Quarantine cinema: Teaching film directing during COVID-19

Adapting teaching methods for a digital classroom during COVID-19 presented specific challenges related to the embodied practice of film directing and working with actors. This article will discuss approaches employed by instructors at Toronto Film School in Canada to respond to these challenges. It will also describe examples of the student works produced within the physical and technological constraints of the government-mandated lockdown in Toronto during Spring 2020, a time period marked by generational civil rights activism on an international scale. By examining innovative student works in conversation with historically subversive cinematic movements, such as the French New Wave and Third Cinema, this article argues for curriculum adjustments to incorporate an augmented focus on personal and political filmmaking practices within the study of film directing. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

From "woman in jeopardy” to COVID-19 lockdown: the gender gap in TV movies aired on Spanish generalist television (2005-2020)

The number of TV movies aired on Spain television over the last decade has increased exponentially. These primarily North American and German productions not only take up a large part of lunchtime and the afternoon;they also portray women rooted in gender stereotypes that are clearly at odds with the female gender values of autonomy and equal rights. However, 2017 saw an increase in female directors making TV movies portraying women in a significant variety of roles. This trend, which continues during the COVID‑19 pandemic, has led to a partial shift in the construction of gender. Our research assesses the transformation of gender portrayal and the ideological construction behind TV movies, including their subject matter, lead characters, frequency of airings, and target audience. This study also examines women's roles in TV-movie production, including screenwriting and directing, and seeks to ascertain the leading TV-movie production companies that broadcast their output in Spain and address the business philosophy behind these producers. Finally, we review the Spanish channels that most frequently schedule TV Movies in large numbers, as well as their guidelines, target and vision.

COVID-19 Vaccination in Palestine/Israel: Citizenship, Capitalism, and the Logic of Elimination

Despite Israel's responsibility under international law to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics in its occupied territories, Israeli officials have refused to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Through a critical discourse analysis of Israeli officials' statements regarding Israel's COVID-19 vaccination campaign, this paper explores how Israel evades this responsibility while presenting itself as committed to public health and human rights. We find that Israeli officials strategically present Palestinians as an autonomous nation when discussing COVID-19 vaccinations, despite Israel's ongoing attempts to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. Relatedly, Israel justifies its refusal to vaccinate Palestinians on the grounds of the Palestinian Authority's economic independence, thereby obscuring Israel's control over the Palestinian economy. In this way, Israel relies on citizenship and economic inequality, as internationally sanctioned forms of exclusion, to deny Palestinians their right to health. Drawing on theorists such as Michel Foucault, Achille Mbembe, and Jasbir Puar, we argue that withholding vaccines from Palestinians reveals the ways that Israel furthers its settler-colonial aims under the guise of liberal humanitarianism and economic growth. Instead of directing these conclusions toward Israel as an exceptional case, we contend that these processes reveal how settler-colonial societies use liberal frameworks of citizenship and capitalism to carry out their racialized projects of elimination.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIRECTING OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES AS CAPITAL FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES BASED ON DIGITALIZATION IN THE CRISIS

Purpose: This study aims to increase and direct the capital owned by SMEs so that they are able to survive in crisis conditions. Theoretical framework: During the covid-19 crisis, companies sought innovative ways to survive. They must utilize inter-business networks, select productive activities, and adjust their marketing strategies. Agents of artificial intelligence have been utilized as a "creative class" (public knowledge). All SMEs are unprepared for the first time in economic history to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Therefore, SME managers must learn from COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative descriptive approach was used aims to direct choice activities with individual performance in groups, data collection techniques with surveys. The research is focused on 300 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in five industrial areas in Central Java (Semarang, Pekalongan, Tegal, and Brebes) that are directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. © 2022 Conscientia Beam. All rights reserved.

Reinforcing customer journey through artificial intelligence: a review and research agenda

Purpose>This study defines a three-angled research plan to intensify the knowledge and development undergoing in the retail sector. It proposes a theoretical framework of the customer journey to explain the customers' intent to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) as a protective measure for interaction between the customer and the brand.Design/methodology/approach>This study presents a research agenda from three-dimensional online search, ML and AI algorithms. This paper enhances the readers' understanding by reviewing the literature present in utilizing AI in the customer journey and presenting a theoretical framework.Findings>Using AI tools like Chatbots, Recommenders, Virtual Assistance and Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) helps create improved brand awareness, better customer relationships marketing and personalized product modification.Originality/value>This study intends to identify a research plan based on investigating customer journey trends in today's changing times with AI incorporation. The research provides a novel model framework of the customer journey by directing customers into different stages and providing different touchpoints in each stage, all supported with AI and ML.

