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
Vocational stresses and their relation with the level of ambition among the lecturers of the university In general , vocational stresses affect the attention and the process of focusing making individual busy with solving of his daily problems instead of his job. The vocational stresses , anxiety and tension are factors effecting the physical and psychological ability of the individual. This study aims to measure the vocational stresses among the lecturers of the university , to measure the level of ambition among them, to identify the statistical differences significant among them according to sex variable, to identify the differences significant in level of ambition among them according to sex variable and to identify the correlation r
... Show MoreThe increasing complexity of how humans interact with and process information has demonstrated significant advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP), transitioning from task-specific architectures to generalized frameworks applicable across multiple tasks. Despite their success, challenges persist in specialized domains such as translation, where instruction tuning may prioritize fluency over accuracy. Against this backdrop, the present study conducts a comparative evaluation of ChatGPT-Plus and DeepSeek (R1) on a high-fidelity bilingual retrieval-and-translation task. A single standardize prompt directs each model to access the Arabic-language news section of the College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, retrieve the three most r
... Show MoreRock failure during drilling is an important problem to be solved in petroleum technology. one of the most causes of rock failure is shale chemical interaction with drilling fluids. This interaction is changing the shale strength as well as its pore pressure relatively near the wellbore wall. In several oilfields in southern Iraq, drilling through the Tanuma formation is known as the most challenging operation due to its unstable behavior. Understanding the chemical reactions between shale and drilling fluid is determined by examining the features of shale and its behavior with drilling mud. Chemical interactions must be mitigated by the selection of suitable drilling mud with effective chemical additives. This study is describing t
... Show MoreThe study aimed to identify the role of the teacher in confronting intellectual extremism in high school students, and identify the differences of statistical significance in the role of teacher in confronting intellectual extremism in secondary school students according to gender variable (males, females) and the duration of service (less than 5 years more than 5 years), the sample was consisted of (100) teachers with (50) male and (50) female in the city of Bayaa, Dora and Sadiya, the measure of intellectual extremism was applied by the researcher, and the study reached a role of the teacher in facing the intellectual extremism at Secondary school students, and the existence of differences of statistical significance in the role
... Show MoreThe study aims to identify the role of family in inculcating the moral values of voluntary work among adults, as it constitutes the basic social institution that is responsible for raising and control children. It has regarded as the first phase of constituting societies, where family plays a significant role in changing the behavior of individuals positively or negatively through provided patterns. The moral values act as organizer of human relationship in which misusing of these values would affect the interaction between people. This study focuses on how to employ the moral values in voluntary work as a civilized behavior helps in developing and strengthening societies. The researcher adopted the analytical-descriptive approach as mor
... Show MoreThe current study aims to identify the effect of guided visualization strategy in developing the visual perception among kindergarteners. The experimental design was used; pre-post test. A total of (32) boy and girl ranging 5 to 6 years old were selected from al-Rabeea’ kindergarten, directorate of al-karkh 2 / Baghdad. The sample divided into equal two group (16) boy and girl of each one. al-Talaqany’s (2016) visual perception skills test among kindergarteners was adopted to collect the required data. The collected data had processed based on (gender, pre-post test, and age). To achieve the objectives of the study; the researcher set up series of sessions that addressed the guided visualization strategy among kindergarteners compose
... Show MoreBased on the theoretical ideas of E. Cassirer, a methodology is developed and an analysis of the painting work by J. Saleem, a representative of modern Iraqi painting, is carried out. While comparing the artistic programme of J. Saleem and the views of E. Cassirer, the methodological potential of the theory of the symbol for the art criticism analysis of the regional painting is clarified. Comparative analysis with the inclusion of the works of B. Buffet, B. Turetsky, J. Miro helps to see the multiple meanings of the same cultural symbol in thematically similar works of different years, created in different socio-cultural circumstances. The article shows that for regions with a shorter history (France, Russia, Spain, etc.), which have lo
... Show MoreSalivary peroxidases have biological functions of particular importance to oral health. The aim of this paper is to shed the light on saliva and serum total peroxidases activity as well as the activity of each of salivary peroxidase (SPO) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in patients with oral tumors. The studied participants were divided into two groups: the first group included 18 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 20 age and gender-matched healthy controls while the second group consisted of 20 oral ossifying fibroma patients and 23 age and gender-matched healthy controls. Total peroxidases activity was determined, and its specific activity was calculated in serum and whole mixed saliva as well as in the supernatant and pellet fractions
... Show More