Objective To determine the attitudes of Egyptian patients regarding their participation in research and with the collection, storage and future use of blood samples for research purposes. Design Cross-sectional survey. Study population Adult Egyptian patients (n=600) at rural and urban hospitals and clinics. Results Less than half of the study population (44.3%) felt that informed consent forms should provide research participants the option to have their blood samples stored for future research. Of these participants, 39.9% thought that consent forms should (...) include the option that future research be restricted to the illness being studied. A slight majority (66.2%) would donate their samples for future genetic research. Respondents were more favourable towards having their blood samples exported to other Arab countries (62.0%) compared with countries in Europe (41.8%, p<0.001) and to the USA (37.2%, p<0.001). Conclusions This study shows that many individuals do not favour the donation of a blood sample for future research. Of those who do approve of such future research, many favour a consent model that includes an option restricting the future research to the illness being studied. Also, many Egyptians were hesitant to have their blood samples donated for genetic research or exported out of the Arab region to the USA and European countries. Further qualitative research should be performed to determine the underlying reasons for many of our results. (shrink)

Ethics issues in the areas of science, technology and medicine have emerged during the last few decades. Many countries have responded by establishing ethics committees at the national level. Identification of National Ethics Committees (NECs) in the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) region and the extent of their functions and capacity would be helpful in developing capacity building programs that address the needs of these committees. Accordingly, we conducted a survey to determine the characteristics of existing NECs in the EM region.

Translated from Arabic, the novels June Rain by Jabbour Douaihy and Dear Mister Kawabata by Rachid El-Daïf constitute a written testimony that allows us to discover the cultural heritage of the Lebanese village Zgharta. The novel of Douaihy is inspired from a historical fact, the massacre of Miziara which has happened in a church. The heroic abaday myth glorified and dethroned at the same time emerges in an authentic context in Juin Rain. However, Douaihy represents a positive divine figure which (...) incarnates the revolt against violence in a holy space. This heroic world is devalorized by the exogenous westernized vision. In fact, El-Daïf denounces violence that he associates to ignorance, rejection of modernization that he links to the resistance of a divine figure in the collective conscience of the villagers. (shrink)

Health Wearable Devices enhance the quality of life, promote positive lifestyle changes and save time and money in medical appointments. However, Wearable Devices store large amounts of personal information that is accessed by third parties without user consent. This creates ethical issues regarding privacy, security and informed consent. This paper aims to demonstrate users’ ethical perceptions of the use of Wearable Devices in the health sector. The impact of ethics is determined by an online survey which was conducted from patients (...) and users with random female and male division. Results from this survey demonstrate that Wearable Device users are highly concerned regarding privacy issues and consider informed consent as “very important” when sharing information with third parties. However, users do not appear to relate privacy issues with informed consent. Additionally, users expressed the need for having shorter privacy policies that are easier to read, a more understandable informed consent form that involves regulatory authorities and there should be legal consequences the violation or misuse of health information provided to Wearable Devices. The survey results present an ethical framework that will enhance the ethical development of Wearable Technology. (shrink)

The roles of educational discourse are evident in the effectiveness of education. It is a comprehensive and influential discourse within the educational institution that goes beyond the concept of educational discourse. Quality education is based on educational discourses as a pillar of achieving educational sustainability. The current study uses discourse analysis methods to highlight the role played by the educational discourse in achieving quality education referred to as the fourth goal of the United Nations to achieve sustainable development. The study (...) takes Qassim University as an applied example, as a university which declared itself as a sustainable university. (shrink)

Often, knowledge engineers become so involved in the development process of the expert system that they fail to look further down the road toward the expert system's institutionalization within the organization. Institutionalization is an important component of the expert system planning process. More specifically, the legal issues associated with expert systems development and deployment are critical institutionalization factors. This paper looks at some expert system institutionalization guidelines, and then focuses on legal considerations.

Background: Sharing of tissue samples for research and disease surveillance purposes has become increasingly important. While it is clear that this is an area of intense, international controversy, there is an absence of data about what researchers themselves and those involved in the transfer of samples think about these issues, particularly in developing countries. Methods: A survey was carried out in a number of Asian countries and in Egypt to explore what researchers and others involved in research, storage and transfer (...) of human tissue samples thought about some of the issues related to sharing of such samples. Results: The results demonstrated broad agreement with the positions taken by developing countries in the current debate, favoring quite severe restrictions on the use of samples by developed countries. Conclusions: It is recommended that an international agreement is developed on what conditions should be attached to any sharing of human tissue samples across borders. (shrink)