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1.
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering ; 12602, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20245269

ABSTRACT

In 2021, the airline industry was affected by COVID-19, and many airlines suffered losses. The main reason for the loss were the decline in revenue and the surge in costs. Therefore, in terms of creating the competitive advantage of airlines, "price war" is no longer applicable, and improving service quality has become an effective means. Customer satisfaction is the most effective indicator to measure service quality. In this study, a satisfaction evaluation system is established based on structural equation model and customer satisfaction importance matrix. Then, a questionnaire is designed to analyze the influence of different factors on customer satisfaction. The research finds that brand image and perceived quality have a great impact on customer satisfaction. In addition, some suggestions for airlines to improve customer satisfaction are given. © 2023 SPIE.

2.
Journal of Educational Administration ; 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-20245112

ABSTRACT

PurposeThe current study investigated the impact of organisational trust on emotional well-being and performance of middle leaders during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA convenience sample of 265 middle leaders in kindergartens in China responded involving trust in schools (e.g. trust in principal and trust in colleagues), emotional well-being and job performance. Both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in the investigation.FindingsThree hypotheses on the relationships between the three constructs were verified. Trust in schools significantly influenced emotional well-being and job performance of middle leaders which correlated with each other. The interactive effects of trust in principal and trust in colleagues were discussed for improving the well-being and job performance of middle leaders. Relationships between the two kinds of trust and pride were also identified in the research.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies may put efforts towards improving these three outcomes synchronously.Practical implicationsBased on the evidence of the current study, future research may focus on how middle leaders act as a bridging role between different stakeholders such as principal and teachers, principal and parents, teachers and children, meanwhile how to boost the leaders' own well-being and performance in the early childhood education (ECE).Originality/valueThis study established the empirical linkages between school trusts, emotional well-being and job performance.

3.
International Transactions in Operational Research ; 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-20244979

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates a government's subsidy strategy for motivating a manufacturer to set up a flexible production line for emergency supplies. Four subsidy strategies are proposed to ensure a desired service level in case of an emergency: zero subsidy, a fixed subsidy, a marginal subsidy, and a hybrid subsidy. We develop a game theoretical model to examine how the government can induce a manufacturer to set up a flexible production line that can respond promptly to an emergency, based on the manufacturer's cost structure (fixed and marginal costs). We find that when the marginal profit of an emergency product is higher than that of the manufacturer's regular product, a fixed (marginal) subsidy is the dominant strategy if the manufacturer's fixed (marginal) cost is high, while a hybrid subsidy strategy is dominant if both costs are high. When the marginal profit of an emergency product is lower than that of the manufacturer's regular product, neither a fixed subsidy nor a zero subsidy will be the dominant strategy. We also find that a marginal subsidy can ensure the effectiveness of the strategy, while a fixed subsidy helps improve strategy efficiency. We use government subsidy strategies implemented for Chinese COVID-19 emergency supplies as examples to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the subsidy strategies under the proposed framework. We also extend the discussion by considering the manufacturer's social consciousness.

4.
The Theory and Application of Multinational Corporate Governance ; : 1-193, 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20238739

ABSTRACT

Multinational enterprises have become a main engine of the global economy, technical advancement, and product innovation, playing a pivotal role in the world economy and the global technological revolution. However, MNEs are also often embroiled in financial fraud and corporate scandal which show that MNEs should improve their corporate governance. Meanwhile, as COVID- 19 runs rampant across the world, populism and deglobalisation have resurged, and protectionism and unilateralism are exerting negative impacts on the world economy. Achieving sustainable development in this context is a test of a company's management and governance abilities. How should they be governed? This book will be a useful tool for university research-led teaching and fundamental research in corporate governance theories of MNEs in general, as well as using Chinese case studies as evidence to support our theoretical arguments. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

5.
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering ; 12599, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20238661

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, people usually wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus, which has become a major obstacle when we use face-based computer vision techniques such as face recognition and face detection. So masked face inpainting technique is desired. Actually, the distribution of face features is strongly correlated with each other, but existing inpainting methods typically ignore the relationship between face feature distributions. To address this issue, in this paper, we first show that the face image inpainting task can be seen as a distribution alignment between face features in damaged and valid regions, and style transfer is a distribution alignment process. Based on this theory, we propose a novel face inpainting model considering the probability distribution between face features, namely Face Style Self-Transfer Network (FaST-Net). Through the proposed style self-transfer mechanism, FaST-Net can align the style distribution of features in the inpainting region with the style distribution of features in the valid region of a face. Ablation studies have validated the effectiveness of FaST-Net, and experimental results on two popular human face datasets (CelebA and VGGFace) exhibit its superior performance compared with existing state-of-the-art methods. © 2023 SPIE.

