Forecasting the Growth in Covid-19 Infection Rates

The recent times have seen the global rise in infection rates from the virus Covid-19, leading to a pandemic. The exponential rise in infections and deaths lead to panic and nation-wide lockdowns across the globe. Advancements in biotechnical and medical research have paved the way for the development and mass distribution of vaccines. To build an understanding of the current situation we did a comparative analysis of the rise in infection rates among citizens across the countries and also the growth in vaccinations in the pre-vaccination phase and the post-vaccination phase of the on-going pandemic to determine whether the rate of vaccination is more than the rate of infection or otherwise. Then, a comparison is done among two prediction models we built, one using polynomial regression and other using SVM to determine which model provides better prediction results of infection rates in a country. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Utility of nasal swabs as samples for the diagnosis of Mucormycosis using molecular methods for detection

Objectives: Mucormycosis is an aggressive, life-threatening infection caused by fungi in the order Mucorales. There was an explosion of new cases of rhino-sino-orbital mucormycosis following the COVID pandemic in India, and the need for easy and rapid diagnostics was felt. The current diagnosis of mucormycosis relies on mycological cultures, radiology, and histopathology. These methods lack sensitivity and are most definitive later in the course of infection, resulting in the failure of timely intervention. A real-time multiplex PCR platform is commercially available for the detection of Rhizopus spp., Mucor spp.Rhizomucor spp., Lichtheimia spp., and Cunninghamella spp. (PN-700, MucorGenius , PathoNostics , Maastricht, The Netherlands) This real-time PCR has been validated to identify these fungal pathogens from bronchoalveolar lavage, tissue, and serum samples. This study aimed to validate this PCR-based system to detect Mucorales from nasal swab samples and evaluate its utility in the detection of Mucorales from nasal cavities of high-risk patients developing signs and symptoms of mucormycosis. Method(s): A single-center cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 50 hospitalized adult patients with signs and symptoms of mucormycosis. Nasal swabs were taken for PCR analysis once there was a clinical suspicion and were com-pared with the results of the gold standard.The gold standard for the diagnosis of mucormycosis was the conventional method (KOHmountedmicroscopy/HPE).Demographicdetails andrisk factorsfor thesepatients wererecorded, andthe RTPCR-based test was run on the nasal swab samples of all these 50 patients. The workflow is depicted graphically in Fig. 1 (Created with BioRender.com). Result(s): The study population mean (SD) age was 50 (16) years and consisted of 32 (64%) males. A total of 39 (78%) patients were known cases of diabetes mellitus, 48 (96%) patients had amphotericin B intake, and 20 (40%) had posaconazole intake. In all, 21 (42%) patients had a past history of COVID-19 infection;14 patients had received steroids and 10 patients received oxygen support. PCR for Mucorales was positive in 15 (30%) patients while the KOH mount was positive in 4 (8%) patients. Conclusion(s): These results are not encouraging for the use of nasal swabs as the sample for diagnosis of mucormyco-sis. Though the PCR performed better on the swab samples than KOH preparation and culture techniques, it highlights the importance of using standard sampling methods.

Roles & responsibilities performed by the teaching fraternity in hospitality management colleges during the pandemic

The purpose of this study is to determine the abundant & profuse types of work performed by the Asst. Lecturers, Lecturers, Senior Lecturers and all other teaching professionals in the hospitality colleges (group of institutions/ stand-alone colleges/ universities). The feedback was collected from 9 different states of India. The yield was somewhat like this: The professionals initiated the online teaching classes by breaking all the shackles. This not only involved verbal interaction but also the making of PPTs and choosing of YouTube videos which will help the students to understand the concept in a better way. The next step was to conduct the webinars and faculty development programs at regular intervals. In today's world where social media is the best tool to reach out to common mass, these activities play a pivotal role. Another significant effort was the admission and its counseling.

CoviFL: Edge-Assisted Federated Learning for Remote COVID-19 Detection in an AIoMT Framework

Detection of COVID-19 has been a global challenge due to the lack of proper resources across all regions. Recently, research has been conducted for non-invasive testing of COVID-19 using an individual's cough audio as input to deep learning models. However, these methods do not pay sufficient attention to resource and infrastructure constraints for real-life practical deployment and the lack of focus on maintaining user data privacy makes these solutions unsuitable for large-scale use. We propose a resource-efficient CoviFL framework using an AIoMT approach for remote COVID-19 detection while maintaining user data privacy. Federated learning has been used to decentralize the CoviFL CNN model training and test the COVID-19 status of users with an accuracy of 93.01 % on portable AIoMT edge devices. Experiments on real-world datasets suggest that the proposed CoviFL solution is promising for large-scale deployment even in resource and infrastructure-constrained environments making it suitable for remote COVID-19 detection. © 2022 IEEE.

