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Frequent emergence of communicable diseases is a major concern worldwide. Lack of sufficient resources to mitigate the disease burden makes the situation even more challenging for lower-income countries. Hence, strategy development for disease eradication and optimal management of the social and economic burden has garnered a lot of attention in recent years. In this context, we quantify the optimal fraction of resources that can be allocated to two major intervention measures, namely reduction of disease transmission and improvement of healthcare infrastructure. Our results demonstrate that the effectiveness of each of the interventions has a significant impact on the optimal resource allocation in both long-term disease dynamics and outbreak scenarios. The optimal allocation strategy for long-term dynamics exhibits non-monotonic behaviour with respect to the effectiveness of interventions, which differs from the more intuitive strategy recommended in the case of outbreaks. Further, our results indicate that the relationship between investment in interventions and the corresponding increase in patient recovery rate or decrease in disease transmission rate plays a decisive role in determining optimal strategies. Intervention programmes with decreasing returns promote the necessity for resource sharing. Our study provides fundamental insights into determining the best response strategy when controlling epidemics in resource-constrained situations.
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Communicable Diseases , Epidemics , Humans , Epidemics/prevention & control , Communicable Diseases/epidemiology , Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control , Resource AllocationABSTRACT
Under the background of major innovations and changes in international pharmaceutical technology, the continuous development of informatization and digitalization of drug R & D, technology, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission (EC) issued the pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe (PSE) at the end of 2020 in order to meet the unfinished clinical needs, stimulate industry innovation, enhance the adaptability of the regulatory system, and consolidate the international status of the EC drug regulatory system. PSE is regarded as the "cornerstone" of European health policy in the next five years, which has important guiding significance for the development and management of European pharmaceutical industry. This paper combs and analyzes the background, development strategic objectives and specific measures of PSE, and puts forward policy suggestions in combination with the actual work of China's epidemic prevention and control and industry development, pharmaceutical scientific supervision and encouraging innovation.Copyright © 2022 by the Author(s).
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To control the rapid spread of COVID-19, we consider deploying a set of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to form a quarantine barrier such that anyone crossing the barrier can be detected. We use a charging pile to recharge UAVs. The problem is scheduling UAVs to cover the barrier, and, for any scheduling strategy, estimating theminimum number of UAVs needed to cover the barrier forever. We propose breaking the barrier into subsegments so that each subsegment can be monitored by a single UAV. We then analyze two scheduling strategies, where the first one is simple to implement and the second one requires fewer UAVs. The first strategy divides UAVs into groups with each group covering a subsegment. For this strategy, we derive a closed-form formula for the minimum number of UAVs. In the case of insufficient UAVs, we give a recursive function to compute the exact coverage time and give a dynamic-programming algorithm to allocate UAVs to subsegments to maximize the overall coverage time. The second strategy schedules all UAVs dynamically. We prove a lower and an upper bound on the minimum number of UAVs. We implement a prototype system to verify the proposed coverage model and perform simulations to investigate the performance.
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While social media has grown in popularity in today's society, and has facilitated the dissemination of accurate and valuable information, it also raises the equally pressing concern of rampant proliferation of rumors and false news. The recent global outbreak of COVID-19 witnessed the explosion of fake and misleading health rumors in social media. Governments are tasked with providing the public with the right information to influence their behavior and engagement in emergency decision-making and optimally address the risks of rumor influence. Therefore, it is important to choose an appropriate response strategy in a rumor-induced health crisis. This study has two main objectives: to identify effective rumor response strategies by the government to stem the spread of rumor during a health crisis, and to examine the role of anxiety in this process using the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Online quasi-experimental data was collected from 245 Chinese participants who were exposed to a false social media rumor that potato chips could spread COVID-19 and were randomly assigned to one of three rumor response strategies (denial, refute or attack). According to the one-way ANOVA results, the effect of the refute response on rumor-related behavior is the most positive, whereas the effects of denial and attack are not significantly different. The results of the mediation model using PROCESS Macro reveal that anxiety partially mediates the relationship between rumor response strategies and rumor-related behaviors (rumor dissemination intentions and behavior intention to consume products);the refute strategy reduces public anxiety and has a positive effect on public behavioral intentions. This study is relevant to COVID-19 rumor research with regard to government rumor response strategies on social media using data-based descriptive and quantitative analysis. © SEARCH Journal 2023.
