Higher Education for Students with Disabilities. An Overview Through the Lens of Text Min

Inequalities and exclusion from education were exposed and worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic;however, it forced us to recognize the need to make equality, equity, and social inclusion policies effective for all. Scientific and technological solutions to global threats depend on the formation of the maximum number of qualified human resources, which entirely relies on enabling everyone to acquire, update, and improve their knowledge, skills, and competencies through lifelong learning and higher education. To guarantee inclusive and quality education for all (UN Sustainable Development Goal 4) is hard to achieve at higher education or post-secondary levels. This research aims to provide an overview of the achievements and challenges that higher education institutions (HEI) face in fulfilling the requirements of students with disabilities (SWD). We analyzed a database of 104 s from reviews of SWD in HEI published in Scopus-indexed journals between 2018 and August 2022. After data preprocessing, the text mining analysis on the corpus was visualized in word clouds and graphs. From the results, we could identify that providing access to facilities and information still dominates the research on inclusive education, and visual disability is the most frequently analyzed. The graphs reveal published research on undergraduates with disorders like Autism Spectrum (ASD), learning disorders, and visual, hearing, physical, intellectual, and psychosocial disabilities. The authors also evidenced the lack of information on the barriers and needs of SWD in HEI and potential future research to address them. Concerning the strategies to attend and care for SWD inside the classrooms, the graphs highlight Universal Design as a promising trend leading to inclusivity in higher education. The results and analyses in current research provide essential information to educational stakeholders and decision-makers inside institutions so that they can take action to embrace diversity. © 2023 IEEE.

Advancing the Understanding and Measurement of Workplace Stress in Remote Information Workers from Passive Sensors and Behavioral Data

Workplace stress has been increasing in recent decades and has worsened by the unique demands imposed by COVID-19 and the new remote/hybrid work settings. High-stress working conditions can be detrimental to the health and wellness of workers and can lead to significant business costs in terms of productivity loss and medical expenses. An essential step toward managing stress involves finding comfortable ways to sense workers and recognizing stress as soon as it happens. This work explores the potential value of using pervasive sensors such as keyboards, webcams, and behavioral data such as calendar and e-mail activity to passively assess individual stress levels of work in real-life. In particular, we collected a large corpus of such data from 46 remote information workers over one month and asked them to self-report their stress levels and other relevant factors several times a day. Analysis of the data demonstrates that passive sensors can effectively detect both triggers and manifestations of workplace stress and that having access to prior data of the worker is critical for developing well-performing stress recognition models. Furthermore, we provide qualitative feedback capturing workers' preferences in workplace stress monitoring.

University students and remote education: challenges in the face of COVID-19 in Peru

This research aims to determine the challenges university students face in terms of continuity of learning remotely without the ravages of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 affecting their professional training. The purpose is to understand their attitudes towards this global problem. From the methodological point of view, the research has a quantitative approach, a descriptive type, and a non-experimental design. A questionnaire was used as an instrument, and as a technique, a virtual survey, with the participation of 159 students of the 2020-II cycle from three Peruvian universities. The result has shown a growth and strengthening of the university's digital skills, reinforcing their dependence on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to develop their academic activities.

