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Quantitative geographical methods have played an important role in COVID-19 research. To complement and extend previous review studies, we conduct a scoping review of COVID-19 studies employing quantitative geographical approaches by focusing on 331 papers published in 45 journals in geography, urban studies, and planning. We identify four major research themes (clusters): (1) how SARS-CoV-2 viruses spread in cities, (2) the COVID-19 mortality (death) rates and their association with socioeconomic variables, (3) how the COVID-19 pandemic changed people's mobilities, and (4) how the COVID-19 pandemic affects air pollution. We conclude that spatial models play a key role in COVID-19 quantitative geographical approaches, and human mobility is an important and widely studied topic. We also reveal a lack of research focusing on environmental pollution (other than air pollution) that potentially worsened during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life in Europe and globally. The pandemic affects both individuals and the broader society across many domains, including physical and psychological health, the economy and general welfare. The measures taken to counteract the pandemic have significantly altered daily life and, along with the threat of contracting the coronavirus and uncertainties surrounding future developments, created a complex system of stressors with a negative impact on public mental health. This paper aims to outline the ESTSS strategy to address mental health issues related to COVID-19 and focuses on (1) trauma-informed policies, (2) capacity building, (3) collaborative research and (4) knowledge-exchange. To facilitate implementation of a trauma-informed approach and appropriate measures, ESTSS has developed a toolkit of recommendations on mental health and psychosocial assistance to be provided during the different phases of crisis and its aftermath. To promote capacity building, ESTSS offers a certification programme based on a curriculum in psychotraumatology and corresponding on-line training to the European community of mental health professionals. To assure evidence-based approaches and methods tailored to current circumstances, ESTSS has initiated a pan-European research project with international cooperation aimed at studying the mental health consequences of the pandemic, with a focus on psychological trauma and other stress-related reactions. To foster knowledge-exchange, the European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT), the official journal of ESTSS, is publishing a special issue on COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market of courier, express and parcel services (CEP) is characterized by the presence of requests for the transfer of goods and documents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the global postal and CEP infrastructure played a key role in enabling governments to respond to the emerging challenges. In this paper, the competitiveness and the rank of four observed CEP service providers are analyzed using ratio indicators, the Ordinal Priority Approach method (OPA) and the Weighted Sum Method (WSM). We use the OPA method because there is no need for a pairwise comparison matrix and no need for normalization. The paper aims to examine the liquidity, economy and profitability of CEP service providers to get a true picture of the situation in the market of postal and CEP services in the Serbia. In the analysis of business performance and the implementation of the OPA method, the opinions of experts were taken into account. This paper yields a key insight: the identification of the top-performing provider within the group of service providers is accomplished through the utilization of both the OPA and WSM methods. Sensitivity analysis is shedding light on the varying impact of the provider's rank on the final ranking of the CEP providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, an increasing number of crises worldwide, triggered by climate extremes, natural and human-made hazards, the coronavirus pandemic, and more, pose a high pressure on crisis, emergency, and disaster management. Spatial data and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) are key issues in the successful and immediate response to crises. This paper aims to explore the use of VGI in crisis management, including emergency and disaster management, based on a scoping review of existing literature in English for five years (2016–2020). Specifically, the research intends to answer Scoping Review Questions (SRQ) regarding the use of VGI in crisis, emergency, and disaster management, and the verified cases' spatial distribution, the VGI sources utilized (e.g. OpenStreetMap – OSM, Crowdsourcing, Twitter), the types of hazards (e.g. natural and human-made hazards, pandemic), the specific tasks in crisis, emergency or disaster management and VGI use in the management of actual crisis events, e.g. COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Katrina, etc. Eligible papers on VGI use in crisis, emergency, and disaster management are geolocated based on first-author affiliation, and as a result, a spatial bibliography is provided. Thus, the term Spatial Scoping Review is introduced. Scoping Review Questions are answered, and the results are analyzed and discussed. Finally, implementing the "VGICED Atlas", a web atlas, permits the publication of the research results to a broad audience and the visualization of the analysis with several interactive maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Tag: Feature Article b Industry and government responses to supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the importance of a coordinated and forward-thinking approach to respond at scale in any large-scale emergency. Role of R&D R&D has contributed to reducing supply chain risk at Crown in three ways: risk management, supplier qualification, and through Design For Substitution. By engaging regularly with their R&D, supply chain, and sales and operations planning (S&OP) team members, company leaders and managers can gain a deeper understanding of supply chain challenges and shortfalls. Mitigate risks. [Extracted from the article]

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the education sector, forcing institutions, instructors, students, and parents to adapt to online or hybrid learning models. The Journal of Statistics & Data Science Education has published fifteen papers that describe approaches to addressing the challenges of the pandemic, with a focus on improving inclusive and flexible learning environments. The current issue of the journal features ten papers on various topics, including emergency online teaching, technology-enhanced instruction, and engaging students with COVID-19 journal articles. The journal also explores other timely topics such as causal inference, personalized education, and case studies using data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The collection of papers is available for free online and can provide valuable insights for the community to learn from this challenging time. [Extracted from the article]

