War drives forest fire risks and highlights the need for more ecologically-sound forest management in post-war Ukraine

Since 24 February 2022, Ukraine has experienced full-scale military aggression initiated by the Russian Federation. The war has had a major negative impact on vegetation cover of war-affected regions. We explored interactions between pre-war forest management and the impacts of military activities in three of the most forested Ukrainian areas of interest (AOI), affected by the war. These were forests lying between Kharkiv and Luhansk cities (AOI 'East'), forests along the Dnipro River delta (AOI 'Kherson'), and those of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (AOI CEZ). We used Sentinel satellite imagery to create damaged forest cover masks for the year 2022. We mapped forests with elevated fire hazard, which was defined as a degree of exposure to the fire-supporting land use (mostly an agricultural land, a common source of ignitions in Ukraine). We evaluated the forest disturbance rate in 2022, as compared to pre-war rates. We documented significant increases in non-stand replacing disturbances (low severity fires and non-fire disturbances) for all three of the AOIs. Damaged forest cover varied among the AOIs (24,180 ± 4,715 ha, or 9.3% ± 1.8% in the 'East' AOI; 7,293 ± 1,925 ha, or 15.7% ± 4.1% in the 'Kherson' AOI; 7,116 ± 1,274 ha, or 5.0% ± 0.9% in the CEZ AOI). Among the forests damaged in 2022, the 'Kherson' AOI will likely have the highest proportion of an area with elevated fire hazard in the coming decades, as compared to other regions (89% vs. 70% in the 'East' and CEZ AOIs respectively). Future fire risks and extensive war-related disturbance of forest cover call for forest management to develop strategies explicitly addressing these factors

Distance learning: opportunities and challenges in quarantine.

The urgent introduction of distance education into the learning process due to the COVID-19 pandemic has become a spontaneous experiment, requiring urgent decisions, effective mechanisms to implement into the educational process and analysis of ongoing educational process. The possibilities of modern digital technologies made it possible to quickly set up the information component of education and to controle student’s knowledge. A detailed analysis of the communication between the faculty members of the department among themselves and analysis of the features of teaching and self-education of students in the field of medical radiology and oncology based on answers and comments with using Google classroom, Socrative, Messenger Telegram, etc. was made. Issues of communicative interaction between faculty members and students, psychological aspects of distance communication, language of instruction, logistics of distance education and methodological problems are described in details. It has been suggested that distance education may be equally effective for theoretical subjects in full-time study form, but when studying clinical disciplines, the priority should be given to traditional methods of teaching, involving student's bedside training. Taking into account technical possibilities and high risk of development of extreme and emergency situations, it is suggested to introduce permanent readiness for distance education, to create all – Ukrainian distance imitation service of patients’ follow-up. The importance of using the state language in training as the basis for mastering the professional Ukrainian and English language as the basis for mastering international medical experience is indicated

A crowdsourced global data set for validating built-up surface layers

Several global high-resolution built-up surface products have emerged over the last five years, taking full advantage of open sources of satellite data such as Landsat and Sentinel. However, these data sets require validation that is independent of the producers of these products. To fill this gap, we designed a validation sample set of 50 K locations using a stratified sampling approach independent of any existing global built-up surface products. We launched a crowdsourcing campaign using Geo-Wiki (https://www.geo-wiki.org/) to visually interpret this sample set for built-up surfaces using very high-resolution satellite images as a source of reference data for labelling the samples, with a minimum of five validations per sample location. Data were collected for 10 m sub-pixels in an 80 × 80 m grid to allow for geo-registration errors as well as the application of different validation modes including exact pixel matching to majority or percentage agreement. The data set presented in this paper is suitable for the validation and inter-comparison of multiple products of built-up areas

Pandemic Boredom: Little Evidence That Lockdown-Related Boredom Affects Risky Public Health Behaviors Across 116 Countries

Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown ") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective. Boredom, specifically, has been singled out as one potential risk factor for noncompliance. We examined whether there was empirical evidence to support this concern during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large cross-national sample of 63,336 community respondents from 116 countries. Although boredom was higher in countries with more COVID-19 cases and in countries that instituted more stringent lockdowns, such boredom did not predict longitudinal within-person decreases in social distancing behavior (or vice versa; n = 8,031) in early spring and summer of 2020. Overall, we found little evidence that changes in boredom predict individual public health behaviors (handwashing, staying home, self-quarantining, and avoiding crowds) over time, or that such behaviors had any reliable longitudinal effects on boredom itself. In summary, contrary to concerns, we found little evidence that boredom posed a public health risk during lockdown and quarantine

