Parasitic Contamination of Fresh Leafy Green Vegetables Sold in Northern Lebanon

Contaminated, raw or undercooked vegetables can transmit parasitic infections. Here, we investigated parasitic contamination of leafy green vegetables sold in local markets in the Tripoli district, Lebanon, during two consecutive autumn seasons (2020–2021). The study involved the microscopic examination of 300 samples of five different types of vegetables (60 samples per type) and used standardized qualitative parasitological techniques for some protozoa and helminths. The results showed that 16.7% (95% interval for p: 12.6%, 21.4%) (50/300) of the vegetable samples were contaminated with at least one parasite. The most frequently detected parasite was Blastocystis spp. (8.7%; 26/300); this was followed in frequency by Ascaris spp. (3.7%; 11/300). Among the different vegetable types, lettuce (23.3%; 14/60) was the most contaminated, while arugula was the least contaminated (11.7%; 7/60). The statistical analysis did not reveal any significant association between the prevalence of parasitic contamination and the investigated risk factors, which included collection date, vegetable type, market storage status, and wetness of vegetables at the time of purchase (p > 0.05). The high prevalence of parasitic contamination also suggested the potential presence of other microbial pathogens. These findings are important because leafy green vegetables are preferentially and heavily consumed raw in Lebanon. Thus, implementing effective measures that target the farm-to-fork continuum is recommended in order to reduce the spread of intestinal pathogens

Factors that Determine the Market Value of Professional Football Players in Indonesia

Purpose: This study aims to identify the factors that determine the market value of professional football players. Method: The market value of soccer players is obtained from the official website www.transfer-markt.com which contains each professional soccer player’s prices in the transfer market. This study used 205 samples of professional football players in the Indonesian league in 2017. We analyzed this study using multiple linear regression and stepwise analysis with STATA 14 to see the factors that affect professional football players’ market value. Findings: The research results prove that age has a negative effect on the player’s market value, while assists, yellow cards, team status, and player status have a positive impact on the player’s market value. On the other hand, goals, red cards, minutes played, and starting 11 do not affect market value. Information about various factors that impact the market value of football players can support investment decisions in football club management. The results of this study add to the literature on human resource accounting studies, especially intangible assets. Novelty: The character of football in Indonesia is classified as developing, even though most people are soccer fans, but it does not profit. There is no Indonesian football club that has taken the floor on the stock exchange, unlike in Europe. This study adds the variables Team Status and Player Status as a development of previous research. The determinants of market value can be used as additional information in the financial reporting of football clubs

Study of factors affecting the productivity of nurses based on the ACHIEVE model and prioritizing them using analytic hierarchy process technique, 2012

Objective: Improving productivity is one of the most important strategies for social-economic development. Human resources are known as the most important resources in the organizations′ survival and success. Aims: To determine the factors affecting the human resource productivity using the ACHIEVEa model from the nurses′ perspective and then prioritize them from the perspective of head nurses using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Settings and Design: Iran, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences teaching hospitals in 2012. Materials and Methods: This was an applied, cross-sectional and analytical-descriptive study conducted in two phases. In the first phase, to determine the factors affecting the human resource productivity from nurses′ perspective, 110 nurses were selected using a two-stage cluster sampling method. Required data were collected using the Persian version of Hersey and Goldsmith′s Human Resource Productivity Questionnaire. In the second phase, in order to prioritize the factors affecting human resource productivity based on the ACHIEVE model using AHP technique, pairwise comparisons matrices were given to the 19 randomly selected head nurses to express their opinions about those factors relative priorities or importance. Statistical Analysis Used: Collected data and matrices in two mentioned phases were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 and some statistical tests including Independent-Samples T-Test and Pearson Correlation coefficient, as well as, Super Decisions software (Latest Beta). Results: The human resource productivity had significant relationships with nurses′ sex (P = 0.008), marital status (P < 0.001), education level (P < 0.001), and all questionnaire factors (P < 0.05). Nurses′ productivity from their perspective was below average (44.97 ΁ 7.43). Also, the priorities of factors affecting the productivity of nurses based on the ACHIEVE model from the head nurses′ perspective using AHP technique, from the highest priority to the lowest one, respectively, were: Clarity, Ability, Incentive, Evaluation, Help, Environment and Validity.Conclusions: According to the results and the priorities expressed by the head nurses in order to improve the productivity of nurses, providing the orientation, training and retraining courses for nurses, developing performance-based management systems and fair systems of reward and punishment, holding continuous performance evaluation and review meetings between individual nurses and their heads, increasing funding and improving organizational facilities, delegating authority to staff based on their abilities and capabilities, providing more welfare and recreational services and facilities such as nursery schools, transportation services, etc., for the nurses, esp. women nurses, are suggested

The Effect of an Evidence Based Medicine Workshop on Undergraduate Medical Students’ Skills in Applying EBM

Introduction: The effect of educational interventions concerning the use of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) on post graduate medical students has been assessed in many studies. But, there are few studies concerning these interventions in undergraduate medical education. This study was performed to determine the effect of an EBM workshop on under graduate medical students’ skill in using EBM. Methods: In a pre-experimental study, 24 forth and fifth year medical students who had passed their internal medicine and surgery wards were selected through convenience sampling. A three session workshop about EBM, each session lasting for five hours was held for them. Students' attitude towards workshop was assessed using a questionnaire with Likert scale. Also, their abilities in formulating a clinical question and using effective search strategies were measured using pre-test/post-test and check list, respectively.. Wilcoxon test was performed in order to compare pre and post tests by SPSS software. Results: Students had 23 mistakes in pre-test and 8 in post test, out of 40 questions about designing clinical question which showed a significant difference. The students’ score in search strategies was 40 in pretest and 100 in post test out of the total score 100, which had increased significantly. In general, the students’ attitude towards workshop was positive. Conclusion: This intervention improved clinical question development, and searching strategies. The students’ attitude was positive in total. More studies are recommended to assess the effects of early interventions such as workshop, on students, interns and residents

The level of community behaviour towards hearing loss in Indonesia

Background: Hearing loss is the most common disability in the world, with a prevalence of 5% of the world's population of 466 million people. Knowledge about noise exposure and hearing protection equipment is related to hearing loss. Health is associated with a person's healthy lifestyle behaviour. This study aimed to determine the level of community behaviour towards hearing loss. Methods: This study used a descriptive analytical approach with a cross-sectional study design. The population in this study was Indonesian people who were not healthcare workers aged 17 years and over. The sample inclusion criteria included individuals who were not healthcare workers (such as doctors, nurses and midwives etc.), aged 17 years and over, and willing to participate in the study. The sampling method in this study was consecutive sampling. Results: Based on the distribution of patients, there were more female participants (1484, 61.6%) than male participants. Diploma-3 (D3) was the most common education type, with as many as 1095 people (45.4%), while the least common education type was not in school (eight, 0.3%). Most participants were in the ‘employee’ profession, namely 509 people (21.1%), while the lowest number of participants was in the Police profession (20, 0.8%). There were significant relationships between the respondent's knowledge and action about hearing loss, and the respondent’s knowledge and attitudes regarding hearing loss (p=0.000). Conclusions: There were significant relationships between the respondent's knowledge and actions about hearing loss and the respondent's knowledge and attitude, while there was no significant relationship between the respondent's attitude and actions regarding hearing loss

Understanding the genetics of early onset obesity in a cohort of children from Qatar.

Monogenic obesity is a rare form of obesity due to pathogenic variants in genes implicated in the leptin-melanocortin signaling pathway and accounts for around 5% of severe early onset obesity. Mutations in the genes encoding the MC4R, leptin and leptin receptor are commonly reported in various populations to cause monogenic obesity. Determining the genetic cause has important clinical benefits as novel therapeutic interventions are now available for some forms of monogenic obesity. To unravel the genetic causes of early onset obesity in the population of Qatar. 243 patients with early-onset obesity (above the 95% percentile) and age of onset below 10 years were screened for monogenic obesity variants using a targeted gene panel, consisting of 52 obesity-related genes. Thirty rare variants potentially associated with obesity were identified in 36 of 243 (14.8%) probands, in 15 candidate genes (LEP, LEPR, POMC, MC3R, MC4R, MRAP2, SH2B1, BDNF, NTRK2, DYRK1B, SIM1, GNAS, , ADCY3, RAI1, and BBS2). Twenty-three of the variants identified were novel to this study and the rest, seven variants, were previously reported in literature. Variants in MC4R were the most common cause of obesity in our cohort (19%) and the c.485C > T p.T162I variant was the most frequent MC4R variant seen in five patients. We identified likely pathogenic/pathogenic variants that seem to explain the phenotype of around 14.8% of our cases. Variants in the MC4R gene are the commonest cause of early onset obesity in our population. Our study represents the largest monogenic obesity cohort in the Middle East which revealed novel obesity variants in this understudied population. Functional studies will be required to elucidate the molecular mechanism of their pathogenicity.This research was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF-NPRP 10-6100017-AXX) and a research grant from Amryt awarded to Professor Khalid Hussain