Role of Perineal Length Estimation in The Prediction of Maternal and Fetal Outcomes

Context: Female perineum is a significant part of females because perineal tears and episiotomy habitually happen in childbirth with first-time deliveries.Aim: This study aimed to explore the role of perineal length (PL) estimation in the prediction of maternal and fetal outcomes.Methods: A prospective cohort observational design was used to collect data from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Laboring room, Kafrelsheikh General Hospital, Kafrelsheikh City, Egypt. A purposive sample of 139 parturient women was recruited during the period from the first of December 2018 to the end of August 2019. Six tools were used to conduct this study. Maternal and newborn characteristics questionnaire, disposable standardized paper tape for measuring PL in centimeters, a standardized scale for measuring maternal height by meters, and body weight in kilograms to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) (k/m2), REEDA scale, partograph for labor process and Apgar score. Results: There were statistically significant differences regarding the mean age, previous episiotomy, and cesarean section of both studied groups (PL less than or equal to 4 cm and more than 4 cm) at p-value <0.001. Out of 139 parturient women, the two groups of PL less than or more than 4 cm had 16.7% versus 56.9%, respectively had a normal vaginal delivery, with a statistically significant difference between both groups, while 46.7% versus 6.3% respectively had an episiotomy. However, the mean duration of the second stage of labor had statistically significant differences between both studied groups, with 116.7 ± 44.3 versus 85.1 ± 42.0, respectively. Additionally; Mean birth weight/grams, cephalohematoma, caput succedaneum, and mean APGAR score after 5 minutes had a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Conclusions: Short perineum accompanied by increased duration of the second stage of labor. Cesarean section delivery and perineal trauma are associated with primigravida with short perineum. Regarding the mean APGAR score after 5 minutes, there were statistically significant differences between both studied groups. Maternity and newborn health nursing need to improve the illustration of the risk factors that can lead to undesirable consequences. Further research in the area of perineal anatomy may help patients avoid severe tears and many complications

Realizing the Prospects of the Demographic Dividend in Selected Arab Countries

Background: For most Arab countries, the coming ten years will reveal a real challenge with their changing age structure. Currently, a demographic window of opportunity is unlocked in many of those countries with the increase in the fraction of population in the working-age. Hence, the study investigates the relation between population growth and dependency ratio as demographic indicators and the per capita growth domestic product (GDP). Methods: A  time-series analysis  model  was developed for  Egypt and Morocco versus the Republic of Korea as an economically empowered country that had the same initial conditions in the early sixties. Data exploited are drawn from the World Bank and OECD databases. We adopt an income per capita growth model to analyze the role of demographic factors, mainly working-age share. Results There is a significant relationship between GDP per capita and the proportion of working age population. A significant long-run association between dependency ratio and per capita GDP is confirmed. The reduction of dependency load contributes to GDP per capita growth throughout the study duration by an annual rate of about 9 and 2 percent in Egypt and Morocco, respectively. Conclusion: The decline in the dependency ratio, or alternatively, the raise in the working age population has a favorable impact on economic growth. The paper presents supporting evidence to scale up the effect of age structure alteration and to realize the demographic dividend in the studied countries

The Semantic Prosody of Natural Phenomena in the Qur’an: A Corpus-Based Study

This thesis explores the Semantic Prosody (SP) of natural phenomena in the Qur’an and five of its prominent English translations [Pickthall (1930), Yusuf Ali (1939/ revised edition 1987), Arberry (1957), Saheeh International (1997), and Abdel Haleem (2004)]. SP, scarcely explored in Qur’anic research, is defined as ‘a form of meaning established through the proximity of a consistent series of collocates’ (Louw 2000, p.50). Theoretically, it is both an evaluative prosody (i.e., lexical items collocating with semantic word classes that are positive, negative, or neutral) and a discourse prosody (i.e., having a communicative purpose). Given the stylistic uniqueness of the Qur’an and considering that SP can be examined empirically via corpora, the present study explores the SP of 154 words associated with nature referenced throughout the Qur’an using Corpus Linguistics techniques. Firstly, the Python-based Natural Language Toolkit was used for the following: to define nature terms via WordNet; to disambiguate their variant forms with Stemmers, and to compute their frequencies. Once frequencies were found, a quantitative analysis using Evert’s (2008) five-step statistical analysis was implemented on the 30 most frequent terms to investigate their collocations and SPs. Following this, a qualitative analysis was conducted as per the Extended Lexical Unit via concordance to analyse collocations and the Lexical-Functional Grammar to find the variation of meanings produced by lexico-grammatical patterns. Finally, the resulting datasets were aligned to evaluate their congruency with the Qur’an. Findings of this research confirm that words referring to nature in the Qur’an do have semantic prosody. For example, astronomical bodies are primed to occur in predominantly positive collocations referring to glorifying God, while weather phenomena in negative ones refer to Day of Judgment calamities. In addition, results show that Abdel-Haleem’s translation can be considered the most congruent. This research develops an approach to explore themes (e.g., nature) via SP analysis in texts and their translations and provides several linguistic resources that can be used for future corpus-based studies on the language of the Qur’an.

