Background and Objective: Health care workers (HCWs) are at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19, so their knowledge about the disease and their preventive attitude and practice toward COVID-19 are of concern. The present study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of HCWs toward COVID-19 in Al-Thawra Hospital, Ibb Governorate, Yemen. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among HCWs in Al-Thawra Hospital, Ibb, Yemen, from January 1 to March 31, 2022. Results: Of the 80 participants, 50 (62.5%) were males and 30 (37.5%) were females with a mean age of 29.33±7.86 years. About 51.2% of respondents were aware that sneezing is a recognized symptom of COVID-19, while most were unaware of the extrarespiratory symptoms of the disease, such as diarrhea and confusion. About 28.7% of respondents believed that eating or contacting wild animals would result in infection by the COVID-19 virus, with the majority (71.3%) agreeing that wearing a well-fitting face mask effectively prevents COVID-19 infection. Approximately 48 respondents (60.0%) believed that washing hands could prevent contracting COVID-19, and only 31 (38.7%) agreed that if a patient shows signs and symptoms of COVID-19, they can confidently participate in that patient’s treatment. In response to avoid COVID-19, about 23 respondents (28.7%) had always gone to crowded places, and 35 (43.6%) had always worn face masks at every contact with patients, while only 14 (17.5%) of participants refrained from shaking hands and 37 (46.3%) always washed their hands before and after handling each patient. Conclusion: This study showed that most respondents have poor knowledge regarding the clinical picture of COVID-19 and its mode of transmission as most of them failed to detect an extrapulmonary manifestation of COVID-19 and were unaware of the possibility of transmission of the disease from wildlife. In addition, the attitude and preventive practice of the respondents were unsatisfactory in containing the transmission of the disease.
The global burden of metabolic disorders, including obesity and type 2 diabetes, necessitates innovative therapeutic strategies. SLU-PP-332, a synthetic agonist of estrogen-related receptor α (ERRα), has emerged as a promising exercise mimetic, demonstrating preclinical efficacy in enhancing mitochondrial biogenesis, insulin sensitivity, and energy expenditure. This brief review synthesizes current knowledge on SLU-PP-332 and related ERRα agonists, highlighting their molecular mechanisms, preclinical outcomes, translational challenges, and ethical considerations. ERRα activation by SLU-PP-332 upregulates peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), driving fatty acid oxidation and mimicking exercise-induced metabolic adaptations. However, pan-ERR activity raises concerns about off-target effects such as cardiac hypertrophy and hepatotoxicity. Despite robust preclinical data, clinical translation remains hindered by the absence of human trials and undefined long-term safety. Future research must prioritize isoform-selective agonist design, rigorous clinical validation, and equitable access frameworks.
This study investigated the effect of health education on posture practices in reducing low back pain among patients in Rivers state, Nigeria. To achieve this, pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was employed, and the study targeted 170 patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. Two objectives having corresponding research questions and hypotheses guided the study, while convenience and stratified sampling techniques were used to select 50 participants, comprising 35 patients from the general outpatient clinic department and 15 patients from the spine physiotherapy unit, with 20 male and 30 female participants. Data collection was done by administering a self-structured, self-administered questionnaire, titled health education effect on ergonomic practices and low back pain, which had a reliability coefficient of 0.75. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. The research found that educating patients on various methods of preventing low back pain, including healthy weight maintenance, warm-up exercises, and proper postural habits while sitting and standing, had a noteworthy impact on reducing pain. Moreover, the study also revealed that health education programmes were successful in therapeutic posture practices and reducing low back pain in patients residing in Rivers state. Therefore, the study concluded and recommended that health education interventions for functional and therapeutic posture practices are effective strategies for reducing low back pain among patients in Rivers state, and healthcare providers should incorporate these interventions into their treatment plans for patients suffering from low back pain.
Background and Objectives: The outpatient department (OPD) pharmacy is a section of the hospital pharmacy that helps patients obtain their prescribed medications. However, on-time delivery of medications and patients’ convenient access to the pharmacy are the hallmarks of a well-designed health-care system. Therefore, he aim of this study was to develop a pharmacy triage tool to improve patient flow and reduce waiting time in the fourth-floor pharmacy at Hamad General Hospital (HGH). Methods: This prospective and observational study was conducted on 14,740 patients who attended the OPD pharmacy (HGH, Qatar) between January 15, 2022 and March 15, 2022. This prospective and observational study consisted of three periods: A root cause analysis, a pre-intervention period of 1 month (January 15, 2021–February 14, 2021) and an intervention period of 1 month (15 February–15 March). We developed a pharmacy triage tool to improve patient flow and reduce waiting time by identifying patients who need their medications to be dispensed, as well as classifying patients to get the right patient to the right place and implementing a patient flow system to improve efficiency spends in pharmacy queues. Results: The results of this study showed that the use of the triage system in the pharmacy reduced the average waiting time of patients from 50 min to 15 min. The results were statistically significant at p<0.0001. Conclusion: We concluded that applying the pharmacy triage tool improved quality of services in health-care systems and decreased waiting time in the OPD pharmacy. The pharmacy triage tool is a new approach to enhancing the quality of healthcare and leads to an increase in the efficiency of OPD pharmacies.
