A cohort study of post-COVID-19 condition across the Beta, Delta, and Omicron waves in South Africa: 6-month follow-up of hospitalized and nonhospitalized participants.

OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to describe the prevalence of and risk factors for post-COVID-19 condition (PCC). METHODS: This was a prospective, longitudinal observational cohort study. Hospitalized and nonhospitalized adults were randomly selected to undergo telephone assessment at 1, 3, and 6 months. Participants were assessed using a standardized questionnaire for the evaluation of symptoms and health-related quality of life. We used negative binomial regression models to determine factors associated with the presence of ≥1 symptoms at 6 months. RESULTS: A total of 46.7% of hospitalized and 18.5% of nonhospitalized participants experienced ≥1 symptoms at 6 months (P ≤0.001). Among hospitalized people living with HIV, 40.4% had persistent symptoms compared with 47.1% among participants without HIV (P = 0.108). The risk factors for PCC included older age, female sex, non-Black race, presence of a comorbidity, greater number of acute COVID-19 symptoms, hospitalization/COVID-19 severity, and wave period (lower risk of persistent symptoms for the Omicron compared with the Beta wave). There were no associations between self-reported vaccination status with persistent symptoms. CONCLUSION: The study revealed a high prevalence of persistent symptoms among South African participants at 6 months but decreased risk for PCC among participants infected during the Omicron BA.1 wave. These findings have serious implications for countries with resource-constrained health care systems.

Non-Pharmacological Therapies for Post-Viral Syndromes, Including Long COVID: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Post-viral syndromes (PVS), including Long COVID, are symptoms sustained from weeks to years following an acute viral infection. Non-pharmacological treatments for these symptoms are poorly understood. This review summarises the evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for PVS. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for PVS, as compared to either standard care, alternative non-pharmacological therapy, or placebo. The outcomes of interest were changes in symptoms, exercise capacity, quality of life (including mental health and wellbeing), and work capability. We searched five databases (Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, MedRxiv) for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between 1 January 2001 to 29 October 2021. The relevant outcome data were extracted, the study quality was appraised using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and the findings were synthesised narratively. FINDINGS: Overall, five studies of five different interventions (Pilates, music therapy, telerehabilitation, resistance exercise, neuromodulation) met the inclusion criteria. Aside from music-based intervention, all other selected interventions demonstrated some support in the management of PVS in some patients. INTERPRETATION: In this study, we observed a lack of robust evidence evaluating the non-pharmacological treatments for PVS, including Long COVID. Considering the prevalence of prolonged symptoms following acute viral infections, there is an urgent need for clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for patients with PVS. REGISTRATION: The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO [CRD42021282074] in October 2021 and published in BMJ Open in 2022.

To introduce or not? Strategic analysis of hospital operations with telemedicine

Despite its efficiency in reducing the impact of pandemics (e.g., the COVID-19), whether to introduce telemedicine as an additional way to serve chronically ill patients remains controversial for hospitals in many countries. This paper builds a stylized model to investigate a hospital's telemedicine strategy and the corresponding impacts on its operations regarding outpatient management of chronic diseases. We implement our analysis from three key concerns of the hospital in the presence of a pandemic: the differences in medical consumption and reimbursement between in-person and telemedicine modalities and the effort cost of infection reduction resulting from the pandemic. We find that in the absence of the pandemic, the hospital prefers to introduce telemedicine when the differences in medical consumption and reimbursement are both small. In the presence of the pandemic, we find that the introduction of telemedicine does not always benefit the hospital and that it is better not to introduce telemedicine in some cases since it may exacerbate the negative influence of the pandemic on the hospital's total costs. Furthermore, we surprisingly find that the hospital may set greater in-person capacity but less telemedicine capacity in response to the outbreak of the pandemic under certain conditions, which contradicts public beliefs. Finally, we show that social welfare can be improved by introducing telemedicine when the effort cost of infection reduction and the difference in reimbursement are both of moderate size. The condition under which social welfare is improved tightens with a greater difference in medical consumption. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