A Crowdsourced Global Data Set for Validating Built-up Surface Layers

This collection contains data that were collected during a crowdsourcing campaign using Geo-Wiki (https://www.geo-wiki.org/). The campaign involved visual interpretation of a sample that is designed for validating any existing global built-up surface product. A zipped shapefile (ValidationGrids.zip) contains the random stratified sample of 50K locations, which consist of 80x80m grids further sub-divided into 10m cells so there are 64 cells per grid. These locations were provided to the crowd, who used very high-resolution satellite images to label the grids as built-up (i.e., containing a building), non-built-up or unsure. The file (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCentroidsAll.csv) contains the data collected in the campaign summarized by the centroid (or central point of each 80m grid location). The data collected for all 64 cells per grid can be found in Geo-WikiBuilt-upCellsAll.csv. The Geo-Wiki campaign uses visually interpreted grid locations called control points as part of the scoring mechanism of Geo-Wiki for quality control. These control points are provided by centroid (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCentroidsControls.csv) and for all cells in the 80m grid (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCellsControls.csv). Finally, the file Strata.csv contains the mapping between the grid location and the sampling stratum used in the design of the sample

A Crowdsourced Global Data Set for Validating Built-up Surface Layers V.2

This collection contains data that were collected during a crowdsourcing campaign using Geo-Wiki (https://www.geo-wiki.org/). The campaign involved visual interpretation of a sample that is designed for validating any existing global built-up surface product. A zipped shapefile (ValidationGrids.zip) contains the random stratified sample of 50K locations, which consist of 80x80m grids further sub-divided into 10m cells so there are 64 cells per grid. These locations were provided to the crowd, who used very high-resolution satellite images to label the grids as built-up (i.e., containing a building), non-built-up or unsure. The file (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCentroidsAll.csv) contains the data collected in the campaign summarized by the centroid (or central point of each 80m grid location). It also contains fields for quality control, one that indicates if the change information matches the control points (see below) or the majority answer from the crowd, and another that indicates whether the presence/absence of built-up matches the control points (see below) or the majority answer from the crowd. The data collected for all 64 cells per grid can be found in Geo-WikiBuilt-upCellsAll.csv. The Geo-Wiki campaign uses visually interpreted grid locations called control points as part of the scoring mechanism of Geo-Wiki for quality control. These control points are provided by centroid (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCentroidsControls.csv) and for all cells in the 80m grid (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCellsControls.csv). In addition to the raw data, two additional quality-controlled files have been produced. The first file (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCentroidsChangeQualityControlled.csv) provides a single record for each location on change in built-up (if built-up is present) that lists either the control point answer or the majority answer from the crowd. The second file (Geo-WikiBuilt-upCellsQualityControlled.csv) contains a single record for each of the 64 cells in each grid, listing either the control point answer or the majority answer from the crowd. Finally, the file Strata.csv contains the mapping between the grid location and the sampling stratum used in the design of the sample

Distance Learning: Opportunities and Challenges in Quarantine.

The urgent introduction of distance education into the learning process due to the COVID-19 pandemic has become a spontaneous experiment, requiring urgent decisions, effective mechanisms to implement into the educational process and analysis of ongoing educational process. The possibilities of modern digital technologies made it possible to quickly set up the information component of education and to controle student's knowledge. A detailed analysis of the communication between the faculty members of the department among themselves and analysis of the features of teaching and self-education of students in the field of medical radiology and oncology based on answers and comments with using Google classroom, Socrative, Messenger Telegram, etc. was made. Issues of communicative interaction between faculty members and students, psychological aspects of distance communication, language of instruction, logistics of distance education and methodological problems are described in details. It has been suggested that distance education may be equally effective for theoretical subjects in full-time study form, but when studying clinical disciplines, the priority should be given to traditional methods of teaching, involving student's bedside training. Taking into account technical possibilities and high risk of development of extreme and emergency situations, it is suggested to introduce permanent readiness for distance education, to create all – Ukrainian distance imitation service of patients' follow-up. The importance of using the state language in training as the basis for mastering the professional Ukrainian and English language as the basis for mastering International medical experience is indicated

Intentions to be Vaccinated Against COVID-19: The Role of Prosociality and Conspiracy Beliefs across 20 Countries

Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, involving 6697 respondents across 20 countries. Results showed that 72.9% of participants reported positive intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19, whereas 16.8% were undecided, and 10.3% reported they would not be vaccinated. At the individual level, prosociality was a significant positive predictor of vaccination intentions, whereas generic beliefs in conspiracy theories and religiosity were negative predictors. Country-level determinants, including cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and power distance, were not significant predictors of vaccination intentions. Altogether, this study identifies individual-level predictors that are common across multiple countries, provides further evidence on the importance of combating conspiracy theories, involving religious institutions in vaccination campaigns, and stimulating prosocial motives to encourage vaccine uptake

Intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19: the role of prosociality and conspiracy beliefs across 20 countries

Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, involving 6697 respondents across 20 countries. Results showed that 72.9% of participants reported positive intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19, whereas 16.8% were undecided, and 10.3% reported they would not be vaccinated. At the individual level, prosociality was a significant positive predictor of vaccination intentions, whereas generic beliefs in conspiracy theories and religiosity were negative predictors. Country-level determinants, including cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and power distance, were not significant predictors of vaccination intentions. Altogether, this study identifies individual-level predictors that are common across multiple countries, provides further evidence on the importance of combating conspiracy theories, involving religious institutions in vaccination campaigns, and stimulating prosocial motives to encourage vaccine uptake