ABSTRACT
Introduction: SARS - CoV mainly affects the airways and, although most cases of COVID-19 are mild or moderate, up to 30% of patients may have the severe form of the disease and be hospitalized due to the cytokine storm in response to viral infection (Milovanovic, L. et al. BMJ Open. 2021;11(1):e042008). Of these, up to a quarter need an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in this unit, data on partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), carbon dioxide (PaCO2) and inflammatory markers are collected daily to assess respiratory function and assist in decision making. Aim(s): To analyze how these blood gas and inflammatory data are related to a greater need for invasive support and mortality in the ICU. Method(s): 79 patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit with a mean age of 60 years, of whom 50 required invasive support and 44 died. Result(s): After comparing the groups, it was observed that the need for invasive ventilatory support and death were related to higher values of PaCO2 (p<0.001;p<0.001) and C-Reactive Protein (p=0.004;p=0.006), which did not occur with those with lower PaO2 levels (p=0.339;p=0.580). Furthermore, the inflammatory activity marker CRP correlated significantly and positively with PaCO2 (p=0.007;0.378), which did not happen with PaO2 (p=0.406;-0.121). Conclusion(s): Although the respiratory involvement caused by COVID-19 has hypoxemic characteristics, it is observed that, in critically ill patients, the assessment of CRP and carbon dioxide levels are more decisive for the clinical outcome, having more relevance for patient decisions and evaluations. serious hospitalized with COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
With the emergence of COVID-19, Food Services (FS) needed to adapt to the protocols established by health agencies to avoid the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although there is no evidence of transmission of the virus through food, contagion can occur between food handlers and customers. In this study, the objective was to evaluate the measures implemented in a university FS in order to prevent the transmission and contagion of COVID-19. The methodology used was descriptive and quantitative. Data collection took place from July to October 2021, through the application of a checklist based on health standards for the prevention of transmission of COVID-19. The results showed that the FS demonstrated non-conformities in some items (28.9%), even though the changes made were in accordance with the guidelines of health agencies. The changes mainly refer to the recommendations of health protocols for the prevention of COVID-19 such as natural ventilation, reinforced cleaning, use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - mask, informative posters, and physical distancing. It is concluded that it is necessary to put into practice the current regulations and correct the possible flaws so that the FS reach all the requirements required by the legislation in the prevention of the transmission of COVID-19. © 2022 Centro Universitario Sao Camilo. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Sewage quality surveillance can represent a complementary tool for monitoring infectious diseases and preventing epidemic outbreaks, especially when the capacity for clinical testing is limited. Thus, the present study describes the technical details of a low-cost method for concentrating and extracting nucleic acids from sewage samples, as a preliminary step for the detection of viruses and other pathogens. To validate the proposed methodology, after the concentration and extraction steps, the presence of the SARS coronavirus-2 (COVID-19) in the samples was analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. The virus' ribonucleic acid was detected in 80% of the sewage samples analyzed, proving the success of the methodological procedure adopted. The early detection of a pathogen associated with the work of multidisciplinary teams allows the practice of epidemiological surveillance, which assists in making decisions about One Health - an inseparable union between animal, human, and environmental health.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has lasted for over 1 year. During the pandemic, several software development companies migrated to working from home (WFH). Several studies have recorded an initial moment of adaptation to WFH. This study investigated how BRAian software development teams dealt with WFH after 1 year of a pandemic and how this change in work was on the software development process. We applied a survey with 67 participants of software development teams and investigated aspects, as: work routine, collaboration, communication, productivity, financial assistance and software development process. We performed a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the survey results and compared them with previous studies. Our key findings are: (i) 56.71% of the participants said that it has an impact on the work routine related to work overload and exceeds the company's standard hours;(ii) 92.54% of the participants consider their team to be collaborative;(iii) 82.70% are satisfied with the communication at WFH;(iv) 86.55% has meetings once or twice a day;(v) 59.7% had an improvement in productivity in WFH and 75% are satisfied with their productivity;(vi) 79.60% receive some assistance from the company for WFH;(vii) 82.1% said that the company intends or probably intends to continue in the WFH, and (viii) 55.2% said they had changed in the software development process due to WFH. The main positive changes in the process are related to the practices of: daily meetings, agile processes, code review, pair programming and code versioning. © 2021 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Software companies have adopted remote work to maintain practitioners safe during the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. The remote environment in pandemic time brings some challenges, mainly for practitioners with limited experience with this work modality. Moreover, there are several factors in the environment that together with the change in the work routine can directly impact the teams productivity, such as human and organizational factors. To investigate this problem, we conducted a survey applied to software teams in Brazil to analyze how such factors can influence their productivity in the remote environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was guided by human and organizational factors identified in the literature that affect the productivity of software teams, such as: work environment, collaboration and organization of teams, communication, motivation, among others. Our survey obtained 58 participants from all Brazilian regions. As main conclusions, we identified that 74.1% of the participants consider their productivity remains good or excellent, and 84.5% feel motivated and have easy communication with their co-workers. Furthermore, the main factors influencing the productivity are external interruption, environment adaptation, and emotional issues. © 2020 ACM.