The Correlation between Islamic Lifestyle and Pregnancy-Specific Stress: A Cross-Sectional, Correlational Study

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy is associated with great psychological, emotional and physical stress. In addition to undergoing hormonal changes, pregnant women experience a change in their attitude toward life and learn to re-assess their skills and lifestyle. Lifestyle, in general, and Islamic lifestyle, in particular, is concerned with the different psychological, social and physical aspects of the individual’s life.AIM: This study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between Islamic lifestyle and pregnancy-specific stress in pregnant women.MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted on 300 pregnant women presenting to prenatal care clinics. Data were collected using a demographic, the Islamic lifestyle and the pregnancy-related stress questionnaires.RESULTS: The results showed a statistically significant negative correlation (r = -0.284) between Islamic lifestyle and pregnancy-specific stress (P < 0.01). The stepwise regression showed that the mean score obtained in the pregnancy-related stress questionnaire decreased by 0.75 per year of marriage and by 0.14 per point in the Islamic lifestyle questionnaire.CONCLUSION: There was a significant negative correlation between Islamic lifestyle and pregnancy-specific stress. Training mothers, raising their awareness and encouraging them to adopt an Islamic lifestyle may play a significant role in controlling pregnancy-specific stress

Rapid and Efficient One-Pot Green Synthesis of 12-Aryl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydrobenzo[<i>a</i>]xanthene-11-ones Using Zr-MCM-41 Catalyst

<div><p></p><p>A new green protocol has been developed for the synthesis of 12-aryl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydrobenzo[a]xanthen-11-ones via a three-component, one-pot condensation reaction of dimedone, naphthols, and aromatic aldehydes using Zr-MCM-41 nanoreactors as a reusable and novel catalyst at 80 °C under solvent-free conditions. Various aromatic aldehydes containing electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substituent at <i>ortho</i>-, <i>meta</i>-, or <i>para</i>-positions show equal effectiveness for product formation in good to excellent yields. Operational simplicity, mild reaction conditions, enhanced rates, environmental friendliness, high isolated yields of the pure products, and purification of products by nonchromatographic methods are significant advantages of the protocol presented here. The catalyst could be recycled and reused without a noticeably decrease in its activity.</p> </div

International pellet watch: Global monitoring of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in plastic resin pellets

International audiencePolybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were measured in plastic resin pellets collected from 65 beaches across 27 countries worldwide. They were detected at 49 locations at concentrations of the sum of 49 congeners of up to 46 ng/g-pellet and a median of 2 ng/g-pellet. These values are one to two orders of magnitude lower than those of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (median, 51 ng/g-pellet). This difference can be attributed to lower production of the Penta-BDE technical mixture, which is used extensively in some countries, and lower availability of brominated flame retardants for equilibrium partitioning than PCBs. Tetra-, penta-, and hexa-brominated congeners (BDE-47, 99, 100, 153, 154) were dominant over a deca-substituted congener (BDE-209) in many samples; this was significantly detected in pellets from some locations. Results indicate that pellets reflect the pollution status of PBDEs in the dissolved phase in seawater. From the ranking of the summed concentrations of six major PBDE congeners (Σ6PBDEs), we propose five levels of pollution categorization (ng/g-pellet): no (8.5) local pollution. The USA and neighboring countries were categorized as extreme (17–36 ng/g-pellet), western Europe and Japan were categorized as high (≤8.8), and most Asian and African countries were categorized as slight (<0.8). Notably, extreme or high pollution levels were also observed in countries with no history of PBDE production, such as Ghana (Σ6PBDEs up to 16 ng/g-pellet), the Philippines (7.5), and Hong Kong (7.7). Scrapped electrical and electronic waste might explain these anomalously high values