Biogenic silver nanoparticles eradicate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from the sputum of COVID-19 patients.

In recent investigations, secondary bacterial infections were found to be strongly related to mortality in COVID-19 patients. In addition, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria played an important role in the series of bacterial infections that accompany infection in COVID-19. The objective of the present study was to investigate the ability of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles from strawberries (Fragaria ananassa L.) leaf extract without a chemical catalyst to inhibit Gram-negative P. aeruginosa and Gram-positive Staph aureus isolated from COVID-19 patient's sputum. A wide range of measurements was performed on the synthesized AgNPs, including UV-vis, SEM, TEM, EDX, DLS, ζ -potential, XRD, and FTIR. UV-Visible spectral showed the absorbance at the wavelength 398 nm with an increase in the color intensity of the mixture after 8 h passed at the time of preparation confirming the high stability of the FA-AgNPs in the dark at room temperature. SEM and TEM measurements confirmed AgNPs with size ranges of ∼40-∼50 nm, whereas the DLS study confirmed their average hydrodynamic size as ∼53 nm. Furthermore, Ag NPs. EDX analysis showed the presence of the following elements: oxygen (40.46%), and silver (59.54%). Biosynthesized FA-AgNPs (ζ = -17.5 ± 3.1 mV) showed concentration-dependent antimicrobial activity for 48 h in both pathogenic strains. MTT tests showed concentration-dependent and line-specific effects of FA-AgNPs on cancer MCF-7 and normal liver WRL-68 cell cultures. According to the results, synthetic FA-AgNPs obtained through an environmentally friendly biological process are inexpensive and may inhibit the growth of bacteria isolated from COVID-19 patients.

A safe haven of SARS-CoV-2 in the environment: prevalence and potential transmission risks in the effluent, sludge, and biosolids

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which has caused millions of death globally is recognized to be unstable and recalcitrant in the environment, especially in the way it has been evolving to form new and highly transmissible variants. Of particular concerns are human-environment interactions and the handling and reusing the environmental materials, such as effluents, sludge, or biosolids laden with the SARS-CoV-2 without adequate treatments, thereby suggesting potential transmission and health risks. This study assesses the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in effluents, sludge, and biosolids. Further, we evaluate the environmental, ecological, and health risks of reusing these environmental materials by wastewater/sludge workers and farmers. A systematic review of literature from the Scopus database resulted in a total of 21 articles (11 for effluents, 8 for sludge, and 2 for biosolids) that met the criteria for meta-analysis, which are then subdivided into 30 meta-analyzed studies. The prevalence of SAR-CoV-2 RNA in effluent and sludge based on random-effect models are 27.51 and 1012.25, respectively, with a 95% CI between 6.14 and 48.89 for the effluent, and 104.78 and 1019.71 for the sludge. However, the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the biosolids based on the fixed-effect model is 30.59, with a 95% CI between 10.10 and 51.08. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in environmental materials indicates the inefficiency in some of the treatment systems currently deployed to inactivate and remove the novel virus, which could be a potential health risk concern to vulnerable wastewater workers in particular, and the environmental and ecological issues for the population at large. This timely review portends the associated risks in handling and reusing environmental materials without proper and adequate treatments.

TRAVEL DURING COVID-19 IN MALAYSIA: THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 RISK KNOWLEDGE, DESTINATION IMAGE AND VALUE

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behaviour is currently devastating the tourism sector. In this paper, we investigate the influence of destination image, COVID-19 risk knowledge, destination value and tourist intention to revisit. Empirical data were collected using an online survey distributed via social media platforms (Facebook, WhatsApp) and email. Our sample consisted of Malaysians who travelled several times during the movement control order periods (after February 2020) in Malaysia. The results of structural equation modelling reveal that destination value significantly mediates the relationship between both components of destination image and tourist intention to revisit. Most importantly, we probed the interaction effect of COVID-19 risk knowledge on affective destination image. The results indicate that even a moderate level of understanding and knowledge of COVID-19 risks significantly strengthens the influence of affective destination image on destination value.

