Real-Time Face Mask Detection using Computer Vision and Machine Learning

Face mask detection is the process of identifying whether a person is wearing a face mask or not in real-time through the use of computer vision and machine learning algorithms. This technology can be used in various applications, such as security systems at public transportation hubs or in hospitals, to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations during a pandemic or other infectious disease outbreaks. The technology works by analyzing images or video streams from cameras and computer vision techniques are used to detect the presence of a face mask on a person's face. The output of the system is a binary result (i.e., mask detected or not detected) or a more detailed result that provides information about the type of mask and its location on the face. © 2023 IEEE.

A review of neurological side effects of COVID-19 vaccination.

Following the COVID-19 virus epidemic, extensive, coordinated international research has led to the rapid development of effective vaccines. Although vaccines are now considered the best way to achieve collective safety and control mortality, due to the critical situation, these vaccines have been issued the emergency use licenses and some of their potential subsequence side effects have been overlooked. At the same time, there are many reports of side effects after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. According to these reports, vaccination can have an adverse event, especially on nervous system. The most important and common complications are cerebrovascular disorders including cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, transient ischemic attack, intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, and demyelinating disorders including transverse myelitis, first manifestation of MS, and neuromyelitis optica. These effects are often acute and transient, but they can be severe and even fatal in a few cases. Herein, we have provided a comprehensive review of documents reporting neurological side effects of COVID-19 vaccines in international databases from 2020 to 2022 and discussed neurological disorders possibly caused by vaccination.

Emerging technologies for COVID (ET-CoV) detection and diagnosis: Recent advancements, applications, challenges, and future perspectives.

In light of the constantly changing terrain of the COVID outbreak, medical specialists have implemented proactive schemes for vaccine production. Despite the remarkable COVID-19 vaccine development, the virus has mutated into new variants, including delta and omicron. Currently, the situation is critical in many parts of the world, and precautions are being taken to stop the virus from spreading and mutating. Early identification and diagnosis of COVID-19 are the main challenges faced by emerging technologies during the outbreak. In these circumstances, emerging technologies to tackle Coronavirus have proven magnificent. Artificial intelligence (AI), big data, the internet of medical things (IoMT), robotics, blockchain technology, telemedicine, smart applications, and additive manufacturing are suspicious for detecting, classifying, monitoring, and locating COVID-19. Henceforth, this research aims to glance at these COVID-19 defeating technologies by focusing on their strengths and limitations. A CiteSpace-based bibliometric analysis of the emerging technology was established. The most impactful keywords and the ongoing research frontiers were compiled. Emerging technologies were unstable due to data inconsistency, redundant and noisy datasets, and the inability to aggregate the data due to disparate data formats. Moreover, the privacy and confidentiality of patient medical records are not guaranteed. Hence, Significant data analysis is required to develop an intelligent computational model for effective and quick clinical diagnosis of COVID-19. Remarkably, this article outlines how emerging technology has been used to counteract the virus disaster and offers ongoing research frontiers, directing readers to concentrate on the real challenges and thus facilitating additional explorations to amplify emerging technologies.

SARS-CoV-2 in Africa.

The earliest cases of COVID-19 disease in Africa were, in most cases, the result of imports from abroad. The Democratic republic of the Congo (DRC) identified the first case at the beginning of 2020. Two days after his return from France, the first patient was tested positively in the capital, Kinshasa. The travel restrictions and status of the state of emergency were announced on 24 March 2020. A lockdown followed. In June of the same year, 11 provinces were already affected by COVID-19 disease. The negative socio-economic impact has occurred and is similar to that in any other country. The DRC does not differ from other African countries or on the issue of infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, cholera, measles or Ebola virus disease. Recurring Ebola epidemics are addressed by vaccination with Ervebo vaccine. Unlike Ebola, part of the population does not believe in the existence of SARS-CoV-2 and does not respect basic anti-epidemic measures. Medical capacities were very limited at the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, both in terms of diagnosis and testing and availability of treatment (60 ventilators to 83 million inhabitants). The situation is complicated as a result of 20 years continuing wars. Another African country, Guinea, is currently facing not only COVID-19, but also the zoonotic disease of Lassa fever, which has been detected in several patients. Copyright © 2021, Medakta s.r.o.. All rights reserved.

