Epidemic Crisis Research Articles

A Resilience-Based (RB) Methodology to Assess Resilience of Health System Infrastructures to Epidemic Crisis

The assessment of resilience of health infrastructures during an epidemic crisis is a fundamental issue in civil engineering, as shown by the recent COVID-19 crisis. During epidemic crises, health services and infrastructures need to maintain a level of functionality and avoid failures. In addition, it is important to evaluate post-hazard procedures, such as emergency and recovery actions. In this regard, the paper applied resilience as a parameter to assess investments, countermeasures and mitigations. The Resilience-Based (RB) methodology herein proposed was then applied to quantify the resilience of health infrastructure systems by considering the recovery of four European Countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy) after the first wave of COVID-19. The results demonstrated that the resilience of health system infrastructures (HSI) depends significantly on the policies that every government management applied—these being ultimately responsible for the differences in respective COVID impacts. In particular, the principal advantage of using resilience lies in its readability by many stakeholders, such as health infrastructure managers, government owners and public authorities.

Examining the status of forest fire emission in 2020 and its connection to COVID-19 incidents in West Coast regions of the United States

Forest fires impact on soil, water, and biota resources. The current forest fires in the West Coast of the United States (US) profoundly impacted the atmosphere and air quality across the ecosystems and have caused severe environmental and public health burdens. Forest fire led emissions could significantly exacerbate the air pollution level and, therefore, would play a critical role if the same occurs together with any epidemic and pandemic health crisis. Limited research is done so far to examine its impact in connection to the current pandemic. As of October 21, nearly 8.2 million acres of forest area were burned, with more than 25 casualties reported so far. In-situ air pollution data were utilized to examine the effects of the 2020 forest fire on atmosphere and coronavirus (COVID-19) casualties. The spatial-temporal concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) were collected from August 1 to October 30 for 2020 (the fire year) and 2019 (the reference year). Both spatial (Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression) and non-spatial (Negative Binomial Regression) analyses were performed to assess the adverse effects of fire emission on human health. The in-situ data-led measurements showed that the maximum increases in PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 concentrations (μg/m3) were clustered in the West Coastal fire-prone states during August 1 – October 30, 2020. The average concentration (μg/m3) of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and NO2 was increased in all the fire states severely affected by forest fires. The average PM2.5 concentrations (μg/m3) over the period were recorded as 7.9, 6.3, 5.5, and 5.2 for California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington in 2019, increasing up to 24.9, 13.4, 25.0, and 17.0 in 2020. Both spatial and non-spatial regression models exhibited a statistically significant association between fire emission and COVID-19 incidents. Such association has been demonstrated robust and stable by a total of 30 models developed for analyzing the spatial non-stationary and local association. More in-depth research is needed to better understand the complex relationship between forest fire emission and human health.

The impact of the Covid- 19 crisis on family life in Saudi society: Descriptive study on a sample of families in Jeddah: تأثير أزمة كوفيد- 19 على الحياة الأسرية في المجتمع السعودي (دراسة وصفية على عينة من الأسر في مدينة جدة)

This study aimed at identify the impact of the Covid- 19 crisis on the interaction between spouses, on the self- development of family members, on recreational activities within the family, and to determine the relationship between the impact of the Covid- 19 crisis and a range of variables (type, social status, age, number of children, monthly income), and this study was applied to a sample of families in Jeddah, where the sample size (600) from couples. The approach used in the study was the social survey of the random sample in question, and the questionnaire was the data collection tool, and through the analysis of the study data the following results emerged: Covid- 19 had a positive impact on married couples at the center of interaction between spouses and the focus of recreational activities, the study also showed that the impact of the Covid- 19 crisis on the self- development of family members was somewhat positive, That there are statistically significant differences at the level (0.05) in recreational activities due to the difference in age variable for age groups under 40 years of age, and it was noted that females had a tendency towards self- development as well as recreational activities more than males during the Covid- 19 pandemic. The study recommends further studies dealing with crisis departments within the family, and their impact on the quality of family life, in the light of epidemic crises, to find more accurate results in order to create the era of crisis and the lack of research that deals with them from a social perspective, and to ensure that the family is educated and educated and activate its role in finding effective means and using all available resources to exploit the leisure time in the family.

‘In a Mere Shirt and Capless’: The Uniform Crisis of the Polish Army During the Polish-Ukrainian-Bolshevik War 1918–21

This article presents issues relating to the uniforms of the Polish Army during the wars of 1918–21 in the context of the severe economic and epidemic crisis plaguing both the country and the region. Drawing on the accounts of participants and eyewitnesses of the war, and also by making recourse to the largely unpublished documents of the Sanitary Headquarters of the Polish Army Command-in-Chief, I look at the causes, scale and effects of the severe shortage of uniforms and equipment – shortages that would beset and plague Polish soldiers. The second part of the article presents institutional, top-down attempts to improve the situation involving substantial foreign procurements. Asking whether the crisis was ever truly resolved, the findings here offer ultimately a negative assessment of what ultimately transpired. The article’s final section indicates the relationship between the catastrophic situation regarding supplies and the threats posed by the Spanish flu and typhus.

The activity of the enterprise in post-pandemic conditions

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a big shock for the global and European economy. For the first time, world economies entered an epidemic crisis, which was not caused by the rules of market mechanisms, but by direct intervention in the work of enterprises related to health, the introduction of prohibitions and restrictions, which negatively affected the activities of enterprises, especially small and medium-sized businesses were affected. As a consequence of this natural phenomenon, nowadays there are practically no international recommendations for overcoming the consequences of the crisis. This fact demonstrated a clear lack of coordinating role of the main players, and, as a result, caused the introduction of unsystematic national response measures. The economic consequences of the impact of the epidemic crisis caused serious problems both on the supply side and on the demand side. The effectiveness of the work of enterprises both at the regional and national levels depend on their management system, especially in crisis situations. That is why the activities of enterprises should be considered together with the management system and the state of the environment. Enterprise activity is an integral function of the socio-economic system, and therefore requires the adaptation of each individual enterprise to the new requirements of the environment, to the corresponding changes, new logic and new principles regarding the functioning of the enterprise in the new conditions of the post-pandemic crisis, and therefore is important and relevant.

Factors influencing willingness to use fitness apps during COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from China

During the novel coronavirus pandemic, many people stopped going to the gym, and lack of exercise is likely to cause physical and mental health problems such as decreased immunity, in turn making them vulnerable to infection. Fitness apps can help people exercise at home by providing online professional guidance and supervision. This study explored the factors influencing fitness the intention to use apps during the epidemic in China. A new variable named epidemic crisis risk perception was added to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model to reflect the impact of the epidemic. Performance expectation has the greatest impact on the willingness to use fitness apps. Therefore, developers must pay close attention to the needs of the public and improve the functions of apps to improve their satisfaction. In addition, the risk perception of epidemic crisis positively correlates with the willingness to use such apps, indicating that the novel coronavirus pandemic indeed affected public psychology and behavioural intention.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF AN EFFICIENT FRAMEWORK FOR INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEM USING DATA MINING TECHNIQUES

In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic crisis, due to the tremendous development of mobile and internet technologies, the excessive growth in cyber-crime makes networksurity a major concern. As a result, individuals and companies are gradually moving towards the use of Intrusion Detection System (IDS), as it plays a persuasive role in monitoring and detecting the traffic of a network. However, high dimensional data affect the performance of IDS by reducing prediction accuracy, increasing false positive rate and classification time. Hence the focus of this research work is to develop a novel framework by integrating Auto – Bi Level (ABL) Classification with Double Filtering Fine Tuning – Ensemble Hybrid (DFFT-EH) feature selection. The experiments are conducted using NSL- KDD a benchmark intrusion detection dataset and it is proved that the proposed framework performs well with good accuracy, less false positive rate and less classification time when compared with voting ensemble classifier and other existing standard algorithms.

Alternatywne procedury głosowania w polskim i litewskim prawie wyborczym

Organizing voting in general elections only in the traditional way (i.e., at the ballot boxes) may make it difficult for more and more voters to participate. This is due to the increasing mobility of society and the fact that citizens are away from home on election day, the aging population and much more difficult access of the old and the sick to polling stations, and – as shown in the years 2020–2021 – unexpected epidemic crises that affect public health, which in turn translates into the election process. This article focuses on alternative voting methods in Poland and Lithuania. The main intention of the authors is to analyze the legal basis and compare the functioning of alternative voting procedures in the electoral systems of both countries, as well as to answer the question about the possibility of introducing new forms of voting that could increase the health safety of voters and ensure the democratic nature of elections in emergency situations. The motivation to take up this topic were: the wprowapresidential elections in Poland in 2020 and the parliamentary elections in Lithuania in 2021, during which not only alternative voting methods were used (e.g., correspondence voting), but also the possibility of implementing completely new solutions – safe in the event of spreading coronavirus pandemic.

