The impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the mental health of Italian people after 2 years of the pandemic: risk and protective factors as moderators.

Objective: This contribution aimed at investigating the moderating role of risk (e.g., the negative influence of COVID-19 on mental health) and protective (e.g., post-traumatic growth) factors on the relationship between the concern for war and stress and anxiety/depression levels among Italian people. Methods: A questionnaire that included sociodemographic characteristics, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), and questions formulated ad hoc about concern for war was administered online. A sample of 755 participants (65.4% females, mean age = 32.39, SD = 12.64, range = 18-75) was recruited by convenience and snowball sampling. The researchers spread the link to the questionnaire to their acquaintances asking them to fill it out and to recruit other people. Results: Results showed that concern for war significantly augmented the levels of stress and anxiety/depression in Italian people. Being a healthcare professional or having a chronic illness negatively moderated the effect of concern for war on stress and anxiety/depression. Instead, the negative influence of COVID-19 on mental health positively moderated the effect of concern for war on stress. Moreover, the overall positive changes after trauma and four of its five scales (i.e., Relating to Others, New Possibilities, Personal Strength, and Spiritual Change), negatively moderated the effect of concern for war on anxiety/depression. Conclusions: In conclusion, concern about the Russian-Ukrainian war affects the mental health of the Italian population even if they are not directly involved in the conflict.

Is gold a safe haven for the CIVETS countries under extremely adverse market conditions? Some new evidence from the MF-DCCA analysis

This paper investigates the safe haven attributes of gold under extreme market conditions. Our main goal is to understand if this property still holds under exceptional times characterized by unusual high levels of uncertainty. To this end, we gathered data from 2018 to 2023 for a group of emerging markets – the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) – thus encompassing a stable and a particularly turbulent period, which was marked by two consecutive crises: the COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukrainian war. We chose these countries as they are fast growing economies, which represent important investing opportunities, and because among the emerging markets these are the least studied. To achieve our goal we employed the Multifractal Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis (MF-DCCA). Our results showed that before the pandemic the cross-correlations between gold and the financial markets were mainly negative. However, with the onset of the crisis they became positive. This demonstrates that gold lost its popular safe haven attributes and highlights the need for investors to seek alternative investments to protect downward risk, especially under extremely turbulent scenarios.

Strategic Guidelines for the Development of the Economy in the Conditions of Global Challenges and Military Aggression (Ukrainian Case)

The russian military aggression in 2014, the occupation of Crimea and the loss of pow-erful industrial facilities in the East of Ukraine caused crisis phenomena in the Ukrainian economy. In 2022, a full-scale invasion of Russian troops caused significant losses, de-struction, sowed death and destruction in society. Against this background, the issue of determining possible mechanisms for exiting the crisis, analysis of the Ukrainian expe-rience, and opportunities for stabilization and improvement of the general development is relevant. The purpose of the article is to determine the strategic guidelines for the development of the Ukrainian economy in the conditions of global challenges and mili-tary aggression. The article uses general scientific research methods (analysis, synthe-sis, induction, and deduction), as well as content analysis, prognostic method, syner-gistic approach and empirical material of legislative acts. The results determined that the main features of economic development since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2014, it is characterized the possible strategies for the exit of the Ukrainian economy from the crisis situation of the post-war state. The results determined the consequences of the beginning of russian military aggression against Ukraine in 2014, in particular, the fall in GDP per capita, the freezing of the development of entrepreneurial activity. It was summed up that COVID-19 was affected by the global recession, which also did not bypass the Ukrainian economy. Instead, Russian aggression in 2022 reduced Ukraine's GDP by 30%. It was emphasized that under such conditions, the necessary solutions may be to strengthen state control through the distribution of funding (in particular, international assistance), legislative regulation, and political and criminal lia-bility of unscrupulous managers. The conclusions emphasize that the strategic guide-lines for the development of the Ukrainian economy in the face of global challenges are: efficient use of resources and renewal of production capacities, restoration of pre-war GDP, updating the economic structure, bringing the processing industry indicators to 50% (as of 2030), increasing Ukrainian-made goods in the public procurement sector, increasing foreign direct investment.

