Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of respiratory airways characterized by distinctive history of respiratory symptoms due to variable airflow obstruction which reverses either spontaneously or in response to certain medications. Acetylcholine is a parasympathetic neurotransmitter which plays fundamental roles in the development of persistent asthma. Treatment guidelines recommend using medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids in addition to another controller bronchodilator instead of using high doses inhaled steroid alone for treatment of moderate to severe persistent asthma. The inhaled long acting muscarinic antagonist, tiotropium, was approved recently to control unresponsive asthma to inhaled corticosteroid with or without a long acting β-2 agonist. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the responses of a sample of Iraqi asthmatic patients to three different medication regimens.
Emergency vehicle (EV) services save lives around the world. The necessary fast response of EVs requires minimising travel time. Preempting traffic signals can enable EVs to reach the desired location quickly. Most of the current research tries to decrease EV delays but neglects the resulting negative impacts of the preemption on other vehicles in the side roads. This paper proposes a dynamic preemption algorithm to control the traffic signal by adjusting some cycles to balance between the two critical goals: minimal delay for EVs with no stop, and a small additional delay to the vehicles on the side roads. This method is applicable to preempt traffic lights for EVs through an Intelli
Background: Poly cystic ovary syndrome is a common disorder in women of reproductive age, it is associated with disturbance of reproductive, endocrine and metabolic functions. The pathophysiology of PCOS appears to be multifactorial and polygenic. Leptin seems to play an important role in pathophysiology of PCOS especially in women with BMI ≥25kg/m2. Objectives: To assess leptin level in both PCOS and healthy women and explore the relation to their body weight and body mass index. Patient and Methods: A total of 120 women were enrolled in this study, 60 women (50%) had PCOS (study group) and the reminder 60 women (50%) were healthy women and considered as control group. BMI was calculated first. Both groups were further sub
... Show MoreObjective: To identify barriers to healthcare access, to assess the health literacy levels of the foreign-born Arabic speaking population in Iowa, USA and to measure their prevalence of seeking preventive healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study of native Arabic speaking adults involved a focus group and an anonymous paper-based survey. The focus group and the Andersen Model were used to develop the survey questionnaire. The survey participants were customers at Arabic grocery stores, worshippers at the city mosque and patients at free University Clinic. Chi-square test was used to measure the relationship between the characteristics of survey participants and preventive healthcare services. Thematic analysis was
... Show MoreBackground: The vertical distance between the upper and lower incisal edge of the central incisors when the mouth is opened as wide as possible is called maximum mouth opening (MMO). Any pathological change in the masticatory system had a direct effect on the maximal mouth opening. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the maximum bite force and the maximum mouth opening among group of children. Materials and methods: Four hundred children of both genders were included in this study, their age ranged from eight to ten years. Anterior and posterior (right, left) bite force were measured using bite force sensor. Maximum mouth opening was evaluated by electronic digital caliper. Data was statistically analyzed by de
... Show MoreIn this paper, the class of semi
the financial resources represent a basic factor of production ;It is obvious that the housing sector needs the resources to finance the building operation to produce all the housing units. Finance is the cornerstone of any housing strategy , as its successes dependent on the success of the financing methods and the creation of charnels and effective methods for the provision of the required finances for both individuals and instantly concerned with the production of housing units. The kinds of financial institutions vary from one country to another according to the nature of the economic and financial system. The lending conditions also vary as well as the capital cost of the housing units needed The housing operations is concer
... Show MoreAbstract The goal of current study was to identify the relationship between addiction of self-images (Selfie) and personality disorder of narcissus, and the difference of significance the relationship between addiction self-images (selfie) and personality disorder narcissus at students of Mustansiriya university, addiction self- images (selfie) defined: a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media, edit and down lowed to social networking sites, and over time, the replacement of normal life virtual world, which is accompanied by a lack of a sense of time, and the formation of repeated patterns increase the risk of social and personal problems. To achieve the goals
... Show MoreThe automatic estimation of speaker characteristics, such as height, age, and gender, has various applications in forensics, surveillance, customer service, and many human-robot interaction applications. These applications are often required to produce a response promptly. This work proposes a novel approach to speaker profiling by combining filter bank initializations, such as continuous wavelets and gammatone filter banks, with one-dimensional (1D) convolutional neural networks (CNN) and residual blocks. The proposed end-to-end model goes from the raw waveform to an estimated height, age, and gender of the speaker by learning speaker representation directly from the audio signal without relying on handcrafted and pre-computed acou
... Show More In this paper the research represents an attempt of expansion in using the parametric and non-parametric estimators to estimate the median effective dose ( ED50 ) in the quintal bioassay and comparing between these methods . We have Chosen three estimators for Comparison. The first estimator is
( Spearman-Karber ) and the second estimator is ( Moving Average ) and The Third estimator is ( Extreme Effective Dose ) . We used a minimize Chi-square as a parametric method. We made a Comparison for these estimators by calculating the mean square error of (ED50) for each one of them and comparing it with the optimal the mean square
Background: Bowel preparation prior to
colonic surgery usually includes antibiotic
therapy together with mechanical bowel
preparation which may cause discomfort to the
patients, prolonged hospitalization and water
& electrolyte imbalance.
Objective: to assess whether elective colon
and rectal surgery may be safely performed
without preoperative mechanical bowel
preparation.
Method: the study includes all patients who
had elective large bowel resection at Medical
City – Baghdad Teaching Hospital between
Feb, 2007 to Jan, 2010. Emergency operations
were not included. The patients were randomly
assigned to the 2 study groups (with or without
mechanical bowel preparation.
Results: A to