Um estudo da relação causal de autonomia no trabalho, apoio social e intenção de rotatividade

Boredom at workplace is a negative well-being displayed by both blue and white collar employees who had lost their passion and value towards jobs under non stimulating working environment. Yet, there are limited studies in this area. Scholars had constantly associated boredom with negative working performance such as job dissatisfaction, high absenteeism, poor health condition and low organizational commitment. However, the association with turnover intention remains debatable. In Pakistan, the turnover intention among academicians of universities are in critical stage ever since year 2015. Although the Higher Education Commission Pakistan recognize the potential of private universities in supporting Pakistan to improve education in the countries, this issue remains unsolved which may jeopardize the success. Therefore, this study put forward the antecedents and consequence of boredom at workplace under a single model which includes the investigation of job autonomy, social support, and turnover intention among academicians. A quantitative study was conducted by obtaining data from 279 academicians working for 25 private universities in Lahore an Islamabad. The results showed that job autonomy was not significantly associated with turnover intention because job autonomy has no association with boredom at the first place. In contrast, social support was negatively associated with boredom which led to positive association with turnover intention. Moreover, the result confirmed the presence of boredom as mediator upon bootstrapping. It is suggested that private universities shall motivate academicians to actively participate in trainings, conferences, and seminars as the opportune time can be used to build good rapport among them.El aburrimiento en el lugar de trabajo es un bienestar negativo que muestran tanto los empleados de cuello azul como los de clase blanca que han perdido su pasión y valor hacia los empleos en un entorno laboral no estimulante. Sin embargo, hay estudios limitados en esta área. Los académicos han asociado constantemente el aburrimiento con el desempeño laboral negativo, como la insatisfacción laboral, el alto ausentismo, la mala condición de salud y el bajo compromiso organizacional. Sin embargo, la asociación con la intención de rotación sigue siendo discutible. En Pakistán, la intención de rotación entre los académicos de las universidades se encuentra en una etapa crítica desde el año 2015. Aunque la Comisión de Educación Superior de Pakistán reconoce el potencial de las universidades privadas para ayudar a Pakistán a mejorar la educación en los países, este problema sigue sin resolverse, lo que puede poner en peligro el éxito.. Por lo tanto, este estudio expuso los antecedentes y las consecuencias del aburrimiento en el lugar de trabajo bajo un modelo único que incluye la investigación de la autonomía laboral, el apoyo social y la intención de cambio entre los académicos. Se realizó un estudio cuantitativo mediante la obtención de datos de 279 académicos que trabajan en 25 universidades privadas en Lahore y Islamabad. Los resultados mostraron que la autonomía laboral no se asoció significativamente con la intención de la rotación, ya que la autonomía laboral no tiene ninguna asociación con el aburrimiento en primer lugar. En contraste, el apoyo social se asoció negativamente con el aburrimiento, lo que llevó a una asociación positiva con la intención de la rotación. Además, el resultado confirmó la presencia de aburrimiento como mediador en el arranque. Se sugiere que las universidades privadas motiven a los académicos a participar activamente en capacitaciones, conferencias y seminarios, ya que el momento oportuno se puede utilizar para establecer una buena relación entre ellos.O tédio no local de trabalho é um bem-estar negativo exibido por funcionários de colarinho azul e branco que perderam a paixão e o valor para empregos em ambiente de trabalho não estimulante. No entanto, existem estudos limitados nesta área. Os acadêmicos associaram constantemente o tédio ao desempenho negativo do trabalho, como insatisfação no trabalho, alto absenteísmo, condições de saúde precárias e baixo comprometimento organizacional. No entanto, a associação com a intenção de rotatividade continua a ser discutível. No Paquistão, a intenção de rotatividade entre acadêmicos de universidades está em fase crítica desde 2015. Embora a Comissão de Educação Superior do Paquistão reconheça o potencial das universidades privadas em apoiar o Paquistão para melhorar a educação nos países, esta questão permanece sem solução, o que pode comprometer o sucesso. Portanto, este estudo apresenta os antecedentes e conseqüências do tédio no local de trabalho sob um único modelo que inclui a investigação da autonomia do trabalho, apoio social e intenção de rotatividade entre os acadêmicos. Um estudo quantitativo foi realizado através da obtenção de dados de 279 acadêmicos que trabalham para 25 universidades privadas em Lahore e Islamabad. Os resultados mostraram que a autonomia do trabalho não estava significativamente associada à intenção de rotatividade, porque a autonomia do trabalho não tem nenhuma associação com o tédio em primeiro lugar. Em contraste, o apoio social foi negativamente associado ao tédio, o que levou a uma associação positiva com a intenção de rotatividade. Além disso, o resultado confirmou a presença do tédio como mediador no bootstrapping. Sugere-se que as universidades privadas motivem os acadêmicos a participar ativamente de treinamentos, conferências e seminários, já que o momento oportuno pode ser usado para construir um bom relacionamento entre eles

