Coping With Covid‐19: Older Europeans and the Challenges of Connectedness and Loneliness

Social networks are important for well‐being and healthy aging. However, older adults are more likely to have less social contact with others than their younger counterparts due to significant changes in their lives, such as retirement or age‐related losses, along with declining health and mobility. Consequently, with increasing age, a growing proportion of people experience feelings of loneliness. This becomes even more important during pandemics when social contact should be minimized. Therefore, this article examines the extent and patterns of loneliness before and during the first two years of the Covid‐19 pandemic and how social contact and the type of communication affected levels of loneliness during the pandemic. To investigate loneliness, social contact, and their association during the pandemic, this study uses representative data from 27 countries from SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe). The analyses are based on a balanced panel covering three consecutive waves with 28,448 respondents aged 50 years or older. The results indicate that three out of ten Europeans face loneliness in later life. While loneliness has increased for a significant part of the elderly in the wake of the pandemic, there has also been a reverse trend in terms of a decrease in feelings of loneliness for an almost equal proportion of people. Additionally, multivariate analyses highlight that nonpersonal communication cannot substitute face‐to‐face interaction and can potentially increase feelings of loneliness. © 2023 by the author(s);licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).

Travel behavior and activity resilience regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: An approach based on smartphone panel data.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes around the world. The circumstances resulted in a radical shift in people's lives, including the way they move around the cities and/or carry out their activities. This study carries out a travel behavior analysis using commuting panel data collected over 7 days using smartphones. The study focuses on the Maceió Metropolitan Area (MMA), which is in the state of Alagoas in the northeast region of Brazil. Cluster analysis, using the k-means algorithm, divided the sample into three groups of travel behavior: Group A ("Infrequent travelers, for work or shopping trip purposes and very prone to do remote work"), Group B ("Intermediate travelers, for work or shopping trip purposes and prone to do remote work"), and Group C ("Frequent travelers, for work or meal purchases and not likely to do remote work"). Groups B and C are predominantly formed by individuals who carry out activities that are less likely to do remote work. By analyzing the groups, it is possible to understand the changes that occurred during the period studied (September/October 2020) and what are the expectations for a post-pandemic scenario, associated with each behavioral group. It was observed that "Working" was the main trip purpose during the pandemic and that the possibility of teleworking depends on the type of activity carried out. Making a scale of the resilience of activities considering the replacement of out-of-home activities by in-home remote activities, it can be observed that Group A was the most resilient, followed by Group B and C, respectively. For the post-pandemic scenario, Groups A and B are also the most likely to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and continue carrying out other remote activities, such as grocery shopping and meals, replacing, in the future, predominantly trips using ICTs.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Indica and Japonica Rice Markets: Examining by an Endogenous Agricultural Investment Model

Indica and japonica rice are commonly subjected to different market structures, and the international prices for both subspecies display different trends. The global indica and japonica rice markets in the mid and long term under climate change conditions were projected by the Rice Economy Climate Change (RECC) model. Additionally, endogenous agricultural investments were incorporated into the projections. A COVID-19 pandemic scenario was stimulated to observe its impact on the global indica and japonica rice markets. The results indicated that agricultural investments are expected to decrease in many indica rice-producing countries, whereas the investments will increase in many japonica rice -producing countries in the long term. Therefore, the global indica rice production will decrease due to its investment reduction;however, global japonica rice production will increase in the mid and long term. Due to the COVID-19 scenario, the international indica and japonica rice prices would decrease in 2020 due to the unprecedented shrinking economies worldwide, but the prices would increase from 2021 to 2040 compared with the baseline average of the price projections with the RECC model. The scenario simulation results reveal that the japonica rice markets are projected to have less impact than the indica rice markets from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital Infrastructure Management-Challenges and Opportunities in Post Covid Era

Digital Infrastructure Management-Challenges and Opportunities in Post Covid Era are analyzed in this paper. The 2020 pandemic has been the most serious issue in medical as well as humanity's history. It has impacted various lives in one way or another. There are multitudes of death cases globally, and the census is pacing at its fastest rate as possible. This lockdown has stressed the medical field and infrastructure and paved its way in the digitalization sector. While observing the lockdown, the world's economy has faced a steep fall due to sudden and unexpected hampering to the daily work. This opened the door to digitalization. The Digital field has seen a great hike where all the work is shifted from offices to home. It has opened various opportunities but also faces major challenges which expect to furnish after the pandemic crisis. This paper deals with the aspects of digital infrastructure in the post-Covid-19 era. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Cardiometry is the property of Cardiometry 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.)

