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.
Objectives The strategies of tissue-engineering led to the development of living cell-based therapies to repair lost or damaged tissues, including periodontal ligament and to construct biohybrid implant. This work aimed to isolate human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs) and implant them on fabricated polycaprolactone (PCL) for the regeneration of natural periodontal ligament (PDL) tissues. Methods hPDLSCs were harvested from extracted human premolars, cultured, and expanded to obtain PDL cells. A PDL-specific marker (periostin) was detected using an immunofluorescent assay. Electrospinning was applied to fabricate PCL at three concentrations (13%, 16%, and 20% weight/volume) in two forms, which were examined through field emission
... Show MoreThis study aims to simulate and assess the hydraulic characteristics and residual chlorine in the water supply network of a selected area in Al-Najaf City using WaterGEMS software. Field and laboratory work were conducted to measure the pressure heads and velocities, and water was sampled from different sites in the network and then tested to estimate chlorine residual. Records and field measurements were utilized to validate WaterGEMS software. Good agreement was obtained between the observed and predicted values of pressure with RMSE range between 0.09–0.17 and 0.08–0.09 for chlorine residual. The results of the analysis of water distribution systems (WDS) during maximum demand
Finite Element Approach is employed in this research work to solve the governing differential equations related to seepage via its foundation's dam structure. The primary focus for this reason is the discretization of domain into finite elements through the placement of imaginary nodal points and the discretization of governing equations into an equation system; An equation for each nodal point or part, and unknown variables are solved. The SEEP / W software (program) is a sub-program of the Geo-Studio software, which is used by porous soil media to compensate for the problems of seepage. To achieve the research goals, a study was carried out on Hemrin dam, which located in the Diyala River 100 km northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Thus, o
... Show MoreA demonstration of the inverse kinematics is a very complex problem for redundant robot manipulator. This paper presents the solution of inverse kinematics for one of redundant robots manipulator (three link robot) by combing of two intelligent algorithms GA (Genetic Algorithm) and NN (Neural Network). The inputs are position and orientation of three link robot. These inputs are entering to Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN). The weights of BPNN are optimized using continuous GA. The (Mean Square Error) MSE is also computed between the estimated and desired outputs of joint angles. In this paper, the fitness function in GA is proposed. The sinwave and circular for three link robot end effecter and desired trajectories are simulated b
... Show MoreThe research aims to estimate missing values using covariance analysis method Coons way to the variable response or dependent variable that represents the main character studied in a type of multi-factor designs experiments called split block-design (SBED) so as to increase the accuracy of the analysis results and the accuracy of statistical tests based on this type of designs. as it was noted in the theoretical aspect to the design of dissident sectors and statistical analysis have to analyze the variation in the experience of experiment )SBED) and the use of covariance way coons analysis according to two methods to estimate the missing value, either in the practical side of it has been implemented field experiment wheat crop in
... Show MoreIn this work, new Schiff bases of quinazolinone derivatives (Q1-Q5) were synthesized from methyl anthranilate. The synthesis involved three steps. In the first step, methyl anthranilate was reacted with isothiocyanatobenzene, producing the thiourea derivative K1. The second step entailed reacting K1 with hydrazine hydrate, synthesizing 3-amino-2-(phenylamino) quinazolin-4(3H)-one (K2). The third step involved reaction of K2 with various aromatic aldehydes, yielding the Schiff bases derivatives Q1-Q5. The chemical structures of these compounds were identified by FT-IR,1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The newly synthesized derivatives (Q1-Q5) were subjected to rigorous evaluation to assess their efficacy as corrosion inhibitors for ca
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a novel finite-time generalized proportional integral observer (FTGPIO) based a sliding mode control (SMC) scheme for the tracking control problem of high order uncertain systems subject to fast time-varying disturbances. For this purpose, the construction of the controller consists of two consecutive steps. First, the novel FTGPIO is designed to observe unmeasurable plant dynamics states and disturbance with its higher time derivatives in finite time rather than infinite time as in the standard GPIO. In the FTGPO estimator, the finite time convergence rate of estimations is well achieved, whereas the convergence rate of estimations by classical GPIO is asymptotic and slow. Secondly, on the basis of the finite and fast e
... Show MoreIn this work, the study of corona domination in graphs is carried over which was initially proposed by G. Mahadevan et al. Let be a simple graph. A dominating set S of a graph is said to be a corona-dominating set if every vertex in is either a pendant vertex or a support vertex. The minimum cardinality among all corona-dominating sets is called the corona-domination number and is denoted by (i.e) . In this work, the exact value of the corona domination number for some specific types of graphs are given. Also, some results on the corona domination number for some classes of graphs are obtained and the method used in this paper is a well-known number theory concept with some modification this method can also be applied to obt
... Show MoreThe ongoing research to improve the clinical outcome of titanium implants has resulted in the implementation of multiple approaches to deliver osteogenic growth factors accelerating and sustaining osseointegration. Here we show the presentation of human bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP-7) adsorbed to titanium discs coated with poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA). We have previously shown that PEA promotes fibronectin organization into nanonetworks exposing integrin- and growth-factor-binding domains, allowing a synergistic interaction at the integrin/growth factor receptor level. Here, titanium discs were coated with PEA and fibronectin and then decorated with ng/mL doses of BMP-7. Human mesenchymal stem cells were used to investigate cellular resp
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