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As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to secure public health, many processes have moved to the online space. The educational process is not an exception. Our main goal, which is presented in this article, was to re-design the educational process from face-to-face to distance learning in the Mathematics 1 course at the Technical University of Kosice. This article describes our approach to teaching, observations, and experience. This case study examines three factors: Firstly, the impact of distance education on overall assessments of students. Using descriptive statistics, the results of student evaluations were compared from the overall assessments for the last six academic years. It was found that distance learning does not affect excellent students and eliminates the number of students who do not pass. Secondly, the participation of students during online lessons, and thirdly, the use of electronic materials. The questionnaire survey and the data from the learning management system Moodle were used to examine the second and third factors. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the questionnaire survey data (frequencies, percentages and averages). An exploratory factor analysis was performed in order to assess the underlying key concepts regarding student evaluation of the teaching process. The exploratory factor analysis confirmed that this questionnaire followed the four key concepts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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This paper applies the concept of hierarchised mobility to study return migration in Slovakia in the context of the country's EU accession. The analysis is based on the national Labour Force Survey dataset, covering a decade of labour migration and return between the 2008/2009 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, concentrating in particular on the short-term labour market outcomes for less skilled return migrants. It is found that even under improved economic conditions, patterns of labour mobility set in the aftermath of the EU's Eastern enlargement continued to persist, together with structural inequalities in the Slovak labour market. Returnees in Slovakia face a markedly higher unemployment rate relative to stayers, and are less likely to be self-employed shortly after their return to Slovakia, compared to stayers or migrants. Returnees were also more exposed to instability in their jobs than migrants and stayers. From this perspective, return migration itself is a reflection of hierarchised mobility, as returnees clearly occupy the least stable jobs, and are the most exposed to instability in their employment. It appears that migration patterns from and to Slovakia are ingrained within the broader functioning of the European labour market.
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The Covid 19 pandemic is a global, not only, health crisis with devasting impact on the world economy in general. These impacts are also visible more and more in food and agriculture sector as the main sector of population nourishment. In spite of adopted measures in many countries, spread of the virus is starting to distrupt the supply of agrofood products to markets and consumers, both within and across borders. Most major economies are expected to enter recession as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, and the OECD has estimated that for each month the necessary containment measures continue the drop in output is equivalent to a decline in annual GDP growth up to 2 percentage points. How damaging these impacts tourn out to be for individual agricultural production of countries and agricultural cooperatives which are consider as the more viable during crisis is the objective of this paper.
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This case study refutes some controversial findings about a minor connection between the vaccination coverage and the spread of COVID-19. We try to eliminate some methodological shortcomings and risks, which are included in such previously published studies. Firstly, our selection comprises all regional units in one country. Secondly, the quality of data is basically identical in all examined regions within the country. Thirdly, all Slovak regions had an equal starting position. They were at the same stages of the COVID-19 wave, and the measures taken were analogous in all regions. Slovakia with a significantly different vaccination rates among regions is a very suitable study case. We used the empirical data at the level of its LAU 1 regions for the two latest COVID-19 waves at that time (Delta, Omicron). The methods of regression analysis and geostatistical methods were applied in the study. Indubitably, there is an obvious link between the vaccination coverage and the spread of COVID-19. We have shown that the incidence-trajectories among regions vary based on the vaccination rates. The positivity and incidence in the most vaccinated regional populations were significantly lower than in the least vaccinated regions in a whole analyzed period. Their values in the best vaccinated regions were lower by roughly 20-25 % during the delta and omicron wave-peaks. Using the spatial autocorrelation, we also managed to clearly identify a close relationship between vaccination on the one hand and standardized incidence and positivity on the other hand, although some regions deviated from this general finding.
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Operation of the coworking spaces (CSs) all over the world was strongly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including those in Slovakia. The capital city's CSs and coworking spaces localised in non-metropolitan eastern part confirmed decline in co-worker presence that have also influenced financial aspect of the coworking spaces stability and resilience. Even though there have been several possibilities of national and local grants from public authorities, this support was not widely used and no CSs decided to contact the owners of premises in order to get rent deferrals and/or rent discounts. The pandemic also caused switch of physical events into online activities and activate those spaces located in the eastern part of the country as the number of the events in these spaces overall increased. Even the community spirit inside the CSs transformed to community events decreased due to the adaptation of government measures, cooperation outside individual CSs have strengthen and lead to establishing of formalised coworking association in Slovakia. In spite of the difficult situation the CSs have to face, many of them realised the need of adaptation and invested in ICT devices, change of already not sufficient marketing strategies but also see business opportunities as several new coworking spaces have started to operate. All these aspects point at the fact that flexible work arrangement coworking spaces offer could help to solve global economic crisis. © 2023, The Author(s).
