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PurposeThe current study investigated the impact of organisational trust on emotional well-being and performance of middle leaders during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA convenience sample of 265 middle leaders in kindergartens in China responded involving trust in schools (e.g. trust in principal and trust in colleagues), emotional well-being and job performance. Both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in the investigation.FindingsThree hypotheses on the relationships between the three constructs were verified. Trust in schools significantly influenced emotional well-being and job performance of middle leaders which correlated with each other. The interactive effects of trust in principal and trust in colleagues were discussed for improving the well-being and job performance of middle leaders. Relationships between the two kinds of trust and pride were also identified in the research.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies may put efforts towards improving these three outcomes synchronously.Practical implicationsBased on the evidence of the current study, future research may focus on how middle leaders act as a bridging role between different stakeholders such as principal and teachers, principal and parents, teachers and children, meanwhile how to boost the leaders' own well-being and performance in the early childhood education (ECE).Originality/valueThis study established the empirical linkages between school trusts, emotional well-being and job performance.
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Multinational enterprises have become a main engine of the global economy, technical advancement, and product innovation, playing a pivotal role in the world economy and the global technological revolution. However, MNEs are also often embroiled in financial fraud and corporate scandal which show that MNEs should improve their corporate governance. Meanwhile, as COVID- 19 runs rampant across the world, populism and deglobalisation have resurged, and protectionism and unilateralism are exerting negative impacts on the world economy. Achieving sustainable development in this context is a test of a company's management and governance abilities. How should they be governed? This book will be a useful tool for university research-led teaching and fundamental research in corporate governance theories of MNEs in general, as well as using Chinese case studies as evidence to support our theoretical arguments. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
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PurposePrincipals' well-being worldwide is under increasing threat due to the challenging and complex nature of their work and growing demands. This paper aimed at developing and validating a multidimensional Principal Well-being Inventory (PWI) and examining the state and consequences of principal well-being.Design/methodology/approachThis paper involves four independent samples of principals working in schools from Hong Kong and Mainland China. The research design consisted of four phases with four sequential empirical studies. Phase 1 was to establish the content validity (literature review and Study 1);Phase 2 was to test the construct validity (Study 2 and Study 3);Phase 3 was to build the criterion validity (re-use the data from Study 3) and Phase 4 was to test the cross-validity of the PWI (Study 4).FindingsBased on published literature and four successive empirical studies, a 24-item PWI was created via a theoretical-empirical approach of test construction. Validity was confirmed through construct-, content-, criterion- and cross-validity testing. The PWI covers the six important well-being dimensions - physical, cognitive, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual - to present a general picture of principals' occupational well-being associated with job nature, well-being literacy, leadership and context.Research limitations/implicationsThe inventory will aid efforts to promote principal well-being as an essential component of schoolwide well-being, quality education and a wellness society.Practical implicationsDuring the post-COVID-19 period, this project is deemed both critical and timely so that quality education will not be sacrificed due to factors affecting principal well-being.Originality/valueThis theoretically and empirically validated inventory serves as a robust tool for comprehensively understanding principal well-being and a fuller exploration of their well-being literacy, drivers and outcomes.
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Anchored in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study investigated the remote and hybrid teaching experiences of seven early childhood teachers (teaching preschool-1st grade) during the 2020-2021 school year amidst COVID-19 in the United States. They were all female (Age = 33-54 years, M = 44 years). Each teacher was interviewed for 30-60 min (M = 40 min) virtually via Zoom. Thematic analysis of the data revealed three main themes linked to teaching demands: (1) the challenge of implementing developmentally appropriate practice effectively, (2) the difficulty of managing the increased teaching workload, and (3) the barriers to promoting student engagement. It also highlighted two salient themes related to teaching resources: (1) institutional support, and (2) emotional support from the students' parents. Embedded within institutional support, there were two distinct types: (1) vertical support, referring to the professional and emotional support from education leaders, and (2) horizontal support, referring to the instrumental and emotional support from fellow teachers.
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This review aimed at portraying a nuanced picture of the trajectory of teacher well-being research during 54 years from 1968 to 2021. This review used descriptive quantitative analysis with a dataset of 774 journal articles. The developmental trend demonstrates a considerable change in the volume of publications conducted during the most recent 14 years. Findings of the current review identify that research foci have covered the antecedents, nature, and effects of teacher well-being in a descending manner. Quantitative methods were observed as the most frequently used method in research studies. Moreover, the use of qualitative and mixed research methods increased in recent times. However, due to the considerable absence of mixed methods, longitudinal, and experimental research designs in this review's corpus, our interpretation has been restricted to the ways in which teacher well-being can affect as well as be affected by associated constructs. Research on teacher well-being positions itself at the intermediate stage focusing on fusion relations combining new and recognized structures and adopting qualitative as well as quantitative practices. This review supports the evolution of the teacher well-being literature and poses recommendations for future research.
