Academic perspectives and psychosocial aspects of final-year dental students during COVID-19 pandemic

Aim: This cross-sectional observational study aimed to evaluate the influence of the Universities lockdown measures on academic perspectives and psychosocial aspects of Brazilian finalyear dental students. Methods: 268 undergraduate students regularly enrolled in a Dentistry course at public universities were asked about anxiety, depression, stress sensitivity, and their academic perspectives by using an online survey. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to measure anxiety and depression, while the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) evaluated stress levels. The academic perspective was evaluated by five affirmatives regarding possible difficulties that will be faced when school reopens and after graduation. The possible association between fear of having COVID-19 with psychosocial outcomes and COVID-19 association with academic perspectives were analyzed by ANOVA and chisquare tests, respectively, considering a significance level of 5%. Results: Considering possible associations between the fear of having COVID-19 and psychosocial aspects, significant values were found for anxiety (P = 0.018) and stress sensitivity (P = 0.002). Regarding students' academic perspectives, COVID-19 had significant impact on less opportunity to perform procedures (P = 0.023), additional expenses with personal protective equipment (P = 0.007), and concerns of consulting elderly people (P = 0.012). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased psychological impairments and enlarged concerns with learning and biosecurity, which might impact academic perspectives. Thus, being aware of these apprehensions, university professors and staff can improve the clinical training of final-year dental students in an empathetic way

Comparison of complete genome sequences of dog rabies viruses isolated from China and Mexico reveals key amino acid changes that may be associated with virus replication and virulence.

Rabies is a global problem, but its impact and prevalence vary across different regions. In some areas, such as parts of Africa and Asia, the virus is prevalent in the domestic dog population, leading to epidemic waves and large numbers of human fatalities. In other regions, such as the Americas, the virus predominates in wildlife and bat populations, with sporadic spillover into domestic animals. In this work, we attempted to investigate whether these distinct environments led to selective pressures that result in measurable changes within the genome at the amino acid level. To this end, we collected and sequenced the full genome of two isolates from divergent environments. The first isolate (DRV-AH08) was from China, where the virus is present in the dog population and the country is experiencing a serious epidemic. The second isolate (DRV-Mexico) was taken from Mexico, where the virus is present in both wildlife and domestic dog populations, but at low levels as a consequence of an effective vaccination program. We then combined and compared these with other full genome sequences to identify distinct amino acid changes that might be associated with environment. Phylogenetic analysis identified strain DRV-AH08 as belonging to the China-I lineage, which has emerged to become the dominant lineage in the current epidemic. The Mexico strain was placed in the D11 Mexico lineage, associated with the West USA-Mexico border clade. Amino acid sequence analysis identified only 17 amino acid differences in the N, G and L proteins. These differences may be associated with virus replication and virulence-for example, the short incubation period observed in the current epidemic in China.