Forecasting the Growth in Covid-19 Infection Rates

The recent times have seen the global rise in infection rates from the virus Covid-19, leading to a pandemic. The exponential rise in infections and deaths lead to panic and nation-wide lockdowns across the globe. Advancements in biotechnical and medical research have paved the way for the development and mass distribution of vaccines. To build an understanding of the current situation we did a comparative analysis of the rise in infection rates among citizens across the countries and also the growth in vaccinations in the pre-vaccination phase and the post-vaccination phase of the on-going pandemic to determine whether the rate of vaccination is more than the rate of infection or otherwise. Then, a comparison is done among two prediction models we built, one using polynomial regression and other using SVM to determine which model provides better prediction results of infection rates in a country. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Global Collaboration on a UV-C Cabinet to Decontaminate and Reuse N95 Respirators in Low- and Middle-Income Environments

A multidisciplinary team of physicians, physicists, and optical engineers conceived, deployed, and scaled up an operational, financial, and educational solution to address the limited supply of a critical component of safety during the Covid-19 pandemic at 21 hospitals in low- and middle-income countries.

A RARE CASE OF POSTERIOR REVERSIBLE ENCEPHALOPATHY SYNDROME (PRES)

SESSION TITLE: COVID-19 Case Report Posters 3 SESSION TYPE: Case Report Posters PRESENTED ON: 10/19/2022 12:45 pm - 01:45 pm INTRODUCTION: We are presenting a rare case of Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) without traditional risk factors in a patient with Covid 19. CASE PRESENTATION: Patient is a 41 y/o F with a past medical history of obesity, seizure disorder, epilepsy, hyperlipidemia and asthma who was admitted for Covid 19 pneumonia. Patient was transferred to the ICU on day #5 and intubated on day #8. Patient was given remdesivir, dexamethasone and baricitinib. Patient required intermittent vasopressors as her blood pressure varied between hypotensive and normotensive. Rarely her blood pressure increased to a hypertensive range. Patient had a thrombotic event on day #19 in her right upper extremity secondary to continuous renal replacement to manage acute renal failure. On Day #24, patient became unresponsive without sedation with an EEG showing moderate to severe slowing. On day #26 patient had a decreased response to stimuli leading to an MRI to evaluate for Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES). MRI highlighted abnormal signal in the brain parenchyma concentrated mainly in the posterior brain consistent with PRES. On day #31 patient exhibited seizure like diffuse tremor. Blood pressure ranged from 90/72 to 137/84 hospital days #20-31. Status epilepticus was evaluated by an long term monitoring EEG showed diffuse slowing and occasional sharp wave activity in the right posterior cerebellum and occipital region without active seizures. On day #39 patient was found to have an acute hemorrhagic stroke of the left temporal region which resolved on day #43. On day #47 patient was transferred to a tertiary care center for tracheostomy placement and discharged on day #55 to a LTACH for rehab. DISCUSSION: PRES is a rare but severe complication of Covid 19 infection. Previous cases showed variability in underlying causes. Our patient showed significant endothelial dysfunction leading to multiple thrombotic events[1]. While our patient had rare hypertensive episodes, they were not persistent nor severe, nor were they present at the time of her seizure activity[1][2]. In comparison to previous cases, our patient had overlapping risk factors such as renal failure, obesity and dyslipidemia[1]. Our patient showed common clinical manifestations of PRES such as seizures, focal neurological deficits, and altered mental status with previous cases[1]. Our patient was not given tocilizumab in contrast with previous cases, however was given corticosteroids[1][2]. CONCLUSIONS: The above is a rare case of PRES without traditional risk factors. Providers must keep a wide differential diagnosis in patients with Covid 19. Reference #1: Lallana, S., Siegler, J. E., Chen, A., Requena, M., Rubiera, M., & Sanchez, A. (2021). Response to correspondence concerning "posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) associated with covid-19.” Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 92, 189–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2021.08.006 Reference #2: Kishfy, L., Casasola, M., Banankhah, P., Parvez, A., Jan, Y. J., Shenoy, A. M., Thomson, C., & AbdelRazek, M. A. (2020). Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) as a neurological association in severe covid-19. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 414, 116943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2020.116943 DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Arka Bhattacharya No relevant relationships by Benjamin Silverman

Utility of nasal swabs as samples for the diagnosis of Mucormycosis using molecular methods for detection

 : Poster session 3, September 23, 2022, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Objectives: Mucormycosis is an aggressive, life-threatening infection caused by fungi in the order Mucorales. There was an explosion of new cases of rhino-sino-orbital mucormycosis following the COVID pandemic in India, and the need for easy and rapid diagnostics was felt. The current diagnosis of mucormycosis relies on mycological cultures, radiology, and histopathology. These methods lack sensitivity and are most definitive later in the course of infection, resulting in the failure of timely intervention.A real-time multiplex PCR platform is commercially available for the detection of Rhizopus spp., Mucor spp. Rhizomucor spp., Lichtheimia spp., and Cunninghamella spp. (PN-700, MucorGenius®, PathoNostics®, Maastricht, The Netherlands) This real-time PCR has been validated to identify these fungal pathogens from bronchoalveolar lavage, tissue, and serum samples. This study aimed to validate this PCR-based system to detect Mucorales from nasal swab samples and evaluate its utility in the detection of Mucorales from nasal cavities of high-risk patients developing signs and symptoms of mucormycosis. Methods: A single-center cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 50 hospitalized adult patients with signs and symptoms of mucormycosis. Nasal swabs were taken for PCR analysis once there was a clinical suspicion and were compared with the results of the gold standard. The gold standard for the diagnosis of mucormycosis was the conventional method (KOH mounted microscopy/HPE). Demographic details and risk factors for these patients were recorded, and the RTPCR-based test was run on the nasal swab samples of all these 50 patients. The workflow is depicted graphically in Fig. 1 (Created with BioRender.com). Results: The study population mean (SD) age was 50 (16) years and consisted of 32 (64%) males. A total of 39 (78%) patients were known cases of diabetes mellitus, 48 (96%) patients had amphotericin B intake, and 20 (40%) had posaconazole intake. In all, 21 (42%) patients had a past history of COVID-19 infection;14 patients had received steroids and 10 patients received oxygen support. PCR for Mucorales was positive in 15 (30%) patients while the KOH mount was positive in 4 (8%) patients. Conclusion: These results are not encouraging for the use of nasal swabs as the sample for diagnosis of mucormycosis. Though the PCR performed better on the swab samples than KOH preparation and culture techniques, it highlights the importance of using standard sampling methods.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders

Introduction: The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health crisis that has directly and indirectly impacted almost all populations globally. In this study, we aimed to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motor and nonmotor symptoms in patients with various movement disorders who visited our outpatient department. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective study using a structured questionnaire involving patients who visited our outpatient department during the COVID-19 pandemic from May 2020 to April 2021. The study was conducted at the Department of Neurology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore. Results: A total of 208 patients with the following disorders were assessed: Parkinson's disease (n = 141), atypical parkinsonism (n = 31), dystonia (n = 15), Wilson's disease (n = 5), and other disorders (n = 16). Approximately, 3.5% of the patients had acquired the COVID-19 infection. Almost 80% of the patients had missed scheduled appointments with their physicians during this study period due to travel restrictions or the fear of traveling. Approximately, 50% of the patients experienced worsening of their motor and nonmotor symptoms. Approximately, 25% of patients availed teleconsultation facilities, and majority of them found it to be equivalent to or better than in-person consultation. Almost 80% of the patients were eager to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in worsening of both motor and nonmotor symptoms in patients with movement disorders. Teleconsultation is a helpful option in managing the patients' symptoms during the pandemic. © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

The Discovery of Coronavirus - An Interesting Journey

The coronavirus, which is causing the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and has crippled the entire world, was discovered by June Dalziel Almeida - a school dropout from Scotland who had no formal medical education. She had to master the knowhow of immune electron microscopy to climb up the academic ladder and she finally discovered the coronavirus only to see her research paper getting rejected by reputed journals. A single mother is now associated with the coronavirus, as well as with a significant contribution to the classification of viruses, viral imaging and bringing Rubella virus, Hepatitis B virus and Human immunodeficiency virus into the limelight.

Safety & Security Practices: A Review on Practices followed by the Hospitality Industry in India during & after the COVID Pandemic

The main objective of this research paper is to highlight the challenges faced by the staffs of the hospitality industry in India during and after the COVID pandemic. It is of utmost importance that the frontline staffs who are working in the hotels & restaurants need to take the optimum safety measures to keep themselves safe while in the operations. After a lockdown of more than 60 days, on 1st June 2020 India started its first unlock. The hospitality industry had to start following new standard operating procedures to prevent the spreading of the disease further. However, the hospitality industry didn’t start then. The orthodox practices need to get re-designed according to the situations. The resumption commenced after another one month of the unlocking phase. Hence, with the instantaneous catastrophe there were also serious concerns regards to the continual progression in such times of distress. Many employees were asked to stay back at home as the industry decided to resume with half or less than half of the staffs so that it can combat the revenue crunch. The essayists have collected plenty of information from reputed International & National chain category of hotels’ staffs based on which this paper has been presented. © 2022. Specialusis Ugdymas. All Rights Reserved.

Challenges to Mental Well-being, Perceived Resources, and Felt Needs During COVID-19 Among College Youth in India

COVID-19 has significantly impacted the mental health and well-being of college youth across the world. An online survey using checklists and open-ended questions was shared across various institutions in India to capture information about challenges faced, internal and external resources utilized to deal with the stress, existing support systems and suggestions for additional support for maintaining well-being by college youth. Thematic analysis was conducted to understand the emergent themes. Findings suggested that the most challenging aspect of the pandemic was worry about academics, career, and health of loved ones. The most useful self-management strategies to deal with stress were pursuing hobbies, learning new things, spending time with family, sharing concerns and positive self-talks. The students suggested more robust academic as well as mental health support mechanisms at the university level. At the community level students highlighted the need for community based mental health programs and more support from families. This is one of the very first exploratory studies on the potential mental health impact of the pandemic on Indian university students. © This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License

An Android-Application-Controlled Car for Human Safety Against COVID-19

COVID-19 pandemic has been spread over a large geographical area and has affected a large proportion of the population. Maintaining social distance, quarantine, frequent hand-washing, using alcohol-based hand sanitizer and wearing medical mask are essential to protect us and others from COVID-19. To safe the people and help the government authority, several researchers have also developed many mobile applications, medical masks, drones, ventilation systems, etc. for this purpose. In this paper, an efficient android-application-controlled car for human safety against COVID-19 pandemic has been proposed. The proposed architecture can be useful for patient handling and proper transportation of COVID-19-suspected patients. This approach will be beneficial for the ambulance drivers and other emergency service providers who are playing an important role to protect the community from this infectious disease. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Study of Haematological Parameters in Patientswith COVID-19 during Second Wave: Experience from a Tertiary Care Institute in Northern India

Introduction: The Coronavirus disease is a systemic infection associated with changes in haematological parameters, which have asignificant role in early risk stratification and prognostication in theaffected patients.Aims &Objectives: To study the haematological parameters Hemoglobin(Hb), Mean Corpuscular Volume(MCV),Red celldistribution width(RDW),total leukocyte count(TLC), NeutrophilLymphocyte ratio (NLR), Absolute eosinophil count(AEC), Absolutelymphocyte count(ALC) and platelet count(PC)] in patients ofCOVID-19 s wave, at our tertiary care institute.Materials &Methods: The study was conducted on 214 COVID-19patients admitted to our institute from April 2021 to June 2021.Data was collected from Central laboratory records in Microsoft exceland analysed using student SPSS version 26.0.Result: The mean age of the patients was 53.46 ± 13.09 years with amale to female ratio of 1.9:1. Anemia was observed in 143 patients(66.82%).Normal MCV was observed in 128 (59.81%) and RDW wasincreased in 159(74.29%) while TLC was normal in 109(50.93%)followed by leukocytosis in 99 (46.26%) and leukopenia in 6(2.8%)patients. NLR was raised in 207 (96.72%) patients. Eosinopenia in205(95.79%), lymphopenia in 156(72.89%) while normal PC wasobserved in 140(65.42%), decreased in 69 (32.24%) and increased in5(2.42%) patients.Conclusions: Anaemia, increased RDW, increased NLR, lymphopenia and eosinopenia were associated with COVID 19 disease.

Adapting Multidevice Deployments During a Pandemic: Lessons Learned From Two Studies

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic brought into evidence some of the challenges of deploying and managing user studies out-of-the-lab. Satisfying new health guidelines required adapting to remote and contactless procedures, which in turn impacted recruitment, participant involvement, and technology delivery and configuration. Such challenges are endemic to many user studies. However, the emergence of the pandemic forced us to confront them head on in two distinct multidevice deployment studies. Changing research design, deployment strategies, and study management allowed us to reflect on some of the core challenges for all field related technological interventions and provided insight into how researchers might conduct more responsive, flexible, and robust studies outside the lab more broadly. Our reflections suggest simple but important ways that researchers can design flexibility, responsiveness, and empathy into all future user studies in- the-wild.