The First Domestic Original Drug for the Treatment of COVID-19: Azvudine

OBJECTIVE To summarize the basic information, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, interactions, and precautions of azvudine, to provide references for its clinical use. METHODS Literatures related to azvudine from the official website of Chinese clinical trial regi stry, clinicaltrials.gov, Pubmed, CNKI and Wanfang were systematically searched and summarized. RESULTS Azvudine is an oral small-molecule corona virus disease(COVID-19) treatment drug independently developed by China. As a nucleoside analogue targeting to viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRp), it can inhibit RNA virus reverse transcription process and replication process. The results of phase III clinical trials showed that azvudine could significantly shorten the time of nucleic acid conversion in patients with mild to moderate corona virus disease (COVID-19). Compared with the control group, the azvudine group can significantly shorten the improvement time of pneumonia. For moderate and severe patients, azvudine treatment also showed significant therapeutic effects in the time of nucleic acid conversion, discharge, and rehabilitation. CONCLUSION The drug possesses good safety and tolerability in patients, which provide a choice for the clinical treatment of COVID-19.

Global asymptotic stability, extinction and ergodic stationary distribution in a stochastic model for dual variants of SARS-CoV-2

Several mathematical models have been developed to investigate the dynamics SARS-CoV-2 and its different variants. Most of the multi-strain SARS-CoV-2 models do not capture an important and more realistic feature of such models known as randomness. As the dynamical behavior of most epidemics, especially SARS-CoV-2, is unarguably influenced by several random factors, it is appropriate to consider a stochastic vaccination co-infection model for two strains of SARS-CoV-2. In this work, a new stochastic model for two variants of SARS-CoV-2 is presented. The conditions of existence and the uniqueness of a unique global solution of the stochastic model are derived. Constructing an appropriate Lyapunov function, the conditions for the stochastic system to fluctuate around endemic equilibrium of the deterministic system are derived. Stationary distribution and ergodicity for the new co-infection model are also studied. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate theoretical results. It is observed that when the white noise intensities are larger than certain thresholds and the associated stochastic reproduction numbers are less than unity, both strains die out and go into extinction with unit probability. More-over, it is observed that, for weak white noise intensities, the solution of the stochastic system fluctuates around the endemic equilibrium (EE) of the deterministic model. Frequency distributions are also studied to show random fluctuations due to stochastic white noise intensities. The results presented herein also reveal the impact of vaccination in reducing the co-circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants within a given population. © 2022 International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (IMACS)

Assessment of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia health commodities' supply chains in selected hospitals of Lagos State during COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (PE/E) are rising in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the availability and logistics management of sixteen items from the Nigerian essential medicine list required for managing these conditions. Design/Methodology/approach: A cross-sectional study in 50 health-care facilities in Lagos State, Nigeria, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by interviewing the facility's main person in charge of health commodities. Data were recorded during the visit and in the previous six months using the adapted Logistics Indicators Assessment Tool (LIAT). In addition, descriptive analysis was conducted based on the World Health Organization availability index. Findings: The availability of 13 (81%) of the commodities were high, and 3 (19%) were relatively high in the facilities, stock out rate during the visitation and previous six months varied with the commodities: urinalysis strip (22%) and (40%), hydralazine (20%) and (20%), labetalol injection (8%) and (20%), labetalol tablet (24%) and (24%) and sphygmomanometer (8%) and (8%). No stock out was recorded for 11 (69%) commodities. All the facilities observed 9 (75%) out of the 12 storage guidelines, and 36 (72%) had a perfect storage condition score. Limitations/Implications: Current state of PE/E health commodities in the selected facilities is highlighted, and the strengths and weaknesses of the supply chain in these health facilities were identified and discussed. Originality/value: These commodities' availability ranged from reasonably high to very high. Regular supportive supervision is germane to strengthening the logistics management system for these commodities to prevent the negative impact on the health and well-being of the people during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic. © 2023, Adesola Olalekan, Victor Igweike, Oloruntoba Ekun, Abosede Adegbite and Olayinka Ogunleye.

