Socio-Psychopedagogical Characterization of Primary Schools after the First Outbreack of COVID-19 in 2020

The objective was to characterize the primary schools from the socio-psycho-pedagogical perspective, at the conclusion of the first outbreak of Covid-19. A random sample of 227 children and another of 30 teachers in schools in a socially vulnerable area were selected. The survey method was applied to children and teachers. Two-dimensional and contingency crosstabulations were calculated. 89% of the children viewed the classes on television and more than 90% were eager to start school. Television and video games occupied their free time and changed their life habits. The mental and physical well-being of the children did not suffer significant injuries. Teachers rated the educational actions for health care as numerous. Most worked on course readjustments. Emotional changes, lifestyle changes, fear of losing loved ones and worry about illness were the causes of stress of teachers.

Stochastic Comparison Between the Original SARS-CoV 2 Genetic Structure and SARS-CoV 2 - P.1 Variant

This article is intended to explore the behavior of complete genetic sequences of SARS-CoV 2 - P.1 variant, in comparison with the original sequence of SARS-CoV 2, accession number MN908947 (see López and Tasca (4open, 3:13, 2020) and Wu et al. (Nature 579:265–269, 2020)). The sequences are taken in FASTA format, they will be considered as samples of stochastic processes. Based on this interpretation, stochastic tools derived from Partition Markov Models Garc ı́a and González-López (Entropy 19(4):160, 2017) are applied, specifically from the G-model, introduced in Garc ı́a et al. (4open 3:13, 2020), to obtain the representation of the behavior of each sequence. From these models, it is confirmed that the structure of the P.1 variant of the virus shows similar traits to the original one. Moreover, by means of a BIC-based metric and the G-model, it is possible to determine that the original sequence of SARS-CoV 2 (MN908947) and the set of sequences of SARS-CoV 2 - P.1 variant differ in certain transition probabilities, which allows identifying exactly the state that produces the discrepancy. We also represent this discrepancy graphically. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

A Stochastic Inspection about Genetic Variants of Covid-19 Circulating in Brazil during 2020

In this article, we investigate the existence of genetic variants of Covid-19 circulating in Brazil in the 2020 outbreak. We apply the findings of [1] about the Partition Markov Model (PMM) with gap in genetic sequences of Covid-19, see also [2]. Using a metric on those models, we define the proximity between complete genomic sequences of the NCBI base. We see that two groups can be identified among the five available sequences that come from Brazil. To verify our claims, we implement a more complete comparison consisting of fourteen sequences, including sequences from Spain and Italy. Such comparison indicates the existence of two groups, where each group includes one from the previously identified Brazilian groups. Then, we found at least two variants of Covid-19 circulating in Brazil during the 2020 outbreak. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.

A Proposal for Academic Continuity and Distance Medical Training due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: The appearance of a new infectious disease of the dimension of COVID-19 brings about a complex situation. The declaration of a health emergency triggered extraordinary measures, such as immediate suspension of nonessential activities in the public, private and social sectors, in order to mitigate the spread and transmission of the virus in the community. Objective: To propose innovative actions to ensure medical training and, with it, academic continuity of health education institutions. Development: The implications of this pandemic are huge for those who share the commitment to guide the educational process of students, residents and specialists. The different public and private educational levels have resorted to migrating the educational offerings to a distance education format as a quick response to protect their students and guarantee academic continuity, focusing on the distribution of content through learning management systems. Conclusions: The response and the ability to resolve the crisis will not be forgotten by students, residents, specialists, patients or their families;possibly neither by history. A challenge of this magnitude should guide not only the academic continuity of a particular course, but also the legacy that it represents in the training of a whole generation of health professionals. © 2021, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.

ENHANCING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND E-COMMERCE DELIVERIES THROUGH THE USE OF EPP BOXES IN A DARKSTORE

An unprecedented outbreak pandemic caused disruption around the world. It had a strong impact on economic sector. Although, the pandemic accelerated the growth of e-commerce for specific categories as food retailer. As a result, several companies restructured their structures, in terms of IT and operations. During the first confinement, the operations and the website of SONAE MC were not prepared for the increase that existed due to the pandemic, COVID-19, causing disruption in the supply chain and long lead times. In this paper, it is explained how SONAE MC reduced its dependence on refrigerated vehicles, simplifying operations and reducing the costs of transporting products from online orders in vehicles with cargo space able to transport positive cold food and negative cold. It is also explained how innovation has ensured that products continue to be transported with quality and safety to all customers of the SONAE MC Darkstore. The result was the implementation of the proposed solution which may grow technologically once information and equipment are available. © 2021 Samo Drobne – Lidija Zadnik Stirn – Mirjana Kljajić Borštnar – Janez Povh – Janez Žerovnik

