Effect of Occupational Factors on the Quality of Life of Workers in Governmental and Non-Governmental Sectors in Southeastern Nigeria

Purpose: To assess the effect of occupational factors on quality of life (QOL) of workers in Governmental and non-Governmental sectors in southeastern Nigeria.Methods: A total of 2025 workers (both governmental and non-governmental sectors) were selected from across five southeastern states of Nigeria by convenient sampling. The Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36 (SF-36) alongside twenty closed questions was administered to the two groups of respondents to assess their quality of life and determine other factors that affected their quality of life.Results: Having a job that is tasking (r = -0.209, p < 0.05) contributed significantly to low Physical Component Summary (PCS ) in non-governmental sector but having job that raises enough finances for one’s comfort (r = 0.228, p < 0.05) impacted positively on their PCS. Being overly stressed by the job (r = -0.225, p < 0.01) was the only factor that significantly impacted negatively on Mental Component Summary (MCS) of respondents in Governmental sector while having a job that exposes one to a lot of health risk (r = -0.269, p < 0.01, having a job that is tasking (r = -0.206, p < 0.05) and having the belief that there are spiritual forces responsible for the challenges one is facing (r = -0.249, p < 0.05) accounted for decrease in MCS of respondents in non-Governmental sector.Conclusion: Occupational factors had more negative impact on the quality of life of respondents in non-Governmental sector than their counterparts in Governmental sector of the economy.Keywords: Quality of life, Occupation, Governmental sector, Non-governmental sector, Nigerian workers, Medical outcomes survey

Transliteration of Contact Names and/or Other Data Using an Automated Assistant

Techniques are disclosed herein for transliterating contact names and/or other data from a source language to one or more target languages. The contact names and/or other data are received from a client device (e.g., a feature phone) having an automated assistant. The data in the target language(s) can then be utilized in determining that further input, received from the client device in one of the target language(s), corresponds to certain data in the source language. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, over a network and at one or more remote servers, contact names that are in a source language and that are transmitted from a client device. The method can further include transliterating each of the contact names from the source language to one or more corresponding transliterated contact names in one or more target languages, and mapping each transliterated contact name in the target language(s) to a corresponding contact name in the source language and/or to a corresponding contact entry. The method can further include storing the mapping, along with an identifier of the client device, such as a temporary identifier of the client device. Thereafter, in response to further input received from the client device (e.g., spoken input) in one of the target language(s), the spoken input can be matched to a transliterated contact name, and the mapping utilized to identify a corresponding contact entry and/or contact name in the source language. Thus, techniques disclosed herein can enable a user to create, at a client device, a contact name in a first alphabet (e.g., Latin). The contact name can then be provided to remote server(s), which transliterates the contact name to one or more additional alphabets (e.g., Devanāgarī). Subsequently, the user can provide, at the client device, spoken input that indicates a desire to contact (e.g., call, message, etc.) the contact name, but that references the contact name in the Hindi language (which corresponds to the Devanāgarī alphabet). The spoken input can be provided to one or more of the servers, and the server(s) can match the contact name of the spoken input to a transliteration, of the contact name, that is in the Devanāgarī alphabet. Thus, the contact name can be contacted responsive to the spoken input

Risk stratification of sudden cardiac death in asymptomatic female Brugada syndrome patients: A literature review

Background and Objectives Risk stratification in Brugada syndrome remains a difficult problem. Given the male predominance of this disease and their elevated risks of arrhythmic events, affected females have received less attention. It is widely known that symptomatic patients are at increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) than asymptomatic patients, while this might be true in the male population; recent studies have shown that this association might not be significant in females. Over the past few decades, numerous markers involving clinical symptoms, electrocardiographic (ECG) indices, and genetic tests have been explored, with several risk-scoring models developed so far. The objective of this study is to review the current evidence of clinical and ECG markers as well as risk scores on asymptomatic females with Brugada syndrome. Findings Gender differences in ECG markers, the yield of genetic findings, and the applicability of risk scores are highlighted. Conclusions Various clinical, electrocardiographic, and genetic risk factors are available for assessing SCD risk amongst asymptomatic female BrS patients. However, due to the significant gender discrepancy in BrS, the SCD risk amongst females is often underestimated, and there is a lack of research on female-specific risk factors and multiparametric risk scores. Therefore, multinational studies pooling female BrS patients are needed for the development of a gender-specific risk stratification approach amongst asymptomatic BrS patients

