Meaningful activities during COVID-19 lockdown and association with mental health in Belgian adults

Background The spread of COVID-19 has affected people's daily lives, and the lockdown may have led to a disruption of daily activities and a decrease of people's mental health. Aim To identify correlates of adults' mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium and to assess the role of meaningful activities in particular. Methods A cross-sectional web survey for assessing mental health (General Health Questionnaire), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), meaning in activities (Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey), and demographics was conducted during the first Belgian lockdown between April 24 and May 4, 2020. The lockdown consisted of closing schools, non-essential shops, and recreational settings, employees worked from home or were technically unemployed, and it was forbidden to undertake social activities. Every adult who had access to the internet and lived in Belgium could participate in the survey; respondents were recruited online through social media and e-mails. Hierarchical linear regression was used to identify key correlates. Results Participants (N=1781) reported low mental health (M=14.85/36). In total, 42.4% of the variance in mental health could be explained by variables such as gender, having children, living space, marital status, health condition, and resilience (beta=-.33). Loss of meaningful activities was strongly related to mental health (beta=-.36) and explained 9% incremental variance (R-2 change=.092, p<.001) above control variables. Conclusions The extent of performing meaningful activities during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium was positively related to adults' mental health. Insights from this study can be taken into account during future lockdown measures in case of pandemics

Functional probiotic products based on fermented wort with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Lactobacillus casei

status: accepte

Development of a Simultaneous Saccharificationand Fermentation process using alkaline pretreated wheat straw

status: accepte

Biofilms of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia protect Lactobacillus brevis food spoilage bacteria against classical cleaning and disinfection protocols

edition: Biofilms8status: publishe

Stability of Filled PDMS Pervaporation Membranes in Bio-Ethanol Recovery from a Real Fermentation Broth

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have shown great potential in pervaporation (PV). As for many novel membrane materials however, lab-scale testing often involves synthetic feed solutions composed of mixed pure components, overlooking the possibly complex interactions and effects caused by the numerous other components in a real PV feed. This work studies the performance of MMMs with two different types of fillers, a core-shell material consisting of ZIF-8 coated on mesoporous silica and a hollow sphere of silicalite-1, in the PV of a real fermented wheat/hay straw hydrolysate broth for the production of bio-ethanol. All membranes, including a reference unfilled PDMS, show a declining permeability over time. Interestingly, the unfilled PDMS membrane maintains a stable separation factor, whereas the filled PDMS membranes rapidly lose selectivity to levels below that of the reference PDMS membrane. A membrane autopsy using XRD and SEM-EDX revealed an almost complete degradation of the crystalline ZIF-8 in the MMMs. Reference experiments with ZIF-8 nanoparticles in the fermentation broth demonstrated the influence of the broth on the ZIF-8 particles. However, the observed effects from the membrane autopsy could not exactly be replicated, likely due to distinct differences in conditions between the in-situ pervaporation process and the ex-situ reference experiments. These findings raise significant questions regarding the potential applicability of MOF-filled MMMs in real-feed pervaporation processes and, potentially, in harsh condition membrane separations in general. This study clearly confirms the importance of testing membranes in realistic conditions

Meaningful activities during COVID-19 lockdown and association with mental health in Belgian adults

BACKGROUND: The spread of COVID-19 has affected people's daily lives, and the lockdown may have led to a disruption of daily activities and a decrease of people's mental health. AIM: To identify correlates of adults' mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium and to assess the role of meaningful activities in particular. METHODS: A cross-sectional web survey for assessing mental health (General Health Questionnaire), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), meaning in activities (Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey), and demographics was conducted during the first Belgian lockdown between April 24 and May 4, 2020. The lockdown consisted of closing schools, non-essential shops, and recreational settings, employees worked from home or were technically unemployed, and it was forbidden to undertake social activities. Every adult who had access to the internet and lived in Belgium could participate in the survey; respondents were recruited online through social media and e-mails. Hierarchical linear regression was used to identify key correlates. RESULTS: Participants (N = 1781) reported low mental health (M = 14.85/36). In total, 42.4% of the variance in mental health could be explained by variables such as gender, having children, living space, marital status, health condition, and resilience (β= -.33). Loss of meaningful activities was strongly related to mental health (β= -.36) and explained 9% incremental variance (R2 change= .092, p<.001) above control variables. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of performing meaningful activities during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium was positively related to adults' mental health. Insights from this study can be taken into account during future lockdown measures in case of pandemics. KEY MESSAGES: Performing meaningful activities during COVID-19 lockdown contributes to better mental health. The lockdown has led to a disruption of daily activities and a decrease of people’s mental health

The underpinning of meaningful activities by brain correlates: a systematic review

IntroductionEngaging in meaningful activities contributes to health and wellbeing. Research identifies meaningfulness by analysing retrospective and subjective data such as personal experiences in activities. Objectively measuring meaningful activities by registering the brain (fNIRS, EEG, PET, fMRI) remains poorly investigated.MethodsA systematic review using PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library.FindingsThirty-one studies investigating the correlations between daily activities in adults, their degree of meaningfulness for the participant, and the brain areas involved, were identified. The activities could be classified according to the degree of meaningfulness, using the attributes of meaningfulness described in the literature. Eleven study activities contained all attributes, which means that these can be assumed to be meaningful for the participant. Brain areas involved in these activities were generally related to emotional and affective processing, motivation, and reward.ConclusionAlthough it is demonstrated that neural correlates of meaningful activities can be measured objectively by neurophysiological registration techniques, “meaning” as such has not yet been investigated explicitly. Further neurophysiological research for objective monitoring of meaningful activities is recommended.</jats:sec

Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the engagement in meaningful activities survey

Introduction: Engaging in meaningful activities contributes to health and well-being. Therefore, it is important to measure this with reliable and valid evaluation tools. The Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey (EMAS-VL) has been cross-culturally validated in Flemish and the psychometric properties determined. Method: The adaptation process followed the guidelines 'Translation and Adaptation of Instruments' and 'Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Self Report'. A forward and backward translation was performed. Three authors of the original EMAS were in close contact. Pretesting and cognitive interviews were performed on a sample of 10 chronically ill individuals. Psychometric analysis of survey data, collected during the COVID-19 lockdown (N = 1938 Belgian adults, Flemish speaking), was performed. Internal consistency, factorial validity and construct validity were examined. Results: The adaptation process involved an accurate analysis of the items of the EMAS by the expert panel and EMAS authors. The EMAS-VL showed high reliability (Cronbach's & alpha; = 0.91). Exploratory factor analysis discerned an interpretable two-factorial structure of the EMAS-VL. As hypothesized, moderate associations were found between GHQ-12 (r = -0.57) and CD-RISC (r = 0.50) so the EMAS-VL possesses satisfactory construct validity as well. Conclusion: EMAS-VL is shown to be a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating meaning in activities in Flanders

Data_Sheet_1_The underpinning of meaningful activities by brain correlates: a systematic review.docx

IntroductionEngaging in meaningful activities contributes to health and wellbeing. Research identifies meaningfulness by analysing retrospective and subjective data such as personal experiences in activities. Objectively measuring meaningful activities by registering the brain (fNIRS, EEG, PET, fMRI) remains poorly investigated.MethodsA systematic review using PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library.FindingsThirty-one studies investigating the correlations between daily activities in adults, their degree of meaningfulness for the participant, and the brain areas involved, were identified. The activities could be classified according to the degree of meaningfulness, using the attributes of meaningfulness described in the literature. Eleven study activities contained all attributes, which means that these can be assumed to be meaningful for the participant. Brain areas involved in these activities were generally related to emotional and affective processing, motivation, and reward.ConclusionAlthough it is demonstrated that neural correlates of meaningful activities can be measured objectively by neurophysiological registration techniques, “meaning” as such has not yet been investigated explicitly. Further neurophysiological research for objective monitoring of meaningful activities is recommended.</p

Contribución de la participación en actividades significativas sobre la salud mental en población española durante el confinamiento por CO-VID-19

Introducción: Durante el confinamiento provocado por el CO-VID-19 en España, los ciudadanos tuvieron que dejar de realizar actividades de forma habitual, lo cual podría haber tenido un impacto en la salud mental. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la contribución de la participación en actividades significativas sobre la salud mental en la población española durante el confinamiento por COVID. Método: Se realizó una encuesta web de diseño transversal, donde se evaluó la salud mental (Cuestionario de Salud General: GHQ), la resiliencia (Escala de Resiliencia de Connor-Davidson), la participación en actividades significativas (Encuesta de Participación en Actividades Significativas), así como datos sociodemográficos. Se utilizó una regresión jerárquica-lineal para identificar las correlaciones clave. Resultados: Los participantes (N= 311) informaron de una baja salud mental (M= 16,12/36), y también de un menor nivel de resiliencia (M= 25,48). Los resultados de la regresión revelaron que el 32,6% de la varianza del GHQ se explicaba significativamente por la posibilidad de tener en la vivienda un espacio exterior, la resiliencia y la participación en actividades significativas. La pérdida de actividades significativas se relacionó significativamente con la salud mental, contribuyendo significativamente controlando las otras variables (β= -.12). Conclusiones: Aunque se necesitan estudios experimentales para determinar la causalidad, este estudio pone de manifiesto la relación entre la participación en actividades significativas y la salud mental durante el confinamiento.Introduction: During the lockdown caused by COVID-19 in Spain, citizens had to stop performing activities in the usual way, which could have had an impact on mental health. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of participating in meaningful activitieson mental health in the Spanish population during the COVID-19 lockdown. Method:A cross-sectional online survey was developed and administered, where mental health (General Health Questionnaire), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), participation in meaningful activities (Engage-ment in Meaningful Activities Survey) and socio-demographic data were assessed. A hierarchical-linear-regression was used to identify key correla-tions. Results:The participants (N= 311) reported low mental health (M= 16.12/36) and a lower level of resilience (M = 25.48). The results of the re-gression revealed that 32.6% of the variance of the GHQ was significantly explained by the living space, including an outdoor space, resilience and participation in meaningful activities. The loss of meaningful activities was significantly related to mental health, with a significant contribution when controlling for the other variables (β = -.12). Conclusion:Although experi-mental studies are needed to determine causality, this study highlights the relationship between participation in meaningful activities and mental health during the lockdow