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Critically ill COVID-19 patients may exhibit various clinical symptoms of renal dysfunction including severe Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Currently, there is a lack of bibliometric analyses on COVID-19-related AKI. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the current research status and hot topics regarding COVID-19 AKI. The literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Subsequently, we utilized Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer, Citespace, and Pajek software to revealed the current research status, emerging topics, and developmental trends pertaining to COVID-19 AKI. This study encompassed a total of 1507 studies on COVID-19 AKI. The United States, China, and Italy emerged as the leading three countries in terms of publication numbers, contributing 498 (33.05%), 229 (15.20%), and 140 (9.29%) studies, respectively. The three most active and influential institutions include Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University and Harvard Medical School. Ronco C from Italy, holds the record for the highest number of publications, with a total of 15 papers authored. Cheng YC's work from China has garnered the highest number of citations, totaling 470 citations. The co-occurrence analysis of author keywords reveals that 'mortality', 'intensive care units', 'chronic kidney disease', 'nephrology', 'renal transplantation', 'acute respiratory distress syndrome', and 'risk factors' emerge as the primary areas of focus within the realm of COVID-19 AKI. In summary, this study analyzes the research trends in the field of COVID-19 AKI, providing a reference for further exploration and research on COVID-19 AKI mechanisms and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Team science refers to research initiatives considered in collaboration with scientists from different disciplines or fields. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis for visualization of global research activity concerning the combination of cancer and the COVID-19 pandemic using a team science approach. A bibliometric study was implemented using Web of Science from 2019 to 2021. We analyzed citations to identify description and citations analysis of results, most prolific countries, international research collaboration, most prolific institutions, research areas, most cited papers, and most productive journals. The preliminary data of 2,313 studies that adopted a team science approach were recorded and analyzed. Team science is becoming progressively popular in cancer research. The United States was the most active country, followed by Italy and China. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy had the highest level of cooperation with other countries. The most prolific institution was Harvard University, followed by University of London and the University of Texas System. Head and Neck Journal for the Sciences and Specialties of the Head and Neck, Frontiers in Oncology, and eCancerMedicalScience were the most productive journals. Governments, organizations, policymakers, and researchers should pay attention to team science approach at times of disasters such as cancer and COVID-19 to achieve the best strategies for controlling cancer that is currently a world problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamics of volatility spillovers among five major tourism stock indices during the Covid-19 period. Our paper enriches the current literature as it is the first paper to investigate the volatility spillovers among major global tourism stock indices by adopting Diebold and Yilmaz (2012. Better to give than to receive: Predictive directional measurement of volatility spillovers. International Journal of Forecasting, 28(1), 57–66.), and Barunik and Krehlik (2018. Measuring the Frequency Dynamics of Financial Connectedness and Systemic Risk. Journal of Financial Econometrics, 16(2), 271–296.) time and frequency domain methods. Results suggest that total spillovers of the tourism stock indices rose significantly during the pandemic. Turkey and Italy are net volatility spillover transmitters, and others are net volatility spillover receivers. Findings of this study also indicates that the effect of volatility transmission among tourism stock markets is temporary (short-lasting). The results suggest that short-term investors and portfolio managers should avoid investing in the tourism indices in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critically ill COVID-19 patients may exhibit various clinical symptoms of renal dysfunction including severe Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Currently, there is a lack of bibliometric analyses on COVID-19- related AKI. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the current research status and hot topics regarding COVID-19 AKI. The literature was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. Subsequently, we utilized Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer, Citespace, and Pajek software to revealed the current research status, emerging topics, and developmental trends pertaining to COVID-19 AKI. This study encompassed a total of 1507 studies on COVID-19 AKI. The United States, China, and Italy emerged as the leading three countries in terms of publication numbers, contributing 498 (33.05%), 229 (15.20%), and 140 (9.29%) studies, respectively. The three most active and influential institutions include Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University and Harvard Medical School. Ronco C from Italy, holds the record for the highest number of publications, with a total of 15 papers authored. Cheng YC’s work from China has garnered the highest number of citations, totaling 470 citations. The co-occurrence analysis of author keywords reveals that ‘mortality’, ‘intensive care units’, ‘chronic kidney disease’, ‘nephrology’, ‘renal transplantation’, ‘acute respiratory distress syndrome’, and ‘risk factors’ emerge as the primary areas of focus within the realm of COVID-19 AKI. In summary, this study analyzes the research trends in the field of COVID-19 AKI, providing a reference for further exploration and research on COVID-19 AKI mechanisms and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Modern Italian Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the proximity of local media to audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on a case study of Italian daily L'Eco di Bergamo combining two sets of data: a list of initiatives the newspaper took in 2019 and 2020 to be closer to audiences, and interviews shedding light on how staff viewed the paper's relationship with audiences during that time. An analysis of these two datasets shows that the pandemic increased the newspaper's proximity to audiences but did not fundamentally change the way in which it related with audiences, despite significant changes in journalists' work routines. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a conceptualization of proximity as a dynamic balance between three structuring dimensions (gatekeeping, social and commercial), with a focus on audiences as a plural figure determined by news organizations' strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The landscape–tourism nexus has been the subject of many scientific contributions that differ in nature and methodological approach. Beyond sectorial planning assessments and impact evaluations, which often fail to grasp this complex relationship, this paper draws on conceptual frameworks in the social sciences and humanities that define the nexus through the productive potential of mobilities, bodily presences and interactions to investigate tourist landscapes in pandemic times. More precisely, the blended concept of dwelling-in-motion is adopted to explore tourist landscapes as evolving constellations of intertwined places and practices of people engaging with empty spaces, redescribing their functions and values and defining new forms of proximity tourism. This study focuses on the Brenta Riviera in northeastern Italy between Padua and Venice—an extremely dense area in terms of landscape stratifications and an exemplary local case where the effects of COVID-19 restrictions have been reshaping physical orderings, social relations and cultural meanings. During the third wave of the pandemic in Italy, a mapping process based on an online survey collected significant georeferenced landscapes among visitors, residents and operators, unveiling multiple and often unexpected Riviera landscapes as expressions of changing attitudes and behaviours towards neighbouring places. Calling for intimate well-being or collective involvement, 'newcomers-on-the-move' have been blurring the lines between daily, recreational and tourist landscapes, leading to a reconsideration of who can be a tourist and what can be a tourist landscape in a (post-)COVID-19 world. From a tourism policy perspective, tracing these trajectories is one of the starting points for rethinking destination recovery and addressing sustainable goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU authorities have launched extraordinary fiscal and monetary measures in support of member states. The impact of these measures is of great significance for Italy, the EU third-largest economy, which as a result of the pandemic has suffered a dramatic decline in GDP, and a further rise in the government debt to GDP ratio. Building on a stock-flow consistent, structural macro-econometric model, this paper shows that the currently planned EU measures are insufficient to boost the recovery of the Italian economy, and to ensure the sustainability of its government debt. The paper also assesses two potential alternative policies. A fiscal consolidation (i.e. austerity) policy would exacerbate the decline in GDP and further deteriorate the government debt to GDP ratio. By contrast, a money-financed fiscal stimulus policy could lead the Italian economy on a path of sustainable growth, with positive outcomes for employment and government finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge brokers are among the main channels of communication between scientists and the public and a key element to establishing a relation of trust between the two. But translating knowledge from the scientific community to a wider audience presents several difficulties, which can be accentuated in times of crisis. In this paper we study some of the problems that knowledge brokers face when communicating in times of crisis. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected interviews with Italian experts that played a major role as knowledge brokers in the local media. We asked them questions about five main topics: the features and role of science communicators; the use of language in communicating science; the importance of the relation of trust with the public; the peculiarity of communicating in a context of emergency; the problem of disagreement among experts, and its public perception and communication. The goal of this paper is to understand, through the words of knowledge brokers themselves, what they consider as best practices (and obstacles) to create trust between scientists and the public. Our empirical work can inform normative accounts of what knowledge brokering should be about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Italian stock market at an industry level, analysing companies listed in the two major stock indexes: MIB 30 and STAR. Using daily firm-level stock prices (from December 2019, until October 31, 2020), we employed an event-study approach to analyse short-term stock market reactions, considering different pandemic windows period. Results showed that stocks reacted negatively to the announcement of the first case in the country, with deep reversal effects when the country was locked down. Monetary policy measures showed potential to ease stock markets: the announcement of Next Generation Agreement highlights the reversed role of Market Capitalization. Firm-specific variables were included in order to make inferences about firm characteristics that emerged as value drivers during the pandemic: in the first lockdown period, a greater company's capitalization ensured a greater resilience to the Covid-19 shock. Reversals at both an industry and a company level are observed. Results allow to understand how an outbreak of contagious disease affects stock returns in various sectors, helping investors to develop trading strategies to protect their wealth from future epidemics and providing inputs into the assessment of economic vulnerability to pandemic crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first wave of the spread of Covid-19 was contrasted by many countries through a severe lockdown of working and learning activities. One of the solutions for preserving the continuity of teaching activities was the adoption of different forms of remote teaching. A similar 'translation' has been adopted by many universities for re-organizing field placement. This decision was undertaken by bachelor programs in Social Work in Italy too. However, since field placements rely on the physical presence and the participation of students in the activities performed by social workers, this shift was particularly challenging. Moreover, remote interactions hinder the possibility of observing the distinctive relational dimension of social work. This paper examines the process of re-organization of field placements enacted by a Bachelor's Program in Social Work in an Italian university. We propose a preliminary assessment of this experience, reflecting on the positive and critical aspects of the forced reorganization of field placement. We consider this phenomenon as a process of organizational learning, that crosses multiple domains of social work. We discuss whether this process can be the driver of a mechanism of double-loop learning, leading towards the enrichment of teaching and learning activities rather than a temporary adaptation to a contingent need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to official data by the Italian National Institute of Health (as of July 22, 2020), more than 34,000 patients, mostly elderly men, have died of COVID-19. The majority of these deaths (82 percent) are concentrated in the Northern regions. This study investigates Italy's North–South dichotomy, exploring differences in social norms and family habits among Italian regions from a feminist perspective. Relying on time-use data, it analyzes whether family roles have protected elderly people from the pandemic in the South as compared to the North. The paper emphasizes the need to recognize the value of care and support unpaid care work performed by elderly people within and across households. Further, the paper argues for the need to consider the changing conditions of eldercare and contributes to the growing debate about its quality in Italy and elsewhere. HIGHLIGHTS Care of and by the elderly has become a new feature of North–South dualism in social norms in Italy. North vs. South response to the pandemic reflects differences in terms of caring spirits. Differences in family structures may explain regional differences in severity of elderly mortality from COVID-19. The need to recognize the value of unpaid work has become urgent in the wake of the pandemic. Attention must be devoted to the intangible aspects of intrahousehold care practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines early impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on stock returns of 11 sectors using the firm-level stock price data from 10 countries. Results show that investors across sectors and countries respond differently during the outbreak. Communication Services, Consumer Staples, Health Care, Information Technology, and Utilities sectors consistently perform relatively well, compared to other sectors, in all countries except Italy, Japan and U.S. Conversely, Energy sector suffers greatest abnormal negative returns, among all sectors, in countries including Canada, Italy, U.K. and U.S. Furthermore, Japan and U.S. have highest numbers of abnormally and negatively affected sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maria Laura Ruiu is lecturer at Northumbria University (Newcastle upon Tyne). She has recently completed her second PhD in Social Sciences (Northumbria University). She also acted as post-doctoral researcher at the Desertification Research Centre (University of Sassari, Italy) investigating the adaptive capacity of some communities to climate change impact. This paper analyses the first phases of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak management in Italy by exploring the combination of political, scientific, media and public responses. A lack of coordination between political and scientific levels, and between institutional claim-makers and the media, suggests a mismanagement of the crisis during the first phases of the outbreak. The outbreak management suffered from the five communication weaknesses identified by Reynolds, related to i) mixed messages from multiple messengers; ii) delay in releasing information; iii) paternalistic attitudes; iv) lack of immediate reaction to rumours; and v) political confusion. This supports that the communication of uncertainty around an unknown threat should be accompanied by both political and scientific cohesion. However, both political and scientific dysfunctions caused the failure of several government efforts to contain the outbreak. This paper contributes towards informing policymakers on some lessons learned from the management of the Covid-19 in one of the most affected countries in the world. The Italian case study offers the opportunity for other countries to improve the management of the outbreak by limiting the spread of both chaos and panic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective response to a pandemic depends not only on national dynamics and characteristics but also on the features of a country's political and administrative decentralization and on the organizational capacities of the health system. As a result, different policy capacities can be present in the same national health system, and this variance allows us to understand local policy actions and their outcomes. Based on this assumption, this paper compares the process and the content of the initial policy response in three Italian regions (Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna). These three regions simultaneously experienced the most intense diffusion of infections and adopted very different strategies to mitigate the transmission of the virus. Our comparison reveals how the characteristics of Italy's decentralized health system and the consequent differentiation in terms of health policy capacities have clearly driven very different regional first health policy responses and outcomes with regard to dealing with the spread of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper revisits the outbreak of Covid-19 in Italy and particularly in Lombardy region, the first and initially most severely affected area among western countries. First, we provide an overview of the impact of the pandemic in the country and in the region, mentioning the turning points and the main effects on the national and local economy. Second, we focus on the impact in the educational sector, by describing an overview of the university's activities and reporting the actions undertaken by our home university, Politecnico di Milano, a technological university located in Milan (Lombardy region). We report the activities during the three main stages of the pandemic: the reaction, the management of the emergency and the planning of the new normality. Finally, we provide considerations on the main elements emerging from our commentary, showing the prominent roles of governance and communication in ensuring continuity for students, support for faculty and the redesign of services for the administrative staff. A student-centric approach and a high engagement of the entire community are the main elements that brought together the organisation to face the emergency and plan for the future, where the digital and physical layers coexists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at contemporary circus as a physical, artistic practice that cultivates utopia, through reshaping values, dreams, subjectivities and socio-cultural logics in dedicated training and performing places. Circus training cultivates a community of bodies and generates tensions and discrepancies between the vision and values it predicates and their implementation in a neoliberal world. The present and future, personal and political sides of life intertwine in shaping and unsettling circus utopia. The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided circus practitioners with time and new lenses to consider hopes, fears, doubts and certainties. The circus training utopia is explored drawing on the meanings, representations and definitions circulating among a diversity of actors and sites involved in processes of learning, participation and identity building through circus practices. Data were generated before the lockdown through interviews and participant observation conducted mainly in and around the city of Turin, Italy, and during the lockdown through analysis of specialized media and online conversations within the Italian circus scene. Insights are presented into how the lockdown reinforced and disrupted ideals about the appearance, skills and learning capacity of the circus body; the creative and disciplined character of circus practitioners; the alternative circus life of passion, fun, freedom, challenges and achievements; and the circus community resisting dominant culture and mainstream within the cultural field. Tensions emerged towards and against consistent, structured and widespread dialogue among actors and organizations, stronger public advocacy and claims for institutional recognition and support. These shed light on the fragmented character of the contemporary circus field in Italy, but also placed emphasis on and raised awareness about the need to build a stronger