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This study aims to explore, identify and understand the design and the strategy for healthcare delivery at both macro and micro levels in an informatics field in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For both patients and professionals, health information technology offers greater quality, safer treatment, and much more. Despite their potential, they are expensive to create and execute. The success of applied information technology in healthcare, on the other hand, is determined by user acceptance and utilisation. This study offers a framework for analysing how health professionals view and intend to use health information technology. To define the primary factors to be assessed, thorough literature research was done. As a measuring methodology, a questionnaire was created and sent to the experts, who are information systems professionals with at least five years of experience. According to a five-point Likert scale, the replies were generally highly agreed, with roughly 79 per cent agreeing. Female respondents were more accepting of electronic data storage than male ones. Other notable distinctions between occupations were also discovered.

The current study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of a leadership development program designed to motivate Saudi women to establish small projects, using the observation card and applying it to a sample of them engaged in such projects. Average scores of women working in new small and medium enterprises in the Kingdom in the two applications before and after the performance observation card are related to leadership skills. There is a statistically significant correlation at the level of significance (p≤0.05) between the scores of Saudi women. As a whole, this study recommended an increase in training programs for women to promote small projects; thus, the goals of empowering women as stipulated in the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision are realized.

The current gold standard technique for the treatment of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is reconstruction with a tendon autograft. These treatments have a relatively high failure and re-rupture rate and are associated with early-onset osteoarthritis, developing within two decades of injury. Furthermore, both autografting and allografting come with several drawbacks. Tissue engineering and additive manufacturing present exciting new opportunities to explore 3D scaffolds as graft substitutes. We previously showed that 3D-printed scaffolds using low-cost equipment are suitable for tissue engineering approaches to regenerative medicine. Here, we hypothesize that Lay-Fomm 60, a commercially available nanoporous elastomer, may be a viable tissue engineering candidate for an ACL graft substitute. We first printed nanoporous thermoplastic elastomer scaffolds using low-cost desktop 3D printers and determined the mechanical and morphological properties. We then tested the impact of different surface coatings on primary human ACL fibroblast adhesion, growth, and ligamentous matrix deposition in vitro. Our data suggest that poly-L-lysine-coated Lay-Fomm 60 scaffolds increased ligament fibroblast activity and matrix formation when compared to uncoated scaffolds but did not have a significant effect on cell attachment and proliferation. Therefore, uncoated 3D printed Lay-Fomm 60 scaffolds may be viable standalone scaffolds and warrant further research as ligament tissue engineering and reconstruction grafts.

Ubiquitin specific protease 30 (USP30) has been attributed to mitochondrial dysfunction and impediment of mitophagy in Parkinson’s disease (PD). This happens once ubiquitin that supposed to bind with deformed mitochondria at the insistence of Parkin, it’s been recruited by USP30 via the distal ubiquitin binding domain. This is a challenge when PINK1 and Parkin loss their functions due to mutation. Although, there are reports on USP30s’ inhibitors but no study on the repurposing of inhibitors approved against MMP-9 and SGLT-2 as potential inhibitors of USP30 in PD. Thus, the highlight therein, is to repurpose approved inhibitors of MMP-9 and SGLT-2 against USP30 in PD using extensive computational modelling framework. 3D structures of Ligands and USP30 were obtained from PubChem and protein database (PDB) servers respectively, and were subjected to molecular docking, ADMET evaluation, DFT calculation, molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) and free energy calculations. Out of the 18 drugs, 2 drugs showed good binding affinity to the distal ubiquitin binding domain, moderate pharmacokinetic properties and good stability. The findings showed canagliflozin and empagliflozin as potential inhibitors of USP30. Thus, we present these drugs as repurposing candidates for the treatment of PD. However, the findings in this current study needs to be validated experimentally. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Knowing how, when, and what types of antibiotics should be used before and after an appendectomy is a very important subject for this very common intra-abdominal procedure that is performed in an emergency setting. This subject reflects the positive results of the procedure on the reduction of infectious complications, such as surgical site infection or intra-abdominal abcess. Post-operatively, we divided patients who had a non-perforated appendix into two groups: group A received pre-operative antibiotics half an hour before surgery with a single dose of 3rd generation cephalosporin (ceftriaxone)1g and metronidazole 500mg, and group B received antibiotics half an hour pre-operatively and continued antibiotics post-operatively within 24 hours. Both groups received antibiotics post-operatively. 240 patients were randomly selected and separated into two groups with an identical number in each. Of the 120 patients in group A, eight of them developed a wound infection (6.67%), and the same number of patients in group B also became infected. The 30-day follow-up period came and went without anyone developing an intra-abdominal infection. The use of a single dosage of antibiotic will be sufficient to prevent infection at the surgical site, and the advantage of post-operative antibiotic treatment in non-perforated appendix will be imperceptible.

