ABSTRACT
Anthropogenic activities are among major contributors to the deterioration of coastal environmental quality. Reduction of these activities could improve the status. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate temporal variations of water quality parameters of Lukut and Port Dickson coastal waters during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three sampling events were carried out between February to March 2020 (Before COVID-19 pandemic movement control order - MCO), followed by September 2020 and from March to April 2021 (After one year of the first MCO). The parameters monitored were oil and grease (OG), nitrate (NO3-N), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N), unionized ammonia (NH3), phosphate (PO4-P), and fecal coliform (Escherichia coli). The OG content was reduced to more than 99%, followed by ammonia, E. coli, ammoniacal nitrogen, and nitrates which decreased by 94.65%, 91.87%, 83.64%, and 80.58%, respectively, in the third sampling. Phosphate was the only element found to increase at specific sites during the third sampling, and this was expected to be influenced by other water parameters. The improvement of water quality, especially OG, ammonia, ammoniacal nitrogen, nitrates, and E. coli concentrations in the study area, was related to the restrictive human movement associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in December 2019 called for a rapid solution, leading to repurposing of existing drugs. Due to its immunomodulatory effect and antiviral properties, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been used in early 2020 for treatment of COVID-19 patients. This study was conducted to evaluate the treatment outcome of HCQ monotherapy in Malaysia. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in COVID-19 ward in Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL), from March to April 2020. A total of 446 COVID-19 patients were recruited, only 325 patients were finally included for analysis. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS, with a significant value set at p<0.05. Results: The mean age of the patients were 38.5 ±15.5. They were majority male, (n=210, 64.6%) Malaysian (n=239, 73.5%) and Malay ethnicity (n=204, 62.8%). Ninety-one (28%) patients received HCQ monotherapy. HCQ monotherapy was associated with worse outcome (OR: 10.29, 95% CI 1.17-90.80). There was a significant difference in mean length of stay between those with and without HCQ treatment (t323=5.868, p<0.001, 95% CI, 2.56-5.31). The average length of stay for HCQ treated group was 3.84 days longer than those without treatment. 6.6% of the patient receiving HCQ monotherapy encountered adverse drug effects. Conclusion: Similar to study reported worldwide, our study demonstrated that HCQ did not improve length of stay and the outcome of COVID-19 patients. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have witnessed a rapid increase in their utilization in various applications and will continue to do so in the coming decades. These UAVs, also known as drones, are designed to either assist humans or perform tasks that involve people. Drones of today have grown to be faster and less expensive by integrating several technologies, supported by hybrid algorithms, and perform various tedious, challenging, filthy and hazardous tasks. The deployment of machine learning and other AI-based algorithms enhances drones' autonomous and vision capabilities. Today, part of an effort to curtail the spread of COVID-19, this research has designed, developed and built a mobile disinfectant dispenser based on autonomous quadrotor UAV. It is a 'flying dispenser', able to detect a person's hand gestures from afar, based on machine learning (ML), to fly and maneuver towards the person and finally spray disinfectant on his/her hand. In order to identify various hand motions for maneuvering, this research studies and improves the ML algorithms and carries out various experiments to improve the drones' response time and maneuvering performance, for the final objective of taking precautions to protect humans from Covid-19. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The Internet of Things (IoT) for healthcare can improve patient monitoring more effectively, especially since the occurrence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in 2019. Integrating sensors with long range (LoRa) technology, which provides long-range, low-power, and secure data transmission, can ensure better patient treatment and disease surveillance. This study is aimed at evaluating and understanding the LoRa performance as the wireless platform in IoT health monitoring. The MH-ET Live MAX30102 sensor is used to measure blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate, while TTGO LoRa32 SX1276 is used as the wireless platform. Results show that to obtain accurate readings from the sensor, users must be in rested condition, place their fingertip onto the sensor properly for a few moments without any movement, and use the body part of the fingertip only. In outdoor environment tests in the suburban area, the LoRa SX1276 transceiver's performance for the line-of-sight (LoS) transmission shows that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and RSSI recorded at 1300-meter distance are -6.5 dB and -118 dBm, respectively. Non-line-of-sight (NLoS) test shows that LoRa still communicates with each other after eight blocks of houses with an approximate displacement of 240 meters apart between the modules, with RSSI and SNR values of -113 dBm and -5.42 dB, respectively. The analysis using LoRa Modem Calculator Tool proved the theoretical performances and effectiveness of LoRa communications.
