Knowledge and attitudes towards stroke in semi-urban communities in north central nigeria

Stroke and its associated disabilities are a growing public health challenge in many developing countries where a combination of poor awareness and poor medical care is driving up mortality rates. The rising cases are attributed to the rising prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension, obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, and diabetes mellitus within the population. The prevention of stroke through awareness, knowledge, and lifestyle modification is a common approach used in public health intervention programs. Awareness and knowledge of stroke vary widely between communities partly because of access to relevant health information. This study assessed awareness, knowledge of stroke risk factors, and attitude toward stroke prevention. This study was a community-based survey among adults ≥40 years old in semi-urban communities of two local government area councils of Benue State, North Central Nigeria. The sixteen-item questionnaire used in this study is subdivided into socio-demographic information, knowledge of risk factors, symptoms of stroke, current morbidity, and attitude toward stroke prevention. The survey was done using two adults per household selected using simple random method and completed questionnaires were retrieved for analysis. The Chi-square test was used to determine the association between demographic variables and knowledge of stroke. The result showed poor levels of stroke awareness (47.3%), knowledge (44.6%), symptoms (44.6%), risk factors (20.6%), and symptoms (44.6%). Awareness of stroke and its risk factors is significantly association with age, gender, marital status, educational status, occupation, and income. Many respondents had poor knowledge of stroke and its risk factors. There is a need for improvement in stroke awareness in underserved communities, particularly those with limited access to mass media.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

Efficient and secure data transfer in iot

Nowadays, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been used widely in our daily day to day life, starting from health care devices, hospital management appliances to a smart city. Most of the IoT devices have limited resources and limited storing capability. All the sensed information must have to be transmitted and to store in the cloud. To make a decision and for making analysis all the data stored in the cloud has to be retrieved. Making certain the credibility and security of the sensed information are much necessary and very important for the use of IoT devices. We tend to examine the proposed technique to be much secure than the existing one. In IoT, if the security is not ensured, then it may result in a variety of unsought issues. This survey resembles the overall safety aspects of IoT and debates the overall issues in the security of IoT.

Jebin Bose S Jebin bose s

A case of acute ischemic stroke in moyamoya syndrome associated with graves’ disease: is there a role for anti-dsdna antibodies?

The coexistence of Moyamoya syndrome (MMS) and Graves’ disease (GD) is uncommon. Here, we report a case of a 41-year-old Filipino female, who presented with thyrotoxicosis and acute ischemic stroke. Based on her clinical presentation, cerebral computed tomography angiography, and thyroid function tests, she was diagnosed with MMS and GD. Her Burch-Wartofsky point scale score was 30, suggesting an impending thyroid storm. Antithyroid therapy was started with her neurological status deterioration initially, but after controlling the thyroid storm, the patient’s neurological status stabilized. She remained stable till she travelled to her country. We hypothesized that MMS in a patient with GD is mediated through anti-dsDNA antibodies, by altering key biological mechanisms, that is, inflammation, neutrophil extracellular traps, and apoptosis that drive a distinctive and coordinated immune and vascular activation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of MMS associated with GD reported in Qatar.

Karishma Karishma

Prevalence of self-medication phenomenon with antibiotics among university pharmacy students

Self-medication with antibiotics is becoming a trend that threats the health systems worldwide through developing bacterial resistance which is associated with high health care costs and increased rate of morbidity and mortality. The main objective of this study is to assess antibiotic self-medication practice among Libyan university pharmacy students. This is a cross-sectional study conducted among pharmacy students at Sabratha University in the western region of Libya. A validated questionnaire was used to collect relevant data which were statistically analyzed. A total of 170 undergraduate Pharmacy students participated in the study during spring 2021. About 80% of the participants reported the use of antibiotics without consulting a physician. The major reason for using antibiotics was to get a quick relief of emergency conditions which was reported by 35% of the students. About 25% of the students used antibiotics to relieve their pains and aches. The most commonly used antibiotic was amoxicillin (55%). Most antibiotics were obtained over the counter from community pharmacies (85%). Half of the participants were not sure if they can advise patients to use antibiotics without a prescription, although 60% of them believed that it was good practice. In conclusion, prevalence of antibiotic self-medication among university pharmacy undergraduate students is high. Thus, serious interventions are required to ensure safe and effective use of antibiotics among the population in Libya.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