Supply Chain Risk Management: An Enterprise View and a Survey of Methods

As supply chains have become more global and complex, supply chain disruptions have become more frequent (Resilinc. Supply chain disruptions- Resioinc’s mid-year report. https://www.resilinc.com/in-the-news/supply-chain-disruptions-resilincs-mid-year-report/, 2021) and severe (Craighead et al. Decision Sciences 38(1):131–156, 2007). It is thus imperative for public and private enterprises to develop and implement strategies to prevent supply chain disruptions from occurring and recover quickly from them when they occur. Enterprises can do so by first establishing an effective supply chain risk management (SCRM) process that identifies, assesses, and proposes strategies to manage and monitor supply chain risks. In this chapter, we review the SCRM process and describe its four stages: risk identification, risk assessment, risk management, and risk monitoring. In doing so, we propose practices and strategies that help enterprises identify, assess, manage (accept, avoid, transfer, or mitigate), and monitor supply chain risks. We also provide examples of how enterprises across industries have implemented SCRM and identify key technologies employed within this process. Finally, we review recent research on behavioral influences in the context of SCRM. The chapter, overall, emphasizes the impact of continued risk for supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter serves as a resource to academics, students, and practitioners into the SCRM process, actionable strategies employed within each stage of this process, and behavioral factors influencing it. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Public food policies of different levels of government during the COVID-19 pandemic: the case of Bahia Blanca

This article analyses food policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, based on legislation, budgetary data and official statistics on poverty and indigence. During the pandemic, different levels of government increased the scope of most social programs and, in particular, those aimed at guaranteeing access to food directly or indirectly became of vital importance. In Bahia Blanca, most of the public investment allocated to the health emergency was directed to the purchase and distribution of food, which reflects an important role of the local level in food assistance programs. However, despite the initiatives of the different levels of government, these were not enough to address the increase in the potential need for food assistance in the population.

Acute Neurological Inflammatory Diseases in Colombia: A Multi-center Observational Study from Zika outbreak to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Objective: To evaluate clinical, laboratory, and epidemiological features of acute neuroinflammatory disorders (ANIDs) that followed the 2016 Zika epidemic in Colombia. Background: The outbreak of Zika virus infection in Colombia in 2015-2016, produced an increased incidence of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) and other ANID cases. The Neuroviruses Emerging in the Americas Study (NEAS) network was established in 2016 as a multicenter-based observatory of ANIDs to investigate the role of emerging pathogens in neuroinflammatory diseases. Design/Methods: NEAS serves as a multi-center study based on 13 hospitals in 7 cities in Colombia which study all newly diagnosed patients who fulfill established criteria for GBS, encephalitis, myelitis, meningoencephalitis, or cranial nerve disorders as part of an observational cohort. We analyzed the clinical and epidemiological features of all cases evaluated between January 2016 and September 2021. Results: An observational cohort of 825 patients with ANIDs were recruited during the study period. 58.8% of cases were male with a median age of 43 (IQR 25-58) years. The most frequent ANIDs were GBS (46.1%) and facial nerve palsy (28.7%). The diagnosis of encephalitis (9.5%), myelitis (6.5%), and optic neuritis (5.9%) were less frequent. Patients with GBS were predominantly male (70.6%) and had a median age of 49 (IQR 32-60) years. Interestingly, there was an increase incidence of GBS in 2019. Conclusions: The outbreak of Zika in Colombia produced a marked increase in the incidence of GBS in 2016. Although cases of GBS and other ANIDs continued to emerge after the incidence of Zika infection decreased in July 2016, the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has not produced any significant increase in the incidence of GBS in Colombia.

Who takes care of those who care? - a survey on the mental health of health professionals facing the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world's scenarios as well as the routines and ways of living. Health professionals are part of the population acting in the front line, and in turn, they have become a risk group, which causes feelings such as stress and anxiety, with some may even showing signs of depression. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to characterize the presence of signs of anxiety, stress and depression and relate them to social skills in 70 health professionals in a city in Parana. For the evaluation of such variables, the HAD Instrument Scale was used to evaluate signs/symptoms of anxiety and depression, with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) also being used to evaluate the stress variable, in addition to an adapted open questionnaire (CABALLO, 2003) for social skills. From the results obtained, it could be observed that the majority of the participants presents signs of depression (79.7%), as well as signs of anxiety (78.6%). Furthermore, they also present high levels of stress when compared to the Brazilian normative sample. Thus, it can be understood that health professionals are predisposed to presenting high results, since they are exposed to a stressful and high-risk context and are also in need of caring strategies. Furthermore, it is important to further expand studies in the area, given that the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is something new and therefore, requires new forms of confrontation.

