A Transparent Look at a Counsellor’s Inner World: Learning to Self-differentiate and Hold the Client’s Pain

The first time I encountered the concept of “sitting with the pain” was in supervision, some eight years ago when I was doing an internship in counselling psychology. This was following a particularly difficult session with a client, who was clinically depressed and was desperately trying to process her feelings of grief and loss. As I sat with her in the session, an intense feeling of helplessness took over me and I fought hard to resist the urge to provide her with a solution and a “quick-fix”. Later in supervision, as I related what happened, I realized that I was actually afraid to confront my own anxiety in the session, and to confront my own assumptions about what my role as a therapist is. As I delved deeper into my own fears, I realized that I was afraid to confront the reality, the fact that I could not “save” my clients, that I could not take away their pain and that I could not do their work for them

ASSESSMENT OF NURSES’ KNOWLEDGE AND CARE PRACTICES FOR INFECTION PREVENTION IN NEUTROPENIC PATIENTS IN BEKAA, LEBANON: A DESCRIPTIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL DESIGN

Neutropenia is one of the serious complications to chemotherapy that increases the risk of infection and even mortality. Nurses’ knowledge about neutropenia and their care practices are essential in order to protect neutropenic patients from infection. Thus, this study aimed to assess nurses\u27 knowledge and care practices for infection prevention in neutropenic patients in Bekaa, Lebanon. A cross-sectional descriptive research study had been conducted in five hospitals located in Bekaa district. 81 nurses had been recruited by convenience sampling. They completed the ‘Nurses’ Knowledge and Care Practices for Infection Control in Neutropenic Patients’ questionnaire. The majority were females 77.8% (n=63), with a BS degree 65.4% (n=53) and less than 40 years old. The score of nurses knowledges about neutropenia was 18.8/30 while the mean score related to infection prevention and control practice was overall high (mean score=15.7/18). Based on the obtained results, nurses in the five hospitals of Bekaa had a good level of infection control practices despite a moderate level of knowledge about neutropenia

ASSESSMENT OF HEALTHCARE WASTE MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITALS OF SOUTH LEBANON

Healthcare wastes (HCW) are produced in any healthcare setting during diagnosis, medical care, operation or injection process or during research studies. The management of such wastes is becoming a great issue since they pose many health risks and environmental damage. Hence, this study was carried out to assess the level of healthcare waste management in hospitals of South Lebanon. A cross sectional study was conducted in five hospitals located in South Lebanon (A, B, C, D and E). The Individualized Rapid Assessment Tool (I-RAT) developed in 2009 as part of the UNDP GEF Global Project on Healthcare Waste, was the instrument used for data collection. A part of the IRAT-HCWM questionnaire was completed through on site observation and the other part of the questionnaire was filled by the nurses, nurse managers, quality and environmental managers and infection control managers in different wards of the hospitals. In general, the five evaluated hospitals showed a good management of healthcare wastes. However, there are still unsatisfactory practices in these hospitals regarding policies, regulations, procedures, safety issues and awareness. Thus, future interventions are required in order to improve the healthcare waste management practices in hospitals of South Lebanon

Undergraduate teaching assistantships: exploring career readiness and relationality among Emirati students

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to pilot an undergraduate teaching assistantship for Emirati students, an area of scholarship underexplored in the Middle East. The teaching assistantship was developed to better prepare students for the workforce, amidst the push for Emiratization. Design/methodology/approach: Over the course of one semester, four undergraduate teaching assistants documented their experience through reflexive journals that were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis. Findings: Undergraduate teaching assistants characterised their experience as providing professional development and learning to connect with student learners. Findings suggest that relationality may be an important factor in student engagement and learning. Practical implications: Understanding the experience of undergraduate teaching assistants can help develop targeted opportunities to enhance career readiness. Exploring the role of relationality could be important in the training and development of the Emirati workforce and help address some of the gaps in skills. Understanding the way in which undergraduate teaching assistants perceive their teaching experience can also provide faculty with insight into their teaching practices. Originality/value: This exploratory study shows that students are able to acquire skills that may be applied in a variety of work settings (e.g. balancing multiple responsibilities). However, undergraduate teaching assistants expressed wanting to connect with student learners; this may be more culturally rooted and is less explored within the Emirati context. Given the socio-cultural context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), female Emiratis may benefit from work-type opportunities, which to the authors’ knowledge has not been explored previously