6.
Advances in Hospitality and Leisure ; 18:17-35, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20238351

ABSTRACT

This research attempts to understand how individuals prevent themselves from exposure to COVID-19 when dining out at a restaurant and what situational factors shaping their COVID-19 preventive behavior (CPB) are. It collects 303 questionnaires responded by restaurant patrons in the United Arab Emirates. The resultant data reveals the ranks of the relative importance among the five CPBs proposed by this study that wearing a mask is considered the most critical CPB. In contrast, wearing gloves is the least desirable CPB. Concerning five health-risk factors under investigation, there is no difference in CPB between the vaccinated and non-vaccinated. People suffering from issues with their immune system show a significant inclination to stress social distancing compared to those without any immune issues. Those having an inflected family member are apt to wear gloves. Further, individuals bearing risk factors concerning chronic illness, an immune problem, and an infected family member are inclined to wash their hands and wear gloves. Lastly, this research finds six situational factors affecting an individual's CPB. © 2023 Thouraya Gherissi Labben, Joseph S. Chen and Hyangmi Kim.

7.
Academic Journal of Naval Medical University ; 43(11):1229-1233, 2022.
Article in Chinese | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-20237420

ABSTRACT

Maintenance hemodialysis patients need to return to hospital 3 times a week for routine hemodialysis treatment. In the case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and regional lockdown, a set of management systems and standardizations has been established in our hemodialysis center, including forward movement of the critical nodes of treatment, specialists pooling program for hemodialysis technology, and dynamic bubble personnel management, to implement dynamic prevention and control strategies, precise management of inpatient wards and closed-loop management of outbreaks. While improving the management of our own hemodialysis center, it is recommended to strengthen multi-center collaboration to build a municipal grid management system for hemodialysis and explore different dialysis strategies for end-stage renal disease to meet the treatment needs and safety management of maintenance hemodialysis patients in lockdown areas under the epidemic.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.

8.
Proceedings - 2022 2nd International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and its Application on Media, ISAIAM 2022 ; : 135-139, 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20236902

ABSTRACT

Deep learning (DL) approaches for image segmentation have been gaining state-of-the-art performance in recent years. Particularly, in deep learning, U-Net model has been successfully used in the field of image segmentation. However, traditional U-Net methods extract features, aggregate remote information, and reconstruct images by stacking convolution, pooling, and up sampling blocks. The traditional approach is very inefficient due of the stacked local operators. In this paper, we propose the multi-attentional U-Net that is equipped with non-local blocks based self-attention, channel-attention, and spatial-attention for image segmentation. These blocks can be inserted into U-Net to flexibly aggregate information on the plane and spatial scales. We perform and evaluate the multi-attentional U-Net model on three benchmark data sets, which are COVID-19 segmentation, skin cancer segmentation, thyroid nodules segmentation. Results show that our proposed models achieve better performances with faster computation and fewer parameters. The multi-attention U-Net can improve the medical image segmentation results. © 2022 IEEE.

9.
Maternal-Fetal Medicine ; 5(2):88-96, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-20235041

ABSTRACT

Objective This study aimed to investigate the immune response of a pregnant woman who recovered from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID_RS) by using single-cell transcriptomic profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and to analyze the properties of different immune cell subsets. Methods PBMCs were collected from the COVID_RS patient at 28 weeks of gestation, before a cesarean section. The PBMCs were then analyzed using single-cell RNA sequencing. The transcriptional profiles of myeloid, T, and natural killer (NK) cell subsets were systematically analyzed and compared with those of healthy pregnant controls from a published single-cell RNA sequencing data set. Results We identified major cell types such as T cells, B cells, NK cells, and myeloid cells in the PBMCs of our COVID_RS patient. The increase of myeloid and B cells and decrease of T cells and NK cells in the PBMCs in this patient were quite distinct compared with that in the control subjects. After reclustering and Augur analysis, we found that CD16 monocytes and mucosal-Associated invariant T (MAIT) cells were mostly affected within different myeloid, T, and NK cell subtypes in our COVID_RS patient. The proportion of CD16 monocytes in the total myeloid population was increased, and the frequency of MAIT cells in the total T and NK cells was significantly decreased in the COVID-RS patient. We also observed significant enrichment of gene sets related to antigen processing and presentation, T-cell activation, T-cell differentiation, and tumor necrosis factor superfamily cytokine production in CD16 monocytes, and enrichment of gene sets related to antigen processing and presentation, response to type II interferon, and response to virus in MAIT cells. Conclusion Our study provides a single-cell resolution atlas of the immune gene expression patterns in PBMCs from a COVID_RS patient. Our findings suggest that CD16-positive monocytes and MAIT cells likely play crucial roles in the maternal immune response against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. These results contribute to a better understanding of the maternal immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and may have implications for the development of effective treatments and preventive strategies for the coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnant women.Copyright © Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

