COVID Challenges for Trials in Low-to-Middle-Income Countries

While the substantial majority of clinical trials still take place in countries classified by the World Bank as high income, a review of clinical trial registrations on the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and clinicaltrials.gov shows that a significant and growing number are being conducted in LMICs, with major centers in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. COVID-19 will likely have a longlasting effect on global supply chains.11 The U.S. and more than 50 other countries are restricting or considering restrictions on exports of supplies that are needed to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 locally.12 Internationally, the World Trade Organization and the World Customs Organization issued a joint statement noting the disruptive impact of the virus on global supply chains and pledged to cooperate to facilitate trade in essential goods.13 LMICs are struggling to obtain limited hospital supplies in the global market in competition with the U.S., the European Union, Japan, and similar high-income buyers, as recent reporting about the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria shows.14 Clinical trial sites in LMICs that cannot obtain needed supplies in-country could obtain them from a study sponsor, assuming the products can be legally imported and shipments to that country are not cost-prohibitive in light of global freight and logistic disruptions. [...]informed consent forms and study institutional review board (IRB) and independent ethics committee (IEC) approvals may need to be revisited in light of local conditions. Clint D. Hermes is an attorney at Bass, Berry & Sims References 1. https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/guidelines/EC_Guidance_ COVID19_06_05_2020.pdf 2. http://www.sahpra.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/SAHPRACommunication_COVID_19-Final-25032020.pdf 3. https://pharmacyboardkenya.org/files/?file=Clinical_Trials_During_ COVID-19_Pandemic.pdf 4. http://portal.anvisa.gov.br/documents/219201/4340788/SEI_ ANVISA+-+0989653+-+Nota+Técnica14.pdf/6b48273f-550f-47618ba1-4e731a87b526 5. https://www.gob.mx/cofepris/articulos/medidas-extraordinarias-enrelacion-a-estudios-clinicos-ante-la-pandemia-de-covid-19 6. https://ensayosclinicos-repec.ins.gob.pe/images/Nueva_actualización_12.12.19/Actualización_2020/Comunicado_N_002-2020.pdf 7. https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responsesto-COVID-19 8. https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirusgovernment-response-tracker 9. https://covidtracker.bsg.ox.ac.uk/stringency-map 10.https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunitypassports-in-the-context-of-covid-19 11. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/supply-chains-leadership-business-economics-trade-coronavirus-covid19/ 12. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-19-coronaviruslessons-past-supply-chain-disruptions/ 13.http://www.wcoomd.org/en/media/newsroom/2020/april/wco-wtojoint-statement-on-covid-19-related-trade-measures.aspx 14.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/17/world/africa/coronaviruskano-nigeria-hotspot.html 15. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/amB7fBxLw8KSR9DcUsbTWg

RECOMMENDATIONS ON HANDLING MEDICINE SHORTAGE: LEARNING FROM HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE 2020 CRISIS FOR SLE PATIENTS

