RENIN-ANGIOTENSIN SYSTEM BLOCKER AND THE COVID-19 AGGRAVATION: REPORT BY THE COVID-19 REGISTRY JAPAN

Objective: The role of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) in the pandemic context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to be debated. Patients with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, cerebro-cardiovascular disease, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), who often use ACEi/ARB, may affect risk of severe COVID-19. However, there are no data available on the association of ACEi/ARB use with COVID-19 severity in this population. Design and method: This study is an observational study of patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and inpatient treatment at a healthcare facility, using the registry information of COVIREGI-JP. Our primary outcomes were consisting of in-hospital death, ventilator support, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support, and ICU admission. Out of the 6,055 patients, 1,921 patients with preexisting hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, cerebro-cardiovascular disease, or COPD were enrolled. We also evaluated 1,097 patients with hypertension. Results: Factors associated with an increased risk of the primary outcomes were aging, male sex, COPD, severe renal impairment, and diabetes mellitus. No correlations were observed with ACEi/ARB, cerebro-cardiovascular diseases, or hypertension. Associated factors in male patients were aging, renal impairment, hypertension, and diabetes. In female patients, factors associated with an increased risk were aging, ACEi/ARB, renal impairment, and diabetes, whereas hypertension was associated with a lower risk of the primary outcomes. In patients with hypertension, factors associated with an increased risk of the primary outcomes were aging, male sex, severe renal impairment, and diabetes mellitus, but not ACEi/ ARB, cerebro-cardiovascular diseases, or COPD. Conclusions: Independent factors for the primary outcomes were aging, male sex, COPD, severe renal impairment, and diabetes, but not ACEi/ARB, in the COVID-19 patients with preexisting hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, cerebro-cardiovascular disease or COPD. Based on this registry data analysis, more detailed data collection and analysis is needed with the cooperation of multiple healthcare facilities.

Delivering asthma reviews during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic meant that the delivery of asthma management in primary care changed virtually overnight, requiring the introduction of alternatives to face-to-face care. This study examines the experiences of nurses who were performing asthma reviews during the pandemic, identifying the key themes that emerged, as well as providing recommendations for future practice.

Factors Associated with Food Insecurity Among Health Sciences Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This web-based survey explored factors associated with food insecurity (FI) among health sciences students during the COVID-19 pandemic. FI was assessed using the USDA 6-item tool. Multivariable logistic regression was used for data analyses. Of the 816 respondents, 74.7% were female and 22.1% were food insecure. An annual income of <$25,000, housing instability, use of a food pantry over the past 12 months, and receiving financial support from family were independently associated with increased odds of being food insecure even after adjusting for other covariates. Further research exploring FI screening and interventions among health sciences university students is needed.

Effects of online group art therapy on psychological distress and quality of life after family bereavement: In COVID-19 pandemic

This study examined the effects of online group art therapy on adults who lost family members using three instruments to measure depression, grief, and quality of life in a randomized controlled trial. Of the thirty-six participants who experienced the death of a family member, 20 were assigned to the experimental group participating in online group art therapy over eight sessions 1-hour once a week, and 16 were assigned to the control group with no intervention. In the experimental group, online group art therapy reduced depression and grief while improving the quality of life. The findings show the promise of online group art therapy in helping adults who have lost family members by relieving psychological distress and enhancing their quality of life. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

A COMPUTATIONAL BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION RESEARCH USING VOSVIEWER

Science education is a very important science to learn and discuss because it is tightly related to everyday life. The phenomena that exist in the environment are related to science, so science education is important to learn. In addition, research on science education is important. This research aimed at the analysis of bibliometric data in the field of science education by using the mapping analysis software VOSviewer. Research data is also obtained through the reference manager application. The search results from the keyword "Science education" are used as data in this research. From the search results in the 2017-2021 range, we obtained data from as many as 991 relevant published articles. The results showed that from 2017 to 2021 the number of research on science education continued to decline. A significant decrease occurred in 2019. Until now, the exact causative factor has not been found, but one of the suspected factors is the result of the deployment of Covid-19. The conditions and situations of the pandemic have resulted in researchers experiencing a decrease in the productivity of their research activities. The results of this study show how important it is to use bibliometric analysis data. This research demonstrates the score of the analysis bibliometric about providing information on how the phenomena occur. This research was meant the assist and serve as to reference for researchers undertaking as well as deciding on research topics, especially about science education. © School of Engineering, Taylor's University.

