Outbreak Of COVID-19 Pandemic Research Articles

Papillary Thyroid Cancer Trends in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is There a Shift toward a More Aggressive Entity?

Globally, the incidence of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has been increasing over the last few decades and it has become the second most common cancer in women in the UAE. There is some evidence to suggest that COVID-19 infection might be directly linked to the development of aggressive variants of PTC. The primary goal of this study was to compare the clinical and pathologic characteristics of thyroid cancer patients treated at the largest endocrine surgery center in Abu Dhabi before and after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. This retrospective cohort analysis included patients who underwent elective thyroid surgery at Burjeel Hospital between January 2018 and December 2022. Patients were divided into two groups based on when the COVID-19 outbreak started: group one, comprising patients who had surgery between January 2018 and December 2019 (the "pre-pandemic group"), and group two, comprising patients who had surgery between January 2021 and December 2022 (the "post-pandemic group"). In addition to demographic data, clinicopathological factors, such as aggressive cell type, multifocality, tumor size and location, laterality, lympho-vascular invasion, and extrathyroidal extension, were assessed. We utilized the t-paired test for parametric variables and the Chi-square test for the cross-table analysis. During the study, 1141 people had thyroid surgery, with an annual average of 285 procedures. PTC cases recorded in the final histopathological samples rose from 111 in the pre-pandemic era to 182 in the post-pandemic era. Neither the female-to-male gender ratio, which was 90:21 in the pre-pandemic group and 142:40 in the post-pandemic group (p = 0.532), nor the median age, which was 39.1 and 40.1 years, respectively, varied significantly between the two groups. However, there was a significant increase between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic in the aggressive PTC variants (3% vs. 11.5%, p = 0.001), increased poor prognostic factors such as bilateral multifocality (10.8% vs. 32.4%, p = 0.000), as well as increased capsule-vascular tumor invasion (19.8% vs. 27%); on the other hand, the size of the single foci was 17 mm in the pre-pandemic group compared to 13 mm in the post-pandemic group (p = 0.001). A significant rise in unfavorable prognostic markers and aggressive subtypes of PTC was seen post-pandemic in thyroidectomy patients operated on at a leading endocrine surgery center in the United Arab Emirates.

Comparative analysis of immune responses in humans infected with Alpha, Delta, and Omicron strains of SARS-CoV-2

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has profoundly challenged global public health over the last couple of years. Throughout this period, numerous mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged, presenting diverse pathophysiology and immune response challenges for infected individuals. Among these, variant of concern strains, including Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529), has garnered the most significant attention for their role in causing epidemiological dynamics, ultimately leading to elevated infectivity and significant mortality rates. This review aims to provide a comparative analysis of the immune-pathophysiological mechanisms associated with these aforementioned strains of SARS-CoV-2.

Changes in fertility intention among married Chinese couples with two children during COVID-19: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundA three-child policy was implemented in China to stimulate a rise in fertility levels and coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data suggested that COVID-19 has a negative impact on fertility...

Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Satisfaction Level with their Clinical Learning Experiences in Multan, Pakistan

Abstract: Background: Clinical experience is an integral part of nursing education. Obtaining quality clinical experiences in a supportive and pedagogically calibrated clinical learning environment is a significant concern for nursing institutions. The quality of clinical learning reveals the quality of the curriculum structure. Therefore, it is important to investigate students’ clinical learning experiences to produce competent future nurses. Objective: This study aimed to measure the undergraduate nursing students’ satisfaction level with their clinical learning experiences in government and private college of Nursing in Multan, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A quantitative approach, with analytical cross-sectional design, was used. A sample of 191 undergraduate nursing students participated in the study. Data was collected using the CLES+T evaluation scale. Online Google survey forms were used to collect data, due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Result: The study findings revealed that students were satisfied with their clinical learning experiences. Students’ overall mean satisfaction score was 3.54 + 0.93 and significant (p<0.05) difference was found in the satisfaction score between the government and private undergraduate nursing students. Attending pre and post-conferences, faculty visit to students’ clinical placement, electronic communication between students and clinical faculty, and environment of clinical placement were the associated factors found with students’ satisfaction. The findings revealed that a meaningful clinical learning environment motivates students to continue nursing as their career choice. Conclusion: This study concluded that, overall, students were satisfied with their clinical learning experiences, however, satisfaction varied according to the type of college and year of study.

Studying the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Bikeshares as a Mode of Shared Micromobility in Major Cities: A Case Study of Houston

A bikeshare system offers a convenient and cost-effective transportation service, providing shared bicycles for short-term use by individuals. It promotes affordability for users while fostering a healthier environment. By offering an alternative for those without access to private vehicles, it helps mitigate the rise in private car usage. Bike sharing also provides an important first-mile/last-mile commuting option. This study focuses on investigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on bikeshare ridership, with a specific case study centered around Houston, Texas. The employed methodology involves a descriptive analysis and Negative Binomial regression modeling to uncover the relationship between the dependent variable (ridership) and the independent variables. The descriptive analysis revealed an overall increase in ridership during the COVID-19 period in 2020. Notably, longer duration trips were substantially higher in 2020 compared to 2019. Furthermore, the majority of trips occurred during off-peak hours, followed by evening and morning peak periods. Through regression analysis, this study found that the COVID-19 pandemic had a statistically significant positive impact on average daily ridership, with the number of COVID-19 cases positively influencing ridership levels. Additionally, the weekend indicator had a statistically significant positive impact on the average daily ridership. On the other hand, the temperature indicator did not show any significant impact on the average daily ridership, while precipitation had a statistically significant negative impact, leading to decreased ridership levels. The study highlights the significance of various factors in influencing bikeshare usage, contributing to a better understanding of urban transportation dynamics during such unprecedented times.

Wild Sea Swimming as a Slow Intimacy: Towards Reconfiguring Scholarship

Our oceanic swimming-writing-reading together practice coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and subsequent lockdown in South Africa. Awash with vulnerability, precarity, and isolation, oceanic swimming-writing-reading became one of the few ways in which we, as three academics from different higher education institutions, found respite in a practice of care for ourselves and others. Curious as to whether swimming and free writing could materialise alternative creative scholarly practices, we began to meet regularly to swim, write, read and think together with theoretical perspectives that subscribe to a feminist relational ontology. This article turns to visual and written narratives generated during this period and building on them, considers health and wellbeing at both subjective and planetary levels. Our global southern location articulates with these themes in very particular ways – access, risk and embodiment in relation to seas, beaches and littoral zones. South Africa remains haunted by the continuing geopolitical effects of its slave, colonial, apartheid, and neoliberal past and current contexts of global capitalism that seep into encounters with the ocean. Our swimming-writing-thinking is a reminder of our relationalities with and response-abilities for the hydrocommons as the measure of human, other species and the planet’s capacity to survive and flourish.

A Comprehensive Exploration of Artificial Intelligence Methods for COVID-19 Diagnosis

INTRODUCTION: The 2019 COVID-19 pandemic outbreak triggered a previously unseen global health crisis demanding accurate diagnostic solutions. Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a promising technology for COVID-19 diagnosis, offering rapid and reliable analysis of medical data. OBJECTIVES: This research paper presents a comprehensive review of various artificial intelligence methods applied for the diagnosis, aiming to assess their effectiveness in identifying cases, predicting disease progression and differentiating from other respiratory diseases. METHODS: The study covers a wide range of artificial intelligence methods and with application in analysing diverse data sources like chest x-rays, CT scans, clinical records and genomic sequences. The paper also explores the challenges and limitations in implementing AI -based diagnostic tools, including data availability and ethical considerations. CONCLUSION: Leveraging AI’s potential in healthcare can significantly enhance diagnostic efficiency crisis management as the pandemic evolves.

The Digital Teaching and LEarning on Islamic Education Institutions and Their Sustainability in the New Normal Era

Islamic educational institutions had encountered globalization and modernizations for years. As the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, the digital transformation became a must as a reaction and adaptation toward the situation and condition. This article investigates the digital teaching and learning on Islamic education institutions and their sustainability in the new normal era. The method applied in this article was qualitative content analysis method. The findings are: 1) Digital teaching and Learning is a new transformation organizing teaching and learning management using digital application. Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on all aspect of life, including education, particularly in teaching and learning activities. It went on virtually using various platforms; 2) the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) includes not only in the teaching and learning, but also in the evaluation; 3) the global pandemic demands Islamic education institutions to up-date the institutional system and to manage as well as control institutional activities; and 4) the future digital teaching and learning on Islamic education institutions cover sustainability of ICT, sustainability of human resource to adapt with the latest situation, and the sustainability of the institutions’ existence

Newborn Hospitalizations Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland: A Comparative Study Based on a National Hospital Registry.

