Your browser doesn't support javascript.
Show: 20 | 50 | 100
Results 1 - 20 de 130
Filter
1.
South European Society and Politics ; 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-20243700

ABSTRACT

Focusing on the central government's response to the Covid-19 crisis during the first wave in Spain, the article analyses the executive's strategy of power concentration, and the factors that shape its implementation. We sketch how the crisis erupted, the main measures and strategies adopted by the national executive, the role of the experts, and the interaction with other political actors and institutions. We also explore the second phase and how the political reaction evolved towards a more consensual approach. Paradoxically, the consequences for the political actors were apparently less harmful than expected, since the governments did not lose political support, and the electorate continued to support the policy measures adopted to mitigate the pandemic.

2.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) ; 13989 LNCS:703-717, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20242099

ABSTRACT

Machine learning models can use information from gene expressions in patients to efficiently predict the severity of symptoms for several diseases. Medical experts, however, still need to understand the reasoning behind the predictions before trusting them. In their day-to-day practice, physicians prefer using gene expression profiles, consisting of a discretized subset of all data from gene expressions: in these profiles, genes are typically reported as either over-expressed or under-expressed, using discretization thresholds computed on data from a healthy control group. A discretized profile allows medical experts to quickly categorize patients at a glance. Building on previous works related to the automatic discretization of patient profiles, we present a novel approach that frames the problem as a multi-objective optimization task: on the one hand, after discretization, the medical expert would prefer to have as few different profiles as possible, to be able to classify patients in an intuitive way;on the other hand, the loss of information has to be minimized. Loss of information can be estimated using the performance of a classifier trained on the discretized gene expression levels. We apply one common state-of-the-art evolutionary multi-objective algorithm, NSGA-II, to the discretization of a dataset of COVID-19 patients that developed either mild or severe symptoms. The results show not only that the solutions found by the approach dominate traditional discretization based on statistical analysis and are more generally valid than those obtained through single-objective optimization, but that the candidate Pareto-optimal solutions preserve the sense-making that practitioners find necessary to trust the results. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

3.
Papeles Del Ceic-International Journal on Collective Identity Research ; (1)2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-20235660

ABSTRACT

Social attitudes to climate change are strongly influenced by the uncertainties associated with it;in turn, perceptions of them depend on the experts: the actors socially entitled to produce valid knowledge about the climate. Theirs points of view have been scarcely studied in Spain. Filling this empirical gap is the aim of this article based on the analysis of the discourse produced in in-depth interviews to experts in the subject. The analysis carried out within the framework of the << sociology of ignorance >> reveals a sharp awareness of scientific uncertainties linked to the fear of its use for justify-ing climate change denial and inaction. The vision of global futures in a context of global warming is bleak;by contrast, personal horizons appear less disturbing. The epistemic gap between experts and laymen is reaffirmed, but some argue that both positions are interchangeable. The interviewees agree that experts have to advice institutions and inform society, and that uncertainties are difficult to com-municate;and disagree over the pros and cons of communicating them to laymen. In conclusion: cli-mate change -together with the doubts raised by COVID-19- leads the Spanish experts to confront scientific uncertaintes and to ponder the challenge of its public communication.

4.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass ; : No Pagination Specified, 2023.
Article in English | APA PsycInfo | ID: covidwho-20234641

ABSTRACT

In a rapidly developing crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, people are often faced with contradictory or changing information and must determine what sources to trust. Across five time points (N = 5902) we examine how trust in various sources predicts COVID-19 health behaviors. Trust in experts and national news predicted more engagement with most health behaviors from April 2020 to March 2022 and trust in Fox news, which often positioned itself as counter to the mainstream on COVID-19, predicted less engagement. However, we also examined a particular public health behavior (masking) before and after the CDC announcement recommending masks on 3 April 2020 (which reversed earlier expert advice discouraging masks for the general public). Prior to the announcement, trust in experts predicted less mask-wearing while trust in Fox News predicted more. These relationships disappeared in the next 4 days following the announcement and reversed in the 2 years that follow, and emerged for vaccination in the later time points. We also examine how the media trusted by Democrats and Republicans predicts trust in experts and in turn health behaviors. Broadly we consider how the increasingly fragmented epistemic environment has implications for polarization on matters of public health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

