The relationship between coronavirus phobia and negative emotion status of adults doing regular physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic process

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between coronavirus phobia and negative emotional states of adults who do regular physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic process. A total of 423 people, including women (n=202) and men (n=221) who do regular physical activity, voluntarily participated in this study. The number of people according to the sport type of the participants (Individual=208, Team Sport=97 and Fitness for Health=118) and the number of persons in the sports level of interest (Professional= 79, Amateur= 262, Recreational=82) were determined. As a data collection tool, the Personal Information Form for the demographic information of the participants, the COVID-19 Phobia scale (C19P-S), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DASS-42) Scale were applied online using a Google questionnaire. A statistically significant difference was found according to gender in the psychological, somatic, social subscale, and total scores of the COVID-19 phobia scales of the participants (p<,05). Similarly, a statistically significant difference was found in DAS scores and stress scores according to gender (p<,05). In the COVID-19 phobia scale total score, the mean score of team sports is higher than the mean score of fitness for health purposes in addition to depression and anxiety scores, the mean score of team sports was found to be significantly higher than the mean score of individual athletes. It was found that the anxiety scores of those who are recreationally involved in sports are significantly higher than those who do sports professionally, and it was determined that there was a moderately significant positive correlation between the COVID-19 phobia in all subscales and scale total scores and DAS scores of the participants (p<,05). Women have a higher fear of COVID-19 than men. It was found that the depression and anxiety scores of those who do team sports were higher than those who do individual sports. It can be said that the negative mood symptoms of professional athletes are at a lower level than those who do sports for amateur and recreational purposes.

Deep learning-based hybrid clinical decision support system algorithm for COVID-19 diagnosis via PCR graphics and Thorax CT images, preliminary data

Introduction: The limited sensitivity of microbiological testing, challenges in radiological differential diagnosis, and expectations of quick and accurate diagnosis required developing clinical decision support systems (CDSS). We propose a new deep learning-based hybrid CDSS that combines the advantageous aspects of thorax computed tomography(CT) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(PCR) to overcome the weakness of each one. Method(s): We retrospectively constructed a database that contains CT images of healthy subjects and patients with COVID-19 pneumonia(CP), bacterial/viral pneumonia(BVP), interstitial lung diseases(ILD), and PCR data of patients who were tested positive and negative for SARS-CoV-2. A new 3D-convolutional neural network (3D-CNN) and long short-term memory network(LSTM) based CDSS is developed to perform accurate and robust detection of COVID19 using CT images and PCR data. Result(s): Performance results of the proposed models (Fig1) provide highly reliable diagnosis of COVID-19 with 93.2% and 99.7% AUC for CT and PCR data, respectively. Conclusion(s): Proposed CDSS with state-of-the-art deep learning methods provides similar performance compared to both radiologists in CT evaluation and microbiologists in PCR evaluation and can be safely used. We plan to develop a hybrid CDSS algorithm further, combining laboratory data with CT and PCR models.

COVID-19 pandemic impact on banking sector: A cross-country analysis

This study examines the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the performance and stability of the banking sector. Our sample consists of 2073 banks in 106 countries from 2016Q1 to 2021Q2. We employ several alternative bank performance and stability measures for a comprehensive analysis and robustness. The findings show that the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly reduced bank performance and stability. These results are consistently observed across several geographical regions and countries' income classifications. Additional analysis shows that the adverse impact of COVID-19 depends on the characteristics of the bank and market structure. While a better regulatory environment, institutional quality, and financial development have significantly increased the strength and resilience of banks. These findings provide practical implications for regulators and policymakers in the face of unprecedented uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Avoiding isolation: Physical activity for persons with disabilities and Covid-19

It was aimed in this article to draw attention to the following issues: the importance of issuing guidelines on what countries can or should do in order for individuals with disabilities to maintain their daily exercises or physical activity routines, and informing the public about it;the importance of considering the needs of a person with disabilities in emergency preparedness and response plans of the countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic;the importance of the dissemination of public health messages in plain language and accessible formats through all mass media channels;the importance of providing psychosocial support to persons with disabilities and their families;and, the importance of strengthening support networks for persons with disabilities. In the research, the literature on Covid-19 and physical activity in disabilities published in 2020 was scanned via Pubmed and Google Scholar, and the study was designed as a review. Analysis of the related literature showed that it is important to develop a habit of performing regular physical activity in disabilities and to continue these activities especially during the pandemic period. In this review, persons with disabilities should be informed about what they can or should do to maintain their daily exercise or physical activity routines.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND EMERGENCY DISTANCE TURKISH TEACHING

