The relationship between fever rate and telework implementation as a social distancing measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

Trends in the Implementation of Workplace COVID-19 Measures in Japanese Companies: A One-Year Prospective Cohort Study

This study evaluated trends in the implementation of workplace measures against COVID-19 by Japanese companies. We conducted a prospective cohort study, using data from December 2020 and December 2021, with 13,419 respondents participating in the follow-up survey. We evaluated nine workplace measures against COVID-19 (e.g., encouraging mask-wearing at work) and used the McNemar test and the Chi-square test for trend in the analysis. Small-sized companies (1-9 employees) exhibited a significant increase in the implementation of all the measures, with a rate of increase ranging from 8.4% to 16.1% (P-value: <0.001). Medium-sized companies (10-49 employees) also showed significant improvements in nearly all the measures (rate of increase: 3.5% to 10.5%, P-values: <0.001 to 0.004), except for one specific measure. Larger companies (more than 50 employees) displayed a mixed pattern, with some measures increasing and others decreasing. A persistent gap was observed between smaller (fewer than 50 employees) and larger companies in the implementation rates of these measures. The findings revealed a positive shift in workplace measures against COVID-19 among smaller companies in Japan over 1 year, although gaps between them and larger companies persisted.

A Systematic Review of the Impact of Remote Working Referenced to the Concept of Work-Life Flow on Physical and Psychological Health

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of remote working in which employers' obligations for employees' health and well-being extended into the home. This paper reports on a systematic review of the health impacts of remote working within the context of COVID-19 and discusses the implications of these impacts for the future role of the occupational health nurse.

METHOD

The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021258517) and followed the PRISMA guidelines. The review covered 2020-2021 to capture empirical studies of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, their physical and psychological impacts and mediating factors.

RESULTS

Eight hundred and thirty articles were identified. After applying the inclusion criteria, a total of 34 studies were reviewed. Most studies showed low to very low strength of evidence using the GRADE approach. A minority of studies had high strength of evidence. These focused on the reduced risk of infection and negative effects in terms of reduced physical activity, increased sedentary activity, and increased screen time.

CONCLUSION/APPLICATION TO PRACTICE

The synergy of work and personal well-being with the accelerated expansion of remote working suggests a more active role in the lives of workers within the home setting on the part of occupational health nurses. That role relates to how employees organize their relationship to work and home life, promoting positive lifestyles while mitigating adverse impacts of remote working on personal well-being.

Preparation and characterization of intelligent thermochromic fabric coatings for the detection of fever diseases

Real-time monitoring of changes in skin temperature with smart thermochromic fabrics that act as sensors is extremely important in the early diagnosis of febrile diseases such as the COVID-19 epidemic that endanger public health. In this context, the study aims to detect fever, which is the immune response of the body, as a symptom in the diagnosis of various diseases and to prepare a thermochromic functional fabric by coating method to reduce the risk of contamination. For this purpose, a composition containing green pigment and zinc acetate dihydrate as the starting material was prepared using the sol-gel method. The prepared composition was applied to calico and alpaca fabric, and it was provided to show transformation at 37.5 °C with the effect of the pigment, which had a color change feature at 33 °C. The samples were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) characterization methods. The results showed that it was possible to change the active conversion temperature of the pigment from 33 °C to 37.5 °C, depending on the composition. The use of the compositions developed in this study in alpaca fabric coating provides an area of use as an indicator if the human body temperature reaches 37.5 °C, which is considered the concept of fever.

Understanding work experience in epidemic-induced telecommuting: The roles of misfit, reactance, and collaborative technologies

In the management of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the mandated closure of workplaces and stay-at-home orders have forced workers to adapt to a prolonged period of unplanned telecommuting, which we term epidemic-induced telecommuting. Although epidemic-induced telecommuting has drastically altered how work is conducted, scant attention is being paid to this emerging work arrangement. To this end, we combine psychological reactance theory and person-environment fit theory to advance the concept of misfit between worker and environment as a core determinant of employees' work experience in the epidemic-induced telecommuting. Particularly, we distinguish between supply-value and demand-ability misfits as constraints on workers' freedom at work. Having analyzed data collected through a survey administered on remote workers, we discovered that both misfits positively influenced workers' perceived psychological reactance, which led to work exhaustion and counter-productive behaviors. We also found that the utilization of collaborative technologies moderated the effects of misfit on workers' psychological reactance.

