Patient-Level Cost Estimation for Health Services at Secondary Hospital, Saudi Arabia

Cost information can help to improve the quality of medical care budgeting, and it can also improve the efficient allocation of resources and patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to estimate the inpatient unit cost of healthcare services in a secondary hospital in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional retrospective approach was applied to categorize the inpatients discharged from the hospital from January to December 2018. A top-down costing method for cost estimation was used. We found that the overhead cost center holds 40.17% of the total hospital cost, and intermediate and final care cost centers consumed 25.50% and 34.33%, respectively. Among inpatients wards, the Surgical ward had the highest operational cost (39.27%). Human resources consumed the hospital's highest resources (75%) on salaries. The hospital's cost structure was not remarkable and needs revolutionary changes to adopt the new payment mechanism envisioned in the 2030 Saudi vision

Studying with Technology

The lack of the proper use of technology among students of Dhofar University caught serious attention and led to this research. The main objective was to investigate the actual issue pertaining to the proper and advanced use of technological skills. Do the faculty and students realize that there is an issue? Will highlighting the issue change their attitudes and improve them in their technological skills after the practical implication of the skills taught to them? Would they continue using it further? were the main research questions of this research. A research questionnaire including both Y/N and open-ended questions was given to 21 students of Dhofar University ranging from all the different majors for an expressive feedback. The students’ response was overwhelmingly positive as expected. All of them agreed that there is a lacking support from the institution and student themselves are unaware of the new technological skills hence they do not achieve international standards of a Techno-Student. In order to cope with the issue not only a solution was recommended but also 6 students from Different majors of Dhofar University were in fact taught new technological skills and applications in accordance with Bloom’s Taxonomy model of learning so that they can incorporate the use of technology at each step of learning with ease, enthusiasm, full involvement and positive attitude attaining utmost creativity in their studies

Presuppositions and Assertions: A Case Study on Acquisition of Most Common Presupposition Triggers in Early Childhood

This research aims to find out the acquisition of lexical presupposition triggers in early childhood. Children acquire semantic knowledge later than acquiring phonemes and uttering words. At what age the acquisition of lexical presupposition triggers is acquired is the question answered through this research. I also identify the incorrect and sensible usage along with the acquisitional challenge. In order to do so, Brown corpus is utilised. Out of three children Adam, Sara and Eve, Adam’s speech is analysed for the presence of lexical presupposition triggers. Again, a lexical presupposition trigger occurred 189 times in Adam’s speech. The methodology involved two phases. In the first phase, I sifted each utterance carrying again according to age, context, and the status of the utterance. The findings are presented in the form of a table. The next phase involves analysis of the instances collected. Examples are analysed in terms of mere repetitions, frequent use and acquiring a sensible usage of the lexical trigger again. I used comparison tool to analyse the examples further making clear distinction between the phenomenon of assertion and presupposition. The results show that the phenomenon of presupposition is acquired by the age of three and half years. By year four, Adam starts acquiring different syntactic structures involving the usage of the lexical trigger again and shows sensible usage by age five. The acquisitional challenge is the age and lack of interaction with the outer environment. The implications of this research would be that it will prompt to make further research on other children and other lexical triggers in future

Presuppositions and Assertions: a Case Study on Acquisition of Most Common Presupposition Triggers in Early Childhood

This research aims to find out the acquisition of lexical presupposition triggers in early childhood. Children acquire semantic knowledge later than acquiring phonemes and uttering words. At what age the acquisition of lexical presupposition triggers is acquired is the question answered through this research. I also identify the incorrect and sensible usage along with the acquisitional challenge. In order to do so, Brown corpus is utilised. Out of three children Adam, Sara and Eve, Adam's speech is analysed for the presence of lexical presupposition triggers. Again, a lexical presupposition trigger occurred 189 times in Adam's speech. The methodology involved two phases. In the first phase, I sifted each utterance carrying again according to age, context, and the status of the utterance. The findings are presented in the form of a table. The next phase involves analysis of the instances collected. Examples are analysed in terms of mere repetitions, frequent use and acquiring a sensible usage of the lexical trigger again. I used comparison tool to analyse the examples further making clear distinction between the phenomenon of assertion and presupposition. The results show that the phenomenon of presupposition is acquired by the age of three and half years. By year four, Adam starts acquiring different syntactic structures involving the usage of the lexical trigger again and shows sensible usage by age five. The acquisitional challenge is the age and lack of interaction with the outer environment. The implications of this research would be that it will prompt to make further research on other children and other lexical triggers in future

