Abstract: Cultural responses to the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in different parts of the world

The article reports on different cultural understandings of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic and various coping mechanisms in India, Bangladesh, Japan, Syria, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Tunisia, El Salvador, the USA, Italy and Belgium. Culture influences how an epidemic affects society, in terms of its origin, mode of spread and treatment, as well as responses to distress and health practices. Cultural responses to the pandemic contribute to control or accelerate its spread, and even unite or divide certain sectors of society. Culture also influences the perception of medical interventions and thus the demand or not for help from health services. The varied cultural responses show the importance of culture in public health, especially in a crisis, and of understanding it to implement health measures. Finally, in the depths of the first pandemic wave, the collaborative experience of gathering expressions of cultural influence in the pandemic created a sense of connection within the human system of a generation of early career psychiatrists across the globe, which helped cope with the traumatic potential of the pandemic as a factor of isolation and withdrawal, through challenges of respective professional contexts. © 2023 Boeck Universite. All rights reserved.

Case-fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the third and fifth epidemic waves in Spain: Impact of vaccination.

INTRODUCTION: During the first and second epidemic waves in Spain, the SARS-CoV-2 case-fatality rates (CFRs) showed significant differences between Autonomous Communities (ACs). Comparing CFRs in the third and fifth epidemic waves can provide information on the impact of the different vaccination coverages in the ACs. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of vaccination on COVID-19 CFRs in the third and fifth epidemic waves in Spain, according to sex, age, and AC. METHODS: This work is an observational, descriptive study which uses data on COVID-19 infections, deaths, and vaccinees published by the Spanish Ministry of Health and the regional Health Departments of the ACs. The third epidemic wave was defined as the period from 26th December 2020 to 19th April 2021, and the fifth wave, from 19th July to 19th September 2021. The CFRs (deaths per 1000 infected [‰]) were calculated according to sex, age group, and AC. The standardized case-fatality ratio (SCFR) was adjusted for age and sex for each wave. We estimated the correlation between CFRs and their change between the two epidemic waves with the vaccination coverages reached at the beginning of the fifth wave. RESULTS: The CFR in the fifth wave (5.7‰) was lower than in the third wave (16.5‰). In addition, the CFR in both waves was significantly higher in men than in women, and in older people than in younger ones. A decrease in the CFR between both waves was only observed in those older than 49. A strong direct and positive correlation (R2a=0.8399) was found between vaccination coverage by age group and decrease in CFR between both epidemic waves. Significant differences were seen between ACs in the two waves, as regards both CFRs and SCFRs. When comparing ACs, a direct correlation was observed between vaccination coverage and CFRs in the fifth wave, and also - although weak - between vaccination coverage and decrease in CFR between both waves. CONCLUSION: The CFR significantly decreased in Spain between the third and the fifth epidemic waves in population aged 50 or older, probably due to the high vaccination coverage in that age group. Differences were observed between CFRs and SCFRs between ACs that are not explained by the differences in vaccination coverage, suggesting the need for further research and evaluation.

Patterns of Self-medication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Colombian population.

Introduction: Self-medication is considered one of the most relevant problems for public health, since it is described as the voluntary use of drugs by the patient. Since the beginning of the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been evident that this practice has increased considerably, especially in the adult population. Objective(s): To evaluate the different patterns that influence self-medication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s): A survey was conducted among the population of two vicinities of Bogota and the statistical program SPSS was used for data analysis to identify the main practices that increase the risks derived from self-medication, the most used drugs and their adverse effects. Socioeconomic factors related to self-medication were evaluated. A comparative study was carried out to observe their behavior before and during the pandemic. Additionally, the influence of the people who are part of the family and social environment on self-medication was evaluated. Result(s): The total number of surveys carried out was 301. The average age was 44.18 years. It was found that before the pandemic there was a higher frequency of self-medication of analgesics (49.1 %) and anti-influenza drugs (19.5 %), and during the pandemic it was of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (4.43 %), home remedies (6.69 %) and antibiotics (30.38 %). In addition, it was found that those who had the greatest influence on self-medication were family members (23.9 %), friends or acquaintances (17.3 %) and the pharmaceutical chemist (5.0 %). Conclusion(s): It is evident that during the COVID-19 pandemic self-medication is higher than in the pre-pandemic era, increasing the risk of adverse events and compromised patient safety.Copyright © 2023, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.

