BRAZILIAN SUPREME COURT AND FEDERALISM: BEFORE AND DURING THE PANDEMIC

This paper investigated how the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) used to understand division of powers in federative matters before the covid-19 pandemic, which was mainly centralized and based on the nebulous criterion of the predominance of interests for federative conflicts resolution. Then, we conducted a data survey about the STF decisions on conflicts of competences between federated entities. The time cut was from March 2020 to January 2021. The judicial process cut, totaling 93 actions, occurred in the concentrated control actions, for having general and binding effects, and in the civil actions based on the primary competence of the Brazilian Supreme Court, which are intended to resolve federative conflicts. We concluded that the STF works was mostly decentralized since they adopted a renewed understanding about the right to health. This allowed greater autonomy for states and municipalities to define several topics. However, we noticed that the indeterminate principle of the predominance of interests was maintained as a defining criterion for federative conflicts, especially in matters relating to state laws that granted discounts on tuition from private educational institutions (ADIs 6,435, 6,423 and 6,575) and in state laws that allowed state public servants to suspend the payment of voluntary consignment (ADIs 6,484, 6,451 and 6,495). © 2023 Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Escola de Direito de Sao Paulo. All rights reserved.

Analysis of liquidity, solvency and profitability levels of Ecuadorian technology companies: The case of app services before and after the pandemic

This paper analyzes the financial situation of Ecuadorian technology companies, particularly those that provide app services, and how they were affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. The primary goal was to analyze the technology industry's financial behavior in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, particularly companies which provide app services, by applying financial ratios of liquidity, solvency and profitability.The current liquidity ratio and the acid test ratio were applied to measure liquidity levels;the debt to assets ratio, the equity ratio, the debt to fixed assets ratio, leverage and financial leverage ratios were used to measure solvency levels;and finally, the DUPONT model, based on the net profit margin, total asset turnover and leverage were applied to determine profitability.The methodology used for this paper is the quali - quantitative method with a descriptive approach through the documentary review method.Statistical sampling was used for the finite population, based on sources such as the Internal Revenue Service website and information from the Superintendence of companies, the sample size is 20 companies which enabled a comparative and analytical study.Results showed that there were changes in consumption in e - commerce due to new needs that consumers had to adapt to, in addition to a marked growth in the number of people using these apps. In conclusion, the technology industry grew in profitability in the face of the covid-19 pandemic during the first quarter of 2020. © 2022 IEEE.

Can YouTube be used as a credible source of information for COVID-19 vaccination in Italy? : Angela Ancona

Background The COVID-19 pandemic led to an ‘infodemic', as defined by the WHO, which made it difficult to be accurately informed on public health topics. For this purpose, many people use social media as a source of information, mainly YouTube. Given the great resonance of this platform, our study aims at assessing quality and reliability of its content regarding the COVID-19 vaccination. Methods During March 2022, six searches were performed on the Italian YouTube platform using the following terms: “Covid vaccination”, “Covid vaccine”, “Coronavirus vaccination”, “Coronavirus vaccine”, “Sars-Cov-2 vaccination” and “Sars-Cov-2 vaccine”. A total of 329 videos were analysed, after removing 271 duplicated videos, and classified in seven types of channel. The reliability of the content was evaluated through the HoNCode score, while quality was tested using the validated DISCERN tool. Results The most frequent category was ‘Internet Media’ (33%), while the less frequent one was ‘Educational Medical’ (7%). The content reliability (i.e. HoNCode score) resulted higher for videos produced by medical healthcare workers than non-medical ones. Concerning the quality, the DISCERN score resulted significantly higher for the Educational channels (median 46.0 for medical and 41.3 non-medical ones) as compared to Internet Media (26.5) and New Agencies (24.3). Conclusions Although YouTube has implemented a policy against misinformation related to the COVID-19 vaccination, the study highlights that there is extreme heterogeneity in reliability and quality of videos. Content produced by non-medical users, especially “Internet Media” and “News Agencies” categories should be evaluated with attention by users, as their quality is not appropriate to the importance of the topic. Key messages • Because of to the heterogeneity of its content, YouTube should be evaluated carefully when used as a source of information for Covid-19 vaccination. • Content produced by non-medical users, is generally of poor quality, not appropriate to the importance of the topic.

Academic Performance before and during the State of Emergency due to Covid-19: Analysis from the Perspective of Distance Education

Faced with Covid-19, and the need to adapt to environments that guarantee continuity of educational service in the context of social distancing, many universities did not initially plan the mechanisms for adapting to the virtual modality adequately. Therefore, this period of transition to e-learning was characterised by a decrease in academic performance . This article reports on a study that focused on determining whether the transition from a classroom to a virtual teaching–learning model had an effect or influence on the academic performance of university students in mechanical and electrical engineering at a public university in Peru during the period 2018 to 2021. The purpose of the study was to ensure the quality of the education system in the face of the implementation of a hybrid mode of teaching. Methodologically, a descriptive type of investigation and longitudinal non-experimental design were undertaken. The research methodology followed a hypothetical-deductive approach. The number of participants was 157 and a registration form was used to collect data on the indicators that made up the academic performance variable. The results reveal that the switch to a virtual teaching–learning modality significantly influenced the academic performance of the students. Student’s t-test found a significance equal to 0.000. Passing grades were achieved by 98.57% of students under the virtual teaching–learning modality, compared to 68.4% under classroom learning. ©Authors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

A phase 2 clinical trial of axitinib and avelumab in patients with recurrent/metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC)

Background: ACC is a heterogeneous neoplasm and there is no standard treatment for patients (pts) with recurrent/metastatic (R/M) disease. Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitors (VEGFRi) are frequently used to treat R/M ACC rendering mostly disease stabilization. ACC is resistant to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors (PD-L1i), consistent with its low mutational burden and uninflamed immune microenvironment. We hypothesized that the immunomodulatory role of VEGFRi (axitinib) would enhance PD-L1i (Avelumab) activity and be a more effective therapy for R/M ACC. Methods: Eligible pts had R/M ACC with radiological or clinical progression within 6 months (mos) of enrollment. Treatment consisted of axitinib 5 mg PO bid and avelumab 10 mg/Kg IV every 2 weeks. Primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1;secondary endpoints included duration of response (DOR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and toxicity. Simon 2-stage design was applied to test the null hypothesis of ORR ≤ 5% versus the alternative ORR ≥ 20%;≥ 4 responses out of 29 pts was required to reject the null hypothesis. Results: 41 pts enrolled from 07/24/19 to 06/29/ 21;28 were evaluable for the primary endpoint (7 screen failures, 6 evaluable for safety only due to loss of insurance/logistics issues related to COVID-19 pandemic);16 pts were treated in first-line. Mutation data was available for 23 of 28 evaluable pts;7 had NOTCH1 activating mutations. The ORR was 17.9% (5/28, 95%CI: 6.1-36.9%). One response was unconfirmed (pt progressed in non-target lesions 2 mos after achieving a PR), for a confirmed ORR of 14.3% (95%CI: 4-32.7%). The median follow-up time for the 15 alive pts was 11.6 mos (min-max: 7.7-29.2 mos). Median PFS was 7.2 mos (95%CI: 3.7-11.7 mos) with a 6-mos PFS rate of 57% (95%CI: 41-79%). Median OS was 17.4 mos (95%CI: 13-NA). 5 pts remain on therapy, 2/5 with a PR. The median DOR for the 5 responders was 5.2 mos (95% CI: 3.7-NA mos). The most common treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were fatigue (62%), hypertension (32%), diarrhea (29%), and stomatitis (29%). Serious TRAEs occurred in 8 (24%) pts, all grade 3 and manageable. 4 (15%) pts discontinued avelumab and 9 (32%) underwent axitinib dose reduction due to toxicity. Conclusions: The study reached its primary endpoint with ≥ 4 responses out of 28 evaluable pts (ORR of 17.8%;confirmed ORR of 14.3%). The ORR and 6- mos PFS rate of 57% with axitinib and avelumab compares favorably with single agent axitinib and warrants further study of the combination.

Satisfaction of University Students with Teaching Performance, When Applying Virtual Teaching in the Context of COVID-19

This article aims to analyze the satisfaction of university students from the perspective of teaching performance, in face-to-face (2019-II) and virtual (2020-I) teaching-learning, due to the health emergency, declared in Peru, by COVID-19. These results will allow the Public University to implement continuous improvement plans in the teaching-learning development of the virtual environment. When performing the comparative analysis, it was determined that the careers that present the greatest satisfaction in 2020 - I, are business administration with 82.97% and systems engineering with 78.07%. Then it was identified that the indicators that present a greater negative variation are "The quality of the development of classes and activities" with 5.88%, and "Treatment of students during class", with 2.49%. With these results it can be indicated that the satisfaction of the students has presented a slight positive variation towards the teaching performance when applying the virtual modality.

The expansion of the competences of the Virtual Plenary of the Brazilian Supreme Court: formal collegiality and deliberation deficit

This article faces the problem of the Virtual Plenary of the Brazilian Supreme Court as a space for merely formal collegiality judgment, with little favoring deliberation among the justices in the exercise of the judicial review. The hypothesis is that its expansion to all cases within the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Supreme Court, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, had a negative impact on the decision-making dynamic of the Brazilian Supreme Court. This analysis was carried out through an analytical-descriptive methodology of the Virtual Plenary, prioritizing normative and bibliographic research on its origin and expansion, as well as through a survey and analysis of the processes of control of constitutionality that were judged by Brazilian Supreme Court in the expanded Virtual Plenary during the year 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. The data collected and analyzed make it possible to verify whether the changes in this route of judgment have the power to encourage dialogue in the provision of jurisdiction. © 2022 Centro Universitario de Brasilia. All rights reserved.

STF, indigenous peoples and Situation Room: illusory dialogue

This research analyzes the constitutional lawsuit ADPF 709, filed at the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), with regard to the protection of the right to health of isolated and recently contacted indigenous peoples. The article deals especially with the judicial decision that determined the installation of the Situation Room, an official space within the administration, for an intercultural dialogue and the failure of this initiative.