Consumers' view, expectation and satisfaction with community pharmacy services

Community pharmacy has undergone a rapid expansion with various services moving away from the traditional supply function to other patient-focused services. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine consumer views and expectations toward the services provided in Libyan private community pharmacies, as well as customers' skepticism and their general satisfactions toward these services. The study is descriptive, cross-sectional survey and self-designed administered questionnaire. Study population comprised 0f adult patients or costumers who visited the community pharmacies. Out of the 600 questionnaires were personally handed, 462 of the distributed questionnaires were returned (response rate 77%). The majority of the participants reported that community pharmacy staff dealing with customers in polite ways (75%) and providing privacy and sufficient consideration (60%). Respondents agreed that the staff listens attentively and satisfied with encounter time by 60% and 50%, respectively. For provision of drug information as “how the drug work in the first-time use”, “customer experience of the side effects” and “their ability to using the prescribed medicine properly” were reported by 45%, 30% and 30%, correspondingly, while 60% of the respondents denied that staff provided the medication storage information. Regarding the customer skepticism toward community pharmacy services, 55% respondents agreed that services of community pharmacies tend to just concern on commercial aspects and 60% of respondents believed that services concern toward the business matter more likely than patient health. Interestingly, 85% of the respondents acknowledged the role of community pharmacy as indispensable healthcare setting. The availability of the pharmaceutical product and the cost of pharmacy products satisfied by 40% and 20% of the respondents, respectively. In conclusion, this study demonstrated low customer satisfaction with regard to community pharmacy services in the southern region of Libya. Community pharmacy staff should have an understanding of the codes of conduct and the ethical requirements for their practice of pharmacy profession.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

Deep learning techniques to improve radio resource management in vehicular communication network

This paper investigates the deep learning techniques to improve radio resource management (RRM) in vehicular communication network (VCN). In this paper, the deep learning algorithms are highlighted which are used for RRM. Deep learning technique in RRM is basically used to train the model using various algorithms of resource management including network data. Various machine learning tools will be helpful to get best solutions for resource allocation in a large cellular network.

Vartika agarwal Vartika agarwal

Dietary replacement of fish meal with soybean meal for the optimal growth of juvenile milkfish, chanos chanos (forsskal, 1775) in seawater tanks

The core of the current study is to find out a different source of diet that stimulates better growth rate and low-cost feed for commercial fish milkfish Chanos chanos. This study was to assess the impact of partial replacement of fish meal by soybean meal in the diet of juvenile milkfish, Chanos chanos (initial weight 25 ± 0.6 g). The juveniles were fed with two types of isonitrogenous diets (40% crude protein). Plant protein source diet (D1) comprised of soybean meal 45% and 10% fish meal, while animal protein source diet (D2) contained fish meal 25% and soybean meal 30%. The trial was conducted with two replications for 60 days. Fish juveniles (10 each) were stocked in outdoor fiberglass seawater tanks (5000 Liters). Results revealed that final weight gain (WG), and specific growth rate (SGR) were significantly lower in fish fed D2 diet. Fish fed D1 had better feed efficiency, weight gain (21.88 ± 1.9 g), and SGR (1.05 ± 0.3), while D2 had a lower growth rate, WG (18.71 ± 2.3 g) and SGR (0.93 ± 0.2). The maximum growth rate found on plant diet which is significantly higher weight gain than D2. In D2 feed conversion ratio (0.54 ± 0.21) was significantly higher (P≤0.05). Condition factor among both treatments did not differ significantly (P≥0.05). The survival rate remained constant (100%) in both treatments. Based on the obtained results, it is recommended that 45% soybean meal with addition of 10% fishmeal (40% protein) is more effective than 30% soybean meal with addition of 25% fish meal to the omnivorous milkfish for aquaculture.

Imtiaz kashani

Globalization and higher education in india: the changing trends

The latest phase of capitalist expansion is called “globalisation”. That no state is an autarky but enjoys comparative advantage over others with certain resources and that free trade among these states would work for mutual benefit is the essence of it. Consequently, it advocates the minimization of the governmental intervention in economic affairs and encourages free play of market forces to foster economic development. The argument that this rationale is also applicable to higher education is increasingly gaining currency. But this paper attempts to problematise such a proposition and in contrary argues that this may prove inimical to national development. Education and especially higher education is considered to be one of the factors that help state to promoting national development. However, apologists of globalisation call for its commercialization and argue for the “withdrawal of the state” from this realm. This has only resulted in mystifying profound class inequalities within and without state. Higher education in India is not immune to this ideology in the guise of good economics. It is being structured in such a fashion since 1991 that it has been primarily coupled with the process of economic liberalization and privatization. International financial institutions like World Bank, IMF, GATT, GATS, etc are its votaries. Education was acknowledged as one of the key sectors to be traded. As a result, higher education as a “social good” is fast shifting to being a commodity in the market.

