Search results for: vaccination status

Authors: Lindy Adoma Dampare, Marina Aferiba Tandoh

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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder that mostly affects individuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Nutritional deficiencies have been well established in SCD patients. In Ghana, studies have revealed the prevalence of malnutrition, especially amongst children with SCD and hence the need to develop an evidence-based comprehensive nutritional therapy for SCD to improve their nutritional status. The aim of the study was to develop and assess the effect of a nutrition education material on the nutritional status of SCD patients in Ghana. This was a pre-post interventional study. Patients between the ages of 2 to 60 years were recruited from the Tema General Hospital. Following a baseline nutrition knowledge (NK), beliefs, sanitary practice and dietary consumption pattern assessment, a twice-monthly nutrition education was carried out for 3 months, followed by a post-intervention assessment. Nutritional status of SCD patients was assessed using a 3-days dietary recall and anthropometric measurements. Nutrition education (NE) was given to SCD adults and caregivers of SCD children. Majority of the caregivers (69%) and SCD adult (82%) at baseline had low NK. The level of NK improved significantly in SCD adults (4.18±1.83 vs. 10.00±1.00, p<0.001) and caregivers (5.58 ± 2.25 vs.10.44± 0.846, p<0.001) after NE. Increase in NK improved dietary intake and dietary consumption pattern of SCD patients. Significant increase in weight (23.2±11.6 vs. 25.9±12.1, p=0.036) and height (118.5±21.9 vs. 123.5±22.2, p=0.011) was observed in SCD children at post intervention. Stunting (10.5% vs. 8.6%, p=0.62) and wasting (22.1% vs. 14.4%, p=0.30) reduced in SCD children after NE although not statistically significant. Reduction (18.2% vs. 9.1%) in underweight and an increase (18.2% vs. 27.3%) in overweight SCD adults was recorded at post intervention. Fat mass remained the same while high muscle mass increased (18.2% vs. 27.3%) at post intervention in SCD adult. Anaemic status of SCD patients improved at post intervention and the improvement was statistically significant amongst SCD children. Nutrition education improved the NK of SCD caregivers and adults hence, improving the dietary consumption pattern and nutrient intake of SCD patients. Overall, NE improved the nutritional status of SCD patients. This study shows the potential of nutrition education in improving the nutritional knowledge, dietary consumption pattern, dietary intake and nutritional status of SCD patients, and should be further explored.

Keywords: sickle cell disease, nutrition education, dietary intake, nutritional status

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Authors: Jia Wang, Wanting Zhang, Yutong Xv, Zihan Guo, Weiguang Ma

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Background: Before becoming qualified nurses, newly graduated nurses(NGNs) must experience a painful transition period, even transition shocks. Transition shocks are public health issues. To address the transition issue of NGNs, many programs or interventions have been developed and implemented. However, there are no studies to understand and assess the transition state of newly graduated nurses from work to life, from external abilities to internal emotions. Aims: Assess the transition status of newly graduated nurses in China. Identify the factors influencing the transition status of newly graduated nurses. Methods: The multi-center cross-sectional study design was adopted. From May 2022 to June 2023, 1261 newly graduated nurse in hospitals were surveyed online with the the Demographic Questionnaire and Transition Status Scale for Newly Graduated Nurses. SPSS 26.0 were used for data input and statistical analysis. Statistic description were adopted to evaluate the demographic characteristics and transition status of NGNs. Independent-samples T-test, Analysis of Variance and Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of transition status. Results: The total average score of Transition Status Scale for Newly Graduated Nurses was 4.00（SD = 0.61）. Among the various dimensions of Transition Status, the highest dimension was competence for nursing work, while the lowest dimension was balance between work and life. The results showed factors influencing the transition status of NGNs include taught by senior nurses, night shift status, internship department, attribute of working hospital, province of work and residence, educational background, reasons for choosing nursing, types of hospital, and monthly income. Conclusion: At present, the transition status score of new nurses in China is relatively high, and NGNs are more likely to agree with their own transition status, especially the dimension of competence for nursing work. However, they have a poor level of excess in terms of life-work balance. Nursing managers should reasonably arrange the working hours of NGNs, promote their work-life balance, increase the salary and reward mechanism of NGNs, arrange experienced nursing mentors to teach, optimize the level of hospitals, provide suitable positions for NGNs with different educational backgrounds, pay attention to the culture shock of NGNs from other provinces, etc. Optimize human resource management by intervening in these factors that affect the transition of new nurses and promote a better transition of new nurses.

Keywords: newly graduated nurse, transition, humanistic car, nursing management, nursing practice education

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Authors: Dereje Habte, Jane Namasasu

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Background: The aim of the analysis was to assess the practice of family planning (FP) among HIV-infected women and the influence of women’s awareness of HIV-positive status in the practice of FP. Methods: The analysis was made among 489 non-pregnant, sexually active, fecund women living with HIV. Result: Of the 489 confirmed HIV positive women, 184 (37.6%) reported that they knew they are HIV positive. The number of women with current use and unmet need of any family planning method were found to be 251 (51.2%) and 107 (21.9%) respectively. Women’s knowledge of HIV-positive status (AOR: 2.32(1.54,3.50)), secondary and above education (AOR: 2.36(1.16,4.78)), presence of 3-4 (AOR: 2.60(1.08,6.28)) and more than four alive children (AOR: 3.03(1.18,7.82)) were significantly associated with current use of family planning. Conclusion: Women’s awareness of HIV-positive status was found to significantly predict family planning practice among women living with HIV.

