The COVID-19 pandemic, economic policy uncertainty and the hedging role of cryptocurrencies: a global perspective

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to global economic policy uncertainty, which has increased the need to investigate ways to mitigate the uncertainty. This study aims to examine the potential of cryptocurrencies as a hedge and safe haven avenue against economic policy uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the behavior of the five leading cryptocurrencies in relation to country-level and group-level economic policy uncertainty indices, as measured by the text-based method developed by Baker et al. (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016, 131, 1593-1636). The research covers a broad range of emerging and developed economies from July 2013 to September 2020. The study employs the approach of Narayan et al. (Economic Modelling, 2016, 53, 388-397) to examine the hedging and safe-haven properties of cryptocurrencies.FindingsThis study finds that the top cryptocurrencies play a hedging role against economic policy uncertainty, with some exceptions. Additionally, there is evidence to support the idea that cryptocurrencies can serve as a safe haven during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, investors may benefit from using cryptocurrencies as a risk-management avenue during times of uncertainty.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the existing literature by testing the cryptocurrencies' hedging and safe haven properties in a new way, by analyzing their lead and lag behaviors using a recent and innovative approach. Additionally, it examines a wide range of emerging and advanced markets, providing insight into the potential of using cryptocurrencies as a risk mitigation avenue.

Polyketides and SARS-CoV-2

Historically, antiviral drugs have been mined from natural products, including polyketides. Polyketides are produced by various plants, microorganisms, and marine organisms as secondary metabolites. They are considered potential therapeutic antiviral compounds to treat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Preciously, polyketides showed significant antiviral activity in vitro against A59 coronavirus: Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV1) and Poliovirus 1. Several polyketide compounds such as adipostatin, bilobol, onnamide, dihydro-onnamide, and pseudo-onnamide showed promising anti-SARS-CoV-2 by binding with main protease (Mpro) that play a key role in the SARS-CoV-2 replication and transcription. Interestingly, according to the molecular dynamic simulation studies, all of them were stable at the Mpro binding site. The preclinical and clinical studies of those compounds/congeners or structurally related modified members are attributed to their flexibility in chemical synthesis. The diverse structural modifications of SARS-CoV-2 can be correlated using the structure–activity relationship (RAS) that will pave the way to develop promising antiviral drugs to reduce the burden of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

COVID-19-related orbital abscesses: a case report

Orbital cellulitis is a condition with a high risk of morbidity, including visual loss. It commonly originates from the paranasal sinuses. We present a case of multifocal intraorbital abscesses secondary to viral sinusitis in an adolescent with SARS-CoV-2 infection. This patient presented with classic symptoms of orbital cellulitis, but did not display classical symptoms of COVID-19. The patient initially underwent endoscopic drainage, followed by a combined approach which yielded no pus. He recovered without complication. This is the second report of its type showing a causative link between SARS-CoV-2 and orbital cellulitis.

A fractional mathematical model for COVID-19 outbreak transmission dynamics with the impact of isolation and social distancing

The Covid illness (COVID-19), which has emerged, is a highly infectious viral disease. This disease led to thousands of infected cases worldwide . Several mathematical compartmental models have been examined recently in order to better understand the Covid disease. The majority of these models rely on integer-order derivatives, which are incapable of capturing the fading memory and crossover behaviour observed in many biological phenomena. Similarly, the Covid disease is investigated in this paper by exploring the elements of COVID-19 pathogens using the non-integer Atangana-Baleanu-Caputo derivative. Using fixed point theory, we demonstrate the existence and uniqueness of the model's solution. All basic properties for the given model are investigated in addition to Ulam-Hyers stability analysis. The numerical scheme is based on Lagrange's interpolation polynomial developed to estimate the model's approximate solution. Using real-world data, we simulate the outcomes for different fractional orders in Matlab to illustrate the transmission patterns of the present Coronavirus-19 epidemic through graphs.

