Beyond the “Third Wave of Positive Psychology”: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

The positive psychology (PP) landscape is changing, and its initial identity is being challenged. Moving beyond the “third wave of PP,” two roads for future research and practice in well-being studies are discerned: The first is the state of the art PP trajectory that will (for the near future) continue as a scientific (sub)discipline in/next to psychology (because of its popular brand name). The second trajectory (main focus of this manuscript) links to pointers described as part of the so-called third wave of PP, which will be argued as actually being the beginning of a new domain of inter- or transdisciplinary well-being studies in its own right. It has a broader scope than the state of the art in PP, but is more delineated than in planetary well-being studies. It is in particular suitable to understand the complex nature of bio-psycho-social-ecological well-being, and to promote health and wellness in times of enormous challenges and changes. A unique cohering focus for this post-disciplinary well-being research domain is proposed. In both trajectories, future research will have to increase cognizance of metatheoretical assumptions, develop more encompassing theories to bridge the conceptual fragmentation in the field, and implement methodological reforms, while keeping context and the interwovenness of the various levels of the scientific text in mind. Opportunities are indicated to contribute to the discourse on the identity and development of scientific knowledge in mainstream positive psychology and the evolving post-disciplinary domain of well-being studies.

COVID-19 infections in day care centres in Germany: social and organisational determinants of infections in children and staff in the second and third wave of the pandemic

Background During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, German early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres organised children’s attendance in different ways, they reduced opening hours, provided emergency support for a few children, or closed completely. Further, protection and hygiene measures like fixed children-staff groups, ventilation and surface disinfection were introduced in ECEC centres. To inform or modify public health measures in ECEC, we investigate the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and staff in ECEC centres in light of social determinants (i.e. the socioeconomic status of the children) and recommended structural and hygiene measures. We focus on the question if the relevant factors differ between the 2nd (when no variant of concern (VOC) circulated) and the 3rd wave (when VOC B.1.1.7 (Alpha) predominated). Methods Based on panel data from a weekly online survey of ECEC centre managers (calendar week 36/2020 to 22/2021, ongoing) including approx. 8500 centres, we estimate the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children and staff using random-effect-within-between (REWB) panel models for count data in the 2nd and 3rd wave. Results ECEC centres with a high proportion of children with low socioeconomic status (SES) have a higher risk of infections in staff and children. Strict contact restrictions between groups like fixed group assignments for children and fixed staff assignments to groups prevent infections. Both effects tend to be stronger in the 3rd wave. Conclusion ECEC centres with a large proportion of children with a low SES background and lack of using fixed child/staff cohorts experience higher COVID-19 rates. Over the long run, centres should be supported in maintaining recommended measures. Preventive measures such as the vaccination of staff should be prioritised in centres with large proportions of low SES children.

Human health care against COVID-19 via environmental management

Although vaccines are successfully developed against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19), and many anticancer, anti-malarial, antibiotic drugs have been repurposed against the disease, it has been just impossible to save valuable human lives in specific conditions. Therefore, medical care has been developed against COVID-19 but not fully able to save human life from the disease. As a result, the third wave is noticed in many countries. Preventive methods such as social distancing, wearing masks, and hand salinization have been accepted as the main strategies to break the chain of the disease. Due to the reduction in pollution under less or no industrial and vehicular operations, water and air ecosystems have been restored in an unseen manner. Especially, NO₂, SO₂ and particulate matters etc. modulated higher expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, the receptor of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus -2 in humans have also been emphatically documented. Therefore, along with medical care, environmental protection (especially to regulate NO₂ emissions) along with practicing COVID-19 guidelines is to be maintained fully to combat COVID-19 the disease. Human beings must use this knowledge and experience as a spotlight to save nature in current and future times.

‘But you’re white’: An autoethnography of whiteness and white privilege in East Asian universities

It is well established within the field of Critical Whiteness Studies that white privilege routinely materialises in Western universities. Yet, even though a third wave of Critical Whiteness Studies is increasingly focussing on whiteness in non-Western contexts, there has been insufficient attention toward whether white privilege also exists in East Asian universities. This article seeks to explore this issue by offering an autoethnography in which the author, a mixed-race academic who is racialised as white on some occasions and as a person of colour on others, critically interrogates whiteness in East Asian higher education. It is argued that those who are racialised as white are privileged in East Asian universities and may even seek to actively sustain this. In departing from the dominant understanding of whiteness as always-and-only privileging, this article also explores the extent to which white academics in East Asia may also be disadvantaged by their whiteness.

