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The novel coronavirus disease — COVID-19 is a historic catastrophe that has caused many devastating impacts on human life and wellness. Researchers in academia and industry strive to understand the causes of this pandemic disease and find new therapeutics combating it. Consequently, the number of COVID-19 related publications increases rapidly, and it is too difficult for medical researchers and practitioners to keep up with the latest research and development. Literature filtering and categorization, and knowledge discovery can use text mining as a powerful tool. In this paper, we propose a text mining method to explore the categories of COVID-19 related themes and identify the standard methodologies that have been used. We discuss the potential limitations of this preliminary study and present future perspectives related to COVID-19 research. This paper provides an quantitative and qualitative mixed analysis example of using some research papers by data mining method to dig out several hidden information and set up a foundation for data scientists to develop more effective algorithms to deal with COVID-19 related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest of the research community in happiness and its associated issues has been steadily growing over the years, including during the period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has brought about significant changes in various aspects of people's lives. In this study, the objective is to analyze the themes and the most significant trends in papers dedicated to happiness in the context of COVID-19 during the period following the onset of the pandemic. To achieve this, the authors have compiled a dataset of papers sourced from Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science Core Collection database, which were extracted using keywords related to both happiness and COVID-19. This database comprises 1932 articles. The researchers have conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of this dataset, providing insights into the most prolific authors in this field, the most frequently cited documents, and the preferred journals for publishing this research. The authors also explore details related to collaboration networks and author clusters. An n-gram analysis is performed on titles, abstracts, keywords, and keywords plus, offering a deeper understanding of the primary research themes. Furthermore, the contributors present a review of the top 10 most cited papers, which completes the analysis and underscores the research trends related to happiness in the context of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this scoping review was to examine the national and international literature on the response of adult Hospital at Home (HAH) services to the global Covid-19 pandemic and explore key themes to emerge and make recommendations for further research. The databases were searched using agreed search terms and Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework was utilized and papers were identified and analyzed for common themes. Thirty-one papers were included in the review. Of the papers included, general adult medicine was the largest service group (n = 15) with geriatric services the next largest (n = 12). Most papers were European in origin (n = 19). Key themes to emerge include (1) similar outcomes for HAH patients compared with traditional inpatient care, (2) expansion of capacity for inpatient care due to HAH use, (3) growth of virtual monitoring in HAH setting, (4) reduction in infection transmission in HAH setting, and (5) cost reduction due to HAH utilization. Hospital at home demonstrated good outcomes for both patients with Covid-19 and other conditions during the pandemic. These services also expanded capacity during a global healthcare crisis. Remote monitoring played a major role in the expansion of capacity and the reduction of infection transmission during the pandemic. Although some papers discuss how HAH is more cost effective than traditional hospital, more work is needed around this as many of the patients may not have been as sick as those admitted to traditional hospital during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial from the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry that explores the cultural and social implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses how different countries, minorities, and special populations have experienced and adapted to the pandemic. The editorial highlights various research articles that examine the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare professionals, students, trainees, residents, and special populations. The document provides a summary of these papers, which cover a range of topics including help-seeking messages, art therapy, mental health policies, behavioral patterns, medication trends, suicide rates, burnout among healthcare workers, and the management of long-term consequences. The document concludes by acknowledging the global impact of the pandemic and expressing hope for better understanding and addressing its challenges. [Extracted from the article]

As one of the important concepts in epidemiology, herd immunity was recommended to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by this technique, the Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimiser has recently been introduced, demonstrating promising results in addressing optimisation problems. This particular algorithm has been utilised to address optimisation problems widely; However, there is room for enhancement in its performance by making modifications to its parameters. This paper aims to improve the Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimisation algorithm to employ it in addressing breast cancer diagnosis problem through feature selection. For this purpose, the algorithm was discretised after the improvements were made. The Opposition-Based Learning approach was applied to balance the exploration and exploitation stages to enhance performance. The resulting algorithm was employed in the diagnosis of breast cancer, and its performance was evaluated on ten benchmark functions. According to the simulation results, it demonstrates superior performance in comparison with other well-known approaches of the similar nature. The results demonstrate that the new approach performs well in diagnosing breast cancer with high accuracy and less computational complexity and can address a variety of real-world optimisation problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a mathematical model is developed to simulate the activation of regulatory T lymphocytes dynamics. The model considers the adaptive immune response and consists of epithelial cells, infected cells, free virus particles, helper and cytotoxic T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and regulatory T lymphocytes. A mathematical analysis was carried out to discuss the conditions of existence and stability of equilibrium solutions in terms of the basic reproductive number. In addition, the definitions and properties necessary to preserve the positivity and stability of the model are shown. The precision of these mathematical models can be affected by numerous sources of uncertainty, partly due to the balance between the complexity of the model and its predictive capacity to depict the biological process accurately. Nevertheless, these models can provide remarkably perspectives on the dynamics of infection and assist in identification specific immunological traits that improve our comprehension of immune mechanisms. The theoretical results are validated by numerical simulations using data reported in the literature. The construction, analysis, and simulation of the developed models demonstrate that the increased induced regulatory T lymphocytes effectively suppress the inflammatory response in contrast to similar cells at lower contents, playing a key role in maintaining self-tolerance and immune homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early days of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, Saudi Arabia started to implement several preventative measures starting with the imposition of travel restrictions to and from China. Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, and with the first confirmed case in Saudi Arabia in March 2019, more strict measures, such as international travel restriction, and suspension or cancellation of major events, social gatherings, prayers at mosques, and sports competitions, were employed. These non-pharmaceutical interventions aim to reduce the extent of the epidemic due to the implications of international travel and mass gatherings on the increase in the number of new cases locally and globally. Since this ongoing outbreak is the first of its kind in the modern world, the impact of suspending mass gatherings on the outbreak is unknown and difficult to measure. We use a stratified SEIR epidemic model to evaluate the impact of Umrah, a global Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic during the month of Ramadan, the peak of the Umrah season. The analyses shown in the paper provide insights into the effects of global mass gatherings such as Hajj and Umrah on the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic locally and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostalism, to which the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe belongs, is one of the fastest growing brands of Christianity in Zimbabwe. Most Pentecostal churches promise divine health, deliverance, miracles and prosperity to their members. In the Apostolic Faith Mission of Zimbabwe, women constitute the greater percentage of the church membership. Despite the fact that Pentecostal churches make promises of a good life, a church is generally expected to be a safe haven to its members. This paper wished to examine whether the Pentecostal church response to COVID-19 helped to build or destroy the mental health of its majority members, the women. The findings however show that the church mostly affected women's mental health in a negative way as it grappled with the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article therefore contests the claim of providing a good life as done by some Pentecostal churches. This was a qualitative study and utilized findings from a sample of 15 members of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe who were selected using purposive sampling. The findings suggest that the women were stressed by the teachings on marriage and emphasis on collection of money, discrimination against single women, the prosperity gospel, and patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This paper investigates the effect of a religious holiday (Eid-ul-Fitr in Pakistan) on compliance behaviour instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longstanding religion-based norms of behaviour during the Eid holidays (traveling to meet family members, praying in large gatherings, hugging) may counteract newly established (and weaker) norms of health-preserving behaviours. Method: We study the impact of Eid-ul-Fitr on compliance with COVID guidelines for a sample of university students. Our effects are identified by unprompted delays in fielding a survey measuring compliance with prescribed behaviours. Results: We find that compliance with guidelines declines immediately after the religious holiday in our sample of students, with no observable decline in other well documented predictors of compliance behaviour (risk perceptions, trust in the authorities). We find that this decline in compliance is largely attributable to male participants, with one important exception. We further confirm our results by conducting robustness checks incorporating matching techniques and a smaller follow-up study where we randomize invitations to the survey. Conclusion: We conclude that amid the pandemic, newly formed norms pertaining to healthcare guidelines (focusing on social-distancing) emerged, and were subsequently undercut by longstanding norms of behaviour following a religious celebration: Eid-ul-Fitr. This paper underscores the fragility of these newly emerged norms, especially when challenged by a more well-entrenched, traditional norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a hybrid Modified Coronavirus Herd Immunity Aquila Optimization Algorithm (MCHIAO) that compiles the Enhanced Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimizer (ECHIO) algorithm and Aquila Optimizer (AO). As one of the competitive human-based optimization algorithms, the Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimizer (CHIO) exceeds some other biological-inspired algorithms. Compared to other optimization algorithms, CHIO showed good results. However, CHIO gets confined to local optima, and the accuracy of large-scale global optimization problems is decreased. On the other hand, although AO has significant local exploitation capabilities, its global exploration capabilities are insufficient. Subsequently, a novel metaheuristic optimizer, Modified Coronavirus Herd Immunity Aquila Optimizer (MCHIAO), is presented to overcome these restrictions and adapt it to solve feature selection challenges. In this paper, MCHIAO is proposed with three main enhancements to overcome these issues and reach higher optimal results which are cases categorizing, enhancing the new genes' value equation using the chaotic system as inspired by the chaotic behavior of the coronavirus and generating a new formula to switch between expanded and narrowed exploitation. MCHIAO demonstrates it's worth contra ten well-known state-of-the-art optimization algorithms (GOA, MFO, MPA, GWO, HHO, SSA, WOA, IAO, NOA, NGO) in addition to AO and CHIO. Friedman average rank and Wilcoxon statistical analysis (p-value) are conducted on all state-of-the-art algorithms testing 23 benchmark functions. Wilcoxon test and Friedman are conducted as well on the 29 CEC2017 functions. Moreover, some statistical tests are conducted on the 10 CEC2019 benchmark functions. Six real-world problems are used to validate the proposed MCHIAO against the same twelve state-of-the-art algorithms. On classical functions, including 24 unimodal and 44 multimodal functions, respectively, the exploitative and explorative behavior of the hybrid algorithm MCHIAO is evaluated. The statistical significance of the proposed technique for all functions is demonstrated by the p-values calculated using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, as these p-values are found to be less than 0.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of directives in communicating the nature of the pandemic and reference to social experiences were promoted using images on social media platforms. The images or memes are used to create awareness and reinforce the criteria for safety during the pandemic. Previous studies on internet memes have concentrated on humor generation, speaker-hearer shared knowledge, neologism, and multimodality among others, with insufficient attention paid to the use of directives and references in such coronavirus-motivated memes. This paper, therefore, examines how directives and references are employed in conveying expected social responsibilities through coronavirus-motivated internet memes in Nigeria and other socio-cultural contexts. For data, one hundred coronavirus-motivated memes were purposively selected from Facebook, and eight representative memes were subjected to pragmatic analysis using aspects of Jacob Mey's (2001. Pragmatics: An introduction, 2nd edn. USA: Blackwell Publishing) pragmatic acts theory to unearth insights from them. The paper observes that the various spheres of life that are relatable to an online audience help to express what the pandemic is about and enhance the meaning of the pandemic with the context of the use of the memes, giving clearer perspectives on the pandemic. Directives and references are useful tools for conveying social responsibilities to online audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has spread to several countries around the world. It was announced as a pandemic disease by The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 for its devastating impact on humans. With the advancements in computer science algorithms, the detection of this type of virus in the early stages is urgently needed for the fast recovery of patients. In this paper, a study of neutrosophic set significance on deep transfer learning models will be presented. The study will be conducted over a limited COVID-19 x-ray. The study relies on neutrosophic set and theory to convert the medical images from the grayscale spatial domain to the neutrosophic domain. The neutrosophic domain consists of three types of images, and they are the True (T) images, the Indeterminacy (I) images, and the Falsity (F) images. The dataset used in this research has been collected from different sources. The dataset is classified into four classes {COVID-19, normal, pneumonia bacterial, and pneumonia virus}. This study aims to review the effect of neutrosophic sets on deep transfer learning models. The selected deep learning models in this study are Alexnet, Googlenet, and Restnet18. Those models are selected as they have a small number of layers on their architectures. To test the performance of the conversion to the neutrosophic domain, more than 36 trials have been conducted and recorded. A combination of training and testing strategies by splitting the dataset into (90–10%, 80–20%, 70–30) is included in the experiments. Four domains of images are tested, and they are, the original domain, the True (T) domain, the Indeterminacy (I) domain, and the Falsity (F) domain. The four domains with the different training and testing strategies were tested using the selected deep transfer models. According to the experimental results, the Indeterminacy (I) neutrosophic domain achieves the highest accuracy possible with 87.1% in the testing accuracy and performance metrics such as Precision, Recall, and F1 Score. The study concludes that using the neutrosophic set with deep learning models may be an encouraging transition to achieve better testing accuracy, especially with limited COVID-19 datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing, chest radiographs (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) scans were employed as crucial diagnostic methods for detecting the 2019 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Our objective is to examine three notable COVID-19 instances from patients across the globe, along with their CXR and CT data. The evaluation of the imaging characteristics of the reported instances was the primary objective of a methodical examination of the literature. We located more than several articles that had been published between 2020 and 2023. After the papers were examined, three major cases were chosen, including a COVID-19 assessment of imaging features (chest X-ray and CT scan). Corona viral diseases (COVID-19) pose a significant risk to healthcare facilities, especially when the patient has additional medical issues. It is challenging to understand the various chest radiography results because of the use of specialized and ambiguous terminology such as "airspace disease", "pneumonia", "infiltrates", "patchy opacities", and "hazy opacities". The current investigation considered peer-reviewed case reports with Images features. Study designs, including reporting cases, were considered for imaging feature analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus emerged as a highly contagious, pathogenic virus that severely affects the respiratory system of humans. The epidemic-related data is collected regularly, which machine learning algorithms can employ to comprehend and estimate valuable information. The analysis of the gathered data through time series approaches may assist in developing more accurate forecasting models and strategies to combat the disease. This paper focuses on short-term forecasting of cumulative reported incidences and mortality. Forecasting is conducted utilizing state-of-the-art mathematical and deep learning models for multivariate time series forecasting, including extended susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered (SEIR), long-short-term memory (LSTM), and vector autoregression (VAR). The SEIR model has been extended by integrating additional information such as hospitalization, mortality, vaccination, and quarantine incidences. Extensive experiments have been conducted to compare deep learning and mathematical models that enable us to estimate fatalities and incidences more precisely based on mortality in the eight most affected nations during the time of this research. The metrics like mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) are employed to gauge the model's effectiveness. The deep learning model LSTM outperformed all others in terms of forecasting accuracy. Additionally, the study explores the impact of vaccination on reported epidemics and deaths worldwide. Furthermore, the detrimental effects of ambient temperature and relative humidity on pathogenic virus dissemination have been analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of infectious diseases was further promoted due to busy cities, increased travel, and climate change, which led to outbreaks, epidemics, and even pandemics. The world experienced the severity of the 125 nm virus called the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pandemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019. Many investigations revealed a strong correlation between humidity and temperature relative to the kinetics of the virus's spread into the hosts. This study aimed to solve the riddle of the correlation between environmental factors and COVID-19 by applying RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) with the designed research question. Five temperature and humidity-related themes were deduced via the review processes, namely 1) The link between solar activity and pandemic outbreaks, 2) Regional area, 3) Climate and weather, 4) Relationship between temperature and humidity, and 5) the Governmental disinfection actions and guidelines. A significant relationship between solar activities and pandemic outbreaks was reported throughout the review of past studies. The grand solar minima (1450-1830) and solar minima (1975-2020) coincided with the global pandemic. Meanwhile, the cooler, lower humidity, and low wind movement environment reported higher severity of cases. Moreover, COVID-19 confirmed cases and death cases were higher in countries located within the Northern Hemisphere. The Blackbox of COVID-19 was revealed through the work conducted in this paper that the virus thrives in cooler and low-humidity environments, with emphasis on potential treatments and government measures relative to temperature and humidity. Highlights: • The coronavirus disease 2019 (COIVD-19) is spreading faster in low temperatures and humid area. • Weather and climate serve as environmental drivers in propagating COVID-19. • Solar radiation influences the spreading of COVID-19. • The correlation between weather and population as the factor in spreading of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, an epidemic SI model with n -infectious stages is studied. Lyapunov functions are used to conduct the global stability analysis for equilibrium points. The n -basic reproduction ratios R 1 , R 2 , ..., R n are computed, and the basic reproduction number ( R 0 ) is the max value between this ratios is obtained. For, j = 1 , 2 ,... , n when R j is less than one, all strains die out, and if it is greater than one, then persists. The disease-free and endemic equilibrium points are found, and we studied the global stability for them by using the direct Lyapunov functions. The Maple program is used for carrying a numerical simulations to support the analytically results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic is not a foodborne infectious disease, but it has dramatically impacted food safety practices worldwide due to its potential for transmission through contaminated surfaces and food. Accordingly, the Omicron variant seems to have affected food-related activities and behaviours and disturbed food supply networks since its appearance in November 2021. Hence, this paper aims to assess how the Omicron variant impacted food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices amongst adult consumers in five countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Russia. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on an online survey. The questionnaire was developed and revised based on previous research on the impact of previous COVID-19 waves on food-related activities in several countries. The questionnaire was distributed through the SurveyMonkey platform from January 15 to February 25, 2022. It consisted of 29 multiple-choice and one-option questions organised into three sections. A total of 6,483 valid responses were received. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was used to analyse the survey results. Findings: According to the survey findings, food safety practices evolved during the Omicron wave in the studied countries. Firstly, less than half of the sample used a face mask whilst purchasing food. Secondly, regarding food safety knowledge, the survey results suggest that there is still a lack of knowledge in the studied countries. Thirdly, the survey indicates a lack of knowledge amongst the respondents regarding food safety attitudes. For instance, more than a third of the sample (34.4%) are unsure whether the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted through food. These results are surprising and alarming, especially considering that our sample has a higher education than the population of the studied countries. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this research is the sample bias. Survey participants were randomly chosen, enrolled voluntarily and not rewarded. As a result, the questionnaire was self-administered and completed exclusively by people motivated by an interest in the topic. Consequently, our survey does not represent the general population of the studied countries. People with a high degree of education and women, for example, were overrepresented in our sample. Originality/value: This study is unique in that it is the first to gather information and analyse people's perceptions of the effects of the Omicron variant on food safety. As a result, the findings of this survey offer a solid basis for future investigations into the impact of the pandemic on food safety in the Balkan region and Russia. This study can help further understand the changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides crucial insights that can be used to guide future decision-making and policy development regarding improving food safety practices. This and other future studies will be a foundation for organisational and government readiness for future shocks, crises and pandemics. The effects of the present Ukrainian conflict on agricultural systems and supply chains throughout the globe (e.g. increased food prices) show that this is timely, urgent and highly required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soviet social theorist Mikhail M. Bakhtin developed the theory of the carnivalesque as a logic of exaggeration, inversion and irony. Beyond carnival events themselves, Bakhtin proposed this logic as a creative instance to foresee openings within an assumed normality. The conceptual gaze of the 'carnivalesque' helps to rethink the reconfiguration of actors and practices around mobility, borders and migration during the initial lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. This impasse worked as a corona-carnival in the midst of the current mobility regime. The use of 'carnivalesque' in this article is not related to the playful aspects of carnival as a parade, but to the potential of the carnivalesque impasse for envisioning alternatives, which are not necessarily emancipatory but deeply ambivalent, grotesque and unfinished. That carnivalesque momentum, marked by social norms placed on