Just as they are to the events themselves, the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics have become central to academic research on the Games and their political, social, and cultural roles. And so the recent string of Olympic Games held in East Asia – two of them under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic – offer the opportunity to think both about region-specific meanings associated with these highly scripted affairs and about the ways they might destabilize broader judgments about the Olympics and their implications. This paper introduces the contributions to this special volume on the Opening Ceremonies at Asia's recent Olympic Games, aiming to draw attention not only to the specific contributions of each paper but also to the themes that they collectively engage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In recent decades, and in particular since the shift towards independent central banks, there has been no explicit coordination of fiscal and monetary policy. In the Eurozone, this lack of coordination represents an important flaw, especially since the Eurozone is not an optimal currency area. Complementing monetary union with a transfer union represents one possible solution. This paper argues that the negative impact of post-2008 and post-Covid-19 unconventional monetary policy on income inequalities provides a second reason to coordinate fiscal and monetary policy. Among various institutional arrangements to implement such coordination, the paper defends the idea that the European Central Bank should be sensitive to distributive considerations when formulating its monetary policy. Such an arrangement would help both to contain the distributive side-effects of monetary policy and to at least partially remedy the flaw at the heart of the Eurozone as long as an outright transfer union remains unfeasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing studies rarely reveal the reasons for the digital currency price fluctuation from the perspective of internal interaction and contagion. Therefore, to fill this research gap, this paper comprehensively adopts the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC-) GARCH model and wavelet coherence analysis (WTC) to reveal the internal correlation and formation reasons of digital currency price fluctuations. Our research has the following findings: (1) the price fluctuations of digital currency are highly related. Through the observation of the dynamic conditional correlation coefficient graph, it is found that the price fluctuations have a strong time-varying trend, manifested as a 'contagious' characteristic. (2) During the outbreak of COVID-19, most digital currencies have shown positive resonance in the short, medium, and long term, suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the correlation and contagion of digital currency price fluctuations. (3) In the short term, Bitcoin is the main 'contagious source' of digital currency price fluctuation. But in the medium and long term, Ethereum and Ripple, which are closely related to the real economy, have a greater impact and become the new 'contagious source'. Generally speaking, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are the internal causes of instability in the digital currency market. Finally, based on the empirical conclusion, this paper proposes that the digital currency portfolio should be optimized to meet the investment demand; strengthen digital currency regulatory cooperation, and improve regulatory efficiency. Let the digital currency return to the 'currency' attribute and serve the real economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critically ill COVID-19 patients may exhibit various clinical symptoms of renal dysfunction including severe Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Currently, there is a lack of bibliometric analyses on COVID-19- related AKI. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the current research status and hot topics regarding COVID-19 AKI. The literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Subsequently, we utilized Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer, Citespace, and Pajek software to revealed the current research status, emerging topics, and developmental trends pertaining to COVID-19 AKI. This study encompassed a total of 1507 studies on COVID-19 AKI. The United States, China, and Italy emerged as the leading three countries in terms of publication numbers, contributing 498 (33.05%), 229 (15.20%), and 140 (9.29%) studies, respectively. The three most active and influential institutions include Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University and Harvard Medical School. Ronco C from Italy, holds the record for the highest number of publications, with a total of 15 papers authored. Cheng YC’s work from China has garnered the highest number of citations, totaling 470 citations. The co-occurrence analysis of author keywords reveals that ‘mortality’, ‘intensive care units’, ‘chronic kidney disease’, ‘nephrology’, ‘renal transplantation’, ‘acute respiratory distress syndrome’, and ‘risk factors’ emerge as the primary areas of focus within the realm of COVID-19 AKI. In summary, this study analyzes the research trends in the field of COVID-19 AKI, providing a reference for further exploration and research on COVID-19 AKI mechanisms and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan famously muddled through the 2020 Summer Olympics – triumphant as a host in that the Games were held, after a year-long delay, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic that had threatened to shutter the event entirely. The successes were qualified, with spectator-less matches and races leading to eerily quiet medals ceremonies, at least compared with normal years of cheering fans, enthusiasts, and tourists. Nowhere was the strangeness of the event more apparent than in the Opening Ceremony, filled with a combination of subdued but technologically adept spectacle, artistic representations of grief and loss, and the an unnervingly empty Olympic Stadium. This paper examines the politics of the Ceremony, and in particular the apparent early plans for a more standard, lightly nationalistic display of local history and culture, and toward a set of acknowledgments of a global crisis that transcended borders. In doing so, it calls attention to the complex political goals on display, as well as the challenges of benefiting politically from an event whose meaning in the midst of loss had been called broadly into question. Drawing from political science and literary theory, the paper emphasizes that while spectacle can matter, it risks, a dense environment of media reflection, being seen as little more than a gimmick. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures. ● During and immediately after crises, it is important to identify opportunities for policy change to address persistent governance failures. ● To support transformative change towards sustainability, governments typically should adopt a network governance style and act more as a convenor for deliberative processes in the later phase of the response to a crisis. ● Formation of innovation platforms bringing together actors from different levels and different roles (e.g. pioneering innovators, investors, scientists, policymakers, regulators) could support the scaling up of local initiatives and innovative approaches that have been developed during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indonesian government has issued hundreds of regulations and policies to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These various policies and regulations assess how a government responds, mitigates, and prevents systemic crises in its country. These decisions- and policy-making processes are largely determined by the country's unique socioeconomic and political landscape. This paper reviewed 875 regulations issued by the Indonesian government at the national level in 2020–2022 to determine which policies have the most direct social, economic, and health impact on the Indonesian population. We highlight social protection to explore the challenges and opportunities to respond future risk by taking benefit from progressive effort of the Indonesian government to protect all Indonesian populations with the priority of the most vulnerable groups. This paper aims to map out government policies and regulations in handling the pandemic and exploring the potential opportunities for adaptation to respond future risk. The study is based on expert group discussion and policy mapping. As one of the findings of the investigation, this paper discusses the interaction between large-scale and micro-scale social restriction and social protection policies, which are considered the foremost solutions for handling Indonesia's more severe economic crisis and facing current and future risks, including climate change impact. While social protection is one of the massive strategies to relieve economic impact to the most affected group, effectiveness and success are still challenges concerning data. This paper also provides important notes regarding climate change adaptation and how the government must respond to future risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic created an environment where the majority of continuing medical education (CME) and continuing professional development (CPD) activities needed to be delivered digitally. Producing digital materials for 16 separate learning activities (four learning journeys for each of four topic areas) in 2021 provided challenges and raised points of interest and discussion for a small, Italy-based provider of CME and CPD. This study presents outcome metrics from four live, interactive webinars. A variety of promotional efforts, including the strategic use of social media, generated interest and participation; feedback from the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education standard questionnaire to participants provided rates of satisfaction; subject knowledge and self-reported competence was measured by responses to pre- and post-event and follow-up (after 3 months) questionnaires. Post-event analysis of processes prompted introspection on the learning journey outcomes and methods of analysis. This paper discusses these observations, including potential innovations for future activities (e.g. reconfiguring the e-learning platform to capture time spent on learning activities), and also discusses issues in learner behaviour that impact CME provision and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 outbreak – a paradigmatic global health challenge – multiple African countries, including Tanzania, mobilised indigenous forms of healing as both preventive and curative measures to curb the pandemic. However, despite this effort to curtail the crisis, the place of indigenous medical knowledge in decolonising global health interventions remains unexamined. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Tanzania, as well as political speeches and newspaper sources, this paper examines how the government, under the late President John Pombe Magufuli, responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper demonstrates that the late Magufuli’s approach to the pandemic, and especially the mobilisation of local practices of self-care like steaming with nyungu, stirred debates on decolonising global health and the role of African traditional medicines in the COVID-19 pandemic response. Building on scholarship regarding the efforts to promote indigenous healing knowledge in postcolonial states in Africa, I argue that colonial history and postcolonial political positionings towards this history were the ‘cause’ for Magufuli’s resistance towards global health interventions of COVID-19 in Tanzania. This draws our attention to the possibility of new thinking when it comes to how global health, colonialism, national politics, and local practices of self-care like nyungu, interact with one another in contemporary Tanzania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I seek to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on voter behaviour in the 2020 general elections in Ghana using survey data compiled in Greater Accra between July and August 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic became a major campaign issue in last year's election prompting varied responses and support from both the government and the main opposition parties. Though a majority of the electorate were satisfied (83.5%) and grateful (82%) for the relief items they received, only 3 out of every 10 of the respondents think the intervention had an effect on the way they voted. Using the rally-effect theory, the paper finds that the political leadership and incumbent government were able to rally support for their campaign as a result of the social intervention policies implemented in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, yet were unable to sustain and translate that support into electoral victory in the Greater Accra Region, a major swing region with the highest number of Covid-19 cases and one of the only two regions that witnessed a lockdown during the height of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a profound transformation in the educational landscape in recent months. Educators worldwide have been challenged to tackle academic issues they could never have imagined. Among the most stressful situations faced by students and teachers is implementing online assessments. This paper proposes a system that includes exam prototypes for computer architecture modules at the higher education level. This system generates a wide range of questions and variations on the server side, supported by a set of simulators, resulting in many unique examination proposals. This system streamlines the monitoring process for the teacher, as it eliminates the possibility of two students receiving similar exams and reduces student stress by allowing them to practice with a limitless number of exam samples. This paper also highlights several indicators that demonstrate the advantages of this framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of a pandemic is as much a political act as biological reality. It is over not simply when case counts or deaths are reduced to some objectively determined acceptable level but also when, and if, the public accepts the stories that politicians and health officials tell about it. This paper has three aims. First, to develop the concept of a pandemic illness narrative – a public narrative that makes the experience of an outbreak meaningful to a community of people and explains when it will be finished. Using the case of the United States, the paper then examines how American state organisations and public health officials tried to disseminate a version of the 'restitution illness narrative' to make sense out of the COVID-19 pandemic and explain how it would ultimately end. Lastly, the paper describes the factors that made this narrative ultimately implausible to the American public. As most Americans are now seemingly indifferent about the pandemic, it has ended in the United States without ever actually being narratively concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper uses a SEIR(D) model to analyse the time-varying transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea throughout its multiple stages of development. This multi-stage estimation of the model parameters offers a better model fit compared to the whole period analysis and shows how the COVID-19's infection patterns change over time, primarily depending on the effectiveness of the public health authority's non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Methods: This paper uses the SEIR(D) compartment model to simulate and estimate the parameters for three distinctive stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea, using