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The world of work was not only temporarily shaken in the beginning of year 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, but rather rearranged the way no one probably had imagined before. The change towards work being remote-based in many organizations and even industries inspired this thesis, which was written within the Human Resources specialization. The overall purpose of this thesis was to study how companies’ remote onboarding of new hires could be developed further to provide the same possibilities as onsite onboarding. The goal was to find out, whether there were needs for related HR consultancy services that could be offered by the commissioning company Kulmia Group Oy. The thesis consists of a theory section and an empirical section. The theory section focused on the onboarding overall and included elements, such as, the process, the techniques and the legal requirements. Furthermore, assimilation and its elements, social integration and organizational commitment, were studied. Finally, the remote context regarding onboarding and assimilation was explored, and also onboarding’s connection to employee engagement was briefly introduced. The empirical section was completed after the theory section and it was carried out with qualitative interviews. Five Human Resources professionals were interviewed to obtain data of their companies’ remote and onsite onboarding processes to compare them and to identify general areas of development for remote onboarding. Finally, the data was analyzed with adapted dialogical thematization. The research showed, for example, that the difference between remote and onsite onboarding was not necessarily considered substantial and that most of the challenges existed within assimilation. Furthermore, a few areas of development for remote onboarding were identified and by paying more attention to them, organizations could develop their remote onboarding processes further. Based on the literature review and the findings of the research, recommendations to the commissioning company were produced, thus, it could be concluded that the need for HR consultancy services exists. The recommendations were directly connected to the areas of development and consisted of, for example, offering consultancy advice regarding monitoring of remote onboarding, promoting personality and behavioral assessments and helping clients in determining the overall approach to onboarding.

Currently, the entire globe is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2(SCV2). The ability to detect, monitor and assess the spread of the virus is imperative to controlling the effects of the pandemic. In order to meet the need for global testing, several methods have been developed. As a complement to individual testing, wastewater-based epidemiology represents a low-cost way to estimate the prevalence of the virus in a community. This information can be used to influence public policy regarding viral mitigation measures. This thesis documents our efforts at implementing wastewater testing in Santa Cruz County over the past 18 months. We sampled from the Watsonville Wastewater Treatment Plant on a weekly basis and quantified the presence of SCV2 using reverse transcriptase digital PCR normalized to Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (PMMV). Our data showed a large discrepancy between reported case counts and SCV2 in wastewater. This data also revealed seasonal variation in PMMV, potentially hindering it as a reliable normalizer. In addition to our sewage work, we performed masked-based sampling for Pacific Elementary School and documented a probable positive. This work demonstrates the potential of sewage sampling for SARS-CoV-2 and some of the current unmet challenges in both sewage sampling and pandemic response as a whole.

This study used a mixed method approach comprising of an online survey with public contributors involved in health and social care research; an online survey with public involvement professionals, those who are employed by organisations; and qualitative interviews with public contributors. We had 244 respondents to the public contributor survey and 65 for the public involvement professionals (PIPs) survey and conducted 22 qualitative interviews.This study has been prompted by the shift to non-face-to-face - remote - forms of working in patient public involvement and engagement (PPIE) brought on by Covid-19 prevention measures (such as social distancing). Working remotely includes using digital technologies such as: online conferencing software (Zoom, Microsoft Teams), emails, telephone calls and social media (WhatsApp, Facebook). Due to measures such as shielding and social distancing the usual ways of involving the public in research that included face-to-face meetings and events are not possible, and even with the eventual easing of lockdown, remote working is likely to continue. This creates particular challenges for ensuring access and engagement from all parts of society in health and social care research. There is a well-documented digital divide between those who use or have access to digital technologies and those who do not. This digital divide reflects the existing socio-economic inequalities, and PPIE that takes place remotely has the potential to further exclude already disadvantaged groups. This project aims to facilitate and improve ways of doing PPIE remotely and increase the diversity of public contributors involved in health and social care research. Our objectives are to: 1. Understand the barriers and facilitators to remote working, by: a. Exploring public contributors and PPIE professionals' experiences of remote PPIE. b. Exploring public contributors' preferences for different types of remote working. 2. Develop mechanisms for implementing improvements in remote working and ways to increase diversity in PPIE by: a. Conducting a rapid review of research and 'how to guides'. b. Develop training packages. We will recruit public contributors involved in research projects across the UK: the NIHR, charities, universities and other research organisations and people involved professionally with PPIE. This is a mixed-methods study with: surveys, qualitative interviews, and a discrete choice experiment. We will produce an analysis of how remote working in PPIE is affected by socio-economic and health inequalities, make recommendations for improving practice and develop training packages. The public contributor survey was comprised of tick box questions, Likert scale questions and open-ended questions where participants could enter free text responses. The survey asked general questions about role and PPIE experience, digital literacy and different aspects of remote working. We collected demographic information to enable us to draw conclusions from the data on how age, ethnicity, living arrangements and socio-economic status impact on participants use of remote communication tools. The survey ran from September to November 2020. For the survey for PPIE professionals, those who work in PPIE, organising PPIE activities, we developed the survey with input from our public contributors and PPIE professionals from the ARC NWC and the NIHR Research Design Service. Again, the development of this survey drew on our own experiences. We piloted the survey with members of the ARC team and public contributor (NT) to check for sense, consistency and readability. Like the PPIE contributor survey, the professional version was comprised of tick box questions, Likert scale questions, and open-ended questions for additional response. We asked what support and training they offered their public contributors; and any suggestions they had for improving remote working in PPIE. After the survey conducted with public contributors had closed, we purposively sample informants from key communities and conducted 22 semi-structured qualitative interviews with public contributors from across the UK. The topic guide was co-developed with the research team and public contributor (NT) from a preliminary analysis of the survey results and was designed to probe and explore the issues raised by the survey. The interviews were conducted via Zoom and audio reordered with the participant’s consent. The interviews were transcribed and then checked for accuracy and anonymised. The interviews last on average 60 minutes.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a trend underway for the last decade: the enlistment of private-sector commercial finance for development. This finance can be brought in through (1) regular cross-border flows, (2) blended finance, and (3) impact bonds. This briefing argues that intensified foreign financial inflows are likely to draw African economies further into financialization, which increases financial instability and can undermine the democratic process, jeopardizing just socio-economic development. Specifically, the short-termism of portfolio flows requires costly reserve accumulation; FDI exposes firms to demands for shareholder value generation; and external debt introduces exchange rate risk for domestic borrowers. Peer reviewed

