Official Announcement Research Articles

Being Houseless in the Global South: An Update on Fortaleza, Brazil

This update aims to provide a critical account of houselessness through the last decade in Brazil—a country of the global south which is currently under a destabilized democracy state—and, more specifically, in the gravely unequal city of Fortaleza, located in the northeast of Brazil. Through the analysis of reports, news, official declarations and decrees, alongside the conduction of interviews, an investigation is carried out to understand how the people experiencing houselessness in Fortaleza interact with the state, the third sector and each other. The update reveals, therefore, planning practices that systematically structure the exclusion, the invisibility and the potential criminalization of houseless people by public agencies and the private sector—especially during the COVID-19 health crisis—while it also sheds light on the strength of the social movements and civil organizations that seek effective and emancipatory actions towards overcoming houselesssness.

TESTING FOR HERD BEHAVIOR IN BORSA ISTANBUL DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The concept of herd behavior is based on the nature of decentralized acting investors’ pseudo-collaborative
 behaviors in the market. This study investigates the herd behavior phenomenon for Borsa Istanbul (BIST)
 amidst the new coronavirus outbreak. The whole period is split into symmetrical two discrete one-year
 sub-periods considering the median date of March 11th, 2020, the official announcement date of the first
 domestic COVID-19 case. The paper proceeds with the models based on the Cross-sectional mean absolute
 deviation (CSAD) and the Cross-sectional standard deviation (CSSD) test methodology to test for probable
 herd behavior, using daily stock closing prices of the BIST 100 index shares during the period from March
 11th, 2019 to March 9th, 2021.

Mandatory Vaccination Against COVID-19: Twitter Poll Analysis on Public Health Opinion.

BackgroundOn January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization Emergency Committee declared the rapid worldwide spread of COVID-19 a global health emergency. By December 2020, the safety and efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines had been demonstrated. However, international vaccination coverage rates have remained below expectations (in Europe at the time of manuscript submission). Controversial mandatory vaccination is currently being discussed and has already been introduced in some countries (Austria, Greece, and Italy). We used the Twitter survey system as a viable method to quickly and comprehensively gather international public health insights on mandatory vaccination against COVID-19.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to better understand the public’s perception of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in real time using Twitter polls.MethodsTwo Twitter polls were developed (in the English language) to seek the public’s opinion on the possibility of mandatory vaccination. The polls were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform’s (based in Vienna, Austria) Twitter timeline for 1 week in mid-November 2021, 3 days after the official public announcement of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in Austria. Twitter users were asked to participate and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience.ResultsOur Twitter polls revealed two extremes on the topic of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19. Almost half of the 2545 respondents (n=1246, 49%) favor mandatory vaccination, at least in certain areas. This attitude contrasts with the 45.7% (n=1162) who categorically reject mandatory vaccination. Over one-quarter (n=621, 26.3%) of participating Twitter users said they would never get vaccinated, as reflected by the current Western European and North American vaccination coverage rate. Concatenating interpretation of these two polls should be done cautiously as participating populations might substantially differ.ConclusionsMandatory vaccination against COVID-19 (in at least certain areas) is favored by less than 50%, whereas it is opposed by almost half of the surveyed Twitter users. Since (social) media strongly influences public perceptions and views, and social media discussions and surveys are specifically susceptible to the “echo chamber effect,” the results should be interpreted as a momentary snapshot. Therefore, the results of this study need to be complemented by long-term surveys to maintain their validity.

Similarity analysis of federal reserve statements using document embeddings: the Great Recession vs. COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic has already caused plenty of severe problems for humanity and the economy. The exact impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unknown, and economists and financial advisers are exploring all possible scenarios to mitigate the risks arising from the pandemic. An intriguing question is whether this pandemic and its impacts are similar, and to what extent, to any other catastrophic events that occurred in the past, such as the 2009 Great Recession. This paper intends to address this problem by analyzing official public announcements and statements issued by federal authorities such as the Federal Reserve. More specifically, we measure similarities of consecutive statements issued by the Federal Reserve during the 2009 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic using natural language processing techniques. Furthermore, we explore the usage of document embedding representations of the statements in a more complex task: clustering. Our analysis shows that, using an advanced NLP technique in document embedding such as Doc2Vec, we can detect a difference of 10.8% in similarities of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statements issued during the Great Recession (2007–2009) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the results of our clustering exercise show that the document embeddings representations of the statements are suitable for more complex tasks, which provides a basis for future applications of state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques using the FOMC post-meeting statements as the dataset.

India – Australia relations in the context of China’s rise

This article analyzes the India–Australia relationship within the challenged context of the US–China rivalry and of the rise of China. The details of this bilateral relationship need to be focused for analyzing cooperation trends and common national interests of the two countries. This paper will apply various theoretical perspectives of international studies for examining the empirical data from official declarations, policies of the two countries and academic research studies directly related to the India–Australia relationship. The hypothesis of this research is that the Indo-Pacific regional structuralization and great powers’ rivalries would lead to the context in which the regional power competition and new regional institutions establishment would promote the common strategic interests and balancing policies between the US and China of the two countries. Therefore, the bilateral relationship between India and Australia would have opportunities for further development in the future.

Expectations of Macroeconomic News Announcements: Bitcoin vs. Traditional Assets

Research on cryptocurrencies has proliferated in recent years. Our research objective was to answer the question of whether macroeconomic news from the U.S. affects Bitcoin in the same way it affects other common investment assets such as gold, the S&P 500, 2-year Treasury bills, and 10-year Treasury bills. Following previous research, seven macroeconomic news announcements from the U.S. were selected, and an empirical analysis of the daily returns, volatility, and volume of the selected assets was conducted. The results show that while Bitcoin is the most volatile (i.e., riskiest) of all the assets, the expected direction of movement is visible after the official announcement of the macroeconomic news on that day, and is comparable to that of the 2-year Treasury bills. It is also evident that the trading volume of Bitcoin does not change, unlike other assets, suggesting that the price of Bitcoin is always moved by the same players, indicating the closed and, therefore, riskier nature of cryptocurrency markets. Finally, we found evidence that the impact of macroeconomic announcements on Bitcoin returns is stronger when the announcements are negative but, interestingly, the returns of Bitcoin, unlike those of other assets, are more volatile after positive announcements.

Periodization of the Northern Song Emperor Huizong’s Reign (1100–1126)

This article is devoted to the reign of the de facto last Emperor of the Northern Song, Huizong. In particular, it deals with the question of how the periodization of the reign, based on mottos that were declared during the reign of the Emperor coincides with the theoretical periodization, based on the model of political struggle, as well as the question of whether the mottos of the reign can be considered as political institutions that include an official announcement of a change of political course. The dynamics of internal political processes, based on the analysis of the corresponding chapters of the historical chronicle of Song Shi, is demonstrated. As a result of the research, some discrepancies were revealed between the periodization based on the dynamics of internal political processes and the periodization using mottos, in particular, there were more mottos than the stages outlined during the research 6 and 5, respectively, a brief description of each stage is given.

Turkey’s “Apology” and Image Repair on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide

AbstractImage and reputation are key factors in how nations are perceived by global audiences. Current and historical issues can pose as challenges to a nation’s reputation prompting the need to save face. The Armenian genocide is one of the most critical issues the Republic of Turkey has had to manage in terms of its global image and reputation. While the vast body of literature on the subject borrows from history and political science focusing on the mechanism of denial, this paper offers a communication framework to understand the rhetoric of Turkey’s image repair. Turkey’s crisis communication strategies vis-à-vis the centennial of the Armenian genocide are analyzed by employing Benoit’s image repair theory through a content analysis of official statements and declarations by the heads of state given in 2014 and 2015. In response to the emerging political crisis, the Turkish government primarily employed image repair strategies of evading responsibility and reducing offensiveness with the aim to appeal to international audiences.

The effect of R&D activities on the market response and company's performance during the shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether research and development (R&D) activities reduce the performance damage caused by a critical situation, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or not. Also, this study tries to explain whether the market in its reactions pays attention to companies' R&D activities or not during the COVID-19 critical situation.Design/methodology/approachThe official announcement of the COVID-19 disease in Iran is considered the date of the event in this study. To consider the effect of R&D activities on the performance, three similar time periods before and after the coronavirus pandemic have been considered. Due to the widespread prevalence of coronavirus in Iran, this country has been selected to answer the research questions.FindingsThe results showed that the companies that have more R&D activities performed better than other companies during this period and were able to better manage this crisis. Furthermore, companies with more R&D activities suffered lower abnormal returns during coronavirus shocks than other companies.Research limitations/implicationsBased on the research results, the issues that were discussed on the importance of R&D activities in the accounting literature is confirmed, and the results show the importance of R&D activities on the company's ability to overcome crises.Practical implicationsBased on the results of this research, it can be suggested that even in difficult and critical conditions, investment in R&D activities should not be stopped and decrease.Originality/valueIn the accounting literature, the long-term effect of R&D activities on the survival of companies has always been considered. In this study, the effect of R&D activities on market response and firm performance in a real shock is investigated, which is the innovation of this research.

How natural environments influence traditional sports and games: A mixed methods study from China

This study explores complex relationships between the formation and development of traditional sports and games (TSGs) and the natural environment by adopting a mixed method of two studies. First, taking 1356 TSGs as cases, Study 1 uses spatial analysis to explore the representation, connotation, and source of the relationship between TSGs and natural environment factors. Second, Study 2 uses grounded theory to analyze 149 official declaration documents of TSGs and extracts 36 initial concepts, 12 subcategories, and 4 core categories, from which a theoretical framework of the formation process model of TSGs is constructed. The findings illustrate that the formation and development of TSGs are not completely determined by the natural environment but are derived from a combination of factors such as survival values, beliefs, attitudes, and the natural environment. On one hand, when the natural environment is considered an external factor of society, TSGs are directly affected by it. On the other hand, when the natural environment is considered an internal factor of society, it can only interact with people's beliefs and attitudes and indirectly accelerate or delay TSG formation and development. Research results provide both theoretical and practice implications in the safeguarding of TSGs.

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Sensors for SARS-CoV-2: Where Are We Now?

Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in 2019 in China and the official declaration from the World Health Organization in March 2021 as a pandemic, fast and accurate diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has played a major role worldwide. For this reason, various methods have been developed, comprising reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunoassays, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), and bio(mimetic)sensors. Among the developed methods, RT-PCR is so far the gold standard. Herein, we give an overview of the MIP-based sensors utilized since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Financial Market in China under the COVID-19

ABSTRACT The main aim of this study is to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on financial markets in China. Results of correlation analysis indicate that higher financial correlation among provinces emerged after the official announcement regarding COVID-19 in China. The Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) results after the pandemic announcement denote that Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Chongqing become the new cores, and the overall linking type exhibits cluster mode, which is varied from the intertwined connection mode. In addition, through Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) and Wavelet analysis, we found that financial markets in China are more susceptible to unexpected incidents.

Time Varying Impact of Oil Prices on Stock Returns: Evidence from Developing Markets

In this study, we provide new evidence on the relationship between crude oil, exchange rate and stock returns before and after the official announcement of COVID-19 as a pandemic by WHO. Data for the present study consists of the major stock indices of ten emerging markets (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand), their exchange rates, And prices of Brent crude oil. We employ panel vector autoregression and provide evidence based on panel granger causality, impulse response function and forecast error variance decomposition. Panel granger causality reveals that after the declaration of COVID-19 as pandemic, interdependence between oil price changes and stock returns has increased. We find positive (negative) impact of oil market (exchange rate) shocks on stock returns. Analysis of impulse response suggests that during pandemic shocks to crude oil, exchange rate and stock market have larger and longer own and cross-market impact. Thus, there is a need for sharing timely and adequate information to minimize uncertainties in financial and commodity markets. This would benefit investors by lessening the transmission of shocks during the times of crisis.