Estimation of Pedestrian Flows in Urban Context: A Comparison Between the Pre and Post Pandemic Period

The Covid-19 pandemic, within a few months, radically changed the organization of daily life on a global scale;this has affected all aspects related to everyday life such as home-to-work or not home-to the work trips, accessibility of destination, recreational activities and so on. The need to reduce coronavirus transmission, especially indoors, has imposed the “social or physical distancing” that has required administrations to reorganize roads and sidewalks for public use both to tackle this crisis and to prepare for the future pandemic challenges. Following a previous extensive study devoted to the analysis and prediction of pedestrian flows in urban area in the city of Cassino, a new experimental campaign has been recently designed and carried out in order to validate the previous methodology and/or to highlight new trends in urban pedestrian activities. Comparison between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic data and calibrated models provided an interesting insight on the pedestrian behavioral impacts of emergency measures undertaken during pandemic. It is believed that obtained results may provide a useful knowledge for urban planners and designers to retrofit urban spaces taking into account the new pedestrian attitudes to mobility induced by the pandemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Evolutionary algorithm based approach for solving transportation problems in normal and pandemic scenario.

In recent times, COVID-19 pandemic has posed certain challenges to transportation companies due to the restrictions imposed by different countries during the lockdown. These restrictions cause delay and/ or reduction in the number of trips of vehicles, especially, to the regions with higher restrictions. In a pandemic scenario, regions are categorized into different groups based on the levels of restrictions imposed on the movement of vehicles based on the number of active cases (i.e., number of people infected by COVID-19), number of deaths, population, number of COVID-19 hospitals, etc. The aim of this study is to formulate and solve a fixed-charge transportation problem (FCTP) during this pandemic scenario and to obtain transportation scheme with minimum transportation cost in minimum number of trips of vehicles moving between regions with higher levels of restrictions. For this, a penalty is imposed in the objective function based on the category of the region(s) where the origin and destination are situated. However, reduction in the number of trips of vehicles may increase the transportation cost to unrealistic bounds and so, to keep the transportation cost within limits, a constraint is imposed on the proposed model. To solve the problem, the Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been modified accordingly. For this purpose, we have designed a new crossover operator and a new mutation operator to handle multiple trips and capacity constraints of vehicles. For numerical illustration, in this study, we have solved five example problems considering three levels of restrictions, for which the datasets are generated artificially. To show the effectiveness of the constraint imposed for reducing the transportation cost, the same example problems are then solved without the constraint and the results are analyzed. A comparison of results with existing algorithms proves that our algorithm is effective. Finally, some future research directions are discussed.

A new system to detect coronavirus social distance violation

In this paper, a novel solution to avoid new infections is presented. Instead of tracing users’ locations, the presence of individuals is detected by analysing the voices, and people’s faces are detected by the camera. To do this, two different Android applications were implemented. The first one uses the camera to detect people’s faces whenever the user answers or performs a phone call. Firebase Platform will be used to detect faces captured by the camera and determine its size and estimate their distance to the phone terminal. The second application uses voice biometrics to differentiate the users’ voice from unknown speakers and creates a neural network model based on 5 samples of the user’s voice. This feature will only be activated whenever the user is surfing the Internet or using other applications to prevent undesired contacts. Currently, the patient’s tracking is performed by geolocation or by using Bluetooth connection. Although face detection and voice recognition are existing methods, this paper aims to use them and integrate both in a single device. Our application cannot violate privacy since it does not save the data used to carry out the detection and does not associate this data to people.

CHANGE IN SETTING IN GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY DUE TO THE COVID19 PANDEMIC

This article focuses on the effects produced by the pandemic / syndemic on the setting of psychotherapeutic groups. After having described the concept of group and groupality understood as a modified state of consciousness and as an intentional and unintentional experience. he dwells on the conditions of transition from the situation of grouping in which the groupality, is not conscious of itself to the group in which it is gruppalita 'becomes aware. In addition, the independent variables that favor this passage are shown, in the task. space, time and roles/functions. In conclusion, the effects of setting change due to the pandemic, especially in relation to space, are described in three groups. The first takes place in the Observation and Diagnosis Center of the Vallecchio community, in the province of Rimini. The second is a learning group. The third is a psychotherapy group.

Consecutive Hits of COVID-19 in India: The Mystery of Plummeting Cases and Current Scenario.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related pandemic has been in existence for almost 2 years now after its possible emergence from a wet market in the city of Wuhan of the Chinese mainland. Evidence of the emergence and transmission of this virus was attributed to bats and pangolins. The causative virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread globally, affecting humans considerably with its current death toll to be over 4.7 million out of more than 233 confirmed cases as of September 2021. The virus is constantly mutating and continuously trying to establish itself in humans by increasing its transmissibility and virulence through its numerous emerging variants. Several countries have been facing multiple waves of COVID-19 outbreaks one after the other, putting the medical and healthcare establishments under tremendous stress. Although very few drugs and vaccines have been approved for emergency use, their production capabilities need to meet the needs of a huge global population. Currently, not even a quarter of the world population is vaccinated. The situation in India has worsened during the ongoing second wave with the involvement of virus variants with a rapid and huge surge in COVID-19 cases, where the scarcity of hospital infrastructure, antiviral agents, and oxygen has led to increased deaths. Recently, increased surveillance and monitoring, strengthening of medical facilities, campaigns of awareness programs, progressive vaccination drive, and high collaborative efforts have led to limiting the surge of COVID-19 cases in India to a low level. This review outlines the global status of the pandemic with special reference to the Indian scenario.

Building Resilience Through Foresight: The Case of Maritime Container Shipping Firms

Maritime container shipping (MCS) firms represent the backbone of worldwide supply chains. Due to the emergence of global trends and disruptions, MCS firms increasingly face an uncertain environment. Consequently, MCS firms must develop dynamic capabilities to enable the reconfiguration of organizational resources for building resilience in a constantly changing business ecosystem. To create adequate dynamic capabilities, MCS firms need to anticipate the future of their macro environment through advanced foresight techniques. Using a Delphi-based scenario analysis, this study systematically examines scenarios for MCS firms’macro environment. Twelve projections for the MCS industry were systematically created and were then assessed by 51 maritime experts. The resulting three distinct scenarios deliver valuable insights for MCS firms’executives, whereas the blockchains and drones technology will have already increased efficiency in the short-term scenario “picking the low-hanging fruit,”other technological disruptions will only affect the industry in the medium-term scenario “experiencing an era of dichotomy.”In the long-term scenario “overcoming the obstacles of the generational shift,”MCS firms will experience a transfer toward alternative fuel powered and autonomously driven vessels. Offering detailed scenarios for the future MCS macro environment, this study represents a guide for decision-makers on how to create dynamic capabilities in MCS firms to build resilience. Moreover, the results revealed differences in the experts’assessments due to their characteristics. Therefore, the study contributes to the academic focus on in-depth diversity analysis in the Delphi methodology and emphasizes the relevance of incorporating multiple stakeholders and panelists in future planning. IEEE

Experimenting with New Ways of Circular and Participatory Design: The Case Study of a Traditional Sicilian Architecture Transformed for Experiential Tourism

Circular economy, participatory design, and experiential tourism are the starting points for the “Il Pagliaru Novu” research project, whose aim is to redesign, in an innovative scope, a traditional Sicilian rural architecture called pagliaru. This paper aims to present such research, which experimented—in parallel—a circular design approach and a virtual participatory design experience to develop a microarchitecture for experiential tourism. We describe the method and design process behind the Pagliaru Novu, and the features—combining tradition and innovation—of such microarchitecture. The design, and especially the entire design process, highlights how a series of constraints related to the pandemic may turn into opportunities.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Practice of Forensic Medicine: An Overview.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, forensic sciences, on the one hand, contributed to gaining knowledge about different aspects of the pandemic, while on the other hand, forensic professionals were called on to quickly adapt their activities to respond adequately to the changes imposed by the pandemic. This review aims to clarify the state of the art in forensic medicine at the time of COVID-19, discussing the following: the influence of external factors on forensic activities, the impact of autopsy practice on COVID-19 and vice-versa, the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in post-mortem samples, forensic personnel activities during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the global vaccination program and forensic sciences, forensic undergraduate education during and after the imposed COVID-19 lockdown, and the medico-legal implications in medical malpractice claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly influenced different aspects of human life, and, accordingly, the practical activities of forensic sciences that are defined as multidisciplinary, involving different expertise. Indeed, the activities are very different, including crime scene investigation (CSI), external examination, autopsy, and genetic and toxicological examinations of tissues and/or biological fluids. At the same time, forensic professionals may have direct contact with subjects in life, such as in the case of abuse victims (in some cases involving children), collecting biological samples from suspects, or visiting subjects in the case of physical examinations. In this scenario, forensic professionals are called on to implement methods to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 infection risk, wearing adequate PPE, and working in environments with a reduced risk of infection. Consequently, in the pandemic era, the costs involved for forensic sciences were substantially increased.

The Socio-Economic Implications of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Brazilian Electric Sector Analysis

COVID-19 is causing the most significant global crisis of the 21st century, affecting health systems, economies, and societies worldwide. The governments of all countries are focused on controlling the disease, implementing severe measures, and sanitary policies to contain the virus, such as social distancing and isolation, and lockdown. The adopted actions generate a social and economic crisis. This chapter discusses the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in the electricity sector through an exploratory and data analysis survey. A comparative study shows the impact on energy consumption, the electricity market, and economic growth in Brazil. Finally, the chapter presents direct and indirect implications for restructuring the sector, the culture of a society, and projections for the post-pandemic scenario. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.