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The blended educational method has become a common way of teaching and learning in the post-COVID-19 era. However, the related research on the selection model for the blended design teaching service quality solution is still an important research gap during this period. Therefore, this study proposed a hybrid method of fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to analyse the dimensions, indicators and alternatives of blended design teaching service quality. As for the findings of this research, the dimension of assurance is the most vital factor, followed by responsiveness, reliability and empathy. Meanwhile, this research discovered that the top three significant alternatives are "Employees are trustworthy”, "Safe transaction mechanism and environment” and "Personalised needs of customers”. Also, we found that dimensions utilised to evaluate the quality of education service are similar whether in the post COVID-19 era, in the COVID-19 epidemic or prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main contribution of this study is to establish a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for the ranking of the blended design teaching service quality index and solution under a fuzzy environment. Finally, the research findings of this study have a guiding role, thereby becoming a guide for the industries related to hybrid design education to maintain good service quality in similar scenarios in the future. © 2023 by the authors.
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This study investigated how early childhood teachers might reflect on their teaching-learning process related to the unconventional instructional modalities necessitated by COVID-19 during the 2020–2021 school year. The participants consisted of 15 teachers (ages 24–45 years, M = 32 years) teaching children in preschool to third grade in New Jersey, USA. Data collection involved interviewing each teacher virtually via Zoom for 60–90 minutes (M = 75 minutes). This study analyzed only the data directly related to reflection, leading to 20 most salient ‘Reflective Instances' (RIs) being identified and subsequently coded according to a 3 (types: reflection-for-action, reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action) x 3 (dimensions: technical, practical, and critical) framework. The analysis revealed four main findings. First, while there was evidence of all three types of reflection, reflection-on-action was the most prominent. Reflection-on-action was also the only type exhibiting evidence of all three dimensions. Second, the RIs concentrated most predominantly on the practical dimension, which was also the only one occurring in all three types of reflection. Third, the intersection between reflection and dimension revealed that reflection-in-action along the practical dimension was the most salient. Fourth, the teachers' sociodemographic characteristics did not appear to account for the variations in the patterns of the reflection types and dimensions. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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This article presents a report on APNOMS 2021, which was held on September 8–10, 2021 in Tainan, Taiwan. The theme of APNOMS 2021 was "Networking Data and Intelligent Management in the Post-COVID19 Era.”. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
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Objective To assess imported risk of COVID-19 in Hainan province from January 10 to March 7 in 2020, and to assess the effect of "The Normalization Prevention and Control" (measures during the Spring Festival Travel Rush (SFTR) in Hainan in 2021. Methods The daily reported imported cases in Hainan province, the daily reported cases in other 30 province of China, and the Baidu Migration Index were collected to calculated into the Imported Risk Index (IRI) to quantitatively assess the imported risk of Hainan province. Based on the analysis of the relationship between the imported risk index and imported cases, an imported case prediction model was constructed to fit the number of imported cases in "emergency containment" stage in Hainan. And number of imported cases during the Spring Festival Travel rush in 2021 was predicted by this model to compared with the actual number, which was to evaluate the "Normalization Prevention and Control" measures in this model was also used to assess the effect of "Normalization Prevention and Control" measures during the SFTR in 2021. Results Totally 112 imported cases were reported in Hainan. The average IRI was 0.98. Haikou, Sanya and Danzhou have the highest imported risk. Except Haikou, the imported risk index of all cities and counties reached the maximum value around January 24th. The generalized additive model based on the lag 4 days and lag 5 days was best fitted with the actual imported cases number (R2adjust1=83.50%, R2adjust2=82.00%, MRE=17.61%). If "Emergency Containment" strategy was still adopted, there were 10 COVID-19 cases imported into Hainan during the SFTR in 2021. Under the "Normalization Prevention and Control" strategy, virtually no imported cases were found in Hainan. Conclusions Tourism cities such as Haikou and Sanya have high imported risks. Hubei and Guangdong provinces are the main imported provinces. The Generalized Additive Model based on the Imported Risk Index can better fit with the imported cases number of COVID-19 in Hainan Province in "emergency containment". Compared with the "Emergency Containment" strategy, the "Normalization Prevention and Control" strategy adopted during the SFTR in 2021 reduced imported cases in Hainan by about 10. © 2022. China Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved.
