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Social networks and other digital media deal with huge amounts of user-generated contents where hate speech has become a problematic more and more relevant. A great effort has been made to develop automatic tools for its analysis and moderation, at least in its most threatening forms, such as in violent acts against people and groups protected by law. One limitation of current approaches to automatic hate speech detection is the lack of context. The spotlight on isolated messages, without considering any type of conversational context or even the topic being discussed, severely restricts the available information to determine whether a post on a social network should be tagged as hateful or not. In this work, we assess the impact of adding contextual information to the hate speech detection task. We specifically study a subdomain of Twitter data consisting of replies to digital newspapers posts, which provides a natural environment for contextualized hate speech detection. We built a new corpus in Spanish (Rioplatense variant) focused on hate speech associated to the COVID-19 pandemic, annotated using guidelines carefully designed by our interdisciplinary team. Our classification experiments using state-of-the-art transformer-based machine learning techniques show evidence that adding contextual information improves the performance of hate speech detection for two proposed tasks: binary and multi-label prediction, increasing their Macro F1 by 4.2 and 5.5 points, respectively. These results highlight the importance of using contextual information in hate speech detection. Our code, models, and corpus has been made available for further research. © 2013 IEEE.
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Introduction: In the context of the global health emergency due to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, ivermectin has been repurposed in some Latin American countries to treat COVID-19;in these countries its use as self-medication has been frequent (1). Ivermectin-induced liver injury, though extremely rare(2,3), had been previously described even before the COVID-19 pandemic Objective: To characterize clinical features of liver injury associated with ivermectin when used as self-medication for treating COVID-19. Method(s): Clinical records of those patients diagnosed with severe COVID-19 at the Emergency Room in Rebagliati Hospital in Lima, Peru, during March 2021, were carefully revised. To establish diagnosis of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and causality assessment, the criteria of DILI-Expert Working Group and the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences/Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method (CIOMS/RUCAM), respectively, were used Results: Out of 327 patients identified, 38 took ivermectin as selfmedication (11%);of those 38, five were diagnosed with liver injury presumably related to that medication (13.2%). The mean age of those patients who developed the condition was 49.3 (12.3) [men, 4;woman, 1]. The mean (standard deviation) of Tomographic Severity Score (TSS), C-reactive protein, ferritin levels, Lymphocyte count and D-dimer were 52.2% (22.6), 13.8 (12.2) mg/dl, 1325.375 (239.7072) ng/ml, 2.0 (2.0) K/mul and 0.9 (0.7) lg/ml. The patients had no identified risk factors, but two;one patient had type I diabetes mellitus, and other, obesity. Mean daily ivermectin dose, duration, and total ivermectin dose were 32.9 (21.8) mg/day, 2.6 (0.6) days, and 89.6 (71.4) mg, respectively. As an average, liver injury occurred 11 (3.8) days after the start of treatment, none developed jaundice. Mean levels of alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gammaglutamyltransferase were increased 8 (4.4), 1.66 (0.9), 10.9 (5.0) times above the upper limit of normal. Two patients presented a hepatocellular pattern, 2 mixed and 1 cholestatic. All cases were mild and recovered. As for causality assessment, 4 cases were considered as ''possible'', and one, as ''highly probable''. Conclusion(s): Given its widespread use in some countries, ivermectininduced liver injury requires further pharmacovigilance studies when used for treating COVID-19.