Construcción social de los problemas conductuales en infantes

Los problemas de conducta durante la infancia tienen afectaciones importantes tanto en quienes los presentan como en las personas que interactúan frecuentemente con ellos. Estas afectaciones son más evidentes en los contextos familiares y educativos que durante los últimos meses han sido seriamente modificados debido a la pandemia causada por COVID-19, así como sus repercusiones sociales, políticas y económicas. Más que en otros momentos, referirse a los problemas conductuales infantiles cobra importancia a nivel mundial. La experiencia que están pasando las familias con niños en primera infancia repercutirá en el futuro inmediato y su impacto se reflejará en las áreas del dominio psicológico y social. Aunado a esta predicción está el hecho de que la atención adecuada para estos problemas sigue siendo un reto, sobre todo, para países en vías de desarrollo como México. Existen elementos sociales y estructurales que pueden estar dificultando la atención temprana e intensiva hacia los niños y niñas. En el presente ensayo se discutirá acerca de la construcción social de los problemas conductuales infantiles, así como la forma en que dicha construcción es influenciada por elementos sociales y estructurales. Al principio del documento se presentan algunos datos estadísticos que permiten al lector dimensionar la naturaleza del problema. Posteriormente se argumenta sobre la importancia de contextualizar la conducta objetivo y se plantean algunos ejemplos cotidianos que buscan facilitar la reflexión. Enseguida se expone una problemática adyacente a los problemas conductuales de los infantes: el desgaste del cuidador. Se finaliza el ensayo con la urgencia de dirigir esfuerzos hacia la puesta en práctica de formas de intervención con respaldo empírico como lo es el análisis conductual aplicado.Alternate :Childhood behavior problems have important effects on children and on the people in touch with them. These effects are more evident in family and educational contexts, which in recent months, have been seriously affected due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, as well as the related social, political and economic repercussions. More than other times, talking about childhood behavioral problems have importance worldwide. Current experiences of families with early childhood kids will have repercussions on immediate future and its impact will be seen in areas of social and psychological domain. Coupled with this prediction it is the fact that appropriate attention to these problems remain a challenge, specially to developing countries like Mexico. There are social and structural elements that may be hampering early and intensive care for children. This essay will discuss about the social and structural elements that influence the treatment of children’s behavior problems. At the beginning of the document some statistical data are presented to allow the reader to assess the dimension of the problem. Subsequently, with the objective of facilitate a reflective positioning, some arguments are provided about the importance of contextualizing behavior problems and some examples are raised to this purpose. Next, an adjacent problem is exposed: the burnout in caregivers and the emerging telehealth treatment for the families. This essay concludes pointing out the urgency of directing efforts towards putting into practice interventions with empirical support such as applied behavior analysis.

Writings on the Pandemic: Three short essays by Anne Bogart about Covid-19 and the Directing's future

This paper is a collection of short essays written by the American theatre director Anne Bogart and translated into Portuguese by the Brazilian theatre director and researcher Fabiano Lodi. Each one of them is about the impacts of Locking down the Theatres and the complete stopping for artistic and cultural activities because of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic, since 2020 March. Thus, Bogart proposes a review of cultural, political and ethical issues from the historical past to imagine a future in which theatre as an art of encounter will be possible again.

Controlled copper in situ growth-amplified lateral flow sensors for sensitive, reliable, and field-deployable infectious disease diagnostics.

A polyethyleneimine (PEI)-assisted copper in-situ growth (CISG) strategy was proposed as a controlled signal amplification strategy to enhance the sensitivity of gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow sensors (AuNP-LFS). The controlled signal amplification is achieved by introducing PEI as a structure-directing agent to regulate the thermodynamics of anisotropic Cu nanoshell growth on the AuNP surface, thus controlling shape and size of the resultant AuNP@Cu core-shell nanostructures and confining free reduction and self-nucleation of Cu2+ for improved reproducibility and decreased false positives. The PEI-CISG-enhanced AuNP-LFS showed ultrahigh sensitivities with the detection limits of 50 fg mL-1 for HIV-1 capsid p24 antigen and 6 CFU mL-1 for Escherichia coli O157:H7. We further demonstrated its clinical diagnostic efficacy by configuring PEI-CISG into a commercial AuNP-LFS detection kit for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection. Altogether, this work provides a reliable signal amplification platform to dramatically enhance the sensitivity of AuNP-LFS for rapid and accurate diagnostics of various infectious diseases.