Role of self-help groups on socioeconomic development and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)among rural women in Cooch Behar District,India

This study examines the transformative role of self-help groups(SHGs)in the socioeconomic development of rural women in Cooch Behar District,India,and their contribution toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)of the United Nations.In this study,we explored the effect of SHGs on rural women by specifically addressing SDGs,such as no poverty(SDG 1),zero hunger(SDG 2),good health and well-being(SDG 3),quality education(SDG 4),and gender equality(SDG 5).Given this issue,a cross-sectional survey and comparison analyses are needed to assess the socioeconomic development of rural women and their awareness level before and after the participation of rural women in SHGs.The survey conducted as part of this study was divided into three sections,namely,demographic characteristics,socioeconomic development,and awareness level,with each focusing on different aspects.A group of 400 individuals who were part of SHGs completed the questionnaire survey form.The results showed that the participation of rural women in SHGs significantly improved their socioeconomic development and awareness level,as supported by both mean values and t test results.Memberships in SHGs and microcredit programs were the major elements that boosted the socioeconomic development of rural women,which also achieves SDGs 1,2,3,4,and 5.This study revealed that participation in SHGs and related financial services significantly aided rural women in economically disadvantaged communities in accumulating savings and initiating entrepreneurial ventures.Moreover,participation in SHGs was instrumental in enhancing the self-confidence,self-efficacy,and overall self-esteem of rural women.Finally,doing so enabled them to move more freely for work and other activities and to make family and common decisions.

Study on the Effect of Self-Help Mindfulness Therapy on Rumination in Patients with Depression

Objective:To evaluate the nursing effect of self-help mindfulness therapy for patients with depression.Methods:120 cases of depression patients admitted to the Department of Psychosomatic Disorders of our hospital between January 2020 and January 2023 were selected.After being grouped by the random draw method,60 cases in the observation group adopted self-help mindfulness therapy and 60 cases in the control group adopted conventional nursing care,the nursing effects were subsequently compared.Results:Before nursing,there was no difference in the comparison of clinical symptom scores,rumination scores,positive psychological scores,and self-esteem scores between the two groups(P>0.05).After nursing,the clinical symptom scores of the observation group were lower than those of the control group;the rumination scores were lower than those of the control group;the positive psychological scores were higher than those of the control group;and the self-esteem scores were higher than those of the control group,and all of them were statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusion:Self-help mindfulness therapy can improve the clinical symptoms of patients with depression and their rumination,and enhance their positive psychological state and self-esteem level,which has high nursing advantages.

Female Sex Workers and Their Association with Self-Help Groups in Thane, Maharashtra, India: A Comparative Analysis in the Context of HIV Program Outcome

Objectives: Understanding the role of Self-Help Group (SHG) in light of the evolving dynamics of sex work needs to be delved into to strategize HIV interventions among FSWs in India. This paper aims to study the HIV program outcome among the FSWs associated with SHGs and FSWs not associated with SHGs in Thane, Maharashtra. Study Design: This cross-sectional study was undertaken from the Behavioral Tracking Survey (BTS) conducted among 503 FSWs in Thane in 2015. Two-stage probability based conventional sampling was done for selection of brothel and bar based FSWs, while Time Location Cluster (TLC) sampling was done for home, lodge and street based sex workers. Methods: Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed to compare and contrast between FSWs associated with SHG and those not associated with SHG with respect to the utilization of HIV related services by them. “Condom use”, “consistent condom use”, “contact with peer-educators”, “counseling sessions” and “HIV testing” were chosen as indicators on HIV service utilization. Results: 8% (38) of FSWs are registered with SHG;92% aged ≥25 years, 47% illiterate, and 71% are currently married. The likelihood of utilizing HIV services including, knowledge on HIV/AIDS and its mode of transmission (OR: 5.54;CI: 1.87 - 16.60;p Conclusions: Considering the improved HIV program outcomes among FSWs associated with SHG, HIV interventions among FSWs could consider facilitating the formation of SHGs with FSWs as one of the key strategies to empower the community for ensuring better program outcomes.

Qualitative Study on Health Self-Help Behavior of the Elderly in a Community

Objective:To investigate the current status quo of health self-help behavior of elderly in a community and its influencing factors using a semi-structured interview in a qualitative study.Methods:A phenomenological method is employed for purposive sampling and snowball sampling methods.The elderly(>60 years old),who had lived in the Minhang District of Shanghai for>5 years,with an annual residence duration≥10 months,were selected.Data were collected in person by a semi-structured and an in-depth interview;the topics were identified according to data arrangement,analysis,and coding.Results:A total of 10 subjects were enrolled,from Pujiang Town,Minhang District of Shanghai.The cohort constituted of 7 males and 3 females,aged 60-68 years,with an average of(63.40±9.19)years.After data arrangement and analysis,the following topics were obtained:(1)various forms of health self-help behaviors existed among elderly in the community;(2)some factors influenced the health self-help behavior among the elderly in the community;(3)a deviation was observed in the health self-help behavior among the elderly in the community.Conclusion:The health self-help behaviors of the elderly in the community should be rectified to carry out self and the environmental establishment of the health self-help behaviors of the elderly in the community,as well as,to guide and develop the personalized health self-help behavior program.

Exploring“Enabling Behaviours”of Wives of Persons with Substance Use Disorder in Chapter 8 of the Big Book of Alcoholic Anonymous

Substance use disorder has a damaging effect on the family members of alcoholics and drug users.On the other hand,the reactions and behaviours of family members may negatively influence a person with substance use disorder.The behaviours of significant others of a person with substance use disorder that contribute to the maintenance of substance use disorder are called enabling.This study aimed to explore enabling behaviours of wives of persons with substance use disorder in Chapter 8 of Alcoholic Anonymous’Big Book by utilising qualitative content analysis.Alcoholics Anonymous(AA)is one of the most commonly used programs for recovery from alcoholism.The current study sought to help mental health professionals get a better understanding of the views and premises of the AA program in reference to enabling behaviours of wives by conducting a qualitative content analysis of the AA Big Book.The study also discusses the healthy behaviours suggested by the authors of the Big Book and the comprehensiveness of the text for the readers.

Assistive technologies for pain management in people with amputation: a literature review

The prevalence of limb amputation is increasing globally as a devastating experience that can physically and psychologically affect the lifestyle of a person. The residual limb pain and phantom limb pain are common disabling sequelae after amputation surgery. Assistive devices/technologies can be used to relieve pain in people with amputation. The existing assistive devices/technologies for pain management in people with amputation include electrical nerve block devices/technologies, TENS units, elastomeric pumps and catheters, residual limb covers, laser systems, myoelectric prostheses and virtual reality systems, etc. There is a great potential to design, fabricate, and manufacture some portable, wireless, smart, and thin devices/technologies to stimulate the spinal cord or peripheral nerves by electrical, thermal, mechanical, and pharmaceutical stimulus. Although some preliminary efforts have been done, more attention must be paid by researchers, clinicians, designers, engineers, and manufacturers to the post amputation pain and its treatment methods.

A Study on How to Eliminate Spiritual Poverty to Achieve the Accurate Poverty Alleviation in a Real Sense

Accurate poverty alleviation is a useful practice conducted by the Communist Party of China to lead the poor people out of poverty and achieve the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. The remarkable achievements have been made since its launching. However,the impoverished people and some poverty-stricken workers' mentality as well as the scarcity of people's mind patterns have become the obstacle to accurate poverty alleviation work. This will require the strengthening of ideological leadership,the implementation of " getting rid of poverty",the combination of both hard and soft governance and spiritual poverty,the formation of an overall linkage mechanism,and the lifting of material poverty by spiritual poverty alleviation.