a manually compiled COVID-19 epidemic dataset for the period between 18 February 2020 and 08 February 2021. The paper identifies three major stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, conducts multi-stage estimations of the SEIR(D) model parameters, and carefully infers context-dependent meaning of the estimation results to help better understand the unique patterns of the transmission of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in each stage. Results: The original SIR compartment model may produce a poor and even misleading estimation result if it is used to cover the entire period of the epidemic. However, if we use the model carefully in distinctive stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, we can find useful insights into the nature of the transmission of the novel coronavirus and the relative effectiveness of the government's non-pharmaceutical interventions over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a SEIR(D) model to analyse the time-varying transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea throughout its multiple stages of development. This multi-stage estimation of the model parameters offers a better model fit compared to the whole period analysis and shows how the COVID-19's infection patterns change over time, primarily depending on the effectiveness of the public health authority's non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). This paper uses the SEIR(D) compartment model to simulate and estimate the parameters for three distinctive stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea, using a manually compiled COVID-19 epidemic dataset for the period between 18 February 2020 and 08 February 2021. The paper identifies three major stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, conducts multi-stage estimations of the SEIR(D) model parameters, and carefully infers context-dependent meaning of the estimation results to help better understand the unique patterns of the transmission of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in each stage. The original SIR compartment model may produce a poor and even misleading estimation result if it is used to cover the entire period of the epidemic. However, if we use the model carefully in distinctive stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, we can find useful insights into the nature of the transmission of the novel coronavirus and the relative effectiveness of the government's non-pharmaceutical interventions over time. Identifies three distinctive waves of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea. Conducts multi-stage estimations of the COVID-19 transmission dynamics using SEIR(D) epidemic models. The transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 vary over time, primarily depending on the relative effectiveness of the government's non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). The SEIR(D) epidemic model is useful and informative, but only when it is used carefully to account for the presence of multiple waves and context-dependent infection patterns in each wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, the incidence of mucormycosis reached high levels during 2021–2022, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this, we established a multicentric ambispective cohort of patients hospitalised with mucormycosis across India. In this paper, we report their baseline profile, clinical characteristics and outcomes at discharge. Patients hospitalized for mucormycosis during March–July 2021 were included. Mucormycosis was diagnosed based on mycological confirmation on direct microscopy (KOH/Calcofluor white stain), culture, histopathology, or supportive evidence from endoscopy or imaging. After consent, trained data collectors used medical records and telephonic interviews to capture data in a pre-tested structured questionnaire. At baseline, we recruited 686 patients from 26 study hospitals, of whom 72.3% were males, 78% had a prior history of diabetes, 53.2% had a history of corticosteroid treatment, and 80% were associated with COVID-19. Pain, numbness or swelling of the face were the commonest symptoms (73.3%). Liposomal Amphotericin B was the commonest drug formulation used (67.1%), and endoscopic sinus surgery was the most common surgical procedure (73.6%). At discharge, the disease was stable in 43.3%, in regression for 29.9% but 9.6% died during hospitalization. Among survivors, commonly reported disabilities included facial disfigurement (18.4%) and difficulties in chewing/swallowing (17.8%). Though the risk of mortality was only 1 in 10, the disability due to the disease was very high. This cohort study could enhance our understanding of the disease's clinical progression and help frame standard treatment guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analysis the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European banks' default risks, as measured by foreign long-term issuer credit ratings published by the main credit rating agencies. Two hypotheses are put forward: (1) The macroeconomic situation has a stronger negative impact on banks' financial conditions during COVID-19; (2) changes in the capital adequacy, assets, management, earnings, and liquidity indicators have a significant impact on changes in banks' credit ratings. The analysis has been prepared for the 2000–2021 period for listed and unlisted banks on the European stock exchanges, that received long-term issuer credit ratings from the main credit rating agencies. To the analysis have been used the ordered logit panel data models and the research has been made on the first differences to analyse the impact of the changes of the financial and macroeconomic conditions on the credit ratings changes. The obtained results suggest a direct and significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the credit rating changes, but a delayed reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The permanent changes in society affect, among other, the environment. This is why environmental efficiency plays a very important role, being quantified in different forms. In our paper we have developed a composite index of ecological efficiency taking into account two dimensions, environmental pollution and resource consumption, each one being characterized by specific indicators. Thus, using this index, the aim was to evaluate and rank the level of greening of each country in Europe. Crises over time, including the health crisis caused by coronavirus, have focused to resilience, so we have highlighted whether it is significantly influenced by the ecological efficiency index. In addition, we analyzed whether ecological efficiency is related to investments in a country, financial, material and technological potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to empirically examine the salience of EU fiscal integration processes between 2007 and 2022. By employing text-mining and qualitative analysis, the previously generated discourse on fiscal integration during and after the financial and sovereign debt crisis, several EU regulatory overhauls, Brexit and the COVID-19 crisis has been tracked. Particularly important have been the new counter-COVID-19 policies such as SURE and NGEU as these substantially impacted the course of common fiscal integration. The assessment covered a body of 160 documents including legal texts, peer reviewed articles, communications and reports of the EU bodies and policy papers, and has relied on the neo(neo)functionalism theory to identify shifts in fiscal integration. The findings show that the discourse on fiscal integration gains prominence with each economic and political crisis and that the shifts can go in the direction of either more (upward) or less (downward) fiscal integration, or involve enough (nil) integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines tourism persistence in a group of Southeastern European (SEE) countries (Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) by applying fractional integration methods to monthly data on foreign tourist arrivals and overnight stays. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the degree of persistence of these series as measured by the fractional differencing parameter; specifically, it has removed the mean reversion property in some countries. In addition, it has reduced the importance of the seasonal component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, reparameterization and student-t are applied to Stochastic Volatility (SV) model. We aim to reduce the amount of autocorrelation of the SV parameters and to introduce heavy-tailed model via the Bayesian computation of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) samplers. This research paper helps support better MCMC estimation of the SV model for volatile Asian FX series during Covid-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread seriously throughout the world. Predicting the spread, or the number of cases, in the future can facilitate preparation for, and prevention of, a worst-case scenario. To achieve these purposes, statistical modeling using past data is one feasible approach. This paper describes spatio-temporal modeling of COVID-19 case counts in 47 prefectures of Japan using a nonlinear random effects model, where random effects are introduced to capture the heterogeneity of a number of model parameters associated with the prefectures. The negative binomial distribution is frequently used with the Paul-Held random effects model to account for overdispersion in count data; however, the negative binomial distribution is known to be incapable of accommodating extreme observations such as those found in the COVID-19 case count data. We therefore propose use of the beta-negative binomial distribution with the Paul-Held model. This distribution is a generalization of the negative binomial distribution that has attracted much attention in recent years because it can model extreme observations with analytical tractability. The proposed beta-negative binomial model was applied to multivariate count time series data of COVID-19 cases in the 47 prefectures of Japan. Evaluation by one-step-ahead prediction showed that the proposed model can accommodate extreme observations without sacrificing predictive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical geopolitics conceives of the internal organization of the state as a relevant geopolitical subfield. In this context, this paper aims to develop a geopolitical interpretation of the covid-19 crisis management in Catalonia and Spain from March 2020 to mid-April 2020. The paper begins by providing an overview of internal geopolitics literature by Spanish geographers, focusing on the Catalonia/Spain conflict, followed by a thorough analysis of written and oral materials compiled for that purpose. Three discursive periods are identified: up until the declaration of the State of Alarm in mid-March 2020, the first two weeks with this in force, and the first half of April 2020. The paper evinces that the examined materials support contested visions about the distribution of territorial powers within Spain, while also unearthing some specificities that ultimately relate to the Catalan national question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated acceptance of learning from other countries, especially for high-income countries to learn from low- and middle-income countries, a practice known as global learning. COVID-19’s rapid disease transmission underscored how connected the globe is as well as revealed stark health inequities which facilitated looking outside of one’s borders for solutions. The Global Learning for Health Equity (GL4HE) Network, supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, held a 3-part webinar series in December 2021 to understand the current state of global learning and explore how global learning can advance health equity in the post-COVID-19 era. This paper reflects on these cutting-edge discussions about the current state of global learning, drawing upon the highlights, perspectives, and conclusions that emerged from these webinars. The paper also comments on best practices for global learning, including adapting for context, addressing biases, funding considerations, ensuring bidirectional partnerships, community engagement, and adopting a multidisciplinary approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, more attention has been paid to the physician gender pay gap and more interventions have been attempted. This paper discusses the physician gender pay gap between 2017 and 2021 in Maryland. An online cross-sectional survey was distributed to over 10,000 physicians in the Maryland Medical Society, featuring questions regarding employment characteristics, compensation, impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and educational debt. Using descriptive and regression analyses, we explored cross-sectional associations between gender and employment characteristics. Male physicians reported a significantly higher average 2020 pre-tax income ($333,732 per year) than female physicians ($225,473 per year, p < 0.001), amounting to a nearly 50% difference in raw income, consistent with a previously reported pay gap in 2016. Women physicians earned 31.5% less than their male colleagues in 2020 and were projected to earn 28.7% less in 2021. Female physicians were also more likely to have educational debt (33.6% vs.12.9%, p < 0.001) and also more likely to have a high burden of debt, with 36% owing over $200,000 in education loans, compared to 14.7% of men (p < 0.01). The physician gender pay gap in Maryland has remained relatively stable over four years, including the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The physician gender pay gap in Maryland has remained stable over four years, including the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Female physicians earned over 30% less than male physicians in Maryland in 2020. Female physicians are more likely to have educational debt, and when they do, they have a greater magnitude of debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explored how vulnerable, immunocompromised groups and caregivers of the elderly experienced and perceived the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely between the 5th andthe 18th of April 2020 in the three South African provinces hardest hit by Covid-19, namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. In total, 60 qualitative key informant interviews and one focus group discussion were conducted. Study participants expressed concerns for elderly people and people with underlying health conditions because of their increased vulnerability to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). People living with HIV expressed an increased fear of infection following the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. The sidelining of healthcare services and stock-outs of medication proved to be an added concern in particular for vulnerable and immunocompromised groups. Overall, the data suggest that the fear of infection is ubiquitous for people who live in unstable environments such as overcrowded townships and informal settlements. Given the increased fears of infection brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the mental health of vulnerable communities and those caring for them becomes an added burden for people living in unstable environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing trend of multi-channel urban consumption, driven by the rise of E-commerce, has led to the emergence of new freight facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic further amplified this shift, with consumers relying more heavily on online purchases for regular needs, resulting in the advent of Q-commerce as a distinct subvertical within the E-commerce industry. However, there is a significant lack of understanding regarding the characteristics, requirements, and impacts of this sector in both existing literature and planning documents. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the freight patterns and associated externalities within urban areas for this emerging trend in E-commerce, while also assessing the adequacy of planning documents in addressing these issues. The paper presents a case study-based examination of various Q-commerce grocery companies operating in Delhi, delving into their operations, freight patterns, and neighborhood-level externalities of last-mile delivery. By highlighting the externalities and deficiencies related to E-commerce, this study provides valuable insights into the planning implications of Q-commerce and its impact on urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are limitations and difficulties in the management of traditional in-person standardized patient (SP) practice. The latest developments in online communication tools and the COVID-19 pandemic have promoted the needs for online clinical skills training objectively. However, existing commercial online platforms may not meet the requests for SP-based medical simulation. This paper described the methodology applied to develop a smartphone-based online platform for the management of clinical skills training and assessment with remote SPs, and aimed to determine whether this new platform is acceptable or useful through a pilot run in September 2020. The post-run survey including questionnaire inspired by technological acceptance model and determinants of the perceived ease of use was used to assess the acceptability and usefulness of the platform. Twenty four-year students of clinical medicine participated in the pilot study with twenty SPs and ten faculties. Data from the post-run survey showed that there was a general recognition that the platform is easy to use among all the users. Two questions regarding the usefulness of the platform showed significant differences between the SPs/faculties and the students. More SPs found the platform useful as a training method than the students did. The faculties showed more attempts than the students to use this platform for clinical skills training in the future. This smartphone-based online platform was widely accepted among the tested students, SPs and faculties, which meets the requests and challenges of the new era. It provides an effective approach for clinical skills training and assessment with remote SPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cognitive, objective, and subjective evaluation of the judgment of one's perspective of looking at life defines as life satisfaction and happiness. There is a strong association between life satisfaction, joy, and external parameters, including environmental and socioeconomic factors and green innovation technologies. Marx's theory on life satisfaction provides an exciting insight and defines that economic resources are necessary to live comfortably. The core objective of this paper is to examine the effects of contributing parameters concerning life satisfaction and happiness (LSH) in China from 2005 to 2020. For this purpose, data collected for the dependent variable collect World Happiness Index and World Bank official website. Nine independent variables related to LSH discuss freedom to make life choices (FMLC); GDP growth; Social contribution (SC); Employment rate (ER); Social support (SS); Innovation and development (ID); Life expectancy (LE); Coverage of social safety (CSS); High qualification (HQ). The maximum LSH value is 5.77, with a mean value of 5.13. The highest coefficient correlation value with LSH is CO2, with a positive correlation coefficient value of 0.80, followed by GDPG, with a negative coefficient value of 0.80. PC1 explains 76.74% of results, whereas MLR produces 0.91 R2 (p-value: 0.093, Residual standard error: 0.181). There is a need to understand correlates and determinants in further detail to set up a framework that enables policy-makers to incorporate well-being and life satisfaction measures in carving new public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model which will unveil how fans of different film genres observe the importance of elements of marketing mix when consuming products in the film industry during COVID-19 pandemics. To verify the proposed conceptual model, a survey was conducted during the lockdown and the responses of 1606 individuals from Serbia, who declare themselves as film fans, were analyzed using structural equation modelling analysis. The results support the assumption that the respondents who prefer different film genres give different importance to elements of the film marketing mix. Our findings show that based on the genre of the film marketing activities can be tailored so as to improve their effects, especially during the pandemics and post-pandemics period. It is believed that the herein presented research could initiate further research on the issue of modelling marketing activities in the film industry based on consumers' genre preference and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) aims to achieve the vision of a world safe and secure from global health threats posed by infectious diseases through advancing a multi-sectoral approach. Thailand played a prominent role as the Chair of the GHSA Steering Group in 2021, guided by the Chair's Declaration approved by the Cabinet of Thailand in 2020. In 2021, country efforts were needed to attain the right balance between preparing for future pandemics while responding to COVID-19. This paper details actions and achievements with respect to preparedness and enhancing country's capacities recommended by the GHSA 2021, which include, among others, garnering high-level support, developing, utilisation of global health security tools, and advocating for sustainable financing. With the continued coordination and collaboration of the Action Packages and translating the Strategic Communications Plan into operation, the GHSA 2024 Target (of measured improvement of health security capacities according to the relevant health security assessments in more than 100 countries) is expected to be achieved by 2024. The unique roles and contributions of the diverse multi-sectoral partners are needed to bridge the gaps and better prepare the world to cope for future pandemics. GHSA not only promotes global preparedness and response, but also complements national preparedness and response. With Thailand's experience, the GHSA mechanism has been continuously supporting GHSA subnational level activities in border areas. The main outcome of these discussions was the sub-national strategic plan with a multi-sectoral approach to detection, preparation and response. 1. Public health emergencies highlight the importance of multisector cooperation beyond just the health sector. The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is a global platform that connects different sectors beyond health sectors to enhance health security. 