Perception on Online Teaching and Learning Among Health Sciences Students in Higher Education Institutions during the COVID-19 Lockdown - Ways to Improve Teaching and Learning in Saudi Colleges and Universities.

Background: Online learning or E-learning are approaches to broadcasting teaching by the means of internet technology and software applications. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is likewise embarking on the rapid growth in online education. The purpose of this study is to investigate the student's perceptions regarding online teaching and learning during COVID 19. Methods: An online computer-based cross-sectional study was conducted between May and June 2020. A pre-validated questionnaire was used and administrated to health sciences students studying at Dammam Universities through online software QuestionPro. Results: Out of total 281, 68% of the participants were females (n=188) while 31.9% (n=88) were male students with an average age of 23.1(4.5) years. Overall, 176 (62%) of the students expressed their satisfaction with online learning. Conclusion: Findings will help academicians to identify strengths, areas of improvement, and encourage faculty to think deeply to restructure course learning objectives, teaching techniques to engage students and improve learning process.

Isolation of Bioactive Phenazine-1-Carboxamide from the Soil Bacterium Pantoea agglomerans and Study of Its Anticancer Potency on Different Cancer Cell Lines.

The study was designed to investigate the anticancer effect of phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN) isolated from the bacterium Pantoea agglomerans naturally present in soil. PCN showed cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner, and inhibitory concentrations on the cancer cell lines A549, HeLa, and SW480 were between 32 and 40 µM. Significantly increased concentrations of lactate dehydrogenase were found with increasing concentrations of PCN, which resulted in increased destruction of the cancer cell membrane. A significantly increased p53 level was accompanied by the increased production of cytochrome c protein in all cancer cell lines studied. This condition in cells leads to the overexpression of caspase 3 and Bcl-2 family proteins. Upregulation and downregulation of proapoptotic and antiproapoptotic proteins were analyzed for their messenger RNA and protein expression. The activation of caspases and their cleavage compounds paves the way for the complete apoptosis process in cancer cells. We conclude that P. agglomerans-derived PCN acts as an effective anticancer drug or compound.