Clinical Nursing and Midwifery Research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Nurses and midwives are well placed to improve the health outcomes of patients in a number of areas, so the fields of nursing and midwifery must include the ability to conduct rigorous research, synthesize findings into relevant evidence, and use research to inform practice. However, clinical nursing issues in regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) are often under-researched. The three projects included in this proposal are part of a larger study funded by the Columbia University President’s Global Innovation Fund in collaboration with the Office of Global Initiatives of Columbia University School of Nursing. This dissertation includes three aims: (a) conduct a scoping review of published clinical nursing research to assess the current state of research in the region, (b) conduct a formal program evaluation of a Research Summit that identified clinical nursing and midwifery research priorities and developed an action plan for the EMR, and (c) describe perceptions of barriers and facilitators to research utilization among nurse leaders in the EMR. The results of the scoping review demonstrated that there was limited clinical nursing and midwifery research that has been conducted in the Region. The program evaluation indicated that the Summit was successful and a number of actionable projects have been carried out as a result. Furthermore, the results of the Barriers Scale (Funk et al., 1991) showed that the main barriers to research utilization were lack of funding and resources, lack of support, lack of interest, and lack of training while the main facilitators were placed into the categories of improving support and research culture, resources, and education and training. GDP also significantly impacted the extent to which participants experienced barriers to research utilization. It is important that more Region-specific research be carried out. In order to do this, the research skills of nurse/midwife researchers need to be enhanced and the dissemination of their research supported. Nurse and midwife researchers in the Region should develop consensus regarding specific regional clinical research topics to be given priority and provide support so that nurse and midwifery researchers overcome any barriers they face regarding utilizing clinical research in their practice so that patients can be provided with better and safer care

Report of Faculty Experiences When Team Teaching in Higher Education

This article continues the project of current authors (Malak & Gambescia, 2023) who learned about the personalities, leadership styles, and pedagogical preferences of higher education instructors that have collaborated on lessons, by expanding the analysis to the experiences of team teaching in the areas of best, worse, and overall experiences in the teaching/learning process. Thirty-five faculty who had team taught in the past completed an online survey responding to 16 questions related to their team-teaching experience, using a Likert Scale rating and several open-ending questions. Respondents found that the most benefit from the experience was in collaborating with the other faculty member as opposed to benefits to the student. Furthermore, in this collaboration faculty found satisfaction in the planning and building of components in the teaching/learning process to provide a quality course versus activities related to students such as building better relationships and activities related to assessing students’ work. External influences and benefits to self that were not related to the other faculty member or student interaction were not evident. Given these results, we believe that a significant characteristic of any faculty member involved in team teaching is knowing how to lead and knowing how to follow

Team Teaching in Higher Education: Personalities, Leadership Styles, and Preferences

Objective: This study aims to find out more about a) certain personality types, leadership styles, and teaching philosophies of those who have participated in team teaching, as well as b) their preferences for team teaching. These preliminary results ought to be helpful to faculty who may be asked to consider team teaching with a colleague(s), and results may help academic administrators assign and match faculty to team teach courses in their program offerings.Background: Given that few faculty have had the opportunity to team teach relative to the numerous courses they offer solo, there is a lack of focus, faculty development opportunities, and research on this subject. This does not, however, diminish the value of this method of delivering courses in higher education. Faculty may explore collaborative teaching in a number of ways, such as inviting a colleague to provide a one-time guest lecture, distributing assignments according to the collaborators' specialized knowledge, or working together on every part of the course.Methods: Using previously developed Myers-Briggs personality type finders and leadership style research tools, the participants' leadership and personality types were identified (Malak et al., 2022). People's experiences with teaching and preferences for leading vs. following were mapped using both qualitative (self-report) and quantitative (survey) approaches.Results: Sixty-three percent of the respondents identified as utilizing either servant leadership or coaching/mentoring. The majority of "E" type personalities like to "Lead," especially in a team-teaching atmosphere, according to this study's findings. The traditional team-teaching method was adopted by 49% of the participants, while 26% used cooperative learning, 11% used integrated learning, 9% used parallel learning, and the remaining 6% used monitoring learning. It is important to highlight that more than 60% of the subjects who had "E" qualities had backgrounds in nursing, public health, health administration, or health care.Conclusions: In summary, the faculty survey data reveal an overall profile of the faculty who have team taught in higher education as an extrovert with a penchant for judging; who prefers to lead rather than follow; uses a coaching/mentoring or servant leadership style; and prefers high level cooperation with a colleague(s) in the full range of teaching/learning activities

Microbiology, diseases, and epidemiology of Kingella kingae in young children: A short review

Kingella kingae is a Gram-negative coccobacilli and it is a member of the HACEK (Haemophilus species, Aggregatibacte actinomycetemcomitans, Cardiobacterium hominis, Eikenella corrodens, and  K. kingae). HACEK organisms are typically oropharyngeal commensals and have long been recognized as a cause of infective endocarditis in children and adults. K. kingae in difficult to be recovered from cultured pharyngeal samples due to its slow growth and the high presence of resident bacterial flora, however, the organism can be better detected using PCR tests. Based on our search in PubMed and other sources, we couldn't discover any study about K. kingae originated from any Arab country. Therefore, we wrote this review to draw the attention of our physicians and clinical microbiologists on the importance of this neglected group of organisms in clinical medicine.   However, this review article aims to cover the most important diseases of K. kingae in the pediatric population

Personalized object-based audio for hearing impaired TV viewers

Age demographics have led to an increase in the proportion of the population suffering from some form of hearing loss. The introduction of object-based audio to television broadcast has the potential to improve the viewing experience for millions of hearing impaired people. Personalization of object-based audio can assist in overcoming difficulties in understanding speech and understanding the narrative of broadcast media. The research presented here documents a Multi-Dimensional Audio (MDA) implementation of object-based clean audio to present independent object streams based on object category elicitation. Evaluations were carried out with hearing impaired people and participants were able to personalize audio levels independently for four object-categories using an on-screen menu: speech, music, background effects and foreground effects related to on-screen events. Results show considerable preference variation across subjects but indicate that expanding object-category personalization beyond a binary speech/non-speech categorization can substantially improve the viewing experience for some hearing impaired people

Identifying Optimal Equivalent Area Changes to Reduce Sonic Boom Loudness

This work explores the design space created from modeling the effect of localized geometric changes on a supersonic aircraft’s near-field pressure signature. These geometric changes are used to alter the aircraft’s near-field pressure signature in a way that reduces its sonic boom loudness at the ground. The aircraft used in this work is the NASA 25D concept and its near-field pressure signature is modeled using two separate methods. The first method uses the PANAIR panel code to obtain a near-field pressure signature for an axisymmetric representation of the 25D. This near-field signature is propagated to the ground using the NASA sBOOM propagation code and the perceived level in decibels is calculated using an in-house loudness code called PyLdB. The second method uses the equivalent area distribution of the 25D which is passed directly to sBOOM and the perceived level is again found using PyLdB. To model the geometric changes, the axisymmetric geometry and the equivalent area distributions are independently modified with a parameterized Gaussian deformation. These methods are fast enough to quickly explore the design space and find the change in loudness for different deformation parameters. This design space exploration is used to study loudness changes for both on-design conditions and the effects of deviations from on-design angle of attack, Mach number, and azimuth angle. A genetic algorithm is used in subsequent studies to explore the effects of different atmospheric conditions. These results can be used to inform higher fidelity CFD studies and structural adaptation design on the aircraft

Correlations of morphological (macroscopic and microscopic) parameters of placenta with maternal age and parity

Background: Placenta is a chief cause of maternal and perinatal mortality and significant factor in fetal growth retardation. It undergoes different variations in weight, volume, structure, shape and function continuously throughout the gestation tosupport the prenatal life. Cautious examination of placenta can give information which can be useful in the management of complications in mother and the newborn. Objective: The present work has been attempted towards determination of the morphological ( macroscopic and microscopic) parameters of human full-term placentae and their relation with different parity and age group of mothers. Patients and Methods: A whole of 40  placentae were recently collected.They were divided into four  groups (10  women each); primigravida age35 years, multigravida 35years.Neonataland placental weights,placental thickness  and  number of cotyledons were measured.Tissue for histological examination wasobtained to study the parameters of  microscopic morphometry   (number of apoptotic cells, number of terminal villi, number of syncytial knots, number of fetal capillaries and thickness of trophoblastic basement  membrane). Results: Placental and  neonatal weights were within normal range. They were augmented with maternal age and parity. Number of cotyledons was higher than those reported by other authors in other populations but it was still within normal range and it was significantly decreased in multigravida> 35.Placental thickness was within normal range and it was significantly decreased in multigravida> 35. All microscopic parameters were increased with maternal age and parity.. Conclusion: There were correlations between microscopic and macroscopic parameters. Thelength of stem villi were less in multigravida> 35 since placental thickness was decreased in this group.  All microscopic parameters were increased with maternal age and parity.These variations may have some important bearing on the placental inadequacy in higher age group and parity of mother

Sequence and structure of the mouse gene coding for the largest neurofilament subunit.

We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the mouse gene encoding the neurofilament NF-H protein. The C-terminal domain of NF-H is very rich in charged amino acids (aa) and contains a 3-aa sequence, Lys-Ser-Pro, that is repeated 51 times within a stretch of 368 aa. The location of this serine-rich repeat in the phosphorylated domain of NF-H indicates that it represents the major protein kinase recognition site. The nfh gene shares two common intron positions with the nfl and nfm genes, but has an additional intron that occurs at a location equivalent to one of the introns in non-neuronal intermediate filament-coding genes. This additional nfh intron may have been acquired via duplication of a primordial intermediate filament gene