Fatality in a body packer: the first reported case in Saudi Arabia

Background Body packers use different methods and materials to pack drugs inside their bodies. These could be simple or sophisticated to ensure a successful transfer or concealment of the drug with minimal risk to the packer. Different drugs were reported with cocaine and heroin being the most common. The packer presents to health facilities whenever they develop complications like drug leakage or intestinal obstruction, or they can be detected after a fatal event as an incidental finding in autopsy. Case presentation A body packer who was in detention suffered pain and died shortly after that. The autopsy not only revealed severe coronary atherosclerosis but also unveiled 10 rubber packages filled with methamphetamine and cannabis, and one package was found ruptured in the mouth. Toxicological analysis showed a blood level of methamphetamine 3.66 mg/L which was considered a cause of death. While methamphetamine was reported in cases of body packers, cannabis is rarely concealed by body packers for several reasons including its cost compared to the risk of packing. Conclusions This is the first reported case of fatality in body packers in Saudi Arabia and Arab countries. This should put into consideration the need for screening suspicious cases who are involved or suspected to be involved with drugs. Effective screening in specific facilities is needed to reduce fatalities and at the same time lowering drug smuggling.

Theoretical Foundations: Reflexive Governance, EU Enlargement Process, and Non-Discrimination

Chapter 2 reviews explanatory models of rule adoption of Europeanization, policy transfer, and diffusion literature, and the conditions they identify for a successful transfer of norms and ideas. It argues that the external incentives model might best explain the likelihood of rule adoption but if the ultimate goal is that rules are applied and enforced, learning-based approaches have to be strengthened in the enlargement process. Different approaches to reflexive governance, from collaborative-relational to experimentalist, pragmatist, and genetic approaches, all focusing in different ways on the conditions required for a learning process to be successful, are presented claiming that they offer ideas that merit closer study to establish their potential in improving the performance in the EU enlargement process and beyond. The hypothesis is that reflexive governance is well suited to improve compliance and reduce likelihood of backsliding as it captures all the actors involved in framework regulation as is the case of the transposition of binding directives. To test the plausibility of the hypothesis, a case study on Croatia with a focus on the equality acquis is carried out by means of process tracing. This showed that while the argument could be partly confirmed, there is also a need for more consistent and transparent monitoring, which could be achieved by the use of indicators. Furthermore, pooling of results and the drawing of conclusions from such results, which is decisive for the success of a reflexive governance system, is given too little attention. The subsequent chapters thus set out to make a contribution to these identified lacunae.

Procedures for Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Murine Microbiome Studies

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been widely recognized as an approach to determine the microbiome’s causal role in gut dysbiosis-related disease models and as a novel disease-modifying therapy. Despite potential beneficial FMT results in various disease models, there is a variation and complexity in procedural agreement among research groups for performing FMT. The viability of the microbiome in feces and its successful transfer depends on various aspects of donors, recipients, and lab settings. This review focuses on the technical practices of FMT in animal studies. We first document crucial factors required for collecting, handling, and processing donor fecal microbiota for FMT. Then, we detail the description of gut microbiota depletion methods, FMT dosages, and routes of FMT administrations in recipients. In the end, we describe assessments of success rates of FMT with sustainability. It is critical to work under the anaerobic condition to preserve as much of the viability of bacteria. Utilization of germ- free mice or depletion of recipient gut microbiota by antibiotics or polyethylene glycol are two common recipient preparation approaches to achieve better engraftment. Oral-gastric gavage preferred by most researchers for fast and effective administration of FMT in mice. Overall, this review highlights various methods that may lead to developing the standard and reproducible protocol for FMT.

Multiple Health Behavior Programs in School Settings: Strategies to Promote Transfer-of-Learning Through Life Skills Education

Typically, schools implement health promotion programs that focus on a single behavioral domain. Multiple related health topics may be addressed using separate interventions, potentially producing overlap in program content. However, integrative approaches in health promotion have the potential to produce interventions capable of improving multiple health behaviors. In particular, more research is needed to identify the conditions and the factors that can promote the transfer of learning to broaden the target outcomes of health promotion programs. The present study aims to identify the characteristics of an evidence-based life skills education program that can facilitate the transfer of learning to different health behaviors not initially targeted by the program, and the strategies for achieving successful transfer. A two round Delphi method was used with a diverse group of 21 experts in health promotion, life skills education, and methods of pedagogy for early adolescent students. Questionnaires with open and closed-ended questions were administered on-line. Content qualitative analysis was run, integrating codes, subcategories, and categories of the two rounds of the study. Results showed strong consensus among experts about the potential for promoting the transfer of skills from one health domain to another. Many elements were identified as important factors that facilitate the transfer of learning. Strategies for successful transfer were related to teaching methods, educational approaches, and consistency with the broader school curriculum. Findings suggest that the successful transfer of learning to a new health domain requires that educators recognize its importance and explicitly designate it as an educational aim.

Business Succession

This article deals with the key factors of a successful company handover. The aim is to use a qualitative content analysis to determine which factors are relevant to this project. The research question is therefore: ‘What are the success factors for a successful transfer of the company?’. This article relates to seven factors that are relevant to this. This issue is of great economic importance. It is a question of preparing the transfer of the company for the employees, the outgoing shareholders, the incoming shareholders, the coordination on the size and payment method of the purchase price, the drafting of contracts, the inheritance situation, and the preparation of a company concept with a timetable. Of course, in the end, implementation is also presented based on these factors.

SOME ASPECTS OF FORMATION OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AT FUTURE TEACHERS OF PHYSICS

Профессиональная компетентность учителя физики является основой для успешной передачи предметных знаний учащимся вне зависимости от избранной формы преподавания. Всесторонняя осведомленность в данной предметной области позволит учителю самостоятельно решать разнообразные задачи, разрабатывать и применять методические приемы исходя из возникшей дидактической ситуации и особенностей учащихся. В настоящей статье был проанализирован процесс формирования профессиональной компетентности будущего учителя физики с целью определения его ключевых особенностей, условий, способствующих его ускорению, а также возможных трудностей, с которыми может столкнуться практикующий специалист, стремящийся повысить собственную компетентность в области преподаваемой дисциплины. С учетом вышесказанного в статье приведена характеристика структуры профессиональной компетентности учителя физики. С этой целью в статье были представлены краткие результаты эмпирического исследования, проведенного среди студентов физико-математического факультета, направленного на определение степени сформированности профессиональной компетнтности. Заключительные выводы содержат описание уровневой характеристики профессиональной компетентности будущего учителя физики. Таким образом, профессиональная компетентность будущего учителя физики есть интегрированная способность личности педагога-физика. Professional competence of a Physics teacher is the basis for the successful transfer of subject knowledge to students regardless of the chosen form of teaching. Comprehensive awareness in this subject area will allow the teacher to independently solve various problems, develop and apply methodological techniques based on the didactic situation that has arisen and the characteristics of the students. In this article, the process of formation of professional competence of a future Physics teacher was analyzed in order to determine its key features, conditions contributing to its acceleration, as well as possible difficulties that a practicing specialist who seeks to improve his own competence in the field of the taught discipline may face. Taking into account the above, the article presents the characteristics of the structure of the professional competence of a Physics teacher. For this purpose, the article presents brief results of an empirical study conducted among students of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, aimed at determining the degree of formation of professional competence. The final conclusions contain a description of the level characteristics of the professional competence of a future Physics teacher. Thus, the professional competence of a future Physics teacher is an integrated ability of the teacher’s personality.

Analysis of Factors Influencing Technology Transfer: A Structural Equation Modeling Based Approach

Technology transfer is one of the facets of academic entrepreneurship and acts as a vital element of the innovation system. It forms a sustainable link between research and business communities. A holistic model for successfully transferring technology in developing countries is an unmet need in the context of technology transfer from public-funded academic research institutions to small and medium enterprises. In this work, we developed a conceptual model and undertook an empirical study for the determinants of successful transfer. A questionnaire was prepared and administered to key stakeholders involved in technology transfer. Overall, 321 respondents participated in the survey with congener demography. The conceptualized input factors, viz. micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level factors, are significantly interrelated. The contribution of input factors towards the successful transfer of technology was extensively analyzed and tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling. The results show that the model is a good fit. The study revealed that communication, innovativeness, knowledge, quality of the product, and motivation were the five most important factors for successfully transferring technology.