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This paper investigates a government's subsidy strategy for motivating a manufacturer to set up a flexible production line for emergency supplies. Four subsidy strategies are proposed to ensure a desired service level in case of an emergency: zero subsidy, a fixed subsidy, a marginal subsidy, and a hybrid subsidy. We develop a game theoretical model to examine how the government can induce a manufacturer to set up a flexible production line that can respond promptly to an emergency, based on the manufacturer's cost structure (fixed and marginal costs). We find that when the marginal profit of an emergency product is higher than that of the manufacturer's regular product, a fixed (marginal) subsidy is the dominant strategy if the manufacturer's fixed (marginal) cost is high, while a hybrid subsidy strategy is dominant if both costs are high. When the marginal profit of an emergency product is lower than that of the manufacturer's regular product, neither a fixed subsidy nor a zero subsidy will be the dominant strategy. We also find that a marginal subsidy can ensure the effectiveness of the strategy, while a fixed subsidy helps improve strategy efficiency. We use government subsidy strategies implemented for Chinese COVID-19 emergency supplies as examples to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the subsidy strategies under the proposed framework. We also extend the discussion by considering the manufacturer's social consciousness.
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During the covid-19 pandemic, students' online learning quality is imbued with teachers' support strategies while students' learning engagement is another great indicator underlies their learning experiences. Through a questionnaire survey of 500 freshmen who have had their college English class online in 2022 fall, an investigation using exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, stepwise regression analysis and parallel mediator model reveals the impact of teachers' support strategies (the six dimensions of challenge, authentic context, curiosity, autonomy, recognition and feedback) on the learners' online college English learning engagement (the four dimensions of cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, social engagement), thus particular concern is also given to the correlation with students' online learning experiences. It was found that even under diversified and comprehensive guiding strategies from teachers, university students' online college English learning engagement is at the medium level, among which the cognitive engagement should be devoted more. The experimental data also shows that teachers' support strategies have significant influence on learners' engagement, especially teachers' feedback and challenge setting will stimulate students to involve more in their study. In addition, both teachers' support strategies and students' learning engagement involves significant reflection of learning experiences accordingly. Based on this learning concept, related proposals see different degrees of prominence reflected in online instructional design, teachers' and students' feedback literacy, and technology-enabled innovative teaching practice are put forward, in order to effectively play the role of teacher scaffolding, learning experiences enrichment and students' engagement enhancement of online English learning. © 2023 IEEE.
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Container ports operate in more challenging and volatile environments at present times. Events such as US-China trade tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic severely affect numerous container ports at various levels. Strategies pursued by container ports are key to port development and management amidst these challenges. Drawing on configuration theory, this research employs Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to investigate the relation between port strategies and container throughput. The research contributes to the literature by proposing an approach to account for complexity of the port sector and offers insights into strategies adopted by major container ports. The research further identifies 10 port strategies and proposed indicators that can represent the essence of these strategies. Being able to represent strategies in a quantitative format is important for strategy analysis and performance evaluation. Results reveal that major container ports employ a combination of strategies which address both the supply and demand-side aspects of the port business. Growing digitalization and digitization coupled with advancements in information capture, diagnostics capabilities and predictive abilities means a greater role for data analytics to influence container port strategy and performance. Implications for port managers, policy makers and researchers from the perspective of port policy and management are proposed.
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PurposeThis study analyzes in-depth how knowledge-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can achieve higher new product development (NPD) process performance in the epidemic era and examine the internal development mechanism of knowledge-intensive SMEs in the process of continuous digital transformation.Design/methodology/approachThis issue is tested with partial least squares on data collected via a survey conducted from November 2021 to February 2022. The sample comprises 487 knowledge-intensive SMEs operating in China.FindingsThe results indicate that one form of cross-functional ambidexterity, market development strategy (MDS), plays an important role in process performance from an inside-out financial perspective and an outside-in customer perspective. Simultaneously, product innovation efficiency (PIE) mediates the relationship between MDS and the above results. Big data analytics capabilities (BDACs) positively regulate the relationship between MDS and PIE.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors do not consider other contingency factors. Future research should introduce influential factors such as leadership and competitive intensity to further distinguish the effects of MDS on NPD process performance.Practical implicationsThe study findings offer suggestions to help knowledge-intensive SME managers better manage their NPD process by making better use of their limited resources in developing countries such as China.Originality/valueThis study is one of only a few to adopt a process-oriented perspective to specifically examine how one form of cross-functional ambidexterity, MDS, impacts knowledge-intensive SME process performance in the epidemic era. This study also extends the theoretical framework of cross-functional ambidexterity to BDAC research.