Postgraduate medical education in pandemics: Challenges and opportunities

NOVEL INTRODUCTION: With the presence of COVID-19 in all human activities, the medical world has faced a radical change in the way that medical practice develops all around the world. A necessary cog in the physician's life is the teaching-learning process that is lived daily in the clinical setting during medical residencies. The new reality that is being contemplated warrants a new way of thinking, acting, teaching, and learning. OBJECTIVE: To identify challenges and opportunities for the physician's formation in medical residencies ever since the onset of the pandemic. AUTHOR'S POSITIONING: One of the essential tools that a human being must have to survive any given crisis is his/her capability to adapt and modify conducts in order to better respond to uncertainty. The system under which physicians with specialties have developed throughout the years was sufficient for that specific reality under which it was first conceived;however, as time went by and with the current emergency, this is no longer efficient nor sufficient. Therefore, it's necessary to analyze the education model and reevaluate the competences required to instruct in a specialist. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical formation, particularly, represents a new opportunity to design, plan and implement the education process with a social responsibility sense and innovation through a new and different approach. In this new proposal, both education and health institutions work collaboratively in the generation of excellent medical specialists, not only in the cognitive aspect, but also, in the human aspect.

Faculty readiness for a digital education model: A selfassessment from health sciences educators

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuity of education across the world is being supported through e-learning. Healthcare programs especially, require continuing patientcentered training to benefit individuals and society. The objective of this study was to assess the faculty members’ skills to continue educational services through a digital education model at the beginning of the lockdown. The methodology consisted in a quantitative approach descriptive and cross-sectional design. The instrument was a survey with two sections: (1) self-assessment and (2) self-ranking based on the digital education model. The results for 497 participants indicated higher scores on active learning and web conference digital skills. Evaluation is still a competence required to be reinforced by the faculty to incorporate a full transition into online learning. There seems to be an agreement about faculty readiness to implement different active learning strategies, despite being in a distance education model. Implications for practice: · University leaders welcomed the self-assessment that faculty members performed on digital skills as it allowed them to adapt the training programs and designate staff teams to support the educators once classes restarted. Educators implementing a digital education model should consider a planned and structured educational solution that is beyond the distance between learners and teachers, but an engaging environment for learning incorporating different technologies and active pedagogies. © 2021

Faculty readiness for a digital education model: A self-assessment from health sciences educators

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuity of education across the world is being supported through e-learning. Healthcare programs especially, require continuing patient-centered training to benefit individuals and society. The objective of this study was to assess the faculty members' skills to continue educational services through a digital education model at the beginning of the lockdown. The methodology consisted in a quantitative approach descriptive and cross-sectional design. The instrument was a survey with two sections: (1) self-assessment and (2) self-ranking based on the digital education model. The results for 497 participants indicated higher scores on active learning and web conference digital skills. Evaluation is still a competence required to be reinforced by the faculty to incorporate a full transition into online learning. There seems to be an agreement about faculty readiness to implement different active learning strategies, despite being in a distance education model. Implications for practice: University leaders welcomed the self-assessment that faculty members performed on digital skills as it allowed them to adapt the training programs and designate staff teams to support the educators once classes restarted. Educators implementing a digital education model should consider a planned and structured educational solution that is beyond the distance between learners and teachers, but an engaging environment for learning incorporating different technologies and active pedagogics.

Evaluation of an UVC robot for terminal disinfection of hospital rooms

Introduction: The dramatic spread of COVID-19 has disrupted lives, communities and businesses worldwide. A new autonomous robot, equipped with UVC light to perform fast and reliable disinfections while it is on movement, has been developed to contribute to the reduction of the impact on public health. Objectives: In this work, we have scientifically evaluated the ability of this robot to disinfect hospital rooms. Methods: We selected empty rooms just after patient discharge and before terminal cleaning. We took 94 microbiological samples of highly touched surfaces inside the hospital patient's rooms using Rodac plates, before introducing the robot in the room. After the robot operation, samples were taken in the same places. The plates were incubated and read after 5 days. We performed descriptive statistics, and non-parametric Wilcoxon test for repeated measures, using IBM SPSS and OPENEPI. Results are presented in colony-forming units per plate (cfu/p) per plate. Patients are considered to be at risk when the bacterial count on hospital surfaces exceeds 120 FCU/plate (5 fcu/cm2). Results: The initial situation was that in 4% of the locations there was a risk for the patients (more than 120 cfu per plaque). After applying this robot there were no locations with risk for the patients. The table shows that the mean colony reduction is 81.96% and the median experiments a reduction of 94.8%. In any case, both levels mean and median are below the threshold for disinfection that is 10 fcu/plate. The Wilcoxon test for related samples indicates that the differences are statistically significant (P < 0.0001). The normal procedure is to clean the room using a Chloramine-based disinfectant after the UVC, so the cumulated effect will be even higher. Conclusion: The use of this robot allowed to reduce the colony-forming units below the risk threshold. Therefore it is a valid technique for terminal disinfection of hospital rooms. (Figure Presented).

