Covid-19-pandemin drabbade hela världen och vårdkedjan behövde agera för att tillgodose det förändrade vårdbehovet. De patienter som krävde inneliggande vård placerades i isolering för att förhindra ytterligare smittspridning i samhället. Isolering innebär att vårdas separat och med avstånd till andra, vilket kan göras både enskilt och tillsammans med andra som bär samma smitta. Människan är komplex och har många behov som behöver tillgodoses för att uppleva hälsa och välbefinnande. Ett stort behov som människan har är social närvaro och meningsfulla sammanhang. Med anledning av detta lyftes studiens syfte i att undersöka patienters upplevelse av isolering i slutenvård i samband med covid-19. En litteraturstudie utifrån en integrerande sammanställning av kvalitativforskning är vald design för studiens utförande. Datainsamling har gjorts utifrån två databaser och gav ett forskningsunderlag med nio artiklar som har kvalitetsgranskats. Artiklarnas innehåll analyserades och utmynnade i fyra huvudkategorier: Upplevelsen av bristande delaktighet, Upplevelsen av existentiell sårbarhet, Strävan efter att normalisera tillvaron och Upplevelsen av god vård. Studiens resultat visar att patienters upplevelse av isoleringsvård är såväl negativ som positiv och påverkas av information, delaktighet, vårdpersonalens agerande och social distans. Patienterna kunde uppleva oro och ångest på grund av omedvetenhet och okunskap om sin hälsosituation, vilket föranledes av bristande information från vårdpersonal som i sin tur led av tidsbrist och rädsla. Detta kunde innebära ökat lidande för patienten då vårdbehovet inte tillgodosågs. Därav är det av stor vikt att vårdpersonal har kunskap om vad isolering kan innebära för en patient.

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked rapid shifts to engineering education, causing changes to course formats and student experiences. The culture of undergraduate engineering programs undoubtably affected this transition online and affected how students interpreted their experiences. To date, research on engineering culture has explored the values, beliefs, and underlying ideologies of the culture. However, what we know about engineering culture was captured predominantly during periods of stability. Because COVID-19 provides an opportunity to either challenge or uphold aspects of engineering culture, it was imperative to capture the experiences of students undergoing an engineering education during this time. In order to understand what facets of engineering culture were salient in students' interpretations of their classroom experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, I conducted a multiple case study exploring mechanical engineering students' constructions of their experiences taking second and third year courses during the pandemic. I compared two mechanical engineering programs – one in the United States and one in South Africa – by conducting semi-structured interviews with 10 to 11 mechanical engineering undergraduate students at each site as well as 1 to 2 key informants. My analysis identified the following cultural features that emerged as salient from students' perspectives during the pandemic at both sites: intrinsic hardness, differential access to resources, and application and design. Additionally, my analysis identified the following cultural features that emerged as salient at only one site: seeking help, job market, and scientific way of thinking. The key difference between sites appeared with respect to differential access to resources. This study captures and reports critical data about students' constructions of their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. By investigating engineering culture during a time of stress, this research identifies the most salient features of engineering culture that remained constant through the pandemic as well as the features that changed due to the pandemic. Further, the global comparative aspect of this work highlights which features of engineering culture are universal and which are influenced by national context. Overall, this research aims to inform future educational responses to disasters as well as future change efforts in engineering. / Doctor of Philosophy / The COVID-19 pandemic sparked rapid shifts to engineering education, sending students home and shifting classes online. The beliefs and values that engineering instructors and students have about how engineering should be taught and learned impacted this shift online in ways that could either help or hinder student learning. The pandemic provides an opportunity to understand which beliefs and values in engineering were stickiest and the most important to how students described their experiences. In order to understand how students described their experiences taking classes online during the pandemic, I interviewed 10 to 11 mechanical engineering students at two universities – one university in the United States and one in South Africa. I asked students to share stories about taking classes during the pandemic. I then analyzed their responses and looked for commonalities across their stories. I found that students talked about six common features of their experiences. First, students felt like their classes were hard, and they felt their classes should have been hard because that was part of what it means to study engineering. Second, students noticed that having a laptop and Wi-Fi became very important when all teaching and learning was happening online, and not having that access made learning more challenging. Third, students missed their in-person laboratory classes, which they also saw as central to engineering. Fourth, students at the university in South Africa talked about challenges with getting help with their classes because virtual learning made accessing instructor and peer help more difficult. Fifth, students at the university in the United States had concerns about finding jobs because the pandemic was impacting the economy and their ability to obtain internships. Sixth, students at the university in the United States were frustrated that the response to the pandemic wasn't more rooted in science. This study captures and reports students' stories about their experiences during the pandemic. By looking at how students talked about their experiences during the pandemic, this research identifies the stickiest features of engineering culture that remained constant through the pandemic as well as the features that changed due to the pandemic. Further, by comparing two countries, this work highlights which beliefs and values in engineering are widespread and which are not. Overall, this research aims to inform future educational responses to disasters as well as future change efforts in engineering.

