ABSTRACT
The study examined whether caregiver worry of COVID-19 infection and co-existence difficulty differentially predicted child mental health and wellbeing during the lockdown in two culturally different countries that were severely affected by the pandemic: the UK and Turkey. Co-existence difficulty is the hardship experienced by family members living all together in the same house at the same time during the lockdown period. Participants were 1849 caregivers of children between 5- and 12-years old living in the UK (n = 995) and Turkey (n = 854), who completed an electronic survey distributed via social networks during the initial phase of the COVID-19 lockdown (July and August 2020). Caregivers completed a set of questionnaires on child and family wellbeing and on whether the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms changed during the lockdown as compared to before. Worry of COVID-19 infection was higher amongst caregivers in the Turkish sample and was associated with higher levels of child internalizing symptoms during the lockdown in the Turkish sample, however there were no statistically significant differences in the size of the impact of worry of infection on the children's internalizing symptoms between the two countries. Co-existence difficulty independently predicted increase in children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms during the lockdown in both samples. Families in the UK experienced a higher level of difficulty with co-existence compared to the families living in Turkey but the magnitude of the impact of co-existence difficulty on children's outcomes between the two samples was not significantly different.The findings suggest that public health strategies should aim to reduce social anxiety and invest in the development of programs aimed at supporting families to overcome the challenges of co-existence during times of public health crisis.
ABSTRACT
The first epidemic of the modern world that has changed the course of the current civilization & turned out to be a pandemic (i.e. COVID-19) has tremendously affected several industries including that of tourism & hospitality. Due to the multilevel impact, the whole world struggled to overcome this situation but with almost two years of its co-existence, people have now managed to change their style of living & social habits including that of the food habits. One of such food habits i.e. 'Eating out/ Dining out' was bound to change in the post-pandemic period due to the health advisories & closure of several hotels, restaurants and food outlets. The present research tries to find out the changes in the Eating out behaviour of the residents of Dharamshala (H.P.) in the pre & post-pandemic period. Further, it tries to identify the factors which affect the eating out behaviour of the residents & measure their importance in different periods (pre &post pandemic). The data were collected from 286 residents of Dharamshala region, through a structured questionnaire & analysed through reliability checks (Cronbach's Alpha-α), KMO & Bartlett's test, factor analysis, paired sample t-test and analysis of frequency & mean values. The results showed a significant decrease in the frequency of visits, purchasing/ordering, percentage of outside meals consumed, average spending etc, whereas the level of priority given by the residents to hygiene, food safety, quality, service & distribution etc has increased in the post-pandemic period. Hence various strategies were suggested for the restaurants/local eateries like, (1) Use of technology (automatic doors, sensor & timer enabled soap & sanitiser dispenser, online payments), (2) cost reduction tactics (controlling of food wastage, reduction in menu items), (3) training of employees (sanitisation rules, HACCP rules) etc which were if adopted will certainly help them revive from the crisis slowly & steadily over the period. © 2022 Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Since the 20th century, humans have lived through five pandemics caused by influenza A viruses (IAVs) (H1N1/1918, H2N2/1957, H3N2/1968, and H1N1/2009) and the coronavirus (CoV) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). IAVs and CoVs both have broad host ranges and share multiple hosts. Virus co-circulation and even co-infections facilitate genetic reassortment among IAVs and recombination among CoVs, further altering virus evolution dynamics and generating novel variants with increased cross-species transmission risk. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 may maintain long-term circulation in humans as seasonal IAVs. Co-existence and co-infection of both viruses in humans could alter disease transmission patterns and aggravate disease burden. Herein, we demonstrate how virus-host ecology correlates with the co-existence and co-infection of IAVs and/or CoVs, further affecting virus evolution and disease dynamics and burden, calling for active virus surveillance and countermeasures for future public health challenges.
ABSTRACT
Disease transmission is a fruitful domain in which to examine how scientific and folk theories interrelate, given laypeople's access to multiple sources of information to explain events of personal significance. The current paper reports an in-depth survey of U.S. adults' (N = 238) causal reasoning about two viral illnesses: a novel, deadly disease that has massively disrupted everyone's lives (COVID-19), and a familiar, innocuous disease that has essentially no serious consequences (the common cold). Participants received a series of closed-ended and open-ended questions probing their reasoning about disease transmission, with a focus on causal mechanisms underlying disease contraction, transmission, treatment, and prevention; non-visible (internal) biological processes; and ontological frameworks regarding what kinds of entities viruses are. We also assessed participants' attitudes, such as their trust in scientific experts and willingness to be vaccinated. Results indicated complexity in people's reasoning, consistent with the co-existence of multiple explanatory frameworks. An understanding of viral transmission and viral replication existed alongside folk theories, placeholder beliefs, and lack of differentiation between viral and non-viral disease. For example, roughly 40% of participants who explained illness in terms of the transmission of viruses also endorsed a non-viral folk theory, such as exposure to cold weather or special foods as curative. Additionally, participants made use of competing modes of construal (biological, mechanical, and psychological) when explaining how viruses operate, such as framing the immune system response (biological) as cells trying to fight off the virus (psychological). Indeed, participants who displayed greater knowledge about viral transmission were significantly more likely to anthropomorphize bodily processes. Although comparisons of COVID-19 and the common cold revealed relatively few differences, the latter, more familiar disease elicited consistently lower levels of accuracy and greater reliance on folk theories. Moreover, for COVID-19 in particular, accuracy positively correlated with attitudes (trusting medical scientists and taking the disease more seriously), self-protective behaviors (such as social distancing and mask-wearing), and willingness to be vaccinated. For both diseases, self-assessed knowledge about the disease negatively predicted accuracy. The results are discussed in relation to challenges for formal models of explanatory reasoning.
ABSTRACT
In order to face the requirement of distant education after covid-19, this paper has presented a cyber-physical co-existence environment for practical distance learning events, we called it as a “Co-existing Practical Environment, CPE”. CPE includes: “Holographic Wearable Device, HWD” for behavior sensing and vision sharing mechanism, cloud “Digital Twin Model, DTM” database for expert correcting variables real time, and collaborative fabrication discussion interface. We built an immersive HoloLens interface to help distance learning participators, understanding the concept of structural mechanics form morphs with mix-reality sensing, communicating the augmented information of parts of models for collaborative fabrication, and sharing the views of operation process for lecturers to solve the technical problems instantly. Furthermore, users are able to make their own custom digital twin project in CPE and optimize their fabricating process by adding more realistic material factors, operation callbacks, or analyzing their practice results in parameters relationships. This paper revised an application of holographic technology with a practical distance learning workshop as example, and discover CPE as a new kind of co-creation, cross-field, and remotely prepared cooperation mechanism. While the epidemic is still ragging, we are looking further researchers of more immersive methods for distance education. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The co-existence of AIDS and COVID-19 infections is poorly understood. India, the second-most populous nation, is home to 23.49 lakh people living with HIV/AIDS, and the country has no specific policy in this regard. COVID-19 pandemic has created a significant burden on these vulnerable populations in terms of financial aid, availing health services, and psychological issues (fear, anxiety, depression). Therefore, India needs to have a specific policy for these vulnerable populations to cope with any such pandemic.