Is the long-term mortality similar in COVID-19 and community-acquired pneumonia?

Introduction: There are no data on the association of type of pneumonia and long-term mortality by the type of pneumonia (COVID-19 or community-acquired pneumonia [CAP]) on long-term mortality after an adjustment for potential confounding variables. We aimed to assess the type of pneumonia and risk factors for long-term mortality in patients who were hospitalized in conventional ward and later discharged. Methods: Retrospective analysis of two prospective and multicentre cohorts of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and CAP. The main outcome under study was 1-year mortality in hospitalized patients in conventional ward and later discharged. We adjusted a Bayesian logistic regression model to assess associations between the type of pneumonia and 1-year mortality controlling for confounders. Results: The study included a total of 1,693 and 2,374 discharged patients in the COVID-19 and CAP cohorts, respectively. Of these, 1,525 (90.1%) and 2,249 (95%) patients underwent analysis. Until 1-year follow-up, 69 (4.5%) and 148 (6.6%) patients from the COVID-19 and CAP cohorts, respectively, died (p = 0.008). However, the Bayesian model showed a low probability of effect (PE) of finding relevant differences in long-term mortality between CAP and COVID-19 (odds ratio 1.127, 95% credibility interval 0.862-1.591; PE = 0.774). Conclusion: COVID-19 and CAP have similar long-term mortality after adjusting for potential confounders.

Confinement, Comfort and Health: Analysis of the Real Influence of Lockdown on University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the population worldwide into lockdown. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of this measure on the health and comfort of university students and the role that the characteristics of the home may have played. It is essential to differentiate between the terms comfort and health both from the medical and architectural perspectives, as there are differences between the two concepts that are, nonetheless, shared by both disciplines. An online survey was fulfilled by 188 medicine and architecture undergraduate students at the University of Seville, Spain. In terms of health, 89% suffered neuropsychiatric disorders (56% anxiety and 49% depression), 38% gained weight and 59% reported alcohol consumption. In relation to comfort, the majority rated their home positively, comfortable in terms of room temperature and noise at night, and they had a good relationship with cohabitants. However, those who did not have a balcony or terrace would have liked to have open spaces They would have also liked to increase the size of their bedroom, where they spent most of their time and where they studied. A built-up environment gave them a sense of being imprisoned, while those who enjoyed open spaces found a sense of peace. The absence of open spaces in the house, the environment and the impossibility of making the most frequently used spaces more flexible may have had negative impacts on the health and comfort of university students during confinement.

Thermal Modeling of the Port on a Refining Furnace to Prevent Copper Infiltration and Slag Accretion.

Fire refining of blister copper is a singular process at very high temperatures (~1400 K), which means the furnace is exposed to heavy thermal loads. The charge is directly heated by an internal burner. The impurities in the charge oxidize with the flux of hot gases, creating a slag layer on the top of the molten bath. This slag is periodically removed, which implies liquid metal flowing through the furnace port. To address its malfunction, a re-design of the furnace port is presented in this work. Due to the lack of previous technical information, the convective heat transfer coefficient between the slag and the furnace port was characterized through a combination of an experimental test and a three-dimensional transient model. Finally, the original design of the furnace port was analyzed and modifications were proposed, resulting in a reduction of the average temperature of the critical areas up to 300 K. This improvement prevents the anchoring of the accretion layer over the port plates and the steel plate from being attacked by the copper.

Health and Habitability in the Solar Decathlon University Competitions: Statistical Quantification and Real Influence on Comfort Conditions.

Medicine and architecture are disciplines with the main objectives of satisfying the fundamental needs of human beings: health, comfort, well-being, safety, and ensuring an acceptable quality of life in a sustainable habitat. In both areas of knowledge, the advances and the most innovative proposals in the fields of research and teaching are focused on transversal knowledge and the use of learning methods through problem solving (learning by doing). The student competitions called "Solar Decathlon" are focused on the development of these concepts, in which prototypes of sustainable and, as far as possible, healthy social housing are tested. In these university competitions, the design of energy-efficient and comfortable living environments that contribute to the health of the occupants are encouraged; however, the methodology for evaluating the "comfort conditions" stipulated in the competition rules considers only parameters that can be monitored by sensors. For this article, the prototypes presented by the "Solar Decathlon Team of the University of Seville" to the editions of said competition held in Latin America and Europe (in 2015 and 2019, respectively) are being studied. The present research starts from the fact that the unique consideration of measurable indices (such as temperature, humidity, etc.), is clearly insufficient when it comes to evaluating the real conditions of habitability and comfort that a domestic architectural space presents. For this reason, a theoretical-practical analysis is carried out by means of surveys, with the final objective of determining a methodology for evaluating comfort-complementary to that of the competition-which assesses other relevant issues and which, in short, takes into account the repercussion on people's health. From our analysis, we conclude that at least these two methodologies should be used to evaluate comfort because they are individually considered incomplete in terms of the data provided by each one of them. The survey-based methodology provides complementary information on comfort and health that could be taken into account in future editions of Solar Decathlon.