Seeing COVID-19 through a Health care professional’s eye

Background: The world is in a state of war. The health care professionals are the front line soldiers who are fighting this war against COVID-19. The modification in human behavior to a specific stimulus (say the Corona epidemic) is the single most important determinant of the fate of that stimulus.  On 26th February 2020, Pakistan reported its first corona positive cases. Till Mid-March, the number raised to a significantly critical level. As the outbreak was unexpected in Pakistan, the situation created chaos and panic among the public as well as among health care workers. The current study analyzed COVID-19 thorough a healthcare professional's eye. There has been no previous study according to the PubMed database. Using the keywords, "Coronavirus, Health care professionals, Pakistan, COVID-19", for any sort of previous cases reported or literature reported relating to coronavirus, our team could not find any article, case report or publication of any sort. So this study is the first from Pakistan Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a self-administrated online questionnaire was circulated through emails and social media to the whole country. The questionnaire comprised of assessing knowledge about the cause and symptoms of COVID-19. A total of 146 responses were scrutinized to include in the survey, in the time period of 1 week (March 23-30, 2020). The participants belonged to private and government institutions from all provinces of Pakistan. Results: The mean values of all items depicted that all health care professionals were well aware of the knowledge, symptoms and transmissibility of COVID-19. Conclusion:  The study concluded that the healthcare professionals were fully aware of the transmission of COVID-19 and its symptoms. However, it is recommended that the government should provide full support to health care professionals, who are at the front line. &nbsp

Seeing COVID-19 through a Health care professional’s eye

Background: The world is in a state of war. The health care professionals are the front line soldiers who are fighting this war against COVID-19. The modification in human behavior to a specific stimulus (say the Corona epidemic) is the single most important determinant of the fate of that stimulus.  On 26th February 2020, Pakistan reported its first corona positive cases. Till Mid-March, the number raised to a significantly critical level. As the outbreak was unexpected in Pakistan, the situation created chaos and panic among the public as well as among health care workers. The current study analyzed COVID-19 thorough a healthcare professional's eye. There has been no previous study according to the PubMed database. Using the keywords, "Coronavirus, Health care professionals, Pakistan, COVID-19", for any sort of previous cases reported or literature reported relating to coronavirus, our team could not find any article, case report or publication of any sort. So this study is the first from Pakistan Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a self-administrated online questionnaire was circulated through emails and social media to the whole country. The questionnaire comprised of assessing knowledge about the cause and symptoms of COVID-19. A total of 146 responses were scrutinized to include in the survey, in the time period of 1 week (March 23-30, 2020). The participants belonged to private and government institutions from all provinces of Pakistan. Results: The mean values of all items depicted that all health care professionals were well aware of the knowledge, symptoms and transmissibility of COVID-19. Conclusion:  The study concluded that the healthcare professionals were fully aware of the transmission of COVID-19 and its symptoms. However, it is recommended that the government should provide full support to health care professionals, who are at the front line. &nbsp

Hawking radiation of scalar particles from accelerating and rotating black holes

Hawking radiation of uncharged and charged scalars from accelerating and rotating black holes is studied. We calculate the tunneling probabilities of these particles from the rotation and acceleration horizons of these black holes. Using the tunneling method we recover the correct Hawking temperature as well

Transparency and Financing Choices of Family Firms

Past literature indicates that family firms were different from nonfamily firms in term of performance, governess and disclosure.But there was very little evidence which specify the financial structure of family firm.Maturity and leverage, two proxies are used to examine the financial structure of family firm in this particular study.This study shows that family firms are different from non-family firms in terms of debt maturity and leverage. Moreover, transparency is negatively related to maturity which indicate that more transparency decrease maturity, while family firms has more debt maturity which suggested that family firms are more relying on long-term debt and there is chance of expropriation in family firms due to less transparency.Furthermore, transparency is positively related with leverage which indicate that more transparency increase leverage , while family firms also have positive relationship with leverage which specify that more transparency leads family firms financial structure more toward debt

Alleviation of Boron Stress through Plant Derived Smoke Extracts in Sorghum bicolor

Boron is an essential micronutrient necessary for plant growth at optimum concentration. However, at high concentrations boron affects plant growth and is toxic to cells. Aqueous extract of plant-derived smoke has been used as a growth regulator for the last two decades to improve seed germination and seedling vigor. It has been established that plant-derived smoke possesses some compounds that act like plant growth hormones. The present research was the first comprehensive attempt to investigate the alleviation of boron stress with plant-derived smoke aqueous extract on Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) seed. Smoke extracts of five plants, i.e. Cymbopogon jwarancusa, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Peganum harmala, Datura alba and Melia azedarach each with six dilutions (Concentrated, 1:100, 1:200, 1:300, 1:400 and 1:500) were used. While boron solutions at concentrations of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 ppm were used for stress. Among the dilutions of smoke, 1:500 of E. camaldulensis significantly increased germination percentage, root and shoot length, number of secondary roots and fresh weight of root and shoot while, boron stress reduced growth of Sorghum. It was observed that combined effect of boron solution and E. camaldulensis smoke extract overcome inhibition and significantly improved plant growth. Present research work investigated that the smoke solution has the potential to alleviate boron toxicity by reducing the uptake of boron by maintaining integrity of plant cell wall. The present investigation suggested that plant derived smoke has the potential to alleviate boron stress and can be used to overcome yield losses caused by boron stress to plants

Impact of a Positive Viral Polymerase Chain Reaction on Outcomes of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Exacerbations

INTRODUCTION: More than 15 million adults in the USA have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) places a high burden on the healthcare system. Many hospital admissions are due to an exacerbation, which is suspected to be from a viral cause. The purpose of this analysis was to compare the outcomes of patients with a positive and negative respiratory virus panel who were admitted to the hospital with COPD exacerbations. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Geisinger Healthcare System. The dataset included 2729 patient encounters between 1 January 2006 and 30 November 2017. Hospital length of stay was calculated as the discrete number of calendar days a patient was in the hospital. Patient encounters with a positive and negative respiratory virus panel were compared using Pearson\u27s chi-square or Fisher\u27s exact test for categorical variables and Student\u27s t-test or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests for continuous variables. RESULTS: There were 1626 patients with a total of 2729 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation encounters. Nineteen percent of those encounters (n = 524) had a respiratory virus panel performed during their admission. Among these encounters, 161 (30.7%) had positive results, and 363 (69.3%) had negative results. For encounters with the respiratory virus panel, the mean age was 64.5, 59.5% were female, 98.9% were white, and the mean body mass index was 26.6. Those with a negative respiratory virus panel had a higher median white blood cell count (11.1 vs. 9.9, p = 0.0076). There were no other statistically significant differences in characteristics between the two groups. Respiratory virus panel positive patients had a statistically significant longer hospital length of stay. There were no significant differences with respect to being on mechanical ventilation or ventilation-free days. CONCLUSION: This study shows that a positive respiratory virus panel is associated with increased length of hospital stay. Early diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation patients with positive viral panel would help identify patients with a longer length of stay