Characteristics and factors associated with self-medication due to COVID-19 in students of a Peruvian University

Introduction: The university population may be vulnerable to self-medication due to COVID-19 due to their greater exposure to social networks and their tendency to imitate self-medication practices of their social environment. Objective: Assess the characteristics and factors associated with self-medication due to COVID-19 in undergraduate university students of a Peruvian university. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study (October 1st to November 14, 2020) in which 166 surveys were analyzed among students of the National University of Central Peru selected through a probabilistic sampling stratified by faculties. The factors associated with self-medication were evaluated by Poisson regression of robust variances, in this way the prevalence ratios and corresponding confidence intervals were obtained. Results: 14.5% of the students self-medicated due to COVID-19 and the main reasons were sore throat (45.8%), fever (37.5%) and disease prevention (29.2%). The most commonly used drugs were paracetamol (70.8%), aspirin (62.5%) and influenza drugs (62.5%). Some participants (20.8%) reported experiencing side effects after taking medications such as aspirin, ivermectin, dexamethasone, and chlorine dioxide. The perception that self-medication is harmful to health (PR: 0.41;CI: 0.20-0.84) and having doctors as a source of drug information (PR: 0.46;CI: 0.21-0.99) were associated with self-medication due to COVID-19. Approximately 15 out of every 100 students in the studied population self-medicated due to COVID-19. Likewise, those who perceived self-medication as harmful to health and who had doctors as a source of drug information self-medicated less. Conclusions: The results allow us to characterize the problem of self-medication due to COVID-19 in university students, while offering information for the approach of strategies that reduce its negative impact.

An Integrated and Digitalized Approach to Reduce the Well Failure Index During Covid-19 Global Pandemic in Shushufindi Field

The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented condition to the global economy including the oil & gas industry. The ability to adapt to the imposed changes, requires creativity, innovation, digitalization of processes, and resilience. This work will show a novel integrated approach around four pillars which had improved operation efficiency and brought monetary value during a challenging 2020 in Shushufindi field, Ecuador. The first pillar is new technology adoption. This aims to extend run life of critical equipment resulting in a higher well productive time. Examples of adopted technology: Chrome-enrich tubulars, downhole microcaps chemical deployment, de-sander and multiphase/extended gas handler. The second pillar is the P3 process (Pre-Pulling-Post) to quickly and effectively find the root cause of well failure that leads to definite remedial action. Digital enabler is the third pillar, its value come from reducing operational downtime and risk by using real-time surveillance capability, remote control, and data intelligence. The final pillar is to re-establish an effective communication with all stakeholders. Various dashboards have been developed in order to provide the big picture of actual field condition in quickly manner as well as implementation of ESP real time surveillance & diagnostics, real time multiphase production test, and chemical treatment automation. Workshops, online technical, and service quality meetings are regularly conducted to ensure that recommendations and opportunities can be executed properly including contractual negotiations to enable new technology implementation. Despite all the restrictions during covid-19 pandemic and some force majeures in 2020, this integrated and digitalized approach has resulted an outstanding outcome: Well failure index reduced from 0.62 in 2019 to 0.41 in 2020;Production deferment related to well failure declined significantly from 2,420 bopd in 2019 to 1,259 bopd in 2020, which translate in savings of $16.8 million dollars. In addition to that, there was a reduction on operational cost from $26.3 million dollars in 2019 to $15.2 million dollars in 2020. This proven initiative has been supported and recognized by all stakeholders. Some new technologies and digitalization projects are in the process to be implemented in Shushufindi field as part of Ecuador digital strategy 2022. This successful integrated and digitalized approach can be adopted in other fields and will generate a huge business impact. © Copyright 2021, Society of Petroleum Engineers

Evaluation of Convolutional Neural Networks for COVID-19 Classification on Chest X-Rays

