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Abstract: Two highly relevant studies related to SARS-CoV-2 and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and supporting the use of melatonin to prevent and treat this serious infection were published recently. Campos-Codo and colleagues [1] documented experimentally their claim that drugs which specifically target hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) would likely have great therapeutic value in treating COVID-19. The second report is a retrospective analysis based on the clinical experience at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center with the use of drugs to treat respiratory distress in COVID-19-infected patients who required endotracheal intubation [2]. Hyperinflammatory monocytes/macrophages accumulate in abundance in the lower respiratory tract where they play a key role in determining the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Campos-Codo, et al. [1] found that monocytes/macrophages infected with the SARSCoV-2 virus reprogram their metabolism from the conventional mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to the (usually) pathological cytosolic glycolysis. This so-called Warburg-type metabolism is aided by the inadequately controlled elevated blood glucose levels of diabetic patients, which enhances cellular glycolysis, viral replication and hastens development of a severe respiratory infection resulting from the elevated cytokine release (“cytokine storm”).

In Argentina there was a great growth of e-commerce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the aim of helping local companies to understand the market and help them in decision making, data were obtained from online shoe sales sites and with them Machine Learning models were implemented to make price predictions in sneakers. It was concluded that higher-tier companies have greater competitive advantage over lower-tier companies. Nonetheless, the cost-effective methodology used would aid local companies scale up. Workshop: WBDMD - Base de Datos y Minería de Datos Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática

Abstract: The association of sleep disruption with a higher vulnerability to COVID-19 infection is a subject of major clinical importance. In patients with pneumonia associated with COVID-19 admitted to non-intensive care unit (NICU) several factors, like the disrupting influence of respiratory distress, medication, greater stress due to social isolation, and lack of appropriate exposure to environmental light can be instrumental to disrupt sleep/wake cycle. The therapeutic potential of melatonin to counteract the consequences of COVID-19 infection has been advocated. Because of its wide-ranging effects as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory compound, melatonin could be unique in impairing the consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Melatonin is also an effective chronobiotic agent to reverse the circadian disruption of social isolation and to control delirium in severely affected patients. Properly administered, melatonin may restore the optimal circadian pattern of the sleep-wake cycle and improve clinical condition in pneumonia associated with COVID-19 patients. The present review article discusses the importance of maintaining normal sleep and circadian rhythmicity in NICU patients and provides preliminary data suggesting the efficacy of melatonin (9 mg/day) to reduce length of stay of pneumonia patients associated with COVID-19 in NICU.

Some time ago Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality were exclusively devoted to the gaming industry. Nowadays, both technologies are experiencing a deep interest from various spheres, including healthcare sector. The new infectious disease COVID-19 has had a catastrophic effect on the world’s demographics. Many patients with mild or severe COVID- 19 do not recover completely and present with a wide variety of chronic symptoms after infection, often of a neurological, cognitive or psychiatric nature. The most common signs of cognitive disorder can be summarized as mental fog, memory problems and concentration problems. The aim of this study was to analyze the opportunities for Virtual and Augmented Reality in the cognitive interventions related to mentioned disorders by searching for articles in scientific databases. We conclude that as these technologies and devices become cheaper and accessible worldwide, can at least be regarded as a rehabilitation therapy as effective as traditional training, and to some extent better than it. Workshop: WCGIV - Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática

Abstract: Competition among pharmaceutical companies to develop safe and effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is high. However, based on the prior experience with the influenza vaccine, up to 50% in lack of effectiveness would be found among healthy adults receiving effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. There is growing evidence that insufficient sleep may potentially be a pervasive and prominent factor accounting for this variability. Individuals experiencing total or partial sleep loss exhibit markedly reduced antigen-specific antibodies as compared to healthy sleepers. Besides, pre-vaccination sleep quality is also an important contributing factor. Several meta-analyses and expert consensus reports support the view that the chronobiotic/hypnotic properties of melatonin are useful in patients with primary sleep disorders to decrease sleep onset latency and to increase total sleep time. Hence, the prescription of melatonin for at least 2 weeks prior to vaccination can be a useful approach to improve sleep quality and to ensure that the vaccination is performed at a moment of optimal sleep conditions. Moreover, melatonin enhances the immune response to vaccines by increasing peripheral blood CD4+ T cells and IgG-expressing B cells. Administration of exogenous melatonin could increase the potency of the immune response and the duration of the immunity induced by the vaccine. Besides, melatonin could also prevent adverse effects of the vaccination due to its antioxidant and immunomodulatory properties. Therefore, the administration of melatonin from 2 weeks to at least 4 weeks after vaccination may constitute an effective means to enhance the efficacy of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.

