A survey of automatic contact tracing approaches using bluetooth low energy

To combat the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many new ways have been proposed on how to automate the process of finding infected people, also called contact tracing. A special focus was put on preserving the privacy of users. Bluetooth Low Energy as base technology has the most promising properties, so this survey focuses on automated contact tracing techniques using Bluetooth Low Energy. We define multiple classes of methods and identify two major groups: systems that rely on a server for finding new infections and systems that distribute this process. Existing approaches are systematically classified regarding security and privacy criteria.Copyright © 2021 ACM.

Academic rope to cope: Teachers' coping strategy to academic anxiety

The pandemic drove an abrupt global change that brought anxiety and distress to individuals. As such, the study explored the coping strategies used by higher education faculty members in dealing with academic anxiety. A concurrent triangulation mixed method was employed. Data were gathered from the faculty members of a state university using questionnaires and interviews. The faculty members primarily employed religiosity, problem-solving, cognitive reappraisal, and relaxation/recreation as their coping mechanisms. Furthermore, the females were more inclined to use emotional release, and the young adults employed social support and overactivity. Henceforth, the female faculty members may be exposed to peer counseling where they will be able to freely release their anger because of academic anxiety and the young adults may be showered with care and understanding from the people who are close to them and they may be provided with activities to do that may lessen their academic anxiety. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Analysis Of the Effectiveness of Risk- Based Internal Audit Implementation: A Case Study: Acces la Success

Background: Risk Based internal audit is a control and supervision activity carried out by internal auditors using the output of risk management. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the implementation of risk based internal audit at BPJS Ketenagakerjaan. Internal auditors need to know about risk management and risk maturity to identify key areas that require immediate supervision and follow-up. Method: This research is a case study qualitative research with a descriptive approach. Data was collected by means of interviews, observation and documentation. The analysis technique using triangulation is to collect data, reduce and draw conclusions. Results and findings: Researchers found that Social Security Agency while in Indonesian term is Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS) Ketenagakerjaan as an institution that is mandated to manage labor social security membership fees and implement good governance and manage business risks. The risk management output is then used as the basis for conducting an internal audit. Discussion: BPJS Ketenagakerjaan carries out risk management to identify risks, identify areas that have potential risks and carry out risk profiling. This makes it easier for internal auditors to carry out the internal audit process. Impact: The results of risk management make it easier for auditors to identify risks and identify specific areas so that internal audits can run effectively and efficiently.

Mixed research methods in political science and governance: approaches and applications.

It is widely accepted that an appropriate combination of quantitative and qualitative methods provides a better understanding of research problems as opposed to using them separately. This mixed approach is trying to cover any gaps and weaknesses between the quantitative and qualitative research. Furthermore, triangulation is a common way to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches, which has been used in numerous studies in order to detect different aspects of the research question as well as because the deficiencies of one method are often the forces of the other. The use of multiple methods reflects an attempt to understand and study the phenomenon under in depth investigation, while triangulation is not as much a results-validation strategy, but more of an alternative proposal for validation, through which the breadth, depth and consistency of the methodological processes is increased. There are different types of triangulation, but a mainstream process may include but is not limited at: (a) data triangulation, (b) investigator triangulation, and (c) methodological triangulation, in the version of triangulation of methods belonging to different paradigms. This paper will study and analyze the importance of mixed methods in political science and especially in governance and public policy research by focusing on specific examples of related research and outcomes. The main reason is to assess the importance of mixed methods in achieving better understanding of the social problems and transitions in the post-covid-19 era and thus shed light in contemporary issues related to governance and public policies.

Meeting public health objectives and supporting the resumption of tourist activity through COVID-19: a triangular perspective

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic (and previous health crises) have included measures to restrict interaction between people and minimize non-essential mobility. Therefore, tourism travel is one of the main areas affected by the restrictions. Even when the majority of the population is vaccinated, some risk of infection will remain, and governments are obliged to consider NPI measures that balance the health risk of outbreaks against the economic and social benefits of resuming tourist activity. This study analyzes the effect of each of four categories of NPIs (Social Distancing;Public Healthcare-System Improvements;Tourist Controls;and Capacity and Opening-Hours Regulation) on three major objectives (the resumption of tourism activity;tourist travel intention;and the minimization of public health risk), taking a triangular perspective (destination managers, domestic tourists, and public healthcare managers, respectively). While it is difficult to fulfil public healthcare objectives while simultaneously responding to the economic interests of tourism-industry stakeholders, the study finds that, under vaccinated-population conditions, tourist controls (e.g. COVID Certificate) alongside improvements to the public healthcare system (e.g. adequate resourcing and an efficient epidemiological monitoring system) could constitute a viable combination of measures.

Zoomvesting: angel investors' perception of subjective cues in online pitching

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic transformed angel investment meetings from in-person to online. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether this move affected angel investors' perception of subjective behavioral cues in pitch sessions within a large Brazilian angel group.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed an exploratory approach using a triangulation process that combined observation, documents and interviews. Data collected by observation, document studies, and interviews were themed, coded, and organized during the research.FindingsThe move from in-person to online pitches did not seem to affect levels of trustworthiness or arrogance as angels assessed more message content during Q&A sessions. Body movement, gestures and "eye gaze” (i.e. the look on a presenter's face) played a central role in passion assessment during in-person meetings. Body language was highly limited during online sessions and tone of voice became the main source of passion assessment.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study suggest that pitches at online meetings affect angel investors' perception of founders' subjective cues, particularly cues pertaining to passion. Entrepreneurs should be trained to convey passion with tone of voice and to improve their body language in the context of webcam use. The interviews with volunteer sampling were subject to volunteer bias. Additionally, the findings may be affected by cultural context.Practical implicationsA practical contribution of this study is to highlight the need for entrepreneurs to be trained for online pitches. In an online setting, body language is limited, but it is still possible to use one's hands and tone of voice to connect better to investors.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it captures the transition of angel investment meetings from in-person affairs before the pandemic to online meetings during the pandemic crisis. These unique circumstances provided a real-world laboratory to observe founders' subjective cue effects on angel investment decision-making.

Anxiety and psychological needs of high school students: COVID-19 period.

The study aims to examine the relationship between anxiety and psychological needs of high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The fact that the COVID-19 virus poses a threat to mental health as well as physical health, the effects of the pandemic period on the psychological needs and anxiety level of adolescents, especially in a critical developmental stage, and the scarcity of studies concerning adolescent mental health in this period, constituted the purpose of the current study. The quantitative (N = 502) and qualitative data (N = 29) of the study, in which triangulation design was used, were collected from high school students studying in the Southeast of Turkey. In the quantitative part of the research Multiple Linear Regression was implemented and content analysis was used in the qualitative part. The results indicate that love, belonging and power, which are subdimensions of basic psychological needs, are significant predictors of anxiety level. Additionally, it is seen that the need for freedom subdimension is the least predictive variable for the anxiety level. It is concluded that there are moderate negative and significant relationships between the general and subdimensions of basic psychological needs and the level of state anxiety. In this sense, it has been found that the level of anxiety tends to decrease as the level of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs increases. The results in the qualitative analysis part largely overlap with the results in the quantitative part. Suggestions based on the findings of the study are made to researchers.

Advancing global health with occupational epidemiology

This presentation will explore the essential role of occupational epidemiology in global health. Our field provides critical perspectives – relevant not only for the identification of health hazards at work but in global health more broadly – on the identification of risk factors for disease in populations, the weighing of evidence for causality, and the design and implementation of public health interventions. This presentation is informed by analyses of recent health crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, the epidemic of ‘deaths of despair' in the U.S. and the increasing toll of heat illnesses on a warming planet.In addition to study design and data analytic methods, occupational epidemiologists are trained to understand the physical and social environments in which work is conducted as well as the biological processes that link exposure to disease, and how all this impact population health. This multi-disciplinary training enables occupational epidemiologists to identify hazards and interventions that may be overlooked by other disciplines. Occupational epidemiologists learn that economic and political forces have powerful effects on the work environment, and this shapes their perspective on how evidence is weighed in public health decision-making. Rather than using rigid evidence to decision frameworks inspired by randomized controlled trials, evaluating evidence for action uses triangulation among diverse types and qualities of evidence to guide prevention. In occupational epidemiology, the precautionary principle can be understood as one aspect of the fundamental perspective that there is no pre-defined level of certainty that is needed before taking preventive action;instead, there are different amounts and qualities of evidence that are sufficient for each specific proposed intervention.A continuing supply of occupational epidemiologists is needed to respond to future global health challenges. Professional training programs are needed to ensure this workforce;training which includes epidemiology and biostatistics, physiology, occupational hygiene, engineering and the social and economic aspects of work and health. Occupational epidemiology should be core training in global health programs.

Immunity and security using holism, ambient intelligence, triangulation, and stigmergy: Sensitivity analysis confronts fake news and COVID-19 using open set transduction.

This paper introduces a multi-faceted security methodology based on Holism, Ambient Intelligence, Triangulation, and Stigmergy (HATS) to combat the spread of current pandemics such as fake news and COVID-19. HATS leverages the apparent complementarity and similarity of physical and mental pandemics using adversarial learning and transduction to promote immunity on both using conformal prediction and principled symbiosis. As such, HATS confronts both mental and physical adversity found in misinformation and disinformation. It confers herd immunity using holism and triangulation that call to advantage on sensitivity analysis using open set transduction and meta-reasoning. Ambient intelligence and stigmergy further mediate meta-reasoning and re-identification in building and sharing immunity. As change is constant and everything is fluid, as truth is not always reality and reality is not always truth, and as truth is imponderable and lie can become truth, two things have to happen. First, reconditioning and reconfiguration engage random deficiency to discern familiarity from strangeness and a-typicality. Second, transfer learning using trans-adaptation and transposition, serve adaptation and interoperability. Together, this empowers open set transduction in facing adaptive persistent threats such as deception and denial when it engages moving target defense using modification and de-identification. Immunology and security further come together using to advantage the coupling of active and adversarial learning.

Industrial Convergence and Industrial Crisis: A Situational Analysis About Precision Medicine During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Convergence, and its various configurations, is an established topic in technology and innovation management literature. This article contributes to the extant literature about industrial convergence by conducting an explorative analysis of the industrial crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, we aim to explore how industrial convergence affects the business dynamics of the healthcare markets. To fulfill our research purpose, we perform a qualitative study by exploring retrospectively the case study of precision medicine. Thus, we use a case study approach based on the triangulation of the multiple sources of evidence gathered. We propose a conceptual framework attesting to the continued recourse to digitalization for the need for data integration and the creation of hybrid figures within healthcare markets during the industrial crisis. This article proposes various implications for researchers and practitioners dealing with the management and development of innovation in convergent sectors.

Vaccine hesitancy: Opinion of people responsible for the care of infants in Barcelona

Objectives: To describe the opinions regarding vaccination of parents of infants aged 0-7 years in Barcelona with different profiles of vaccine hesitancy;to describe the elements contributing to hesitancy;and to explore suggestions for improvement. Material(s) and Method(s): Qualitative exploratory-descriptive and phenomenological study. Thirteen semi-structured individual interviews were carried out with parents of infants with vaccine hesitancy (12 mothers and one father). A thematic content analysis was performed. Data quality was ensured through triangulation strategies. Result(s): Among the elements contributing to vaccine hesitancy, the participants highlighted the scarce information on vaccines provided by the health system, the variability in the treatment received at the consultation and their need to make informed decisions. Insufficient information contributes to their perception that the vaccination schedule is excessive, premature and rigid, and to the low risk perception of some diseases. Although they report trust in health services, many complement it with private or non-biomedical services. Mothers considered that the COVID-19 pandemic had little influence on their hesitancy. Conclusion(s): The hesitancy identified among the informants is attributed to the lack of information provided by the health services, the communication and treatment received at the consultation and unresolved doubts regarding the vaccination schedule. It is recommended to increase the skills of the professional teams to improve communication with parents of infants and to increase the quality of the information provided by the National Health System.Copyright © 2022

Encryption Algorithm Using Polygon Triangulation and Catalan Numbers

The present COVID pandemic has transformed a physical world to a digital world. Electronic communication has become a major part of the human life that leads to a threat to digital network. So, hiding and protecting the information against unintended persons are highly essential nowadays. This can be done by encryption process. Encryption techniques are derived from mathematical concepts like number theory, graph theory, and algebra. The present paper explains a symmetric packet cipher using polygon triangulation and Catalan number of applied number theory. Here, a natural number n is secret between the users. The Catalan number Cn and number of triangles of n-angle Tn have major role in encryption process with simple logical XOR operation. To protect the cipher against different active and passive attacks, to achieve avalanche effect, the present plaintext packet is concatenated with the previous cipher text packet. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Personal Responsibility, Personal Shame: A Discourse Tracing of Individualism about Healthcare Costs

America's individualistic culture is reflected in deeply held beliefs about how people should manage their health and their (lack of) money. In this essay, we trace the ideological discourse of individualism at macro and micro levels, explicating how macro-level discourses surrounding finances and health fulfill key functions of individualism: explanatory and evaluative as well as identity and prescriptive. For each function, we illustrate at the micro level how social adherence to discourses of individualism affects people, relationships, and communities. In particular, we argue, failure to live up to individualistic ideals fosters internalized shame and guilt and worsens mental, physical, and financial health. Grounded in critical rhetorical theory and drawing upon critical interpersonal and family communication and health communication approaches, we illustrate how individualistic discourse is circulated and taken up by people, constituting their identities and relationships. We also showcase the benefits of investigating exigent social issues from multidisciplinary vantage points.

Employee attrition prediction in a pharmaceutical company using both machine learning approach and qualitative data

PurposeThis research intends to develop a model for predicting employees at a high-risk attrition and identify the most important factors affecting them.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, using the triangulation technique of a mixed research method, the employee attrition problem is investigated by identifying its affecting factors. For that matter, data related to the human resources department of a pharmaceutical company in Iran are used. And to achieve the intended goal, advanced data mining algorithms and interviews with human resource managers are applied.FindingsA model for predicting employees at a high-risk attrition is presented based on the gradient boosting machine algorithm with 89% accuracy. The use of the mixed research approach shows that qualitative and quantitative methods can be more effective in identifying the factors affecting employee churn or loss of staff. The results also contain a new situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote working scenarios having impact on employee attrition. Finally, human resource policies are presented based on variables related to each of the identified factors.Originality/valueThe novel contributions of this study include real data related to a leading pharmaceutical company as well as a combination of two quantitative and qualitative methods. The hybrid approach can identify the reasons for attrition and, consequently, retention policies to benefit from the advantage of both approaches. Data mining can be useful to identify the factors, which are usually not mentioned in termination interviews, such as direct managers. On the other hand, the results obtained from termination interviews can also include features that the authors cannot identify through data mining, which are specifically related to the characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry such as building a more professional career path. From a practical perspective, since this company specializes in pharmaceutical marketing in a new way and is primarily comprised graduates, it is important to note that the churn of specialized people disperses organizational and technological know-how. On the other hand, the pharmacist community in Iran is small, and their attrition might adversely affect not only the reputation of an organization but the employer's brand as well. So, this research would help other similar firms in retaining their valuable human capital.

Encryption Algorithm Using Polygon Triangulation and Catalan Numbers

The present COVID pandemic has transformed a physical world to a digital world. Electronic communication has become a major part of the human life that leads to a threat to digital network. So, hiding and protecting the information against unintended persons are highly essential nowadays. This can be done by encryption process. Encryption techniques are derived from mathematical concepts like number theory, graph theory, and algebra. The present paper explains a symmetric packet cipher using polygon triangulation and Catalan number of applied number theory. Here, a natural number n is secret between the users. The Catalan number Cn and number of triangles of n-angle Tn have major role in encryption process with simple logical XOR operation. To protect the cipher against different active and passive attacks, to achieve avalanche effect, the present plaintext packet is concatenated with the previous cipher text packet. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

What is next for occupational cancer epidemiology?

Epidemiological research has innovated over time to comprise increasingly larger-scale prospective cohort studies and consortia, use of electronic data linkage, causal inference methods and triangulation of evidence, reinforcing the ongoing utility of observational research methods. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for a global perspective in epidemiological research, multidisciplinarity, and broadening perspectives regarding fundamental underlying determinants of health. There have also been calls for greater equity and inclusiveness in health research, both in Europe, and worldwide. Efforts to stimulate future research and investment in occupation and cancer may benefit from the use of new rapidly evolving research methods, closer alignment with global public health priorities, and strengthening of international partnerships supporting excellence and inclusiveness in research.

Total Quality and Innovation Management in Healthcare (TQIM-H) for an Effective Innovation Development: A Conceptual Framework and Exploratory Study

To thrive, an organization must adapt to the fast and constant change in the economic environment caused by an aging society, technological changes, and the pandemic crisis. Innovation becomes important for the adaptation of industries. Healthcare is one of them. Innovation development in hospitals is effective and acceptable when its management is effective and aligns with the healthcare quality context since quality is a philosophy of work in life-related settings. To the best of our knowledge, quality management and innovation management in healthcare have never been integrated. Therefore, this research aimed to create an integrated framework of quality and innovation management in healthcare (TQIM-H). To establish the effectiveness of applying TQIM-H for the development of effective healthcare innovation, this study developed a TQIM-H conceptual framework using multiple methodologies including a literature review, multiple case studies analysis, Delphi study with healthcare experts, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and triangulation with an external dataset. We constructed a TQIM-H conceptual framework, consisting of seven dimensions, that can be used in developing innovation projects in hospitals and which agrees with safety and quality principles in hospitals.

Analysis of Blended Learning System in Perspective of Critical Thinking Skill in Elementary School

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on education. A social restriction policy from the Indonesian government to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 virus requires a learning system that follows the situation and conditions to accommodate the critical thinking skills of elementary school students. This study aims to analyze the blended learning system from critical thinking skills in elementary schools. This type of research is qualitative. The subjects of this study were 5th-grade elementary school students in Boyolali Regency. Data collection techniques by observation, interviews, documentation, and open questionnaires. Data validity by source triangulation and technique triangulation. Data analysis uses data reduction, data presentation, and concluding. The study results found that (1) Implementing blended learning combines face-to-face and online learning is student-centered, and students participate more in the learning process. (2) Blended learning can accommodate the critical thinking skills of students who have various levels of understanding, as evidenced by students having: (a) problem-solving skills, (b) self-confidence, (c) open mindedness, and (d) analyzing information. Blended learning systems in the perspective of critical thinking skills in elementary schools are in a good category. The implications of this research are as a reference for developing a blended learning system model based on student critical thinking skills at the elementary school in Indonesia. © 2021 ACM.