Attitudes of Saudi Arabian Undergraduate Medical Students towards Health Research

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate attitudes, perceptions and perceived barriers towards health research among Saudi Arabian undergraduate medical students. Methods: This cross-sectional study took place between August and October 2014 and included 520 students from five medical schools across Saudi Arabia. An anonymous online survey with 21 close-ended questions was designed to assess students’ attitudes towards research, contribution to research-related activities, awareness of the importance of research, perception of available resources/opportunities for research, appreciation of medical students’ research contributions and perceived barriers to research. Responses were scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Results: A total of 401 students participated in the study (response rate: 77.1%). Of these, 278 (69.3%) were female. A positive attitude towards research was reported by 43.9% of the students. No statistically significant differences were observed between genders with regards to attitudes towards and available resources for research (P = 0.500 and 0.200, respectively). Clinical students had a significantly more positive attitude towards research compared to preclinical students (P = 0.007). Only 26.4% of the respondents believed that they had adequate resources/opportunities for research. According to the students, perceived barriers to undertaking research included time constraints (n = 200; 49.9%), lack of research mentors (n = 95; 23.7%), lack of formal research methodology training (n = 170; 42.4%) and difficulties in conducting literature searches (n = 145; 36.2%). Conclusion:Less than half of the surveyed Saudi Arabian medical students had a positive attitude towards health research. Medical education policies should aim to counteract the barriers identified in this study

Erratum to: Optical properties of Kerr–Newman spacetime in the presence of plasma

A Correction to this paper has been published: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8346-

Optical properties of Kerr–Newman spacetime in the presence of plasma

We have studied the null geodesics in the background of the Kerr–Newman black hole veiled by a plasma medium using the Hamilton–Jacobi method. The influence of black hole’s charge and plasma parameters on the effective potential and the generic photon orbits has been investigated. Furthermore, our discussion embodies the effects of black hole’s charge, plasma and the inclination angle on the shadow cast by the gravity with and without the spin parameter. We examined the energy released from the black hole as a result of the thermal radiations, which exclusively depends on the size of the shadow. The angle of deflection of the massless particles is also explored considering a weak-field approximation. We present our results in juxtaposition to the analogous black holes in General Relativity, particularly the Schwarzschild and Kerr black hole