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The paper focuses on the cross-border care circulation of Slovak care workers who work in Austria, with the care crisis and the pandemic in the background. Slovak care workers often work in short-term two-week work rotas, allowing them to balance work and private life. They remain primarily responsible for the social reproduction and care of their households. The pandemic and imposed measures have fundamentally affected this transnational circulation of care. Caregivers faced the challenge of mobilizing capacities and resources to cope with emerging situations, developing new strategies, and modifying existing ones. Based on interviews with care workers, employment agencies, and a non-governmental organization focusing on the rights of care workers, the study presents how care workers coped with the measures introduced during the pandemic period, describes selected strategies of care workers to ensure social reproduction in their families despite the pandemic, and also discuss selected changes in the individual life trajectories of women, to which the pandemic period contributed. The paper argues that although women contributed to addressing the emerging care deficit reinforced by the pandemic crisis, they had to rely on their capacities for the care needs of their families. © 2023 The Author(s).
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Introduction: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, visiting policies in various healthcare centres across the world have changed. Visiting patients by relatives and friends have been stopped or significantly limited. New conditions and legal constraints for family visits had to be implemented also at in-patient palliative care settings, even though accompanying a dying person is crucial for the quality of the end of life. The study aimed to identify and review the visiting policies at in-patient specialist palliative care settings across Central and Eastern Europe. Patients and Methods: The study was conducted one year after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak from May to October 2021. Information about visiting policies, published on official websites of the in-patient specialised palliative care settings (stationary hospices and hospital-based palliative care units) from Central and Eastern European countries, were identified and categorised. The websites which lacked information about visiting policy during the COVID-19 pandemic were excluded. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained data was conducted by using content analysis techniques and descriptive analysis. The content from websites was translated into Polish with the usage of the Google Translate machine tool. Result(s): Data from 55 in-patient palliative care settings from 8 countries were collected and analysed (83.6% from Poland, and the other from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine). In 43.6% of the organisations, visits were stopped and 56.4% of settings published information about the special requirements for visiting arrangements. In 32.7% of all examined units upfront approval from a physician or the head of a department for visiting a patient was required, and 29.1% published information about personal protective equipment. 32.7% of organizations recommended telephone contact with the patient, and 12.7% provided video calls. Conclusion(s): Web information regarding visiting patients in in-patient palliative care settings is limited. There is a need to establish detailed requirements for the visits with better access to the website for the visitors, in case of a global disease outbreak.Copyright © Via Medica, ISSN 2545-0425, e-ISSN: 2545-1359.
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The aim of the article is to present the position of the Czech government and the society of this country towards the war in Ukraine. The text is an attempt to conduct a comparative analysis of the position of the Czech government and the part of society that has been opposing the government's policy towards Ukraine for some time. The author presented the main consequences of the Czech government's support for Ukraine, which are related to the post-pandemic crisis. These include, above all, problems with the supply of oil, natural gas and nuclear fuel for Czech nuclear power plants. Social problems include high inflation, rising interest rates and rising prices ofbasic commodities. In the summary, synthetic conclusions were drawn that confirm the discrepancies between the government's policy and the position of that part of society.
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The changes in the particle pollution in eight Slovak regions were evaluated by a paired t-test to verify the significance of the concn. changes during, before and after the lockdowns introduced in 2020 as compared with those of 2019. The obsd. air quality improvement was not flat-rate and rather momentary, and it did not last even through the whole restriction period. Significant decreases were recorded only for NO 2 concn. The European Commission limits of particulate pollution were exceeded in Slovakia. A concise literature rev. was also included.
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The present study deals with the use of gender-inclusive language on hygiene notices that were placed on public facilities (shops, banks, churches, museums) on the Dolna Street and SNP Square in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia) during the coronavirus pandemic. This phenomenon is examined in the context of the pandemic situation caused by the Coronavirus, as well as in the context of the current European gender policy and the application of gender-inclusive language in Slovakia. For the sake of comparison, attention is also paid to hygiene notices in Munich (Germany).
