Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology / Raymond R. Rowland / Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by an enveloped, positive-stranded RNA virus, the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Coronaviruses along with the arteriviruses are placed in the order, Nidovirales. Even though nidovirus replication is restricted to the cytoplasm, the nucleocapsid protein (N) of several coronaviruses and arteriviruses, localize to the nucleolus during infection. Confocal microscopy of N protein localization in Vero cells infected with the SARS-CoV or transfected with the SARS-CoV N gene failed to show presence of N in the nucleoplasm or nucleolus. Recombinant N remained cytoplasmic after the addition of leptomycin B (LMB), a drug that inhibits nuclear export. SARS-CoV N possesses a unique lysine-rich domain, located between amino acids 369-389, which possesses several nuclear localization signal (NLS) and nucleolar localization signal (NoLS) motifs. A chimeric protein composed of the 369-389 peptide substituted for the NLS of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) Rev protein (ERev) showed no nuclear localization activity. Three negatively charged amino acids, located at positions 372, 377 and 379 in SARS-CoV N were hypothesized to play a role in the loss of nuclear targeting. Substitution of aspartic acid-372 with alanine restored nuclear localization to the chimeric protein. A full-length recombinant SARS-N protein with the alanine-372 substitution localized to the nucleus. Therefore, the presence of an aspartic acid at position 372 is sufficient to retain N in the cytoplasm The mechanistic basis for how aspartic acid-372 interrupts nuclear transport is unknown, but may lie in the electrostatic repulsion with negatively charged amino acids located within the NLS binding pocket of importin-alpha.

Microblog has become a central platform where people express their thoughts and opinions toward public events in China. With the sudden outbreak of coronavirus, the posts related to coronavirus are usually followed by a burst immediately in microblog volume, which provides a great opportunity to explore public sentiment about the events. In this context, sentiment analysis is helpful to explore how coronavirus affects public opinions. Deep learning has become a very popular technique for sentiment analysis. This thesis uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), a pre-trained unsupervised language representation model based on deep learning, to generate initial token embeddings that are further tuned by a neural network model on a supervised corpus, a sentiment classifier is constructed. We utilize data recently made available by the government of Beijing which contains 1 million blog posts from January 1 to February 20, 2020. Also, the model developed in this thesis can be used to track the sentiment variation with Weibo microblog data in the future. At the final stage, the variation of public sentiment is analyzed and presented with visualization charts of preformed people sentiment variation with the development of coronavirus in China. Comparison of the results between labeled data and all data is performed in order to explore how thoughts and opinions evolve in time. The result shows a significant growth of the negative sentiment on January 20 when a lockdown started in Wuhan, and afterward the growth becomes slower. Around February 7 when doctor Wenliang Li died, the number of negative sentiments reached its peak.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur chefer ser på sitt eget ledarskap samt hur de upplever att deras ledarskap påverkas av en krisartad situation, i detta fall spridningen av covid-19. Studien syftar även till att lyfta fram ett genusperspektiv på ledarskap. Studiens empiriska material är hämtat från kvalitativa intervjuer som har genomförts med åtta chefer från olika organisationer inom handelsbranschen. Av de åtta cheferna bestod hälften av män och hälften av kvinnor. Intervjupersonerna valdes ut genom ett målstyrt urval och intervjuerna genomfördes på ett semistrukturerat vis för att ge utrymme för respondenterna att svara helt utifrån sina egna perspektiv. Samt för att vi ska ha möjlighet att få en djupare förståelse inom ramen för vårt valda fenomen. Tidigare studier har visat tecken på att dagens ledarskap går att beskriva på otaligt många sätt samt att det finns många olika ledarskapsstilar att anta som ledare. Även kön kan vara en påverkande faktor på ledarskapet på grund av de strukturer och föreställningar som finns gällande det manliga och kvinnliga könet i samhället. Huruvida ledarskapet påverkats av krisartade situationer så säger tidigare forskning att det ställs andra förväntningar på ledarskapet samt ledaren i dessa situationer. Vidare visar vår studie även på en distinktion mellan chefskap och ledarskap. Det framkommer att våra respondenter främst använder sig av en demokratisk ledarskapsstil med inslag av det auktoritära och transformativa ledarskapet. Vidare framgår det att det fortfarande finns föreställningar om ledarskap som är kopplat till kön men att det är en ambivalent frågeställning. Vad gäller ledarskap i kris så visar vår empiri på att våra respondenter inte förändrar sitt ledarskap i grunden men att det sker vissa omprioriteringar i den krisartad situation som råder i vår värld idag. / This study aims to investigate how managers view their own leadership and how they feel that their leadership are affected by a crisis situation, in this case the spread of covid-19. The study also aims to highlight a gender perspective on leadership. The study's empirical material is drawn from qualitative interviews conducted with eight managers from different organizations in the trade industry. Of the eight managers, half were men and half were women. The interviewees were selected through a goal-directed selection and the interviews were conducted in a semi-structured way to allow the respondents to respond completely from their own perspectives and to have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding within the framework of our chosen phenomenon. Previous studies have shown that today's leadership can be described in countless ways and that there are many different leadership styles to adopt as leaders. Gender can also be an influencing factor in leadership because of the structures and conceptions that exist regarding the male and female gender in society. Whether leadership has been affected by crisis situations, previous research says that other expectations are set for leadership as well as the leader in these situations. Furthermore, our study also shows a distinction between leadership and leadership. It turns out that our respondents mainly use a democratic leadership style with elements of authoritarian and transformative leadership. Furthermore, it is evident that there are still notions of leadership that are linked to gender but that it is an ambivalent issue. As far as leadership in crisis is concerned, our empiricism shows that our respondents do not fundamentally change their leadership, but that there are certain re-priorities in a crisis situation like the one prevailing in our world today.2