Contact Tracing: A Cloud Based Architecture for Safe Covid-19 Mapping

In the recent, Corona Virus epidemic (COVID-19) increases day-to-day from one individual to another because of contact transmission and COVID-19 is created by the SARS-CoV-2. Identifying and stopping the spreading of contagious epidemic such as COVID-19 is important to handling diseases. One major part contracted to find and detect their previous connections so as to then carefully dissociate any persons likely to have been affected and accommodate dispersion is to find out or explore more transmissible persons. These previous connections can be traced using smart machine such as smart watches and smart phones, which can frequently find and collect the connections and location of their infected ones through their embedded transmissions and localization methodologies or technologies, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) location-based navigation rule, Wi-Fi, biological connections, and Bluetooth. Contact Tracing is the one of the best technologies in which we use a methodology for stopping and controlling the COVID19. The main point of this review paper on the methodology of these smart technologies and figure the model of contact tracing accuracy on the flow of the COVID-19, working of contact tracing, algorithms and control of the COVID-19. In this paper, we have determined the role of contact tracing in COVID-19, effective impacts of Contact Tracing and designed a COVID-19 epidemic model that we created to evaluate the number of people quarantined and effectiveness of the steps to be taken, through the smart watches and smart phone contact tracing technique used. In this review paper, our result shows that in order to be accurate for the COVID-19 pandemic, the contact tracing technique must be traced speedily, a valuation ratio of the population must apply the smart devices technique, contact tracing application and this technology must be correct. All these rigid needs make smart device-based contact tracing rather inefficient at accommodating the flow of the virus during the COVID-19. However, in this phase smart machine-based contact tracing could be immensely and enormously effective and recognizing a second section, where a segment of the community will have increased immunity. © 2021 IEEE.

COVID-19-Induced Graves' Disease.

COVID-19, a multi-system disease, could potentially play a role in thyroid dysfunction. New reports show a prevalence of COVID-related thyroiditis. Recent studies suggest that there may be a higher risk of thyroiditis in the setting of SARS-CoV-2, and several cases of Graves' disease have been reported in individuals with SARS-CoV-2, although the incidence of such findings and their relationship to COVID-19 is unknown. In this report, we present Graves' hyperthyroidism in a 48-year-old African American male who was admitted to the hospital for complaints of cough, fatigue, and palpitations. He tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and was found to have suppressed thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and an elevated free T4. The patient had no prior history of thyroid disease. Initially, it was thought to be a case of viral thyroiditis, and he was discharged on prednisone. However, he was found to have positive thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) and a diffuse increase in flow on doppler ultrasound of the thyroid. Subsequently, he was started on anti-thyroid medications with significant improvement. What is unique about this case is that, unlike other described cases in the literature where there was a relapse of a known Graves' disease after COVID-19 disease, our patient did not have a history or symptoms of thyroid disease prior to this event, which should raise the concern about possible activation of Graves' disease after SARS-CoV-2 infection through an autoimmune pathway. In our opinion, physicians, particularly endocrinologists, must be aware of this condition and keep it in mind as a potential differential diagnosis when encountering a similar clinical scenario.

Elevated depressive symptoms among newer and younger healthcare workers in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM: Depression is a frequent outcome of long-term stress, but no studies have examined depression rates among Japanese healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we conducted a web-based interview of hospital employees to assess depression prevalence and factors. METHODS: This observational cohort study was conducted from July to August, 2020, as part of a mandatory health checkup of Juntendo University Hospital employees (Tokyo, Japan). A total of 4239 participants completed a web-based questionnaire on medical history and current health status. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was used for self-assessment, with a score of ≥16 considered to indicate depression. RESULTS: Among all employees, the proportion of depression was 31.3% in 2020, the highest measured in the last 10 years and substantially greater than the pre-pandemic value in 2019 (27.5%). The proportion of depression for 2020 was significantly higher in new recruits than in employees with more than 2 years of experience (47.0% vs 29.9%, respectively, P < .0001) and in new recruits in 2019 (26.4%, P < .0001). When subdivided by occupation, nurses demonstrated the highest depression rate (43.2%), followed by paramedics (35.1%) and clerks (31.6%), whereas residents (22.9%), doctors (20.4%), teaching staff (18.0%), and part-time staff (15.3%) reported lower depression rates. The positive CES-D score significantly correlated with age (P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Younger and newer employees demonstrated the highest rates of depression independent of occupation. Therefore, mental healthcare programs focusing on these vulnerable groups need to be established.

Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-COVID-2 Syndrome: Just the Beginning.

Viral diseases are some of the most common infections affecting humans. Despite the unpleasant symptoms, most people return to their normal lives without residual symptoms. Following the acute infectious phase of some viruses, however, in some individuals symptoms may linger to the extent they are unable to return to a normal lifestyle. Following coronavirus disease 2019 infection, significant numbers of patients continued to have symptoms that persisted for months after hospital discharge. Symptoms spanned many organ systems and were prominent in the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems. The exact mechanism is not clear. This group of patients represents a new challenge to our health care systems. An organized, multi-disciplinary approach and further research are warranted to be ready to deliver better care to these patients.

The impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on financial markets: a seismologic approach.

This work investigates financial volatility cascades generated by SARS-CoV-2 related news using concepts developed in the field of seismology. We analyze the impact of socio-economic and political announcements, as well as of financial stimulus disclosures, on the reference stock markets of the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. We quantify market efficiency in processing SARS-CoV-2 related news by means of the observed Omori power-law exponents and we relate these empirical regularities to investors' behavior through the lens of a stylized Agent-Based financial market model. The analysis reveals that financial markets may underreact to the announcements by taking a finite time to re-adjust prices, thus moving against the efficient market hypothesis. We observe that this empirical regularity can be related to the speculative behavior of market participants, whose willingness to switch toward better performing investment strategies, as well as their degree of reactivity to price trend or mispricing, can induce long-lasting volatility cascades.

Acute necrotic hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis related to COVID-19: a report of 2 cases.

Acute necrotic hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis (ANHLE) is a subform of acute disseminating leukoencephalitis which is a post viral or vaccination uncommon disease with poor prognosis. Radiological findings include multiple or diffuse lesions involving the white matter and sparing the cortex with or without rim enhancement. In addition to areas of hemorrhages with possible involvement of basal ganglia and thalami. We describe the imaging findings for 2 cases of ANHLE; a 59-years-old male and a 47-years-old female. Both of them were tested positive of SARS-COVID2 with presentation of consciousness loss and respiratory failure. CT and MRI brain show global white matter changes associated with acute hemorrhagic necrosis, although uncommon, are compatible with postviral acute necrotic hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis with end point of death for the first patient and coma for the second patient.

Role of Tissue Factor in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19 and the Possible Ways to Inhibit It.

COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) is a highly contagious infection and associated with high mortality rates, primarily in elderly; patients with heart failure; high blood pressure; diabetes mellitus; and those who are smokers. These conditions are associated to increase in the level of the pulmonary epithelium expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), which is a recognized receptor of the S protein of the causative agent SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). Severe cases are manifested by parenchymal lung involvement with a significant inflammatory response and the development of microvascular thrombosis. Several factors have been involved in developing this prothrombotic state, including the inflammatory reaction itself with the participation of proinflammatory cytokines, endothelial dysfunction/endotheliitis, the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies, and possibly the tissue factor (TF) overexpression. ARS-Cov-19 ACE-2 down-regulation has been associated with an increase in angiotensin 2 (AT2). The action of proinflammatory cytokines, the increase in AT2 and the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies are known factors for TF activation and overexpression. It is very likely that the overexpression of TF in COVID-19 may be related to the pathogenesis of the disease, hence the importance of knowing the aspects related to this protein and the therapeutic strategies that can be derived. Different therapeutic strategies are being built to curb the expression of TF as a therapeutic target for various prothrombotic events; therefore, analyzing this treatment strategy for COVID-19-associated coagulopathy is rational. Medications such as celecoxib, cyclosporine or colchicine can impact on COVID-19, in addition to its anti-inflammatory effect, through inhibition of TF.

