Lay theories about emotion recognition explain cultural differences in willingness to wear facial masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given that mask-wearing proved to be an important tool to slow the spread of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, investigating the psychological and cultural factors that influence norms for mask wearing across cultures is exceptionally important. One factor that may influence mask wearing behavior is the degree to which people believe masks potentially impair emotion recognition. Based on previous research suggesting that there may be cultural differences in facial regions that people in Japan and the United States attend to when inferring a target's emotional state, we predicted that Americans would perceive masks (which cover the mouth) as more likely to impair emotion recognition, whereas Japanese would perceive facial coverings that conceal the eye region (sunglasses) to be more likely to impair emotion recognition. The results showed that Japanese participants reported wearing masks more than Americans. Americans also reported higher expected difficulty in interpreting emotions of individuals wearing masks (vs. sunglasses), while Japanese reported the reverse effect. Importantly, expectations about the negative impact of facial masks on emotion recognition explained cultural differences in mask-wearing behavior, even accounting for existing social norms.

Impact of COVID-19 on mental health of pregnant women in Punjab, Pakistan

Background: Maternal depression and anxiety can predispose the women to higher risk of complications. The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique stressor which may affect the mental and psychological well-being of pregnant women. Aim(s): To determine prevalence of depression and anxiety and related factors in pregnant women during COVID-19. Method(s): This multicenter analytical cross-sectional study was carried out from August 2021 to December 2021 in six cities of Pakistan. Two stage sampling technique was used to include sample of 400 pregnant women. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Corona virus Anxiety Scale (CAS) were used to measure depression and anxiety level along with self-constructed questionnaire to record socio-demographic profile. Data entry and analysis was done in SPSS version 23. Association between variables was assessed by applying Chi square test and strength of association was measured by binary logistic regression. p-value <= 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Result(s): Mean age of participants was 27.25+/-5.22 years. The mean gestational age was 23.5+/-9.6 weeks. About 37.1% had mild depression. Moderate depression was found in 7.8% and moderately severe depression in 0.5% participants. Significant association was found between depression and no physical activity (p value=0.02), not having spouse support (p value=0.03), perceived vulnerability to get COVID (p value=0.004) and fear of infection to baby (p value=0.05). Only 3.25% participants had dysfunctional anxiety. Conclusion(s): Findings of the study would be helpful for policy makers to launch health awareness campaigns about regular physical activity, role of social support and seeking medical advice for mental well-being during pregnancy. Copyright © 2022 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health of Healthcare workers in Sau-di Arabia: A Review

This study aimed to conduct a literature search to review the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia using statistical meta-analysis. This study also focused on the role of human re-sources in eliminating the pressure experienced by healthcare workers. . The work overload due to the pandemic has led to high stress levels and other mental health issues among healthcare workers. The literature search was conduct-ed in January 2021, and records were reviewed from the Scopus database using the keywords COVID-19, mental health, and healthcare workers. A pool of 488 papers was considered, of which 481 focused on the pandemic's im-pact, and seven included the keywords Saudi Arabia and the COVID-19 pandemic. Relevant studies were included in the literature search. The pandemic impacted the mental health and well-being of healthcare workers significantly. The findings were divided into three sections: literature search, theoretical perspective, and statistical analysis through meta-analysis using Meta-Essentials software. This study suggests that mental health is pivotal for healthcare workers' well-being during the pandemic as it affects the well-being of society at large. This study also showed that appreciation and increased remuneration have improved the efficiency of healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia. © 2022 Better Advances Press. All rights reserved.

Co-expression analysis to identify key modules and hub genes associated with COVID-19 in platelets.

