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The stability characteristics associated with the shelf life of a biosensor are rarely investigated, however, they are important factors for real applications. Stability is the variation in the detection signal over a long period of storage. This study aims to determine the effect of storage time on the stability of SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) spike protein aptamers related to shelf life and the performance of an electrochemical aptasensor on clinical samples. The research method includes a stability study conducted using the accelerated stability method based on the Arrhenius equation at three variations of temperature and storage time. The electrochemical aptasensor's performance was evaluated on clinical samples of 32 nasopharyngeal swabs at biosafety level 3 and its potential on clinical saliva samples. The results indicated that the developed electrochemical aptasensor was stable for ± 15 days with a shelf life of 18, 17 and 16 days, respectively, at 25, 40 and 50 °C. This electrochemical aptasensor has the potential to be a Point of Care (POC) device for the clinical detection of SARS-CoV-2 because it can be tested on clinical samples of nasopharyngeal swabs and the results show its potential application to detect in clinical saliva samples. © Arum Kurnia Sari et al.
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The emergence of the e-learning culture has taken the world by storm, and its trend has only increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. Being confined at home, students and educators are forced to transition to online learning no matter their familiarity or skill level with technology. One such issue is when a website is not designed effectively, making it needlessly complicated. On the other hand, taking away the complexity of a site may cause it to lack the information presented. To overcome this, an e-learning website should be designed using a design thinking approach that centers around creative problem solving to better innovate a solution. This paper aims to delve deeper into how the design thinking approach may improve an e-learning website's design. The results of the research that we have done show that the application of design thinking in our e-learning has the highest score in the navigation aspect and is also user-friendly, with a score of 8.1 (out of 10). While the lowest score is in the use of color with a score of 6.9 (out of 10), from these results, we need to improve in aspect use of color. This proves that the application of design thinking in e-learning is necessary to facilitate and assist users in using the application © 2022 IEEE.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has limited the mobility of everyone in the world. Education is one of the most affected sectors because education systems have been done face to face. Most educational institutions switch to online learning by using online meeting platforms. We discovered an online meeting platform called 'Gather town' which looks more attractive in increasing learning motivation and may be an alternative solution for online education. This paper aims to test student experience using 'Gather Town' as a new learning medium and compare the effectiveness with Zoom Meeting Application. We compare the User Experience of both applications by letting respondents try the application and ask for feedback from our questionnaire. The result from the questionnaire shows that Gather Town has excellent potential as an alternative new learning media. © 2022 IEEE.
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Bali is one of the islands known as a tourist destination with the main purpose of traveling to Bali to enjoy the beauty of nature. Various tourist activities in Bali are well known both nationally and internationally. With so many types of tours available in Bali, travelers, especially first-time visitors, may need a guide on the tourist attractions they want to visit in Bali. However, some tourists, especially backpackers, backpackers are known to explore tourist attractions independently, freely, and with as little budget as possible. Concerning this statement and the decline in tourists to Bali due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the author decided to use the Haversine formula to develop a geographic information system for smart backpacker travel recommendations. with this problem. This Android application helps tourists travel from registration to tour guides. Implementing the Haversine formula in your app is equivalent to up to 88% of the distance reported by the Google Maps API. These results are used as a recommendation function for the selection of attractions by showing the distance between the previous backpacker's location selection and attractions. © 2022 IEEE.
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Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively impacted many sectors of people's lives worldwide, especially in the education sector. The COVID-19 pandemic in the education sector has disrupted students'mentalhealth. This study aimed to determine and identify the impact of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on students' physiological and mental health. Methods: This study used non-experimental with quantitative methods. It also used a descriptive survey research design. An instrument used in this study was the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) with a Guttman scale for students in 2020. The research sample was 378 people using simple random sampling. The data analysis used in this study was univariate. Results: Most respondents were 18-25 years (97.9 %). Based on the environmental conditions where students live in the red zone, 56.9 %. The distribution of students who experience mental health problems was 87 % of students experiencing psychotic symptoms, which was 90.2 %. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, students experienced quite high anxiety. More than half experienced the impact of COVID-19, and the experience of mental health problems is relatively high. © 2022 Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved.
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Background: Regarding the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and exposure to their risk factors, and the continuous need for nationwide data, we aimed to develop the latest round of the STEPwise Approach to NCD Risk Factor Surveillance (STEPS) survey in 2021 in Iran, while the COVID-19 pandemic was still present.Methods: In addition to the three main steps of this survey, including questionnaires, physical measurements, and laboratory assessments, we adapted the survey with the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, by adding to various aspects of study phases and changing some scientific and executive procedures in this round of STEPS survey in Iran. These changes were beyond the initial novelties embedded within the survey before the pandemic, by refining the study protocol benefiting from the previous experiences of the STEPS survey.Results: By amending the required changes, we could include a total of 27 874 individuals in the first step of the survey. This number was 27 745 and 18119 for the second and third steps. Comparing the preliminary results with the previous nationwide surveys, this study was highly representative on both national and provincial levels. Also, implementing the COVID-19 prevention and control strategies in all stages of survey led to the least infection transmission between the study investigators and participants.Conclusion: The novel initiatives and developed strategies in this round of Iran STEPS survey provide a state-of-the-art protocol for national surveys in the presence of an overwhelming catastrophe like the COVID-19 pandemic and the triggered limitations and shortages of resources.
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Thermal plasma treatment is considered as a suitable alternative for treatment of highly-hazardous wastes such as industrial, radioactive and medical wastes. Therefore, a Plasma-Gasification-Melting (PGM) system for treatment of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Wastes (CPW) with a capacity of 1 ton/day is developed using a melting and gasification furnace equipped with two non-transferred thermal plasma torches. In this article, the whole method of chemical and pharmaceutical waste disposal is presented along with exhaust gas analysis, and slag and energy balance approach for improving the relevant technology process. It is successfully demonstrated that the thermal plasma process converts chemical and pharmaceutical wastes into harmless slag. Also, the associated emission level of air pollutants is shown to be very low. The produced synthetic gas can be used as a source of energy. (11.7 Nm3 / hr for CO and 16.4 Nm3 / hr for H2). The total power consumption of the system is 120 kW including 90 kW for thermal plasma torch and 30 kW for utilities with natural gas flow rate of 1.3 Nm3 /hr. © 2022, Islamic Azad University. All rights reserved.
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BACKGROUND: Pregnant women are one of the populations that are susceptible to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection due to physiological changes during pregnancy that is an adaptive response to pregnancy such as diaphragmatic elevation, increased oxygen consumption, and airway mucosal edema which can also make pregnant women more intolerant of hypoxia. In addition to being vulnerable, COVID-19 in pregnant women may have a different clinical course from the general population. AIM: This study aims to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics in pregnancy with COVID-19 at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah Hospital, Bali, Indonesia. METHOD(S): This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study using secondary data derived from patient medical records and carried out in the delivery room and medical record installation at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G. Ngoerah Hospital, Bali, Indonesia, for the period of April 1, 2020-March 31, 2021. RESULT(S): Of the 275 patients, most were in the age range of 26-30 years (46.55%), in the third trimester (81.45%), and patients came alone (54.18%). Most of the patients came without symptoms with reactive rapid antibody results (60.97%). Of the 197 patients who delivered, 84.77% had CS and 66.55% without oxygen therapy. About 69.69% of patients experienced complications and the mortality rate was 1.09%. The highest birth weight was >2500 g by 76.8%, with the good neonatal outcome (82.92%) and negative swab results (89.45%). Inflammatory markers tend to increase as symptoms increase. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, procalcitonin, and ferritin were markedly increased from moderate symptoms to severe-critical symptoms. The same was true for ferritin levels, where there was a sharp rise in significant symptoms. Meanwhile, procalcitonin levels have started to increase quite strikingly from moderate symptoms to the highest in severe symptoms. CONCLUSION(S): It is hoped that this demographic and clinical picture would further our understanding of COVID-19 and help us develop methods to lessen the disease's severity and spread to enhance maternal and newborn outcomes. Copyright © 2022 Anak Agung Ngurah Jaya Kusuma, I Gede Mega Putra, Anom Suardika, Alisza Novrita Sari Funding: This research did not receive any financial.
