Second language lecturers' madiation of learning at the University of Johannesburg.

I am an English Second Language (L2) lecturer teaching English Second Language students. Most of my colleagues are L2 lecturers teaching L2 students. My reading and study into the subject has revealed, that there are more L2 teachers and lecturers who teach L2 students in South Africa, and indeed in the world than there are native speakers of English. These considerations have prompted me to investigate English Second Language lecturers’ mediation of learning. My study describes the methodological and pedagogical experiences of L2 lecturers mediating learning to L2 students and the effect of the combined cultural and language differences between the L2 lecturers and students on the mediation of learning. The literature reviewed, related to research carried out in the United States of America, Hungary, Canada, India, Japan, Turkey, Hong Kong, Holland and Russia among others . The research design was an interpretive descriptive design which used a qualitative approach for data collection. Through observations and in depth interviews, I gleaned data about how the participants, seven English Second Language lecturers, have mediated learning to their English Second Language learners, in the Department of the University where I work. The most notable findings of the research was that in mediating learning to L2 learners, the participants in the study (L2 lecturers) were to a large extent, linguistically competent, aware of the communicative and informative aspects of pragmatics and able to negotiate meaning with their learners at an appropriate level. They were also empathetic and culturally aware. I conclude, by making recommendations, to improve the mediation of learning by English Second Language Lecturers to English Second Language learners.Dr. E.U. Pathe

Hospital pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia: Prescribing and transcribing in the Riyadh region

AbstractPurposeThe purpose of this survey is to outline pharmacy services in hospitals on a regional level in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.MethodsA modified-American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) survey questionnaire as pertinent to Saudi Arabia was used to conduct a national survey. After discussing with the pharmacy directors of 48 hospitals in the Riyadh region over the phone on the survey’s purpose, the questionnaires were personally delivered and collected upon completion. The hospital lists were drawn from the Ministry of Health hospital database.ResultsTwenty-nine hospitals participated in the survey giving a response rate of 60.4%. Approximately 60% of the hospitals which participated in the survey required prior approval for the use of non-formulary medications. About 83.3% of hospitals reviewed compliance with clinical practice guidelines and 72.7% hospitals reported that pharmacists are also actively involved in these activities. Pharmacists in more than 95% of hospitals provided consultations on drug information. A staff pharmacist routinely answering questions was the most frequently cited (74.1%) method by which objective drug information was provided to prescribers. Electronic drug information resources were available in 77.7% of hospitals, although internet use is not widely available to hospital pharmacists, with only 58.6% of hospitals providing pharmacist access to the internet. About, 34.5% of hospitals had computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) systems with clinical decision-support systems (CDSSs) and 51.9% of the hospitals had electronic medical record (EMR) system.ConclusionHospital pharmacists are increasingly using electronic technologies to improve prescribing and transcribing of medications in Saudi Arabia

Hospital pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia: Prescribing and transcribing in the Riyadh region

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this survey is to outline pharmacy services in hospitals on a regional level in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: A modified-American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) survey questionnaire as pertinent to Saudi Arabia was used to conduct a national survey. After discussing with the pharmacy directors of 48 hospitals in the Riyadh region over the phone on the survey's purpose, the questionnaires were personally delivered and collected upon completion. The hospital lists were drawn from the Ministry of Health hospital database. Results: Twenty-nine hospitals participated in the survey giving a response rate of 60.4%. Approximately 60% of the hospitals which participated in the survey required prior approval for the use of non-formulary medications. About 83.3% of hospitals reviewed compliance with clinical practice guidelines and 72.7% hospitals reported that pharmacists are also actively involved in these activities. Pharmacists in more than 95% of hospitals provided consultations on drug information. A * Corresponding author. Tel.: +966 507222277; fax: +966 E-mail address: [email protected] (M.S. Alsultan). staff pharmacist routinely answering questions was the most frequently cited (74.1%) method by which objective drug information was provided to prescribers. Electronic drug information resources were available in 77.7% of hospitals, although internet use is not widely available to hospital pharmacists, with only 58.6% of hospitals providing pharmacist access to the internet. About, 34.5% of hospitals had computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) systems with clinical decisionsupport systems (CDSSs) and 51.9% of the hospitals had electronic medical record (EMR) system. Conclusion: Hospital pharmacists are increasingly using electronic technologies to improve prescribing and transcribing of medications in Saudi Arabia

Evaluating the appropriateness of carbapenem and piperacillin-tazobactam prescribing in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is presently considered an emergent major global public health concern and excessive and/or inappropriate use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials contribute to the development of AMR. Objective: To evaluate the appropriateness of carbapenems and piperacillin-tazobactam use in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: A retrospective, observational, cross-sectional, drug-utilization study was conducted. The study included all adult hospitalized patients who had received at least one dose of the antimicrobials during their admission for the period between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2017. The appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy was evaluated according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines with the consideration of the institutional antibiogram. Results: Overall, 2731 patients received 5005 courses with one of the antimicrobials, for a total of 5045.9 defined daily doses (DDD) of imipenem-cilastatin, 6492.3 of meropenem and 15,595 of piperacillin-tazobactam (4.93, 6.34 and 15.24 DDD/100 bed days, respectively). The mean age of the patients who received either antimicrobial was 55.5 ± 20.3 years, with a 14-day average length of hospital stay. About half (52%) of the prescriptions were written for patients treated in the medical ward. Pneumonia (26.6%) and sepsis (24.9%) were the most common indication for the initiation of antimicrobial therapy. Of the assessed prescriptions, only 2787 (56.5%) were prescribed appropriately, with 2142 (43.5%) deemed inappropriate. The three most common reasons for inappropriate prescription were: the spectrum of activity was too broad (44.6%), followed by antimicrobial use without culture request (32.4%), and failure of suitable antimicrobial de-escalation (19.9%). Conclusions: The study indicates that the overall rate of inappropriateness was high, emphasizing the need to develop initiatives to effectively improve broad-spectrum antimicrobial prescribing

