Mucormycosis (previously called zygomycosis or phycomycosis), an aggressive, life-threatening infection is further aggravating the human health-impact of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a great deal of mostly misleading discussion is focused also on the aggravation of the COVID-19 accrued impacts due to the white and yellow fungal diseases. In addition to the knowledge of important risk factors, modes of spread, pathogenesis and host defences, a critical discussion on the botanical insights into the main causative agents of mucormycosis in the current context is very imperative. Given above, in this paper: (i) general background of the mucormycosis and COVID-19 is briefly presented; (ii) overview of fungi is presented, the major beneficial and harmful fungi are highlighted; and also the major ways of fungal infections such as mycosis, mycotoxicosis, and mycetismus are enlightened; (iii) the major causative agents of mucormycosis are critically discussed; (iv) the systematic position, occurrence, structure, and the major modes of reproduction are summarized for Rhizopus sp. and Mucor sp., the major causative agents of mucormycosis; (v) the other causative agents of mucormycosis includes Cunninghamella bertholletiae, Apophysomyces elegans, Lichtheimia (Absidia), Saksenaea, and Rhizomucor pusillus are briefly introduced; (vi) facts related with the infection-misnomers based on fungi colour are also highlighted; and lastly, (vii) the major take-home message and clues for future research on the subject are listed.

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, PTSD, and distress in Chinese healthcare workers (HCWs) and the changes in prevalence before and after the peak incidence of COVID-19 in China. 20 cross-sectional studies assessing the aforementioned psychological outcomes were included. Eligible studies were searched from the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Comparative analysis based on the time period of the included studies was conducted to assess changes in prevalence before and after peak incidence. Additionally, subgroup analyses based on study quality, province, survey tools, gender and healthcare profession, frontline or non-frontline working status, and severity of psychological outcomes were conducted to evaluate the prevalence of outcomes across various study methods, geographic regions, and professions. The findings of this study suggest that the overall prevalence of depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, PTSD, and distress before peak incidence were 36.2%, 34.2%, 22.4%, 31.3%, 9.8%, and 56.7% as opposed to 31.8%, 24.1%, 34.4%, 59.0%, 20.9%, and 40.7% after the peak. The higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, and distress prior to the peak incidence of COVID-19 in China and of insomnia, stress, and PTSD thereafter serve as evidence that the mental health decline of HCWs is dynamic and should be addressed with adaptive approaches that provide tailored treatments.

Background: the devastating outbreak of COVID-19 poses serious challenges for the diagnostics laboratories, which are often facing global shortage of reagents and equipment. With the aim of increasing the diagnostic throughput for SARS-CoV-2 molecular test, the purpose of this study was to validate an additional RNA extraction method respect to those already recommended by WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Methods: a new protocol for RNA extraction from nasopharyngeal swab was set up, adapting the Qiagen RNeasy 96 plate and validated on a set of 100 clinical samples analyzed in parallel by Roche-Magnapure method (already recommended by CDC guidelines). Results: the internal control and target genes analysis showed a good agreement between the two extraction methods indicating that the two methods can be considered equivalent and that the RNeasy-adapted method can be applied for the SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. The addition of this new extraction method resulted in a throughput increase for SARS-CoV-2 molecular test of about 2000 samples/month during the initial months of the pandemic emergency in which the lack of reagents for the extraction led to an insufficient sample processing throughput of the analysis of the swabs.

Here, we review findings and trends in sleep research in 2020-2021 demonstrating how COVID-19 and sleep disorders can induce the BBB leakage via neuroinflammation, which might contribute to the 'coronasomnia' phenomenon. The new studies suggest that the controlling of sleep hygiene and quality should be incorporated into the rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients. We also discuss perspective strategies for prevention of COVID-19-related BBB disorders. We demonstrate that sleep might be a novel biomarker of the BBB leakage and the analysis of sleep EEG patterns can be a breakthrough non-invasive technology for diagnosis of the COVID-19-caused BBB disruption.

Hadhramout Initiative Against Corona (HIAC ) formed a working group of clinicians relevant to the management of COVID-19 to formulate clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for clinicians caring for the patients infected with COVID-19 in Yemen. The regional guidelines on the management of COVID-19 were thoroughly reviewed and its applicability was assessed for Yemen. HIAC’s recommendations covered (2) sections: the first one is the diagnosis, including case definition, risk stratification of the affected cases, investigations (prioritization of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing, D-dimer, chest x-ray, and chest computed tomography, while the second part covers the treatments (mainly Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, and Glucocorticoid, Anticoagulants, and Supportive measures). In conclusion, the adoption of cost-effective and evidence-based guidelines in Yemen will standardize the management of the patients infected with COVID-19 and protect both the patients and the health care workers from malpractice.

Prothrombotic thrombocytopathy mimicking heparin-induced thrombocytopenia has been observed in patients with severe COVID-19 and after immunisation with the Vaxzevria vaccine. Herein, we discuss the pathogenesis of this disorder focusing on the possible involvement of anti-platelet factor 4 (PF4) autoantibodies.

The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which is causing COVID 19 disease, has taught us unexpected lessons about the dangers of human extinction through highly contagious and lethal diseases. As the COVID 19 pandemic is now being controlled by various isolation measures, therapeutics and vaccines, it became clear that our current lifestyle and societal functions may not be sustainable in the long term. We now have to start thinking and planning on how to face the next dangerous pandemic, not just overcoming the one that is upon us now. Is there any evidence that even worse pandemics could strike us in the near future and threaten the existence of the human race? The answer is unequivocally yes. It is not necessary to get infected by viruses of bats, pangolins and other exotic animals that live in remote forests in order to be in danger. Creditable scientific evidence indicates that the human gut microbiota harbor billions of viruses which are capable of affecting the function of vital human organs such as the immune system, lung, brain, liver, kidney, heart etc. It is possible that the development of pathogenic variants in the gut can lead to contagious viruses which can cause pandemics, leading to destruction of vital organs, causing death or various debilitating diseases such as blindness, respiratory, liver, heart and kidney failures. These diseases could result n the complete shutdown of our civilization and probably the extinction of human race. In this essay, I will first provide a few independent pieces of scientific facts and then combine this information to come up with some (but certainly not all) hypothetical scenarios that could cause human race misery, even extinction. I hope that these scary scenarios will trigger preventative measures that could reverse or delay the projected adverse outcomes.

In the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, if a preventive restriction (PR), intended to arrest the transmission of the virus, is effective we expect a decrease in the rate of transmission. If an effective PR is lifted or relaxed, the rate may show some increase. We test this expectation in the history of PR imposition and relaxation in all countries based on available public database. We found marginal or no negative correlation between standing stringency index of PR and change in slope of the local curve. A change in stringency index was significantly negatively correlated with change in slope, but change in stringency of PRs could explain only 6.1 percent of the variance in rates of transmission. The distribution of slope changes after imposing versus after relaxing PRs was highly overlapping with only a tail consisting of 4.5 % PR impositions being clearly non-overlapping with PR relaxation. Non-parametrically, only 9.4% of PR impositions were associated with a reduction in the slope above the expectation of a null hypothesis. In brief, globally, preventive restrictions have played a very small role in the pandemic process over the one year period. This feedback needs to be considered in making policy for disease prevention in the further course of the pandemic as well as in any future threats of respiratory disease epidemics.

Treatment with calcitriol, the hormonal form of vitamin D, has shown beneficial effects in ex-perimental models of acute lung injury. In this study we aimed to analyze the associations be-tween calcitriol supplementation and the risk of SARS-CoV2 infection or COVID-19 mortality. Individuals ≥18 years old living in Catalonia and supplemented with calcitriol from April 2019 to February 2020 were compared with propensity score matched controls. Outcome variables were SARS-CoV2 infection, severe COVID-19 and COVID-19 mortality. Associations between calcitriol supplementation and outcome variables were analyzed using multivariable Cox proportional regression. A total of 8076 patients were identified as being on calcitriol treatment. Advanced chronic kidney disease and hypoparathyroidism were the most frequent reasons for calcitriol supplementation in our population. Calcitriol use was associated with reduced risk of SARS-CoV2 infection (HR 0.78 [CI 95% 0.64-0.94], p=0.010), reduced risk of severe COVID-19 and reduced COVID-19 mortality (HR 0.57 (CI 95% 0.41-0.80), p=0.001) in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. In addition, an inverse association between mean daily calcitriol dose and COVID-19 severity or mortality was observed in treated patients, independently of renal function. Our findings point out that patients with advanced chronic kidney disease could benefit from calcitriol supplementation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: Now traditional lecture-based teaching and learning have been affected by the COVID-19. The objectives of this article are to design the novel educational technique called ‘dynamic-based learning’ (DBL) that provides the combination of online teaching-learning methods and student’s creativity, to evaluate primary dynamic-based learning function, and to propose dynamic-based learning for higher education. Methods: DBL composes of four steps, including, preparation, homework, classroom, and evaluation, which was designed, and taught in medical and dental schools. Online support materials included mobile phone, email, Facebook Messenger, Line Messenger, Cisco Webex, and Zoom Meetings applications were recruited for this novel method. Results: A total of 32 third-year medical students and 26 sixth-year dental students was treated by DBL similarly. three subjects, including, Innovation in Dentistry, Basic Medical Research, and Principles of Pathology and Forensic Medicine were selected in this article. The results showed students could create their knowledge, ideas, and creativity during the online classes.Conclusion: DBL can be used as an alternative learning mode during the COVID-19 crisis. The benefits of DBL also include high flexibility, dynamic process, active learning, and high creativity. DBL should be tested with other disciplines such as engineering school, laws school, health sciences school, and should be compared with other traditional teaching and learning modes in the future. This method may support the global higher education systems to move forward the COVID-19 pandemic to set a novel standard of a future normal.

In an insightful article published in Nature human behavior on November 2020, the effectiveness of 46 “non-pharmaceutical interventions” (NPI) regarding Covid-19 pandemic have been compared¹. One of these 46 categories, the one which is ranked as the most effective measure, is named “small gatherings cancelation”. In the discussion section of that article, the authors introduce a list of what they probably assume to be representative examples of this category, namely, “closures of shops”, “closure of restaurants,” “mandatory home–working”, “gathering of 50 people or less” and so on. The name that the authors have given to this category could give rise to confusions and misunderstandings. We used corpus analysis to show that “small gathering” is commonly used to denote a planned or spontaneous “event”, and consequently does not convey what the authors intend this term to cover as its most representative instances i.e., Simultaneous presence of people (crowd) in shops or offices. Furthermore, taking a top-down approach, we focused on the information which was provided in reference material like CDC and WHO documents. The analysis showed that “small gatherings” is encoded in those sources to denote “events” and “small gatherings cancelation” is used to denote cancelling preplanned events. In conclusion, neither unspecialized language nor official/institutional discourse uses “small gathering” the way that the authors of the aforementioned article use it i.e., to refer to simultaneous presence of people (crowd) in shops or offices. Therefore, when language users come across this phrase, if they do not read the entire article, the only semantic frame that is evoked in their mind would be that of a festive or social “event” rather than of crowded shops or offices; this misunderstanding is cognitively justified and consequently changing this terminology is recommended.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of COVID-19 , is considered a pathogen with animal origin, mainly transmitted human to human. It has been experimentally and naturally demonstrated that several animals can be infected by SARS-CoV-2. There are strong evidences that minks are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, since several cases of human to mink infection have been reported, and it has been suggested mink to human infection exists, which so far it is the most reliable example of a zoonotic event of COVID-19 . However, all these cases reported are form mink farms, with the exception of one case in the USA in which the virus was detected in a mink located in the wild, but it was demonstrated that the animal was infected on a fur farm. In the present work, we have detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA in two wild American minks (Neovison vison) in Valencian Community (Eastern Spain) during invasive species trapping campaigns. The animals were trapped from areas known for harbouring self-sustained populations, far away from the nearest fur farm. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in mesenteric lymph nodes samples by RT-PCR. A partial region of the Spike protein gene was amplified and sequence obtaining a 397 nt size sequence. Phylogenetic analysis shown that both sequences were identical to the consensus variant SARS CoV-2 sequence (from Wuhan). This research describes the first infection report of a true wild American mink not related to infected fur farms or direct contact with humans, which is believed to be the first example of wild animals in which SARS-CoV-2 has been detected.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictive measures implemented may considerably affect people’s lives. This study aimed to assess the well-being of Vietnamese people after COVID-19 lockdown measures were lifted and life gradually returned to normal. An online survey was organized from 21st to 25th April 2020 among Vietnamese residents aged 18 and over. Besides collecting socio-demographic and COVID-19-related data, the WHO-5 Well-Being Index (scored 0–25) was used to score participants’ well-being. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine the predictors of well-being. A total of 1922 responses were analyzed (mean age: 31 years; 30.5% male). Mean well-being score was 17.35±4.97. Determinants of high well-being score (≥13) included older age, eating healthy food, practising physical exercise, working from home, and adhering to the COVID-19 preventive measures. Female participants, persons worried about their relatives’ health, and smokers were more likely to have a low well-being score. In conclusion, after the lockdown measures were lifted, the Vietnamese people continued to follow COVID-19 preventive measures and most of them scored high on the well-being scale. Waiting to achieve large scale COVID-19 vaccine coverage, promoting preventive COVID-19 measures remains important, together with strategies to guarantee the well-being of the Vietnamese people.

Background: In the midst of a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic music therapists previously not involved in telehealth had to develop effective remote forms of music therapy. The objective of this review was to systematically explore how music therapists previously working in-person adapted to the transfer to remote forms of therapy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. Methods: We searched Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, CINAHL, Medline, ProQuest Central, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and PsyARTICLES, grey literature (October 2020), and websites of professional organizations. We followed the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Results: Out of the 194 screened texts, we included ten very heterogenous articles with an overall very low quality. Most texts described remote therapy in the form of synchronous video calls using the Internet, one paper described a concert in a patio of a residential home. We report the authors´ experience with the adaptation and activities, challenges and benefits of remote forms of therapy, recommendations of organizations, and examples and tips for online therapies. Conclusions: Music therapists have adapted the musical instruments, the hours, the technology used, the therapeutic goals, the way they prepared their clients for sessions, and other aspects. They needed to be more flexible, consult with colleagues more, and mind the client-therapist relationship's boundaries. It seems, when taken as a necessary short-term measure, online music therapy works sufficiently well. The majority of papers stated that benefits outweighed the challenges, although many benefits were directly linked with the pandemic context.

In December 2019, an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan and promptly confirmed to be caused by a new virus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) of which the disease it caused would be known as COVID-19. In March 2020, in the absence of any vaccines, and in response to the global spread of SARS-CoV-2 the UK implemented non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) measures in the form of a national lockdown to decelerate the spread. Compliance with NPIs can have significant impact on reducing disease transmission however there are currently no studies measuring compliance within the horse ownership world which naturally brings groups of people together during everyday caregiving activities. This article describes the reported horse owner compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to December 2020 as deduced from 1036 respondents which completed an anonymous online survey between December 30th, 2020 and January 11th, 2021. Where rules/guidance did exist, there was good compliance with 92.76% of respondents indicating that they were following them. The most common rule/guidance implemented was social distancing, which was also the most common rule/guidance to be breached. Riding with others whilst at the yard (hacking or in an arena) and meeting up with non-household members (family and friends) when off the yard were also common rules/guidelines breached. Respondents who kept their horses at either DIY livery, or on a private yard were most likely to breach rules/regulations whereas respondents who kept their horses at full livery were least likely to breach rules/regulations. The results indicate that compliance of horse owners with COVID-19 rules/guidance is high when rules/guidance exists. However, just under half of respondents indicated that there were no rules/guidelines on their yards indicating that there is room for an increased contribution from the horse owning community by encouraging more yards to impose control measures where they currently do not exist.

Therapeutic options for the highly pathogenic human Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing the current pandemic Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are urgently needed. COVID-19 is associated with viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome causing significant morbidity and mortality. The proposed treatments for COVID-19, such as hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir and lopinavir/ritonavir, have shown little or no effect in the clinic. Additionally, bacterial and fungal pathogens contribute to the SARS-CoV-2 mediated pneumonia disease complex. The antibiotic resistance in pneumonia treatment is increasing at an alarming rate. Therefore, carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs), such as fullerene, carbon dots, graphene, and their derivatives constitute a promising alternative due to their wide-spectrum antimicrobial activity, biocompatibility, biodegradability and capacity to induce tissue regeneration. Furthermore, the antimicrobial mode of action is mainly physical (e.g. membrane distortion), which is characterized by a low risk of antimicrobial resistance. In this review, we evaluated the literature on the antiviral activity and broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties of CBNs. CBNs had antiviral activity against 12 enveloped positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2. CBNs with low or no toxicity to the humans are promising therapeutics against COVID-19 pneumonia complex with other viruses, bacteria and fungi, including those that are multidrug-resistant.

Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). There is sufficient experimental evidence to confirm that SARS-CoV-2 infection produces states of ciliary and flagellar dysfunction. However, these studies are unable to explain the observed effects molecularly, because they lack a sufficient understanding of the interaction between human proteins and virus proteins. Using the physical-chemical study of the human interactome in interaction with the SARS-CoV-2 proteome, we found evidence of interactions to explain the experimental effects from a molecular perspective. We found that ten viral proteins interact with key components in the maintenance of the molecular structure of axoneme. Additionally, we evaluated the pulmonary and extrapulmonary pathogenesis of COVID-19 from the point of view of ciliary dysfunction, and warned about other possible complications such as episodes of transient infertility that, due to the limitations of our work, would need verification.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been showing a speedy growth in the number of infected patients with a remarkable mortality rate, thus it has become a worldwide public health concern. From March 8, 2020, the disease was confirmed to start spreading in Bangladesh. Since then, people got infected so exponentially that the country positions at the list of top infected countries in the world. Therefore, the objective of this comprehensive review was representing overall scenario of COVID-19 in different sectors of Bangladesh, particularly prioritizing the health sector. Up to 14 September 2020, 339,332 confirmed cases and 4,759 deaths were reported. An alarming fact is that while the global mutation rate of coronavirus is 7.23 % in average, the rate is 12.6 % in Bangladesh. Although the government ruled preventive strategies such as nationwide lockdown, social distancing, contact monitoring, quarantine and isolation, it was difficult to implement those due to lack of public awareness, inappropriate attitudes and so on. Moreover, the overburdened healthcare system had a weak response at initial stage because of insufficient healthcare facilities. Consequently, this pandemic affected severely almost all the important sectors of the country, specifically the economy, agriculture and health sectors. Hence, focusing on healthcare system as well as maintaining social distance and other essential precautions can limit the spread of infection and help to alleviate the severity of the pandemic.

Purpose: A novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the cause of COVID-19 eventually led to the declaration of Public health emergency of international concern and a pandemic by WHO due to its exponential global spread. Present study was conducted to investigate the impact of second wave of pandemic on mental wellbeing and social behaviors among university students of Pakistan during this crucial period of COVID-19 infection. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was designed to evaluate the psychosocial impact during the current COVID-19 outbreak among the students of The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Snowball sampling or chain referral sampling procedure was adopted to recruit the participants in the study. Verbal informed consent was taken from all participants before recruitment in the study irrespective of their gender, age and socioeconomic status. Results: Mental health of university students during COVID-19 epidemic was affected to a varying degree revealing that 26.66% were recorded to have mild, 27.15% moderate and 17.04% suffering from severe anxiety out of total 1029 students. Students who were residing in urban areas with parents and having a steady family income were negatively associated and found protective factors against anxiety. However, having a relative or an acquaintance infected with COVID-19 was an independent risk factor for experienced anxiety. Positively associated factors with the level of anxiety symptoms included economic stressors, effects on daily-life, and academic delays whereas social support was negatively correlated with anxiety in COVID-19 related stressors. Conclusion: Public health emergencies and such pandemic are exerting serious psychological impacts on university students. It is recommended that the higher authorities should plan better policies to reduce this impact for the provision of high quality and timely crisis-oriented psychological services to university students.

The developments of confirmed daily Sars-CoV-2 infections can be modeled a posteriori in a comparatively simple and satisfactory way by means of a special exponential function: its exponential coefficient varies exponentially with time itself. This property enables the function to directly simulate the „daily case“ curve fragments observed for the first waves of the current epidemics in a number of counties and countries. Linear combinations of two or more of the functions allow for the modeling of the complete curves observed in the vast majority of all regions for which case number developments have been tabulated.

(1)Background: To perform a simulation-based analysis of 2019 COVID-19 outbreak and how would the electronic commerce indursty help China’s economy resilient. (2)Methods: As the epidemic continues, it is possible to use Computable General Equilibrium model to simulate the economic consequences and analyse the role of electronic commerce industy in COVID-19 outbreak. (3)Results: Estimates and models produced at the time of the outbreak suggested that COVID-19 could have a catastrophic effect on China’s economy. National statistics were examined for anomalies that corresponded to the timing of COVID-19 outbreak and, where possible, the size of any gain or loss found estimated. Our analysis suggests that the electronic commerce industry could help China’s economy to recover by stimulating consumption, improving technological level and expanding investment. (4)Conclusions: This exercise holds important lessons for estimating the electronic commerce’s role of similar events – such as pandemic influenza – and measures to recover the economy. We suggest that electronic commerce industry should be paid more attention in economic development, especially in epidemic time. The implications of our findings are discussed in the light of a prospective epidemic.

This study investigated the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, and stress and determined the association between various factors, social support, and depression and anxiety among university healthcare workers in Malaysia after the government lifted the movement control order (MCO) put in place to curb the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This online, cross-sectional survey recruited 399 participants from two university hospitals, and they were administered a self-reported questionnaire on demographic, personal, and clinical characteristics; COVID-19-related stressors; and coping. In addition, they completed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) to measure perceived social support, as well as the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) to assess depression, anxiety, and stress. We found that the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress were 21.8%, 31.6%, and 29.1%, respectively. Participants with moderate to extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress made up 13.3%, 25.8%, and 8.1% of the sample, respectively. Being single or divorced, fear of frequent exposure to COVID-19 patients, those who agreed that their area of living had a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases, and uncertainty regarding the prevalence of COVID-19 cases in the area of living were associated with higher odds of depression and anxiety. Conversely, having more than three children and greater perceived friend support were associated with lower odds of depression and anxiety. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress remained elevated even after the MCO was lifted.

This paper establishes a prognosis of the long term environmental impact of various car subsidy concepts. The CO2 emissions of the German car fleet impacted by the purchase subsidies are determined. A balance model of the CO2 emissions of the whole car life cycle is developed. Consideration of production-, use- and End-of-Life processes are taken into account. The implementation of different subsidy scenarios directly affects the forecasted composition of the vehicle population and therefore the resulting life cycle assessment. All scenarios compensate the additional emissions required by the production pull-in within the considered period and hence reduce the accumulated CO2 emissions until 2030. The exclusive funding of BEVs is most effective with a break-even in 2025.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was particularly invasive in Italy during the period between March and late April 2020 then decreased in both in the number of infections and in the seriousness of the illness throughout the summer of 2020. In this discussion, we measure the severity of the disease by the ratio of Intensive Care Units (ICU) spaces occupied by COVID-19 patients and the number of Active Cases (AC) each month from April to October 2020. We also use the ratio of the number of Deaths (D) to the number of Active Cases. What clearly emerges, from rigorous statistical analysis, is a progressive decrease in both ratios until August, indicating progressive mitigation of the disease. This is particularly evident when comparing March-April with July-August; during the summer period the two ratios became roughly 18 times lower. We test such sharp decreases against possible bias in counting active cases and we confirm their statistical significance. We then interpret such evidence in terms of the well-known seasonality of the human immune system and the virus-inactivating effect of stronger UV rays in the summer. Both ratios, however, increased again in October as ICU/AC began to increase in September 2020. These ratios and the exponential growth of infections in October indicate that the virus - if not contained by strict measures - will lead to unsustainable challenges for the Italian health system in the winter of 2020-2021 .

(1) Background: A global pandemic due to COVID-19 emerged in November 2019 and hit France in early March 2020. It not only resulted in a loss of lives but also in very strict confinement measures. The objective of this study was to understand what the determinants of the change in participants’ behavior and mental state were during the confinement. (2) Methods: An online survey was launched on April 23rd, 2020, and closed on May 7th, 2020. The final sample included 1454 participants from 24 to 65 years old. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were then performed. (3) Results: 28.7% reported having a more balanced diet, against 17.1% with a less balanced diet. 22.7% of respondents reported an increased alcohol consumption, as opposed to only 12.2% declaring a decrease and 11.2% of respondents increased their tobacco consumption, while 6.3% decreased it. 50.6% of the participants reported being more depressed, stressed, or irritable since the beginning of the lockdown. Confinement had a negative effect on every behavior studied in this survey, except for nutrition. We also found that negative mental state changes were strongly associated with nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and alcohol consumption changes.

Pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS) is a new entity in children, likely associated with previous coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). Most of reports about PIMS come from countries particularly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim was to investigate the nature of inflammatory syndromes in Poland (a country with low COVID-19 prevalence) and to perceive the emergence of PIMS in our country. On May 25th, we have launched a nationwide survey of inflammatory syndromes in children for retrospective (since 4th March 2020) and prospective data collection. Up to 28th July, 39 reported children met inclusion criteria. We stratified them according to age (<5 and ≥ 5 years old) and COVID-19 status. The majority of children had clinical and laboratory features of Kawasaki disease, probably non-associated with COVID-19. However, children ≥5 years of age had PIMS characteristics, and 9 children had COVID-19 confirmation. This is the first to our knowledge report of PIMS register from the country with low COVID-19 prevalence, and it proves that PIMS may emerge in any area involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. In a context of limited COVID-19 testing availability, other risk factors of PIMS, e.g. older age should be considered in the differential diagnosis of inflammatory syndromes in children.

