COVID-19-related future anxiety is associated with the health-related quality of life in school-aged children and adolescents—A cross-sectional study

Background Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, previous studies have shown that the physical as well as the mental health of children and adolescents significantly deteriorated. Future anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associations with quality of life has not previously been examined in school children. Methods As part of a cross-sectional web-based survey at schools in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, school children were asked about COVID-19-related future anxiety using the German epidemic-related Dark Future Scale for children (eDFS-K). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed using the self-reported KIDSCREEN-10. The eDFS-K was psychometrically analyzed (internal consistency and confirmatory factor analysis) and thereafter examined as a predictor of HRQoL in a general linear regression model. Results A total of N = 840 8–18-year-old children and adolescents were included in the analysis. The eDFS-K demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.77), and the confirmatory factor analysis further supported the one-factor structure of the four-item scale with an acceptable model fit. Over 43% of students were found to have low HRQoL. In addition, 47% of the students sometimes to often reported COVID-19-related fears about the future. Children with COVID-19-related future anxiety had significantly lower HRQoL (B = – 0.94, p < 0.001). Other predictors of lower HRQoL were older age (B = – 0.63, p < 0.001), and female (B = – 3.12, p < 0.001) and diverse (B = – 6.82, p < 0.001) gender. Conclusion Two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, school-aged children continue to exhibit low HRQoL, which is further exacerbated in the presence of COVID-19-related future anxiety. Intervention programs with an increased focus on mental health also addressing future anxiety should be provided

Stress, Coping and Considerations of Leaving the Profession&mdash;A Cross-Sectional Online Survey of Teachers and School Principals after Two Years of the Pandemic

Teaching is amongst the six professions with the highest stress levels and lowest job satisfaction, leading to a high turnover rate and teacher shortages. During the pandemic, teachers and school principals were confronted with new regulations and teaching methods. This study aims to examine post-pandemic stress levels, as well as resilience factors to proactively cope with stress and thoughts of leaving the profession among teachers and school principals. We used a cross-sectional online survey. The validated instruments Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Proactive Coping Subscale (PCI) were used. We included 471 teachers and 113 school principals in the analysis. Overall, respondents had a moderate stress level. During the pandemic, every fourth teacher (27.2%) and every third principal (32.7%) had serious thoughts of leaving the profession. More perceived helplessness (OR = 1.2, p &lt; 0.001), less self-efficacy (OR = 0.8, p = 0.002), and poorer coping skills (OR = 0.96, p = 0.044) were associated with a higher likelihood of thoughts of leaving the profession for teachers, whereas for school principals, only higher perceived helplessness (OR = 1.2, p = 0.008) contributed significantly. To prevent further teacher attrition, teachers and school principals need support to decrease stress and increase their ability to cope

Synthesis of Some New bis-Schiff Bases of Isatin and 5-Fluoroisatin in a Water Suspension Medium

Condensation of aromatic primary bis-amines with isatin (1H-indole-2,3-dione) and 5-flouroisatin occurred cleanly and efficiently in a water suspension mediumwithout using any organic solvent or acid catalyst. The corresponding bis-Schiff baseswere obtained in good yields and were easily isolated by filtration. Their structures wereconfirmed by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, IR and mass spectra

Minderung organischer Luftschadstoffemissionen mittels Gas-/Festkoerper-Reaktionen. Teilvorhaben 1 Wissenschaftlich-technische Begleitung. Schlussbericht

A large number of chemically reacting gas-/solid-pairs has been found. Aggressive gases and volatilized VOCs were used, the content of which in exhaust air should be reduced beyond the detection limit. Also numerous volatilized VOCs could be included directly from the gas phase into clathrate forming host materials. Those could be reversibly liberated therefrom. By use of AFM the nature of the gas-/solid-reactions could be elucidated. Such knowledge can be used for primary actions aimed to avoid VOCs in chemical syntheses. Many of such syntheses preserve ressources, avoid waste, and run even better than the corresponding syntheses in solution. The investigation of gas-/solid-reactions led to new types of catalysis. These enabled sufficiently high reaction rates in easily accessible temperature ranges at high gas-flux, such that zero emission could be reached. For acetone a technically realistic variant of realization taking into account all important parameters for the engineering practice has been performed successfully on the 200 g-scale. Useful products of some value are formed. (orig.)Es wurde eine grosse Zahl chemisch reagierender Gas-/Festkoerper-Paare gefunden, wobei aggressive Gase und verdampfte VOCs eingesetzt wurden, deren Gehalt in Abluft bis zur Nachweisgrenze gemindert werden soll. Ebenso gelang es, zahlreiche verdampfte VOCs aus der Gasphase direkt in Clathratbildner einzuschliessen und reversibel daraus wieder zu befreien. Mittels Kraftmikroskopie (AFM) liess sich die Natur der Gas-/Festkoerper-Reaktionen aufklaeren. Diese Kenntnisse lassen sich auch im Sinne von Primaermassnahmen zur Vermeidung von VOCs bei chemischen Synthesen nutzen. Viele dieser Synthesen verlaufen ressourcenschonend, abfallvermeidend und auch besser als die herkoemmlichen Synthesen in Loesung. Die Untersuchung der Gas-/Festkoerper-Reaktionen fuehrte zu neuartigen Katalysen, so dass genuegend hohe Reaktionsgeschwindigkeiten in leicht zugaenglichen Temperaturbereichen bei hohen Durchflussgeschwindigkeiten fuer die Nullemission erreicht werden koennen. Fuer Aceton wurde eine praxisnahe Durchfuehrungsvariante unter Beruecksichtigung aller fuer den technischen Betrieb wesentlichen Parameter bis in den 200 g-Massstab realisiert. Es bilden sich dabei wiederverwendbare Wertstoffe. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F94B0458+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Erforschung von Systemloesungen fuer transparente Verschleissschutzschichten auf Kunststoffen fuer die Optik. Teilvorhaben: Organische Schichten und organische Haftvermittlungsschichten mit kovalenter Anbindung Abschlussbericht

All of the scheduled investigations have been terminated. Only covalent linkages to protective coatings are promising. That fact came out from rather diverse experiments aimed to improve the adhesion. Particular problems were encountered with the chosen materials PC, CR29, PU 161, and PMMA due to their photolability during plasma CVD and due to corrosion by ubiquitous gases such as ammonia, methylamine, chlorine, nitrogen dioxide. AFM shows that gaseous amines even destroy the common hard coatings. Purposeful exposure to reactive gases under AFM control gives functionalization with recoiling of the polymer chains at the surface. Chain fissions are not tolerable. Highly cross-linked CR39 enables the direct PVD connection to SiO_2 coatings. Side-group hydrolysis without destruction of the optical surfaces is particularly attractive in the case of PMMA. Covalently attached Al_2O_3/SiO_2-coatings exhibit rather high long-term stability towards hydrolysis. The carboxylic groups that are generated should be prone to lasting covalent attachments of stress-relieving polyurethane coatings by reaction with diisocyanates. That branch was halted for reasons of capacity in favor of covalent attachment of CR39 via plasma induced grafting, even though numerous covalent attachments succeeded by simple chemical gas/solid reactions. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F98B80+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman