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The world invasion of dangerous virus diseases such as Covid 19, in the last few years, force people to wear masks as precaution. Although this prudence reduces the risk of infection and viruses' spread, it adds difficulty to distinguishing or identifying a person. This paper proposes a method to analyze images of masked persons for classifying their gender, in addition to identifying the colors of their skin and their eyes. We apply residual learning using the convolutional neural network (CNN) based on the visible part of the face. Cloud computing resources have been used as a convenient environment of substantial computing ability. Also, new database of RGB face images was created for testing. Experiments have been operated on the constructed database beside other datasets of facial images after cropping. The proposed model gives 96% gender classification accuracy and 100% skin/eye color identification. © 2023, Ismail Saritas. All rights reserved.
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Background: Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause respiratory infections. A factor that has recently caused a great deal of anxiety is anxiety associated with the coronavirus. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of anxiety among medical personnel exposed to the new coronavirus pandemic. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional research was conducted on 210 medical personnel working in hospitals and health centers in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia. Medical personnel, who were exposed to or not exposed to this disease, were included in the study through census sampling in 2021. The data collection tools used include a demographic information questionnaire and the Corona disease anxiety scale (CDAS). Data analysis was performed using ANCOVA in Excel software. Results: The mean score of anxiety of the medical personnel during the new coronavirus pandemic in Tasikmalaya was 30.02%. Furthermore, in the medical personnel, the mean score of mental symptoms (47.22%) was higher than physical symptoms (13.15%). The anxiety, and psychological, and physical symptoms scores for women was higher than for men personnel, and there was a significant difference between them (P ˂ 0.05). The demographic variables of gender (P = 0.001), work experience (P = 0.023), and number of family members (P = 0.004) had a statistically significant relationship with anxiety (P < 0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the level of anxiety among female personnel was higher than male personnel. As a result, holding training classes and stress management courses among all personnel, especially female personnel, should be considered. © 2023, Vesnu Publications. All rights reserved.
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Covid-19 pandemic has been the cause of the most significant global revolution in recent times. The attack from an invisible enemy had caught the world unprepared since its first reported outbreak from Wuhan, China, in 2019. As a result, challenges arising from that of unimaginable proportions soon followed suit, and the world felt the impact of those challenges on so many levels. Most of the economy's industries had been greatly affected, with the construction industry being one of the hardest hit. Sarawak's construction industry is not spared either, as several construction site clusters resulting from workers' quarters popped up from the circle. The scenario creates awareness of the importance of improving the quality of workers' quarters. The Sarawak State Government, through its Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government, had formulated a guideline for Local Authorities on the temporary permit application for workers' quarters' building within construction sites. The response of the permit is studied using a qualitative approach through a case study of workers' quarters within construction sites in the jurisdiction of Kuching City South as the primary research method. The study is mainly based on observation and literature review and discusses the permit implementation response among the construction industry players. The findings from this paper conclude that the implementation of the permit could be observed further to capture a greater level of compliance and accountability to improve the quality of workers' quarters for occupational safety and the general health of labourers. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Introduction: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a serious global health problem that was first detected in Wuhan, China. Insufficient level of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards the preventive measures of COVID-19 lead to the economic downturn, rise in the number of infected people daily and increase mortality rate. Objective(s): This study was conducted to evaluate KAP towards COVID-19 preventive measures and symptoms among individuals living in Kedah. Material(s) and Method(s): A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing online questionnaires among 388 individuals living in different districts in Kedah. Descriptive frequency analysis was used to summarise the socio-demographic characteristics. Chi-Square Test and Fisher Exact Test were used to identify the association between demographic characteristics and level of KAP. Spearman's correlation was used to assess the relationship between the dependent variables. Result(s) and Conclusion(s): The mean score obtained for knowledge, attitude, and practice were 9.67 +/- 1.64, 20.89 +/- 3.03 and 10.13 +/- 1.12, respectively. A significant association (p< 0.05) was found between respondent's demographic characteristics with the level of knowledge (age, gender, level of education, marital status, occupation), and level of practice (gender, level of education). This study also reported no significant association between respondent's demographic characteristics with the level of attitude. There was a positive correlation between knowledge - attitude (rs =0.103, p<0.05), knowledge - practice (rs =0.111, p<0.05) and attitude - practice (rs =0.207, p<0.05). This study shows that the greater a person's level of knowledge, the higher the level of attitude and practice. This study will provide essential groundwork data to help health officials facilitate the implementation of effective policy regarding COVID-19 preventive measures in Kedah.
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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.
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The current study conducted for evaluating serum interleukin-1 (IL-1) and IL-6 level among Iraqi patients with COVID-19 (cov-19). The total number of patients positive with (cov-19) were 295. Seventy-one of them used to assessed IL-1and IL-6 and compare with 31 healthy subjects. The study revealed a high percentage of infected males (56.3%) compared to females (43.7%). The infection restricted between age 20-50 years old which represents 82.4% of all infected cases, while there is no infection recorded under the age of 10 years old. The age of 40-49 years is the most affected range (22.9%). Positive Female percentage was high only in the age group (10-19) that represents 4.7% of the total number. Both IL-1 and IL-6 show a highly significant increment in patients positive with cov-19 (p<0.0001). Copyright © 2022, Biochemical and Cellular Archives. All Rights Reserved.
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The use of technology in supporting business processes has become an integral part of business in the post-pandemic era. This study focuses on two aspects of technology which are digitization and digitalization of business processes in tourism industry in Malaysia. Due to movement constraints in Covid-19 pandemic, most of the related studies are conducted based on media report, peered review articles and research letters or empirical articles. There is a lack of case study to examine the effectiveness of various factors and how these factors impact the recovery of the post- pandemic tourism industry. A research case in earlier study implies that digitization and digitalization have an impact in recovery of tourism industry and insight gained motivates this study on effectiveness of smart tourism in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims to investigate effectiveness of smart tourism by using a self-developed mobile application which enables multiple trips organize in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Test cases are conducted among eleven managers in travel agencies and positive feedback are collected on system quality, perceived mobility, mobile usefulness, mobile ease of use and usage intention. Findings show that ICT has a major role in reviving business processes when tourism enters recovery phase. The study also discovered the importance of understanding the new patterns emerging which may include new tour packages or travel destinations that are emerging in future. In future work, artificial intelligence or machine learning based smart tourism models are introduced to analyse the new pattern emerging. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) appeared as outbreak in 2019 in Wuhan, China. It has been classified as pandemic disease and more severe than predicted;with infections already recorded in a variety of countries. This study aims to confirm the COVID-19 infection through the following tests: hematological, C-reactive protein (CRP). Samples were collected from the infected patients and sent to the National Flu Center (Central Public Health Laboratory) for COVID-19 (positive or negative) diagnosis by the RT-PCR technique. In this study, sixty five of COVID-19 patients and twenty five of healthy control samples male and female were collected in Iraq. There are significant differences in the parameters of the hematological markers for patients in comparing with the control group and no significant differences were observed in Hb when RBC and GRAN percent rise in patients relative to the control group with P=0.0395 and P=0.0354 respectively comparing with the control group. White blood cells (WBC), Lymphocyte (LYM%), Platelets (PIT), monocyte (Mid%), hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT) was drop dramatically in patients compared to control group. Fifty-one of patients for whom the test was given exhibited a positive (CRP) result. Likewise, the results showed that few patients were negative to CRP test. The Hematological parameters levels (HCT, MCV, MCH, Pelt, WBC, LYM, Mid, MPV, PCT) decreased, but Hb, RBC, GRAN% increased. C-reactive protein test showed a positive result in 85% of patients which can be considered an indicator for predicting severity infection with COVID-19. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
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Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices of surgical interns, residents and surgeons in the time of COVID-19. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on surgical interns, trainees, registrar and consult-ants working in public and private sector tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. Non-Convenience sampling technique is used. A total of 184 patients were included. The study was performed on assessing patients' demographics, basic knowledge and awareness of COVID 19 and individuals' practices toward COVID 19 in their professional routines. Data were stored and analyzed using IBM-SPSS version 23.0. Pearson Chi Square test was used to test the association outcomes, awareness and attitude items on COVID-19 between private and public sector hospitals. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant Results: The study comprised a total of 184 participants. Mostly from public 115(63%) rest 69(37%) belonged private sector hospitals. Most respondents 122(66.3%) were aware of COVID 19 incubation, symptoms and the detection of patients at risk and modalities of transmission in operating rooms. Results showed among public vs Private sector hospitals (81.7% / 68.1%) were treating corona virus, there were (35.7% / 46.3%) screening and admitted the cases, (56.5% / 62.4) tentative numbers of COVID-19 cases reported range from 0-25, (40.9%/11.6%) surgeons were assigned additional duties for COVID-19 by hospital management found statistically significant with "p<0.01". Conclusion: It is concluded after this study that the surgeons in Pakistan are well aware of the situation, have adequate knowledge of the risk factors and symptoms of COVID-19. But statistically, probably because of limited resources and work load, there is a substantial gap in practices between public and private sector surgeons. There is also a dire need to develop local guidelines related to preventive measures in our health care systems according to our demands and supply.