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Objective To investigate the impact of dynamic adaptive teaching model on surgical education. Methods Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we adopted dynamic adaptive teaching model in the Department of Breast Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, which divided the whole curriculum into several individual modules and recombined different modules to accommodate to student's levels and schedules. Meanwhile, adaptive strategy also increased the proportion of online teaching and fully utilized electronic medical resources. The present study included quantitative teaching score (QTS) recorded from January 2020 to June 2020, and used the corresponding data from 2019 as control. The main endpoint was to explore the impact of dynamic adaptive teaching model on overall QTS and its interaction effect with trainer's experience and student category. Results Totally, 20 trainers and 181 trainees were enrolled in the present study. With implementation of dynamic adaptive strategy, the overall QTS decreased dramatically (1.76+/-0.84 vs. 4.91+/-1.15, t=4.85, P=0.005). The impact was consistent irrespective of trainers' experience (high experience trainers: 0.85+/-0.40 vs. 2.12+/-0.44, t=4.98, P=0.004;medium experience trainers: 0.85+/-0.29 vs. 2.06+/-0.53, t=4.51, P=0.006;and low experience trainers: 0.10+/-0.16 vs. 0.44+/-0.22, t=2.62, P=0.047). For resident (including graduate) and undergraduate student teaching, both QTS was lower with dynamic strategy (residents: 0.18+/-0.34 vs. 0.97+/-0.14, t=4.35, P=0.007;undergraduate students 1.57+/-0.55 vs. 3.77+/-1.24, t=3.62, P=0.015), but dynamic strategy was effective for post-doc student subgroup and reached comparable QTS as traditional model (0.00+/-0.00 vs. 0.17+/-0.41, t=1.00, P=0.363). Conclusions Dynamic adaptive teaching strategy could be a useful alternative to traditional teaching model for post-doc students. It could be a novel effective solution for saving teaching resources and providing individualized surgical teaching modality.Copyright © 2023, Peking Union Medical College Hospital. All rights reserved.
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PurposeThe present situation of COVID-19 pandemic has put the health-care systems under tremendous stress and stringent tests for their ability to offer expected quality of health-care services, as it decides the sustainability and growth of health-care service providers. This study aims to deliver a quantitative framework for service quality assessment in the health-care industry by classifying the health-care service quality parameters into four balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives.Design/methodology/approachTo determine the service quality for the Indian health-care system, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and analytical network process are integrated in a fuzzy environment to contemplate the interaction among BSC perspectives and respective performance measures.FindingsThe results indicate "internal processes” perspective assumes the key role within BSC perspectives, while performance measures "nursing staff turnover” and "staff training” play the key roles. The results also signify that "patient satisfaction” is the most vital issue and can be strongly influenced by measures belonging to the "learning and growth” perspective. In "learning and growth” perspective, "staff training” is the most decisive criteria, very highly influencing "patient satisfaction”, highly influencing "profitability,” "change of cost per patient (both in and out patients)” and "outpatient waiting time” while moderately influencing "staff satisfaction,” "bed occupancy” and "nursing staff turnover”. Moreover, "staff training” criteria have a positive influence on "nursing staff turnover.”Originality/valueThe contributions of this study are in two folds in the domain of quantification of service quality for the health-care system. First, it delivers an assessment framework for Indian health-care service quality. Second, it demonstrates an application of the framework for a case situation and validates the proposed framework.
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Strategic management has applications in many areas of social life. One of the basic steps in the process of strategic management is formulating a strategy by choosing the optimal strategy. Improving the process of selecting the optimal strategy with MCDM methods and theories that treat uncertainty well in this process, as well as the application of other and different selection criteria, is the basic idea and goal of this research. The improvement of the process of the aforementioned selection in the defense system was carried out by applying a hybrid model of multicriteria decision-making based on methods defining interrelationships between ranked criteria (DIBR) and multiattributive ideal-real comparative analysis (MAIRCA) modified by triangular fuzzy numbers–"DIBR–DOMBI–Fuzzy MAIRCA model.” The DIBR method was used to determine the weight coefficients of the criteria, while the selection of the optimal strategy, from the set of offered methods, was carried out by the MAIRCA method. This was done in a fuzzy environment with the aim of better treatment of imprecise information and better translation of quantitative data into qualitative data. In the research, an analysis of the model's sensitivity to changes in weight coefficients was performed. Additionally, a comparison of the obtained results with the results obtained using other multicriteria decision-making methods was conducted, which validated the model and confirmed stable results. In the end, it was concluded that the proposed MCDM methodology can be used for choosing a strategy in the defense system, that the results of the MCDM model are stable and valid, and that the process has been improved by making the choice easier for decision makers and by defining new and more comprehensive criteria for selection.
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Mangrove tourism is one of the tourist destinations offered by tourism managers that is currently gaining popularity and popularity among tourists. Keeping tourists coming back can be a very effective strategy for developing tourist destinations. This study employs Experiential Marketing as a strategy to increase tourist interest. Because research in the field of experiential marketing in nature tourism destinations such as mangrove tourism is still limited, the topics of this study are experiential marketing and visitor visit intention. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of strategic experiential modules (SEMs) on visitor revisits intention. The research method used is quantitative with the variable dimensions of SEMs and visitor revisits intention, a sample of 93 tourists with a purposive sampling technique, and multiple linear regression analysis techniques. The results showed that the sense, act, and relate variables had a positive and significant impact on the visitor revisits intention, while the feel variable had a positive but not significant impact, and the think variable had a negative but not significant impact on the visitor revisits intention.
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Evaluation and selection of eco-innovation strategies is a significant and complex strategic decision, and despite the relevance and interest in the field of eco-innovation, the area of eco-innovation strategies has not been explored in depth in the scientific literature. Therefore, in this study, we propose an integrated approach to evaluating eco-innovation strategies from the perspective of strategic green transformation that helps decision-makers evaluate and select eco-innovation strategy aiming to achieve a competitive advantage. For this study, we adopted a validated multi-criteria decision-making methodology (MCDM) by combining Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The reliability of the proposed framework was tested and applied in the context of the Lithuanian furniture industry. This study offers three contributions and provides a comprehensive and profound insights into eco-innovation strategies. First, this study conceptualizes eco-innovation strategy from the perspective of strategic green transformation and proposed a novel definition and classification of eco-innovation strategies leading to competitive advantage. Second, this study proposes a novel approach to the evaluation of eco-innovation strategies taking into account micro-, meso-, and macro-level environmental factors. Third, the findings of this study provide implications for scholars and decision-makers in the field of eco-innovation strategy and set an agenda for future research.
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NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully intercepted the asteroid Didymos on September 26th of 2022, potentially changing its orbital period with a deflection by kinetic impact. The spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on November 24th, 2021. DART's Integration and Test (I&T) campaign was scheduled to commence in April of 2020 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) in Laurel, Maryland. In March of that year, one month prior to beginning I&T, the rapid spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) forced JHU/APL to rethink how to assemble, test and deliver a spacecraft on schedule during a very challenging period of time. This paper will discuss the details of the successful I&T strategy used by the DART team during the COVID-19 lockdown and subsequent return to post-lockdown life. The team learned how to effectively meet virtually, how to integrate hardware, and how to operate the spacecraft with the least amount of people required. Communication was key in keeping the various DART team members, who were located across the country, connected and safe. The team had also moved documentation online for the first time, which turned out to be very instrumental in keeping everyone on track. A variety of tools to collaborate and document test procedures and results proved valuable for record keeping. Creative solutions were implemented during the test campaign for scheduling both remote and in person monitoring. This paper will conclude with DART lessons learned and recommendations for future I&T programs. © 2023 IEEE.
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PurposeAmid the COVID-19 contamination, people are bound to use contactless FinTech payment services. Because of restrictions on physical movement and avoidance of touching physical money, people willingly choose mobile payment, resulting in enormous growth in FinTech payment service industries. Because of this, this study aims to examine the effect of factors affecting Gen X and Millennials users to use FinTech payment services.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used 328 responses collected through convenience sampling of Indian users aged between 26 and 57 years in the Delhi-NCR region who are users of FinTech payment services.FindingsThe authors' findings verified that in India, perceived COVID-19 risk, perceived severity for COVID, individual mobility, subjective norms, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have statistically significant impacts on FinTech payment services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling was used to study the proposed research model. Overall, the model predicted 76.9 % of the variation in intention to use FinTech payment services by the abovesaid variables by Indian users during a pandemic.Practical implicationsThis study will provide valuable insight to all FinTech service providers and stakeholders in planning and designing the concerned policy. It will be able to draw the attention of users more.Originality/valueThis research added a valuable theory to the existing technology adoption model (TAM) theory. It demonstrated the utility of the above variables in adopting and using FinTech payment services, which will help service providers to develop future strategies because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In the aircraft cabin, passengers must share a confined environment with other passengers during boarding, flight, and disembarkation, which poses a risk for virus transmission and requires risk-appropriate mitigation strategies. Spacing between passenger groups during boarding and disembarkation reduces the risk of transmission, and optimized sequencing of passenger groups helps to significantly reduce boarding and disembarkation time. We considered passenger groups to be an important factor in overall operational efficiency. The basic idea of our concept is that the members of a group should not be separated, since they were already traveling as a group before entering the aircraft. However, to comply with COVID-19 regulations, different passenger groups should be separated spatially. For the particular challenge of disembarkation, we assume that passenger groups will be informed directly when they are allowed to leave for disembarkation. Today, cabin lighting could be used for this information process, but in a future digitally connected cabin, passengers could be informed directly via their personal devices. These devices could also be used to check the required distances between passengers. The implementation of optimized group sequencing has the potential to significantly reduce boarding and disembarkation times, taking into account COVID-19 constraints. © 2022 ICAS. All Rights Reserved.
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This chapter uses discourse analysis to study the statements made by two main players of the Mexican government: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Hugo López-Gatell, the Undersecretary for Health Prevention and Promotion. This analysis also discusses the ¡Quédate en casa! audiovisual advertisement campaign and its main character: the heroine SuSana Distancia. It suggests that the government's advertisement campaigns failed to promote the importance of health care and joint responsibility among the community;this is reflected in the number of people infected and deaths in Mexico. This study is made up of six parts: the first introduces the importance of a strategic communication plan;the second discusses the frame of reference;the third describes the analysis method and the corpus study configuration;the fourth includes the results;the fifth ponders the analysis;and the sixth includes the conclusions. The main findings are that the Mexican government never had the intention of promoting the use of masks as an essential measure. Two spots taught the population how to wear a mask;however, the discourse of both the Undersecretary and the President was that wearing a mask was not an essential measure to control infections. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.
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Objectives: To provide an update overview on the current status of healthcare systems in the Maghreb region (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) and to emphasize the progress made in the midst of the challenges facing these countries. Method(s): A descriptive comparative approach of healthcare systems in the three countries, based on data from sources with an established methodology, including descriptive healthcare data from the WHO database. Result(s): The population of the Maghreb will increase from 102 million to 132 million by 2050. The current population is mostly centered in Algeria and Morocco, accounting for 77%. Annual healthcare expenditure per capita is 447.9$, 776.8$ and 854.6$ in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, respectively. The average infant mortality rate per 1000 live improved to 10.9 in Tunisia, 16.8 in Morocco and 18.9 in Algeria. Maternal mortality rates have dropped to 43 and 48.5/100 000 births in Tunisia and Algeria, respectively while remaining relatively high in Morocco: 72.6. Number of hospital beds/1000 inhabitants is only 1.1 in Morocco, 1.9 and 2.9 in Algeria and Tunisia, respectively. The number of physicians/1000 people was 0.73 in Morocco, 1.3 in Tunisia and 1.72 in Algeria. This remains considerably low compared to the 3.9/1000 in Europe. The Maghreb countries are currently facing an exodus of physicians, mainly to France, which represents 7.1% and 10.7% of Tunisians and Moroccans, respectively, and more than 24% for Algerians. The Maghreb countries were very early mobilized (governments, ministries of health, civil society) to fight against COVID-19 and have successfully controlled the pandemic, according to pre-established control strategies and the strongly commitment of health professional. Conclusion(s): Despite the considerable progress made, the Maghreb countries still face major challenges. Physicians migration, rising cost of care and endemic infectious disease outbreaks constitute a huge hurdle on the already overburdened and resilient healthcare systems.Copyright © 2023
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This case analyzes how Zalora has applied various strategies to gain a sustainable advantage in the e-commerce industry and provide solutions that continuously add value for its customers, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes the company's efforts to capitalize on customer demand and external and internal forces to be more agile and nimble in an increasingly competitive environment. Zalora has introduced several technologies that reflect its digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation efforts. The use of digital technologies has helped Zalora to capture and analyze relevant data from its business processes and customer interactions. The information and automation generated by the technologies have enabled Zalora to continuously improve and reinvent itself to stay ahead of the competition. The challenges and opportunities of digital transformation are also discussed. © 2023, American Accounting Association. All rights reserved.