Fear of COVID-19 among critical care nurses of public hospitals in Lahore: empirical evidence during third wave

The world has seen a pandemic that dis-rupted life. Till now there are aftershocks of COVID-19 such as Omicron instilling fear among individuals. Healthcare staff is on alert specifically the nurses have suffered a lot mentally due to this issue by developing fatigue. The study was conducted during the deadly 3rd COVID-19 wave. The data were collected by developing the questionnaire of the previously validated measures related to the variables under study from nurses working in the intensive care unit, critical care unit, and floor wards of COVID-19 at Services Hospital, Lahore. A total of 140 questionnaires were used for data analysis. The study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences for frequency and descrip-tive statistics. Whereas the outcomes of fear of COVID-19 were assessed by using the latest Smart Partial Least Squares software which allows to assess the complex research frameworks. The results of the study revealed that the fear of COVID-19 results in poor quality of life among nurses and fatigue. Resilience among nurses can reduce the negative consequences but did not get statistical support.

Hybrid and virtual work settings, the interaction between technostress, perceived organisational support, work-family conflict and the impact on work engagement

PurposeThe study assessed the impact of technostress creators, work–family conflict and perceived organisational support (POS) on work engagement for employees operating within the virtual and hybrid work settings. The idea is to redefine the antecedents of work engagement in work settings that are characterised by excessive technology and work–family conflict.Design/methodology/approachData gathered from 302 academics and support staff employees at a selected university in South Africa were utilised to assess the abovementioned relationships via variance-based structural equation modelling.FindingsThe combined effect of technostress, work–family conflict and POS on work engagement indicates that work–family conflict is a critical component in the relationship between technostress and work engagement. Although POS is seen as a job resource that lessens stress, the study found that the influence of work–family conflict is stronger than that of POS;hence, a negative influence is reported on work engagement. Despite the presence of support, overwhelming technostress creators and work–family conflict issues increase demands and influence work engagement negatively.Research limitations/implicationsThe results noted that, in hybrid and virtual work settings, managers can drive employee engagement by focussing on designing more favourable work–life balance (WLB) policies, providing adequate information communication technology (ICT) support, fostering aspects of positive technology and defining the boundaries between work life and family time.Practical implicationsThe managers need to realise the detrimental effects of both technostress and work–family conflict on work engagement in virtual and hybrid work settings. Expanding the personal and job resources of individuals in hybrid and virtual settings is critical to enable them to meet the additional work demands and to manage the strain imposed by technostress. Instituting relevant organisation support has proved to be inadequate to address the challenges relating to technostress and work–family conflict. Therefore, introducing WLB policies that assist employees to set clear boundaries between work and family time to avoid burn out and spillover is critical. This is especially important when dealing with technostress creators in the remote work setting. Additionally, providing adequate ICT support as well as training related to use of different devices and software should be part of the organisational culture.Social implicationsA manageable and reasonable workload should be maintained bearing in mind the complexity and ambiguity associated with the hybrid work setting. Managers should make allowances for employees to adjust managers' schedules to accommodate personal obligations, as well as adjust employees' workloads to accommodate family responsibilities. As for the coping strategy of technostress and work–family conflict, considering the positive effects of the supportive work environment is important.Originality/valueThis study provides a model on the interaction of the redefined antecedents (technostress and work–family conflict) of work engagement in high-tech environments such as virtual and hybrid work settings.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Students' Learning at Universities in the Gauteng Province, South Africa

