Assessing Spiritual Well-Being of Arab Muslim Prostate Cancer Survivors: A Reflection for a New Spiritual Health Care Policy

Religious and spiritual beliefs are some of numerous factors that influence quality of life outcome of cancer survivors. Spirituality is believed to be an important component of overall well-being and it is especially significant in relation to how cancer survivors cope with their morbidity. The purpose of this study was to explore spiritual well-being of Arab, Muslim prostate cancer survivors living in Gaza Strip, Palestine. A cross-sectional design was used in this study using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). A total of 117 Arab, Muslim patients diagnosed with prostate cancer from Gaza Strip participated in this study. Results revealed high scores of SWBS. Score for the total SWBS was 101.16 (±5.47) while was 58.91 (2.06±) for Religious Well-Being (RWB) subscale and 42.25 (±4.58) for Existential Well-Being (EWB) subscale. Scores were not affected by demographic characteristics of participants

Nursing perceptions of patient safety climate in the Gaza Strip, Palestine

Aims This study was undertaken to assess the perception of nurses about patient safety culture and to test whether it is significantly affected by the nurses’ position, age, experience and working hours. Background Patient safety has sparked the interest of healthcare mangers, yet there is limited knowledge about the current patient safety culture among nurses in the Gaza Strip. Methods This was a descriptive cross‐sectional study, administering the Arabic Safety Attitude Questionnaire (Short Form 2006) to 210 nurses in four public general hospitals. Results Job Satisfaction was the most highly perceived factor affecting patient safety, followed by Perception of Management. Safety culture varied across nursing position, age, work experience and working hours. Nurse Managers had more positive attitudes towards patients than frontline clinicians did. The more experience nurses had, the better their attitudes

Psychometric properties of an Arabic safety attitude questionnaire (short form 2006)

Objectives There is a widespread interest in exploring healthcare providers’ attitudes and perceptions about patient safety culture. This study was done to determine the reliability and validity of the Arabic version of Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) in Palestinian hospitals. Methods This was a methodological study and the SAQ was translated into Arabic using the forward-backward translation technique. Four Ministry of Health hospitals in the Gaza Strip were randomly selected, and proportionate systematic sampling was followed to select the participants. Questionnaires were distributed to 370 physicians and nurses. Face and content validity were tested, and the content validity index was determined using the average approach. Internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha, split-half reliability, and intercorrelation between the questionnaire scales. Construct validity was assessed through exploratory

Association between the polymorphisms of matrix metalloproteinases 9 and 3 genes and risk of myocardial infarction in Egyptian patients

Abstract The present study investigated the relationship between the genetic polymorphisms in MMP-9 and MMP-3 genes and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We examined 40 patients with acute myocardial infarction and 40 age and sex matched controls for MMP-9 functional promoter polymorphism (1562 C > T) and MMP-3 (5A/6A) deletion/insertion polymorphism using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) for amplified genomic DNA. The frequencies of the combined mutant genotypes CT and TT in the (1562 C > T) MMP9 were significantly higher in AMI patients (20%) when compared to the controls (0%) (p value = 0.005) showing an association between these genotypes and AMI. Also there was a significant difference between 5A/5A genotype and 5A allele frequencies when both are compared in the patients (25% and 35%) and the controls (2.5% and 18.75%) (p= 0.009; OR =13; CI= 1.576–107.233); and (p=0.02; OR =2.333, CI= 1.130–4.820) respectively. In conclusion, the 1562C> T polymorphism of the MMP9 gene is strongly associated with acute myocardial infarction in the Egyptian population. Furthermore, our study supported the presence of the 5A/5A genotype of MMP3 gene promoter polymorphism as a risk factor of AMI in Egyptian patients. Meanwhile, the race selection should be paid more attention since the pathogenesis of a disease might have different bases in different racial population groups.Keywords: Matrix metalloproteinase; 1562C>T; 5A/6A; RFLP; Myocardial infarctionThe Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics (2013) 14, 143–14

Development of a new medium containing date syrup for production of bleomycin by Streptomyces mobaraensis ATCC 15003 using response surface methodology

A combined statistical approach of orthogonal design and polynomial regression were applied to optimize the composition and concentration of a liquid fermentation medium for the production of bleomycin (BLM) by Streptomyces mobaraensis. Optimal conditions for maximal productivity were determined based on eight parameters at three different levels. The sources of carbon and nitrogen concentration and their interactions with other precursors were found to be statistically significant factors. When date syrup was used as an additional carbon source, higher BLM amount was obtained in comparison to glucose. It was found that the optimum nitrogen source was achieved with the use of soyabean meal. The combined orthogonal design and response surface methodology predicted optimal conditions for production of BLM to be 138 mg dl-1. A confirmatory experiment of the optimal medium composition produced 142 mg dl-1 in the fifth day fermentation at 30°C. The complex medium containing 40 gml-1 date syrup as additional carbon source enhanced the production of BLM by 73%. The combined statistical approach enabled rapid identification and integration of key medium parameters for optimizing secondary metabolite production and could be very useful in pharma-ceutical screening programs.Keywords: Bleomycin, Streptomyces mobaraensis, orthogonal design, medium optimization, date syrupAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(33), pp. 5450-5459, 16 August, 201

