Spirituality, moral conviction, and prosocial rule-breaking in healthcare

This study investigated the effect of healthcare professionals’ workplace spirituality (WPS) on moral conviction and prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB). The data were collected from 315 healthcare professionals from three main districts of South Punjab, Pakistan. We determined the measures’ validity using confirmatory factor analysis. We investigated the hypothesized relationships using structural regression modeling. The results demonstrated a significant effect of WPS on PSRB and moral conviction. However, the mediating effect of moral conviction between WPS and PSRB was insignificant. Healthcare professionals may regulate PSRB by screening and promoting individuals with high WPS to positions requiring a high level of PSRB rather than considering health service providers’ personal moral beliefs

Amelioration of Cr (VI) into Cr (III) by Some Heavy Metal Resistant Bacterial Strains Isolated from Naran Valley

Total thirty-two strains were isolated from both water and soil samples collected from Naran Valley which is surrounded by the rugged mountains, located in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Streak plate method was used to screen the bacterial strains for resistance against selected heavy metals like chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn). Resistance against multiple heavy metals was shown by all the strains, but S15 and W15 were significant as they exhibited a maximum resistance to chromium and copper (1200 µg/ml). These strains also presented multiple antibiotic (ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and erythromycin) resistance patterns. Bacterial strain W15 exhibited 90 % whereas, S15 exhibited 80 % chromium removal at an initial concentration of 800 µg/ml of chromate within 48 h of incubation. Inductive enzyme activity was shown by both the strains. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of strains S15 and W15 revealed the homology with Microbacterium sp. and Pseudomonas sp., respectively. These two multiple metal resistant strains can be further exploited for the remediation of metal polluted sites

Espiritualidade, convicção moral e quebra de regras pró-sociais na área da saúde

This study investigated the effect of healthcare professionals’ workplace spirituality (WPS) on moral conviction and prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB). The data were collected from 315 healthcare professio­nals from three main districts of South Punjab, Pakistan. We determined the measures’ validity using confirmatory factor analysis. We investigated the hypothesized relationships using structural regression modeling. The results demonstrated a significant effect of WPS on PSRB and moral conviction. However, the mediating effect of moral conviction between WPS and PSRB was insignificant. Healthcare professio­nals may regulate PSRB by screening and promoting individuals with high WPS to positions requiring a high level of PSRB rather than considering health service providers’ personal moral beliefs.Este estudo investigou o efeito da espiritualidade no local de trabalho dos profissionais de saúde sobre a convicção moral e quebra de regras pró-sociais. Os dados foram coletados de 315 profissionais de saúde dos três distritos principais de South Punjab, Paquistão. A validade das medidas foi determinada por meio de análise fatorial confirmatória. As relações hipotéticas foram investigadas usando modela­gem de regressão estrutural (SEM). Os resultados demonstraram que o efeito da espiritualidade no local de trabalho na quebra de regras pró-sociais e na convicção moral foi significativo. No entanto, o efeito mediador da convicção moral entre espiritualidade no local de trabalho e quebra de regras pró-sociais não foi significativo. Os profissionais de saúde podem regulamentar a quebra de regras pró-sociais, classificando e promovendo os indivíduos com uma elevada espiritualidade no local de trabalho para as posições que exigem alto nível de quebra de regras pró-sociais, em vez de considerar as crenças morais pessoais dos provedores de serviços de saúde.Este estudio investigó el efecto de la espiritualidad del lugar de trabajo de profesionales de salud sobre la convicción moral y la ruptura de reglas prosociales. Se recolectaron datos de 315 profesionales de salud de tres distritos de Pakistán. La validez de las medidas se determinó mediante el análisis factorial confirmatorio. Las relaciones hipotéticas se investigaron usando modelos de regresión estructural. Los resultados demostraron que el efecto de la espiritualidad en el lugar de trabajo sobre la ruptura de reglas prosociales y la convicción moral fue significativo, aunque el efecto mediador de la convicción moral entre la espiritualidad del lugar de trabajo y la ruptura de reglas prosociales no fue significativo. Los profesionales de salud pueden regular infracciones prosociales mediante el examen y promoción de personas con alta espiritualidad en el lugar de trabajo a puestos que requieran un alto nivel de ruptura prosocial en lugar de considerar creencias morales personales de los proveedores de servicios de salud

Distributed Optimization With Improved Dynamic Performance for Multiagent Systems

Dynamic coverage is one of the fundamental problems in multi-agent systems (MASs), and is related to optimal placement of nodes to observe a physical space. In a typical coverage problem, a set of targets are required to be monitored. The problem becomes more challenging when the targets are allowed to move as well. Efficient coverage control by mobile agents in a specific area poses many challenges, such as optimal coverage of all targets, dynamic redeployment of agents as targets change their location, trajectory control of each agent during redeployment and determining the number of mobile agents to cover specific targets. In particular, for dynamic coverage problems, agents are deployed to provide coverage to the mobile targets and the agents dynamically redeploy themselves in such a way that they provide maximum coverage to targets not only when they are stationary but also when they are in motion. In many scenarios, such as disaster recovery or public event coverage, dynamic behavior of agents to reach to the next optimal position, plays an important role in determining the performance of the system. In this paper, we propose an augmented Lagrangian based algorithm, which provides a mechanism to control the trajectory of agents to reach the optimal position. By adjusting the gain parameters of the proposed algorithm, we achieve negligible overshoot in response to fast dynamics that is not possible by using conventional Lagrangian. Also, the proposed algorithm is close to the optimal trajectory. Thus, by using the proposed algorithm, we can improve the dynamic performance without compromising the optimal deployment of the agents. The numerical evaluation results show significant improvement in dynamic performance for an example scenario of an MAS