Coronavirus Pandemic and Online Education: Impact on Developing Countries

In this book, eight substantive chapters examine how "developing” countries such as Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Mexico confronted the pandemic-driven online education shift. As local instruments, resources, and preferences of specific universities meshed with global platforms, ideas, and knowledge, the book addresses several questions. Was the mix too flaky to survive increasing competitiveness? Were countries capable enough to absorb mammoth software technological changes? Throwing a "developed” country (the United States) in for contrast, the book elaborates on the inequities between these countries. Some of these inequalities were economic (infrastructural provisions and accesses), others involved gender (the role of women), political (the difference between public and private universities), social (accessibility across social spectrum), and developmental (urban-rural divides). In doing so, new hypotheses on widening global gaps are highlighted in the book for further investigation. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.

Post-fifth assessment report urban climate planning: Lessons from 278 urban climate action plans released from 2015 to 2022

Cities respond to climate concerns mainly through climate action plans (CAPs). The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) was the first report from the international climate body that gave worldwide attention to urban climate change. Yet, a global situation of the content and structure of urban CAPs adopted or published after AR5 is not well represented in the literature. This literature void presents a difficulty in holistically understanding the strengths and weaknesses of existing urban CAPs, hence painting a clearer picture for future urban climate planning. Here, we performed detailed qualitative content analyses on CAPs from 278 cities worldwide. This study sought to achieve two specific objectives;(1) to critically analyse the content and structure of urban CAPs adopted or published from 2015 to 2022, and (2) to examine the extent to which sampled urban CAPs align with selected climate action best practices. There have been variations in the adoption or publication of urban CAPs from 2015 to 2022 across city types and world regions. Our analysis showed a rise in the number of CAPs adopted or published during the global COVID-19 lockdown period as compared to the post and pre-COVID-19 lockdown period. We also observed a transition from developing mainly mitigation-focused CAPs pre-COP21 to both mitigation and adaptation CAPs. About 96% of the sampled urban CAPs are focusing on the transport sector to achieve climate objectives. More than half (55%) of cities with climate change mitigation-related urban CAPs (147 urban CAPs of 267 urban CAPs) do not have deep decarbonization pledges, with less than a quarter of the pledges likely to be achieved by 2030. We found that about 81% of 120 cities with deep decarbonization pledges are more likely to report baseline emission inventory in their urban CAPs. A lack of inclusiveness, transparency and verification, evidence-based climate planning, comprehensiveness, and integration were the most common areas of non-alignment with best practices. The explicit consideration of synergies, trade-offs, or conflicts is significantly low. The evidence is a catalyst for understanding the dynamics in existing urban CAPs to shape future urban climate action planning. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Understanding immunity: an alternative framework beyond defense and strength.

In this paper we address the issue of how to think about immunity. Many immunological writings suggest a straightforward option: the view that the immune system is primarily a system of defense, which naturally invites the talk of strong immunity and strong immune response. Despite their undisputable positive role in immunology, such metaphors can also pose a risk of establishing a narrow perspective, omitting from consideration phenomena that do not neatly fit those powerful metaphors. Building on this analysis, we argue two things. First, we argue that the immune system is involved not only in defense. Second, by disentangling various possible meanings of 'strength' and 'weakness' in immunology, we also argue that such a construal of immunity generally contributes to the distortion of the overall picture of what the immune system is, what it does, and why it sometimes fails. Instead, we propose to understand the nature of the immune system in terms of contextuality, regulation, and trade-offs. We suggest that our approach provides lessons for a general understanding of the organizing principles of the immune system in health and disease. For all this to work, we discuss a wide range of immunological phenomena.

Videos and podcasts for delivering agricultural extension: achieving credibility, relevance, legitimacy and accessibility

PurposeTo explore the perceived credibility, relevance, legitimacy and accessibility of videos and podcasts in farm extension.MethodsA two-phase mixed methods approach consisting of a pre-COVID online survey of farmers (n = 221), farmer telephone interviews (n = 60) and in-person focus groups of farmers (n = 4) followed by an analysis of how viewers interact with Agricology videos and podcasts, a further online survey (n = 141) and online farmer focus groups (n = 4) during the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsIf they are to be perceived as effective extension methods, videos should be short, concise, practical, advert-free and visualise how to implement a practice. Podcasts can be longer, more detailed, and allow multitasking. Both should use farmer-friendly language, be easily accessible, high quality, non-biased, and be created by someone whom farmers respect.Practical implicationsHelps policy-makers and extensionists understand the potential of videos and podcasts and the trade-offs in using them with other forms of extension. The findings are also of use to global advisory services seeking to offer hybridised advice as a result of the ongoing COVID pandemic.Theoretical implicationsElucidates the trade-offs of using videos and podcasts when face-to-face extension is not possible and develops the CRELE framework.OriginalityDiscusses the role of podcasts in farm extension and re-evaluates the role of videos when face-to-face extension is impossible.

