Coronavirus Pandemic Outbreak Research Articles

Evaluation of the Effect of Educational Intervention on the Error of Insurance Documents on Deductions in Hospitalization Records

Background: This study aims to consider the effect of an educational intervention on the error rate of insurance documents in the deducting of hospitalization records of COVID-19 patients' health insurance among hospital staff. Methods: The target population of this semi-experimental study was all personnel involved in the management of patients with Covid-19. Among the hospitals of the COVID-19 site in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces, one hospital was selected as the educational target group (24 individuals) and one hospital was considered as the control group (16 individuals) by lottery. To measure the effectiveness of education, the sample size of all cases of 19 patients with health insurance in two hospitals during two periods of October and March 2016 was determined. Data collection was performed by checklists and direct reviews of files, the health insurance system, and the hospital HIS system. Data analysis was performed using SPSS21 software. Results: The number of deductions in the case of "Covid 19 hospitalized patients" of the health insurance decreased significantly in the intervention hospital from 1833 to 933 (p < .005) and increased in the control hospital from 447 to 2712 (p < .005). In the intervention hospital, the highest decrease in deductions in the hoteling service was from 235 (12.8%) to 2 (0.2%) cases (p < .001), and for medicines from 335 (18.2%) to 56 (6%) cases (p < .001). Conclusion: The results demonstrated that staff training on the error in COVID-19 insurance documents during the coronavirus pandemic outbreak has reduced the number of insurance deductions in COVID-19 patients' records.

Rapid Decline in the Uptake Interests for Different SARS CoV-2 Vaccination Doses Over the Post Vaccination Period in Different European Community Countries

During the corona virus pandemic outbreak, there are a number of vaccinations approved. They are distributed and used in human beings worldwide. Aim of this study is to analyze the changes in pattern of uptake mood during different dose courses in EU /EEA population. Therefore, there was use of the following methods: The data from official European community website was collected and analyzed with the software for total number of doses distributed and total number of doses applied. Similarly, cumulative percentage of uptake of vaccine from primary course, first booster, second booster and third booster were compared. Results are showing that there is difference of around 0.5 billion doses between the doses distributed and doses used. The uptake interest decreased from primary dose to third booster dose from 85% to 0% among the countries over the time. The conclusion was found as follows: there are discrepancies between the total number of doses distributed and used. There is very strong loss of uptake interest in the populations in EU/EEA with different dose courses. One must study the reasons for such a strong loss of uptake interest and economic losses caused leading to burden on the tax payers.

A Study on understanding the benefits and challenges of ‘Working from home’ amid Covid-19 Lockdown

Introduction-The Corona Virus Pandemic and consequent lockdown in many countries across the globe resulted in travel restrictions. In India also, the corporate sector had to close its offices and employees were completely working from home. Due to technological advances in the connected era, the employees were remotely connected, and in attempts to avoid loss of productivity the work was getting done completely on virtual platforms. The employees working remotely and were not traveling to their offices since offices were completely shut. The sudden shift from office-based work, to a complete work from home scenario resulted in mixed feelings for many stakeholders. Purpose: This research attempts to capture the perception of employees (from the Indian Corporate Sector) on working from home/‘working online’ during the lockdown because of the Corona Virus pandemic. To understand the satisfaction, among employees towards a complete Work from home scenario and the benefits and challenges of working from home. It also tries to understand the factors influencing the effectiveness of working from home. Methodology: Secondary research involved a review of literature from various national and international journals. The primary study included a survey among employees of the Corporate Sector (mainly from Mumbai City) to understand their perceptions and attitudes toward working from home. A sample of 240 respondents is taken into consideration. The Survey questions consisted of a mix of open-ended and close-ended questions. Findings: The study on understanding working from Home during the Corona Virus pandemic outbreak and consequent lockdown gave the following results. The majority of employees can complete a large extent of their work responsibilities online, indicating a greater scope of remote working in the post-pandemic world. There is average satisfaction (67%) among employees working from home. Employees still regard offices as a better work arrangement for many factors like better productivity, better engagement and teamwork, high task variety, and better monitoring and discipline. Contribution: Study contribute to the understanding of Working from Home during the Corona Virus pandemic outbreak and consequent lockdown.

Corona virus pandemic response among health workers in selected health facilities in Meru county


 Abstract:
 
 Aims: The study aimed at determining the Level of knowledge, Preparedness and Response to Corona Virus Pandemic Outbreak among Health Care Workers in Meru County, Kenya.
 Study design: A cross-sectional study was adopted to conduct and determine Preparedness, Knowledge and Response of Health Care Workers (HCWs) to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
 Place and Duration of Study: Sample: Meru County, Igembe South Sub County Health Care Facilities between month of March and June 2020.
 Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs to determine their Preparedness, Knowledge and Response to COVID - 19 Pandemic outbreak. The study population constituted of health care workers working in Igembe south in Meru County.
 Results: About 87 health care workers of mean age 34± 9 (SD) years with a minimum age of 19 years and maximum age of 70 years were recruited to take part in the study. Among the participants recruited in the study, 51 (58.6%) had bachelor's degree, 30 (34.5%) participants had an ordinary diploma and 6 (6.9%) participants had a certificate level of professional qualification. Most 32 (36.8%) the participants were nurses. Other professional disciplines interviewed were Doctors, Clinicians, Nutritionists, Health Records Officers, Support staff, Social Workers among others. Significant number managers of the Health Care Facilities acknowledged receiving Ministry of Health Guidelines and Protocols on COVID-19 case management. Most (60; 69%) of the participants strongly disagreed that HCWs were trained on Case definition and management of Corona Virus Infections according to WHO guidelines i.e. Nurses (71; 81.6%), Clinical officers (62; 71.3%), Non-Core Health Care Workers (72; 82.8%) were well prepared, trained to handle cases of corona virus infections and associated emergencies. Response to COVID – 19 pandemic indicates that a significant number of (75; 86.2%) of participants strongly disagreed that Health Facilities were equipped with laboratories to test COVID -19, (70; 80.5%) of the participants strongly disagreed that PPEs were available and (70; 80.5%) of the participants strongly disagreed that Isolation and Consultation Rooms with dedicated clinicians are available. Overall a high proportion (73.6%) of the study participants strongly disagreed that they is good response to Corona Virus Pandemic out break interventions. 
 Conclusion: Knowledge, Preparedness and Response levels to COVID -19 pandemic infection outbreak was at an average and there is need for continuous professional development (CPD) for HCWs to ensure adoption, maintenance of newly acquired appropriate practices during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance preparedness and Response to the current and future outbreaks. This creates requisite capacity and skills among Health Care Professionals in their respective areas of practice considering that inadequate knowledge, preparedness and disjointed response which is not only an occupational hazard but a risk factor for poor delivery but also an occupational risk to the workers.
 Keywords: COVID -19, Corona Virus, Health Care Workers, Preparedness, Knowledge, Pandemic, Facilities, Response.

Modele kapitalizmu w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w porównaniu z Europą Zachodnią w obszarze konkurencji na rynku produktów

The article compares 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, which are new EU members, with 7 countries of Western Europe representing 4 Western European models of capitalism (continental, Mediterranean, Nordic, and Anglo-Saxon) in the area of product market competition. The analysis covers the 2010-2020 period. One of the goals of the study is to determine the degree of similarity of the institutional architecture of the CEE countries in relation to the reference models in the last year before the coronavirus pandemic outbreak and to analyze the changes in these results over the last decade. Particular emphasis was placed on changes in the degree of similarity between two snapshots: 2010 and 2019. The study includes 26 variables characterizing the product market competition. These variables describe both the institutional architecture of the product market competition (the so-called input variables) and the effects of a given institutional order (output variables). The comparison of countries is based on our own concept of the similarity coefficient. One of the elements of novelty and originality is the analysis of robustness in terms of various Western European countries, which are a reference point, as well as alternative methods of calculating the similarity coefficient. The study shows that the results are robust to the assumptions made. The CEE countries are closest to the Mediterranean model of capitalism (both Spain and Italy). The Nordic model ranks last. The classification of Western European models of capitalism in terms of institutional proximity to the CEE countries is also robust to the exact method of calculating the similarity coefficient.

The Dynamics of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) toward Bankability with Coronavirus Pandemic Adjustment

The objective of this study is to elaborate on the development of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) at the bottom of the economy, where most of them began as unbanked micro-ventures and may continue to be micro-enterprises even after being elevated to higher levels. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurial finance by identifying the factors that influence the drivers and constraints of MSE upgrading. This paper employed models to show how unbanked MSEs transition to bankable ones, as well as to reveal the dynamics of MSEs’ transition to bankability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study’s unit of analysis is MSEs, which initially have little or no access to bank loans. This study employs system dynamics (SD) modeling to investigate and manage the multifaceted response system of MSEs’ growth toward bankability in the face of a coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia. This study also simulates a coronavirus pandemic outbreak to fine-tune MSEs’ progress toward bankability. The dynamic models in this study reveal a number of variables that are critical in accelerating the bankability status of MSE from un-bankable to bankable, namely entrepreneurial MSE time to bankability, channel business, and MSE NPL. Policymakers can create high leverage policies for MSE bankability progression by changing these values.