Measures that were put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19, such as lockdowns, movement restrictions, and social distancing, resulted in remarkable changes in the traditional educational systems. Online learning was implemented to replace face-to-face teaching and learning, albeit with several challenges and varying levels of unpreparedness. The present study examined the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on university students' learning and emotional stability with the aim of understanding the impact of the changes on students. A questionnaire was administered online to 254 registered students at three universities in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Results showed that for the majority of participants (84.9%), their source of internet connectivity for learning was data provided by the universities, while 21% of participants made use of the Wi-Fi also provided by the universities. However, the data for 91.9% of participants depleted before new data could be provided in a new month resulting in 30.9%, 30%, and 29.2% of participants buying, borrowing, and stopping to learn, respectively. On average, 33.7% of participants were neutral about having adequate time for studies and their academic performance improving during COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 33.9% of participants were neutral about receiving adequate assistance from lecturers (34%) and family members (33.7%) during COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, 30% of participants indicated that they were neutral and disagreed that they were getting sufficient resources for studies during COVID-19 pandemic. Loneliness and boredom were the main problems faced by most participants since teaching was mostly done online. To make online teaching and learning more effective, it is recommended that more data and support are provided to the students by the university management so that teaching and learning as well as students' academic performance can be enhanced during future similar situations.

Environmental hygiene in outdoor food markets in Africa: a scoping review

Outdoor food markets represent important locations where foodborne illnesses and other infectious diseases can spread. Countries in Africa face particular challenges given the importance of these markets in food supply and low rates of access to safely managed water and sanitation. We undertook a scoping review of evidence related to disease transmission in food markets in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and identified 46 papers for data extraction and synthesis. Vendor behaviour or awareness was reported in the majority of papers and about half reported on market infrastructure. Fewer studies have been reported on regulatory environments or food contamination. Studies on water supply, sanitation and handwashing facilities focused on the presence of services and did not evaluate quality, thus conclusions cannot be drawn on service adequacy. Studies of vendor behaviour were primarily based on self-reporting and subject to bias. Most studies reported high levels of vendor awareness of the need for hygiene, but where observations were also conducted, these showed lower levels of behaviours in practice. Our findings suggest that there are limited studies on environmental hygiene in outdoor food markets and this is an area warranting further research, including into the quality of services and addressing methodological weaknesses.

Women Workforces' Satisfaction with Personal Protective Equipment: A Case of the Australian Construction Industry

Despite the anecdotal evidence that construction women workforces have faced difficulties in accessing adequate and properly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE), there have been very few studies addressing their experiences and satisfaction with PPE. This study aimed to provide an overview of women workforces' satisfaction with PPE in the Australian construction industry. The specific research objectives were to: (i) examine their satisfaction regarding the functional, expressive and aesthetic (FEA) need attributes of PPE and (ii) investigate factors affecting their overall satisfaction with PPE. Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey. The results indicated a rather low satisfaction level among the respondents for all the thirteen FEA need attributes of their PPE. A regression model showed that their overall satisfaction with PPE was significantly affected by their experiences of PPE use (i.e., the need for alterations or adjustments to PPE, adequacy of training for PPE use, the perceived impact of ill-fitting PPE on work productivity) and satisfaction with FEA need attributes but not their demographical factors. The research findings call for action among construction training organizations, PPE designers and manufacturers and construction employers to recognise and address the low satisfaction level for PPE use among women workforces in the industry.

PERCEIVED INCOME ADEQUACY, FAMILY SUPPORT, FINANCIAL ANXIETY, AND TAX NON-COMPLIANCE OF INDONESIAN WORKING WOMEN DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In high-risk situations like the Covid-19 epidemic, it is believed that perceived income adequacy, family support, financial anxiety, and tax non-compliance have a strong relationship. This study applies the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory in building research models to fill gaps in previous research. According to the COR theory, individuals safeguard the quality and quantity of their financial resources by avoiding threats to their existence, including taxes. Thus, maintaining limited financial resources during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet needs and wants leads to tax avoidance. The cross-sectional data were collected using an online survey and analyzed using the PLS-based SEM technique. Purpo-sive sampling was used to identify 371 Indonesian working women for the study sample. The study's findings confirmed that perceived income adequacy for current needs and wants and perceived family support directly impact financial anxi-ety. However, this study can only demonstrate the direct effect of perceived income adequacy for current wants and tax non-compliance. Financial anxiety has also been proven to mediate the relationship between the three exogenous factors and tax non-compliance. This study can strengthen the concept of COR theory, which has never been used to investigate tax non-compliance behaviour and can be considered by authorities to design tax policies that take gender into account to achieve tax compliance. © 2023 The Author(s).

