Challenges Of Everyday Life Research Articles

Humanitarian Activities of the Zemstvos of Kharkiv Province During the First World War (1914–1917)

The article discusses the humanitarian activities of the zemstvos of Kharkiv province during the First World War. In military time, the whole life of the country has changed, including the tasks of various governing and self-government have been changed or expanded. Without studying the activities of the zemstvo and other public and political institutions of the period under study, in our opinion, it is impossible to objectively reconstruct the realities of the life of the population of the empire in the conditions of the First World War. The purpose of the article is to define the essence and nature of the humanitarian activity of one of the leading Ukrainian Zemstvos – Kharkiv Province. The article discusses such spheres of humanitarian activity as helping patients and wounded soldiers, work with refugees, helping the families of military personnel and disabled of war. As a study showed, in wartime, zemstvos demonstrated their own ability to adapt to the challenges of everyday life, and not only adapt, but also ability to give their activity a new meaning, enrich their tools of socially significant spheres with new methods of activity. In a short time, due to the funds of the All-Russian Zemsky Union, the provincial zemstvo and the public attracted by it, a sufficient number of places in the medical institutions of the province were organized, the sanitary security of the region was provided. Zemstvos faced a constant shortage of funds to be paid for their activities by the treasury and were forced to rely on their own sources of income. Adherence to the interests of local residents sometimes contradicted the need to implement unpopular government decisions, which in turn negatively affected the authority of the local zemstvo. Not all tasks in the field of socio-economic well-being of the region have been completed. But it is only fair to note that the activities of the zemstvos of Kharkiv province during the First World War showed a number of signs of civic responsibility and humanism.

Andrew Murray Jr as entrepreneur

This article explores a novel perspective on Andrew Murray Jr, namely his entrepreneurial spirit and characteristics. Instead of building on the view that he was a mystic who gained his energy to contribute to the practical challenges of everyday life in the spiritual realm, the article explores to which extent Murray’s role in the modernisation of Christian mission and education in South Africa can be attributed to an entrepreneurial character. The article investigates how his family history, personality, and exposure to various influences during his early life, shaped him to approach his ministry entrepreneurially. These influences include elements from various strands in the protestant tradition, including Lutheranism, Calvinism, pietism, Methodism, and the inner-worldly asceticism of English puritanism, as famously described by Max Weber. The analysis concludes that Andrew Jr approached his calling of preaching the gospel and growing the church to convert unreached souls to the love of Christ in an entrepreneurial manner.

Surviving and dying through the urban frontier: Everyday life, social brokerage and living with militias in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone

Urban margins are typically depicted as residual, apolitical spaces, where delinquent activities take place. But these spaces, with their own social, economic and political goings-on, are capable of drawing established urban economic and political structures into question. This paper brings together urban frontiers, political settlements and brokerage literatures to analyse how residents muddle through the challenges of everyday life in the urban margins and interact with coercive systems of rule. Through ethnographic fieldwork, this paper focuses on two brokers from neighbouring communities in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone; exploring how they mediate violent conditions, coercive militia rule and limited resources, and why and how they do so to different effects. By focusing on the spatial and historical dimensions of brokerage, this paper argues that power in Rio de Janeiro’s margins derives not only from coercive control and domination, but also from agency, legitimacy and social energy. By doing so, this paper unearths potential for more radical possibilities for urban development.

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN AGE, PRACTICE TIME AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE SKILLS IN BRAZILIAN ADAPTED SPORT PARTICIPANTS: A STUDY BY TYPE OF SPORT

Life skills are acquired skills necessary to cope with the demands and challenges of everyday life. These life skills are particularly important, as through these life skills learned through sport young people can transfer them to other domains of life (education, workplace, and personal relationships). The aim of the study was to identify the predictive role of age and length of practice in the development of life skills among 210 participants of adapted sports. The sample included 170 boys and 40 girls aged 11-26 years (M = 24.05, SD = 1.59) from collective and individual sports. The instruments used were the Life Skills Scale for Sport and a semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance, Pearson's Correlation and Multiple Regression (p <0.05). The results showed a significant difference (p <0.05) in all life skills according to the type of sport, evidencing higher scores for team sports. Multiple regression revealed that age and time of practice showed a positive prediction regarding life skills in both groups. In practice, the results suggest that coaches and parents should encourage practitioners of adapted sports to develop their life skills through sport, especially practitioners of individual modalities and that age and time of practice had a predictor role for the development of life skills. Received on: 2021/12/06 Reformulated on: 2022/03/31 Accepted: 2022/04/01

