ABSTRACT
Education is one of the crucial and potentially the most important factor that drive wellbeing and development of societies;it's a strong tool for fighting poverty, gender inequality, unemployment and improving standard of living. It's considered a basic human right, therefor, the fourth sustainable development goal in the united nations blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all, calls for access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities by 2030. However, given the rapid expansion of information and communications technologies (ICTs) applications and the internet, the traditional education view will soon be outdated and replaced by a new world order. The recent COVID pandemic exposed major limitations in the traditional education view and it's rigid dependence on physical presence and facilities, nevertheless, it also shed the light on the potentials of utilizing information and communication technologies and Internet of things (IoT) concepts to revamp the educational sector. The main purpose of this paper is to conduct a technology foresight for education services in next 9 years until the year 2030 and to provide recommendations for investments in specific emerging technologies. In this study environmental scanning, focus groups, brainstorming and scenarios techniques are used as the primary foresight's methods. Four Scenarios for the future of education in 2030 were proposed: Schooling Extended scenario, Education outsourced scenario, Schools as learning hubs Scenario and learn as you go scenario. Copyright © 2021 by Naudé Scribante. Permission granted to IAMOT to publish and use.
ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Self-medication is defined as using drugs without doctor prescription, whether it is modern or traditional treatment through different sources that allowed them to take these medications individually. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers self-medication as a serious problem. This study aimed to explore the prevalence and the association of self-medication among the population in Medina. The study also aimed to know the resources, reasons, knowledge, and other aspects of self-medication. Methods: This is a community-based cross-sectional study has been conducted in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The duration of study was one year. The sample includes 281 participants. An online questionnaire has been designed to reach the research goals. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 has been used to analyze the collected data. The research used texts, tables, and graphs to present the statistical data. Results: The study showed that (58%) of the participants practiced self-medication. The most common reasons for using self-medications are having an old recipe (33.1%), or to save time (33.1%). The most common symptom for using self-medication is headache (70.6%). The most used medicine in self-medication is analgesics (42.9%). Most of the participants received information about the medicines from the drug leaflet (45.4%). Conclusion: Self-medication is a serious problem. The prevalence of self-medication is less in this study comparing to other studies around the world. More attention and protocols may help to reduce the prevalence.
ABSTRACT
Background: The global pandemic of coronavirus has resulted in it causing several respiratory diseases. The mild common cold like illness is one of the major symptoms that represents the clinical presentation of the respiratory infection. Some patients can be asymptomatic while some might have characteristic symptoms in the form of coughs, dyspnoea, and fever. Mostly it affects people aged between 30 to 79 years. Major risk factors are people residing or travelling in the areas where risk of transmission is quite high, old age, and presence of comorbidities. The origin of the virus was linked to the Southern China's Huanan wet market in Huanan. The pathophysiology has not yet been understood properly but the exudative diffuse alveolar is considered as the major reason behind the deaths due to respiratory failure. In order to control the spread there are four different ways currently: quarantine the contact for at least 14 days, screening of travellers, drive-through screening centres, and temperature screening. Isolation, infection management, and symptom management can be the most useful therapeutic approaches. Methodology: During this research, the systematic review has been done by referring to several studies that showed the data related to the diagnostic and therapeutic approach against Covid-19. During the research it has been-ensured that only the data from thighly qualified authors was used to determine the effective diagnostic and therapeutic options of Covid-19. The inclusion criteria were articles available in English language, the most recent and highly rated studies, and articles having statistics. The exclusion criteria were data which is available without clear statistics, articles other than those in the English language, data of high risk and low quality, and the data not able to provide the basic diagnostic and therapeutic options of Covid-19. It has been ensured that the quality of data should be maintained in order to establish quality research. Discussion: Covid-19 diagnostic options are oral and nasal PCR, rapid diagnostic test, serologic test, plain X-rays, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT scanning, ultrasonography, and nuclear scanning. The therapeutic options are pharmacological drugs (like chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, corticosteroids, sirolimus, tocilizumab), airway assistance ventilation, and vaccination. Conclusion: Covid-19 is on the verge of constant increase and is impacting many people around the globe. Currently, there is no proper treatment for covid-19 as a result of which everyday preventive actions and vaccination are the best things that an individual can do in order to prevent the spread of covid-19.