The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the economy, livelihood, and physical and mental well-being of people worldwide. This study aimed to compare the mental health status during ...the pandemic in the general population of seven middle income countries (MICs) in Asia (China, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam). All the countries used the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) to measure mental health. There were 4479 Asians completed the questionnaire with demographic characteristics, physical symptoms and health service utilization, contact history, knowledge and concern, precautionary measure, and rated their mental health with the IES-R and DASS-21. Descriptive statistics, One-Way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and linear regression were used to identify protective and risk factors associated with mental health parameters. There were significant differences in IES-R and DASS-21 scores between 7 MICs (p<0.05). Thailand had all the highest scores of IES-R, DASS-21 stress, anxiety, and depression scores whereas Vietnam had all the lowest scores. The risk factors for adverse mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic include age <30 years, high education background, single and separated status, discrimination by other countries and contact with people with COVID-19 (p<0.05). The protective factors for mental health include male gender, staying with children or more than 6 people in the same household, employment, confidence in doctors, high perceived likelihood of survival, and spending less time on health information (p<0.05). This comparative study among 7 MICs enhanced the understanding of metal health in the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The novel Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020, impacting the lifestyles, economy, physical and mental health of individuals ...globally. This study aimed to test the model triggered by physical symptoms resembling COVID-19 infection, in which the need for health information and perceived impact of the pandemic mediated the path sequentially, leading to adverse mental health outcomes. A cross-sectional research design with chain mediation model involving 4612 participants from participating 8 countries selected via a respondent-driven sampling strategy was used. Participants completed online questionnaires on physical symptoms, the need for health information, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) questionnaire and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The results showed that Poland and the Philippines were the two countries with the highest levels of anxiety, depression and stress; conversely, Vietnam had the lowest mean scores in these areas. Chain mediation model showed the need for health information, and the perceived impact of the pandemic were sequential mediators between physical symptoms resembling COVID-19 infection (predictor) and consequent mental health status (outcome). Excessive and contradictory health information might increase the perceived impact of the pandemic. Rapid COVID-19 testing should be implemented to minimize the psychological burden associated with physical symptoms, whilst public mental health interventions could target adverse mental outcomes associated with the pandemic.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Critical metals are assessed for future large-scale production of electric vehicles (EVs).•Three future demand scenarios are developed for EVs by 2050.•Nine metals, three EV types, three EV battery ...types, and five global regions are considered.•Role of recycling and technology substitution is evaluated in decreasing metals’ supply risk.
Electrification of future transport sector is important to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions and the burden on fossil fuels. The modern clean energy technologies, such as electric vehicles (EVs), contain a number of hi-tech electronics and other components that depend on a wide range of metals for their functioning. A transition to large-scale deployment of such technologies might be constrained by the limited availability of these metals in future. This study is aimed at resource criticality assessment for passenger EVs, where three main scenarios are modelled considering future demand of EVs in five geographic regions by 2050. The focus metals are aluminium (Al), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), lithium (Li), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and the two rare earth elements (REEs): neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy). The scenario results show an increase in total number of EVs from 1.13 billion in 2011 to 2.6 billion in the baseline scenario, 2.55 billion in the moderate scenario, and 2.25 billion in the stringent scenario by 2050. The geological reserves of cobalt, lithium and nickel seem to face higher pressure resulting from increasing demand of these metals by EVs’ batteries. Whereas, the geopolitical supply risk factor becomes important in case of REEs due to existing market concentration. Recycling and technology substitution at various levels seem to reduce the vulnerability of EVs to increasing geological and geopolitical supply risk of metals.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Diabetes distress typically causes depressive symptoms; common comorbidity of diabetes unpleasantly affects patients' medical and psychological functions. Psychotherapeutic interventions are ...effective treatments to treat depressive symptoms and to improve the quality of life in many chronic diseases including diabetes. The present study investigated the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to treat depressive symptoms in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using experimental and waitlist control conditions.
A total of 130 diagnosed patients with T2DM were taken from outdoor patients services of different hospitals in Faisalabad. Ninety patients met the eligibility criteria and were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 45) and waitlist control (n = 45) conditions. All the patients completed clinical interviews and assessment measures at pre-and post-assessment stages (16 weeks intervals). Medical consultants at the respective hospitals diagnosed the patients on the base of their medical reports and then referred those patients to us. Then we used different scales to assess primary and secondary outcomes: Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) to assess primary outcomes, and a Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), a Revised Version of the Diabetes Quality of Life Questionnaire (DQLQ), and a General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS) were used to investigate secondary outcomes. Repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyze the results.
The findings indicated that patients who received CBT got a significant reduction in their diabetes distress F(1,60) = 222.710, P < 0.001, η
= .788), depressive symptoms F(1,60) = 94.436, P < 0.001, η
= .611), health anxiety F(1,60) = 201.915, P < .0.001, η
= 771), and a significant improvement in their quality of life F(1,60) = 83.352, P < 0.001, η
= .581), treatment adherence F(1,60) = 67.579, P < 0.001, η
= .566) and physical activity schedule F(1,60) = 164.245, P < .0.001, η
= .736 as compared to the patients in waitlist control condition.