BackgroundEarly 2020, short supply of hydroxychloroquine sulfate (HCQ) – then claimed as effective for treatment of COVID-19 in several countries - raised significant concerns for those who use HCQ for chronic diseases including SLE. In April 2020, Lupus Europe launched a survey to quantify the access gap, as well as the anxiety expressed by patients confronted with this outage. 2422 patients responded with an average level of anxiety about access to HcQ of 6.45 on a maximum of 10. After supply issues were resolved, a follow up survey (Aug-Sept 2020 – 1854 answers) showed a significantly reduced anxiety of 4.15. A second follow up survey (Nov 2021 -Feb 2022 - 2255 answers) showed a further reduction to 3.54. Importantly, a core group of 6.2-13.7% of patients remains extremely anxious (scoring 9 or 10) about supply of their medication, substantially more than in Portugal (3.5%) and Finland (0%), where supply remained fair at the heat of the crisis.ObjectivesTo provide consensus on how communication should be conducted to minimize the impact of medicine shortages on patient anxiety.MethodsThe Patient Advisory Network (PAN) of Lupus Europe established an extensive list of potential elements of a more effective communication on shortages, that could help reduce patient anxiety. 20 statements were derived from those elements and proposed to PAN members and Lupus Europe member organisations. 101 answers were collected from 17 countries. For each country, the individual ratings of all participants were averaged to assign an individual vote for each country on each statement. Consensus amongst the 17 countries was then considered as obtained if 14 or more of the 17 countries agreed or strongly agreed with statements.Results9 out of the 20 statements reached consensus:1. Lupus specialists should (a) clarify alternative medication existing and its difference versus current treatments, (b) clarify appropriate emergency procedures and (c) clarify to the patients how to handle a short supply.2. Specialists and Hospitals should establish alternative supply mechanisms to guarantee minimum availability.3. pharmaceutical industry should (a) provide all information to all stakeholders and (b) help create emergency supply routes to ensure that no patient is left without his/her medication for a sustained period of time.4. National authorities should help patients with demonstrated need have priority access to limited supply quantities through a simple process.5. Hospitals should communicate (by email or postal mail) information on the shortage, how to handle it and how to access emergency supply routes. The same number agreed with Health authorities performing that same communication.6. pharmaceutical industry should avoid diverting products from one country to another if that would reduce supply below normal consumption level.7. Patient organisations should stop the rumors that can quickly spread though social media.8. pharmacists should be better equipped in terms of data (on the reasons and clear timelines for resolution as well as alternatives or recommendations for patients facing shortages)9. GP's should clarify alternative medication and appropriate emergency procedures.ConclusionShortages of medicine create an anxiety that can be long lasting. Even when supply is re-established, the fear remains. For this reason, establishing an effective communication system is necessary to reassure patients when short term shortages are taking place, and is key to avoid fast spreading anxiety relating to this concern. In this process, patient associations, physicians, industries and all the stakeholders should be involved.Reference[1]Cornet A, Andersen J, Tani C, Mosca M. Hydroxychloroquine availability during COVID-19 crisis and its effect on patient anxiety. Lupus Sci Med. 2021 Apr;doi: 10.1136/lupus-2021-000496Acknowledgements:NIL.Disclosure of InterestsNone Declared.

Preface

The International Conference on Emerging Electronic & Automation Technology (ICEEAT 2022) is a forum for promoting, discussing and developing ideas in emerging electronic and automation technology. ICEEAT 2022 was successfully held virtually, featuring two days of oral presentations with distinguished invited talks. We are very much aware that one of the objectives of worldwide researchers is to gain and share knowledge. However, due to the recent outbreak of Covid-19, we realize that some precaution needs to be made to maintain the balance of the need for sharing our knowledge and the precaution due to global health concerns. Thus, we offer to hold the conference under a virtual platform with the same quality as offline medium. Through ethical virtual conferences, we ensured that the programs would be conducted as planned.The conference agenda covered keynote speeches, oral presentations, and online Q&A discussion. Firstly, keynote speakers were each allocated 30-45 minutes to hold their speeches. Then in the oral presentations, the excellent papers selected were presented by their authors one by one. During the conference, we were greatly honored to invite five sophisticated keynote speakers to address their speeches: Prof. Dr. Junle Qu from Shenzhen University (China);Professor Dr. Yiming Li from Zhejiang Normal University (China);Professor Dr. Xiaodong Zhang from Tianjin University (China);Senior;and Assistant Prof. Dr. William Hurst from Wageningen University (Netherlands) and Prof.Dr. Hai Tao from Qiannan Normal University for Nationalities,(China). The wonderful and dramatic speeches of each keynote speaker had triggered heated discussion. Moreover, every participant praised this conference for disseminating useful and insightful knowledge.Scientists and practitioners submitted more than 80 papers in total. The editors and committees to make a success of ICEEAT2022 carefully reviewed all of them. As a result, the conference proceedings were compiled. These papers feature but are not limited to the following topics: Image processing and patron recognition;Artificial intelligent for smart system, communication network control and management, etc. All the papers have been checked through rigorous review and processes to meet the requirements of publication.On behalf of the conference organizing committee, we would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all the keynote speakers, peer reviewers, and all the participants. Especially, we would like to acknowledge the Journal of Physics: Conference Series, for the efforts of all the colleagues in publishing this paper volume. We firmly believe that all the attendees have had fruitful discussions and gained valuable knowledge, and will enjoy the opportunity for future collaborations.Committee of ICEEAT2022List of Conference Organization, Committee member is available in this Pdf.

