The COVID-19 virus hit in 2020, affecting everyone worldwide. In America, between the time frame of April and July 2020, there was a lockdown initiated that resulted in people being forced to quarantine from others. This forced many geographically-close romantic relationships to become long-distance. This study focuses on how these romantic relationships were impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting quarantine. A survey was distributed asking 256 college students to assess their behaviors before and during the lockdown period. The communication technology used between the couples and its frequency of use was correlated with the satisfaction of the relationship. Both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods were compared and maintenance behaviors between the couples were analyzed. This study found that relationship satisfaction significantly correlated with the use of certain communication technologies, with synchronous proving more effective than asynchronous. In addition, the COVID-19 quarantine did play a role in ending relationships in some way as well as changing the maintenance behaviors couples utilized while being long-distance. This study offers a new way to look at how relationships can suffer or be maintained when couples are forced to be long-distance.

Yes / Covid-19, a corona virus, has maintained its momentum in spreading among communities. In this context of social crisis, this study seeks to identify the reasons for the partial failure to fulfill the intended goal of lockdown, and to formulate an inclusive behavioral model reflecting comprehensive human behavior and social psychology. In order to answer the research questions, this study has conducted extensive interviews among individuals who were targets of the lockdown system. From this exploratory and qualitative investigation, researchers have recognized four paradigms as the key to understanding human behavior and social psychology in violating lockdown as a social isolation system during this period of crisis. The identified parameters depicting social behavior are: Derogation and Argument (SDA), Tangible Need and Deficiency (TND), Intangible Desire and Expectancy (IDE), and Evaluation of Benefit and Loss (UBL). Finally, as a comprehensive guideline, a grounded theory of the social behavior ‘paradigm for lockdown violation (PLV)’ is explored as the reason for the violation of the social system.

Yes / In England, the onset of COVID-19 and a rapidly increasing infection rate resulted in a lockdown (March-June 2020) which placed strict restrictions on movement of the public, including children. Using data collected from children living in a multi-ethnic city with high levels of deprivation, this study aimed to: (1) report children's self-reported physical activity (PA) during the first COVID-19 UK lockdown and identify associated factors; (2) examine changes of children's self-reported PA prior to and during the first UK lockdown. This study is part of the Born in Bradford (BiB) COVID-19 Research Study. PA (amended Youth Activity Profile), sleep, sedentary behaviours, daily frequency/time/destination/activity when leaving the home, were self-reported by 949 children (9-13 years). A sub-sample (n = 634) also self-reported PA (Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children) pre-pandemic (2017-February 2020). Univariate analysis assessed differences in PA between sex and ethnicity groups; multivariable logistic regression identified factors associated with children's PA. Differences in children's levels of being sufficiently active prior to and during the lockdown were examined using the McNemar test; and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors explaining change. During the pandemic, White British (WB) children were more sufficiently active (34.1%) compared to Pakistani Heritage children (PH) (22.8%) or 'Other' ethnicity children (O) (22.8%). WB children reported leaving the home more frequently and for longer periods than PH and O children. Modifiable variables related to being sufficiently active were frequency, duration, type of activity, and destination away from the home environment. There was a large reduction in children being sufficiently active during the first COVID-19 lockdown (28.9%) compared to pre-pandemic (69.4%). Promoting safe extended periods of PA everyday outdoors is important for all children, in particular for children from ethnic minority groups. Children's PA during the first COVID-19 UK lockdown has drastically reduced from before. Policy and decision makers, and practitioners should consider the findings in order to begin to understand the impact and consequences that COVID-19 has had upon children's PA which is a key and vital behaviour for health and development. / The Health Foundation Covid‑19 Award (2301201). ESRC/ MRC and British Heart Foundation (BHF). Sport England’s Local Delivery Pilot – Bradford. Wellcome Trust. UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and UK Economic and Social Science Research Council a British Heart Foundation Clinical Study grant [CS/16/4/32482] the National Institute for Health Research under its Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber [NIHR200166]; ActEarly UK Prevention Research Partnership Consortium [MR/S037527/1]; NIHR Clinical Research Network through research delivery support for this study; UKRI Covid19 Research & Innovation Call, Medical Research Council.

We examine the role of residential environments (urban/rural) in understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions in nationwide movement on several socio-economic attitudes. We conducted large-scale surveys in four European countries (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom) before and after nationwide lockdowns were implemented. We investigate how the pandemic affected: (i) economic (economic insecurity), (ii) political (trust in domestic and international institutions), and (iii) social attitudes (loneliness), by controlling for the degree of urbanization, obtained from the geocodes of the survey respondents. Our results show that taking the degree of urbanization into account is not only relevant but is also essential. Compared to urban areas, in rural areas lockdowns led to a greater increase of economic insecurity and to a greater decrease in trust in domestic institutions. We also show that these results are particularly valid for women and households with children.

‘‘SARS-CoV-2’’ which is responsible for the current pandemic of COVID-19 disease was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. Since then, to prevent its propagation around the world, a set of rapid and strict countermeasures have been taken. While most of the researchers around the world initiated their studies on the Covid-19 lockdown effect on air quality and concluded pollution reduction, the most reliable methods that can be used to find out the reduction of the pollutants in the air are still in debate. In this study, we performed an analysis on how Covid-19 lockdown procedures impacted the air quality in selected cities i.e. New Delhi, Diepkloof, Wuhan, and London around the world. The results show that the air quality index (AQI) improved by 43% in New Delhi,18% in Wuhan,15% in Diepkloof, and 12% in London during the initial lockdown from the 19th of March 2020 to 31st May 2020 compared to that of four-year pre-lockdown. Furthermore, the concentrations of four main pollutants, i.e., NO2, CO, SO2, and PM2.5 were analyzed before and during the lockdown in India. The quantification of pollution drop is supported by statistical measurements like the AVOVA Test and the Permutation Test. Overall, 58%, 61%,18% and 55% decrease is observed in NO2, CO,SO2, and PM2.5 concentrations, respectively. To check if the change in weather has played any role in pollution level reduction or not we analyzed how weather factors are correlated with pollutants using a correlation matrix. Finally, machine learning regression models are constructed to assess the lockdown impact on air quality in India by incorporating weather data. Gradient Boosting is performed well in the Prediction of drop-in PM2.5 concentration on individual cities in India. By comparing the feature importance ranking by regression models supported by correlation factors with PM2.5.This study concludes that COVID-19 lockdown has a significant effect on the natural environment and air quality improvement.

This work investigates internet censorship in Nigeria, describing experiences and citizens’ led circumvention practices following the ban of Twitter by the Nigerian government. Based on a quantitative survey and qualitative interview of active Twitter users in Lagos and Abuja Nigeria, the research realizes and categorizes circumvention practices embraced within the period of effecting the ban into technology, self-censorship, and platform jumping. This study further investigates how circumvention culture has become a form of digital activism and how the social media environment in democracies has experienced censorship within the last few decades.  Citizenry experiences and the complexities of the fight against platform lockdown and the role of digital activism prior to censorship are also analyzed. Internet censorship is new in Nigeria and has bred uncertainties among user practices and government censorship perseverance. This study contributes to a broader understanding of how circumvention practices have become cultural practices and experiences that emerge as embodied internet war against censorship and the preemptive and predictive conditions of the inefficiency of internet censorship policies in established democracies.

Abstract Aerosol-cloud and aerosol-radiation interactions depend on several factors such as the physico-chemical properties, geographical and temporal variability, and vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosols. Of particular importance are cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and black carbon (BC) particles as a subset of the atmospheric aerosol population. CCN are a prerequisite for cloud droplet formation, and variations in CCN loading can modify cloud properties. BC can efficiently absorb solar radiation, induce local heating and inhibit cloud formation. In order to determine the effects of CCN and BC on clouds, precipitation, radiation and the Earth’s energy budget, atmospheric loading and spatio-temporal distribution of aerosols are highly relevant. Thus this dissertation addresses and helps to elucidate the spatio-temporal variation and co-variability of CCN and BC with extensive field measurement data from aircraft and ground-based measurements. The data analyses focus on anthropogenic pollution, wildfire emissions and volcanic aerosols. In the Anthropocene, the distribution and abundance of atmospheric aerosols have changed drastically. Major sources of anthropogenic particulate pollution are the combustion of fossil fuels and biofuels as well as emissions from open biomass burning. The ubiquitous presence of anthropogenic air pollution, especially over continental regions in the Northern Hemisphere, hampers the assessment of anthropogenic influence on aerosol and climate due to a lack of unperturbed reference measurements. The abrupt reduction in human activities during the first COVID-19 lockdown created unprecedented atmospheric conditions that allowed us to investigate and quantify changes in the tropospheric composition in response to changes in anthropogenic emissions. The results reflect a strong and immediate influence of human activities on air quality, the role of BC as a major air pollutant in the Anthropocene, and close links between the atmospheric burdens of CCN and BC. Measurement data from five aircraft missions in polluted environments reveal characteristic relationships between CCN and BC in urban haze from Europe and East Asia, highly aged biomass burning smoke over the tropical Atlantic and the Amazon rainforest, and lightly aged biomass burning smoke over Europe, Brazil, and Asia. Over Europe and Asia, the vertical distribution of CCN in the lower troposphere up to altitudes about 5 km is highly sensitive to regional anthropogenic emissions. Over the tropical Atlantic ocean, the vertical distribution is strongly influenced by the longrange transport of mineral dust and biomass burning smoke, but volcanic eruptions also contribute to the aerosol load.