Aging seldom comes alone and it is considered to be the major factor for many diseases and comorbidities and disabilities. The objectives of the study are to examine demographic characteristics and prevalence of comorbidities and polypharmacy of elderly patients who were admitted at Sebha Medical Center according to the selected period. This study is descriptive and retrospective cross-sectional study conducted in Sebha during 2021. From 195 participants of the study, the highest rate of patients was from the age group of 65 - 74 years which accounted for 86 participants (44%) and followed by those age group of 75 - 84 years which was reported by 65 participants (33%). The majority of elderly patients have hypertension, (n = 116, 59%) and over one-third of the patients (n = 73, 37%) have diabetes mellitus while nearly one-quarter of patients have both diseases at the same time (n = 47, 24%). Nearly, three-quarters of patients have electrolytes imbalance (n = 142, 72%). Nearly, two-thirds of the patients had three to five comorbidity diseases (n = 122, 63%). Whereas, over one-third of the patients had just one or two comorbidities (n = 70, 36%). Almost all the participants have polypharmacy (n = 187, 96%). Just above half of the patients have five - ten medications (n = 100, 51%) compared with 45% of the patients from those who have more than ten medications (n = 87). This study showed that there is a strong relationship between the prevalence of polypharmacy and the number of comorbidities. A Spearman correlation test indicated that rate of comorbidities was related to polypharmacy with a significant correlation (P < 0.01). The present study found high prevalence of comorbidities and polypharmacy among elderly inpatients. Based on this high prevalence, practicing pharmaceutical care could play an effective role to reduce the risk of inappropriate polypharmacy among hospitalized elderly patients through encouraging clinical pharmacist to engage in clinical activities in hospitals.
Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences
Chris and Clive have decided to keep up with the requirements of their company, to comply with the requirements of work and to keep up with the modern times by moving to a full-time business. All the shareholders have agreed to introduce advanced technology and move to a higher step to keep up with the requirements of modern times and work. We will be in this document critically analyse current existed CC MUSIC operation and information management and demonstrate an understanding of the strategic importance of information management. Evaluate the fundamental principles of information systems and the significance of a socio-technical approach to their use in CC MUSIC critically. Select and apply appropriate problem-solving and improvement approaches for information systems in CC MUSIC
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder that causes repeated unwanted thoughts or sensations, or do something over and over again. It is affecting all ages in the world. It is unusual for symptoms to begin after the age of 35 and half of people develop problems before 20. This making university students a target of OCD. This study investigates the prevalence of symptoms of OCD and identifies possible risk factors among pharmacy students of University of Tripoli, Libya. 80 pharmacy students registered in the final academic year 2019/2020 were enrolled in this study. All the participants were females ranging of 22 to 24 years old of a same environmental background. This study is based on a validated questionnaire for screening of OCD as mentioned by the American Psychiatric Association without modification. A total of 63 students have returned the questionnaire (response rate, 78.8%). The study shows that OCD symptom is relatively common among pharmacy students. The most common symptoms are losing something of importance (71%) and checking things over and over or repeat actions many times to be sure they are done properly (63%). Among OCD symptoms, the most common associated trigger factors were stress and phobia which representing 62% of the participated students. This study indicates that pharmacy students are at risk of being susceptible to getting OCD. OCD affects academic performance and quality of student life, therefore, a psychological and health services for university students should be implanted.
Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences
In this intelligent transportation systems era, traffic congestion analysis in terms of vehicle detection followed by tracking their speed is gaining tremendous attention due to its complicated intrinsic ingredients. Specifically, in the existing literature, vehicle detection on highway roads are studied extensively while, to the best of our knowledge the identification and tracking of heavy-construction vehicles such as rollers are not yet fully explored. More specifically, heavy- construction vehicles such as road rollers, trenchers and bulldozers significantly aggravate the congestion in urban roads during peak hours because of their deadly slow movement rates accompanied by their occupation of majority of road portions. Due to these reasons, promising frameworks are very much important, which can identify the heavy-construction vehicles moving in urban traffic-prone roads so that appropriate congestion evaluation strategies can be adopted to monitor traffic situations. To solve these issues, this article proposes a new deep-learning based detection framework, which employs Single Shot Detector (SSD)-based object detection system consisting of CNNs. The experimental evaluations extensively carried out on three different datasets including the benchmark ones MIO-TCD localization dataset, clearly demonstrate the enhanced performance of the proposed detection framework in terms of confidence scores and time efficiency when compared to the existing techniques.
