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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has proved to be one of the most challenging infectious diseases in the modern era, and despite several countermeasures to lessen its impact, the spread of the virus is still affecting most countries. This renders the goal of active immunization of the population through vaccination a worldwide public health priority. In fact, only when efficient vaccination programs will be successfully implemented, a return to pre-pandemic normality can be considered. The scientific community has made a tremendous effort to blow the lid off the pathogenesis of the disease, and unprecedented efforts are ongoing with governments, private organizations, and academics working together to expeditiously develop safe and efficacious vaccines. Previous research efforts in the development of vaccines for other coronaviruses (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 1 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) as well other emerging viruses have opened the door for exploiting several strategies to design a new vaccine against the pandemic virus. Indeed, in a few months, a stunning number of vaccines have been proposed, and almost 50 putative vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials. The different vaccine candidates use different vaccine development platforms, from inactivated whole virus vaccine to subunit vaccine, nucleic acid, and vectored vaccines. In this review, we describe strengths, flaws, and potential pitfalls of each approach to understand their chances of success.

PurposeInternational tourism and FDI inflows have generated detectable beneficial impacts on the economy of Estonia in the last decades. However, recently, poor international market conditions mostly caused by the trade war and COVID-19 pandemic have been a potential threat to these two factors. Besides, the poor performance of investments in recent years is behind the stagnation of productivity in Estonia. This study examines the dynamics of the effects of these factors on the rate of economic growth in Estonia and provides policy implications in line with sustained recovery.Design/methodology/approachA nonlinear ARDL technique is employed in this study to investigate the long-run effects of FDI and the degree of tourism specialization on economic growth rate.FindingsOur findings indicate that the economic growth rate of Estonia in the long run has been positively affected by both the rate of FDI inflows and international tourism.Originality/valueThis is the first study that employs a non-linear approach to investigate the dynamics of long-run effects of FDI and tourism specialization on the rate of economic growth in Estonia and provides policy implications in line with optimal growth strategy considering the economic structure, the current level of productivity and available potentials in this economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed education from face-to-face to virtual. This accelerated the creation of new learning environments based on the everyday use of mobile devices, presenting new challenges for education. Emerging technologies today drive mobile learning or m-learning. This research focuses on the development of a mobile application that seeks to strengthen the mathematical abilities of whole number empowerment in high school students in a blended mode. The application includes four missions that make up an interactive game, in which the player has three lives and accumulates points. Mate-potencia Olympics faces two players, who must meet the challenges of each mission, the winners go to a second round, until they have the winner. Students learn the process of calculating square powers, identifying each of its elements, allowing dynamic, ubiquitous and flexible learning.

This chapter describes the emotional impact of shared cultural trauma experiences in the psychotherapeutic interaction between Dana, a Black cisgender female sex worker, and her current therapist, also a Black cisgender female. Both appreciate that Dana’s narrative of her psychological challenges is unusual and that exposure is risky because of the clandestine nature of the sex industry and safety concerns. This is a primary reason that the voices of Black cisgender female sex workers are generally not reflected in academic research and literature. Current shifts in the sociopolitical climate are creating space for sex workers of color to enter unfamiliar and uncomfortable fora to procure appropriate representation, protection, access to resources, and emotional support. For these reasons, Dana has chosen to make her voice count. Her therapist also shares her own personal and professional reflections on the convergence of the pandemics.

With the complexity and overload of IP connectivity and the variety of protocols that each technology and applications has been introducing to keep the human beings connected to the modern Internet, especially in times of COVID-19 pandemic, it is a priority for Service Providers to seek a simplification of their infrastructures to make them more scalable, efficient, simplified, and profitable. In this Proof-of-Concept (PoC) paper, Segment Routing (SR) is presented as an alternative to interconnect business networks in IPv4 and IPv6 scenarios where Headquarter-Branches connectivity is required. This paper begins by defining SR and its fundamentals. To test theory in practice, three scenarios are emulated and compared: MPLS-LDP, SR for IPv4 infrastructures, and finally, SR for IPv6 networks. The aim of the present paper is to provide a more understandable vision of Segment Routing and its operation in ISP networks.