knowledge

The depletion of non-renewable resources is followed by severe ecological and social impacts, and the heavy usage of raw, virgin resources leaves significant, long-lasting footprints. The transition to a more circular economy, where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained and circulated (by recycling activities) in the economy for as long as possible, is an essential contribution to the EU’s efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy. In this context, ecological solutions consisting of materials that help carbon sequestration and necessitate small amounts of energy for production are becoming increasingly popular from a building construction point of view, namely: The raw material is cheap and in large quantities; has low thermal conductivity; are from a renewable source. The paper presents an analysis of IZOMIN an innovative thermal insulating product made from renewable or recycled resources and their main technical properties, the purpose being to inform the market in order to increase the present level of technical knowledge and technologies used to facilitate the implementation of buildings with high energy efficiency.

Background: Pediatric nurses are in a unique position to provide oral health care to hospitalized children and help in the prevention and management of oral diseases. The objectives of this study were to determine pediatric nurses’ level of oral health knowledge and to evaluate their attitude towards the prevention of oral diseases and willingness to obtain more oral health education and training.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at 6 randomly selected hospitals in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. A self-administrated questionnaire with items including demographic data, dental knowledge, attitude, and willingness to obtain more information and training was completed by 240 pediatric nurses working in different pediatric medical wards.Results: On average, 64% of surveyed pediatric nurses had acceptable dental knowledge. Only 79% of nurses assess patients’ mouths on admission. About 77% of nurses claimed to receive instructions regarding oral care before qualification and 72% after qualification. However, 91% showed great attitudes and interest in providing oral care to hospitalized children and were willing to obtain more information about oral health care for children.Conclusion: Pediatric nurses working in Riyadh hospitals had limited oral health knowledge, however, they showed good awareness and a positive attitude toward promoting oral health care to hospitalized children.

Background: Worldwide, studies show negative attitudes among medical students toward psychiatry and mental illness. The knowledge of the attitude and awareness of the undergraduate medical students toward mental health and psychiatric disorders are most important as they are going to be involved in the care of these patients either directly or indirectly during the years of their careers.Aim: To explore, the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of undergraduate medical students towards mentally ill Patients before their planned psychiatry rotation in the fourth year of undergraduate medical study, faculty of medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.Objectives: To assess mental health-related knowledge, attitudes and intended behavior of undergraduate medical students towards mentally ill patients.Subjects and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study, conducted on 120 fourth-year undergraduate medical students affiliated with the faculty of medicine-Suez Canal University. A comprehensive sample was used to include all of the students in the fourth year of undergraduate medical study, and the study group participants completed a semi-structured questionnaire including four parts to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral responses towards individuals with mental illnesses. The data of the study was collected in September-October 2019.Results: Based on the participants’ scores, the cut-off points estimated to dichotomize the responses as poor or good, for mental health-related knowledge, belief towards mental illness and intended behavior were, 17, 55 and 8.5 respectively. This study showed that the study participants had marginally poor mental health-related knowledge with a median score of 17, poor beliefs about mental illness with a median score of 49.5 and poor intended behavior towards the mentally ill with a median score of 7. Conclusion: In this study, undergraduate medical students showed marginally poor mental health-related knowledge, poor stigmatizing beliefs, and behavior towards mentally ill patients. More controlled studies are needed to eliminate the inherent response biases in survey studies and to measure the outcomes of anti-stigma educational and curricular interventions. 