Investigation of the ionic conditions in SiRNA-mediated delivery through its carriers in the cell membrane: a molecular dynamic simulation

SiRNA is a new generation of drug molecules and a new approach for treating a variety of diseases such as cancer and viral infections. SiRNA delivery to cells and translocation into cytoplasm are the main challenges in the clinical application of siRNA. Lipid carriers are one of the most successful carriers for siRNA delivery. In this study, we investigated the interaction of siRNA with a zwitterionic bilayer and how ion concentration and lipid conjugation can affect it. The divalent cation such as Mg2+ ions could promote the siRNA adsorption on the bilayer surface. The cation ions can bind to the head groups of lipids and the grooves of siRNA molecules and form bridges between the siRNA and bilayer surface. Our findings demonstrated the bridges formed by divalent ions could facilitate the attachment of siRNA to the membrane surface. We showed that the divalent cations can regulate the bridging-driven membrane attachment and it seems the result of this modulation can be used for designing biomimetic devices. In the following, we examined the effect of cations on the interaction between siRNA modified by cholesterol and the membrane surface. Our MD simulations showed that in the presence of Mg2+, the electrostatic and vdW energy between the membrane and siRNA were higher compared to those in the presence of NA+. We showed that the electrostatic interaction between membrane and siRNA cannot be facilitated only by cholesterol conjugated. Indeed, cations are essential to create coulomb repulsion and enable membrane attachment. This study provides important insight into liposome carriers for siRNA delivery and could help us in the development of siRNA-based therapeutics. Due to the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, these results may shed light on the new approach for treating these diseases and their molecular details.

Telemedicine and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms: Analysis of a new follow-up strategy during COVID-19 outbreak

BackgroundThe Coronavirus pandemic outbreak in 2019 and the saturation of healthcare system led to an increased use of digital tools for surveillance. In this study we described our experience using telemedicine to follow-up on patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms during the COVID-19 era and analyze those factors associated to patients’ satisfaction. MethodsThis 1-year retrospective observational study enrolled patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms followed-up by telemedicine during COVID-19 outbreak. Patients with high-risk features needing on-site physical examination or declining remote follow-up were excluded.A 13-question survey was conducted; demographic, geographic, and employment information was collected. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate those factors associated to patients’ satisfaction. ResultsOut of 287, a total of 177 patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms were included: the mean age was 69 (44–87) years and the male/female ratio was 0.78. A total of 80 (45.2%) patients had previously experienced abdominal pain. Most patients (85.3%) were satisfied with telemedicine: at univariate analysis, age ≥70 years (P = .007), retirement (P = .001), and absence of previous abdominal pain (P = .05) were significantly associated with patient satisfaction. At multivariate analysis, the absence of previous abdominal pain was the only factor independently associated with patient satisfaction (odds ratio 5.964, 95% confidence interval 2.21–16.11, P < .001). ConclusionTelemedicine allows a new follow-up strategy that can be used in selected patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms. The absence of previous abdominal pain is associated with patient satisfaction during follow-up. Further studies are needed to evaluate safety of remote follow-up in patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms.

A Self-Supervised Metric Learning Framework for the Arising-From-Chair Assessment of Parkinsonians With Graph Convolutional Networks

The onset and progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) gradually affect the patient’s motor functions and quality of life. The PD motor symptoms are usually assessed using the Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). Automated MDS-UPDRS assessment has been recently required as an invaluable tool for PD diagnosis and telemedicine, especially with the recent novel coronavirus pandemic outbreak. This paper proposes a novel vision-based method for automated assessment of the arising-from-chair task, which is one of the key MDS-UPDRS components. The proposed method is based on a self-supervised metric learning scheme with a graph convolutional network (SSM-GCN). Specifically, for human skeleton sequences extracted from videos, a self-supervised intra-video quadruplet learning strategy is proposed to construct a metric learning formulation with prior knowledge, for improving the spatial-temporal representations. Afterwards, a vertex-specific convolution operation is designed to achieve effective aggregation of all skeletal joint features, where each joint or feature is weighted differently based on its relative factor of importance. Finally, a graph representation supervised mechanism is developed to maximize the potential consistency between the joint and bone information streams. Experimental results on a clinical dataset demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the existing sensor-based methods, with an accuracy of 70.60% and an acceptable accuracy of 98.65%. The analysis of discriminative spatial connections makes our predictions more clinically interpretable. This method can achieve reliable automated PD assessment using only easily-obtainable videos, thus providing an effective tool for real-time PD diagnosis or remote continuous monitoring.