pause, is captured in artistic and linguistic production, acting as a collective legacy for imagining futures otherwise. This paper compiles some keywords which emerged during the corona-carnival impasse, each holding hopeful and dystopian glimpses of possible alterations to the status-quo. These linguistic productions question assumed notions and practices of migration management, opening the social imagination to other ways of engaging with human mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using radiographic changes of COVID-19 in the medical images, artificial intelligence techniques such as deep learning are used to extract some graphical features of COVID-19 and present a Covid-19 diagnostic tool. Differently from previous works that focus on using deep learning to analyze CT scans or X-ray images, this paper uses deep learning to scan electro diagram (ECG) images to diagnose Covid-19. Covid-19 patients with heart disease are the most people exposed to violent symptoms of Covid-19 and death. This shows that there is a special, unclear relation (until now) and parameters between covid-19 and heart disease. So, as previous works, using a general diagnostic model to detect covid-19 from all patients, based on the same rules, is not accurate as we prove later in the practical section of our paper because the model faces dispersion in the data during the training process. So, this paper aims to propose a novel model that focuses on diagnosing accurately Covid-19 for heart patients only to increase the accuracy and to reduce the waiting time of a heart patient to perform a covid-19 diagnosis. Also, we handle the only one existed dataset that contains ECGs of Covid-19 patients and produce a new version, with the help of a heart diseases expert, which consists of two classes: ECGs of heart patients with positive Covid-19 and ECGs of heart patients with negative Covid-19 cases. This dataset will help medical experts and data scientists to study the relation between Covid-19 and heart patients. We achieve overall accuracy, sensitivity and specificity 99.1%, 99% and 100%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism industry has grappled with the challenges posed by the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since the start of 2020, experiencing a complete lockdown that profoundly affected travel activities. This viral outbreak had a critical impact on both the financial and non-financial aspects of life, including the intellectual capital (IC) of the tourism and hospitality sectors. However, there is a scarcity of studies addressing this issue within the context of tourism-related businesses. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the changes in the overall IC and its components before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific focus on understanding the transformation of IC in the tourism industry of Thailand, a country that is highly dependent on tourism. The study involved 37 tourism-related companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Organizational data from financial and annual reports published between 2019 and 2020 were collected for analysis. The assessment of value added intellectual capital (VAICTM) was employed to evaluate the performance of the overall IC and its components during the pandemic. The results, based on the testing of four hypotheses, indicated that most hypotheses were accepted, signifying a substantial transformation in the overall IC performance of tourism-related companies during the pandemic crisis. This transformation was observed in the IC components of physical and human capitals. However, the structural capital was the only IC component that did not experience a significant impact from COVID-19. To comprehend the reasons and effects of the IC transformations during the pandemic, this study delved into the relevant literature. Additionally, the paper includes implications to support firms in preparing for future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: It has not yet been fully established that there is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) involvement in the synovial fluid and it remains a topic of debate. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in knee joint synovial fluid of patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted with an initial screening of patients who were admitted to a tertiary pandemic hospital due to COVID-19 symptoms, and underwent treatment for COVID-19 between March and June 2020. RESULTS: A total of 2476 patients were hospitalized or received treatment for a possible diagnosis of COVID-19. While the RT-PCR test was positive in 318 patients (12.8%), 2158 (87.2%) were computed tomography positive but reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) negative. Twelve patients were consulted due to acute joint effusion. Of five patients with knee joint effusion and a positive RT-PCR test, the synovial tissue RT-PCR test was positive in only one patient. CONCLUSION: This paper is the first to show the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in synovial fluid. This can be considered of importance for the determination and elimination of the route of transmission, thereby preventing further development and spread of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most systems of traditional medicine have been using herbal medicines to prevent and treat acute respiratory conditions and various other conditions for centuries. The aim of this project is to identify and examine the systematic and narrative reviews reporting on the therapeutic use of herbal medicines as it relates to the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and long COVID. Methods: This paper is part of an umbrella review of studies related to natural health products and natural therapies for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. It is a follow-up to a live review that was conducted by the World Naturopathic Federation between May 2022 and May 2023. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for systematic and narrative reviews that met defined quality criteria. Results: Over half of the initial systematic reviews were excluded as they did not meet the inclusion and AMSTAR criteria. The final paper included 25 narrative reviews and 41 systematic reviews (SR), with half of the SRs reporting on the safety of herbal interventions. Various therapeutic properties of over 60 herbal medicines were outlined, some individually and most of them as part of herbal formula (combinations). Conclusion/Summary: Herbal interventions demonstrated statistically significant improved recovery in patients with COVID-19. The most common therapeutic properties identified were immunological properties, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant while the most frequently investigated herbs were Glycyrrhiza glabra/uralensis, Tinospora cordifolia, and Curcuma longa. More attention is needed on the regulation of herbal medicines, the quality of research, and the safety of herbal medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are mistaken beliefs about COVID-19 so prevalent? Political identity, education and other demographic variables explain only part of the differences between people in their susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. This paper focuses on another explanation: epistemic vice. Epistemic vices are character traits that interfere with acquiring, maintaining, and transmitting knowledge. If the basic assumption of vice epistemology is right, then people with epistemic vices such as indifference to the truth or rigidity in their belief structures will tend to be more susceptible to believing COVID-19 misinformation. We carried out an observational study (US adult sample, n = 998) in which we measured the level of epistemic vice of participants using a novel Epistemic Vice Scale that captures features of the current competing analyses of epistemic vice in the literature. We also asked participants questions eliciting the extent to which they subscribe to myths and misinformation about COVID-19. We find overwhelming evidence to the effect that epistemic vice is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. In fact, the association turns out to be stronger than with political identity, educational attainment, scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test, personality, dogmatism, and need for closure. We conclude that this offers evidence in favor of the empirical presuppositions of vice epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Said's concept of exile, Camus' 1947 novel The Plague, and testimonies from our students, this paper explores the striking similarities between experiences of exile and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both exile and the pandemic are seen as intrusive forces causing rupture and discontinuity in one's life at the physical, psychological and socio-cultural levels. This paper demonstrates that for many Palestinians – including us and our students – the pandemic manifests what Freud termed 'repetition compulsion'. That is, many of our students interpret the detrimental and precarious impact of the pandemic as a complex form of exile, a nuanced understanding that blends a historical, communal memory of displacement with a present, universal crisis. This paper further explains that the themes of exile and displacement in Camus' The Plague provide us and our students with a focal point to examine the striking, albeit anachronistic, similarities between the pandemic caused by Israeli occupation and the COVID-19 virus. This uncanny relationship between the pandemic and exile is further substantiated by the fact that the pandemic has provided cover, or at least distraction, for the escalation of oppressive political actions, thus deepening the entrenchment of a physical and psychological 'exile' for Palestinians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, it is been shown that cold atmospheric pressure plasmas Cold Atmospheric Plasma effectively inactivate the 2019-nCoV virus. Despite this promising finding, the precise mechanism of this inactivation remains unclear due to the limited number of studies conducted on the subject. Consequently, this paper focuses on the spike protein, a crucial part of the novel coronavirus, and the various reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) generated by the plasma. The study employs reactive molecular dynamics simulation and ReaxFF potential to explore the reactions between the spike protein molecules and different reactive oxygen nitrogen species (including H2O2, OH, O, O3, HOONO, and 1O2). The findings suggest that when a single RONS interacts with the spike protein, 1O2 and HOONO have the most potent ability to sever the spike protein. Additionally, the combined effect of long-lived and short-lived RONS presents a more potent decomposition impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unrealistic comparative optimism (UO) bias, which is a specific and biased form of optimism, poses major risks for the individual, particularly for one's health. From this perspective, there is a pressing need for methods reducing this bias and the present paper joins this effort. In two on-line mixed-design experiments (N = 1,330), the second of which was preregistered, we tested whether UO – regarding the probability of COVID-19 infection—can be eradicated or at least reduced via generation of optimistic/pessimistic scenarios in comparison to others. Generating pessimistic scenarios consistently fully eradicated the UO bias. Generating optimistic scenarios did not change UO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did the coronavirus pandemic affect the subjective well-being (SWB) of children? In this paper, we use data from the Children's World Survey, encompassing 9,684 children aged 9 to 15 residing in nine European countries. Our goal is to evaluate the influence of both material —access to digital communication devices— and immaterial factors —information sources about Covid-19, activities conducted during lockdown, and the extent of social support— on children's SWB during the pandemic. We also account for individual characteristics, such as age and gender, as well as country-specific effects. The analysis, employing ordinary least-squares (OLS) and ordered logit (OLogit) methods, reveals that various factors contributed to reduced SWB in children during the pandemic. These factors include loneliness, a lack of active leisure activities, fragmented family environments, and insufficient or no social support from teachers or friends. Additionally, the absence of internet access and reliable sources of information about coronavirus negatively affected children's SWB. However, lacking the material conditions for networking was a less prominent concern for children compared to the absence of support from family and friends or the inability to engage in activities that they deemed valuable for themselves or others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus and Covid-19 outbreaks have raised many questions for the public. In a short time, people were able to find the answers they needed to these questions in a variety of ways. Now, it is clear that some people use social media Question Answering (QA) Systems to answer their questions about this disease. So, this study analysis the questions, answers and the reasons of the users who use Question Answering System of ResearchGate in the field of COVID-19. This study is a survey. The Research Gate scientific social network crawler was used to extract the data. 1337 questions and 4857 answers of Q&A system of ResearchGate were collected and analyzed in the last two months of 2020 (November and December) in the field of COVID-19 or Coronavirus. The total number of retrieved data was analyzed and none were omitted. By using a checklist prepared and approved by 8 experts in information science, the type of questions (conceptual, methodological, experiences and skills and questions from other scientific sources) and answers based on citations (to the source via the Internet, to the expert, to the book, article and other offline resources) were evaluated. Due to concerns that not answering the questionnaires could pose a problem, 620 researcher-made questionnaires were distributed online to users to determine why they are using the ResearchGate question and answering system. These reasons were Finding Information, Getting Opinions, Being entertained, Socializing, Being update about contact’s information, Sharing personal Experiences, Getting promotions which have been mentioned in perez and Gomez’s research. 305 questionnaires were completely answered and all of them were analyzed according to Likert scale. Most of the questioners are men (60.6%) and 55.9% have a doctoral degree or even higher. About 61% of the respondents are men and 66.4% have a doctoral degree or higher. Americans asked the most questions (about 39%) and Europeans answered the most (about 31.5%). Respondents asked more questions about people's personal skills and experiences, and respondents referred more to Internet resources. The least resources which were used are books, papers and other offline resources. Also, users are more likely to use the ResearchGate Q&A system to find information (about 17.73%) and get Opinions (about 16.52%). The least common reasons for users to participate in this system is to be entertained or getting promotions which shows that, People use ResearchGate more as a network to access scientific information and to gain personal knowledge about other researchers than as an entertainment and leisure tool. In addition to, having a RJ score above 10 indicates the questions and answers are high quality. in order to find information and opinions of others in the field of Covid-19, people can ask their empirical and skillful questions using the question and answering system of ResearchGate. Questions and answers are of high quality due to the RJ rating above 10. Furthermore, this system allows users to identify specialists based on referrals provided to them and ask their questions directly in the field of Covid-19. Introduction Virtual question and answer systems are facilities that these social media provide to their users. These systems are based on Web 2 technology and with a special system for users so that people can share their knowledge with others in the form of questions and answers. Membership in these systems is free and possible for everyone, and people with different information needs can Send your questions and receive answers from users all over the world and choose the best answer from them. Answers that can be shared without time and place limitations. COVID-19 outbreaks have raised many questions for the public. Now, it is clear that some people use social media Question Answering (QA) Systems to answer their questions about this disease. So, this study analyzes the questions, answers and reasons of the users who use the Question Answering System of ResearchGate in the field of COVID-19. Literature Review Examining the reasons for user participation, factors such as altruism (Yang, et al, 2011), motivational effects (Meng, et al. 2013), game effectiveness in stimulating voluntary participation (Cavusoglu & Huang, 2015), commitment, common language and common vision Fang, & Zhang, 2019)), users' self-efficacy, expertise and perceived common similarity (Bao & Han, 2019) and social factors such as exchange ideology, community support and social norms (Ondis, 2021) as the causes of users' participation in question and answer networks. The social response has been raised. Perez and Gomez (2011) have mentioned the reasons for using online networks mostly for fun and socializing and less for getting promotion and sharing personal experiences by stating their 7-category. However, despite the research conducted in the field of Covid-19, what kind of questions and answers have been raised about this disease in ResearchGate's Q&A network (referring to internet resources, referring to experts, referring to articles, books, etc.) and what is the RG rank of the questioners and respondents in the subject area of Covid-19, still needs to be investigated. Investigating the reasons for users' participation in the ResearchGate question and answer system as respondents and questioners is also still in question. Methodolog This study is a survey. The ResearchGate scientific social network crawler was used to extract the data. 1337 questions and 4857 answers from the QA system of ResearchGate were collected and analyzed in the last two months of 2020 (November and December) in the field of COVID-19 or Coronavirus. By using a checklist prepared and approved by 8 experts in information science, the type of questions (conceptual, methodological, experiences and skills, and questions from other scientific sources) and answers based on citations (to the source via the Internet, experts, books, articles, and other offline resources) were evaluated. Due to concerns that not answering the questionnaires could pose a problem, 620 researcher-made questionnaires were distributed online to users to determine why they were using the ResearchGate QA System. These reasons were Finding Information, Getting Opinions, Being Entertained, Socializing, Being Updated about contact information, Sharing Personal Experiences, and Getting Promotions which have been mentioned in Perez and Gomez’s research. 