COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors in Pre-hospital Emergency Personnel: Application of Protection Motivation Theory

Background: Pre-hospital emergency personnel plays a critical role in providing communities with essential medical care during the corona pandemic. Emergency medical services (EMS) are at the forefront of the health care system, and they are the first treatment group associated with COVID-19 patients to transfer suspected and known COVID-19 patients to medical centers. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting COVID-19 preventive behaviors in pre-hospital emergency personnel in Fars province, Iran based on protection motivation theory.Methods: This cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted on 650 pre-hospital emergency personnel in Fars province in 2020. Data were collected by a questionnaire consisting of demographic information, protection motivation theory, and COVID-19 preventive behaviors.Results: 650 employees of Fars pre-hospital emergency and emergency bases participated in the study. The average age of participants in the study 45.14±10.37 years. There was a positive and significant correlation between preventive behaviors and constructs of the PMT model, including perceived susceptibility, severity, response efficacy, self-efficacy, response cost, and protection motivation. The response cost and protection motivation (behavioral intention) had the lowest and highest percentage of the mean from the maximum obtainable score among structures of the model, respectively. Perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and protection motivation (behavioral intention) are the strongest predictor of behavior. The variables predicted 61.3% of the variance of coronavirus preventive behaviors.Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the role of protection motivation theory in adopting preventive behavior of pre-hospital emergency personnel, it is suggested that interventional training be held with this theory, and facilitating protective behaviors as a principle in education should be considered.

Multiagent Consensus Control Strategy considering Whole-Process Thermodynamic Characteristics of Air Conditioning Process

Due to the distributed and decentralized characteristics of air conditioning load, the distributed control strategy has advantages for the air conditioning load to participate in the demand response. However, existing approaches focus on the dynamic control performance with very few considerations on the cost. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a multiagent consensus control method considering the whole-process response cost of air conditioning. Based on the thermodynamic characteristics of air conditioning load in the load reduction process and recovery process, the cost function curve of air conditioning load is established. Then, the multiagent consensus control strategy is adopted to send the power adjustment information to each air conditioner to realize the optimal control of the air conditioning load. The simulation results verify that the proposed method can take into account the whole-process response cost of air conditioning loads and result in smaller control cost than existing methods.

COVID-19

The onslaught of COVID-19 has impacted all the spheres of life and caused the entire world to halt. The present study has attempted to investigate whether fear aroused by COVID-19 has raised e-governance adoption in the developing countries, specifically focusing on the rural regions. The study has utilized the learning from the protection motivation theory. The results show that COVID-19 has emerged as an unexpected thrust for e-governance adoption. The severity, vulnerability, response-efficacy, and self-efficacy components of protection motivation are found to have positive relationship with the attitude to adopt e-governance. The intrinsic and extrinsic rewards associated with not following the lockdown are found to have a negative relationship with the attitude to adopt e-governance. The response cost component of protection motivation is found to have an insignificant relationship with the attitude to adopt e-governance. The attitude is found to have positive relationship with the intention to adopt e-governance services.

Differences in the Protection Motivation Theory Constructs between People with Various Latent Classes of Motivation for Vaccination and Preventive Behaviors against COVID-19 in Taiwan

The present study aimed to identify the distinct classes of motivations to get vaccinated and to adopt preventive behaviors against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among people in Taiwan and to examine the roles of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) cognitive constructs in these unique classes of motivations to get vaccinated and to adopt preventive behaviors. We recruited 1047 participants by using a Facebook advertisement. Participants’ motivations to get vaccinated and to adopt preventive behaviors against COVID-19, PMT constructs of threat appraisal (perceived severity and perceived vulnerability), and PMT constructs of coping appraisal (self-efficacy, response efficacy, response cost, knowledge, and previous vaccination for seasonal influenza) were determined. We analyzed participants’ motivations to get vaccinated and to adopt preventive behaviors against COVID-19 by using latent profile analysis. The present study identified three latent classes, including the participants with high motivation for vaccination and preventive behaviors (the class of Both High), those with low motivation for vaccination and preventive behaviors (the class of Both Low), and those with high motivation for vaccination but low motivation for preventive behaviors (the class of High Vaccination but Low Preventive Behaviors). Compared with the participants in the class of Both High, participants in the class of Both Low had lower levels of perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, self-efficacy to have vaccination, response efficacy of vaccination, knowledge about vaccination, and previous vaccination for seasonal influenza; participants in the class of High Vaccination but Low Preventive Behaviors had lower levels of perceived vulnerability and perceived severity but higher levels of response cost of vaccination. We concluded that varieties of motivations, threat, and coping appraisals should be considered in intervention programs aiming to increase motivation to adopt recommended protective behaviors against COVID-19.

Yeast cells under glucose-limitation environment need increased response cost for osmostress defense

Cells always make responses to environmental changes, involving dynamic expression of tens to hundreds of proteins. This response system may demand substantial cost and thus affect cell growth. Here, we studied the cell's responses to osmostress under glucose-limitation environments. Through analyzed thirteen osmotic-downstream proteins and two related transcription factors, we found that the cells required stronger responses under low glucose concentrations than normal glucose condition after being stimulated by osmostress, even the cell growth rate was unchanged in these two constant conditions. We proposed and verified that under a glucose-limitation environment, the glycolysis intermediates were limited (defense reserve saving), which caused that cells needed more glycerol production enzymes to adapt to the osmostress. Further experiments proved that this 'defense reserve-saving' strategy required cells to spend more response cost when facing stress, which on the other hand, enhanced the fitness for the coming environment variations via protein accumulation reserve.

Comparisons of Motivation to Receive COVID-19 Vaccination and Related Factors between Frontline Physicians and Nurses and the Public in Taiwan: Applying the Extended Protection Motivation Theory

This study aimed to compare the differences in motivation to receive a COVID-19 vaccination between frontline physicians and nurses and the Taiwanese public. The associations of threat and coping appraisals, as described in Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), with motivation to receive COVID-19 vaccination were compared between these groups, too. We recruited 279 frontline physicians and nurses and 768 members of the public by a Facebook advertisement. Participants’ motivation to receive COVID-19 vaccination, perceived severity of and vulnerability to COVID-19, self-efficacy and response efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination, response cost of COVID-19 vaccination, and knowledge about the mechanism of COVID-19 vaccination in light of PMT were determined. The results demonstrated that frontline health workers had higher motivation to receive COVID-19 vaccination than the public. Response efficacy and knowledge of COVID-19 vaccination were positively associated with motivation to receive COVID-19 vaccination in both frontline health workers and the public, whereas perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, and response cost of COVID-19 vaccination were positively associated with motivation in the public but not in frontline physicians and nurses. The factors related to motivation to receive COVID-19 vaccination should be considered when designing programs to increase motivation to receive COVID-19 vaccination among frontline health workers and the public.

Exploring the Relationship between Internal Information Security, Response Cost and Security Intention in Container Shipping

This study empirically investigates the influence of information security marketing and response cost on employees’ information security intention in the container shipping industry. Survey data were collected from 285 respondents in Taiwan. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to identify all the measures to be summarized in a relative set. Confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to ensure every measure’s construct’s convergent and discriminant validity. Structural equation modeling was carried out to the proposed model in this article. The results indicate that organizational information security marketing has a positive impact on information security intention. Furthermore, this study conducted hierarchical regression to examine the moderating effects of information security awareness and information security climate. In particular, information security awareness significantly influenced the relationships between organizational information security marketing, response cost, and information security intention. Moreover, information security climate moderated the relationship between response cost and information security intention. This article concludes by discussing these theoretical and practical findings and implications.

Uma breve análise de fatores de custo da resposta e do uso de equipamentos de segurança para prevenir a transmissão do COVID-19

Recently, the world is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, something that has changed daily routines and requires us to take more careful security measures, such as using safety equipment. However, using safety equipment is not an everyday behavior, and both access and correct use can be an effortful task for the general public. This paper briefly explores some of the response-cost factors regarding the use of safety equipment in preventing COVID-19 spread. We propose that the manipulation of response-cost factors can affect the probability of the use of safety equipment. Nevertheless, response-cost is only one of several aspects (e.g., cultural aspects) involved in the use of safety equipment. Further research could extend and test the suggestions we make and propose other aspects that should be analyzed. We hope that understanding the response-costs factors involved in preventive behavior can contribute to public-policy planning and increase the daily use of safety equipment, and decrease the probability of transmission during health hazards such as the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords: COVID-19; response cost; public health; pandemic