All-sky search in early O3 LIGO data for continuous gravitational-wave signals from unknown neutron stars in binary systems

Rapidly spinning neutron stars are promising sources of continuous gravitational waves. Detecting such a signal would allow probing of the physical properties of matter under extreme conditions. A significant fraction of the known pulsar population belongs to binary systems. Searching for unknown neutron stars in binary systems requires specialized algorithms to address unknown orbital frequency modulations. We present a search for continuous gravitational waves emitted by neutron stars in binary systems in early data from the third observing run of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors using the semicoherent, GPU-accelerated, binaryskyhough pipeline. The search analyzes the most sensitive frequency band of the LIGO detectors, 50–300 Hz. Binary orbital parameters are split into four regions, comprising orbital periods of three to 45 days and projected semimajor axes of two to 40 light seconds. No detections are reported. We estimate the sensitivity of the search using simulated continuous wave signals, achieving the most sensitive results to date across the analyzed parameter space

Tests of general relativity with binary black holes from the second LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog

Gravitational waves enable tests of general relativity in the highly dynamical and strong-field regime. Using events detected by LIGO-Virgo up to 1 October 2019, we evaluate the consistency of the data with predictions from the theory. We first establish that residuals from the best-fit waveform are consistent with detector noise, and that the low- and high-frequency parts of the signals are in agreement. We then consider parametrized modifications to the waveform by varying post-Newtonian and phenomenological coefficients, improving past constraints by factors of ∼2; we also find consistency with Kerr black holes when we specifically target signatures of the spin-induced quadrupole moment. Looking for gravitational-wave dispersion, we tighten constraints on Lorentz-violating coefficients by a factor of ∼2.6 and bound the mass of the graviton to mg≤1.76×10−23  eV/c2 with 90% credibility. We also analyze the properties of the merger remnants by measuring ringdown frequencies and damping times, constraining fractional deviations away from the Kerr frequency to δ^f220=0.03+0.38−0.35 for the fundamental quadrupolar mode, and δ^f221=0.04+0.27−0.32 for the first overtone; additionally, we find no evidence for postmerger echoes. Finally, we determine that our data are consistent with tensorial polarizations through a template-independent method. When possible, we assess the validity of general relativity based on collections of events analyzed jointly. We find no evidence for new physics beyond general relativity, for black hole mimickers, or for any unaccounted systematics

Search for anisotropic gravitational-wave backgrounds using data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo’s first three observing runs

We report results from searches for anisotropic stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds using data from the first three observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. For the first time, we include Virgo data in our analysis and run our search with a new efficient pipeline called pystoch on data folded over one sidereal day. We use gravitational-wave radiometry (broadband and narrow band) to produce sky maps of stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds and to search for gravitational waves from point sources. A spherical harmonic decomposition method is employed to look for gravitational-wave emission from spatially-extended sources. Neither technique found evidence of gravitational-wave signals. Hence we derive 95% confidence-level upper limit sky maps on the gravitational-wave energy flux from broadband point sources, ranging from Fα,

Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star–Black Hole Coalescences

We report the observation of gravitational waves from two compact binary coalescences in LIGO's and Virgo's third observing run with properties consistent with neutron star–black hole (NSBH) binaries. The two events are named GW200105_162426 and GW200115_042309, abbreviated as GW200105 and GW200115; the first was observed by LIGO Livingston and Virgo and the second by all three LIGO–Virgo detectors. The source of GW200105 has component masses $8.{9}_{-1.5}^{+1.2}$ and $1.{9}_{-0.2}^{+0.3}\,{M}_{\odot }$, whereas the source of GW200115 has component masses $5.{7}_{-2.1}^{+1.8}$ and $1.{5}_{-0.3}^{+0.7}\,{M}_{\odot }$ (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The probability that the secondary's mass is below the maximal mass of a neutron star is 89%–96% and 87%–98%, respectively, for GW200105 and GW200115, with the ranges arising from different astrophysical assumptions. The source luminosity distances are ${280}_{-110}^{+110}$ and ${300}_{-100}^{+150}\,\mathrm{Mpc}$, respectively. The magnitude of the primary spin of GW200105 is less than 0.23 at the 90% credible level, and its orientation is unconstrained. For GW200115, the primary spin has a negative spin projection onto the orbital angular momentum at 88% probability. We are unable to constrain the spin or tidal deformation of the secondary component for either event. We infer an NSBH merger rate density of ${45}_{-33}^{+75}\,{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ when assuming that GW200105 and GW200115 are representative of the NSBH population or ${130}_{-69}^{+112}\,{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}\,{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$ under the assumption of a broader distribution of component masses