10.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases ; 82(Suppl 1):1838, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20234036

ABSTRACT

BackgroundLong-term glucocorticoid (GC) exposure leads to systemic bone loss and fracture. In addition, GC is known to increase white blood cell (WBC) amount and change the distribution of differential count (DC). Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been studied as an optimal marker of subclinical inflammation, predicting the prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and even covid-19 infection. For patients under long-term GC exposure, the hemogram change might be a potential parameter to predict prognosis.ObjectivesThis pilot study aims to investigate if GC related WBC-DC change, including NLR, is associated with future fractures during 3 years follow-up.MethodsThis retrospective study is based on a registry, conducted in Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, from September 2014 till April 2021, aimed to monitor bone mineral density (BMD) changes and fractures in patients with autoimmune diseases. All recruited patients were followed at least 3 years and took X-ray images annually to capture new fragility fracture, including morphometric vertebral fractures. We screened participants who used GC continuously at least 3 months before the index day. We recorded the complete blood count (CBC) and WBC-DC values at least twice during the period of 3 months before and after the index day, and excluded patients who were febrile, under infection status, diagnosed as cancers or cardiovascular diseases at the index day. The NLR was calculated by the absolute neutrophil count divided by absolute lymphocyte count individually.ResultsA total of 346 participants were enrolled in current study, and 101 (29.2%) suffered from new fragility fracture in 3 years. Among patients with fracture and non-fracture, conventional fracture risk factors, such as age, BMD, and previous fracture remained significantly different, while the WBC revealed no difference (Table 1). Nevertheless, the absolute neutrophil and lymphocyte count were significantly higher and lower in the fracture group, respectively, and no difference in the monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil count. We compared different WBC ratio, and NLR is significantly higher in the fracture group, providing the odds ratio of 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.07-1.44, p=0.005). Figure 1 showed that the observed fracture risk raised as the NLR values increased.ConclusionIn patients under long-term GC, NLR might be a helpful marker to predict fracture, and higher NLR indicates higher fracture risks.Figure 1.Observed fracture rate is associated with baseline NLR[Figure omitted. See PDF]Table 1.Demographic characteristics of enrolled patients on long-term glucocorticoid.Fracture N=101No-Fracture N=245p-valueAge63.7 ± 9.056.5 ± 9.6<0.001*Sex(women)89(88.1)210(85.7)0.55BMI24.1 ± 3.923.4 ± 3.90.14Previous Fracture64(63.4)55(22.4)<0.001*Total hip BMD0.738 ± 0.1330.790 ± 0.1220.001*Femoral neck BMD0.575 ± 0.1130.626 ± 0.109<0.001*Lumbar BMD0.841 ± 0.2000.855 ± 0.1500.49WBC7.3 ± 2.16.9 ±1.70.14Hemoglobin12.8 ± 1.512.9 ± 1.40.33Platelet239.2 ± 64.7247.9 ± 71.40.30Neutrophil67.3 ± 9.764.3 ± 9.70.009*Lymphocyte24.3 ± 8.726.6 ± 9.50.04*Monocyte6.2 ± 1.86.3 ± 1.60.52Eosinophil1.8 ± 1.81.9 ± 1.30.77Basophil0.4 ± 0.20.4 ± 0.20.18NLR (Neutrophil to lymphocyte)3.3 ± 1.72.8 ± 1.40.004*NMR (Neutrophil to monocyte)11.9 ± 4.511.0 ± 3.60.04*LMR (Lymphocyte to monocyte)4.2 ± 1.74.5 ± 1.90.20AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by funding grant CMRPG8J0331 from the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (https://www.cgmh.org.tw).Disclosure of InterestsNone Declared.