Aim: This study focuses on evaluating the correlation between stress or phobia due to dental procedure and level of saliva secretion among the patients coming for dental treatment. Materials and Methods: 200 medically healthy patients who required local anaesthesia for dental procedures were included. Sample collection was done at three different stages of treatment. In stage1, samples were collected after the patient had just entered the clinic and were discussing his problem sitting in normal chair in front of the Dentist. After the patients were seated in dental chair, before administering anaesthesia, samples were collected in stage 2 and in stage 3, immediately after administering local anaesthesia. One single spit of patient was collected at every stage in sterile container and measured with calibrated pipette. Results: As documented in many studies the patient undergoing dental treatment experiences maximum stress before getting the local anaesthesia. Our study revealed that in stage 2 when patient was about to undergo Local anaesthesia, saliva secretion was at minimum level averaging at 0.2 ml (ranging from 0 to 0.4). Saliva secretion was maximum in stage 1, when the patient was comfortably sitting in normal chair discussing their dental issues. In stage 3 the saliva secretion slightly improved compared to stage 2 as after the anaesthesia the anxiety level of the patient started to diminish. Conclusion: This study suggests that there is clinical correlation between stress levels and the amount of saliva secretion. Excessive stress can even lead to xerostomia as experienced by some patients.

Health education (HE) is important in improving public health. Globally, the evaluation HE quality is an important obstacle to better interventions, and wider acknowledgment of As a result, the purpose of this research is to improve the quality of health education services by providing a current perspective on current evidence on the effect of the HE national program in primary health care centres (PHCCs) through the following objectives: To calculate the frequency of receiving HE To measure patient satisfaction with the provided HE service. To assess patient self-control and its determinants in chronic diseases. An analytical cross section study targeted randomly selected 1590 Saudi PHCCs visitors from the main five regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Through exit interview using a pretested, well-structured questionnaire composed of four parts. The majority of participants were females (73.5%) and married (69.1). Of those, 64.9% had chronic diseases. The frequency of receiving HE was 51.1%. The health-educated patients significantly had better self-chronic disease control and an improvement in health status. The HECs shows a significant self-patient control of chronic diseases and patient satisfaction than HE services. HE interventions must be multidimensional to be effective in improving patients’ clinical outcomes through the increase and maintenance of healthy behaviours. Keywords: health education, Saudi patients, primary health care centres, Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Preliminary field visits to the Saudi Ministry of Health’s primary healthcare centers (PHCs) confirmed a proportion of prior reported no-show appointments to be false due to staff registering patient arrivals inappropriately. We sought to investigate whether visual cue reminders would prime the staff to register patients properly. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2019 involving 35 PHCs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Visual posters were installed in the intervention PHCs wherever patient arrivals were registered. The primary outcome was patient no-show appointments. Staff who registered appointment arrivals were observed and interviewed. Multilevel logistic regression analyzed the change in no-shows across an intervention group and a control group. Results: The intervention group had lower odds ratio (OR) of no-shows than the control group, although not significantly (OR 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50–1.31). The period during Ramadan saw fewer no-shows than pre-Ramadan (OR 1.60, 95% CI = 1.55–1.66). Compared to family medicine appointments, no-shows were higher for the smoking cessation clinic (OR 3.95, 95% CI = 3.43–4.54), dental appointments (OR 2.14, 95% CI = 1.97–2.32), and vaccine appointments (OR 1.31, 95% CI = 1.27–1.35). Qualitative analysis shows that PHCs’ appointment processing was arbitrary without a unified structure. Conclusion: The reduction in no-show rates using visual cues was not significant. However, certain confounders, if not addressed prior to intervention implementation, can lead to cognitive overload and burnout, inviting unwanted behavior. Further implications are discussed.

