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Introduction Children with cancer are immunocompromised due to the disease per se or anticancer therapy. Children are believed to be at a lower risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease.Objective This study analyzed the outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in children with cancer.Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on patients (<= 14 years) with cancer attending the pediatric oncology services of our institute who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection and those who had COVID-19 disease between August 2020 and May 2021. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction performed on the nasopharyngeal swab identified the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The primary endpoints were clinical recovery, interruption of cancer treatment, and associated morbidity and mortality.Results Sixty-six (5.7%) of 1,146 tests were positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fifty-two (79%) and 14 (21%) patients had hematolymphoid and solid malignancies. Thirty-two (48.5%) patients were asymptomatic. A mild-moderate, severe, or critical disease was observed in 75% (18/24), 12.5% (3/24), and 12.5% (3/24) of the symptomatic patients. The "all-cause" mortality was 7.6% (5/66), with only one (1.5%) death attributable to COVID-19. Two (3%) patients required ventilation. Two (3%) patients had a delay in cancer diagnosis secondary to COVID-19 infection. Thirty-eight (57.6%) had a disruption in anticancer treatment.Conclusion Children with cancer do not appear to be at an increased risk of severe illness due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our findings substantiate continuing the delivery of nonintensive anticancer treatment unless sick. However, SARS-CoV-2 infection interrupted anticancer therapy in a considerable proportion of children.
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Determining sentiments of the public with regard to COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for nations to efficiently carry out vaccination drives and spread awareness. Hence, it is a field requiring accurate analysis and captures the interest of many researchers. Microblogs from social media websites such as Twitter sometimes contain colloquial expressions or terminology difficult to interpret making the task a challenging one. In this paper, we propose a method for multi-label text classification for the track of”Information Retrieval from Microblogs during Disasters (IRMiDis)” presented by the”Forum of Information Retrieval Evaluation” in 2022, related to vaccine sentiment among the public and reporting of someone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. The following methodologies have been utilised: (i) Word2Vec and (ii) BERT, which uses contextual embedding rather than the fixed embedding used by conventional natural language models. For Task 1, the overall F1 score and Accuracy are 0.503 and 0.529, respectively, placing us fourth among all the teams, while for Task 2, they are 0.740 and 0.790, placing us second among all the teams who submitted their work. Our code is openly accessible through GitHub. 1 © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
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When the pandemic was at its peak, it was a quite difficult task for the government to schedule vaccine supply in various districts of a state. This task became further difficult when vaccines were required to be supplied to various Covid Vaccination Centers (CVCs) at a granular level. This is because there was no data regarding the trend being acquired at each CVC and the population distribution is non-uniform across the district. This led to the arousal of an ambiguous situation for a certain period and hence mismanagement. Now that we have sufficient data across each CVC, we can work on a time series analysis of vaccine requirements in which we can essentially forecast the number of administered doses and optimize the wastage at all atomic CVC levels. © 2023 IEEE.
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Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 affected millions of lives globally and led to devastating impact on public health. India had also witnessed the dreadful effect of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Within a short span of time, various SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were developed using different platforms across the world. India has also developed one such indigenous whole-virion inactivated SARSCoV-2 vaccine named as BBV152 (Covaxin). The Covaxin has been found to be immunogenic and second most widely used vaccine in India. Recent studies have also shown significant increase in the humoral and neutralizing antibody response post the administration of booster dose against Omicron variant. Apparently, there is limited data on the long-term persistence of the immune response against the Covaxin in Indian context. Method(s): We evaluated an effectiveness of the Covaxin and comparing its specific immune responses in two categories through prospective cohorts recruited at the vaccination centre, Pune during June 2021 to March 2022. We defined the study population in two groups who were COVID-19 naive individuals (group-1) and COVID-19 recovered individuals (group-2) prior to the immunization with Covaxin. The two cohorts and the study participants were decided considering the baseline antibody titres against SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 positivity rate, sample power and loss to follow up. The study population was assessed during three follow-ups at second dose, one and six months post second dose to determine the immune response and effectiveness using S1-RBD IgG ELISA and neutralizing antibody response (NAbs) by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Result(s): We enrolled participants between age group of 18-80 year (median 32 years). In group-1 and group-2, we recruited 118 and 128 participants respectively. The cohort retention was found to be> 85%,>70% and>40% in 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow up respectively. Loss to the 3rd follow up was coincided with third wave with omicron variant. A rise in geometrical mean titre (GMT) of S1-RBD IgG were observed amongst the participants of both the groups at one-month post immunization (Group 1: S1-RBD: 154.4 to 446.3, Group 2 S1- RBD: 918 to 1127). However, the GMTs at six months post vaccination found to be slightly raised in Group 1 compared to one-month follow-up. Considering the hybrid immunity in group 2 participants, the GMTs of NAbs were higher than group 1 participants at each follow-up against B.1, Delta, Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. Both the groups had shown significant reduction in the levels of NAbs against Delta, Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 compared to B.1. The lowest GMTs of NAbs was observed against BA.1 variant. The IgG and NAbs persisted till six months in 90% participants in both categories except BA.1 variant. Breakthrough cases were reported at one-month (n = 1) and six-months (n = 2) post vaccination respectively from group 1. While reinfection cases (n = 3) were detected at six months post vaccination from group 2 due to Omicron BA.1 variant. Conclusion(s): A two-dose regimen of the Covaxin vaccine enhanced humoral immune response in adults with/without past COVID-19 infection and protected more than 90% adults against SARSCoV-2 infection. Additionally, IgG and NAb responses persisted for six months postvaccination.
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Background: Post-Covid retropharyngeal mucormycosis is a rare presentation, and no case has been reported in literature until date. Case presentation: A-32-year-old female post Covid presented to our OPD with history of dysphagia and with a history of steroid intake. Radiology confirmed it as retropharyngeal abscess. Endoscopic-guided aspiration was done. HPE (histopathological examination) revealed classic broad aseptate hyphae of mucormycosis. Patient was managed conservatively with broad-spectrum antifungal. Conclusion(s): Retropharyngeal mucormycosis is a rare entity in Covid era. Rapid diagnosis and management are needed to save life of an individual, or results could be fatal.Copyright © 2022, The Author(s).
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Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has created high demand for molecular kits and consumables for mass screening of suspected individuals. Direct real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay without nucleic acid extraction has several advantages in saving testing time and cost and helps in the rapid reporting of SARS-CoV-2. The present study evaluated the analytical performance of four SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR for direct RT-PCR testing using preheated specimens.Methods A total of 100 clinical specimens were selected and divided into three different groups: (1) group I: 20 SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens with high viral load, viz., low Ct values (< 30 Ct), (2) group II: 50 SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens with low viral load, viz., high Ct values (> 30 Ct), and (3) group III: 30 SARS-CoV-2 negative specimens. Specimens were heat-inactivated at 70 >= C for 10 minutes and cooled down at 4 >= C and were evaluated for standard and direct RT-PCR method by using ViralDtect-II Multiplex Real-Time PCR kit, TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit, COVIDsure Pro Multiplex RT-PCR kit, and Hi-PCR Coronavirus (COVID-19) Multiplex Probe PCR kit.Results Results showed that except ViralDtect-II kit, the other three TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit, COVIDsure Pro kit, and Hi-PCR Coronavirus (COVID-19) RT-PCR kit were able to amplify all the SARS-CoV-2 genes in the direct RT-PCR method using preheated specimens. In group I specimens, 100% sensitivity was observed in all three RT-PCR kits. In group II specimens, COVIDsure Pro kit was found to be superior among other kits.Conclusion Direct RT-PCR method during pandemic situation is valuable and cost effective for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. All three TaqPath COVID-19 Combo kit, COVIDsure Pro kit, and Hi-PCR Coronavirus (COVID-19) RT-PCR kit can be used for direct RT-PCR method and COVIDsure Pro kit performance was found to be superior among all.
