Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social sphere and lessons for crisis management: a literature review

Adapting Minds: Exploring Cognition to Threatened Stimuli in the Post-COVID-19 Landscape Comparing Old and New Concerns about Pandemic

The global population has been significantly affected by the pandemic in terms of physical and mental health. According to transactional theory, individuals have undergone an adaptation process influenced by cognitive control abilities. Emotional responses to COVID-19-related stimuli may interfere with top-down attentional processes, thereby hindering adaptation. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19-related stimuli on attentional processing and to determine whether psychological factors could modulate these effects. A sample of 96 healthy undergraduate students participated in an emotional Stroop task in which they were presented with a series of stimuli, including both neutral and negative COVID-19-related as well as non-COVID-19 stimuli. COVID-19-related PTSD, as an index of distress (PTSS), and trait anxiety were evaluated. Results showed that participants were more accurate in identifying COVID-19-related stimuli compared to non-COVID-19 stimuli. Being female and having higher retrospective PTSS scores related to COVID-19 were predictive of faster reaction times for both neutral and negative COVID-19-related stimuli. This heightened attentional bias toward COVID-19-related stimuli suggests that individuals may be more sensitive to stimuli associated with the pandemic. The results suggest that the association between COVID-19 stimuli and attentional biases extends beyond emotional valence, being retrospectively influenced by mental health, suggesting potential pathways to future mental health challenges.

Focused ion beam-fabricated nanorod substrate for label-free surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and enabling dual virus detection

The COVID-19 pandemic presents global challenges, notably with co-infections in respiratory tract involving SARS-CoV-2 variants and influenza strains. Detecting multiple viruses simultaneously is crucial for accurate diagnosis, effective tracking infectious sources, and containment of the epidemic. This study uses a label-free surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method using Au NPs/pZrO2 (250) and FIB-made Au NRs (100) to detect dual viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (D) and influenza A (A) or B (B) virus. Results demonstrate distinct peaks facilitating virus differentiation, especially between D and A or B, with clear disparities between substrates; specific peaks at 950 and 1337 cm-1 are pivotal for discerning viruses using Au NPs/pZrO2 (250), while those at 1050, 1394, and 1450 cm-1 and 1033, 1165, 1337, and 1378 cm-1 are key for validation using Au NRs (100). Differences in substrate surface morphology and spatial disposition of accommodating viruses significantly influence hotspot formation and Raman signal amplification efficiency, thereby affecting the ability to distinguish various viruses. Furthermore, both substrates offer insights, even in the presence of oxymetazoline hydrochloride (an interfering substance), with practical implications in viral diagnosis. The customized design and reproducibility underscore efficient Raman signal amplification, even in challenging environments, highlighting potential for widespread virus detection.

Solvent Effect on the Structural, Optical, Morphology, and Antimicrobial Activity of Silver Phosphate Microcrystals by Conventional Hydrothermal Method

The design of particle size and morphology are a promising approach to investigating the properties exhibited by different types of materials. In the present study, the silver phosphate microcrystals (Ag3PO4) were first time synthesized using the hydrothermal and solvothermal method by combination of the solvents water/isopropyl alcohol (SP-IA), water/acetone (SP-AC), water/ammonium hydroxide (AP-AH), all in a ratio of 1:1 (v/v). The synthesized materials were structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement, and Raman vibrational spectroscopy, where it was confirmed that the pure phase was achieved for all prepared samples. The study of the optical properties by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis/DRS) and colorimetry revealed that the obtained materials have an optical bandgap between 2.30 and 2.32 eV. The FE-SEM images collected revealed different morphologies for the synthesized materials, with a predominance of tetraploid-shaped microcrystals for the SP-AC sample, rods for the SP-IA sample, cubes and polyhedral for the SP-WT sample and condensed polyhedral for the SP-AH sample. The photocatalytic performance against the Rhodamine B dye (RhB) was 100%, 98.2%, 94.2%, and 87.8%, using the samples SP-AC, SP-IA, SP-WT, and SP-AH as photocatalyst at time of 12 min. On the other hand, the antimicrobial performance of SP-AC sample showed superior performance, resulting in the minimum inhibitory concentration-MIC of 7.81 μg mL-1 for the strain of E. coli, 7.81 μg mL-1 for the strain of E. aureus, 15.62 μg mL-1 for the strain of P. auruginosa, and 15.62 μg mL-1 for the strains of C. albicans. In this way, was synthesized a promissory antimicrobial and photocatalyst material, through an easy and cost-effective method.