Psychosocial Problems During the COVID-19 Epidemic Crisis

The emergence of COVID-19 and its pandemic has been associated with fear and panic [1]. This pandemic has caused disorders such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Given that this crisis may last for weeks to months, mental health conditions are expected to worsen [2, 3]. Fear of infection and stress of keeping surfaces and hands clean intensify obsessive thoughts. Also, following disturbing news and large amounts of sometimes contradictory information received have exacerbated stress and anxiety [3].

СТРУКТУРНО-ДИИНАМІЧНИЙ РОЗВИТОК ГОТЕЛЬНИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ

The article examines the structural dynamics of the hotel industry of Ukraine over the past decade and during the global epidemic crisis. Based on statistical data, the following indicators were conducted and analyzed: the share of services provided by hotel enterprises in the service sector, the number of collective accommodation establishments, the structure of hotels and similar and specialized accommodation facilities, the number of rooms in collective accommodation establishments. The essence of the hotel and restaurant enterprises is determined by the synergistic effect of the formation of work for a number of other sectors of the economy, namely: tourism, transport, retail, catering, insurance, culture and art, architecture and design, tour services, advertising industry. The field of tourism is closely connected with the hospitality industry, which has a significant contribution to the development of the state. The geographical position of Ukraine has a positive impact on the development of tourism enterprises and, accordingly, the hotel and restaurant business. Despite this circumstance, the number of hotel rooms per thousand inhabitants in Ukraine is almost eight times lower than in Europe. During the pandemic conditions, the hotel industry suffered significant losses, so its development is important because it forms the tourist image of the country, increases revenues to the state budget and creates new jobs. Ukraine has favorable conditions for the formation of tourism of various kinds (recreational, medical, entertainment, business, etc.), which will increase tourist flows. Therefore, the study of the hotel industry is relevant to meet the needs of consumers and prospects for its development. The aim of the article is to study the structural development of hotel enterprises in the dynamics and determine the state of this development in different regions of Ukraine. The development of hotel enterprises reflects a number of existing problems of this market of services: dynamic changes in external factors that require rapid response; lack of investment; small number of registered and certified enterprises; mostly outdated logistics of hotel enterprises; lack of legislative control over the quality of service; low dynamics of hotel chains development, etc.

THE IMPACT OF SPARKING LEADERSHIP ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE PERCEIVED BY THE EMPLOYEES WITH GENDER AND SENIORITY INTERACTION

Extremely increasing competition, the paradigm changes called epidemic or economic crisis affects the world globally. Whereas the improvement of technological opportunities and the factors that divert the businesses, such as (virtual) remote working, make the concept of leadership open to discussion and enhancement.
 Leadership is no longer perceived only as directing followers in one direction in line with the goals of the establishment. The effectiveness and scope of leadership in management science are evolving day by day. The leadership function is expected to be more inspiring and ignited while adapting to today's contemporary era. In daily business life, tasks to be performed with more effort require more supervision, interaction, and a better role model to demonstrate, to provide more inspiration. Within the scope of the study sparking leadership has been suggested as a new leadership style. It has been investigated whether the sparking leadership has an impact on business performance perceived by the employees with the perspectives of age, seniority, and gender. Research has been conducted on 265 participants employed in 33 companies consist of a variety of sectors. 
 According to the survey conducted; a positive relationship was obtained between sparking leadership and business performance perceived by the employees. While age and seniority increase, the positive effect of sparking leadership was observed on business performance perceived by the employees. Also, it has been determined that women are slightly more affected by sparking leadership characteristics than men.