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During the COVID-19 phase, e-commerce companies have risen rapidly, and customer demand increased suddenly. Brick-and-mortar ways of shopping have entirely shut down for approximately 4 months, and the whole country is dependent on online marketing platforms. There is a sudden rise in packaging because customers are more centric on online marketing;due to this, there is a massive increase in plastic consumption. This research paper aims to conduct a quantitative analysis of Indian consumer and industry experts regarding packaging products of e-commerce companies and then develop a framework for e-commerce companies regarding green sustainable practices. 145 responses were collected from Indian consumers, and 35 responses were taken from industry experts. This paper aims to visualize Indian customers' thinking regarding plastic bag packaging that they received from the e-commerce platforms and provide some valuable suggestions to the e-commerce companies. After analyzing the customer responses, a strategic framework is designed for green sustainable practices and validated by industry experts through a survey. After validating this framework, a robust framework is finally designed, which can be implemented in e-commerce companies for improved sustainability in their supply chain network. © 2023
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The inception of the COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardized humanity with markedly dam-pening of worldwide resources. The viral infection may present with varying signs and symptoms, imitating pneumonia and seasonal flu. With a gradual course, this may progress and result in the deadliest state of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and acute lung injury (ALI). More-over, following recovery from the severe brunt of COVID-19 infection, interstitial portions of alve-oli have been found to undergo residual scarring and further to have compromised air exchange. Such alterations in the lung microenvironment and associated systemic manifestations have been recognized to occur due to the extensive release of cytokines. The mortality rate increases with advancing age and in individuals with underlying co-morbidity. Presently, there is no availability of specific antiviral therapy or any other definitive modality to counter this progressive worsening. However, we believe principles and advancing cell-based therapy may prove fruitful in subjugating such reported worsening in these patients. This article reviews eminent knowledge and relevant ad-vancements about the amelioration of lung damage due to COVID-19 infection using adipose tis-sue-derived-total stromal fraction (TSF).Copyright © 2022 Bentham Science Publishers.
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Introduction. Patients with coronavirus illness experienced a cytokine storm as a major cause of morbidity and mortality in 2019. (COVID-19). The goal of the study was to ascertain the predictive value of pro-inflammatory cytokines with regard to the overall prognosis of COVID-19 patients. Methods. This study was conducted by the Department of Microbiology, Santosh Medical College & Hospital, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh from April to July 2021. We followed 189 patients hospitalized for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 from the day of hospitalization to the day of discharge or death. We measured serum IL-6, CRP, D - Dimer, Ferritin levels upon admission and correlated these results with clinical and laboratory markers of disease severity and with disease outcome. Results. Most of the patients were males and greater than 60 years of age. The mean ferritin level prior to the terminal event (survival or death) among non-survivors was 746 ng/mL as compared to 294 ng/mL among survivors and this difference was statistically significant (p-value <0.05). A decrease in ferritin levels prior to the terminal event (survival or death) and at admission were associated with a greater probability of survival. Ferritin levels prior to the terminal event were more strongly correlated with death than ferritin levels at baseline. Mean CRP level at admission among non-survivors was 69 mg/L as compared to 283 mg/L among survivors and this difference was not statistically significant (p >0.05). Conclusion. In patients with COVID-19, inflammatory markers have prognostic value, with higher levels being associated with worse outcomes.
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Globalization has paved the way to diminishing boundaries and increasing trade between countries. Consumers today have vast choices of products originating in both domestic boundaries as well as foreign countries. Yet, all foreign products are not viewed with the same pride and esteem. Products originating from different countries have different perceptions in the minds of consumers. The COO research has gained further importance in the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario, given the Government of India's wide-scale initiatives towards Atmanirbhar Bharat to make India more self-reliant, and the people of India are widely accepting such views. Few researchers have studied the COO effect on purchase preference for domestic vis-à-vis foreign products in India. The present study, therefore, investigated the country-of-origin effect on the relationship between the evaluation of domestic products and their purchase intention in the Indian context. The COO effect was investigated for the home country as well as a foreign country, that is, China. Understanding the country-of-origin effect of imported products vis-à-vis domestic products helps marketers plan their marketing strategies at both domestic and international levels. © 2023, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
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We examine the effect of COVID-19-induced lockdown on the profitability of listed firms in India. We use quarterly income statement of 4168 listed firms for the period between April–June 2020 quarter and April–June 2022 quarter and compare their financial data with previous quarters (2015–2019). Using a difference-in-difference estimation framework and various profitability measures, we find that the COVID-19 lockdown has reduced profits by around 15 per cent for listed firms in India. Our results are robust to various robustness tests and alternate specifications. We find evidence of firms losing revenues more than expenses, thus leading to decline in profits. The main effect is conditioned by firm-specific factors. Specifically, firms that are smaller, older, unlisted and that do not belong to any group witnessed larger decline in profitability due to lockdown. Additionally, the effect of lockdown is more pronounced in areas that had lower mobility and higher COVID-19 spread. These results underscore the importance of institutional factors and pre-existing firm characteristics in conditioning the impact of lockdown on firm profitability. © 2023 The Economic Society of Australia.
