Life Of People Research Articles

Family influence on stigma internalisation in people with severe mental illness: A grounded theory study.

The internalisation of stigma has adverse effects on the recovery and quality of life of people with severe mental illnesses. Studies have shown that life experiences in one's close environment are highly relevant in explaining the onset and development of self-stigma. Families play a critical role in the daily care of people with severe mental illness and have a profound impact on patient recovery. This qualitative study explored the influence of family on stigma internalisation among people with severe mental illness in the context of Chinese culture. A grounded theory design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 patients with severe mental illness and 10 family members, and observations were carried out among five of the families. The data analysis followed three steps (open, axial and selective coding) and involved the use of a constant comparative method and memo writing. The COREQ reporting checklist was used to report the results. Our findings revealed that families can facilitate and impede stigma internalisation in people with severe mental illness via negative or positive daily interactions. A theoretical framework was developed to present the potential effects of the identified family factors on stigma internalisation. Three major family factors influencing patients' internalised stigma were identified, namely, "beliefs of family members" at the individual level, "responses within the family" at the intrafamilial level and "differentiated family environment" at the level of the whole family system, in which "biased beliefs of family members" could bring about "negative responses within the family" and further result in patients' internalised stigma. Our findings suggested that mental health stigma internalised by ill people should be viewed within the broad context of the family. Family-based programs aimed at improving positive interactions and support within the family need to be developed and launched, with particular attention given to interventions for affiliate stigma, coping with stigma and families' negative responses towards people with severe mental illness to prevent the internalisation of stigma by patients.

"Being Queer, It Was Really Isolating": Stigma and Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Young People During COVID-19.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) youth and young adults (YYAs) have poorer mental health outcomes than their cisgender, heterosexual peers in large part due to multilevel stigmatization and minority stress. This was exacerbated by psychological stressors stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic; these experiences intersected with YYA unique developmental stage. Here we explored LGBTQ+ YYA's pandemic-related experiences, focusing on intersections between stigma and belonging, developmental processes, and their relationship to mental health. We conducted qualitative interviews from August to November 2021 with 34 LGBTQ+ YYA ages 14 to 24; interviews were nested within a quantitative study on YYA experiences during COVID-19. Interviews were transcribed and coded using thematic analysis. YYA described how pandemic impacts like quarantine and isolation directly impacted their mental health; these coalesced around four types of thematic shifts: shifts in (1) time, (2) living situations, (3) community supports, and (4) social and political climate. Multilevel stigmatization also created new mechanisms of norm enforcement for LGBTQ+ YYA. Interviews demonstrated how the pandemic also impacted key developmental processes including identity formation and autonomy seeking. The potential consequences of these pandemic-related shifts largely depended on YYA's experiences of stigma and/or belonging throughout the pandemic. Findings suggested that isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic intersected with existing socio-ecological structures in LGBTQ+ young people's lives. Efforts to investigate longitudinal impacts of the pandemic, as well as to intervene to reduce the stigmatization experienced by LGBTQ+ YYA, remain urgent.

A Delphi Approach to Define Lucid Episodes in People Living With Dementia.

Lucid episodes (LEs: unexpected episodes of spontaneous, meaningful, and relevant communication or behavior) in Alzheimer disease and related dementias are a new area of scientific inquiry that lacks clinical consensus and require more conceptual attention. We aimed to measure consensus from an expert group on: (1) potential medical or clinical explanations for LEs; (2) necessary medical and clinical context to LEs; and (3) interpretation of LEs. We convened 13 experts from different disciplines (neurology, psychiatry, psychology, pharmacy, palliative care, hospice, nursing, social work, primary care, geriatrics, and professional home caregivers) to identify elements of LEs. Experts provided a range of opinions on medical and clinical explanations and questions to understand LEs. Consensus on LEs when presented with clinical vignettes was not reached. Panelists highlighted key medical and contextual factors needed to make a definitive judgement about LEs. There is variability in how LEs are interpreted by clinical experts, which complicates the identification of LEs in Alzheimer disease and related dementias.

What is current care for people with Long COVID in England? A qualitative interview study.

To investigate current care for people with Long COVID in England. In-depth, semistructured interviews with people living with Long COVID and Long COVID healthcare professionals; data analysed using thematic analysis. National Health Service England post-COVID-19 services in six clinics from November 2022 to July 2023. 15 healthcare professionals and 21 people living with Long COVID currently attending or discharged (18 female; 3 male). Health professionals and people with lived experience highlighted the multifaceted nature of Long COVID, including its varied symptoms, its impact on people's lives and the complexity involved in managing this condition. These impacts encompass physical, social, mental and environmental dimensions. People with Long COVID reported barriers in accessing primary care, as well as negative general practitioner consultations where they felt unheard or invalidated, though some positive interactions were also noted. Peer support or support systems proved highly valuable and beneficial for individuals, aiding their recovery and well-being. Post-COVID-19 services were viewed as spaces where overlooked voices found validation, offering more than medical expertise. Despite initial challenges, healthcare providers' increasing expertise in diagnosing and treating Long COVID has helped refine care approaches for this condition. Long COVID care in England is not uniform across all locations. Effective communication, specialised expertise and comprehensive support systems are crucial. A patient-centred approach considering the unique complexities of Long COVID, including physical, mental health, social and environmental aspects is needed. Sustained access to post-COVID-19 services is imperative, with success dependent on offering continuous rehabilitation beyond rapid recovery, acknowledging the condition's enduring impacts and complexities.

The Perceived Quality of Life of Older People in Spain Who Care for Grandchildren and Related Variables: A Mixed Methods Study

The Perceived Quality of Life of Older People in Spain Who Care for Grandchildren and Related Variables: A Mixed Methods Study

Multidisciplinary Complex Treatment of Parkinson's disease : Cornerstone of an individualized treatment

The inpatient Parkinson's disease multimodal complex treatment (PD-MCT) was applied more than 15,000 times in 2022, in Germany. This number is increasing as is Parkinson's disease (PD), which affects more than 400,000 people in Germany and leads to 100,000 disability-adjusted life years. In recent years, several observational studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of this kind of multidisciplinary care. To summarize and discuss the evidence on the nature, benefits and potential of PD-MCT. Anarrative review of selected empirical findings was carried out. The PD-MCT frequently lasts for 2-3 weeks and aims to maintain the quality of life of people with PD. Disease symptoms and activities of daily living are jointly improved by pharmacological strategies and activating therapies (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physical training, art therapy). The PD-MCT is auseful measure to avoid or mitigate crisis situations in the course of the disease. A total of eight observational studies (n = 1246) have shown good effectiveness with a total mean improvement of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society unified Parkinson's disease rating scaleIII (MDS-UPDRSIII) by 7.8points. The transfer of effects into everyday life through intensive and specialized community-based care must be ensured in order to achieve sustained effects on the quality of life. Ideally, this transfer can be supported by integrated PD networks and digital technologies in the future. There is potential for development in the standardization, patient selection and quality assurance of PD-MCT as well as in the embedding in care structures such as PD networks. Open research questions include aprecise definition of the target group and higher quality evidence of short-term and long-term effectiveness.

Assessing the factors that influence the utilization and delivery of rehabilitation services among persons with Parkinson's disease: A scoping review.

