Internet-based search of randomised trials relevant to mental health originating in the Arab world

BACKGROUND: The internet is becoming a widely used source of accessing medical research through various on-line databases. This instant access to information is of benefit to busy clinicians and service users around the world. The population of the Arab World is comparable to that of the United States, yet it is widely believed to have a greatly contrasting output of randomised controlled trials related to mental health. This study was designed to investigate the existence of such research in the Arab World and also to investigate the availability of this research on-line. METHODS: Survey of findings from three internet-based potential sources of randomised trials originating from the Arab world and relevant to mental health care. RESULTS: A manual search of an Arabic online current contents service identified 3 studies, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO searches identified only 1 study, and a manual search of a specifically indexed, study-based mental health database, PsiTri, revealed 27 trials. CONCLUSION: There genuinely seem to be few trials from the Arab world and accessing these on-line was problematic. Replication of some studies that guide psychiatric/psychological practice in the Arab world would seem prudent

Impact of Augmented Reality on Pattern Designing Using Origami-Style among Clothing and Textile Students

The study aimed to examine the effects of augmented reality technology on the development of origami-style pattern designing skills among female students in the clothing and textile field, as well as to explore their attitudes towards this technology. The quasi-experimental approach was employed to achieve the research objectives, with a sample of 24 female students from the Fourth Grade of the Department of Clothing and Textile, Faculty of Home Economics at Al-Azhar University. The participants were divided into two groups: a control group of 12 students who studied in the traditional way, and an experimental group of 12 students who used augmented reality technology to learn. The study was conducted in the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference (at a significance level of 0.01) between the average scores of the control group and the experimental group in both cognitive achievement and skill performance, with the experimental group performing better. Additionally, the retention of learned information was higher among the experimental group, and they had a more positive attitude towards using augmented reality technology in learning

The Role of Technology in Preventive Measures to Combat Money Laundering Crime: Case study Sudan

This study aimed to highlight the role that technology can play in the preventive measures to combat money laundering, especially since money laundering crimes have become dependent on advanced technical techniques in addition to many electronic means that are currently available. This necessitated the development of advanced technical means and tools to combat money laundering. The researchers used the case study methodology, which is characterized by many advantages that make it suitable for this study, including that it allows the collection of data from multiple sources. The study reached many results, the most prominent of which is that the phenomenon of money laundering passes in most of the stage of transfers through bank accounts, which must provide a degree of banking secrecy for customer accounts, which makes the matter of balancing between combating money laundering and maintaining the secrecy of customer accounts difficult and not Palliser. The most prominent of the recommendations of this study is that the legislation and laws of money laundering crimes must be revised and followed up with the necessary decisive, strict and rapid amendments, at least annually

Laparoscopy in management of appendicitis in high-, middle-, and low-income countries: a multicenter, prospective, cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgical emergency worldwide. Differences between high- and low-income settings in the availability of laparoscopic appendectomy, alternative management choices, and outcomes are poorly described. The aim was to identify variation in surgical management and outcomes of appendicitis within low-, middle-, and high-Human Development Index (HDI) countries worldwide. METHODS: This is a multicenter, international prospective cohort study. Consecutive sampling of patients undergoing emergency appendectomy over 6 months was conducted. Follow-up lasted 30 days. RESULTS: 4546 patients from 52 countries underwent appendectomy (2499 high-, 1540 middle-, and 507 low-HDI groups). Surgical site infection (SSI) rates were higher in low-HDI (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.33-4.99, p = 0.005) but not middle-HDI countries (OR 1.38, 95% CI 0.76-2.52, p = 0.291), compared with high-HDI countries after adjustment. A laparoscopic approach was common in high-HDI countries (1693/2499, 67.7%), but infrequent in low-HDI (41/507, 8.1%) and middle-HDI (132/1540, 8.6%) groups. After accounting for case-mix, laparoscopy was still associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42-0.71, p < 0.001) and SSIs (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.14-0.33, p < 0.001). In propensity-score matched groups within low-/middle-HDI countries, laparoscopy was still associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.23 95% CI 0.11-0.44) and SSI (OR 0.21 95% CI 0.09-0.45). CONCLUSION: A laparoscopic approach is associated with better outcomes and availability appears to differ by country HDI. Despite the profound clinical, operational, and financial barriers to its widespread introduction, laparoscopy could significantly improve outcomes for patients in low-resource environments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02179112

The safe re-use of wastewater for agriculture is a desired goal in many arid zone countries. The potential of greywater as alternative irrigation source for vegetable crops was investigated. To-mato, pea and cantaloupe plants were drip irri-gated with both fresh Nile water and greywater to access the impact on yield production and asso-ciated environmental and health risks. The biolog-ical properties of the two different sources of wa-ter clearly indicated that greywater was extremely higher in

The safe re-use of wastewater for agriculture is a desired goal in many arid zone countries. The potential of greywater as alternative irrigation source for vegetable crops was investigated. Tomato, pea and cantaloupe plants were drip irrigated with both fresh Nile water and greywater to access the impact on yield production and associated environmental and health risks. The biological properties of the two different sources of water clearly indicated that greywater was extremely higher in bacterial content compared with fresh Nile water. Pea plants showed significantly higher yield irrigated with fresh Nile water, however, tomato and cantaloupe plants gave significantly higher yield irrigated with greywater. Generally, the coliform populations in untreated greywater irrigated plants were higher than those irrigated with Nile water in all tested vegetables. The percentages of increasing in total coliform in untreated-irrigated greywater vegetables were 27.95%, 34.55% and 41.4% for pea, tomato and cantaloupe (averaged over outer and inner fruit tissues), respectively. Unexpectedly, central part of fruits for pea and tomato had highest coliform counts when compared to the outer surface using both Nile and untreated greywater. Overall, irrigation with greywater increased soil bacterial content by 15% while fresh Nile water increased it by 13% at the end of the experiment. In addition, greywater elevated the content of soil total coliform by 52% where fresh Nile water increased it by 30%. The results of this study indicated that untreated greywater should not consider as an alternative irrigation source for edible crops such as vegetables. In current investigation, the beneficial effects in tomato through giving significantly higher yield with greywater became worthless after the enormous fecal contamination that was detected in fruits. Several considerations must be adopted to minimize the health and environmental risks associated with greywater reuse in irrigation of vegetable crops

Comparative Demography of the Spider Mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus, on four Date Palm Varieties in Southwestern Tunisia

The date palm mite, Oligonychus afrasiaticus (McGregor) (Acari: Tetranychidae), is a serious pest of palm date fruits. Life cycle, fecundity, and longevity of this mite were studied on fruits of four date palms, Phoenix dactylifera L. (Arecales: Arecaceae)(varieties: Deglet Noor, Alig, Kentichi, and Besser), under laboratory conditions at 27 = 1 °C, 60 ± 10% RH. Total development time of immature female was shorter on Deglet Noor fruits than on the other cultivars. O. afrasiaticus on Deglet Noor had the highest total fecundity per female, while low fecundity values occurred on Besser. The comparison of intrinsic rates of natural increase (rm), net reproductive rates (Ro), and the survival rates of immature stage of O. afrasiaticus on the host plants suggests that O. afrasiaticus performs better on Deglet Noor fruits. The mite feeding on Alig showed the lowest intrinsic rate of natural population increase (rm = 0.103 day 1). The estimation of difference in susceptibility of cultivars to O. afrasiaticus is crucial for developing efficient pest control programs. Indeed, less susceptible cultivars can either be left unsprayed or sprayed at low threshold

Reflexiones sobre la estrategia de rehabilitación basada en la comunidad (RBC): la experiencia de un programa de RBC en Bolivia

La Rehabilitación Basada en la Comunidad (RBC) es una estrategia de desarrollo comunitario avalada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO), que persigue la rehabilitación, la igualdad de oportunidades y la integración social de las Personas con Discapacidad (PD) en sus entornos. Con este objetivo promueve la colaboración entre las PD, sus familias y los diferentes actores de la comunidad involucrados, así como el liderazgo comunitario y la participación de las PD mediante el impulso de la colaboración multisectorial. Este artículo expone los antecedentes históricos y las características fundamentales de la estrategia de RBC a partir de un programa llevado a cabo por una fundación del departamento de Cochabamba (Bolivia), para después incidir en algunos aspectos referentes al contexto sociocultural, que especialmente en situaciones de interculturalidad, pueden determinar que un programa de RBC tenga éxito o esté abocado al fracaso.Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) is a strategy for community development endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor Office (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is designed to promote rehabilitation, equal opportunity and social inclusion of Disabled Persons (DP) in their home communities by fostering cooperation among disabled individuals, their families, and other concerned social actors, it encourages community leadership and full social participation by DP through multi-sector cooperation. This article explores the historical antecedents and basic features of CBR strategy through an analysis of a directed culture change initiative developed by a foundation in the Cochabamba administrative region of Bolivia. Especially in intercultural environments, certain aspects of the socio-cultural context may determine whether CBR programs succeed or fail

First Measurement of the Nuclear-Recoil Ionization Yield in Silicon at 100 eV

We measured the nuclear-recoil ionization yield in silicon with a cryogenic phonon-sensitive gram-scale detector. Neutrons from a monoenergetic beam scatter off of the silicon nuclei at angles corresponding to energy depositions from 4 keV down to 100 eV, the lowest energy probed so far. The results show no sign of an ionization production threshold above 100 eV. These results call for further investigation of the ionization yield theory and a comprehensive determination of the detector response function at energies below the keV scale