This Issue Brief has been developed for the discussion at the International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP2020), organized by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) from 9th -13rd November 2020. This Issue Brief aims to: (i) facilitate discussion on the need to properly address the existing issue of poor wastewater management in many Asian countries, in order to minimise the human health risks associated with SARS-COV-2 infections; (ii) identify possible routes of SARS-CoV-2 infections and contamination across water and wastewater service chain; (iii) propose preventive countermeasures to stop possible COVID-19 transmission; and (iv) highlight the potential roles of decentralised wastewater management in addressing the associated risks of COVID-19 infection along the water and wastewater service chain.

This publication analyzes the situation of businesses in the context of global pandemics. Business is an integral part of everyday life, facing risks and challenges daily, and in rare cases, such as pandemics and quarantine. Therefore, it is necessary for companies to have a contingency plan in place to deal with unexpected or expected challenges, i.e. what activities it would be possible to reorient to, how to perform activities by working remotely etc. Both the public sector and the private sector are closely interlinked. And every new environmental factor, be it state regulation, technological development, or the changing needs of humanity, and in this case, pandemic and quarantine, affects business in one way or another and leads to the success of some, the failure of others. At present, the coronavirus Covid-19, which is spreading all over the world, and the quarantine introduced in many countries are of great importance to business. This paper also presents a small-scale qualitative research data showing the impact on different types of businesses in Lithuania. The main scope of this paper is measuring the level of impact of the pandemic COVID-19 for businesses in Lithuania. Methods were used as follows: i) analysis, comparison and interpretation of scientific literature and documents; ii) qualitative approach applying structured interview with selected leaders/managers of the companies in Lithuania.

What is the future of technocracy, after COVID-19, asks Jonathan White (LSE)? Current crisis management only blurs ever more the boundary between politics and technical expertise, he argues.

This thesis aims to analyse the presence of post-truth characteristics in the public sphere, using the case study of the highly debated COVID-19 vaccines in Europe. Since 2016, the concept of post-truth has received increased attention in academia, particularly around the intense polarization of issues such as partisan voting, climate change, and vaccination. While prior studies have focused significantly on the impacts and emergence conditions of the post-truth phenomenon, empirical studies on the prevalence of post-truth in everyday public activities have yet to be written. In response, this thesis conceptualises post-truth into five characteristics that are described in the existing literature: (i) disagreement about fact, (ii) personal experience and emotion, (iii) neglect of fact, (iv) truth-seeking, and (v) discredit of and distrust in experts. Based on these characteristics, this thesis qualitatively analyses the content of the comments on the European Commission’s Facebook posts concerning the COVID-19 vaccine. Descriptive analysis of 362 user-generated comments shows that groups with varying attitudes toward vaccination display most of the post-truth characteristics described in the existing literature. The results suggest that the group of people who are influenced by the post-truth culture is wider than anticipated. Furthermore, this thesis alters prior understandings of post-truth culture by showing that the opponents of vaccines do not display strong emotions or use personal experiences when discussing vaccination with the others. Public health authorities therefore might take these results into consideration for future vaccination campaigns. Lastly, this study posits some associations between post-truth characteristics and calls for further qualitative research on the matter.

13th March, 2020 - ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda – 13th March, 2020Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne today announced that the country has recorded its first confirmation of someone who has contracted the coronavirus (COVID-19). “I want to emphasize that there is no need for fear or panic, arising from this case. The person concerned is in self isolation at home, and a regime has been put in place today, not only to continue such isolation, but also to treat the condition,” noted the Prime Minister. He called on the nation to be more sensible in their behaviour and be their brother’s keeper. “Let us conjoin our efforts to prevent the spread of Covid 19 within the domestic population,” he said. “Considering the challenges of Covid 19, to include the economic impact and potential threat to our food security, we have to work diligently and collectively as a nation, of one people, with a common destiny to confront these challenges,” PM Browne concluded.