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International audience ; The coronavirus crisis of 2020 has highlighted the fragility of many traditional economic sectors, but also of activities belonging to the field of the collaborative economy. This is particularly true for delivery platforms, which are a component of the "gig economy." At the worst moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, gig workers acting as independent microentrepreneurs for the platforms continued to deliver meals and parcels, despite significant health risks. Once the crisis was over, the European political authorities took drastic social (physical) distancing measures to avoid a second wave of contamination. These measures threaten the model of delivery platforms because gig workers are naturally in direct contact with consumers at home or at work. The new world resulting from the coronavirus crisis could lead to the privileged use of supply chain professionals, and therefore deeply transform the fundamentals of the delivery platform model.

International audience ; The coronavirus crisis of 2020 has highlighted the fragility of many traditional economic sectors, but also of activities belonging to the field of the collaborative economy. This is particularly true for delivery platforms, which are a component of the "gig economy." At the worst moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, gig workers acting as independent microentrepreneurs for the platforms continued to deliver meals and parcels, despite significant health risks. Once the crisis was over, the European political authorities took drastic social (physical) distancing measures to avoid a second wave of contamination. These measures threaten the model of delivery platforms because gig workers are naturally in direct contact with consumers at home or at work. The new world resulting from the coronavirus crisis could lead to the privileged use of supply chain professionals, and therefore deeply transform the fundamentals of the delivery platform model.

International audience ; The coronavirus crisis of 2020 has highlighted the fragility of many traditional economic sectors, but also of activities belonging to the field of the collaborative economy. This is particularly true for delivery platforms, which are a component of the "gig economy." At the worst moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, gig workers acting as independent microentrepreneurs for the platforms continued to deliver meals and parcels, despite significant health risks. Once the crisis was over, the European political authorities took drastic social (physical) distancing measures to avoid a second wave of contamination. These measures threaten the model of delivery platforms because gig workers are naturally in direct contact with consumers at home or at work. The new world resulting from the coronavirus crisis could lead to the privileged use of supply chain professionals, and therefore deeply transform the fundamentals of the delivery platform model.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected care home residents internationally, with 19-72% of COVID-19 deaths occurring in care homes. COVID-19 presents atypically in care home residents and up to 56% of residents may test positive whilst pre-symptomatic. In this article, we provide a commentary on challenges and dilemmas identified in the response to COVID-19 for care homes and their residents. We highlight the low sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction testing and the difficulties this poses for blanket screening and isolation of residents. We discuss quarantine of residents and the potential harms associated with this. Personal protective equipment supply for care homes during the pandemic has been suboptimal and we suggest that better integration of procurement and supply is required. Advance care planning has been challenged by the pandemic and there is a need to for healthcare staff to provide support to care homes with this. Finally, we discuss measures to implement augmented care in care homes, including treatment with oxygen and subcutaneous fluids, and the frameworks which will be required if these are to be sustainable. All of these challenges must be met by healthcare, social care and government agencies if care home residents and staff are to be physically and psychologically supported during this time of crisis for care homes.

South African municipal service delivery has been an area of highly debated concern, with many citizens lacking access to basic service delivery, such as water and electricity. Fast forward to the Covid-19 Pandemic, bombarding itself into every state, home and workplace and concerns over municipal service delivery has amplified. Much like Covid-19, the fourth industrial revolution too erupted into every facet of public and private life but more optimistically, so as it promises to fast track economic development, ease mundane daily tasks and improve services and systems. This article explores municipal service delivery in South Africa and its intersection with emerging technologies, further providing prospects for future application. The article relies on a qualitative approach, reviewing primary and secondary literature, such as statistics, reports and journal articles to explore how advanced and emerging technologies have been applied at a local level to improve municipal service delivery, further attempting to understand future prospects. From the findings of the study, it is evident, that protest action against municipal service delivery has escalated in the last few years, signifying possible worsening service delivery and little adaptation of new methods and technologies. However, there have been some attempts to improve service delivery, utilising emerging technologies, but much more can be done as illustrated in other states, at a local and national level

South African municipal service delivery has been an area of highly debated concern, with many citizens lacking access to basic service delivery, such as water and electricity. Fast forward to the Covid-19 Pandemic, bombarding itself into every state, home and workplace and concerns over municipal service delivery has amplified. Much like Covid-19, the fourth industrial revolution too erupted into every facet of public and private life but more optimistically, so as it promises to fast track economic development, ease mundane daily tasks and improve services and systems. This article explores municipal service delivery in South Africa and its intersection with emerging technologies, further providing prospects for future application. The article relies on a qualitative approach, reviewing primary and secondary literature, such as statistics, reports and journal articles to explore how advanced and emerging technologies have been applied at a local level to improve municipal service delivery, further attempting to understand future prospects. From the findings of the study, it is evident, that protest action against municipal service delivery has escalated in the last few years, signifying possible worsening service delivery and little adaptation of new methods and technologies. However, there have been some attempts to improve service delivery, utilising emerging technologies, but much more can be done as illustrated in other states, at a local and national level.