Objectives: There are limited data on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Poland on newborn health. The aim of the study is to show recent information on hospitalizations of newborns in Poland in the pre-pandemic and COVID-19 pandemic era. Methods: A retrospective, population-based study was conducted using data from hospital discharge records of patients hospitalized in 2017-2021. Results: The data on which the study was based consisted of a substantial number of 104,450 hospitalization records. Annual hospitalization rate was estimated to be 50.3-51.9 per 1,000 in 2017-2019, 56 per 1,000 in 2020 and it rose to 77.7 per 1,000 in 2021. In comparison to the pre-pandemic period, in the COVID-19 era, we observed significantly more hospitalization cases of newborns affected by maternal renal and urinary tract diseases (p < 0.001), syndrome of infant of mother with gestational diabetes (p < 0.001), maternal complications of pregnancy (p < 0.001). In the COVID-19 era, the prevalence of COVID-19 among newborns was 4.5 cases per 1,000 newborn hospitalizations. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak could significantly contribute to qualitative and quantitative changes in hospitalizations among newborns.

Clinical analysis of COVID-19 in patients with preexisting interstitial lung abnormalities

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients with interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We respectively enrolled ILA patients who had been regularly followed up in Peking Union Medical College Hospital for more than six months since January 2021. Clinical data of these ILA patients were collected after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic (from December 2022 to January 2023), thirty-eight patients with preexisting ILA were enrolled. Among them, there were 34 ILA patients (20 males and 14 females) who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during this period, with an average age of (64.0±8.8) years old (range: 41-80). There were 12 (35.3%) ILA patients who were suffered from COVID-19(pneumonia group) and others were the non-pneumonia group. The clinical characteristics, including vaccination status, features of COVID-19 and outcomes of the two groups were compared. Results: Regarding the subcategories of ILA, there were 7 cases of subpleural fibrotic ILA, 10 cases of subpleural non-fibrotic ILA, and 17 cases of non-subpleural ILA. Before SARS-CoV-2 infection, the average pulse oxygen saturation at rest was (97.38±0.87)% (range: 96%-99%); average forced vital capacity (FVC) was (97.6±18.1)% predicted (range: 65%-132%); and average diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) was (76.2±16.3)% predicted (range: 53%-108%). Nineteen patients had been vaccinated with 3 doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and 5 of them developed COVID-19. One patient had received one dose of vaccine and did not develop COVID-19. The other 14 patients had not been vaccinated, and seven of them developed COVID-19. Of the 12 patients with COVID-19, six were diagnosed with severe COVID-19, and the other 6 ILA patients were diagnosed with moderate COVID-19. Among them, 1 patient was complicated by deep vein thrombosis of left lower limb. All 6 patients with severe COVID-19 who were cured after systemic corticosteroids. As for the other six moderate COVID-19 patients, all were cured and/or improved greatly: two were treated with short-term oral corticosteroids, one was prescribed a dose of compound betamethasone, and the other two were not treated with systemic corticosteroids. Conclusion: Patients with ILA were predisposed to develop COVID-19 after infection with SARS-CoV-2, and more than half of them had severe COVID-19.

Pandemic ethnography: Fieldwork in transformed social space

This methodological analysis traces the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on two ethnographic studies in Chicago: a neighborhood fight for affordable housing, and an effort to increase local participation in the 2020 U.S. Census. We attend to the relationship between space and visibility after the onset of the pandemic as methodological and political challenges. Drawing on Haraway's seminal description of situated knowledge, this article explores the changes that the pandemic brought to our situated and partial perspective as ethnographers of political process. To do so, we present fieldwork from both studies before and after they became fully virtual. Finally, we discuss shared emergent methodological implications with a focus on embodiment in fieldwork, the dynamics of access, and the formalization of participation in online venues.

‘Somos bilingües’: translanguaging socialization of DLBE teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the disruption of in-person schooling has significantly affected many students including emergent bilingual students. Designed as an ethnographic study, this research study examines two Spanish-English dual language bilingual education teachers’ implementation of translanguaging pedagogies and language socialization during the pandemic through the following research questions: (1) What adjustments did the teachers make to their teaching and curriculum to support the students as they navigated the pandemic times? (2) How did the teachers and students use languages in their interaction in blended learning environments? Findings from the 2nd grade Spanish Language Arts and 4th grade Social Studies classes demonstrate that both teachers reported an increased awareness of the importance to integrate translanguaging pedagogies and reflected a translanguaging stance. They also intentionally integrated translanguaging strategies into their teaching through translanguaging design. The 2nd grade teacher invited the students to draw upon their full linguistic repertoires for Spanish literacy development, whereas the 4th grade teacher adopted translanguaging design to make content materials more accessible. Through translanguaging socialization, both teachers socialized the students into and through flexible language use and created a learning environment where students’ linguistic repertoires were valued as a resource for learning.