ABSTRACT
The prevalence of mental health problems among antenatal women has escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. Physical activity palys role to reduce depression and anxiety, which required to be studied further. This study aimed to assess the association between physical activity with depression and anxiety among antenatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-sectional study applied convenience sampling to recruit 544 antenatal women from March to June 2021. Questionnaires including the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS), state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), and pregnancy physical activity questionnaire (PPAQ) were distributed via social media to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and physical activity level. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square, mann-whitney, and kruskal wallis tests. Out of 544 antenatal women, 24.1% of them had depressive symptoms and 82.4% had anxiety. Only 12.1% of the women were sufficiently active during the pandemic. There was no association between physical activity, depression, and anxiety. The high prevalence of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic among Malaysian antenatal women underscores the urgent need for addressing this public health burden. Interventions to alleviate the symptoms should include strategies beyond physical activity, for example, a mobile application or telephone-delivered social support that is made easily accessible throughout the pandemic. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Being researchers, it is an utmost responsibility to provide insight on social issues thus, this work addresses the dynamic modeling of first and most contagious disease named as COVID-19 caused by coronavirus. The first case of COVID-19 appeared in Pakistan was on 26th February 2020 and in Malaysia on 27th February 2020;both patients had foreign travel history. In the paper, the number of total affected cases and total deaths in both countries, are quite the same up till 12th April 2020 but the frequency of new cases per day and recovery rate are different from one another. The movement control approach had also been imposed on 18th March 2020 by both countries. Keeping these facts and figures, the paper proposes a mathematical model based on Lotka-Volterra equations and provides numerical solution of differential equations using the suspectable, exposed, infected, and recovered people data to estimate future consequences and address the difference in the growth rate of COVID-19 patients before and after locked down to reduce the spread further by taking pro-active approaches i.e., social distancing and being quarantined for the essential time frame. © 2021 IEEE
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a planetary concern that affecting the sustenance of the human population all around the globe. The effective measured has been taken in Malaysia to control the virus transmission by limiting the human vitality which unsurprisingly propitious to the environment. A monitoring study was conducted to assess the water quality status of surface seawater along the Port Dickson coast based on the Malaysian Marine Water Quality Index (MMWQI) and Malaysian Marine Water Quality Standards (MMWQCS) with an interval period of a year (March 2020-March 2021). In situ, water quality parameters incorporate temperature, pH, salinity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and total dissolved solids (TDS) were measured at 14 sampling sites to evaluate the biochemical characteristics of water. Surface water samples were collected from the same sites and transported back to Universiti Putra Malaysia for nitrate (NO3-), ammonia (NH3), phosphate (PO4), biochemical oxygen demands (BOD), fecal coliform (Escherichia coli), and total suspended solids (TSS) analyses. The MMWQI showed the status of surface water from the Port Dickson coast was classified as moderate quality (50.41 - 64.05) for both sampling events. However, there are some indexes that showed significant decreases (p< 0.05) in the latter year. The concentration of nutrient pollution such as phosphate, nitrates, ammonia, fecal coliform as well as oil and grease, was decreased by 11.12%, 77.39%, 82.4%, 90.26%, and 99.9% respectively. The water parameters namely TDS, pH, and BOD levels were significantly decreased by 1.77%, 20.73%, and 77.16%. Certain parameters listed in the MMWQS such as temperature, pH, ammonia, fecal coliform, oil and grease were classified as Class 1 in March 2021. These occurrences recorded were greatly influenced by the reduction of the substantial human activities around the recreational beach of Port Dickson followed by the declaration of Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia.