Global Socio-economic Crisis Research Articles

Use of defibrotide in COVID-19 pneumonia: comparison of a phase II study and a matched real-world cohort control.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to an unprecedented burden on healthcare systems around the world and a severe global socioeconomic crisis, with more than 750 million confirmed cases and at least 7 million deaths reported by December 31, 2023. The DEFI-VID19 study (clinicaltrials gov. Identifier: NCT04335201), a phase II, single-arm, multicenter, open-label trial was designed in mid-2020 to assess the safety and efficacy of defibrotide in treating patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Defibrotide was administered at a dose of 25 mg/kg intravenously, divided into four daily doses over a planned 14-day period for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia receiving non-invasive ventilation. The primary endpoint was respiratory failure-free survival (RFFS). Overall survival (OS), the number of post-recovery days, and adverse events were the secondary endpoints. For comparison, a contemporaneous control cohort receiving standard of care only was retrospectively selected by applying the eligibility criteria of the DEFI-VID19 trial. To adjust for the imbalance between the two cohorts in terms of baseline variable distributions, an outcome regression analysis was conducted. In adjusted analysis, patients receiving defibrotide reported a trend towards higher RFFS (hazard ratio [HR]=0.71; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.34-1.29; P=0.138) and OS (HR=0.78; 95% CI: 0.33-1.53; P=0.248]) and showed a significantly increased number of post-recovery days (difference in means =3.61; 95% CI: 0.97-6.26; P=0.0037). Despite concomitant thromboprophylaxis with low molecular weight heparin, the safety profile of defibrotide proved to be favorable. Taken together, our findings suggest that defibrotide may represent a valuable addition to the COVID-19 therapeutic options.

Occupational outcomes of people with multiple sclerosis during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

People with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) are vulnerable to unfavorable occupational outcomes and the COVID-19 pandemic brought major consequences on people's professional lives. In this view, we decided to investigate the occupational outcomes of PwMS during the COVID-19 pandemic. We performed a systematic review with meta-analysis searching key terms in four databases. We initially included any peer-reviewed original article that enrolled adult patients with the diagnosis of MS and assessed any occupational variable during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no time limits and no language restrictions. The primary outcomes were the prevalence of unemployment, retirement and employment status change among people with MS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other outcomes included the modality and characteristics of work: type of work, full-time work, part-time work and remote work. We also searched for data from studies that addressed any change in the work status due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We identified 49 eligible articles comprising a total sample size of 17,364 individuals with MS. The pooled prevalence of unemployment and retirement was 0.47 (95% CI = 0.42-0.53). The pooled prevalence of PwMS who were unemployed or retired was positively associated with the progressive phenotype of the disease (p = 0.017) and the use of glatiramer acetate (p = 0.004), but negatively associated with hospitalization due to COVID-19 (p = 0.008) and the use of immunosuppressants (p = 0.032), siponimod (p < 0.001), and cladribine (p = 0.021). The pooled proportion of PwMS that reported any change of the employment status during the COVID-19 pandemic was 0.43 (95% CI = 0.36-0.50) while the pooled prevalence of PwMS who worked remotely during this period was 0.37 (95% CI = 0.15-0.58). The change in employment status was negatively associated with the duration of MS (p = 0.03) but positively associated with the progressive phenotype of the disease (p < 0.001). Our seminal review may serve as an example of how patients with neurological diseases or disabilities in general may have their jobs impacted in a pandemic and foster the context of global socio-economic crisis.

