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COVID-19 also called corona virus emerged in China in December 2019. This turned into a global pandemic in a short period of time. Covid-19 is a novel strain of corona virus that was not seen earlier in human beings. It is important to study the molecular structure of Covid-19 so as to aid in the development of therapeutic measures. Existing Covid-19 pandemic poses an extraordinary risk to health and healthcare systems worldwide. Corona viruses are made of single stranded RNA present within the coat proteins. The virus has a diameter of nearly 80–120nm. Usually, Covid-19 presents with the signs and symptoms of respiratory illness. Cough commonly dry cough, fever, associated with myalgias and sometimes breathing difficulties due to decrease in oxygen saturation rates are also present in these patients. Some people show fever with body aches, while some are relatively asymptomatic. Corona virus is primarily transmitted in humans through respiratory route and is highly contagious. Mostly old people and those having comorbid illnesses suffer most. After invading into the human body, the virus may lead to a sequence of processes such as viral invasion, replication, and programmed cell death, that is, apoptosis. To control and prevent this viral infection, we need to study the molecular aspects of Covid-19 in detail so as to design therapeutic agents as well as for vaccine formation. The micro-RNA is defined as the single-stranded noncoding RNA molecule. They have a length of about 22 nucleotides approximately and help in the post transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Micro RNAs regulate many types of cancers in addition to Covid-19 and other infections. Viral micro RNA is a newer type of mi-RNA and controls the host cell expression and viral target genes. This was completed by inducing micro-RNA cleavage, breakdown, translation, inhibition, or other mechanisms. The micro-RNAs of Covid-19 are explained to give an authoritative means to study this novel coronavirus. These control the host cell expression and also viral target genes by inducing micro-RNA cleavage, breakdown, translation, inhibition, and also other mechanisms. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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This paper presents a cost-effective and flexible electronic textile sensor with high sensitivity and fast response and demonstrates its versatile applications, including real-time measurements of finger kinematics, phonation, cough patterns, as well as subtle muscle movements (i.e., eye reflex). The sensor can discriminate between speech and cough patterns, thereby expanding its applications to COVID-19 detection, speech rehabilitation training, and human/machine interactions. A combination of different sensor data is essential to acquire clinically significant information. Therefore, a sensor array is interfaced with the LoRa communication protocol to establish an Internet of Things (IoT)-based electronic textile framework. The IoT integration allows remote monitoring of body kinematics and physiological parameters. Therefore, the proposed IoT-based framework holds the potential to provide real-time and continuous health monitoring to allow immediate intervention during this pandemic. © 2022 IEEE.
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This paper develops a multilayered triboelectric energy harvester and demonstrates its application as a smart floor mat. Triboelectrification is the process in which contact and separation between two triboelectric electrode surfaces result in the generation of opposite charges on them. Due to the tendency of conductive materials to attain charge equilibrium, the electrons flow from the ground to the conductor or vice versa to make it neutral. As a result, an alternating current (AC) flows in the external circuit as the materials contact and separate. In this work, we fabricated an array of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) by connecting eight zigzag-shaped multilayered TENGs (each containing three units) in series to realize a smart floor mat. The TENG array was sandwiched between two wooden slabs and was placed in front of the library entrance to control the occupancy by tracking the number of people entering/leaving. This smart floor mat generated a maximum output power of 119.7 μW, which lit up to 40 light-emitting diodes (2mA current with 10μF capacitance) when the mat was compressed and released periodically. The device will have potential applications in tracking the number of people entering/leaving a facility. In this Covid-19 era, the control of occupancy rate becomes more crucial in an indoor setting such as in libraries, shopping malls, etc. This study provides a simple, straightforward, and low-cost solution to achieving the control measure. In addition, the traditional occupancy tracking systems based on cameras, processors, and sensors are expensive compared to our low-cost and energy-efficient smart floor mat. Hence, our design has the potential to provide a promising alternative to the existing solutions. © 2022 IEEE.
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Purpose: Coronavirus Disease 19 has highly impacted the education system and created the trend of online classes. To fill in the gap created by lock down and to continue an uninterrupted learning process, educational institutions worldwide started organizing online classes. Although Medical education is mostly practice based but it was not safe to conduct on campus classes. This study aimed at measuring the scope and limitations of online education and the overall impacts of Coronavirus Disease 19 on the medical education system. Methodology: Cross-sectional study. Ethical approval was obtained from Ethical committee South Point Hospital. Informed consent was obtained. Self-administered questionnaires were given to the participants. Results: E-Learning opportunities were made available in 98.69% cases;some student forums also participated creating additional opportunities. Out of 260 students, 108 (41.1%) were males and 152 (57.8%) females. 29.3% belonged to Metropolitan Area, 28.9% to District Town, 16.3% to Upazila Town, 24.3% to village and 0.4% to unspecified areas. The quality of internet was reported as excellent, good, fair and poor. Only 1.9% of the students had more than 80% attendance. Zoom was used in 57.8% situations followed by Facebook live (15%) and was least for pre-recorded video upload, YouTube link etc. On investigation about quality of lectures, 8.7% people rated excellent while 75.7% students marked them fair to good and 14.8% rated as poor. 46.8% of students showed satisfaction towards online assessments and 44.5% students were not satisfied. Families of 57.4% respondents faced financial stress. 6.8% faced none whereas 29.3% students faced huge mental stress during Coronavirus Disease 19. Conclusions: E-learning is the new normal during Coronavirus Disease 19 pandemic. Given the opportunity, medical students although benefited a lot but there existed a technological divide. There were also financial and mental stresses to certain extent.