Wavelet analysis of S&P 500, oil prices, and economic policy uncertainty

We collect a total of 1830 data from January 2020 to June 2022 and use R for data processing and wavelet analysis. Moreover, we analyze the interactions between the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war, crude oil price, the S&P 500 and economic policy uncertainty within a time-frequency frame work. As a result that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war has the extraordinary effects on the three indexes and the effect of the Russian- Ukrainian war on the crude oil price and US stock price higher than on the US economic uncertainty. © COPYRIGHT SPIE.

On-Farm Renewable Energy Systems: A Systematic Review

Over the years, energy is becoming an essential factor with an impact on social, economic, and environmental aspects. More than 2.5 billion people are connected to agriculture worldwide, so the importance of agricultural energy production has become increasingly important. This study provides a comprehensive review of renewable energy, environment, and farm publication trends. Two hundred articles from 1988 to 2022 were analyzed, with special attention devoted to the last three extreme years, using the Scopus database and the Bibliometrix tool for analysis and visualization. Research on this topic experienced significant developments after 2008, with many fluctuations being revealed. Historically, China and the USA were the most productive countries in agricultural energy production advancements. However, in the last three years, the research center's respective contributions have undergone major changes. China maintained its dominance, but the importance of the USA fell sharply, and new centers (India, Poland) appeared. Biogas is the most popular method which is used and searched in this area between 1988–2022 since it includes both sustainability and locality. However, between 2020–2022, the importance of the circular economy has been highlighted in the literature. Complex energy systems, dual use of land, and energy storage might be the most important challenges for future research. © 2023 by the authors.

Climate Changes, Natural Resources Depletion, COVID-19 Pandemic, and Russian-Ukrainian War: What Is the Impact on Habits Change and Mental Health?

Climate Change, Natural Resources Depletion, COVID-19, and Wars are some of the great challenges of our time. The consequences will affect psychological well-being and could have a harmful impact on mental health. This study aimed to assess the level of preoccupation and fears surrounding issues of the 21st-century and the implication for psychological well-being of the general population from Central/Southern Italy among different age groups. A questionnaire that included sociodemographic characteristics, topics formulated ad-hoc about preoccupation, fears, habits, and willingness to change habits in the future related to the 21st-century challenges, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21 (DASS-21) was administered online. A sample of 1831 participants (61% F; mean age 47.71 ± 17.30) was obtained. Results showed that young adults and older adults, respectively, reported greater and less psychological well-being. Young adults reported higher scores for preoccupation, changing habits, and willingness to change habits in the future, while older adults reported the lowest scores except for changing habits, also controlling for gender. Results for this variable, as well as correlations between the many variables described, rely on the specificity of age, and 21st-century challenges. Moreover, the main fears related to the 21st-century concerns were different based on both age and gender. In conclusion, the various stresses of the 21st-century discussed in this study have a relationship with personal well-being, and it is important to consider potential global mental health issues resulting from these stressors.

Education and science of Ukraine in the realities of large-scale military aggression and global challenges of the 21st century

The work characterizes the peculiarities of the functioning of education and science in Ukraine in the realities of large-scale military aggression and global challenges of the... century. Both general scientific and special pedagogical research methods were used in the article. Probable forecasts of the further development of education and science of Ukraine in such crisis conditions were formed using the prognostic research method. In the results, it was noted that almost the main challenge for the education of the 21st century became a pandemic of COVID-19, which significantly affected the development of distance education. The results also consider the problem of the state of science against the background of the unfolding of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation. The conclusions summarized that after February 24, 2022 (the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion), the Ukrainian government facilitated the implementation of many projects related to the development of online education. But the scientific sphere of Ukraine suffers from chronic underfunding and structural deficiencies in the organization of scientific research in Ukraine. In turn, the war of 2022 demonstrated the government's willingness to sacrifice funding for science, the military developments of which turned out to be almost unnecessary.