The aim of this study is to determine the teachers’ views on emergency distance Turkish teaching as a foreign language after Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, the quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously in the study, which was created by using the convergent mixed design of the mixed method, which is one of the basic research methods. The study group of the research consisted 137 of teachers who were obliged to switch to emergency distance Turkish teaching while teaching Turkish face to face to international students studying at Turkish Teaching Centers affiliated with universities. According to the findings of the research, it was determined that teachers faced with many technological and pedagogical problems. In addition, it was identified that before the process started, teachers did not receive any training for distance Turkish teaching and therefore started distance teaching without experience. Moreover, it was concluded that class sizes are suitable for distance teaching, writing is the most difficult skill to develop and measure in distance teaching, and there is a lack of materials to be used in distance teaching. © 2022, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. All Rights Reserved.

Arterial and Venous Embolism Due to COVID-19 Vaccine (Biontech): Case Series

Although the most prominent effect of Corona disease, respiratory disease it disrupts the vascular structure and causes vascular occlusion. Intravascular coagulation, has also begun to be observed in people who have been vaccinated. Therefore, clinicians had to add anti-coagulants or antiaggregants to the treatment. In this article;We will try to present the patient who developed arterial and venous embolism after BioNTech vaccine. These patients without known vascular disease responded well to treatment. The rate of sickness dropped after the vaccine was discovered to be the most effective strategy to protect against Covid-19. It was discovered that vaccinated patients exhibited symptoms similar to corona disease but had a moderate course.

COVID-19 VACCINATION of SPONDYLOARTHRITIS PATIENTS RECEIVING BIOLOGICAL THERAPY: REALLIFE DATA

Background: Considering the concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccine safety among patients with rheumatic diseases due to a lack of data, an urgent need for studies evaluating safety profiles of vaccines emerged. Objectives: Vaccination against the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) started in March 2021 in the group using biological therapy in our country. In this study, post-vaccine real-life data of patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) followed up with biological therapy were analyzed. Methods: Adult patients diagnosed with SpA who were followed up under biological therapy and vaccinated by CoronaVac inactive SARS-CoV-2 orBNT162b2 messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 (Pfzer-BioNTech) vaccine were included in our observational, multicenter, prospective study. Results: A total of 287 patients (58.2% male;mean age: 47) were included in the study. 202 (%70,4) of patients were being followed up with the diagnosis of AS, 40 (%13,9) of them with PsA, 32 (%11,1) of them with nr-axSpA, 11 (%3,8) of them with enteropathic arthritis, and 2 (%0,7) of them with uSpA. The most common comorbidities were found to be HT (n:65;22.6%) and DM (n:38;13.2%). While 221 (77%) of the patients were receiving biological therapy alone, 27 (9.4%) patients were using methotrexate, 25 (8.7%) patients were using sul-fasalazine, and 12 (4.2%) patients were using lefunomide. The median duration of biological therapy was 40 weeks (19-75 IQR). The most commonly used treatment was infiximab (26.8%), adalimumab (23.3%) was the second (Table 1). It was determined that 207 (72.1%) of the patients preferred inactivated virus vaccine, while 80 (27.9%) preferred mRNA vaccine. When the time between the biological treatment and the day of vaccination is examined, detected median time between biological treatment and the frst dose of vaccination is 11.5 days (5-19 IQR), between the frst dose of vaccination and biological treatment is 14 days (7-21 IQR), between treatment and the second dose of vaccine is 14 days (5-23.5 IQR), and between the second dose of vaccine and the next biological treatment is 12.5 days (7-15 IQR). While 25 (8.7%) of the patients had COVID-19 infection before vaccination, 7 (2.4%) patients were found to have COVID-19 after vaccination (p<0.001). While two of the patients who had COVID-19 infection in the pre-vaccination period required hospitalization, none of the patients who had COVID-19 in the post-vaccination period required hospitalization. The rate of patients who developed side effects after the frst dose of the vaccine was 20.6%. The side effects seen, respectively, were detected as pain-redness at the injection site (16%), fatigue (11.8%), headache (8.4%), muscle-joint pain (7.3%) and fever (5.6%). The rate of patients reporting side effects after the second dose of the vaccine was 17.1%. The incidence of side effects after mRNA vaccine was found to be statistically signifcant compared to inactivated virus vaccine in terms of both doses (p=0.011, p<0.001). Major side effects such as myocarditis, ana-phylaxis-angioedema, myocardial infarction, and thrombosis were not observed in any of the patients included in the study. There was no evidence of disease activation in the median follow-up of 209 days (145-280 IQR) after vaccination. Conclusion: During the follow-up of the patients during the study, no major vaccine-related side effects, post-vaccine disease activation and the need for treatment change were not detected. In order to more accurately evaluate the efficacy of the vaccination program in the patient population using biologic agents, larger-scale studies including unvaccinated individuals are needed.

