ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic decreed by the outbreak of the new coronavirus culminated in the need to implement jobs in the homes of employees who had to adhere to the "remote work" style, due to social isolation actions in Brazil. Many of the employees started to work in the absence of adequate working conditions in their homes, impacting the three dimensions of ergonomics, i.e., physical, organizational and cognitive. The objective of this chapter is to report the adjustments made in a workplace after the change of modality from face-to-face (f2f) activities to "remote work" after the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, aiming to adopt actions aimed at ergonomics. The research was carried out with a professional in the area of Environmental and Sanitary Engineering who started remote work in March 2020. The work is of a qualitative nature, using photos to illustrate the changes occurring before and after the installation of the equipments and reports on strategies to improve working conditions in the "remote work". The cost of physical adaptations was also computed. The most reported complaints collected by the professional were back pain, neck, forearm, wrist and eye pain, in addition to mental fatigue. The necessary equipment and furniture were acquired for the physical adaptation of the workspace. Issues of working hours, days off, means of communication were also addressed, but aspects of cognitive and organizational ergonomics must have the participation of the entire work group to achieve effective results. The accompaniment of a specialized technical professional would be important for the establishment of further assertive actions, seeking the productivity and quality of life of the employee.
ABSTRACT
Despite the growing attention to Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence (TFSV) experienced by adults, this is still an underexplored topic. This study involved a sample of 289 adults (aged 18 to 56), focusing on reported indicators of TFSV in a year dominated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Reports of TFSV victimization were analyzed using an existing 21-item scale that encompassed four TFSV dimensions: i) digital sexual harassment;ii) image-based sexual abuse (IBSA);iii) sexual aggression and/or coercion;and iv) gender and/or sexuality-based harassment. While examining the experience of one or more TFSV behaviors by independent socio-demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, or sexuality), the results showed that women were significantly more likely than men to report several forms of sexual harassment victimization. LGB+-identifying adults were significantly more likely than heterosexual-identifying respondents to report 11 behaviors from the used TFSV victimization scale. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, many types of violence against women and the LGBT+ community have been intensified, and this study indicates TFSV as no exception to that. The results show gendered patterns in online sexual victimization, as well as in the nature of TFSV. These findings indicate the importance of considering additional institutional measures to prevent this phenomenon.Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.
ABSTRACT
Apart from the many social and health problems it has caused, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on most sectors of the economy worldwide. One of the areas where such impact is noticeable is the textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industry. The lockdowns and limited access to retailer outlets resulted in a considerable drop in consumption, creating problems related to the excess of stock, the decrease of sales, and the disposal of non-used items. This paper outlines the implications of the COVID-19 on the TAF sectors and European retailers. It analyzes how the current supply chains exacerbated stock control problems, and it reports on the changes in consumption during the pandemic. The worldwide restrictive measures implemented to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic were responsible for significant profit losses. Also, the decrease in consumption, caused by several geographically wide lockdowns, prompted a subsequent reduction in orders and sales, resulting in a significant number of constraints. The implementation of more environmentally friendly processes, including sustainable circularity as a competitiveness source to keep the TAF sectors in the loop and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may help address the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the sustainability context, as reported in this paper. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
Apart from the many social and health problems it has caused, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on most sectors of the economy worldwide. One of the areas where such impact is noticeable is the textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industry. The lockdowns and limited access to retailer outlets resulted in a considerable drop in consumption, creating problems related to the excess of stock, the decrease of sales, and the disposal of non-used items. This paper outlines the implications of the COVID-19 on the TAF sectors and European retailers. It analyzes how the current supply chains exacerbated stock control problems, and it reports on the changes in consumption during the pandemic. The worldwide restrictive measures implemented to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic were responsible for significant profit losses. Also, the decrease in consumption, caused by several geographically wide lockdowns, prompted a subsequent reduction in orders and sales, resulting in a significant number of constraints. The implementation of more environmentally friendly processes, including sustainable circularity as a competitiveness source to keep the TAF sectors in the loop and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may help address the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the sustainability context, as reported in this paper. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected multiple dimensions of daily activities, including the waste scavengers’ activities. This paper focuses on the effect of COVID-19 on waste scavengers’ business, income, quality of life and family quality of life in three Metropolitan, Municipal Assemblies in the eastern part of Greater Accra, Ghana. A questionnaire was distributed to 46 waste scavengers using a non-probability sampling approach for a voluntary response, from March to April 2021. The sample is mainly composed of 84.8% male scavengers, most aged 18 to 47 years old and married (58.2%). The results indicate that the majority of respondents believe that COVID-19 is real and poses a health threat, but more than 21% reported not wearing Personal Protective Equipment. The study showed that 60% of waste scavengers were prohibited from entering households, thus affecting the family life income. The less sale of waste material due to COVID-19 contributed to a lower income by the waste scavengers, causing different difficulties and financial insecurity. This study showed that waste scavengers in Ghana, an essential activity, are in the front line regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and public policies intended to cover their social, economic and health vulnerability to the virus, need to be addressed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
In the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), it is important to articulate a safeguard against urban contamination originating from hospitals, mainly the tires of vehicles that travel in the hospital parking-lots and contaminating the various parts of the city through traffic on urban roads. With the purpose of disinfecting the pavement of hospital parking-lots to prevent diseases, this research proposes the use of a new pavement composed of pervious concrete with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) additive, i.e., lime powder. The well-known powder lime becomes a disinfectant with a microbicidal effect which increases the pH of the pavement, being a low cost and an abundant material. Studies have shown that this additive affects the mechanical strength of pervious concrete when added to its mixture. Accordingly, the objective of the study is to find a balance between mechanical strength and the ideal proportion of lime powder additive in the pervious concrete mixture through finite element prototypes subjected to vertical loads of 10,000 N with variation in the modulus of elasticity. The results of the structural simulations indicate the prototype with the best performance ratio is 1:0.8:4 (cement:Ca(OH)2:limestone), compressive strain of 15.70 kg/cm2, density of 1,971.42 kg/m3 and modulus of elasticity of 1,480.22 MPa, with demonstrates a satisfactory mechanical performance for the use of this new pavement in hospital parking-lots. © 2021. All rights reserved.