COVID-19, previously known as “2019 novel coronavirus”, is a newly discovered virus which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, similar to corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has spread widely through human to human contact and was declared a pandemic by the WHO in March 2020. To cope with this pandemic many countries have adopted nationwide lockdowns which restrict nonessential activities and encourage their populations to avoid public transport, work from hone wherever possible, and to maintain social distancing at all times. While the severity of these shutdowns has varied with country, large geographic regions of the world (including China, India, Iran, Italy, Spain, and the USA) have all been severely affected, not just in the loss of human life, but also in terms of the financial impacts the lockdowns will have on their countries future prosperityIt was previously reported that a number of environmental factors, including humidity and temperature, played an important role in development and spread of the SARS-Corona Virus infection with the virus retaining viability for over 5 days at temperatures between 22–25^oC and relative humidity (RH) of 40–50%. Whereas, elevated temperatures and higher RH (38^oC, and >95% RH) decreased virus viability (Kroumpouzos et al., 2020). The spread of COVID-19 started in low temperature areas of China, with major outbreaks subsequently occurring in Iran, Japan, Northern Italy and South Korea. These new virus epicenters all had similar temperature and latitude, along the 30-50^◦N” zone. Subsequently, the virus was spread to regions of elevated temperature, such as India, the Middle East and Thailand, due to international travel (Kroumpouzos et al., 2020).The aim of this study was to consider the environmental impact of COVID-19, including water pollution. The paper is divided into four sections. In the first section the current literature related to COVID-19 is reviewed. In the second section a recent update on COVID-19 globally is presented, followed by a descriptive impact on the environment in the third section and finally in the fourth section the COVID-19 related worldwide environmental impact is discussed. Since COVID-19 is a currently an active pandemic with no end in sight, while constructive conclusions can only be made on the limited data currently, which may be prone to high errors. However, these conclusions may provide some preliminary suggestions for assisting in assessing spreading patterns of COVID-19 across the globe, and may be of long-term significances with respect to assessing the environmental impact of lockdown policies due to COVID-19 worldwide.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, with the United States being highly affected. A vaccine provides the best hope for a permanent solution to controlling the pandemic. However, to be effective, a vaccine must be accepted and used by a large majority of the population. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the relationships of several factors with attitudes toward potential COVID-19 vaccination. The survey was administered to 316 respondents across the United States by a survey corporation. Prior vaccine usage and attitudes predicted attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Assessment of the severity of COVID-19 for the United States was also predictive. Approximately 68% of all respondents were supportive of being vaccinated for COVID-19, but side effects, efficacy, and length of testing remained concerns. Longer testing, increased efficacy and development in the United States were significantly associated with increased vaccine acceptance. Messages promoting COVID-19 vaccination should seek to alleviate the concerns of those who are already vaccine-hesitant. Messaging directed at the benefits of vaccination for the United States as a country would address the second predictive factor. Enough time should be taken to allay concerns about both short and long-term side effects before a vaccine is released.

Geoscientists developed geoethics, an intra-disciplinary field of applied philosophical studies, during the last decade. Reaching beyond the sphere of professional geosciences, it led to professional, cultural, and philosophical approaches to handle the social-ecological structures of our planet ‘wherever human activities interact with the Earth system’. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 and considering geoscientists’ experiences dealing with disasters (related to hazards like tsunamis, floods, climate changes.), this essay (1) explores the geoethical approach, (2) re-casts geoethics within western philosophical systems, such as the Kantian imperatives, Kohlberg scale of moral adequacy, Jonas’ imperative of responsibility, and (3) advances a ‘geoethical thesis’. The latter takes the form of a hypothesis of a much broader scope of geoethics than initially envisioned. That hypothesis appears by suspecting a relationship between the relative successes in the COVID-19 battle with the positioning of agents (individual, collective, institutional) into ethical frameworks. The turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for the transfer of experiences between different disciplinary domains to further sustainable governance, hence generalising the geoethical approach. It is emphasized that only when behaving as responsible and knowledgeable citizens, then people of any trade (including [geo-]scientists) can transgress the boundaries of ordinary governance practices with legitimacy.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with high risk of malnutrition, primarily in elderly people; assessing nutritional risk using appropriate screening tools is critical. This systematic review identified applicable tools and assessed their measurement properties. Literature was searched in the MEDLINE, Embase, and LILACS databases. Four studies conducted in China met the eligibility criteria. Sample sizes ranged from six to 182, and participants’ ages from 65 to 87 years. Seven nutritional screening and assessment tools were used: the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002), Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), MNA-short form (MNA-sf), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Nutritional Risk Index (NRI), Geriatric NRI (GNRI), and modified Nutrition Risk in the Critically ill (mNUTRIC) score. Nutritional risk was identified in 27.5% to 100% of participants. The NRS-2002, MNA, MNA-sf, NRI, and MUST demonstrated high sensitivity; the MUST had better specificity. The MNA and MUST demonstrated better criterion validity. The MNA-sf demonstrated better predictive validity for poor appetite and weight loss; the NRS-2002 demonstrated better predictive validity for prolonged hospitalization. mNUTRIC score demonstrated good predictive validity for hospital mortality. Most instruments demonstrate high sensitivity for identifying nutritional risk, but none are acknowledged as the best for nutritional screening in elderly COVID-19 patients.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The implications for industries related to the Olympics—tourism, hotels and restaurants, and others—are expected to be affected by reduced demand. Japanese workers in these industries were prepared to offer their hospitality to visitors from around the world. They would be satisfied from not only an increase in income but also in offering visitors a taste of Tokyo’s great hospitality if the Olympics had been held in 2020. However, postponement of the sporting event is likely to have a significant impact on their happiness level. We independently collected individual-level panel data from March to April 2020. Based on this, we found that the happiness level of workers in the tourism and restaurant sectors declined drastically after the announcement of the postponement. Only two weeks later, their happiness level did not alter from the pre-announcement level. This tendency was strongly observed in Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures, but not in other prefectures. However, workers engaged in the tourism and restaurant sectors did not predict a decrease in their income even after the postponement. Combined, these findings indicate that loss of extending hospitality, rather than reduction in income, temporarily reduces the happiness level of workers.

COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented sanitary threat: antiviral and host-directed medications to treat the disease are still urgently needed.A great effort has been paid to find drugs and treatments for hospitalized, severely ill patients. However, medications used for the domiciliary management of initial symptoms, notwithstanding their importance, have not been and are not presently regarded with the same attention. In analogy with other respiratory viral infections, COVID-19 patients in the early phase require specific antivirals (still lacking) and non-etiotropic drugs to lower pain, fever and control inflammation. Non-steroidal antinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and paracetamol (PAC) are widely used as non-etiotropic agents in these conditions and hence are both theoretically repurposable for COVID-19. However, a warning from some research reports and National Authorities raised NSAIDs safety concerns because of the supposed induction of ACE2 protein levels (the receptor used by SARS-CoV2 to enter host airways cells), the risk of bacterial superinfections and masking of disease symptoms. As a consequence, the use of NSAIDs was, and is, strongly discouraged while the alternative adoption of paracetamol is still preferred.On the basis of novel data and hypothesis on the possible role of scarce glutathione (GSH) levels in the exacerbation of COVID-19 and of the GSH depleting activity of PAC, this commentary raises the question of whether PAC may produce an oxidative imbalance which could be detrimental in COVID-19 clinical outcomes.

Despite great advances in understanding the dynamics of viral epidemics, the emergence of rapidly spreading, highly pathogenic viruses remains a realistic and catastrophic possibility, which current health systems may not be able to fully contain. An intriguing feature in many recent zoonotic viral outbreaks is the presence of superspreaders, which are infected individuals that cause dramatically more new cases than the average. Here I study the effect of superspreaders on the early dynamics of emerging viruses that have not gained the capacity for efficient human-to-human transmission, i.e viruses with R0 < 1. I show that superspreaders have a higher chance of rapid extinction, but under crowded conditions can lead to outbreaks, causing far more cases than regular viruses. I suggest that outbreaks of highly pathogenic superspreaders are more likely when they coincide in time and space with an unrelated outbreak leading to increased hospital admission rates. These superspreader outbreaks may be difficult to detect, especially in the context of a different epidemic in progress, and can significantly affect mortality patterns observed in affected areas.

Nigeria is the most populous country in the African continent. The aim of this study was to analyze risk factors for COVID-19 prevalence and deaths in all 6 geopolitical regions and 37 states in Nigeria. We analyzed the data retrieved from various sources, including Nigeria CDC, Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics, Unicef-Nigeria multiple indicator cluster survey and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. We examined 4 clinical risk factors (prevalence of TB, HIV, smoking and BCG vaccination coverage) and 5 sociodemographic factors (age ≥65, population density, literacy rate, unemployment and GDP per capita). Multivariate modeling was conducted using generalized linear model. Our analysis showed that the incidence of confirmed COVID-19 cases differed widely across the 37 states, from 0.09 per 100,000 in Kogi to 83.7 in Lagos. However, more than 70% of confirmed cases were concentrated in just 7 states: Lagos, Abuja, Oyo, Kano, Edo, Rivers and Delta. Case mortality rate (CMR) per million population also varied considerably, with Lagos, Abuja and Edo having CMR above 9. On bivariate analysis, higher CMR correlated positively with GDP and to a lesser extent with TB and population density. On multivariate analysis, which is more definitive, states with higher HIV prevalence and BCG coverage had lower CMR, while high GDP states had a greater CMR. This study indicates that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected certain states in Nigeria. Population susceptibility factors include higher economic development but not literacy or unemployment. Death rates were mildly lower in states with higher HIV prevalence and BCG vaccination coverage.

Contact tracing has become an indispensable tool of various extensive measures to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic due to novel coronavirus. This essential tool helps to identify, isolate and quarantine the contacted persons of a COVID-19 patient. However, the existing contact tracing applications developed by various countries, health organizations to trace down the contacts after identifying a COVID-19 patient suffers from several security and privacy concerns. In this work, we have identified those security and privacy issues of several leading contact tracing applications and proposed a blockchain-based framework to overcome the major security and privacy challenges imposed by the applications. We have discussed the security and privacy measures that are achieved by the proposed framework to show the effectiveness against the security and privacy issues raised by the existing mobile contact tracing applications.

Background: Kidney damage is considered to be one of the risk factors for severity and mortality among COVID-19 patients. However, molecular nature of such observations remains unknown. Hypothesis: Altered gene expressions due to infection and in chronic kidney disease could explain severity in COVID-19 with kidney defects. Methods: We collected gene expression data from publicly available resources Gene Expression Omnibus CKD, Enrichr for deregulated genes in SARS-CoV infected cells in vitro, DisGeNET and others and carried out enrichment analysis using Enrichr. Result: Number of common genes altered in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and SARS-CoV infected cells was 2834. Enrichment analysis revealed that biological processes related viral life cycle and growth, cytokines, immunity, interferon, inflammation, apoptosis, autophagy, oxidative stress and others were significantly enriched with common deregulated genes. Similarly, significantly enriched pathways related to viral and bacterial infections, immunity and inflammation, cell cycle, ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, signaling pathways like Relaxin signaling pathway, mTOR signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway were enriched with the common deregulated genes. These processes and pathways are known to be related to kidney damage. DisGeNET terms enriched include and related to Dengue fever, chronic Hepatitis, measles, retroviridae infections, respiratory syncytial virus Infections and many others. Kidney dysfunction related terms ischemia of kidney, renal fibrosis and diabetic nephropathy. Conclusion: Common deregulated genes in SARS-CoV infected cells and chronic kidney disease, as well as their enrichment with molecular processes and pathways relevant for viral pathogenesis and renal dysfunctions, could explain the severity of COVID-19 with kidney disease. This observation not only provides molecular relation of severity in COVID-19 with renal dysfunctions but might also help in the management and treatment targets for these cases.

In Wuhan city of China, an episode of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) happened. during late December and it has quickly spread to all places in the world. Until May 29, 2020, cases were high in the USA with 1.7 Million, Russia with approximately 387 thousand, the UK with 271 thousand confirmed cases. Everybody on the planet is anxious to know when the coronavirus pandemic will end. In this scourge, most nations force extreme medication measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. Modeling has been utilized broadly by every national government and the World Health Organization in choosing the best procedures to seek after in relieving the impacts of COVID-19. Many epidemiological models are studied to understand the spread of the illness and its prediction to find maximum capacity for human-to-human transmission so that control techniques can be adopted. Also, arrangements for the medical facilities required such as hospital beds and medical supplies can be made in advance. Many models are used to anticipate the results keeping in view the present scenario. There is an urgent need to study the various models and their impacts. In this study, we present a systematic literature review on epidemiological models for the outbreak of novel coronavirus in India. The epidemiological dynamics of COVID-19 is also studied. Here, In addition, an attempt to take out the results from the exploration and comparing it with the real data. The study helps to choose the models that are progressive and dependable to predict and give legitimate methods for various strategies.

Real-time estimation of the parameters characterising infectious disease transmission is important for optimization quarantine interventions during outbreaks. One of the most significant parameters is the effective reproduction number - number of secondary cases produced by a single infection. The current study presents an approach for estimating the effective reproduction number and its application to COVID-19 outbreak. The method is based on fitting SIR epidemic model to observation data in a sliding time window and allows to show real-time dynamics of reproduction number at any phase of epidemic for countries globally. Online data on COVID-19 daily cases of infections, recoveries, deaths are used.Finally, time-dependent reproduction number is explored in connection with dynamics of peoples mobility. The method allows to assess the disease transmission potential and understand the effect of interventions on epidemics spread. It also can be easily adapted to future outbreaks of different pathogens. The tool is available online as Python code from the Github repository.

Corona Virus Infectious Disease (COVID-19) is newly emerging infectious disease. This disease is known to the globe in early 2019. Poor status of mental health is often caused by unemployment, ongoing socio-economic condition. Poor mental health may even accelerate the process of panic attack. It has been happening rapidly during COVID-19. It has a great effect on human health. This paper utilizes multiple related factors those have impact on causing panic attack. Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) based framework is utilized in this paper that assembles multiple RNN layers along with other parameters into a single platform. This method is implemented by capturing interfering factors and predicts panic attack tendency of people during COVID-19. Early prediction of panic attacks may assist in saving life from unwanted circumstances.

