Extraordinary Times Research Articles

COVID-19 Sport Transformation: New Challenges and New Opportunities

Abstract The new pandemic lifestyle advocates new rules for sport at all levels, from amateur to elite. Consequently, it has transformed the ways in which sports are performed and consumed, provoking demand for new technologies and/or the development of existing ones. This paper aims to identify, describe, and visualize the process of sport transformation as radical internal and external industry changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended to qualitatively explain the current ‘metamorphoses’ in the field and subsequently answer the question of how the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed all aspects of sports and physical culture. The literature and empirical dataset (qualitative open-ended written interviews, N = 147) were analysed in the spirit of grounded theory, referring to the holistic approach. The results demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on sports by touching on all aspects, levels, and stakeholders. The paper also outlines challenges and opportunities for the industry in these extraordinary times. The key dimensions of transformation are identified and explained. The findings of this research have significant implications for the understanding of how COVID-19 gave rise to the transformation of sports in different aspects. This study adds to the growing body of research on the positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 on sports, new technologies demand, and the transformation of sports.

Syllabus as Crisis Autoethnography: Performance in Extraordinary Times

This personal essay examines entanglements of contemporary crises and pedagogical routines using the syllabus as autoethnography. Syllabi are an intrinsically autoethnographic genre: combining personal and disciplinary ideals, scoring contributing voices via course materials, and operating within the realities of academic labor. The syllabus for “Performance in Extraordinary Times” organizes reflections on the ways COVID-19, lethal U.S. anti-Blackness, shocks to U.S. performing arts communities, and crises of student mental health unfolded between 2020 and 2021. The essay invites questions about the ways syllabi operate as crisis management strategies and how they sometimes succumb to the very dynamics they aspire to address.

Natural deaths in extraordinary times

Research into the governance of dead bodies, primarily focused on post-conflict contexts, has often focused on the aspects of the management of dead bodies that involve routinisation, bureaucratisation and order. Less attention has been paid to the governance of the dead in times of relative peace and, in particular, to the aspects of such work that are less bureaucratised and controlled. This article explores the governance of dead bodies in pandemic times – times which although extraordinary, put stress on ordinary systems in ways that are revealing of power and politics. Observations for this article come from over fifteen years of ethnographic research at a medical examiner’s office in Arizona, along with ten focused interviews in 2020 with medico-legal authorities and funeral directors specifically about the COVID-19 pandemic. The author argues that the pandemic revealed the ways in which the deathcare industry in the United States is an unregulated, decentralised and ambiguous space.

Enhancing the use of Children's Rights Impact Assessments in ordinary and extraordinary times to understand the rights of children subject to statutory intervention in family life

ABSTRACT This paper draws on work undertaken to inform the alternative Children's Right Impact Assessment (CRIA) undertaken by the Observatory for Children's Human Rights Scotland (the observatory) in the early months of the impact of COVID-19 in the UK. With reference to children who are at risk of neglect and abuse, potentially subject to statutory intervention in family life, or living in care, the paper focuses on the purpose, process and value of children's rights impact assessments (CRIAs). It argues that wider understanding of the limitations of policy-making processes and close attention to existing limitations of CRIAs can help to enhance their effectiveness in achieving the realisation of children's rights in practice.

Using Population Datasets to Identify the Brain Basis of Social Isolation

Humans are an acutely social species. For example, complex interactions for mutual support range from helping neighbors to building social welfare institutions. During extraordinary times of stress or crisis, sharing life experience within one’s social circle is critical for well-being and even for survival.

Embracing the Extraordinary Times and Expanding the Influence of Palliative Care Nursing (TH142)

Embracing the Extraordinary Times and Expanding the Influence of Palliative Care Nursing (TH142)

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Model of Governance and Democracy in Poland

Almost the whole of 2020 was a year of governance by pandemic measures. Many governments, in these extraordinary times, formally introduced states of emergency. One exception in this regard is Poland. Although it used, in the second and third quarter of 2020, one of the most restrictive forms of lockdown, the government did not decide on the declaration of a state of emergency. At the same time, the scope of implemented regulations was extensive. This article presents a qualitative research on the instruments used by the Polish government in the year 2020 to deal with the pandemic. The analysis allows us to conclude that the so called “anti-crisis shields” were used to a large extent as an instrument of governance of the country, not a tool to prevent a pandemic. At least part of the restrictions adopted in Poland was beyond the need and unrelated to fighting the pandemic. However, these steps are leading to further deterioration of the state of democracy. The analysis of the tools used by the Polish government is based on the framework on the democratic backsliding and autocratization as well as the V-dem concept of “autocratization by decree”, which can be also applied to the COVID-19 situation. 

