The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on a global scale. Understanding the innate and lifestyle-related factors influencing the rate and severity of COVID-19 is important for making evidence-based recommendations. This cross-sectional study aims at establishing a potential relationship between human characteristics and vulnerability/resistance to SARS-CoV-2. We hypothesize that the impact of the virus is not the same due to cultural and ethnic differences. A cross-sectional study was performed using an online questionnaire. The methodology included the development of a multi-language survey, expert evaluation, and data analysis. Data were collected using a 13-item pre-tested questionnaire based on a literature review between 9 December 2020 and 21 July 2021. Data were statistically analyzed using logistic regression. For a total of 1125 respondents, 332 (29.5%) were COVID-19 positive; among them, 130 (11.5%) required home-based treatment, and 14 (1.2%) intensive care. The significant and most influential factors on infection included age, physical activity, and health status (p < 0.05), i.e., better physical activity and better health status significantly reduced the possibility of infection, while older age significantly increased it. The severity of infection was negatively associated with the acceptance (adherence and respect) of preventive measures and positively associated with tobacco (p < 0.05), i.e., smoking regularly significantly increases the severity of COVID-19 infection. This suggests the importance of behavioral factors compared to innate ones. Apparently, individual behavior is mainly responsible for the spread of the virus. Therefore, adopting a healthy lifestyle and scrupulously observing preventive measures, including vaccination, would greatly limit the probability of infection and prevent the development of severe COVID-19.

The aim of this work was to investigate the physicochemical, nutritional and antioxidant properties of traditionally pressed edible (roasted argan kernels) and beauty (unroasted argan kernels) Algerian argan oil. Oxidative stability and the quality of oils (acidity, peroxide index, K232, and K270) were slightly affected by roasting process. But, any case, none of the analyzed oils surpassed limits established by Moroccan norms and were labeled as “extra virgin oil.” In addition, the better antioxidant capacities of argan oil prepared from roasted seeds could be explained by a better extractability of carotenoids, phenolics. and tocopherols as compared with unroasted ones. The dominant fatty acids found consisted by oleic acid followed by linoleic, palmitic, and stearic acids and the major triglycerides were principally formed by two or three oleic acid residues. According to our data, the roasting process does not influence the quality of the argan oil and confirm its good stability. Practical applications Argania spinosa (Sapotaceae family) is an endemic xero‐thermophilic species from the southwestern region of Algeria (Tindouf countryside) and Morocco. Argan oil is the most important products derived from Argan tree. Despite its wide spread uses and properties, only few studies had been carried out on the traditionally extracted roasted (edible) and unroasted (for beauty uses) Algerian argan oil. Thus, this study aimed to valorize this oil through their physicochemical, nutritional and antioxidant properties in order to situate this local product to the standards and international norm values.

This study compared phenolic contents and antioxidant activity in different organs of Acacia albida (leaves and bark) and focuses on identification of phenolic compounds of leaves by HPLC-DAD. The analysed organs exhibited differences in total polyphenol contents (100 and 59.5 mg GAE g(-1) DW). Phenolic contents of leaves were two times higher than those in bark. Ethanolic extracts exhibited good antioxidant activities with IC50 = 26 μg mL(-1) for DPPH and EC50 = 50 μg mL(-1) for FRAP. Identification by HPLC-DAD revealed the presence of nine phenolic compounds known for their high antioxidant activity. The results suggested that this species can be used as source of natural antioxidants.

The COVID-19 pandemic has a major impact on a global scale. Understanding the innate and lifestyle-related factors influencing the rate and severity of COVID-19 is important for making evidence-based recommendations. This cross-sectional study aimed at establishing a potential relationship between human characteristics and vulnerability/resistance to SARS-CoV-2. We hypothesize that the impact of virus is not the same due to cultural and ethnic differences. A cross-sectional study was performed using an online questionnaire. The methodology included a development of a multi-language survey, expert evaluation and data analysis. Data was collected using a 13-item pre-tested questionnaire based on a literature review. Data was statistically analyzed using the logistic regression. For a total of 1125 respondents, 332 (29.5%) were COVID-19 positive, among them 130 (11.5%) required home-based treatment, and 14 (1.2%) intensive care. The significant factors included age, physical activity and health status all found to have a significant influence on the infection (p < 0.05). The severity of infection was associated with preventive measures and tobacco (p < 0.05). This suggests the importance of behavioral factors compared to innate ones. Apparently, the individual behavior is mainly responsible for the spread of the virus. Adopting a healthy lifestyle and scrupulously observing preventive measures including vaccination would greatly limit the probability of infection and prevent the development of severe COVID-19.