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The Chinese government's rigorous efforts to enhance its soft power have confronted a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to look at how the Chinese soft power changed throughout the pandemic using English news articles that covered China. The research took a data science approach to investigate the contents of articles using machine-learning-based sentiment analysis and Dirichlet-Multinomial Regression (DMR) analysis. The results show a gradual downturn in overall sentiment and that the topics related to political issues made the most significant impact. Nevertheless, the major increase in referencing Chinese social media implied that the sources of Chinese soft power have been diversified throughout the pandemic. In addition, this research has aimed to engage in major debates around soft power theory. Providing a multi-disciplinary approach for analyzing soft power, this research has tackled the difficulties in the quantitative conceptualization of soft power.
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The COVID-19 crisis provided an opportunity for information professionals to rethink the role of information in individuals' decision making such as vaccine uptake. Unlike previous studies, which often considered information as a single factor among others, this study examined the impact of the quantity and trustworthiness of information on people's adoption of information for vaccination decisions based on the information adoption model. We analyzed COVID-19 Preventive Behavior Survey data collected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from Facebook users (N = 82,213) in 15 countries between October 2020 and March 2021. The results of logistic regression analyses indicate that reasonable quantity and trustworthiness of information were positively related to COVID-19 vaccination intent. But excessive and less than the desired amount of information was more likely to have negative impacts on vaccination intent. The degrees of trust in the mediums and in the sources were associated with the level of vaccine acceptance. But the effects of trustworthiness accorded to information sources showed variations across sources and mediums. Implications for information professionals and suggestions for policies are discussed. © 2023 Association for Information Science and Technology.
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This study examined forest policy agendas developed in international policy-making process by analyzing international forest policy documents from 2001 to 2022 with power, perception, potency, and proximity. The forest policy agendas consistently addressed in the documents were agroforestry, biodiversity, climate change, certification, desertification, deforestation, forest landscape restoration, illegal logging and trade, non-timber forest products, sustainable forest management, traditional knowledge, governance, participation, partnerships, forest tenure, forest fire, forest disease, and community-based forest management. The emerging agendas since 2011 were ecosystem services, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus (REDD+), resilience, urban forests, green economy/bioeconomy, and COVID-19. The changes in international forest policy discourse with long-standing and emerging agendas over time showed three characteristics: policy coherence by the power of international environmental conventions;expansion of forest policy targets and areas by perception and proximity of urban forests;and innovative approaches to resilience and bioeconomy by potency and perception. Therefore, this study offers new insights into the creation and transitions of forest policy agendas in the international forest policy discourse. © 2023
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The Coronavirus (COVID-19) national lockdowns profoundly affected the lives of many, as significant portions of the U.K. population were involuntarily sequestered away from their usual social landscapes into newfound states of solitude. Many millennials (those between the ages of 25 and 40 at the point of study), having lived in an age of constant connection, found themselves in an extended period of solitude for the first time. The current qualitative study explores through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) how some UK millennials were able to harness the unique self-transformative properties of positive solitude during the COVID-19 national lockdowns. Analysis revealed a narrative of self-discovery, as domains of positive solitude granted the participants freedom from the demands of performative social burdens and encouraged opportunities to engage with mindfulness and meaningful introspection. These activities, within the experience of solitude, encouraged an alignment of inward beliefs and outward behaviors for the participants, thus helping them to cultivate a more congruent self-concept and subsequently a heightened sense of authenticity and enhanced psychological well-being. Clinical implications leading on from the current study highlight the importance of mindfulness and other solitude-promoting interventions as a method to ameliorate depressive symptoms and improve psychological well-being. © The Author(s) 2023.
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This preliminary study revisits a fundamental information problem of information behavior, focusing on needs, overload, and information source use, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The associations between the impact of information source use on the extent of information needs, being exposed to information, and feeling of overload was examined. Furthermore, to understand the impact of context on information behavior, the differences in the degree of information resource use, needs, exposure, and overload between the two groups with different levels of health were investigated. 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology ;Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 ;Pittsburgh, PA. Author(s) retain copyright, but ASIS&T receives an exclusive publication license.