On the fractional-order mathematical model of COVID-19 with the effects of multiple non-pharmaceutical interventions

In this article, the Caputo fractional derivative operator of different orders 0 < α ≤ 1 is applied to formulate the fractional-order model of the COVID-19 pandemic. The existence and boundedness of the solutions of the model are investigated by using the Gronwall-Bellman inequality. Further, the uniqueness of the model solutions is established by using the fixed-point theory. The Laplace Adomian decomposition method is used to obtain an approximate solution of the nonlinear system of fractional-order differential equations of the model with a different fractional-order α for every compartment in the model. Finally, graphical presentations are presented to show the effects of other fractional parameters α on the obtained approximate solutions. © 2022 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press.

COVID-19-related orbital abscesses: a case report.

Orbital cellulitis is a condition with a high risk of morbidity, including visual loss. It commonly originates from the paranasal sinuses. We present a case of multifocal intraorbital abscesses secondary to viral sinusitis in an adolescent with SARS-CoV-2 infection. This patient presented with classic symptoms of orbital cellulitis, but did not display classical symptoms of COVID-19. The patient initially underwent endoscopic drainage, followed by a combined approach which yielded no pus. He recovered without complication. This is the second report of its type showing a causative link between SARS-CoV-2 and orbital cellulitis.

Artificial Intelligence as a Service for Immoral Content Detection and Eradication

Social media is referred to as active global media because of its seamless binding thanks to COVID-19. Connecting software such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, WeChat, and others come with a variety of capabilities. They are well-known for their low-cost, quick, and effective communication. Because of the seclusion and travel constraints caused by COVID-19, concerns, such as low physical involvement in many possible activities, have arisen. Depending on their information, knowledge, nature, experience, and way of behavior, various types of human beings have diverse responses to any scenario. As the number of net subscribers grows, inappropriate material has become a major concern. The world's most prestigious and trustworthy organizations are keenly interested in conducting practical research in this field. The research contributes to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a service (AIaaS) for preventing the spread of immoral content. As software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), AIaaS for immoral content detection and eradication can use effective cloud computing models to leverage this service. It is highly adaptable and dynamic. AIaaS-based immoral content detection is mostly effective for optimizing the outcomes based on big data training data samples. Immoral content is identified for semantic and sentiment evaluation, and content is divided into immoral, cyberbullying, and dislike components. The suggested paper's main issue is the polarity of immoral content that can be processed using an AI-based optimization approach to control content proliferation. To finish the class and statistical analysis, support vector machine (SVM), selection tree, and Naive Bayes classifiers are employed. © 2022 Fadia Shah et al.

COVID-19 & Prospects of Online Work from Home Using Technology: Case from India

The outburst of the pandemic COVID-19 in 2019 from the land of China to the entire world has brought a major change in people's living style. The severity of the disease is so much that more than 20 million people are affected by it worldwide. The recommended preventive measure to avoid the spread of this fatal disease is to maintain social distance leading to a significant economic disruption that could submerge the economies globally. However in order to keep the economies moving, the work from culture is adopted globally wherein the employees are connected via the internet and the work continues to happen. This paper aims to discover how people adopt such an attempt in the working culture. Also, the purpose of the paper is to find out its bearing on the employees' working capacity and whether they would like to continue with this arrangement in the future. The research employs primary data collected from 400 employees across various industries who are currently working from home. The research proposes advantages and challenges in working from home with a majority of employees preferring the method. © 2021. International journal of online and biomedical engineering. All Rights Reserved.

Do green bonds act as a hedge or a safe haven against economic policy uncertainty? Evidence from the usa and china

Economic policy uncertainty and particularly COVID-19 has stimulated the need to in-vestigate alternative avenues for policy risk management. In this context, this study examines the dynamic association among economic policy uncertainty, green bonds, clean energy stocks, and global rare earth elements. A dynamic conditional correlation-multivariate generalized autoregres-sive conditional heteroscedasticity (DCC-MGARCH) model was used to gauge the time-varying co-movements among these indices. The analysis finds that green bonds act more as a hedge than a safe haven against economic policy uncertainty (EPU). In the case of diversification, green bonds work as diversifiers with clean energy stocks and rare earth elements during COVID-19 and in the whole sample period. Additionally, clean energy stocks and rare earth elements show safe haven properties against EPUs. This study contributes to the hedging and safe haven literature with some new insight considering the role of green bonds and clean energy stocks. Additionally, the outcomes of the research contribute toward the literature of portfolio diversification theory. These findings pave the way for not only US investors to hedge long-term economic policy risk by investing in green bonds, but also for China and the UK, as these financial assets (green bonds, clean energy stocks, and rare earth metals) and EPU are long-term financial and economic variables. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Levels of Anxiety and Stress during Pandemic of COVID-19 among the General Population of Karachi, Pakistan

