Introduction: Although it is discouraged, community pharmacy customers can obtain oral corticosteroids (OCSs) without prescriptions from some community pharmacies in Iraq. Medication abuse is defined as the use of medication for non-medical reasons. Objectives: The study aimed to determine demographics, beliefs, and perceptions associated with the abuse of oral corticosteroids for non-illness reasons among community pharmacy customers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in fall 2018 in four provinces in Iraq. Customers of 19 community pharmacies asking for OCSs for themselves without a prescription were administered a paper survey. This study used the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to measure the relationship between the motivational factors and the abuse of OCSs. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationships between the use of OCSs for non-illness and six TRA factors: Normative belief, behavioral belief, evaluation of the behavior, motivation to comply, subjective norms and attitude toward behavior. Results: The study enrolled 141 participants (98 women and 43 men) taking asking for OCSs without prescription. Dexamethasone was the most commonly used OCSs (59.6%). Friends were the primary recommenders for corticosteroids abuse (28.4%). The main reasons for using OCSs were to increase appetite and gain weight (53.9 %). Approximately one-third (36.2 %) of the participants gained weight after using OCSs. The regression analysis of the TRA variables showed two factors were significantly related to the abuse of OCSs. Age had a significant inverse relationship with the abuse of OCSs and the "good appearance" belief had a significant positive association with OCS abuse. Conclusion: Some Iraqi community pharmacy customers use non-prescribed oral corticosteroids to increase appetite and gain weight. Improve body appearance represents the dominant incentive that urges people to use OCSs without prescription. Health officials and healthcare practitioners need to promote people's awareness about the risks of misusing OCSs through education programs and advertisements in public health settings, media, and social media. Article Type: Original Research
Surge pressure is supplemental pressure because of the movement of the pipes downward and the swab pressure is the pressure reduction as a result of the drill string's upward movement. Bottom hole pressure is reduced because of swabbing influence. An Investigation showed that the surge pressure has great importance for the circulation loss problem produced by unstable processes in the management pressure drilling (MPD) actions. Through Trip Margin there is an increase in the hydrostatic pressure of mud that compensates for the reduction of bottom pressure due to stop pumping and/or swabbing effect while pulling the pipe out of the hole. This overview shows suggested mathematical/numerical models for simulating surge pressure problems ins
... Show MoreProblem: Cancer is regarded as one of the world's deadliest diseases. Machine learning and its new branch (deep learning) algorithms can facilitate the way of dealing with cancer, especially in the field of cancer prevention and detection. Traditional ways of analyzing cancer data have their limits, and cancer data is growing quickly. This makes it possible for deep learning to move forward with its powerful abilities to analyze and process cancer data. Aims: In the current study, a deep-learning medical support system for the prediction of lung cancer is presented. Methods: The study uses three different deep learning models (EfficientNetB3, ResNet50 and ResNet101) with the transfer learning concept. The three models are trained using a
... Show MoreImproved oral bioavailability of lipophilic substances can be achieved using self-emulsifying drug delivery systems. However, because the properties of self-emulsifying are greatly influenced by surfactant amount and type, type of oil used, droplet size, charge, cosolvents, and physiological variables, the synthesis of self-emulsifying is highly complex; consequently, only a small number of excipient self-emulsifying formulations has been developed so far for clinical use. This study reports a highly effective procedure for developing self-emulsifying formulations using a novel approach based on the hydrophilic-lipophilic difference theory. Microemulsion characteristics, such as the constituents and amounts of oil and surfactant electrolyte
... Show MoreAbstract
This study aims to identify the reality of using electronic applications in teaching language skills to people with mild intellectual disabilities from the mothers’ perspective. A descriptive approach was used. The electronic questionnaires were administered to the study sample, 122 responses were received from mothers of the students with mild intellectual disability in Hafer Al-Baten schools. The response average rate was 94%. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences that are related to the variant of monthly income as for the barriers to using electronic applications in such schools, whereas there were no differences regarding the variant of monthly income regarding t
... Show MoreVirtual reality, VR, offers many benefits to technical education, including the delivery of information through multiple active channels, the addressing of different learning styles, and experiential-based learning. This paper presents work performed by the authors to apply VR to engineering education, in three broad project areas: virtual robotic learning, virtual mechatronics laboratory, and a virtual manufacturing platform. The first area provides guided exploration of domains otherwise inaccessible, such as the robotic cell components, robotic kinematics and work envelope. The second promotes mechatronics learning and guidance for new mechatronics engineers when dealing with robots in a safe and interactive manner. And the thir
... Show MoreAbstract
This study aimed to identify the business risks using the approach of the client strategy analysis in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process. A study of business risks and their impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process has been performed to establish a cognitive framework of the main objective of this study, in which the descriptive analytical method has been adopted. A survey questionnaire has been developed and distributed to the targeted group of audit firms which have profession license from the Auditors Association in the Gaza Strip (63 offices). A hundred questionnaires have been distributed to the study sample of which, a total of 84 where answered and
... Show MoreHepatitis C virus (HCV) is a liver disease that affects14 million people. Feasible research was conducted for identifying the genotypes and allele frequency of some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the IL-28β genes and their predictive role in disease incidence in Iraqi patients. The SNPs (rs28416813, rs4803219, rs11881222, and rs8103142) of IL-28β have been associated with susceptibility to several diseases. Ninety eight (98) HCV patients were included in this research; with average age ± SE (42.28 ± 3.44) years. Also, 80 healthy people (with average age ± SE (29.40 ± 2.84) years) were included as a control group. The SNPs were detected by allele-specific PCR (polymerase chain reaction) using specific primers. The re
... Show More