Gastrointestinal parasites constitute a serious problem to poultry production in Africa. But often times they are usually ignored by the majority of farmers. Whereas, it is one of the major leading causes of ill-health and high mortality rates in the poultry industry. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of chicken slaughtered at the Jalingo market. A total of 500 gastrointestinal tracts of local chicken comprising of 250 from males and 250 from females were collected from the poultry slaughtering and dressing section of the Jalingo market, and screened for gastrointestinal helminths using the saturated sodium chloride floatation techniques. An overall prevalence of 28.6% (143/500) was recorded with a prevalence of 16.8% (84/500) in males and 11.8% (59/500) females. Nine different species parasites comprising five nematodes and four cestodes, were recorded. Nematodes were the most predominant intestinal parasite with a prevalence rate of 89 (62.2%). And Ascaridia galli 45 (50.5%) was found to be the most prevalent nematode. Other nematodes observed were Capillaria annulata 13.4% (12/89), Heterakis gallinarum 2.2% (2/89), Strongyloides avium 32.5% (29/89), and Syngamus trachea 1.1% (1/89) having the lowest prevalence. Railliatina tetragona 57.4% (31/143) was the most prevalent cestode recorded. Other Cestodes were Hymenolepis carioca 27.7% (15/54), Raillietina cesticellus 12.9% (7/54), and Davainea proglottina 1.8% (1/54). No trematode was recorded in this study. This study showed that nematodes and cestodes were the common helminth parasites in local chicken. There is therefore the need for educating the farmers on the impact of gastrointestinal parasite infection in chicken and the need to institute good management practices so as to reduce their effects on productivity. Sex of the chicken had no statistically significant difference (X2 = 6.12, df = 1; P > 0.05) on the prevalence of helminths.
The bioactive phytochemicals are the most important bioactive compounds against insect herbivores. These phytochemicals produced by many legumes and react herbivore attacks. Therefore, keeping in mind the said facts, this review discusses the potential use of bioactive compounds like Proteinase inhibitors, trypsin inhibitors, lectins, vicillins (7S storage proteins), phenolics, amino acids, sugars and a-amylase inhibitors in legume plants as most important weapons that confer resistance against herbivorous insects. These inhibitors inhibiting proteases present in the larval gut and has insecticidal potential against insect pests. This review demonstrates the potential of natural phytochemicals from legume plants and or artificially diet incorporate to inhibit the development of pathogens and insect pests. Thus, legumes can be used to produce phytochemicals as bio-pesticides and minimize or avoid the use of agrochemicals in crop protection. This ability making them interesting bioactive for next generation of sustainable pesticides for more sustainable agriculture.
Urolithiasis is a common worldwide problem with high recurrence. This review covers the forty-one (41) antiurolithiatic plants of the Rosaceae family that are used in 14 countries. Hopefully, this review will be helpful for the general public and attract the scientific world for antiurolithiatic drug discovery.
BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the second‑most common cancer among women in the developing world and approximately 500,000 cases are diagnosed each year. In developed countries, cervical cancer (CCa) accounts for only 3.6% of newly diagnosed cancers. OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to identify the most effective barriers associated with CCa screening uptake in low and middle-income countries (L and MICs) and aid to adopt effective measures to overcome prevailing barriers to the attainment of CCa uptake in the community. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Health sciences electronic databases like MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane library, and Google Scholar were searched for studies published until August 2017. Keywords used for the search were ("cervical cancer screening"), ("barriers"), AND ("low income countries" OR "Middle income countries"). Articles were reviewed and data were extracted by using Mendeley Desktop Software (V‑1.17.10). Income-level classification of countries was done as per the World Bank 2017 report. Statistical software like SPSS‑V.23 and Medical‑V.14 were used for the statistical application. RESULTS: A total of 31 studies met the inclusion criteria with a total of 25,650 participants. The sample size of the included studies ranged from 97 to 5929 participants. Articles majorly reported data on participants from African region (51.6%) and minimally in the Western Pacific region (3.2%). Sampling methods among studies varied from convenience sampling‑12 (39.7%) to consecutive sampling‑1 (3.2%). Besides, two studies (6.5%) did not discuss their sampling procedures. It was observed that “Lack of information about CCa and its treatment” (Barrier of lack of knowledge and Awareness); “Embracement or shy” (Psychological Barrier); “Lack of time” (structural Barrier); and “Lack of family support” (Sociocultural and religious barrier) were the most commonly reported among all 22 barriers. CONCLUSION: There is a need of policies advancement of CCa screening programs by focusing on aspects of accessibility, affordability, CCa education, and the necessity of screening to improve screening uptake to control the CCa morbidity and mortality rate in L and MIC’s.