Constraints on Cosmic Strings Using Data from the Third Advanced LIGO–Virgo Observing Run

We search for gravitational-wave signals produced by cosmic strings in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo full O3 dataset. Search results are presented for gravitational waves produced by cosmic string loop features such as cusps, kinks, and, for the first time, kink-kink collisions. A template-based search for short-duration transient signals does not yield a detection. We also use the stochastic gravitational-wave background energy density upper limits derived from the O3 data to constrain the cosmic string tension Gμ as a function of the number of kinks, or the number of cusps, for two cosmic string loop distribution models. Additionally, we develop and test a third model that interpolates between these two models. Our results improve upon the previous LIGO–Virgo constraints on Gμ by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude depending on the model that is tested. In particular, for the one-loop distribution model, we set the most competitive constraints to date: Gμ≲4×10−15. In the case of cosmic strings formed at the end of inflation in the context of grand unified theories, these results challenge simple inflationary models

All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in the early O3 LIGO data

We report on an all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in the frequency band 20–2000 Hz and with a frequency time derivative in the range of [−1.0,+0.1]×10−8  Hz/s. Such a signal could be produced by a nearby, spinning and slightly nonaxisymmetric isolated neutron star in our Galaxy. This search uses the LIGO data from the first six months of Advanced LIGO’s and Advanced Virgo’s third observational run, O3. No periodic gravitational wave signals are observed, and 95% confidence-level (C.L.) frequentist upper limits are placed on their strengths. The lowest upper limits on worst-case (linearly polarized) strain amplitude h0 are ∼1.7×10−25 near 200 Hz. For a circularly polarized source (most favorable orientation), the lowest upper limits are ∼6.3×10−26. These strict frequentist upper limits refer to all sky locations and the entire range of frequency derivative values. For a population-averaged ensemble of sky locations and stellar orientations, the lowest 95% C.L. upper limits on the strain amplitude are ∼1.4×10−25. These upper limits improve upon our previously published all-sky results, with the greatest improvement (factor of ∼2) seen at higher frequencies, in part because quantum squeezing has dramatically improved the detector noise level relative to the second observational run, O2. These limits are the most constraining to date over most of the parameter space searched

Diving below the Spin-down Limit:Constraints on Gravitational Waves from the Energetic Young Pulsar PSR J0537-6910

We present a search for quasi-monochromatic gravitational-wave signals from the young, energetic X-ray pulsar PSR J0537−6910 using data from the second and third observing runs of LIGO and Virgo. The search is enabled by a contemporaneous timing ephemeris obtained using Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) data. The NICER ephemeris has also been extended through 2020 October and includes three new glitches. PSR J0537−6910 has the largest spin-down luminosity of any pulsar and exhibits fRequent and strong glitches. Analyses of its long-term and interglitch braking indices provide intriguing evidence that its spin-down energy budget may include gravitational-wave emission from a time-varying mass quadrupole moment. Its 62 Hz rotation frequency also puts its possible gravitational-wave emission in the most sensitive band of the LIGO/Virgo detectors. Motivated by these considerations, we search for gravitational-wave emission at both once and twice the rotation frequency from PSR J0537−6910. We find no signal, however, and report upper limits. Assuming a rigidly rotating triaxial star, our constraints reach below the gravitational-wave spin-down limit for this star for the first time by more than a factor of 2 and limit gravitational waves from the l = m = 2 mode to account for less than 14% of the spin-down energy budget. The fiducial equatorial ellipticity is constrained to less than about 3 ×10−5, which is the third best constraint for any young pulsar