Automated system to detect social distancing among humans during covid pandemic situation

Maintaining the purported Social Separating is one of the essential and greatest ways to stop the new popular episode. Legislators are enacting restrictions on the standard of private distance between people in order to concur with this restriction. In light of this real-life occurrence, it is crucial to evaluate how consistent with realistic imperatives in our lives this is, in order to ascertain the causes of any prospective cracks in such distance obstacles and determine whether this portends an anticipated risk. In order to do this, we offer the Visual Social Removing (VSD) problem, which is defined as the automatic evaluation of the difference between the depiction of connected person aggregations and the private separation from an image.When this requirement is violated, it is vital for VSD to conduct painless research to determine whether people agree to the social distance restriction and to provide assessments of the degree of wellbeing of particular places. We first draw attention to the fact that measuring VSD involves more than simply math;it also suggests a deeper comprehension of the social behavior in the setting. The goal is to genuinely identify potentially dangerous circumstances while avoiding false alerts (such as a family with children or other family members, an elderly person with their guardians), all while adhering to current security protocols. Then, at that point, we discuss how VSD links to earlier research in social sign handling and demonstrate how to investigate fresh PC vision techniques that might be able to address this issue. Future issues about the viability of VSD systems, ethical repercussions, and potential application scenarios are the result. © 2023 IEEE.

The relationship between dialysis adequacy and COVID-19 onset and mortality risk: Single center experience

Aim: We primarily aimed in this study was to evaluate risk factors for COVID-19 infection and if any association between dialysis inadequacy in COVID-19 infection in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Secondly aimed to describe prevalence and risk factors associated with long-lasting symptoms of non-deceased COVID-19 MHD patients before vaccination. Material(s) and Method(s): One hundred one MHD patients infected with COVID-19 and 100 MHD patients without the infection were enrolled in this retrospective cross-sectional study. Risk factors for mortality, need to intensive care unit (ICU) stay and long-lasting symptoms were analyzed. Result(s): The mean age of patients was 59.13+/-13.58 years. COVID-19 infected patients had significantly higher number of patients with DM, COPD, CHF. The need for ICU was found to be statistically significantly higher in patients with COPD and DM. In our results, the patients who had lower Kt/V at admission hospital had more than 5 fold higher rate of COVID-19 those have higher Kt/V. We analyzed risk factors for mortality at, one year included higher age, higher CRP and lower base-line Kt/V were diagnostic criteria. Older MHD patients had a high frequent of long-lasting symptoms. Low Kt/V, low hemoglobin level and high CRP level associated with a higher risk of long-lasting symptoms (p=0.00, p=0.001, p=0.02) Discussion: We conclude that DM, CHF, COPD, older age, obesity were poor prognostic factors for in infected with COVID-19. Dialysis adequacy parameters of Kt/V, serum albumin level, hemoglobin level were significantly lower in need to ICU and deceased patients.Copyright © 2023, Derman Medical Publishing. All rights reserved.

The Adequacy of Hospital Response to COVID-19 Pandemic amongst Surgical Institutions in South-Eastern Nigeria.

