Search

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to over 92 million cases and 1.9 million deaths worldwide since its outbreak. Public health responses have focused on identifying symptomatic individuals to halt spread. However, evidence is accruing that asymptomatic individuals are infectious and contributing to this global pandemic. Methods: Observational data of 320 index cases and their 1289 positive contacts from the National COVID-19 Database in Bahrain were used to analyze symptoms, infectivity rate and PCR Cycle threshold (Ct) values. Results: No significant difference (p = 1.0) in proportions of symptomatic (n = 160; 50.0%) and asymptomatic index cases (n = 160; 50.0%) were seen; however, SARS-CoV-2 positive contact cases were predominantly asymptomatic (n = 1127, 87.4%). Individuals aged 0−19 years constituted a larger proportion of positive contact cases (20.8%) than index cases (4.7%; p

Copyright of Annals of African Medicine is the property of Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Respiratory virus infections pose a significant public health concern, contributing to increase morbidity and mortality rates. This study investigated the determinants of hospital length of stay (LOS) for patients with Influenza-like illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A quantitative study was conducted in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1 September 2022 until 28 February 2023. Demographic data, viral infection status (influenza A, influenza B, and COVID-19), and environmental factors (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and particulate matter levels) were collected for 632 patients. The data were analysed using ordinal logistic regression in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. The results revealed that older age and higher body mass index (BMI) were associated with longer hospital stays, highlighting their significance as risk factors during respiratory outbreaks. Unexpectedly, patients tested positive for the investigated viruses experienced shorter LOS, indicating potential comorbidities or co-infections. Environmental factors played a critical role, with temperature, humidity, and wind speed significantly influencing LOS. These findings provided valuable insights for healthcare resource allocation during epidemics and underscored the need for comprehensive diagnostic tools and further research to enhance prediction accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel hybrid control strategy for the active hitch system, named the Dynamic Hitch Lift (DHIL), comprising a hybrid controller and a force actuator. The controller was designed to mitigate longitudinal load transfer in heavy combination vehicles by reducing the semitrailer pitch rate and rejecting the pitch moment, assisted by the virtual Skyhook moment. The new controller can calculate the desired force of the DHIL actuator to counter incoming load transfer during harsh braking exceeding 0.5 g braking deceleration. The proposed controller was assessed using a verified 12-degrees-of-freedom tractor-semitrailer model in harsh braking tests across different vehicle configurations. The first evaluation involved a stability test to demonstrate the stability of the controller in reducing load transfer across different vehicle configurations. The second evaluation was on controller performance, which revealed that the dynamic vehicle response has efficiently reduced load transfer by up to 9.14%. The third evaluation has focused on the DHIL actuator performance, which indicated that the actuator generated a force of 159,197 N, which translated into a stepper motor torque of 1,695 Nm at a speed of 1,000 rpm. Simulation results affirmed that the proposed DHIL controller was stable and could effectively reduce longitudinal load transfer in heavy combination vehicles during harsh braking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectivesStudies have shown that acute kidney injury (AKI) occurrence post SARS-CoV-2 infection is complex and has a poor prognosis. Therefore, more studies are needed to understand the rate and the predications of AKI involvement among hospitalized COVID-19 patients and AKI's impact on prognosis while under different types of medications.Patients and methodsThis study is a retrospective observational cohort study conducted at Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Royal Medical Services. Medical records of COVID-19 patients admitted to BDF hospital, treated, and followed up from April 2020 to October 2020 were retrieved. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression with covariate adjustment, and the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence (95% CI) interval were reported.ResultsAmong 353 patients admitted with COVID-19, 47.6% developed AKI. Overall, 51.8% of patients with AKI died compared to 2.2% of patients who did not develop AKI (p< 0.001 with OR 48.6 and 95% CI 17.2-136.9). Besides, deaths in patients classified with AKI staging were positively correlated and multivariate regression analysis revealed that moderate to severe hypoalbuminemia (ConclusionsThe incidence of AKI in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and the mortality rate among AKI patients were high and correlated with AKI staging. Furthermore, laboratory testing for serum albumin, hypercoagulability and cardiac injury markers maybe indicative for AKI development. Therefore, clinicians should be mandated to perform such tests on admission and follow-up in hospitalized patients.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a way for corporations to meet the expectations of different stakeholders about economic, social and environmental issues. It has become indispensable for an organization’s success and positive image and reputation. Employing the stakeholder theory, the purpose of this research is to analyze CSR content of leading Kuwaiti corporations. It attempts to identify the issues and stakeholders of the CSR and whether corporations arc following CSR reporting standards. By analyzing websites, annual and CSR reports of the top 100 Kuwaiti corporations, this study found low mentions of the CSR issues and even lower mentions of stakeholders. Environmental issues were among the least mentioned. “Society” was mentioned the most as the stakeholder and “Environment” was among the least mentioned. Independent sample t-tests found no significant difference between the issues and stakeholders that are mentioned in the websites and the reports. Only two companies from the sample followed reporting standards. Kuwaiti corporations need to pay more attention to CSR and particularly to environment. They should adopt a strategic approach toward it where higher management needs to understand its significance and allocate specialized personnel such as marketers and public relations practitioners to manage it. The government and nonprofit organizations should encourage the private sector in Kuwait to do more CSR and meet the needs and expectations of different stakeholders and not only shareholders. This is in addition to reporting the CSR information strategically and professionally because of its benefits to corporate image, reputation and transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]