Coronavirus (COVID19) appears to be an inflection point that is forcing a disruption in medical education. However, it is not clear what the responses of the institutions are to this pandemic and how the adaptation of new methods may impact medical education in the post COVID-19 era. Objective: The study aims to explore how medical schools in Egypt responded to COVID-19 pandemic regarding the teaching and learning/assessment for undergraduate students. Design: A mixed method exploratory two-phase study was conducted. A survey was prepared and disseminated to a convenient non-probability sample of the medical school faculty through various social platforms. Then, a focus group guide was conducted to explore in more depth the findings. Results: The staff level of preparedness for that unexpected shift was evaluated by 55.1% of the survey participants as optimum to high and a good leadership support was reported by 70 % of them. They reported conflicting views about the proper role of medical education units but reinforced the idea of Egyptian Knowledge Bank’s crucial role in this transition. Additionally, there is a communication problem with the students that leads to their detachment. Subsequently, 84.6 % of the participants reported that their schools used alternative teaching methods for small groups, large groups, pre-clinical and clinical clerkships. However, 64.1 % of the participants identified a clinical skills teaching challenge. Although, 68.4% reported that alternative methods were used for formative assessment but absence of alternative methods for summative assessment was declared by 76.3%. Conclusions: Individuals moved faster than bodies and relied on support existing outside the universities when catastrophe happened. However, institutes which have experience in adapting modern engaging learning methods should organize a better response for crisis. Online learning should be integrated in the curriculum with a fair percentage especially in the early years of medical study.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has not only commenced a global health emergency but agitated various aspects of humanity. During this period of crisis researchers over the world have ramped their efforts to constrain the disease in all possible ways whether it is vaccination, therapy, or diagnosis. Since the spread of the disease has not yet elapsed sharing the ongoing research findings could be the key to disease control and management. An early and efficient diagnosis could leverage the outcome until a successful vaccine is developed. Molecular tests both in-house and commercial kits are preferably being used worldwide in the COVID-19 diagnosis. However, the limitation of high prices and lengthy procedures impede their use for mass testing. Keeping the constant rise of infection in mind search for an alternative test that should be cost-effective, simple, and suitable for large scale testing and surveillance is a need of an hour. One such alternative could be the immunological tests. Therefore, in the last few months deluge of immunological rapid tests has been developed and validated across the globe. The objective of the present review is to share the diagnostic performance of various immunological assays reported so far in SARS-CoV-2 case detection. The article consolidated the studies (published and preprints) related to the serological tests such as chemiluminescence, enzyme-linked and lateral flow-based point-of-care tests in COVID-19 diagnosis and updated the current scenario. This review will hopefully be an add-on in COVID-19 research and will contribute to congregate the evidence for decision-making.

The COVID-19 epidemic is an emerging infectious disease of the viral zoonosis type caused by the corona-virus strain SARS-CoV-2, is classified as a human-to-human communicable disease and is currently a pandemic worldwide. In this paper, we propose conceptual mathematical models the epidemic dynamics of four compartments. We have collected data from the Djibouti health ministry. We define the positivity, boundedness of solutions and basic reproduction number. Then, we study local and global stability and bifurcation analysis of equilibrium to examine its epidemiological relevance. Finally, we analyze the fit of the data in comparison with the result of our mathematical results, to validate the model and estimating the important model parameters and prediction about the disease, we consider the real cases of Djibouti from 23th March to 10th June, 2020.

Our first modern global pandemic is caused by a nanosized lipid vesicle, called SARS-CoV-2. Its molecular structure and biogenesis have remarkable similarities with Extracellular Vesicles (EVs, most notably exosomes) that are constantly shed by all cells during their life. Their resemblance may not be a coincidence. Growing body of evidence has shown that EVs have significant roles in various biological processes, including viral infection, transmission and anti-viral response. Drawing comparison with the virus might shed light on how we could fight the COVID-19 disease. This may include novel EV research and diagnostics technologies as well as novel EV-based treatments.

In this review, we address issues that relate to the rapid “Warp Speed” development of vaccines to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. We review the antibody response that is triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection of humans, and how it may inform vaccine research. The isolation and properties of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies from COVID-19 patients provide additional information on what vaccines should try to elicit. The nature and longevity of the antibody response to coronaviruses are relevant to the potency and duration of vaccine-induced immunity. We summarize the immunogenicity of leading vaccine candidates tested to date in animals and humans, and discuss the outcome and interpretation of virus-challenge experiments in animals. By far the most immunogenic vaccine candidates for antibody responses are recombinant proteins, which are not included in the initial wave of “Warp Speed” immunogens. A substantial concern for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is adverse events, which we review by considering what was seen in studies of SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV vaccines. We conclude by outlining the possible outcomes of the “Warp Speed” vaccine program, which range from the hoped-for rapid success to a catastrophic adverse influence on vaccine uptake generally.

The physical environment plays an important role in the transmission of respiratory infections like Covid-19. To find relevant articles on environmental factors influencing respiratory infection outbreaks, we searched Pub med Central on the following topics: 1. Environmental pollution causing coronavirus fatality- 73 results, relevant 1 article, 2. Environmental factors affecting Covid-19, 149 results from which there were 6 relevant articles, 3. Impact of air pollution on Covid-19 fatality, 10 results, relevant 3 articles, 4. Environmental factors affecting respiratory viruses- 10646 results were obtained, 2 relevant articles. We searched Google scholar on environmental factors affecting Covid-19 transmission and found 7 relevant papers. We excluded the duplicates in each of the key words search. Date of search was on 20^th April 2020. All articles included in results were scrutinized and relevance of articles was based on their content that discussed meteorological and physical environment factors in the spread and severity of Covid-19. We have discussed factors like air pollution, smoking, air temperature, humidity and air velocity as contributing factors. If meteorological factors are conducive to spread in a particular area, we need protective measures way before a respiratory infection outbreak occurs. Covid-19 is a lesson learnt the hard way, and we must enable people to practice hygienic practices with limited resources but high level of protection that it provides. Air pollution control can prevent priming of respiratory system which shall further protect from pulmonary infections.

As the first initiative of its kind in Algeria, here is presented a solar-powered mobile “Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation” disinfection unit (UVGI) based on a special germicidal ultraviolet-C (UVC) radiator. The system was designed to disinfect several objects such as: medical tools, reusable masks, face-shields, gloves, phones, laptops, keys, money and many other portable devices that need to be disinfected/sterilized. It offers the advantage of complete autonomy through the built-in photovoltaic (PV) system that includes a solar panel, a gel battery, a charge controller and a power inverter. The system provides an extra 220V-50Hz outlet with 375VA maximum power to be used when energy is needed. The system is easily scalable to generate higher ultraviolet dosages by adding more UVC lamps. The chemical-free germicidal UVC sanitizing method employed by this device effectively disactivates a very wide range of microorganisms (microbes, bacteria and fungi and viruses including the actual SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 respiratory disease) and it has several advantages in comparison to chemical-based sanitizing methods. The total cost to make this open source device is below 1000 € and is easily customizable and scalable. This device is an open source, secure and fast equipment for objects and surface disinfection. The device will be fully automated by adding PIR sensors or remote control after further funding will be received.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the end of 2019, the clinical presentation of the disease showed a great heterogeneity with a diverse impact between different subpopulations. Emerging evidence from different parts of the world showed significantly poor outcome among males compared to female patients. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind this difference might be a fundamental step for a more effective and targeted response to the outbreak. For that reason, here we try to investigate the molecular basis of the gender variations in mortality rates related to COVID-19 infection. To achieve this, we used our in-house pipeline to process publicly available lung transcriptomic data from 141 females compared to 286 males. After excluding Y specific genes, our results showed a shortlist of 73 genes that are differentially expressed between the two groups. Our results showed downregulation of a group of genes that are involved in the regulation of hydrolase activity including (AGTR1, CHM, DDX3X, FGFR3, SFRP2, and NLRP2), which is also believed to be essential for lung immune response and antimicrobial activity in the lung tissues in males compared to females. In contrast, our results showed an upregulation of angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AGTR1), a member of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) that plays a role in angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) activity modulation. Interestingly, recent reports and experimental animal models highlight an important role of this receptor in SARS-Coronavirus lung damage as well as pulmonary edema, suggesting a possible role of its blockers like losartan and olmesartan as potential therapeutic options for COVID-19 infection. Finally, our results also showed a differential expression of different genes that are involved in the immune response including the NLRP2 and PTGDR2, further supporting the notion of the sex-based immunological differences. Taken together, our results provide an initial evidence of the molecular mechanisms that might be involved in the differential outcomes observed between both genders during the COVID-19 outbreak. This might be essential for the discovery of new targets and more precise therapeutic options to treat COVID-19 patients from different clinical and epidemiological characteristics with the aim of improving their outcome.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the disease COVID-19 that has decimated the health and economy of our planet. The virus causes the disease not only in people but also in companion and wild animals. People with diabetes are at risk of the disease. As yet we do not know why the virus is highly successful in causing the pandemic within 3 months of its first report. The structural proteins of SARS include, membrane glycoprotein (M), envelope protein (E), nucleocapsid protein (N) and the spike protein (S). The structure and function of the most abundant structural protein of SARS-CoV-2, the membrane (M) glycoprotein is not fully understood. Using in silico analyses we determined the structure and potential function of the M protein. The M protein of SARS-CoV-2 is 98.6% similar to the M protein of bat SARS-CoV, maintains 98.2% homology with pangolin SARS-CoV, and has 90% homology with M protein of SARS-CoV; whereas, the similarity was only 38% with the M protein of MERS-CoV. In silico analyses showed that the M protein of SARS-CoV-2 has a triple helix bundle, form a single 3-transmembrane domain (TM), and are homologous to the prokaryotic sugar transport protein semiSWEET. SemiSWEETs are related to the PQ-loop family that function as cargo receptors in vesicle transport, mediates movement of basic amino acids across lysosomal membranes, and is also involved in phospholipase flippase function. The advantage and role of the M protein having a sugar transport-like structure is not clearly understood. The M protein of SARS-CoV-2 interacts with S, E and N protein. The S protein of the virus is glycosylated. It could be hypothesized that the sugar transporter-like structure of the M protein influences glycosylation of the S protein. Endocytosis is critical for the internalization and maturation of RNA viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Sucrose is involved in endosome and lysosome maturation and may also induce autophagy, pathways that help in the entry of the virus. Overall, it could be hypothesized that the semiSWEET sugar transporter-like structure of the M protein may be involved in multiple functions that may aid in the rapid proliferation, replication and immune evasion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Biological experiments would validate the presence and function of the semiSWEET sugar transporter.

The constant news about the corona virus is scary. It is not possible to separate treatment for Cancer due to COVID-19. An effective treatment comparison strategy is needed. We need to have a handy tool to understand cancer progression in this unprecedented scenario. Linking different events of cancer progression is the need of the hour. It is a methodological challenge. We provide the solutions to overcome the issue with interval between two consecutive events in motivating head and neck cancer (HNC) data.

Chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCDs) have been a major public health concern worldwide, especially diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, in addition to obesity, which is even more worrying when the subject involves the covid-19 pandemic, because such incidences correlate with the need for intensive care units, including the possibility of death of the patient. Therefore, for countries with the highest numbers of critical cases, it is important to assess the incidence of these diseases to guide the public that most needs guidance on public policies for social isolation.

It has been a long time since the world has experienced a pandemic with such a rapid devastating impact as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The causative agent, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is further unusual in that it appears capable of infecting many different mammal species. As a significant proportion of people worldwide are infected with SARS-CoV-2 and may spread the infection unknowingly before symptoms occur or without any symptoms ever occurring, there is a non-negligible risk of humans spreading SARS-CoV-2 to wildlife, in particular mammals. Because of SARS-CoV-2’s evolutionary origins in bats and reports of humans transmitting the virus to pets and zoo animals, regulations for prevention of human-to-animal transmission have so far focused mostly on these animal groups. Here, we summarize recent studies and reports that show that a wide range of distantly related mammals are likely susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and that susceptibility or resistance to the virus is in general not predictable, or only to some extent, by phylogenetic proximity to known susceptible or resistant hosts. In the absence of solid evidence on the SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility/resistance for each of the >5,500 mammal species, we argue that sanitary precautions should be taken when interacting with any mammal species in the wild. Preventing human-to-wildlife SARS-CoV-2 transmission is important for protecting these (sometimes endangered) animals from disease, but also to avoid establishment of novel SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs in wild animals. The risk of repeated re-infection of humans from such a wildlife reservoir could severely hamper SARS-CoV-2 control efforts. For wildlife fieldworkers interacting directly or indirectly with mammals, we recommend sanitary precautions such as physical distancing, wearing face masks and gloves, and frequent decontamination, which are very similar to regulations currently imposed to prevent transmission among humans.

The human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has a crucial role on blood pressure control; however, ACE2 is also the primary SARS-CoV-2 (S domain) virus receptor. Inhibiting or even reducing the expression of the native ACE2 might diminish the viral entry into the cells, but may cause a failure of ACE2 biological activity, primarily in patients with comorbidities, including diabetes mellitus or hypertension. Since the ACE2 catalytic site and the SARS-Cov-2 receptor are distinct, we designed a Crispr-Cas9 model system, predicting the respective sequences for a guide RNA (gRNA) and a single-stranded oligo dideoxy nucleotide (ssODN), to introduce point mutations into the exon 1 of the human ACE2 gene, which encodes the alpha-helix, implicated on the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 envelope S protein. Protein modeling predicted that the specific substitutions of residues Phe28, Lys31, and Tyr41 for Ala at the ACE2 alpha-helix do not significantly alter ACE2 native conformation. The analysis of the impact of these mutations on ACE2 receptor function predicted a weakening of the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 protein S. An experimental genome editing of cells based on these Crispr-Cas9 elements might reduce the SARS-CoV-2 ability to enter the epithelial cell, preserving the biological activity of ACE2 enzyme.

The state of community lock-down due to COVID-19 pandemic caused restricted movements of people. There are existing evidence of the negative impact of quarantine and isolation to the mental health of a person in different contexts. A scoping review of literature using Google Scholar was conducted to discover records about the public mental health while in a community quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic. A methodological approach suggested by Arksey and O’Malley was utilized. It comprised (a) identifying the research questions, (b) identifying relevant literatures, (c) selecting literature, (d) charting the extracted data, and (e) summarizing, analyzing, and reporting the results. As of April 17, 2020, there were only 4 original articles found that discuss psychosocial aspect of the COVID-19 crisis. After an online survey, they present evidence that (1) there is an outward change in the people’s behavior toward self-care during the pandemic and (2) trusting the community governing bodies can minimize the level of anxiety and stress. Other literatures found are original articles in preprint (n=8), letters, commentaries, editorial (n=6), review paper (n=4), and WHO guideline (n=1). It is evident that the psychosocial aspect of COVID-19 crisis needs more attention from the scholars and a large research gap can be lessened trough expansion of online platforms.

As the novel COVID-19 disease spreads around the world, the most affected population are those who suffer from the most common chronic diseases, such as obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes, which are quite associated with the so-called age-related diseases. On the other hand, since the Spanish influenza outbreak, humanity has not experienced an infectious disease that synergizes so quickly with chronic diseases, making it mortal for those individuals with comorbidities. In this context, COVID-19 is challenging for health systems all around the world due to the high prevalence of chronic diseases. Nowadays, we are facing the beginning of a new era in which health infectious and chronic diseases meet. Therefore, epidemiologic and biomedical researchers must work together to solve further contingencies, and politicians should direct science-centered decisions on public health. In the present paper, we make an urgent call to learn from the COVID-19 lessons in order to mitigate the chronic diseases prevalence and to address the influence of the infectious diseases on the aging process; since we are about to begin the Decade of Healthy Aging.

The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is largely driven by community transmission, after 2019 novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2) crosses the borders. To stop the spread, rapid testing is required at community clinics and hospitals. These rapid tests should be comparable with the standard PCR technology. Isothermal amplification technology provides an excellent alternative that is highly amenable to resource limited settings, where expertise and infrastructure to support PCR are not available. In this review, we provide a brief description of isothermal amplification technology, its potential and the gaps that need to be considered for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Among this emerging technology, loop mediated amplification (LAMP) and recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) technologies have been identified as potential platforms that could be implemented at community level, without samples referral to a centralised laboratory and prolonged turn-around-time associated with the standard COVID-19 RT-PCR test. LAMP, for example, has recently been shown to be comparable with PCR and could be performed in less than 30 min by non-laboratory staff, without RNA extractions commonly associated with PCR. More so, it is cost effective and could easily be scaled up to resource limited settings. Diagnostics developers, scientific community and commercial companies could consider this alternative method to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Sars-CoV-2 outbreak represents a public health emergency, affecting different regions of the world. Lung is the organ more damaged due to the high presence of Sars-CoV-2 binding receptor ACE2 on epithelial alveolar cells. Severity of infection vary from absence of symptomatology to be more severe, characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multiorgan failure and sepsis requiring treatment in Intensive Care Unit (ICU).It is not still clear why in a small percentage of patients immune system is not able to efficiently suppress viral replication. It has been documented as predictive factors for severity and susceptibility affections of cardiovascular system such as heart failure (HF), coronary heart disease (CHD) and risk factors for atherosclerotic progression, hypertension and diabetes among others.Atherosclerotic progression, as chronic inflammation process, is characterized by immune system dysregulation leading to pro-inflammatory pattern, including (Interleukin 6) IL-6, Tumor Necrosis Factor α (TNF-α) and IL-1β raise. Reviewing immune system and inflammation profiles in atherosclerosis and laboratory results report in severe Sars-CoV-2 infection we have supposed a pathogenetic correlation. Atherosclerosis may be a pathogenetic ideal substrate to high viral replication ability leading to adverse outcomes, how reported in patients with cardiovascular factors. Moreover, level of atherosclerotic progression may impact on a different degree of severe infection and in a vicious circle feeding itself Sars-CoV-2 may exacerbate atherosclerotic progression due to excessive and aberrant plasmatic concentration of cytokines.

In the end of December 2019, a new strain of coronavirus was identified in the Wuhan city of Hubei province in China. Within a shorter period of time, an unprecedented outbreak of this strain was witnessed over the entire Wuhan city. This novel coronavirus strain was later officially renamed as COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) by the World Health Organization. The mode of transmission had been found to be human-to-human contact and hence resulted in a rapid surge across the globe where more than 1,100,000 people have been infected with COVID-19. In the current scenario, finding potent drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19 has emerged as the most challenging task for clinicians and researchers worldwide. Identification of new drugs and vaccine development may take from a few months to years based on the clinical trial processes. To overcome the several limitations involved in identifying and bringing out potent drug candidates for treating COVID-19, in the present study attempts were made to screen the FDA approved drugs using High Throughput Virtual Screening (HTVS). The COVID-19 main protease (COVID-19 Mpro) was chosen as the drug target for which the FDA approved drugs were initially screened with HTVS. The drug candidates that exhibited favorable docking score, energy and emodel calculations were further taken for performing Induced Fit Docking (IFD) using Schrodinger’s GLIDE. From the flexible docking results, the following four FDA approved drugs Sincalide, Pentagastrin, Ritonavir and Phytonadione were identified. In particular, Sincalide and Pentagastrin can be considered potential key players for the treatment of COVID-19 disease.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are causing significant damages to many nations. For mitigating its risk, Japan’s Prime Minister called on all elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide to close beginning March 1, 2020. However, its effectiveness in decreasing disease burden has not been investigated. Methods: We used daily data on the report of COVID-19 and coronavirus infection incidence in Japan until March 31, 2020. Time series analysis were conducted using Bayesian method. Local linear trend models with interventional effect were constructed for number of newly reported cases of COVID-19, including asymptomatic infections. We considered that the effects of intervention start to appear 9 days after the school closure; i.e., on March 9. Results: The intervention of school closure did not appear to decrease the incidence of coronavirus infection. If the effectiveness of school closure began on March 9, mean coefficient α for effectiveness of the measure was calculated to be 0.08 (95% credible interval -0.36 to 0.65), and the actual reported cases were more than predicted, yet with rather wide credible interval. Sensitivity analyses using different dates also showed similar results. Conclusions: School closure carried out in Japan did not show the effectiveness to mitigate the transmission of novel coronavirus infection.

Background: COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global pandemic affecting approximately 490,000 people and accounting for more than 22,000 deaths and has no generally acceptable cure. Here, the recently resolved 3D structure of SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) in complex with its receptor-the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) have provided the basis for screening chemical database for novel entry inhibitors. Methods: Molecular docking protocols have been used to rapidly screen FDA database for high affinity interaction at the SARS-CoV-2-RBD/ACE-2 interface. One of the top candidates, ubrogepant has been selected and further studied using atomistic molecular dynamics simulation method. Results: Molecular docking result showed that ubrogepant (UBR) and darunavir have binding energies of -10.4 kcal/mol. MMPBSA free energy analyses of UBR bound to RBD, ACE-2 and RBD/ACE-2 revealed RBD/ACE-2 > ACE-2 > RBD preference. Network analysis showed that interaction captured in the crystal structure were disrupted in UBR-bound state, hydration of the interface and increased atomic fluctuation within the RBD oligomerization interface and ACE-2 zinc binding site. Conclusions: The ability of ubrogepant to rupture the interaction at the RBD/ACE-2 interface residues of SARS-CoV-2 RBD/ACE-2 complex may result in loss of protein function with direct implication on oligomerization formation in RBD and loss of function in ACE-2 thus, making binding, cellular receptor recognition impossible. General Significance: Ubrogepant represents a new therapeutic candidate in the fight against COVID-19, as it binds with relatively high affinity with free RBD, ACE-2 receptor and SARS-CoV-2 RBD/ACE-2 complex based on binding affinity calculations.

Background Critical patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia ( COVID-19) have worse outcome and high mortality. However, the histopathology of critical patient with COVID-19 remains undisclosed. Methods We performed the whole lung biopsy, and described the pathological changes of critical COVID-19 patient done with transplant by HE staining, immunohistochemistry and special staining observed under the microscopy. Findings The whole lungs displayed diffuse congestive appearance and partly haemorrhagic necrosis on gross examination. The haemorrhagic necrosis was prominently present in outer edge of the right lower lung. The cut surfaces of the lung displayed severe congestive and haemorrhagic changes. The main pathological changes showed massive pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, and partly hyaline degeneration, variable degrees of hemorrhagic pulmonary infarction. Small vessels hyperplasia, vessel wall thickening, lumen stenosis, occlusion and microthrombosis formation. Focal monocytes, lymphocytes and plasma cells infiltrating into pulmonary interstitium. Bronchiolitis and alveolitis with proliferation, atrophy, desquamation and squamous metaplasia of epithelial cells. Atrophy, vacuolar degeneration, proliferation, desquamation and squamous metaplasia in alveolar epithelial cells. Alveolar cavity congestion was prominent, and contained mucus, edema fluid, desquamated epithelial cells, and inflammatory cells. We also found several multinucleate giant cells and intracytoplasmic viral inclusion bodies. Special stains including Masson stain, sirius red staining, reticular fibers staining indicated massive pulmonary interstitial fibrosis. Immunohistochemistry showed positive for immunity cells including CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD79a, CD5, CD38 and CD68. Interpretation We demonstrate the pathological findings of critical patient with COVID-19, which might provide a deep insight of the pathogenesis and severity of this disease.

The disease COVID-19 is highly infectious, and infectious in asymptomatic incubation period. The national epidemic development has been effectively controlled and continues improving, especially in areas outside Hubei province. Such periodical results were achieved by the joint efforts of the whole society, including not only the hard work and dedication of the front-line medical workers but also the active cooperation of the general public. The strict epidemic prevention and control measurements have brought remarkable control results. In the present study, the basic infection number of the coronavirus R0 (basic replication number of the infection) before and after prevention and control measurements was simulated to elaborate the measurements of the Chinese government on epidemic prevention and control, providing reference for the people around the world.

Listerias of the phylogenetic lineage II (PLII) are common in the European environment, and are hypovirulent. Despite this, they caused more than a third of sporadic cases of listeriosis, and multi-country foodborne outbreaks. L. monocytogenes ST37 is one of them. During the COVID-19 pandemic ST37 appeared in the clinical cases and ranked second in occurrence among food isolates in the Moscow region. The aim of this study was to describe the genomic features of ST37 isolates from different sources. All clinical cases of ST37 were in the cohort of male patients (age, 48-81 years) with meningitis-septicemia manifestation, and COVID-19 or Influenza in the anamnesis. The core genomes of the fish isolates were closely related. The clinical and meat isolates revealed a large diversity. Prophages (2-4/genome) were the source of the unique genes. Two clinical isolates displayed the pseudolysogeny, and excided prophages were A006-like. Absence of the plasmids, the assortment of virulence factors and resistance determinants in chromosome corresponded to the hypovirulent characteristics. However, all clinical isolates caused severe disease with deaths in four cases. Thus, these studies allow us to speculate that a previous viral infection increases a human susceptibility to listeriosis.

At present Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is one of the leading contributing factor to mortality and the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on the sinonasal tract has become more prominent, particularly with the rising awareness of olfactory dysfunction (OD). We extracted data from published papers available in electronic databases (Wiley online library, PubMed, and Nature). We used the following search terms alone or with combinations - Olfactory dysfunction, SARS-CoV-2, mechanism and treatments. We found worldwide up to 98% of patients confirmed OD due to COVID-19. Current studies have implied that regardless of the high self-reported recovery rate, 25–40% of patients after 1 or 2 months and approximately 15%–28% of patients at six months struggle to fully restore their sense of smell. Moreover, female sex, younger and older age, active smoking, and chronic lung disease are reported as the associated risk factors of OD. Although the pathophysiological mechanism of action(s) of the OD is yet to be explored in depth, central nervous system (CNS) entrance, olfactory bulb (OB) and sustentacular cell damage, neural routes inflammation, non-neuronal cells damage, decreased OB volume and deregulation of olfactory receptor genes are among the commonly reported mechanisms for the development of OD.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has been declared as a global pandemic. Due to its infection rate and severity, it has emerged as one of the major global threats of the current generation. To support the current combat against the disease, this research aims to propose a Machine Learning based pipeline to detect the COVID-19 infection using the lung Computed Tomography scan images (CTI). This implemented pipeline consists of a number of sub-procedures ranging from segmenting the COVID-19 infection to classifying the segmented regions. The initial part of the pipeline implements the segmentation of the COVID-19 affected CTI using Social-Group-Optimization and Kapur’s Entropy thresholding, followed by k-means clustering and morphology-based segmentation. The next part of the pipeline implements feature extraction, selection and fusion to classify the infection. PCA based serial fusion technique is used in fusing the features and the fused feature vector is then employed to train, test and validate four different classifiers namely Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine with Radial Basis Function, and Decision Tree. Experimental results using benchmark datasets show a high accuracy (> 91%) for the morphology-based segmentation task and for the classification task the KNN offers the highest accuracy among the compared classifiers (> 87%). However, this should be noted that this method still awaits clinical validation, and therefore should not be used to clinically diagnose the ongoing COVID-19 infection.

Three significant changes have occurred in the winter climate in Europe recently: increased UK flooding; Iberian drought; and warmer temperatures north of the Alps. The literature links all three to a persistent, significant increase in sea level pressure over Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, Iberia and the Eastern Atlantic (SEMIEA) which changes the atmospheric circulation system: forcing cold fronts to the north away from Iberia; and creating a south westerly flow around the northern perimeter of the high-pressure region bringing warmer, moist air from the subtropical Atlantic to the UK and Europe which increases precipitation in the UK and raises the temperature in Europe. I use the Last Millennium Ensemble, MERRA-2 and Terra-NCEP data to demonstrate that the extreme, anthropogenic, West African aerosol Plume (WAP) which only exists from December to April perturbs the northern, regional Hadley Circulation creating the high pressure in the SEMIEA. I also show that the anthropogenic WAP has only existed in its extreme form in recent decades as the two major sources of the WAP aerosols: biomass burning; and gas flaring have both increased significantly since 1950 due to: a four-fold increase in population; and gas flaring rising from zero to 7.4 billion m3/annum and note that this time span coincides with the changes in the three elements of the winter climate of Europe. I also suggest that it may be possible to eliminate the WAP and return the winter climate of Europe to its natural state after the crucial first step of recognising the cause of the changes is taken.

Studies have shown that COVID-19 patients with prediabetes frequently present with high plasma glucose levels on hospital admission. However, whether the glycemic abnormalities are temporary or persist after recovery from the illness is unclear. We conducted a prospective cohort study of 69 COVID-19 patients with prediabetes (HbA1c 5.7-6.4%) who were admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, India, from May to October 2020 and were discharged alive. Over a mean follow-up of 146.6 (SD: 72.5) days, the mean fasting plasma glucose rose by 16.8 mg/dl (from 119.3-136.1 mg/dl), 2-hr post-prandial glucose by 61.0 mg/dl (from 176.2-237.2 mg/dl), and HbA1c by 0.6% (5.9-6.5%). Of the 49 (84.5%) patients who were discharged with glucose-lowering medications, 40 (81.6%) continued taking them at the first follow-up visit (mean of 50.1 days from admission), and 39 (79.6%) continued taking them at the second follow-up visit (mean of 114.3 days from first the follow-up visit). In addition, 12.1% of patients developed new-onset diabetes after recovery from the illness. Continuous monitoring of glycemia and detecting new-onset diabetes in COVID-19 patients with prediabetes after recovery are essential, as the metabolic effects of SARS-CoV-2 persist for several months.

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck educational experience systems around the globe. This paper investigates and evaluates the student participants’ perceptions who joined the international exchange seminar on global citizenship and peace held at a University in Hiroshima, Japan. Approximately seventy students and faculty members from nine to ten different universities from around the globe joined this summer program in August 2021 (online) and 2022 (face-to-face). This study is a mixed-method study. The first part consists of a quantitative analysis of BEVI data obtained from the students in the seminar before COVID-19 and after. The research concludes that there are no changes in the way students learn. The second part consists of qualitative data. This data shows the perceptions of students of online teaching versus hybrid teaching. It compares the differences in participants’ perceptions reported in students’ feedback on the programs during and post-COVID-19. Our results confirm prominent differences exist in the students’ perceptions of their learning experience during the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The findings of this study suggest that universities need to strive and define a meaning and purpose of international seminars, which enables students to experience a high level of intercultural social interaction face-to-face.

The burden of COVID-19 pandemic on health systems and the physical and mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs) has been substantial. This cross-sectional study aims to assess the effects of Covid-19 on the psychological wellbeing of mental health workers who provide care to a vulnerable patient population that have been particularly affected during this crisis. A total of 387 HCWs from across a large urban mental health service completed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic, lifestyle and work-based information and validated psychometric scales. Depression and anxiety were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) respectively, sleep problems with the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and resilience with the Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine potential mediating factors. Prevalence of burnout was notable, with 52% recording moderate/severe in Emotional Exhaustion, 19.5% moderate/severe in Depersonalisation and 55.5% low/moderate Personal Accomplishment. Over half of all respondents (52%) experienced sleep problems; the presence of depressive symptoms was a significant predictor of insomnia. An increase in potentially harmful lifestyle changes, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and over-eating was also observed. However, high Resilience was reported by 70% of the sample and the importance of this is highlighted. Female gender was associated with increased levels of depression and emotional exhaustion while those with a history of mental health conditions were most at risk of affective symptoms, insomnia and burnout. Overall, our study revealed considerable levels of psychological distress and maladaptive coping strategies but also resilience and satisfaction with organizational support provided. Findings can inform tailored interventions in order to mitigate vulnerability and prevent long-term psychological sequelae.

Supported wellbeing centres were set up in UK hospital trusts as an early intervention aimed at mitigating the psychological impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers. These provided high quality rest spaces with peer-to-peer psychological support provided by National Health Service (NHS) staff volunteers called ‘wellbeing buddies’, trained in psychological first aid. The aim of the study was to explore the views of centre visitors and operational staff towards this COVID-19 workforce wellbeing provision. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken with twenty-four (20F, 4M) employees from an acute hospital trust in the UK. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed, data were handled and analysed using thematic analysis. Interviews generated 3 over-arching themes, and 13 sub-themes covering ‘exposure and job roles’, ‘emotional impacts of COVID-19 and ‘the wellbeing centres’. Supported wellbeing centres were viewed as critical for the wellbeing of hospital employees during the first surge of COVID-19 in the UK. Wellbeing initiatives require managerial advocacy and must be inclusive. Job-related barriers to work breaks and accessing staff wellbeing provisions should be addressed. High quality rest spaces and access to peer-to-peer support are seen to benefit individuals, teams, organisations and care quality. Training NHS staff in psychological first aid is a useful approach to supporting the wellbeing of the NHS workforce during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assessment of the percentage of disease infected lung volume using computed tomography (CT) images can play an important role to detect lung diseases and predict disease severity. However, manual segmentation of disease infected regions from many CT image slices is tedious and not feasible in clinical practice. To help solve this clinical challenge, this study aims to investigate a new strategy to automatically segment disease infected regions and predict disease severity. We employed a public dataset acquired from 20 COVID-19 patients, which includes manually annotated lung and infections masks, to train a new ensembled deep learning (DL) model that combines the five customized residual attention UNet models to segment disease infected regions followed by a Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) model to classify severity stage of COVID-19 infection. To test potentially clinical utility of new model, we first gathered and processed another set of CT images acquired from 80 Covid-19 patients. Next, we asked two chest radiologists to read CT images of each patient and report the estimated percentage of infected lung volume and disease severity level. Additionally, we asked radiologists to rate acceptance of DL model-generated segmentation results using a 5-scale rating method. Data analysis results show that agreement between disease severity classification is &gt;90% in 45 testing cases. Furthermore, &gt;73% of cases received the high rating score from two radiologists (scored more than 4). This study demonstrates feasibility of developing a new DL-model to efficiently provide quantitative assessment of disease severity based on the automated segmentation of the disease infected regions to support improving efficacy of radiologists in disease diagnosis.

This study aims to investigate the changes in the structural relationship between alienation in physical education (PE) class, school happiness, and future healthy life expectancy in Korean adolescents after the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected from adolescents in the Republic of Korea using scales for these factors. The collected data were analyzed with frequency analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, independent t-test, and path analysis. The key results were as follows. First, there were partial changes in each of the parameters since the outbreak of COVID-19. Second, before the pandemic, alienation in PE class negatively affected school happiness, and school happiness positively affected future healthy life expectancy; however, alienation in PE class did not affect future healthy life expectancy showing a complete mediating effect. Third, during the pandemic, alienation in PE class negatively affected school happiness, and school happiness positively affected future healthy life expectancy; alienation in PE class negatively affected future healthy life expectancy, showing a partial mediating effect. These findings emphasize the importance and potential of school education, especially PE, in promoting happiness and healthy life in adolescents. We expect these findings to have practical implications for future research by presenting theoretical and empirical data.

Pandemic scenario has significantly changed several factors of life, including teaching, and learning at university. The development of suitable teaching materials to support university studies is mandatory to overcome distance learning difficulties and improve traditional teaching methodologies. This work explains a novel method for the preparation of teaching materials for medical sciences, but also plausible for other learning fields. An encephalon was extracted and prepared by using this methodology for teaching purposes. More than 200 students evaluated several factors of the material prepared this way, indicating a better understanding (up to 80%) of theoretical contents related to this human section, together with a high usability and good physical appearance

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiological agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic which has been a topic of major concern to global human health. The challenge to restrain the COVID-19 pandemic is further compounded by the emergence of several SARS-CoV-2 variants viz. B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P1 and, B.1.617., which show in-creased transmissibility and resistance towards vaccines and therapies. Importantly, the likelihood of susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals with dysregulated immune response or comorbidities needs greater attention. Herein, we provide a comprehensive perspective regarding ongoing vaccine (mRNA, protein-based, viral vector based etc.) and therapeutic (mono-clonal antibodies, small molecules, plasma therapy, etc.) modalities designed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. We also discuss in detail the challenges posed by different SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) identified across the globe and their effects on therapeutic and prophylactic interventions.

As an on-going pandemic caused by the out-break of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or simply COVID-19 sweeps through the globe at an unprecedented rate leaving behind trails of high infection and mortality, it is crucial to understand the propagation dynamics of the virus in a host population in order to take urgent and effective remedial and mitigating steps to save life. It is already observed in many countries and communities that accurate and timely testing, tracing, and tracking of the infection lead to better containment and slowing down of the spread. In this exploratory research, the early growth dynamics of infection within a population is pursued based on real data. The study posits that the early growth in a homogenous population follows an exponential pattern motivating further rigorous quantitative treatment based on a number of analytical models such as logistic model, Richard’s model, and Gompertz model– the acceleration pattern of the outbreak is ascertained from the daily inflection data, and regression analysis against population models yields dynamic growth indices which allow very accurate prediction of the successive outbreak size when calibrated continually with updated data. The performance of the various models is evaluated with the real dataset. More, the basic reproduction number of the COVID-19 virus propagation in the community is estimated based on the on-set phase dataset using multi-compartmental epidemiological model. Also, the maximum infection size, infection doubling time and the scope of the herd immunity are also inferred for COVID-19 in a population.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine measures on children and adolescents’ hospitalization psychiatric has been poorly studied, especially in Italy, the first European country to adopt social restrictions. To fill this gap, this retrospective study examined changes in admissions to our child and adolescent psychiatry ward from the emergency department during the two COVID-19 quarantine periods in Italy (March to June 2020; October 2020 to January 2021) compared with two reference periods (defined as 12 months prior to the respective quarantine periods). Specifically, we examined data on the number of inpatients and the distribution of psychopathological disorders (i.e., psychosis, mood disorder) and self-injurious behaviors. The results revealed significantly fewer admissions during the first quarantine period relative to the first reference period and, conversely, significantly more admissions during the second quarantine period relative to the second reference period. Of note, the results showed an increased frequency of mood disorders, non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors and suicidal ideation during the quarantine periods, compared to the reference periods. The findings underline the need to focus on the psychopathological profile of children and adolescents with patient-tailored therapeutic interventions and suggest the importance of developing psychological healthcare services for future emergency periods..

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has created both negative and positive changes, including implementing the circular economy across the globe. This Systematic Review follows the PRISMA statement and employs the Text Mining (Voyant Tools) technique to visualize and analyze the impacts of the Covid-19 on three aspects of the circular economy: economic, social, and environmental. The research employs Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to identify five major topics: (1) Shortage of medical equipment but high medical waste during Covid-19 due to the high demand in healthcare; (2) The long term negative impacts of lockdown on economic and social activities because of Covid-19 pandemic; (3) The reports on impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on the manufacturing globally, and their coping strategies and new opportunities; (4) The impacts of international restriction on the tourism, trade, shipping, and aviation industry, causing billion-dollar losses; (5) The reduction of pollution with health environment improvements with example cases from China and EU. The research identifies current literature gaps in the circular economy and Covid- 19 topics and encourages the application of text mining tools into researching to stimulate the research process and assist in communicating with the public.

Children and young people (CYP) with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) may be particularly vulnerable to adverse mental health effects due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a cross-sectional U.K parent-reported study from 2nd April-2nd June 2020, using the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire. CYP with NDDs (n=371) compared to neurotypical controls, had a higher prevalence of emotional symptoms (42% vs 15%), conduct problems (28% vs 9%), and lower prosocial behaviours (54% vs 22%). Those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder showed inflated conduct, and those with autism spectrum disorder exhibited decreased prosocial behaviours. Females with ASD had higher emotional symptoms compared to males.

