Older people are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19. Little is known about long-term consequences of COVID-19 on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and functional status in older people, ...and the impact of age in this context. We aimed to study age-related change in health-related quality of life, functional decline and mortality among older patients 6 months following hospitalisation due to COVID-19.
This was a cohort study including patients aged 60 years and older admitted to four general hospitals in South-Eastern Norway due to COVID-19, from March 1 up until July 1, 2020. Patients who were still alive were invited to attend a six-month follow-up. Change in HR-QoL and functional status compared to before the COVID-19 hospitalisation were assessed using the EuroQol 5-dimensional-5 levels questionnaire (EQ. 5D-5L). A change in visual analogue scale (VAS) score of 7 or more was considered clinically relevant.
Out of 216 patients aged 60 years and older that were admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 during the study period, 171 were still alive 180 days after hospital admission, and 106 patients (62%) attended the six-month follow-up. Mean age was 74.3 years, 27 patients (26%) had experienced severe COVID-19. Fifty-seven participants (54%) reported a decrease in the EQ. 5D-5L VAS score after 6 months, with no significant difference between persons aged 75 years and older compared to younger. Seventy participants (66%) reported a negative change in any of the dimensions of the EQ. 5D-5L, with impaired ability to perform activities of daily life (35%), reduced mobility (33%) and having more pain or discomfort (33%) being the most commonly reported changes. Forty-six participants (43%) reported a negative change in cognitive function compared to before the COVID-19 hospitalisation. Six-month mortality was 21%, and increased with increasing age.
More than half of the patients reported a negative change in HR-QoL 6 months following hospitalisation due to COVID-19, and one out of three experienced a persistently impaired mobility and ability to carry out activities of daily living. The results suggest awareness of long-term functional decline in older COVID-19 patients.
The Integrative Psychiatric Research (iPSYCH) consortium has established a large Danish population-based Case-Cohort sample (iPSYCH2012) aimed at unravelling the genetic and environmental ...architecture of severe mental disorders. The iPSYCH2012 sample is nested within the entire Danish population born between 1981 and 2005, including 1 472 762 persons. This paper introduces the iPSYCH2012 sample and outlines key future research directions. Cases were identified as persons with schizophrenia (N=3540), autism (N=16 146), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (N=18 726) and affective disorder (N=26 380), of which 1928 had bipolar affective disorder. Controls were randomly sampled individuals (N=30 000). Within the sample of 86 189 individuals, a total of 57 377 individuals had at least one major mental disorder. DNA was extracted from the neonatal dried blood spot samples obtained from the Danish Neonatal Screening Biobank and genotyped using the Illumina PsychChip. Genotyping was successful for 90% of the sample. The assessments of exome sequencing, methylation profiling, metabolome profiling, vitamin-D, inflammatory and neurotrophic factors are in progress. For each individual, the iPSYCH2012 sample also includes longitudinal information on health, prescribed medicine, social and socioeconomic information, and analogous information among relatives. To the best of our knowledge, the iPSYCH2012 sample is the largest and most comprehensive data source for the combined study of genetic and environmental aetiologies of severe mental disorders.
There has been continued debate regarding competing models with respect to predicting use of social networking services. In this research the authors conceptualize and empirically test a model that ...combines constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) together along with (1) a moderator between the two models, (2) perceived risk, and (3) trust. The empirical results support the hypothesis that perceived ease of use (from TAM theory) significantly amplifies (positively moderates) the effect of perceived behavioral control (from TPB theory) on intention to use the social networks for transactions. In short, there are benefits to integrating concepts from the two models instead of choosing one model over the other in research and practice. The results also indicate that perceived risk and trust play significant roles as antecedents in consumer decision making, and that risk-taking propensity has a direct effect on behavioral intention.
•“Perceived ease of use” moderates the effect of “perceived behavioral control”.•Perceived risk and trust play significant roles as antecedents in consumer decision making.•Risk-taking propensity has a direct effect on behavioral intention.
Current literature supports the comprehensive health benefits of exposure to nature and green environments on human systems. The aim of this state-of-the-art review is to elucidate empirical research ...conducted on the physiological and psychological effects of Shinrin-Yoku (or Forest Bathing) in transcontinental Japan and China. Furthermore, we aim to encourage healthcare professionals to conduct longitudinal research in Western cultures regarding the clinically therapeutic effects of Shinrin-Yoku and, for healthcare providers/students to consider practicing Shinrin-Yoku to decrease undue stress and potential burnout.
A thorough review was conducted to identify research published with an initial open date range and then narrowing the collection to include papers published from 2007 to 2017. Electronic databases (PubMed, PubMed Central, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Scopus) and snowball references were used to cull papers that evaluated the use of Shinrin-Yoku for various populations in diverse settings.
