Towards a smart pervasive conversational agent for COVID-19 psychological assistance based on NLP

Diverse countries throughout the world were quar-antined due to the novel pandemic known as COVID-19, even after vaccination,. As a result of this grim circumstance, most socioeconomic and political spheres have encountered deep crisis and from there people have experienced stress, anxiety, depression, and even suicide, In this paper, we propose a smart pervasive conversational agent for psychological assistance during and after COVID-19 quarantine, which could converse with a regular citizen to raise awareness of the genuine threat of the outbreak and the importance of vaccination. Our proposed conversational agent could be able to recognize and manage stress and anxiety using natural language understanding (NLU) and international stress and anxiety scales. The messages given by our agent and its mode of communication may help to alleviate anxiety following the world's lockdown. Our agent's comment threads and management styles may be able to soothe people's worry during the world's lockdown. Our proposed approach is a mobile healthcare service with three interdependent units: an input processing (IP) that performs natural language understanding (NL), a Storage that stores every interaction, and a response manager (RM) that controls the responses of our conversational agent. © 2022 IEEE.

Assistência Social no ajuste fiscal: pandemia e gestão da força de trabalho

O presente artigo objetiva discutir aspectos recentes da política de assistência social brasileira, considerando a incidência da radicalização do projeto neoliberal sobre seus serviços e as características de sua intervenção no contexto da pandemia da Covid-19. Elegemos como mote de análise central a relação entre a referida política e a gestão da força de trabalho mais precarizada e empobrecida, que no geral têm composto o público-alvo deste campo de proteção social. Tomando como base os fundamentos da crítica marxista da política social, a abordagem da assistência social procura desvelar as contradições inerentes a esta política de seguridade social, problematizando os principais elementos do endurecimento do ajuste fiscal no Brasil. Essas reflexões sedimentam as bases para a análise acerca da condição dessa política na gestão da força de trabalho mais empobrecida a partir das determinações da pandemia da Covid-19. A pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, se assenta em revisão bibliográfica e análise de dados empíricos de fonte primária e secundária.Alternate :This article aims to discuss recent aspects of Brazilian social assistance policy, considering the incidence of the radicalization of the neoliberal project on its services and the characteristics of its intervention in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. We chose as a central analysis theme the relationship between the aforementioned policy and the management of the most precarious and impoverished workforce, which in general have made up the target audience of this field of social protection. Based on the foundations of the Marxist critique of social policy, the approach to social assistance seeks to reveal the contradictions inherent in this social security policy, questioning the main elements of the tightening of fiscal adjustment in Brazil. These reflections solidify the bases for the analysis about the condition of this policy in the management of the most impoverished workforce from the determinations of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research, of a qualitative nature, is based on a literature review and analysis of empirical data from primary and secondary sources.

Social Determinants of Health and Their Impact on Families of Children with Sickle Cell Disease during Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: According to national prevalence data, SCD has an estimated economic burden of $2.98 billion per year in the United States and caring for a child with sickle cell disease (SCD) carries its own financial burden, resulting in higher healthcare costs and unintended days lost from employment. Social experiences are known to impact health outcomes in the general pediatric population. These experiences can be examined through the construct of social determinants of health (SDOH), the "condition in which people are born, grow, work, live and age" that impact their health. Since the WHO has designated COVID-19 a pandemic in January 2020, many families in the US have suffered financially, and during the shutdowns, there was a record number of jobs lost. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial and employment status of SCD Families Methods: This study was part of the larger CNH Sickle Cell Disease Social Determinants of Health study that was IRB approved. Caregivers of children with SCD completed a 30-question survey reporting their experiences with SDOH that included Demographics, USDA Food Security Scale, the We Care housing screening tool, and the validated COVID-19 Employment Status/COVID-19 related household finances survey in RedCap during clinic visits and hospitalizations Results: 99 caregivers of SCD patients responded to our survey (82.5% Female, 17.5% Male) (N=97). 93.9% identified as African-American, 3% identified as Hispanic or Latinx, 1% identified as "other". Of respondents, 66% were insured through on Medicaid and 33% had private insurance. Twenty-six percent endorsed food insecurity and 2724% relied on low-cost food. Thirty-one percent lived in an apartment, 67.768% lived in a home, 1% lived in shelter or transitional housing. Sixteen percent lived in subsidized or public housing. Thirty-seven (36.8%) percent reported at least once they were being unable to pay the mortgage or rent on time at least once, 9% (8.5%) reported living with other people because of financial difficulties, 55.2% reported their home not being heated, 7.2% reported being evicted from their home and 3.1% lived in an emergency shelter or transitional housing. 6.1% had an educational level of high school graduation or less, 42.2% were college graduates or completed additional post-graduate education (N=98). Two weeks prior to the pandemic, 61.5% worked full time, 13.5% worked part time, 6.3% were unemployed with only 2.1% working from home of the 96 caregivers who responded to this question. 15.5% (N=12 of 77) reported losing their job or were furloughed during the pandemic;34.4% (N=33 of 96) reporting at least one household member losing a job or a significant amount of income. Twenty-five percent (N=21 of 83) reported it was difficult to get work/school done because of the home environment. 36.4 % (N=35 of 96) reported household income was significantly less since February 2020. 53% (N=52 of 97) worried their household income has been or will be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, 48.9% (N=47 of 96) worried the value of their assets (housing, savings, other financial assets) has been or will be negatively impacted by COVID-19 and its effects. Since February 2020, 9.8% (N= 9 of 97) received unemployment insurance, 30.9% (N=29 of 94) received SNAP or food stamps, 16.5% (N= 15 of 91) received from the food pantry, 6.6% (N=6 of 90) applied for temp ass.

