The impact of COVID-19 on the lives of persons with intellectual disabilities: A participatory research project from Madrid, Spain

This chapter presents the findings of a participatory research project on the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown on the lives of people with intellectual disabilities in Madrid, Spain. It provides a brief overview of the social policy framework with regards to people with disabilities, and how the government responded to the needs of people with disabilities during the pandemic. The research was conducted by seven co-researchers with intellectual disabilities, who explored how people with intellectual disabilities in Madrid had experienced the lockdown and sanitary restrictions from March 2020 to November 2021. Participants included people living at home with their families, in group homes and in residential care. The findings are contrasted with other studies on the impact of the pandemic in Spain. The pandemic revealed the precariousness of the care system, and the urgent need to shift towards a human rights compliant service provision. Our study shows that people with intellectual disabilities experienced restrictions in different aspects of their lives during a longer period, that people living in residential care were more isolated and that there is a general concern with the future. People living in congregated settings were subject to higher restrictions. Some people had become care providers to their parents, and digital skills had been essential to keep in touch with partners, friends and family. Furthermore, people expressed a desire to regain their freedom, meet new people and a concern with lack of employment. © 2023 Adela Palazuelos Velayos, Adrián Corona de la Iglesia, Ángela Sánchez Castillo, Gema Alises Urda, María Gómez-Carrillo de Castro, Marta Sancho Suils, Paola Cauja Pilataxi and Víctor Sanz Moreno. All rights reserved.

Successful Erasmus plus Projects: Some Case Studies

The analysis of successful projects provides valuable information for finding inspiration and learn from good practices to implement them in future projects. In the case of Erasmus+, there is a very rich project database with catalogued projects that allows access to them what is very useful to analyse the published data of good practice or success stories projects. In the research that is being carried out, reason for this article, a group of good practices or success story projects related to eLearning have been selected, they have been analysed based on the information found on the Erasmus+ Projects Results Platform, their coordinators have been surveyed to gather more information from the projects and interviews are being carried out with those coordinators whose projects have been, and continue to be, useful beyond the funding period even in the pandemic crisis. This article presents the methodology for the interviews and the first results obtained in four of them as an example. The main results for the success and sustainability have been the importance of analysing the needs of students and/or teachers in innovative themes, the integration of the project outcomes into the teaching-learning processes and a good relationship with the project partners. All that using ICT as a tool to better implement the project activities with an easy access from any place, at any time and with any type of device.

ICT tools highlighted and their usefulness during the pandemic Erasmus plus projects related to eLearning

The work presented in this paper is the result of research on Erasmus+ projects, related to the educational field and with a connection to eLearning, that have been classified as good practice or successful story. This publication shows some of the results obtained from administering a survey to the project coordinators. Specifically, it focuses on the responses collected from two sections of the survey that have to do with the possible factors considered the reason for being successful projects and their main characteristics. At the same time, it is explored the sustainability of the project results over time and how they have been useful in the pandemic. The main findings show that the results have been positive with sufficient funds to be able to carry them out and with the capacity to go on using them once the grant period has ended. Additionally, they have also been useful on the occasion of COVID-19.

COVID-19 pneumonia. Experience of a public hospital in Argentina

COVID-19 pneumonia represents a challenge for health systems. The objective of this study is to describe the clinical presentation and evolution of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. This is a prospective and descrip tive study. Patients older than 16 years with a PCR confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 were included in 94.0% (n=395) of the cases. Biochemical and imaging determinations were made. 421 patients were included, 57.0% male (n=240), with a mean age of 56.1 .. 15.1 years. 41.0% (n=172) were older than 60 years. 79.7% (n=333) had comorbidities. They had seven days 7 days (IQR 5) from symptom onset to hospitalization. The most frequent symptoms were: dyspnea (78.1%, n=307), cough (76.5%, n=297) and fever (73.6%, n=289). 50.2% (n=204) presented respiratory failure upon admission. 63.4% (n=173) presented pathological infiltrates on radiography and 96.0% (n=312) on chest tomography. The 4C score was 8 (IQR 6). 31.6% (n=133) had a poor clinical evolution. In-hospital mortality was 18.9% (n=80) and 23.7% (n=100) received mechanical ventilation. 21.9% (n=92) presented in-hospital complications. 39.6% (n=67) of those over 60 years of age were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and 31.4% (n=54) died. 76.9% (n=319) of the patients received corticosteroids, 69.3% (n=289) antibiotics, and convalescent plasma 10.5% (n=43). This series stands out for the high rate of co morbidities and the severity of the patients included. Mortality was similar to other international series.

Successful educational methodologies: Erasmus+ projects related to e-learning or ICT

The European Union and associated countries are working on European projects that provide relevant information on the methodologies used at the educational level through different programs, including the Erasmus+ Program. These projects are the source of inspiration for the research that is being carried out to obtain a methodological guide for the successful use of digital technologies in education to improve learning. This article focuses on how the research has been approached, the analysis of projects classified as good practice or success stories related to eLearning and/or ICT, the advances in data analysis carried out so far with the main results obtained in the project mapping process and the development and application of a survey, which give clues about the most relevant aspects of the projects reviewed.

Increased cathepsin expressioncorrelates with sars-cov-2infection in human ibd enteroids

Introduction Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing publichealth crisis that has sickened or precipitated death in millions.The etiologic agent of COVID-19, Severe Acute RespiratorySyndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), infects the intestinalepithelium, with viral RNA shed in the stool, and can induce GIsymptoms similar to the human inflammatory bowel diseases(IBD). An international surveillance epidemiology study,SECURE-IBD, reported that the standardized mortality ratiotrends higher in IBD patients (1.5-1.8) and that 5-aminosalicylicacid (5-ASA) therapy correlates with poor outcome. Togetherthese data indicate patients with IBD may represent aparticularly vulnerable population during this COVID-19pandemic. Methods Published datasets GSE75214 and GSE16879 were downloadedand expression levels of select genes were querried usingRStudio. Primary human ileal spheroids (enteroids), derivedfrom healthy donors and patients with Crohn's disease (CD),were grown on 2D transwells until confluent. Cells were thendifferentiated for 3d before infection with a modified vesicularstomatitis virus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (VSV-SARS-CoV-2) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) for 1 h at amultiplicity of infection (MOI) of ∼0.5. Healthy enteroids weretreated with 10 ng/ml of human Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α) for 24h before infection via the basolateral reservoir or5-ASA 5h before infection via the apical reservoir. 24h afterinfection, cells were processed for immunofluorescence or RNAexpression of select genes by qRT-PCR. Results VSV-SARS-CoV-2 was able to infect both healthy and CDenteroids as determined by co-staining of GFP, indicative ofvirus infection, and the viral receptor ACE2. However, levels ofGFP fluorescence did not correlate with ACE2 expression in CDenteroids. A subset of CD enteroids exhibited enhanced proteaseexpression (TMPRSS2, TMPRSS4, CTSL), each of whichcorrelated with higher viral RNA levels (P=0.04, P=0.002,P=0.006, respectively). In Vero E6 cells, 5-ASA inhibited thereplication of a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 in aconcentration-dependent manner. Treating healthy enteroidswith 5-ASA did not have any effect on viral proliferation, whileTNF-α pretreatment reduced viral RNA. 5-ASA treatment causeda reduction of ACE2 and an increase in CTSL expression. Conclusions Host proteases, particularly the lysosomal protease CTSL,contribute to the infection of CD enteroids and may representnovel therapeutic targets in patients with IBD and COVID-19. 5-ASA modulates the expression of several epithelial genesrelevant to SARS-CoV-2 infection, yet does not alter viralreplication in healthy enteroids.

INCREASED CATHEPSIN EXPRESSION CORRELATES WITH SARS-COV-2 INFECTION IN HUMAN IBD ENTEROIDS

Introduction: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing public health crisis that has sickened or precipitated death in millions. The etiologic agent of COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), infects the intestinal epithelium, with viral RNA shed in the stool, and can induce GI symptoms similar to the human inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). An international surveillance epidemiology study, SECURE-IBD, reported that the standardized mortality ratio trends higher in IBD patients (1.5–1.8) and that 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) therapy correlates with poor outcome. Together these data indicate patients with IBD may represent a particularly vulnerable population during this COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Published datasets GSE75214 and GSE16879 were downloaded and expression levels of select genes were querried using RStudio. Primary human ileal spheroids (enteroids), derived from healthy donors and patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), were grown on 2D transwells until confluent. Cells were then differentiated for 3d before infection with a modified vesicular stomatitis virus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (VSV-SARS-CoV-2) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) for 1 h at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of ∼0.5. Healthy enteroids were treated with 10 ng/ml of human Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α) for 24h before infection via the basolateral reservoir or 5-ASA 5h before infection via the apical reservoir. 24h after infection, cells were processed for immunofluorescence or RNA expression of select genes by qRT-PCR. Results: VSV-SARS-CoV-2 was able to infect both healthy and CD enteroids as determined by co-staining of GFP, indicative of virus infection, and the viral receptor ACE2. However, levels of GFP fluorescence did not correlate with ACE2 expression in CD enteroids. A subset of CD enteroids exhibited enhanced protease expression (TMPRSS2, TMPRSS4, CTSL), each of which correlated with higher viral RNA levels (P=0.04, P=0.002, P=0.006, respectively). In Vero E6 cells, 5-ASA inhibited the replication of a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2 in a concentration-dependent manner. Treating healthy enteroids with 5-ASA did not have any effect on viral proliferation, while TNF-α pretreatment reduced viral RNA. 5-ASA treatment caused a reduction of ACE2 and an increase in CTSL expression. Conclusions: Host proteases, particularly the lysosomal protease CTSL, contribute to the infection of CD enteroids and may represent novel therapeutic targets in patients with IBD and COVID-19. 5-ASA modulates the expression of several epithelial genes relevant to SARS-CoV-2 infection, yet does not alter viral replication in healthy enteroids. [Formula presented] [Formula presented]

Methodological guide for the successful use of digital technologies in education: Improvement of learning through European educational projects

The purpose of this article is to set out the research plan for the doctoral thesis, which deals with the definition of a methodological guide for the successful use of digital technologies in education, especially in eLearning, taking as a reference European educational projects that have been successful in achieving an improvement in the teaching and learning process. We live in an increasingly digital society that requires citizens to be prepared to adapt to the needs of the moment and to solve the problems that arise. For this to be possible, the education system must be prepared to adequately train future citizens who will join a changing labor market. To this end, teachers must be trained and know how to carry out efficient educational projects that allow them to make the most of the potential of ICT in the classroom or in distance education. The situation experienced during the 2019-2020 school year with the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the education system and its ability to adapt to a situation where the use of distance education was required and where ICT was very much needed in most of the cases to bring education to the homes. These factors make it very necessary to work for a better teaching professionalization. Therefore, the main objective of this PhD work is to enable teachers to design their projects, involving electronic learning, in a more effective way. To achieve this, what better than to use the educational projects compiled in the Erasmus+ results platform, which allow the analysis of project typology, outcomes, topics and to see those that have been catalogued as a good practice or success 4story. This database will be a key tool to gather information together with the collaboration of the main actors of those projects that have been successful. A methodological guide would allow teachers and teacher trainers to know the key factors that help to achieve a good design of educational projects and allow an optimal use of ICT resources and the greatest impact on the teaching-learning process. © 2020 ACM.