Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is one of the emerging viruses around the globe. It belongs to the family Togaviridae and genus Alphavirus and is an arthropod borne virus that transmits by the bite of an infected mosquito, mainly through Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopcitus. It is a spherical, enveloped virus with positive single stranded RNA genome. It was first discovered during 1952-53 in Tanganyika, after which outbreaks were documented in many regions of the world. CHIKV has two transmission cycles; an enzootic sylvatic cycle and an urban cycle. CHIKV genome contains 11,900 nucleotides and two open reading frames and shows great sequence variability. Molecular mechanisms of virus host-cell interactions and the pathogenesis of disease are not fully understood. The disease involves three phases; acute, post-acute and chronic with symptoms including high-grade fever, arthralgia, macupapular rashes and headache. There is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for CHIKV infection. This lack of specific interventions combined with difficulties in making a precise diagnosis together make the disease difficult to manage.In this review we aim to present the current knowledge of global epidemiology, transmission, structure, various aspects of diagnosis as well as highlight potential antiviral drugs and vaccines against CHIKV.
In this paper, we use the adversarial risk analysis (ARA) methodology to model first-price sealed-bid auctions under quite realistic assumptions. We extend prior work to find ARA solutions for mirror equilibrium and Bayes Nash equilibrium solution concepts, not only for risk-neutral but also for risk-averse and risk-seeking bidders. We also consider bidders having different wealth and assume that the auctioned item has a reserve price.
The COVID-19 pandemic during initial lockdowns created a problematic situation in which individuals were forced to remain within their homes and were forced to follow social distance restrictions for the well-being of themselves and others. In response, people use social networking sites on mobile phones to gather information about the COVID-19 epidemic. This study aims to investigate the influence of lockdowns on mobile phone usage among university students. Moreover, the harmful effects of COVID-19, such as anxiety, social isolation, and nomophobia among national and international students, are also investigated. The total sample size for this cross-sectional study is 438 individuals. The sample consists of Pakistani students studying at local universities (58.7%) and Pakistani students studying abroad (41.3%). The indigenous data is gathered through convenience sampling. The snowball sampling approach is adopted to acquire data from overseas. The findings show that the excessive use of mobile phones for browsing social networking sites to get information about the pandemic caused COVID-19 anxiety, nomophobia (“no-mobile-phone” phobia), and feelings of social isolation. Our results indicate that the COVID-19 outbreak greatly impacted students’ massive mobile phone use and psycho-social well-being, regardless of their geographic location.
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