5.
Journal of Nursing Management ; 2023, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20234032

ABSTRACT

Aim. To develop a set of infectious disease emergency response competencies specific to frontline nurses in China. Background. Nurses play an important role in the infectious disease emergency response. Competency-based training is the cornerstone of the professionalization of disaster rescue, including the infectious disease emergency response. Accordingly, reaching a consensus on a set of core competencies is essential. However, information regarding the competencies needed for nurses in the infectious disease emergency response is limited. Methods. A literature review and in-depth expert interviews were conducted to establish a draft of competencies, which consisted of 53 items, including 3 first-level index items, 12 second-level index items, and 38 third-level index items. Eighteen experts with the knowledge of infectious disease management and experience with infectious disease emergency rescue from different regions in China were recruited for Delphi consultation. A two-round Delphi survey was conducted via email. Consensus was defined as a mean importance value >4.5 and the coefficient of variation <0.25 among the experts. Finally, the analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weight of each index on which consensus had been reached. Results. An index system of infectious disease emergency response competencies for nurses was constructed, including 3 first-level indices (knowledge, attitudes, and skills), 10 second-level indices, and 32 third-level indices. The response rates of the two rounds of the Delphi survey were both 100%, and the authority coefficient of the 18 experts was 0.903. The weighted value of each index was established with a consistency ratio <0.1, demonstrating that skill (0.5396) ranked first among the three first-level indices, followed by knowledge (0.2970) and attitudes (0.1634). Conclusion. The study developed a consensus on infectious disease emergency response competencies required for nurses in China, which provides guidance for the assessment and training of nurses on infectious disease emergency response. Implications for Nursing Management. According to the competency index system, nursing managers could develop effective training programs of infectious disease emergency response competency for nurses and select competent nurses for emergency response to infectious diseases.

6.
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings ; 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20232223

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the practices involved in mobilizing social media data from their site of production to the institutional context of non-profit organizations. We report on nine months of fieldwork with a transnational and intergovernmental organization using social media data to understand the role of grassroots initiatives in Mexico, in the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show how different stakeholders negotiate the definition of problems to be addressed with social media data, the collective creation of ground-truth, and the limitations involved in the process of extracting value from data. The meanings of social media data are not defined in advance;instead, they are contingent on the practices and needs of the organization that seeks to extract insights from the analysis. We conclude with a list of reflections and questions for researchers who mediate in the mobilization of social media data into non-profit organizations to inform humanitarian action. © 2023 ACM.

7.
Educ Inf Technol (Dordr) ; : 1-41, 2023 May 29.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-20231988

ABSTRACT

The assessment process of readiness for adoption an educational system considers the lifeblood of the e-learning system in a particular educational organization and the ability to assess the organization's readiness among the main factors which contributes to the success and progress. The readiness models are instruments that assist educational organizations in measuring their capability level and identifying the gaps to develop a strategy for implementing and adopting e-learning system. Due to the sudden chaos that Iraqi educational institutions have been exposed to the Covid-19 epidemic since the beginning of 2020, the e-learning system has been adopted as a quick alternative educational system for the continuation of the educational process without taking into consideration the readiness of the basic components of the educational process, which comprises the readiness of the infrastructure, human and educational organization to adopt such systems. Despite increased attention by stakeholders and the government with the readiness assessment process recently, there is no comprehensive model for assessing e-learning readiness in Iraqi higher education institutions, the purpose of this study is to design a model of an e-learning readiness assessment for Iraqi universities based on the comparative studies and the experts' views. It is worth to mention that the proposed model has objectively designed according to particular features and local characteristics country. The fuzzy delphi method was utilized for the validation process of the proposed model. The main dimensions and all factors of the proposed model reached the experts' agreement except a number of measures that did not achieve the assessment requirements. The final analysis result indicates that the e-learning readiness assessment model includes 3 main dimensions and 13 factors with 86 measures. Iraqi higher educational institutions can employ the designed model to assess their readiness and identify the areas that need improvement and reduce the gaps failures in e-learning adoption.

8.
Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz ; 66(6): 689-699, 2023 Jun.
Article in German | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2322843

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: At the beginning of the COVID­19 pandemic in Germany, there was great uncertainty among the population and among those responsible for crisis communication. A substantial part of the communication from experts and the responsible authorities took place on social media, especially on Twitter. The positive, negative, and neutral sentiments (emotions) conveyed there during crisis communication have not yet been comparatively studied for Germany. STUDY AIM: Sentiments in Twitter messages from various (health) authorities and independent experts on COVID­19 will be evaluated for the first pandemic year (1 January 2020 to 15 January 2021) to provide a knowledge base for improving future crisis communication. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From n = 39 Twitter actors (21 authorities and 18 experts), n = 8251 tweets were included in the analysis. The sentiment analysis was done using the so-called lexicon approach, a method within the social media analytics framework to detect sentiments. Descriptive statistics were calculated to determine, among other things, the average polarity of sentiments and the frequencies of positive and negative words in the three phases of the pandemic. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The development of emotionality in COVID­19 tweets and the number of new infections in Germany run roughly parallel. The analysis shows that the polarity of sentiments is negative on average for both groups of actors. Experts tweet significantly more negatively about COVID­19 than authorities during the study period. Authorities communicate close to the neutrality line in the second phase, that is, neither distinctly positive nor negative.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Social Media , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics , Sentiment Analysis , Germany , Communication , Attitude
9.
Information Technologies and Learning Tools ; 93(1):117-134, 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2309877

ABSTRACT

The transition to distance and blended forms of education in most higher education institutions during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the actions of martial law in Ukraine prompted teachers to create their own electronic educational resources and electronic training courses, with the help of which the content of the academic discipline is transmitted. The article describes approaches to the evaluation of the quality of electronic educational courses. The main structural components of an electronic educational course for higher education institutions are distinguished: technical and technological, normative and organizational, methodical, substantive, result and evaluative, which can be considered factors affecting its quality. It was determined that the technical and technological factor is characterized by the possibility and convenience of installing electronic educational course on PCs and mobile devices, compatibility of electronic educational course with various operating systems availability and quality of instructions for installing/starting electronic educational course, availability of a description of technical characteristics of electronic educational course and contacts of its developer(s). The criteria of the regulatory and organizational factor are normative acts related to the educational course, reviews of the electronic educational course, questionnaires for applicants of higher education and teachers regarding the determination of the quality of the electronic educational course. Features of the methodological block are instructions for the electronic educational course users, methodological materials for students of higher education on the performance of the main types of tasks, methodological recommendations for the electronic educational course teacher, feedback. The content factor is characterized by lecture texts, presentations for each topic, multimedia materials, a terminological dictionary, tasks (practical, interactive, for independent work, creative, research), project works, reference materials, a list of main and additional sources, additional educational materials, a glossary.A basic factor-criterion model for evaluating the quality of an electronic educational course for higher education institutions is proposed, which makes it possible to carry out an objective quantitative assessment of the quality of an electronic educational course and to identify possible shortcomings in order to eliminate them in time, which can be used during the development and evaluation of electronic educational courses for higher education institutions in various academic disciplines.

10.
2023 SPE Argentina Exploration and Production of Unconventional Resources Symposium, LAUR 2023 ; 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2290457

ABSTRACT

Oil and gas remote operations (RO) enabled by automation and digital solutions are reducing the number of people required to work in the wellsite;many subject matter experts can now complete their daily tasks from the safety of the office in town. We have been transitioning to these new ways of working for some time, and the progress has been greatly accelerated to help ensure business continuity for customers during COVID-19 restrictions, allowing high numbers of wellsite operatives the freedom to work from home. For the Oil & Gas companies that have experimented with more technology, the results have been incredible. Digital transformation has finally hit the industry and it's taking off to meet sustainable goal of upstream companies, this transformation is one such measure by which these goals can be approached. Despite the global availability of technology to handle analytical task from a safe distance, substantial drilling activities have been carried out traditionally across globe. Such traditional drilling operations were carried out in Thailand where client and SLB work together in fast paced factory drilling environment where an oil well can drill and complete within 7 days for 2 strings (2-sections only) 2400-2600 m in onshore operation which requires experienced people to monitor and execute tasks. To support such operation from town i.e., remotely with systematic monitoring by skilled people, one requires to adapt digitization. This paper demonstrates the ability of SLB to adapt the digital environment by introducing "Remote Operation Center" setup enabling to help client achieve their sustainable goals within budget and provided an alternate solution to sustain operations in COVID-19 pandemic. Remote Operations is the ability to operate a system or a machine at a distance;one can handle multiple operations from a safe environment of office in town using technology. It unfolds analytical task & physical task;the former is handed over to Remote Operation Center and physical task is left at rig crew. The Remote Operation Center execute both Directional Drilling (DD) and Measurement & Logging While Drilling (MLWD) services at the well site, from town. Executing Directional Drilling Remote Operation was more challenging. RO moves industry towards future and pushes all other traditional players to work on sustainable goals while adapting to digital environment. On site presence of crew was reduced by 50% while maintaining same pace of operations with better data analysis. Copyright 2023, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

11.
Complexity ; 2023, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2303742

ABSTRACT

The article outlines an approach to computer modelling called "human simulation,"whose development has been explicitly oriented towards addressing societal problems through transdisciplinary efforts involving stakeholders, change agents, policy professionals, subject matter experts, and computer scientists. It describes the steps involved in the creation and exploration of the "insight space"of policy-oriented artificial societies, which include both analysing societal problems and designing societal solutions. A case study is provided, based on an (ongoing) research project studying "emotional contagion"related to misinformation, stigma, and anxiety in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with lessons learned about some of the challenges and opportunities facing scientists and stakeholders trying to simulate solutions to complex societal problems. © 2023 F. LeRon Shults.

12.
2023 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium, RAMS 2023 ; 2023-January, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2300841

ABSTRACT

VirtualWorx™ began as a 2015 Raytheon Six Sigma process improvement project to solve challenges faced by customers who were being asked to "do more with less"such that Operations Sustainment (OS) costs became a significant aspect in the planning and awarding of new systems, as well as for upgrades to existing systems. This raised the need to investigate opportunities that reduced OS costs, which spanned the spectrum from technology-enabled maintenance operations to autonomy and analytics. VirtualWorx™ focused on the former and in particular, the process of flying technicians to international field sites to solve challenging troubleshooting and repair issues that were beyond the capabilities of the local maintainers but would have broader implications affecting product maintainability.The opportunity focused on business process improvement through the insertion of technology to better leverage global human resources and extend the significant breadth and depth of engineering expertise from Raytheon Centers of Excellence. This would allow support of deployed systems anywhere in the world through secure two-way audiovideo communication up to and including augmented reality-based interactive remote collaboration. Figure 1 depicts the brainstorming session that resulted in a "back-of-The-napkin"design.The vision was to provide a secure enterprise, technical collaboration solution by implementing augmented reality-based communication capability to improve operational availability (Ao) of a system to perform its mission, reduce overall sustainment costs (including significant reduction in program travel), and provide effective troubleshooting of systems under repair.The proposed strategy prioritized customer driven use cases and network architecture development to:•Establish scalable Outside Contiguous United State (OCONUS) reach-back connectivity for technical support between a remote user and subject matter expert over a secure infrastructure worldwide•Facilitate technical support via a common environment using Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities over existing company network infrastructure•Enable the spectrum of collaboration across the enterprise to reduce staffing costs, leverage technical expertise, and provide improved Efficiency, Effectiveness, Capacity, and Capability (E2C2).With a strong business case, a successful proof-of-concept phase gained support from senior leadership in engineering and digital technology and earned further investment through Raytheon Independent Research and Development (IRAD) funding to move the project forward into a pilot phase for the first use case-remotely supported maintenance.To date, VirtualWorx™ has been successfully piloted and deployed on various internal and customer programs handling a variety of data and communication-rich exchanges that span the entire development life cycle.Underneath the system's hardware and Raytheon Technologies' global network infrastructure, VirtualWorx™ is powered by Librestream's Onsite software platform that provides responsive technical support throughout the product life cycle allowing the emerging workforce to respond in a way employees feel most comfortable-via video.VirtualWorx™ has become a Raytheon Technologies Enterprise solution for end-To-end augmented reality collaboration specifically tailored to support remote maintenance of aerospace and defense repairable assets. The on-premises solution carries export controlled technical data and delivers live reach-back support over an increasing variety of use cases since the initial proof-of-concept-to support maintenance and repair of deployed systems around the world. It streams AR-enhanced live audiovideo between field service engineers, subject matter experts, domestic and international business partners and is accessible anywhere on the company's global network and through virtual private networking (VPN) access from off-site locations.Return on investment (ROI) has been realized from the initial remote maintenance use case to broader applications of the technology to reso ve both internal and external challenges. Many of these recent challenges were especially brought on by recent COVID pandemic conditions that restricted global travel, limited face-To-face communication, and prevented movement of personnel as sites were locked-down due to COVID exposure concerns. © 2023 IEEE.

