Summary

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and the disease now affects nearly every country and region. Caused by SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 continues nearly 18 months later to present significant challenges to health systems and public health in both hemispheres, as well as the economies of every country. The morbidity and mortality of the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been significant, and various waves of disease outbreaks initially overwhelmed many hospitals and clinics and continue to do so in many countries. This influences everyone, and public health countermeasures have been dramatic in terms of their impact on employment, social systems, and mental health. This entry collection aims to gather diverse fields about COVID-19, including in epidemiology, public health, medicine, genetics, systems biology, informatics, data science, engineering, sociology, anthropology, nursing, environmental studies, statistics, and psychology.

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Entries
Topic Review
Impacts of COVID-19 on the Aquatic Environment
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulted in ecological changes of aquatic ecosystems, affected the aquatic food supply chain, and disrupted the socio-economy of global populations. Due to reduced human activities during the pandemic, the aquatic environment was reported to improve its water quality, wild fishery stocks, and biodiversity. However, the sudden surge of plastics and biomedical wastes during the COVID-19 pandemic masked the positive impacts and increased the risks of aquatic pollution, especially microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and disinfectants. 
  • 763
  • 03 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Preventing Transmission of Respiratory Infectious Diseases
With the growing concern about the spread of new respiratory infectious diseases, several studies involving the application of technology in the prevention of these diseases have been carried out. Among these studies, it is worth highlighting the importance of those focused on the primary forms of prevention, such as social distancing, mask usage, quarantine, among others. This importance arises because, from the emergence of a new disease to the production of immunizers, preventive actions must be taken to reduce contamination and fatalities rates.
  • 453
  • 28 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Extracellular Vesicles-Based Therapy for COVID-19: An Update
COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious concern and negatively impacted the public health and economy. It primarily targets the lungs causing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); however, it may also lead to multiple organ failure (MOF) and enhanced mortality rates. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop effective and potential therapeutic strategies for COVID-19 patients. Extracellular vesicles(EVs) are released from various types of cells that participate in intercellular communication to maintain physiological and pathological processes. EVs derived from various cellular origins have revealed suppressive effects on the cytokine storm during a systemic hyper-inflammatory state of severe COVID-19, leading to enhanced alveolar fluid clearance, promoted epithelial and endothelial recovery, and cell proliferation. Being the smallest subclass of EVs, exosomes offer striking characteristics such as cell targeting, nano-carrier for drug delivery, high biocompatibility, safety, and low-immunogenicity, hence renders them a potential cell-free therapeutic candidate against the pathogenesis of the various disease. Following these properties, numerous studiesand clinical trials have been performed to assess their safety and therapeuticefficacyagainst COVID-19.
  • 683
  • 25 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Parental Involvement in Education: The COVID-19 Panacea?
The achievement gap of disadvantaged students has always been large, and is still widening. Even more now, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parental involvement is seen as an important strategy for closing this gap. The question is whether this optimism is warranted. A review of the literature pointed to a considerable diversity in parental involvement typologies, classifications, roles, forms, and activities. A synthesis of the results from twelve meta-analyses showed that the average effect of involvement on attainment is small. The type of involvement with the strongest effect appeared to be parents having high aspirations and expectations for their child. Prudence is called for, however, as there are many limitations to studying parental involvement in a reliable and valid way.  
  • 1.5K
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Sleep Problems and Psychological Distress
Psychological distress is defined as a set of non-specific symptoms concerning depressivemood and anxiety manifestation. It refers to a state of emotionalsuffering associated with stressors that are difficult to deal with in daily life.Psychological distress may influence sleep patterns and seems to exacerbate age-related sleep problems.
  • 462
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Digital Rights
Digital rights are fundamental rights in the digital age related to privacy protection in smart cities. In this vein, it has encouraged the United Nations to take an advocacy role regarding the ‘right to have digital rights’ and create the Hub for Human Rights and Digital Technology: ‘Together, as we seek to recover from the pandemic, we must learn to better curtail harmful use of digital technology and better unleash its power as a democratising force and an enabler’.
  • 1.5K
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Guidelines for COVID-19 patients
The aim of this review is to summarize current evidence of infection control in healthcare settings and patients with COVID-19 to increase awareness among healthcare workers and prevent nosocomial infections during actual pandemics. Guidelines should target all modes of transmission while recommending control precautions. During epidemics, healthcare facilities must promptly implement a multidisciplinary defense system to combat the outbreak. More evidence-based infection control strategies are needed to uniform the guidelines. 
  • 481
  • 20 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Causal Loop Diagramming of Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19
The complexity, multidimensionality, and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted both researchers and policymakers to turn to transdisciplinary methods in dealing with the wickedness of the crisis. While there are increasing calls to use systems thinking to address the intricacy of COVID-19, examples of practical applications of systems thinking are still scarce. We revealed and reviewed eight studies which developed causal loop diagrams (CLDs) to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a broader socioeconomic system. We find that major drivers across all studies are the magnitude of the infection spread and government interventions to curb the pandemic, while the most impacted variables are public perception of the pandemic and the risk of infection.
  • 839
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
α1-Antitrypsin Deficiency and SARS-CoV-2 Infection
The most common hereditary disorder in adults, α1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), is characterized by reduced plasma levels or the abnormal functioning of α1-antitrypsin (AAT), a major human blood serine protease inhibitor, which is encoded by the SERine Protein INhibitor-A1 (SERPINA1) gene and produced in the liver. Recently, it has been hypothesized that the geographic differences in COVID-19 infection and fatality rates may be partially explained by ethnic differences in SERPINA1 allele frequencies.
  • 558
  • 19 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Thymus Gland
The thymus gland is the chief lymphoid organ that regulates the functions of the immune and endocrine systems by controlling the levels of hormones and cytokines. The thymus gland protects against various internal and external stresses through immunoregulatory properties, nerve systems, and endocrine pathways. The thymus gland controls cell proliferation, apoptosis, hormones, and neuropeptides, as well as regulating intrathymic T cell differentiation and production of a repertoire of the T cell.
  • 610
  • 26 Oct 2021
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