Background: Epilepsy and cerebral palsy (CP) are reported as the two most common indications for electroencephalogram (EEG) requests in children in Nigeria. Although several studies have examined epilepsy and EEG findings in the country, most have not documented the conditions under which EEG recordings were performed—whether during wakefulness, natural sleep, sleep deprivation, or drug-induced sleep. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of sleep deprivation and the use of melatonin in achieving sleep EEG recordings in children with epilepsy and CP versus those with epilepsy without CP, at the Pediatric Neurology Clinic of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria. Methods: This was a cross-sectional comparative study involving children aged 6 months to 15 years, conducted between March 2022 and February 2023. A total of 121 subjects with epilepsy associated with CP (Group 1) and 124 subjects with epilepsy not associated with CP (Group 2) were consecutively recruited. Conventional inter-ictal sleep EEG recordings were performed using an EEG machine (Model: Satellite P200-132, Toshiba Europe GmbH, DC 19V, 3.4A). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Of the subjects with epilepsy and CP (Group 1), 67 (55.4%) achieved sleep EEG recordings following sleep deprivation, while 54 (44.6%) required sleep induction with melatonin. Among subjects with epilepsy without CP, 107 (86.3%) attained sleep EEG recordings after sleep deprivation, whereas 17 (13.7%) required melatonin-induced sleep. The difference between the two groups regarding the need for melatonin to induce sleep was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Sleep deprivation was more effective in achieving sleep EEG recordings in children with epilepsy who did not have CP.
The aim of the paper is to evaluate the association of organic farming to strengthen the sustainability of organic agriculture. Organic agriculture shows abundant benefits, as it reduces many of the environmental impacts of conventional agriculture, it can increase efficiency in small farmers’ fields, and it reduces reliance on costly external inputs, and guarantees price premiums for organic products. Organic farmers also profit from farmer cooperative and the formation of social networks, which enhances good access to instruction, credit and welfare services. This paper brings out how the function of organic farming contributes for the sustainable practices and improving environment conservation, animal welfare, and product quality.
This paper aims to study the restructuring and change management of SARHS, which in turn will be accompanied by some complex, difficulties and discussions that may include personnel emotion, which must be taken into account. We will guide SARHS managers by conducting a comprehensive study of majority factors that will affect the success of the process, considering and covering all views. Which will result in the dismissal of some employees and the closure of their jobs permanently in the new job structure. The study will include many theories, models and justified recommendations to be followed to ensure a successful and safe restructuring and management change free from unresolved impediments and difficulties that could lead to a setback. Finally, restructuring is not a result but the beginning of a new process
Concrete is a material which is used in construction. Weight of concrete plays a major role in the construction industry. If the weight of the concrete is increased, it will pose more structural problems on the later date of construction. It also increases the cost of construction, without any specific benefit. So if lightweight concrete is used, it not only reduces cost of construction, but also not poses any structural problems unnecessarily. Light weight concrete also aids workers in smooth handling of materials. In this study, vermiculite in the form of exfoliated form is used to replace partially natural sand. By this action dead weight of the structure is reduced. Once the dead weight of structure is reduced, it in turn reduces cost of construction. In this study three mixes were casted with the cement content of 383 kg/m3 in M20 concrete and the water cement ratio of 0.45 is chosen. Vermiculite at 10%, 20% and 30% are choosing to partially replace the natural sand. The Tests conducted on concrete for evaluating mechanical properties include compressive strength and split tensile strength. For evaluating durability properties, tests like acid resistance, sulphate resistance, chlorine penetration and water absorption.
