The applicability of Technology Acceptance Model 3 in an education management information system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This study aims to explore the applicability of Technology Acceptance Model 3 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in an educational context. Therefore, this study investigates the antecedents, moderators, and socio-demographic variables relating to Technology Acceptance Model 3, and what their effect is on technological acceptance. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has witnessed rapid growth with the adoption of information systems that have enhanced its services. The Noor system is considered to be one of the largest adopted information systems in the Middle East (Abu-Ghazaleh, 2012). It is an education management information system that manages information and educational data; it also serves 65 stakeholders and more than ten million users. Information systems have previously been investigated in terms of their success, satisfaction, acceptance, and system usage. Some literature suggests that understanding individual acceptance and use of information technology is among the most mature streams of information systems research (Benbasat and Barki, 2007; Hirschheim, 2007; Mardiana et al., 2015; Rondan-Cataluña et al., 2015). Thus, studying the Noor system using Technology Acceptance Model 3 should promote usage and explore factors that hinder its usage. It is nevertheless clear that the implementation process presented its own challenges. The study was based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A total of 730,180 emails were sent, and 10,711 responses were received. Therefore, the overall response rate was 1.47 percent. The sample comprised both male and female users from three groups: 1,655 teachers (15.5%); 3,666 students (34.2%); and 5,390 parents (50.3%). A comprehensive online questionnaire was designed to suit the study using Technology Acceptance Model 3 literature. This were pre-tested, validated, and then uploaded to the Smart Survey online database for data collection. Technology Acceptance Model 3 was adopted to identify factors that determine the use of the Noor system. Previous literature reviews concerning Technology Acceptance Model 3 were used to formulate the hypotheses that governed the relationships between constructs. A hypothetico-deductive method was used to investigate the aim and objectives of this study both under the mandatory and voluntary conditions. The questionnaires had 16 main hypotheses, alongside three extra hypotheses (investigating the effect of socio-demographic variables, and the beta estimates and their effect on H2 and H3), thus bringing the total number of hypotheses for the entire study to 19. The survey was designed to capture information from both Saudi and non-Saudi users of the Noor system. The main data analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling in AMOS: specifically, the maximum likelihood estimate method, and moderation testing. Technology Acceptance Model 3 was found to be appropriate for studying the Noor system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was found to be applicable to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when studying the Noor system under both the mandatory and voluntary conditions. Likewise, it was found to be applicable to the non-Saudi from other Middle Eastern countries who used Arabic as their main teaching language. The study also found that Technology Acceptance Model 3 should not only be limited to its traditional moderators, but rather that researchers should explore the possibility of testing and incorporating additional socio-demographics as moderators. Likewise, a Saudi cultural background was found to have a strong effect on Behavioural Intention in using the Noor system, as well as Perceived Usefulness when compared to the non-Saudi from other Middle Eastern countries. Lastly, the study noted the importance of measuring Use Behaviour in Technology Acceptance Model 3 and not ignoring this factor, especially with self-reported usage. The study offers numerous contributions to the literature on Technology Acceptance Model 3, regarding both main relationships and socio-demographic variables. It can thus be concluded that this study should have some impact beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially in the Middle East. The findings and recommendations of this study lay a strong groundwork for enacting policy measures, alongside implementation by the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to ensure that the Noor system is a success within and beyond the borders of Saudi Arabia

Evaluating Word Similarity Measure of Embeddings Through Binary Classification

We consider the following problem: given neural language models (embeddings) each of which is trained on an unknown data set, how can we determine which model would provide a better result when used for feature representation in a downstream task such as text classification or entity recognition? In this paper, we assess the word similarity measure through analyzing its impact on word embeddings learned from various datasets and how they perform in a simple classification task. Word representations were learned and assessed under the same conditions. For training word vectors, we used the implementation of Continuous Bag of Words described in [1]. To assess the quality of the vectors, we applied the analogy questions test for word similarity described in the same paper. Further, to measure the retrieval rate of an embedding model, we introduced a new metric (Average Retrieval Error) which measures the percentage of missing words in the model. We observe that scoring a high accuracy of syntactic and semantic similarities between word pairs is not an indicator of better classification results. This observation can be justified by the fact that a domain-specific corpus contributes to the performance better than a general-purpose corpus. For reproducibility, we release our experiments scripts and results

Antibiotic utilization patterns for different wound types among surgical patients : findings and implications

Antimicrobial prophylaxis is effective in reducing the rate of surgical site infections (SSIs) post operatively. However, there are concerns with the extent of extend prophylaxis post-operatively especially among low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This increases antimicrobial re-sistance (AMR), which is a key issue in Pakistan. Consequently, we conducted an observational cross-sectional study among 583 patients undergoing surgery at a leading teaching hospital in Pakistan with respect to the choice, time and duration of antimicrobials to prevent SSIs. Identi-fied varables included post-op prophylactic antimicrobials given to all patients in all surgical procedures. In addition, cephalosporins were frequently used for all surgical procedures and among these, the use of third generation cephalosporins was common. The duration of post-operative prophylaxis was 3-4 days, appreciably longer than guideline suggestions, with most patients prescribed antimicrobials up to discharge. The inappropriate choice of antimicrobials combined with prolonged post-operative antibiotic administration post-operatively need to be addressed. This includes appropriate interventions, including antimicrobial stewardship pro-grams, which have been successful in other LMICs to improve antibiotic utilization associated with SSIs and reduce AM

Fatigue measurement in renal cancer patients and preclinical evaluation of combination therapy in RCC

In the United Kingdom, although only 3% of all new cancer diagnoses among men and even less for women are of kidney cancer, reports have also shown that the incidence of kidney cancer has increased not only in the United Kingdom, but also worldwide. In fact, in the United Kingdom, kidney cancer mortality rates have increased by 71% since the early 1970s. In response, the treatment and management of kidney cancer depends on whether the disease is clinically localised or metastasised at initial diagnosis.;In metastatic patients, molecularly targeted therapies, including those using tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) sunitinib and pazopanib, have largely replaced therapies with immunotherapy agents, which are less efficacious and more toxic than TKI. However, fatigue remains a commonly reported side effect of kidney cancer treatment involving TKI, which might make them intolerable. Accordingly, accurately measuring fatigue and identifying possible reasons for its onset and increase are vital to its early management.;In chapter 2, we measured fatigue in kidney cancer patients received sunitinib or pazopanib by using the Functional Assessment Chronic Illness Therapy for Fatigue (FACIT-F) tool. We also evaluated cancer symptoms and the impact of sunitinib and pazopanib on the quality of life of patients according to core items on the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory in four consecutive cycles. Among the 65 recruited patients receiving treatment at Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow, who participated in the study, 47 completed all four treatment cycles.;Our results showed that the mean fatigue score range, based on the FACIT-F tool, in participants was 29.5-31.8, which considered diagnostic fatigue of < 34 based on the cutoff point of FACIT-F. Furthermore, we found that the severity of fatigue score increased when cancer symptoms increased in those patients.;Such results encouraged us to investigate a combination therapy proposed in the literature to minimise the incidence of side effects with a combination of reduced dose of TKI, sunitinib or pazopanib, and radiotherapy. In chapter 3, we report a preclinical laboratory study that we conducted to examine the efficacy of sunitinib and pazopanib in killing renal cancer cells in vitro when used as single agents, as well as their potential use in combination studies.;Our results demonstrated that combination therapy was superior to monotherapy and that both sunitinib and pazopanib as single agents and in combination therapy with radiotherapy could induce apoptosis in both renal cell lines, 786-O and ACHN. Furthermore, we report our investigation into the cytotoxic effects of disulfiram, an anti-alcoholism drug not previously interrogated, in renal cell cancer alone and in combination with radiotherapy. Disulfiram demonstrated a cytotoxic effect, but not in a dose-dependent