Digital Native Media in the Face of Journalistic Security

In the scenario marked by digitalization, digital media have found spaces that allow them to face labor problems and at the same time face the risks and vulnerability that threaten the security of journalists. Therefore, this research is established to know some issues related to security: economic limitations of access to public information, censorship, and self-censorship in the journalistic exercise in Ecuador. The observation was carried out within the framework of the pandemic unleashed by the presence of COVID-19 and its variants. For the execution of the research, the qualitative methodology was applied with semi-structured interviews to investigative journalists of consolidated digital native media. Among the conclusions are noted that the pandemic brought with it labor precariousness;however, digital media have managed to maintain themselves with external funds or own resources. For the journalistic exercise, public information becomes a severe concern because access has been restricted, and there is little transparency in its disclosure. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Management skills and digital transition for Mipymes Zone 3-Ecuador

After the Covid-19 pandemic, companies have faced a challenge in their economic activities, especially in the profile of human resources. The main objective of this research was to diagnose the managerial competencies of FMCG MSMEs in Zone 3-Ecuador necessary for a digital transition during the post-pandemic period. It is conceived as a descriptive study, with a prospective approach that used a structured survey for data collection, focused on a sample of 371 MSMEs in zone 3. Statistical tools were used for a quantitative analysis. In the results, two sections are presented, the first one focused on the diagnosis of the current situation of the companies, and the second one aligned to a statistical analysis where it was proved that managerial competences influence an adequate digital transition. It is concluded that it was evidenced that these are of vital importance because they support the improvement of the preparation and knowledge that both management and operational personnel possess;as well as, to face the challenges in the face of unexpected events. © 2023, Universidad del Zulia. All rights reserved.

Foreign language anxiety of an Ecuadorian polytechnic university's English undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: This research aimed to identify the levels of stress students experience, the different sources that generate them and the relationship between the stress levels and the students' gender. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods design was used, focusing on the quantitative stage. The qualitative section was designed to obtain supporting information. 86 Ecuadorian undergraduate polytechnic students enrolled in an English course took part in this study. Quantitative data are obtained using the Telecollaborative Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (T-FLAS), while online interviews supply insight from students. Findings: The present research identified four types of anxiety related to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Communication anxiety is one of them that has also been found in regular foreign language classes (Horowitz et al., 1986). However, the actual contribution is regarding the other three sources of ERT-related anxiety: Online interaction anxiety, ERT anxiety and technology anxiety. Also, it was identified that girls experience higher anixety levels than men do. Research limitations/implications: A limitation of this study is the T-FLAS, a tool that has not been widely used. However, as Fondo and Jacobetty (2020) reported, other papers have made use of this novel tool. Another limitation to this research is the number of participants;although it is not very small, it might not be considered large enough for generalization purposes. Also, this study was limited by its scope, which only looked at the relationship between the students' genders and anxiety levels. Practical implications: First, this researcher recommends that language departments use the survey at the beginning of each semester. That way, there will be a clear idea of the sources of anxiety students are experiencing, and measures can be taken to lower those anxiety-causing factors. Also, this study shows students experiencing a high level of anxiety when they are required to interact with their peers using a foreign language. Thus, supplying practice through guided discussions and role-plays should allow learners to reduce their anxiety levels and perform better during these kinds of exchanges in the short term. Social implications: Another issue reported by this study is the feelings of uneasiness when turning cameras on to do an exercise or taking quizzes and exams, as learners feel like their classmates and teachers are invading their homes. It is recommended that the Student Welfare Department of the educational institutions deal with this and other issues. They can design intervention, relaxation and yoga programs for students who are feeling anxious to help them lower those feeling and allow them to have better interactions in class during these times of remote learning. Originality/value: This paper's originality lies in the fact that it looks at anxiety from the point of view of the COVID-19 pandemic and the move it had to be made to the digital realm. It identifies three factors that are new and related 100% to emergency remote teaching–learning. It is also valuable as it is looking at data emerging for a South American country, as data are scarce from this continent and especially from Ecuador. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Decreasing incidence rates of osteoporotic hip fractures in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We aimed at comparing the incidence of hip fractures in older adults from Ecuador before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a significant reduction in the number of hip fractures, with no change in the length of hospital stay, mortality, and case-fatality rate, during the period of social isolation. INTRODUCTION: The impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on fragility fractures is being recently evaluated in the literature. Despite this, data from Latin America in this regard is scarce. PURPOSE: This study aims to compare the incidence rate of hip fractures before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in older adults who received care in the public and private health system of Ecuador. METHODS: This was a descriptive and retrospective study that analyzed data of individuals aged 60 years and older who had hip fractures before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information was obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Yearbook. We calculated the incidence, average length of hospital stay, mortality, and case-fatality rate associated with hip fractures. RESULTS: There was a significant reduction in the incidence of hip fractures in adults 60 or older during the period of social isolation due to COVID-19. Between March and December 2019, there was an incidence of 152 hip fractures per 100,000 inhabitants, whereas during the same period but in 2020 in the incidence was 110 per 100,000 inhabitants (p < 0.0001). The main decrease was observed in women aged 80 or more. The average length of hospital stay did not show significant changes. Mortality displayed a non-significant decrease (p = 0.14), although this decrease was significant among women (p = 0.02). Case-fatality rate showed a non-significant increase for the whole group (p = 0.68) and for men (p = 0.09). CONCLUSION: Hip fracture rates decreased significantly in adults aged 60 and older in 2020 compared to 2019. This decrease of hip fracture incidence rates was mainly due to the reductions observed in older people and women. The average length of hospital stay, mortality, and case-fatality rate associated with hip fractures did not show significant changes during the pandemic.

