Proposed Convolution Architecture for Monkeypox Detection using Dermoscopy Images

Monkeypox is a skin disease that spreadsfrom animals to people and then people to people, the class of the monkeypox is zoonotic and its genus are othopoxvirus. There is no special treatment for monkeypox but the monkeypox and smallpox symptoms are almost similar, so the antiviral drug developed for prevent from smallpox virus may be used for monkeypox Infected person, the Prevention of monkeypox is just like COVID-19 proper hand wash, Smallpox vaccine, keep away from infected person, used PPE kits. In this paper Deep learning is use for detection of monkeypox with the help of CNN model, The Original Images contains a total number of 228 images, 102 belongs to the Monkeypox class and the remaining 126 represents the normal. But in deep learning greater amount of data required, data augmentation is also applied on it after this the total number of images are 3192. A variety of optimizers have been used to find out the best result in this paper, a comparison is usedbased on Loss, Accuracy, AUC, F1 score, Validation loss, Validation accuracy, validation AUC, Validation F1 score of each optimizer. after comparing alloptimizer, the Adam optimizer gives the best result its total testing accuracy is 92.21%, total number of epochs used for testing is 100. With the help of deep learning model Doctors are easily detect the monkeypox virus with the single image of infected person. © 2023 IEEE.

The Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on Female Patients Seeking or Undergoing Fertility Treatment in a Single In vitro Fertilisation Clinic in Greece: An International, Cross-sectional Study.

Background: The temporary delay in fertility treatments due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in combination with the imposed lockdowns, has created psychological distress and anxiety amongst infertile patients. Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate how the pandemic has influenced assisted reproduction technology (ART) patients in Greece, during the second wave of the pandemic. An additional aim was to examine the effects of the pandemic on cross-border patients in particular, compared to national ones. Settings and Design: This study was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study, distributed to 409 patients of a single in vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic in Greece, during the period between January until the end of April 2021. Materials and Methods: The survey was conducted online via E-mail and was distributed to national and international female patients of a single IVF clinic in Greece, who were undergoing ART treatment during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient participation was anonymous, and participants provided informed consent for collection and publication of data. Statistical Analysis Used: The mean values of baseline characteristics, along with answer percentages per questionnaire item, were calculated. Collected data were cross-tabulated, and the Chi-square test was used as a measurement of the differences between national and cross-border patients. A P value lower than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. All analyses were conducted using the SPSS Statistics software. Results: From 409 initial candidates, 106 women, with a mean age of 41.2 years, completed the questionnaire (26% response rate). The majority of national patients did not experience any delays in their fertility plans (62%), while cross-border patients experienced over 6 months of delays (54.7%). The main reason for fertility postponement was travel restrictions due to COVID-19 for cross-border patients (62.5%), while national patients cited additional reasons. The majority of patients experienced a degree of stress (65.2%) due to the delays, however were not fearful of COVID-19 infection (54.7%). Most patients were aware of the protective measures taken by IVF clinics (80.2%), and this was a determinant factor (71.7%) for their decision to restart their fertility treatment. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns had a significant emotional impact on patient receiving or undergoing ART treatment in Greece. This impact was more pronounced on cross-border patients. This highlights the need for continuation of ART care, with the appropriate protective measures, during the pandemic, as well as during similar times of crisis in the future.

Constructing a Learning Curve to Discuss the Medical Treatments and the Effect of Vaccination of COVID-19.

Acknowledging the extreme risk COVID-19 poses to humans, this paper attempted to analyze and compare case fatality rates, identify the existence of learning curves for COVID-19 medical treatments, and examine the impact of vaccination on fatality rate reduction. Confirmed cases and deaths were extracted from the "Daily Situation Report" provided by the World Health Organization. The results showed that low registration and low viral test rates resulted in low fatality rates, and the learning curve was significant for all countries except China. Treatment for COVID-19 can be improved through repeated experience. Vaccinations in the U.K. and U.S.A. are highly effective in reducing fatality rates, but not in other countries. The positive impact of vaccines may be attributed to higher vaccination rates. In addition to China, this study identified the existence of learning curves for the medical treatment of COVID-19 that can explain the effect of vaccination rates on fatalities.