"To our health!” Perceived benefits offset privacy concerns in using national contact-tracing apps

PurposeCommunity health is placed under the limelight during the COVID-19 crisis, providing a unique context for investigating citizens' health-privacy tradeoff in accepting social surveillance technology. To elucidate this tradeoff dilemma, an extended privacy calculus framework integrated with the Health Belief Model, legislative protection, and individual collectivism was examined using the case of national contact-tracing apps.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested through PLS-SEM analysis with data collected from a survey on Bluezone – a national app in Vietnam.FindingsThe results indicated the negative impact of privacy concerns, which was offset by the positive effect of perceived benefits in using contact-tracing apps. The effect size of perceived benefits on usage frequency was twice as large as that of privacy concerns. Individual collectivism was revealed as a mitigator of the tradeoff dilemma, as it was positively associated with perceived benefits, whereas legislative protection had no such role. Citizens may perceive legislation protection as invalid when the technologies are developed, implemented, and monitored by the authorities.Originality/valueThe theoretical contributions lie in the extension of the privacy calculus model as well as its application in the context of mobile health apps and surveillance technology. The study empirically corroborated that the privacy calculus theory holds when technologies move along the pervasiveness spectrum. This study also provided actionable insights for policymakers and developers who advocate the mass acceptance of national contact-tracing apps.

Covid-19: Equal response and unequal interests

The greatest risks of Covid-19 are not arising from its direct effects on morbidity and mortality but from exaggerated aspirations to control such effects politically. A swift transformation from an epidemic to an endemic state of affairs may in case of a disease with comparatively low and unequally distributed mortality like covid-19 be an option, too. This needs to be laid out but it is not the task of science to plead for this or any other option. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Effects of Alcohol-Blended Waste Plastic Oil on Engine Performance Characteristics and Emissions of a Diesel Engine

The current study aims to investigate and compare the effects of waste plastic oil blended with n-butanol on the characteristics of diesel engines and exhaust gas emissions. Waste plastic oil produced by the pyrolysis process was blended with n-butanol at 5%, 10%, and 15% by volume. Experiments were conducted on a four-stroke, four-cylinder, water-cooled, direct injection diesel engine with a variation of five engine loads, while the engine's speed was fixed at 2500 rpm. The experimental results showed that the main hydrocarbons present in WPO were within the range of diesel fuel (C13–C18, approximately 74.39%), while its specific gravity and flash point were out of the limit prescribed by the diesel fuel specification. The addition of n-butanol to WPO was found to reduce the engine's thermal efficiency and increase HC and CO emissions, especially when the engine operated at low-load conditions. In order to find the suitable ratio of n-butanol blends when the engine operated at the tested engine load, the optimization process was carried out by considering the engine's load and ratio of the n-butanol blend as input factors and the engine's performance and emissions as output factors. It was found that the multi-objective function produced by the general regression neural network (GRNN) can be modeled as the multi-objective function with high predictive performances. The coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and root mean square error (RSME) of the optimization model proposed in the study were 0.999, 2.606%, and 0.663, respectively, when brake thermal efficiency was considered, while nitrogen oxide values were 0.998, 6.915%, and 0.600, respectively. As for the results of the optimization using NSGA-II, a single optimum value may not be attained as with the other methods, but the optimization's boundary was obtained, which was established by making a trade-off between brake thermal efficiency and nitrogen oxide emissions. According to the Pareto frontier, the engine load and ratio of the n-butanol blend that caused the trade-off between maximum brake thermal efficiency and minimum nitrogen oxides are within the approximate range of 37 N.m to 104 N.m and 9% to 14%, respectively.

