Addressing Human Capacity Building for Health from Academia's Perspective : Building Interprofessional Partnership

Learning objectives: – List strategies to increase readiness for emergency preparedness through interprofessional education and collaborative practice – List THREE benefits of interprofessional collaboration. – Explain the importance of working collaboratively in embargo and emergency situation

Effects of climate change on terrestrial slugs and their predators

The main objective of this PhD work is to explore potential changes in the feeding behaviour of the pest slug Deroceras reticulatum, as well as in the behaviours of some of their most important natural enemies, under climatic conditions predicted for Galicia by the last third of the century. The studied natural enemies were the carabid beetles Harpalus rufipes and Poecilus cupreus, and the slug parasitic nematode Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita. In order to achieve this general objective, different experiments were performed under laboratory controlled conditions and under semi-natural conditions. Overall, from the obtained results it should be expected that both the pest slug D. reticulatum and its natural enemies H. rufipes and P. hermaphrodita will be affected by predicted conditions of climate. Specifically, it should be expected a higher potential of D. reticulatum populations for crop damaging, and an enhanced performance of H. rufipes and P. hermaphrodita as biological control agents of D. reticulatum. In turn, these findings emphasize the importance of taking into account natural enemies and ecological interactions when modelling the response of species to climate change

Perspectives of practising pharmacists towards interprofessional education and collaborative practice in Qatar.

Background: Healthcare is provided by a variety of different professionals, including pharmacists who are integral members of the team, and all are expected to work collaboratively to provide quality care. Little is known about the perceptions of pharmacists in Qatar towards interprofessional collaboration. Positive attitudes towards interprofessional education are essential to successful implementation of interprofessional collaboration. Therefore, to develop effective collaboration strategies in practice settings, it was essential to survey the attitudes of practising pharmacists towards collaboration. Objective: To explore the awareness, views, attitudes and perceptions of practising pharmacists in Qatar towards interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Setting: Community, hospital and primary healthcare settings in Qatar. Methods: This was a two-staged sequential explanatory mixed method design. It utilised a quantitative survey (Stage 1), based on a modified version of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale. This was followed by a qualitative stage, utilising focus groups (Stage 2). Main outcome measures: (1) Qatar pharmacists' attitudes towards interprofessional education and collaborative practice; (2) Practising pharmacists' perspectives in relation to enablers, barriers and recommendations regarding interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Results: 63% of the practising pharmacists (n = 178) responded to the survey. Three focus groups followed (total n = 14). High scores indicating readiness and positive attitudes towards interprofessional education were reported for pharmacists working in hospital, community and primary healthcare settings. Qualitative analysis identified three overarching themes in relation to the enablers, barriers and recommendations for practising pharmacists working collaboratively. The enabling themes were: professional and patient related benefits, and current positive influences in Qatar; the barriers were patients' negative perceptions; the status of the pharmacy profession and current working practices and processes; the recommendations related to improving patients' perceptions about pharmacists and enhancing the status of pharmacy profession in Qatar. The findings from this study highlighted two major observations: the lack of existence of collaborative practice and hierarchy and power play. Conclusion Pharmacists demonstrated willingness and readiness to develop interprofessional learning and collaborative practice with significant steps already taken towards improving collaborative working practices in different care settings

A comprehensive systematic review of pharmacy perspectives on interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

Introduction:- Pharmacists are key professionals in the collaborative working process and are integral members of the healthcare team. However, there is paucity of information regarding their perspectives towards interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice. Aims:- The aim of this systematic review is to synthesize, summarise and evaluate the quality of the quantitative and qualitative literature related to the perspectives of pharmacy students, pharmacy faculty and practising pharmacists toward IPE and collaborative practice. The perspectives included their views, experiences and attitudes with a special focus on their perceived benefits and challenges in relation to IPE and collaborative practice. Methods:- An integrated mixed method systematic review was conducted. Four electronic databases were searched for articles published in English between 2000 and 2015. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality of the studies. Results:- Twenty-nine articles were identified meeting the selection criteria from the first initial search of 8512 articles. Seventeen articles (59%) targeted pharmacy students, 11 articles (38%) focused on practising pharmacists and 1 study (3%) was related to pharmacy faculty. The majority of studies were conducted in the United States (n = 13), were published in the last five years (83%, n = 24) and employed quantitative methods (52%, n = 15). The two commonly used survey instruments to measure the perspectives were: different versions of the RIPLS (35%, n = 6) and the IEPS scale (35%, n = 6). Fourteen of the 29 studies were rated as low quality (MMAT = 25%), eight studies were rated as average quality (MMAT = 50%), four were rated as high quality (MMAT 75%) and three were rated as very poor quality (MMAT 0%). No studies were rated with 100% MMAT quality. Overall, the findings suggest that pharmacy students, practicing pharmacists and faculty valued interprofessional education and collaborative practice and had positive attitudes towards it. Five main findings have been identified from this review: heterogeneity in reporting IPE research, traditional professional image of the pharmacist, lack of longitudinal follow-up, lack of IPE research on faculty and paucity in mixed method studies in terms of quality and numbers. Conclusions:- These findings will provide an opportunity to stakeholders and policy makers to develop and implement IPE activities that are meaningful, comprehensive and unique. Sustained efforts are required not just in undergraduate curricula but also in healthcare settings to improve and promote an interprofessional culture at individual and organisational level

