Video Conferencing using WebRTC

Video conferencing has become an essential tool for communication and collaboration in today's world, especially after the recent COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most popular technologies for video conferencing is WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication), which allows for real-time, peer-to-peer communication directly through web browsers. This study reviews the current state of video conferencing software using WebRTC. In particular, the research study will survey the features and capabilities of popular software solutions and explore the architecture of WebRTC and the protocols used for data transmission in video conferencing software. Additionally, the challenges and limitations of video conferencing for group discussion practice, including technical difficulties, connectivity issues, and privacy concerns are examined. Finally, this study provides recommendations for future research in this field, with the goal of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of video conferencing using WebRTC technology. © 2023 IEEE.

A Comprehensive Mini-review on COVID-19 Pathogenesis on Perspectives of Cytokine Storm and Recent Developments in Anti-Covid Nucleotide Analogues

The world has been rocked by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has significantly changed our way of life. Despite the unusual measures taken, COVID-19 still exists and affects people all over the world. A remarkable amount of study has been done to find ways to combat the infection's unsurpassed level. No ground-breaking antiviral agent has yet been introduced to remove COVID-19 and bring about a return to normalcy, even though numerous pharmaceuticals and therapeutic technologies have been reused and discovered. The cytokine storm phenomenon is of utmost importance since fatality is strongly connected with the severity of the disease. This severe inflammatory phenomenon marked by increased amounts of inflammatory mediators can be targeted for saving patients' life. Our analysis demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2 specifically generates a lot of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and results in lymphocyte exhaustion. Tocilizumab is an IL-6 inhibitor that is currently thought to be both generally safe and effective. Additionally, corticosteroids, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-blockers and Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors could be effective and dependable methods to reduce cytokine-mediated storm in SARS-CoV-2 patients.Copyright © The Author(s) 2023.

Face Mask Detection Based Entry Control Using XAI and IoT

Today it has become mandatory for all the citizens to wear a face mask to protect them from COVID-19. Also taking two doses of vaccine is a must to visiting public places and currently, the only method to verify whether a person is fully vaccinated is by showing a vaccine certificate. The proposed application is helpful for elderly people who find it difficult to use smart phones. The shop owners, offices, banks, or any public place can check for restrictions of entry if anyone is not wearing a mask. As a result, no need for any guard to keep an eye on people. Machine learning techniques with Explainable AI (XAI) can solve these problems easily and results are made understandable to end-users because of the explaining ability and interpretability of neural network models. The system performs well for prediction and gives more accurate and trustworthy predictions. Hence XAI is more reliable in healthcare systems. The proposed system is implemented completely on Raspberry Pi allowing a complete embedded application. The application is developed using Python and HTML. PyCharm/Visual Studio Code with the help of an open-source library is used for training, defining, etc. Machine learning models used for the system are Tensorflow.js, Keras, OpenCV, etc. The whole application can run on a microcontroller such as Raspberry Pi, which allows one to simply plug and play the system at any time. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Face Mask Detection Based Entry Control Using XAI and IoT

Today it has become mandatory for all the citizens to wear a face mask to protect them from COVID-19. Also taking two doses of vaccine is a must to visiting public places and currently, the only method to verify whether a person is fully vaccinated is by showing a vaccine certificate. The proposed application is helpful for elderly people who find it difficult to use smart phones. The shop owners, offices, banks, or any public place can check for restrictions of entry if anyone is not wearing a mask. As a result, no need for any guard to keep an eye on people. Machine learning techniques with Explainable AI (XAI) can solve these problems easily and results are made understandable to end-users because of the explaining ability and interpretability of neural network models. The system performs well for prediction and gives more accurate and trustworthy predictions. Hence XAI is more reliable in healthcare systems. The proposed system is implemented completely on Raspberry Pi allowing a complete embedded application. The application is developed using Python and HTML. PyCharm/Visual Studio Code with the help of an open-source library is used for training, defining, etc. Machine learning models used for the system are Tensorflow.js, Keras, OpenCV, etc. The whole application can run on a microcontroller such as Raspberry Pi, which allows one to simply plug and play the system at any time. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Impact Of Covid - 19 On Mental Health