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Situated within the theoretical framework of reflective practice, this phenomenological study investigated how early childhood teachers reflected on the ways in which they were able or unable to engage in developmentally appropriate practices during the first four months of the 2020–2021 school year in the context of COVID-19-induced remote instruction. The participants were nine first-year early childhood teachers (teaching preschool to third grade) in a northeastern state of the United States. These teachers (ages 22–32 years, M= 28 years) were all females, consisting of five Hispanics, two Caucasians, one Black, and one Mexican. Except for one Caucasian teacher educating all Caucasian children from affluent backgrounds, the other eight teachers were teaching children from mostly ethnic/racial minority and low-income backgrounds. The data were collected from interviewing each teacher virtually via Zoom for 1.5 hours. A thematic analysis of the data was conducted. The findings revealed four salient themes: (1) theory-practice consonance, (2) theory-practice dissonance, (3) pedagogical challenges due to contextual constraints, and (4) pedagogical adaptability emanating from reflective practice. Collectively, the affordances and constraints engendered by the remote environment seemingly created both a fluid and a constricted space for the teachers to apply theory (e.g., developmentally appropriate practice) to practice. The findings of this study yielded important implications for preparing preservice teachers in teacher education programs and supporting in-service teachers in professional development activities. © 2022 NAECTE.
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The authors discuss the challenges and opportunities for teachers in facilitating social and emotional development in preschool children, creating partnerships with their families, and addressing their impeded progress induced by COVID-19. The authors further illuminate lessons learned and provide implications for partnering with families during in-person instruction. © 2022 Kappa Delta Pi.
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Objective: This study investigates the effects of COVID-19 on brain microstructure among those recently recovering from COVID-19 through self isolation. Background: Microstructural differences have previously been detected in comparisons of COVID-19 patients with controls, particularly in regions related to the olfactory system. The olfactory system is connected with the caudate, putamen, thalamus, precuneus, and cingulate regions. Design/Methods: Here we report diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (3 T Siemens MRI) findings from 40 patients (mean age: 43.7, 68% female) who self-isolated after testing positive for COVID (COV+), and 14 COVID negative (COV-) subjects (mean age: 43, 64% female) who had flu-like symptoms. This is part of the Canadian-based NeuroCOVID-19 study. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), mode of anisotropy (MO), free water fraction (F), tissue-specific FA (FAt) and tissue-specific MD (MDt) were obtained using data with b=700 and 1400 (DIPY free-water model). Regions of interest in the grey matter and white matter were delineated using FreeSurfer. Differences between groups were assessed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA), the Kruskal-Wallis Test and the Mann-Whitney Test, corrected for false-discovery rate of 0.05. Effect size (Cohen's d) was also computed (d>0.45 deemed large effect). Results: In the COV+ group, all three tests revealed decreased FA and FAt in the insula, and increased MD in the parstriangularis cortex. Increased FA and FAt in the cuneus (along with decreased MD) was also found. MD was reduced in COV+ in the temporal and supramarginal areas. MO was lower in COV+ in the insula and amygdala regions. Conclusions: In patients, higher MD with lower FA and MO suggest increased extracellular fluids, while lower MD with decreased FA and MO may suggest necrotic debris built up following inflammation. The cuneus and insula are involved in visual and taste processing, respectively. This study highlights the need to study neurological effects of COVID-19.
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Objective: This study investigates the chronic effects of COVID-19 on brain microstructure. Background: Microstructural differences have previously been detected in comparisons of COVID-19 patients with controls, particularly in the insula, cuneus, inferior temporal and anterior cingulate regions. Design/Methods: Here we report diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (3 T Siemens MRI) findings from 20 participants (mean age: 45.3, 55% female), both immediately after recovery and at a 3-month follow-up. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), mode of diffusivity (MO), free water fraction (F), tissue-specific FA (FAt) and tissue-specific MD (MDt) were obtained using DTI data with b=700 and 1400 (DIPY free-water model). Regions of interest in the grey matter and white matter were delineated using FreeSurfer. To assess differences between baseline and follow-up, a paired t-test, the Wilcoxon Test and Friedman Test were performed, corrected for false-discovery rate of 0.05. Effect size (Cohen's d) was also computed (d>0.45 deemed large effect). Results: All three tests revealed decreased F in the hippocampus and decreased MD in the parahippocampal region of the WM at follow-up. In the GM, F was increased in the medial orbitofrontal region. In the WM, MD was increased in the paracentral region and MDt was increased in the parahippocampal and lateral orbitofrontal regions. Conclusions: These results suggest that microstructural abnormalities persist following recovery. Increased extracellular fluid (i.e. F and MD) in the frontal lobe suggest spreading of COVID-19 impact, while decreased F and MD in the hippocampal region suggest debris accumulation as part of the inflammatory process. None of the regions affected in sub-acute COVID-19 appear to fully recover within three months.