Effect of replacement therapy on clinical symptoms in patients with vitamin D deficiency

Background: 25(OH) D is an important component for human health. Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide problem. Previous epidemiological studies have shown the association of this deficiency with development of other chronic disease that also increase the morbidity. So early detection of deficiency helps to plan intervention and treatment to avoid morbidity. Objective: To evaluate the association of vitamin D deficiency in individuals suffering with chronic diseases and the effect of replacement therapy on the clinical symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. Method: This study analyzed a total of 115 patients visiting the Diabetes and Endocrine Research Centre. Factors such as age, gender, duration of sun exposure and body parts exposed to sunshine were studied. The data was recorded on a questionnaire performa. Patients with 25(OH) D levels below 30ng/ml were considered to have insufficient levels. 48 patients who agreed for treatment were given standard loading and maintenance dose of vitamin D. 31 Patients reported back after 3 months of maintenance dose treatment. Results: The mean age of patients was 47.82±13.86 years. Duration of sunshine exposure was significantly low with p-value of 0.005. In our study, 112/115(97.3%) patients were found to have 25(OH) D level below 30ng/ml and 41/115 (21.5%) were severely deficient. 48(41%) patients agreed for replacement therapy. However, only 31 reported back with vitamin D level. In comparison to pretreatment records, there was significant improvement in vitamin D levels after 3 months of treatment. There was improvement with symptoms such as lethargy which improved in 11/17, whereas depression and body aches improved in 12/19 and 16/26 patients respectively. Conclusion: It is important to recognize the deficiency of vitamin D level in patient suffering from chronic diseases in order to avoid other co morbidities. So, this study can help to make policy in future about which population needs to be screened and what preventive precautions can be taken

Neurokinin 1 receptor antagonist along with dexamethasone reduces the inflammation in COVID-19 patients: a novel therapeutic approach

Background: Corona virus infection is a respiratory infection, compromising the normal breathing in critical patients by damaging the lungs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of Substance P receptor Neurokinin 1 antagonist in COVID-19 patients against the usual treatments as controls.Methods: It is a two-arm, open-label, randomized clinical trial that was carried out at Bahria International Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. PCR-positive, hospitalized patients older than 18 years old, all sexes, and in the critical to life-threatening stage were included. 52 patients were placed in control group A and 67 patients were placed in intervention group B out of a total 119 patients who were randomly assigned to both arms. Before and after the intervention, lab tests were conducted in both groups. Aprepitant, a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist, was additionally administered to the other arm while the other arm got standard therapy and care. Additionally, both groups received oral administration of the corticosteroid dexamethasone.Results: Patients in group A were on average 56.05 years old, compared to 58.1 years old in group B. There were 24 women in group A and 28 in group B, while there were 28 men and 39 women in group A. Group A had three critical cases, but group B had six. The reduction in C-reactive protein in the intervention group, improvement in platelet count in group B, and normalization of ferritin and LDH levels in group B all indicated decreased inflammation in the biochemical and haematological parameters in both groups. However, because of the reduced sample size, it wasn't very significant.Conclusion: The results of this recent trial provide a solid indication of Aprepitant's medicinal potential. Patients who got a combined therapy of dexamethasone and aprepitant had better clinical results, more favourable lab results, and lower levels of C-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker

Familial hypercholesterolaemia in children and adolescents from 48 countries: a cross-sectional study

Background: Approximately 450 000 children are born with familial hypercholesterolaemia worldwide every year, yet only 2·1% of adults with familial hypercholesterolaemia were diagnosed before age 18 years via current diagnostic approaches, which are derived from observations in adults. We aimed to characterise children and adolescents with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (HeFH) and understand current approaches to the identification and management of familial hypercholesterolaemia to inform future public health strategies. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we assessed children and adolescents younger than 18 years with a clinical or genetic diagnosis of HeFH at the time of entry into the Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Studies Collaboration (FHSC) registry between Oct 1, 2015, and Jan 31, 2021. Data in the registry were collected from 55 regional or national registries in 48 countries. Diagnoses relying on self-reported history of familial hypercholesterolaemia and suspected secondary hypercholesterolaemia were excluded from the registry; people with untreated LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) of at least 13·0 mmol/L were excluded from this study. Data were assessed overall and by WHO region, World Bank country income status, age, diagnostic criteria, and index-case status. The main outcome of this study was to assess current identification and management of children and adolescents with familial hypercholesterolaemia. Findings: Of 63 093 individuals in the FHSC registry, 11 848 (18·8%) were children or adolescents younger than 18 years with HeFH and were included in this study; 5756 (50·2%) of 11 476 included individuals were female and 5720 (49·8%) were male. Sex data were missing for 372 (3·1%) of 11 848 individuals. Median age at registry entry was 9·6 years (IQR 5·8-13·2). 10 099 (89·9%) of 11 235 included individuals had a final genetically confirmed diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia and 1136 (10·1%) had a clinical diagnosis. Genetically confirmed diagnosis data or clinical diagnosis data were missing for 613 (5·2%) of 11 848 individuals. Genetic diagnosis was more common in children and adolescents from high-income countries (9427 [92·4%] of 10 202) than in children and adolescents from non-high-income countries (199 [48·0%] of 415). 3414 (31·6%) of 10 804 children or adolescents were index cases. Familial-hypercholesterolaemia-related physical signs, cardiovascular risk factors, and cardiovascular disease were uncommon, but were more common in non-high-income countries. 7557 (72·4%) of 10 428 included children or adolescents were not taking lipid-lowering medication (LLM) and had a median LDL-C of 5·00 mmol/L (IQR 4·05-6·08). Compared with genetic diagnosis, the use of unadapted clinical criteria intended for use in adults and reliant on more extreme phenotypes could result in 50-75% of children and adolescents with familial hypercholesterolaemia not being identified. Interpretation: Clinical characteristics observed in adults with familial hypercholesterolaemia are uncommon in children and adolescents with familial hypercholesterolaemia, hence detection in this age group relies on measurement of LDL-C and genetic confirmation. Where genetic testing is unavailable, increased availability and use of LDL-C measurements in the first few years of life could help reduce the current gap between prevalence and detection, enabling increased use of combination LLM to reach recommended LDL-C targets early in life

Augmenting generative adversarial networks for speech emotion recognition

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have shown potential in learning emotional attributes and generating new data samples. However, their performance is usually hindered by the unavailability of larger speech emotion recognition (SER) data. In this work, we propose a framework that utilises the mixup data augmentation scheme to augment the GAN in feature learning and generation. To show the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we present results for SER on (i) synthetic feature vectors, (ii) augmentation of the training data with synthetic features, (iii) encoded features in compressed representation. Our results show that the proposed framework can effectively learn compressed emotional representations as well as it can generate synthetic samples that help improve performance in within-corpus and cross-corpus evaluation