Burnout in Health Professionals in Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

Objective: This research study was carried out to see the severity of burnout, identify the factors leading to its origin and give recommendations for its prevention to save the health of our white army. Methodology: This descriptive study was carried out at RMU from 16th June to 15th August 2020. A total of 50 actively working health personnel were selected by convenient sampling (non- probability). The instrument, Maslach inventory was used for scoring of burnout. It has three psychometric sub scales, Emotional Exhaustion (Total score 0-18), Depersonalization (Total score 0-18), and Personal Accomplishment (Total score 0-18). Higher the score of EE (Emotional Exhaustion) and DP (Depersonalization) more the burnout while higher the score of PA (Personal Accomplishment) less the burnout. P-value was set at 0.05. Pearson test was used for categorical data and t-test for numerical data to see the significance. Results: Total of 50 health personnel (n=50) were included in the study. There were 52% females and 48% male health personnel. The mean age was 31±7.52 years. Mean working hours per week were 54±18.18 hours. Mild burnout was seen in 14% according to EE sub scale, in 22% according to DP subscale and in 18% according to PA sub scale. Moderate burnout was found according to EE subscale in 64% health personnel, in 54% according to DP sub scale and 60% according to PA sub scale. Overall mean scores for three sub scales of burn out were Emotional Exhaustion =11.44±3.11, Depersonalization = 9.24±3.99 and Personal Accomplishment =11.72±2.74. Relationship between the risk factors and mean scores of sub scales of burnout was found statistically significant.   Conclusion: Burnout was found in 58-64% of health care personnel of RMU with mild to moderate grade. This study identified female gender, young age, lengthy working hours and stressful intensive care work place as risk factors leading to development of burnout syndrome. Dimension of mental health of medical personnel is as important as the prevention and treatment aspect of a recent pandemic

Enhancing water use efficiency and grain yield of wheat by optimizing irrigation supply in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan

The lack of good irrigation practices and policy reforms in Pakistan triggers major threats to the water and food security of the country. In the future, irrigation will happen under the scarcity of water, as inadequate irrigation water becomes the requirement rather than the exception. The precise application of water with irrigation management is therefore needed. This research evaluated the wheat grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) under limited irrigation practices in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan. DSSAT was used to simulate yield and assess alternative irrigation scheduling based on different levels of irrigation starting from the actual irrigation level up to 65% less irrigation. The findings demonstrated that different levels of irrigation had substantial effects on wheat grain yield and total water consumption. After comparing the different irrigation levels, the high amount of actual irrigation level in semi-arid sites decreased the WUE and wheat grain yield. However, the arid site (Site-1) showed the highest wheat grain yield 2394 kg ha(-1) and WUE 5.9 kg(-3) on actual irrigation (T-1), and with the reduction of water, wheat grain yield decreased continuously. The optimal irrigation level was attained on semiarid (site-2) with 50% (T-11) less water where the wheat grain yield and WUE were 1925 kg ha(-1) and 4.47 kg(-3) respectively. The best irrigation level was acquired with 40% less water (T-9) on semi-arid (site-3), where wheat grain yield and WUE were 1925 kg ha(-1) and 4.57 kg(-3), respectively. The results demonstrated that reducing the irrigation levels could promote the growth of wheat, resulting in an improved WUE. In crux, significant potential for further improving the efficiency of agricultural water usage in the region relies on effective soil moisture management and efficient use of water. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University

Brand Activation: A Theoretical Perspective

The objective of this review paper is to determine what brand activation is and how it becomes a marketing communication tool for leading brands during the last few years. This paper includes the principles and benefits of brand activation; the difference between brand activation and advertising; the theory and process of brand activation; and marketing brand via brand activation. Brand activation is a very precious tool for marketers to active the brand in customers’ mind through experience and interaction with the brand

A Generalized Class of Circular Designs Strongly Balanced for Neighbor Effects

Minimal strongly balanced neighbor designs are useful (i) to minimize the bias due to neighbor effects economically, and (ii) to estimate the direct effect and neighbor effects independently. Such designs can easily be obtained for v odd and are available in literature. In this article, A generalized class of minimal circular designs strongly balanced for neighbor effects in blocks of equal and two different sizes have been constructed in which only v/2 unordered pairs of treatments do not appear as neighbors, where v is the number of treatments

Catalogues of Efficient Minimal Weakly Balanced RMDs in Circular Periods of Three Different Sizes

In this article, efficient minimal circular weakly balanced RMDs are constructed for the situations where these designs cannot be constructed through generators. Catalogues of these efficient designs are compiled in periods of three different sizes. In the proposed designs, v/2 ordered pairs of distinct treatments do not appear as their preceded value while the remaining ones appear once, where v is number of treatments to be compared