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This innovative practice full paper describes sustainability teaching through game-based activities in engineering classrooms for potentially enhancing student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Meta-analytic research indeed supports that gamification enhances student learning by increasing engagement and motivation, promoting goal setting behaviors and supporting the need for recognition. While there is a high scope for utilizing game-based tools to help students connect with global sustainability challenges, literature reflects a scarcity of such innovative pedagogical tools in engineering education. To tackle this challenge, we introduced interactive game-based modules to teach sustainability within two different education cultural contexts - one in the U.S. as a part of a Honours course at a large public university, and one in India, as a part of the first year engineering curriculum at a small private university.To broaden the outlook of engineering students towards sustainability, our game-based activity learning outcomes for students were to: 1) contextualize sustainability and its importance in contemporary global issues 2) recognize how Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could be interrelated, 3) explain how change in entropy and our actions can affect sustainability. To facilitate these broad learning outcomes, we developed two interactive gamified activities and implemented them online (due to COVID-based shift to instruction) in two different engineering institutions. This innovation article reports the design of two gamified activities used to teach sustainability, and studies its impact on student learning outcomes through SDT framework of motivation and thematic analysis of student reflections. We used surveys and minute paper to record student perceptions which were analyzed thematically. Results indicated that students enjoyed these games, saw value in peer learning, and simultaneously developed a deeper, more contextual understanding of sustainability by perceiving the interconnections between SDGs and ways in which entropy through their everyday actions influence sustainability. © 2022 IEEE.
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INTRODUCTION: Acute epiglottitis is a potentially fatal condition due to high risk of respiratory failure from upper airway obstruction and resultant difficulty securing a patent airway. The etiology is most commonly infectious although noninfectious etiologies have been identified. We present a rare case of acute epiglottitis as a presentation of COVID-19. DESCRIPTION: A 37-year-old male with a past medical history of health presented due to acute throat pain with difficulty swallowing, and without dyspnea or cough. The patient took no medications or supplements, had no known sick contacts, chemical inhalation, recent travel, or any known allergies. He had never received vaccination for COVID-19. He occasionally smoked cigarettes and marijuana, and did not consume alcohol or use illicits. The patient was febrile and had a swollen, tender submandibular area and tender cervical lymphadenopathy. Solids, liquids, and saliva were difficult to swallow but he was in no respiratory distress. A CT of the neck showed the classic "thumb sign" of a thickened epiglottis as well as thickening of the laryngeal soft tissues. Visualized by flexible laryngoscopy, the epiglottis was erythematous and severely swollen;vocal cords functioned normally. He had neutrophilic predominant leukocytosis with monocytosis. A nasopharyngeal swab PCR was positive for SARS-CoV-2, however a broad work up for other viral and bacterial pathogens was negative. He was admitted to the intensive care unit and treated with broad spectrum antibiotics and high dose corticosteroids. After five days of monitoring, no intubation or airway intervention was needed. He improved as he tolerated a liquid diet and was discharged home with antibiotics. DISCUSSION: 18 cases of acute epiglottitis associated with COVID-19 have been reported, and the incidence is likely underestimated. The mechanism of epiglottitis in SARSCoV- 2 infection is poorly understood;whether directly caused by the virus versus by Increased susceptibility to bacterial superinfection. Clinicians should be aware of this condition due to the high risk of airway compromise and mortality without prompt diagnosis and appropriate management. Early involvement of skilled providers is critical as patients may require nasotracheal intubation, tracheostomy, or emergent cricothyrotomy.
