COVID-19 Global Crisis Research Articles

Real Time E-learning Students Monitoring for Optimization Facial Landmark Recognition Based on Hybrid Deep Learning Techniques

The onset of digital education, propelled by the global COVID-19 crisis, has revolutionized the education sector, presenting unique difficulties, including the crucial task of preserving academic honesty. This study explores the possibilities of computer vision technologies, specifically face recognition and detection systems, to deter dishonest practices in online learning contexts. In this article we aim to construct efficacious strategies that leverage these technologies to track student actions in real-time and alert educators about possible cheating instances. This study presents two innovative models addressing cheating in online learning settings using cutting-edge computer vision techniques. Our initial model is an ensemble learning based face recognition system that blends the functionalities of three different deep learning (DL) structures: VGG, MobileNet, and DenseNet. This ensemble learning approach aims to offset the shortcomings of individual models while amplifying the overall effectiveness. The model’s efficiency will be gauged by juxtaposing it with other models and testing its performance against renowned benchmark datasets. Following this, we propose a second model designed for real-time face and cheating detection. This model integrates the FaceMesh model, facial landmarks analysis, and head pose estimation to identify possible cheating behaviors, such as significant shifts from a neutral or forward-facing head position. This model’s efficiency will be assessed through testing in simulated cheating scenarios and using authentic data from online learning contexts. Upon testing and validation, our proposed models have shown encouraging outcomes. The ensemble learning model outstripped individual models by attaining a remarkable accuracy rate of 91% through soft voting. Furthermore, the face detection system showcased sturdy abilities in recognizing faces under diverse conditions and accurately pinpointed potential cheating behaviors based on head pose estimation.

The Role of World Health Organization in the Face of COVID-19 Global Crisis: The Contradiction between Ethical Principles and Political Tensions.

The Role of World Health Organization in the Face of COVID-19 Global Crisis: The Contradiction between Ethical Principles and Political Tensions.

Impact analysis of global COVID-19 crisis - a review

Impact analysis of global COVID-19 crisis - a review

Business Resilience: Lessons from Government Responses to the Global COVID-19 Crisis

Business Resilience: Lessons from Government Responses to the Global COVID-19 Crisis

Hope and Resilience Mediate Relationship between Stress and Satisfaction with Life of Teachers amid COVID-19 Crisis in the Philippines

Psychological outcomes play a vital role in the stress and satisfaction with life (SWL) of people amid novel situations. Set in the context of emergency remote education amid the global COVID-19 crisis, this study was carried out with the overall purpose to assess whether hope and resilience mediate the relationship between stress and SWL of teachers. A survey was conducted in a sample of 2272 teachers from Mindanao, Philippines. Adapted scales were used to gather the needed data through a structured online survey questionnaire. The result of the analysis demonstrated that stress has a significant and negative predictive effect on hope, resilience, and SWL. On the other hand, hope and resilience generated significant and positive predictive effects on SWL. The result of mediation analysis proved that hope and resilience significantly mediated the relationship between stress and SWL. These pieces of evidence suggest that hope and resilience are important psychological resources that can decrease the negative impacts of COVID-19 experiences such as stress on the SWL of the teachers.

Immigrant pentecostalism in the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis: reactions and responses from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Berlin

This article seeks to analyze the reactions and responses of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in Berlin to the global COVID-19 crisis. Although the UCKG has been the subject of multiple international types of research regarding the spread of the COVID-19 virus, this article shows that the UCKG’s global network of local churches must be differentiated in their responses and reactions to the global pandemic. This article traces and analyzes how the local UCKG in Berlin responded to the pandemic in its respective conditions and differed from the global network in the emergence of a pandemic in its rhetoric and discourse, using the concept of the Third Space. For this purpose, the services and sermons of local pastors were recorded to analyze how the discourse toward the COVID-19 crisis changed during the period of occurrence and awareness of a global pandemic. The results show how the church has adapted to the local restriction and regulations and reflect the international literature on how the UCKG’s mother church in Brazil acted in comparison. The church and its pastors in Germany responded to the global pandemic in three primary ways: they assigned to authorities’ guidelines, provided sermons with undertones of spiritual warfare, and rejected the interpretation of interdependencies between demons and health issues.

The Analyst's Self-Care: Further Reflections after the Pandemic on Cultivating Resilience and the Essential Role of the Body-Mind Relationship in Clinical Practice.

Sparse attention is paid in the psychoanalytic literature to the management of self-care needs of the analyst. I suggest that pandemic fatigue experienced by psychotherapists during the Covid-19 global crisis has thrown into bold relief the requirement for clinicians to attune to the body, particularly the requirement for rest and creative space. Physical and emotional exhaustion is multidetermined and not unique to this time period; the global crisis appears to have unmasked particular difficulties in sensing and tending to requirements of the body-mind. Changes observed in sleep, dreams, exercise, eating, and somatic states during the pandemic raise additional questions about modifiable risk factors of burnout. Drawing upon contemporary evidence emerging from the fields of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and psychodynamic practice and theory, suggestions are made to assist the analyst in rendering essential self-care.

Disrupted or sustained? Chinese international students’ perceptions of transnational hybrid learning amid politics and pandemic

Impacted by the global COVID-19 crisis and its sociopolitical shockwaves, pre-existing physical mobility patterns and traditional study-abroad experiences have been thoroughly disrupted and transformed. US higher education institutions have utilized the practices of transnational hybrid learning to sustain the quality and progress of international higher education. This article focuses on a study programme that integrates online and offline learning in Shanghai, China, coordinated by a non-profit international higher education exchange agency in partnership with eight US universities and one Chinese university from August 2020 to June 2021. Through semi-structured interviews with 32 Chinese students, this article finds that transnational hybrid learning offers students greater geographical and time flexibility, room for self-paced learning and controls on health risks while ensuring face-to-face interactions and physical activities. In addition, the localization of international education might motivate Chinese students to consider their career development that balances their interests and career prospects in response to political and economic uncertainties. However, the communication and learning gaps, weakened intercultural communication, sustained sociocultural alienation and contradictions of two sociocultural contexts render the overall programme experience less desirable. In sum, this article identifies the potential of virtual mobility beyond geographical and policy constraints in transforming and reimagining the practices of transnational higher education in a post-pandemic world.

Managerial capabilities and strategic renewal in family firms in crisis situations: The moderating role of the founding generation

This study examines whether founding generation managed family firms are capable of responding proactively to the COVID-19 disruption via firm renewal. We used a unique global COVID-19 crisis specific survey dataset comprising of 2,130 family firm observations. Our findings indicate that in comparison to the later generations, founding generation-managed family firms only do better at strategic renewal as a response to the crisis when they have sufficient managerial capabilities. Our study recommends that family businesses, especially those managed by the founding generations should emphasize managerial capabilities rather than merely focusing on socioemotional wealth (SEW) when deciding on crisis coping strategies.

Do Ṣukūk and Islamic indexes act as safe refuge to conventional stock markets? Evidence from Markov-switching CAPM approach

PurposeThe objective of this paper is twofold. First, to study the safe-haven characteristic of the Islamic stock indexes and Ṣukūk during the crises time. Second, to evaluate this property in the last pandemic. This study employs the daily dataset from June 15, 2015, to June 15, 2020, for the most affected countries by the earlier disease.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the Markov-switching Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) approach and the basic CAPM for the main analysis and the safe haven index (SHI) recently developed by Baur and Dimpfl (2021) for the robustness test.FindingsBased on Baur and Lucey's (2010) definition, empirical findings indicate that Islamic stock indexes cannot be a refuge throughout the crisis regime for all selected conventional markets. However, Ṣukūk are a strong refuge in Brazilian, Russian and Malaysian markets. For the remainder countries, except Italy, the USA and Spain, the Ṣukūk index offers weak protection against serious conventional market downturns. Similar conclusions are obtained during the COVID-19 global crisis period. Finally, results are confirmed by using the SHI.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first study that evaluates the safe haven effectiveness of the Islamic index and Ṣukūk using the SHI in the most impacted countries by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Goals: Toward Pro-SEL Pedagogy

The switch to online teaching that the global COVID-19 crisis necessitated has been discussed in many studies. Few papers, however, have investigated teachers’ perceptions and the self-initiated changes they made due to such a transition. This study adopted a mixed methods design to determine the perceptions of teachers and the changes they made during the crisis. For this undertaking, a purposive snowball sampling of thirty in-service teachers in Israel was used. The study revealed that considerable changes were made in the participants’ pedagogical practices, and there was a significant correlation between these changes and teachers’ perceptions of their teaching profession. The changes essentially applied to two main categories: teaching goals and teaching strategies. In addition, the findings showed that the revised teaching goals and strategies were executed to the teachers’ own volition and were consistent with Social Emotional Learning (SEL) pedagogy. To enhance the social-emotional competence and well-being of teachers and students, the researchers recommend elevating and enhancing the teaching profession by establishing SEL pedagogy in all schools, not only in times of crisis but as a policy empowered by advocacy.

The Intention to Use Telemedicine by Surgical Patients in Response to COVID-19

Objective: This study explored patients’ intention to use telemedicine instead of traveling to a hospital during the current global COVID-19 crisis. The framework focused on the relationships between variables derived from the technology acceptance model and the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model.Materials and Methods: Multistage sampling procedures were applied to recruit samples using nonprobability sampling methods. Adult patients who had undergone surgery at a university hospital participated; all were experienced in using online meeting applications and online payment services in their daily lives. Consent forms and online questionnaires were distributed via a Google Forms link.Results: Between October and December 2021, 502 patients undergoing procedures participated in the study. Five variables—social influence, trust, price, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use—significantly impacted intention to use. Perceived ease of use significantly impacted perceived usefulness, with a value of 0.679***. In addition, perceived ease of use indirectly influenced intention to use (impact value, 0.103***). Performance expectancy did not significantly impact intention to use, with an impact value of -0.012.Conclusion: The contributions of this study will enable developers, medical professionals, and marketers to improve telemedicine services to better satisfy patients undergoing surgery and increase their intention to use telemedicine. However, the performance expectancy aspect may not warrant patients’ intention. Additionally, the research is recommended on other potential variables influencing telemedicine utilization, such as psychological expectations, performance expectations, and technical conditions.

Economic and Organizational Impact of COVID-19 on Colombia’s Tourism Sector

The global COVID-19 crisis has strongly affected tourism. In an emerging economy like Colombia’s, however, the pandemic’s effects may differ from those experienced in more advanced countries. Building on prior studies, this investigation aims to determine the economic and organizational impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector in the areas of lodging, travel agencies, clubs, and restaurants by identifying indicators relevant to the business tourism sector. We contrast data obtained empirically from a survey administered to a sample of 289 Colombian tourism SMEs. The model, developed with structural equations, enables identification of the factors with the greatest influence. The results indicate a high impact on sales and personnel expenses, leading to a decrease in management and innovation capability. In the gradual recovery process, internal measures taken by business owners to face the crisis have been more effective than measures taken by the government. Moreover, firms have prioritized financial strategies and innovation in marketing and services.

Successful Leadership During Times of Crisis and Uncertainty: Contouring The Profile of the Apeirogon Diamond Leader

COVID-19’s emergence and its unfolding across the globe have elevated the significance of crisis leadership, to a premier rank. First, the present research explored the concept of crisis, suggesting additional categorizations of crises. Next, using the COVID-19 global crisis as a backdrop, the author considered how descriptions of leaders during COVID-19 fit in existing leadership theories such as adaptive, authentic, transformational, servant, and skills models. The study then discussed the limitations of the current theoretical models in the framework of crisis. Next, the present research proposed an alternative conceptual foundation to the profile of crisis leaders, suggesting a definition of crisis leaders as Apeirogon Diamond Leaders. The present study aimed to add the profile of the Apeirogon Diamond Leader and the Roth Crisis Leadership Model to the leadership literature and lay out the theoretical foundation of the model. The present study concluded by discussing implications and directions for future research.

Guest editorial: Corporate social responsibility and COVID-19 global crisis: managerial and financial perspectives in developed and emerging countries

Guest editorial: Corporate social responsibility and COVID-19 global crisis: managerial and financial perspectives in developed and emerging countries

Taiwan and the “One-China Principle” in the Age of COVID-19: Assessing the Determinants and Limits of Chinese Influence

AbstractDuring the current global COVID-19 crisis Taiwan has portrayed itself as both an example for other countries to follow and as a country willing to assist others in their own efforts with the virus. Taiwan has also renewed efforts to participate in the World Health Organization (WHO), an organisation from which it is currently excluded. Although some countries have supported Taiwan's efforts to participate in the WHO or have praised its COVID-19 response, others have been silent or even critical, sometimes citing commitments to a “one China policy.” In this paper, we use newly collected data to explore cross-national variation in support for Taiwan during the current pandemic. We find that a country's level of economic development and security ties with the US are strongly correlated with support for Taiwan while a country's economic ties to China is a less consistent predictor.

Complex network analysis of volatility spillovers between global financial indicators and G20 stock markets

This paper analyses the dynamic transmission mechanism of volatility spillovers between key global financial indicators and G20 stock markets. To examine volatility spillover relations, we combine a bivariate GARCH-BEKK model with complex network theory. Specifically, we construct a volatility network of international financial markets utilising the spatial connectedness of spillovers (consisting of nodes and edges). The findings show that spillover relations between global variables and G20 markets vary significantly across five identified sub-periods. Notably, networks are much denser in crisis periods compared to non-crisis periods. In comparing two crisis periods, Global Financial Crisis (2008) and COVID-19 Crisis (2020) periods, the network statistics suggest that volatility spillovers in the latter period are more transitive and intense than the former. This suggests that financial volatility spreads more rapidly and directly through key financial indicators to the G20 stock markets. For example, oil and bonds are the largest volatility senders, while the markets of Saudi Arabia, Russia, South Africa, and Brazil are the main volatility receivers. In the former crisis, the source of financial volatility concentrates primarily in the USA, Australia, Canada, and Saudi Arabia, which are the largest volatility senders and receivers. China emerges as generally the least sensitive market to external volatility.

