Evolving attitudes toward online education in Peruvian university students: A quantitative approach.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated universities' adaptation process toward online education, and it is necessary to know the students' attitudes toward this online education. Objective: To describe the evolution of the attitude toward online education among social science students at a public university in Peru in the academic year 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study uses a quantitative approach, a descriptive level, a non-experimental design, and a longitudinal trend. The sample consisted of 1063 students at the beginning of the class period, 908 during the classes, and 1026 at the end of the class period. The questionnaire for data collection was the Attitude scale toward online education for university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected using Google Forms. Results: As a result, the attitude towards online education was predominantly weak negative at the beginning (51.1 %) and during the classes (49.1 %), and weak positive (48.1 %) at the end of the class period. The changes were not significant when comparing the three moments, the levels of attitude toward, intention to adopt, ease of use, technical and pedagogical support, stressors, and need for online education (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: The evolution of the attitude towards online education in the sample had a non-significant positive trend. In the initial and process stages, a weak negative attitude prevailed due to the institution's inexperience and poor digital infrastructure; in the end, the attitude became weak and positive due to the adaptation and need for online education.

South American Validation of a Survey to Assess Eco-Anxiety in Adults (ECO-ANS-LATAM).

Background: climate change is a reality, and more and more people are becoming aware of this global problem, which has generated anxiety in some populations. To validate a short survey to assess eco-anxiety in adults in South America. Methods: It is an instrumental study, and the validation was based on a previous survey, which had six questions and was generated by 217 respondents in the USA in 2021. These questions were subjected to a validation process with expert judgment, pilot and application, and then statistics were obtained. It was validated with 1907 people in six countries in South America, where the mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis were adequate. Results: The initial confirmatory factorial model obtained unsatisfactory goodness-of-fit indices, so the indices were modified through a re-specification, where two items were eliminated, after which adequate values were obtained (χ2 = 22.34, df = 2, p = 0.00; RMR = 0.020; GFI = 0.990; CFI = 0.990; TLI = 0.990; and RMSEA = 0.070). Finally, the overall Cronbach's α was calculated to be 0.88 (95% CI = 0.86-0.89). Conclusions: The test was validated in a large South American population and found that only four questions can efficiently measure anxiety about the effects of climate change. The instrument can be used with other tests to screen different age groups, ethnicities and realities.

Biochemical and hemostatic description of a thrombin-like enzyme TLBro from Bothrops roedingeri snake venom.

Objective: The current study's objective is to characterize a new throm-bin-like enzyme called TLBro that was obtained from Bothrops roedingeris snake from a biochemical and hemostatic perspective. Methodology: One chromatographic step was used to purify it, producing the serine protease TLBro. Molecular mass was estimated by SDS-PAGE to be between reduced and unreduced by 35 kDa. Tryptic peptide sequencing using Swiss Prot provided the complete amino acid sequence. Expasy.org by conducting a search that is limited to Crotalinae snake serine proteases and displaying a high degree of amino acid sequence. Results: Ser (182) is inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF), and TLBro demonstrated the presence of Asp (88) residues. It also deduced the positions of His (43) and Ser (182) in the set of three coordinated amino acids in serine proteases. It was discovered that this substrate had high specificity for BANA, Michaelis-Menten behavior with KM 0 point85 mM and Vmax 1 point89 nmoles -NA/L/min, and high stability between temperatures (15 to 70°C) and pHs (2 point0 to 10 point0). According to doses and incubation times, TLBro degraded fibrin preferentially on the B-chain; additionally, its activities were significantly diminished after preincubation with divalent ions (Zn2 and Cd2). When incubated with PMSF, a particular serine protease inhibitor, enzymatic activities and platelet aggregation were inhibited. Conclusion: The findings revealed distinct structural and functional differences between the serine proteases, adding to the information and assisting in the improvement of the structure-function relationship.

Emotion regulation strategies and psychological health across cultures.

