COVID-19 vaccination and response of Latin American financial markets

The COVID-19 pandemic has had major economic consequences in the markets. This paper analyzes the relationship between the progress of vaccination programs and Latin American financial markets. A Wavelet coherence analysis approach is used to evaluate the co-movement of markets and the progress of inoculation strategies based on daily data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The results show that the progress of vaccination programs in Latin American countries has positive and significant effects on the returns of their financial markets. © 2023 Universia. All rights reserved.

Heterogeneity in the impact of Covid-19 on the sales of microenterprises in Chile at the municipal level

The Covid-19 pandemic has had enormous consequences on the world's economy. During 2020, Chile was a country enormously affected by the number of infections with an unfavorable evolution of the pandemic at national level. This led the health's authority to decree on several occasions the confinement of the population, which consequently meant that many companies had to cease their functions. The objective of this paper is to analyze the existence of spatial heterogeneity in the determinants of the variation of microenterprise sales at the municipal level in Chile, with special emphasis on the effects of confinement and other sociodemographic variables. For this purpose, an adaptive kernel geographically weighted regression approach was used. The results show that there are negative effects of both the number of cases and confinement at the municipal level, with areas particularly affected in the center and north of the country. The results are a contribution to the understanding of how the pandemic affected microenterprises during 2020 and to the generation of strategies at the municipal level.

Job demands, not resources, predict worsening psychological distress during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many workers globally to work from home, suddenly, and often without choice, during a highly uncertain time. Adopting a longitudinal, person-centered approach, we explored patterns of change in employees' psychological distress over three months following the early phase of the pandemic. We investigated how change in distress unfolded for different latent subgroups. We modelled whether and how work characteristics, and individuals' degree of detachment from work, predicted membership of different distress trajectories. Growth mixture modelling revealed two distress profiles: (i) a declining distress profile where employees experienced reduced distress over time, suggesting adaptation and/or improved coping;(ii) a rising distress profile where distress increased and eventually plateaued, suggesting a stress reaction process followed by adaptation. Employees with high workload, underload, or close monitoring, were more likely to belong to the rising distress profile. Detachment from work buffered the negative effect of workload and close monitoring on distress profile membership. Scheduling autonomy and colleague support did not predict profile membership. Contrary to predictions, manager support predicted membership in the rising distress profile. Our findings extend theoretical understanding of how distress unfolds over time, and show the importance of particular job demands in explaining these change processes.

Clinical aspects of diarrhea during the pandemia of COVID-19.

The aim. To investigate the clinical peculiarities of adult patients with diarrheal syndrome, associated with coronavirus infection COVID-19. The materials and methods. There has been carried out the analysis of 56 patients aged 26-81 years, hospitalized with acute enteric infection at the Municipal Infectious Diseases Hospital 8 (not reprofiled as hospital for the treatment of coronavirus infection COVID-19 patients) in the course of August 2020 - February 2021 and the patients with cause-effect relationship with COVID-19. There have been used the routine diagnostic methods, the analysis of feces for causative agents of diarrhea was tested by the methods of bacteriological and immunoenzymatic analysis, the analysis of feces for toxins A and B Clostridium difficile was tested method of immunochromatographic assay;the blood serum was tested by method of immunoenzymatic analysis and the analysis of nasopharyngeal swabs was tested by immunochromatographic assay and PCR test for markers SARS-COV-2. The statistical material treatment has been done using Statistical Package of IBM SPSS Statistics-22. The results. There have been registered 51,8% of cases - diarrhea as one of the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in adult patients (the first group of patients), in 48,2% of cases - diarrhea as a result of recently treated COVID-19 and a massive course of antibiotics (the second group of patients). In the second group 12 patients have been diagnosed with clostridial infection, 15 patients - with antibiotic-associated diarrhea. There has been registered the main severity of clinical manifestations in patients with clostridial infection. The disease being characterized by severity of colitis syndrome, the blood sedimentation rate increasing, hyperleukocytosis in haemogram, hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia. The aggravating factors are combined comorbidity and patients aged over 55 years. The conclusion. There should be used the differential approach for diarrheal syndrome in patients with coronavirus infection. Taking into account the massive course antibiotics' side effects, the analysis of feces for pathogenic flora must be included into the medical examinations such as Clostridium difficile and the course of probiotic and anticlostridial medicines should be done.Copyright © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.

