Covid -19 Social Distance Analysis Using Machine Learning

According to the Ministry of Global Health, social distance is one of the most effective defenses against COVID-19 and helps to prevent its spread. Governments have imposed many safety orders on citizens and facilities to limit social distancing and slow the spread of the virus. As a result, there has been an increase in interest in technologies to research and control the spread of COVID-19 in various settings. This research aims to investigate the results of several machine learning approaches to find cases when the physical distance between people has been violated. The method first identifies the instance of the human in the video frame, tracks the movements, computes the distance with other humans on the same frame and thus estimates the number of people who violate the social distance. Compares the approach to performing the performance using Yolo, SSD and Faster R- CNN. Videos that are used in this approach are collected from the wild, considering different camera settings, indoor and outdoor scenes, and recorded from various angles. Comparing the three methods Yolo, SSD and Faster RNN, the results show Yolo has a better performance in detecting humans from the current videos and thus in determining the violation of the distance between humans. © 2023 IEEE.

The Use of Blackboard by Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

By using the Blackboard (BB) system in the education sector, the educational process for both academics and students is facilitated. Two data resources were used to evaluate the use of the BB system by students of Umm Al-Qura University: statistical reports issued by the university and an online questionnaire. A total of 989 students from all colleges and different programmes provided by the university responded to the questionnaire survey. According to our findings, most students did not use the BB before the pandemic. Therefore, the sudden conversion to the BB system required intensive training courses. After the data analysis, the relationship between the use of the BB system before the pandemic and the problems students faced during the lockdown was revealed. The most critical issues raised by the respondents were: (1) "The voice of the lecturer went on and off during BB collaborate class", (2) "internet connection of the lecturer went on and off during BB collaborate class" and (3) "High possibility of IT problems during exams".

Knowledge and Attitudes of the Public in Saudi Arabia about Forensic Odontology during COVID-19

Background: Forensic odontology is the handling and examination of dental evidence and the accurate interpretation and preservation of dental findings in the interests of justice. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes of the public in Saudi Arabia about forensic odontology during COVID-19. Methods: A total of 784 adult participants from 17 cities answered a self-reported questionnaire in this cross-sectional study. The questionnaire was composed of 55 questions about their knowledge of and attitudes about forensic odontology and their willingness to register with a national dental registry. The questionnaire was validated and had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.78 and 0.75. Results: The total knowledge score was 9.35 (out of 21), and standard deviation (SD) of 4.68. Adults and employed participants had significantly higher forensic odontology knowledge levels than older and retired participants (p<0.05). There was a moderate attitude toward the usefulness of forensic odontology during the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from 36.61% to 61.48%. A total of 74.62% were willing to register with a national dental registry if one is established. Conclusion: The public in Saudi Arabia have relatively low levels of knowledge about forensic dentistry. They had a good attitude about participating in a national dental registry. Most of them agreed on the importance of using forensic odontology in global public health disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, forensic odontology still needs to be introduced to the public, with more efforts exerted toward educational and health promotion activities.