Emotion regulation is important for psychological health and can be achieved by implementing various strategies. How one regulates emotions is critical for maximizing psychological health. Few studies, however, tested the psychological correlates of different emotion regulation strategies across multiple cultures. In a preregistered cross-cultural study (N = 3,960, 19 countries), conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, we assessed associations between the use of seven emotion regulation strategies (situation selection, distraction, rumination, cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, expressive suppression, and emotional support seeking) and four indices of psychological health (life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and loneliness). Model comparisons based on Bayesian information criteria provided support for cultural differences in 36% of associations, with very strong support for differences in 18% of associations. Strategies that were linked to worse psychological health in individualist countries (e.g., rumination, expressive suppression) were unrelated or linked to better psychological health in collectivist countries. Cultural differences in associations with psychological health were most prominent for expressive suppression and rumination and also found for distraction and acceptance. In addition, we found evidence for cultural similarities in 46% of associations between strategies and psychological health, but none of this evidence was very strong. Cultural similarities were most prominent in associations of psychological health with emotional support seeking. These findings highlight the importance of considering the cultural context to understand how individuals from diverse backgrounds manage unpleasant emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Factors associated with citations of articles on circular economy in the Web of Science: modeling for main publishers.

Introduction: The publication of articles on the circular economy has different associated factors to explain the citations registered in the Web of Science. Method: Articles from the publishers Elsevier, MDPI, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and Springer Nature were evaluated. Results: It was expected that the older the article was, the more citations it had received, but this was not always the case. It was also recognized that there was a lower number of citations if the articles were too large or if they had too many references. Discussion: This analysis helps to establish the factors that must be addressed in order to publish in journals that have a high citation rate. Conclusion: Based on speci?c articles and with speci?c references, it will be possible to increase the probability of citations.

Crisis due to war: anxiety, depression and stress in the population of 13 Latin American countries.

Sustainability may be at risk in a population that has altered health, according to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3): Health and well-being. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine could jeopardize SDG 3, specifically the mental health of the population. The present study sought to determine the association between severe anxiety, depression and stress in population of 13 Latin American countries according to fear about the war conflict. It was a cross-sectional, analytical and multicenter study. Anxiety, depression and stress were measured with the DASS-21 test (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.97) and fear due to an armed crisis with a questionnaire already validated in Latin America (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.92), which was also adjusted for sex, age, education level and country of residence. Descriptive and analytical statistics were obtained. Of the 2,626 respondents, the main fear was that weapons of mass destruction would be used. In the multivariate models, strong associations were found between fear of a possible world-scale armed conflict and having severe or very severe levels of anxiety (aPR: 1.97; 95% CI: 1.64-2.36; value of p <0.001), depression (aPR: 1.91; 95% CI: 1.54-2.36; value of p <0.001) or stress (aPR: 2.05; 95% CI: 1.63-2.57; value of p <0.001). Sustainability linked to SDG 3, specifically mental health, is affected by this type of significant events, given the possible global war crisis that could trigger major events, even more so if added to the deterioration already experienced by COVID-19 in the Latin American region, insecurity and constant political uncertainty.

The Public Health Contribution of Sentiment Analysis of Monkeypox Tweets to Detect Polarities Using the CNN-LSTM Model.

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus. This disease was considered eradicated in 1980 and was believed to affect rodents and not humans. However, recent years have seen a massive outbreak of monkeypox in humans, setting off worldwide alerts from health agencies. As of September 2022, the number of confirmed cases in Peru had reached 1964. Although most monkeypox patients have been discharged, we cannot neglect the monitoring of the population with respect to the monkeypox virus. Lately, the population has started to express their feelings and opinions through social media, specifically Twitter, as it is the most used social medium and is an ideal space to gather what people think about the monkeypox virus. The information imparted through this medium can be in different formats, such as text, videos, images, audio, etc. The objective of this work is to analyze the positive, negative, and neutral feelings of people who publish their opinions on Twitter with the hashtag #Monkeypox. To find out what people think about this disease, a hybrid-based model architecture built on CNN and LSTM was used to determine the prediction accuracy. The prediction result obtained from the total monkeypox data was 83% accurate. Other performance metrics were also used to evaluate the model, such as specificity, recall level, and F1 score, representing 99%, 85%, and 88%, respectively. The results also showed the polarity of feelings through the CNN-LSTM confusion matrix, where 45.42% of people expressed neither positive nor negative opinions, while 19.45% expressed negative and fearful feelings about this infectious disease. The results of this work contribute to raising public awareness about the monkeypox virus.

Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder risk post-COVID-19 in 12 countries in Latin America: a cross-sectional survey.

Introduction: Latin America was the region most affected by COVID-19 in the second quarter of 2020, and consequently, the impact on mental health requires evaluation. The aim of this study was to assess the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by bereavement due to COVID-19 in 12 countries in Latin America. Methods: The current study was an analytical cross-sectional study. Validated tests were applied for PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21), questions about the respondent's condition or their environment, and demographic questions, as well as the length of the mourning period of suffering. Results: The outcomes demonstrated that the PTSD risk increased for women (p < 0.001), when a friend or acquaintance had COVID-19 (p = 0.002), when a close relative died from COVID-19 (p = 0.010), having severe depression (p <0.001), severe anxiety (p <0.001), severe stress (p <0.001), residing in Chile (p <0.001), Paraguay (p <0.001), Bolivia (p <0.001), Costa Rica (p <0.001) or El Salvador (p = 0.005). On the other hand, there was less risk of PTSD at an older age (p <0.001) or if respondents had a sentimental partner (p = 0.025). In the case of severe PTSD, there was a greater gender risk for women (p <0.001), a close relative dying from COVID-19 (p = 0.017), having severe depression (p <0.001), severe anxiety (p <0.001), severe stress (p <0.001), residing in Chile (p <0.001), Paraguay (p <0.001), Bolivia (p <0.001) and Costa Rica (p = 0.002). It was also observed that there was less risk of severe PTSD at an older age demographic (p <0.001). Discussion: It can be concluded that the percentages of PTSD are high in its clinical presentation as severe, especially among Latin American women.

Poverty, Household Structure and Consumption of Foods Away from Home in Peru in 2019: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the probability of buying food away from home according to the type of household using the logit model, as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of the heads of household, and how much income expenditure represents. A cross-sectional study was carried out using the National Household Survey (ENAHO) 2019 database. After joining the database, the household type variables were created. To calculate the probability with the "logit" model of purchase, the variables­family size, income, types of household, and total expenditure­were selected as a measure of the purchasing power of the family. A statistically significant association (p < 0.05) was found between the probability of consumption and the variables: age of household members, predominance, nuclear without children−married, nuclear with children−cohabitant, nuclear with children−widowed, nuclear with children−separated, extended, compounded, poor not extreme, and not poor. The bulk of families was represented by nuclear families (61.97%). The highest expenditure in the CFAH was for families defined as composite with a yearly average of USD 1652.89 (equivalent to PEN 5520.67). Observing the expenditure on food consumed outside the home through the composition of households can allow a better approach to offer educational measures. This information can be helpful to developers of educational issues.

Labeling of Genetically Modified (GM) Foods in Peru: Current Dogma and Insights of the Regulatory and Legal Statutes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and afflicted human lives and been a transformative catalyst leading to closure of many companies, disrupting mental health, and reducing access to food and exacerbating food insecurity. This presents an opportunity to reflect on and examine genetically modified (GM) foods and their effective legislative regulation for the benefit of consumers. This review presents a detailed analysis of GM foods' regulation in Peru and the analysis of certain specific cases that show the need for greater regulation of the industry.

Succumbing to the COVID-19 Pandemic-Healthcare Workers Not Satisfied and Intend to Leave Their Jobs.

