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
Water Quality Index (WQI) as a tool to assess the water quality status provides advice related to the use of water quality monitoring data and it is a way for combining the complex water quality data into a single value or single statement.The present study was conducted on Al- Hilla river in the middle of Iraq from August 2012 to July 2013 at five selected stations in the river, from Al- Musaib city to Al- Hashimya at the south of Hilla to determine its suitability for aquatic environment (GWQI), drinking water (PWSI) and irrigation (IWQI).This index offers a useful representation of the overall quality of water for public or any intended use as well as indicating pollution, water quality management, and decision making. According to th
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a common health problem that has a worldwide distribution. Apart from the direct effect of the virus on the liver, there are many extrahepatic manifestations among which the probable effect on bone turnover associated with low bone mineral density (BMD). Objectives: This study aimed to determine the association between treated and untreated chronic HBV infection with BMD. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which included a total of 48 patients with chronic HBV (28 patients treated with tenofovir-disoproxil-fumarate [TDF] antiviral drug and 20 patients have not yet started treatment). Other age- and sex-matched 30 apparently healthy individuals were recruited to represent the hea
... Show MoreIn this paper, we derived an estimator of reliability function for Laplace distribution with two parameters using Bayes method with square error loss function, Jeffery’s formula and conditional probability random variable of observation. The main objective of this study is to find the efficiency of the derived Bayesian estimator compared to the maximum likelihood of this function and moment method using simulation technique by Monte Carlo method under different Laplace distribution parameters and sample sizes. The consequences have shown that Bayes estimator has been more efficient than the maximum likelihood estimator and moment estimator in all samples sizes
Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) are toxic chemical entities emitted invariably from stationary thermal operations when a trace of chlorine is present. Replacing the high-temperature destruction operations of these compounds with catalytic oxidation has led to the formulation of various potent metal oxides catalysts; among them are ceria-based materials. Guided by recent experimental measurements, this study theoretically investigates the initial steps operating in the interactions of ceria surface CeO2(111) with three CVOC model compounds, namely chloroethene (CE), chloroethane (CA) and chlorobenzene (CB). We find that, the CeO2(111) surface mediates fission of the carbon–chlorine bonds in the CE, CA and CB molecules via mo
... Show MoreAbstract:Two-dimensional crystal has been achieved and controlled with the aid of DC electric field applied between two electrodes at 5 millimeters separating distance between them. Sol-gel method has been used to prepared nanosilica particle which used in this work as well as TiO2 nanopaowder. The assembly of the silica particles is due to the interaction between the electrical force, the particles dipole, and the interaction between the particles themselves. When a DC voltage is applied, the particles accumulated and crystallized on the surface between the electrodes. The Light diffraction demonstrates that the hexagonal crystal is always oriented with one axis along the direction of the field. The particles disassemble when the field is
... Show MoreIn this paper, the human robotic leg which can be represented mathematically by single input-single output (SISO) nonlinear differential model with one degree of freedom, is analyzed and then a simple hybrid neural fuzzy controller is designed to improve the performance of this human robotic leg model. This controller consists from SISO fuzzy proportional derivative (FPD) controller with nine rules summing with single node neural integral derivative (NID) controller with nonlinear function. The Matlab simulation results for nonlinear robotic leg model with the suggested controller showed that the efficiency of this controller when compared with the results of the leg model that is controlled by PI+2D, PD+NID, and F
... Show Moreأن الطرق اللامعلمية هي نوع من الطرق الاحصائية الاستدلالية التي يمكن استخدامها للتوصل إلى أستنتاجات لذا كان حرص المؤلف على أصدار هذا الكتاب والذي يعمل على توضيح ( لماذا ؟ ومتى ؟ وكيف ؟ ) تستخدم كل طريقة إحصائية . وبإمكان القاريء سواء أكان أستاذا ً جامعيا ً أو باحثا ً أو طالبا ً في الدراسات العليا ( الماجستير والدكتوراه ) أو طالبا ً في الدراسات الأولية أن يتتبع جميع الخطوات لحساب كل قانون إحصائي وبدءا ً من عملية إدخ
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