305 questionnaires were completely answered and all of them were analyzed according to the Likert scale. Results Most of the questioners are men (60.6%) and 55.9% have a doctoral degree or even higher. About 61% of the respondents are men and 66.4% have a doctoral degree or higher. Questioners have asked more about people's personal skills and experiences, and respondents have referred more to Internet resources. The least used resources were books, papers and other offline resources. The most people have asked about the experiences and skills of other people in the subject of Covid-19. The most important reason that encourages people to use the Research Gate network and the question-and-answer systems of this network is to find the required information, which accounts for 17.73% of the obtained points. After that, more people refer to Research Gate and participate in it in order to know the opinions of other researchers and to feel social and participate in collective activities. On the other hand, reasons such as having fun and getting promoted with the lowest points show that people use Researchgate more as a platform to access scientific information and gain personal knowledge of other researchers than a network for entertainment and spending their free time.The least common reasons for users to participate in this system are to be entertained or get promotions which shows that, People use ResearchGate more as a network to access scientific information and to gain personal knowledge about other researchers than as an entertainment and leisure tool. In addition, having a RJ score above 10 indicates the questions and answers are in high quality. Conclusion Examining and evaluating the quality of answers sent in question-andanswer communities, in addition to the benefits for the user who sends questions to have better criteria for evaluating the quality of received answers, the management of social networking sites is also Having such criteria can have better performance. In this way, many social networks have used the reputation system, a system in which users can earn points based on participation in site activities or their rank on the site by considering factors such as the number of questions answered. Given, the number of answers voted as the best answer and other factors to promote. Based on the search and exploration of the conducted researches, it is obvious that considering that the first social networks that were created were part of the public networks, most of the researches have assigned the subject area to themselves. There is a constant for predicting and evaluating the quality of answers, which is due to the lack of research on the subject, despite its importance. This research can be used as an incentive for researchers to use scientific social networks to obtain the information they need. Also, the final results can be used by designers in order to form the algorithms for the design of social networks and making them professional. In this way, the designers will be informed about the preferences and interests of the users, and finally it will be possible to have higher quality and more user-friendly networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade there has been a large increase in corporate and public reliance on social media for information, rather than on the traditional news and information sources such as print and broadcast media. People freely express their views, moods, activities, likes/dislikes on social media about diverse topics. Rather than surveys and other structured data gathering methods, text data mining is now commonly used by businesses to go through their unstructured text in the form of emails, blogs, tweets, likes, etc. to find out how their customers feel about their company and their products/services. This paper reports upon a study using Twitter (recently renamed to "X") data to determine if meaningful and actionable information could be gained from such social media data in regard to pandemic issues and how that information compares to a traditional survey. In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced colleges to move classes to an online format. While there is considerable literature in regard to using social media to communicate geo-political issues and in particular pandemics, there is not a study using social media to explore public sentiment in regard to COVID's forcing online education upon the public. In this study, text data mining was used to gain some insight into the feeling of Twitter users in regard to the effect of COVID-19 and the switch to online education in colleges. This study found that Twitter data mining did produce actionable information similar to the traditional survey, and the study is important since its results may influence organizations to explore the use of Twitter (and possibly other social media) to obtain people's sentiments instead of (or in addition to) traditional surveys and other traditional means of gathering such information. This paper demonstrates both the process of text data mining social media and its application to current real-world issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the connections between semiotics and biology by examining the behaviors of both humans and non-cognizant agents, using Bayesian and heuristic inference. The argument is that higher-level organisms use complex predictive reasoning to deal with uncertainty, while non-cognizant species, such as SARS-CoV-2, rely on an economy-driven heuristic to enter host cells. From this viewpoint, the current pandemic is characterized as a clash of representations resulting from the anthropocentric construction of the self, which neglects the complexities of the natural world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the knowledge base for simulation modelling techniques that have been used extensively in the literature to tackle the epidemic outbreak. In this paper, 79 articles are identified and reviewed between 2005 and 2020 to understand many problems related to the spread of the disease, scarce resource management, and the influence of mitigation strategies to contain the epidemic outbreak. The objective is to recognise the importance of simulation modelling techniques to effectively handle these problems and discuss how and when a particular technique can be used to provide satisfactory solutions for difficulties posed by an epidemic outbreak. This paper presents a literature review, classification schemes, and a simple meta-analysis to help decision-makers make informed decisions to curtail the epidemic outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unrealistic optimism bias appears when a person perceives oneself – in comparison to peers – as less at risk from threats. This bias has been widely reported and the consequences are clear: it puts one's health in danger. The existing body of literature proposes egocentrism as a mechanism leading to a reduction in this bias. The present paper tests a novel mechanism orienting a person toward others – thus linked with egocentrism – i.e., mimicry. Results showed directly opposing effects: mimicry induced a stronger tendency to perceive oneself as less threatened. This result is not only surprising but especially alarming since mimicry may be used in patient-doctor dialogue which may backfire, leading to resistance to medical recommendations provided by the doctor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The path of the international system is driven by political, economic, and social developments. COVID-19 has been an influential and transformative crisis which has had a huge impact on the world order. It has highly affected international affairs, is capable of transforming the system and is one of the world's major occurrences since the Second World War. The first impact has been that the crisis has forced all areas of public and private life into a rapid digitization process. In fact, the process had started before the pandemic, but the COVID-19 crisis triggered the transition process at an extraordinary intensity. As in a variety of other sectors, digital diplomacy has been highly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought momentum to the digitalization process of diplomacy. This paper analyzes digital diplomacy in the digital age, with a focus on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The research uses a theoretical framework that clarifies the distinctions between traditional and new public diplomacy. The article addresses the process of diplomacy responding to the new normal requirements in terms of technical impact. It provides an overview of the digitalization process of diplomacy, which was intensified by the pandemic, and examines the post-coronavirus global trends in terms of potential assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Participant involvement in research studies is not a new concept, yet barriers to implementation remain and application varies. This is particularly true for pandemic response research studies, where timeframes are condensed, pressure is high and the value and inclusion of participant involvement can be overlooked. The SIREN Participant Involvement Panel (PIP) provides a case study for participant involvement in pandemic research, working in partnership with people who the research is for and about. Methods: SIREN and the British Society for Immunology (BSI) recruited and ran two phases of the PIP, involving 15 members in total over a 16-month period. Phase 1 ran between January and August 2022 and Phase 2 between October 2022 and March 2023. Activity figures including recruitment interest and PIP meeting attendance were recorded. To evaluate how the PIP has influenced SIREN, feedback was collected from (a) researchers presenting at the PIP and (b) PIP members themselves. Evaluation at the end of Phase 1 informed our approach to Phase 2. Thematic grouping was planned to identify key lessons learned. Results: Applications increased from n = 30 to n = 485 between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the PIP, a more than 15-fold increase. The SIREN PIP positively impacted the design, implementation and evaluation phases of the study and sub-studies. Feedback from PIP members themselves was positive, with members highlighting that they found the role rewarding and felt valued. Learnings from the PIP have been condensed into five key themes for applying to future pandemic response research studies: the importance of dedicated resources; recruiting the right panel; understanding motivations for participant involvement; providing flexible options for involvement and enabling the early involvement of participants. Conclusions: The SIREN PIP has demonstrated the value of actively involving people who research is for and about. The PIP has provided an active feedback mechanism for research and demonstrated a positive influence on both SIREN study researchers and PIP members themselves. This paper makes the case for participant involvement in future pandemic research studies. Future work should include improved training for researchers and we would support the development of a national PIP forum as part of future pandemic research preparedness. Plain English summary: The SARS-Cov2 Immunity & Reinfection Evaluation (SIREN) study was set-up at speed during the early stages of the pandemic to help answer key questions about COVID-19 and inform the national pandemic response. It has provided valuable insight into COVID-19 infections, reinfections, and how well the vaccines work. SIREN helped to find these answers by regularly testing over 44,000 healthcare staff working at 135 NHS organisations. To support participant retention, SIREN established a Participant Involvement Panel (PIP) involving 15 SIREN participants to date. PIP members provide guidance and feedback to SIREN researchers on key research priorities, changes to the study and strategies for maximising participant engagement. This paper provides insight into how the PIP was set-up, run and the resources required from the perspective of the PIP and SIREN researchers. Lessons learned from establishing the PIP are summarised to help inform future pandemic response research studies. The paper adds to the evidence base, and makes the case for, the valuable role participant involvement can play in pandemic response research studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background of the Study: Houttuynia cordata is an herbal medicinal plant with a variety of ethnomedicinal properties. The plant extract has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, which may help to reduce the complications associated with diabetes. Additionally, it is used as an anti-inflammation, antidote, astringent, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral. Objectives: The present study is a scientometric analysis of Houttuynia cordata during 1992-2021 as covered in the SCOPUS database to find out the citation impact, growth rate, and research output of Houttuynia cordata research during a three-decade period. Materials and Methods: SCOPUS database was used to download data for three decades. The information gathered was quantified using bibliometrics; further, VOS viewer was used for visualizing the keyword network. Results: The study revealed that from 2005 onwards, there was an increase in Houttuynia cordata research and publication. China turns out to be at the top with the maximum number of research publications on Houttuynia cordata. Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics were the top subject areas that constituted the leading publication. Keywords 'Traditional Medicine' and 'Medicinal Plants' were used mainly during the year 1992-2018, however, from 2019-2021 there is a tremendous shift from the keywords such as 'Traditional Medicine', and 'Medicinal Plants' to keywords such as 'Coronavirus' 'COVID-19' and 'Pandemic', indicating that research on Houttuynia cordata relating to COVID-19 and Pandemic has become an extensive area of research from 2019 onwards. Conclusion: This study concludes that research on Houttuynia cordata has been slow since the early years, with a significant surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly reconfirmed the relevance of Houttuynia cordata as a medicinal herb. Additionally, this study will help researchers understand the current state of the Houttuynia cordata research and can act as an information road map to further explore research on its medicinal importance which may benefit humanity in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers more‐than‐care as a framework for analysing how vulnerability emerges in the lives of people with intellectual disability beyond relations of care. More‐than‐care detaches vulnerability from the identity category of disability. It provides a framework for conceptualising vulnerability in an unequal, neoliberalising, and ableist world and sheds new light on the ever‐evolving constitution of vulnerability and disability. This intervention breaks with conceptions of vulnerability centred on care needs that leave other circumstances that inform vulnerabilities unexamined. Importantly, the framework shifts responsibility for managing vulnerabilities away from carers alone. The more‐than‐care framework is grounded in socio‐material conceptualisations of disability and advances a tripartite framing of vulnerability. First, it grounds studies of vulnerability in histories of spatially uneven investment in infrastructure and resources that shape how care and other practices can assemble to produce, challenge, and manage vulnerability. Second, it recalibrates dominant conceptions of the temporality of vulnerability to ensure sensitivity to the unpredictability of emergent vulnerabilities. Third, in following a socio‐material conceptualisation of intellectual disability, more‐than‐care expands discussions about agency in the context of vulnerability. These concepts are empirically examined through an analysis of how vulnerability emerges in the lives of four self‐advocates with intellectual disability during Melbourne's first and second COVID‐19 lockdowns. The analysis shows that vulnerability was highly dynamic and unpredictable as it emerged in complex socio‐material assemblages that included care arrangements, embodied experiences and agencies, and past instances of neglect and exploitation. This paper offers more‐than‐care as a framework for analysing how vulnerability emerges in the lives of people with intellectual disability beyond relations of care. The framework breaks with conceptions of vulnerability centred on care needs that leave other circumstances that inform vulnerabilities unexamined. Applying the framework to the emergence of vulnerability in the lives of self‐advocates with intellectual disability during Melbourne's COVID‐19 lockdowns showed that vulnerability was highly dynamic and that the self‐advocates actively managed emerging vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with the serious threat of the deadly coronavirus, governments of different nations were swift to respond to the pandemic by declaring national lockdowns. Having confirmed fewer than ten cases of coronavirus that had tested positive, Zimbabwe called for a national lockdown which initially lasted three weeks before declaring it 'indefinite'. Despite the fact that the lockdown declared in Zimbabwe was in the interest of public health, anecdotal evidence indicates that there has been an inextricable nexus between the lockdown and increased corrupt tendencies. This paper, which is a product of qualitative research, utilised a narrative research approach and documentary analysis to explicate the relationship between Zimbabwe's coronavirus lockdown and corruption. The paper looks at the different forms of corruption that occurred during the coronavirus lockdown in Zimbabwe and the implication of these on the well-being and welfare of economically vulnerable groups. In conclusion, the paper indicates the role that can be played by pro-human rights professionals such as social workers in the fight against corruption during emergency times to ensure transparency