At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the government of Spain decreed the State of Alarm to confine the entire population at their homes, except for essential services. Therefore, the central objective of this study is to evaluate the implication of this situation for the environmental noise existing in the city of Huelva (Spain). This study demonstrates that during the state of alarm an average daily reduction of 3.4 dBA was noted, and in the central moments of the day these reductions reached up to 4.4 dBA, while from 10:00 to 12:00 pm the reduction was around 6.5 dBA. Nevertheless, there were two moments of day: 3:00 am (garbage collection, street cleaning and container disinfection), and 8:00 pm (daily applause for health professionals), when the noise during the pandemic was higher than before it. It is further shown that globally, the loudest events only decreased by about 3 dBA, while the global background noise decreased by 10 dBA during the alarm state. Regarding road traffic noise, it is verified that in addition to being reduced by about 4 dBA, traffic represents 6.7% of noisy events during the alarm state, while before it represented 13%.

Campylobacteriosis is the most common acute bacterial diarrheal disease in our population. It is caused by bacteria of the genus Campylobacter species whose prevalence in the environment and ease of transmission make these infections a serious epidemiological problem. Although the disease usually has a picture of mild self-limiting diarrhea in some cases there is a more severe course with the need for hospital care. Colonization by Campylobacter spp. also plays on of the main role in the pathogenesis of other diseases. The study was conducted using data from the records of 67 patients aged 3 months to 10 years hospitalized for acute diarrheal illness caused by Campylobacter spp. Microbiological culture yielded growth of C. coli in 14 cases and C. jejuni in 52 patients. The isolated pathogens showed significant antibiotic resistance variable depending on the bacterial strain. The least susceptibility to the drugs occurred with erythromycin and was mainly related to C jejuni. In 42 children it was necessary to implement antibiotic therapy during which azithromycin, amoxicillin with clavulanic acid, or Biseptol were used.

Volatility persistence is a stylized statistical property of financial time-series data such as exchange rates and stock returns. The purpose of this letter is to investigate the relationship between volatility persistence and predictability of squared returns.