Dr Gedam Kamalakar Dr gedam kamalakar

What is management accounting

Management accounting refers to the process of collecting, organising, and recording financial transactions with the aim of providing information for the management to make informed decisions about the operation of an organisation (Ameen, Ahmed, and Abd Hafez, 2018). Management accounting allows organisations to conform to the expectations of various financial agencies, such as tax agencies, by ensuring that all transactions that take place within an organisation are done correctly (Järvinen, 2016), thus enabling the organisation to meet its goals and objectives.

Zamzam Abdelazim Zamzam abdelazim

Risk factors for measles outbreak in al-dali governorate, yemen

Background: In addition to the recent civil war in Yemen, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a collapse of the health system, a decline in vaccination coverage, and the spread of numerous outbreaks. In 2022, a measles outbreak impacted Al Dali governorate. This study aimed to describe the demographics of measles patients, measles risk factors, and disease outcomes in Al Dali Governorate, Yemen. Methods: All measles-infected children who sought medical attention at Al Tadhamon Hospital in Al Dali, Yemen, between February and December 2022 were included in this prospective and observational study. Results: During the study period, 154 parents gave their consent to enroll their children in this study; 88 (57.1%) were males, and 66 (42.9%) were females. The mean age of the children was 3.56±2.90 (0.3–12 years). More than half of the mothers (n=88, [57.1%]) were illiterate or had a basic educational level, while most of the fathers (n=126, [81.8%]) were well-educated. Nutritional status was normal in most children (n=146, [94.8%]), and all children were unvaccinated. Most children (n=152, [98.7]) came from areas having measles and most of them (n=130, [84.4]) were in contact with measles cases. Health facilities were close (<3 km) to many children (n=151 [98.1]), and house ventilation was good in 66.2% (n=102) of cases while crowdedness was found in 135 (87.7) cases. Family members were 7 or more in 90 (58.4) cases. Two children under the age of 5 years died because of the disease. Conclusion: Our study showed that the main risk factor for the recent measles outbreak in Al Dali governorate was lack of vaccination, as all involved children were unvaccinated. Routine immunization needs to be reinforced through health centers in different districts and community education about the dangers of the disease and the benefits of the vaccines should be enhanced to prevent outbreaks from recurring.

Karishma Karishma

Determination of the rich structural wave dynamic solutions to the caudrey–dodd–gibbon equation and the lax equation

This article addresses the implementation of the new generalized (G'∕G)-expansion method to the Caudrey–Dodd–Gibbon (CDG) equation and the Lax equation which are associated with the fifth-order KdV (fKdV) equation. The method works well to derive a variety of standard and functional closed-form wave solutions with distinct physical structures, such as, soliton, kink, periodic soliton, and bell-shaped soliton solutions. The solutions obtained using this method are useful and adequate than other methods. In order to understand the physical aspects and importance of the method, the attained solutions have been simulated graphically. The extracted results definitely establish that the new generalized(G'∕G)-expansion method is an effective mathematical tool to work out new solutions to different types of local nonlinear evolution equations emerging in applied science and engineering, but this method is not effective in solving nonlocal equations.

Md khorshed alam

Talent strategies best companies use to attract and retain people

Several studies demonstrate a strong correlation between talent and organizational performance. This view has led to continued improvement of methodologies, human resource scorecards, benchmarking, and engaging in best practices aimed at attracting both talent and better business management. As all these underline advancements of organizational strategic goals, it also determines the development and alignment of individual performance (Savanevičienė and Vilčiauskaitė, 2017, pg. 247). Although most of the studies involve for-profit corporations incorporating them in various industries proves to be both logical and psychologically sound. Regarding this project, the major focus is on determining talent strategies that best companies use to attract and retain people. For the project, Deloitte has been chosen as the reference organization for the strategies it uses and how its human resource management has been able to sustain attracting and retaining good talent.