manner.;Our results additionally demonstrated that copper could enhance the cytotoxicity of disulfiram in renal cell lines only with a low dose of disulfiram ≤ 10 μM. By contrast, radiotherapy combined with disulfiram ± copper did not decrease cell viability, and disulfiram alone could induce apoptosis in renal cell lines.;In sum, our results reveal that fatigue is a significant issue for most kidney cancer patients receiving sunitinib or pazopanib. TKI agents could improve the radiosensitivity of the renal cancer cell line and constitute an interesting option for managing kidney cancer in the hopes of discovering a novel combination regimen with the same efficacy and with less toxicity. In short, disulfiram exhibits potential anticancer properties in renal cancer cell lines.In the United Kingdom, although only 3% of all new cancer diagnoses among men and even less for women are of kidney cancer, reports have also shown that the incidence of kidney cancer has increased not only in the United Kingdom, but also worldwide. In fact, in the United Kingdom, kidney cancer mortality rates have increased by 71% since the early 1970s. In response, the treatment and management of kidney cancer depends on whether the disease is clinically localised or metastasised at initial diagnosis.;In metastatic patients, molecularly targeted therapies, including those using tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) sunitinib and pazopanib, have largely replaced therapies with immunotherapy agents, which are less efficacious and more toxic than TKI. However, fatigue remains a commonly reported side effect of kidney cancer treatment involving TKI, which might make them intolerable. Accordingly, accurately measuring fatigue and identifying possible reasons for its onset and increase are vital to its early management.;In chapter 2, we measured fatigue in kidney cancer patients received sunitinib or pazopanib by using the Functional Assessment Chronic Illness Therapy for Fatigue (FACIT-F) tool. We also evaluated cancer symptoms and the impact of sunitinib and pazopanib on the quality of life of patients according to core items on the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory in four consecutive cycles. Among the 65 recruited patients receiving treatment at Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow, who participated in the study, 47 completed all four treatment cycles.;Our results showed that the mean fatigue score range, based on the FACIT-F tool, in participants was 29.5-31.8, which considered diagnostic fatigue of < 34 based on the cutoff point of FACIT-F. Furthermore, we found that the severity of fatigue score increased when cancer symptoms increased in those patients.;Such results encouraged us to investigate a combination therapy proposed in the literature to minimise the incidence of side effects with a combination of reduced dose of TKI, sunitinib or pazopanib, and radiotherapy. In chapter 3, we report a preclinical laboratory study that we conducted to examine the efficacy of sunitinib and pazopanib in killing renal cancer cells in vitro when used as single agents, as well as their potential use in combination studies.;Our results demonstrated that combination therapy was superior to monotherapy and that both sunitinib and pazopanib as single agents and in combination therapy with radiotherapy could induce apoptosis in both renal cell lines, 786-O and ACHN. Furthermore, we report our investigation into the cytotoxic effects of disulfiram, an anti-alcoholism drug not previously interrogated, in renal cell cancer alone and in combination with radiotherapy. Disulfiram demonstrated a cytotoxic effect, but not in a dose-dependent manner.;Our results additionally demonstrated that copper could enhance the cytotoxicity of disulfiram in renal cell lines only with a low dose of disulfiram ≤ 10 μM. By contrast, radiotherapy combined with disulfiram ± copper did not decrease cell viability, and disulfiram alone could induce apoptosis in renal cell lines.;In sum, our results reveal that fatigue is a significant issue for most kidney cancer patients receiving sunitinib or pazopanib. TKI agents could improve the radiosensitivity of the renal cancer cell line and constitute an interesting option for managing kidney cancer in the hopes of discovering a novel combination regimen with the same efficacy and with less toxicity. In short, disulfiram exhibits potential anticancer properties in renal cancer cell lines

