A MULTI-MEDIATION MODEL ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRY 4.0, MANUFACTURING PROCESS FACTORS AND GREEN PERFORMANCE UNDER COVID-19

This research focuses on investigating the impact of industry 4.0 (I4.0) on green performance through manufacturing process factors under COVID-19 by drawing on resource dependency theory. The research uses a quantitative approach, and the data were collected from 614 manufacturing companies in Egypt and were analysed using CB-SEM. The results indicated that there is a direct significant relationship between I4.0 and green performance. In addition, results revealed that manufacturing process factor pull system can significantly mediate the relationship between industry 4.0 and green performance. However, setup time reduction and continuous flow did not have a significant mediating role. Finally, COVID-19 contingency policies had a negative significant moderating role in the impact of industry 4.0 and pull system on green performance. The findings of this research will help in extending RDT through conceptualising it in different settings and using its ideas to build a model that can support manufacturers in maintaining green practices through unitising lean manufacturing and I4.0, especially that focusing on green practices is challenging, and market disruptions, such as COVID-19, increase the difficulty of enhancing green performance. This will also fill the gap regarding the dynamic relationship between I4.0, lean manufacturing and green performance under COVID-19. © 2023 Journal of Applied Structural Equation Modeling.

Adverse effects of COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children aged 5-18 years in Saudi Arabia

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can infect children of all ages. Despite the fact that children have a lower risk of exposure and are tested less frequently than adults, their incidence is similar to that of adults. The most effective way to prevent COVID-19 infection is by vaccination. The study's objective was to document vaccination side effects in children aged 5 to 18 years. This cross-sectional study had 303 participating kids between the ages of 5 and 18 in its sample. During the months of March and April 2022, a validated modified questionnaire was circulated as a Google form to KSA citizens via social networking sites. The questionnaire asked questions about the participant's background, socio-demographic information, vaccination history, the mild and major adverse effects of the Pfizer vaccine and how those symptoms affected the child's health and quality of life. There was a total of 303 responses;all of them received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine. They were 163 female children (54 %) and 140 males (46 %). The most frequently reported minor adverse effects were body tiredness (88.2%), moderate fever (76.5%), mild headache (72.3%) and discomfort, redness and swelling at the injection site (90.7%). The most reported severe side effects were severe headache (32.8%) and high fever (21.8%). Only five children (4.2%) required hospitalization for 1-3 days. The most common side effects for the Pfizer Covid-19 were the mild and moderate one including pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, fever and headache. Most of the symptoms were not severe to need hospital admission.

Impact of pandemic COVID-19 on solid waste compositional trends in pasar awam maharani Muar

The world was astounded by the emergence of the deadly virus COVID-19 at the end of 2019. In March 2020, Malaysia's first Movement Control Order (MCO) was initiated to stop the spread of the virus that ended in June 2021. Hence, this paper was initiated to study the impact of the pandemic and MCO on the generation of waste in Pasar Awam Maharani Muar (PAMM). The waste generation rate and the trend of waste accumulation according to different categories were recognised. The PAMM operates 8 hours daily, and the area strictly observes Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) established by the government. The compositional study was performed two times for 14 days in a month. The solid waste was segregated, and the weight were measured accordingly. The average total solid waste generated from 30 stalls was around 1.5 tonnes daily. It was further established that 38.5% of the waste comprised of chicken and fish waste, 36.3% formed inorganic waste, and 25.2% constituted vegetable and fruit waste. Several limitations were acknowledged in this research which was the short operational time, unpredictable weather, public holidays, and the closure of PAMM on Sundays. Observations also showed that some stall owners were highly mindful of the solid waste segregation and some of the organic wastes were reused as ruminant feed and some for composting. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Immunoglobulin G antibody immune response profile following infection with SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 Egyptian patients

This study aimed to report the dynamic profile of IgG-specific antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 infection for 6 months after infection. We conducted a prospective study, recruited 33 recently confirmed covid -19 patients and collected 6 samples from each patient. The first samples were collected one month from the start of symptoms and subsequent samples collected at 30 days interval. We measured the IgG by chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA). According to the disease severity, patients were categorized as asymptomatic 4 (12.1%), mild 14 (42,4%), moderate 9 (27.3%), and severe 6 (18.2%). Patients were 12 (35.3%) females and 21 (64.7%) males. The mean IgG levels maintained a high level till the second month (92.81 +/- 110.15 AU/ml) from the onset of symptoms followed by a gradual decrease till the sixth month after infection (17.42 +/- 22.61 AU/ml). The patients with severe symptoms significantly exhibited the highest IgG levels, reached the highest level (mean=237.44 +/- 164.13 AU/ml) at the second month. While the lowest levels were detected among the asymptomatic patients (mean= 3.04 +/- 2.94 AU/ml) at the second month. Older age correlated with higher IgG antibody level (r= 0.350 p=0.046);however, sex was not related to IgG level. In conclusion, Symptomatic COVID-19 disease is followed by protective immunity for more than 6 months. Immunity in asymptomatic patients is low and fades rapidly than symptomatic cases. Patients with severe disease had significantly higher IgG levels compared to mild, moderate, or asymptomatic patients. Copyright© by the Egyptian Association of Immunologists.

A Review of Covid-19 Detection and Diagnosis Methods Based on Deep Learning

(COVID-19) is an epidemic disease with symptoms similar to the flu. Since December 2019, the new Coronavirus has appeared in China and spread all around the world. As a result, the rapid and severe spread. For example, computed tomography (CT) and x-rays are utilized to find an available and accurate diagnostic tool. Artificial intelligence technologies make a significant contribution to the diagnosis and analysis of medical images. As a consequence, it was used to detect and diagnose Covid-19. Thus, the entire major medical scanning will be covered in this review paper, especially Focus mostly on last year's combination of Artificial Intelligence with CT and X-ray. Both are commonly used on front-line medical clinics to identify the recent results of fighting COVID-19. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.

Use of Audio Devices to Increase Preventive Health Behavior Dental Visits

Background: Compliance with preventive health behavior is crucial during dental visits. This study investigated using an audio device to increase dental patients' preventive health behavior.Methods: A randomized control study was conducted in private dental practices. The test group listened to an audio device containing public health messages related to COVID-19 and preventive health behavior. The control group listened to relaxing instrumental music with no public health messages.Results: A total of 65 participants (age 18-77 years) were allocated to each group. About 63% of the participants in the test group performed preventive health behaviors compared to the control group, but the difference was not significant. Significant differences in preventive health behavior were observed in both groups before and after treatment (p < 0.001). A significant difference in the awareness level was detected between the test and control group (p < 0.01). No significant differences were found in the knowledge and self-efficacy scores between the two groups (p > 0.05).Conclusions: An audio device used during dental treatment effectively delivered public health messages to improve preventive health behavior. Hence, an audio device can be used as alternative media to deliver public health information during dental visits.

Side effects of COVID-19 third booster dose among healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia

The number of COVID-19 cases has continued to rise since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic in March 2020. At this time, WHO has received reports of about 460 million confirmed illnesses and over 6 million deaths. In Saudi Arabia, the number of confirmed cases has nearly surpassed 750 thousand, with COVID-19 responsible for approximately 9,000 deaths. Vaccination is the most effective approach to prevent this pandemic, and persons who have had three doses are better protected than those who have not. The goal of this study is to look into the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccine after the third booster dosage in Saudi Arabian healthcare personnel. Between November 2021 and April 2022, a cross-sectional survey was conducted using simply a questionnaire. Pain at injection site was the commonest side effect, followed by fatigue and headache. There is a temperature and edema at the injection site, respectively. 27.71 percent of female participants experienced menstrual cycle changes such as delayed or menorrhagia. The side effects are comparable to those experienced after the first and second COVID-19 vaccination doses. More research on long-term side effects, as well as studies into the relationship between menstrual cycle changes and COVID-19 vaccination, is needed.

Coagulation Dysfunctions: A Hallmarks for Thrombo-Inflammatory Risks in SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalized Patients

The relevance of coagulation malfunction in COVID-19 (severe coronavirus disease) is ambiguous. Current study aimed to assess the coagulation among SARS-CoV-2 hospitalized patients. A cross sectional study with qualitative approach was conducted among 300 patients who are already diagnosed as COVID 19 compared to 300 apparently healthy control group attended to Red Sea State during study period from April 2020 to April 2021. The Humaclot Due Plus1 coagulation analyser was used to estimate the prothrombin time (PT), activated partial prothrombin time (APTT), and international normalized ratio (INR) (Wiesbaden 1, Germany), adding 25 μL of plasma in cuvette. The study result showed that in COVID-19 patients D.dimer level is high (2000-10000 ng/mL) compared with control group (up to 500 ng/mL). COVID-19 infection cause high D. dimer level which can lead to thrombosis event or bleeding tendency. Abnormal coagulation results were revealed among SARS-CoV-2, with markedly elevated D. dimer.

Tumor biomarkers Cea, CA19.9, CA15.3 and AFP levels in the serum of patients with Covid-19

Early diagnosis is very important to reduce morbidity and mortality in Covid-19 infected patients. The aim of this study was to detect of tumor antigens CEA, CA19.9, CA15.3, and AFP and to compare their levels in the serum of 69 Covid-19 patients and 69 healthy individuals who did not have Covid-19. The levels of CEA, CA19.9, CA15.3, and AFP in the serum were measured using ELISA. The levels of the tumor biomark-ers in the serum of CoVId-19 patients were found to be 7.74 ± 4.65 ng/ml for CEA, 29.33 ± 16.35 U/ml for CA19.9, 23.24 ± 13.48 U/ml for CA15.3 and 7.46 ± 5.57 ng/ml for AFP, while in the serum of healthy control patients 9.73 ± 43.58 ng/ml for CEA, 20.66 ± 11.1 for CA19.9, 19.64 ± 10.99 U/ml for CA15.3, and 3.83 ± 9.20 ng/ ml for AFP, indicating no differences in the levels of the studied tumor biomarkers in the two experimental groups. It is concluded that tumor biomarkers CEA, CA19.9, CA15.3, and AFP cannot be used as effective screening tools for patients with COVID-19. © 2022, Palladin Institute of Biochemistry of the NASU. All rights reserved.

Service Quality Factors of Healthcare System from COVID19 Patients Perspectives

This paper presents a study to investigate the service quality of healthcare system in UAE. The respondents are the users of the healthcare system. They were asked to grade the healthcare system through 25 items in five domains which are Reliability;Responsiveness;Assurance;Empathy and Tangibles. A total of 384 respondents participated in the questionnaire survey are COVID-19 patients discharged from UAE healthcare system. The analysis on the collected data found that three domains which are reliability, responsiveness and tangibles are having high level of satisfaction according to the respondent’s perspective in experiencing the healthcare during COVID19 treatment. In term of ranking analysis, the responsiveness domain is ranked first with the highest score of 3.890, followed by reliability domain with mean score of 3.572, then tangibles domain with 3.533, empathy domain with 3.370 and finally assurance domain with 3.170. The findings from this study helps the healthcare practitioners in improving their service quality to the patients. © Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia Publisher’s Office.

E-learning virtual meeting applications: A comparative study from a cybersecurity perspective

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, the lockdown of all activities including schools and universities became a normal habit, forcing educational institutes to find new ways to ensure the continuity of the learning process. E-learning is considered the best choice at this stage whereas using video conferencing or virtual meeting applications (VM) apps is the most common solution. In this research, security issues and possible cyber-attacks that may occur due to the use of the most popular VM apps used by educational institutes (i.e., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google meet) are discussed. Moreover, the security features of these applications are briefly explained. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison from a cybersecurity perspective between VM apps was made. The results show that Google Meet was the most secure against cyber-attacks, followed by the Microsoft Teams and finally the Zoom app. © 2021 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.

SARS-CoV-2 Infection Is at Herd Immunity in the Majority Segment of the Population of Qatar.