Clinical aspects of diarrhea during the pandemia of COVID-19

The aim. To investigate the clinical peculiarities of adult patients with diarrheal syndrome, associated with coronavirus infection COVID-19. The materials and methods. There has been carried out the analysis of 56 patients aged 26-81 years, hospitalized with acute enteric infection at the Municipal Infectious Diseases Hospital №8 (not reprofiled as hospital for the treatment of coronavirus infection COVID-19 patients) in the course of August 2020 – February 2021 and the patients with cause-effect relationship with COVID-19. There have been used the routine diagnostic methods, the analysis of feces for causative agents of diarrhea was tested by the methods of bacteriological and immunoenzymatic analysis, the analysis of feces for toxins A and B Clostridium difficile was tested method of immunochromatographic assay;the blood serum was tested by method of immunoenzymatic analysis and the analysis of nasopharyngeal swabs was tested by immunochromatographic assay and PCR test for markers SARS-COV-2. The statistical material treatment has been done using Statistical Package of IBM SPSS Statistics-22. The results. There have been registered 51,8% of cases – diarrhea as one of the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in adult patients (the first group of patients), in 48,2% of cases – diarrhea as a result of recently treated COVID-19 and a massive course of antibiotics (the second group of patients). In the second group 12 patients have been diagnosed with clostridial infection, 15 patients – with antibiotic-associated diarrhea. There has been registered the main severity of clinical manifestations in patients with clostridial infection. The disease being characterized by severity of colitis syndrome, the blood sedimentation rate increasing, hyperleukocytosis in haemogram, hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia. The aggravating factors are combined comorbidity and patients aged over 55 years. The conclusion. There should be used the differential approach for diarrheal syndrome in patients with coronavirus infection. Taking into account the massive course antibiotics' side effects, the analysis of feces for pathogenic flora must be included into the medical examinations such as Clostridium difficile and the course of probiotic and anticlostridial medicines should be done. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.

Clinical aspects of diarrhea during the pandemia of COVID-19.

The aim. To investigate the clinical peculiarities of adult patients with diarrheal syndrome, associated with coronavirus infection COVID-19. The materials and methods. There has been carried out the analysis of 56 patients aged 26-81 years, hospitalized with acute enteric infection at the Municipal Infectious Diseases Hospital 8 (not reprofiled as hospital for the treatment of coronavirus infection COVID-19 patients) in the course of August 2020 - February 2021 and the patients with cause-effect relationship with COVID-19. There have been used the routine diagnostic methods, the analysis of feces for causative agents of diarrhea was tested by the methods of bacteriological and immunoenzymatic analysis, the analysis of feces for toxins A and B Clostridium difficile was tested method of immunochromatographic assay;the blood serum was tested by method of immunoenzymatic analysis and the analysis of nasopharyngeal swabs was tested by immunochromatographic assay and PCR test for markers SARS-COV-2. The statistical material treatment has been done using Statistical Package of IBM SPSS Statistics-22. The results. There have been registered 51,8% of cases - diarrhea as one of the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in adult patients (the first group of patients), in 48,2% of cases - diarrhea as a result of recently treated COVID-19 and a massive course of antibiotics (the second group of patients). In the second group 12 patients have been diagnosed with clostridial infection, 15 patients - with antibiotic-associated diarrhea. There has been registered the main severity of clinical manifestations in patients with clostridial infection. The disease being characterized by severity of colitis syndrome, the blood sedimentation rate increasing, hyperleukocytosis in haemogram, hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia. The aggravating factors are combined comorbidity and patients aged over 55 years. The conclusion. There should be used the differential approach for diarrheal syndrome in patients with coronavirus infection. Taking into account the massive course antibiotics' side effects, the analysis of feces for pathogenic flora must be included into the medical examinations such as Clostridium difficile and the course of probiotic and anticlostridial medicines should be done.Copyright © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.

