An Explorative Review on Advanced Approaches to Overcome Bacterial Resistance by Curbing Bacterial Biofilm Formation.

The continuous emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens evoked the development of innovative approaches targeting virulence factors unique to their pathogenic cascade. These approaches aimed to explore anti-virulence or anti-infective therapies. There are evident concerns regarding the bacterial ability to create a superstructure, the biofilm. Biofilm formation is a crucial virulence factor causing difficult-to-treat, localized, and systemic infections. The microenvironments of bacterial biofilm reduce the efficacy of antibiotics and evade the host's immunity. Producing a biofilm is not limited to a specific group of bacteria; however, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Staphylococcus aureus biofilms are exemplary models. This review discusses biofilm formation as a virulence factor and the link to antimicrobial resistance. In addition, it explores insights into innovative multi-targeted approaches and their physiological mechanisms to combat biofilms, including natural compounds, phages, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT), CRISPR-Cas gene editing, and nano-mediated techniques.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of government intervention strategies to control and prevent COVID-19 in Malaysia by systems thinking

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the interaction of different intervention strategies implemented in Malaysia towards flattening the curve of COVID-19 cases. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many approaches were adopted and implemented by the Malaysian government. Some strategies gained quick wins but with negative unintended consequences after execution, whereas other strategies were slow to take effect. Learning from the previous strategies is pivotal to avoid repeating mistakes. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents the cause, effect of and connection among the implemented COVID-19 intervention strategies using systems thinking through the development of a causal loop diagram. It enables the visualisation of how each implemented strategy interacted with each other and collectively decreased or increased the spread of COVID-19. Findings: The results of this study suggested that it is not only essential to control the spread of COVID-19, but also to prevent the transmission of the virus. The Malaysian experience has demonstrated that both control and preventive strategies need to be in a state of equilibrium. Focusing only on one spectrum will throw off the balance, leaving COVID-19 infection to escalate rapidly. Originality/value: The developed feedback loops provided policy makers with the understanding of the merits, pitfalls and dynamics of prior implemented intervention strategies before devising other effective intervention strategies to defuse the spread of COVID-19 and prepare the nation for recovery. © 2023, Jack Kie Cheng, Fazeeda Mohamad, Puteri Fadzline M. Tamyez, Zetty Ain Kamaruzzaman, Maizura Mohd Zainudin and Faridah Zulkipli.

Activation of tuberculosis in recovered COVID-19 patients: a case report.

Currently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and tuberculosis (TB) are among the most important causes of respiratory infections around the world. Both of them are sources of concern for human health and life safety. COVID-19 caused the deaths of millions of people, and many of them suffered from what has become known as 'post-COVID squeal'. Immunosuppression is one of the most important of these symptoms that leave patients susceptible to severe infections like TB. Case Presentation: In these two cases, the authors observed the development of active TB after a period of COVID recovery. Two patients who were admitted to the hospital complained mainly, among other symptoms, of fever and a continuous cough after a period of COVID-19 recovery. Clinical Discussion: Radiological examination revealed a caving density in the two cases, and the Gene-Xpert test proved the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria despite the negative result of the Ziehl-Neelsen stain. The two patients were improved after standard TB treatment. Conclusion: Patients with post-COVID-19 chronic respiratory symptoms should be screened for TB, especially in TB-endemic areas, even though the result of the Ziehl-Neelsen stain was negative.

Anxiety, Depression and Stress Among Medical Students in Malaysia During COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with psychological distress following the COVID-19 pandemic among medical students at one of the public universities in Malaysia. Method: From August to October 2020, a web-based cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students at a public university. DASS-21, Brief Resilience Scale and WHOQOL-Bref questionnaires were used in this study. Results: The prevalence of depression was 40.5%, anxiety 46.0% and stress 30.9%. Based on multivariate logistic regression, a higher quality of life score is associated with a lower likelihood of depression (AOR=0.583, p<0.001), anxiety (AOR=0.726, p<0.001), and stress, (AOR=0.702, p<0.001) respectively. Likewise, a higher resilience score is less likely to be associated with depression (AOR=0.880, p=0.002), anxiety (AOR=0.880, p=0.002), and stress (AOR=0.850, p<0.001). Older age (OR=0.700, p=0.020) was associated with less stress and being on campus (OR=3.436, p=0.021) was at risk of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Our results suggest that medical students with higher quality of life and resilience scores had less depression, anxiety and stress. Older age was associated with less stress, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, being on campus was at risk of stress. Various stakeholders need to keep these findings in mind and identify those who are at risk for developing depression, anxiety, and stress in order to take further action to improve their quality of life and resilience. © 2023 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

Corpus-based Studies of Metaphor: An Overview

The researchers performed this systematic review to offer insights into the trend of the corpus-based approach in studying metaphor in recent years and investigate the potential gaps and under-researched areas in the past literature on the topic. Two research databases, namely Google Scholar and Academics, were explored to collect data. The analysis of metaphor-related research studies published between 2015 and 2020 revealed more than 78 studies dealing with the topic of investigation. After the screening process, 23 studies that met the research criteria were retained for analysis. The selected articles were further analyzed using the two-step analysis involving quantitative and qualitative approaches, i.e., descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that metaphor studies employing the corpus approach tend to use existing corpus like the Reference Corpus instead of a specialized corpus. In addition, metaphor studies in this review centered more on written discourse than spoken data. Furthermore, there is also a lack of information on the corpus tool employed in the examined studies. Meanwhile, the thematic analysis unearthed potential gaps and under-researched areas, such as limited studies on COVID-19 metaphor even though the outbreak had started at the end of 2019. Future studies on this research could include more specialized corpora, specifically in the under-researched topics, to fill in the gaps in this area of study.

