Pandemics and Social Work

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 confronted health and also social services globally with unprecedented challenges. These amounted to a combination of increased demands for support to individuals and families whose physical and mental health and economic security were threatened by the rapid spread of the virus and the imposed limitations to direct contacts with service users. This constituted a situation for which there was no immediate historical parallel but from which important lessons for better preparedness for future global disasters and pandemics can be drawn. There existed no specific introductions to or textbooks on social work responses to pandemics and the nearest usable references concerned social work involvement in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and in the aftermath of natural disasters. Frontline social workers were at first forced to improvise ways of establishing and maintaining contacts with service users partly through electronic means and partly by taking personal risks. This is reflected in an initial delay in the production of comprehensive theoretical reflections on the practice implications of the new situation. Practitioners resorted to pragmatism, which became manifest in numerous episodic practice accounts and brief statements in social work journals which nevertheless contain important messages for new practice developments. Notably, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) opened an online exchange and advice platform for social workers globally and also hosted a series of webinars. Nevertheless, books with collections of contributions from various practice fields and geographical areas soon began to appear. In view of the interdisciplinary nature of social work responses required in the pandemic the use of publications from a wider range of academic disciplines and related professions was indicated for this review.

Buying Behaviors of Polish Consumers During the Pandemic Lockdown – Research Results

Purpose: The purpose of the article is identification and evaluation of the most important changes that have occurred in the behavior of Polish consumers as a result of the pandemic lockdown introduced in 2020. The article presents the results of studies conducted during the epidemic restrictions from March 15 to May 4, 2020. Design/methodology/approach: The main aim of the research was to determine how these restrictions influenced the purchasing behavior and decisions made by consumers. In the polls, the technique of an internet survey was used, which was justified by the accepted form of remote communication imposed on the society in various spheres of activity. The subject of the research was the organization of free time, the organization of shopping in households, the frequency of purchases and the methods of shopping in stationary and online stores. Findings: The most important phenomena that have been observed include the growing importance of e-commerce and technologies supporting distance communication and online exchange. The share of FMCG in online purchases increased when compared with the pre-pandemic online purchases. Polish consumers reduced the frequency of purchases and limited their overall spending on everyday purchases. During the first wave of the pandemic, the crucial issue for consumers was time management as a result of increased professional and family responsibilities, or (a similar percentage of responses) of excess free time. Poles used information technologies – for communication, shopping, learning and entertainment, to cope with the imposed social isolation. This trend, as indicated by the results of subsequent studies, will continue. Research limitations/implications: The research was conducted at a particular moment of time, during the last 2 weeks of the first pandemic lockdown; therefore, the study cannot provide the measurement of observable effects of behavior changes during a longer time since the pandemic situation has been volatile. In the research, the snowball method of sampling, which has its own limitations, was adopted. Originality/value: The value of the article results from the outcomes of the survey conducted with the use of a research questionnaire originally designed for the purposes of this study and empirical research results obtained during the lockdown period, which allowed for observing changes in consumer behavior in real time.

India's E-Commerce Industry's Growth and Projected Breakthroughs

Background/Purpose: E-commerce is the online exchange of products and services. In this article, we discuss the elements those are propelling India's digital commerce market forward and the E-commerce industry's expansion and the various sectors of E-commerce in the country. International investors are supporting the E-commerce industry since it is one among the fastest growing industries and offers a large scope for investment due to the Indian market size. Additionally, it discusses the problems and potential associated with E-commerce in India within the context of the global marketplace. E-commerce is among the fastest expanding industries, with India offering tremendous investment opportunities. Since last year, there has been a dramatic increase in investment, but more is predicted in the years ahead. Rapid rise in mobile and internet users has aided the expansion of E-commerce businesses in urban and rural areas alike. Objective: To examine how the E-commerce sector in India has grown through the years, as well as to get an insight of current trends, impediments, and potential improvements. Design/Methodology/Approach: The SWOT analysis is being used to analyse and present data acquired from academic papers, online articles, and other sources. Findings/Results: India's E-commerce sector has the potential to grow further if the government provides legal protection and a platform for it, and if both local and global commerce are enabled to exercise their basic rights to do E-commerce business, therefore enhancing the country's economy. Originality/Value: This paper study provides an outline of India's E-Commerce business and its projected development in the coming years based on the range of data collected. Paper Type: Research Analysis based on a case study.

Conceptualizing an inquiry-based lingua-cultural learning through telecollaborative exchanges

In recent years, telecollaboration has been gaining popularity among scholars, teachers, and students engaged in foreign language education because it facilitates the use of Internet-mediated communication tools to connect language and culture learners in geographically distant locations. Telecollaboration, as currently viewed in academic and classroom settings, places greater emphasis on the development of learners’ intercultural communicative competence. The problem with this approach is that this process may not consider the possibility that learners engaged in online intercultural exchanges could have limited or no knowledge about certain aspects of their own lingua-culture. We argue that, for learners to effectively share lingua-cultural knowledge with their online peers abroad, there must be a framework that supports the construction of learners’ own intra-cultural knowledge to provide a solid foundation for intercultural learning and communication. In this paper, we develop an inquiry-based model of telecollaboration incorporating both inquiry and online exchange based on the inquiry cycle, which includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. This paper builds a case for the application of inquiry-based telecollaboration in a real classroom environment, which could not only help learners obtain and eventually share more authentic, deeper knowledge about their lingua-culture, but also promote informed intercultural exchange.

Conceptualizing an inquiry-based lingua-cultural learning through telecollaborative exchanges

In recent years, telecollaboration has been gaining popularity among scholars, teachers, and students engaged in foreign language education because it facilitates the use of Internet-mediated communication tools to connect language and culture learners in geographically distant locations. Telecollaboration, as currently viewed in academic and classroom settings, places greater emphasis on the development of learners’ intercultural communicative competence. The problem with this approach is that this process may not consider the possibility that learners engaged in online intercultural exchanges could have limited or no knowledge about certain aspects of their own lingua-culture. We argue that, for learners to effectively share lingua-cultural knowledge with their online peers abroad, there must be a framework that supports the construction of learners’ own intra-cultural knowledge to provide a solid foundation for intercultural learning and communication. In this paper, we develop an inquiry-based model of telecollaboration incorporating both inquiry and online exchange based on the inquiry cycle, which includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. This paper builds a case for the application of inquiry-based telecollaboration in a real classroom environment, which could not only help learners obtain and eventually share more authentic, deeper knowledge about their lingua-culture, but also promote informed intercultural exchange.

Securing Online Payment Using Virtual Private Network (VPN)

In the present advanced time, innovation plays a vital part inside the improvement of business, E-commerce, and Finance. In present days Network security become a significant thought. Internet gives a great facility to everyone like internet banking, Online shopping, Communications, organizations or associations. Therefore, the online exchange of cash requires the most extreme security of secret information put away or move over the Internet. The security of these exchanges has made it more important because of the high impact of Cybercrimes on a Digital Money. Because of the high-speed advancement of computerized devices and their appearance to the Internet made insecure client’s information. Now a days, security and privacy threats has become increasingly more complex which enhance the necessity for a modernized ensured medium to get the significant information into the internet. In this paper, presented Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an excellent method to secure devices and data from the hackers. VPN is a private network which works over a public network transit the encrypted data so that hackers are not able to use it. The reason for VPN is to give the different security model like Authenticity, Confidentiality and Integrity of data that is the reason these are getting trendy, low in budget and simple to utilize. VPN services are accessible for smart phones, PCs and tablets. It is a rising innovation which assumes a significant part in WLAN by giving secure information transmission over Internet.

Online Trading Effectiveness in Nepal Share Market: Investors Awareness, Challenges and Managerial Solution

Over a long time, the developing businesses have a brief history of victory all due to web. The online exchange forms of back comprehensive of buying and offering of bonds, stocks and other ventures, these all comes beneath online exchanging. Even though the world has already adopted the online trading, in Nepal it was recently introduced. This paper aims to explore online trading effectiveness in Nepal Share Market. Explanatory research design is applied in this study. Both primary and secondary sources are used for collecting various data and information in the study. Quantitative technique is used for data analysis. Most of the respondents responded that they are involved and fully aware of the online trading. Majority of respondent agreed that they use both fundamental analysis as well as technical analysis for online trading. Similarly, most of the respondents expressed their opinion that technological factor caused problem on online trading.

Digitalization of Consumption in Russia: Online Platforms, Regulations and Consumer Behavior

This chapter offers an overview of the main aspects of digital consumption in Russia with an emphasis on the late 2010s. It also sheds light on the tendencies that digitalization of the sphere of consumption has brought to Russian retail and consumers. In particular, we look at how digitalization has changed retail trade; what kind of digital retail platforms gained popularity in Russia; how Russian retailers utilize data related to consumption; how cross-border internet trade has been developing and how it has been regulated; and what the profile is of the typical online consumer. We also look at platforms and practices of online exchange and the sharing economy. The chapter is based on the analysis of scholarly literature on digital consumption, marketing research data and media publications to identify the current trends in consumption. It addresses the question of what challenges and opportunities the digitalization of consumption has brought about for Russia.

Towards Rail-Road Online Exchange Platforms in EU-Freight Transportation Markets: An Analysis of Matching Supply and Demand in Multimodal Services

The European Union (EU) is confronted with too low a share of inland rail freight transport. The implementation of two-sided online exchanges for rail-road freight transport could increase this share. However, such exchanges focusing on the EU market are mainly designed for single modes of transport. Their matching of supply and demand for multimodal services, especially including rail, is still in its infancy. This paper applies a maturity growth framework to speed up the implementation of such multimodal online exchanges. The framework integrates insights from industrial organization theory, platform economy theory, and maturity growth theory. Online exchanges, summarized in a new taxonomy, are compared to study their practices on matching supply with demand on the exchange, especially for multimodal services. Data is collected from case studies, exchange websites and semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows the emergence of new market actors and business models, including digital freight forwarders. These offer a variety of transport mode solutions for EU inland and EU related global freight transport. Maturity in matching supply and demand appears to result from clear objectives to provide benefits to the exchange participants, notably by digitizing the data for transaction completion and providing real time support for operational issues. In this context of rising online exchanges, especially in road and global multimodal transport (air, ocean, and road), the competition to capture a fragmented freight market seems to steadily increase. A similar maturity analysis of exchanges could not be found.

Secure Connected Transactions using Face Verification

In this day and age, cash can be required whenever or anyplace, for example, shopping, voyaging or wellbeing crises and so on. That additionally expands the danger of getting robed. Bank is a most secure spot to keep cash. In any case, consider the possibility that somebody will take your card and by one way or another he/she will know your secret key, it will give him/her full access to your cash. According to the present situation the online exchange is secure with one time secret word (OTP). In age of OTP there are numerous variables that can make OTP special each time it is produced. Right now execute client Identification utilizing Face Recognition to confirm the client. If there should be an occurrence of crisis circumstance the login should be possible utilizing OTP and furthermore the individual picture is caught and Mail to the Account Holder. Accordingly our framework is improve in Security contrasting with the current System.