Reactive Sulfur Compounds in the Fight against COVID-19.

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic outbreak in 2019 resulted in the need to search for an effective and safe strategy for treating infected patients, relieving symptoms, and preventing severe disease. SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus that can cause acute respiratory failure and thrombosis, as well as impair circulatory system function. Permanent damage to the heart muscle or other cardiovascular disorders may occur during or after the infection. The severe course of the disease is associated with the release of large amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Due to their documented anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral effects, reactive sulfur compounds, including hydrogen sulfide (H2S), lipoic acid (LA), N-acetylcysteine (NAC), glutathione (GSH), and some other lesser-known sulfur compounds, have attracted the interest of scientists for the treatment and prevention of the adverse effects of diseases caused by SARS-CoV-2. This article reviews current knowledge about various endogenous or exogenous reactive sulfur compounds and discusses the possibility, or in some cases the results, of their use in the treatment or prophylaxis of COVID-19.

Mental health status of students during coronavirus pandemic outbreak: A cross-sectional study

IntroductionUniversity students have been extensively affected with psychological problems due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic given their special position and status. In this study, we intend to examine the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among a group of students. MethodsThis cross-sectional study was performed in medical Sciences universities of Mazandaran Province. 352 students were recruited by simple available sampling method. Data collection tools were Standard Mental Health Questionnaire (DASS-21) and demographic information questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS software through descriptive and analytical statistics. ResultsThe mean age of students was 22.44 ± 3.4 and 54.3% of them were females. 33.6, 28.4, and 27.3% of students had moderate to extremely severe levels of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. There was a significant relationship between total mental health score with physical activity (p < 0.04) and with smoking (p < 0.02). There was also a significant relationship between smoking and depression (p < 0.01). ConclusionConsidering the fact that anxiety, stress and depression are common among medical sciences students of Mazandaran Province, necessary measures must be taken to improve their mental health status.

Socio-Demographic Variations on Age-Sex Mortality in Namibia: An Analysis of the 2016 Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Data

Mortality studies are important for the effectiveness of subsystem of health services in a country. Before the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak, there has been a gradual decline in the global mortality indicators, which can be linked to the improving economic development and social wellbeing of the global population, especially, in developing regions such as East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. This decline in mortality and the high fertility in developing countries are the contributing factors to the increase on global population. Apart from the aggregated frequencies of deaths and crude death rates reported in population census reports, little to no attention has been paid to detailed inference mortality analysis with respect to the age-sex variation perspective in Namibia. Thus, this paper used the negative binomial regression modelling technique to perform an inference mortality analysis across all ages and both sexes in the country as well as across regions and marital status using the 2016 Civil Registration Vital systems data from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between mortality and theindividuals' age, sex, marital status and region. In addition, Oshana, Kavango East, Khomas, Hardap and Omaheke regions had high mortality rates, while infants and elderly individuals had a high probability of dying. Furthermore, the study revealed that individuals who were single and aged 15-59 and 5-14 years had less expected death count. Hence, it is recommended that interventions (such as affordable and proper health care and well-being services) targeted at the (most) vulnerable age groups, marital group and regions be made a priority, in order to meet Sustainable Development Goal 3.

Analysis of institutional daily domestic water consumption dynamics due to COVID-19 pandemic, a case study of Adama Science and Technology University

The coronavirus pandemic outbreak is constantly changing the way of people’s life. To minimize or stop the transmission of the virus, several different measures have been taken by countries worldwide and including in Ethiopia. The World Health Organization (WHO), the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute recommended frequent hand wash with soap and water as one of the prevention measures for the transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, the provision of water supply, sanitation, and hygiene is the main problem in developing countries. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the water related challenges exacerbated the situation before the pandemic existed. Accordingly, the additional supply of water is required to sufficiently provide water for hand wash. This paper mainly addresses how much additional water is required daily for domestic consumption after the coronavirus pandemic by educational institutions, Adama Science and Technology University as a case study. The data was collected with a questionnaire by the randomly selected respondents and analyzed by SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences).The analysis shown that the consumption of water has been changed after the Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic existed. The highest percentage of the responses to the questionnaire, more than 35% require water (2–5) liters per day and more than 60% of the respondents need additional water up to 5 L per day after the pandemic existed. Based on the analysis, total daily water use by the institute before the COVID-19 existed was 24.2 m3/day. These amounts of water not sufficiently satisfy the daily water requirements of the institution even before the pandemic. After the pandemic existed, the water consumption drastically increased to 29 m3/day. Furthermore, the study recommends the provision of additional water supply sources or water demand management to reduce the impact of the pandemic on water availability.

Infant Mortality and Inflation in China: Based on the Mixed Frequency VAR Analyses.

Reducing neonatal mortality is an important goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and with the outbreak of the new crown epidemic and severe global inflation, it is extremely important to explore the relationship between inflation and infant mortality. This paper investigates the causal relationship between inflation and infant mortality using a mixed frequency vector autoregressive model (MF-VAR) without any filtering procedure, along with impulse response analysis and forecast misspecification variance decomposition, and compares it with a low frequency vector autoregressive model (LF-VAR). We find that there is a causal relationship between inflation and infant mortality, specifically, that is inflation increases infant mortality. Moreover, the contribution of CPI to IMR is greater in the forecast error variance decomposition in the MF-VAR model compared to the LF-VAR model, indicating that CPI has stronger explanatory power for IMR in mixed-frequency data. The results of the study have important implications for China and other developing countries in reducing infant mortality and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Policymakers should focus on inflation as a macroeconomic variable that reduces the potential negative impact of inflation on infant mortality. The results of the analysis further emphasize the importance of price stability in the context of global inflation caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

COVID-19: an In Silico Analysis on Potential Therapeutic Uses of Trikadu as Immune System Boosters.

Corona virus pandemic outbreak also known as COVID-19 has created an imbalance in this world. Scientists have adopted the use of natural or alternative medicines which are consumed mostly as dietary supplements to boost the immune system as herbal remedies. India is famous for traditional medicinal formulations which includes ‘Trikadu’—a combination of three acrids, namely Zingiber officinale, Piper nigrum and Piper longum which have antioxidant properties that boost our immune system hence acting as a strong preventive measure. In this study, AutoDock 4.0 was used to study interaction between the phytocompounds of Trikadu with RNA-dependent polymerase protein and enveloped protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Analysis of the results showed that coumarin, coumaperine and bisdemethoxycurcumin showed strong bonding interactions with both the proteins. We can conclude that Trikadu has the potential molecules; hence, it can be incorporated in the diet to boost the immune system as a preventive measure against the virus.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12010-021-03793-5.

Психологическое здоровье, компетенции и готовность к переходу на дистанционное обучение у учителей в ОАЭ

The Coronavirus pandemic outbreak has changed numerous life activities. The education sector is one of many sectors that have been heavily impacted by the pandemic. Necessitating a transition to virtual distance learning challenged educators’ adaptation towards using online platforms for teaching and assessment. This study examines (1) teachers’ perception of their competencies and readiness to the online mode of learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), (2) teachers’ mental states during the Coronavirus pandemic, and (3) the relationship between teachers’ perception of competencies and their mental states. A Teachers’ Competency Measurement Scale (TCMS) was developed to achieve the purpose of this research study. Data was collected quantitatively from 232 teachers who have teaching obligations for grades K-12 in the UAE. The findings showed that most of the teachers in the UAE feel competent and ready for the transition to the online learning environment. The Correlation Coefficient analysis revealed that there is no relationship between teachers’ perception of competencies and their mental states. Furthermore, the Coronavirus affected teachers negatively.

Distant education in Moroccan medical schools following COVID-19 outbreak at the early phase of lockdown: Were the students really engaged?

The Coronavirus pandemic outbreak has induced many urgent adaptation measures in Morocco including medical education that had to abruptly adopt an exclusive distant education approach, without former sufficient preparation. The present study aimed to assess medical students’ engagement in their acutely implemented distant learning and to identify factors that could be associated to the students’ studying engagement levels. Medical students from 1st to 5th years of medical studies, enrolled in all Moroccan public medical faculties were invited to fill-in an anonymous online questionnaire.3174 medical students took part in the study, with a mean age of 20.4 +/- 1.8 years old, and 65.4% of them were women. 90% of the participants reported moderate to drastic change of their sleeping habits and 65% suffered depression symptoms. 20.7% of students didn't engage at all in their learning, 26% studied for less than one hour daily, and only 53.3% studied for one hour or more daily. Only 46.4% of the participants had access to multimedia studying resources and only 20.9% were offered online interactive sessions with their teachers. 41.8% of the participants were unsatisfied from their distant learning experience. Lower studying engagement rates were significantly associated with older age, male gender, change of sleeping patterns, depression symptoms, and also with lack of access to multimedia studying resources and poor general satisfaction from the distant learning experience.Distant Education needs to include more interactive activities and more multimedia studying resources to engage students more efficiently in their self-regulated learning.

Validation of the Arabic version of the Dusseldorf Orthorexia Scale (DOS) among Lebanese adolescents

BackgroundOrthorexia Nervosa (ON) is defined as a pathological preoccupation characterized by obsessive beliefs and compulsive behaviors regarding 'pure' eating behaviors. Many scales have been established and display good results regarding reliability and validity measures, including but not limited to ORTO-R (revised version of ORTO-15), Eating Habits Questionnaire, Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS) and the Düsseldorf Orthorexia Scale (DOS). Among these, the DOS seems to be a promising measure for multiple reasons. The current paper aims to validate the DOS, a measure of ON, in a non-Western population of Lebanese adolescents.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional designed study, conducted between May and June 2020, which enrolled 555 adolescents (15–18 years old; 75.7% females). Due the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the data were gathered through snowball sampling using an online questionnaire. The DOS, TOS and ORTO-R scales were used in this study to screen for orthorexic tendencies and behaviors.ResultsWe tested four competing structural models of the DOS assessing its factorial validity. The results of the current investigation revealed that the one-factorial model is the best one to represent the structure of the questionnaire. We provided evidence for validity for the DOS through demonstrating that it correlates significantly with other measures of orthorexic behaviours (Teruel Orthorexia Scale and ORTO-R). Finally, we have gathered evidence that the orthorexic behaviours as measured by DOS are not associated with age (r = −.02; p = .589), household crowding index (r = .02; p = .578), and Body Mass Index (r = .04; p = .297). Yet, females as compared to males achieved higher scores (M = 20.07, SD = 6.38 vs M = 18.29, SD = 6.37; p = .005; d = .28).ConclusionThe Arabic version of the DOS seems to be a structurally valid and internally consistent questionnaire measuring orthorexic eating behavior in a sample of Lebanese adolescents. This tool may be useful for psychologists, psychiatrists, dietitians and other clinicians in the assessment and the treatment of the multidimensional nature of ON.

A Study on Automatic Machine Translation Tools: A Comparative Error Analysis Between DeepL and Yandex for Russian-Italian Medical Translation

The present research is aimed at conducting a study with regard to Russian-Italian medical translation on the current development of two Machine Translation tools that feature prominently in today’s Neural Machine Translation framework, namely DeepL and Yandex. For the purpose of our research, we have selected a number of Russian medical articles: three highly specialized and three popular-science articles concerning coronavirus pandemic. Such a choice is justified by the willingness not only to analyse recently published scientific documents but also to investigate the particular linguistic implications of 2020’s coronavirus pandemic outbreak. In fact, during the period of pandemic a set of terms has been introduced and coined in every-day communication and entered the boundaries of scientific terminology. We have considered this existing linguistic phenomenon as a proper condition to test the performances of Machine Translation tools. In particular, we discuss the most relevant features of the comparative error analysis as well as the BLEU metric for both DeepL and Yandex.

Emotional exhaustion and psychosomatic symptoms for doctors working in hospitals resulting Coronavirus pandemic outbreak

Doctors working in hospitals have been under constant physical and psychological pressure resulting Coronavirus pandemic outbreak. Algeria was among the countries to face the health emergency in a period of great uncertainty about the virus and the ways to treat patients. The present study aims to analyse the levels of emotional exhaustion (EE) and psychosomatic symptoms (PS) of Algerian frontline doctors working in hospitals during the Covid-19 emergency, and their relationship with the evaluation of the institutional responses received. A survey was available online during the peak of health system overload. A total of 103 questionnaires were collected [mean age, 41.8 years; SD: +10,7; high-risk zone: 41.7%]. Correlation analyses were applied to investigate the relationship between the measures of emotional exhaustion and psychosomatic symptoms; ANOVA was applied to compare these measures among groups from different risk zones and with different perceived emotional and safety protection. EE and PS were widely experienced by frontline Doctors working in hospitals. Physical and psychological symptoms were amplified by the perceived lack of institutional support. Ensuring PS and hygiene and safety measures is essential to prevent worsening of health and psychosomatic symptoms in frontline Doctors working in hospitals.