Psychological Health Status Research Articles

From Passion to Abyss: The Mental Health of Athletes during COVID-19 Lockdown.

The outbreak and pandemic of COVID-19 forced people into extreme isolation and social distancing, with significant limitations on various activity sectors, including sports. This study aimed to assess the psychological health status of athletes during sports lockdown. Additionally, we intend to verify the mediating role of sleep disorders in stress perception and subjective happiness. Our sample was composed of 1492 Portuguese athletes from eight different team sports. During sports lockdown, athletes were found to have high stress levels and low subjective happiness levels and experience sleep disorders. Finally, these results conclude that sports lockdowns harm athletes' psychological health and well-being. Pay cuts to athletes are an extra stress factor that exacerbate these adverse effects on psychological health. Finally, sleep is a mediator variable between stress perception and subjective happiness levels. This study's significant contributions, limitations, and future directions are discussed in the conclusion.

Local, collaborative, stepped, and personalized care management for older people with chronic diseases – results from the randomized controlled LoChro-trial

BackgroundIn the aging population of Western societies, an increasing number of older adults have multiple chronic diseases. As multifaceted health problems imply the involvement of several healthcare professionals, multimorbid older people frequently face a fragmentation of health care. Addressing these challenges, we developed a local, collaborative, stepped, and personalized care management approach (LoChro-Care) and evaluated its effectiveness.MethodsA two-group, parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted comparing LoChro-Care recipients (IG) to participants with usual care (CG). Patients aged 65 + with chronic conditions were recruited at inpatient and outpatient departments of the Medical Center, University of Freiburg. Participants were allocated using block randomization (nIG = 261, nCG = 263). LoChro-Care comprised individualized care provided by chronic care managers with 7 to 13 contacts over 12 months. Questionnaires were given at 3 time points (T0: baseline, T1: after 12 months, T2: after 18 months). The primary outcome was the physical, psychological, and social health status represented by a composite score of functional health and depressive symptoms. Secondary outcomes were the participants’ evaluation of their health care situation, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and life-satisfaction (LS). The data were analyzed using linear mixed modelling.ResultsWe analyzed N = 491 participants (nIG = 244, nCG = 247), aged M = 76.78 years (SD = 6.35). For the composite endpoint, neither a significant difference between IG and CG (p = .88) nor a group-time interaction (p = .52; p = .88) could be observed. Participants in both groups showed a significant decline on the primary outcome between T0 and T2 (p < .001). Post hoc analyses revealed a decline in both functional health (p < .001) and depressive symptoms (p = .02). Both groups did not differ in their evaluation of their health care situation (p = .93), HRQL (p = .44) or LS (p = .32). Relevant confounding variables were female gender and multimorbidity.ConclusionSupporting patients’ self-management in coordinating their individual care network through LoChro-Care did not result in any significant effect on the primary and secondary outcomes. A decline of functional health and depressive symptoms was observed among all participants. Potential future intervention adaptations are discussed, such as a more active case management through direct referral to (in-)formal support, an earlier treatment initiation, and the consideration of specific sociodemographic factors in care management planning.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register (DRKS): DRKS00013904 (02.02.2018), https://drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00013904

The Mediating Effect of Psychological Status on Women's Decision to Disclose Partner Violence

Purpose The purpose of the study was to investigate the mediating effect of psychological health status on women's decision to disclose their exposure to partner violence. Methods: Data for this cross-sectional study was collected from women working in a higher educational institution. Data about partner violence, psychological health, and decision to disclose the violence experience were collected. Path analysis was used to meet the study aim. Results: Major results revealed that women's psychological health status influenced their decision to disclose violence and psychological status worked as a mediating factor between experiences of psychological violence and decision to disclose partner violence. Conclusions: Employment, education, self-esteem, and lack of economic suffering were protective factors against the development of psychological problems in women. Disclosure of violence is considered a coping strategy that prevents progression of more psychological health problems and enables women to continue in their life. It is recommended to enhance women's disclosure of violence which, consequently, enables them to get support and advice. Further, employers need to be encouraged to provide protective tools such as proper security measures to safeguard their employees. Finally, it is recommended to use standardized screening tools as part of the assessment protocol in health care settings.

Health State Questionnaires Deployed in Ulcerative Colitis Patients: The Medical, Psychological, and Economic Perspective.

To determine how the health state of ulcerative colitis patients is impacted by their disease, different health state questionnaires are deployed. This study examines to what extent these health state questionnaires determine the same underlying health state concept and to what extent the complementary use of the health state questionnaires has added value for physicians. In total, 307 patients were enrolled in this cross-sectional multicenter cohort study. Medical, psychological, economic, and composite health state questionnaires were administered to determine reliability, convergent validity, and explained variance. Reliability was determined using Cronbach's alpha. Convergent validity was measured using Spearman's correlation coefficients. Explained variance was interpreted using R-squared coefficients. All questionnaires can be considered reliable. The medical, psychological, and economic health state questionnaires show weak to moderate convergent validity with each other. The medical, psychological, and economic health state questionnaires also explain limited variance in each other's outcomes. The composite health state questionnaire shows moderate to strong convergent validity with the other health state questionnaires. The composite health state questionnaire further explains considerable variance in the outcomes of the other health state questionnaires. Deploying divergent medical, psychological, and economic health state questionnaires may have added value as they provide a multiperspective holistic insight into patients' health states. Deploying the composite health state questionnaire combined with other health state questionnaires may have added value as it provides additional understanding of their outcomes. Deploying an independent psychological health state questionnaire may have added value as it shows particularly limited convergent validity and explained variance regarding other health state questionnaires.

Intraoperative infusion of dexmedetomidine for prevention of postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing craniotomy: a protocol of randomised clinical trial

IntroductionPostoperative delirium (POD) is a common surgical complication. The incidence is 19% in neurological procedures, and advanced age is a risk factor for neurological procedures. Many studies have shown that...

Examining factors affecting self-care-self-regulation among registered nurses using path analysis.

Practicing self-care is a requisite for nurses as they face the extreme physical, mental, and emotional challenges presented by the pandemic era. This study aimed to examine factors that contribute to self-care-self-regulation (SCSR) and investigate the mediation effect of psychological and physical health in the relationship between work stress and SCSR among registered nurses in the United States. This cross-sectional study was conducted on the data collected from 386 registered nurses who completed an online survey over a 3-week period during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 19 to May 6, 2020). The survey assessed demographic and work-related characteristics, work stress, depressive mood, self-rated health, and SCSR. The model was tested with depressive mood as the first mediator and self-rated health as the second mediator. The potential serial mediation effect was analyzed using PROCESS macros adjusting for covariates. The sequential indirect effect of work stress on SCSR through depressive mood and self-rated health in series was significant, while its direct effect was not. The findings of the path analysis demonstrate that psychological and physical health status is important to promote self-care behaviors when nurses experience high work stress.

УПРАВЛІННЯ ТА РОЗВИТОК ТРУДОВИМИ РЕСУРСАМИ УКРАЇНИ

Labor resources are one of the most difficult objects of management, as they are constantly developing and undergoing changes. The process of managing them in conditions of an unstable external environment becomes much more complicated. Such an environment was formed in Ukraine in 2022 as a result of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. Therefore, the usual mechanisms of labor resource management had to be changed in order to maintain their effectiveness. The study of these changes and the consequences of their introduction determined the relevance of scientific research.The article identifies the problems faced by the domestic management, first in the conditions of the pandemic, and later – in the war. The role of the human resource management system in a modern company is determined. The essence of labor resources management has been studied, the methods by which it is carried out have been determined. The loss of relevance of developed personnel management tools was established due to fundamentally new conditions of their operation. The structure of organizational changes in domestic companies during martial law was analyzed, as well as changes among personnel according to the data of the European Business Association. A number of changes that companies plan to implement in the current year regarding work with personnel have been established. Aspects that must be taken into account in order to maintain the effectiveness of labor resources management are determined: worldview, methodological and applied. Recommendations are offered for solving problems in the field of labor resources management in terms of changing the practice of hiring employees, systematically assessing the state of psychological health, introducing the practice of multi-functionality of personnel, and their continuous training. The changes that have taken place in the field of research since the beginning of the war regarding the growing popularity of remote work, and as a result of the formation of the need to build new mechanisms of communication between employees and the development of a quality control system for such work, are summarized.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ВПЛИВУ ПСИХОЛОГІЧНОГО ЗДОРОВ’Я ПЕДАГОГА НА ПСИХОЛОГІЧНУ ГОТОВНІСТЬ ДО ПРОФЕСІЙНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ

The article is devoted to establishing the regularities of the impact of a teacher's psychological health on his/her readiness for creative professional activity. The author identifies the structure of psychological health and the psychological readiness of teachers for professional activity. Psychological health is defined as a multi-level formation that represents a harmonious state of the individual, based on the balance between the spiritual, social, intellectual, emotional, volitional and bodily substructures of the personality, as well as harmony between the individual and the world. The structure of psychological health is represented by a hierarchy of spiritual-semantic, social, mental and psychosomatic components. The psychological readiness of a teacher is a psychological quality based on the unity of pedagogical motivation and pedagogical abilities. The components of psychological readiness are: value-motivational, moral-communicative, creative-cognitive and emotional-volitional. The article describes the features of the state of psychological health and psychological readiness of modern teachers of the New Ukrainian School (NUS). The study revealed that 70% of the NUS teachers have a high level of psychological readiness for creative pedagogical activity. However, 17% of them have a low level of psychological health. Using the methods of mathematical statistics, the author established the patterns of the impact of the state of psychological health of teachers on their readiness for professional creativity. The results of this survey pointed to the following: the higher the level of psychological health of a person, the more pronounced his/her psychological readiness for pedagogical activity; the lower the level of psychological health, the less capable the teacher is of professional and pedagogical creativity. An important factor of development in a teacher’s psychological readiness is the flexibility of thinking and a positive emotional state. The researcher has experimentally proved that the psychological health of a teacher is the basis for the effectiveness of his/her professional activity.

Comparison of the effectiveness of positive cognitive behavior therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy on psychological well-being among unmarried women aged 25 to 35 in Tehran

Background and Aim: One of the axes of evaluating the health of different societies is the mental health status of the people of that society, and it is very important to pay attention to the psychological health status of different groups of society, especially the youth. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating and comparing the effectiveness of rational emotional behavior therapy and positive cognitive behavior therapy on psychological well-being in unmarried women aged 25 to 35 in Tehran. Methods: The test was with a control group and with a follow-up phase. The statistical population of this research was unmarried women aged 25 to 35 years old in Tehran who visited the neighborhood centers in one district of Tehran in the second half of 2021. The sampling method was purposeful. The research included a control group and two experimental groups, the number of each group was 20 people who were randomly placed in these groups. The instrument used in this research included Ryff's psychological well-being questionnaire (1989). The data analysis of this research was done in two sections of descriptive and inferential statistics. In the inferential statistics section, according to the research design, univariate covariance analysis test was used and SPSS version 24 software was used for data analysis. Results: The findings showed that both interventions are effective in increasing the psychological well-being of unmarried women aged 25 to 35, and this effect is stable in the follow-up phase. Comparing the results of these two interventions showed that the effect of positive cognitive behavior therapy on psychological well-being with an effect size of 0.54 is greater than that of rational emotional behavior therapy with an effect size of 0.49. Conclusion: According to the findings of this research, it can be said that the positive cognitive behavior therapy method is more effective than the rational emotional behavior therapy method on the psychological well-being of unmarried women aged 25 to 35 in Tehran, and this effect is stable in the follow-up phase. The positive cognitive behavior therapy approach can be used by therapists and clients as an effective method to improve the psychological well-being of unmarried women.

CYBERCHONDRIA: ROLE OF POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and cyberchondria and to find out the mediating role of anxiety sensitivity in this relationship. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2021 to January 2022 at Bahauddin Zakariyya University, Multan, Pakistan. Participants ranging in age from 18 to 55 years were selected through purposive sampling techniques from different cities of Southern Punjab. Participants who actively use social mediums for online information-seeking of disease-related symptoms were included in the study and participants who confirmed having a physical or psychological health condition were excluded. Cyberchondria, anxiety sensitivity index-3, and intolerance of uncertainty scale were used for measurement. The data were analyzed using structural equation modelling. RESULTS: Out of 413 participants, 148 (42%) were males and 265 (64.2%) were females. Majority (n=188/413; 45.6%) spent &gt;5 hours on net. Main symptoms searched on internet were psychological (n=61; 14.8%), Physiological (n=175; 42.4%) and both (n=177; 42.8%). Correlation metrics showed that intolerance of uncertainty has a moderate positive correlation with anxiety sensitivity (r=0.59) and cyberchondria (r =-0.41). Similarly, anxiety sensitivity is also positively correlated with cyberchondria (r=0.38). Results further revealed that intolerance of uncertainty has a significant impact on cyberchondria (β=0.48, R2=0.30). Anxiety sensitivity significantly mediates the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and cyberchondria among the general population (β=0.64, R2=0.41) (β=0.25, R2=0.26). CONCLUSION: A significant positive relation exists between intolerance of uncertainty, cyberchondria, and anxiety sensitivity. Intolerance of uncertainty significantly impacts cyberchondria. Anxiety sensitivity significantly mediates the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and cyberchondria.

Kesejahteraan Psikologis Mahasiswa Hafiz Alquran

This study aims to explore the psychological well-being of hafiz Qur'an students. Psychological well-being is an individual's psychological health condition that has optimal positive psychological function. The positive psychological function refers to six dimensions, namely: self-acceptance, positive relationships with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and self-growth. This research used a phenomenological qualitative method with thematic analysis. Participants were five hafiz students who were selected through snowball sampling. The results of the study show that the motivation of hafiz students in memorizing the Qur'an is to give a crown of glory to their parents in the afterlife. This shows the direction and purpose of life that is oriented towards happiness in the hereafter. The representation of other psychological functions is also seen as a desire to continue to grow to become a better person, accept strengths, weaknesses and the past, manage daily activities, have self-autonomy and establish positive relationships with others. In addition, doing murojaah can provide peace.

Multidimensional housing insecurity and psychological health: how do gender and initial psychological health differentiate the association?

ObjectivesDespite compelling evidence for housing-health associations, it is still unclear (1) whether gender differentiates psychological responses to housing insecurity and (2) the extent to which initial psychological health influences the association between housing insecurity and psychological health. The present study aims to reduce these knowledge gaps. Study designWe used data from over 13 waves (155,114 observations) of the Korea Welfare Panel Study. MethodsThis study tests fixed effects models that can take into account measured and unmeasured heterogeneity. Quantile regression with fixed effects was conducted to assess whether the observed association depends on the initial state of psychological health. All analyses are gender stratified. ResultsFixed effects estimates show that housing problems, such as being a renter (b = 0.159), housing cost burden (b = 0.173), and rental/or mortgage arrears (b = 1.194), are significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Similar patterns were observed for poor housing quality (b = 0.598) and a lack of essential facilities (b = 0.286). Although the association between the severity of housing insecurity and depressive symptoms was concentrated among men with initially higher levels of depressive symptoms, the observed association was consistently pronounced for women regardless of initial psychological health. ConclusionsThis study suggests that gender perspectives need to be incorporated into the development of housing intervention for vulnerable groups.

Long-term outcomes of COVID-19 convalescents: An 18.5-month longitudinal study in Wuhan

ObjectivesThis study aimed to describe the full scope of long-term outcomes and the ongoing pathophysiological alterations among COVID-19 survivors. MethodsWe established a longitudinal cohort of 208 COVID-19 convalescents and followed them at 3.3 (interquartile range [IQR]: 1.3, 4.4, visit 1), 9.2 (IQR: 9.0, 9.6, visit 2), and 18.5 (IQR: 18.2, 19.1, visit 3) months after infection, respectively. Serial changes in multiple physical and psychological outcomes were comprehensively characterized. We, in addition, explored the potential risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 antibody response and sequelae symptoms. ResultsWe observed continuous improvement of sequelae symptoms, lung function, chest computed tomography (CT), 6-minute walk test, and the Borg dyspnea scale, whereas sequelae symptoms (at least one) and abnormal chest CT patterns still existed in 45.2% and about 30% of participants at 18.5 months, respectively. Anxiety and depression disorders were alleviated for the convalescents, although depression status was sustained for a longer duration. ConclusionsMost COVID-19 convalescents had an overall improved physical and psychological health status, whereas sequelae symptoms, residual lesions on lung function, exercise impairment, and mental health disorders were still observed in a small proportion of participants at 18.5 months after infection. Implementing appropriate preventive and management strategies for the ever-growing COVID-19 population is warranted.

The physical health recovery, the practice of the reproductive method of adaptive physical education

