Employee Well-Being During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Adaptability, Work-Family Conflict, and Organizational Response

Well-being has always been a topic of interest for individuals, organizations, and policy-makers. COVID-19 pandemic made it tremendously relevant as employees were forced to work from home due to the successive lockdowns that governments have implemented to curb the spread of the virus. This crisis has raised concerns about employees’ well-being due to the implementation of these tight measures. In the present study, we examined the direct and indirect effects of employees’ adaptability, work-family conflict, and organizational response on employees’ well-being through the mediating role of perceived stress. Data have been collected from 184 employees working in various organizations in Malaysia and analyzed using Smart-PLS Structural Equation Modeling with the bootstrapping procedure. The results indicated that organizational response, work-family conflict, and adaptability directly affect perceived stress and well-being, except for organizational response, which has no direct effect on well-being. Furthermore, it was found that perceived stress mediates the relationship of organizational response and work-family conflict with well-being but not adaptability

A comparative study of high-field diamagnetic fluctuations in deoxygenated YBa2Cu3O(7-x) and polycrystalline (Bi-Pb)2Sr2Ca3O(10)

We studied three single crystals of YBa2Cu3O{7-x} with Tc= 62.5, 52, and 41 K, and a textured specimen of (Bi-Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 with Tc=108 K, for H//c axis. The reversible data were interpreted in terms of 2D lowest-Landau-level fluctuation theory. The data were fit well by the 2D LLL expression for magnetization obtained by Tesanovic etal., producing reasonable values of kappa but larger values of dHc2/dT. Universality was studied by obtaining a simultaneous scaling of Y123 data and Bi2223. An expression for the 2D x-axis LLL scaling factor used to obtain the simultaneous scaling was extracted from theory, and compared with the experimental values. The comparison between the values of the x-axis produced a deviation of 40% which suggests that the hypothesis of universality of the 2D-LLL fluctuations is not supported by the studied samples. We finaly observe that Y123 magnetization data for temperatures above $T_c$ obbey a universal scaling obtained for the diamagnetic fluctuation magnetization from a theory considering non-local field effects. The same scaling was not obbeyed by the corresponding magnetization calculated from the two-dimensional lowest-Landau-level theory.Comment: 7 pages 5 figures, accept in Journ. Low Temp. Phy

Vanishing of the upper critical field in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta} from Landau-Ott scaling

We apply Landau-Ott scaling to the reversible magnetization data of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ published by Y. Wang et al. [\emph{Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{95} 247002 (2005)}] and find that the extrapolation of the Landau-Ott upper critical field line vanishes at a critical temperature parameter, T^*_c, a few degrees above the zero resistivity critical temperature, T_c. Only isothermal curves below and near to T_c were used to determine this transition temperature. This temperature is associated to the disappearance of the mixed state instead of a complete suppression of superconductivity in the sample.Comment: 3 figure

Data Clustering Analysis of the Factors Affecting Palestinian Customers’ Attitudes Towards SMS Advertising

The aim of this article is to identify the factors affecting customer attitudes toward SMS advertising in the Palestinian banking sector using data clustering. A survey questionnaire was designed and distributed to collect primary data. In total 412 usable questionnaires were analyzed using data clustering. The findings reveal that relevancy, entertainment, informativeness, and creditability have positive impact on the attitudes of the Palestinian customers towards the Banks’ SMS advertising. Data clustering, however, provided empirical evidence that most of the respondents are annoyed by the SMS advertising which requires developing policies and procedures at the bank level to get the customers consent (permission) to receive SMS advertisements prior to sending them to customers

Fungitoxicity of some fungicides against to pathogens responsible of olive trees decline in the Chebika’s area in Tunisia

The incidence of the disease seems very important on young trees and tends to bemoderate with the aging of the tree. In fact, olive trees have a shallow root system and arestill vulnerable to pathogens especially the irrigated varieties. Chemical and biological control against Fusarium solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani and Verticillium dahliae have revealed that the application in vitro of Prodazim and of Methyl-thiophanatehave showed a very good efficacy up to 100%. Ridomil and Tachigaren have indicated aregular efficiency, while the two bio-fungicides Fungstop and the compost juice havedemonstrated a low efficiency. The two bio-control agents Trichoderma harzianum and Gliocladium virens have showed a relatively high effectiveness in vitro. In vivo, obtainedresults have revealed that the nature of the product, the doses applied and the condition ofthe olive trees are highly correlated factors. The treatment doesn’t appear to have apositive effect on the beginning of stage 1 and on plots presented a good structured soil.Going beyond this stage, whatever the product and the doses used, the attack isirreversible

Electronic Properties of Graphene in a Strong Magnetic Field

We review the basic aspects of electrons in graphene (two-dimensional graphite) exposed to a strong perpendicular magnetic field. One of its most salient features is the relativistic quantum Hall effect the observation of which has been the experimental breakthrough in identifying pseudo-relativistic massless charge carriers as the low-energy excitations in graphene. The effect may be understood in terms of Landau quantization for massless Dirac fermions, which is also the theoretical basis for the understanding of more involved phenomena due to electronic interactions. We present the role of electron-electron interactions both in the weak-coupling limit, where the electron-hole excitations are determined by collective modes, and in the strong-coupling regime of partially filled relativistic Landau levels. In the latter limit, exotic ferromagnetic phases and incompressible quantum liquids are expected to be at the origin of recently observed (fractional) quantum Hall states. Furthermore, we discuss briefly the electron-phonon coupling in a strong magnetic field. Although the present review has a dominating theoretical character, a close connection with available experimental observation is intended.Comment: 56 pages, 27 figures; published version with minor corrections and updated reference

Experimental and Process Modelling Investigation of the Hydrogen Generation from Formic Acid Decomposition Using a Pd/Zn Catalyst

The use of hydrogen as a renewable fuel has attracted great attention in recent years. The decomposition of formic acid under mild conditions was investigated using a 2%Pd6Zn4 catalyst in a batch reactor. The results showed that the conversion of formic acid increases with reaction temperature and with the formic acid concentration. A process-simulation model was developed to predict the decomposition of formic acid using 2%Pd6Zn4 in a batch reactor. The model demonstrated very good validation with the experimental work. Further comparisons between the 2%Pd6Zn4 catalyst and a commercial Pd/C catalyst were carried out. It was found that the 2%Pd6Zn4 demonstrated significantly higher conversions when compared with the commercial catalyst

On the unconstrained expansion of a spherical plasma cloud turning collisionless : case of a cloud generated by a nanometer dust grain impact on an uncharged target in space

Nano and micro meter sized dust particles travelling through the heliosphere at several hundreds of km/s have been repeatedly detected by interplanetary spacecraft. When such fast moving dust particles hit a solid target in space, an expanding plasma cloud is formed through the vaporisation and ionisation of the dust particles itself and part of the target material at and near the impact point. Immediately after the impact the small and dense cloud is dominated by collisions and the expansion can be described by fluid equations. However, once the cloud has reached micro-m dimensions, the plasma may turn collisionless and a kinetic description is required to describe the subsequent expansion. In this paper we explore the late and possibly collisionless spherically symmetric unconstrained expansion of a single ionized ion-electron plasma using N-body simulations. Given the strong uncertainties concerning the early hydrodynamic expansion, we assume that at the time of the transition to the collisionless regime the cloud density and temperature are spatially uniform. We do also neglect the role of the ambient plasma. This is a reasonable assumption as long as the cloud density is substantially higher than the ambient plasma density. In the case of clouds generated by fast interplanetary dust grains hitting a solid target some 10^7 electrons and ions are liberated and the in vacuum approximation is acceptable up to meter order cloud dimensions. ..