The Need of Psychospiritual in Managing Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) for Covid-19 Counselor Workers

Abstract Pandemic of COVID-19 unspecifically has a physical effect on its sufferers, however it has negative impacts towards the mental and psychological of sufferers. To alleviate community pressure, the government and some NGOs are responsible for providing counselling services as psychological support. Counsellors, on the other hand, are continuously exposed to trauma disorders as a result of the conduct of counselling sessions, even though they do not directly experience it. Secondary Traumatic Stress, or STS for short, is a disease that refers to emotional distress caused by the emotional suffering of others. This impact was created because the client was given attention and compassion, as well as strong incentive to help ease the patient's pain. If no special preparation is given, the patient is vulnerable to the onset of STS symptoms, which have negative consequences on the physical, cognitive, mental, behavioural, social, and spiritual levels. As a result, during the COVID-19 pandemic era, a study that provides preparatory recommendation for counsellors dealing with a wide range of clients during the COVID-19 pandemic period is much needed. This research focuses on a data collection procedure in a library based on the theory of Secondary Traumatic Stress and the COVID-19 pandemic. This study argues that counsellors receive psychospiritual support training in order to satisfy the demands of Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in the COVID-19 pandemic period. Keywords: COVID-19, traumatic, psychospiritual, mental health, sympathy     Abstrak   Wabak COVID-19 bukan sahaja memberi kesan berbentuk fizikal kepada para pengidapnya, malah turut memberi impak negatif kepada mental dan psikologi. Bagi mengurangkan tekanan kepada masyarakat, pihak kerajaan dan beberapa NGO menggalas tanggungjawab memberikan perkhidmatan kaunseling sebagai sokongan psikologi. Namun begitu, pada hakikatnya para kaunselor turut terdedah dengan gangguan trauma secara berterusan akibat daripada pengendalian sesi kaunseling yang dijalankan walaupun tidak mengalaminya secara langsung. Gangguan tersebut dikenali sebagai Secondary Traumatic Stress atau singkatannya STS yang merujuk kepada penderitaan emosi kerana penderitaan emosi orang lain. Kesan ini lahir kerana perhatian dan simpati yang diberikan kepada klien disertai galakan yang kuat untuk menolong meringankan penderitaan pesakit. Sekiranya tidak disediakan persediaan yang khusus, ini mendedahkan kepada peletusan simptom STS yang memberi implikasi negatif kepada fizikal, kognitif, emosi, perilaku, sosial dan spiritual. Sehubungan itu, kajian yang memberikan cadangan persediaan bagi kaunselor yang berdepan dengan pelbagai klien yang ramai dalam tempoh pandemik COVID-19 adalah sangat diperlukan. Kajian ini menumpukan kepada proses pengumpulan data perpustakaan yang memfokus kepada teori Secondary Traumatic Stress dan pandemik COVID-19. Kajian ini mengemukakan cadangan mengambil persediaan sokongan psikospiritual bagi kaunselor dalam mendepani cabaran gangguan Secondary Traumatic Stress di era pandemik COVID-19. Kata kunci: COVID-19, traumatik, psikospiritual, kesihatan mental, simpat

Burden of disease scenarios for 204 countries and territories, 2022–2050: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Future trends in disease burden and drivers of health are of great interest to policy makers and the public at large. This information can be used for policy and long-term health investment, planning, and prioritisation. We have expanded and improved upon previous forecasts produced as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) and provide a reference forecast (the most likely future), and alternative scenarios assessing disease burden trajectories if selected sets of risk factors were eliminated from current levels by 2050. Methods: Using forecasts of major drivers of health such as the Socio-demographic Index (SDI; a composite measure of lag-distributed income per capita, mean years of education, and total fertility under 25 years of age) and the full set of risk factor exposures captured by GBD, we provide cause-specific forecasts of mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) by age and sex from 2022 to 2050 for 204 countries and territories, 21 GBD regions, seven super-regions, and the world. All analyses were done at the cause-specific level so that only risk factors deemed causal by the GBD comparative risk assessment influenced future trajectories of mortality for each disease. Cause-specific mortality was modelled using mixed-effects models with SDI and time as the main covariates, and the combined impact of causal risk factors as an offset in the model. At the all-cause mortality level, we captured unexplained variation by modelling residuals with an autoregressive integrated moving average model with drift attenuation. These all-cause forecasts constrained the cause-specific forecasts at successively deeper levels of the GBD cause hierarchy using cascading mortality models, thus ensuring a robust estimate of cause-specific mortality. For non-fatal measures (eg, low back pain), incidence and prevalence were forecasted from mixed-effects models with SDI as the main covariate, and YLDs were computed from the resulting prevalence forecasts and average disability weights from GBD. Alternative future scenarios were constructed by replacing appropriate reference trajectories for risk factors with hypothetical trajectories of gradual elimination of risk factor exposure from current levels to 2050. The scenarios were constructed from various sets of risk factors: environmental risks (Safer Environment scenario), risks associated with communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases (CMNNs; Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination scenario), risks associated with major non-communicable diseases (NCDs; Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario), and the combined effects of these three scenarios. Using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways climate scenarios SSP2-4.5 as reference and SSP1-1.9 as an optimistic alternative in the Safer Environment scenario, we accounted for climate change impact on health by using the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change temperature forecasts and published trajectories of ambient air pollution for the same two scenarios. Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy were computed using standard methods. The forecasting framework includes computing the age-sex-specific future population for each location and separately for each scenario. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for each individual future estimate were derived from the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles of distributions generated from propagating 500 draws through the multistage computational pipeline. Findings: In the reference scenario forecast, global and super-regional life expectancy increased from 2022 to 2050, but improvement was at a slower pace than in the three decades preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning in 2020). Gains in future life expectancy were forecasted to be greatest in super-regions with comparatively low life expectancies (such as sub-Saharan Africa) compared with super-regions with higher life expectancies (such as the high-income super-region), leading to a trend towards convergence in life expectancy across locations between now and 2050. At the super-region level, forecasted healthy life expectancy patterns were similar to those of life expectancies. Forecasts for the reference scenario found that health will improve in the coming decades, with all-cause age-standardised DALY rates decreasing in every GBD super-region. The total DALY burden measured in counts, however, will increase in every super-region, largely a function of population ageing and growth. We also forecasted that both DALY counts and age-standardised DALY rates will continue to shift from CMNNs to NCDs, with the most pronounced shifts occurring in sub-Saharan Africa (60·1% [95% UI 56·8–63·1] of DALYs were from CMNNs in 2022 compared with 35·8% [31·0–45·0] in 2050) and south Asia (31·7% [29·2–34·1] to 15·5% [13·7–17·5]). This shift is reflected in the leading global causes of DALYs, with the top four causes in 2050 being ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared with 2022, with ischaemic heart disease, neonatal disorders, stroke, and lower respiratory infections at the top. The global proportion of DALYs due to YLDs likewise increased from 33·8% (27·4–40·3) to 41·1% (33·9–48·1) from 2022 to 2050, demonstrating an important shift in overall disease burden towards morbidity and away from premature death. The largest shift of this kind was forecasted for sub-Saharan Africa, from 20·1% (15·6–25·3) of DALYs due to YLDs in 2022 to 35·6% (26·5–43·0) in 2050. In the assessment of alternative future scenarios, the combined effects of the scenarios (Safer Environment, Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination, and Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenarios) demonstrated an important decrease in the global burden of DALYs in 2050 of 15·4% (13·5–17·5) compared with the reference scenario, with decreases across super-regions ranging from 10·4% (9·7–11·3) in the high-income super-region to 23·9% (20·7–27·3) in north Africa and the Middle East. The Safer Environment scenario had its largest decrease in sub-Saharan Africa (5·2% [3·5–6·8]), the Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario in north Africa and the Middle East (23·2% [20·2–26·5]), and the Improved Nutrition and Vaccination scenario in sub-Saharan Africa (2·0% [–0·6 to 3·6]). Interpretation: Globally, life expectancy and age-standardised disease burden were forecasted to improve between 2022 and 2050, with the majority of the burden continuing to shift from CMNNs to NCDs. That said, continued progress on reducing the CMNN disease burden will be dependent on maintaining investment in and policy emphasis on CMNN disease prevention and treatment. Mostly due to growth and ageing of populations, the number of deaths and DALYs due to all causes combined will generally increase. By constructing alternative future scenarios wherein certain risk exposures are eliminated by 2050, we have shown that opportunities exist to substantially improve health outcomes in the future through concerted efforts to prevent exposure to well established risk factors and to expand access to key health interventions

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

Hubungan antara konsep takdir dengan post-traumatic stress disorder: Kajian dari perspektif psikospiritual Islam / Muhammad Hazim Mohd Azhar

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD, is a mental disorder which involves mind, soul and spirit as well as creating gaps in social relations. Patient who suffered from PTSD should be addressed and tackled by all individual Muslims as a social responsibility. Islam as a comprehensive religion, deeply concerns on the aspects of mind and soul that both of them has been placed in the list of al-daruriyyat al-khams in order to strive for care and maintenance of al-‘Aql and al-Nafs. This study entitled Relation between Concept of Taqdir with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Study from Islamic Psychospiritual Perspective, trying to analyze relations between the religious which a focus on the concept of fate as psychospiritual support to the treatment of PTSD. This qualitative study applied the conceptual documentation as a method of data collection and content analysis as a method of data analysis. This study shows the feels and appreciation based on dhauqiyyah which is a result of the construction of knowledge and understanding with the ‘aqliyyah based help the PTSD treatment through the process of spiritual methods individually. Accordingly, through this study, suggests the improvement of existing treatment with an emphasis on the aspects of religious spirituality through al-Qada’ and al-Qadr

PERFORMANCE AND CARBON EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS OF BIOMASS VIA STRATIFIED GASIFIER

ABSTRACT Recent concerns on environment, fuel price and scarcity of its supply have promoted interest in the development of renewable sources as a replacement. This paper aims to show the gasifier experimental finding based on performance and process efficiency. Wood chip was fed in stratified downdraft gasifier with air as gasifying agent. The biomass feeding rate varied from 3 to 4.5 kg/hr with an output of various high heating values (HHV) of producer gas. The study provides a clearer picture of the result obtained from the equivalence ratio (ER) which improvises the gas composition, HHV and carbon conversion efficiency

Microscopic study on the corrosion of underground pipeline

Corrosion on the water pipelines can potentially cause substantial human and economic losses. This paper concentrates on corrosion observation on the underground pipeline material as a part of our continuous study regarding this work. The samples which is mild steel taken from actually used pipeline at the site. Mild steels have been investigated intensively as a promising pipe material for underground pipeline due to their advantages such as high availability, low cost, environmental friendliness and high resistance to corrosion. However, their practical application exposes them to the attack of corrosion related to the soil condition. In this study, microscopic observations were performed on the surface of pipeline material using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) technique in order to study the morphology and basic composition of the corrosion, respectively. Based on the observation and visual analyses, it was determined that the surface of the mild steel was affected by continuous exposure to moist soil, which leads to pitting type of corrosion

Effect of chemical treatment on production of activated carbon from cocos nucifera L. (Coconut) shell by microwave irradiation method

In recent years, activated carbon has attracted attention among researchers due to its special properties such as high porosity, highly adsorption and low cost. In this research, activated carbon has been successfully produced from the coconut shell by using the microwave irradiation method where zinc chloride (ZnCl2), phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) were implemented as the activating agents. The results showed that phosphoric acid has the most significant effect on the synthesized activated carbon properties. The optimum parameter for the power of microwave irradiation used was 380 W, impregnation ratio of activating agent to char was 3:1 for phosphoric acid, 2:1 for sodium hydroxide, and for 1:1 zinc chloride while concentration of each activating agents was 0.5 M with 10 minutes of activation time. All samples then were characterized by using, Moisture meter, FTIR-ATR, XRD and TGA in order to determine the functional groups, composition and element and weight loss of the activated carbon. This research could benefit the environment by recycling the agriculture waste into a new useful material as well as to keep the environment safe from pollution