Rehabilitation has the potential to significantly improve the lives of people and, most importantly, for persons with Parkinson's disease (PD). Although numerous studies have reported the benefits of rehabilitation for persons with PD (PwPD), these services are still limited and underutilized even when patients exhibit problems that require rehabilitation. This review aims to describe the (a) indication for referral for rehabilitation services, (b) patterns of referral for rehabilitation and (c) factors that facilitate or hinder the utilization and delivery of rehabilitation services among PwPD. A comprehensive literature search was conducted across selected databases, African Journals Online, EBSCOhost (CINAHL, Africa-wide), PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science. Studies published in English from January 2002 until December 2022 were applied as limiters. Reference and grey data sources tracking were also conducted. Two reviewers conducted the study selection, screening of titles, abstracts and full text and data charting. A descriptive analysis was performed. Findings were narratively presented and illustrated with tables, diagrams and descriptive formats as appropriate. Twelve studies were included in the review; however, none were from Africa. Impairments and activity limitations were the key functioning problems indicated for rehabilitation. Age, gender, income, race, disease stage, specific functioning problems, quality of life and care by a neurologist were the main predictors for referral to rehabilitation. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy were the most utilized rehabilitation services and were sometimes utilized together. The rate of rehabilitation service utilization among PwPD ranged from 0.9% to 62.5%. Lack of referrals and limited rehabilitation units/professionals were the common barriers to rehabilitation service utilization. Per the studies reviewed, utilization of rehabilitation services is generally low among PwPD. Lack of referral and nonavailability of professionals are cited as barriers to access. Adequate measures are needed to improve rehabilitation services for all PwPD.

Theories, models and frameworks to understand barriers to the provision of mobility-assistive technologies: a scoping review

ObjectivesThere is strong evidence that mobility-assistive technologies improve occupational performance, social participation, educational and employment access and overall quality of life in people with disabilities. However, people with disabilities still...

The effect of social support on the emotional well-being of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Exploring the mediating role of spirituality.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that, so far, is considered always fatal. Treatments mainly consist in increasing survival and aim to improve the quality of life of people with ALS (pwALS). Social support and spirituality have been shown to play a key role in pwALS' quality of life. Our study explored it in depth by investigating the underlying mechanisms linking social support, spirituality, and emotional well-being. Thirty-six pwALS underwent a battery of tests evaluating emotional well-being (emotional well-being scale of the 40-item Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire), social support (6-item Social Support Questionnaire), and spiritual well-being (12-item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual well-being). Our recruitment was web-based through the FILSLAN and the ARSLA websites as well as through Facebook® advertisements (ALS groups). Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis and Process macro was used in an SPSS program to analyze the mediator variable effect. Availability of social support, spiritual well-being, and 2 of its dimensions, i.e., meaning and peace, were positively correlated with emotional well-being. The mediational analyses showed that spiritual well-being, meaning, and peace act as mediators in the association between availability of social support and good emotional well-being. Availability of social support and spirituality are essential for the emotional well-being of pwALS. Spirituality as a mediator between availability of social support and emotional well-being appears as real novel finding which could be explored further. Spiritual well-being, meaning, and peace appear as coping resources for pwALS. We provide practical guidance for professionals working with pwALS.

Health-Related Quality of Life in People with Advanced HIV Disease, from 1996 to 2021: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of advanced HIV disease (AHD) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in PLHIV, the changes in HRQoL outcomes over the last 25years, and the differences between countries according to level of economic development. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. The search was conducted in PubMed and Web of Science using the terms: "health-related quality of life", "HQRoL", "HIV", "AIDS", "advanced HIV disease" and "low CD4 cells". Studies inclusion criteria were: adult population; initiated after 1996 and published before July 2021; clinical trials, cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies; studies analyzing the relationship between AHD and HRQoL; English or Spanish language. Standardized mean differences (d+) were calculated to estimate the effect size for the meta-analyses. Summary statistics were calculated using a random-effects model, and analyses of effect moderators, using mixed-effects models. The meta-analysis included 38 studies. The results indicated that HRQoL is worse in patients with AHD compared to those without. The main HRQoL domains affected were overall health perception and concern and physical and functional health and symptoms. We found a moderate impact for age and gender on some HRQoL domains. There were no differences in relation to socioeconomic inequities, country of residence, or time period analyzed. In conclusion, advanced HIV disease has a negative impact on health and well-being in PLHIV. Our results show that despite all the advances in antiretroviral treatments over the last 25years, AHD persists as a source of extreme vulnerability, regardless of where PLHIV live.

Adverse drug reactions associated with COVID-19 management.

The emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak, which causes COVID-19, had a devastating impact on both people's lives and the global economy. During the course of the pandemic, the lack of specific drugs or treatments tailored for COVID-19 led to extensive repurposing of existing drugs in the pursuit of effective treatments. Some drug molecules demonstrated efficacy, while others proved ineffective. In this context, the approach of drug repurposing emerged as a novel strategy for combating COVID-19. Repurposed drugs and biologics have shown effectiveness, leading to improved clinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19. Similarly,It is equally important to assess the risk-benefit ratio associated with drugs and biologics adapted for COVID-19 treatment. Herein, we primarily focus on evaluating adverse drug events linked to repurposed COVID-19 medications, repurposed biologics, and COVID-specific drug molecules.

A brain machine interface framework for exploring proactive control of smart environments

Brain machine interfaces (BMIs) can substantially improve the quality of life of elderly or disabled people. However, performing complex action sequences with a BMI system is onerous because it requires issuing commands sequentially. Fundamentally different from this, we have designed a BMI system that reads out mental planning activity and issues commands in a proactive manner. To demonstrate this, we recorded brain activity from freely-moving monkeys performing an instructed task and decoded it with an energy-efficient, small and mobile field-programmable gate array hardware decoder triggering real-time action execution on smart devices. Core of this is an adaptive decoding algorithm that can compensate for the day-by-day neuronal signal fluctuations with minimal re-calibration effort. We show that open-loop planning-ahead control is possible using signals from primary and pre-motor areas leading to significant time-gain in the execution of action sequences. This novel approach provides, thus, a stepping stone towards improved and more humane control of different smart environments with mobile brain machine interfaces.

EMOTION BASED MUSIC RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM

The daily lives of people are greatly influenced by music. Everyone wants to listen to music that suits their personal tastes and mood. Users are constantly needed to manually browse the music and construct a playlist based on their mood. The suggested project, which creates a music playlist depending on users' current moods, is quite effective. The most effective approach to convey a person's current mood is through their facial expressions. Webcams are used to capture facial expressions, which are then fed into a learning algorithm to determine the most likely emotion. The emotion recognition system is built using the FER 2013 dataset for training, which allows it to identify seven different emotions. Its operation involves capturing live video input from a webcam, processing it through the model, and then providing a prediction of the detected emotion. By employing webcams to capture real-time facial expressions, the system dynamically adapts playlist recommendations to match the user's emotional state. This seamless integration of emotion recognition technology with music selection enhances user experience by ensuring that the music aligns with their current feelings, thereby fostering a more immersive and personalized listening experience.

Impact of Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Risk on the Quality of Life of People Living with HIV.

The time elapsed since HIV infection diagnosis (TdiagHIV) affects the quality of life (QoL) and can get worse when chronic illnesses start. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular risk (CVR) on the QoL of people living with HIV (PLHIV). Cross-sectional study, with 60 PLHIV followed at a Reference Center in the city of Jataí, Goiás, Brazil. Data collection involved sociodemographic, clinical, CVR, MetS, and QoL information. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, with the BioEstat 5.3 program adopting p0.05. There was a predominance of men (61.7%), aged ≥38 years (53.3%), with a TdiagHIV of 97.88Añ85.65 months and use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) of 80.13Añ69.37 months. The worst domain of QoL was concern about confidentiality (40 points), and the best was medication concerns (95 points). MetS predominated at 18.3% and a moderate CVR at 11.7%. MetS was positively associated with age 38 years, the female sex, with the lowest score in QoL for general function, and the highest for TdiagHIV and the use of ART (p0.05). A moderate CRV was positively related to higher TdiagHIV and ART use, and low HDL-c, and the lowest score for QoL was found for trust in a professional (p0.05). PLHIV who are older, have a higher TdiagHIV, and use ART are more likely to develop MetS and moderate CVR. The presence of these diseases in PLHIV causes impairment in areas of QoL.