Zooming Into Video Conferencing Privacy

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, with its related social distancing and shelter-in-place measures, has dramatically affected ways in which people communicate with each other, forcing people to find new ways to collaborate, study, celebrate special occasions, and meet with family and friends. One of the most popular solutions that have emerged is the use of video conferencing applications to replace face-to-face meetings with virtual meetings. This resulted in unprecedented growth in the number of video conferencing users. In this study, we explored privacy issues that may be at risk by attending virtual meetings. We extracted private information from collage images of meeting participants that are publicly posted on the Web. We used image processing, text recognition tools, as well as social network analysis to explore our web crawling curated dataset of over 15,700 collage images, and over 142,000 face images of meeting participants. We demonstrate that video conference users are facing prevalent security and privacy threats. Our results indicate that it is relatively easy to collect thousands of publicly available images of video conference meetings and extract personal information about the participants, including their face images, age, gender, usernames, and sometimes even full names. This type of extracted data can vastly and easily jeopardize people's security and privacy both in the online and real-world, affecting not only adults but also more vulnerable segments of society, such as young children and older adults. Finally, we show that cross-referencing facial image data with social network data may put participants at additional privacy risks they may not be aware of and that it is possible to identify users that appear in several video conference meetings, thus providing a potential to maliciously aggregate different sources of information about a target individual.

Tracing the evolution of cyber resilience: a historical and conceptual review

In 2000, during a time when cyber security research was focused on the risks and threats posed by digital systems, the notion of being able to withstand and recover from cyber attacks, also known as cyber resilience, emerged. Recently, this concept has gained increasing attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid acceleration of digitalization. While experts acknowledge the distinction between cyber security and cyber resilience, the exact definition and evolution of the latter remain somewhat ambiguous. The aim of this paper is to offer a thorough comprehension of how the notion of cyber resilience has developed throughout history. It delves into the concept of cyber resilience and its progression over time in response to the rising frequency and complexity of cyber threats. Cyber resilience, a new concept, has gained significant recognition as a critical component of cyber security strategy across diverse sectors, encompassing public and private domains alike. It begins with an overview of the definition and key components of cyber resilience and then traces the origin of the concept from its early development in the 2000s. The paper also explores the major milestones and events that have shaped the evolution of this capacity, including changes in technology and societal factors, up to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. This study provides valuable insights into future challenges for ensuring the continued resilience of digital infrastructure by examining the historical and contextual factors that have influenced the concept.

REVISITING WEAK-FORM EFFICIENCY OF MAJOR SECTORS OF MALAYSIA DURING THE COVID-19 PERIOD

There are plenty of literature on the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) especially for a stock market, but relatively fewer studies for across sectors. We look into the weak-form informational efficiency for twelve sectors in the Malaysia’s stock exchange, i.e. Consumer Products &amp; Services (KLCSU), Construction (KLCON), Energy (KLENG), Financial Services (KLFIN), Health Care (KLHEAL), Industrial Products &amp; Services (KLPRO), Property (KLPRP), Plantation (KLPLN), Transportation &amp; Logistics (KLTRAN), Telecommunications &amp; Media (KLTEL), Utilities (KLUTL), and Technology (KLTEC) during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. We use QTEST (without trend) and TQTEST (with trend) which incorporate two structural breaks to carry out the analysis. Data are collected from 1/1/2020 through 31/3/2022. These indices show non-linearity and structural breaks in data. The findings of our study suggest mixed results in regard to informational efficiency when breaks are taken. Four indices, i.e. KLCON, KLFIN, KLPRP, and KLUTL are found to be inefficient while the remaining eight sectors are found to be efficient. Investors can predict the movements of stocks in the inefficient indices and are able to gain abnormal returns from these stocks. Policymakers may encourage investors to have more trades; so that to make the market more efficient by gradually eliminating the opportunities on earning abnormal returns.

Measuring Efficiency Of Family And Non-Family Firm Amidst Covid-19 Times: Do They Perform Differently?

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 has inflicted serious financial distresses for most firms in multi-sectoral industries. Each of them was enforced to deal with the economic downturns by working more efficiently. In this case, family and non-family firms might perform differently to protect themselves from bankruptcy. This research aims to measure firm efficiency by employing a total of 52 entities listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), 26 entities for each type of firms from 2019 to 2022, reflecting the times before, during, and after the pandemic. At the first stage, date envelopment analysis (DEA) with constant return-to-scale (CRS) input-oriented approach is employed to generate deterministic efficiency scores of each sample which the bias is then corrected using Simar and Wilson’s bootstrap technique. At the second stage, hypothesis testing is conducted to examine whether the difference in efficiency score between both types of firms is significant. The result shows that family and non-family firms do not perform differently during a 4-year of research period (p-value=0.136). Nevertheless, family firms exhibit a significant drop in 2020 (p-value=0.0061), where this condition reversed with a significant increase in 2021 (p-value=0.0002). Non-family firms perform more stably throughout the research years. Finally this research may contribute to the development of organization-related science, business, and strategic management. The way most family firms operate might reflect the socio-cultural attributes of a nation. There is no other similar study found since COVID-19 pandemic is still considered as a relatively new global health crisis.

