Innovations in courts: Validation of a scale of technological innovation

The development of studies on technological innovations in the public sector, specifically in justice system, is still little explored in the literature. This article aimed to develop and validate a scale of technological innovation in the justice system during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection procedures were carried out by means of questionnaires sent to 20.727 e-mails of civil servants and judges of the state courts of justice in Brazil. The relationships among the innovation variables that make up the technological innovation construct in the Brazilian judiciary were studied. The factor analyses resulted in the main factors listed by the respondents, as the innovative trend factor (IT);technological resources factor (TR);governance factor and its evidence (G);and innovation and technology factor (IT). For responses to the studies, descriptive statistical analysis was performed, and the innovative sensitivity and technological integration variables presented greater commonalities, and the two factors extracted explain 74% and 67% of the variance. After the descriptive statistical treatment, the confidence level was 99% and the error margin was 4.87%, resulting in a sample of 679 respondents.

AGENTES ETIOLÓGICOS DE MENINGOENCEFALITE CIRCULANTES DURANTE O PERÍODO DE PANDEMIA DA COVID-19

Introdução A pandemia pelo novo coronavírus trouxe mudanças no comportamento da população. O impacto do efeito do uso de máscaras, do distanciamento social e das mudanças de comportamento da população sobre a circulação dos agentes etiológicos das meningites é desconhecido. Objetivo Descrever os agentes etiológicos em pacientes com meningite da comunidade durante o período de pandemia pelo COVID-19. Método Estudo de coorte retrospectiva, de janeiro de 2019 a dezembro de 2021, composta por pacientes com suspeita de meningite, em hospital terciário de ensino, conveniado ao SUS, em Fortaleza, Ceará. A identificação do microrganismo foi por cultura para germes piogênicos, micobactérias, fungos, sorologia e RT-PCR para arbovírus, RT-PCR para SARS-CoV-2, FilmArrayR Meningitis/Encephalitis Panel (Biomérieux) e GeneXpert MTB/RIF (Cepheid). Resultados Foram atendidos no hospital 721 casos suspeitos de meningite durante o período, e analisados 201 pacientes (28% do total). Em 143 (68%) houve confirmação de meningite. Cultura para germes piogênicos foi realizada em 92 (64%) pacientes, e os microrganismos encontrados foram: Cryptococcus sp. (n = 3;3%), S. pneumoniae (n = 3;3%), S. aureus (n = 1;1%), S. suis sorotipo I (n = 1;1%), S. agalactiae (n = 1;1%), N. meningitidis grupo C (n = 1;1%), K. pneumoniae (n = 1;1%), L. monocytogenes (n = 1;1%) e Corynebacterium jeikeium (n = 1;1%). A cultura para fungos (Cryptococcus) foi positiva em 10 pacientes. A cultura para micobactérias foi realizada em 34 (24%) pacientes, com 2 (6%) positivas. O PCR Multiplex foi realizado em 105 (73%) pacientes, com identificação de S. pneumoniae (n = 16;15%), N. meningitidis (n = 13;12%), Vírus Varicela-Zoster (n = 8;8%), Cryptococcus sp. (n = 7;7%), Citomegalovírus (n = 6;6%), Enterovírus (n = -5;5%), HSV-1 (n = 3;3%), HSV-2 (n = 2;2%), S. agalactiae (n = 2;2%), Haemophilus influenzae (n = 1;1%), Herpesvírus 6 (n = 1;1%) e Listeria monocytogenes (n = 1;1%). Houve coinfecção em 3 pacientes. O RT-PCR para M. tuberculosis (MTB) foi realizado em 51 (36%) pacientes, com detecção em 13 pacientes (25%). No período estudado, houve dois casos de meningite por SARS-CoV-2 (2%). Conclusão Identificaram-se uma ampla variedade de agentes etiológicos em circulação durante a pandemia. Apesar de S. pneumoniae e N. meningitidis terem sido os agentes mais frequentes, destacou-se a variedade de vírus. Foi relevante o incremento no diagnóstico das meningites pelos métodos moleculares em comparação com as culturas. Casos de meningoencefalite por COVID-19 foram identificados.

Development and validation of a simple web-based tool for early prediction of COVID-19-associated death in kidney transplant recipients.

This analysis, using data from the Brazilian kidney transplant (KT) COVID-19 study, seeks to develop a prediction score to assist in COVID-19 risk stratification in KT recipients. In this study, 1379 patients (35 sites) were enrolled, and a machine learning approach was used to fit models in a derivation cohort. A reduced Elastic Net model was selected, and the accuracy to predict the 28-day fatality after the COVID-19 diagnosis, assessed by the area under the ROC curve (AUC-ROC), was confirmed in a validation cohort. The better calibration values were used to build the applicable ImAgeS score. The 28-day fatality rate was 17% (n = 235), which was associated with increasing age, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, higher body mass index, dyspnea, and use of mycophenolate acid or azathioprine. Higher kidney graft function, longer time of symptoms until COVID-19 diagnosis, presence of anosmia or coryza, and use of mTOR inhibitor were associated with reduced risk of death. The coefficients of the best model were used to build the predictive score, which achieved an AUC-ROC of 0.767 (95% CI 0.698-0.834) in the validation cohort. In conclusion, the easily applicable predictive model could assist health care practitioners in identifying non-hospitalized kidney transplant patients that may require more intensive monitoring. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04494776.

