A Novel CNN-Based Approach for Distinguishing Between COVID and Common Pneumonia

It is well known that the symptoms of Coronavirus disease (COVID) and common pneumonia (CP) disease are very similar though the first one often leads to severe complications and may even be fatal. Hence, it is of vital importance to be able to correctly distinguish between the two. This paper attempts to achieve this task using whole 3-D CT scans of lungs. A number of models have been experimented with, using convolutional and radiomic features as well as their concatenations, and different classifiers (MLP and Random Forest) with two different sizes of input CT images (50 × 128 × 128 and 25 × 256 × 256 ) and their performances have been compared. The most significant contribution of this work is the postulation of a 3-D dual-scale framework using CT scans, employing both intra-scale and inter-scale information, thereby achieving performance scores which are much higher than the state of the art methods to distinguish between COVID-19 and CP using lung CT scans. Specifically, Accuracy of 98.67% and Receiver Operating Characteristics-Area Under The Curve (AUC) of 99% are worth mentioning. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Government support to Pakistani women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: Under the unique context of COVID-19, this paper aims to analyze how the Government of Pakistan (GoP) provides financial and non-financial support to women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Drawing on the resource-based theory of entrepreneurship (RBTE), the study advances the understanding of resources and grants offered by GoP to women entrepreneurs to help them in business survival. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts qualitative research method to address the questions: how does the Pakistani government respond to issues faced by women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what assistance and initiatives were implemented by GoP? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty on-job government officials related to the entrepreneurial sector in Pakistan. Findings: The paper reveals that during the pandemic, GoP keenly communicated with women entrepreneurial representatives to comprehend their business challenges. In addition, waivers and incentives were provided to support their business activities. GoP further invited women entrepreneurs to contribute their knowledge and give suggestions in policy making. Originality/value: Lots of research have been conducted to identify the issues faced by women entrepreneurs during the pandemic. However, the specific strategies, policies, and support provided by the governments to address these issues have often been overlooked. This paper fills such gap with focus on the governing bodies and policymakers in Pakistan towards women entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 crisis. © 2022, Nida Hussain, Baoming Li and Habib Elahi Sahibzada.

ZOOM-ing into a New Pedagogy: Permanent Adoption of Online Teaching and Learning in Private Higher Education Institution in Malaysia

Usage of online teaching and learning platforms to support mobile or remote learning in higher education institutions have been widely utilised throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as movements were restricted, disallowing physical classes. Many agree with the functions and benefits of these online platforms. Thus, this study aims to analyse the determinants that would influence the acceptance and use of technology based on the UTAUT model for permanent adoption of the system. The results showed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating condition have significant influences over behaviour intention to use the online systems, intention having influences on usage behaviour as well as hedonic motivations having mediating effects on the relationship between performance expectancy and facilitating condition with behaviour intention. Findings and implications of this study are discussed to assists the education industry. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Comparison of side effects between different brands of COVID-19 vaccines among Malaysian adult population

Introduction: : In January 2020, COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern which targets the human respiratory tract. Since then, scientists have been developing vaccines to curb the spread and reduce the likelihood of severe effects from the infection. Several brands of vaccines are available (Pfizer-BioNtech, AstraZeneca/Oxford and Sinovac) and it was reported that people experienced a various range of side effects from them. Objective(s): This study was conducted to compare the side effects between different brands of COVID-19 vaccines among Malaysia adult population. Material(s) and Method(s): A cross-sectional study was conducted among 410 Malaysian adults by distributing online questionnaires via various platforms. Descriptive data was presented as frequency and percentages or means and standard deviations of means. The severity of side effects among different age group and gender of Malaysian population who has received three doses of COVID- 19 vaccination were analysed by using Chi square test. P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result(s) and Conclusion(s): The most common side effects experienced were fever, pain or swelling at the injection site, sleepiness and exhaustion, stiffness in joints and muscles, and headache following vaccination. It was found out that majority of the respondents experienced most severe side effects with Pfizer-BioNtech compared with two AstraZeneca/Oxford and Sinovac. Majority of the respondents also reported mild symptoms following the first, second and third dose. There was also a significant association between gender, age, level of severity and type of brands of vaccines. Findings from this study can provide data on the most suitable coping as well as solution or treatment to treat the side effects. In addition, this study will also benefit the researchers and scientists in vaccinology to create and produce new vaccines with fewer side effects or without any rare adverse event.