Early identification of patients with COVID-19 is essential to enable adequate treatment and to reduce the burden on the health system. The gold standard for COVID-19 detection is the use of RT-PCR tests. However, due to the high demand for tests, these can take days or even weeks in some regions of Brazil. Thus, an alternative for detecting COVID-19 is the analysis of Digital Chest X-rays (XR). Changes due to COVID-19 can be detected in XR, even in asymptomatic patients. In this context, models based on deep learning have great potential to be used as support systems for diagnosis or as screening tools. In this paper, we propose the evaluation of convolutional neural networks to identify pneumonia due to COVID-19 in XR. The proposed methodology consists of a preprocessing step of the XR, data augmentation, and classification by the convolutional architectures DenseNet121, InceptionResNetV2, InceptionV3, MovileNetV2, ResNet50, and VGG16 pre-trained with the ImageNet dataset. The obtained results for our methodology demonstrate that the VGG16 architecture presented a superior performance in the classification of XR, with an Accuracy of 85.11 %, Sensitivity of 85.25 %, Specificity of 85.16 %, F1-score of 85.03 %, and an AUC of 0.9758. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Toxic epidermal necrolysis triggered by COVID-19

Introduction: Even though the recent outbreak of a novel coronavirus does not severely affect the pediatric population, a previously healthy 15-year-old female, who had started with bilateral conjunctivitis, progressed to toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS) in 12 hours. The RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 infection was positive with an epidemiologic link 72 hours before onset of symptoms. Methods: The patient was referred to Gutierrez Children’s Hospital intensive care unit (ICU), where she was diagnosed with TEN, bibasal pneumonia and MIS, gammaglobulin and corticosteroids therapy was indicated. She had severe ocular compromise, with bilateral bullous lesions on eyelids and extensive corneal ulcer. We performed amniotic membrane transplantation and placed a symblepharon ring in order to minimize the destructive inflammation and damage of the ocular surface during acute phase. Results: Patient evolution was favorable. She was transferred to the COVID-19 unit after 10 days. Complete reabsorption of amniotic membrane was confirmed in 15 days, symblepharon ring was removed and continued with preservative-free lubricant, cyclosporine 0.05% and serum tears drops. After 35 days of hospitalization, she was discharged with regulated multidisciplinary controls. The patient achieved best-corrected visual acuity 20/20 in both eyes, with moderate dry eye symptoms and localized trichiasis. Conclusion/Relevance: In this case, a strong correlation of COVID-19 with TEN was suspected. TEN is a potentially devastating disease that involves permanent painful visual problems. We emphasize early and intensive treatment because the management of the sequelae is extremely challenging, many of the chronic problems are impossible to repair completely.

Colombian consensus for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of thrombotic conditions in adults with COVID-19: applying GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) Frameworks

Introduction: recent studies have reported the occurrence of thrombotic phenomena or coagulopathy in patients with COVID-19. There are divergent positions regarding the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of these phenomena, and current clinical practice is based solely on deductions by extension from retrospective studies, case series, observational studies, and international guidelines developed prior to the pandemic. Objective: to generate a group of recommendations on the prevention, diagnosis and management of thrombotic complications associated with COVID-19. Methods: a rapid guidance was carried out applying the GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworks and an iterative participation system, with statistical and qualitative analysis. Results: 31 clinical recommendations were generated focused on: a) Coagulation tests in symptomatic adults with suspected infection or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection;b) Thromboprophylaxis in adults diagnosed with COVID-19 (Risk scales, thromboprophylaxis for outpatient, in-hospital management, and duration of thromboprophylaxis after discharge from hospitalization), c) Diagnosis and treatment of thrombotic complications, and d) Management of people with previous indication of anticoagulant agents. Conclusions: recommendations of this consensus guide clinical decision-making regarding the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of thrombotic phenomena in patients with COVID-19, and represent an agreement that will help decrease the dispersion in clinical practices according to the challenge imposed by the pandemic.