In the Future Metaverse, What Kind of UGC do Users Need?

With the COVID-19 pandemic, people's real-life interactions diminished, and the game-based metaverse platforms such as Minecraft and Roblox are on the rise. The main users of these platforms are teenagers, they generate content in a virtual environment, which can significantly increase the activity of the platform. However, the experience of User-Generated Content in the metaverse is not very good. So what kind of support do users need to improve the efficiency of generating content in the metaverse? To investigate teenage users' preferences and expectations of it, this paper interviewed 72 teenagers aged 12-22 who are familiar with the metaverse game, and distilled 4 suggestions that can help promote metaverse users to generate content. © 2023 IEEE.

Research on the Relationship between Teacher Expectations and College Students' Online English Learning Engagement

As a critical influencing factor of learning engagement, teacher expectation plays a vital role in ensuring the quality of online teaching under COVID-19. This paper investigates the relationship between teacher expectations (three dimensions of teacher support, teaching interaction, and academic feedback) on students' online English learning engagement (three dimensions of cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement) in e-learning through a questionnaire survey of 513 college students. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were applied as research methods. The results manifest that college students' online English learning engagement was above average, but emotional engagement needs improvement. In addition, teacher expectations of teaching interaction positively and significantly predict English e-learning engagement. Based on this, the article puts forward suggestions on the future of online teaching from the aspects of online teaching design, feedback quality of teachers and students, innovative teaching practice of technology empowerment to effectively play the role of teachers as scaffolding and improve the effectiveness of online English teaching. © 2023 IEEE.

Criminal Justice Students' Perceptions of Their Future Careers

This study examines how criminal justice majors taking courses during the COVID-19 pandemic perceive their future careers. These expectations are compared to those of students majoring in lab sciences and non-lab fields. Variation by race and ethnicity are also assessed. Data were obtained from 188 undergraduate students at a single institution in Spring 2021 and Fall 2021 using an online survey. Results indicated that students' estimates of their future salaries and job availability were accurate to current labor market conditions. Hispanics anticipated higher salaries and more salary growth than non-Hispanics. Criminal justice majors were attracted to jobs based on potential to help others, challenge, job tasks, salary, and the fun, thrill, or excitement of the job. Health majors were more drawn to features like salary and job availability. Criminal justice students were more likely than others to note power as well as prestige, recognition, or status as appealing job features. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Criminal Justice Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Zukunftserwartungen der Österreicher*innen während der Coronakrise

ZusammenfassungWas kommt nach der Coronakrise? Die Forschungsnotiz befasst sich mit den Zukunftserwartungen der Österreicher*innen während der ersten Phase der Coronapandemie. Die Daten des Austrian Corona Panel Project zeigen, dass die Zukunftserwartung für Österreich und die Erwartungen an die eigene Zukunft stark divergieren. Während mehr als 60 % Prozent der Befragten glauben, dass sich die Situation in Österreich verschlechtern wird, gehen nur 26 % von einer Verschlechterung ihrer eigenen Lebensumstände in den nächsten Jahren aus.Anhand von Einschätzungen der Befragten zu den drei von Anhut und Heitmeyer postulierten Krisenzuständen – Struktur, Regulation, Kohäsion – lässt sich veranschaulichen, dass Vertrauen in die gesellschaftlichen Institutionen ein wesentlicher Indikator dafür ist, wie optimistisch oder pessimistisch die Menschen in Österreich ihre eigene und die gesellschaftliche Zukunft beurteilen. Darüber hinaus ist es die Wahrnehmung bestehender materieller Ungleichheiten, welche sowohl die Einschätzung der Entwicklung der persönlichen, aber auch der Lebensumstände in Österreich bestimmt. Zudem sind diejenigen, die der Politik und dem öffentlichen Leben Relevanz zusprechen, pessimistischer, wenn es um die Zukunft des Landes geht.Alternate :What will come after the Corona crisis? The research note discusses the Austrians' expectations for the future during the first phase of the Corona pandemic. Data from the Austrian Corona Panel Project illustrates that there is an inherent difference between the future expectations for Austria and the expectations for the individual future. While more than 60% believe that the situation in Austria will get worse within the next years, only 26% think so when it comes to their own future.

Covid-19 outbreak, ambiguity aversion, and macroeconomic expectations

How will the outbreak of Covid-19 affect people's expectations on the macroeconomy? We conduct an online experiment in China to investigate the relationship between ambiguity aversion, risk aversion, and expectations about the macroeconomy after the onset of Covid-19 which can be considered an uncertainty shock. Our study differs from previous studies as we elicit the individuals' preferences in terms of ambiguity aversion and risk aversion, and test how these preferences drive macroeconomic expectations. We find that ambiguity averse subjects are more pessimistic about the effect of Covid-19 on the economic growth rate. Ambiguity averse subjects are more likely to reduce consumption and expect lower savings in response to the outbreak. More risk taking subjects have more optimistic expectations on the macroeconomy, and they are less likely to reduce consumption, investment, and savings.

Očekávání žen ohledně porodu a vnímaný vliv protokolů COVID-19 na porod

Cíl: Studie hodnotila očekávání žen ohledně porodu a vnímané účinky protokolů COVID-19 na porod ve vybraných zdravotnických zařízeních v Umuahia, Abia, Nigérie. Metodika: Byla použita průřezová deskriptivní výzkumná metoda. Do studie bylo v období od března do prosince 2020 cíleně vybráno tři sta čtyři (304) žen z vybraných zdravotnických zařízení v Umuahii. Jako nástroj pro sběr dat byl použit validovaný dotazník vyvinutý výzkumnými pracovníky. Získaná data byla podrobena deskriptivní statistice četností, průměrů a směrodatných odchylek. Výsledky: Hlavní zjištění ukázala, že vysoce hodnocená očekávání žen během porodu byla zapojení žen do rozhodování o péči (3,69 ± 3,20), poskytování adekvátních informací o péči o miminko (3,65 ± 3,17) a pozitivní přístup poskytovatelů zdravotní péče (3,59 ± 3,11). Větší počet účastníků plně souhlasil s tím, že lockdown během pandemie vedl k vážným porodním závěrům (3,25 ± 2,98);a zpoždění při dodržování protokolů COVID-19 kvalifikovaným personálem během porodu představuje velkou hrozbu pro matku a dítě (3,58 ± 3,12). Na druhou stranu pozorování sociálního distancování porodními asistentkami (1,57 ± 1,28) a testování žen na covid-19 před přijetím (1,96 ± 1,58) nemělo na porod žádný negativní vliv. Závěr: Zapojení žen do rozhodování o jejich porodních plánech a péči představuje očekávání žen od jejich porodu. Poskytovatelé zdravotní péče musí těmto očekáváním plně porozumět a poskytovat péči, která je s nimi v souladu. Je také nezbytné, aby informace poskytované ženám v prenatálním období, zejména v době pandemie, byly komplexní a srozumitelné. To by mělo být použito k otevřené komunikaci o problémech, které mohou ovlivnit jejich porodní zkušenost, zejména během pandemie.Alternate :Aim: The study assessed women's childbirth expectations and perceived effects of COVID-19 protocols on delivery in selected healthcare facilities in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design. 304 women were purposively recruited from March through December 2020 from selected healthcare facilities in Umuahia. A validated researcher-developed questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics of frequencies, means, and standard deviations. Results: Major findings showed highly rated expectations of women during childbirth were women's involvement in decision making about their care (3.69 ± 3.20), provision of adequate information on baby care (3.65 ± 3.17), and positive attitude of healthcare providers (3.59 ± 3.11). A greater number of the participants strongly agreed that COVID-19 lockdown led to severe labor outcomes (3.25 ± 2.98) and delays in observing COVID-19 protocols by skilled personnel during delivery pose a great threat to mother and baby (3.58 ± 3.12). On the other hand, observation of social distancing by midwives (1.57 ± 1.28) and testing women for COVID-19 before admission (1.96 ± 1.58) did not have any negative effect on the women's delivery. Conclusions: Women's involvement in decision making concerning their birth plans and care are among the women's expectations for their birth. Healthcare providers need to fully understand these expectations and provide care that is consistent with them. It is also essential that information provided to antenatal women, especially during pandemics, is comprehensive and comprehensible. This should be used to openly communicate issues that may impact their birth experience, particularly in pandemics.

Community, communication and expectations for teaching

This chapter explores how communication during the COVID-19 crisis hindered and supported faculty performance and how they interpreted institutional communication and expectations around their teaching. It addresses the importance of community to faculty, both as they adjusted to online instruction and as a source of thriving in their work. Faculty are a key element in higher education institutions, and the findings show how faculty participants acted on the frontlines of the transition to online learning. Faculty participants consistently talked about the challenges of teaching students to the best of their ability during a global pandemic, and the importance of their communities for their success in this endeavor. They expected clear communication from the University and desired guidelines specific to each college or department. In the end, faculty relied on their community as a resource of knowledge and support during the difficult transition. Professional organizations and colleagues outside of the University of Utah also served as sources of knowledge for faculty as they adjusted to online learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Travel Motivations, Expectations and Intention to Travel Post COVID-19

The 2019 corona virus disease (COVID-19) is a human tragedy and has a growing impact on the societies, economies, and the businesses around the world. In addition to the various types of the impacts, this outbreak has also led to the feelings of fear and anxiety related to health systems. Pandemic response resulted in to limiting to the non-essential activities including travel unless absolutely urgency involved. Though individual differences in emotional and personality-based variables vary yet, the perception of risk associated with the travel is going to have significant impact on travel behaviour of the tourists. Thus, the associated demand and the future scope of the tourism industry needs research investigation on the behavioural pattern of the tourists as a input variable for resilient strategy. With this backdrop, the present study aims to investigate the tourists'expectations, motivations and intentions to travel post COVID19 outbreak. COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the economy of the world, hitting tourism industry the hardest and disrupting both travel supply and demand. As the consequence of such global adversity, tourists fear and no more wish to travel, especially to the suspected places (Nicholl, 2006). Followed by lockdown of most of the nations impacted by COVID-19 travel restrictions have eased around the world and people are hoping to slowly inch back to their normal lives (Raavya Bhattacharyya,2020). But if they are ready to travel or not still remains a question. Fliggy, Alibaba's online travel platform surveyed a group of people in China to understand their travel expectations and the results show that 59% wanted to travel in 2020 and 14% in 2021. Yet those who want to travel would have some expectations and possess some or other kind of motivations to travel. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to draw upon an expectation, motivation, and intentions (EMI) model in lieu of these variables post COVID-19 situation. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique has been employed to process and analyze the data. The study has investigated the effect of individual factors on travel intention as in EMI model. ©Copyright IJHTS.

Learning about unprecedented events: Agent-based modelling and the stock market impact of COVID-19.

We model the learning process of market traders during the unprecedented COVID-19 event. We introduce a behavioural heterogeneous agents' model with bounded rationality by including a correction mechanism through representativeness (Gennaioli et al., 2015). To inspect the market crash induced by the pandemic, we calibrate the STOXX Europe 600 Index, when stock markets suffered from the greatest single-day percentage drop ever. Once the extreme event materializes, agents tend to be more sensitive to all positive and negative news, subsequently moving on to close-to-rational. We find that the deflation mechanism of less representative news seems to disappear after the extreme event.

Social Support Expectations of Managers and Employees from Croatia, Thailand, and the United States Amid COVID-19: An Organizational Support Theory Perspective

Social support can help buffer against stressors and build employees' resilience. However, workers of different cultures may vary in their expectation of support. Drawing on organizational support theory (OST), this qualitative study explored the types of support managers and employees (n = 668) from Croatia, Thailand, and the United States expected from each other amid COVID-19. A cluster analysis showed US workers expected more understanding and transparent communication from their supervisors while Thai workers desired stronger leadership and more protective gear. US supervisors expected employees to proactively ask for help while Thai supervisors encouraged their employees to adapt to change. Both Croatian supervisors and employees expected each other to maintain business as usual. Overall, the results resonate with previous OST research that expectations of support vary by cultures and highlight how leaders across countries can enhance the efficacy of social support and promote both supervisors' and subordinates' well-being during future crises.

Accelerating inflation expectations of households in the euro area: sources and macroeconomic spending consequences

In 2021 and 2022, inflation expectations of households in the euro area rose dramatically. Based on a time-series investigation from 1995 to 2022, I find that inflation expectations are driven by current price developments of three consumption product categories and house prices (which are not included in the consumer price index). About half of the recent rise was fuelled by energy prices, 20% by food prices, over 10% by transportation costs and almost 20% by house prices. On a macro-level, controlling for a standard set of spending determinants, a regression analysis suggests that accelerating inflation expectations in general will slow down growth of area wide real private consumption, but under circumstances of low nominal interest rates helped to cushion the negative shock of the covid pandemic and the energy crisis.

Recursive expectations approach in policymaking

The primary contribution of modern economics to policy analysis may be the recognition of the crucial role of expectations in policy intervention. The essence of expectations is to think about others' thinking. We argue that policymakers need recursive thinking, that is, the ability to think about thinking and review three policy episodes related to the lack of recursive thinking. We see that the disciplinary divide or the limited scope of recursive thinking on the side of policymakers can cause huge damage to social welfare in times of crisis. Finally, we consider two examples of future agendas in the recursive approach. © 2023, The Author(s).

Income, Liquidity, and the Consumption Response to the 2020 Economic Stimulus Payments*

The 2020 CARES Act directed large cash payments to households. We analyze households' spending responses using data from a Fintech nonprofit, exploring heterogeneity by income, recent income declines, and liquidity as well as linked survey responses about economic expectations. Households respond rapidly to payments, with spending increasing by about $0.14 per dollar during the first week and plateauing around $0.25-$0.30 over 3 months. In contrast to previous stimulus programs, we see little response of durables spending. Households with lower incomes, greater income declines, and less liquidity display stronger responses whereas households that expect employment losses and benefit cuts display weaker responses.

Are We Really Going to Get out of COVID-19 Together? Secured Legal Status and Trust Among Refugees and Migrants

Building up on pre-existing vulnerabilities and social exclusions, refugees and migrants are disproportionately suffering from the negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Insecure legal status is an additional stressor that may accentuate social cleavages and ultimately impair their trust in host society and institutions. Based on a diverse sample of refugees and migrants in Belgium (N = 355), the present study investigates direct and indirect effects of legal status-measured as the type of residence permit held by participants -on social and political trust during the COVID-19 outbreak. Secured legal status was positively associated with social and political trust directly, and indirectly via a serial mediation composed by two cumulative stages. First, participants with a more secured legal status experienced less material difficulties to cope with the pandemic (i.e., first material stage). Second, participant who experienced less material difficulties identified more with the host society (i.e., second symbolic stage). In turn, reduced material difficulties and increased identification with the host society were both positively associated with social and political trust. Our findings advocate for securing legal status of refugees and migrants to help societies cope cohesively with the long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The UK COVID-19 contact tracing app as both an emerging technology and public health intervention: The need to consider promissory discourses.

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 contact tracing app was announced to the British public on 12th April 2020. The UK government endorsed the app as a public health intervention that would improve public health, protect the NHS and 'save lives'. On 5th May 2020 the technology was released for trial on the Isle of Wight. However, the trial was halted in June 2020, reportedly due to technological issues. The app was later remodelled and launched to the public in September 2020. The rapid development, trial and discontinuation of the app over a short period of a few months meant that the mobilisation and effect of the discourses associated with the app could be traced relatively easily. In this paper we aimed to explore how these discourses were constructed in the media, and their effect on actors - in particular, those who developed and those who trialled the app. Promissory discourses were prevalent, the trajectory of which aligned with theories developed in the sociology of expectations. We describe this trajectory, and then interpret its implications in terms of infectious disease public health practices and responsibilities.

Measuring Dependence in a Set of Asset Returns

An index measuring the degree of dependence in a set of asset returns is defined as the ratio of an equivalent number of independent assets to the number of assets. The equivalence is based on either attaining the same optimized value enhancement or spread reduction. The value enhancement is the difference in value of a value maximizing portfolio and the maximum value delivered by the components. The spread reduction is the percentage reduction attained by a spread minimizing portfolio relative to the smallest spread for the components. Asset values or bid and ask prices of portfolios, are modeled by conservative valuation operators from the theory of two price economies. The dependence indices fall with the number of assets in the portfolio and they are explained by a measure of concentration applied to normalized eigenvalues of the correlation matrix along with the average level of correlation, the level of the (Rudin and Morgan, 2006) portfolio diversification index and the number of assets in the portfolio. A time series of the indices constructed on the basis of the S&P 500 index and the nine sector ETF's reveals a collapse during the financial crisis with no recovery until 2016, with a peak in February 2020 and a COVID crash in March of 2020. Furthermore, factor dependence benefits are richer than those found in equity indices. Dependence benefits across global indices are not as strong as dependence benefits across an equal number of domestic assets, but they rise substantially for longer horizons of up to three years.

Looking back to look forward: Surviving COVID-19 and the future of the NHS.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected healthcare systems worldwide, including the National Health Service (NHS). It drastically changed the practice and delivery of healthcare and laid bare longstanding structural flaws. It also brought a time of innovation and digitalisation and renewed appreciation of the role of public health. This paper offers a thematic summary of a debate held in December 2021 by the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine. It featured a multi-specialty panel of doctors and patient representative discussing the likely impact of the pandemic on the future of NHS. It serves as a reflection point on the pressures the NHS has faced since and their likely genesis at a time when the impact of the pandemic on staff risks being forgotten.

Alcohol consumption, alcohol expectancies, and drinking contexts in young Argentinean college students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a one-year follow-up study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns are known to affect alcohol consumption. This study examines drinking expectancies and contexts upon alcohol consumption of Argentinean students.Objectives: To assess within-person changes in alcohol consumption in Argentinean college students (aged 18-24), from August 2019 with a one-year follow-up during the COVID-19 lockdown, considering alcohol expectancies, drinking contexts, and main socio-demographic variables. To validate the stability of these predictors, we discuss the effects on the alcohol consumption across dependent and independent measures.Methods: We assessed one longitudinal (N = 300, 70% female) and one cross-sectional (N = 165, 78% female) sample via online surveys and applied multilevel analysis and regressions, respectively.Results: Alcohol consumption significantly increased during lockdown compared to one-year before (mean: 6.91 and 8.26 alcohol units, correspondingly). In the longitudinal sample, social facilitation (medium effect sizes [ES]: 0.21, 0.22) and parental presence (medium ES: 0.12, 0.21) significantly and stable (through time) predicted increasing effects on consumption. In the cross-sectional sample, stress control (high ES: 0.78) and parental presence (high ES: 0.42) were associated with higher consumption during lockdown.Conclusion: College students increased their alcohol consumption during lockdown, suggesting that restrictive sanitary measures may negatively affect consumption. Literature is not conclusive as both decreases and increases in alcohol consumption in students from developed countries were reported. Before and during COVID-19 lockdown, parental presence is a stable predictor of increased alcohol consumption, though unusual according to the literature. Health policies aimed at modifying the behavior of parents who promote/share alcohol consumption with their offspring may help reduce drinking in college students.

Tracking Inattention

This study proposes a real-time estimate of inattention, based on micro-level data. I show that a simple specification that estimates the persistence of a forecaster's deviation from the mean provides a direct estimate of parameters of information frictions according to prominent models of expectations. The new estimate can also be interpreted as a hybrid measure of both information frictions and behavioral frictions. Using the new specification, I revise several key findings documented in the previous literature. I find higher levels of inattention and document new forms of variations over time and across variables, horizons, individuals, and types of agents. I also report new results from long-run forecasts and document an unprecedented response to COVID-19.

COVID-19 Dataset Clustering based on K-Means and EM Algorithms

In this paper, a COVID-19 dataset is analyzed using a combination of K-Means and Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithms to cluster the data. The purpose of this method is to gain insight into and interpret the various components of the data. The study focuses on tracking the evolution of confirmed, death, and recovered cases from March to October 2020, using a two-dimensional dataset approach. K-Means is used to group the data into three categories: "Confirmed-Recovered”, "Confirmed-Death”, and "Recovered-Death”, and each category is modeled using a bivariate Gaussian density. The optimal value for k, which represents the number of groups, is determined using the Elbow method. The results indicate that the clusters generated by K-Means provide limited information, whereas the EM algorithm reveals the correlation between "Confirmed-Recovered”, "Confirmed-Death”, and "Recovered-Death”. The advantages of using the EM algorithm include stability in computation and improved clustering through the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). © 2023,International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications. All Rights Reserved.