An-Najah Staff

This paper aims to investigate the potential existence of wadi–aquifer interaction in the 320 km2semi-arid Faria catchment using a tracer-based methodology. Faria catchment is located in the northeastern part of the West Bank and accounts for 6 % of the total West Bank’s area. Surface runoff in the catchment consists mainly from springs discharge, runoff generated from winter storms, untreated wastewater effluent from the eastern part of Nablus City and Al-Faria refugee camp, and the return flow from the adjacent agricultural areas. As such, wadi–aquifer interaction may pose serious pressures on groundwater quality which is the only water source for the agricultural and domestic uses in the area. In this study, and in order to investigate the potential existence of wadi–aquifer interaction in the Faria catchment, a tracer-based experiment was conducted. The experiment was carried out using Uranine as a conservative tracer material. A representative reach of 600 m was chosen and was divided into four equal distances. A concentration curve was plotted at each section (monitoring point) with the help of OTIS (solute transport model for streams and rivers) which was used to calibrate the measured concentration curves. Accordingly, the flow rates were estimated at the different monitoring points. The obtained results proved that transmission losses took place in the wadi bed sediments of the selected reach and with different ratios. The percent loss in the flow rates’ values in the different sections ranged from 4.8 to 68.3 %. It was found that the largest transmission losses took place in the section between the first and the second monitoring points. In conclusion, tracer-based methodology is considered as a modern and innovative technique that was used via this research to understand the nature of the wadi–aquifer interaction in Faria catchment and to quantify it as well.

Palestine is a small newly established state in the Middle East. The objective of this study was to assess the quantity and quality of research output from Palestine after Oslo peace accords. The data used for this study were retrieved from Scopus database (officially known as Sciverse Scopus). Bibliometric analysis was used to identify the pattern of publication, relative growth rate, authorship pattern, collaborative measures, author's productivity, most prolific authors, and most prolific journals. A total of 3,585 published documents were retrieved from Palestine. A steady increase was observed after 2001. The h-index of the retrieved documents was 57. Fifty-three (1.48%) documents were published in Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, whereas 52 (1.45%) and 49 (1.37%) documents were published in Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology and Asian Journal of Chemistry, respectively. Half of the top 20 journals in which Palestinian researchers had published their articles were un-indexed in Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) web of knowledge. The highest number of documents published by a Palestinian researcher was 79. The main subject area of published documents from Palestine was medicine (717; 20.00%), followed by chemistry (551, 15.37%), and engineering (530, 14.78%). The top countries involved in research collaboration with Palestine were the United States (422, 11.70%), followed by Germany (381; 10.71%), and the United Kingdom (208; 5.83%). There was a significant correlation between number of collaborating countries with Palestine in one hand, and quantity and quality of research activity in Palestine on the other hand. The number of collaborating countries with Palestine increased almost ten-fold from 1995 to 2012. Research output from Palestine showed steady growth since the Oslo peace accords. Research output was high from certain scientific disciplines while was lagging from others. Future emphasis on joint research, international collaboration, and publishing in indexed journals is needed.

Aims The main aims of the study were to investigate the prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients with schizophrenia, to compare it with those published in the general population, and to assess significant associations with dysglycemia defined as having either pre-DM or DM.
Methods A cross-sectional study carried out in 4 governmental primary psychiatric healthcare centers in Northern West-Bank, Palestine. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured. The World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for defining pre-DM and DM were used. Dysglycemia was defined as FBG >110 mg/dl.
Results Based on WHO criteria, 27 patients (10.8%) had diabetes and 34 (13.6%) had pre-diabetes. The prevalence of DM in patients with schizophrenia was not significantly higher than that reported in the general population of Palestine. However, the prevalence of pre-DM was significantly higher than that reported in the general population of Palestine. Regression analysis showed that advancing age and abnormal waist circumference were significant predictors of dysglycemia in patients with schizophrenia.
Conclusions This study confirmed the high prevalence of dysglycemia in patients with schizophrenia, supporting the need for monitoring of blood glucose in this category of patients. The presence of primary risk factors is more important in the development of dysglycemia in patients with schizophrenia than exposure to antipsychotic drugs.  