and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused one of the biggest virus pandemics called Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). This virus has been responsible for the death of millions of people around the world. The biological function of SARS-CoV-2 and its pathophysiology mechanisms, as well as the host immunity against this virus, has attracted the attention of the scientific community all over the world. The current study reviewed innate and acquired immune responses following COVID-19 infection. These immune responses are probably involved in the severity of the disease and death. Also, the cause and consequence of potential clinical strategies to treat or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection have been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the main technique used to identify COVID-19 from respiratory samples. It has been suggested in several articles that chest CTs could offer a possible alternate diagnostic tool for COVID-19; however, no professional medical body recommends using chest CTs as an early COVID-19 detection modality. This literature review examines the use of CT scans as a diagnostic tool for COVID-19. Method: A comprehensive search of research works published in peer-reviewed journals was carried out utilizing precisely stated criteria. The search was limited to English-language publications, and studies of COVID-19-positive patients diagnosed using both chest CT scans and RT-PCR tests were sought. For this review, four databases were consulted: these were the Cochrane and ScienceDirect catalogs, and the CINAHL and Medline databases made available by EBSCOhost. Findings: In total, 285 possibly pertinent studies were found during an initial search. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, six studies remained for analysis. According to the included studies, chest CT scans were shown to have a 44 to 98% sensitivity and 25 to 96% specificity in terms of COVID-19 diagnosis. However, methodological limitations were identified in all studies included in this review. Conclusion: RT-PCR is still the suggested first-line diagnostic technique for COVID-19; while chest CT is adequate for use in symptomatic patients, it is not a sufficiently robust diagnostic tool for the primary screening of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the scientific production of pharmaceutical communication in Spain around the COVID-19 crisis, in which information overload, amplified by the digital media, evidenced the relevance of communication in the digital society. The research observes the evolution and characteristics of such studies, identifying scientific fields and disciplines related to communication, thematic lines, agents and publics. To this end, it proposes an exploratory review study adjusted to the PRISMA protocol with a search strategy including three databases (Scopus, WOS and Dialnet) and whose filtration produced a final population of 56 publications on Spanish pharmaceutical communication between 2018 and 2022. The results point to a greater production of scientific papers around the year of the pandemic. These papers were published by university institutions in health sciences journals, although differences in authorship by gender were detected. Most of them are empirical papers, with a predominance of mixed content analyses. The field of public relations stands out, but terminological confusion was also detected. This leads to a reflection on its causes and solutions in favour of the transparency and accountability in pharmaceutical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the expansion of research volume, coinciding with the age of the internet, the retraction of published papers from scientific journals has become crucial to preserving scientific integrity. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, both public and professional interest in scientific literature has grown as people attempt to educate themselves on the virus. The Retraction Watch Database COVID-19 blog was accessed in June and November of 2022 and analyzed to ensure articles met inclusion criteria. Articles were then accessed on Google Scholar and the Scopus database to find number of citations and SJR/CiteScore. The average SJR and CiteScore for a journal that published one of the articles was 1.531 and 7.3 respectively. The retracted articles were cited an average of 44.8 times, which was significantly higher than the average CiteScore (p = 0.01). Between June and November, retracted COVID-19 articles gained a total of 728 new citations, presence of "withdrawn" or "retracted" before article title did not affect citation rates. COPE guidelines for retraction statements were not met for 32% of articles. We believe retracted COVID-19 publications may have been more likely to include bold claims that garnered a disproportionately high amount of attention within the scientific community. Additionally, we found many journals were not forthright with explanations for why articles had been retracted. Retractions could be a tool used to add to the scientific discourse, but currently we are only getting half the data, the what and not the why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest outbreak of a coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID‐19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), evolved into a worldwide pandemic with massive effects on health, quality of life, and economy. Given the short period of time since the outbreak, there are several knowledge gaps on the comparative and zoonotic aspects of this new virus. Within the One Health concept, the current EAACI position paper dwells into the current knowledge on SARS‐CoV‐2's receptors, symptoms, transmission routes for human and animals living in close vicinity to each other, usefulness of animal models to study this disease and management options to avoid intra‐ and interspecies transmission. Similar pandemics might appear unexpectedly and more frequently in the near future due to climate change, consumption of exotic foods and drinks, globe‐trotter travel possibilities, the growing world population, the decreasing production space, declining room for wildlife and free‐ranging animals, and the changed lifestyle including living very close to animals. Therefore, both the society and the health authorities need to be aware and well prepared for similar future situations, and research needs to focus on prevention and fast development of treatment options (medications, vaccines). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization in March 2020. Since then, it has attracted the enormous attention of researchers from around the world. The world has gone through previous instances of corona-viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. Nevertheless, none was of these were of this serious nature as COVID-19. In this research, we carry out a bibliometric analysis of coronavirus research using the Scopus database. However, we restricted ourselves to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The analysis was performed using Biblioshiny software. We analyzed 4288 articles written by 24226 researchers from 1994 till 2021, published in 1429 sources. The number of authors per publication is 5.65. A bulk of the research (more than 68%) appeared in the form of articles. More than 43% of the publications appeared in 2020 and more than 44% in 2021. Saudi Arabia appears the most-cited country, followed by Qatar. Journal of Infection and Public Health published the most number of papers, whereas New England Journal of Medicine is the most-cited one. Memish, Z.A. wrote the maximum number of papers. The top source, according to the H-index, is the Journal of Virology. Furthermore, the two most prolific universities are King Saud University and King Abdulaziz University, both from Saudi Arabia. The research uncovered deep learning as a niche theme used in recent publications. The research landscape continues to alter as the pandemic keeps on evolving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media became a strong driver of either reliable information or misinformation. The trends of issues during the pandemic indicate that media has been targeted by global health authorities, national governments, and health agencies, among other developmental vital stakeholders, in mobilizing the public at all levels to communicate the preventive measures, symptoms, and non-surgical and hygiene practices that would help in stemming the spread of the virus. The paper indicates that knowledge plays a significant role in driving public health practices. Another critical role the media plays in influencing public perception, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors during the peak of the public health emergency. Media also performed the responsibility of being the watchdog of society through consistent follow-ups on contact tracing, daily broadcasts of the infected, recoveries, and fatalities in different countries across the globe, including Nigeria. The paper recommends that the media should be more watchful in the information they disseminate to the public to avoid jeopardizing the primary aim of reducing people's uncertainty. This can be done by controlling information overload by deploying more instruments of gatekeeping to titrate the kinds of information they send through their channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]