Identifying Barriers to Umbilical Cord Blood Banking in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Obstetricians

Background: The expansion of umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking necessitates a greater understanding among obstetricians in order to responsibly inform parents about UCB collection and storage. Gaps in knowledge can compromise public UCB banking efforts and result in missed opportunities and public misguidance about UCB banking. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was disseminated among obstetricians in Amman, Jordan. The questionnaire aimed to evaluate obstetricians’ knowledge of and attitude toward UCB storage and applications, as well as current practice patterns. Results: Ninety-six obstetricians responded (55% response rate), most of whom were Jordanian (71%), female (83%), resident physicians (59%), and working in either private (43%) or public (42%) hospitals, with an average of 6.5 years in practice. Only 26% had personal experience in UCB collection, and 20% had received education on UCB collection. Nearly 75% said their hospitals lacked standard operating procedures, guidelines, or infectious disease screening for UCB units. Overall knowledge about UCB was moderate, and the internet was the most common information source (54%). Overall attitudes were positive, especially in desire to expand personal knowledge about UCB, integrate information into medical residency curricula, and establish a public UCB bank in Jordan. However, many believed that ethical (61%) and religious (56%) controversies surround UCB donation. Conclusion: This study identifies deficiencies in quality control and experience in UCB collection in Jordan, as well as areas of inadequate knowledge and ethical controversies among obstetricians. These issues contribute to public misinformation and limit public UCB donation programs, and requires improved medical education on this topi

Vowel blindness: Computer-mediated help options for Arabic EFL learners

This dissertation investigates the impact of different types of help options, specifically input enhancement and form-focused glosses, on reducing vowel blindness of Arabic EFL learners. Vowel blindness is the term commonly used for Arabic ESL/EFL learners’ difficulty in decoding English vowels by transferring L1 habits of relying heavily on consonants and giving little attention to vowels.Two hundred-fifty Saudi Arabian EFL students at a beginner to low-intermediate level participated in a study based around a specially designed piece of online software, VALE (Vowel-Assistant for Arabic Learners of English) which incorporates English vowel training through input enhancement and form-focused glosses implemented in the context of reading tasks. Input enhancement was achieved typographically by highlighting the vowels in target words in yellow. The form-focused glosses were designed to include segment-focused glosses, syllable-focused glosses, or segment-syllable focused glosses. Each of the four types of support was experienced by a separate experimental group, while a control group received no such help. VALE also delivered most of the data gathering instruments of the study which included a background questionnaire, pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test, and attitude questionnaire. Retrospective interviews were also conducted with 40 participants.Three sets of research questions are asked to address the effect of VALE help options on reducing vowel blindness. The first and second sets address the effect of type of support on treated/targeted words and on untreated/nontargeted words, in three stages: initial effect (pre-test - post-test change), retention effect (post-test - delayed post-test), and overall effect (pre-test - delayed post-test). The third set of research questions explores the impact of VALE on raising participants’ awareness of the vowel blindness problem and on their attitudes towards VALE.The results for the first set of research questions revealed significant decreases in vowel blindness errors in the short term for treated words, with significant differences between the experimental groups and the control group. Yet, a significant re-increase in vowel blindness errors occurred in the longer term but an overall vowel blindness reduction effect was found over the entire period of the study, particularly for the segment help option. The second set of research questions again found a significant decrease in vowel blindness for untreated words in the short-term, similar for all VALE help options. In the longer term, a major loss of retention occurred for all the help groups; nevertheless, a significant change in vowel blindness errors was still found over the entire period of the study for the untreated words, particularly for the input enhancement help option. Finally, the third set of research questions revealed through the interview data that the learners generally perceived their help option treatment as positively impacting their awareness of the vowel blindness problem. Interview data and attitude questionnaire also showed mostly positive attitudes towards the technical design of VALE and segment help obtained the highest number of positive responses

Zinc oxide resveratrol nanoparticles ameliorate testicular dysfunction due to levofloxacin-induced oxidative stress in rats

Abstract The present work is aimed to assess the protective influence of zinc oxide resveratrol nanoparticles against oxidative stress-associated testicular dysfunction. The number of 50 male albino rats were randomly separated into five groups (n = 10): Group I, control: rats gavage distilled water orally; Group II, Levofloxacin: rats that administered Levofloxacin (LFX) softened in distilled water at a dosage of 40 mg/kg−1 BW orally every other day; Group III, Zn-RSV: rats administered with Zn-RSV (zinc oxide resveratrol in distilled water at a dose 20 mg/kg−1 BW orally every other day; Group IV, (LFX + Zn-RSV): rats that were administered with Levofloxacin along with Zn-RSV nPs; Group V, Levofloxacin + Zn: rats were administered with Levofloxacin and Zno at a dose of 20 mg/kg−1 BW orally every other day as mentioned before. This study lasted for 2 months. Sera were collected to assess luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and testosterone values. Testicular tissues were utilized to evaluate levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and catalase (CAT). Semen samples were utilized to measure their quality (motility, concentration, and vitality). Histopathological and immune histochemical techniques investigated the morphological changes in the testis. Rats treated with Levofloxacin showed significantly lower levels of serum LH, testosterone, FSH, testicular enzymatic NO, catalase, SOD, BAX, and BCL-2 immune reactivity and sperm quality but significantly greater testicular malondialdehyde and caspase-3 immuno-reactivity Compared to both control and zinc oxide resveratrol treatment. Zinc oxide resveratrol nanoparticles ameliorated the harmful side effects of Levofloxacin. Improvements were more pronounced in the co-treatment (LFX + Zn-RSV) Zinc oxide resveratrol group than in the co-treatment (LFX + Zno) Zinc oxide group. Zinc oxide resveratrol nanoparticles could be a possible solution for levofloxacin oxidative stress-induced fertility problems