It is concluded that cognitive behavior therapy is an effective and promising intervention for depressive symptoms, diabetes distress, and health anxiety which also helps the person to promote quality of life, treatment adherence and physical activity.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
As an n-type inorganic semiconductor, ZnO has been widely used in hybrid solar cells (HSCs) due to its numerous characteristics such as low cost, easy synthesis, non-toxicity and good optoelectronic ...properties. In this work we have synthesized the ZnO nanostructures/nanoparticles via wet chemical route having Zinc Acetate Dihydrate (ZnADH) as precursor, Poly (Ethylene Glycol) block poly (Propylene Glycol) block poly (Ethylene Glycol) (PEG-PEG-PEG/P123) as template directing agent. Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by the Modified Hummer's Method through the oxidation of graphite flakes and KMnO4 was used as an oxidizing agent. ZnO/Graphene nanocomposites were prepared via sonication process. Oxidation peaks of graphite showed by the UV–Vis spectroscopy were around 216 nm and all composite films were observed to be appeared in visible region. A considerable reduction in bandgap of ZnO from 3.1eV to 2.9eV was observed due to incorporation of graphene oxide which was confirmed with both UV–Vis bandgap analysis method and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Measureable progress in the performance of IV characteristics of hybrid solar cells was achieved using the ZnO/Graphene composite as electron collector in active layer along with P3HT:PCBM in an inverted hybrid photovoltaic device. Short circuit current was observed to be improved by approximately four times then its original value in these devices along with the increase in the concentration of GO whereas open circuit voltage showed a decreasing trend.
•Uniform distribution of ZnO nanostructures all over the film surface.•Reduction of energy bandgap of ZnO from 3.14 eV to 2.94 eV.•Significant improvement in IV characteristics of Hybrid Solar Cell.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Quality of service (QoS) is an increasingly important, stringent, and challenging requirement in the Internet of Things (IoT). Domain and context-dependent circumstances bring forth the need for a ...cognitive design to facilitate QoS that can learn and adapt as the requirements change and deployments evolve. The performance data that measure QoS metrics based on variations in different communication stack parameters/protocols is becoming available. The research literature highlights the impact of various configurable parameters, such as transmission power (TP) and packet size (PS) on metrics, such as reliability and delay. In this article, we propose the design of a cognitive framework for adaptive QoS in the IoT. The proposed approach is based on performance data from deployments of different types of communication networks forming IoT. The aim is to be able to adaptively configure communication parameters/protocols ensuring that the QoS constraints in evolving network scenarios are met.
A 105-day experimental trial was conducted to assess different levels of dietary Aleo vera extract supplementation on water quality parameters, proximate composition, growth performance and ...haematological parameters of fry Oreochromis niloticus. Four different percentages of dietary leaf extract powder of Aleo vera (ALE) with a basal feed, designated as, i.e., T0 (Control group; without ALE), T1 (1% ALE), T2 (2% ALE), and T3 (3% ALE). Fish fry was reared in concrete tanks (7.0 m, 1.6 m, 1.0: L, W, H; water volume 11.2 m3/tank), with an average initial weight 4.04 ± 0.03 g/ fry, and each treatment was triplicated. Fry was randomly distributed at a stocking rate of 450 individuals/ tanks. The water quality parameters revealed that temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO) and nitrates were found in a promising range as given by FAO/WHO limits. However, the record values obtained for Electric Conductivity (EC), Total dissolved solids (TDS), and alkalinities were not found in all tanks' suitable range according to FAO/WHO limits. The results revealed a significant impact of different percentages of dietary ALE supplementation on fry's body composition and haematological parameters. Moreover, the final body weight, final body length, average daily weight gain (g), net weight gain (g) and specific growth rate (%) were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in T1 and T2 compared with T0 and T3 treatments. The poorest feed conversion ratio was recorded in the T2 group compared with other treatments. Thus, the current study provides information about the nutritional quality of Nile tilapia culturing in Pakistan.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Honey from arid regions has comparable physicochemical properties to honey from non-arid regions.•Honey from arid regions has comparable biochemical properties to honey from non-arid regions.•Honey ...from arid regions exhibit acceptable physicochemical properties according to international regulations of quality.•Honey from arid regions contain considerable amounts of minerals, carotenoids and free amino acids.
This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of 11 honeys from arid regions for first time, and compare it with 5 different honeys from non-arid regions. Mean values obtained for physicochemical parameters were: pH 4.76±0.55; 17.32±1.8% moisture; 80.95±1.60°Brix sugar; 69.05±4.41% total sugar; 413.81±178.48μScm−1 electrical conductivity; 17.58±7.68meq/kg free acidity; 11.05±3.18meq/kg lactonic acidity; 28.63±9.6meq/kg total acidity; 12.66±20.39mg/kg HMF; 0.58±0.03 water activity; and 0.98±0.62 colour intensity. Potassium was the major mineral (1760.54±685.24mg/kg). All the samples showed considerable significant variations with reference to their physicochemical and biochemical properties, moreover, the total free amino acids and total carotenoids were 61.13±63.16mg/100g and 4.07±10.05μg/100g respectively. Acrylamide was detected only in one sample at 2.39±0.22μg/kg.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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