On the indirect environmental outcomes of COVID-19: short-term revival with futuristic long-term implications

Renewable energy electricity, environmental taxes, and sustainable development: empirical evidence from E7 economies

Since globalization has increased both production and population, it has also increased environmental damage. This is why the development of renewable energy sources is crucial to the survival of humanity and the planet itself. Business patterns across the various nations, however, have changed significantly over time. This study examines how environmental taxes and renewable energy electricity affect renewable energy consumption in emerging seven economies by using panel dataset over the period of 1990 to 2020. Control variables include economic growth, carbon emissions, and environmental innovation. The results confirmed the presence of the long-run co-integration association, the existence of slope coefficient heterogeneity, and the dependency of cross sections using several panel data methods. Since the data was not normally distributed, a new technique known as method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) was applied in this study. The projected results contend that the major factors of renewable energy consumption are renewable energy output, environmental taxation, economic growth, and carbon emissions. However, eco-friendly innovations drastically cut back on the need for renewable energy. Bootstrap quantile regression verifies the results' reliability, and the panel Granger causality test corroborates that the listed factors have a bidirectional causal relationship with renewable energy usage. Furthermore, this research recommends boosting spending on renewable electricity, the environmental tax sector, and ecological innovation in order to expand the use of renewable energy.

Long-Term Polyethylene (Bio)Degradation in Landfill: Environmental and Human Health Implications from Comprehensive Analysis

This study investigates the process of long-term (bio)degradation of polyethylene (PE) in an old municipal waste landfill (MWL) and its implications for environmental and human health. Advanced techniques, such as ICP-ES/MS and IC-LC, were used to analyze heavy metals and anions/cations, demonstrating significant concentration deviations from control samples. The soil's chemical composition revealed numerous hazardous organic compounds, further indicating the migration of additives from PE to the soil. Toxicological assessments, including Phytotoxkit FTM, Microtox® bioassay, and Ostracodtoxkit®, demonstrated phytotoxicity, acute toxicity, and high mortality in living organisms (over 85% for Heterocypris Incongruens). An unusual concentration of contaminants in the MWL's middle layers, linked to Poland's economic changes during the 1980s and 1990s, suggests increased risks of pollutant migration, posing additional environmental and health threats. Moreover, the infiltration capability of microorganisms, including pathogens, into PE structures raises concerns about potential groundwater contamination through the landfill bottom. This research underscores the need for vigilant management and updated strategies to protect the environment and public health, particularly in older landfill sites.

Recent advances in green technology and Industrial Revolution 4.0 for a sustainable future

This review gives concise information on green technology (GT) and Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0). Climate change has begun showing its impacts on the environment, and the change is real. The devastating COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected lives and the world from the deadly consequences at a social, economic, and environmental level. In order to balance this crisis, there is a need to transition toward green, sustainable forms of living and practices. We need green innovative technologies (GTI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to develop green, durable, biodegradable, and eco-friendly products for a sustainable future. GTI encompasses all innovations that contribute to developing significant products, services, or processes that lower environmental harm, impact, and worsening while augmenting natural resource utilization. Sensors are typically used in IoT environmental monitoring applications to aid ecological safety by nursing air or water quality, atmospheric or soil conditions, and even monitoring species' movements and habitats. The industries and the governments are working together, have come up with solutions-the Green New Deal, carbon pricing, use of bio-based products as biopesticides, in biopharmaceuticals, green building materials, bio-based membrane filters for removing pollutants, bioenergy, biofuels and are essential for the green recovery of world economies. Environmental biotechnology, Green Chemical Engineering, more bio-based materials to separate pollutants, and product engineering of advanced materials and environmental economies are discussed here to pave the way toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN and achieve the much-needed IR 4.0 for a greener-balanced environment and a sustainable future.

Does circular economy affect environmental performance? The mediating role of sustainable supply chain management: the case study in China

Governments and professionals have recently tried to improve public environmental knowledge and laws in order to meet growing environmental concerns. As a result, most nations see corporate environmental initiatives like the circular economy and the green supply chain as important (GSCM) as the best ways to address environmental problems. As a result, this study tries to show how important GSCM and the circular economy are regarding the economy of China's relationship to environmental sustainability. This study uses the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) on data to obtain trustworthy results from 387 Chinese manufacturing companies. A favorable and statistically significant correlation between GSCM, environmental performance, and the circular economy was revealed using PLS-SEM analysis. To raise environmental standards, eco-friendly methods like buying and designing green items are widely regarded today. Imagine if manufacturing companies adopt green supply chain management, which would improve their economic performance and increase operational effectiveness. The secret to a successful corporation is having successful operations.

Assessing the effect of the improvement of environmental damage compensation legal system and green finance project on the re-establishment of the ecological environment

What are the relationships among environmental regulations, green finance, and environmental damages in countries? Existing literature supports the impact of green finance or green innovation on environmental quality, but rare studies query the cointegration among other core variables. We thus utilize the yearly data of 25 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2021 to empirically examine the relationships among access to clean energy and technology, environmental regulation, renewable green investment, subsidy on green energy, and green finance index in environmental damage compensation via an augmented mean group (AMG) and other estimators. However, the current empirical research also investigates the individual linkage of green finance components with explained variables. Overall, this study confirms the existence of cointegration relationships among these variables. Moreover, the results of AMG suggest that access to clean fuels and technology, environmental regulations, and green finance can inversely affect the explained variable in the long term. Furthermore, environmental regulations and renewable green investment positively affect environmental damages, while a separate proxy of green finance also negatively affects explained variables in the selected provinces with better environmental performance. Our empirical findings offer important policy implications for overall emerging economies to promote subsidies, environmental regulations, and green finance to improve environmental damages compensation.