Overcoming Bureaucratization. Rethinking the Social Work Model in Dialogue with Roma

Social Work was born to find and implement actions that succeed at alleviating or overcoming human suffering. Far from this objective, the scientific literature has highlighted that, during the pandemic, the serious situation of disadvantaged communities, including much of the Roma community, has underscored the historical evolution of the discipline towards bureaucratization. However, more research is needed to identify and analyze the actions through which many Social Work professionals have had the opportunity to rethink the current hegemonic model of social intervention. This study analyzes the main characteristics of some such actions. This research has been carried out following the communicative methodology through 40 semi-structured interviews to Social Work professionals in social services, educational centers and civic organizations. Results show that a constant dialogue with Roma communities, overcoming bureaucratization by changing intervention to co-create the best solutions, and a professional and human commitment at the service of people are common characteristics of those actions. These findings illustrate elements with which some Social Workers have been able to rethink the social intervention model they previously followed, allowing them to transform such model and regain the origins of the discipline towards finding the best solutions to improve the situations and lives of many Roma people.

Porositas Serbuk Jahe Merah (Zingiber officinale Roscae var. Rubrum) terhadap Variasi Suhu dan Kadar Gula Pasir

Ginger is one of Indonesia's most abundant and widespread cultivated plants and is widely used in people's daily lives as a raw material and additive in the manufacture of food and beverages. One type of ginger that is in great demand in the herbal beverage industry is red ginger. The bioactive compounds found in ginger include 6-gingerol, 6-paradol, 6-methylshogaol, 8-methylshogaol, 8-gingerol, 10-gingerol and 6-shogaol. Red ginger contains various bioactive compounds with pharmacological effects such as analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, antioxidant and cardiotonic effects. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is a microscopy technique used to produce high-resolution images of the surface of an electron sample. This study aimed to analyze the porosity of red ginger powder against variations in temperature and sugar content. The temperatures were 80 and 90°C with a sugar content of 60 and 100%. The results showed that the increase and decrease in the percentage of porosity values were caused by differences in temperature variations applied to the crystallization process. The rate of red ginger powder's porosity that approaches the fresh red ginger rate is red ginger powder at 80°C and 60% crystallization agent. The research results contributed to the characteristics of the materials used and the development of red ginger drink powder products.

EarSleep: In-ear Acoustic-based Physical and Physiological Activity Recognition for Sleep Stage Detection

Since sleep plays an important role in people's daily lives, sleep monitoring has attracted the attention of many researchers. Physical and physiological activities occurring in sleep exhibit unique patterns in different sleep stages. It indicates that recognizing a wide range of sleep activities (events) can provide more fine-grained information for sleep stage detection. However, most of the prior works are designed to capture limited sleep events and coarse-grained information, which cannot meet the needs of fine-grained sleep monitoring. In our work, we leverage ubiquitous in-ear microphones on sleep earbuds to design a sleep monitoring system, named EarSleep1, which interprets in-ear body sounds induced by various representative sleep events into sleep stages. Based on differences among physical occurrence mechanisms of sleep activities, EarSleep extracts unique acoustic response patterns from in-ear body sounds to recognize a wide range of sleep events, including body movements, sound activities, heartbeat, and respiration. With the help of sleep medicine knowledge, interpretable acoustic features are derived from these representative sleep activities. EarSleep leverages a carefully designed deep learning model to establish the complex correlation between acoustic features and sleep stages. We conduct extensive experiments with 48 nights of 18 participants over three months to validate the performance of our system. The experimental results show that our system can accurately detect a rich set of sleep activities. Furthermore, in terms of sleep stage detection, EarSleep outperforms state-of-the-art solutions by 7.12% and 9.32% in average precision and average recall, respectively.

ROLE OF MICRO FINANCE COMPANIES IN WELFARE OF BELOW POVERTY LINE PEOPLE KNOWLEDGE TO YOUTH

This study focuses on microfinance firms’ tremendous effect on improving the lives of people who are below the poverty line. It is through such organizations that individuals can access financial facilities as well as small credits which help foster inclusive finance systems for marginalized communities. The report also examines ways in which these institutions contribute towards knowledge in money matters thereby enabling persons to make logical choices about their finances while managing them prudently too. It brings out this point by using real-life examples and proofs from research showing that not only do micro-financial initiatives reduce pauperism but they also trigger the growth of economies and development socially in areas where banking services are not available considering that such regions tend to be underserved by other financial institutions. This article stresses the significance of giving credit to poor people because it breaks unnecessary dependency on welfare thus creating sustainable livelihoods for less privileged members within society.

THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AS THE BASIS OF CONTINUOUS ECOLOGICAL TRAINING OF FUTURE TEACHERS

Increasing attention to the ecological training of young people in the system of modern education is one of the important problems nowadays. Guarantees of environmental protection are presented in ecological knowledge, abilities and skills, as well as in the socio-cultural behavior and worldview of the population. Therefore, one of the priority tasks of the educational system is the formation of the ecological culture of the younger generation through the implementation of a system of continuous environmental education based on the principles of sustainable development. The purpose of the article is to investigate the problem of continuous ecological training of future teachers based on sustainable development. Research methods: analysis and synthesis of scientific literature (to clarify key research concepts), systematization, and generalization (for the purpose of forming the author's conclusions). It is established that ensuring the sustainable development of society involves positive life activities of people through the creation of conditions that contribute to the harmonization of their relationships, development, and satisfaction of their needs in the socio-natural environment, providing opportunities for the formation of ecological culture in the educational sphere. The peculiarities of continuous ecological training of future teachers based on the concept of sustainable development are studied, and the content and results of this process are highlighted. The goal of continuous ecological training for sustainable development is to teach people to manage the quality of life; the formation of an ecological culture in the young generation, which involves the ecological orientation of the individual, the ability to increase their ecological education and literacy, to carry out social-ecological and ecological-project activities for the benefit of sustainable development. The main tasks of continuous ecological training are the formation of scientific knowledge and ecologically oriented knowledge, the development of environmental protection skills and abilities aimed at improving the state of the environment and improving the quality of life of people, and the upbringing of a highly educated and ecologically cultural personality. Continuous ecological education for the benefit of sustainable development originates in preschool education institutions, where for the first time children master the basics of environmental education and culture, and form an idea of their unity with nature. The next stage is general secondary education, where students form environmental competence and develop an environmental outlook. The next level of the continuous ecological education system is the higher school, where the professional ecological training of the future teacher is carried out, the value-meaning sphere of the individual is formed, social-ecological norms of professional activity are mastered.

Revolutionizing crowd surveillance through voice-driven face recognition empowering rapid identification: towards development of sustainable smart cities

Abstract Recent global efforts to create sustainable smart cities have significantly transformed society and improved the lives of people. Nowadays, crowd surveillance (CS) has become essential in sustainable smart cities and society to protect public safety and security. In this regard, the face-based human detection system has received considerable attention because it is recognized as an emerging method in crowd surveillance applications. Thus, in this work, a new method for real-time identification of people for a crowd surveillance system (CSS) that uses facial and speech recognition technology has been introduced. In traditional CS systems, human operators are frequently used by crowd surveillance systems to watch and evaluate video feeds. Human error and operator weariness may result in lost opportunities or slow replies, which reduce the system's efficacy. Certain procedures, including the initial identification and monitoring of people in video feeds, can be automated using a voice-activated system. To address the issues with the present CSS, a new framework Voice-Activated Face Recognition (VAFR) is proposed in this work. 
The proposed framework combines the speech and face recognition models for crowd surveillance. Experimental and simulation studies have been performed to analyze the performance of the proposed VAFR framework. The proposed framework uses the Viola-Jones algorithm for face identification and the Conformer architecture for speech analysis, reaching a noteworthy 99.7% accuracy rate in live video feeds. In addition, the ethical and safety aspect of the proposed VAFR system is presented.