Single Mother in The Digital Economy: Stimulating Entrepreneurship & Covid-19 Challenges

Empowering women is a prerequisite for a healthy nation and robust economic performance. This vision poses huge challenges to developing female entrepreneurs, especially single-mother entrepreneurs. Single mothers are the breadwinners for their family and are often responsible for accommodating the needs of family members. The paper aims to identify the tendency of single mothers to become successful entrepreneurs. Using a quantitative design, surveys were conducted with 521 female entrepreneurs with online businesses. Expensive technology and the lack of relevant knowledge and skills in using digital tools are among the leading constraints single-mothers face in growing their business. Findings showed that single mother entrepreneurs who use internet applications in their business tend to have a high level of skill and high motivation in digital entrepreneurship world. For inclusive growth, it is critical to increasing women’s participation in business and the global marketplace by developing their capacity to fully participate in the digital economy. The effects of COVID-19 which hit for two years gave a lot of lessons and experience to women entrepreneurs to continue trying to face the current economic challenges with full tenacity and patience. The government has provided training to increase knowledge and skills to improve the economy of single mothers as provided by the Women's Department and Department of Social Welfare. © 2018 Malaysian Consumer and Family.

ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS OF COVID-19: A SINGLE CENTRE STUDY FROM INDIA

Introduction: The second wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in India was characterised by rapid surge in cases, higher rates of hospitalisation and mortality. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of severe COVID-19 infection and has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The pathophysiology and risk factors of AKI in COVID –19 is inadequately studied especially in the setting of the second wave. There is scarcity of data from India regarding incidence, risk factors and outcome of AKI in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted during the second wave of COVID-19 at a teaching hospital in south India. All the adult patients (>18 years old) with COVID-19 confirmed by a positive reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) were included in this study. Severe COVID-19 was defined as SpO2 <94% in room air, PaO2/FiO2 <300 mm Hg, respiratory rate >30/min or lung infiltrates>50%. The study was conducted from 1st April 2021 to 31st July 2021. AKI was defined according to KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) criteria. Patients who were on maintenance dialysis prior to admission and those without a positive COVID RT PCR report were excluded. All patients were followed up until discharge or death as applicable. Results: A total of 76 patients were admitted during the study period. 74 were included in the study (Figure 1). The average age of the patients was 55.6 ± 13.8 years. 78.4% of the patients were male. 34 (45.9%) of 74 patients developed AKI. Out of them 47.1% had stage 1 AKI, 17.6% had stage 2 AKI, 11.8% had stage 3 AKI and 23.5 % had stage 3 AKI requiring dialysis. When the baseline characteristics were compared between those who developed AKI versus those who did not develop AKI, the former had more co-morbidities as indicated by higher Charlson co-morbidity index (CCI score) p=0.001, higher proportion of diabetes mellitus (p=0.01) and pre-existing chronic kidney disease (CKD) (p= 0.04). The patients who developed AKI had more severe illness with 41.1% of them requiring non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and 44.1% mechanical ventilation (p= 0.001 and p= 0.04 respectively). 50% of patients who developed AKI required inotropic support as compared to 20% of those without AKI (p=0.007). Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and serum ferritin were significantly elevated in patients who developed AKI as compared to those who did not develop AKI (Figure 2). On stepwise multivariate regression analysis, presence of diabetes mellitus (OR (95% CI): 6.8 (1.50-30.96), p=0.013), serum LDH >/= 386 (OR (95% CI): 12.38 (1.66-92.46) p= 0.014, serum ferritin >/=835 (OR (95% CI): 3.84 (0.86-17.14) p=0.07 and delay from symptom onset to admission in days (OR (95% CI): 3.55 (0.89-14.15), p=0.07 were independent risk factors for development of AKI in our study population. The overall mortality rate of the study population was high at 56.7%, with 64.7% in the AKI group and 50% in the non- AKI group (p=0.20) Fig 1: Details of study population [Formula presented] Fig 2: Box and whisker plots of serum LDH and serum ferritin in those with AKI and those without AKI [Formula presented] [Formula presented] Conclusions: There is high incidence of AKI in critically ill patients of COVID-19 admitted to ICU. Diabetes mellitus, high serum LDH and serum ferritin were found to be independent predictors for AKI development. No conflict of interest

Nanoarchitectonics: role of nanomaterials in vaccination strategies for curbing SARs-CoV-2/COVID-19

With the exponential rise in infections by CoV-2 and the scarcity of antiviral therapeutics, the development of an effective vaccine for the SARS CoV-2 is critical. The emerging pandemic has prompted the international science community to seek answers in therapeutic agents, including vaccines, to battle the SARS CoV-2. The various scientific literature on SARS CoV, to a lesser degree, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), has mentored vaccine techniques for the unique Coronavirus. This disease, COVID-19, is triggered by SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 that needs vaccine protection. Vaccines producing significant amounts of virus-neutralizing antibodies with high affinity may be the only way to combat infection while avoiding negative consequences. There is a summary of numerous vaccine contenders in the review, including nucleotide, vector-based vaccines, & subunit, and attenuated & killed types. That has previously shown preventive effects against the MERS-CoV & SARS-CoV, while suggesting that these candidates may yield a safe and efficient vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Vector-based vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, genetic vaccines, and protein subunit types for passive immunization are among the vaccination platforms currently being evaluated for the CoV-2 virus;each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. The clinical safety and effectiveness evidence is the main challenging research task for this possible vaccine developed in the lab. The most challenging aspect of production is constructing and validating distribution platforms worthy of mass-producing the vaccine on a larger scale. Since target vaccine groups include high-risk people above the age of 60, including severe co-morbid diseases, the healthcare staff, and those engaged in vital industries, an effective COVID-19 vaccine would need a careful confirmation of effectiveness and detrimental reactivity. The study summarises efforts devoted to developing an efficient vaccine for the new Coronavirus that devastated the global economy, people's health, and even their lives.

Macroeconomic factors and financing strategies in working capital: Evidence from China

Changing economic situation of a country affects working capital by influencing lenders' financing abilities, firms' business activities, and managers' decisions. Hence, this paper explores the influence of macroeconomic factors in the relationship between working capital financing and firm performance over the period of 2000–2018. Applying the two-step generalized methods of moments, we found a non-linear and inverted U-shaped relationship between working capital finance (WCF) and firm performance, significantly influenced by the macroeconomic indicators that is, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, Inflation rate, and interest rate. We segregated the data regarding the global financial recession period 2008–2010 and disclosed that the non-linear and inverted U-shaped relationship between WCF and firm performance turns to linear and negative during this recession period. We also evaluated the role of GDP growth, inflation, and interest rate in WCF and firm performance relationship during the global recession and found that these factors do not influence the nexus during this period. Firm managers, lending agencies, and researchers may use these results in choosing the best financing options in working capital under the changing situation of macroeconomic factors. The WCF and firm performance analysis during the global recession period (2008–2010) may be the best prediction model for the current financial crisis caused by COVID-19. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of pregnant women confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 admitted in the hospitals in Baghdad

Background: Pregnant women are considered one of the most vulnerable groups for COVID-19. Routine but essential services are the most affected during emergencies, therefore practitioners must pay closer attention to women and newborns to minimise the impact of the pandemic on these vulnerable populations. Objectives: To describe clinical characteristics and outcomes of pregnant women admitted to hospitals with SARS-CoV-2 in Baghdad during 2020.

Acute acalculous cholecystitis: An unusual first manifestation of COVID-19

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic has become a major global health challenge, with more than 178 million confirmed cases and over 3.86 million deaths to date. While general and respiratory symptoms are common, it may have atypical GI involvement. We chronicle here an extremely rare case of acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC) in a patient with COVID-19. Case Description/Methods: A previously healthy 35-year-old male presented to the emergency room with abdominal pain and non-biliary vomiting. He was nonsmoker, nonalcoholic, and drugfree. His vitals revealed: temperature 37.1°C, heart rate 82 bpm, blood pressure 114/72 mm Hg, respiratory rate 16/minute, and an oxygen saturation of 99% in room air. Physical examination revealed a positive Murphy's sign. Laboratory parameters revealed leukocytosis and high CRP level. Abdominal ultrasound showed marked gallbladder wall thickening, normal CBD, with no cholelithiasis or sludge formation. EUS also ruled out stones in the gallbladder. Therein, coronavirus rRTPCR came back positive. CT chest revealed bilateral patchy peripheral ground-glass opacities in the lungs, consistent with COVID-19. Based on these findings and exclusion of probable causes of AAC, COVID-19-related AAC was diagnosed. The patient was initiated on standard COVID-19 treatment for the mild disease and conservative treatment for AAC. His hospital course remained unremarkable, except for fever and dyspnea on day 4 of admission. He remained hemodynamically stable. On day 7 of admission, his abdominal pain, vomiting, and fever disappeared with treatment. On day 9 of admission, he was afebrile, dyspnea had resolved, and had no abdominal pain. He was then discharged home in a stable condition. He continues to do well for 2 months now. Discussion: Published medical literature is bereft of reports on the association between AAC and COVID-19. A PubMed search was conducted for all case reports of AAC amidst COVID-19 till June 2021. Search terms included ''acalculus cholecystitis'' and ''COVID-19''. The search resulted in only 4 case reports to date. This case highlights that the GI symptoms may precede the pulmonary manifestations of COVID-19. It further provides the clinical evidence behind a causal relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and biliary involvement. The extrapulmonary symptomology of this infection has not been extensively studied, warranting a high index of suspicion for rare manifestations like AAC. Thus, new-onset GI symptoms may indicate COVID-19, requiring prompt testing for SARSCoV- 2.

Learning from excellence: Sharing success, a quality improvement project

Background A Learning From Excellence (LFE) scheme was initiated in the Paediatric Department of a District General Hospital (DGH) to highlight and celebrate good practice. This scheme was implemented at a time when stress levels were particularly high at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the popularity of the scheme, it was later expanded to include the maternity department. Nominations were received via email to a centralised address. On a monthly basis, certificates were sent out to nominees and themes of excellence were shared with the wider team. Objectives To evaluate staff opinions of the LFE scheme, in particular the impact on morale, working relationships, teamworking and patient safety. To also explore staff opinions on the functionality of the scheme and their experience of submitting and receiving nominations. Methods A survey was distributed to all participants in the scheme 4 months after the project was initiated. An additional poll was performed at 10 months, and all members of the paediatric and maternity teams were invited to participate. Data was also collected on the number and theme of nominations, as well as staff members nominated/nominating. Results 44 nominations were submitted within the first 4 months. There was a 73.0% response rate to the survey following this period (n=36), of which 72.0% fully completed the survey (n=26). The majority of nominations (57%) were from Paediatric Registrars in the first four months, but there was a spread across the wider MDT. All respondents reported that the LFE initiative had some impact on improving morale in the workplace, improved their motivation in the workplace and had been effective in improving teamwork. 96.2% felt LFE was effective in breaking down boundaries between staff and 88.5% felt it had an impact on improving patient safety. The qualitative responses received highlight the positive feelings experienced by participants and the impact on individual wellbeing - not only experienced by those who were nominated, but also the nominators. Momentum built in the 10 months since the scheme was introduced, with the numbers of nominations growing from a mean of 6 per month initially to a peak of 25 per month (overall total of 146 nominations.) The spread of nominees over time was more inclusive of the wider MDT. A follow up survey was performed at 10 months and 40 responses were received. 100% of respondents felt that LFE was a beneficial initiative, and 100% felt that LFE had a positive impact on their work environment. Conclusions The LFE scheme implemented during the Covid- 19 pandemic in our paediatric department has contributed to improvement in staff morale, motivation and teamworking. The increase in nominations is evidence of development of a positive culture in which recognition of colleagues' contribution to the team is becoming part of the ethos of the department. Encouragement has never been more crucial than during the current global pandemic. We aim to expand this initiative by using digital innovation to make the process more efficient, and across different sites, so that learning points can be shared amongst the wider Trust.

