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The death t toll of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been considerable. Several risk factors have been linked to mortality due to COVID-19 in hospitals. This study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics of patients who either died from COVID-19 at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh. In this retrospective study, we reviewed the hospital records of patients who died or recovered and tested positive for COVID-19 from May 3 to August 31, 2020. All patients who died during the study period were included in the analysis. A comparison group of patients who survived COVID-19 at the same hospital during the same period was systematically sampled. All available information was retrieved from the records, including demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables. Of the 3115 patients with confirmed COVID-19 during the study period, 282 died.The mean age of patients who died was higher than that of those who survived (56.7 vs 52.6 years). Approximately three-fourths of deceased patients were male. History of smoking (risk ratio 2.3;95% confidence interval: 1.6-3.4), comorbidities (risk ratio: 1.5;95% confidence interal:1.1-2.1), chronic kidney disease (risk ratio: 3.2;95% confidence interval: 1.7-6.25), and ischemic heart disease (risk ratio:1.8;95% confidence interval: 1.1-2.9) were higher among the deceased than among those who survived. Mean C-reactive protein and D-dimer levels [mean (interquartile range), 34 (21-56) vs. 24 (12-48);and D-dimer [1.43 (1-2.4) vs. 0.8 (0.44-1.55)] were higher among those who died than among those who recovered. Older age, male sex, rural residence, history of smoking, and chronic kidney disease were found to be important predictors of mortality. Early hospitalization should be considered for patients with COVID-19 who are older, male, and have chronic kidney disease. Rapid referral to tertiary care facilities is necessary for high-risk patients in rural settings.Copyright © 2023 Hoque MM.
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World scenario after pandemic COVID-19 has been drastically changing and researchers more focusing on, to minimize the post-pandemic effects on economy, energy sustainability and food security. Agriculture sector is playing pivotal role in world food security and energy sustain -ability. There is high need to optimize the mechanization technologies to increase the yield in limited energy inputs and operation time to fulfill the world growing food demand. This research is mainly focused on the design development and structural analysis aiding with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) approach for Cotton Stalk Puller and Shredder machine (CSPS) to cut the crop leftovers, soil conditioning (shredding the plant waste into soil) and sowing of next crop in single run by con-serving input resources. The experimental trials revealed that there is high pressure on cutting blades, chocking of shredder section and excessive pulling load on tractor hitches, which affected the machine's performance. To mitigate deficiencies and design optimization to improve the machine safety/reliability, the structure analysis carried out. Six core components of machine including baseplate, blade, gear system, root digger, pulley and shaft has investigated as per field conditions. The results revealed that the material of blade, root digger and teeth of gear system receiving the high stress under the operational conditions which results the edge wear and damage. The carbonization up to one-millimeter thickness can provide the extra strength to bear the exces-sive load on edge layers.(c) 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the role of trust in leaders in the relationship between dimensions of servant leadership and dimensions of organizational commitment in the information technology (IT) sector of Pakistan in post-COVID era. This paper also highlights the role of trust in leader as mediating mechanism among the examined variables. Design/methodology/approach: Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to IT professional working in the IT sector of Pakistan. The sample included 283 across Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings: Results indicated that trust in a leader has a significant indirect effect on the relationship between the dimensions of servant leadership and organizational commitment. Upon further investigation, it is found that in the majority of cases, the nature of mediation is partial in nature. Whereas, it is found that trust in leader fully mediates the relationship between persuasive mapping and normative commitment. Furthermore, trust in leader is also found to be fully mediating the relationship between emotional healing and continuance commitment. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to the geographical boundaries of Pakistan, results obtained during the course of study have limited generalizability outside the country. Originality/value: This paper aims at addressing a gap in the literature by developing a model of how trust in leader mediates the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment, and examine relationship between individual dimensions of servant leadership and organizational commitment. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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The main goal of this research paper is to develop an autonomous medicine delivery quadcopter and validate a simulator model for it. It is intended to use this drone in crisis of COVID-19 due to restriction of social distancing and unavailability of regular hospital facilities. A simulator is then modified and used as a pre-mission tool to predict mission outcome and after validation, it will be used to predict complex missions without actually risking the expensive drone. An efficient payload system is designed and constructed for the quadcopter to fulfill its delivery purpose. Once the drone is assembled along with the payload mechanism, its physical parameters are calculated using SolidWorks. The same parameters such as performance coefficients and moments of inertia are then updated in the simulator's quadcopter properties. The equations of motions model used is improved by including physical theoretical effects. In the end, same autonomous delivery mission tests have been done for the real quadcopter and the simulator in order to compare the results and show the effect of improved equations of motion and physical parameters. © 2022 IEEE.