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Data and research on earnings during the COVID-19 period show that the pandemic also significantly changed the development of wages. It significantly differentiated the development of wages in economic sectors and regions. The aim of this contribution is to capture and evaluate in detail the development and changes in the level of wages in Slovakia and in its statistical districts in the first year of the pandemic (hereinafter FYP). An information on the basic characteristics of the development of wages at the national level is provided while several coefficients and parameters of growth/ increase. A more detailed overview of the development in the regions was provided by descriptive statistics - wage indicators in the districts. The results showed that although the rising trend of wages was maintained in the FYP, it was much lower than in the period before the pandemic. The relatively favourable state (growth) of wage development in the FYP at the national level is reduced/weakened by the situation in some districts with low growth or even a decrease in earnings. For the first time in a long period, four districts with a decrease in earnings were registered in the FYP. At the same time, the results showed that wages in the state sector showed higher growth in the FYP overall (and in individual forms of ownership) than in the private sector. The different influences and impacts of COVID-19 on wages in individual sectors, in turn, revealed the vulnerability of some sectors. Spatially differentiated changes in the development of wages identified districts that improved even during the pandemic (wage growth), as well as districts that were most affected by their decline.
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Inadequate nutrition as a result of poverty and poor real access to health care due to a lack of financial resources for travel to the doctor or medicines contribute to the unsatisfactory state of health in Roma communities. According to a Dinge study (Dinge 2003), there is a relatively large genetic load in some Roma communities, which is related to a high incidence of congenital (born) diseases. According to the general statistics of the Slovak Republic for the year 2021, there were 2.9 million people who were unable to work due to inhabitants, while in 2012 it was 2.3 million, people, while the average morbidity rate rose to 4.3% of the total population. Roma people have worse health status;higher infant mortality rates;shorter (10-15 years) life expectancy;higher prevalence of chronic diseases than the non-Roma (Sedlakova, 2014).
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Luxury is a measurable value in society, but every customer perceives this concept differently. Luxury represented different values before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic than it represents today. The aim of this article is to examine and statistically evaluate, on the basis of questionnaires, the view of respondents in Slovakia, especially on luxury in the time of COVID-19. © 2022 IEEE.
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Background: COVID-19 is a viral disease affecting mostly respiratory system with variable severity of the clinical course. Several clinical and laboratory parameters are associated with poor outcome. Progression of the clinical stage is associated with the exaggerated immune response and the cytokine storm. Method(s): We focused on the search of potential prognostic markers of fatal outcome among immune parameters. To this end, we examined the immune profile in 823 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in University Teaching Hospital in Martin (Slovakia) on admission and its changes over time during the first week of hospitalization. The examined immune profile consisted of the differential blood cell counts, serum concentration of immunoglobulins and basic complement compounds C4 and C3, flow cytometric lymphocyte subsets phenotyping and the measurement of selected activation and inhibition markers. Result(s): Although none of examined parameters alone had sufficient AUC value to be considered as a marker of (un)favourable outcome, we found several significant differences among different severity groups of patients, as well as between survivors and non-survivors. Severity of COVID-19 correlated with the severity of neutrophilia, thrombocytopenia, depletion of leukocyte (except for neutrophils) and lymphocyte subsets. In comparison to the fatal outcome, survival was associated with higher concentration of C3 and IgM, lower proportion of CD8+CD38+ cells, higher proportion of CD8+NKG2A+ and NK NKG2A+ cells on admission and with the significant increase in the expression on HLA-DR on both CD3+ and CD8+ cells over the first week. Conclusion(s): Our results point out to the dysregulated functional status of depleted CD8+ cells with their over-activation and possibly insufficient compensatory inhibition in COVID-19 non-survivors. Based on our results, the increase in HLA-DR expression on CD3+ and CD8+ cells is necessary for recovery.