Did A Fruit and Vegetable Incentive Program Support low-income Households in North Carolina during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Mixed Methods Assessment of the Healthy Helping Program and Other Pandemic-Related Food Assistance

In 2020, the Healthy Helping Fruit and Vegetable Program provided SNAP-eligible beneficiaries with $40/month, for up to 3 months, to purchase fruits and vegetablesata chainsupermarket inNorthCarolina.A survey to describeparticipants' experiences with the program and interviews to explore whether these experiences were shaped byparticipating inotherpandemic-related food access programs were conducted.In conjunction with other food access programs,programs that allow participants freedom to choose what they purchase mayalleviate household hardships and provide greater access tonutrient-dense foods during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond..Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Timely and well-targeted financial help during COVID-19: an employer-community partnership for hotel workers in New Orleans

Economic disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic left many households without the income necessary to meet basic needs. We describe an innovative, community-based partnership between a financial services company, philanthropic funders, and employers to provide financial assistance to hotel workers in New Orleans who lost jobs and income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from a survey of 1,056 hotel workers show that workers experienced lower food insecurity and difficulty paying bills in the month after receiving assistance, while transaction data from the VISA gift cards used to disburse assistance showed that workers mostly used assistance on necessities. We discuss implications for employers who want to offer emergency assistance fund programs and for public policy changes to better support low-wage workers, especially those with children.

Tiempos de pandemia: impactos en el proceso de construcción de un estatuto profesional relativamente autónomo

O surgimento da pandemia de Covid-19 trouxe uma explicação imposta para a crise estrutural do capital, que vinha sendo gerida a partir de uma ofensiva do capital contra todas as conquistas do trabalho. Nesse contexto, a extensão inédita da assistência, como mecanismo privilegiado para enfrentar a dessocialização e o risco de sobrevivência de grandes contingentes expulsos do vínculo empregatício, ganha nova legitimidade na medida em que sua plasticidade tornou adequada para enfrentar a sobrevivência de novos contingentes atingidos pela pandemia. Esse contexto traz novos desafios à busca de ampliar a autonomia relativa da profissão de Serviço Social.Alternate :La emergencia de la pandemia covid 19 trajo una explicación impostada a la crisis estructural del capital, que venía siendo administrada en base a una ofensiva del capital contra todas las conquistas del trabajo. En este contexto la extensión sin precedentes de la asistencia, como mecanismo privilegiado para atender la desocialización y riesgo de supervivencia de grandes contingentes expulsados de la relación laboral, cobra nueva legitimidad en tanto su plasticidad la volvió apropiada para atender la sobrevivencia de nuevos contingentes afectados por la pandemia. Este contexto coloca nuevos desafíos a la búsqueda por ampliar la autonomía relativa por parte de la profesión Trabajo Social.Alternate :The emergence of the covid 19 pandemic brought a false explanation to the structural crisis of capital, which has been managed based on an offensive by capital against all the conquests of labor. In this context, the unprecedented extension of assistance, as a privileged mechanism to deal with the risk of desocialization and survival of large contingents expelled from the employment relationship, gains new legitimacy to the extent that its plasticity made it adequate to attend to the survival of new contingents affected for the pandemic. This context poses new challenges in the quest to expand the relative autonomy of the Social Work profession.