Background: The 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is a critical screening and diagnostic tool that identifies cardiovascular abnormalities and fatal cardiac emergencies. This study aimed to identify whether there was a competency difference in interpreting ECG strips between medical students, interns, and family residents. Methods: A cross-sectional, single-center study was conducted at a tertiary healthcare facility and its academic institution. Participants completed a self-administered data collection sheet comprising a demographic sheet and 10 ECG traces to assess their ECG knowledge. Each ECG had the same nine multiple-choice questions about the basic ECG parameters. Each correct answer was assigned a 1-point score (minimum, 0; maximum, 90) per participant. Results: There were 93 participants; of which 54 (58.1%) were medical students. Medical students had a significantly higher mean score (84.7 ± 9.5) than medical interns (73.4 ± 12.9, p < 0.001) and family medicine residents (58.2 ± 18.0, p < 0.001). Lectures were reported as the most effective modality of ECG teaching among 38 medical students (70.4%) and 9 residents (75.0%). Female family medicine residents had a higher mean score compared to their male colleagues (p = 0.04). Previous ECG exposure did not equate with better scores. Conclusion: There was a significant difference in the competency of ECG interpretation. The mean score of the family residents was the lowest with the medical students scoring the highest. Lectures were rated as the most effective method of learning ECG interpretation. More intensive ECG training in family residency programs is recommended.

Palliative care is described as a technique that improves the patients' and their families' quality of life, who are dealing with problems associated with life-threatening sickness. The specialist palliative care refers to the provision of palliative care by multidisciplinary teams with specialized skills, competencies, experience, and training in palliative care. As a result, palliative medicine is becoming more widely acknowledged as a medical subspecialty at a global level. Thus, this study aimed to explore the knowledge and attitude toward geriatric palliative care. The PubMed and Google Scholar databases were used to explore studies. Original research reporting medical therapies used in the knowledge and attitude toward geriatric palliative care and full-text publications served as the inclusion criterion. Though 130 articles were obtained, only 8 met the inclusion criteria. This study demonstrated poor knowledge and attitude of health professionals toward geriatric palliative care, pain management for patients, and training in end-of-life medicine. Prior training, previous contact with dying patients, and prior medical residency were essential to a better knowledge of end-of-life care. The studies elaborated on the urgency for educational training programs focused on improving geriatric palliative care, pain, dyspnea, and gastrointestinal issue management, especially those involving contact with dying patients.

Background: Burns are extremely distressing and rank fourth on the list of leading causes of trauma worldwide, behind car accidents, falls, and acts of violence. This study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding burn first aid among parents in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among parents in the Tabuk region of Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was designed on Google Drive Forms and distributed among the participants electronically as a link using WhatsApp. The questionnaire consisted of 17 questions, including demographic factors, knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Results: In this study, we collected data from 299 parents. Among the sample, 26.1% of the participants were aged between 31 and 40 years old, and 56.5% were females. Furthermore, 25.1% of the participants reported having received prior training to treat burns. Considering the use of traditional methods to treat burns before going to the doctor, including toothpaste, coffee, flour, or oil, 64.9% did not agree, while 30.1% agreed to use traditional methods. About 36.1% of the parents will go to the doctors before doing anything, while 34.1% will apply both medications and traditional methods, 19.4% will apply medications, and 10.4% will apply traditional methods to treat burns. In general, 74.2% of the participants had adequate knowledge and practice considering first aid for burns. The highest knowledge and practice were reported in participants who reported having information from training courses (96.9% and 93.8%, respectively). Conclusion: There were good knowledge, practice, and attitudes about how to deal with burns among the parents in Tabuk. Moreover, parents use many methods to deal with burns that afflict them and their children, mainly medications and going to the doctor.

Background: Various studies among students from different medical universities have established that individual students' study habits, which are cultivated throughout their academic life, are a critical determining factor in their academic success. The present study aimed at evaluation of study habits among the high-achieving undergraduate medical students at Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among the undergraduate medical students of Northern Border University, Saudi Arabia using a self-designed and pre-validated questionnaire with questions aimed at understanding the various types of study habits adopted by them. Results: Three hundred twenty-six students from the first to the sixth year of the undergraduate program participated in the study. The survey results gave insight into the study habits that successful students consistently practiced. A few of them, which have been established, previously, include healthy eating, sufficient sleep, and consistent reading that has supplemented academic success. Conclusion: The process of learning is complex and multifaceted. Hence, a single-pronged approach might not always be sufficient. To improve academic performance, students need help assessing the areas and habits that need to be changed to reduce stress, eliminate burnout and increase productivity. It has been suggested that training sessions be introduced in the early stages of the medical course to familiarize students with the necessary habits and skills.

