Convalescent Plasma for Critically-ill Covid-19 Patients (preprint)

Background and aim: Convalescent plasma (CP) was early and successfully used in management of covid-19 infection. This report aimed to document our experience with use of CP in two critically-ill covid-19 patients.Main findings: Patients presented with fever, dry cough and difficulty of breathing with reduced oxygen saturation, massive radiological lung involvement and deteriorated Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) Score. Use of two sessions of CP resulted in marked improvement of radiological and/or pulmonary findings. Both patients died of septic shock or thromboembolic events.Conclusions Use of CP may be associated with radiological and clinical improvement in critically-ill patients. However, it’s not related to better survival if used in late stages of the disease.

Improved Barnacle Mating Optimizer-Based Least Square Support Vector Machine to Predict COVID-19 Confirmed Cases with Total Vaccination

Every country must have an accurate and efficient forecasting model to avoid and manage the epidemic. This paper suggests an upgrade to one of the evolutionary algorithms inspired by nature, the Barnacle Mating Optimizer (BMO). First, the exploration phase of the original BMO is enhanced by enforcing and replacing the sperm cast equation through Levy flight. Then, the Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) is partnered with the improved BMO (IBMO). This hybrid approach, IBMO-LSSVM, has been deployed effectively for time-series forecasting to enhance the RBF kernel-based LSSVM model since vaccination started against COVID-19 in Malaysia. In comparison to other well-known algorithms, our outcomes are superior. In addition, the IBMO is assessed on 19 conventional benchmarks and the IEEE Congress of Evolutionary Computation Benchmark Test Functions (CECC06, 2019 Competition). In most cases, IBMO outputs are better than comparison algorithms. However, in other circumstances, the outcomes are comparable.

A Hybrid Method for Analyzing the Situation Based on Cumulative Fully Vaccinated and Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 in Malaysia

SARS-CoV-2 is an infection that affects several organs and has a wide range of symptoms in addition to producing severe acute respiratory syndrome. Millions of individuals were infected when it first started because of how quickly it travelled from its starting location to nearby countries. Anticipating positive Covid-19 incidences is required in order to better understand future risk and take the proper preventative and precautionary measures. As a result, it is critical to create mathematical models that are durable and have as few prediction errors as possible. This study suggests a unique hybrid strategy for examining the status of Covid-19 confirmed patients in conjunction with complete vaccination. First, the selective opposition technique is initially included into the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) in this study to improve the exploration and exploitation capacity for the given challenge. Second, to execute the prediction task with the optimized hyper-parameter values, the Least Squares Support Vector Machines (LSSVM) method is integrated with Selective Opposition based GWO as an objective function. The data source includes daily occurrences of confirmed cases in Malaysia from February 24, 2021 to July 27, 2022. Based on the experimental results, this paper shows that SOGWO-LSSVM outperforms a few other hybrid techniques with ideally adjusted parameters. © 2022 IEEE.

Travel Behaviour and Perceptions of Malaysian Airline Passengers during Endemic COVID-19

The study examines Malaysian airline passengers' travel behaviour and perceptions during the endemic Covid-19 after Malaysia re-opened the border. People are free to do an activity, especially travelling by aeroplane. Data were collected through an online platform in 2023. 390 data were obtained and used for the analysis. Findings reveal that 86.15% of Malaysian have travelled by aeroplane since the endemic, and 14.10% have travelled more than five times. 54.44% strongly agree they will avoid travelling with aircraft because of a few personal issues. In addition, results revealed a significant change in passengers' behaviour and perception when travelling after the hit of Covid-19 worldwide.

Geospatial-Driven Tuberculosis Epidemiology during Pandemic Covid-19 in Kuala Lumpur, 2020-2021

Intro: Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient disease in Malaysia and the arrival of COVID-19 has driven TB into an unknown that possibly creates hidden threats to public health. Recently, TB is identified as a socially influenced disease transmitted through people that are easily mobile and dynamically connected. It is critical to develop a data-driven geospatial-based modelling to map tuberculosis (TB) cases in Malaysia for boosting early detection. Method(s): We conducted a retrospective review of TB notified cases in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between the years 2020 and 2021. The data was retrieved from the MyTB database and TB cases trends were examined against the five main series of 2020-2021 Malaysia Movement Control Order (MCO). The examination was extended to the study of social demographic and disease profiles. Locality, sub-locality, and housing type were investigated to measure hotspots in Kuala Lumpur. Finding(s): The number of patients with pulmonary TB (PTB) was high where 51% of them are smear positive and contributed majorly by male dominants. Cases with diabetes tend to be dominated by positive smear PTB that is close to 80%. There is a relatively strong trend that cases diagnosed with diabetes are in the non-smokers group and almost equally distributed between men and women, although the remaining cases are succeeded by men at the rate of 98% as opposed to women. Conclusion(s): The review of Kuala Lumpur TB notification between 2020 and 2021 is presented in this study providing a glance at a retrospective view of TB case notification in the era of the pandemic COVID-19. There are 188 cases per 100,000 population within the area of Kuala Lumpur and several important examinations were conducted to understand the underlying insights of notified TB cases. Several areas have been identified as hotspots according to geospatial modelling to allow targeted TB prevention activities at the community level.Copyright © 2023

Prevalence of Occupational Hand Eczema among Healthcare Workers and its Associated Risk Factors in a Tertiary Hospital in Sarawak During Covid-19 Pandemic.

Background: Occupational hand eczema (OHE) is common among healthcare workers (HCWs), especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Aims: Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of OHE among HCWs and to identify its associated risk factors. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study. A self-administered questionnaire study was done. It was followed by a clinical assessment of subjects with skin changes on their hands to determine the likely cause and its severity. Descriptive analysis and inferential analysis were performed to determine the prevalence of OHE and its associated risk factors. Results: A total of 1004 HCWs with a mean age of 34.58 years old were recruited. Of these, 50.1% were nurses, another 24.6% were doctors. A 1-year prevalence of 42.3% and a point prevalence of 16.5% were reported. Dry skin (n = 368, 86.6%) and itching (n = 274, 64.5%) were the common symptoms. Risk factors that were significantly associated with OHE were atopic eczema, allergic rhinitis, frequent hand washing and caring for children under four years old, whereas HCWs who frequently use alcoholic disinfectant and moisturizer hand cream showed lower odds of OHE. No significant association was found between age, gender, profession, involvement in COVID-19 care, number or duration of glove usage and occurrence of hand eczema. Conclusions: We report a high prevalence of OHE among HCWs during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Education and effective preventive measures are paramount to prevent and improve occupational dermatosis.

Travel Behaviour and Perceptions of Malaysian Airline Passengers during Endemic COVID-19

The study examines Malaysian airline passengers' travel behaviour and perceptions during the endemic Covid-19 after Malaysia re-opened the border. People are free to do an activity, especially travelling by aeroplane. Data were collected through an online platform in 2023. 390 data were obtained and used for the analysis. Findings reveal that 86.15% of Malaysian have travelled by aeroplane since the endemic, and 14.10% have travelled more than five times. 54.44% strongly agree they will avoid travelling with aircraft because of a few personal issues. In addition, results revealed a significant change in passengers' behaviour and perception when travelling after the hit of Covid-19 worldwide.

Stepping Up and Stepping Out of COVID-19: Malaysian Airline Passengers’ Travel Behaviour and Does It Impact Willingness to Pay for Carbon Offset

The COVID-19 crisis has become the most intense and long-lasting in aviation history. There is significant literature on the immediate impact of the outbreak, as well as speculation on the industry’s future evolution. This paper seeks to contribute to this discussion by examining flying patterns among Malaysian airline passengers and whether they are willing to contribute to carbon offset when flying during and post COVID-19. Specifically, the paper aims to measure the Malaysian airline passengers’ travel behavior during and after COVID-19 in Malaysia and whether the traveling behavior will impact passengers’ willingness to pay for carbon offset when flying. Many airlines recognize the importance of environmental protection. The airlines implement several environment-friendly activities related to in-flight services and wish to trigger passengers’ support and inquire about their preferences. Using an online survey, 150 respondents completed the survey as the sample for this study. The majority (77%) reported their travel behavior would change due to current cases of COVID-19 and the main reason is that COVID-19 worries them and will kill the patient if not prevented. Even though Malaysian traveling behavior has changed, they are still willing to pay for carbon offset as 69% of respondents are still willing to contribute. The findings have important implications for air transport management and decision-makers to tolerate the traveling behavior among Malaysian passengers and how they will support Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 13 (Climate Action), contributing to carbon offset.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Malaysian Airline Passengers’ Willingness to Pay for Carbon Offset

Airline industries have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spread to nearly every country worldwide. Multiple countries have imposed travel restrictions to halt this virus’s spread. This precarious situation has significantly impacted the airline industry, reducing passenger volume, flight frequency, and airline flow patterns. Although most scholars have examined changes in passenger volume before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, none of it has been done in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on airline passengers’ willingness to pay for carbon offset decisions and the value of willingness to pay among Malaysians. The research employed a scenario-based experiment with 150 respondents as the samples. Convenience sampling was adopted and was analyzed using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) via STATA version 16. The results showed that Malaysian airline passengers are willing to pay for carbon offset even as many have stopped flying due to COVID-19, with a mean value of RM20.68. This study also revealed that most passengers are still aware of climate change, even though not many are flying during the endemic. The psychological changes in air travelers caused by the pandemic are examined, with managerial and policy implications for the pandemic’s normalization of the pandemic and the airline market’s recovery in the post-pandemic period.

The Covid-19 Total Lockdown Effects on Grid Energy Demand: A Malaysia Experience

The Covid-19 disease is a highly contagious disease that causes respiratory tracts and lung infections, where some of the cases can lead to fatalities. Malaysia recorded the first Covid-19 case on January 25th, 2020. Although the government at the time considered the disease was not a threat, as the days went by the cases started to increase. The total lockdown measure, also known as the movement control order (MCO) was declared by the new Government of Malaysia following the surge of Covid-19 cases in early March 2020. The new prime minister, following a change of government, announced that schools were to be closed, offices and non-essential business activities were told to cease operation, and people were ordered to stay in their homes. As a newly industrialized country, with little economic activities, there were significant drops in the energy demand in Malaysia. This paper analyzes the change in the power demand and energy consumption trend in Malaysia before, during and after the Covid-19 total lockdown. © 2022 IEEE.

Chest X-ray Findings and Hyponatremia in COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic in December 2019. COVID-19 can affect most organs of the body but predominantly affects the lungs. Chest infection is associated with hyponatremia primarily due to inappropriate ectopic secretion of antidiuretic hormone. We conducted a six-month retrospective observational study to evaluate the relationship between chest X-ray (CXR) radiological findings and serum sodium levels. Our secondary goal was to assess the relationship between CXR findings and patient outcomes. AIM OF THE STUDY: To assess the relationship between the initial CXR findings, hyponatremia severity, and outcome in COVID-19 infected patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of CXR findings of COVID-19 patients aged > 18 years. The patients were healthy and had no history of hyponatremia before COVID-19 infection. All recruited patients were admitted to one of four hospitals in Qatar (Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, Communicable Disease Center, and all affiliated quarantine centers managed under the Communicable Disease Centre, Mesaieed Hospital, and Ras Laffan Hospital) between March and June 2020. We excluded patients with factors that contributed to hyponatremia. Three score grades were established to describe the CXR findings. Patients were divided into three groups by the principal researcher according to their serum sodium levels. A radiologist evaluated the CXR findings with the patient and group information obscured. The principal researcher collected the X-ray scores for analysis with the serum sodium levels. We used SPSS for Windows, Version 15.0. (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and STATA Package Version 12.0 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA) to analyze the data. A p-value ≤  0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 414 CXR patients with COVID-19 were recruited; 275 patients had hyponatremia and 139 had normal sodium levels and were used as the control group. Patients with normal serum sodium and hyponatremia were classified into three categories based on the CXR findings. Grade 0 (95), Grade 1 (43), and Grade 2 (137) hyponatremic patients were reported. The mean sodium levels were 133.6, 131.3, and 127.2 mmol/L for Grades 0, 1, and 2, respectively (p < 0.001). More than 95% of the patients who developed hyponatremia were >30 years. Moderate and severe hyponatremia was more prevalent in patients with Grade 1 or Grade 2 CXR findings and were >30 years. CONCLUSION: Serum sodium levels in COVID-19 patients correlated well with the severity of the CXR findings observed at the early disease stage. Furthermore, simple CXR scores can be used to identify COVID-19 patients at a higher risk of hyponatremia, length of hospital stay, medical care support type, and mortality.

