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Objectives: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2/COVID-19 infection is still a global concern, with pregnant women are considered as vulnerable population. Until now, the characteristics of pregnant women in Indonesia who are infected with COVID-19, as well as pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, are still unknown. This study aims to obtain national data, which are expected to be useful for the prevention and management of COVID-19 in pregnant women in Indonesia. Method(s): There were 1,427 patients recruited in this retrospective multicenter study. This study involved 11 hospitals in 10 provinces in Indonesia and was carried out using secondary patient data from April 2020 to July 2021. COVID-19 severity was differentiated into asymptomatic-to-mild symptoms and moderate-to-severe symptoms. The collected data include maternal characteristics, laboratory examinations, imaging, pregnancy outcomes, and neonatal outcomes. Result(s): Leukocyte, platelets, basophil, neutrophils segment, lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), C-reactive protein (CRP), urea, and creatinine were found to be significantly associated with severity differences (p < 0.05). Moderate-severe symptoms of COVID-19 also shown to have suggestive pneumonia findings on chest X-ray findings. Patients with asymptomatic-to-mild symptoms had significantly (p < 0.001) higher recovery rate, shorter hospital stay, less intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and had more vaginal delivery. Neonates from mother with mild symptoms also had significantly (p < 0.001) higher survival rate, higher birth weight, and higher APGAR score. Conclusion(s): Several laboratory and radiology components, as well as maternal and neonatal outcomes are related to the severity of COVID-19 in pregnant women in Indonesia.Copyright © The Author(s). 2023.
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Background: E-learning was widely used in universities during the COVID-19 epidemic to guarantee students' ongoing education and learning. This systematic review summarizes and synthesizes evidence elucidating the association between e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and anxiety among university students. Methods: A systematic search from five databases (PubMed, Wiley, Science Direct, EBSCO, and Scopus) was done, with the last search conducted on the 30th of November 2021. Full-text English articles published from November 2019 to November 2021. Mostly cross-sectional study designs were included, excluding non-peer-reviewed documents and non-English language studies. The data was recorded in the data extraction form, and all seven articles were assessed for quality using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional studies. Results: The search yielded seven eligible articles, with a total of 12,481 participants. Four articles aimed to determine the direct association between e-learning and anxiety levels. While three aimed to identify e-learning as a potential stressor during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is associated with anxiety levels. Five different tools were used to measure anxiety in the chosen articles. Four out of seven articles reviewed in this systematic review concluded that e-learning was significantly associated with anxiety. The remaining three found no association. Several factors were found to be associated with anxiety due to e-learning: females, sex/gender minorities, younger students, medical students, and staying alone. Conclusions: University students reported mild to high levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effect of e-learning on anxiety levels is determined by the diverse socio-demographic backgrounds. Internet connectivity and facilities also contributed to anxiety levels during e-learning. Limitations of this review include selection bias, small sample size, and the cross-sectional study designs, which could not establish a causal relationship. Evidence from stronger study designs is needed to confirm the association and establish a causation link of anxiety due to e-learning methods. © Journal of Public Health and Emergency. All rights reserved.
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Introduction: In the earlier days of COVID-19 pandemic, the cases grew rapidly in an increasing number of countries, triggering bold policy responses. The impact of different containment strategies had yet to show any relationship with the cases. It became a question that would strict restriction in any way impact the spread of infection significantly and should it be a common practice among everywhere else in the world. Therefore, policy makers wondered if strict restrictions would impact the spread significantly and should this be practiced elsewhere in the world. Material(s) and Method(s): This rapid review assessed the effectiveness of different containment strategies used in suppressing COVID-19 infection in different countries from January 2020 to November 2020. Searches were done in PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials, WHO database, ResearchGate. We identified 492 studies and screened for duplication. Using the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 25 studies were included. Result(s) and Conclusion(s): Different countries instituted containment strategies in different ways, such as Movement Control Order in Malaysia, Circuit Breaker in Singapore, COVID-19 Alert System Levels in New Zealand, etc. Most containment strategies had different success levels that depended on the time of implementation and whether the community accepted these new lifestyles and regulation. Sweden and New Zealand showed a high degree of success in combating COVID-19 despite their big population and less personal invasive methods in terms of containment strategies. Countries like United States, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korean's responses to COVID-19 could be hard to replicate. However, all countries needed to improve on three main competencies, namely, technology enforcement, strong public health governance and public partnership. A nationwide lockdown could not promise a country to be free from the outbreak, but the response time and early detection with active surveillance was critical in slowing the spread and growth of new cases in managing this pandemic.
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Introduction: Ventilation system serves as one of the methods for infection control within patient treatment areas amongst patients and staff. The High infectivity in confined areas raised concerns for patients and staff safety especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective(s): To describe the ventilation system design approach applied in patient areas of a public hospital. Material(s) and Method(s): Four (4) patient-related areas in a 76 bed non-specialist hospital was assessed. The variables included are the airflow, supply air, return air and air filtration. Result(s) and Conclusion(s): The airborne infection isolation room has air flow from the staff area to the patient area. The air inlet provides 100% non-circulating fresh air with 12 air change rate per hour (ACH) located at entrance. The outlet is located on the lower left side of the patient's head. High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter placed at the outlet with negative room pressure. The air conditioned multi bed area has air inlet at the entry point and outlet located farther away from patients and staff. While, the clinical examination room air inlet was placed near the staff area and outlet above the patient treatment area. Both the common multi-bed inpatient and clinical examination rooms have normal pressure. The ventilation system is served from central Air Handling Unit (AHU) and recirculated, however, MERV 13 grade filter is employed as recommended by American Standard Heating and Refrigeration Engineer (ASHRAE) in both multi-bed inpatient area and clinical examination room. Finally, the operation room was provided with laminar air flow from above the patient towards the lower four corners of the room. The room pressure would be relatively positive compared to the surrounding rooms. The HEPA filter is placed at the inlet. The ventilation system design approach in the public hospital assessed caters for airborne-related infectious diseases control. However, further assessment of its effectiveness is required particularly in the operation theater where the room pressure is relatively positive.