Studying with Technology

The lack of the proper use of technology among students of Dhofar University caught serious attention and led to this research. The main objective was to investigate the actual issue pertaining to the proper and advanced use of technological skills. Do the faculty and students realize that there is an issue? Will highlighting the issue change their attitudes and improve them in their technological skills after the practical implication of the skills taught to them? Would they continue using it further? were the main research questions of this research. A research questionnaire including both Y/N and open-ended questions was given to 21 students of Dhofar University ranging from all the different majors for an expressive feedback. The students’ response was overwhelmingly positive as expected. All of them agreed that there is a lacking support from the institution and student themselves are unaware of the new technological skills hence they do not achieve international standards of a Techno-Student. In order to cope with the issue not only a solution was recommended but also 6 students from Different majors of Dhofar University were in fact taught new technological skills and applications in accordance with Bloom’s Taxonomy model of learning so that they can incorporate the use of technology at each step of learning with ease, enthusiasm, full involvement and positive attitude attaining utmost creativity in their studies

Pattern of ophthalmological and orthopaedic manifestations in pediatric patients of torticollis presenting to the tertiary care hospital of north India

Introduction: Deformity of the neck and limited motion are commonly seen in pediatric orthopedics. The problem may be simply due to an intrinsic cervical issue or may be the manifestation of other underlying problems. To make a diagnosis of the nature and cause of neck deformity in the newborn is very important. Congenital torticollis is a condition that results in the deviation of a child’s head to one side, with accompanying limitation in the range of motion of the neck. Aims and objective: Objective: To investigate the clinical features and outcome of congenital muscular torticollis (CMT) with passive neck motion limitation according to whether the finding on ultrasonography (US) is normal or abnormal. Material and methods: A total of 32 patients with Congenital Muscular Torticollis (CMT) who met eligibility criteria were included: age at presentation 6 month to 1 year, limitation of passive neck rotation or lateral flexion were included in this study. Patients underwent physiotherapy and were followed-up monthly. The clinical research with torticollis at the Variety Center for Craniofacial Rehabilitation was done from 2019 to 2021 retrospectively. Clinical records, standardized medical photographs, and cephalometric radiographs of the affected patients were examined.&nbsp

Prevalence of post-vaccine side effects among COVID-19 immunized community of Southern Pakistan.

BackgroundThe response to the vaccine may vary among individuals. Hence, it is important to know how often individuals experience side effects after immunization against COVID-19.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the incidence of side effects following COVID-19 vaccination across different vaccine recipients in Southern Pakistan and identify the potential factors associated with these side effects in the population.MethodsThe survey was conducted across Pakistan through Google-forms Links from August to October 2021. The questionnaire included demographic information and COVID-19 vaccine information. Chi-square (x2) was performed for comparative analysis to check the significance level with P ResultsOf the total 507 COVID-19 vaccines recipients, 24.9% received CoronaVac, 36.5% received BBIBP-CorV, 14.2% received BNT162b2, 13.8% received AZD1222, and 10.7% received mRNA-1273. The most prominent side effects after the first dose were fever, weakness, lethargy, and pain at the site of injection. Moreover, the most commonly reported side effects after the second dose were pain at the injection site, headache, body ache, lethargy, fever, chills, flu-like symptoms, and diarrhea.ConclusionOur results suggested that the side effects due to COVID-19 vaccination can vary between the first and second doses and type of COVID-19 vaccine. Our findings suggest continuing monitoring of vaccine safety and the importance of individualized risk-benefit assessment for COVID-19 immunization

Purification, Characterization, and Application of Alkaline Protease Enzyme from a Locally Isolated <i>Bacillus cereus</i> Strain

Among the microbial enzymes protease and amylase are the most valuable enzymes which have been has diversified applications and used extensively because of their capabilities in the degradation of organic wastes, application in biofuels, agricultural, pharmaceuticals, chemical and biotechnological industries. The aim of the current research work was the purification, characterization and application of alkaline proteases extracted from Bacillus cereus AUST-7. Various concentrations of ammonium sulphate were applied for enzyme precipitation. Sephadex-G 100 was used in FPLC system for separation of protease from other proteins. SDS-PAGE was used to measure the molecular weight of required alkaline protease. Relative activities were determined against different pH, temperature, and incubation period to measure the enzymes activity. Stability of pH, temperature and various metal ions and inhibiter were also studied. Purified enzymes were applied on the goat skin to explore the dehairing efficacy. A 6.5 purification fold and 1163.50 U/mg of specific activity were obtained at 70% saturation and 35. 91 purification fold and 8902 U/mg of specific activity were observed after FPLC separation. The 35 kDa molecular size of protease enzyme was exhibited on the SDS-PAGE. The purified enzyme was stable at pH 10, temperature 55 °C and 35 min of incubation period. The purified enzyme was found to be stable at pH 8–11, thermo-stability at 50 °C and phenyl methyl sulphonyl fluoride (PMSF) and di-isopropyl fluorophosphates (DFP) inhibited the enzyme activity. The enzyme has good potential as dehairing agent in leather industries