Background: The novel corona virus (COVID-19) was first diagnosed in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The healthcare specifically, departments of surgery in Southeastern Nigeria, are making modifications to cope and plan for the pandemic. Objectives: To evaluate how well surgical institutions in Southeastern Nigeria are prepared for the anticipated influx of Covid-19 patients, existing patients and to determine the adequacy of hospital provision of essential supplies and awareness creation. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional online study of two hundred and one (201) surgery resident doctors in surgical institutions in South-eastern Nigeria was conducted. Questionnaires were designed and distributed using online platforms. The data obtained was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Significance was set at P < 0.05. Consent was obtained from all respondents. Results: A total of 201 surgery resident doctors filled and submitted their questionnaires, response rate of 71.5%, out of which 50.1% agreed that hospital response to Covid-19 pandemic was inadequate, 78.3% agreed that the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) provided by hospitals were inadequate while about 53.8% agreed that the hospital workforce was poor and inadequate and incapable of adapting to the unstable workforce during the pandemic. About 46.2% agreed that the hospitals were conducting an adequate creation of awareness with regards to the pandemic while 25% agreed that the hospital compliance with the CDC (Center for disease control) preventive protocols/guidelines in surgical institutions were adequate.There was a statistically significant association (P = 0.019 (< 0.05); X2= 5.517) between hospital type and provision of adequate Personal protective equipment for surgical procedures. Only 19% of the government hospital employees felt that adequate amount of PPEs were provided compared to 41% of private hospital employees. Conclusion: The results from this study show that the hospital response to Covid-19 pandemic and awareness creation amongst surgical institutions in Southeastern Nigeria are inadequate. Recommendations: The government should equip the health sector by providing the necessary amenities to adequately combat the challenges of surgical practice in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Money multiplier under Basel capital ratio regulation: implications for counter-COVID-19 stimulus

The COVID-19 induced the central bankers to search the most efficient stimulus measures. As a solution, they made an unprecedented step. They lifted down the reserve requirement (RR) to zero. This was done in the United States [FRS. 2020. "Federal Reserve Actions to Support the Flow of Credit to Households and Businesses.” Accessed February 10, 2021. Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve System] and Morocco [BKAM. 2020. "Monetary Policy Report No. 55.” Accessed from Central Bank of Morocco Website]. The existing monetary theory literature suggests that the broad money supply should go to infinity as a result. Then we may expect the rapid economic recovery. However, this may not come true. The novelty of this paper is the development of the money multiplier theory. We explain why a step to set the RR at zero may boost (though slight) the cash-intensive economy (like Morocco) and may not deliver any benefit to a mostly cashless one (like the US, Canada, or the EU). © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Widening the gap: the differential impact of COVID-19 on tenants and homeowners

In this article, we study how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the housing inequalities between Flemish tenants and homeowners in terms of housing affordability, security and adequacy. Analyzing online survey data, we find that the pandemic increased the existing affordability gap in Flanders between homeowners and tenants. These differences between tenants and homeowners are explained by heterogeneous unemployment and income shocks. We find similar results for the differential impact on housing insecurity. Furthermore, relatively more tenants experience problems with the size of their dwelling due to the pandemic compared to homeowners. We find that these differences are best explained by the dwelling type as well as the household size, unemployment and work-from-home. The analysis shows that the COVID-19 crisis had a significant effect on the housing conditions of Flemish tenants and homeowners and exacerbated existing inequalities. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Assessing the Direct and Moderating Effect of COVID-19 on the Performance of the Banking Sector in the MENA Region

This article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial performance, credit risk and capital adequacy of the banks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with the determinants of the banks' financial performance before and during the pandemic investigated. The data were collected from the Orbis Bank Focus database and banks' annual financial reports, with descriptive statistics, t-tests and multiple regressions employed to analyse the data. The results revealed that the pandemic negatively and significantly affected the financial performance of the banks, increasing the credit risk, but that it had no significant impact on capital adequacy. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the managerial efficiency, the bank's size and the gross domestic product had a significant positive impact on the bank's financial performance in both periods, while in contrast, the credit risk had a negative and significant impact on the banks' financial performance. Finally, the liquidity risk, capital adequacy, inflation and oil prices had no significant impact on the banks' financial performance. The findings of this study are important for the banks in the MENA countries given the uncertain future with the recurrent emergence of global crises. Overall, it is recommended that the banks implement strategies to control the credit risks and thus maintain their profitability during such crises. © 2023 Fortune Institute of International Business.

