Unprecedented Conditions Research Articles

Role of COVID-19 pandemic in the academic life and well-being of private sector university students: an exploratory qualitative study

ObjectiveThe advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a drastic impact on students’ life, causing physical and emotional sufferings. Considering the relevance of unprecedented conditions, we explored perceptions and attitudes...

Analysis of the influence of the coronavirus pandemic on elderly people

The main aim of the paper is to analyse and present the main effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the elderly. Numerous studies published in the last two years presenting the situation of the elderly during the pandemic have been analysed and compared. The results obtained show that by nature of internal and external factors, the elderly are vulnerable and fragile, which is why this category of population is the most exposed to the psychological, social, medical and economic effects of the pandemic. The loneliness and isolation of the elderly and their limited access to various services have led to real trauma for them. In order to survive the unprecedented conditions, the elderly have developed adaptive coping mechanisms to cope with the crisis situations generated

Credit spreads in the European green bond market: A daily analysis of the COVID‐19 pandemic impact

AbstractFinancial crises and economic downturns provide a unique opportunity to investigate the behavior of investors and financial instruments and shed light in the market's anticipation of future economic growth. In view of the current crisis, we examine how the COVID‐19 pandemic affected the European green bond market. Using daily data from Thomson Reuter's Refinitiv, we conducted event studies on corporate credit spread changes over the period from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Our results reveal that green bonds' credit spreads increased significantly after the start of the coronavirus outbreak. However, as the fear of the pandemic eased in response to positive news about the vaccines, green bonds' credit spreads fell below conventional bonds. Overall, green bonds showed a higher risk exposure and lower resilience to distress while profiting during an upside. Our paper provides the first evidence about the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the announcement of vaccines' effectiveness on the European corporate green bond market. Our results suggest several key points that are relevant to both investors and issuers under the unprecedented conditions created by the pandemic.

Cybercrime Threat Landscape amid the Movement Control Order in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved rapidly and affected almost all the world's countries, creating unprecedented chaos on human lives, physical health, mental wellbeing, and the world economy. During this time, digital space has become an indispensable global means of communication, entertainment, and social interaction. However, high reliance on digital tools increases the risk of being prey to cyberattacks. In order to explore the cybercrime threat landscape, empirical research was conducted to examine the shared experiences related to cybercrime threats during the enforcement of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia. Data was collected using an online survey among 332 respondents across Malaysia. The finding stipulated that most of the respondents comprised females aged between 18 and 28 years old. The result also indicated that majority of female became victims of online phishing/malware distribution [(M = 0.58, SD = 0.13); t (113) = 2.24, p = 0.02] and online sexual harassment [(M = 0.56, SD = 0.11); t (107) = 2.38, p = 0.01]. The understanding of cybercrime experiences faced by the public during MCO is essential to help law enforcement agencies to stay vigilant on issues related to public safety and security during unprecedented conditions.

The exceptional heatwaves of 2017 and all-cause mortality: An assessment of nationwide health and economic impacts in China

Heatwaves with unprecedented conditions have devastating health impacts. The summer of 2017 saw unusual heat in China and other regions on earth. Although epidemiologic evidence is clear for elevated mortality risks of heatwaves, the economic impacts due to heatwave-associated mortality remain poorly characterized. Hence, this study systematically assessed the mortality and economic impacts of the 2017 exceptional heatwaves in China. We first used the generalized linear mixed-effect model with Poisson distribution to examine the mortality risks of the 2017 heatwaves in 91 Chinese counties. Further, we calculated the excess deaths attributable to heatwaves in 2852 counties. Finally, we evaluated the city- and province-level death-related economic burden of the 2017 heatwaves based on the value of statistical life (VSL). We found that the 2017 exceptional heatwaves had a statistically significant association (relative risk was 1.23, 95% confidence interval 1.14–1.32) with all-cause mortality across 91 Chinese counties. Nationwide, a total of 16,299 all-cause deaths that occurred in 2017 were attributable to the exceptional heatwaves, resulting in an overall death-related economic loss of 61,304 million RMB as valued by VSL. Given that extraordinary heatwaves are projected to be more frequent under global climate change, our findings could enhance the current understanding of heatwaves' health and economic impacts and add valuable insights in projection studies of estimating the future health burden of heatwaves.

PKM. PSIKOEDUKASI KESEHATAN MENTAL PADA MASYARAKAT DI DESA WISATA PINGE

The covid-19 pandemic is clear evidence that the transmission of disease is so rapid that the whole world is spared from the viral outbreak while on the one hand everyone has the right to health as a rule that health isa healthy physical, mental, spiritual, and social state that makes it possible for each person to be productive socially as well as economically. Based on preliminary asesses and in pinge village get the following images of problems: 1) there are 22 members of society affected by the pandemic and the return to the village through psychological issues such as being prone to anxiety over the unprecedented conditions, confusion of nothing to do because they are accustomed to working with other people, and some people are concerned about the continued education of their children and the psychological welfare resources typically derived from local wisdom values 2) the general public is unaware of mental health issues.It needs to be psychoeducation on mental health issues to increase understanding or skill in the prevention of psychological disorders and to increase understanding for communities especially families about psychological disorders. The average pretest baseline of public mental health knowledge falls in a medium category with an average of 61%. By psychoeducation of mental health, people's understanding increased with post-test scores averaged 84%. And the conclusion reached by pinge village visitors' knowledge and understanding on mental health has been increased.

On-ranch adaptation to California's historic 2012-2016 drought

California's historic, statewide drought (2012-2016) challenged the ability of ranchers to adapt to unprecedented conditions while maintaining the economic and ecological sustainability of their operations. We examined how California's historic drought shaped on-ranch drought impacts and management strategies via two separate research efforts: The California Rangeland Decision-Making Survey (2011) and semistructured interviews conducted during the drought (2016). The average number of drought management practices used by ranchers increased between 2011 and 2016; in particular, an apparent increase in use of proactive practices may indicate that underlying drought conditions leading into 2012 were a catalyst for proactive drought planning. Rancher responses to questions about future drought risk suggest drought experience impacted individual perceptions of threat and preparedness in two distinct ways. Ranch managers believed that 1) drought will be more influential in their future management planning, and 2) their current management strategies would be adequate to mitigate future drought impacts. Decision-support tools to help ranchers match their preferred proactive strategies with cost-effective, operation-specific reactive strategies can increase the use of science-based decision-making during drought.

RAD Adaptive Management for Transforming Ecosystems

AbstractIntensifying global change is propelling many ecosystems toward irreversible transformations. Natural resource managers face the complex task of conserving these important resources under unprecedented conditions and expanding uncertainty. As once familiar ecological conditions disappear, traditional management approaches that assume the future will reflect the past are becoming increasingly untenable. In the present article, we place adaptive management within the resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework to assist informed risk taking for transforming ecosystems. This approach empowers managers to use familiar techniques associated with adaptive management in the unfamiliar territory of ecosystem transformation. By providing a common lexicon, it gives decision makers agency to revisit objectives, consider new system trajectories, and discuss RAD strategies in relation to current system state and direction of change. Operationalizing RAD adaptive management requires periodic review and update of management actions and objectives; monitoring, experimentation, and pilot studies; and bet hedging to better identify and tolerate associated risks.

Higher education amid COVID-19 pandemic: contributions from resilience, positive orientation and grit

PurposeThe major purpose of the present study is to investigate the contribution of academic resilience in accounting for two motivational and attitudinal constructs ? Grit and positive orientation and also probe the predictive power of all these constructs in academic achievement of university students in the midst of the pandemic COVID-19.Design/methodology/approach521 university students participated in an online survey. To measure academic resilience, a scale designed and validated by Kim and Kim (2016) comprising 26 items was employed. The scale contains five sub-factors: perceived happiness, empathy, sociability, persistence and self-regulation. Grit was assessed via an 8-item scale comprising two facets: perseverance of effort (PE) and consistency of interest (CI). It was designed by Duckworth and Gross (2014). Positive orientation was determined through positivity scale developed by Caprara et al. (2010), consisting of eight items.FindingsThe results of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that resilience positively and significantly predicted both grit (β = 0.56, t = 6.41) and positive orientation (β = 0.54, t = 6.35). Resilience also predicted academic achievement directly (β = 0.71, t = 9.12) and indirectly via its impact on grit and positive orientation. It was also found that positive orientation and grit are positively and highly associated (β = 0.77, t = 9.28).Originality/valueThe pandemic COVID-19 brought about substantial changes in university students' education and their overall life style. Many university students around the globe experienced virtual education. Balancing personal and academic roles in these unprecedented conditions seems to be a tough challenge for every university student.

Dissolving the Dichotomies Between Online and Campus-Based Teaching: a Collective Response to The Manifesto for Teaching Online (Bayne et al. 2020)

This article is a collective response to the 2020 iteration of The Manifesto for Teaching Online. Originally published in 2011 as 20 simple but provocative statements, the aim was, and continues to be, to critically challenge the normalization of education as techno-corporate enterprise and the failure to properly account for digital methods in teaching in Higher Education. The 2020 Manifesto continues in the same critically provocative fashion, and, as the response collected here demonstrates, its publication could not be timelier. Though the Manifesto was written before the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the responses gathered here inevitably reflect on the experiences of moving to digital, distant, online teaching under unprecedented conditions. As these contributions reveal, the challenges were many and varied, ranging from the positive, breakthrough opportunities that digital learning offered to many students, including the disabled, to the problematic, such as poor digital networks and access, and simple digital poverty. Regardless of the nature of each response, taken together, what they show is that The Manifesto for Teaching Online offers welcome insights into and practical advice on how to teach online, and creatively confront the supremacy of face-to-face teaching.

Knowledge Co-construction by Citizens and Researchers to Create a SNAPSHOT of the Marine Environment During and After the Covid-19 Lockdown

Lockdown measures adopted in Italy to contain the diffusion of Covid-19 altered many variables influencing the anthropogenic pressure on marine ecosystems. Public reactions included surprise at how quickly changes in human activity seemingly improved natural recovery and, at the same time, a generalized anxiety to restart economic activities. In this situation several Institutions from the Italian National Research Council (CNR) made a joint effort to quantify the effects of the unprecedented experimental conditions induced by the reduction of many anthropogenic pressures. The resulting project was conceived with a holistic, interdisciplinary approach, geared to combine scientific, economic and cultural observations to promote collective actions suitable to the governance of socio-ecological systems, reconciling respect for the environment with human activities and wellbeing, and thus grounding an ethical approach to marine resources. Alongside collecting considerable amount of scientific observations, the project is working to complement samplings and analyses with the non-formal knowledge carried by the inhabitants of a set of coastal zones, thus enriching the generated knowledge and widening inclusion and pluralism in defining the challenges at stake; simultaneously it focuses on stimulating a reflection in the research community over the process of knowledge co-construction, its meaning, role and responsibility in the societal context. After a brief contextualization of this activity, we present here the perspective adopted by researchers to build a responsible marine research plan, inclusive on the grounds of both involved actors and knowledge sources. We comment the process- and community-related features, explore limits and opportunities, and propose a set of recommendations, based on a preliminary review of our experience and oriented to promote the development of a shared Ocean ethics.

Features of Mobile Apps for People with Autism in a Post COVID-19 Scenario: Current Status and Recommendations for Apps Using AI.

The new ‘normal’ defined during the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to re-assess how people with special needs thrive in these unprecedented conditions, such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These changing/challenging conditions have instigated us to revisit the usage of telehealth services to improve the quality of life for people with ASD. This study aims to identify mobile applications that suit the needs of such individuals. This work focuses on identifying features of a number of highly-rated mobile applications (apps) that are designed to assist people with ASD, specifically those features that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. In this study, 250 mobile apps have been retrieved using keywords such as autism, autism AI, and autistic. Among 250 apps, 46 were identified after filtering out irrelevant apps based on defined elimination criteria such as ASD common users, medical staff, and non-medically trained people interacting with people with ASD. In order to review common functionalities and features, 25 apps were downloaded and analysed based on eye tracking, facial expression analysis, use of 3D cartoons, haptic feedback, engaging interface, text-to-speech, use of Applied Behaviour Analysis therapy, Augmentative and Alternative Communication techniques, among others were also deconstructed. As a result, software developers and healthcare professionals can consider the identified features in designing future support tools for autistic people. This study hypothesises that by studying these current features, further recommendations of how existing applications for ASD people could be enhanced using AI for (1) progress tracking, (2) personalised content delivery, (3) automated reasoning, (4) image recognition, and (5) Natural Language Processing (NLP). This paper follows the PRISMA methodology, which involves a set of recommendations for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Gun Island: A Tale of Myth, Migration and Climate Change

Gun Island is a story of travel and migrations, overlaid with myth and folktales, and the deepening crisis of climate change. It presents an intricately interwoven plot which connects human and animal, past and present, natural and the supernatural. This paper attempts to explore how the notion of interconnectedness manifests itself in each of these elements. Gun Island uses the myth of the Gun Merchant as a nexus to draw parallels between the Little Ice Age and our present-day scenario where droughts, floods, cyclones, wildfires and epidemics have become a part of our everyday lives. Gun Island projects unprecedented climatic conditions as the primary cause for these natural disasters. It becomes a clarion call for climate induced migrations as it skillfully portrays people and entire communities being uprooted from their native land and the drastic changes in the migratory patterns of different species due to changing climes and warming waters. Instead of projecting warnings of impending doom and apocalypse Gun Island focuses on giving the readers hope for a better tomorrow.

Suicide in late life: A viewpoint

Suicide in old age represents a sad public health concern. Despite the global decline in rates of suicide and the general amelioration of quality of life and access to health care for older adults, their rates of suicide remain the highest virtually in every part of the world. With the aging of the world population and the growing number of mononuclear families, the risk of an increase in isolation, loneliness and dependency does not appear ungrounded. The Covid-19 pandemic is claiming the life of many older persons and creating unprecedented conditions of distress, particularly for this segment of the population. This article briefly examines the main characteristics of suicidal behavior in late life, including observations deriving from the spread of the Sars-2 coronavirus and possible strategies for prevention.

Gang Research in the Twenty-First Century

For nearly a century, gang scholarship has remained foundational to criminological theory and method. Twenty-first-century scholarship continues to refine and, in some cases, supplant long-held axioms about gang formation, organization, and behavior. Recent advances can be traced to shifts in the empirical social reality and conditions within which gangs exist and act. We draw out this relationship—between the ontological and epistemological—by identifying key macrostructural shifts that have transformed gang composition and behavior and, in turn, forced scholars to revise dominant theoretical frameworks and analytical approaches. These shifts include large-scale economic transformations, the expansion of punitive state interventions, the proliferation of the Internet and social media, intensified globalization, and the increasing presence of women and LGBTQ individuals in gangs and gang research. By introducing historically unprecedented conditions and actors, these developments provide novel opportunities to reconsider previous analyses of gang structure, violence, and other related objects of inquiry.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Spiritual Challenges in Iran

ndividuals encounter unprecedented critical conditions globally. The Coro navirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide [1]. In addition to biopsychological health, this crisis has affected other areas of human life, like the spiritual health of individuals [2]. This issue can be of great importance because spiritual issues are closely related to general health, and especially mental health among individuals [3]. In Iran, >99% of the population is Muslim; thus, spiritual and religious is sues overlap and greatly interact [4]. Spirituality is the search to find the greatest meaning in life and closeness to the source of existence [5]. Religion structures such a search by drawing the place of religious authorities, shaping social networks, certain customs, valuing works, encouraging collective participation, and so on [6]. Due to this overlap, damaging these structures during the CO VID-19 pandemic may create a kind of spiritual crisis. How did the coronavirus create a spiritual crisis? Some aspects of this crisis include the following: 1. We can consider religious spirituality in the Iranian society as hierarchical; with important holy places and houses of religious leaders at the top; and religious pub lic meetings at the bottom, as well as mosques and Hus seiniyahs1 in the middle. All of them were closed and physical access to them had become impossible during 1. A mosque-like place used for religious meetings and religious rituals public quarantine. These include the places where some Muslims used to visit to strengthen their inner spiritual resources and release daily psychological stress. 2. In Iranian culture, individuals have a very close rela tionship with religious authorities (clerics). Accordingly, in religious affairs and some social issues, and even some daily affairs, the intellectual policy of the society is deter mined by religious leaders. Numerous religious leaders are elderly and among the high-risk group of COVID-19; therefore, this relationship was challenged by the COV ID-19 pandemic and reduced biosocial relationships. 3. The potential of religious communities and psycho social support to each other in reducing psychological stress and preventing mental disorders has been empha sized in various studies [7]. Islamic teachings also place great emphasis on community and participation among religious brothers, while these communities were also banned under quarantine due to illness

Decision Making across Adulthood during Physical Distancing

ABSTRACT Covid-19-related social-distancing measures have dramatically limited physical social contact between individuals and increased monetary and health concerns for individuals of all ages. We wondered how these new societal conditions would impact the choices individuals make about monetary, health, and social rewards, and if these unprecedented conditions would have a differential impact on older individuals. We conducted two online studies to examine temporal discounting of monetary, health, and social rewards; stated preferences for monetary, health, and social rewards; and physical distancing behaviors. Both studies recruited equal numbers of White/Caucasian, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latinx participants. We found that older adults were more likely to prefer smaller, sooner social and health-related rewards in decision-making tasks. These data further support the assertion that older adults have increased motivation for social and health rewards compared to younger individuals and that these age differences in motivation are important to consider when examining decision-making across the adult life span.

Blended Learning for Teaching Professionally Oriented Foreign and Native Languages

The work represents a new approach to the technology of blended learning. This new vision was developed during the period of online education in 2020-2021. The research shows relevance in the framework of developing high efficiency of professionally-oriented language education. Blended learning is an educational technology that has been theoretically developed in various countries over the past decades. Blended learning was and still is mostly understood as a combination of offline and online education as delivery methods; at present, such training involves a flexible combination of formats, in different proportions. The aim of the rese4arch is combining different types of delivery methods, pedagogical strategies, and tactics according to the needs of a particular student or a group of students. In Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), we provide teaching of both foreign and native professionally-oriented languages. In the situation of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we started to use new approaches to education. One of the ideas was to use a blended learning technique mixing two language disciplines. This approach turned out to improve the efficiency of the teaching process in unprecedented conditions due to the inclusion of all the skills and systems of languages. We developed general speech culture, intuitive linguistic flair, enlarged students’ active vocabulary, improved soft skills (flexible skills) of a non-linguistic type, which include critical thinking, teamwork, and creativity. The main task of developing and introducing this new approach was the provision of efficiency of teaching professionally-oriented language skills.

The March 2021 Thessaly earthquakes and their impact through the prism of a multi-hazard approach in disaster management

In early March 2021, when Greece was struggling with the evolving third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the highest numbers of daily cases and fatalities from its initiation, Thessaly was struck by a seismic sequence, which included the 3 March, Mw = 6.3 mainshock, its strongest Mw = 6.1 aftershock the following day and numerous large aftershocks. The mainshock caused extensive damage to houses and infrastructure, while the aftershock aggravated damage and caused widespread concern among residents. Based on post-event field surveys in the affected area, it is concluded that the old unreinforced houses with load-bearing masonry walls in the northeastern part of the Thessaly basin suffered the most, while the recent constructions remained intact. As a result, hundreds of homeless were in need of immediate temporary sheltering, which immediately mobilized the Civil Protection authorities to manage the emergency situation. This emergency had something unique, which made its management a challenge: the implementation of the earthquake emergency response actions was incompatible with the measures to limit the further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the community during the evolving third pandemic wave. Many of the actions have been adapted to the unprecedented conditions through a prism of a multi-hazard approach to disaster management and their impact. Among others, more and different types of emergency shelters were used to prevent overcrowding, emergency supplies distribution processes were modified to prevent transmission through hands and surfaces, places for the identification and isolation of suspected COVID-19 cases were designated in emergency shelters and extensive and regular screening testing of the local population was conducted for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus. From the analysis of the daily reported COVID-19 cases in the earthquake-affected area during the pre- and post- disaster periods as well as from results of rapid testing during the post-disaster period, it was found that the viral load of the earthquake-affected villages was not increased, despite the difficult and unprecedented conditions. It can be suggested that the adaptation of the measures to the new conditions has worked beneficially to reduce the spread of the new virus among those affected and the involved staff. For this reason, this approach could be considered as good practice and important lesson learned, which can be applied to similar future compound emergencies in areas with similar geoenvironmental and epidemiological characteristics.

Wildfire risk and response in Jasper National Park, Alberta: Application of an adaptation readiness framework

Environmental change associated with warmer temperatures is creating unprecedented conditions in natural regions and ecosystems. In Jasper National Park, Alberta, climate change, historical fire management practices, and the mountain pine beetle infestation are combining to increase the risk of a major wildfire. The intent of this short viewpoint is to provide a primer for decision makers. The application of an adaptation readiness framework highlights areas where the Park's level of preparedness for wildfire adaptation is well developed and areas in need of further attention. Areas where adaptation is well developed include political leadership, decision making, and stakeholder engagement. Further attention is necessary around institutional organizations, funding, and public support.