Bio-safety and bio-security: A major global concern for ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides its impacts on governance, economics, human culture, geostrategic partnership and environment, globalization greatly exerted control over science and security policies. Biosecurity is the critical job of efforts, policy and preparation to protect health of human, animal and environmental against any biological threats. With the transition into a global village, the possibility of biosecurity breaches has significantly increased. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of an infringement on biosecurity that has posed a serious threat to the world. Since the first report on the recognition of COVID-19, a number of governments have taken preventive measures, like; lockdown, screening and early detection of suspected and implementing the required response to protect the loss of life and economy. Unfortunately, some of these measures have only recently been taken in some countries, which have contributed significantly to an increased morbidity and loss of life on a daily basis. In this article, the biological risks affecting human, animal and environmental conditions, biosafety violations and preventive measures have been discussed in order to reduce the outbreak and impacts of a pandemic like COVID-19.

Time and quantity based hybrid consolidation algorithms for reduced cost products delivery

In today’s competitive business environment, the cost of a product is one of the most important considerations for its sale. Businesses are heavily involved in research strategies to minimize the cost of elements that can impact on the final price of the product. Logistics is one such factor. Numerous products arrive from diverse locations to consumers in today’s digital era of online businesses. Clearly, the logistics sector faces several dilemmas from order attributes to environmental changes in this regard. This has specially been noted during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic where the demands on online businesses have increased several fold. Consequently, the methodology to optimise delivery cost and its impact on environmental focus by reducing CO2 emissions has gained relevance. The resultant strategy of Shipment Consolidation that has evolved is an approach that combines one or more transport orders in the same vehicle for delivery. Shipment Consolidation has been categorized in three order scheduling approaches: Time based consolidation, Quantity based consolidation, and a Hybrid (Time-Quantity) based consolidation. In this paper, a new Hybrid Consolidation approach is presented. Using the Hybrid approach, it has been shown that order delivery can be facilitated by taking into account not only the order pick up time, but also the total order quantity. These results have shown that if a time window is available in respect of the order delivery time, then the order can be delayed from pickup to consolidate it with other orders for cost optimization. This hybrid approach is based on four consolidation principles, two of which work on fixed departure and two, on demand departure. Three of these rules have been implemented and tested here with an application case study. Statistical analysis of the results is illustrated with different planning evaluation indicators. The Result analyses indicate that consolidation of orders is increased with each implemented rule hence motivating us towards the implementation of the fourth rule. Testing with bigger data sets is required. © 2021 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice towards COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey.

(1) Background: COVID-19 has become a worldwide public health problem. No previous study has investigated factors associated with COVID-19 knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) after completely lifting the curfew in all Saudi Arabia regions and cities. Therefore, adequate knowledge, a positive attitude, and correct control of COVID-19 are essential to eradicate the disease. Hence, this study aims to assess factors associated with KAP of COVID-19; (2) Methods: This cross-sectional web-based survey was performed with the participation of 4305 individuals aged over 15 years living in Saudi Arabia from 11 to 19 August 2020. They were included using the snowball sampling method; (3) Results: Of the 4305 participants, 94.9% were Saudis, 60% females, and 45.4% were in the age group of 20-34 years, 61.7% married, and 49.3% from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Most of the participants demonstrated good KAP levels (89.6%, 87.2%, and 87.2%) towards the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. In addition, most of the participants (85.8%) used the internet and social media as a source for COVID-19 information (4) Conclusions: The finding showed that most of the participants demonstrated good knowledge of COVID-19, positive attitudes, and demonstrated good practices for preventing the spread of disease infection.

Essential oils as an effective alternative for the treatment of COVID-19: Molecular interaction analysis of protease (Mpro) with pharmacokinetics and toxicological properties.