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Since COVID-19, social distancing has become common, and the demand for untact services has increased rapidly, resulting in an economic phenomenon centered on untact worldwide. Due to social distancing, the untact service area is expanding not only to shopping but also to online learning, home training, and telemedicine, and untact services are expected to expand to more diverse areas in the future. This study investigates four types of untact services: online lectures, online meetings related to work and study, online seminars, and online performances, and the effects of concerns about untact services on the intention of use have been examined using a path analysis model. As a result of the analysis, the perceived usefulness had a positive effect on the user's continuous intention to use untact services. However, depending on the type of untact service, it can be confirmed that the factors that affect the intention to continue using the service differ from each other. Practitioners can use the results of this study when designing untact services in the future. © 2023 by the authors.
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The recent trend of transitioning from cars with internal combustion engines to green cars has accelerated amidst growing concerns of a climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea is a particularly good test bed for exploring green mobility alternatives and setting priorities for green car policies, owing to its fast-growing green car market and its considerable share in the worldwide purchases of fuel cell electric vehicles. Accordingly, this study explores the Korean conceptualization of green cars and the prioritization of different aspects of future green car policy using qualitative Q methodology and additional interviews. A total of 31 transport policy experts participated in our survey, resulting in three distinct perspectives: a hybrid vehicle supporter with comparative pragmatism, an electric vehicle supporter from multiple aspects, and a radical ecologist searching for new alternatives. Based on these expert insights, we determine the most appropriate green car type and provide important recommendations for future green car policy. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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Airports are implementing innovative technologies represented as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to prepare for increase of customer numbers and provide better experience in post-corona era. This study aims to explore the role of technologies recently introduced in airports and the benefits of such technology-driven transition. To achieve the purpose, this study focuses on technologies of robot, AI and service automation (RAISA) along service process from the perspective of airport customers. For the analysis, the best practice of airport in South Korea is selected and provide basic data for RAISA utilization. Through the case analysis, this study categorizes the core technologies utilized in airports and explores the advantages, for instance attaining process efficiency and providing customer convenience from RAISA. In conclusion, despite suffering from COVID-19 pandemic, it can be a possible opportunity to restructure and reorganize the airport service process through implementation of RAISA. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Purpose: This study was to identify how a nursing management practicum was operated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea. Methods: This study surveyed instructors teaching the nursing management practicum with a questionnaire covering five domains and 42 items. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results: The practicum was performed mainly by mixed methods (40.8% and 38.5%), in hospitals only (30.8% and 60.4%), online only (19.8% and 1.1%) in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The mixed methods were most frequently used for instructor teaching and conferences (43.9% and 58.3%). and the average teaching time per week was 9.40 and 8.69 hours per week, respectively. Taking charge in one to three core nursing skill items, 87.8% and 90.1% of the respondents each year performed face to face evaluation for the skills. Four to six out of 12 POs were covered by 58.2% and 54.9% of the participants, respectively, in 2020 and 2021. The greatest difficulty under the pandemic was securing students' hospital assignments. Conclusion: The nursing management practicum needs to adopt various digital technologies, and create new education models including hybrid ones combining both contact and untact methods to improve the educational effect for the post COVID-19 era. © 2022 Korean Academy of Nursing Administration.
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Purpose: This study analyzed news titles related to nurses in Korea before and after the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic, and aimed to identify the implications of media reports. Methods: Data from January 2019 to December 2020 were collected from BIGKINDS regarding Korean nurses. Text mining and CONCOR analysis were conducted on the top 30 keywords using TEXTOM and Ucinet 6. Results: From the findings of this study, keywords were related to Taewom and Newborn death in 2019. Additionally, because of COVID-19 and the controversy over the encouragement of President Moon Jae-in, Taewom was included in 2020. Using CONCOR analysis, 6 clusters (characteristics and results of major incidents, the issue related target, Newborn abuse, Taewom, drugs, nursing education) were generated in 2019, and 6 clusters (emergency room, hero, controversy, Taewom, COVID-19, hospital infection) were generated in 2020. Conclusion: Before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the news headlines of nurses consisted of negative keywords, while there were few positive news headlines. In order to improve the image of nurses, it is necessary to continuously analyze media trends and establish strategies accordingly. ©2022 Korean Academy of Nursing Administration.
