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.
This study discussed a biased estimator of the Negative Binomial Regression model known as (Liu Estimator), This estimate was used to reduce variance and overcome the problem Multicollinearity between explanatory variables, Some estimates were used such as Ridge Regression and Maximum Likelihood Estimators, This research aims at the theoretical comparisons between the new estimator (Liu Estimator) and the estimators
The technology of subsurface soil water retention (SWRT) uses a polyethylene trough that is fixed under the root zone of the plant. It is a modern technology to increase the values of water use efficiency, plant productivity and saving irrigation water by applying as little irrigation water as possible. This study work aims at improving the crop yield and water use efficiency of a cucumber plant with less applied irrigation water by installing membrane trough below the soil surface. The field experiment was conducted in the Hawr Rajab District of Baghdad Governorate in Winter 2018 for testing various trickle irrigation systems. Two agricultural treatment plots were utilized in a greenhouse for the compa
... Show MoreCommunity detection is useful for better understanding the structure of complex networks. It aids in the extraction of the required information from such networks and has a vital role in different fields that range from healthcare to regional geography, economics, human interactions, and mobility. The method for detecting the structure of communities involves the partitioning of complex networks into groups of nodes, with extensive connections within community and sparse connections with other communities. In the literature, two main measures, namely the Modularity (Q) and Normalized Mutual Information (NMI) have been used for evaluating the validation and quality of the detected community structures. Although many optimization algo
... Show MoreThe present study aims to present a proposed realistic and comprehensive cyber strategy for the Communications Directorate for the next five years (2022-2026) based on the extent of application and documentation of cybersecurity measures in the Directorate and the scientific bases formulating the strategy. The present study is significant in that it provides an accurate diagnosis of the capabilities of the cyber directorate in terms of strengths and weaknesses in its internal environment and the opportunities and threats that surround it in the external environment, based on the results of the assessment of the reality of cybersecurity according to the global Cybersecurity index, which provides a strong basis for building its strategic dire
... Show MoreThis study aims to isolate the pathogenic yeasts from genital tract and investigate their relationship with the age .The results clarified that the most pathogenic yeast isolated from genital tract was Candida albicans , also the results of C.albicanas isolates susceptibility test, to different antifungal revealed that they were sensitive to Miconazole, Ketoconazole and Clotrimazol and were resistant to Nystatin and Grisofulvin. The study of relationship of vaginal infection with the age showed that the incidence of infection with Candida was high among females age group (19-39 years).
The current research aims to identify the level of strategic orientation and its dimensions (vision, mission, goals, and values) in the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS). The researchers followed the descriptive analytical approach as one of the forms of analysis and organized scientific interpretation to describe a specific phenomenon or problem, adopting the form questionnaire being the main source in collecting data and preparing for this. Based on the program of the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS 26) to analyze the data and come up with the final research results to identify the opinions of the intended sample on the subject of research, and the questionnaire of (20) paragraphs included the search variable, and was
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