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.
The Impact of Intellectual trends on the nature of the Economic Structure of Iraq
Bacteria strain H8, which produces high amount of exopolysaccharide (EPS), was isolated from soil, and identified as strain of Azotobacter chrococcum by its biochemical /physiological characteristics, EPS was extracted, partially purified and used as bioflocculant. The biochemical analysis of the partially purified EPS revealed that it was an alginate. analysis of EPS by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) show that the -OH groups present in bioflocculant are clearly seen at 3433.06 cm-1, the peaks attributed to the -CH3 groups present at 2916.17 cm-1 , and some distinct peaks such as carboxyl group showed strong absorption bands at 1604.66 cm-1, 1411.80 cm-1 and 1303.79 cm-1 indicate the chemical structure of alginate. The effe
... Show MoreG-system composed of three isolates G3 ( Bacillus),G12 ( Arthrobacter )and G27 ( Brevibacterium) was used to detect the mutagenicity of the anticancer drug, cyclophosphamide (CP) under conditions similar to that used for standard mutagen, Nitrosoguanidine (NTG). The CP effected the survival fraction of isolates after treatment for 15 mins using gradual increasing concentrations, but at less extent comparing to NTG. The mutagenic effect of CP was at higher level than that of NTG when using streptomycin as a genetic marker, but the situation was reversed when using rifampicin resistant as a report marker. The latter effect appeared upon recording the mutagen efficiency (ie., number of induced mutants/microgram of mutagen). Measuring the R
... Show MoreThe objective of this work is to study the influence of end milling cutting process parameters, tool material and geometry on multi-response outputs for 4032 Al-alloy. This can be done by proposing an approach that combines Taguchi method with grey relational analysis. Three cutting parameters have been selected (spindle speed, feed rate and cut depth) with three levels for each parameter. Three tools with different materials and geometry have been also used to design the experimental tests and runs based on matrix L9. The end milling process with several output characteristics is solved using a grey relational analysis. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the major influencing parameters on multi-objective response w
... Show MoreNanoceria have shown numerous unique characteristics, such as biocompatibility and are excellent agents for biological applications. The aim of this study is to investigate cerium oxide nanoparticles for 2, 2- diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity and their ability to offer protection against ionizing radiation. In vitro antioxidant activity study of nanoceria particles has shown good free radical scavenging activity for DPPH radical assayed within a concentration range of 0.01 to 0.05 g/l, at higher concentrations of nanoparticles showed reverse trend in absorbance and inhibition indicating this finite rang of concentration is suitable for scavenging free radicals, also nanoparticles were found to ha
... Show MoreThe low-pressure sprinklers have been widely used to replace the high-pressure impact sprinklers in the lateral move sprinkler irrigation system due to its low operating cost and high efficiency. However, runoff losses under the low-pressure sprinkler irrigation machine can be significant. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the variable pulsed irrigation algorithm (VPIA) in reducing the runoff losses under low-pressure lateral move sprinkler irrigation machine for three different soil types. The VPIA uses the ON-OFF pulsing technique to reduce the runoff losses by controlling the number and width of the pulses considering the soil and the irrigation machine properties. Als
Abstract This study investigated the treatment of textile wastewater contaminated with Acid Black 210 dye (AB210) using zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) through adsorption and photocatalytic techniques. ZnO NPs were synthesized using a green synthesis process involving eucalyptus leaves as reducing and capping agents. The synthesized ZnO NPs were characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, SEM, EDAX, XRD, BET, Zeta potential, and FTIR techniques. The BET analysis revealed a specific surface area and total pore volume of 26.318 m2/g. SEM images confirmed the crystalline and spherical nature of the particles, with a particle size of 73.4 nm. A photoreactor was designed to facilitate the photo-degradation process. The study investigated the inf
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