Post Covid Anxiety Among University Students in Odisha India

From the last two years due to emergence of COVID-19, a first pandemic of the century, caused hard time to continuing normal lifestyle in all aspects including the campus lifestyle of students. All the academic activities such as classes, examinations, evaluations and placement are going as usual in online mode like earlier. In this regard, we have conducted a Web-based survey on students about their mental condition concerning corona anxiety, coping with stress, worry, and fear. In our survey, 620 students participated from different discipline and states to rejoin the campus either online or offline mode. 372 (60%) students want to attend offline classes while 248 (40%) students want online classes. Additionally, generating the rules using a rough set approach to identify corona anxiety in students. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The Problem of Comorbid Socially Significant Infections Under The Conditions of The COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of the study. To analyze formation features of the epidemic situation for tuberculosis (TB) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to predict the further actions of medical organizations. Materials and methods. The data for the region for the last 5 years (2017-2021) were analyzed, including 1,762 newly diagnosed cases of patients with TB and comorbidities (according to the data of the Regional Public Health Organization «Regional Clinical Anti-Tuberculosis Dispensary»). All cases were verified using standard diagnostic methods, including molecular genetic methods, to determine the resistance of pathogens to antibacterial drugs. Results. It was revealed that the epidemiological situation in the region was multidirectional: thus, during the COVID-19 epidemic, the most pronounced incidence decrease was observed among cases of chronic course hepatitis (by 16.4 times), while among patients with tuberculosis the incidence decreased by 2.75 times, and among patients with acute hepatitis - only by 1.5 times (P<0.05). Among the cases of comorbid infection, the most severe course was observed in patients with combined (TB + HIV) infection: there was both a more severe general condition, and the development of adverse (undesirable) reactions to anti-TB drugs, which required an extension of maintenance therapy. Conclusions. The results of the study showed that against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region, there was no tendency towards a worsening of the epidemic situation, primarily for the more socially significant infection - tuberculosis. At the same time, there was an increase in the number of cases of comorbid pathology, including HIV + TB. In the treatment of patients with comorbid forms of infection, it is necessary to take into account the possibility of developing hepatotoxic reactions and, as a result, the appointment of accompanying drugs with hepatoprotective and detoxification effects in therapy.

View Types and Visual Communication Cues for Remote Collaboration

Over the last several years, remote collaboration has been getting more attention in the research community because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In previous studies, researchers have investigated the effect of adding visual communication cues or shared views in collaboration, but there has not been any previous study exploring the influence between them. In this paper, we investigate the influence of view types on the use of visual communication cues. We compared the use of the three visual cues (hand gesture, a pointer with hand gesture, and sketches with hand gesture) across two view types (dependent and independent views), respectively. We conducted a user study, and the results showed that hand gesture and sketches with the hand gesture cues were well matched with the dependent view condition, and using a pointer with the hand gesture cue was suited to the independent view condition. With the dependent view, the hand gesture and sketch cues required less mental effort for collaborative communication, had better usability, provided better message understanding, and increased feeling of co-presence compared to the independent view. Since the dependent view supported the same viewpoint between the remote expert and a local worker, the local worker could easily understand the remote expert's hand gestures. In contrast, in the independent view case, when they had different viewpoints, it was not easy for the local worker to understand the remote expert's hand gestures. The sketch cue had a benefit of showing the final position and orientation of the manipulating objects with the dependent view, but this benefit was less obvious in the independent view case (which provided a further view compared to the dependent view) because precise drawing in the sketches was difficult from a distance. On the contrary, a pointer with the hand gesture cue required less mental effort to collaborate, had better usability, provided better message understanding, and an increased feeling of co-presence in the independent view condition than in the dependent view condition. The pointer cue could be used instead of a hand gesture in the independent view condition because the pointer could still show precise pointing information regardless of the view type. © 2023 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Robotic Arm controlled using IoT application

Work-from-home policies have been the standard since the worldwide pandemic breakout, and this has spurred the fast development of applications in the area of IoT for remotely monitoring and managing applications. This has encouraged us to design and develop a remotely controlled robotic arm that can be used in applications where the engaging human hazardous environment (such as quarantined rooms of COVID affected patients) is dangerous. This has led to the development of a B-rover called a robotic arm, which the technicians remotely control to reduce the direct contact between the technician and the hazardous environment. It has various applications, such as a health monitoring system for monitoring the patient's health conditions, sample collection from the patients and the capability of the Robotic Arm to deliver medications to the COVID affected patients without engaging humans. It is proposed to design a 3DOF(degrees of freedom) robotic arm with stepper motor which is controlled through Wi-Fi using the BlynkIoT App with widgets like Joystick and Sliders. This will pick and drop the objects from one place to another. The results show that the designed robotic arm shows a 3% variation from the simulated and actual results when the slider is adjusted. © 2022

