Search results for: crisis management headquarters

Authors: Sang-Ju Yu

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This paper examines the changing essences and effects of ‘affective atmosphere’ during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which have been facilitated and shaped the ‘affective governance’ in Taiwan. Due to long-term uncertainty and unpredictability, the COVID-19 pandemic not only caused unprecedented global crisis but triggered the public’s negative emotional responses. This paper unravels how the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment and the proliferating fake news heightened people’s fear and anxiety and how specific affective atmospheres can be provoked and manipulated to harness emotional appeals of citizens strategically in Taiwan. Through the in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders involved, it unfolds the dynamics and strategies of affective governance, wherein public emotions and concerns are now given significant consideration in both policy measures and the affective expression of leadership, spatial arrangement, service delivery, and the interaction with citizens. Addressing psychosocial and emotional needs has become the core of crisis response mechanisms suited to dynamic affective atmospheres and pandemic situation. This paper also demonstrates that epidemic prevention and control is not merely the production of neutral or rational policy-making processes, as it is dominated by multiple emotions resulted from unexpected and salient events at different moments. It provides explicit insight into how different prevention scenarios operated effectively through political and affective mobilisation to strengthen emotional bonding and collective identity which energises collective action. Basically, successful affective governance calls for both negative and positive emotions, for both scientific and political decision-making, for both community and bureaucracy, and both quality and efficiency of private–public collaboration.

Keywords: affective atmospheres, affective governance, COVID-19 pandemic, private-public collaboration

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Authors: Marina Benito-Parejo, Raul Perez-Lopez, Miguel Herraiz, Carolina Guardiola-Albert, Cesar Martinez

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Persistency, long-term memory and randomness are intrinsic properties of time-series of earthquakes. The Rescaled Range Analysis (RS-Analysis) was introduced by Hurst in 1956 and modified by Mandelbrot and Wallis in 1964. This method represents a simple and elegant analysis which determines the range of variation of one natural property (the seismic energy released in this case) in a time interval. Despite the simplicity, there is complexity inherent in the property measured. The cumulative curve of the energy released in time is the well-known fractal geometry of a devil’s staircase. This geometry is used for determining the maximum and minimum value of the range, which is normalized by the standard deviation. The rescaled range obtained obeys a power-law with the time, and the exponent is the Hurst value. Depending on this value, time-series can be classified in long-term or short-term memory. Hence, an algorithm has been developed for compiling the RS-Analysis for time series of earthquakes by days. Completeness time distribution and locally stationarity of the time series are required. The interest of this analysis is their application for a complex seismic crisis where different earthquakes take place in clusters in a short period. Therefore, the Hurst exponent has been obtained for the seismic crisis of Alhoceima (Mediterranean Sea) of January-March, 2016, where at least five medium-sized earthquakes were triggered. According to the values obtained from the Hurst exponent for each cluster, a different mechanical origin can be detected, corroborated by the focal mechanisms calculated by the official institutions. Therefore, this type of analysis not only allows an approach to a greater understanding of a seismic series but also makes possible to discern different types of seismic origins.

Keywords: Alhoceima crisis, earthquake time series, Hurst exponent, rescaled range analysis

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Authors: Ana Mouro, Ana Ramalheira

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Since 1989, with the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany has undergone a profound restructuring political and economic process. When the Euro Crisis broke out, Germany was no longer the “sick man” of Europe. Instead, it had recovered its dominance as the strongest and wealthiest economy within the European Union. With the European Debt Crisis, that has been taking place in the European Union since the end of 2009, Germany´s Chancellor Angela Merkel has gained the power of deciding, so to say, on the fate of the debtor nations, but she neither stands for binding German commitments, nor refuses assistance. A debate on whether Merkel’s hesitation has been deliberated and used as a means of coercion has arisen on international print media, and the Portuguese Press has been no exception. This study, which was conducted by using news reporting, opinion articles, interviews and editorials, published in the Portuguese weekly Expresso and the daily Público, from 2008 to 2015, tries to show how Merkel’s hesitation, depicted in the press by the term “Merkiavelli”, was perceived in Portugal, a country that had to embrace the austerity measures, imposed by the European Central Bank, but defined under Angela Merkel´s leading role.

Keywords: Euro crisis, “Merkiavelli”, cultural studies, Portuguese quality press

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Authors: Joanna Stawska

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The main objective of this article is to examine the impact of interest rates on investments in Poland in the context of financial crisis. The paper also investigates the dependence of bank loans to enterprises on interbank market rates. The article studies the impact of interbank market rate on the level of investments in Poland. Besides, this article focuses on the research of the correlation between the level of corporate loans and the amount of investments in Poland in order to determine the indirect impact of central bank interest rates through the transmission mechanism of monetary policy on the real economy. To achieve the objective we have used econometric and statistical research methods like: econometric model and Pearson correlation coefficient. This analysis suggests that the central bank reference rate inversely proportionally affects the level of investments in Poland and this dependence is moderate. This is also important issue because it is related to preparing of Poland to accession to euro area. The research is important from both theoretical and empirical points of view. The formulated conclusions and recommendations determine the practical significance of the paper which may be used in the decision making process of monetary and economic authorities of the country.

Keywords: central bank, financial crisis, interest rate, investments

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Authors: Corina E. Niculaescu, Ivan Sangiorgi, Adrian R. Bell

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been life-changing in many aspects of people’s daily and social lives, but has it also changed attitudes towards investments? This paper explores the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail investors’ levels of investments in the U.S. during the first COVID-19 wave in summer 2020. This is an unprecedented health crisis, which could lead to changes in investment behavior, including irrational behavior in retail investors. As such, this study aims to inform policymakers of what happened to investment decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can protect retail investors during extreme events like a global health crisis. The study aims to answer two research questions. First, was the level of investments affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and if so, why? Second, how were investments affected by retail investors’ personal experience with COVID-19? The research analysis is based on primary survey data collected on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform from a representative sample of U.S. respondents. Responses were collected between the 15th of July and 28th of August 2020 from 1,148 U.S. retail investors who hold mutual fund investments and a savings account. The research explores whether being affected by COVID-19, change in the level of savings, and risk capacity can explain the change in the level of investments by using regression analysis. The dependent variable is changed in investments measured as decrease, no change, and increase. For this reason, the methodology used is ordered probit regression models. The results show that retail investors in the U.S. increased their investments during the first wave of COVID-19, which is unexpected as investors are usually more cautious in crisis times. Moreover, the study finds that those who were affected personally by COVID-19 (e.g., tested positive) were more likely to increase their investments, which is irrational behavior and contradicts expectations. An increase in the level of savings and risk capacity was also associated with increased investments. Overall, the findings show that having personal experience with a health crisis can have an impact on one’s investment decisions as well. Those findings are important for both retail investors and policymakers, especially now that online trading platforms have made trading easily accessible to everyone. There are risks and potential irrational behaviors associated with investment decisions during times of crisis, and it is important that retail investors are aware of them before making financial decisions.

Keywords: COVID-19, financial decision-making, health crisis retail investors, survey

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Authors: B. Waked Najar

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Since the spread of Covid- 19, Israel and other countries suffer from lockdowns and social distance, which impose different kinds of restrictions. On the one side, many organization closed and unemployment increased, bringing about economic problems and distress. On the other side, family ties were damaged due to inability to sustain close relations with some family members and too frequent interactions with others. Unfortunately, conflicts within families, controlling behavior and domestic violence appear more often. Purpose: to examine the phenomenon of domestic violence and its expansion during the Covid-19 crisis, to propose and classify strategies of dealing with it, including encouragement of public systems providing more information and support to domestic violence victims. Methodology: the author strives to reveal methods of supporting domestic violence victims through public and private treatment organizations. The author interviewed battered women and families who experienced violence during the Covid-19 crisis. Findings: victims of domestic violence often feel isolated and helpless. It is a real challenge to track and support them, especially in the traditional minorities’ communities. Research limitations: Many families refused to be interviewed because they did not want to be exposed to the community, especially religious families. Originality: research is aimed to examine a phenomenon of domestic violence during the Covid-19 crisis and methods of help and support the victims, which is not a common theme of research during the pandemic.

Keywords: violence, coronavirus, domestic violence, influence

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Authors: Mohamed Abdalla Elamein Boshara, Peter Charles Woods, Nour Eldin Mohamed Elshaiekh

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Knowledge Management has become very important for Disaster Management response and planning. This paper proposes the implementation of a Knowledge Management System with a sustainable data collection mechanism for reliable and timely information management to support decision makers in making the right decisions in the timely manner.

Keywords: knowledge management, disaster management, incident tracking, web application

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Authors: Andreanna Kalasountas

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A rampant health crisis is facing America. That health crisis is poverty. Millions of Americans live without knowing when they will eat or where they will sleep. Meanwhile, there are over 600 multi-billionaires in the United States. “In April 2021, U.S. billionaires had nearly twice as much combined wealth than the bottom half of Americans -- $4.56 trillion vs. $2.62 trillion.” It's disturbingly ironic that we live in a country where there are people with more money than they know what to do with (or could spend in a lifetime) while simultaneously, people are losing their life because they do not have enough money to survive. Accordingly, this paper argues for the end of the multi-billionaire; that wealth be capped, captured, and redistributed to the poorest among us. To accomplish this goal, this paper begins by identifying the problem, advocating for a new measurement of poverty; and concludes with a both legal and tax policy solutions and what implementation of those solutions would look like.

Keywords: health and human rights, law and policy, poverty, wealth gap

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Authors: Dan Li, Hao Tang

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The idea of “public bonds” was foreign to Qing China because it went against the traditional political ideology that supported that the emperor had absolute ownership over the nation. When a new fiscal crisis emerged out of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the Qing rulers had no better option than to issue domestic bonds. This article documents the processes of issuance, distribution, and reimbursement for a total of three bonds issued by the Qing. These processes reveal how a well-established Western fiscal instrument could be extremely awkward and difficult to implant in China—a culturally, politically, and institutionally different society. Our paper sheds light on why Qing China failed to rise as a modern fiscal state.