Robotic Assistance in Radiology: A Covid-19 Scenario

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the need for rapid and reliable alternative COVID-19 screening methods have motivated the development of learning networks to screen COVID-19 patients based on chest radiography obtained from Chest X-ray (CXR) and Computed Tomography (CT) imaging. Although the effectiveness of developed models have been documented, their adoption in assisting radiologists suffers mainly due to the failure to implement or present any applicable framework. Therefore in this paper, a robotic framework is proposed to aid radiologists in COVID-19 patient screening. Specifically, Transfer learning is employed to first develop two well-known learning networks (GoogleNet and SqueezeNet) to classify positive and negative COVID-19 patients based on chest radiography obtained from Chest X-Ray (CXR) and CT imaging collected from three publicly available repositories. A test accuracy of 90.90%, sensitivity and specificity of 94.70% and 87.20% were obtained respectively for SqueezeNet and a test accuracy of 96.40%, sensitivity and specificity of 95.50% and 97.40% were obtained respectively for GoogleNet. Consequently, to demonstrate the clinical usability of the model, it is deployed on the Softbank NAO-V6 humanoid robot which is a social robot to serve as an assistive platform for radiologists. The strategy is an end-to-end explainable sorting of X-ray images, particularly for COVID-19 patients. Laboratory-based implementation of the overall framework demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed platform in aiding radiologists in COVID-19 screening. Author

The impact of COVID-19 on the experiences of patients and their family caregivers with medical assistance in dying in hospital.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and its containment measures have drastically impacted end-of-life and grief experiences globally, including those related to medical assistance in dying (MAiD). No known qualitative studies to date have examined the MAiD experience during the pandemic. This qualitative study aimed to understand how the pandemic impacted the MAiD experience in hospital of persons requesting MAiD (patients) and their loved ones (caregivers) in Canada. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients who requested MAiD and their caregivers between April 2020 and May 2021. Participants were recruited during the first year of the pandemic from the University Health Network and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. Patients and caregivers were interviewed about their experience following the MAiD request. Six months following patient death, bereaved caregivers were interviewed to explore their bereavement experience. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and de-identified. Transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Interviews were conducted with 7 patients (mean [SD] age, 73 [12] years; 5 [63%] women) and 23 caregivers (mean [SD] age, 59 [11] years; 14 [61%] women). Fourteen caregivers were interviewed at the time of MAiD request and 13 bereaved caregivers were interviewed post-MAiD. Four themes were generated with respect to the impact of COVID-19 and its containment measures on the MAiD experience in hospital: (1) accelerating the MAiD decision; (2) compromising family understanding and coping; (3) disrupting MAiD delivery; and (4) appreciating rule flexibility. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the tension between respecting pandemic restrictions and prioritizing control over the dying circumstances central to MAiD, and the resulting impact on patient and family suffering. There is a need for healthcare institutions to recognize the relational dimensions of the MAiD experience, particularly in the isolating context of the pandemic. Findings may inform strategies to better support those requesting MAiD and their families during the pandemic and beyond.

"If I start panicking over having enough, then I start eating too much": Understanding the eating behaviors of SNAP recipients in larger bodies during COVID-19.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Living in a food-insecure household may increase the risk for disordered eating. Though the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was designed to reduce food insecurity, it may increase risk for disordered eating with the frequency in which benefits are distributed. Limited research has explored the lived experiences of managing eating behaviors while on SNAP, particularly among SNAP participants in larger bodies, and during COVID-19. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the experiences with eating behaviors among adults with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2, and who received SNAP benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Eligible adults were recruited to participate in a semi-structured interview. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis and content analysis. RESULTS: Participants (N = 16), had a mean (±SD) age of 43.4 ± 10.9 years, and overwhelmingly identified as female (86 %). One-third of the participants were Black. We identified 4 main themes: (1) not having enough money/benefits to cover needs; (2) navigating loss of control and emotional eating; (3) making sure the kids are alright; and (4) still feeling the pressure to manage weight. CONCLUSION: Managing eating behaviors while also navigating SNAP benefits is complex and may exacerbate risk of disordered eating.