Zamzam Abdelazim Zamzam abdelazim

Determinants of intention to improve oral hygiene behavior among students based on the theory of planned behavior: a structural equation modelling analysis

Introduction: The prevalence of oral hygiene behaviors (OHB) is very low among school children in Ethiopia. However, the determinants of student's readiness/intention to perform those behaviors have been remained unstudied. Objective: This study aimed to identify the determinants of oral hygiene behavioral intention (OHBI) among preparatory school students based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Methods and materials: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 393 students. A 98-item self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate oral hygiene knowledge (OHK), oral hygiene behavior (OHB), and OHBI based on TPB variables [attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC)]. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling analysis (SEM) were employed to confirm relationships and associations among study variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 and a 95% confidence interval were used to declare statistical significance. Results: A total of 393 students were participated with a response rate of 97.5%. The mean age of the participants (54% females) was 18 (± 1.3) with an age range of 16 to 24. The TPB model was well fitted to the data and explained 66% of the variance in intention. ATT (β = 0.38; 95% CI, (0.21, 0.64)), SN (β = 0.33; 95% CI, (0.05, 0.83)) and PBC (β = 0.29; 95% CI, (0.13, 0.64)) were significant predictors of OHBI, where ATT was the strongest predictor of OHBI. Conclusion: The TPB model explained a large variance in the intention of students to improve their OHB. All TPB variables were significantly and positively linked to stronger intent, as the theory suggests. Furthermore, these results suggest that the model could provide a framework for oral hygiene promotion interventions in the study area. Indeed, these interventions should focus on changing the attitudes of students towards OHB, creation of positive social pressure, and enabling students to control OHB barriers.

Kegnie shitu Kegnie shitu

Metastatic breast carcinoma with adrenal and pituitary involvement: a case report

Breast cancer commonly metastasizes to the bones, liver, lungs, and brain. However, metastasis to endocrine glands, particularly the adrenal and pituitary glands, is rare. We report the case of a 54-year-old woman with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative invasive ductal carcinoma of the right breast who initially showed a favorable response to standard therapy. Surveillance imaging in late 2022 revealed a left adrenal mass, subsequently confirmed as metastatic breast carcinoma. Following laparoscopic adrenalectomy, she developed primary adrenal insufficiency. By mid-2023, she presented with pituitary metastases, resulting in hypopituitarism, diabetes insipidus, and severe visual impairment. Despite targeted radiosurgery, her disease progressed rapidly, and she died in December 2024. This case illustrates an unusual metastatic pattern involving both the adrenal and pituitary glands and demonstrates the potential for aggressive clinical behavior even in hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. Clinicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for atypical metastatic sites to ensure timely diagnosis and optimize palliative care strategies.

Karishma Karishma

Opencitations, an infrastructure organization for open scholarship

OpenCitations is an infrastructure organization for open scholarship dedicated to the publication of open citation data as Linked Open Data using Semantic Web technologies, thereby providing a disruptive alternative to traditional proprietary citation indexes. Open citation data are valuable for bibliometric analysis, increasing the reproducibility of large-scale analyses by enabling publication of the source data. Following brief introductions to the development and benefits of open scholarship and to Semantic Web technologies, this paper describes OpenCitations and its data sets, tools, services, and activities. These include the OpenCitations Data Model; the SPAR (Semantic Publishing and Referencing) Ontologies; OpenCitations’ open software of generic applicability for searching, browsing, and providing REST APIs over resource description framework (RDF) triplestores; Open Citation Identifiers (OCIs) and the OpenCitations OCI Resolution Service; the OpenCitations Corpus (OCC), a database of open downloadable bibliographic and citation data made available in RDF under a Creative Commons public domain dedication; and the OpenCitations Indexes of open citation data, of which the first and largest is COCI, the OpenCitations Index of Crossref Open DOI-to-DOI Citations, which currently contains over 624 million bibliographic citations and is receiving considerable usage by the scholarly community.

Kamal Singh Kamal singh

Large eddy simulation of a utility-scale horizontal axis turbine with woody debris accumulation under live bed conditions

Tidal and riverine flows are viable energy sources for consistent energy production. Installing and operating marine hydrokinetic (MHK) turbines requires assessing any potential impact of debris accumulation on turbine performance and sediment transport. More specifically, MHK devices may alter the natural sediment transport processes and cause debris accumulation, disrupting the natural sediment dynamic. In turn, these processes could affect the turbine’s performance. We carried out a series of large-eddy simulations coupled with bed morphodynamics, introducing various debris loads lodged on the upstream face of a utility-scale turbine tower. The objective is to systematically investigate the impact of debris accumulation on the performance and hydro-and morpho-dynamics interactions of the horizontal-axis MHK turbine under rigid and mobile bed conditions. To that end, we (1) employed the actuator line and surface methods for modeling turbine blades and the nacelle, respectively,(2) directly resolved individual logs, and (3) solved the Exner equation to obtain the instantaneous bed deformation of the mobile bed. Our analysis revealed that while the spinning rotor amplifies scour around the pile, debris accumulation modifies the sediment dynamics of the system. Also, it found that morphodynamic processes accelerate the wake recovery, slightly enhancing the turbine's performance.

