Doc-Handler: Document Scanner, Manipulator, and Translator based on Image and Natural language processing

Physical documents may easily be converted into digital versions in the modern digital era by employing scanning software and the internet. The day when this activity needed printers and scanners is long gone. Nowadays, even our smartphones and cameras may be used to quickly convert paper documents into digital ones. This is especially useful in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the ability to share and access documents online is more important than ever. This study proposes an application for illiterate people to quickly translate scanned papers or photos into their native language and save them in a digital format. The Application makes use of image processing methods and has capabilities including PDF conversion, image colour adjustment, cropping, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). A user-friendly application, developed using the Flutter Framework and programmed in Python and Dart, serves as the interface for the system. The proposed application is cross-platform and works with a variety of gadgets. This method intends to increase accessibility and productivity for illiterate people in the digital age by integrating image processing with language translation. © 2023 IEEE.

The Potential Impact of Ayurvedic Traditional Bhasma on SARS-CoV-2-Induced Pathogenesis

The mass casualties caused by the delta variant and the wave of the newer "Omicron" variant of SARS-COV-2 in India have brought about great concern among healthcare officials. The government and healthcare agencies are seeking effective strategies to counter the pandemic. The application of nanotechnology and repurposing of drugs are reported as promising approaches in the management of COVID-19 disease. It has also immensely boomed the search for productive, re-liable, cost-effective, and bio-assimilable alternative solutions. Since ancient times, the traditional-ly employed Ayurvedic bhasmas have been used for diverse infectious diseases, which are now employed as nanomedicine that could be applied for managing COVID-19-related health anomalies. Like currently engineered metal nanoparticles (NPs), the bhasma nanoparticles (BNPs) are also packed with unique physicochemical properties, including multi-elemental nanocrystalline compo-sition, size, shape, dissolution, surface charge, hydrophobicity, and multi-pathway regulatory as well as modulatory effects. Because of these conformational and configurational-based physico-chemical advantages, Bhasma NPs may have promising potential to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce the incidence of pneumonia-like common lung infections in children as well as age-related inflammatory diseases via immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and adju-vant-related properties.Copyright © 2023 Bentham Science Publishers.

Clinical, laboratory and radiological parameters of COVID 19 pneumonia: a single-centered retrospective observational study in Pune, India

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus called the novel coronavirus caused the pandemic coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). All over the world, SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia is causing significant short-term morbidity and mortality, but the medium-term impact on lung function and quality of life of affected patients is still unknown. Aims: To assess clinical, laboratory, and radiological parameters of COVID-19 Patients and to correlate radiological findings and disease severity among patients. Methodology: In this retrospective observational study a total of 630 patients with radiologically confirmed pneumonia and COVID-19 RT PCR positive were included from a tertiary care centre in Pune, Maharashtra, following their voluntary informed consent. Patients underwent clinical, laboratory, and radiological investigations. Results: It was observed that the majority 174 (27.6%) were in the age group of 31 to 40 years and male predominance was observed compared to female. The majority of the patients 314 (49.8%) had mild, 232 (36.8%) were moderate and 84 (13.3%) had severe illness as per CT scores (HRCT Chest score). Mean BSL levels were 181 +or- 81.44, mean pulse rate was 94.03 +or- 14.93 bpm, mean respiratory rate was 22.84 +or- 3.71cpm, systolic blood pressure was 129.09 +or- 13.18 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure was 82.80 +or- 9.67 mmHg and mean temperature was 98.56 +or- 1.67 degrees F. The mean ferritin levels were 181 +or- 81.44, the mean LDH level was 94.03 +or- 14.93, mean HbA1C was 7.45 +or- 1.68. The mean NLR was 5.51 +or- 2.41, the mean WBC count was 7238.38 +or- 4942.23 and the mean hematocrit was 39.69 +or- 4.80. The mean D dimer level was 402.29 +or- 424.70, median levels were 260 (170-450). 503 (79.8%) had CRP levels more than 5 and 127 (20.2%) had levels less than 5. The mean duration of hospital stay was 9.18 days +or- 4.34 days. Majority 570 (90.5%) had fever, 493 (78.3%) had cough, 286 (45.4%) had breathlessness, 66 (10.5%) had sore throat. Other symptoms include vomiting, and loose motion in 17 (2.7%). Among 630 subjects included in the present study, the majority 584 (92.7%) have recovered/were discharged from the hospital and 46 (7.3%) succumbed to the illness. The mean SGOT and SGPT levels were 44.86+or- 31.29 and 43.60 +or- 31.25 respectively. Mean serum creatinine and BUN levels were 0.87+or- 0.80 and 13.96 +or- 9.46 respectively. The mean values of pulse rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature showed an increasing trend across the grades of severity. Conclusion: We concluded that age, gender, blood sugar level, blood pressure, clinical symptoms, comorbidities, inflammatory biomarkers and CT severity score were independently associated with the severity and mortality based on our findings.

Promoting agri-food systems resilience through ICT in developing countries amid COVID-19

An increasing body of literature has demonstrated COVID-19's harmful impact on agri-food systems, which are a major source of livelihood for millions of people worldwide. Information and communication technology (ICT) has been playing an increasing role in enhancing agri-food systems' resilience amid COVID-19. In this study, the PRISMA approach was employed to perform a systematic review of the literature from January 2020 to December 2021 on the overall impact of COVID-19 on agri-food system networks and ICT's role in enhancing agri-food system resilience in developing countries. This study reveals that COVID-19 has posed abundant obstacles to agri-food systems actors, including a lack of inputs, technical support, challenges to selling the product, transportation barriers, and low pricing. These impediments result in insufficient output, unforeseen stock, and revenue loss. COVID-19's restrictions have caused a significant food deficit by disrupting the demand and supply sides of the agri-food system networks. A high number of small-scale farmers have had to deal with food insecurity. As a result of the cumulative effects, actors in the agri-food system are getting less motivated to continue producing. This study also argues that many challenges in the agri-food systems can be overcome using ICTs, including maintaining precise farm management, product marketing, and access to production inputs. To assist stakeholders in coping with, adapting to, and building resilience in the agri-food system networks, this article emphasizes the critical need to turn to and expand the application of advanced agricultural ICTs to meet the world's growing needs for food production and to ensure the resilience and sustainability of farming systems, particularly in the face of a pandemic like COVID-19. Copyright © 2023 Alam, Khatun, Sarker, Joshi and Bhandari.

Face Mask Detection Based Entery

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced several challenges to the society and safety measures are of utmost importance. Hence, to contain and reduce the spread, mask detection-based entry has emerged as a very fascinating topic in the domains of image processing, computer vision, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Convolutional architectures are being used to develop a number of new algorithms that will improve the accuracy of the algorithm. Such convolutional architectures have also made possible the extraction of pixel details. The project aims to build a binary face classifier which can detect the presence of a mask and accordingly people will be granted entry. The classifier is created by using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Region based CNN (R-CNN), ThingSpeak. © 2022 IEEE.

Family’s sufferings from asymptomatic COVID: Clinicians’ perspective

Anticipating dire consequences, in 2020 the world braced itself for the unparalleled pandemic by resorting to unprecedented measures including stringent lockdowns, unforeseen social isolations, spotlight focus, resource diversions besides reorganized healthcare systems to name the quintessential few. Such unifocal convergence enhanced the vulnerabilities of patients dependent on non-COVID healthcare assistance. For a nation with a meagre allocation of 0.7 hospital beds per 1000 people and a lopsided doctor-population ratio of 1:1800, COVID-centric measures created unintended complications. Ironically, many succumbed in myriad ways, not due to the pandemic but due to the attributes of the survival measures. While such consequences cannot be reversed, we need to be able to draw learnings from all such experiences. Particularly, as healthcare advances into the 21st century and we evolve towards an individualized care model, the contrasting “blanket treatment approach,” while an understandable contingency measure for pandemic emergencies, warrants serious attention. With this narrative, we would like to highlight the anguish and frustration faced by the parents and the doctors as multifarious elements complexly entangled to delay a crucial surgery in a two-year-old child with prolonged RT-PCR positivity. Knowing that mankind is likely to face such pandemics again, future responses require us to visualize the whole picture from a zoomed-out perspective to be able to roll out a synchronized holistic strategy. One needs to introspect on the mutilations incurred, to help redesign our disaster management responses, in order to address “all cause” damage and not just the pandemic ones. © The Author(s), 2022.

E-Payment System reforms and its impact on Currency in Circulation in India: Evaluation using Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR)

The present study contributes to the literature by investigating the impact of E-Payment System on Currency in circulation after facing three major reforms i.e., Demonetization of 500 and 1000 rupee note, implementation of GST and Current pandemic (Covid-19) situation. Results imply that with the increase in the volume of all the respective electronic payment systems the currency in circulation (in physical form) got minimized in the economy. Moreover, NEFT shows much higher influence on currency in circulation as compare to RTGS and IMPS but PPI’s shows the highest influence on currency in circulation from the selected E-Payment systems. Furthermore, Vector Autoregressive model suggests, RTGS, IMPS, NEFT, CARDS (POS), PPI’s, M-Banking are expected to increase whereas NACH is expected to observe a downfall in the near future. © 2022, School of Management Sciences. All rights reserved.

Impact of COVID-19 on Hospitality Professionals: Study on Physio-Psychological-Social and Financial Effects

A person’s life is impacted by incidents, accidents, and any events which have their imprints, either physical, mental/psychological, social, or financial. Likewise, the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis has enormously impacted most people worldwide. Hospitality is one of the worst-hit industries, with a slow recovery business rate. However, no research has been done to study the pandemic’s effect and impact on hospitality professionals’ lives. Hence, this research was undertaken to understand the extent of COVID-19’s effect and impact on the hospitality professionals’ personal lives, including physical, social, and financial aspects. Also, the study aimed to find the feelings that dwell in people either due to isolation, unemployment, or uncertainty. Emotions are related to behavioral responses. Therefore, the qualitative research approach with deductive reasoning was utilized to collect the primary data. Professionals from various service sectors were approached, and responses were analyzed through content and sentiment analysis. The codes and themes were condensed;cases were compared to find the situation’s impacts based on varied employment factors. The findings focused on the sentimental issues of the hospitality working class. The discussions of the study would be helpful to government bodies and hospitality stakeholders in taking proactive measures to counter the unforeseen circumstances of uncertainty. Further studies can be conducted to investigate the deployment of motivational theories to boost the morale of professionals. © 2022, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Effect of Supply Chain Disruption in Dental Practice During Covid-19 Pandemic: An Indian Perspective

Disruption during Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need of healthcare supply chain management in order to achieve effective delivery of health services. Though, considerable efforts have been undertaken on managing the healthcare supply chain disruptions in India but there is paucity of literature which documented the effect of supply chain disruptions in dental practices during covid-19 pandemic. During pandemic, the disruptions in production and distribution of dental products were seen in India. Indian dental market is largely dependent on imports and there is scarcity of local production units. The main dental companies reported significant decline in production during the first wave of Covid-19. The increase in demand for dental supplies was seen with shutdown, shortage of labour and scarcity of raw materials. Disruption rippled through the supply chain and this was caused by large distortion in demand. This phenomenon led to bullwhip effect. This bullwhip effect crisis led to increased cost in dental practices. Covid19 has shown significant lack of resilience in Indian dental healthcare supply chain. This study identified few loopholes in dental supply chain and suggested the way forward for managing the supply chain disruptions. It seems that there is need of more comprehensive research on dental supply chain resilience from Indian perspective to prevent disruptions particularly in emergent situations. © 2022, MedSci Publications. All rights reserved.

Investment awareness & confidence of investors in selection of mutual funds during COVID-19 pandemic

Purposes of research are to investigate various factors of investor’s investment specific attitude on investment in mutual funds during pandemic & to investigate impact of independent factors like Investor’s safe investment & high return, Investor’s risks & rewards & Investor’s investment horizon on dependent variable Investor’s awareness & confidence in selection of mutual fund. Structured questionnaires were administered to 522 investors of mutual fund of India. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used to collect primary data from the target investors of mutual fund in Gujarat state, India. Factor analysis was done and multiple regression model was developed with the help of SPSS software. It was observed that Regression Model is significant since significance (P) value was less than 0.05. Research found that during pandemic situation investors may lose their confidence in selection of various mutual fund schemes. The main reasons behind this were extra expenditure on health, loss of job during pandemic, salary deduction and mental stress. © 2022 The authors.

