Working in a smart home environment: examining the impact on productivity, well-being and future use intention

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a big impact on organisations globally, leaving organisations with no choice but to adapt to the new reality of remote work to ensure business continuity. Such an unexpected reality created the conditions for testing new applications of smart home technology whilst working from home. Given the potential implications of such applications to improve the working environment, and a lack of research on that front, this paper pursued two objectives. First, the paper explored the impact of smart home applications by examining the factors that could contribute to perceived productivity and well-being whilst working from home. Second, the study investigated the role of productivity and well-being in motivating the intention of remote workers to use smart home technologies in a home-work environment in the future. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. For data collection, 528 smart home users working from home during the pandemic were recruited. Collected data were analysed using a structural equation modelling approach. Findings: The results of the research confirmed that perceived productivity is dependent on service relevance, perceived usefulness, innovativeness, hedonic beliefs and control over environmental conditions. Perceived well-being correlates with task-technology fit, service relevance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude to smart homes, innovativeness, hedonic beliefs and control over environmental conditions. Intention to work from a smart home-office in the future is dependent on perceived well-being. Originality/value: The findings of the research contribute to the organisational and smart home literature, by providing missing evidence about the implications of the application of smart home technologies for employees' perceived productivity and well-being. The paper considers the conditions that facilitate better outcomes during remote work and could potentially be used to improve the work environment in offices after the pandemic. Also, the findings inform smart home developers about the features of technology which could improve the developers' application in contexts beyond home settings. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Working in a Smart Home-office: Exploring the Impacts on Productivity and Wellbeing

Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many organisations have shifted to remote working overnight. The new reality has created conditions to use smart home technologies for work purposes, for which they were not originally intended. The lack of insights into the new application of smart home technologies has led to two research objectives. First, the paper aimed to investigate the factors correlating with productivity and perceived wellbeing. Second, the study tried to explore individuals' intentions to use smart home offices for remote work in the future. 528 responses were gathered from individuals who had smart homes and had worked from home during the pandemic. The results showed that productivity positively relates to service relevance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, hedonic beliefs, control over environmental conditions, innovativeness and attitude. Task-technology fit, service relevance, attitude to smart homes, innovativeness, hedonic beliefs, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and control over environmental conditions correlate with perceived wellbeing. The intention to work from smart home-offices in the future is determined by perceived wellbeing. Findings contribute to the research on smart homes and remote work practices, by providing the first empirical evidence about the new applications and outcomes of smart home use in the work context.

A privacy-preserving distributed platform for COVID-19 vaccine passports

Digital vaccination passports are being proposed by various governments internationally. Trust, scalability and security are all key challenges in implementing an online vaccine passport. Initial approaches attempt to solve this problem by using centralised systems with trusted authorities. However, sharing vaccine passport data between different organisations, regions and countries has become a major challenge. A platform for creating, storing and verifying digital COVID-19 vaccine certifications is presented, making use of InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to guarantee that there is no single point of failure and to allow data to be securely distributed globally. Blockchain and smart contracts are also integrated into the platform to explicitly determine policies and log access rights to the passport data while ensuring all actions are audited and verifiably immutable. Our proposed platform realises General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements in terms of user consent, data encryption, data erasure and accountability obligations. We assess the scalability and performance of the platform using IPFS and Blockchain test networks. © 2021 ACM.

Pre-operative assessment of pediatric congenital heart disease patients in the COVID-19 era: lessons learned.

BACKGROUND: Equal to COVID-19 patients, non-COVID-19 patients are affected by the medical and social drawbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant reduction in elective life-changing surgeries has been witnessed in almost all affected countries. This study discusses an applicable and effective pre-operative assessment protocol that can be applied during the COVID-19 era. METHODS: Our study is a descriptive retrospective observational study that involves children with CHD requiring open-heart surgeries at our tertiary care centre between March and November, 2020. We reviewed the charts of eligible patients aged 18 years and below. We identified the total numbers of scheduled, performed, and postponed surgeries, respectively. A thorough description of the clinical and physical presentation of the postponed cases, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, is provided. RESULTS: Sixty-eight open-heart surgeries were scheduled at our centre between March and November, 2020. Three surgeries (4%) were postponed due to COVID-19. The three patients were asymptomatic COVID-19 cases detected on routine SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction testing. No symptoms of cough, chest pain, dyspnea, rhinorrhea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, anosmia, and ageusia were reported by our patients. All patients were afebrile and hemodynamically stable. Owing to the pre-operative assessment protocol that was implemented after the first case was detected, only three healthcare workers were at risk of COVID-19 transmission and were imposed to infectious evaluation and home quarantine. CONCLUSIONS: Adopting our discussed preoperative COVID-19 assessment protocol for CHD patients is an effective method to detect COVID-19 infections, optimise patient care, and ensure healthcare workers' safety.

COVID-19: potential therapeutics for pediatric patients.