Analysis of a decision support system for supplier selection in glove industry

Sensitivity Analysis is a method to determine how possible changes or errors in parameter values affect model outputs. This study evaluates the AHP based decision support system used for supplier selection in a glove manufacturing industry by performing a sensitivity analysis. Uniqueness of this study is that it deals with the sensitivity analysis of criteria used for supplier selection during COVID pandemic. The pandemic has altered the weightages of factors considered for supplier selection in a normal times. Expert Choice software is used to analyze the sensitivity of these parameters. The study facilitates the decision maker to understand and experiment on the effect of criterion weights on ranking of the suppliers. This makes the decision maker confident about the decisions in both favorable and unfavorable conditions. © 2022

Simulation-based optimisation: analysis of the emergency department resources under COVID-19 conditions

The emergency department (ED) is the most important section in every hospital. The ED behaviour is adequately complex, because the ED has several uncertain parameters such as the waiting time of patients or arrival time of patients. To deal with ED complexities, this paper presents a simulation-based optimisation-based meta-model (S-BO-BM-M) to minimise total waiting time of the arriving patients in an emergency department under COVID-19 conditions. A full-factorial design used meta-modelling approach to identify scenarios of systems to estimate an integer nonlinear programming model for the patient waiting time minimisation under COVID-19 conditions. Findings showed that the S-BO-BM-M obtains the new key resources configuration. Simulation-based optimisation meta-modelling approach in this paper is an invaluable contribution to the ED and medical managers for the redesign and evaluates of current situation ED system to reduce waiting time of patients and improve resource distribution in the ED under COVID-19 conditions to improve efficiency. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Free floating aorto-iliac thrombosis: A rare complication of COVID-19 pneumonia

Arterial thrombosis encountered during sars-cov2 infections is a rare complication with a poor prognosis compared to venous ones. They generally occur in severe and critical clinical forms of covid19 [1,2]. The physiopathology of arterial thrombosis, even if not completely understood highlights hypercoagulability and excessive inflammation as risk factors with a major role of the endothelial lesions in their occurrence. The presence of cardiovascular risk factors in patients infected with covid19 is also discussed as a predisposing factor for arterial thrombosis [2,3]. We report the case of a North African male patient hospitalized for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to covid19 pneumonia, complicated by the occurrence of multiple arterial thrombosis of the aorto-iliac axis with the rare finding of two free floating thrombus in the aorta and the right common iliac artery. Clinically, the patient had developed acute bilateral lower limb ischemia and multi-organ failure and the evolution was dramatic with rapid worsening of the patient…s health and eventually his death. Thromboembolic complications are frequent during covid19 infection but the aortic localization is very rare. Its diagnosis is difficult and it has a poor prognosis. Our objective through this case report is to increase knowledge about arterial thromboembolic events while discussing their link to the sars-cov2 viral infection. © 2022

New monitoring interface for the AMS experiment

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is constantly exposed to harsh condition on the ISS. As such, there is a need to constantly monitor and perform adjustments to ensure the AMS operates safely and efficiently. With the addition of the Upgraded Tracker Thermal Pump System, the legacy monitoring interface was no longer suitable for use. This paper describes the new AMS Monitoring Interface (AMI). The AMI is built with state-of-the-art time series database and analytics software. It uses a custom feeder program to process AMS Raw Data as time series data points, feeds them into InfluxDB databases, and uses Grafana as a visualization tool. It follows modern design principles, allowing client CPUs to handle the processing work, distributed creation of AMI dashboards, and up-to-date security protocols. In addition, it offers a more simple way of modifying the AMI and allows the use of APIs to automate backup and synchronization. The new AMI has been in use since January 2020 and was a crucial component in remote shift taking during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

