How do the sectoral indices react to COVID-19? Evidence from an emerging economy

The study empirically examines the impact of the COVID-19 on different sectoral indices of the National Stock Exchange (India) using the event study method and a generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model. We provide evidence of positive impacts on the auto, oil and gas, healthcare, and pharma sectors. While the bank, financial services, and private bank sectors are the most adversely impacted sectors, the PSU bank, media, and reality sectors are the least impacted, and the rest are moderately impacted sectors. The overall impact of COVID-19 was negative until the implementation of nationwide lockdowns and the announcement of stimulus packages. The GARCH results exhibit more substantial evidence for the negative impact of the pandemic on the FMCG, IT, metal, oil and gas, and PSU bank sectors. We also find a more favourable impact on FMCG, pharma, and healthcare sectors in India.

Risk factors influence the arterial line patency in ICU-bound patients during COVID-19 pandemic: An observational cohort study

Background There were increased claims of thrombotic events in ICU-bound patients with COVID-19. We designed this observational study to examine implementation of systemic anti-coagulation on arterial catheter patency and its failure and to identify risk factors for arterial catheter failure. Methods A total of 245 COVID-19 subjects were included in this observational study, 48 patients in the non-systemic, (Non-SA), (Prophylactic) anticoagulation cohort, and 197 patients in the systemic (SA), (Therapeutic) anticoagulation group. The first arterial line inserted on ICU admission for every patient was monitored regarding its duration of the patency, number and location of consecutive arterial lines inserted during stay in ICU. Demographics of patients, ICU parameters and risk factors for arterial line failure were followed and analyzed. Results The percentage of arterial line failure was significantly higher in Non-SA group, 45.8% when compared to SA group, 25.9%, P = 0.007. The patients with arterial line failure exhibited higher D-dimer, co-morbidities, diabetic patients, received aspirin and mortality than the patent group, respectively, p = 0.002, p = 0.002, p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, and p < 0.0001. This group also received higher sedation and prone position on mechanical ventilation and higher vasopressors, respectively, p = 0.034, p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, and p < 0.0001 when compared to patent group. They had prolonged length of stay in ICU and hospital, respectively, p = 0.001 and p = 0.042. The cumulative incidence of index arterial line failure (Log-rank test 6.95, P = 0.008) with overall percentage was significantly lower in SA group (25.9%) compared to non-SA group (45.8%), respectively, P = 0.007. On Cox-proportional hazard multivariate regression analysis, independent predictors of arterial line failure increased platelets level (HR 1.00, 95% CI 1.00-1.01, P = 0.001), use of ultrasound use in arterial line insertion (HR 4.68, 95% CI 1.75-12.56, P = 0.002), and prone position in ICU (HR 1.94, 95% CI 1.09-3.42, P = 0.023). Conclusion We observed three independent predictors of arterial line failure including platelets level and ultrasound use during arterial catheter insertion and prone position in ICU. Systemic anticoagulation was associated with more patency of arterial catheter than prophylactic therapy group.

Do dividend announcements override the pandemic impacts? Evidence from the BSE 500 constituent firms

With a sample of 332 dividend announcements from January 2019 to December 2020, using the event study methodology with the market model, we provide evidence that the dividend announcements failed to influence the stock prices under the pandemic stress. Although the pre-pandemic period announcements significantly impacted the stock returns, the pandemic period dividend announcements failed to generate significant abnormal returns even for an increase in dividend over the previous year. The pre-pandemic period results are consistent with previous literature with significant returns for constant, increase, and decrease in dividends. During the pre-pandemic period, we also find the possibility of information leakage in the Indian stock market as the pre-announcement period is marked with positive significant abnormal returns while the post-announcement period seems to be profit booking. The industry-wise analysis reveals the presence of positive returns in the Information Technology, Media and Telecommunication sector. However, the rest of the results are in line with the previous analysis. The findings suggest that before making such announcements, the companies should wait for the market to recover;else, the positively impacting dividend announcement will fail to influence the stock prices when the market is already under pandemic stress. We conduct the first-ever study to examine the impacts of dividend announcements during a pandemic stress period with also comparing the impacts during the pre-pandemic period. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of College of Management, National Cheng Kung University.