A HYBRID APPROACH BASED ON BUILDING PHYSICS AND MACHINE LEARNING FOR THERMAL COMFORT PREDICTION IN SMART BUILDINGS

One of the most important challenges facing the world is the application of modern technology in order to create smart buildings that achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Thermal comfort and reduction of energy consumption in buildings are considered important factors which, in turn, are reflected in creating a healthy environment and improving human productivity. Internet of Things (IoT) provides an ideal solution for collecting real-time data on the factors affecting indoor thermal comfort and energy consumption. However, comfort level is subjective and depends on many factors, which may not be learned by conventional models, an integrated model depending on thermal comfort factors is needed. In this work, a hybrid physics-based model incorporated with machine learning techniques is used for the prediction of thermal comfort inside buildings. XGBoost (eXtreme Gradient Boost) algorithm method was used due to its abilities to handle complex problems. A calculated dataset was extracted from the physics-based model gathered with the environmental variables data such as humidity, moisture, temperature, and air velocity collected from IoT devices. The results show an improvement in the prediction of the thermal comfort approach as compared with the conventional models. The XGBoost algorithm can exhibit an effective solution for eliminating deficiencies of traditional models and can be used when designing smart buildings, simulating, and evaluating the designed buildings, controlling energy consumption, and achieving thermal comfort

CXC ligand 13 in rheumatoid arthritis and its relation to secondary Sjögren’s syndrome

AbstractAim of the workThe aim of the present study was to measure the level of the chemokine CXC ligand 13 protein (CXCL13) in the plasma and unstimulated saliva of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in order to find out its role in the disease activity and its relation to secondary Sjögren’s syndrome (sSS).Patients and methodsThe study was conducted on thirty rheumatoid arthritis patients attending the Outpatient Clinic of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation department of Ain shams University Hospitals. The patients’ group had been classified into group (1) which included fifteen RA patients associated with sSS diagnosed according to the American–European Consensus Group Classification Criteria and group (2) which included fifteen RA patients not associated with sSS. Ten healthy subjects were included as a control group. Patients were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, and laboratory detection of CXCL13 level in the plasma and saliva of patients as well as the control groups using ELISA technique. Assessment of disease activity in RA patients was done using the disease activity score (DAS28).ResultsPlasma levels of CXCL13 were significantly higher in RA patients than control group (p<0.001). Plasma levels of CXCL13 were significantly correlated with the RA disease activity (r=0.677, p<0.001) and disease duration (r=0.406, p<0.05), while the salivary levels were higher in those with sSS and correlated with sSS disease duration (r=0.536, p<0.05). A highly significant correlation was found between salivary CXCL13 and severity of sSS (r=0.816, p<0.001). Salivary levels of CXCL13 above 110pg/ml may diagnose sSS with sensitivity 80% and specificity 84%.ConclusionThe results of this preliminary study point out the importance of CXCL13 as a marker for RA disease activity, its role in diagnosing sSS, and estimation of sSS severity

A Computerized Tomographic Data Analysis System to Evaluate the Dental Implant Surface Roughness

AbstractDental implants have been progressively used in the recent years to support and retain dental prosthesis. Implant surface roughness has been suggested as a crucial factor in implant osseointegration and long term survival of the implant and prosthesis, where a key factor for the success or failure of dental implants is the manner in which stresses are transferred to surrounding bone. In this study completely edentulous patients were rehabilitated by implant retained over denture in which two implant systems with different surface roughness were used. Peri implant bone density in Hounsfield Units (HU) was evaluated by analyze Computerized Tomographic (CT) images to judge the behavior of an implant system under functional loading, where DICOM raw data was imported into the analysis proposed system to correlate the bone density regarding to the HU values. Results are compared with clinical readings and previous findings, which it showed that there is a difference in peri implant bone density around regularly patterned and randomly patterned implant surfaces

Measurement Equivalence of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem: Electronic versus Traditional Scale