BACKGROUND: The new Covid, later dubbed Corona virus, is an incurable disease that can be transmitted to humans. It originally appeared in late December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where it documented cases of pneumonia of unclear etiology. After its rise, it marked as an episode that caused real concern for the general public by the World Wellbeing Association (WHO), and in the middle of Journey 2020, the WHO declared a global pandemic due to a dramatic increase in global diseases affecting many nations. More than 108 million cases had been validated worldwide as of February 14, 2021, with 5.99 million cases reported in the Eastern Mediterranean region. As a result of this global emergency, segregation and detention measures were being taken by international and governmental organizations to prevent the spread of the disease. Additional measures include airline suspension, large assembly congestion, and compulsory use of face masks in many countries, community evacuation, telephone work, child education and home-based care. CONCLUSION: There is a need to build the mindfulness among the different media stages about mental difficulties during pandemics and feature the significance of looking for help and taking part in actual work for the administration of emotional well-being messes. Moreover, an increment in mindfulness among the medical care experts in recognizing and focusing on the high-hazard gatherings of the populace who are in danger in creating psychological well-being issues is crucially significant. © The Electrochemical Society

Development and in vitro Evaluation of Atazanavir Microcrystals for Intranasal Delivery

Background: Nasal route of drug administration has gained popularity nowadays specially for drugs acting on nasopulmonary area. Atazanavir is an antiviral drug which has proved efficacy in different viral infection including COVID-19. Therefore the hypothesis is, if given through intra nasal route this formulation will be able to prevent the viral infection like COVID-19 by directly acting on the virus at its entry point. Objectives: This study aims to prepare a stable mucoadhesive microcrystal formulation of this antiviral drug with good permeation for intra nasal delivery. Materials and Methods: The formulation was prepared by high-speed homogenization process. Prepared microcrystals were estimated for in vitro drug release and permeation, drug excipient interaction study by DSC, FTIR and in vitro mucoadhesiveness study on agar gel plate. A short-term stability study was conducted on all formulations for 6 months. Results: The melting point and absorbance maxima of atazanavir were found as 200.9°C and 248 nm. The DSC and FTIR study results confirmed no drug excipient interaction was there in the formulation. The particle size of the formulations was found as 5-11 µm in range. Drug release was better and faster from the microcrystals as compare to pure powder drug. The flux for microcrystal formulation was found to be 100 whereas flux for the pure drug powder was 24. Formulations had sufficient mucoadhesive strength due to incorporation of HPMC 400 polymer and they were found stable after six months stability study. Conclusion: Lastly, it can be concluded that this formulation would be a promising system for the delivery through intra nasal route as it showed good drug release and permeation during a short time span in in vitro nasal condition with a particle size range suitable for intranasal delivery. However, further in vivo studies are required to confirm the hypothesis.

Liver Function Tests Deteriorate with Increasing Severity of COVID19: A Single Center Large Retrospective Study of Indian Patients

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory system trophic disease. Liver involvement is emerging from recent data. Studies describing liver function test (LFT) abnormalities are sparse from our population. Aims: We studied LFT abnormalities in different categories of COVID-19 and its significance in relation to primary outcomes of in-hospital mortality. Methods: It was a retrospective study from a single center of a metropolitan city. All consecutive patients with proven COVID19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction from 23rd March 2020 till 31stOctober 2020 were enrolled. Of 3280 case records profiled, 1474 cases were included in the study. Clinical characteristics, biochemical parameters and outcomes were recorded. Results: Deranged LFTs were present in 681/1474 (46%) patients. Hepatocellular type of injury was most common (93%). Patients with deranged LFTs had more probability of developing severe disease (P<0.001) and mortality (P<0.001). Higher mean age (P<0.001), male gender (P<0.001), diabetes mellitus (P<0.001), chronic kidney disease (P<0.02) cirrhosis (P<0.001), lower oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels at admission (P<0.001), higher serum creatinine (P value<0.001), D-dimer levels (P<0.001) and positive radiological findings on Chest X-ray (P<0.001) were associated with deranged LFTs. Acute liver injury was seen in 65 (4.33%) cases on admission and 57(3.5%) cases during hospital stay. On admission, raised serum bilirubin, aspartate and alanine transaminases, international normalized ratio and low serum albumin were found to be significant. However, on multivariate analysis for predicting mortality, age, serum creatinine, and PaO2/FiO2 ratio only were found to be significant (P<0.001). Conclusion: In COVID-19, LFT abnormalities are common and multifactorial. As severity of disease progresses, derangement in LFT’s increase. However, it is not associated with in- hospital mortality.

Automatic Mask and Temperature Detection System using Deep Learning and Bus sanitization module for Covid-19

In the pandemic situation of Covid-19 the public transport was totally stuck. During the phase of unlock the offices, banks, and other institutes started reopening. But restarting the public transport was the major challenge. Citizens were facing a lot of issues due to this problem. A survey says that about 85 to 90% population in India travels through public transport. Hence, it was essential to restart the public transport as soon as possible. The proposed idea in this paper focuses on solving the above-mentioned problem. The precautions and rules that are implemented by the government in welfare of the citizens are only available at offices and other public places. The proposed system makes it possible to implement such measures in public transport effectively so that people can travel through public transport without the fear of the virus. © 2021 IEEE.