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Background & Aim: This study aims to examine the perception of artificial intelligence interviews experienced by prospective nursing graduates who have experienced artificial intelligence interviews at medical institutions using focus groups and provide necessary data to increase the efficiency of artificial intelligence interviews. Methods & Materials: This study was conducted to examine nursing students' artificial intelligence interview experience during COVID-19 by performing a focus group interview and qualitative content analysis. The focus group interview was carried out on November 17, 2021, to understand nursing students' artificial intelligence interview experience during COV1D-19, selecting a total of 14 senior nursing students. Results: As a result of analyzing the artificial intelligence interview experiences of nursing students who participated in this study, 35 codes, grouped into eight subcategories, were derived. They are also classified into three categories 1) Finding your way in the dark, 2) Confronting artificial intelligence, and 3) Going beyond artificial intelligence. The eight subcategories derived are as follows: 1) Vagueness, 2) Find your way, 3) The fight between artificial intelligence and me, 4) Strong questions about interview evaluation, 5) New experience, 6) Learn your own tricks for artificial intelligence interviews, 7) Setting up the environment for artificial intelligence interview, 8) Establishment of information system for artificial intelligence interview. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, an educational program should be developed based on the main data obtained from the artificial intelligence interview experience so that nursing college students can adapt to the artificial intelligence interview.
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Purpose: To report two cases of cataract that progressed after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination. Case summary: Two patients visited our clinic with decreased visual acuity in the left eye that began after mRNA vaccine. A 40-year-old man visited our hospital with decreased visual acuity in the left eye that developed 1 week after injection of the second dose of mRNA-1273 (Moderna®, Cambridge, UK). A 40-year-old woman visited our clinic with decreased visual acuity in the left eye that occurred on day 46 after the injection of the third dose of BNT162b2 (Pfizer®, New York, NY, USA). Neither case had any relevant ophthalmic history, and there was no clear optic neuropathy or retinopathy on fundus examination. After phacoemulsification and intraocular lens implantation, the best-corrected visual acuity improved, and intraocular pressure has remained stable. Conclusions: The possibility of cataract development or progression after COVID-19 mRNA vaccine injection should be considered. ©2022 The Korean Ophthalmological Society.
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Purpose: To report two cases of cataract that progressed after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination. Case summary: Two patients visited our clinic with decreased visual acuity in the left eye that began after mRNA vaccine. A 40-year-old man visited our hospital with decreased visual acuity in the left eye that developed 1 week after injection of the sec-ond dose of mRNA-1273 (Moderna (R),Cambridge, UK). A 40-year-old woman visited our clinic with decreased visual acuity in the left eye that occurred on day 46 after the injection of the third dose of BNT162b2 (Pfizer (R), New York, NY, USA). Neither case had any relevant ophthalmic history, and there was no clear optic neuropathy or retinopathy on fundus examination. After phacoe-mulsification and intraocular lens implantation, the best-corrected visual acuity improved, and intraocular pressure has remained stable. Conclusions: The possibility of cataract development or progression after COVID-19 mRNA vaccine injection should be considered.
