Background: The occurrence of seizures in bacterial meningitis is important, as it has been reported to increase the risk of complications; however, its frequency and predictors are not well studied yet. Objective: To assess the frequency, clinical, and biochemical predictors of seizures in children with acute bacterial meningitis. Method: A cross-sectional study recruited confirmed acute bacterial meningitis cases based on positive CSF culture and sensitivity among children aged 2 months to 15 years admitted to the Central Child Teaching Hospital emergency department in Iraq. Patients were divided into two groups based on seizure at presentation time. Demographic characteristics [age, gender, residence, duration of fever and disease, presenting complaints and antibiotic intake]; hematological [WBC, neutrophils] Lymphocyte, N/L ratio, packed cell volume, platelets, blood sugar, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices were compared between groups. Results: Seizures had a frequency of 18% among the 122 children and were significantly higher in younger cases with female predominance. By multivariate analysis and odds ratio (OR), predictors for seizure were as follows: CSF lymphocytes (OR=0.25, 95%CI=0.08–0.26), lethargy (OR=8.15, 95%CI=1.03-68.65), headache (OR=0.09, 95%CI=0.02-0.45), neck stiffness (OR=0.07, 95% CI=0.01-0.61) and poor feeding (OR=4.8, 95%CI=1.21–18.97). Conclusions: CSF lymphocytes reliably predicted seizure with good sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 73%. Lethargy and poor feeding had the highest odds as clinical predictors of seizures. Together, those results can help with risk stratification and allocate resources for high-risk cases to improve patient outcomes
This study investigated the feasibility of anaerobic co-digestion of giant reed (GR) inoculated with waste manure as a co-substrate for biogas production. The performance of co-digestion was evaluated in 4 anaerobic digesters operated in batch mode at different conditions. The effects of alkali pretreatment with NaOH (4% w/v) solution, inoculum type, and thermal condition were studied. The results demonstrated that the alkali-pretreatment of GR enhanced the biogas generation by about 15% at mesophilic conditions. Thermophilic conditions enhanced the biogas recovery from both alkali-free and alkali pretreated GR by 15% and 127%, respectively. The kinetic study of the co-digestion process of GR for biogas recovery suggeste
... Show MoreSixteen species of Armored Scale insects were recorded from Baghdad city during 2001-2005. Three of these are reported here for the first time Abgrallaspis cyanophylli (Signoret, 1869), Aonidiella citrina (Craw,1870) and Chrysomphalus aonidium (Linnaeus,1758). The other thirteen species were recorded earlier Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell), Aonidiella orientalis (Newstead), Chrysomphalus dictyospermi (Morgan), Diaspidiotus ostreaeformis (Curtis), Diaspidiotu perniciosus (Comctock), Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret), Lepidosaphes beckii (Newman), Lepidosaphes conchiformis (Gmelin), Lepidosaphes ulmi (Linnaeus), Mercetaspis halli
... Show MoreDiscrete Krawtchouk polynomials are widely utilized in different fields for their remarkable characteristics, specifically, the localization property. Discrete orthogonal moments are utilized as a feature descriptor for images and video frames in computer vision applications. In this paper, we present a new method for computing discrete Krawtchouk polynomial coefficients swiftly and efficiently. The presented method proposes a new initial value that does not tend to be zero as the polynomial size increases. In addition, a combination of the existing recurrence relations is presented which are in the n- and x-directions. The utilized recurrence relations are developed to reduce the computational cost. The proposed method computes app
... Show MoreThis study intends to look into the activities instructors use in the classroom to teach literature. Three models for teaching literature were added into the study in order to deepen the use of activities in the classroom. They are six activities in the teaching of literature were listed as indicators investigated during the study; language based, paraphrastic, information-based, personal response, moral-philosophical, and stylistic. An emphasizing the teaching of literature, the classroom activities used were mostly concentrated on the technical aspects of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Through observing the classroom, it was revealed that teachers employed more Language-Based activity, Moral-Philosophical activity, and Informa
... Show MoreEmpirical equation has been presented to predict the optimum hydrodynamic
pressure gradient with optimum mud flow rate (one equation) of five Iraqi oil wells
to obtain the optimum carrying capacity of the drilling fluid ( optimum transport
cuttings from the hole to the surface through the annulus).
This equation is a function of mud flow rate, mud density and penetration
rate without using any charts or graphs.
The correlation coefficient accuracy is more than 0.9999.
The Dielectric properties of EP/TiO2 and MgO nanocomposite at
a frequency range of (102-106 Hz) were studied. The composite were
prepared with the state volume ratio (0, 0.05, 0.1) for EP/TiO2 and
MgO respectively. The impedance, dielectric constant and dielectric
loss were found decrease with frequency increase.
The effect of operating parameters on the batch scale separation of hydrocarbon mixture (benzene and hexane) using
emulsion liquid membrane technique is reported. Sparkleen detergent was used as surfactant and heavy mineral oil as
solvent to receive the permeates.
From the experimental results, the parameters that influenced the permeation are, composition of feed, contact time
with solvent, ratio of volume of solvent to volume of hydrocarbon feed, ratio of volume of surfactant solution to volume
of hydrocarbon feed, surfactant concentration, mixing intensity and glycerol as polar additive in the surfactant solution
to eliminate drop breakup.
The best conditions for the separation in this study were found to be: comp
It is well known that sonography is not the first choice in detecting early breast tumors. Improving the resolution of breast sonographic image is the goal of many workers to make sonography a first choice examination as it is safe and easy procedure as well as cost effective. In this study, infrared light exposure of breast prior to ultrasound examination was implemented to see its effect on resolution of sonographic image. Results showed that significant improvement was obtained in 60% of cases.
The current research aims to test the relationship of the entrepreneurial leadership and its factors (strategic factors, communication factors, personal factors, motivational factors) in managing the organizational crisis and its stages (detection of warning signs, readiness and prevention, containment of damages, restoration of activity, learning) among a sample of companies of the Ministry Water resources (Al-Fao State Company for the implementation of irrigation projects, Al-Rafidain Company for the implementation of dams, Iraq Company for the implementation of irrigation projects), as well as standing at the level of interest of the research companies in the search variables and their factors and stages, there is no doubt tha
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