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Aim: To review neurological aspects of patients infected with COVID-19 including neurological dysfunctions and possible pathophysiology. Methods: A systematic review of articlesfrom PubMed, Ovid MEDLIN, DOAJ databases and grey literature included the WHO-COVID-19 database, and medRxiv.Articles published from January 2020 until June 2020 were included in the review. Out of the226 titles and s, 213 were identified after the removing duplicates. With a screening of 119 studies carried by all authors, 83 full-text articles were assessed based on inclusion criteria of the neurological perspectives with COVID-19. Subsequently, 45 texts were removed. A total of 38 studies were included in the last scrutiny.Specifically, case reports, cohort studies, and case series were included Results: Reviewed evidence was presented in textual and tabulated format, which includes methodology, characteristics of included studies and summary of findings. Correlational evidence of COVID-19 disease and neurological dysfunctions with possible pathophysiology isreviewed. Conclusion:The findings provide evidence for physicians and neurologists working with COVID-19 patients about the possible probable complications and clinical presentations due to the SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Background: Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) has appeared as a deadly pandemic affecting most of the countries across the world. The disease has caught humanity unprepared;therefore, there has been a lack of awareness about the causes, and transmission and mortality rates. It has also affected the overall socioeconomics from individual to worldwide levels. COVID-19 is an unprecedented and first-time challenge for Pakistan and a lockdown imposed by the Government of Pakistan has further devastated the economy of the country. This online survey was conducted to know the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the social life and economic status of the people of Pakistan. In this article, we mainly focused on teachers and students from different Universities of Pakistan for data generation because they can provide better information due to the use of modern technologies as a source of information. Methods: An online questionnaire survey covering 11 parameters including age, gender, employment status, mortality rate, education, marital status and, information about the pathogen responsible for the disease was filled by 1260 individuals from Pakistan. Results: The results obtained show that 56.6% of the responders were males,43.4% were females, 59.9% were unmarried, 37.7% were graduate students and, 48.7% unemployed. Most of the responders (55.6%) said that COVID-19 negatively affected the jobs of the people. We found (93%) of the responders with good knowledge about COVID-19. Conclusion: We conclude from the results that most of the responders were males, educated and they knew the pathogenic effect of the COVID-19 virus on humans. These results also show that the disease has drastically affected the economy and social life of the people of Pakistan.
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This report presents a novel biochip for rapid and real-time detection of inflammatory biomarkers at the point-of-care. The biochip features a multiplexed electrochemical sensor of the size of a quarter. This report demonstrates the monitoring of two inflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein and Interlukin-6, elevated levels of which is found to be associated with cardiovascular diseases, surgery-related mortality, and adverse clinical outcomes and death in critically ill severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 patients. Our sensor exhibits high sensitivity with a detection limit of 6.6 attomolar and a response time of only 2 seconds. This project holds substantial societal benefit because the reported sensor will reduce the time to detection (which is especially critical in an under-resourced setting) and ensure continuous monitoring of biomarkers at the bedside. This device thus has the potential to manage future pandemics through early diagnosis, timely intervention, and isolation.
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Aim: To focus on the frequency of ICU-acquired infections in Sars Co-V2 Corona Virus disease (COVID 19) patients. Method: A retrospective observational study carried out in two tertiary care hospitals treating COVID 19 cases, Services Institute of Medical Sciences and Bahria International Hospital, Lahore. Data was collected from the medical records of the COVID 19 ICUs of both hospitals from May 1, 2020 to April30, 2021. All charts were reviewed for the evidence of positive cultures. The treatment given prior to positive cultures, after the availability of culture results and outcomes were also recorded. Results: A total of 432 records were reviewed and 400 cases were included while 32 cases were excluded because of incomplete data. The frequency of infections per 1,000 days of ICU stay was calculated in 90 (22.5%) patients. Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 68 cases (75.5%) with Pseudomonas in 44 cases (48.8%), Acinetobacter in 23/90 (25.5%) while 17 cases (18.8%) had gram positive infection with Enterococcus in 14/18 (77.77%) or 14/90 (15.55%), MRSA in 4/18 (22.22%) 4/90 (4.44%), while 5/90 (5.5%) had more than 2 isolates at same time. Among these 3 had both pseudomonas and Acinetobacter while 2 patients had Pseudomonas and Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia. Conclusion: There seems to be an increase in the infection rate among critically sick COVID 19 patients admitted in ICU. Use of steroids and Tocilizumab seems to play a role through their immunomodulatory effects.
ABSTRACT
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease leads to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. In December 2019;the disease was first identified in Wuhan, one of the cities of province of China. The disease has spread globally and resulting in the coronavirus pandemic 2019-20. The majority of cases lead to mild symptoms. Some cases cause pneumonia and multi-organ failure. Aim: To determine frequency of use of facemasks and sanitizers during COVID 19 pandemic among the residents of Lahore. Research methodology: This descriptive study was conducted at Lahore from 16th March 2020 to 15th September 2020 among residents of Lahore. After taking informed consent from 1200 subjects of 10 years age or more from both sexes were selected through convenient sampling method. The data were entered and interpreted as frequency and percentage distribution. Results: In this study 1200 subjects were included, 820(68.33%) males and 380(31.67%) females. 668(81.56%) males and 300(78.94%) females were in the age group of 19-44 years while 421(51.34%) males and 187(49.21%) females were educated. In this study 408(49.75%) males and 193(50.79%) females used face masks whereas 412(50.24%) males and 187(49.21%) females used no facemasks. 448(54.63%) males and 201(52.89%) females used sanitizers whereas 372(45.37%) males and 179(47.11%) females used no sanitizers. Conclusion: Around half of males and females used facemasks and sanitizers of any category. Majority of highly educated and educated males and females used facemasks and sanitizers thus showing education as profound factor. Use of facemasks among illiterate females was better than males. © 2020 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.