2. Garnering high-level support is necessary to drive forth the GHSA to improve country health securitycapacities. Leadership should be engaged early and often to support resource mobilization and planning & accelerating of implementation activities. 3. As the 2021 GHSA Steering Group Chair, Thailand utilised the GHSA mechanism and efforts to soliciting/facilitating health security efforts at global, regional, and national levels despite the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. 4. Collaboration &coordination across sectors, strong leadership, and firmed commitments will continue to be important for the GHSA mechanism and the global health security architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decarbonizing transport is one of the core tasks for achieving Net Zero targets, but the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts human mobility and the established transport development strategies. Although existing research has explored the relationship between virus transmission, human mobility, and restrictions policies, few have studied the responses of multimodal human mobility to the pandemic and their impacts on the achievement of decarbonizing transport. This paper employs 32 consecutive biweekly observations of mobile phone application data to understand the influences of the pandemics on multimodal human mobility from February 2020 to April 2021 in London. We here illustrate that multimodal travel behavior and traffic flows significant changed after the pandemic and related lockdowns, but the decline or recovery varies across different travel modes and lockdowns. The car mode has shown the most resilience throughout the pandemic, but the travel modes in the public transit sector were hit hard. Cycle and walk modes remained high at the beginning of the pandemic, but the trend did not continue as the pandemic developed and the season changed. Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic brought more challenges to travel mode shifting and the achievement of decarbonizing transport rather than opportunities. This analysis will assist transport authorities to optimize the established transport policies and to redistribute limited resources for accelerating the achievement of decarbonizing transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected how people go about their daily lives, often in various and substantial ways. This study aims to prospectively evaluate the changes in social participation during the COVID-19 pandemic in persons with a high risk for a severe COVID-19 course in Germany. A paper-pencil-based survey was conducted starting at March 2021. Participants filled out questionnaires at four time points based on their COVID-19 vaccination status: before COVID-19 vaccination, one month, six months and twelve months after COVID-19 vaccination. Social participation measures included the Pandemic Social Participation Questionnaire (PSP-Q) and the Index for measuring participation restrictions (IMET). Repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-test were used to test for changes between time-points. Repeated measures correlation was used to assess the relationship between social participation and local COVID-19 incidences. Data from 245 participants was analyzed before and one month after COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, data from 156 participants was analyzed at time points one, six and twelve months after COVID-19. PSP-Q and IMET scores changed significantly after participants received a COVID-19 vaccination. Between one month and twelve months after vaccination, social participation improved significantly measured by PSP-Q. Social participation was negatively correlated with regional COVID-19 incidences before and after COVID-19 vaccination. Social participation was positively correlated with COVID-19 incidences between one month and twelve months after COVID-19 vaccination. Social participation improved in persons with a high risk for a severe COVID-19 course during the pandemic. The local COVID-19 incidence showed a negative association with social participation only until the fall of 2021 when it was used as the sole metric to regulate COVID-19 protective measures. Although our data describes the trends in social participation, further studies are needed to identify the influencing factors for the observed increase in social participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown and containment measures have instigated substantial changes in our daily lives and have affected many people's mental health. This paper reports two studies exploring gender-based differences with regard to the impact of COVID-related confinement on individuals' self-efficacy to regulate negative emotions (RESE-NE) and anxiety. Methods: Study 1 (cross-sectional; 269 participants; 52% women) explored the evolution of RESE-NE and anxiety. To this end, participants assessed their status at two time points: a retrospective assessment of the period before confinement in Spain, and a current assessment during confinement. Study 2 (longitudinal; 114 participants; 72.2% women) explored the evolution of the variables by adding a post-confinement time point and analyzed the mediating role of RESE-NE in the positivity–anxiety and resilience–anxiety relationships. Results: The results confirmed that: (a) RESE-NE decreased and anxiety increased more among women than among men during confinement (Study 1); (b) women recovered their pre-pandemic levels of mental health more slowly than did men following confinement; and (c) the mediating role of RESE-NE could be observed in the two relationships under analysis. Conclusion: In practical terms, the research highlights the need to pay special attention to women undergoing mental health interventions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to the differential burden that the pandemic may entail for men and women and to the contrasting social roles traditionally attributed to them. From the gender differences identified, it is possible to infer how stereotypes and social roles influence the behavior and mental health of men and women, leading them to cope differently with stressful situations such as confinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure assets are vital for economic development and integration, but they also encompass political risks. In Africa, infrastructure assets have remained a paradox where there is great potential for opportunities but very few projects get to the final phases. Adequate infrastructure can propagate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals whilst supporting recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing from a longitudinal data set from 2000 to 2021 for 35 African countries, the paper empirically examined the nexus between infrastructure and political risk. Several techniques were employed to determine the dynamic effect, cointegration and causality between infrastructure and political risk. Controlling for the potential endogeneity in infrastructure the system Generalized Method of Moments, the relationship between political risk and infrastructure was ascertained. Furthermore, the ARDL-PMG was employed to determine the cointegration and causal relationship between infrastructure and political risk. The results suggest a cointegration between infrastructure assets and political risk. Infrastructure adjusts to changes in political risk to its long-run equilibrium at a speed of adjustment of 16.9 per cent. Bridging infrastructure gaps in Africa requires an extensive set of actions. Thus, the policy derivatives of our findings, suggest controlling the proliferation of political risk to support infrastructure investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, the recent SARS-CoV-2 virus disease