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In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of health care services remains a serious, ongoing challenge. This once-in-a-century global health crisis exposed the vulnerability of healthcare delivery systems and the subsequent risks of patient harm. Given the scale of the occurrence and costs of preventable patient safety events, intervention and investment are still relatively modest. Good patient safety governance focuses on what leaders and policy makers can do to improve system performance and reduce the financial burden of avoidable care. Moreover, it is essential in driving progress in improving safety outcomes. This report examines how patient safety governance mechanisms in OECD countries have withstood the test of COVID-19 and provides recommendations for countries in further improving patient safety governance and strengthening health system resilience.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and still affects various sectors, including the agricultural sector. A specific industry deriving from agriculture is the wine industry. The purpose of this article is to find out and analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wine sector, especially regarding the Slovakia wine sector. To achieve this, a wide literary research study was conducted through which an overview of the global wine industry situation was obtained. Subsequently, the impact of COVID-19 on a selected wine business in the Slovak Republic was determined via interviewing. The findings were further analysed and compared with the situations of other Slovak and foreign wineries. It follows from the observations that both risk diversification within supplying and purchasing relations and the business's essential need to adapt to new circumstances under adverse conditions are very important factors. The article's contribution lies in a summarization of the problems and opportunities within the wineries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a wide literary research review and interviews with an employee of the large wine company, and the conclusions can also be applied to other agricultural industries.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that access to timely health spending data is crucial for informed policy-making. This Health Working Paper summarises and compares the methodologies applied in around half of OECD countries to estimate public and private health spending for the most recent year (i.e. t-1) as well as the approaches taken by the OECD Secretariat to fill existing data gaps for the remaining OECD countries. For the first time, the paper also explores the feasibility of nowcasting health spending for the current year (i.e. t) and examines data sources that could be potentially useful in such an exercise. While this review should help OECD countries that do not yet have experience in estimating health spending for year t-1 to improve the timeliness in their data reporting, a special focus in this paper lies on testing the applicability of the methods in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), using the WHO Western Pacific Region (WPRO) as an example. Generally, different data sources exist in many countries that would allow for a more timely estimation for health spending aggregates.
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From the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2021, a nationwide survey was conducted to examine business interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the impact of the pandemic on SMEs in the Slovak Republic. It also focused on identifying areas such as risk management with BCM, and crisis management within individual enterprises. The survey was carried out using a questionnaire distributed to SMEs operating in the country. Based on the questions from the questionnaire, four research hypotheses were developed. Based on the results of our investigation, we found that enterprises cannot correctly assess their capability level and manage risks effectively, potentially exposing themselves to further threats arising from such a relationship. There is a correlation between the business sector and the extent to which an enterprise has been affected by a pandemic. Enterprises with implemented risk management areas had operations halted for shorter periods than enterprises without implementation. There is a relationship between business sectors and the extent to which they were affected by the pandemic. The discussion concludes that the pandemic posed a type of threat for which several SMEs were unprepared. At the same time, no established risk minimization procedures would address this issue. Effective implementation of risk management as prevention or crisis management as response and application of BCM principles is one of how enterprises could prepare for risks and crises and increase their resilience.
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many countries see coal as the easiest solution to their energy sector challenges, despite the consequences for climate goals. Several countries of the European Union started to re-evaluate their coal policies vis-à-vis the current energy crisis and, although such a change is expected to be short-term in nature, it nevertheless has negative consequences for the Union's 2050 climate goal. However, most of the EU countries did not revise their phase-out goals. This paper examines Slovakia as a country that embarked on a coal phase-out trajectory only a few years before the pandemic broke out and stayed firmly on this path despite benefits stemming from the continued use of domestic coal. Domestic coal used to be considered a safeguard of energy security in Slovakia, especially after the 2009 gas crisis. However, a decision was made in 2018 to phase out coal by 2023, and this has not changed despite increased focus on domestic energy sources as energy security guarantors during the current energy crisis. This paper explains the decision in favour of a coal phase-out and its support vis-à-vis the energy crisis using the concept of ‘financial Europeanisation', which stresses the importance of EU funds for the development of the domestic policies of EU member states. While the expected funds serve as a catalyst for the coal phase-out needed to reach climate goals, short-term advantages of revising a coal phase-out were outweighed by long-term benefits provided by EU funds.
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We all know that the spread of the COVID-19 disease has brought significant restrictions for the whole world, which are also closely related to the business activities of companies. Due to the measures taken by the government of the Slovak Republic, some businesses were limited in the performance of their activities. In order to achieve the goal, in addition to general logical methods, we used hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis. We chose the ward method as the clustering method. Ward's method of minimum variance is an agglomerative (merging) hierarchical method. Slovak businesses in the field of tourism, the most businesses contained cluster 3, which contained 16 businesses. This most numerous and dominant cluster has an average asset indicator value of 8546978 . In Slovakia, as part of the aid to tourism enterprises at the government level, a call was launched within the framework of the scheme, during which it was possible to draw aid for the months of April to October 2020. This aid was supposed to cover the loss of 10% of their sales to entrepreneurs in the gastronomy and tourism industry.