Market efficiency in non-renewable resource markets: evidence from stationarity tests with structural changes

The dynamics of metal prices are highly significant for worldwide economic activity due to metals being key intermediate inputs to industrial production and construction and treated as investment assets. In that sense, this study investigates the efficient market hypothesis, i.e., predictability of price patterns, for several non-renewable resources, namely copper, lead, tin, nickel, zinc, aluminum, gold, platinum, and silver. Our period covers 1980Q1–2019Q4, during which metal markets witnessed many extraordinary times due to market-specific and global factors. Accounting for the importance of the potential breaks in the analysis of stochastic properties of non-renewable resource prices, we utilize two different stationarity tests; one is designed to capture smooth breaks, and the other one is designed to detect abrupt changes in the prices. Our empirical results reveal that none of the prices, except silver, can be characterized by the efficient market hypothesis. They follow stationary and predictable patterns with structural changes related to market-specific and global economic events, though concerns on economic uncertainties appeared to be more effective on precious metals.

The existential trilemma of EMU in a model of fiscal target zone

Abstract Objectives Is the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) truly ‘irreversible’ as stated in the treaties? (i) From the sovereign debt crises of the 2010s, and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we draw the lesson that when exposed to large, systemic shocks the EMU faces a trilemma among preserving its irreversibility, monetary orthodoxy and fiscal orthodoxy: irreversibility can only be saved by relaxing one of the twin orthodoxies or both. (ii) We show how central monetary/fiscal backstops to irreversibility can be designed in a consistent manner that minimises their amplitude and mitigates the moral hazard concerns. Methods We present a novel fiscal target zone model of the EMU, where public debt is hit by stochastic shocks and member governments under monetary and fiscal orthodoxy are willing to abide by their commitment to debt stability only up to an upper bound of their feasible fiscal effort. Shocks large enough push the stabilisation fiscal effort beyond the feasibility constraint, in which case a government would opt for default on debt service and breakup of EMU membership—similarly to the abandonment of an exchange-rate agreement. Results For the EMU to be truly irreversible, ramparts for extraordinary times are necessary beside regulations for ordinary times. The alternative to these devices is reformulating the treaties with explicit and regulated exit procedures.

COVID-19: Current challenges regarding medical healthcare supplies and their implications on the global additive manufacturing industry.

The covid-19 outbreak has caused a shortage of masks and other healthcare products for the general public around the globe. In addition, it has also affected the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) used by healthcare services because of a sudden increase in their demand. This significant disruption in the global supply chain of these products resulted in, leaving many staff and patients without protection. The additive manufacturing (AM) industry is going through extraordinary times and can provide emergency responses to help deal with the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the present work is therefore to perform an up-to-date review to determine the capacity of AM to provide exclusive benefits for the medical healthcare supplies sector to fight this current situation. In this review, it is found that AM technology has proved that it can be used as a volume manufacturing technology for the ongoing crisis. However, the standardization and certification are appeared to represent the main challenges for adopting the AM in healthcare against COVID-19. Furthermore, additively manufactured materials for medical applications must be developed for medical environments. Most printed medical products for COVID-19 require biocompatibility evaluation and shall prove their ability to sterilize. Finally, this review concluded that AM technology can fulfill the requirements of face masks and ventilator parts for healthcare systems for proper controlling and treating of COVID-19 patients when the safety and efficacy of these devices are ensured.

The COVID-19 alcohol paradox: British household purchases during 2020 compared with 2015-2019.

