The Impact of Community Service in College on Volunteerism in Saudi Arabia: An Interpretive Case Study

This study investigated the impact of college students’ volunteerism and the lasting effect their community service experiences had on post-graduate attitudes toward volunteerism. The research employed an interpretive case study approach of undergraduate female college students’ participatory experiences during their service learning programs. The study participants were students and graduates from two private nonprofit schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study included three participant groups: female college students and graduates, college staff members, and the students’ family members and close friends. Data was collected through semi-structured, open-ended face-to-face, and Skype interviews. Post-interview data analysis identified emergent themes regarding the students’ past and current experiences with volunteerism, as well as their attitudes toward future volunteerism. Major themes that emerged from this study were: There is a major transformation among young women in Saudi schools and colleges, and relationship is imperative in Saudi culture for gaining research participants’ trust

Biological Activity of CalotropisproceraGrown Under High Voltage Transmission Lines in Jeddah Province, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT:Electromagnetic field (EMF) may cause biological changes to wild plants growing around or near the electricity towers. To evaluate this argument a field study was conducted at north Jeddah city during 2013-14. A number of plant species found in the study areas, but Calotropisprocera L. was selected for this study. Sampling was performed from four different towers for Electricity high-pressure transmission lines north Jeddah province, build at different years (1981, 1991, 2008, and 2013). Three places has been selected away from the tower, starting from the bottom of the tower for this study, zero m (under the tower), 50 m and 100 m away from centre. A control site was also chosen far from electricity towers and lines. Plant morphology (height, number of branches, shelter width and leaf area), physiological activity (intercellular CO2, transpiration rate, net photosynthesis rate and chlorophyll contents) and some ion content in soil and plant leaves were measured. The results show that the plant health was improved morphophysiologically at the center and older installations. Moreover by decreasing the distance from 100 m to 0 m, significant influence was found, it may be attributed to enhance exposure of electromagnetic field, as a consequence plant revealed some relief in terms of growth

Altered mental status as a presentation of juvenile polyposis syndrome

Juvenile polyposis coli (JPC) is a rare hereditary disorder in which patients have multiple polyps in the gastrointestinal tract and present most commonly with hematochezia. We describe a 4-year-old with intermittent rectal prolapse presenting with altered mental status and headaches. JPC was diagnosed by the presence of multiple, pedunculated, colonic polyps on colonoscopy; his altered mental status resulted from cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Although JPC is known to be associated with a protein losing enteropathy (PLE), this usually manifests as merely hypoalbuminemia and protein losses without major clinical sequelae. We present a rare complication of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis which highlights altered mental status as a rare presentation of JPC. To our knowledge, this is the first case report in the literature linking JPC, decreased protein S activity, a single mutation in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene and cerebral thrombosis