A Taste for Adventure

How can organised outdoor spaces compensate for children's lack of risk and challenge in everyday life? Nicole Weinstein investigates

Living at the Margins of Repression: Everyday Life and Hidden Challenges in the Azores’ Central Group, 1954–1960

At the periphery of Portuguese right-wing authoritarian rule, in the Atlantic archipelago of the Azores and its Central Group, political repression remained part of local life in the period after the Second World War. However, in spite of the Portuguese political police being installed in Terceira (in the Central Group) in 1954, this repression remained porous, and many Azoreans used the loopholes for their own advantage. The everyday life history approach allows us to understand these strategies and challenges: it shows how individuals used the internal conflicts amongst the agents of the Portuguese state or the presence of one of the principal US American military bases of the Cold War in Terceira Island. Medical doctors played out their social prestige to defend themselves of accusations, and elites of small towns used the political police to further their own goals. In some extreme cases, profiting from the internal contradictions of the regime even meant committing some small acts of democratic choice on the local level, or mobilizing against an unpopular bishop.

Of Heroes and Heartbreak

This article uses a psychoanalytic framework informed by Fantasy theory to investigate how the Japanese Role-Playing Fantasy video game Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch offers a depiction of, and engagement with, emotional issues via its deployment of literalised metaphors of affect. In doing so, it considers the overlaps between Fantasy and video games, coining the term ‘Digital Fantasy’ to describe video games which evoke Fantasy worlds and use the imagery of Fantasy as a means of communicating emotion. The close reading provided uses the work of Fantasy theorists such as Rosemary Jackson and Kathryn Hume, combined with Freudian psychoanalytic theory, to explore how Digital Fantasies use varying degrees of Fantasy and mimesis to offer interactive representations of affective processes such as mourning and melancholia. The analysis demonstrates the continued influence of psychoanalytic imagery as a means of understanding emotion, whilst posing that its deployment within Digital Fantasy situates the form as one of exploring and understanding the emotional challenges of everyday life.

Rehabilitation for children with chronic acquired brain injury in the Child in Context Intervention (CICI) study: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundPediatric acquired brain injury (pABI) is associated with long-term cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional problems, which may affect the quality of life, school, and family functioning. Yet, there is a lack of evidence-based community-centered rehabilitation programs for chronic pABI and these children do not systematically receive comprehensive rehabilitation. The Child In Context Intervention (CICI) study is a pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT) for children with chronic pABI, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an individualized and goal-oriented intervention targeting everyday functioning of the child and family.MethodsChildren aged 6–16 years with MRI/CT-verified intracranial abnormalities will be included in the CICI study if they have persistent self- or parent-reported cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges 1 year or more after insult and attend school regularly. A total of 70 families will be randomized 1:1 to an intervention or a control group. The intervention consists of seven family sessions, one parent seminar, and four school sessions delivered over approximately 6 months. The parent seminar will be held in person, and the other sessions will mainly be video based. The children’s and families’ self-reported major challenges in everyday life will be targeted using SMART goals. Evidence-based strategies, when available, will be applied to achieve the goals, combined with psychoeducation. Goal attainment scaling (GAS) will be used to evaluate goal attainment. Data is collected at baseline and after approximately 6 and 9 months. External assessors are blinded to group allocation. Primary outcomes are parent-reported brain injury symptoms in children and parenting self-efficacy at 9 months of follow-up. Secondary outcomes include child-reported brain injury symptoms, quality of life, executive functioning in daily life, parent emotional symptoms, family functioning, and unmet family health care needs. A process evaluation will be conducted.DiscussionThe current study provides an innovative approach to rehabilitation for children in the chronic phase of ABI and their families. This complex intervention may contribute to the development of evidence-based, high-quality rehabilitation for a large patient group, which is underrepresented in clinical research. It may also improve collaboration between specialized rehabilitation facilities, schools, and local health care services. Inclusion for the trial started in April 2021.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.govNCT04798859. Registered on March 15, 2021