IoT System Design of Thermoelectric Generator for Harvesting Motorcycle Exhaust Heat Energy

Online food delivery is the latest trend to hit the world. This trend has increased rapidly in recent years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck at once changing the country’s economic landscape. Therefore, motorcycles and mobile phones with high data access and battery storage capacity are used mainly involving identifying the place of delivery. Due to the widespread and frequent use of cellular phones in tracking the position of food delivery then causing the cellular phone battery storage will be depleted and require recharging the phone which involves a long time. This in turn will cause delays in the food delivery procedure. The development of a Thermoelectric Generator system using the Internet of Things (IoT) for energy harvesting is very important. Given that the development method is based on the differential temperature on the exhaust chamber of the motorcycle and heatsink to solve the problem of charging a cellular phone on a motorcycle. The process of developing this system requires control over the voltage capacity as well as the ability to monitor it online through the Internet of Things system. The development of this system revealed that large temperature difference rates produce high electrical voltages to 10 V with power rates up to 206 mW. It also shows that the quantity of TEG will affect the rate of voltage increase and the value of power produced in direct proportion as the quantity of TEG increases. In conclusion, the benefits of temperature changes will generate reusable energy for daily use. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Study of the effects of interferon ß-1a on hospitalized patients with COVID-19: SBMU Taskforce on the COVIFERON study.

Interferons are an essential part of the innate immune system and have antiviral and immunomodulatory functions. We studied the effects of interferon ß-1a on the outcomes of severe cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This retrospective study was conducted on hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Loghman-Hakim hospital from February 20, 2020 to April 20, 2020, Tehran, Iran. Patients were selected from two groups, the first group received interferon ß-1a in addition to the standard treatment regimen, and the second group received standard care. The clinical progression of two groups during their hospital admission was compared. We studied a total number of 395 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Out of this number, 111 patients (33.5%) died (31.3% of the interferon ß-1a group and 34.1% of the control group). The mortality rate indicated no statistically significant difference between groups (p-value = 0.348), however for patients who were hospitalized for more than a week, the rate of mortality was lower in the interferon ß-1a group (p-value = 0.014). The median hospital stay was statistically longer for patients treated by interferon ß-1a (p-value < 0.001). The results of this study showed that interferon ß-1a can improve the outcomes of hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19, but more adequately-powered randomized controlled trials should be conducted.

Immune thrombocytopenia relapse post covid-19 vaccine in young male patient.

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a blood disorder in which antibodies coating platelets cause platelets destruction in the spleen with resultant low platelets count and an increased tendency for bleeding. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an illness caused by SARS-COV2; it was first identified in December/2019; though it mainly affects the respiratory system, multisystemic complications are identified. Several ITP cases post mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were reported, and different pathophysiology theories about the underlying pathophysiology were discussed, but only a few ITP relapse cases have been reported so far. We present a 28-year-old Asian male, a known patient of ITP and in partial remission for eighteen months, who presented to the emergency department with ITP relapse (platelets count of 1 × 10^3 /µL), four days after receiving the second dose of Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which required treatment with intravenous immunoglobulins and dexamethasone. We further discuss the preferred approach in ITP patients who are willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

A case study on field f multiphase flow meter: How is it better than a conventional test separator?

