ABSTRACT
Psychological adaptation in isolated, confined, and extreme environments plays an important role in the achievement of performance and wellbeing. Whereas empirical research has been fruitful in determining the antecedents of psychological adaptation, opportunities remain to identify and apply new constructs through which psychological adaptation can grow. In the current study, we explored the possibility that one such construct is individual self-leadership. Participants were eight Antarctic scientists enrolled in the 2021–2022 summer campaign in the South Shetland Islands, under considerable COVID-19 restrictions during that period. Data were collected on three occasions and analysed through a mixed-method approach where qualitative and quantitative evidence were integrated. Overall, the results indicated that the self-imposed quarantine pre-deployment period in Punta Arenas had a heavy toll on expeditioners mental health, with the psychological adaptation and self-leadership of expeditioners being positively correlated across the campaign. The implications of our findings, as well possible future research directions, are discussed. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related measures have impacted the lives and work-related activities of Antarctic researchers. To explore these impacts, we designed, piloted and disseminated an online survey in English, Russian, Spanish and Chinese in late 2020 and early 2021. The survey explored how the pandemic affected the productivity of Antarctic researchers, their career prospects and their mental wellbeing. Findings exposed patterns of inequities. For instance, of the 406 unique responses to the survey, women appeared to have been affected more adversely than men, especially in relation to mental health, and early-career researchers were disadvantaged more than their mid- or late-career colleagues. Overall, a third of the research participants reported at least one major negative impact from the pandemic on their mental health. Approximately half of the participants also mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic had some positive effects, especially in terms of the advantages that working from home brought and opportunities to attend events, network or benefit from training workshops online. We conclude with a series of recommendations for science administrators and policymakers to mitigate the most serious adverse impacts of the pandemic on Antarctic research communities, with implications for other contexts where scientific activities are conducted under extreme circumstances.
ABSTRACT
Carbon neutrality, sustainable development and reducing our impact on the environment is the top priority in future measures. The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges to every sector at a global scale but can provide valuable insight to reach these goals. The main objective of this work is to provide an integrated analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on energy and its related aspects, i.e., environment and costs. Mainland Portugal was used as a case study and two years were analysed, one pre pandemic (2019) and another post pandemic (2020). In 2020, the majority of sectors - Transport, Services, Industry and Agriculture & Fisheries - show a reduction of energy consumption, atmospheric emissions, carbon footprint and related monetary and social costs. In contrast, the Domestic sector presents an overall increase, with maximums of 25.4% in electricity consumption (during Spring), 0.72% in the PM10 (particulate matter) and NOx (nitrogen dioxides) emissions (in Summer), and 2.9% in carbon footprint (in Spring). The integrated analysis proposed in this work was crucial to identify the paths to a post pandemic world focused on the different aspects of sustainability - new concepts of mobility and workplace, as well as increased investment in energy performance and renewable energy sources. This study showed that changing our energy consumption patterns could significantly affect future greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to the sustainable growth of the economy, while maintaining good progress towards climate-neutral goals.
ABSTRACT
Due to the important family role that grandmothers play in raising their grandchildren, this work studies the lesser-known role of grandfathers. For this, a group of 110 male participants (mean 73.6 years) was interviewed, for analysis of: a) their level of satisfaction in five types of active roles with their grandchildren, alone, and with their spouses, before and during the Covid-19 lockdown;and b) their general perception of the role of being a grandparent. The data obtained were analyzed with descriptive and non-parametric inferential methods (Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, chi square, and correlations). Data showed that participants, who were mostly married and retired, showed three satisfaction levels with their grandchildren: high for family celebrations, average for activities involving play and sociocultural transmission, and low for housework and academic/intellectual activities. Participants' age, marital status, health status, and education, as well as the age and number of grandchildren, were associated with these satisfaction levels. Most participants favored the formal grandparenting role, and marital status, health status, education, and grandchildren's age and sex were associated with their views of grandparenting roles. Physical contact during the Covid-19 lockdown dropped by 72.7%. We concluded that activities shared between grandfathers and grandchildren and views on the grand-parenting role are influenced by the sociodemographic variables of both. More research is needed to expand this knowledge.
ABSTRACT
The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an ongoing phenomenon: Virtual Teams (VTs) are now a ubiquitous feature of organizations. This undeniable transformation of the way individuals and teams work brings challenges for vital team processes, including coordination, information exchange, and interpersonal relationships, as well as for many other fundamental aspects, such as leadership or emotional exchanges. Understanding the specificity of Virtual teams is the reason behind this Special Section. We aim at pushing research on virtual teams forward, by widening theoretical frameworks that explore the experience of teamworking virtually. In this editorial, we introduce the collected papers highlighting their contributions, and describe four avenues to shape future research on VTs, motivated by those papers.
ABSTRACT
The global outbreak of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) disease is affecting every part of human lives. Several researchers investigated to understand how temperature, humidity and air pollution had an influence on COVID-19 transmission. Transmission of COVID-19 due to temperature and humidity is a pertinent question. There is a lack of study of Covid-19 in tropical climate countries. This study aims to analyze the correlation between weather and Covid-19 pandemic in Brasília and Manaus, two states of Brazil. The research topic is important to know how the climate affects or predisposes the spread of COVID-19. This knowledge will provide elements to decision-makers regarding health and public health standards and decisions. This study employed a secondary data analysis of surveillance data of Covid-19 from the Ministry of Health of Brazil and weather from the National Institute of Meteorology of Brazil. These are Brazilian public organizations that, on a daily basis, record this information on a systematic basis of dates. They are central federal organizations, responsible for data analysis and public policy planning to combat Covid-19. The data are reliables and obtained from reliable government sources. We systematically record all information for 51 days, during a period of high disease growth in the country. The components of weather include low temperature (°C), high temperature (°C), temperature average (°C), humidity (%), and amount of rainfall (mm). Pearson-rank correlation test showed that high temperature (r=.643;p<.001), low temperature (r=.640;p<.001) and humidity (r=.248;p<.005) were significantly correlated with deaths caused by Covid-19 pandemic used for data analysis. Social isolation rate (β = -.254;p<.001) and daily record of new cases (β =.332;p<.001), with adjusted R-squared of.623, were the predictors of deaths acummuled by Covid-19. The finding serves as an input to reduce the incidence rate of Covid-19 in Brazil. Statistical results show evidence of the relationship between climate elements and COVID-19 indicators, such as the number of deaths, spread of contamination and social isolation rate. The study of dimensions of climate as a seasonal pattern and its relationship to COVID-19 benefits epidemiological surveillance. The more geographic spaces are known, more will help to understand the differences in disease behavior in different places. The results of this research showed that environmental conditions influence the contagion and speed of transmission of Covid-19. Policies that contribute to benefits to health and sustainability need to be planned. The contribution of climate and other factors, such as air pollution, for example, require additional studies. Environmental changes, such as climate change and biodiversity, must also be investigated for their impact on human health. Acting in prevention, including the promotion of socially acceptable behaviors on the part of the population, seems to be the best way to deal with Covid-19. © 2021 Instituto de Geografia. All rights reserved.