Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting the Iraqi population and the leading cause of cancer related mortality among Iraqi women. It has been well documented that prognosis of patients depends largely upon the hormone receptor contents and HER-2 over expression of their neoplasm. Recent studies suggest that Triple Positive (TP) tumors, bearing the three markers, tend to exhibit a relatively favorable clinical behavior in which overtreatment is not recommended. Aim: To document the different frequencies of ER/PR/HER2 breast cancer molecular subtypes focusing on the Triple Positive pattern; correlating those with the corresponding clinico-pathological characteristics among a sample of Iraqi patients diagnosed with the disease. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study involved 570 female patients diagnosed with breast cancer who visited the Main Referral Center for Early Detection of Breast Cancer and the National Cancer Research Center. The requested data was mainly extracted from an established information system database, developed by the principal author over a 4-years period from 2012 to 2016. The registered information comprised data related to clinical presentation, diagnostic and pathologic findings. ER, PR and HER2 status were analyzed immunohistochemically and the detected profiles were correlated with the corresponding clinico-pathological characteristics. Results: The rates of ER (+), PR (+) and HER-2 (+) tumors were 66.8%, 64% and 29.3% respectively. The tumor marker expression status was documented in eight subtypes; 83 cases (14.6%) of the examined breast carcinomas were categorized as ER+/PR+/HER2+ (Triple Positive/Luminal B), 89 cases (15.6%) were ER-/PR-/HER2- (Triple Negative), 241 (42.2%) were ER+/PR-/HER2- (Luminal A) while 67 (11.8%) showed ER-/PR-/HER2+ expression (HER-2 variant). No significant variations were noted when comparing age, menopausal status and tumor grade of Luminal B pattern to Luminal A and the rest of the studied subtypes. Although our data revealed a statistical difference with respect to the distribution of tumor types; where infiltrative ductal carcinoma constituted the major histology among patients with Triple Positive/Luminal B subtype (86.7% as compared to 67.6% in Luminal A), nevertheless, more than two third of those patients (67.4%) were diagnosed at earlier stages (I and II) compared to 55.2% of those in the remaining groups. Conclusions and Recommendations: Our findings support the hypothesis that the Triple Positive subtype might be driven primarily by the hormone receptor status. Further comprehensive surveys are recommended to focus on the intrinsic interactions and tumor cell heterogeneity of that pattern to avoid overtreatment and predict accurate response to therapy.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide valuable spatial information products for many projects across a wide range of applications. One of the major challenges in this discipline is the quality of positioning accuracy of the resulting mapping products in professional photogrammetric projects. This is especially true when using low-cost UAV systems equipped with GNSS receivers for navigation. In this study, the influence of UAV flight direction and camera orientation on positioning accuracy in an urban area on the west bank of the Euphrates river in Iraq was investigated. Positioning accuracy was tested in this study with different flight directions and camera orientation settings using a UAV autopilot app (Pix4Dcapture software
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Low grade crude palm oil (LGCPO) presents as an attractive option as feedstock for biodiesel production due to its low cost and non-competition with food resources. Typically, LGCPO contains high contents of free fatty acids (FFA), rendering it impossible in direct trans-esterification processes due to the saponification reaction. Esterification is the typical pre-treatment process to reduce the FFA content and to produce fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The pre-treatment of LGCPO using two different acid catalysts, such as titanium oxysulphate sulphuric acid complex hydrate (TiOSH) and 5-sulfosalicylic acid dihydrate (5-SOCAH) was investigated for the first time in this study. The optimum conditions for the homogenous catalyst (5-SOCAH) wer
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This study aims to explore the potential mediation role of person-centeredness between the effects of the work environment and nurse reported quality and patient safety. A quantitative cross-sectional survey collected data from 1055 nurses, working in medical and surgical units, in twelve Malaysian private hospitals. The data collection used structured questionnaires. The Hayes macro explored the mediation effect of person-centeredness between the associations of work environment dimensions and care outcomes, controlling nurses’ demographics and practice characteristics. A total of 652 nurses responded completely to the survey (61.8% response rate). About 47.7% of nurses worked 7-h shifts, and 37.0% were assigned more than 15 pati
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Guanine has a variety of roles in chemistry, from its basic function in the storing and transferring genetic information to its usages in synthetic chemistry and other fields. Because of its distinct structure and biological importance, it is a fundamental component of contemporary study in organic chemistry and molecular biology. In this review, we focused on covering the synthetic pathways of various derivatives of guanine from the year 2000 until the present. As a result of the guanine molecule containing multiple functional groups, this gives us the ability to prepare several guanines such as O6-alkylating guanines, O6-benzylguanines, 8-aza-O6-benzylguanines, 9-substituted guanines, guanine-azo derivatives, guanine Schiff bases, guanin
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In this paper, we used two monomers, 3,3',4,4'-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA) and m,m'-diaminobenzophenone (m, m’-DABP), to produce polyamide acid and then converted it to polyimide (PI). The effects of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) molarity (1, 2, and 3 M) on the structural, thermal, mechanical, and electrical characteristics of the polyimides/polyaniline (PI/PANI) nanocomposites were studied. Two sharp reflection peaks were developed by the addition of PANI to PI. When 3 M H3PO4 is added, the crystalline sharp peak loses some of its intensity. The complex formation of PI/PANI-H3PO4 was confi
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A survey and revised checklist of the species belonging to the family of Compositae for the specimens which are collected and deposited previously at the herbarium of the Iraq Natural History Research Center and Museum, in addition to the current specimens collected for the period 2016-2021. A total of 85 species belonging to 49 genera and 16 tribes are revised with their synonyms, locality, and distributions, flowering and fruiting period.
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Vaccine hesitancy poses a significant risk to global recovery from COVID-19. To date however, there is little research exploring the psychological factors associated with vaccine acceptability and hesitancy in Iraq.
To explore attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in Iraq. To establish the predictors of vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy in an Iraqi population.
Using a cross-sectional design, 7,778 participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their vaccination status, likelihood of infection, perc
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Abstract This study investigated the treatment of textile wastewater contaminated with Acid Black 210 dye (AB210) using zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) through adsorption and photocatalytic techniques. ZnO NPs were synthesized using a green synthesis process involving eucalyptus leaves as reducing and capping agents. The synthesized ZnO NPs were characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, SEM, EDAX, XRD, BET, Zeta potential, and FTIR techniques. The BET analysis revealed a specific surface area and total pore volume of 26.318 m2/g. SEM images confirmed the crystalline and spherical nature of the particles, with a particle size of 73.4 nm. A photoreactor was designed to facilitate the photo-degradation process. The study investigated the inf
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According to the importance of the conveyor systems in various industrial and service lines, it is very desirable to make these systems as efficient as possible in their work. In this paper, the speed of a conveyor belt (which is in our study a part of an integrated training robotic system) is controlled using one of the artificial intelligence methods, which is the Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A visions sensor will be responsible for gathering information about the status of the conveyor belt and parts over it, where, according to this information, an intelligent decision about the belt speed will be taken by the ANN controller. ANN will control the alteration in speed in a way that gives the optimized energy efficiency through
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