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) increases the risk of cardiovascular occlusive/thrombotic events and is linked to poor outcomes. The underlying pathophysiological processes are complex, and remain poorly understood. To this end, platelets play important roles in regulating the cardiovascular system, including via contributions to coagulation and inflammation. There is ample evidence that circulating platelets are activated in COVID-19 patients, which is a primary driver of the observed thrombotic outcome. However, the comprehensive molecular basis of platelet activation in COVID-19 disease remains elusive, which warrants more investigation. Hence, we employed gene co-expression network analysis combined with pathways enrichment analysis to further investigate the aforementioned issues. Our study revealed three important gene clusters/modules that were closely related to COVID-19. These cluster of genes successfully identify COVID-19 cases, relative to healthy in a separate validation data set using machine learning, thereby validating our findings. Furthermore, enrichment analysis showed that these three modules were mostly related to platelet metabolism, protein translation, mitochondrial activity, and oxidative phosphorylation, as well as regulation of megakaryocyte differentiation, and apoptosis, suggesting a hyperactivation status of platelets in COVID-19. We identified the three hub genes from each of three key modules according to their intramodular connectivity value ranking, namely: COPE, CDC37, CAPNS1, AURKAIP1, LAMTOR2, GABARAP MT-ND1, MT-ND5, and MTRNR2L12. Collectively, our results offer a new and interesting insight into platelet involvement in COVID-19 disease at the molecular level, which might aid in defining new targets for treatment of COVID-19-induced thrombosis.

DIRECTIONS TO ENSURE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF TARGETED SOCIAL POLICY

Independent Azerbaijan is at a historic crossroads in terms of economic, social, political, and cultural growth. The country's economy has been improved and modernized as a result of the socioeconomic reforms introduced during this period. The amount of the country's economy has more than tripled in the last 17 years, good socio-economic growth has been ensured, infrastructure has been built, and the level of poverty has decreased significantly in the context of positive dynamics. The rise in the minimum wage has resulted in a substantial decrease in illegal labor. Currently, the Republic of Azerbaijan's social policy, which is a priority of state policy, is followed by the country's sustainable development and an improvement in the indicators that characterize people's living standards.State budget spending for 2021 on public administration agencies, power systems, social policy implementation, real sector financing, and other expenditures according to the report, expenses related to the implementation of social policy account for 31.5 percent of total state budget expenditures.Expansion of the self-employment program, establishment of DOST centers providing 132 types of services, implementation of electronic appointment systems for 21 types of social security, ensuring accountability in the field of targeted social assistance and disabilit are great examples of this policy. The government's work in Karabakh to develop housing for families, disabled people, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) can also be considered a fruitful social operation. The conclusion was that the state should ensure a minimum wage, as well as help those who are unable to work and those who have temporarily lost their capacity to work. Azerbaijan government's social policy should be oriented to the sstablishment of an inflation-protection system, determination of the consumer basket's minimum level, economic growth, and population social situation, assisting the economy's improvement, ensuring the economy's sustainable development in order to enhance the country's socio-economic and demographic policy, equal social stability, an egalitarian society, and the balance of the capital and regions.

Facts and Figures on Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreak

A variety of infectious public health problems are prevailing in the world. Among these, epidemics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), H1N1 influenza and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome corona virus (MERS-Co V) emerged as very important issues during last three decades as these infections caused quite large number of human deaths worldwide. Coronaviruses are single-stranded positive sense RNA viruses which mainly in past were considered responsible for high percentage of (around 30%) of common cold/flu cases. Viruses causing SARS, MERS and COVID-19 are members of family Coronavirdae. World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the novel Cov-19 virus infection was first diagnosed in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China during December 2019. Initially the virus was named as nCoV-19 and later disease due to this virus was named as COVID-19, and recently named as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. This new coronavirus was found to have 86.9 % homology to a bat corona virus and hence it was suspected to have been originated from bats. Till 15th January 2021, the COVID-19 infection has been reported from 219 countries. It has caused over 20 million deaths in humans around the globe. Countries reporting very high death/infection rates include USA (393,948/23,617,815), Brazil (206,009/5,257,459), Mexico (136,917/1,571,901), India (153,000/10,596,442), UK (84,767/3,211,576), France (69,031/2,830,842), Russia (63,940/3,495,816) and Italy (80,326/2,319,036). Worldwide a total of over 96,750,700 COVID-19 cases have so far been reported. As reported earlier this pandemic has hit almost every country worldwide causing exceptionally high morbidity and mortality. Amongst the South Asian countries India is worst hit by this deadly COVID-19. Pakistan?s neighboring Iran is also very badly infected and reported 57,057 deaths of 1,348,316 infected people. In Pakistan 52,411,930 confirm cases of COVID-19 and around deaths are in various of the