Implications between pandemic, environmental degradation, and capitalist system

This paper aims to analyze the correlations between the current pandemic outbreak of Covid-19 and the process of environmental degradation that has been intensifying more and more throughout this period. The main methodological coordination applied in this research consisted of a bibliographic review, contextualized by the reading and analysis of journalistic material. This research seeks to question, especially in relation to the Brazilian context, how the global pandemic and the collapse in the environment are intrinsic processes when situated in a broader context of capitalism's offensive. The proposal is to articulate the socio-historical configurations between these phenomena to the production model in force. A central issue to be attacked is the way the economy has been given, demanding a new reorganization, extinguishing predatory actions and their process of unlimited expansion as if nature were infinitely exploited in an unbridled manner by capital-intensive.

Students’ Perceptions towards Online Learning in the Upper East Region

Online learning has become the most dominant mode of instruction adopted by facilitators due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Instructors adopted this mode of instruction in order to engage students in academic activities while they stay in their comfort zones. This study therefore investigated students’ perceptions towards online learning. Two research questions were formulated to guide the study. Purposive sampling technique was adopted in sampling participants for the study. Data was analysed using inferential statistics (ANOVA) and descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and percentage). The interview data was also analysed using thematic analysis. The finding from the study proved that online learning has several benefits and challenges. The findings from the study proved that online learning helps students to learn at their own pace and also share information among each other and facilitators easily. It was also found that online learning saves money and students time since they do not need to travel to the study centers. The study also proved that poor internet connectivity is a serious challenge of online learning. Lack of computer skills and ICT logistics also affect student’s participation in online learning. There was statistically significant difference between the mean perceptions of students on benefits and challenges of online learning. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that Ghana Education Service should provide students with laptops, android phones and tablets to enhance their effective participation in online learning. It was also recommended that tertiary institutions offering online courses should organize seminars for students on online learning and also provide students with internet bundles to help them participate effectively in online learning.

Analyzing the market performance of Romanian firms: do the COVID-19 crisis and classification type matter?

PurposeStock market performance is paramount to every country, as it signifies economic growth, business performance, wealth maximization, savings deployment and consumer confidence. This study investigates the disparities in the market performance of listed firms in Romania. This study also examines whether the COVID-19 crisis affected market performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 69 firms listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) from 2018 to 2022, belonging to 11 sectors. This study used several methods to achieve its objectives. Difference tests were considered to analyze the performance of Romanian companies before and during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as across sectors. Regression analysis was also conducted to estimate the effect of the COVID-19 crisis and classification type on Romanian companies' performance. Additional analyses were performed to verify the findings of the present study.FindingsThe study’s findings indicate a clear difference in market performance between the pre-crisis and crisis periods. The COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse and significant impact on market performance. However, after the market contraction in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the stock market outperformed the pre-pandemic capitalization levels and the regional and global indices evolution. Furthermore, there was a difference in market performance across sectors. In particular, the communication services sector has specifically demonstrated accelerated growth.Originality/valueThis research examines the variation in the market performance of companies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and across different sectors. It also provides evidence of the potential impact of COVID-19 on firms' market performance. This research contributes to a better understanding of how sectors perform during times of crisis.

Exploring the Interplay of Working Memory, Apathy, and Mood/Emotional Factors.

Previous investigations on healthy humans showed conflicting evidence regarding the impact of mood on working memory performance. A systematic investigation of how mood affects apathy levels in healthy participants is currently missing. We administered a visuospatial (VS) and a numerical (N) n-back task to a sample of 120 healthy individuals. In these participants, using a series of questionnaires, we also evaluated apathy, mood, working memory, perceived stress, PTSD symptoms caused by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and general psychiatric symptoms. Successively, we investigated their performance in the n-back task as a function of scores to these questionnaires. Participants performed better in the N block than in the VS one. Their accuracy decreased as a function of the n-back difficulty. We reported no differences in working memory performance or apathy as a function of mood, stress, or PTSD symptoms. We found that phobic anxiety negatively predicted accuracy to the numerical n-back task and that subjects with greater anxiety and difficulty in regulating emotions also showed higher levels of withdrawal from the task. The study's results suggest that while mood did not significantly affect working memory performance, strong associations were found between WMQ scores and working memory capabilities.