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.
One of the most critical functions of the government is the devising and planning for the Public Budget for the coming years. Studying any budget of any given state would directly reflect on its intentions and collective direction during a certain time span. Since all allocations represent the government's agenda and time plan for coming years. And the size of each allocation would measure the priority of each budgetary item. Because of the eminent importance of the public budget planning in Iraq, a country of abundant riches and human resources that flow in the national economy, we present this research that would cover the resources versus expenditures of Iraq's public budget endured by the government to sustain its various sec
... Show MoreAbstract: The natural dye, Curcumin, was extracted from Curcuma longa using as a sensitizer in two types of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC), and their characteristics were studied. The absorption spectrum of the dye solutions, as well as the wavelength of the maximum absorbance of the dye loaded TiO2 film has been studied. The X-Ray diffraction pattern of TiO2 film made with Doctor-Blading technique shown that the grain size of TiO2 was equal to be 40 nm. The electrical performances in terms of short circuit current, open circuit voltage and power conversion efficiency of cells were investigated.
Summary money-laundering has been one of the most serious crimes affecting the national economy, including the private business sector, and it affects the moral system of society, as the beneficiaries of this process become the owners of the money-launderers that contribute to the investment activity by accumulating their accumulated wealth from Illegal economic activity. The biggest burden of money laundering is on banks, as they are the main channel in which money launderers pour their money, especially under bank secrecy laws, and banks are the first balaka in the fight against money laundering, in order to protect themselves from the risks Financial and legal responsibility for their participation in such operations, and certainly money
... Show MoreThis study investigated the ability of using crushed glass solid wastes in water filtration by using a pilot plant, constructed in Al-Wathba water treatment plant in Baghdad. Different depths and different grain sizes of crushed glass were used as mono and dual media with sand and porcelaniate in the filtration process. The mathematical model by Tufenkji and Elimelech was used to evaluate the initial collection efficiency η of these filters. The results indicated that the collection efficiency varied inversely with the filtration rate. For the mono media filters the theoretical ηth values were more than the practical values ηprac calculated from
the experimental work. In the glass filter ηprac was obtained by multiplying ηth by a
Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of isosorbide mononitrate (IMN) versus misoprostol used to induce labour for overdue pregnancy.
Setting: A prospective randomized clinical study conducted at AL-Elwiya Maternity Teaching Hospital in Baghdad from Jan. 2008 to Dec. 2008.
Method: One hundred and fifty women with over due pregnancy (past date and posterm pregnancy) referred for induction of labour with Bishop scores <_ 5 were randomly allocated to receive either forty mg isosorbide mononitrate (IMN) tablet as a single vaginal dose (n=75) or fifty mcg misoprostol vaginally (n=75) every six hrs for a maximum of three doses. Amniotomy and/or oxytocin infusion is considered when Bishop scores frankly progressed (augmentation
Many image processing and machine learning applications require sufficient image feature selection and representation. This can be achieved by imitating human ability to process visual information. One such ability is that human eyes are much more sensitive to changes in the intensity (luminance) than the color information. In this paper, we present how to exploit luminance information, organized in a pyramid structure, to transfer properties between two images. Two applications are presented to demonstrate the results of using luminance channel in the similarity metric of two images. These are image generation; where a target image is to be generated from a source one, and image colorization; where color information is to be browsed from o
... Show MoreA new mathematical model describing the motion of manned maneuvering targets is presented. This model is simple to be implemented and closely represents the motion of maneuvering targets. The target maneuver or acceleration is correlated in time. Optimal Kalman filter is used as a tracking filter which results in effective tracker that prevents the loss of track or filter divergency that often occurs with conventional tracking filter when the target performs a moderate or heavy maneuver. Computer simulation studies show that the proposed tracker provides sufficient accuracy.
The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the emotional intelligence and the leadership personality of the managers . the research was tested at the college of administration and economics – university of Baghdad through applying it on a sample of (67) members and units of the college. a questionnaire was used as a major tool for collecting data and information . for the purpose of researching to conclusion, the research aimed to test two main hypotheses related to the correlation coefficient and the effect correlation between the two main variable of the research, some statistical techniques such as (the mean, student deviation, percentages, correlation coefficient spearman, simple regression) were us
... Show MoreThe agent-based modeling is currently utilized extensively to analyze complex systems. It supported such growth, because it was able to convey distinct levels of interaction in a complex detailed environment. Meanwhile, agent-based models incline to be progressively complex. Thus, powerful modeling and simulation techniques are needed to address this rise in complexity. In recent years, a number of platforms for developing agent-based models have been developed. Actually, in most of the agents, often discrete representation of the environment, and one level of interaction are presented, where two or three are regarded hardly in various agent-based models. The key issue is that modellers work in these areas is not assisted by simulation plat
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