Characteristics of collection and inactivation of virus in air flowing inside a winding conduit equipped with 280 nm deep UV-LEDs

A general-purpose virus inactivation unit that can inactivate viruses was developed using deep ultraviolet (DUV) LEDs that emit DUV rays with a wavelength of 280 nm. The inside of the virus inactivation unit is a rectangular conduit with a sharp turn of 180° (sharp-turned rectangular conduit). Virus inactivation is attempted by directly irradiating the air passing through the conduit with DUV rays. The flow characteristics of air and virus particles inside the virus inactivation unit were investigated using numerical simulations. The air was locally accelerated at the sharp turn parts and flowed along the partition plate in the sharp-turned rectangular conduit. The aerosol particles moving in the sharp-turned rectangular conduit were greatly bent in orbit at the sharp turn parts, and then rapidly approached the partition plate at the lower part of the conduit. Consequently, many particles collided with the partition plates behind the sharp-turn parts. SARS-CoV-2 virus was nebulized in the virus inactivation unit, and the RNA concentration and virus inactivation rate with and without the emission of DUV-LEDs were measured in the experiment. The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was reduced to 60% through DUV-LED irradiation. In addition, SARS-CoV-2 passing through the virus inactivation unit was inactivated below the detection limit by the emission of DUV-LEDs. The virus inactivation rate and the value of the detection limit corresponded to 99.38% and 35.36 TCID₅₀/mL, respectively.

COVID-19 health policy evaluation: integrating health and economic perspectives with a data envelopment analysis approach

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge to humankind. To improve the knowledge regarding relevant, efficient and effective COVID-19 measures in health policy, this paper applies a multi-criteria evaluation approach with population, health care, and economic datasets from 19 countries within the OECD. The comparative investigation was based on a Data Envelopment Analysis approach as an efficiency measurement method. Results indicate that on the one hand, factors like population size, population density, and country development stage, did not play a major role in successful pandemic management. On the other hand, pre-pandemic healthcare system policies were decisive. Healthcare systems with a primary care orientation and a high proportion of primary care doctors compared to specialists were found to be more efficient than systems with a medium level of resources that were partly financed through public funding and characterized by a high level of access regulation. Roughly two weeks after the introduction of ad hoc measures, e.g., lockdowns and quarantine policies, we did not observe a direct impact on country-level healthcare efficiency, while delayed lockdowns led to significantly lower efficiency levels during the first COVID-19 wave in 2020. From an economic perspective, strategies without general lockdowns were identified as a more efficient strategy than the full lockdown strategy. Additionally, governmental support of short-term work is promising. Improving the efficiency of COVID-19 countermeasures is crucial in saving as many lives as possible with limited resources.

Efficient Mobile Ad Hoc Route Maintenance Against Social Distances Using Attacker Detection Automation

In MANET, routing plays a vital role in packet interaction and data transmission. It is always easy to manage the data transmission over the MANET because of uncentralized control on the MANET nodes. Since the efficient route on MANET controls the packets and does not simplify the route between the source and destination. Hence the maintenance of route interaction becomes a crucial process. Methods: It is critical to enhance the route and decrease the attacker to sustain successful data transfers via the MANET Network. MANET, on the other hand, permits route interaction with security threads. The four processing schema are proposed in this study work to retain the security safeguards against Routing Protocols. The Rushing Attacker has significantly influenced MANET packet-based data transfer, particularly node communication. The Attacker Detection Automation of Bee Colony Optimization (ADABCP) Method is proposed in this article. Results: Existing ESCT, ZRDM-LFPM, and ENM-LAC techniques were compared to the suggested outcome. Consequently, routing and data transfer have enhanced the proposed illustration (SIRT-ADABCP-HRLD). Compared to the recommended approach, the end-to-end latency, communication overhead, packet delivery ratio, network lifetime, and energy usage are all improved. Discussion: The performance evaluation results of SIRT–ADABCP-HRLD with existing methods in terms of low End to End Delay (ms) of 49.8361% compared to existing methods ESCT, ENM-LAC, and ZRDM-LFPM. In terms of low Communication Overhead, an 81.4462% decrease compared to existing methods. However, it improves packet delivery by 56.9775%, more than ESCT, ENM-LAC, and ZRDM-LFPM. The energy consumption decreased by 36.31% less value than the existing process.

