Analysis of the Europeans’ Attitudes towards Vaccination in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic – Implications for Public Health Policy

Author(s): Gina Cristina Dimian,Maria Denisa Vasilescu,Simona-Andreea Apostu,Mirela Ionela Aceleanu,Jozef Jablonský / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2021

In the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic, health systems worldwide have been subjected to hitherto unknown challenges. Public health policy makers are urged to find the best solutions to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Vaccination is seen, more than ever, as the main medical solution to save lives, although in recent times many countries have seen an increase in their citizens’ hesitation to get vaccinated. The aim of our research is to analyze Europeans’ attitudes towards vaccination and the factors that influence this attitude, both in terms of individual profile and differences between groups of people and between countries. The results confirmed that a positive attitude towards vaccination increases an individual's chances of getting vaccinated and that the vaccination depends on the socio-demographic characteristics of the individual.

Entry and Competition of Healthcare Providers in Slovakia: A Spatial Analysis

Author(s): Martin Lábaj,Peter Mandžák / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2022

We study the relationship between market size and the number of firms in several healthcare professions in Slovakia to provide new evidence about their entry decisions and the toughness of competition on the market. The local market size that would support the entry of the first general practitioner was estimated at 1,400 inhabitants. This threshold equaled 1,700 inhabitants for the first pharmacy to enter and 2,300 for pediatricians. The population would have to more than double for the second professional to enter. To support the second firm, the population per firm in the market would have to increase by 30% for pharmacies, 25% for general practitioners, and almost 40% for pediatricians. However, after the entry of the second firm, the intensity of competition did not change, except for pediatricians. The results were robust to spatial interactions. Our estimates of spatial interactions showed negative (but decreasing) spatial spillover effects for pharmacies, general practitioners, and dentists between 1995 and 2010. In this period, competitive effects prevailed and outweighed demand spillovers. We document that the demand effect continued to grow after 2010 and in 2017 outweighed the competition effect for pharmacies. We show that an increase in the total number of pharmacies since 2010 led to diffusion into smaller markets and that the number of markets without a pharmacy decreased.

Sensitivity Analysis of the Influence of Doctor-Patient Interaction on the Specific Processes of Clinical Decisions Adoption in Oncology

Author(s): Oliver Daniel Schreiner,Marius PISLARU / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2024

The way of making clinical decisions in oncology lays under conditions of uncertainty, and an important role is played by psychological factors and medical experience. The decision factors must be quantified through their verisimilitude degree, e.g. by use of the criterion of weighted optimism (Hurwicz). The paper describes the way of establishing the correlation indices of medical criteria vs. individual factors, and a sensitivity analysis was developed taking into account the optimism degree of the patient. Finally, it resulted that the optimistic patient seems to be more concerned with compliance with the treatment related to the long-term survival, compared to the pessimistic patient, who is majorly concerned with the immediate chances of survival, having as reference the doctor’s experience. It is obvious that before adopting clinical decisions in oncology, even if they are based on doctor-patient agreement, an evaluation of the degree of optimism of the patient seems to be necessary.

Consideraţiuni critice referitoare la infracţiunea de ucidere ori vătămare a nou-născutului săvârşită de către mamă

Author(s): Bogdan Bodea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: Special/2023

The article is set to analyse the changes within the Romanian legislation in respect to the crime of killing or harming the newborn, committed by the mother. The crime is incriminated within article 200 of the new Romanian Criminal Code and the incrimination has suffered a series of consequences that apparently changed the whole concept of infanticide. The former legislation mitigated the criminal responsibility of a mother that committed the infanticide against her child if she had acted upon a state of disturbance caused by the process of giving birth. Apparently the new legislation dropped this concept in favour of establishing a time limit, set by the legislator to 24 hours. The article argues that the concept of disturbance caused by the process of giving birth was not in fact dropped, but the legislator opted for a legal presumption that this state is inherent in the first 24 hours after giving birth. The consequences of this theory are numerous and argued both form a historical perspective and a logical one.

STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

Author(s): Speranţa Farca,Oana Gheorghe / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2022

This article looks into the challenges that students have to face in the context of global pandemic which required essential changes in the way society and universities work. The purpose of the research is to find ways to offer university support appropriate to the students’ needs so that they can continue studying without significant loses but with some gains. The data of the article is based on a larger study, “Students’ accommodation with the university field” (2018-2021) which was carried out in our department. This research was implemented to stress the difficulties in accommodation which some of the students face when they enter university, but because of the situation generated by the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, it focused on the new university reality. During these years, the research was based on personalized discussions with students and on their spontaneous communications. The research started for a need to immediately accommodate us the professors both to the online school and to the student’s needs who were confronted with a social crisis for the first time in their lives. The result of the research made us make some changes which were meant to improve the educational relationship no matter the social conditions.

