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
The study aims to integrate the visually impaired people into the art connoisseur community through producing special print artworks to enable the visually impaired people to use their other senses to feel artworks by using artistic printing techniques through adding some prominent materials to the printing colors or making an impact that visually impaired people can perceive using their other senses. This study also aims to set up art exhibitions that display tangible works that can enable visually impaired people to feel artwork and understand its elements to enable them to feel it through other senses.
The study follows the experimental method, through using artistic printing techniques, which allow printing with prominent textur
The effect of subinhibitory concentration of Antibiotics on the Adherence of S.aureus (Coagulase Positive Staphylococci), and S.epidermidis (Coagulase negative Staphylococci) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae, Citobacter freundi (Gram negative bacteria) was done and the results revealed that Rifampicin was the best antibiotic inhibiting Staphylococci adherence and Vancomycin has less effect on the adherence of Staphylococci, whereas Tetracyclin was the best antibiotic inhbiting Gram negative bacteria adherence and Amikacin has the lest less effect on inhibiting bacterial adherence.
For structural concrete members that may expose to serious earthquake, overload or accident impact, the design of ductility must be given the same importance as the flexural strength. The aim of this investigation is to study the change in ductility of structural concrete flexural members during their exposure to limited cycles of repeated loading. Twenty full-scale beam specimens have been fabricated in to two identical groups; each group consisted of ten specimens. The first group was tested under monotonic static loading to failure and regarded as control beams, while the specimens of the second group were subjected to ten cycles of repeated loading with constant load interval, which ranged between 40% and 60% of ultimate load. S
... Show MoreFor structural concrete members that may expose to serious earthquake, overload or accident impact, the design of ductility must be given the same importance as the flexural strength. The aim of this investigation is to study the change in ductility of structural concrete flexural members during their exposure to limited cycles of repeated loading. Twenty full-scale beam specimens have been fabricated in to two identical groups; each group consisted of ten specimens. The first group was tested under monotonic static loading to failure and regarded as control beams, while the specimens of the second group were subjected to ten cycles of repeated loading with constant load interval, which ranged between 40% and 60% of ultimate load. S
... Show MorePlasma physics and digital image processing technique (DIPT) were utilized in this research to show the effect of the cold plasma (plasma needle) on blood cells. The second order statistical features were used to study this effect. Different samples were used to reach the aim of this paper; the patients have leukemia and their leukocytes number was abnormal. By studying the results of statistical features (mean, variance, energy and entropy), it is concluded that the blood cells of the sample showed a good response to the cold plasma.
In this work, a series of new maleimides linked to substituted benzothiazole moiety were synthesized. Synthesis of these new cyclic imides were performed via three steps, the first one involved preparation of a series of 2-aminobenzothiazole substituted with different substituents via reaction of different primary aromatic amines with ammonium thiocyanate and bromine in glacial acetic acid. The prepared 2- amino benzothiozoles were introduced in the second step in reaction with maleic anhydride producing a series of N-(substituted benzothiazole-2-yl) maleamic acids.The resulted maleamic acids were dehydrated in the third step via treatment with acetic anhydride and anhydrous sodium acetate to afford a series of the desirable N-(substitu
... Show MoreIntroduction: Candida spp. has become increasingly resistant to antifungal drugs, with elevated MIC levels causing a negative medical impact and increasing the number of patients at risk of candidiasis. According to the CDC, about 7% of Candida blood samples show reduced susceptibility to fluconazole. Monitoring the antifungal resistance profile of Candida spp. is vital, as non-Albicans species may limit treatment options. Objective: Evaluate the antifungal effectiveness against clinical Candida spp. isolates of six antifungals: amphotericin B, fluconazole, voriconazole, itraconazole, caspofungin, and 5-fluorocytosine. Methods: 100 samples were collected from various clinical samples at the National Centre of Teaching Laboratories
... Show MoreVitamin E, having the well known antioxidant activity through scavenging free radicals و it occurs in several isomeric forms , these isomers have relatively different functions . One of these actions is related to its ability to inhibit platelets aggregation and hence thrombosis. The present study included a total number of apparently healthy 62 males . 11of them served as standard group , treated with 100 mg aspirin /day for more than one month . Another 31 subjects were randomly grouped into 5 groups that received different daily doses of α – tocopherol : 400 IU , 800 IU and 1200 IU for 2-6 months.The remainder ( 20 ) subjects served
... Show MoreWe know that the experiments which conducted by latin square in one location or in one period (season), but there are many cases that need to conduct the same experiments in many locations or in many periods (seasons) to study the interaction between the treatments and locations or between the treatments and periods (seasons) .In this research we present an idea for conduct the experiment in several locations and in many period (seasons) by using LSD , it represent acontribution in the area of design and analysis of experiments ,we had written. we had written (theoretically) the general plans, the mathematical models for these experiments, and finding the derivations of EMS for each component (
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