The dental health care system has long been challenged with defining the levels of care to create an accurate and reliable method for triaging patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the demand for organized care. As a response, the American Dental Association (ADA) developed one of its first authorized protocols on how to schedule patients according to their ailments. Despite this report, no known guidelines have been found that facilitate systematized patient triage within dental health care settings. In the climate of today’s health care system especially, it is imperative to implement a methodical approach to effectively predicting the need for emergent, urgent, or elective care. The goal of this Capstone Project is to develop a scheduling guideline for the triage of dental patients and a research protocol for testing the guideline. / Oral Biology

This thesis presents ten interviews with French language teachers regarding their experience of emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their responses are analysed through the lens of professional didactics (Pastré, 1999), and by looking at models that have been created to describe the adoption of technology. The interviews are placed in the context of similar studies done before or during the pandemic. The instructors in this study were asked to describe their experiences from the sudden switch to online teaching during the pandemic and for the first eighteen months of it, including how they coped, what new digital competencies they developed and how, their perception as online teachers. and the digital practices they would like to carry forward. The models to describe technology integration are revisited in the context of ERT. Recommendations are made for stakeholders for language instructors’ professional development in the case of future ERT scenarios.

The purpose of this thesis was to identify causes of disparities in affliction (infection) and mortality for minority populations (Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indian/Alaskan Natives) during the Swine Flu (H1N1) and COVID-19 (Sars-Cov-2) Pandemics. A literature review was conducted gathering peer-reviewed journal articles related to racial and socioeconomic disparities in affliction and mortality during both pandemics. The model of Blumenshine et al. (2008) was used as a guide for the analysis of this thesis, and measures of exposure, susceptibility, and treatment were hypothesized as causes for the disparities experienced by the minority populations during the two pandemics. Ultimately, it was established that the causes of the disparities noted were found to be differences in social determinants of health experienced by minority populations including poverty, education, occupation, and housing location. Differences in each of these social determinants of health then led to disparities in exposure, susceptibility, and treatment. All of these disparities combined together caused disproportionate affliction and mortality for minority populations during both pandemics. Organizing disparities in terms of social determinants of health and identifying possible explanations for disparities is important for future pandemic planning, and the model of Blumenshine et al. (2008) is a structured way to hypothesize certain causes of disparities during a pandemic based on social determinants of health. Emphasis needs to be placed on developing a pandemic vulnerability index based on the measures hypothesized so that future pandemic planning can direct resources to those most vulnerable.

This paper describes the development of a brief self-report screening measure of adherence to social distancing and self-protective behaviors in pandemic situations. It provides initial statistical evaluations of correlations between social distancing behaviors and two trait measures (social desirability and trait empathy). Items measures were designed to quantify behaviors recommended by the CDC as primary strategies to prevent and reduce the spread of the COVID-19 infection. An item pool of 29 questions was generated with the aim of estimating the frequency of specific behaviors and were written to avoid confounding the description of behavioral actions with evaluative judgements. Responses were collected from 401 young adults using an anonymous online survey. An Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted with the purpose of item reduction and subscale development. A 14-item Social Distance Scale (SDS) emerged, consisting of 4-subscales: Isolation from Community (IC), Work from Home (WH), Family Contact (FC), and Protective Behaviors (PB). The initial psychometric evaluation of the scales indicated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The Social Distance Scale is a promising new instrument which may be applied at the population or individual level. It may be used in conjunction with COVID-19 testing to measure interactions between social distancing factors and transmission. In addition, a reliable screening measure has utility for health service providers to assess patient risk and to provide education/counseling. A secondary purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between trait empathy and social distancing. A MANCOVA was performed using the four subscales of the SDS v.1 with Empathy Group and Gender Group as fixed factors and the Socially Desirable Response Set (SDRS-5) as a covariate. The SDRS-5 was found to be a significant covariate for both the IC and PB subscales of the SDS v.1 , where higher levels of socially desirable responding lead to higher scores on IC and PB. It was hypothesized that participants high in self-reported trait empathy would demonstrate higher levels of social distancing. Indeed it was found that a significant main effect for Empathy Group emerged, where Empathy Group was significantly related to IC, WH, and PB. In line with expectations, participants in the High Empathy Group scored higher on these three dimensions of social distancing than those in the Low Empathy Group. A significant main effect for Gender Group was obtained for PB. Women were found to be significantly more likely to engage in protective behaviors such as hand washing, mask wearing, and maintaining 6 feet of distance than men.

