Alternating quarantine for sustainable epidemic mitigation.

Absent pharmaceutical interventions, social distancing, lock-downs and mobility restrictions remain our prime response in the face of epidemic outbreaks. To ease their potentially devastating socioeconomic consequences, we propose here an alternating quarantine strategy: at every instance, half of the population remains under lockdown while the other half continues to be active - maintaining a routine of weekly succession between activity and quarantine. This regime minimizes infectious interactions, as it allows only half of the population to interact for just half of the time. As a result it provides a dramatic reduction in transmission, comparable to that achieved by a population-wide lockdown, despite sustaining socioeconomic continuity at  ~50% capacity. The weekly alternations also help address the specific challenge of COVID-19, as their periodicity synchronizes with the natural SARS-CoV-2 disease time-scales, allowing to effectively isolate the majority of infected individuals precisely at the time of their peak infection.

Psychological Resources and Strategies to Cope with Stress at Work.

INTRODUCTION: the choice of strategies to cope with stress has differential effects on individual and organizational outcomes (e.g. well-being and performance at work). This study examined to what extent individuals differing in their positive psychological resources (optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience) implement different strategies to cope with stress in terms of change, acceptance, or withdrawal from a source of stress in an organizational setting. METHOD: A questionnaire was filled out by 554 employees from different organizations representing a wide range of jobs and positions. RESULTS: Structural Equation Modeling (SEM; χ 2(7) = 27.64, ρ < .01, GFI = .99, NFI = .91, CFI = .93, RMSEA = .07). CONCLUSION: the results indicated that psychological resources (optimism, hope, self-efficacy and resilience) were positively related to coping by change and by acceptance and negatively related to withdrawal. The theoretical implications are discussed.

INTRODUCCIÓN: la elección de estrategias de afrontamiento al estrés, tiene efectos diferenciales en los resultados individuales y organizacionales (por ejemplo, el bienestar y el rendimiento en el trabajo). En este estudio se examinó hasta qué punto las personas que difieren en sus recursos psicológicos positivos (optimismo, esperanza, autoeficacia y resiliencia) implementan diferentes estrategias para hacer frente al estrés en términos de cambio, aceptación o retirada de una fuente de estrés en un entorno organizacional Método: 554 empleados de diferentes organizaciones que representan una amplia gama de puestos de trabajo y puestos respondieron un cuestionario. RESULTADOS: modelado de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM; χ 2(7) = 27.64, ρ < .01, GFI = .99, NFI = .91, CFI = .93, RMSEA = .07). CONCLUSIÓN: Los resultados indicaron que los recursos psicológicos (optimismo, esperanza, autoeficacia y resiliencia) estaban relacionados positivamente con el afrontamiento por el cambio y por la aceptación, y negativamente relacionados con la retirada. Las implicaciones teóricas son discutidas.

Importance of life domains in different cultural groups.

This study assessed the role of individualism and collectivism in the shaping of personal values of Canadians, Israelis, and Palestinians. Based on Sagie and Elizur's (1996) multifaceted approach, we distinguished personal values that are individual centered (i.e., associated with one's home, family, or work) from collective-centered values (i.e., associated with the religion, sports, or politics). The magnitude of the difference between both value types differs according to cultural orientation. As compared with Palestinians, we predicted that Canadians and Israelis would rank individual-centered values higher and collective-centered values lower. Data obtained from samples of Palestinians, Israelis, and Canadians supported this hypothesis.