МІЖНАРОДНИЙ ДОСВІД РЕФОРМУВАННЯ СИСТЕМИ ОПОДАТКУВАННЯ ДОХОДІВ У ПОСТПАНДЕМІЧНИЙ І ВОЄННИЙ ПЕРІОДИ

Узагальнено міжнародний досвід реформування систем оподаткування доходів у воєнних і поствоєнних умовах, зокрема, проведено порівняння підходів до реформування систем оподаткування доходів у США, Швеції, Данії, Франції і Великій Британії. Розглянуто приклади, які демонструють, що, попри той факт, що податки на багатство в багатьох країнах Європи і світу характеризувалися низькою бюджетною ефективністю (не приносили значних бюджетних надходжень і при цьому вимагали суттєвих адміністративних витрат), тактика оподаткування надприбутків широко практикувалася тривалий час навіть після закінчення війни, зокрема, у постпандемічний період і в умовах сучасної енергетичної кризи в країнах ЄС.Систематизовано основні погляди на оподаткування багатства фізичних осіб – не стільки як загрози відпливу капіталу і дестимулювання капіталовкладень, скільки як важливої складової податкової системи, що в поєднанні з іншими податками на доходи і майно сприяє відновленню рівномірності розподілу багатства і мінімізує можливості для податкових ухилень. Акцентовано увагу на застосуванні країнами ЄС податку на надприбутки як солідарного одноразового загальноєвропейського податку у відповідь на глобальну соціально-економічну кризу, спричинену негативними наслідками пандемії COVID-19 і зростанням цін на енергоносії через воєнну агресію РФ. Обґрунтовано ключові вимоги, яким має відповідати податок на багатство фізичних осіб, для його запровадження в Україні, що передбачає встановлення неоподатковуваного мінімуму на високому рівні, а також його поширення не лише на резидентів України, а й на громадян інших країн, що володіють активами на її території, з метою підвищення його прогресивності й бюджетної ефективності.

Global overview of early public policies towards the Covid-19 pandemic: Specific case review of Lebanon

The novel coronavirus and its corresponding infection, the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), increased to more than 176 million cases with up to 3.8 million deaths registered until June 2021. The pandemic led to a global socio-economic crisis, affecting both rich, and poor countries. The governments' responses towards this outbreak were critical in protecting the communities from the virus' effects. Citizens had to abide by the authorities' regulations facing its fast spread. Our paper aims to cite multiple public policies taken from different countries, with special attention being given to Lebanon, a Middle Eastern country, to emphasize on the importance of the decision-making process in a challenging political, and socio-economic environment. It discusses further the Lebanese authorities’ performance in the health and administrative sectors, despite a few stubborn loopholes in the crisis management, a collapsing economy, and incessant socio-political conflicts amidst multi-regional influences. A better planned response strategy is advised to face upcoming post-Covid challenges in the near future.

New challenges and threats in the digital space: security as a criterion for the development of information technologies

The object of this study is public relations related to information security in The Russian Federation in the face of new challenges and threats, as well as digital transformation and geopolitical changes. The subject of the study forms a set of legal norms of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation regulating public relations in the field of information security, as well as the provisions of theoretical interdisciplinary research in this area. Special attention is paid to security issues, which occupy one of the key values in the domestic and foreign policy of the state, determining further national interests and strategic national priorities, goals and objectives of state policy and sustainable development of the state for the long term. The issues of ensuring information security are becoming more and more urgent in view of the global digital transformation of all spheres of life, as well as the aggravation of geopolitical contradictions and the strengthening of interstate information warfare. The author concludes that it is obvious that it is expedient to legislate at the federal level the legal foundations of the national information security system in the Russian Federation in order to use information and legal means in the conditions of digitalization, the growth of geopolitical challenges and risks, the global socio-economic crisis, the formation of a multipolarity of the world, aimed at increasing the security of Russian information resources, information systems and objects of information infrastructure. The author raises the question of the possibility of including certain legal norms in the domestic information legislation in the part in which such norms regulate relations in the field of performance by public administration bodies of functions ensuring security in the information sphere.

Application of microcomputed tomography to calculate rat intervertebral disc volume as a surrogate measure of degeneration

ABSTRACT Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a global socioeconomic crisis. Etiological research suggests the predominant pathology associated with chronic LBP is disc degeneration. The disc is a composed of a cartilaginous end plate, nucleus pulposus, and annulus fibrosus. The disc is predominantly avascular and aneural, predisposing it to degeneration. Disc degeneration in humans can be diagnosed using X-ray imaging and quantified using a measurement known as disc height index (DHI). DHI is also the current gold standard for evaluating disc degeneration in animal models. Unfortunately, X-ray imaging suffers poor spatial resolution, limiting the precision of DHI in rodents. Further, the application of disc height as a surrogate for degeneration involves subjective choices by experimenters, decreasing reliability. Microcomputed tomography (µCT) generates 3D reconstructions with profound spatial resolution. µCT has been used to measure disc degeneration, however, this work used costly contrast agents that increase procedure time. The objective of this work was to create a novel method for using µCT to assess disc degeneration in real-time, non-invasively and without contrast agents. Herein we describe a method for quantifying disc volume in vivo using µCT and the data suggest that this metric is precise, reliable, and sensitive to disc degeneration.

