Background: Despite the importance of vaccines in preventing COVID-19, the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines is lower among RA patients than in the general population. Objective: To determine the extent of COVID-19 knowledge among RA patients and their attitudes and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: A qualitative study with a phenomenology approach was performed through face-to-face, individual-based, semi-structured interviews in the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, rheumatology unit. A convenient sample of RA patients using disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs was included until the point of saturation. A thematic content analysis approach was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: Twenty-five RA patients participated in this study. Regarding knowledge about COVID-19, most participants were able to define COVID-19, realize its contagious nature, and see the need for masks to get protection from this infection, while only a minority knew COVID-19 symptoms. Most participants obtained information about COVID-19 from TV programs and the public. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, about 1/4 of the participants knew vaccine side effects, and only 12% of them had positive attitudes toward the vaccine. Additionally, 19 participants were unwilling to take the vaccine. The most common reasons behind this reluctance to take the vaccine include fear of the vaccine's short- and long-term side effects and the worsening of RA. Conclusion: RA patients' knowledge about COVID-19 and its vaccines was poor, and their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines were negative.
Background: Limited data are available on the dimensional stability and surface roughness of ThermoSens, which is a material used in denture processing. This study aimed to measure the vertical teeth changes and surface roughness of ThermoSens dentures prepared using three different investment materials. Materials and methods: For the dimensional changes test, 30 complete maxillary dentures were prepared using different investment methods: group I, dental stone; group II, silicone putty; and group III, a mixture of dental stone and plaster (ratio, 1:1; n = 10 for each group). Four screws were attached to the dentures: two were attached to the buccal surface of the canine and first molar, and the other two were attached in the flange areas o
... Show MoreThe drill bit is the most essential tool in drilling operation and optimum bit selection is one of the main challenges in planning and designing new wells. Conventional bit selections are mostly based on the historical performance of similar bits from offset wells. In addition, it is done by different techniques based on offset well logs. However, these methods are time consuming and they are not dependent on actual drilling parameters. The main objective of this study is to optimize bit selection in order to achieve maximum rate of penetration (ROP). In this work, a model that predicts the ROP was developed using artificial neural networks (ANNs) based on 19 input parameters. For the
ABSTRACT:
Interest rates are one of the important aspects that affect the banking business directly, which is characterized by unstable dynamic dynamics, which must be viewed on a daily and continuous basis through the macroeconomic view, which directly affects the bank’s income realized from loans as interest received or interest paid on its deposits as an expense. Hence the earnings per share. The relationship between interest rates and between net income and earnings per share was measured and a correlation was found between them, and then the effect between them was measured using regression equations and they were applied and th
... Show MoreIn order to obtain a mixed model with high significance and accurate alertness, it is necessary to search for the method that performs the task of selecting the most important variables to be included in the model, especially when the data under study suffers from the problem of multicollinearity as well as the problem of high dimensions. The research aims to compare some methods of choosing the explanatory variables and the estimation of the parameters of the regression model, which are Bayesian Ridge Regression (unbiased) and the adaptive Lasso regression model, using simulation. MSE was used to compare the methods.
The problem of the research lies in special motor abilities training programs like the balance that positively affect coordination between the nervous system and muscles. These training programs did not get enough attention from athletes especially young athletes; their training was restricted to physical abilities like strength, speed, and endurance instead. The research aimed at designing an apparatus for developing athletes’ balance in national centers for gifted/ ministry of youth and sport so as to provide a measurement for coached in this field. The results showed that the designed apparatus have a positive effect on developing the subjects’ balance in boxing and basketball athletes.
One of the recent significant but challenging research studies in computational biology and bioinformatics is to unveil protein complexes from protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs). However, the development of a reliable algorithm to detect more complexes with high quality is still ongoing in many studies. The main contribution of this paper is to improve the effectiveness of the well-known modularity density ( ) model when used as a single objective optimization function in the framework of the canonical evolutionary algorithm (EA). To this end, the design of the EA is modified with a gene ontology-based mutation operator, where the aim is to make a positive collaboration between the modularity density model and the proposed
... Show MoreThis research was carried out to determine the impact of heat shock, electric shock and seeds in soaking nitrous acid mutagen solution on three cultivars of faba beans plant (Zaina, Aguadulce and Local) at the year 2012-2013. Factorial experiment was arranged in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates were used. The results showed that heat shock lead to early plants of 50% in flowering and an increase in the number of branches/plant and the number of seeds/pod compared to other treatments, whereas the seeds soaked in nitrous acid mutagen solution gave the highest plant height, leaf area index, number of pods/plant, seed weight, seed yield kg/ha, and did not differ significantly with treatment of electric shock in the
... Show MoreIn this research the relation between skin resistances and standard penetration test of over consolidated
clay soils has been studied. The research includes doing boreholes at Babil governorate in Iraq to get
undisturbed samples and standard penetration test. Determination skin friction from direct shear test between
smooth concrete and soil was explored in laboratory for design purposes and correlated with standard
penetration test values. In many foundation design problems, the shear strength between soil and
foundation materials were estimated or correlated without any direct methods for measurement.
Twelve strain controlled direct shear tests were performed simulate the shear strength interaction
between smooth c
The aim of this study was to evaluate in-vitro activity of Cefamandol and Ceftazidime, in combination with potassium clavulanate against 10 uropathogenic E.coli isolated from patients with chronic complicated urinary tract infections (UTIs), these isolates were identified by the Api identification systems.The antimicrobial susceptibility tests were determined by Kirby-Bauer method and the minimum inhibitory concentrations of Cefamandol and Ceftazidime, were determined, by tube method. These isolates were resistant to Ampicillin (Amp), Amoxicillin (Amo), Carbenicillin (Cb), Ticarcillin (Tic), Amoxicillin\ Potassium Clavulanate {Augmentin}, (Amo\CA), Ticarcillin\ Potassium Clavulanate {Timentin} (Tic\CA), Cefamandol (Cfm) and Ceftazidime (
... Show MoreHigh performance self-consolidating concrete HP-SCC is one of the most complex types of concrete which have the capacity to consolidated under its own weight, have excellent homogeneity and high durability. This study aims to focus on the possibility of using industrial by-products like Silica fumes SF in the preparation of HP-SCC enhanced with discrete steel fibers (DSF) and monofilament polypropylene fibers (PPF). From experimental results, it was found that using DSF with volume fraction of 0.50 %; a highly improvements were gained in the mechanical properties of HP-SCC. The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and elastic modulus improved about 65.7 %, 70.5 %, 41.7 % and 80.3 % at 28 days age, respectively
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