11.
Journal of Educational Administration ; 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-20231231

ABSTRACT

PurposePrincipals' well-being worldwide is under increasing threat due to the challenging and complex nature of their work and growing demands. This paper aimed at developing and validating a multidimensional Principal Well-being Inventory (PWI) and examining the state and consequences of principal well-being.Design/methodology/approachThis paper involves four independent samples of principals working in schools from Hong Kong and Mainland China. The research design consisted of four phases with four sequential empirical studies. Phase 1 was to establish the content validity (literature review and Study 1);Phase 2 was to test the construct validity (Study 2 and Study 3);Phase 3 was to build the criterion validity (re-use the data from Study 3) and Phase 4 was to test the cross-validity of the PWI (Study 4).FindingsBased on published literature and four successive empirical studies, a 24-item PWI was created via a theoretical-empirical approach of test construction. Validity was confirmed through construct-, content-, criterion- and cross-validity testing. The PWI covers the six important well-being dimensions - physical, cognitive, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual - to present a general picture of principals' occupational well-being associated with job nature, well-being literacy, leadership and context.Research limitations/implicationsThe inventory will aid efforts to promote principal well-being as an essential component of schoolwide well-being, quality education and a wellness society.Practical implicationsDuring the post-COVID-19 period, this project is deemed both critical and timely so that quality education will not be sacrificed due to factors affecting principal well-being.Originality/valueThis theoretically and empirically validated inventory serves as a robust tool for comprehensively understanding principal well-being and a fuller exploration of their well-being literacy, drivers and outcomes.

12.
2022 19th China International Forum on Solid State Lighting & 2022 8th International Forum on Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Sslchina: Ifws ; : 228-230, 2022.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2328392

ABSTRACT

Recent studies in the epidermis have shown that Far-UVC (200-230nm) is a promising candidate against Novel Coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) with little DNA damage. Due to the consideration that conventional Far-UVC KrCl excilamps may emit 200-230 nm radiation (typically 222-nm peak wavelength) but with some harmful UV radiation beyond 230 to 280 nm, a novel design of Far-UVC KrCl excilamps with the filter and reflector is introduced to reduce the harmful UV radiation from 10.9% to 2.5% at the cost of 30%similar to 40% reduction in the total irradiance. In our study, the radiant characteristics and service life of the novel Far-UVC KrCl excilamps of 40 similar to 75 Watt (electrical power) with 222-nm peak wavelength were investigated. The service life was assessed under aging at the ambient temperatures (T-a) of 25 degrees C and 85 degrees C for 500 hours, respectively. The results showed that both the ambient temperature and the root mean square of current (I-rms) into the excilamps have a substantial effect on the lifetime of the KrCl excilamps. Furthermore, although no significant change of the off-nominal emission ratio existed during the lifetime test, it was observed that the high ambient temperature has a negative effect on the filtering of the harmful radiation.

13.
Academic Journal of Naval Medical University ; 43(11):1229-1233, 2022.
Article in Chinese | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2323875

ABSTRACT

Maintenance hemodialysis patients need to return to hospital 3 times a week for routine hemodialysis treatment. In the case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and regional lockdown, a set of management systems and standardizations has been established in our hemodialysis center, including forward movement of the critical nodes of treatment, specialists pooling program for hemodialysis technology, and dynamic bubble personnel management, to implement dynamic prevention and control strategies, precise management of inpatient wards and closed-loop management of outbreaks. While improving the management of our own hemodialysis center, it is recommended to strengthen multi-center collaboration to build a municipal grid management system for hemodialysis and explore different dialysis strategies for end-stage renal disease to meet the treatment needs and safety management of maintenance hemodialysis patients in lockdown areas under the epidemic.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.

