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Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the constant transformation of the SARS-COV-2 virus form, exposure to substantial psychosocial stress, environmental change, and isolation have led to the inference that the overall population's mental health could be affected, resulting in an increase in cases of psychosis. Objective(s): We initiated a systematic review to determine the impact of the SARS-COV-2 virus and its long-term effects-in both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases-on people with or without psychosis. We envisioned that this would give us an insight into effective clinical intervention methods for patients with psychosis during and after the pandemic. Method(s): We selected fifteen papers that met our inclusion criteria, i.e., those that considered participants with or without psychiatric illness and exposed to SARS-COV-2 infection, for this review and were retrieved via Google, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, PubMed, and PsychINFO Database. Key Gap: There is a dearth of research in understanding how COVID-19 affects people with or without a prior personal history of psychosis. Result(s): The systematic review summary provides insight into the state of knowledge. Insights from the systematic review have also been reviewed from the salutogenesis model's perspec-tive. There is moderate evidence of new-onset psychosis during the COVID-19 pandemic in which some antipsychotics treated the psychotic symptoms of patients while treating for COVID-19. Suggestions and recommendations are made for preventive and promotive public health strategies. Conclusion(s): The Salutogenesis model and Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI) provide another preventive and promotive public health management approach.Copyright © 2023 Bentham Science Publishers.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the concept of frailty back to the centre of debate, particularly for its relevance as a determinant of health outcomes. Frailty is concept that has long been a used gerontology. Today, several theoretical models of frailty are proposed in the literature, with as many tools to operationalize it. This article provides a brief outline of the three main models of frailty and the corresponding measurement instruments. The choice of the model as well as the choice of the assessment tool are discussed in the light of the clinical objectives pursued by health professionals. More generally, this article highlights the value of assessing frailty in routine practice to determine health outcomes and adapt care to individual needs.Copyright © 2020 Editions Medecine et Hygiene. All rights reserved.
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Most Indonesian schools have to close immediately because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there will be a quick transition to distance learning, requiring the usage of digital interventions. But the country's digital education infrastructure, particularly in rural schools, is not sufficiently developed to maintain and enhance students' learning outcomes. To address these problems Plickers (students response system) offers students an opportunity for a high-quality education while potentially reducing the cost of technology resources. This study enhanced integrated Plickers for learning mathematics in rural secondary schools. A quantitative and qualitative approach was used to examine how students participated in the learning and their perception, preferences, and motivation for using Plickers. The study involved 50 seventh graders, and 15 of them volunteered to participate in interviews. A paired samples t-Test revealed a significant difference between learning engagement on paper-based tests and learning engagement on Plickers-based tests. The majority of students also had positive opinions of Plickers, noting its usability, capacity to make learning more enjoyable, increase engagement in problem-solving, promote comprehension of the subject, and help students maintain their interest during class. While some students struggled to focus and thought Plickers was just a quiz tool that couldn't motivate them to learn. © 2023 IEEE.
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Background: Though the concept of burnout has been around for long, its significance is increasing nowadays owing to the demanding nature of jobs. The latest ICD-11 also provides a detailed description of Burnout syndrome. Physicians are at high risk for experiencing burnout and this becomes especially relevant in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: To determine the risk of burnout among medical faculty and its predictors, if any. Materials and Methods: This was a multicentric cross-sectional study that included medical faculty from four tertiary care government teaching hospitals in north India. A survey was conducted during the current COVID-19 pandemic to assess burnout using a structured online questionnaire based on Burnout Assessment Tool. The questionnaire also included relevant socio-demographic, professional, health, and lifestyle-related details. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U Test/Kruskal Wallis Test, and Kendall's tau-b Test were used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 244 medical faculty completed the survey. 27.87% were at risk of burnout, out of which 11.89% were at a very high risk of burnout. Dissatisfaction with the job and dissatisfaction with sleep (P < 0.01 for both) were associated with greater burnout scores and a greater risk of burnout. Conclusion: Faculty members are at high risk of burnout, regardless of sociodemographic and work-related factors.