The global spread of COVID-19 has imparted significant economic, medical, and social burdens. Like adults, children are affected by this pandemic. However, milder clinical symptoms are often experienced by them. Only a minimal proportion of the affected patients may develop severe and complicated COVID-19. Supportive treatment is recommended in all patients. Antiviral and immunomodulatory medications are spared for hospitalized children with respiratory distress or severe to critical disease. Up till now, remdesivir is the only USFDA-approved anti-COVID-19 medication indicated in the majority of symptomatic patients with moderate to severe disease. Dexamethasone is solely recommended in patients with respiratory distress maintained on oxygen or ventilatory support. The use of these medications in pediatric patients is founded on evidence deriving from adult studies. No randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving pediatric COVID-19 patients have assessed these medications' efficacy and safety, among others. Similarly, three novel monoclonal anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies, bamlanivimab, casirivimab and imdevimab, have been recently authorized by the USFDA. Nonetheless, their efficacy has not been demonstrated by multiple RCTs. In this review, we aim to dissect the various potential therapeutics used in children with COVID-19. We aspire to provide a comprehensive review of the available evidence and display the mechanisms of action and the pharmacokinetic properties of the studied therapeutics. Our review offers an efficient and practical guide for treating children with COVID-19.

The Era of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Review on Dynamics, Clinical Symptoms and Complications, Diagnosis, and Treatment.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) displays a broad spectrum of clinical presentations ranging from lack of symptoms to severe multiorgan system complications and death. Various laboratory assays have been employed in the diagnosis of COVID-19, including: nucleic acid-based tests; antigen tests; and serum testing for anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies. The disease can also be diagnosed based on suggestive clinical features and radiological findings. Until now, remdesivir is the only medication approved for the treatment of COVID-19 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); however, it is anticipated that several anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies will gain soon approval. Other methods of treatment include supportive care directed toward treating the symptoms. Nevertheless, many studies have recently emerged, showing controversial preliminary results with the off-label medication hydroxychloroquine. Given that all results are still preliminary, including those seen by remdesivir, additional evidence and research are required to identify effective medications that are broadly effective and well tolerated. Importantly, two RNA-based vaccines have recently gained approval from Pfizer and Moderna, with many others still in clinical trials. This article reviews various aspects of COVID-19, including its epidemiology; its evolution and mutational spectrum; and its clinical dynamics, symptoms and complications, diagnosis, and treatment.

COVID-19 in Pediatric Patients: A Focus on CHD Patients.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. As of the 30th of September 2020, around 34,000,000 cases have been reported globally. Pediatrics with underlying congenital heart disease represent a small yet a critical proportion of these patients. In general, the majority of infected children experience mild to moderate disease with significant interindividual variability in laboratory and radiographic findings. Nevertheless, in healthy children with COVID-19, cardiac involvement has been documented and is attributed to various causes. Myocarditis, arrhythmias, cardiogenic shock, and serious multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children are all encountered. Since COVID-19 is a recent novel disease and based on previous experience with respiratory infections, children with underlying congenital heart disease should be given special attention. To date, little data is available about COVID-19 presentation, complications, and appropriate treatment in this population. However, variable and inconsistent disease presentation and severity have been observed. This paper discusses COVID-19 course of illness in pediatric population with a special emphasis on the cardiac manifestations of the disease in healthy population and also on the disease course in congenital heart disease patients in particular.

Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Patients: Pros and Cons.

The pandemic of COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has recently overwhelmed medical centers and paralyzed economies. The unparalleled public distress caused by this pandemic mandated an urgent quest for an effective approach to manage or treat this disease. Due to their well-established anti-infectious and anti-inflammatory properties, quinine derivatives have been sought as potential therapies for COVID-19. Indeed, these molecules were originally employed in the treatment and prophylaxis of malaria, and later in the management of various autoimmune rheumatic and dermatologic diseases. Initially, some promising results for the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating COVID-19 patients were reported by a few in vitro and in vivo studies. However, current evidence is not yet sufficiently solid to warrant its use as a therapy for this disease. Additionally, the therapeutic effects of HCQ are not without many side effects, which range from mild gastrointestinal effects to life-threatening cardiovascular and neurological effects. In this review, we explore the controversy associated with the repurposing of HCQ to manage or treat COVID-19, and we discuss the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of HCQ.

COM-PACE: Compliance-Aware Cloud Application Engineering Using Blockchain

The COVID19 Pandemic has highlighted our dependence on online services (from government, e-commerce/retail, and entertainment), often hosted over external cloud computing infrastructure. The users of these services interact with a web interface rather than the larger distributed service provisioning chain that can involve an interlinked group of providers. The data and identity of users are often provided to service provider who may share it (or have automatic sharing agreement) with backend services (such as advertising and analytics). We propose the development of compliance-aware cloud application engineering, which is able to improve transparency of personal data use-particularly with reference to the European GDPR regulation. Key compliance operations and the perceived implementation challenges for the realization of these operations in current cloud infrastructure are outlined. © 1997-2012 IEEE.