Community Resilience Assessment and Identification of Barriers in the Context of Population Aging: A Case Study of Changchun City, China

As a susceptible demographic, elderly individuals are more prone to risks during sudden disasters. With the exacerbation of aging, new challenges arise for urban disaster reduction and prevention. To address this, the key is to establish a community-scale resilience assessment framework based on the aging background and to summarize factors that influence the resilience level of communities. This approach is a crucial step towards seeking urban disaster prevention and reduction from the bottom up, and serves as an important link to enhance the capacity of urban disaster reduction. This paper explores community resilience evaluation indicators under the background of aging, builds a community resilience evaluation index system based on the Pressure–State–Response, uses the entropy weight method to weigh the indicators, and carries out a resilience evaluation of 507 communities in the main urban area of Changchun. The empirical results indicate significant spatial differentiation of community resilience in the main urban area of Changchun. Moreover, the regional development is unbalanced, showing a spatial distribution pattern of weakness in the middle and strength in the periphery. The ring road network highlights the difference between the new and old urban areas. The high contribution indexes of community resilience in the main urban area of Changchun were concentrated on disaster relief materials input, community self-rescue ability, and disaster cognition ability. Finally, strategies to improve community resilience are proposed from the perspectives of stress, state, and response, emphasizing community residents' participation, conducting disaster prevention and reduction training, and improving community response-ability.

Crisis resilience ‘critical' to stem rising hunger

Speed read Crises, shocks and volatility to food systems becoming the new norm Policy focus should shift to ‘permanent crisis resilience' – report Local groups could be key to gender inclusion, data collection [SYDNEY] A shift towards permanent "crisis resilience” from short-term aid is crucial to mitigate increasingly frequent shocks to the global food system and tackle rising global hunger, say food policy researchers. Rob Vos, IFPRI's director of markets, trade and institutions, says a closer connection is needed between early warning systems that monitor global food market volatility and those that monitor food insecurity at the local level. "Both systems further need to pay more attention to monitoring the risk factors that underly food supply or price shocks as that cause food crises,” Vos tells SciDev.Net.

CONSEQUENCES OF INTEGRATION PROCESSES FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT

The modern business environment in which the world economy operates brings increasing unpredictability, which makes it difficult to plan and implement business continuity management. Recent examples are the emergence and spread of the corona virus and the war in Ukraine. Market-oriented economies are characterized by a reduction in the life cycle of companies and competition in saturated industrial sectors. Integration processes, takeovers and mergers, represent one of the ways of implementing development strategies of organizations and most often take place in waves and in crisis periods due to economic shocks and the influence of internal and external factors on the organization. Mentioned strategy is used by companies in order to acquire the necessary capital and resources in an effort to establish their position on the market more quickly and efficiently and to carry out activities of greater volume and income for the purpose of survival and faster progress. Due to the trends of M&A and the growing inconsistency and uncertainty in business, the aim of this paper is to highlight the consequences that M&A brings when it comes to managing the business continuity of a "newly integrated" organization. The impact on employees, business processes and general functioning and management of business continuity during and especially after integration will be observed. In order to fulfill the objective of the paper, the empirical part of the paper uses the Delphi method, in which the source of data is based on statistical collection and then the interpretation of the answers to the set questionnaire from a number of experts in the field of business continuity management, the banking sector, auditing and several business units that have recently passed M&A activities in order to consolidate attitudes about the consequences that integration processes bring for business continuity management and the organization as a whole. The paper will analyze the consequences of mergers and acquisitions for the management of business continuity, identify its advantages and disadvantages, and present recommendations for future such processes in the concluding remarks.