How the global airline industry behaved to restrictions on air travel to India? An event study analysis

We examine the impact of the recent restrictions/bans imposed by several nations on air travel to India in the light of the increasing number of infections amid the second wave of covid-19. We employ the standard event study method on a sample of 34 airline stocks across seven nations to find that the recent restrictions/bans on air travel significantly impact the global airline industry, although the country-specific impacts are not similar. We find that the post-event reaction in all nations has been different from those evidenced during the global pandemic declaration. We are the first to examine these impacts during the current wave of the pandemic. It contributes to the literature on the effects of the pandemic on the global airline industry. Further, it also provides practical explanations to the investors on how the airline stocks react to the persistence of the pandemic. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Cognitive Trajectory of COVID-19 and Long COVID in Adult Survivors

Introduction: Cognitive functioning and psychological well-being are considered negatively affected by COVID-19. An estimated 15%-40% of COVID-19 patients report disrupted cognitive performance. Higher rates of anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances are also reported post infection. Objective(s): We examined the profile of cognitive changes in a group of adults with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, compared to those without a COVID-19 diagnosis (cross-sectional betweensubjects investigation);and for a subgroup, compared to their pre-COVID-19 cognitive function (longitudinal within-subjects investigation). Method(s): One hundred and twenty-one adults (57 with no known history of COVID-19;64 with confirmed COVID-19;17/64 with long COVID symptoms) were assessed online for psychological well-being and cognitive function (attention, processing speed, working memory, episodic memory and executive function). Pre-COVID-19 cognitive data were available for 56 of 121 adults (24 adults with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19;22 with no known history of COVID-19) through the MyCognition database. Result(s): The COVID-19 group showed reduced processing speed in both cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations, and also showed significant attentional impairment when examined crosssectionally. Five long COVID symptoms (abdominal pain, chest pain, sore eyes/conjunctivitis, sore throat and vomiting/nausea) were associated with reduced performance in multiple cognitive domains. Higher levels of depression and anxiety were also present in the COVID-19 group but these symptoms were mostly unrelated to cognitive performance. Conclusion(s): COVID-19 survivors, especially those with long COVID symptoms, are very likely to experience cognitive disruption. Measures need to be implemented to support their cognitive recovery in addition to the physical recovery.

Virtual Class and Children Food Patterns during Pandemic: A Review

The new normal due to COVID-19 has changed the dynamics of every aspect of on life, be it household, professional life, finances, education or the food patterns. There has been lack of a fixed routine in the lives of children because of closure of schools, therefore the routine of wake up, sleep, time food timings have gone haywire. Children are indirectly affected by the pandemic, through poor diet, mental health effects, social isolation, screen addiction, unhealthy and irregular food habits. This paper is aimed at discussing the potential effect of pandemic on nutritional status of children;especially when children are indulged in continue classes for long hours, sitting one place. Data from various research papers have been discussed in this review paper, highlighting the impact of the new normal health of covid-19 on the nutritional health of children this situation requires effective and practical measures which can be adopted at the home setting to enhance the nutritional status and overall wellbeing of the children. © 2022 Sciendo. All rights reserved.

An Investigation on Study Habits, Temperament and Academic Stress among Special need Students: a study during COVID 19

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unpresidential impact of all aspect of people lives. The study was to do a survey on special needs students during the COVID in regards to their Study habits, Temperament and Academic stress level. The aim of this research was to conduct a comparative study and examine the students without special needs and special needs students that is, what is the impact of Covid 19 on their study habits, temperament and academic stress. In this study the sample consists of 100 students which includes 50 children with special needs and 50 children without having special needs (normal children) who were randomly selected from the age of 14-18years. The students selected for the survey belongs to various schools in Delhi. The questionnaires are used for data collection to identify the study habits, temperament and academic stress are “Study Habit Inventory by B.V. Patel”, “DIMENSIONS OF TEMPERAMENT SCALE (DTS) by N. K. Chadha and S. Chandna” and “Academic Stress Questionnaire by Mohammad Akram, Mohd. Ilyas Khan, Sabiha Baby”. Simple Percentage Analysis and z-test were used from a statistical perspective to analyze the study habits, temperament and academic stress of the students. This study shows there is a difference between study habits, temperament and academic stress of the children with special needs and children without having special needs. It is found that the covid 19 pandemic influence the study habits, temperament and academic stress of all the students. The review concludes with a summary of major research findings, as well as a consideration of future directions and implications for practice and policy.

Design and Implementation of Real time EarRecognition System using DM6437

In contemporary society, there is a specific need to identify a person accurately for safety and security from a social distance because of the present prevailing COVID-19 situation. Hence, instantly recognising a person using non-intrusive ear biometric system have been recently attracted the attention of the biometric community because of its stable features with age and its ability in identifying the twins. As per the knowledge, there is no real time (Commercial) deployment of ear biometric system. Hence, this paper presents the design and implementation of an ear biometric system using the Texas Instruments DM6437 Evaluation Module (EVM). The ear biometric system has been implemented using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) with a suitable distance metric based on the image distribution function. The performance of the developed ear biometric system is analysed using typical database from research laboratory. From the experimental results it is evident that the designed ear biometric system, with City block distance metric, shows an improvement of 4.3% in recognition rate when compared with the existing system.

How the global airline industry behaved to restrictions on air travel to India? An event study analysis

We examine the impact of the recent restrictions/bans imposed by several nations on air travel to India in the light of the increasing number of infections amid the second wave of covid-19. We employ the standard event study method on a sample of 34 airline stocks across seven nations to find that the recent restrictions/bans on air travel significantly impact the global airline industry, although the country-specific impacts are not similar. We find that the post-event reaction in all nations has been different from those evidenced during the global pandemic declaration. We are the first to examine these impacts during the current wave of the pandemic. It contributes to the literature on the effects of the pandemic on the global airline industry. Further, it also provides practical explanations to the investors on how the airline stocks react to the persistence of the pandemic.

Impacts of corporate announcements on stock returns during the global pandemic: evidence from the Indian stock market

Purpose: The authors examine the impacts of corporate announcements on stock returns during the pandemic stress. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employ the event study methodology with the market model on a sample of 90 events (announcement and ex-date). Findings: The authors find that all the corporate announcements do not impact the stock returns in a similar pattern. While the bonus announcement, ex-bonus and ex-split events led to positive significant abnormal returns on the event date, the rights issue and stock-split announcements failed to influence the stock returns. The findings suggest that before making such announcements, the corporates should wait until the market recovers because even the positively impacting events result in negative market responses during pandemic stress. Practical implications: This study will guide the policymakers to stimulate share prices during such pandemics with the help of various corporate announcements. The investors will be assisted in understanding the stock market mechanism and making wise decisions before reacting to corporate actions during a pandemic or emergency period. While the policymakers are concerned with influencing the share prices, the investors are concerned with the composition of the risk-return parameters in their portfolio. This study will act as an essential investment tool for both. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors conduct the first-ever study to examine the impacts of corporate announcements during a pandemic stress period that significantly contributes to the literature. The authors examine the announcement effects in India and accurately anticipate that this study will be a pioneer in this field. This study also paves the way for future researches in this area. © 2022, Dharen Kumar Pandey, Vineeta Kumari and Brajesh Kumar Tiwari.

Covid-19-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults: An uncommon case

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) is being recognised as a syndrome related to COVD-19 infection – more commonly in children, but occasionally in adults also. A 28-year-old male with no co-morbidities presented with fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, chest and shoulder pains, and redness of eyes. He developed these symptoms 14 days post-COVID-19 vaccination. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection in September 2020. After excluding other causes for his clinical features, the diagnosis of MIS-A was made and IV immunoglobulin along with methylprednisolone was given. Patient responded to the therapy and remained symptom free on regular follow-up for 3 months. We suggest that in a patient who presents with fever post-COVID-19 and/or post-immunisation with COVID-19 vaccination, the possibility of MIS-A should also be considered.

Do dividend announcements override the pandemic impacts? Evidence from the BSE 500 constituent firms

With a sample of 332 dividend announcements from January 2019 to December 2020, using the event study methodology with the market model, we provide evidence that the dividend announcements failed to influence the stock prices under the pandemic stress. Although the pre-pandemic period announcements significantly impacted the stock returns, the pandemic period dividend announcements failed to generate significant abnormal returns even for an increase in dividend over the previous year. The pre-pandemic period results are consistent with previous literature with significant returns for constant, increase, and decrease in dividends. During the pre-pandemic period, we also find the possibility of information leakage in the Indian stock market as the pre-announcement period is marked with positive significant abnormal returns while the post-announcement period seems to be profit booking. The industry-wise analysis reveals the presence of positive returns in the Information Technology, Media and Telecommunication sector. However, the rest of the results are in line with the previous analysis. The findings suggest that before making such announcements, the companies should wait for the market to recover;else, the positively impacting dividend announcement will fail to influence the stock prices when the market is already under pandemic stress. We conduct the first-ever study to examine the impacts of dividend announcements during a pandemic stress period with also comparing the impacts during the pre-pandemic period. © 2021 The Authors

Role of altered fractionation in radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy in management of carcinoma cervix: Time to revisit in the current COVID-19 pandemic

