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The COVID-19 pandemic has not only had health, economic, and political impacts, but also significant psychosocial and mental health consequences worldwide. In this article, different documentation and studies on mental health were analyzed, with the aim of identifying the various problems detected during the pandemic. Methodologically, a narrative and integrative review of the scientific literature was carried out. In Latin America, the most recent studies have documented and made patent effects on the various vulnerized populations such as migrants, women, children, the elderly, people living with significant disabilities, people experiencing marked housing and food insecurity, and temporary workers laboring in what has been referred to as the informal economy. In light of this, it is proposed that addressing these issues should involve the coordination of transnational policies and the definition of an agenda of critical priorities to focus and address. For this to come about, it is important that the empirical evidence generated by regional epidemiological studies contribute to the design of public policies on mental health of the Latin American population, so that they reduce the negative effects as well as prevent the future consequences of a pandemic that is not yet over.

(1) Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate and to detect neuromuscular deficiencies in static and dynamic tests among federated youth basketball players. (2) Methods: Cross-sectional study with 778 basketball players. Specific tests and trials were conducted to evaluate members of teams from several clubs in male and female from under 12 (U12) to under 17 (U17) categories. The evaluations consisted of static physical measurements and dynamic measurements. (3) Results: 575 players were included in this study. A total of 95% of participants are unable to keep their ankle stable in monopodial loading; 86% present dynamic lower extremity valgus with statistically significant differences between categories (p = 0.004); 94% are unable to keep the pelvis stable when performing a single-leg squat; 93% are unable to keep their trunk stable when performing the same movement. During landing, 96% present dynamic lower extremity valgus. The thighs of 92% do not reach parallel (peak of jump). (4) Conclusions: The most frequent neuromuscular deficits in federated youth basketball players are related to instability, the most frequent being ankle instability, followed by lumbo-pelvic instability, dynamic postural instability and dynamic knee valgus. Deficits in jumping/landing technique are also very frequent in all the items analyzed (jumping, landing and plyometrics). The performed tests, which mostly showed a poor performance by the sample, can be indicative of injury probability.

In this study, the ability of the aerobic biogranulation process to remove organic matter, total nitrogen, and total phosphorous from wastewater was investigated. The effect of organic matter load on the quality of the produced biogranules and settling velocity of the generated biomass was also investigated. Four different aerobic scenarios were studied in sequential batch bioreactors (SBR) to identify the best operating conditions. The experimental setup consisted of four bioreactors containing 300 mL samples (100 mL of sludge and 200 mL of sweet whey at four different concentrations) under constant stirring (150 rpm), room temperature, and controlled pH (e.g., 7.98 ± 0.25). The different organic matter loads were calculated as the chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration at 1157 (A), 719 (B), 357 (C), and 202 mg/L (D), respectively. The process consisted of cycles of initial feast followed by 72 h of famine. During the experiments, COD, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were measured at the beginning (t0) and the end of the process. The results confirmed that the best conditions were found in the bioreactor with the highest COD load (1157 mg/L), which achieved 98.7 % reduction in organic matter, 45.6 % reduction in TP, and 99.4 % reduction in TN after 9 days with final average sludge settling velocity of 0.7 m/h. The biogranulation process achieved improved clarification of the supernatant, showing increased settling velocity in all of the bioreactors. Microscopic observation confirmed uniform morphology (e.g., spherical or cylindrical) with the biggest biogranules being observed in bioreactors A and B. Organic load was found to play a significant role in biogranules formation and the achievement of the highest organic matter removal, sludge volume reduction, and water clarification. The overall trend in final sludge settling velocity measured in the different bioreactors was C > B > D > A, and in all of them settling was faster than t