RELYING ON MEDIA COVERAGE FOR HEALTH INFORMATION DURING COVID-19: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a great impact on the world, affecting all countries and requiring the enforcement of lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus. The phenomenon has caused fear and concern among individuals. Consequently, people are spending more time on traditional media compared to social media to seek health information during the pandemic. Few studies have systematically reviewed the use and impacts of social and traditional media for health information purposes during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hence, this study examined the topic by integrating multiple research designs based on the publication standard involving the established guidelines and protocol for a review. Articles were chosen using two prominent databases, Scopus and Science Direct. The thematic analysis has yielded four major themes: a) information source, b) type of information, c) psychological impact, and d) health literacy, which are divided into eight secondary themes. The study also makes several significant contributions for practical reasons and by enhancing the body of knowledge. The results highlighted certain vital issues: the preferred media source for health information during the pandemic, information types that individuals seek, the psychological impacts of information overload from social and traditional media, and future studies should investigate the relationship between health literacy levels and health outcomes. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Social Versus Physical Distancing: Analysis of Public Health Messages at the Start of COVID-19 Outbreak in Malaysia Using Natural Language Processing

The study presents an attempt to analyse how social media netizens in Malaysia responded to the calls for “Social Distancing” and “Physical Distancing” as the newly recommended social norm was introduced to the world as a response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The pandemic drove a sharp increase in social media platforms’ use as a public health communication platform since the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia in April 2020. We analysed thousands of tweets posted by Malaysians daily between January 2020 and August 2021 to determine public perceptions and interactions patterns. The analysis focused on positive and negative reactions and the interchanges of uses of the recommended terminologies “social distancing” and “physical distancing”. Using linguistic analysis and natural language processing, findings dominantly indicate influences from the multilingual and multicultural values held by Malaysian netizens, as they embrace the concept of distancing as a measure of global public health safety. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Factors Associated with Mental Health Outcomes: Results from a Tertiary Referral Hospital in Lebanon during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has caused global mental health impacts, and healthcare workers (HCWs) face an increased risk of exposure to the disease when compared to the general population. This study aimed to assess factors associated with mental health among Lebanese HCWs six months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs at a tertiary hospital, in Lebanon between June and July 2020. The survey included data on demographics, exposure to COVID-19, preparedness to COVID-19 outbreak, risk perceptions of COVID-19, and mental health dimensions. Chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests were used to understand the association among these variables. One hundred and ninety-three of 1,600 Lebanese HCWs participated. More than 80% reported high preparedness levels towards the COVID-19 outbreak, 69% believed that their job was putting them at risk, and 70% altruistically accepted these risks. Anxiety and depression symptomatology were present in 24% and 23% of HCWs; who were more likely to feel more stress at work (83% vs 60%; p = 0.004; 82% vs 61%; p = 0.01, respectively), feel afraid of falling ill (72% vs 55%; p = 0.03; 77% vs 54%; p = 0.01, respectively), fear death (21% vs 7%; p = 0.01; 25% vs 6%; p ≤ 0.001, respectively), and believed that people avoided their families (39% vs 21%; p = 0.01; 35% vs 65%; p = 0.02, respectively). HCWs who reported signs of depression were less likely to altruistically accept the risks of caring for COVID-19 patients, compared to those who did not (57% vs 74%; p = 0.03). This study aimed to detect factors associated with mental health among Lebanese HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggested that altruistic acceptance of COVID-19 risks is higher among HCWs with positive exposure history to COVID-19 and those with less depressive symptomatology.

Nudge Theory and Social Innovation: An analysis of citizen and government initiatives during Covid-19 outbreak in Malaysia

The study presents an analysis of how the Nudge Theory was mobilized in Malaysia during the Covid-19 outbreak. It was observed that during the mandatory lockdown, citizens explored various social innovation solutions to cope with the fear, anxiety and loss of income during the pandemic. The government deployed strategies which exemplified elements of the Nudge Theory to drive nationalism and citizenship. The study assembles data from public reports, media releases and social media postings which document social innovation initiatives throughout the pandemic period. Analysis has revealed how the Nudge Theory were put into play, affecting social behaviours and empathy, which led to various social innovation initiatives. © 2020 IEEE.

Mitigation strategies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic—present, future and beyond

Purpose: The latest novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to have a significant social and financial impact globally. It is very essential to study, categorize and systematize published research on mitigation strategies adopted during previous pandemic scenario that could provide an insight into improving the current crisis. The goal of this paper is to systematize and identify gaps in previous research and suggest potential recommendations as a conceptual framework from a strategic point of view. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) core collection databases was performed based on strict keyword search selections followed by a bibliometric meta-analysis of the final dataset. Findings: This study indicated that the traditional mitigation techniques adopted during past pandemics are in place but are not capable of managing the transmission capability and virulence of COVID-19. There is a greater need for rethinking and re-engineering short and long-term approaches to prevent, control and contain the current pandemic situation. Practical implications: Integrating various mitigation approaches shall assist in flattening the pandemic curve and help in the long run. Originality/value: Articles, conference proceedings, books, book chapters and other references from two extensive databases (Scopus and WoS) were purposively considered for this study. The search was confined to the selected keywords outlined in the methodology section of this paper. © 2020, Ahmed Zainul Abideen, Fazeeda Binti Mohamad and Mohd Rohaizat Hassan.