BACKGROUND: Recently with the evolution of interest and electronic devices, education was changed greatly to be easier, effective, and reasonable. Emergency medicine is a sensitive part of medicine which need rapid stabilization, examination, diagnosis, and even management of the participant. AIM: In this study, we focused on emergency medicine registrars at King Saud medical city to know their preferred learning methods during extracurricular time. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between certain demographic characteristics and preferred learning modality. METHODS: We used validation questionnaire design and tested by UTAH University in the United States of America, it was a simple survey designed to cover all important points in short time. We distributed the survey using online tool (survey monkey). RESULTS: Our study results found that podcasts was the most modality chosen by participants as beneficial and they expend their time more on podcasts. Age of participants was shown to be associated with use of internet and Google as leaning tool. We hope that researcher investigates this area of gab and future learning methods during emergency medicine doctors as well as other specialties of medicine. CONCLUSION: We found that participants chose podcasts as a learning channel more than other modalities in our study of emergency medicine registrars at all levels and their extracurricular educational programs. Age was substantially correlated with less use of Google and online searches for educational purposes.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a public health issue; type 2 DM (T2DM) is one of the major causes of increased risks of several diseases and complications. The management and better glycemic control reduce the risk of complications associated with diabetes and improve the quality of life (QOL) of patients. There is a need to consider the external factors indicated as social determinants of diabetes and health to maintain and achieve the goal of sustainable improvement in health outcomes among diabetic patients. This review was aimed at reviewing the social determinants of health (SDOH) and the QOL of uncontrolled T2DM patients. The online databases PubMed, Science Direct, Research Gate, and Google Scholar were used to perform a literature search for publications published between 2010 and 2021, without any date or language restrictions. We used a combination of relevant search terms "DM, T2DM, Uncontrolled T2DM, QOL, health-related quality of life, SDOH". We independently identified publications and systematically screened titles, abstracts, and full texts of the collected publications. The findings included in our review were original articles, review articles, and systematic reviews written in English and focused on our objective. The obtained articles were reviewed and selected based on the inclusion criteria. The QOL of T2DM patients was found low, especially among patients with uncontrolled diabetes and those with diabetes-associated complications. There was interference observed between SDOH and patients' QOL.

When it comes to the provision of medical services, quality is crucial. It entails changing healthcare so that actions, not just words, reflect values. Additionally, there is a change from quantity to quality. The outcome of treatment is more crucial than how many patients a doctor sees in a day. The standard of care can be raised by being aware of numerous internal and external factors. Organizational leadership and management must comprehend these elements and incorporate them into the provision of services. This cross-sectional research seeks to determine the critical internal variables needed to raise the caliber and effectiveness of healthcare services provided by Hafr Al Batin hospital. It sought to learn the healthcare team's perspectives on internal factors and how to steer patients toward the best results. In favors of the patients, Hafr Al Batin hospital's healthcare team surveyed 66 respondents. Twenty-one respondents believe that the healthcare team needs more education to raise the standard of care provided in hospitals. The best way to improve medical performance, in the opinion of 38, is through communication skills, which 34 people believe can be learned by attending expert lectures. According to 25 respondents, raising salaries is the most crucial step that can be taken to improve the standard of healthcare services. While 63 respondents agree that healthcare services and equipment are equally important, 3 respondents disagree. Improvements must be made to internal organizational factors and healthcare service quality to achieve improved performance. by increasing the healthcare team's knowledge through lectures from knowledgeable members, improving communication and leadership skills, using more cutting-edge equipment, and paying higher salaries to inspire employees.

