Lifestyle Intervention Delivery during the Covid Era

Due to the physical and social limitations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the intervention team for US Study to Protect Brain Health through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER), found that delivering a lifestyle intervention faced many more challenges than studies from previous experience. Funded by the Alzheimer's Association, U.S. POINTER, a Phase 3, multicenter, randomized clinical trial testing whether random assignment to 2 years of a Self-Guided versus a Structured lifestyle intervention results in different cognitive trajectories in 2000 older adults at increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia, has faced many challenges during this time, especially with regard to the delivery of the intervention. U.S. POINTER randomized participants to one of two intervention groups. Participants in the selfguided group attend 2-3 team sessions per year and are provided with a rich menu of resources providing the participant with information needed to manage his or her own lifestyle change, whereas participants in the structured group follow a rigorous structure designed to facilitate lifestyle changes, including direct access to a Navigator, an Interventionist, regular group sessions (38 sessions over 2 years), and access to numerous tools for physical fitness training, diet, cognitive training, and health monitoring. Both interventions were designed to be conducted in person and in groups of 10-15 older adults who have cardiovascular disease risk factors. The pandemic made in-person delivery of our intervention unsafe for our high-risk cohort. Therefore, our intervention committee adapted the protocol to allow our group-based interventions to be conducted via a virtual format during the main COVID-19 era and then back to an in-person format as COVID-19 restrictions became more fluid and participants became more comfortable with in person contact. Shifting to a virtual-only format presented challenges for some of our older adult participants who were not familiar with video conferencing or technology in general. In addition, the Coordinating Center's Intervention Oversight Committee made modifications to the participant contact schedule in order to provide ample support for successful behavior change during this isolating time. New participant facing adherence reports were created to help provide feedback on intervention goals. These reports were used in meetings with individual participants as well as group sessions to help motivate our participants and maintain adherence. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced an opportunity for us to add two additional participant surveys: (1) one specifically on the impact of COVID on mental health, including attitudes about safety precautions, and (2) an exit survey for participants who were enrolled prior to the COVID-19 era (March 2020). Both of these surveys will be extremely useful as the intervention committee and the study as a whole begins to think about the differing intervention delivery experiences that ranged from ''usual'' to ''completely remote'' to ''hybrid.''.

Anxiety, Hopelessness, and Coping with COVID-19 in Users of Psychological Care

Objective. The main goal was to identify the levels of symptoms of anxiety and hopelessness, as well as the coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in users of online psychological care services. Method. A predictive cross-sectional design was used, with a sample of 78 volunteers. The scale of coping strategies in the face of extreme risks, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were applied. Results. The results indicated that since there is an elevated level of anxiety in the participants, they tend to manifest a higher level of helplessness and coping behaviors oriented towards avoidance and passive nature. © the authors.

Consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on new cancer visits to a comprehensive cancer center in New York

Background: Studies on cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown a decrease in new diagnoses, delays in care, and a shift to later stage disease presentations. Considering that NY has been an epicenter for COVID-19 in the U.S., we investigated its impact on new cancer diagnoses at the two campuses of NYU's Perlmutter Cancer Center and hypothesized that there would be a decrease in presentations during the peak outbreaks in NY. Methods: We conducted a single center, retrospective analysis of new cancer diagnoses before, during, and after the peak of the pandemic between Dec 1, 2019, and Aug 31, 2020. Following IRB approval, subjects were identified using our cancer center database, which includes both inpatient and outpatient visits. Subjects were included regardless of their treatment plan. New diagnoses before COVID-19 (Dec to Feb), at first peak (March to May), and during the initial recovery phase (June-Aug) were assessed. No COVID-19 vaccines were available during this time. Results: As summarized in Table, during the initial COVID-19 peak, there was a substantial decrease in new patient visits with statistically significant differences seen by age and certain cancer types including breast, skin, and hematologic malignancies. In all cancers, there was a decrease in the proportion of new patient visits among those over age 75 during the peak. When confining analyses to breast, skin, and hematologic cancers, we saw a significant increase in the proportion of younger new patients at the peak period. We also observed an association between age and stage, with an increase in new stage I diagnoses in the younger (age 18-54) population at peak. Telemedicine was most utilized by the younger population during both peak and recovery periods. Conclusions: In this retrospective analysis, we found that during the initial COVID-19 peak, prior to vaccine availability, outpatient visits for hematologic and solid malignancies decreased at our cancer center in NY. The decrease in the proportion of all cancer types in elderly patients during the peak was likely related to hesitancy among this vulnerable population to seek care. The widespread use of telemedicine also likely contributed to the increased incidence in new patient visits in younger patients. Lessons learned from this experience can help guide outreach to vulnerable populations during future outbreaks, particularly by fostering telemedicine use among the elderly.

