IoT-based unified child monitoring and security system

In this fast-growing modern era, mothers are likely to work soon after childbirth, which makes it hard for them to render complete care to their child. Hiring a childminder is not just costly but also unsafe, especially during a global pandemic like Covid-19. Child abuse is also a major worry. This paper introduces an IoT-based Unified child monitoring and security system without any third-party involvement, thus addressing the parents' needs and concerns. The proposed system monitors the temperature and heart rate of theinfant, humidity of the room, detects motion and sound produced by the baby and adopts suitable measures to notify the parent such as sending alert messages, live video streaming of the infant or turning on a motor to swing the cradle. This system also monitors the movement of toddlers using GPS-and GSM-enabled wrist-bands and continuously sends their live locations. A buzzer is also interfaced with the band to alert if any stranger is in close proximity with the toddler. This system enables parents to keep a watch on their children remotely and thus ensures the safety of the child from any type of abuse. An added feature of this band is that it also prompts to maintain social distancing from the toddlers. Overall, a reliable, continuous and real-time baby monitoring is ensured by the proposed system. © 2023 Scrivener Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

A fungal epidemic amidst a viral pandemic: Risk factors for development of COVID-19 associated rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis in India.

PURPOSE: To study the risk factors for development of COVID-19 associated rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis (ROCM) during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. METHODS: Multi-centric retrospective case-control study conducted from October 2020 to May 2021. Cases comprised of consecutive patients of COVID-19-associated ROCM (CA-ROCM) presenting at the participating ophthalmic institutes. Controls comprised of COVID-19-positive or COVID-19-recovered patients who did not develop ROCM. Comparative analysis of demographic, COVID-19 infection, treatment parameters and vaccination status between cases and controls performed. Clinical and imaging features of CA-ROCM analyzed. RESULTS: There were 179 cases and 361 controls. Mean age of presentation in cases was 52.06 years (p = .001) with male predominance (69.83%, p = .000011). Active COVID-19 infection at the time of presentation of ROCM (57.54%, p < .0001), moderate to severe COVID-19 (p < .0001), steroid administration (OR 3.63, p < .00001), uncontrolled diabetes (OR 32.83, p < .00001), random blood sugar >178 mg/dl were associated with development of CA-ROCM. Vaccination showed a protective effect (p = .0049). In cases with intracranial or cavernous sinus extension there was history of steroid administration (OR 2.89, p = .024) and orbital apex involvement on imaging (OR 6.202, p = .000037) compared to those with only rhino-orbital disease. CONCLUSION: Male gender, active COVID-19 infection, moderate or severe COVID-19, uncontrolled diabetes, steroid administration during COVID-19 treatment are risk factors for developing rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis. Vaccination is protective. Random blood sugar of >178 mg/dl in COVID-19 positive or recovered patients should warrant close observation and early detection of ROCM. Presence of ophthalmoplegia, blepharoptosis at first clinical presentation and orbital apex involvement on imaging are associated with intracranial extension in ROCM.

Knowledge and awareness about the need to take COVID-19 vaccination among general population - a cross sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Getting immunised is very important for the community as it is a shield that covers the body from getting infected. Some of the early age mortality disease spread is still prevailing. Creating awareness through the survey can inculcate the importance of getting vaccinated. AIM: To assess the Knowledge and awareness of the general public on the necessity and benefits of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The population of age between 18-40 was considered for the survey which was taken electronically-a Pre-tested, structured questionnaire containing 8 questions was sent to the participants. The data collected was tabulated and parameters were analysed by Pearson's chi-square test using the IBM SPSS software (version 23). RESULTS: About 28.13% are not aware about the necessity and benefits of getting vaccinated. And about 43.75% have not taken any vaccination in the course of time while 35% had ill effects after getting vaccinated. And about 38.13% have tested negative for COVID-19 in which 21.88% of females and 41.25% of males have tested negative in which 15.63% of people aged to 18-20, 33.75% of people aged to 20-30 and 13.75% of people aged to 30-40. CONCLUSION: The overall awareness level of the people was inadequate. Educating the public through awareness programs, camps and research programs can improve their attitude and perception towards vaccination. Increasing knowledge and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination would ensure widespread, positive uptake of them.