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Technology solutions to mitigate repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic include tools that provide guidelines and interfaces to guide behavior, reduce exposure to the disease, and enable policy-driven avenues to return to a sense of normalcy (e.g., work and school). This paper takes a design science approach to present the justification, design, development, and early assessment of a return-to-work COVID-19 symptom checker and risk assessor. The system was implemented across 34 institutions of health and education in the US State of Alabama, including over 174k users with >4 million total uses and >86k reports of exposure risk between July 2020 and April 2021. Users complied with use policies between 60-74% of the time, with k-12 schools showing higher compliance than colleges and universities. Using system use data and focus group discussions, findings indicate the system was generally accepted, used regularly, facilitated reduction of disease exposure, and enabled a path back to work and school. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
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Effective options in the quiescent, scantily inflammatory phase of localized scleroderma (morphea) are lacking. A cohort study in patients with histologically confirmed fibroatrophic morphea explored the therapeutic value of the anti-dystrophic A2A adenosine agonist polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN, one daily 5.625 mg/3 mL ampoule for 90 days with a three-month follow-up). Primary efficacy endpoints: Localized Scleroderma Cutaneous Assessment Tool mLoSSI and mLoSDI subscores for disease activity and damage in eighteen areas; Physicians Global Assessment for Activity (PGA-A) and Damage (PGA-D) VAS scores; skin echography. Secondary efficacy endpoints: mLoSSI, mLoSDI, PGA-A, PGA-D, and morphea areas (photographs) over time; Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI); skin biopsy scores and induration over time. Twenty-five patients enrolled; 20 completed the follow-up period. Highly significant improvements at the end of the 3-month treatment period: mLoSSI-73.7%, mLoSDI-43.9%, PGA-A-60.4%, PGA-D-40.3%, with further improvements at follow-up visit for all disease activity and damage indexes. Overall, the outcomes suggest that a daily PDRN ampoule intramuscularly for 90 days reduces disease activity and damage rapidly and significantly in quiescent, modestly inflammatory morphea with few currently therapeutic options. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns caused difficulties in enrollment, and some patients were lost to follow-up. Due to low final enrollment, the study outcomes may have only an exploratory value, yet they appear impressive. The anti-dystrophic potential of the PDRN A2A adenosine agonist deserves further in-depth exploration.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had vast effects on the concept of education as a whole. During the pandemic, students had no access to physical teaching practices, which had been adapted worldwide as the principal way of education since the 1800's. Due to the restrictions imposed to garner safety from the spread of the virus, this methodology had to be modified based on the situation at hand. Alternatives through the usage of Virtual Learning Platforms (VLP), Online Tutoring Platforms (OTP), Web Conferencing Platforms (WCP) and multiple assessment tools like plagiarism checker, poll sites, quiz platforms, online proctored examinations (OPE) started gaining popularity among all institutes to cope with the limitations levied. The technologies molded a path for student-teacher interaction, performance assessments, document sharing and online tutoring. This research highlights the lack of online tutoring equipment, educators' limited expertise with online learning, the knowledge gap, a inimical atmosphere for independent study, equity, and academic success in postsecondary learning. The goal of this review is to present an overview of available technologies for online teaching that can be used to improve the quality of education during COVID-19. © 2022 IEEE.