An assessment of tendencies toward teleworking using TAMs: lessons from Covid-19 era for post-pandemic days

Purpose

During the Covid-19 period, when human beings are socially isolated, telework is a viable solution to safeguard employees' health. Because many employees have never experienced such a working system and organizations have not planned for it before the pandemic, imposing employees to telework has adversely affected their productivity and efficiency. This study aims to identify factors affecting individuals' tendency toward teleworking during the pandemic, which can lead to practical solutions for the post-pandemic era.

Design/methodology/approach

Through the use of technology acceptance models, a conceptual model was designed. Data used to assess the model were cross-sectional and derived from 229 questionnaires filled out by employees in Tehran. The AMOS24 software processed the corresponding structural equation model.

Findings

The results from the cross-sectional data indicated that attitude toward telework and perceived behavioral control over the system were significantly correlated directly with the intention to telework, while perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of telework were correlated indirectly. Therefore, the integrated model predicts behavioral intentions better than single models performed separately.

Originality/value

Psychological and mental health research describing adoption intentions of telework, particularly those focusing on employees, is still lacking. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study in this regard that has used a conceptual model derived from two technology acceptance models during the Covid-19 outbreak. An era in which the extent of the pandemic has forced employees to experience such working systems and thus the importance and practicality of teleworking have been more evident to nearly every individual.

Association between workplace and mental health and its mechanisms during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional, population-based, multi-country study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic worsens populations' mental health. However, little is known about the COVID-19-related mental health among remote workers.

METHODS

We retrieved data from survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, covering 27 countries. Eligible people were those employed. The main outcome is the mental disorder, covering four aspects: depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, and loneliness. Country-specific weighted mixed models were fitted to estimate the association of workplaces with mental health, controlled for age, gender, education level, living alone, making ends meets, working hours, closing to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, received anti-virus protection, social contact, disability, and chronic disease. Moderate analyses were conducted to explore possible mechanisms.

RESULTS

11,197 participants were included, among them 29.3% suffered at least one worse mental disorder. After controlling for covariates, compared with those who worked at the usual workplace, those who worked at home only or part of the time did not associate with worse mental disorders (p-value ≥0.1395), and those who worked at neither the usual workplace nor home had a 55% higher likelihood of suffering from worse mental disorders (OR = 1.55, 95%CI 1.03-2.36). The mediation analyses identified three indirect pathways by which workplaces influence mental health, including making ends meets, social contact, and receiving anti-virus protection. Detailed results on subtypes of mental disorders were also provided.

LIMITATIONS

All assessments were self-reported, resulting in a risk of method bias.

CONCLUSIONS

During the COVID-19 pandemic, working at other places, neither at the usual workplace nor home, worsened mental health. Evidence provided in this study will contribute to more nuanced and practical public health policy strategy making.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal migration in Germany: A descriptive analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected economies, labor markets, health care, education and tourism around the globe in unprecedented ways. However, little research has yet been devoted to the impact that the pandemic might have had on internal migration. This study aims to address this gap by determining how the intensity and spatial patterns of internal migration changed between 2019 and 2020 in Germany. We draw on data from the population register on annual flows between 401 counties. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 5% drop in the intensity of inter-county migration in 2020 compared to the previous year, with significant variation across age. The pandemic was also associated with an upsurge in net migration losses for the largest cities, driven by fewer inflows of young adults and continuing outflows of families.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal migration in Germany: A descriptive analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected economies, labor markets, health care, education and tourism around the globe in unprecedented ways. However, little research has yet been devoted to the impact that the pandemic might have had on internal migration. This study aims to address this gap by determining how the intensity and spatial patterns of internal migration changed between 2019 and 2020 in Germany. We draw on data from the population register on annual flows between 401 counties. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a 5% drop in the intensity of inter-county migration in 2020 compared to the previous year, with significant variation across age. The pandemic was also associated with an upsurge in net migration losses for the largest cities, driven by fewer inflows of young adults and continuing outflows of families.