Background: More than 1 million intravenous chemotherapy infusions are given worldwide each day which leads to extravasation. Health professionals must know the drugs that cause tissue injury and take the necessary measures to prevent extravasation.Objectives: The study aimed to assess the knowledge regarding the management of extravasation of chemotherapeutic drugs before and after the implementation of a structured teaching program among staff nurses.Method: The pre-experimental group pre-test and post-test designs were adopted for the study. The convenience sampling technique was used to obtain 30 staff nurses of Ramaiah Medical College Hospital, India. Both Pre-test and Post-test were performed using the same structured knowledge questionnaire followed by 45 minutes of the structured teaching program. Data were processed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20 and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: More than half of the subjects were female (66.7%) and 36.7% of the subject had more than 10 years of professional experience. Most of the subjects (70%) had inadequate knowledge during the pretest. The mean knowledge score was 15.33 ± 4.003 and 24.67 ± 5.384 in pre-test and post-test respectively. There was a significant difference in pre-test and post-test knowledge scores regarding the management of extravasation of chemotherapeutic drugs. Conclusion: The Study concluded that the structured teaching program was significantly effective in improving the knowledge regarding the management of extravasation of chemotherapeutic drugs among nurses.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a serious long-term condition with a major impact on the lives and well-being, of societies worldwide. Poor disposal practices of devices potentially result in personal injury and injuries to people in the household and the general community. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and self-reported practice of insulin injection device disposal and associated factors among diabetes patients in TASH, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 182 adults with diabetes. The study participants were selected through systematic random sampling. Data were collected from March/17/2020 - May/18/2020. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi-data version 4. 6 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression with crude and adjusted odds ratios along with the 95% confidence interval was computed and interpreted accordingly. Good practice and adequate knowledge were defined based on median calculation; a result above the median value of good practice and adequate knowledge with a p - value < 0.05 was considered to declare a result as statistically significant.Results: About 54% of the participants had inadequate knowledge about safe insulin injection waste disposal. More than two-thirds (73%) of respondents had poor practice and 92.3% of respondents did not know how to dispose of lancets after use.Conclusion: This study revealed that the knowledge and practice of diabetic patients were inadequate and poor towards safe insulin injection waste disposal in the study area. Educating patients and awareness creation training on proper insulin injection device disposal should be considerable. 

Alcohol drinking habit is a serious epidemic that afflicts people worldwide regardless of socioeconomic class and the country’s development or civilization. The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize research findings on drinking and driving, its implications for Nigerian society, and the role forensic science can play in drunk driving. Nigeria, in particular has seen a lot of fatal accidents attributed to alcohol but due to a lack of forensic sobriety and toxicology drug tests at the crash scene that is not yet in place in the country, the offenders are not punished for this crime. The only two African countries that have legislation on Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) are South Africa and Zimbabwe. Nigeria has no such legislation and does not conduct such tests in injury and fatal accident cases. The prevalence of drinking habits among Nigerians and in particular the drivers cannot be ignored. This study examined global drinking habits including its prevalence in Nigeria and more importantly understudied the need for forensic science interplay in a criminal investigation against drunk driving in the country. Drunk driving in Nigeria is a serious problem. Establishing and enforcing drunken driving laws as a criminal offense would assist the country in the reduction of road accidents, injuries, and fatalities relating to road accidents. Forensic science is a unique field that is equipped with skills and knowledge that could be useful for criminal investigation in the country including accident cases. Forensic scientists have outstanding technical skills to identify, detect, and even assist the country’s prosecutors in the administration of justice in crime investigations. Nigeria as a country will be well served if forensic scientists work in partnership with the government. Drinking and driving in addition to other crimes has become a matter of concern. The country’s police force and courts still rely mostly on eyewitness circumstantial evidence, testimonies, and suspects’ confessions. Based on this, I personally believe that the advent of Forensic science in the country’s system will assist a great deal in solving crimes and reducing fatal accidents due to drunk driving.

The stomatognathic apparatus is currently understood as a complex functional unit in its muscular, skeletal, dental, and neurological parts; in particular, it is now commonly acknowledged that the craniofacial district is connected to the type of occlusion not only functionally but also morphologically. Occlusion is the result of the adaptation of dental organs that can adapt through the periodontium and cranial bones through sutures, with the “neurological direction” of the function and tone of the perioral, lingual, and craniocervical muscles

In the long run people around the globe particularly those who live in underdeveloped Countries in Africa, especially in Ethiopia a large number of communities has a misconception that disease may be transmitted by utilizing health service due to a lack of trust in health service delivery system, Most of the population strongly related with religion, they claimed that it is sin or God or Allah driven. According to a health behavior model, knowledge and practice are contributing factors for increasing healthcare seeking among patients with low levels of trust [1,2]. 

The terms urotherapy and urotherapist are often mentioned in the literature, but their origins and meanings are less well-known. Objective: To describe the background and development of the concept of urotherapy in pediatric care and the profession of urotherapist.Methods: Data has been searched for in Medline PubMed and selection has been limited to papers important for the purpose.Results: Understanding of urinary bladder function was developed in the 1970’s, mainly due to new urodynamic methods opened up for possible treatment options. Standard urotherapy is a concept developed in the 1980’s and aims to treat dysfunction by helping the patient to learn to understand bladder function and then practice certain techniques in order to normalize it. To succeed, guidance and support are needed from a skilled urotherapist. In Scandinavian and German-speaking countries, quality-assured training for urotherapists at the university level is available.Conclusion: Urotherapy standard therapy is a non-invasive treatment recommended as the first-choice treatment for lower urinary tract disorders. However, we must have requirements as to what knowledge a urotherapist needs to have, and training has to be certified and be at the university level.

Hyperglycemia due to abnormalities in insulin production, insulin action, or both characterizes the metabolic disorders known collectively as diabetes [1]. 

The problems of guaranteeing the best possible social and health services in every part of the world to combat any form of disability and limitation of participation for all, as indicated by international ethical-political documents, are still very great. A critical point that could favour this progress is to enhance the integration between the growing potential of rehabilitation science (medical and clinical evidence, technologies, and training of numerous operators..) and the ability of communities as a whole to stimulate, support and qualify these interventions with the participation of citizens (families, neighbours and associations) who can voluntarily actively carry out important synergistic actions in many fields. This could develop in any socio-economic condition; in developed ones supporting and finalizing any treatment in common life and in developing countries offering competencies and knowledge to the strong funding actions of community projects aimed at populations with disabilities in this part of the World. The community of rehabilitation professionals, national governments and rulers, and international institutions (UN, WHO..) must well understand this aspect and make it their own in training, in the definition of care protocols, in the definition of the organization of socio-health and rehabilitation systems in each country in relation to the different local economic and cultural conditions.

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding has great benefits for both the mother and the child. Few studies have been carried out on interventions to improve Exclusive Breastfeeding (EBF) practice by childbearing mothers. No study has formulated and/or implemented a hospital-based maternal counseling guide intervention to improve EBF practice. This baseline study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of EBF on mothers who were enrolled in antenatal clinics for a cluster randomized trial and the disparity in the knowledge of EBF based on lactation, age, sex, and source of income.Methods: We formulated a hospital-based counseling guide on exclusive breastfeeding, which is under implementation by prenatal and nursing mothers, to promote EBF practice in the study area. A cross-sectional study was conducted in two hospitals randomly selected from twelve hospitals in Anambra State. The study was among pregnant women who were in their second trimester. The data collection took place from March to April 2022. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square. The test of significance was set at p < 0.05.Results: The control and the intervention arms had an equal number of enrolees (144) each and more than half of the participants were between the ages of 23 – 32 years. The majority of the participants showed adequate knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding as over 90% knew that EBF is important and capable of improving their baby's immunity. The participants demonstrated a positive attitude to exclusive breastfeeding and they had a significantly high level of practice of daily consumption of galactagogues. The study suggested that the majority did not practice breast milk extraction mainly because the process of extraction is painful and some do not know how to carry out the extraction.Conclusion: The mothers have the requisite knowledge of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding to their infants and themselves. However, they do not practice EBF. Interventions to improve EBF practice should focus on educating mothers on proper breast milk extraction and storage techniques.

Proper feeding practices at an early age are the key to improving a child’s overall health and achieving developmental milestones. In Bangladesh, a large portion of rural girls become mothers before the age of 18. Past records show that most interventions are designed to improve infant and young child feeding practices targeting older mothers. That is why, this study has been designed with an aim to explore the perceptions and practices of infant and young children feeding among rural Bangladeshi mothers aged <19 years old. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and group discussions with a total of 40 adolescent mothers who have children aged 0-3 years. Data has revealed that the majority of the mothers hold very limited knowledge of nutrition and child nutrition but those who are educationally a bit ahead hold a little better knowledge. Participants are aware of breastfeeding but they all misinterpret the term ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ with other liquid food. It has also emerged that most of the mothers know the ideal timing of starting complementary feeding but very few of them actually understand what to feed children. In spite of having misconceptions and superstation rural adolescent mothers practice responsive feeding instead of force-feeding. No gender discrimination has been found regarding child feeding. The findings of the study pinpointed that mothers are unable to practice proper infant and child feeding due to a lack of knowledge and limited affordability. Educating girls & young mothers and improving financial security could be an effective way to promote improved infant feeding practices.

The well-documented therapeutic potential of group singing for patients living with Alzheimer’s disease (PLAD) has been hindered by COVID-19 restrictions, exacerbating loneliness and cognitive decline among seniors in residential and long-term care centers (CHSLDs). Addressing this challenge, the multidisciplinary study aims to develop a patient-oriented virtual reality (XR) interaction system facilitating group singing for mental health support during confinement and enhancing the understanding of the links between Alzheimer’s disease, social interaction, and singing. The researchers also propose to establish an early AD detection system using voice, facial, and non-invasive biometric measurements and validate the efficacy of selected intervention practices. The methodology involves co-designing an intelligent environment with caregivers to support PLAD mental health through online group singing, addressing existing constraints in CHSLDs. The researchers will engage volunteers in remote singing interactions and validate the impact of voice stimulation for PLADs using a control group. The primary expected outcome is the development of an “Intelligent Learning Health Environment,” fostering interactions while adapting to individual PLAD situations and incrementally accumulating knowledge on AD signs. This environment will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technologies to promote non-verbal interactions via singing, enabling intervention at the first symptoms. Additionally, the research will contribute to transforming CHSLDs’ living environments, informed by neuroscience insights, and potentially extend the “collaborative self-care” approach to support seniors in aging safely and healthily at home.

Introduction: Nursing theories are critical as they drive nursing education, practice, and research. Neuman Systems Model (NSM) considers a person a complete system with integrated psychological, physiological, spiritual, social, and developmental components. Nurses give their patients physical, emotional, and psychological assistance and are subjected to mental and physical pressure due to these responsibilities, impacting their health, psychological well-being, and interpersonal relationships. This paper aims to perform a concept analysis of stressors proposed in NSM about lines of defense and the level of preventive interventions that can affect a person’s well-being. Further, this paper discusses knowledge generation through NSM’s applicability to preventing exhaustion and burnout among nurses. Methodology: This theoretical attempt is carried out using the theory analysis approach suggested by Walker and Avant (2019).Discussion: Nursing is a career that requires a great deal of dedication and personal engagement. Nurses are subjected to recurrent stresses due to technological advances and rising demands. Burnout occurs when nurses get discouraged and have less compassion for the patients due to recurrent burdens. Stress and burnout are two of the most common reasons for nurses to quit hospitals. The NSM is concerned with stresses that may affect a person’s health and well-being (prediction). Nurses assist patients at the most vulnerable and challenging times, such as surgical procedures, traumas and personal and physical losses.Conclusion: The NSM enables the investigation of preventative and protective treatments. Because of the model’s flexibility, it may be used in a wide range of nursing situations. Administrative, hospitals, clinics, and other nurses can benefit from this paradigm. Evaluating the many distinct elements contributing to burnout is also feasible. The model’s client factors of physiological, sociocultural, developmental, and spiritual characteristics are used to achieve this. Viewing the individual as an open system that responds to environmental stimuli encourages the existence of stressors that might lead to burnout.

Background: Early childhood caries may develop as soon as teeth erupt. Promoting oral health care programs is very important and helps to reduce dental caries in young children. The aim of this study was to assess the infant/child oral health (IOH) related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of parents in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 327 parents. Visiting the family medicine center at prince sultan military medical city, Riyadh Saudi Arabia. A 39-item questionnaire covering socio-demographic characteristics and questions pertaining to KAP regarding OH care will be used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics, Student’s t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and Scheffe’s test will use for the statistical analysis (p ≤ 0.05). Results: The result showed that the majority of the parents had good knowledge regarding OH, knowledge of cleaning (92.4.%), and knowledge of the amount of sugar (88.1.%). the parent’s age group (30 to 39) years (n =147) reported the highest mean (knowledge, attitudes, and practice) scores among all other age groups with a knowledge mean score of (6.80 ± 1.73), an attitude mean score of (8.86 ± 1.37), and a practice mean score of (5.14 ± 1.86).  Female parents showed significantly higher mean knowledge, attitude, and practice scores than male parents. In addition, the middle-income level parents’ group (n = 295) reported higher knowledge mean score compared to the low-income parents’ group (n = 15) with a mean difference of d = 1.15, p = .041.  Conclusion: Parents’ knowledge about maintaining oral and dental health care for infants/children was inadequate. Essentially, medical professionals are the initial ones to interact with expecting and new moms. Therefore, need to raise parents’ awareness about oral and dental health for infants/children, through the development and implementation of long-term education and promotions programs.

Stress, pain, injuries, and errors in dental procedures are situations highly linked to dentistry derived from multiple factors making this profession a profession with high physical and mental demand to achieve quality treatment without deteriorating the health of those who perform it, in this case, the dentist, the assistant, and hygienist.The effects of wrong postures, but above all, the lack of knowledge of the proper postures, the modeling of bad habits acquired during the training stage in dental school, and the lack of work guidelines that not only take into account the dentist but also to all the work staff and the methodological organization of dental tasks can be found in the scientific literature.Magnification devices are known to improve vision, precision, and ergonomics in dentistry; advances in the area of ​​high magnification in dentistry are taking place by leaps and bounds. In recent years, a new magnification loupes design has appeared on the market, called ergonomic magnification loupes appeared that stands out from conventional Galilean and Keplerian through the lens (TTL) Flip-up loupes in terms of their postural benefits and is part of the arsenal of magnification loupes to consider in the market.The postural approach of high magnification equipment is necessary for professional practice, where the design of Ergonomic magnification loupes with consideration not only for magnification but also for the operator’s postural health which can have a significant impact on the performance and overall health of the dentist and hygienist, more if incorporated from the beginning of dental school education and training.

Introduction: Myopia is a refractive disorder commonly diagnosed in childhood that follows a progressive course. It is considered a global epidemic with nearly 23% of the world’s population being diagnosed with this condition. Moreover, myopia is increasing in prevalence worldwide, demonstrated by studies in Asian and Western populations. This has important implications as myopic progression to high myopia is associated with significant morbidity and visual disability if left untreated. Of these treatments, the pharmacologic agent atropine has demonstrated the greatest efficacy in reducing myopia progression.Case report: This is a case report of an 11-year-old male treated with 0.01% atropine drops for myopia progression that developed new-onset seizures. The seizures were characterized as benign epilepsy with central temporal spikes and ceased when drops were discontinued. Discussion: Atropine 1% drops have previously been associated with new or increased seizure activity in a handful of case reports, however, it is our knowledge that this is the first report associated with 0.01% drops. This is important given the growing use of 0.01% drops as well as higher concentrations such as 0.025 % and 0.05% for the treatment of pediatric myopia. Conclusion: While it cannot be proven that the drops were causative in the seizure events, it is important to consider prior seizures as a relative contraindication to the use of these drops.  Atropine has the potential to exacerbate seizure activity, so it is possible that the 0.01% atropine drops played a role in the patient’s seizures. Also, any diagnosis of new-onset seizures in pediatric patients should prompt discontinuation of drops at seizure onset.

A detailed knowledge of the drying properties of blood is important for a more complete understanding of the forensic information that may exist at a crime location. Although the effect of relative humidity on the general properties of blood drying has been evaluated, relatively little information exists regarding the alterations of blood serum distribution that may occur during the drying process. Moreover, the influence of humidity on the ability of dried blood drops to transfer from skin to absorbent material has never been studied. The data in the current report show that blood serum pattern formation is distinctly altered by increased humidity in drying drops of blood. In addition, these data document that high humidity conditions were sufficient to remoisten dried blood drops such that they were able to transfer to the absorbent material, with the original bloodstain pattern maintained.

The global pandemic COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, affected millions of people. COVID-19 is known for its respiratory symptoms, but new research reveals it may also affect other organ systems, including the liver. This abstract reviews COVID-19 and liver function. The virus enters host cells through liver-expressed angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. Thus, viral infection and replication may target the liver. Virus-induced inflammation and cytokine production may also harm the liver. ALT and AST elevations are the most prevalent liver abnormalities in COVID-19 patients. Liver function test abnormalities frequently indicate serious illness and poor clinical outcomes. COVID-19 may worsen pre-existing liver diseases such as NAFLD and chronic viral hepatitis. Drug-induced liver damage (DILI) from COVID-19 therapies including antivirals and corticosteroids complicates liver complications care. Recent investigations have also shown that COVID-19 may cause long-term liver damage. In conclusion, COVID-19 infection, immune-mediated damage, and treatment problems may severely compromise liver function. Optimizing patient treatment and discovering targeted medicines requires understanding COVID-19's liver role. To reduce the effects of COVID-19 on liver function, further study is required to understand the mechanisms and long-term effects.