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Introduction: One of the known adverse reactions among long-term proton pump inhibitor (PPI) users, especially the elderly, is that it increases the risk of community-acquired pneumonia [1]. The probable mechanism is that the increase in gastric pH produces a decrease in elimination or an increase in colonization of bacteria;PPIs promote the proliferation of bacteria in the mouth and oropharynx and would increase in this manner the risk of pneumonia [2]. In COVID-19, lungs are particularly at risk. Currently, there is a great interest in establishing the relationship between the severity and mortality of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients using PPIs [3]. Objective(s): To explore the relationship between the previous use of PPIs and mortality due to COVID-19 Methods: A retrospective observational study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital in Lima, Peru. Patients hospitalized in March 2021 for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, confirmed by molecular tests (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction), were included. Severe COVID-19 disease was defined as peripheral oxygen saturation on admission less than 93% (without supplemental oxygen) or pulmonary involvement greater than 30% (on the total severity score or TSS) in the lung tomography Results: A total of 327 patients entered the study (mean age, 61.36 +/- 16.0 years;male, 59.95%). PPIs users and non-users were 10 (3.06%) and 317 (96.94%), respectively. The mean age, Charlson score and total severity score (TSS) between PPIs users and non-users were 68.8 +/- 17.11 vs. 61.12 +/- 15.93 (p = 0.134), 3.6 +/- 2.32 vs. 2.25 +/- 1.715 (p = 0.019) and 55 +/- 25.28 vs. 48.44 +/- 24.30 (P = 0.399), respectively. Mortality in those using and not using PPIs were 80.0% (8 out of 10) and 38.49% (122 out of 317), respectively (Crude odds ratio, 6.39;95% confidence interval 1.34-30.61;p = 0.008). No significant difference was observed in the leukocyte count, mean lactate dehydrogenase concentration, Ferritin, D-dimer and fibrinogen and serum levels of C-Reactive Protein, in those users of PPIs compared to nonusers. Conclusion(s): Among hospitalized patients for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, prior use of PPIs was associated with a higher mortality risk. This association does not necessary imply causality. Further research would be required to clarify potential mechanisms. Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-COV-2, proton pump inhibitor, mortality (Source: DeCS-BIREME).
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Introduction: In the context of the global health emergency due to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, ivermectin has been repurposed in some Latin American countries to treat COVID-19;in these countries its use as self-medication has been frequent (1). Ivermectin-induced liver injury, though extremely rare(2,3), had been previously described even before the COVID-19 pandemic Objective: To characterize clinical features of liver injury associated with ivermectin when used as self-medication for treating COVID-19. Methods: Clinical records of those patients diagnosed with severe COVID-19 at the Emergency Room in Rebagliati Hospital in Lima, Peru, during March 2021, were carefully revised. To establish diagnosis of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and causality assessment, the criteria of DILI-Expert Working Group and the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences/Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method (CIOMS/RUCAM), respectively, were used Results: Out of 327 patients identified, 38 took ivermectin as selfmedication (11%);of those 38, five were diagnosed with liver injury presumably related to that medication (13.2%). The mean age of those patients who developed the condition was 49.3 (12.3) [men, 4;woman, 1]. The mean (standard deviation) of Tomographic Severity Score (TSS), C-reactive protein, ferritin levels, Lymphocyte count and D-dimer were 52.2% (22.6), 13.8 (12.2) mg/dl, 1325.375 (239.7072) ng/ml, 2.0 (2.0) K/pl and 0.9 (0.7) pg/ml. The patients had no identified risk factors, but two;one patient had type I diabetes mellitus, and other, obesity. Mean daily ivermectin dose, duration, and total ivermectin dose were 32.9 (21.8) mg/day, 2.6 (0.6) days, and 89.6 (71.4) mg, respectively. As an average, liver injury occurred 11 (3.8) days after the start of treatment, none developed jaundice. Mean levels of alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gammaglutamyltransferase were increased 8 (4.4), 1.66 (0.9), 10.9 (5.0) times above the upper limit of normal. Two patients presented a hepatocellular pattern, 2 mixed and 1 cholestatic. All cases were mild and recovered. As for causality assessment, 4 cases were considered as possible, and one, as highly probable. Conclusion: Given its widespread use in some countries, ivermectininduced liver injury requires further pharmacovigilance studies when used for treating COVID-19.
