Artificial Intelligence-based Speech Signal for COVID-19 Diagnostics

The speech signal has numerous features that represent the characteristics of a specific language and recognize emotions. It also contains information that can be used to identify the mental, psychological, and physical states of the speaker. Recently, the acoustic analysis of speech signals offers a practical, automated, and scalable method for medical diagnosis and monitoring symptoms of many diseases. In this paper, we explore the deep acoustic features from confirmed positive and negative cases of COVID-19 and compare the performance of the acoustic features and COVID-19 symptoms in terms of their ability to diagnose COVID-19. The proposed methodology consists of the pre-trained Visual Geometry Group (VGG-16) model based on Mel spectrogram images to extract deep audio features. In addition to the K-means algorithm that determines effective features, followed by a Genetic Algorithm-Support Vector Machine (GA-SVM) classifier to classify cases. The experimental findings indicate the proposed methodology's capability to classify COVID-19 and NOT COVID-19 from acoustic features compared to COVID-19 symptoms, achieving an accuracy of 97%. The experimental results show that the proposed method remarkably improves the accuracy of COVID-19 detection over the handcrafted features used in previous studies. © 2022 ACM.

Psychological State and Subjective Environmental Perception of College Students Residing in Dormitories during Quarantine: A Case Study

Quarantine is one of the effective approaches to control the spread of COVID-19. However, prolonged isolation may harm the health of residents, especially students, who are quarantined in dormitories. This study surveyed students' behaviors, living environment, and psychological state through an online questionnaire. The results showed that during the isolation period, the participants' discomfort mainly came from high temperatures, high humidity, loud sounds, and dark lighting. Moreover, about half of the students experienced severe anxiety or depression, with poor sleep and an unclear mind being the most common problems. Additionally, this study focused on exploring the correlations between environmental perceptions and the psychological state of isolated students, that were identified to be significant. Furthermore, as isolation time was prolonged, the psychological state of isolated students worsened, and the most significant factor changed from thermal sensations to acoustic sensations. Interestingly, the psychological state of males was worse than females, and they were more easily affected by their thermal and acoustic environments. Therefore, keeping the environment comfortable has a positive influence on maintaining the good psychological condition of people in isolation. This study can provide suggestions for the improvement of indoor environments and for the mental health of people in isolation and in other similar situations.

Empirical Analysis of Psychological Well-Being of Students During the Pandemic with Rebooted Remote Learning Mode

The direct and indirect mental health stressors, especially associated with the "tele-burden of pandemic” added due to the adoption of the remote learning paradigm, have led to increased online fatigue, distress, and burnout. This research aims to comprehend the perception of psychological distress experienced by Indian students placed in the new online learning setting. Subsequently, the observed symptomatology is used to predict the student's susceptibility toward developing specific psychological challenges. Primarily, a phenomenological study is conducted on 732 student participants to understand their psychological well-being during this ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Subsequently, machine learning is used to train a model with learned features from the data extracted to detect six psychological states, amusement, neutral, low stress, high stress, depression, and anxiety. Two supervised machine learning algorithms, namely random forest and artificial neural network, are used to perform the predictive analytics of psychological well-being. Experimental evaluation reports a classification accuracy of 90.4% for the random forest and 89.15% for the neural network. The qualitative research findings help foster the need to look for coping strategies involving counselors and psychologists to decrease the risk of psychological distress and preserve students' psychological health and well-being in the current setting. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Impact of quarantine on lifestyle and psychological state of people during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess impact of quarantine on lifestyle behavior and the psychological state of persons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study Design: This study was a cross-sectional study. Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 216 persons quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic at home or in selected facilities set up by various tertiary care hospitals and administrative authorities in various parts of India. The questionnaire was distributed among participants using electronic media. Psychological state during quarantine was assessed using the DASS 21 questionnaire. Results: Out of 57.4% of responders who gave a history of physical exercise before quarantine, 52.7% reported a reduction in physical activity. 18.5% of study participants brought about dietary changes towards healthy diet during quarantine, while 24.5% took up some new activities or hobbies. 62.9% of respondents reported any degree of psychological stress (depression, stress, or anxiety) during the quarantine. Conclusions: Quarantine impacted psychological state of individuals and brought about changes in lifestyle with both positive attributes such as dietary modification toward healthy diet or negative attributes such as reduction in physical activity. IEC activities have a positive impact in terms of reducing negative attributes and increasing the compliance toward quarantine. © 2022 Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.

