ABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to assess the transformations of pedagogical practice derived from COVID-19 pandemic confinement. The study is qualitative and the narrative method and the technique applied is a semistructured interview. The results indicate that teacher training, classroom practices assessment, and teacherstudent relationships are the areas in which the most significant changes occur. The changes implemented to continue training of students are oriented to follow policy. However, there is no critical nor reflective stance about the modifications. It is concluded that pedagogical practice is transformed by social isolation and by closure of educational institutions since it was designed for face-to-face teaching and learning and not for online education. © 2022
ABSTRACT
International R&D activities are strategical to provide solutions that can solve global problems by creating interdisciplinary and multicultural teams. One of the current challenges that international collaboration could solve is related to outbreaks of infectious diseases, which have a devastating impact on society. Influenza in Spain was responsible of 4000 deaths during 2019, despite having a vaccine. Tropical infectious diseases, such as Dengue or Zika, are transmitted through mosquitoes and proliferate in hot and humid conditions. Brazil reported more than 3 million cases and more than a thousand deaths during the dengue fever epidemic that started in 2019. New coronavirus have once again shown the consequences that infectious diseases have both for the society and for the economy, claiming thousands of lives and forcing many countries to take restrictive lockdowns. Preventive measures can mitigate the devastating consequences of outbreaks of infectious diseases. In this sense, infodemiological systems compile data regarding public-health concerns to forecast new outbreaks. In this manuscript we describe the CollaborativeHealth tool and we report three case-studies carried out with this tool: Influenza in Spain, Zika and Dengue in Ecuador, and COVID-2019 in Spanish-speaking countries. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Outbreaks of infectious diseases such as SARS, MERS or COVID-2019 cause the loss of human lives, increased pressure on hospitals and economic losses. Early detection allows these effects to be mitigated, as it allows measures to be applied when they are not so harmful. Although this task has traditionally been carried out through tests in crowded places such as airports, advances in Natural Language Processing have allow to include the analysis of what people are talking about on social networks. Here we present CollaborativeHealth, an epidemiological surveillance tool for active monitoring on social networks and citizen participation. This tool makes it easy for trackers to spot geographical areas where citizens talk about symptoms, illnesses, or risks. It also makes it possible to evaluate the acceptance by citizens of the measures taken by the competent authorities. Copyright © 2021 for this paper by its authors.
ABSTRACT
The future of business development relies on the effective management of risks, opportunities, and energy and water resources. Here, we evaluate the application of best practices to identify, analyze, address, monitor, and control risks and opportunities (R/O) according to ISO 31000 and 50000. Furthermore, we shed light on tools, templates, ISO guides, and international documents that contribute to classifying, identifying, formulating control, and managing R/O parameterization in a comprehensive management system model, namely CMS QHSE3+, which consists of quality (Q), health and safety (HS), environmental management (E), energy efficiency (E2), and other risk components (+) that include comprehensive biosecurity and biosafety. By focusing on the deployment of R/O-based thinking (ROBT) at strategic and operational levels, we show vulnerability reduction in CMS QHSE3+ by managing energy, efficiency, and sustainability.
ABSTRACT
The present work includes the development and validation of two bilingual mobile applications initially created as basic learning tools in Educational Institutions in Amazonian indigenous communities of the Shipibo-Konibo and Taushiro languages, both with weakening and extinction problems. The applications seek to overcome or adapt to the conditions and limitations of indigenous communities, caused by a series of bureaucratic administrative processes, and also seek to be complementary tools or support to the Virtual Education services that the Peruvian government has been promoting in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and although classes continue to develop virtually through television, radio, software messaging services and electronic platforms, these media have been receiving a series of criticisms by parents and part of the education sector regarding the quality of service. Through the realization of two case studies, favorable results were achieved on the use and potentialities of supporting the educational social inclusion of indigenous children. Finally, a comparative table was made on the frequent problems, the new problems that have arisen in the context of COVID-19, and the scope and advantages of each of the mobile applications. At the same time, it is suggested that government strategies incorporate the use of interactive mobile self-learning applications as complementary mechanisms to current educational services, which should be contextualized to the geographic, cultural and linguistic environment of students, taking into account the limited telecommunications and electricity coverage of indigenous communities in Peru. © 2020 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Background: Individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) who do not report symptoms throughout the course of infection (asymptomatic) or those who are asymptomatic when they first contract the virus (presymptomatic) are a major public health concern. However, few prevalence studies to date have targeted the question of asymptomatic frequency within a community. Methods: A stratified, random sample of subjects were sent to testing sites to complete a verbal consent, survey, nasopharyngeal swab, and blood draw. Swabs were tested for active viral shedding (PCR) and blood was tested for immunoglobulin G (IgG) specific to SARS-CoV-2. Disease progression and IgG antibody response Results: Of the 2,640 subjects, 24 (0.9%) were PCR-positive alone, 30 (1.1%) were PCR-positive and IgG-positive, and 129 (4.9%) were IgG-positive alone. Subjects who reported anosmia were 17 times more likely to test positive. Thirtyeight percent of subjects never experienced symptoms despite developing antibodies to the virus, and 75% did not experience symptoms in the early stage of infection. Rates of reported asymptomatic infection and comorbidities statistically significantly increased with age. Conclusion: This is the first randomized study that pairs PCR and IgG serology that addresses asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, showing a high frequency of asymptomatic disease. More research is needed to clarify differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic disease. Prevalence and outcomes studies of SARS-CoV-2 should include this group.