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.
DC planar sputtering system is characterized by varying discharge potential of (250-2000 volt) and Argon gas pressures of (3.5×10-2 – 1.5) mbar. The breakdown voltage for silver electrode was studied with a uniform electric field at different discharge distances, as well as plasma parameters. The breakdown voltage is a product of the Argon gas pressure inside the chamber and gab distance between the electrodes, represent as Paschen curve. The Current-voltage characteristics curves indicate that the electrical discharge plasma is working in the abnormal glow region. Plasma parameters were found from the current-voltage characteristics of a single probe positioned at the inter-cathode space. Typical values of the electron temperature an
... Show MoreThis paper presents an experimental study of cooling photovoltaic (PV) panels using evaporative cooling. Underground (geothermal energy) water used to extract heat from it during cooling and cleaning of PV panels. An experimental test rig was constructed and tested under hot and dusty climate conditions in Baghdad. An active cooling system was used with auxiliary an underground water tank to provide cold water as a coolant over both PV surfaces to reduce its temperature. The cellulose pad has been arranged on the back surface and sprays cooling on the front side. Two identical PV panels modules used: without cooling and evaporative water cooling. The experiments are comprised of four cases: Case (I): backside cooling, Ca
... Show MoreThe aim of the study is to assess the risk factors which lead to myocardial infarction and relation to some variables. The filed study was carried out from the 1st of April to the end of Sept. 2005. The Sample of the study consisted of (100) patients in lbn-Albeetar and Baghdad Teaching Hospital. The result of the study indicated the following; 45% of patients with age group (41-50) were more exposed to the disease and there is no significant difference was seen in the level of education, Martial status, weight and height. The result shows that there are significant difference in risk factors like hypertension, cholesterol level in blood and diabetes. When analyzed by T.test at level of P < 0.01 and there are significant difference in smoki
... Show MoreThis study was designed for isolation of some fungi that caused sub clinical mastitis in cow milk in AL-anbar governorate in Iraq . Total number of 100 milk samples were collected from 25 cow in AL- Falluja city , by using of California mastitis test 45% of milk samples were infected with sub clinical mastitis ,while 55% of milk samples were negative for California mastitis test. The results showed of fungal isolation of milk samples which were positive for California mastitis test, recording 19 isolates of different types of fungi : Aspergillus fumigatus2.2% , Aspergillus niger 4.4% , Candida albicans 26.6% , Blastomced dermetitidis% 4.4 and Geotrichum candidum4.4%. The isolation of these types of fungi, may be attributed to many factor
... Show MoreThe inhibitive action of a blend of sodium nitrite/sodium hexametaphosphate (SN+SHMP) on corrosion of carbon steel in simulated cooling water systems (CWS) has been investigated by weight loss and electrochemical polarization technique. The effect of temperature, velocity, and salts concentrations on corrosion of carbon steel were studied in the absence and presence of mixed inhibiting blend. Also the effect of inhibitors blend concentrations (SN+SHMP), temperatures, and rotational velocity, i.e., Reynolds number (Re) on corrosion rate of carbon steel were investigated using Second-order Rotatable Design (Box-Wilson Design) in performing weight loss and corrosion potential approach. Electrochemical polarization measurements
... Show More<span lang="EN-GB">Transmitting the highest capacity throughput over the longest possible distance without any regeneration stage is an important goal of any long-haul optical network system. Accordingly, Polarization-Multiplexed Quadrature Phase-Shift-Keying (PM-QPSK) was introduced lately to achieve high bit-rate with relatively high spectral efficiency. Unfortunately, the required broad bandwidth of PM-QPSK increases the linear and nonlinear impairments in the physical layer of the optical fiber network. Increased attention has been spent to compensate for these impairments in the last years. In this paper, Single Mode Fiber (SMF), single channel, PM-QPSK transceiver was simulated, with a mix of optical and electrical (Digi
... Show MoreMany approaches of different complexity already exist to edge detection in
color images. Nevertheless, the question remains of how different are the results
when employing computational costly techniques instead of simple ones. This
paper presents a comparative study on two approaches to color edge detection to
reduce noise in image. The approaches are based on the Sobel operator and the
Laplace operator. Furthermore, an efficient algorithm for implementing the two
operators is presented. The operators have been applied to real images. The results
are presented in this paper. It is shown that the quality of the results increases by
using second derivative operator (Laplace operator). And noise reduced in a good
In dental and medical applications, poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) has been widely accepted due to the excellent biocompatibility and easy fabrication. Yet, some of the physical and mechanical characteristics of this compound are considered inferior. Seven groups of PMMA nano-composite samples were reported to be fabricated at laboratory temperature . These samples could be used in manufacturing the complete or partial maxillary denture base. The aim of this research is to prepare nano-composite materials which consist of PMMA as a matrix material and two different types of powder (prepared nanoparticles of SnO2 and natural egg shell powder (ESP)) as strengthening materials. The selected additives were used in many cases as p
... Show MoreThe need for optical fibers has emerged for its ability to transmit information with less attenuation and over long distances. In this work, four optical fibers with core radii from 1 μm to 4.75 μm in steps of 1.25 μm and a numerical aperture of 0.17 were studied and their modes properties have been calculated at a wavelength of 633 nm by using RP Fiber Calculator (free version 2022). Also, the effect of increasing the core radius on these properties has been studied. Multimode fibers can be obtained when the radius of the fiber core is large compared to the operating wavelength of the fiber which is less than the cutoff wavelength of the mode. Otherwise, a single-mode fiber is obtained. It has been concluded that all the calculated p
... Show MoreThis paper aims to study the second-order geometric nonlinearity effects of P-Delta on the dynamic response of tall reinforced concrete buildings due to a wide range of earthquake ground motion forces, including minor earthquake up to moderate and strong earthquakes. The frequency domain dynamic analysis procedure was used for response assessment. Reinforced concrete building models with different heights up to 50 stories were analyzed. The finite element software ETABS (version 16.0.3) was used to analyze reinforced concrete building models.
The study reveals that the percentage increase in buildings' sway and drift due to P-Delta effects are nearly constant for specific building height irrespective of the seism
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