Relationship Analysis between Psychological State of College Students and Epidemic Situation Based on Big Data Mining

COVID-19 is a sudden and highly contagious infectious disease, which has a very bad impact on the psychology of college students in early adulthood. In order to grasp the psychological state of college students in real-time, this work studies the psychological state of college students during COVID-19. First, this study introduces the relevant theories of data mining, and the research object and method are determined. Then, the features of the model are analyzed and constructed from two aspects which are static features and dynamic features, and the characteristics related to the psychological state are excavated. Finally, the GA is selected to build the model and the model is evaluated;the results show that the model can accurately predict the psychological state of students during COVID-19. © 2022 Jian Xiang and Yanjun Zhang.

Revision of the child and adolescent COVID-19 stressors scale and Big Data-Based Analysis of Disparities in Urban and Rural Areas

The COVID-19 pandemic imposes a tremendous burden upon society. Several studies have documented stressors and fears of COVID-19 for adult populations, but few studies pay attention to the COVID-19 stressors on children and adolescents. Assessing the stressors of COVID-19 on children and adolescents can provide the basis for interventions to bring children and adolescents' mental health "out of the shadows."Entering the Era of "Big Data,"the psychological state can be assessed through integrative analysis of data. This study adopted a whole-group sampling method. After a new round of the COVID-19 epidemic caused by imported cases in Jiangsu and Fujian provinces of China, self-report questionnaires were sent to children and adolescents aged 10-18 years. 1815 valid questionnaires were collected. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and AMOS software (version 26). To revise and test the reliability and validity of the COVID-19 stressors scale for children and adolescents, as well as to investigate the differences in stressors between rural and urban based on Big-Data Mining. The results of this study indicate that the revised COVID-19 stressors scale, which includes a four-factor model of disease stressors, information stressors, measure stressors, and environmental stressors, has good reliability and validity for children and adolescents aged 10-18 years in a Chinese context. Big data-based demographic analysis showed that children and adolescents living in urban areas were generally less stressed about the COVID-19 epidemic than in rural areas. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Real Time Smart Music Player Using Facial Expression

According to the World Happiness Report 2021, created by the World Happiness Council, it has ranked 140 countries based on how satisfied their citizens are. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, they observed there was large decline in mental health because of unemployment and decrease inperson gatherings resulting in a decrease in the happiness index of countries. Therefore, in this work we targeted to improve the emotional state of the person and make him happy, by recognizing the persons emotion and plays corresponding music will help user in changing their mood. Music's magical power has been scientifically established and people enjoy listening to music that reflects their emotional feelings, it is a stress-relieving tool and has the ability to control a wide range of psychological states. We used Viola Jones algorithm, Data augmentation and CoAtNet algorithm to detect the emotion of a person. A high accuracy is achieved with proposed CoAtNet model when compared to other methods like Conventional CNN, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and SVM etc. We have also deployed the model on the STM32H747I Board. © 2022 IEEE.

Awareness, Psychological State, and Coping Skills among the Frontline Doctors during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Frontline doctors managing the current novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic work under stressful conditions due to change in workload, working pattern, and worries about the infection to themselves and families with frequently changing treatment protocols. Their psychological well-being is necessary for the effective management of the health crisis. Objectives This study aims to assess the psychological state and worries of frontline doctors while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the various coping skills employed by them for maintaining their mental health, and the knowledge about illness and related myths and misinformation among them. A further objective is to compare the above between two groups of frontline doctors: the consultants and the junior residents (JR) working in the hospital. Materials and Methods A total of 164 participants (76 consultants and 88 JRs) were cross-sectionally evaluated online using a prevalidated questionnaire within a period of 3 months after obtaining institutional ethics approval Statistical Analysis The study sample and results were described using descriptive analysis. The association between the categorical variables was measured using chi-squared test. Results Most participants frequently updated themselves through reliable sources (consultants = 92%, JR = 73.9%) predominantly from the hospital task force and university. Overall, 71% of consultants and 58% of JRs were worried about being infected. JRs were significantly more worried about the spread of infection due to faulty sterilization of the protective equipment as compared to the consultants ( p = 0.031). Most participants were worried about their families getting infected (consultants = 79%, JR =89.8%). Both consultants (18.4%) and JRs (35.2%) had sleep disturbances. Although most did not have syndromal depressive features and COVID-19-related anxiety, tiredness (45.1%) and worrying too much (47.5%) were the most common psychological symptoms. Almost all participants (consultants = 76.3%, JR = 80.7%) used multiple coping styles, such as avoiding thinking about COVID-19, listening to music, and physical activities. Conclusion Frontline doctors overall reported higher worries regarding their family being infected and protective equipment-related issues, whereas they had less core depressive and anxiety symptoms. They had adequate COVID-19-related awareness and used multiple coping skills.

