La externalización de los servicios de información turística en el contexto de la COVID-19

La legislación española permite a las administraciones públicas la externalización de determinados servicios a falta de medios propios para prestarlos. Los servicios de información turística son uno de los servicios que las administraciones suelen externalizar al requerir de una mayor flexibilidad horaria para atender las necesidades de los turistas. El objetivo general de este trabajo es analizar la tendencia a la externalización de los servicios de información turística y cómo la COVID-19 ha influido en la misma. Para ello se ha diseñado una investigación que analiza las licitaciones publicadas en la Plataforma de Contratación del Estado según el CPV 6351300 Servicios de información turística de 2018 a 2020. Los datos parecen sugerirnos la existencia de una tendencia positiva y que la COVID-19 ha influido levemente. También parece indicarnos que las administraciones públicas no utilizan de manera adecuada el código CPV en sus procesos de licitación aunque parece estar corrigiéndose.Alternate : Spanish legislation allows public authorities to outsource the provision of certain services when they lack their own means to do so Thus, tourist information services are one of the services that authorities tend to outsource because tourism’s broad and flexible time margins cannot always be covered by the public sector. In addition, tourism has been one of the economic sectors hardest hit by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, with significant effects on employment, demand and the arrival of international tourists, among others. Thus, the general objective of this work is focused on analysing the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the outsourcing of tourist information services. As such, an investigation has been designed that researches the tenders from the Spanish State Contract Platform from 2018 to 2020. The results seem to suggest a positive trend and that COVID-19 has had a slight influence. The research also seems to indicate that public administrations do not use the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) code adequately in their tender processes, although it seems to be being corrected.

Content and Usability Validation of an Intelligent Virtual Conversation Assistant Used for Virtual Triage During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil.

This study aimed to describe the development process, content validation, and usability of a COVID-19 screening system incorporated into a chatbot-type intelligent virtual assistant (CoronaBot). This is a methodological research carried out in three phases. The first corresponded to the development of the flowchart and content of the virtual assistant, the second phase consisted of the implementation of the content in chatbot, and the third phase consisted of content validation. Data analysis was performed by agreement rate, content validity index, and kappa statistical test. Finally, in the third phase, the chatbot's usability was analyzed using the System Usability Scale, by 10 users. The CoronaBot content presented domains with agreement rate above 87.5%, and its items referring to symptomatological scores and interface screens had values of content validity index with a mean of 0.96, kappa test with values from 0.70 to 0.76, and interspecialist agreement of 1.00, demonstrating excellence of prototype content. The global usability score was 80.1. The script developed and incorporated into the chatbot prototype achieved a satisfactory level of content validity. The usability of the chatbot was considered good, adding to the credibility of the device.

Solar Radiation Components on a Horizontal Surface in a Tropical Coastal City of Salvador

Renewable energy must be prioritized by humankind, mainly if there is an expected increase of 50% in energy consumption by 2030 and climate change scenarios are also confirmed. Urban areas consume 70% of the available energy on the planet. Brazil, the largest country in South America, concentrates more than 85% of its population in urban areas, facing a challenge to increase the renewable power plants in its energy matrix. This work presents the solar radiation components behavior for the city of Salvador to contribute with initiatives for the use of solar energy resource. Firstly, a radiometric platform was implemented to obtain direct measurements of global (EG) and diffuse (EDF) components of incoming solar radiation at the surface. The knowledge of EDF is an important requirement to support photovoltaic system projects, and there is no information on direct measurements of this component in the State of Bahia. The diffuse radiation measurement device (DRMD) was designed and built for this purpose. The measurements of solar radiation components performed in this research were submitted to a specific quality control, statistically analyzed and used to evaluate the performance of different empirical models to represent the behavior of EDF  in the tropical coastal city. The results demonstrate the potential to explore solar energy in the city of Salvador, with annual values of sunshine higher than 2200 h year−1 and average daily intensities of EG  and EDF  equal to 18.7 MJm−2day−1 and 7.35 MJm−2day−1,  respectively. The analysis of the diurnal cycle shows that EG in summer reaches a maximum of 4.2 MJm−2h−1 and in the rainy season it reaches a minimum of 3.7 MJm−2h−1, both at noon, and in summer the EDFh is 35% of the EGh and it is 46% in the rainy season.

