Enhancing nursing students' moral sensitivity through the World Cafe and ethical decision-making simulation to address diverse learning styles.

The date palm ( L.) serves as a key source of nutrition and economic importance as a staple food in the diet of the Middle East, where it was originally domesticated (, ). Dates are consumed in three different edible maturation stages: Khalal or Bisr (crisp mature, 50% moisture), Rutab (soft mature, 30–35% moisture), and Tamr (dry mature, 10–30% moisture) (). Flavonoids and phenolic acids are the main phenolic compounds in date fruit. The two main subclasses of phenolic acids in dates are hydroxycinnamic acids and hydroxybenzoic acids (, ). The hydroxycinnamic acids include ferulic, p-coumaric, sinapic and caffeic acids, and the hydroxybenzoic acids include p-hydroxybenzoic, protocatechuic, vanillic, and syringic acids (); however, factors like: soil environments, agronomic procedures and maturation stage can affect the contents of ferulic, sinapic acids and some specific cinnamic acid derivatives may vary between cultivars (). The primary focus of this study, which examines the outcomes on mood and cognitive functions of a date consumption treatment, is based on animal studies on the effect of dates on reversing cognitive impairment in controlled animal experiments employing ischaemic stroke models (), in Alzheimer’s models () and on a substance-induced brain damage model (). The authors of these animal studies suggested mechanisms of action of date phenolic compounds that enhanced memory to include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant responses, as well as improvements in neural signalling. Specifically, in studies with a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (, , ), the mice were given a diet containing either 2% or 4% date for 14 weeks and showed significant dose-dependent improvements of cognitive functioning, such as motor functions and spatial memory. The average daily consumption of whole fresh date fruit in KSA and UAE is 115 g () providing 324 calories, so the average date intake corresponds to 16% of the population’s overall calorie intake of ~2,000 kcal/day () in these countries. The present study’s treatment dose of 115 g fresh date fruit flesh was provided no more than once per week, thus providing approx. 2% of calories during the non-placebo weeks of the trial. Assuming that the energy density of the date material used in the rodent studies was similar to that of the mouse food it was incorporated into, our dose was therefore directly comparable with the quantities employed in the animal research literature, even though both rodent and human experimental doses were substantially lower than the average intake in a relevant population. In contrast, the body surface area (BSA) method for translating drug doses across species () could not be implemented for this comparison, since the daily quantities consumed of the mouse diet was not specified.