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) appeared as outbreak in 2019 in Wuhan, China. It has been classified as pandemic disease and more severe than predicted;with infections already recorded in a variety of countries. This study aims to confirm the COVID-19 infection through the following tests: hematological, C-reactive protein (CRP). Samples were collected from the infected patients and sent to the National Flu Center (Central Public Health Laboratory) for COVID-19 (positive or negative) diagnosis by the RT-PCR technique. In this study, sixty five of COVID-19 patients and twenty five of healthy control samples male and female were collected in Iraq. There are significant differences in the parameters of the hematological markers for patients in comparing with the control group and no significant differences were observed in Hb when RBC and GRAN percent rise in patients relative to the control group with P=0.0395 and P = 0.0354 respectively comparing with the control group. White blood cells (WBC), Lymphocyte (LYM%), Platelets (PIT), monocyte (Mid%), hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT) was drop dramatically in patients compared to control group. Fifty-one of patients for whom the test was given exhibited a positive (CRP) result. Likewise, the results showed that few patients were negative to CRP test. The Hematological parameters levels (HCT, MCV, MCH, Pelt, WBC, LYM, Mid, MPV, PCT) decreased, but Hb, RBC, GRAN% increased. C-reactive protein test showed a positive result in 85% of patients which can be considered an indicator for predicting severity infection with COVID-19.
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The depth and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic create the greatest global crisis of this century. This catastrophe leads to one of the large-scale economic and social disrupts in the history of mankind. Despite magnificent scientific progress and technological advancement, nature upholds humans as a statue against the situation. This crisis not only changed the economical and social courses but strongly shaken the strings of cultural and religious believes and harmony. From a strong economy to the highest moral values and unique religious believes did not help to fight the situation. The post-pandemic era will be an opportunity to think about the existing economical, social, and cultural faiths. It will also provoke an evaluation of the difference between “how we did” and “how we should do” as well as to focus on international cooperation to develop a combined strategy against such subsequent challenges. Such brainstorming process will result in enormous change in policies from the governments and re-shuffling of the beliefs including moral values in the society. This review portrays the most challenging situations faced during a pandemic and encompasses the discussion on lessons learned and predictive points about the future human being and architecture of the economical and social structures. This will provide a sketch of how present decisions will describe the world of future human beings. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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A new world map was led to progression after Pandemic Covid-19. The said arrangement narrowed the circle of life. A huge number of literatures could be seen on the electronic screens especially in 2020. But, truly observing one may find the word “Corona” early in the twenty-first century starting from China with a minor pandemic approach. Later in 2012 and now in 2019 and 2020 with an enormous spread around the globe. The current compilation comprehends the published literature on Pandemic Covid-19, summarizing the outbreak, diagnosis, management and the treatments including natural and synthetic molecules, during the last two decades. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Introduction: The outbreak of novel coronavirus COVID-19 infections that started in China late 2019 has spread rapidly and cases have been recorded worldwide. So, in this study, we sought clarification of the clinical characteristics and importance of changing the lymphocyte group, antibodies, CD markers, and interleukin-6 in the serum of COVID-19 patients, which may help to clarify the pathogen and develop new biomarkers. Material and Methods: Venous blood samples had been accumulated from patients before taking any medications. Sera had been separated and saved at (-20°C) until analysis. Serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, and IgM) were determined in plasma samples using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and Serum IL-6 was assessed. Results: Median IgM (p=0.001), IgG (p<0.0001), and IgA (p<0.001), were decreased in patients comparing with control the control group. There is a significant decrease in CD3+ and CD4+ cells compared to healthy individuals in patients infected with COVID-19 (p<0.0001). CD19+ cell count decreased in COVID-19 patients compared to that of the control group (p<0.0001). After calculating CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio decreased in COVID-19 patients (p<0.0001). However, CD56+ cells were found to be increased (p<0.0001). Conclusions: IgM, IgG, IgA levels and CD19+, CD4+ cells, CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio were found to be decreased whereas CD8+, CD3+, CD4+ cells were detected to be increased in COVID-19 patients compared to those of healthy controls. © 2020 Turkish Journal of Immunology.