Urban safety and psychological distress during the pandemic: the results of a longitudinal study

Introduction

In the last decades, a large body of literature has explored the topic of perceived safety and fear of crime in urban environments. The effects of psychological factors on such feelings have been studied, but rarely using prospective studies, and never when these factors intercept a worldwide dramatic event like the pandemic. This research aimed to analyze the variations of the feelings of urban safety during the pandemic, the role of resiliency and the effect of psychological stressors such as anxiety, stress, and depression.

Methods

During 2019 and 2022, before and after the pandemic, a face-to-face interview was administered to the same group of 195 participants. The PUSAS scale was used to measure unsafety, the ER89-R to assess for resiliency, the DASS-21 to collect data about the general distress (anxiety, stress and depression), and the CAS scale was used to evaluate the specific coronavirus anxiety. Structural equation models were applied to test a theoretical framework grounded on the relationships between these measures.

Results

The research findings showed decreased feelings of unsafety across the pandemic, consistent with the literature. The positive effect of ego-resiliency was significant but only for its interaction with data collected before the pandemic, whilst stress and anxiety impacted unsafety in 2022 through different pathways. None of the symptoms of general distress influenced the concern about crime and sense of vulnerability, as the feelings of unsafety were found independent from the variations of the specific coronavirus anxiety.

Discussion

Although the research findings did not confirm the impact of coronavirus, they presented some facets that disconfirm what the literature reported about the relationships between psychological distress and fear of crime. Implications about measurement issues are discussed.

Pathological buying on the rise? Compensative and compulsive buying in Poland in the pre- and (Post-)pandemic times

The study concerns the development of compensative and compulsive buying in Poland comparing the results of three waves of a cross-sectional study conducted before and at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six predictors of susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying are in focus: materialism, self-esteem, gender, age, frequency of online shopping, and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the importance of the first four predictors in explaining compensative and compulsive buying is already very well described in the literature, while the novelty consists in the predictive model including the variables that describe frequency of online shopping and negative experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as coronavirus infection, hospitalization or death of a loved one. On the one hand, a stronger susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying could be a reaction to these negative experiences of the pandemic; on the other hand, the increased frequency of online shopping as a result of the pandemic may be an important factor in the development of compensative and compulsive buying due to the easy implementation of purchase acts and weaker social control. To achieve the above research objectives, the German Compulsive Buying Indicator (GCBI) was used to measure susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying. The data were obtained within three waves of the study (2010, 2019, 2022) based on a random sample of about 1,000 respondents representing statistically the general adult population. Drawing on this study, the prevalence of compensative and compulsive buying is observed at 12-19% and 2-4%. The predictors of GCBI are materialism, self-esteem, gender in all examined models and additionally age, frequency of online shopping, and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in selected models. Although the findings related to the role of materialism, self-esteem, and gender in the prediction of GCBI reflect the results reported in the literature, the analogous conclusions about age, online shopping, and experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic are different from the established opinions. The commonly reported effect of age becomes statistically significant when the examined population is limited to Gens Y and Z. Although extensive online shopping co-exists with compensative and compulsive buying in the total population, the obtained data lead to reverse conclusions in the case of women's subpopulation representing Gens Y and Z. The negative experience with the COVID-19 pandemic operationalised as hospitalization of a close friend predicts GCBI, but again only in the case of representatives of Gens Y and Z, especially among women. The findings show how important the creation of appropriate intervention strategies is within the consumer policy directed to representatives of the younger generations who may develop pathological buying as a response to negative experiences such as COVID-19 pandemic. The findings can inform of the goals behind therapeutic support for compulsive buyers, and implications for social work. People affected by excessive compensative or compulsive buying need to be given opportunities to build up their strengths and growth of their psychological resources towards healthy self-esteem, which seems to be the best protection against excessive compensative and compulsive buying.

