COVID-19 Epidemic Research Articles

Cuestionando el modelo Bernanke-Blanchard en la Eurozona: Ilustración del caso español

This is a critical review on mainstream Macroeconomics, questioning its modeling that is far from reality, artificial and inducing current crises. It is paid attention on the latest model of prominent macroeconomists, Bernanke and Blanchard, who seek to explain the COVID-19 crisis, without relating it to the preceding crisis, such as the Great Recession and its false management based on credit expansions without voluntary savings and with unconventional measures from the Central Banks. The model of the aforementioned authors is analyzed, offering its application to the Spanish case and in comparison with other economies in the Eurozone. The review is completed with a critical corollary of the heterodox synthesis, offering the divergent vision and foundations of the Austrian Economics and the New-Institutional Approaches from the New Political Economy, which in turn allows us to diagnose the current Macroeconomics and its crisis.

무선전력전송기술을 적용한 차세대 제품디자인 연구 - 캠핑용 인덕션 버너를 중심으로

The research background was to present a new breakthrough in the current difficult situation in many ways due to the COVID-19 crisis, the war between Ukraine and Russia and the economic downturn. The research method was to present a new concept to the general public as well as companies based on the theoretical and technical foundation through various case studies and statistics and a study on the use of eco-friendly energy through convergence with the new and renewable energy field was also conducted. By receiving and using new and renewable energy such as solar power and hydro power rather than the existing energy supply method it will be able to reduce the risk of fire, flexibly cope with carbon emission regulations, which are one of the causes of environmental pollution and develop safer more efficient and more convenient products and designs than existing products with wireless power transmission technology, it will be an opportunity to inspire designers in the future.

Occupational stressors experienced by healthcare professionals in the course of the COVID-19 crisis.

The novel coronavirus has significantly impacted healthcare systems worldwide, exposing healthcare professionals (HCPs) to work-related stressors to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This study aimed to assess the occupational stress of HCPs in Lagos State, Nigeria, using a qualitative approach. The study involved nine HCPs from various departments, including doctors, nurses, and medical laboratory technicians. The main causes of stress were workload, policy changes, and extended use of personal protective gear. The study found high levels of occupational stress among HCPs, with workload being the main cause. The impact of the disease outbreak crisis on HCPs' lives and work demands was observed, with occupational demands categorized into safety risk at work and public perceptions. Employers and unions must respond to HCPs' needs for workplace protection and appropriate help to address stressors.

Mental health of the Pacific Island Nation communities: What the rest in the world can contribute to and learn from?

Creating Futures initiative has established a network of mental health professionals, researchers, and community members from the Pacific Island Nations (PIN), Australia, and New Zealand to address the growing challenges of mental health conditions compounded by the climate change crisis. The enormous amount of work done in Global Mental Health can be particularly helpful to improve population-level mental health. However, translation of this evidence base into practice poses several challenges. This perspective paper discusses the role of local culture and health systems context in determining the feasibility and acceptability of implementing and scaling up evidence-based interventions designed in an American-European context. The paper also advocates development (and evaluation) of mental health interventions in the PIN communities particularly and Global South generally and exporting these interventions to the rest of the world. COVID-19 crisis underlined the role of global cooperation as well as national level 'self-reliance'. In this post COVID-19 world, it will be desirable for the mental health community to cooperate and collaborate to scale up evidence-based interventions through rigorous contextualization and at the same time main-stream mental health interventions developed in the Global South by incorporating them in the Global Mental Health discourse.

Can Investors Detect Real Earnings Management during COVID-19?

The objective of this study is to examine if investors are able to identify real earnings management during the COVID-19 crisis by assessing the impact of real earnings management on the firm value. This analysis uses 2020–2022 data from Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI)-listed manufacturing companies. This study used purposive sampling to collect data from 153 companies, yielding 459 observations that met the criteria. Using multiple linear regression, this study finds that investors are able to identify real earnings management within the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, empirical evidence demonstrates that profitability exerts a detrimental impact on firm value. This study is among the initial investigations examining the impact of real earnings management on the firm value during the COVID-19 crisis

Knowledge Attitude and Practices of Mothers and Medical Staff towards Breastfeeding during the COVID-19 Crisis

Knowledge Attitude and Practices of Mothers and Medical Staff towards Breastfeeding during the COVID-19 Crisis

Self-efficacy of school principals for effective school functioning during the COVID-19 crisis

Self-efficacy of school principals for effective school functioning during the COVID-19 crisis

Preparedness of Nursing Homes: A Typology and Analysis of Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in a French Network.