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ACE2 an enzyme is the functional receptor to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides having antibacterial activity, Coix essential oil is also reported to have antiviral activity. There is at the moment no effective treatment for this disease. It is of interest to use a structure-based virtual screening approach for the identification of potential ACE2 inhibitors of the main receptor of SARS-CoV-2 from tetradodecanoic of Coix phytochemical compound used to treat other influenza virus infection. The crystallographic structure with PDB ID: 1R4L of ACE2 in complex with the inhibitor XX5 was used as a model in the virtual screening of tetradodecanoic collected from the GCMS analysis of Coix essential oil. Molecular docking analysis was performed using the standard AutoDock vina protocol followed by ranking and selection of compounds based on their binding affinity. This analysis reported the optimal binding features of tetradodecanoic to the active site of the ACE2 for further consideration as potential SARS-CoV-2 antiviral. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
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A single-chain variable fragment (scFv) is an antibody fragment composed of VH and VL linked by a hydrophilic linker that can be designed according to the shape of the target molecule and synthesized in prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells via biotechnology engineering. This study developed an electrochemical immunosensor that detects the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 using a screen-printed carbon electrode modified with gold nanoparticles, and scFv as a bioreceptor. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was employed to measure specific interactions of antigens with antibodies. The developed immunosensor had a limit of detection and a quantification limit of 4.86 ng mL(-1) and 16.20 ng mL(-1), respectively. The immunosensor was stable at room temperature for up to 30 days' storage. The immunosensor was assessed at biosafety level 3 using 33 nasopharyngeal swab specimens (clinical samples);the pieces of data were compared with quantitative Reverse Transcriptase-PCR. The agreement of the data, the low detection limit achieved, the rapid analysis (30 min), the miniaturization, and the portability of the instrument combined with the easiness to use has the potential to become Point of Care (POC) for diagnosing the COVID-19 disease.
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Introduction: Less biopsies were expected when large scale social restrictions were enforced during COVID-19 pandemic. Aim(s): To compare the skin diseases prompting biopsy before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material(s) and Method(s): A retrospective study of skin diseases was performed;the skin problems were then grouped into major histopathological reactions. Result(s): A total of 229 biopsies were performed before the COVID-19 outbreak, whereas only 160 biopsies were done during the pandemic. Before versus during the outbreak, the proportion of major reactions were granulomatous 20.52% vs 21.88%, neoplasms 17.47% vs 20%, psoriasiform 14.85% vs 10%, vesiculobullous 9.61% vs 8.75%, others 10.92% vs 7.50%, interface dermatitis 6.99% vs 10%, vasculopathy 6.99% vs 5.63%, spongiotic 6.55% vs 8.13%, panniculitis 3.49% vs 3.75%, and superficial and deep dermal infiltrate 2.62% vs 4.38%. Conclusion(s): A decreased total number of patients prompting less biopsies were reported during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the three largest percentages of major histopathological reactions were still similar, namely granulomatous, neoplasms, and psoriasiform. Copyright © 2022, Malaysian Society of Pathologists. All rights reserved.
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Background and Aims: Platelets are involved in inflammatory thrombosis in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and severe Covid-19 infection. Glenzocimab, a humanized antibody fragment targeting platelet glycoprotein VI, has been assessed in two different indications. In AIS, with a single IV dose of 1000 mg to improve the efficacy of reperfusion therapies, in Covid-19, with 1000 mg over 3 consecutive days for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) treatment. Method(s): ACTIMIS (NCT03803007) was a safety and efficacy, dose-finding clinical study. Patients were randomly assigned to placebo or glenzocimab in an initial escalating dosage scheme from 125 to 1000 mg, then to 1000 mg or placebo in 1:1 parallel groups. The primary endpoint was safety focusing on intracranial hemorrhages (ICHs). GARDEN (NCT04659109) was an exploratory efficacy and safety clinical trial. Patients randomized 1:1 to glenzocimab or placebo. Safety was a key secondary endpoint. Result(s): Within ACTIMIS, 166 patients were enrolled, 66 (40%) reported as ICH;6 were symptomatic ICH: on glenzocimab 1/102 patients (1%), on placebo 5/64 (8%);60 displayed non-symptomatic ICHs, on glenzocimab 30/102 (29%), on placebo 30/64 (47%). Twenty all-cause deaths were reported, 8/102 (8%) on glenzocimab and 12/64 (19%) on placebo. In GARDEN, safety analysis in 61 patients confirmed the favorable profile of glenzocimab with no mortality, no serious drug-related adverse event, no major bleeding. All results are consistent with those from phase I in healthy volunteers (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2019;39). Conclusion(s): This favorable safety profile within three clinical studies allowed glenzocimab, a novel antithrombotic, to enter a larger ongoing phase II/III study,.