Self Perceived Health Status, Medical Care Seeking Behaviour And The Preference of Telemedicine among Non-Communicable Disease Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Period

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly transmittable and pathogenic viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). Methodology: A cross-sectional study was done to ascertain the self-perceived health status, medical care seeking behaviour and the preference of telemedicine among non communicable disease (NCD) patients who did not come for their periodic review during the COVID lockdown period in Kerala state of India. Results: The mean age of the study population was 62.42±12.8 years and the mean duration of the non communicable disease (NCD) were 6.6±7.8 years. 49.1%of the study participants did not come for review to the hospital due to fear of contracting COVID-19 and 35.6% due to lack of conveyance. On analyzing the association between the fear of COVID-19 with various factors, age was found to be of significant association Conclusion: The study showed that majority of the patients did not come for review to the hospital due to fear of contracting COVID-19 and owing to lack of conveyance during lockdown period.Patients who opted for telemedicine 60% showed willingness to continue with telemedicine in future.

Study the Use of Activated Carbon and Bone Char on the Performance of Gravity Sand-Bag Water Filter.

In this study, granulated activated charcoal (GAC) and bio charcoal (BC) is used as a filler in P3 biosand bag filter to study their filtration performance against a range of fluoride impurities from 1-1400 mg/L. A set of experiments are done to analyze the filtration efficiency of the sandbag filter against fluoride impurities after incorporating different amounts (e.g., 0.2, 2 kg) and a combination of GAC and BC. A combination of filler GAC and BC (1 kg each) have exhibited excellent results with 100% fluoride removal efficiency against 5 mg/L fluoride impurities for an entire experimental time of 165 min. It is because of the synergetic effect of adsorption caused by the high surface area (739 m2/g) of GAC and hydroxyapatite groups in BC. The data from remediation experiments using individual GAC and BC are fitted into the Langmuir and Freundlich Isotherm Models to check their adsorption mechanism and determine GAC and BC's maximum adsorption capacity (Qm). The remediation data for both GAC and BC have shown the better fitting to the Langmuir Isotherm Model with a high R2 value of 0.994 and 0.970, respectively, showing the excellent conformity with monolayer adsorption. While the GAC and BC have presented negative Kf values of -1.08 and -0.72, respectively, for Freundlich Model, showing the non-conformity to multilayer adsorption. The Qm values obtained from Langmuir Model for GAC is 6.23 mg/g, and for BC, it is 9.13 mg/g. The pH study on adsorption efficiency of individual GAC and BC against 5 mg/L of fluoride impurities indicates the decrease in removal efficiency with an increase in pH from 3 to 9. For example, BC has shown removal efficiency of 99.8% at pH 3 and 99.5% at pH 9, while GAC has exhibited removal efficiency of 96.1% at pH 3 and 95.9% at pH 9. Importantly, this study presents the significance of the synergetic application of GAC and BC in the filters, where GAC and BC are different in their origin, functionalities, and surface characteristics.

Clinical genetic counselor experience in the adoption of telehealth in the United States and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the service delivery model (SDM) of clinical genetic counseling across the United States and Canada. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to 4,956 genetic counselors (GCs) from the American Board of Genetic Counselors and Canadian Association of Genetic Counselors mailing lists in August 2020 to assess the change in utilization of telehealth for clinical genetic counseling during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with prior to the pandemic. Data from 411 eligible clinical genetic counselors on GC attitudes and their experiences prior to and during the pandemic were collected and analyzed to explore the change in SDM, change in appointment characteristics, change in billing practices, GC perceived benefits and limitations of telehealth, and prediction of future trends in SDM in the post-pandemic era. The study showed the overall utilization of audiovisual and telephone encounters increased by 43.4% and 26.2%, respectively. The majority of respondents who provided audiovisual and telephone encounters reported increased patient volume compared with prior to the pandemic, with an average increase of 79.4% and 42.8%, respectively. There was an increase of 69.4% of GCs rendering genetic services from home offices. The percentage of participants who billed for telehealth services increased from 45.7% before the pandemic to 80.3% during the pandemic. The top GC perceived benefits of telehealth included safety for high-risk COVID patients (95.2%) and saved commute time for patients (94.7%). The top GC perceived limitations of telehealth included difficulty to conduct physician evaluation/coordinating with healthcare providers (HCP) (73.7%) and difficulty addressing non-English speaking patients (68.5%). Overall, 89.6% of GCs were satisfied with telehealth; however, 55.3% reported uncertainty whether the newly adopted SDM would continue after the pandemic subsides. Results from this study demonstrate the rapid adoption of telehealth for clinical genetic counseling services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in billing for these services, and support the feasibility of telehealth for genetic counseling as a longer term solution to reach patients who are geographically distant.

