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BACKGROUND: The Congress of the National College of Academic General Practitioners took place in France in June 2021. In total, 1300 participants were registered, provoking concerns about the risk of COVID-19 contamination. OBJECTIVES: The study objective was to report participation in the first French face-to-face medical congress after restrictions due to COVID-19 and whether it resulted in COVID-19 contamination. METHODS: We performed two web-based surveys of respectively 46 and 33 questions. The first questionnaire was sent to all congress participants during the congress (and to a panel of non-participants) and investigated demographic characteristics, medical conditions, behaviours related to COVID-19 contamination risk, and the interest of face-to-face congress as compared to virtual congress. Two weeks after the congress, a questionnaire was addressed to the same population and to university General Practice departments to identify incident COVID-19 cases among participants. RESULTS: A total of 1001 general practitioners and residents completed the first questionnaire; 752 participated in the congress. The respondents were mainly women (61.3%), with a mean age of 35 (SD 10) years, 96.2% had been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and 11.4% considered themselves at risk for a severe form of COVID-19 for medical reasons. Concerning the interest in attending the congress face-to-face, mean score was 9 over 10 (SD 1.5). No case of COVID-19 was reported among participants according to the second questionnaire (449 respondents). CONCLUSION: During a world pandemic, even participants considering themselves at risk came to a medical congress, highlighting the networking and social aspects of a face-to-face congress.
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In a state of emergency context, the constitutional system grants the President of the Republic of Colombia the power to adopt measures through the issuance of legislative decrees to solve the crisis generated by the emergency (legislative delegation). However, the scope of this power finds its limits in the controls established in the Constitution of Colombia. One of these controls is the political control exercised by the Congress. This involves evaluating the timeliness and appropriateness of the measures adopted by the Government. Nevertheless, the powers granted to the Government do not imply the suspension of the Congress' powers. On the contrary. During a state of emergency, the Congress is required to play an even more active role to avoid abuses of power. The objective of this article is to evaluate the role of the Congress during the first and second declaration of a State of Emergency in Colombia due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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During the Covid-19 pandemic many planned activities were virtualized. The objective of the work was to characterize the research presented at the International Scientific Meeting (ECI) of northern Peru. Quantitative, cross-sectional study, which included the evaluation of the characteristics of the s of the research papers presented at the Scientific Meeting. Of 67 investigations submitted, 64 were accepted. 65.6 % belonged to private universities, 32.81 % on thematic axis of social sciences, law and education, 54.69 % had a qualitative approach;32, 85 % with the participation of more than 3 authors, women as research leaders represented 46.9 %. 73.44 % were observational studies;87.5 % prospective, 81.25 % descriptive, 89.06 % cross-sectional. The investigations belonged mostly to professors from private universities, the participation of women in research increased, the most developed thematic axis was social, legal and education sciences, the majority was by more than three authors;The methodology was mostly observational, prospective, descriptive and cross-sectional.
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This report highlights and offers reflections on three unique features of the fourth World Congress of Taiwan Studies (wcts4) held in Seattle in June 2022. First, following the covid-19 pandemic, wcts4 was one of the first large-scale conferences in the field of Taiwan studies to be held in hybrid mode. Second, although three previous editions have taken place since 2012, wcts4 was the first to be held in the United States. Third, it is the first Congress to launch a major new publication, the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Taiwan Studies. Most media coverage of wcts4 has emphasised only that it was held in the United States. This report goes further, focusing on why it was held in the US, and why Seattle in particular, and on the Congress's importance more generally to the global field of Taiwan studies. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Taiwan Studies is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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This article examines the rise of online narrowcasting and the battle over the right to remediate ephemeral televisual content through the case study of Justin.tv. The platform became wildly popular, garnering forty-five million monthly users at its height, because it allowed anyone with a stable Internet connection to become a distributor of content. The platform quickly transitioned from a place for "life-casting" to one where users were narrowcasting a wide array of content, including original media, copyrighted live television and sports programs, and taped archives of television shows. This platform-shifted retransmission of televisual content caught the attention of traditional broadcasters and the US Congress. Justin.tv's narrowcasts followed the traditional linear model of broadcasting but also included the interactivity and open-source usage rules of Web 2.0. This led to a conflict in which the copyright holders attempted to redefine the retransmission of the content--which had originally been intended to be temporary--as stealing. Considering the explosive growth of live-streaming platforms such as Twitch (Justin.tv's successor) during the COVID-19 pandemic, reexamining the antecedents of narrowcasting and contested sites of remediation through Justin.tv provides important context for understanding the current media ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television is the property of University of Texas Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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The article reports that the bill passed by Congress and awaiting the U.S. President Joe Biden signature would require the declassification of information from U.S. intelligence agencies about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The article discusses that according to a bill signed into law by US President Joe Biden on March 20, 2023, US intelligence agencies must declassify information related to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic within 90 days.