Hossein Seyedzadeh Hossein seyedzadeh

A challenging presentation of pyrexia and macroscopic hematuria in a kidney transplant patient

Kidney transplant kidney transplant ( KTx) recipients have increased susceptibility to a spectrum of infections including; bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogens. Many factors contribute to their infection potential risk, in terms of their immunosuppressive state, that result in suppression of their B‑and T‑lymphocyte repertoire, also to consider certain donor and recipient‑related factors, that make them at risk of specific type of infectious complications. In addition kidney transplant patients tolerate poorly infections, which may adversely affect their graft function, by inducing glomerular injury, hence early diagnosis, directed therapy, and careful dosing of antimicrobial agents is of paramount importance in reducing patient’s morbidity and mortality. We report a kidney transplant patient, who received her live related kidney graft 7 years earlier (in 2013), she has been with stable graft function in most of her follow up period, until she presented with pyrexia, dyspnea and fatigue associated with deterioration of her graft function.

HANI Hani

Marine peptides in breast cancer: therapeutic and mechanistic understanding

Breast cancer is the most prevalent invasive form of cancer in females and poses a significant challenge to overcoming the disease burden. The growth in global cancer deaths mandates the discovery of new efficacious natural anti-tumor treatments. In this regard, aquatic species offer a rich supply of possible drugs. Studies have shown that several marine peptides damage cancer cells by a broad range of pathways, including apoptosis, microtubule balance disturbances, and suppression of angiogenesis. Many side effects, including immune response suppression, characterise traditional chemotherapeutic agents. The discovery of novel putative anti-cancer peptides with lesser toxicity is therefore necessary and timely, especially those able to thwart multi-drug resistance (MDR). This review addresses marine anti-cancer peptides for the treatment of breast cancer.

Dr. Salman Ahmed Dr. salman ahmed

Education and practice of pharmacy in libya

In Libya, pharmacy education and practice have a similar pattern to medical education and practice. Both sectors of public and private pharmacy education and pharmacy practice still significantly unchanged for more than forty years. It is a traditional pharmacy style of education and practice with a limited change of education and practice. Now, there are more than ten public pharmacy colleges and more than five private colleges established in Libya for a population of seven millions. In addition, there are several intermediate pharmacy institutes which provide a middle degree in pharmacy practice with a very limited knowledge in pharmaceutical sciences and training. Practice of pharmacy in Libya is still a classical mode with only dispensing medicines directly in almost a nonprofessional way and an old fashion way. However, the situation is old and complicated that needs a great deal of attention from different health policymakers and authorities such as Ministry of High Education and Ministry of Health, National Pharmaceutical Union and Libyan Association for Pharmacists.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

Psychological impact of covid-19 pandemic on medical students: an online cross-sectional study

COVID-19 pandemic has spread all over the world and has caused psychological impacts. Medical students are known to be vulnerable population, experiencing higher levels of anxiety, depression and other psychological disorders compared to non-medical students. The nature of life changes like what happened and still happening during the pandemic have its impact on mental health of the students. The aim of this study was to identify the psychological impacts of COVID-19 on medical students among different universities to develop profiles to characterize students' anticipated levels of psychological impacts during the pandemic. Also, to search for potential risk factors that could make students more likely to experience these impacts. An online survey was filled by medical students (n = 100) at faculties of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and medical sciences of different universities: University of Benghazi, Libyan International Medical University, Omar Almokhtar University, Cairo University and Alexandria University. The students were taken to the further analysis. Thus, 55% of the participants had psychological impacts due to the pandemic and 17% had severe effect. Some of these impacts were actually positive as a large number (58%) of the participants felt relaxed during the pandemic. Multiple stressors were identified that contributed to the increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression. These included concern about academic performance (80%), concern about self/dear-one’s health (90%), difficulty with concentration (46%), disruption to sleeping patterns (78%), increased social isolation (26%), disruption to eating patterns (48%), changing in the living environment (26%), financial difficulties (34%) increased class workload (20%) depressive thoughts (37%) and suicidal thoughts (07%). In conclusion, the study indicates that COVID-19 pandemic have positive and negative impacts on medical students. Thus, it is suggested that measures need to alleviate students’ stress, which might have harmful effects in different aspects.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Mediterranean journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

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