An interpreter ranking index-based MCDM technique for COVID-19 treatments under a bipolar fuzzy environment

The entire world is currently fighting the severe and dangerous pandemic COVID-19, which is causing bodily suffering and mental distress due to the rapidly increasing number of infected patients and deaths worldwide. Many COVID-19 treatments are going on in India, and some treatments are under development for these patients. But, treatment selection for the COVID-19 patients is challenging in the present situation. Through the multi-criteria decision-making technique, they can select the COVID-19 treatments easily. Therefore, we have developed an MCDM technique to select COVID-19 treatments in India. This paper invented the value and ambiguity of bipolar fuzzy (BF) numbers. Additionally, some fundamental theorems and properties of BF-numbers are studied. A novel positive and negative interpreter ranking index of BF numbers has been introduced. In the present day, most human decision-making relies heavily on bipolar fuzzy information. Hence, we developed an MCDM technique with bipolar fuzzy details. A comprehensive range of human decisions for selecting COVID-19 treatments is based on positive and negative double-sided or bipolar judgemental thinking. To select COVID-19 treatments in India, we have applied the proposed MCDM technique with BTrF information. Moreover, to demonstrate the applicability of our proposed MCDM method, we have considered a numerical example with BF data. Finally, we give the comparison study to show the effectiveness of our proposed MCDM method with other existing decision-making methods.

Changing Trends in the Global Consumption of Treatments Used in Hospitalized Patients for COVID-19: A Time Series Multicentre Study.

AIM: To analyze trends in the prescription of COVID-19 treatments for hospitalized patients during the pandemic. METHODS: Multicenter, ecological, time-series study of aggregate data for all adult patients with COVID-19 treated in five acute-care hospitals in Barcelona, Spain, between March 2020 and May 2021. Trends in the monthly prevalence of drugs used against COVID-19 were analyzed by the Mantel-Haenszel test. RESULTS: The participating hospitals admitted 22,277 patients with COVID-19 during the study period, reporting an overall mortality of 10.8%. In the first months of the pandemic, lopinavir/ritonavir and hydroxychloroquine were the most frequently used antivirals, but these fell into disuse and were replaced by remdesivir in July 2020. By contrast, the trend in tocilizumab use varied, first peaking in April and May 2020, declining until January 2021, and showing a discrete upward trend thereafter. Regarding corticosteroid use, we observed a notable upward trend in the use of dexamethasone 6 mg per day from July 2020. Finally, there was a high prevalence of antibiotics use, especially azithromycin, in the first three months, but this decreased thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 evolved with the changing scientific evidence during the pandemic. Initially, multiple drugs were empirically used that subsequently could not demonstrate clinical benefit. In future pandemics, stakeholders should strive to promote the early implementation of adaptive randomized clinical trials.

Preparation of PLA-based SMS nonwoven composites and its applications in protective apparel

The global COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a huge demand for the protective nonwovens. However, the main raw material of nonwovens comes from petroleum, and the massive consumption of petroleum-based polymers brings great pressure to ecosystem. Therefore, it is significant to develop biodegradable protective barrier products. In this work, a polylactic-based composite (a tri-layer nonwovens composed of spunbond, meltblown and spunbond, SMS) was prepared and applied for protective apparel. The surface morphology and chemical changes of the fibers were characterized and analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The liquid contact angle and permeability, breathability and moisture permeability, frictional charge and mechanical strength of the samples were evaluated and compared. The samples degradability was also recorded. The results demonstrate that the optimum formula for anti-fouling treatment on SMS is F-30. The treated fabric possesses superior liquid repellency and anti-permeability, with contact angles of water and alcohol at 128° and 115° respectively, while the alcohol repellent grade reaches level 7. The treated sample has less strength loss but exhibits favorable breathability, moisture permeability and anti-static properties, which can meet the requirements of protective apparels. After fluorine resin coating, the composite still provide excellent degradation performance, and the weight loss rate reaches more than 80% after 10 days water degradation. These results provide new insights for the application of PLA-based SMS in biodegradable protective apparel. © 2023 The Textile Institute.