Placental insufficiency is the failure of the placenta to supply nutrients to the fetus and remove toxic wastes; it is a common cause of intra uterine growth restriction (IUGR), fetal distress peri and postnatal mortality. Specifically gestational diabetes and hypertension during pregnancy alters placental architecture which contributes to insufficiency of the placenta. Placenta is the most accurate record of infant’s prenatal experiences. Clinical condition such as hypertension and diabetes that complicate pregnancy leads to significant structural changes in placenta, these histological changes and morphological alterations in placenta lead to insufficiency, resulting in IUGR and fetal distress. In the present study morphology of placentas collected from diabetic and hypertensive pregnancy will be observed, the histo-pathological findings will be recorded and correlated to birth weight, APGAR scores and congenital anomalies of babies and will be compared to the findings in normal placentas also. This study will be beneficial for obstetrician and pediatrician in gathering knowledge about patho genesis of placental insufficiency; it will add to the knowledge on placental morphology and will high light the abnormalities in placental anatomy.

To assess the level of parental Awareness about growth failure across all of Saudi Arabia and look into the potential influence of covariates (social and demographic) as determinants of the level of knowledge of parents, both mother and father, aged between 18 and 60, and on the national level.A cross-sectional study involving a survey of 4,404 parents, aged between 18 and 60 years, in all administrative regions within Saudi Arabia was undertaken From March 2022 to May 2022.The majority of participants had average awareness of FTT, and differences in region, as well as in educational and professional levels, had an impact on this awareness, with participants from the western region who hold bachelor's degree and employees have a better level of awareness than others.To raise awareness, the whole public, especially parents, has to be continuously informed on failure to thrive in children and how to deal with it through educational programs and awareness campaigns.

The research examines the accuracy of current solution models for the Arabic text sentiment classification, including traditional machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The main aim is to detect the opinion and emotion expressed in Telecom companies’ customers tweets. Three supervised machine learning algorithms, Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Random Forest (RF), and one deep learning algorithm, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) were applied to classify the sentiment of 1098 unique Arabic textual tweets. The research results show that deep learning CNN using Word Embedding achieved higher performance in terms of accuracy with F1 score = 0.81. Furthermore, in the aspect classification task, the results reveal that applying Part of Speech (POS) features with deep learning CNN algorithm was efficient and reached 75 % accuracy using a dataset consisting of 1277 tweets. Additionally, in this study, we added an additional task of extracting the geographical location information from the tweet content. The location detection model achieved the following precision values: 0.6 and 0.89 for both Point of Interest (POI) and city (CIT).

Kamaleldin B Said,1,2 Ahmed Alsolami,3 Fayez Saud Alreshidi,4 Anas Fathuddin,5 Fawwaz Alshammari,6 Fauwaz Alrashid,7 Ahmed Aljadani,3 Rana Aboras,4 Fatmah Alreshidi,4 Mohammed H Alghozwi,1 Suliman F Alshammari,1 Nawaf F Alharbi1 On behalf of the Ha’il COM Research Unit Group1Department of Pathology and Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi Arabia; 2Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada; 3Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi Arabia; 4Deparmtent of Family, Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi Arabia; 5Department of Plastic Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi Arabia; 6Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi Arabia; 7Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Kamaleldin B Said, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, 55476, Saudi Arabia, Tel +966500771459, Email kbs.mohamed@uoh.edu.saIntroduction: The lack of feasible therapies and comorbidities aggravate the COVID-19 case–fatality rate (CFR). However, reports examining CFR associations with diabetes, concomitant cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and chronic liver disease (CLD) are limited. More studies assessing hydroxychloroquine (Hcq) and antivirals are needed.Purpose: To examine associations of COVID-19 CFR in comorbid patient groups each with single comorbidities and after treatment with Hcq, favipiravir, and dexamethasone (Dex), either alone or in combination versus standard care.Methods: Using statistical analysis, we descriptively determined these associations among 750 COVID-19 patient groups during the last quarter of 2021.Results: A diabetes comorbidity (40%, n=299) showed twice the fatality (CFR 14%) of the others (CFR 7%; P=0.001). Hypertension (Htn) was the second-commonest comorbidity (29.5%, n=221), with similar CFR to diabetes (15% and 7% for Htn and non-Htn, respectively), but with higher significance (P=0.0006167). Although only 4% (n=30) heart failure (HF) was reported, the CFR (40%) was much higher than in those without it (8%). A similar rate (4%) for chronic kidney disease was reported, with CFRs of 33% and 9% among those with and without it, respectively (P=0.00048). Ischemic heart disease was 11% (n=74), followed by chronic liver disease (0.4%) and history of smoking (1%); however, these were not significant due to the sample sizes. Treatment indicated standard care and Hcq alone or in combination were superior (CFR of 4% and 0.5%, respectively) compared to favipiravir (25%) or Dex (38.5%) independently or in combination (35.4%). Furthermore, Hcq performed well (CFR 9%) when combined with Dex (9%; P=4.28–26).Conclusion: The dominance of diabetes and other comorbidities with significant association with CFR implied existence of a common virulence mechanism. The superiority of low-dose Hcq and standard care over antivirals warrants further studies.Keywords: COVID-19 medicine treatments, COVID-19 supportive treatment, comorbid COVID-19 elders, COVID-19 survivals and deaths

