Souvenir Purchase Motivations and Product Attribute Preferences among Arts and Design Students amidst Covid-19

Despite the onslaught of COVID-19, people still travel and tourism can only thrive further upon its end. Souvenir shopping has long been integral to the tourism business and one’s travel experience. This quantitative non-experimental descriptive correlational study aimed to determine the relationship between souvenir purchase motivations and product attribute preferences among the randomly selected 50 Grade 12 Arts and Design students in the University of San Carlos South Campus for the school year 2021-2022. Two standardized and reliable Likert-type survey tools were used to collect data. Results revealed that students acquire souvenirs for a variety of reasons before making their decision. Students also valued the portability, aesthetic value, and authenticity of an item when looking for a souvenir. Researchers found out that there is a high positive correlation between souvenir purchase motivations and product attribute preferences and the relationship between the two variables is found to be significant, r (48) = 0.547, p < 0.05. This means that students who go on trips have distinct motivations and it affects their decision-making towards purchasing souvenir items. This study recommends that the variables be tested in more settings post-pandemic, as travel restrictions ease worldwide

Sun stanshe

Розглянута структура фотоелектричної станції середньої потужності з можливістю передачі енергії в промислову мережу. Запропоновані рішення для спрощення схемотехніки перетворювальної частини сонячної станції, спрямовані на зниження її собівартості. Проведено експериментальні дослідження особливостей функціонування сонячної станції. Розглянуто можливі аварійні режими роботи сонячної станції та надано рекомендації щодо їх усунення. Проведено аналіз експериментальних досліджень і на їх основі запропоновано шляхи підвищення ККД станції.The structure of a small-scale photovoltaic station, which can be used on single structures, is considered. At the same time, it is desirable to have a backup the battery on accumulators for reliable power supply and to be connected to the industrial network. Thus, the structure of the photovoltaic station, which has the ability to accumulate energy in the battery on accumulators and transfer the remnants to the industrial network, using it as a reservoir of infinite capacity, is proposed. The influence on the production of electricity from the photovoltaic station is shown due to the unevenness of the illumination of the surface of the solar panels

Morbidity and mortality in premature or low birth weight patients with congenital heart disease in three European pediatric heart centers between 2016 and 2020

Background: The treatment of preterm and low birth weight (LBW) neonates born with congenital heart disease (CHD) requiring early cardiac intervention remains challenging. We aimed to analyze morbidity and mortality in this combined high-risk patient group. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of preterm [<37 weeks gestational age (GA)] and/or LBW neonates (<2,500 g) born with a diagnosis of CHD, which requires invasive cardiac intervention (surgery or catheter) within their first year of life. Patients born between 2016 and 2020 and treated in three European pediatric heart centers were included. Results: A total of 308 neonates (51% male) with CHD were included. Of those, 237 (77%) were born preterm, 259 (84%) were LBW, and 188 (61%) were both. The median GA was 35.4 weeks (interquartile range 33.3–36.9) and the mean birth weight was 2,016 ± 580 g. CHD was categorized as simple (12%), moderate (64%), or severe (24%). The overall complication rate was 45% and was highest in patients with severe CHD (p = 0.002). One-year mortality (19%) was associated with severe CHD, low relative birth weight in patients with genetic diagnoses, and low GA at birth, whereas GA at birth significantly impacted survival only after 3 months of life. Conclusions: The high morbidity and mortality in preterm and LBW neonates with CHD reflect their complexity and consequent limited treatment feasibility

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

The more negative the more impact : evidence from nationally representative data on the relation between domain satisfactions and general life satisfaction

The present research investigates the relation between different domain satisfactions (e.g., health, income, etc.) and overall life satisfaction. Based on theorizing on the differences between positive and negative information, we assumed that specific domain satisfactions particularly are correlated with overall life satisfaction when the specific domain satisfactions (a) are low rather than high and (b) have declined rather than increased. Relying on a nationally representative sample of the German population (Socio-Economic Panel), we tested these considerations with both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal design. The findings strongly support that the more negative the domain satisfaction the more pronounced was the relation between domain and overall life satisfaction – both when negativity was assessed relative to other domains as well as when negativity was assessed relative to prior satisfaction with the same domain