Keywords: public bond, Qing China, fiscal crisis, fiscal state, the first Sino-Japanese war

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Authors: Leah Ritchie

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By many accounts, the most recent economic recession and subsequent lack-luster recovery has demonstrated that corporate social responsibility is in a state of crisis. This crisis represents an opportunity for CSR scholars to play a role in restoring long-term economic growth and consumer confidence. In its current state however, CSR may not be in a position to facilitate positive change. In an attempt to remain relevant, the field has shifted toward a performance-based agenda that demonstrates in practical terms, how CSR can positively affect the financial and strategic performance of the firm. This paper argues that if CSR is to play a central role in helping to create a more equitable balance of power between industry and society, it must demonstrate the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these two entities, not just in terms of compartmentalized strategic and financial gain for the firm, but also toward maintaining a 'do no harm' imperative. Given the evidence that harm done to society is ultimately turned back on the firm, this is not simply a moralistic imperative. In order to affect change, CSR must also create an activist agenda to raise consciousness among the general citizenry toward mobilizing, uncovering, and repairing breeches in the implicit social contract between business and society.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, multiple stakeholder view, economic recession, housing crisis

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Authors: Khaled Alkadamani

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Using the simultaneous equations model, this paper examines the impact of capital requirements on bank risk-taking during the recent financial crisis. It also explores the relationship between capital and risk decisions and the impact of economic instability on this relationship. By analyzing the data of 20 Islamic commercial banks between 2004 and 2014 from four Middle East countries, the study concludes a positive effect of regulatory pressure on bank capital in Saudi Arabia and UAE and a negative effect in Jordan and Kuwait. Moreover, the results show a negative impact of regulatory pressure on bank risk taking in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and UAE. The findings reveal also that banks close to the minimum regulatory capital requirements improve their capital adequacy by increasing their capital and decreasing their risk taking. Furthermore, the results show that economic crisis negatively affects bank risk changes, suggesting that banks react to the impact of uncertainty by reducing their risk taking. Finally, the estimations show a negative correlation between banks profitability and capital adequacy ratio (CAR), implying that as more capital is set aside as a buffer for banks safety; it affects the performance of Islamic banks.

Keywords: bank capital, bank regulation, crisis, Islamic banks, risk taking

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Authors: Zeynep Selin Balci, Altug Gunal

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Religion has always an effect on the policies of states. In the case of religion having a central role in defining identity, especially when becoming an independent state, the bond between religious authority and state cannot easily be broken. As independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire was acquired at the same time with the creation of its own church under the name of the Church of Greece by declaring its independence from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul, the new church became an important part of Greek national identity. As the Church has the ability to influence Greeks, its rituals, public appearances, and practices are used to provide support to the state. Although there sometimes have been controversies between church and state, it has always been a fact that church is an integral part of the state, which is proved by that paying the salaries of priest by state payroll and them being naturally civil servants. European Union membership, on the other hand, has a changing impact on this relationship. This impact started to be more visible in 2000 when then government decided to exclude the religion section from identity cards. Church’s reaction was to gather people around recalling their religious identity and followed by redefining the content of nationality, which aspired nationalist fronts. After 2015 when leftist coalition Syriza and its self-described atheist leader came to power, the situation for nationalists and Church became more tangling in addition to the economic crisis started in 2010 and evolved into the Eurozone crisis by affecting not only Greece but also other members. Although the church did not have direct confrontations with the government, the fact that Tsipras refused to take the oath on Bible created tensions because it was not acceptable for a state whose Constitution starts ‘in the name of the Holy, Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity’. Moreover, austerity measures to overcome the economic crisis, which affected the everyday life of citizens in terms of both prices and salaries, did not harm the church’s economic situation much. Considering church being the second biggest landowner after state and paying no taxes, the fact that church was exempt from austerity measures showed to the government the necessity to find a way to make church contribute to solution for the crisis. In 2018, when the government agreed with the head of the church on cutting off the priests from government payroll automatically meaning to end priests’ civil servant status, it created tensions both for church and in society. As a result of the elections held in July 2019, Tsipras could not have the chance to apply the decision as he left the office. In light of these, this study aims to analyze the position of the church in the economic crisis and its effects on Tsipras term. In order to sufficiently understand this, it is to look at the historical changing points of Church’s influence in Greek’s eyes.

Keywords: Eurozone crisis, Greece, Orthodox Church, Tsipras

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Authors: Christian Bucio Pacheco, Miriam Magnolia Sosa Castro, María Alejandra Cabello Rosales

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This paper aims to analyze the contagion effect among the stock markets of the BRIC+M block (Brazil, Russia, India, China plus Mexico). The contagion effect is proved through increasing on dependence parameters during crisis periods. The dependence parameters are estimated through copula approach in a period of time from July 1997 to December 2015. During this period there are instability and calm episodes, allowing to analyze changes in the relations of dependence. Empirical results show strong evidence of time-varying dependence among the BRIC+M markets and an increasing dependence relation during global financial crisis period.

Keywords: BRIC+M Block, Contagion effect, Copula, dependence

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Authors: Garima Singh

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Objectives: Behavioral Crisis Center (BCC) is a community solution to a community problem. There has been an exponential increase in the incidence and prevalence of mental health crises around the world. The effects of the crisis negatively impact our patients and their families and strain the law enforcement and emergency room. The goal of the multi-disciplinary care model is to break the crisis cycle and provide 24-7 rapid access to an acre and crisis stabilization. We initiated our first BCC care center in 2020 in the midst of the COVID pandemic and have seen a remarkable improvement in patient ‘care and positive financial outcome. Background: Mental illnesses are common in the United States. Nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (52.9 million in 2020). This number represented 21.0% of all U.S. adults. To address some of these challenges and help our community, In May 2020, we opened our first Behavioral crisis center (BCC). Since then, we have served more than 2500 patients and is the first southwest Missouri’s first 24/7 facility for crisis–level behavioral health and substance use needs. It has been proven to be a more effective place than emergency departments, jails, or local law enforcement. Methods: BCC was started in 2020 to serve the unmet need of the community and provide access to behavioral health and substance use services identified in the community. Funding was possible with significant investment from the county and Missouri Foundation for Health, with contributions from medical partners. It is a multi-disciplinary care center consisting of Physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, behavioral technicians, peer support specialists, clinical intake specialists, and clinical coordinators and hospitality specialists. The center provides services including psychiatry care, outpatient therapy, community support services, primary care, peer support and engagement. It is connected to a residential treatment facility for substance use treatment for continuity of care and bridging the gap, which has resulted in the completion of treatment and better outcomes. Results: BCC has proven to be a great resource to the community and the Missouri Health Coalition is providing funding to replicate the model in other regions and work on a similar model for children and adolescents. Overall, 29% of the patients seen at BCC are stabilized and discharged with outpatient care. 50% needed acute stabilization in a hospital setting and 21% required long-term admission, mostly for substance use treatment. The local emergency room had a 42% reduction in behavioral health encounters compared to the previous 3 years. Also, by a quick transfer to BCC, the average stay in ER was reduced by 10 hours and time to follow up behavioral health assessment decreased by an average of 4 hours. Uninsured patients are also provided Medicaid application assistance which has benefited 55% of individuals receiving care at BCC. Conclusions: BCC is impacting community health and improving access to quality care and substance use treatment. It is a great investment for our patients and families.

Keywords: BCC, behvaioral health, community health care, addiction treatment

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Authors: Vincent Jones

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The North African country of Libya is in crisis and is currently a humanitarian disaster. The current American ‘hands off’ foreign policy appear to have contributed to this crisis. The research upon which this paper is based focused on a qualitative analysis of migration to Libya and its history with slavery, current conditions that have contributed to the re-emergence of slavery, an analysis of available resources in the effected region, and an analysis of legal remedies pursuant to international law. In addition, a qualitative analysis of American foreign policy from the Reagan Administration through the current Trump administration has been a focus of analysis. The major findings of this research are: (1) Since the removal of Muammar Gadhafi, a move that the United States played a major role in achieving, the nation of Libya has been in free fall and the rule of law has all but disappeared. As a major port stop for refugees and migrants fleeing atrocities in sub-Saharan African states, Libya has become the gate way to European ports of asylum. The problem is these migrant refugees are unwanted, caught between rival and often ineffective governments, profiteers, and inaction from the international community. (2) The outlook for these refugees is bleak: the ineffective government of Libya is ill-equipped to handle the large influx, European refugee destination states like Italy and Greece are already overburdened by the Syrian refugee crisis and are reluctant to accept more refugees, leaving the powerful and armed Libyan militia in control of a situation that is ripe for exploitation. (3) The combined intervention of the international community, led by a newly committed and engaged American foreign policy. In conclusion, a new American foreign policy approach along with the active engagement of the United Nations, EU, and the African Union can effectively resolve this humanitarian crisis.

Keywords: slavery, Libya, migrants, slave auction

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Authors: Firman Riyudha, Endrik Mifta Shaiful

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The spread of drug users is one kind of behavioral epidemiology that becomes a threat to every country in the world. This problem caused various crisis simultaneously, including financial or economic crisis, social, health, until human crisis. Most drug users are teenagers at school age. A new deterministic model would be constructed to determine the dynamics of the spread of drug users by considering level of education in a susceptible population. Based on the analytical model, two equilibria points were obtained; there were E₀ (zero user) and E₁ (endemic equilibrium). Existence of equilibrium and local stability of equilibria depended on the Basic Reproduction Ratio (R₀). This parameter was defined as the expected rate of secondary prevalence and primary prevalence in virgin population along spreading primary prevalence. The zero-victim equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable if R₀ < 1 while if R₀ > 1 the endemic equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable. The result showed that R₀ was proportional to the rate of interaction of each susceptible population based on educational level with the users' population. It is concluded that there was a need to be given a control in interaction, so that drug users population could be minimized. Numerical simulations were also provided to support analytical results.

Keywords: drugs users, level education, mathematical model, stability

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Authors: Philip Robert Alldritt

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The continuing increase in human migration is at crisis levels in all areas of the planet. The causes are varied, and the risks are high for the migrants. Migration has been ongoing since the beginning of human emergence on the planet, but for the first time in our historic memory has the, migration reached this level of critical mass. The causes are many. Climate collapse, economic opportunity, drug cartel activity, political upheaval, and gang wars. Many locations are seemingly “within reach” of the migrants, and the push factors are so loaded with hopelessness that almost anyone would be willing to risk anything to improve their conditions. There is no argument about that mass migrations are occurring and will increase in the future. The solutions to this increase are complex. This paper will examine the causes of migration and attempt to provide some reasonable solutions to mitigate the migrations with equitable outcomes that may guide immigration policy in impacted areas.

