Effects of trigger events on innovation behaviour: insights from the data collected from construction professionals during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several instances of innovation were reported in construction and other sectors, consistent with previously noted spikes in innovation activities during crises and environmental perturbations. Yet the behavioural mechanisms and factors leading to changes in the innovation behaviour of actors under environmental perturbation are not adequately understood. This paper studies such behavioural mechanisms and factors, building on the Excitable Innovation Behaviour Model (EIBM), which explains the voluntary or coercive change in the innovation behaviour of actors in terms of their stable state needs and excited stated needs. The findings build on data collected through an online survey (N = 266) and interviews (N = 14) during the COVID situation. The results show that environmental perturbations can trigger both an increase and decrease in innovation activities. Actors' network dependencies, motivation, and years of experience influence their innovation behaviour. Environmental perturbation triggers accelerated alignment and shared prioritization of the needs of the different stakeholders, resulting in commitment and timely actions towards innovation from each stakeholder. Actors' ability and financial stability at the time of the excitation trigger mediate their innovation behaviour, revealing similarities and differences between EIBM and Fogg's Behavioural Model of persuasion. The grounding of EIBM in behavioural theories makes it potentially generalizable and compatible with other behavioural models and theories on innovation. The underlying state-change mechanisms in EIBM also make it amenable to developing a parametric and computational model of innovation adoption and diffusion. The research insights will inform innovation management strategies, including technology adoption roadmaps in the construction sector. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Understanding the Relation of Psychological/Behavioral Factors and Cycling During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Iran

Previous research on travel behavior has concentrated on the behavior of traveling by cars, especially by private vehicles, while the research on cycling has focused on cycling infrastructure, the built environment, and the natural environment. Furthermore, the studies conducted during pandemics are mostly based on behavioral changes in motorized transportation. The present research tries to identify and evaluate the variables influencing cyclist behavior during covid-19 pandemic. In this research, the sample size retrieved from a survey of 375 participants was checked with Cronbach's alpha standard and estimated using confirmatory factor analysis. Results show that the variables related to health protocols can greatly impact knowing the behavior of cyclists in the time of Covid-19. Furthermore, the results show that the health issues of shared bikes can be an obstacle for people to use them more. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Intelligent Transportation Systems Japan.

Dietary Habits and Lifestyle, Including Cardiovascular Risk among Vegetarians and Omnivores during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Polish Population.

Background: This study assessed how two food groups­omnivores (OMN) and vegetarians (VEGE)­differ in lifestyle changes, including dietary habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials: A total of 861 persons participated in the survey and were divided into two groups: persons following a mixed diet (n = 489) and vegetarians, including vegans (n = 372). The mean age shows no significant differences. Methods: An online survey was conducted on the Polish population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected using social media; the survey was intended for adults and included separate sheets for different diets (OMN vs. VEGE). Results: The results in both groups were similar regarding the burden of premature diseases. Most respondents (~90%) did not indicate cardiovascular disease abnormalities. In the OMN group, overweight and obesity occurred more often, and the OMN group also showed a higher percentage of people reporting weight gain (OMN 42.7% vs. VEGE 35.9%). The results disclosed the VEGE group significantly more frequently chose products, i.e., vegetables (p = 0.029), legumes (p < 0.001), and dairy products or their plant substitutes (p = 0.002), compared to the OMN group. Conclusions: The VEGE group revealed the most regularities in dietary habits during the pandemic.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lifestyle patterns: Does gender matter?

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted individuals to deviate from normal lifestyle behaviors. But, there is a paucity of studies conducted in Bangladesh assessing how lifestyle patterns (i.e., smoking, drug use, physical exercise) have changed after the pandemic, which was investigated in this study. Methods: An online-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among a total of 756 Bangladeshi young adults between April 1 and 13, 2020. Lifestyle patterns data were collected based on two periods from the COVID-19 pandemic inception point in the country, (i) '1 year before', and (ii) '1 year after'. Basic descriptive statistics (i.e., frequency and percentages) and Chi-square tests were performed to examine the associations of the independent variables in relation to lifestyle patterns. Results: A 0.2 and 4.7% reduction in smoking and physical exercise, respectively, was observed after the pandemic. But the prevalence of drug use was 1.5% before the COVID-19 pandemic, which rose to 1.9% during the pandemic; representing a 0.4% increment. The changes in lifestyle patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was statistically significant only for physical exercise. Of the gender, male participants were more prevalent in smoking, drug use, and performing physical exercise in both periods. Conclusion: It is suggested to increase awareness concerning adverse effects of drug use and not performing physical exercise, where the gender-based focus is highly appreciated.

