ABSTRACT
Faced with linguicism, racism, and xenophobia aggravated by COVID-19 and political tensions in recent years, multilingual international students, especially those of Asian descent, are in urgent need of engaging in healing practices for meaningful identity expression, restoration, and peace. Translingualism is a justice-oriented literacy practice that disrupts the boundaries of named languages and allows communicators to draw upon all resources in their linguistic repertoires. Storytelling, as a powerful research method and a pedagogical tool, offers a unique opportunity to encourage multilingual students' translingual meaning making for healing. This qualitative case study examined how multimodal translingual storytelling functioned as a form of restoration and peace for a first-semester Chinese student pursuing her graduate degree in English at a private university in the United States. The findings indicate that when offered opportunities to reflect on her cultural and linguistic identities, the participant was likely to detach deficit self-perceptions as an "English language learner" and embrace her differences as a strength, which benefited her first-semester language and academic experiences. This study calls for pedagogical strategies and curriculum design that open up humanizing spaces for culturally and racially minoritized multilingual students by acknowledging, valuing, and inviting their whole linguistic repertories through multimodal, translingual storytelling.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has been causing unprecedented economic downturn worldwide. As it wreaks havoc on every aspect of global economic activities, stakeholders are wondering how its impact can be quantified to craft viable responses. In the exotic field of cryptocurrencies, prior to the pandemic, everyone was excited about Bitcoin and its multitude of potentials. However, a day after COVID-19 was officially announced by the World Health Organization as a pandemic, the rate of return to Bitcoin dropped by an unheard-of one-day decline of-46.5%, and people started to rethink the prospects of Bitcoin. A day after this steep decline, Bitcoin recovered and started a sustained bull run which lasted for almost a year and even posted an all-time high daily uptick of 59.6%. By the end of July 2021, the price reached its all-time high but lost more than half of it at the end of the sample period. This study aims to empirically analyze the risk-return profile and the market efficiency of Bitcoin utilizing a 1,306-day data set conveniently subdivided into pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. The general conclusion of the study is: During the pandemic, Bitcoin is extremely volatile and does not subscribe to the efficient market hypothesis. © 2023 by De La Salle University.
ABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is associated with a significant incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders, which tend to have a long course in the post-COVID period. Objective(s): to study post-COVID mental disorders in clinical psychiatric practice. Patients and methods. 30 patients aged 37.75+/-14.07 years with anamnesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection were examined. Clinical scale assessment was carried out using the Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Scale. The Symptom-Checklist (SCL-90-R) was used to assess the psychopathological status of the patient. Patients' cognitive functioning was assessed using the Mini-Cog Cognitive Assessment Questionnaire. Patients' sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results and discussion. Mental disorders associated with a previous coronavirus infection are observed in a wide time range from less than 1 month to a year after the previous disease, and in no case did the coronavirus infection have a severe course. Sleep disorders, anxiety and depressive disorders, which did not exceed a moderate degree of severity, and asthenia dominated in the structure of the post-COVID syndrome. The level of mental distress in patients with post-COVID syndrome increased 2 times. Post-COVID mental disorders are interrelated with female gender, age, and psychotraumatic factors associated with the pandemic. Cognitive impairment mediated by mental disorders was observed in approximately 60% of patients and did not reach the degree of dementia. Conclusion. The clinical picture of the post-COVID syndrome is represented by a wide range of mental disorders, the development of which involves not only biological, but also psychosocial factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which determines the specifics of diagnostic approaches and the feasibility of complex treatment of the post-COVID syndrome.Copyright © 2022 Ima-Press Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The aim of the research. To study clinical and laboratory features of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in order to develop a model that would allow, taking the publicly available research methods into account, to carry out early diagnosis of severe community-acquired pneumonia against the background of the new coronavirus infection. Material and methods. A total of 82 COVID-19 patients who complied with inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. Depending on the clinical severity, three study groups were formed: group 1 included 13 patients with uncomplicated COVID-19, group 2 consisted of 39 patients with non-severe forms of pneumonia that developed against COVID-19 and group 3 was comprised of 30 patients with COVID-19 complicated by severe pneumonia. The groups were comparable in age and gender. All patients underwent general clinical examination, laboratory tests, including general and biochemical blood analysis, as well as chest computed tomography. Results. The clinical picture in