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Motivated by the occurrence of extreme events and nonnormality of returns, we examine the spillovers among the conditional volatility, skewness and (excess) kurtosis of European Union allowances (EUA), Brent oil, natural gas, coal, electricity and clean energy markets. The jointly estimated spillover index in the system of the three higher‐order moments is notably high, exceeding the spillover index estimated for each individual moment separately. This suggests that spillovers across moments in the carbon‐energy system are important for the sake of completeness of the spillover analysis, and should not be ignored. The performance of the portfolio improves after considering higher‐order moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Distress during SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak affected also cancer patients' well‐being. Aim of this study was to investigate patient' reactions and behavior (flexible‐adaptive vs. inflexible‐maladaptive) during the SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak. Methods: A cross‐sectional survey was designed with a self‐report questionnaire, "the ImpACT questionnaire," developed for the study. Regression analysis was performed on data. Results: Four hundred and forty five cancer patients from 17 Italian regions participated in the study. 79.8% of participants were female (mean age of 58 years). 92.6% of participants reported feeling vulnerable to COVID‐19 contagion; 75.6% reported helpless, 62.7% sad, 60.4% anxious, and 52.0% anger. Avoidance of thinking about coronavirus is the principal maladaptive behavior that emerged. Participants who reported feeling anxious were more likely to have fear of staff being infected with COVID‐19 (OR = 3.01; 95% CI = 1.49–6.30) and to have disrupted sleep due to worry (OR = 2.42; 95% CI = 1.23–4.83). Younger participants reported more anxiety (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.94–1.00); men reported feeling calm more than women (OR = 2.60; 95% CI = 1.27–5.43). Conclusions: Majority of cancer patients reported serious concerns regarding SARS‐CoV‐2 infection; reliable information and psychological support must be offers to respond to these needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Points: Nasal tight junction module score correlates negatively to allergy module score in COVID‐19.Omicron variant may slow‐down tight junction restoration in patients with AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has posed a tremendous threat to the public and health authorities. Wuhan, as one of the cities experiencing the earliest COVID‐19 outbreak, has successfully tackled the epidemic finally. The main reason is the implementing of Fangcang shelter hospitals, which rapidly and massively scale the health system's capacity to treat COVID‐19 confirmed cases with mild symptoms. To give insights on what degree Fangcang shelter hospitals have contained COVID‐19 in Wuhan, we proposed a piecewise smooth model regarding the patient triage scheme and the bed capacities of Fangcang shelter hospitals and designated hospitals. We used data on the cumulative number of confirmed cases, recovered cases, deaths, and data on the number of hospitalized individuals in Fangcang shelter hospitals and designated hospitals in Wuhan to parameterize the targeted model. Our results showed that diminishing the bed capacity or delaying the opening time of Fangcang shelter hospitals, both would result in worsening the epidemic by increasing the total number of infectives and hospitalized individuals and the effective reproduction number Re(t)$$ {R}_e(t) $$. The findings demonstrated that Fangcang shelter hospitals avoided 17,013 critical infections and 17,823 total infections while it saved 7 days during the process of controlling the effective reproduction number Re(t)<1$$ {R}_e(t)<1 $$. Our study highlighted the critical role of Fangcang shelter hospitals in curbing and eventually stopping COVID‐19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. These findings may provide a valuable reference for decision‐makers in regarding ramping up the health system capacity to isolate groups of people with mild symptoms in areas of widespread infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the transmission of volatility across markets is essential for managing risk and financial stability, especially under crisis periods during which an extreme event occurring in one market is easily transmitted to another market. To gain such an understanding and enrich the related literature, we examine in this article the system of volatility spillovers across various equity markets and asset classes using a quantile‐based approach, allowing us to capture spillovers under normal and high volatility states. The sample period is 16 March 2011–10 November 2020 and the employed dataset comprises 12 implied volatility indices representing a forward‐looking measure of uncertainty of global equities, strategic commodities and the US Treasury bond market. The results