ABSTRACT
This study aimed to examine what challenges Iranian EFL teachers in the mainstream educational system experienced in distance classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telephone unstructured narrative interview was employed to collect data from 20 teacher participants, and two theoretical frameworks, CoI and TPACK, were used to interpret the results. The thematic narrative analysis yielded ten themes: non-customized platforms, material-related issues, connection/internet issues, pedagogical problems, evaluation problems, insufficiency of teachers' knowledge of technology, unmet expectations, physical absence of teacher/student, student-related issues, and dealing with negative emotions. The authors discuss that while some challenges are the antecedent contextual challenges that existed and will probably continue to exist in the context of distance classes, some other challenges can be avoided if teachers are equipped with TPACK to fulfill their new roles in the community of distance classes. © 2023 Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh et al., published by Sciendo.
ABSTRACT
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by an infection in the respiratory tract leading to extrapulmonary manifestations, including dysregulation of the immune system and hepatic injury. Objectives: Given the high prevalence of viral hepatitis and a few studies carried out on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and hepatitis B virus (HBV), this study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients in the northeast region of Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the blood samples were collected from 93 CHB patients registered in the Patient Detection Data Bank of Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran, and 62 healthy individuals as controls. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was adopted to detect COVID-19 infection in all the participants' nasopharyngeal samples. All the participants were subjected to anti-hepatitis C virus, anti-hepatitis delta virus, and liver function tests. Then, HBV deoxyribonucleic acid load was detected in CHB patients. The collected data were analyzed by statistical tests using SPSS software (version 20). A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In this study, 14% (13/93) and 32.25% (20/62) of CHB patients and control individuals were infected with COVID-19, respectively. The mean age of CHB patients was 39.69 +/- 19.58 years, and 71% of them were female. The risk of developing COVID-19 in healthy controls was observed to be 2.3 times higher than in patients with CHB (0.95% confidence interval: 1.242 -4.290). On the other hand, the mean values of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase in CHB patients superinfected with COVID-19 were higher than other participants. Out of 35.4% of patients with viral hepatitis B that were taking antiviral drugs, only 5.4% had COVID-19. Conclusions: Although CHB infection did not predispose COVID-19 patients to more severe outcomes, the data of this study suggest that antiviral agents also decreased susceptibility to COVID-19 infection. Alternatively, careful assessment of hepatic manifestations and chronic viral hepatitis infections in COVID-19 patients can lead to more favorable health outcomes.
ABSTRACT
Background: Nowadays, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a global problem that new methods must be used to prevent it. The virus is highly contagious and is mainly transmitted through the air. Ozone is a powerful oxidant that can be used to inactivate a wide range of viruses that may be resistant to other disinfectants. The purpose of this study was to review the use and effect of ozone in inactivating indoor viruses. Methods: To conduct this review study, the keywords such as ozone, virus and air were used to search the PubMed and Scopus databases. Articles were searched from 2010 to 2020. As a result of the search, 57 articles in this field were selected and their content and results were used in this review study. Results: This review study showed that ozone has been successfully used to prevent several viral diseases such as COVED-19. In addition, some viruses, such as coronaviruses, contain sulfhydryl functional groups containing cysteine and tryptophan that react better with ozone gas. The infected person's sneezing may result in the formation of 40,000 droplets in the air. The droplets can be transferred to the nearest surface up to approximately 2 meters before falling and also may remain in the air for 30 hours. Conclusion: The use of ozone gas has many potential applications in inactivating viruses in enclosed spaces. Given the importance of virus-containing aerosols in the transmission of COVED-19, ozone can be a promising way to prevent the disease. The degree of inactivation of viruses by ozone gas depends on the gas concentration, contact time, temperature, humidity and type of virus. In general, studies in this field have shown the use of ozone gas in preventing the spread of viral diseases such as COVED-19. Necessary safety measures and precautions are also recommended in using this gas.
ABSTRACT
Due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the problem of protecting the individual against airborne transmission has become of great importance. This transmission occurs when virus-containing droplets enter the respiratory tract. Accordingly, the inactivation of airborne viruses plays significant role in mitigating the threat posed by a human-to-human infectious disease. The use of gas-based treatments such as ozone to decontaminate indoor air containing viruses has been increased. Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that can be used to inactivate broad-range viruses that might be resistant to other disinfectants. The purpose of the study is to bring attention to the ozonizing of indoor air as a novel treatment for the inactivation of viruses. This review study showed that enveloped viruses (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) are more sensitive to oxidizing agents such as ozone than to non-enveloped viruses. Furthermore, some viruses such as coronaviruses have cysteine containing a sulfhydryl group that reacts with ozone gas. The study indicated that more free radicals will be formed when air humidity is higher, which could lead to higher virus inactivation. Air disinfection by ozone gas can be a promising approach for the viral deactivation of contaminated spaces in hospitals, health-care centers, dental offices, sport clubs, hotels and transportation sector, as well as all other places where viral disease outbreaks occur.
ABSTRACT
Recently, many of the studies have illustrated that the new pandemic SARS-CoV-2 can affect Central Nervous System through the olfactory bulb. In addition to investigating anosmia or hyposmia induced by this virus, a quantitative analysis was needed to clarify the taste and smell disorder of the new coronavirus. The four basic taste quality with five concentrations for sweet, sour, bitter, and salty were administered to 75 subjects divided into three groups: COVID-19 patients with taste disorder, COVID-19 patients without taste disorder, and control group. The results indicated the increment of sweet (2.68 ± 0.14), sour (3.34 ± 0.12) and bitter (3.39 ± 0.2) thresholds in COVID-19 patients with taste disorder in comparison with patients without taste disorder that the threshold were: 2 ± 0.16, 2.11 ± 0.2 and 2.55 ± 0.5 for sweet, sour, and bitter respectively. On the other hand, the patients inversely showed a significant decrease in the salty taste threshold (0.51 ± 0.03) compared to COVID-19 positive control groups (1.11 ± 0.11). Additionally, despite taste disorder in almost all of the patients with smell deficiency, only 30% of cases with taste disorder reported smell deficiency. It may be concluded that some of the taste disorders in patients with COVID-19 disorder could be associated with taste receptors dysfunction or the spread of infection to the cranial nerves responsible for the conduction of tastes sensation.
ABSTRACT
Since December 2019, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in China, the main strategy of health policy makers has been to quarantine and impose social restrictions, causing significant behavioral changes in people due to fear of infection (1, 2). Laws limiting traffic, reduced travel permits, paying attention to personal hygiene, and making efforts to clean up private and public environments are some of the changes that have been observed. We also noticed alterations in patients' admission to trauma centers. In a retrospective cross-sectional study, demographic characteristics and type of fracture were analyzed in patients referring to the trauma center of Taleghani Hospital, Kermanshah, Iran, from 1st March to 15t h April, in 3 consecutive years (2018 to 2020). 2,483 trauma patients with the mean age of 37.31 ± 22.86 years were studied (Table1). The findings showed that, the number of fractures has generally decreased in March and April 2020. The change is more prominent in children and young men aged 18 to 35 years, which may be due to reasons such as schools being closed, sports activities being ceased, and the decrease in traffic, as well as the reduction of accidents that have affected these age groups. The age, gender, and type of fracture had approximately the same pattern during the studied period in three years, but we have seen an increase in some specific fractures such as foot bone and ankle (figure1). The fractures of middle-aged women, such as those © 2020. All Rights Reserved.