Keywords: family planning, HIV, Malawi, women

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Authors: Ceren Akyüz, Ingo Froboese

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Health literacy has gained importance with the further spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) worldwide and has been associated with health status in various chronic diseases. Many studies indicate that mental health can be improved by low- or moderate-intensity activity, and several studies have been proposed to explain the relationship between physical activity and mental health. The aim of the present study is to investigate the levels of physical activity, health literacy, and depression in first- and- second generation Turkish people in Germany. The research consists of 434 participants (255 females, 179 males; age 38.09 ± 13.73). 40.8 % of participants are married, and 59.2 % of participants are single. Education levels are mostly at university level (54.8 %), and graduate level is 18.9 %. While 24.9 % of the participants are second generation, 75.1 % of participants are first generation. All analyses were stratified on gender, marital status, education, generation and income status, and five age categories: 18–30, 31–40, 41–50, 51–60, and 61–79, which were defined to account for age-specific trends while maintaining sufficient cell size for statistical analysis. A correlation of depression with physical activity and health literacy levels between first- and- second generation Turks in Germany was evaluated in order to find out whether there are significant differences between the two populations and demographic variables (gender, marital status, education, generation, income status) with carrying out questionnaires which are European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47), International Physical Activity Questionnaire ( IPAQ) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).

Keywords: health literacy, turks in germany, migrants, depression, physical activity

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Authors: Saad Saeed Althiabi

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This paper discusses the corporate positioning and how it became popular as a way to systematize production because of the unique manner in which incorporation legalized organizers to secure financial capital through locking it in. The power to lock in capital comes from the fact that a corporate exists as a separate legal entity, whose survival and governance are separated from any of its participants. The law essentially creates a different legal person when a corporation is created. Although this idea has been played down in the legal learning of the last decades in favor of the view that a corporation is purely something through which natural persons interrelate, recent legal research has begun to reassess the importance of entity status. Entity status, under the law and the related separation of governance from input of financial capital through the configuration of a corporation, sanctioned corporate participants to do somewhat more than connect in a series of business transactions.

Keywords: corporate law, entity status, locking in capital, financial capital

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Authors: Qiang Zhang, Xiaojian Hu

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Aiming at the problem of the existing real-time evaluation methods for traffic safety status, a video information-based urban road section traffic safety status evaluation method was established, and the rapid detection method of traffic flow parameters based on video information is analyzed. The concept of the speed dispersion of the road section that affects the traffic safety state of the urban road section is proposed, and the method of evaluating the traffic safety state of the urban road section based on the speed dispersion of the road section is established. Experiments show that the proposed method can reasonably evaluate the safety status of urban roads in real-time, and the evaluation results can provide a corresponding basis for the traffic management department to formulate an effective urban road section traffic safety improvement plan.

Keywords: intelligent transportation system, road traffic safety, video information, vehicle speed dispersion

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Authors: John Adeboye Oyeboade, Pius Olatunji Olaojo, Kuburay Folashade Yusuf, John Oluwaseye Adebayo

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Web-based Information Resources (WBIR) are increasingly becoming essential tools for students to accomplish academic tasks. Preliminary observation revealed that many polytechnic libraries in Southwestern Nigeria do not subscribe or renew subscriptions to WBIR academic databases, and students use free-based electronic resources. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate socioeconomic status and use of WBIR by public polytechnic students in Southwestern Nigeria. Six public polytechnics out of the 16 offerings of Higher National Diploma (HND) programs were selected by stratified random sampling to reflect federal and state polytechnics. A proportionate size sampling technique was used to select 1,463 HND students. The instruments used were Socioeconomic status (SeS) (α=0.81) and WBIR used for Academic Tasks (α=0.98) scales. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product-moment correlation at a 0.05 level of significance. Students’ SeS ( =79.10) was moderate. Online reference sources ( =3.97), Web 2.0 ( =3.50), and social media ( =3.00) were regularly used WBIR. WBIR use ( =53.34) was moderate. The students used WBIR for project writing ( =3.46) and class assignments ( =3.42). The Students’ SeS (r=0.59) had significant relationships with WBIR use. Socioeconomic status directly influenced the use of WBIR for academic tasks. Management of polytechnics should provide WBIR subscriptions for students’ use in the polytechnic e-libraries.

Keywords: public polytechnic students, polytechnic libraries, socioeconomic status, Web-based information resources

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Authors: Seongcheol Kwon, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

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We assume an IoT-based smart-home environment where the on-off status of each of the electrical appliances including the room lights can be recognized in a real time by monitoring and analyzing the smart meter data. At any moment in such an environment, we can recognize what the household or the user is doing by referring to the status data of the appliances. In this paper, we focus on a smart-home service that is to activate a robot vacuum cleaner at right time by recognizing the user situation, which requires a situation-aware model that can distinguish the situations that allow vacuum cleaning (Yes) from those that do not (No). We learn as our candidate models a few classifiers such as naïve Bayes, decision tree, and logistic regression that can map the appliance-status data into Yes and No situations. Our training and test data are obtained from simulations of user behaviors, in which a sequence of user situations such as cooking, eating, dish washing, and so on is generated with the status of the relevant appliances changed in accordance with the situation changes. During the simulation, both the situation transition and the resulting appliance status are determined stochastically. To compare the performances of the aforementioned classifiers we obtain their learning curves for different types of users through simulations. The result of our empirical study reveals that naïve Bayes achieves a slightly better classification accuracy than the other compared classifiers.

Keywords: situation-awareness, smart home, IoT, machine learning, classifier

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Authors: E. Fredrick Rice

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Over the past three decades, a substantial body of academic literature has asserted that the pressure to maintain household income can negatively affect the personal well-being of breadwinners. Given that scholars have failed to thoroughly explore this phenomenon with breadwinners who are also business owners, theory has been underdeveloped in the entrepreneurial context. To identify the most appropriate theories to apply to entrepreneurs, the current paper utilized two approaches. First, a comprehensive bibliographic analysis was conducted focusing on works at the intersection of breadwinner status and well-being. Co-authorship and journal citation patterns highlighted relative resource theory as a boundary spanning approach with promising applications in the entrepreneurial space. To build upon this theory, regression analysis was performed using data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED). Empirical results showed evidence for the effects of breadwinner status and household income on entrepreneurial well-being. Further, the findings suggest that it is not merely income or job status that predicts well-being, but one’s relative financial contribution compared to that of one’s non-breadwinning organizationally employed partner. This paper offers insight into how breadwinner status can be studied in relation to the entrepreneurial personality.

Keywords: breadwinner, entrepreneurship, household income, well-being.

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Authors: Peter Mc Coll, Alberto Caro, Chiara Gandolfo, Montserrat Labbe, Francisca Schnaidt, Michela Palazzi

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Self-esteem and emotional intelligence are variables that are related to people's nutritional status. Self-esteem may be at low levels in people living with obesity, while emotional intelligence can play an important role in the way people living with obesity cope. The objective of the study was to measure the association between self-esteem and emotional intelligence to nutritional status in adolescent population. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 179 adolescent schoolchildren between 13 and 19 years old from a public school. The objective was to evaluate nutritional status; weight and height were measured by calculating the body mass index and Z score. Self-esteem was evaluated using the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory adapted by Brinkmann and Segure. Emotional intelligence was measured using the Emotional Quotient Inventory: short, by Bar On, adapted questionnaire, translated into Spanish by López Zafra. For statistical analysis: Pearson's Chi-square test, Pearson's correlation, and odd ratio calculation were used, with a p value at a significance level < 5%. Results: The study group was composed of 71% female and 29% male. The nutritional status was distributed as eutrophic 41.9%, overweight 20.1%, and obesity 21.1%. In relation to self-esteem, 44.1% presented low and very low levels, without differences by gender. Emotional intelligence was distributed: low 3.4%, medium 81%, and high 13.4% -no differences according to gender. The association between nutritional status (overweight and obesity) with low and very low self-esteem, an odds ratio of 2.5 (95% CI 1.12 – 5.59) was obtained with a p-value = 0.02. The correlation analysis between the intrapersonal sub-dimension emotional intelligence scores and the Z score of nutritional status presented a negative correlation of r = - 0.209 with a p-value < 0.005. The correlation between emotional intelligence subdimension stress management with Z score presented a positive correlation of r = 0.0161 with a p-value < 0.05. In conclusion, the group of adolescents studied had a high prevalence of overweight and obesity, a high prevalence of low self-esteem, and a high prevalence of average emotional intelligence. Overweight and obese adolescents were 2.5 times more likely to have low self-esteem. As overweight and obesity increase, self-esteem decreases, and the ability to manage stress increases.

Keywords: self-esteem, emotional intelligence, obesity, adolescent, nutritional status

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Authors: Kayode Oshinubi, Brice Kammegne, Jacques Demongeot

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The use of mathematical tools like Partial Differential Equations and Ordinary Differential Equations have become very important to predict the evolution of a viral disease in a population in order to take preventive and curative measures. In December 2019, a novel variety of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China causing a severe and potentially fatal respiratory syndrome, i.e., COVID-19. Since then, it has become a pandemic declared by World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 which has spread around the globe. A reaction-diffusion system is a mathematical model that describes the evolution of a phenomenon subjected to two processes: a reaction process in which different substances are transformed, and a diffusion process that causes a distribution in space. This article provides a mathematical study of the Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, Recovered, and Vaccinated population model of the COVID-19 pandemic by the bias of reaction-diffusion equations. Both local and global asymptotic stability conditions for disease-free and endemic equilibria are determined using the Lyapunov function are considered and the endemic equilibrium point exists and is stable if it satisfies Routh–Hurwitz criteria. Also, adequate conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the model have been proved. We showed the spatial distribution of the model compartments when the basic reproduction rate $\mathcal{R}_0 < 1$ and $\mathcal{R}_0 > 1$ and sensitivity analysis is performed in order to determine the most sensitive parameters in the proposed model. We demonstrate the model's effectiveness by performing numerical simulations. We investigate the impact of vaccination and the significance of spatial distribution parameters in the spread of COVID-19. The findings indicate that reducing contact with an infected person and increasing the proportion of susceptible people who receive high-efficacy vaccination will lessen the burden of COVID-19 in the population. To the public health policymakers, we offered a better understanding of the COVID-19 management.

Keywords: COVID-19, SEIRV epidemic model, reaction-diffusion equation, basic reproduction number, vaccination, spatial distribution

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Authors: Anocha Kimkong, Natnichar Kleebbuabarn

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This research work has the objective to analyze the financial status and operational performance of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU) in 3 fiscal years (2011-2013). The tool used is a form to record financial statements and balances of the university. The analysis is based on the calculation that regards the figures in the fiscal year of 2011 as the 100% bases to be compared with the same figures in the fiscal years of 2012 and 2013, which are multiplied by 100 and divided by the base figures. The outcomes are the percentages of each year, which can reflect the rising, stable, and falling trends. The results from the analysis reveal that SSRU’s financial status is getting better because the gross assets, debts and accumulated cash are increasing in the fiscal years of 2012 and 2013. Concerning the operational performance, the university’s incomes and expenses are rising from the fiscal year of 2011. This makes the university’s incomes grow higher than expenses.

Keywords: financial status, operational performance, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, balances

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Authors: Il-Ho Kim, Samuel Noh, Kwame McKenzie, Cyu-Chul Choi

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Introduction: The ‘stress of higher status’ hypothesis suggests that workers with higher-status occupations are more likely to experience work-to-family conflict (WFC) than those with lower-status occupations. Yet, the occupational difference in WFC and its mechanisms have not been explicitly explored within Asian culture. This present study examines (a) the association between occupational status and WFC and (b) the mediating roles of work-related stressors and resources, focused on gender perspectives using a sample of Korean immigrants. Methods: Data were derived from a cross-sectional survey of foreign born Korean immigrants who were currently working at least two years in the Greater Area of Toronto or surrounding towns. The sample was stratified for equivalent presentations of micro-business owners (N=555) and paid employees in diverse occupational categories (N=733). Results: We found gender differences and similarities in the link between occupational status and WFC and the mediating roles of work-related variables. Compared to skilled/unskilled counterparts, male immigrants in professional, service, and microbusiness jobs reported higher levels of WFC, whereas female immigrants in higher-status occupations were more likely to have WFC with the exception of the highest levels of WFC among microbusiness owners. Regardless of gender, both male and female immigrants who have longer weekly work hours, shift work schedule, and high emotional and psychological demands were significantly associated with high levels of WFC. However, skill development was related to WFC only among male immigrants. Regarding the mediating roles of work-related factors, among female immigrants, the occupational difference in WFC was fully mediated by weekly work hours, shift work schedule, and emotional and psychological demands with the exception of the case of microbusiness workers. Among male immigrants, the occupational differences remained virtually unchanged after controlling for these mediators. Conclusions: Our results partially confirmed the ‘stress of higher status’ hypothesis among female immigrants. Additionally, work-related stressors seem to be critical mediators of the link between occupations and WFC only for female immigrants.

Keywords: work-to-family conflict, gender, work conditions, job demands, job resources

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Authors: N. J. Nawarathna, N. R. Kmarasinghe, D. Chandrasekara, B. M. R. S. Balasooriya, R. A. A. Shaminda, R. J. K. Senevirathne

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Introduction: Thyroid malignancy associated with hyperthyroidism is considered rare. Retrospective studies have shown the incidence of thyroid malignancy in hyperthyroid patients to be low (0.7-8.5%). To assess the clinical relevance of this association, thyroid status in a cohort of patients with thyroid malignancy were analyzed. Method: Thyroid malignancies diagnosed histologically in 56 patients, over a 18 month period beginning from April 2013, in a single surgical unit at Teaching Hospital Kandy were included. Preoperative patient details and progression of thyroid status were asessed with Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, free Thyroxin and free Triiodothyronine levels. Results: Amongst 56 patients Papillary carcinoma was diagnosed in 44(78.6%), follicular carcinomas in 7(12.5%) and 5(8.9%) with medullary and anaplastic carcinomas. 12(21.4%) were males and 44(78.6%) were females. 20(35.7%) were less than 40years, 29(51.8%) were between 40 to 59years and 7(12.5%) were above 59years. Cross tabulation of Type of carcinoma with Gender revealed likelihood ratio of 6.908, Significance p = 0.032. Biochemically 12(21.4%) were hyperthyroid. Out of them 5(41.7%) had primary hyperthyroidism and 7(58.3%) had secondary hyperthyroidism. Mean age of euthyroid patients was 43.77years (SD 10.574) and hyperthyroid patients was 53.25years(SD 16.057). Independent Samples Test t is -2.446, two tailed significance p =0.018. When cross tabulate thyroid status with Age group Likelihood Ratio was 9.640, Significance p = 0.008. Conclusion: Papillary carcinoma is seen more among females. Among the patients with thyroid carcinomas, those with biochemically proven hyperthyroidism were more among the older age group than those who were euthyroid. Hence careful evaluation of elderly hyperthyroid patients to select the most suitable therapeutic approach is justified.

Keywords: age, hyperthyroidism, thyroid malignancy, thyroid status

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Authors: Hongyu Chen, Li Jiang

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Ubiquitous anomalies endanger the security of our system con- stantly. They may bring irreversible damages to the system and cause leakage of privacy. Thus, it is of vital importance to promptly detect these anomalies. Traditional supervised methods such as Decision Trees and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used to classify normality and abnormality. However, in some case, the abnormal status are largely rarer than normal status, which leads to decision bias of these methods. Generative adversarial network (GAN) has been proposed to handle the case. With its strong generative ability, it only needs to learn the distribution of normal status, and identify the abnormal status through the gap between it and the learned distribution. Nevertheless, existing GAN-based models are not suitable to process data with discrete values, leading to immense degradation of detection performance. To cope with the discrete features, in this paper, we propose an efficient GAN-based model with specifically-designed loss function. Experiment results show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art models on discrete dataset and remarkably reduce the overhead.

Keywords: GAN, discrete feature, Wasserstein distance, multiple intermediate layers

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Authors: Shailendra Kumar Patidar

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Eutrophication of surface water is one of the most widespread environmental problems at present. Large number of pilgrims and tourists visit sacred artificial tank known as “Brahma Sarover” located at Kurukshetra, India to take holy dip and perform religious ceremonies. The sources of pollutants include impurities in feed water, mass bathing, religious offerings and windblown particulate matter. Studies so far have focused mainly on assessing water quality for bathing purpose by using physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters. No effort has been made to assess nutrient concentration and trophic status of the tank to take more appropriate measures for improving water quality on long term basis. In the present study, total nitrogen, total phosphorous and chlorophyll a measurements have been done to assess the nutrient level and trophic status of the tank. The results show presence of high concentration of nutrients and Chlorophyll a indicating mesotrophic and eutrophic state of the tank. Phosphorous has been observed as limiting nutrient in the tank water.

Keywords: Brahma Sarover, eutrophication, nutrients, trophic status

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Authors: Hari Govindmishra, Sarabjot Singh

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The study offers an approach to understand different determinants of shopping behaviour, and the effect of ethnicity on shopping behaviour. The results reveal that the Indian culture is composite in nature and because of which there is no difference between different ethnic groups in their preference for three shopping behaviour determinants, viz., status consciousness, need for touch and companion opinion. The research model investigates the relevant relationship between these constructs by using a structural equation modelling approach, which reveals that status consciousness, need for touch and companion opinion are significant determinants of shopping behaviour. Consequently, the shopping behaviour managers have to understand the collective nature of Indian ethnic consumers in their shopping behaviour.

Keywords: ethnic groups, status consciousness, companion opinion, need for touch, shopping behaviour

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Authors: Faranak Omidian

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This study has been carried out to examine the status of architecture department at bachelor's level of engineering architecture in Islamic Azad University of Dezful in 2012-13 academic year. The present research is a descriptive cross sectional study and in terms of measurement, it is descriptive and analytical, which was done based on 7 steps and in 7 areas with 32 criteria and 169 indicators. The sample includes 201 students, 14 faculty members, 72 graduates and 39 employers. Simple random sampling method, complete enumeration method, network sampling (snowball sampling) were used for students, faculty members and graduates respectively. All sample responded to the questions. After data collection, the findings were ranked on Likert scale from desirable to undesirable with the scores ranging from 1 to 3.The results showed that the department with a score of 1.88 in regard to objectives, organizational status, management and organizations, with a score of 2 in relation to students, with a score of 1.8 in regard to faculty members was in a relatively desirable status. Regarding training courses and curriculum, it gained a score of 2.33 which indicates the desirable status of the department in this regard. It gained scores of 1.75, 2, and 1.8 with respect to educational and research facilities and equipment, teaching and learning strategies, and graduates respectively, all of which shows the relatively desirable status of the department. The results showed that the department of architecture, with an average score of 2.14 in all evaluated areas, was in a desirable situation. Therefore, although the department generally has a desirable status, it needs to put in more effort to tackle its weaknesses and shortages and corrects its defects in order to promote educational quality, taking to the desirable level.

Keywords: internal evaluation, architecture department in Islamic, Azad University, Dezful

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Authors: Hee-Young Song

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Background and objectives: In 2011, the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) recommendations proposed a multidimensional assessment of patients’ conditions that included both functional parameters and patient-reported outcomes, with the aim to provide a comprehensive assessment of the disease, thus meeting both the needs of the patient and the role of the physician. However, few studies have evaluated patient-reported outcomes as well as objective functional assessments among individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in clinical practice in Korea. This study was undertaken to explore the relationship between functional status assessed by the 6-minute walking distance (MWD) test and subjective health status reported by stable patients with COPD residing in community. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 118 stable COPD patients aged 69.4 years old and selected by a convenient sampling from an outpatient department of pulmonology in a tertiaryhospitals. The 6-MWD test was conducted according to standardized instructions. Participants also completed a constructed questionnaire including general characteristics, smoking history, dyspnea by modified medical research council (mMRC) scale, and health status by COPD assessment test (CAT). Anthropometric measurements were performed for body mass index (BMI). Medical records were reviewed to obtain disease-related characteristics including duration of the disease and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1). Data were analyzed using PASW statistics 20.0. Results: Mean FEV1% of participants was 63.51% and mean 6-MWD and CAT scores were 297.54m and 17.7, respectively. The 6-MWD and CAT showed significant negative correlations (r= -.280, p=.002); FEV1 and CAT did as well correlations (r= -.347, p < .001). Conclusions: Findings suggest that the better functional status an individual with COPD has, the better subjective health status is, and provide the support for using patient-reported outcomes along with functional parameters to facilitate comprehensive assessment of COPD patients in real clinical practices.

Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD assessment test, functional status, patient-reported outcomes

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Authors: Priyanka R. Sagar

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Social economic status (SES) is a variable that denotes the social standing of a person in society, and quality of life is a measure of health, happiness, and comfort of an individual. During early 2020, the world was stuck by the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in minimal or no economic activities to takes place. The present research paper is an attempt to analyze the socioeconomic status and quality of life of construction workers dwelling in the sub-urban areas of Hoskote located in the Bengaluru rural district pre and post-COVID-19. It also tries to analyze the difference in these variables pre and post-COVID-19. The study uses a retrospective design and data collected through a questionnaire survey from the respondents of Hoskote. A total of 100 samples were collected, out of which 73% were men and 27% were women. The mean age group of the participants is 41.04 ± 6.97 years. The overall analysis of the study shows that there is a significant difference in the socioeconomic status of construction workers pre and post-COVID-19. The study shows SES of the workers pre-pandemic is higher than post-pandemic. The other variable is quality of life which consists of physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environmental domains. The study depicts that the psychological domain alone has been impacted by the pandemic; workers had better mental health pre-COVID-19. The other domains, i.e., physical health, social relationship, and environment, remain unaffected.

Keywords: socio-economic status, quality of life, construction workers, COVID-19

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Authors: Shivani Kolarkar

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Splendid growth in Indian IT has generated women employment on a large scale in India and continues to do it. Indian IT industry has achieved this in spite of total masculine dominance in other Indian engineering industries, where the ratio of women employment is almost negligible as compared to men. Indian IT today proudly enjoys a strong pool of technically educated, intellectual, and skillful women employees. IT industry has encouraged technical education for women in India, to a great extent. The software industry has definitely contributed to developing a positive and dignified role and status of women employees in Indian IT industry. It has promoted women’s social and economic role and status. In spite of all, gender discrimination still persists in Indian IT, also, which is low as compared to other industries, but it is a matter of concern. An Indian woman is bound to carry dual roles which are equally over-stressed for IT women employees. Long working hours, night shifts, work pressures and insufficient safety majors and necessary facilities for women contributes to making her physical-mental life, family and married life troublesome. Which forces her either to cluster at low-end jobs in IT/elsewhere or to sacrifice her career. Nature, role and status of HRM needs to be broadened, deepened and shaped into research-oriented multidimensional perspective in the context of really enhancing role and status of Indian IT women with high appreciation of women employees’ dignity and entity.

