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The aim of the article is to present preliminary research results on the role of institutional representatives of the justice system during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.It is assumed that the existing approaches to analyze the judicial system through surveys and censuses through official sources is unable to identify hidden figures that involve domestic violence. Specifically, victims were for some reason unable to access the services of the justice system. Consequently, the research team focused on the minutes of the meetings held by the State Coordination of Women in Situations of Domestic Violence (Coem) for documentary analysis. It is an agency of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro which, through periodic meetings, acted strategically in the responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in identifying problems of access to justice and for the integration of a coping network. As a methodological procedure, we used situational analysis to codify and systematize the results found: identification of barriers to access, the way in which institutions act. We observe that this methodology, based on case-by-case and inductive procedures, can be an important tool for institutions to deal with the topic. We also seek to bring reflections on the use of quantitative and qualitative techniques in empirical research involving violence against women. © 2023 Revista de Estudos Empiricos em Direito. All rights reserved.
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Pandemic changed the routine of thousands of companies in Brazil in 2020. In this scenario, with the support of information and communication technologies (ICTs), many workers started to perform their activities remotely. However, this sudden change brought disruptions and challenges for organizations, individuals, and families. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of Brazilian managers and employees about the change to telecommuting that occurred in the context of the health crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, through analysis of the responses of 652 participants in a quantitative survey. The research considered relevant to the conduct of remote work and management of virtual teams the factors highlighted in the literature. The results showed that interaction with the team and communication/contact difficulties with customers are the biggest obstacles. In addition, they indicated that the subordinates do not consider themselves prepared for telecommuting nor that the activities have been adequate, although the managers have different perceptions. The motivation was also impacted, according to what the followers answered, but without altering the commitment and efficiency.
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BACKGROUND AND AIM: Some children can develop severe forms of SARS-CoV-2 infection either acutely or later. To identify the risk factors for worse outcomes in hospitalized children and adolescents with severe acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and MIS-C METHOD: This multicenter cohort study included all children and adolescents with confirmed or suspected critical SARSCoV- 2 infection admitted to the three PICU between April 2020 and September 2021. The exclusion criteria were immunocompromised status, and end-of-life decision. The main variables analyzed were epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory data, and ventilator settings at admission and after 72 h. The patients were divided into three groups (G): confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with multisystemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS- C) criteria (G1), confirmed COVID-19 without MIS-C criteria (G2), and MIS-C criteria without confirmed COVID-19. RESULT(S): The median age of the patients was 28 months in G1, with comorbidities in 40 patients (72.7%) (p < 0.0001). Moreover, invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) was required in 44 patients (80%, p < 0.0001), and cardiogenic shock occurred in 26 patients (54.2%, p < 0.0001) in G1.Under nutrition (< 2 SD for weight), longer exposure time (odds ratio [OR]: 2.11;95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.37-3.25;p = 0.001), IMV time (OR: 2.6;95% CI: 1.15-5.85;p = 0.03), and length of hospital stay (OR: 10.94;95% CI: 1.93-63.1;p = 0.007) were associated with critical MIS-C in G1. CONCLUSION(S): In the Brazilian Amazon area, specifically in the Para state, we identified a cluster of more severe forms of pediatric acute or late SARS-CoV-2 infection. (Figure Presented).
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BACKGROUND AND AIM: Highlighting the importance of risk factors for mortality in critical Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C). To identify risk factors and survival time in children with critical MIS-C. METHOD(S): A multicenter prospective cohort in metropolitan Belem city, involving 65 children with critical MIS-C. We determined short-term (all-cause) mortality in MIS-C group compared with a cohort of 326 critical ill subjects followed up for a median of 5.4 months. The study outcome included the follows: death, need of invasive ventilation or more than 3 organs dysfunctions. Risk factors were tested using univariate regression models, followed by multivariable Cox regression models. RESULT(S): The main featuring were lymphopenia (day one median 1249, IQR: 960-1773 vs. 2393, IQR: 1108-4280.75, p=0.033, HR:1.0, CI: 0.99-1.1), hyperlactatemia (day three median 1.93, IQR:1.2-4.0 vs.1.6, IQR:1.0-2.5, p=0,020, HR: 1.17, CI:1.1-1.23), CK-MB (day one median 28.1, IQR: 24-84.1 vs. 13.3, HR:8.1-26.4, p=0.01, HR: 1.2, CI:1.0- 1.3), high troponin I (day one 0.28, IQR: 0.02-1.8 vs. 0.11, IQR:0.04-0.18, p<0.0001, HR:1.1, CI:1.0-1.2 and day three 0.2, IQR:0.012-13.4 vs. 0.06, IQR:0.02-0.10, p=0.002, HR: 1.09, CI: 1.07-1.2) and shock [26 (51%) vs.34 (22.4%), p<0.0001, HR: 6.7, CI: 3.9-11.7]. Comorbidities (HR:8.8, CI: 1.65-47.14, p=0.011) and high drive pressure (HR:5.9, CI:2.23-15.51, p<0.0001) were associated with mortality. Survival time in patients with MIS-C was shorter (mean 89.5;SD 8.4 vs. 134.8;SD 4.7 days, log-rank 29.7, p<0.0001). CONCLUSION(S): The main factors associated with critical MIS-C were comorbidities, high drive pressure and pneumonia at admission, with shorter survival times. (Figure Presented).
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Introduction: Obesity is considered one of the factors of clinical worsening of Sars-Cov-2. Objective: To verify the influence of obesity on possible clinical worsening in patients with Sars-CoV-2. Materials and methods: The methodology of this study was based on a review of the literature, of a descriptive nature, in order to understand the relationship between obesity and Sars-Cov-2, with a survey of scientific articles published in the years 2020 and 2021, with a search in the SciELO, Lilacs, PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Results: The results of this research indicate that obesity, because it is a disease that provides an inflammatory cascade in the body, decreases immune responses and causes pulmonary hypoventilation, increases the incidence of clinical worsening combined with Sars-Cov2, which can lead to a critical condition. Discussion: There was a greater worsening in cases of Covid-19 in overweight and obese patients, whether or not they had other associated comorbidities. Conclusion: Obesity is directly related to the clinical worsening of patients with Sars-Cov-2.
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Objective: To compare the variability of acoustic measures of speech presencial and remote recording during the assessment of individuals with Parkinson's Disease (PD). Background: The Covid-19 pandemic scenario has restricted inperson speech recordings. Thus, telephone recording has become an option as it is simple to drive, reduces time and investment, and can be done remotely from the owners' home. Methods: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee and all participants signed an informed consent form. The in-person evaluation was carried out in a silent environment, whose maximum noise level did not exceed 40 dB, using the Karsect HT2® microphone earphone placed five centimeters from the participant's mouth and connected to a recorder. The remote data were collected using a phone and a call recording application. Each individual was recorded only once, performing three speech tasks that involved: sustained production of the vowel / a /, diadochokinesis of the syllabic set / PA-TA-KA /, and a 60-s monologue. The acoustic characteristics analyzed using the PRAAT® software were: vocal profile and articulation. Results: 10 patients with PD were included, aged 57.7 years (± 9.4), disease duration of 14.9 years (± 4.45), 60% (6) men and 40% (4) women. The difference between in-person and remote recording was observed in the acoustic analysis of the minimum fundamental frequency (F0) (p = 0.001) and the harmonic-noise level (HNR) (p = 00.005). No important differences were found in the variables of articulation of diadochokinesia and monologue, respectively: the number of syllables (p = 0.661;p = 0.861), number of pauses (p = 1,000;p = 0.702), duration (p = 0.491;p = 0.814), phonation time (p = 0.443;p = 0.904), speech rate (p = 0.929;p = 0.300), articulation rate (p = 0.823;p = 0.611) and average syllable duration (ASD) (p = 0.255;p = 0.750). Conclusion: A comparison between remote speech recording and in-person evidence that the statistically significant differences are related only to the noise variables, which is not enough to interfere in the patient's final diagnosis. Thus, remote recording can be a promising option for acoustic analysis of speech.
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It is increasingly common to use chatbots as an interface to use services. Making this experience more humanized requires the chatbot to understand natural language and express itself using natural language. One crucial step to achieve this is to label the data with intentions and entities. After labeling, one can use the labeled data to train a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) component. The NLU component interprets the text extracting the intentions and entities present in that text. Manually label the data is an onerous and impracticable process due to the high volume of data. Thus, an unsupervised machine learning technique, such as data clustering, is usually used to find patterns in the data and thereby label them. For this task, it is essential to have an effective vector embedding representation of texts that depicts the semantic information and helps the machine understand the context, intent, and other nuances of the entire text. In this paper, we perform an extensive evaluation of different text embedding models for clustering, labeling, and training an NLU model using the text of attendances from the Coronavirus Platform Service of Ceara, Brazil. We also show how different text embeddings result in different clustering, thus capturing different intentions of patients.
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This article aims to present how the private health sector has been strengthened and expanded with state support, in coping with the Covid-19 pandemic, to the detriment of the public and state SUS. To this end, a reflection was initially carried out on the scenario of deepening the economic crisis and social inequality with the pandemic and how the Federal Government has been conducting actions to combat this crisis, favoring the interests of capital. In the second moment, we sought to analyze how the commodification of health has been strengthened with state support to Supplementary Health and, within the SUS, with the inverted complementarity and through the hiring of Social Organizations (OSS). Moreover, it was presented, preliminary, how the private sector in health has sought to expand from the return of philanthropic practices, headed by the financial sector.
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This study analyzes the non-compliance with preventive measures of contagion of the new coronavirus, Covid-19, by residents in the municipality of Tabatinga, in the interior of the state of Amazonas. The results show that, taking into account the different existing factors, the social and cultural behavior rooted in the people who live and transit here, fruit of the local culture, may be responsible for the lack of respect for the rules and determinations of the authorities. In addition, the free movement of people between the border cities of Santa Rosa (Peru) and Leticia (Colombia) coupled with an inefficient inspection contribute to the worsening of the problem. As a result, the social isolation measures proposed by federal, state and municipal decrees have had low effectiveness in the city of Tabatinga - AM, since the population maintained the habit of moving freely through the city even at prohibited times and places, causing agglomerations and contributing to the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the city. Therefore, the understanding about the social behavior of citizens living in the city of Tabatinga becomes important so that the public power can take effective measures that effectively contribute to retaining the number of infected people, avoiding overcrowding in the public health network, in particular. the beds of the Intensive Care Units - ICUs.
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This research program aimed to test a set of hypotheses in order to show how Attitudinal and Political Positions, Attitudes towards Diseases, Personality Traits and the religiosity of Brazilians are related to their perception of vulnerability and concern in contracting COVID-19. To do this, two studies were carried out. In the first, the Attitude Positioning of internet users was identified in 2.000 comments on a statement made by the President of Brazil about the new coronavirus and COVID-19. Study 2, on the other hand, resulted in the proposition of an explanatory model with good adjustment rates [x(2) = 67.72;g = 24;x(2)/gl = 2.6;CFI = 0.94;TLI = 0.9;RMSEA = 0.06 (CI90%: 0.04-0.08)], demonstrating that Political Positions, Attitudes towards Diseases and Conscientiousness predict the perception of vulnerability and the concern to get COVID-19. In short, such findings may support future studies and interventional models in social dynamics to contain the current pandemic.
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Aim: This study investigates the impact of social isolation, weight changes, and physical activity (PA) by the electronic tools (eTools) on the quality of life (QoL) of Brazilian medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In this observational longitudinal study, one hundred eighty-nine medical students completed an e-questionnaire, which used the WHOQOL-Bref instrument to report QoL and sociodemographic characteristics, health conditions, and lifestyles related to PA. Cronbach's alpha and Friedman/Dunn and Spearman's correlation tests were performed. Based on descriptive and inferential statistics, a multiple linear regression was used to evaluate the potential predictors of QoL. Results: The COVID-19 pandemic particularly affected the psychological and social domains. Time spent indoors and a non-ideal BMI had a negative impact on QoL. Being female and sexual minority-group membership were associated with lower QoL scores in the psychological and physical domains, respectively. Access to PA eTools was positively associated with QoL. Being monitored by a physical education teacher contributes to satisfactory PA levels during online classes. Conclusion: This study provides novel insights into the access of PA eTools on QoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. During periods of social distancing, people should pay extra attention to self-care strategies to protect mental health and promote positive lifestyle patterns. In addition, using online PA resources monitored by physical education teachers could be a strategy to maintain satisfactory levels of exercise. © 2021 Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP. All rights reserved.