Effects of Psychological Discomfort on Social Networking Site (SNS) Usage Intensity During COVID-19

To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries are implementing social measures. Social distancing, working from home, and non-face-to-face lectures have led to major changes in people's activities. Since face-to-face classes are restricted, students in higher education become to feel psychological and cognitive discomforts such as isolation and risk perception. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of psychological discomforts on the social network site (SNS) usage intensity of University students. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study applied SmartPLS 3.3.9 to analyze 271 valid samples. The results show that the affective risk perception significantly affects social distancing attitude. Cognitive risk perception is positively related to social distancing intention. In addition, cabin fever syndrome influences SNS usage intensity, affective risk perception, and cognitive risk perception. In conclusion, psychological discomfort partially affects the intensity of SNS use. Therefore, the government should set policies by reflecting citizens' mental difficulties and SNS activities together. Moreover, companies are needed to carefully consider the risk of the sense of isolation when marketing to SNS users.

An overview of effects of COVID-19 on mobility and lifestyle: 18 months since the outbreak

The outbreak of SARS-COV-2 has led to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and caused over 4.5 million deaths worldwide by September 2021. Besides the public health crisis, COVID-19 affected the global economy and development significantly. It also led to changes in people's mobility and lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to short-term changes, the drastic transformation of the world may account for the potentially disruptive long-term impacts. Recognizing the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial in mitigating the negative behavioral changes that directly relate to people's psychological and social well-being. It is important to stress that citizens and governments face an uncertain situation since nobody knows exactly how the viruses and cures will develop. Better understanding uncertainties and evaluating behavioral changes contribute to addressing the future of urban development, public transportation, and behavioral strategies to tackle COVID-19 negative consequences. The major sources of impacts on short-term (route, departure time, mode, teleshopping, and teleworking) and medium and long-term (car ownership, work location, choice of job, and residential location) mobility decisions are mostly reviewed and discussed in this paper.

Impact of Teleworking on Travel Behaviour During the COVID-19 Era: The Case Of Sicily, Italy

As a result of the travel restrictions and governmental guidelines imposed on many countries during the COVID-19 crisis, a significant increase in teleworking has been observed. New policies led to major changes in the lifestyle of millions of citizens all around the world and will permanently affect their travel behaviour. This paper aims to investigate and analyse the impact of teleworking on transportation habits, focusing on walking and commuting before and during the pandemic. Data regarding the walking frequency fluctuations due to teleworking were collected through structured questionnaires in Sicily, Italy. Most respondents seem to believe that it can be a factor leading to a decrease in their walking trips and to a change in their associated walking habits and behaviour. In this study, the rebound effects of telecommuting with respect to vehicle usage are taken into consideration. Although, it can result in a smaller number of trips weekly, the net amount of distance travelled per person can be larger, as employees are more willing to commute farther considering they will not commute as often. However, for longer distances, people tend to use trains since it allows working while commuting. This can result in reduced traffic, especially at peak times and consequently have a positive social and environmental impact, less stress and less air and noise pollution from private vehicles. An increasing number of companies is announcing the decision of pivoting to teleworking even after the pandemic is over. Policy makers and urban planners can use telecommuting as a tool that contributes to relieving traffic and seek ways to introduce a more sustainable future of work and mobility in the post-pandemic world.

OUP accepted manuscript

Objective

To identify chatbot use cases deployed for public health response activities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Material and Methods

We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar in October 2020 and performed a follow-up search in July 2021. We screened articles based on their abstracts and keywords in their text, reviewed potentially relevant articles, and screened their references to (a) assess whether the article met inclusion criteria and (b) identify additional articles. Chatbots, their use cases, and chatbot design characteristics were extracted from the articles and information from other sources and by accessing those chatbots that were publicly accessible.

Results

Our search returned 3334 articles, 61 articles met our inclusion criteria, and 61 chatbots deployed in 30 countries were identified. We categorized chatbots based on their public health response use case(s) and design. Six categories of public health response use cases emerged comprising 15 distinct use cases: risk assessment, information dissemination, surveillance, post-Covid eligibility screening, distributed coordination, and vaccine scheduler. Design-wise, chatbots were relatively simple, implemented using decision-tree structures and predetermined response options, and focused on a narrow set of simple tasks, presumably due to need for quick deployment.