Background: Identifying factors associated with adherence is of great value in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to investigate medication adherence, beliefs about medicines held by people with chronic illness and whether beliefs influence medication adherence. Methods: The study was carried out at primary health care clinic of the Palestinian Medical Military Services in Nablus, Palestine. The beliefs about medicines questionnaire was used to assess beliefs and Morisky medication adherence scale was used to assess adherence.
Results: A total of 187 patients were interviewed. Most participants (79.6%) agreed or strongly agreed that their medications were necessary for their current health. However, 58.2% of the participants were concerned about having to take their medicines on a regular basis and 57.8% were concerned about becoming dependent on their medicines. None of the demographic and clinical variables was significantly associated with medication adherence. However, multivariate analysis showed that patients who had higher beliefs about medication necessity had higher odds (1.107 [1.023-1.197]) of being adherent. On the other hand, patients who had higher concern beliefs had lower odds (0.908 [0.845-0.975]) of being adherent.
Conclusions: Beliefs about medicines are a major contributing factor to medication adherence.

Background: Identifying factors associated with adherence is of great value in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to investigate medication adherence, beliefs about medicines held by people with chronic illness and whether beliefs influence medication adherence. Methods: The study was carried out at primary health care clinic of the Palestinian Medical Military Services in Nablus, Palestine. The beliefs about medicines questionnaire was used to assess beliefs and Morisky medication adherence scale was used to assess adherence.
Results: A total of 187 patients were interviewed. Most participants (79.6%) agreed or strongly agreed that their medications were necessary for their current health. However, 58.2% of the participants were concerned about having to take their medicines on a regular basis and 57.8% were concerned about becoming dependent on their medicines. None of the demographic and clinical variables was significantly associated with medication adherence. However, multivariate analysis showed that patients who had higher beliefs about medication necessity had higher odds (1.107 [1.023-1.197]) of being adherent. On the other hand, patients who had higher concern beliefs had lower odds (0.908 [0.845-0.975]) of being adherent.
Conclusions: Beliefs about medicines are a major contributing factor to medication adherence.

Background: Identifying factors associated with adherence is of great value in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to investigate medication adherence, beliefs about medicines held by people with chronic illness and whether beliefs influence medication adherence. Methods: The study was carried out at primary health care clinic of the Palestinian Medical Military Services in Nablus, Palestine. The beliefs about medicines questionnaire was used to assess beliefs and Morisky medication adherence scale was used to assess adherence.
Results: A total of 187 patients were interviewed. Most participants (79.6%) agreed or strongly agreed that their medications were necessary for their current health. However, 58.2% of the participants were concerned about having to take their medicines on a regular basis and 57.8% were concerned about becoming dependent on their medicines. None of the demographic and clinical variables was significantly associated with medication adherence. However, multivariate analysis showed that patients who had higher beliefs about medication necessity had higher odds (1.107 [1.023-1.197]) of being adherent. On the other hand, patients who had higher concern beliefs had lower odds (0.908 [0.845-0.975]) of being adherent.
Conclusions: Beliefs about medicines are a major contributing factor to medication adherence.

 This paper investigates the use of satellite data for crop area estimation in the northern part of the , . The satellite data were obtained by the SPOT HRV (High Resolution Visible) on . The satellite data were geometrically corrected to the Palestine Grid using 1: 50,000 Israeli topographic maps. The study investigated the ability of SPOT HRV data to produce accurate crop area estimation of the northern part of the that is characterized with small field sizes and complex physical environment. The study area was divided into five strata and training data were selected using field survey, aerial photographs, maps, and interviewing farmers.

A total of twenty-three Echinococcus granulosus hydatid cysts were collected from infected sheep slaughtered in Nablus abattoir, Nablus – Palestine. Protoscoleces or germinal membranes were used for DNA extraction followed by PCR amplification. Amplified products were analyzed the presence of a fragment of 444 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene followed by nucleotide sequencing. Overall, 21 hydatid cysts were positive compared to a negative control. The partial sequences of cox1 gene of E. granulosus strains indicated that the sheep in Palestine were infected with genotype 1 (G1), genotype 2 (G2) and genotype 3 (G3). The prevalence of these genotypes was (14/21) 66.7%, (4/21) 19.0% and (3/21) 14.3% for G1, G2 and G3, respectively. Our results showed that twelve strains of G1 belonged to the common haplotype EG01 which is the major haplotype in all the geographic populations. Phylogenetic analysis also showed that two sequences of G1 genotype which have GenBank accession No. KC109657 and KC109659 were corresponding to G1.4 micro-variants. Only the sequence of GenBank accession No. KC109652 identified in our study as G2 was found to have complete identity to the original sequence described for the cox1 gene (GenBank accession No. M84662). It is concluded that G1 genotype is the predominant genotype in sheep in Palestine. Therefore, these findings should be taken into consideration in developing prevention strategies and control programs for hydatidosis in Palestine.