Prediction and Categorization Of COVID-19 Related Dermatological Manifestations Using Machine Learning

COVID-19 is global epidemic instigated because of 'severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 '. Fever, cough, tiredness, dyspnea, and hypogeusia/ hyposmia are all common signs. Dermatological indications have become more common in recent months among the extrapulmonary indicators associated with COVID-19. Our group proposed a taxonomy based on the polymorphic character of COVID-19-related cutaneous symptoms, which includes the following six primary clinical patterns:Urticarial rash, confluent erythematous/maculopapular/ morbilliform rash, papulovesicular exanthem, chilblain-like acral, livedo reticularis / racemosa-like, purpuric 'vasculitic' patterns. To offer an evaluation of possible pathophysiological routes of COVID19- related cutaneous symptoms, this research focuses upon that clinical features ampersand therapeutic treatment of every category. Machine learning algorithms such as SVM, RF, DT, KNN, LR, and NB are used in the analysis. © 2022 IEEE.

The Economics of Pandemics: Exploring Globally Shared Experiences

This book offers a lively account of the humanitarian, economic, societal, and planetwide impacts of the pandemics, the COVID-19 pandemic included, which are traced back to as early as the 14th century plague pandemic. Placing the pandemics along with other globally shared resources, such as global warming, AI singularity, and high-risk physics experiments, each of the nine chapters of the book discusses the global health crises from a variety of unique standpoints, including infectious diseases, economics, governance, and public health. Based on the historical records of past pandemics and the rich data from the COVID-19 pandemic, a conceptual framework is presented for the economics of pandemics as a globally shared experience. This book aims to critically examine salient features in the global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including global governance, lockdowns, radical movements, and mRNA vaccines. The book will be a valuable resource to students, researchers, and policymakers who are working in the fields of environmental economics, global-scale public goods, and health economics. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Impact of COVID-19 on Adherence to Treatment in Patients with HIV.

In patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), adherence to treatment is affected by the adverse effects of treatment, the presence of additional comorbidities, the complexity of dosage, and family and community support. However, one recent circumstance that was likely to have influenced therapeutic adherence was the COVID-19 pandemic and the applied containment measures. An observational retrospective study of a sample of patients with HIV was conducted to establish the relationship between sociodemographic, clinical, and pharmacological variables and therapeutic adherence before and after the pandemic. Adherence was measured using the validated simplified medication adherence questionnaire (SMAQ) and medication possession rate. A statistical analysis was performed to determine the mean, standard deviation, and median of the quantitative variables and the frequencies of the qualitative variables, and the relationship between the dependent and independent variables was analysed using the chi-squared test and Student's t-test. No statistically significant differences were found between treatment adherence measured before and 22 months after the start of the pandemic. Sex, occupation, treatment regimen, viral load levels, and COVID-19 disease status did not influence adherence during either period. However, the age of patients with HIV had an impact on adherence during both periods (p = 0.008 and p = 0.002, respectively), with the age group under 45 years being less adherent. In addition, experiencing adverse drug reactions (ADRs) was shown to have an impact on adherence before the pandemic (p = 0.006) but not afterwards. The COVID-19 pandemic was not shown to have an impact on the degree of adherence to antiretroviral treatment in patients with HIV. Instead, adherence was influenced by patient age and ADR occurrence; therefore, measures must be taken in this regard. The SMAQ demonstrated sensitivity in assessing adherence.

Profiles of Independent-Comorbidity Groups in Senior COVID-19 Patients Reveal Low Fatality Associated with Standard Care and Low-Dose Hydroxychloroquine over Antivirals.

Introduction: The lack of feasible therapies and comorbidities aggravate the COVID-19 case-fatality rate (CFR). However, reports examining CFR associations with diabetes, concomitant cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and chronic liver disease (CLD) are limited. More studies assessing hydroxychloroquine (Hcq) and antivirals are needed. Purpose: To examine associations of COVID-19 CFR in comorbid patient groups each with single comorbidities and after treatment with Hcq, favipiravir, and dexamethasone (Dex), either alone or in combination versus standard care. Methods: Using statistical analysis, we descriptively determined these associations among 750 COVID-19 patient groups during the last quarter of 2021. Results: A diabetes comorbidity (40%, n=299) showed twice the fatality (CFR 14%) of the others (CFR 7%; P=0.001). Hypertension (Htn) was the second-commonest comorbidity (29.5%, n=221), with similar CFR to diabetes (15% and 7% for Htn and non-Htn, respectively), but with higher significance (P=0.0006167). Although only 4% (n=30) heart failure (HF) was reported, the CFR (40%) was much higher than in those without it (8%). A similar rate (4%) for chronic kidney disease was reported, with CFRs of 33% and 9% among those with and without it, respectively (P=0.00048). Ischemic heart disease was 11% (n=74), followed by chronic liver disease (0.4%) and history of smoking (1%); however, these were not significant due to the sample sizes. Treatment indicated standard care and Hcq alone or in combination were superior (CFR of 4% and 0.5%, respectively) compared to favipiravir (25%) or Dex (38.5%) independently or in combination (35.4%). Furthermore, Hcq performed well (CFR 9%) when combined with Dex (9%; P=4.28-26). Conclusion: The dominance of diabetes and other comorbidities with significant association with CFR implied existence of a common virulence mechanism. The superiority of low-dose Hcq and standard care over antivirals warrants further studies.

Impact of COVID-19 on Infertility Treatments: Not Even a Global Pandemic Was Strong Enough to Hamper Successful Pregnancies.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has meant a sanitary and social threat at every level and it was not any different for the assisted reproduction industry. This retrospective two-arm study aims to describe its impact on infertility treatments performed in our clinics (IVI Spain, Rome, and Lisbon) regarding: (1) assessment of COVID-19 impact in the amount, type, and success of infertility treatments performed during 2020 compared to 2019; and (2) description of the psychological status of women who got pregnant during the first months of the pandemic and its correlation with their final pregnancy outcome. On the one hand, this pandemic has led to a significant reduction in the total number of treatments performed, even though the proportion of the different types was almost unaltered. Additionally, its impact on pregnancy rates was not clinically relevant. On the other hand, the psychological status of pregnant women did not seem to affect their final pregnancy outcome. These results suggest that, even in the event of a negatively affected psychological status in our study population, it was not translated into an impaired pregnancy outcome. Hence, the COVID-19 global pandemic, although devastating, might not have exerted a clinically relevant negative impact on the overall pregnancy outcome in our clinics.

Emotions, thoughts, and coping strategies of women with infertility problems on changes in treatment during Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

This study assesses the emotions, thoughts, and coping strategies of women with infertility problems associated with the changes in treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic using Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. This qualitative study was based on two Internet forums between October-December 2020, and the comments of 30 women. Four themes were assessed: psychological changes, cognitive changes, changes in social life, and coping strategies. Women reported that the closure of fertility clinics negatively impacted their lives. They experienced despair, uncertainty, disappointment, anger, sadness, and exhaustion from waiting. The expressions of women about coping strategies mostly include emotion-based coping strategies. This study illustrated the importance of using qualitative methods to describe and specify stress and coping strategies in women whose infertility treatment was delayed. It is believed that approaches based on Lazarus and Folkman's model could help healthcare professionals to determine potential stressors for women with infertility during the pandemic, and to identify areas that required improved personal coping strategies.

Experience of Students in Using Online Mental Health Interventions: A Qualitative Study

Online mental health interventions have been posited as a way to reduce the mental health treatment gap among students in higher education. The effectiveness of these interventions is often limited by low user adherence. A potential solution is to improve user adherence by producing user-centred interventions. A total of 452 students from University College Cork, Ireland participated in the survey, "Tell us About Your Mental Health Post-COVID-19”. The survey examined students' mental health over the past year, their use of technological supports, their use of mental health support services and their ratings of mental health support services used. This study explores students' experiences with technological support. The thematic analysis of 138 open-ended responses produced seven main themes: 1) Appeal 2) Barriers to Use 3) Discovery 4) Drawbacks 5) Purpose 6) Reasons for Stopping and 7) Usage Patterns. The results of this study revealed students' openness to using online mental health resources. It also revealed the barriers and facilitators to their use of these resources. Finally, based on our findings, we provide recommendations to researchers/designers developing online mental health interventions for university students. Some of these recommendations were to ensure safety in online communities, provide good user interfaces, support students in crises and improve the accessibility of online resources to students with learning disabilities. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Computational study of 2D photonic crystal based biosensor for SARS-COV-2 detection