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected not only the physical health, but mental health of general population. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the anxiety and levels of stress during COVID-among the population of Karachi. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted for the period of 8 months May 2020-December 2020, the required variables were collected on a questionnaire. Data was analyzed and descriptive statistics was applied using SPSS version 21 with 95% CI. Results: Out of 450 participants, 45.8% males, 54.2% females. The majority (39.1%) of patients were in group of 51-70 years of age. The levels of anxiety were categories in mild (21.5%), moderate ( 38.2%) severe (15.2%) and no anxiety (25.1%). The contributing factors in stress and anxiety were the fear (68.3%), panic situation by media (58.5%) and stress due to pandemic (64.2%). Conclusion: The pandemic of COVID-19 is a stressful situation which needs a proper management and counselling of community regarding the precautionary measures and guidance to control the psychological parameters.

Selected micronutrients: An option to boost immunity against covid-19 and prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes in pregnant women: A narrative review

The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) negatively affects immune system. It is linked with adverse pregnancy outcomes. These complications may be linked with the infections mediated deficiency of micronutrients in pregnant women. COVID-19 cause’s malabsorption of micronutrients thereby increases the risk of their deficiency. Both micronutrients deficiencies and poor micronutrients intake can compromise immune function and may increase the risk of pregnancy complications associated with COVID-19 infection. Vitamin A, C, D, E, and selected minerals iron (Fe), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) are the micronutrients essential for immuno-competency and play a significant role in the prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Immune function and pregnancy outcomes can be improved by adequate intake of micronutrients in diet or in supplements form. Based on regulatory links between viral infection, micronutrients, immunity, and pregnancy outcomes, this review highlights the role of micronutrients in boosting immunity to reduce or prevent pregnancy complications in COVID-19 infected women. © 2020, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved.

PLEURAL EFFUSION SECONDARY TO COVID-19 INFECTION

SESSION TITLE: Late-breaking Abstract Posters SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Posters PRESENTED ON: October 18-21, 2020 PURPOSE: COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic of international concern caused by a newly discovered Novel corona virus. The virus was first identified in Wuhan, China and has spread throughout the world causing a global health crisis. Wide range of clinical presentations of COVID 19 has been demonstrated in the literature. We present a case of isolated pleural effusion in a patient infected with SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: A 52-year-old male patient, presented with three weeks history of right sided chest pain, dyspnea, and fever. On examination, patient was comfortable with normal vital signs during admission and chest examination was remarkable for decreased breath sound on the right side. Investigations showed high C-reactive protein, raised ferritin, hyponatremia and increased liver enzymes. Chest x -ray and CT scan demonstrated moderate right sided pleural effusion and pleural thickening with normal lung parenchyma. Diagnostic pleural analysis was consistent with an exudative effusion with pleural fluid PH of 7.5, glucose of 6.8 mmol/L and very high LDH of 1185U/L. The pleural fluid differential white cell count had 45% lymphocytes, 41% neutrophils, 9% eosinophils with cytology negative for malignant cells. Pleural fluid stains and culture were negative for bacteria and tuberculosis. RESULTS: In view of significant community spread of SARS-COV2, nasopharyngeal swab for COVID 19 PCR was performed, and came back positive. Nonetheless patient underwent medical thoracoscopy and pleural biopsy to rule out common causes based on epidemiology mainly tuberculosis and malignancy. Parietal pleura was inflamed with few thin adhesions. Histopathological examination revealed acute inflammation and reactive spindle cell proliferation with no evidence of granulomas or malignancy. Patient received hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for 5 days based on local guidelines for COVID 19. At 6 weeks follow up, patient is clinically well with minimal pleural thickening on chest X-ray. CONCLUSIONS: COVID 19 exhibits a diverse range of clinical presentations and our knowledge about this disease is constantly evolving. The hallmark findings of COVID 19 include bilateral patchy ground glass opacities with a predominantly peripheral distribution. The most common pleural change in COVID 19 patients is pleural thickening while pleural effusion is extremely uncommon. Our patient had an exudative effusion with high LDH and normal pleural fluid PH and glucose. Elevated pleural fluid LDH levels (greater than 1000 IU/L) suggest empyema, malignant effusion, rheumatoid effusion, or pleural paragonimiasis. As all relevant pleural fluid microbiology was negative and the patient improved on the COVID 19 guideline based treatment, we attribute the pleural effusion to be secondary to SARS Cov-2 and highlight that the effusion in COVID 19 has a high pleural LDH. Our assumptions need further confirmation with more studies. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: – DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Mona Allangawi, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Anam Elarabi, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Mansoor Hameed, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Irfan Ul Haq, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Mousa Shaher Hussein, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Merlin Thomas, source=Web Response

