Bracing for turmoil: temporalities of livelihood adaptation among informal workers in Facatativá, Colombia

This study considers temporal aspects of livelihood adaptation in times of turmoil by drawing on interviews with informal street vendors in Facatativá, Colombia. By engaging a ‘time stories' perspective, this article aims to provide a better understanding of how livelihood responses to shocks emerge from (and are constrained by) individuals' initial and changing assumptions about the continued onset of a crisis. We found that livelihood adaptation to shock, in some cases, involves adopting a new livelihood that appears more durable. In other cases, adaptation is temporary with individuals returning to prior livelihoods when conditions allow. Many individuals had limited livelihood options. In such cases adaptation was more precarious generally, implying drastic consumption cuts or relying on neighborly networks. Also, changing one's livelihood is a high-risk decision for people who are often already struggling to survive in a context of declining overall demand and falling incomes as a crisis hits. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

REFRAMING THE MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT QUESTION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

A central element of contemporary capitalism and imperialism is the emergence of a new international division of labour that reconfigures relations of power and dependence on the North-South or centre-periphery horizon of the world system. I refer here to the exportation – direct and disembodied – of labour power. This process, commanded by monopoly capital, is based on and fundamentally has to do with the South-North export of low and highly skilled labour power. This chapter delves into the analysis of this phenomenon, taking into consideration the geographical redistribution of manufacturing activities and the profound restructuring that innovation systems are currently experiencing, with Silicon Valley at the forefront. It is a phenomenon that disrupts dependency relations between countries and unleashes new modalities of unequal exchange and uneven development, which gives way to a reframing of the development question for the twenty-first century, particularly in times of the Covid-19 pandemic that has exacerbated the consequences and outcome of what amounts to a central contradiction of capitalism. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Anna Triandafyllidou;individual chapters, the contributors.

COVID-19 Fake News Detection Using Joint Doc2Vec and Text Features with PCA

With the current pandemic, it is imperative to stay up to date with the news and many sources contribute to this purpose. However, there is also misinformation and fake news that spreads within society. In this work, a machine learning approach to detect fake news related to COVID-19 is developed. Specifically, Doc2Vec language model is used to transform text documents into vector representations, and handcrafted features like document length, the proportion of personal pronouns, and punctuation are included as complementary features as well. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is performed on the original feature vectors to reduce dimensionality. Both, the original and reduced data are fed to various machine learning models and finally compared in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, and execution time. The results indicate that the reduced set of features had minimal accuracy impact. However, the execution times are greatly reduced in most cases, specifically at testing time, indicating that dimensionality reduction can be useful on projects already in production that would need model inference on large volumes of documents to detect fake news. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

PHARMACEUTICAL PATENTS AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH-PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL

The defence of the patent system's legitimacy, namely in the pharmaceutical field, is consolidated, although it is not exempt from criticism. Historically, when the patent law, a legal monopoly right, is confronted with the right of access to health, which includes the right to the medicines necessary for its care, the mechanisms that have been established are scarce and weak. Nonetheless, one must recognize due merit in the search for a balance between the exclusive right of the holder of the legal monopoly and the right of the community to generalized access to medicines necessary to fulfil the right to health. In the current context of the covid-19 disease, where access to health care for all countries, rich and poor, is at stake, it seems that there is a greater will to make the right to health prevail over the property right of the holder of a pharmaceutical patent. © 2022, Observare. All rights reserved.

Mediation of Virtual Environments as Strategy to Develop Investigative Skills

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic promoted the implementation of information technologies for academic processes, transforming paradigms and approaches at all formal levels of education. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the development of research competencies in relation to the mediation of virtual learning environments. This was an exploratory-descriptive study, with a non-experimental design in the context of a case study;with an analysis from the interpretative paradigm and a mixed approach. A Likert-type virtual self-evaluation instrument was used;the study population consisted of 28 undergraduate students (84% female and 16% male), belonging to the Educational Research Workshop II course. One of the findings was the development of research competencies favored by the use of virtual learning environments. It was concluded that the development of research competencies is directly linked to the acquisition of technological competencies, which benefits the management of new didactic strategies for virtual learning environments.

