Empathy toward Patients with Mental Illness among Baccalaureate Nursing Students: Impact of a Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Educational Experience

Empathy is an ability and skill that can be learned and developed through appropriate education and practice. While the importance of nurses' empathy is widely acknowledged, little is known about the impact of passing through the psychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University on students' level of empathy. This study aimed to assess the change in level of empathy toward patients with mental illness among baccalaureate nursing students before and after completing a psychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience. The study followed a cross-sectional exploratory research design. It was conducted on 204 students in the eighth semester of the academic year 2012-2013, who were enrolled in the course of psychiatric nursing and mental health. A Student's Socio-demographic Characteristics and Previous Experience with Mental Illness Questionnaire and Empathy toward the Mentally Ill Scale were used to collect data. The results indicated that all students significantly achieved high levels of empathy after the psychiatric nursing experience. It was concluded that passing through a psychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience can improve baccalaureate nursing students' empathy toward patients with mental illness. Recommendations included the need for further studies compare between students’ levels empathy toward people with mental illness before and after completing various psychiatric nursing educational experiences at different faculties of nursing.   Keywords: Empathy; Mental illness; Nursing students; Psychiatric nursing educational experience

Evaluation of Allelopathic Potential of Rumex dentatus Root Extract and Allelochemicals on Cicer arietinum

The present study aimed to evaluate the allelopathic potential of root extract of Rumex dentatus L. and various allelochemicals on some physiological parameters in roots of Cicer arietinum L. The tested allelochemicals were benzoic, caffeic, cinnamic, ferulic, gallic, sinapic and vanillic acids. Seed germination of Cicer was inhibited by Rumex extract. Lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide production increased gradually in response to extract concentration as well as allelochemicals treatment. The total soluble protein decreased whereas the total phenol increased under the various treatments. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD: 1.15.1.1) and catalase (CAT: 1.11.1.6) increased continuously with increasing extract concentration. However, peroxidase (POD: 1.11.1.7) increased sharply at 2% (w/v) followed by reduction at the higher concentrations and reached 1.1 U g-1 fresh weight at 10% (w/v) which was still higher than that of the control value. Ferulic acid was the most effective inducer for SOD activity followed by cinnamic acid. The POD activity increased remarkably particularly with cinnamic, benzoic and gallic acids. Sinapic, ferulic and coumaric acids enhanced CAT activity by 150.4%, 139.5% and 124.4%, respectively. The results reveal the possible use of R. dentatus as bioherbicide

Investigating the efficacy of e-learning for Egyptian higher education

Using e-learning has become a credited learning delivery method in developed countries. The importance of this research arises from a widespread acknowledgement that implementing and evaluating quality in the learning process, whether it is face-to-face or e-learning, is important to guarantee the success of developing learners‘ understanding and knowledge.The research uses an instrumental case study to investigate the efficacy of e-learning in the Egyptian higher education context and to produce a model of implementing and evaluating quality in e-learning systems. Several methods are adopted including interviews, questionnaire, focus groups, VLE feedback, and a pre-post achievement test to collect the data.The study describes the participants‘ attitudes toward e-learning, what they perceive as quality e-learning systems and as critical success factors for implementing such systems inside the Egyptian higher education, and how they view the effectiveness and quality of e-learning systems. In addition, the study indicates that the majority of the participants are satisfied with using e-learning systems in their learning as long as the critical success factors are applied. This research also suggests that e-learning has a positive impact on learners‘ achievement levels

Emotional Intelligence among Baccalaureate Students at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt: A Cross-sectional Study

Emotional intelligence (EI) is seen as a necessity in health care practices, especially the nursing practice. Assessing levels of EI and ascertaining its progression among nursing students is essential for ensuring effective nursing education and competent professional nursing skills before graduation. This study aimed at assessing the level of emotional intelligence among baccalaureate students at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, and determining its development over the academic semesters. The study followed a cross-sectional descriptive design. It was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, on 450 randomly selected students who registered in four semesters. A Socio-demographic and Academic Data Questionnaire, and Emotional Intelligence Scale, were used to collect data. The results indicated that the majority of the studied students in the four semesters had moderate levels of EI. The mean score of EI of the eighth semester's students was slightly increased by the end of the same semester. It was recommended that the student’s level of EI should be considered prior to entrance into the Faculty of Nursing, and EI concept should be incorporated into the nursing curriculum. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Nursing students, Nursing education

Plant communities along the international coastal highway of Nile delta, Egypt

The construction of highways promotes several changes in the roadside habitat, vegetation, and plant invasion. The present study aimed to describe the plant communities-environment interactions of the international coastal highway from Port-Said to Abu-Qir, northern Nile delta coast of Egypt. A total of 146 species (83 annuals, 4 biennials, and 59 perennials), belonging to 116 genera and 33 families were recorded in 80 stands. The Mediterranean chorotype is the most represented. The cluster analysis of stands yielded four communities. The community I was dominated by Silybum mariannum, community II was dominated by Mesembryanthemum crystalinum, Community III is the largest one and was co-dominated by Hordeum murinum and Senecio glaucus and community IV was co-dominated by Cakile maritima and S. glaucus. Diversity indices showed more richness of communities II and more evenness of community IV. Electric conductivity, porosity, soil texture, Na+, Cl- and bicarbonate showed significant variation among communities. The soil of C. maritima and S. glaucus community was more saline (1.78 ms cm-1). The application of CCA showed that communities II and III were mainly correlated with salinity and organic matter. The present study revealed that roadside habitat of the international coastal highway dominated by different plant communities which correlated with the habitat structure, salinity, and anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, nine invasive species were recorded in this study which could be attributed to the increment of human activities after the construction of the highway

Medical system based on thermal optical system and neural network

Military personnel in the training or operational phases always need constant medical examination, but the presence of efficient medical care is difficult to implement in real-time for such cases. A wireless system for thermal tracking of soldiers was proposed, as well as tracking their vital signs in real time. Thermal cameras are used with an optical system designed to increase the accuracy of the thermal images captured as the change in the electro-cardiogram, heart rate, and temperature measurements are measured using a specially designed circuit. The results from both the thermal system and the biometric system are combined and sent to a computer for analysis using a model prepared with neural network technology. The proposed system was tested, and a database was created for 127 males and 110 females during training and rest times. The neural network model achieved a response time of 85 seconds until the release of the final analysis, and the accuracy of the proposed tracking system is 96%. The main contribution of this paper is the design of an integrated portable system for rapid, in-field, real-time military medical diagnostics