A Scoping review of challenges, scope and assessment approaches of teledentistry: an Indian perspective

Context: In India, COVID-19 pandemic has limited the utilization and access to dental services owing to the risk of infections transmission. In this context, tele-dentistry could be useful but there is paucity of literature which provides guidance on the scope and challenges for using tele-dentistry in India. Aims: To identify challenges, scope and assessment approaches of tele-dentistry from an Indian perspective. Settings and Design: Scoping Review. Methods and Material: Scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. Databases were searched in July from April to August 2020. Studies concerning challenges and scope of tele-dentistry in India were included. Additionally, literature about assessment approaches used for tele-dentistry programs were also reviewed Results: A total of 64 studies were reviewed, out of which 26 articles were included in the final review. Scoping review reveled that tele-dentistry could act as a seamless tool for diagnosing, training and screening. Few studies suggested the relevance of smartphone technology for specialist consultations and proper diagnosis. Majority of studies revealed shortage of basic infrastructure as a major challenge for tele-dentistry in India. Assessment studies were mainly focused on economic perspective and cost-effectiveness of the programs. Conclusions: This review provide guidance for using tele-dentistry in India. It is also reflected that there is a need for further research about the assessment of tele-dentistry in terms of safety, clinical outcomes, and patient perception. © 2021, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine. All rights reserved.

Development and validation of a clinical risk score to predict the critical illness in hospitalized patients with COVID-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has obligated healthcare systems to triage patients efficiently in order to utilize resources in the proper manner. Robust, validated clinical prediction tools are lacking that identify patients with coronavirus disease 2019 who are at the highest risk of mortality. A cohort of 661 positive COVID patients admitted to the Loyola hospital from 3/11/2020 to 10/12/2020 was used to validate previously published results with the composite outcome of 'critically ill', defined as invasive ventilation, ICU admission, or in-hospital death. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and imaging variables ascertained at hospital admission were screened using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) and logistic regression to construct a predictive risk score. Accuracy of the score was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Fifty-two (52) percent of our cohort had critical illness compared to 8% in the Liang paper (the first predictor model which was developed in China). Our population was older, had significantly higher abnormal chest x-ray, dyspnea, and number of comorbidities compared to their population. In addition, our population had higher values for NLR and LDH and lower direct bilirubin. Using the model coefficients presenting in Liang et al, the AUC was only 0.68 (95% CI: 0.64, 0.72), considerably lower than .88 presented in their publication. LASSO variable selection identified 8 variables (HR, SBP, fever, SpO2<90, LDH, ferritin, D dimer, CRP on admission) for a multivariable model. In the multivariable model: SpO2 <90, fever at admission, and increasing LDH were found to be statistically associated with our outcome. We finally added baseline predictors of age, sex, race, and number of comorbidities to the LASSO predictors which resulted in an AUC of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.78). In our study, we found that three predictors (SpO2 <90, fever, and increasing LDH on admission) were selected by the LASSO analysis to construct a predictive nomogram. The application of our model would help clinicians make a prompt decision to optimize patient stratification management. However, this quantitative tool needs to be validated by further large-scale prospective studies.

Efficient Social Distancing Detection Using Object Detection and Triangle Similarity

COVID-19 or the Coronavirus Disease has been wreaking havoc all around the globe. People have lost their lives and livelihoods because of this contiguous disease that multiplies at a very fast rate. Although countries have prepared vaccines and have started with the process of vaccination, it has been advised by the government to follow the norms of wearing face masks, following social distancing and hand sanitization for atleast a few months from now so that the vaccine can be effective against the virus. Following Social Distancing is one of the ways we prevent the mass spreading of the virus. The proposed system uses Object Detection and Triangle Similarity techniques to check if people are following Social Distancing or not in Images, Videos and Webcam feeds. If any individual is found not following the norms, an alarm will be sounded to alert the person and the police officials. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the SeaSHeL study

Introduction: The SeaSHeL Study is an ongoing national, multi-centre, cohort study investigating Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL). The study is supported by the INTEGRATE ENT Trainee Research Network and the Audiology NIHR Champions, as well as being adopted onto the NIHR Clinical Research Network. It aims to map the pathway of patients with SSNHL, develop a prognostic model to predict recovery of patients with idiopathic SSNHL and establish the impact on patients' quality of life. Here we summarise the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the study and highlight methods employed to improve data collection. Methods: Data collection commenced in October 2019 and as of August 2020, 227 patients have been recruited from 66 registered sites across England. This interim data was analysed. The primary outcome was the change in monthly patient recruitment and site registration. The secondary outcome was the completeness of the dataset. Results: Initially, monthly site registration increased to a peak of 31 in December 2019 and monthly patient recruitment increased to a peak of 34 in February 2020. Both levels decreased during the first wave of Covid-19 with 11 patients recruited and 0 sites registered in April 2020. Both levels have been increasing since, with 21 patients recruited and 5 sites registered in August 2020. The dataset of 227 patients has 113 (49.7%) completed records. Conclusions: This study represents the largest national cohort study into SSNHL. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, data collection continued during the first wave and rates are now recovering to pre-Covid-19 levels. Key factors in this recovery are a collaborative research approach involving motivated trainees, an ethics amendment for follow-up data to be collected by telephone and continued engagement of collaborators through regular email correspondence and fortnightly newsletters.