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- 1 Detection of Coronavirus from Chest X-ray Images Using 2D Convolutional Neural Network -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Related Works -- 1.3 Materials and Methods -- 1.3.1 Dataset -- 1.3.2 Model Architecture -- 1.3.3 Performance Metrics -- 1.4 Experimental Result Analysis -- 1.4.1 Experiment Setup -- 1.4.2 Result Analysis -- 1.5 Conclusion -- References -- 2 Interpretation of COVID-19 CT Scans -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Proposed U-Net Architecture -- 2.2.1 Slice-and-Fuse Strategy -- 2.2.2 U-Net for Detection -- 2.2.3 Retraining of U-Net Model -- 2.2.4 Process Workflow -- 2.3 Performance Metrics -- 2.4 Comparison with Recently Reported COVID-19 Segmentation Performance -- 2.5 Limitations of Implementation Strategies -- 2.6 Future Scope -- 2.7 Conclusion -- References -- 3 Deep Learning-Based Prediction of nCOVID-19 Disease Using Chest X-ray Images (CXRIs) -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Materials and Methods -- 3.2.1 Dataset -- 3.2.2 Model Formulation -- 3.2.3 Proposed Prediction Process -- 3.3 Experimental Result and Analysis -- 3.3.1 Evaluation Metrics -- 3.4 Conclusion -- References -- 4 Explainable Deep Learning Through Grad-CAM and Feature Visualization for the Detection of COVID-19 in Chest X-ray Images -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Literature Study -- 4.3 Experiments -- 4.4 Results -- 4.5 Explainable Deep Learning Results -- 4.6 Conclusion -- References -- 5 Preserving the Privacy of COVID-19 Infected Patients Data Using a Divergent-Scale Supervised Learning for Publishing the Informative Data -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Related Works -- 5.3 Materials and Methods -- 5.3.1 Model Description -- 5.4 Experimental Results -- 5.5 Conclusion -- References -- 6 Personal Cloud System for Hospital Data Management to Store COVID-19 Patients Records -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.1.1 Objective -- 6.1.2 Purpose -- 6.1.3 Scope.

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic altered daily activities. Many consumers reverted to online grocery shopping and home delivery. We analyze factors associated with the decision to grocery shop online and whether this will persist post‐COVID using data collected via a representative online Qualtrics panel in the State of New Jersey (N = 1,419). Around half of respondents either decreased in‐person shopping, increased online shopping, or pursued a combination of both. We used factor analysis to decompose attitudes towards the pandemic, finding that attitudinal responses broke down into 'fearful', 'believers', and 'deniers'. Binomial regressions were used to analyze patterns of frequency of grocery shopping during the pandemic and changes in behavior during the pandemic. Results suggest that age, gender, ethnicity, educational attainment, having children at home, and attitudes towards COVID‐19 are likely to influence frequency of online and in‐person grocery shopping. Specifically, being 50 years or older is negatively associated with online grocery shopping. Those who deny COVID‐19 were less likely to decrease in‐person grocery shopping. People who had children at home, who had advanced degrees, or who were of Hispanic origin were more likely to increase online shopping and decrease in‐person shopping during the pandemic. While our results suggest that in‐person grocery shopping will return to prepandemic levels, we found that respondents report some increased persistence in online grocery shopping post‐COVID.

INTRODUCTION: The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has led to depression and anxiety in many people. AIM: To assess depression and its determinants among delivery agents in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab State, India. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The present study was online, cross sectional in nature and was conducted among 1248 delivery agents. The level of depression was assessed using a modified version of the Centre for Epidemiological studies- Depression scale (CES-D). Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and student's independent t-test followed by the modified Bonferroni post-hoc test applied using SPSS version 21.0. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 53.7%; Most of the agents belonged to the lower class (59.3%) and Lower Middle Class (36.1%) group. The highest percentage of depression was observed as a result of mortgage (91.3%, non-significant), followed by the fear of losing their job (88.8%) due to the COVID-19 pandemic (p=0.03), and fear of getting COVID-19 (85.9%, non-significant difference). Delivery agents having their own transport seemed to have the lowest depression (26.7%, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Based on the results of the present study, governmental and industrial policies towards the benefit of the delivery agents is advised and during these testing times, assurance of job security and paid leaves in case of contracting COVID-19 should be beneficial.

