ABSTRACT
Towards the end of 2020, as people changed their usual behavior due to end of year festivities, increasing the frequency of meetings and the number of people who attended them, the COVID-19 local epidemic’s dynamic changed. Since the beginnings of this pandemic, we have been developing, calibrating and validating a local agent-based model (AbcSim) that can predict intensive care unit and deaths’ evolution from data contained in the state electronic medical records and sociological, climatic, health and geographic information from public sources. In addition, daily symptomatic and asymptomatic cases and other epidemiological variables of interest disaggregated by age group can be forecast. Through a set of Hidden Markov Models, AbcSim reproduces the transmission of the virus associated with the movements and activities of people in this city, considering the behavioral changes typical of local holidays. The calibration and validation were performed based on official data from La Rioja city in Argentina. With the results obtained, it was possible to demonstrate the usefulness of these models to predict possible outbreaks, so that decision-makers can implement the necessary policies to avoid the collapse of the health system. © 2022, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Oral communication is the most important skill in learning a foreign language. The conventional English teaching method that is applied at different educational levels based on grammar and writing, does not allow the development of communication skills necessary for the Covid-19 pandemic. Communication is the process through which ideas are sent and received. In this sense, the communicative approach takes on a special importance that communication is the ba-sis of the teaching-learning process. Method: The research approach was quantitative with a descriptive scope. Results. The investigation found that the oral expression strategies met 58.2% of conditions at the beginning, 37.8% presented the process level and 4.1% presented the achieved level. The strategies carried out to improve pronunciation were found at 33.7% in initial conditions, 60.2% were present at the level in the process and 6.1% at the achieved level. In the strategies for improving fluidity, 42.9% presented at the beginning level, 44.9% presented at the process level and 12.2% presented at the achieved level and while the strategies for vocabulary improvement were found at 33.7% of conditions at the beginning, 50% present the level in process and the 16.3% present the level achieved.
ABSTRACT
The disease named COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, is currently generating a global pandemic. Vaccine development is no doubt the best long-term immunological approach, but in the current epidemiologic and health emergency there is a need for rapid and effective solutions. Convalescent plasma is the only antibody-based therapy available for COVID-19 patients to date. Equine polyclonal antibodies (EpAbs) put forward a sound alternative. The new generation of processed and purified EpAbs containing highly purified F(ab')(2 )fragments demonstrated to be safe and well tolerated. EpAbs are easy to manufacture allowing a fast development and scaling up for a treatment. Based on these ideas, we present a new therapeutic product obtained after immunization of horses with the receptor-binding domain of the viral Spike glycoprotein. Our product shows around 50 times more potency in in vitro seroneutralization assays than the average of convalescent plasma. This result may allow us to test the safety and efficacy of this product in a phase 2/3 clinical trial to be conducted in July 2020 in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina.