Flourishing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in South Africa.

In this longitudinal study, we examine changes in psychological distress and multidimensional well-being from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic among South African adults. As a secondary purpose, we explore whether pre-pandemic flourishing is protective against subsequent psychological distress during the public health crisis. The analytic sample (n = 293; Mage = 44.27, SD = 14.28; female = 65.19%) completed measures of anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and well-being shortly before the stringent nationwide lockdown started in South Africa (T1). A follow-up assessment was completed approximately 6 months later (T2). Paired samples t-tests supported very small improvements in anxiety (d = -0.09) and depression symptoms (d = -0.13). For domains of well-being, small increases were found in close social relationships (d = 0.25) and financial and material stability (d = 0.19). Positive changes in the domains of character and virtue (d = 0.10) and meaning and purpose (d = 0.07) were very small. Changes in physical and mental health (d = -0.03) and life satisfaction and happiness (d = 0.02) were more negligible. Results from the generalized linear models indicated that continuous scores of secure flourishing assessed before the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with lower subsequent psychological distress (particularly depression symptoms) during the public health crisis. We discuss the implications of the findings for the development and delivery of interventions to promote and sustain human flourishing during public health crises, especially in contexts of social-structural vulnerability.

The Influence of Core Training In Cardiorespiratory Hospitalized Patients-Case Report

Keywords: Core Muscles;Functional Capacity;Peak Cough Flow;Hospitalized Patients;Case Report Introduction The "core" has been used to refer a three-dimensional space, the lumbopelvic-hip complex, which involves deeper muscles, such as the internal oblique, transverses abdominals, transversospinalis (multifidus, rotators, semispinalis), quadratus lumborum, and psoas major and minor, and superficial muscles, such as the rectus abdominis, external oblique, erector spinae (iliocostalis, spinalis, longissimus) latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus and medius, hamstrings, and rectus femoris [1, 2]. At the beginning of the session HR, respiratory rate (RR), SpO2, Blood pressure (BP), dyspnea (using the MBS) was monitored for all patients and for those who have diabetes was also monitored glucose levels. Personal history (PH) of SARS-CoV2 pneumonia in March 2021 (hospitalized for 1 month in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) using mechanically invasive ventilation), type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) treated with premixed insulin, polyneuropathy for more than 10 years, arterial hypertension (AH), chronic kidney disease (CKD), coronary heart disease (placement stent in 2010), dyslipidaemia, chronic gastritis, lithiasis and renal cysts.

Classification of Covid-19 Patients Requiring Intensive Care Unit

As the world faced the covid-19 pandemic, there was a surge in the number of patients that overwhelmed many hospitals. Due to the limited number of Intensive Care Units (ICUs), some hospitals also find it difficult to meet ICU needs for covid-19 patients. So there is a need to set priorities for patients who really need to get treatment in ICU. In this paper, a classification modelling of Covid-19 patients requiring ICU was carried out using Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. The data used to build the model was data from Mexican government obtained from the Kaggle website. Tests were carried out on 3 types of SVM kernels, namely Linear Kernel, Polynomial Kernel, and Gaussian RBF Kernel toward dataset before and after balancing process. From the results of validation testing using 3-fold and 5-fold cross validation, the best accuracy of 87.1055% was obtained using the three kernels toward dataset without balancing. © 2021 IEEE.

PARACOCCIDIOIDOMICOSE COMO DIAGNÓSTICO DIFERENCIAL DE NEOPLASIA EM SNC

A paracoccidioidomicose (PCM) possui elevada incidência na América Latina, com amplo espectro clínico e imagiológico. A forma crônica é a mais prevalente, com o clássico acometimento pulmonar. Há ainda formas menos convencionais, destacando-se o acometimento do Sistema Nervoso Central (SNC). O padrão ouro para o diagnóstico é a visualização do fungo e seu crescimento em cultura de espécimes clínicos. Métodos sorológicos são complementares, com sensibilidade/especificidade variando de 80-95% e 85-100%, respectivamente, a depender dos antígenos utilizados. Homem, 60 anos, procedente do Tocantins, transportador de grãos, tabagista, queixava-se de vertigem há um ano, cefaleia há 5 meses, alteração progressiva da fala, da marcha e paresia em braço E. Tomografia computadorizada (TC) e Ressonância Magnética (RM) de crânio demostravam lesões nodulares volumosas (maior 4 x 3,8 cm), heterogêneas e com edema adjacente em cerebelo D, lobos frontal D e parietal E, sugestivas de neoplasia. TC de tórax com múltiplos nódulos, espessamento e adenomegalias mediastinais. Submetido a biópsia cerebral em hospital oncológico, tendo diagnóstico de COVID-19 na internação. Transferido ao Hospital das Clínicas. Avaliação da infectologia descreveu raio X de tórax com padrão em asa de borboleta e lesão granulomatosa em palato. Raspado da lesão e aspirado traqueal demonstraram leveduras multibrotantes. Histopatológico (AP) da biópsia de SNC foi resgatado e descrevia estruturas leveduriformes, birrefringentes, com brotamentos em roda denteada, compatíveis com PCM. Imunodifusão dupla reagente e cultura positiva para Paracoccidioides spp. Recebeu Anfotericina B desoxicolato por 7 dias e complexo lipídico por mais 20 dias. Obteve alta com melhora da cognição, da fala e da marcha, ainda necessitando auxilio para atividades. Em acompanhamento ambulatorial, paciente sem déficits, comunicativo e sem novas queixas. RM de controle mantém lesões nodulares, com redução significativa do tamanho, do edema e da captação de contraste. Programado Sulfametoxazol Trimetoprima 3cp 12h/12h por 18-24 meses, pela melhor penetração em SNC. A forma neurológica da PCM é de difícil diagnóstico, muitas vezes confundida com neoplasias devido ao seu efeito de massa. A pesquisa direta, AP, cultura e sorologias são métodos diagnósticos disponíveis, que facilitam a definição etiológica. A busca por outros locais de comprometimento, como pulmonar, mucosas e linfonodos podem agilizar o diagnóstico e o tratamento da PCM.

The impact of COVID-19 on the Brazilian Power Sector: Operational, commercial, and regulatory aspects

The Coronavirus outbreak has imposed different levels of stay-at-home orders worldwide to help contain the disease spread, thus promoting severe impacts over the global economy. The World Bank expects 90% of the world economy to go into recession, being this the most severe global economic crisis since the second world war. Consequently, electricity consumption has fallen sharply in many countries, so as in Brazil, what provoked critical effects over many electricity sector stakeholders. In this context, this article discusses the main consequences of COVID-19s outbreak over the Brazilian electricity sector and some measures taken by the government and the regulator to address such issues. Further, this work proposes a long-term electricity demand forecast methodology, taking into consideration bottom-up technics for general demand growth and top-down technics for the expansion of distributed generation in Brazil. The model uses as input economic forecasts from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Brazilian market consolidated expectations disclosed by the Brazilian Central Bank. The model proves to be useful to long-term demand forecast by producing results adherent to official forecasts published by Brazilian governmental institutions. © 2003-2012 IEEE.

Ivf during coronavirus pandemic: Who comes first? the poseidon viewpoint

COVID-19 is the world’s most massive epidemic known to date. In order to prevent hospital burdens, governments around the world have adopted restrictive containment mea-sures. Such measures have led to a temporary suspension of all non-urgent clinical procedures. With the reduction of con-tagions, in some country there is a slow and gradual restoration of clinical treatments including reproductive medicine. Even with all safety precautions, the risk of infection is real for infertility patients, medical staff, and the community, making it crucial to establish which infertile patients should be prioritized for treatment provision. Indeed, postponing treatments in infertile patients who show a strictly time-de-pendent reproductive prognosis, could definitely affect reproductive chances. In this sense, POSEIDON group propose the use of a specific algorithm that could help clinicians to most optimally manage who need immediate IVF treatment during COVID-19 pandemic.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs): Evolution, specificity, role in transcriptional complexes, and pharmacological actionability

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are evolutionary conserved enzymes which operate by removing acetyl groups from histones and other protein regulatory factors, with functional consequences on chromatin remodeling and gene expression profiles. We provide here a review on the recent knowledge accrued on the zinc-dependent HDAC protein family across different species, tissues, and human pathologies, specifically focusing on the role of HDAC inhibitors as anti-cancer agents. We will investigate the chemical specificity of different HDACs and discuss their role in the human interactome as members of chromatin-binding and regulatory complexes. Copyright © 2020 by the authors.

Smartphone-Based Screening for Cardiovascular Diseases: A Trend?

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the world. People living in vulnerable and poor places such as slums, rural areas and remote locations have difficulty in accessing medical care and diagnostic tests. In addition, given the COVID-19 pandemic, we are witnessing an increase in the use of telemedicine and non-invasive tools for monitoring vital signs. These questions motivate us to write this point of view and to describe some of the main innovations used for non-invasive screening of heart diseases. Smartphones are widely used by the population and are perfect tools for screening cardiovascular diseases. They are equipped with camera, flashlight, microphone, processor, and internet connection, which allow optical, electrical, and acoustic analysis of cardiovascular phenomena. Thus, when using signal processing and artificial intelligence approaches, smartphones may have predictive power for cardiovascular diseases. Here we present different smartphone approaches to analyze signals obtained from various methods including photoplethysmography, phonocardiograph, and electrocardiography to estimate heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation (SpO2 ), heart murmurs and electrical conduction. Our objective is to present innovations in non-invasive diagnostics using the smartphone and to reflect on these trending approaches. These could help to improve health access and the screening of cardiovascular diseases for millions of people, particularly those living in needy areas. © 2022, Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia. All rights reserved.