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AbstractBackgroundHigh-quality data is crucial for guiding decision making and practicing evidence-based healthcare, especially if previous knowledge is lacking. Nevertheless, data quality frailties have been exposed worldwide during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on a major Portuguese surveillance dataset, our study aims to assess data quality issues and suggest possible solutions.MethodsOn April 27th 2020, the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health (DGS) made available a dataset (DGSApril) for researchers, upon request. On August 4th, an updated dataset (DGSAugust) was also obtained. The quality of data was assessed through analysis of data completeness and consistency between both datasets.ResultsDGSAugust has not followed the data format and variables as DGSApril and a significant number of missing data and inconsistencies were found (e.g. 4,075 cases from the DGSApril were apparently not included in DGSAugust). Several variables also showed a low degree of completeness and/or changed their values from one dataset to another (e.g. the variable ‘underlying conditions’ had more than half of cases showing different information between datasets). There were also significant inconsistencies between the number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19 shown in DGSAugust and by the DGS reports publicly provided daily.ConclusionsThe low quality of COVID-19 surveillance datasets limits its usability to inform good decisions and perform useful research. Major improvements in surveillance datasets are therefore urgently needed - e.g. simplification of data entry processes, constant monitoring of data, and increased training and awareness of health care providers - as low data quality may lead to a deficient pandemic control.

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INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing event disrupting lives, health systems, and economies worldwide. Clear data about the pandemic's impact is lacking, namely regarding mortality. This work aims to study the impact of COVID-19 through the analysis of all-cause mortality data made available by different European countries, and to critique their mortality surveillance data. METHODS European countries that had publicly available data about the number of deaths per day/week were selected (England and Wales, France, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal). Two different methods were selected to estimate the excess mortality due to COVID19: (DEV) deviation from the expected value from homologue periods, and (RSTS) remainder after seasonal time series decomposition. We estimate total, age- and gender-specific excess mortality. Furthermore, we compare different policy responses to COVID-19. RESULTS Excess mortality was found in all 5 countries, ranging from 10.6% in Portugal (DEV) to 98.5% in Italy (DEV). Furthermore, excess mortality is higher than COVID-attributed deaths in all 5 countries. DISCUSSION The impact of COVID-19 on mortality appears to be larger than officially attributed deaths, in varying degrees in different countries. Comparisons between countries would be useful, but large disparities in mortality surveillance data could not be overcome. Unreliable data, and even a lack of cause-specific mortality data undermine the understanding of the impact of policy choices on both direct and indirect deaths during COVID-19. European countries should invest more on mortality surveillance systems to improve the publicly available data.

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Peer-to-peer communication has increasingly gained prevalence in people’s daily lives, with its widespread adoption being catalysed by technological advances. Although there have been strides for the inclusion of disabled individuals to ease communication between peers, people who suffer hand/arm impairments have scarce support in regular mainstream applications to efficiently communicate privately with other individuals. Additionally, as centralized systems have come into scrutiny regarding privacy and security, development of alternative, decentralized solutions has increased, a movement pioneered by Bitcoin that culminated on the blockchain technology and its variants. Within the inclusivity paradigm, this paper aims to showcase an alternative on human-computer interaction with support for the aforementioned individuals, through the use of an electroencephalography headset and electromyography surface electrodes, for application navigation and text input purposes respectively. Users of the application are inserted in a decentralized system that is designed for secure communication and exchange of data between peers that are both resilient to tampering attacks and central points of failure, with no long-term restrictions regarding scalability prospects. Therefore, being composed of a silent speech and brain-computer interface, users can communicate with other peers, regardless of disability status, with no physical contact with the device. Users utilize a specific user interface design that supports such interaction, doing so securely on a decentralized network that is based on a distributed hash table for better lookup, insert and deletion of data performance. This project is still in early stages of development, having successfully been developed a functional prototype on a closed, testing environment. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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The aim of the present study is to analyze brand resonance measures to assess reliability, dimensionality and validity using existing models of brand resonance. This study is based on a mixed approach of research methodology, using qualitative and quantitative methods. In the qualitative approach, we use expert interview and focus group discussion tools. In the quantitative approach, a corporate survey was conducted and 560 responses were collected through a structured questionnaire. The analysis is performed using statistical scaling tools such as Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). This study initiated scale extraction and operationalization processes for 72 observed variables to measure nine latent variables and obtained 34 statistically extracted observed variables. The study provides a reliable and validated means to measure brand resonance constructs. The study develops a brand resonance scale, which can help brand managers to measure consumers' levels of brand resonance, in order to describe the strength of the bond of their consumer with their brand(s). This study develops empirically extracted measures of brand resonance, making it distinctive in the branding literature. The study also ensures all important aspects of measurement scale, such as validity and reliability.