Identifying and understanding challenges to inform new approaches to improve vaccination rates: A qualitative study in Indonesia

Purpose: This study aimed to identify and understand challenges to inform new strategies to increase the COVID‐19 vaccination rate according to involved vaccinators' perspectives in Belitung, Indonesia. Design A qualitative descriptive study design was used. Methods: Online interviews and chatting were done among 11 vaccinators for data collection between August 2021 and January 2022. Data were analyzed using a content analysis model. Findings Four main themes emerged, including (1) communication strategies (evidence‐based, electronic‐based, and culturally based communication), (2) cross‐sectoral strategies (collaboration with police, religious leaders, customary leaders, heads of village divisions, and non‐governmental organizations), (3) "picking‐up the ball" system (home visits for elderly and people with disability and school visits for children), and (4) setting‐up priorities (between mandatory vaccines and boosters). Conclusion: Despite making vaccination mandatory, the roles of communication, cross‐sectoral innovations, "picking‐up the ball" system, and priority setting may have useful potential to improve vaccination rates. Clinical Relevance: The findings may serve as an input to overcome challenges and accelerate the vaccination coverage in Indonesia and beyond. However, further research is needed.

Evaluation of Online Teaching in the Covid Period using Learning Analytics

The article compares education at the Faculty of Economics Matej Bel University before the pandemic and during the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, it tries to outline what the education will look like after this situation is over. It finds out how the situation during the corona affected the education of economists and to what extent the changes it brought will be preserved in the future. The comparison of face-to-face and distance learning in 2019 and 2020 was made. This is because teaching in 2019 was carried out in a "classic ", face-to-face manner, and on the contrary, in 2020, after the closure of schools in March 2020, teaching at Matej Bel University was carried out only distance online method. To get the best possible view of the researched topic, several research methods were used: the examination of the LMS Moodle with using of various Learning Analytics tools and Questionnaire Research. The results showed that face-to-face education before the Covid pandemic and after this pandemic will no longer be the same because distance online education will also cause changes in face-to-face education in the post-pandemic period. Questionnaire research showed that up to 78% of part-time students and 61% of full-time students would like their study program to use elements of distance education in full-time study as well. Since this is a large group of students, their opinion will be considered in the future when fully returning to face-to-face teaching.

Analytics for WhatsApp chats: tracking and visualising students' collaboration in project teams

COVID-19 and remote learning have accelerated online collaboration. Capturing online collaboration in terms of quantitative and qualitative description of students' interaction to achieve learning outcomes remains a challenge. We introduce a framework for describing and visualising students' interactions in WhatsApp group chat. We present five studies (N = 123, N = 64, N = 106, N = 55, N = 46) in courses taken by mathematics and business students. We found that mathematics students wrote more messages and shorter messages than business students. We also found that average number of words per message correlated with the project mark positively in mathematics but negatively in business courses. We suggest a way to visualise a WhatsApp chat as a network and tested the hypothesis that the centralisation coefficient of this network correlated negatively with the project score. The hypothesis was not confirmed. Implications and suggestions for further study are presented.

An Intelligent Collaborative Image-Sensing System for Disease Detection

With the growth of smart medical devices and applications in smart hospitals, home care facilities, nursing, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are becoming more ubiquitous. It uses smart medical devices and cloud computing services, and basic Internet of Things (IoT) technology, to detect key body indicators, monitor health situations, and generate multivariate data to provide just-in-time healthcare services. In this article, we present a novel collaborative disease detection system based on IoMT amalgamated with captured image data. The system can be based on intelligent agents, where every agent explores the interaction between different medical data obtained by smart sensor devices using reinforcement learning as well as targets to detect diseases. The agents then collaborate to make a reliable conclusion about the detected diseases. Intensive experiments were conducted using medical data. The results show the importance of using intelligent agents for disease detection in healthcare decision-making. Moreover, collaboration increases the detection rate, with numerical results showing the superiority of the proposed framework compared with baseline solutions for disease detection. © 2001-2012 IEEE.

COVID-19 Risk Perception and Support for COVID-19 Mitigation Measures Among Local Government Officials in the US: A Test of Cultural Theory of Risk

This study relies on the cultural theory of risk to examine how cultural biases (hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, and fatalism) of local government officials affect their COVID-19 risk perception and support for COVID-19 mitigation measures. After controlling for partisanship, religiosity, and other factors, the analysis of survey data from county governments in the U.S. revealed that cultural biases matter. Officials with egalitarian and hierarchical cultural biases report higher support for adopting COVID-19 mitigation measures, while those with individualistic cultural biases report lower support. These findings highlight the need to understand cultural worldviews and develop cultural competencies necessary for governing traumatic events.

Feminist publishing against the pandemic

The special issue "Feminist Publishing Against the Pandemic” features essays from thirteen contributors whose work would have been presented at "FiMA2: Feminist Revolutions,” the second conference of the Feminist inter/Modernist Association (FiMA), originally scheduled for Spring 2020, rescheduled, and eventually canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. By soliciting snapshot essays of no more than 2000 words, the editors of the issue are able to showcase a wide range of feminist modernist scholarship in danger of being lost due to the constraints of the pandemic and a profession in crisis. Authors included in the special issue engage with modern women writers, artists, and culture-makers who navigated their own constraints such as fighting for suffrage, managing domestic and professional commitments, responding to two world wars, and continuing feminist work in the post-war years. This collection of essays highlights vibrancy and complexity in the field of feminist modernist scholarship. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Collaborative Networking in Education: Learning Across International Contexts

There is growing consensus on the need to prepare future generations in environments of collaboration and cooperation. This way of understanding education cross borders in the quest for networking. A wide range of theoretical bases supports networking, which underlines its potential in the educational arena. There are few comparative studies that explore the forms that networking takes in education at the international level. This article discusses a series of examples from various countries in order to add to the current knowledge about networking in education in different parts of the world. The examples selected were chosen after a review of the international specialist literature (prior to Covid-19). This was followed by a screening process of the documentary sources based on temporal and thematic criteria, notably including research published in the past decade with content directly related to collaborative networking in diverse educational contexts. Many initiatives have been carried out in a wide range of school settings over the last few years through a combination of top-down interventions, accountability measures and changes in governance arrangements. This article focuses on proposals from countries whose collaboration networks can boast long experiences, together with a synthesis of the main advances reported in the area.

Embedding Social, Community Projects Within Contemporary Curricular

Social media continues to influence the online behaviours of humans in some of the most profound ways. Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted immense opportunities that socialmedia provides to keep people connected and engaged through difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, it also attracts various dubious users, eager to take advantage to the anonymity of these platforms to conduct unethical and illegal practices. Typical computing studies courses do not focus on developing the skills and attitudes to enable students to work in a globalised environment, and certainly do not focus on exposing many of the social challenges in our societies. Authentic learning experience are not common. An activity was created between the UOW College Australia and UOW College Hong Kong where students from these respective institutions collaborated with each other to identify, explore and suggest a social media-based solution to challenges faced by a NGO located in a third country, that is, not located in Australia or Hong Kong. This gave students to experience working with each other, and through that navigate the various linguistic, cultural and other norms and differences. They also had to identify and communicate with a NGO from a third country, in many cases who had their own linguistic, cultural and other norms about work and communications. This paper will discuss some of the knowledge, skills and attitudes that can be gained from engaging in cross border collaborative social projects. It will also outline some of the challenges and opportunities that exist in establishing these types of learning activities.

The impact of government use of social media and social media contradictions on trust in government and citizens' attitudes in times of crisis

This study explores three issues with reference to times of crisis: the impact of government use of social media, and of social media contradictions, on trust in government, and on citizens' attitudes toward government use of social media. The crisis that provided the context of this study was the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the study explored the impact of trust in government and social media contradictions on citizens' attitudes toward pandemic prevention measures and vaccination. Data were collected from 379 respondents who were Facebook users in Jordan. PLS-SEM was utilised to validate the research model and analyse data. The results reveal a positive impact on trust in government of a number of dimensions of government use of social media, including transparency, participation, and collaboration. They also confirm that social media contradictions negatively impact trust in government and citizens' attitudes towards vaccination.

Supporting Remote Social Robot Design Collaboration with Online Canvases: Lessons Learned from Facilitators' and Participants' Experiences.

Social robot design projects typically involve multidisciplinary teamwork and collaboration, adopt a Human-Centred Design (HCD) approach, and deal with physical (tangible) objects, i.e., robots. HCD takes a human to the centre point of the design process. A typical activity in HCD are design workshops where a facilitator is needed to guide and moderate the task-related and interactional activities throughout the session. Facilitation is also usually needed in longer-term design projects or courses to guide participants through the different phases of design during several sessions. Recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most design activities including social robot design were rapidly transferred to online mode. Designing for tangible objects is challenging in online settings because the interaction experience with a physical object is hard to demonstrate online. In this article, we report how we harnessed online canvases to support both short-term social robot design workshops and a long-term design course. Based on participants' feedback and facilitators' experiences, we report lessons learned from utilizing collaborative design canvases for creative social robot design projects that specifically focus on early stages and concept ideation. We propose practical guidelines for canvas-based online facilitation focusing on creative design workshops and projects. In addition, we discuss the lessons learned concerning social robot design activities taking place in online mode. To respond to the challenges of designing tangible robots in a fully online mode, we suggest a Hybrid Robotic Design Model (HRDM), where the participants work in contact with facilitators, other participants and robots at specific points, while the other phases are conducted online.

The COVID-19 laboratory response in Timor-Leste; a story of collaboration.

Timor-Leste is a small nation of 1.3 million people which shares a land border with Indonesia and is 550 km from Darwin, Australia. It is one of the poorest nations in Asia. The National Health Laboratory (NHL) and its network of smaller laboratories in Timor-Leste had limited capacity to perform molecular diagnostic testing before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began. With the support of international development partners, the NHL rapidly expanded its molecular testing service. From March 2020 to February 2022, over 200,000 molecular tests were performed; COVID-19 testing sites were established in hospital and community health center laboratories and all 13 municipalities, and the number of scientists and technicians at the molecular diagnostic laboratory at the NHL increased from five to 28 between 2019 and 2022. Molecular diagnostic testing for COVID-19 was successfully established at the NHL and in the municipalities. The molecular diagnostic laboratory at NHL is now equipped to respond to not only large-scale COVID-19 testing but also laboratory detection of other infectious diseases, preparing Timor-Leste for future outbreaks or pandemics.

Evaluating Data Sharing of SARS-CoV-2 Genomes for Molecular Epidemiology across the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Following the emergence of COVID-19 in December 2019, caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the disease spread dramatically worldwide. The use of genomics to trace the dissemination of the virus and the identification of novel variants was essential in defining measures for containing the disease. We aim to evaluate the global effort to genomically characterize the circulating lineages of SARS-CoV-2, considering the data deposited in GISAID, the major platform for data sharing in a massive worldwide collaborative undertaking. We contextualize data for nearly three years (January 2020-October 2022) for the major contributing countries, percentage of characterized isolates and time for data processing in the context of the global pandemic. Within this collaborative effort, we also evaluated the early detection of seven major SARS-CoV-2 lineages, G, GR, GH, GK, GV, GRY and GRA. While Europe and the USA, following an initial period, showed positive results across time in terms of cases sequenced and time for data deposition, this effort is heterogeneous worldwide. Given the current immunization the major threat is the appearance of variants that evade the acquired immunity. In that scenario, the monitoring of those hypothetical variants will still play an essential role.

Implementation of the Synergy Tool: A Potential Intervention to Relieve Health Care Worker Burnout.

(1) Background: Healthcare workers experienced rising burnout rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A practice-academic collaboration between health services researchers and the surgical services program of a Canadian tertiary-care urban hospital was used to develop, implement and evaluate a potential burnout intervention, the Synergy tool. (2) Methods: Using participatory action research methods, this project involved four key phases: (I) an environmental scan and a baseline survey assessment, (II), a workshop, (III) Synergy tool implementation and (IV) a staffing plan workshop. A follow-up survey to evaluate the impact of Synergy tool use on healthcare worker burnout will be completed in 2023. (3) Results: A baseline survey assessment indicated high to severe levels of personal and work-related burnout prior to project initiation. During the project phases, there was high staff engagement with Synergy tool use to create patient care needs profiles and staffing recommendations. (4) Conclusions: As in previous research with the Synergy tool, this patient needs assessment approach is an efficient and effective way to engage direct care providers in identifying and scoring acuity and dependency needs for their specific patient populations. The Synergy tool approach to assessing patient needs holds promise as a means to engage direct care providers and to give them greater control over their practice-potentially serving as a buffer against burnout.

The academic impact and value of an international online surgery lecture series.

Due to the worldwide travel restrictions caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic, many universities and students lost opportunities to engage in international exchange over the past 2 years. Teleconferencing systems have thus been developed to compensate for severe travel restrictions. Kansai Medical University in Japan and Vilnius University in Lithuania have a collaborative research and academic relationship. The two universities have been conducting an online joint international surgery lecture series for the medical students of both universities. Fifteen lectures were given from October 2021 to May 2022. The lectures focused on gastrointestinal surgery, gastroenterology, radiology, pathology, genetics, laboratory medicine, and organ transplantation. A survey of the attendees indicated that they were generally interested in the content and satisfied with attending this lecture series. Our efforts were successful in providing Japanese and Lithuanian medical students with the opportunity to engage in international exchange through lectures held in each other's countries.

Getting by with a little help from my friends? Expanding mentorship for career development and satisfaction

Collaboration and teamwork are well-established cornerstones of modern clinical and academic medicine as well as research, including radiology. Mentorship is also part and parcel of daily medical practice and training. As it is, there is a wide range of opinions on the effectiveness of standard mentorship models. In some cases, academic departments may offer mentorship to fulfill a requirement rather than as a sign of commitment to ensuring that all mentees receive the guidance they seek. Although mentor-mentee relationships might have arisen organically, and such situations are still possible, the overall lack of face-to-face interactions in many departments in the COVID era suggests the need to emphasize formal mentoring programs. We appreciate the overall successes of mentorship in medicine as well as radiology, while acknowledging that, like anything, it is not perfect. Because the processes of decision making and career planning are similar across fields, a peer-to-peer cross-specialty mentorship model could yield untold benefits to early-career radiologists who may receive valuable advice from friends or colleagues outside of medicine, or simply outside of radiology, at crucial points in their careers. There is no ideal formula or format for mentoring, however. We endorse the theory or intentions of mentorship and believe that its effectiveness can take several forms. Having a formal program in place, with built-in flexibility to address our rapidly changing times, remains highly desirable. Our proposal is to expand this notion to a "whatever works,” "anything goes,” or, in the spirit of the COVID era, a hybrid model. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

New Normal Remote Communication for Collaboration

Remote communication is not new for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry and academia. Organisations started using what was common, called "conference rooms” with sophisticated technological equipment prepared for "conference calls” when face-to-face meetings were not possible, and the industries culture and work practices were rooted in face-to-face meetings. This was current practice until the beginning of 2020, with the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced people to have safe distances between them, to be isolated for long periods of time, and several restrictions to travel not being possible to meet face-to-face. This situation rapidly created a new need to find ways to communicate as alternatives to traditional face-to-face meetings, for "conference call rooms” anywhere and accessible at any time by everyone. The extended duration of the pandemic made organisations adapt to that new normal and remarkable new opportunities arose in a new way. This article explores recent situations in academia and industry that can highlight potential guidance towards the new normal in remote communication for learning–teaching and the AEC industry sectors. In conclusion, appropriate use of these electronic processes provides opportunities to significantly improve remote communication in future. It is expected that the number of opportunities to develop international relationships and partnerships can be boosted to another level of accessibility. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

How can patient partnership help to improve equality as COVID‐19 moves from pandemic to endemic?

One of the stated aims of the National Health Service (NHS) within its constitution is the promotion of equality. However, there is evidence inequality has increased over the last decade and the COVID‐19 pandemic has exacerbated this. The current pressures on healthcare mean that there is a case for a shift in approach as we transition to living with endemic COVID‐19. This article sets out how putting patient partnership front and centre at an individual, systems and national level has the potential to improve equality and assist the NHS in achieving its founding principles.

Clinical psychologists' well-being and experiences of home working during COVID-19

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore the well-being and experiences of working from home (WFH) for psychology staff across a range of specialties working within one health board in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 161 clinical psychology professionals took part in an online survey that explored experiences of WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic and assessed well-being during this period. Findings: A number of challenges with WFH were identified, including challenges with carrying out clinical work (e.g. communication difficulties, risk assessment) and fewer opportunities for collaborative working and technical/equipment issues. During the WFH period, 46% experienced fatigue, 45% felt stressed and anxious and 30% felt lonely and isolated, compared to normal. Physical health complaints were also common with 37% experiencing aches/pains in back compared to normal and 40% experiencing headaches or migraines. Practical implications: Remote therapy should be directed to those with less complex needs or who require straightforward assessments. There should be increased access to occupational health assessments and provision of ergonomic furniture when WFH, and all staff should be supported to access well-being resources available within the health board. Further evaluation should be carried out to support evidence-based practice of remote clinical work. Originality/value: Few studies have explored the experiences of WFH and/or remotely from the perspectives of clinical psychologists in a Scottish health board. It is expected that this way of working will continue, albeit to a smaller extent;therefore, WFH policy will be informed by the findings.

The Feasibility of a Pediatric Distance Learning Curriculum for Emergency Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Improving Pediatric Acute Care Through Simulation Collaboration

To develop and evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a longitudinal pediatric distance learning curriculum for general emergency nurses, facilitated by nurse educators, with central support through the Improving Acute Care Through Simulation collaborative. Kern's 6-step curriculum development framework was used with pediatric status epilepticus aimed at maintaining physical distancing, resulting in a 12-week curriculum bookended by 1-hour telesimulations, with weekly 30-minute online asynchronous distance learning. Recruited nurse educators recruited a minimum of 2 local nurses. Nurse educators facilitated the intervention, completed implementation surveys, and engaged with other educators with the Improving Pediatric Acute Care through Simulation project coordinator. Feasibility data included nurse educator project engagement and curriculum engagement by nurses with each activity. Efficacy data were collected through satisfaction surveys, pre-post knowledge surveys, and pre-post telesimulation performance checklists. Thirteen of 17 pediatric nurse educators recruited staff to complete both telesimulations, and 38 of 110 enrolled nurses completed pre-post knowledge surveys. Knowledge scores improved from a median of 70 of 100 (interquartile range: 66-78) to 88 (interquartile range: 79-94) (P =.018), and telesimulation performance improved from a median of 60 of 100 (interquartile range: 45-60) to 100 (interquartile range: 85-100) (P =.016). Feedback included a shortened intervention and including physician participants. A longitudinal pediatric distance learning curriculum for emergency nurses collaboratively developed and implemented by nurse educators and Improving Pediatric Acute Care through Simulation was feasible for nurse educators to implement, led to modest engagement in all activities by nurses, and resulted in improvement in nurses' knowledge and skills. Future directions include shortening intervention time and broadening interprofessional scope.

An Introductory BIM Course for Engineering Students

Building Information Modelling is being adopted worldwide and universities are thus expected to provide the market with new professionals with BIM knowledge and skills. However, introduction of this theme into the curriculum can be challenging to teaching staff. Having successful implementation examples can help carrying on this task. This paper presents the structure, syllabus, adopted tools and activities of an introductory BIM course offered to first-year engineering students. Implemented with only 2 credits, it covers BIM fundamental concepts and develops collaboration skills and abilities with BIM software tools. It was effectively deployed on big classes and successfully offered both in face-to-face and remote modes, adopting a practice focus. An innovative organization for student group projects was adopted, enabling student participation on several projects, performing a different role in each one. Perceived benefits to students' development are reported. The covid-19 pandemics impact is discussed. Future improvements in the course are suggested. Overall results achieved were considered very good. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.