Spatiotemporal Changeability of the Load of the Urban Road Transport System under Permanent and Short-Term Legal and Administrative Retail Restrictions

In Poland, in 2018, the act on Sunday retail restrictions was introduced, changing citizen’s spatial mobility (altered patterns of transport behaviour related to shopping on a weekly scale). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020) on transport behaviour during this time has had an impact, since people were encouraged to stay at home and limit their mobility to an absolute minimum. As a result, the main aim of the article was to identify spatiotemporal changeability of the load of the urban road transport system under permanent and short-term legal and administrative retail restrictions and to determine its spatial and temporal nature on the example of Łódź (a big city in central Poland) during 2018–2021. For that purpose, the authors used three types of source data, i.e., official governmental normative data (acts, ordinances, etc.), informative data (official pandemic announcements issued during ministerial press conferences, governmental social media content, etc.), and objective empirical data (induction loops). The pandemic restrictions imposed on top of the existing permanent retail restrictions were shown to distinctly shape the weekly distribution of traffic. In weeks with non-trading Sundays, the percentage of vehicle traffic on weekdays was substantially higher than on weekends, which was particularly noticeable during the first year of the pandemic (2020). Long-term observations have also shown that people began to plan their weekends differently upon the initial implementation of Sunday retail restrictions.

Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma: A Google Trends Analysis.

The internet has revolutionized health information delivery. With instantaneous and widespread access to electronic sources, patients have countless options with regard to where and how they acquire medical information. Although this enables patients to feel informed, uncontextualized misinformation can derail patients as much as accurate information can empower them. To better understand the sources of information available, a Google Trends analysis was performed. Search volume data were collected for the terms "ALCL," "textured implants," "Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma," "breast implant illness," and "breast implant cancer." Data were collected for 1- and 5-year search periods ending on May 1, 2020. Peaks were correlated to relevant news articles or FDA statements. Results uncovered that news platforms like the New York Times (NYT) and The Guardian had greater public visibility when compared to official announcements through the FDA or pharmaceutical companies. During these peaks in public interest, search results on Google were dominated by information from media sources, highlighting a weakness in the general public's access to credible online health information. Online search volume and regional data obtained from Google Trends can serve to strategize timely and targeted dissemination of important medical announcements to the public. Evidence from this study reveals pitfalls of the current model for dissemination of information and provides valuable, actionable methods for improved patient outreach for future communications. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Attributes of cyber conflict in the context of armed conflict – an outline of the problem

ObjectivesThis article explains the concepts of cyber conflict attributes in relation to the classical attributes of armed conflicts. Problems related to the study of the causes of armed conflicts and wars, forms of their conduct, ending and ways of their resolution. This paper outlines selected definitions of conflict and war that have formed the basis of analysis for the attributes of cyber conflict - in particular the attributes of: nature, forms, sources, complexity, and the difficulty of uniquely identifying the "aggressor" if the attack is not "overt".Methodsstatistical analysis, document analysisResultsThe characteristics of a cyber conflict are, in particular: no certain identification of the aggressor, no possibility of an official declaration of war or official defense and retaliation.ConclusionsThe key determinant of defense – should be digital and electromagnetic offensive measures. Security threats and more frequent attacks in broadly defined cyberspace have unquestionably become the challenge of today’s world – consisting of alliances, which the sum of security being the security levels of individual members and their defense capabilities. However only the level of commitment and cooperation can contribute to the achievement of a common goal, defined by the Alliance – including, above all, the elaboration of common, acceptable by all members – „modern” solutions. However, the common defense and deterrence potential equipped with real, though digital, both offensive and defensive resources would allow practical implementation of the challenge for art. 5th North Atlantic Pact in such a strategic way for all areas, which is cyberspace.

A Systematic Review of Conceptual and Competency Contents of Baccalaureate Global Nursing Education in Countries for Referring Further Development in Japan

Objective: To facilitate discussions of the contents of global nursing education programs in Japan, asystematic review of related articles in other countries was conducted.Review Method: This review was implemented using the PRISMA guidelines. Online databases ofPubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL with full text, and National Center for Biotechnology Informationwere studied. A systematic literature review was conducted of the databases’ articles written in Englishby using the keywords “global/international nursing education” and “undergraduate course.” Researchappropriatearticles by titles and abstracts were selected and full texts of these articles were obtained.The authors read all the full texts, choose those appropriate to the research objective and synthesizedthe data.Results: Out of eight articles that were identified, three demonstrated sets of domains with competencies.The three articles included almost all domains in the remaining five, and the essential domains werecategorized such as global burden of diseases, socio-environmental health issues, and human rights andsocial justice. Some concepts (e.g., social justice) have not been included in official announcements inJapan.Conclusions: Six categories of domains with competencies seemed comprehensive, and shall be abase of discussion for further development of the subject education in Japan as well as for any nursinginstitute in the world.

