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The COVID-19 outbreak reached a critical stage when it became imperative for public health systems to act decisively and design potential behavioral operational strategies aimed at containing the pandemic. Isolation through social distancing played a key role in achieving this objective. This research study examines the factors affecting the intention of individuals toward social distancing in India.

A correlation study was conducted on residents from across Indian states (N = 499). Online questionnaires were floated, consisting of health belief model and theory of planned behavior model, with respect to social distancing behavior initially. Finally, structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that perceived susceptibility (PS), facilitating conditions (FC) and subjective norms are the major predictors of attitude toward social distancing, with the effect size of 0.277, 0.132 and 0.551, respectively. The result also confirms that the attitude toward social distancing, perceived usefulness of social distancing and subjective norms significantly predict the Intention of individuals to use social distancing with the effect size of 0.355, 0.197 and 0.385, respectively. The nonsignificant association of PS with social distancing intention (IN) (H1b) is rendering the fact that attitude (AT) mediates the relationship between PS and IN; similarly, the nonsignificant association of FC with IN (H5) renders the fact that AT mediates the relationship between FC and IN.

The results of the study are helpful to policymakers to handle operations management of nudges like social distancing.

The research is one of its kind that explores the behavioral aspects of handling social nudges through FC.

The past two decades have witnessed the rapid developments in distance education. Though debates surrounding issues related to distance education have yet abated, more and more institutions, entrepreneurs, educators, and learners embrace distance education with the aid of improved information technologies. The present guide introduces the historical development, major theories, and leading agencies and organizations associated with the discipline. Furthermore, it provides an annotated selection of resources including periodicals, books and monographs, and Internet sites. Though emphasis is placed on representative resources and information of distance education of the USA, important international resources are also analytically introduced.

In the wake of COVID-19, most of the countries at present, are in a dilemma whether to extend lockdown at the cost of economy or to improve the hard-hit economy by lifting the lockdown. It is indicated by the reputed organizations and medical fraternity that corona will stay here for a longer period contrary to the earlier assumptions. Hence the purpose of this study is to suggest a strategy which balances both preventive measures and economic losses to control the pandemic.

There is a need for the identification of the critical success factors (CSFs) for developing COVID-19 preventive strategies to control the pandemic with an economy-centric approach.

The six CSFs identified are “Effective communication”, “Social distancing”, “Adopting new technology”, “Modify the rules and regulation at workplace”, “Sealing the borders of the territory” and “Strong leadership and government control”.

The study has a vital contribution to literature as no previous study has identified CSFs for developing COVID-19 preventive strategies while focusing on the economy.

Further, these identified CSFs are helpful in medium and longer-term planning which is required to rebalance and re-energize the economy following this epidemic crisis.

The study has given a model that depicts the cause and influence relationship between the key factors in the system under question. The importance of study increases many fold, as resources are limited and the outcome of the study could be used to channelize the resources effectively.

A raíz del surgimiento de COVID-19, en la actulidad la mayoría de los países se encuentran en un dilema entre extender el confinamiento a costa de la economía o mejorar la afectada economía levantando las cuarentenas. Diversas organizaciones incluyendo la comunidad médica indican que el coronavirus permanecerá por un período más largo, contrario a las suposiciones anteriores. En este contexto, es muy necesaria una estrategia que equilibre tanto las medidas preventivas como las pérdidas económicas.

Existe la necesidad de identificar los factores críticos de éxito (CSF) para desarrollar estrategias preventivas de COVID-19 para controlar la pandemia con un enfoque centrado en la economía.

Los seis CSF identificados son “Comunicación efectiva”, “Distanciamiento social”, “Adopción de nuevas tecnologías”, “Modificar las reglas y regulaciones en el lugar de trabajo”, “Sellar las fronteras del territorio” y “Liderazgo fuerte y control gubernamental”.

Este estudio tiene una contribución relevante para la literatura, ya que ningún estudio anterior ha identificado CSF para desarrollar estrategias preventivas de COVID-19 mientras se enfoca en la economía.

Además, los CSF identificados son útiles en la planificación a mediano y largo plazo que se requiere para reequilibrar y reactivar la economía después de esta crisis epidémica.

El estudio ha proporcionado un modelo que describe la relación de causa-efecto entre los factores clave del sistema analizado. La importancia del estudio se hace más evidente ya que ante recursos limitados, los resultados podría utilizarse para canalizar los recursos de manera eficaz.

Como resultado do surgimento do COVID-19, a maioria dos países está atualmente em um dilema entre estender o confinamento às custas da economia ou melhorar a economia afetada suspendendo as quarentenas. Várias organizações, incluindo a comunidade médica, indicam que o coronavírus permanecerá por um período mais longo, ao contrário das suposições anteriores. Nesse contexto, uma estratégia que equilibre medidas preventivas e perdas econômicas é muito necessária.

É necessário identificar os Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (CSF) para desenvolver estratégias preventivas ao COVID-19 para controlar a pandemia com uma abordagem centrada na economia.

Os seis CSF identificados são “Comunicação eficaz”, “Distanciamento social”, “Adoção de novas tecnologias”, “Modificar regras e regulamentos no local de trabalho”, “Selar as fronteiras do território” e “Liderança forte e controle governamental”.

Este estudo tem uma contribuição relevante para a literatura, uma vez que nenhum estudo anterior identificou a CSF para desenvolver estratégias preventivas ao COVID-19 com foco na economia.

Além disso, os CSF identificados são úteis no planejamento de médio e longo prazo necessário para reequilibrar e reativar a economia após esta crise epidêmica.

O estudo forneceu um modelo que descreve a relação causa-efeito entre os fatores-chave do sistema analisado. A importância do estudo fica mais evidente uma vez que, diante de uma situação de recursos limitados, os resultados poderiam ser usados para canalizar recursos de forma eficaz.

The purpose of this paper is to merge the ontologies that remove the redundancy and improve the storage efficiency. The count of ontologies developed in the past few eras is noticeably very high. With the availability of these ontologies, the needed information can be smoothly attained, but the presence of comparably varied ontologies nurtures the dispute of rework and merging of data. The assessment of the existing ontologies exposes the existence of the superfluous information; hence, ontology merging is the only solution. The existing ontology merging methods focus only on highly relevant classes and instances, whereas somewhat relevant classes and instances have been simply dropped. Those somewhat relevant classes and instances may also be useful or relevant to the given domain. In this paper, we propose a new method called hybrid semantic similarity measure (HSSM)-based ontology merging using formal concept analysis (FCA) and semantic similarity measure.

The HSSM categorizes the relevancy into three classes, namely highly relevant, moderate relevant and least relevant classes and instances. To achieve high efficiency in merging, HSSM performs both FCA part and the semantic similarity part.

The experimental results proved that the HSSM produced better results compared with existing algorithms in terms of similarity distance and time. An inconsistency check can also be done for the dissimilar classes and instances within an ontology. The output ontology will have set of highly relevant and moderate classes and instances as well as few least relevant classes and instances that will eventually lead to exhaustive ontology for the particular domain.

In this paper, a HSSM method is proposed and used to merge the academic social network ontologies; this is observed to be an extremely powerful methodology compared with other former studies. This HSSM approach can be applied for various domain ontologies and it may deliver a novel vision to the researchers.

The HSSM is not applied for merging the ontologies in any former studies up to the knowledge of authors.

