ABSTRACT
Background The epidemic of COVID-19 caused by the Coronavirus -SARS-CoV-2, was declared by the World Health Organization an International Public Health Emergency. The 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to the closure of educational institutions. This situation kept students socially distant, with little adaptation time, interfering with their quality of life. Methods The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of life of higher education students in the face of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 775 students were selected by convenience sampling. Study with a quantitative, descriptive, correlational approach. The WHOQOL-bref instrument adapted from WHO was applied. Data analysis was undertaken using the IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. Results Students' self-assessment about Quality of Life is globally superior to the self-assessment with their satisfaction with health, where the female students have lower average values than the male students. The WHOQOL-bref domains referring to Quality of Life with higher values were the Physical and the Environment ones, with the Social Relations and Psychological domains having the lowest values. Conclusions The development of this study made it possible to achieve the objective set. The domain of social relations has low average values, with students from IPSantarem standing out, with lower self-assessment of QoL in this domain, compared to those from IPLeiria. In the psychological domain, the low average values in both institutes stand out, especially in IPLeiria, where the average is less than 50%, in both genders.
ABSTRACT
Background There is considerable variation in people's attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic. One way to understand why people differ in their attitudes is to examine how personality traits predict the degree to which people hold different attitudes. Methods We collected data (N = 1420) from Portugal and Spain using Facebook advertising. We measured the Dark Triad and Big Five traits, and negative affect, along with ad hoc items for religiousness, and attitudes towards and fear of COVID. Results Neuroticism and Negative affect was linked to various domains of insecurity or fear and provides insights into how personality predicts concerns and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Religious people were less trusting in science, thought prayer was answer, and attributed the existence of the virus to an act of God. Women reported more fear of COVID-19 than men did, and this was enabled by women's greater tendency to have Negative Affect and higher Neuroticism than men. Conclusions Neurotic people and those with more Negative Affect appear to be more fearful, more trusting in others and systems likely to protect them (e.g. scientists), and less likely to trust in systems shown to not help them (e.g. prayer). We found other effects for the Dark Triad traits and the Big Five traits. In total, we highlight some of the reasons that people may be in such disagreements about what to do about the virus at the individual and institutional levels. Personality, place, and participant's sex all appear to play a role in the psychology of COVID-19 beliefs.
ABSTRACT
There is increasing recognition worldwide of the importance of academic activities, specifically in situations of pandemics. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the effects of COVID-19 on lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students who have faced unexpected and continuous disruption in their teaching and research activities. To fulfil the aims, the study focused on a mixed method approach quantitative study based on a questionnaire administered on social networks and open questions. The unit of analysis was lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students. The results obtained show that this lengthy interruption had severe impacts on their activities, requiring new competencies and capacities to deal with changes in a short period of time, including less positive feelings affecting them and their families. The main contribution of this study lies in identifying the barriers and opportunities created by this virus in the academic world and in presenting a theoretical framework to improve the situation, given that the confinement exponentiated negative and psychological feelings in academics, although telework is seen as a positive factor with continuity in the future, as a way to foster the social, environmental sustainability of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the wellbeing of their human capital. As implications for practice, the evidence points to the need for academics to be provided with training in E-learning, about technological tools for use in distance-learning and to reconsider how they carry out their research on the ground.
ABSTRACT
Three pathogenic human coronaviruses have emerged, with SARS-2 causing a global pandemic. While therapeutic antibodies targeting the SARS-2 spike currently focus on the poorly conserved receptor-binding domain, targeting essential neutralizing epitopes on the more conserved S2 domain may provide broader protection. We report three antibodies binding epitopes conserved on the pre-fusion MERS, SARS-1 and SARS-2 spike S2 domains. Antibody 3A3 binds a conformational epitope with ~2.5 nM affinity and neutralizes in in vitro SARS-2 cell fusion and pseudovirus assays. Hydrogen-Deuterium exchange mass spectrometry identified residues 980-1006 in the flexible hinge region at the S2 apex as the 3A3 epitope, consistent with binding to natural and engineered spike variants. This location at the spike trimer interface suggests 3A3 prevents the S2 conformational rearrangements required for virus-host cell fusion. This work defines a highly conserved vulnerable site on the SARS-2 S2 domain and may help guide design of pan-protective spike immunogens.