Programmable Detection of COVID-19 Infection Using Chest X-Ray Images through Transfer Learning

The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), which has been designated a pandemic by the World Health Organization, has infected over 1 million individuals and killed many. COVID-19 infection may progress to pneumonia, which can be diagnosed via a chest X-ray. This research work proposes a novel technique for automatically detecting COVID-19 infection using chest X-rays. This research used 500 X-rays of patients diagnosed with coronavirus and 500 X-rays of healthy individuals to generate a data set. Due to the scarcity of publicly accessible pictures of COVID-19 patients, this research study has been attempted via the lens of knowledge transmission. Also, this research work integrates different convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures trained on Image Net to function as X-ray image feature extractors. After that, integrate CNN with well-established machine learning methods such as k Nearest Neighbor, Bayes, Random Forest, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). The findings indicate that the most successful extractor-classifier combination for one of the data sets is the InceptionV3 architecture, which has an SVM classifier with a linear kernel that achieves an accuracy of 99.421 percent. Another benchmark, the best combination, is ResNet50 with MLP, which has 97.461%accuracy. As a result, the suggested technique demonstrates the efficacy of detecting COVID-19 using X-rays. © 2021 IEEE.

Rhino-orbital mucormycosis following COVID-19 in previously non-diabetic, immunocompetent patients.

PURPOSE: To report a series of 13 immunocompetent patients who developed new-onset uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (DM) following COVID-19 infection and presented as rhino-orbital mucormycosis (ROM). METHOD: Retrospective study. RESULTS: A total of 127 patients of COVID-19 Associated Mucormycosis (CAM) were evaluated at four centres in India. All patients underwent endoscopic sinus debridement surgery and received systemic amphotericin-B therapy. Five patients (5/13; 38.4%) received retrobulbar amphotericin-B injections. Orbital exenteration was performed in advanced orbital involvement or progression of orbital disease in spite of maximal medical therapy. In his cohort, 13/127 (10.2%) patients presented with new onset DM, where one patient had bilateral disease. The mean age was 35.9 years (range: 20-51 years) and the mean duration from diagnosis of COVID-19 to the diagnosis of mucormycosis was 14.2 days. While 7/13 (53.8%) of the patients received systemic corticosteroids during the course of their treatment for COVID-19, six patients received no steroids or immunomodulators. The mean follow-up period was 9.2 weeks (range: 3-18 weeks) following discharge. Life salvage was possible in 100% of the cases. While overall globe salvage was possible in 42.8% (6/14 eyes), the globe could be preserved in 4/5 patients who received retrobulbar amphotericin-B injections. CONCLUSIONS: Those involved in the care of COVID-19 patients should be aware about the possibility of recent-onset DM, even in patients without a history of corticosteroid therapy. Rarely, recent-onset DM following COVID-19 may present as rhino-orbital mucormycosis, which requires aggressive surgical and medical intervention.

