Effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences on the Mental Health of Adults

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic incidents before the age of 18 years that can lead to health problems. Globally, it is estimated that 40 million children suffer from abuse or neglect. ACEs have long-term effects on physical and mental health. There is a lack of research on the prevalence of ACEs in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, information is scarce regarding the correlation between ACEs and the mental health of adults. This study was conducted to assess the impact of ACEs on mental health (social anxiety disorder (SAD), aggression, and low self-esteem) among adults in the Middle Region of Saudi Arabia.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 430 adults. An online self-administered questionnaire was used, and it included five sections, which are sociodemographic characteristics, assessment of ACEs, aggression, SAD, and self-esteem.Results: The prevalence of ACEs was high, with 48% of participants reporting having five or more ACEs. There was a significant association between ACEs and aggression. Those with a high level of aggression had a higher score of ACEs compared to those with low aggression levels (6.3 ± 2.6 Vs. 3.2 ± 2.2). This difference was statistically highly significant (F= 26.7 and p <.0001). Participants with a high level of SAD had a higher score of ACEs compared to those with low SAD levels (5.5 ± 2.5 Vs. 3.9 ± 2.5). This difference was statistically highly significant (F= 21.7 and p <.0001). Those with a low level of self-esteem had a higher score of ACEs compared to those with high self-esteem levels (6.6 ± 1.8 Vs 3.4 ± 2.3). This difference was statistically highly significant (F= 29.3 and p <.0001).Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of ACEs among adults. ACEs were significantly linked to low self-esteem, aggression, and SAD in adulthood. Sexual abuse and physical neglect were identified as common predictors of these mental health issues. It is recommended that other studies to be conducted to explore the key factors contributing to the high prevalence of ACEs and to understand the impact of ACEs on the physical health of adults as well

Electronically reconfigurable and conformal triband antenna for wireless communications systems and portable devices

This paper presents the design of a triband antenna that can be electronically configured to operate at different frequencies. The proposed antenna is design to operate at sub-6GHz bands at 2.45 GHz (ISM, Wi-Fi, and WLAN), 3.3, 3.5 - 3.9 GHz (WiMAX), and 4.1 - 4.9 GHz (4G - 5G). This is achieved by connecting two open-ended stubs to a modified triangular patch radiator using PIN diodes. The antenna's performance was optimized using a 3D electromagnetic solver and its performance was verified through measurements. Moreover, the conformal analysis done on the antenna shows that the proposed technique can be used in moderately flexible wireless devices without compromising the antenna's gain, radiation efficiency and radiation patterns. These characteristics makes the proposed antenna applicable for various wireless communication systems and devices.Funding: Funder1: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Award Number: 801538 Grant Recipient: Mohammad Alibakhshikenari Grant Recipient: Mohammad Alibakhshikenari Funder 2: HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Award Number: 801538 Grant Recipient: Mohammad Alibakhshikenari Funder 3: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Award Number: MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE Grant Recipient: Francisco Falcone The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Metamaterials and their application in the performance enhancement of reconfigurable antennas: a review

Metamaterials exhibit properties in terms of subwavelength operation or phase manipulation, among others, that can be used in a variety of applications in 5G communication systems. The future and current 5G devices demand high efficiency, high data rate, computational capabilities, cost-effectiveness, compact size, and low power consumption. This variation and advancement are possible when the antenna design is revised to operate over wideband, high gain, and multiband and has characteristics of compact size, reconfiguration, absorption, and simple ease of fabrication. The materials loaded with antennas or, in the same cases, without antennas, offer the aforementioned characteristics to bring advancement in order to facilitate users. A number of works on designing metasurfaces capable of improving bandwidth, gain efficiency, and reducing the size and cost of antennas are available in the literature for this purpose. Not only are these applications possible, but the intelligent metasurfaces are also designed to obtain reconfiguration in terms of frequency and polarization. The number of absorbers loaded with metamaterials is also designed to improve the absorption percentage used for radar applications. Thus, in this paper, the general overview of different types of metamaterials and their role in performance enhancement and application in 5G and 6G communication systems is discussed.This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional -FEDER-, European Union) under the research grant of PID2021-127409OB-C31 CONDOR

No behavioural response to kin competition in a lekking species

The processes of kin selection and competition may occur simultaneously if limited individual dispersal i.e. population viscosity, is the only cause of the interactions between kin. Therefore, the net indirect benefits of a specific behaviour may largely depend on the existence of mechanisms dampening the fitness costs of competing with kin. In lekking species, males may increase the mating success of their close relatives (and hence gain indirect fitness benefits) because female prefer large leks. At the same time, kin selection may also lead to the evolution of mechanisms that dampen the costs of kin competition. As this mechanism has largely been ignored to date, we used detailed behavioural and genetic data collected in the black grouse Lyrurus tetrix to test whether males mitigate the costs of kin competition through the modulation of their fighting behaviours according to kinship and the avoidance of close relatives when establishing a lek territory. We found that neighbouring males’ fighting behaviour was unrelated to kinship and males did not avoid settling down with close relatives on leks. As males’ current and future mating success are strongly related to their behaviour on the lek (including fighting behaviour and territory position), the costs of kin competition may be negligible relative to the direct benefits of successful male-male contests. As we previously showed that the indirect fitness benefits of group membership were very limited in this black grouse population, these behavioural data support the idea that direct fitness benefits gained by successful male-male encounters likely outbalance any indirect fitness benefits

