Uncovering Resilience Disparities among Religious Groups in Israel's Mass COVID-19 Vaccination Drive: Lessons Learned to the Post-COVID Era.

The aim of the current study was to examine the emotional resilience, satisfaction with life, social support, and anxiety during the vaccination process of the Israeli population after the end of the third lockdown, according to religiosity degree. We hypothesized that a higher degree of religiosity (ultra-Orthodox and religious participants) would be associated with higher levels of resilience and with lower levels of anxiety than in secular individuals. In addition, it was hypothesized that satisfaction with life, social support, anxiety, and religiosity will predict resilience and anxiety.

The varying social dynamics in orally transmitted and notated vs. improvised musical performance.

Musical performance can be viewed as an intricate form of social behavior. Accordingly, the rich diversity of existing musical styles and traditions may reflect distinct modes of social interaction. To gain a better understanding of the relations between musical style and social dynamics, we have formulated a framework for dissecting different genres of musical performance according to key social criteria.

["AN UNFINISHED SYMPHONY": MEDICINE DURING THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING].

This year marks the anniversary of the 80th year of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943 -2023), a very important and significant turning point in the history of the Holocaust. The Uprising is not the only demonstration of courage and strength, in rebelling against the brutal Nazi oppressor: there was another form of intellectual and spiritual resistance in the ghetto - medical resistance. Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals resisted.

What is the optimal country for minimum COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates?

The SARS-CoV-2 is a deceptive virus. Despite the remarkable progress in genetic sequencing and subsequent vaccine development, the world continues to grapple with the ominous threats of rapidly appearing SARS-CoV-2 variants. The objective of this manuscript is to rank world countries based on the anticipated scope of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, measured in terms of prevalence per 1 million persons, from the lowest to the highest.

'A war of a different kind': local municipalities' experiences in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel-a qualitative study.

Objectives: In Israel, in 2020, 57/257 local municipalities were part of the Healthy Cities Network (HCN). HCN municipalities have a strong political commitment to health promotion and reducing health inequalities. This research aimed to (1) explore local municipalities' management of the pandemic and (2) assess whether belonging to the HCN impacted this management.

The cumulative effect of socioeconomic status and dyslexia on linguistic, cognitive and reading skills among Arabic-speaking children.

Research has shown that children with dyslexia and children with a low socioeconomic status (SES) fall behind in terms of literacy acquisition, but a question remains regarding the cumulative effect of dyslexia and SES on linguistic, cognitive and reading skills. To examine the impact of cognition and environment on literacy development, we returned to the data set of 1,441 elementary school children (223 dyslexic readers and 1,241 typical readers) from low and medium-high SES backgrounds within Palestinian society in Israel who had participated in the development study of a comprehensive battery of tests in oral and written Arabic. The findings of this retrospective study reveal that, across grade levels, dyslexic readers from a low SES background showed similar performance to those from a medium-high SES background on most linguistic, cognitive and reading measures.

Is obesity a risk factor for melanoma?

Objectives: Are twofold: 1) to estimate the relationship between obesity (BMI ≥30) and the prevalence of melanoma in different US states and 2) to examine the possibility of defining a new risk group. This might enhance the possibility of detection, which in turn, might increase the survival rates of patients.

Study Design: A cohort Study, based on data at the US statewide level in 2011-2017, where the dependent variable (the annual new melanoma cases per 100,000 persons) is adjusted for age.

The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Low SES Kindergarteners' Language Abilities.

Young children's language skills have a significant positive impact on their academic success throughout school, especially on reading and writing performance. The spread of COVID-19, which has resulted in lockdowns, fewer learning hours in kindergarten, and distance learning, might have affected children's exposure to learning opportunities. The aim of the current study was to compare language abilities (vocabulary and morphological awareness) of two groups of low SES kindergarteners, 110 children who attended seven kindergartens before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 54 children who attended eight kindergartens during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maximizing diversity within and among teams in a large-scale project.

This work aims to improve an earlier methodology for assigning personnel to diverse three-member teams. Notably, the original algorithm focused only on diversity within teams, to ensure that conflicting interests are represented in each team. While this indeed created diverse teams, in many cases different teams featured the same combination of conflicting interests.

Public perception of guilt and deserved punishment in medical cannabis diversion.

Introduction: Illegal drug diversion is a well-documented social problem that has received little research attention, despite the growing use of medical cannabis (MC) worldwide. This study examines public attitudes towards the punishment of MC diversion in Israel.

Method: We used a quantitative method.

Willingness to pay, familiarity and political attitudes: The case of integrating people with intellectual disabilities.

Background: Integrating people with intellectual disabilities into the community has become a major goal in improving society in general. Our study adds an important layer to discussions of how to achieve this goal.

Method: We examine both the willingness to integrate people into the community and their willingness to pay for this integration.

Do Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews Suffer more than Secular Israeli Jews from Obesity? Gender, Cohort Effect and the Yule-Simpson Paradox.

The Yule-Simpson paradox indicates contradicting statistical outcomes for the pooled sample and for each stratified group separately. The objective of the current study is to demonstrate this paradox. The sample is based on a 2015-2016 longitudinal survey carried out by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.

The median age of a city's residents and population density influence COVID 19 mortality growth rates: policy implications.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is an infectious virus, which has generated a global pandemic. Israel was one of the first countries to vaccinate its population, inaugurating the program on December 20, 2020. The objective of the current study is to investigate the projected daily COVID19 mortality growth rate with higher median age and population size of cities under two scenarios: with and without the BNT162b2 Pfizer vaccination against the SAR-COV2 virus.

How Can Orthographic Representations in Arabic Contribute to Phoneme Awareness Development?

