Sanitary Crisis Research Articles

Adjustment strategies adopted by higher education students during COVID-19 pandemic: focus group discussions

IntroductionWith the closure of higher education institutions during the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, students have experienced problems such as interruptions to their education, loss of peer support networks, and mental health issues.ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore adjustment patterns used by students to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study was developed by carrying out Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Portuguese students enrolled in education levels above high school, including undergraduate and graduate programs, were considered eligible. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling. Each FGD took approximately 60–90 min.Results Twelve students were participated in 2 FGDs, each one with 6 participants. Mostly were undergraduate students (Bachelor’s degree), in the field of health area. The thematic analysis revealed three main themes. The first theme was related to the personal sphere and included most of adjustment strategies used, namely: pandemic as a “window of opportunity” to be involved in new academic and professional projects; work-life balance by organizing and separating work from private life; self-care through the adoption of healthy lifestyles; being compassionate with others and compliance with sanitary measures. In the social sphere, students evoked new ways of communicating via digital networking to compensate for the lack of physical proximity and stay in safe contact with friends and relatives. In the contextual sphere, students talked about the importance of adapting the “teaching/learning” environment. Tailored teaching support was a significant strategy, especially in maintaining their motivation.ConclusionsSeveral strategies were pointed by students to stay mentally healthy and mitigate delayed-onset post-traumatic stress disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, positive coping and hope should be integrated into the standard training of students across all study areas.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Chapitre 7. Repenser la communauté virtuelle avec Michel Henry

This article presents a phenomenological approach of a virtual society. Michel Henry outlined a phenomenology of living community and a critical approach of the technical and technological progress. Those approaches call into question the possibility of intersubjective relations within virtual society during the current sanitary crisis that led to a lack of live communication. There couldn’t be neither being – with, nor being – in – common disincarnate, every intersubjective relation needs a living charnel presence.

Physicians' Distress Related to Moral Issues and Mental Health In-Between Two Late Waves of COVID-19 Contagions.

In addition to the sanitary constrains implemented due to the pandemic, frontline physicians have faced increased workloads with insufficient resources, and the responsibility to make extraordinary clinical decisions. In 108 physicians who were at the forefront of care of patients with COVID-19 during the first two years of the pandemic, mental health, moral distress, and moral injury were assessed twice, in between two late waves of COVID-19 contagions, according to their adverse psychological reactions, in-hospital experience, sick leave due to COVID-19, quality of sleep, moral sensitivity, clinical empathy, resilience, and sense of coherence. Three months after the wave of contagions, the adverse emotional reactions and moral distress decreased, while moral injury persisted. Moral distress was related to clinical empathy, with influence from burnout and sick leave due to COVID-19, and moral injury was related to the sense of coherence, while recovery from moral distress was related to resilience. The results suggest that measures to prevent physician infection, as well as strengthening resilience and a sense of coherence, may be helpful to prevent persistent mental damage after exposure to a sanitary crisis.

Influence of the Sanitary, Economic, and Social Crisis of COVID-19 on the Emotional State of Dentistry in Galicia (Spain).

The main objective of this research was to analyze the economic, social, and emotional repercussions among Galician dentists (Spain) as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was filled out by 347 professionals. After verifying the survey's reliability using Cronbach's alpha = 0.84, the professional activity and emotional state of the participants were assessed based on aspects related to their personal and family data. The economic impact of the pandemic was considerable, and all participants experienced a decrease in income. In total, 72% of the participants considered that working with personal protective equipment (PPE) made their clinical activities difficult, and 60% expressed concern about being infected during their professional practice. Among the professionals, women (p = 0.005), and separated, divorced, or single professionals (p = 0.003) were the most strongly affected. Separated or divorced professionals were the group that most frequently raised the need to make a radical change in their lives. Finally, it was observed that the emotional consequences varied substantially in the lives of these professionals, mainly among female dentists (p = 0.010), separated and divorced men (p = 0.000), and those with fewer years of professional practice (p = 0.021). The COVID-19 pandemic had an economic impact, due to the decrease in the number of patients and hours of attention, as well as an emotional impact, mostly expressed in the form of sleep disorders and stress. The most vulnerable professionals were women and professionals with fewer years of experience.

How Did Swiss Small and Medium Enterprises Weather the COVID-19 Pandemic? Evidence from Survey Data

The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented consequences on businesses and, in particular, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The aim of this paper is to empirically study the impact of the COVID-19 sanitary crisis on Swiss SMEs two years after the onset of the pandemic. Using a sample of 149 SMEs operating in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, we find that revenue loss across the full sample averaged 14% in 2020 compared to 2019. Our findings show that firm characteristics are not significant in explaining turnover loss while business management strategies such as business restructuring, remote working, and prioritizing employee protection were significantly associated with revenue. Our results suggest that remote work should be gradually introduced in sectors of activity whenever possible to reduce the financial burden of any future pandemic on SMEs. Additionally, we quantify the impact of closure on SMEs and find that firms having reported to have closed partially or completely due to sanitary restrictions were impacted seven times more in terms of revenue loss compared to SMEs that did not cease their activity during the COVID-19 crisis. This paper contributes to our understanding of the magnitude of the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs and highlights the importance of SMEs adopting efficient business management strategies, and implementing measures to support smaller firms by public authorities in times of crisis.

Metaphorical representation of coronavirus in Spanish and Brazilian cartoons

The worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 epidemic has been profusely covered by the mass media in 2020. This research focuses on the metaphorical content of cartoons from prominent Spanish and Brazilian newspapers published online in March and April 2020. In these satirical drawings the virus is portrayed through two main modes of representation: pictorial and verbal. The conceptual metaphors conveyed in each cartoon were identified, analysed and classified into four source domain scenarios: arts and literature, conflicts, sports and games, and other. Mainly, two theories coming from Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Multimodal Metaphor Theory, have been used to approach this contrastive study in which the metaphorical representation of Covid-19 serves to offer a humorous and persuasive point of view about the impact of the pandemic in the Spanish and Brazilian society and the way the most important politicians of each country dealt with the sanitary crisis.
 
 Keywords: Spanish and Brazilian newspapers; cartoons; Covid-19; metaphorical representation; pictorial and multimodal metaphors.

Excess mortality and COVID-19 deaths in Italy: A peak comparison study.

During a sanitary crisis, excess mortality measures the number of all-cause deaths, beyond what we would have expected if that crisis had not occurred. The high number of COVID-19 deaths started a debate in Italy with two opposite positions: those convinced that COVID-19 deaths were not by default excess deaths, because many COVID-19 deaths were not correctly registered, with most being attributable to other causes and to the overall crisis conditions; and those who presented the opposite hypothesis. We analyzed the curve of the all-cause excess mortality, during the period of January 5, 2020-October 31, 2022, compared to the curve of the daily confirmed COVID-19 deaths, investigating the association between excess mortality and the recurrence of COVID-19 waves in Italy. We compared the two curves looking for the corresponding highest peaks, and we found that 5 out of the 6 highest peaks (83.3%) of the excess mortality curve have occurred, on average, just a week before the concomitant COVID-19 waves hit their highest peaks of daily deaths (Mean 6.4 days; SD 2.4 days). This temporal correspondence between the moments when the excess mortality peaked and the highest peaks of the COVID-19 deaths, provides further evidence in favor of a positive correlation between COVID-19 deaths and all-cause excess mortality.

Crises contemporâneas: retrocessos sociais, políticas de saúde e desafios democráticos

Abstract In the context of globalization, mentioning contemporary democracy, science, social-economic, sanitary, and environmental crises is recurrent. In Brazil, these crises have worsened due to historical-cultural structures that carry deep unresolved problems and due to governments that have worn down the national institutions that were reconstructed with hard work during its re-democratization process. In this editorial, we reflect on the national crisis context experienced in Brazil in the last years, situating social regressions resulting from neoliberal and conservative policies carried out by the last two heads of the federal government and placing some challenges to be faced by the country beginning by a movement to retrieve democracy.

Towards IoT-Big Data architecture for future education

New technology, through the IoT, Big Data and AI ecosystem, is the foundation on which tomorrow's solutions are created. Improved processes with better decision making are the actors that drive the evolution of tomorrow's services. This new technology has enabled innovations in several sectors including medical, manufacturing, automation, energy, education, and others. It should be noted that in recent years, Industry 4.0 and the COVID-19 sanitary crisis have forced some remarkable transformations and contributions to people's quality of life, safety, health and education. Currently, the education sector in all its levels (primary, secondary and university) re-quires the use of this technology and is moving more specifically towards a system known as "education 4.0" to meet the different demands of this sector. In this paper, we present a literature review of the use of Big Data analytics in the education sector in particular. We discuss the different technologies, architectures, and applications of Big Data analytics in this growing sector, and we propose a new architecture based on the new technology applied in education.

Formação em bioética: adaptação das atividades para a forma remota

Abstract Bioethics professors from health programs at O’Higgins University, Chile, structure their courses based on local needs. A qualitative study was conducted with undergraduates, first-years in 2018, to identify the bioethics teaching needs of the local community for program reformulation. Courses taught for three consecutive years underwent changes in the first semester of 2020 due to the sanitary crisis. This article analyzes whether participation, collective production and questioning were preserved as an achievement of in-person teaching purposes. Given the context and the results obtained, program and project underwent changes when translated into the virtual modality, since student needs were known. The teaching experiences presented allow us to conclude that the bioethics teaching objectives were met despite the sanitary emergency.

Online shopping spree in times of COVID-19 pandemic

This article aims at shedding the light on the role played by the user's psychological states on online compulsive shopping and the resulting attitude towards online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on escape theory, we proposed a conceptual model tested through a survey conducted on 300 internet users. Data was analysed through a partial least squares analysis and revealed that online compulsive buying appears in consumers whose personalities are marked by materialism (acquisition centrality), anxiety about COVID-19, and boredom due to lack of activity. In addition, it was proven that online compulsive shopping leads to positive attitudes towards online shopping. The results contribute to theoretical and managerial understanding of online compulsive shopping in times of sanitary crisis.

Flexibilizing Intellectual Property Rights During Health Crises: A Case Study of Brazil's Response to Aids and COVID Sanitary Crises

Flexibilizing Intellectual Property Rights During Health Crises: A Case Study of Brazil's Response to Aids and COVID Sanitary Crises

Use of State of Emergency in Response to the COVID-19 Sanitary Crisis: Safeguards and Proposals to Deal with the Pandemic of Human Rights Abuses

Use of State of Emergency in Response to the COVID-19 Sanitary Crisis: Safeguards and Proposals to Deal with the Pandemic of Human Rights Abuses

Aspects related to the Post-Pandemic Rural Cultural Tourism in Romania

In Romania, rural cultural tourism has had and is expected to continue to have an extremely beneficial impact on the development of certain disadvantaged areas of the country, because it represents an economic driver, a means of capitalizing on resources, and of prompting local and territorial authorities. Thus, it provides medium and long-term contributions to the preservation and promotion of the most authentic and valuable aspects of the Romanian spirit. In what concerns the activities carried out in the rural area with respect to culture, the risk area has been extended during the sanitary crisis; however, the restrictions and the lockdown have been “useful” in increasing awareness of available resources, in planning actions in a more diligent manner and in broadening the vision of what should be done. In the context of the pandemic, all these aspects have become strengths. Post-pandemic tourism should be characterized by rediscovering itself, and the stake for rural cultural tourism in Romania should be the attraction of foreigners. This paper identifies and analyses the aforementioned strong points, which impact the so-called post-pandemic era.

Critical Naturalism: A Manifesto

The Critical Naturalism Manifesto is a common platform put forward as a basis for broad discussions around the problems faced by critical theory today. We are living in a time, e.g. a pandemic time, when present-day challenges exert immense pressure on social critique. This means that models of social critique should not be discussed from the point of view of their normative justification or political effects alone, but also with reference to their ability to tackle contemporary problematic issues (like the dismantlement of the welfare state, the environmental catastrophe, and the sanitary crisis). With this manifesto, we invite varying practices of philosophical, artistic and scientific social critique to take seriously the enormous challenges our societies face with regard to inner and outer nature. We first identity eleven theses of critical naturalism which contemporary critical theory should take into consideration. We then identify the historical crises and catastrophes that critical naturalism seeks to respond to, dispelling the prejudices against naturalism in contemporary critical thought, and considering alternative answers to these questions such as social constructivism, accelerationism, xenofeminism, flat ontologism, and monist world ecology. By sketching the notions of nature and naturalism, we anchor critical naturalism in the history of materialism and critical theory, understood initially as that of the Frankfurt School, but expanded and enriched by other approaches to social critique. Finally, we sketch models and projects of critical naturalism, which are exemplary fragments of varying ways to practice naturalist social critique.