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The European Society of Medical Oncology took place in Paris Convention Centre, Paris, France on 9th -13th September 2022 and was attended by more than 28,000 delegates, 23,000 of which were in person and 5000 online. This was the first on-site ESMO congress after the COVID-19 pandemic. This report focuses on a selection of talks delivered at the conference. There was a vast collection of interesting talks, nevertheless, I attended talks that focused on rare cancers.
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The Asian federation of laboratory animal science associations (AFLAS) was established on November 29, 2003, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2023. During this time, the number of AFLAS member associations and societies increased from six founders to eleven, and eight AFLAS congresses and 19 council meetings were held. In addition, the education and training system of laboratory animal science and technology funding program to support the activities of AFLAS member associations or societies started in 2015. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the activities of AFLAS, and the 10th Congress which was scheduled to be held in Thailand in 2021 had to be canceled. AFLAS must have its members work together to overcome this difficult situation and further develop.
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After the initial shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, during 2021 the two Koreas focused their efforts in managing the crisis and adapting to the changed situation. If, on the one hand, North Korea maintained its strategy of total isolation to protect the country from the spread of the new virus, South Korea, on the other, implemented a series of measures aimed at preserving an almost normal social and economic life, which culminated with the launch of the so-called «living with COVID» strategy towards the end of the year. The implementation of the plan, however, was immediately threatened by the arrival of the new and extremely contagious «Omicron» variant.
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This paper is an unconventional review of the online roundtable meeting under the heading "Perf 03c: Old Rituals, Changing Environments, New Rules III ", which took place on 23 June 2021, during the 15th Congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), titled "Breaking the Rules? Power, Participation, Transgression ". It includes an analytic introduction and the edited transcript of the roundtable discussion. This roundtable concluded the work of two previous panels organised by the SIEF Ritual Year Working Group, narrowing the discussions to the impact the recent COVID-19 pandemic had on the ritual year. Scholars from nine countries discussed issues related to the changes in the lifecycle and calendric rituals brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through various case studies and auto-ethnographic observations, participants considered the changes in social and individual experiences;the increased interest of the society in the essence of rituals;rethinking of the emotional component of daily routine and festive events;the way ritual participants and researchers adapted to the restrictions imposed by local authorities;changes and negotiations of the ritual space;new business proposals related to the ritual sphere, as a response to the restrictions;and the use of new technologies in the ritual contexts.
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In the wake of the rapid escalation of COVID-19 in the United States in 2020, Congress was charged with finding ways to effectively disseminate reliable information and encouraging compliance with public health measures in addition to designing policies that would be responsive to the unprecedented needs of those in their districts. Our team quickly transitioned and tailored the structure of our Deliberative Town Halls (DTHs) as to best facilitate the necessary conversations between members of Congress and their constituents: whereas pre-COVID-19 DTHs focused on a single issue with a single member of Congress, the COVID-19 events often featured a bipartisan pair of members, participating alongside subject matter experts. These two-way conversations allowed for members to gain the critical information pertaining to how to develop policies that were responsive to articulated constituents needs and allowed constituents to express their opinions and feelings on COVID-19 related policies, Congress's handling of the pandemic, and the personal struggles they had faced as the effects of the pandemic transpired. © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.
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In the aftermath of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping’s principal focus will be on state and national security, while an entirely new economic- and financial-policy team, with little experience, will take charge of China’s troubled economy. Its members will have to manage several systemic problems – a debt mountain, a property bust, a rapidly ageing population, zero-COVID policies – and develop a viable new economic-development model. This would be a demanding agenda anywhere, but Xi’s China has to tackle it guided by an ever more devoutly Leninist approach to economic management, industrial policy and governance, at a time when China faces the most hostile external environment it has known since Mao Zedong, as exemplified by foreign decoupling. Although Xi’s China is capable of important accomplishments in science and technology, and of flexing its diplomatic and military muscles in defence of its interests, China’s politics may be much less capable of fixing the country’s systemic economic and financial weaknesses. The consequences of Xi Jinping’s economic programme, including an emphasis on self-reliance, promise to extend beyond China’s borders to foreign actors and countries that once benefited from its economic rise.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible effect on healthcare delivery and education system, including residency training. Particularly, neurosurgical departments worldwide had to adapt their operating model to the constantly changing pandemic landscape. This review aimed to quantify the reduction in neurosurgical operative volume and describe the impact of these trends on neurosurgical residency training. Methods: We performed a comprehensive search of PubMed and EMBASE between December 2019 and October 2022 to identify studies comparing pre-pandemic and pandemic neurosurgical caseloads as well as articles detailing the impact of COVID-19 on neurosurgery residency training. Statistical analysis of quantitative data was presented as pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: A total of 49 studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 12 (24.5%) were survey-based. The case volume of elective surgeries and non-elective procedures decreased by 70.4% (OR=0.296, 95%CI 0.210-0.418) and 68.2% (OR=0.318, 95%CI 0.193-0.525), respectively. A significant decrease was also observed in functional (OR=0.542, 95%CI 0.394-0.746), spine (OR=0.545, 95%CI 0.409-0.725), and skull base surgery (OR=0.545, 95%CI 0.409-0.725), whereas the caseloads for tumor (OR=1.029, 95%CI 0.838-1.263), trauma (OR=1.021, 95%CI 0.846-1.232), vascular (OR=1.001, 95%CI 0.870-1.152), and pediatric neurosurgery (OR=0.589, 95%CI 0.344-1.010) remained relatively the same between pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. The reduction in caseloads had caused concerns among residents and program directors in regard to the diminished clinical exposure, financial constraints, and mental well-being. Some positives highlighted were rapid adaptation to virtual educational platforms and increasing time for self-learning and research activities. Conclusion: While COVID-19 has brought about significant disruptions in neurosurgical practice and training, this unprecedented challenge has opened the door for technological advances and collaboration that broaden the accessibility of resources and reduce the worldwide gap in neurosurgical education.
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Background and purpose: Twitter presence in academia has been linked to greater research impact which influences career progression. The purpose of this study was to analyse Twitter activity of the radiotherapy community around ESTRO congresses with a focus on gender-related and geographic trends. Materials and methods: Tweets, re-tweets and replies, here designated as interactions, around the ESTRO congresses held in 2012-2021 were collected. Twitter activity was analysed temporally and, for the period 2016-2021, the geographical span of the ESTRO Twitter network was studied. Tweets and Twitter users collated during the 10 years analysed were ranked based on number of 'likes', 're-tweets' and followers, considered as indicators of leadership/influence. Gender representation was assessed for the top-end percentiles. Results: Twitter activity around ESTRO congresses was multiplied by 60 in 6 years growing from 150 interactions in 2012 to a peak of 9097 in 2018. In 2020, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, activity dropped by 60 % to reach 2945 interactions and recovered to half the pre-pandemic level in 2021. Europe, North America and Oceania were strongly connected and remained the main contributors. While overall, 58 % of accounts were owned by men, this proportion increased towards top liked/re-tweeted tweets and most-followed profiles to reach up to 84 % in the top-percentiles. Conclusion: During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Twitter activity around ESTRO congresses substantially decreased. Men were over-represented on the platform and in most popular tweets and influential accounts. Given the increasing importance of social media presence in academia the gender-based biases observed may help in understanding the gender gap in career progression.
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Since 2016, Laos has seen a tightening of social control by the ruling Communist Party. At the same time, socialism has returned as the cornerstone of the official discourse. While some have argued that the socialist discourse only serves the purpose of legitimizing either one-party rule or capitalist exploitation by the elite, others have taken the return of a socialist discourse at face value. This article tries to show that all interpretations are correct to some degree, since each of them focuses on a particular section of the elite. The article connects these elite tendencies with the positions and world views of the social groups in Laos in order to show that a more encompassing discourse evolves, which draws on traditionalism, with the aim of creating national unity. While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an economic crisis in Laos, it has also strengthened the discourse. © Viella s.r.l. & Associazione Asia Maior.
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After the initial shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, during 2021 the two Koreas focused their efforts in managing the crisis and adapting to the changed situation. If, on the one hand, North Korea maintained its strategy of total isolation to protect the country from the spread of the new virus, South Korea, on the other, implemented a series of measures aimed at preserving an almost normal social and economic life, which culminated with the launch of the so-called «living with COVID» strategy towards the end of the year. The implementation of the plan, however, was immediately threatened by the arrival of the new and extremely contagious «Omicron» variant. Despite the pandemic, political developments continued on the peninsula. In South Korea, Moon Jae-in’s administration had to face a decline in its approval ratings. Meanwhile the fight for the presidential elections, scheduled for March 2022, started to dominate the political agenda with the emergence of the two main contenders: Lee Jae-myung for the progressive Democratic Party and former general prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol for the conservatives. In North Korea, the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea-the main event of 2022-saw a further consolidation of Kim Jong Un’s position, elected also general secretary of the party, and a renewed attention to the problems of domestic economic development, with a strategy based on self-reliance. Inter-Korean relations did not experience significant developments and continued to be characterized by Pyongyang’s confrontational attitude towards Seoul, despite the continued efforts of the Moon administration to restart some form of dialogue. The massive resumption of missile launches during the year certainly contributed to maintaining relations difficult. The election of a new US president represented a major development for the foreign policy of both Koreas. South Korea was able to resolve some pending issues and reinforce the alliance;but the prioritization in Washington of a strategy to counter China reduced the space for Seoul to remain neutral in the rivalry. North Korea, on its part, maintained a hostile position vis-à-vis Washington, thus making the resumption of any form of dialogue very complicated. © Viella s.r.l. & Associazione Asia Maior.