abstract: This study was designed to examine the associations between food skills, resilience, and coping during the Covid-19 pandemic. Between April and June of 2020, a sample of 154 students, faculty, and staff from Arizona State University were surveyed. Each respondent was administered a survey containing demographic questions, a food skill questionnaire, and the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS). Results indicate that food skill was correlated with resilience (p<0.001) at an r=0.364 and r2=0.1243 and that resilience was correlated with coping during the Covid-19 pandemic (p<0.001) at an r=0.455. Correlations were also run between resilience score and the separate domains of food skill score: all domains remained significantly associated with resilience score (p<0.001) with a r=0.340 and r2=0.1173 for ‘Food Selection and Planning,’ r=0.312 and r2=0.0958 for ‘Food Preparation,’ and r=0.294 and r2=0.0767 for ‘Food Safety.’ Data seems to be consistent with contemporary research suggesting positive associations between diet quality and physiological resilience and positive associations between resilience and coping during the Covid-19 pandemic. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Nutrition 2020

Background: In 2020 the world was hit by the Coronavirus pandemic and the WHO issued information on how to diminish global virus spreading. In Sweden new rules and regulations concerned among other social sectors maternity and childbirth care. Aim: The aim of the study is to describe experiences by parents of expecting and giving birth to a child during the Coronavirus pandemic. Method: The study is an interview study. The collection of data consists of ten semi structured interviews with parents who were selected through convenience and snowball selections. A qualitative content analysis with inductive approach were used on analyzing the material. Result: The following four main categories were base for the results; Anxiety during pregnancy and childbirth. Partners feeling of exclusion. Handling of current life situation and Parents feeling of powerlessness. The parents felt concern and experienced powerlessness during the periods of pregnancy and childbirth. The anxiety was enhanced by the fact that there was lack of information on the influence on the fetus and the pregnant woman by the virus disease and by altered official regulationsconcerning to maternity care and childbirth care. Conclusion: A pandemic creates anxiety and feelings of powerlessness which brings the conclusion that the parents need more support and information. Both parents should as much as possible be included in all phases of pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care even during a pandemic, to minimize psychic disorder. This also increases the possibilities for parental affiliation and equality in parenthood. National guidelines for maternity care and childbirth care need to be created, preparing for upcoming pandemics. Scientific evidence should be at hand before children and parents are separated in health and medicine care. Future research should start from a family orientated perspective in health and medicine care, where the participation of all family members is seen as equally important. / Bakgrund: År 2020 drabbades världen av Coronapandemin och WHO gick ut med information för att minska smittspridningen globalt. I Sverige kom nya riktlinjer och regler vilket påverkade mödrahälsovård och förlossningsvård. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva föräldrars erfarenheter av att vänta och föda barn under Coronapandemin. Metod: Studien är intervjustudie. Datainsamlingen utgjordes av tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med föräldrar vilka valdes ut genom bekvämlighetsurval samt snöbollsurval. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktivt förhållningssätt användes vid analys av materialet. Resultat: Följande fyra huvudkategorier blev grunden till resultatet: Oro under graviditet och barnafödande, Partners utanförskap, Hantering av rådande livssituation och Föräldrars maktlöshet. Föräldrarna upplevde oro och maktlöshet under graviditet och förlossning, oron förstärktes av det faktum att det var brist på information kring virusets påverkan på fostret, den gravida kvinnan och kring ändrade riktlinjer inom både mödrahälsovård och förlossningsvård. Slutsats: En pandemi skapar oro och maktlöshet vilket medför att föräldrarna behöver mer stöd och information. Båda föräldrarna bör i möjligaste mån inkluderas i hela vårdkedjan kring graviditet, förlossning och tiden på BB även under pandemier för att minimera psykisk ohälsa. Det ökar även möjligheter för en god anknytningsprocess och ett jämställt föräldraskap. Nationella riktlinjer för mödrahälsovård och förlossningsvård behöver skapas så att alla är förberedda inför kommande pandemier. Vetenskaplig evidens bör finnas innan barn och föräldrar separeras inom hälso-sjukvården. Framtidens forskning bör utgå från ett familjecentrerat perspektiv inom hälso- och sjukvård, där hela familjens delaktighet är lika betydelsefull.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how two Swedish news media, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, reported on the coronavirus (COVID-19) before and after WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The research questions examined were 1. how did the two chosen news media report about the coronavirus? 2. Is there a difference between how they reported before WHO declared it pandemic and after?  This study is a qualitative analysis of 12 strategically selected articles, three that were published by Dagens Nyheter before WHO declared a pandemic and three by Dagens Nyheter after the declaration and three that were published by Aftonbladet before the declaration and three by Aftonbladet that were published after the declaration. To understand our empirical material, we chose the following theories for our study; framing, agenda setting, crisis journalism, media logic and storytelling techniques. In our analysis we could see a pattern in all the articles we analyzed. It shows that all the articles we analyzed are unique and sensational as we live in a pandemic that has never happened before in modern time, that's why they all came at the top of the agenda. The reporting in the two news media portrayed a troubled and uncertain time, from which it can be seen that the alarming emphasis in the reporting of the corona is recurring in several of the articles. Our analysis also showed that Aftonbladet has a more dramatic and dramaturgical storytelling technique as it is an evening newspaper and the articles from Dagens Nyheter are written shorter and more concretely.