Coordination evaluation of urban tourism and urban development based on TOPSIS method-a case of Xiamen city

Facing the current situation of tourism and urban prosperity and development, whether there is a contradiction between urban tourism and urban development, and whether they can always coordinate with each other will affect the sustainable development of both. In this context, the coordination of urban tourism and urban development has become an urgent research object. Based on the statistics of twenty indicators of urban tourism and urban development in Xiamen from 2014 to 2018, the article uses the TOPSIS analysis method to develop the number of tourists. Research results show that (1) the selected indicators all showed significant growth characteristics, and over time the coordination coefficient increases year by year and gradually approaches the ideal optimal value. (2) Among them, 2018 has the highest coordination coefficient, 0.9534. (3) The occurrence of "big events" has a double-sided effect on urban tourism and development coordination.

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on economic recovery: role of potential regulatory responses and corporate liquidity

We use a variety of organization-level datasets to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the nations for the coronavirus epidemic. COVID-19 subsidies appear to have saved a significant number of jobs and maintained economic activity during the first wave of the epidemic, according to conclusions drawn from the experiences of EU member countries. General allocation rules may yield near-optimal outcomes in favor of allocation, as firms with high ecological footprints or zombie firms have lower access to government financing than more favorable, commercially owned, and export-inclination firms. Our assumptions show that the pandemic has a considerable negative impact on firm earnings and the percentage of illiquid and non-profitable businesses. Although they are statistically significant, government wage subsidies have a modest impact on corporate losses compared to the magnitude of the economic shock. Larger enterprises, which receive a lesser proportion of the aid, have more room to increase their trade liabilities or liabilities to linked entities. In contrast, according to our estimations, SMEs stand a greater danger of insolvency.

Unleashing the dynamic and nonlinear relationship among new-type urbanization, foreign direct investment, and inclusive green growth in China: an environmental sustainability perspective

As an important way for China to integrate into the international circulation, foreign direct investment (FDI) can not only increase China's capital accumulation but also directly affect inclusive green growth by promoting the diffusion and transfer of green technologies and activating the domestic market. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2007 to 2019, this paper discusses the following issues: first, Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) productivity index is used to measure and analyze the current situation of inclusive green growth in 30 provinces of China; second, we set a fixed effect panel model to test the relationship between FDI and inclusive green growth in China. Third, based on PVAR (panel vector autoregressive) model, the dynamic impacts of FDI and new urbanization on inclusive green growth are tested. Finally, a regression model with the new urbanization level as the threshold variable is constructed to test the threshold effect of FDI on China's green inclusive growth. Accordingly, each region needs to formulate FDI introduction policies according to the local new urbanization level, so as to give full play to the positive role of FDI in inclusive green growth.

COVID-19 and mental health among college students in the southwestern United States

Objective: We examined COVID-19-related experiences, mental health, and future plans among US undergraduate and graduate students in the initial months of the pandemic. Participants: 72 students (68% female; 51.4% white; age x- =24.4) from 21 colleges in the US southwest concurrently enrolled in a stress-reduction study. Methods: Between March and June 2020, participants completed an online survey about demographics, personal and vicarious COVID-19 experiences, mood, and future plans. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed with the GAD-7 and PHQ-9, respectively. Results: Worry about COVID-19 was associated with anxiety and depression symptoms and personal and vicarious experiences with COVID-19. COVID-19 worry varied by illness severity and level of intimacy with those impacted. Most participants reported changing educational (66.7%) and life (55.6%) plans due to COVID-19. Conclusions: Given the continued impact of COVID-19 on physical/emotional health and future plans, universities should assist students in managing COVID-19-related stress so they can continue to learn and grow.

"Crisis" or "opportunity"? COVID-19 pandemic's impact on environmentally sound invention efficiency in China

Introduction

The environmentally sound invention (ESI) is a "bridge" between environmental sound technologies (ESTs) and green productions. This study investigates the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on ESI efficiency using a multi-methods model in three stages.

Methods

The ESI efficiency is measured using the Slack-Based Measure (SBM) method in the first stage. By excluding the environmental effect of the pandemic on each province using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model's results in the second stage, this study compares the ESI efficiency change with or without the influence of the pandemic in the third stage.

Results

The results show that the pandemic can be a "crisis" in the short term, but an "opportunity" in the long term. First, the SBM efficiency results in the first stage show a decrease in the number of the average efficient provinces in which the pandemic is more severe during 2020-2021. Second, results of the spatial Tobit and SFA models provide evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacts the ESI efficiency during 2020, this impact is decreasing in 2021, and this impact has a spatial diffusion effect.

Discussion

Based on these results, this study discussed the theoretical and political implications. This paper enriches the knowledge of ESTs research and development by proposing a three-stage approach with multi-methods to investigate the influence of the pandemic's impact on ESI efficiency.

Colloidal Solutions as Advanced Coatings for Active Packaging Development: Focus on PLA Systems

Due to rising consumer demand the food packaging industry is turning increasingly to packaging materials that offer active functions. This is achieved by incorporating active compounds into the basic packaging materials. However, it is currently believed that adding active compounds as a coating over the base packaging material is more beneficial than adding them in bulk or in pouches, as this helps to maintain the physicochemical properties of the base material along with higher efficiency at the interface with the food. Colloidal systems have the potential to be used as active coatings, while the application of coatings in the form of colloidal dispersions allows for prolonged and controlled release of the active ingredient and uniform distribution, due to their colloidal/nano size and large surface area ratio. The objective of this review is to analyse some of the different colloidal solutions previously used in the literature as coatings for active food packaging and their advantages. The focus is on natural bio-based substances and packaging materials such as PLA, due to consumer awareness and environmental and regulatory issues. The antiviral concept through the surface is also discussed briefly, as it is an important strategy in the context of the current pandemic crisis and cross-infection prevention.