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This cross-sectional study investigates the online education intention of undergraduate students in the largest and oldest public university in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under convenient sampling, 843 undergraduate students with rural and urban backgrounds participated in an online self-administered questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to examine the hypothesized relationships. We found that students' online class intention is significantly influenced by their attitude towards online classes (AOC), perceived usefulness (PU), and facilitating conditions (FC). We further identified that external antecedents have significant indirect effects on the outcome variables. Our findings provide new insights and contribute to a learners' community on online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to depict the factors influencing undergraduate students' intention to attend online classes (IOC) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A consultation is an act of discussing a certain issue between two or more parties. Consultation is considered very important especially in the context of higher education. The Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shifted the education paradigm into digital dependency, including consultation management between students and academicians. However, a lack of studies has been conducted on the roles of self-efficacy towards user behavioral intention to use online consultation management systems in the aftermath of a pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and user behavioral intention to use an online consultation management system. In terms of respondents, 270 students were selected based on convenience sampling. Findings were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26 and SmartPLS version 3.2.8. Hence, this research revealed that proposed hypotheses were all supported. Self-efficacy has a positive and significant relationship with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. On the other hand, both perceived usefulness and ease of use were found positively influence attitude towards using online consultation management system. © 2022, Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.
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Novel Coronavirus 2019 or COVID-19 has shifted the traditional face-to-face interaction into digital interaction, whereby people are meeting through online;education is no longer confined within the four walls of the classroom. Subsequently, this transformation also affected the service delivery provided by the library. Recent studies show that the usage of digital libraries increases in the aftermath of COVID-19. However, there is currently scarce literature on the factors that drive the increase of usage and its impact on users’ satisfaction behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold;first, to investigate the level of digital libraries satisfaction in the aftermath of COVID-19 and second, to examine the factors that influence user’ satisfaction behavior on digital libraries. A quantitative research methodology was adopted;the instrument was developed by adopting previous research studies. The instrument was pre-tested, expert reviews, pilot-tested before actual data collection. Data was collected from one of the universities on the east coast of Malaysia. A total of 358 valid responses were received;responses were performed for data cleaning and coding. The findings were then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 and were analyzed based on descriptive and inferential analysis. The result shows that two hypotheses were accepted;digital resources quality and digital library affinity were found to have a significant and positive relationship with user’s satisfaction behavior, while digital library generic usability did not have a substantial and positive relationship with the user’s satisfaction behavior. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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In Bangladesh, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been highly prevalent during late 2020, with nearly 500 000 confirmed cases. In the present study, the spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) circulating in Bangladesh was genetically investigated to elucidate the diversity of mutations and their prevalence. The nucleotide sequence of the S protein gene was determined for 15 SARS-CoV-2 samples collected from eight divisions in Bangladesh, and analysed for mutations compared with the reference strain (hCoV-19/Wuhan/WIV04/2019). All the SARS-CoV-2 S genes were assigned to B.1 lineage in G clade, and individual S proteins had 1-25 mutations causing amino acid substitution/deletion. A total of 133 mutations were detected in 15 samples, with D614G being present in all the samples; 53 were novel mutations as of January 2021. On the receptor-binding domain, 21 substitutions including ten novel mutations were identified. Other novel mutations were located on the N-terminal domain (S1 subunit) and dispersed sites in the S2 subunit, including two substitutions that remove potential N-glycosylation sites. A P681R substitution adjacent to the furin cleavage site was detected in one sample. All the mutations detected were located on positions that are functionally linked to host transition, antigenic drift, host surface receptor binding or antibody recognition sites, and viral oligomerization interfaces, which presumably related to viral transmission and pathogenic capacity.
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The outburst of new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections, firstly appeared in Wuhan in 2019, has massively expanded to the whole world. At the end of March 2020, the rapid spread of the infection happened in about 206 countries around the globe. At the moment, the statistics of WHO on coronavirus pandemic revealed total infected cases of 21,770,000 and more than 77,000 deaths all over the world, with no proven antiviral agent available yet to control COVID-19 infection. The world is currently in desperate need of finding potent therapeutic agents. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) represent one of the most promising viral targets. Importantly, HDACs are critical factors involved in the control of viral replication. The molecular mechanisms associated with underlying the role of HDACs in viral latency, viral reactivation, and carcinogenesis are progressively disclosed. Till now, six HDACIs anticancer drugs have been approved by the FDA. Herein, in the in-silico structure-based drug design approach was utilized to identify novel structural characteristics for the potential repurposed activity of HDACIs as antivirals for COVID-19. In this respect, 12 HDACIs were carefully screened to probe their possible anti-viral activity against SARS-CoV main proteaseMpro (PDB: 6LU7). Most of the screened HDACIs are strongly bind into the active binding site of crystallographic structure of Mpro (PDB: 6LU7) with comparable docking energy and hydrogen bond formation. These findings demonstrate that HDACIs, especially Romidepsin and its active form (RedFK), hold promise as COVID-19 protease inhibitors. Moreover, calculations of physicochemical parameters and drug-likeness properties of the screened compounds implied an acceptable ADMET for all tested compounds.