A parasitic patch loaded staircase shaped UWB MIMO antenna having notch band for WBAN applications

A staircase-shaped quasi-fractal antenna is presented to meet the requirements of compact electronics operating in UWB or E-UWB spectrum. A conventional broadband monopole antenna is converted into UWB antenna utilizing three iterations of fractal patches. The resultant antenna offers wide impedance bandwidth ranges 2.3–17.8 GHz, having a notch band at 6.1–7.2 GHz. Afterwards, a two-port MIMO antenna is created by placing the second element orthogonally with an edge-to-edge distance of 8.5 mm, that is λ/15 where λ corresponds to free space wavelength at the lowest cut-off frequency. Hereafter, a meandered line-shaped stub is inserted to reduce the mutual coupling between closely spaced MIMO elements to less than −25 dB. As the intended application of the proposed work is On-body, Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) analyses are carried out at 2.4, 5.8 and 8 GHz, showing an acceptable range for both 1-g and 10-g averaged tissues standards. Moreover, various parameters of the MIMO antenna are studied, and a comparison is made between simulated and measured results as well as those of the state of the art

Key and Smart Actions to Alleviate Hunger and Poverty through Irrigation and Drainage

In the pursuit of information to support the policies and actions to alleviate hunger and poverty from a perspective of the role and impacts of irrigation and drainage, this paper attempts to provide correlation between water scarcity, community and poverty. Many reviews have found strong direct and indirect relationships between irrigation and poverty. One of the main goals of the international community is to eliminate hunger and poverty and in this perspective, through the Millennium Development Goals much progress has been achieved and evidence obtained. Sustainable Development Goals and various United Nations and other initiatives, intend to move forward this agenda by making it a part of the broader development frameworks. In this paper, the important elements of the irrigation and drainage that affect the alleviation of hunger and poverty have been discussed. These elements are grouped into governance, rights-based developments, water rights and pricing, management, efficiency improvement, and role of technology. Both the potential and the need to make use of innovative technology and solutions in irrigation are underlined and these can be used to cater the challenges in different sub-sectors. The main focus of these solutions are on maximizing productivity and efficiency, reducing water losses, achieving sustainable intensification and managing demands on water resources and the associated trade-offs

A high bandwidth dimension ratio compact super wide band-flower slotted microstrip patch antenna for millimeter wireless applications

A compact high bandwidth ratio (BDR) super wide band flower slotted micro strip patch antenna (SWB-FSMPA) for super wide band (SWB) applications is presented. The SWB-FSMPA is constructed on a FR-4 substrate having a size of 16 × 22 mm2. The SWB-FSMPA incorporates a 50 Ω tapered micro strip line and a rectangular beveled defected ground structure (RB-DGS). This design enables a simulation bandwidth from 3.78 to 109.86 GHz, allowing for coverage of various wireless applications such as WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), 5G (3.3–3.7 GHz), WLAN (5.15–5.825 GHz), UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz), Ku– (12–18 GHz), K– (18–27 GHz), Ka– (27–40 GHz), V– (40–75 GHz), and W– (75–110 GHz) millimeter wave bands. The SWB-FSMPA antenna exhibits a gain that varies within the range of 3.22–7.23 dBi and a peak efficiency of 93.3 %. The SWB-FSMPA possesses a bandwidth ratio (BR) of 29.1:1, a BDR of 5284 in the frequency domain, a minimal group delay (GD) fluctuation of <0.48 ns, and a linear phase in the time domain, making it well-suited for SWB applications

Key and Smart Actions to Alleviate Hunger and Poverty Through Irrigation and Drainage

In the pursuit of information to support policies and actions to alleviate hunger and poverty through irrigation and drainage, this paper attempts to provide correlations between water scarcity, communities and poverty. Many reviews have found strong direct and indirect relationships between irrigation and poverty. One of the main goals of the international community is to eliminate hunger and poverty and in this perspective, through the Millennium Development Goals, much progress has been achieved and evidence obtained. Sustainable Development Goals and various other United Nations initiatives intend to move forward this agenda by making it a part of broader development frameworks. In this paper, the important elements of irrigation and drainage that affect the alleviation of hunger and poverty are discussed. These elements are grouped into governance, rights-based developments, water rights and pricing, management, efficiency improvement, and the role of technology. Both the potential and the need for innovative technology and solutions in irrigation are underlined, which can be used to cater for the challenges in different subsectors. The main focus of these solutions is on maximizing productivity and efficiency, reducing water losses, achieving sustainable intensification and managing demands on water resources and the associated trade-offs

Challenges Faced by Persons with Disabilities Using Self-Service Technologies

Foreseeable game changing solutions to SSTs will allow for better universal access by better implementing features that are easy and intuitive to use from the inception. Additional robotic advancements will allow for better and easier delivery of goods for consumers. Improvements to artificial intelligence will allow for better communication through natural language and alternative forms of communication. Furthermore, artificial intelligence will aid consumers at SSTs by remembering the consumers preferences and needs. With all foreseeable game changing solutions people with disabilities will be consulted when new and improved SSTs are being developed allowing for the SST to maximize its potential

How do water users perceive the quality of their irrigation services?: Report on a Training Course in the Use of Participatory Rural Appraisal for Irrigation Management Research, December 1994

Irrigation managementWater usersWater supplyIrrigation operationPerformanceParticipatory rural appraisalTraining