PSYCHOLOGICAL NATURE OF THE IMPACT OF PANDEMIC ON THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF THE POPULATION IN AZERBAIJAN

The objective of this investigation is to assess the emotional state of the population in Azerbaijan during the pandemic, as well as the psychological impact of the spread of Covid 19 virus on the population. To accomplish this a survey was conducted where 600 respondents participated. Our research has shown that the pandemic has not passed without an impact on the psychological state of Azerbaijani population. The level and degree of expression of this anxiety varies depending on age, gender and social status. Examining the relationship between the 21-character variable "emotional state" and age, gender, who to live with, employment, risk group, and coronavirus risk variables also show that there is a strong relationship between anxiety and age groups. The emotional state is worse in single respondents, but in large families where there are parents and children as well as grandparents, the emotional state and anxiety is lower. The higher the risk group is, the emotional distress is higher as well. Positive emotions were weak in respondents who "infected" or recovered from Covid19 among themselves, their family or kith's. The analysis of the results shows that while health fears are related to age, the fear of worsening of economic fear is more related to gender variable.

Which athletes are more vulnerable to mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 crisis? A cross-sectional study.

The present study evaluated the mental health (MH) of athletes according to a range of variables, including SARS-CoV-2 infection status and sport-specific factors. An online survey was sent to 1636 Turkish professional athletes incorporating standardized scales assessing athlete-specific stress, depression, and anxiety. A total of 579 professional athletes (29% SARS-CoV-2 positive) participated in the study. While female athletes reported higher anxiety scores than males (p < 0.01), the depression scores of the athletes who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 were significantly higher than athletes who were not infected (p = 0.03). Higher athlete-specific stress, depression, and anxiety scores were associated with participating in an individual sport, experiencing chronic pain, severe sports injury history, and performance concerns (all p < 0.01). MH symptoms in athletes were associated with being infected with SARS-CoV-2, female gender, participating in an individual sport, and performance concerns. MH assessments should be undertaken with athletes to detect vulnerabilities and enable appropriate and timely MH interventions.

Research of the Changes in the Psychological Status of Chinese University Students and the Influencing Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Psychological dynamics of college students have changed during the COVID-19 outbreak but little research has been done in this area. The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic changes in the mental health status of college students since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic 1 year and the influencing factors. Methods: The research period was from February 2020 to August 2021. 384 college students were analyzed three times during this period on the recognition and psychological state of the pandemic. Results: During the period from February 2020 to August 2021, in general, the positive scores rose from 20.79 to 23.46, while the negative scores dropped from 17.41 to 14.00. The regression analysis results on the influencing factors showed the degree of recognition of the pandemic is all significant in the three phases (p < 0.05). Conclusion: With the effective control of the pandemic, the mental state of the students showed a slight improvement in the environment of sporadic cases. Behavior has a partial mediating effect between the source of fear and psychological changes. Correct behavior guidance can effectively reduce the psychological changes caused by college students' fear.

Retention and support strategies for university students during COVID-19 pandemic

The covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc throughout society worldwide. The education sector, concerned about encouraging students to continue their studies, has proposed alternative actions to encourage retention, reduce dropout and motivate students and their families. This study presents an analysis of the strategies implemented in a higher education institution in the state of Puebla-Mexico to retain students and favor the emotional and psychological state that allows them to continue with their university studies. It was found that the implementation of solidarity supports such as discounts, scholarships, and the follow-up program (PASE) have contributed favorably to the retention of students and their emotional and psychological health. © 2022 IEEE.

Emotion Bubbles: Emotional Composition of Online Discourse Before and After the COVID-19 Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the single most important global agenda in the past two years. In addition to its health and economic impacts, it has affected people's psychological states, including a rise in depression and domestic violence. We traced how the overall emotional states of individual Twitter users changed before and after the pandemic. Our data, including more than 9 million tweets posted by 9,493 users, suggest that the threat posed by the virus did not upset the emotional equilibrium of social media. In early 2020, COVID-related tweets skyrocketed in number and were filled with negative emotions;however, this emotional outburst was short-lived. We found that users who had expressed positive emotions in the pre-COVID period remained positive after the initial outbreak, while the opposite was true for those who regularly expressed negative emotions. Individuals achieved such emotional consistency by selectively focusing on emotion-reinforcing topics. The implications are discussed in light of an emotionally motivated confirmation bias, which we conceptualize as emotion bubbles that demonstrate the public's resilience to a global health risk. © 2022 ACM.