INTRODUCTION: The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has led to depression and anxiety in many people. AIM: To assess depression and its determinants among delivery agents in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab State, India.MATERIALS AND METHOD: The present study was online, cross sectional in nature and was conducted among 1248 delivery agents. The level of depression was assessed using a modified version of the Centre for Epidemiological studies- Depression scale (CES-D). Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and student's independent t-test followed by the modified Bonferroni post-hoc test applied using SPSS version 21.0.RESULTS: The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 53.7%; Most of the agents belonged to the lower class (59.3%) and Lower Middle Class (36.1%) group. The highest percentage of depression was observed as a result of mortgage (91.3%, non-significant), followed by the fear of losing their job (88.8%) due to the COVID-19 pandemic (p=0.03), and fear of getting COVID-19 (85.9%, non-significant difference). Delivery agents having their own transport seemed to have the lowest depression (26.7%, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Based on the results of the present study, governmental and industrial policies towards the benefit of the delivery agents is advised and during these testing times, assurance of job security and paid leaves in case of contracting COVID-19 should be beneficial.

BACKGROUND: Vaccines are considered the path out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of Kenya is implementing a phased strategy to vaccinate the Kenyan population, initially targeting populations at high risk of severe disease and infection. We estimated the financial and economic unit costs of procuring and delivering the COVID-19 vaccine in Kenya across various vaccination strategies. METHODS: We used an activity-based costing approach to estimate the incremental costs of COVID-19 vaccine delivery, from a health systems perspective. Document reviews and key informant interviews(n = 12) were done to inform the activities, assumptions and the resources required. Unit prices were derived from document reviews or from market prices. Both financial and economic vaccine procurement costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses, and the vaccine delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses were estimated and reported in 2021USD. RESULTS: The financial costs of vaccine procurement per person vaccinated with 2-doses ranged from $2.89-$13.09 in the 30% and 100% coverage levels respectively, however, the economic cost was $17.34 across all strategies. Financial vaccine delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses, ranged from $4.28-$3.29 in the 30% and 100% coverage strategies: While the economic delivery costs were two to three times higher than the financial costs. The total procurement and delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses ranged from $7.34-$16.47 for the financial costs and $29.7-$24.68 for the economic costs for the 30% and 100% coverage respectively. With the exception of procurement costs, the main cost driver of financial and economic delivery costs was supply chain costs (47–59%) and advocacy, communication and social mobilization (29–35%) respectively. CONCLUSION: This analysis presents cost estimates that can be used to inform local policy and may further inform parameters used in cost-effectiveness models. The results could potentially be adapted and adjusted to country-specific ...

Background Vaccines are considered the path out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of Kenya is implementing a phased strategy to vaccinate the Kenyan population, initially targeting populations at high risk of severe disease and infection. We estimated the financial and economic unit costs of procuring and delivering the COVID-19 vaccine in Kenya across various vaccination strategies. Methods We used an activity-based costing approach to estimate the incremental costs of COVID-19 vaccine delivery, from a health systems perspective. Document reviews and key informant interviews(n = 12) were done to inform the activities, assumptions and the resources required. Unit prices were derived from document reviews or from market prices. Both financial and economic vaccine procurement costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses, and the vaccine delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses were estimated and reported in 2021USD. Results The financial costs of vaccine procurement per person vaccinated with 2-doses ranged from 2.89-13.09 US dollars in the 30% and 100% coverage levels respectively, however, the economic cost was 17.34 US dollars across all strategies. Financial vaccine delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses, ranged from 4.28-3.29 US dollars in the 30% and 100% coverage strategies: While the economic delivery costs were two to three times higher than the financial costs. The total procurement and delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses ranged from 7.34-16.47 US dollars for the financial costs and 29.7-24.68 US dollars for the economic costs for the 30% and 100% coverage respectively. With the exception of procurement costs, the main cost driver of financial and economic delivery costs was supply chain costs (47–59%) and advocacy, communication and social mobilization (29–35%) respectively. Conclusion This analysis presents cost estimates that can be used to inform local policy and may further inform parameters used in cost-effectiveness models. The results could potentially be ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted governments across the world to introduce unprecedented lockdowns and other restrictions on mobility to slow the spread of coronavirus and to avoid overwhelming healthcare systems. While often necessary, these measures have led to well-documented disruptions in economic activity (World Bank 2020e). Consequently, many experts and international organizations have raised serious concerns about increased poverty and threats to food and nutrition security (Headey and Ruel 2020; Laborde et al. 2020; Laborde, Martin, and Vos 2020; Torero 2020). In April 2020, the World Food Programme warned that the number of acutely food insecure people in the world could double by the end of 2020 without concerted action (WFP 2020). ; PR ; IFPRI4; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; Feed the Future Initiative; ReSAKSS; CRP2 ; AFR; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)