A descriptive study about the use of pillboxes by older adults

The goal of this research was to observe which features, according to the users’ point of view, might influence the use of pillboxes. Older adults were surveyed in order to test different pillboxes and report their observations about their difficulties. Both the individuals and the pillboxes themselves have characteristics that might influence successful use, such as difficulty remembering medication names and lack of hand strength and the complexity of the pillboxes’ alarm system and opening mechanism. Pillboxes can be effective in helping older adults take their medication provided they are designed according to both dosage prescription and the user’s functional capacity.

Impact of demand growth on the capacity of long-duration energy storage under deep decarbonization

The weather-dependent uncertainty of wind and solar power generation presents a challenge to the balancing of power generation and demand in highly renewable electricity systems.Battery energy storage can provide flexibility to firm up the variability of renewables and to respond to the increased load demand under decarbonization scenarios.This paper explores how the battery energy storage capacity requirement for compressed-air energy storage(CAES)will grow as the load demand increases.Here we used an idealized lowest-cost optimization model to study the response of highly renewable electricity systems to the increasing load demand of California under deep decarbonization.Results show that providing bulk CAES to the zero-emission power system offers substantial benefits,but it cannot fully compensate for the 100%variability of highly renewable power systems.The capacity requirement of CAES increases by≤33.3%with a 1.5 times increase in the load demand and by≤50%with a two-times increase in the load demand.In this analysis,a zero-emission electricity system operating at current costs becomes more cost-effective when there is firm power generation.The least competitive nuclear option plays this role and reduces system costs by 16.4%,curtails the annual main node by 36.8%,and decreases the CAES capacity requirements by≤80.7%in the case of a double-load demand.While CAES has potential in addressing renewable variability,its widespread deployment is constrained by geographical,societal,and economic factors.Therefore,if California is aiming for an energy system that is reliant on wind and solar power,then an additional dispatchable power source other than CAES or similar load flexibility is necessary.To fully harness the benefits of bulk CAES,the development and implementation of cost-effective approaches are crucial in significantly reducing system costs.

Application research of compressed-air energy storage under high proportion of renewable energy

China will strive to achieve a‘dual carbon’target:‘carbon peak’by 2030 and‘carbon-neutral’by 2060.In this context,improving the efficiency of renewable energy and reducing the use of thermal power are important ways to achieve the target.Clean,efficient and large-capacity energy-storage technology is the key to improving the utilization rate of renewable energy.First,this paper proposes to use compressed-air energy-storage technology instead of the old energy-storage technology to build an economical and environmentally friendly comprehensive energy park capacity optimization configuration model.Second,this paper uses the newly proposed improved chicken swarm optimization algorithm to solve the model,which is more accurate and faster.Finally,this paper analyzes a comprehensive energy park in north-west China.Through case analysis,it can be seen that the average utilization rate of renewable energy can reach 73.87%through the model proposed in this paper,while the average power-abandonment rate is only 9.32%.

China's Big Cheeses, Mining Mess,Domestic Disorder, and Self-help

You can’t open a newspaper or turn on a TV in China without hearing about the rise of China,but,it’s easy to forget that China is a changed nation where successes aren’t simply dictated by the central authorities anymore.Today,there are any number of Chinese citizens changing the world in constructive and fascinating ways—scientists,entrepreneurs,journalists,activists,and so many more.This issue,we discuss six very special

Performance study on three-stage power system of compressed air vehicle based on single-screw expander

A new compressed-air engine system based on three-stage single screw expander was proposed to improve the performance of power system.Three different structure styles were presented,and the studies on the power performance and the distribution of expansion ratios between stages were carried out by programming and mathematical modeling of each style.Research results indicated that the best matches of expansion ratios with equal heat temperature for the air tank of pressure 30 MPa were seven-five-three for"first-stage heating"style,eight-five-three for"two-stage heating"style and five-five-four for"three-stage heating"style,respectively.Results also showed that heating up inlet air or increasing the expander efficiency might improve the power performance.The output power of the"two-stage heating"style is far higher than that of"first-stage heating"style and is a little lower than that of"three-stage heating"style.The new system showed good structure and power performances.