Interactive adverse effects of low-density polyethylene microplastics on marine microalga Chaetoceros calcitrans

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is broadly utilized worldwide, increasing more dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the majority ends up in the aquatic environment as microplastics. The influence of polyethylene microplastics (LDPE-MPs) on aquatic ecosystems still needs further investigation, especially on microalgae as typical organisms represented in all aquatic systems and at the base of the trophic chain. Thereby, the biological and toxicity impacts of LDPE-MPs on Chaetoceros calcitrans were examined in this work. The results revealed that LDPE-MPs had a concentration-dependent adverse effect on the growth and performance of C. calcitrans. LDPE-MPs contributed the maximum inhibition rates of 85%, 51.3%, 21.49% and 16.13% on algal growth chlorophyll content, φPSII and Fv/Fm, respectively. The total protein content, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities were significantly increased at 25 mg L-1 LDPE-MPs by 1.37, 3.52, 2.75 and 1.84 folds higher than those of the controls to sustain the adverse effects of LDPE-MPs. Extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) and monosaccharides contents of C. calcitrans were improved under low concentration of LDPE-MPs, which could facilitate the adsorption of MPs particles on the microalgae cell wall. This adsorption caused significant physical damage to the algal cell structure, as observed by SEM. These results suggest that the ecological footprint of MPs may require more attention, particularly due to the continuing breakdown of plastics in the ecosystem.

Current clinical status of new COVID-19 vaccines and immunotherapy

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, is a positive-strand RNA belonging to Coronaviridae family, along with MERS and SARS. Since its first report in 2019 in Wuhan, China, it has affected over 530 million people and led to 6.3 million deaths worldwide until June 2022. Despite eleven vaccines being used worldwide already, new variants are of concern. Therefore, the governing bodies are re-evaluating the strategies for achieving universal vaccination. Initially, the WHO expected that vaccines showing around 50-80% efficacy would develop in 1-2 years. However, US-FDA announced emergency approval of the two m-RNA vaccines within 11 months of vaccine development, which enabled early vaccination for healthcare workers in many countries. Later, in January 2021, 63 vaccine candidates were under human clinical trials and 172 under preclinical development. Currently, the number of such clinical studies is still increasing. In this review, we have summarized the updates on the clinical status of the COVID-19 and the available treatments. Additionally, COVID-19 had created negative impacts on world's economy; affected agriculture, industries, and tourism service sectors; and majorly affected low-income countries. The review discusses the clinical outcomes, latest statistics, socio-economic impacts of pandemic and treatment approaches against SARS-CoV-2, and strategies against the new variant of concern. The review will help understand the current status of vaccines and other therapies while also providing insights about upcoming vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 management.

Determining the COVID-19 effects on spillover between oil market and stock exchange: a global perspective analysis

This paper investigates volatility spillovers between the global crude oil market and the stock markets of the global oil stock markets (Russian, Canada, China, Kuwait, and the USA) pre and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We use wavelet Granger causality methods to study the volatility spillovers between global oil stock markets, mainly from January 1, 2019, to March 31, 2021. Our Results (1) shows that WTI and Brent oil prices had a negative mean return before COVID-19 but a positive mean return during the pandemic spread. Other Results (2) find the positive, significantly lowest, and highest frequency during the COVID-19 outbreak for all selected countries. The results also show that the link between oil WTI & Brent prices and stock markets return in the lowest (33-66 days) and highest frequency range (4-16) before the Covid-19 epidemic, especially in the first quarter of 2020. Before the COVID-19 period, the Russian oil stock market is seriously prejudiced with oil prices on a modest scale, but not after the pandemic's start. This study also perceives direction opposite between the COVID-19 period. The Canadian and United States America oil and stock markets influence the lowest scale in the previous COVID-19 sample for the U.S. market. Moreover, this paper exposed that oil marketing highest oil futures in their portfolios than stock shares for all times. We found that oil price shocks had a more significant impact on the stock markets of the United States and Canada than on the stock markets of other countries.

Macroeconomic lockdown effects of COVID-19 on small business in China: empirical insights from SEM technique

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the China has exposed small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to a variety of challenges, some of which are potentially life-threatening to their sustainability. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the macroeconomic lockdown effects of COVID-19 on small business in China. A survey questionnaire with 313 participants was used to collect the data. In this study, the SEM technique was used to analyse model. The data have been gathered for the study from the managers and employees of Chinese SMEs. The findings of the study show that COVID-19 has a significant negative impact on financial performance, operational performance, profitability, access to finance, and customer satisfaction. According to the study's findings, external support aids have a greater impact on SMEs' ability to survive and thrive through innovation than on their actual performance. The findings of this study have a number of important practical consequences for small- and medium-sized business owners, governments, and policymakers.

Dry powder inhalation, part 2: the present and future

INTRODUCTION

The manufacture of modern dry powder inhalers (DPIs), starting with the Spinhaler (Fisons) in 1967, was only possible thanks to a series of technological developments in the 20^th century, of which many started first around 1950. Not until then, it became possible to design and develop effective, cheap and mass-produced DPIs. The link between these technological developments and DPI development has never been presented and discussed before in reviews about the past and present of DPI technology.

AREAS COVERED

The diversity of currently used DPIs with single dose, multiple-unit dose and multi-dose DPIs is discussed, including the benefits and drawbacks of this diversity for correct use and the efficacy of the therapy. No specific databases or search engines otherwise than PubMed and Google have been used.

EXPERT OPINION

Considering the relatively poor efficacy regarding lung deposition of currently used DPIs, the high rates of incorrect inhaler use and inhalation errors and the poor adherence to the therapy with inhalers, much effort must be put in improving these shortcomings for future DPI designs. Delivered fine particle doses must be increased, correct inhaler handling must become more intuitive and simpler to perform, and the use of multiple inhalers must be avoided.

Exploring the co-movements between COVID-19 pandemic and international air traffic: A global perspective based on wavelet analysis

The travel and tourism industry was one of the fastest-growing industries before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, to avoid COVID-19 spread, the government authorities imposed strict lockdown and international border restrictions except for some emergency international flights that badly hit the travel and tourism industry. The study explores the nexus between international air departures and the COVID-19 pandemic in this strain. We use a novel wavelet coherence approach to dissect the lead and lag relationships between international flight departures and COVID-19 deaths from January 2020 to September 2020 (COVID-19 first wave period). The results reveal that international flights cause the spread of COVID-19 spread during May 2020 to June 2020 worldwide. The overall findings suggest asymmetries between daily international flight departures and COVID-19 deaths globally at different time-frequency periods due to uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will be conducive for the policymakers to control the upsurge of COVID-19 spread worldwide.

The asymmetric nexus between air pollution and COVID-19: Evidence from a non-linear panel autoregressive distributed lag model

The emergence of a new coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a major global concern that has damaged human health and disturbing environmental quality. Some researchers have identified a positive relationship between air pollution (fine particulate matter PM2.5) and COVID-19. Nonetheless, no inclusive investigation has comprehensively examined this relationship for a tropical climate such as India. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by investigating the nexus between air pollution and COVID-19 in the ten most affected Indian states using daily observations from 9th March to September 20, 2020. The study has used the newly developed Hidden Panel Cointegration test and Nonlinear Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NPARDL) model for asymmetric analysis. Empirical results illustrate an asymmetric relationship between PM2.5 and COVID-19 cases. More precisely, a 1% change in the positive shocks of PM2.5 increases the COVID-19 cases by 0.439%. Besides, the estimates of individual states expose the heterogeneous effects of PM2.5 on COVID-19. The asymmetric causality test of Hatemi-J's (2011) also suggests that the positive shocks on PM2.5 Granger-cause positive shocks on COVID19 cases. Research findings indicate that air pollution is the root cause of this outbreak; thus, the government should recognize this channel and implement robust policy guidelines to control the spread of environmental pollution.

Modeling COVID-19 Impact on Consumption and Mobility in Europe: A Legacy Toward Sustainable Business Performance

This article has explored the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-induced decline in consumer durables and mobility on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emission in Europe by providing empirical and graphical justifications based on consumer price index (CPI) and gross domestic product (GDP) deflator indexes. The empirical estimations show that carbon dioxide (CO2) and NOx emission along with other greenhouse gases drastically decreased in the wake of COVID-19-induced lockdowns and decrease in the demand of consumer goods in Europe. This means that COVID-19 improved environment in the European region. However, high cost (e.g., unemployment, loss of life, and social segregation) makes COVID-19 an unstable solution to environmental woes where positive impact of COVID-19 on environment achieved in short run cannot be guaranteed in the long run. Besides environment, COVID-19 drastically curtailed economic activities and exposed them to the risk of economic crisis particularly in case of Europe.

Challenges and Adaptive Measures for U.S. Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in major disruptions in the way municipal solid waste management systems (MSWMSs) operate due to substantial distortions in waste generation trends, along with a variety of significant operational and managerial challenges. As critical infrastructure, MSWMSs have endeavored to adapt in response to such unprecedented stresses in order to maintain their operations during the pandemic. The challenges and their relevant adaptive measures, however, have varied with the progression of the pandemic across different MSWMSs. Currently, there is a limited understanding of such time-bound and system-specific phenomena, which impedes timely and effective adaptation. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by performing a detailed and documented investigation of the longitudinal impact of the coronavirus pandemic on different MSWMSs across the United States, along with its evolution over time, using collected qualitative and quantitative data (i.e., monthly interviews with waste management personnel, online news media, and waste tonnages). This study also develops a relational database system to facilitate the systematic recording and monitoring of the pandemic’s impact on MSWMSs, as well as guide the implementation of different adaptation strategies based on distinct systems’ characteristics. Findings of this study will help solid waste decision-makers better understand the current pandemic, along with serving as a knowledge base for future pandemic scenarios towards more resilient MSWMSs.

The dynamics of public spending on sustainable green economy: role of technological innovation and industrial structure effects

In order to achieve the goal of sustainable green economic development, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the efficiency of the green economy and compare it with emission reductions. The green economy idea is a much-discussed solution to economic growth. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of government spending on the performance of the green economy of various countries under the "Belt and Road" (BRI) initiative project. The data were analyzed using the BRI economy panel data from 2008 to 2018. The generalized method of moments (GMM) was used to estimate the effect of government expenditures on education and research and development (R&D) on green economic performance index (GEE) in BRI countries. The results reveal that during the study period, BRI countries have experienced an upward transition towards green development, except for Pakistan and Bangladesh; their GEE decreased gradually from 2010 to 2018. Further, the findings of the system GMM revealed that both education and R&D have a positive impact on the green economy. Moreover, the compositional and technological effects of the overall sample were verified with the GMM process. Nevertheless, the sub-sample results revealed a heterogeneous impact on countries with a high per capita GDP. Following the results, useful policy measures for promoting sustainable green economic development have been proposed.

