Self-medication practice among undergraduate medical students of a Saudi tertiary institution

Purpose: To assess the knowledge, attitude and magnitude of self-medication among medical students of Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.Methods: A cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire-based study was conducted among undergraduate medical students of Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia. A total of 300 students were selected by random sampling.Results: Self-medication practice was highly prevalent among the medical students, with 87 % reporting that they indulge in it. Self-medication was more prevalent among female students than male. Sedatives were the most common drugs used by students for self-medication (58 %). The most common reason adduced for self-medication practice was their belief that they have sufficient information, previous experience, and the experience of others, such as family members and colleagues, with regard to the drugs. A huge proportion (84.5 %) of the respondents agreed that selfmedication could be harmful and is associated with adverse effects, while 52.6 % stated that they would not advise other persons to indulge in self-medication.Conclusion: Self-medication is prevalent among third-year medical students of Jazan University in Saudi Arabia. Although the students exhibited sufficient awareness of self-medication, the findings highlight the need for intervention programmes regarding the practice of self-medication.Keywords: Self-medication, Prevalence, Awareness, Sedatives, Medical student

Duplex surface treatment of steels by nitriding and chromizing

Duplex surface treatment, that is, chromizing and plasma nitriding (PN) of steels have attracted interest from industrial sectors because of its attractive properties and ability to apply on different types of steels. This paper aims to investigate duplex treatment on different types of steels at different treatment conditions. The improvements of the treated surfaces in terms of morphology and thickness, composition, surface hardness and roughness, as well as wear and friction of the engineered layer have been analysed. It was found that several layers of different thickness are formed due to duplex treatment which depends on the specimen’s carbon content and treatment temperature. Mainly carbides and nitrides of chromium and iron are formed, where the amount and composition of them are controlled by duplex treatment process parameters. These compounds enhance the hardness and wear resistance of the treated surface. The CrxN phase is the main contributor towards high microhardness of duplex-treated layers. In addition to high hardness, it also provides excellent wear resistance properties. The PN process reduces the coefficient of friction of chromized steels due to the lower friction coefficient of chromium nitride. However, the surface roughness of the treated surface increases due to the intrinsic properties of formed phases

Development of the adjoint of GEOS-Chem

International audienceWe present the adjoint of the global chemical transport model GEOS-Chem, focusing on the chemical and thermodynamic relationships between sulfate ? ammonium ? nitrate aerosols and their gas-phase precursors. The adjoint model is constructed from a combination of manually and automatically derived discrete adjoint algorithms and numerical solutions to continuous adjoint equations. Explicit inclusion of the processes that govern secondary formation of inorganic aerosol is shown to afford efficient calculation of model sensitivities such as the dependence of sulfate and nitrate aerosol concentrations on emissions of SOx, NOx, and NH3. The accuracy of the adjoint model is extensively verified by comparing adjoint to finite difference sensitivities, which are shown to agree within acceptable tolerances. We explore the robustness of these results, noting how discontinuities in the advection routine hinder, but do not entirely preclude, the use of such comparisons for validation of the adjoint model. The potential for inverse modeling using the adjoint of GEOS-Chem is assessed in a data assimilation framework using simulated observations, demonstrating the feasibility of exploiting gas- and aerosol-phase measurements for optimizing emission inventories of aerosol precursors

Surface plasmon induced quantum interference at meta-material interface

In this work we investigate quantum interference in a four-level atom coupled to a negative index meta-material (NIMM) plasmonic reservoir that supports both TE and TM polarized surface plasmons (SP). This provides more options to control SP interaction with emitters and hence more control of spontaneous emission decays and spectrum. The spectrum depends critically on parameters like the reservoir parameters, mode frequency, frequency dependent electric permittivity and magnetic permeability, and the location of the atom. We report orders of magnitude enhancement in the reservoir-modified decays and spectrum compared to free space case. The rich atomic and plasmonic parameters provide a wide range of flexibility and more options to control emission spectrum that suits practical applications.Comment: 30 pages , 8 figures , research wor

Developments of rubber material wear in conveyer belt system

Regular degradation of rubbers contribute frequent maintenance of conveyer belt system. This paper investigates wear rate and mechanisms of rubber and associated influential parameters based on the information available in literature. Abrasion, fatigue and roll formation are dominate wear mechanisms that are influenced by load, sliding velocity, hardness and friction. Correlations among influential parameters and their effect on rubber wear was established in details. Archad's equation does not work for rubber wear but researchers have proposed equations similar to that. Adhesion wear forms roll in the smooth surface when tear strength of rubber is low. Wear caused by adhesion is abrasion when surface texture is harsh. Hysteresis enhances fatigue wear if the substrate asperities are round or blunt

Crude Oil and Its Impact on Soil Pollution: Environmental Risk Assessment,

ABSTRACT Environmental risk assessment is a scientific activity that includes a significant review of the information or data for quantifying and identifying the risk linked to prospective risk. Risk management is applied to know the need to compel the measures to control and manage the risk. The working methodology in this paper is based on various research studies that relate

ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES FROM LANDFILL DISPOSAL AND INCINERATION OF WASTE

ABSTRACT In the modern world, the concerns of the environment have been increased and also, the environmental commissions are developing tools for launchin