Dynamic ventilation certificate for smart universities using artificial intelligence techniques.

The issue of room ventilation has recently gained momentum due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ventilation is in fact of particular relevance in educational environments. Smart University platforms, today widespread, are a good starting point to offer control services of different relevant indicators in universities. This study advances a Ventilation Quality Certificate (VQC) for Smart Universities. The certificate informs the university community of the ventilation status of its buildings and premises. It also supports senior management's decision-making, because it allows assessing preventive measures and actions taken. The VQC algorithm models the adequacy of classroom ventilation according to the number of persons present. The input used is the organisation's existing data relating to CO2 concentration and number of room occupants. AI techniques, specifically Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), were employed to determine the relationship between the different data sources included. A prototype of value-added services was developed for the Smart University platform of the University of Alicante, which allowed to implement the resulting models, together with the VQC. The prototype is currently being replicated in other universities. The case study allowed us to validate the VQC, demonstrating both its usefulness and the advantage of using pre-existing university services and resources.

Can the Content of Social Networks Explain Epidemic Outbreaks?

People share and seek information online that reflects a variety of social phenomena, including concerns about health conditions. We analyze how the contents of social networks provide real-time information to monitor and anticipate policies aimed at controlling or mitigating public health outbreaks. In November 2020, we collected tweets on the COVID-19 pandemic with content ranging from safety measures, vaccination, health, to politics. We then tested different specifications of spatial econometrics models to relate the frequency of selected keywords with administrative data on COVID-19 cases and deaths. Our results highlight how mentions of selected keywords can significantly explain future COVID-19 cases and deaths in one locality. We discuss two main mechanisms potentially explaining the links we find between Twitter contents and COVID-19 diffusion: risk perception and health behavior.

Disasters in Spain from 1950 - 2020: Impact on Public Health.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to establish the frequency and profile of disasters and to analyze trends in disasters and their impact on Spanish public health. METHODS: Retrospective observational study of disasters that occurred in Spain from 1950 through 2020 was conducted. The variables studied for each episode were number of people affected, number of injured/sick, and number of deaths. Absolute and relative frequencies, population rates, mean, median, standard error of the mean (SEM), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used, and trend analysis was performed using exponential smoothing and linear regression. RESULTS: A total of 491 disasters were identified in Spain. Of these, 255 (51.9%) were natural disasters, 224 (45.7%) technological disasters, and 12 (2.4%) man-made disasters. The average number of disasters per year was 7.01 (95% CI, 5.99-9.34). These disasters affected a total of 820,489 people, with an average of 3,491 people (SEM = 2.18) per episode. There was a significant increase (P <.001) in the total frequency of disasters in Spain during the period studied. CONCLUSIONS: Spain has a disaster profile of mixed type, combining natural with technological disasters. From 1950 through 2020, there was a significant increase in the number of disasters, with an overall profile similar to that of Europe, with climatological disasters being the most frequent type.

Can the Content of Social Networks Explain Epidemic Outbreaks?

People share and seek information online that reflects a variety of social phenomena, including concerns about health conditions. We analyze how the contents of social networks provide real-time information to monitor and anticipate policies aimed at controlling or mitigating public health outbreaks. In November 2020, we collected tweets on the COVID-19 pandemic with content ranging from safety measures, vaccination, health, to politics. We then tested different specifications of spatial econometrics models to relate the frequency of selected keywords with administrative data on COVID-19 cases and deaths. Our results highlight how mentions of selected keywords can significantly explain future COVID-19 cases and deaths in one locality. We discuss two main mechanisms potentially explaining the links we find between Twitter contents and COVID-19 diffusion: risk perception and health behavior.

An inactivated NDV-HXP-S COVID-19 vaccine elicits a higher proportion of neutralizing antibodies in humans than mRNA vaccination.