Do environmental pollutants carrier to COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional analysis

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly transmitted disease that spreads all over the globe in a short period. Environmental pollutants are considered one of the carriers to spread the COVID-19 pandemic through health damages. Carbon emissions, PM2.5 emissions, nitrous oxide emissions, GHG, and other GHG emissions are mainly judged separately in the earlier studies in different economic settings. The study hypothesizes that environmental pollutants adversely affect healthcare outcomes, likely to infected people by contagious diseases, including coronavirus cases. The subject matter is vital to analyze the preventive healthcare theory by using different environmental pollutants on the COVID-19 factors: total infected cases, total death cases, and case fatality ratio, in a large cross-section of 119 countries. The study employed the generalized least square (GLS) method for robust inferences. The results show that GHG and CO2 emissions are critical factors likely to increase total coronavirus cases and death rates. On the other hand, nitrous oxide, carbon, and transport emissions increase the case fatality ratio through healthcare damages. The study concludes that stringent environmental policies and improving healthcare infrastructure can control coronavirus cases across countries.

Interventions for the Current COVID-19 Pandemic: Frontline Workers' Intention to Use Personal Protective Equipment

BACKGROUND

Frontline workers (FLWs) are at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection during care interactions than the general population. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is regarded as an effective intervention for limiting the transmission of airborne viruses. However, research examining FLWs' intention to use PPE is limited.

OBJECTIVES

This study addresses this research gap and also contributes by expanding the conceptual mechanism of planned behavior theory by incorporating three novel dimensions (perceived benefits of PPE, risk perceptions of the epidemic, and unavailability of PPE) in order to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence FLWs' intentions to use PPE.

METHOD

Analysis is based on a sample of 763 FLWs in Pakistan using a questionnaire survey, and the structural equation modeling approach is employed to evaluate the suppositions.

RESULTS

Study results indicate that attitude, perceived benefits of PPE, and risk perceptions of the epidemic have positive influence on FLWs' intention to use PPE. In comparison, the unavailability of PPE and the cost of PPE have opposite effects. Meanwhile, environmental concern has a neutral effect.

CONCLUSIONS

The study results specify the importance of publicizing COVID-19's lethal impacts on the environment and society, ensuring cheap PPE, and simultaneously enhancing workplace safety standards.

Assessment of public intention to get vaccination against COVID-19: Evidence from a developing country

OBJECTIVES

Widespread acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine will be the next important step in fighting the novel coronavirus disease. Though the Pakistani government has successfully implemented robust policies to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic; however, studies assessing public intention to get COVID-19 vaccination (IGCV) are limited. The aim of this study is to deal with this literature gap and has also expanded the conceptual framework of planned behaviour theory. We have introduced three new considerations (risk perceptions of the pandemic, perceived benefits of the vaccine, and unavailability of vaccine) to have a better understanding of the influencing factors that encourage or discourage public IGCV.

METHODS

Results are based on a sample collected from 754 households using an inclusive questionnaire survey. Hypotheses are tested by utilizing the structural equation modelling approach.

RESULTS

The results disclose that the intention factors, that is, attitude, risk perceptions of the pandemic, and perceived benefits of the vaccine, impart positive effects on public IGCV. In contrast, the cost of the vaccine and the unavailability of the vaccine have negative effects. Notably, environmental concern has an insignificant effect.

CONCLUSIONS

Research findings emphasize the importance of publicizing the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on society and the environment, ensuring vaccination availability at an accessible price while simultaneously improving public healthcare practices.

Data-Driven Dynamic Adjustment and Optimization Model of Emergency Logistics Network in Public Health

Background and Aim

In the long-term prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic, parameters may change frequently for various reasons, such as the emergence of mutant strains and changes in government policies. These changes will affect the efficiency of the current emergency logistics network. Public health emergencies have typical unstructured characteristics such as blurred transmission boundaries and dynamic time-varying scenarios, thus requiring continuous adjustment of emergency logistics network to adapt to the actual situation and make a better rescue.

Practical Significance

The infectivity of public health emergencies has shown a tendency that it first increased and then decreased in the initial decision-making cycle, and finally reached the lowest point in a certain decision-making cycle. This suggests that the number of patients will peak at some point in the cycle, after which the public health emergency will then be brought under control and be resolved. Therefore, in the design of emergency logistics network, the infectious ability of public health emergencies should be fully considered (ie, the prediction of the number of susceptible population should be based on the real-time change of the infectious ability of public health emergencies), so as to make the emergency logistics network more reasonable.

Methods

In this paper, we build a data-driven dynamic adjustment and optimization model for the decision-making framework with an innovative emergency logistics network in this paper. The proposed model divides the response time to emergency into several consecutive decision-making cycles, and each of them contains four repetitive steps: (1) analysis of public health emergency transmission; (2) design of emergency logistics network; (3) data collection and processing; (4) adjustment and update of parameters.

Results

The result of the experiment shows that dynamic adjustment and update of parameters help to improve the accuracy of describing the evolution of public health emergency transmission. The model successively transforms the public health emergency response into the co-evolution of data learning and optimal allocation of resources.

Conclusion

Based on the above results, it is concluded that the model we designed in this paper can provide multiple real-time and effective suggestions for policy adjustment in public health emergency management. When responding to other emergencies, our model can offer helpful decision-making references.

System dynamics analysis of COVID-19 prevention and control strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic now affects the entire world and has many major effects on the global economy, environment, health, and society. Focusing on the harm COVID-19 poses for human health and society, this study used system dynamics to establish a prevention and control model that combines material supply, public opinion dissemination, public awareness, scientific and technological research, staggered work shifts, and the warning effect (of law/policy). Causal loop analysis was used to identify interactions between subsystems and explore the key factors affecting social benefit. Further, different scenarios were dynamically simulated to explore optimal combination modes. The main findings were as follows: (1) The low supervision mode will produce a lag effect and superimposed effect on material supply and impede social benefit. (2) The strong supervision mode has multiple performances; it can reduce online public opinion dissemination and the rate of concealment and false declaration and improve government credibility and social benefit. However, a fading effect will appear in the middle and late periods, and over time, the effect of strong supervision will gradually weaken (but occasionally rebound) and thus require adjustment. These findings can provide a theoretical basis for improving epidemic prevention and control measures.