A study of the clinico-epidemiological profile of COVID-19 patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital in India

Introduction: India is the second country with the highest Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) case burden in the world. In India, Maharashtra state has the highest number of cases. Aim: To study the clinico-epidemiological profile of COVID-19 patients admitted in a COVID-19 designated tertiary care center in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Materials and Methods: The authors retrospectively investigated epidemiological, demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiological and treatment data of 413 Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed COVID-19 patients from 14th April 2020 to 30th June 2020. The data was analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables with normal and abnormal distribution, respectively. Also, the multivariate logistic regression was used for analysis. Results: Among the 413 laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients, 249 (60.29 %) were males, majority {87 (21.07%)} of the patients belonged to the age group of 51-60 years. The most common comorbid condition found was diabetes mellitus {102 (24.69%)}. The most common symptoms were fever {185 (44.79%)} and cough {146 (35.35%)} followed by breathlessness {134 (32.45%)}. History of close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case was present in 205(49.64%) patients. The mean time from the onset of symptoms to hospital admission was 3.75 (SD±2.642) days. There was a strong association between increasing age and the need for Intensive Care. Total 63 (80.77%) out of 78 patients above 60 years of age had abnormal Chest X-Ray (CXR) findings during hospitalisation. Furthermore, the maximum number of deaths i.e., 31 patients (58.49%, n=53) occurred in the age group of more than 60 years of age. Conclusion: The findings suggest that increased value of serum Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and Urea can be used as predictors for mortality rate. Patients aged more than 60 years are more prone for severe disease with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia and this subset of patients requires urgent medical attention.

Preparation of Coronavirus Nosodes Sourced from a Clinical Sample of SARS-Cov-2 Positive Patient, Inactivated Strain, and Spike Glycoprotein

Introduction Nosodes, the homeopathic preparations sourced from biological materials including clinical samples, cultures of organisms, and diseased tissues have been in use against the sourcespecific infections as well as other diseases. The nosodes have demonstrated some efficacy in managing epidemics, such as influenza, dengue, and leptospirosis. This article presents the need and process of development of nosodes from the SARS-CoV-2 to explore its prophylactic and therapeutic potentials against certain related viral diseases. Materials and methods A clinical sample of SARSCov-2 positive patient, based on the cycle threshold (CT) value of the qRT-PCR, heat-inactivated SARS-CoV-2, and spike glycoprotein all were processed for making nosodes as per the method described in Homoeopathy Pharmacopoeia of India. Molecular tests, such as qRT- PCR and sterility tests were performed to establish the live organisms, RNA material, and the absence of contamination. Results Three variants of Coronavirus Nosode were developed using a clinical sample, heat-inactivated SARS-CoV-2, and spike glycoprotein. In potencies 3c and above, no detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA material was found by PCR. The analytical results for nosodes were reported as compliant for sterility testing as per the IP. Conclusion Three variants of Coronavirus nosodes were prepared which need to be evaluated further through pre-clinical and clinical studies. © International Journal of High Dilution Research. Not for commercial purposes.

Unlocking the online education space during the lockdown: Adaptation and synergies of teachers and students

Online teaching and learning existed before COVID-19 pandemic and used as a supportive option to the offline mode. During the pandemic, students and teachers were forced to adopt online methods and this called for a need to realize the impact, adaptability, challenges and effect on both faculty and students. Surveys were carried out with an objective to understand the faculty and students’ transformation process from offline to the online mode of teaching and learning. Various issues including online course perceptions, delivery methods, technical adaptability, students’ engagement were surveyed for both students and teachers in the engineering major. The survey was carried out in three phases during the lockdown period, before commencement of classes, 10 days after commencement and after completion of half of the syllabus. 500 engineering undergraduates and 45 engineering teachers participated in this survey. This survey will help teachers to understand the importance of training on the new generation tools for online teaching. Students will also realize the importance of self-learning and the way to compensate for the missing social life during the lockdown through online technical discussion during the assignments. Training on online tools and techniques played an important role in teachers’ delivery method in the online mode that resulted in improvement in their confidence according to the survey. Reflections by viewing their own recorded video played an important role for the teachers where 80% of the faculty members modified their delivery methods for online teaching. The survey showed that students embraced the new space and 85% of students got involved in online course discussions that enhanced their self-learning. 65% of students suggested that the missing on-campus social life was partially compensated due to online education. The forced online teaching and learning due to the lockdown, unlocked many prospects for teachers and students to explore the various online tools. © 2021, Rajarambapu Institute Of Technology. All rights reserved.