Preparing healthcare systems for emergencies is crucial to maintaining healthcare quality. Nursing homes (NHs) require tailored emergency plans. This article aims to develop a typology of French private NHs and study their early COVID-19 responses and mortality outcomes. We conducted a cross-sectional survey among NHs of a French network consisting of 290 facilities during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC) was conducted to develop the typology of the NHs. Association tests were used to analyze the relationships between the typology, prevention and control measures, COVID-19 mortality, and the satisfaction of hospitalization requests. The 290 NHs vary in size, services, and location characteristics. The HCPC identified three clusters: large urban NHs with low levels of primary care (Cluster 1), small rural NHs (Cluster 2), and medium urban NHs with high levels of primary care (Cluster 3). The COVID-19 outcomes and response measures differed by cluster, with Clusters 1 and 2 experiencing higher mortality rates. Nearly all the NHs implemented preventive measures, but the timing and extent varied. This typology could help in better preparing NHs for future health emergencies, allowing for targeted resource allocation and tailored adaptations. It underscores the importance of primary care territorial structuring in managing health crises.

Dynamics of protest mobilisation in the European poly-crisis

ABSTRACT Using an original protest event dataset covering 30 European countries and the period 2000–2021, this paper studies the nature and drivers of protest mobilisation across three major crises that have hit European Member States (the Eurozone, refugee, and Covid crises). Contributing a crisis-comparative perspective to social movement research, we explore crisis mobilisation in three steps. First, looking at general protest trends throughout the past decade, we find that the overall level of protest declined significantly, and especially so after the Eurozone crisis. Second, we characterise crisis-specific protest in terms of the action forms and the actors involved. We find a high involvement of institutional actors in the Eurozone crisis, a high share of radical events in the refugee crisis, and a generally non-confrontational protest organised by civil society actors in the Covid crisis. Finally, we explain crisis-specific protest levels by examining the mobilising effect of grievances. More specifically, we study the impact of problem pressure (how hard countries were affected using economic, migration, and public health indicators) and political pressure from public opinion (the salience of crisis-specific issues) and show that both were important drivers in the three crises.

Oil jump tail risk as a driver of inflation dynamics

In this paper, we look at the role of various oil jump tail risk measures as drivers of both U.S. headline and core inflation. Those measures are first computed from high-frequency oil future prices and are then introduced into standard regression models in order to (i) assess in-sample determinants of inflation, (ii) assess overtime the evolution of inflation drivers, (iii) estimate impulse response functions and (iv) forecast inflation out-of-sample for various horizons. Empirical results suggest that oil jump tail risk measures contain useful information to describe inflation dynamics, generally leading to upward inflationary pressures. Even after controlling from standard variables involved in a Phillips curve, goodness-of-fit measures show evidence of a gain, in particular for headline inflation. Overall, we observe that oil jump tail risk measures are contributing more to inflation dynamics since the Covid-19 crisis.

On the resilience of ESG firms during the COVID-19 crisis: evidence across countries and asset classes

On the resilience of ESG firms during the COVID-19 crisis: evidence across countries and asset classes

Assessment of Quality of Life of Doctors during Corona Pandemic in a Tertiary Hospital in Dhaka City

Background: Corona pandemic is an event where there is a rupture of the normal life pattern. The healthcare professionals specially doctors had faced an unknown potential threat to life that made them work in an intense and fearful situation. So, their quality of life (QOL) was affected in that pandemic. Objectives: To assess the physical health, psychological, social relationship, and environmental domains of quality of life of doctors during COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary level hospital. Methods: It was a cross sectional study that included 100 doctors who were working during corona pandemic in BSMMU. Then they were interviewed with a semi-structured socio-demographic questionnaire. Quality of life was assessed by validated Bengali version of World Health Organization quality of life scale brief (WHOQOL-BREF). Data analysis was performed by statistical package for social science (SPSS), version-20. Results: Among the four domains, the environmental domain had the lowest score followed by physical health and psychological health domain and the social relationship domain showed a relatively higher score. Besides, environmental health scores of female doctors were significantly higher than those of male doctors. Perceptions of quality of life were significantly poor among doctors who were in current economic struggle (p=0.034) or in fear of future economic struggle (p=0.009). Score of environmental health domain were significantly low among doctors who were in current economic struggle (p=0.0137) as well as in fear of future economic struggle (p=0.015). Conclusion: All domains of quality of life were impaired in doctors during COVID-19 pandemic situation. Among the four domains of WHOQOL-BREF scale, environmental domain was mostly affected. Environmental health of male doctors was worse than female doctors during COVID-19 pandemic. Current as well as fear of future economic struggle in COVID-19 pandemic detrimentally affected perception of quality of life among responded doctors. These also caused poor environmental health among doctors in COVID-19 pandemic. J Com Med Col Teachers Asso Jan 2024; 28(1): 09-13

Fostering Play in the COVID Crisis: Insights from Infant-Toddler Teachers

AbstractPlay is pivotal in supporting young children’s holistic development. The COVID-19 crisis further highlighted the importance of play in supporting children’s well-being and in providing a sense of normalcy. Guided by the phenomenographic method, this study aimed to examine Korean in-service infant-toddler teachers’ experiences in fostering play in early childhood educational classrooms during the COVID-19 crisis. The study involved 10 infant-toddler teachers working with children under the age of three years at a large university-based childcare center. They participated in drawing tasks and in-person focus group interviews. The findings revealed that the pandemic caused and exacerbated barriers to everyday play. However, despite challenges, the participants demonstrated their strong commitment to play in the classroom, exhibiting resilience, adaptability, creativity, and resourcefulness. They continued to create a playful environment, support play in various forms, and prioritize play-based learning, demonstrating their strong commitment to play. One notable change expressed by the participants was limited social interaction during mealtime. This study found that the much-needed, unavoidable public health interventions during the COVID-19 crisis may have resulted in unintended consequences for infants’ and toddlers’ social-emotional and language development. Such findings reinforce the idea that play should remain at the forefront of education during the pandemic and beyond.

Changes and Challenges Amid a Global Crisis: A Case Study of Chinese International Students in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Although numerous textbooks and scholarly articles illustrate the racial discrimination against black Americans, few research studies examine other minority groups who also experience injustice during significant crises. Major global crises like a war or a pandemic put certain minority groups in jeopardy, such as Japanese Americans during World War II, Muslim groups during the 9/11 crisis, and Chinese and other Asian groups during the COVID-19 crisis. Using the ongoing Coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) as a case study, this paper illustrates Chinese international experiences’ of racial discrimination. Drawing on a qualitative study among ten Chinese international students in X University, this study shows: 1) Chinese students became a stigmatized group and suffered physical and mental assaults; 2) US mass media reacted to negative images of Chinese people following the COVID-19 outbreak; 3) numerous Chinese international students changed their job orientation due to the economic setbacks and COVID-19 trauma.

The effect of output on employment in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant decline in output, as well as economic policies aimed at mitigating the negative effects of the pandemic. Both of these factors had an impact on the labour market. This paper investigates changes in employment across groups of workers during the coronavirus pandemic in Poland and the effect of output on these changes. Firstly, it examines changes in employment growth rates across different groups of workers in 2020. Secondly, the paper analyses the impact of the coronavirus crisis on employment by comparing actual and predicted employment growth during the pandemic period (2020). Using Okun’s law, Ordinary Least Squares, and quarterly data, the elasticities of employment growth with respect to GDP growth in the pre-pandemic period (2003–2019) are calculated. These elasticities are then used to estimate projected employment growth during the pandemic. The results suggest that the total employment response to output change was relatively small, compared to the historical pattern. However, the response was unequal across groups of workers. The youngest workers, particularly women, and those with temporary employment contracts were most affected by the pandemic.

Penguatan UMKM Guna Ketahanan Ekonomi di Desa Kalilembu Kecamatan Karangdadap Kabupaten Pekalongan

By being dominated by young people. This UMKM is engaged in clothing. Some of them are produced from materials into ready-made clothes. Some of them become deliverymen or resellers by selling to markets outside the city, such as: Solo Market, Tegal Gubuk, Jakarta, Kudus, etc. From this income they meet their daily needs. It can be seen that the working method used is still very traditional. Especially for resellers who carry out transactions or buying and selling activities by going directly to the intended store. Of course, this method is greatly affected by the current corona outbreak, where there are certain cities that have imposed a lockdown policy. Many complained that the market was difficult to reach, threatened with closing activities because it invited too many crowds, and that their income had decreased. with a livelihood as UMKM actors and as UMKM workers, their income has decreased due to covid 19. Coupled with the lack of knowledge about the creative economy, the people of Kalilembu Village are stuck and have difficulty developing their business. as a form of maintaining the community's economic resilience, the solutions that can be given are as follows: 1) Socializing the creative economy to the younger generation, especially SMEs. 2) Conduct online buying and selling lessons through e-commerce. 3) Development of creativity from convection waste as an alternative to increase income. 3) Dissemination of educational content to young children