COVID-19 patients differed depending on the disease severity. Coughing and shortness of breath were more often observed in patients with severe pneumonia;sore throat, on the contrary, was more often noted in patients with uncomplicated COVID-19. On admission to the inpatient facility, patients with severe pneumonia had higher body temperature and respiratory rate, with simultaneous decrease in blood oxygen saturation. One half of the patients with severe pneumonia had hypertensive disease in medical history, and one third had ischaemic heart disease. As a rule, uncomplicated COVID-19 patients did not have ischaemic heart disease. It was found through laboratory analysis of blood that groups of patients significantly differed in the levels of neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, basophils and eosinophils. Conclusion. The use of such clinical and laboratory data as acute respiratory failure, fever, the levels of neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, eosinophils and basophils makes it possible to identify patients with more severe pneumonia against the background of COVID-19 even before chest computed tomography. Key words:.Copyright © 2022, Krasnoyarsk State Medical University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThis research aims to use meta-analytical structural equation modeling to look into how hospitality employees use technology at work. It further investigates if the relationship between the constructs of the technology acceptance model (TAM) is moderated by job level (supervisory versus non-supervisory) and different cultures (eastern versus western).Design/methodology/approachIn total, 140 relationships from 30 empirical studies (N = 6,728) were used in this study's data analysis in accordance with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis.FindingsThe findings demonstrated that perceived usefulness had a greater influence on "user attitudes” and "acceptance intention” than perceived ease of use. This study also identified that the effect sizes of relationships among TAM constructs appeared to be greater for supervisory employees or in eastern cultures than for those in non-supervisory roles or western cultures.Practical implicationsThe findings provide valuable information for practitioners to increase the adoption of employee technology. Practitioners need to focus on the identification of hospitality employee attitudes, social norms and perceived ease of use. Moreover, hospitality practitioners should be cautious when promoting the adoption of new technologies to employees, as those at different levels may respond differently.Originality/valueThis is the very first empirical investigation to meta-analyze the predictive power of the TAM in the context of hospitality staff technology adoption at the workplace. The findings also demonstrated differences in the predictive power of TAM constructs according to job level and cultural differences.
ABSTRACT
Online shopping has revolutionized our daily lives in the modern era. We can purchase needed goods on mobile shopping applications (apps) anytime and anywhere without leaving home. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become increasingly dependent on various mobile shopping activities. However, the visual design of the shopping app interface often affects the user's interactive experience and the efficiency of browsing product information. In addition, gender differences are also worth being considered in the shopping interface design process. To achieve the goal, the research conducted a user study (N=40) of a 2× 2 x 2 mixed factorial design (i.e., information layout x display mode x gender difference). Each participant performed four tasks during the experiment. The authors measured the task completion time, collected the subjective responses from the SUS and the 7-point Likert scale questionnaire, and interviewed participants. The results revealed that: (1) females perform faster in lighter mode when searching for information location, while males perform faster in darker mode. (2) The information layout affects the user's visual search performance and subjective evaluation;females prefer the list style, but men prefer the matrix style. (3) Participants (both males and females) perceived matrix style as more popular than list style in dark mode;however, the result was reversed in light mode. The findings generated from the research can serve as a good reference for the development of user experience in the user interface design of mobile shopping apps. © 2013 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Missing data appears in the study of recovered COVID19-patients. They should be imputed for estimating adequately difference of means. A new predictor is developed and its variance is obtained. Numerical studies are developed using data on anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM antibody levels. © 2022 Universidad de La Habana. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
We study the effects of receiving immunization from COVID-19 on households' economic insecurity. To provide causal estimates we use a fuzzy regression discontinuity design which takes advantage of the UK's immunization plan. The plan was primarily based on age, granting differential eligibility to proximate cohorts. Our estimated local average treatment effect indicates that the share of households who declared being economically insecure dropped by 41 percentage points among those who received the vaccine due to the eligibility criteria. Using a difference-in-discontinuity design we next document that immunization was more salient for women as well as for large households and those with children. Our results suggest that the mass immunization campaign against COVID-19 had relevant short-run economic effects, well beyond its expected impact on people's health.
ABSTRACT
Several efforts have been recently devoted to the studies on epidemic mathematical models based on fractional-order operators, by virtue of their capability to take into account memory effects and nonlocal features. The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the topic by introducing a novel Covid-19 model described by non-integer-order difference equations. By conducting a stability analysis, the paper shows that the conceived system has two fixed points at most, i.e. a disease-free fixed point and an endemic fixed point. In particular, a theorem is proved, which assures the global stability of the disease-free fixed point, indicating that the pandemic will disappear when a simple condition on the system parameters is satisfied. Finally, simulation results are carried out with the aim to highlight the capability of the conceived approach.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 prevention and control measures are taken by China's government, especially traffic restrictions and production suspension, had spillover effects on air quality improvement. These effects differed among cities, but these differences have not been adequately studied. To provide more knowledge, we studied the air quality index (AQI) and five air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3) before and after the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai, Wuhan, and Tangshan. The pollution data from two types of monitoring stations (traffic and non-traffic stations) were separately compared and evaluated. We used monitoring data from the traffic stations to study the emission reduction caused by traffic restrictions. Based on monitoring data from the non-traffic stations, we established a difference-in-difference model to study the emission reduction caused by production suspension. The COVID-19 control measures reduced AQI and the concentrations of all pollutants except O3 (which increased greatly), but the magnitude of the changes differed among the three cities. The control measures improved air quality most in Wuhan, followed by Shanghai and then Tangshan. We investigated the reasons for these differences and found that differences in the characteristics of these three types of cities could explain these differences in spillover effects. Understanding these differences could provide some guidance and support for formulating differentiated air pollution control measures in different cities. For example, whole-process emission reduction technology should be adopted in cities with the concentrated distribution of continuous process enterprises, whereas vehicles that use cleaner energy and public transport should be vigorously promoted in cities with high traffic development level.
ABSTRACT
Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) primarily infects suckling piglets and causes severe economic losses to the swine industry. Cytokines, as part of the innate immune response, are important in PEDV infection. The cytokines secreted by cell infection models in vitro might reflect true response to viral infection of target cells in vivo. Vero cells and IPEC-J2 are commonly used as an in vitro model to investigate PEDV infection. However, it is not clear which type of cells is more beneficial to the study of PEDV. In our study, firstly, Vero cells and IPEC-J2 were successfully infected with PEDV virulent strains (HBQY2016) and attenuated vaccine strains (CV777) and were capable of supporting virus replication and progeny release. Moreover, cytokine differences expression by Vero cells and IPEC-J2 cells infected with two PEDV strains were analyzed. Compared with IPEC-J2 cells, only the mRNA levels of TGF-ß, MIP-1ß and MCP-1 were detected in Vero cells. ELISA assay indicated that compared to the control group, the PEDV-infected group had significantly induced expression levels of IL-1ß, MIP-1ß, MCP-1, IL-8, and CXCL10 in IPEC-J2 cells, while only secretion level of IL-1ß, MIP-1ß and IL-8 in Vero cells were higher in PEDV infected group. Finally, cytokines change of piglets infected PEDV-HBQY2016 strains were detected by cDNA microarray, and similar to those of IPEC-J2 cells infected PEDV. Collectively, these data determined that the IPEC-J2 could be more suitable used as a cell model for studying PEDV infection in vitro compared with Vero cells, based on the close approximation of cytokine expression profile to in vivo target cells.
ABSTRACT
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, people tended to seek more individualized and viable transportation modes, such as a bicycle. In this study, we examined the factors influencing changes in public bike sharing (PBS) in Seoul, to assess this trend post-pandemic. We conducted an online survey of 1,590 Seoul PBS users between July 30 and August 7, 2020. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we found that participants who were affected by the pandemic used PBS 44.6 h more than unaffected individuals throughout the year. In addition, we used a multinomial logistic regression analysis to identify the factors affecting changes in PBS usage. In this analysis, the discrete dependent variables of increased, unchanged, and decreased were considered, representing the changes in PBS usage after the COVID-19 outbreak. Results revealed that PBS usage increased among female participants during weekday trips such as commuting to work and when there were perceived health benefits of using PBS. Conversely, PBS usage tended to decrease when the weekday trip purpose was for leisure or working out. Our findings offer insight into PBS user behaviors within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and present policy implications to revitalize PBS usage.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The needs-based shortage of healthcare workers is severe worldwide and it would be exacerbated if many medical students switch to other careers after graduation. Maintaining and improving the career commitment of medical students, which could be a feasible, effective, and scalable way to reduce the attrition rate, is essential in medical education. We designed a randomized experiment to test whether an information intervention based on role modeling could enhance medical students' career commitment. Methods: In the randomized experiment, the sample (N = 36,482) was divided into the treatment group (N = 18,070) and the control group (N = 18,412). The intervention information consisted of image-text messages on Zhong Nanshan, who is an inspiring role model for he went to the frontline of COVID-19 in the most critical circumstances and received praise and affirmation from the public. Α difference-in-differences model was employed to identify the effect of the information intervention. Heterogeneous treatment effects were identified using sub-sample analyses. Results: The results showed that the information intervention statistically significantly reduced medical students' dropout intention by 2.7 percentage points (95% CI: -0.037 to -0.016, t = -4.95, p < 0.001), equivalent to 14.6% of the control group mean. This estimate indicates that the information intervention could significantly increase the career commitment of medical students. Finally, male and senior students were influenced more than their female and junior counterparts, which can be explained by their relatively high dropout intention. Conclusion: Role model-based information intervention improves the career commitment of medical students. The underlying behavioral model is that, when students use a role model as their reference point, they consider dropout as a substantial welfare loss. Role modeling is an effective way to improve the career commitment of medical students, especially for males and senior students.