This dissertation consists of three essays in Health Economics relating to the recent challenges in the U.S. The first essay studies the impact of retirement on subsequent health and investigates the mediation effect of social network in the relationship between retirement and health. Findings reveal that retirement adversely impacts physical and mental health outcomes and a considerable portion of these effects are explained by social network changes post-retirement. In particular, shrinkage in the size of social network post-retirement deteriorates physical health and increases depression in retirees. In the second essay, we assess the differential effect of social distancing on the daily growth rate of COVID-19 infections in the US counties by considering the spatial pattern of COVID-19 spread. We also conduct a comparative analysis of the effect on urban versus rural counties, as well as low versus high socially vulnerable counties. Our analysis illustrates that a high level of social distancing compliance is needed in urban counties and in socially vulnerable areas to achieve the largest impact at curve flattening, whereas moderate-compliance is enough in reaching the peak marginal impact in rural regions and counties with low social vulnerability. In the third essay, by combining multiple data sources, we investigate how racial disparities in access to healthcare contribute to the disparity in COVID-19 infections and mortality in black versus white sub-groups. The multilevel analysis demonstrates that a higher probability of having health insurance significantly reduces disparity in COVID-19 mortality in black sub-group while it has no impact on the disparity in whites. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation uses various quantitative methods to investigate policy-relevant questions regarding the recent challenges in the U.S. economy. In the first chapter, we explore how the physical and mental health of individuals changes by retirement. The results show that retirement decreases physical health while increases depression and anxiety. We also analyze how social network changes after retirement might cause changes in the health of retirees. We find that retirees may experience worse physical and mental health than non-retirees due to losing some of their relationships after retirement. In particular, the loss of contacts increases depression and deteriorates general health. In the second chapter, we investigate how compliance with social distancing within a typical county and its neighbor counties can reduce the spread of COVID-19. We examine this question for urban versus rural counties in the US and socially vulnerable versus socially not vulnerable counties. We find a high compliance level of social distancing is needed in urban counties and in socially vulnerable areas to reach the highest impact at slowing down the COVID-19 virus spread. In the third chapter, we examine whether healthcare access inequalities (e.g., having health insurance) increase the risk of COVID-19 infections and mortality for black communities. Our results show that having health insurance decreases COVID-19 mortality in communities of color but not whites.