A webinar training on from aids to COVID: The rocky road of public health

Background: Poornima University, in collaboration with Jodhpur School of Public Health, hosted an insightful and interactive live global webinar on the topic of “From AIDS to COVID: The Rocky road of Public Health” on August 8, 2020. Findings: This report provides information about the coronavirus, the good and bad impact of COVID-19, and some of the major challenges that were faced all across the globe. Many questions are it the origin of the virus or the route of transmission of the virus remains unclear. But the good thing is that there were many innovations in the field of testing, repurposing of drugs, and rapid development of vaccines to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Conclusion: The findings show that a lot of questions are yet to be answered and that there is a need of focusing on public health. There were many learnings from this pandemic and one of the most important lessons was that the involvement of communities is a key step to face such global challenges. The pandemic is not going anywhere soon, and therefore, it becomes necessary to bring in change and sustain it for the future. The challenges faced during this pandemic have served as valuable lessons and it is vital to focus on the shortcomings to avoid such negative impacts around the world.

Management of COVID-19: Ayurvedic perspective

Ayurveda, a branch of AYUSH system of health care in India is considered as alternative/complementary of medicine (CAM) in WHO. Here, its products are covered under “drug and cosmetics” act but in abroad they are supplements or functional foods. The aim of Ayurveda is to maintain the wellness of a healthy person and to treat a patient. For treatment, Ayurveda adopts 3 approaches i.e., (1) Daivavyapasharya chikitsa) (ypareht enivid 2 ( Yuktivyapashraya chikitsa (Rational therapy) 3 Satvavajaya chikitsa (Psychotherapy) and focuses to enhance the Vyadhikshmatwa (capacity to fight against spread of pathogenesis by strengthening all 7 dhatus (rasa, rakta, meda, mansa, asthi, majja and shukra). The disease COVID-19 falls under “Bhootvidya (GrahaVidya)", which is one of the 8 branches of “Astanga Ayurveda”. It is an “Agantuja” disease, where the disease symptoms appear in 1st stage followed by its spread in the body. Thus, progress of disease (Samprapti) has been considered under concept of shatkriyakala (6 stages of disease development), which has been given high importance for deciding the stage of disease progress and its treatment protocol. Here, we have described the introduction to Astang Ayurveda, concept of disease pathogenesis and holistic approach of treatment in respect to management of COVID-19. It specifically covers symptom based stage of disease progress and its targeted treatment guideline by including all 3 approaches of treatment, described above. Here, the current line of diagnosis, treatment and research related to COVID-19 management has been included, which are reported by basic scientists and physicians of allopathic system. These are indexed in Pubmed and web of science and also described in classical text books of Ayurveda. The same has been reviewed and summarized here, with an objective of possible correlation between the 2 languages of science of health care. © 2020, National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources. All rights reserved.

Identification of therapeutic targets for controlling COVID-19 pandemic by traditional system of Ayurvedic medicines: A systematic review

COVID-19 is a severe respiratory disorder caused by the SARS COV-2 virus that involves limited innate immunity. Numerous publications have suggested that plants/minerals used in the traditional system of Ayurveda, has revealed much about the biology of COVID-19. One theory is that combination of anti viral, anti inflammatory, agents activating immune cells, herbs and metals may be helpful for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection. Anti-viral drugs used for COVID-19 are those which block RNA synthesis and virus invasion, and bind to receptor proteins on the surface of cells, cell cycle protein, and physiological and pathological processes inhibitor. Anti-inflammatory drugs used for COVID-19 are those which controls transcription of DNA, cytokine production, break down the basement membrane, regulate outer mitochondrial membrane permeability, controlling the host cell life, stimulates activated B-cell and T-cell proliferation, virus dissemination, a slowdown of cell metabolism or secretion of cytokines. Drugs which is having role in the innate immunity, inhibits ROS, enhances cell lifespan, activates macrophages, physiological effects on cells activates the Lung resident immune cells. The focus of this review is to elucidate the Ayurvedic pharmacological properties with their therapeutic targets.