British supermarket-panel data suggest no increases in overall sales and purchases of alcohol following COVID-19 lockdowns, yet survey and mortality data suggest otherwise. This paper attempts to unravel the paradox. Based on purchase data of 79,417 British households from Kantar Worldpanel, we undertake controlled interrupted time series analysis of the impact of COVID-19 confinement introduced on 23rd March 2020, and variably applied during 2020, compared to purchases during 2015 to 2019 as controls. We also undertook Poisson regression analyses to estimate if changes in purchases differed by household socio-demographic and economic factors. Excess off-trade household alcohol purchases (expressed as grams of ethanol) following the introduction of confinement, were 29.2% higher (95% CI = 25.8% to 32.5%) for the post-confinement months of 2020, being larger until mid-July 2020 (37.5%, 95%CI = 33.9 to 41.26%) when pubs re-opened with restrictions, and smaller (24.6%, 95%CI = 21.6 to 27.7) thereafter. During the time of complete pub closures, and fully adjusting for no on-trade purchases, household purchases of alcohol did not change when compared with the same time period during 2015–2019 (coefficient = -0.9%, 95%CI = -5.6 to 3.8). Excess purchases from 23rd March to 31st December 2020 varied by region of Great Britain, being higher in the north of England, and lower in Scotland and Wales. Excess purchases were greater in the most deprived households, compared with the least deprived households. Excess purchases increased substantially as the amount of alcohol normally purchased by a household increased, with the top one fifth of households that normally bought the most alcohol increasing their purchases more than 17 times than the bottom one fifth of households that bought the least alcohol. That the heaviest buyers of alcohol increased their purchases the most, with some independent impact of socio-economic disadvantage, might explain why reported alcohol problems and recent alcohol-related death rates might have increased. A conclusion of this is that alcohol policy to reduce high consumption of alcohol, and the availability of help and treatment to reduce alcohol consumption become more important during extraordinary times, such as COVID lockdowns.

The Plight of Refugees: Journey of Dilemma A Journey Towards Home or a Journey Towards Destiny

Refugees are ordinary people who live through extraordinary times in a country where conflict or persecution have put them at risk. They have no other choice but to flee and leave their country to seek safety; this means leaving a lot behind, one of the most complex decisions a person can ever take. So what makes a person a Refugee? From where do they come? Furthermore, where are they going? And how is the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office helping them? Refugees frequently flee with nothing more than the clothing on their backs, abandoning their daily lives. They may lose their home, savings, jobs, and, more often than not, their families and loved ones. The journey to safety can be long and full of dangers. During the journey, people can get hurt, and unfortunately, many people die; all of this can create serious trauma. In this article, let us look at the journeys people are leaving and which they are arriving in. And what destinies await them.

Scabies increase during the COVID-19 pandemic: should we change our treatment strategy during the pandemic?

Scabies is a highly contagious, parasitic infestation caused by Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis. There are some reports which claim the incidence of scabies has increased during COVID-19 lockdown. In this study, we aimed to compare the prevalence of scabies between March to September 2020 - the first six months of the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey - and March to September 2019 - the same period in the previous year. Case number percentages were compared month-over-month and by total numbers for each specified period. Pearson's chi-squared test was the comparison tool used. We checked the records of 36,469 patients who were admitted to Bezmialem Vakif University, Faculty of Medicine, Dermatology Department, a tertiary healthcare center, between March and September 2019, and out of this number, 258 patients had been diagnosed with scabies. The overall scabies case percentage was 0.71% and the range of monthly prevalence was 0.57%-0.83%. During the corresponding period in 2020, 26,219 dermatology patients were admitted, and 465 of those patients were diagnosed with scabies. The overall scabies case percentage was 1.77% and the range of monthly prevalence was 1.37%-3.46%. Scabies prevalence percentages were statistically significantly higher in all months and in the overall total in 2020 (P<0.001). Our nine patients, who admitted in 2020, did not respond to permethrin treatment but responded well to an ivermectin and permethrin combination. Scabies incidence has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic according to our study. We believe there may be an underreported resistance to permethrin and that starting treatment with oral ivermectin in combination with topical permethrin in extraordinary times, such as a pandemic, may help to control outbreaks.

The Soviet Myth and the Making of Communist Lives in Italy, 1943–56

This article explores the emergence and consolidation of the Soviet myth, and the related myth of Stalin, within Italy's Communist culture, in the period between the upheavals of the Second World War and 1956. Countering the traditional top-down approaches, which have seen political myths as weapons in the political struggle and devices for deceiving ordinary people, it examines the Soviet myth as a narrative that encapsulated the meaning of the experiences of the Italian Communist Party rank and file, as well as its elite, in extraordinary times. Drawing on the social and cultural anthropology of Victor Turner, it examines the establishment and strength of the Soviet myth and argues that it emerged as a new marker of certainty for groups and individuals in response to the liminal conditions of political and existential uncertainty experienced during the Second World War.

Investigation on "Chinese Spirit" of Architectural Students in Higher Vocational Colleges

At the beginning of 2020, China suffered a sudden epidemic, in which many extraordinary stories occurred. These stories in extraordinary times have stronger appeal to people than usual. In order to investigate which "Chinese spirit" stories have the deepest impact on higher vocational students, as well as the communication path of "Chinese spirit" loved by students and the effect of integrating "Chinese spirit" into classroom ideology and politics, a questionnaire was issued to architectural students to fully grasp the impact of "Chinese spirit" on higher vocational students. The results show that the most impressed "Chinese spirit" figures are medical personnel. Most students understand and agree with the "Chinese spirit", think that patriotism and "helping each other in the same boat" can best represent the Chinese spirit, and think that the integration of the "Chinese spirit" into classroom teaching has had a positive impact on them.

Breaching Flowery Borders

The American high school seniors I discuss in this article graduated between 1915 and 1922, tumultuous years that included World War I, the influenza pandemic of 1918 to 1919, and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. During such extraordinary times, these girls did a most ordinary thing; they made scrapbooks to commemorate their high school years.

Diarised Reflections on COVID-19 and Bereavement: Disruptions and Affordances.

COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing measures have restricted funerals and memorial events and have limited the face-to-face social networks that grieving people might normally be able to draw upon for emotional support. However, while there is considerable expert informed speculation about the impacts of grief and "COVID bereavement", detailed accounts of experiences of bereavement and bereavement support during the pandemic have the potential to enrich and provide nuance and subtlety to the evidence base. This paper draws on diary accounts of bereavement support volunteers in the UK, who have been providing support for the bereaved through these challenging times. These reveal layers of complexity to the experiences of loss, grief and bereavement during these extraordinary times. However, they also point to a number of additional themes that lend a more positive valence to the suspension of normal social expectations and memorial practices associated with the pandemic, which, we argue should be reflected upon for their potential to address the discontents of contemporary governance of end of life and bereavement.

Extraordinary Ethnographic Encounters in Extraordinary Times.

This contribution reconsiders ethnographic encounters with mainstream market actors in light of the ever-intensifying ecological crisis caused by prevalent patterns of economic activities. Effective experimental interventions in hegemonic configurations of capitalism are hitherto hard to realize due to fundamental incompatibilities between the logic of academic ethnographic work and that of conventional business operations. Viewing the private sector as comprised of interconnections of economic activities and knowledge production diminishes the epistemic pitfalls of such encounters. Based on empirical insights into the food sector, this paper suggests discarding the view of collaborations with economic actors as dyadic. Instead, it makes a case for approaching more-than-business networks that inextricably link knowledge and business practices. Such experimental interventions may tackle three constitutive pillars of contemporary capitalism: relations between localized knowledge practices and overarching discursive forms; relations between formalized expertise and market operations; and relations among conflicting truth claims and value arguments.

Message from ACHSM President - Dr Neale Fong

I trust that you are well and as a leader or manager in the health sector wherever you are, you have taken time to ensure your own health and wellbeing in these extraordinary times. There is no more important time than now to ensure that you have the resilience and reserves to travel through these uncertainties.&#x0D; In the last issue this column focussed on the ACHSM’s Certification Program and the importance of a credential for health leaders and executives. As I noted then, certification in a profession is an employment currency within the health sector that has traditionally excluded the leaders and managers. Through the introduction of these credentials, the College supports members and future members to have their body of knowledge and skills recognised and provides the platform for continuing development.&#x0D; Today let me focus on the importance of lifelong learning and intentionally managing a career that hopefully will span decades, providing you with personal satisfaction and success. Committing to lifelong learning, as we mandate within Certification, is a commitment to your own development, and your own sense of staying curious and active within the profession. &#x0D; A quiet and consistent focus on staying current is at the foundation of confident and competent leadership and ACHSM sees this as being at the heart of our offerings to College members.

A guide to Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas: similarities and differences

In the extraordinary times the COVID-19 pandemic has created for cancer patients and the health professionals caring for them, the need for strong knowledge and understanding of disease processes and treatments has never been more important. This article presents a review of Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. These two common haematology diagnoses are frequently suspected by GPs and non-cancer professionals, and subsequently treated by haematologists and chemotherapy outpatient departments across the country. It is therefore important for all health professionals, including nurses in all settings, to be aware of the main characteristics of both of these lymphomas. There are strong similarities and striking differences between the disease processes, the presenting symptoms, prognostics and treatment pathways. The age of presentation in each is markedly different. There is a significant contrast in the number of subtypes between the two diagnoses, but the presenting symptoms are similar as are investigations required for diagnoses.