The Anti-Leader: From presidential discursive leadership to federative incoordination to combat COVID-19

The objective of this paper is to critically analyze lair Bolsonaro's political leadership in relation to the coordination of actions of other federative entities during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), based on the directions of Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis. We used the notes of the audiovisual materiality method to work with 15 videos published on the YouTube platform in the official President's channel. Data were analyzed following the guidelines developed by Van Dijk. The results suggest that the presidential leadership in coordinating subnational federative entities was an antithesis of what is prescribed in the literature on public leadership. Bolsonaro positioned himself aggressively, constituting a discursive scenario of war against other political leaders of the nation. His posture can be associated with the figure of an anti-leader, an agent who seeks the disaggregation and lack of coordination of actors in favor of his own conceptions.

Nitrogen dioxide pollution increases vulnerability to COVID-19 through altered immune function.

Previous ecological studies suggest the existence of possible interplays between the exposure to air pollutants and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Confirmations at individual level, however, are lacking. To explore the relationships between previous exposure to particulate matter < 10 µm (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), the clinical outcome following hospital admittance, and lymphocyte subsets in COVID-19 patients with pneumonia. In 147 geocoded patients, we assessed the individual exposure to PM10 and NO2 in the 2 weeks before hospital admittance. We divided subjects according to the clinical outcome (i.e., discharge at home vs in-hospital death), and explored the lymphocyte-related immune function as an index possibly affecting individual vulnerability to the infection. As compared with discharged subjects, patients who underwent in-hospital death presented neutrophilia, lymphopenia, lower number of T CD45, CD3, CD4, CD16/56 + CD3 + , and B CD19 + cells, and higher previous exposure to NO2, but not PM10. Age and previous NO2 exposure were independent predictors for mortality. NO2 concentrations were also negatively related with the number of CD45, CD3, and CD4 cells. Previous NO2 exposure is a co-factor independently affecting the mortality risk in infected individuals, through negative immune effects. Lymphopenia and altered lymphocyte subsets might precede viral infection due to nonmodifiable (i.e., age) and external (i.e., air pollution) factors. Thus, decreasing the burden of air pollutants should be a valuable primary prevention measure to reduce individual susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality.

Ongoing COVID-19 vaccination in Italy. Online survey of gender- and age-related side effects

Background: Evidences suggest that gender may influence the response to various vaccines in terms of immune response and side effects. Whether similar differences also occur with COVID-19 vaccine, is still uncertain. Materials and Methods: In March 2021, we advertised a short anonymous questionnaire (Google forms) to medical doctors, nurses, postgraduates, students and general public, consisting of 30 questions exploring 16 possible side effects (local pain or hardness, swelling, redness, allergic reaction, tiredness, headache, sleep disorders, myalgia, fever, enlarged lymph nodes, irritability, diarrhea, urticaria, vomiting, anaphylaxis). We recorded side effects after 1st dose, and within one week after 2nd dose. Data were analyzed according to gender and seven age groups. Results: We received 1,034 questionnaires from all over Italy (369 males, 665 females, age range 20-83 years). Injected vaccines were Pfizer-BioNTech (96.9%), Astra-Zeneca (2.4%), Moderna (0.7%). Major adverse events were absent. Minor adverse events occurred with both 1st dose (76.0%) and 2nd dose (78.0%) and were invariably higher in females than in males (1st dose: 79.4% vs 69.9% p = 0.0006;2nd dose: 81.8% vs 70.7%, p = 0.00004). The significant cluster of adverse events were local pain, redness, hardness at the injection site, fever, sleep disturbances, headache, lymph nodes enlargement following both doses (0.00001 < p < 0.02). Effects disappeared within 48hrs in 80% of cases (range 1-7 days). The gender difference was confirmed in the age class 30-39 after 1st dose (85.8% vs 70%, in females and males, respectively p = 0.03), and in the age classes 30-39 (84.6% vs 75.5%, in females and males, respectively p = 0.03) and 40-49 (74.8% vs 57.9%, in females and males, respectively p = 0.02) after 2nd dose. Fever tended to be more frequent in females after the 1st dose (6.5% vs 3.8%) and became significantly higher after the 2nd dose (32.9% vs 17.3%, p = 0.00001). After 50 years of age, the rate of all the recorded adverse events was similar between genders. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccines generate frequent, although mild side effects with a gender (female) prevalence, especially in the age range 30-49 years. The gender difference disappears after 50 years of age, thus pointing to possible involvement of sex hormones and attenuated immune response.

Profiling for sustainable tourism: Young travellers’ self-transcendence values and motivations

Young people seek meaningful, participative, and co-created experiences. Yet young tourists seem less attracted than expected by tourism offers that emphasise involvement, such as sustainable tourism. A possible explanation lies in values and travel motivations specific to young travellers. Although travel motivations have been extensively researched, few have attempted to categorize the resulting list of travel motivations. Research on values is systematized but has limited predictive power because it is generally conducted without reference to immediate causes of behaviour such as motivations. This study proposes to segment young travellers using values and motivations simultaneously and, to account for socio-economic conditions, to investigate young travellers in China and Italy. Multivariate analysis revealed clusters that offer strong opportunities for a sustainable tourism proposition both in the Italian and the Chinese sample. Out of the other identified clusters, some offer similar opportunities yet require a different framing of the tourism offer, while some seem only interested in hedonic experiences. How this more sophisticated picture of young tourists may account for their tepidity towards sustainable tourism is discussed, alongside limitations, suggestions for future research, and a reflection about the re-start of European tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 The Author(s).

Sustainable tourism and facilities preferences: The sustainable tourist stay scale (stss) validation

This study aims to start the development of the Sustainable Tourist Stay Scale (STSS), a self-report instrument designed to measure tourists’ preferences regarding the degree to which they accept accommodation and programs in tourism facilities with sustainable characteristics. The research involved a total sample of 621 participants aged 18 to 74 (m = 41.75%;f = 58.25%). According to the literature and the available data, we considered the possibility that young people (millennials) and adults within the same sample may show peculiarities concerning the sustainability issues. We carried out three subsequent analyses: (1) an explorative factor analysis;(2) a confirmatory factor analysis via structural equation modelling;(3) the test of the structural invariance between young people and adults. The results supported a three-factor scale solution and they are discussed with reference to their potential practical applications to better understanding the preference for a sustainable stay. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.