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OBJECTIVE: Lymphocytes are the most important cells in defending the human body against viral pathogens. In this study, we aimed at investigating the relationship between lymphocyte blood levels and patient survival in COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia in the intensive care unit. Patients were divided into two groups in terms of blood lymphocyte levels; increased lymphocyte and decreased lymphocyte groups on the 5th day of hospitalization. Mortality rates were compared between groups. RESULTS: Two groups were similar in terms of laboratory tests and comorbidities. Overall survival was 63.8% (n=102) in patients with increased lymphocytes and 33.2% (n=68) in patients with decreased lymphocytes. Mortality rates were significantly higher in decreased lymphocyte group than in increased lymphocyte group (p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that mortality is higher in patients with a lower lymphocyte count on the 5th day compared to the day of hospitalization.
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COVID-19 , Humans , Retrospective Studies , Follow-Up Studies , Intensive Care Units , LymphocytesABSTRACT
Objective: Patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 may progress with severe clinical symptoms and patients may be hospitalized in intensive care for a long time. In patients with long-term intensive care hospitalization, secondary infections develop as a result of the pathophysiology of the disease and the treatments used. The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence of secondary infections in patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and to identify common pathogen groups. Material(s) and Method(s): Four hundred and sixty one patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 who were followed up in the intensive care unit at Afy-onkarahisar Health Sciences University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between 20 March 2020 and 31 May 2021 were included in the study. Demographic data, co-morbidities, clinical features, laboratory data and culture growth data of the patients were recorded retrospectively. Re-sults: Nosocomial secondary infections were detected in 132 (28.6%) of 461 patients. Acinetobacter baumannii 39/53 (73.5%) growth was observed in the majority of the lower respiratory tract sample cultures. There was 28/49 (57.1%) Staphylococcus aureus growth in blood cul-tures, and 21/42 (50%) candida spp. growth in urine cultures. Conclu-sion: In this study, we found that the incidence of infection secondary to COVID-19 pneumonia was high. In addition, it was determined that the secondary infection rate was high in patients with PaO2/FiO2<200. Copyright © 2022 by Turkiye Klinikleri.
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This study was designed to see the learning readiness of vocational education students who were carried out online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Vocational education which has a peculiarity is the mastery of skills, so we want to see the extent of students' readiness to carry out online learning. In a quantitative research approach with a survey method, a survey was conducted on 247 vocational education students via a google form. The collected data were analyzed, then the results of the study revealed that students were fully ready to carry out online learning, starting with digital literacy, independent learning, and communication. Overall students are ready to do online learning, Judging from the characteristics of vocational education, there is practicum material that can be handled by the use of several supporting learning media. But in controlling themselves during the learning process (learning control), students have not been able to fully control themselves during the learning process. The online learning process provides various facilities for students, but still, the teacher has a role as a guide and guides students so that the learning process is following the expected goals. © 2022, Rajarambapu Institute Of Technology. All rights reserved.
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Background: It was compulsory to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) during Covid-19 pandemics. For health care workers, adverse skin reactions due to PPE usage and hand hygiene protocol were considered as occupational skin dermatoses (OSD). Objectives: To characterize adverse skin reaction due to PPE in health care workers before and during Covid-19 pandemics in tertiary hospital in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Methods: A hospital-wide survey was conducted and the staffs were asked to answer questions via online form to compare adverse skin reaction before and during pandemic. The survey was a modified NOSQ-2002 with the addition of skin adverse reaction from face shield and googles, hand hygiene protocol, gloves, medical masks, N95 masks, coverall and gown, head cap, boot, and respiratory masks. Results: A total of 151 responses from health care workers were collected. Mean age of respondents was 34.1 years, with the majority being doctors (59.61%). The percentage of occupational dermatoses was increased during the pandemics, 34.44% (before the pandemics) vs 47.68% (during the pandemics). N95 masks had the largest percentage of OSD during pandemics (12.58%). Both before and during the pandemics, the most common location of skin problems was cheek, the percentage were 7.95% and 12.58%, respectively. Furthermore, the number of skin-related complaints were increased during the pandemics. Alcohol-based hand rub also related to adverse skin reaction in hands. Conclusions: A hospital-wide survey was conducted to characterize occupational dermatoses in health care workers during Covid-19 pandemics. Recommendations should be put in place to prevent these adverse skin reactions due to PPE.
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The spread propagation of fake news about COVID-19 can make it distressing to handle the pandemic situation. Identifying the fake and real news on social media needs to be done as quickly as possible to prevent chaos in the community and hampering the handling of COVID-19. In this study, we conducted some experiments to get a model that works well for classifying information into fake or real news using tweet data. We implemented two different ways to represent data to train machine learning classifier models, syntactic-based using Bag-of-Words and TF-IDF, and semantic-based using Word2Vec and FastText. We evaluated each model produced by the training process using two types of testing data. The results show that The Linear Support Vector Machine model using TF-IDF obtained the best F1-Score value in both testing data. The model obtained F1-Score 92.21% in Testing Data 1 and 93.33% in Testing Data 2.