Analysis and Prediction of COVID-19 Spread in Ernakulam District, Kerala

The world is witnessing a pandemic of SARS-CoV2 infection since the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Ever since the first case was reported in Wuhan city of China in December 2019, the virus has spread over 223 countries. Understanding and predicting the dynamics of COVID-19 spread through data analysis will empower our administrations with insights for better planning and response against the burden inflicted on our health care infrastructure and economy. The aim of the study was to analyze and predict COVID-19 spread in Ernakulam district of Kerala. Data was extracted from lab data management system (LDMS), a government portal to enter all the COVID-19 testing details. Using the EpiModel package of R-mathematical modeling of infectious disease dynamics, the predictive analysis for hospitalization rate, percentage of patients requiring oxygen and ICU admission, percentage of patients getting admitted, duration of hospital stay, case fatality rate, age group and gender-wise fatality rate, and hospitalization rate were computed. While calculating the above-said variables, the percentage of vaccinated population, breakthrough infections, and percentage of hospitalization among the vaccinated was also taken into consideration. The time trend of patients in ICU showed men outnumbered women. Positive cases were more among 20–30 years, while 61–70 years age group had more risk for ICU admission. An increase in CFR with advancing age and also a higher CFR among males were seen. Conclusions: Analyzing and predicting the trend of COVID-19 would help the governments to better utilize their limited healthcare resources and adopt timely measures to contain the virus. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Sigmoidal Particle Swarm Optimization for Twitter Sentiment Analysis

Social media, like Twitter, is a data repository, and people exchange views on global issues like the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media has been shown to influence the low acceptance of vaccines. This work aims to identify public sentiments concerning the COVID-19 vaccines and better understand the individual's sensitivities and feelings that lead to achievement. This work proposes a method to analyze the opinion of an individual's tweet about the COVID-19 vaccines. This paper introduces a sigmoidal particle swarm optimization (SPSO) algorithm. First, the performance of SPSO is measured on a set of 12 benchmark problems, and later it is deployed for selecting optimal text features and categorizing sentiment. The proposed method uses TextBlob and VADER for sentiment analysis, CountVectorizer, and term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) vectorizer for feature extraction, followed by SPSO-based feature selection. The Covid-19 vaccination tweets dataset was created and used for training, validating, and testing. The proposed approach outperformed considered algorithms in terms of accuracy. Additionally, we augmented the newly created dataset to make it balanced to increase performance. A classical support vector machine (SVM) gives better accuracy for the augmented dataset without a feature selection algorithm. It shows that augmentation improves the overall accuracy of tweet analysis. After the augmentation performance of PSO and SPSO is improved by almost 7% and 5%, respectively, it is observed that simple SVM with 10-fold cross-validation significantly improved compared to the primary dataset. © 2023 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Anxiety in Children and Its Relationship with Self-Related Skills of Executive Fun

Objective: Some children experience a significant deal of anxiety during the outbreak of COVID-19. Behavioral dimensions of the executive function appear to link to situational anxiety experience. Therefore, the primary aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between self-related skills of executive functions and the level of anxiety in children (8-12-years-old) during the outbreak of COVID-19. Also, the secondary goal of this study is to predict the level of anxiety based on self-related skills of executive functions. Method: Parents of 300 children filled out the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale (BDEFS) and the COVID- 19 anxiety scale. Data were analyzed using correlation and path analysis. A significance level of less than 0.05 was set for all tests. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22 software. Results: Results demonstrated that self-related skills of executive functions can predict 28% of COVID-19 anxiety. The subscales of self-management (P < 0.015, t = 5.56), self-regulation (P < 0.011, t = 6.37), self-restraint (P < 0.035, t = 4.29) and emotional self-organization (P < 0.042, P = 0.222) predicted coronavirus anxiety, but self-motivation (P < 0.05, P = 0.894) did not. Conclusion: Given that most subscales of executive function predict anxiety tied to critical situations such as the prevalence of the corona virus, it seems that greater attention should be allocated to the fostering and development of children's executive functions by teaching such skills at home by families.