From the 127 papers initially culled using the Boolean phrases: "Shinrin-yoku" AND/OR "forest bathing" AND/OR "nature therapy", 64 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this summary review and then divided into "physiological," "psychological," "sensory metrics" and "frameworks" sub-groups.
Human health benefits associated with the immersion in nature continue to be currently researched. Longitudinal research, conducted worldwide, is needed to produce new evidence of the relationships associated with Shinrin-Yoku and clinical therapeutic effects. Nature therapy as a health-promotion method and potential universal health model is implicated for the reduction of reported modern-day "stress-state" and "technostress.".
A
bstract
We discuss a method to construct hadronic scattering and decay amplitudes from Euclidean correlators, by combining the approach of a regulated inverse Laplace transform with the work of ...Maiani and Testa 1. Revisiting the original result of ref. 1, we observe that the key observation, i.e. that only threshold scattering information can be extracted at large separations, can be understood by interpreting the correlator as a spectral function,
ρ
(
ω
), convoluted with the Euclidean kernel,
e
−ωt
, which is sharply peaked at threshold. We therefore consider a modification in which a smooth step function, equal to one above a target energy, is inserted in the spectral decomposition. This can be achieved either through Backus-Gilbert-like methods or more directly using the variational approach. The result is a shifted resolution function, such that the large
t
limit projects onto scattering or decay amplitudes above threshold. The utility of this method is highlighted through large
t
expansions of both three- and four-point functions that include leading terms proportional to the real and imaginary parts (separately) of the target observable. This work also presents new results relevant for the un-modified correlator at threshold, including expressions for extracting the
Nπ
scattering length from four-point functions and a new strategy to organize the large
t
expansion that exhibits better convergence than the expansion in powers of 1/
t
.
Eukaryotic cells respond to the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) either by unfolded protein response that leads to an increase in the capacity of the ER to fold its ...client proteins or by apoptosis when the function of ER cannot be restored. Emerging data now indicate that ER stress is also a potent inducer of macroautophagy, a process whereby eukaryotic cells recycle their macromolecules and organelles. Depending on the context, autophagy counterbalances ER stress-induced ER expansion, enhances cell survival or commits the cell to non-apoptotic death. Here, we discuss the signaling pathways linking ER stress to autophagy and possibilities for their clinical exploitation.
Quantification of global forest change has been lacking despite the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services. In this study, Earth observation satellite data were used to map global forest ...loss (2.3 million square kilometers) and gain (0.8 million square kilometers) from 2000 to 2012 at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. The tropics were the only climate domain to exhibit a trend, with forest loss increasing by 2101 square kilometers per year. Brazil's well-documented reduction in deforestation was offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia, Angola, and elsewhere. Intensive forestry practiced within subtropical forests resulted in the highest rates of forest change globally. Boreal forest loss due largely to fire and forestry was second to that in the tropics in absolute and proportional terms. These results depict a globally consistent and locally relevant record of forest change.
Do shareholders gain when managers disperse corporate resources through activities classified as corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Strategy scholars have recently developed a theoretical model ...that links such activities to shareholder value when a firm suffers a negative event; we test key portions of this theory of the 'insurance-like ' property of CSR activity. We posit that such activity leads to positive attributions from stakeholders, who then temper their negative judgments and sanctions toward firms because of this goodwill. We extend the risk management model by theorizing that some types of CSR activities will be more likely to create goodwill and offer insurance-like protection than other types. We delineate several firm and event specific characteristics that we expect to influence the link between CSR activities and an insurance effect. We then test our model using an event study of 178 negative legal/regulatory actions against firms throughout the 11 years from 1993-2003. We find that participation in institutional CSR activities--those aimed at a firm's secondary stakeholders or society at large--provides an 'insurance-like' benefit, while participation in technical CSRs--those activities targeting a firm 's trading partners--yields no such benefits. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for future theorizing and research into the economic value of CSR engagement.
We show that the assembly of the solar system terrestrial planets can be successfully modeled with all of the mass initially confined to a narrow annulus between 0.7 and 1.0 AU. With this ...configuration, analogs of Mercury and Mars often form from the collisional evolution of material diffusing out of the annulus under the scattering of the forming Earth and Venus analogs. The final systems also possess eccentricities and inclinations that match the observations, without recourse to dynamical friction from remnant small body populations. Finally, the characteristic assembly timescale for Earth analogs is rapid in this model and consistent with cosmochemical models based on the 182Hf-182W isotopes. The agreement between this model and the observations suggests that terrestrial planet systems may also be formed in 'planet traps,' as has been proposed recently for the cores of giant planets in our solar system and others.
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