Racial/ethnic disparities in infant sleep in the COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO) study.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate racial and ethnic differences in infant sleep and examine associations with insurance status and parent-infant bedtime behavioral factors (PIBBF). METHODS: Participants are part of the COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO) Initiative, Columbia University. Data on infant sleep (night, day and overall sleep duration, night awakenings, latency, infant's sleep as a problem) were collected at 4 months postpartum. Regressions estimated associations between race/ethnicity, insurance status, PIBBF and infants' sleep. RESULTS: A total of 296 infants were eligible (34.4% non-Hispanic White [NHW], 10.1% Black/African American [B/AA], 55.4% Hispanic). B/AA and Hispanic mothers were more likely to have Medicaid, bed/room-share, and report later infant bedtime compared to NHW mothers. Infants of B/AA mothers had longer sleep latency compared to NHW. Infants of Hispanic mothers slept less at night (∼70 ± 12 minutes) and more during the day (∼41 ± 12 minutes) and Hispanic mothers were less likely to consider infants' sleep as a problem compared to NHW (odds ratio 0.4; 95% confidence interval: 0.2-0.7). After adjustment for insurance status and PIBBF, differences by race/ethnicity for night and day sleep duration and perception of infant's sleep as a problem persisted (∼32 ± 14 minutes, 35 ± 15 minutes, and odds ratio 0.4; 95% confidence interval: 0.2-0.8 respectively). Later bedtime was associated with less sleep at night (∼21 ± 4 minutes) and overall (∼17 ± 5 minutes), and longer latency. Infants who did not fall asleep independently had longer sleep latency, and co-sleeping infants had more night awakenings. CONCLUSIONS: Results show racial/ethnic differences in sleep in 4-month-old infants across sleep domains. The findings of our study suggest that PIBBF have an essential role in healthy infant sleep, but they may not be equitably experienced across racial/ethnic groups.

A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF COVID - 19 ON INVESTOR BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS GOLD ETF INVESTMENTS IN INDIA

The hyperbolic discounting dimensions of investment decisions in gold exchange-traded funds do not appear in the existing literature and no study has been conducted with a focus on gold exchange-traded funds to understand the impact of time inconsistency on the investment decision in a gold exchange-traded investment. This study is exploring the impact of behavioral factors on investment decisions in gold ETFs during the pandemic situation. Hence, this study has relevance in terms of analyzing and determining the hyperbolic investor behavior for investment in gold ETFs. Research helps to understand the impact of hyperbolic discounts on gold ETF investment decisions understand the impact of behavioral elements on gold ETF investment decisions - Research can provide insight into reasonable and illogical patterns of Investor behavior influencing investment decisions. © The Electrochemical Society

Facemask Wearing Detection Based on Deep CNN to Control COVID-19 Transmission

Since the expansion of the COVID-19, almost all countries have advocated their residents to put on facemasks and adopt social distance and hand cleanliness. Due to the complicated attitudes in the settings of real life, besides several socio-behavioral and cultural factors, it is not easy to give a convincing situation for the general public that wearing facemasks is useful and effective. Therefore, facemasks wearing has not been widely embraced by many residents. However, the usage of facemasks has offered the considerable potential to filter or block the transmission of respiratory viruses including COVID-19. In this paper, a model of deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for facemask wearing detection is proposed to control covid-19 transmission. This proposed deep learning model includes two main processes;feature extraction and classification. The CNN classifier provides 99.57% of accuracy for the utilized Real-World Masked Face Dataset (RMFD). © 2022 IEEE.

COVID-19 Risk Level Assessment: A Case of Food Sector Employees

This study empirically determines the risk level of food sector employees for the virus COVID-19 infection, specifically those who are under the food sector in the Philippines. This paper utilizes the RIKA Risk Assessment Tool to assess health, behavioral, exposure, and social factors that may contribute to the overall risk score of individuals. The researchers used data from a sample of 55 respondents obtained from a digital survey containing the RIKA Risk Assessment Tool, which was then analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results of the statistical analysis used presented low to moderate risk levels of being infected with COVID-19 based on the personal assessment of their surroundings and health practices of the food sector employees. Researchers found that workers in the Philippines' food sector are exposed to a variety of risk factors: health, behavioral, exposure, and social policy. The majority have a moderate impact upon the said results;however, adhering to proper hygiene, community standards, and lockdown policies can significantly influence outcomes. © 2022 ACM.

What Impacts Backers’ Behavior to Fund Reward-Based Crowdfunding Projects? A Systematic Review Study

Background: With Covid-19 spreading across the world, many economic issues have raised. Effort is continued to support vulnerable individuals and start-ups to survive during this pandemic. Reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF) is seen as alternative sustainable finance in the Fintech industry. It allows fund-seekers to pledge an investment through RBCF platforms such as Kickstarter for funding their projects. Backers will get a reward in return. Research has shown that factors impacting the backers' behavior are crucial in determining the success of RBCF campaigns. However, there is a literature gap in providing a holistic view of these factors. Therefore, this paper aims to review and identify factors impacting backers' behavior by conducting a Systematic Literature Review (SLR).Method: This paper employs the three stages in conducting the SLR. It starts with identifying the review strategy where a search string is developed. A total of 323 papers from 2012 up to 2019 from two main academic databases, i.e. IEEE Xplore and ScienceDirect were retrieved. After applying the quality assessment criteria, 33 papers were qualified for the analysis. Thematic analysis was then applied to thematically categories the identified factors.Results: A large set of factors was identified in the literature. Identified factors were classified under nine main themes. These themes are Team Characteristics, Project Characteristics, Social Influence, User Generated Content, Risk, Distrust, Upfront Marketing, Environment Readiness, and Backers Motivation.Conclusions: This paper contributes theoretically by comprehensively identify factors impacting backers’ behavior toward using RBCF. The findings also contribute empirically, particularly to the fund-seekers, to help them understand what factors might impact the backer’s behavior and enhance their chances of designing a successful campaign.

Determinants of Influenza Vaccine Uptake in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease and Strategies for Improvement.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Influenza infection is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure exacerbation) and mortality, and all-cause mortality in patients with CVD. Infection with influenza leads to a systemic inflammatory and thrombogenic response in the host body, which further causes destabilization of atherosclerotic plaques. Influenza vaccination has been shown to be protective against cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in several observational and prospective studies of at-risk populations. Hence, many international guidelines recommend influenza vaccination for adults of all ages, especially for individuals with high-risk conditions such as CVD. Despite these long-standing recommendations, influenza vaccine uptake among US adults with CVD remains suboptimal. Specifically, vaccination uptake is strikingly low among patients aged <65 years, non-Hispanic Black individuals, those without health insurance, and those with diminished access to healthcare services. Behavioral factors such as perceived vaccine efficacy, vaccine safety, and attitudes towards vaccination play an important role in vaccine acceptance at the individual and community levels. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there is a potential threat of a concurrent epidemic with influenza. This would be devastating for vulnerable populations such as adults with CVD, further stressing the need for ensuring adequate influenza vaccination coverage. In this review, we describe a variety of strategies to improve the uptake of influenza vaccination in patients with CVD through improved understanding of key sociodemographic determinants and behaviors that are associated with vaccination, or the lack thereof. We further discuss the potential use of relevant strategies for COVID-19 vaccine uptake among those with CVD.

Identifying and Interrupting Superspreading Events-Implications for Control of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.

It appears inevitable that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 will continue to spread. Although we still have limited information on the epidemiology of this virus, there have been multiple reports of superspreading events (SSEs), which are associated with both explosive growth early in an outbreak and sustained transmission in later stages. Although SSEs appear to be difficult to predict and therefore difficult to prevent, core public health actions can prevent and reduce the number and impact of SSEs. To prevent and control of SSEs, speed is essential. Prevention and mitigation of SSEs depends, first and foremost, on quickly recognizing and understanding these events, particularly within healthcare settings. Better understanding transmission dynamics associated with SSEs, identifying and mitigating high-risk settings, strict adherence to healthcare infection prevention and control measures, and timely implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions can help prevent and control severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, as well as future infectious disease outbreaks.