show that the identity of transmitters and receivers of volatility shocks differ between normal and high volatility states. The US stock market is at the centre of volatility spillovers in the normal volatility state. European and Chinese stock markets and strategic commodities (e.g. crude oil and gold) become major volatility transmitters in the high volatility state, after acting as volatility receivers during normal periods. Furthermore, we study the drivers of implied volatility spillovers using regression models and find that US Default spread contributes to the total volatility spillover index in both volatility states, whereas TED spread plays a significant role in the normal volatility state. As for the role of short rate and risk aversion, it is significant in the high volatility state. These findings matter to the decision‐making process of risk managers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected thousands of people around the world. In this study, we used artificial neural network (ANN) models to forecast the COVID‐19 outbreak for policymakers based on 1st January to 31st October 2021 of positive cases in India. In the confirmed cases of COVID‐19 in India, it's critical to use an estimating model with a high degree of accuracy to get a clear understanding of the situation. Two explicit mathematical prediction models were used in this work to anticipate the COVID‐19 epidemic in India. A Boltzmann Function‐based model and Beesham's prediction model are among these methods and also estimated using the advanced ANN‐BP models. The COVID‐19 information was partitioned into two sections: training and testing. The former was utilized for training the ANN‐BP models, and the latter was used to test them. The information examination uncovers critical day‐by‐day affirmed case changes, yet additionally unmistakable scopes of absolute affirmed cases revealed across the time span considered. The ANN‐BP model that takes into consideration the preceding 14‐days outperforms the others based on the archived results. In forecasting the COVID‐19 pandemic, this comparison provides the maximum incubation period, in India. Mean square error, and mean absolute percent error have been treated as the forecast model performs more accurately and gets good results. In view of the findings, the ANN‐BP model that considers the past 14‐days for the forecast is proposed to predict everyday affirmed cases, especially in India that have encountered the main pinnacle of the COVID‐19 outbreak. This work has not just demonstrated the relevance of the ANN‐BP techniques for the expectation of the COVID‐19 outbreak yet additionally showed that considering the incubation time of COVID‐19 in forecast models might produce more accurate assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Since the first lockdown of Spring 2020, the COVID‐19 contagion waves pervasively disrupted the sleep and mental health of the worldwide population. Notwithstanding the largest vaccination campaign in human history, the pandemic has continued to impact the everyday life of the general population for 2 years now. The present study provides the first evidence of the longitudinal trajectories of sleep disturbances and mental health throughout the pandemic in Italy, also describing the differential time course of age groups, genders and chronotypes. A total of 1062 Italians participated in a three‐time‐point longitudinal study covering two critical stages of the emergency (the first lockdown in April 2020 and the second partial lockdown in December 2020) and providing a long‐term overview 2 years after the pandemic outbreak (April 2022). We administered validated questionnaires to evaluate sleep quality/habits, insomnia, depression, stress and anxiety symptoms. Analyses showed a gradual improvement in sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety. Conversely, sleep duration progressively decreased, particularly in evening‐type and younger people. Participants reported substantial earlier bedtime and get‐up time. Stress levels increased during December 2020 and then stabilised. This effect was stronger in the population groups apparently more resilient during the first lockdown (older people, men and morning‐types). Our results describe a promising scenario 2 years after the pandemic onset. However, the improvements were relatively small, the perceived stress increased, and the re‐establishment of pre‐existing social/working dynamics led to general sleep curtailment. Further long‐term monitoring is required to claim the end of the COVID‐19 emergency on Italians' sleep and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to choose the appropriate GARCH model to analyse the volatility dynamics of the Tunisian sectorial stock market indices during the COVID‐19 outbreak period. We explore the optimal conditional heteroscedasticity model with regards to goodness‐of‐fit to these sectorial indices. In particular, it proposes four models (EGARCH, FIGARCH, FIEGARCH and TGARCH) to measure asymmetric and persistence volatility. Our findings