Are there 34,000 human emotions? Deconstructing patterns of scientific misinformation

ABSTRACT Background Scientific misinformation is a much-discussed topic, and the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of reliability in science and research. However, limiting misinformation is complicated because of the growing number of communication channels, in which scientific and nonscientific content are often mixed. Methods This case study combines the examination of references, online observation, and a content and frequency analysis to investigate the dissemination of scientific misinformation in the interplay of different genres and media. Results Using the example of the claimed existence of 34,000 human emotions, this study demonstrates how questionable statements are spread in science, popular science, and pseudoscience, making it particularly challenging to track and correct them. Conclusions The findings highlight epistemic authority, trust, and injustice within and between scientific and nonscientific communities. The author argues that, in the digital age, researchers should defend and monitor scientific principles beyond academia.

Multimedia in Social Work Education: An In-Depth Exploration of Current Practices and Challenges in Bangladeshi Government Colleges

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current practices, opportunities, and challenges of using multimedia in social work teaching at a government college in Bhola, Bangladesh. Qualitative research methodology was used to get information from the respondents. The data was gathered using three different methods: semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), and classroom observations. The respondents included both faculty and honors-level students from social work backgrounds. Interviews were conducted with two instructors, observations were made in two classes, and ten students took part in two focus group discussions (FGDs). Finally, using a thematic approach, data were analyzed, interpreted, and presented. The study's findings revealed that incorporating multimedia in the classroom makes teaching easier and is beneficial for the students. Students can actively engage in a multimedia classroom, which often inspires them to study. People perceive multimedia-based classes to be more structured than traditional teaching methods. Conversely, the research shows that the social work classes are deficient in the essential resources, infrastructure, and funding required for effective functioning. The study was self-funded, completed within a short timeframe, and conducted during the global outbreak of the Corona pandemic. The study's implication was that it helped the researcher explore the current scenario of using multimedia for teaching social work in the context of government college education in Bangladesh.

Working conditions, well-being, and retention of healthcare personnel: A comparative study between lean healthcare and nurse-to-patient ratio

ABSTRACT The issue of nurse retention due to stressful working conditions in several Western countries, including Canada, has been exacerbated in recent years by population aging, mass retirements, and the COVID-19 crisis. To address these challenges, healthcare organizations have drawn inspiration from service optimization models adopted by industry (Lean Healthcare) and staffing ratio projects. However, there is a lack of research exploring the working conditions of healthcare staff under these different systems. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and the job demands-resource model, we tested, using structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis, the effects of the workload intensification on job well-being and staff retention. We compared a sample of 145 nurses working under the Lean system with another sample of 155 nurses working under the ratio system. The results support our hypotheses and highlight that working conditions appear to be more challenging under the Lean system than under the ratio system.

The social media marketing strategies employed by SMMEs for survival and growth during the Covid-19 crisis in rural KwaZulu- Natal

The Covid-19 crisis has disrupted businesses of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) globally, particularly in rural areas such as KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. This study investigated the social media marketing strategies adopted by rural SMMEs to survive and grow during the Covid-19 crisis. Furthermore, it aims to recommend the social media marketing strategies that can be used by SMMEs as a critical tool for their survival and grow during the Covid-19 crisis in rural KZN. The quantitative design was adopted, and data was collected from 374 rural SMMEs in KZN by a closed-ended 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The collected data was analysed by means of statistical social sciences software 27.0. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and correlation analysis to identify the determinants of social media strategies and its impact on business performance. Key findings include a significant positive relationship between creating awareness of products and services and increased sales, where r = 0.708, p <0.01 and a significant correlation between customers’ needs and complaints and use of social media to retain customers, where r =0.653, p < 0.001. Recommendations suggested that rural SMMEs must gain technical competencies to use social media marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage to sustain their businesses during the Covid-19 crisis.