Addressing acute stress among professionals caring for COVID-19 patients: lessons learned during the first outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)

To describe lessons learned during the first COVID-19 outbreak in developing urgent interventions to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity to cope with acute stress caused by health care pressure, concern about becoming infected, despair of witnessing patients’ suffering, and critical decision-making requirements of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic during the first outbreak in Spain. Methods: A task force integrated by healthcare professionals and academics was activated following the first observations of acute stress reactions starting to compromise the professionals’ capacity for caring COVID-19 patients. Literature review and qualitative approach (consensus techniques) were applied. The target population included health professionals in primary care, hospitals, emergencies, and nursing homes. Interventions designed for addressing acute stress were agreed and disseminated. Findings: There are similarities in stressors to previous outbreaks, and the solutions devised then may work now. A set of issues, interventions to cope with, and their levels of evidence were defined. Issues and interventions were classified as: adequate communication initiative to strengthen work morale (avoiding information blackouts, uniformity of criteria, access to updated information, mentoring new professionals); resilience and recovery from physical and mental fatigue (briefings, protecting the family, regulated recovery time during the day, psychological first aid, humanizing care); reinforce leadership of intermediate commands (informative leadership, transparency, realism, and positive messages, the current state of emergency has not allowed for an empirical analysis of the effectiveness of proposed interventions. Sharing information to gauge expectations, listening to what professionals need, feeling protected from threats, organizational flexibility, encouraging teamwork, and leadership that promotes psychological safety have led to more positive responses. Attention to the needs of individuals must be combined with caring for the teams responsible for patient care. Conclusions: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has a more devastating effect than other recent outbreaks, there are common stressors and lessons learned in all of them that we must draw on to increase our capacity to respond to future healthcare crises

The process of emergency, evolution, and sustainability of University-Firm relations in a context of open innovation

Existing studies on University-Firm (U-F) relations do not highlight, at least in an explicit way, the issue of open innovation. Such studies are still too centred on the advantages which the Firms are able to obtain from the relation with the Universities, failing taking into account the value that potentially goes to Universities from such links. The present paper intends to fill in this gap by empirically studying the process of emergency, evolution, and sustainability of the U-F relations in an open innovation context. Resorting to the case study methodology, we empirically demonstrate how the relations of a firm (Brisa) with the Universities (namely, ISEL) emerged, how they evolved and became sustained through time, giving special emphasis to the issue of mutual benefits derived from these relationships. Face-to-face interviews with the key-players at Brisa and ISEL, complemented with an extensive analysis of secondary sources, allowed us to conclude that the establishment of a connection between the two entities is a more complex and time consuming process (requiring a large relational and resources investment on both parts) than what the existing literature assumes. Besides the recognized gains for firms from adopting a more open-led perspective of innovation, namely based on U-F relations, our work (also) highlights the benefit deriving to the Universities from the link to companies. It is mainly due to the existence of mutual benefits that U-F relations are preserved in the long term; in other words, are sustainable.Open Innovation; University-Firm relations; Emergency; Sustainability; Benefits

Security assemblages: enclaving, private security, and new materialism in suburban Johannesburg

A research report submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree Master of Arts in Anthropology March 2016This research report explores how private security is materially assembled in suburban Johannesburg. Based on ethnographic fieldwork within a private security company operating across the northern suburbs of Greater Johannesburg, it examines how the materiality of security is intimately intertwined with shaping the socio-spatial terrain of the city. Using a new materialist “assemblage” theory proposed by Jane Bennett, it contends although the materials of private security are designed to protect and exclude, they often work rather differently on the ground, resulting in strange new ways of seeing, moving, and relating in the city

Continued safe operation of nuclear power generation plants during the Covid-19 pandemic

An important goal of any pandemic response strategy is to assure the continued reliability of the electricity grid. Electricity production and delivery, two of the most important elements of economic and social infrastructure, must remain reliable during a pandemic because many parts of the infrastructure (e.g. food supply, water, transportation, public health) cannot function without a stable, reliable supply of electricity. More than 100 nuclear power reactor units are currently in operation in the EU and their continued operation during a pandemic is essential to maintain grid stability and ensure the needed power supplies in combination with the other sources of power generation. This report provides an overview of the findings of an investigation into the pandemic preparedness and response actions of nuclear power plant operating organisations in EU and some third countries operating nuclear power reactors. The investigation has been performed by means of media monitoring and information gathering during approximately three weeks, from 16 March – 3 April 2020.JRC.G.10-Knowledge for Nuclear Security and Safet

Developmental study towards effective practices in technology-assisted learning: third combined report from 15 participating South African universities

The Centre for Technology Assisted Learning (CenTAL) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the SOLSTICE Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Edge Hill University (EHU), UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 28 June 2007 for the creation of a benchmarking hub for the enhancement of learning by the deployment of educational technologies in South African universities. This was followed up during a visit of Mark Schofield of EHU during February 2008 and resulted in an invitation for participation directed at the directors of technology-assisted learning (TAL) centres, and other senior staff members responsible for academic development and support including TAL, at 23 South African universities. The information below was obtained from the participating universities’ present and future activities in TAL. They were requested to use nine so-called “lenses” of self-evaluation and review and to organise the information using these lenses. The first combined report contained the information received from participatory universities during a first round. This report was discussed during a meeting of representatives of participating universities on 28 May 2008 in Johannesburg. During this meeting, a refinement of our common understanding of lenses was discussed and three new lenses were added. A Second Combined Report was produced and discussed at a second meeting of participants on 10 October 2008 at UJ. Two additional universities also came on board in the second semester of 2008. This report is now based on the information offered by all 14 participating universities on these refined and expanded lenses. In the sequel, these lenses are used as headings. Information from participating universities is offered by alphabetically arranging the universities under each lens

Multimedia platform for the efficient management of water and the use of hydric resources from a multidisciplinary point of view in engineering degrees

En este proyecto de innovación docente se ha realizado una red social sobre la gestión eficiente del agua involucrando a diferentes asignaturas de los grados en ingeniería Mecánica, Eléctrica, Electrónica Industrial, Agroalimentaria y del Medio Rural e Ingeniería Civil. En este entorno virtual se ha creado un laboratorio virtual sobre comportamiento de un canal hidrodinámico. Esta aplicación representa una alternativa barata y eficiente, donde el estudiante simula los fenómenos a estudiar como si los observase en un laboratorio tradicional. Por lo tanto, es una herramienta de autoaprendizaje, donde el alumno puede alterar las variables de entrada, configurar nuevos experimentos, aprender el manejo de instrumentos y personalizarlos. Además, la simulación en el laboratorio virtual ha permitido obtener una visión más intuitiva de aquellos fenómenos que en su realización manual no aportan suficiente claridad gráfica. Finalmente, se ha realizado un debate sobre tema de actualidad de los recursos hídricos que ha tenido una muy buena valoración por parte del alumnado.In this teaching innovation project, a social network about the efficient management of water has been carried out, involving different subjects of the degrees in Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, Agrofood, Rural and Civil Engineering. In this virtual environment, a virtual laboratory (VL) of hydrodynamic channel behavior has been created. This application represents an economical and efficient alternative, where the student simulates the processes to be studied as if they were observed in a traditional laboratory. Therefore, VL represents a self-learning tool, where the student can alter the input variables, configure new experiments, learn how to use instruments and customize them. In addition, the simulation in the virtual laboratory has allowed to obtain a more intuitive vision of those phenomena that in their manual realization do not provide enough graphic clarity. Finally, an academic debate has been carried out about current topic of water resources that received an excellent evaluation by students

Implementing Electronic Services Transnational Guidelines and Perspectives

Electronic services to citizens are a growing concern to governments all over the world, not inthe least in the domains of social security and labor market. It was at the Montreal Conference of the ISSA –the International Social Security Association – in 1999 that many organizations in many countries showedto be grappling with many questions concerning the implementation of electronic service delivery. In orderto elaborate on experiences of implementation, the ISSA and three Dutch member organizations arranged anexpert work shop on implementation strategies for E-government in social security in the Autumn of 2000.This report summarizes the experts conclusions on strategies, methods, do´s and don´ts. It emphasizes theimportance of a mix of technological, political, legislational and organizational prerequisites.The considerations encompass the following domains or perspectives:(i) Infrastructure, being the technical devices such as network components, servers, protocols, instrumentsfor client identification, which needs some cooperation or coordination between social securityorganizations;(ii) Data management, which poses the question how governments can avoid to ask citizens or employersfor the same information twice;(iii) Standards and responsibilities, dealing with scope, and with how they are to be established,implemented and maintained;(iv) Client appreciation, one of the key issues when designing the services, which ones and how;(v) Issues of flexibility, which are related to changes in legislation, in technical standards and clientappreciation; and last but not least:(vi) Costs and benefits, the context of justification for investments.For each domain or theme, context, goals and experiences are stated first. Only a few examples aredescribed in the report itself. Each theme ends with do´s and don´ts, aiming at the promotion of action, atthe reduction not the ignorance of complexity. A range of illustrative cases is described in a separateappendix

A viability plan of a unit of research in applications of new telecommunications technologies

This project is about to develop a plan to create a dedicated unit in order to monitoring of emerging technologies in the field of telecommunications

Greening of Industries in the EU: Anticipating and Managing the Effects on Quantity and Quality of Jobs

[Excerpt] All jobs will be affected as the EU moves to a green economy: new jobs will be created and some will be eliminated, but most existing jobs will be transformed. To ensure a socially responsible transition towards high-quality green jobs, concerted efforts by governments, employees, employers and other stakeholders are crucial in anticipating and managing this process. The research carried out in this study examined green business practices and greening processes aimed at mitigating climate change – if radical mitigation measures are not taken in time, adaptation could eventually prove impossible. The study had two main objectives: to provide an overview at both sectoral and cross-sectoral level in the EU of the effects of greening on the quantity and quality of jobs in 10 sectors (automotive, chemicals, construction, distribution and trade, energy, furniture, non- metallic materials, shipbuilding, textiles and transport); to analyse good practice examples of the anticipation and management of green change at company level in these sectors