Abstract: Viral infection compromises specific organelles of the cell and readdresses its functional resources to satisfy the needs of the invading body. Around 70% of the coronavirus positive-sense single-stranded RNA encodes proteins involved in replication, and these viruses essentially take over the biosynthetic and transport mechanisms to ensure the efficient replication of their genome and trafficking of their virions. Some coronaviruses encode genes for ion-channel proteins – the envelope protein E (orf4a), orf3a and orf8 – which they successfully employ to take control of the endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi complex intermediate compartment or ERGIC. The E protein, which is one of the four structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, assembles its transmembrane protomers into homopentameric channels with mild cationic selectivity. Orf3a forms homodimers and homotetramers. Both carry a PDZ-binding domain, lending them the versatility to interact with more than 400 target proteins in infected host cells. Orf8 is a very short 29-amino-acid single-passage transmembrane peptide that forms cation-selective channels when assembled in lipid bilayers. This review addresses the contribution of biophysical and structural biology approaches that unravel different facets of coronavirus ion channels, their effects on the cellular machinery of infected cells and some structure–functional correlations with ion channels of higher organisms.

Abstract: This special report aims to update information on a particularly vulnerable and invisible population of children and youth: children and adolescents with incarcerated parents or guardians. From now on, this group will be referred to as CIP for “children with incarcerated parents.” The Church World Service Office for Latin America and the Caribbean joins the Argentina Social Debt Observatory’s Program of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) in carrying out this initiative. Unlike the document published in 2019 (“Infancias y Encarcelamiento. Condiciones de vida de niñas, niños y adolescentes cuyos padres o familiares están privados de la libertad en la Argentina” ISBN 978-987-620- 381-4), this document focuses on several different groups of children. We examine the experiences of children living in households with one or more members currently incarcerated; children who have never experienced familial incarceration but live in poor households; and children who have never experienced familial incarceration and whose families are not poor. This comparative analysis allows us to identify and examine the social inequalities that children face as their vulnerabilities accumulate.

In the context of COVID-19, contact tracing has shown its value as a tool for contention of the pandemic. In addition to its paper based form, contact tracing can be carried out in a more scalable and faster way by using digital apps. Mobile phones can record digital signals emitted by communication and sensing technologies, enabling the identification of risky contacts between users. Factors such as proximity, encounter duration, environment, ventilation, and the use (or not) of protective measures contribute to the probability of contagion. Estimation of these factors from the data collected by phones remains a challenge. In this work in progress we describe some of the challenges of digital contact tracing, the type of data that can be collected with mobile phones and focus particularly on the problem of proximity estimation using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals. Specifically, we use machine learning models fed with different combinations of statistical features derived from the BLE signal and study how improvements in accuracy can be obtained with respect to reference models currently in use. Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa

Resumen: In Argentina, once mandatory isolation was declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers of all educational levels and modalities had to substantially modify their way of working. The aim of this study was to identify the work situations that education professionals perceived as threats under the modality of non-face-to-face teaching, and to describe the level of perceived stress and its possible effect on psychophysical symptoms. Likewise, it sought to examine possible differences in the manifestations of burnout depending on the level of perceived stress and associated symptoms. An empirical study with a cross-sectional design was developed, in which 9,058 Argentine teachers, who had to complete self-report measures, participated. The sampling method was non-random, using an online procedure of reclusion of volunteers. Descriptive techniques and non-parametric tests were used for data analysis. More than 60% of the educators reported high and moderately high levels of stress. The predominant stressors were uncertainty about the consequences of the pandemic, work overload and inadequate working environment. The more stress they perceived, the higher the manifestation of unwanted psychophysical symptoms. Professional burnout was higher for teachers with a higher load of stress and with more psychophysical indicators of discomfort. These results reveal the psychological impact of the COVID19 pandemic on the education staff, and encourage the development of intervention measures to preserve the health of professionals.

Abstract: This brief review was written to provide a perspective on the flurry of reports suggesting that melatonin can be an important add-on therapy for COVID-19. Despite the passage of more than 60 years since its discovery and much evidence representing the contrary, there has been great reluctance to conceive melatonin as anything other than a hormone. Many other body chemicals are known to have multiple roles. Melatonin was first shown to be a hormone derived from the pineal gland, to be actively synthesized there only at night, and to act on targets directly or via the G-proteincoupled receptors (GPCRs) superfamily. It is of note that over 40 years ago, it was also established that melatonin is present, synthesized locally, and acts within the gastrointestinal tract. A wider distribution was then found, including the retina and multiple body tissues. In addition, melatonin is now known to have non-hormonal actions, acting as a free radical scavenger, an antioxidant, and as modulating immunity, dampening down innate tissue responses to invaders while boosting the production of antibodies against them. These actions make it a potentially excellent weapon against infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Early published results support that thesis. Recently, a randomized controlled study reported that low doses of melatonin significantly improved symptoms in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, leading to more rapid discharge with no side effects, while significantly decreasing levels of CRP, proinflammatory cytokines, and modulating dysregulated genes governing cellular and humoral immunity. It is now critical that these trials be repeated, with dose-response studies conducted and safety proven. Numerous randomized controlled trials are ongoing, which should complete those objectives while also allowing for a more thorough evaluation of the mechanisms of action and possible applications to other severe diseases.