COVID-19 outbreak: Impact on global economy

COVID-19 has been considered the most significant threat since World War II and the greatest global health disaster of the century. Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, reported a new infection affecting residents in December 2019. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been named by the World Health Organization (WHO). Across the globe, it is spreading rapidly, posing significant health, economic, and social challenges for everyone. The content of this paper is solely intended to provide a visual overview of COVID-19 global economic impact. The Coronavirus outbreak is causing a global economic collapse. Most countries have implemented full or partial lockdown measures to slow the spread of disease. The lockdown has slowed global economic activity substantially, many companies have reduced operations or closed down, and people are losing their jobs at an increasing rate. Service providers are also affected, in addition to manufacturers, agriculture, the food industry, a decline in education, the sports industry, and of entertainment sector also observed. The world trade situation is expected to deteriorate substantially this year.

COVID Academic Pandemic: Techno Stress Faced by Teaching Staff for Online Academic Activities

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the teachers, specifically the techno stress arising in them as a result of issues faced by them in the use of technology when they conduct the online academic activities. It aims to assess the major factors related to the online teaching that specifically adds to techno stress on the teachers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Finally, the study aims to provide suggestions to the policymakers and the management of the universities so that the effect of the COVID-19's on teachers' mental health and the related techno stress can be reduced. This paper is a literature review of the articles on the notion of techno stress on teachers and their mental health by searching the related articles with these terminologies using the renowned search engines of Google Scholar and Web of Science. A combination of the terms such as Coronavirus, COVID-19, mental health, psychological distress, techno stress, and online teaching were used in the article search for the review. The literature has suggested that the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected the mental health of the employees in general and specifically, the teachers who are engaged in online academic activities and teaching in the universities. The paper has identified a few factors that are the cause of the techno stress and provides recommendations for the university management and the policy makers for minimizing their negative impact on the teachers, in terms of the techno stress and their mental health. Coronavirus is a new strain of the viruses that has badly engulfed the entire population of the world. It is even now badly rising and causing deaths while this article is in the writing phase. The article has addressed the mental health concerns of the university teachers as they are now working from home using ICT for delivering the lectures and conducting the online teaching and learning activities for the students at their universities. This is a matter of grave importance now and requires immediate attention. Hence, this article broadens the scope of the research on the corona virus and its impact on the university teachers.

Impact of Critical Success Factors on Project Success Through the Mediation of Knowledge Creation

Several factors affect health project success. This research aims to examine the impact of critical success factors on health project success and show how the essential factors of success interact with knowledge creation to impact health project success. The self-administered questionnaire was distributed to collect data from 246 managers, supervisors and zonal supervisors of DHQ hospital Attock and PIMS hospital Islamabad. The analysis was done using Smart PLS to understand the effect of exogenous variables over endogenous variables and the impact of mediating variables between two constructs. The results show that all critical success factors (MGTRF, DRF, CRF, PMRF, CLRF) are significantly affecting project success, in addition, tacit knowledge creation mediate the association between critical success factors and project success. In contrast, explicit knowledge creation does not mediate the relationship between critical success factors and project success. This study intends to expand the theoretical understanding of process improvement by providing practical insights into the impact of strategies used by project managers to develop new knowledge by capturing explicit and implicit information. This study also reinforces past findings and increases awareness about using knowledge creation to gain a competitive advantage in the health sector.

A mini-review: positive impact of COVID-19 on Arial health and ecology

COVID-19 can cause global pandemics; however, no specific vaccine has been recommended for COVID-19. Nearly 216 countries are trying to stop the spread of the disease, recover from it, and improve its mobility. In a way that people have not experienced in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic affected humans through the year 2020. To stop the spread of the disease, many governments declared a complete lockdown.The nationwide lockdown had some positive effects on the environment even though it led to a decline in global economic growth. Air pollution levels reduced dramatically as a result of this lockdown on pollution. Most of Europe's populated cities saw a reduction in NO2 concentration of 45-54%. COVID-19 and air, water, and ecology are connected via two pathways, one occurring before the spread of the disease and the other following after. As a result of industrial activity, transportation, and high human density, pollutants were high in many areas before the disease spread. There was a reduction in population movements as well as a decline in human activities which resulted in a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, an improvement of the ozone layer, as well as improvements in the Earth's weather and environment. As a result of a COVID-19 pandemic, human activities are negatively impacted, and the environment is positively affected. Our objective is to provide an assessment of the impact of human activities on the environment and ecology. During times of lockdown, there is a correlation between atmospheric changes and the behavior of natural creatures. Several significant findings are presented, including air pollution reduction, air quality improvement, ozone healing, and ecological sustainability. COVID-19 is beneficial for aerial health, aquatic health, and ecology in this paper.

Does educated labor force is managing the green economy in BRCS? Fresh evidence from NARDL-PMG approach

It is observed that an educated labor force can increase the absorption capacity of the economy and improve the effectiveness of green technologies that lead to a reduction in potential CO2 emissions. The study investigates whether an educated labor force contributes to the management of the green economy or not in BRCS economies. Panel ARDL-PMG and NARDL-PMG approaches have been employed for empirical analysis for data ranging from 1995 to 2019. According to the ARDL-PMG results, a highly educated labor force contributes to alleviating CO2 emissions in the long run. In contrast, the findings of NARDL-PMG infer that positive component of a highly educated labor force has a significant negative impact on CO2 emissions, while negative component of a highly educated labor force has a positive impact on CO2 emissions in the long run. The study suggests that BRCS countries' policymakers should promote education and training for the labor force to maintain a reduction in CO2 emissions.

