scholarly journals Relaunching ABR in the Midst of a Global Pandemic: Highlights of Vol. 23 (No. 1)

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2

We relaunched the all-digital American Business Review (ABR) in Fall 2019. Little did we imagine that COVID-19 would appear in Spring 2020 and disrupt life all over the globe. All three audiences of ABR viz. Businesses, Business Students and Business Faculty have had to scramble over the last few months. Businesses that we research, teach and learn about as Business Professors and Students had the most difficult time of all with the global lockdowns. Essential businesses including food, medicine, sanitation and their supply chains and distribution channels had to keep working somehow-anyhow. Along with essential services were our lifesavers including medical, emergency, and national security personnel globally who continued to work at great personal health risk. Those businesses that were not considered essential had to shut down for public health and safety. In the process, all businesses had to suffer great losses. We at ABR recognize and salute you all for your great contribution during this global health crisis. Business students, in the US had to leave campus and continue studies online and at very short notice. Similarly, business faculty had to move face-to-face classes online overnight as campuses went into lockdown. Against this challenging backdrop our review board and referees did an outstanding job of providing knowledgeable and constructive reviews to our authors. Our author/s responded to reviewer comments in great detail and the joint efforts of reviewers resulted in the issue that is before you.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 11519
Author(s):  
Óscar López ◽  
Alfonso González ◽  
Francisco J. Álvarez ◽  
David Rodríguez

Specific disciplines in engineering, such as manufacturing processes, require students in their academic stage to pay special attention, given the possible changes that may affect the acquisition of competencies. In an environment of uncertainty, such as a global pandemic, teaching must adapt without losing the effective delivery of content to students. The health and safety measures applied during the first months of the pandemic led to a different type of teaching to that which had customarily been applied, such as synchronous and asynchronous methodologies defined by the university’s governing bodies, where face-to-face and online methodologies coexisted in the same academic year. All of this avoided interrupting the academic year. This paper studies the results achieved in this uncertain environment, extends them and compares them with the following year, where only the face-to-face methodology was applied to the students enrolled in Manufacturing Processes 2 at the Centro Universitario de Mérida within the Bachelor’s Degree in Design Engineering and New Product Development (Grado en Ingeniería en Diseño y Desarrollo de Nuevos Productos -GIDIDP-). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to the data obtained to locate the significant differences between the samples taken in the first year with online and face-to-face teaching methodologies and those taken in the second year with an exclusively face-to-face methodology. When comparing the results, maintaining face-to-face teaching proved essential, as it contributes towards achieving better marks or maintaining the level. However, online methodologies also help as an additional tool to acquire other knowledge and specific skills in these technical engineering subjects, specifically those dealing with the manufacturing processes addressed in this study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. e241485
Author(s):  
Priyal Taribagil ◽  
Dean Creer ◽  
Hasan Tahir

SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a global pandemic and an unprecedented public health crisis. Recent literature suggests the emergence of a novel syndrome known as ‘long COVID’, a term used to describe a diverse set of symptoms that persist after a minimum of 4 weeks from the onset of a diagnosed COVID-19 infection. Common symptoms include persistent breathlessness, fatigue and cough. Other symptoms reported include chest pain, palpitations, neurological and cognitive deficits, rashes, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. We present a complex case of a previously well 28-year-old woman who was diagnosed with COVID-19. After resolution of her acute symptoms, she continued to experience retrosternal discomfort, shortness of breath, poor memory and severe myalgia. Investigations yielded no significant findings. Given no alternative diagnosis, she was diagnosed with ‘long COVID’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii26-ii26
Author(s):  
Emma Toman ◽  
Claire Goddard ◽  
Frederick Berki ◽  
William Garratt ◽  
Teresa Scott ◽  
...  

Abstract INTRODUCTION Controversy exists as to whether telephone clinics are appropriate in neurosurgical-oncology. The COVID-19 pandemic forced neuro-oncology services worldwide to re-design and at the University Hospitals Birmingham UK, telephone clinics were quickly implemented in select patients to limit numbers of patients attending hospital. It was important to determine how these changes were perceived by patients. METHODS A 20-question patient satisfaction questionnaire was distributed to patients who attended neuro-oncology clinic in person (“face-to-face”), or via the telephone. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine significance, which was set at p< 0.05. RESULTS Eighty questionnaires were distributed between June 2020 and August 2020. Overall, 50% (n=40) of patients returned the questionnaire, 50% (n=23) of face-to-face and 50% (n=17) telephone patients. Of those who received telephone consultations, 88% (n=15) felt the consultation was convenient, 88% (n=15) were satisfied with their consultation and 18% (n=3) felt they would have preferred to have a face-to-face appointment. Of those who attended clinic in person, 96% (n=22) felt their consultation was convenient, 100% (n=23) were satisfied with their consultation and 13% (n=3) would have preferred a telephone consultation. Within the face-to-face clinic attendees, only 13% (n=3) were concerned regarding the COVID risk associated with attending hospital. There was no significant difference in patient convenience or satisfaction (p=0.565 and p=0.174 respectively) between face-to-face and telephone clinics. There was no significant difference in whether patients would’ve preferred the alternative method of consultation (p > 0.999). CONCLUSION Our study suggests that careful patient selection for neuro-oncology telephone clinic is not inferior to face-to-face clinic. Telephone clinic during COVID-19 pandemic proved to be convenient, safe and effective. This global health crisis has transformed telephone neuro-oncology consultations from an experimental innovation into established practice and should be continued beyond the pandemic in select cases.


Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Adelaide Madera

Since 2020, the spread of COVID-19 has had an overwhelming impact not only on our personal lives, but also on domestic regulatory frameworks. Influential academics have strongly underlined that, in times of deep crisis, such as the current global health crisis, the long-term workability of legal systems is put to a severe test. In this period, in fact, the protection of health has been given priority, as a precondition that is orientating many current legal choices. Such an unprecedented health emergency has also raised a serious challenge in terms of fundamental rights and liberties. Several basic rights that normally enjoy robust protection under constitutional, supranational, and international guarantees, have experienced a devastating “suspension” for the sake of public health and safety, thus giving rise to a vigorous debate concerning whether and to what extent the pandemic emergency justifies limitations on fundamental rights. The present paper introduces the Special Issue on “The crisis of the religious freedom during the age of COVID-19 pandemic”. Taking as a starting point the valuable contributions of the participants in the Special Issue, it explores analogous and distinctive implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in different legal contexts and underlines the relevance of cooperation between religious and public actors to face a global health crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Brantina Chirinda ◽  
Mdutshekelwa Ndlovu ◽  
Erica Spangenberg

The COVID-19 global pandemic widely affected education across the world and engendered unprecedented scenarios that required expeditious responses. In South Africa, the pandemic came on top of pre-existing inequalities in the education system. Using a qualitative research method of exploratory and descriptive nature, this study engaged a social justice framework to explore the teaching and learning of mathematics during the COVID-19 lockdown in a context of historical disadvantage. A sample of twenty-three Grade 12 mathematics teachers at various public secondary schools in Gauteng, South Africa was used in the study. The teachers were selected through purposive sampling. A Google-generated open-ended questionnaire and follow-up telephonic interviews were used to collect data. Data were analysed thematically in five steps. The findings revealed that the WhatsApp platform is a valuable tool that can support the teaching and learning of mathematics beyond the classroom in the contexts of historical disadvantage. The findings also provided insights into how mathematics teachers became learners themselves during emergency remote teaching (ERT) as they had to adapt to digital teaching, find solutions to unfamiliar problems and acquire knowledge from a larger mathematics education community around the globe. The article discusses these findings and teachers’ challenges of transitioning from traditional face-to-face classrooms to ERT and how they were addressed. At the time of publishing the article, most learners in South Africa had started going to school on a rotational basis. Nonetheless, the study reported in this article is of importance as ERT in the context of historical disadvantage has foregrounded issues of inequality in the South African education system that must be dealt with urgently.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arosha S. Adikaram ◽  
N.P.G.S.I. Naotunna ◽  
H.P.R. Priyankara

PurposeThis paper aims to present an empirically driven crisis management framework of complementary human resource management (HRM) bundles that can be utilized in simultaneously managing the health crisis, financial crisis and disruptions to business operations through lockdown and other government restrictions propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe framework is developed employing qualitative methodology, drawing from the successful HRM practices adopted by 26 Sri Lankan companies in battling the many crises of COVID-19 and using the soft HRM approach as the theoretical basis.FindingsThe findings report a framework that consists of three key HRM bundles (health and safety bundle, cost-saving bundle and employee motivation and engagement bundle) entailing an array of inter-related, internally consistent, complementary and mutually reinforcing HRM practices and HRM activities. These HRM bundles and the HRM practices as well as the HRM activities therein, indicate how a softer approach to managing employees can be used during a crisis.Practical implicationsThe framework will inform the HRPs of the HRM bundles, HRM practices and HRM activities that can be used to manage the multiple crises created by COVID-19 and other similar pandemics.Originality/valueThe study contributes to and expands the knowledge of HRM in crisis management generally and HRM in a global pandemic more specifically.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faizah Faizah ◽  
Bor-Shen Lin

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic on January 30, 2020. However, the pandemic has not been over yet. Furthermore, in the first quartal of 2021, some countries face the third wave of the pandemic. During the difficult time, the development of the vaccines for COVID-19 accelerates rapidly. Understanding the public perception of the COVID-19 Vaccine according to the data collected from social media can widen the perspective on the state of the global pandemic OBJECTIVE This study explores and analyzes the latent topic on COVID-19 Vaccine Tweet posted by individuals from various countries by using two-stage topic modeling. METHODS A two-stage analysis in topic modeling was proposed to investigating people’s reactions in five countries. The first stage is Latent Dirichlet Allocation that produces the latent topics with the corresponding term distributions that facilitate the investigators to understand the main issues or opinions. The second stage then performs agglomerative clustering on the latent topics based on Hellinger distance, which merges close topics hierarchically into topic clusters to visualize those topics in either tree or graph views. RESULTS In general, the topic discussion regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine in five countries is similar. Topic themes such as "first vaccine" and & "vaccine effect" dominate the public discussion. The remarkable point is that people in some countries have some topic themes, such as "politician opinion" and " stay home" in Canada, "emergency" in India, and & "blood clots" in the United Kingdom. The analysis also shows the most popular COVID-19 Vaccine, which is gaining more public interest. CONCLUSIONS With LDA and Hierarchical clustering, two-stage topic modeling is powerful for visualizing the latent topics and understanding the public perception regarding the COVID-19 Vaccine.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Dilek Öztaş ◽  
Burak Kurt ◽  
Ayşegül Koç ◽  
Muhsin Akbaba ◽  
Hüseyin İlter

Introduction and Purpose. Farmers are particularly at high risk of pesticide exposure due to added risk from occupational exposure. The aim of this study is to evaluate knowledge level of farmers in the Çukurova region of the effects of pesticides, toxic symptoms, and protective equipment as well as assessing their attitudes and practices regarding pesticides. Material and Method. A total of 420 seasonal agricultural workers in Karataş District of Adana Province, Turkey, were included in the study. The questionnaire form consisting of 3 sections was administered using face-to-face interview method. Results. The mean age of the participants was 40.2±10.6 years. They were engaged in farming for a mean duration of 18.5±10.6 years. All of them used pesticides, but none of them had been trained on the use of pesticides. Only 26.2% of them stored pesticides in a private depot. The farmers who took empty pesticide containers to special collection bins or centers constituted only 4.3% of them. While 84.0% of them thought that pesticides could have a negative impact on human health, 5.0% of them had experienced a medical problem and 1.0% of them were poisoned after applying pesticides. Conclusion. The results show that knowledge level of farmers of safe use of pesticides is very inadequate. This lack of knowledge adversely affects workers’ quality of life as well as occupational health and safety. Appropriate training programs should be organized to increase their level of knowledge.


1994 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary N. Powell ◽  
Yasuaki Kido

This study examined stereotypes of American managers, Japanese managers, and a “good manager” held by 264 Japanese and 249 American business students. Although neither the American nor Japanese managerial stereotype resembled that of a good manager in either sample, the stereotypes of a good manager were considerably different for these samples. Japanese students' preferences for a Japanese versus an American manager were consistent with their beliefs about who was the better manager. American students' preferences were less consistent.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document