In the present work, an analysis of influence of the notch on the toughness of material K_I is presented. A notched plate made out of structural steel is considered and subjected to uniformly tensile loading. Different values of angle and notch radius were selected. The material is assumed to be elastic perfectly plastic and the analysis was made according to a local approach defined by the volumetric approach. The parameters of the volumetric approach are the effective distance, effective stress and relative stress gradient and are determined by using the finite element method (F.E.M). The variation of the weight function affects the calculation of effective stress. The results obtained are confronted with models of Irwin and Creager - Paris. The results obtained show that for small radii, the stress intensity factor calculated by the weight function unit is close to those obtained by the models of Irwin and Creager-Paris. The increasing in the notch angle influences on the assessment of fracture toughness.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed higher education policy and practices across the globe, including Bangladesh. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were forced to deliver teaching and learning online. This chapter discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning practice in higher education in Bangladesh and highlights the cultural transformation of policy and practice. In addition, it proposes future directions on how to be prepared and addresses the challenges of emergencies and draws implications of the findings beyond the national context. In the beginning of the pandemic, most universities in Bangladesh had to initially shut down their operations without offering any alternatives. However, a number of universities gradually rolled out some online teaching and learning activities as the lockdowns kept extending. A large portion of the HEIs struggled to continue their online teaching and learning due to the lack of resources, i.e., devices, technological skills and training, lack of policy, negative mindset, poor network infrastructure, and high cost of internet. This unprecedented situation ushered in by the pandemic showed the lack of preparedness and below-par capacity to respond to emergencies for the continuation of higher education in Bangladesh. Furthermore, it highlighted that improving the higher education sector requires tremendous effort from the government, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, the universities, and other industries directly or indirectly related to the sector.

In the preceding two sections of this volume, we have examined some of the foundations of global leadership as well as cross-cultural perspectives. In this section we examine some of the processes, practices and developmental issues surrounding global leadership. As noted in the introduction to this volume, the placement of chapters in one of the three sections was somewhat arbitrary since all three sections are interrelated. The chapters in this section – by Elaine B. Sloan, Joy F. Hazucha and Paul T. Van Katwyk; John Hofmeister and Sarah Parker; and by Don D. Davis and Janet L. Bryant – could easily have been included in the Foundations section. The chapters by Joseph J. DiStefano and Martha L. Maznevski and by Linda E. Laddin could easily have been included in the Cross-Cultural Perspectives section. As we review these chapters, we will draw attention to the interrelationships with the other two sections.

The report covers an extension of the surface tube technique devised by T. E. Stanton to measure the intensity of skin friction. A simple surface tube is described and a method of varying the surface tube calibration curves to cover other fluids and temperatures is developed. An empirical equation is obtained permitting values of the intensity of skin friction to be determined from surface tube static tapping readings and the width of the opening of the surface tube.

The recent COVID-19 outbreak and severe natural disasters make the design of the humanitarian supply chain network (HSCN) a crucial strategic issue in a pre-disaster scenario. The HSCN design problem deals with the location/allocation of emergency response facilities (ERFs). This paper aims to propose and demonstrate how to design an efficient HSCN configuration under the risk of ERF disruptions.

This paper considers four performance measures simultaneously for the HSCN design by formulating a weighted goal programming (WGP) model. Solving the WGP model with different weight values assigned to each performance measure generates various HSCN configurations. This paper transforms a single-stage network into a general two-stage network, treating each HSCN configuration as a decision-making unit with two inputs and two outputs. Then a two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is applied to evaluate the HSCN schemes for consistently identifying the most efficient network configurations.

Among various network configurations generated by the WGP, the single-stage DEA model does not consistently identify the top-ranked HSCN schemes. In contrast, the proposed transformation approach identifies efficient HSCN configurations more consistently than the single-stage DEA model. A case study demonstrates that the proposed transformation method could provide a more robust and consistent evaluation for designing efficient HSCN systems. The proposed approach can be an essential tool for federal and local disaster response officials to plan a strategic design of HSCN.

This study presents how to transform a single-stage process into a two-stage network process to apply the general two-stage network DEA model for evaluating various HSCN configurations. The proposed transformation procedure could be extended for designing some supply chain systems with conflicting performance metrics more effectively and efficiently.