and more cohesive circus community, able to raise a common voice, empowering enough to stay on the utopic course while navigating COVID-19 society and its future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three months into the Covid-19 crisis, lockdown has become a global response to the pandemic. Why have so many countries resorted to lockdown? How is it being implemented in different places? Why have some places had more success with lockdowns and others not? What does the effectiveness of lockdowns tell us about the local institutions entrusted with enforcing them? This paper compares how lockdown orders have been implemented in China, Italy, and the U.S. The analysis points to two major factors that have shaped the enforcement: tensions between national and local governments, and the strength of local territorial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis has triggered political tensions involving different levels of government. Italy constitutes a paradigmatic example of such problems. The powers assigned to regional presidents as a result of the dynamics of presidentialization make them key players in Italy's fragmented multilevel system. The article aims to demonstrate that the conflict between national and regional governments during the pandemic has been based mainly on polity reasons, that is regional governments' ambition to strengthen their autonomy, rather than on policy arguments. The Covid-19 crisis in Italy has taken the form of an intergovernmental conflict over the balance of authority between central and regional governments. This state of affairs has complicated the attempts at establishing a satisfactory level of coordination between the levels of government, has resulted in a fragmented response to the crisis, and has triggered a systemic conflict between levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Psychotraumatology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Taylor's law states that the spatial variance of the population density varies as the power function of the mean population density. This law is tested on daily Covid-19 infection density for five periods between February 25, 2020 and March 15, 2021. The Italian provinces are grouped by geography into three ensembles. A simultaneous-equation model accounts for correlations between the ensembles, between Italian provinces within each ensemble, and for temporal autocorrelations. The selected periods show ensembles with all Taylor's law slopes below 2 (reflecting State interventions at the national level), or all above 2 (reflecting interventions at the local level), or some ensembles above while others were below. Slope of Taylor's law and average density trend indicate whether the infection density is highly concentrated in a few provinces (when the slope is greater than 2 with increasing density, and when the slope is less than 2 with decreasing density) or spread evenly among all provinces in an ensemble (when the slope is greater than 2 with decreasing density, and when the slope is less than 2 with increasing density), which allows the government and epidemiologists to design disease control policies for targeted provinces and ensembles in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated people's preferences in COVID-19 vaccine allocation priority, comparing different social categories based on age and occupation. Vaccine allocation preferences were related to perceived health vulnerability and economic backlash (economic negative consequences) endured by the different social groups during the pandemic. In-group favoritism in vaccine allocation preferences was analyzed. Data were collected through an online survey in Italy (n = 506) before the start of the vaccination campaign. Vaccine allocation preferences, health vulnerability, and economic backlash due to COVID-19, measured through ranking tasks. The healthcare workers category was placed at the top of the ranking in vaccine allocation priority by 65% of the respondents. Vaccine allocation priority was related to perceived health vulnerability and not economic difficulties. Limited self-preference effects emerged. People who did not consider healthcare workers a priority (1/5 of the sample) had a lower education level, were more worried about COVID-19 infection risk, and did not trust vaccines. A consensus emerged on who should be vaccinated first. Governments and policymakers should be aware of these preferences when designing and communicating vaccine allocation plans to predict and foster the public's acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccination programs created by experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the opinions and perceptions of knowledge workers in Italy concerning the shift to remote work during the first countrywide lockdown (March–May 2020) imposed to contain the Covid-19 outbreak. Prior to the pandemic, remote work arrangements in the Italian context were not common. Thanks to a set of 35 interviews to workers who experienced significant disruption to their usual working routine because of the health crisis, we show that a marked element of discovery of remote work characterizes their accounts, articulated across 3 dimensions: temporal organization of work and life, technology, and social relations. We argue that this experience was instrumental for many of them to learn that 'another work routine is possible', because of the opportunity to try out alternative arrangements in the management of tasks and responsibilities. Yet issues of work-life balance, together with managerial cultures anchored in pre-pandemic forms of organization, considerably affect this perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent need to socially distance has prompted nonprofits to rely more on their institutional websites to reach donors and seek financial support. In this study, we use qualitative comparative analysis to explore which different combinations of information on organizational profile, governance, performance, and finances are deemed most suitable by Italian community foundations to encourage charitable giving. The results highlight two different paths, suggesting that organizational profile, performance, and governance information matter most to Italian community foundations for retaining donors and donations, or attracting new ones, whereas financial information is not considered relevant for designing effective online disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the population level, there is limited empirical evidence on the characteristics of individuals who were hospitalized because of Covid-19, the role of hospitalization in mortality risk, and how both evolved over time. Through the analysis of surveillance data for 7 million people in Austria, Germany, and Italy, we investigate: (1) the demographic characteristics and outcomes of individuals hospitalized because of Covid-19; and (2) the role of demographic risk factors and healthcare utilization (as measured by hospitalization) for the individual probability of dying because of Covid-19, in both cases comparing the period February to June 2020 with July 2020 to February 2021. We find that the demographic profile of individuals who were hospitalized or died because of Covid-19 is the same in both periods, except for a younger age profile for hospitalizations in the second period. Mortality differentials across countries result from the interaction of demographic risk factors and hospitalization at the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on mental health, both in the general population and psychiatric patients. Little is known about the difference between these two populations in perceiving the pandemic as a traumatic event. The aim of the study was to compare psychiatric patients and healthy controls (HC) in terms of change over time of post-traumatic (PTSD) symptoms. Demographic and clinical variables were collected. Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R) scores were registered at T1 as lockdown period (March–April 2020) and T2 as restarting (May–June 2020). Descriptive analyses and linear regression models were performed. A total of 166 outpatients and 57 HC were recruited. Time (F = 15.76; p < 0.001) and diagnosis (F = 4.94; p < 0.001) had a significant effect on the change of IES-R scores, which resulted T1 > T2 (p < 0.001), except for subjects affected by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Overall, IES-R scores were < in patients than in HC (p = 0.02), particularly in the schizophrenia (SKZ) subgroup (p < 0.001). IES-R scores of subjects with personality disorders (PDs) resulted to be > HC, although not statistically significant. The lockdown period was perceived as more traumatic than the reopening phase by both groups, with the exception of OCD patients, probably because of the clinical worsening associated with the urge of control against risks of contamination. Overall, HC reported more PTSD symptoms than psychiatric patients did, particularly SKZ ones. PD patients, in contrast, may be more vulnerable to PTSD symptoms probably as a result of poor coping skills. Together with OCD patients, subjects with PDs may need closer monitoring during the different phases of the pandemic. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04694482 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns that started in March 2020 have sparked an increase in domestic labor in many families across the globe. This study focuses on gender differences in the distribution of domestic housework and childcare, as well as how they have impacted couples' conflicts during confinement, in the context of Spain and Italy. It employs a sequential mixed-methods approach in which a quantitative survey was followed by qualitative in-depth interviews. The results of the quantitative study (N = 447) showed that, for women, total household labor performed during confinement led to the perception of an unequal household distribution, which impacted couples' conflicts. In-depth interviews with participants from both countries confirmed the quantitative findings and allowed a nuanced understanding of how conflict negotiations evolved during the confinement. The results provide a comprehensive view of how the pandemic may have worsened women's situation in the household. HIGHLIGHTS Pandemic lockdowns intensified the already unequal distribution of housework in households in Spain and Italy. Women disproportionally spent more hours on childcare and household chores during confinement. Traditional gender norms shaped women's and men's perceptions of unfairness in terms of division of housework. Gender norms also limited women's bargaining power and shaped couples' conflict and negotiation strategies. Policies should aim to alleviate intrahousehold inequality to achieve better work–life balance for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was aimed at analyzing differences between weekdays and weekends in psychological well-being, relationship satisfaction, and dyadic coping, as well as their associations, before and during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Individuals in a couple's relationship completed an online questionnaire before (N = 76) and during (N = 50) the COVID-19 lockdown. With regard to the first aim, participants in the COVID condition reported greater psychological well-being during weekends than during weekdays. In addition, participants showed greater relationship satisfaction during weekdays than during weekends, independently of the COVID-19 condition. As for the dyadic coping process, only in the Pre-COVID group, individuals communicated their stress more frequently during weekdays than during weekends. Finally, regardless of the COVID condition, they reported higher positive and common dyadic coping responses during weekends than during weekdays. As for the second aim, a positive effect of common dyadic coping responses on both psychological well-being and relationship satisfaction emerged during weekdays and weekends. Positive dyadic coping positively predicted relationship satisfaction during weekdays and weekends. Higher negative dyadic coping was associated with lower psychological well-being (in the Pre-COVID group only) and lower relationship satisfaction during weekends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greece, Italy, and Spain are the Southern European borders and the main entrances for migrants and refugees to Europe, a movement that was particularly visible after the 2015 "refugee crisis of the Mediterranean." In this context, immigration is used as a political tool, and the object of major media coverage. However, previous studies have shown that this coverage tends to be partial and prejudiced. This study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, uses the frame building theory to study the perceptions of journalists covering migration issues regarding ways to improve the representation of migrants in the media of these three countries. For that, in-depth interviews were conducted with 94 Greek, Italian, and Spanish journalists. The precarity of the profession, the focus on conflictive approaches, and discrimination based on national origin or religion are mentioned as the biggest challenges. Professionals covering this information demand more individualized and deeper coverage, giving the migrants' condition greater visibility, and giving voice to the migrants themselves, as they are the protagonists of the stories. Greater attention to journalistic ethics and the defense of vulnerable groups is considered essential to achieve this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted global interdependencies, accompanied by widespread calls for worldwide cooperation against a virus that knows no borders, but responses were led largely separately by national governments. In this tension between aspiration and reality, people began to grapple with how their own lives were affected by the global nature of the pandemic. In this article, based on 493 qualitative interviews conducted between 2020 and 2021, we explore how people in Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ireland, Italy and Mexico experienced, coped with and navigated the global nature of the pandemic. In dialogue with debates about the parameters of the 'global' in global health, we focus on what we call people's everyday (de)bordering practices to examine how they negotiated (dis)connections between 'us' and 'them' during the pandemic. Our interviewees' reactions moved from national containment to an increasing focus on people's unequal socio-spatial situatedness. Eventually, they began to (de)border their lives beyond national lines of division and to describe a new normal: a growing awareness of global connectedness and a desire