The Potential of Native Palestinian Nomuraea rileyi Isolates in the Biocontrol of Corn Earworm Helicoverpa (Heliothis) armigera

ABSTRACT Four native isolates of the entomopathogenic fungus Nomuraea rileyi were isolated from soil samples collected from 210 different irrigated and non-irrigated tomato-growing fields in the West Bank-Palestine. The four isolates were recovered from soil samples collected from the Jenin area during August 2006 (Nr 3, Nr 5, Nr 17 and Nr 18), and were then deposited at the US Agriculture Research Service collection of Entomopathogenic Fungi (ARSEF 7794, ARSEF7793, ARSEF7792 and ARSEF 7791). The isolation was carried out by using dilute plate technique on modified selective medium. The medium used in the study was based on the standard Saboraud's maltose agar yeast extract, and modified by adding Tween ® 80 and the fungicide dodine . The results showed that the LT 50 for these isolates at the inoculum concentration of 10 8 spore ml -1 were in the range of 7.9 to 9.4 days. The LC 50 was in the range of 10 5 and 10 6 spore ml -1 . The virulence of the most promising isolate (ARSEF 7794) compared to the insecticide Thyonex ® was evaluated on H. armigera under tomato open field conditions; the results showed that the fungus and the insecticide reduced tomato infestation by 46%, and 88% respectively, compared to the control

Post-traumatic stress disorder among health care providers two years following the Israeli attacks against Gaza Strip in August 2014: Another call for policy intervention

This study aimed to assess the level of posttraumatic stress disorder and to examine the relationship between exposure to war stress and posttraumatic symptoms among health care providers two years following Israeli offensives against Gaza Strip in 2014. Methodology: A cross-sectional design was used for this study. We targeted all nurses and doctors working in three governmental hospitals in the Gaza Strip who worked with victims of the 2014 war, more specifically, those who were working in emergency departments, intensive care units, operating rooms, surgical departments, and burn units. A demographic sheet and Impact Event Scale-Revised were used in this study. The Impact Event Scale-Revised has three sub-scales; intrusion, avoidance, and hyper-arousal. Results: The results showed that 291 (89.3%) out of 2444 participants had scores more than 35 (threshold cut-off point) on Impact Event Scale-Revised. Scores ranged from eight to 80 with a mean of 52.71. Females had higher levels of stress (55.33) than males (50.82) and nurses (52.67) had more stress than physicians (47.38). The most frequent symptoms of trauma subscales was “Intrusion” (mean=19.99), followed by “Avoidance” (mean=17.60), and then “Hyper-arousal” (mean=14.12). Level of trauma symptoms were not affected by place of living, hospital of work, while level of education had impacted level of trauma. Conclusion: The findings showed that health care providers still suffer from severe posttraumatic symptoms two years after exposure to a prolonged war stress. This level of trauma among health care providers warrants intervention programs to reduce stress and trauma among Gaza health care providers after the war.This study aimed to assess the level of posttraumatic stress disorder and to examine the relationship between exposure to war stress and posttraumatic symptoms among health care providers two years following Israeli offensives against Gaza Strip in 2014. Methodology: A cross-sectional design was used for this study. We targeted all nurses and doctors working in three governmental hospitals in the Gaza Strip who worked with victims of the 2014 war, more specifically, those who were working in emergency departments, intensive care units, operating rooms, surgical departments, and burn units. A demographic sheet and Impact Event Scale-Revised were used in this study. The Impact Event Scale-Revised has three sub-scales; intrusion, avoidance, and hyper-arousal. Results: The results showed that 291 (89.3%) out of 2444 participants had scores more than 35 (threshold cut-off point) on Impact Event Scale-Revised. Scores ranged from eight to 80 with a mean of 52.71. Females had higher levels of stress (55.33) than males (50.82) and nurses (52.67) had more stress than physicians (47.38). The most frequent symptoms of trauma subscales was “Intrusion” (mean=19.99), followed by “Avoidance” (mean=17.60), and then “Hyper-arousal” (mean=14.12). Level of trauma symptoms were not affected by place of living, hospital of work, while level of education had impacted level of trauma. Conclusion: The findings showed that health care providers still suffer from severe posttraumatic symptoms two years after exposure to a prolonged war stress. This level of trauma among health care providers warrants intervention programs to reduce stress and trauma among Gaza health care providers after the war

Crack healing under sustained load in concrete: An experimental/numerical study

The need of sustainable resilient structures and infrastructures push towards the use of cementitious materials able to heal micro-cracks and defects. For real structural application under service loading the time-dependent behavior is of the utmost importance, especially in presence of cracks which can lead to a nonlinear creep behavior that might cause the structural failure. Now the new challenge is to study and quantify the effect of crack-healing on the nonlinear creep behavior. This study aims at the following goals: 1) to characterize with experimental investigations the effect of the healing in tests in which the specimens, along the exposure time and under controlled environmental conditions, are under sustained load, the expected service load, determined as a fraction of the pre-cracking load; 2) develop a comprehensive numerical framework for the interpretation and simulation of the experimentally observed results. To this purpose an experimental investigation is currently ongoing at Politecnico di Milano with reference to an Ultra High-Performance Concrete developed in the framework of the H2020 ReSHEALience project for exposure to extremely aggressive environments. The numerical framework is based on the recent developments of the multiphysics lattice particle model