Prospective sero surveillance among healthcare workers vaccinated with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Corona vaccine in a tertiary hospital of Kerala, India (preprint)

Background: India started Covid-19 vaccination from January 16, 2021 after the approval of two candidate vaccines namely Covishield TM and Covaxin TM .We report antibody responses among healthcare workers following two doses of CovishieldTM vaccination in a tertiary care setting. Methods: This prospective serosurveillance study was done among healthcare workers of JMMC&RI ,vaccinated during January to March 2021. Blood samples were drawn from 170 participants after their 1st dose and from 156 participants after their 2nd dose of COVID vaccine to measure the specific antibodies against the recombinant S1 subunit of the S protein of SARS CoV 2 Results: The median level of anti SARS CoV-2 Ig G antibody 28 days after the first dose vaccination is 3.64 S/C (IQR=5.91) and 11.6 S/C (IQR= 5.97) after 14 days of second dose vaccination. Protective levels of anti SARS CoV-2 Ig G antibodies is developed by 25 participants (14.7%) after 28 days of first dose of vaccination and by 109 participants (69.9%) after 14 days of second dose. 18-44 years age group (p=0.027) and absence of comorbidities (p=0.079) are associated with protective IgG levels. Conclusions: Rise in specific Ig G is observed after vaccination. Higher antibody response is observed with younger age group and absence of comorbidities, though statistically not significant. The influence of BMI is also not significant.

Acute Coronary Syndrome and COVID-19: A Case Report of Refractory Hypercoagulability.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to cause severe bilateral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), leading to difficulty breathing requiring mechanical ventilation and ICU management. In many patients, it has been found to cause severe hypercoagulability. We present a case of COVID-19 positive patient who developed myocardial infarction (MI) despite being on multiple anticoagulants. A 51-year-old, Middle-Eastern male diabetic patient presented to the emergency room with complaints of sudden onset left leg pain, paresthesias, and swelling for one day. On physical examination, the left leg was cool to touch from forefoot to mid-calf, with noticeable mottling over the forefoot and a nonpalpable dorsalis pedis. The patient was started on therapeutic enoxaparin and diltiazem in ED. Chest X-ray showed bilateral pulmonary infiltrates beginning peripherally and COVID-19 pneumonitis. The patient underwent a mechanical thrombectomy and was loaded with aspirin/clopidogrel, heparin drip, and enoxaparin. Despite being on triple anticoagulation, the patient had new-onset STEMI and elevated troponin levels. On angiography, the patient was found to have occluded mid-left anterior descending, most likely from acute on chronic thrombosis related to the patient's COVID-19 status. As flow could not be re-established, the patient was kept on long-term protective anticoagulation-triple therapy (an oral anticoagulant and dual antiplatelet therapy) and received pulmonary care for COVID-19 infection. The patient was discharged on long-term triple anticoagulation and COVID-19 precautions with scheduled retesting and follow-up.

Effectiveness of targeted health education with focus on knowledge and practice among hospital sanitation workersdesignated in isolation wards as part of the pandemic preparedness for covid-19

Context: Hospital sanitation workers are at the frontlines of the global crisis caused by COVID-19 and face the challenge of lack of awareness about the disease and methods of protecting themselves and others from getting infected. A targeted health education intervention was conducted among them on knowledge and practice regarding basic epidemiology, clinical features and prevention of COVID-19. Aim: To evaluate effectiveness of targeted health education intervention with focus on knowledge and practice regarding COVID-19 pandemic among hospital sanitation workers Settings and Design: Quasi-experimental one group pre test, post test design Methods and Material: Study was done among 46 hospital sanitation workers using structured questionnaire covering demographic variables, knowledge on the basic epidemiological characteristics, clinical features and practice on the prevention of COVID-19. After obtaining informed consent, pre-test was conducted and a targeted health education was given. On the 3rd day, post-test was conducted using same questionnaire. The mean pre and post test scores were calculated and difference between the scores was analyzed. Statistical analysis used: Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Demographic information was tabulated using descriptive statistics. The difference between the mean pre test and post test scores was analyzed using paired t test. Results: The mean pre test score was 9.39±1.5, with 35(76%) having good and 11(24%) poor pre test scores. Those in the age group 36-45 years had significantly higher pre test scores compared to other age groups (p=0.03). The mean post test score was 10.6±1.13. There was a statistically significant improvement in the post test scores of the study subjects (p=0.001). Hence, the targeted health education intervention was effective in improving the knowledge and practice of hospital sanitation workers regarding basic epidemiology, clinical features and prevention of COVID-19. Conclusions: Given the heightened vulnerability of hospital sanitation workers to nosocomial infections, all health care institutions should integrate targeted health education intervention into their epidemic response plan.