scholarly journals Virus and school: reflections about the factors that have exacerbated the consequences of the health emergency in Italy

Author(s):  
Loredana La Vecchia ◽  

Italy was the first European country which has been affected by the fast spread of SARS-Cov-2, leading to a general lockdown that started on March 9, 2020, only two weeks after the diagnosis of the Italian patient zero. Such lockdown concerned also the school, that is, the social institution which suffered —and keeps suffering— the most the negative effects of the national restrictions whether because of the lack of precise indications regarding the didactics after the suspension of in-class activities or because of the deficiencies and criticalities that it has been facing since ages. It was only in April when teachers could eventually resort to e-learning; though, due to the lack of both methodological indications and adequate study plans, each school acted autonomously and the best they could. In most cases, it was the teachers’ initiative and individual efforts that led to a successful didactics. As a matter of fact, teachers tried any kind of strategy to keep in touch actively with their students, as testified through the technique of the focus group. Although, in disagreement with the message of hope spread during the lockdown, not everything has gone well; that is, the virus has highlighted a chronical situation of fragility and vulnerability, whose negative consequences and effects seem to persist also in the future. This essay aims at analysing what happened during the first Italian lockdown framing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a sociocultural dimension. For this purpose, I will take into account the main contextual factors that have contributed to worsen —from the didactic and teaching perspective— the consequences of the spread of the virus.

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Turkan Ahmet

The past few decades of ongoing war in Iraq has had a dramatic impact on the health of Iraq’s population. Wars are known to have negative effects on the social and physical environments of individuals, as well as limit their access to the available health care services. This paper explores the personal experiences of my family members, who were exposed to war, as well as includes information that has been reviewed form many academic sources. The data aided in providing recommendations and developing strategies, on both local and international levels, to improve the health status of the populations exposed to war.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110030
Author(s):  
Lise Dassieu ◽  
Angela Heino ◽  
Élise Develay ◽  
Jean-Luc Kaboré ◽  
M. Gabrielle Pagé ◽  
...  

The objective of this study was to understand the impact of the opioid overdose epidemic on the social lives of people suffering from chronic pain, focusing on interactions within their personal and professional circles. The study was based on 22 in-depth interviews with people living with chronic pain in Canada. Using thematic analysis, we documented three main impacts of the opioid overdose epidemic: (a) increased worries of people in pain and their families regarding the dangers of opioids; (b) prejudices, stigma, and discrimination faced during conversations about opioids; and (c) stigma management attempts, which include self-advocacy and concealment of opioid use. This study represents important knowledge advancement on how people manage stigma and communicate about chronic disease during everyday life interactions. By showing negative effects of the epidemic’s media coverage on the social experiences of people with chronic pain, we underscore needs for destigmatizing approaches in public communication regarding opioids.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Husam Alfahl

The use of mobile devices and smartphones is increasingly becoming a critical part of many people’s lifestyle. Such usage can vary from playing games to accomplishing work-related tasks. Being able to use organizations’ persuasive technologies via mobile business services or to achieve work-related tasks ubiquitously at any time means that such devices provide a valuable service, especially for employees who are working online. This paper explores the impact of mBusiness on the social life of employees. In the research, structural equation modeling was applied to validate the research model. Employees in Saudi organizations were surveyed to test the research hypotheses. The research results confirmed that there are some negative effects of using mBusiness technologies on the social life of employees. Based on the analysis, the findings revealed that addiction to mBusiness technologies significantly increases the perceived work overload, which also significantly increases work-family conflict. The paper concludes with some implications of this research.


2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 0-0

The impact of the Information and Technology (IT) sector on the countries’ innovation development has been recognized as crucial in prior and recent research studies. Moreover, firms’ innovativeness affects positively countries’ economies. Nevertheless, the global economic crisis of the last decade constituted a significant barrier to the development of country economies and had a negative effect on firms’ performance. Specifically, the negative consequences of the global crisis became harder for Southern Europe Countries. More specifically the Greek economy was suffered by an extended period of crisis with harder consequences than those of other European countries. The main purpose of this study was to examine the financial performance of Greek IT firms in the early years of crisis. Our findings have been relevant to those of previous studies which observed negative effects of the financial recession on firms profitability.


1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (S1) ◽  
pp. 13-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda J. V. Montgomery

The premise underlying the implementation of any intervention aimed at changing behavioral or other symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is that the change will be beneficial in some manner for the patient and the benefits will outweigh any negative consequences that may simultaneously result from the intervention. Consequently, the ultimate task of investigators studying the impact of proposed interventions is to identify and measure the benefit that stems from the intervention, as well as any negative effects. When interventions are intended to create organic changes, as is traditionally true with pharmacologic interventions, the identification of relevant outcomes is made relatively simple through indicators of organic functioning. However, when intended changes are behavioral, the identification of appropriate outcomes is far more complex. An individual's behavior ultimately has an impact on all the actors within his or her social setting, directly or indirectly. Furthermore, changes in an individual's behavior may have an impact on other persons in such a way that these secondary changes feed back to further influence the initial target individual. Hence, it is likely that the most appropriate study designs for assessing the impact of interventions aimed at behavioral problems will include multiple outcome measures for multiple actors.