Information-Centric Networking based content collection and caching mechanism for network public opinion

With the global influence of the COVID epidemic, network public opinion control is particularly important especially for the purpose of stabilizing the panic at home and abroad. Effective public opinion collection and caching mechanism has a positive significance for the rapid spread of network public opinion. Therefore, by analyzing the accurate and rapid requirements of public opinion communication, this paper introduces the concept of Information-Centric Networking (ICN) to build a public opinion communication system. At the same time, the corresponding public opinion collection and caching mechanism is designed to optimize the dissemination process of the public opinion. The natural distributed structure of ICN makes the process of public opinion collection and caching distributed. Specifically, a suitable cache server is added between different public opinion collection servers via the distributed search engines. The experimental results show that the proposed distributed public opinion collection and caching mechanism can effectively deal with the spread of public opinion under the environment of the global COVID epidemic, including improving the accuracy of the public opinion transmission in time. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sensing Technologies for Crowd Management, Adaptation, and Information Dissemination in Public Transportation Systems: A Review

Management of crowd information in public transportation (PT) systems is crucial, both to foster sustainable mobility, by increasing the user's comfort and satisfaction during normal operation, as well as to cope with emergency situations, such as pandemic crises, as recently experienced with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) limitations. This article presents a taxonomy and review of sensing technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) for real-time crowd analysis, which can be adopted in the different segments of the PT system (buses/trams/trains, railway/metro stations, and bus/tram stops). To discuss such technologies in a clear systematic perspective, we introduce a reference architecture for crowd management, which employs modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to: 1) monitor and predict crowding events;2) implement crowd-aware policies for real-time and adaptive operation control in intelligent transportation systems (ITSs);and 3) inform in real time the users of the crowding status of the PT system, by means of electronic displays installed inside vehicles or at bus/tram stops/stations and/or by mobile transport applications. It is envisioned that the innovative crowd management functionalities enabled by ICT/IoT sensing technologies can be incrementally implemented as an add-on to state-of-the-art ITS platforms, which are already in use by major PT companies operating in urban areas. Moreover, it is argued that, in this new framework, additional services can be delivered to the passengers, such as online ticketing, vehicle access control and reservation in severely crowded situations, and evolved crowd-aware route planning. © 2001-2012 IEEE.

Systematic Threat Analysis of Modern Unified Healthcare Communication Systems

Recently, smart medical devices have become preva-lent in remote monitoring of patients and the delivery of medication. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic situation has boosted the upward trend of the popularity of smart medical devices in the healthcare system. Simultaneously, different device manufacturers and technologies compete for a share in a smart medical device's market, which forces the integration of diverse smart medical de-vices into a common healthcare ecosystem. Hence, modern unified healthcare communication systems (UHCSs) combine ISO/IEEE 11073 and Health Level Seven (HL7) communication standards to support smart medical devices' interoperability and their communication with healthcare providers. Despite their advantages in supporting various smart medical devices and communication technologies, these standards do not provide any security and suffer from vulnerabilities. Existing studies provide stand-alone security solutions to components of UHCSs and do not cover UHCSs holistically. In this paper, we perform a systematic threat analysis of UHCSs that relies on attack-defense tree (ADTree) formalisms. Considering the attack landscape and defense ecosys-tem, we build an ADTree for UHCSs and convert the ADTree to stochastic timed automata (STA) to perform quantitative analysis. Our analysis using UPPAAL SMC shows that the Man-in-the-Middle and unauthorized remote access attacks are the most probable attacks that a malicious entity could pursue, causing mistreatment to patients. We also extract valuable information about the top threats, the likelihood of performing different individual and simultaneous attacks, and the expected cost for attackers. © 2022 IEEE.