for global citizenship. This newfound sense of global interrelatedness could signal support for and encourage transnational political action in times of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to examine the protective role of perceived mattering to family and friends on psychological well-being in the Italian context during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the mediating role of emotion regulation. Data were collected during the first lockdown (March–April, 2020; time 1) and in other two moments (August and November, 2020; times 2 and 3). Cross-sectional analyses were conducted considering participants who completed the first wave (N = 457), while longitudinal analyses were performed on participants who completed the three waves (N = 109). Main outcome measures. Participants were administered the Mattering to Others Questionnaire, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and a short form of the Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scale. Results of correlational analyses supported the hypothesised link between perceived mattering and psychological well-being, which was mediated by difficulties in emotion regulations. Results of multilevel SEMs showed that individuals who experienced more mattering to family than others across a 9 months period, reported also lower levels of difficulties in emotion regulation and higher psychological well-being than others. Our findings clearly show that the perception of being important for family and friends could favour emotion regulation, thus protecting individuals from the negative psychological consequences of social isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy was the first Western country to be dramatically overwhelmed by Covid-19, the first country outside of China to implement lockdown measures and, until mid-April 2020, the country in the world most affected in terms of number of victims. This article aims to sketch the evolution of the first phase of the Covid-19 crisis in Italy and demonstrates that the health crisis moved forward hand in hand with some typical shortcomings characterising the Italian political, administrative and institutional system. The incremental reaction by the unprecedented M5S-PD coalition government showed the huge difficulties in facing the most serious challenge since the end of WWII, with the institutional system already afflicted by its scarce capacity and the economy still recovering from the 2012 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism sector is facing its most severe crisis under the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing measures, global travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders, and other lockdown measures brought tourism to a halt in 2020. We estimate the potential economic losses thereof in terms of added value and number of tourists by nationality. By using the city of Sorrento as prominent and representative case study, we implement time-series analysis with autoregressive-integrated moving average models on monthly data from January 2013 to December 2019. We thus forecast the loss of tourists and added value in 2020. The results reveal that the pandemic has significantly affected the tourism sector, the added value of tourism in Sorrento might decrease by over 70%, and tourist arrivals might similarly fall or even reach zero foreign arrivals. The local government should reassess the sustainability of tourism proposals by factoring in the lack of tourist arrivals and focusing on loyal tourists and proximity tourists, two fundamental target audiences. We analyse the potential economic effect of COVID-19 on tourism in 2020 A forecast analysis estimates the changes in added value and number of tourists An ARIMA model is employed on monthly data COVID-19 might negatively and severely affect the tourism economy Foreign tourism risks attracting zero travellers in the post-pandemic period [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study goal to scrutinize the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on unemployment in five selected European economies. To this end, the study uses a Fourier causality test for the period of December-2019 to December-2020. In Z-test results, Germany, Spain, and the UK have a significant positive change in unemployment due to COVID-19. The finding shows that COVID-19 cases cause unemployment for Germany, Italy, and the UK. Moreover, in terms of deaths, COVID-19 also causes unemployment in Italy and UK. Overall, the study's outcomes highlight that the pandemic increases the unemployment rate robustly in the mostly European economies. That is one of the rare negative effects of the virus on the European labor market. Novel COVID-19 findings provide a reliable guide to the future policy implication for the labor market. An active labor market policy will be needed to be in front of the world urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As for other vaccines, vaccination hesitancy may be a determining factor in the success (or otherwise) of the COVID-19 immunization campaign in healthcare workers (HCWs). To estimate the proportion of HCWs in Italy who expressed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, we conducted a systematic review of the relevant literature and a meta-analysis. Determinants of vaccine compliance and options suggested by these studies to address vaccine hesitancy among HCWs were also analyzed. Seventeen studies were included in the meta-analysis and systematic review, selected from scientific articles available in the MEDLINE/PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus databases between 1 January 2020 and 25 January 2022. The vaccine hesitancy rate among HCWs was 13.1% (95%CI: 6.9–20.9%). The vaccine hesitancy rate among HCWs investigated before and during the vaccination campaign was 18.2% (95%CI = 12.8–24.2%) and 8.9% (95%CI = 3.4–16.6%), respectively. That main reasons for vaccine hesitation were lack of information about vaccination, opinion that the vaccine is unsafe, and fear of adverse events. Despite strategies to achieve a greater willingness to immunize in this category, mandatory vaccination appears to be one of the most important measures that can guarantee the protection of HCWs and the patients they care for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Natural and anthropogenic disasters frequently affect both the supply and demand sides of an economy. A striking recent example is the Covid-19 pandemic which has created severe disruptions to economic output in most countries. These direct shocks to supply and demand will propagate downstream and upstream through production networks. Given the exogenous shocks, we derive a lower bound on total shock propagation. We find that even in this best case scenario network effects substantially amplify the initial shocks. To obtain more realistic model predictions, we study the propagation of shocks bottom-up by imposing different rationing rules on industries if they are not able to satisfy incoming demand. Our results show that economic impacts depend strongly on the emergence of input bottlenecks, making the rationing assumption a key variable in predicting adverse economic impacts. We further establish that the magnitude of initial shocks and network density heavily influence model predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates and compares the continuance intention of full-time business school students and faculty in India and Italy who moved from traditional pedagogy style to the digital classroom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study integrates the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) and Task-Technology Fit (TTF) to examine their continuance intention. Survey data was collected from 396 business school students and 130 faculty members from India and Italy and analysed using SmartPLS 3 software. The study found that perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and task-technology fit significantly impact the continuance intentions of students and faculty. Multigroup analysis of students indicates that Italian students are more driven by task-technology fit as compared to Indian students in their continuance intention; in comparison, Indian students rely more on gaining experience and knowhow on technology. Finally, the multigroup study of faculty suggests that Italian educators have a comparatively stronger orientation towards the fit between digital classroom technology and a portfolio of related tasks. In comparison, their Indian counterparts rely more on the perceived usefulness of technology. The strength of relationship between task-technology fit and continuance intention is comparatively lower for faculty as compared to students in both countries. Finally, implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aimed to assess the impact of school closures in Italy on children's lives, particularly in Early Childhood Education, as a result of the Covid-19 containment measures. A set of documents published by the Italian government related to the measures to contain the covid-19 were analyzed. Based on content analysis, three categories of analysis were defined: 1) containment measures and social life; 2) school closures and distance education; 3) the return of face-to-face activities in early childhood education. The results indicated that the containment measures imposed severe restrictions on children's social interaction, such as the closing of public and private spaces (parks, museums, etc.) and the impossibility of moments of interaction and collective play. They impacted the right to education by closing schools when distance education was implemented as a measure to reduce potential damage to children's learning and overall development. For the resumption of in-person activities in schools, there should be priority use of open spaces, social distancing, and measures of personal and collective hygiene. Another significant result is the consideration of daycare centers and pre-school as essential services by the Italian government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, digital technologies have become essential for the competitive success of museums and the achievement of their institutional mission. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have analyzed the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on digitalization in the museum sector. In light of this, the present study aims to investigate whether the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of museums. It examines the case of Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence through semi-structured interviews and secondary sources. The results show that the museum started its digitalization some time ago, but the pandemic has accelerated it. The institution has been developing several new digital projects using various online and onsite tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphors abound in descriptions of the COVID-19 pandemic: it is described, among other things, as a war, a flood, and a marathon. However, not all metaphors may resonate equally well with members of the public. Given that the pandemic has impacted people's lives across countries in divergent ways – both in terms of spread and in terms of government-imposed measures, we investigated whether audience perceptions of metaphors for the COVID-19 pandemic depend on source domain and country context. This mixed-design study examined how individuals across three European countries (Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands) perceived different COVID-19 metaphorical frames. Participants (N = 216) were randomly exposed to nine metaphorical frames and one literal-language frame and asked to express their perceptions in terms of liking, aptness, complexity, conventionality, and credibility. Results showed that audience perceptions of metaphorical descriptions of the COVID-19 pandemic differed between source domains and country contexts, but mostly in terms of aptness. These findings suggest that experience with the target domain may indeed be relevant for metaphor perceptions and highlight the importance of studying metaphor appreciation as a multifaceted phenomenon. Findings may also inform metaphor choice by governments, journalists, and other actors to describe this novel situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In order to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, a lockdown was issued in March 2020, which has forced people to spend much more time at home. While it is recognised that the associated change in life habits has changed their psychological well-being, quality of life also depends on physical well-being. This is particularly important for those with musculoskeletal conditions, such as spinal pain. Objectives: Recognising that spinal pain is a bio-psycho-social pathology, we developed a questionnaire to investigate potential associations between the level of disability caused by spinal pain (that arose or increased during the lockdown period) and the perception of the respondents with respect to the limitations of activities of daily living. Methods: In the absence of similar tools in the literature, a dedicated questionnaire tool was developed and piloted. It consists of 4 parts: two self-report questionnaires specially formulated for this study, and two already validated questionnaires. It was administered to 110 participants from 10 private rehabilitation facilities. All subjects were of age and had lumbar and/or cervical spine pain occurring before or during the lockdown period with non-traumatic etiopathogenesis. Results: The majority of participants perceived their spine pain as having arisen or increased during the lockdown period. The existence of a probable connection between this perception and the degree of disability at the time of the survey is confirmed by the contingency tables between this item of the second questionnaire and both disability scales which showed a statistically significant correlation. Conclusions: The survey tool was found to be valid in this population, and is recommended for further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy was hit harshly by the Covid-19 pandemic, registering more than 35,000 Covid-19 deaths between February and July 2020. During this first wave of the epidemic, the virus spread unequally across the country, with northern regions witnessing more cases and deaths. We investigate demographic and socio-economic factors contributing to the diverse regional impact of the virus during the first wave. Using generalized additive mixed models, we find that Covid-19 mortality at regional level is negatively associated with the degree of intergenerational co-residence, number of intensive