Characteristics and outcome of COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU: a nationwide cohort study on the comparison between the first and the consecutive upsurges of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

Background To assess trends in the quality of care for COVID-19 patients at the ICU over the course of time in the Netherlands. Methods Data from the National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE)-registry of all COVID-19 patients admitted to an ICU in the Netherlands were used. Patient characteristics and indicators of quality of care during the first two upsurges (N = 4215: October 5, 2020–January 31, 2021) and the final upsurge of the second wave, called the ‘third wave’ (N = 4602: February 1, 2021–June 30, 2021) were compared with those during the first wave (N = 2733, February–May 24, 2020). Results During the second and third wave, there were less patients treated with mechanical ventilation (58.1 and 58.2%) and vasoactive drugs (48.0 and 44.7%) compared to the first wave (79.1% and 67.2%, respectively). The occupancy rates as fraction of occupancy in 2019 (1.68 and 1.55 vs. 1.83), the numbers of ICU relocations (23.8 and 27.6 vs. 32.3%) and the mean length of stay at the ICU (HRs of ICU discharge = 1.26 and 1.42) were lower during the second and third wave. No difference in adjusted hospital mortality between the second wave and the first wave was found, whereas the mortality during the third wave was considerably lower (OR = 0.80, 95% CI [0.71–0.90]). Conclusions These data show favorable shifts in the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the ICU over time. The adjusted mortality decreased in the third wave. The high ICU occupancy rate early in the pandemic does probably not explain the high mortality associated with COVID-19.

The Covid pandemic enters the ballot box: The impact of conspiracy theories on Italians' voting behaviour during the COVID-19 crisis

The spread of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 was the impetus for an exogenous shock. In addition to the disruption brought on by the spread of COVID-19, conspiracy theories flourished on many aspects of the disease. However, the association between belief in conspiracy theories and voting behaviour has not been studied sufficiently, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper investigates the association between a belief in conspiracy theories and an intention to vote for populist parties (PPs). This association is analysed in a case study of Italian voters, where PPs can be found in the government and in the opposition. By conducting a cross-sectional analysis during the third wave of panel data fielded in December 2020, this article shows that individuals who have anti-vax attitudes and who also have a higher propensity to believe in conspiracy theories are more likely to vote for PPs, although it is worth considering the roles PPs play in either the government or in the opposition.

Change in profile of COVID-19 deaths in the Western Cape during the fourth wave

Fewer COVID-19 deaths have been reported in this fourth wave, with clinicians reporting less admissions due to severe COVID-19 pneumonia when compared to previous waves. We therefore aimed to rapidly compare the profile of deaths in wave 4 with wave 3 using routinely collected data on admissions to public sector hospitals in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Findings show that there have been fewer COVID-19 pneumonia deaths in the Omicron-driven fourth wave compared to the third wave, which confirms anecdotal reports and lower bulk oxygen consumption by hospitals in the province.

Natural Patterns and Magnetic and Mental Processes of Coronavirus Activation and Neutralization

For twenty years, humanity has seen the third attempt at the transition of coronavirus to humans. The vaccine has been found, but coronavirus transitions will not stop even with the improvement of medicine. Nobel laureate in medicine Professor Luc Montagnier argues that vaccines may not live up to humanity's hopes of getting rid of COVID-19. Collective immunity for coronavirus has not been developed, repeated infections are more and more common, beds of seriously ill people are not empty, and mortality is running high, no one knows what will happen to all of us. In Israel, where vaccination has long been compulsory, and over 60% of the population, including underage children, have been vaccinated, the incidence is not just declining, but still breaking all records. So, the maximum number of cases here was revealed on September 1 - 16,629, which almost caught up with Russia (18,368 confirmed on the same September 1) with our percentage of vaccinated 26.1% of the number of citizens. At the end of September 2021, morbidity and mortality increase, because it is a system. Based on existing monthly pneumonia mortality statistics over the past 15 years, there are three waves each year. Since September 22, there has been a surge of pneumonia, ARI, and even non-communicable diseases. The second wave comes at the end of December - January, it is usually three times larger than the first. Then around March-April there is a third wave. These three waves exist steadily from year to year, their amplitudes can change, then one will be higher, then the other, they are not absolutely hard on schedule, but they are reproduced regularly in other countries. The first wave of the Spanish pandemic covered the world just at the end of September 1918. The coronavirus was the same. The first wave in America is September 2019, an unexplained surge of pneumonia with a rather high mortality rate, which was written off for smoking e-cigarettes and called "vape." Now they decided to watch the surviving tests of patients, and there - COVID-19. In Europe, it was the same.

