Human Resources during COVID-19: A Monthly Survey on Mental Health and Working Attitudes of Czech Employees and Managers during the Year 2020

This study investigates the effect of COVID-19 lockdowns and non-lockdown phases on managers and employees in the Czech Republic in the year 2020. The Czech Republic came through the first COVID-19 wave in spring 2020 with low case numbers, but became one of the countries with the highest case incidences in the second autumn wave in Europe. The study focused on examining the differences of perceptions on digital readiness of the company, working style, and mental health variables of working personnel in lockdown and non-lockdown phases. Data was obtained by an online survey conducted monthly from March-2020 to December-2020 with the same questions each month. Collected data consisted of respondents’ basic information on the actual situation, on perceptions on company and technology and on perceptions of the own mental state in the given month, retrieved from a pool of employees and managers from the Czech Republic machine and equipment manufacturers’ industry. Statistical analysis was conducted with the Kruskal-Wallis test for ordinal variables to check for significant differences in perceptions during 2020. Results show that managers in general and telecommuting-experienced workers in particular are better able to adapt to forced home office, while telecommuting-inexperienced employees struggle to adapt positively even with increasing company support and with an increasing digital team communication.

Attitudes About COVID-19 and Health: A Mixed-Methods Smartphone-App and Online Survey Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Behavioral mitigation strategies to slow the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in sweeping lifestyle changes, with short and long-term psychological, well-being, and quality of life implications. The Attitudes About COVID-19 and Health (ATTACH) study focuses on understanding attitudes and beliefs whilst considering the impact on mental and physical health and the influence of broader demographic and geographic factors on attitudes, beliefs, and mental health burden. OBJECTIVE In this assessment of our first wave of data collection, we provide baseline cohort descriptives of ATTACH study participants in the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), and Mexico. Additionally, we assess responses to daily poll questions related to COVID-19 and conduct a cross-sectional analysis of baseline assessments collected in the UK between June 26 and October 31, 2020. METHODS The ATTACH study uses smartphone-app technology and online survey data collection. Participants completed poll questions twice daily related to COVID-19 and a monthly survey assessing mental health, social isolation, physical health, and quality of life. Poll question responses were graphed using 95% Clopper-Pearson (exact) tests with 95% confidence intervals. Pearson correlations, hierarchical linear regression analyses, and generalized linear models assessed relationships, predictors of self-reported outcomes, and group differences, respectively. RESULTS By October 31, 2020, 1405, 80, and 90 participants had consented to participate in the UK, USA, and Mexico, respectively. Descriptive data for the UK daily poll questions indicated that participants were generally following social distancing measures, but worry and negative impacts on families increased as the pandemic progressed. Although participants generally reported feeling that the reasons for current measures had been made clear, there was low trust that the government was doing everything in its power to meet public needs. In the UK, 1282 participants also completed a monthly survey (95% white, 72% female, 21% key or essential workers). Nineteen percent of UK participants reported a pre-existing mental health disorder, 31% reported a pre-existing chronic medical illness, and 35% were over 65. Fifty-seven percent of participants reported being more sedentary since the pandemic began, and 41% reported reduced access to medical care. Those with poorer mental health outcomes lived in more deprived neighborhoods, in larger households (ps < .05), had more pre-existing mental health disorders and medical conditions, and were younger than 65 years (all ps < .001). CONCLUSIONS Communities who have been exposed to additional harm during the COVID-19 pandemic were experiencing worse mental outcomes. Factors including having a medical condition, or living in a deprived neighborhood or larger household were associated with heightened risk. Future longitudinal studies should investigate the link between COVID-19 exposure, mental health, and sociodemographic and residential characteristics.

Self-Supply Service Level Assessment as Drinking Water Source in Bekasi City (Case Study: Jatiluhur, Sumur Batu, and Jatirangga Villages)

Drinking water sources derived from groundwater using selfsupply approaches are widely used in Bekasi City because only 26.8% of households are connected to the piped distribution. These self-supplied water systems can be assessed to determine how people choose a better drinking source. Therefore, this study aims to assess the service level attributes of self-supply, including accessibility, availability, and quality. A longitudinal monitoring method by means of a monthly survey to respondents was used to mens perceptions of taste, smell, color, availability, and safety. The results on both household and citywide scale showed boreholes were perceived to deliver a high service level. On the household scale, 93% of boreholes user got ‘high’ score for water service assessment, while dug wells were only 76%. During the 8 months survey, it was shown that 45% of respondents change their main source of drinking water from self-supply to other source for several reasons. Therefore, this study is expected to provide an overview related to the resilience of selfsupply drinking water for a certain period.

Sistema Open-Source de Monitoramento do Consumo de Energia Elétrica

The cost of electricity in Brazilian homes is increasingly high. This project consists of bringing a complete and easily accessible solution aiming to benefit the economy, in a much broader way, both for the end user and for the electricity generating system, which today has difficulty in meeting demand, as well as it provides a reduction in the environmental impact caused by the constant expansion of hydroelectric plants and other sources of energy. The use of this system, the Electricity Consumption Monitoring System, allows the user to have control of each equipment installed in the premises. The equipment in monitored by a device designed and built in this project. From these monitoring devices, which perform periodic measurements, it is possible to make a daily, weekly or monthly survey of the consumption of each equipment in the residence, sending alert messages, for excessive energy consumption, thus defining a user profile and even creating limitations for monthly spending. With this, the user will have the necessary resources to manage their energy consumption over the days, without having surprises at the end of the month.

Orange Juice Consumers Response to the Covid-19 Outbreak

This 4-page fact sheet written by Yan Heng, Marisa Zansler, and Lisa House and published by the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department presents consumers’ responses to a monthly survey and provides a look at those consumers who have contributed to a surge in orange juice sales since April. It is intended to help the industry understand the possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and develop marketing plans to sustain orange juice purchases beyond the short run.

Aseksual Reproduction of Black Sea Cucumber from Jepara Waters

Black sea cucumber or Lollyfish are trade name for Holothuria atra, one species of family Holothuriidae abundance in Jepara waters, especially in Panjang Island. They inhabit on the seabed, in shallow waters on reefs and sand flats or in Seagrass meadows. Beside reproduce sexually, H. atra also do fission (biology), i.e. able to reproduce asexually by transverse fission. Monthly survey has been conducted for three months to determine frequency of fission among H. atra population in Panjang Island waters. In total 891 individu of H. atra inhabit in seagrass meadow mixed with rubble were examimed. In fissiparous sea cucumber, transverse fission are followed by regeneration and in this research identified from external observations. The fission state was divided into three category, i.e. closed wound (Category 1), little regeneration either posterior or anterior part (category 2), moderate regeneration either posterior or anterior part (category 3). The result showed that the fission frequency was highest during end of rainy season in April (13,21%) and decreased during May (4,61%) and June (4,86%). Body regeneration seem happened fast, since the new individu sea cucumber at category 1 was low but high as category 3. The regeneration were related with the condition of environment.

Preliminary investigations of organic pollution in water environment of some urban lakes in Hanoi city, Vietnam

Lakes in Hanoi play an important role in local human life. However, along with the economic and social development, some urban lakes have been polluted, especially organic pollution. This paper presents the monthly survey results for organic pollution assessment of ten selected lakes in Ha Noi city: the Ho Tay, Truc Bach, Thien Quang, Ba Mau, Bay Mau, Hoan Kiem, Ngoc Khanh, Giang Vo, Thanh Cong and Thu Le lakes during the period from March 2014 to February 2015. The survey results showed that the Ba Mau lake was organic polluted at level IV whereas other lakes were contaminated by organic matters at level III. Organic pollution may come from both autochthonous and allochthonous sources. Compared with the results of previous studies, the water quality of 10 lakes in the period from March 2014 to February 2015 has been improved thank for the recent application of some positive solutions for lake environmental protection. Hệ thống hồ ở Hà Nội đóng vai trò quan trọng trong đời sống của người dân. Tuy nhiên, cùng với sự phát triển kinh tế xã hội, nhiều hồ trong nội đô đã và đang bị ô nhiễm, đặc biệt là ô nhiễm hữu cơ. Bài báo này trình bày kết quả khảo sát ô nhiễm hữu cơ tại 10 hồ trong thành phố Hà Nội: hồ Tây, Trúc Bạch, Thiền Quang, Ba Mẫu, Bảy Mẫu, Hoàn Kiếm, Ngọc Khánh, Giảng Võ, Thành Công và Thủ Lệ trong thời gian từ tháng 3 năm 2014 đến tháng 2 năm 2015. Kết quả khảo sát cho thấy hồ Ba Mẫu bị ô nhiễm hữu cơ ở mức IV, các hồ còn lại bị ô nhiễm hữu cơ ở mức III. Ô nhiễm hữu cơ tại các hồ có thể do cả hai nguồn cung cấp chất hữu cơ, ngoại lai và nội sinh. So với kết quả quan trắc trước đây, chất lượng nước 10 hồ Hà Nội đã được cải thiện do gần đây đã áp dụng một số biện pháp bảo vệ môi trường cho các hồ.

Can host density attenuate parasitism?

Bivalve populations display fluctuating densities resulting in different interactions among them and with their environment. Using the edible cockle (Cerastoderma edule) as a model, we investigated two alternative hypotheses concerning the effect of density on individual infection intensity by trematode parasites. Considering that these parasites infect cockles through filtration activity, our first hypothesis was that high host density will have a dilution effect so that infection intensity decreases with host density. Conversely, high cockle density could attract other hosts used by these trematode parasites to complete their life cycle. A 17-year monthly survey of a cockle population in Arcachon Bay, France, showed a negative correlation between the cockle density and the abundance of parasite larvae in juvenile cockles with a significant threshold when adult cockle density reached 400 ind. m−2. This result was confirmed for the four dominating trematode parasites, independently considered. Additionally, a field experiment was performed during 9 months, with cockles maintained in enclosures with two densities (200 and 800 ind. m−2). Individual cockle mean infection was 1.5 times higher at low cockle density, mainly due to one dominant trematode species (Parvatrema minutum). In conclusion and confirming the first advanced hypothesis, for certain environments, negative consequences of bivalve intraspecific competition at high density can be mitigated by lower parasite pressure.