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
DNA, as the basis of every living cell, is one of the most important and influential scientific discoveries. This research aims to identify and compare the organizational DNA to the leadership practices of school principals in the Sultanate of Oman and to reveal the similarity between principals’ leadership practices and the structure of DNA. In addition, it intends to identify any statistically significant differences between the responses of the participants due to the study variables: gender, job title and experience. A questionnaire was designed and data were collected from a randomly selected sample composed of (100) teachers in the Sultanate of Oman. The study found limitless diversity in the characteristics of DNA of leadership
... Show MoreThe aim of this paper is to estimate the concentrations of some heavy metals in Mohammed AL-Qassim Highway in Baghdad city for different distances by using the polynomial interpolation method for functions passing from the data, which is proposed by using the MATLAB software. The sample soil in this paper was taken from the surface layer (0-25 cm depth) at the two sides of the road with four distances (1.5, 10, 25 and 60 m) in each side of the road. Using this method, we can find the concentrations of heavy metals in the soil at any depth and time without using the laboratory, so this method reduces the time, effort and costs of conducting laboratory analyzes.
The assessment of a river water’ quality is an essential procedure of monitor programs and is used to collect basic environmental data. The management of integrated water resources in a sustainable method is also necessary to allow future generations to meet their water needs. The main objective of this research is to assess the effect of the Diyala River on Tigris River water quality using Geographic Information System (GIS) technique. Water samples have been collected monthly from November 2017 to April 2018 from four selected locations in Tigris and Diyala Rivers using the grab sampling method. Fourteen parameters were studied which are Turbidity, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand, Electrical Conductivi
... Show MoreThe assessment of a river water’ quality is an essential procedure of monitor programs and isused to collect basic environmental data. The management of integrated water resources in asustainable method is also necessary to allow future generations to meet their water needs. Themain objective of this research is to assess the effect of the Diyala River on Tigris River waterquality using Geographic Information System (GIS) technique. Water samples have beencollected monthly from November 2017 to April 2018 from four selected locations in Tigris andDiyala Rivers using the grab sampling method. Fourteen parameters were studied which areTurbidity, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand, Electrical Conductivity, TotalDissolved Solids,
... Show MoreThis paper attempts to shed light on the most influential factors in the importance of religious buildings were destroyed because of the recent war due to the control of terrorist gangs of ISIS over the city of Mosul, and to prioritize their reconstruction and their role in reviving the historical center of Mosul.
The research’s problem emerged in the lack of knowledge about the identifying the most influential factors in the importance of religious buildings and utilizing them to prioritize their reconstruction. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing the importance of religious buildings using the Expert Choice software through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to reach an analysis of their weights and propose p
... Show MoreThe current study aims at identifying the impact of using learning acceleration model on the achievement of mathematics for third intermediategrade students. Forachieving this, the researchers chose the School (Al-Kholood Secondary School for Girls) affiliated to the General Directorate of Babylon Education / Hashemite Education Department for the academic year (2021/2021), The sample reached to (70) female students from the third intermediate grade, with (35) female students for each of the two research groups. The two researchers prepared an achievement test consisting of (25) objective items of multiple choice type, The psychometric properties of the test were confirmed, and after the completion of the experiment, the achievement test wa
... Show MoreThis paper presents a comparison between the electroencephalogram (EEG) channels during scoliosis correction surgeries. Surgeons use many hand tools and electronic devices that directly affect the EEG channels. These noises do not affect the EEG channels uniformly. This research provides a complete system to find the least affected channel by the noise. The presented system consists of five stages: filtering, wavelet decomposing (Level 4), processing the signal bands using four different criteria (mean, energy, entropy and standard deviation), finding the useful channel according to the criteria’s value and, finally, generating a combinational signal from Channels 1 and 2. Experimentally, two channels of EEG data were recorded fro
... Show MoreSummarized the idea of research is marked by "changes in the process of mass communication by using the international network of information" by specifying what data networking and mass communication is the transformation processes in the mass communication network where research aims to:1. Diagnostic data and transformations in the process of mass communication network.2. Provide a contact form commensurate with the characteristic mass of the International Network of electronic information, and research found to provide a communicative model called the (human contact network). In short (HCN) Humanity Communication Net also reached conclusions concerning the search process and communicative transformations and changes that have taken pla
... Show MoreThis paper investigated the treatment of textile wastewater polluted with aniline blue (AB) by electrocoagulation process using stainless steel mesh electrodes with a horizontal arrangement. The experimental design involved the application of the response surface methodology (RSM) to find the mathematical model, by adjusting the current density (4-20 mA/cm2), distance between electrodes (0.5-3 cm), salt concentration (50-600 mg/l), initial dye concentration (50-250 mg/l), pH value (2-12 ) and experimental time (5-20 min). The results showed that time is the most important parameter affecting the performance of the electrocoagulation system. Maximum removal efficiency (96 %) was obtained at a current density of 20 mA/cm2, distance be
... Show MoreThis research studies the rheological properties ( plastic viscosity, yield point and apparent viscosity) of Non-Newtonian fluids under the effect of temperature using different chemical additives, such as (xanthan gum (xc-polymer), carboxyl methyl cellulose ( High and low viscosity ) ,polyacrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol, starch, Quebracho and Chrome Lignosulfonate). The samples were prepared by mixing 22.5g of bentonite with 350 ml of water and adding the additives in four different concentrations (3, 6, 9, 13) g by using Hamilton Beach mixer. The rheological properties of prepared samples were measured by using Fan viscometer model 8-speeds. All the samples were subjected to Bingham plastic model. The temperature range studi
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