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BACKGROUND: In 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced surges in healthcare needs, which challenged capacity throughout the healthcare system. Stay-at-home orders in many jurisdictions, cancellation of elective procedures, and closures of outpatient medical offices disrupted patient access to care. To inform symptomatic persons about when to seek care and potentially help alleviate the burden on the healthcare system, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and partners developed the CDC Coronavirus Self-Checker ("Self-Checker"). This interactive tool assists individuals seeking information about COVID-19 to determine the appropriate level of care by asking demographic, clinical, and nonclinical questions during an online "conversation." OBJECTIVE: This paper describes user characteristics, trends in use, and recommendations delivered by the Self-Checker between March 23, 2020, and April 19, 2021, for pursuing appropriate levels of medical care depending on the severity of user symptoms. METHODS: User characteristics and trends in completed conversations that resulted in a care message were analyzed. Care messages delivered by the Self-Checker were manually classified into three overarching conversation themes: (1) seek care immediately; (2) take no action, or stay home and self-monitor; and (3) conversation redirected. Trends in 7-day averages of conversations and COVID-19 cases were examined with development and marketing milestones that potentially impacted Self-Checker user engagement. RESULTS: Among 16,718,667 completed conversations, the Self-Checker delivered recommendations for 69.27% (n=11,580,738) of all conversations to "take no action, or stay home and self-monitor"; 28.8% (n=4,822,138) of conversations to "seek care immediately"; and 1.89% (n=315,791) of conversations were redirected to other resources without providing any care advice. Among 6.8 million conversations initiated for self-reported sick individuals without life-threatening symptoms, 59.21% resulted in a recommendation to "take no action, or stay home and self-monitor." Nearly all individuals (99.8%) who were not sick were also advised to "take no action, or stay home and self-monitor." CONCLUSIONS: The majority of Self-Checker conversations resulted in advice to take no action, or stay home and self-monitor. This guidance may have reduced patient volume on the medical system; however, future studies evaluating patients' satisfaction, intention to follow the care advice received, course of action, and care modality pursued could clarify the impact of the Self-Checker and similar tools during future public health emergencies.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , United States , Pandemics , Communication , Patient Satisfaction , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.ABSTRACT
Seeking an alternative approach for detecting adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in coronavirus patients (COVID-19) and enhancing drug safety, a retrospective study of six months was conducted utilizing an electronic medical record (EMR) database to detect ADRs in hospitalized patients for COVID-19, using "ADR prompt indicators" (APIs). Consequently, confirmed ADRs were subjected to multifaceted analyses, such as demographic attribution, relationship with specific drugs and implication for organs and systems of the body, incidence rate, type, severity, and preventability of ADR. The incidence rate of ADRs is 37%, the predisposition of organs and systems to ADR is observed remarkably in the hepatobiliary and gastrointestinal systems at 41.8% vs. 36.2%, p < 0.0001, and the classes of drugs implicated in the ADRs are lopinavir-ritonavir 16.3%, antibiotics 24.1%, and hydroxychloroquine12.8%. Furthermore, the duration of hospitalization and polypharmacy are significantly higher in patients with ADRs at 14.13 ± 7.87 versus 9.55 ± 7.90, p < 0.001, and 9.74 ± 5.51 versus 6.98 ± 4.36, p < 0.0001, respectively. Comorbidities are detected in 42.5% of patients and 75.2%, of patients with DM, and HTN, displaying significant ADRs, p-value < 0.05. This is a symbolic study providing a comprehensive acquaintance of the importance of APIs in detecting hospitalized ADRs, revealing increased detection rates and robust assertive values with insignificant costs, incorporating the hospital EMR database, and enhancing transparency and time effectiveness.
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This paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected progress toward urban sustainability. A methodological framework was developed as an integrated-assessment tool for future cities, triangulating indicators that are relevant to cities. The development of this framework was based on understanding the dimensions of sustainable cities and factors related to the urgent crises, and the related lifestyle and psychological factors. The study focuses on the SDGs and health and resilience requirements and links them with the behavioral changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper builds on the advantages of various methodological frameworks by integrating their respective approaches, to offer a more comprehensive solution. A series of measures and actions (scenarios) related to sustainable cities and pandemics are discussed. This approach involves developing relevant indicators by fitting the urban health and resilience goals to the social, economic, and environmental goals of sustainable cities, as well as considering the factors affecting people's perception of cities during and after the pandemic. The paper provides insights into how future cities could be planned, designed, and governed to reduce the impact of health crises and to enable the assessment of cities in relation to the chosen dimensions (health, resilience, sustainability, human). © 2023 by the authors.