Perceived Risks of Infection, Hospitalization, and Death From COVID-19 at the Equator: Ecuador and Kenya.

OBJECTIVES: This study's goal was to determine the perceived risks of infection as well as the perceived risks of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 in Ecuador and Kenya. It also assessed the factors associated with the risk-related perceptions. METHODS: Cross-sectional studies with samples from the adult populations in both countries were conducted to assess the perceived risks of contracting COVID-19. Data were collected online using the Qualtrics platform (Qualtrics, Provo, Utah, United States) from samples of 1050 heads of households, aged 18 years or older, in each country. A total of 3 statistical analyses were conducted: summary statistics, correlation, and linear regression. RESULTS: The average perceived risks of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death in the Kenyan sample were 27.1%, 43.2%, and 17.2%, respectively, and the values for the Ecuadorian sample were 34%, 32.8%, and 23.3%, respectively. The Pearson's correlation coefficients between the risk measures in each country were less than 0.38. Risk measures were associated with several sociodemographic variables (e.g., income, gender, location), but not with age. CONCLUSIONS: The perceived risks of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death in Kenya and Ecuador were significantly higher relative to the statistics reported; however, no strong association existed between perceived risk and age, which is a key factor in adverse health outcomes, including death, among COVID-19 infected individuals.

Effects of hydrometeorological and other factors on SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number in three contiguous countries of Tropical Andean South America: a spatiotemporally disaggregated time series analysis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused societal disruption globally and South America has been hit harder than other lower-income regions. This study modeled effects of 6 weather variables on district-level SARS-CoV-2 reproduction numbers (R t ) in three contiguous countries of Tropical Andean South America (Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), adjusting for environmental, policy, healthcare infrastructural and other factors. Methods: Daily time-series data on SARS-CoV-2 infections were sourced from health authorities of the three countries at the smallest available administrative level. R t values were calculated and merged by date and unit ID with variables from a Unified COVID-19 dataset and other publicly available sources for May - December 2020. Generalized additive models were fitted. Findings: Relative humidity and solar radiation were inversely associated with SARS-CoV-2 R t . Days with radiation above 1,000 KJ/m2 saw a 1.3%, and those with humidity above 50%, a 0.9% reduction in R t . Transmission was highest in densely populated districts, and lowest in districts with poor healthcare access and on days with least population mobility. Wind speed, temperature, region, aggregate government policy response and population age structure had little impact. The fully adjusted model explained 4.3% of R t variance. Interpretation: Dry atmospheric conditions of low humidity increase, and higher solar radiation decrease district-level SARS-CoV-2 reproduction numbers, effects that are comparable in magnitude to population factors like lockdown compliance. Weather monitoring could be incorporated into disease surveillance and early warning systems in conjunction with more established risk indicators and surveillance measures. Funding: NASA's Group on Earth Observations Work Programme (16-GEO16-0047).

Results of the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador: a comparison with South America.

Objectives: The objective of this research was to demonstrate the evolution of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ecuador and South America during the first eight months after the start of the pandemic in the region. Methodology: In Ecuador, data from the Civil Registry, COVID-19 Ec and Ecuador were used in figures regarding the number of deaths, available beds, and infections of health personnel. The population data was obtained from the UN projection for the year 2020, and for the daily contagion reports, the source Our World in Data was used. The graphs were made in Google Drive spreadsheets. Result(s): The impact of the pandemic has affected the entire world, affecting South America with a high daily increase in cases even months after the first outbreak, in addition to the arrival of the second wave of contagion in Europe. The next few months are expected to lighten the panorama with the help of scientific advances in the development of the vaccine and a better understanding of the diagnosis, clinical manifestations and treatment of the disease. Conclusion(s): Ecuador was seriously affected with a significant increase in mortality rates and a lack of health resources. The comparison between the South American countries revealed that the highest spikes in contagion and mortality during the first wave occurred in July and August. It was recommended to continue complying with the rules of social distancing to prevent the appearance of a second wave during the beginning of 2021. Copyright © 2022, Venezuelan Society of Pharmacology and Clinical and Therapeutic Pharmacology. All rights reserved.

Palliative therapeutic alternatives used in COVID-19 for Kichwa population from the Pacayacu community.

The objective of this work is to present the palliative therapeutic alternatives used in the face of COVID-19 that have been adopted among several, one of the most outstanding communities of the Pastaza province located in the Ecuador-ian Amazon region, is Pacayacu, which includes the Kichwa nationality in the Sarayaku parish and has maintained a con-stant struggle for the protection of the environment and for the dissemination of its customs, traditions and worldview. A quali-quantitative study was carried out to understand the de-mography, ethnography and geographical situation of Saray-aku, in addition, members of the community were interviewed in order to know the therapies, the process, properties and benefits of the therapies, as well as 223 people of the province to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the disclosure of the treatments. Copyright © 2022, Venezuelan Society of Pharmacology and Clinical and Therapeutic Pharmacology. All rights reserved.

Análisis de la afectacion del presupuesto del Estado Ecuatoriano por la pandemia del Covid-19 durante el periodo Enero a Diciemre del 2020

The coronavirus crisis implies an unprecedented challenge for the present and future peace of Ecuadorians. The social and macroeconomic effect remains, leaving a strong gap, which aggravates the challenges facing the country, with a view to achieving inclusive and sustainable development. Faced with these situations, it is important to articulate a response to the crisis through ambitious and effective public policies that allow alleviating its effect, both in the initial stage of resistance and in the subsequent stages of reactivation and recovery. In this environment, the capacity to finance public policies is reduced in the country, due to the previous conditions of exhaustion in which the territory was with respect to points such as low productivity, persistent social vulnerability, or institutional weaknesses, and also due to the very effect that the crisis is having on public accounts and on financial conditions in general. This work is organized in 3 sections. First, the financing needs generated by the crisis are shown. Secondly, the different measures and possibilities that continue to be adopted and could be adopted in the immediate environment to finance the response to the crisis and overcome the liquidity pressures that the territory may face are analyzed. Thirdly, several surfaces for meditation and reform are proposed on which a more sustainable development financing model for the future could be based.

Etiologies of outpatient medically attended acute respiratory infections among young Ecuadorian children prior to the start of the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Implementation of respiratory virus prevention measures requires detailed understanding of regional epidemiology; however, data from many tropical countries are sparse. We describe etiologies of ambulatory pediatric acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) in Ecuador immediately preceding the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. METHODS: Children < 5 years presenting to a designated study site with an ARTI were eligible. Informed consent was obtained. Demographic and clinical data were recorded. A nasopharyngeal swab was collected, processed, and analyzed using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for common respiratory pathogens. Rhinovirus/enterovirus positive samples were further characterized by genomic sequencing. RESULTS: A total of 820 subjects were enrolled in the study between July 2018 and March 2020. A total of 655 (80%) samples identified at least one pathogen. Rhinoviruses (44%) were most common, followed by enteroviruses (17%), parainfluenza viruses (17%), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (15%), and influenza viruses (13%). Enterovirus D68 was the most common enterovirus detected and was among the leading causes of bronchiolitis. Seasonal RSV and influenza virus activity were different along the coast compared with the highlands. CONCLUSIONS: Ongoing regional surveillance studies are necessary to optimize available and emerging pathogen-specific preventative measures.

Building Trust on Zoom: A Workflow for Language Documentation via Videoconferencing Software

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the capacity to conduct linguistic fieldwork in person. For many fieldworkers, this meant they needed to adapt, and do so urgently. This paper discusses a language documentation workflow based entirely on the online conferencing software Zoom, in which a linguist, external to the community, establishes a new project together with a native-speaker community member. The paper describes how such a working relationship can be built online, and accounts for all the steps of the authors' Zoom-mediated workflow in detail allowing for their replication. It also offers a critical appraisal of this workflow from the perspectives of both the native speaker and the researcher. To conclude, the authors summarise all the conditions necessary for a workflow like this one to be successful.

Teaching-Learning Process of Architecture Workshops in Virtual Environments Based on Research-Action Methodology

In the School of Architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, we are continuously reflecting on the teaching-learning process in order to offer the best education. The COVID-19 pandemic brings different changes in social, health, work and educative practices, which people have had to adapt to. These new conditions have shifted the perception of life and society, so it has demanded a new perspective to solve problems and meet the challenges that have arisen. It has happened with education, in which all stakeholders have been working to face and manage the educational practice in a virtual modality. Based on teaching experience, the present research is focused on the teaching-learning process in Architecture, considering design workshops during the first years of the major. The purpose of this paper, which uses an action research methodology, is to explore those changes that come about from this process in virtual environments. In this way, understanding architecture's teaching and practice through virtual environments can generate an important impact that can transform the perspective on education in this field in the present and in the future.