Axial hypersensitivity is associated with aberrant nerve sprouting in a novel model of disc degeneration in female Sprague Dawley rats.

Chronic low back pain is a global socioeconomic crisis and treatments are lacking in part due to inadequate models. Etiological research suggests that the predominant pathology associated with chronic low back pain is intervertebral disc degeneration. Various research teams have created rat models of disc degeneration, but the clinical translatability of these models has been limited by an absence of robust chronic pain‐like behavior. To address this deficit, disc degeneration was induced via an artificial annular tear in female Sprague Dawley rats. The subsequent degeneration, which was allowed to progress for 18‐weeks, caused a drastic reduction in disc volume. Furthermore, from week 10 till study conclusion, injured animals exhibited significant axial hypersensitivity. At study end, intervertebral discs were assessed for important characteristics of human degenerated discs: extracellular matrix breakdown, hypocellularity, inflammation, and nerve sprouting. All these aspects were significantly increased in injured animals compared to sham controls. Also of note, 20 significant correlations were detected between selected outcomes including a moderate and highly significant correlation (R = 0.59, p < 0.0004) between axial hypersensitivity and disc nerve sprouting. These data support this model as a rigorous platform to explore the pathobiology of disc‐associated low back pain and to screen treatments.

ОЦІНКА ГОТОВНОСТІ КРАЇН ДО ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ

The article highlights the advantages and disadvantages of using e-learning in the educational process, systematizes modern distance technologies, ranked and grouped universities in countries by level of e-learning, gave a rating assessment of the readiness of states for distance learning.The author examines the integrated indicators of the latest international indices such as the RemoteLearningReadinessIndex and the E-LearningIndex.In the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic, the closure of higher education institutions in 223 countries resulted in 1.57 billion students (90% of the world's population) being forced to study remotely.Higher education institutions had to quickly and efficiently organize distance or blended learning, modernize its material and technical base. The threat of future pandemics and economic unrest increases the importance of a reliable distance education system to prevent the next global socio-economic crisis, avoid health emergencies and bridge educational gaps at the national and international levels.In order to assess the readiness of countries to implement distance education, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics conducted a survey in 53 countries.The UNESCO report on the results of monitoring global education in 2021 noted that only 3 countries in the world are fully ready to move to distance learning, 19 countries have partially used online methods, and 28 countries have used a hybrid approach – a combination of distance and full-time learning. Middle-income countries from Colombia to Egypt and from China to the Russian Federation have developed online platforms for blended and distance learning. The survey found positive the fact that 39% of students from sub-Saharan Africa enrolled in institutions that offer different options for distance learning. In the EU, on the other hand, 41% of online students lost their jobs (29% temporarily with the right to return to work and 12% permanently without a job). These results prove the effectiveness of distance education only with the development of an effective model of online learning and its support by the state.

Тhe burden of tuberculosis in the Russian Federation. Part 1. Dynamics of the prevalence of tuberculosis

WHO uses burden estimates for the surveillance of the epidemic situation and implementation of TB control programs. Russian statistics has the advantage of a system of the link-to-care registration of patients with tuber-culosis, regardless of their consent and treatment, which makes it possible to calculate the prevalence of tubercu-losis more accurately than the estimates. Aim: to study the trends in the prevalence of tuberculosis in the re-gions and overall in Russia based on official surveillance statistics in 2010–2021. Until 2018, the prevalence of TB decreased by 6.7% on average, in 2019 the annual rate of decline was –15.0%, in 2020 –18.6%, in 2021 –10.2%, which is associated with the revision of the order of reg-ular dispensary observation and the COVID-19 epidemic. Analysis of TB patients journeys in the course of regular dispensary check-ups clarifies the effect of these factors. In 2019, there is a sharp increase of clinical cure of patients registered. In 2020, the number of patients, registered by all means, is decreasing, and, accordingly, the number of those cured as well. The difference in the degree of in-tensity of the TB epidemic situation in the regions of the Russian Federation with a high and low burden of TB is growing. The share of patients in the 10 regions with the largest numbers of those grew from 33 .1% of the overall number of TB patients in the Russian Federation in 2010 to 38.3% in 2021. In the 5 regions with the highest prev-alence of TB, the average rate over 12 years decreased 2.3 times from 416.6 per 100,000 to 184.5, and in the ter-ritories with the lowest rate 5.5 times from 64.0 to 11.7. The dynamics of the decline in the spread of tuberculosis in Russia may slow down if the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic continues, especially in the context of the global socio-economic crisis. It is possible to slow down the regression of indicators as we approach the stage of «liquidation» of a chronic endemic infection, and also due to an increase in the flow of refugees from Ukraine.

The Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Coronavirus Pandemic on Ecological Security and the Development of International Environmental Policy

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the global economy. In 2020, due to the pandemic, many countries experienced an economic recession, an increase in unemployment, a decline in the economic activity of numerous companies and enterprises, and, consequently, an economic crisis. Due to the decline in economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 a decrease in the level of environmental pollution took place. However, this decline was short-term and relatively small. Therefore, the pandemic did not slow the process of global warming. Scientific research dedicated to climate change shows that the global warming process has commenced a strong upward trend. In order to slow down the ever faster global warming process, it is necessary to reduce all or most of greenhouse gas emissions in the shortest time possible, including through the development of renewable energy sources. The global socio-economic crisis caused by the development of the COVID-19 pandemic should significantly change the pro-ecological awareness of people and the need to implement sustainable development in economic processes and everyday functioning of people. In the first half of November 2021, the UN Climate Summit COP26 Climate Conference was held in Glasgow, Scotland. To save the climate and biosphere of planet Earth, it is crucial what we will do in the decade of the 20s of the current twenty-first century. These issues were raised during the debates and discussions held during the abovementioned UN Climate Summit COP26. However, the declarations made by individual countries of the world regarding the calendar of achieving zero emissions indicate that the subject is not treated very seriously by governments in many countries. It is necessary to increase international cooperation in the implementation of global pro-environmental policy.

The Post-Pandemic Development of the Green Circular Economy and the Declarations Made During the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) as Security Determinants

Purpose: The aim of this article is to describe the important security determinants of post-pandemic development of the green circular economy in the context of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Change (IPCC) I IPCC Working Group, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis and declarations made during the UN Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in early November 2021. Approach/Methodology/Design: The main research methodology was based on the analysis of the results of scientific research and a synthetic description of the key conclusions drawn from the review of the literature describing various aspects of the analyzed issues concerning the determinants of the climate change process, the issue of green economy development, the implementation of the principles of sustainable economic development, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and how they impact security aspects etc. Research methods used in the study included critical literature review, comparative analysis, and analysis of available data. Findings: The analysis of scientific data shows that the process of climate change has entered a strong upward trend and perhaps humanity has little effect on reversing this process in this century. The transformation of the environment into the economy should include, first of all, the energy sector through the development of renewable energy sources, the development of electromobility, ecological agriculture, improvement of waste segregation techniques, recycling, etc. A key issue in this process is the pursuit of sustainability. The factual implementation of the aforementioned shall enable to address the security threats that are largely intensified by climate change and lack of efficient level of sustainable development. The aforementioned shall be helpful in providing the necessary level of security and address the threats. Practical Implications: In order to slow down the progressing global warming process, and tame global security threats related to climate change it absolutely is necessary to reduce all or most of greenhouse gas emissions in the shortest possible time, reform the energy sector with the respect to energy security, implement eco-innovations and carry out other pro-environmental reforms as well as to increase the scale of achieving sustainable development goals implemented in accordance with the principles of a sustainable, green circular economy. The global socio-economic crisis caused by the development of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic should significantly change the pro-ecological awareness of people and the need to implement sustainable development in economic processes and everyday functioning of people. The need to continue the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions was discussed during the UN Conference COP26 in early November 2021. Originality/Value: For the purposes of this article, a multifaceted, synthetic and critical analysis of data available in the source literature was carried out. The proposed solutions are to contribute to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and slow down the process of global warming, and to reduce the scale of the drastic effects of climate change over the next several decades. This shall also lead to decrease of conflicts that otherwise would resource from global instabilities caused by climate change consequences.

Lockdown: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Fishing Activities in the Adriatic Sea (Central Mediterranean Sea)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought a global socio-economic crisis to almost all sectors including the fishery. To limit the infection, governments adopted several containment measures. In Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia, a lockdown period was imposed from March to May 2020, during which many activities, including restaurants had to close or limit their business. All of this caused a strong reduction in seafood requests and consequently, a decrease in fishing activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 in the Northern and Central Adriatic fleet, by comparing the fishing activities in three periods (before, during, and after the lockdown) of 2019 and 2020. The use of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data allowed us to highlight the redistribution of the fishing grounds of the trawlers, mainly located near the coasts during the 2020 lockdown period, as well as a reduction of about 50% of fishing effort. This reduction resulted higher for the Chioggia trawlers (−80%) and, in terms of fishing effort decrease, the large bottom otter trawl was the fishing segment mainly affected by the COVID-19 event. Moreover, by analysing the landings of the Chioggia fleet and the Venice lagoon fleets, it was possible to point out a strong reduction both in landings and profits ranging from −30%, for the small-scale fishery operating at sea, to −85%, for the small bottom otter trawl.

Digital transformation of marketing strategies of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises

The subject of this research is the digital transformation of marketing strategies and development strategies of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises. The object of this research is the construction small and medium-sized enterprises in the conditions of modern digital economy and the global socioeconomic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this article consists in the analysis of peculiarities of digital transformation of marketing strategies and development strategies of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises. The research data was collected via he method of in-depth interviews with the representatives of Russian construction small and medium-sized enterprises, and analyzed using the method of thematic analysis. The hypotheses were advanced and proved on the the impact of digital transformation of marketing strategies of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises upon their competitiveness in the conditions of modern digital economy. The article indicates the growing role of digital transformation of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises in the conditions of modern digital economy and global socioeconomic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of research, the author obtained the key characteristics of digital transformation of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises, including the questions of awareness of the informants about digitalization, digital transformation marketing strategies and development strategies of the informant companies, level of digital literacy of the employees of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises, barriers and changes in the process of digitalization, forecasts for the future digital development of the construction small and medium-sized enterprises, and personal perception of digital transformation by the informants. The acquired data can be used by the construction small and medium-sized enterprises in development of the technology for creating digital strategy, formulation of the corresponding scientific-methodological and practical recommendations in the area of their innovation development.

COVID-19-induced endotheliitis: emerging evidence and possible therapeutic strategies.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, a viral illness caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), 1 has produced at the time of this writing nearly 33 million cases of infection, with over a million deaths in 235 countries, 2 causing an unprecedented burden on healthcare systems and a severe global socioeconomic crisis. As the pandemic spreads, knowledge on the disease course, as well as potential risk factors and predictors of severity is increasing daily, and initial data from randomised controlled studies have allowed care providers to refine therapeutic strategies. Nonetheless, mortality is markedly elevated among those presenting with severe disease, long‐term sequelae among survivors are unknown, and vaccine‐based therapies currently remain at early stages of development. Most reported cases are asymptomatic or present with mild symptoms; however, 7–26% of hospitalised patients experience severe disease, often requiring admission to intensive care units (ICUs), with progressive multiple organ dysfunction and high mortality. 3 , 4 , 5 Such differences in clinical outcomes have led physicians to initiate diverse pharmacological therapies at various stages of the disease, generating challenges as to the most appropriate therapeutic choice for COVID‐19. In this context, the use of dexamethasone has significantly reduced mortality rates in critically ill patients requiring supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation, 6 and remdesivir has demonstrated clinical benefit in hospitalised patients, but with unknown survival benefit to date 7 ; additional effective treatment options are therefore urgently needed. In an initial attempt to provide a uniform and widely reproducible methodology to guide systematic treatment strategies, a three‐stage classification of COVID‐19 has been proposed. 8 The Stage I or ‘early infection’ occurs at the initial establishment of disease with high viral replication, and commonly presents with a range of complaints that can include mild and often non‐specific influenza‐like signs and symptoms. Stage II is the ‘pulmonary phase’, with preferential viral‐mediated injury of the lung parenchyma and this is characterised by shortness of breath, hypoxia and pulmonary infiltrates with some degree of lung inflammation. Stage III is characterised by an exaggerated host immune‐inflammatory response to the virus, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi‐organ failure (MOF).