The state and dynamics of the russian mass consciousness and behavioral practices under the covid-19 pandemic

The expansion of the covid-19 has created a new pandemic social reality. In fact, for the first time in modern history, mankind faces a global crisis determined not by geopolitical or economic challenges but by a disease which spreads in most countries and all continents as a pandemic, which affects the current social-economic processes and development forecasts, reveals and intensifies the most acute social problems, and significantly transformed the functioning of the contemporary society. The pandemic was a complete surprise for the world and national communities — a surprise not so much medical or epidemiological as social. Already at the beginning of the pandemic, there was an opposition of two approaches to its probable social consequences. Some experts believed that it would change the society radically and irreversibly, would transform social institutions and change everyday life, and “the world will never be the same”. Others argued that the new social practices would not affect the deepest foundations of the established social order which would be later restored in its pre-coronavirus form [10]. However, it is obvious that the global and extraordinary social upheavals caused by the pandemic would have large-scale social consequences that need to be described and analyzed, in particular the impact of the coronavirus on the most important spheres and aspects of life as assessed by the people. The article is based on the results of the all-Russian sociological study and presents a comprehensive analysis of the Russian life under the pandemic. The authors provide data on the dynamics of material and social situation of Russians, explain the impact of the pandemic on the social-psychological well-being, public mentality and spiritual atmosphere. The authors pay particular attention to the behavioral practices of different groups of the Russian population according to their adaptation to new social-economic conditions, preservation and development of human potential, and view of the country’s future. © 2021, RUDN UNiversity. All rights reserved.

Competing against COVID-19: what about the mental health problems of athletes with disabilities?

OBJECTIVES: Although there is growing interest in athletes' mental health (MH), there is a paucity of research exploring MH in athletes with disabilities (AWD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological state of AWD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online survey including demographic questions, SARS-CoV-2-related questions, and standardized scales assessing depression, anxiety, stress, coronavirus anxiety (CAS), and nonspecific psychological distress was distributed to AWD. RESULTS: A total of 362 athletes (183 AWD) participated in the study (response rate 31.2%). AWD infected with SARS-CoV-2 reported higher depression, anxiety, and CAS scores than AWD not infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Z = -2.10, ES = 0.15 Z = -3.45, ES = 0.25; Z = -2.43, ES = 0.18; respectively). Female AWD reported higher anxiety scores compared to males (Z = -2.25, ES = 0.16). Depression (Z = -2.80, ES = 0.20), stress (Z = -2.12, ES = 0.15) and K-10 (Z = -2.02, ES = 0.14 scores of individual sport AWD were higher than team sports AWD. CONCLUSION: MH problems in AWD were associated with a wide range of variables such as being infected with SARS-CoV-2, female gender, competing in an individual sport, and having performance concerns. In light of these results, MH assessment should be undertaken for AWD to ensure appropriate and timely intervention.

Children and Adolescents' Psychological Well-Being Became Worse in Heavily Hit Chinese Provinces during the COVID-19 Epidemic.

In light of the novel coronavirus's (COVID-19's) threat to public health worldwide, we sought to elucidate COVID-19's impacts on the mental health of children and adolescents in China. Through online self-report questionnaires, we aimed to discover the psychological effects of the pandemic and its associated risk factors for developing mental health symptoms in young people. We disseminated a mental health survey through online social media, WeChat, and QQ in the five Chinese provinces with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 during the late stage of the country-wide lockdown. We used a self-made questionnaire that queried children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 on demographic information, psychological status, and other lifestyle and COVID-related variables. A total of 17,740 children and adolescents with valid survey data participated in the study. 10,022 (56.5%), 11,611 (65.5%), 10,697 (60.3%), 6868 (38.7%), and 6225 (35.1%) participants presented, respectively, more depressive, anxious, compulsive, inattentive, and sleep-related problems compared to before the outbreak of COVID-19. High school students reported a greater change in depression and anxiety than did middle school and primary school students. Despite the fact that very few children (0.1%) or their family members (0.1%) contracted the virus in this study, the psychological impact of the pandemic was clearly profound. Fathers' anxiety appeared to have the strongest influence on a children's psychological symptoms, explaining about 33% of variation in the child's overall symptoms. Other factors only explained less than 2% of the variance in symptoms once parents' anxiety was accounted for. The spread of COVID-19 significantly influenced the psychological state of children and adolescents in participants' view. It is clear that children and adolescents, particularly older adolescents, need mental health support during the pandemic. The risk factors we uncovered suggest that reducing fathers' anxiety is particularly critical to addressing young people's mental health disorders in this time.