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This paper presents a federated learning (FL) framework that uses multiple self-reporting crowdsourcing mobile and web apps to collaboratively construct a fine-grained COVID-19 vulnerability prediction map. The use of FL provides a reliable prediction by aggregating training results from multiple apps, while at the same time circumventing data privacy regulations that prevent user information from multiple apps to be shared with each other. Such a fine-grained vulnerability map identifies early on high-risk areas, helping to reduce the spread of the disease. To mitigate data bias from each self-reporting app, an adaptive worker selection algorithm that leverages neighbouring datasets to obtain a balanced data distribution is proposed. Further, a differential privacy scheme is adopted to protect user information. The simulation results show that the proposed framework outperforms the widely used FedAvg FL algorithm by 6% on prediction accuracy while preserving user privacy.
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INTRODUCTION: As of September 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to 42,500,000 cases and 680,000 deaths in the United States. In Rhode Island, there have been 170,000 cases and 2,820 deaths. Investigating resource utilization and waste production during disease outbreaks can inform efforts at disaster preparedness. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in waste production during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This is a descriptive study examining trends in waste production during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted at a suburban community hospital in Rhode Island. Data was collected on regulated medical waste (RMW) and linen use from October 2019-July 2021. Adjusted patient days (APD) values were calculated using hospital census and revenue data. Total weight and weight/APD were calculated for each month of the study period. Data was then compared with overall COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Rhode Island. This data was gathered from the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) COVID Response Data Hub. RESULTS: Regulated Medical Waste (RMW) by total weight was lowest in April 2020, when the hospital census and adjusted patient days (APD) were at their lowest. In contrast, linen use remained largely consistent with pre-pandemic levels during the initial months of the pandemic despite a decrease in hospital census. The highest linen weight/APD value (23.32 lbs/APD) was in April 2020. Both RMW and linen use (weight/APD) decreased during the study period. Linen use was highest during months with increased COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. CONCLUSIONS: This study examined trends in waste production at a community hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Linen use was highest during months of increased COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, while RMW production decreased. There was a particular increase in linen use in April 2020, when the pandemic was in its initial phases.
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The topological distance is to measure the structural difference between two graphs in a metric space. Graphs are ubiquitous, and topological measurements over graphs arise in diverse areas, including, e.g. COVID-19 structural analysis, DNA/RNA alignment, discovering the Isomers, checking the code plagiarism. Unfortunately, popular distance scores used in these applications, that scale over large graphs, are not metrics, and the computation usually becomes NP-hard. While, fuzzy measurement is an uncertain representation to apply for a polynomial-time solution for undirected multigraph isomorphism. But the graph isomorphism problem is to determine two finite graphs that are isomorphic, which is not known with a polynomial-time solution. This paper solves the undirected multigraph isomorphism problem with an algorithmic approach as NP=P and proposes a polynomial-time solution to check if two undirected multigraphs are isomorphic or not. Based on the solution, we define a new fuzzy measurement based on graph isomorphism for topological distance/structural similarity between two graphs. Thus, this paper proposed a fuzzy measure of the topological distance between two undirected multigraphs. If two graphs are isomorphic, the topological distance is 0;if not, we will calculate the Euclidean distance among eight extracted features and provide the fuzzy distance. The fuzzy measurement executes more efficiently and accurately than the current methods.
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The pandemic of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused an unprecedented global public health crisis, and most countries in the world are running out of the healthcare resources. A fine-grained COVID-19 vulnerability map will be essential to track the number of people with covid-like symptoms, so that the the potential outbreak communities can be identified and the valuable healthcare resources can proactively and dynamically be allocated. Mobile crowdsourcing based symptom reporting is a promising and convenient option to construct such a map, while it may compromise the location privacy of crowdsourcing participants. In this work, we propose a novel approach to establish the COVID-19 vulnerability map based on the crowdsourced reporting without disclosing the participants' location privacy to a semi-honest crowdsourcing aggregator. Briefly, based on the differentially private geo-indistinguishability, the mobile participants are able to locally perturb their geographic data. With the masked geographic information, we employ the best linear unbiased prediction estimator with spatial smoothing to obtain the reliable vulnerability estimates in the areas of interest and construct the map. Given the fast spreading nature of coronavirus, we integrate the vulnerability estimates with a susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR) model to build up a future trend map. Extensive simulations based on real-world data verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.