Background: Scientific education aims to be inclusive and to improve students learning achievements, through appropriate teaching and learning. Problem Based Learning (PBL) system, a student centered method, started in the second half of the previous century and is expanding progressively, organizes learning around problems and students learn about a subject through the experience of solving these problems.Objectives:To assess the opinions of undergraduate medical students regarding learning outcomes of PBL in small group teaching and to explore their views about the role of tutors and methods of evaluation. Type of the study: A cross-sectional study.Methods: This study was conducted in Kerbala Medical Colleges among second year students. A self-administered questionnaire was prepared to evaluate the newly applied teaching system. The study analysis included simple descriptive analysis and determining association through t-test, chi square test and regression analysis and using structural equation models to determine simultaneous association between different students’ demographic characteristics and potential predictors using SPSS-20 and Amos software at a significance level of < 0.05.Results:A total of 131 undergraduate medical students participated in the study with a response rate of 94%. The majority (93%) have indicated that PBL strategy contributed effectively to their knowledge development with a similar majority (92%) considering PBL successful new teaching method. About 86% reported that would choose PBL rather than conventional method and also 86% would advise PBL for others. Similarly, high majority indicated that various PBL activities are essential. Regarding the tutors’ role in PBL, the majority (92%) indicated that this role was positive and fundamental. According to two thirds (68%) of participants PBL application in Kerbala Medical college was very good application while a higher majority described various PBL sessions as successful and positive and fundamental role of tutors was stressed by most students.Conclusions: This study highlighted the benefits of soliciting student impressions of effective small group teaching. The students’ emphasized group atmosphere and facilitation skills of tutor in learning.Key words: Problem Based Learning, Medical Education, Small Group Teaching, Team Based Learning, Kerbala Medical College
Biogas is one of the most important sources of renewable energy and is considered as an environment friendly energy source. The major goal of this research is to see if rice husk (Rh) waste and pomegranate peels (PP) waste are suitable for anaerobic digestion and what effect NaOH pre-treatment has on biogas generation. Rice husk and pomegranate peels were tested in anaerobic digestion under patch anaerobic conditions as separate wastes as well as blended together in equal proportions. The cumulative biogas output for the blank test (no pretreatment) was 1923 and 2526 ml, respectively using a single rice husk (Rh) and pomegranate peel (PP) substrates. The 50% rice husk digestion and 50% of pomegranate peels for blank test gave the result 224
... Show MoreWith the World Health Organization reporting over 30,000 deaths and 200,000 to 400,000 new cases annually, visceral leishmaniasis is a serious disease affecting some of the world's poorest people. As drug resistance continues to rise, there is a huge unmet need to improve treatment. Miltefosine remains one of the main treatments for leishmaniasis, yet its mode of action (MoA) is still unknown. Understanding the MoA of this drug and parasite response to treatment could help pave the way for new and more successful treatments for leishmaniasis. A novel method has been devised to study the metabolome and lipidome of
The current study was conductedas a pot experiment to determine the effect of soil texture on biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) of six most efficient local isolates, specified, of Bradyrhizobium. Cowpea (Vignaunguiculata L.), as a legume host crop, was used as a host crop and 15N dilution analysis was used for accurate determination of the amount of N biologically fixed under experimental parameters specified. Soils used are clay loam, sandy clay loam and sandy loam. Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF), in different soil textural classes, was as in the following order: medium texture soil > heavy texture soil > light textured soil. Statistical analysis showed that there is a significant variation in BNF % among six Iraqi isolates in the th
... Show MorePhenol is one of the worst-damaging organic pollutants, and it produces a variety of very poisonous organic intermediates, thus it is important to find efficient ways to eliminate it. One of the promising techniques is sonoelectrochemical processing. However, the type of electrodes, removal efficiency, and process cost are the biggest challenges. The main goal of the present study is to investigate the removal of phenol by a sonoelectrochemical process with different anodes, such as graphite, stainless steel, and titanium. The best anode performance was optimized by using the Taguchi approach with an L16 orthogonal array. the degradation of phenol sonoelectrochemically was investigated with three process parameters: current de
... Show MoreThis research was conducted to measure the safety of heat stable enterotoxin a (STa) produced by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, through studying its toxic effect on mice since it showed a promising effect in reducing the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells. The cytogenetic effect was determined after giving five different doses (100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600)μg/Kg in comparison with negative (phosphate buffer saline / PBS) and positive (mitomycin C/ MMC, at doses of 2 and 5μg/Kg) controls on mouse bone marrow cells by employing the following parameters: mitotic index, chromosomal aberrations and micronucleus, also, the serum level of liver functional enzymes (GOT, GPT, ALP) was recorded. In addition, lethal dose 50 (LD 50) with cert
... Show MoreOne of the most important challenges facing project management at present time is to ensure project accomplishment in spite of the specific restrictions like the specific time the financial resources specialized to do the project ; which require an accurate consideration for time and cost . the modern village project (residential building aspect) is one of the great project that ministry of agriculture is trying to do Wasit governorate it is chosen as the work in this project is dilatory for that is being studied in term of some modern mathematical and scientific methods like critical path method (CPM)which is one of the project management and scheduling methods to know the time needed to accomplish residential building pro
... Show MoreLong-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) mostly associated with renal and hepatic adverse effects, and the adjunct use of compounds with potent protective effects, like silymarin, may be one of the choices to avoid these effects. This project was designed to evaluate the protective effect of silymarin against the suspected renal and hepatic injury induced with long term use of NSAIDs; 220 patients with osteoarthritis were randomized into 5 groups and treated with either silymarin 300mg/day alone, piroxicam 20mg/day alone, meloxicam 15mg/day alone or the combination of each of them with silymarin for 8 weeks. The renal and hepatic functions were evaluated before starting treatment and after 8 weeks including assessm
... Show MorePanax ginseng (PG), one of the most widely used herbal medicines, has demonstrated various beneficial effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer impacts. Naturally occurring ginsenosides in the ginseng plant inhibit cell proliferation and significantly reduce liver damage induced by certain chemicals. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a primary mycotoxin due to its hepatotoxic, immunotoxic, and oncogenic effects in animal models and humans. In this study, we examined the effects of assorted doses of PG aqueous crude extract on the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 1 and 7 (MMP-1 and MMP-7) in the kidney, spleen, and liver of experimental AFB1-exposed mice, using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Mice were orally administered
... Show MoreBackground: Fifteen percent of small for gestational age are small as a result of fetal growth restriction, which could be due to maternal, placental or fetal factors. It is an important clinical problem associated with increase perinatal mortality and morbidity. Leptin is a protein that produced by many tissues including the placenta (syncytiotropholoast). Dysregulation of leptin metabolism may be implicated in preeclampsia and IUGR pathogenesis.
Aim of the study: To study the trend of leptin level alteration in maternal serum and cord blood in pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction and its relation with fetal outcome.
Methods: An Analytic, cross- sectional study conducted in Al-Elwyia Maternity Teaching Hospital and