ABSTRACT
PurposeDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, transitory unemployment insurance (UI) policies substantially increased unemployment benefits (UBs) and the number of eligible groups in Russia. The procedure for registering as unemployed was moved to an online platform. The present paper aims to distinguish the effect of anti-COVID-19 restrictions on unemployment from that of the transitory unemployment insurance policies.Design/methodology/approachUsing 553,627 approved claims for unemployment benefits from the Russian Public Employment Service (PES) administrative records (June 2019-December 2020), monthly data on the number of individuals registered as unemployed are aggregated in a pseudo panel. A double-difference approach is employed to identify the effects of the social interaction intensity and teleworkability (TW) of the latest occupation on unemployment. The first is associated with a direct effect of anti-COVID-19 restrictions and the latter with the simplified application procedure.FindingsThe face-to-face (F2F) intensity of the latest occupation did not lead to any increase in the number of unemployed persons as could be expected in response to anti-COVID-19 restrictions. Job TW had two opposite effects on unemployment: it decreased individuals' risk of job loss and increased their likelihood of claiming unemployment benefits. Surprisingly, however, in line with the typical response of the Russian labour market to downturns, the latter dominated. The largest response was found among men and individuals with primary education.Originality/valueThis study is the first to attempt to distinguish the effect of anti-COVID-19 restrictions from that of the transitory UI policies on unemployment in Russia.
ABSTRACT
Online public responses during crises provide a window into how people emotionally react to them. Capitalizing on the international nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we performed cross-cultural examination of group and individual differences in public emotional responses. We collected 1,106,395 Weibo posts in Wuhan from July 2019 to June 2020 and 6,564,014 tweets in London from October 2019 to July 2020, and found that the public mood in both cities followed a similar pattern during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: a stage of plunging mood followed by a period of recovery. We further examined the relationship between individuals' personality and mood changes. Our results showed that in Wuhan, emotionally stable people experienced more dramatic mood changes, while in London, people high in agreeableness and conscientiousness were more negatively affected during the lockdown period. Based on our findings, we suggest effective crisis management strategies for both policymakers and individuals.
ABSTRACT
AIMS: Few multi-wave longitudinal studies have examined mental health changes across the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The current study examined: (a) overall changes in depression and anxiety over 10-waves of data collection; (b) subgroup moderators of changes; (c) clinical severity of the changes via minimally important differences (MIDs); and (d) correlates of clinically important changes. METHODS: Using a longitudinal observational cohort design, 1412 non-clinical adults (Mage=36; 60% female) were assessed for depression and anxiety via the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 from October 2018 to April 2022 (3 pre-pandemic, 7 intra-pandemic waves; M retention = 92%). RESULTS: Depression and anxiety exhibited significant intra-pandemic changes, reflecting initial increases, followed by decreases. Pre-pandemic severity moderated changes, with low severity participants exhibiting increases and high severity participants exhibiting non-significant change or decreases. For depression and anxiety, respectively, 10% and 11% exhibited MID increases, while 4% and 6% exhibited MID decreases. Divergent patterns were present by severity subgroup, with the lowest severity exhibiting higher rates of MID increases and the highest severity subgroup exhibiting higher rates of MID decreases. CONCLUSIONS: These findings illuminate the periodicity of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and reveal an unexpected inverse relationship between increases and decreases based on pre-pandemic severity.
ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization declared coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19) linked to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), a global pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic outbreak has led to the most unprecedented and catastrophic loss of human life in the recent history. As of January 2021, there were more than 100 million cases of COVID-19 and more than two million deaths worldwide. Compared to the general population, patients with cancer are at a higher risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. In large cohort studies, mortality from COVID-19 in patients with cancer can be as high as 40%. In addition to clinical variables (older age, male sex, and co-morbidities) that are associated with mortality in general population, cancer patients are uniquely vulnerable to severe COVID-19 due to immunosuppression from cancer and its therapy, and disruption of routine clinical care. Among patients with cancer, the lung cancer population is at a higher risk of poor outcomes and mortality from COVID-19 for several reasons. For instance, lung is the main target organ in COVID-19 that can lead to respiratory failure, patients with lung cancer have baseline poor lung function from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and smoking. In addition, some of the lung cancer treatment side-effects like pneumonitis, may obscure the diagnosis of COVID-19. In this article, we systematically review the most impactful cohort studies published to date in patients with cancer and COVID-19. We describe the rates of mortality in patients with cancer and COVID-19 with a special focus on the lung cancer population. We also summarize the factors associated with poor outcomes and mortality in patients with lung cancer and COVID-19.Copyright © The Author(s) 2021.
ABSTRACT
Aims. The aim is to study the features of life and the incidence rate of anxiety and depressive disorders among medical faculty students studying remotely during the epidemic of a new coronavirus infection (Covid 19) at the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekov. Materials and methods. We examined 335 students (34% males, 66% females) at the Faculty of Medicine in November- December 2020. The average age of the students examined was 20.3+/-2.3 years. The study included an anonymous mail survey to examine educational conditions, lifestyle, levels of anxiety and depression. Results. 43.8% of the students had insufficient sleep duration, 58.5% had low physical activity, in 24.8% of them we recorded high levels of situational anxiety and in 82.1% of them personal anxiety, in 7.1% of the students we recorded clinically expressed anxiety and 1.8% had clinically expressed depression. During the transition to remote learning, students increased the time use to prepare for classes (51.2%) and the duration of sleep (61.5%), while their physical activity decreased (76.5%). Statistically significant linear correlations were identified between the level of anxiety and depression and the duration of sleep, low physical activity, preparation time for classes, academic performance, and academic debt. Conclusions. The results obtained by us can be used to optimize the educational process, as well as to preserve the mental health of students during the transition to distance learning.Copyright © 2020 Novyi Russkii Universitet. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The recent string of adverse global shocks (financial crisis, trade war, COVID-19, Ukraine war) poses a potential challenge to the well-known welfare enhancing effects of globalization, necessitating a better understanding of the longer run globalization-crisis linkage as opposed to its shorter run effects. Focusing on the Great Recession, we discover an evolving role of trade and financial openness from one that propagates and deepens the negative effects of crises to one that confirms its well-established contributions. Key to this is generating counterfactual output for open countries as if they were closed and examining the comparative impact of the crisis. © 2023 The Authors. Review of International Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ABSTRACT
COVID‐19 has caused major disruptions to agricultural supply chains around the world. Researchers and policy‐makers are interested in identifying means to reduce the disruptive effects caused by the pandemic. We investigate the impacts of COVID‐19 on the operation of e‐commerce stores (in short, e‐stores) specialising in agricultural inputs. The difference‐in‐differences method (DID) is employed to estimate the causal relationship between COVID‐19 and online sales of agricultural inputs using data from 54,244 agricultural input e‐stores registered in 118 prefecture‐level cities across 15 provinces and hosted on two major Chinese e‐commerce platforms. The results show that COVID‐19 led to a substantial growth in monthly sales of agricultural input e‐stores, and this growth of online sales varied across store scales and by types of agricultural inputs. In particular, e‐stores selling seeds and seedlings experienced a larger growth in sales than stores selling agricultural machinery and implements, and the mid‐ and larger‐scaled e‐stores experienced more growth of sales than micro‐ and small‐scaled e‐stores. Further analysis reveals that the growth of online sales of agricultural inputs was driven mainly by an increase in the quantity of customer orders (QCO). The findings of this paper underscore the importance of e‐commerce in ensuring the resilience of the agricultural supply chain during the pandemic period.