Effectiveness of the implementation of clinicalepidemiological management during COVID-19 in a medium-long-stay hospital

Background: The effects of the Covid-19 health emergency have demonstrated the high vulnerability of people residing in medium and long-stay centers, with high mortality rates. Little data is available about contingency protocols to minimize the spread of the virus in these centers. The goal of this study was to describe the clinical and epidemiological features of patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 and the preventive and management measures adopted at the National Hospital for Paraplegics (Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain) to minimize the risk of transmission of Covid-19.

Precision Glycodendrimers for DC-SIGN Targeting

Multivalent ligands of the C-type lectin receptor DC-SIGN have emerged as effective antiadhesive agents against various pathogens. Some years ago, we described a hexavalent DC-SIGN ligand, Polyman-26, designed to bridge two of the four binding sites displayed by the receptor. In this work, we present our efforts to accomplish simultaneous coordination of all four carbohydrate binding sites of DC-SIGN through the synthesis of cross-shaped glycodendrimers. The tailored rigid scaffold allowed multivalent presentation of glycomimetics in a spatially defined fashion, while providing good water solubility to the constructs. Evaluation of the biological activity by SPR assays revealed strong binding avidity towards DC-SIGN and increased selectivity over langerin. Inhibition of DC-SIGN binding to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and of DC-SIGN mediated Ebola virus trans-infection testifies for the glycodendrimers potential application in infection diseases. The tetravalent platform described here is easily accessible and can be used in modular fashion with different ligands, thus lending itself to multiple applications.

Instruction Models of Located Cognition and Their Effectiveness Using Flipped Learning in Initial Training Students

The current moments lead us to search for different strategies and modalities for the teaching-learning process, where face-to-face work has prevailed for a long time until the arrival of the pandemic (Covid-19) to migrate to a ubiquitous job. The objective of the study is to analyze the relationship that exists between the instructional cognitive model and its implications of using flipped learning as a methodology to acquire meaningful learning where teachers assign instruction through a recorded video. This study was carried out with a quantitative approach, with a correlational descriptive design, 60 students from a public university voluntarily participated, the same ones who are finishing their higher studies and were selected with an intentional non-probabilistic sampling, the instruments used were two surveys, one for flipped learning and the other for cognitive instructional design. The results reveal a level of high cultural relevance in the learning environment developed by the teacher who uses flipped learning with university students. It is concluded that from the perception of the students there is a positive correlation and that it is conditioned that flipped learning will be successful or adequate to the extent that the cognitive instructional approach is efficient. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

High SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in Rural Peru, 2021: a Cross-Sectional Population-Based Study

Latin America has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 burden in rural settings in Latin America is unclear. We performed a cross-sectional, population-based, random-selection SARS-CoV-2 serologic study during March 2021 in the rural population of San Martin region, northern Peru. In total, 563 persons from 288 houses across 10 provinces were enrolled, reaching 0.2% of the total rural population of San Martin. Screening for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies was done using a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA), and reactive sera were confirmed using a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT). Validation of the testing algorithm using prepandemic sera from two regions of Peru showed false-positive results in the CLIA (23/84 sera;27%) but not in the sVNT, highlighting the pitfalls of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in tropical regions and the high specificity of the two-step algorithm used in this study. An overall 59.0% seroprevalence (95% confidence interval [CI], 55 to 63%) corroborated intense SARS-CoV-2 spread in San Martin. Seroprevalence rates between the 10 provinces varied from 41.3 to 74.0% (95% CI, 30 to 84%). Higher seroprevalence was not associated with population size, population density, surface area, mean altitude, or poverty index in Spearman correlations. Seroprevalence and reported incidence diverged substantially between provinces, suggesting regional biases of COVID-19 surveillance data. Potentially, limited health care access due to environmental, economic, and cultural factors might lead to undetected infections in rural populations. Additionally, test avoidance to evade mandatory quarantine might affect rural regions more than urban regions. Serologic diagnostics should be pursued in resource-limited settings to inform country-level surveillance and vaccination strategies and to support control measures for COVID-19. IMPORTANCE Latin America is a global hot spot of the COVID-19 pandemic. Serologic studies in Latin America have been mostly performed in urban settings. Rural populations comprise 20% of the total Latin American population. Nevertheless, information on COVID-19 spread in rural settings is scarce. Using a representative population-based seroprevalence study, we detected a high seroprevalence in rural populations in San Martin, northern Peru, in 2021, reaching 41 to 74%. However, seroprevalence and reported incidence diverged substantially between regions, potentially due to limited health care access or test avoidance due to mandatory quarantine. Our results suggest that rural populations are highly affected by SARS-CoV-2 even though they are sociodemographically distinct from urban populations and that highly specific serological diagnostics should be performed in resource-limited settings to support public health strategies of COVID-19 control.

Emotional Response in the Interaction of Instructional Video as Teaching Support for Teachers in Initial Training

Students of initial training develop in an atmosphere full of emotions that go unnoticed by university teachers, coupled with the little expertise to face preprofessional pedagogical practice especially in this distance learning modality due to COVID-19, using various technological resources. This article aims to analyze the associations between the perception of the instructional videos and the positive and negative emotions experienced by students in the subject Mathematical Thinking II. The study is descriptive correlational, carried out on 42 students of the Primary Education career. Applying two instruments to measure the quality of the instructional video and the emotions generated after viewing it and the teacher's participation. A significant relationship has been found between instructional video and positive emotions. The result allows establishing greater preferences for emotion, enthusiasm, happiness, and enjoyment that allows students through teaching practice to face personal and professional emotions in their learning experiences by evaluating the instructional video. The main finding shows moments of intensity towards positive rather than negative emotions promoting healthy pedagogical activities in the classroom strengthened by non-face-to-face teaching. © 2021 ACM.

Potential capacity of an emergency dispatch center to predict COVID-19-related hospital and intensive care unit admissions

Objective. To analyze the association between the perceived care demand in the emergency call center of Castilla La Mancha (and hospital and ICU admissions for COVID-19, as well as their temporal characteristics, to explore its potential capacity as a predictive tool for COVID hospital admissions. Methodology. Retrospective observational study on the daily calls made to the emergency call center of Castilla La Mancha, both calls to 112 and those made to COVID line, in the period between March 1 and October 14, 2020. The data were analyzed by codes "diarrhea", "dyspnea", "fever" and "general discomfort" that were used as predictor variables, and their relationship with hospital admissions and ICU admissions. Results. A total of 831,943 calls were received at the CLM emergency call center through 112, with a maximum on March 13, 2020 with 10,582 calls. On COVID line, a total of 208,803 calls were received in that period, with a maximum on March 15 with 23,744. A statistically significant relationship was found between the regulation codes studied (specific symptoms) and the number of calls with hospital admissions and ICU admissions, with a predictive capacity of 2 weeks in relation to occupancy peaks. The codes with the greatest relationship were "general malaise" and "diarrhea". Conclusion. We have found an association between the number of calls to a CCUE due to dyspnea, fever, general discomfort, diarrhea and the number of calls with hospital admissions and ICU for COVID-SARS-2 2 weeks in advance, mainly due to general discomfort and diarrhea. The design of predictive expert systems and their automation using artificial intelligence could be part of the preparation, planning and anticipation programs of health systems in the near future in the event of future pandemics..

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus vaccine based on a propagation-defective RNA replicon elicited sterilizing immunity in mice.

Self-amplifying RNA replicons are promising platforms for vaccine generation. Their defects in one or more essential functions for viral replication, particle assembly, or dissemination make them highly safe as vaccines. We previously showed that the deletion of the envelope (E) gene from the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) produces a replication-competent propagation-defective RNA replicon (MERS-CoV-ΔE). Evaluation of this replicon in mice expressing human dipeptidyl peptidase 4, the virus receptor, showed that the single deletion of the E gene generated an attenuated mutant. The combined deletion of the E gene with accessory open reading frames (ORFs) 3, 4a, 4b, and 5 resulted in a highly attenuated propagation-defective RNA replicon (MERS-CoV-Δ[3,4a,4b,5,E]). This RNA replicon induced sterilizing immunity in mice after challenge with a lethal dose of a virulent MERS-CoV, as no histopathological damage or infectious virus was detected in the lungs of challenged mice. The four mutants lacking the E gene were genetically stable, did not recombine with the E gene provided in trans during their passage in cell culture, and showed a propagation-defective phenotype in vivo. In addition, immunization with MERS-CoV-Δ[3,4a,4b,5,E] induced significant levels of neutralizing antibodies, indicating that MERS-CoV RNA replicons are highly safe and promising vaccine candidates.

