Acute acalculous cholecystitis caused by Hepatitis C: A rare case report

AbstractIntroductionAcute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC) is rarely encountered in clinical practice and has a high morbidity and mortality. AAC caused by viral hepatitis, with hepatitis A, B and EBV infections are rare, but well documented in the literature. Hepatitis C virus has not been reported as cause of AAC. This case report documents the first case of AAC associated with Acute Hepatitis C.Presenting concernsWe present a 40 years old female with abdominal pain. She has a history of previous HCV infection. Her liver function tests were markedly deranged with elevated inflammatory markers. USS scan showed rather a very unusual appearance of an inflamed gallbladder with no gallstones and associated acute hepatitis, confirmed by an abdominal CT scan. HCV RNA PCR confirms flair up of the virus. The patient was managed conservatively in the hospital with follow up USS scan and Liver function tests showed complete recovery. Follow up HCV RNA PCR also returned to an undetectable level. The patient recovered completely with no adverse outcomes.ConclusionThis case report is to the first to document the association between acute HCV and AAC. Despite being uncommon in western countries, viral hepatitis should be suspected as a causative agent of AAC, particularly when there is abnormal liver function test and no biliary obstruction

Leveraging machine learning to analyze sentiment from COVID-19 tweets: A global perspective

Since the advent of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing public sentiment has become one of the major concerns for policy and decision-makers. While the priority is to curb the spread of the virus, mass population (user) sentiment analysis is equally important. Though sentiment analysis using different state-of-the-art technologies has been focused on during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reasons behind the variations in public sentiment are yet to be explored. Moreover, how user sentiment varies due to the COVID-19 pandemic from a cross-country perspective has been less focused on. Therefore, the objectives of this study are: to identify the most effective machine learning (ML) technique for classifying public sentiments, to analyze the variations of public sentiment across the globe, and to find the critical contributing factors to sentiment variations. To attain the objectives, 12,000 tweets, 3000 each from the USA, UK, and Bangladesh, were rigorously annotated by three independent reviewers. Based on the labeled tweets, four different boosting ML models, namely, CatBoost, gradient boost, AdaBoost, and XGBoost, are investigated. Next, the top performed ML model predicted sentiment of 300,000 data (100,000 from each country). The public perceptions have been analyzed based on the labeled data. As an outcome, the CatBoost model showed the highest (85.8 %) F1-score, followed by gradient boost (84.3%), AdaBoost (78.9 %), and XGBoost (83.1 %). Second, it was revealed that during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sentiments of the people of the three countries mainly were negative, followed by positive and neutral. Finally, this study identified a few critical concerns that impact primarily varying public sentiment around the globe: lockdown, quarantine, hospital, mask, vaccine, and the like

The direct and indirect impact of SARS-CoV-2 infections on neonates: a series of 26 cases in Bangladesh

Background: The impact of SARS-CoV-2 on neonates remains largely unknown in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We provide an epidemiologic and clinical report of SARS-CoV-2 infections in neonates hospitalized in Bangladesh. Methods: Outborn neonates admitted to Dhaka Shishu Hospital, a tertiary-care referral hospital, between 29 March and 1 July were screened for SARS-CoV-2. We reviewed clinical data, including chest radiograph and laboratory reports, and conducted SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing. Patients were followed-up for 27–75 days. A subset of caregivers was also tested. Results: Of 83 neonates tested, 26 were positive (median age 8 days). Most neonates were admitted with diagnosis unrelated to SARS-CoV-2: 11 presented with serious non-communicable diseases, 7 with early-onset sepsis, 5 with late-onset sepsis and 2 with pneumonia. In 3 of 5 chest radiograph, infiltrates and ground-glass or patchy opacities were noted. Two neonates developed metabolic acidosis, one developed disseminated intravascular coagulation. Most SARS-CoV-2 positive neonates were referred to government-designated COVID-19 hospitals, leading to gaps in treatment. Twenty-three neonates could be followed-up: 12 were healthy, 8 died and 3 were still seeking medical care. Of 9 caregivers tested, 8 were positive. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 may have serious adverse effects on children born in LMICs. The virus likely contributed directly to two deaths, but the remaining 6 neonates who died had serious comorbidities. Positive SARS-CoV-2 test results led to gaps in immediate clinical care for other morbidities, which likely contributed to adverse outcomes. This case series emphasizes the need to understand COVID-19 in neonates in LMICs and its indirect impacts

Investigating customer behaviour and satisfaction: A small business perspective on Mixmart

The thesis explored consumer behaviour and satisfaction. Also, the reciprocity between consumer satisfaction and loyalty was discussed in the thesis. The research study was done relying on the perspectives of Mixmart which is a small grocery store. Different concepts were found in consumer behaviour and satisfaction. The author focused on three theoretical aspects to get a better understanding of consumer behaviour. They consist of consumer behaviour and the facts influencing it, such as the correlation between consumer satisfaction and customer loyalty. To manage the gained consumer base, the author also got depth into customer relation management to endeavour the previous knowledge. Also, different influences were discussed on different consumer satisfaction models, and mandatory consumer influences such as expectation, quality, loyalty, internal, and external consumer influencers. The procedure was then clarified. The five-stage consumer model has been used to expound on the full consumer purchasing process. The commissioner of the thesis was Md. Riaz Hawladar, current C.E.O of Mixmart small business in Pietarsaari. He is also the founder of Ebazaar and Mixmart. The thesis research part was completed using quantitative research methodology. Primary data was collected using a consumer satisfaction survey questionnaire set physically in Mixmart. Afterward, the data was used for analyzing and coming to a final outcome result and suggestion

