Sudden hearing loss associated with depression: an unusual symptom in older adults infected with Sars-CoV-2

Information is beginning to accumulate on the alterations in patients positive for Covid -19, where they relate the virus to damage to the middle ear and inner ear, both in the vestibular and auditory portions in older adults, generating depressive episodes. For this reason, the objective was to evaluate the relationship between sudden hearing loss associated with depression in older adults infected with Sars-CoV- treated at the Pillaros Basic Hospital, belonging to the Ciudadela Ciudad Nueva sector, Ecuador 2020-2021. The study was quantitative, descriptive correlational cross-sectional with a sample of 87 patients >65 years positive for Sars-CoV-2. For data collection, the audiometric test and the Yesavage geriatric depression scale were applied. The analysis of the data was with descriptive statistics based on frequencies, percentages, CI 95% and X2 through SPSS. As a result, 73.6% were female and 26.4% male, 54.0% were 65-75 years old, the most common type of presbycusis was neural (31.2%) and cochlear (31.0%). Likewise, 81.6% presented signs of depression, while 18.4% did not. In the Vasayage test, 88.5% expressed not feeling full of energy and 59.8% were afraid that something bad would happen. In conclusion, the presence of hearing disorders constitutes a problem for the communication of older adults that could lead to depressive states, therefore, encouraging the development of research could guide the development of early intervention alternatives that favor quality improvement. life of this population group. © 2022 Instituto de Altos Estudios de Salud Publica. All rights reserved.

Catholic Impact evolution Through Public Twitter data during CoVId-19

During the Covid-19 crisis, many networks have sprung up disseminating information. This study examines the influence of religion during the Covid-19 pandemic. It understands religion as a factor capable of mitigating frustrations and critical situations in society. To this end, a data mining analysis was developed for a set of 107,786 tweets collected from the social platform Twitter in the framework of user-generated content (UGC), linked to the Covid-19 related tweets published by @Pontifex and @Pontifex_es. To achieve this goal, hidden insight data extraction and sentiment analysis are carried out, along with the application of social network analysis (SNA) techniques. The main outcome of the study is the positive correlation between the repercussion of the Pope's tweets and the evolution of the Covid-19 incidence in Europe. Finally, the latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm identifies the relevant topics in the analysis. Copyright © 2022, IGI Global.

Challenges in Transport Logistics for Modular Construction: A Case Study

Construction logistics is one of the essential functions in the modular construction industry due to the high demand for on-time delivery of components. For modular component suppliers, there is minimal flexibility in delivery times as generally, the installation times of modular components are critical to the contractor’s construction programme. There are several studies conducted in recent years that articulate novel methodologies in construction logistics scheduling;however, the industry still faces challenges in streamlining the whole supply chain to better cater to potential uncertainties that impact construction logistics. This paper looks at a case study on a modular component supplier in Melbourne, with regarding to the challenges faced and how they have effectively overcome these challenges and provides a framework to mitigate construction logistics related discrepancies in the supply chain. The resilience of these methods in facing unforeseen events such as COVID-19 will also be discussed. The overarching objectives of this paper are to include: (1) bibliographic mapping of related publications;(2) identification of current methods, problems and technologies used in modular construction logistics;and (3) propose best practice guidelines that can be implemented to effectively cater to such uncertainties in construction logistics to minimise the impact on the supply chain. Further, incorporating lean principles for planning construction logistics and transport for the modular construction industry is also in discussion. Finally, the potential future research directions are highlighted to guide the researchers to pursue areas of much importance. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

SARS-CoV-2 induces mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death by oxidative stress/inflammation in leukocytes of COVID-19 patients.

The inflammation and activation of the immune system induced by SARS-CoV-2 are mediated by a pro-oxidant microenvironment that can induce cytotoxic effects that enhance tissue damage, favoring organic deterioration. We investigated whether the induction of oxidative stress and inflammation by COVID-19 infection could inhibit mitochondrial function and cause cellular damage in leukocytes. We evaluated levels of oxidative/inflammation markers and their correlation with mitochondrial function and leukocyte cell death in COVID-19 patients at two moments: viremia and severe sepsis with multi-organ failure. COVID-19 induces increased oxidative stress and inflammation markers that activate cellular damage processes. In the viremia stage, an increase in peroxide, nitric oxide, carbonylated proteins, and IL-6 was observed, which was correlated with a marked inhibition of mitochondrial function, decreased cell viability, early apoptosis, necrosis, and leukocytes-reactivity. The severe sepsis stage with multi-organ failure also showed a further increase in levels of peroxide, carbonylated proteins, and IL-6, with a slight decrease in nitric oxide. This oxidative process and inflammation were correlated with less inhibition of mitochondrial function, decreased cell viability and an increase in late apoptosis, and morphology changes evidencing damage in the leukocytes. SARS-CoV-2 induced damage promotes levels of oxidative stress and inflammation markers and mitochondrial dysfunction that potentiate morphological changes and cell death in leukocytes. These processes explain the rapid changes in the immune system, and that present an initial over-activation and early massive death due to SARS-CoV-2 infection, promoting endothelial-alveolar damage that would cause multi-organ failure, sustained by oxidative stress and inflammation.

The critical commentary of journalistic texts in Baccalaureate: a discursive analysis before and after the pandemic

This research belongs to the Ministerial Proyect I+D+i "Epistemic Innovation of argumentative commentary of multimodal text model in the Spanish mother language and foreign (IARCO)" and offers a comparative study about discursive quality evidences in a textual practice of personal critic commentary by two groups of students of Second Course of Baccalaureate in a Secondary School in Murcia, one of them is in a presential context before COVID-19, and the other one in a semi-presential context after plans of lockdown. The article's author analyse these commentaries in a discursive perspective about reading interpretation and writing brief argumentative ideas with rubrics related to communicative and argumentative competences, and with ethnographic observations registered in her field diary as teacher responsible of its didactics. The results of the study reveal a high curricular deterioration at present, which relates to formative limitations (little interaction to reason dialogically in a group, previous curricular gaps), instrumental (lack of digital skills and online educational resources) and emotional (stress and demotivation by learning).