Cuidados intensivos durante la epidemia de coronavirus 2019 Intensive care during the 2019-coronavirus epidemic

Resumen El 31 de diciembre de 2019, la Comisión de Salud de la provincia China de Hubei, dio a conocer por primera vez un grupo de casos inexplicables de neumonía, que posteriormente la OMS definió como el nuevo coronavirus de 2019 (SARS-CoV-2). El SARS-CoV-2 ha presentado una transmisión rápida de persona a persona y actualmente es una pandemia mundial. En la mayor serie de casos descrita hasta la fecha de pacientes hospitalizados con enfermedad por SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoViD), el 26% requirió atención en una unidad de cuidados intensivos (UCI). Esta pandemia está provocando una movilización de la comunidad científica sin precedentes, lo que lleva asociado un numero exponencialmente creciente de publicaciones en relación con la misma. La presente revisión bibliográfica narrativa, tiene como objetivo reunir las principales aportaciones en el área de los cuidados intensivos hasta la fecha en relación con la epidemiología, la clínica, el diagnóstico y el manejo de 2019-nCoViD.

Word embeddings for topic modeling: An application to the estimation of the economic policy uncertainty index

The quantification of economic uncertainty is key to the prediction of macroeconomic variables, such as gross domestic product (GDP), and is particularly crucial in regard to real-time or short-time prediction methodologies, such as nowcasting, where a large amount of time series data is required. Most of the data comes from official agency statistics and non-public institutions, but these sources are susceptible to lack of information due to major disruptive events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, it is very common nowadays to use non-traditional data from different sources. The economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index is the indicator most frequently used to quantify uncertainty and is based on topic modeling of newspapers. In this paper, we propose a methodology to estimate the EPU index that incorporates a fast and efficient method for topic modeling of digital news based on semantic clustering with word embeddings, allowing us to update the index in real time, which is something that other studies have failed to manage. We show that our proposal enables us to update the index and significantly reduce the time required for new document assignation into topics. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

TH-136. Peripheral neuropathies as complication of SARS-Cov-2: a multicenter study in the Andalusian population

Introduction: Since the beginning of the pandemic caused by SARS-Cov-2, we have observed an increase of patients referred for electroneuromyography (ENMG) studies complaining of neuropathic symptoms, and who share in common having suffered from the disease by coronavirus (Covid-19), in its different forms of presentation. Clinical, diagnostic, and epidemiological studies that identify possible risk factors of peripheral neuropathies are needed. Method(s): Retrospective and prospective multicenter study in which neurophysiologists from 10 Andalusian hospitals are currently participating. The risk factors analyzed are age, sex, date of infection, date of onset symptoms in relation to Covid infection, hospital admission, admission to intensive unit care (IUC), time of admission, prone position, if orotracheal intubation needed, body mass index (BMI), personal history of interest, if previously vaccinated and complications. The observed peripheral nervous system involvement, caused both directly and indirectly by the virus, has been taken into account. Result(s): A total of 73 patients with neuropathic involvement. Of this total, 39 polyneuropathies (11 Guillain-Barre syndrome, 1 small fiber and 27 other critical illness polyneuropathies associated with IUC patients, 1 of these with associated myopathy), 13 peroneal neuropathies (4 unilateral, 1 with suprascapular neuropathy concomitant and 7 bilateral), 7 brachial plexopathies, 5 neuropathies of the superior laryngeal nerve (3 with concomitant involvement of the inferior) in patients with a history of orotracheal intubation, 2 neuropathies of the femorocutaneous nerve, 2 mononeuritis multiplex, 2 phrenic neuropathies, 1 vagus nerve neuropathy with no history of orotracheal intubation, 2 axillary neuropathies (1 with associated spinal neuropathy). Conclusion(s): Covid-19 causes involvement of the peripheral nervous system. Possible risk factors include male gender, old age, longer hospital stay, IUC admission, orotracheal intubation, prone position, suffering from previous pathologies, and high BMI. The possible causes that we consider for neuropathic involvement are compressive and positional (more indirectly related to the disease) and inflammatory / immune-mediated as the most direct cause of involvement caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Knowledge of the risk factors is important, for the prevention, early diagnosis, and the correct treatment of these neuropathies. Some patients are left with serious neurological sequelae, with the consequences that this entails (high social and economic costs). Copyright © 2022

Information and communication technology (ICT) skills and job satisfaction of primary education teachers in the context of Covid-19. Theoretical model

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that educational systems must have an online component or even a substitute. However, the efforts for this necessary transition fall largely on the teaching staff, who have been forced to quickly adapt their activities to a virtual environment. In this study, a theoretical model for analyzing how teachers' information and communications technology (ICT) skills and the integration of these technologies influence the improvement of teaching and teacher job satisfaction is introduced. The model also pays special attention to the gender gap related to the use of ICT in teaching. At the empirical level, the model is validated on a sample of 257 Spanish primary school teachers, using the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation method. The results of the analysis show that, although the teachers' ICT skills help them improve their teaching activities, such skills do not have a direct impact on teachers' job satisfaction. However, teachers who integrate ICTs into their teaching activities not only improve their results and lighten their wor-kload but also enjoy higher job satisfaction, which translates into more motivated and committed teachers. In addition, teachers' ICT skills influence job satisfaction in different ways depending on gender. Although, for female teachers, the integration of ICT increases their job satisfaction, the results show that, for male teachers, this integration should gene-rate improvements in teaching to yield enhanced job satisfaction. As the main implication, it is recommended to invest in teachers' ICT skills, as these lead to enhanced efficiency and motivation and enable the change toward an ICT-based teaching model. © 2022, El Profesional de la Informacion. All rights reserved.

Strategies for the design of an urban model in the Post-Pandemic city

The crisis generated by Covid-19 pandemic modified our routine, habits, and way of life. The city, being the result of space-time, gives a coherent explanation between the time in which we live and the space we inhabit, which is why, based on the study carried out for the terminal project of the Master's degree in Sustainable Studies, Regional and Metropolitan areas, the need to analyze the urban space is identified to rethink it through strategies and achieve an urban model that allows us to respond to moments of health crisis such as the one we currently experience worldwide. Through the qualitative research method, it is intended to analyze the pandemic city through the SWOT (Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats) together with the review of sustainable urban models, to generate strategies that help to redesign the urban spaces that upon return from a new normal allows us to relate in a healthy way. As part of the conclusions, the importance of redesigning the space through an urban model is reaffirmed that serves as a key to improve sanitation conditions, this, based on SWOT and the implementation of current models.. © Legado de Arquitectura y Diseno 2022.

Housing Price Prediction Using Machine Learning Algorithms in COVID-19 Times

Machine learning algorithms are being used for multiple real-life applications and in research. As a consequence of digital technology, large structured and georeferenced datasets are now more widely available, facilitating the use of these algorithms to analyze and identify patterns, as well as to make predictions that help users in decision making. This research aims to identify the best machine learning algorithms to predict house prices, and to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on house prices in a Spanish city. The methodology addresses the phases of data preparation, feature engineering, hyperparameter training and optimization, model evaluation and selection, and finally model interpretation. Ensemble learning algorithms based on boosting (Gradient Boosting Regressor, Extreme Gradient Boosting, and Light Gradient Boosting Machine) and bagging (random forest and extra-trees regressor) are used and compared with a linear regression model. A case study is developed with georeferenced microdata of the real estate market in Alicante (Spain), before and after the pandemic declaration derived from COVID-19, together with information from other complementary sources such as the cadastre, socio-demographic and economic indicators, and satellite images. The results show that machine learning algorithms perform better than traditional linear models because they are better adapted to the nonlinearities of complex data such as real estate market data. Algorithms based on bagging show overfitting problems (random forest and extra-trees regressor) and those based on boosting have better performance and lower overfitting. This research contributes to the literature on the Spanish real estate market by being one of the first studies to use machine learning and microdata to explore the incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic on house prices.

A New Evaluation for a New Teaching Normality: Practical Example Applied to the Topographic Map System

The special situation experienced in the university environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a new way of carrying out teaching which, inextricably, also implies the need to articulate different and varied tools for evaluation. In the 2020–2021 academic year at the University of Valladolid, we opted for a secure presence of the teaching and a continuous evaluation of the contents, which has led, in a subject in the field of Architectural Graphic Expression such as Descriptive Geometry, to a deep reflection on the objectives and competences, in order to design these new mechanisms. The experience has been positive since, with a percentage of passing the subject similar to that of previous years, it has been achieved a development of the subject in exercises of practical and direct application, directly guided by the teachers in the classroom timetable, and much more stimulating than the traditional practices, which supposed for the students a greater effort of ion. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

[Case-fatality rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection according to Autonomous Communities during the second epidemic wave in Spain]. / Tasas de letalidad por SARS-CoV-2 según Comunidades Autónomas durante la segunda onda epidémica en España.

INTRODUCTION: In Spain, health systems are transferred to the Autonomous Communities (AC), constituting 19 health systems with differentiated management and resources. During the first epidemic wave of COVID-19, differences were observed in reporting systems and in case-fatality rates (FR) between the AC. The objective of this study was to analyze the FR according to AC. during the 2 nd epidemic wave (from July 20 to December 25, 2020), and its relationship with the prevalence of infection. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A descriptive observational study was carried out, extracting the information available on the number of deaths from COVID-19 registered in the Ministry of Health, the Health Councils and the Public Health Departments of the AC, and according to the excess mortality reported by the System Monitoring of Daily Mortality (MoMo). The prevalence of infection was estimated from the differences between the second and fourth rounds of the ENE-COVID study and their 95% confidence intervals. The global FR (deaths per thousand infected) were calculated according to sex, age groups (< 65 and ≥ 65 years) and AC. The age-Standardized Fatality Rates (SFR) of the AC were calculated using the FR of Spain for each age group. These estimates were made with officially declared deaths (FRo) and excess deaths estimated by MoMo (FRMo). The correlations between the prevalences of infection and the FRo and FRMo were estimated, weighting by population. RESULTS: For the whole of Spain, the FRo during the second epidemic wave was 7.6%, oscillating between 3.8% in the Balearic Islands and 16.4% in Asturias, and the TLMo was 10.1%, oscillating between 4.8% from Madrid and 21.7% in Asturias. Significant differences were observed between the FRo and the FRMo in the Canary Islands, Castilla la Mancha, Extremadura, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The FRo was significantly higher in men (8.2%) than in women (7.1%). The FRo and FRMo were significantly higher in the age group ≥ 65 years (55.4% and 72.2% respectively) than in the group <65 years (0.5% and 1.4% respectively). The Basque Country, Aragon, Andalusia and Castilla la Mancha presented SFR significantly higher than the global FR of Spain. The correlations between the prevalence of infection and the FRo were inverse. CONCLUSIONS: The case-fatality from COVID-19 during the second epidemic wave in Spain improved compared to the first wave. The case-fatality rates were higher in men and the elderly people, and varied significantly between AC. It is necessary to delve into the analysis of the causes of these differences.

Pneumomediastinum Associated with COVID-19: A Case Series

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is an infectious disease that has caused an increase in hospitalizations for pneumonia;the spectrum of clinical presentation is variable. One such presentation, pneumomediastinum (PM), is defined as the presence of air or some other gas in the mediastinum. It is a rare condition, usually benign and self-limited;it has been seen in patients with COVID-19. Although most cases are, as explained above, self-limited and in addition, can be managed conservatively, close monitoring is recommended, as PM can cause life-threatening hemodynamic and respiratory disturbances. We present a case series of 4 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, in whom PM was found, and who were admitted to the Regional Hospital of High Specialty of the Yucatan Peninsula during the period of May 2020 through August 2020.