RECONNECTING IN THE POST-PANDEMIC CLASSROOM - A CHALLENGE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Author(s): Mihaela Pricope,Simona Mazilu,Fabiola Popa / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has enabled teachers to re-create distance learning in new ways, and this knowledge can be applied in the post-pandemic period of schooling and other similar special cases. In this respect, our article aims at presenting a series of findings related to the students’ perspective of their virtual learning path in the pandemic and post-pandemic period, as well as discussing some of the perceived challenges that the return to the classroom may pose. In the first part, the article covers a theoretical overview of virtual education and analyses learning from the perspective of several learning theories, relevant for teaching/learning foreign languages. In the second part, we dwell on the transfer from the virtual environment to the traditional face-to-face learning, and point out to the need to rethink and readjust some teaching strategies so as to match the distressing reality of having faced a pandemic. In the last part of our paper, we are going to present the students’ views on their own transition learning experience. We have also highlighted some of the strategies that we have been using in the classroom in order to make the transition from the online environment to the offline learning more manageable, with a special emphasis on the awareness that in this unprecedented special context both the students’ and the teachers’ emotional well-being must be prioritized, given the distress all the actors in the didactic process have been subjected to for the last two years.

STUDENT TIME MANAGEMENT DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK. FINDINGS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MILANO BICOCCA.

Author(s): Lorenzo Merignati,Barbara Balzan,Marco Bondi / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2023

Time management during the academic years is one of the significant challenges for graduates and undergraduates. This is even more challenging in the EU, especially when universities make compulsory skill certifications next to the well-established curricula studiorum. For example, ICT certifications, compliant with the e-CF (European Competence Framework), need extra time to be obtained. The lockdowns and the social restrictions have changed a lot of behaviors for students and their learning methods. They affected even the learning method for preparing for the e4Job certification issued by the University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB). E4Job is a formal achievement compliant with the mentioned e-CF for ICT skills. And any UNIMIB student must get a bachelor's or master's degree. This work stresses a strong correlation between how the students of UNIMIB have prepared themselves to get the certification of their ICT skills and the results obtained during the test throughout the COVID period, before and after. Based on the time limits imposed by the Italian anti-COVID legislation, the work has analyzed three timespans: the pre-restrictions phase, the implementation phase and the after-restrictions phase. The analyzed data have shown a strong correlation (from 0.84 to 0.94 with an R-squared from 0.71 to 0.93) between how students have approached the learning materials to pass the e4Job exam and the results of the e4Job exam itself. In particular, the results of test simulations have been analyzed in correlation to the official test results. To find the correlation, more than 5100 preparation tests have been analyzed from the eLearning platform of UNIMIB, and more than 14500 e4Job official tests. All the analysis and the data have been extracted and manipulated following the GDPR. Afterwards, the authors discuss the outcomes, putting them into a theoretical framework, assuming that the social restrictions have profoundly changed the students' learning approach, at least in terms of time management (for example it has arisen an increased number of preparation tests during the social restrictions period). During the implementation phase and post-restriction phase, the data revealed that students got better scores on the preparatory test and during the e4Job exam. On the other hand, the results corroborate an idea well known in the instructional design literature: an online course has more chance to be fruitful and finished if the student himself can invest freely the time to spend on the contents, not having fixed constraints (such as 'excluding deadlines' and sequences of mandatory contents) or peremptory administrative cutoffs. As in fact, it happened during the pandemic: there were exam sessions but no stringent bureaucratic deadlines. Thinking about the return to the 'everyday-life' after the COVID-19 outbreak; considering the EU policies for the ICT labour market (e.g. the e-CF framework, the ESCO programme, the DESI Index); and pondering the arisen evidence of the UNIMIB students, in the conclusion, the authors discuss what kind of challenges the ecosystem of academia has to face if it wants to keep on the same track formal graduations and professional training.you use.

ONLINE COUNSELING AND THERAPY SKILLS FOR THE POST-COVID ERA. APPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL AND CAREER COUNSELORS

Author(s): Andreea Szilagyi / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2022

The issue of online delivery of counseling and therapy services is definitely not a new one, however the recent historical events have rushed enormously the development in this area. The paper will address the increasing need for online delivery of counseling, coaching, and therapy interventions, in a world that is recovering from a pandemic and in the larger context of the fourth industrial revolution. Professionals like school and career counselors, mental health experts, therapists, and coaches have been facing a reality they had to adjust to quickly, sometimes in the absence of proper training or professional support. COVID Stress Syndrome is also presented, and potential implications for caregivers’ work are discussed, with an emphasis on the online type of service delivery. Practical elements of organizing an online session, process steps, environmental details are presented and analyzed. In addition, issues like empathy in cyberspace, online delivery of individual and group interventions, particularities of online approaches for various types of counseling are explored. The profile of a helping professional, able to effectively use online tools to ignite and maintain an optimal therapeutic alliance, is also analyzed, with special attention to cultural and ethical elements. Special consideration is given to the professional practices used within the counseling community in Romania.

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BURNOUT AND STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN ONLINE LEARNING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMICS

Author(s): Alina Chiracu,Viorel Agheana / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes in education. One of the measures imposed globally to stop the spread of the virus was the closure of schools and universities starting in March 2020. Both teachers and students had to switch from traditional teaching to online teaching, a phenomenon that occurred suddenly and unexpectedly. This fact caused increased stress, anxiety, and mental health concerns among students worldwide (UNESCO 2020). By its very nature, online learning calls not only for the mastery of good digital skills but also for specific learning approaches. This change in approach to learning has put additional pressure on students already stressed by the global health context. It is well known that the performance and well-being of students can be dependent on their ability to make meaning of learning and through assuming agency in learning, to communicate in different ways, and be actively involved in the teaching-learning process (Hartnett, 2016), but also on the emotional context in which learning takes place, which the COVID 19 pandemic has greatly diminished. The concerns, worries and radical changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the educational environment have led to a decrease in the well-being of students and an increase in burnout, against the background of social distancing, the sudden change in teaching-learning methods and the abrupt infusion of technology (Salmela-Aro et al., 2021; Zheng et al., 2021). Knowing that negative emotions inhibit learning, it is possible that students' motivation and their ability to engage in concrete learning activities be affected (Pekrun et al., 2017). Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the relationships between burnout, academic motivation, and engagement in online learning in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study data were collected from April 2021 to June 2021, when students were already in their second year of online learning.

POST-PANDEMIC RESILIENCE AND THE ONLINE EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

Author(s): Speranţa Farca,Oana Gheorghe / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2023

Our work shows that in addition to its role in developing adaptability skills, education should also focus on building resilience. The shift in attitudes towards online learning by both teachers and students during the pandemic has highlighted this need. Prior to the pandemic, online learning was often ridiculed and not considered a serious option. However, during the pandemic, online education was successfully implemented at the university level. Post-pandemic, university education has developed a resilient attitude towards online learning, recognizing that it cannot return to its previous state and is now including it in the offering for students. This article highlights the resilience shown in university education through the integration of online learning. It demonstrates how this environment serves as a healthy bridge between two periods (the pandemic era and the current era) and two generations (the professors' and the students'). Additionally, it shows how online learning complements traditional learning environments by providing access to informative materials, evaluations, and administrative tasks. The data presented here is part of a larger study, ”Post-pandemic Resilience of Students and Teachers in the University Environment” conducted by the Teachers Training Department from National University of Arts, Bucharest (Farca, Speranța (coord.), 2021-2023). The idea for this research originated from the difficulties we faced after returning to the classroom, as well as the need to maintain the best practices established during the 2020 pandemic.

Recenzja książki Vincenta M. Figueredo Historia ludzkiego serca. Fascynująca wędrówka po świecie medycyny i sztuki (przeł. Ewa Ratajczak, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA, Warszawa 2024, 269 s., ISBN 978-83-01-23481-2)

Author(s): Igor Szymański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2024

LACK OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS AMONG ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN THE POST-PANDEMIC PERIOD – WHY AND HOW TO CHANGE THAT?

Author(s): Natalja MURACOVA,Elīna Peina,Marite Tranina / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2023

The success of an engineer depends on a diverse skill set comprising technical and soft skills. Effective communication is crucial in the engineering field, as engineers must convey complex technical information to different stakeholders. Indeed, many engineering students and specialists still struggle with communication complexities and other soft skills, which can directly influence their career development and operation in the 'real world' environment. Increasing students' soft skills will allow them to eliminate internal and external barriers that interfere with their future career growth. For many engineering students, time is very valuable, and soft skills development can be left behind if it is not included in their curricula. As for development of effective communication skills, practice, feedback, and clear patterns will allow a person to feel more confident, increasing their overall performance and, in this case, willingness to share their technical knowledge with others in a clear, professional and efficient manner. This descriptive research studies the current state of the subject, aims to give a realistic description of the current situation in the post-pandemic period, studies and identifies effective strategies to improve engineering students' awareness of the communication skills as well as digital communication skills and train them to advance these essential skills as a means to adapt to a continuously fluctuating job market. The article employs a mixed-method approach, including results of student surveys, as well as literature review.

Poučavanje robotike u primarnom obrazovanju kao način za promicanje različitosti i održanje mentalnog zdravlja djece

Author(s): Darko Suman,Vladimir Pleština,Damir Purković / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2024

The article discusses the importance of learning and teaching automation and robotics for the development of children and adolescents and criticises the generalised understanding of the importance of this field only in the context of teaching programming, the needs of society or in the context of talent selection. The multidisciplinary nature of this field is emphasised as a basis for promoting student diversity. In this sense, the developmental limits and possibilities of primary school students are presented, as well as possible learning and teaching approaches and motivating and demotivating elements of such approaches. Integrated teaching is highlighted as a solution that offers different "brains" the opportunity to discover their own preferences and realise themselves. In this way, the "clash of differences" encourages collaboration, develops communication skills and leads to acceptance of diversity. The paper concludes that inclusive robotics education is more than the acquisition of skills in programming, maths or engineering, it is an opportunity for a more successful development of 21st century skills. It is also an opportunity to learn "unattractive" content in an attractive way and to contribute to students' mental health by demystifying technology and moving away from the usual (consumer) use of technology. At the same time, the activities on the challenges students face develop their mental mechanisms by stimulating their curiosity, provoking discoveries and developing critical thinking - a departure from the conformist attitude of today's young generations.

Teaching robotics in primary school as a means of promoting diversity and maintaining children's mental health

Author(s): Darko Suman,Vladimir Pleština,Damir Purković / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

The article discusses the importance of learning and teaching automation and robotics for the development of children and adolescents and criticises the generalised understanding of the importance of this field only in the context of teaching programming, the needs of society or in the context of talent selection. The multidisciplinary nature of this field is emphasised as a basis for promoting student diversity. In this sense, the developmental limits and possibilities of primary school students are presented, as well as possible learning and teaching approaches and motivating and demotivating elements of such approaches. Integrated teaching is highlighted as a solution that offers different "brains" the opportunity to discover their own preferences and realise themselves. In this way, the "clash of differences" encourages collaboration, develops communication skills and leads to acceptance of diversity. The paper concludes that inclusive robotics education is more than the acquisition of skills in programming, maths or engineering, it is an opportunity for a more successful development of 21st century skills. It is also an opportunity to learn "unattractive" content in an attractive way and to contribute to students' mental health by demystifying technology and moving away from the usual (consumer) use of technology. At the same time, the activities on the challenges students face develop their mental mechanisms by stimulating their curiosity, provoking discoveries and developing critical thinking - a departure from the conformist attitude of today's young generations.

IMPLICATIONS OF ONLINE LEARNING ON STUDENT’S MOTIVATION

Author(s): Ana Maria Neagu Trocmaer,Bujor Pavaloiu,Liviu Mihai MATEESCU / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2023

The 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic impacted the world in many ways, and higher education institutions were forced to move from the traditional onsite learning to online environments. The challenge affected both actors: professors and students as well. The pandemics slowed down, but the experience and results of such forced educational paradigm left some unanswered questions. This forced attempt produced stress, anxiety, social isolation for professors and students as well. Besides those challenges we take into consideration other psychological and educational performance factors like cognitive ability, productivity, motivation and engagement. The abrupt transition to online learning required universities to maintain student engagement and even now some HEI’s are testing the hybrid educational system. The present paper addresses challenging ideas like investigating students’ encouragement, motivations, ambitions, new learning habits and self-discipline. The methodology proposed consists of a Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), a tool used for assessing students’ motivational orientations and use of different learning strategies for their courses. The methodology used will provide important insights into challenges of the eLearning environments, problems, and solutions, and a good overview of what needs to be corrected. Motivation is very important since it is the driver of any educational process, economic decision, career planning and individual development. Data reliability will be computed, and results obtained provide a good insight on students’ motivation in the online environment. The subject of the present paper provides valuable insights to major psychological and social faced by students and acknowledged by teachers during the exclusively online education period. Also the research proposed addresses a somehow classical education system, the Romanian system, faced with the challenge of new technologies and new pedagogical approaches.