Exploring physicians' views, perceptions and experiences about broad-spectrum antimicrobial prescribing in a tertiary care hospital Riyadh, Saudi Arabia : a qualitative approach

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat associated with increased mortality, morbidity and costs. Inappropriate antimicrobial prescribing, particularly of broad-spectrums antimicrobials (BSAs), is considered a major factor behind growing AMR. The aim of this study was to explore physician perception and views about BSAs and factors that impact upon their BSAs prescribing decisions. Qualitative semistructured telephone interviews over an eleven-week period were conducted with physicians in a single tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Purposeful and snowball sampling techniques were adopted as sampling strategy. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, uploaded to NVivo® software and analysed following thematic analysis approach. Four major themes emerged: views on BSAs, factors influencing BSA prescribing and antimicrobial stewardship: practices and barriers and recommendations to improve appropriate BSA prescribing. Recommendations for the future include improving clinical knowledge, feedback on prescribing, multidisciplinary team decision-making and local guideline implementation. Identification of views and determinants of BSA prescribing can guide the design of a multifaceted intervention to support physicians and policymakers to improve antimicrobial prescribing practices

Directional detection as a strategy to discover Galactic Dark Matter

Directional detection of Galactic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating genuine WIMP events from background ones. Technical progress on gaseous detectors and read-outs has permitted the design and construction of competitive experiments. However, to take full advantage of this powerful detection method, one need to be able to extract information from an observed recoil map to identify a WIMP signal. We present a comprehensive formalism, using a map-based likelihood method allowing to recover the main incoming direction of the signal and its significance, thus proving its galactic origin. This is a blind analysis intended to be used on any directional data. Constraints are deduced in the ($\sigma_n, m_\chi$) plane and systematic studies are presented in order to show that, using this analysis tool, unambiguous dark matter detection can be achieved on a large range of exposures and background levels.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures Final version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Achieving higher photoabsorption than group III-V semiconductors in silicon using photon-trapping surface structures

The photosensitivity of silicon is inherently very low in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and it drops rapidly beyond 800 nm in near-infrared wavelengths. Herein, we have experimentally demonstrated a technique utilizing photon-trapping surface structures to show a prodigious improvement of photoabsorption in one-micrometer-thin silicon, surpassing the inherent absorption efficiency of gallium arsenide for a broad spectrum. The photon-trapping structures allow the bending of normally incident light by almost ninety degrees to transform into laterally propagating modes along the silicon plane. Consequently, the propagation length of light increases, contributing to more than an order of magnitude improvement in absorption efficiency in photodetectors. This high absorption phenomenon is explained by FDTD analysis, where we show an enhanced photon density of states while substantially reducing the optical group velocity of light compared to silicon without photon-trapping structures, leading to significantly enhanced light-matter interactions. Our simulations also predict an enhanced absorption efficiency of photodetectors designed using 30 and 100-nanometer silicon thin films that are compatible with CMOS electronics. Despite a very thin absorption layer, such photon-trapping structures can enable high-efficiency and high-speed photodetectors needed in ultra-fast computer networks, data communication, and imaging systems with the potential to revolutionize on-chip logic and optoelectronic integration.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figure

Predicted modulated differential rates for direct WIMP searches at low energy transfers

The differential event rate for direct detection of dark matter, both the time averaged and the modulated one due to the motion of the Earth, are discussed. The calculations focus on relatively light cold dark matter candidates (WIMP) and low energy transfers. It is shown that for sufficiently light WIMPs the extraction of relatively large nucleon cross sections is possible. Furthermore for some WIMP masses the modulation amplitude may change sign, meaning that, in such a case, the maximum rate may occur six months later than naively expected. This effect can be exploited to yield information about the mass of the dark matter candidate, if and when the observation of the modulation of the event rate is established.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures; references adde

Directional detection of Dark Matter

Directional detection is a promising Dark Matter search strategy. Taking advantage on the rotation of the Solar system around the galactic center through the Dark Matter halo, it allows to show a direction dependence of WIMP events. It requires the simultaneous measurement of the energy and the 3D track of low energy recoils, which is a common challenge for all current projects of directional detectors. The third CYGNUS workshop on directional dark matter detection has brought together the scientific community working on both theoretical and experimental aspects of the subject. In this paper, we give an introductory revue of directional detection of Dark Matter, focusing on the main recent progresses.Comment: Proceedings of the 3rd International conference on Directional Detection of Dark Matter (CYGNUS 2011), Aussois, France, 8-10 June 201