PENGEMBANGAN PEMBELAJARAN BERBASIS INKUIRI QUR'ANI

This study aims to determine inquiry-based learning in the Qur'an, as well as its implications in the development of learning. Inquiry-based learning is one of the student-centered learning strategies influenced by the constructivism philosophy, which aims to produce competency standards for graduates who are able to think critically, creatively, communicatively, and collaboratively, as a form of life skills that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
 In general, inquiry-based learning cues can be found in the Qur'an in inquisitive verses that begin with adawât al-istifhâm, either in the form of harf al-istifhâm (particle of interrogation) or in the form of ism al-istifhâm (interrogative noun). And in particular, it can be found in a series of verses of the Qur'an in Surah al-Thur/52: 29-43. which explains the invitation to think by combining empiricism and rationalism, or the scientific method. This invitation is addressed to the Meccan polytheists who accuse (hypothesize) the Prophet Muhammad as a shaman, madman, poet, author of the Qur'an.
 Inquiry-based learning cues can also be found in a series of verses in Surah al-Anbiya'/21: 51-67, which tells about the method used by the prophet Ibrahim a.s in teaching monotheism to his people. As well as in the series of verses of the Qur'an in Surah al-An'am/6: 75-79, which describes the investigation of the prophet Ibrahim a.s into the nature of God

A New Normality Illuminated by Past and Present! A Qualitative Study: Experiences and Challenges of Everyday Life in Patients With Advanced Heart or Lung Failure

The aim of this study was to gain insight into the phenomena of everyday life as experienced and coped with by patients living with advanced heart or lung failure. We employed a qualitative design using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. Data derived from 10 nursing consultations in a holistic setting. Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation inspired the text analysis. The study emphasizes time (past, present, and future) as an overall everyday life theme, playing an essential role associated with improvements or poor outcomes related to physical, mental, and intersubjective challenges. Patients accepted and lived with the challenges, experiencing changes, as transition, but also coped with their new normal, which involved improvements or poor outcomes, some invisible to the community. Assumptions about everyday life changed significantly, the changes possibly essential for intersubjective relations. A reflective approach, can help patients to evolve, using knowledge from the past and present to cope with the future.

Workshop Compiled

Good mental health is critical to children’s happiness and success in school life. It has been proven through research that students who receive social-emotional and mental health support achieve better academically. Health and well-being as a developmental goal is well articulated in National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The covid-19 pandemic has impacted the psychosocial wellbeing of children and adolescents across the country. The WHO (2016) report on mental health estimates nearly 20% of children and adolescents are suffering from disabling mental illnesses worldwide. Suicide rates and self-harm attempts of Indian adolescents are one of the highest in the world, accounting for 25% of deaths in boys and 50-75% of deaths in girls aged 10-19 years. In recent times of Covid-19, a large spectrum of mental health issues affecting young minds and families have been reported. Schools are most impactful agents of change when it concerns the mental health and well-being of the students as these are the critical periods of student’s lives. It is the need of the hour to design a program for adaptive and positive behavior that enabling children and adolescents to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Developing core life skills from the early years in school through the Life Skills Education Paradigm is such a program which helps in evolving their awareness and creates responsible and empowered citizens for the country. Here students as ‘Life Skills and Wellbeing Ambassadors’ can play a vital role in creating a participatory climate for behavioral change and adapt to strengthen their inclusive environment. ‘The Adolescent Peer Educators Leadership Program for enriching Life Skills, Holistic Health and Wellbeing of students’ by Expressions India, has been a model of implementation in many parts of the country.The workshop will provide an opportunity to learn the methodology and implementation of Life Skills Training program. Establishing a life skills initiative at national level requires an infrastructure capable of developing a life skills program of widespread relevance and acceptability as well as managing the implementation and evaluation of the program over time. The hands-on training workshop for School Mental Health in India shall go a long way in promoting positive climate of psychosocial well-being in the school and minimizing the impact of mental health conditions.Name of proposed session speakers:a) Dr. Rushi, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Clinical Psychology, ABVIMS, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New DelhiContact number: 9910457770Email: rushi_arshad@hotmail.comb) Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Sr. Consultant Psychiatrist and Incharge, Institute of Mental Health and Life Skills Promotion, Moolchand Medcity, New Delhi, Program Director - Expressions India: The National Life Skills, Values Education & School Wellness Program.Contact number: 9810054860Email: jnagpal10@gmail.com

