Innovating digital POE platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of co-production in Brazilian social housing

This paper deals with digital POE methods focusing on their reached potential in facilitating the face-to-face experiments demanded by the project. Recognized as a set of methods and instruments applied in environments during use, Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) can help manage the project process, providing diagnoses and recommendations that feed new projects and interventions in environments in use. POE approaches have been continually restructured in the face of new environmental, social, economic and especially technological demands. In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns and quarantines made it challenging to continue to apply traditional face-to-face POE-based tools and techniques. Simultaneously, the MORA Housing Research Group was carrying out a research project in the city of Uberlândia (Brazil) focusing on the understanding of the relationship between the incidence of arboviruses in the case study social housing neighbourhood, the occupants' practices, and the built environment management, through POE. The social distancing measures applied during the Covid-19 pandemic led the research team to transform methods from face-to-face to hybrid ones, comprising digital and physical approaches to co-produce durable solutions against dengue. The work comprises a five stage method using on-shelf digital platforms and designing other 2 specifically for the project's purposes. By introducing the digital/physical hybrid POE format, the use of social networks and messaging applications significantly reduced the number of necessary visits by researchers to the neighbourhood from 20 to 5 in the first stage of the work, saving a lot of time and effort. The new tools were easy to use for all users. Users reported finding it pleasant to participate in activities with digitally remote researchers. The findings from this project indicate that the incorporation of new digital tools to facilitate physical POE research as a novel hybrid approach provides a successful alternative approach to standard POE processes that are based on face-to-face participation. Copyright © 2023 Villa, Stevenson, Garrefa, de Bortoli and Lya de Melo Carvalho.

The economic performance of the EU fishing fleet during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent public health interventions have depressed demand and disrupted supply chains for many fishing businesses. This paper provides an analysis of the COVID-19 impacts on the profitability of the EU fishing fleets. Nowcasting techniques were used to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic performance for the EU fishing fleet in 2020 and 2021. Our results show that the economic impact of COVID-19 on this sector was smaller than initially expected and overall profits remained positive. This was in part due to low fuel prices that reduced operating costs of fishing, and the early response from governments to support the sector. The results vary by fishing fleet, revealing that small-scale fleets and the fleets in the Mediterranean and Black seas have been more impacted than large-scale fleets and the fleets in the Northeast Atlantic. © G. Carpenter et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2023.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts on Air Quality during Partial Lockdown in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo

Air pollution has become one of the factors that most affect the quality of life, human health, and the environment. Gaseous pollutants from motor vehicles have a significantly harmful effect on air quality in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (MASP)—Brazil. Motor vehicles emit large amounts of particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the last three acting as the main tropospheric ozone (O3) precursors. In this study, we evaluated the effects of these pollutants on air quality in the MASP during the partial lockdown that was imposed to ensure the social distancing necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared the monthly data for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and CO, SO2, and BC from MERRA-2 for the period between April and May 2020 (during the pandemic) with the average for the same period for the (pre-pandemic) years 2017 to 2019 in the southeast region of Brazil. The meteorological and pollutant concentration data from the CETESB air quality monitoring stations for the MASP were compared with the diurnal cycle of three previous years, with regard to the monthly averages of April and May (2017, 2018, and 2019) and the same period in 2020, when the partial lockdown was first imposed in southeast Brazil. Our findings showed that there was a decrease in NO2 concentrations ranging from 10% to more than 60% in the MASP and the Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro (MARJ), whereas in the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte and Vitoria (MABH and MAV, respectively), there was a reduction of around 10%. In the case of the concentrations of CO and BC from MERRA-2, there was a considerable decrease (approx. 10%) during the period of partial lockdown caused by COVID-19 throughout almost the entire state of São Paulo, particularly in the region bordering the state of Rio de Janeiro. The concentration of SO2 from MERRA-2 was 5 to 10% lower in the MASP and MARJ and the west of the MABH, and there was a decrease of 30 to 50% on the border between the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, while in the MAV region, there was an increase in pollutant levels, as this region was not significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharp reductions in the average hourly concentrations of CO (38.8%), NO (44.9%), NO2 (38.7%), and PM2.5 (6%) were noted at the CETESB air quality monitoring stations in the MASP during the partial lockdown in 2020 compared with the hourly average rate in the pre-pandemic period. In contrast, there was an increase of approximately 16.0% in O3 concentrations in urban areas that are seriously affected by vehicular emissions, which is probably related to a decrease in NOx. © 2023 by the authors.

User Terminal Segments for Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Constellations: Commercial Systems and Innovative Research Ideas

Despite the rapid and continuous development of communication and networking technologies, the goal of universal connectivity (i.e., the ability to communicate with any user at any time and in any place) is still unrealized. In 2019, a study [1] found that 40% of Earth's regions lack network coverage, which means that there are still 4 billion people on the planet without Internet access. Moreover, even as the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for online working, learning, and accessing services-and, thus, increased the number of Internet users-2.9 billion people remain offline in developing countries [2]. Satellite communications (SatCom) have been emerging as a potential and indispensable solution to extending broadband coverage to underserved areas [2]. © 2000-2012 IEEE.

Food delivery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Purpose This study aims to understand consumer behavior related to the purchase of meals by delivery services before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted between September and October 2020. The total number of valid responses was 971. Findings About 55% of the participants reported a decrease in consumption or not having consumed food delivery during the pandemic. Of the total, 48.3% feared contracting COVID-19 from food delivery. A significant association was observed between fear of contracting COVID-19 from food delivery and variables such as education level (p = 0.001), observance of social distancing (p = 0.03) and food delivery consumption frequency (p < 0.001). More people were careful about cleaning food packaging (from 12.4% before to 66.1% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and disposal (from 47.6% before to 66.4% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and heating the food before consumption (from 7.6% before to 13.7% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and used payment methods without approximation (from 29.8% before to 43.2% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) compared with the pre-pandemic period. More people also reported that application of security protocols during delivery (from 29.8% before to 43.2% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and in restaurants (from 7.2% before to 25% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) and possessing knowledge about the financial difficulty of the establishment (from 4.6% before to 17% during the pandemic, p < 0.001) were the most important factors for choosing a food service. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore consumers' fear of contracting COVID-19 from food delivery and consumer behavior related to food delivery services during the pandemic in Brazil - that is, way to order and payment methods, as well as concern and care related to the purchase of these foods.

Contactless Smart Screening in Nursing Homes: An IoT-enabled solution for the COVID-19 era

In the COVID-19 era, the provision of health indicators seamlessly and without contact, in groups at risk such as the elderly, is crucial due to the fast spread of the disease and the need to act quickly to contain its evolution. Continuous monitoring of vital signs, such as body temperature and cardio-respiratory rates, can be vital in early detection and prediction of COVID-19, which rapidly progresses and particularly affects the elderly population in nursing homes. Conventional clinical methods used for monitoring vital signs are contact-based, require contact sensors that need to be precisely attached by a trained health professional, are less convenient for repeatable measurements, and not practical for long-term monitoring. On the other hand, contactless vital signs monitoring using radar-based techniques, or IR-thermal imaging, do not require the attachment of physical electrodes and can be of great value in health screening of patients and help health professionals in early detection of the COVID-19 in the elderly population, in the specific context of nursing houses. This work describes the design and specification of a low-cost contactless health screening system for nursing homes, and includes the design of an IoT Edge device that can be placed above the beds where patients rest, allowing the continuous acquisition of health information and its processing without any type of contact and invasiveness. © 2021 IEEE.

Energy Harvesting Mechanisms in a Smart City-A Review

The issue of how to power the deployed Internet of Things (IoT) nodes with ubiquitous and long lasting energy in order to ensure uninterruptible optimisation of smart cities is of utmost concern. This among other challenges has continued to gear efforts toward energy harvesting research. With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that nearly paralysed activities of everyday living in many nations of the world, option of human remote interaction to enforce social distancing became imperative. Hence, the world is witnessing a renewed awareness of the importance of IoT devices, as integral components of smart city, especially for the essence of survival in the face of lockdown. Energy harvesting is a possible solution that could enable IoT nodes to scavenge self-sustaining energy from environmental ambient sources. In this paper, we have reviewed most sources within city that energy could be harvested from, as reported by researchers in literature. In addition, we have submitted that energy sources can be application specific, such that, since there are many free sources in the city as presented in this review, energy should be scavenged within close proximity of need for various IoT devices or wireless sensor networks (WSNs), for smart city automation.

RFID Tattoo for COVID-19 Temperature Measuring

In order to assist in the screening and monitoring of possible infected by COVID-19, whose fever is one of the initial symptoms, a RFID tattoo tag for human monitoring was developed. The prototype of the tattoo tag presented proved to be effective in measuring human body temperature from 36° to 40° C, thus being a viable option for large-scale screening and analysis, and for being made with aluminum foil and school adhesive tape. That when using these materials, it presents itself as a disposable device, of low cost, durable, and operable in the RFID UHF frequency range. © 2021 IEEE.