Third places: an option for reconfiguration work-community relations?

This text addresses one of the terms applied to describe spaces of experimentation, namely third place. This concept refers to new places that connect the functions of working, living, and socializing. These three functions had been separated by capitalism under a Fordist mode of regulation. However, since the 2000s, various space-based initiatives have reunited them. In this context, third places represent reference points for community life that favor broader and more creative exchanges at the local level and thus help to maintain sociability, especially in the post-COVID-19 era. Third places offer the opportunity to rethink the link between the workplace and mobility, to review spatial planning practices, and to re-examine the relationship between the local and the global.

Investigating the relationship between interventions, contact patterns, and SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility.

BACKGROUND: After a rapid upsurge of COVID-19 cases in Italy during the fall of 2020, the government introduced a three-tiered restriction system aimed at increasing physical distancing. The Ministry of Health, after periodic epidemiological risk assessments, assigned a tier to each of the 21 Italian regions and autonomous provinces. It is still unclear to what extent these different sets of measures altered the number of daily interactions and the social mixing patterns. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a survey between July 2020 and March 2021 to monitor changes in social contact patterns among individuals in the metropolitan city of Milan, Italy, which was hardly hit by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of daily contacts during periods characterized by different levels of restrictions was analyzed through negative binomial regression models and age-specific contact matrices were estimated under the different tiers of restrictions. By relying on the empirically estimated mixing patterns, we quantified relative changes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission potential associated with the different tiers. As tighter restrictions were implemented during the fall of 2020, a progressive reduction in the mean number of daily contacts recorded by study participants was observed: from 15.9 % under mild restrictions (yellow tier), to 41.8 % under strong restrictions (red tier). Higher restrictions levels were also found to increase the relative contribution of contacts occurring within the household. The SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number was estimated to decrease by 17.1 % (95 %CI: 1.5-30.1), 25.1 % (95 %CI: 13.0-36.0) and 44.7 % (95 %CI: 33.9-53.0) under the yellow, orange, and red tiers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results give an important quantification of the expected contribution of different restriction levels in shaping social contacts and decreasing the transmission potential of SARS-CoV-2. These estimates can find an operational use in anticipating the effect that the implementation of these tiered restriction can have on SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number under an evolving epidemiological situation.

Development of a Non-contact Two-Tier Biometric Security System for the DSWD 4Ps using Iris recognition and Speech Recognition

There has been a steep rise of contactless payment during COVID-19. The rapid improvements of miniaturized sensors and biometric recognition systems for face identification, fingerprint, iris, and voice are conducive and fit during this rise of COVID-19. Thus, non-contact interactions are the most effective way to fight against the spread of the virus and any other diseases. One of the most used is iris scanners and speech recognition. The study promotes contactless payments to address the accompanying issues in cash aid distribution particularly in the DSWD 4Ps, where it has a two-Tier biometric security system which is iris recognition and speech recognition. This can provide the same type of service and securities as a normal ATM while removing the worry of getting different kinds of viruses and diseases. Testing the iris recognition system, a False acceptance ratio of 13% and 3% of False Rejection rates were achieved. While for the testing of speech recognition (security questions), a False Acceptance Ratio of 0% and False Rejection Ratio of 12.12% were achieved. Lastly, testing of speech recognition (navigation)a False Acceptance Ratio of 0% and False Rejection Ratio of 3.62% were achieved. Giving the system an 84% accuracy for the iris recognition, 87.88% for the security questions, and 96.36% for the navigation. © 2021 IEEE.