Background and Objectives: Ochradenus baccatus belongs to the family Resedaceae. It is widely spread in Saudi Arabia and other countries in Southwest Asia. O. baccatus is extensively used in traditional medicine as an anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agent, in addition to being a vital source of food for certain desert animal species. The aim of the present study was to investigate the chemical composition and antibacterial/anticancer activities of O. baccatus methanolic extracts collected from Hail, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: The O. baccatus extracts were obtained by macerating the crude powder in methanol, followed by filtration and evaporation. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to analyze the methanolic extracts’ chemical constituents. Broth microdilution assay for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination was used to assess antimicrobial activity, while the extracts’ anticancer potential was assessed by sulforhodamine B Assay (SRB) assay. Results: The results of the antibacterial assay showed that the methanolic extracts from the roots and branches possessed varying degrees of activity against particular bacterial strains, with the highest activity being exerted by the branches’ extract against Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium (St), demonstrating MIC values of 15.6 µg/mL and 20 µg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, the SRB cell viability assay revealed that only the branches’ extract inhibited the growth of A549 cancer cells, with an IC50 value of 86.19 µg/mL. The LC-MS analysis of the methanolic extracts from the plant’s roots and branches was then conducted, resulting in the identification of 8 and 13 major chemical constituents, respectively. Azelaic acid, β-amyrin, and phytanic acid are some of the bioactive compounds that were detected in the extracts via LC-MS, and they are thought to be responsible for the observed antibacterial/anticancer activity of O. baccatus methanolic extracts. Conclusions: This study confirmed the antibacterial/anticancer potential of O. baccatus methanolic extracts and analyzed their phytochemical constituents. Further isolation and biological screening are warranted to understand the therapeutic potential of O. baccatus.

The immediate aim of this study was to comparatively examine the bacterial respiratory microbiome of patients in a stable state and during an exacerbation of asthma–COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) overlap (ACO). This prospective observational study took place in Jordan between 1 September 2021 and 30 April 2022. Sputum samples from patients with recognized ACO were acquired within 48 h of the exacerbation onset and again at 3 weeks following the exacerbation. The next-generation sequencing Illumina MiSeq was employed and uncovered significantly high bacterial diversity in the sputa. The results showed a significant decrease in the taxonomic richness in the sputum samples collected during the exacerbation episodes compared with those collected from patients in a stable state (p = 0.008), with an increase in the taxonomic evenness (p < 0.005). This change in the composition of the airway bacterial community suggests that the replacement of a significant portion of the airway microbiome with certain microorganisms may play a role in the decrease in microbial diversity observed during an ACO exacerbation. Greater knowledge of this link could allow for a more focused administration of antibiotics, especially during exacerbations, improving clinical efficacy and patient outcomes.

The devastating COVID-19 pandemic has created several gaps in the management of viral infections, leaving biocontainment and supportive measures as the only resorts for control. As such, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of dietary supplementations and herbal medicine for COVID-19. However, serious concerns regarding the efficacy, safety, and recommended doses of these medicines have been raised. In this study, we aimed to assess the population knowledge about alternative medicine administration for COVID-19 and the associated factors. Using a self-administered cross-sectional survey, we analyzed a total of 2042 valid responses. Most of the included participants were females (69.7%), with an overall mean age of 20.8 ± 11.8 years. Most respondents (62.8%) obtained their knowledge from social media while only 16.6% received knowledge from the health care workers. Half of the participants (50.6%) correctly identified all COVID-19 symptoms, where fever (18.5%) and loss of smell and taste (17.1%) were the most frequent answers. On the use of traditional medicines and supplements for COVID-19, 57.8% did not answer, 23.7% admitted regular use, and 18.5% used sometimes. Family members or friends suggested the use of traditional medicines and dietary supplements to 28.0% of the participants while only 14.7% were advised by a nutritionist, physician, pharmacist, nurse, or a health worker. Moreover, seniors and illiterate portions of society had lower knowledge scores and increased utilization of alternative medicine. Marital status, income, and previous COVID-19 were all significant predictors of the awareness and knowledge score. Thus, this study has identified overuse of unregulated medicinal products in the region, which potentially aggravates COVID-19 or other underlying risks of the disease, making clinical management challenging, particularly in geriatrics and women’s health. Regulation of medicinal products and establishment of educational campaigns about the disease have become imperative.