BACKGROUND: Qatar experienced a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic that disproportionately affected the craft and manual worker (CMW) population, who comprise 60% of the total population. This study aimed to assess ever and/or current infection prevalence in this population. METHODS: A cross-sectional population-based survey was conducted during July 26 to September 09, 2020, to assess both anti-SARS-CoV-2 positivity through serological testing and current infection positivity through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Associations with antibody and PCR positivity were identified through regression analyses. RESULTS: The study included 2641 participants, 69.3% of whom were <40 years of age. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 positivity was 55.3% (95% CI, 53.3%-57.3%) and was significantly associated with nationality, geographic location, educational attainment, occupation, and previous infection diagnosis. PCR positivity was 11.3% (95% CI, 9.9%-12.8%) and was significantly associated with nationality, geographic location, occupation, contact with an infected person, and reporting 2 or more symptoms. Infection positivity (antibody and/or PCR positive) was 60.6% (95% CI, 58.6%-62.5%). The proportion of antibody-positive CMWs who had a prior SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis was 9.3% (95% CI, 7.9%-11.0%). Only seven infections were ever severe, and only 1 was ever critical-an infection severity rate of 0.5% (95% CI, 0.2%-1.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Six in every 10 CMWs in Qatar have been infected, suggestive of reaching the herd immunity threshold. Infection severity was low, with only 1 in every 200 infections progressing to be severe or critical. Only 1 in every 10 infections had been previously diagnosed, which is suggestive of mostly asymptomatic or mild infections.

Assessment of coronavirus in the conjunctival tears in pediatric patients with asymptomatic covid-19 infection in sohag government, Egypt

Objective: The present study aims to evaluate coronavirus shedding in the tears of asymptomatic pediatric COVID-19 positive patients. Methods: A prospective interventional study that included a total of 145 pediatric asymptomatic COVID-19 patients hospitalized from 17th May 2020 to 16th July 2020 in Sohag Tropical Hospital. On admission, all of them were COVID-19 positive detected through nasopharyngeal swab. They were in intimate contact with positive symptomatic COVID-19 patients before testing and admission. Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was done for tears samples at an interval of 5 days after admission and twice before discharge. Results: Of the 145 asymptomatic pediatric COVID-19 positive patients, no one showed ocular or systemic manifestations. They were silent carriers. Ten were positive for tears sample on admission. They became negative for nasopharyngeal and tear samples before discharge. Conclusion: Pediatric positive COVID-19 patients can shed coronavirus through their tears. Even among asymptomatic patients, transmission through tears is possible.

Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and RNA polymerase complex are associated with COVID-19 mortality risk (preprint)

SARS-CoV-2 mortality has been extensively studied in relationship to a patient's predisposition to the disease. However, how sequence variations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome affect mortality is not understood. To address this issue, we used a whole-genome sequencing (WGS) association study to directly link death of SARS-CoV-2 patients with sequence variation in the viral genome. Specifically, we analyzed 3,626 single stranded RNA-genomes of SARS-CoV-2 patients in the GISAID database (Elbe and Buckland-Merrett, 2017; Shu and McCauley, 2017) with reported patient's health status from COVID-19, i.e. deceased versus non-deceased. In total, evaluating 28,492 loci of the viral genome for association with patient/host mortality, two loci, 12,053bp and 25,088bp, achieved genome-wide significance (p-values of 1.24e-12, and 1.24e-26, respectively). Mutations at 25,088bp occur in the S2 subunit of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which plays a key role in viral entry of target host cells. Additionally, mutations at 12,053bp are within the ORF1ab gene, in a region encoding for the protein nsp7, which is necessary to form the RNA polymerase complex responsible for viral replication and transcription. Both mutations altered amino acid coding sequences, potentially imposing structural changes that could enhance viral infectivity and symptom severity, and may be important to consider as targets for therapeutic development.

LinearTurboFold: Linear-Time RNA Structural Alignment and Conserved Structure Prediction with Applications to Coronaviruses (preprint)

Many functional RNA structures are conserved across evolution, and such conserved structures provide critical targets for diagnostics and treatment. TurboFold II is a state-of-the-art software that can predict conserved structures and alignments given homologous sequences, but its cubic runtime and quadratic memory usage with sequence length prevent it from being applied to most full-length viral genomes. As the COVID-19 outbreak spreads, there is a growing need to have a fast and accurate tool to identify conserved regions of SARS-CoV-2. To address this issue, we present LinearTurboFold, which successfully accelerates TurboFold II without sacrificing accuracy on secondary structure and multiple sequence alignment prediction. LinearTurboFold is orders of magnitude faster than TurboFold II, e.g., 372 times faster (12 minutes vs. 3.1 days) on a group of five HIV-1 homologs with average length 9,686 nt. LinearTurboFold is able to scale up to the full sequence of SARS-CoV-2, and identifies conserved structures that have been supported by previous studies. Additionally, LinearTurboFold finds a list of novel conserved regions, including long-range base pairs, which may be useful for better understanding the virus.