Investigating the Co-movement Nexus Between Air Quality, Temperature, and COVID-19 in California: Implications for Public Health

This research aims to look at the link between environmental pollutants and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in California. To illustrate the COVID-19 outbreak, weather, and environmental pollution, we used daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 patients, average daily temperature, and air quality Index, respectively. To evaluate the data from March 1 to May 24, 2020, we used continuous wavelet transform and then applied partial wavelet coherence (PWC), wavelet transform coherence (WTC), and multiple wavelet coherence (MWC). Empirical estimates disclose a significant association between these series at different time-frequency spaces. The COVID-19 outbreak in California and average daily temperature show a negative (out phase) coherence. Similarly, the air quality index and COVID-19 also show a negative association circle during the second week of the observed period. Our findings will serve as policy implications for state and health officials and regulators to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

A study on the effects of meteorological and climatic factors on the COVID-19 spread in Canada during 2020

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has infected more than three million people, with thousands of deaths and millions of people into quarantine. In this research, the authors focus on meteorological and climatic factors on the COVID-19 spread, the main parameters including daily new cases of COVID-19, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Sulfur dioxide (SO2), PM2.5, Ozone (O3), average temperature, and humidity are examined to understand how different meteorological parameters affect the COVID-19 spread in Canada? The graphical quantitative analysis results indicate that CO2 emissions, air quality, temperature, and humidity have a direct negative relationship with COVID-19 infections. Quantile regression analysis revealed that air quality, Nitrogen, and Ozone significantly induce the COVID-19 spread across Canadian provinces. The findings of this study are contrary to the earlier studies, which argued that weather and climate change significantly increase COVID-19 infections. We suggested that meteorological and climatic factors might be critical to reducing the COVID-19 new cases in Canada based on the findings. This work's empirical conclusions can provide a guideline for future research and policymaking to stop the COVID-19 spread across Canadian provinces.

Financial development, oil resources, and environmental degradation in pandemic recession: to go down in flames

The novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a deadly disease that increases global healthcare sufferings. Further, it affects the financial and natural resource market simultaneously, as both are considered complementary goods. The volatility in the oil prices deteriorates the global financial market to substantiate the "financial resource (oil) curse" hypothesis primarily filled with earlier studies. In contrast, this study moved forward and extended the given relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic in a panel of 81 different countries. The study's main objective is to examine the volatility in the domestic credit provided to the private sector due to oil shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic across countries. The study is essential to assess the healthcare vulnerability in the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the damage of financial stability, causing deterioration in the oil rents to affect the global sustainability agenda. The study employed statistical techniques to get sound inferences of the parameter estimates, including robust least squares regression, seemingly unrelated regression, and innovation accounting matrix to get a variable estimate at the level and inter-temporal framework. The results confirmed the U-shaped relationship between oil rents and financial development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it verifies the "financial resource (oil) curse" hypothesis at the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later down, it supports the capital market when economies are resuming their economic activities and maintaining the SOPs to restrain coronavirus at a global scale. The qualitative assessment confirmed the negative effect of financial development and oil shocks on environmental quality during the pandemic crisis. The innovation accounting matrix shows that the COVID-19 pandemic will primarily be the main factor that intervenes in the relationship between oil rents and financial development, which proceed towards the "resource curse" hypothesis during the following years' time period. Therefore, the need for long-term economic policies is highly desirable to support the financial and resource market under the suggested guidelines of restraining coronavirus worldwide.

COVID-19 and stock exchange return variation: empirical evidences from econometric estimation

This research looked at the effects of COVID-19 on a number of the world's most important stock exchanges, as well as the empirical relation between the COVID-19 wave and stock market volatility. In order to plan proper portfolio diversification in international financial markets, researchers must examine COVID-19 anxiety in relation to stock market volatility. The stock market volatility connected with the COVID-19 pandemic was measured using AR(1)-GARCH(1,1). COVID-19 fear, according to our research, is the ultimate driver of public attention and stock market volatility. The findings show that throughout the pandemic, stock market performance and GDP growth both declined significantly due to average increases. Furthermore, a 1% increase in COVID-19 causes a 0.8% and 0.56% decline in stock return and GDP, respectively. The stock market, on the other hand, showed a slight movement in GDP growth. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic reported cases index, death index, and global panic index all influenced public perceptions of purchasing and selling. As a result, rather than investing in stocks, it is recommended that you invest in gold. The research also makes policy recommendations for important stakeholders. We look to examine how stock returns respond dynamically to unanticipated changes in the COVID-19 scenarios, as well as the uncertainty that comes with a pandemic. Using daily data from Canada and the USA, we conclude that a spike in COVID-19 instances has a negative impact on the stock market in general. Furthermore, in both the increase and decline scenarios in Canada, the stock return reactions are asymmetric. The disparity is due to the unfavorable impact of the pandemic's unpredictability. We also discovered that uncertainty had a negative impact on the US stock market. The magnitude, however, is insignificant.