The Adequacy of Nigeria, South Africa and Other Sub-Saharan Countries' Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Unemployment

The measures taken by the governments of the sub-Saharan states, especially in Nigeria and South Africa, in a bid to curb the spread of the dreaded corona virus (COVID-19) are discussed in this article. It is submitted that measures such as social distancing and lockdown of businesses exacerbated the existing problem of unemployment in sub-Saharan countries. Accordingly, this article analyzes the adequacy of the relevant laws and policies that were adopted by the governments of selected sub-Saharan African countries, namely, Nigeria and South Africa in a bid to stimulate the economy and to reduce unemployment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria and South Africa were selected because they are amongst the largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors argue that the governments of Nigeria and South Africa should adopt and enforce pragmatic policies that are backed by appropriate legislation to combat the huge unemployment rate which was worsened by the advent of COVID-19. The article highlights that the problem of unemployment in Nigeria and South Africa must be addressed through adequate review of the employment policies, finance policies, educational curriculum and other related policies. It further recommends the review of the empowerment and socio-economic policies of these countries in order to prevent restlessness, riots and poverty-related protests that are induced by massive unemployment of the youth, women and other marginalized persons in Nigeria and South Africa.

ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES HINDERING COVID-19 PROTOCOL COMPLIANCE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

It has been observed that students do not adhere to COVID-19 regulations on campus despite various instructions from both government and university authorities for staff and students to maintain adequate COVID-19 protocols in universities. Therefore, this study explores the challenges faced by students that make them disregard COVID-19 protocols, such as wearing nose masks, hand sanitization, and social distancing. The study is located in an interpretive paradigm using a case study as a research design. The convenience sampling technique was used to select ten university students who responded to interview questions on the challenges that hinder them from complying with COVID-19 protocols. The study adopted thematic analysis (TA) as a qualitative tool to interpret and make meanings from the data generated. The study found that limited COVID-19 awareness on campus, health challenges among students, and lack of classroom capacity and personal protective equipment (PPE) are significant challenges. In contrast, the recommended solutions are stricter COVID-19 regulations, provision of PPE and spacious lecture rooms, and creating COVID-19 awareness/education. The study suggests that university management or authorities should provide strategies to make students adhere to the measures, provide PPE to alleviate students financially or socially and ensure adequate awareness of COVID-19 on campus.

Fair Drug Pricing: Review Of Literature And Models

IntroductionConstantly rising costs of pharmaceuticals and biologics spurred a debate in recent years leading to increasingly persistent public calls to overhaul the existing system of pricing and distributing health technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the controversies of the current model of access to health commodities in all evidence when the existing discrepancy between the global supply and the global demand in health technology can be viewed as an illustration of a conflict between the neoliberal free market ideal of health innovation genesis and ownership and the original democratic principles of what would now be called sustainable human development.MethodsPresented here is an integrative literature review of over 265 publications in peer-reviewed journals on Pubmed and Web of Science, academic and "grey” literature, mainly publicism, published in English. We reviewed and analyzed included literature for the purposes of identifying leading ideas with regards to ethical frameworks for evaluating or referencing value for pricing health commodities.ResultsSeven drug pricing models were analyzed in terms of them satisfying the three most common criteria of price adequacy – its fairness (viewed from the point of view of main schools of ethical thought), accountability-for-reasonableness (including transparency of decisions, relevance, existing mechanisms of revisions and governance to ensure compliance), and price functionality. One of the central ideas under controversy is value, its relative character for different contexts due to the high weight of the willingness-to-pay in the value-based health technology assessment (HTA) decisions and the relative value of money, and the attempts to quantify value in a universal way for institutions, patients, and originators.ConclusionsWhile the review scored the pricing models on their "public fairness” with volume-based rather than value-based pricing models leading the rating, the main conclusion of the review is that the main meaningful divide is between value creation and value extraction when pricing health innovation.

Evaluating the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Iraq under the Corona Pandemic using the CAMELS Criterion

Due to environmental factors such as the Corona pandemic and capital adequacy and liquidity requirements, the financial performance of commercial banks has been poor. Researchers and policymakers are required to focus on this phenomenon. Consequently, this article examines the effect of CAMELS criteria such as capital adequacy, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity on the return on equity in Iraqi commercial banks. Using twenty commercial bank databases, the study compiled secondary data from 2011 to 2020. The Moments-Quantile-Regression (MMQR) methods were also used to investigate the relationship between variables. Capital sufficiency, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity correlate positively with return on equity in Iraqi commercial banks. Using the CAMELS criterion, the study guides regulators in developing bank profitability regulations during and after the Corona pandemic © 2022 AgBioForum

Measuring Financial Sustainability and Social Adequacy of the Italian NDC Pension System under the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is presently influencing the financial sustainability and the social adequacy of public pension schemes. In this paper, we measure the effects of COVID-19 on the Italian public pension system by introducing a deterministic shock due to the pandemic in the evolution of the variables mainly involved in the system's evaluation. These variables, namely the unemployment rate, wage growth rate, inflation rate, and mortality rates, are modeled in a stochastic framework. Our results show that COVID-19 worsens the financial sustainability of the pension system in the short–medium term, while it does not appreciably affect social adequacy in the medium term. The Italian pension system already showed a social adequacy problem before 2020, which the pandemic does not further deteriorate essentially.

Viability Data in Government's Underlying Reactions to Coronavirus Pandemic: A Substance Examination of the Media Inclusion in Indonesia

In any case, an on-going report uncovers an absence of starting and speedy reaction to Coronavirus by the public authority's Catastrophe Chance Decrease related associations, including media organizations. [...]a concentrate on the effect of information inclusion on Indonesian who get back from abroad during the pandemic will in general face bias and upsetting gathering where individuals thought them as infection transporters. Adequacy data in the media can encourage individuals' mindfulness, information, and substantial activity on unambiguous gamble issues, like wellbeing, natural [8,9], or environmental change. Straightforwardness is an essential for the general population to get, cycle, overview, and utilize the accessible data. [...]people, networks, and society see risk correspondence as an integral sociocultural methodology. [...]the progress of viability correspondence impacts public consistence in dealing with Coronavirus, both preventive and healing.

Policy Implications for Enhancing the Capital Adequacy Ratio of Commercial Banks Post Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic made the banking industry in countries in the region face many difficulties, profits fell, and bad debts increased. Besides, a series of severe criminal cases nationwide related to banking governance caused thousands of billions of dollars lost and high bad debts, affecting the banking system's stability. In that context, commercial banks need to be applied the method of calculating the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) according to the Basel II calculation formula. The regulations in Basel II and the implementation and implementation process are mainly aimed at ensuring the goal of ensuring safety. Thus, the article studied the internal factors affecting the CAR of commercial banks from 2010 to 2021 from 25 commercial banks during the research period. The research method applied the generalized system method of moments (SGMM). Research results show that critical factors affect the CAR coefficient with a significance level of 1.0 percent. The article's value is to ensure the safety of risky assets. Banks need to maintain a necessary level of equity as measured by the minimum capital adequacy ratio. Based on the research results, the authors give policy management to improve the future CAR coefficient. © 2023, Association Res Militaris. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Online Sales on Recovery from COVID-19

The massive spread of the COVID-19 outbreak has widely disrupted business activities around the world. In such a context, more manufacturing enterprises have to turn to online sales to restore sales and workforce. However, the actual effects of above relationships are still unknown. The aim of this study is to analyze whether and how online sales affect sales and workforce recovery from COVID-19. Meanwhile, we deeply explore the mediating effect of cash flow adequacy and the moderating effect of firm size. Drawing from a cross-country survey with 2714 manufacturing enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic and controlling for self-selection bias, we find an inverted U-shaped effect of online sales on sales and workforce recovery. Online sales also exert an inverted U-shaped effect on cash flow adequacy, whereas this effect is weaker for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, cash flow adequacy positively facilitates sales and workforce recovery, indicating the role of cash flow adequacy in partially mediating the relationship between online sales and recovery. In addition, we confirm that firm size moderates the indirect effect of online sales on sales and workforce recovery through cash flow adequacy. This study not only expands e-commerce and emergency management research domain and enriches the results of related research, but also provides management implications for the recovery of manufacturing enterprises from the perspective of online sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, Kauno Technologijos Universitetas. All rights reserved.