Keywords: immigration, crisis, climate, cartels

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Authors: Alessandra Swiny, Michalis Georgiou, Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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This paper focuses on the questions raised through the work of Unit 5: ‘In/Out of crisis, emergent and adaptive’; an architectural research-based studio at the University of Nicosia. It focusses on sustainable architectural and urban explorations tackling with the ever growing crises in its various types, phases and locations. ‘Great crisis situations’ are seen as ‘great chances’ that trigger investigations for further development and evolution of the built environment in an ultimate sustainable approach. The crisis is taken as an opportunity to rethink the urban and architectural directions as new forces for inventions leading to emergent and adaptive built environments. The Unit 5’s identity and environment facilitates the students to respond optimistically, alternatively and creatively towards the global current crisis. Mark Wigley’s notion that “crises are ultimately productive” and “They force invention” intrigued and defined the premises of the Unit. ‘Weather and nature are coauthors of the built environment’ Jonathan Hill states in his ‘weather architecture’ discourse. The weather is constantly changing and new environments, the subnatures are created which derived from the human activities David Gissen explains. The above set of premises triggered innovative responses by the Unit’s students. They thoroughly investigated the various kinds of crisis and their causes in relation to their various types of Terrains. The tools used for the research and investigation were chosen in contradictive pairs to generate further crisis situations: The re-used/salvaged competed with the new, the handmade rivalling with the fabrication, the analogue juxtaposed with digital. Students were asked to delve into state of art technologies in order to propose sustainable emergent and adaptive architectures and Urbanities, having though always in mind that the human and the social aspects of the community should be the core of the investigation. The resulting unprecedented spatial conditions and atmospheres of the emergent new ways of living are deemed to be the ultimate aim of the investigation. Students explored a variety of sites and crisis conditions such as: The vague terrain of the Green Line in Nicosia, the lost footprints of the sinking Venice, the endangered Australian coral reefs, the earthquake torn town of Crevalcore, and the decaying concrete urbanscape of Athens. Among other projects, ‘the plume project’ proposes a cloud-like, floating and almost dream-like living environment with unprecedented spatial conditions to the inhabitants of the coal mine of Centralia, USA, not just to enable them to survive but even to prosper in this unbearable environment due to the process of the captured plumes of smoke and heat. Existing water wells inspire inversed vertical structures creating a new living underground network, protecting the nomads from catastrophic sand storms in the Araoune of Mali. “Inverted utopia: Lost things in the sand”, weaves a series of tea-houses and a library holding lost artifacts and transcripts into a complex underground labyrinth by the utilization of the sand solidification technology. Within this methodology, crisis is seen as a mechanism for allowing an emergence of new and fascinating ultimate sustainable future cultures and cities.

Keywords: adaptive built environments, crisis as opportunity, emergent urbanities, forces for inventions

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Authors: Osatuyi Kehinde Micheal

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There is much research that has contributed to an improved understanding of the future of food security, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. A pathway was developed by using a local community kitchen in Muizenberg in western cape province, cape town, south Africa, a case study to map out the future of food security in times of crisis. This kitchen aims to provide nutritious, affordable, plant-based meals to our community. It is also a place of diverse learning, sharing, empowering the volunteers, and growth to support the local economy and future resilience by sustaining our community kitchen for the community. This document contains an overview of the story of the community kitchen on how we create self-sustainability as a new pathway development to sustain the community and reduce Zero hunger in the regional food system. This paper describes the key elements of how we respond to covid-19 pandemic by sharing food parcels and creating 13 soup kitchens across the community to tackle the immediate response to covid-19 pandemic and agricultural systems by growing home food gardening in different homes, also having a consciousness Dry goods store to reduce Zero waste and a local currency as an innovation to reduce food crisis. Insights gained from our article and outreach and their value in how we create adaptation, transformation, and sustainability as a new development pathway to solve any future problem crisis in the food security system in our society.

Keywords: sustainability, food security, community development, adapatation, transformation

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Authors: Khaled Asfour

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Going for LEED certification is the latest concern in Egyptian practice that only materialized during the last 4 years. Egyptian Consultant Group (ECG) together with Credit Agricole had the vision to design a headquarters (Cairo) that delivers a serious sustainable design. The bank is a strong advocator of “green banking” and supports renewable energy and energy saving projects. Their HQ in Cairo has passed all the hurdles to become the first platinum LEED certificate holder in Egypt. With this design Egyptian practice has finally re-engaged in a serious way with its long-standing traditions in sustainable architecture. Perhaps the closest to our memory is the medieval houses of Cairo. Few centuries later these qualities disappeared with the advent of Modern Movement that focused more on standard modernist image making than real localized quality of living environments. The first person to note this disappearance was Hassan Fathy half a century ago. Despite international applaud for his efforts he had no effect on prevailing local practice that continued senselessly adopting recycled modernist templates. The Egyptian society was not ready to accept any reference to historic architecture. Disciples of Hassan Fathy, few decades later sought, of tackling the lack of interest in green architecture in a different way. Mohamed Awad introduced in his design sustainable ideals inspired from traditional architecture rather than recycling directly historic forms and images. Despite success, this approach did not go far enough to influence the prevailing practice. Since year 2000 Egyptian economy was ebbing and flowing dramatically. This staggering fluctuation coupled by energy crisis has disillusioned architects and clients on the issue of modern image making. No more shining architecture under the sun with high running cost of fossil fuel. They sought of adopting contemporary green measures that offer pleasant living while saving on energy. A revival is on its way but is very slow and timid. The paper will present this problem of reviving sustainable architecture. How this process can be accelerated in order to give stronger impact on current practice will be addressed through the works of Mario Cucinella and Norman Foster.

Keywords: LEED certification, Hasan Fathy, Medieval architecture, Mario Cucinella, Norman Foster

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Authors: Derya Gül Ünlü, Oguz Kuş

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The branding of a country means that the country has its own position different from other countries in its region and thus it is perceived more specifically. It is made possible by the branding efforts of a country and the uniqueness of all the national structures, by presenting it in a specific way, by creating the desired image and attracting tourists and foreign investors. Establishing a national brand involves, in a sense, the process of managing the perceptions of the citizens of the other country about the target country, by structuring the image of the country permanently and holistically. By this means, countries are not easily affected by their crisis of international relations. Therefore, within the scope of the research that will be carried out from this point, it is aimed to show how the warplane downing crisis between Turkey and Russia is perceived on social media. The Russian warplane was downed by Turkey on November 24, 2015, on the grounds that Turkey violated the airspace on the Syrian border. Whereupon the relations between the two countries have been tensed, and Russia has called on its citizens not to go to Turkey and citizens in Turkey to return to their countries. Moreover, relations between two countries have been weakened, for example, tourism tours organized in Russia to Turkey and visa-free travel were canceled and all military dialogue was cut off. After the event, various news sites on social media published plenty of news related to topic and the readers made various comments about the event and Turkey. In this context, an investigation into the perception of Turkey's national brand before and after the warplane downing crisis has been conducted. through comments fetched from the reports on the BBC World, and from Al Jazeera English news sites on Facebook accounts, which takes place widely in the social media. In order to realize study, user comments were fetched from jet downing-related news which are published on Facebook fan-page of BBC World Service, and Al Jazeera English. Regarding this, all the news published between 24.10.2015-24.12.2015 and containing Turk and Turkey keyword in its title composed data set of our study. Afterwards, comments written to these news were analyzed via text mining technique. Furthermore, by sentiment analysis, it was intended to reveal reader’s emotions before and after the crisis.

Keywords: Al Jazeera English, BBC World, country branding, social media, text mining

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Authors: Lucien N. James, Mulala D. Simatele

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As a country that already faces hydrological and climatological challenges, South Africa’s socio-economic situation only complicates water resource management. This is observable through the state of rivers in the Gauteng Province such as the Hennops and Jukskei which are plagued by pollution from surrounding urban areas. While communities in the Hennops River basin contribute to its degradation, their potential in improved water resource management strategies is yet to be established. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the myriad of ways in which stakeholder and community engagement, mobilisation, as well as participation can be harnessed in contested urban spaces to facilitate a sustainable management system for river basins. Through meetings, clean-up campaigns, and a community workshop, the community of Tembisa and several key informants were engaged. The role of communities and their perceptions on an integrated and participatory approach to solving the Hennops River basin’s current pollution crisis were therefore explored. The findings of this study suggest that meaningful participation is tied to the level of awareness within communities as well as the amount of support attributed to active involvement through the initiatives of stakeholders such as NonGovernmental Organisations. For meaningful participation to take place, more needs to be done to shift communities away from a “bystander” position to a more active role. An approach to community engagement is therefore proposed arguing for the further support of stakeholder-driven initiatives and the raising of awareness around environmental challenges in poorer communities. The findings of this study demonstrate the value of engagement with stakeholders and communities, highlighting ways through which better water management and environmental governance can be achieved in South Africa.

Keywords: community participation, integrated water resource management, river basin management, stakeholder engagement

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Authors: Flora Xu, Marta Fernandez Olmos

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This article is mainly about critical assessment and comprehensive understanding of the business strategy in the post COVID-19 scenario. This study aims to elucidate how companies are responding to the unique challenges posed by the pandemic and how these measures are shaping the future of the business environment. The pandemic has exposed the fragility and flexibility of the global supply chain, and procurement and production strategies should be reconsidered. It should increase the diversity of suppliers and the flexibility of the supply chain, and some companies are considering transferring their survival to the local market. This can increase local employment and reduce international transportation disruptions and customs issues. By shortening the distance between production and market, companies can respond more quickly to changes in demand and unforeseen events. The demand for remote work and online solutions will increase the adoption of digital technology and accelerate the digital transformation of many organizations. Marketing and communication strategies need to adapt to a constantly changing environment. The business resilience strategy was emphasized as a key component of the response to the COVID-19. The company is seeking to strengthen its risk management capabilities and develop a business continuity plan to cope with future unexpected disruptions. The pandemic has reconfigured human resource practices and changed the way companies manage their employees. Remote work has become the norm, and companies focus on managing workers' health and well-being, as well as flexible work policies to ensure operations and support for employees during crises. This change in human resources practice has a lasting impact on how companies apply talent and labor management in the post COVID-19 world. The pandemic has prompted a significant review of business strategies as companies adapt to constantly changing environments and seek to ensure their sustainability and profitability in times of crisis. This strategic reassessment has led to product diversification, exploring international markets and adapting to the changing market. Companies have responded to the unprecedented challenges brought by the COVID-19. The COVID-19 has promoted innovation effort in key areas and focused on the responsibility in today's business strategy for sustainability and the importance of corporate society. The important challenge of formulating and implementing business strategies in uncertain times. These challenges include making quick and agile decisions in turbulent environments, risk management, and adaptability to constantly changing market conditions. The COVID-19 highlights the importance of strategic planning and informed decision-making - making in a business environment characterized by uncertainty and complexity. In short, the pandemic has reconfigured the way companies handle business strategies and emphasized the necessity of preparing for future challenges in a business world marked by uncertainty and complexity.

Keywords: business strategy, crisis, digitalization, uncertainty

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Authors: R. Conde

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The Brazilian economic projections and social indicators show a future of crisis for the country. Solutions to avoid this crisis scenario are necessary. Several developed countries implement initiatives linked to sustainability, mainly related to the circular economy, to solve their crises quickly - green recovery. This article aims to assess social gains if Brazil followed the same recovery strategy. Furthermore, with the use of data presented and recognized in the international academic society, the number of jobs that can be created, if Brazil took the first steps towards a more circular economy, was found. Moreover, in addition to the gross value in the number of jobs created, this article also detailed the number of these jobs by type of activity (collection, processing, and manufacturing) and by type of material.

Keywords: circular economy, green recovery, job creation, social gains

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Authors: Odeh Ibn Iganga

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The issue of foreign debt, debt crisis or the concept of Third World debt burden generally gained prominence after the end of the cold war which pitched the United States and the former Soviet Union against each other in an ideological supremacy tussle. Before then however, Third World Countries (TWCs) enjoyed a relative economic resilience and stability and ostensibly friendly relations with the leaders of the polarized blocks in a way to garner supports for, and as an instrument of strengthening and expanding influence and power of the leaders of the two blocs, and achieve their goals. Consequently, the Third World concept lost its political relevance and usage perhaps, too, its economic comportment, and eventually became phraseology synonymous with developing countries bedeviled with debt crisis and struggling to emerge from debt burden, economic underdevelopment and poverty. Since then, also, particularly during the last two decades, the issue of Third World debt burden, which is currently posing significant problems, has a considerable attracted public policy and academic scrutiny. Third World debt burden thus is not a recent phenomenon but is a result of, and due to, pursuance of foreign aid from countries of the North which had, from the start, created the condition of economic subservience and master-servant relationship that could generate persistent seeking and lobbing for foreign aids through borrowing, thus tying down in a perpetual manner, most of the Third World Countries to underdevelopment, dependency and poverty. The interest of this paper, therefore, is to examine the causes, costs and or the implications of the debt burden on the economies of the Third World Countries, review some general solutions to the debt burden as well as offering suggestions as a way out of the doldrums.

Keywords: third world, debt burden, debt crisis, economic development and underdevelopment

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Authors: Petr Gurný

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One of the most important tasks in the risk management is the correct determination of probability of default (PD) of particular financial subjects. In this paper a possibility of determination of financial institution’s PD according to the credit-scoring models is discussed. The paper is divided into the two parts. The first part is devoted to the estimation of the three different models (based on the linear discriminant analysis, logit regression and probit regression) from the sample of almost three hundred US commercial banks. Afterwards these models are compared and verified on the control sample with the view to choose the best one. The second part of the paper is aimed at the application of the chosen model on the portfolio of three key Czech banks to estimate their present financial stability. However, it is not less important to be able to estimate the evolution of PD in the future. For this reason, the second task in this paper is to estimate the probability distribution of the future PD for the Czech banks. So, there are sampled randomly the values of particular indicators and estimated the PDs’ distribution, while it’s assumed that the indicators are distributed according to the multidimensional subordinated Lévy model (Variance Gamma model and Normal Inverse Gaussian model, particularly). Although the obtained results show that all banks are relatively healthy, there is still high chance that “a financial crisis” will occur, at least in terms of probability. This is indicated by estimation of the various quantiles in the estimated distributions. Finally, it should be noted that the applicability of the estimated model (with respect to the used data) is limited to the recessionary phase of the financial market.

Keywords: credit-scoring models, multidimensional subordinated Lévy model, probability of default

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Authors: Bindhiya Thomas, Rehana Hafeez

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Background: The Surgical Ambulatory Unit (SAU) also known as the Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) is an established part of many hospitals providing same day emergency care service to surgical patients who would have otherwise required admission through the A&E. Prior to Covid, the SAU was functioning as a 12-hour service, but during the Covid crisis this service was transformed to a 24 hour functioning Surgical Ambulatory Assessment unit (SAAU). We studied the effects that this change brought about in-patient care in our hospital. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the impact of a 24-hour Surgical Ambulatory Assessment unit on patient care during the time of Covid, in particular its role in freeing A&E capacity and delivering effective patient care. Methods: We collected two sets of data retrospectively. The first set was collected over a 6-week period when the SAU was functioning at the Princess Royal University Hospital. On March 23rd, 2020, the SAU was transformed into a 24-hour SAAU. Following this transformation, a second set of patient data was collected over a period of 6 weeks. A comparison was made between data collected from when the hospital had a 12-hour Surgical Ambulatory unit and later when it was transformed into a 24-hour facility. Its effects on the change in the number of patients breaching the four hour waiting period and the number of emergency surgical admissions. Results: The 24-hour Surgical Ambulatory Assessment unit brought significant reductions in the number of patients breaching the waiting period of 4 hours in A&E from 44% during the period of the 12-hour Surgical Ambulatory care facility to 0% from when the 24-hour Surgical Ambulatory Assessment Unit was established. A 28% reduction was also seen in the number of surgical patients' admissions from A&E. Conclusions: The 24-hour SAAU was found to have a profound positive impact on emergency care of surgical patients. Especially during the Covid crisis, it played a crucial role in providing not only effective and accessible patient care but also in reducing the A&E workload and admissions. It thus proved to be a strategic tool that helped to deal with the immense workload in emergency care during the Covid crisis and helped free much needed headspace at a time of uncertainty for the A&E to better configure their services. If sustained, the 24-hour SAAU could be relied on to augment the NHS emergency services in the future, especially in the event of another crisis.