When disasters occur, new or informal groups often emerge to assist with the response or have resources that can aid professional disaster managers involved in the crisis. Historically, incorporating these groups into the formal disaster response system under conditions of urgency and uncertainty has been difficult. This mixed-methods, three-article dissertation explores two cases of interorganizational collaboration in which public administrators working to manage the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated and integrated emergent actor participation in the response. The findings of the study point to the potential for disaster managers to routinize the anticipation of emergence by considering those organizations that may be best positioned to facilitate different emergent actors, ways of engaging them before crises occur, and mechanisms that might break down barriers to formal/informal responder collaboration during an acute response. The results of this study have implications for public administration, interorganizational collaboration, and disaster management. / Doctor of Philosophy / Large-scale disasters involve acute dangers to human and environmental health, and often property, creating significant disruption to society. This disruption may challenge public administrators' abilities to manage the size and scope of the impacts, creating an opportunity to work with groups not normally involved in managing disasters but that have unexpected but needed resources. As these new groups may not have the background or knowledge of formal disaster response systems and processes, they may not know how to identify or work with the officials managing the disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic, a complex and relatively uncommon disaster, provides an opportunity to explore the ways in which disaster managers incorporated novel resources and groups as they reacted to the ever-changing demands of the crisis. This dissertation explored two examples of groups of organizations working together in the state of Virginia to manage aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to understand the ways in which disaster managers may be better able to plan for, facilitate, and incorporate new groups into disaster management efforts. The results of this study indicate several ways in which new groups might be integrated into disaster management efforts, including differential implementation of disaster policy, the use of community liaisons to external groups, and technological innovations that reduce barriers to collaboration. Though we can never predict where the next major disaster will strike or what type of hazard it might involve, we can predict that first, it will happen and second, it will bring new groups into the response effort, as well as the need for disaster managers to collaborate with those new groups. As the findings from this project suggest, by considering the ways in which new groups might be better integrated during a disaster, it might be possible to better leverage critical resources to help communities better respond to a disaster.

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic being spread all over the world, lockdown measures are being implemented making air pollution levels go down in several countries. In this context, the air quality changes in the highly populated and trafficked Brazilian states of Sao Paulo (SP) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ) are hereby going to be addressed using a combination of satellite and ground-based data analysis. We explored nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5) daily levels for the month of May during different years within 2015-2020. Daily measurements of NO2 column concentrations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard NASA's Aura satellite were also gathered and averaged decreases of 42% and 49.6% were found for the year of 2020 compared to previous averaged 2015-2019 years. In parallel to the NO2 column retrieval, the ground-based data, measured by the Brazilian States Environmental Institutions, is analyzed, and correlated with satellite retrievals. Correlation coefficients between column and ground-based concentrations were 77% and 53% in SP and RJ, respectively. It was found a 13.3% (p-value = 0.099) and 18.8% (p-value = 0.077) decrease in NO2 levels for SP and RJ, respectively, in 2020 compared to 2019. For PM2.5, no significant change was observed for the same time period in the SP region, although the high number of fire burnings in the Southeast region seemed to be affecting PM2.5 levels. In addition to natural emissions (fire burnings), the combined data was also evaluated taking meteorological parameters, such as temperature and wind speed, into account. No interference of weather or fire was found in 2020 NO2 ground levels compared to previous years, This integrated analysis is innovative and has yet to be more explored in Brazilian studies. This is true specifically because the ground-based stations are spatially and temporally sparse in Brazil. / Master of Science / This study aims to explore satellite data applied to the lockdown context resultant from the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Satellite data usage in air quality management is yet to be explored to its full potential. Two highly populated states were chosen: Sao Paulo (SP) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Local governments have been imposing limitations on private and public vehicle circulation, inducing a decrease in atmospheric pollutant levels, specifically nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is directly emitted to the air by fuel combustion. NO2 is also short-lived in the atmosphere, so its variation within days can be easily captured. PM2.5, a category of fine inhalable particles, can be produced by wildfires, in addition to fuel burning and mechanical processes such as resuspension by cars. Here we retrieved daily NO2 vertical column densities for the month of May within the 2015-2020 years from the OMI instrument onboard of NASA's Aura satellite. Ground daily NO2 and PM2.5 measurements were also collected from local environmental agencies. Results showed an average 42% decrease of the NO2 column values in SP in 2020 compared to 2015-2019. The decrease was 49.6% in RJ for the same timeframe. Correspondent surface data showed a decrease of 13.3% (p-value = 0.099) and 18.8% (p-value = 0.077) during 2020 compared to 2019 in SP and RJ stations, respectively. No significant divergence in PM2.5 values was found between 2019 and 2020. Finally, weather data was added to the pollutant analysis. PM2.5 concentrations were associated with wildfires, while the NO2 levels found in 2020 for SP and RJ were attributed to local lockdown decrees. Satellite retrievals showed significant potential in filling out ground datasets, correlating with the SP and RJ surface data in 77% and 53%, respectively.