BILATERAL PNEUMOTHORACES IN A PATIENT WITH COVID PNEUMONIA

SESSION TITLE: Global Case Report Posters SESSION TYPE: Global Case Reports PRESENTED ON: October 18-21, 2020 INTRODUCTION: The ongoing outbreak of corona virus disease has affected more than 6 million people in the world. COVID 19 affects people in dramatically different ways. Pneumothorax is an uncommon complication of COVID 19. We present a case of COVID pneumonia complicated with bilateral pneumothoraces CASE PRESENTATION: A 49 years old non smoker patient with no chronic illnesses presented to the emergency department with a dry cough and low-grade fever. His physical examination and initial chest radiograph were normal. He tested positive for COVID 19 and was advised home isolation. One week later he re-presented with a high grade fever, worsening cough and dyspnea. He was found to have hypoxemia with oxygen saturations of 85% on room air. Chest radiograph revealed multiple bilateral lower zone infiltrates consistent with a diagnosis of COVID pneumonia. Lab investigations showed a lymphocyte count of 0.5 x103 /uL, D- dimer of 1.27, CRP of 133 and a ferritin of 8352 mcg/L. He required 15 liters of oxygen and was treated with Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin and cefuroxime. In view of risk of rapid deterioration, he received IV tocilizumab, convalescent plasma and IV methylprednisolone. He didn’t require mechanical ventilation and his clinical condition gradually improved. He was weaned off from oxygen over a period of 12 days. Two days later he complained of right sided chest pain and increasing shortness of breath. Chest x-ray identified a large right sided pneumothorax with mediastinal shift towards the left. A right sided chest drain was placed, and patient’s symptoms improved. The chest drain continued to have an air leak for the next four days. On the fifth day the patient complained of left sided chest pain and a chest radiograph this time confirmed a large left sided pneumothorax. Subsequently a left sided chest tube was inserted. The patient is currently undergoing the above treatment for the pneumothoraces. DISCUSSION: A wide variety of radiological findings in Covid 19 have been reported in different studies. Sana S et al. reviewed imaging findings in 919 Covid-19 positive patients and concluded that predominantly radiological findings in COVID pneumonia include bilateral multilobar ground-glass opacification (GGO) with a peripheral or posterior distribution, mainly in the lower lobes and less frequently within the right middle lobe. None of the patients encountered pneumothorax.1 In a retrospective single center study of 99 patients conducted at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital only 1 % had pneumothorax.2 We present the first case of bilateral pneumothoraces secondary to COVID 19. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with COVID pneumonia may develop pneumothorax and suspicious cases with any new or worsening dyspnea need to be evaluated promptly for it. Reference #1: 1.Sana Salehi, Aidin Abedi, Sudheer Balakrishnan. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Systematic Review of Imaging Findings in 919 Patients. American Journal of Roentgenology (2019): 1-7 Reference #2: 2.Nanshan Chen, Min Zhou, Xuan Dong,et al.Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet, 2020, 395(10223) : 507-513 DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Mushtaq Ahmad, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Shakeel Ahmed, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Mansoor Hameed, source=Web Response No relevant relationships by Irfan Ul Haq, source=Web Response