Perspectives of pharmacy students in Qatar toward interprofessional education and collaborative practice: a mixed methods study.

In an IPE environment, students are expected to have better understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and contribution of other health care professions to enhance interprofessional working and collaboration with an end result of improving patient-centred and team-based care. Although many studies have investigated students' attitudes, very few employ a mixed methods design and hardly are from Middle Eastern countries. A two-staged sequential explanatory mixed method design was used to comprehensively capture the perspectives of pharmacy students toward IPE and collaborative practice. A quantitative survey was conducted as the first stage of the study, followed by an in-depth discussion of these perspectives through a qualitative phase by conducting two focus groups. For the quantitative surveys, the overall response rate was 102/132 (77%) for pharmacy students in Qatar. This was followed by two focus groups with a total of 27 participants from senior and junior students. In exploring the qualitative data, three main themes were identified in relation to the pharmacy students' perspectives. These were on the pharmacy students' perception on the enablers (professional related benefits, patient-related benefits and current positive influences), barriers (previous IPE experiences, educational related issues and current working practices and processes), and recommendations to implementing IPE and collaborative practice (future IPE and pharmacy profession). Overall, the results demonstrate a strong readiness and positive perception by pharmacy students toward IPE and collaborative practice. This study has highlighted different dimensions in pharmacy students' perceptions. It also provided a useful insight into the readiness of pharmacy students in a Middle Eastern university. Students are seeking more IPE experiences formally incorporated into their curriculum and hence educators should capitalise on these positive and enthusiastic attitudes to identify the most effective means for delivering IPE and inform curricula planning. Collaborative practice-ready graduates will produce better-educated professionals delivering higher quality care. Please note that the name of this document 'Middle Eastern perspectives of pharmacy students toward interprofessional education and collaborative practice: a mixed methods study.' differs slightly from the published version

The Dispersion Relation of Flexural Waves in a Magnetoelastic Anisotropic Circular Cylinder

The objective of this paper is to investigate some aspects of dispersion relation of  flexural waves propagation in a transversely isotropic hollow circular cylinder of infinite extent placed in a primary magnetic field. A frequency equation appropriate to the hollow circular cylinder is obtained by using the lame (Helmholtz) potentials for arbitrary values of the physical parameters involve as well as the primary magnetic field. Numerical calculations have been carried out when the cylinder is made of the material of Zinc Oxide. This study shows that waves in a solid body propagating under the influence of a superimposed magnetic field can differ significantly from those propagating in the absence of the magnetic field. Also, one may see that the effect of the primary magnetic field is to increase the values of the materials constants. Finally the results are given for different values of the primary magnetic field and presented graphically. The standard results of the previous investigations have also been deduced as particular cases. Keywords: Natural frequencies, Magnetoelasticity, Flexural wave, transversely isotropic material

Natural Frequencies of Magnetoelastic Longitudinal Wave Propagation in an Orthotropic Circular Cylinder

