Background: Nursing interventions tailored to the smoking triggers in patients with non-communicable chronic diseases are essential. However, these interventions are scant due to the nature of factors associated with smoking cessation and the poor understanding of the effect of nurse-led intervention in Iraq.Purpose: This study aimed to determine the dominant smoking triggers and examine the effects of a tailored nursing intervention on smoking behavior in patients with non-communicable chronic diseases.Methods: Convenience samples of 128 patients with non-communicable chronic diseases, male and female patients, who were 18-70 years old, were recruited in this quasi-experimental, randomized comparative trial in the outpatient clinic in one major teaching hospital in Baghdad City, Iraq. The intervention included simple yet specific instructions that were given both orally and in written form to the study samples to enable them to manage their craving to smoke for 6 weeks. The smoking triggers were assessed using Why Do You Smoke questionnaire. Participants were randomly allocated to receive either the nurse-led intervention or standard care. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, logistic regression, and two-sided tests.Results: Stress reduction was the dominant smoking trigger among subjects. The percentage of participants who were either able to completely quit smoking or reduce the number of smoked cigarettes per day (n=19, 29.7%; n=28, 43.8%, respectively) was greater in the study group than those in the control group (n=5, 5.8%; n=5, 5.8%, respectively). Study findings demonstrated significant differences in the inability to improve readiness to quit smoking between the intervention group and control group (p=0.000) at the sixth-week follow-up.Conclusion: The tailored nursing intervention was effective for a successful achievement of smoking reduction and cessation among patients with non-communicable chronic diseases, and a potential to equip nurses in clinical settings to support patients to achieve this is recommended.
Speech is the essential way to interact between humans or between human and machine. However, it is always contaminated with different types of environment noise. Therefore, speech enhancement algorithms (SEA) have appeared as a significant approach in speech processing filed to suppress background noise and return back the original speech signal. In this paper, a new efficient two-stage SEA with low distortion is proposed based on minimum mean square error sense. The estimation of clean signal is performed by taking the advantages of Laplacian speech and noise modeling based on orthogonal transform (Discrete Krawtchouk-Tchebichef transform) coefficients distribution. The Discrete Kra
A simple, environmentally benign, cost-effective, and sensitive colorimetric determination for the pharmaceutical drug dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DXP) has been developed by the formation of a colored complex with fluoranil. The process was sensitive and linear over the range 1 to 40 μg/mL, excellent correlation coefficient 0.9989, recovery% 99.80 ± 1.3, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.23 and 0.9 μg/mL, respectively, and good RSD ~1.63%. The experimental conditions were optimized after an intensive study. The approach was validated statistically for the quantification of the analyte in its pure and/or pharmaceutical form. Despite the proposed approach is selective, it still can be applied for
... Show MoreWorldwide, enormous amounts of waste cause major environmental issues, including scrap tires and plastic, and large waste, a consequence of the demolition of buildings, including crushed concrete, crushed clay bricks, and crushed thermo-stone. From that point, it’s possible to consider that the recycling processes for these materials and using them in the manufacturing field will reduce the adverse effects on the environment of these wastes and the consumption of natural resources. Sustainable concrete blocks can be considered as one of the products produced by using these materials as partial volume replacement of the coarse, fine aggregate, or cement content, considering their dry density, workability, absorption, co
... Show MoreMany pharmaceutical molecules have solubility problems that until yet consist a hurdle that restricts their use in the pharmaceutical preparations. Lacidipine (LCDP) is a calcium-channel blocker with low aqueous solubility and bioavailability.
Lipid dosage forms are attractive delivery systems for such hydrophobic drug molecules. Nanoemulsion (NE) is one of the popular methods that has been used to solve the solubility problems of many drugs. LCDP was formulated as a NE utilizing triacetin as an oil phase, tween 80 and tween 60 as a surfactant and ethanol as a co-surfactant. Nine formulas were prepared, and different tests performed to ensure the stability of the NEs, such as thermodyna
... Show MoreWelcome to International Journal of Research in Social Sciences & Humanities (IJRSSH). It is an international refereed journal of Social Sciences, Humanities & Linguistics in English published quarterly, both print and online.
Most of the Internet of Things (IoT), cell phones, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) applications need high speed in the execution and processing of data. this is done by reducing, system energy consumption, latency, throughput, and processing time. Thus, it will affect against security of such devices and may be attacked by malicious programs. Lightweight cryptographic algorithms are one of the most ideal methods Securing these IoT applications. Cryptography obfuscates and removes the ability to capture all key information patterns ensures that all data transfers occur Safe, accurate, verified, legal and undeniable. Fortunately, various lightweight encryption algorithms could be used to increase defense against various at
... Show MoreThe dynamics of a single condensing two-phase bubble of two different dispersed-continuous systems were studied. The systems were, CCl4 - water and CCl4 - 100% glycerol. Cinephotography was used to determine the change in height, diameter and time. These results were used to determine the experimental rise velocity of the bubble, which was compared with a theoretical one based on some equations used. It was found that the velocity of the first system remained almost constant, while it decreased gradually for the second system.
Construction projects are characterized as projects with multi phases and activities, complex, unique, and have many different parties and stakeholders. Risks could appear at one or more of the construction project stages and may affect the achievement of project objectives. Therefore, one of the key elements in the planning phase of any project is the risk management process (RMP). This study attempts to understand the terminology of risk in general, risk management, and response to risk in particular. This study is mainly a review of thirty-eight studies that have been published between 1997 and 2020 that demonstrate the importance of the crucial phase of risk response from the risk management process and its impact on
... Show MoreMorphologies of ceramic hollow fiber membranes prepared by a combined phase-inversion and sintering method were studied. The organic binder spinning solution containing suspended Al₂O₃ powders was spun to a hollow fiber precursor, which was then sintered at elevated temperatures( 300 ˚C, 1400 ˚C, 25 ˚C) in order to obtain the Al₂O₃ hollow fiber membranes. The spinning solution consisted of polyether sulfone (PES), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which were used as polymer binder, solvent, respectively. The prepared Al₂O₃ hollow fiber membranes were characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). It is believed that finger-like void formation in asymmetric ceramic membranes is initiated by hydrodynamically unstable vis
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