State-level data on TANF policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 mitigation measures prompted many states to revise the administration of their welfare programs. States adopted policies that varied across the U.S. to respond to the difficulties in fulfilling program requirements, as well as increased financial need. This dataset captures the changes made to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 through December 2020. The authors created this dataset as part of a larger study that examined the health effects of TANF policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. DATA DESCRIPTION: TANF is the main cash assistance program for low-income families in the U.S., but benefits are often conditional on work requirements and can be revoked if an individual is deemed noncompliant. Structural factors during the COVID-19 pandemic made meeting these criteria more difficult, so some states relaxed their rules and increased their benefits. This dataset captures 24 types of policies that state TANF programs enacted, which of the states enacted each of them, when the policies went into effect, and when applicable, when the policies ended. These data can be used to study the effects of TANF policy changes on various health and programmatic outcomes.

Food Insecurity, Food Assistance, and Psychological Distress among University Students: Cross-Sectional Survey Western Australia, 2020.

University students have been identified as a population sub-group vulnerable to food insecurity. This vulnerability increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess factors associated with food insecurity among university students and the differences between students with and without children. A cross-sectional survey of (n = 213) students attending one university in Western Australia measured food insecurity, psychological distress, and socio-demographic characteristics. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with food insecurity. Forty-eight percent of students who responded to the survey had experienced food insecurity in 2020. International students who were studying in Australia were nine times more likely to experience food insecurity than domestic students (AOR = 9.13; 95% CI = 2.32-35.97). International students with children were more likely to experience food insecurity than international students without children (p < 0.001) and domestic students with (p < 0.001) or without children (p < 0.001). For each unit increase in depression level, the likelihood of experiencing food insecurity increased (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.12-2.33). Findings show a higher prevalence of food insecurity among international university students and students with children during the COVID-19 pandemic and that food insecurity was associated with higher levels of psychological distress. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to mitigate the risk of food insecurity among Australian university students, particularly among international students, students with children, and those experiencing psychological distress.

Intelligent Prediction-Intervention approach to Support Students' Success in Web-based Learning Environments: A Case Study in Higher Education

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for distance learning has significantly increased in higher education institutions. This type of learning is usually supported by Web-based learning systems such as Massive Open Online Courses (Coursera, edX, etc.) and Learning Management Systems (Moodle, Blackboard-Learn, etc.). However, in this remote context, students often lack feedback and support from educational staff, especially when they face difficulties or challenges. For that reason, this work presents a Prediction-Intervention approach that (a) predicts students who present difficulties during an online learning course, based on two main learning indicators, namely engagement and performance rates, and (b) offers immediate support to students, tailored to the problem they are facing. To predict students' issues, our approach considers ten machine learning algorithms of different types (standalone, ensemble, and deep learning) which are compared to determine the best performing ones. It has been experimented with a dataset collected from the Blackboard-Learn platform utilized in an engineering school called ESIEE-IT in France during 2021-2022 academic year, showing thus quite promising results. © 2022 IEEE.

Voice-assisted Artificial Intelligence-enabled Screening for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Exposure in Cardiovascular Clinics: Primary Results of the VOICE-COVID-19-II Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND: Voice-assisted artificial intelligence-based systems may streamline clinical care among patients with heart failure (HF) and caregivers; however, randomized clinical trials are needed. We evaluated the potential for Amazon Alexa (Alexa), a voice-assisted artificial intelligence-based system, to conduct screening for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a HF clinic. METHODS AND RESULTS: We enrolled 52 participants (patients and caregivers) from a HF clinic who were randomly assigned with a subsequent cross-over to receive a SARS-CoV-2 screening questionnaire via Alexa or health care personnel. The primary outcome was overall response concordance, as measured by the percentage of agreement and unweighted kappa scores between groups. A postscreening survey evaluated comfort with using the artificial intelligence-based device. In total, 36 participants (69%) were male, the median age was 51 years (range 34-65 years) years and 36 (69%) were English speaking. Twenty-one participants (40%) were patients with HF. For the primary outcome, there were no statistical differences between the groups: Alexa-research coordinator group 96.9% agreement and unweighted kappa score of 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.84-1.00) vs research coordinator-Alexa group 98.5% agreement and unweighted kappa score of 0.95 (95% confidence interval 0.88-1.00) (P value for all comparisons > .05). Overall, 87% of participants rated their screening experience as good or outstanding. CONCLUSIONS: Alexa demonstrated comparable performance to a health care professional for SARS-CoV-2 screening in a group of patients with HF and caregivers and may represent an attractive approach to symptom screening in this population. Future studies evaluating such technologies for other uses among patients with HF and caregivers are warranted. NCT04508972.

