• COVID-19
• Publicationsclose
• 2017-2021close
• Open Access close
• Book close
• English close
• COVID-19 close

The COVID-19 pandemic started more than a year ago, but until today, we did not have a definitive cure for this disease. The SARS-CoV-2 virus constantly mutated over time, infecting more people and causing tremendous stress on the existing scarcity of healthcare resources all around the world. Here, the experts from ground zero will share their first-hand experience of clinical trials looking for a cure for COVID-19, like the WHO's Solidarity Trial and the role of palliative care in COVID-19 as part of humanitarian crisis management. To download this eBook in other formats, please go to https://books2read.com/u/3ya9rn or https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1103401

No abstract available.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First Workshop on Monte Carlo Search, MCS 2020, organized in conjunction with IJCAI 2020. The event was supposed to take place in Yokohama, Japan, in July 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic was held virtually on January 7, 2021. The 9 full papers of the specialized project were carefully reviewed and selected from 15 submissions. The following topics are covered in the contributions: discrete mathematics in computer science, games, optimization, search algorithms, Monte Carlo methods, neural networks, reinforcement learning, machine learning.

The publication covers scientific research in the field of biophysics, ecology, physiotherapy and the COVID-19 epidemic. Zbornik pokriva znanstveno raziskovanje s področja biofizike, ekologije, fizioterapije in epidemije COVID-19.

This rapid review summarises the economic impacts of the pandemic on ethnic minorities, focusing on the city of Manchester. It utilises multiple reporting sources to explore various dimensions of the economic shock in the UK, linking this to studies of pre-COVID-19 economic and ethnic composition in Manchester and in the combined authority area of Greater Manchester. We then make inferences about the pandemic’s impact specific to the city region. Greater Manchester has seen some of the highest rates of COVID-19 and as a result has faced particularly stringent 'lockdown' regulations.Manchester is the sixth most deprived Local Authority in England (according to 2019 English Indices of Multiple Deprivation). As a consequence, many neighbourhoods in the city were always going to be less resilient to the economic shock caused by the pandemic compared with other, less-deprived, areas. Particular challenges for Manchester include the prevalence of poor health, low-paid work, low qualifications, poor housing conditions and overcrowding. Ethnic minority groups also faced disparities long before the onset of the pandemic. Within the UK, ethnic minorities have been found to be most disadvantaged in terms of employment and housing – particularly in large urban areas containing traditional settlement areas for ethnic minorities. Further, all Black, Asian, and Minority ethnic (BAME) groups in Greater Manchester have been found to be less likely to be employed pre-pandemic compared with White people. For example, people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic backgrounds, especially women, have the lowest levels of employment in Greater Manchester. Finally, unprecedented cuts to public spending as a result of austerity have also disproportionately affected women of an ethnic minority background alongside women, disabled people, the young and those with no or low-level qualifications. This environment has created and sustained a multiplicative disadvantage for Manchester’s ethnic minority residents through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 23 March 2020, the UN Secretary General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres called for an immediate global ceasefire, to help tackle the threat of Covid-19 rather than compound the risk to those in fragile and conflict-affected areas. In response to this call, multiple states, international, regional, and local organisations declared their support for a global ceasefire, and since March 2020, conflict parties have declared 25 ceasefires, across 17 countries. In this report, we draw on the ‘Ceasefires in a Time of Covid-19’ tracker to analyse how ceasefires have unfolded throughout the pandemic, and to consider how the pandemic has affected moves towards ceasefires and peace processes. In Part I, we provide data on what types of ceasefires conflict parties have declared since March 2020, and the extent to which these ceasefires have held. In Part II, we put forward key analytical and practical concerns for understanding these ceasefires and considering what, if anything, ceasefires during the pandemic mean for wider peace processes. In Part III, we conclude that, although the Covid-19 pandemic has not been a ‘game-changer’ for ceasefire and peace process trajectories, it is now a crucial part of the context in which peace processes must take place. We make recommendations for how ceasefires, and peacemaking more generally, can be better supported during global health emergencies.

This research report looks at leadership and wellbeing in Primary Schools two months after the COVID-19 school closures, in total 939 leaders completed the survey. It follows a previous report on practice in Primary Schools two weeks after school closures (Burke and Dempsey, 2020). It reports on the changes in communication, concerns and wellbeing from week two to month two after the COVID-19 school closure; the wellbeing of school leaders in the middle of the COVID-19 school closure; and, investigates the intricacies in wellbeing between teaching and administrative principals, given that their daily duties differ significantly. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS, and qualitative data was analysed using MAXQDA. It found that principals are adapting to the impact of the pandemic, both professionally and personally, however there have been significant challenges noted. It was noted that social wellbeing is the biggest challenge for principals, however seven out of 10 principals have taken specific actions to address this challenge during the lockdown. Lack of time was an issue for those principals who have not taken positive action regarding their wellbeing, with some fulfilling multiple professional and personal roles. While there have been challenges associated with the adaptation and implementation of new online practices, and some schools lack technology, there has been a positive move to online learning.

Unbeknownst to them, graduate students enrolled in Dr. David Carter’s Fall 2020 section of Research Design embarked on an experiment in research instruction. Working in groups of two-to-four, they conceived of, designed, and executed public affairs “microstudies”—small-scale research projects focused on tailored questions of public policy and public administration. This book presents the result of this experiment: seven diverse research projects on topics including public transit ridership, telework, and K-12 education modes during the COVID-19 pandemic; reproductive healthcare policy impacts; municipal climate change plans; environmental (in)justice, and; the workforce experiences of those with invisible disabilities. The studies are diverse in epistemological underpinnings and research methods—ranging from critical and interpretivist qualitative investigations to quantitative analysis of secondary data—but are united in their collective attention to research design fidelity and concern for findings with “public” relevance.