Background: Since the onset of widespread COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, there have been concerns about serious cardiovascular adverse events, including myocarditis, myocardial infarction, and venous thromboembolisms, all of which can lead to cardiopulmonary arrest. This study aimed to estimate excess cardiopulmonary arrest mortality in King County, WA, and investigate any association with COVID-19 vaccination rates. Methods: Data was obtained from the annual King County, WA, EMS reports, the U.S. Census Bureau, and The Tennessean COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker. An exploratory data analysis was performed. Excess deaths were calculated using the 2015-2020 cardiopulmonary arrest mortality trend line. The relationship between excess cardiopulmonary arrest mortality and vaccination rates was analyzed using polynomial regression analysis. A quadratic regression model was used to generate expected population growth trends. The excess mortality model for King County was used to calculate yearly estimates for excess cardiopulmonary arrest fatalities in the USA. Results: Approximately 98% of the King County population received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by 2023. Our analysis revealed a 25.7% increase in total cardiopulmonary arrests and a 25.4% increase in cardiopulmonary arrest mortality from 2020 to 2023 in King County, WA. Excess cardiopulmonary arrest deaths were estimated to have increased by 1,236% from 2020 to 2023, rising from 11 excess deaths (95% CI: -12, 34) in 2020 to 147 excess deaths (95% CI: 123, 170) in 2023. A quadratic increase in excess cardiopulmonary arrest mortality was observed with higher COVID-19 vaccination rates. The general population of King County sharply declined by 0.94% (21,300) in 2021, deviating from the expected population size. Applying our model from these data to the entire United States yielded 49,240 excess fatal cardiopulmonary arrests from 2021-2023. Conclusions: We identified a very strong ecological and temporal association between excess cardiopulmonary arrest mortality and the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, which resulted in high vaccination rates. The biological plausibility of death from acute cardiac and pulmonary causes after COVID-19 vaccination has been previously demonstrated and is concerning given these real-world observations. Urgent further research is needed to determine if similar trends are observed in other regions with attention to risk mitigation for incident events and improved survival with resuscitation.

Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and its potential impact on the severity of COVID-19 have gained significant attention during the pandemic. This review aimed to explore the genetic determinants associated with MAFLD, previously recognized as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and their potential influence on COVID-19 outcomes. Various genetic polymorphisms, including PNPLA3 (rs738409), GCKR (rs780094), TM6SF2 (rs58542926), and LYPLAL1 (rs12137855), have been investigated in relation to MAFLD susceptibility and progression. Genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses have revealed associations between these genetic variants and MAFLD risk, as well as their effects on lipid metabolism, glucose regulation, and liver function. Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests a possible connection between these MAFLD-associated polymorphisms and the severity of COVID-19. Studies exploring the association between indicated genetic variants and COVID-19 outcomes have shown conflicting results. Some studies observed a potential protective effect of certain variants against severe COVID-19, while others reported no significant associations. This review highlights the importance of understanding the genetic determinants of MAFLD and its potential implications for COVID-19 outcomes. Further research is needed to elucidate the precise mechanisms linking these genetic variants to disease severity and to develop gene profiling tools for early prediction of COVID-19 outcomes. If confirmed as determinants of disease severity, these genetic polymorphisms could aid in identifying high-risk individuals and improving the management of COVID-19.

Safely resuming sporting events while the coronavirus is spreading is challenging – yet possible – if the science is taken into account. Two main ways the coronavirus can spread among football players is through air-suspended microdroplets (and possibly aerosols), and via contact with contaminated surfaces. Here we estimated virus survival in dried saliva droplets on a football pitch (i.e., on the grass) and on the ball itself, and compared these measures between mid-day and nighttime matches. We find, based on experiments with the enveloped phage Phi6 – a surrogate for SARS-Cov-2 – that while the virus survives reasonably well on both pitch and ball during a nighttime match (~10% survival), virtually no viruses survived the 90-minute duration of a mid-day match on a hot, sunny day. These results, taken together with studies reporting rapid deactivation of coronavirus in aerosols by sunlight, suggest that playing football in mid-day reduces the likelihood of transmission between players, and thus increases players’ safety.

Global severity maps of ongoing dengue epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic do not overlap. Countries with high dengue endemicity (>1.5 million cases/year) are observably less hit by COVID-19 in terms of infection, transmission and mortality. Based on non-overlap of dengue and COVID-19 severity maps and evidence of SARS-CoV-2 serological cross-reactions with dengue, we wonder whether immediate immunization of susceptible populations in Europe, North America and Asia (China, Iran) with available live-attenuated dengue vaccines, will cue the anti-viral immune response to thwart COVID-19 (viral interference). Risk of developing post-vaccination “Antibody-dependent Enhancement” is low as dengue is not endemic in the aforesaid regions.

In the context of the Lubumbashi Coal Production Basin (LCPB), the socio-economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated pressures on populations dependent on forest resources for their subsistence. This study employs a comprehensive methodological approach, integrating advanced remote sensing techniques, including image classification, mapping, and detailed landscape analysis, to quantify alterations in forest cover within the LCPB during the pandemic period. Our findings reveal a consistent trend of declining forested area, characterized by processes of attrition and fragmentation observed throughout various study phases, spanning from May 2019 to November 2023. This reduction in forest cover, notably more pronounced in the vicinity of Lubumbashi city and the northern zone of the LCPB, proved to be less pronounced between November 2019 and September 2020, underscoring the influence of COVID-19 pandemic-induced confinement measures on forest management practices in the region. However, subsequent to this period of restriction, deforestation activity intensified, leading to significant landscape transformations within the LCPB, primarily attributable to expanded human activities, consequently resulting in a notable decrease in the proportion of land occupied by these natural ecosystems. Consequently, the size of the largest forest patch declined substantially, decreasing from 14.62% to 8.20% between May 2019 and November 2023, thereby fostering a heightened density of forest edges over time. Our findings provide a significant contribution to understanding the complex interactions between the COVID-19 pandemic and deforestation phenomena, emphasizing the urgent need to adopt adaptive management strategies and appropriate conservation measures in response to current economic challenges.

Background: Although, negative repercussions of inadequate health service use on the health outcomes has been presumably exacerbated by COVID-19, the impact of the pandemic measures has been not evaluated properly yet. Objective: Our study aimed to quantify the COVID-19 pandemic measures’ effect on the general practitioner (GP) visit, specialist care, hospitalization and cost-related prescription nonredemption (CRPNR) among adults in Hungary, and to identify the social strata susceptible to the pandemic effect. Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study based on nationally representative data of 6,611 (Nprepandemic=5,603 and Npandemic=1,008) subjects aged 18 years and above. Data were obtained from the European Health Interview Survey 2019 (EHIS) and International Social Survey Program 2021 (ISSP) for prepandemic and pandemic, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression models were applied to determine the sociodemographic and clinical factors influencing the health care use by odds ratios (OR) along with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). To identify the social strata susceptible to pandemic effect, the interaction of the time of data collection with level of education, marital status, and ethnicity, was also tested. Results: While, the CRPNR did not changed, the frequency of GP visit, specialist care and hospitalization rate were remarkably reduced by 22.2%, 26.4%, and 6.7%, respectively, during the pandemic in Hungary. Roma proved to be not specifically affected by the pandemic in any studied respect. The pandemic restructuring of health care impacted the social subgroups evenly with respect to hospital care. However, the pandemic effect was weaker among primary educated adults (ORhigh-school vs primary-education =0.434; 95% CI 0.243-0.776, ORhigh-school vs primary-education =0.598; 95% CI 0.364-0.985), and among widows (ORwidowed vs married =2.284; 95% CI 1.043-4.998, ORwidowed vs married=1.915; 95% CI 1.157-3.168) on the frequency of GP visit and specialist visit; and the prepandemic CRPNR inequality by level of education was increased (ORhigh-school vs primary-education =0.236; 95% CI 0.075-0.743). Conclusion: Primary educated and widowed did not follow the general trend, and their prepandemic limited health care use was not reduced further during pandemic, resulting in an inequality reduction. The vulnerability of primary educated to CRPNR was the only gap widened in the pandemic period. This shows that although the management of pandemic health care use restrictions was implemented by increasing the social inequality in Hungary, the prevention of inequity in drug availability for primary educated individuals could require more support.

The COVID-19 pandemic had profound negative effects on millions of couples affected by infertility and in need to resort to assisted reproductive technologies. There is no consensus over the optimal way and moment of screening triage-negative asymptomatic patients and staff. We present SARS-CoV-2 antibodies’ (IgM, IgG) seroprevalence in 516 triage-negative patients and 30 fertility care providers. The sampling for SARS-CoV-2 serological assays took place from the lockdown release throughout the second half of 2020 (17.05 - 01.12.2020). It revealed an increased seroprevalence of antibodies that closely followed the local epidemiology of COVID-19, with the highest rate of seropositivity coincident with the peak of the second wave. From 546 triage-negative individuals whose blood samples were assessed for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, 6% yielded positive results. The overall seroconversion rate was 2.8% for IgG and 5.1% for IgM. In the group with positive IgM, we observed a negative predictive value for IgM of 98.36% (95% CI: 88.79 – 99.78%), which is clinically meaningful. Serological testing of triage-negative patients up to seven days prior to the actual fertility procedure might avoid the more expensive and not more sensitive molecular testing currently being used for patient screening in most fertility units.

The Sars-Cov-2 pandemic led to several needed containing measures that conditioned the onset of depressive, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms in population. These symptoms, espe-cially if not diagnosed and treated, can also occur in patients undergoing surgery with high im-pact on people’s lives, like hysterectomy. To evaluate the post-surgical distress and anx-ious-depressive symptoms following hysterectomy for benign disease focusing on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The prospective observational cohort study included patients undergoing hysterectomy for benign disease. Psychologic evaluation through social-demographic question-naires was obtained before surgery (T1), postoperatively (T2), and 3 months after surgery (T3). The HADS (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) was used to evaluate anxious-depressive symptoms and the PCL-5 (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5) compared the on-set of post-surgical distress and anxiety and depressive symptoms. The pre-COVID-19 pan-demic period was compared to the post-COVID-19 pandemic phase. Patients treated after COVID-19 pandemic showed higher depressive symptoms rate compared to those treated before (p-value=0.02); conversely, pre-COVID-19 patients were more prone to develop a PTSD (p-value=0.04). A significative association between the occurrence PTSD and anxiety-depressive symptoms registered at T2 a (p-value=0.007) and T3 (p-value

The devastating effects of COVID-19 permeates virtually all aspects of life across geographic boundaries. As the lockdown is eased, and reinstated, across many parts of the world, attention is now shifting towards how to navigate the ‘now normal’ rather than the ‘next normal,’ of doing business with a view to achieving sustainable development. This study highlights some of the challenges and opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Conceptual by orientation, the study provides a broad overview of trends in crises times, drawing upon a range of qualitative accounts. The overarching message is the current direction of travel for MSMEs in sustaining their bottom-line, not after the crisis, but at this particular moment in time. The study highlights some implications for ‘pivoting,’ in order to cushion the impact of the pandemic on efforts to capacitate MSMEs in leveraging value co-creation with the consumers. The implications of the here and now are discussed.

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic, which was brought on by the brand-new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has claimed a sizable number of lives. Despite the urgency, COVID-19 does not have any particular antiviral treatments at this time. As a result, scientists are concentrating on repurposing already existing antiviral medications or creating brand-new ones. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease, which is necessary for viral replication, has been identified as a possible target for a family of medicines called main protease inhibitors (MPIs). Studies of the major proteases from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which have remarkably similar structures and functions to SARS-CoV-2, have provided insight for the creation of MPIs. By analyzing the MPI trials for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, this review sheds light on the possible therapeutic uses of MPIs for COVID-19. The review talks about how MPIs work, how effective they are against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and how safe they are. The paper also emphasizes current developments in the creation of MPIs for SARS-CoV-2, including as computational studies, in vitro and in vivo research, and clinical trials. According to the review, there is a lot of hope for MPIs in the treatment of COVID-19, and numerous medications are in the works. Although more research is needed to assess their safety and effectiveness in clinical settings, these medications may offer patients with COVID-19 a much-needed therapeutic option. The review also emphasizes the importance of ongoing research into the structure and function of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, as this information will be critical for the development of effective MPIs and other antiviral drugs in the future.

Excessive neutrophil influx and activation in lungs during infections, such as manifest during the ongoing SARS CoV-2 pandemic, have brought neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and the con-comitant release of granule contents that damage surrounding tissues into sharp focus. Neutro-phil proteases, which are known to participate in NET release, also enable the binding of the viral spike protein to cellular receptors and assist in the spread of infection. Blood and tissue fluids normally also contain liver-derived protease inhibitors that balance the activity of proteases. In-terestingly, neutrophils themselves also express the protease inhibitor alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT), the product of the SERPINA-1 gene, and store it in neutrophil cytoplasmic granules. The absence of AAT or mutations in the SERPINA-1 gene promote lung remodeling and fibrosis in diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and increase the risk of allergic responses. Recent observations point to the fact that re-duced activity of AAT presents a major susceptibility factor for severe COVID-19. Here, we focus attention on the mechanism of neutrophil elastase (NE) in NET release and its inhibition by AAT as an additional factor that may determine the severity of COVID-19

Inhibition of the binding of enveloped viruses surface glycoproteins to host cell receptor(s) is a major target of vaccines and constitutes an efficient strategy to block viral entry and infection of various host cells and tissues. Cellular entry usually requires fusion of the viral envelope with host plasma membranes. Such entry mechanism is often preceded by “priming” and/or “activation” steps requiring limited proteolysis of the viral surface glycoprotein to expose a fusiogenic domain for efficient membrane juxtapositions. The 9-membered family of Proprotein Convertases related to Subtilisin/Kexin (PCSK) serine proteases (PC1, PC2, Furin, PC4, PC5, PACE4, PC7, SKI-1/S1P and PCSK9) participate in post-translational cleavages and/or regulation of multiple secretory proteins. The type-I membrane-bound Furin and SKI-1/S1P are the major convertases responsible for the processing of surface glycoproteins of enveloped viruses. Stefan Kunz has considerably contributed to define the role of SKI-1/S1P in the activation of arenaviruses causing hemorrhagic fever. Furin was recently implicated in the activation of the spike S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 and Furin-inhibitors are being tested as antivirals in COVID-19. Other members of the PCSK-family are also implicated in some viral infections such as PCSK9 in Dengue. Herein, we summarize the various functions of the PCSKs and present arguments whereby their inhibition could represent a powerful arsenal to limit viral infections causing the present and future pandemics.