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the craft and manual worker population of Qatar (preprint)

Background: Qatar experienced a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic that disproportionately affected the craft and manual worker (CMW) population who comprise 60% of the total population. This study aimed to assess the proportions of ever and/or current infection in this population. Methods: A cross-sectional population-based survey was conducted during July 26-September 09, 2020 to assess both anti-SARS-CoV-2 positivity through serological testing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positivity through PCR testing. Associations with antibody and PCR positivity were identified through regression analyses. Results: Study included 2,641 participants, 69.3% of whom were <40 years of age. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 positivity was estimated at 55.3% (95% CI: 53.3-57.3%) and was significantly associated with nationality, geographic location, educational attainment, occupation, presence of symptoms in the two weeks preceding the survey, and previous infection diagnosis. PCR positivity was assessed at 11.3% (95% CI: 9.9-12.8%) and was significantly associated with geographic location, contact with an infected person, and reporting two or more symptoms. Infection positivity (antibody and/or PCR positive) was assessed at 60.6% (95% CI: 9.9-12.8%). The proportion of antibody-positive CMWs that had a prior SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis was 9.3% (95% CI: 7.9-11.0%). Only seven infections were ever severe and one was ever critical - an infection severity rate of 0.5% (95% CI: 0.2-1.0%). Conclusions: Six in every 10 CMWs have been infected, suggestive of reaching the herd immunity threshold. Infection severity was low with only one in every 200 infections progressing to be severe or critical. Only one in every 10 infections had been previously diagnosed suggestive of mostly asymptomatic or minimally mild infections.

Timing the SARS-CoV-2 Index Case in Hubei Province (preprint)

Understanding when SARS-CoV-2 emerged is critical to evaluating our current approach to monitoring novel zoonotic pathogens and understanding the failure of early containment and mitigation efforts for COVID-19. We employed a coalescent framework to combine retrospective molecular clock inference with forward epidemiological simulations to determine how long SARS-CoV-2 could have circulated prior to the time of the most recent common ancestor. Our results define the period between mid-October and mid-November 2019 as the plausible interval when the first case of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Hubei province. By characterizing the likely dynamics of the virus before it was discovered, we show that over two-thirds of SARS-CoV-2-like zoonotic events would be self-limited, dying out without igniting a pandemic. Our findings highlight the shortcomings of zoonosis surveillance approaches for detecting highly contagious pathogens with moderate mortality rates.

The rocaglate CR-31-B (-) inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication at non-cytotoxic, low nanomolar concentrations in vitro and ex vivo (preprint)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a betacoronavirus in the subgenus Sarbecovirus causes a respiratory disease with varying symptoms referred to as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is responsible for a pandemic that started in early 2020. With no vaccines or effective antiviral treatments available, and infection and fatality numbers continuing to increase globally, the quest for novel therapeutic solutions remains an urgent priority. Rocaglates, a class of plant-derived cyclopenta[b]benzofurans, exhibit broad-spectrum antiviral activity against positive- and negative-sense RNA viruses. This compound class inhibits eukaryotic initiation factor 4A (eIF4A)-dependent mRNA translation initiation, resulting in strongly reduced viral RNA translation. The synthetic rocaglate CR-31-B (-) has previously been shown to inhibit the replication of human coronaviruses, such as HCoV-229E and MERS-CoV, as well as Zika-, Lassa-, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus in primary cells. Here, we assessed the antiviral activity of CR-31-B (-) against SARS-CoV-2 using both in vitro and ex vivo cell culture models. In African green monkey Vero E6 cells, CR-31-B (-) inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication with an EC50 of ~1.8 nM. In line with this, viral protein accumulation and replication/transcription complex formation were found to be strongly reduced by this compound. In an ex vivo infection system using human airway epithelial cells, CR-31-B (-) was found to cause a massive reduction of SARS-CoV-2 titers by about 4 logs to nearly non-detectable levels. The data reveal a potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity by CR-31-B (-), corroborating previous results obtained for other coronaviruses and supporting the idea that rocaglates may be used in first-line antiviral intervention strategies against novel and emerging RNA virus outbreaks.