IoT-Based Safe College Management System

The lifestyle of the people has changed completely after the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has also undergone various mutation and causing scare to human existence. Hence, it is important to monitor the health conditions of the faculty members and students before letting them into the college premises. So, we have introduced a system which implements 3 stage screening process. First, it checks whether the visitor is fully vaccinated or not. Then during the second phase, the health condition of the people is monitored. Finally, people without mask are also prevented from entering into college campus. In addition to it, the system also dispenses the hand sanitizing liquid to the visitors. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The Teaching of Technology-Mediated Architectural Design

This work presents the strategies used in the development of the teaching of the subject of Architecture Project III of the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal Fluminense University from the return to classes during the period of the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic which started in 2020. The course was carried out in the online teaching system mediated by technology. Considering the complexity that the teaching of architecture design requires in the fourth semester of the course, and given the conditions imposed by the pandemic, the development of technology-mediated design teaching was a challenge faced by the teachers of the subject. The teaching project theme is complex and extensive and considers a mixed-use high-rise building, with residential and commercial units in a consolidated urban environment, oriented towards the design and development of open and closed spaces, as well as public, collective and private spaces. This article covers the experiences, the strategies adopted, the difficulties and the results obtained in the teaching of architectural design from September 2020 until February 10, 2022. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Housing and Health in Urban Areas

Living environment, and especially dwellings, affect health in several ways end represent a key social determinant of health. The current COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted its relevance. Factors linked to housing and neighborhood conditions that influence health, can be grouped into broad categories: the health impacts of residential instability;those related to housing internal conditions;the health impacts of context in which dwelling is located;the housing affordability. Many answers to these requirements can be offered by co-housing and social housing and Authors describe same examples from international experiences. These problems nowadays need to be assessed with a multidisciplinary approach, because of the complexity and wideness of its components. To guarantee good health standards it is also necessary to direct political and administrative choices to improve the overall conditions of the neighborhood and of the buildings, and, to dispose of a clear and updated regulatory system, since key factor to ensure health and social justice. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Design of Steel Intensive Quarantine Centre

In pandemic conditions, where the COVID-19 infection is increasing exponentially, quarantine centres have become very necessary to separate and restrict the movement of people. These structures are also helpful in similar situations like disaster management, defence purposes and housing for poor people. Planning and Designing of Steel Intensive Quarantine Centre' takes on the task of designing and analysing an economical, ecological and rapid construction solution of a modular quarantine centre building. It facilitates a faster construction facility due to steel construction instead of RCC, which takes almost 70–80% more time and is not recyclable like steel. The schematic and elevation plans have been tweaked with additional architectural features to ensure ventilation, sunlight and accessible transit of patients. For economical structural design, the iterative method is incorporated to find columns with the minimum size and shape to achieve ample carpet area, i.e., star-shaped. While designing the structures, i.e., portal frame and truss roof frame are subjected to the same loading conditions. For resisting the lateral forces, different types of bracings have been incorporated in plan and elevation. The construction of a portal frame requires specialized labour to handle compound sections and connections, whereas construction of truss sections is possible by skilled labour or directly use prefabricated truss sections with the help of unskilled labour. Compound sections pose a significant challenge due to their unavailability and transportation difficulties. In contrast, the sections for trusses are readily available even in the remote market. Moreover, the construction of both structures provides rapid construction. The portal frame costs about 16% cheaper than the steel frame due to smaller sections and absence of compound sections. For validation of our work, we have used manual and automated calculation to minimize the error. The structure is expandable for future expansion by techniques such as expansion joint and satellite arrangement. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The Futures of Hybrid Work - Participatory Futuring in Practice

Throughout the last years, but especially with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, our workplaces and way of 'going to work' has changed a lot. One might even claim that the nature of work is 'in limbo', a transitional phase between the traditional on-site workplace and hybrid and remote work conditions. This overview of my doctoral research starts with a number of future oriented questions regarding collaboration and human interactions, embodied presence and socio-materiality in hybrid and remote work environments. The hypothesis is that a participatory futuring approach can engage stakeholders from different industries in a collective development of alternative futures and thereby inform the re-thinking process around remote and hybrid work conditions within and across industries. Hence, several empirical studies are proposed in order to (1) understand hybrid work settings and its challenges (2) create knowledge around possible futures of hybrid work and (3) investigate the strategic value of participatory futuring methods in industrial settings. © 2023 Owner/Author.