The Potential Barriers and Benefits of an Online Physical Activity Program during the COVID-19 Restrictions: Latrobe Virtual Streetgames. A Qualitative Study

COVID-19 saw the global reduction of many physical activity programs. To maintain engagement, many programs adjusted their delivery to online formats. To explore the impact that a youth targeted virtual community exercise program had on its participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven participants of Virtual Streetgames took part in a semi-structured one-on-one interview, with questions around the impact of COVID-19, in addition to their view on the virtual program. Three major themes were identified. "Dawning of a new world" described the changes that occurred due to the pandemic. "Traveling together" identified the difficultly to maintain regular wellbeing activities. "Making a difference" contextualized how the virtual delivery was able to influence participants. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the participants physical, mental and social health. The use of an online physical activity program had some positive impacts on health, however it did not seem to warrant the same level of engagement when compared to face-to-face. The study helped identify those who are at risk of both short and long-term health impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it provided information on how virtual innovative interventions can influence wellbeing outcomes. A AJHE Self-Study quiz is online for this article via the SHAPE America Online Institute (SAOI)

Utility of lung ultrasound score for severity categorization and CLUE protocol for disposition of COVID-19 patients presenting to emergency department

Objective: Lung ultrasound is a point-of-care diagnostic work-up tool used extensively in emergency departments. The COVID-19 Lung Ultrasound in Emergency Department (CLUE) protocol has shown initial promise in aiding emergency clinicians to make rapid and appropriate bedside clinical decisions. Its primary objective is to assess the performance of the lung ultrasound scoring system (LUSS) in determining SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia severity so that the patients can be moved to their designated ICUs, wards, or facility quarantine center from the emergency department. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken among adult patients with a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted/referred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. The data were descriptively analyzed using Graphpad Prism (vs. 9.2.0). Results: Out of 197 patients included in this study, 74.6% were men with a mean age of 45.3 ± 15.5 years. The men to women ratio was 2.9:1. The most frequent symptoms on presentation were fever (59.9% of cases), cough (54.3%), dyspnea (36%), and 16.2% of the patients were asymptomatic. The mean LUSS score of the patients with invasive support was 24.3 ± 4.5, as compared to 15.7 ± 5.9 in the non-invasive group. Overall, 64.4% patients did not require any respiratory support with a mean LUSS score of 2.3 ± 3.5. Out of 197 patients, 5 (2.5%) died during hospital stay. The mean LUSS score of survivors was 7.1 ± 8.2, as compared to 22.2 ± 4.3 of the deceased. Conclusion: The CLUE protocol can help in triaging the patients in the mild and moderate severity group and discharging them directly from the emergency department itself to either a facility quarantine center or to home isolation. It ultimately helps in avoiding unnecessary referrals, eliminating contamination, and optimum utilization of health resources.

How Did Levels of Psychological Distress and Perceptions of Workplace Support amongst Children's Social Work Staff Change during the Covid-19 Pandemic?

Covid-19 brought about drastic changes in day-to-day life and working practices, and had a profound impact on the mental health and well-being of the general population. Certain professional groups have also been particularly affected. This study sought to explore how levels of psychological distress and perceptions of workplace support amongst social work staff changed during the pandemic. We present the results from a series of surveys conducted in four local authorities (LAs) in England, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Social workers and other social care staff (n  = 62) were asked about their experiences of psychological distress, using the twelve-item General Health Questionnaire. Overall, we found the proportion of staff reporting elevated levels of psychological distress increased and, in line with previous studies involving social workers, was high relative to the general population. Yet, most staff also said they had high levels of support from managers and colleagues, whilst a small proportion reported an increased perception of workplace support during the pandemic, compared to before. We consider these findings in relation to Organisational Support Theory and reflect on the ability of LAs to provide effective support for social care staff.

Knowledge about, acceptance of and willingness to use over-the-counter COVID-19 self-testing kits

Objectives: Early investments in new diagnostic technologies that allow for rapid and decentralized testing were critical in reducing SARS-CoV-2's detrimental health and economic effects. This study evaluates public knowledge about, acceptance of and willingness to use COVID-19 self-testing kits. Methods: An online descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire was used in this study. The final study population included all contacted national and resident adults, age 18 and over, who were willing to engage in the study. The survey was divided according to participants' demographic information and 11 questions assessed the respondents' understanding of and willingness to use COVID-19 self-testing kits. The statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 24. Multivariate linear regression models were used to identify the factors influencing respondents' knowledge of and attitudes toward the acceptability of self-testing kits for COVID-19 and their willingness to use these kits. Key findings: A total of 876 respondents participated in the study and completed the whole questionnaire. The average knowledge score on the acceptability of and willingness to use self-testing kits for COVID-19 was 70.2%, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) [69.1%, 71.4%]. Participants who were postgraduate, female and vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as employees and older participants, were jointly highly associated with higher levels of knowledge about, acceptance of and willingness to use self-testing kits for COVID-19. Moreover, participants who had been infected with COVID-19, were vaccinated against COVID-19 or were female, employees, older, Western or Arabic were jointly highly associated with positive attitudes about the acceptability of and willingness to use self-testing kits for COVID-19. Conclusions: The majority of the respondents have acceptable levels of knowledge about, acceptance of and willingness to use self-testing kits for COVID-19. Nonetheless, future studies should consider the issues of pre- and post-test counselling, false negative results and the sale of unregulated testing kits. Additional information should be communicated so that people can make informed decisions and be protected from possible abuse of COVID-19 self-testing kits when they become available in pharmacies.

