The Relationship between Personality Factors and Organizational Commitment of Iranian Primary School Principals

This study was conducted with the aim to study the relationship between personality factors and organizational commitment among a group of Iranian primary school principals. The sample included all the 108 primary school principals of Ardabil, a northern city of Iran. The study drew on a descriptive correlational research design. The research instruments consisted of The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Meyer & Alen, 1991).The data were analyzed through Pearson and Spearman correlations, Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between the personality factor of emotional stability and organizational commitment. In addition, there were negative significant relationships between the personality factors of self-assured, conservative and group-dependent and organizational commitment. However, no other personality factor was significantly correlated with organizational commitment. Moreover, no significant difference was found between male and female principals regarding their organizational commitment. As emotional stability was a significant predictor of organizational commitment and organizational commitment is associated with positive working outputs, it is highly suggested that organizations pay special attention to the personality features of the human resources for employment

(3-Amino­phen­yl)diphenyl­phosphine oxide–2-propanol (1/1)

The title compound, C18H16NOP·C3H8O, was synthesized by the reduction of (3-nitro­phen­yl)diphenyl­phosphine oxide in the presence of 2-propanol as recrystallization solvent. There are two molecules in the asymmetric unit. Each P atom is tetra­coordinated by three C and one O atom from two phenyl fragments, one aniline group and one double-bonded O atom in a distorted tetra­hedral geometry. C—H⋯π and N—H⋯π inter­actions are present. In the crystal structure, a wide range of non-covalent inter­actions consisting of hydrogen bonding [of the types of O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O, with D⋯A distances ranging from 2.680 (3) to 3.478 (3) Å] and π–π [centroid–centroid distance of 3.7720 (15) Å] stacking inter­actions connect the various components into a supra­molecular structure

Comparison of acute effects of different resistance exercise protocols with and without blood flow restriction on selected hypertrophy-related hormones in competitive wrestlers

The study aimed to compare the acute effects of low resistance exercises with partial and complete blood flow restriction (BFR) and heavy resistance exercise on growth hormone (GH), myostatin, testosterone, and cortisol in competitive wrestlers. Forty elite wrestlers were randomly divided into four groups (n=10); low resistance training with complete BFR (LRT+CBFR), low resistance training with partial BFR (LRT+PBFR), low resistance training (LRT), and heavy resistance training (HRT). Blood samples were collected before and after the intervention, and a specific ELISA kit measured variables. Analysis of covariance and paired t-test was performed to analyze the data. There were no significant differences in the variables between the four interventions. Intra-group results showed a significant decrease in myostatin levels in the HRT group (p=0.02), and a significant increase in GH in the LRT+CBFR (p=0.02) and LRT+PBFR (p=0.03), testosterone in the HRT group (p=0.04) and cortisol in the three groups LRT+CBFR (p=0.02), LRT+PBFR (p=0.01) and HRT (p=0.04). Despite the similarity of the changes in the four interventions, due to the percentage of changes, it seems that low resistance training with BFR could produce similar anabolic effects to high-intensity resistance training

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

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

Measurement of consumed energy due to the two-phase pressure drop in a pulsed semi-industrial column: effect of geometry

This article deals with the evaluation of pressure drop and consumption of energy for a steady-state solvent extraction in a horizontal pulsed sieve-plate column, which are important for the design and optimization of the periodic-flow processes for industrial applications. In this study, the pressure drop and the position of loading points are investigated. Moreover, a mathematical evaluation on the energy consumption in the case of a pulsed flow is conducted, and besides the influence of pulsation intensity, the effect of geometrical parameters including the plate spacing and plate-free area is investigated as well. The results of this study are helpful for optimization of column geometry targeted to higher performance and lower energy consumption

The Relationship between Personality Factors and Organizational Commitment of Iranian Primary School Principals

This study was conducted with the aim of identfying to study the relationship between personality factors and organizational commitment among a group of Iranian primary school principals. The sample included all the 108 primary school principals of Ardabil, a northern city of Iran. The study drew on a descriptive correlational research design. The research instruments consisted of The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Meyer & Alen, 1991).The data were analyzed through Pearson and Spearman correlations, Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between the personality factor of emotional stability and organizational commitment. In addition, there were negative significant relationships between the personality factors of self -assured, conservative, group-dependent and organizational commitment. However, no other personality factor was significantly correlated with organizational commitment. Moreover, no significant difference was found between male and female principals regarding their organizational commitment. As emotional stability was a significant predictor of organizational commitment and organizational commitment is associated with positive working outputs, it is highly suggested that organizations pay special attention to the personality features of the human resources for employment

The Relationship of Sensation Seeking and Social Desirability With Humor Styles Among Iranian Salespersons

Given the different effects of adaptive and maladaptive humor on social interactions especially on workplaces, contradictory findings of sensation seeking for forming new relationships, and salespersons' tendency for being demanded and suitable for more sales, it is important to investigate how sensation seeking and social desirability along with background characteristics predict humor styles. The study sample included 150 Iranian salespersons selected through cluster sampling. The study had a correlation research design which drew on the three instruments of Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking (AISS), Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) and Humor Style Questionnaire (HSQ). The regression analysis findings showed that income level and gender were significant predictors of the humor style of affiliative. Additionally, only sensation seeking was found to be a significant predictor of self-enhancing. The humor style of aggressive was predicted by education level, gender, and social desirability. The humor style of self-defeating was also predicted by job experience, education level, gender and social desirability. It seems that personality traits such as sensation seeking along with social status can predict humor styles

Thermo-economic analysis and multi-objective optimization of absorption cooling system driven by various solar collectors

This research presents a combination of thermo-economic analysis and multi-objective optimization of a 10 kW single-effect ammonia-water solar absorption cooling system. A thermodynamic model is derived, and energy-exergy analyses are conducted. Also, the effects of various solar collector types including a flat plate, evacuated tube, compound parabolic, and parabolic trough collectors on the system performance are examined at different ambient temperatures. The thermodynamic analysis indicates that by increasing heat source temperature, the coefficient of performance and exergy efficiency of the system reach their highest values, while they occur in lower heat source temperature as the ambient temperature is decreased. The exergy efficiency is also found to decrease with the increment of evaporator, absorber, and condenser absorber temperatures. Furthermore, for determining the optimum operating conditions, a multi-objective optimization is performed by using an efficient particle swarm optimization technique with five objective functions. The corresponding results reveal that the solar absorption cooling system with evacuated tube collectors is the most economical solution with a total cost of 7.2 k€ and 24 m collector area. It is found that the parabolic trough collector system has the highest solar exergy efficiency of 0.046, which occurs at the high ambient temperature and low evaporator temperature. This system also has higher solar performance coefficient up to 0.447 indicating its great efficiency