NDV-HXP-S is a recombinant Newcastle disease virus-based vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, which expresses an optimized (HexaPro) spike protein on its surface. The vaccine can be produced in embryonated chicken eggs using the same process as that used for the production of the vast majority of influenza virus vaccines. Here, we performed a secondary analysis of the antibody responses after vaccination with inactivated NDV-HXP-S in a phase 1 clinical study in Thailand. The SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing and spike protein binding activity of NDV-HXP-S postvaccination serum samples was compared to that of samples from mRNA BNT162b2 (Pfizer) vaccinees. Neutralizing activity of sera from NDV-HXP-S vaccinees was comparable to that of BNT162b2 vaccinees, whereas spike protein binding activity of the NDV-HXP-S vaccinee samples was lower than that of sera obtained from mRNA vaccinees. This led us to calculate ratios between binding and neutralizing antibody titers. Samples from NDV-HXP-S vaccinees had binding to neutralizing activity ratios that were lower than those of BNT162b2 sera, suggesting that NDV-HXP-S vaccination elicits a high proportion of neutralizing antibodies and low non-neutralizing antibody titers. Further analysis showed that, in contrast to mRNA vaccination, which induces strong antibody titers to the receptor binding domain (RBD), the N-terminal domain, and the S2 domain, NDV-HXP-S vaccination induced an RBD-focused antibody response with little reactivity to S2. This finding may explain the high proportion of neutralizing antibodies. In conclusion, vaccination with inactivated NDV-HXP-S induces a high proportion of neutralizing antibodies and absolute neutralizing antibody titers that are comparable to those elicited by mRNA vaccination.

Qualitative Subgenomic RNA to Monitor the Response to Remdesivir in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: impact on the length of hospital stay and mortality.

BACKGROUND: There is no reliable microbiological marker to guide the indication and the response to antiviral treatment in patients with COVID-19. We aim to evaluate the dynamics of subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) in patients with COVID-19 before and after receiving treatment with remdesivir. METHODS: We included consecutive patients admitted for COVID-19 who received remdesivir according to our institutional protocol and accepted to participate in the study. A nasopharyngeal swab for qRT-PCR was collected at baseline, and after 3 and 5 days of treatment with remdesivir. Genomic and sgRNA were analyzed in those samples and main co-morbidities and evolution were collected for the analyses. The main outcomes were early discharge (≤10 days) and 30-day mortality. RESULTS: A total of 117 patients were included in the study, from which 24 had a negative sgRNA at baseline with a 62.5% (15/24) of early discharge (≤10 days) and no deaths in this group. From the 93 remaining patients, 62 of them had a negative sgRNA at day 5 with 37/62 (59.6%) of early discharge and a mortality of 4.8% (3/62). In the 31 patients subgroup with positive sgRNA after 5 days of RDV, the early discharge rate was 29% (9/31) and the mortality rate was 16.1% (5/31). In the multivariable analyses, the variables associated with early discharge were negative sgRNA at day 3, and not needing treatment with corticosteroids or ICU admission. CONCLUSIONS: Qualitative sgRNA could help monitoring the virological response in patients who receive remdesivir. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Transmisión del SARS-CoV-2 en escolares durante el primer trimestre del curso 2021/2022 en la provincia de Albacete: incidencia e impacto de las nuevas variantes.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to know the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in the school setting, and the effect of the new variants on it. DESIGN: It is an observational longitudinal descriptive study during the first term of the academic year 21/22. SITE: Community health services. PARTICIPANTS: Preschool, elementary, secondary, and high school students. INTERVENTIONS: none. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: We calculated cumulative incidence stratified by grade, source of infection and follow-up period, percentage of vaccinated cases and correlation between cumulative incidence in schooled children per week and cumulative incidence in the general population. RESULTS: 1526 cases were reported, and the cumulative incidence was 3,17% and 0,48% in within-school acquired cases. 20,9% were vaccinated. During follow-up, there was an important change in incidence from weeks 49/21 on, at the time Omicron began to appear in Spain, with an increase in secondary cases, mostly high school students. We found a high correlation between general population and schooled children's cumulative incidence (R2 = 0,59). CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 transmission in school settings has been affected by new circulating variants. Two propagation scenarios were identified, and they were like the community propagation pattern. This supports the hypothesis that school settings reflect the transmission in the community. Reinforcement of preventive measures and surveillance would have a positive effect on school settings.

Impact of the Global Fear Index (COVID-19 Panic) on the S&P Global Indices Associated with Natural Resources, Agribusiness, Energy, Metals, and Mining: Granger Causality and Shannon and Rényi Transfer Entropy.