Multiple demyelinating sensory and motor mononeuropathy associated with COVID-19: a case report.

The involvement of the nervous system may occur in 36.4% of patients with COVID-19. Cases have been described of cerebrovascular diseases, encephalitis, encephalopathies, and changes in smell and taste. Two months after being discharged from hospital with COVID-19, a 63-year-old male patient presented with a predominantly demyelinating multiple sensory and motor mononeuropathy. A diagnostic possibility of multiple sensory and motor demyelinating mononeuropathy (Lewis-Sumner syndrome) was made. Treatment with human immunoglobulin was initiated. COVID-19 may be associated with multiple demyelinating sensory and motor mononeuropathy.

Automatic algorithm for quantifying lung involvement in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, infection with SARS-CoV-2, paracoccidioidomycosis and no lung disease patients.

In this work, we aimed to develop an automatic algorithm for the quantification of total volume and lung impairments in four different diseases. The quantification was completely automatic based upon high resolution computed tomography exams. The algorithm was capable of measuring volume and differentiating pulmonary involvement including inflammatory process and fibrosis, emphysema, and ground-glass opacities. The algorithm classifies the percentage of each pulmonary involvement when compared to the entire lung volume. Our algorithm was applied to four different patients groups: no lung disease patients, patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and patients with paracoccidioidomycosis. The quantification results were compared with a semi-automatic algorithm previously validated. Results confirmed that the automatic approach has a good agreement with the semi-automatic. Bland-Altman (B&A) demonstrated a low dispersion when comparing total lung volume, and also when comparing each lung impairment individually. Linear regression adjustment achieved an R value of 0.81 when comparing total lung volume between both methods. Our approach provides a reliable quantification process for physicians, thus impairments measurements contributes to support prognostic decisions in important lung diseases including the infection of SARS-CoV-2.

Youth and the COVID-19 crisis: Lessons learned from a human rights-based prevention programme for youths in São Paulo, Brazil.

Youths living in crowded impoverished urban areas face higher risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2. This article presents lessons learned from a preventive intervention project intersected by the COVID-19 crisis that moved from a mix-methods study design to online ethnography. The 'home-officed' research team e-witnessed high-school students' daily lives and collaborated in youths' and community-based organisations' responses in the territories where they study and live. Psychosocial distress increased, also driven by the disastrous governmental response to the health and economic crises. There was growing anxiety about meeting friends and dating, with structural limits for sustaining the recommended social distancing, which added to gender/sexuality-based violence. Simultaneously, we observed students becoming relevant actors through co-producing preventive practices, surpassing risk-group notions and combining SARS-CoV-2 prevention with sexuality, gender, racism and mental-health issues. They managed internet-mediated applications to promote critical thinking and collective actions aimed at health promotion among their peers, from their homes. Freire's concept of 'untested-feasibility' fostered researchers', students' and community leaders' imaginations in the face of this unprecedented crisis, thereby enhancing social responses to the epidemic to become rights-based comprehensive dialogical preventive activities. This ongoing intervention-research stresses how prevention sciences can go beyond reduction of this pandemic to a viral event.

COVID-19 and Hepatic Artery Thrombosis: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND Hypercoagulable states, including venous and arterial thromboses, manifesting as pulmonary thromboembolism or stroke have been observed in COVID-19; recently, gastrointestinal thrombotic events have also been reported. This case report describes a patient with COVID-19 and abdominal pain, who developed coagulopathy and a rare association of hepatic artery thrombosis. Common hepatic artery thrombosis is usually observed among liver transplantation patients and has not been described in infectious disease. CASE REPORT A 45-year-old woman presented in the Emergency Department with a nonproductive cough, sore throat, asthenia, headache, myalgia, anosmia, and dysgeusia. On the 5th day after the onset of these symptoms, she tested positive for SARS-COV-2 and was managed with symptomatic drugs. Although her initial symptoms of COVID-19 improved progressively, on the 14th day she experienced acute abdominal pain. On the 16th day, she was hospitalized and administered intravenous analgesia. Abdominal computed tomography angiography revealed partial thrombosis in the common hepatic artery, which was confirmed by liver Doppler ultrasonography. Protein C and D-dimer levels peaked during this period. Serum tests for thrombophilia were negative. Subcutaneous enoxaparin (60 mg twice daily) was administered during hospitalization, and her abdominal pain improved significantly. She was discharged after 3 days and prescribed an oral anticoagulant for the next 30 days. CONCLUSIONS Thrombotic events are well-recognized complications of COVID-19 and recent reports show gastrointestinal involvement. This report of a rare association of hepatic artery thrombosis highlights the importance of investigating the thrombotic events in patients with abdominal pain and coagulopathy during COVID-19.

