145Cys thiol group on Michael acceptor, aldehyde or its hydrate, α-ketoamide, double bond or acetamide methyl group; the latter type requires H-bonding between acetamide carbonyl oxygen and at least one of 143Gly, 144Ser or 145Cys. Potent inhibitors, disulfiram and ebselen docked in the same binding site. Accordingly, factors identify inhibition include forming covalent bond and existing terminal hydrophobic groups and amidic or peptidomimetic structure. Binding affinity was found correlated with topological diameter up to 24 bond, molecular size, branching, polar surface area up to 199 Å2 and hydrophilicity. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40011-021-01338-8.

Does COVID-19 infection have an impact on children’s psychological problems?

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a significant impact on children, adolescents, and their families. So, the purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of children’s psychological problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and their association of COVID-19 infection in children and their risk factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 148 children aged 6–12 years old categorized into 2 groups based on COVID-19 infection history. Participants were assessed by the Socioeconomic Scale and the Checklist for Children’s Behavior (CBCL). Results: Children who had COVID-19 had a high percentage of problems regarding family, school, social, financial, and parent problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding CBCL, children who had COVID-19 infection had a higher percentage of clinical rating than the other group regarding withdrawal (11.1% vs. 8.9%), anxious/depressed (33.3% vs. 25%), somatic (11.1% vs. 10.7%), internalizing (61.1% vs. 48.2%), externalizing (38.9% vs. 35.7%), and total problems (50% vs. 44.6%). Family history of psychiatric disorder and the presence of three or more offspring were at high risk for internalizing problems, while those with school problems during pandemic were more vulnerable for internalizing and total problems. Conclusion: Children with COVID-19 infection had a higher risk of developing psychological problems, such as withdrawal, anxiety/depression, somatic, internalizing, externalizing, and total problems. © 2021, The Author(s).

A review on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the health care sector

The global crisis of the present era, the COVID-19 pandemic, has changed given new normal ways in many of the sectors. The present review highlights the impact, problems, and challenges faced by major areas of the health care sector due to pandemics and also addresses some of the aspects of upcoming approaches. The healthcare sector is the one sector that is on-demand since this COVID-19 pandemic raised. During the initial period, there was disruption of various services provided by the health care sector due to supply chain management issues and reduction in demand by consumers, quarantine, and lockdown period. The healthcare workers also confronted a huge challenge due to the increased number of cases and shortage of amenities and safety measures. This significantly affected even COVID-19 patients and the general public suffering from other diseases. To fight this issue, research and development (RandD) in pharmaceutical industries with great efforts to explore molecules and save many lives. Gradually innovative ways to strengthen and combat pandemics started emerging. Numeral ways and rules were adopted to prevent, diagnose and cure the disease. Artificial intelligence technology has emerged as one of the boons to address many of the unresolved or time-consuming mysteries. All the divisions of health care sectors have started working more efficiently with adopted new strategies to face future challenges.

General study: The effect of corpulence and persistent sicknesses on the seriousness of the diseases with COVID-19