Since approximately the dawn of the new millennium, neural networks and other machine learning algorithms have become increasingly capable of adeptly performing difficult, dull, and dangerous work conventionally carried out by humans in times of old. As these algorithms become steadily more commonplace in everyday consumer and industry applications, the consideration of how they may be implemented on constrained hardware systems such as smartphones and Internet-of-Things (IoT) peripheral devices in a time- and power- efficient manner while also understanding the scenarios in which they fail is of increasing importance. This work investigates implementations of convolutional neural networks specifically in the context of image inference tasks. Three areas are analyzed: (1) a time- and power-efficient face recognition framework, (2) the development of a COVID-19-related mask classification system suitable for deployment on low-cost, low-power devices, and (3) an investigation into the implementation of spiking neural networks on mobile hardware and their conversion from traditional neural network architectures. / Master of Science / The subject of machine learning and its associated jargon have become ubiquitous in the past decade as industries seek to develop automated tools and applications and researchers continue to develop new methods for artificial intelligence and improve upon existing ones. Neural networks are a type of machine learning algorithm that can make predictions in complex situations based on input data with human-like (or better) accuracy. Real-time, low-power, and low-cost systems using these algorithms are increasingly used in consumer and industry applications, often improving the efficiency of completing mundane and hazardous tasks traditionally performed by humans. The focus of this work is (1) to explore when and why neural networks may make incorrect decisions in the domain of image-based prediction tasks, (2) the demonstration of a low-power, low-cost machine learning use case using a mask recognition system intended to be suitable for deployment in support of COVID-19-related mask regulations, and (3) the investigation of how neural networks may be implemented on resource-limited technology in an efficient manner using an emerging form of computing.

Times of transition are laden with ambiguity, and the move from high school to college has an additional component of role changes to add to this uncertainty. In the spring and summer of 2020, this transition was disrupted by the changes brought on by the pandemic, affecting social norms, routines, and overall mental health outcomes. For professionals such as counselors and advisors to be able to provide specialized support, it is important to understand emerging adults' experiences at this time and to identify factors that helped them cope with this transition. Understanding the development of coping strategies has direct implications for both therapy and clinical practice which can work together to provide a higher quality of care for the people affected by the stress of major life transitions. In this study, I used a mixed-methods design to understand the experience of emerging adults who graduated high school during the pandemic, and the relation between tolerance for ambiguity and coping strategies, resilience, and psychological impact. / Master of Science / The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on so many of us here in the United States and abroad. This was a time in which so much of what we considered normal was totally disrupted by all of the changes that the pandemic caused. For my thesis I wanted to look at how the pandemic changed the ways that students who were in high school transitioned and moved on to college. I wanted to know what existing factors such as their ability to handle uncertainty impacted this transition and if it ended up being helpful for them. For this project I looked at how a person's ability to handle uncertainty, called tolerance for ambiguity in this study, impacted students abilities to cope with uncertainty, psychological impact of the pandemic, and resiliency overall.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra till en ökad förståelse av elevers kunskaper om och intresse för virologi. För att nå syftet utfördes en kvantitativ enkätundersökning riktad till elever i grundskolan årskurs 9 och årskurs 3 i naturvetenskapsprogrammet. Resultaten visade att eleverna på naturvetenskapsprogrammet har en högre kunskapsnivå i virologi och ett självskattat större intresse i virologi än eleverna i årskurs 9. Studien visar även på att eleverna anser familj och vänner och digitala medier som viktiga källor till deras kunskaper i virologi. Delar av svarsdata indikerade att nyhetsrapporteringen om sars-cov-2/covid-19 har påverkat elevernas kunskaper inom ämnesområden som virusstruktur och virussjukdomar. Resultaten tolkas spegla att eleverna på naturvetenskapsprogrammet utgör ett äldre och mer studieintresserat urval än eleverna i årskurs 9. Studien kan bidra till en förbättrad virologiundervisning genom att bistå med underlag till diagnostisk bedömning av elevers kunskaper och till konstruerandet av samhällsfrågor med naturvetenskapligt innehåll.

Familjeföretag är en vanligt förekommande ägarstruktur både i Sverige och globalt. Många välkända svenska bolag är familjeföretag, och det finns en stark tradition av kontrollägande. Tidigare forskning presenterar ett positivt samband mellan familjeföretag och prestation till följd av färre agentproblem, och detta samband blir tydligare under kriser. Sverige, liksom övriga länder, drabbades av Covid-19, vilket är ett nyare exempel på en finansiell kris. Uppsatsen syftar därmed till att utforska huruvida familjeföretag presterade finansiellt bättre än icke-familjeföretag under Covid-19 genom att jämföra svenska företag noterade på OMX Stockholm under perioden 2018–2021, där 2020–2021 utgör krisåren. Genom regressionsanalyser undersöker vi sambandet mellan familjeägande och företagsprestation, mätt i avkastning på totala tillgångar samt aktieägares totalavkastning, med hjälp av redovisningsdata och marknadsdata hämtade från databasen Refinitiv Eikon. Våra resultat visar att familjeföretag generellt redovisar högre lönsamhet, ROA, men inte relativt sett under krisen. Vi finner inte heller någon märkbar skillnad i totalavkastning mellan familjeföretag och icke-familjeföretag under krisen.

Introduktion: Den 11 mars 2020 klassades viruset Covid-19 som en pandemi. För att bromsa smittspridningen beslutade regeringen att stänga gymnasieskolorna runt om i Sverige och övergå till fjärr- och distansundervisning. Flertal idrottsföreningar har inte heller kunnat bedriva sin verksamhet på grund av pandemin. Trots att restriktionerna har varit nödvändiga för att minska smittspridningen kan det ge konsekvenser på ungdomars och unga vuxnas rörelsevanor.  Syfte: Studera förekomst av stillasittande och fysisk aktivitet hos gymnasieungdomar i Västerbottens inland till följd av skolstängningen orsakat av Covid-19. Metod: Undersökningen utfördes bland 86 gymnasieelever (16–20 år) i Västerbottens inland. En webbenkät med 23 frågor skickades ut till tre gymnasieskolor i olika kommuner. Enkäten var tillgänglig mellan 2 februari och 16 februari 2021. Deskriptiv analys, Chi2-test och Man Whitney U användes för att analysera och jämföra data.  Resultat: I denna studie ansåg 81,4 % av eleverna att deras stillasittande hade ökat och 55,8 % ansåg att deras fysiska aktivitet minskat under pandemin. Totalt var det 55,8 % som inte uppnådde FYSS rekommendationer under Covid-19. Unga vuxna (18–20 år) och unga kvinnor visade en viss tendens att vara mindre fysiskt aktiva i jämförelse med ungdomar (16–17 år). Resultatet generade ingen statistisk signifikant skillnad avseende fysisk aktivitet och stillasittande mellan unga kvinnor och unga män. Valet av fysisk aktivitet förändrades under pandemin i jämförelse med innan.  Konklusion: Resultatet visar en negativ påverkan på stillasittande och fysisk aktivitet hos ungdomar och unga vuxna i Västerbottens inland på grund av pandemin. Detta skulle kunna leda till ökade hälsorisker hos ungdomar och unga vuxna i Västerbottens inland. Detta resultat kan vägleda insatser för att främja gymnasieelevers hälsa till följd av pandemin. Fortsatt forskning krävs då pandemin är pågående.