14.
Organ Transplantation ; 13(4):417-424, 2022.
Article in Chinese | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2323874

ABSTRACT

During the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) pandemic from 2020 to 2021, lung transplantation entered a new stage of development worldwide. Globally, more than 70 000 cases of lung transplantation have been reported to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT). With the development of medical techniques over time, the characteristics of lung transplant donors and recipients and the indications of pediatric lung transplantation recipients have undergone significant changes. Application of lung transplantation in the treatment of COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has also captivated worldwide attention. Along with persistent development of lung transplantation, it will be integrated with more novel techniques to make breakthroughs in the fields of artificial lung and xenotransplantation. In this article, research progresses on the characteristics of lung transplant donors and recipients around the world were reviewed and the development trend was predicted, enabling patients with end-stage lung disease to obtain more benefits from the development of lung transplantation technique.Copyright © 2022 Organ Transplantation. All rights reserved.

15.
Dermatologica Sinica ; 41(1):52-53, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2323666
16.
Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine ; 38(12):1387-1389, 2021.
Article in Chinese | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2323391

ABSTRACT

From October 22 to 23, 2021, the 16th National Postgraduates Symposium on Environmental and Occupational Medicine was successfully held in Central South University, sponsored by the Editorial Board of Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Xiangya School of Public Health of Central South University, and co-organized by School of Public Health of South China University and Shanghai Preventive Medicine Association. Keeping in view the outbreak of COVID-19, the symposium was held in the form of "offline+online". More than 100 teachers and students from more than 30 universities and research institutions across China attended the conference. A total of 114 excellent papers were submitted to this conference. Focusing on the theme of "Research and practice: Healing the schism", young scholars' forum as well as postgraduates' academic exchanges at the main venue and four parallel sessions were launched. This conference not only provided an excellent platform for postgraduate students in the field of environmental and occupational medicine nationwide to share academic trends and exchange academic research, but also expanded the influence of the Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine.Copyright © 2021, Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All rights reserved.

17.
Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine ; 39(11):1249-1255, 2022.
Article in Chinese | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2322388

ABSTRACT

[Background] The COVID-19 pandemic hints at the importance of modernizing disease control system. To understand the scientific research strength of our country's disease control system in recent years is conducive to formulating more targeted policies or measures to promote the modernization of the disease control system. [Objective] To understand the scientific research strength and research hotspots of China's provincial-level centers for disease control and prevention (CDCs) from 2011 to 2020, and provide evidence for the development of scientific research work, discipline construction, and talent team construction in CDCs in the future. [Methods] The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of the Web of Science Core Collection were used to retrieve SCI-indexed English papers published by 31 provincial CDCs (excluding Taiwan Province, Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions) in our country from 2011 to 2020, and to screen literature with provincial CDCs as the first affiliation for bibliometric analysis and visual analysis. Bibliometric analysis included the SCI-indexed publications of different provincial CDCs (as co-affiliation and the first affiliation), the number of SCI-indexed papers published by provincial CDCs (as the first affiliation) and funding rates by years, the high-frequency authors of SCI-indexed papers published by provincial CDCs (as the first affiliation) and their distribution, and the characteristics of the journals. Visual analysis software Citespace 5.8.R1 was used to draw keyword co-occurrence maps, cluster information tables, and emergence maps to provide information on research hotspots and their evolution. [Results] From 2011 to 2020, the number of SCI-indexed papers from 31 provincial CDCs was 8 420 (including co-affiliation), of which 2 060 papers listed provincial CDCs as the first affiliation. The provincial CDCs of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong, and Guangdong were the leading six institutes in terms of the total number of SCI-indexed papers contributed as co-affiliation or the first affiliation. There was a large gap in the total number of SCI-indexed papers among the provincial CDCs. The highest total number of SCI-indexed papers contributed by provincial CDCs as the first affiliation was Zhejiang CDC (448 papers), while the lowest number was Xinjiang CDC (only 1 paper). From 2011 to 2020, the total number of SCI-indexed papers contributed by the 31 provincial CDCs as the first affiliation showed an overall increasing trend. Except for 2011, which was 63.1%, the funding rates in other years exceeded 70%. In terms of high-frequency authors, 13 first authors published >=10 SCI-indexed papers: Zhang Yingxiu from Shandong CDC had the highest number of SCI-indexed papers (47), followed by Hu Yu from Zhejiang CDC. Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Shandong still ranked the top six of >=4 first authored-SCI papers. In terms of journal characteristics, the top 20 journals with the highest number of SCI papers published a total of 862 papers, accounting for 41.8% (862/2 060), and PLOS ONE ranked the first (188 papers). The research hotspots were mainly concentrated in the fields of infection, child health, and epidemiology. The main keywords of the first three cluster categories were related to the research fields of adolescent overweight and obesity, HIV, and vaccine immunity. The results of keyword emergence showed that research hotspots shifted from overweight, obesity, and body mass index to antibodies, vaccines/vaccination, and cohorts. [Conclusion] The past ten years have witnessed increasing numbers of SCI-indexed papers published by provincial CDCs in our country and a stubbornly high funding rate. However, the gap among the provincial CDCs is still large seeing that economically developed eastern provincial CDCs published more SCI-indexed papers. Research hotspots have gradually shifted from overweight, obesity, and body mass index to antibodies, vaccines/vaccination, and cohorts.Copyright © 022 Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All rights reserved.