Effect of Tailored Patient Education Program on the Outcomes of Pregnant Women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Context: Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is a harmful condition associated with serious physical and psychological complications that affect pregnant women's health. The etiology of hyperemesis gravidarum is not well understood and mainly unknown but is probably unmodified multi-factorial risk factors.Aim: This research aimed to examine the effect of a tailored patient education program on pregnant women's outcomes with hyperemesis gravidarum. Methods: A quasi-experimental (study/control group) design was adopted in this study to achieve the stated aim. A convenience sample of 50 pregnant women diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum was recruited. The research was conducted at the inpatient obstetrics and gynecology department, Kafrelsheikh General Hospital, Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt. Data was collected using three tools: Structured interviewing questionnaire; Modified 24-hour Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis/Nausea (PUQE) index; and health status assessment record. Results: The research findings revealed that 56.00% of the study group at baseline assessment have severe nausea and vomiting compared to 52.00% of the control group, with no statistically significant difference between both groups (P = 0.776). While at three- weeks post-program, no one of the study group women has severe nausea and vomiting compared to 16.00% of the control group with a statistically significant difference between both groups (P = 0.044). Concerning signs and symptoms of dehydration, there was no statistically significant difference between the study and control group regarding any signs and symptoms of dehydration at the three times of assessment. A statistically significant difference was revealed between the study and control group about the length of hospital stay (P = 0.041) and hospital readmission (P = 0.029). Conclusions: Although there is no statistically significant difference between the study and control group regarding signs and symptoms of dehydration, the decreased severity of nausea and vomiting, length of hospital stay, and hospital readmission rate are valued outcomes. The study recommended that a pregnant woman be equipped with adequate health information related to HG by conducting such a health education program that should be tailored according to women's needs

Neuroprotective effects of ferulic acid and thymoquinone against deltamethrin-induced neurotoxicity in Drosophila melanogaster

Background: Recent research indicates a link between exposure to pyrethroid pesticides and negative neurodevelopmental outcomes such as neurodegenerative disorders, low intelligence quotient (IQ), and attention disorders. Thus this study aims (1) to investigate the effect of exposing Drosophila melanogaster adult male flies to 0.59 µM deltamethrin (DLM) for 24 h on their survival, climbing behavior, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, as well as the gene expression levels of ple, ddc, dat, aanat1, dop1r1, dop2r, and dopecr genes, and (2) to assess the protective effect of 250 µM Ferulic acid (FA), 25 µM Thymoquinone (TQ), and their combinations on the survival, climbing behavior, and AChE activity of D. melanogaster adult male flies exposed to 0.59 µM DLM for 72 h.Methods: In the first experiment, adult male wild-type flies were exposed to DLM incorporated into a 10% sucrose solution for 24 h, whereas, in the second experiment, they were exposed to DLM and the individual neuroprotective agents, or their mixture for 72 h.Results: Flies exposed to DLM exhibited higher mortality rates and shorter climbing distances in the negative geotaxis assay compared to control flies. Additionally, exposure to DLM upregulated the genes ddc, dat, dop1r1, dop2r, and dopecr significantly. Moreover, exposure to DLM for 72 h resulted in higher mortality rates and severe locomotor defects. However, the neuroprotective agents were effective in mitigating these toxic effects. While DLM inhibited AChE activity, concurrent exposure to FA ameliorated the inhibition.Conclusion: This study demonstrates the efficacy of natural compounds in reducing DLM-induced toxicity in D. melanogaster and highlights the potential use of this model in studying and developing therapeutic strategies for movement disorders.Keywords: Drosophila melanogaster; Neurotoxicity; Ferulic acid; Thymoquinone; Deltamethrin; Negative geotaxis    

Faculty of Nursing, Kafrelsheikh University

Context: Health and well-being before marriage help to maintain the health of future children. Therefore, healthcare should begin before marriage through premarital care as it can recognize and modify health risk factors well-known to have adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes.Aim: The current research carried out to examine the effect of pre-marital care educational program on the knowledge and attitude of female university students. Methods: A quasi-experimental design (Pre-test/Post-test) was adopted to achieve the stated aim. A stratified sample of one thousand female students was recruited. The research was conducted at the Nursing and Commerce Faculties at Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt. Two tools were constructed by the researchers: A self-administered questionnaire and Pre-marital care attitude assessment scale.Results: The research findings revealed that 32.30% of nursing students have a high level of knowledge pre-program compared to 54.00% post-program, while 21.00% of commerce students have a high level of knowledge pre-program compared to 41.00% post-program. Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference between mean knowledge scores pre and post-program (p< 0.001). Concerning students’ attitudes, it was observed that positive attitudes expanded from 54.700% to 66.00 % among nursing students and from 49.00% to 57.500% among commerce students. As well, there was a statistically significant difference between pre-program and post-program attitude levels (p< 0.001). Conclusion: the research hypotheses were accepted as the knowledge and attitude of students were improved after receiving the program suggesting its effectiveness. The study recommended that university students should be equipped with adequate in-depth health information related to pre-marital care to expand the general population's mindfulness and impact their attitude toward pre-marital care

The role of soft war in the Arab spring

 Wars have many shapes and many means and there are a lot of weapons. Mind brings automatically military shape of wars when referred to. This is because of the conditional link that occurs between war and the military form. Cold war happened between Russia and USA played a role in destroying the link mentioned before. Many events followed insisted on the non-military form and non-military means of wars. This study tries to throw light on the soft means of war mostly the psychological one attempting to go over the role of Media in the events of Arabic Spring and trying to explore the dualism between image and idea and its role in breaking wars. The study tries also, through political theories, to explain how Media works on destroying Ideologies replacing them by new ideologies that serves the aims and the goals of its sponsors

Syria between Conspiracy and Conspiracy theory

 This study tries to afford answers to a number of questions that arose concerning the causes and the consequences of the war. What is conspiracy theory? Is there a conspiracy on Syria? Where were the origins of conspiracy theory laid? What was the role that conspiracy played in the war on Syria? Could the war on Syria really be just a result of the conspiracy or were there additional eternal causes? The study concludes that:1. War on Syria was an inevitability that most, if not all, societies will arrive to.2. Creating “ Conspiracy theory” in Syria, is a Conspiracy itself. 3. Believing in Conspiracy is a significant goal of conspiracy itself. 4. Supporting a Conspiracy theory in Syria serves the great powers that invented the theory. 5. There is no metaphysical roots of Conspiracy but historical causes founded in the social and economic relations. 6. Regional and international powers put a further nail in the coffin of conspiracy on Syria

Statistical Estimation of the Production and Cost Functions of Sugar Cane Crop in Minia Governorate

The aim of this research was to study the productivity and economic indicators of sugar cane production in Egypt and the Minia Governorate. It also aimed to estimate the statistical functions of physical production in order to assess the economic efficiency of the main resources used in sugar cane production within the study sample. Additionally, statistical estimation of cost functions was conducted to obtain indicators of the economic efficiency of sugar cane production. The research yielded several results, among the most important of which were: through estimating the production function of sugar cane in the DeirMawas center, it was found that production factors account for approximately 72% of the variations in sugar cane production quantity in the study sample. The significance of the seedlings variable (Q2) and the nitrogen fertilizer variable (Q4) were established, as their coefficients were statistically significant with the dependent variable, while the significance of the other variables was not established. The production elasticity of the seedlings element (Q2) was approximately 0.507, which means that a 10% increase in the use of this production factor leads to a 5.07% increase in sugar cane production. The total elasticity of the function was approximately 1.45, indicating that these factors operate within the range of increasing returns to scale. The results also indicated that the most significant problems and obstacles faced by sugar cane producers in the Minia Governorate during the 2021/2022 agricultural season were primarily related to the high prices of fertilizers