SARS CoV-2: Progression and treatment protocols - An overview.

COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis which has affected citizens of all nations. With more than a million death cases, this outbreak has already had a significant impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of mankind. Considerable amount of research is going on worldwide to find out effective drugs against the virus. Chloroquine phosphate, an antimalarial drug is currently used for the treatment. Studies on the harmful effects of chloroquine is in progress. India is rich in traditional medical practicing such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani etc. Ministry of AYUSH is trying to implement an interdisciplinary treatment encompassing all traditional methodologies. It is proven that Ashwagandha rasayana (Withania sominefera L.Dunal) has better functions than hydroxychloroquine. The ayurvedic formulations such as Sudarshan Ghanvati and Sanshamanivati are also used. The combination of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin is found to cure COVID-19 more effectively. Use of Tocilizumab is found to cure the respiratory disorders associated with COVID. Favilavir turns out to be yet another effective drug. The alternative medical system has effective prophylaxis and is considered better for the treatment of COVID-19. Ayurveda and yoga improve immunity thus maintaining good health. This review throws light on the mode of progression of the virus along with the various treatment protocols adopted to fight COVID-19.

Unmasking the unmasked.

Facial maskings have been part of the human story since time began, and the reasons for their needs and the materials that went into their making would vary according to the reasons and materials available. The health-related needs took centuries to become established, but not until the germ theory of disease became recognized. The facial mask, seen as an essential defensive tool for prevention of respiratory transmitted disease continues to be the prime personal protective piece of equipment. With air-born contaminations, such as the present pandemic SARS- CoV-2 viral infestation, why would there be opposition to the use of this personal protective cover of our airways, when until an immunologic answer is available, it is the best single prevention we have. When supported with other measures, like distancing, washing and non-crowding, society would be much safer and secure, with probable less acute and drastic outcomes due to the spread of this virus.

Field-Template, QSAR, Ensemble Molecular Docking, and 3D-RISM Solvation Studies Expose Potential of FDA-Approved Marine Drugs as SARS-CoVID-2 Main Protease Inhibitors.

Currently, SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) has infected people among all countries and is a pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO). SARS-CoVID-2 main protease is one of the therapeutic drug targets that has been shown to reduce virus replication, and its high-resolution 3D structures in complex with inhibitors have been solved. Previously, we had demonstrated the potential of natural compounds such as serine protease inhibitors eventually leading us to hypothesize that FDA-approved marine drugs have the potential to inhibit the biological activity of SARS-CoV-2 main protease. Initially, field-template and structure-activity atlas models were constructed to understand and explain the molecular features responsible for SARS-CoVID-2 main protease inhibitors, which revealed that Eribulin Mesylate, Plitidepsin, and Trabectedin possess similar characteristics related to SARS-CoVID-2 main protease inhibitors. Later, protein-ligand interactions are studied using ensemble molecular-docking simulations that revealed that marine drugs bind at the active site of the main protease. The three-dimensional reference interaction site model (3D-RISM) studies show that marine drugs displace water molecules at the active site, and interactions observed are favorable. These computational studies eventually paved an interest in further in vitro studies. Finally, these findings are new and indeed provide insights into the role of FDA-approved marine drugs, which are already in clinical use for cancer treatment as a potential alternative to prevent and treat infected people with SARS-CoV-2.

Academic During a Pandemic: Reflections from a Medical Student on Learning During SARS-CoVid-2.

The current pandemic represents unprecedented times in medical education. In addition to the already strenuous demands of medical school, the SARS-CoVid-2 pandemic introduced a new source of ethical and moral pressure on students. Medical students navigated finishing their didactic years in isolation and initiated their clinical rotations in a pandemic environment. Many medical students found themselves in the frustrating position of being non-essential healthcare workers but still wanting to help. This paper follows the personal and shared experiences of a second-year medical student transitioning to their third year. In particular, this paper examines the author's personal ties to the disability community through their family, and how this impacted their approach in striving to aid in the pandemic.

Genetic characterization of structural and open reading Fram-8 proteins of SARS-CoV-2 isolates from different countries.

Since December 2019, a severe pandemic of pneumonia, COVID-19 associated with a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), have emerged in Wuhan, China and spreading throughout the world. As RNA viruses have a high mutation rate therefore we wanted to identify whether this virus is also prone to mutations. For this reason we selected four major structural (Spike protein (S), Envelope protein (E), Membrane glycoprotein (M), Nucleocapsid phosphoprotein (N)) and ORF8 protein of 100 different SARS-CoV-2 isolates of fifteen countries from NCBI database and compared these to the reference sequence, Wuhan NC_045512.2, which was the first isolate of SARS-CoV-2 that was sequenced. By multiple sequence alignment of amino acids, we observed substitutions and deletion in S protein at 13 different sites in the isolates of five countries (China, USA, Finland, India and Australia) as compared to the reference sequence. Similarly, alignment of N protein revealed substitutions at three different sites in isolates of China, Spain and Japan. M protein exhibits substitution only in one isolates from USA, however, no mutation was observed in E protein of any isolate. Interestingly, in ORF8 substitution of Leucine, a nonpolar to Serine a polar amino acid at same position (aa84 L to S) in 23 isolates of five countries i.e. China, USA, Spain, Taiwan and India were observed, which may affect the conformation of peptides. Thus, we observed several mutations in the isolates thereafter the first sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolate, NC_045512.2, which suggested that this virus might be a threat to the whole world and therefore further studies are needed to characterize how these mutations in different proteins affect the functionality and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2.

Multitarget in silico studies of Ocimum menthiifolium, family Lamiaceae against SARS-CoV-2 supported by molecular dynamics simulation.

The novel strain of human coronavirus, emerged in December 2019, which has been designated as SARS-CoV-2, causes a severe acute respiratory syndrome. Since then, it has arisen as a serious threat to the world public health. Since no approved vaccines or drugs has been found to efficiently stop the virulent spread of the virus, progressive inquiries targeting these viruses are urgently needed, especially those from plant sources. Metabolic profiling using LC-HR-ESI-MS of the butanol extract of Ocimum menthiifolium (Lamiaceae) aerial parts yielded 10 compounds including flavonoids, iridoids and phenolics. As it has been previously reported that some flavonoids can be used as anti-SARS drugs by targeting SARS-CoV-1 3CLpro, we chose to examine 14 flavonoids (detected by metabolomics and other compounds isolated via several chromatographic techniques). We investigated their potential binding interactions with the 4 main SARS-CoV-2 targets: Mpro, nsp16/nsp10 complex, ACE2-PD and RBD-S-protein via molecular docking. Docking results indicated that the nsp16/nsp10 complex has the best binding affinities where the strongest binding was detected with apigenin-7-O-rutinoside, prunin and acaciin with -9.4, -9.3 and -9.3 kcal/mol binding energy, respectively, compared to the control (SAM) with -8.2 kcal/mol. Furthermore, the stability of these complexes was studied using molecular dynamics of 150 ns, which were then compared to their complexes in the other three targets. MM-PBSA calculations suggested the high stability of acaciin-nsp16 complex with binding energy of -110 kJ/mol. This study sheds light on the structure-based design of natural flavonoids as anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs targeting the nsp16/10 complex.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Mesenteric Artery Thrombosis, Microvascular Intestinal Endothelitiis, and Guillain-Barrè Syndrome in the Same SARS-CoV-2 Patient.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in humans is a novel disease that can affect every organ of the body, with life-threatening consequences. Microvascular lesions and thrombosis have been previously reported in the lung, kidney, and brain. We report a case of combined intestinal lesions and Guillain-Barrè Syndrome in a patient suffering from COVID-19 in the absence of clear laboratory predictors of upcoming complications. The patient survived the severe respiratory syndrome but died after virus-related systemic organ failure.