18.
Journal of Men's Health ; 19(3):38-46, 2023.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2322385

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed the relationship of physical activity levels with walking ability and fall-related fitness in older adults in the Henan Provence, China. Physical activity levels of 288 older adults were assessed using the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The participants were divided into low (LPAG, n = 81), moderate (MPAG, n = 106), and high physical activity groups (HPAG, n = 101). The 10-m walking test (10MWT), 3-m backward walking (3MBW), and Berg Balance Scale (BBS) were used to evaluate walking ability. Thirty seconds Sit to Stand Test (30SST), Time up and Go Test (TUGT), and figure-of-8 walk test (8WT) were evaluated for fall-related fitness. One-way ANOVA was used to detect between group differences, whilst Pearson's correlation was used to evaluate the relationship between total physical activity level and the measured variables. Logistic regression analyses were used to compute the odds ratios (ORs) of LPAG and MPAG relative to HPAG. There were significant differences between the groups for walking ability, 10MWT (p < 0.01), 3MBW, and BBS (p < 0.01), and also for variables of fall-related fitness, TUGT (p < 0.01), and 8WT (p < 0.01). Total physical activity levels had significant correlations with all variables except 30SST. In the walking ability, OR for 10MWT was 2.42 and 2.53 times for the LPAG compared to that for HPAG by model 1 and model 2. OR for BBS was 3.24 and 3.54 times for the LPAG and 9.31 and 9.65 times for the MPAG compared to for the HPAG by model 1 and model 2. In the fall-related fitness, OR for 8WT was 14.09 and 16.76 times for the LPAG compared to that for HPAG. High levels of physical activity are positively correlated with good walking ability and fall-related fitness. Increasing physical activity levels can reduce the risks associated with impaired walking ability and fall-related fitness.Copyright ©2023 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.

19.
Education 3-13 ; : 1-14, 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2322384

ABSTRACT

Anchored in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study investigated the remote and hybrid teaching experiences of seven early childhood teachers (teaching preschool-1st grade) during the 2020-2021 school year amidst COVID-19 in the United States. They were all female (Age = 33-54 years, M = 44 years). Each teacher was interviewed for 30-60 min (M = 40 min) virtually via Zoom. Thematic analysis of the data revealed three main themes linked to teaching demands: (1) the challenge of implementing developmentally appropriate practice effectively, (2) the difficulty of managing the increased teaching workload, and (3) the barriers to promoting student engagement. It also highlighted two salient themes related to teaching resources: (1) institutional support, and (2) emotional support from the students' parents. Embedded within institutional support, there were two distinct types: (1) vertical support, referring to the professional and emotional support from education leaders, and (2) horizontal support, referring to the instrumental and emotional support from fellow teachers.

20.
Journal of Alloys and Compounds ; 952, 2023.
Article in English | Web of Science | ID: covidwho-2327350

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we reported on the lattice distortion, surface morphologies, vacancy defects and electrochemical performance that had been observed in Na3V2(PO4)2F3 prepared at different annealing temperatures. X-ray diffraction indicated that all the samples were single phase materials with tetragonal structure and exhibited lattice distortion with the increase of annealing temperatures. A possible mechanism causing the strain-induced lattice distortion had been discussed. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy and positron annihilation techniques were used to study the grain size and vacancy defects as a function of annealing temperatures. The superior electrochemical performance of Na3V2(PO4)2F3 electrode was obtained at the annealing temperature of 350 degrees C with 167.73 F center dot g-1 specific capacitance and 85% capacitance retention. The better electrochemical performance was due to the synergistic effects of grain size and vacancy defect regulated by the annealing temperatures. These results could provide experimental basis for enhancing electrochemical performance of Na3V2(PO4)2F3 in sodium-ion battery area applications. (c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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