Unveiling the asymmetric impact of energy consumption on environmental mitigation in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan

The manufacturing sector is the backbone for the development of an economy. Numerous studies investigated the impact of aggregative energy consumption on environmental degradation by using typical econometric techniques. To correct this gap, our study uses energy consumption and environmental degradation only in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan for the period 1985 to 2018. Our study also demonstrates the symmetric and asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption with carbon emissions by using a recently developed methodology by Shin et al. (2014). The findings of linear autoregressive distributive lag model shows that energy consumption and financial development intensify environmental degradation, while foreign direct investment and globalization mitigate environmental degradation that leads to validate pollution halo hypotheses in Pakistan. However, non-linear autoregressive distributive lag results confirm the asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption with co₂ emission. This study recommends the policies for policymakers in Pakistan to consider asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption as well as the installation of renewable energy sources and technological improvements in the industrial sector needed to enhance environmental sustainability. Further, there is a need to enhance globalization and foreign direct investment for Pakistan to achieve its environmental targets.

Intramyometrial Endometriotic Cyst Presenting as Dysmenorrhea and Menorrhagia

Nepal Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology / Vol 8 / No. 1 / Issue 15 / Jan- June, 2013 / 61-62 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njog.v8i1.8869

Improvement in ocular myasthenia gravis during CPAP therapy for sleep apnea

We describe the case of a 73-year-old male with a history of ocular myasthenia gravis (OMG) who was followed through diagnosis and treatment of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Therapeutic use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) led to improvement of not only SDB but also OMG. To our knowledge, this is the first paper describing this treatment benefit. This case report emphasizes the need to obtain a sleep history in patients with ocular myasthenia gravis in order to screen for SDB.

Cessation of prophylactic antibiotics for managing persistent vesicoureteral reflux

PURPOSE

We reviewed our experience with patients with vesicoureteral reflux treated off prophylactic antibiotics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients with vesicoureteral reflux treated off prophylactic antibiotics, noting the intervals on and off antibiotics, urinary tract infection, signs and symptoms associated with urinary tract infection, and renal ultrasound and dimercapto-succinic acid scan findings.

RESULTS

We identified 196 patients with vesicoureteral reflux treated off prophylactic antibiotics, including 122 who were infection-free while on and 124 who had no urinary tract infection while off prophylactic antibiotics. The infection rate on and off prophylactics was 0.29 and 0.24 urinary tract infections per patient per year, respectively. New scars were identified in 5 patients while on prophylactics and in 7 after antibiotics were discontinued. Comparing different subgroups off prophylactic antibiotics showed that children who presented with scarring had statistically fewer new scars than those with normal initial dimercapto-succinic acid imaging (p <0.043). Girls had significantly more urinary tract infections than boys while off prophylactics (p <0.01) despite the older age at antibiotic cessation. However, after infection occurred while off prophylactic antibiotics, new renal scars developed at about the same rate in boys and girls. Because most patients did not have a urinary tract infection while off prophylactic antibiotics, new renal scars developed in only 2.2% of all boys and 4% of all girls.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings imply that discontinuing antibiotics is reasonable and safe in patients in whom vesicoureteral reflux fails to resolve.

Characteristics of AMD patients with low vision receiving visual rehabilitation

The purpose of this retrospective study done on 255 AMD patients evaluated at a low vision rehabilitation service was: 1) to describe the visual function characteristics (VFCs) of AMD patients presenting to visual rehabilitation, 2) to document changes in these VFCs between initial and follow-up rehabilitation visits, and 3) to investigate the relationship of the VFCs found at rehabilitation intake to the length of time between initial diagnosis and initial rehabilitation visit. Standard clinical testing (visual acuity and contrast sensitivity) as well as Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO) visual function testing were performed to determine visual function including: 1) macular perimetry for scotoma boundary mapping and 2) PRL (preferred retinal locus) location and abilities in fixation, saccadic, and pursuit eye movements. The difference between the first and second visit VFCs were compared to the length of time between visits for 44 of the 255 patients returning for a second visit 0.5 to 4.5 years later. Finally, the initial date of AMD diagnosis was found for 51 of the 255 patients to analyze VFCs as a function of the time duration between diagnosis and the intake to the rehabilitation. Most VFCs had a wide range of results at initial intake to rehabilitation, while all patients had significant visual impairment by 24 months after initial diagnosis. The majority of low vision patients with AMD have bilateral central scotomas with the corresponding visual function and ADL problems that can often be overcome with visual rehabilitation.

Significance of neutrophils in cerebrospinal fluid samples processed by cytocentrifugation

We reviewed medical records of 155 pediatric patients whose cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples contained an increased proportion of neutrophils when processed by cytocentrifugation, despite normal CSF total white blood cell count. It was determined that these CSF findings occurred more commonly in patients with bacteremia, peripheral leukocytosis, and increased numbers of red blood cells in the CSF. Pulmonary infiltrates in infants and otitis media in children were also significantly associated. Cytocentrifugation allows the identification of neutrophils in the CSF, even in the absence of central nervous system infection. Infants and children with more than 10 per cent neutrophils in CSF require evaluations for focal and bacteremic infections.