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Background. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 5 to 20 days of isolation for COVID-19 patients depending on symptom duration and severity regardless of genomic PCR results or vaccination history. However, in real clinical practice, more individualized approach is required. We thus developed clinical scoring system to predict viable viral shedding in a given patient by using various factors affecting viable viral shedding. Methods. We prospectively enrolled adult patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to tertiary hospital and day care center between February 2020 and January 2022. The daily dense respiratory sampling (i.e. saliva, sputum, or nasopharyngeal swabs) during the hospital and day care center stay were obtained. Genomic RNA viral load and viral culture were performed for these samples. Clinical predictors of negative viral culture results were identified using survival analysis and multivariable analysis. Results. A total of 612 samples from 121 patients of varying degrees of severity were obtained. Of these, 494 (81%) samples were saliva, 63 (10%) were nasopharyngeal swab, and the remaining 55 (9%) were sputum. Of these 612 specimens, 154 (25%) samples revealed positive viral culture results. Univariate and multivariable Cox's time varying proportional hazard model revealed that symptom onset day, viral copy number, disease severity, organ transplant recipient, gender, and vaccination status were independently associated with viral culture results. We thus developed the 5-factor model from -3 to 3 points: viral copy number (-3 to 3 points depending on copy number), disease severity (1 point to moderate to critical diseases), organ transplant recipient (2 points), gender (-1 points to male), and vaccination status (-2 points to fully vaccinated status). The predictive culture-negative rates were calculated through the symptom onset day and the score of the day the sample was collected. Conclusion. Our clinical scoring system can provide objective probability of negative culture results in a given COVID-19 patient with genomic viral load, and appears to be useful to decide de-isolation policy depending on individualized factors associated with viable viral shedding beyond simple symptom-based isolation strategy by CDC.
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Airports are implementing innovative technologies represented as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to prepare for an increase of customer numbers and provide better experience in post-corona era. This study aims to explore the role of technologies recently introduced in airports and the benefits of the such technology-driven transition. To achieve the purpose, this study focuses on technologies of robots, AI, and service automation (RAISA) along with service process from the perspective of airport customers. For the analysis, the best practice of airport in South Korea is selected and provide basic data for RAISA utilization. Through the case analysis, this study categorizes the core technologies utilized in airports and explores the advantages, for instance attaining process efficiency and providing customer convenience from RAISA. In conclusion, despite suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be a possible opportunity to restructure and reorganize the airport service process through the implementation of RAISA. © 2022 IEEE.
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Due to the spread of COVID-19, the use of mobile applications is increasing in coffee shops as activities that have been conducted face-to-face are being carried out non-face-to-face. The purpose of this paper is to make strategic suggestions to positively improve the continuous use intention of coffee shop mobile applications by checking the effect of the expanded integrated technology acceptance model and online review. An online survey was conducted on mobile and statistical analysis used the PLS structural equation model. As a result, it is expected that the satisfaction with the use of coffee shop applications and the influence of online reviews in customer experience will recognize positive values, affect the intention to continue using them © 2022 IEEE.
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Background: We provide care for the rural, low-income, and underserved population of Oroville. The community has a vaccination rate of 50% and booster rate of over 20% in the 3rd year of the ongoing global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2022. During this period, a subset of our cancer patients benefited from the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study of the effectiveness of a mRNA-based vaccine in medical care workers compared to patients with systemic malignancies treated with immunomodulation of PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors. The study was approved by the hospital IRB. We evaluated the total anti-Spike protein antibody titer using a commercial semi-quantitative assay, Labcorp Test #164090. All subjects received 3 doses of the mRNA vaccine. We excluded anyone who was administered therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb) or had a recent infection within 120 days. Results: Subjects with systemic malignancies were significantly older, p = 0.0001 by t-test: median age: 76, range: 64-82, compared to health care workers: median age: 52, range: 21-75. Accrual had to be prematurely stopped upon the arrival of Omicron wave in the community. Out of the seven subjects treated with immunomodulation, six received nivolumab, including two in combination with ipilimumab. One subject received pembrolizumab. Six of the subjects had metastatic disease: one was treated adjuvantly for locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma. The rest had NSCLC and one case of urothelioma. We divided the groups to those who had the highest titer of antibody versus everybody else and found a similar distribution in both groups using the Chi2 test. The vast majority of the healthcare workers, 24/27 or 89%, had above the upper limit antibody titer. Patients with systemic malignancy, 5/7 or 71%, had above the upper limit antibody titer p = N.S. Conclusions: Three doses of the mRNA vaccine provided high titers irrespective of frailty or age. We hypothesize that immunomodulation could favorably affect vaccination response.