BACKGROUND: The outcomes of following a way of life, devouring abundance calories with restricted actual movement, are the metabolic aggravations that come full circle in diabetes and weight that have now arrived at plague extents over the West. It has turn into evident that these cases incline people to extreme COVID-19, which is brought about by an infection scattering from the east, which much of the time causes mellow influenza like manifestations. There are a few outcomes of the diabetes and weight that may put up the clinical reaction to coronavirus-disease. These incorporate a debilitated insusceptible reaction, an atherosclerotic express, an amassing of AGEs that actuate RAGE, and particularly a prior ongoing incendiary condition. The last can prompt a misrepresented cell reaction to viral disease, re-presenting it to a CYTOKINE storm that prompts movement to septic stun, ARDS, and MOF. Notwithstanding these elements, so as to, can be add to intensifying these metabolic circumstances of the clinical route of coronavirus, the most basic mechanism that may add to encouraging viral contamination. Disease prompts a provocative reaction and tissue harm and this prompts an expansion in metabolic action. This is connected to an expansion in the components by which cells gobble up tissue remainders, debase them and unfamiliar materials. Infections seem to have gained the capacity to misuse these components to attack cells and encourage their existence series. In stoutness and diabetes, these components are constantly initiated because of upset digestion and this may give an expanded chance to a more thoughtful and supported viral contamination. Weight is a worldwide illness wherein at any rate 2.8 million individuals kick the bucket each year because of being overweight or stout, as indicated by World Health Organization figures. This paper intends to investigate the connections among stoutness and mortality in COVID-19.METHODS: Weight Study Papers were electronically looked for a danger factor for death following COVID-19 contamination. Ten creators freely chose the papers and consented to definite incorporation. The results were age, sexual orientation, weight file, serious comorbidities, respiratory help, and basic disease related passings in COVID-19. Various examinations were chosen for quantitative investigation. Results: The point of the momentum audit was to survey whether there was a relationship between weight, higher hospitalization levels, helpless results and passings because of novel Covid sickness (COVID-19). Systematic review: An efficient survey of articles identified with the novel Covid, containing data on corpulence and its relationship with COVID-19 infection and mortality. In the bibliographic pursuit, four information bases were utilized, with the terms ["COVID-19] and]" Hospital "], [" Obesity "] and [" Mortality "]. Studies distributed from the date 02/12/2020 until October 31/2020 and was incorporated The exploration contains complete measures focusing on investigations of grown-up people with Sars-Cov-2, with or without comorbidities This examination was chosen from distributions in Spanish and English from among 19 studies out of 20, more extreme types of the sickness were seen In 14 of them, difficulty rates were higher among hefty individuals with the new coronavirus.Limited contrasts were seen in the meaning of heftiness between distributions, which considered stoutness from the body with a mass list of> 25 kg/m2. All essential focuses aside from sexual orientation are exceptionally connected with COVID-19 passings. There was an uphill straight pattern in the probability of COVID-19 hospitalization with an expansion in BMI, and this was apparent in flabby (chances proportion 1.39;95% CI 1.13 to 1.71;unrefined disease rate 19.1 per 10,000) and stage 1 heftiness (1.70;1.34 to 2.16;23.3 per 10,000) and stage II (3.38;2.60 to 4.40;42.7 per 10,000) contrasted with ordinary weight (12.5 per 10,000). This slope was somewhat influenced following change for a wide scope of covariates;Ho ever, the control of biomarkers, especially HDL cholesterol and glycated hemoglobin, brought about a more noteworthy level of weakening. A comparable example rose up out of the connection for the midsection to-hip proportion. To put it plainly, aggregate and focal weight are both danger factors for COVID-19 hospitalization. The raised danger was clear in even a slight weight gain. The components may incorporate debilitated glucose and lipid digestion.

FPGA Realizations of Chaotic Epidemic and Disease Models Including Covid-19.

The spread of epidemics and diseases is known to exhibit chaotic dynamics; a fact confirmed by many developed mathematical models. However, to the best of our knowledge, no attempt to realize any of these chaotic models in analog or digital electronic form has been reported in the literature. In this work, we report on the efficient FPGA implementations of three different virus spreading models and one disease progress model. In particular, the Ebola, Influenza, and COVID-19 virus spreading models in addition to a Cancer disease progress model are first numerically analyzed for parameter sensitivity via bifurcation diagrams. Subsequently and despite the large number of parameters and large number of multiplication (or division) operations, these models are efficiently implemented on FPGA platforms using fixed-point architectures. Detailed FPGA design process, hardware architecture and timing analysis are provided for three of the studied models (Ebola, Influenza, and Cancer) on an Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE115F29C7 FPGA chip. All models are also implemented on a high performance Xilinx Artix-7 XC7A100TCSG324 FPGA for comparison of the needed hardware resources. Experimental results showing real-time control of the chaotic dynamics are presented.

Effect of COVID-19 on cancer: With special references to liver cancer

Coronavirus is the irresistible sickness brought about through the Covid, SARS-CoV-2, which is a respiratory microbe. WHO first learned of this new virus from cases in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China on 31 December 2019. People of all ages who experience fever and/or cough associated with trouble breathing or windedness, chest agony or weight, or loss of discourse or development should look for clinical consideration right away. If possible, call your health care provider, hotline or health facility first, so you can be directed to the right clinic. A great many people (about 80%) recuperate from the illness without requiring clinic treatment. About 20% of the individuals who get COVID-19 become truly sick and require oxygen, with 5% turning out to be basically sick and requiring concentrated consideration. Complications leading to death may include respiratory letdown, severerespiratory distress syndrome (SRDS), sepsis and infectedupset, thromboembolism, and/or multiorgan malfunction, including injury of the heart, liver or kidneys. In rare situations, children can develop a severe inflammatory syndrome a few weeks after infection. Anyone with symptoms should be tested, wherever possible. People who do not have symptoms but have had close contact with someone who is, or may be, infected may also consider testing – check with your local health guidelines. While a person is waiting for test results, they should remain isolated from others. Where testing capacity is limited, tests should first be done for those at higher risk of infection, such as health workers, and those at higher risk of severe illness such as older people, especially those living in seniors’ residences or long-term care facilities.In this review, we give a concise diagram of the effect that COVID-19 has in disease development and therapy, and feature the arising need to consider the function of COVID-19 contamination in malignant growth movement and treatment.