The contribution of the orthographic representations to the development of phonemic awareness in Arabic was tested among 289 native Arab readers from the second, the fourth, and the sixth grade. Phonemic awareness was tested by using two phonemic segmentation tasks: words and pseudowords. The participants' words and pseudowords reading and spelling skills beside to orthographic knowledge were tested also.

Information gaps in persuasion knowledge: The discourse regarding the Covid-19 vaccination.

Persuasion knowledge is personal knowledge about persuasion attempts that has an effect on the way people respond to these attempts. Persuasion attempts are made to effectively handling the Covid-19 pandemic, which is dependent on high public compliance with vaccination programs. Drawing on the idea of persuasion knowledge, we aimed at elaborating the various categories of perceived information gaps experienced by vaccine hesitants during the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

Can Obesity Prevalence Explain COVID-19 Indicators (Cases, Mortality, and Recovery)? A Comparative Study in OECD Countries.

SARS-CoV-2 virus disease (COVID-19) is declared a global pandemic with multiple risk factors. Obesity is considered by several researchers as one of the serious risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 virus complications based on recent empirical studies. Yet, other scholars argue in favor of the existence of an obesity survival paradox and criticize the former group of studies on the grounds that they lack controls for race, socioeconomic status, or quality of care.

Can smoking prevalence explain COVID-19 indicators (cases, mortality, and recovery)? A comparative study in OECD countries.

There are many risk factors associated with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including low wind speed, fossil fuel energy production, air pollution, and smoking. Several studies argue that smoking is not a risk factor for COVID-19 morbidity among males or any other sub-group. The study aims to analyze the following research questions: (1) can smoking prevalence explain COVID-19 indicators (cases, mortality, and recovery)? Are these relationships monotonically increasing or decreasing? In an attempt to test the counter-intuitive possibility of a non-linear relationship, the proposed empirical model relaxes the assumption of monotonic change by applying the quadratic design and testing which one of the two competing models (quadratic or linear) better fits the data.

Covid 19 vaccination: Accessibility or literacy? Israel as a case study.

Israel is ranked as the leading country in terms of prevalence of vaccination against SARS-COV-2 virus (persons vaccinated divided by total population). Based on updated data as of January 19, 2021, the objective of the current study is to assess the relationship between the prevalence of vaccination and population density. A-priori, given the better infrastructure of health services (more physicians and nurses per 1000 persons), one would anticipate a level of vaccination in denser cities.

Crosschecking teachers' perspectives on learning in a one-to-one environment with their actual classroom behavior - a longitudinal study.

One-to-one laptop initiatives have become prevalent in schools aiming to enhance active learning and assist students in developing twenty-first-century skills. This paper reports on a qualitative investigation of teachers in a junior high school in Northern Israel, who were gradually implementing one-to-one computing. The research reported in this paper is based on longitudinal data collected over a five-year period and included all of the teachers who participated in the project.

To lockdown or not against COVID19: Can the power of education provide the answer?

Global education is a well-known positive externality associated with children-parents knowledge spillover. More education may also lead to increased communication among family members regarding health knowledge and skills acquired at or after school, positively affecting health behavior. One important aspect that should be considered by policy makers is the potential promotion of social behavior adapted to the COVID2019 pandemic via the education system.

A Novel Compression Method of Spectral Data Matrix Based on the Low-Rank Approximation and the Fast Fourier Transform of the Singular Vectors.

Storage, processing, and transfer of huge matrices are becoming challenging tasks in the process analytical technology and scientific research. Matrix compression can solve these problems successfully. We developed a novel compression method of spectral data matrix based on its low-rank approximation and the fast Fourier transform of the singular vectors.

Clinical Efficacy of Topical Nasal Pomegranate Fruit Extract for Chronic Rhinitis and Chronic Rhinosinusitis.

To evaluate the clinical efficacy of topical nasal Pomegranate Fruit Extract (PFE) for Chronic Rhinitis (CR), Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyposis (CRSwNP), and Chronic Rhinosinusitis without Nasal Polyposis (CRSsNP). Prospective, double-blinded, randomized study including 111 consecutive patients, between April 2012 and January 2017, afflicted by CRSwNP, CRSsNP, and CR. Patients from each group were randomly assigned to either PFE treatment or placebo twice daily for 30 days.

Institution efficiency satisfaction and emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Arab citizens of Israel: An exploratory cross-sectional study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the emergence of various stressors among people around the world. However, rare are the studies that investigate stressors by employing institution evaluations as their predictors in ethnic minorities. The goal of the current study was to examine the association between satisfaction with the efficiency of institutions' work on mitigation of the COVID-19 spread, and stressors - emotional responses to the pandemic: worry of the COVID-19 spread, and fear of being hurt by its spread.

Systemic model for technology integration in teaching.

The objective of this study was to investigate the factors influencing Israeli teachers who participated in the national 'Laptop for Every Teacher' program (LET) three-year technology integration program. We assert that although there are several variables influencing the success of such an extensive ICT integration program as the LET program, school management attitude is crucial, and a key factor for the program's success. The results of the analysis indicate that the variance in attitudes toward technology use is explained by support from management, technology use before the training, and seniority in teaching.

Do population density, socio-economic ranking and Gini Index of cities influence infection rates from coronavirus? Israel as a case study.

A prominent characteristic of the COVID-19 pandemic is the marked geographic variation in COVID-19 prevalence. The objective of the current study is to assess the influence of population density and socio-economic measures (socio-economic ranking and the Gini Index) across cities on coronavirus infection rates. Israel provides an interesting case study based on the highly non-uniform distribution of urban populations, the existence of one of the most densely populated cities in the world and diversified populations.