The growth and development analytical controversies in economic science: A reassessment for the post-Covid-19 era

Abstract. A repositioning of the theoretical instruments of development and growth in the context of economics and political economy that we have at our disposal to date seems necessary, especially after the structural transformation caused by the COVID-19 socio-economic and pandemic crisis. Specifically, the overcoming of the COVID-19 era of crisis seems to depend on how we will manage to re-perceive the theory of economic development and apply its proposals in new economic policies, in global terms. In this context, this article examines whether the conceptual and “therapeutic” foundations of development economics have today the necessary potential to cope with structural changes caused by the ongoing global socio-economic crisis. We assess the current debate in the literature of “economic development versus economic growth” and conclude that a new, comprehensive and evolutionary, orientation to understanding economic development seems necessary to respond to new global challenges for the post-COVID-19 era. We propose a multidisciplinary and evolutionary conceptual direction that suggests the multi-angle understanding of diverse historical configurations. We argue that all socio-economic mutations accelerated by the current pandemic crisis have systemic and evolutionary content and effects and cannot be reliably perceived as mere coincidences of “quantities” and growth “performances.” In this way, we can only disagree with any static and linear approach to the current crisis that directly or indirectly leads to reproducing the rigid enclosure of the analysis in partial specializations of economics. On the contrary, we counter-propose a theoretical response of evolutionary type to assess the contemporary theory of economic development and the political economy in the post-COVID-19 era as an interdisciplinary crossroads for all socio-economic sciences. Keywords. International political economy, Economic science, Economic development, Economic growth, Economic development versus economic growth, Social science, Socio-economic crisis, Post-COVID-19 era, Evolutionary economics. JEL. O10, O40, B52.

Systemic Behavior via Social Responsibility as a Way to Peace and Development

Systemic behavior is here to overcome the ancient human one-sided and short-term behavior by holistic approach based on interdependence of cooperating professionals, who are mutually different. The new way toward this end was passed only two years after the surfacing of the current global socio-economic crisis that results from neoliberal monopolies. Social responsibility is everyone's (new) responsibility for his/her influence on society on the basis of practicing interdependence as a precondition for requisite holism. Consequences of millennia of the human practice of one-sidedness and short-term criteria of behavior make social responsibility now unavoidable: the 3rd World War is here/pending rather than peace and development. Both interdependence and (requisite) holism are exposed by both systems theory and ISO 26000 on social responsibility. The –unfortunate and dangerous – situation in society is well clarified by the fact that ISO 26000 was passed only as an advisory rather than obligatory international standard; this means that peace is considered less important than companies’ profit, while peace is a crucial precondition for profit/benefit resulting from development and well-being.

Industrial policy and COVID-19 responses

The COVID-19 pandemic is not exclusively a public health crisis. It has spiralled into a complex global socio-economic crisis of a kind not seen since the Second World War. Unlike the 2008 global financial and economic crisis, the current economic crisis is interlocked with a public health emergency at a time of weak global collaboration and has exposed the vulnerability of the economic system. It has also revealed wide differences in government policy responses, highlighting various industrial policy and developmental roles of governments. This paper maps and analyses the variation in governments’ responses to the public health emergency and in their economic rescue packages. This review suggests that governments with rich experience of industrial policymaking have demonstrated the ability to translate industrial capability into an appropriate public health emergency response. At a time when interest in industrial policy has been increasing, a key insight that may be drawn from this paper is the adaptability of industrial policy, which continues to be vital for economic catch-up and learning.