outbreak has infected more than 691,000,000 people and killed more than 6,900,000. Surprisingly, Sub-Saharan Africa has suffered the least from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Factors that are inherent to developing countries and that contrast with their counterparts in developed countries have been associated with these disease burden differences. In this paper, we developed data-driven COVID-19 mathematical models of two 'extreme': Cameroon, a developing country, and New York State (NYS) located in a developed country. We then identified critical parameters that could be used to explain the lower-than-expected COVID-19 disease burden in Cameroon versus NYS and to help mitigate future major disease outbreaks. Through the introduction of a 'disease burden' function, we found that COVID-19 could have been much more severe in Cameroon than in NYS if the vaccination rate had remained very low in Cameroon and the pandemic had not ended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research examines the implementation of the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM) in Canada to identify opportunities revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic to re-design our social eco-system to promote wellbeing. This paper has two objectives: 1) to provide a conceptual review of research that applies the bioecological model to youth substance use prevention with a focus on the concepts of time and physical space use and 2) to describe a case study that examines the implementation of the IPM in Canada within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Study data were collected through semistructured qualitative interviews with key stakeholders involved in implementing the IPM. Results: Findings are organized within three over-arching themes derived from a thematic analysis: 1) Issues that influence time and space use patterns and youth substance use, 2) Family and community cohesion and influences on developmental context and time use and 3) Opportunities presented by the pandemic that can promote youth wellbeing. Conclusion: We apply the findings to research on the IPM as well as the pandemic to examine opportunities that may support primary prevention and overall youth wellbeing. We use the concepts of time and space as a foundation to discuss implications for policy and practice going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an optimal control model for the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 is investigated. We established important model properties like nonnegativity and boundedness of solutions, and also the region of invariance. Further, an expression for the basic reproduction number is computed and its sensitivity w.r.t model parameters is carried out to identify the most sensitive parameter. Based on sensitivity analysis, optimal control strategies were presented to reduce the disease burden and related costs. It is demonstrated that optimal control does exist and is unique. The characterization of optimal trajectories is analytically studied via Pontryagin's Minimum Principle. Moreover, various simulations were performed to support analytical results. The simulation results showed that the proposed controls significantly influence the disease burden compared to the absence of control cases. Further, it reveals that the applied control strategies are effective throughout the intervention period in reducing COVID-19 diseases in the community. Besides, the simulation results of the optimal control suggested that concurrently applying all controlling strategies outperform in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 compared to any other preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 new coronavirus illness (COVID-19) is an international public health emergency. Our social and healthcare systems are under a great deal of strain as a result of the daily increase in infection rates and fatalities. Doctors typically perform a chest Xray to identify the diseased areas of the lungs since pneumonia is a common type of infection that spreads in the lungs. In this paper, we propose a Convolution Neural Network via the li regularization model to detect COVID-19 patients using chest X-Ray images. Due to the lack of the COVID-19 benchmark dataset, we use deep learning techniques to identify the best pre-trained CNN model for this job by comparing 15 models. The suggested algorithm was tested on 1316 photos (116 COVID-19 cases, 328 healthy controls, and 872 pneumonia cases), with 66% for training, 17% for validation, and 17% for testing. The classification accuracy, loss, valueaccuracy, and value-loss values obtained by the suggested technique are 0.9912, 0.0187, 0.1119, and 0.9506 respectively. Additionally, the model effectively decreases training loss while boosting accuracy. The results show that proposed procedures are more effective than existing ones at identifying COVID-19 cases from chest X-ray pictures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As COVID-19 is an emerging pandemic, analysing its evolution is necessary to understand it in order to find appropriate answers. In this paper, we aim to observe and analyse it at the Chadian-Senegalese level. Thus, we collect public data in order to present via curves, histograms and tables the main characteristics of this pandemic. In this way, we implement a python program to construct these. We focus only on extracting long-term data without predictive models. We observed that there are mainly two waves (outbreak) per year with stable or even decreasing infection and death rates. We also identified moments of growth and relaxation of the disease. These results can be used to identify times when treatment or prevention should be intensified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of Indian media. Utilizing the Propaganda Model formulated by Herman and Chomsky in the book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media (1988), the paper aims to critically assess the news patterns and media performance of the mainstream Indian media. The contribution of the paper will be the application of the propaganda model in the context of Indian media. For this study, we have analyzed the media coverage of two events – India's ban on Chinese apps and the Pulwama attack. We focus on how Indian Media has helped the Government to establish the propaganda of nationalism during both events, which is explained by Herman and Chomsky in the five filters of news production. We investigate how the anti-China sentiment and the Pulwama attack have been used by the Government to divert attention from their failure of governance, and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporate media is playing its part in the machinations of the ruling BJP party. We conclude that the plurality of voices amongst journalists is in decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we test the validity of the employment hysteresis hypothesis. For this purpose, we use daily employment data at the national and state levels in the United States from January 8, 2020, to May 30, 2020. We apply the modified version of the Kapetanios-Shin unit root test, along with finite-sample critical values. We find that the employment hysteresis hypothesis is valid in the United States during the COVID-19 era. The validity of the findings does not change when data at the national and state levels are used. The evidence is also valid when the employment levels for all firms and small firms are considered. The results are also robust to employment levels for workers at different income levels and employment in five different sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]