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
Background: The treatment of dental tissues proceeding to adhesive procedures is a crucial step in the bonding protocol and decides the clinical success ofrestorations. This study was conducted in vitro, with the aim of evaluating thenanoleakage on the interface between the adhesive system and the dentine treated by five surface modalities using scanning electron microscopy and energydispersiveX-ray spectrometry. Materials and methods: Twenty five extracted premolars teeth were selected in the study. Standardized class V cavities were prepared on the buccal and lingual surfaces then the teeth divided into five main groups of (5 teeth in each group n=10) according to the type of dentine surface treatment that was used: Group (A): dentine was
... Show MoreThe finishing operation of the electrochemical finishing technology (ECF) for tube of steel was investigated In this study. Experimental procedures included qualitative
and quantitative analyses for surface roughness and material removal. Qualitative analyses utilized finishing optimization of a specific specimen in various design and operating conditions; value of gap from 0.2 to 10mm, flow rate of electrolytes from 5 to 15liter/min, finishing time from 1 to 4min and the applied voltage from 6 to 12v, to find out the value of surface roughness and material removal at each electrochemical state. From the measured material removal for each process state was used to verify the relationship with finishing time of work piece. Electrochemi
Oily wastewater is one of the most challenging streams to deal with especially if the oil exists in emulsified form. In this study, electrospinning method was used to prepare nanofiberous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes and study their performance in oil removal. Graphene particles were embedded in the electrospun PVDF membrane to enhance the efficiency of the membranes. The prepared membranes were characterized using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to verify the graphene stabilization on the surface of the membrane homogeneously; while FTIR was used to detect the functional groups on the membrane surface. The membrane wettability was assessed by measuring the contact angle. The PVDF and PVDF / Graphene membranes efficiency
... Show MoreCoblatcomplex has been prepared by reaction between C16H19N3O3S (L) as ligand and metal salt (II). The prepared complex were characterized by infrared spectra, electromic spectra, magnetic susceptibility, molar conductivity measurement and metal analysis by atomic absorption and (C.H.N) analysis. From these studies tetrahedral geometry structure for the complex was suggested. The photodegredation of complex were study using photoreaction cell and preparednanoTiO2 catalyst in different conditions (concentration, temperatures, pH).The results show that the recation is of a first order with activation energy equal to (6.6512 kJ /mol).
Extraction of copper (Cu) from aqueous solution utilizing Liquid Membrane technology (LM) is more effective than precipitation method that forms sludge and must be disposed of in landfills. In this work, we have formulated a liquid surfactant membrane (LSM) that uses kerosene oil as the main diluent of LSM to remove copper ions from the aqueous waste solution through di- (2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid - D2EHPA- as a carrier. This technique displays several advantages including one-stage extraction and stripping process, simple operation, low energy requirement, and. In this study, the LSM process was used to transport Cu (II) ions from the feed phase to the stripping phase, which was prepared, using H2SO4. For LSM p
... Show MoreFuture wireless communication systems must be able to accommodate a large number of users and simultaneously to provide the high data rates at the required quality of service. In this paper a method is proposed to perform the N-Discrete Hartley Transform (N-DHT) mapper, which are equivalent to 4-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, … etc. in spectral efficiency. The N-DHT mapper is chosen in the Multi Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) structure to serve as a data mapper instead of the conventional data mapping techniques like QPSK and QAM schemes. The proposed system is simulated using MATLAB and compared with conventional MC-CDMA for Additive White Gaussian Noise, flat, and multi-path selective fa
... Show MoreIn this paper we use non-polynomial spline functions to develop numerical methods to approximate the solution of 2nd kind Volterra integral equations. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the applications of these method, and to compare the computed results with other known methods.
The most universal and basic damages caused by an earthquakes are buildings damage and human casualties. A simplified method, the RADIUS 99 Tool is used to calculate seismic intensity (shaking) distribution, buildings damage, number of casualties and lifelines damage, due to assumed earthquake scenario. In this study, Al - Kadhmiya sector in Baghdad city was chosen for assessing seismic risk, for this purpose, this area was divided into mesh of 1*1 km2 cell size, and a scenario of (Manjil) earthquake (that struck Iran in 1990) was utilized with following earthquake magnitudes (5 and 7), with epicenter distance (3, 10 and 100 km), and depths (2 and 5 km). It was found that, the best soil types for constructions are those with medium and h
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