Adenine causes damage to kidney structure and functions; thus, it affects its excretory functions and metabolism. Solanum macrocarpon is a vegetable commonly eaten in Nigeria. This study was designed to examine the potential anti- nephrotoxicity effects of Solanum macrocarpon leaves extract on adenine-induced nephrotoxicity in male Wistar rats. A total of thirty (30) rats were obtained from the Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, and were divided into six (6) groups with five (5) animals in each group. The animals were fed with standard feed and drinking water, and treated as follows:, Group 1: distilled water, Group 2: 1000 mg/kg of Adenine only, Group 3: Adenine + 1050 mg/kg ethanol extract of Solanum macrocarpon, Group 4: Adenine + 1050 mg/kg diethyl ether extract of Solanum macrocarpon, Group 5: 1050mg/kg ethanol extract of Solanum macrocarpon and Group 6: 1050 mg/kg diethyl ether extract of Solanum macrocarpon. Biochemical parameters such as creatine, urea, uric acid, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, bicarbonate, and superoxide dismutase were determined in the plasma using a Spectrophotometer. Data were analyzed using one–way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s test, with P < 0.05 considered significant. The results indicated a significant increase (P ˂ 0.0) in SOD, creatinine, potassium, sodium, phosphorus urea and uric acid in the group treated with adenine alone, with a significant decrease of 33.3% in bicarbonate when compared with the control. Histopathological examination showed nephritis, through congestion, hypertrophied glomeruli, vacuolization of the endothelial cells lining the glomerular tuft, and interstitial nephritis by adenine treatment. The elevated creatine, SOD, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, urea and uric acid were significantly improved. In the groups treated with Solanum macrocarpon alcoholic extracts. In conclusion, Solanum macrocarpon extracts mitigated the nephrotoxicity caused by adenine.
Background: The determinants of medication adherence in people with diabetes may differ between populations of an area due to social environment, cultural beliefs, socioeconomic conditions, education, and many other factors differences. Objective: Therefore, this study aims to explore, identify and classify the determinants of medication adherence in several Asian regions. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to gain insight into the determinants of medication adherence. Seven relevant databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Wiley, dan Taylor, and Francis) and hand-searching methods were conducted from January 2011 to December 2020. Keywords were compiled based on the PICO method. The selection process used the PRISMA guidelines based on inclusion, and the quality was assessed using Crowe’s critical assessment tool. Textual summaries and a conceptual framework model of medication adherence were proposed to aid in the understanding of the factors influencing medication adherence. Results: Twenty-six articles from countries in several Asian regions were further analyzed. Most studies on type 2 diabetes patients in India used the MMAS-8 scale, and cross-sectional study is the most frequently used research design. The medication adherence rate among diabetic patients was low to moderate. Fifty-one specific factors identified were further categorized into twenty-three subdomains and six domains. Furthermore, the determinants were classified into four categories: inconsistent factors, positively related factors, negatively related factors, and non-associated factors. In most studies, patient-related factors dominate the association with medication adherence. This domain relates to patient-specific demographics, physiological feelings, knowledge, perceptions and beliefs, comorbidities, and other factors related to the patient. Several limitations in this review need to be considered for further research. Conclusion: Medication adherence to diabetic therapy is a complex phenomenon. Most determinants produced disparate findings in terms of statistical significance. The identified factors can serve various goals related to medication adherence. Policymakers and health care providers should consider patient-related factors.
Fused silica capillaries treated with N, N-didodecyl-N, N-dimethylammonium bromide was used in capillary electrophoresis to separate basic proteins using ammonium acetate as BGE at pH 4.0, 70 mM. This surfactant forms a semi-stable coating that provides a strong anodic electroosmosis; however, such coating must regularly be regenerated to maintain efficiency and reproducibility. The temporal stability of the coating was greatly improved by a new procedure as described in previously study by our group. In this study, it is found such experimental conditions that the starting zone could be enriched without loss of sample. The injection of a short plug of the BGE diluted 100 times for 3 sec in 50 µm i.d. capillaries behind the sample zone at 15 kV gave the best performance, whereas, a plug of lower dilution degree (10 times) in 25 µm i.d injected for 3 sec at the same field strength gave the optimum results for this dimension. In conclusion, those conditions were found to effectively decrease the loss of sample and to give a higher separation performance in regard to peak efficiency and resolution compared to injecting the sample without a plug.
Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences
This research article focuses on addressing the challenges associated with joining dissimilar metals through the application of solid-state welding techniques, specifically Friction Welding (FW). The study aims to develop optimal welding conditions, tools, and parameters for achieving a successful Aluminum–Steel (Al–Fe) butt joint. The resulting weld is extensively characterized through mechanical tests, microstructure analysis, and micro hardness measurements. Additionally, finite element analysis is conducted to simulate the behaviour of the prototype engine valve. The findings provide valuable insights into the feasibility and performance of friction welding for dissimilar metal joints, contributing to the further development and understanding of this welding technique.