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COVID-19 has impacted billions of people and health care systems globally. However, there is currently no publicly available chatbot for patients and care providers to determine the potential severity of a COVID-19 infection or the possible biological system responses and comorbidities that can contribute to the development of severe cases of COVID-19. This preliminary investigation assesses this lack of a COVID-19 case-by-case chatbot into consideration when building a decision tree with binary classification that was stratified by age and body system, viral infection, comorbidities, and any manifestations. After reviewing the relevant literature, a decision tree was constructed using a suite of tools to build a stratified framework for a chatbot application and interaction with users. A total of 212 nodes were established that were stratified from lung to heart conditions along body systems, medical conditions, comorbidities, and relevant manifestations described in the literature. This resulted in a possible 63,360 scenarios, offering a method toward understanding the data needed to validate the decision tree and highlighting the complicated nature of severe cases of COVID-19. The decision tree confirms that stratification of the viral infection with the body system while incorporating comorbidities and manifestations strengthens the framework. Despite limitations of a viable clinical decision tree for COVID-19 cases, this prototype application provides insight into the type of data required for effective decision support.
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The regions of Ukraine with similar values of indicators characterizing the development of tourism in 2020 under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are grouped using cluster analysis. It is proposed to modify cluster analysis by taking into account clarifying weighting factors and correcting penalty functions. The five clusters of the regions of Ukraine are singled out and the peculiarities of tourism development within each cluster are characterized. © 2022 IEEE.
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In the present digital era, technology is being extensively used as an aid to teach different skills in a language teaching course. With the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, where technology that was being used for peripheral tasks and activities in education so far, has now become pervasive in the learning spaces. Tech aids such as audio, video, internet, educational tools, etc. are the popular ones among teachers at all levels. The present study aims to explore the use of one such tool - Digital Spinning Wheel that has been used as a tool for conducting Just-a- Minute sessions in the Effective Public Speaking course being offered at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, one of the premier engineering institutes of India. The study also makes an attempt to understand students' perceptions about the appropriacy of the choice of the tool and the effectiveness of the instructional tool as used by the course instructors. For the study, a questionnaire was designed and circulated through Google Form among all the students of the course. The findings of the study suggest that the Digital Spinning Wheel makes the classroom activity interesting and dynamic and also ensures objectivity and fairness during the conduction of the evaluative component, Just-a-Minute. © 2022 IEEE.
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The technologies of Industry 4.0 played a very important role in business responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, when digital transformation had its most demanding test and it was confirmed that the integration of these advanced technologies established itself as a strategic tool by linking processes through smart factories. The effective adoption of these technologies continues to be a research gap, since there are few research publications that provide empirical results on the way in which companies in Latin America adopt Industry 4.0 technologies. This work proposes the development of an assessment tool to use in industrial clusters with the main objective of studying the levels of adoption of advanced Industry 4.0 technologies in companies from different clusters in Latin America, in an attempt to fill this gap. Copyright (C) 2022 The Authors.
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Learning Objective: This review aims to provide a brief history of virtual simulation and how it is currently being applied as a clinical assessment tool in emergency medicine (EM) training. Background(s): Simulation has played a vital role in training generations of medical professionals. In response to the COVID pandemic, virtual simulation (VS) has provided educational advantages to traditional in-person simulation. However, there is no current literature review on VS's medical education application in the post-COVID pandemic setting. Objective(s): This review aims to provide a brief history of VS and how it is currently being applied as a clinical assessment tool in emergency medicine (EM) training. Method(s): We conducted an electronic database search of SCOPUS in November 2021 using the following terms: virtual simulation, simulation history, virtual reality, online simulation, augmented reality, serious game, computer-based simulation, simulation, health care, emergency medicine, education, and assessment. Returned articles were filtered based on the following: English language, their relevance/inclusion of a VS method, and EM learners as the population under investigation. Result(s): 1,104 articles were identified, of which 19 addressed VS's use in assessing EM education (1 article in the post-COVID setting). Historically, VS was used to assess emergency responders' preparedness to major casualty events due to its ability to generate fictitious environments. In 2021, VS was deemed a feasible assessment tool of healthcare students' clinical competency. More specifically, VS has been shown to be a feasible alternative to traditional oral examination for assessing both EM residents and pediatric EM resuscitation respectively. Conclusion(s): VS has been shown to be as effective as traditional simulation methods in assessing EM learners. As the COVID pandemic continues, VS has and will continue to serve as an educational substitute to in-person simulation. We believe the use of VS will continue to grow as viable, standardized, and cost-effective means of assessing EM students' knowledge and clinical competency.
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BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 disease has multiple symptoms, with anosmia and ageusia being the most prevalent, varying from 75% to 95% and from 50% to 80% of infected patients, respectively. An automatic assessment tool for these symptoms will help monitor the disease in a fast and noninvasive manner. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that people with COVID-19 experiencing anosmia and ageusia had different voice features than those without such symptoms. Our objective was to develop an artificial intelligence pipeline to identify and internally validate a vocal biomarker of these symptoms for remotely monitoring them. METHODS: This study used population-based data. Participants were assessed daily through a web-based questionnaire and asked to register 2 different types of voice recordings. They were adults (aged >18 years) who were confirmed by a polymerase chain reaction test to be positive for COVID-19 in Luxembourg and met the inclusion criteria. Statistical methods such as recursive feature elimination for dimensionality reduction, multiple statistical learning methods, and hypothesis tests were used throughout this study. The TRIPOD (Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis Or Diagnosis) Prediction Model Development checklist was used to structure the research. RESULTS: This study included 259 participants. Younger (aged <35 years) and female participants showed higher rates of ageusia and anosmia. Participants were aged 41 (SD 13) years on average, and the data set was balanced for sex (female: 134/259, 51.7%; male: 125/259, 48.3%). The analyzed symptom was present in 94 (36.3%) out of 259 participants and in 450 (27.5%) out of 1636 audio recordings. In all, 2 machine learning models were built, one for Android and one for iOS devices, and both had high accuracy-88% for Android and 85% for iOS. The final biomarker was then calculated using these models and internally validated. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that people with COVID-19 who have anosmia and ageusia have different voice features from those without these symptoms. Upon further validation, these vocal biomarkers could be nested in digital devices to improve symptom assessment in clinical practice and enhance the telemonitoring of COVID-19-related symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04380987; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04380987.
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Unbalanced magnesium levels in the body, like other minerals, are a factor that is important in the severity and mortality of COVID-19. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between serum magnesium levels and clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. In this systematic review, a comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases until September 2021 by using the keywords COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, coronavirus disease, SARS- COV-infection 2, SARS-COV-2, COVID 19, and magnesium. End-Note X7 software was used to manage the studies. Articles that evaluated effect of magnesium on COVID-19 were included in the analysis. After reviewing several articles,12 studies were finally included in the ultimate analysis. The studies show that hypomagnesemia and hypermagnesemia are both factors that increase mortality in patients with COVID-19, even in one study, hypomagnesemia is the cause of doubling thedeaths in COVID-19 patients. Some studies have also found a negative correlation between magnesium deficiency and infectionseverity, while some others have reported no correlation between magnesium level and disease severity. According to the important role of magnesium in the body and its involvement in many physiological reactions, as well as differences in physical and physiological conditions of COVID-19 patients, in addition to the need for studies with larger sample sizes, monitoring and maintaining normal serum magnesium levels during the disease seems necessary as a therapeutic target, especially in patients admitted to the intensive care unit.
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The pressing global challenges, including global warming and climate change, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Covid-19 pandemic, all are indicative of the necessity of a transition from fossil-based systems toward bioenergy and bioproduct to ensure our plans for sustainable development. Such a transition, however, should be thoroughly engineered, considering the sustainability of the different elements of these systems. Advanced sustainability tools are instrumental in realizing this important objective. The present work critically reviews these tools, including techno-economic, life cycle assessment, emergy, energy, and exergy analyses, within the context of the bioenergy and bioproduct systems. The principles behind these methods are briefly explained, and then their pros and cons in designing, analyzing, and optimizing bioenergy and bioproduct systems are highlighted. Overall, it can be concluded that despite the promises held by these tools, they cannot be regarded as perfect solutions to address all the issues involved in realizing bioenergy and bioproduct systems, and integration of these tools can provide more reliable and accurate results than single approaches. © 2022 BRTeam. All rights reserved.