ABSTRACT
It is well documented that, in the United States (U.S.), the availability of Internet access is related to several demographic attributes. Data collected through end user network diagnostic tools, such as the one provided by the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) Speed Test, allows the extension of prior work by exploring the relationship between the quality, as opposed to only the availability, of Internet access and demographic attributes of users of the platform. In this study, we use network measurements collected from the users of Speed Test by M-Lab and demographic data to characterize the relationship between the quality-of-service (QoS) metric download speed, and various critical demographic attributes, such as income, education level, and poverty. For brevity, we limit our focus to the state of California. For users of the M-Lab Speed Test, our study has the following key takeaways: (1) geographic type (urban/rural) and income level in an area have the most significant relationship to download speed;(2) average download speed in rural areas is 2.5 times lower than urban areas;(3) the COVID-19 pandemic had a varied impact on download speeds for different demographic attributes;and (4) the U.S. Federal Communication Commission's (FCC's) broadband speed data significantly over-represents the download speed for rural and low-income communities compared to what is recorded through Speed Test. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in March 2020. This global health crisis caused thousands of pneumonia related death all over the world since December 2019. RT-PCR is the primary test for diagnosis of COVID-19, though its sensitivity and specificity is variable. Several studies revealed that chest HRCT complements RT-PCR in highly suspected cases or in false negative RT-PCR and helps to gauge disease severity. This study was carried out with an aim to find out the severity scores of chest HRCT in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. This cross sectional descriptive type of observational study was carried out at COVID-19 unit of Sylhet Women's Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh from April 2021 to September 2021. Data were collected from purposively selected 204 patients with COVID-19 by face to face interview, chest HRCT and necessary laboratory investigations. Informed written consent was taken from the participants of the study at the beginning of the interview. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 21.0. The results of the study showed that mean age of the patients with COVID-19 was 57.9 years with a standard deviation of ±15.8 years. Majority of them (121, 59.3%) were female and the remaining (83, 40.7%) were male. Regarding co-morbidities it was found that each 115 (56.4%) patients were hypertensive and diabetic. Thirty five (16.2%) had ischemic heart disease; 3(1.5%) had congestive cardiac failure and 2(1.0%) had asthma. One (0.5%) patient has atrial fibrillation. In case of 160(78.4%) RT-PCR confirmed patients with COVID-19, chest HRCT was found positive and in 44(21.6%) it was found negative. Among the positive cases mild (7 or less) chest HRCT score was found in 26(12.7%) patients; moderate (8-17) score was found in highest number of patients (128, 62.7%) and severe (18 or more) chest HRCT score was found in 6(2.9%) patients with COVID-19. Chi-square test was carried out to assess the relation of chest HRCT scores with age group, sex, troponin-I, D-Dimer and clinical outcomes within CCU but statistically significant relation was not found (p>0.05). The negative scans were highest (20, 9.8%) in the age group of 41-60 years. Mild, moderate and severe chest HRCT scores was found highest in the age group of 61-80 years (13, 6.4%; 51, 25.0% and 5, 2.5% respectively) (p=0.508). Chest HRCT scans were negative in 18(8.8%) male and 26(12.7%) female. Mild scores were equally distributed between each sex i.e. male 13(6.4%) and female 13(6.4%). Both moderate and severe scores were found more in female (77, 37.7% and 5, 2.5% respectively) than male (51, 25.0% and 1, 0.5% respectively) (p=0.492). Negative chest HRCT scans, mild, moderate and severe scores-all were found more in patients with elevated D-Dimer (p=0.194). Among 204 patients one (0.5%) died in the CCU who had mild score of chest HRCT (p=0.076) but highly elevated Troponin-I (21.70ng/mL). Chest HRCT was found positive among 78.4% of patients with COVID-19 confirmed by RT-PCR. Chest HRCT can help physicians to detect suspected cases and to assess the severity and outcome of the disease. However, further research is recommended to clarify the role of chest HRCT in assessing severity of COVID-19 and prediction of prognosis.