Telepharmacy approach in implementing social distancing system during covid-19 scenario

Disasters and pandemics raise distinctive challenges to healthcare system. The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is swiftly spreading worldwide which is leading to the increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Telepharmacy and telehealth service serve as a modern approach to seek new opportunities to improve patient care particularly effective during epidemic outbursts when implementing social distance systems is recommend by health authorities such as World Health Organization (WHO). It served as a contemporary approach for the healthcare providers to deliver pharmaceutical services through telecommunications technology i n distant populations as well as to allow pharmacist and patients to connect via using smartphones or webcam to seek information regarding medication dispensing, patients counseling, and prescription verification. It is a fruitful and proactive way to provide a variety of benefits to patients seeking healthcare services. Telepharmacy will be a great boon for a country like India with very huge population, where people from remote areas retail cannot reach to a pharmacy, now can order and buy medicines, protective equipment’s like masks, gloves and face shields through online pharmacy. It will help to avoid direct contact between the pharmacist and costumers that will be beneficial in reducing the chances of community spread of COVID-19 and will promote social distancing concept among the people.

COVID-19 and Palliative Care Services: Comparative Patterns of Inpatient, Outpatient, and Consultation Services in a Tertiary Care Center in Riyadh.

Introduction The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) marked the third introduction of a highly pathogenic and large-scale epidemic coronavirus into the human population in the 21st century. The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Lockdowns were imposed in multiple countries affecting patient flow in hospitals. Methods This is a retrospective study conducted at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which examined the differences in palliative care services during the initial four months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the respective four months in 2019 (March, April, May, June). Results A total of 319 patients were seen at the palliative care department from March to June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic (119 inpatient, 200 outpatient), compared to 346 patients seen during the corresponding months in 2019 (97 inpatient, 249 outpatient). Our main findings included more patients being discharged home, lesser transfers, shorter hospital length of stay, lesser imminent death protocols, and a higher palliative performance score (PPS) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there were more cancelations by the hospital for the outpatient department, a virtual clinic was started, and 84 patients were effectively seen. Around 87% of patients were fully satisfied (5/5) with the services provided by the virtual clinic. There were no positive COVID-19 cases in our healthcare workers in the palliative care department due to the high standard precautions applied at KFMC. Family meetings as well as administrative and academic meetings have been efficiently held virtually and may possibly become the standard of practice. Conclusion Palliative care services were successfully maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic at KFMC.

Cyber Attacks in the Era of COVID-19 and Possible Solution Domains (preprint)

In this COVID-19 pandemic, the use and dependency on Internet has grown exponentially. The number of people doing online activities such as e-learning, remote working, online shopping and others have increased. This has also led to increased vulnerability to cyber crimes. Cyber security attacks have become a serious problem. The common types of cyber security attacks are phishing, malware, ransomware, social engineering, identity theft and denial-of-service. The attackers target the victims in order to get their credential information or financial benefits. Those people who are doing online activities are vulnerable to cyber threats. This is because the network is not safe. The attackers are able to code according to the weaknesses of the Internet. Once the attackers hack into the devices, they have the root access and can do whatever they want to do with the device. In this research paper, the concept of cyber security attack and detailed research about real attacks are discussed. This is followed by detailed review about the recent cyber security attacks with a critical analysis. Moreover, the research paper will be proposing the latest research contribution of cyber security during COVID-19 and the implementation scenario which will give the examples about how the companies maintain privacy as well as the limitations. Then, the paper will be discussing the reasons that people are vulnerable to cyber security and the unique solution to the problems stated. Finally, this paper will conclude with an in-depth analysis and future direction for cyber security research.