Shaping Better Rehabilitation to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients: Experiences of Nurses and Colleagues With an Interdisciplinary Telerehabilitation Intervention

In order to evaluate the reach of a collaborative cross-sectoral telerehabilitation intervention to patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), this study investigates how nurses and interdisciplinary colleagues experienced working with it. In two focus group interviews, the experiences of working in the empowerment and tele-based >C☺PD-Life>> program were examined among three nurses and four interdisciplinary colleagues. Data were analyzed with inspiration from Ricoeur’s theory of narrative and interpretation and discussed with Gittell’s theory of relational coordination. Nurses and colleagues experienced that the intervention paved the way for unique patient-professional coordination and interdisciplinary cross-sectoral teamwork that allowed double-layered relational coordination, focusing holistically on patients’ lived challenges in everyday life with COPD. By this rehabilitation setup, nurses and colleagues are perceived as educated to deliver high standard personalized support, raising professional pride and confidence. The findings can inspire future health-promoting initiatives within nursing support related to patients afflicted with COPD.

Preclinical and clinical evidence on the approach-avoidance conflict evaluation as an integrative tool for psychopathology.

The approach-avoidance conflict (AAC), i.e. the competing tendencies to undertake goal-directed actions or to withdraw from everyday life challenges, stands at the basis of humans' existence defining behavioural and personality domains. Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory posits that a stable bias toward approach or avoidance represents a psychopathological trait associated with excessive sensitivity to reward or punishment. Optogenetic studies in rodents and imaging studies in humans associated with cross-species AAC paradigms granted new emphasis to the hippocampus as a hub of behavioural inhibition. For instance, recent functional neuroimaging studies show that functional brain activity in the human hippocampus correlates with threat perception and seems to underlie passive avoidance. Therefore, our commentary aims to (i) discuss the inhibitory role of the hippocampus in approach-related behaviours and (ii) promote the integration of functional neuroimaging with cross-species AAC paradigms as a means of diagnostic, therapeutic, follow up and prognosis refinement in psychiatric populations.

Perspectives on Everyday Life Challenges of Danish Young People With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) on Corticosteroids

This study aimed to investigate perspectives on everyday life challenges of young persons with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Denmark treated with corticosteroids perceived by young persons and their parents to improve rehabilitation interventions. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted: 10 individual interviews with 10 persons with DMD and six individual interviews with parents (five mothers and one father) and three couple interviews (three mothers and three fathers). The analysis was guided by interpretive description methodology and Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence theory. The results indicated that persons with Duchenne muscular dystrophy existed in a flux between experiencing greater Sense of Coherence revolving around normality and less Sense of Coherence exposing their vulnerability which unfolded in four opposing themes: (1) bodily ability and disability, (2) content and anxious, (3) sociable and lonely, and (4) independent and dependent. Future rehabilitation should aim at supporting resistance resources promoting bodily ability, being content, sociable, and independent.