Conclusion

Chatbots’ scalability, wide accessibility, ease of use, and fast information dissemination provide complementary functionality that augments public health workers in public health response activities, addressing capacity constraints, social distancing requirements, and misinformation. Additional use cases, more sophisticated chatbot designs, and opportunities for synergies in chatbot development should be explored.

Teleworking-An Economic and Social Impact during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Data Mining Analysis

The health crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has induced, among other things, an increase in the importance of remote work or teleworking (TL) in the current period. The objective of this research is to identify the economic and social impact of telework in changing the behavior of employees in Romania. The research was conducted approximately one year after the onset of the pandemic until the beginning of the vaccination period in Romania. The research proposed includes three main directions of analysis of the extracted data, which are related to telework efficiency, this being considered one of the most important indicators for a company. In order to obtain conclusive results, we used a mixed methodology, combining results obtained through a survey based on a self-administered electronic questionnaire, with a data mining analysis. Detailed analysis of the groups identified based on work efficiency allowed us to highlight the most common employee profiles. This analysis was doubled by a second classification experiment, which provided us a more detailed analysis of the groups identified based on job satisfaction and highlighted the most common employee profiles. The expansion of telework in various economic areas is a result of adaptation to the new economic and social conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Don't Call It Smart: Working From Home During the Pandemic Crisis

The recent COVID-19 pandemic and related social distancing measures have significantly changed worldwide employment conditions. In developed economies, institutions and organizations, both public and private, are called upon to reflect on new organizational models of work and human resource management, which - in fact - should offer workers sufficient flexibility in adapting their work schedules remotely to their personal (and family) needs. This study aims to explore, within a Job Demands-Resources framework, whether and to what extent job demands (workload and social isolation), organizational job resources (perceived organizational support), and personal resources (self-efficacy, vision about the future and commitment to organizational change) have affected workers’ quality of life during the pandemic, taking into account the potential mediating role of job satisfaction and perceived stress. Using data from a sample of 293 workers, we estimate measurement and structural models, according to the Item Response Theory and the Path analysis frameworks, which allow us to operationalize the latent traits and study the complex structure of relationships between the latent dimensions. We inserted in the model as control variables, the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the respondents, with particular emphasis on gender differences and the presence and age of children. The study offers insights into the relationship between remote work and quality of life, and the need to rethink human resource management policies considering the opportunities and critical issues highlighted by working full-time remotely.

Remote Work Decreases Psychological and Physical Stress Responses, but Full-Remote Work Increases Presenteeism

Introduction: Remote work was widely promoted in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism of workers remain unclear. This research aims to provide empirical evidence of the implications for people and organizations of this new scenario of working from home. Methods: A two-wave panel survey of before and after the pandemic was performed to investigate the effects of remote work on these aspects among office workers. A total of 3,123 office workers from 23 tertiary industries responded to a questionnaire. Participants were surveyed about their job stress conditions and sleep practices in both 2019 and 2020, who had not done remote work as of 2019 were included in the study. The effects of remote work on psychological and physical stress responses and presenteeism were analyzed by multivariate analysis, with the adjustment of age, gender, overtime, job stressors, social support, and sleep status. Results: The multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that remote work was associated with the reduction of psychological and physical stress responses independently of changes of job stressors, social support, sleep disturbance, and total sleep time on workdays. On the other hand, remote work of 5 days a week (full-remote) was associated with the reduction of work productivity. Conclusion: Promoting remote work can reduce psychological and physical stress responses, however, full-remote work has the risk of worsening presenteeism. From the viewpoint of mental health, the review of working styles is expected to have positive effects, even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Decrease of infectious complications in outpatients with autoimmune diseases from 2019 to 2020 under the COVID-19 pandemic: A single-centre, retrospective cohort study in Japan

OBJECTIVES

To examine how the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has changed infectious complications in outpatients with autoimmune diseases.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective, record-linked cohort study and questionnaire about lifestyle changes in patients who visited our department in 2019 and 2020.

