ABSTRACT
Educational institutes across India have closed due to COVID-19 pandemic which has jeopardized academic schedules. To maintain their academic activities, several Indian educational institutes have shifted to online learning platforms. However, there are still questions about the effectiveness, design, and readiness of e-learning. In light of this fact, E-learning still tends to be controversial. As a result, it is inevitable to design an application with greater usability. In this paper, a novel application tool is developed and the design is proposed to enhance student knowledge and facilitate their study process, so they can study in comfort at home. The proposed system allows students to receive personalized educational assistance and also allows the students to get instant responses to all their questions throughout the day via a voice-enabled chatbot. It facilitates the connection between students and tutors, as well as the awarding of mind coins and badges based on how well they do, motivating them to learn more. Data analytics is incorporated and usability is measured. The result shows that the proposed system has greater usability resulting in a progressive improvement in the student's performance. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is a pathogenic virus that caused a pandemic outbreak in December 2019. The impact of this virus may be severe in the patients having co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension, Chronic Kidney Disease, cardiovascular disease, etc. Aim and Objectives: This study Aims in Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on Diabetic and Hypertensive patients as well as COVID-19 patients without any co-morbidities. Objective of this is to evaluate the association between COVID-19 and its risk factors (diabetes and hypertension) and to evaluate whether the severity of the symptoms in COVID-19 patients is due to comorbidities or past medications. Methodology: A Retrospective study was conducted in SRM Hospital (Medical Records Department) for a period of 3 Months with the study population 670 at the age group of 25, known case of Diabetes and Hypertension. Cases of Pregnant women are excluded from the study. The patients were grouped into 4 categories 1) control group (patient without any co-morbidities) 2) diabetic patients 3) Hypertensive patient 4) Diabetic+Hypertension patient and studied their prescribing pattern by collecting the past medication history. Results and Discussion: There is a significant decrease in a lymphocyte in covid-19 Type 2 diabetic patients in our study. These results suggest that different mechanism exists for hypertension and diabetes mellitus as risk factors for covid-19. It is also known that these patients have impaired immune response to many infections [30]. In our retrospective study, we collected 670 covid-19 cases. It consists of 12.5% of diabetic patients and 6.6% of hypertensive patients. This study compared COVID-19 patients without any comorbidity (neither Type 2 diabetes mellitus nor hypertension) with covid-19 patients with comorbidities (Type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension). COVID-19 patients with T2DM have an increased level of D-dimer compared to nonT2DM patients. Conclusion: Diabetic and hypertensive patients affected with COVID-19 are low in our study. Out of the total study population, only 12.5% are diabetic, 6.56% are hypertensive, and 9.25% were both diabetic and hypertensive. But when comparing in terms of severity, hypertensive and diabetic patients have severe effects than the control patients. In simpler terms, not every person who has diabetes and hypertension are affected with COVID-19, but those who were affected by COVID-19 showed more severity than the patients who don't have any comorbidities
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious infectious disease which lead to a global pandemic. This virus attacks the small blood vessels, endothelial linings and lead to impaired blood flow and vessel malfunctioning's in various organs. This explains the reason why the high vulnerability patient population is those with comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, COPD, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. The objective of the study was to compare the rates of recovery in the comorbid Covid-19 patient population when compared to those without comorbidities by evaluating their CT Chest-Score, RT-PCR, duration of hospitalization and thereby assess if the quality of life was compromised. A Prospective Observational Study was conducted for a period of 4 months with over 400 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 patients. Out of the 400 patients, considering the exclusion and inclusion criteria 191 moderately ill covid-19 patients with or without comorbidities were included in the study. The severity of the patients was assessed based on the CT-Chest Score and COVID-19 RT-PCR reports. Various other complications faced by comorbid patients when compared to patients with nil comorbidities were also investigated. In our study among the underlying comorbidities, the most common were DM (40.11%), HTN (35.32 %), CAD (7.78 %), COPD (6.58 %), CKD (5.38 %) and then hypothyroidism (4.79 %). Our study also concluded that the percentage of patients with a comorbid condition was higher (59.68%) than those without a comorbid condition (40.31%). The mean reduction in CT-Score in the comorbid and nil-comorbid was found to be 9.38 ± 2.85 and 7.08 ± 2.89. The mean reduction in hospital stay in the comorbid and nil comorbid group was found to be 9.50 ± 2.34 and 8.08 ± 1.71. The mean reduction in RT-PCR was 10.04 ± 2.95 and 7.44 ± 2.33 in the comorbid and nil comorbid group respectively. Therefore, the RT-PCT, duration of hospital stay and CT-Chest Score showed a statistical significance of p-value<0.0001. The study concludes that the comorbid patients when compared to those without comorbidities had a longer hospital stay and more time for recovery which led to a compromise in their health status.
ABSTRACT
To assess dry eye symptoms (DES) and quality of sleep in engineering students during the Covid19 pandemic lockdown and also to assess the association between DES and sleep quality. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was carried out among 396 engineering students studying in Saveetha engineering college. The study tool used was a semi-structured google form questionnaire designed for assessing digital device usage, symptoms of dry eye disease and sleep pattern. Responses were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Overall 64.1% attained a score of more than 10, indicating the presence of DES. 70.2% of the study population used digital screens for more than 13 hours. A statistically significant association was found between increased screen time and presence of DES(p<0.05). 64.9% had a score of >18 indicating reduced sleep quality. About 77.1% of the students with DES had reduced sleep quality, and a significant association (p<0.01) was observed between the two. During the Covid19 pandemic lockdown, there appears to be rising prevalence of DES in student population, one of the reasons being increased screen time. The sleep quality was also found to be reduced, and a significant association was found between DES and sleep quality.