Reaching the community through community radio: readjusting to the new realities: a case study investigating the changing nature of community access and participation in three community radio stations in three countries, New Zealand, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Community radio is often described as a medium that celebrates the small community life and where local community members plan, produce and present their own programmes. However, many believe that the radio management policies are now increasingly sidelining this aspect of the radio. This is ironic given the fact that the radio stations are supposed to be community platforms where members converge to celebrate their community life and discuss issues of mutual interest. In this case study, I have studied three community radio stations- RS in Nepal, KCR in Sri Lanka and SCR in New Zealand- investigating how the radio management policies are positively or negatively, affecting community access and participation. The study shows that in their effort to stay economically sustainable, the three stations are gradually evolving as a 'hybrid'; something that sits in-between community and commercial radio. Consequently, programmes that are produced by the local community are often replaced by programmes that are produced by full-time paid staff; and they are more entertaining in nature and accommodate more advertisements. The radio stations also actively seek the sale of airtime to well-funded NGOs, giving agency-driven programmes priority over local community programmes. This means the stations have become vehicles that help agency objectives. Hence, although 'hybrid' initiatives have merits financially, while depicting as local community representatives, they are marginalising the voices and interests of the very people that gave the radio stations their community characteristics and identity. Hence, in the interest of earning more revenue to secure market survival, the 'hybrid' initiatives are in fact, settling for a lesser community role. This study also shows that although management policy decisions aimed at greater financial sustainability have impacted on local community access and participation in the way they used to be, by readjusting to the new realities of modern-day communications, the three stations are also providing a second 'hybrid' pathway, a new interactive radio environment enabling stronger community access and participation. As this new platform facilitates unhindered local community access and participation in the radio, it is also viewed as a solution that will help them to utilise more of their on-air time for revenue-generating programmes. The new platform is also seen as the answer to reach the new generation youth and increase their participation, thereby, in fact, further strengthening community participation in the radio

Wpływ obecności w mediach społecznościowych na firmy

Tematyka tej pracy dotyczy wpływu, jaki platformy mediów społecznościowych wywierają na większość przedsiębiorstw. Wpływ mediów społecznościowych na świat biznesu jest jednym z najważniejszych zagadnień dla organizacji biznesowych w dzisiejszych czasach. Firmy na całym świecie podejmują inicjatywy, aby stać się atrakcyjnymi dla docelowych klientów poprzez różnorodny zakres działań na różnych platformach mediów społecznościowych. Wpływ tych platform osiągnął kolejny poziom, gdy obecnie firmy, szczególnie małe i średnie, prowadzą całą swoją działalność w oparciu o platformy mediów społecznościowych i odpowiednio konfigurują swoją strukturę biznesową, dzięki czemu umożliwia im to dotarcie do klientów na całym świecie w przeciągu ciągu kilku sekund. Ostatecznie współczesne pomysły na marketing i promocję działalności biznesowej zostały niemalże wyparte przez media społecznościowe. Niniejsza praca obejmuje ogólną koncepcję strategicznych relacji dzisiejszego świata biznesu z mediami społecznościowymi, popartą odniesieniami, które ilustrują dogłębne zrozumienie koncepcji i ankietą przeprowadzoną w celu uzyskania perspektywy z pierwszej ręki bezpośrednich uczestników świata biznesu.The topic of this thesis is concerned with the influence that the social media platforms have on most businesses. The social media’s effect on business world is one of the most important concern in business organizations in this modern era. Businesses across the world take initiatives to make themselves attractive to their target customers through diverse range of activities across different social media platforms. Those platforms’ influence has peaked another level when companies, particularly small and medium ones, these days, conduct their whole business based on social media platforms and set up their business structure accordingly which enable them to reach to customers worldwide within matters of seconds. Eventually, contemporary idea of marketing and promoting business activities have almost been replaced by social medias now a days as well. This thesis covers an overall idea of today’s business worlds’ strategic relation with social media backed by references that illustrates the in-depth understanding of the concepts and survey conducted to get first hand perspective of the direct participants of business world

Comparison Between 3-element & 5-element Yagi-Uda Antenna for Power Harvesting from Radio Frequency Signal

This paper discusses a comparison between 3-element and 5-element Yagi-Udaantenna to find out the best antenna for power harvesting from available RF waves in urbanareas. The antenna will extract available RF waves from environment. The harvested energyfrom the chosen antenna, which of very low magnitude is later amplified to a suitable valuefor the use in consumer appliances, especially for mobile devices. It will increase the mobilityof the device and allow using the unused electromagnetic wave for daily purposes, thusreducing the pressure on national power grid in a broad sense. Additionally, this paperdiscusses the antenna structure and methods for extracting DC power from electromagneticradiation