The Importance of Preventive Medicine in Family Practice: A Review of Current Guidelines and Recommendations

Prevention is seen as a critical topic in family practice. Primordial prevention, primary prevention, secondary prevention, tertiary prevention, and quaternary prevention are all part of this strategy to disease prevention. To avoid the formation and development of risk factors, primary prevention focuses on addressing the fundamental causes and social determinants of disease. Primary prevention is the practice of preventing illnesses before they arise via the use of treatments such as immunizations and health education. Secondary prevention focuses on illness identification and intervention as early as possible to avoid disease development. Tertiary prevention addresses illness outcomes by restoring health and offering rehabilitation. Finally, quaternary prevention seeks to safeguard patients against needless medical treatments and the harm caused by over-medicating. Risks frequently rise in tandem with frailty and comorbidities. In contrast, advantages frequently drop as life expectancy increases. Preventive management strategies should consider the patient's viewpoint and be mutually agreed upon. Healthcare providers must prioritize the deployment of preventive care services, even when clinical treatments are required, in order to overcome preventive care hurdles. Healthcare practitioners may play a critical role in illness prevention and contribute to family well-being by investing in preventive care and executing these measures

Factors Underlying Technology Adoption in Academic Libraries in Kuwait

The study analysed factors shaping adoption of technology in academic libraries in Kuwait. The research was based on interviews conducted with library directors, staff and users, combined with observation and document analysis. A major aspect of the Kuwaiti context was a relative lack of financial restraints and an enthusiasm for technology within society as a whole. Other important influences shaping technology adoption specifically within libraries were the top down decision making style and a quest for prestige, in a context of a lack of library culture among users, shortage of professional staff and a strong, perhaps exaggerated, faith in technology as a solution to problems

Sustainability Assessment of Construction Technologies for Large Pipelines on Urban Highways: Scenario Analysis using Fuzzy QFD

Urban highways users frequently face disruptions due to construction and maintenance of buried infrastructure. In conventional open cut construction, social costs (vehicle operating and traffic delay costs) are generally high at work zone construction areas (WZCA). Municipalities also bear additional costs due to early maintenance of alternate routes, i.e., non-work zone construction area (NWZCA). Besides, work zone and non-work zone areas together experience significant potential socio-economic and environment impacts. In addition to minimal disturbance to existing socioenvironmental setting and user cost savings, trenchless construction result in agency cost savings by avoiding early maintenance at NWZCA. Past studies primarily focused on social costs associated to WZCA. In present research, a sustainability assessment framework has been developed that includes agency and user costs at both the work zone and non-work zone area. The framework evaluates various traffic detoured scenarios (for open cut construction) and trenchless technology scenario based on all three dimensions of sustainability. Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (Fuzzy QFD) method has been used to incorporate the interaction between the agency’s sustainability objectives and public expectations for large-sized pipeline construction projects in urban areas. The framework effectively handles the uncertainties associated to data limitations and vagueness in expert opinion for subjective assessment criteria. To evaluate the pragmatism of proposed framework, it was applied on the case of a storm sewer construction project in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. Trenchless technology was found to be the most sustainable construction scenario followed by the open cut scenario with 50% traffic detoured to NWCA. The proposed methodology is also sought to enhance decision making process pertaining to the viability of trenchless technologies in KSA and elsewhere