Does temperature matter for COVID-19 transmissibility? Evidence across Pakistani provinces

The outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a global concern that is deteriorating environmental quality and damaging human health. Though some researchers have investigated the linkage between temperature and COVID-19 transmissibility across different geographical locations and over time, yet these studies are scarce. This study aims to bridge this gap using daily temperature and COVID-19 cases (transmissibility) by employing grey incidence analysis (GIA) models (i.e., Deng's grey incidence analysis (DGIA), the absolute degree GIA (ADGIA), the second synthetic degree GIA (SSDGIA), the conservative (maximin) model) and correlation analysis. Data on temperature are accessed from the NASA database, while the data on COVID-19 cases are collected from the official website of the government of Pakistan. Empirical results reveal the existence of linkages between temperature and COVID-19 in all Pakistani provinces. These linkages vary from a relatively stronger to a relatively weaker linkage. Based on calculated weights, the strength of linkages is ranked across provinces as follows: Gilgit Baltistan (0.715301) > Baluchistan (0.675091) > Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (0.619893) > Punjab (0.619286) > Sindh (0.601736). The disparity in the strength of linkage among provinces is explained by the discrepancy in the intensity of temperature. Besides, the diagrammatic correlation analysis shows that temperature is inversely linked to COVID-19 cases (per million persons) over time, implying that low temperatures are associated with high COVID-19 transmissibility and vice versa. This study is among the first of its kind to consider the linkages between temperature and COVID-19 transmissibility for a tropical climate country (Pakistan) using the advanced GIA models. Research findings provide an up-to-date glimpse of the outbreak and emphasize the need to raise public awareness about the devastating impacts of the COVID-19. The educational syllabus should provide information on the causes, signs, and precautions of the pandemic. Additionally, individuals should practice handwashing, social distancing, personal hygiene, mask-wearing, and the use of hand sanitizers to ensure a secure and supportive atmosphere for preventing and controlling the current pandemic.

Sustainable production and consumption in remote working conditions due to COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: An environmental and user acceptance investigation

In response to the disruptive changes brought upon our society by the COVID-19 pandemic, most work activities and service providers had to resort to remote working. This is credited to reduce emissions for transportation, however the role of forced confinement within dwellings, especially if not designed for hosting working stations, deserves to be properly evaluated in terms of both user acceptance and long-term environmental impact. In this work, a dedicated survey campaign is used for investigating the potential pros and cons of remote working. In more detail, logistic regression and generalized linear models are used for capturing the effect of several independent variables on user acceptance of remote working. At a later stage, the main greenhouse gas emissions produced by each participant before and during remote working are assessed. According to the obtained results, the greater the distance between their home and workplace, the higher the acceptance score declared by the survey participants about remote working. Additionally, higher incomes and better-quality lifestyles with larger devotion to leisure activities also provide higher acceptance. Finally, the existence of a comfortable room to be used for work activities plays a crucial role on the declared acceptance. From an environmental point of view, remote working is always sustainable in case of long commuting distances (above 10 km) are avoided on a daily routine. In conclusion, a sensible use of remote working could reduce the environmental impact of any organization employing desk-workers as well as improve their work satisfaction and lifestyle.

Climate indicators and COVID-19 recovery: A case of Wuhan during the lockdown

The world needs to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic smoothly through a thorough socio-economic recovery. The first and the foremost step forward in this direction is the health recovery of the people infected. Our empirical study addresses this neglected point in the recent research on COVID-19 and specifically aims at exploring the impact of the environment on health recovery from COVID-19. The sample data are taken during the lockdown period in Wuhan, i.e., from 23rd January 2020 to 8th April 2020. The recently developed econometric technique of Quantile-on-Quantile regression, proposed by Shin and Zhu (2016) is employed to capture the asymmetric association between environmental factors (TEMP, HUM, PM2.5, PM10, CO, SO2, NO2, and O3) and the number of recovered patients from COVID-19. We observe significant heterogeneity in the association among variables across various quantiles. The findings suggest that TEMP, PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, and O3 are negatively related to the COVID-19 recovery, while HUM and SO2 show a positive association at most quantiles. The study recommends that maintaining a safe and comfortable environment for the patients may increase the chances of recovery from COVID-19. The success story of Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the novel coronavirus in China, can serve as an important case study for other countries to bring the outbreak under control. The current study could be conducive for the policymakers of those countries where the COVID-19 pandemic is still unrestrained.

Asymmetric impact of temperature on COVID-19 spread in India: Evidence from quantile-on-quantile regression approach

The emergence of new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has become a significant public health issue worldwide. Some researchers have identified a positive link between temperature and COVID-19 cases. However, no detailed research has highlighted the impact of temperature on COVID-19 spread in India. This study aims to fill this research gap by investigating the impact of temperature on COVID-19 spread in the five most affected Indian states. Quantile-on-Quantile regression (QQR) approach is employed to examine in what manner the quantiles of temperature influence the quantiles of COVID-19 cases. Empirical results confirm an asymmetric and heterogenous impact of temperature on COVID-19 spread across lower and higher quantiles of both variables. The results indicate a significant positive impact of temperature on COVID-19 spread in the three Indian states (Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka), predominantly in both low and high quantiles. Whereas, the other two states (Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh) exhibit a mixed trend, as the lower quantiles in both states have a negative effect. However, this negative effect becomes weak at middle and higher quantiles. These research findings offer valuable policy recommendations.

