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The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on nurses has been significant on their mental & physical health. To minimize their psychological impact Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is cost effective, self-administrative successful treatment in very minimum time and highly effective on stress and anxiety. Aim(s): To assess the effect of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) on stress & anxiety among nurses working in covid ward. The focus of the study was analysis of data related to the effect of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) on stress & anxiety among nurses in covid ward at Dr. D.Y. Patil Hospital in Pune city. Methodology: An evaluative with One- group pre-test post-test research design was adopted to this study.A Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used for selecting 60 samples of covid ward nurses who met the designated set of criteria in the period of data collection in Dr. D.Y. Patil Hospital. In this study there was one experimental group, 60 covid ward nurses were taught EFT method by the researcher and advised to apply this technique continue for 10days twice a day, early morning & night time before sleep. Telephonic follow up was taken with record. Result(s): In pre-test, 20% of the nurses working in covid ward had mild stress levels, 75% of them had moderate stress and 5% of them had severe stress. In post-test, 90% of them had mild stress levels and 10% of them had moderate stress and in pre-test, 73.3% of the nurses working in covid ward had mild anxiety levels, 25% of them had moderate anxiety and 1.7% of them had severe anxiety. In post-test, all of them had mild anxiety. The findings related to association of stress and anxiety levels with demographic variables said that p-value corresponding to number of children is small (<= 0.05), the demographic variable number of children and family type was found to have significant association with the stress among nurses working in COVID ward, and the association of stress with demographic variables said that p-values are large (greater than 0.05) So, there is no significant association with the anxiety among the nurses working in covid ward. Conclusion(s): The research found that in pre-test nurses working in covid ward had mild stress levels and in post-test, all of them had mild anxiety.Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.
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Background: It is a fact that the ongoing worst ever pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have affected millions of people with large number of casualties worldwide. There has been now several published studies regarding the clinical, laboratory and radiological findings of COVID 19 infections. The aim of this study was to combine the two common hematological abnormalities viz. lymphopenia and elevated LDH to increase the sensitivity of diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. We compared the LDH-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients with COVID-19 infection admitted in the ICU and general ward to assess its relation with severity of disease. Our study may help in early identification and categorization of COVID-19 patients. Methodology: A total of 100 adult patients diagnosed by RT-PCR for COVID-19 were recruited for the study. One patient was excluded due to unclear history. We included 49 patients with severe disease from intensive care unit (ICU) and 50 patients from COVID ward with less severe disease. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels and absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) of these patients were obtained during admission and the ratio of LDH to ALC was calculated for both groups. The collected data was statistically analyzed. Result(s): Serum LDH levels were higher in ICU patients group compared to the COVID ward patients. ALC on admission were lower in ICU patients than the ward patients. In both cases the difference was statistically significant with p value of 0.001 in all the cases. A p value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. LDH/ALC ratio median of all included patients was 0.390 with interquartile range (IQR) 0.450. In COVID ICU group the median of the LDH/ALC ratio was 0.580 with IQR 0.340 and in COVID ward group median was 0.220 with IQR 0.240. It suggests that the LDH/ALC ratio is significantly higher (p value of 0.001) in COVID ICU patients with severe disease in comparison to COVID ward patients having non-severe disease. Conclusion(s): LDH/ALC ratio on admission can be used as a sensitive prognostic marker in COVID-19 patients which can help in early identification of COVID patients who have potential risk to develop severe disease. Copyright © 2023 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.
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COVID-19 has transmuted the globe and spread throughout the world. The COVID has streamlined and expedited regional procedures. Because the disease spreads via people, the CO VID test and data are pretty prevalent in humans. It is therefore vital to identify those who are affected. It's time to get on with your life. Chest X-ray and CT-SCAN are the most commonly used CO VID testing procedures. A chest X-ray is the quickest and least expensive treatment. There are no cyclopean amplitude test packets for COVID employing chest X-ray and model. FCNN is a standard image processing algorithm. The model should be able to recognize CO VID from a photo quickly. We proposed an S-CNN model as the foundation for the whole CNN in the study. The model we developed is very adaptable to any gear system and has low temporal complexity. The method can detect COVID in an unknown image with 92 percent accuracy. The model provides a reasonable and adequate response for estimating COVID from private data. © 2022 IEEE.
