Retraction: Lipoma of the Pancreas: A Rare Incidental Tumor.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.20122.].

Impact of external accreditation on students' performance: Insights from a full accreditation cycle.

Background: The process of external academic accreditation involves quality control and auditing measures that focus on the design, delivery, and outcomes of education. It is a demanding and disruptive process in terms of effort, time, money, and human resources. Nevertheless, the extent to which external quality assurance and accreditation procedures affect students' performance at the end of the learning cycle has not been well studied thus far. Methods: A retrospective quantitative secondary data analysis was conducted in The King Saud University (KSU) undergraduate medical program, with a before-after comparison research design to assess the impact of external accreditation on students' mean grade scores during an accreditation cycle. Results: Overall, the data pertaining to 1090 students who attended 32,677 examination encounters were included in the analysis. The pre- and post-accreditation analysis revealed a statistically significant improvement in the students' mean scores-80 ± 9 (pre) versus 87 ± 11 (post), with a p-value of (p = 0.003) and a Cohen's d value of 0.591. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference in the students' mean passing percentages-96 ± 5 (pre) versus 96 ± 9 (post), with a p-value of (p = 0.815) and a Cohen's d value of 0.043. Conclusion: The actions involved in the planning phase and the journey through the self-study evaluation not only verify the program's competencies but also functioned as critical boosters for quality improvement processes and, hence, students' learning experiences.

Knowledge, attitude and practice about osteoporosis among young adults in RIYADH 2019.

Objectives: To study the knowledge, attitude and practice level among young Saudi adults regarding osteoporosis. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done in Riyadh among Saudis, within the age group (17-30 years old), with sample size (663). A validated questionnaire was distributed in paper and electronic forms. The questionnaire had five parts: first part was the demographic variables, second part the source of the participant knowledge about the disease, third part assessed the knowledge about osteoporosis, fourth part assessed osteoporosis attitudes, and the fifth part assessed the practice for prevention of osteoporosis. The collected data was analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program. Results: It was found that there was low level of knowledge among overall participants; there was no significant difference between male and female in level of knowledge, while the age group 21-25 had the highest knowledge level among all other age groups. Males have better level of practice of a healthy lifestyle that decreases the risk of osteoporosis than females. In total, 52.5% of males have a sufficient level of practice, while only 34.9% of females have acceptable level of practice. Conclusion: The study found no significant difference between males and females regarding the knowledge of osteoporosis. Males were found to have better level of practice of a healthy lifestyle that decreases the level of osteoporosis then females. The study recommends similar studies and undertake more efforts in promotion of preventive programs for young adults.

Lipoma of the Pancreas: A Rare Incidental Tumor.

Recent studies have shown a significant increase in the utilization of computed tomography (CT) scans in the emergency department for a broad spectrum of conditions. This had a significant impact on the identification of patients with serious pathologies in a timely manner. However, the overutilization of computed tomography scans leads to increased identification of incidental findings. For example, pancreatic lesions are not uncommon findings that can be identified in imaging studies performed for other indications. Here, we report the case of a 55-year-old male with a history of urinary stone disease who presented with right flank pain and dysuria. The urinalysis findings revealed numerous red blood cells and leukocytes. Non-contrast computed tomography scan of the abdomen was performed to detect urinary stones, but no hyperdense stones were noted, suggesting the possibility of spontaneous passage of the stone. However, a lesion in the pancreatic tail was observed. This exhibited fat attenuation with no solid component in the pancreatic tail representing a pancreatic lipoma. No surgical intervention was made considering the benign nature of the incidentally detected tumor. Pancreatic lipoma is a very rare benign mesenchymal tumor of the pancreas. Recognition of the classic radiological feature of pancreatic lipoma is essential to avoid unnecessary investigation and procedures.

On the feasibility of small communities wellhead RO treatment for nitrate removal and salinity reduction.

The feasibility of wellhead water treatment in small communities for nitrate removal and salinity reduction via a flexible high recovery RO system was evaluated through analysis of treatment options, laboratory and onsite field tests. In small remote communities that rely on septic systems for residential wastewater treatment, discharge of the RO residual stream (containing nitrate) to the community septic tank is shown to be a feasible option. It is demonstrated that RO treatment with a system that employs partial concentrate recycle, integrated with a pressure intensifier, enabled the use of a relatively low-pressure feed pump while allowing high recovery operation. The approach of integrating RO treatment into existing community small water systems is demonstrated to be suitable for providing effective nitrate removal and salinity reduction over wide range of nitrate and salinity levels, while meeting community water demand and regulatory water quality requirements.

Morphological Characterizations of Four Species of Parallelostrombidium (Ciliophora, Oligotrichia), with a Note on the Phylogeny of the Genus.

The morphology and phylogeny of four oligotrichid ciliates, Parallelostrombidium paraellipticum sp. n., P. dragescoi sp. n., P. jankowskii (Xu et al. 2009) comb. n., and P. kahli (Xu et al. 2009) comb. n., are described or redescribed based on live observation, protargol stained material, and SSU rRNA gene sequences. The new species P. paraellipticum sp. n. is characterized by its obovoidal cell shape, adoral zone composed of 17-21 collar, 9-11 buccal, and two thigmotactic membranelles, and extrusomes attached in one row along the girdle kinety. The new species P. dragescoi sp. n. is distinguished from its congeners by its obovoidal cell shape and a lack of thigmotactic membranelles. Based on ciliary patterns recognizable in the original slides, Omegastrombidium jankowskii Xu et al. 2009 and O. kahli Xu et al. 2009 should be transferred to the genus Parallelostrombidium Agatha 2004. Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rRNA gene sequence data demonstrate that all four new sequences cluster with previously described congeners. The genus Parallelostrombidium is separated into two clusters, suggesting its non-monophyly and probably corresponding to the two subgenera proposed by Agatha and Strüder-Kypke (2014), as well as their morphological difference (cell dorsoventrally flattened vs. unflattened).

A Contribution to the Morphology and Phylogeny of Chlamydodon, with Three New Species from China (Ciliophora, Cyrtophoria).

Three new cyrtophorian ciliates isolated from coastal areas of China were described based on morphological and genetic data. The Chlamydodon mnemosyne-like species Chlamydodon similis sp. n. differs from its congeners mainly by its number of somatic kineties. Chlamydodon oligochaetus sp. n. is distinguished from its congeners mainly by having fewer somatic kineties, and/or an elongated body shape. Chlamydodon crassidens sp. n. is characterized mainly by an inverted triangular body shape, a posteriorly interrupted cross-striated band (5-6 µm wide), and a large cytostome. Moreover, we provided small-subunit (SSU) rDNA sequences of C. similis sp. n. and C. oligochaetus sp. n. Maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) consistently placed C. similis sp. n. as a sister to C. paramnemosyne, but showed different branching position of C. oligochaetus sp. n., which may be due to a low taxon sampling in the Chlamydodontidae and/or an insufficient resolution of the marker gene at species level.