Keywords: Princess Royal University Hospital, surgical ambulatory assessment unit, surgical ambulatory unit, same day emergency care

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Authors: Farzaneh Sasanpour, Saeed Amini Varaki

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Resilience is an important goal for cities as urban areas face an increasing range of challenges in the 21st century; therefore, according to the characteristics of risks, adopting an approach that responds to sensitive conditions in the risk management process is the resilience of cities. In the meantime, most of the resilience assessments have dealt with natural hazards and less attention has been paid to pandemics.In the covid-19 pandemic, the country of Iran and especially the metropolis of Tehran, was not immune from the crisis caused by its effects and consequences and faced many challenges. One of the methods that can increase the resilience of Tehran's metropolis against possible crises in the future is future studies. This research is practical in terms of type. The general pattern of the research will be descriptive-analytical and from the point of view that it is trying to communicate between the components and provide urban resilience indicators with pandemic crises and explain the scenarios, its future studies method is exploratory. In order to extract and determine the key factors and driving forces effective on the resilience of Tehran's urban areas against pandemic crises (Covid-19), the method of structural analysis of mutual effects and Micmac software was used. Therefore, the primary factors and variables affecting the resilience of Tehran's urban areas were set in 5 main factors, including physical-infrastructural (transportation, spatial and physical organization, streets and roads, multi-purpose development) with 39 variables based on mutual effects analysis. Finally, key factors and variables in five main areas, including managerial-institutional with five variables; Technology (intelligence) with 3 variables; economic with 2 variables; socio-cultural with 3 variables; and physical infrastructure, were categorized with 7 variables. These factors and variables have been used as key factors and effective driving forces on the resilience of Tehran's urban areas against pandemic crises (Covid-19), in explaining and developing scenarios. In order to develop the scenarios for the resilience of Tehran's urban areas against pandemic crises (Covid-19), intuitive logic, scenario planning as one of the future research methods and the Global Business Network (GBN) model were used. Finally, four scenarios have been drawn and selected with a creative method using the metaphor of weather conditions, which is indicative of the general outline of the conditions of the metropolis of Tehran in that situation. Therefore, the scenarios of Tehran metropolis were obtained in the form of four scenarios: 1- solar scenario (optimal governance and management leading in smart technology) 2- cloud scenario (optimal governance and management following in intelligent technology) 3- dark scenario (optimal governance and management Unfavorable leader in intelligence technology) 4- Storm scenario (unfavorable governance and management of follower in intelligence technology). The solar scenario shows the best situation and the stormy scenario shows the worst situation for the Tehran metropolis. According to the findings obtained in this research, city managers can, in order to achieve a better tomorrow for the metropolis of Tehran, in all the factors and components of urban resilience against pandemic crises by using future research methods, a coherent picture with the long-term horizon of 2050, from the path Provide urban resilience movement and platforms for upgrading and increasing the capacity to deal with the crisis. To create the necessary platforms for the realization, development and evolution of the urban areas of Tehran in a way that guarantees long-term balance and stability in all dimensions and levels.

Keywords: future research, resilience, crisis, pandemic, covid-19, Tehran

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Authors: Belakhdar Salah Brahim

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The Urban management is a major element of social control of public space and thus the functioning of society. As such, it is a key element of a social conception of sustainable development. Also, it is a cross-cutting sector that relies on land management, infrastructure management, habitat management, management of social services, the management of economic development, etc. This study aims to study how urban management focusing on the study of problems related to urban waste management in developing countries. It appears from the study that the city management is to improve infrastructure and urban services in order to increase the city's development and improve living conditions in cities. It covers various aspects including management of urban space, economic management, administrative management, asset management or infrastructure and finally waste management. Environmental management is important because it solves the pollution problems of life and preserve resources for future generations. Changing perceptions of waste has led to the definition of new policies for integrated waste management requirements appropriate to the urban site.

Keywords: urbanization, urban management, environmental management, waste management

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Authors: Viktorija Mano

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The objective of my research is to critique the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stance on foreign investment and the benefits for small, open economies of allowing the free movement of capital. In my research as a whole I will explore the extent to which this stance impacted upon and influenced the economic policies of Macedonia. This will involve providing a contextualized, critical account of the policy of the IMF focusing on a comparison of its policies during the early 2000s through policy documents, political discourse and enacted policies in Macedonia. The conditionality associated with these policies, such as the enforcement of austerity measures (including cutting public spending and reducing debt) and the privatization of public institutions has provoked strong reactions in countries which receive such loans. My main focus in my research is on exploring how the process of Financial Liberalization (FL) of the Macedonian economy affected capital flows in the form of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the private sector and how the recent Greek crisis of 2008 has impacted on this. In the case of Macedonia, the reality of FL was tested by the collapse of the Greek economy. However, this paper will highlight the main duties of the IMF and the goals of the FL process implemented in various countries.Additionally, I will undertake a rhetorical documentary analysis on the IMF reports regarding the process of FL in Macedonia since its independence until today.

Keywords: FDI, financial liberalization, Greece, IMF, Macedonia

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