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Background: The lockdown in COVID 19 pandemic mandated the normal academic schedule in virtual mode including e-assessments. Since the summative assessments are a mix of both selected response approach and constructed response approach, a new method of e assessment under video surveillance by break out room approach has been tried in this study and the student's response with regard to the different aspects of this technology will be evaluated. Method(s): The students were asked to appear for the exams under video surveillance by zoom video conference. The instructions and the check lists were rolled out accordingly for both the students and teachers. The students appeared for the examination under video surveillance such that one invigilator monitors 10 students along with a guardian secondary invigilator present by their side. A questionnaire based survey regarding the conduct of examination was conducted amongst the students. The data was analysed by descriptive statistics. P value < 0.05 is taken as statistically significant. All statistical analysis was performed by using the statistical software package SPSS version 21. Result(s): Analysis of student's feedback revealed that 90% are agreed that proctored clarified their queries. Majority of the students (96%) are happy with overall experience with break out room approach in video proctored online assessment. Conclusion(s): The conduct of online assessment by break out room approach is a new methodology tried in this period of pandemic lockdown and will be evaluated for its acceptance by the students so that it can facilitate the upgradation of e-assessment methodologies. Copyright © 2022, Institute of Medico-legal Publication. All rights reserved.
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Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic is one of the greatest public health challenges. The spread of COVID-19 infection continues unabated despite vaccination. Adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behavior is critical to prevent COVID-19 infection. Aim and Objectives: To find out the pattern of COVID-19 appropriate behavior among vaccinated medical students and to estimate the incidence of COVID-19 infection after vaccination. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study using a questionnaire was carried out for a period of 3 months. The questionnaire was prepared based on the guidelines of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India. The data were collected using a pretested Google Form (online digital questionnaire) by means of a web-based survey. Results: About 96.5% of the participants wear face cover or mask while meeting someone or during visit to public places and 91.6% maintain respiratory hygiene, whereas 11.6% spit in the open, 16.1% travel unnecessarily, and 36.8% do not discourage crowd. There is significant (P < 0.05) increase in COVID-19 infection after vaccination. Conclusion: This study suggests that more emphasis should be given on sensitizing the medical students about the standard COVID appropriate behaviors because strict adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behavior is the key to the long-term management of this pandemic.
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This paper discusses the work submitted by us for IRMiDis FIRE 2021 Task[2].The goal of this task was to classify tweets related to COVID19 vaccines into three different sentiment classes.Our approach is based on using machine learning techniques to complete this 3-class sentiment classification problem.The evaluation scores of the submitted runs are reported in terms of accuracy and macro-f1 score.The accuracy reported for our classification was 0.448 and the macro-f1 score came out as 0.442. © 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
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Purpose: Pregnancy, with its associated hormonal changes, leads to an increased risk of mental health problems. These are likely to be worsened by the socioeconomic effects of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aims to find out the proportion of anxiety and depression in perinatal women and the associated risk factors during the pandemic in India, where mental health is a neglected domain. Methods: In a cross-sectional study spanning from March 2020 to July 2021, 124 patients who were pregnant or had delivered within 1 year were selected. The survey collected sociodemographic information and assessed the severity of anxiety and depression using the pretested and validated generalized anxiety disorder 7 and patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), respectively. The results were analyzed by suitable statistical tools and techniques. Results: Elevated anxiety and depression symptoms compared to similar pre-pandemic perinatal cohorts were observed. Anxiety (GAD), depression and both anxiety and depression were diagnosed in 31 (25%), 36 (29.03%), and 21 (16.94%) participants, respectively. Higher symptoms of anxiety and depression were associated with more concern about threats of COVID-19 to the life of mother and baby, concerns about not getting necessary medical and obstetric care during the lockdown, social isolation, and unemployment during a pandemic. Support and compassionate behavior of treating doctor was associated with lower psychological symptoms. Conclusion: COVID pandemic has had a definite impact on the mental health of perinatal mothers with elevated levels of anxiety and depression. So clinicians need to be more vigilant in this vulnerable group to facilitate early detection and management of anxiety and depression to prevent further morbidities in mother and her offspring.