RESULTS

We surveyed 1316 outpatients in 2019 and 1284 in 2020. The most common underlying diseases were rheumatoid arthritis (842 vs. 814) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (126 vs. 127). No significant difference in median age (66 vs. 67 years), respiratory comorbidities (30.4% vs. 32.0%), or corticosteroid use (42.2% vs. 44.3%) was found between the years. Immunomodulating agents were used more in 2020 (33.1% vs. 39.7%, p < .001). Total number of infections (28.0/100 vs. 19.4/100 person-years), pneumonia (3.6 vs. 1.6), influenza (2.1 vs. 0.1), and nonviral dermatological infections (3.8 vs. 2.1) were significantly lower in 2020. No significant difference was found for herpes zoster (2.2 vs. 1.8), urinary tract infections (3.3 vs. 3.8), or gastrointestinal infections (2.9 vs. 3.0). According to the questionnaire, 75% of the respondents became more conscious about wearing masks and 81% began to use hand sanitizer during the pandemic.

CONCLUSION

Under the COVID-19 pandemic, some infectious complications have decreased in outpatients with autoimmune diseases.

Factors influencing home-based telework in Hanoi (Vietnam) during and after the COVID-19 era

During the era of COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease of 2019), telework has been adopted extensively in developing countries for the first time. This study analyzes data of 355 teleworkers in Hanoi (Vietnam) during April 2020, the period of social distancing, to examine various factors associated with (1) complete home-based telework (HBT), (2) the perception of HBT, and (3) the attitude toward the combination between HBT and conventional work at workplace post-COVID-19. It finds that the company's closure policy and the frequency of working from a distance before the social distancing period were the primary determinants of exclusively teleworking. Regarding the perception of HBT, while the fear of COVID-19 was a strong positive factor, difficulties in focusing on work and accessing data were negative factors. Regarding the attitude toward the future development of HBT, attitudinal factors, commute distance, gender, children in household, and the perception of HBT in the social distancing period were the main predictors. The presence of more than one child negatively affected the perception of telework but positively affected the attitude toward establishing the hybrid work mechanism. The findings suggested that HBT has the potential to alleviate traffic congestion in developing countries and it can be promoted by emphasizing its environment-related benefits. The sample used in this research was collected in the initial stage of constrained mobility and it was not well representative; therefore, this study serves as a proof of concept for ongoing wider analyses on HBT post-COVID-19 or in the subsequent lockdown periods.

Transport policymaking that accounts for COVID-19 and future public health threats: A PASS approach

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had wide-reaching and unprecedented impacts on the transport sector worldwide. At present, there is no globally agreed timeframe for when this pandemic will end. The current and near-future potential impacts must be addressed in a relatively comprehensive and seamless way. The present study proposed a PASS (P: Prepare-Protect-Provide; A: Avoid-Adjust; S: Shift-Share; S: Substitute-Stop) approach for policymaking that accounts for COVID-19 and future public health threats. The PASS approach was illustrated conceptually, and then policy measures were recommended by referring to the past and ongoing best practices. Policymaking challenges and research issues were discussed.

Trend change of the transmission route of COVID-19-related symptoms in Japan

OBJECTIVES

The Japanese prime minister declared a state of emergency on April 7 2020 to combat the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This declaration was unique in the sense that it was essentially driven by the voluntary restraint of the residents. We examined the change of the infection route by investigating contact experiences with COVID-19-positive cases.

STUDY DESIGN

This study is a population-level questionnaire-based study using a social networking service (SNS).

METHODS

To assess the impact of the declaration, this study used population-level questionnaire data collected from an SNS with 121,375 respondents (between March 27 and May 5) to assess the change in transmission routes over the study period, which was measured by investigating the association between COVID-19-related symptoms and (self-reported) contact with COVID-19-infected individuals.

RESULTS

The results of this study show that the declaration prevented infections in the workplace, but increased domestic infections as people stayed at home. However, after April 24, workplace infections started to increase again, driven by the increase in community-acquired infections.

CONCLUSIONS

While careful interpretation is necessary because our data are self-reported from voluntary SNS users, these findings indicate the impact of the declaration on the change in transmission routes of COVID-19 over time in Japan.