The article focuses on the need to introduce modern alternative health-saving methods and technologies of physical education, in particular, health tourism as an important factor in the educational process and a leading factor in the socialization and harmonious development of children and young people with special needs. The problem of physical education of pupil’s and student’s youth is relevant at the present stage of the development of health tourism. Adaptive physical education is an important factor in the rehabilitation of students who have limited physical health opportunities. We admit that the implementation of the program of health measures to organize the physical activity of students using the natural sedative factors of health tourism will have a great impact on the physical and mental development, social and psychophysical condition of students. Purpose: The purpose of the research is to substantiate the scientific and pedagogical aspects of the reproductive method of adaptive physical education of the student youth with special needs using health tourism. Involvement of this category of students in physical education to determine the social significance of adaptive physical culture in renewed and maintaining the state of physical and psychological health of people with special needs. Approach: A set of complementary methods by the assigned task is used in the work. Analysis and generalization of domestic and world experience on the problem of renewal and rehabilitation by methods and means of adaptive physical culture were carried out. The scientific special literature was analyzed on the problems of applying means of physical culture, on the complex resumption of physical health. Students of non-physical education institutions of higher education in Kharkiv took part in the research. The questionnaire survey technique is used in the experiment. In this method, we used the questionnaire that consists of 8 questions and was applied to up to 60 individuals regardless of gender. Results: The reproductive method of adaptive physical education is aimed at improving the knowledge in physical rehabilitation and forming the skills of persons with special needs to use natural factors for body resumption. The introduction of a mental-conceptual model increased awareness of health tourism means and methods by 18,5% (t=2,41; p&lt;0,01). Psychological comfort after the proposed measures to preserve the state of physical and psychological health of students with special needs improved by 61,3% (t = 3,47; p&lt;0,001). Conclusion: The search for ways to make optimal use of health tourism for the renewal of health and social adaptation of persons with special needs is one of the main areas of adaptive physical education.

Psychological first aid intervention: rescue from psychological distress and improving the pre-licensure nursing students’ resilience amidst COVID-19 crisis and beyond

BackgroundThe public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in mental and psychological ramifications on the healthcare professionals. The pre-licensure nursing students found themselves not only fighting against the baneful virus but also weak ego resilience. At this point, enriching the pre-licensure nursing students with psychological first aid (PFA) could help them to recover from the feeling of psychological distress and improve their resilience capacity to encounter any upcoming outbreaks. MethodsA quasi-experimental two groups, a pre-post-test study was used in which sixty-four pre-licensure nursing students completed a baseline survey which revealed high levels of psychological distress and low resilience capacity due to the COVID-19 crisis. The study group engaged in the Psychological First- aid Intervention (PFA) at the end of the clinical practicum course period, while the comparison group received routine psychological support. ResultsA significant reduction in the psychological distress levels among students in the PFA group (FET=7.83, P = 0. 001). Likewise, significant improvements in the students' resilience capacity level immediately after the intervention (FET=3.34, P = 0.019) and during the two-month follow-up (FET=12.94, P = 0. 001). The implementation of PFA enhanced the pre-licensure nursing students' psychological health status and resilience capacity levels after their clinical training amid the ambiance of the COVID-19 crisis. ConclusionThe PFA effectively fostered the pre-licensure nursing students’ recovery from the COVID-19 related- psychological distress and improve their resilience capacity. The application of RAPID model is recommended to reduce stress and prevent burnout among novice and future nurses who show signs of psychological exhaustion.

Quality of life, stress, occupation status of immigrants: predictors of psychological health condition among the gulf return migrants in India

Background: The instances of mental health problems are much more frequent among migrants who have faced adversity at the destination as they employed in precarious or insecure jobs. Those who returned as a failure, feeling valueless upon return and lack of suitable job at the place of origin triggered the feeling of distress among the returnees. Therefore, the main objective of this paper was to examine the quality of life, occupational status and its impact on psychological health condition of the gulf return migrants in India.Methods: 330 gulf returnees were interviewed with the help of a structured interview schedule and in-depth interviews were also conducted. Binary logistic regression has been used to determine the significant predictors of self-rated psychological health condition among the return migrants. For this purpose, the self-reporting questionnaire used to understand the mental health status.Results: High prevalence (60%) of mental health distress among the returnees was observed. Factors such as age at the time of return, typology of returnees, feeling sick in the destination country, duration of stay in destination, occupational status after return and reasons for return were found to be significant predictors of mental health distress.Conclusions: The returnees deal with significant mental health distress. Special attention should be paid on this issue. Migrants should access post return counselling related to job market and mental health services in origin.