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Purpose: Human resources (HR) management has encountered unforeseen obstacles and issues in recruiting, retaining, training and developing workforces under the "new normal” due to pandemic circumstances followed by the Russo–Ukrainian War and global economic turmoil. As the world is now well-equipped with technological advancements and internet-based connectivity, many pandemic disruptions have been avoided through rapid adaptation of technological systems. Despite the constructive outcomes of this contemporary approach to learning and development (L&D), this study explores the further depths of massive open online courses (MOOC) platform adoption in human resource development initiatives during pandemic times. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research approach was adopted to understand the employee and HR perspective on the changes in L&D approaches in organizations. To gather the primary data, respondents were divided into two clusters;different sets of questionnaires were developed for interview sessions. Findings: Results suggest that employee L&D was much more improvised with distance or online learning, including organizational e-learning systems and MOOC platforms. To accomplish their HR development goals, organizations went through significant transformations during the Coronavirus pandemic;organizational attempts to initiate online training and MOOC-based learning fostered positive results in employee capacity development, process improvement, employee engagement and motivation. Originality/value: This research will assist organizations in developing interactive training methods as an effective replacement for traditional training. Additionally, it will assist readers, practitioners and HR specialists in understanding how MOOCs are changing the L&D ecosystem. © 2022, Shamsul Huq Bin Shahriar, Silvia Akter, Nayeema Sultana, Sayed Arafat and Md. Mahfuzur Rahman Khan.
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PurposeDrawing on the concept of superior resource, capability and processes of the resource-based theory of the firm, the purpose of the current study is to analyze the influence of firms' winner-picking strategic approach on firm performance (FP) via a direct and indirect mechanism.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data of 104 diversified manufacturing firms, the current study analyzed the conditional indirect effect of firms' strategic approach on efficient resource allocation with the help of Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) process macros.FindingsThe study found that firms' choices of winner-picking approach can undermine the resource allocation efficiency when not perfectly blended with firms' access to the resource. Furthermore, the effect of winner-picking strategy (WPS) on resource allocation efficiency via firms' competitive advantage (CA) can be greater when both strategic choice and resources are employed adequately.Research limitations/implicationsDespite making a unique contribution, the present study has a few limitations requiring researchers' attention to be tackled in the forthcoming. This includes a little amount of data, a self-reporting technique and failure to include all the possible reasons that could lead to inefficient resource allocation.Practical implicationsThe present research has potential applications for managers of the manufacturing industry in a period of sheer uncertainty [coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)]. First, the study alerts managers about the challenges of underinvestment and overinvestment while allocating resources. At the same time, this study provides an important implication for managing the importance of firms' access to capital (AC).Originality/valueThe current study has made a sizeable impression in the literature on internal resource allocation and resource-based theory of the firm by recommending a model that augments the theoretical foundation of strategic management of the firms. As there are only a handful of studies on this grave issue in the context of developing economies, thus, closely considering these insights would be helping for the firms for allocating resources efficiently in the manufacturing industry.
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Objective: To evaluate radiological features of Covid-19 and early lung cancer through High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and demonstrate the disparity between them. Study Design: A retrospective study Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Covid-19 ward, Oncology, Radiology Ward of Nishtar Medical University & Hospital Multan from 12th Nov 2019 to 12th Nov 2020. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 Covid-19 patients and 300 patients with pulmonary ground-glass opacities undergoing lung surgery (control group) were included in the study. After propensity score-matched analysis, patients were divided into two groups with 80 matched pairs each. The clinical, pathological, epidemiological, and radiological characteristics (evaluated through HRCT) of both groups were compared. Results: It was observed that Covid-19 patients presented more definite symptoms, were mostly younger men, and had higher BMI (body-mass index). After the radiological analysis of the matched patients, it was revealed that single lesion patients constituted 17% of Covid-19 cases and 89% of lung cancer cases. Patients in both groups mostly presented peripheral lesions. Covid-19 lesions had more lobes, segments and had various types with patchy forms. On the other hand, lung cancer tended to have only one type and had an oval form. Conclusion: Both Covid-19 and lung cancer showed ground-glass opacities with similar but independent characteristics. These characteristics combined with pathogen detection, short-term CT examination, and laboratory tests will aid in improved diagnosis.
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INTRODUCTION: Following the COVID-19 directive to cease non-essential services, a rapid shift was made in the delivery of Speech Language Pathology (SLP) dysphagia management in the 3-arm, randomized PRO-ACTIVE trial. To inform future programs, this study explored patients' experiences with telehealth when the planned in-person SLP intervention was moved to a telehealth modality. METHODS: A theory-guided qualitative descriptive approach was used. Willing participants who had received at least one telehealth swallowing therapy session participated in a one-time semi-structured interview. Interview transcripts were subjected to a standard qualitative content/theme analysis. Researchers reviewed all transcripts and used a multi-step analysis process to build a coding framework through consensus discussion. Summaries and key messages were generated for each code. RESULTS: Eleven participants recounted their telehealth experiences and reported feeling satisfied, comfortable and confident with the session(s). They identified that previous experience with teleconferencing, access to optimal technical equipment, clinician skill, and caregiver assistance facilitated their telehealth participation. Participants highlighted that telehealth was beneficial as it reduced commuting time, COVID-19 exposure and fatigue from travel; and also allowed caregiver participation particularly during COVID. In comparing their in-person SLP sessions to telehealth sessions, limitations were also identified, including: lack of previous experience with and/or poor access to technology, and less opportunity for personalization. Participants indicated that use of phone alone was less preferred than an audio/video platform. DISCUSSION: Patients reported that overall, telehealth sessions did not compromise their learning experience when compared to in-person sessions. Patients benefited from use of telehealth in several ways despite some limitations of the use of technology. Patient feedback about telehealth provides an important perspective that may be critical to inform best practices for care delivery.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Deglutition Disorders , Head and Neck Neoplasms , Telemedicine , COVID-19/epidemiology , Delivery of Health Care , Humans , Patient Outcome AssessmentABSTRACT
E-business has accelerated its developing position due to the world-wide fight against Covid-19.E-commerce app and website is no more an exceptional case in Bangladesh. 'Geram Bazar' which is an android and website interface an e- commerce system has been developed for the rising e-business platform. It has marked user eases at operating and surfing. It is a tool which can cut though the stiffs in climbing the way to make pure and affordable purchase of non- branded products.Initially, itenablescustomerstobuygoodswithafreshgradefromfarmers who produce those in their backyards with humble care. Further, the farmers would be able to avail a standard payment for each product. This feature also ensures delivery before the products freshness expires according to customer's favor. And finally due to the fact that the system would run under a brand name, it would minimize corruption in this sector which arises from hand- to-hand exchanging. This paper discusses the illustrated features and attributes of the application and website 'GeramBazar'.
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This study aims to offer insightful knowledge on organizational members’ real-life experience of working in a ‘new normal’ environment and explores changes in organizational HR practices and the future of work culture during this pandemic. Applying the qualitative methodology through implementing an in-depth interview technique, this study revealed subjective insights on pandemic impacts within diverse organizations and their coping strategies, that is, remote work practices and technological adaptations. The study found out that HR functionalities powered by different online tools and remote work or flexible roster duties are ensuring employee betterment and organizational productivity at the same time. Pandemic countermeasure oriented or transformed HR practices like online training and e-recruitment are keeping the workforce steady in this distressing time, but the ‘new normal’ lifestyle and evolved work environment, practices are putting much stress on and changing the dimension of work policies like employee well-being, compensation, leave, and so on, through isolation, quarantine and strict health guideline type issues. © 2022 Management Development Institute.
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Introduction In response to COVID-19, a rapid shift was made to deliver behavioural swallowing therapy in the PRO-ACTIVE trial via a TeleHealth (TH) approach. Patient experiences with TH were explored. Methods A theory-guided qualitative approach explored the perspective of consenting participants who received at least one TH swallowing therapy session. Patients participated in a one-time semi-structured interview. Interview transcripts were analyzed for content and theme using a multi-step consensus process to build a coding framework and key messages. Results Eleven participants recounted their TH experiences and reported feeling satisfied, comfortable and confident with the session(s). Facilitating factors included: previous experience with teleconferencing, access to optimal equipment, clinician skill, and caregiver assistance. TH was considered beneficial to reduce commuting time, potential exposure to COVID19, energy expenditure and also allow caregiver participation. Limitations were also identified, including lack or poor previous experience with technology, and less opportunity for personalization. Participants indicated that use of audio alone was less preferred than an audio/video platform. Conclusions Patients reported overall that TH sessions did not compromise their clinical learning experience when compared to in-person sessions. Patient feedback about TH provides an important perspective to inform best practices for care delivery.
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The Pandemic caused due to COVID-19 has overweighed the current healthcare system and made us realize that how unaware we were of our health. Although lots of rational and harsh measured were taken to curb the spread of COVID-19 but still we lost millions of lives. During this pandemic technology played a vital role ranging from the invention of vaccine to remotely monitoring the usage with the help of IoT. Among several emerging technologies wearable smart devices were burgeoning as they are also powered by IoT now. Wearable devices are being used in different scenarios ranging from tracking and monitory infected patients to utilize the data for policy making. Proposed is a framework of an ecosystem "AWARE"which comprises of a smart band with advanced PPG and EEG sensors to detect Heart rate, Heart rate Variability, Respiration rate, SpO2, Step and Sleep data. The sensor data will be transferred to the AWARE application on host mobile through BLE and from mobile the user data it will be transferred to AWARE cloud for pre and post processing using Machine Learning algorithms. AWARE can used for monitoring and detection of health anomalies and diseases such as COVID-19 or chronic lifestyle diseases. AWARE works on a multi-Tenancy cardinality framework were the group (i.e., kids, elders, domestic worker) users can share the cloud storage and receive customized notifications. Also, the group manager (i.e., father, employer) will be notified in case of emergencies. Cloud data can be accessed by the users through dashboards. Government authorities can also access user data through APIs. Wearables are widely accepted these days due to its less intrusiveness. Although some professionals are skeptical of these devices, but the advantages are far beyond the minor pitfalls. In fact, several countries have already implemented wearables devices as the primary medium of COVID-19 detection, monitoring. © 2021 IEEE.
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As the present world is devastated by the massive outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), Bangladesh is experiencing significant damage in all sectors, especially as a developing country. This paper presents the development of a Web-based corona emergency portal, which will help ordinary people find out all the necessary emergency information in this regard. The Web portal comprises the COVID-19 tracker, corona e-commerce, and blood plasma bank, which are developed with React.js, Node.js and Firebase. The COVID-19 tracker is a much-needed option for this pandemic where daily updates on COVID-19 will be posted. The blood plasma bank aims to serve people with emergency blood plasma, which is very rare to find in critical situations. The developed Web-based system is user-friendly and efficient. Under these ongoing circumstances, this portal aims to be a one-stop service for all types of corona-related services for Bangladesh during this unexpected period of the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Mental illness is a combination of a number of emotional, physical, or behavioral problems or abnormalities that cause a person pain or disrupt his social and daily activities. Just like any other illness, it can affect people of any age and occupation. There is a treatment for mental illness like many diseases. This disease can cure if proper treatment and advice are taken in time. In Bangladesh, 18.5% of adults and about 13% of children and adolescents have some kind of mental illness. But 92% of them do not take any kind of medical service or advice. Because having a mental illness in our society means that he is insane. However, using such app technology, experienced psychologists can be consulted sitting at home. But the majority of the existing systems are a wearable device to measure mental condition or app technologies does not provide such service as a direct connection with doctors. This paper presents the building of an app that anyone who uses can receive psychiatric services from experienced psychologists sitting at home. The overall system has separate login arrangements for doctors and patients. After log in the doctors will see the patient's appointments with him and the patients will see which doctor is free when. A patient can choose the doctor of his choice and have a video consultation or chat with him but he must pay in advance and at the end of the consultation he will be given a prescription via message on his mobile phone. The whole system has been developed using 'Java' and for handling video consultation, 'Jitsi' API has been used. The system has been tested in a trial stage for some time after its development and it works as expected. If people welcome this system, they will not have to go to the hospital and stand in long lines for doctors, they will be able to receive modern and quality services sitting at home. © 2022 IEEE.
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Technology in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can solve many emergency problems in civilian and military sectors by doing the proper implementation [1]. However, this is not commercially used on large scale till now in many countries because of many security factors. Proper implementation of the drone can utilize the problem of emergency medical goods delivery on inaccessible roads, quick surveillance for military and government law enforcement agencies, and much more Traditional transportation infrastructure might be affected in the same way by delivery drones. This paper is about a new drone model With the suggested design of a drone, multipurpose work including emergency delivery and surveillance network will facilitate more time efficiency and much more economical to potentially save lives. Moreover, in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, it will be very helpful to supply medicine and goods to the lockdown areas.
