Search

Abdulrahman S Bazaid,1 Amir Saeed,1,2 Abdulaziz Alrashidi,1 Abdulkarim Alrashidi,1 Khalid Alshaghdali,1 Sahar A Hammam,3 Talal Alreshidi,3 Munif Alshammary,3 Abdullah Alarfaj,1 Rawan Thallab,4 Abdu Aldarhami5 1Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia; 2Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Medical Sciences & Technology, Khartoum, Sudan; 3Ha’il Maternity Hospital, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 5Department of Medical Microbiology, Qunfudah Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-Qunfudah, 28814, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Abdulrahman S BazaidDepartment of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi ArabiaTel +966-165358200Email ar.bazaid@uoh.edu.saObjective: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common infections that require antibiotic intervention. Antibiotic surveillance programs are crucial to assess resistance patterns of microorganisms associated with UTIs and to tailor antibiotic therapy accordingly. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to investigate the prevalence of uropathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in Ha’il region.Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in two main hospitals in Ha’il over a 5-year period (January 2015 to December 2019). Laboratory reports and clinical data of patients with a positive urine culture (≥ 105 CFU/mL) were included in the study.Results: A total of 428 patients were included in this study. The majority of positive cultures belonged to female patients (94.4%), adults (76.9%) and outpatients (74.3%). Generally, Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen (45%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (17%) and Staphylococcus aureus (12%). Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) strains of E. coli (15.7%) and K. pneumoniae (19.7%) showed resistance to most tested antibiotics, while almost all Gram-negative uropathogens including ESBL strains presented low resistance to cefoxitin, imipenem and meropenem. Most strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis were resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (VRE), whereas the activity of linezolid was monitored against almost all different strains of Gram-positive uropathogens.Conclusion: This surveillance study which was conducted over a 5-year period in the Ha’il region revealed that the most common UTI-associated pathogen was E. coli. Based on the current sensitivity profiles obtained from this surveillance, carbapenems and linezolid can be considered as a first therapeutic choice treating UTIs in Ha’il caused by Gram-negative and positive uropathogens, respectively. Frequent targeted surveillance programs for antibiotic-resistant pathogens and their susceptibility profiles are crucial to enable tailored empirical treatment for patients.Keywords: surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, AMR, uropathogens, Saudi Arabia, drug-resistant bacteria

The goal of this study is to determine how online education affects the vocal health of schoolteachers in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. Teachers' phono trauma is well-known as a serious occupational hazard, and online education was the primary mode of delivering instruction to students during COVID-19.This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among teachers in the Eastern Province area of Saudi Arabia. Teachers completed a self-administered questionnaire via an online platform, which included socio-demographic data, academic status, and the Voice Handicap Index-10 questionnaire, which assessed their vocal difficulties.A total of 335 teachers responded to the survey (78.2% females vs. 21.8% males). Nearly half (48.7%) were primary school teachers. 45.7% were currently teaching distance learning. Earphones and microphones (49.3%) were the most commonly used distance learning accessories. Noise in the classroom was a very much disturbing factor in teaching implied by 44.8% of the teachers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the vocal handicap index-10 was significantly higher among females (P = 0.007), primary school teachers (P0.001), moreover those currently teaching distance learning (P = 0.001) and those who perceived that there is more work in distance teaching (P0.001).Compared to in-person teaching, online teaching may have a positive impact on vocal health among Saudi teachers. Of all the teachers, phono trauma tends to be more among females who were primary school teachers, currently teaching distance learning, and those who perceived distance learning to be laborious.

The world is currently experiencing a rude awakening because of the COVID-19 pandemic and in a matter of months businesses averse to trust the benefits of remote working have been compelled to adapt. This advantage has enabled many Human Resource (HR) Professionals to revisit the dreaded topic of flexible working, as the new normal has shown that it is not where you work but the work you produce that matters. Ironically, the age-old question of work-life balance surfaces as individuals search for the purpose of life as the pandemic brings everyone to their knees and philosophically people question what exactly is this balance. For HR Professionals this question is not personal but a matter of their profession in providing companies with a wider lens to understand that in order to remain competitive they need to adapt to change. One of the ways is to develop an open mindset and flexibility to revise their policies on types of flexible working, which offers work-life balance and positively impacts their ability to retain and attract highly skilled talent. This article examines the concept of Digital Nomadism as one of the radical yet realistic ways to achieve work-life balance. Digital Nomadism puts a new spin on work arrangements and is a movement of highly mobile workers who dictate where they work, how they adapt to the demands of work to suit their lifestyle and find balance; with digital technologies. The concept has been around since 2014, the history of nomadism even longer but what is new, and why this subject adds value is the ingenuity of technology, how it makes this way of working a reality and the increasing numbers of digital nomads. The research suggests that approximately several hundred thousand of digital nomads exist throughout the world and numbers continues to rise due to globalization and the need for talent to be flexible with their lifestyles and work. Interestingly, while many companies are convinced of the technological disruptors and how it changes the face of work from a technical perspective, the flexibility of work patterns remains a hard sell in some cases. Consequently, recruiting for talent, employment contracts and the way work is organized, remains the same and lacks flexibility. This limits the opportunity to remain competitive, retain or attract top talent and drive innovation at all angles of the business. This paper will confirm whether the solution to work-life balance is the notion of digital nomadism, detailing how it works, its benefits and issues, with the intention to offer an option to forward thinking companies, reasons to adapt their flexible working policies.

This piece theorises the limitations of transitioning reflection from individualistic to participatory practice. It addresses the question: what are the challenges of introducing crowd-refl...

Fresh cut fruits and vegetables spoiled by number of bacterial pathogens. In this experiment the low cost, nontoxic and pollution free chitosan nanoparticles were prepared in the laboratory level, characterized by FTIR, XRD and SEM and confirmed the presence of nanoparticles. Various concentrations of nanoparticles (10µg, 20µg, 50µg, 100µg and 150µg) were prepared and used to investigated the antibacterial activity against one positive (Bacillus sp) and one negative bacteria (pseudomonas sp) respectively. The results showed that zone of inhibition against Bacillus sp and Pseudomonas sp were noted at 50µg, 100µg and 150µg concentrations respectively. These results suggested that chitosan nanoparticles can be used as effective growth inhibitors for food spoilage microorganisms. It is confirmed that this pollution free low cost technology is suitable for arresting food spoilage bacteria effectively. Hence, the present study indicated that the non-toxic chitosan nanoparticles may be considered as a food preservative. Hence this preliminary study which will create further research in this new field.

T he aim of this study was to analyze the 6th grade science curriculum in Saudi Arabia in terms of the levels of cognitive domain of Bloom‘s Taxonomy. The study was carried out in two units: the materials, and science helps human. The analysis of the textbook was through analyzing words and images. The analyzed data were divided into a number of categories 1- Objectives; 2- New Concepts and Definitions; 3- Illustrative Pictures and Descriptions; 4- Activities; 5- Evaluation. Then, the results of the analysis have been compared with Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy in order to place them into an appropriate level in the Taxonomy. The findings show that the contents of the two units mainly concentrate on the first three levels in the Taxonomy; remembering, understanding, and applying. Unfortunately, there were limited of the two units' contents meet the advanced three levels of the Taxonomy; analyzing, evaluating, and creating.