The Global Fear Index (GFI) is a measure of fear/panic based on the number of people infected and deaths due to COVID-19. This paper aims to examine the interconnection or interdependencies between the GFI and a set of global indexes related to the financial and economic activities associated with natural resources, raw materials, agribusiness, energy, metals, and mining, such as: the S&P Global Resource Index, the S&P Global Agribusiness Equity Index, the S&P Global Metals and Mining Index, and the S&P Global 1200 Energy Index. To this end, we first apply several common tests: Wald exponential, Wald mean, Nyblom, and Quandt Likelihood Ratio. Subsequently, we apply Granger causality using a DCC-GARCH model. Data for the global indices are daily from 3 February 2020 to 29 October 2021. The empirical results obtained show that the volatility of the GFI Granger causes the volatility of the other global indices, except for the Global Resource Index. Moreover, by considering heteroskedasticity and idiosyncratic shocks, we show that the GFI can be used to predict the co-movement of the time series of all the global indices. Additionally, we quantify the causal interdependencies between the GFI and each of the S&P global indices using Shannon and Rényi transfer entropy flow, which is comparable to Granger causality, to confirm directionality more robustly The main conclusion of this research is that financial and economic activity related to natural resources, raw materials, agribusiness, energy, metals, and mining were affected by the fear/panic caused by COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of the Perception of Professionals of Emergency Medical Systems in Spain after the First Wave.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify the perceived problems by medical and nursing professionals that have arisen in the Spanish Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as a consequence of the first wave of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2/SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as well as the measures or solutions adopted to manage those problems and improve response. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional study of quantitative and qualitative methodology ("mixed methods") using a self-administered questionnaire in 23 key informants of EMS of Spain selected by purposeful sampling, followed by the statistical analysis of both types of variables and an integration of the results in the discussion. RESULTS: Common problems had been identified in many EMS, as well as similar solutions in some of them. Among the former, the following had been found: lack of leadership and support from managers, initial shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of participation in decision making, initial lack of clinical protocols, and slowness and/or lack of adaptability of the system, among others. Among the solutions adopted: reinforcement of emergency call centers, development of specific coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) telephone lines and new resources, personal effort of professionals, new functions of EMS, support to other structures, and reinforcement of the role of nursing. CONCLUSION: The general perception among the respondents was that there was a lack of support and communication with health care managers and that the staff expertise was not used by policy makers to make decisions adapted to reality, also expressing the need to improve the capacity for analysis of the EMS response. Few respondents reported good overall satisfaction with their EMS response. The EMS adopted different types of measures to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Post-Global Pandemic Challenges and improvements in advanced detection and removal processes of toxic pollutants: Editorial.

Every two years, the Pollutant Toxic Ions and Molecules Conference, PTIM, meets the environmentalist, biologist, chemists and health researchers in Costa de Caparica, Portugal, to showcase the latest technologies, methodologies and research advances in pollution detection, contamination control, remediation, and related health issues, as well as policy implications.

Time-Varying Granger Causality of COVID-19 News on Emerging Financial Markets: The Latin American Case

This study uses daily COVID-19 news series to determine their impact on financial market volatility. This paper assesses whether U.S. financial markets react differently to COVID-19 news than emerging markets and if such markets are impacted differently by country-specific and global news. To detect the spillover effects from news on market volatility, a time-varying DCC-GARCH model was applied. The results suggest that the U.S. and emerging markets are affected differently by pandemic news, global series have a stronger impact on emerging markets than country-specific ones, and misleading information plays a significant role in financial market volatility, especially for the U.S.

Inflammatory-Metal Profile as a Hallmark for COVID-19 Severity During Pregnancy.

Pregnancy makes women more susceptible to infectious agents; however, available data on the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on pregnant women are limited. To date, inflammatory responses and changes in serum metal concentration have been reported in COVID-19 patients, but few associations between metal ions and cytokines have been described. The aim of this study was to evaluate correlations between inflammatory markers and serum metal ions in third-trimester pregnant women with varying COVID-19 disease severity. Patients with severe symptoms had increased concentrations of serum magnesium, copper, and calcium ions and decreased concentrations of iron, zinc, and sodium ions. Potassium ions were unaffected. Pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, TNF-α, IL-8, IL-1α, anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4, and the IP-10 chemokine were induced in the severe presentation of COVID-19 during pregnancy. Robust negative correlations between iron/magnesium and zinc/IL-6, and a positive correlation between copper/IP-10 were observed in pregnant women with the severe form of the disease. Thus, coordinated alterations of serum metal ions and inflammatory markers - suggestive of underlying pathophysiological interactions-occur during SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy.

Severe COVID-19 in patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases: a stratified analysis from the SORCOM multicenter registry.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate risk factors for severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases, stratified by systemic autoimmune conditions and chronic inflammatory arthritis. METHODS: An observational, cross-sectional multicenter study was performed. Patients from 10 Rheumatology departments in Madrid who presented with SARS-CoV-2 infection between Feb 2020 and May 2021 were included. The main outcome was COVID-19 severity (hospital admission or mortality). Risk factors for severity were estimated, adjusting for covariates (sociodemographic, clinical and treatments), using logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: 523 patients with COVID-19 were included, among whom 192 (35.6%) patients required hospital admission and 38 (7.3%) died. Male gender, older age and comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity were associated with severe COVID-19. Corticosteroid doses over 10 mg/day, rituximab, sulfasalazine and mycophenolate use, were independently associated with worse outcomes. COVID-19 severity decreased over the different pandemic waves. Mortality was higher in the systemic autoimmune conditions (univariate analysis, p<0.001), although there were no differences in overall severity in the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms and provides new insights regarding the harmful effects of corticosteroids, rituximab and other therapies (mycophenolate and sulfasalazine) in COVID-19. Methotrexate and anti-TNF therapy were not associated with worse outcomes.

Transmisión Del SARS-CoV-2 En Escolares Durante El Primer Trimestre Del Curso 2021/2022 En La Provincia De Albacete: Incidencia E Impacto De Las Nuevas Variantes SARS-CoV-2 Transmission In School Settings During The First Term Of The Academic Year 2021/2022 In Albacete: New Variants And Its Incidence And Impact

Objetivo: Conocer la evolución de la pandemia COVID-19 en ámbito escolar y los efectos derivados de la incursión de nuevas variantes. Diseño: Estudio observacional descriptivo longitudinal el primer trimestre del curso académico 2021/22. Emplazamiento: Atención Comunitaria. Participantes: Alumnado escolarizado en educación infantil, primaria, ESO y bachillerato. Intervenciones: estudio observacional. Mediciones principales: Se calcularon Incidencia Acumulada porcentual por curso, ámbito de exposición y periodo de seguimiento, porcentaje de casos según estado de vacunación y correlación entre incidencia acumulada semanal escolar y población general Resultados: Fueron notificados 1.526 casos, con una Incidencia Acumulada del 3,17 % y escolar del 0,48 %. El 20,9% estaba vacunado. A lo largo del periodo de seguimiento, destaca el cambio en la incidencia a partir de la semana 49/21, coincidiendo con el inicio de circulación de la variante Ómicron en España, con aumento de casos secundarios en todos los niveles educativos, especialmente en Bachillerato. Se encuentra una correlación alta entre incidencia provincial/escolar (R2=0,59). Conclusiones: La incidencia de COVID-19 en el ámbito escolar se ha visto afectada por la circulación comunitaria de nuevas variantes. Se identificaron 2 escenarios de propagación coincidentes con el patrón comunitario. Los resultados apoyan la hipótesis de que los centros educativos reflejan la transmisión comunitaria. El refuerzo de las medidas de prevención y vigilancia a nivel comunitario repercutirá favorablemente en los ámbitos escolares.

Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Classrooms at the University of the Basque Country through a User-Informed Natural Ventilation Demonstrator.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a renewed interest in indoor air quality to limit viral spread. In the case of educational spaces, due to the high concentration of people and the fact that most of the existing buildings do not have any mechanical ventilation system, the different administrations have established natural ventilation protocols to guarantee an air quality that reduces risk of contagion by the SARS-CoV-2 virus after the return to the classrooms. Many of the initial protocols established a ventilation pattern that opted for continuous or intermittent ventilation to varying degrees of intensity. This study, carried out on a university campus in Spain, analyses the performance of natural ventilation activated through the information provided by monitoring and visualisation of real-time data. In order to carry out this analysis, a experiment was set up where a preliminary study of ventilation without providing information to the users was carried out, which was then compared with the result of providing live feedback to the occupants of two classrooms and an administration office in different periods of 2020, 2021 and 2022. In the administration office, a CO2-concentration-based method was applied retrospectively to assess the risk of airborne infection. This experience has served as a basis to establish a route for user-informed improvement of air quality in educational spaces in general through low-cost systems that allow a rational use of natural ventilation while helping maintain an adequate compromise between IAQ, comfort and energy consumption, without having to resort to mechanical ventilation systems.

Descriptive Analysis of Mobile Apps for Management of COVID-19 in Spain and Development of an Innovate App in that field.

To address the current pandemic, multiple studies have focused on the development of new mHealth apps to help in curbing the number of infections, these applications aim to accelerate the identification and self-isolation of people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus known to cause COVID-19, by being in close contact with infected individuals. The main objectives of this paper are: (1) Analyze the current status of COVID-19 apps available on the main virtual stores: Google Play Store and App Store for Spain, and (2) Propose a novel mobile application that allows interaction and doctor-patient follow-up without the need for real-time consultations (face-to-face or telephone). In this research, a search for eHealth and telemedicine apps related to Covid-19 was performed in the main online stores: Google Play Store and App Store, until May 2021. Keywords were entered into the search engines of the online stores and relevant apps were selected for study using a PRISMA methodology. For the design and implementation of the proposed app named COVINFO, the main weaknesses of the apps studied were taken into account in order to propose a novel and useful app for healthcare systems. The search yielded a total of 50 apps, of which 24 were relevant to this study, of which 23 are free and 54% are available for Android and iOS operating systems (OS). The proposed app has been developed for mobile devices with Android OS being compatible with Android 4.4 and higher. This app enables doctor-patient interaction and constant monitoring of the patient's progress without the need for calls, chats or face-to-face consultation in real time. This work addresses design and development of an application for the transmission of the user's symptoms to his regular doctor, based on the fact that only 16.6% of existing applications have this functionality. The COVINFO app offers a novel service: asynchronous doctor-patient communication, as well as constant monitoring of the patient's condition and evolution. This app makes it possible to better manage the time of healthcare personnel and avoid overcrowding in hospitals, with the aim of preventing the collapse of healthcare systems and the spread of the coronavirus.

Negative Effects of Chronic High Intake of Fructose on Lung Diseases.

In the modern diet, excessive fructose intake (>50 g/day) had been driven by the increase, in recent decades, of the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. This phenomenon has dramatically increased within the Caribbean and Latin American regions. Epidemiological studies show that chronic high intake of fructose related to sugar-sweetened beverages increases the risk of developing several non-communicable diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, and may also contribute to the exacerbation of lung diseases, such as COVID-19. Evidence supports several mechanisms-such as dysregulation of the renin-angiotensin system, increased uric acid production, induction of aldose reductase activity, production of advanced glycation end-products, and activation of the mTORC1 pathway-that can be implicated in lung damage. This review addresses how these pathophysiologic and molecular mechanisms may explain the lung damage resulting from high intake of fructose.

Transfer Entropy Granger Causality between News Indices and Stock Markets in U.S. and Latin America during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The relationship between three different groups of COVID-19 news series and stock market volatility for several Latin American countries and the U.S. are analyzed. To confirm the relationship between these series, a maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT) was applied to determine the specific periods wherein each pair of series is significantly correlated. To determine if the news series cause Latin American stock markets' volatility, a one-sided Granger causality test based on transfer entropy (GC-TE) was applied. The results confirm that the U.S. and Latin American stock markets react differently to COVID-19 news. Some of the most statistically significant results were obtained from the reporting case index (RCI), A-COVID index, and uncertainty index, in that order, which are statistically significant for the majority of Latin American stock markets. Altogether, the results suggest these COVID-19 news indices could be used to forecast stock market volatility in the U.S. and Latin America.

Plataforma CLIMSS como herramienta de alfabetización en salud durante la crisis sanitaria de Covid-19.

OBJETIVO: Describir a la plataforma Cursos en Línea Masivos del IMSS (CLIMSS) como herramienta de alfabetización en salud, a través de la evaluación de la eficiencia terminal, la ganancia de competencias y satisfacción de los usuarios de cursos en línea masivos en el tema de Covid-19. Material y métodos. Se analizaron datos de 20 cursos ofertados entre marzo y octubre de 2020. Se evaluaron las calificaciones pre y pos, el número total de registros, el total de cursos terminados y la satisfacción del usuario. RESULTADOS: Se registraron un total de 4.9 millones de usuarios y 10 millo-nes de inscripciones, en todos los estados de la República mexicana, con una eficiencia terminal de 85%, una ganancia de competencias de 30% y una satisfacción de 9.34 (10). CONCLUSIONES: La plataforma CLIMSS ha mostrado ser una herramienta para la alfabetización en salud con un alcance de millones de mexicanos en temas relacionados con la crisis sanitaria Covid-19.