Social distancing in airplane seat assignments

This paper addresses the airplane passengers' seat assignment problem while practicing social distancing among passengers. We proposed a mixed integer programming model to assign passengers to seats on an airplane in a manner that will respect two types of social distancing. One type of social distancing refers to passengers being seated far enough away from each other. The metric for this type of social distancing is how many passengers are seated so close to each other as to increase the risk of infection. The other type of social distancing refers to the distance between seat assignments and the aisle. That distance influences the health risk involved in passengers and crew members walking down the aisle. Corresponding metrics for both health risks are included in the objective function. To conduct simulation experiments, we define different scenarios distinguishing between the relative level of significance of each type of social distancing. The results suggest the seating assignments that best serve the intention of the scenarios. We also reformulate the initial model to determine seat assignments that maximize the number of passengers boarding an airplane while practicing social distancing among passengers. In the last part of this study, we compare the proposed scenarios with the recommended middle-seat blocking policy presently used by some airlines to keep social distancing among passengers. The results show that the proposed scenarios can provide social distancing among seated passengers similar to the middle-seat blocking policy, while reducing the number of passengers seated close to the aisle of an airplane.

Knowledge Assessment of COVID-19 Symptoms: Gender Differences and Communication Routes for the Generation Z Cohort

This paper explores the generation Z (Gen Z) cohort's self-assessed knowledge regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms as well as their interest in acquiring information and learning more about the transmission and spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2 virus) and the COVID-19 symptoms. Additionally, it investigates gender differences in self-assessed knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms. Field research employing a nonprobability sampling method with an online questionnaire resulted in collecting 762 valid questionnaires. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor and reliability analysis, and the independent sample t-test. Results reveal that overall symptom knowledge was assessed higher than the self-assessed knowledge of the 13 specific symptoms. No gender differences were detected regarding self-assessed knowledge of the following COVID-19 symptoms: cough, dyspnea, anorexia, productive cough with expectoration (phlegm), headache, and diarrhea. On the other hand, for self-assessed overall knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms, as well as self-assessed knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms related to fever and fatigue, myalgia (muscle pain), pharyngodynia, nausea-vomitus, hemoptysis, and abdominal pain, the t-tests conducted showed that there are statistical differences in knowledge assessment between male and female subjects. Based on the outcomes, the paper provides marketing communication practices targeting this young generation cohort to raise awareness so that Gen Z'ers may react effectively if these symptoms are observed and, thus, request medical assistance.

Analysis of the Relationship of the Improvement of Façades and Thermal Bridges of Spanish Building Stock with the Mitigation of Its Energy and Environmental Impact

The energy improvement of building stock is essential to achieve a low-carbon economy. The improvement of façades is among the most common measures to reduce energy consumption. However, the effect of thermal bridges is undervalued in most cases. This study assesses the effect of improving building façades and thermal bridges. For this purpose, a case study is assessed for all climate zones in Spain, both in current and future scenarios, considering operational patterns from the COVID-19 pandemic. The study shows that the application of energy conservation measures focusing on reducing the thermal transmittance of façades and the linear thermal transmittance of thermal bridges has a more significant energy and environmental effect than other, more economical energy conservation measures that do not improve the effect of thermal bridges. Likewise, the application of energy conservation measures to improve façades can reduce carbon dioxide emissions but are far from achieving the 90% reduction set by the European Union by 2050. Consequently, these measures should be combined with other measures.

Working from Home—Who Is Happy? A Survey of Lithuania’s Employees during the COVID-19 Quarantine Period

The virtual way of working is becoming increasingly popular due to its potential for cost savings; it is also a way for an organization to be more agile and adapt to crises such as global pandemics. This innovative way of working brings new challenges to organizations that suddenly have to switch to telework. In fact, telework raises quite a few issues for employees, related to communication, collaboration, and the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). This study examined the evaluation of telework through a questionnaire by different conditional groups of 436 teleworkers in Lithuania. Through a correlation analysis between the study variables, the findings suggest that there are differences in the evaluation of factors affecting telework efficiency and qualities required from a remote worker, depending on gender, age, education, work experience, and experience of telework. The results are discussed in terms of the characteristics of the most satisfied and the most dissatisfied teleworkers.