care unit beds per capita, and delay in the outbreak of the epidemic. Conversely, we do not find strong associations for several variables highlighted in recent literature, such as population density or the share of the population who are older or have at least one chronic disease. Our results underscore the importance of context-specific analysis for the study of a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to compare the effects of weekly personal feedback, based on objectively measured physical activity, on daily sleep in breast cancer survivors (BCS) with those of an intervention that also included online supervised physical exercise sessions (OSPES). BCS benefiting from both personal feedback and OSPES (n = 24), from pre-lockdown (T0) to the first month (T1) of the national lockdown, experienced an increase in both total (p ≤ 0.001) and restorative (p ≤ 0.001) sleep time, inverting their trend from the first month of lockdown to its end (total sleeping time T1 vs. T2 0.01 ≤ p <.001, T1 vs. T3 p ≤ 0.001; restorative sleeping time T1 vs. T2 0.05 ≤ p <.01, T1 vs. T3 p ≤ 0.001). Supportive technology, together with the reception of weekly tailored advice and OSPES seems to improve both quality and quantity of sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was late February 2020 when part of Northern Italy entered the first Covid-19 lockdown of the West. While stories of people fleeing quarantined areas soon made national headlines, the international news was suddenly reporting of coronavirus patients connected to Italy all around the world. Against this background, Italian social media started thriving with Covid-19 humour. On 9 March the lockdown turned nationwide and became one of the strictest in Europe. This article addresses everyday memes of quarantined Italy as an instance of mundane memetics at a time of crisis. It investigates the leading discourses emerging from these memes to provide insight into the political culture that surfaces at the intersection between the ordinary of everyday social media uses and the extraordinary of crisis events. We combined digital methods and netnographic techniques to generate and analyse a dataset of over 9,000 Covid-19 memetic instances produced on Twitter by Italian publics during the first national lockdown. Our findings show that in early everyday pandemic memes the political stake did not manifest itself in the explicitness of values, attitudes, and knowledge tightly packaged in a purposeful and self-aware political culture. It rather surfaced in the form of a mundane political culture – one that was primarily performative, irrespective of any future political action, and marked by populist values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A discrete-time deterministic epidemic model is proposed to better understand the contagious dynamics and the behaviour observed in the incidence of real infectious diseases. For this purpose, we analyse a SIRS model both in a random-mixing approach and in a small-world network formulation. The models include the basic parameters that characterize an epidemic: infection and recovery times, as well as mechanisms of contagion. Depending on the parameters, the random-mixing model has different types of behaviour of an epidemic: pathogen extinction; endemic infection; sustained oscillations and dynamic extinction. Spatial effects are included in our network-based approach, where each individual of a population is represented by a node of a small-world network. Our network-based approach includes rewiring connections to account for time-varying network structure, a consequence of the natural response to the emergence of an epidemic (e.g. avoiding contacts with infected individuals). Random and adaptive rewiring conditions are analysed and numerical simulation are made. A comparison of model predictions with the actual effects of COVID-19 infection on population that occurred in Italy and France is produced. Results of the time series of infected people show that our adaptive evolving networks represent effective strategies able to decrease the epidemic spreading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since December 2019, Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly across the world. From its early stages, while the rest of the world was still new to COVID-19, Italy was one of the first and most severely hit countries. The chronic nature of the COVID-19 outbreak and untimely treatments were translated into an unstable social and emotional environment. This study explores the societal response to the first wave of the pandemic outbreak in Italy, looking at geographic variations, social and policy perspectives, and sentiments across northern, central, and southern regions. For this study, we collected nearly three million tweets associated with the coronavirus outbreak in the Italian regions of Lombardy, Lazio, and Sicily, during the months of March-May, 2020. A sentiment analysis was developed to (i) identify the spatio-temporal distribution of the polarity patterns of anger, fear, and joy; (ii) test correlation between these sentiments and COVID-19 cases; and (iii) determine the statistical significance between the sentiments across geographies. Findings provide insights on the relationship between sentiment variations and spatio-temporal case distribution associated with regional differences. These findings align with those of the "Track IT. COVID-19 International Survey," that investigated the societal response of Italians to the new measures enforced by local governments. Overall, the findings of this study can be weaved together into important implications for emotional wellbeing and economic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged parliamentary decision-making, which is normally based on time-consuming deliberation and scrutiny. We ask how national parliaments met this challenge during the first wave in the spring 2020, and we argue that institutional powers of the executive designed to handle crises just like a pandemic, paradoxically, increase challenges to democratic decision-making because the parliament misses opportunities to negotiate institutional adjustments accommodating pressure of government takeover. We evaluate this argument based on a comparative study of parliamentary activity in Italy and Denmark during the first wave of COVID-19 and find that both parliaments came under pressure with regard to law-making and control, but only the Danish parliament was able to install effective mechanisms to regain lost powers. It is too early to conclude on parliamentary consequences of COVID-19, but our study suggests that parliamentary reforms in response to the COVID-19 democratic challenges will mainly manifest in political systems without strong institutions to handle states of emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a Covid-19 susceptible-infected-recovered-dead model with time-varying rates of transmission, recovery, and death, the parameters are constant in small time intervals. A posteriori parameters result from the Euler-Maruyama approximation for stochastic differential equations and from Bayes' theorem. Parameter estimates and 10-day predictions are performed based on Moroccan and Italian Covid-19 data. Mean absolute errors and mean square errors indicate that predictions are of good quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]