Estimation of Parameters and Stability Analysis of Coronavirus Pandemic

Despite ranking amongst the highest in medical systems in Africa and spending a substantial amount on health sector than other African nations, Algeria suffered a major blow in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy also affected the country adversely in subsequent waves of the disease. This study estimates the number of Covid-19 cases for Algeria in January 2022 using two numerical methods Multi-step Differential Transform Method (MsDTM) and Repeated MsDTM. Stability analysis of the pandemic for the country has also been discussed in the paper.

Analysis and Prediction of Covid-19 Spread Using Numerical Method

In this paper, we have discussed the impact of Coronavirus variants in a phase of 2021-22 along with a previous phase of 2020-21 in Italy. We analyse and compare the Covid-19 scenario in Italy for the period from October 04, 2020 to January 16, 2021 with a period from October 04, 2021 to January 16, 2022. For this study, we have used repeated multi-step differential transform method (RMsDTM). Also, we have predicted the number of active cases for 10 days following the period of study.

An Integrated In Silico Approach to Develop Epitope-Based Peptide Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2

Background: SARS-CoV-2 has been a topic of discussion ever since the beginning of 2020. Every country is trying all possible steps to combat the disease ranging from shutting the complete economy of the country to the repurposing of drugs and vaccine development. The rapid data analysis and widespread tools have made bioinformatics capable of giving new insights to deal with the current scenario more efficiently through an emerging field, vaccinomics. Objective(s): The present in silico study was attempted to identify peptide fragments from spike surface glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 that can be efficiently used for the development of an epi-tope-based vaccine designing approach. Method(s): The epitopes of B and T-cell are predicted using integrated computational tools. VaxiJen server, NetCTL, and IEDB tools were used to study, analyze, and predict potent T-cell epitopes, their subsequent MHC-I interactions, and B-cell epitopes. The 3D structure prediction of peptides and MHC-I alleles (HLA-C*03:03) was further made using AutoDock4.0. Result(s): Based on result interpretation, the peptide sequence from 1138-1145 amino acid and sequence WTAGAAAYY and YDPLQPEL were obtained as potential B-cell and T-cell epitopes, re-spectively. Conclusion(s): The peptide sequence WTAGAAAYY and the amino acid sequence from 1138-1145 of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 can be used as a probable B-cell epitope candidate. Also, the amino acid sequence YDPLQPEL can be used as a potent T-cell epitope. This in silico study will help us identify novel epitope-based peptide vaccine targets in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Further, the in vitro and in vivo study needed to validate the findings.Copyright © 2022 Bentham Science Publishers.

Hospital-Acquired Achromobacter Denitrificans Bacteremia: Case Report and Review of Literature

INTRODUCTION: Achromobacter denitrificans bacteremia is a rare condition and generally affects adults with multiple comorbidities and is usually a hospital acquired infection. We report a case of hospital acquired Achromobacter denitrificans bacteremia in a young female without any comorbidities, who presented to the hospital with severe viral pneumonia. DESCRIPTION: A 33-year-old female was presented to the ER with increasing difficulty in breathing. On examination, she had labored breathing. Her oxygen saturation was 80% at room air. With oxygen support via face mask, her saturation increased to 83% with 15 L/min. Then non-invasive ventilation via BiPAP it improved to 90% and she was admitted to the medical ICU. Meanwhile, as per history from the husband, she had a cough and coryza for the past one week and was taking over the counter medications. Lab investigations at the time of admission reported WBC count as 7500/ cumm. She was tested negative for COVID-19. HR CT-scan showed bilateral ground glass opacities with bilateral patchy consolidations. For worsening hypoxia, she was intubated and placed on ventilator support (FiO2:60%). Her blood and urine culture reports were negative. The Liver function tests showed elevated SGOT/SGPT, suggesting acute hypoxic liver injury. Supportive care with IV steroids, and broad-spectrum antibiotics Pipercillin and Tazobactam was provided. In the second week, the patient's WBC started rising and peaked at 40,000/cumm on Day-10. Her condition worsened further despite being on 100% FiO2. The tracheal sample grew a colony of Acinetobacter Baumannii, while her blood cultures reported positive for A. Denitrificans sensitive to Pipercillin and Tazobactum. Chest X-Ray suggested features of acute respiratory distress syndrome with no signs of a cavitary lesion or abscess. Ultrasound abdomen and Echocardiography ruled out other sources of infection. Despite ventilatory support and medications, the patient deteriorated, and passed away after cardiorespiratory arrest. DISCUSSION: Achromobacter denitrificans cause opportunistic nosocomial infections, which has been recovered from ventilators, humidifiers, "sterile" saline, and IV fluids. A. denitrificans is associated with pneumonia, peritonitis, bacteremia, endocarditis, empyema, renal abscess, and pancreatic pseudocysts.

A Global Survey of Impact of Violence against Healthcare Workers in Critical Care Settings: Vishwas

INTRODUCTION: A rise in the incidents of violence against Health Care Workers (HCWs) in recent years calls for improvement in modes of spreading awareness and educating the public. We aimed to conduct a large global cross-sectional survey called ViSHWaS- Violence Study of Healthcare Workers and Systems in the departments of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, and Emergency medicine. METHOD(S): A global survey after tool validation, was created using REDCap forms and distributed from June 5th to July 24th, 2022. Communication tools including emails, phone calls, SMS, and social media applications like WhatsApp, Twitter, and LinkedIn were used in securing responses. This study was deemed eligible for category-2 Institutional Review Board exempt status. RESULT(S): Total of 598 responses from 69 countries, out of these 445 (74%) were complete. The maximum responses were from India (N=49), followed by the USA (N=44) and while those from the other 67 countries ranged from N=1-30. Out of these, 221 (50%) were female, the majority (56%) were in the 26-35 years category, followed by (19%) in 36-45 years. The participants encompassed 156 (35%) consultants, 97 (22%) nurses and the rest were residents/fellows in training, auxiliary/ staff, advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNP), physician assistants (PA), researcher and others. The vast majority (73%) reported facing violence within the past year;Verbal (63%) and physical (39%) were the most commonly reported. Total 126 (28.3%) reported that patient and/or family member as the type of aggressor they/ their colleague encountered most frequently. A majority (75%) reported that the incidence of violence has either stayed the same (39%) or increased (36%) during COVID-19 pandemic. Because of violent episodes, 48% felt less motivated/ had decreased job satisfaction;an additional 25% were willing to quit. While half of respondents were familiar with Occupational Safety and Health standards, only 20% felt prepared to handle aggressive situation. CONCLUSION(S): In this global cross-sectional survey, a majority of HCWs reported to have faced violence. They felt that it either increased or stayed the same during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has led to decreased job satisfaction. Majority of those, who responded, felt unprepared to handle the violence.

Red Blood Cell-Derived Nanoerythrosomes Mediated Efficient Delivery Of Mrna Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major public health concern throughout the world. Various ventures of vaccine candidates are being studied rigorously in this regard and one such candidate is the receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike protein which interacts with angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on the host cell's membrane. Exploiting this interaction, many scientists across the world attempted to develop mRNA vaccine against SARSCoV- 2. A major lacuna associated with mRNA vaccines is their delivery through a suitable carrier, especially given the stability issues associated with mRNA vaccines. Aims & Objectives: The aim of our research is to develop an efficient mode of delivery of the self-amplifying mRNA (saRNA) against COVID 19. We have developed small vesicles from erythrocyte ghosts, known as nanoerythrosomes, which are in the nanometre range and focussed on development of nanoerythrosomes for delivery of mRNA-based vaccines. Material(s) and Method(s): Nanoerythrosomes were prepared from erythrocytes using osmotic and ultrasonic frequency stress and loaded with saRNA vaccine candidate. Thereafter, the nanoerythrosomes were characterized using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to confirm their homogeneity, integrity and size. The mRNA loaded nanoerythrosomes were used to deliver the mRNA in Vero E6 cells to evaluate its uptake. Result(s): The characterization of nanoerythrosomes using DLS and TEM revealed their size in the range of 100-200 nm. The delivery mediated by nanoerythrosomes was comparable to the Lipofectamine mediated uptake of saRNA indicating the excellent delivery efficacy of nanoerythrosomes. The added advantage of nanoerythrosomes mediated delivery is that they are rapidly taken up from blood by macrophages of the reticuloendothelial system (RES) that is present in liver, lung, and spleen. Thus the combination of saRNA and nanoerythrosomes can accelerate the uptake and antigen presentation in reticuloendothelial system and will provide an outstanding platform for the development of SARS-CoV2 vaccine. Conclusion(s): We developed a new approach to deliver mRNA vaccine candidates using nanoerythrosomes and successfully demonstrate its efficacy in vitro. This strategy can be further extended for the delivery of other vaccine candidates. (Figure Presented).

Covid-19 cases in Morocco: A comparative analysis

Covid-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by novel Corona virus SARS-CoV-2, affecting the whole world. In this paper, we introduce and apply two iterative methods, RMsDTM and R2KM, to obtain approximate values of Covid-19 cases in Morocco. We also compare the approximations of both methods and see that the solution of RMsDTM is more accurate. © 2022, Erdal Karapinar. All rights reserved.

Florid cystitis cystica et glandularis mimicking a bladder tumour: A rare case report

Background: An 80 years old male patient presented with urinary retention. He had lower urinary tract symptoms for the last two years. The patient was catheterized and subsequently developed gross hematuria. The patient was COVID- 19 positive. Method(s): The ultrasonography showed bladder wall thickening with bladder mass around the neck. The computerized tomography scan showed heterogeneously enhancing thickening in the left lateral wall of the urinary bladder and was suspected to be neoplastic. There was a suspicious heterogeneously enhancing lesion in the base of the prostate. His serum prostate-specific antigen level was 5.79 ng/ml. His repeated urine cytology for malignant cells was non-diagnostic. Result(s): The patient underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURPT). The TURBT biopsy showed florid cystitis cystica et glandularis and the TURPT biopsy showed adenomatous hyperplasia. Conclusion(s): The florid cystitis cystica et glandularis mimic a malignancy, and it is, therefore, important to consider it as a differential diagnosis while evaluating catheterized patients with lower urinary tract symptoms.

Analytical study of the effect of agnihotra on AQI and its psycho-social impacts: a perspective amidst second wave of pandemic challenges in National Capital Region of Indian subcontinents

This research paper is a step towards the study to see how Vedic Homa Therapy is an effective natural approach for treatment of any pollution, heavy PM 2.5 and PM 10 particles and the use of mango wood, cow dung and bargad wood in the cure of ailment, depression, pollution control by just focusing on its lyrics, sound, diction when done continuously. By performing Yagya, two energies are produced. Heat energy from fire of Yagya and the sound energy from vibration of the Vedic mantras;both the energies are combined to give self-healing results on any disease and its ionisation produces a vital role in curbing polluting particles. The study has done comparative analysis on emission of gaseous particles after Yagya post-second wave of COVID-19 and also through ML algorithms and statistical analysis;it demonstrates the auto correlation and high correlation on different parameters responsible for pollution measurement and for AQI.

Emerging Techniques for Handling Pandemic Challenges

The world right now is dealing with a nightmare in the form of Corona virus disease. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic by the WHO. It’s an infectious disease caused by virus called SARS-CoV-2. The symptoms of the disease range from fever, dry cough, headaches to difficulty in breathing. Technology has been making it out lives easier and how. The healthcare system also incorporates technology everywhere. We can use latest technologies to deal with crisis situations such as pandemic. Remote healthcare monitoring is the process of monitoring patients in a non-clinical environment. The patients can be provided with sensors and wearable’s to monitor them from afar. The devices range from wearable health monitors to fit bits. Artificial Intelligence is the future, everyone says. With help of technology, devices can check that people are maintaining social distancing and have their masks on. The data collected can be used to make people aware during a pandemic situation. It can be psychologically disturbing and stir up all sorts of feelings, like unreasonable fear and stress. Online counseling also proves helpful to those who shy way in going to hospitals to discuss issues such as depression. It also breaks the barrier of stigma among the patients. © 2021 Scrivener Publishing LLC.

Rapid Forecasting of Pandemic Outbreak Using Machine Learning

Humans have faced a number of pandemics since the dawn of civilization, but today what we are facing is an invisible enemy novel COVID-19, causing the pandemic globally at an alarming rate, bringing a devastating effect on our lives and impacting our economy drastically. The infection in humans by COVID-19 was thought to be originally from bats perhaps as zoonotic agent (from animal to human) but the rapid increase in the figure of cases in Wuhan city and globally even after shutting the market off and quarantine whole city, indicated an alternative mode of transmission from human-to-human which is rarely observed in nature. The main objective of this chapter is to predict a rapid forecasting of pandemic outbreak using machine learning approaches. The chapter is based on a preliminary estimation about the disease, spread of disease across the globe, the possible ways of treatment, and prevention in its outbreak which makes use of technologies like machine learning which may prove beneficial to save the human race from pandemics like COVID19 in the future. © 2021 Scrivener Publishing LLC.

The significance and applicability of computational approaches in combating covid-19

Novel corona virus disease (COVID-19), the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) has become a burning issue of 2020. The pandemic has brought the complete world to think about the solutions that can lead us to restart the journey of life in a normal way. Every country is trying all possible steps to combat the disease ranging from shutting the complete economy of the country to the repurposing of drugs and vaccine development. Manual dealing with the virus is a very tedious and highly sensitive issue that requires a high level of safety and every researcher is not sufficient enough to attain it. Regarding this situation, computational approaches have opened a new door for researchers and scientists to think against this deadly issue. The speedy data generation and its analysis through different basic to advance approaches, tools, software, and databases have made bioinformatics capable of giving new insights to the researchers to deal with the current scenario more efficiently. From understanding the underlying mechanism of the virus to the speedy discovery of therapeutic intervention, computational approaches play a significant role. Various Insilco pipelines from genomics and proteomics study, drug discovery, vaccine development, drug repurposing to system biology, network medicine, next-generation sequencing, and machine learning not only help in understanding the disease pathway and mechanism but also speed up the therapeutic process efficiently. The current review deals with the significance and usefulness of computational approaches in combating the corona pandemic. © 2021 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

The New Variants of Corona-Virus Mutations: An Understanding to Their Infectivity, Immunological Tolerance and Vaccine Efficacy

The new COVID-19 variants are triggering a fresh panic all around. Scientists still have not found any closely related identification of these variants in the context of their evolution. The scrupulous deletion/mutations recognized inside the spike protein of the variants are emerging with an amplified pace and are observed to be associated with the alterations in the receptor-binding region (RBD) of the spike protein. This paper highlights the reported mechanistic studies conducted on SARS-CoV-2 mutant variants;the mutant virus's ability in response to the antibody recognition to evade the immune system in humans. The role of cellular immunity in response to its interaction with SARS-CoV-2 variants and importantly the discussion on the antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of SARS-CoV-2 disease with therapeutic antibodies and vaccines has been highlighted. It is expected that this may likely be interesting and helpful for readers in clearing all their presumptions related to the spreading severity of the mutant virus strains and more importantly the effectiveness of current and upcoming vaccines for its possible control.

MULTI-SCALE RESIDUAL NETWORK FOR COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS USING CT-SCANS

To mitigate the outbreak of highly contagious COVID-19, we need a sensitive, robust automated diagnostic tool. This paper proposes a three-level approach to separate the cases of COVID-19, pneumonia from normal patients using chest CT scans. At the first level, we fine tune a multi-scale ResNet50 model for feature extraction from all the slices of CT scan for each patient. By using multi-scale residual network, we can learn different sizes of infection, thereby making the detection possible at early stages too. These extracted features are used to train a patient-level classifier, at the second level. Four different classifiers are trained at this stage. Finally, predictions of patient level classifiers are combined by training an ensemble classifier. We test the proposed method on three sets of data released by ICASSP, COVID-19 Signal Processing Grand Challenge (SPGC). The proposed method has been successful in classifying the three classes with a validation accuracy of 94.9% and testing accuracy of 88.89%.

Psychological and emotional response to lockdown in children during the ongoing pandemic COVID-19 in urban areas of Jaipur

Background: In the year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created havoc in people's lives across the entire world. The pandemic created fear and uncertainty, and Lockdowns were enforced for containment of the disease, impacting the general population's mental well-being as well. The dearth of studies on the subject, particularly on Children and adolescents, creates a vacuum of information which hinders the strategy formulation for effective handling of such issues. Aim: The research aimed to study the psychological impact of Lockdown on children & adolescents in tier 2 city of India. Methods: The study was conducted through online surveys in the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan state of India using the Snowball sampling technique. The Study group included children between the age of 6 to 16 years and assessment of the mental well-being of the participants were done using Short Mood &Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ). Result: A total of 301 valid responses were received, from which 38 (12.22%) children scored high on SMFQ wherein female adolescents scored higher than males. A total of 10 out 21 children with a history of medical illness scored high on SMFQ and a total of 2 out of 4 children with a past history of psychiatric illness scored high on SMFQ. The data analysis revealed that most of the children struggled with feelings of restlessness, fatigue, unhappiness, and difficulty in concentration. Conclusion: Lockdown has affected mental well-being of both children and adolescents. The impact was observed equally in both groups wherein those with psychiatric history were affected more than others in the 6-11 years age group (Children) and those with medical history were affected more than others in the 11-16 years age group (Adolescents). Immediate attention is needed for alleviation of mental burnout in children and adolescents considering already inadequate interventions in the matter and the ongoing nature of the pandemic.

1492P A longitudinal cohort study on assessing the impact COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of cancer care providers: Developing world scenario

Background: COVID-19 is one of the most unfortunate events seen in the 21st century due to its outrageous spread and ordeal effect on people. Cancer care providers (CCPs) are under immense mental burden due to the unpredictable pandemic and compromised cancer care amongst patients. Pandemic has taken a toll on the caregivers, be it physically, mentally, or psychosocially. Methods: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted from May 2020 to September 2020 to assess the pandemic's impact on mental health amongst the CCP. DASS 21 & PCL5 instruments were used to identify the temporal change with pandemic evolution on mental health. An online survey was administered at three different periods with 6-week intervals through email. Collected data is analyzed using the SPSS 26. Independent variables are presented as categorical data and analyzed using chi-square. Temporal change in the mean scores analyzed using independent t-tests. Various demographic factors were correlated with the DASS 21 scores and PCL 5 scores using logistic regression. Results: The questionnaire was emailed to 240 CCP's;115 responses were valid. Mean age is 29.9 +/- 5.86, 62.6% were male and 27.4% were female respondents. 41.7% were nursing staff, and 58.3% were doctors;67% had less than five years of medical experience. Respondents who stayed with family had significant depression levels in the first and third surveys (OR: 0.37, CI- 0.15-0.91, P=0.03), (OR: 0.17, CI-0.026-1.1, P=0.04). Stress levels were significantly high in the caregivers staying with family in the first survey (OR: 4.38, CI: 1.2-15.7, P=0.02). On analyzing three surveys, 55 respondents in both the first and second survey 21,8,17 respondents persisted in having depression, stress, and anxiety. There was an increase in the stress levels in the third survey when compared to the second survey. Conclusions: In any disaster or an unnatural event, time helps the human mind to adapt to the new conditions;it is similar to our initial results that show improvement in the depression, stress, and anxiety levels with the second survey. It is essential to assess and address the mental health status-related problems to ensure HCW's personal well-being and deliver quality health care to the patients. Legal entity responsible for the study: The authors. Funding: Has not received any funding. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

LARGE SCALE MANUFACTURING AND POTENCY ASSAY DEVELOPMENT FOR HMSCS IN REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

Background & Aim: A consortium of leading human mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (hMSC) therapy developers, Sentien Biotechnologies, GenCure Biomanufacturing and RoosterBio, are developing a large-scale hMSC biomanufacturing process with a deep Quality focus, culminating in a potency assay qualified with human clinical samples. Methods, Results & Conclusion: A Xeno-Free (XF), fed-batch, microcarrier-based bioreactor process for hMSC manufacturing had been developed and optimized [1], and scaled to a 50L process, with demonstrated comparability between the hMSC critical quality attributes (CQAs) from the bioreactor process and from 2D control cells of similar population doubling (PDL) [2]. Based on this previous process development, GenCure and RoosterBio are leading the first stage of biomanufacturing through upstream (2D seed train & bioreactor expansion) and downstream process (continuous counterflow centrigufation, formulation & fill, and cryopreservation). Bioreactor runs at the 50 L scale were performed using the most commonly used hMSC sources in regenerative medicine: bone marrow (BM-MSCs), umbilical cord (UC-MSCs) and adipose (AD-MSCs). Critical process parameters (CPPs) are defined and critical quality attributes (CQAs) of the harvested cell product are characterized. An initial production run produced over 33billion BM-MSCs that passed the ISCT minimal criteria for MSCs. The subsequent expansion of UC- and AD-MSCs will be presented. Sentien's proprietary platform was used to ask questions on how the MSCs reacted to different stimuli with results showing that BM-MSCs were able to sense and respond with different secretomes to inflammatory stimuli. Our data also showed that BMMSCs induced changes in CD4, CD8 and CD19 cells and significantly reduced TNF-a levels in activated PBMCs, demonstrating their immunomodulatory capabilities. The same assays will be performed using the resulting MSCs from umbilical cord and adipose tissue expanded in the 50L bioreactor. Sentien, which has treated 16 subjects with acute kidney injury (AKI, open IND) and is currently running a trial in severe COVID-19 patients with AKI, will contribute biomarker data from the clinical-scale bioreactor and patient samples. Testing the in vitro developed potency hypothesis against the clinical samples will form the basis of a true potency assay. Through this work, the consortium will develop a generalized quality framework for large scale MSC manufacturing and potency assay development for broad use in regenerative medicine.