Using the big data analysis and basic information from lecture Halls to predict air change rate

School lecture halls are often designed as confined spaces. During the period of COVID-19, indoor ventilation has played an even more important role. Considering the economic reasons and the immediacy of the effect, the natural ventilation mechanism becomes the primary issue to be evaluated. However, the commonly used CO2 tracer gas concentration decay method consumes a lot of time and cost. To evaluate the ventilation rate fast and effectively, we use the common methods of big data analysis - Principal Component Analysis (PCA), K-means and linear regression to analyze the basic information of the lecture hall to explore the relation between variables and air change rate. The analysis results show that the target 37 lecture halls are divided into two clusters, and the measured 11 lecture halls contributed 64.65%. When analyzing the two clusters separately, there is a linear relation between the opening area and air change rate (ACH), and the model error is between 6% and 12%, which proves the feasibility of the basic information of the lecture hall by calculating the air change rate. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Social Workers Response to Domestic Violence and Abuse during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has put increased pressure on health and social service providers, including social workers who continued front line practice throughout the pandemic, engaging with some of the most vulnerable in society often experiencing multiple adversities alongside domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Movement restrictions and stay-at-home orders introduced to slow the spread of the virus, paradoxically leave these families at even greater risk from those within the home. Utilising a survey methodology combining both open- and closed-ended questions, this study captured a picture of social work practice in Ireland with families experiencing DVA during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight both the changes and challenges in work practices and procedures that limit social work assessment and quality contact with families, changes to the help-seeking behaviours from victims/survivors, as well as emerging innovative practice responses with enhanced use of technology. Implications for practice include an increased awareness of the risk and prevalence of DVA accelerated by the pandemic. Conclusions assert that social work assessment and intervention with families experiencing DVA must remain adaptive to the changing COVID-19 context and continue to develop innovative practice approaches.

Consulta remota a pessoas com transtornos alimentares durante a pandemia de COVID-19

Objectives: to analyze subjective experiences related to adaptation to remote care by users with eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: a descriptive study with a qualitative approach conducted with users of an eating disorders outpatient clinic. A semi-structured remote interview was applied using the Google Meet application. The data were submitted to lexical analysis using ALCESTE software and discussed in the light of scientific evidence. Results: the remote appointment is a positive strategy but not a substitute for the face-to-face modality. The research cited financial savings, closer contact with professionals, and flexibility of service schedules as advantages. It pointed out the difficulty in clinical evaluation concerning weight, vital signs, and poor mastery of technology as limitations. Final Considerations: the study induces discussion about the systematization of remote care, which, during the COVID-19 pandemic, were responsible for providing a greater sense of support to people with eating disorders. Objetivos: analizar experiencias subjetivas relacionadas a la adaptación a la atención remota por usuarios con trastornos alimenticios durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Métodos: estudio descriptivo de abordaje cualitativo realizado con usuarios de un ambulatorio especializado en trastornos alimenticios. Fue aplicada una entrevista semiestructurada remota, utilizándose el aplicativo Google Meet. Los datos fueron sometidos al análisis lexical mediante software ALCESTE y discutidos a la luz de las evidencias científicas. Resultados: la consulta remota es una estrategia positiva, pero no substitutiva de la presencial. Ventajas como economía financiera, mayor contacto con los profesionales y flexibilización de horarios de atenciones fueron citadas. Dificultad de evaluación clínica en relación al peso, signos vitales y poco dominio de tecnología fueron apuntados como limitaciones. Consideraciones Finales: el estudio induce la discusión sobre sistematización de atenciones remotas, las cuales, durante la pandemia de COVID-19, fueron responsables por fornecer mayor sensación de soporte a personas con trastornos alimenticios. Objetivos: analisar as experiências subjetivas relacionadas à adaptação ao atendimento remoto por usuários com transtornos alimentares durante a pandemia de COVID-19. Métodos: estudo descritivo de abordagem qualitativa realizado com usuários de um ambulatório especializado em transtornos alimentares. Foi aplicada uma entrevista semiestruturada remota, utilizando-se o aplicativo Google Meet. Os dados foram submetidos à análise lexical por meio do software ALCESTE e discutidos à luz das evidências científicas. Resultados: a consulta remota é uma estratégia positiva, mas não substitutiva da modalidade presencial. Vantagens como economia financeira, maior contato com os profissionais e flexibilização de horários de atendimentos foram citadas. Dificuldade de avaliação clínica em relação ao peso, sinais vitais e pouco domínio da tecnologia foram apontados como limitações. Considerações Finais: o estudo induz a discussão sobre sistematização dos atendimentos remotos, os quais, durante a pandemia de COVID-19, foram responsáveis por fornecer maior sensação de suporte às pessoas com transtornos alimentares.

The impact of Covid-19 restrictions in Ireland on symptom severity in mild to moderate Parkinson's disease

Introduction: The COVID pandemic and public health restrictions significantly impacted those living with neurological conditions such as Parkinson's Disease due to the curtailment of therapies. Patients attending a single centre movement disorders clinic reported reduced physical activity and quality of life during the pandemic. This study aimed to assess the impact of pandemic restrictions on Parkinson's Disease symptom severity in people with mild to moderate Parkinson's Disease. Method: A cross-sectional study design with a convenience sample of 20 people living with mild to moderate Parkinson's Disease was adopted. A telephone survey questionnaire was completed to measure changes in symptom severity on the 14 most common Parkinson's Disease symptoms. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: Nineteen participants completed the survey. Participants frequently reported a decline in nine symptoms of Parkinson's Disease;bradykinesia, rigidity, walking, sleep, mood, memory, quality of life and fatigue. Nil changes in freezing were reported. No change was reported in the nonmotor symptoms of constipation, speech and pain in 75, 65 and 95% of participants, respectively. Conclusion: Findings of this study acknowledge the negative impact of restrictions on the motor and nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. Flexibility to access and delivery of service should be considered to mitigate any future potential restrictions.

Comparative Study on the Role of Serum Levels of Interleukin6 and Interleukin-8 in Predicting the Severity of COVID-19 and Prognosis in Patients Admitted to Ghaemshahr Razi Hospital

Background and purpose: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) resulted in a worldwide emergency. Various studies show conflicting and diverse results on the role of inflammatory cytokines in predicting the severity and prognosis in patients with COVID-19. The aim of this study was to compare the serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in predicting the severity of COVID-19 and prognosis in patients admitted to Qaemshahr Razi Hospital. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional prospective study, the serum levels of interleukin 8 and 6 were measured in 51 patients with COVID-19 and compared with 25 healthy individuals in Qaemshahr Razi Hospital, 2021. ELISA method was used to measure these cytokines and data analysis was performed in SPSS V25. Results: The serum levels of IL6 and IL8 in the patient group were about 4 times and 6 times higher than those of the control group, respectively. Average levels of IL-6 (P=0.004) and IL-8 (P<0.001) were significantly higher in patients with severe COVID-19 compared to moderate form and control group. There was no correlation between the duration of hospitalization and the level of IL-6 (P=0.1), while there was a significant correlation between the length of hospital stay and the level of IL-8 (P=0.012). Conclusion: IL-6 and IL-8 serum levels in patients with COVID-19 can be helpful in predicting the severity of disease and prognosis of patients.

Resilience and Resistance in the Community Sector: Organisational Challenges and Responses by the Australian DFV Sector in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led to increases in family violence in Australia and elsewhere. In response, organisations in the domestic and family violence (DFV) sector, had to adapt to the emerging public health measures and worked collaboratively to protect the most vulnerable in the community. These services, including courts, rapidly transformed their methods of service delivery that are likely to continue for some time. But what have been the implications/impacts of these rapid changes on the DFV service sector in Australia? How have these impacts informed the future needs of the DFV sector? And what is needed to strengthen this community sector of the future? This article reports on the findings of a national research project examining the impacts of COVID-19 on the DFV service sector and the adaptations and innovations that emerged in response. The study highlights that the surge in demand for services put pressure on an already overwhelmed workforce/service sector and provided an opportunity for front line workers to contribute to building a robust sector to respond to future crisis events. These findings have significant implications for future DFV sector service delivery, and for the social work profession as a whole.