Unexpected cause of recurrent diabetic ketoacidosis in type 1 diabetes: a case report

Abstract Background Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are commonly observed in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which usually resolves completely with therapy. However, GI symptoms can persist after DKA resolves, which can pose diagnostic and management challenges for physicians, especially when dealing with an exceptional diagnosis such as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). Case presentation In this case report, we present a patient with type 1 diabetes who had been treated for DKA 6 times in the past year and was eventually diagnosed with CHS. Conclusion In conclusion, this case demonstrates that a presumptive and incorrect diagnosis can mislead physicians, especially when dealing with challenging diagnoses. Therefore, patients with type 1 diabetes with unusual presentations, such as unexpectedly high pH and bicarbonate levels, with hyperglycemic ketosis should be screened for illicit drug use, especially cannabis

Community pharmacist’s preparedness to provide patient-centred care in Saudi Arabia

Background: Community pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia is evolving and needs to be at par with the developed world. Community pharmacists can play a vital role in bridging gaps in the delivery of healthcare services by providing patient-centred care to patients and contributing toward the healthcare transformation plan of vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia. The present study is aimed at evaluating the knowledge, attitude, and practices of community pharmacists in delivering patient-centred care services. Method: A nationwide cross-sectional survey using a validated and pre-tested 27-item self-reported questionnaire was conducted amongst 301 (86.4% male, 13/6% female) community pharmacists from all regions of Saudi Arabia. Both descriptive and inferential analysis was employed using the SPSS version, with 0.05 as the level of significance. Results: Community pharmacists from chain pharmacy groups, female gender and staff community pharmacists had statistically better overall practice standards, knowledge, and attitude to conduct patient-centred care services (p less than 0.01). The majority of community pharmacists would expect extra remuneration and participation in structured professional skills development programs to provide patient-centred care efficiently. Inaccessibility of patient data from healthcare facilities, the unavailability of informative literature, and administrative workload were among the barriers cited in delivering patient-centred care. Conclusion: The study findings show that community pharmacists could play a significant role in providing patient-centred care and contribute to the achievement of the healthcare reform agenda of Saudi Arabia. However, some obstacles must be overcome before this practice can be shifted, including the introduction of a formalized continuing professional development program, financial incentives, and a decrease in the administrative burden on pharmacists. The results of this study may help policymakers in Saudi Arabia better comprehend the country’s existing approach to community pharmacy practice

Resveratrol Inhibited ADAM10 Mediated CXCL16-Cleavage and T-Cells Recruitment to Pancreatic &beta;-Cells in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Mice

Background: CXCL16 attracts T-cells to the site of inflammation after cleaving by A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase (ADAM10). Aim: The current study explored the role of ADAM10/CXCL16/T-cell/NF-&kappa;B in the initiation of type 1 diabetes (T1D) with special reference to the potential protecting role of resveratrol (RES). Methods: Four sets of Balb/c mice were created: a diabetes mellitus (DM) group (streptozotocin (STZ) 55 mg/kg, i.p.], a control group administered buffer, a RES group [RES, 50 mg/kg, i.p.), and a DM + RES group (RES (50 mg/kg, i.p.) and STZ (55 mg/kg, i.p.) administered daily for 12 days commencing from the fourth day of STZ injection). Histopathological changes, fasting blood insulin (FBI), glucose (FBG), serum and pancreatic ADAM10, CXCL16, NF-&kappa;B, T-cells pancreatic expression, inflammatory, and apoptotic markers were analyzed. Results: FBG, inflammatory and apoptotic markers, serum TNF-&alpha;, cellular CXCL16 and ADAM10 protein expression, pancreatic T-cell migration and NF-&kappa;B were significantly increased in diabetic mice compared to normal mice. RES significantly improved the biochemical and inflammatory parameters distorted in STZ-treated mice. Conclusions: ADAM10 promotes the cleaved form of CXCL16 driving T-cells into the islets of the pancreatic in T1D. RES successfully prevented the deleterious effect caused by STZ. ADAM10 and CXCL16 may serve as novel therapeutic targets for T1D

The influence of vancomycin on renal functions, the predictors and associated factors for nephrotoxicity.

BackgroundVancomycin has been widely used in the last six decades to treat methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and other resistant gram-positive infections. The risk of vancomycin toxicity increases with the utilization of higher doses while treating the resistant form of bacterial infections. Nephrotoxicity is one of the major complications reported to be a hinderance in the prognosis of vancomycin therapy.ObjectivesThis hospital-based study aimed to highlight the influence of vancomycin on renal function with special emphasis on identifying the predictors and augmenting factors for nephrotoxicity.MethodologyA cross-sectional, unicentric, hospital-based study was conducted at King Fahad Specialist Hospital (KFSH) in Qassim region in Saudi Arabia (KSA). It included 319 hospitalized patients who received vancomycin at intermittent doses (15 to 30 mg/kg IV per day) based on the diseased state. Data regarding vancomycin dose, frequency, duration and data of renal function tests and type of admission were analysed to evaluate their influence on the renal function using parameters such as blood urea, serum creatinine levels and creatinine clearance. One-way ANOVA and Spearman correlation test were used in the analysis of data.ResultsBoth male and female patients treated with vancomycin had significantly (pConclusionData suggested that vancomycin treatment reduced the renal function in patients and indicated its association with several predictors and confounding factors. The findings of the study might assist in identifying the patients under risk from the vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity and in designing the preventive strategies to reduce such complications

Effect of vancomycin on renal function in different types of patients’ admission and site of infections.

Effect of vancomycin on renal function in different types of patients’ admission and site of infections.</p