The Job Performance of Fly-In-Fly-Out Workers in Industrial Enterprises (on the Example of Oil and Gas Production, Diamond Mining Production, and Construction)

With high health requirements for FIFO work at industry, workers may experience adverse changes in psychological well-being and health status. This makes it relevant when developing the job performance model to rely on considering not only the effectiveness by employees but also their psychophysiological “cost of activity”, which is not reflected in modern scientific research. This article theoretically substantiates and empirically develops a job performance typology of fly-in-fly-out workers at industrial enterprises by correlating three components: effectiveness, psychophysiological resources, and the way of accomplishing tasks. The study involved 359 fly-in-fly-out workers in oil and gas, diamond mining and construction industries with different duration of the fly-in period, operating in the South and the North of the Russian Federation. The research methods included questioning, psychophysiological instrumental testing, and psychological testing. Statistical processing was carried out using the methods of descriptive statistics, two-stage cluster analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance. As a result of the study, six types of job performance of fly-in-fly-out personnel of industrial enterprises were identified. The employees at industrial enterprises of all six types of job performance correspond to their position and perform the assigned tasks, the difference in them lies in the desire to show an average or the highest possible result, as well as how much internal resources the employee spends to achieve this result and how quickly he restores them, which is expressed in terms of his state and well-being. Based on the results of these connections, measures for personnel management for industrial enterprises were proposed.

Body Image and Body Mass Index Influence on Psychophysical Well-Being in Bariatric Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Psychophysical factors may have an impact on the disease of obesity, and it is important to explore which aspects may play an important role on the well-being of obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery. The purpose of this study was to assess the associations of a high body mass index (BMI) and greater dissatisfaction with body image with higher levels of psychopathological aspects, feelings of hopelessness, and psychological and physical health in patients undergoing evaluation for bariatric surgery. Methods: Fifty-nine patients undergoing bariatric surgery filled out the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, the Body Uneasiness Test, the 12-item Short Form Survey, the Beck Inventory Scale II, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. Correlations and hierarchical regressions between measures were performed. Results: Dissatisfaction with the perception of one’s own body image was strongly correlated with a worse psychophysiological health. On the contrary, BMI showed no significant correlation with the previous variables. Furthermore, the perception of one’s own body image significantly predicted the state of psychological health. Conclusions: The findings showed a more relevant role of body image compared to the BMI in the association with psychological outcomes, suggesting the importance of considering body image in the assessment and treatment of obese patients requiring bariatric treatment.

STAR-Lite: A light-weight scalable self-taught learning framework for older adults’ activity recognition

Recognizing activities for older adults is challenging as we observe a variety of activity patterns caused due to aging (e.g., limited dexterity, limb control, slower response time) or/and underlying health conditions (e.g., dementia). However, existing literature with deep learning methods has successfully recognized activities when the dataset contains high-quality annotations and is captured in a controlled environment. On the contrary, data captured in a real-world environment, especially with older adults exhibiting memory-related symptoms, varying psychological and mental health status, reliance on caregivers to perform daily activities, and unavailability of domain-specific annotators, makes obtaining quality data with annotations challenging; leaving us with limited labeled data and abundant unlabeled data. In this paper, we hypothesize that projecting the labeled data representations comprising a specific set of activities onto a new representation space characterized by the unlabeled data comprising activities beyond the limited activities in the labeled dataset would help us rely less on the annotated data to improve activity detection performance. Motivated by this, we propose STAR-Lite, a self-taught learning framework that involves a pre-training framework to prepare the new representation space considering activities beyond the initial labels in the labeled dataset. STAR-Lite projects the labeled data representations on the new representation space characterized by unlabeled data labels and learns higher-level representations of the labeled dataset while optimizing inter- and intra- class distances without explicitly using a computation hungry similarity-based approach. We demonstrate that our proposed approach, STAR-Lite (a) improves activity recognition performance in a supervised setting and (b) is feasible for real-world deployment. To enhance the feasibility of deploying STAR-Lite on devices with limited memory resources, we explore model compression techniques such as pruning and quantization and propose a novel layer-wise pruning-rate optimization technique that effectively compresses the network while preserving the model performance. The evaluation was performed using the Alzheimer’s Activity Recognition dataset (AAR) captured from 25 individuals living in a retirement community center with IRB approval (#Y18NR12035) using an in-house SenseBox infrastructure while concurrently assessing the clinical evaluation of the participants for dementia, and independent living. Our extensive evaluation reveals that STAR-Lite can detect activities with an F1-score of 85.12% despite 62% reduction in model size and 5% improvement of execution time on a resource constrained device.

Negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the different undergraduate student during 2020-2021

The impact of COVID-19 on the general and psychological health and educational status was scored according to previous studies which found left a big negative impact on education. moreover, covid-19 is the greatest challenge that these expanded national education systems have ever faced. many governments have ordered institutions to cease face-to-face instruction for most of their students, requiring them to switch, almost overnight, to online teaching and virtual education. Thus, study aimed to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the different undergraduate students during 2020-2021 across the questionnaire format through the view of the student.