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Introduction: One of the known adverse reactions among long-term proton pump inhibitor (PPI) users, especially the elderly, is that it increases the risk of community-acquired pneumonia [1]. The probable mechanism is that the increase in gastric pH produces a decrease in elimination or an increase in colonization of bacteria;PPIs promote the proliferation of bacteria in the mouth and oropharynx and would increase in this manner the risk of pneumonia [2]. In COVID-19, lungs are particularly at risk. Currently, there is a great interest in establishing the relationship between the severity and mortality of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients using PPIs [3]. Objective: To explore the relationship between the previous use of PPIs and mortality due to COVID-19 Methods: A retrospective observational study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital in Lima, Peru. Patients hospitalized in March 2021 for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, confirmed by molecular tests (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction), were included. Severe COVID-19 disease was defined as peripheral oxygen saturation on admission less than 93% (without supplemental oxygen) or pulmonary involvement greater than 30% (on the total severity score or TSS) in the lung tomography Results: A total of 327 patients entered the study (mean age, 61.36 ± 16.0 years;male, 59.95%). PPIs users and non-users were 10 (3.06%) and 317 (96.94%), respectively. The mean age, Charlson score and total severity score (TSS) between PPIs users and non-users were 68.8 ± 17.11 vs. 61.12 ± 15.93 (p = 0.134), 3.6 ± 2.32 vs. 2.25 ± 1.715 (p = 0.019) and 55 ± 25.28 vs. 48.44 ± 24.30 (P = 0.399), respectively. Mortality in those using and not using PPIs were 80.0% (8 out of 10) and 38.49% (122 out of 317), respectively (Crude odds ratio, 6.39;95% confidence interval 1.34-30.61;p = 0.008). No significant difference was observed in the leukocyte count, mean lactate dehydrogenase concentration, Ferritin, D-dimer and fibrinogen and serum levels of C-Reactive Protein, in those users of PPIs compared to nonusers. Conclusion: Among hospitalized patients for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, prior use of PPIs was associated with a higher mortality risk. This association does not necessary imply causality. Further research would be required to clarify potential mechanisms.
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This study aimed to determine the relationship between ABO blood groups and mortality in patients hospitalized for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. An observational and retrospective research was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Lima, Peru. A total of 203 patients with a mean age of 62.58 ± 16.45 years were included in the research, out of whom 71.92 % were males. The frequency of O, A and B blood groups were 75.37 %, 17.24 % and 7.39 %, respectively. An association with mortality from severe COVID-19 infection was found with non-A blood groups (O group or B group), with a PR (prevalence ratio) of 2.25 and 95% CI (confidence interval) of 1.07 – 4.71. When adjusting the main variables, the association with PR remained in 2.78 and 95% CI in 1.06 – 7.24. In conclusion, patients hospitalized for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection with O and B blood groups seem to be associated with higher mortality rates than those with A blood group.
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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 required higher education systems to quickly adapt to a distance learning environment, which was facilitated by the deployment of the hybrid (traditional and innovative) learning model. However, the development of online written exams has been the most difficult challenge due to the commitment to ensure that the quality objectives of student assessment are reliably met. This work analyses the evolution, and the relationship of grades in written exams to determine the characteristics of a suitable and reliable remote exam. The data used were collected from the subject of Decision Methods for management science. Additionally, a global effect of the pandemic on the students performance was analyzed. For this purpose, Bayesian machine learning methods of classification were employed. Empirical results show that a proper design of the online exam should combine the following elements: adjusted time, conceptual questions, total randomization, biometric monitoring systems and additional control elements. The results also indicate that, in general, there has not been a negative global effect on student performance, concluding that the most important variable for determining the final exam grade is the type of question. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged multiple aspects of our lives. Social distancing among other preventive measures for reducing the contagion probability have supposed a significant challenge for many establishments. Restaurants, schools, conferences are establishments founded by the congregation of participants, distributed in tables or chairs over a certain scenario. These enterprises now face an optimization problem in their daily routine, where they seek to maximize the interpersonal distance while also allocating the maximum number of assistants. The optimization of these distribution paradigms, such as the CLP (Chair Location Problem), has been defined as NP-Hard, therefore, the use of metaheuristic techniques, such as Genetic Algorithms is recommended for obtaining an optimal solution within a polynomial time. In this paper, a GA is proposed for solving the CLP, attaining an optimal solution that maximizes the interpersonal distance among assistants while also guaranteeing a minimum distance separation for reducing the contagion probability. Results of the proposed methodology and multiple fitness evaluation strategies prove its viability for attaining a valid distribution for these establishments, thus satisfying the main objectives of this research. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Acute kidney injury (AKI) has been described as a frequent complication in patients with COVID-19. The incidence of AKI is estimated to be around 5%-80% depending on the series;however, data characterizing the type of AKI and the evolution of renal function parameters in the medium-long term are still limited. METHOD: Based on the initial AKI-COVID Registry, we developed an extended registry where we registered retrospectively new variables that included clinical and demographic characteristics, infection severity parameters and data related to AKI (ethology, KDIGO classification, need of renal replacement therapy, analytic values: baseline creatinine, maximum creatinine during admission, creatinine at discharge or death, creatinine at 1 month after hospitalization and urinary parameters). Recovery of kidney function was defined as difference in at discharge or posthospitalization creatinine < 0.3 mg/dL with respect basal creatinine. RESULTS: Our analysis included 196 patients: 74% male, mean age 66 + 13 years;65% hypertensive, 33% diabetic and 22% chronic kidney disease. According to the KDIGO classification: 66% AKI KDIGO3, 17% KDIGO2 and 15% KDIGO1. Creatinine values are summarized in Table 1. We found significant differences in the baseline/high creatinine differential;these differences were lost after hospitalization. The main types of AKI were prerenal (35%) and acute tubular necrosis secondary to sepsis (ATN) (53%). 89% of patients with ATN presented AKI KDIGO 3, compared with 57% in the prerenal group (P < .001). Patients with prerenal AKI had greater comorbidity. On the other hand, patients with ATN AKI developed more serious COVID-19 infection: higher percentage of severe pneumonia, admission to the intensive care unit and need for orotracheal intubation. The analytical parameters were more extreme in patients with ATN AKI, except for creatinine and urea upon admission, which were higher in the prerenal AKI group. A total of 89 patients died during the study;65% of ATN AKI patients versus 31% of prerenal-AKI patients (P < .001). The ATN was a mortality risk factor, whit a hazard ratio 2.74 [95% confidence interval (95% CI )1.29-5.7] (P = .008) compared with the prerenal AKI. CONCLUSION: AKI in hospitalized patients with COVID19 presented with two different clinical patterns. Prerenal AKI more frequently affected older, more comorbid patients, and with a mild COVID19 infection. The NTA AKI affected younger patients, with criteria of severity of infection and multiplying mortality almost three times. In analytical control 1-month post-hospitalization, most of the patients recovered their kidney function. Although the implications of AKI associated with COVID-19 in the development of chronic kidney disease are still unclear, our data suggest that most patients will recover kidney function in a medium term. (Table Presented).
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This article analyzes the representation of the COVID-19 crisis made by the Spanish television fiction series which were relayed and produced during the crisis: Jo tambe em quedo a casa (TV3, 2020);Diarios de la cuarentena (TVE, 2020);En casa (HBO, 2020);Relatos con-fin-a-2 (Amazon Prime Video, 2020) and Cuentame (TVE, 2021). This article study, from a cualitative methodology, the production context in the pandemic time and the textual analysis (Casetti and DiChio, 1999) of the five productions. It is concluded that the Spanish television industry showed determination, creativity and adaptation to the context of crisis, while fiction allows catharsis and makes collective memory with hardly social commitment.