Effect of Fluid Therapy on Coagulation in COVID-19 Patients in the Intensive Care Unit

Study Objectives: Several studies have evaluated CT pulmonary angiography of COVID-19 patients and reported a 7%-30% increase in the incidence of pulmonary embolism. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effect of fluid therapy on coagulation in COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit. Methods: This retrospective study included 120 patients hospitalized in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit for more than one week, between August 2020 and February 2021. Blood prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), international normalized ratio (INR), fibrinogen, troponin, D-dimer levels, platelet count measured at the time of admission (T1, baseline) and one week after admission (T2), and the fluid treatments administered during this period were recorded. Patients were divided into the saline solution (SS) group (n=75), 0.45% saline solution group (0.45%, n=30), and combined fluid therapy group (SS+0.45%, n=15). Results: The change in PT was statistically significant for the SS group (p = 0.005), but not for the 0.45% and SS+0.45% groups (p = 0.625, p = 0.262, respectively). In the SS group, the aPTT levels increased posttreatment (p = 0.005). INR levels were significantly different between SS and SS+0.45% groups (p = 0.008). In the SS group, the INR levels increased between T1 and T2 (p = 0.014). In the SS group, the D-dimer levels significantly increased posttreatment. Conclusion: The D-dimer levels were prominent in the follow-up of the COVID-19 patients. Accordingly, using SS for fluid therapy may increase hypercoagulation and the risk of an embolism when compared to the SS, 0.45%, and combined (SS+0.45%) treatment.

Evaluation of Students' Opinions Regarding Distance Learning Practices in Turkish Universities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to identify hether students at Turkish universities are having difficulties in the distance learning process and to reveal their opinions regarding the system. Using a cross-cultural survey design, data were collected from 5052 students. Based on the collected data, 58.5% of the students have asynchronous distance learning classes in their universities. Access to distance learning classes is one of the problems, and it is attributed to computers, internet, and connectivity issues as well as with starting the lessons too early or late. A majority of participants (73.7%) found class materials uploaded by lecturers to distance learning systems to be sufficient or partially sufficient, and 36.7% stated that they had problems accessing resources regarding their homework. Students' satisfaction level with the distance learning system scored 4.4 out of 10. According to the evaluation regarding whether the level of satisfaction of participants varied across the type of university, the satisfaction level of students in public universities is generally low (score of 4.3 out of 10) compared to satisfaction in foundation universities (4.9 out of 10).

The First Case of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Successfully Treated with Combined Therapies Including Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation and Plasmapheresis

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a severe disease that can lead to death. There is no definitive treatment for MIS-C yet. It has been reported that intravenous immunoglobulin, intravenous methylprednisolone, fluid supplements, antibiotics, inotropics, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), plasmapheresis, biological therapy, and anticoagulation therapy can be used for treatment. In this article, we presented an 8-year-old girl child patient who survived due to timely administered ECMO and combined therapies including plasmapheresis without any sequela despite her life-threatening condition due to MIS-C.