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. Copyright

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / SARS-CoV-2 main protease is a common target for inhibition assays due to its high conservation among coronaviruses. Since flavonoids show antiviral activity, several in silico works have proposed them as potential SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. Nonetheless, there is reason to doubt certain results given the lack of consideration for flavonoid promiscuity or main protease plasticity, usage of short library sizes, absence of control molecules and/or the limitation of the methodology to a single target site. Here, we report a virtual screening study where dorsilurin E, euchrenone a11, sanggenol O and CHEMBL2171598 are proposed to inhibit main protease through different pathways. Remarkably, novel structural mechanisms were observed after sanggenol O and CHEMBL2171598 bound to experimentally proven allosteric sites. The former drastically affected the active site, while the latter triggered a hinge movement which has been previously reported for an inactive SARS-CoV main protease mutant. The use of a curated database of 4.8 k flavonoids, combining two well-known docking software (AutoDock Vina and AutoDock4.2), molecular dynamics and MMPBSA, guaranteed an adequate analysis and robust interpretation. These criteria can be considered for future screening campaigns against SARS-CoV-2 main protease. / Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica / Revisión por pares

U.S. state governments have implemented numerous policies to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. While there is strong biological evidence supporting the wearing of face masks or coverings in public spaces, the impact of public masking policies remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate how early versus delayed implementation of state-level public masking orders impacted subsequent COVID-19 growth rates. We defined “early” implementation as having a state-level mandate in place before September 1, 2020, the approximate start of the school-year. We defined COVID-19 growth rates as the relative increase in confirmed cases 7, 14, 21, 30, 45, 60-days after September 1. Primary analyses used targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) with Super Learner and considered a wide range of potential confounders to account for differences between states. In secondary analyses, we took an unadjusted approach and calculated the average COVID-19 growth rate among early-implementing states divided by the average COVID-19 growth rate among late-implementing states. At a national level, the expected growth rate after 14-days was 4%lower with early vs. delayed implementation (aRR: 0.96; 95%CI: 0.95-0.98). Associations did not plateau over time, but instead grew linearly. After 60-days, the expected growth rate was 16% lower with early vs. delayed implementation (aRR:0.84; 95%CI: 0.78-0.91). Unadjusted estimates were exaggerated (e.g. 60-day RR:0.72; 95%CI: 0.60-0.84). Sensitivity analyses varying the timing of the masking order yielded similar results. In both the short and long term, state-level public masking mandates were associated with lower COVID-19 growth rates. Given their low-cost and minimal (if any) impact on the economy, masking policies are promising public health strategies to mitigate further spread of COVID-19.

Introducción. La enfermedad de COVID-19 se propaga rápidamente. Se desconoce la seroprevalencia en mujeres embarazadas que ingresan a hospitalización y sus características propias en este tipo de población en Perú. Objetivo. Determinar la prevalencia y características clínico-epidemiológicas de gestantes con anticuerpos anti-SARS-CoV-2 en un hospital nivel III de Perú. Métodos. Estudio observacional de tipo transversal, realizado en el Instituto Nacional Materno Perinatal de Perú, entre el 15 de abril y 15 de mayo de 2020. Participaron todas las gestantes que ingresaron a hospitalización y fueron tamizadas para la infección por SARS-CoV-2 mediante pruebas serológicas, cuyos resultados fueron analizados conjuntamente con sus características clínicas y epidemiológicas, utilizando estadígrafos descriptivos e intervalos de confianza al 95%, y mediante la prueba de independencia de chi cuadrado con una significancia de 0,05.