Dietary assessment and its awareness in female students from different Health Departments: unhealthy diet with normal BMI

Background: Dietary habits are of substantial concern related to the health of college students. Medical students are expected to have better dietary habits and healthy lifestyle, but due to various factors they are least bothered to follow recommended healthy diet. The present study assessed and compared the eating habits, nutritional awareness and BMI in females from health departments of King Khalid University (KKU), Saudi Arabia. Designs and Methods: The cross-sectional survey was conducted in undergraduate females from eight health departments: Public Health, Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science, Physiotherapy, Medicine and Surgery, Dental and Oral surgery, Diagnostic Radiology and Pharmacy. Participants completed online questionnaire that include demographic, anthropometric information, questions related to food preference and nutritional awareness. BMI, food preferences, and nutritional awareness responses were assessed and compared among different departments at 0.05 and 0.001 level of significance.Results: Total of 377 females were analysed and the mean BMI differ significantly at p<0.05 in all departments reporting the highest BMI mean in medicine and surgery department. Upon further stratification of BMI 53% of total analysed students comes under normal BMI. The utmost frequency of overweight students (55.3%) were observed in physiotherapy with no obese category followed by nursing with least obese students (2.2%).Conclusions: Inadequate food preference with unhealthy dietary habits but satisfactory nutritional awareness was observed in students of all departments with no significant difference. Designing of nutrition promotional programs and motivation is required for the acquisition of healthy dietary habits

Pretreatment Of Oil Palm Frond By Phanerochaete Crysosporium Ck01 And Enzymatic Hydrolysis For Ethanol Production By Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Hc10

Oil palm frond (OPF) is one of the most abundant waste generated from an oil palm plantation. OPF can be utilized as a feedstock for bioethanol and can simultaneously address its disposal issue in the plantation. In this project, OPF was divided into two types of feedstock; biomass and juice by mechanical pressing. Firstly, the dried biomass was biologically treated using white-rot fungi; Phanerochaete chrysosporium CK01 for biodelignification. Two parameters were tested; effect of inoculum size and fermentation duration. The best parameters were inoculum size of 1.0x106 spore/mL and 3 weeks of fermentation duration which gave 27.87% of delignification. In the second stage, the treated biomass was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis by either individual or in combination to produce a sugar hydrolysate. Two parameters tested were enzyme loading (in individual enzymatic hydrolysis) or enzyme ratio (in combined enzymatic hydrolysis; Cellulase A “Amano” 3 and Hemicellulase “Amano” 90) and hydrolysis time. The result shows that the combined (cellulase and hemicellulase) enzymatic hydrolysis produces higher amount of simple sugar (5.15g/L) using a combination of enzyme ratio of 1:4 (cellulase:hemicellulase) with a hydrolysis time of 120 minutes compared to individual enzymatic hydrolysis (3.26g/L). Prior to beginning of the third stage, the amount of simple sugar in the hydrolysate (OPFH) and juice (OPFJ) were compared using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis

Knowledge, attitudes and practices among people in Saudi Arabia regarding COVID-19: A cross-sectional study

Background: The general population’s compliance with preventive measures and legislation is mainly influenced by their knowledge level, attitude, and practices. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practices of public residents towards corona virus disease-2019 preventive measures in Saudi Arabia. Design and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study; it used a validated cross-sectional online survey that received responses from 13 Saudi administrative regions. Results: There were 1513 participants who completed the study (55% females; 77.7%, university education). Knowledge level, attitude, and practices towards corona virus disease-2019 were 81.3%, 86.6%, and 81.9%, respectively. The knowledge subscales showed that 1496 (98.9%) participants knew the system targeted by the virus, 96.2% and 97.3% knew the causative agent and symptoms, 783 (52.2%) participants knew the transmission modes, and 696 (46.0%) participants knew about the complications. The attitude subscales included 1465 (96.5%) participants who had dealt with an infected person, 1451 (95.9%) participants who isolated in a health facility, 1195 (97.0%) participants who knew about hand washing, and 1387 (91.7%) participants who thought the virus spread through home delivery. The practice subscales included 1505 (99.5%) participants who properly disposed of gloves and tissues and 1347 (89.0%) participants who reported safe practices when coughing or sneezing.Conclusions: This study showed satisfactory knowledge, attitude, and practice towards corona virus disease-2019 in Saudi Arabia. The educational level is a dominant influencing factor for knowledge, attitude, and practice