Keywords: attrition, gender discrimination, HRM, Indian IT, software industry, job satisfaction, safety, technical education, women employment

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Authors: Khanh To Duc, Monica Chiogna, Gianfranco Adimari

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With three diagnostic categories, assessment of the performance of diagnostic tests is achieved by the analysis of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) surface, which generalizes the ROC curve for binary diagnostic outcomes. The volume under the ROC surface (VUS) is a summary index usually employed for measuring the overall diagnostic accuracy. When the true disease status can be exactly assessed by means of a gold standard (GS) test, unbiased nonparametric estimators of the ROC surface and VUS are easily obtained. In practice, unfortunately, disease status verification via the GS test could be unavailable for all study subjects, due to the expensiveness or invasiveness of the GS test. Thus, often only a subset of patients undergoes disease verification. Statistical evaluations of diagnostic accuracy based only on data from subjects with verified disease status are typically biased. This bias is known as verification bias. Here, we consider the problem of correcting for verification bias when continuous diagnostic tests for three-class disease status are considered. We assume that selection for disease verification does not depend on disease status, given test results and other observed covariates, i.e., we assume that the true disease status, when missing, is missing at random. Under this assumption, we discuss several solutions for ROC surface analysis based on imputation and re-weighting methods. In particular, verification bias-corrected estimators of the ROC surface and of VUS are proposed, namely, full imputation, mean score imputation, inverse probability weighting and semiparametric efficient estimators. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators are established, and their finite sample behavior is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulation studies. Two illustrations using real datasets are also given.

Keywords: imputation, missing at random, inverse probability weighting, ROC surface analysis

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Authors: Ramesh Chand Chauhan, Sanjay Kumar Rai, Shashi kant, Rakesh Lodha, Nand Kumar

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Background: With a better understanding of HIV pathogenesis and availability of antiretroviral therapy more children are growing and entering in teenage group; informing children of their own HIV status has become an important aspect of long-term disease management. There is little evidence of how and when this type of disclosure takes place in a resource-limited setting. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2010 to May 2011 among a dyads of 156 HIV-infected children and their caregivers, those were visiting pediatric clinic at a tertiary care hospital in Delhi, India. The study protocol was approved by the Institute Ethics Committee. After taking written informed consent; pretested structured questionnaire was administered to caregivers during routine clinic visits. Information regarding socio-demographic characteristics, awareness of HIV infection status among children and their perception regarding disclosure was collected. Mean and frequencies were calculated and chi-square and logistic regression test were applied. Results: The mean age of children was 8.4 ±3.45 years. Among them 73.7% were male and 39.1% were orphans. Among 156 enrolled children, 74.4% (n=116) were of ≥ 6 years and were assessed for disclosure. Only 18.1% (n=21) children had been informed of their HIV status. Of those under 9 years, 6.4% knew their status, whereas 18.4% of 9-11 years and 35.5% of 12-14 years children knew they had HIV. Awareness among males (23.3%) was higher than females (3.3%). Both age and sex of child were significantly (p<0.01) associated with disclosure status. Other factors favoring disclosure were orphan-hood, non-perinatal mode of transmission (OR = 4.32; 95% CI 1.01-7.12), ART initiation (OR = 4.21; 95% CI 1.03-6.98), and caregiver educated beyond primary level (OR = 1.89; 95% CI 1.03-3.26). Repeated enquiry regarding the visit to clinic was the most common reason (66.6%) for disclosure. In 52.4% children disclosure was done with the involvement of other family members. 82.5% caregivers felt the age of > 10 years is appropriate for disclosing the HIV infection status to the child. Conclusion: Detailed guidelines on disclosure are required focusing on children of school-going age with perinatal infection who are not on ART and with caregivers of low educational status.

Keywords: HIV, children, India, disclosure

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Authors: Ananya Gupta, Sangeeta Bhaskar

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Mycobacterium indicus pranii (MIP) is a saprophytic mycobacterium. It is a predecessor of M. avium complex (MAC). Whole genome analysis and growth kinetics studies have placed MIP in between pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. It shares significant antigenic repertoire with M. tuberculosis and have unique immunomodulatory properties. MIP provides better protection than BCG against pulmonary tuberculosis in animal models. Immunization with MIP by aerosol route provides significantly higher protection as compared to immunization by subcutaneous (s.c.) route. However, mechanism behind differential protection has not been studied. In this study, using mice model we have evaluated and compared the M.tb specific immune response in lung compartments (airway lumen / lung interstitium) as well as spleen following MIP immunization via nasal (i.n.) and s.c. route. MIP i.n. vaccination resulted in increased seeding of memory T cells (CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells) in the airway lumen. Frequency of CD4+ T cells expressing Th1 migratory marker (CXCR3) and activation marker (CD69) were also high in airway lumen of MIP i.n. group. Significantly high ex vivo secretion of cytokines- IFN-, IL-12, IL-17 and TNF- from cells of airway luminal spaces provides evidence of antigen-specific lung immune response, besides generating systemic immunity comparable to MIP s.c. group. Analysis of T cell response on per cell basis revealed that antigen specific T-cells of MIP i.n. group were functionally superior as higher percentage of these cells simultaneously secreted IFN-gamma, IL-2 and TNF-alpha cytokines as compared to MIP s.c. group. T-cells secreting more than one of the cytokines simultaneously are believed to have robust effector response and crucial for protection, compared with single cytokine secreting T-cells. Adoptive transfer of airway luminal T-cells from MIP i.n. group into trachea of naive B6 mice revealed that MIP induced CD8 T-cells play crucial role in providing long term protection. Thus the study demonstrates that MIP intranasal vaccination induces M.tb specific memory T-cells in the airway lumen that results in an early and robust recall response against M.tb infection.

