Fear of Covid-19 and online shopping intention: the mediating role online shopping convenience

The aim of the present study was to examine the mediating role of perceived online shopping convenience in the relationship between consumers' fear of COVID-19 and online shopping intention. The data were collected from 732 consumers via an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and mediation analyses were performed to analyze the data. The results showed that the fear of COVID-19 was significantly correlated with perceived online shopping convenience and online shopping intention. The results also showed that fear of COVID-19 had a direct significant effect on online shopping convenience (β = .30 [Se = .03, 95% CI = (0.22, 0.35)]) and online shopping intention (β = .16 [Se= .03, 95% CI = (.09, .22)]). Mediation analysis showed that online shopping convenience mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and online shopping intention (β = .16 [Se = .03, 95% CI = (0.10, 0.22)]). Results confirmed the positive association between the fear of COVID-19, online shopping convenience, and online shopping intention. In addition, the results showed that both the fear of COVID-19 and online shopping convenience have a direct effect on online shopping intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of online shopping convenience provides insight into how a psychological variable indirectly affects consumers' purchasing behavior

Transcending capitalism growth strategies for biodiversity conservation

The search of unlimited economic growth to fuel capitalism's metabolism has profoundly transformed a large portion of the Earth. The derived environmental destruction has led to a biodiversity loss at an unprecedented rate. Following the large-scale losses of habitats and species, it was recognized that biodiversity is crucial in maintaining ecosystems. Since the 1970s a global sustainability agenda was set to develop different types of sustainable development (SD) related milestones, including Green-Blue Economic Growth which despite not specifically addressing the biodiversity issues served to reinforce the idea that economic development based on profit is compatible with our planet's ecology. Only after biodiversity literature became mainstream in the early 2000s a global biodiversity agenda was implemented. The agenda highlights biodiversity conservation as a major international challenge and finally recognizes that the main drivers for biodiversity loss derive from economic activities. Much alike pre-, the post-2000 biodiversity agendas, including the 2030 Agenda for SD and post-2020 Convention on Biological Diversity Global Strategy Framework, are based on SD principles, and do not consider the negative impacts of growth-oriented strategies on biodiversity. As a result, the global biodiversity conservation priorities are governed by the biodiversity's economic value and its assumed contribution to people's welfare. While pointing to a body of empirical evidence that unlimited economic growth is the main driver of biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene, we strongly argue for sustainable degrowth and a fundamental shift in societal values. An equitable downscaling of the physical economy can improve ecological conditions, reducing biodiversity loss, while enhancing our well-being. This paper attempts to reinforce the debate on the contradictions between growth and biodiversity within the biology conservation literature, as well as invite scholars to engage in this discussion to reverse the biodiversity crisis searching and applying alternative strategies.Preprin

Influence of water and nutrients on cork oak radial growth – looking for an efficient fertirrigation regime

Abstract The widespread cork oak (Quercus suber L.) mortality and reduced afforestation /regeneration are causing an overall reduction in cork production. To enhance trees’ growth and vitality, afforestation techniques using fertirrigation were tested. The main objective was the promotion of trees’ growth on new dense plantations using minimum water requirements until reaching productive forests. The experimental plot – Irricork – was installed in 2017 in a ≈1 ha stand with 14 years’ age cork oaks summer-fertirrigated since plantation. Four fertirrigation treatments were applied during fertirrigation campaigns. Radial growth, meteorological parameters and fertirrigation volume were measured every 15–30 days over four years. It was observed that weather, tree size, debarking and trees’ intra-competition had a significant effect on radial increments. Fertirrigation significantly enhanced growth during summer drought and decoupled increments from air vapor pressure deficit constraints. There was a linear relationship between trees’ radial increments and fertirrigation volume up to 140 m3 week–1. Above this value, increments were smoother. In conclusion, summer fertirrigation of 140 m3 week–1 efficiently enhanced the radial growth of trees with 50–75 circumference at breast height, under the particular edaphoclimatic conditions of the stand. This study showed to be, therefore, promising in the use of efficient fertirrigation the enhance cork oaks’ radial growth

Influence of water and nutrients on cork oak radial growth – looking for an efficient fertirrigation regime

The widespread cork oak (Quercus suber L.) mortality and reduced afforestation /regeneration are causing an overall reduction in cork production. To enhance trees’ growth and vitality, afforestation techniques using fertirrigation were tested. The main objective was the promotion of trees’ growth on new dense plantations using minimum water requirements until reaching productive forests. The experimental plot – Irricork – was installed in 2017 in a ≈1 ha stand with 14 years’ age cork oaks summer-fertirrigated since plantation. Four fertirrigation treatments were applied during fertirrigation campaigns. Radial growth, meteorological parameters and fertirrigation volume were measured every 15–30 days over four years. It was observed that weather, tree size, debarking and trees’ intra-competition had a significant effect on radial increments. Fertirrigation significantly enhanced growth during summer drought and decoupled increments from air vapor pressure deficit constraints. There was a linear relationship between trees’ radial increments and fertirrigation volume up to 140 m3 week–1. Above this value, increments were smoother. In conclusion, summer fertirrigation of 140 m3 week–1 efficiently enhanced the radial growth of trees with 50–75 circumference at breast height, under the particular edaphoclimatic conditions of the stand. This study showed to be, therefore, promising in the use of efficient fertirrigation the enhance cork oaks’ radial growth

Humanism in telemedicine: Connecting through virtual visits during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is spurring the massive deployment of telemedicine to prevent risk of infection and address healthcare workforce demands. In primary care, many visits have shifted from in-person to telemedicine, introducing a potential barrier to the human connection that is central to clinical care. We adapted existing frameworks that seek to foster humanism in clinical care-the Four Habits Model and Presence 5-to the virtual care context. Reconceptualizing these frameworks to video visits in particular yields strategies for four phases of the visit - (1) Before the Visit: Set up for Success, (2) Beginning the Visit: Establish a Connection, (3) Throughout the Visit: Invest in the Relationship and the Patient's Story, and (4) Completing the Visit: End on a Meaningful Note. Adopting explicit humanistic practices can help clinicians foster meaningful connections with patients through video visits amidst this challenging pandemic and in the future as telemedicine becomes more widely integrated into clinical care.This study was supported by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (#6382; PIs Donna Zulman and Abraham Verghese). Megha Shankar is supported by a VA Office of Academic Affairs Advanced Fellowship in Health Services Research. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, or Stanford University School of Medicine.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154738/1/Shankar article file.pdfDescription of Shankar article file.pdf : Main articl

Physical activity and nutrition program for seniors (PANS): protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Background Along with reduced levels of physical activity, older Australian's mean energy consumption has increased. Now over 60% of older Australians are considered overweight or obese. This study aims to confirm if a low-cost, accessible physical activity and nutrition program can improve levels of physical activity and diet of insufficiently active 60-70 year-olds. Methods/Design This 12-month home-based randomised controlled trial (RCT) will consist of a nutrition and physical activity intervention for insufficiently active people aged 60 to 70 years from low to medium socio-economic areas. Six-hundred participants will be recruited from the Australian Federal Electoral Role and randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 300) and control (n = 300) groups. The study is based on the Social Cognitive Theory and Precede-Proceed Model, incorporating voluntary cooperation and self-efficacy. The intervention includes a specially designed booklet that provides participants with information and encourages dietary and physical activity goal setting. The booklet will be supported by an exercise chart, calendar, bi-monthly newsletters, resistance bands and pedometers, along with phone and email contact. Data will be collected over three time points: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention and 6-months post-study. Discussion This trial will provide valuable information for community-based strategies to improve older adults' physical activity and dietary intake. The project will provide guidelines for appropriate sample recruitment, and the development, implementation and evaluation of a minimal intervention program, as well as information on minimising barriers to participation in similar programs

“Not just drumming and dancing”: The production of national culture in Ghana\u27s schools

The production of national culture has become a crucial aspect of the modern project of nation-building in Ghana. Since late colonial times, governments in Ghana have tried to use local cultural traditions to build a national identity. Struggling with postcolonial ambivalence about the role of “tradition” in national progress, they have re-worked colonial and missionary discourses that saw “tradition” as symbolic of both “backwardness” and the glory of the national past. They have turned to schools as an organizing apparatus to reach the nation\u27s children. Yet schools are invested in the production of different kinds of subjects and knowledges than those associated with “culture.” In Ghana, education is closely associated with Christianity and modernity; schools also engage in the abstraction and alienation of experiential, embodied knowledge into lists and definitions of words, for the purpose of passing examinations. Using ethnographic research methods (participant-observation in school and community contexts and conversational interviews over a year), oral historical material, and archival data, I examine how the practices and meanings of schools in one area (Akuapem) transform the ideological intent of government cultural programming, even as that programming creates different possibilities than are otherwise available in schools. In seeking to understand the complex effects of the production of national culture in Ghana, I focus on three areas: (1) historically, the process by which “culture” became an object of discourse, a selection of the complex flow of cultural practices, and associated with the nation; (2) contemporary competing discourses about “culture” and the way that students and teachers negotiate between government policy and Christian identifications in classrooms and performances; and (3) the impact of the teaching of “culture” in the schools on students\u27 relationship to knowledge. This work documents the complicated, problematic effects of cultural programming directed toward youth through the institution of schools in a postcolonial African nation

“Not just drumming and dancing”: The production of national culture in Ghana\u27s schools

The production of national culture has become a crucial aspect of the modern project of nation-building in Ghana. Since late colonial times, governments in Ghana have tried to use local cultural traditions to build a national identity. Struggling with postcolonial ambivalence about the role of “tradition” in national progress, they have re-worked colonial and missionary discourses that saw “tradition” as symbolic of both “backwardness” and the glory of the national past. They have turned to schools as an organizing apparatus to reach the nation\u27s children. Yet schools are invested in the production of different kinds of subjects and knowledges than those associated with “culture.” In Ghana, education is closely associated with Christianity and modernity; schools also engage in the abstraction and alienation of experiential, embodied knowledge into lists and definitions of words, for the purpose of passing examinations. Using ethnographic research methods (participant-observation in school and community contexts and conversational interviews over a year), oral historical material, and archival data, I examine how the practices and meanings of schools in one area (Akuapem) transform the ideological intent of government cultural programming, even as that programming creates different possibilities than are otherwise available in schools. In seeking to understand the complex effects of the production of national culture in Ghana, I focus on three areas: (1) historically, the process by which “culture” became an object of discourse, a selection of the complex flow of cultural practices, and associated with the nation; (2) contemporary competing discourses about “culture” and the way that students and teachers negotiate between government policy and Christian identifications in classrooms and performances; and (3) the impact of the teaching of “culture” in the schools on students\u27 relationship to knowledge. This work documents the complicated, problematic effects of cultural programming directed toward youth through the institution of schools in a postcolonial African nation