point to three interesting results. First, following the COVID‐19 outbreak, volatility is more persistent in all series. Second, the results show that building constructs materials, construction and food and beverage sector return volatilities have an insignificant asymmetric effect while consumer service, financials and distribution, industrials, basic materials and banks sector return volatilities have relatively high positive and significant asymmetric effect compared with those during the pre‐COVID‐19 period. Finally, the findings show that financial services, automobile and parts, insurance and TUNINDEX20 sectors have insignificant leverage effect. Our results can thus be useful to investors when accounting for future volatility and implementing hedging strategies under COVID‐19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the role of the usage of the largest social media platform in China, Sina Weibo, by the Chinese government for controlling the COVID‐19 pandemic. Manually collected governmental microblogs about the COVID‐19 outbreak were analysed, which showed that a 10 per cent increase in the number of microblogs resulted in a 1.38 per cent decrease of confirmed COVID‐19 cases. This effect was more pronounced in areas with less restrained travel restrictions. The effect relies primarily on two mechanisms: encouraging home quarantine and promoting knowledge about COVID‐19 prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperature and certain humidity are conducive to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) for long‐time survival and long‐distance spread during logistics and trades. Contaminated cold‐chain or frozen products and outer packaging act as the carrier of SARS‐CoV‐2, that infects the high‐risk population who works in the ports, cold storage or seafood market. Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic worldwide, multiple localized outbreaks caused by SARS‐CoV‐2 contaminated imported cold‐chain products have been reported in China, which brought challenges to COVID‐19 prevention and control. Here, we review the evidences of SARS‐CoV‐2 cold‐chain transmission from six confirmed cold‐chain related COVID‐19 outbreaks in China, especially in terms of SARS‐CoV‐2 whole‐genome sequencing and virus isolation. In addition, we summarize the characteristics and mode of SARS‐CoV‐2 cold‐chain transmission from both six COVID‐19 outbreaks in China and the outbreaks suspected cold‐chain transmission in other countries. Finally, we analyze the underlying risks of SARS‐CoV‐2 cold‐chain transmission and propose the preventive countermeasures. Highlights: SARS‐CoV‐2 contaminated cold‐chain products can infect high‐risk populations and subsequently cause community transmissionSpecific locations, such as seafood market stalls, can amplify outbreaksCold‐chain fomites accelerate global spread of SARS‐CoV‐2 and cause "silent transmission"Rational sampling, comprehensive disinfection, protection of high‐risk groups and pollution classification are the main strategies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide an easy and accurate method for approximating the reproduction number R0 defined in an SIR epidemic model. At first, we present a formula extracting the exact R0 in case of constant rates of infection and recovery assumed in an SIR model. Then, we proceed proposing an exponential fitting to various data taken from the real‐world epidemics. Certain applications for current COVID outbreak are considered, and figures describing the fluctuation of R0 in various countries are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine the psychological resilience and perceived stress levels of healthcare workers in COVID‐19 intensive care units. Methods: The study was conducted with 418 physicians and nurses in Turkey between July and August 2020. The data were collected with an online survey consisting of a personal information form, the Brief Resilience Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. Results: The study sample comprised 32.5% physicians and 67.5% nurses. Fear of transmission of COVID‐19 from the patients in their care was stated by 92.6% of the physicians and 95.7% of the nurses. Almost all of the participants (99.3%) were afraid of transmitting COVID‐19 to their families. The psychological resilience level of the physicians (18.42 ± 2.25) participating in the study was higher than that of the nurses (17.88 ± 2.00), and the perceived stress level was lower. It was determined that most physicians and nurses strengthened their team/work friendship bonds during the pandemic, but the motivation to work decreased. Conclusion: The study results suggest that frontline intensive care workers should be closely monitored as a high‐risk group for psychological problems. The provision of better personal protective equipment, together with on‐going monitoring and provision of psychological support, and strong family support will increase the resilience of frontline healthcare workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating social cognitive theory and public relations literature, this study examines the effectiveness of organizations' transparent communication in building public trust and encouraging health‐protection behaviours (i.e. social distancing) during a pandemic, that is, the COVID‐19 outbreak. Three aspects of transparent communication are investigated, namely information substantiality, accountability and participation. Results of an online survey of American citizens show that during the early stage of COVID‐19, information substantiality by state governments and health institutes (e.g., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) increases publics' trust, which positively influences their perceived risks, behavioural control and subjective norms. The participation of health institutes, rather than state governments, significantly increases public trust, whereas accountability has no effects. Individuals' perceptions and attitudes towards social distancing predict their social distancing behaviour during the outbreak. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the mental state of nursing students when the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Turkish population reached its peak. Design and Methods: This cross‐sectional study was remotely conducted using General Health Questionnaire‐12 (GHQ‐12) and personnel information form, for 2630 nursing students, in Turkey. Data were statistically analyzed. Findings: The mean GHQ‐12 score was 3.04 ± 2.13, and 71.5% of nursing students scored ≥2 on the GHQ‐12, indicating risk for mental problems. We highlighted that nursing students who reported less sleep and diet during the COVID‐19 pandemic as well as those who thought they were suffering from COVID‐19 symptoms obtained significantly higher mean scores on the GHQ‐12. Practice Implications: Our results showed that most nursing students reported mental problems during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Pre‐training of the frontline staff during outbreaks is needed to prepare them to deal with a global pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scarce and inconclusive evidence exists on the mental health consequences of the COVID‐19 lockdown. This study examined the psychological impact of the lockdown in Greece, resilience levels, use of coping strategies, and identified high‐risk groups. A sample of 1661 participants (mean age = 39.5, SD = 12.2; 75.5% females) completed a web‐based survey, which was distributed through social networking sites, webpages, and personal contacts. Posttraumatic symptoms, posttraumatic growth, resilience, and coping strategies were assessed. Different population subgroups suffered the impact of lockdown disproportionately. Healthcare workers, females, younger, less educated, and those living alone reported higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Females achieved more posttraumatic growth and were using coping strategies more frequently than men. Men, older, healthcare workers, and those with a partner were more resilient. Interventions need to be developed to target personal resources, protect vulnerable populations, facilitate posttraumatic growth, and ameliorate wellbeing and quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Literature suggests that 'meaning in life' may be a mental strength that enables individuals to function healthily and adaptively in the face of stress events. Therefore, this study aims to examine the longitudinal associations between meaning in life and psychosocial adjustment to the COVID-19 outbreak among Chinese people.Methods: A prospective design was adopted. 154 Chinese college students (Mean age = 20.41 ± 1.45 years) completed two waves of the assessment. Participants reported their meaning in life before the outbreak (Time 1) and their psychosocial adjustment 7 weeks later after the outbreak had occurred (Time 2).Results: Participants' meaning in life at Time 1 was positively related to life satisfaction and negatively related to depression, anxiety, stress, and negative emotions at Time 2. Additionally, levels of meaning in life at Time 1 were positively associated to COVID-19-related behavioural engagement - prosocial behaviour and information addiction at Time 2. Individuals' perceptions of the outbreak and status of self-quarantine did not moderate these relationships.Conclusion: Findings suggest that individuals' prior level of meaning in life may help them maintain a healthy psychosocial adjustment during disease outbreak, though cautions regarding the possibility to render an addiction to information about the outbreak are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare workers are a key occupational group at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB). We investigated the prevalence and correlates of STB among hospital workers during the first wave of the Spain COVID‐19 outbreak (March–July 2020). Methods: Data come from the baseline assessment of a cohort of Spanish hospital workers (n = 5450), recruited from 10 hospitals just after the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) outbreak (May 5–July 23, 2020). Web‐based self‐report surveys assessed 30‐day STB, individual characteristics, and potentially modifiable contextual factors related to hospital workers' work and financial situation. Results: Thirty‐day STB prevalence was estimated at 8.4% (4.9% passive ideation only, 3.5% active ideation with or without a plan or attempt). A total of n = 6 professionals attempted suicide in the past 30 days. In adjusted models, 30‐day STB remained significantly associated with pre‐pandemic lifetime mood (odds ratio [OR] = 2.92) and anxiety disorder (OR = 1.90). Significant modifiable factors included a perceived lack of coordination, communication, personnel, or supervision at work (population‐attributable risk proportion [PARP] = 50.5%), and financial stress (PARP = 44.1%). Conclusions and Relevance: Thirty‐day STB among hospital workers during the first wave of the Spain COVID‐19 outbreak was high. Hospital preparedness for virus outbreaks should be increased, and strong governmental policy response is needed to increase financial security among hospital workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To identify the reasons why workers decide to enter, stay or leave the aged care workforce; and the factors influencing them to transition between community and residential sectors in Australia. Background: Factors affecting the recruitment and retention of suitable care workers in aged care are complex and influenced by personal, institutional and societal factors. Methods: A qualitative description study design. Results: In total, 32 staff participated in the study. Five main themes were identified: entering aged care with a passion for the job; entering aged care as it is the only employment option; factors attracting care workers to stay in aged care; factors influencing care workers to leave the job; and preferring to work in residential aged care rather than community aged care. Conclusion: Issues relating to the attraction and retention of aged care workers are influenced by personal, institutional and societal factors. Critical shortages in the aged care workforce make the industry more susceptible to crises such as COVID‐19 outbreaks. Implication for nursing practice: Aged care organizations need to create a positive psychosocial work environment for staff to improve the attraction and retention of skilled care workers. They also need to develop staff recruitment guidelines to ensure care workers with the appropriate skills and training and a passion for working with older adults are selected. Staff development programmes need to focus on learning activities that enable staff to build peers support in the work environment. Implications for health policy: There is a need to mandate curriculum to enable nursing students to receive more gerontological education and exposure to aged care throughout their education. Aged care quality standards need to mandate transition support for new graduate nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has resulted in a significantly large number of psychological consequences, including sleep health. The present study evaluated sleep patterns, sleep disturbances, and associated factors in Chinese preschoolers confined at home during the COVID‐19 outbreak. Caregivers of 1619 preschoolers (aged 4–6 years) recruited from 11 preschools in Zunyi, Guizhou province completed the Children's Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ) between 17th and 19th February 2020. Data were compared to a sociodemographically similar sample of preschoolers (included in the 11 preschools) in 2018. Compared to the 2018 sample, the confined preschoolers demonstrated changes in sleep patterns characterized by later bedtimes and wake times, longer nocturnal and shorter nap sleep durations, comparable 24‐hr sleep duration, and fewer caregiver‐reported sleep disturbances. Moreover, behavioural practices (sleeping arrangement, reduced electronic device use, regular diet) and parenting practices (harmonious family atmosphere and increased parent‐child communication) were associated with less sleep disturbances in the confined sample. The present study provides the first description of the impact of prolonged home confinement during the COVID‐19 outbreak on sleep patterns and sleep disturbances in preschoolers, as well as highlighting the importance of the link between sleep health and family factors. Given that disrupted and insufficient sleep has been linked to immune system dysfunction, our findings also have potential implications for resilience to infection in young children during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Future studies should further explore deficient sleep as a risk factor for coronavirus infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the trend in surgical volume in urology in Italy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) outbreak, as a result of the abrupt reorganisation of the Italian national health system to augment care provision to symptomatic patients with COVID‐19. Methods: A total of 33 urological units with physicians affiliated to the AGILE consortium (Italian Group for Advanced Laparo‐Endoscopic Surgery; www.agilegroup.it) were surveyed. Urologists were asked to report the amount of surgical elective procedures week‐by‐week, from the beginning of the emergency to the following month. Results: The 33 hospitals involved in the study account overall for 22 945 beds and are distributed in 13/20 Italian regions. Before the outbreak, the involved urology units performed overall 1213 procedures/week, half of which were oncological. A month later, the number of surgeries had declined by 78%. Lombardy, the first region with positive COVID‐19 cases, experienced a 94% reduction. The decrease in oncological and non‐oncological surgical activity was 35.9% and 89%, respectively. The trend of the decline showed a delay of roughly 2 weeks for the other regions. Conclusion: Italy, a country with a high fatality rate from COVID‐19, experienced a sudden decline in surgical activity. This decline was inversely related to the increase in COVID‐19 care, with potential harm particularly in the oncological field. The Italian experience may be helpful for future surgical pre‐planning in other countries not so drastically affected by the disease to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The dynamics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has become of special concern to the rheumatology community. Rheumatic patients are required to engage in effective health management but their behavior is often influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This cross‐sectional study aims to examine patients' experiences during the current pandemic and its implication on their health perception and behavior. Method: A patient‐centered electronic survey was used, randomly sampling rheumatic patients in Saudi Arabia during March and April 2020. Questions included patients' socio‐demographics, diseases, medications, COVID‐19 knowledge, source of information, fear level, disease activity perception, health care utilization, medication accessibility, and therapeutic compliance (measured using a modified version of Medication Adherence Reporting Scale). Correlation and regression coefficients were used to evaluate associations among the aforementioned variables. Results: A total of 637 respondents were included. The majority were rheumatoid arthritis patients (42.7%). Patients' knowledge about COVID‐19 was correlated with social media use (P =.012). Fear of COVID‐19 infection correlated with healthcare facility for follow‐up visits (P =.024) and fear of disease deterioration if contracting the infection correlated with patients' levels of knowledge (P =.035). Both types of fear did not correlate with patients' perceptions of disease activity. However, patients' perceptions of worsened disease activity were correlated with unplanned healthcare visits (P <.001), medication non‐adherence, and difficulty accessing medication (P =.010 and.006, respectively). Conclusion: The COVID‐19 pandemic and surrounding public health measures could affect rheumatic patients' health management which might contribute to disease flare‐up and subsequently taxing healthcare systems even further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Worldwide, the number of SARS‐CoV‐2 infections is increasing. Serological immunoglobulin tests may help to better understand the development of immune mechanisms against SARS‐CoV‐2 in COVID‐19 cases and exposed but asymptomatic individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate exposure to SARS‐CoV‐2, symptoms, and antibody responses in a large sample of healthcare workers following a COVID‐19 outbreak. Methods: A COVID‐19 outbreak among staff members of a major German children's and women's hospital was followed by massive RT‐PCR SARS‐CoV‐2 tests and provided the opportunity to study symptoms, chains of infection, and SARS‐CoV‐2–specific antibody responses (IgG and IgA) by ELISA. Study participants were classified as COVID‐19 cases, and persons with close, moderate, or no exposure to SARS‐CoV‐2 in the clinical setting, respectively. Results: Out of 201 study participants, 31 were COVID‐19 cases. While most study participants experienced many symptoms indicative for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, anosmia and coughing were remarkably more frequent in COVID‐19 cases. Approximately 80% of COVID‐19 cases developed some specific antibody response (IgA and IgG) approximately 3 weeks after onset of symptoms. Subjects in the non‐COVID‐19 groups had also elevated IgG (1.8%) and IgA values (7.6%) irrespective of contact history with cases. Conclusion: We found that a significant number of diseased did not develop relevant antibody responses three weeks after symptom onset. Our data also suggest that exposure to COVID‐19 positive co‐workers in a hospital setting is not leading to the development of measurable immune responses in a significant proportion of asymptomatic contact persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]