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 Dirichlet process is an important fundamental object in nonparametric Bayesian modelling, applied to a wide range of problems in machine learning, statistics, and bioinformatics, among other fields. This flexible stochastic process models rich data structures with unknown or evolving number of clusters. It is a valuable tool for encoding the true complexity of real-world data in computer models. Our results show that the Dirichlet process improves, both in distribution density and in signal-to-noise ratio, with larger sample size; achieves slow decay rate to its base distribution; has improved convergence and stability; and thrives with a Gaussian base distribution, which is much better than the Gamma distribution. The performance depen
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The main aim of this study is to evaluate the remaining oil in previously produced zones, locate the water productive zone and look for any bypassed oil behind casing in not previously perforated intervals. Initial water saturation was calculated from digitized open hole logs using a cut-off value of 10% for irreducible water saturation. The integrated analysis of the thermal capture cross section, Sigma and Carbon/oxygen ratio was conducted and summarized under well shut-in and flowing conditions. The logging pass zone run through sandstone Zubair formation at north Rumaila oil field. The zones where both the Sigma and the C/O analysis show high remaining oil saturation simila
... Show MoreA simplified theoretical comparison of the hydrogen chloride (HCl) and hydrogen fluoride (HF) chemical lasers is presented by using computer program. The program is able to predict quantitative variations of the laser characteristics as a function of rotational and vibrational quantum number. Lasing is assumed to occur in a Fabry-Perot cavity on vibration-rotation transitions between two vibrational levels of hypothetical diatomic molecule. This study include a comprehensive parametric analysis that indicates that the large rotational constant of HF laser in comparison with HCl laser makes it relatively easy to satisfy the partial inversion criterion. The results of this computer program proved their credibility when compared with th
... Show MoreThe main objectives of this research is to extract essential oil from: orange ( citrus sinensis), lemon( citrus limon) and mandarin( citrus reticulata) peels by two methods: steam distillation (SD) and microwave assisted steam distillation (MASD), study the effect of extraction conditions (weight of the sample, extraction time, and microwave power, citrus peel type) on oil yield and compare the results of the two methods, the resulting essential oil was analyzed by Gas Chromatography (GC).
Essential oils are highly concentrated substances used for their flavor and therapeutic or odoriferous properties, in a wide selection of products such as foods, medicines and cosmetics. Extracti
... Show MoreThe possibility of using the magnetic field technique in prevention of forming scales in heat exchangers pipes using
hard water in heat transfer processes, also the studying the effective and controllable parameters on the mechanism of
scale formation.
The new designed heat exchanger experimental system was used after carrying out the basic process designs of the
system. This system was used to study the effect of the temperature (40-90 °C) and water flow rate (0.6-1.2 L/min) on
the total hardness with time as a function of precipitation of hardness salts from water and scale formation.
Different magnetic field designs in the heat exchanger experimental system were used to study the effect of magnetic
field design a
Change detection is a technology ascertaining the changes of
specific features within a certain time Interval. The use of remotely
sensed image to detect changes in land use and land cover is widely
preferred over other conventional survey techniques because this
method is very efficient for assessing the change or degrading trends
of a region. In this research two remotely sensed image of Baghdad
city gathered by landsat -7and landsat -8 ETM+ for two time period
2000 and 2014 have been used to detect the most important changes.
Registration and rectification the two original images are the first
preprocessing steps was applied in this paper. Change detection using
NDVI subtractive has been computed, subtrac
Background: The prediction of changes in the mandibular third molar position and eruption is an important clinical concern because third molar retention may be beneficial for orthodontic anchorage. The aims of this study were to assess the mandibular third molar position by using medical CT scan and lateral reconstructed radiograph and evaluate gender differences. Materials and Methods: The sample of present study consisted of 39 patients (18 males and 21 females) with age range 11-15 years who were attending at Al-Suwayra General Hospital/ the Computerized Tomography department. The distance from anterior edge of ramus to distal surface of permanent mandibular second molar and mesio-distal width of developing mandibular third molar were
... Show MoreOne of the most Interesting natural phenomena is clouds that have a very strong effect on the climate, weather and the earth's energy balance. Also clouds consider the key regulator for the average temperature of the plant. In this research monitoring and studying the cloud cover to know the clouds types and whether they are rainy or not rainy using visible and infrared satellite images. In order to interpret and know the types of the clouds visually without using any techniques, by comparing between the brightness and the shape of clouds in the same area for both the visible and infrared satellite images, where the differences in the contrasts of visible image are the albedo differences, while in the infrared images is the temperature d
... Show MoreThe ability to produce load-bearing masonry units adopting ACI 211.1 mix design using (1:3.2:2.5) as (cement: fine aggregate: coarse aggregate) with slump range (25-50mm) which can conform (dimension, absorption, and compressive strength) within IQS 1077/1987 requirements type A was our main goal of the study. The ability to use low cement content (300 kg/m3) to handle our market price products since the most consumption in wall construction for low-cost buildings was encouraging. The use of (10 and 20%) of LECA as partial volume replacement of coarse aggregate to reduce the huge weight of masonry blocks can also be recommended. The types of production of the load-bearing masonry units were A and B for (
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