Intention-Based Critical Factors Affecting Willingness to Adopt Novel Coronavirus Prevention in Pakistan: Implications for Future Pandemics

Since human beings have a long tradition of coexistence with pandemics, which may profoundly impact them, adopting preventive measures is crucial for humankind's survival. This study explores the intention-based critical factors affecting the willingness of individuals to adopt pandemic prevention. To this end, a representative sample of 931 Pakistanis filled in an online questionnaire. However, only 828 questionnaires were found to be complete and valid for path modeling analysis. The core findings are as follows: Firstly, peer groups' beliefs, self-efficacy, perceived risk, pandemic knowledge, ease of pandemic prevention adoption, and risk-averse behavior are revealed as driving forces of the individuals' willingness to adopt pandemic prevention. Contrastingly, a lack of trust in political will and mythical attitude towards pandemics are uncovered as inhibitors. Nevertheless, moral values depict a neutral role. Secondly, the peer groups' beliefs are highest ranked, followed by the lack of trust in political will and a mythical attitude towards pandemic prevention. Finally, moral values are determined as the lowest-ranked critical factor. Based on these results, the government should promote awareness campaigns on lethality and fatality of the pandemic at both centralized and decentralized levels to win people's trust at the grass-roots level and overcome the mythical attitude of individuals at all societal levels. Besides, access to personal protective gears should be made feasible since an easier pandemic prevention adoption would increase the individuals' willingness to adopt such preventative measures.

A hover view over effectual approaches on pandemic management for sustainable cities - The endowment of prospective technologies with revitalization strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic affects all of society and hinders day-to-day activities from a straightforward perspective. The pandemic has an influential impact on almost everything and the characteristics of the pandemic remain unclear. This ultimately leads to ineffective strategic planning to manage the pandemic. This study aims to elucidate the typical pandemic characteristics in line with various temporal phases and its associated measures that proved effective in controlling the pandemic. Besides, an insight into diverse country's approaches towards pandemic and their consequences is provided in brief. Understanding the role of technologies in supporting humanity gives new perspectives to effectively manage the pandemic. Such role of technologies is expressed from the viewpoint of seamless connectivity, rapid communication, mobility, technological influence in healthcare, digitalization influence, surveillance and security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT). Furthermore, some insightful scenarios are framed where the full-fledged implementation of technologies is assumed, and the reflected pandemic impacts in such scenarios are analyzed. The framed scenarios revolve around the digitalized energy sector, an enhanced supply chain system with effective customer-retailer relationships to support the city during the pandemic scenario, and an advanced tracking system for containing virus spread. The study is further extended to frame revitalization strategies to highlight the expertise where significant attention needs to be provided in the post-pandemic period as well as to nurture sustainable development. Finally, the current pandemic scenario is analyzed in terms of occurred changes and is mapped into SWOT factors. Using Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, these SWOT factors are analyzed to determine where prioritized efforts are needed to focus so as to traverse towards sustainable cities. The results indicate that the enhanced crisis management ability and situational need to restructure the economic model emerges to be the most-significant SWOT factor that can ultimately support humanity for making the cities sustainable.

Assessing Public Willingness to Wear Face Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Fresh Insights from the Theory of Planned Behavior

Face masks are considered an effective intervention in controlling the spread of airborne viruses, as evidenced by the 2009's H1N1 swine flu and 2003's severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks. However, research aiming to examine public willingness to wear (WTW) face masks in Pakistan are scarce. The current research aims to overcome this research void and contributes by expanding the theoretical mechanism of theory of planned behavior (TPB) to include three novel dimensions (risk perceptions of the pandemic, perceived benefits of face masks, and unavailability of face masks) to comprehensively analyze the factors that motivate people to, or inhibit people from, wearing face masks. The study is based on an inclusive questionnaire survey of a sample of 738 respondents in the provincial capitals of Pakistan, namely, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Gilgit, and Quetta. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results show that attitude, social norms, risk perceptions of the pandemic, and perceived benefits of face masks are the major influencing factors that positively affect public WTW face masks, whereas the cost of face masks and unavailability of face masks tend to have opposite effects. The results emphasize the need to enhance risk perceptions by publicizing the deadly effects of COVID-19 on the environment and society, ensure the availability of face masks at an affordable price, and make integrated and coherent efforts to highlight the benefits that face masks offer.

A Non-Linear Biostatistical Graphical Modeling of Preventive Actions and Healthcare Factors in Controlling COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND

With the insurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people died in the past several months, and the situation is ongoing with increasing health, social, and economic panic and vulnerability. As most of the countries relying on different preventive actions to control the outcomes of COVID-19, it is necessary to boost the knowledge about the effectiveness of such actions so that the policymakers take their country-based appropriate actions. This study generates evidence of taking the most impactful actions to combat COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE

In order to generate community-based scientific evidence, this study analyzed the outcome of COVID-19 in response to different control measures, healthcare facilities, life expectancy, and prevalent diseases.

METHODS

It used more than a hundred countries' data collected from different databases. We performed a comparative graphical analysis with non-linear correlation estimation using R.

RESULTS

The reduction of COVID-19 cases is strongly correlated with the earliness of preventive initiation. The apathy of taking nationwide immediate precaution measures has been identified as one of the critical reasons to make the circumstances worse. There is significant non-linear relationship between COVID-19 case fatality and number of physicians (NCC = 0.22; p-value ≤ 0.001), nurses and midwives (NCC = 0.17; p-value ≤ 0.001), hospital beds (NCC = 0.20; p-value ≤ 0.001), life expectancy of both sexes (NCC = 0.22; p-value ≤ 0.001), life expectancy of female (NCC = 0.27; p-value ≤ 0.001), and life expectancy of male (NCC = 0.19; p-value ≤ 0.001). COVID-19 deaths were found to be reduced with increased medical personnel and hospital beds. Interestingly, no association between the comorbidities and severity of COVID-19 was found excluding asthma, cancer, Alzheimer's, and smoking.

CONCLUSIONS

Enhancing healthcare facilities and early imposing the control measures could be valuable to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic. No association between COVID-19 and other comorbidities warranted further investigation at the pathobiological level.