Using secondary students’ views about influences on their spiritual well‐being to inform pastoral care

Spiritual well‐being is reflected in the quality of relationships that each person has in up to four different domains, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God. This study investigated how secondary students perceived relationships with family, friends, school and church community (including God) impacted on their spiritual well‐being. This paper reports the views of 1002 secondary school students aged from 12‐ to 18‐years‐old in Catholic, Christian community and other independent schools in Victoria, Australia. ANOVA and multiple regression analyses of students’ responses on the Quality Of Life Influences Survey developed in this study, and the Spiritual Health And Life‐Orientation Measure, a spiritual well‐being questionnaire for secondary students, revealed significant differences in perceptions students held about influences on their spiritual well‐being. A case study illustrates how these instruments can be used to inform pastoral care of young people.     

Innovative method to evaluate quality management system audit results’ using single value neutrosophic number

Using Quality Management System (QMS) enables the organization to fulfil its purpose and mission to meet customers and regulatory requirements and improve its effectiveness and efficiency on a continuous basis, Quality Audit is very critical tool to ensure that the standards, policies and/or procedures are applied in the organization as planned in QMS, in real world applications, the results of the Quality Audit process depend on the auditors’ human judgments that characterized with doubts sometimes, estimating values another times, and using general impressions in his judgment, which motivate to introduce for the first time the Neutrosophic Quality Audit (NQA) model which can be extended to manage and audit in the future. NQA will be used to enhance the way of evaluating the quality audit results while many uncertainty aspects and indeterminacy do exist, the proposed model using Single Value Neutrosophic Numbers (SVNN) which is an instance of neutrosophic set, to overcome the weakness of using a crisp value to present the result of the audit findings, in addition, using Simplified Neutrosophic Weighted Geometric Average Operator (SNWGAO), and cosine similarity degree, an illustrative example is provided to validate the proposed model.     

SEAT-DSR: Spatial and energy aware trusted dynamic distance source routing algorithm for secure data communications in wireless sensor networks

This paper propose a novel secure routing mechanism called Spatial and Energy Aware Trusted Dynamic Distance Source Routing (SEAT-DSR) algorithm for enhancing the network life time of wireless sensor networks. Here, the spatial information, energy level, and the effectiveness of data quality are equalized by the Quality of Service (QoS) based energy aware routing algorithms. In addition to this approach, a standard clustering algorithm is also incorporates for grouping the wireless sensor nodes based on the trust score, spatial information, energy level and the distance between the nodes. In this SEAT-DSR is also capable of making decision over the evaluation metrics that are decided and expressed the QoS. Moreover, a new hierarchical trust mechanism is also introduced in this model which adopts multi-attributes of many wireless sensor nodes according to the data communication speed, data size, energy consumption, and the recommendation. This new hierarchical trust method relies over an improved the sliding window time by considering the presence of various attacks frequency to identify the attackers by discovering their anomalous behaviour. The proposed SEAT-DSR is evaluated by conducting many experiments in a simulation environment that creates by using Network Simulator-2 (NS2). The experimental results of the proposed algorithm are proved that the average packet transfer rate is increased drastically than the existing secure routing methodologies.     

Qualité des débats sur le travail : la confiance en question

The National Interprofessional Agreement of 2013 on the quality of life at work shows a willingness to institute discussion spaces allowing employees to express themselves on the quality of their work. This questions the modalities of the discussion for those who initiate it as well as for those who participate in it, trust seeming to be indispensable in order to allow for transparency and debate. The authors propose to take a further step from the analysis of a professional controversy by identifying the need to share common assumptions among peers to develop debates.     

Predictive factors of quality of life in acquired brain injury

Background/ObjectiveThe sequelae and the disability and dependence that follow an acquired brain injury (ABI) may result in a significant reduction in the quality of life (QoL) of those affected. The objective was to assess the QoL of a sample of Spanish patients with an ABI and analyze the influence of certain sociodemographic and injury-related variables on their QoL. Method: The sample comprised 421 adults (60% male; M_age = 53.12; SD = 14.87). Professionals and relatives assessed the patients’ QoL through the CAVIDACE scale, an ABI-specific tool based on the eight-domain QoL model. Results: Univariate analyses showed statistically significant differences in the QoL scores in several sociodemographic (age, civil status, education level, prior employment status, type of home, level of supports, loss of legal capacity, recognized dependence, and degree of dependence) and injury-related (time since the injury, location of the injury, and presence of post-traumatic amnesia) variables. The multiple linear regression showed that loss of legal capacity, time since the injury, prior employment status, location of the injury, and degree of dependence were significant QoL predictors. Conclusions: These findings provide knowledge for the development of programs aimed at reducing the negative impact of ABI on QoL.     

Trichotillomania: impact on psychosocial functioning and quality of life

This study explored the impact of hair pulling on psychosocial functioning for patients diagnosed with trichotillomania (TTM; n = 28). TTM patients were compared to age and gender-matched groups of psychiatric patients without TTM (n = 28) and nonpsychiatric control volunteers (NC, n = 28) on measures of psychological distress, functioning/quality of life, and self-esteem. Results indicated that TTM patients reported more severe psychosocial impairments than did NC volunteers; however, these differences were mediated by differences in level of depression. Regression analyses indicated significant relationships between some measures of psychosocial functioning and severity of hair pulling, independent of level of depression. Finally, an interview of the impact of hair pulling on 6 domains of daily functioning (negative affect/negative self-evaluations, grooming, recreational activities, social interaction, work/housework productivity, and physical health) indicated common and wide-ranging impairments for both lifetime and current (i.e., past week) ratings. These results highlight the importance of promoting and improving resources for the clinical care of TTM patients, and provide some directions for clinicians to enhance assessment of interference caused by TTM.     

The Body Image Quality of Life Inventory: further validation with college men and women

The Body Image Quality of Life Inventory (BIQLI) was recently developed to quantify both the positive and negative effects of body image on one’s psychosocial quality of life. The current study was conducted to further validate the measure with both men and women and to evaluate its psychometric reliability and validity among college students (N=603). Results confirmed that the 19-item measure was an internally consistent and unidimensional measure for both sexes. A significantly more favorable body image quality of life was reported by men than women, by African American than White women, and by women with lower body mass indices. Significant body image correlates included body image evaluation, investment, and situational dysphoria. A better body image quality of life was also related to higher self-esteem, optimism, and social support for both sexes and to less eating disturbance among women. The potential utility of this construct and unique instrument in further research, especially with medical populations, is discussed.     

Perceived health following myocardial infarction: cross-validation of the Health Complaints Scale in Danish patients

With an ageing population and a decline in cardiac mortality rates, the number of patients with cardiac disease is increasing, which in turn poses a major challenge for secondary prevention. For this end, appropriate, sensitive, and validated instruments to assess health complaints and quality of life are required. The objectives of the current study were: (1) to cross-validate the Health Complaints Scale (HCS) in a Danish sample of patients with a first myocardial infarction (MI); and (2) to investigate whether perceived health, as measured by the HCS is related to cardiac disease severity. The HCS was originally developed in Belgian patients with coronary artery disease. One-hundred-and-twelve consecutive patients with a first myocardial infarction were assessed by means of a questionnaire four to six weeks post infarction. Clinical measures were sampled from medical records. The factor structure of the HCS and the internal consistency of the Somatic Complaints (alpha = 0.91) and Cognitive Complaints subscales (alpha = 0.94) were confirmed. The construct validity of the scale was confirmed against measures of psychopathology and personality. Patients scored significantly higher on the HCS Somatic and Cognitive scales as compared with self-reports of depression and anxiety (p < 0.0001). Health complaints were unrelated to severity of cardiac disease and rather reflected subjective perception of quality of life. These findings show that the HCS is a valid instrument that is equally applicable in Danish cardiac patients to monitor perceived health as a major component of quality of life.     

Assessing quality of care and observance of human rights in residential mental health facilities in Greece through the WHO QualityRights tool kit

In this paper, we present and reflect upon the process of evaluating two residential mental health facilities in Thessaloniki, Greece, through the WHO QualityRights tool kit. The QualityRights tool kit is a structured process for assessing quality of care and human rights in mental health and social care facilities, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), introduced by the World Health Organization in 2012. We have piloted the use of the Toolkit in two supported accommodation facilities, a hostel and a service supervising independent living in apartments, for individuals with long-term severe mental health problems in the region of Thessaloniki. In this paper, we present the methodology and process of evaluating the facilities, including the challenges posed to the evaluation process by restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We showcase the outcome of this evaluation through presenting a summary of the results and the ensuing recommendations for improvement. Finally, we reflect on the usefulness, appropriateness and relevance of the Toolkit for evaluating mental health care facilities in the particular context of contemporary Greece.     

An experimental study on mother-infant skin-to-skin contact in full-terms

In premature infants, daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) has various beneficial effects on the health of the infant and the mother. These beneficial effects might extend to full-term infants. This experimental within-subject study examines the immediate effects of SSC on full-terms’ cortisol physiology during SSC and subsequent physiological and behavioral reactions to a mild stressor (a bathing session). Additionally, the effects of SSC on the quality of maternal behavior are examined.Between 5 and 7 weeks postpartum, 17 full-term infant-mother dyads were visited at home twice. During one home visit, a bathing session was proceeded by 50 min of mother-infant SSC, while during the other visit the bathing session was proceeded by 50 min of the infant resting alone. The order of the home visits was counterbalanced. Infant salivary cortisol measures were taken to measure the cortisol response to the experimental condition (SSC versus solitary resting) and the bathing session. Furthermore, infant behavioral distress and the quality of maternal behavior during the bathing session were scored from videotapes.Two-way within-subject repeated measures ANOVA’s showed that, when compared to solitary resting, full-terms’ cortisol concentrations significantly decreased during SSC, followed by higher cortisol reactivity in response to the subsequent bathing session. No effects of SSC on infant behavioral distress and maternal caregiving behavior were found. Apparently, a single session of mother-infant SSC can affect infant cortisol physiology in full-term infants. Future SSC research is needed to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms and dose-response relations in full-term infants.