Biohacking in the European Union: Key Components, Regulatory Treaties, and Legal Loopholes

Author(s): Anis H. Bajrektarević,Kamila Bogdanova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Biohacking represents a unique confluence of technology, biology, and self-experimentation aimed at optimizing human performance and well-being. In the European Union, the rise of biohacking raises profound legal, ethical, and regulatory questions. This article explores biohacking’s key components ‒ including genetic modifications, wearable technology, cognitive enhancement, and nutritional interventions ‒ while analyzing the treaties and legal frameworks that govern it in the EU. Additionally, it examines the legal loopholes exploited by biohackers and the challenges posed for regulators and society at large.

Neuroanatomski korelati disproporcionalnih oštećenja leksičko–semantičkih kategorija kod epilepsije medijalnog temporalnog režnja

Author(s): Martina Sekulić Sović / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 98/2024

Psycholinguistic research on temporal lobe epilepsy has identified deficits in lexical access to stored word knowledge, often showing difficulties with impaired naming, impaired verbal fluency, and slower processing time in semantic category decision tasks. Th is study presents the neuroanatomical correlates of dissociative lexical–semantic impairments in medial temporal lobe epilepsy in both dominant and non– dominant hemispheres. Clinical subjects demonstrated the same accuracy in lexical–semantic processing tasks as healthy participants, but significantly slower lexical–semantic processing compared to the control group. Further analysis showed that a lesion in the medial temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere caused category–specific deficits, while a lesion in the non–dominant temporal lobe did not cause impairments. Th e results suggest that epilepsy of the medial temporal lobe can cause impaired lexical–semantic access, leading to disproportionate damage to certain lexical–semantic categories. Th e confirmed assumptions of this research are consistent with neuroanatomical models that show that hemispheric differences in the epileptic focus can affect the processing of certain lexical–semantic categories, disrupt certain lexical– semantic categories, and influence the reorganization of the language system.

SPECIAL FAMILY NEEDS IN COPING WITH INFANTILE CEREBRAL PALSY

Author(s): Ovidiu Teofil Roman / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2022

Cerebral palsy is the fourth most frequent affection in child neurological practice. The disease is associated with distress and coping efforts. When we talk about it as a chronic disease, rehabilitation is long and requires long-term family resources. The needs of families who have a child with disabilities can be centred on three major areas: medical, educational, psychosocial. Families who have a child, or a child with disabilities in particular, face special needs that require additional resources and efforts to be met.

THE SPECIFIES OF THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Author(s): Renata Pop / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2022

Intellectual disability is a global insufficiency aimed at the entire personality, structure, organization, intellectual, affective, psychomotor, behavioral-adaptive development, of a hereditary nature or acquired as a result of an organic or functional damage to the central nervous system, which manifests itself from the first years of life, in different degrees of severity in relation to the average level of the population, with direct consequences in terms of socio-professional adaptation, the degree of competence and personal and social autonomy. The plasticity and dynamism of the nervous system give the disabled child enough opportunities for development, but at a slower pace, of course. It has been proven that the functional deficit of some damaged areas of the brain can be compensated by taking over the respective functions by other nerve centers.

Blockchain Approach for Healthcare Using Fog Topology and Lightweight Consensus

Author(s): Aya Laouamri,Sarra Cherbal,Yacine Mosbah,Chahrazed Benrebbouh,Kamir Kharoubi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2025

Background: The internet of things (IoT) has transformed healthcare by integrating various devices and systems, fostering innovation in data management and operational efficiency. However, ensuring data integrity, security and trust within IoT networks remains a pressing challenge, particularly in critical sectors such as healthcare.Objective: This study aims to explore the integration of blockchain technology with IoT systems, focusing on addressing scalability and real-time applicability issues in healthcare data management. By proposing novel solutions, the research seeks to enhance the security and reliability of IoT systems in healthcare environments.Methods: The proposed framework incorporates a lightweight raft-based consensus protocol and enhanced cryptographic measures, such as Schnorr signatures and hashes, to address existing limitations in scalability and latency. The architecture and algorithms for signature generation, encryption, emergency state actions and consensus are developed and evaluated through extensive simulations using the NS3 toolkit.Results: The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in improving healthcare IoT systems. The findings demonstrate enhancements in energy efficiency, throughput and network usage, establishing the potential of the framework for revolutionizing healthcare data management by providing secure, scalable and efficient solutions.Conclusion: The study contributes to advancing secure and reliable decentralized data management systems for IoT in healthcare by making use of blockchain technology. The proposed architecture addresses critical challenges and offers practical benefits such as resource efficiency and system stability. While promising, the framework requires real-world testing and further optimization to overcome potential scalability bottlenecks in large-scale healthcare deployments.