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus identified as the cause of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The gold standard for detecting this virus is polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The electrochemical biosensor method can be an alternative method for detecting several biomolecules, such as viruses, because it is proven to have several advantages, including portability, good sensitivity, high specificity, fast response, and ease of use. This study aims to optimize an electrochemical aptasensor using an AuNP-modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) with an aptamer to detect RBD protein S SARS-CoV-2. Aptasensors with the streptavidin-biotin system were immobilized on the SPCE/AuNP surface via covalent bonding with linkers to 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and electrochemically characterized by the [Fe(CN)6]3-/4-redox system using differential pulse voltammetry. The results showed that the immobilized aptamer on the SPCE/AuNP electrode surface experienced a decrease in current from 11.388 to 4.623 µA. The experimental conditions were optimized using the Box-Behnken experimental design for the three factors that affect the current response. The results of the optimization of the three parameters are the concentration of aptamer, incubation time of aptamer, and incubation time of RBD protein S SARS-CoV-2, each of which is 0.5 µg/mL, 40 minutes, and 60 minutes, respectively. The RBD protein S SARS-CoV-2 with various concentrations was tested on an electrochemical aptasensor to determine the detection limit and quantification limit, and the respective results were 2.63 and 7.97 ng/mL. The electrochemical aptasensor that has been developed in this study can be applied to detect RBD protein S SARS-CoV-2 as a COVID-19 biomarker in a simple, practical, and sensitive way. © 2022 by the authors.
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The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the teaching strategies used by lecturers in Indonesia and Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many lecturers must consider the amount of teaching they can provide. The transition from offline to online learning, which is accompanied by extensive technological use, is extremely challenging. A survey study was designed using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire is including items on learning objectives, lesson materials, teaching and learning activities, learning design, media, resources, and learning evaluations. A Google form-based online questionnaire is used to collect the data. The research participants are TVET lecturers from two universities in Indonesia and Malaysia with 200 valid responses. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, mean, and standard deviation are used to analyse the research data. Inferential statistics, t-test is used to investigate the difference between two countries, Malaysia and Indonesia on the teaching strategies during the pandemic. The results show that Indonesian and Malaysian lecturers have similar preferences for lesson material, learning resources, teaching and learning activities. While learning objectives, learning design, media, and learning evaluation are all distinct and interconnected. Most Malaysian lecturers agree that online learning allows for greater teaching flexibility, more caring, and is more open to meet the needs of students. Other than that, the t-test show no difference in teaching strategies between Malaysia and Indonesia. For the conclusion, lecturers at both universities adapt quickly to the changes that occur during each phase of the pandemic. The most effective teaching strategies are presented to ensure that educational services and processes continue to perform. © Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia Publisher’s Office.
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Covid-19 is an ongoing pandemic as we speak in 2022. This infectious disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which infects cells by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor on the cell surface. Thus, strategies that inhibit the binding of SARS-CoV-2 to the ACE2 receptor can stop this contagion. Hanjeli (Coix lacryma-jobi) essential oil contains many bioactive compounds, including dodecanoic acid;tetradecanoic acid;7-Amino-8-imino-2-(2-imino-2H-chromen-3-yl);and 1,5,7,10-tetraaza-phen-9-one. These compounds suppress viral replication and may prevent Covid-19. Accordingly, this study assessed whether, these four limonoid compounds can block the ACE2 receptor. To this end, their physicochemical properties were predicted using Lipinski's “rule of five” on the SwissADME website, and their toxicity was assessed using the online tools ProTox and pkCSM. Additionally, their interactions with the ACE2 receptor were predicted via molecular docking using Autodock Vina. All the four compounds satisfied the “rule of five” and tetradecanoic acid was predicted to have a higher affinity than the comparison compound remdesivir and the original ligand of ACE2. Molecular docking results suggested that the compounds from hanjeli essential oil interact with the active site of the ACE2 receptor similarly as the original ligand and remdesivir. In conclusion, hanjeli essential oil contains compounds predicted hinder the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with the ACE2 receptor. Accordingly, our data may facilitate the development of a phytomedical strategy against SARS-CoV-2 infection. © Korean Society for Plant Biotechnology