Comprehensive serological strategy for the diagnosis and monitoring of SARS-CoV-2. From infection to vaccine control.

SARS-CoV-2 serology is useful to identify past COVID-19 cases, and it is not useful for acute infection. Levels of specific SARS-CoV-2 anti-N and especially anti-S are expected to be maintained for long periods. At this moment there is not a clear correlate of protection after COVID-19 or vaccination, therefore serological follow up is not indicated in most cases.

Curriculum Development as an Organizational Scenario and Strategy of Teacher Training, Updating and Improvement

The following essay shows a curriculum development analysis as a scenario and organizational strategy for teacher training, updating and improvement, considering the comprehensive, practical-experiential and emergent perspective. The techniques used in the methodology of this documentary work were: content analysis and triangulation of sources and theories. As a conclusive approach there are: (a) It is important to highlight the distinctive vision of curriculum development in terms of constructive, applicative and evaluative simultaneity of curriculum design from a professional and social perspective with deliberative - decisional scope in curricular policy and professional development. (b) COVID-19 generated changes that have forced universities to rethink themselves from an organizational, strategic, technological and prospective perspective. (c) Curriculum planning should address as much as possible and predictively the use of different forms of curricular organization that allow responding to emerging needs and social changes that are brewing in the postmodern times.

Antiviral drugs targeting endosomal membrane proteins inhibit distant animal and human pathogenic viruses.

The endocytic pathway is a common strategy that several highly pathogenic viruses use to enter into the cell. To demonstrate the usefulness of this pathway as a common target for the development of broad-spectrum antivirals, the inhibitory effect of drug compounds targeting endosomal membrane proteins were investigated. This study entailed direct comparison of drug effectiveness against animal and human pathogenic viruses, namely Ebola (EBOV), African swine fever virus (ASFV), and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A panel of experimental and FDA-approved compounds targeting calcium channels and PIKfyve at the endosomal membrane caused potent reductions of entry up to 90% in SARS-CoV-2 S-protein pseudotyped retrovirus. Similar inhibition was observed against transduced EBOV glycoprotein pseudovirus and ASFV. SARS-CoV-2 infection was potently inhibited by selective estrogen receptor modulators in cells transduced with pseudovirus, among them Raloxifen inhibited ASFV with very low 50% inhibitory concentration. Finally, the mechanism of the inhibition caused by the latter in ASFV infection was analyzed. Overall, this work shows that cellular proteins related to the endocytic pathway can constitute suitable cellular targets for broad range antiviral compounds.

Recommendations for use of antigenic tests in the diagnosis of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection in the second pandemic wave: attitude in different clinical settings.

The high transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 before and shortly after the onset of symptoms suggests that only diagnosing and isolating symptomatic patients may not be sufficient to interrupt the spread of infection; therefore, public health measures such as personal distancing are also necessary. Additionally, it will be important to detect the newly infected individuals who remain asymptomatic, which may account for 50% or more of the cases. Molecular techniques are the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the massive use of these techniques has generated some problems. On the one hand, the scarcity of resources (analyzers, fungibles and reagents), and on the other the delay in the notification of results. These two facts translate into a lag in the application of isolation measures among cases and contacts, which favors the spread of the infection. Antigen detection tests are also direct diagnostic methods, with the advantage of obtaining the result in a few minutes and at the very "pointof-care". Furthermore, the simplicity and low cost of these tests allow them to be repeated on successive days in certain clinical settings. The sensitivity of antigen tests is generally lower than that of nucleic acid tests, although their specificity is comparable. Antigenic tests have been shown to be more valid in the days around the onset of symptoms, when the viral load in the nasopharynx is higher. Having a rapid and real-time viral detection assay such as the antigen test has been shown to be more useful to control the spread of the infection than more sensitive tests, but with greater cost and response time, such as in case of molecular tests. The main health institutions such as the WHO, the CDC and the Ministry of Health of the Government of Spain propose the use of antigenic tests in a wide variety of strategies to respond to the pandemic. This document aims to support physicians involved in the care of patients with suspected SC2 infection, in the context of a growing incidence in Spain since September 2020, which already represents the second pandemic wave of COVID-19.