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The crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the weak structures on which the supposed economic recovery was based and the strong socio-urban inequalities on which this recovery is based. The disease is an indicator of inequality but, in the context of COVID-19, so are the measures for its containment. The aim of this article is to study urban inequality in Palma through what we have called the geography of confinement, focusing the research on one of the city's most impoverished and vulnerable neighbourhoods, son Gotleu, during the confinement stage of COVID-19. The methodology combines two types of analysis, one on a city scale and the other on a neighbourhood scale. To do this, we first drew up a social map of inequality in Palma based on a Principal Component Analysis. Second, we conducted a survey on the quality of life during confinement of residents of son Gotleu. The work concludes by stating, on the one hand, the existence of important social and economic gaps in Palma. On the other hand, the weak social, economic and housing conditions faced by son Gotleu to cope with a (health and economic) crisis of this magnitude. © 2020 Asociacion de Geografos Espanoles. All rights reserved.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has supposed a challenge for some economic sectors that have suffered preventive lockdowns during the last year for mitigating the virus propagation. Among them, hostelry is one of the most affected sectors, especially indoor establishments in which the contagion probability significantly increases. In this context, preserving the interpersonal distance while wearing facemasks in these establishments has been demonstrated as a key factor to control the virus propagation in hostelry environments. The achievement of this objective entails the addressing of the Table Location Problem (TLP) which allows the maximization of the distance among the tables of a particular establishment. The TLP is considered as NP-Hard suggesting the application of metaheuristics to achieve competitive results in acceptable times. In this paper we propose a novel algorithm for the TLP (MA-GB-Chains) based on memory chains to select the more promising individuals for applying a local search procedure to introduce knowledge during the optimization process. This algorithm has been proved in a real hostelry environment reaching improved results to previous approaches to the TLP thus fulfilling the main objectives of this paper. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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BACKGROUND: Lung ultrasound (LUS) has shown to correlate well with the findings obtained by chest computed tomography (CT) in acute-phase COVID-19. Although there is a significant correlation between blood biomarkers and CT radiological findings, a potential correlation between biochemical parameters and LUS images is still unknown. Our purpose was to evaluate whether mortality can be predicted from either of two lung ultrasound scoring systems (LUSS) as well as the potential association between lung lesions visualised by LUS and blood biomarkers. METHODS: We performed a retrospective observational study on 45 patients aged>70 years with SARS-CoV-2 infection who required hospitalisation. LUS was carried out at admission and on day 7, when the clinical course was favourable or earlier in case of worsening. Disease severity was scored by means of LUSS in 8 (LUSS8) and in 12 (LUSS12) quadrants. LUS and blood draw for inflammatory marker analysis were performed at the same time. RESULTS: LUSS8 vs LUSS12 predicted mortality in 93.3% vs 91.1% of the cases; their associated odds ratios (OR) were 1.67 (95% CI 1.20-2.31) and 1.57 (95% CI 1.10-2.23), respectively. The association between biochemical parameters and LUSS scores was significant for ferritin; the OR for LUSS12 was 1.005 (95% CI 1.001-1.009) and for LUSS8 1.005 (95% CI 1.0-1.1), using thresholds for both of them. CONCLUSIONS: The prognostic capacity of LUSS12 does not surpass that of LUSS8. There is a correlation between ferritin levels and LUSS.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/mortality , Lung/diagnostic imaging , Ultrasonography , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Biomarkers/blood , Female , Ferritins/blood , Humans , Male , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , Severity of Illness Index , SpainABSTRACT
STATEMENT: The International Society for Cellular and Gene Therapies (ISCT) and the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) recognize the potential of extracellular vesicles (EVs, including exosomes) from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and possibly other cell sources as treatments for COVID-19. Research and trials in this area are encouraged. However, ISEV and ISCT do not currently endorse the use of EVs or exosomes for any purpose in COVID-19, including but not limited to reducing cytokine storm, exerting regenerative effects or delivering drugs, pending the generation of appropriate manufacturing and quality control provisions, pre-clinical safety and efficacy data, rational clinical trial design and proper regulatory oversight.