Assessment of Socio-, Ecological and Economic Consequences of the Virtual Reality Eco-Tours Advancing

According to many experts, humanity is on the verge of transformational changes, which are characterized not only by changes in the way of management, but also by changes in the philosophy of human existence. This situation is especially noticeable during crises on a global scale. One such demonstration was the global socio-economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It can already be argued that some areas of the information technology industry are experiencing an extremely rapid pace of development, including virtual reality technology. This is especially true against the background of information that one of the negative consequences of the pandemic is an increase in cases of psychological tension in society as a whole and in individuals due to limited physical movement of people. Therefore, the aim of this article was to study the prospects of implementing virtual reality technologies in the tourism business environment based on the identification and justification of possible positive and negative socio-environmental and economic results due to the development of this type of business at the regional level. The idea is to use virtual reality technologies to create a commercial product - "green" tourist tours in Sumy region (Ukraine), the essence of which is to enable tourists from anywhere in the world to virtually visit certain natural and landscape areas of Sumy region. The emphasis is not only on visiting historical architectural monuments, museums, but also on using the recreational potential of natural objects. For example, kayaking on the river Psel, hiking in Spadschansky forests, fishing on the Blue Lakes in Sumy, hunting animals, picking mushrooms, sports tours: running, skiing in the woods near the village. Turners. Thus, the creation of eco-tours of virtual reality can be considered appropriate, because for both internal and external stakeholders, this type of activity is more positive than negative: for employees, the creative component of labor grows, the preconditions are created to increase wages; for consumers, the risks during the trip are reduced, the associated costs disappear, there are more options and opportunities for development; for the region, this type of activity guarantees environmental friendliness and greater interest due to the virtual reality tour in the area.

Forecasting the Cycles of Socio-Political and Ecology-Economic Development with the Assessment of the Impact on them of Changes in Solar Activity

The author analyzes and confirms the author’s long-term forecasts of financial and socio-economic crises, based on a systematic theory of various cycles created over two centuries. There was given a comprehensive assessment of the processes of the transformation of regional financial crises into the global socio-economic crisis of 2008–2019, the phases of which were two waves with peaks of 2008–2009 and 2013–2014 that were observed during the Great Depression of 1929–1939 from the peaks of 1933–1934 and 1937–1938. As a result of the contradictions accumulated by the latter one, according to Kondratiev’s theory of long waves, in the years of 1939–1945 the Second World War occurred. The article outlines the history of the development of the system theory of cycles by A. Chizhevsky with the estimation of the influence of cosmophysical factors on the social processes on the Earth. There were made quantitative and qualitative estimations of sharp changes in solar activity (SA), its growth and decrease due to Wolf’s numbers. There was revealed the synchronization of catastrophic socio-political events on the Earth with maximum changes in solar activity by modules. During the three extreme years in a row (1989–1991), the highs of the SA which were synchronized with the processes of the collapse of the “socialist camp” and the USSR, identified the catastrophic days of socio-political events using weapons against the people at the reference points of the SA changes. Also, the cycles have been detected and, at one time, they had been predicted for the most crisis years of the economic recession in Ukraine after declaring its independence. Based on the theory of circularity of socio-economic crises of М. Тugan-Baranovsky and N. Kondratiev, there were identified 9-year cycles of the global economy in the last half-century with a 3-year old lag of their prevention by the mechanism of financial crises.Article received 24.04.2019

Towards an Evolutionary Understanding of the Current Global Socio-economic Crisis and Restructuring: From a Conjunctural to a Structural and Evolutionary Perspective

The current global socio-economic crisis and restructuring reshapes the terms of study of the global dynamics as a whole. A new generation of interdisciplinary socio-economic research on the matter in question seems to be progressively emerging in international literature.Against this background, it gradually emerges the understanding, that any attempt to interpret the individual contemporary socio-economic phenomena, which relate to the crisis and the attempt to restructure globalization, can only be inadequate and ineffective, since it fails to fully approach the current dynamics of globalization in synthetic, holistic terms.In this direction, new interpretative approaches seem to intensify interpenetration and conceptual syntheses between the different fields of socio-economic sciences, in an increasingly unified perspective, by extensively "borrowing" –in a direct and indirect way– methods and theoretical "lenses" derived from system science, chaos theory, and evolutionary economics.In the depth of this methodological rearrangement, according to the position put forward in the following paper, it is crucial that an effort is made to move from a conjunctural to a structural perception of the crisis. Ultimately, the great challenge for the field of study of global dynamics nowadays is the transition from the methodological principles of the traditional mechanistic interpretative method to a coherent and integrated evolutionary socio-economic perspective.