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Background: Earlier research has found that female healthcare providers often report greater spirituality and spiritual care than males. This would evoke attention toward factors contributing to such differences, particularly gender. Aim: To examine the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between demographic characteristics of ICU nurses and their perceived spirituality and spiritual care. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was used to recruit a national sample of 865 nurses working in ICUs in Jordan and providing care to patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Data were collected using a self-report bilingual version of Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSC) and analysed using the SPSS software package. Results: Social status, monthly income, and receiving previous courses or lecture training on spirituality and spiritual care were predictors of higher SSCRS scores. Working with COVID-19 patients was a positive predictor (B = 0.074, p = 0.023), suggesting that working with COVID-19 patients is more likely to have a higher level of SSC. Gender was a negative predictor (B = − 0.066, p = 0.046), suggesting that female participants are likelier to have a lower SSC score. Conclusion: Working with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic positively impacted nurses' perception of SCC, but female nurses had lower score than male nurses indicating the need for more emphasis on training female nurses and exploring further the areas in which they need more training and to be able to provide an effective SSC. A sustainable up-to-date training and in-service education programs responding to nurses' needs and emerged emergencies crisis need to be integrated into nursing quality of care policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-Textiles have gained enormous attention due to their specific characteristics in various non-conventional applications such as electromagnetic shielding materials. With the advent of various high frequency-driven devices, the need to restrict the non-ionizing radiations from their undesired effects became imperative. Due to the ease of production, better electrical conductivity and durability, the conductive hybrid cover yarns with continuous metallic filaments have earned its place as the most convenient form of yarns to develop E-textiles. However, controlling the amount of conducting material in yarns poses a challenge as the increase in size of the metallic filaments are associated with reduced electromagnetic shielding effectiveness due to increased stiffness of yarns, which resists in proper interlacement and hence causes openness in fabrics. The proposed design of conductive hybrid cover yarns is proven to have better tensile properties and modulus, therefore this design is more suitable to produced fabrics with higher cover factors. The amount of conducting material in the proposed design increased significantly without changing the size of the continuous filaments. Moreover, 99.9% shielding effectiveness is achieved with this increased metal content in fabrics in S-band and partly C-band microwave frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presented the microstrip-fed circular disc monopole antenna with defected waveguide structure. First, the microstrip-fed circular disc monopole antenna was designed. Next, the monopole antenna was designed with waveguide and lastly followed by the defected waveguide structure where the uniplanar compact (UC) structure was used. CST Microwave studio software was used for simulation and parametric studies process. Initially, the microstrip-fed circular disc monopole antenna was designed to achieve return loss less than -10dB for wideband frequencies. Then, the gain and directivity was improved with the integration of waveguide. The highest directivity of 11.38dBi found at 13.5GHz. However, low efficiency and narrower bandwidth were obtained. Next, uniplanar compact defected waveguide structure (UC DWS) was designed at inner surface of waveguide. The bandwidth achieved 3.09GHz where it covered from 10.91GHz to 14GHz. Meanwhile, the directivity maintained higher than the monopole antenna with highest directivity of 8.84dBi at 10GHz. The gain was also improved from 11GHz to 14GHz with highest gain of 6.38dB occurred at 13.5GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are daily occurrences in Malaysia but the extent to which victims are psychologically affected is not well known. The objective of this study is to determine the incidence and demographic characteristics of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to MVAs at a university hospital in Malaysia. Methods: Patients presenting to the emergency department from August to October 2014 due to MVA-related injuries were recruited. After a period of at least one month, they were followedup and screened using the validated Malay Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist Civilian version. A score of 30 was chosen as the cut-off point for PTSD. Results: In total, 112 patients presented to the emergency department following MVAs during the study period. Of these, 60.7% agreed for the follow-up. Among the respondents, the mean age was 26 years, 91.2% were males, 66.2% were married, 85.3% were Malays and 88.3% were Muslims. The calculated incidence of PTSD was 7.4%. There was no significant difference noted between the PTSD and non-PTSD groups. Conclusion: A considerable number of MVA victims in Malaysia may develop PTSD after the accident. Further research is needed to explore the factors that contribute or protect to develop the condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In present work, an inorganic dopant TiO2 nanoparticles are introduced into the PDPP3T polymer host material and deposited as thin films via spin coating. Different solvent are investigated to get efficient dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles as well as effective dissolution of PDPP3T material. The role of TiO2 particles towards optical absorption of PDPP3T material is studied by preparing different PDPP3T/TiO2 blend ratios and annealed at different temperatures. Toluene is found an efficient solvent for the dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles as well as dissolution of PDPP3T material. Significant increase in optical absorption in UV region 300-400nm is observed for the PDPP3T/TiO2 blend ratio 1:0.2 and the annealing temperature 310oC. The deposited thin film with four layers have demonstrated significant blue shift in peak wavelength and increase in the absorption in UV region (300-400nm). XRD analysis reveals amorphous nature of all deposited thin film. No significant variations in chemical structure are observed with increase in thickness of deposited layer. The addition of TiO2 particle in PDPP3T material significantly enhanced the optical absorption in UV region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of cadmium ion insertion on structural, optical and electrical properties of Zn0.3 Co0.7-xCdxFe2O4 ferrites ( 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.7 with interval 0.14) have been characterized by XRD, EDX, FTIR, UV and I-V techniques. The material was synthesized using coprecipitation route. The growth of single phase cubic structure of samples was confirmed using XRD technique. The crystallite size was calculated from XRD spectra, which was found in the range of 27-39 nm. The FTIR spectra showed the two strong absorption bands at about 443 cm-1 and 547.08 cm-1 which confirmed their spinel cubic phase. The electrical resistivity of synthesized ferrites with the insertion of Cd2+ ion was found to be in the range of 4.14×108 - 9.67×108 Ω-cm. The electrical resistivity was found to be decreasing with increase of temperature. The activation energy also increased with the increase of Cd2+ and was found in the range of 0.02 - 0.05 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zn-substituted Cu-Ni ferrite nanoparticles ZnxCu0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4, (where 0 = x = 0.5 with interval 0.1) have been synthesized using co-precipitation method which have been sintered at 900°C for 3 h. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique has been employed to confirm the single phase formation of spinel ferrite structure. The average particle size has been found in the range of 14-28 nm which has been estimated using Scherer's formula. The morphology of synthesized particle size has been confirmed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The size of particles has been found in close agreement with the XRD analysis. The optical band gap energy has been measured for x = 0.5 which have been found 2.3 eV. Moreover, the magnetic properties of sample x = 0.00 have also been observed. The saturation magnetization (Ms), remanance, Mr/Ms and coercive force have been observed. The obtained information of synthesized samples have super paramagnetic nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]