Suchergebnisse

The study aimed to identify the effectiveness of a proposed training program for developing action research skills among female mathematics and science teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study employed a semi-experimental approach with a one-group design and pre- and post-measurement. A sample of 36 female mathematics and science teachers from the Bisha Education Department took part in the training program and then took a test to evaluate their action research skills. The results revealed statistically significant differences in the teachers' action research skills at the level α ≤ 0.05 between the pre- and post-measurements in favor of the latter. In light of the study results, some recommendations can be made: A culture of action research should be fostered among male and female teachers in general and in mathematics and science teaching specifically; research partnerships should be built to include experts and male and female teachers in general education; male and female teachers should undergo training to develop action research skills.

Received: 12 January 2023 / Accepted: 23 February 2023 / Published: 5 March 2023

Salah H Elsafi,1 Norah I Alqahtani,1 Nawaf Y Zakary,2 Eidan M Al Zahrani,3 1Clinical Laboratory Science Department, Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences, Dhahran, 2Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Unit, Internal Medicine Department, King Fahd Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, 3Prince Sultan Military College of Heath Sciences, Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Objectives: To study the performance of a single test using two fecal occult blood tests with colonoscopy for the detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) for the first time in Saudi Arabia to determine possible implications for the anticipated colorectal screening program. Materials and methods: We compared the performance of guaiac and immunochemical fecal occult blood tests for the detection of CRC among patients of 50–74 years old attending two hospitals in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia. Samples of feces were collected from 257 asymptomatic patients and 20 cases of confirmed CRC, and they were tested simultaneously by the guaiac-based occult blood test and monoclonal antibody-based immunoassay kit. Colonoscopy was performed on all participants and the results were statistically analyzed with both positive and negative occult blood tests of both methods. Results: Of the 277 subjects, 79 tested positive for occult blood with at least one method. Overall, the number of those with an occult blood-positive result by both tests was 39 (14.1%), while for 198 (71.5%), both tests were negative (P<0.0001); 40 (14.4%) samples showed a discrepant result. Colonoscopy data were obtained for all 277 patients. A total of three invasive cancers were detected among the screening group. Of the three, the guaiac test detected two cases, while the immunochemical test detected three of them. Of the 20 control cases, the guaiac test detected 13 CRC cases (P=0.03), while the immunochemical test detected 16 of them (P<0.0001). The sensitivity of guaiac and immunochemical tests for the detection of CRC in the screening group was 50.00% (95% confidence interval [CI] =6.76–93.24) and 75.00% (95% CI =19.41–99.37), respectively. For comparison, the sensitivity of the guaiac fecal occult blood test for detecting CRC among the control group was 65.00% (95% CI =40.78–84.61) while that of FIT was 80.00% (95% CI =56.34–94.27). The specificity of the guaiac and immunoassay tests was 77.87% (95% CI =72.24–82.83) and 90.12% (95% CI =85.76–93.50), respectively. The positive likelihood ratio of guaiac and immunochemical tests for the detection of CRC was 2.26 (95% CI =0.83–6.18) and 7.59 (95% CI =3.86–14.94), whereas the negative likelihood ratio was 0.64 (95% CI =0.24–1.71) and 0.28 (95% CI =0.05–1.52), respectively. The positive predictive values of guaiac and immunochemical tests were 3.45% (95% CI =0.426–11.91) and 10.71% (95% CI =2.27–28.23), respectively. There was no marked difference in the negative predictive values for both methods. The sensitivity of the fecal occult blood test by FIT was significantly higher for stages III and IV colorectal cancer than for stages I and II (P=0.01) and it was insignificant for the guaiac fecal occult blood test (P=0.07). Conclusion: In areas where other advance screening methods of CRC are not feasible, the use of FIT can be considered. Keywords: fecal occult blood test, guaiac, immunochemical, endoscopy, colorectal cancer

The study aimed to assess the profile of volunteerism in Saudi Arabia, particularly the Al-Jubail Volunteer Club and its impact to community. One-hundred ninety (190) members of the club are the respondents of the study. Descriptive research design was utilized to gain accurate profile of situation. It is found out that the demographic profile of volunteers coincides with some previous studies in terms of age bracket and occupation. Community concern motivated volunteers to participate. Volunteers perceived volunteering as a worthwhile activity. It is something that can improve and imply positive impact on their personal development. It is further concluded, volunteering can help in over-all development of its members and community as well.

BACKGROUND: Psychological distress/morbidity is amongst the primary reason for the cause of pain at multiple sites, its progression, and recovery. Though still not very clear if physical pain in the neck or the back may predict psychological morbidities or not. Thus, we investigated the association between combined neck or back pain and psychological distress/morbidity. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, including 1,003 individuals. The questionnaire comprised of General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) and some questions about neck and back pain. Data analysis was done using statistical software SPSS version 26.0. RESULTS: The results of the multivariate analysis revealed a significant positive association between neck/back pain status and total GHQ score (unstandardized Beta = 2.442, P ≤ 0.0001). Having neck/back pain had almost a 2.5 times greater risk of psychological distress/morbidity. Further, females were more likely to have a higher risk of psychological distress/morbidity (unstandardized Beta = 1.334, P = 0.007) than males while adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. CONCLUSION: The combination of neck and back pain was significantly associated with the Saudi population's psychological problems. Therefore, the Saudi government needs to devise high-risk strategies and allocate adequate resources to the cause so that at-risk people can be shielded from the adverse complications arising from this condition in the long run.

Upgrading of the heavy reformate fraction (HR), containing mainly C aromatics, is usually performed by dealkylation or by transalkylation with added benzene and/or toluene to obtain the more valuable xylenes. However, when the costs related to the use of benzene and toluene are considered, the one-step dealkylation/transalkylation of the C alkylaromatics to xylenes becomes economically attractive. Thus, in a first step, ethylmethylbenzenes (EMB) will have to be dealkylated to toluene, which will then react with the trimethylbenzenes (TMB) present in the HR feed to produce xylenes by transalkylation. Medium pore zeolites will favor dealkylation, whereas large pore zeolites will be more adequate for carrying out the transalkylation reaction. In this work, we present the one-pot synthesis of beta-pentasil aggregates with tunable ratios of the large pore beta to the medium pore component. We show that the close proximity of the beta and pentasil nanocrystals obtained by one-pot co-crystallization synthesis, results in a highly efficient catalyst for the consecutive dealkylation/transalkylation process. The bifunctional catalyst based on the co-crystallized aggregate is more active and selective to xylenes than a catalyst based on a physical mixture of equivalent beta and pentasil nanozeolites synthesized following an analogous procedure. The small crystallite sizes of the co-crystallized zeolites provide the additional advantage of a lower deactivation rate as compared to a reference benchmark catalyst. Results are shown on both, model molecules and industrial HR feed. ; This work has been supported by Saudi Aramco, by the Spanish Government-MICINN through "Severo Ochoa" (SEV 2012-0267) and RTI2018-101033-B-I00, by the European Union through ERC-AdG-2014-671093 (SynCatMatch) and by the Fundación Ramón Areces through a research contract of the "Life and Materials Science" program. We thank Belén Esparcia for technical assistance, and the Electron Microscopy Service of the UPV for their help in sample characterization.

Yaser A Al Naam,1 Salah Elsafi,1 Majed H Al Jahdali,2 Randa S Al Shaman,3 Bader H Al-Qurouni,4 Eidan M Al Zahrani5 1Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department, Prince Sultan Military Colleges of Health Sciences, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; 2Human Resources Directorate, Prince Sultan Military Colleges of Health Sciences, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Medical Laboratory, King Salman Armed Forces Hospital, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Medical Laboratory, King Fahad Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; 5Prince Sultan Military Colleges of Health Sciences, Dhahran, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Salah Elsafi, Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department, Prince Sultan Military Colleges of Health Sciences, P.O. Box 33048, Dhahran, 31448, Saudi Arabia, Email salah@psmchs.edu.sa; salahelsafi@hotmail.comBackground: There has been a significant concern that total automation can decrease the need for laboratory personnel at all levels. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of total laboratory automation on the clinical laboratory workforce.Methods: A one-year data including the demographical features of laboratory workforce and technical productivity of laboratory tests were provided by two medical laboratory departments of similar profile and different equipment setup; one adopting a total automation system and the other utilizing discrete analysis system. The technical productivities of the two laboratories were compared and statistically tested.Results: A similar technical productivity per single laboratory worker was noted in the hematology section in each of the two sites with no significant difference (average odd radio = 0.9, p = 0.79). However, with total automation, the number of tests performed per single worker has increased to an average of 1.4 and 3.7 times with total automation in the clinical chemistry and serology sections, respectively (p ≤ 0.001).Conclusion: Total laboratory automation improves the productivity of the laboratory, leading to a decreased laboratory workforce. ...

BACKGROUND: Prehypertension is a precursor to hypertension status. Psychological distress has been identified earlier among hypertensives; however, there is little evidence for the presumptive relationship between prehypertension and psychological distress. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess the psychological wellbeing of the Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia population, using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and correlating it with prehypertensive patients in the same population. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of the population of Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, was carried out between January and June of 2016. With an 85 percent response rate, a total of 1016 participants participated in the study. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between prehypertension and psychological distress. RESULTS: The findings of the adjusted analysis demonstrated that, on average prehypertensive patients were more distressed psychologically than non-hypertensive patients (unstandardized Beta regression coefficient = 3.600; P-value 0.025). Similarly, on average women were found to be more psychologically distressed than men (unstandardized Beta = 1.511, P-value 0.002). Civil workers and unemployed individuals were more psychologically distressed than employed individuals (unstandardized Beta = 1.326, P-value 0.041) while adjusting for the sociodemographic and other variables such as BMI, diabetes status, cholesterol, and smoking status. CONCLUSION: The current study shows that as compared to normotensive patients, self-rated mental wellbeing and psychological wellbeing are all considerably poorer among prehypertensive patients. To prevent individuals from having negative psychological outcomes and their long-term complications, the Government of Saudi Arabia needs to concentrate on prehypertensive, female, and unemployed individuals. Well-designed longitudinal studies, primarily in Saudi Arabia, are needed in the future to research the cause and impact of poor mental health and ...

One of the key provisions of the Paris Agreement that was adopted in December 2015 at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is Article 14 on the global stocktake (GST). The GST is intended to be the mechanism by which the Convention Parties that are Parties to the Paris Agreement would be able to periodically take stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement and to assess collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Agreement and its long-term goals. This research paper discusses how equity as a principle and a concept played a key role in shaping the modalities for the GST, and looks in detail at the operational modalities for the GST that were agreed upon in Katowice in December 2018 in relation to how equity should be considered and made operational.