Legionella pneumophila is found in the natural aquatic environment and can resist a wide range of environmental conditions. There are around fifty species of Legionella, at least twenty-four of which are directly linked to infections in humans. L. pneumophila is the cause of Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially lethal form of pneumonia. By blocking phagosome-lysosome fusion, L. pneumophila lives and proliferates inside macrophages. For this disease, there is presently no authorized multiepitope vaccine available. For the multi-epitope-based vaccine (MEBV), the best antigenic candidates were identified using immunoinformatics and subtractive proteomic techniques. Several immunoinformatics methods were utilized to predict B and T cell epitopes from vaccine candidate proteins. To construct an in silico vaccine, epitopes (07 CTL, 03 HTL, and 07 LBL) were carefully selected and docked with MHC molecules (MHC-I and MHC-II) and human TLR4 molecules. To increase the immunological response, the vaccine was combined with a 50S ribosomal adjuvant. To maximize vaccine protein expression, MEBV was cloned and reverse-translated in Escherichia coli. To prove the MEBV’s efficacy, more experimental validation is required. After its development, the resulting vaccine is greatly hoped to aid in the prevention of L. pneumophila infections.

Life narratives are rare in the Gulf region due to many issues. Kuwait women’s writing about their lives, bodies, illnesses, and disabilities is almost unheard of. This article considers two texts by contemporary Kuwaiti women and situates their illness narratives within Kuwait’s social context. By writing about their illness and disability, the authors re-claim their voice and agency, writing their silenced bodies as Helene Cixous urges women to write through Écriture feminine. This article examines two texts from a comparative perspective, highlighting themes of disability, mental illness, and healing through writing.

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a cyclical phenomenon of physical and emotional symptoms in which a women's day-to-day functioning is impacted by intense side effects that significantly interfere with her personal happiness. Objective: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of PMS among female students at university of Hail, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the University of Hail. A total of 530 female students participated in the study. The clinical criterion of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for PMS was used to assess the prevalence of PMS in the participants. The questionnaire was set in six parts to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding PMS. Results: The majority (95.3%) of the females were single, and 55.8% were enrolled in medical universities. Females who had PMS were 42.8%, 37.7% were unaware, while 18.7% did not have PMS. The majority (78.33%, n = 412) of the participants reported that PMS disturbed their normal routine. Conclusion: A significant impact of PMS was found in the lives of women at Hail University, and it is also a common problem all over the globe. Despite the growing awareness, there remains a considerable deficiency of knowledge about the necessity to consult a doctor or seek treatment for the symptoms.

An activated carbon (AC) deriving from sludge is used in this research for the adsorption of two water pollutants, namely Reactive Black 5 (RB5) and Green Alizarin (GA) dyes, at different temperatures. The adsorption capacities varied from 277.2 to 312.69 mg/g for GA and from 225.82 to 256.02 mg/g for RB5. Comparatively, this adsorbent presents good performances in removing these dyes from wastewater. The application of physical models to adsorption experiments is advantageous to provide new insights into the dyes' adsorption mechanism. A dedicated physical adsorption model suggests that RB5 and GA dyes are adsorbed in a monolayer. Moreover, the orientation of RB5 and GA dyes on AC resulted in an angled position, determining a multi-molecular process. In addition, both dyes are adsorbed by the occurrence of an aggregation process, forming a dimer. The impact of temperature can be also interpreted, allowing concluding that it plays a relevant role in removing these dyes. The calculation and interpretation of adsorption energies show that the dyes are removed via an endothermic process, and physical forces are involved.