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An extended brief overviewing a bread swath of responses from higher educational institutions worldwide, to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are writing this openly-published letter to express deep concerns regarding the paper recently published in JAMA Network Open: Estimation of US Children’s Educational Attainment and Years of Life Lost Associated With Primary School Closures During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.28786The paper by Christakis, Van Cleve, and Zimmerman(2020,abbrev. CVZ) is built upon multiple critically flawed assumptions, obvious misuse of the standard analytical tools, and clear mistakes in study design. Additionally, the analysis presented contains crucial mathematical and statistical errors that completely revert the main results, sufficient that if the estimates had been calculated according to the declared methodology, the results would completely contradict the stated conclusions and policy recommendations. These are not idle criticisms. This study has received enormous public attention, and its results immediately appeared in discussions of public health policies around schools worldwide. The central question is resolving an evidence base for the inevitable tradeoff between (a) the very real harms of missed education provoked by policies that decrease viral spread vs. (b) the resumption of education as a social good which increases viral spread. This is an incredibly important public health question, and it demands careful cost-benefit analysis. To that end, this paper adds no usable evidence whatsoever.

The ESPON virtual peer-learning workshop focused on land-sea interactionsrelating to tourism and COVID-19 as a potential game changer. Particularemphasis was given to the future of cruise tourism in the Adriatic Sea. The maingoal of the event was to inspire policymaking and practices for a more sustainableand resilient development of hosting port-cities. Based on ESPON evidence andreflections from academics and key stakeholders, the workshop aimed to definegood practices and approaches that can serve as base for future collaborationsbetween the host port cities and the cruise sector. The main target groups werepolicymakers, regional stakeholders and experts.

COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the aviation industry affecting everything from passengers to cargo, incoming revenues, and even other companies connected to this industry. The experts are expecting the recovery to take place in 2024, therefore, a long path lies ahead for everyone. This thesis focuses on the IT solution sector of the aviation industry with WorldTicket as the exemplifying case, where we examine the decision making process through a combination of Crisis Management, Bounded Rationality, and Contingency theories. The research was conducted with a Marketing Environment analytical framework which also functions as its structure. The data collection includes semi-structured interviews of WorldTicket’s management team and financial analysis that will add up to a richer conclusion. We concluded that WorldTicket successfully implemented strategic decisions corresponding to the crisis.

This paper explores and analyses the impact that the COVID-19 pandemicexerted on the well-being of workers in a Danish company - Hobbii. As a means ofachieving the specified end, we took an interpretivist approach towards thequalitative data we collected through employing semi-structured interviews amongthe current and former workers of Hobbii’s distribution centre, which revolved aroundinvestigating their group affective tones during various phases of the pandemic. Ourfindings showed a crucial and significant change, with the group affective tone ofworkers shifting from very positive to very negative in a blink of an eye, right uponthe emergence of the virus in Denmark. This phenomenon was moreover reinforcedin time by the economic boom that the company experienced due to COVID-19,which initiated substantial alterations of the corporate politics. The warehousetherefore metamorphosed unrecognisably.

The focal point of this project is the current COVID-19 situation, and the campaign made by The Danish Health Authorities (DHA) focuses on the restrictions, specifically among young adults. This project aims to analyse to what extent the outcome of the meaning-making process of the audience matches with the DHA intended message of their campaign, “We can do it.” Both a quantitative- and qualitative approach was applied. Firstly a quantitative survey was conducted, and secondly, ten interviews were made. This questionnaire survey targeted a high number of responses, to collect a large sample of general thoughts towards the campaign, in order to analyse the general public’s understanding of the video campaign. Further, to analyse whether the effort from the DHA was influencing their target group of young adults between the ages of 15-29. In addition to the survey, a qualitative interview was conducted with volunteers who participated in the questionnaire. To understand the interviewee sense-making and decoding of the campaign, Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding theory was used. This was done to get a better understanding of Kim Schrøder’s reception analysis. Both the reception analysis and the method of phenomenology was applied to examine the interviewees’ understandings and interpretations of the campaign who perceived the message as understandable and relevant. The discussion outlined the main understanding of the informants interviewed and their reception of the video’s message. Lastly, it discusses the limitations of the theories and methods used in this project. Based on the research conducted, we as researchers conclude that the interviews and the survey showed that the informants understand the campaign’s overall message, but each individual decodes the message differently.

This project investigates the research question: What standards does the H&M Group use to report sustainability in the years 2019, 2020, and 2022 and how do they signal sustainability in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic? The goal is to compare the standards used in the H&M Group’s sustainability reporting and analyse the content of these reports throughout the pandemic. In this project, the conceptualization of sustainability reporting, corporate social responsibility, and the fast fashion industry is outlined. Furthermore, the triple bottom line introduced by J. Elkington (1994) is used as a framework for sustainability, and the signalling theory by B.L. Connelly (2011) is explained to understand how an organisation can communicate sustainability. The methods used to investigate the problem are as follows: a case study written by B. Flyvbjerg (2006) is used to collect data and qualitative content analysis is made use of to analyse the data. Besides that, the encoding framework proposed by Amaya et al. (2021) is also used to help with designing the project’s structure.The results show that the project’s goal was achieved successfully with the comparison of the standards used by the H&M Group in the company’s sustainability reporting and various signals to communicate sustainability were recognised. The COVID-19 pandemic had little effect on the structure of the reports investigated but it had an impact on transparency.

Aim: Use of tele-health programs and wearable sensors that allow patients to monitor their own vital signs have been expanded in response to COVID-19. We aimed to explore the utility of patient-held data during presentation as medical emergencies. Methods: We undertook a systematic scoping review of two groups of studies: studies using non-invasive vital sign monitoring in patients with chronic diseases aimed at preventing unscheduled reviews in primary care, hospitalization or emergency department visits and studies using vital sign measurements from wearable sensors for decision making by clinicians on presentation of these patients as emergencies. Only studies that described a comparator or control group were included. Studies limited to inpatient use of devices were excluded. Results: The initial search resulted in 896 references for screening, nine more studies were identified through searches of references. 26 studies fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria and were further analyzed. The majority of studies were from telehealth programs of patients with congestive heart failure or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. There was limited evidence that patient held data is currently used to risk-stratify the admission or discharge process for medical emergencies. Studies that showed impact on mortality or hospital admission rates measured vital signs at least daily. We identified no interventional study using commercially available sensors in watches or smart phones. Conclusions: Further research is needed to determine utility of patient held monitoring devices to guide management of acute medical emergencies at the patients’ home, on presentation to hospital and after discharge back to the community.