In this paper, we study the longitudinal wave propagation in a perfectly conducting elastic circular cylinder in the presence of an axial initial magnetic field. The elastic cylinder is assumed to be made of an orthotropic material. The problem is represented by the equations of elasticity taking into account of the effect of the magnetic field as given by Maxwell's equations in the quasi-static approximation.  The stress free conditions on the inner and outer surfaces of the hollow circular cylinder are used to form a frequency equation in terms of the wavelength, the cylinder radii and the material constants. Numerical calculations are obtained and the results are represented graphically. It is observed that the longitudinal elastic waves in a solid body propagating under the influence of a superimposed magnetic field can be different significantly from that of those propagating in the absence of a magnetic field. Also, elastic waves may convey information on electromagnetic properties of the material: for example through a precise measurement of the surface current induced by the presence of the magnetic field. Finally, some of the earlier results are deduced as particular cases. Keywords: Natural frequencies, Magnetoelasticity, Longitudinal wave, Orthotropic materials

On the Extensional and Flexural of Generalized Thermoelastic Waves in an Anisotropic Plate

The propagation of extensional and flexural motions of generalized thermoelastic waves in a homogeneous, transversely isotropic plate of finite width is considered.  The frequency equations for the plates in closed form and suitable mathematical conditions for symmetric and antisymmetric wave modes propagation are derived. Numerical calculations for three various theories of generalized thermoelasticity is carried out. In each case the real and imaginary parts of the frequency equation as a function of phase velocity for different values of thermal relaxation times are illustrated graphically. It is found that, the frequency equations of the extensional and flexural motions can be oscillate with respect to the medial of the plate. Moreover, it gets modified due to the thermal relaxation times and anisotropic effects. Finally, the results for the coupled thermoelasticity can be obtained as particular cases of the results by setting thermal relaxation times equal to zero Keywords: Frequency equations; Extensional and flexural modes; Thermal relaxation times; Harmonic wave propagatio

Molecular and biochemical studies of some yeast strains

This work focuses on detecting the level of polymorphisms among eleven KSA and Egyptian yeast strains, as efficient tools to assess the genetic relationships and development of yeast strain-specific molecular fingerprints. Moreover, estimation of the amino acid concentration was efficient in selecting the protein rich strains for animal feeding source. To detect the polymorphism among the yeast strains at the molecular level, 8 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), 5 inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR), and 8 specific simple sequence repeat (SSR) pair of primers were used. The total number of fragments produced by RAPD primers was 46 fragments and represented 52% of polymorphism. Also, number of fragments produced by ISSR and SSR primers was 45 fragments and recorded 63 and 77% of polymorphism among the strains, respectively. The amino acid analysis showed that yeast strains, Rhodotorula glutinis (Y.1); Schwanniomyces occidentalis (Y.2); Debaryomyces hansenii (Y.8); Kluyveromyces lactis (Y.9) and Pichia jadinii (Y.10) contained almost double the amount of total amino acids compared to the rest of the eleven strains used. The different molecular markers have confirmed each other and supported the biochemical analysis data, because the clustering  analysis has shown that the previous five strains, (Y.1); (Y.2); (Y.8); (Y.9) and (Y.10), were falling together in the same sub cluster.Key words: Yeast, molecular markers, biochemical analysis

Clinical significance of soluble-triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

AbstractAim of the workTo assess serum concentrations of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and correlate them with the main clinical, serological, radiological features and functional capacity of RA patients.Patients and methodsSera from 61 RA patients, and 30 healthy controls were assayed for sTREM-1 by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay. RA disease activity was assessed using 28-joint disease activity score (DAS-28). Assessment of patient’s functional capacity was done using modified health assessment questionnaire (mHAQ). Standardized X-rays were done to all RA participants and evaluated according to Larsen scoreResultsSerum levels of sTREM-1 were significantly higher in RA patients vs healthy controls (57.61±28.87 and 43.72±10.64ng/ml; p=0.027). These levels were higher in patients with severe disease activity (68.27±36.14ng/ml) than those with mild and moderate disease activity (43.50±6.49ng/ml and 47.52±12.26ng/ml, respectively; p=0.008). On the contrary, no significant difference was found in levels of sTREM-1 in patients with extra-articular involvement or positive RF than those without. Levels of sTREM-1 showed a highly significant positive correlation with DAS-28 (P=0.001), ESR (P=0.02) and mHAQ (p=0.003).There were no significant correlations between sTREM-1 level with age, disease duration, morning stiffness, nor radiological narrowing and erosion scores.ConclusionLevels of sTREM-1 were elevated in RA patients and correlated significantly with clinical and laboratory markers of disease activity as well as functional disability (as determined by mHAQ). To confirm our results we propose that larger scale, multicenter studies with longer evaluation periods are needed