The catalytic performance of novel water-soluble platinum catalysts modified with various nitrogen-containing and phosphine ligands in the hydrogenation reaction of levulinic acid (LA) into ...gamma-valerolactone (GVL) has been studied in environmentally attractive, green, aqueous monophasic systems. The presence of the Lewis acid aluminum enormously increases the catalytic activity of water-soluble platinum catalysts modified with nitrogen-containing ligands in the LA hydrogenation reaction and high catalytic activities up to 3540 TOF's per hour with a quantitative selectivity towards GVL have been achieved using Na.sub.2PtCl.sub.6·6H.sub.2O precursors modified with the bidentate bathophenanthrolinedisulfonic acid disodium salt (BPhDS) ligand and low amounts of AlCl.sub.3·6H.sub.2O promotors (molar ratio of AlCl.sub.3·6H.sub.2O/Pt = 0.17) in aqueous media. This unprecedented increase in catalytic activity with aluminum promotors for water-soluble transition metal catalytic systems in aqueous-phase hydrogenation reactions has not been described until now in the literature. The apparent activation energy of platinum catalyst modified with the monodentate nitrilotriacetic acid trisodium salt ligand in aqueous medium was calculated and amounts to a relative low value of 73.04 kJ mol.sup.-1 when one considers that in the LA hydrogenation reaction this catalyst reduces a less reactive keto group into alcohol functionality. A recycling experiment of the Pt/BPhDS/Al catalyst from the aqueous monophasic LA hydrogenation reaction mixture followed by biphasic recovery of the catalyst in active form from organic reaction products by extraction and simple phase separation of an aqueous/organic two-phase system formed after addition of diethyl ether has shown that the Pt/BPhDS/Al catalyst is stable without loss of activity and selectivity in a consecutive run. Graphical
Objective
The investigation of intentional behavior of hospital staff to care for COVID-19 patients and the study of the factors that influences it.
Method
This is a cross-sectional study, of 261 ...physicians and nurses working in a COVID-19 reference hospital. Data were collected by an anonymous questionnaire including demographic and professional characteristics and a scale measuring behavioral intention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior of Ajzen. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 21.
Results
Mean age of participants was 40.8 years old, while most of them were nurses (75.7%). Behavioral intention mean score was 18.2 (5–21), which shows high intention to care for COVID-19 patients. Bivariate analysis between independent variables showed that behavioral intention mean score was higher for those that had cared for COVID-19 patients and those that did not (19.0% vs. 16.7%, p < 0.001). Multivariate linear regression analysis identified that increased subjective norms (the perceived social pressure to perform or not the behavior) score was associated with increased behavioral intention score (p < 0.001). Also, participants that provided care for COVID-19 patients had higher behavioral intention score (p < 0.001).
Conclusion
Healthcare staff, that cared for COVID-19 patients had high behavioral intention to continue caring for them. This finding could be used to inform policies and training for staff that will be employed in COVID-19 units.
Ongoing research has demonstrated that culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students may be disproportionately represented among students with learning disabilities (LDs). The main aim of this ...research was to identify groups of CLD students at risk for LDs using the achievement criterion. To that end, 158 students participated in the current research: 78 Greeks and 80 Pontian Greeks from the former Soviet Union (Greek FSU-Pontian). Research findings indicated that the use of the achievement criterion alone is inadequate to accurately identify a student being at risk for LDs, given that CLD students’ language competence and achievement are low mainly due to their bilingualism and that language acquisition competence is positively associated to language achievement. Professional judgments based on psychoeducational evaluation data are used to classify a student as having a LD. Professional judgment is presented as a possible explanation for the disproportionate representation of CLD students among students with LDs.
Ongoing research has demonstrated that culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students may be disproportionately represented among students with learning disabilities (LDs). The main aim of this ...research was to identify groups of CLD students at risk for LDs using the achievement criterion. To that end, 158 students participated in the current research: 78 Greeks and 80 Pontian Greeks from the former Soviet Union (Greek FSU-Pontian). Research findings indicated that the use of the achievement criterion alone is inadequate to accurately identify a student being at risk for LDs, given that CLD students’ language competence and achievement are low mainly due to their bilingualism and that language acquisition competence is positively associated to language achievement. Professional judgments based on psychoeducational evaluation data are used to classify a student as having a LD. Professional judgment is presented as a possible explanation for the disproportionate representation of CLD students among students with LDs.
Purpose - This research study aims to examine: whether preschoolers at risk form a homogenous or a heterogeneous group of high-risk children; and in case preschoolers form a heterogeneous group, what ...are the distinctive characteristics of specific language impairment and mild intellectual disabilities groups in language acquisition and social competence that make differential early intervention necessary.Design methodology approach - A total of 143 Greek preschoolers aged 4.5 through 5.5 participated in the study. Among them, according to DTLA-P:3, 42 with mild intellectual disabilities and 41 with specific language impairments were detected. A total of 60 typically developed children were also detected. Children's categorization to the above groups was verified by the Λ-α-T-ω Language Competence Test Level I, which was used to estimate intra-individual differences in language competence. To assess peer relations, a peer relation checklist was developed and standardized.Findings - The findings of this study support the approach of the two distinct groups of high-risk preschoolers in terms of their language and social characteristics.Originality value - Research findings highlight the different educational needs of high-risk preschoolers, which make necessary the differential use of preschool curricula.
Detecting impaired naming capacity is valuable in diagnosing neurocognitive disorders (ND). A. clinical practice- oriented overview of naming tests validated in ND is not available yet. Here, ...features of naming tests with validated utility in ND which are open access or available for purchase are succinctly presented and compared.
Searches were carried out across Pubmed, Medline and Google Scholar. Additional studies were identified by searching reference lists. Only peer-reviewed journal articles were eligible. A narrative- and tabullar synthesis was used to summarize different aspects of the naming assessment instruments used in patients with ND such as stimuli type, administration time, assessment parameters and accessibility. Based on computational word frequency calculations, the tests were compared in terms of the average frequency of their linguistic content.
Twelve naming tests, relying either on visual or auditory stimuli have been validated in ND. Their content and administration time vary between three and 60 items and one and 20 minutes, respectively. The average frequency of the words of each considered test was two or lower, pointing to low frequency of most items. In all but one test, scoring systems are exclusively based on correctly named items. Seven instruments are open access and four are available in more than one language.
Gaining insights into naming tests' characteristics may catalyze the wide incorporation of those with short administration time but high diagnostic accuracy into the diagnostic workup of ND at primary healthcare and of extensive, visual or auditory ones into the diagnostic endeavors of memory clinics, as well as of secondary and tertiary brain healthcare settings.
The intensification of agricultural production during the last decades has forced the rapid increase in the use of pesticides that finally end up in the aquatic environment. Albeit well-documented, ...pesticides continue to raise researchers' attention, because of their potential adverse impacts on the environment and, inevitably, humans. Once entering the aquatic bodies, pesticides undergo biotic and abiotic processes, resulting in transformation products (TPs) that sometimes are even more toxic than the parent compounds. A substantial shift of the scientific interest in the TPs of pesticides has been observed since their environmental fate, occurrence and toxicity is still in its formative stage. In an ongoing effort to expand the existing knowledge on the topic, several interesting works have been performed mostly in European countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, and Spain that counts the highest number of relevant publications. Pesticide TPs have been also studied to a lesser extent in Asia, North and South America. To this end, the main objective of this review is to delineate the global occurrence, fate, toxicity as well as the analytical challenges related to pesticide TPs in surface, ground, and wastewaters, with the view to contribute to a better understanding of the environmental problems related with TPs formation. The concentration levels of the TPs, ranging from the low ng/L to high μg/L scale and distributed worldwide. Ultimately, an attempt to predict the acute and chronic toxicity of TPs has been carried out with the aid of an in-silico approach based on ECOSAR, revealing increased chronic toxicity for the majority of the identified TPs, despite the change they underwent, while a small portion of them presented serious acute toxicity values.
Display omitted
•Occurrence, analysis, and toxicity of pesticide TPs in aqueous matrices were outlined.•Europe is the ‘pioneer’ in investigator, with Spain being the predominant country.•Atrazine (herbicide) TPs are the most well-documented worldwide.•Multiresidue studies focusing on TPs are limited.•In silico toxicity assessment implied alarming toxicity for fipronil's TPs.
Between March and April 2020, Cyprus and Greece health authorities enforced three escalated levels of public health interventions to control the COVID-19 pandemic. We quantified compliance of 108 ...asthmatic schoolchildren (53 from Cyprus, 55 from Greece, mean age 9.7 years) from both countries to intervention levels, using wearable sensors to continuously track personal location and physical activity. Changes in 'fraction time spent at home' and 'total steps/day' were assessed with a mixed-effects model adjusting for confounders. We observed significant mean increases in 'fraction time spent at home' in Cyprus and Greece, during each intervention level by 41.4% and 14.3% (level 1), 48.7% and 23.1% (level 2) and 45.2% and 32.0% (level 3), respectively. Physical activity in Cyprus and Greece demonstrated significant mean decreases by - 2,531 and - 1,191 (level 1), - 3,638 and - 2,337 (level 2) and - 3,644 and - 1,961 (level 3) total steps/day, respectively. Significant independent effects of weekends and age were found on 'fraction time spent at home'. Similarly, weekends, age, humidity and gender had an independent effect on physical activity. We suggest that wearable technology provides objective, continuous, real-time location and activity data making possible to inform in a timely manner public health officials on compliance to various tiers of public health interventions during a pandemic.
Persistent, Mobile, Organic Compounds (PMOCs) exhibit a propensity to disseminate within the water cycle and as a result, pose a significant threat to the quality of drinking water. To this point of ...view, considerable research has been initiated to explore the environmental behavior of the omnipresent tiamulin (TIA), being potential PMOC. In contrast to the parent compound (TIA), its transformation products (TPs) have received relatively limited attention, particularly in the context of their PM (persistent-mobile) characteristics. To address this research gap, an investigation into the phototransformation of TIA was conducted, through solar-simulated experiments in combination with Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs). To this end, an innovative suspect-screening methodology, involved comparison of the results obtained for the identified photo-TPs with existing literature data. This enabled us to construct an enhanced high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) database for the purpose of environmental assessments of TIA and its TPs in the environment. In total, 32 TPs were identified, with 18 of them being pioneeringly reported. The principal transformation pathways appeared to involve hydroxylation, oxidation, dealkylation, and the cleavage of the C-O bond. Additionally, a comprehensive monitoring of TIA and its TPs in various environmental compartments, including samples from livestock units, leachates, surface water, and groundwater was accomplished. The highest concentration was observed in solid samples from the livestock unit at 2847 ng/g. Furthermore, both the in silico and in vitro methods to assess the toxicity of TIA and its TPs were performed. The results indicated that TIA and many TPs exhibit an alarming toxicity. Consequently, TIA can be classified as a potential PMOC, with a heightened potential for occurrence in different environmental matrices compared to ascertained PM chemicals.
Display omitted
PDF