The shift in teaching pedagogy for independent landscape design during the pandemic: An analysis of student performance in ODL

The teaching and learning environment have subsequently expanded. For the Independent Landscape Design course offered at UiTM Perak Branch, the online distance learning (ODL) has demonstrated the changes of delivery approach in teaching landscape design process. This design-based syllabus is more acquainted with face to face or physical teaching learning environment. Aligned with the Educational 5.0 @ Universiti Teknologi MARA that embraces values and future progressive thinking, this course has adopted MOOCLAA350 to engage and equip these design students with significant understanding, graphic presentation skills as well as technical aspects related to design developments and constructions. This paper analyses student performance throughout the ODL implementation, adopting MOOC and other relevant online platforms during this Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. An online survey supported with a comparative analysis between semesters was conducted to evaluate the students' readiness, challenges and performance throughout the semester. Some tools and techniques to ensure the continuity of learning during the current pandemic are described. The findings revealed factors contributing to student performance and the reality behind the success of this new teaching strategy which is practical for landscape architecture programs and may also be relevant to other design-based programs or courses. © 2021 by MIP.

Improved Medical Image Classification Accuracy on Heterogeneous and Imbalanced Data using Multiple Streams Network

Small and massively imbalanced datasets are long-standing problems on medical image classification. Traditionally, researchers use pre-trained models to solve these problems, however, pre-trained models typically have a huge number of trainable parameters. Small datasets are challenging for them to train a model adequately and imbalanced datasets easily lead to overfitting on the classes with more samples. Multiple-stream networks that learn a variety of features have recently gained popularity. Therefore, in this work, a quad-stream hybrid model called QuadSNet using conventional as well as separable convolutional neural networks is proposed to achieve better performance on small and imbalanced datasets without using any pre-trained model. The designed model extracts hybrid features and the fusion of such features makes the model more robust on heterogeneous data. Besides, a weighted margin loss is used to handle the problem of class imbalance. The QuadSNet is trained and tested on seven different classification datasets. To evaluate the advantages of QuadSNet on small and massively imbalanced data, it is compared with six state-of-the-art pre-trained models on three benchmark datasets based on Pneumonia, COVID-19, and Cancer classification. To assess the performance of QuadSNet on general classification datasets, it is compareed with the best model on each of the remaining four datasets, which contain larger, balanced, grayscale, color or non-medical image data. The results show that QuadSNet handles the class imbalance and overfitting better than existing pre-trained models with much fewer parameters on small datasets. Meanwhile, QuadSNet has competitive performance in general datasets. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Classification of COVID-19 CT Scans via Extreme Learning Machine

Here, we use multi-type feature fusion and selection to predict COVID-19 infections on chest computed tomography (CT) scans. The scheme operates in four steps. Initially, we prepared a database containing COVID-19 pneumonia and normal CT scans. These images were retrieved from the Radiopaedia COVID-19 website. The images were divided into training and test sets in a ratio of 70:30. Then, multiple features were extracted from the training data. We used canonical correlation analysis to fuse the features into single vectors;this enhanced the predictive capacity. We next implemented a genetic algorithm (GA) in which an Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) served to assess GA fitness. Based on the ELM losses, the most discriminatory features were selected and saved as an ELM Model. Test images were sent to the model, and the best-selected features compared to those of the trained model to allow final predictions. Validation employed the collected chest CT scans. The best predictive accuracy of the ELM classifier was 93.9%;the scheme was effective.

COVID-19 crises: Global economic shocks vs Pakistan economic shocks

This paper documents, information about the current outbreak of Corona virus and its multidimensional effects witnessed worldwide. The objective of the study is to disseminate information to policymakers, government and the general public, to facilitate the efforts for fighting against the contagious virus and aims to contribute to the economic and social welfare. Though the data changes rapidly by every passing minute, yet the current scenario may be analyzed to evaluate the present situation for a fruitful outcome. Hence, the discussion may be useful for all the stakeholders (government, policymakers and the public) for their reference. Various studies previously observed that widespread contagious diseases have a severe impact on the economy. It is observed that the faster and wider the outbreak of disease, the higher and severer the influence on the economies. The economies face shrinkage of income, revenue, earnings, while health expenditure increases for hospitals, medical kits, ventilators, uniforms, masks, gloves, medicines and other medical equipment. Therefore, it has a two-pronged adversely hitting effect on economies to manage the imbalance in the budget and fiscal matters. Another unfortunate situation is when the high populated country is poor too. The world has realized the effects of the different contagious viruses in the different times in history. Nevertheless, the virulence and the severity of the COVID-19 is far greater than the previous viral breakouts. We, in this research attempt to highlight the multidimensional effects of COVID-19 and create some possibilities how to deal and fight with this cruel and invisible enemy. © 2020 ASTES Publishers. All rights reserved.