Institutional Communication and the Covid-19 Pandemic: Italian Government Media Campaigns

The SARS-CoV-2 virus struck the entire world unexpectedly, and Italy was one of the countries that suffered the most losses. Considering the importance and influence of the media in crisis and risk situations, the main aim of this paper is to examine official institutional public announcements issued by the Republic of Italy from February 2020 to July 2021. Following previous research recommendations that advocate the informational and persuasive nature of institutional communication during times of crisis and risk, these audio-visual messages are examined from two complementary perspectives: as institutional communication and as commercials. A distinct theoretical and analytical approach is developed by combining tools from various topic areas, in this case, public relations and semiotics. As a result, the messages are first examined through the lens of Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication as an Integrative Model. Throughout the various stages of crisis communication, various pragmatic, rhetorical, and semiotic tools are identified and analyzed. It is possible to conclude that institutional communication in the studied period goes through nearly the entire cycle of the integrative model. The evaluation stage's full potential is still untapped, but there are some sporadic evaluative attempts within previous stages. Simultaneously, by analyzing pandemic narratives, values, and semiotic resources at various stages of the pandemic, it becomes clear that these video clips are positioned differently within Flock's square, with linguistic-stylistic and semiotic features of varying complexity and creativity. As the pandemic progresses, the advertisements become more substantial, and then mythical, glorifying the Italian nation and cultural heritage, from the initial referential advertisements. The artistic expression of Tornatore's advertisement "Room of Embraces" serves as the oblique advertisement. In the final stages of the pandemic institutional communication, the government is turning to real-life images once more, but this time in a completely different mood. Instead of fabricated real-life images with a spokesperson at the center of the message, there are now authentic images of young people, beaches, music, and happy TV faces as immediate, intimate, and optimistic messages about the future.

Linking COVID-19 Perception With Socioeconomic Conditions Using Twitter Data

We, as humans, are constantly in relation with our environment. Sudden changes in our living media may alter the way we perceive ourselves and our environment in various ways. Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a great example of a sudden change. The outbreak influenced means of work, study, socialization, and communication in unprecedented ways. In our study, we investigate the topic dynamics of Twitter content sharing for the Republic of Turkey. We have analyzed 1.3 million tweets containing the keyword “korona” shared between February 24, 2020 and May 2, 2020. Our study has three key outcomes. The first one is, after the official announcement of first COVID-19 case in Turkey, rate of COVID-19-related content sharing decreases and hygiene-, lifestyle-, and anxiety-related tweets increase. Second, we see that a number of friends and followers influence content sharing dynamics where accounts sharing COVID-19 News-related content have more followers compared to accounts that share the remaining contents. Finally, motivated by the World Bank’s Poverty Monitoring Technical Note, we inquired the effect of income on content sharing and found that GDP per capita of the author’s city is more influential on COVID-19 News-related content sharing compared to the population and COVID-19 cases per 1 00 000 people. The lower the GDP per capita, the higher the COVID-19 News-related content sharing is. Also, our model indicates that lower income and population along with high rates of COVID-19 cases per 1 00 000 people are associated with increased COVID-19 News-related content sharing.

Serious about Integration or Political Posturing? Political Elites and their Impact on Half-hearted Europeanisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract This paper deals with the sluggish Europeanisation efforts of the current political elites of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A typical explanation for the lack of progress would be the complex structure of consociational democracy of the specific Bosnian confederation. The authors, however, claim that the structural obstacles could have been bypassed given the real will of political elites of all three nations to cooperate. The authors examine the role of the structure of the peculiar political system in comparison with the influence of the agency of Bosnian elites on the integration process. The empirical analysis focuses on the situation after the general elections in 2018. The authors discuss the contrast between the official declarations of consistent support for a European future with the real political performance of the various Bosnian party elites. These elites often misuse the institutional settings of the political system to block reforms. They also prefer the politics of obstruction to cement their leading positions within their constituent nations. More than a quarter century after the Dayton Peace Treaty and adoption of the Constitution, the lack of genuine intrinsic motivation to pursue Europeanisation has remained the main reason for the reluctant rapprochement of Bosnia to the European Union.