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Air pollution is increasing at a frightening pace due to emissions from industrial plants and manufacturing activities and other anthropogenic activities affecting living beings, property, and environment. This study aims to monitor the impact of COVID-19-induced lockdown and unlock down phases on the air quality of Jaipur city, Rajasthan, India by assessing the change in ambient air quality during pre-COVID-19 (January 2018–December 2019) and COVID-19 (January 2020–December 2021) phases by evaluating air quality parameters (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O3, Benzene and o-Xylene) using ground station data. Outcome of the study revealed that the ambient air quality improved significantly during lockdown phases (March–May 2020) as the percentage change in concentration of studied parameters declined by more than 100% at different sites. However, the concentrations tend to escalate with the introduction of unlock down phases (June–December 2020) and the onset of winter season (October–December 2020) aggravated the conditions. The AQI touched moderate and poor category many times during study period. Student's t-test was conducted on the dataset. Results revealed significant difference in the concentration of air pollutants between pre-covid and covid period.
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In recent years, we have witnessed an exorbitant growth of online interactions, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19, which requires diversified digital agreements in different application scenarios. In essence, multi-party agreement signing (MPAS) can be reckoned as a special case of the multi-party fair exchange (MPFE) for signatures over a digital agreement. However, such general MPAS protocols have not seen wide adoptions in practice, possibly due to the lack of incentives to maintain the signing platform. Practically, monetary-incentivized enterprises exist to act as a trusted third party (TTP) and provide signing services. However, such an agreement signing flow still suffers from certain limitations in terms of insecure and inefficient operations. To this end, we propose a secure and efficient framework for multi-party agreement signing based on decentralized identity, blockchain and decentralized storage network (DSN). The framework consists of two subsystems where the identity subsystem contains an extensible three-tier user identity model atop decentralized identity, and the agreement signing subsystem, empowered by the identity subsystem, DSN and several novel designs, achieves security and efficiency design goals. For the convenience of explanation, we suppose that a centralized signing service provider (SSP) is properly involved, i.e., sensitive information is still protected against the SSP, and acts as a TTP to ensure the crucial properties such as fairness and coordinate the signing activities. Our design is also compatible with other methods, e.g., ensuring fairness via blockchain, which removes the single point of failure of SSP. We prototype the framework and the performance evaluation shows effectiveness and efficiency. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Introduction &Objective: Acute renal colic due to obstructing stones has been a challenge for urologists to manage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to overwhelmed hospital resources, operating room (OR) time and staff became scarce, resulting in prolonged pain and suffering for patients. Early during the pandemic, we instituted an office-based ureteral stent placement protocol to relieve immediate discomfort. Later with less constrained OR availability, we extended this protocol to patients undergoing chronic stent changes. Method(s): Patients who presented with severe renal colic due to obstructing stones were offered immediate office-based ureteral stent placement under minimal sedation. Patients filled a prescription of diazepam 10mg and were brought to the procedure suite 2 hours later. Intramuscular ketorolac 15mg was given and 2% lidocaine lubricant jelly was inserted per urethra. Flexible cystoscopy was performed with a standard 16Fr scope, and the stent was placed through the cystoscope. For the first two cases, a 0.038" hybrid wire and 4.8fr stent were used while subsequently, a 0.035" stiff hydrophilic nitinol wire and 4.5fr stent were used. No intraoperative fluoroscopy was used. After stent placement, KUB X-Ray was done to confirm stent placement. Result(s): Seven patients (4 females, 3 males) with a mean age of 62.5 years and a mean BMI of 31.3 underwent an office-based procedure. Five stent insertions were done for obstructing ureteral stone (unilateral = 4, Bilateral = 1) and 2 stent changes for ureteral stricture and ureteral obstruction due to fibroids. In most cases, it was clear when the wire had gone past the stone, as there was immediate efflux of urine into the bladder. The efficiency of the procedure was greatly increased by changing the wire and stent size. Stent placement failed in one case due to overfilling of the bladder causing acute angulation of the ureteral orifice. The stent was later inserted under general anesthesia. Conclusion(s): Office-based ureteral stent insertion and exchange are safe and effective even in the absence of fluoroscopy. Further studies are needed to investigate predictors of success of office-based stent insertion, along with cost analysis to expand its use routinely.