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The objective of this study is to mitigate the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. A web-based one-stop solution is proposed that aims to provide all the up-to-date information about the pandemic and work as a relay point of all the possible services that a patient may require. This can work as a newsfeed, market place, virtual care center, plasma bank and test center at the same time. Proposed services are handled by dedicated personnel via both wireless and online communication mediums. As a result, patients can access all possible services with a minimum effort, saving time. The system is developed using HTML5, CSS, PHP, MySQL and Bootstrap. All in all, this system can provide an all-in-one solution in order to slow down the progression of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
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Healthcare monitoring system in hospitals and other health institutes has increased significantly. In recent days healthcare monitoring systems with new technologies are becoming of great concern to countries all over the world. Nowadays IOT (internet of things) is such an emerging technology. Iot consists of various sensors and communication devices which are necessary tools for IOT based health monitoring systems. Among the various applications that Internet of Things (IoT) facilitated to the world, Health care and Health monitoring applications are most important. It also responded if any medical emergency was needed. IoT (Internet of Things) has brought a remarkable approach in healthcare during the global pandemic. The remote health surveillance monitors certain parameters of a patient using digital technology and allows a correct evaluation of health right at home. This brilliant internet revolution has not only minimized patient movement during COVID but also ensured smart healthcare for all ages. IoT heads to set up a strategic connection between the patient the doctors. The goal is to track the important health parameters such as - Blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose level etc. and evaluate the data to figure out any sort of medical emergency. From diagnosing heart disease to finding ICU bed availability in the nearest hospitals, digital technology is all set to assist. Using certain medical sensor devices web-based apps, the health data is passed to the portal from where concerned doctors can provide medical assistance. The data collection, transmission visualization can use a smartphone as a hub, thus making the operation smooth flexible. It is the most practical economical solution to people of all ages while avoiding direct contact preventing the spread of the virus. The wearable real-time health tracking devices privilege the elder citizen through continuous monitoring while ensuring immediate measures in case of emergency. In this paper, a review of IoT based smart health monitoring systems is presented. The latest innovative technologies used for IoT based smart health monitoring systems with their benefits and challenges have been discussed. This review's goal is to effectively and continuously monitor the multiple patients in a hospital ward and as well as remotely located patients so that it will ultimately reduce hospital operating costs, all other communication costs and improve the quality of health service. © 2022 IEEE.
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This study aims to explore physician's perceptions about the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), COVID prevention, and management during the COVID pandemic since knowledge on these might explain the reason behind infection and death of physicians in Bangladesh at an unexpected rate. This cross-sectional study was conducted based on an online questionnaire on 346 physicians (n=346) by the Department of Gastroenterology of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh from 15th July 2020 to 14th September 2020. Physicians of different health care facilities across Bangladesh were invited to take part. Knowledge on specific points of the questionnaire was evaluated, scored, and compared between different groups by Independent sample t-test. Mean knowledge score between the respondents working up to 8 hours and beyond 8 hours per day was 17.28+/-1.28, 16.90+/-1.40 respectively (p=0.03). Mean knowledge score observed between graduate and post-graduate physicians and work experience of 5 years and beyond 5 years were 17.26+/-1.36 vs. 17.16+/-1.27;(p=0.40), 16.87+/-1.75 vs. 17.27+/-1.21;(p=0.11) respectively. Physician's safety should be first concern that is highlighted through proper use of PPE and prevention of COVID. Patient management skills would be better if physicians are trained well on infection prevention and control which in turn will reduce infection and death of physicians.
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The respiratory rate (RR) as well as the heart rate (HR) are two of the main vital signs that show how well a person's body is performing. The heart rate is defined as the number of times a person's heart beats in one minute, whereas the respiratory rate is defined as the number of times a person breathes in one minute (breaths per minute). Measurement of heart rate and respiratory rate often indicates a person's health condition and may identify any cardiovascular or respiratory illness. Existing wearable health smart devices are expensive and are often inaccurate. The objective of this manuscript is to develop a cheap, high-accuracy wearable heart rate and respiration rate monitoring system. A photoplethysmography (PPG) based heart rate monitor, and chest motion-based respiratory rate monitor has been used here. For the PPG-based heart rate monitor, we designed an efficient and accurate heartbeat sensor circuit. For the respiratory rate monitor, we used the concept of chest motion during exhalation and inhalation of air during the breathing process to design a chest belt module to measure a person's breathing activity. The prototype of these measurement devices was then tested on multiple test volunteers for evaluating the system's performance at various conditions. The materials used for designing this system and its performance make the device a cost-effective and reliable alternative to existing wearable smart health devices. The amount of breath completed per 60 seconds is known as the respiratory rate. When an individual is steady, the rate is typically calculated by calculating the number of breaths taken in one minute and noting the amount of times the chest rises. Fever, sickness, and other medical conditions will cause you to breathe faster. In the current situation of COVID-19, it is very necessary to check the respiratory rate to check the patient's current health status. Therefore, our project will be helpful for the COVID patients also. © 2021 IEEE.