Stress Relief Measurements in Young Adults and Adolescents—A Comparative Pilot Study with Different Relaxation Programs

Background: Chronic stress is a emotional challenge. Constant pressure presents a serious risk of damage to mental and physical health and hence is associated with increased incidence of various diseases. The ability to cope with chronic stress may be a function of psychological resilience including intellectual capacities, but more so of external factors such as life experience and education. Adolescents are more vulnerable to chronic stress than adults. The measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic brought up major societal problems. As both children and adolescents lost their life anchors, the prevalence of stress in adolescents increased from 20% to 45%. Chronic psychological stress can impede the normal development of schoolchildren. It may cause anxiety, social withdrawal, interpersonal conflicts and aggression. This applies particularly to those in puberty, with the adolescent already facing unstable social bonds and elevated fear about the future. It is likely that the puberty cohort accounts for the dramatic increase in the prevalence of stress. Since it impacts public health, chronic stress among school-age children is increasingly taking on a socio-political dimension. Non-clinical stress intervention studies can investigate how to achieve stress reduction in school children. Methods: In a small pilot study, we analysed the effects of a training program with four different standard interventions, i.e. mindfulness training, progressive muscle reflection, autogenic training, and sound meditation. We obtained baseline scores of 10 stress-indicators, and re-tested after the interventions were performed. Results: The four applied interventions resulted in a reduction of 8 (out of 10) stress-indicators, such as “feeling stressed” or stress related symptoms (headaches, dizziness, sweating). This positive impact of the interventions significantly reduced “Fears about the future” (p Discussion: School children recognise the positive potential of stress reducing training or interventions. Our results provide evidence in support of integrating the training of relaxation techniques in the school curriculum. We propose that a larger study be undertaken to determine which methods would be most effective.

Comparison of Mineral Contents in Three Different Tobacco Formulations

We identified and quantified a variety of mineral elements in 18 tobacco samples purchased from a Tunisian market. In total, 25 mineral elements have been measured in cigarettes, water pipe tobacco, and smokeless tobacco using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy following microwave-assisted digestion. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSSTM, version 18.0. The lowest concentrations of all studied elements were observed in water pipe tobacco. Significantly higher concentrations of Al, Fe, Mg, Na, Ca, Cr, and Co were found in smokeless tobacco, while cigarettes brands contained the highest concentrations of K, Mn, Ni, Ba, and Sr. There was no significant difference between the mineral contents of local and foreign cigarettes and conventional and light cigarettes. Our findings demonstrated that local smokeless tobacco appears to be the most hazardous tobacco type. The concentration of minerals in light cigarettes was not significantly different from the concentration in conventional cigarettes.

Comparison of detection results of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy at different degrees in infant patients between brain electrical activity mapping, transcranial Doppler sonography and computer tomography examinations