Defence organizations in emergency networks: the early response to COVID-19 in Europe

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyse the crisis network response of European countries and the role played by defence organizations (DOs) during the early response phase of the pandemic, here set to encompass 75 days.Design/methodology/approachPublished materials – reports, news and communications – provided by authorities and DOs were used. Some of the authors actively participated in national pandemic response networks. An exploratory approach and qualitative content analysis were applied. The data were collected in national languages from 13 European countries, and they were coded and analysed using the actors, resources and activities (ARA) framework.FindingsThis study identified three main categories of activity structures in which the DOs interacted with civilian members of response networks, health-related services, logistics services and public support services. These networks among actors were found within formal response systems and emergent networks. The DOs engaged as actors that provided a range of services when civil authorities could not cope with the huge demand for specific services and when resources were scarce in the initial response phase.Originality/valueThis study contributes by filling an important research gap with regard to the civil-military relations associated with the use of DO resources in the civil response to the pandemic crisis in Europe, which is described as an untraditional response. The ARA network approach provides a framework for arranging ARA and extends the wider civil-military network to expand the formal networks of the early crisis response. The study lays knowledge about the co-operation between civilian and military actors in different contexts and provides a broader understanding of the roles that DOs played in the response operations.

The Whistleblower’s Dilemma: An Evolutionary Game Analysis of the Public Health Early Warning System

Although the ability to manage public health emergencies in China has improved significantly, there are still many challenges to the existing information transmission mechanism in pandemic early warning systems. In this context, a tripartite evolutionary game model composed of the local government, the whistleblower, and the public is formulated. By using Matlab, the dynamic evolution path of the game model is stimulated under different conditions. Stable strategies for an early warning system for public health emergencies are also explored. The results indicate that the cost of whistleblowing, the cost of response, and the benefit of attention significantly influence strategic decisions among three parties. This study highlights the importance of whistleblowing in managing public health emergencies. Yet, our findings provide theoretical support for policy recommendations for promoting public health emergency preparedness.

Wireless Communication System and Its Application in Big Data Remote Monitoring and Decision-Making

The development of computer technology has promoted the widespread application of unmanned technology. Remote monitoring of wireless devices is an application of unmanned technology. To improve the remote monitoring of wireless devices, this study establishes a remote monitoring and decision-making framework based on wireless communication systems. With the wireless communication system, signals that characterize the operating status of devices can be obtained in real-time. Based on the collected signals, the remote monitoring system can identify the current health status of wireless devices, thereby providing auxiliary decision-making for device operation. In the case study, the main engine of an unmanned surface vehicle is used as the study object. The results show that most of the relative errors corresponding to the state identification results of the established remote monitoring framework are within 5%. Moreover, the results present that the linear correlation coefficients between the predicted and real results are greater than 0.95. Therefore, the established remote monitoring framework based on the wireless communication system has good reliability in the state identification of wireless devices.

A Framework to Preserve and Examine Pandemic-Healthcare-Data Using IoMT

Resent advancement in networking and communication system helped to enhance various domains, including the healthcare. The invention of the cloud computing, Internet of medical things (IoMT), and artificial intelligence (AI) invented the Healthcare 4.0, which supports the monitoring and examination of a variety of medical information using the digital techniques. This research aims to develop a diagnostic framework for the pandemic-healthcare-data (PHD) using the IoMT scheme. The proposed framework considers the examination of the patients admitted with the COVID-19 infection and supports the following procedures;(i) collecting the preliminary information about the patient, (ii) collecting the disease information, (iii) getting the experts opinion regarding the treatment planning and implementation, (iv) monitoring the patient, and (v) preserving the disease information for future use. The proposed scheme is developed by considering the COVID-19 PHD, and the methodology employed is discussed with a chosen procedures. When this scheme is implemented, the preserved data can be used to develop a medical model, which supports a quick diagnosis and timely treatment to recover the patient. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Asian countries tap satellite data to fight COVID-19