In the COVID-19 stock market industries reacted and were affected in different ways. This paper will use Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes to look at how sectors and selected industries fared after a whole year in a pandemic. This will be accomplished by comparing 2019 stock returns to 2020 stock returns with a t-test and estimating the effect of COVID-19 positive case and death increases using a pooled OLS regression. All SIC sectors A-J were analyzed as well as 18 selected industries such as food stores, real estate, oil and gas extraction, health services, and communications. Results show a significant variation in the monthly returns of 2019 and 2020. Regression results show that there is a small but positive correlation of sector and industry returns to COVID-19 positive case and death increases. This contrary result can confirm the short influential window of COVID-19 outcomes on the stock market as shown in related research. This also confirms that regardless of the continued escalation of the pandemic, the stock market follows sentiment, not substance. This paper will contribute to the existing literature by conducting a yearlong event study of the United States' sectors and industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronapandemin är en pågående kris där de ekonomiska effekterna och inblandade faktorer för företag inte är helt klarlagda ännu. Teoretiska resonemang har förts kring om några av de effekter som sågs vid finanskrisen 2008–2009 (såsom förändrade revisionsarvoden) också kommer att ske till följd av coronapandemin. Studien syfte är att förklara om och isåfall hur coronapandemin påverkat noterade företags revisionsarvoden. Denna kvantitativa studie har utgått från deduktiv ansats för att pröva hypotes utifrån vetenskaplig teori. Datainsamling har gjorts från årsredovisningar från 187 företag på Stockholmsbörsen och Pearson r och OLS-regression har använts för att undersöka eventuella samband. Denna studie visar att coronapandemin har påverkat revisionsarvodet för svenska noterade bolag och att bidragande faktorer är storlek, komplexitet ochkonsultation.

No description available.

A contagious virus appeared in late 2019 and later led to the COVID-19 pandemic being declared in March 2020. The pandemic has since seen detrimental socioeconomic effects worldwide which led to a halt in the global tourism industries. Sweden has used a different and criticized approach to combating the pandemic compared to other countries. The country has relied on the individual responsibility and the civic liability of its population.Meanwhile, the biggest island in the country, Gotland, has recovered itsvisitation figures during the pandemic and has been voted the most popular destination in Sweden in 2021. This recovery was, however, not without consequences. Residents of the island have voiced their opinions on the topic of the pandemic and tourism online and in newspapers. Residents have expressed fear of the virus spreading further, imposing health risks as restrictions on social distancing have not been kept by tourists. Tourismrelated research on Swedish island destinations to this end is scarce in addition to there being limited research on residents’ attitudes during a pandemic and limited qualitative research on residents’ attitudes in general.This is a qualitative case study that studies the islanders’ perceptions of tourism impacts with the help of semi-structured interviews and letters to the editors. The study uses Social Exchange Theory as the conceptual framework,a theory described as the most logical framework to explain residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts. The results from this study show that the residents perceive more negative impacts than positive impacts. Perceptions of positive impacts are mainly related to the contributions to rural areas. Negative impacts related to water scarcity, littering, the disappearance of natural areas, over-crowding, gentrification, seasonality, the economic interest of the tourism industry during the pandemic, and more.

The purpose of this study was to explore the stories of identified, effective middle school teachers as they experienced changes in instructional strategies and practices as a result of an identified crisis, COVID-19. Although there has been little documentation in the literature specifically regarding adapting instructional strategies and practices as a result of crises, crisis management, change theory, mindset theory, adaptation, and teacher effectiveness characteristics became the framework through which to interpret the data. Data collection strategies included one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with a total of eight participants, two principals and six teachers, who met specific research participation criteria. Analysis of data occurred in three phases: (a) categorization of data under themes, (b) building the explanation of data in narrative form, and (c) re-examination of the data. Triangulation of data protected the credibility of the analysis by corroboration of teacher interviews with principal interviews, reflexivity, audit trail, and member checking. The results revealed that crisis management, change theory, mindset theory, and teacher effectiveness impacted the teachers’ adaptations of instructional strategies and practices during the pandemic. The results showed an interconnectedness of themes and the ways in which one impacted another. Seven themes emerged from the analysis of data, including: (1) commitment, (2) collaboration, (3) mindset, (4) teacher effectiveness, (5) supportive culture, (6) engagement challenges, and (7) learning gaps.

No description available.