Omicron Impact in India: An Early Analysis of the Ongoing COVID-19 Third Wave

India is currently experiencing the third wave of COVID-19, which began on around 28 Dec. 2021. Although genome sequencing data of a sufficiently large sample is not yet available, the rapid growth in the daily number of cases, comparable to South Africa, United Kingdom, suggests that the current wave is primarily driven by the Omicron variant. The logarithmic regression suggests the growth rate of the infections during the early days in this wave is nearly four times than that in the second wave. Another notable difference in this wave is the relatively concurrent arrival of outbreaks in all the states; the effective reproduction number (Rt) although has significant variations among them. The test positivity rate (TPR) also displays a rapid growth in the last 10 days in several states. Preliminary estimates with the SIR model suggest that the peak to occur in late January 2022 with peak caseload exceeding that in the second wave. Although the Omicron trends in several countries suggest a decline in case fatality rate and hospitalizations compared to Delta, a sudden surge in active caseload can temporarily choke the already stressed healthcare India is currently experiencing the third wave of COVID-19, which began on around 28 Dec. 2021. Although genome sequencing data of a sufficiently large sample is not yet available, the rapid growth in the daily number of cases, comparable to South Africa, United Kingdom, suggests that the current wave is primarily driven by the Omicron variant. The logarithmic regression suggests the growth rate of the infections during the early days in this wave is nearly four times than that in the second wave. Another notable difference in this wave is the relatively concurrent arrival of outbreaks in all the states; the effective reproduction number (Rt) although has significant variations among them. The test positivity rate (TPR) also displays a rapid growth in the last 10 days in several states. Preliminary estimates with the SIR model suggest that the peak to occur in late January 2022 with peak caseload exceeding that in the second wave. Although the Omicron trends in several countries suggest a decline in case fatality rate and hospitalizations compared to Delta, a sudden surge in active caseload can temporarily choke the already stressed healthcare infrastructure. Therefore, it is advisable to strictly adhere to COVID-19 appropriate behavior for the next few weeks to mitigate an explosion in the number of infections.

MATERNIDADES DISFÓRICAS EN EL POLICIACO TELEVISIVO ESPAÑOL

Las representaciones de la maternidad integran un campo de estudio complejo y en ocasiones contradictorio, condicionado como pocos otros ámbitos de lo social por las tendencias político-ideológicas de cada momento histórico. A partir de los años noventa, el postfeminismo se ha venido apropiando de algunos postulados de la tercera ola feminista para proponer una versión idealizada de la buena madre que combina, sin problemas aparentes, el cuidado de sus hijos con su desarrollo profesional. La figura resultante de este modelo neoliberal, de carácter naturalista y esencialista, constituye un horizonte inalcanzable para la mayor parte de las mujeres trabajadoras. Estas madres imperfectas han encontrado en el thriller televisivo el imaginario idóneo donde evidenciar la imposibilidad de la maternidad ideal. La serie Néboa (La1, 2020) ilustra esta tendencia mediante una mirada disfórica sobre el tema, muy crítica con los postulados inasumibles del postfeminismo. Abstract: The representations of motherhood make up a complex and sometimes contradictory field of study, conditioned like few other areas of the social sphere by the political-ideological tendencies of each historical period. Since the 1990s, post-feminism has been appropriating some tenets of the feminist third wave to propose an idealized version of the good mother that combines, apparently without problems, the care of her children with her professional development. The figure resulting from this neoliberal model, of a naturalistic and essentialist nature, represents an unattainable horizon for the majority of working women. These imperfect mothers have found in the television thriller a fertile imaginary where they show the impossibility of the ideal motherhood. The series Néboa (La1, 2020) illustrates this trend through a dystopian view on the subject, very critical of the post-feminist imaginary.