chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease with episodes of exacerbation. Variable factors including infectious pathogen can predispose for this exacerbation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of intestinal protozoa in COPD exacerbation. A total of 56 patients with COPD were included in this study. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the frequency of exacerbation during the last 6 months: those with ≤1 exacerbation (32 patients) and those with ≥2 exacerbations (24 patients). Stool specimens from each patient were collected two times (one week interval) examined for intestinal parasite. In univariate analysis, rural residence and parasitic infection were more common among patients with frequent exacerbation (45.83% and 33.33%, respectively) than patients with non-frequent exacerbation (18.75% and 9.38%, respectively) with significant differences. However, in multivariate analysis, only body mass index >25 kg/m2 (OR=4.59, 95%CI=1.18-17.86, P=0.028) and parasitic infection (OR=5.51, 95%CI=1.01-30.18, P=0.049) were independently associated with COPD exacerbation. These data indicate a significant association between frequent COPD exacerbation and infection with some intestinal protozoa. However, the cause-effect relationship is debatable.
Background Numerous studies indicated that workers in the health sector suffer from work stress, hassles, and mental health problems associated with COVID-19, which negatively affect the completion of their job tasks. These studies pointed out the need to search for mechanisms that enable workers to cope with job stress effectively. Objectives This study investigated psychological flow, mental immunity, and job performance levels among the mental health workforce in Saudi Arabia. It also tried to reveal the psychological flow (PF) and mental immunity (MI) predictability of job performance (JP). Method A correlational survey design was employed. The study sample consisted of 120 mental health care practitioners (therapists, psychologists, co
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A series of new 4(3H)-quinazolinone derivatives (S1-S4) were synthesized and characterized by FTIR,1HNMR and 13CNMR .Their cytotoxic activity against a set of human cancer cell lines MCF-7 (breast) and A549 (lung) was evaluated using MTT assay. To detect their selectivity toward cancer cells, the compounds were also tested against epithelial cells derived from normal human fibroblast (NHF). Methotrexate (MTX) was used as a reference for comparison . All the tested compounds exhibited toxicity against the normal cells lower than cancer cells. All the tested compounds displayed higher cytotoxicity against lung cancer cell line (A549) than MTX with the most
... Show MoreDiabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most common microvascular complication that may lead to chronic renal failure in diabetic patients. Till now microalbuminuria, with its restrictions, is the early marker of DN, appeared after the disease exacerbation. Thus, new biomarkers are required to predict the early onset of DN before the appearance of microalbuminuria. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible use of uVDBP in the early prediction of DN. Fifty diabetic patients with DN and 40 diabetic patients without DN for both types of diabetes were enrolled in this study. All patients were tested for uACR, uVDBP (measured by ELISA), and blood HbA1c. The results demonstrated a highly significant elevation of uAC
... Show MoreIn this work, an important sugar alkynyl ether has been synthesized in two subsequent steps starting from commercially available D-galactose (3). This kind of compounds is highly significant in the synthesis of biologically active molecules such as 1,2,3-triazole and isoxazoles. In the first step, galactose (3) was reacted with acetone in the presence of anhydrous copper (II) sulfate to produce 1,2:3,4-di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-galactose (4) in good yield. The latter was reacted with excess of 3-bromoprop-1-yne in DMF in the presence of NaOH pellets to afford the target molecule 5 in a very good yield. The temperature of this step is crucial in determining the reaction yi
... Show MoreIn this paper, Nordhaus-Gaddum type relations on open support independence number of some derived graphs of path related graphs under addition and multiplication are studied.
Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurodegenerative autoimmune disease mediated by autoreactive T cells against myelin-basic proteins. Cytokines are suggested to play a role in the etiopathogenesis of the disease. Among these cytokines is interleukin-2 (IL-2). Aim of the study: To investigate the association between IL2+166 G/T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP: rs2069763) and MS in Iraqi patients. Serum level of IL-2 was also detected. Anti-rubella IgG antibody was further determined in the sera of patients. Patients and methods: Eighty MS patients (28 males and 52 females; age mean ± SD: 39.2 ± 16.1 years) and 80 healthy control matched patients for age (32.15 ± 16.13 years) and gender (28 males and 52 females) were en
... Show MoreThe paper present design of a control structure that enables integration of a Kinematic neural controller for trajectory tracking of a nonholonomic differential two wheeled mobile robot, then proposes a Kinematic neural controller to direct a National Instrument mobile robot (NI Mobile Robot). The controller is to make the actual velocity of the wheeled mobile robot close the required velocity by guarantees that the trajectory tracking mean squire error converges at minimum tracking error. The proposed tracking control system consists of two layers; The first layer is a multi-layer perceptron neural network system that controls the mobile robot to track the required path , The second layer is an optimization layer ,which is impleme
... Show MoreA series of lanthanide metal (???) complexes have been prepared from the new azo ligand, 3-(1-methyl-2-benzimidazolylazo)-Tyrosine (MBT). The structural feature were confirmed on the basis of their elemental analysis, metal content, molar conductance, magnetic measurement, FTIR, 1 HNMR and UV-Vis spectra studies. The isolated complexes were found to have a mole ratio (1:2) (metal:ligand) stoichiometry with the general formula [Ln(MBT)2]Cl (Ln(???) = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu and Gd). The chelates were found to have octahedral structures. The FTIR spectra shows that the ligand (MBT) is coordinated to lanthanide ions as a N, N, O-tridentate anion via benzimidazole nitrogen, azo nitrogen and oxygen of hydroxyl after deprotonation. Com
... Show MoreIn this work, microbubble dispersed air flotation technique was applied for cadmium ions removal from wastewater aqueous solution. Experiments parameters such as pH (3, 4, 5, and 6), initial Cd(II) ions concentration (40, 80, and 120 mg/l) contact time( 2, 5, 10 , 15, and 20min), and surfactant (10, 20and 40mg/l) were studied in order to optimize the best conditions .The experimental results indicate that microbubbles were quite effective in removing cadmium ions and the anionic surfactant SDS was found to be more efficient than cationic CTAB in flotation process. 92.3% maximum removal efficiency achieved through 15min at pH 5, SDS surfactant concentration 20mg/l, flow rate250 cm3/min and at 40mg/l Cd(II) ions initial co
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