Mechanical ventilation systems, which are used for breathing support when a person is not able to do it by their own, requires a device for measuring the air flow to the patient in order to monitoring and a assure the magnitude establish by a medical staff. Flow sensors are the conventional devices used for the air flow measuring; however, there were not available in Peru, because of the international demand during COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, a novel air flow sensor based on orifice plate and an intelligent transducer stage were developed as an integrated design. Advanced methodologies in simulations and experiments using specially designed equipment for this application were carried out. The obtained data was used for a mathematical characterization and dimensions validation of the integrated design. The device was tested in its real working conditions, it was implemented in a breathing circuit connected to a low-cost mechanical ventilation system based on cams. Results indicate that the designed air flow sensor/transducer is a low-cost complete medical device for mechanical ventilators able to provide satisfactorily all the ventilation parameters air flow, pressure and volume over time by measuring the air flow and calculating the others. Furthermore, this device provides directly a filtered equivalent electrical signal for a display or a computer.

The outbreak of novel Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2 ) disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan has attracted worldwide attention. SARS-COV-2 known to share a similar clinical manifestation that includes various symptoms such as pneumonia, fever, breathing difficulty, and in particular, SARS-COV-2 also causes a severe in ammation state that leads to death. Consequently, massive and rapid research growth has been observed across the globe to elucidate the mechanisms of infections and disease progression in genotype and phenotype scale. Data Science is playing a pivotal role in in-silico analysis to draw hidden and novel insights about the SARS-COV-2 origin, pathogenesis, COVID-19 outbreak forecasting, medical diagnosis, and drug discovery. With the availability of multi-omics, radiological, biomolecular, and medical data urges to develop novel exploratory and predictive models or customise exiting learning models to t the current problem domain. The presence of many approaches generates the need for the systematic surveys to guide both data scientists and medical practitioners. We perform an elaborate study on the state-of-the-art data science method ologies in action to tackle the current pandemic scenario. We consider various active COVID-19 data analytics domains such as phylogeny analysis, SARS-COV-2 genome identi cation, protein structure prediction, host-viral protein interactomics, clinical imaging, epidemiological analysis, and most importantly (existing) drug discovery. We highlight types of data, their generation pipeline, and the data science models in use. We believe that the current study will give a detailed sketch of the road map towards handling COVID-19 like situation by leveraging data science in the future. We summarise our review focusing on prime challenges and possible future research directions .

COVID-19 pandemic-related pressures on primary care may have driven inappropriate continuation of antibiotic prescriptions. Yet prescribing modality (repeat/non-repeat) has not previously been investigated in a pandemic context. Using the OpenSAFELY-TPP analytics platform, we analysed repeat/non-repeat prescribing frequency in monthly patient cohorts between Jan 2020–2022. In-depth analysis was conducted on Jan 2020 (“pre-pandemic”) and Jan 2021 (“pandemic”) cohorts. Per-patient prescribing and clinical conditions were determined by searching primary care record data using clinical code lists. Repeat prescribing was defined as >=3 prescriptions in a 6 month lookback period. Associations between demographics (e.g. age, sex, geography) and repeat/non-repeat prescribing were explored using unadjusted risk ratios. Antibiotic prescribing declined from May 2020; non-repeat prescribing declined more strongly than repeat prescribing (maximum declines -26% vs -11%, respectively). In the pandemic cohort, older patients were at higher risk of prescribing (especially repeat prescribing). The most common clinical conditions for repeat prescribing were COPD comorbidity and urinary tract infection. Comorbidities were more common among repeat vs non-repeat prescribed patients. In the pandemic cohort, vs pre-pandemic, repeat and non-repeat prescribing for comorbidities generally declined less compared with shorter-term conditions (infections, including COPD exacerbation/lower respiratory tract infection). Our findings inform ongoing development of stewardship interventions in England..

The COVID-19 pandemic measures have negatively impacted education worldwide via travel restrictions, student visas, and physical attendanc,e among many other fac-tors. As one of the first places to impose strict pandemic measures and one of the last places to lift the measures, Mainland China provided a unique venue to investigate the effect of public health pandemic control policies on tertiary education. Considering the large portion of international students in medical schools and the higher susceptibility to the pandemic measures due to the natural synergy with teaching hospitals, medical schools can be an early forefront indicator of the impact of the pandemic on tertiary education. We surveyed 513 participants international medical students from Wen-zhou Medical University’s school of international studies in 2019 and 2022 about their satisfaction and demographic and cultural adaptation parameters. We found that the pandemic restrictions did not generally impact student satisfaction. Further analyzing the associated parameters, we found teaching satisfaction to be independent of age (P=.159), years in China (P=.896) and Chinese Level (P=.577) in the medical university. Teaching satisfaction is associated with the region of origin (P <0.001), acceptance of local social norms (P <0.001), satisfaction with the core values of Chinese culture (P <0.001), acclimatization to life in China (P <0.001), can easily make Chinese friends (P <0.001) among other factors. The findings of this study provide an understanding of the effects of pandemic measures on tertiary education satisfaction and other factors that can aid in international student satisfaction.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the worst-hit regions globally by COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, scarce literature exists that examines the research strategy of LAC in facing COVID-19. The present study aims to quantify and assess the production of COVID-19 publications in thirty-two countries in LAC during the first half of 2020. A Scopus/PubMed/LILACS search was performed to retrieve research articles related to COVID-19 published from January 1 to July 31, 2020. Subgroup analysis including only original publications was used to better ascertain the contribution of LAC countries, and standardization measures were applied to comparisons of country-specific contributions. We identified 1291 publications across the region. Overall, most articles in the region were non-original (81.6%), and the most productive countries were Brazil (43.9%), Mexico (9.14%), and Colombia (7.98%). This trend shifted to Chile after the standardization. Among original studies, the most common study design was cross-sectional (25.8%). LAC countries generate articles primarily pertaining to diagnosis and treatment (27.4%). In the subgroup analysis, however, epidemiology and surveillance was the most prevalent research focus (24.1%). LAC countries should perform more research with a higher level of evidence to inform health policy making to ease the burden of COVID-19 in the region.

Pneumonia cases of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China, were reported to the WHO on 31st of December 2019. Later the pathogen was reported to be a novel coronavirus designated Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 is a novel pathogenic beta coronavirus that infects humans causing severe respiratory illness. However, multifarious factors can contribute to the susceptibility to COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality such as age, gender and underlying comorbidities. Importantly, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 entry into the host cells is mediated via ACE2 receptor. However, ACE2 receptor binding affinity to SARS-CoV-2 is 4 folds higher than that to SARS-CoV. Identification of different aspects such as binding affinity, differential antigenic profiles of spike glycoproteins, and ACE2 polymorphisms might influence the investigation of potential therapeutic strategies targeting SARS-CoV-2/ACE2 binding interface. Here we aim to elaborate on SARS-CoV-2 S1/ACE2 ligand that facilitates viral internalization as well as to highlight the differences between SARS-CoVs binding affinity to ACE2. We also discuss the possible immunogenic sequences of spike glycoprotein and the effect of ACE2 polymorphism on viral binding/infectivity and host susceptibility to disease. Furthermore, targeting of ACE2 will be discussed to understand its role in therapeutics.

There is a long trail of research studies testing the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of chloroquine and its derivatives in treating and preventing infection by various coronavirus species. More recent findings have highlighted the possibility of treating patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. This review describes the mechanism of coronavirus infection, the mechanism of action of chloroquine, and summarizes the available literature highlighting the efficacy of chloroquine as an anti-coronavirus agent. These findings should encourage the wider scientific community to conduct thorough research on the possible efficacy of chloroquine and its derivatives in treating and preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The article describes how atherosclerosis and coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) may affect each other. The features of this comorbid pathogenesis at various levels (vascular, cellular and molecular) are considered. A bidirectional influence of these conditions is described: the presence of cardiovascular diseases affects different individual susceptibility to viral infection. In turn, SARS-CoV-2 can have a negative effect on the endothelium and cardiomyocytes, causing blood clotting, secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and thus exacerbating the development of atherosclerosis. In addition to the established entry into cells via ACE2 принимая во внимание его влияние на, other mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 entry are currently under investigation, for example, through CD147. Pathogenesis of comorbidity can be determined by the influence of the virus on various links which are meaningful for atherogenesis: generation of oxidized forms of LDL, launch of a cytokine storm, damage to the endothelial glycocalyx, and mitochondrial injury. The transformation of a stable plaque into an unstable one plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis complications and can be triggered by COVID-19. The impact of SARS-CoV-2 on large vessels such as aorta is more complex than previously thought considering its impact on vasa vasorum. Current information on the mutual influence of the medicines used in the treatment of atherosclerosis and acute COVID-19 is briefly summarized

This prospective study provides data on long-term humoral immunogenicity of a heterologous off-label vaccine regimen combining the adenoviral vectored ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 from Astra-Zeneca (ChAd) with the mRNA-1273 vaccine from Moderna (m1273) in comparison to two different homologous mRNA vaccine schedules. Of the 316 COVID-19 naïve adult health care workers (HCW) included to complete a survey on vaccine-associated symptoms (VAS), 197 had received the homologous BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT/BNT), 76 the homologous m1273/m1273, and 43 the heterologous ChAd/m1273 vaccine regimen. Concentration of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in plasma 5-7 months after the second vaccine dose was higher in the m1273/m1273 and ChAd/m1273 than the BNT/BNT vaccine group. The frequency of systemic VAS after first vaccine dose was 86% after ChAd compared to 35% and 39% after BNT and m1273, respectively (p &lt; 0.0001), and after second vaccine dose highest (89%) in the m1273/m1273 group (p &lt; 0.001). Individuals with systemic VAS achieved higher levels of antibodies irrespective of vaccine regimen. In conclusion, VAS serve as a strong predictor of long-term humoral immune response, and the heterologous ChAd/m1273 vaccine regimen provides an at least equal long-term humoral immune response compared with the standard vaccine regimens used in Denmark.

Evidence was brought forward in England and the USA that Black, Asian, Latino and Minority Ethnic people exhibit higher mortality risk from COVID-19 than White people. While socioeconomic factors were suggested to contribute to this trend, they arguably do not explain the range of the differences observed, allowing for possible genetic implications. Almost concurrently, the analysis of a cohort in Chinese COVID-19 patients proposed an association between the severity of the disease and the presence of the minor allele of rs12252 of the Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) gene. This SNP, together with rs34481144, are the two most studied polymorphisms of IFITM3 and have been associated in the past with increased severity in Influenza, Dengue, Ebola, and HIV viruses. IFITM3 is an immune effector protein that is pivotal for the restriction of viral replication, but also for the regulation of cytokine production. Following up to these two developments in the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the present study investigates a possible association between the differences in mortality of ethnic groups in England and the combined haplotypes of rs12252 and rs34481144. The respective allele frequencies were collected for 26 populations from 1000 Genomes Project and subgroups were pooled wherever possible to create correspondences with ethnic groups in England. A significant correlation (r=0.9687, p= 0.0003) was observed between the reported Standardized Mortality Ratios and the frequency of the combined haplotype of both reference alleles, suggesting that the combination of reference alleles of the specific SNPs may be implicated in more severe outcomes of COVID-19. This study calls for further focus on the role of IFITM3 variants in the mechanism of cellular invasion of SARS-CoV-2, their impact in COVID-19 severity and their possible implications in vaccination efficacy.

Background: The exacerbation of psychosocial problems among children and adolescents during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitates an assessment of the long-term mental health impact of pandemic interventions. Focusing on both pandemic-related factors and demographic variables, such as gender and daily habits, an analysis was conducted to under-stand how these elements continue to affect young populations in the post-pandemic era. Methods: In April 2023, a comprehensive online survey was administered to families in South Tyrol, Italy, with children aged 7–19 years, to ensure age and gender representation. The survey included par-ent ratings and adolescent (11–19 years) self-reports using standardized instruments to measure the symptoms of mental health problems (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ), anxiety (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, SCARED), and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-2, PHQ-2). Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and unadjusted odds ratios (ORs). Results: Of the 4,525 valid responses, 1,831 were self-reported by adolescents. Notable gender differences in mental health outcomes were identified, along with significant demographic predictors, such as age, single parenthood, parental mental health problems, and immigrant background. Negative effects were associated with reduced family climate and increased screen time, whereas physical activity showed beneficial effects. Proxy reports overestimated adolescents' mental health problems, whereas self-report tended to underestimate them. Conclusions: Persistent mental health problems and gender disparities high-light the need for a public health approach. This should include accessible support services, resili-ence building, targeted support for vulnerable families and gender-specific interventions.