An Earth-mass planet in a time of COVID-19: KMT-2020-BLG-0414Lb

We report the discovery of KMT-2020-BLG-0414Lb, with a planet-to-host mass ratio q (2) = 0.9-1.2 x 10(-5) = 3-4 circle plus at 1 sigma, which is the lowest mass-ratio microlensing planet to date. Together with two other recent discoveries (4 less than or similar to q/q (circle plus) less than or similar to 6), it fills out the previous empty sector at the bottom of the triangular (log s, log q) diagram, where s is the planet-host separation in units of the angular Einstein radius theta E. Hence, these discoveries call into question the existence, or at least the strength, of the break in the mass-ratio function that was previously suggested to account for the paucity of very low-q planets. Due to the extreme magnification of the event, A (max) similar to 1450 for the underlying single-lens event, its light curve revealed a second companion with q (3) similar to 0.05 and ;log s (3);similar to 1, i.e., a factor similar to 10 closer to or farther from the host in projection. The measurements of the microlens parallax pi (E) and the angular Einstein radius theta E allow estimates of the host, planet and second companion masses, (M (1), M (2), M (3)) similar to (0.3 M (circle dot), 1.0 M (circle plus), 17 M-J ), the planet and second companion projected separations, (a (perpendicular to,2), a (perpendicular to,3)) similar to (1.5, 0.15 or 15) au, and system distance D (L) similar to 1 kpc. The lens could account for most or all of the blended light (I similar to 19.3) and so can be studied immediately with high-resolution photometric and spectroscopic observations that can further clarify the nature of the system. The planet was found as part of a new program of high-cadence follow-up observations of high-magnification events. The detection of this planet, despite the considerable difficulties imposed by COVID-19 (two KMT sites and OGLE were shut down), illustrates the potential utility of this program.

A short pause in ponesimod treatment completely restores the ability to mount post-vaccination antibody titers in mice

Introduction: Ponesimod is a newly approved treatment for Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis. It is an S1P1 specific modulator, which is a cell tracking inhibitor that interferes with the egress of lymphocytes from lymph nodes. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination, an open question is whether patients taking ponesimod can respond to a novel vaccine or would benefit from a drug holiday prior to vaccination. Objective: We therefore investigated the effect of ponesimod treatment on the response to vaccination in mice without preexisting anti-vaccine immunity. Methods: The antibody response to a single intramuscular injection of purified and inactivated influenza A/PR/8/34 was compared in female BALB/c mice that were maintained on different oral ponesimod regimens (Group 1: standard chow;Group 2: continuous specialty chow with ponesimod at 1000 ppm;Group 3: specialty chow with a 4-day interruption around immunization). The microneutralisation assay was used to measure neutralising antibody responses in sera. Results: Drug levels in plasma were sufficiently high to reduce lymphocyte counts (day 5, min to max: 646 to 4690 ng/mL;median: 2370 ng/mL). Animals continuously maintained on ponesimod chow, including at the time of vaccine administration, had an attenuated antibody response compared to control mice (inhibition titres, ID50, 0.0012 vs. 0.0035) at 28 days post-vaccination. However, when the animals received a drug holiday around vaccination, they had neutralising antibody titres that were indistinguishable from control animals. Conclusion: The antibody response after vaccination was blunted in mice that were maintained on ponesimod, but not when treatment is temporarily paused. These data suggest that briefly halting ponesimod treatment may help in achieving maximal vaccination effectiveness.

The Pandemic as a Catalyst for Reimagining the Foundations of Location-Based Games

Mainstream location-based games (LBGs) highlight three foundations-exercise, exploration, and social interaction-which were hugely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This genre has already had access issues depending on the player's region, identity, ability, and technology, which the pandemic also amplified. Thus, the pandemic provided a unique opportunity to re-imagine the design of LBGs to preserve player benefits while challenging these foundations. We conducted a two-week diary study with 11 LBG players coping with difficult life circumstances, followed by remote co-design sessions. Participants continued to play primarily to maintain community connection while adjusting the mode of socialization, finding meaning through virtual exploration, and support mental health and personal growth. Participants discussed ways to enhance the experience by expanding the range of physical activities during social distancing, reimagining proximity-based social interactions, and exploring via social construction of places while expanding beyond how the three foundations are currently supported in LBGs. © 2021 Owner/Author.