During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, different technologies, including telehealth, are maximised to mitigate the risks and consequences of the disease. Telehealth has been widely utilised because of its usability and safety in providing healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a systematic literature review which provides extensive evidence on the impact of COVID-19 through telehealth and which covers multiple directions in a large-scale research remains lacking. This study aims to review telehealth literature comprehensively since the pandemic started. It also aims to map the research landscape into a coherent taxonomy and characterise this emerging field in terms of motivations, open challenges and recommendations. Articles related to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic were systematically searched in the WOS, IEEE, Science Direct, Springer and Scopus databases. The final set included (n=86) articles discussing telehealth applications with respect to (i) control (n=25), (ii) technology (n=14) and (iii) medical procedure (n=47). Since the beginning of the pandemic, telehealth has been presented in diverse cases. However, it still warrants further attention. Regardless of category, the articles focused on the challenges which hinder the maximisation of telehealth in such times and how to address them. With the rapid increase in the utilization of telehealth in different specialised hospitals and clinics, a potential framework which reflects the authors’ implications of the future application and opportunities of telehealth has been established. This article improves our understanding and reveals the full potential of telehealth during these difficult times and beyond.

Context: People who have recently recovered from the threat of deteriorating coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) have antibodies to the coronavirus circulating in their blood. Thus, the transfusion of these antibodies to deteriorating patients could theoretically help boost their immune system. Biologically, two challenges need to be surmounted to allow convalescent plasma (CP) transfusion to rescue the most severe COVID-19 patients. First, convalescent subjects must meet donor selection plasma criteria and comply with national health requirements and known standard routine procedures. Second, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems should be considered in the selection of the most suitable CP and the prioritisation of patients with COVID-19. Objective: This paper presents a rescue framework for the transfusion of the best CP to the most critical patients with COVID-19 on the basis of biological requirements by using machine learning and novel MCDM methods.

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Loss of the ability to speak or hear exerts psychological and social impacts on the affected persons due to the lack of proper communication. Multiple and systematic scholarly interventions that vary according to context have been implemented to overcome disability-related difficulties. Sign language recognition (SLR) systems based on sensory gloves are significant innovations that aim to procure data on the shape or movement of the human hand. Innovative technology for this matter is mainly restricted and dispersed. The available trends and gaps should be explored in this research approach to provide valuable insights into technological environments. Thus, a review is conducted to create a coherent taxonomy to describe the latest research divided into four main categories: development, framework, other hand gesture recognition, and reviews and surveys. Then, we conduct analyses of the glove systems for SLR device characteristics, develop a roadmap for technology evolution, discuss its limitations, and provide valuable insights into technological environments. This will help researchers to understand the current options and gaps in this area, thus contributing to this line of research.

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A new time related method of analysing the sinoaortic baroreceptor heart rate reflex, which determines reflex latency as well as sensitivity, was used to compare the results obtained with a phenylephrine ramp method (P) with those obtained using the whole of phase IV of Valsalva (V1) and using the phase IV systolic blood pressure overshoot alone (V2). Twenty five subjects with large ranges of age and resting blood pressures were studied. Each performed two standardised Valsalva manoeuvres and received three bolus injections of phenylephrine sufficient to cause transient pressor responses of 20-30 mmHg. Mean sensitivity values with P (6.2(3.5) ms.mmHg-1) were greater than those with V1 (4.6(2.3) ms.mmHg-1, p less than 0.001) and less than V2 (7.8(4.0) ms.mmHg-1, p less than 0.001). However, linear regression analysis showed a correlation of P with V1 (r = 0.76, p less than 0.0001) and with V2 (r = 0.80, p less than 0.0001). Reflex latency with P (1084(427) ms) was less than V1 (2416(423) ms, p less than 0.0001) and V2 (1504(441) ms, p less than 0.0005). Reflex sensitivity results obtained using phase IV of Valsalva's manoeuvre are proportionately related to phenylephrine results, but large errors were introduced into the absolute values obtained when relatively small changes were made to the method of analysis.

The increasing demand for image dehazing-based applications has raised the value of efficient evaluation and benchmarking for image dehazing algorithms. Several perspectives, such as inhomogeneous foggy, homogenous foggy, and dark foggy scenes, have been considered in multi-criteria evaluation. The benchmarking for the selection of the best image dehazing intelligent algorithm based on multi-criteria perspectives is a challenging task owing to (a) multiple evaluation criteria, (b) criteria importance, (c) data variation, (d) criteria conflict, and (e) criteria tradeoff. A generally accepted framework for benchmarking image dehazing performance is unavailable in the existing literature. This study proposes a novel multi-perspective (i.e., an inhomogeneous foggy scene, a homogenous foggy scene, and a dark foggy scene) benchmarking framework for the selection of the best image dehazing intelligent algorithm based on multi-criteria analysis. Experiments were conducted in three stages. First was an evaluation experiment with five algorithms as part of matrix data. Second was a crossover between image dehazing intelligent algorithms and a set of target evaluation criteria to obtain matrix data. Third was the ranking of the image dehazing intelligent algorithms through integrated best–worst and VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje methods. Individual and group decision-making contexts were applied to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed framework. The mean was used to objectively validate the ranks given by group decision-making contexts. Checklist and benchmarking scenarios were provided to compare the proposed framework with an existing benchmark study. The proposed framework achieved a significant result in terms of selecting the best image dehazing algorithm.