The COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on the mental health of frontline workers including firefighters. To better understand this occurrence, this cross-sectional study evaluated the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among 105 operational team and elite team firefighters in Kota Bharu, Kelantan State, Malaysia before and after the pandemic. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), a validated self-reporting survey tool, was used to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress among the survey respondents. Findings revealed that firefighters had an increased level of anxiety and depression during the post-pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. However, there was a decrease in the stress levels (20%) reported by study participants. Respondents belonging to the operational team had a higher reported level of depression, anxiety, and stress than those from the elite team. This may be attributed the operational team being more exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection on account of their routine and more voluminous workload. The findings of this study suggest that firefighters, in general, are at an increased risk of mental health problems as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing this, it is important to consider these findings when addressing the prevention and management of mental health among firefighters. This includes providing additional support and devoting more resources to those who are most at risk for experiencing symptoms of mental health such as firefighters performing functions aligned with that of an operational team.

This study aims to identify the impact of inheritance literacy, inheritance socialization, inheritance stress, and peer influence on the inheritance behaviors among FELDA communities in Malaysia. Inheritance literacy pertains to individuals’ comprehension of wealth transfer and estate planning, while peer influencer evaluates friends’ impact on inheritance attitudes; inheritance socialization explores family interactions’ role in shaping inheritance attitudes, and inheritance stress measures emotional strain in inheritance matters, with inheritance behaviors encompassing asset management and wealth transfer decisions for future generations by individuals and families. Understanding inheritance behaviors is crucial, as it helps individuals depict their inheritance knowledge and attitudes toward FELDA inheritance better, fostering a more favorable inheritance attitude. Through self-administered survey questionnaires, data related to FELDA communities are obtained using convenience sampling from 413 respondents. This study applies Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to test the research hypotheses. The present study’s outcome confirms that two determinants, which are inheritance literacy and inheritance socialization significantly influence the inheritance behavior of FELDA communities. However, inheritance stress and peer influence determinants have statistically insignificant influence inheritance behavior. This study’s theoretical framework enriches the discussions on wealth management and financial behavior by refining and expanding upon existing financial behavior theories to incorporate inheritance-specific behaviors. The present study is exclusive in its effort to ascertain the relative importance of both inheritance behavior and the FELDA communities. This paper will assist the government, inheritance service providers, and policymakers in offering innovative economic schemes and designing policies that may enhance the inheritance behavior wellbeing of FELDA communities. This article also provides a roadmap to guide future research in this area.

The agronomic and oenological behavior of the Pinot noir grape variety was studied in relation to different rootstocks on the Agroscope estate in Leytron (VS): 3309 C, 5 BB, Fercal, 41 BMGt, Riparia Gloire, 420 AMGt, 101-14 MGt and 161-49 C. Rootstock primarily influenced vigor, speed of vine establishment, and mineral nutrition of the graft. Riparia Gloire, 41 BMGt, 420 AMGt and 161-49 C rootstocks were less vigorous and, for the last three, induced a lower nitrogen and potassium supply leading to the production of slightly more acidic wines. The less vigorous rootstocks and 101-14 MGt were slightly more sensitive to water stress.

Stress has evolutionary roots that help human beings evolve and survive. Existing workplace mental health models typically view stress as the direct cause of poor mental health. Such models focus on strategies to eliminate it. Guided by O’Connor and Kirtley’s integrated motivational-volitional (IMV) model, we posit that demanding jobs and high-stress environments do not directly impact an individual’s mental health but trigger a “sense of self” moderator (SSM), which then leads to mental health outcomes. This moderator is modified by the workplace’s organizational design and individual’s traits. We propose a Workplace Mental Health (WMH) Model, which suggests that by addressing these SSM modifiers through evidence-based interventions at organizational and individual levels, even in high-stress environments, organizations can have mentally healthy workforces and build high-performance workplaces. This paper assumes that stress is an inalienable part of any work environment and that a secular reduction in stress levels in modern society is infeasible. Although some individuals in high-stress job environments develop mental illness, many do not, and some even thrive. This differential response suggests that stress may act as a trigger, but an individual’s reaction to it is influenced more by other factors than the stress itself.

Objective: To study the changes of growth, physiological and absorption characteristics of Pinus bungeana under ozone (O₃) stress, to elucidate the correlations among the indicators, and to determine its degree of response to O₃. Methods: The growth, physiological characteristics and O₃ uptake capacity of Pinus bungeana seedlings were measured in an open-top O₃ fumigation manual control experiment with three concentration gradients (NF: normal atmospheric O₃ concentration, NF40: normal atmospheric O₃ concentration plus 40 nmlol/mol; NF80: normal atmospheric O₃ concentration plus 80 nmol/mol), and the relationships between the characteristics of Pinus bungeana under different O₃ concentrations were investigated with correlation analysis, redundancy analysis and analysis of variance. Results: (1) Plant height growth (ΔH), diameter growth at 50 cm (ΔDBH), stomatal size (S), stomatal density (M), stomatal opening (K), stomatal conductance (G_s), net photosynthetic rate (P_n), transpiration rate (E_t), water use efficiency (WUE), maximum photochemical efficiency (F_v/F_m), chlorophyll content (CHL), whole tree water consumption (W), and O₃ uptake rate () all decreased with the increase of O₃ concentration; while intercellular CO₂ concentration () and relative conductivity (L) increased with the increase of O₃ concentration; (2) growth indicators of Pinus bungeana under O₃ stress (ΔH, ΔDBH) were the most correlated with O₃ uptake status (, W), followed by photosynthetic indicators (, WUE, ,, ) and growth indicators (ΔH, ΔDBH) and stomatal characteristics (K, M, S) under O₃ stress, some physiological indicators (L, ) were relatively weakly correlated with photosynthesis (, WUE,,, ) and stomatal (K, M, S); (3) all the indicators of Pinus bungeana were significantly different under O₃ treatments of NF and NF80 (P < 0.05), ΔH, ΔDBH, M, CHL, , , W and were most significantly different under NF and NF40 treatments, and K, S, WUE, , , , L were more significantly different under NF40 and NF80 treatments. Conclusion: The experiment proved that the growth of Pinus bungeana was slowed, photosynthetic capacity was reduced, and the absorption capacity of O₃ was further reduced by long-term exposure to high concentration of O₃. The growth of Pinus bungeana was most correlated with the changes of O₃ absorption characteristics, and the stomatal characteristics were most correlated with photosynthetic physiological characteristics, and the reduction of photosynthetic capacity etc. further led to the curtailment of its growth.