A computational study to design a 2D-photonic crystal (PC) structure with a fluorescence-based biosensor has been demonstrated for the detection of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-COV-2) virus in the lungs. The proposed sensor can detect the different concentrations of the virus without any pretreatment of the sample. The virus detection is performed by measuring the mid-gap wavelength from the dispersion diagram and a redshift in the mid-gap wavelength has been observed as the concentration of virus increases in the lung tissue. The plane wave expansion method is used to determine the dispersion diagram of the proposed PC. The interaction of incident light with the proposed PC-based biosensor has been analyzed to evaluate the shift in the mid-gap wavelength. A maximum sensitivity of about 1459.3 nm/RIU is obtained for r/a = 0.45 with a mid-gap wavelength shift of 145.93 nm at n net = 1.49 concentration of SARS-COV-2. Moreover, a very small detection time has been observed with the proposed device as compared to conventional methods. This study provides a simple process to detect the presence of a virus within a short period and could be helpful in the development of a direct and easy-to-use portable detection kit in the future. © 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Cytokines in Innate Immunity

The IL-1 family: Members of the IL-1 family of cytokines are similar in structure and function. The functions include agonistic (pro-inflammatory) and antagonistic (anti-inflammatory) activities. The IL-1 family of cytokines can signal damage of tissue integrity, distress, and danger to the organism, ultimately alarming innate and adaptive immunity to fight pathogens. TNF and LT: TNF and LT are trimeric proteins belonging to a structurally related TNF superfamily of cytokines. They are pleiotropic cytokines capable of signaling an array of pro- and anti-inflammatory activities. TNF-α has soluble (sTNF) and membrane (mTNF) forms. Both forms can bind to two TNF receptors (TNF-R1 and TNF-R2), but mTNF can alter the structure of the TNF-R2 such that it binds to sTNF with a lower affinity. Thus, sTNF primarily binds to TNF-R1 and plays an important role in the inflammatory immune response, whereas mTNF-α interacts preferentially with TNF-R2 and promotes cellular proliferation and survival and some other biological effects. IL-6: The IL-6 family of cytokines is structurally characterized by four α-helical bundle structure that signals via the JAK-STAT pathway. IL-6 has a major role in innate and adaptive immunity. IL-6 classic signaling is implicated in acute-phase responses, whereas IL-6 trans-signaling (and trans-presentation/cluster-signaling) characteristically initiates pro-inflammatory pathways with a major impact on adaptive immunity, including plasma cell development and antibody production, and T-cell helper 17 response. Interferons: Interferons are classified into three types. Type I (IFN-α, −β) and type III (IFN-λ) are strong antivirals that can stimulate both innate and adaptive immune responses. Type II interferon (IFN-γ) has a weak antiviral ability, as its major role is in regulating adaptive immunity, particularly in Th1 responses. Cytokine storm and COVID-19: Cytokine storm is a hyperinflammatory state due to overactivity of major pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1, IL-6, and TNF. It is a major obstacle for the treatment of severe COVID-19. IL-6 is a potential biomarker for the severity of the disease. Anti-IL-6R (tocilizumab) and anti-virotic "remdesivir” are promising treatments of severe disease. Prevention measures are in place with many auspicious novel vaccines. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Immune-Modulating Treatments for Dermatological Diseases on the Risk of Infection with SARS-CoV-2 and Outcomes Associated with COVID-19 Illness.

Purpose of Review: Immune-modulating treatments are used in dermatology for a variety of conditions. The authors aim to review the data regarding the safety of these treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the outcomes associated with COVID-19-related illness. Recent Findings: Several large-scale studies found no increased risk of COVID-19 infection for patients on TNF-α inhibitors, IL-17 inhibitors, IL-12/23 inhibitors, IL-23 inhibitors, dupilumab, and methotrexate. They also found that these patients did not have worse outcomes when infected with COVID-19. The data regarding JAK inhibitors, rituximab, prednisone, cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and azathioprine are more mixed. Summary: Based on current research and guidelines from the American Academy of Dermatology and the National Psoriasis Foundation, dermatology patients on immune-modulating therapies can continue treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic when they are not infected with SARS-CoV-2. For patients who have COVID-19, guidelines encourage individualized assessment of the benefits and risks of continuing or temporarily withholding treatment.