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Background: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of people globally and is expected to have profound effects on mental health. Here we aim to describe the mental health burden experienced in Sweden using baseline data of the Omtanke2020 Study. Method: We analysed self-reported, cross-sectional baseline data collected over a 12-month period (June 9, 2020–June 8, 2021) from the Omtanke2020 Study including 27,950 adults in Sweden. Participants were volunteers or actively recruited through existing cohorts and, after providing informed consent, responded to online questionnaires on socio-demographics, mental and physical health, as well as COVID-19 infection and impact. Poisson regression was fitted to assess the relative risk of demonstrating high level symptoms of depression, anxiety, and COVID-19 related distress. Result: The proportion of persons with high level of symptoms was 15.6 %, 9.5 % and 24.5 % for depression, anxiety, and COVID-19 specific post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), respectively. Overall, 43.4 % of the participants had significant, clinically relevant symptoms for at least one of the three mental health outcomes and 7.3 % had significant symptoms for all three outcomes. We also observed differences in the prevalence of these outcomes across strata of sex, age, recruitment type, COVID-19 status, region, and seasonality. Conclusion: While the proportion of persons with high mental health burden remains higher than the ones reported in pre-pandemic publications, our estimates are lower than previously reported levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD during the pandemic in Sweden and elsewhere. Funding Information: This study was funded with grants from NordForsk (CovidMent, 105668 ), Horizon 2020 (CoMorMent, 847776 ), and the Karolinska Institutet . Funding Information: The Omtanke2020 study is supported by NordForsk (project No. 105668 ) and Karolinska Institute (Strategic Research Area in Epidemiology and Senior Researcher Award). We acknowledge The Swedish Twin Registry for access to contact information to participating twins. The Swedish Twin Registry is managed by Karolinska Institutet and receives funding through the Swedish Research Council under the grant no 2017-00641. The Funding Sources had no direct or indirect impact on the analysis and interpretation of the results. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors Peer reviewed

The topic of this issue is Informality and Informal Practices in the Time of COVID-19: The Case of Georgia. Firstly, Irakli Korkia addresses corruption by analysing 1) simplified state procurement procedures related to the healthcare sector and quarantine zones and 2) the vaccine deployment process; secondly, Rhiannon Segar discusses how informal forms of social capital have impacted the dissemination of information during the pandemic in the Georgian-Armenian and Georgian-Azerbaijani ethnic minority communities; thirdly, Tamar Tolordava underlines the importance of institutions (formal and informal) to help citizens learn about and internalise the new rules and restrictions important to defeating the pandemic. Das Thema dieser Ausgabe lautet „Informalität und informelle Praktiken in der Zeit von COVID-19: Der Fall Georgien“. Erstens befasst sich Irakli Korkia mit Korruption, indem er 1) vereinfachte staatliche Beschaffungsverfahren im Zusammenhang mit dem Gesundheitssektor und den Quarantänezonen und 2) die Bereitstellung von Impfstoffen analysiert; zweitens erörtert Rhiannon Segar, wie informelles Sozialkapital die Verbreitung von Informationen während der Pandemie in den georgisch-armenischen und georgisch-aserbaidschanischen ethnischen Minderheitengemeinschaften beeinflusst haben; drittens unterstreicht Tamar Tolordava die Bedeutung von (formellen und informellen) Institutionen, die den Bürgern helfen, die neuen Regeln und Beschränkungen, die für die Bekämpfung der Pandemie wichtig sind, kennenzulernen und zu verinnerlichen. ISSN:1867-9323

As part of the research project Apprenticeship Pulse, this fact sheet provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on basic vocational education in Switzerland in November 2022 and compares these results with those of earlier surveys, in particular with those of the last survey in June 2022 and with those of the last year (November 2021)

As part of the research project Apprenticeship Pulse, this fact sheet provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on basic vocational education in Switzerland in September 2022 and compares these results with those of earlier surveys, in particular with those of the last survey in June 2022 and with those of the last year (September 2021).

The aim of this paper is to highlight how TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) trace gas data can best be used and interpreted to understand event-based impacts on air quality from regional to city scales around the globe. For this study, we present the observed changes in the atmospheric column amounts of five trace gases (NO2, SO2, CO, HCHO, and CHOCHO) detected by the Sentinel-5P TROPOMI instrument and driven by reductions in anthropogenic emissions due to COVID-19 lockdown measures in 2020. We report clear COVID-19-related decreases in TROPOMI NO2 column amounts on all continents. For megacities, reductions in column amounts of tropospheric NO2 range between 14 % and 63 %. For China and India, supported by NO2 observations, where the primary source of anthropogenic SO2 is coal-fired power generation, we were able to detect sector-specific emission changes using the SO2 data. For HCHO and CHOCHO, we consistently observe anthropogenic changes in 2-week-averaged column amounts over China and India during the early phases of the lockdown periods. That these variations over such a short timescale are detectable from space is due to the high resolution and improved sensitivity of the TROPOMI instrument. For CO, we observe a small reduction over China, which is in concert with the other trace gas reductions observed during lockdown; however, large interannual differences prevent firm conclusions from being drawn. The joint analysis of COVID-19-lockdown-driven reductions in satellite-observed trace gas column amounts using the latest operational and scientific retrieval techniques for five species concomitantly is unprecedented. However, the meteorologically and seasonally driven variability of the five trace gases does not allow for drawing fully quantitative conclusions on the reduction in anthropogenic emissions based on TROPOMI observations alone. We anticipate that in future the combined use of inverse modeling techniques with the high spatial resolution data from S5P/TROPOMI for all observed trace gases presented here will yield a significantly improved sector-specific, space-based analysis of the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures as compared to other existing satellite observations. Such analyses will further enhance the scientific impact and societal relevance of the TROPOMI mission.

Previous studies have examined the impact of COVID-19 on mortality and fertility. However, little is known about the effect of the pandemic on constraining international migration. We quantify the impact of COVID-19 on immigration flows in 15 high-income countries by forecasting their counterfactual levels in 2020 assuming no pandemic and comparing these estimates with observed immigration counts. We then explore potential driving forces, such as stringency measures and changes in unemployment moderating the extent of immigration decline. Our results show that immigration declined in all countries, except in Finland. Yet, significant cross-national variations exist. Australia (60%), Spain (45%) and Sweden (36%) display the largest declines, while immigration decreased by between 15% and 30% in seven states, and by less than 15% in four where results were not statistically significant. International travel, mobility restrictions and stay-at-home requirements exhibit a relationship with declines in immigration, although countries with similar levels of stringency witnessed different intensities of decline. Work and school closings and unemployment show no relationship

This report is based on findings from a cross-national qualitative study investigating young people’s digital skills practices in non-formal learning contexts in Belgium, Denmark, and Italy. The goal of this study was to gain better knowledge about how to foster digital skills acquisition and practices in non-formal learning contexts. This study combined 16 observations of digital skills workshops (i.c. programming and robotics workshops), 11 interviews with organisers and moderators of such activities, and 4 subsequent co-design activities with the collaboration of children, organisers, moderators, and researchers. The research activities took place in non-formal learning contexts, such as public libraries, youth clubs, and school spaces used for extra-curricular activities (i.e., outside the formal curriculum). Due to different COVID-19 restrictions across Belgium, Denmark and Italy, flexibility with the research protocol was needed. The main aim of the observations and interviews was to first map existing situated experiences of digital skills workshops across countries, investigate their structure and teaching philosophies, and inform co-design activities. Then, with the co-design activities, we aimed to gain knowledge about potential future trajectories, drawing insights from best practices and formulating recommendations, with Italy focusing on teaching style, Denmark on technology and tools, and Belgium on policy. Our work allowed us to address several research questions, investigating three main areas to be understood as broader thematic units. As a first thematic unit concerned with teaching, we questioned how the philosophies that drive the digital skills workshops ran by moderators and organisers have an impact on the workshop organisation in terms of their formality, activities chosen, teaching styles, imaginaries and values. Indeed, we argue that these matters should not go unnoticed, as part of a hidden curriculum (Gordon, 1982), as these are likely to impact children’s and young people's digital skills acquisition and practices. Secondly, as for the theme of learning, we investigated whether and how the formality and structure of the non-formal digital skills workshops may have influenced children’s digital skills practices and learning, what types of learning strategies were promoted by moderators, and what practices were enacted by the children themselves. As a third theme sensitive to including, we aimed to understand who participates in digital skills workshops and who is excluded, and why, questioning for instance potential sociocultural or material barriers (or absence thereof) shaping the democratisation and distribution of the learning opportunities.

As part of the research project Apprenticeship Pulse, this fact sheet provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on basic vocational education in Switzerland in June 2022 and compares these results with those of earlier surveys, in particular with those of the previous months and a year ago (June 2021)

This issue deals with dysfunctionalities in the Russian economy. The first three contributions look at the direct impact of sanctions. Ilya Matveev provides an overview, while Andrei Yakovlev compares the government’s anti-sanctions measures to its reaction to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Janis Kluge offers a more detailed picture of the short- and long-term effects of the unfolding sanction regime. Michael Rochlitz then goes on to explain the lack of strategic planning in the country’s economic policy. Finally, Olga Masyutina and Ekaterina Paustyan provide a case study of inefficient governance mechanisms looking at waste management. In dieser Ausgabe geht es um Dysfunktionalitäten in der russischen Wirtschaft. Die ersten drei Beiträge befassen sich mit den direkten Auswirkungen der Sanktionen. Ilya Matveev gibt einen Überblick über die aktuellen Sanktionen, während Andrei Yakovlev die Reaktion der russischen Regierung auf die Sanktionen mit den Corona-Maßnahmen für die Wirtschaft vergleicht. Janis Kluge bietet ein detaillierteres Bild der kurz- und langfristigen Auswirkungen des sich entwickelnden Sanktionsregimes. Michael Rochlitz erläutert anschließend den Mangel an strategischer Planung in der Wirtschaftspolitik des Landes. Olga Masyutina und Ekaterina Paustyan schließlich liefern eine Fallstudie zu ineffizienten Governance-Mechanismen am Beispiel der Abfallwirtschaft. ISSN:1863-0421