Author(s):  
Daniel Chavarría-Bolaños ◽  
Adrián Gómez-Fernández ◽  
Carmen Dittel-Jiménez ◽  
Mauricio Montero-Aguilar

While countries are facing different stages in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are millions of students affected by universities’ facilities closures due to the pandemic. Some institutions have enforced strategies to transfer some courses to a virtual modality, but many Dental Schools have been challenged to deal with a situation which requires emergency measures to continue the academic course in the middle of lock-downs and social distancing measures. Despite the fact that the number of online academic programs available, especially graduate programs, has increased in diverse modalities, this pandemic forced e-learning processes to develop abruptly. The likelihood of using e-learning strategies in dentistry was substantiated in the scientific literature and an overview of these opportunities is presented. Additionally, the experience of the University of Costa Rica Faculty of Dentistry is presented, as it was evident that some of the key elements in a e-learning environment needed a quick enhancement and initiation of some processes was required. First, it was necessary to categorize the academic courses depending on their virtualization's possibility (curricula analysis and classification), to better understand the extent of the impact and the work needed to contain, as far as the possibilities allowed, negative consequences on students learning process. Second, teachers needed further training in the application of virtual strategies which they hadn’t used before. do Third, an evaluation of the students’ conditions and needs was conducted in a form of a survey. Finally, teachers and students activated the available virtual platforms. For many Dental Schools, this virtualization process is an ongoing progress although it was abruptly imposed, but this moment indeed represents an enormous opportunity to move forward and get immerse in the virtualization environment as a teaching/learning experience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-390
Author(s):  
Luan VARDARI ◽  
Rrezarta GASHI ◽  
Hana GASHI AHMETI

Mass production, which started with the industrial revolution, caused both the unconscious consumption of the resources and the damages to the ecological system after the production. In this respect, the concept of sustainability, which is one of the most important conception of responsibility, is gradually gaining value in terms of protecting resources and transferring them to future generations. (Mori and Christodoulou, 2012: 94-106). Sustainability In the first place, it has started to be used mostly in the management of natural resources; later, it was used in different fields such as sectoral practices and energy tourism (Diaz - Baltciro, Voces, Romero, 2011: 761-773). Today, the expectations of the society from the enterprises have changed compared to the past. These changing expectations lead businesses to new searches. The most important concept that guides these quests is to be sustainable. The concept of sustainability for enterprises gains a new dimension in the form of corporate sustainability”. For corporate sustainability, it is possible for organizations to achieve individual results only to a certain extent. Because companies are affected to a great extent by all kinds of economic, social and even cultural formations occurring in their environment (Kuşat, 2012: 238). The most important benefit of sustainability indices is that it leads to improvements in transparency without the need for regulations, better understanding of the social and environmental impacts of companies and guiding them to reduce the negative effects of company activities. The BIST Index serves as a guide for companies on what to measure, what needs to be developed and what can be explained. Thus, it creates opportunities for companies to see social and environmental risks and opportunities and to manage their sustainability performances correctly. The index, on the other hand, provides information to investors and the community about the sustainability performance of companies. The aim of this study is whether the BIST Sustainable Index makes a difference for companies compared to BIST 100. "Does the BIST Sustainability Index really make a difference?" will be examined. In this context, data between 2014-2018 of BIST Sustainability and BIST 100 index will be examined. Based on the results obtained in the study, it shows that there is no strong evidence of the impact of inclusion in the BIST Sustainability Index on the stock returns of companies. At the same time, the BIST Sustainability Index has been shown to have similar returns to the BIST 100 Index. Key Words: Sustainability Index, BIST, Corporate.


InterConf ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 54-59
Author(s):  
Bohdana Hunko

The paper analyzes the role of Industry 4.0 in the process of overcoming the global economy from the crisis situation associated with the total Covid-19 pandemic. The aspect of economic profitability of using the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution to improve world economic development in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic was also identified. The author identified the positive and negative consequences of the involvement of technology Industry 4.0, on the basis of which a number of recommendations for small and medium-sized businesses were formed in order to quickly overcome the negative effects of the crisis. Based on the work, the author formulated a number of trends and prospects for global economic development, taking into account the current conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claris Riungu ◽  
Harro Maat ◽  
Marrit Van Den Berg

This paper examines the learning process by which farmers come to a decision to use newly introduced seeds which were promoted through demonstration plots in midwestern and eastern regions of Uganda. Framed as social and material interactions, we investigated the learning process of the demonstration plots using data from focus group discussions, interviews and a survey amongst 983 individuals. The results reveal several constraints that impede learning, resulting in an overall low awareness and adoption of the introduced seeds. Some of the most prominent constraints resulted from the selection of location and demonstration plot host, the distance of agro-dealers, at district headquarters, limited interactions amongst farmers and irregular involvement of farmers in the demonstrations. Moreover, the prominent role of agro-dealers at field days suggests that informing farmers about where to buy seeds was considered more important than explaining farmers how to grow these seeds profitably. This commercial focus of field days and demonstrations plots had negative consequences for the social learning. This paper contributes to the learning and adoption literature by showing that interactions amongst actors can improve or reduce the balance between didactic, social and environmental learning.


Coronavirus has greatly impacted various aspects of human life, including human psychology & human disposition. In this paper, we attempted to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human health. We propose Human Disposition Analysis during COVID-19 using machine learning (HuDA_COVID), where factors such as age, employment, addiction, stress level are studied for human disposition analysis. A mass survey is conducted on individuals of various age groups, regions & professions, and the methodology achieved varied accuracy ranges of 87.5% to 98%. The study shows people are worried about lockdown, work & relationships. Furthermore, 23% of the respondents have not had any effect. 45% and 32% have had positive and negative effects, respectively. It is a novel study in human disposition analysis in COVID-19 where a novel weighted assignment indicating the health status is also proposed. HuDA_COVID clearly indicates a need for a methodical approach towards the human psychological needs to help the social organizations formulating holistic interventions for affected individuals.


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