Healthcare workers are under such a tremendous amount of pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic that many have become concerned about their jobs and even intend to leave them. It is paramount for healthcare workers to feel satisfied with their jobs and lives during a pandemic. This study aims to examine the predictors of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and turnover intention of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 10 and 30 April 2020, 240 healthcare workers in Bolivia completed a cross-sectional online survey, which assessed their job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and turnover intention in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed that their number of office days predicted job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and turnover intention, but the relationships varied by their age. For example, healthcare workers' office days negatively predicted job satisfaction for the young (e.g., at 25 years old: b = - 0.21; 95% CI: - 0.36 to - 0.60) but positively predicted job satisfaction for the old (e.g., at 65 years old: b = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.44). These findings provide evidence to enable healthcare organizations to identify staff concerned about job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and turnover intention to enable early actions so that these staffs can remain motivated to fight the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Correction to: Succumbing to the COVID-19 Pandemic-Healthcare Workers Not Satisfied and Intend to Leave Their Jobs.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s11469-020-00418-6.].

Telemedicine in Peru as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspective from a Country with Limited Internet Access.

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the worldwide implementation of telemedicine because of the need for medical care for patients, especially those with chronic diseases. This perspective paper presents the current situation of telemedicine in Peru, showing advances in regulation, cases of successful implementation, and the current challenges. Access to health should be available to all, and more efforts need to be implemented to offer access to the internet to achieve high-quality telemedicine to all the vulnerable groups in Peru.

Self-medication practices during the COVID-19 pandemic among the adult population in Peru: A cross-sectional survey.

Self-medication impacts both negatively and positively the health of people, which has become evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of self-medicated drugs used for respiratory symptoms, as COVID-19 preventive, for its symptoms or once tested positive. To determine the perception of symptom relief and demographic variables that promote self-medication in Peru. We performed a cross-sectional, analytical, multicenter study in 3792 study respondents on the use, the reason for use, and perception of relief after the use of six drugs during the quarantine period. An online questionnaire was developed, pretested and submitted to the general public. Multivariable logistic regression was used to ascertain factors that influence an individual's desire to self-medicate, associations were considered significant at p < 0.05 and using region (coast, mountain and jungle) as cluster group. The majority of respondents self-medicated with acetaminophen for respiratory symptoms and mainly because they had a cold or flu. It was observed that all the surveyed drugs (acetaminophen, ibuprofen, azithromycin, penicillin, antiretrovirals and hydroxychloroquine) were consumed for various symptoms including: fever, fatigue, cough, sneezing, muscle pain, nasal congestion, sore throat, headache and breathing difficulty. Over 90% of respondents perceived relief of at least one symptom. Multivariable logistic regression showed that older people have a higher frequency of antiretroviral self-medication, respondents who currently have a job had a higher frequency of penicillin self-medication, and that respondents from the Andes consumed less acetaminophen, while the ones from the rainforest consumed it more. There were significant percentages of self-medication, including drugs without sufficient scientific evidence. Age, region where one lived and job status were variables associated with self-medication frequency. Continuous awareness and sensitization about the risks of self-medication are warranted.

Sociodemographic Predictors Associated with the Willingness to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19 in Peru: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

During the race for the development of a vaccine against COVID-19, even before its commercialization, part of the population has already shown a growing fear of its application. We designed an analytical cross-sectional study using an anonymous survey in the 25 departments of Peru. We surveyed whether the participants were planning on getting vaccinated, as well as other characteristics that were cross-checked in a uni-, bi- and multivariate manner. Of the 1776 respondents, 70% (1251) stated that they were planning to be vaccinated, 20% (346) did not know yet or doubted it, and 10% (179) did not want to be vaccinated. We observed that those who did not get infected with COVID-19 exhibited a higher frequency to not wanting or were uncertain about getting vaccinated (aPR: 1.40; 95% CI: 1.09-1.81; p-value = 0.008). In contrast, there was a lower frequency of vaccine refusal among university students (aPR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.61-0.92; p-value = 0.005) and healthcare workers (aPR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.44-0.80; p-value = 0.001); adjusted by place of residence. There is still an important percentage of respondents who do not want to be vaccinated or are hesitant to do it, which was associated with educational level, being a healthcare worker and if they were previously infected with COVID-19. Our results could offer useful information about COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

Hospitality workers' COVID-19 risk perception and depression: A contingent model based on transactional theory of stress model.

The hospitality industry worldwide is suffering under the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aims to investigate when hospitality workers' COVID-19 risk perception affects their likelihood of having depressive symptoms. Using data from 211 hospitality workers in 76 hotels in Peru, we examined the effects of perceived COVID-19 risk on the likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. We posited that this relationship is moderated by the workers' environment at work (job satisfaction) and at home (the number of children). The results indicate that job satisfaction weakens the link between hospitality workers' COVID-19 risk perception and their likelihood of depressive symptoms while the number of children exacerbates this link. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on COVID-19 risk perception and offer practical implications for hospitality workers under COVID-19 crisis.

Anxiety, Distress, and Turnover Intention of Healthcare Workers in Peru by Their Distance to the Epicenter during the COVID-19 Crisis.

We conducted a cross-sectional survey to assess the anxiety, distress, and turnover intention (likelihood to leave their current job) of healthcare workers in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results reported that 21.7% healthcare workers in Peru experienced severe anxiety, whereas 26.1% of them experienced severe mental distress. A higher level of education related with a lower level of anxiety. Younger workers had a higher level of turnover intention than their older colleagues did. Healthcare workers in the private sector had a higher turnover intention than those in the public sector. Most importantly, people who were geographically far from Lima, the epicenter in Peru, during the outbreak experienced less anxiety and mental distress, corroborating the ripple effect and disconfirming the typhoon eye theory. However, the direction of these relationships can change depending on the type of institutions (public versus private) and the type of employees' contract (full time versus part time). Our research helps provide insights for clinical professionals in identifying the vulnerable groups to mental disorders in Peru. This is the first study to assess anxiety, mental distress, and turnover intention in healthcare workers in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Belief in a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory as a Predictor of Mental Health and Well-Being of Health Care Workers in Ecuador: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

BACKGROUND: During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, social media platforms have become active sites for the dissemination of conspiracy theories that provide alternative explanations of the cause of the pandemic, such as secret plots by powerful and malicious groups. However, the association of individuals' beliefs in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 with mental health and well-being issues has not been investigated. This association creates an assessable channel to identify and provide assistance to people with mental health and well-being issues during the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to provide the first evidence that belief in conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is a predictor of the mental health and well-being of health care workers. METHODS: We conducted a survey of 252 health care workers in Ecuador from April 10 to May 2, 2020. We analyzed the data regarding distress and anxiety caseness with logistic regression and the data regarding life and job satisfaction with linear regression. RESULTS: Among the 252 sampled health care workers in Ecuador, 61 (24.2%) believed that the virus was developed intentionally in a lab; 82 (32.5%) experienced psychological distress, and 71 (28.2%) had anxiety disorder. Compared to health care workers who were not sure where the virus originated, those who believed the virus was developed intentionally in a lab were more likely to report psychological distress and anxiety disorder and to have lower levels of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: This paper identifies belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories as an important predictor of distress, anxiety, and job and life satisfaction among health care workers. This finding will enable mental health services to better target and provide help to mentally vulnerable health care workers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Developing and testing a measure of COVID-19 organizational support of healthcare workers - results from Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are facing high workloads with resource constraints and risk of virus exposure, and healthcare organizations need to support their healthcare workers to reduce their anxiety. Based on a recent 8-point framework of COVID-19 specific organization support, we devised a measure of COVID-19 Organizational Support (COVID-OS). We tested the new measure with 712 healthcare workers in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru and found the new measure formed three factors to predict healthcare workers' anxiety and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. We call for further studies to test COVID-OS in other countries and settings.

The Peru Approach against the COVID-19 Infodemic: Insights and Strategies.

The COVID-19 epidemic has spawned an "infodemic," with excessive and unfounded information that hinders an appropriate public health response. This perspective describes a selection of COVID-19 fake news that originated in Peru and the government's response to this information. Unlike other countries, Peru was relatively successful in controlling the infodemic possibly because of the implementation of prison sentences for persons who created and shared fake news. We believe that similar actions by other countries in collaboration with social media companies may offer a solution to the infodemic problem.