Keywords: airway lumen, Mycobacterium indicus pranii, Th1 migratory markers, vaccination

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Authors: Mohammad Javad Mehrabanpour, Mohammad Hosein Hosseini, Ali Shirazi, Dorsa Mehrabanpour

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Respiratory infections are the most important diseases that affect poultry. Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale is a bacterium that causes respiratory infections including alveolar inflation and pneumonia in birds. The aim of this study was to evaluated antibody titer against Ornitobacterium rhinotracheal in layer chicken sera after vaccination with an experimental ORT vaccine that produced in Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute. Cultured bacteria were inactivated by formalin, and controlled tests were conducted on it. The obtained antigens were formulated using Montanide oil and were homogenized using homogenizer. Eighty SPF chickens were kept until the age of 14 days under existing standards for temperature, humidity, and light. At the age of 14 days, chickens were divided into 3 groups. The first group included 50 chickens injected with prepared ORT vaccine, the second group, as control group, included 15 chickens injected with sterile PBS to get stress of infection and the third group included 15 chickens with no injection performed to them. All 3 groups were kept in separate cages at same room. Blood samples were regularly taken from the chickens every week for serum separation and evaluation of antibody titer. During the fifth week post vaccination, booster vaccine was injected into the chickens of vaccinated group. The chickens were inspected every day in terms of mortality as well as any injection site reactions. Three weeks after the booster injection, blood samples were taken from all chickens of all groups, and sera were isolated. The sera of immunized (vaccinated) SPF chickens with ORT vaccine as well as that of SPF chickens in the control groups were reviewed according to the recommendations of ELISA kit manufacturer to examine the chicken’s humeral immune response to the studied vaccine. Potency, stability and sterility tests were also performed on the above mentioned vaccine. Results obtained indicate high antibody titer in sera of chickens vaccinated with experimental ORT vaccine as compared with the control groups that emphasize the ability of experimentally prepared ORT vaccine to stimulate humoral immune response of chicken. After the second injection, antibody titer increased and remained almost stable up to 9 weeks after the injection. ORT vaccine can cause potency in chickens and can protect them against disease.

Keywords: antibody, layer chicken, Ornithobactrium rhinotracitis, vaccine

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Authors: Cath Grimley, Debra Bick, Sarah Hillman, Louise Clarke, Helen Atherton, Jo Parsons

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The problem: Women in the UK are offered influenza (flu), pertussis (whooping cough) and COVID-19 vaccinations during their pregnancy but uptake of all three vaccines is below the desired rate. These vaccines are offered during pregnancy as pregnant women are at an increased risk of hospitalisation, morbidity, and mortality from these illnesses. Exposure to these diseases during pregnancy can also have a negative impact on the unborn baby with an increased risk of serious complications both while in utero and following birth. The research aims to explore perceptions about the vaccinations offered in pregnancy both from the perspectives of pregnant women and midwives. To determine factors that influence pregnant women’s decisions about whether or not to accept the vaccines following the Covid-19 pandemic and to explore midwives’ experiences of recommending and delivering vaccines. The approach: This research follows a qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews with pregnant women and midwives in the UK. Interviews with midwives explored vaccination discussions they routinely have with pregnant women and identified some of the barriers to vaccination that pregnant women discuss with them. Interviews with pregnant women explored their views since the COVID-19 pandemic about vaccinations offered during pregnancy, and whether the pandemic has influenced perceptions of vulnerability to illness in pregnant women. Midwives were recruited via participating hospitals and midwife specific social media groups. Pregnant women were recruited via participating hospitals and community groups. All interviews were conducted remotely (using telephone or Microsoft Teams) and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: 43 pregnant women and 16 midwives were recruited and interviewed. The findings presented here will focus on data from midwives. Topics identified included three key themes for midwives. These were 1) Delivery of vaccinations which includes the convenience of offering vaccinations while attending standard antenatal appointments and practical barriers faced in delivering these vaccinations at hospital. 2) Messages and guidance included the importance of up-to-date informational needs for midwives to deliver vaccines and that uncertainty and conflicting messages about the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy were a barrier to delivery. 3) Recommendations to have vaccines look at all aspects of recommendations such as how recommendations are communicated, the contents of the recommendation, the importance of the vaccine and the impact of those recommendations on whether women accept the vaccine. Implications: Findings highlight the importance for midwives to receive clear and consistent information so they can feel confident in relaying this information while recommending and delivering vaccines to pregnant women. Emphasising why vaccines are important when recommending vaccinations to pregnant women in addition to standard information on the availability and timing will add to the strength and impact of that recommendation in helping women to make informed decisions about accepting vaccines. The findings of this study will inform the development of an intervention to increase vaccination uptake amongst pregnant women.

Keywords: vaccination, pregnancy, qualitative, interviews, Covid-19, midwives

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Authors: Saekil Yun, Sib Sankar Giri, Jin Woo Jun, Hyoun Joong Kim, Sang Guen Kim, Sang Wha Kim, Jung Woo Kang, Se Jin Han, Se Chang Park

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In aquaculture, vaccination is important to control and prevent diseases. In the study, we utilized poly D,L-lactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) microparticles (MPs) for encapsulating formalin-killed Aeromonas hydrophila cells. To assess the innate and adaptive immune responses, carps and loaches were used for the experiments. Fish were divided into three groups (A, B, C). Total antigen of 0.1 ml vaccine was adjusted by 2 x 108 CFU and injected via intraperitoneal route. Group A was vaccinated with 0.1 ml of PLGA vaccine, group B was with 0.1 ml of FKC vaccine and group C was with 0.1 ml of sterile PBS. All three groups were challenged with A. hydrophila and challenge dose was lethal dose (LD50). Loaches and carp were then challenged with A. hydrophila at 12 and 20 weeks post vaccination (wpv), and 10 and 14 wpv, respectively, and relative survival rates were calculated. For both fish species, the curve of antibody titer over time was shallower in the PLGA group than the FKC group and the PLGA groups demonstrated higher survival rates at all time-points. In the groups of PLGA-MP, relative mRNA levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, lysozyme C and IgM were significantly upregulated than FKC treated groups. Biodegradable PLGA microparticle vaccine could induce longer immune responses than original FKC vaccines to protect from A. hydrophila infection.

Keywords: PLGA, microparticles, Aeromonas hydrophila, vaccine

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Authors: Lapatrada Numkham, Saowaluk Khakhong, Jeeraporn Kummabutr

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Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death in worldwide. Thailand also concerns and focuses on reduction a new case of these diseases. Community Health Volunteers (CHV) is important health personnel in primary health care and performs as a health leader in the community. If the health of CHV changes, it would impact on the performance to promote health of families and community. This cross-sectional study aimed to 1) describe the health status of community health volunteers and 2) examine the factors associated with health status among community health volunteers. The sample included 360 community health volunteers in a province in central Thailand during September-December 2014. Data were collected using questionnaires on health information, knowledge of health behaviors, and health behaviors. Body weight, height, waist circumference (WC), blood pressure (BP), and blood glucose (BS) (fingertip) were assessed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test. There were three hundred and sixty participants with 82.5% being women. The mean age was 54 + 8.9 years. Forty-seven percent of the participants had co-morbidities. Hypertension was the most common co-morbidity (26.7%). The results revealed that the health status of the volunteers included: no underlying disease, having risk of hypertension (HT) & diabetes mellitus (DM), and having HT&DM at 38.3%, 30.0%, and 31.7% respectively. The chi-square test revealed that the factors associated with health status among the volunteers were gender, age, WC and body mass index (BMI). The results suggested that community health nurses should; 1) implement interventions to decrease waist circumference and lose weight through education programs, especially females; 2) monitor people that have a risk of HT&DM and that have HT&DM by meeting and recording BP level, BS level, WC and BMI; and 3) collaborate with a district public health officer to initiate a campaign to raise awareness of the risks of chronic diseases among community health volunteers.

Keywords: community health volunteers, health status, risk of non-communicable disease, Thailand

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Authors: Md. S. Sabuz

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Bangladesh, a South Asian developing country, has achieved a remarkable breakthrough in health indicators during the last four decades despite immense income inequality. This phenomenon results in the mystical exclusion of marginalized people from obtaining health care facilities. However, the persistence of exclusion of the disadvantaged remains troubling. Exclusion occurs from occupational inferiority, pay and wage differences, educational backwardness, gender disparity to urban-rural complexity and eliminate the unprivileged from seeking and availing the health services. Evidence from Bangladesh shows that many sick people prefer to die at home without securing medical services because in previous times they were not treated well, not because the medical facilities were inadequate or antediluvian but the socio-economic class allows them to receive obdurate treatment. Furthermore, government and policymakers have given enormous emphasis on infrastructural development and achieving health indicators instead of ensuring quality services and inclusiveness of people from all spheres. Therefore, it is high time to address the issues concerning this and highlight the impact of economic status on health status in a sociological perspective. The objective of this study is to consider ways of assessing and exploring the impact of economic status for instance: occupational status, pay and wage variable, on health status in the context of Bangladesh. The hypotheses are that there are a significant number of factors affecting economic status which are impactful for health status eventually, but acute income inequality is a prominent factor. Illiteracy, gender disparity, remoteness, incredibility on services, superior costs, superstition etc. are the dominant indicators behind the economic factors influencing the health status. The chosen methodologies are a qualitative and quantitative approaches to accomplish the research objectives. Secondary sources of data will be used to conduct the study. Surveys will be conducted on the people who have ever been through the health care facilities and people from the different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Focus group discussions will be conducted to acquire the data from different cultural and regional citizens. The findings show that 48% of people who are from disadvantaged communities have been deprived of proper health care facilities. The general reasons behind this are the higher cost of medicines and other equipment. A significant number of people are unaware of the appropriate facilities. It was found that the socio-economic variables are the main influential factors that work as the driving force for both economic dimension and health status. Above all regional variables and gender, dimensions have an enormous effect on determining the health status of an individual or community. Amidst many positive achievements for example decrease in the child mortality rate, an increase in the immunization programs of the child etc., the inclusiveness of all classes of people in health care facilities has been overshadowed in Bangladesh. However, this phenomenon along with the socio-economic and cultural phenomena significantly demolishes the quality and inclusiveness of the health status of people.

Keywords: cultural context of health, economic status, gender and health, rural health care

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Authors: Nuraeni, Suryanti, Saida, Annas Boceng

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Farm forestry is a forest where farmers or landowners do cultivation and farming activities on their land. This study aims to determine the dimensions of sustainable development of farm forestry and to analyze the leverage factors to improve the sustainability status of farm forestry management in Bulukumba Regency. This research was conducted in Kajang District, Bulukumba Regency. The analysis of the sustainability of farm forestry management applied Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS), a modification of the Rapid Appraisal of The Status of Farming (RAPFARM). The index value of farm forestry sustainability was by 62.01% for ecological dimension, 51.54% for economic dimension, 61.00% for the social and cultural dimension, and 63.24% for legal and institutional dimension with sustainable enough category status. Meanwhile, the index value for the technology and infrastructure was by 47.16% of less sustainable category status. The result of leverage analysis of attributes for the dimensions of ecological, economic, social and cultural, legal and institutional as well as infrastructure and technology afforded twenty-two (22) leverage sensitive factors that influence the sustainability of farm forestry.

Keywords: farm forestry, South Sulawesi, management, sustainability

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