High mortality among kidney transplant recipients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019: Results from the Brazilian multicenter cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplant (KT) recipients are considered a high-risk group for unfavorable outcomes in the course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). AIM: To describe the clinical aspects and outcomes of COVID-19 among KT recipients. METHODS: This multicenter cohort study enrolled 1,680 KT recipients diagnosed with COVID-19 between March and November 2020, from 35 Brazilian centers. The main outcome was the 90-day cumulative incidence of death, for the entire cohort and according to acute kidney injury (AKI) and renal replacement therapy (RRT) requirement. Fatality rates were analyzed according to hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mechanical ventilation (MV) requirement. Multivariable analysis was performed by logistic regression for the probability of hospitalization and death. RESULTS: The median age of the recipients was 51.3 years, 60.4% were men and 11.4% were Afro-Brazilian. Comorbidities were reported in 1,489 (88.6%), and the interval between transplantation and infection was 5.9 years. The most frequent symptoms were cough (54%), myalgia (40%), dyspnea (37%), and diarrhea (31%), whereas the clinical signs were fever (61%) and hypoxemia (13%). Hospitalization was required in 65.1%, and immunosuppressive drugs adjustments were made in 74.4% of in-hospital patients. ICU admission was required in 34.6% and MV in 24.9%. In the multivariable modeling, the variables related with the probability of hospitalization were age, hypertension, previous cardiovascular disease, recent use of high dose of steroid, and fever, dyspnea, diarrhea, and nausea or vomiting as COVID-19 symptoms. On the other hand, the variables that reduced the probability of hospitalization were time of COVID-19 symptoms, and nasal congestion, headache, arthralgia and anosmia as COVID-19 symptoms. The overall 90-day cumulative incidence of death was 21.0%. The fatality rates were 31.6%, 58.2%, and 75.5% in those who were hospitalized, admitted to the ICU, and required MV, respectively. At the time of infection, 23.2% had AKI and 23.4% required RRT in the follow-up. The cumulative incidence of death was significantly higher among recipients with AKI (36.0% vs. 19.1%, P < 0.0001) and in those who required RRT (70.8% vs. 10.1%, P < 0.0001). The variables related with the probability of death within 90 days after COVID-19 were age, time after transplantation, presence of hypertension, previous cardiovascular disease, use of tacrolimus and mycophenolate, recent use of high dose of steroids, and dyspnea as COVID-19 symptom. On the other hand, the variables that reduced the risk of death were time of symptoms, and headache and anosmia as COVID-19 symptoms. CONCLUSION: The patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were long-term KT recipients and most of them had some comorbidities. One in every five patients died, and the rate of death was significantly higher in those with AKI, mainly when RRT was required.

Production of high-quality SARS-CoV-2 antigens: Impact of bioprocess and storage on glycosylation, biophysical attributes, and ELISA serologic tests performance.

Serological assays are valuable tools to study SARS-CoV-2 spread and, importantly, to identify individuals that were already infected and would be potentially immune to a virus reinfection. SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and its receptor binding domain (RBD) are the antigens with higher potential to develop SARS-CoV-2 serological assays. Moreover, structural studies of these antigens are key to understand the molecular basis for Spike interaction with angiotensin converting enzyme 2 receptor, hopefully enabling the development of COVID-19 therapeutics. Thus, it is urgent that significant amounts of this protein became available at the highest quality. In this study, we produced Spike and RBD in two human derived cell hosts: HEK293-E6 and Expi293F™. We evaluated the impact of different and scalable bioprocessing approaches on Spike and RBD production yields and, more importantly, on these antigens' quality attributes. Using negative and positive sera collected from human donors, we show an excellent performance of the produced antigens, assessed in serologic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests, as denoted by the high specificity and sensitivity of the test. We show robust Spike productions with final yields of approx. 2 mg/L of culture that were maintained independently of the production scale or cell culture strategy. To the best of our knowledge, the final yield of 90 mg/L of culture obtained for RBD production, was the highest reported to date. An in-depth characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Spike and RBD proteins was performed, namely the antigen's oligomeric state, glycosylation profiles, and thermal stability during storage. The correlation of these quality attributes with ELISA performance show equivalent reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 positive serum, for all Spike and RBD produced, and for all storage conditions tested. Overall, we provide straightforward protocols to produce high-quality SARS-CoV-2 Spike and RBD antigens, that can be easily adapted to both academic and industrial settings; and integrate, for the first time, studies on the impact of bioprocess with an in-depth characterization of these proteins, correlating antigen's glycosylation and biophysical attributes to performance of COVID-19 serologic tests.