A study on the relationship between emotional intelligence, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior

This paper presents a casual structure model between emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior by using organizational commitment as mediator variable. The study is accomplished among 324 employees of united bus company in city of Tehran, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study has confirmed that emotional intelligence influenced on organizational citizenship behavior and commitment. The study also confirms that organizational commitment influenced on organizational citizenship behavior. Finally, the study has confirmed that there were significant relationships between emotional intelligence and its dimensions with organizational citizenship behavior and organizational commitment of employees

The effect of spiritual–religious psychotherapy on enhancing quality of life and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression among the elderly

سابقه و هدف: دوره‌ی سالمندی با چالش‌ها و تنش‌های متنوع و متعددی همراه است که می‌تواند کیفیت زندگی مرتبط با سلامت سالمندان را تحت تأثیر قرار دهد. هدف از این پژوهش بررسی اثربخشی روان‌درمانی معنوی - مذهبی بر افزایش کیفیت زندگی، کاهش اضطراب و افسردگی سالمندان است. روش کار: پژوهش حاضر ازنوع کارآزمایی بالینی با گروه دریافت‌کننده‌ی مداخله‌ی مبتنی بر روان‌درمانی معنوی - مذهبی (آزمایش) و گروه بدون درمان (کنترل) است. در این پژوهش از طرح شبه‌آزمایشی پیش‌آزمون - پس‌آزمون با گمارش تصادفی استفاده شده است. بدین صورت که 40 سالمند (29 مرد و 11 زن) به‌صورت تصادفی انتخاب شدند و در گروه‌های آزمایش (20 نفر) و کنترل (20 نفر) قرار گرفتند. شرکت‌کنندگان در گروه آزمایش 12 جلسه (هر جلسه 90 دقیقه) روان‌درمانی معنوی و مذهبی دریافت کردند. ابزار گردآوری داده‌ها در این پژوهش عبارت است از: پرسش‌نامه‌های کیفیت زندگی و اضطراب و نیز پرسش‌نامه‌ی افسردگی بک. داده‌های به‌دست‌آمده با استفاده از روش‌های آمار توصیفی و استنباطی (تحلیل کوواریانس) تحلیل شد. در این پژوهش همه‌ی موارد اخلاقی رعایت شده است. علاوه‌براین، نویسندگان مقاله هیچ‌گونه تضاد منافعی گزارش نکرده‌اند. یافته‌ها: نتایج این پژوهش نشان داد که روان‌درمانی معنوی - مذهبی بر افزایش کیفیت زندگی و کاهش اضطراب و افسردگی سالمندان تأثیر معناداری داشت. میزان تأثیر گروه آزمایش (معنادار بودن عملی) بر متغیّر کیفیت زندگی در مؤلفه­های فیزیکی و روانی به‌ترتیب 25/0 و 81/0 بود. همچنین 60 درصد تغییرات در متغیّر افسردگی و 54 درصد در نمره‌های اضطراب مربوط به مداخله‌ی معنوی - مذهبی بود. نتیجه‌گیری: سالمندان با بحران‌های روحی و جسمی بسیاری روبه‌رو هستند که به کاهش کیفیت زندگی و افزایش علائم روان‌شناختی در آنان منجر می‌شود. در این مرحله از زندگی راهبردهای معنوی و مذهبی می‌تواند موجب افزایش بهداشت روان آنان شود. استناد مقاله به این صورت است: AskariM, MohammadiH, RadmehrH, JahangirAH. The effect of spiritual–religious psychotherapy on enhancing quality of life and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression among the elderly. J Res Relig Health. 2018; 4(2): 29- 41.  Background and Objective: Aging is associated with a variety of challenges and tensions which could possibly affect life quality of older people. This study was conducted to examine the effect of spiritual–religious psychotherapy on enhancing quality of life and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression among the elderly. Method: The current study was a clinical trial including a treatment group which was exposed to spiritual-religious psychotherapy and a control group. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was adopted in the study, with the participants being randomly assigned to either of the groups. More specifically, the sample of the study consisted of 40 (men= 29 and women= 11) old people who were selected through random sampling method. Half of them (n=20) were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the rest were assigned to the control group (n=20). Participants in the experimental group received treatment of spiritual–religious psychotherapy for 12 sessions (each 90 minutes). Data collection instruments included Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Short-Form health survey questionnaire (SF-36). The data were analyzed through utilizing descriptive and inferential (analysis of covariance/ANVOCA) procedures. All ethical issues were observed in the study and the authors declared no conflict of interests. Results: The results showed that spiritual–religious psychotherapy has a significant effect on increasing life quality and reducing anxiety and depression in the elderly. The effect size of experimental group on life quality among physical and mental variables was 0.25 and 0.81, respectively. Further, 60 percent of changes in depression and 54 percent of anxiety were related to the spiritual–religious intervention. Conclusion: Elderly are facing several physical and emotional crises that lead to reduced quality of life and more psychological symptoms. At this stage of life, religious and spiritual strategies can improve the elderly’s mental health.   Please cite this article as: AskariM, MohammadiH, RadmehrH, JahangirAH. The effect of spiritual–religious psychotherapy on enhancing quality of life and reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression among the elderly. J Res Relig Health. 2018; 4(2): 29- 41

Investigating of drying kinetics and mathematical modeling of turnip

The drying process of turnip and drying rate curves were investigated at different temperatures (55, 70 and 85°C) with air flow rate of 1.5 m/s.  Also effective diffusion coefficient and activation energy were calculated by using Arrhenius equation and Fick’s second law for infinite slab.  The effective diffusivity varied between 5.471×10-10 and 8.966×10-10 in the range of (55°C to 85°C).  The value of activation energy was found to be 16.013 kJ/mol.  The mathematical models (Newton, Page, Modified Page, Henderson and Pabis, Logarithmic, Two term, Two term exponential, Wang and Singh, Simplified Fick’s diffusion, Modified Page –II, Verma, Midilli–Kucuk, Hii, Law and Cloke, Approximation of diffusion, Modified Henderson and Pabis) were fitted to the experimental data.  Sigmaplot v10.0 software was used to find the best model for evaluating the rate of moisture change.  Decency of fit by these models was based on comparing the coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square (χ2), mean bias error (MBE) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the observed and predicted variables.  Among 15 evaluated models, Modified Henderson and Pabis in 85°C and Hii, Law and Cloke in 55°C and 70°C with highest R2 and lowest MBE, χ2 and RMSE were selected to better estimate the drying curves.Keywords: Turnip, hot air convective drying, modeling, drying rate, effective diffusivity, activation energ

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Type Inference of Turbo Pascal

Type inference is generally thought of as being an exclusive property of the functional programming paradigm. We argue that such a feature may be of significant benefit for also standard imperative languages. We present a working tool (available by WWW) providing these benefits for a full version of Turbo Pascal. It has the form of a preprocessor that analyzes programs in which the type annotations are only partial or even absent. The resulting program has full type annotations, will be accepted by the standard Turbo Pascal compiler, and has polymorphic use of procedures resolved by means of code expansion