Asymmetric effects of acute stress on cost and benefit learning

BackgroundHumans are continuously exposed to stressful challenges in everyday life. Such stressful events trigger a complex physiological reaction – the fight-or-flight response – that can hamper flexible decision-making and learning. Inspired by key neural and peripheral characteristics of the fight-or-flight response, here, we ask whether acute stress changes how humans learn about costs and benefits. MethodsHealthy adults were randomly exposed to an acute stress (age mean=23.48, 21/40 female) or no-stress control (age mean=23.80, 22/40 female) condition, after which they completed a reinforcement learning task in which they minimize cost (physical effort) and maximize benefits (monetary rewards). During the task pupillometry data were collected. A computational model of cost-benefit reinforcement learning was employed to investigate the effect of acute stress on cost and benefit learning and decision-making. ResultsAcute stress improved learning to maximize rewards relative to minimizing physical effort (Condition-by-Trial Type interaction: F(1,78)= 6.53, p = 0.01, n2G= 0.04; reward > effort in stress condition: t(39) = 5.40, p < 0.01). Computational modelling revealed that asymmetric learning could be explained by changes in the learning rates of reward value and action cost [condition-by-learning rate (αR, αE) interaction: F(1,78)= 6.42, p = 0.01, n2G= 0.03; αE> αR in control condition: t(39) = −4.75, p < 0.001]. This process was associated with distinct alterations in pupil size fluctuations. Data and scripts are available (https://osf.io/ydv2q/). ConclusionsHere we demonstrate that acute stress is associated with asymmetric learning about reward value versus action cost, thereby providing new insights into learning strategies under acute stress, which, depending on the context, may be maladaptive or beneficial. Our pupillometry and physiological results tentatively link asymmetric cost and benefit learning to stress-related changes in catecholamine activity.

Psychosocial Interventions for People With Dementia and Their Caregivers in Primary Care

Psychosocial interventions, such as occupational and behavioral therapy are effective opportunities to support people with dementia and their caregivers in adapting to the cognitive and behavioral changes and the resulting challenges in everyday life they are facing. However, psychosocial interventions do not seem to have found their way into routine care yet. We wanted to get an insight into the knowledge and attitudes general practitioners have about occupational and behavioral therapy. In an online survey we asked medical students about the relevance of dementia, occupational therapy, and behavioral therapy during their studies. In another online survey we asked practitioners what they had learned about these topics and to what extent they are making use of psychosocial interventions. Then semi-structured interviews were carried out with general practitioners all over Germany, exploring their experiences with dementia and psychosocial interventions in primary care as well as their expectations regarding interdisciplinary cooperation. It became obvious that psychosocial interventions are not conveyed sufficiently within medical school. A lack of occupational therapy prescriptions for people with dementia seemed to result from uncertainties regarding the content of the approach and the budgeting of the prescriptions. Barriers for prescriptions of behavioral treatment were a lack of therapy places and the perceived inadequacy of the approach for this target group. General retentions to invest in people with dementia were expressed. These obstacles need to be overcome in order to provide optimal care for people with dementia and their family caregivers.

Psychosocial Interventions for People With Dementia and Their Caregivers in Primary Care

Psychosocial interventions, such as occupational and behavioral therapy are effective opportunities to support people with dementia and their caregivers in adapting to the cognitive and behavioral changes and the resulting challenges in everyday life they are facing. However, psychosocial interventions do not seem to have found their way into routine care yet. We wanted to get an insight into the knowledge and attitudes general practitioners have about occupational and behavioral therapy. In an online survey we asked medical students about the relevance of dementia, occupational therapy, and behavioral therapy during their studies. In another online survey we asked practitioners what they had learned about these topics and to what extent they are making use of psychosocial interventions. Then semi-structured interviews were carried out with general practitioners all over Germany, exploring their experiences with dementia and psychosocial interventions in primary care as well as their expectations regarding interdisciplinary cooperation. It became obvious that psychosocial interventions are not conveyed sufficiently within medical school. A lack of occupational therapy prescriptions for people with dementia seemed to result from uncertainties regarding the content of the approach and the budgeting of the prescriptions. Barriers for prescriptions of behavioral treatment were a lack of therapy places and the perceived inadequacy of the approach for this target group. General retentions to invest in people with dementia were expressed. These obstacles need to be overcome in order to provide optimal care for people with dementia and their family caregivers.

Life Challenges and Barriers to Help Seeking: Adolescents' and Young Adults' Voices of Mental Health.

Listening to the voices of adolescents and young adults regarding their lived experiences could be a way to identify important skills and abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that will enable youth to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Hence, the aim with the current study is to explore the experiences and understandings of the life situation among adolescents and young adults of today, by making their voices heard in regards to mental health and help-seeking behaviour. A total of 6 group interviews were conducted with 22 adolescents and young adults (13 girls and 9 boys) ages 17–25 (M = 18.6 years). Data analysis was conducted using qualitative content analysis and resulted in two categories and five subcategories. The first category, Life challenges, included views on the sources of mental health, how to manage different types of relationships, and thoughts on accepted ways to express mental health problems. The second category, The need of present adults, highlighted important aspects for seeking help, such as an expressed need to be seen and heard by adults including parents, school staff, and other professionals as well as a need for adults’ increased availability. The challenges to students’ well-being and mental health are many, and there are no simple solutions. Based on the results in this study, life skills training should include elements to enhance the development of individual coping strategies, to be applied when life feels tough and when the body is experiencing stress reactions. Further, to minimize the risk of self-stigma and the internalization of negative stereotypes and self-blame, life skills training should include elements to increase knowledge of structural factors that have effects on the life situation as well as parents, school personnel, and other important adults.

The Effects of Preterm Birth on Musculoskeletal Health-Related Disorders.

Preterm birth is associated with various diseases and conditions which demand multidisciplinary medical care. Approximately 10% of all neonates are born prematurely with an increasing survival rate in almost all Western countries. This ongoing, yet desirable trend is creating new challenges for sufficient medical treatment regimens, which should be upheld throughout the patients’ lives. Orthopedic surgeons are focused on musculoskeletal disorders and the improvement of patients’ ability to cope with the challenges of everyday life. The most common conditions associated with preterm birth are cerebral palsy and a dysregulation of the calcium/phosphorus metabolism, which may lead to fractures. These diseases may vary greatly in their organic manifestation and clinical presentation. This demands multidisciplinary cooperation and parental support. Clinical management is aimed on the early enhancement of a patient’s physical, as well as neurological condition, and to prevent the development of secondary musculoskeletal disorders. In this article, we give an overview of the current literature on the most common musculoskeletal disorders associated with preterm birth and critically discuss state of the art diagnostic standards and treatment algorithms.

Machine learning and COVID-19: a tool for healthcare setting choice by primary care physicians

BackgroundPrimary care physicians have a crucial role in determining the appropriate healthcare setting for their confirmed or suspect COVID-19 patients. Machine learning provides science-based tools that can be used for clinical decision-making which have already been applied to the fight against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) both in the therapeutic and the prevention area. The aim of this study was to develop a machine learning-based tool to support primary care physicians to decide between home monitoring and hospitalization for their patients before diagnostic test results are available.MethodsA retrospective cohort study with data from a hospital setting was performed. Patients' medical history and clinical, laboratory and radiological findings were collected and the dataset was used to train a predictive model for COVID-19 severity. The patients were divided between confirmed and suspect cases on the basis of the positivity of the nasopharyngeal RT-PCR test results. A splitting algorithm was recursively used to choose the predictor. A decision tree was built.ResultsA total of 198 subjects were enrolled for the study. Out of them, 28 cases were classified as mild disease, 62 as moderate disease, 64 as severe disease, and 44 as critical disease, according to WHO guidelines. The G2 value was used to determine the contribution of each obtained value to build the decision tree. The tree was, therefore, built choosing values that maximized G2 and LogWorth. SpO2 (cut point = 92%) was chosen for the optimal first split. The correspondence between inputs and outcomes was validated.ConclusionsOur tool provides accurate clinical severity prediction for both confirmed and suspect COVID-19 patients. We, therefore, propose its implementation in the everyday life challenges of primary care physicians to support their clinical decision-making in providing appropriate and timely care for their patients.Key messages Primary care physicians have a crucial role in determining the appropriate healthcare setting for their confirmed or suspect COVID-19 patients.We propose a tool that provides an accurate clinical severity prediction for both confirmed and suspect COVID-19 patients to help choosing the appropriate healthcare setting for them.