هدفت الدراسة إلى المفاضلة بين البنية العامليه التوكيدية للصورة التقليدية والنسخة الالكترونية لمقياس تقدير الذات لـــ Rosenberg (1965). طبقتالدراسة&nbsp;على عينتين تم اختيارهما بطريقة عشوائية بسيطةأحدهما للصورة التقليدية بإجمالي160 طالب وطالبة من طلاب البكالوريوس والدراسات العليا بكلية التربية بالإسماعيلية بمتوسط عمري 23 عاماً وانحراف معياري 3.45 عاماً، بينماالصورة الالكترونية بإجمالى197 متطوعاً ومتطوعة من مستخدمي شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي (تويتر، فيسبوك، سناب شات) بمتوسط عمري 29.7 عاماً وانحراف معياري 2.13 عاماً. استخدم الباحثان المنهج السببي المقارن تصميم بين المجموعات والذي يختبر التكافؤ للصور المتعددة والمقارنة بين أداء الطلاب عليها باستخدام اختبار ت للعينات المستقلة. وأظهرت النتائج تفوق الصورة الالكترونية عن التقليدية في مؤشرات المطابقة وثبات ألفا لكرونباخ، كما أسفرت النتائج عن عدم تكافؤ الصورتين على مقياس روسنبرج لتقدير الذات. وقد اوصت الدراسة باستخدام الصور الإلكترونية للاختبارات بما تتمتع بهمن حتميه الاستجابة على جميع مفردات الاختبارات وبالتالي الحد من مشكلات التحليل الإحصائي.The study aimed as comparing the factor structure of traditional and Electronic Self-esteem scale. Random sample has been selected and consisted of (n=160) for traditional, (n=197) for Electronic scale. Causal Comparative design and between groups method have been used. The findings revealed that the electronic scale has over weighted the traditional one on the fitting indices and on Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient. Furthermore, the results have shown that the sample of electronic version overpassed on the performance on Rosenbergs' Self-esteem scale

Nonattachment as a Mediator of the Mindfulness-Well-being Relationship: Comparing Emirati and Australian Students

ObjectivesFew studies have explored mindfulness and nonattachment in Arab populations. This study extends our understanding of mindfulness and nonattachment to Arab students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) based on the 20-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the 7-item Nonattachment Scale (NAS-7). This study investigated the model fit of each measure, in conjunction with examining the measurement invariance of both measures across Emirati and Australian samples. Next, this study investigated the mediating role of nonattachment.MethodsUniversity students from the UAE (N = 452) and Australia (N = 731) completed self-report measures of mindfulness, nonattachment, positive and negative affect, and depression, stress, and anxiety.ResultsFor the FFMQ, a four-factor model—excluding the facet Observe but with the addition of covariance between two items from the facet Describe—provided adequate fit in both samples. The NAS-7 provided adequate fit in the Australian sample but not the UAE. While the FFMQ model was invariant across samples, the NAS-7 was non-invariant, thus preventing sample comparison. Overall, nonattachment partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and well-being with differences across samples.ConclusionsFindings support the use of a four-factor model of the FFMQ in Emirati samples and attest to its robustness and suitability as a measure for cross-cultural comparisons. Findings also support a partial mediating role for nonattachment and attest to the intricacies of the Emirati culture

Studio analitico sui materiali utilizzati nei dipinti murali della “Camera dell’amore” del Palazzo El Sakakeny

In the present study, a comprehensive investigation has been undertaken into mural paintings dating to the 19 th century and painted by Italian students. They were initially located in El Sakakeny Palace in El Sakakeny Square in Egypt. The analytical instruments used for investigation were Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy with EDX, X-Ray diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared coupled with Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR). The analysis revealed that the pigments used in the mural paintings were hematite, litharge, zincate, gold oxide, Goethite (brown ochre) and malachite mixed with linseed oil or animal glue. The original ground layer comprises zincate with gypsum. The medium used in the ground layer is animal glue and the support is limestone.Nel presente studio è stata realizzata un’indagine completa su dipinti murali realizzati da studenti italiani e risalenti al XIX secolo, inizialmente situati nel Palazzo El Sakakeny, nell’omonima piazza in Egitto. Gli strumenti analitici utilizzati per l’indagine sui materiali sono stati la Microscopia Ottica, Microscopia Elettronica a Scansione con EDX, Diffrazione a Raggi X e trasformata di Fourier accoppiata con Riflettanza Totale Attenuata (FTIR-ATR). Le analisi hanno rivelato la presenza di pigmenti come ematite, litargirio, ossido di zinco, ossido dioro, goethite (ocra bruna) e malachite utilizzati per la realizzazione delle pitture murali, mescolati con olio di lino o con colla animale. Lo strato di fondo originario comprende ossido di zinco e gesso; il legante utilizzato nel fondo è colla animale, mentre il supporto è costituito da una pietra calcarea