Emerging lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic about the decisive competencies needed for the public health workforce: A qualitative study.

The global COVID-19 crisis exposed the critical need for a highly qualified public health workforce. This qualitative research aimed to examine public health workforce competencies needed to face COVID-19 challenges and identify the gaps between training programs and the competency demands of real-world disasters and pandemics. Through a sample of thirty-one participant qualitative interviews, we examined the perspectives of diverse stakeholders from lead public health organizations in Israel. Grounded Theory was used to analyze the data. Six themes emerged from the content analysis: public health workforce's low professional status and the uncertain future of the public health workforce; links between the community and Higher Education institutions; the centrality of communication competencies; need to improve health promotion; the role of leadership, management, and partnership, and innovation in public health coherence. Increasing the attractiveness of the profession, professional and financial support, and improving the working conditions to ensure a sustainable and resilient PH system were deemed necessary. This paper describes and cultivates new knowledge and leadership skills among public health professionals, and lays the groundwork for future public health leadership preparedness programs.

Associations between local COVID-19 case rates, pandemic-related financial stress and parent and child functioning.

The COVID-19 global crisis led to unprecedented disruption of family routines and heightened family stress. This study examines the effects of local COVID-19 case rates and pandemic-related financial stress on family processes (e.g., caregiving behavior) and school-aged children's outcomes. The project was launched shortly after stay-at-home orders began in the U.S. Data were collected online using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk), which allowed for nationwide recruitment. Using four waves of data (N = 308), with initial data collected between 4/20/20 and 5/6/20 and 2-3 weeks between each wave, this study examined the influence of local rates of COVID-19 infection on pandemic-related financial stress and the association of these constructs on maternal psychological distress and negative parenting. We also examined the potential cascade linking COVID-19 case rates and pandemic-related financial stress with child behavior problems via maternal psychological distress and negative parenting behavior, while controlling for prior child behavior problems. In line with hypotheses, higher Wave 1 (W1) pandemic-related financial stress was significantly associated with higher Wave 2 (W2) maternal psychological distress, which was significantly associated with higher Wave 3 (W3) negative parenting, which, in turn, was significantly associated with higher Wave 4 (W4) child behavior problems. In addition, the indirect effect of W1 pandemic-related financial stress on W3 negative parenting through W2 maternal psychological distress was significant. Higher W1 local COVID-19 case rates were significantly related to higher W3 negative parenting. Results suggest local COVID-19 case rates and pandemic-related financial stressors are associated with poorer child and family functioning. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessment of hemodynamics, blood gases, and lung histopathology of healthy Pig model on two different mechanical ventilators

BackgroundIn response to COVID-19 global crisis and arising from social responsibility, efforts have been exerted to promptly research, develop and manufacture ICU ventilators locally to meet the spike in demand. This study aimed at: Evaluating the safety and performance of a newly developed mechanical ventilator; EZVent compared to a commercial ventilator regarding hemodynamics, arterial blood gases (ABG), lung inflammatory markers, and histopathology in a healthy pig model using three different ventilation modes. Methods: Eight adult male pigs were anesthetized and randomly assigned into two equal groups: Commercial vent and EZVent group, the animals of which were ventilated using a standard commercial ventilator and EZVent, respectively. On every animal, three ventilation modes were tested, each mode for 30 min: CMV-VC, CMV-PC, and CPAP-PS modes. Vital signs, ECG, Lung Mechanics (LM), and ABG were measured before ventilation and after 30 min of ventilation of each mode. After animals’ euthanasia, histological examinations of lung samples including morphometric assessment of alveolar edema, alveolar wall thickening, and the mean number of inflammatory cellular infiltrate/cm2 of lung tissue were analyzed. TNF-α and Il-6 expression and localization in lung tissue were assessed by western blot and immunohistochemistry. Results: The vital signs, LM, ABG, morphometric analysis, and histopathological score during the different ventilation modes showed non-significant differences between the study groups. TNF-α and IL-6 were minimally expressed in the bronchiolar epithelium and the alveolar septa. Their increased expression level was insignificant. Conclusion: EZVent is equivalent to the commercial ventilator regarding its safety and efficacy.