College of Nursing

Background: Migrants everywhere face several demands for health and maintaining good health and quality of life could be challenging. Iraqis are the second largest refugee group that has sought refuge in the recent years, yet little is known about their health related quality of life (HRQOL). The study aims at assessing the HRQOL among Iraqis living in Malaysia. Methods: A self-administered Arabic version of Sf-36 questionnaire was distributed among 300 Iraqi migrants in Malaysia. The questionnaire taps eight concepts of physical and mental health to assess the HRQOL. Univariate analysis was performed for group analysis (t test, ANOVA) and Multiple Linear Regression was used to control for confounding effects. Results: Two hundred and fifty three participants ranging in age from 18 to 67 years (Mean = 33.6) returned the completed questionnaire. The majority was males (60.1%) and more than half of the respondents (59.5%) were married. Less than half (45.4%) and about a quarter (25.9%) reported bachelor degree and secondary school education respectively and the remaining 28.7% had either a master or a PhD degree. Univariate analysis showed that the HRQOL scores among male immigrants were found to be higher than those of females in physical function (80.0 vs. 73.5), general health (72.5 vs. 60.7) and bodily pain (87.9 vs. 72.5) subscales. The youngest age group had significantly higher physical function (79.32) and lower mental health scores (57.62). The mean score of physical component summary was higher than the mental component summary mean score (70.22 vs. 63.34). Stepwise multiple linear regression, revealed that gender was significantly associated with physical component summary (β =-6.06, p = 0.007) and marital status was associated with mental component summary (β = 7.08, p = 0.003). Conclusions: From the data it appears that Iraqi immigrants living in Malaysia have HRQOL scores that might be considered to indicate a relatively moderate HRQOL. The HRQOL is significantly affected by gender and marital status. Further studies are needed to explore determinants of HRQOL consequent to immigration. The findings could be worthy of further exploration.

Although melatonin supplementation is known to influence numerous physiological functions, little is however known of its effects on pregnancy outcome. This study investigated the effects of melatonin supplementation on pregnancy outcome in Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats aged 12-13 weeks. Upon confirmation of proestrus, each female rat was housed overnight with a male of the same strain. On the next morning, following confirmation of mating (vaginal smear), WKY female rats were isolated into individual metabolic cages and given 0, 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg per day of melatonin in drinking water from day 1 of pregnancy to day 21 postpartum. SD females were given 0 or 100 mg/kg per day of melatonin. Maternal weight, duration of pregnancy, litter size, birth weight and body weight of pups up to day 42, and pup mortality were recorded. Data were analyzed using ANOVA for repeated measures. Compared to controls, maternal weight gain during pregnancy was significantly lower in m...

In this article we review impaction of tocotrienol in aging recreational athletes, the bodies change. Muscle size and strength decrease primarily due to inactivity. Bone mass and density decrease, increasing the susceptibility to fractures due to metabolic changes which induce high free radicals result in the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). On other step, in recreational athletes occurred generation of (ROS) increases during exercise which can lead to increased oxidative stress and subsequent lipid per oxidation under normal circumstances. Since tocotrienol rich fraction (TRF) is well-establish as potent ant oxidation exert on scavenging to free radicals and ROS , our study has undertaken to elucidate the variation in the effecting of TRF in both cases , aging and recreational athletes. In older age, Tendons and ligaments become less flexible, making it easy to get overuse injuries. Joint inflammation and cartilage degeneration often occur due to arthritis, thus, studies show that the TRF has a preventative role rather than therapeutic. If sufficient TRF is present before the inflammation response is initiated, the inflammatory phase may be shortened. Apparently, therapeutic administration (i.e. Administration after the induction of inflammation) did not affect the duration or the progress of the inflammation phase. Nevertheless, earlier, the authors have investigated the role of TRF during exercise in male recreational athletes completed two endurance running trials, until exhaustion. They found that there is no enhancing endurance running performance or prevent exercise-induced muscle damage or influenced body core temperature or plasma volume changes during exercise in the heat. Consequently, our study suggests that supplement food regimens should be subjected to profound examination before utilizing in certain regimen.

