Creative methods of noospheric learning through art assets: Case study of authentic education

In this article authors discuss the methodology of evaluating noospheric insights in higher education students through art assets. A very important goal of students’ inclusion into the authentic context of ecological education is being achieved. As a result of this study, evaluation criteria were determined, such as imagination, emotionality, originality, abstraction. For the more in-depth development of the evaluation procedure the following methods were used: educational experiment, observation, questionnaires, semantic differential (SD), method of setting the attitude on associative transformation of the object being perceived, creative methods. Authors determined the levels of student’s noospheric insights formation (high, above average, average, low) for the following evaluation of correlation between the categories of singular, special and common in students’ aesthetical insights. The results, including content and structural, functional components, are described in this article, allowing to connect the process of noosperic insights mastering by students with the authentic context of education

Occupational and non-occupational risk factors of sickness absence due to a shoulder lesion

Objectives To determine the associations of lifestyle factors and cumulative physical workload exposures with sickness absence (SA) due to a shoulder lesion and to calculate their population attributable fractions (PAF). Methods Our nationally representative cohort consisted of 4344 individuals aged 30-62 years who participated in the Finnish Health 2000 Survey. Education, smoking, chronic diseases and work exposures were assessed during interviews and leisure time physical activity with a questionnaire. Weight and height were measured. We followed the individuals for 15 years for the first SA due to a shoulder lesion. We used competing risk regression models. We calculated PAFs to assess the proportion of SA that was attributed to modifiable risk factors. Results In the entire study population, risk factors of SA were age, daily smoking, being exposed for more than 10 years to physically heavy work and being exposed for more than 10 years to at least two specific physical workload factors. The overall PAF for the modifiable risk factors was 49%. In men, number of specific cumulative exposures, obesity and daily smoking predicted SA with PAF values of 34%, 30% and 14%, respectively. Among women, being exposed for more than 10 years to physically heavy work, number of specific cumulative exposures and daily smoking accounted for 23%, 22% and 15% of SA, respectively. Conclusions Reducing significantly prolonged exposure to physical workload factors, avoiding regular smoking in both genders and obesity in men has a high potential to prevent SA due to a shoulder lesion.Peer reviewe

Work participation and working life expectancy after a disabling shoulder lesion

Objective T o examine the impact of a disabling nontraumatic shoulder lesion on work participation and working life expectancy. Methods From a 70% random sample of the Finnish population, we selected 30-59-year-old wage earners with prolonged sickness absence due to a shoulder lesion (n=7644). We followed the persons from 2006 to 2014 and calculated the proportion of time a person spent in different work participation statuses. The associations of potential determinants with a preterm exit from paid employment were tested using Cox regression. Years expected to be spent in different work participation statuses were estimated applying the Sullivan method for healthy life expectancy. Results During 9 years of follow-up time spent at work was reduced from 77.7% to 46.7%, and 15.8% of the persons were granted disability retirement, mostly due to shoulder and other musculoskeletal diseases. Compared with the general population persons with a disabling shoulder disease are expected to lose from 1.8 to 8.1 years of working life, depending on their age. Age, gender, education, duration of initial sickness absence due to the shoulder lesion, not being able to return to work sustainably and participation in vocational rehabilitation predicted preterm exit from work. Heavy lifting increased the risk of preterm exit marginally. Conclusions Working life expectancy is markedly reduced in persons with a disabling shoulder lesion, mainly because of disability retirement due to musculoskeletal problems. Clinicians should consider interventions targeted at improving musculoskeletal functioning and necessary work modifications before shoulder problems become chronic or the persons develop disabling comorbid musculoskeletal conditions.Peer reviewe

Occupational differences in disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion : do work-related factors matter?

Objective To identify occupations with a high risk of disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion and to examine the effect of physical and psychosocial work-related factors on occupational differences in disability retirement. Methods We followed Finnish wage earners aged 30-59 years (n = 1,135,654) from 2005 to 2014 for full disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion. The work-related exposures were assessed with job exposure matrices. We calculated age-adjusted incidence rates and hazard ratios to test for the association between occupation and disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion. We also examined the contribution of work-related exposures to the excess risk of disability retirement. Results As compared to professionals, the age-adjusted risk of disability retirement was increased among men in all occupational groups except managers and customer service clerks and among women in several occupational groups. Adjustment for education attenuated the occupational differences considerably, particularly among women. The physical work-related factors fully explained the excess risk of disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion among male finance and sales associate professionals and administrative secretaries as well as among agricultural and fishery workers. In women, the physical work-related factors fully explained the excess risk among construction workers, electricians and plumbers. For both genders, the contribution of psychosocial factors to excess risk of disability retirement was modest and seen for monotonous work only. Conclusions A reduction of the level of physical work load factors as well as monotonousness of work has a potential to prevent work disability due to a shoulder lesion.Peer reviewe

Physical and psychosocial work exposures as risk factors for disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion

Objective To assess the longitudinal associations of physical and psychosocial exposures with disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion. Methods In a nationwide register-based study, we followed 1 135 654 wage earners aged 30-59 years for the occurrence of disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion. The occupational exposures were assessed with job exposure matrices. We used a competing risk regression model to estimate HRs and their 95% CIs and to test for the association between the exposures and the outcome. We also calculated the attributable fraction of disability retirement due to occupational exposures. Results A total of 2472 persons had full disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion during the follow-up. Physically heavy work showed the strongest association with the outcome in both genders, in men with an HR of 2.90 (95% CI 2.37 to 3.55) and in women with an HR of 3.21 (95% CI 2.80 to 3.90). Of the specific physical exposures, working with hands above shoulder level was statistically significantly associated with disability retirement in men. When all physical exposures were taken into consideration, 46% and 41% of disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion were attributed to physical work load factors in men and women, respectively. In addition, 49% (men) and 35% (women) of disability retirement were attributed to psychosocial work-related factors. Conclusions Our findings suggest that a considerable proportion of disability retirement due to a shoulder lesion could be prevented by reducing physical and psychosocial exposures at work to a low level.Peer reviewe