EVALUATION OF THE LEVELS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MENTAL HEALTH IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING THE SARS-COV2 PANDEMIC

The pandemic caused by SARS-COV2, worldwide caused a sedentary lifestyle and damage to mental health in the general population, including university students, a sector that did not escape these adverse effects due to the pandemic. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to evaluate the levels of physical activity (PA) and mental health in university students during the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-COV2) pandemic. The DASS-21 scale, the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) and the SF-36 Health Questionnaire were applied to 63 university students from the State of Veracruz, Mexico, aged 18 to 24 years. The data treatment was carried out in the statistical software SPSS v.25, the results showed that 76.2% of the sample was found in physically active levels, likewise the correlation coefficients made between physical activity (PA) and anxiety (r= -.41) physical activity (PA) and stress (r= -.42) showed negative correlations with moderate to intense magnitudes, respectively. Therefore, it is concluded that performing physical activity during the pandemic was shown to significantly reduce problems related to mental health in university students.

Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Residential Energy Assessment Platform: A Case Study in Cuenca, Ecuador

Population confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in household energy consumption. Electricity consumption in the residential sector in Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 20% during 2020 compared to 2019. Due to the sanitary emergency declaration in Ecuador, an upsurge in electricity consumption was observed at the residential level between March and August of 2020. In this context, residential customers of Cuenca have increased their consumption by around 13% during May 2020 compared to the same month of the previous year. Adopting energy efficiency and sufficiency measures could counteract this increase in energy and contribute to managing the demand in the residential sector. The present work aims to evaluate energy savings and emission reduction in the residential sector in Cuenca through the design and implementation of a web-based platform for estimating electricity power savings. To develop the platform, information was gathered through surveys on the average household’s energy consumption. Power consumption of appliances was obtained from various sources, mainly from a database provided by a local appliance retailer. Energy-saving strategies for electrical and electronic devices were taken from technical guidelines and academic sources. The functional and visual specifications of the platform were designed with specialized tools. The platform allows for calculating household electrical energy consumption and potential savings in energy, economic, and environmental terms in a simple and visually attractive manner. The study shows that a four-member family household consumes an average of 182 kWh/month, equivalent to 17.1 USD, and an annual environmental footprint of 1068.9 kg of CO2. From this energy consumption, 57% is consumed by household appliances, 31% corresponds to technology and entertainment, and 12% represents lighting. Nevertheless, it is possible to reduce monthly energy consumption by 45% if consumers apply energy sufficiency and efficiency measures. This reduction will produce a monthly saving of 7.9 USD and an annual reduction of 485 kg of emissions. By implementing this web-based tool, nonspecialized users can analyze and decide the best way to reduce energy consumption, creating an appropriate energy culture that positively impacts the household economy and promotes environmental sustainability. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

An Evaluation of Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Professional Filipino Teachers

The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has enormously induced psychological impacts on humans like fear. Considering this particular concern, there is a need to test instruments used to measure such psychological impact. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19) Scale originally developed by Ahorsu et al. (2020). A sample of 1,060 K to 12 professional teachers from Mindanao, Philippines were selected to participate in the online survey. The preliminary analysis showed a high level of perceived fear of COVID-19 in the respondents of this study. The results of the series of tests are encouraging as the FCV-19 Scale generated a robust construct validity for both one- and two- factor structure models and a very high internal consistency complemented by strong inter-item correlations and item-total correlations. The results further supported the concurrent validity of the FCV-19 Scale with selected COVID-19-related characteristics significantly predicting fear of COVID-19. Overall, this paper provides an assessment of the fear of COVID-19 in a sample of professional teachers and the properties of the FCV-19 Scale in a particular context. The FCV-19 Scale, a seven-item scale, is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess the fear of COVID-19 of Filipino teachers.

Facile discovery of surrogate cytokine agonists.

Cytokines are powerful immune modulators that initiate signaling through receptor dimerization, but natural cytokines have structural limitations as therapeutics. We present a strategy to discover cytokine surrogate agonists by using modular ligands that exploit induced proximity and receptor dimer geometry as pharmacological metrics amenable to high-throughput screening. Using VHH and scFv to human interleukin-2/15, type-I interferon, and interleukin-10 receptors, we generated combinatorial matrices of single-chain bispecific ligands that exhibited diverse spectrums of functional activities, including potent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 by surrogate interferons. Crystal structures of IL-2R:VHH complexes revealed that variation in receptor dimer geometries resulted in functionally diverse signaling outputs. This modular platform enabled engineering of surrogate ligands that compelled assembly of an IL-2R/IL-10R heterodimer, which does not naturally exist, that signaled through pSTAT5 on T and natural killer (NK) cells. This "cytokine med-chem" approach, rooted in principles of induced proximity, is generalizable for discovery of diversified agonists for many ligand-receptor systems.

Rapid Transition to Telepsychology: Health Service Psychology Trainee Responses Amidst a Global Covid-19 Crisis From an Ecological Perspective

COVID-19 has come with widespread changes, adjustments, challenges and fears among healthcare providers of all kinds. Health Service Psychology (HSP) training sites across the nation have had to adjust to telepsychology services, some with prior experiences, and others for the first time. This article examines the perspectives of HSP doctoral trainees from one university across counseling, clinical, and school psychology trainees in terms of the adjustment to telepsychology services. Using an ecological approach, trainees were probed for personal and interpersonal components, attitudes toward telepsychology as well as reflections on clinic preparedness, supervision, and professional competency. The included responses may inform future direction of training sites, training rotations at healthcare settings, and implementation of telepsychology services. Public Significance Statement This study focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the counseling services provided by health service psychology (HSP) doctoral students. Using an ecological framework, this study suggests that factors at the individual, interpersonal, community, organizational, and policy levels affected the rapid transition to telepsychology, and trainee readiness. Accordingly, there are several recommendations for improving preparedness of future trainees.

Fear of COVID-19 and Remote Teaching Burnout of Philippine K to 12 Teachers

The COVID-19 crisis practically magnified the normal fear of people, bringing further negative psychological outcomes such as job burnout. Building on this assumption, this paper aimed to compare fear of COVID-19 and remote teaching burnout across sample characteristics and relate fear of COVID-19 to the remote teaching burnout. Following comparative and correlational research designs, a sample of 1069 K to 12 teachers from Mindanao, Philippines was selected to participate in the online survey. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the teachers have a high level of fear of COVID-19 and a moderate level of remote teaching burnout. Furthermore, COVID-19 fear of teachers did not significantly differ across all sample characteristics tested;however, remote teaching burnout significantly differed across age, monthly income, educational attainment, and teaching experience, except gender. It was further revealed that there is a positive and moderate significant relationship between fear of COVID-19 and remote teaching burnout. This linear association implies that as fear of COVID-19 of teachers increases, their remote teaching burnout also increases. Considering the current persistence of COVID-19 cases and the role of teachers in the anticipated recovery phase of education, the results of the study indicate the urgent attention of education authorities to develop measures to address the needs of teachers who may have psychological issues brought by fear of COVID-19 and remote teaching burnout.

Progenitor identification and SARS-CoV-2 infection in human distal lung organoids.

The distal lung contains terminal bronchioles and alveoli that facilitate gas exchange. Three-dimensional in vitro human distal lung culture systems would strongly facilitate the investigation of pathologies such as interstitial lung disease, cancer and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here we describe the development of a long-term feeder-free, chemically defined culture system for distal lung progenitors as organoids derived from single adult human alveolar epithelial type II (AT2) or KRT5+ basal cells. AT2 organoids were able to differentiate into AT1 cells, and basal cell organoids developed lumens lined with differentiated club and ciliated cells. Single-cell analysis of KRT5+ cells in basal organoids revealed a distinct population of ITGA6+ITGB4+ mitotic cells, whose offspring further segregated into a TNFRSF12Ahi subfraction that comprised about ten per cent of KRT5+ basal cells. This subpopulation formed clusters within terminal bronchioles and exhibited enriched clonogenic organoid growth activity. We created distal lung organoids with apical-out polarity to present ACE2 on the exposed external surface, facilitating infection of AT2 and basal cultures with SARS-CoV-2 and identifying club cells as a target population. This long-term, feeder-free culture of human distal lung organoids, coupled with single-cell analysis, identifies functional heterogeneity among basal cells and establishes a facile in vitro organoid model of human distal lung infections, including COVID-19-associated pneumonia.