Background. According to the WHO, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. About 50% of the world’s glaucoma cases come from the Asian population, and in Malaysia itself, the prevalence of glaucoma is increasing. However, glaucoma is still a foreign word to our community despite the high prevalence. Therefore, there is an urgent need to determine the awareness of glaucoma among the community and its associated factors. Results. This study showed that only 25.2% of our respondents were aware of glaucoma and it is associated with ethnicity, religion, education, and household income. Besides, among those who were aware, they fall into the group of poor knowledge of glaucoma. On the other hand, the knowledge of glaucoma was associated with occupation and the awareness of glaucoma by definition. The validated questionnaire was distributed and the data were analyzed by SPSS software using t-test, one-way ANOVA, and chi-square test. Conclusion. Awareness and knowledge o...

In Yemen, the first COVID-19 confirmed case was reported on 10 April 2020. The World Health Organization representative in Yemen reported that approximately 65000 deaths and 49, 4000 will be hospitalized in Yemen if there are no protection measures at the right time. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Yemen.

Objective: This review aims to critically assess three decades (1989 to 2019) of breast cancer research in Yemen and to identify the gaps in, and need for, breast cancer research in Yemen. Methodology: A search was performed in Web of Science, EMBASE, PubMed, Google Scholar and Ovid to identify articles on breast cancer research in Yemen that were published in the last three decades. The articles were selected and reviewed by experts in this field, based on clinical relevance and future research implications. Results: This review comprised 19,031 participants, extracted from 27 articles that were included and analyzed. The most common study design was retrospective (N=9), while the least common was Randomized Controlled Trial (N=1). Breast cancer patients in Yemen were commonly diagnosed at an early age of 50 years or younger. Therefore, breast cancer has affected Yemeni women at a younger age, ranging from 40 to 49 years, than the age at which this cancer has affected women in other countries. Overall, awareness of breast cancer among Yemeni women was very poor, and poor knowledge was reported in these studies. Some studies reported that a shockingly low rate of only 11% to 17.4% of Yemeni women practiced Breast Screen Examination (BSE), while another study reported that only 30.3% of Yemeni women performed regular BSE. Only 1.6% of the Yemeni women had been exposed to a mammogram test. The highest performed surgery was a modified radical mastectomy (N=211). Regrettably, 13 patients had refused the surgery. The highest cases of breast cancer were reported in Hadramout (N=956), while the lowest number of only three cases was in Shabowah. The most common histological subtype was invasive ductal carcinoma (N=2695). Conclusion: Yemen is characterised by three decades of scattered, fragmented and poor-quality breast cancer research. Therefore, there is a need to establish a breast cancer research center in Yemen to research all aspects of breast cancer in Yemen and to build bridges for collaborations in breast cancer research globally.

Background: Inadequate dedication has been given to patient safety education of health care professionals, resulting in limited understanding of the nature of risk in health care. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the personal knowledge, awareness and attitudes toward patient safety among the health professional students of Kut University College. Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis using a validated WHO (World Health Organization) questionnaire and the results were analyzed using IBM SPSS software. Results: Our data showed that the majority of our participants had a medium level of knowledge and awareness about health care errors and patient safety. Nevertheless, our participant's attitude was positive regarding reporting the error and learning from their mistakes. Conclusions: Reducing patient maltreatment will require long-term continuous efforts to build a good education that can addresses the local difficulties and improves patient safety towards HIV.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of risk factors and symptoms of breast cancer among Yemeni nurses during the conflict. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional design was carried out among 392 randomly selected participants. The instrument consists of 20 items, 12 general awareness statements, and 8 curability statements with a 0.711 reliability coefficient. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25. RESULTS: Most of the nurses were female (69.5%), with a mean age of 28.54, with monthly income less than 200 USD (54.3%). About 21.4% of the participants were smokers. Among all participants, the most frequently mentioned risk factor were breastfeeding, reducing the risk of breast development (86.2%), followed by physical activities lowers the developing risk of breast cancer (79.1%). Over time, the myth of the constant irritation due to the tight bra may cause breast cancer reported by women more than male nursing students. In this respect, men were better k...