Multiphase flow meters (MPFM) have been known save costs for new installations, are compact and as effective as a test separator. Field "F" is a green field with 2 wells and has been producing since 2018 from the same reservoir. The test facilities consist of an MPFM, and F flows to a hub called Field "G". Towards Q2 of 2019, there was a significant increase in production rates from both wells without any changes to surface choke size and without enhancement jobs performed. Added to that, reservoir pressure showed steady depletion. Daily production allocation for F showed lower than usual reconciliation factor when combined with G hub production. This suboptimal allocation raised doubts about the MPFM well test readings which launched a full investigation into the accuracy of the meter. From the offshore remote monitoring system, the first suspect was the increased inlet pressure causing parameters to be out of the MPFM operating envelope range. However, after further checking, there were other pressing issues such as faulty transmitter, and low range sensors. As these issues were being dealt with amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the process to fix the meter was longer than usual. Rectification involved troubleshooting the MPFM post performing Multi Rate Tests, back allocation check to hub production and PROSPER/GAP model matching to check on the credibility of the well tests. These efforts were made due to budget cuts, as there was no advantage to bring onboard an entire well test package (separator) to test the F wells. Post several rectifications, the liquid, gas and oil rates were within 10% difference from allocation meter back allocation and PROSPER model calculation. Reconciliation factor for field G has also increased to normal range of 0.92 to 0.95. However, the rectification also showed a significant drop in metered rates, proving that the MPFM was indeed generating incorrect well tests since Q2 2019. The drop was higher than 30% in gross production rates which lead to a better understanding of the reservoir, and corrections to be made to dynamic models for any future development projects. This hence proves that even with the similar reservoir properties in both wells, the MPFM well tests still require vigorous checking and should not be treated in the same way as a test separator. This paper will describe the efforts by surface and subsurface faculties to ensure the quality of well tests from the MPFM. For future projects considering the MPFM installation, best to frequently quality check the MPFM well test figures with a test separator. However, if that option is not feasible, the efforts in this paper can act as a guide for the field. © 2021, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Seroprevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare workers: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the extent of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and the factors associated with seroprevalence across a diverse cohort of healthcare workers. DESIGN: Observational cohort study of healthcare workers, including SARS-CoV-2 serology testing and participant questionnaires. SETTINGS: A multisite healthcare delivery system located in Los Angeles County. PARTICIPANTS: A diverse and unselected population of adults (n=6062) employed in a multisite healthcare delivery system located in Los Angeles County, including individuals with direct patient contact and others with non-patient-oriented work functions. MAIN OUTCOMES: Using Bayesian and multivariate analyses, we estimated seroprevalence and factors associated with seropositivity and antibody levels, including pre-existing demographic and clinical characteristics; potential COVID-19 illness-related exposures; and symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: We observed a seroprevalence rate of 4.1%, with anosmia as the most prominently associated self-reported symptom (OR 11.04, p<0.001) in addition to fever (OR 2.02, p=0.002) and myalgias (OR 1.65, p=0.035). After adjusting for potential confounders, seroprevalence was also associated with Hispanic ethnicity (OR 1.98, p=0.001) and African-American race (OR 2.02, p=0.027) as well as contact with a COVID-19-diagnosed individual in the household (OR 5.73, p<0.001) or clinical work setting (OR 1.76, p=0.002). Importantly, African-American race and Hispanic ethnicity were associated with antibody positivity even after adjusting for personal COVID-19 diagnosis status, suggesting the contribution of unmeasured structural or societal factors. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: The demographic factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among our healthcare workers underscore the importance of exposure sources beyond the workplace. The size and diversity of our study population, combined with robust survey and modelling techniques, provide a vibrant picture of the demographic factors, exposures and symptoms that can identify individuals with susceptibility as well as potential to mount an immune response to COVID-19.