Ophthalmological care during COVID-19 times. Perspectives from a Mexican eye healthcare system

Purpose : To report the ophthalmological care management of cataract patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in an eye healthcare system in Mexico. Methods : A retrospective observational study was designed to review the surgical management of cataract patients from March 1st to December 31, 2020, compared to the same period from 2019. We classified surgical management in three categories: urgent, emergent, and elective procedures, based on the the Mexican Society of Ophthalmology (SMO) and our Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (UVEH). Three eyecare centers participated in this study. The main outcome measure was the rate of reduction in urgent and elective surgeries performed. Priority was given to patients with retinal disease, glaucoma, brunescent cataracts, pediatric patients, and patients with visual acuity (≤ 20/200). Routine preoperative RT-PCR testing for SARS-COV-2 was required for all patients. Results : 240 cataract surgeries were performed in the 2020 period compared to the 643 surgeries performed in the same period of the previous year (-62.7% in 2020 compared to 2019, p < 0.0001). (Fig. 1) The mean age of operated patients was 66.5±11.81 years in 2019 and 66.2±12.06y in 2020. During the studied period, thirteen cataract surgeries (5.4%) were suspended in our healthcare system due to positive preoperative results for SARSCoV-2 by nasopharyngeal PCR. Conclusions : The implementation of strict protocols in our non-COVID-19 units allowed for surgical management of cataract patients. As expected, a significant reduction in the amount of cataract surgeries was recorded during the SARS-COV-2 outbreak. Preoperative PCR testing for all patients who undergo cataract surgery in conjunction with strict hospital protocols might allow for safe surgical management of cataracts. From our healthcare university system, a tertiary referral hospital was converted into a COVID-19 unit in order to tackle the challenges of the pandemic. A second tertiary hospital increased its capacity to attend to the needs of all surgical and clinical necessities of nonCOVID-19 patients. Lastly, the specialized ophthalmological unit (CAM) reopened in August, with restricted capacity, restructuration of areas, staff rotation, COVID-19 testing of staff and strict sanitary precautions.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIENCES OF TUTORS AND TUTORED WHEN CHANGING FROM PRESENTIAL TO VIRTUAL EDUCATION IN TIMES OF PANDEMICS AT UAIM LOS MOCHIS UNIT

and internet connection, to address these problems and understand them, the paradigm has been used qualitative with the hermeneutical method, as a technique, the online interview has been used through the ZOOM platform with tutors and tutored, precisely because of the health emergency situation and the Atlas.ti tool has been used for data analysis, as a result It was obtained that from the tutors' perspective, three categories emerged: 1) personalized attention to the tutors is necessary,, 2) that the tutors are still in a process of adapting to the change from face-to-face to virtual education and 3) that there is a lack of computer equipment to attend their virtual education activities, now well from the tutored perspective, three emerging categories were generated: 1) teachers do not teach sessions by videoconference, 2) dropout is something that is already on the minds of some tutored and 3) that there is a lack of academic attention to students. has concluded with the evidence obtained that it is the lack of computer equipment of the teachers, in this case of the tutors, which affects the problems of the tutored, the internet is also a factor but less frequent and rooted.

The new frontier of the university: Virtual open chair for health professionals

Introduction: In the context of the pandemic, many activities of academic life in universities and medical schools were put on hold, due to the immediate need to focus on offering quality care to infected patients and ensuring academic continuity. However, as this crisis continues and the virus spreads, other needs such as continuous professional development reemerge on the horizon of priorities. The objective of this implementation was to design a new format for continuous professional development based on the open chair model so that it would be relevant in the context of the pandemic. Methods: The offer of continuous professional development was studied, and problems were identified that make it less relevant: lack of value offer, limited to university professors, programs with limited influence on geographic location, and focus on exposing theoretical content. Results: A proposal was designed that offered relevant content, close exhibitors, expanded scope and reflective aligned objectives. A total of 9,873 people have participated in the cycle synchronously, in 73.5 h of programming. Two hundred and sixteen speakers were received where 16% gave an international perspective to the discussion. Discussion: This crisis has revealed the need for training institutions to participate as an active agent for the well-being of the community. As spaces like this grow and are placed at the service of the community, we can ensure the legacy of the profession through training for reflection, and the promotion of a culture of transformation. © 2020 Elsevier España, S.L.U.