A Universal Basic Income For Brazil: Fiscal and Distributional Effects of Alternative Schemes (preprint)

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increasing interest in Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposals as it exposed the inadequacy of traditional welfare systems to provide basic financial security to a large share of the population. In this paper, we use a static tax-benefit microsimulation model to analyse the fiscal and distributional effects of the hypothetical implementation in Brazil of alternative UBI schemes which partially replace the existing tax-transfer system. The results indicate that the introduction of a UBI/Flat Tax system in the country could be both extremely effective in reducing poverty and inequality and economically viable.

ELISA detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in saliva.

To facilitate containment of the COVID-19 pandemic currently active in the United States and across the world, options for easy, non-invasive antibody testing are required. Here we have adapted a commercially available, serum-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for use with saliva samples, achieving 84.2% sensitivity and 100% specificity in a set of 149 clinical samples. This strategy will enable widespread, affordable testing for patients who experienced this disease, whilst minimizing exposure risk for healthcare workers.

Targeting coagulation activation in severe COVID-19 pneumonia: lessons from bacterial pneumonia and sepsis.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread throughout the world, resulting in a pandemic with high mortality. There are no effective treatments for the management of severe COVID-19 and current therapeutic trials are focused on antiviral therapy and attenuation of hyper-inflammation with anti-cytokine therapy. Severe COVID-19 pneumonia shares some pathological similarities with severe bacterial pneumonia and sepsis. In particular, it disrupts the haemostatic balance, which results in a procoagulant state locally in the lungs and systemically. This culminates in the formation of microthrombi, disseminated intravascular coagulation and multi-organ failure. The deleterious effects of exaggerated inflammatory responses and activation of coagulation have been investigated in bacterial pneumonia and sepsis and there is recognition that although these pathways are important for the host immune response to pathogens, they can lead to bystander tissue injury and are negatively associated with survival. In the past two decades, evidence from preclinical studies has led to the emergence of potential anticoagulant therapeutic strategies for the treatment of patients with pneumonia, sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and some of these anticoagulant approaches have been trialled in humans. Here, we review the evidence from preclinical studies and clinical trials of anticoagulant treatment strategies in bacterial pneumonia and sepsis, and discuss the importance of these findings in the context of COVID-19.

ELISA detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in saliva (preprint)

To facilitate containment of the COVID-19 pandemic currently active in the United States and across the world, options for easy, non-invasive antibody testing are required. Here we have adapted a commercially available, serum-based ELISA for use with saliva samples, which will enable widespread, affordable testing for patients who experienced this disease.

Global trends in coronavirus research at the time of Covid-19: A general bibliometric approach and content analysis using SciMAT

Covid-19 represents the greatest challenge facing mankind today. In December 2019, several cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology were reported from China. This coronavirus infection subsequently identified as Covid-19 aroused worldwide concern. As a result, the scientific community has focused attention on Covid-19, as revealed by recent research reported in literature based on a holistic approach. In this regard, this study conducts a bibliometric analysis of coronavirus research in the literature with an emphasis on Covid-19 disease, using as a reference the publications in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1970 to 2020. This research analyzes 12,571 publications from 1970 to (April 18) 2020 by applying advanced bibliometric techniques in SciMAT bibliometric analysis software. The current research therefore provides a complete conceptual analysis of the main coronavirus types and strains in the literature by quantifying the main bibliometric performance indicators, identifying the main authors, organizations, countries, sources, and research areas, and evaluating the development of this field. Furthermore, a science map is constructed to understand the corresponding intellectual structure and main research lines (themes). SciMAT thereby offers a complete approach to the field and evaluates the main performance indicators related to coronavirus, with a focus on Covid-19. Finally, this research serves as a framework to strengthen existing research lines and develop new ones, establishing synergistic relationships that were not visible without the maps generated herein.