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the Pap smear screening barriers among medical students.MethodologyThis study was a qualitative study conducted among forty-one medical students. Ten female and 31 male. Four focus group discussions were included in this study. The focus groups consisted of one female group and three male groups. The obtained data were sorted into categories based on content analysis and data were analyzed manually.ResultsA total of 41 medical students participated in this qualitative study. Most of the study participants were male and 22 years of age. All groups reported that the lack of awareness is the main barrier to Pap smear screening. The conservative culture and the traditions of the people, shame of doing a pap test despite the gender of healthcare workers, and not trusting the healthcare workers were some of the other key barriers to Pap smear screening among the groups. It was also reported that the man has the final decision as to whether his wife will...

The antibacterial activity of different fractions of selected extract of Coptis chinensis Franch rhizome was evaluated on gram positive bacteria. Three extracts were tested at concentrations ranging from 1 mg/ ml, 10 mg/ml, and 100 mg/ml in vitro on three bacterial strains, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Bacillus anthracis, which was done by performing disc diffusion for growth inhibition. The methanol extract at concentrations of 100 mg/ml displayed the most significant zone of inhibition of (22.67 ± 3.055mm), (21.67 ± 3.512 mm), (16.67 ± 1.528 mm) against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus anthracis, respectively. The TLC separation of the extracts showed that each of them may contains constituents that are phenolic in nature. From the Rf values of the spots found in the various extracts is that the Coptis chinensis Franch rhizome contains some other non-phenolic compounds responsible for its effect. The selected methanol extract is...

Background and Aim: The development of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is ongoing. This study aimed to prepare for public acceptance of the vaccine. There is a need to identify the current acceptance and potential barriers to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in Yemen. Understanding the hesitancy and acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine are crucial to develop local evidence-based interventions. Materials and Methods: Twenty students were interviewed in this study. An interview guide was developed and it addressed the willingness to accept a future COVID-19 vaccine. In-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed, and manually analyzed. Results: The majority of participants agreed that they would take a COVID-19 vaccine for several reasons, including protection for themselves, their families, and others and to stop the spread of COVID-19, for which the vaccine is important, as in other routine vaccinations. However, some participants shared that they would not take the COVID-19 ...

Grilli et al., 1994, generated the breaking of single waves across breakwaters using a nonlinear potential model in the laboratory. Waves may collapse over the crest, break backward or forward over submerged breakwaters, or do all three depending on the height of the incident wave. In the course of the experiments and tests, wave transmission and reflection coefficients were determined. It was reported that the transmission coefficient increased to reach (55-90) percent across the breakwaters that were submerged. In the case of the submerged Contents lists available at www.gsjpublications.com

Background. According to the WHO, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. About 50% of the world's glaucoma cases come from the Asian population, and in Malaysia itself, the prevalence of glaucoma is increasing. However, glaucoma is still a foreign word to our community despite the high prevalence. erefore, there is an urgent need to determine the awareness of glaucoma among the community and its associated factors. Results. is study showed that only 25.2% of our respondents were aware of glaucoma and it is associated with ethnicity, religion, education, and household income. Besides, among those who were aware, they fall into the group of poor knowledge of glaucoma. On the other hand, the knowledge of glaucoma was associated with occupation and the awareness of glaucoma by definition. e validated questionnaire was distributed and the data were analyzed by SPSS software using t-test, one-way ANOVA, and chi-square test. Conclusion. Awareness and knowledge of glaucoma in this population is low. ese findings suggest that there is a need for an efficient information and education strategy to be designed and conducted to increase the awareness and knowledge of glaucoma so that early detection can be made and effective management of individuals with this condition can be delivered.

