Abstract Asthma is a complex disease defined by chronic airway inflammation and airflow limitation causing variable respiratory symptoms which include shortness of breath (SOB), wheezing, chest tightness and cough. Asthma guidelines advocate adding a second long acting bronchodilator to medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) rather using high doses of ICS alone to control moderate to severe persistent asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of three medication regimens indicated for Iraqi patients suffering from persistent asthma. This study was interventional randomized clinical study conducted on a sample of adult Iraqi asthmatic patients in Baghdad City. The study composed of three visits distributed over eight weeks; baseline visit followed by first follow up and second follow up visits after four and eight weeks respectively. The study enrolled 78 adult patients with moderate to severe persistent asthma as diagnosed by specialist physician according to patient history and baseline pulmonary function test (PFT) and allocated them randomly to three groups (each group included 26 patients) to receive equivalent medium doses of budesonide inhaler in addition to either formoterol inhaler, oral modified release aminophylline tablets or tiotropium inhaler (first, second and third group respectively). Sixty four patients completed this study. The mean ages of patients were above 35 years with slightly more male predominance. The study groups developed significant increase of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and forced vital capacity (FVC) values at the first follow up visit compared to baseline values (p<0.001). Thereafter, the first and third groups achieved significant higher values at the second follow up visit compared to first follow up visit (p<0.001), while second group produced no change. All the groups developed significant improvement of Mini asthma quality of life questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) scores and percentage of symptom free days (SFD) at first follow up visit and continued further significant improvement at the second follow up visit (p<0.001). Generally, between groups comparison according to extent of change of study parameters revealed that third group produced the greatest improvement over the entire study period followed by the first group, whereas the second group was associated with the least extent of improvement. This study concluded that all groups caused significant improvement in study parameters compared to baseline values and also concluded that the third group of inhaled [tiotropium/budesonide] was associated with the highest extent of improvement followed by first group, while the second group was the least.
Air-conditioning systems (ACs) are essential in hot and humid climates to ensure acceptable ambient air quality as well as thermal comfort for buildings users. It is essential to improve refrigeration system performance without increasing the effects of global warming potential (GWP) and ozone depletion potential (ODP). The main objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of an air conditioning system that operates with a liquid suction heat exchanger (LSHX) through implementing refrigerants with zero OPD and low GWP (i.e., R134a and R1234yf). Liquid suction heat exchanger (LSHX) was added to an automobile air conditioning system (AACS).When Liquid suction heat exchanger was added to the cycle, primary results indicated t
... Show MoreThe present paper addresses cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae using airlift photobioreactor that sparged with 5% CO2/air. The experimental data were compared with that obtained from bioreactor aerated with air and unsparged bioreactor. The results showed that the concentration of biomass is 0.36 g l-1 in sparged bioreactor with CO2/air, while, the concentration of biomass reached to 0.069 g l-1 in the unsparged bioreactor. They showed also that aerated bioreactor with CO2/air gives more biomass production even the bioreactor was aerated with air. This study proved that application of sparging system for cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae using either CO2/air mixture or air has a significant growth rate, since the biorea
... Show MoreBackground: Esthetic correction represents one of the clinical conditions that required the use of laminate veneers in premolars region. Aim of the study: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the fracture strength of the laminate veneers in maxillary first premolars, fabricated from either composite (direct and indirect techniques) or ceramic CAD/CAM blocks. Materials and Methods: Fifty sound human maxillary premolar teeth were used in this in vitro study. Teeth were divided randomly into one control group and four experimental groups of ten teeth each; Group A: Restored with direct composite veneer (Filtek Z250 XT), Group B: Restored with indirect composite veneers (Filtek Z250 XT), Group C: Restored with lithium disilicate ceramic CA
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Here we determined the structure of a cold active family IV esterase (EstN7) cloned
A preventing shield for neutrons and gamma rays was designed using alternate layers of water and iron with pre-fixed dimensions in order to study the possibility of attenuating both neutrons and gamma-rays. ANISN CODE was prepared and adapted for the shield calculation using radiation doses calculation: Two groups of cross-section were used for each of neutrons and gamma-rays that rely on the one – dimensional transport equation using discrete ordinate's method, and through transforming cross-section values to values that are independent on the number of groups. The memory size required for the applied code was reduced and the results obtained were in agreement with those of standard acceptable document samples of cross –section, this a
... Show MoreBackground: Considering the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties of green tea, this study aimed to evaluate the histopathological effect of the sulcular irrigation of green tea extract in the treatment of experimental gingivitis in rabbit.
Materials and methods: For this experimental study, 45 male rabbits, separated in two groups, control non- irrigated group (5rabbits) and study group (40 rabbits), gingivitis induced by ligatures was packed subgingivally in the lower right central incisors of the experimental group for seven days. Then, the animals were randomly designated to two irrigated groups (20 rabbits
... Show MoreIn this research tri metal oxides were fabricated by simple chemical spray pyrolysis technique from (Sn(NO3)2.20 H2O, Zn(NO3)2.6 H2O, Cd(NO3)2.4 H2O) salts at concentration 0.1M with mixing weight ratio 50:50 were fabricated on silicon substrate n-type (111). (with & without the presence of grooves by the following diemensions (20μm width, 7.5μm depth) with thickness was about ( 0.1 ±0.05 µm) using water soluble as precursors at a substrate temperature 550 ºC±5, with spray distance (15 cm) and their gas sensing properties toward H2S gas at different concentrations (10,50,100,500 ppmv) in air were investigated at room te
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