New Normal in the Construction Industry a Covid-19 Effect

Construction is one of the oldest and major industries in the world that makes substantial contribution to the national economy and provides employment to a great number of individuals. In the early part of year 2020, COVID-19 pandemic arises that has turned into a worldwide catastrophe, evolving at high speed and scale. The impacts on the construction industry have been sudden and wide-ranging. This outbreak changes the usual daily activity and ‘The New Normal’ is introduced. Construction companies are moving forward, with strict regulations that end up as the new normal for the industry. This study explored the adaption to this new normal in Nueva Ecija, Philippines and seeks out if there’s a relationship between adaption to new safety protocols and the category also the number of workers in a company. Survey was done for data collection. SPSS 25 software was used for data analysis. Result reveals that although the percentage of adaption to new normal is great, still there are areas that needs improvement. In addition, the company’s category and the number manpower does indeed has correlation on the adaption to new normal. This study is essential to ensure responsible, healthy, safe operations, and serve as protection of workers.

Visual analogue scale - a tool for assessing the control of allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common form of rhinitis and the most common allergic disease in children and adults. Numerous clinical studies and daily practice indicate a pronounced negative effect of symptoms of AR on patients’ quality of life, their usual daily activity, cognitive functions, mood and sleep. The type and severity of individual symptoms can vary from patient to patient, and therapy should be directed to the overall control of the symptoms of AR. It is important to obtain reliable and comparable information regarding the severity of AR symptoms before, during and after the treatment, which can be assessed using a simple and accessible tool - a visual analogue scale (VAS). VAS validated for patients with AR allows to define a controlled, partially controlled and uncontrolled AR. The article proposes an algorithm for the treatment of AR, depending on the severity of the symptoms, assessed using VAS.

Autonomic Imbalance Induced Breakdown of Long-range Dependence in Healthy Heart Rate

Summary Objectives : The investigation of the relation between the long-range correlation property of heart rate and autonomic balance. Methods : An investigation of the fractal scaling properties of heart rate variability was carried out by using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Eleven healthy subjects were examined for two consecutive days, which included usual daily activity, strenuous prolonged experimental exercise, and sleep. We also considered two patient groups with autonomic dysfunction characterized by selective sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance. Results : Robust long-range dependence in heart rate is observed only in the state of usual daily activity, characterized by normal heart rate typical of balanced autonomic sympathetic and parasympathetic regulation. This confirms the previously postulated behavioral independence of heart rate regulation, but reveals that the occurrence of 1/f, long-range dependence is restricted to only the state of autonomic balance. Both the sympathetic dominant high heart rate state, realized during strenuous experimental exercise, and the parasympathetic dominant low heart rate state, prevalent in (deep) sleep, are characterized by uncorrelated, near white-noise-like scaling, lacking long-range dependence. Conclusion : Remarkably, the breakdown of the long-range correlations observed in healthy heart rate in the states of sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance is in stark contrast to the increased correlations which have previously been observed in neurogenic parasympathetic and sympathetic dominance in patients suffering from primary autonomic failure and congestive heart failure, respectively. Our findings further reveal the diagnostic capabilities of heart rate dynamics, by differentiating physiological healthy states from pathology.