The rapidly spreading pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection with high morbidity and mortality has overwhelmed the global healthcare services. With mysterious origins and the capacity of affecting multiple types of tissues, SARS-CoV-2 has baffled many scientists - which has posed great challenges in the development of pharmaceutical treatments and preventions (i.e., vaccination). The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to a slew of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to slow down the spread of the virus. The sudden imposition of these NPIs including social distancing, lock-down, school closures, isolation, and quarantine of suspected cases or contacts, has greatly affected the mental health of children and adolescents. Concerns about the impact of these NPIs on mental health, especially for vulnerable populations such as children and adolescents, have emerged. This study discusses several different aspects of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents.Accumulating evidence has shown that the vast majority of children and adolescents exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus are asymptomatic, although few cases turned unfortunately severely ill. The genomics, microbiology, and biochemistry of this novel coronavirus reveal several peculiarities, making it a tough entity. The profound impact of social distancing along with the closure of schools, parks, and other recreational activities on the delicate minds of children and adolescents makes them irritable, angry, and rebellious. This assumes a major challenge in children with mental health issues or in those with special needs. Lock-down, quarantine and isolation further complicate the mental health issues and are discussed along with remedial measures. The impact of an already overwhelmed medical care system on the mental healthcare quality can be profound and needs a specially chartered approach by the psychiatrists supplementing the COVID-19 control activities. Children/adolescents with neuropsychiatric issues need special care, as they have abnormal impulsive behaviour and actions such as running away, unhygienic acts, spitting etc. All these mental health issues in children and adolescents, who form a sizable population of the society and are the future of the planet, forms the subject matter of this work. Thus, all programmes of COVID-19 control must simultaneously address these important mental health issues of children and adolescents to prevent this ‘parallel pandemic’ of psychiatric disorders. The latter may persist much longer and prove equally challenging and costly.

My project unfolds on three different scales:  Materials, Objects and a Space. A research on materials and new technique for their transformation, a creation of functional objects out of the transformed materials, and finally, a spatial environment for the created objects. Real-life site visits to various factories and craftsmen, discussions with makers, sourcing leftover materials, transforming materials into borderline art/design objects are among the key elements of my research methodology.  The three scales of my work are unified by the notion of Rituals. My understanding of rituals is not about creating a new religion but focuses rather on the activities in our everyday that can become rituals. It is about finding magic in the mundane. Daily routines and rituals are one of the main things that can keep us grounded, especially in a time of crisis. I believe that material explorations and working with the senses are important and relevant for the field of Spatial design and that my approach to engaging different scales within the project brings something new and yet not vastly explored.

Le confinement, notamment celui lié à la COVID-19, aurait une influence sur la qualité de vie et le bien-être des personnes âgées en raison de ses conséquences sur la santé physique, psychologique et cognitive. Cependant, les études antérieures publiées ont plusieurs limites méthodologiques, dont l’absence du statut préconfinement de même que le type de devis, souvent transversal. La présente étude propose un devis longitudinal avec des mesures préconfinement et vise à évaluer les changements en comparant la qualité de vie, la santé perçue et le bien-être entre avant le confinement (T1 = décembre 2019), trois mois après le début du premier confinement (T2 = juin 2020) et pendant le deuxième confinement (T3 = janvier 2021) dû à la COVID-19 chez un groupe de 72 personnes âgées en santé. Ces derniers ont complété un sondage électronique évaluant les facteurs personnels, les activités et la participation de même que les questionnaires EuroQol-5D et Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. Une diminution de la qualité de vie, de la santé perçue et du bien-être a été observée entre T1 et T2 et entre T1 et T3, mais aucune différence n’est rapportée entre les deux périodes de confinement. Les variables associées à ces changements sont le niveau d’énergie, le sentiment de bonheur, l’activité physique, le changement de la condition médicale, des difficultés mnésiques, le sentiment d’isolement et l’âge. Cette étude permettra de cibler dans un but préventif les variables pouvant avoir un effet délétère sur les personnes âgées lors de futurs contextes de confinement. / Lockdown, particularly that related to COVID-19, is thought to influence the quality of life and well-being of the elderly because of its consequences on physical, psychological, and cognitive health. However, previous published studies have several methodological limitations, including the absence of pre-confinement status and the type of design, which is often cross-sectional. The present study proposes a longitudinal design with pre-lockdown measures and aims to assess changes by comparing quality of life, perceived health, and well-being between before lockdown (T1 = December 2019), three months after the start of the first lockdown (T2 = June 2020), and during the second lockdown (T3 = January 2021) due to COVID-19 in a group of 72 healthy elderly. They completed an electronic survey assessing personal factors, activities, and participation as well as the EuroQol-5D and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. A decrease in quality of life, perceived health and well-being was observed between T1 and T2 and between T1 and T3, but no difference was reported between the two lockdown periods. The variables associated with these changes were energy level, level of happiness, physical activity, change in medical condition, memory difficulties, level of perceived isolation and age. This study will help to target variables that may have a deleterious effect on older adults in future confinement settings for preventive purposes.