Flexible networks to promote the development of industrial symbioses: A new optimization procedure

The development of eco-industrial parks is now proven a local efficient solution to reduce environmental impacts of industrial areas as well as increasing economic benefits. Furthermore, they are a good way to produce goods while reducing environmental footprints by exchanging energies, water and raw materials instead of consuming too much resources; that way it improves circularity of resources with no disruption of production. However, in an uncertain context caused by different factors such as environmental problems, sanitary crises or geopolitical conflicts, the design of an interconnected network must take into account possible deviations of nominal conditions. In this study, an integrated procedure is developed so that an optimal flexible network is designed with a given flexibility threshold. The flexibility is defined as the minimum of the maximal deviations for the nominal inlet parameters that can be handle by the network. Impact of such a flexibility is visible on the total investment cost of the network. Indeed, when adding some flexibility to the network, the investment cost is increased. The integrated procedure developed is able to find a global optimum in a very large computational time (up to 500 h); in this article, two other procedures are then tested over a large-scale case study (15 companies) to validate the approach. One of them consists in oversizing the network so that it can handle large deviations but the increase of the cost is important. The other procedure consists in a decomposition of the integrated approach in two steps: the first one aims at defining the structure of the nominal solution (minimum of the cost) and the second one evaluates several deviation scenarios to take into account disruption of inlet parameters. The results show that the two-steps procedure obtains results close to the integrated procedure with reasonable computational time (up to 40 min). This study helps to provide solutions to design optimal flexible networks, also adapted to solve large-scale eco-industrial parks; it can also be used as an optimization-decision aid tool for the territorial development of industrial ecology.

Genomics, Transcriptomics, and Metabolomics Reveal That Minimal Modifications in the Host Are Crucial for the Compensatory Evolution of ColE1-Like Plasmids.

Plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance is one of the major threats to public health worldwide. The mechanisms involved in the plasmid/host coadaptation are still poorly characterized, and their understanding is crucial to comprehend the genesis and evolution of multidrug-resistant bacteria. With this purpose, we designed an experimental evolution using Haemophilus influenzae RdKW20 as the model strain carrying the ColE1-like plasmid pB1000. Five H. influenzae populations adapted previously to the culture conditions were transformed with pB1000 and subsequently evolved to compensate for the plasmid-associated fitness cost. Afterward, we performed an integrative multiomic analysis combining genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to explore the molecular mechanisms involved in the compensatory evolution of the plasmid. Our results demonstrate that minimal modifications in the host are responsible for plasmid adaptation. Among all of them, the most enriched process was amino acid metabolism, especially those pathways related to serine, tryptophan, and arginine, eventually related to the genesis and resolution of plasmid dimers. Additional rearrangements occurred during the plasmid adaptation, such as an overexpression of the ribonucleotide reductases and metabolic modifications within specific membrane phospholipids. All these findings demonstrate that the plasmid compensation occurs through the combination of diverse host-mediated mechanisms, of which some are beyond genomic and transcriptomic modifications. IMPORTANCE The ability of bacteria to horizontally transfer genetic material has turned antimicrobial resistance into one of the major sanitary crises of the 21st century. Plasmid conjugation is considered the main mechanism responsible for the mobilization of resistance genes, and its understanding is crucial to tackle this crisis. It is generally accepted that the acquisition and maintenance of mobile genetic elements entail a fitness cost to its host, which is susceptible to be alleviated through a coadaptation process or compensatory evolution. Notwithstanding, despite recent major efforts, the underlying mechanisms involved in this adaptation remain poorly characterized. Analyzing the plasmid/host coadaptation from a multiomic perspective sheds light on the physiological processes involved in the compensation, providing a new understanding on the genesis and evolution of plasmid-mediated antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

Sport Event Tourism in Bucharest. UEFA EURO 2020 Case Study

Mega sport events were among the very few types of events still attracting tourists during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and represented an exceptionally attractive tourism opportunity for Bucharest through the matches scheduled for the UEFA 2020 championship. Motivated by the novelty of the event which was organized for the first time in the Romanian capital city and motivated by the exceptionally restrictive context imposed by the sanitary crisis, the aim of this study was to analyze domestic tourist participation in and satisfaction with this event. An extended survey focusing on the autochthonous participants was applied to gather data and then further computed using SPSS software through crosstabulations and associated statistical analysis adapted for nominal and ordinal variables. The main results emphasize a large participation of Romanian football supporters who came specifically for the event. Most of them expressed dissatisfaction with souvenir, food and drink products sold within the stadium area but were satisfied with the COVID-19 measures and their costs. Supporters coming from rural areas opted for VFR accommodations while retirees and elderly supporters preferred hotels. Occupation and age were the main variables determining accommodation preferences as well as satisfaction with souvenir prices. These options may be valuable input for future adapted marketing strategies for sport event tourism in Romania. Lacking important urban tourist attractions and competing with other mature European urban destinations, mega sport events may represent an opportunity for autochthonous large cities to increase tourist attractiveness and maintain leisure travel even during periods of travel restrictions.

SARS-CoV-2: Challenges in Reconverting Diagnostic Laboratories to Combat the Pandemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in Mexico in February 2020. Even though health authorities did not perceive then the value of viral detection tests, we anticipated the demand for them. We set up to develop an expeditious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) molecular diagnostic service through the implementation of standardized protocols for biospecimen sampling, transportation, biobanking, preanalytical validation, and nucleic acids (NA) testing (NAT). Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs collected in a special transportation medium were the biospecimens from which NAs were purified either manually or automatically. Viral RNA genome presence was determined using commercial SARS-CoV-2 detection kits (based on reverse transcription coupled with real-time PCR [RT-PCR]). Improvements in laboratory processing speed and reliability resulted from semi-automatizing laboratory processes and adopting a quality control/quality assurance system (QC/QA), respectively. NAs that were purified, either manually or automatically, were validated by preanalytical spectrophotometric characterization. Automated purification was less prone to contamination and reduced the processing time. The following six RT-PCR kits were evaluated for their convenience, specificity, sensitivity, time consumption, and required materials (in order, starting with the kit with the best results): RIDA gene and Viasure (tied), Vircell, LightMix, 1copy, and Logix Smart. Redesigning the laboratories' working areas, equipment, fluxes of personnel and material, and personnel skills, and overemphasizing biosafety safeguards were major challenges encountered in the middle of the sanitary crisis. Adopting a QC/QA system, utilizing automatization processes, and working closely with health authorities were key factors in our success. IMPORTANCE Rearranging our diagnostic laboratories to improve the fight against a new unexpected, unpredictable, and sudden public health threat demanded that we move quickly to redesign not only the laboratory processes but also the distribution of space, personnel activities, and fluxes of material coming in and out. We also had to work closely with governmental health authorities to gain their trust in our technical competence. Gaining the confidence of the clients, i.e., mainly individuals, the human resource departments of factories and corporations sending employees for testing, and medical institutions, and implementing as much automatization as possible of processes, in which only officially approved reagents (for extraction and analysis of NA) were used to generate opportune trustable testing results, were key factors. Our laboratories have gathered a considerable amount of experience and significant number of solutions, considering our geographic contexts alongside this continuously morphing pandemic, validating many techniques that might help other laboratories find a better and more precise workflow.

Specchio-COVID19: a digital cohort study to improve public involvement in epidemiological research

Abstract Background To manage the sanitary crisis and rapidly assess the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the canton of Geneva, we invited previous participants of an annual health survey of the general population to a first serological test. As the pandemic progressed, it become clear that there would be a significant longer impact on health and wellbeing of population. Moreover, there was a need to assess the adherence of the population regarding COVID-19 prevention measures, over time, as well as to provide scientific knowledge about antibodies dynamics and protection from new infections. For all these reasons, a long-term follow-up has been settled via the dedicated digital platform Specchio-COVID19 and on-line questionnaires and repeated serological tests. Methods Several measures were designed to maintain high retention and involvement, including regular electronic newsletters with links to a “News” webpage, a “Research” webpage for dissemination of publications and the organization of webinars specifically dedicated to participants. A specific email address and a dedicated hotline were set up so that participants can get in touch with the Specchio-COVID19 team. Results Specchio-COVID19 was launched in November, 2020. Up to February 2022, 10'946 individuals (57% women, median age 48) joined the project. Over time, participation rate remains around 65% for each release of questionnaire. 550 participants (5%) definitely dropped out. Conclusions Our digital cohort facilitates participants’ involvement, allowing participation from remote locations, organizing webinar, promoting news and scientific information via newsletters and specific webpages and enabling interaction between researchers and participants. Key messages • When designing the Specchio-COVID19 digital cohort, the purpose was not only to collect data. • But to establish a reciprocal exchange of information between researchers and participants, fostering long-term involvement and health empowerment.