Response to COVID-19 in social welfare facilities and the psychological state of social workers in South Korea: The mediating role of satisfaction with government.

This paper investigated associations between COVID-19 responses in social welfare facilities and the psychological state of social workers together with the potential mediating role of satisfaction with the government. During the COVID-19 pandemic, following government guidelines, social workers have continued to provide social services to the vulnerable groups. However, no research has been conducted focusing on their psychological state. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in Incheon Metropolitan City, South Korea. Data from 332 participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Supplementary in-depth interviews were conducted with social workers. Analysis results show that higher levels of preventive measures against COVID-19 directly worsen levels of well-being, but this negative effect is offset by the satisfaction with the government (ß = .383, p < .001). In social workers, satisfaction with the government fully mediates the influence of preventive measures toward reduced negative emotionality (ß = -.288, p < .001). The implications of this study suggest that the government's active response to the social welfare sector is important to alleviate the negative psychological consequences of social workers.

Psychological States and Training Habits during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown in Spanish Basketball Athletes.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions designed to slow the spread of infection greatly disrupted people's lives. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of lockdown on the psychology, training, and sleep habits of a cohort of basketball players. An online survey involving 169 professional and amateur athletes was conducted using four validated psychological questionnaires (WLEIS-S, POMS, BRS, SMS-II) and a Likert scale to measure the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and training variables. Gender differences in fatigue (p = 0.022); friendships (p = 0.017); others' emotional appraisal (p < 0.001); and resilience (p = 0.031) were apparent, with higher values for women in all categories bar resilience. Comparisons before and during the lockdown revealed that all participants reduced their RPE (p < 0.001); training days (p = 0.004); and training hours (p < 0.001), and experienced a decline in the quality of sleep (p < 0.001). Sleep hours (p < 0.001) increased during lockdown. The professionals and females maintained their training days (p > 0.05), while the non-professionals and males did not. Psychological states during lockdown were a predictor of the differences in training and recovery variables. In situations where training and competition are limited, it is important to develop plans to maintain physical activity, good quality sleep, and promote greater emotional management and understanding to control negative moods.

COVID-19 Scientific Facts vs. Conspiracy Theories: Is Science Failing to Pass Its Message?

Science may be failing to convince a significant number of people about COVID-19 scientific facts and needed public health measures. Individual and social factors are behind believing conspiracy theories. Adults (N = 1001) were asked to rate their beliefs in various conspiracy theories circulating in social media, rate their psychological distress relating to COVID-19, rate their trust in science to solve COVID-19 problems, and rate their willingness to adhere to measures regarding social distancing and quarantine. The findings showed conspiracy theories are widely believed and related to lower age, lower education, living in less densely populated areas, and lower income. Stronger conspiracy theory beliefs predicted science mistrust and unwillingness to adhere to public health measures. Psychological state was a strong predictor of conspiracy beliefs. Recommendations, stemming from the findings, for reducing such beliefs and better serving public health are discussed.

The psychological impact of COVID-19 infection on athletes: example of professional male football players.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychological state of professional male football players who were infected by COVID-19.Method: The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21 and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale were sent to players' smartphones by sharing a link to the questionnaire. A total of 523 professional football players aged between 18-38 years from 93 different sports clubs participated in the study. The players were divided into 2 groups according to Sars-COV-2 PCR test results.Results: Depression, anxiety, stress, and psychological distress scores of football players who were infected by COVID-19 were higher compared to players who were not infected by COVID-19 (all p < 0.001). Depression, stress, and psychological distress scores were higher for football players with higher loss of income than players with lower loss of income (p = 0.017, p = 0.007, p = 0.005, respectively). There were significant differences in anxiety, depression, and psychological distress scores in favor of the 18-22-year age group (p = 0.002, p = 0.009, p = 0.004, respectively).Conclusion: COVID-19 infection negatively affects the psychological states of football players. The psychological states of professional football players who were infected by COVID-19 should be monitored closely and psychological support should be provided.