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Background: As we all now aware of the fact that corona virus disease now has turned into a worst ever pandemic. The causative organism was identified as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease is called COVID 19 infection .Maximum number of published studies suggested that mortality is higher in those group of patients who develop severe form of the disease. Early identification and categorization of COVID-19 patients are required for timely intervention to reduce the mortality and morbidity. Our study may help in early identification and categorization of severe COVID-19 patients. Methodology and principle findings: 99 adult patients of COVID-19 infection diagnosed by RT-PCR methods were included as per the inclusion-exclusion criteria. 50 of them were included from COVID ward and 49 others from intensive care units (ICU) . Data of these patients were extracted from laboratory information system (LIS). Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level and absolute lymphocyte count(ALC) of these patients during admission was obtained, ratio calculated. Then the data was analyzed statistically to compare the changes in both groups. Our principle findings were initial serum LDH and LDH/ALC ratio was significantly higher in ICU patients than those who were admitted in ward. ALC was lower in ICU patients. In all the cases difference was statistically significant. Conclusion: LDH/ALC ratio on admission can be used as a sensitive prognostic marker in COVID-19 patients which can help in early identification of COVID patients who have potential risk to develop severe disease.
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The objective of this study is to determine how policies for stay-at-home (lockdown) and phases of easing the lockdown, implemented by the Government of Ghana to slow the spread of COVID-19, impacted traffic emissions and ambient concentrations of particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5). Monthly data was collected from January 2020 to June 2020 from four roadside monitoring locations using mini vol air samplers. High-volume ambient samplers were used to collect PM data at two permanent (industrial and residential) locations. Monthly concentrations were presented in tables over the six-month period. Results showed that PM2.5 concentrations decreased over Greater Accra in the month of April during the initial lockdown, when only essential workers went to work, and increased thereafter. Compared with 2019 data, the PM2.5 concentrations of roadside monitoring points at Kaneshie First Light, Shangri-la, Tantra Hill and Amasaman were lowered by 45.5%, 46.7%, 82.4%, 72.7%, respectively. This was consistent with the measured reductions in mobility during the lock-down. However, PM10 concentrations were higher at the same four roadside monitoring points and industrial monitoring points near the power plant during the lockdown compared to the same period in 2019. This increase may have been due to residential biomass burning during stay-at-home orders, or increased electricity production to support home activity. In conclusion, worldwide researches collected pollution data using remote sensing and satellite where as in this study conducted in Ghana pollution data was collected using ground-level monitors. © Engineered Science Publisher LLC 2022
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Introduction: After December 2019, the word "COVID" became the nightmare to the civilisation. As per the nomenclature laid by World Health Organisation (WHO), the disease is called Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the causative virus is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). By August 11th 2021, the virus caused around 43 lac deaths with an infection burden of approximately 20.3 crore worldwide. Many studies are published from most of the corners of the world regarding clinical features, laboratory parameters and radiological features of the disease to identify the infection at an early stage. Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) are among the most commonly studied parameters in COVID-19, though in India, a smaller number of studies were done in this regard. As the disease itself is new to the medical fraternity, maximum studies were done with small sample size which requires more studies to confirm the findings. Aim: To find out the association of on-admission serum LDH and qualitative CRP with the severity of the disease. Materials and Methods: The present study was a retrospective observational study conducted for three months from May to July 2021. A 114 Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) positive COVID-19 patients were included as per the inclusion-exclusion criteria of which 57 were from Intensive Care Unit (ICU), considered as 'severe' patients and 57 from ward, taken as 'non severe' patients. Required blood parameters including LDH and CRP values were obtained from Laboratory Information System (LIS) and clinical data was obtained from hospital database. The values were analysed using statistical software. Results: Present study showed significant difference in values of LDH among ICU and ward patients (p=0.0001), also significant difference of CRP positive percentage between these two groups (p=0.0003) was observed. Conclusion: Present study concluded that on-admission LDH and CRP can be used as a marker of severity in COVID-19 disease.