At the Frontier of Sustainable Finance: Impact Investing and the Financial Tradeoff, Evidence from Private Portfolio Companies in the United Kingdom

Drawing from the extremely novel impact investing landscape and the limited existing literature on the topic, it appears that investing in social enterprises should come at the cost of partially sacrificing financial returns to invested capital. This paper investigates the existence of this tradeoff by assessing how the performance of impact investing funds compares to that of traditional private equity and venture capital operators. Focusing on portfolio firm operating performance, we construct a dataset of 85 impact-investing observations and 5310 traditional observations over the period ranging from 2009 to 2020, in order to compare the performance of the traditional investor-backed firms with those of sustainable companies participated by social impact investors. Advanced matching methods such as Radius and Kernel matching suggest that the composition of the shareholding structure significantly affects the profitability of the company, with traditional firms outperforming their socially-concerned counterparts. Looking instead within the subsample of impact investor portfolio companies, and focusing only on the post-investment observations, we analyze how the percentage owned by the impact investors impacts the performance of the owned companies. The results show that, similarly to traditional ownership, a greater share controlled by impact investors leads to higher returns.

Curbing Pandemic Through Evolutionary Algorithm-Based Priority Aware Mobility Scheduling

COVID-19 is a global pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. While swift vaccine development and distribution have arrested the infection spread rate, it is necessary to design public policies that inform human mobility to curb outbreaks from future strains of the virus. While existing non-pharmaceutical approaches employing network science and machine learning offer promising travel policy solutions, they are guided by epidemiological and economic considerations alone and not human itineraries. We introduce an evolutionary algorithm (EA) based mobility scheduler that incorporates the personalized itineraries of individuals to determine the ideal timing of their mobility. We mathematically analyze the computational efficiency versus the optimality trade-off of the mobility scheduler. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that the EA-based mobility scheduler can balance the trade-off between (1) optimality and computational cost and (2) fair and preferential human mobility while reducing contagion under lockdown and no-lockdown as well as even and uneven human mobility traffic scenarios. We show that for two human mobility models, the scheduler exhibits lower infection numbers than a baseline trip-planning approach that directs human traffic along the least congested route to minimize contagion. We discuss that the EA scheduler lends itself to intricate mobility schedules of multiple destination choices with varying priorities and socioeconomic and demographic considerations.

COVID-19 pandemic effects on college student mental health: A cross-sectional cohort comparison study.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate COVID-19 pandemic impacts on college student mental health. PARTICIPANTS: Three cohorts of college students (2018 n = 466; 2019 n = 459; 2020, n = 563; N = 1488) from three American universities. Participants were 71.4% female, 67.5% White, and 85.9% first-year students. METHODS: Multivariable regression models and bivariate correlations were used to compare anxiety, depression, well-being, and search for meaning before and during the pandemic, and the relationships between pandemic health-compliance behaviors and mental health. RESULTS: Anxiety, depression, and well-being did not significantly worsen during compared to before (2019) the pandemic (ps = .329-.837). During the pandemic, more frequent in-person social interactions were correlated with lower anxiety (r = -0.17, p < .001) and depressive symptoms (r=-0.12, p = .008), and higher well-being (r = 0.16, p < .001), but also less handwashing (r = -0.11, p = .016) and face mask-wearing (r = -0.12, p = .008). CONCLUSIONS: We observed little evidence for pandemic impacts on college student mental health. Lower compliance with pandemic health guidelines was associated with better mental health.

"Natural Laboratory Complex" for novel primate neuroscience.

We propose novel strategies for primate experimentation that are ethically valuable and pragmatically useful for cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychiatric research. Specifically, we propose Natural Laboratory Complex or Natural Labs, which are a combination of indoor-outdoor structures for studying free moving and socially housed primates in natural or naturalistic environment. We contend that Natural Labs are pivotal to improve primate welfare, and at the same time to implement longitudinal and socio-ecological studies of primate brain and behavior. Currently emerging advanced technologies and social systems (including recent COVID-19 induced "remote" infrastructures) can speed-up cognitive neuroscience approaches in freely behaving animals. Experimental approaches in natural(istic) settings are not in competition with conventional approaches of laboratory investigations, and could establish several benefits at the ethical, experimental, and economic levels.

Impact assessment of China?s inter-provincial trade on trade-related sustainable development goals