POLLINATOR-FLOWER INTERACTIONS IN GARDENS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN OF 2020

During the main COVID-19 global pandemic lockdown period of 2020 an impromptu set of pollination ecologists came together via social media and personal contacts to carry out standardised surveys of the flower visits and plants in gardens. The surveys involved 67 rural, suburban and urban gardens, of various sizes, ranging from 61.18° North in Norway to 37.96° South in Australia, resulting in a data set of 25,174 rows, with each row being a unique interaction record for that date/site/plant species, and comprising almost 47,000 visits to flowers, as well as records of flowers that were not visited by pollinators, for over 1,000 species and varieties belonging to more than 460 genera and 96 plant families. The more than 650 species of flower visitors belong to 12 orders of invertebrates and four of vertebrates. In this first publication from the project, we present a brief description of the data and make it freely available for any researchers to use in the future, the only restriction being that they cite this paper in the first instance. The data generated from these global surveys will provide scientific evidence to help us understand the role that private gardens (in urban, rural and suburban areas) can play in conserving insect pollinators and identify management actions to enhance their potential. © 2022 The authors.

Real-time Mixed Reality Teleconsultation for Intensive Care Units in Pandemic Situations

Intensive care units (ICUs) that host patients infected by the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus are separated from other care units. In regular ICU ward rounds, a number of experts from different medical areas and expertise are present to discuss the situation and care of the patient. However, this procedure is contrasting COVID-19 measures such as reduced contact and personnel traffic. In this project, we demonstrate a system for mixed reality (MR) teleconsultation to support ICU wards (ARTEKMED). Through ARTEKMED, remote experts can join a local 3D reconstructed ICU visit in virtual reality (VR) and support local experts that are equipped with an augmented reality (AR) system. Our goal is to reduce personnel traffic and in turn the risk of an infection spread.

Housing and youth mental health during a COVID-19 lockdown

IntroductionDeclines in mental health among youth in the COVID-19 pandemic have been observed, yet longitudinal studies on how housing may impact these declines are lacking.ObjectivesOur aim was to determine whether changes in mental health among Danish youth were dependent on their housing conditions.MethodsYoung participants from the Danish National Birth Cohort, who had responded to an online questionnaire at 18 years of age, and later during the initial national Danish lockdown, were included. Associations between housing conditions (direct access to outdoor spaces, urbanicity, household density, and household composition) and changes in mental health (mental well-being, quality of life (QoL) and loneliness) were examined in multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses.ResultsWe included 7455 participants. Greater decreases in mental well-being were observed for youth with no access to direct outdoor spaces and those living in denser households (mean difference -0.83 [95 % CI -1.19, -0.48], -0.30 [-0.43, -0.18], respectively). Onset of low mental well-being was associated with no access and living alone (odds ratios (OR) 1.68 [1.15, 2.47] and OR 1.47 [1.05, 2.07], respectively). Household density was negatively associated with QoL (mean difference -0.21 [-0.30, -0.12]). Youth living alone experienced more loneliness (OR 2.12 [95 % CI 1.59, 2.82]).ConclusionsHow youth’s mental health changed from before to during lockdown was associated with housing conditions. Among the Danish youth in our study, greater decreases in mental health during lockdown were observed among youth without access to outdoor spaces, living alone, or living in denser households.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

COVID-19 Treatment Agents: Do They Pose an Environmental Risk?

The end of 2019 was marked by reports of a previously unknown virus causing coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). With over 800 new daily hospitalizations at the peak in Los Angeles (LA) County, the potential for high use of COVID-19 treatment agents, remdesivir and dexamethasone, warranted a screening assessment of their fate and toxicity risk for aquatic organisms. We predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) using the ChemFate model and hospitalizations data and compared them to predicted ecotoxicity concentrations generated using Ecological Structure Activity Relationships (ECOSAR) to assess risk to potentially exposed organisms. The lowest predicted toxicity thresholds were between 2 and 11 orders of magnitude greater than the highest PECs for freshwater and saltwater. We conclude that had all eligible patients in LA County been given the recommended treatment regimen, exposure of aquatic organisms in regional water bodies to remdesivir, dexamethasone, and their evaluated metabolites would not be likely to be affected based on ECOSAR predictions. Conservative, protective assumptions were used for this screening analysis, considering limited toxicity information. Modeling tools thus serve to predict environmental concentrations and estimate ecotoxicity risks of novel treatment agents and can provide useful preliminary data to assess and manage ecological health risks.