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 as COVID-19 virus has affected the entire world and so to the cancer care and health-care facility. Cancer cervix is one of the common malignancies among women in developing and underdeveloped countries. Various challenges are being faced by patients and health-care providers to deliver optimal treatment under prescribed time frame. Faster delivery of whole treatment is desirable in the current pandemic. Overall treatment time in cancer cervix has prognostic value. Adoption of altered fractionation to delivered external beam radiation therapy could be a method for faster delivery of whole treatment. Altered fractionation such as hyperfractionation (HFX), hypofractionation, and accelerated fraction alone or with HFX has already been experimented for the past three decades. The total duration of treatment has been significantly reduced without addition of much toxicity. Few studies had also highlighted the feasibility of addition of chemotherapy to such fractionation schedule. However, prospective studies are still warranted to generate data to further support its use in the future.

COVID-19 infection: The prospects of pharmacotherapy

The disastrous outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered the investigation of several therapeutic options following the redundancy of specific drugs against it. The virus possesses advanced molecular mechanisms to effectively invade the host cell compared to its counterparts. It results in a seamless and coherent infection and transmission, attributing to its enhanced pathogenicity. The drugs that are currently being employed against COVID-19 inhibit the viral load in different stages of infection, including host cell-virus interaction, viral entry into the host cell, and viral replication inside the host including genome replication and polypeptide chain production. This commentary emphasizes the pharmacotherapeutic options available from the perspective of viral life cycle and pathogenicity.

Novel COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Global Health Care Providers

Background: Covid-19, a highly infectious disease was first reported in Wuhan. China on 31 December, 2019. It was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization on 11 March, 2020 when 118,326 cases were reported globally. The present study was designed to determine the knowledge, practices, availability of personal protective equipment to health care providers and hindrance to delivering health care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted with 217 health care workers serving in different hospitals/departments across the globe. Sample size was calculated by using Open EPI software and data was analysed by using SPSS version 22.0. Results: Knowledge of many 152(73.4%) participants regarding guidelines for isolation of suspected cases and recommendations for wearing a mask in a community setting was not satisfactory. About 51(24.63%) did not receive any personal protective equipment. Inadequate provision of personal protective equipment was reported by 78(37.7%) participants as the most common factor that might impede their willingness to work during the COVID-19 pandemic. About half. 98(47.3%) of the participants admitted that they are not well prepared/trained in handling COVID-19 cases. PCR was correctly reported as diagnostic test for SARS CoV-2 by 136(65.7%) respondents. Conclusions . Our study recorded lack of knowledge about newly emerged COVID-19 pandemic among health care workers. Shortage of ventilators, testing kits and personal protective equipment was noted in many hospitals and departments. Lack of personal protective equipment and insufficient training in infection control management may act as barriers in delivering health care during COVID-19.

Pharmacotherapy of COVID-19: A Perspective of Pathogenicity and Life Cycle

The world has witnessed COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 as one of the most hazardous viral outbreak in the history of mankind. Since its emergence in December 2019,it has been affecting the global health with no reported pharmacotherapeutic agent that can neutralize its substantial pathogenicity and escalation around the world. This is attributed to its remarkable molecular pathways followed in course of its life cycle, which is completed in and around the host cell. With the usage of these evolved mechanisms, the virus can effectively invade and replicate in the host cell. The complete analysis of life cycle has resulted in reporting of some molecular targets, which can be neutralised with the usage of pharmacotherapeutic agents. These agents tend to bind to their targets to inactivate them. This review focusses on those targets as well as the potent drugs that currently have been employed to reduce the viral load, in the perspective of its life cycle and pathogenicity. Alongside the drugs that are currently being used, we also report potent drugs that are yet to clear the clinical investigation.

The current status and perspectives for the emerging pandemic: Covid-19

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the extremely communicable viral infection coronavirus disease 19 (covid-19). Initially the virus was found at Wuhan, china which spread across the world exponentially and in a very short span. This outbreak has turned out to be a global health crisis and recently WHO regarded it as pandemic. The origin of the virus is predicted as either the natural selection in animal host prior to the transfer of the pathogen from animals to humans or the natural selection in humans and following transfer. Nevertheless, there is an extensive spread of virus by human to human transfer in the form of droplets. A few antiviral drugs are at the stage of clinical trials to eradicate the covid-19. In this review, a comprehensive approach is put forth to scrutinise the etiology, pathogenicity and transmission of SARS CoV-2. The review also deliberates broadly on the diagnosis and status of therapeutic treatment developed. It also focuses on the preventive and controlling measures from different sectors of the society. The review covers the details reported in 70 studies which were chosen after keyword searches carried out leading to over 884 resulting articles.