Knowledge and Attitudes of Young People toward Mental Illness: A Cross Sectional Study

The aim of the study was to investigate young Jordanians’ knowledge and attitudes toward people who have a mental illness. A cross sectional design was utilized. A convenient sample of 858 participants aged between 15–24 years old completed a survey. Participants under 19 years were accessed through their schools and those 19 years and above were accessed through universities. Results showed that although the majority of university and school students’ responses were generally consistent, they disagreed on 11 items on the survey; for example, 186 (39.3%) of university students agreed that mental illness has a biological origin compared with only 119 (30%) of school students. The majority of young people 737 (85.9%) were willing to learn and 792 (92.3%) felt that they have to help people with mental illness, which make them willing to learn. In conclusion, the findings provide insights for decision makers and researchers in Jordan about young peoples’ knowledge and attitudes toward mental illness. Increasing young adults’ literacy through introducing educational programs such as mental health first aid courses will enrich their knowledge; help change attitudes and reduce stigma toward people living with mental illness

Living income benchmarking of rural households in low-income countries

Open Access Article; Published online: 28 Sept 2020The extreme poverty line is the most commonly used benchmark for poverty, set at US$1.90 by the World Bank. Another benchmark, based on the Anker living wage methodology, is the remuneration received for a standard work week necessary for a worker to meet his/her family’s basic needs in a particular place. The living wage concept has been used extensively to address incomes of plantation workers producing agricultural commodities for international markets. More recently intense discussion has emerged concerning the ‘living income’ of smallholder farmers who produce commodities for international supply chains on their own land. In this article we propose a simple method that can be used in all types of development projects to benchmark a rural ‘living income’. We launch the Living Income Methodology, as adapted from the Living Wage Methodology, to estimate the living income for rural households. In any given location this requires about one week of fieldwork. We express it per adult equivalent per day (AE/day) and data collection is focused on rural households and their immediate surroundings. Our three case studies showed that in 2017 in Lushoto District, rural Tanzania, the living income was US$ PPP 4.04/AE/day, in Isingiro District, rural Uganda, 3.82 and in Sidama Zone, rural Ethiopia, 3.60. In all cases, the extreme poverty line of US$ PPP 1.90 per capita per day is insufficient to meet the basic human rights for a decent living in low-income countries. The Living Income Methodology provides a transparent local benchmark that can be used to assess development opportunities of rural households, by employers in rural areas, including farmers hiring in labour, while respecting basic human rights on a decent living. It can be used to reflect on progress of rural households in low-income countries on their aspired path out of poverty. It further provides a meaningful benchmark to measure progress on Sustainable Development Goal 1, eliminating poverty, and 2, zero hunger and sustainable food systems, allowing for consideration of the local context

Accounting for Endogeneity in Maintenance Decisions and Overlay Thickness in a Pavement-Roughness Deterioration Model

Pavement deterioration models are an important part of any pavement management system. Many of these models suffer from endogeneity bias because of the inclusion of independent variables correlated with unobserved factors, which are captured by the model's error terms. Examples of such endogenous variables include pavement overlay thickness and maintenance and rehabilitation activities, both of which are not randomly chosen but are in fact decision variables selected by pavement engineers based on field conditions. Inclusion of these variables in a pavement deterioration model can result in biased and inconsistent model parameter estimates, leading to incorrect insights. Previous research has shown that continuous endogenous variables, such as pavement overlay thickness, can be corrected using auxiliary models to replace the endogenous variable with an instrumented variable that has lower correlation with the unobserved error term. Discrete endogenous variables, such as the type of maintenance and rehabilitation activities, have been accounted for by modeling the likelihood of each potential outcome and developing individual deterioration models for each of the potential responses. This paper proposes an alternative approach to accommodate discrete endogenous variables-the selectivity correction method-that allows a single model to incorporate the impacts of all discrete choices. This approach is applied to develop a pavement-roughness progression model that incorporates both continuous and discrete endogenous variables using field data from Washington State. The result is a roughness progression model with consistent parameter estimates, which have more realistic values than those obtained in previous studies that used the same data

Polymer Flow Through Porous Media: Numerical Prediction of the Contribution of Slip to the Apparent Viscosity.

The flow of polymer solutions in porous media is often described using Darcy’s law with an apparent viscosity capturing the observed thinning or thickening effects. While the macroscale form is well accepted, the fundamentals of the pore-scale mechanisms, their link with the apparent viscosity, and their relative influence are still a matter of debate. Besides the complex effects associated with the rheology of the bulk fluid, the flow is also deeply influenced by the mechanisms occurring close to the solid/liquid interface, where polymer molecules can arrange and interact in a complex manner. In this paper, we focus on a repulsive mechanism, where polymer molecules are pushed away from the interface, yielding a so-called depletion layer in the vicinity of the wall. This depletion layer acts as a lubricating film that may be represented by an effective slip boundary condition. Here, our goal is to provide a simple mean to evaluate the contribution of this slip effect to the apparent viscosity. To do so, we solve the pore-scale flow numerically in idealized porous media with a slip length evaluated analytically in a tube. Besides its simplicity, the advantage of our approach is also that it captures relatively well the apparent viscosity obtained from core-flood experiments, using only a limited number of inputs. Therefore, it may be useful in many applications to rapidly estimate the influence of the depletion layer effect over the macroscale flow and its relative contribution compared to other phenomena, such as non-Newtonian effects

Comparative analysis of co-processed starches prepared by three different methods

Co-processing is currently of interest in the generation of high-functionality excipients for tablet formulation. In the present study, comparative analysis of the powder and tableting properties of three co-processed starches prepared by three different methods was carried out. The co-processed excipients consisting of maize starch (90%), acacia gum (7.5%) and colloidal silicon dioxide (2.5%) were prepared by co-dispersion (SAS-CD), co-fusion (SAS-CF) and co-granulation (SAS-CG). Powder properties of each co-processed excipient were characterized by measuring particle size, flow indices, particle density, dilution potential and lubricant sensitivity ratio. Heckel and Walker models were used to evaluate the compaction behaviour of the three co-processed starches. Tablets were produced with paracetamol as the model drug by direct compression on an eccentric Tablet Press fitted with 12 mm flat-faced punches and compressed at 216 MPa. The tablets were stored at room temperature for 24 h prior to evaluation. The results revealed that co-granulated co-processed excipient (SAS-CG) gave relatively better properties in terms of flow, compressibility, dilution potential, deformation, disintegration, crushing strength and friability. This study has shown that the method of co-processing influences the powder and tableting properties of the co-processed excipient

Comparative analysis of co-processed starches prepared by three different methods

Co-processing is currently of interest in the generation of high-functionality excipients for tablet formulation. In the present study, comparative analysis of the powder and tableting properties of three co-processed starches prepared by three different methods was carried out. The co-processed excipients consisting of maize starch (90%), acacia gum (7.5%) and colloidal silicon dioxide (2.5%) were prepared by co-dispersion (SAS-CD), co-fusion (SAS-CF) and co-granulation (SAS-CG). Powder properties of each co-processed excipient were characterized by measuring particle size, flow indices, particle density, dilution potential and lubricant sensitivity ratio. Heckel and Walker models were used to evaluate the compaction behaviour of the three co-processed starches. Tablets were produced with paracetamol as the model drug by direct compression on an eccentric Tablet Press fitted with 12 mm flat-faced punches and compressed at 216 MPa. The tablets were stored at room temperature for 24 h prior to evaluation. The results revealed that co-granulated co-processed excipient (SAS-CG) gave relatively better properties in terms of flow, compressibility, dilution potential, deformation, disintegration, crushing strength and friability. This study has shown that the method of co-processing influences the powder and tableting properties of the co-processed excipient

The taper of cast post preparation measured using innovative image processing technique

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>No documentation in the literature about taper of cast posts. This study was conducted to measure the degree of cast posts taper, and to evaluate its suitability based on the anatomy aspects of the common candidate teeth for post reconstruction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Working casts for cast posts, prepared using Gates Glidden drills, were collected. Impressions of post spaces were made using polyvinyl siloxan putty/wash technique. Digital camera with a 10' high quality lens was used for capturing two digital images for each impression; one in the Facio-Lingual (FL) and the other in the Mesio-Distal (MD) directions. Automated image processing program was developed to measure the degree of canal taper. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software and One way Analysis of Variance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eighty four dies for cast posts were collected: 16 for each maxillary anterior teeth subgroup, and 18 for each maxillary and mandibular premolar subgroup. Mean of total taper for all preparations was 10.7 degree. There were no statistical differences among the total taper of all groups (P = .256) or between the MD and FL taper for each subgroup. Mean FL taper for the maxillary first premolars was lower significantly (P = .003) than the maxillary FL taper of the second premolars. FL taper was higher than the MD taper in all teeth except the maxillary first premolars.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taper produced did not reflect the differences among the anatomy of teeth. While this technique deemed satisfactory in the maxillary anterior teeth, the same could not be said for the maxillary first premolars. Careful attention to the root anatomy is mandatory.</p