Entropic Dynamics of Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Sequences

In this paper, we investigate a certain class of mutations in genomic sequences by studying the evolution of the entropy and relative entropy associated with the base frequencies of a given genomic sequence. Even if the method is, in principle, applicable to every sequence which varies randomly, the case of SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome is particularly interesting to analyze, due to the richness of the available sequence database containing more than a million sequences. Our model is able to track known features of the mutation dynamics like the Cytosine-Thymine bias, but also to reveal new features of the virus mutation dynamics. We show that these new findings can be studied using an approach that combines the mean field approximation of a Markov dynamics within a stochastic thermodynamics framework.

Optimal entropic properties of SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequences

The reaction of the scientific community against the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a huge (approx. 106 entries) dataset of genome sequences collected worldwide and spanning a relatively short time window. These unprecedented conditions together with the certain identification of the reference viral genome sequence allow for an original statistical study of mutations in the virus genome. In this paper, we compute the Shannon entropy of every sequence in the dataset as well as the relative entropy and the mutual information between the reference sequence and the mutated ones. These functions, originally developed in information theory, measure the information content of a sequence and allows us to study the random character of mutation mechanism in terms of its entropy and information gain or loss. We show that this approach allows us to set in new format known features of the SARS-CoV-2 mutation mechanism like the CT bias, but also to discover new optimal entropic properties of the mutation process in the sense that the virus mutation mechanism track closely theoretically computable lower bounds for the entropy decrease and the information transfer.

Social media addiction as a mediator of the associations between fear of COVID-19, mental health symptoms, and problematic alcohol use

Background

Fear of COVID-19 is a risk factor for anxiety and depressive symptoms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, drinking to cope with psychological distress has been proposed as a key mechanism leading to problematic drinking. The goal of this study was to test social media addiction as a mediator linking fear of COVID-19 to mental health symptoms and problematic alcohol use.

Methods

In between April 6 and July 2 of 2022, 250 participants completed an online survey as part of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Alcohol Study. Path analyses were conducted to test the mediational pathways.

Results

Using the polythetic classification scheme, 13.2% (n = 33) of participants were classified as having social media addiction. Compared with participants without social media addiction, participants with social media addiction spent significantly more time on social media platforms and on digital communications with a family member or friend. They also reported greater fear of COVID-19, higher anxiety symptoms, and higher depressive symptoms. Path analyses indicated that social media addiction mediated the associations of fear of COVID-19 with anxiety and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, there were indirect pathways linking fear of COVID-19 to problematic alcohol use through higher social media addiction and higher anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Conclusion

Social media addiction may be a maladaptive coping mechanism that individuals with high fear of COVID-19 utilized to deal with uncertainty and perceived risks during the pandemic. Findings underscore the need to examine cognitions related to fear of COVID-19 and address excessive social media use in the context of mental health and alcohol interventions.

Strengthening E-learning strategies for active learning in crisis situations: a mixed-method study in the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

Medical universities are responsible for educating and training healthcare workers. One of the fields significantly impacted by the pandemic is medical education. The aim of this study is to identify strategies for enhancing e-learning for active learning and finding solutions for improving its quality.

METHODS

This mixed-method (quantitative-qualitative) research was conducted in 2023 at three selected universities in Mazandaran Province. In the quantitative phase, 507 students participated via stratified random sampling using a standard questionnaire. In the qualitative phase, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 experts until data saturation was achieved. SPSS 21 and MAXQDA 10 software were used for data analysis.

RESULTS

In the multivariate regression analysis, an increase of one point in the dimensions of student-teacher interaction, active time, immediate feedback, and active learning corresponded to an average increase in learning scores of 0.11, 0.17, 0.16, and 1.42 respectively (p≤0.001). After the final analysis in the qualitative phase, four main domains (infrastructure, resources, quantity of education, and quality of education) and 16 sub-domains with 84 items were identified.

CONCLUSIONS

The greatest challenge in e-learning is the interaction and cooperation between students and teachers. The implementation of the identified strategies in this research could provide useful evidence for policymakers and educational administrators to implement interventions aimed at addressing deficiencies and enhancing e-learning.