Background and Aim: The development of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is ongoing. This study aimed to prepare for public acceptance of the vaccine. There is a need to identify the current acceptance and potential barriers to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in Yemen. Understanding the hesitancy and acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine are crucial to develop local evidence-based interventions. Materials and Methods: Twenty students were interviewed in this study. An interview guide was developed and it addressed the willingness to accept a future COVID-19 vaccine. In-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed, and manually analyzed. Results: The majority of participants agreed that they would take a COVID-19 vaccine for several reasons, including protection for themselves, their families, and others and to stop the spread of COVID-19, for which the vaccine is important, as in other routine vaccinations. However, some participants shared that they would not take the COVID-19 vaccine due to the following reasons: Concerns regarding the safety of the vaccine; feeling fit and healthy, and thus considering themselves to have strong immunity; feeling that the vaccine was manufactured in a rushed manner and thus it would require approval by the World Health Organization; being previously infected with COVID-19 and considering themselves protected, and placing their trust in God and believing no vaccine was needed. Conclusion: The willingness to receive a future COVID-19 vaccine was high among medical students. However, some students hesitated to take the vaccine. Therefore, mass media interventions are required to maximize vaccine uptake.

Objective This study aims to explore the Pap smear screening barriers among medical students. Methodology This study was a qualitative study conducted among forty-one medical students. Ten female and 31 male. Four focus group discussions were included in this study. The focus groups consisted of one female group and three male groups. The obtained data were sorted into categories based on content analysis and data were analyzed manually. Results A total of 41 medical students participated in this qualitative study. Most of the study participants were male and 22 years of age. All groups reported that the lack of awareness is the main barrier to Pap smear screening. The conservative culture and the traditions of the people, shame of doing a pap test despite the gender of healthcare workers, and not trusting the healthcare workers were some of the other key barriers to Pap smear screening among the groups. It was also reported that the man has the nal decision as to whether his wife will get a Pap smear screening. Finally, fear of the disease and/or fear of the complications of the test were also considered barriers to Pap smear testing. All groups were willing to suggest this test to their families and friends to prevent and treat the disease as early as possible. All groups agreed that the gender of the healthcare worker matters and de nitely will affect a woman's decision whether to do the Pap smear screening or not. All girls preferred to be examined by a female. All the groups mentioned that the advantage of Pap smear screening is to diagnose and treat the disease early. All groups thought that personal hygiene of the private parts is the most important prevention method for cervical cancer. Conclusions Lack of awareness is the main barrier to Pap smear screening. The gender of the healthcare worker also greatly affects women's decision to have a Pap smear test. Therefore, raising awareness about the importance of early detection of cervical cancer among the general population is urgently needed, considering the culture and the tradition of the people. Introducing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is highly recommended. as HPV DNA tests and visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) are available. Visual inspection with acetic acid is used in low-resource settings [1]. Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is now a well-established cause of cervical cancer and there is rising evidence that HPV is an important factor in other anogenital cancers such as anus, vulva, vagina and penis, as well as cancers of the head and neck. HPV types 16 and 18 are responsible for around 70% of all cases of cervical cancer globally [2]. HPV vaccines are now available to prevent HPV 16 and 18 infections and have the ability to minimize the incidence of cervical and other anogenital cancers. Well-organized cervical screening programs will reduce the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. The implementation of HPV vaccination will also reduce the burden of cervical cancer in the decades to come [3]. Cigarette smoking, high parity, long-term hormonal contraceptive use, and co-infection with HIV are known risk factors for cervical cancer. Other potential risk factors include co-infection with Chlamydia trachomatis and herpes simplex virus-2, immunosuppression, and some dietary de ciencies [4]. Cervical cancer screening could start at age 21 years [5]. Women younger than 21 years should not be screened irrespective of the age of sexual initiation or other behavior-related risk factors. However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer screening among women aged 30 and 49 could minimize cervical cancer deaths [6]. Cervical cancer screening has been effective in reducing morbidity and mortality in developed countries over the past ve decades. However, effective cervical cancer screening in developing countries such as Yemen is almost absent [7]. Cervical cancer is the world's third most prevalent cancer among women, with more than 600,000 new cases and 311,365 deaths in 2018 [8]. Approximately 170 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually in Yemen [9]. Cervical cancer ranks as the 13th leading cause of female cancer and it is most common among women aged 15 to 44 years in Yemen [9]. Therefore, it is urgent to examine the barriers to Pap smear screening in Yemen. This research study is aimed at exploring the barriers to Pap smear among medical students in Yemen. Methodology This study was conducted among year two medical students from the Faculty of Medicine, Al-Hikmah University, Yemen during March 2020. Forty-one medical students participated in this qualitative study, 10 female and 31 male. To be included in this study participants needed to be medical students, uent in Arabic and have Yemeni citizenship. Foreign students were excluded from this study. This study was approved by the University Ethical Committee. Medical students were invited through an invitation advertised at the Faculty of Medicine to participate in this study. Those who met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate were divided into four discussion groups. Each group consisted of 9 to 11 students. There was one female and three male

The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge of risk factors and symptoms of breast cancer among Yemeni nurses during the con ict. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional design was carried out among 392 randomly selected participants. The instrument consists of 20 items, 12 general awareness statements, and 8 curability statements with a 0.711 reliability coe cient. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 25. RESULTS: Most of the nurses were female (69.5%), with a mean age of 28.54, with monthly income less than 200 USD (54.3%). About 21.4% of the participants were smokers. Among all participants, the most frequently mentioned risk factor were breastfeeding, reducing the risk of breast development (86.2%), followed by physical activities lowers the developing risk of breast cancer (79.1%). Over time, the myth of the constant irritation due to the tight bra may cause breast cancer reported by women more than male nursing students. In this respect, men were better knowledgeable than women (P=0.001). Females, however, were more aware than males that women who bear their rst child before 30 are more to develop breast cancer (P=0.017). Income is signi cantly associated with the level of knowledge among nurses. The most frequently mentioned breast symptoms among all participants were a pain in the breast (82.9%), followed by changes in the breast shape (79.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Income is signi cantly associated with the level of knowledge among nurses. The myth about breast cancer is dominant among nurses in Yemen. Therefore, there is an urgent need to educate nurses on breast health.

Motif discovery is the problem of finding common substrings within a set of biological strings. Therefore it can be applied to finding Transcription Factor Binding Sites (TFBS) that have common patterns (motifs). A transcription factor molecule can bind to multiple binding sites in the promoter region of different genes to make these genes co-regulating. The Planted (l, d) Motif Problem (PMP) is a classic version of motif discovery where l is the motif length and d represents the maximum allowed mutation distance. The quorum Planted (l, d, q) Motif Problem (qPMP) is a version of PMP where the motif of length l occurs in at least q percent of the sequences with up to d mismatches. In this thesis we develop the Strong Motif Finder (SMF) and quorum Strong Motif Finder (qSMF) algorithms and evaluate their performance. The Strong Motif Finder (SMF) returns a list of its highest ranked (strongest) motifs. The performance of SMF is compared with the APMotif and MEME algorithms with respect to execution time and prediction accuracy. Several performance metrics are used at both the nucleotide and the site level. The algorithms are tested on simulated datasets. The time comparisons show that SMF is faster than the APMotif and the MEME (ANR) and similar in speed to the MEME (ZOOPS). The MEME algorithm with choice OOPS is the fastest but is not practical if no prior knowledge is available. The prediction accuracy results reveal that the SMF outperforms the APMotif, and performs at the level of the best prediction accuracy of the MEME (with OOPS choice), notwithstanding that the SMF is not given a-priori information. In addition, the SMF is tested on real DNA datasets of orthologous regularity regions from multiple species, without using their related phylogenetic tree. The experiments indicate that the SMF results agree with published motifs. The quorum Strong Motif Finder (qSMF) returns a list of highest ranked (strongest) motifs occurring in at least q percent of the data sequences. The algorithm is tested on ChIP-Seq (large) data that was sampled using the SamSelect algorithm. In comparison with the FMotif algorithm, the experimental results show that qSMF is faster and returns predicted motifs similar to results in the literature and to motifs discovered by the ENCODE project tool which uses the established motif finding algorithms of AlignACE, MEME, MDscan, Trawler, and Weeder. In order to determine the strength or the significance of the predicted motifs, a scoring function, the Motif Strength Score (MSS), is proposed for ranking the discovered motifs in both algorithms. In future work, this score can be combined with other statistical scores, such as the complexity score, P-value and information content, to better determine the motif significance.

Excess body iron has been linked to atherosclerosis owing to its pro-oxidative properties. However, inconsistent results have emerged from the epidemiological studies linking iron status and the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Objective of the present ...