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Purpose: The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted world healthcare, with ophthalmology being one of the most severely affected area. The study aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of global literature published on "Ophthalmic Manifestations of Covid-19" to explore the scientific productivity and trends in research in this field. Methods: Bibliometric methods have been used to analyze global literature on this topic using quantitatively and qualitatively indices from the Scopus database up to 20th September 2021. The keywords related to "Covid-19" and "ophthalmology" are used in search strategy through the boolean operator. Primary data were exported in CSV and BibTxt file format for further analysis using different software. The literature on "Ophthalmic Manifestations of Covid-19" was assessed using a variety of metrics. Results: A total of 3453 publications were published on "Ophthalmic Manifestations of Covid-19", which received 32935 citations, averaging 9.54 citations per paper. Of the total publications, 557 received external funding support and registered 10802 citations. The U.S.A. and India published the most significant number of papers among countries. The U.S.A. and U.K. occupied the top position in international collaborative publications. Medicine and Neurosciences were the most productive areas. The Indian Journal of Ophthalmology is the most productive source. A total of 46 high-cited papers have been identified on this topic, which are published in 35 journals, with the U.S.A. contributing the most papers. Conclusion: In this study, the bibliometric assessment presents a quantitative and qualitative matrix of research in the field "Ophthalmic Manifestations of Covid-19". The study gives proof of the enhanced global collaboration that global researchers have created in order to combat the epidemic. The authors have used various bibliometric metrics and tools to present this study efficiently. This study will be helpful for the scholars who were researching in this field.
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The coronavirus pandemic has hit a hard blow on the world economy and employment rates. Countries like India, with a high population, have faced major economic degradation and high unemployment rates. Most of the countries are expected to face a major economic recession as most internal and external economic activities have ceased to operate due to the worldwide lockdown and quarantine measures being taken. This might affect the socioeconomic relationships between countries. It has also affected the economically challenged sector of the world largely. In India, about 41 lakh people lost their jobs, including several migrant workers. Several G7 countries have ensured subsidies as the jobless rates vary from 30million in the US to 1.76 million in Japan. © 2021, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.
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A recent global pandemic has resulted from the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection. One of the key clinical features of this infection is the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus. The port of entry for COVID-19 is the lung and if the infection worsens, it progresses to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). As the pandemic continue to surge, findings from studies and case reports suggest that the ARDS caused by COVID-19 might have different characteristics than what we refer to as non-COVID-19 (Typical) ARDS. By applying the differences in clinical features between COVID-19-related ARDS and typical ARDS, clinicians may develop appropriate therapeutic protocols to treat these patients effectively. Our review article intends to elucidate these differences in clinical features based on time of onset, radiological specifications, lung mechanics, phenotypical characters, inflammatory mediator response, and nature of coagulation abnormality.
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The COVID-19, the most deadly challenge human being could have imagined, has become a reality now and the whole world is passing through the worst pandemic situation. From the challenges of invention of life saving vaccine or medicine to keeping economy at right track are the most talked about hurdles in front of all of us. But if we look at the other side of the coin, the blessings that came in form of disguise could be realised. The paper emphasizes on those aspects during lockdown that was imposed in India for three weeks initially that is 24th March to 14th April 2020 and later on till 3rd of May 2020. As a result of this forced restrictions, pollution level in whole India, specially in metro or mega cities where large population and pollution is a deadly combination, drastically changed. For analysing air quality, the metro-cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai has been investigated here. The pollutant parameters PM 2.5, SO2, NO2, along with CO, O3 and overall AQI (Air Quality index) has been collected and comparative study was done before and after lockdown and even for the year 2018 and 2019 too. Reduction of level of pollutants in significant amount of percentage is observed for all the metro cities where variation of reduction level from city to city is also significant. The effectiveness of lockdown over different metro cities are also very significant, pointing towards alertness of local people and population concentration. Finally, the study can be used in future as case study for controlling pollution with controlled lockdown and this can be practiced in future once or twice yearly to save our motherland. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Situation Reports of Corona Virus Disease(Covid-19), as on 15th May 2020, India has 81,970 totals confirmed cases, 2649 total deaths and is still within the limit of community transmission phase. In this study, we analyze the spread of the disease and the fatalities caused up to 15th May 2020, as per the data obtained. A granular computing based regression model, namely Granular Box Regression is used along with Linear Regression for comparative analysis to study the increase in the number of confirmed cases and deaths based on days and an increase in the number of samples tested per day. A separate analysis is also conducted to evaluate the performance of Polynomial Regression on the same dataset. The performance of the different models has been evaluated using R-squared, Mean Absolute Error, Root Mean Squared Error, and Mean Squared Error values. © 2020 IEEE.