Work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict and their relation to perceived parenting and the parent-child relationship before and during the first Covid-19 lockdown

Objective: Our objective is twofold: First, to examine whether, to what extent and for whom (by sex and educational attainment) work-to-family conflict (W→F-conflict) and family-to-work conflict (F→W-conflict) increased from the pre-Covid-19 period to the first lockdown period. Second, to examine whether and to what extent the negative associations between W→F-conflict/F→W-conflict and perceived parenting (positive encouragement, coercive parenting and the parent-child relationship) became stronger. Background: During the first Covid-19 lockdown, parents were asked to provide childcare and home-schooling for their children while also being expected to fulfil their work obligations. Under these circumstances, this study was set out to examine how W→F-conflict/F→W-conflict, perceived parenting and their associations were affected. Method: Multilevel regression models were applied to longitudinal data collected among 55 employed mothers and 76 employed fathers with a 3-year-old child at wave 1. Results: We found that F→W-conflict/W→F-conflict increased most strongly among highly educated mothers, followed by lower/medium educated mothers and highly educated fathers, while no increase or even a decrease was observed among lower/medium educated fathers. We found some associations between W→F-conflict/F→W-conflict with perceived parenting, but these did not consistently become stronger during the Covid-19 wave. Although overall heightened levels of conflict did not strongly spill over to mothers’ and fathers’ perceived parenting, our results showed that for some parents conflict clearly increased with negative implications for their perceived parenting. Conclusion: With some noteworthy exceptions, increases in F→W-conflict/W→F-conflict did not coincide with decreases in perceived parenting, indicating that most parents did not let increased conflict between work and family affect their parenting.

The Effect of Recycled HDPE Plastic Additions on Concrete Performance

This study examined HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic waste as an added material for concrete mixtures. The selection of HDPE was based on its increased strength, hardness, and resistance to high temperatures compared with other plastics. It focused on how HDPE plastic can be used as an additive in concrete to increase its tensile strength and compressive strength. 156 specimens were used to identify the effect of adding different percentages and sizes of HDPE lamellar particles to lower, medium, and higher strength concrete for non-structural applications. HDPE 0.5 mm thick lamellar particles with sizes of 10 × 10 mm, 5 × 20 mm, and 2.5 × 40 mm were added at 2.5%, 5%, 10%, and 20% by weight of cement. The results showed that the medium concrete class (with compressive strength equal to 10 MPa) had the best response to the addition of HDPE. The 5% HDPE addition represented the optimal mix for all concrete types, while the 5 × 20 mm size was best.

Work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict and their relation to perceived parenting and parent-child relationship before and during the Covid-19 lockdown

Objective: Our objective is twofold: First, to examine whether, to what extent and for whom (by sex and educational attainment) work-to-family conflict (W→F-conflict) and family-to-work conflict (F→W-conflict) increased from the pre-Covid-19 period to the lockdown period. Second, to examine whether, to what extent and for whom the associations between W→F-conflict/F→W-conflict and perceived parenting (positive encouragement, coercive parenting and parent-child relationship) became stronger.Background: During the Covid-19 lockdown, parents were asked to provide childcare and home-schooling for their children while also being expected to fulfil their work obligations. Under these circumstances, this study was set out to examine how W→F-conflict/F→W-conflict, perceived parenting and their association were affected.Method: Multilevel regression models were applied to longitudinal data collected among 59 employed mothers and 77 employed fathers with a 3-year-old child.Results: We found that F→W-conflict/W→F-conflict increased most strongly among highly educated mothers, followed by lower/medium educated mothers and highly educated fathers, while no increase or even a decrease was observed among lower/medium educated fathers. We found some associations between W→F-conflict/F→W-conflict with perceived parenting, but these were not consistent for fathers nor mothers, nor across waves. Although overall heightened levels of conflict did strongly not spill-over to mothers’ and fathers’ perceived parenting, our results showed that for some parents, in particular those with high working hours, conflict clearly increased with negative implications for their perceived parenting.Conclusion: With some noteworthy exceptions, increases in F→W-conflict/W→F-conflict did not coincide with decreases in perceived parenting, indicating that most parents did not let increased conflict between work and family affect their parenting.

Orthogonal electrical cardioversion in atrial fibrillation refractory to biphasic shocks: a case series

Background Biphasic waveform shock has been established as the standard method for cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF). Depending on various factors, standard electrical cardioversion for AF may be unsuccessful in some cases, even with biphasic shocks. Case summary We report the safety and efficacy of orthogonal electrical cardioversion (OECV) as an alternative in patients with paroxysmal AF refractory to standard biphasic electrical cardioversion after up to three subsequent shocks of increasing energy and/or two or three initial shocks with maximum energy of 200-Joules. Shocks were delivered with two external defibrillators via two sets of adhesive electrode pads to apply two perpendicular electrical vectors in a simultaneous-sequential mode in antero-lateral and antero-posterior configuration. Five patients, mean age 54.4 ± 11, three with hypertensive heart disease and a body mass index 27.2 ± 2 kg/m2. All individual mean impedance before OECV was 79 ± 5 Ω with a mean peak current applied of 22 ± 4.5 A. Restoration of sinus rhythm with OECV was achieved acutely and sustained in all five patients. No patients developed haemodynamic instability or thromboembolic events. Discussion Double simultaneous shocks in an orthogonal configuration could theoretically decrease the defibrillation threshold through the ability of sequential pulses applying a more efficient and uniform current density. OECV using lower/medium energy may be another useful rescue strategy in AF refractory to standard biphasic shocks.

Estimation of the Water Balance and Length of Growing Period under Gumla District of Jharkhand for Efficient Crop Planning

Present study was conducted for Gumla district of Jharkhand at block level which experiences a humid sub-tropical climate with an average rainfall of 1100 mm annually. In spite of receiving 85% of rainfall during the monsoon season the agricultural production and productivity in the district is quite low due to improper utilization of available moisture during the cropping season. Based on the weekly, annual rainfall and Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) data of 17 years (2000-2016), the length of the growing period (LGP) and water balance was worked out for the district and suitable crop plans were suggested. The length of the growing period was observed to be 21 weeks for most of the blocks of Gumla district under Uplandand an average of 25 weeks under upper medium land situation (Don III).Under lower medium land situation (Don II), length of growing period was of 28-29 weeks for all blocks except Basia, Kamdara and Sisai and low land situation (Don I), possessed 29 weeks of LGP at all blocks whereas it was one week more for Raidih and a week less for Basia and Kamdara.In Basia and Kamdara the water surplus is almost negligible under Upland and Don III land situation and very little water can be harvested from Don II and Don I. Maximum surplus water was observed in Raidih followed by Palkot and can be harvested more water from all land situations. Only short duration varieties of different crop and low water requiring crops like maize and pigeon pea are suitable for Basia as well as Kamdara blocks.

Bioanalytical LC-MS/MS method for Determination and comparison of Selexipag Assay in various Biological materials and its Application to Pharmacokinetics Studies in Rat plasma

A rapid, sensitive and selective bioanalytical method was developed and validated by Liquid Chromatography - Mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for determination and comparison of Selexipag% assay in various biological materials. Selexipag wasextractedand compared its % assay after protein precipitation technique from various biological materials such as rat plasma, rabbit plasma, human plasma and urine. Ambrisentan was selected as internal standard. Selected analytical column Waters, X-Bridge C18 3.5µ (50 x 4.6 mm), mobile phase consists of Hexane sulfonic acid and Acetonitrile (80:20 v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL /minin isocratic modeand Selexipag was determined by the +ve mode of electrospray ionization by using Mass detector. The method was developed to assess the lowerlimit of detection (LLOD)(0.5 ng/mL), lower limit of quantification(LLOQ) (5 ng/mL) concentrations and Linearity range of 1 ng/mL to 20 ng/mLconcentration with regression correlation coefficient 0.999 were observed for Selexipag in Rat plasma. The test samples at lower, medium and higher concentrationsof Selexipag shows precision (% CV was 0.8 to 1.11) and accuracy results (97.3 % to 100.6%) for inter-day and intra-day analysis at0.5, 5, 10, 15 ng/mL concentrationsof Selexipag. Appreciable recoveries for Selexipag were observed when extracted in Rat plasma compared with other biological materials. Stability of Selexipag exists in all conditions like wet extract, bench top, freeze-thaw and in instrument auto sampler as per FDA guidelines. This method indicates good results of accuracy, precision, linearity, recovery, stability and pharmacokinetic studies in rat plasma for clinical trials.

Variability of harvest loss in relation to physiological characteristics of cotton

Pearson's correlation and spatial variability are tools that can be used to help one understand the process of losses in the mechanical harvesting of cotton. Therefore, the objective of this study was to model the spatial distribution and map the losses of mechanical cotton harvest using geostatistics and to correlate the losses with agronomic variables using Pearson’s correlation. The experiment was conducted in Itiquira and Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. At each sampling point, the evaluated variables were agronomic plant variables and cotton losses in the soil and the plant (divided into lower, medium and upper thirds) and the sum total of losses. The highest losses in cotton harvest occurred in the lower third and on the soil, both of which exhibit a spatial dependence model, according to geostatistics, demonstrating that they do not occur in a randomized process and are related to the specific plant. There was a relationship between the plant populations with losses in the cotton crop. The plant population can influence the spatial dependence of losses.

Examining teachers' disposition towards sustainable education through discriminant analysis

This research aimed at predicting teachers' disposition to sustainable education from their views regarding the evaluation of curricula and student-centred teaching methods. The attempt was made to develop a convenient discriminant function for placement of teachers in lower, medium and higher levels of disposition to sustainable education. It is a quantitative research conducted on social studies teachers teaching at secondary schools in the central district of Sivas province of Turkey. It was found out that the variables such as perception regarding the evaluation of curricula and attitude towards student-centred teaching methods proved to be statistically significant in distinguishing teachers' attitudes regarding sustainable education by looking at their disposition in this regard. As a conclusion, the discriminant function generated here could provide an accurate classification percentage of 68.7% above the relative chance criterion.