Reported shocks, households' resilience and local food commercialization in Thailand

PurposeThe authors examine the factors affecting households' resilience capacities and the impacts of these capacities on household consumption and crop commercialization.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use panel data of 1,648 households from Thailand collected in three years, 2010, 2013 and 2016. The authors employ an econometric model with an instrumental variable approach to address endogenous issues.FindingsThe study results show that the experience of shocks in previous years positively correlates with households' savings per capita and income diversification. Further, a better absorptive capacity in the form of better savings and a better adaptive capacity in the form of higher income diversification have a significant and positive influence on household expenditure per capita and crop commercialization.Practical implicationsDevelopment policies and programs aiming to improve income, increase savings and provide income diversification opportunities are strongly recommended.Originality/valueThe authors provide empirical evidence on the determinants of resilience strategies and their impacts on local food commercialization from a country in the middle-income group.

COVID-19 and Emergency Rental Assistance: Impact on Rent Arrears, Debt, and the Well-Being of Renters in Philadelphia

The federal government allocated an unprecedented level of funding to develop emergency rental assistance programs to help vulnerable low-income renter households remain housed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using panel data from two waves of applicant surveys joined with administrative data, this article analyzes the impact of Phase 1 of the City of Philadelphia's COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program and asks how emergency rental assistance affected households in their rent arrears, rent-related debt, and mental health. Analysis shows that receiving emergency rental assistance was associated with lower arrears, a lower probability of rent-related debt, and a lower probability of experiencing frequent debilitating anxiety. The findings suggest that the initial rent relief provided crucial support for households in terms of financial and mental well-being but also underscore that housing affordability challenges that predated the pandemic cannot be addressed by an emergency rental assistance program created in response to a pandemic.

Analysis of the Fintech Landscape in the Philippines

Financial technology (fintech) in the Philippines has gained more attention in recent years, especially during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns were prevalent and cashless payments were encouraged. Thus, digital payments and engagements through various platforms have increased, resulting in more diversified financial products and services. Despite these developments, financial inclusion in the Philippines has lagged behind other Association of Southeast Asian Nations member-states. This paper analyzes the state of the fintech industry and investigates how the government can support the development of its ecosystem to ensure its contribution to the country's development goals. It concludes that the Philippines has a strong fintech industry, as indicated by a growing number of fintechs (particularly in payments, lending, and banking technology verticals) and increasing capitalization. Finally, for the fintech industry to support the country's financial inclusion goals, the availability of talent and credit for the sector must be improved.

The use of zakat in the pandemic response: the case of Islamic Relief and BAZNAS in Indonesia

This article compares two Islamic organisations, a non-governmental and a national one, in their methods of collecting and distributing zakat, and analyses how they addressed the COVID-19 crisis with these funds in the period 2020–2021. The study examines Islamic Relief as a Muslim non-governmental organisation involved in humanitarian response, and the National Board of the Zakat Republic of Indonesia (BAZNAS) as a centralised national institution. Both of them are working to improve zakat management, due to the awareness of its untapped potential, but the measure of impacts and allocation of resources diverge in strategies and efforts. Considering their different structures, a comparison based on parallel analysis of collecting methods, distributing channels and programmes financed shows the limits, potentials and best practices of these two institutions committed to zakat management and its improvement.

Impact of pandemics on humanitarian retailing operations: A voucher's case

In 2020, the world started a fight against a pandemic that has severely disrupted commercial and humanitarian supply chains. Humanitarian organizations (HOs), like the World Food Programme (WFP), adjusted their programs in order to manage this pandemic. One such program is cash and voucher assistance (CVA), which is used to bolster beneficiaries' freedom of choice regarding their consumption. In this vein, WFP supports local retailers to provide CVA to beneficiaries who do not have access to a functioning market. However, the operations of these stores can suffer from a very high transmission risk of COVID‐19 unless preventive measures are put in place to reduce it. This paper discusses strategies that retailers and HOs can enact to maximize their service and dignity levels while minimizing transmission risk under a CVA program during a pandemic. We argue that HOs providing CVA programs can improve their assistance during a pandemic by implementing strategies that impact the retailing operations of their retailers.