BACKGROUND: The current health concern to the entire world is the chronic respiratory disease caused by coronavirus 2 (COVID-19). A specific treatment or proper therapy is still lacking, and the investigations from across the world for proper drug/vaccine development towards disease control are in progress. The Coronavirus replication takes place by the conversion of the polypeptide into functional protein and this occurs due to the key enzyme Main protease (Mpro). Therefore, identification of natural and effective Mpro inhibitors could be a safe and promising approach for COVID-19 control. METHODS: The present in silico study evaluates the effect of bioactive compounds found in Eucalyptus and Corymbia species essential oil on Mpro by docking. Molecular docking of the major seven compounds of essential oil (citronellol, alpha-terpineol, eucalyptol, d-limonene, 3-carene, o-cymene, and alpha-pinene) with Mpro was studied by AutoDock 4.2, and the properties were analysed by PreADMET and Biovia Discovery Studio visualizer. RESULTS: The calculated parameters such as binding energy, hydrophobic interactions, and hydrogen bond interactions of 6LU7 (Mpro) with Eucalyptus and Corymbia volatile secondary metabolites represented its scope as an effective therapy option against covid-19. Among the docked compounds, eucalyptol shows the least binding energy without toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: The outcome of this study reported that the essential oil of Eucalyptus and Corymbia species, mainly eucalyptol can be utilized as a potential inhibitor against COVID-19 and also it can be used in its treatment. Hence, further analysis was required to explore its potential application in medicine.

Tele-COVID: A telemedicine SOA-based architectural design for COVID-19 patients

In Wuhan, China, a novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) was detected in December 2019;it has changed the entire world and to date, the number of diagnosed cases is 38,756,2891 and 1,095,2161 people have died. This happened because a large number of people got affected and there is a lack of hospitals for COVID-19 patients. One of the precautionary measures for COVID-19 patients is isolation. To support this, there is an urgent need for a platform that makes treatment possible from a distance. Telemedicine systems have been drastically increasing in number and size over recent years. This increasing number intensifies the extensive need for telemedicine for the national healthcare system. In this paper, we present Tele-COVID which is a telemedicine application to treat COVID-19 patients from a distance. Tele-COVID is uniquely designed and implemented in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to avoid the problem of interoperability, vendor lock-in, and data interchange. With the help of Tele-COVID, the treatment of patients at a distance is possible without the need for them to visit hospitals;in case of emergency, necessary services can also be provided. © 2021 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on patient satisfaction and surgical outcomes: A retrospective and cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient satisfaction and surgical outcomes at King Khalid University Hospital in Saudi Arabia. BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected health care systems across developing and developed countries. Therefore, it is important to understand its impact on various parameters of patient care as regards revised infrastructure and policies in hospitals during the pandemic. METHOD: It is a retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted from 13-3-2020 to 26-4-2020 at King Khalid University Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Patient satisfaction and surgical outcomes were the main outcome measures. RESULTS: 331 participants were included in the study (median age: 53 years; 70% female), and 223 completed the patient's satisfaction survey. 260 of the surgeries were non-oncolog cases (78.6%) compared to 71 oncology cases (21.4%). With respect to the surgical outcomes, 12% of the patients required admission to the ICU, and 10.9% developed postoperative complications, most of which were infectious complications. Only 1.8% (6 patients) were re-admitted to the hospital. Three patients died within 30 days post-op (0.9%), all had emergency surgery. Regarding patient satisfaction, 77.6% and 93% of the patients reported that nurses and doctors, respectively, treated them with courtesy and respect, listened to them carefully, and provided clear explanations to them. 90.3% were satisfied with the hospital sanitary measures. 64.1% stated that they got written instructions at the time of discharge. CONCLUSION: The satisfaction level of patients was high for all the studied domains, and there were a small number of complications with overall good surgical outcomes. That indicates that all the actions and policies that were implemented during the pandemic were proven beneficial for the patients. It is recommended to continue those measures until the COVID-19 pandemic is over.