PERCEIVED NEW RISKS TO CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN KUWAIT DUE TO RISING TEMPERATURES

This study aimed to examine the risks construction workers in Kuwait face due to increasing temperatures. The environmental conditions for construction workers include working in hot and humid environments, wearing protective clothing, and performing hard physical work. These aspects place them at an increased risk for occupational heat stress. The health impacts of occupational heat exposure for construction workers are heat-related diseases, occupational accidents/ injuries, urological diseases, dysfunctional reproductive system, reduced mental health and cognitive functioning, vision and eye problems, and death. Heat exposure affects workers\u27 health through heat-related illnesses, including heavy sweating, dizziness, muscle pain, fatigue, skin itchiness, and headache. Heat exposure also has various direct and indirect social implications for construction workers. It leads to family problems, workplace issues with co-workers and managers, reduced income, lack of basic amenities, reduced capability, and reduced productivity. One significant preventive measure for heat stress is providing training and education to workers on identifying heat stress signs and assessing and monitoring themselves and fellow workers while working in hot environments

Level of Implementation and Beliefs about Evidence-Based Practice among Respiratory Therapists in Clinical Setting in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Evidenced-based practice (EBP) is applying or translating research findings in our daily patient care practices and clinical decision-making. EBP also involves integrating the best available evidence with clinical knowledge and expertise, while considering patients’ unique needs and personal preferences. Since the role of RTs has increased, the importance of choosing the most effective treatment available is vital. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate RTs\u27 EBP beliefs and their implementation level and obtain important information about their daily clinical practice. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to measure the level of implementation, describe beliefs about EBP among respiratory therapists in the clinical setting in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The study utilized an online, cross-sectional survey with 34 questions administered to a convenience sample of RTs in Saudi Arabia. The survey is divided into three sections: belief and implementation, and demographics questions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA tests. A significance level was set at 0.05. All analyses were performed in SPSS version 26. RESULTS: The total sample consisted of 49 respiratory therapists consisting of three experience levels: less than 5 years (n=38, 77.55%), 5 to 10 years (n=6, 12.24%), and more than 10 years (n=5, 10.20%). The majority of the respondents were males (57%, n=28), while the females comprised (40% n=20). Most of the respondents in the study are between 25 and 30 years old (59% n=29), under 25 years (32% n=16), and over 35 years old (8% n=4) There were no statistically significant differences between male and female respondents or years of experience in the belief or implementation scales. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the respiratory therapists\u27 community in Saudi Arabia reported their positive beliefs about EBP, but most of them did not frequently implement it in their daily clinical practice. Further research is required due to a lack of literature on evidence-based practice in respiratory therapy, and to assess the correlates of negative EBP\u27 implementation levels among RTs in Saudi Arabi

Relationship between Vestibular System, Vision, Anxiety, and Chronic Motion Sensitivity

BACKGROUND: Chronic motion sensitivity (CMS) has been defined as a feeling of un-wellness elicited by either actual or perceived motion. CMS is a common condition and is more prevalent in females than in males. In addition to a variety of symptoms, young adults with CMS have less postural stability than those without CMS. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether vestibular system integrity, dependence on visual cues for postural stability, and the anxiety level are different between young adults with and without CMS, and whether it differs by gender within each group. METHODS: Sixty young adults (30 females and 30 males) were assigned to one of two groups (CMS or non-CMS) using the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire-Short Form (MSSQ-SF). Postural stability was measured for all participants using the Bertec Balance Advantage–Computerized Dynamic Posturography with Immersion Virtual Reality (CDP-IVR). State and trait anxiety inventory (STAI) used to measure the presence and severity of current state and general trait of anxiety. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in mean postural stability during eyes closed and unstable platform between the CMS and non-CMS groups (p=0.57). However, A significant difference was found in mean postural stability scores during immersion virtual reality (IVR) between the CMS and non-CMS groups (p Keywords: motion sensitivity, vestibular system integrity, visual input, Anxiety, postural stabilit

Attitude, Leadership Style, Awareness, and Readiness of Academic Staff Towards Deaf Student Acceptance in Saudi Arabia

The study explores faculty attitudes, leadership styles, awareness, and readiness towards deaf students in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. 327 university faculty members participated, and quantitative analysis was conducted using SPSS and Smart-PLS. The findings demonstrate positive attitudes and leadership styles among Saudi faculty, leading to acceptance of deaf students. There is a significant relationship between variables, with faculty attitude positively influencing readiness for admitting deaf students. The study reveals an encouraging situation in Saudi Arabia, with faculty prepared to embrace deaf students. Transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire leadership styles are positively associated with acceptance. Increasing faculty awareness, particularly in special education, is emphasized to enhance readiness. Work experience moderates the relationship between variables. The study supports the Saudi Governments special education initiative and suggests increasing teacher awareness, implementing training programs, and offering tailored social courses for students with disabilities. Despite limitations, the research provides valuable insights into special education in Saudi Arabia

Properties and variations of Mg II h&k lines over the solar cycle

Over the years, the study of Mg II h&k lines has transformed our approach to unraveling the intricate structures and dynamics of the solar chromosphere. Since the middle of the last century until space missions, our understanding has grown exponentially. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft is one of these missions that provided us with data that allowed us to observe these lines. In this thesis, the focus is to investigate the temporal and spatial variations of Mg II h&k lines in the solar atmosphere. Additionally, we present a novel approach for automatically determining the positions of the outer minima in the red and blue wings, line emission peaks in the red and blue sides, and the central absorption cores in the spectroscopic observations obtained by IRIS. In Chapter 1, we offer a brief literature review of the multifaceted aspects of the Sun’s atmospheric layers. The diverse structures of the chromosphere across the quiet sun, active regions, coronal holes, and prominences and filaments are described. The narrative progresses through a historical trajectory detailing the observations and research of Mg II h&k lines, highlighting their formation, intrinsic properties, and significance as diagnostic tools for the chromosphere. The Chapter concludes with an overview of the modelling of the Mg II h&k lines. In Chapter 2, we delve into the properties of Mg II h&k lines within the Quiet Sun at the disc centre. The emphasis is placed on comprehensive observations and data analysis, leveraging the capabilities of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). Integral to the research is the introduction of a novel algorithm for the automatic identification of Mg II h&k spectral features, which is used throughout the thesis. This algorithm is meticulously described, with insights into its prerequisites, a comparison with pre-existing methods, and an assessment of the data quality it yields using synthetic data. In Chapter 3, we use the quiet Sun rasters at disc center spanning from 2015 to 2022 obtained from IRIS. This research delves into the automatic examination of Mg II features, unraveling both consistent correlations and temporal fluctuations within these complex line profiles. The study’s driving aim is to discern the nuanced interplay among radiation temperatures, integrated intensities, line widths, and the intensities of specific spectral features, all within the solar chrom mosphere. We aim to investigate the temporal variation of the averaged flux for all Mg II h&k (2803.53 and 2796.35 Å, respectively) features over time (the end of the 24th and the beginning of the 25th solar cycles). We seek to derive information on the spectral features of the Mg II h&k lines in the solar atmosphere. We find that the intensity in k2v has a strong correlation with k3 and k2r intensities, and that the total line integrated intensity has a good correlation with feature intensities for k2v, k3, and k2r . The relationship between the line width and the intensities at k2v, k3, and k2r is inverse. We also find that the average intensities in all five spectral features of the k line at Sun centre remained roughly constant between the end of the 24th solar cycle and the beginning of the 25th solar cycle. Similarly, we find that the k/h line intensity ratio remains constant over the same time period. In Chapter 4, we use a high-resolution, single IRIS full-Sun mosaic of the Mg II k line on February 24, 2019. The solar disc is divided into 20 concentric annuli. By averaging the pixel values within each annulus, we streamline the data, mitigate local variances and facilitate an analysis. This method results in 20 average line profiles, which form the cornerstone of our final analytical endeavors. The study shows the relationships between µ (the viewing angle on the solar disc) and various solar atmospheric properties. A robust correlation is observed between µ and properties like feature intensities of spectral features, total integrated intensities, and temperatures at the k1v, and k2v, coupled with the intensity ratio k2. All these parameters decreased as µ approached the solar limb. Conversely, parameters like line width, k1 separation, k2 separation, velocities at k2 separation, and depth at k3 exhibited an increase as the viewing angle edged towards the limb. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions, gives a summary of our findings, and discusses possible plans for future work

Role of Antiviral Drugs in Management of Mild and Moderate Coronavirus Disease-19: A Systematic Review

This study was conducted to determine the objective role of antiviral drugs such as arbidol, lopinavir/ritonavir, and others in improving clinical symptoms, decreasing duration of hospitalization, and decreasing duration of viral shedding in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 infection. A systematic literature search was carried out on Google Scholar and PubMed databases, using the keywords “COVID-19”, “Antiviral”, “Treatment”, and “Symptomatic” in various combinations. Observational studies, cohort and case control studies, and clinical trials published in English with full-text available were included in the study. Data extraction was carried out from selected studies, and all statistical analysis for the study was carried out using Microsoft Excel. The key outcomes studied were time to negative PCR, duration of clinical stay, time to clinical improvement, and occurrence of adverse events. Seven studies were selected for final review after rigorous selection process. Data of total 4734 participants was analyzed, the majority of which were females (n=2810, 59.3%). The majority of participants had mild disease (n=4197, 88.65%). Average time for negative RT-PCR in the included treatment groups was 13.5 days, whereas the average duration of hospitalization was 14.9 days for the treatment groups. Adverse reactions such as ECG changes, gastrointestinal symptoms, secondary bacterial infections, and hepatic and renal dysfunction were scarcely reported in the included studies. There is no clear benefit in terms of duration of hospitalization and time to negative PCR with the use of various antiviral regimens in mild disease; however, these drugs did play a role in limiting disease progression in the participant population. Pending further evidence, the use of these drugs for the management of COVID-19 is not recommend in patients with mild disease

Functional analysis and structure determination of alkaline protease from Aspergillus flavus

Proteases are one of the highest value commercial enzymes as they have broad applications in food, pharmaceutical, detergent, and dairy industries and serve as vital tools in determination of structure of proteins and polypeptides. Multiple application of these enzymes stimulated interest to discover them with novel properties and considerable advancement of basic research into these enzymes. A broad understanding of the active site of the enzyme and of the mechanism of its inactivation is essential for delineating its structure-function relationship. Primary structure analysis of alkaline protease showed 42% of its content to be alpha helix making it stable for three dimensional structure modeling. Homology model of alkaline protease has been constructed using the X-ray structure (3F7O) as a template and swiss model as the workspace. The model was validated by ProSA, SAVES, PROCHECK, PROSAII and RMSD. The results showed the final refined model is reliable. It has 53% amino acid sequence identity with the template, 0.24 Å as RMSD and has -7.53 as Z-score, the Ramachandran plot analysis showed that conformations for 83.4 % of amino acid residues are within the most favored regions and only 0.4% in the disallowed regions

Intermittent High Grade AV-Block and Atrial Flutter Associated with Lyme Carditis:

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