BACKGROUND： It has been proved that brain electrical activity mapping （BEAM） and transcranial Doppler （TCD） detection can reflect the function of brain cell and its diseased degree of infant patients with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy （HIE）. OBJECTIVE： To observe the abnormal results of HIE at different degrees detected with BEAM and TCD in infant patients, and compare the detection results at the same time point between BEAM, TCD and computer tomography （CT） examinations. DESIGN ： Contrast observation SETTING： Departments of Neuro-electrophysiology and Pediatrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical College. PARTICIPANTS： Totally 416 infant patients with HIE who received treatment in the Department of Newborn Infants, Second Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical College during January 2001 and December 2005. The infant patients, 278 male and 138 female, were at embryonic 37 to 42 weeks and weighing 2.0 to 4.1 kg, and they were diagnosed with CT and met the diagnostic criteria of HIE of newborn infants compiled by Department of Neonatology, Pediatric Academy, Chinese Medical Association. According to diagnostic criteria, 130 patients were mild abnormal, 196 moderate abnormal and 90 severe abnormal. The relatives of all the infant patients were informed of the experiment. METHOOS： BEAM and TCD examinations were performed in the involved 416 infant patients with HIE at different degrees with DYD2000 16-channel BEAM instrument and EME-2000 ultrasonograph before preliminary diagnosis treatment （within 1 month after birth） and 1,3,6,12 and 24 months after birth, and detected results were compared between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Comparison of detection results of HIE at different time points in infant patients between BEAM. TCD and CT examinations. RESULTS： All the 416 infant patients with HIE participated in the result analysis. （1） Comparison of the detected results in infant patients with mild HIE at different time points after birth between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations： BEAM examination showed that the recovery was delayed, and the abnormal rate of BEAM examination was significantly higher than that of CT examination 1 and 3 months after birth [55.4%（72/130）vs. 17.0% （22/130 ）,x^2=41.66 ;29.2% （ 38/130 ） vs. 6.2% （ 8/130 ）, x^2=23.77, P 〈 0.01 ], exceptional patients had mild abnormality and reached the normal level in about 6 months. TCD examination showed that the disease condition significantly improved and infant patients with HIE basically recovered 1 or 2 months after birth, while CT examination showed that infant patients recovered 3 or 4 months after birth. （2） Comparison of detection results of infant patients with moderate HIE at different time points between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations： The abnormal rate of BEAM examination was significantly higher than that of CT examination 1,3,6 and 12 months after birth [90.8% （178/196）,78.6% （154/196）,x^2=4.32,P 〈 0.05;64.3% （126/196）,43.9% （86/196） ,x^2=16.44 ;44.9% （88/196） ,22.4% （44/196）,x^2=22.11 ;21.4% （42/196）, 10.2% （20/196）,x^2=9.27, P 〈 0.01]. BEAM examination showed that there was still one patient who did not completely recovered in the 24^th month due to the relatives of infant patients did not combine the treatment,. TCD examination showed that the abnormal rate was 23.1%（30/196）in the 1^st month after birth, and all the patients recovered to the normal in the 3^rd month after birth, while CT examination showed that mild abnormality still existed in the 24^th month after birth （1.0% ,2/196）. （3） Comparison of detection results of infant patients with severe HIE at different time points between BEAM, TCD and CT examinations： The abnormal rate of BEAM examination was significantly higher than that of CT examination in the 1^st, 3^rd, 6^th and 12^th months after birth[86.7% （78/90）,44.4% （40/90）,x^2=35.53;62.2% （56/90）,31.1% （28/90）,x^2=17.51 ;37.8% （34/90）,6.7% （6/90）, x^2=27.14, P 〈 0.01]. BEAM examination showed that mild abnormality still existed in 4 infant patients in the 24^th month after birth. TCD examination showed that the abnormal rate was 11.1% （10/90） in the 3^rd month after birth, and all the infant patients recovered in the 6^th month after birth. CT examination showed that the abnormal rate was 6.7%（6/90） in the 12^th month after birth, and all of infant patients recovered to the normal in the 24^th month after birth.CONCLUSION ： BEAM is the direct index to detect brain function of infant patients with HIE, and positive reaction is still very sensitive in the tracking detection of convalescent period. The positive rate of morphological reaction in CT examination is superior to that in TCD examination, and the positive rate is very high in the acute period of HIE in examination.

DIFFERENCES AMONG DIFFERENT DATABASES IN THE NUMBER OF TROPICAL CYCLONES FORMING OVER THE WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC

As shown in comparisons of the characteristics of inter-annual and inter-decadal variability and periodical changes in the number of tropical cyclones forming over the western North Pacific by three major forecast centers, i.e. China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Regional Specialized Meteorological Center of Tokyo (JMA) and Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) of Guam, there are the following important points. (1) Climatology of tropical cyclone (TC) or typhoon (TC on the intensity of TS or stronger) shows some difference in tropical cyclone frequency among the centers, which is more notable with TC than with typhoon. Both of them are more at the database of CMA than at those of the other two centers. (2) The difference is too significant to ignore in the inter-annual variability of tropical cyclone frequency between CMA and JTWC, which mainly results from the obvious difference in the inter-annual variability of the number of generated tropical depression (TD) between the two databases. The difference is small in the inter-annual variability of TS formations among all the three databases, and consistence is good between JMA and CMA or JTWC. (3) Though differences are not significant in the periodical variation of TC formations between CMA and JTWC, they are markedly apart in the inter-decadal variability, which is mainly shown by an anti-phase during the 1990s. (4) Non-homogeneity may exist around the late stage of the 1960s in the data of tropical cyclone frequency.

A survey of Higher Vocational Students' upward Comparative Parenting

This study is aim at investigate the current situation of higher vocational students receiving upward comparative parenting and the differences in upward comparative parenting among higher vocational college students with different demographic variables.By using the self-designed upward comparative parenting questionnaire to survey 1075 higher vocational college students,the results show that:In general,higher vocational college students receive the highest frequency of upward Comparative Parenting(2.95±1.57)on the level of learning diligence,and the frequency of upward Comparative Parenting(2.62±1.27)for male higher vocational students is higher than that for female students(2.39±1.17).The subjects from urban areas(2.56±1.29)were significantly higher than those from rural areas(2.39±1.14).Conclusion:upward comparat ive parenting is a common phenomenon among higher vocational college students in China.