Assessing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is among the most pressing areas for sustainability research. Both international and inter-provincial trade has substantial impacts on sustainability. However, little is known about the impacts of inter-provincial trade on progress towards achieving the SDG targets and the relationships among SDG indicators through time and space. Here we, taking Chinese inter-provincial trade as a study case, used a spatiotemporal approach and the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model to examine changes in six SDG indicators and their relationships within China in the year 2002, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2017. The results showed that (1) Chinese inter-provincial trade improved the trade-related SDG target scores of 16 provinces out of the evaluated 30 provinces but reduced the trade-related SDG target scores of the remaining 14 provinces. (2) Chinese inter-provincial trade and distant trade were more beneficial for achieving the trade-related SDG targets in developed provinces (e.g., Beijing), which thus improved China's overall SDG target scores. In contrast, Chinese inter-provincial trade suppressed the trade-related SDG target scores of developing provinces (e.g., Guangxi). (3) Individual SDG indicators, SDG target bundles, and interactions among SDG indicators changed across both time and space. (4) The no-trade scenario in Hubei province during the COVID-19 pandemic will have a clearly inhibiting effect on China's overall SDG target scores. Besides, trade with adjacent provinces would improve Hubei's SDG target scores, while these trades have more negative effects (approximately 50-83% of provinces suffered from greater reductions in SDG target scores) on Hubei's adjacent provinces. Our study suggests the spatiotemporal dynamic characteristics of SDG indicators and their interactions deserve more attention, which can help identify the drivers behind these changing relationships.

Estimating perceptions of the relative COVID risk of different social-distancing behaviors from respondents' pairwise assessments.

How do people compare the effectiveness of different social-distancing behaviors in avoiding the spread of viral infection? During the COVID pandemic, we showed 676 online respondents in the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel 30 pairs of brief videos of acquaintances meeting. We asked respondents to indicate which video from each pair depicted greater risk of COVID infection. Their choices imply that on average, respondents considered talking 14 min longer to be as risky as standing 1 foot closer, being indoors as standing 3 feet closer, being exposed to coughs or sneezes as 3 to 4 ft closer, greeting with a hug as 7 ft closer, and with a handshake as 5 ft closer. Respondents considered properly masking as protecting the wearer and interlocutor equally, removing the mask entirely or only when talking as standing 4 to 5 ft closer but wearing it under the nose as only 1 to 2 ft closer. We provide weaker evidence on beliefs about the interaction effects of different behaviors. In a more limited, ex post analysis, we find little evidence of differences in beliefs across subpopulations.

The role of metadehumanization in explaining sacred conflict

Four studies examine the social cognitive mechanisms through which sacred values produce social schisms, focusing on the role of metadehumanization. Using hypothetical scenarios, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that violators of sacred values feel dehumanized by value holders and reciprocate this dehumanization. Using real sacred values, Studies 3 and 4 show similar effects. Study 3 further controls for the effects of mere disagreement and finds participants felt more dehumanized when family members disagreed with them in discussions of sacred values compared to preferences. Study 4 examined the sacralization of mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the inflammatory effect of sacralization on hostility was in part explained by metadehumanization, leading to greater reciprocal dehumanization, thus fueling conflict. In conclusion, results suggest metadehumanization may underlie the often explosive nature of sacred conflict.

Impact assessment of China's inter-provincial trade on trade-related sustainable development goals

Assessing progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is among the most pressing areas for sustainability research. Both international and inter–provincial trade has substantial impacts on sustainability. However, little is known about the impacts of inter–provincial trade on progress towards achieving the SDG targets and the relationships among SDG indicators through time and space. Here we, taking Chinese inter–provincial trade as a study case, used a spatiotemporal approach and the multi–regional input–output (MRIO) model to examine changes in six SDG indicators and their relationships within China in the year 2002, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2017. The results showed that (1) Chinese inter–provincial trade improved the trade–related SDG target scores of 16 provinces out of the evaluated 30 provinces but reduced the trade–related SDG target scores of the remaining 14 provinces. (2) Chinese inter–provincial trade and distant trade were more beneficial for achieving the trade–related SDG targets in developed provinces (e.g., Beijing), which thus improved China's overall SDG target scores. In contrast, Chinese inter–provincial trade suppressed the trade–related SDG target scores of developing provinces (e.g., Guangxi). (3) Individual SDG indicators, SDG target bundles, and interactions among SDG indicators changed across both time and space. (4) The no–trade scenario in Hubei province during the COVID–19 pandemic will have a clearly inhibiting effect on China's overall SDG target scores. Besides, trade with adjacent provinces would improve Hubei's SDG target scores, while these trades have more negative effects (approximately 50–83% of provinces suffered from greater reductions in SDG target scores) on Hubei's adjacent provinces. Our study suggests the spatiotemporal dynamic characteristics of SDG indicators and their interactions deserve more attention, which can help identify the drivers behind these changing relationships.

Identifying interlinkages between urbanization and Sustainable Development Goals

Urbanization and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are important global issues in the current “Anthropocene”. Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated global urban problems and hindered the ability to meet SDGs on time, while the broad interlinkages between urbanization and the SDGs remain poorly understood. This study shows that among the interlinkages of urbanization with 17 SDGs, synergies are observed with 151 targets (89%), among which 67 (40%) have stronger synergies, and trade-offs are observed with 66 targets (39%), among which 31 (18%) have stronger trade-offs. Furthermore, the synergies and trade-offs between urbanization and the achievement of SDGs are specifically analyzed based on four fundamental interaction fields: (a) public health and social welfare equality;(b) energy consumption and economic growth;(c) natural resource use and ecological/environmental impacts;and (d) international cooperation for development. Finally, based on these analyses, we propose four recommendations for sustainable urbanization, including (a) shared well-being and spatial justice for urban and rural residents;(b) guiding green and low-carbon urban development;(c) building resilient cities;and (d) promoting multilateral cooperation in cities, which can contribute to the achievement of SDGs by 2030. © 2022

The Association between Food Insecurity and Making Hunger-Coping Trade-Offs during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Sources of Food and Easiness in Food Access.

Many individuals make financial, health and food related trade-offs to cope with the challenges of food insecurity and to meet their household needs for healthy, affordable food. A survey (n = 652) was conducted in nine rural counties in South Carolina, USA, during the COVID-19 pandemic from August 2020 to July 2021. We examine if level of food insecurity predicts hunger-coping trade-offs, and whether this relationship is moderated by easiness in food access and dependence on different food source types. Nearly one-third of the respondents experienced food insecurity. Making trade-offs between paying for food and other household expenses was common among the rural residents as on average they made nearly one type of trade-off in the past three months. The number of trade-offs was the highest among highly food insecure respondents (mean = 2.64), followed by moderately food insecure respondents (mean = 1.66); low food insecure respondents had the lowest number of trade-offs (mean = 0.39). The moderating effects of easiness in food access and dependence on food sources varied by level of food insecurity. The results show that individuals at different levels of food insecurity use different strategies to fulfill their food needs and social programs are more often utilized than personal food sources. We conclude with implications for addressing food insecurity in order to reduce the possibility of making trade-offs.

Modeling pandemics and vaccine and equity issues

We present some recent activity in Ontario on the mathematical modeling of COVID-19 and the development of optimal strategies for vaccine distribution that take into account equity issues.

Dietary Transition Determining the Tradeoff Between Global Food Security and Sustainable Development Goals Varied in Regions

Global food security is directly linked to human health and sustainable development. It is critical to comprehensively twig future changes in global food demand and progress in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering the transition of dietary patterns. We presented a global‐scale analysis quantifying the status of national food consumption and SDG performance in 2017, and the food demands and SDG index scores in 2030 were predicted under three healthy dietary patterns using 11 SDG indicators. High‐income nations scored well on most SDG indicators but poorly on food waste and the environment. Total global food demand was projected to be the highest under the national dietary guidelines pattern (12.69–13.37 million ton/d) and the lowest under the WHO healthy diet pattern (10.55–11.18 million ton/d). However, food demand under different dietary patterns varied among regions. Transitioning from current diets to healthy diets was projected to gain SDG index score for most countries. Strategies for shifts in dietary patterns to determine the tradeoff between global food security and sustainable development should be tailored to local conditions. The EAT‐Lancet dietary pattern is an optimal choice for determining the tradeoff between food security and sustainable development on a global scale. Given the current status of food access and nutrition, the National and the WHO dietary patterns are recommended for Asia and Africa, respectively.

The Technologies and International Politics of Genetic Warfare: SSQ

This article considers the prospect and potential of genetic warfare. Drawing on expert interviews and fieldwork, it begins by detailing how the recent and anticipated innovations in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology solve the weaponization, delivery, and precision problems that had previously made biological weapons impractical. The article then considers how states and non-state actors may develop and use genetic weapons, with a focus on the problem of secrecy. Underlying whether to reveal or conceal genetic war capability is a trade-off between strategic surprise and deterrence. Actors requiring deterrence are likely to reveal genetic military capability. With the only rivaling source of deterrence being nuclear weapons, nonnuclear states and non-state actors are more likely to make public their genetic weapons capability than nuclear states. The question of whether to use genetic weapons covertly or openly also entails a trade-off. Covert use confers strategic and tactical benefits, whereas the benefits of unrestricted use are primarily psychological. Terroristic, genocidal, and apocalyptic regimes and non-state actors may use genetic weapons openly, but most would likely opt for covert genetic warfare.