13.
Media and Communication ; 11(1):212-216, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2300022

ABSTRACT

Digitalization challenges science communication in theoretical as well as methodological ways. It raises questions on how scientists, organizations, and institutions, as well as citizens and actors from other fields communicate about science and how science communication affects politics and the public. This thematic issue presents a collection of articles attempt-ing to tackle digitalization's challenge for science communication research. In this editorial, we provide a short overview of the included articles. Additionally, we outline some future avenues that research could follow to examine further the implications that digital channels could have for science communication. © 2023 by the author(s);licensee Cogitatio Press (Lisbon, Portugal).

14.
Papeles del CEIC ; 2023(1):1-20, 2023.
Article in Spanish | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-2295152

ABSTRACT

En las disposiciones sociales ante el cambio climático influyen notablemente las incertidumbres que lo envuelven. Su conocimiento, a su vez, depende de los expertos: los actores legitimados para producir un saber válido sobre el clima. Como en España sus puntos de vista apenas han sido estudiados, este artículo los aborda mediante un análisis del discurso generado en entrevistas en profundidad a especialistas en la materia. Los discursos examinados a través de la óptica de la «sociología de la ignorancia» revelan una aguda conciencia de las incertezas científicas, unida al temor a que sean utilizadas para justificar el negacionismo y la inacción. La visión del futuro común amenazado por el calentamiento global es sombría, en contraste con el horizonte individual, menos pesimista. Se reafirma la división epistemológica entre expertos y legos, aunque para algunos son posiciones intercambiables. Hay acuerdo en que los especialistas deben asesorar e informar a las instituciones y la sociedad, aunque les cuesta comunicar las incertidumbres;y discrepan en cuanto a la conveniencia de exponerlas a los legos. El análisis concluye que el cambio climático -sumado a las dudas suscitadas por el COVID-19- aboca a los expertos españoles a afrontar las incertidumbres científicas y a sopesar los pros y contras de su comunicación pública.Alternate :Social attitudes to climate change are strongly influenced by the uncertainties associated with it;in turn, perceptions of them depend on the experts: the actors socially entitled to produce valid knowledge about the climate. Theirs points of view have been scarcely studied in Spain. Filling this empirical gap is the aim of this article based on the analysis of the discourse produced in in-depth interviews to experts in the subject. The analysis carried out within the framework of the «sociology of ignorance» reveals a sharp awareness of scientific uncertainties linked to the fear of its use for justifying climate change denial and inaction. The vision of global futures in a context of global warming is bleak;by contrast, personal horizons appear less disturbing. The epistemic gap between experts and laymen is reaffirmed, but some argue that both positions are interchangeable. The interviewees agree that experts have to advice institutions and inform society, and that uncertainties are difficult to communicate;and disagree over the pros and cons of communicating them to laymen. In conclusion: climate change -together with the doubts raised by COVID-19- leads the Spanish experts to confront scientific uncertaintes and to ponder the challenge of its public communication.

15.
Front Sociol ; 8: 996585, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2299314

ABSTRACT

The Lived Experience Researchers (LERs) of the Mental Health Policy Research Unit (MHPRU) reflect on the experience of conducting rapid co-produced research, particularly during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this perspective article, we introduce requirements for co-production applying the 4Pi Framework, reflect on specific characteristics of co-production in rapid research, discuss strengths and challenges for involvement of LERs in rapid research, and lastly provide recommendations to achieve meaningful involvement. Incorporating meaningful co-production is an augmentation to any research project, with several benefits to the research, to the team, and to individual researchers. Particularly in the case of rapid research, that aims for efficient translation of knowledge into practice, involvement of experts by experience will be key. The work conducted by the MHPRU LERs presented in this paper demonstrates the viability, value, and potential of this way of working.

16.
Clin Infect Dis ; 76(11): 1875-1878, 2023 Jun 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2290581

ABSTRACT

In this article, we summarize findings from research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Infectious Diseases Society of America to understand infectious disease (ID) workforce contributions to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response and their impacts. ID experts were found to have made diverse and unique contributions that went well beyond their usual responsibilities, with many spending several hours a week on these activities without additional compensation. These efforts were thought to not only build community resilience but also augment the ongoing public health response. Respondents also reported several hospital and clinical leadership roles taken on during the pandemic, such as developing protocols and leading clinical trials. We also make several policy recommendations, such as medical student debt relief and improved compensation, that will be needed to help fortify the ID workforce for future pandemics.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Communicable Diseases , Humans , Public Health , Pandemics
17.
50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, SEFI 2022 ; : 1462-1473, 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2276832

ABSTRACT

This research follows a previously published paper presented by Pourtoulidou and Frey which describes the conversion of a classroom-based to blended training for new employees entering aerospace companies [1]. This paper presents the lessons learned that derived from the analysis of the results after evaluating the blended training according to the participants', subject matter experts', and trainer's perspectives. Prior to the training, Pourtoulidou and Frey analyzed the demands of aerospace companies and the labor market in order to develop this introductory training [1]. The classroom-based training was developed, implemented and evaluated in 2018/2019. Utilizing this evaluation, the blended training consisted of an online phase, which lasted six months and provided access to lecture videos, literature material, quizzes, forums and virtual meetings over the Moodle platform. In the middle of the online phase, a face-to-face session took place in October 2021 in which the participants worked with practical applications and associated with subject matter experts operating directly in industrial projects. The lessons learned focus on the training development for employees' blended courses and on the specific limitations resulting from developing a joint training for entry-level aerospace engineers. The flexibility and further benefits of the training's online phase were well received from the participants, while the opportunity to meet, work and exchange experiences in person during the training was highly appreciated. The impact of COVID-19 on participants' experience and feedback was also visible and commented on. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

18.
Materials Today: Proceedings ; 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2273780

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 phase, e-commerce companies have risen rapidly, and customer demand increased suddenly. Brick-and-mortar ways of shopping have entirely shut down for approximately 4 months, and the whole country is dependent on online marketing platforms. There is a sudden rise in packaging because customers are more centric on online marketing;due to this, there is a massive increase in plastic consumption. This research paper aims to conduct a quantitative analysis of Indian consumer and industry experts regarding packaging products of e-commerce companies and then develop a framework for e-commerce companies regarding green sustainable practices. 145 responses were collected from Indian consumers, and 35 responses were taken from industry experts. This paper aims to visualize Indian customers' thinking regarding plastic bag packaging that they received from the e-commerce platforms and provide some valuable suggestions to the e-commerce companies. After analyzing the customer responses, a strategic framework is designed for green sustainable practices and validated by industry experts through a survey. After validating this framework, a robust framework is finally designed, which can be implemented in e-commerce companies for improved sustainability in their supply chain network. © 2023

19.
Gender & Behaviour ; 20(3):20134-20148, 2022.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-2270623

ABSTRACT

South African women remain vulnerable to gender-based violence, including femicide. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major and very complex public concern in the country currently. This makes IPV the most widespread method by which men perpetrate violence against women. It is not clear if women are empowered with IPV Information, Motivation and Behavior skills (IBM) to protect themselves against IPV occurrences. This article presents the developed PreCCL (prevention, community-based, corrective and law enforcement) strategies to empower women against intimate partner violence in Limpopo Province, South Africa. PreCCL strategies were developed based on qualitative and quantitative IBM (Information, Motivation and Behaviour) of IPV results as well as evidence-based information from the review of literature. Delphi technique was used to organize one stakeholder engagement meeting with a panel of 38 experts knowledgeable regarding Vhembe district IPV issues (namely managers from Vhembe Thohoyandou victim empowerment centre, members of the Executive council of the 6th administration of Limpopo provincial Legislatures, heads of departments or directors from the department of health, social development and community safety and security, chairperson of gender equity, TVEP managers, as well as women who were victims from Vhembe where the study was conducted, and chairperson of gender equity, disability women and children). The purpose of the stakeholder engagement meeting was consultation and buy-in of experts in the field regarding feasible and practical evidence-based intervention strategies for local communities. The setting for stakeholder engagement meeting was Vhembe District Tshifulanani at Munnandinnyi and Hadumasi the Victorious Community offices. However, due to COVID-19 regulations other stakeholders failed to attend, and the rating scales were emailed to them together with the PreCCL strategies. The participants were asked to rate the PreCCL strategies on a given Likert scale in terms of relevance, importance, potential effectiveness and recommendation for adoption. The 0.67 Cronbach Alpha reliability score of the Likert scale was found acceptable for this study. Of the 65 questionnaires sent out, only 38 were returned, which was 58.5% response rate. Data were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS. The strategies were rated relevant in addressing IPV in the district by most (n = 36;97,4%;Mean ± SD = 3.0 ± 0.7) of the stakeholder, whereby (n= 6;15.8%;Mean ± SD=3.8 ±1.2) strongly agreed and (n =30;78,9%) agreed. In terms of importance, most (n = 32;84.3%) of the respondents rated the strategies very important in addressing IPV in the communities. The strategies were rated potentially effective in addressing IPV by most (n =34;89.5%;Mean ± SD (3.2 ± 0.6) of the stakeholder. The majority (n = 34;89.6%) of the stakeholders recommended the adoption of the developed strategies in current state. Conclusion: PreCCL strategies to empower women against IPV occurrences, which were developed based on IBM qualitative and quantitative results as well as review of literature are considered relevant and potentially effective by stakeholder who recommend their adoption by the Department of Social Development, Limpopo Province.

20.
14th International Conference on Education Technology and Computers, ICETC 2022 ; : 292-298, 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-2266893

ABSTRACT

Cyber security is not merely about securing devices and focusing on software and hardware. Staff members with skills and know-how are among the most valuable assets in the context of cyber security. Globally, there is a lack of competent cyber security experts available and cyber security skills should be educated more widely. One of the most effective practices for training cyber security experts is a cyber security exercise. During a cyber security exercise, the learning audience train their skills with a realistic scenario depicting a hectic and stressful cyber incident or cyber attack. In order to successfully implement a cyber security exercise, there must be sufficient technical infrastructure mimicking required systems and networks. The infrastructure should allow the use of realistic threat actors with realistic attack vectors and real malware without compromising any production environments. Facilities offering such infrastructure are widely known as the cyber ranges. There are two special requirements raised by modern cyber range exercises: (i) cyber range collaboration, including capabilities for sharing and pooling cyber range services, and (ii) on-line cyber security exercises without restrictions of being on-site on the exercise premises. The requirement of implementing on-line exercises has increased especially after the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we introduce Flagship 2, a multinational state-of-the-art on-line cyber security exercise based on cyber range federation. We analyse the technical implementation of the cyber range federation and the learning outcomes of the exercise event based on a participant survey and relevant theories. The analysed results are explained with identified future research topics. © 2022 ACM.

SELECTION OF CITATIONS
SEARCH DETAIL