Speed read Asia Pacific countries leverage satellite data and artificial intelligence Fighting COVID-19 and meeting SDGs are high on applications Digital divide remains a handicap between and within countries [MANILA] Asia Pacific countries are leveraging geospatial information, digital solutions and artificial intelligence to enhance their response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report. The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency analysed reduced night-light images to monitor the impact of lockdown measures. “Data is now a strategic asset” Tiziana Bonapace, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Last March, the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) solicited proposals for projects that use geospatial information in response to COVID-19.

Interconnected disasters ‘the tip of the iceberg’

Speed read UN report shows clear links between global disasters Lack of risk management and climate change among common causes Tackling root causes across disciplines is essential, report says Extreme events are increasingly compounding each other, even if they initially seem wide apart and unconnected, making it more crucial to tackle their root causes, says a report. In turn, deforestation is linked to Western demand for meat, and has a knock-on effect on climate change, exacerbating extreme events elsewhere in the world, says the report. Need to strengthen Strengthening networks for sharing prevention and response experiences between countries, and mechanisms for international cooperation and allocation of funds, is critical says Tran Si Pha, head of the disaster management department at the Vietnam Red Cross Society.

Satellites to protect the world, if data is open to all

Speed read Benefits of satellite tech for world’s poorest and the planet could be boundless – if data is open to all Demand for resources to build satellites could put vulnerable communities, indigenous land rights at risk Future challenges remain, such as need for infrastructure, uneven distribution between countries Satellite technologies are a new frontier in global development. Satellites are being used for everything from monitoring illegal fishing to tracking malaria, from supporting early warning systems in flood-prone nations to measuring crop yields and giving farmers advice on fertilisers. Nomadic communities in Africa are using space technology and mobile phone networks to go where the water is and avoid violent conflicts in the Sahel related to climate change and food insecurity.

Bharat Electronics Ltd marches forward

Some of the major orders executed during the year included Long Range Surface to Air Missile;Akash Weapon System;Fire Control System;Integrated Air Command & Control System;Advanced Composite Communication System;Integrated Electronic Warfare Suite and Coastal Surveillance System. Some of the new products/systems introduced during the year included Laser Fence System, IR Jammer for Active Tank Protection System, Gimbal for Tethered UAV, Drainage Intrusion Detection System, Solid State Power Controller Cards for Akash NG / QRSAM, S-Band 150W Power Amplifier, GNSS Receiver, Managed Ethernet Switch -12 Port, IP EPABX System, Navigation Complex System, C BAND GaN PA & C BAND GaAs MMICs and Oxygen Concentrator 5LPM & 10 LPM and Dialysis Machines. Signifi cant among these orders included avionics package for LCA, Advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) suite for fighter aircraft, Instrumented Electronic Warfare Range (IEWR), CDR TI cum Day Light Sights for T-90 Tanks, Electronic Voting Machine & VVPAT, RWR & MAWS for C-295 aircraft, Gun Electronic Upgrade, Electronic Warfare Systems for Ships, Weapon Locating Radar and Integrated Observation Equipment.

Commodity Information Collection and System Construction of e-Commerce Platform Based on Network Data

In order to quickly and accurately collect the massive commodities and corresponding transaction data of large-scale e-commerce platforms, and improve the ability of data analysis and mining, this paper proposes a platform commodity information collection system based on splash technology. The system prerenders the javascript code in the product page, combined with the Scrapy crawler framework, to realize a system that quickly and effectively collects product data from different platforms, and uses “mobile phone” as the retrieval keyword to verify the designed system, respectively. The experimental results show that the system can effectively collect up to 60,000 comments and 6,000 system requests. Conclusion. The platform commodity information collection system based on splash technology has certain application value and promotion for the commodity data collection of different platforms of e-commerce.