Impact of education in the COVID-19 epidemic crisis on consumer attitudes

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of changing the consumption structure of urban residents and the impact of education in times of economic crisis. As a research method, the questionnaire method is used, which allows us to effectively identify the peculiarities of the ideas of urban residents about the change in the degree of satisfaction of different groups of needs during the period of self-isolation. Based on the results acquired, the article describes the impact of change in the structure of consumption on the health and social well-being of the population in the modern economic crisis. It is revealed that the economy in food products occurs mainly due to the optimization of the consumer basket and the change to cheaper analogues. It is shown that the crisis did not affect both alcohol consumption and food consumption.

Exploring Consumer Emotions in Pre-Pandemic and Pandemic Times. A Sentiment Analysis of Perceptions in the Fine-Dining Restaurant Industry in Bucharest, Romania.

This research paper aims to analyse how consumer emotions have evolved during the pandemic period in comparison with the pre-pandemic period in relation to restaurant demand in the Romanian fine-dining industry and uses valuable information based on social-media sentiment analysis and content analysis. Focusing on theories of consumer behaviour, the study aims to emphasize how, under the influence of an epidemic crisis caused by an infectious disease, individual behaviour adapts to the “new normal”, embracing a series of changes in the preferences, attitudes, and cognitive choice-making processes. The article takes into account a comparative analysis of the consumer emotions between the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period (2010–2019) and the pandemic period (2020–present), based on the online reviews provided by customers for five fine-dining restaurants from Bucharest, the capital city of Romania: The Artist, Relais & Chateaux Le Bistrot Francais, Casa di David, Kaiamo, and L’Atelier. The research was based on two mining analyses—content analysis and sentiment analysis—and explored the emotional intent of words, with the data being collected from TripAdvisor through web-scrapping. The empirical results defined the fine-dining experience during the pandemic as being associated with the quality of the dishes and also with the quality of the service. The overall consumer sentiment in the direction of the restaurants analyzed is positive. The sentiment research found that throughout the epidemic, the consumers’ attitudes about restaurants deteriorated. In this sense, consumers seem to be less satisfied with the restaurants’ services than before the pandemic. This is another thing that the restaurants had difficulties in when adapting their operations for the pandemic.

The impact of education in the covid-19 epidemic crisis on consumer attitudes: models and transitions

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of changing the consumption structure of urban residents and the impact of education in times of economic crisis. As a research method, the questionnaire method is used, which allows us to effectively identify the peculiarities of the ideas of urban residents about the change in the degree of satisfaction of different groups of needs during the period of self-isolation. Based on the results acquired, the article describes the impact of change in the structure of consumption on the health and social well-being of the population in the modern economic crisis. It is revealed that the economy in food products occurs mainly due to the optimization of the consumer basket and the change to cheaper analogues. It is shown that the crisis did not affect both alcohol consumption and food consumption.

Cybernetic crisis management in a federal system—Insights from the Covid pandemic

AbstractWe aim to contribute to improving the management of pandemic crises. Our focus is on federal systems, as these are particularly powerful in dealing with environmental complexity. Through four waves of the pandemic, spanning a year and a half, we studied crisis management based on the case of the Swiss Federation. This research concentrates on three research questions: (1) How is the management of the Covid‐19‐Crisis organized in Switzerland? (2) How effective is this organization in coping with the dynamics of emergency? (3) What lessons can be learned for the design of a crisis management in the future? We apply the Viable System Model (VSM) as a framework for our study, elaborating a diagnosis and a design for the management of epidemic or pandemic crises. The VSM is a conceptual tool that is particularly strong for analysing federal systems. Hence, substantial insights have surfaced to orientate a future crisis management.

COVID Roundtable

COVID Roundtable

The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on The Role of Mothers Towards Their Disabilities Children

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has affected Saudi women's daily lifestyle, contributing significantly to increasing pressure on women to have multiple roles both at home and at work. The study therefore aimed to identify the role of women towards their children with disabilities during the COVID-19 epidemic crisis by identifying their roles towards their children with disabilities in the educational, psychological and social aspect. The study used the quantitative approach (social survey). The sample of the study consisted of (336) Saudi mothers of children with disabilities in the southern region of Saudi Arabia with an average age of (35.8) years. A questionnaire was built to identify the role of Saudi women towards their disabled children during the crisis and was developed by the researcher. The results indicated that the role of Saudi women towards their disabled children during the COVID-19 epidemic crisis was of a high level in all areas of practice for the tool. The analysis of the data to answer the main question in the study also revealed the importance of the educational, psychological and social role of Saudi women towards their children with disabilities during the COVID-19 epidemic crisis within the family. In light of these findings, the study recommended the importance of urging responsible people to provide a range of rescue and stimulus packages that also include social protection measures, seeking to empower Saudi women in all sectors of society, and providing them with all means of support to help them achieve their role in society in general.

U.S. national, regional, and state-specific socioeconomic factors correlate with child and adolescent ADHD diagnoses pre-COVID-19 pandemic

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the most diagnosed emerging neurodevelopmental disorder in children, is a growing health crisis in the United States. Due to the potential increase in ADHD severity during and post the COVID-19 pandemic, we analyzed recent national and two state-specific ADHD data distribution among U.S. children and adolescents by investigating a broad range of socioeconomic status (SES) factors. Child and adolescent ADHD diagnosis and treatment data were parent-reported via National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). The nationwide childhood prevalence of ADHD is 8.7%, and 62.1% of diagnosed children are taking medication. Louisiana (15.7%) has the highest percentage of children diagnosed with ADHD and California (5.6%) has the lowest, followed by Nevada (5.9%). Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA, n = 51,939) examining 30 factors highlights four areas of interest at the national and state level: race/ethnicity, financial status, family structure, and neighborhood characteristics. Positive correlations between ADHD diagnosis and unsafe school, unsafe neighborhood, and economic hardship are evident nationally and statewide, while the association between a lack of ADHD diagnosis and higher urban neighborhood amenities are evident nationally, but not in two opposing outlier states—Louisiana or Nevada. National and state-specific hierarchical analyses demonstrate significant correlations between the various SES factors and ADHD outcomes. Since the national analysis does not account for the demographic heterogeneity within regions or individual states, the U.S. should rely on comprehensive, county-specific, near real-time data reporting to effectively model and mitigate the ADHD epidemic and similar national health crises.

Factors impacting university students' online learning experiences during the COVID‐19 epidemic

Due to the COVID‐19 epidemic crisis, students from higher education institutions around the world are forced to participate in comprehensive online curriculums. In such a scenario, it is worth investigating how students perceived their learning outcomes and satisfaction based on this method of teaching and learning online. This study aims to explore the role of six factors, namely, system quality, course design, learner‐learner interaction, learner‐instructor interaction, learner‐content interaction, and self‐discipline, on university students' perceived learning outcomes and their effect on student satisfaction with online curricula during the COVID‐19 epidemic. A structural equation modelling technique was used to assess survey questionnaires obtained from 457 validated students at a Public University in China. The results demonstrated that these determinants had a positive effect on satisfaction and learning outcomes, whereas learner‐instructor interaction had no significant effect. Furthermore, the strongest determinant that affected not only students' satisfaction but also their learning outcomes was the learner‐content interaction.

Development of sustainable and resilient healthcare and non-cold pharmaceutical distribution supply chain for COVID-19 pandemic: a case study

PurposeThis study evaluated the influence of the coronavirus pandemic on the healthcare and non-cold pharmaceutical care distribution supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThe model involves four objective functions to minimize the total costs, environmental impacts, lead time and the probability of a healthcare provider being infected by a sick person was developed. An improved version of the augmented e-constraint method was applied to solve the proposed model for a case study of a distribution company to show the effectiveness of the proposed model. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the sensitive parameters. Finally, two robust models were developed to overcome the innate uncertainty of sensitive parameters.FindingsThe result demonstrated a significant reduction in total costs, environmental impacts, lead time and probability of a healthcare worker being infected from a sick person by 40%, 30%, 75% and 54%, respectively, under the coronavirus pandemic compared to the normal condition. It should be noted that decreasing lead time and disease infection rate could reduce mortality and promote the model's effectiveness.Practical implicationsImplementing this model could assist the healthcare and pharmaceutical distributors to make more informed decisions to minimize the cost, lead time, environmental impacts and enhance their supply chain resiliency.Originality/valueThis study introduced an objective function to consider the coronavirus infection rates among the healthcare workers impacted by the pharmaceutical/healthcare products supply chain. This study considered both economic and environmental consequences caused by the coronavirus pandemic condition, which occurred on a significantly larger scale than past pandemic and epidemic crises.