Analysis of pre-seismic ionospheric disturbances prior to 2020 2 Croatian earthquakes

Abstract: We study the sub-ionospheric VLF transmitter signals recorded by the Austrian Graz station in the year 2020. Those radio signals are known to propagate in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide between the ground and lower ionosphere. The Austrian Graz facility (geographic coordinates: 15.46◦E, 47.03◦N) can receive such sub-ionospheric transmitter signals, particularly those propagating above earthquake (EQ) regions in the southern part of Europe. We consider in this work the transmitter amplitude variations recorded a few weeks before the occurrence of two EQs in Croatia at a distance less than 200 km from Graz VLF facility. The selected EQs happened on 22 March 2020 and 29 December 2020, with magnitudes of Mw5.4 and Mw6.4, respectively, epicenters localized close to Zagreb (16.02◦E, 45.87◦N; 16.21◦E, 45.42◦N), and with focuses of depth smaller than 10 km. In our study we emphasize the anomaly fluctuations before/after the sunrise times, sunset times, and the cross-correlation of transmitter signals. We attempt to evaluate and to estimate the latitudinal and the longitudinal expansions of the ionospheric disturbances related to the seismic preparation areas

Transient effects in atmosphere and ionosphere preceding the 2015 M7.8 and M7.3 Gorkha–Nepal earthquakes

We analyze retrospectively/prospectively the transient variations of six different physical parameters in the atmosphere/ionosphere during the M7.8 and M7.3 earthquakes in Nepal, namely: 1) outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) at the top of the atmosphere (TOA); 2) GPS/TEC; 3) the very-low-frequency (VLF/LF) signals at the receiving stations in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) and Varanasi (India); 4) Radon observations; 5) Atmospheric chemical potential from assimilation models; and; 6) Air Temperature from NOAA ground stations. We found that in mid-March 2015, there was a rapid increase in the radiation from the atmosphere observed by satellites. This anomaly was located close to the future M7.8 epicenter and reached a maximum on April 21–22. The GPS/TEC data analysis indicated an increase and variation in electron density, reaching a maximum value during April 22–24. A strong negative TEC anomaly in the crest of EIA (Equatorial Ionospheric Anomaly) occurred on April 21, and a strong positive anomaly was recorded on April 24, 2015. The behavior of VLF-LF waves along NWC-Bishkek and JJY-Varanasi paths has shown abnormal behavior during April 21–23, several days before the first, stronger earthquake. Our continuous satellite OLR analysis revealed this new strong anomaly on May 3, which was why we anticipated another major event in the area. On May 12, 2015, an M7.3 earthquake occurred. Our results show coherence between the appearance of these pre-earthquake transient’s effects in the atmosphere and ionosphere (with a short time-lag, from hours up to a few days) and the occurrence of the 2015 M7.8 and M7.3 events. The spatial characteristics of the pre-earthquake anomalies were associated with a large area but inside the preparation region estimated by Dobrovolsky-Bowman. The pre-earthquake nature of the signals in the atmosphere and ionosphere was revealed by simultaneous analysis of satellite, GPS/TEC, and VLF/LF and suggest that they follow a general temporal-spatial evolution pattern that has been seen in other large earthquakes worldwide

Effect Sizes in Experimental Pain Produced by Gender, Genetic Variants and Sensitization Procedures

Background: Various effects on pain have been reported with respect to their statistical significance, but a standardized measure of effect size has been rarely added. Such a measure would ease comparison of the magnitude of the effects across studies, for example the effect of gender on heat pain with the effect of a genetic variant on pressure pain. Methodology/Principal Findings: Effect sizes on pain thresholds to stimuli consisting of heat, cold, blunt pressure, punctuate pressure and electrical current, administered to 125 subjects, were analyzed for 29 common variants in eight human genes reportedly modulating pain, gender and sensitization procedures using capsaicin or menthol. The genotype explained 0–5.9% of the total interindividual variance in pain thresholds to various stimuli and produced mainly small effects (Cohen's d 0–1.8). The largest effect had the TRPA1 rs13255063T/rs11988795G haplotype explaining >5% of the variance in electrical pain thresholds and conferring lower pain sensitivity to homozygous carriers. Gender produced larger effect sizes than most variant alleles (1–14.8% explained variance, Cohen's d 0.2–0.8), with higher pain sensitivity in women than in men. Sensitization by capsaicin or menthol explained up to 63% of the total variance (4.7–62.8%) and produced largest effects according to Cohen's d (0.4–2.6), especially heat sensitization by capsaicin (Cohen's d = 2.6). Conclusions: Sensitization, gender and genetic variants produce effects on pain in the mentioned order of effect sizes. The present report may provide a basis for comparative discussions of factors influencing pain

From photoinduced to dark cytotoxicity via an octahedral cluster hydrolysis

Octahedral molybdenum and tungsten clusters have potential biological applications in photodynamic therapy and bioimaging. However, poor solubility and hydrolysis stability of these compounds hinder their application. The first water-soluble photoluminescent octahedral tungsten cluster [{W6I8}(DMSO)6](NO3)4 was synthesised and demonstrated to be at least one order of magnitude more stable towards hydrolysis than its molybdenum analogue. Biological studies of the compound on larynx carcinoma cells suggest that it has a significant photoinduced toxicity, while the dark toxicity increases with the increase of the degree of hydrolysis. The increase of the dark toxicity is associated with the in situ generation of nanoparticles that clog up the cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum