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Background The relationship between COVID-19 patient’s clinical characteristics and disease manifestation remains incompletely understood. The impact of ethnicity on mortality of patients with COVID-19 infection is poorly addressed in the literature. Emerging evidence suggests that many risk factors are related to symptoms severity and mortality risk, emphasizing the necessity of fulfilling this knowledge gap that may help reducing mortality from COVID-19 infections through tackling the risk factors. Aims To explore epidemiological and demographic characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients from different ethnic origins living in the UAE, compare them to findings reported across the globe and determine the impact of these characteristics and ethnicity on mortality during hospitalization. Methods A single center, retrospective chart review study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was conducted in a large COVID-19 referral hospital in UAE. The following outcomes were assessed: patients’ clinical characteristics, disease symptoms and severity, and association of ethnicity and other risk factors on 30-day in hospital mortality. Results A total of 3296 patients were recruited in this study with an average age of 44.3±13.4 years old. Preliminary data analysis indicated that 78.3% (n = 2582) of cases were considered mild. Average duration of hospital stay was 6.0±7.3 days and 4.3% (n = 143) were admitted to ICU. The most frequently reported symptoms were cough (32.6%, n = 1075) and fever (22.2%, n = 731). The 30-day mortality rate during hospitalization was 2.7% (n = 90). Many risk factors were associated with mortality during hospitalization including: age, respiratory rate (RR), creatinine, and C-reactive protein, oxygen saturation (SaO2), hemoglobin, hematocrit, ferritin, creatinine, C-reactive protein, anemia, COPD, Chronic kidney disease, dyslipidemia, Vitamin-D Deficiency, and ethnic origin (p <0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that higher mortality rates during hospitalization was associated with anemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney disease, and Middle Eastern origin (p<0.05). Conclusion The results indicated that most COVID-19 cases were mild and morality rate was low compared to worldwide reported mortality. Mortality rate during hospitalization was higher in patients from Middle East origin with preexisting comorbidities especially anemia, COPD, and chronic kidney disease. Due to the relatively small number of mortality cases, other identified risk factors from univariate analysis such as age, respiratory rate, and Vitamin-D (VitD) deficiency should also be taken into consideration. It is crucial to stratify patients on admission based on these risk factors to help decide intensity and type of treatment which, possibly, will reduce the risk of death.

<p class="Body">The evolution of mobile technologies in learning, has been increased the requirements for developing appropriate usability model to fall into the same line with mobile learning applications. Usability of mobile learning applications is a topic that is into research, this paper focuses a tailored designed model called (M-UTUAT) mobile usability model that combines People at the Centre of Mobile Application Development (PACMAD) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to form a more robust model. As an addition to the usability research, an application (ICT) was developed for children with speech delays and children diagnosed with autism spectrum. The application is a mobile/tablet-based application that developed according to mobile usability measures to get the maximum learning skills and abilities to help autistic children. It has been designed according to the needs of the children specific to their category and skills. The autism spectrum is a broad spectrum with high and low disabilities. The application consists of both visual and audio aids to help children feel comfortable and associate objects more easily with their original meaning and connections. (PECS) is one of the most common techniques that have been clinically proven to be effective in such cases. This application helped an individual with autism spectrum as well as children with speech delays or disabilities to communicate and correlate faster and easily. The application can help so many families by constructing a more communicative path for people with disabilities. The application is innovative that it developed in the Arabic language to serve Arabic learners as most of the autistic applications available serve English learners. Results gathered after questionnaire highlight the usability issues with the (ICT) application. We developed an app to overcome usability issues.</p>