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

PENENTUAN PREMI DAN CADANGAN MANFAAT PADA ASURANSI JIWA JOINT LIFE MENGGUNAKAN METODE PROSPEKTIF

Asuransi jiwa joint life adalah asuransi yang menanggung lebih dari satu tertanggung di mana premi akan dibayarkan oleh nasabah dan perusahaan harus menyiapkan cadangan manfaat untuk membayar manfaat jika salah satu tertanggung meninggal dunia. Dalam pembayaran manfaat asuransi jiwa joint life terbagi menjadi 3 jenis yaitu asuransi jiwa joint life berjangka, endowmen murni, dan endowmen (dwiguna). Dikarenakan perusahaan harus menyiapkan cadangan manfaat dan menentukan premi yang harus dibayarkan oleh nasabah maka penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menentukan premi dan cadangan manfaat serta menganalisis perbandingan cadangan manfaat asuransi jiwa joint life berjangka, endowmen murni, endowmen (dwiguna) menggunakan metode prospektif berdasarkan tabel mortalitas Indonesia tahun 2011. Hasil yang diperoleh berupa premi dan cadangan manfaat asuransi jiwa joint life berjangka dan endowmen (dwiguna). Selanjutnya dilihat bagaimana perbandingan cadangan manfaat dari ketiga jenis asuransi jiwa joint life tersebut dengan melihat representasi kurva untuk setiap hasilnya. Dari kurva cadangan manfaaat diperoleh bahwa, untuk asuransi jiwa joint life berjangka ada saatnya perusahaan harus menyiapkan cadangan manfaat yang terus menerus meningkat dan ada saatnya pula perusahaan menyiapkan cadangan manfaat yang terus menurus menurun hingga saat periode berakhir perusahaan tidak perlu lagi menyiapkan cadangan manfaat. Sedangkan untuk asuransi jiwa joint life endowmen murni dan endowmen (dwiguna) perusaahan harus menyiapkan cadangan manfaat yang terus menerus meningkat dan pada saat periode asuransi berakhir perusahan harus menyiapkan cadangan manfaat yang setara dengan besarnya manfaat yang harus dibayarkan. Kata kunci : Asuransi jiwa, Asuransi jiwa joint life, Premi, Cadangan manfaat, Metode prospekti

Prediction of water consumption using Artificial Neural Networks modelling (ANN)

This paper presents an application of Artificial Neural Network models (ANN) to predict the water consumption at two scales: i) District Metered Area (DMA) located in the Scientific Campus of Lille University and ii) End user representing a restaurant inside this DMA. Data are collected from Automated Meter Readers (AMRs) that measure in near real-time the water consumption. The models are trained at both daily and hourly time intervals using historical values and the variation between the hour and the type of days. The paper shows that the ANN-based models can well predict the water consumption including peak values

Association of BMI, Physical Activity with Academic Performance among Female Students of Health Colleges of King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

Body mass index (BMI) is an indicator to detect weight category and known to influence the academic achievements of students. The present study assesses the association of BMI, physical activity with academic performance among undergraduate female students of health colleges, King Khalid University (KKU). Responses from 379 participants were analyzed in the study. Data collection was done by administering an online questionnaire using the university website portal. The questionnaire consists of two sections: the first section includes demographic information along with cumulative Grade point average (GPA) and another section rated student’s physical activity. A high frequency of respondents (53.6%) ranged within the normal BMI category. For academic performance, the majority (79.9%) of students reported high GPA scores with a mean of 4.28 ± 0.41. Upon correlation, academic performance was found negatively correlated with BMI at 0.0001 level of significance, and insignificantly correlated with physical activity. The present study observed that more than half of the respondents had normal BMI. An inverse relationship was observed between BMI and academic performance, showing participants within the normal BMI category achieved significantly higher GPA. In contrast, physical activity directly influenced the academic performance of the subjects. Therefore, the study suggests to enact counselling centers, health clubs in universities urging the students to adopt regular exercise and healthy lifestyle which could prepare them in achieving future endeavors

The cardiovascular complications of diabetes: a striking link through protein glycation

Diabetes mellitus is a predominant cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. One of its serious health problems is cardiovascular complications. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a group of heterogeneous toxic oxidant compounds that are formed after a non-enzymatic reaction between monosaccharides and free amino groups of proteins, compound lipids, and nucleic acids. AGE interacts with various types of cells through a receptor for AGE (RAGE). The interaction between AGE and RAGE is responsible for a cascade of inflammation, oxidative stress, and disruption of calcium homeostasis in cardiac cells of diabetic patients. There is striking evidence that the AGE/RAGE axis with its consequences on inflammation and oxidative stress plays a major role in the development of cardiovascular complications. Therefore, considering AGE as a therapeutic target with foreseeable results would be a wise direction for future research. Interestingly, several studies on nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and natural products have begun to reveal promising therapeutic results, and this could lead to better health outcomes for many diabetic patients worldwide. This article discusses the current literature addressing the connection between protein glycation and diabetes cardiovascular complications and suggests future avenues of research

Viral Marketing Messages: Consumer Purchase Intention Towards Fashion Apparel

Due to the rapid growth of Internet usage, business sectors can gain much more benefit from it by using the Internet as a marketing tool or an advertising platform. The Internet can help a marketer, or a company promote to a large number of audiences at a lower cost. One of the effective ways to reach a large number of audiences from the Internet is by conducting viral marketing. Hence, it is essential to understand how the quality of viral marketing messages can affect customers’ purchase intentions. This study will employ the Smart-PLS 3.0 to examine to test the relationship between the factors on consumer purchase intention. Questionnaires were distributed to get responses in this study which comprised 87% of the response rate. In a nutshell, three out of four direct relationships were showing a significant positive correlation with purchase intention, namely informativeness, credibility and consumer involvement. This result indicates that entertainment has no significant relationship with the purchase intentions of consumers. Despite the useful findings that have been gathered from this study, there are some limitations found in this study. In the discussion, a summary of this study, managerial implications and new research direction are presented