Background: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs occurs in all aspects of anticancer drug handling. Proper recommendations and guidelines should be applied to control and reduce exposure. Objective: To assess pharmacists' knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of anticancer drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at seven major hospitals in Baghdad City, Iraq, from December 2023 to February 2024. A pre-designed questionnaire was given to pharmacists who handled anticancer drugs in chemotherapy units. The questionnaire comprises sociodemographic data, knowledge of the safe handling of cytotoxic drugs and thoughts about exposure and risk, practices for safely handling cytotoxic drugs, and challenges for safely handling cytotoxic drugs. Results: A total of 126 pharmacists were enrolled in the study. Less than half of the participants (46%) received training on anticancer drugs. While more than a third (42.9%) of the pharmacists were handling more than 100 cytotoxic preparations weekly, the total knowledge score was 7.14, while the total practice score was 73.36, with less than half of the pharmacists having good knowledge (44.44%) or practice (48.41%). Pharmacists who received training had significantly higher total practice scores than those who did not. Pharmacists with more than 100 weekly preparations were more knowledgeable than those with 50–99 preparations. Conclusions: The majority of participating pharmacists had fair to excellent knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of cytotoxic medications. However, there were some gaps regarding important knowledge and practice issues. To improve knowledge and practices regarding anticancer handling, training is necessary.
Background: Smoking is the major environmental risk factor that has been associated with the pathogenesis and progression of periodontal diseases. Interleukin-8 (IL-8), has been associated with the immunopathology of periodontitis. Objectives: To determine the influence of smoking on salivary Interleukin-8 level from smokers and non-smokers with periodontitis and periodontally healthy control subjects.
Materials and Methods: Un-stimulated saliva samples were collected of 90 participants: 30 smokers and 30 non-smokers with chronic periodontitis, as well as 30 periodontally healthy control subjects. The clinical parameters such as the pocket depth, clinical attachment loss, plaque index, and gingiv
... Show MoreCyanobacteria are prokaryotic photosynthetic communities which are used in biofertilization of many plants especially rice plant. Cyanobacteria play a vital role to increase the plant's ability for salinity tolerance. Salinity is a worldwide problem which affects the growth and productivity of crops. In this work three cyanobacteria strains (Nostoc calcicola, Anabaena variabilis, and Nostoc linkia) were isolated from saline soil at Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate; North Egypt. The propagated cyanobacteria strains were used to withstand salinity of the soil and increase rice plant growth (Giza 178). The length of roots and shoot seedlings was measured for seven and forty days of cultivation, respectively. The results of this investigation showed
... Show MoreExperiments were conducted to study axial liquid dispersion coefficient in slurry bubble column of 0.15 m inside diameter and 1.6 m height using perforated plate gas distributor of 54 holes of a size equal to 1 mm diameter and with a 0.24 free area of holes to the cross sectional area of the column. The three phase system consists of air, water and PVC used as the solid phase. The effect of solid loading (0, 30 and 60 kg/m3) and solid diameter (0.7, 1.5 and 3 mm) on the axial liquid dispersion coefficient at different axial location (25, 50 and 75 cm) and superficial gas velocity covered homogeneous-heterogeneous flow regime (1-10 cm/s) were studied in the present work. The results show that the axial liquid dispersion coeffic
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In this paper presents two dimensional turbulent flow of different nanofluids and ribs configuration in a circular tube have been numerically investigation using FLUENT 6.3.26. Two samples of CuO and, ZnO nanoparticles with 2% v/v concentration and 40 nm as nanoparticle diameter combined with trapezoidalribs with aspect ratio of p/d=5.72 in a constant tube surface heat flux were conducted for simulation. The results showed that heat flow as Nusselt number for all cases raises with Reynolds number and volume fraction of nanofluid, likewise the results also reveal that ZnO with volume fractions of 2% in trapezoidal ribs offered highest Nusselt number at Reynolds number of Re= 30000.
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... Show MoreIn the present work experiments were conducted to study the effect of solid loading (1,5 and 9 vol.%) on the enhancement of carbon dioxide absorption in bubble column at various volumetric gas flow rate (0.75, 1 and 1.5 m3/h) and absorbent concentration (caustic soda)( 0.1,0.5 and 1 M ). Activated carbon and alumina oxide (Al2O3) are used as solid particles. The Danckwerts method was used to calculate interfacial area and individual mass transfer coefficients during absorption of carbon dioxide in a bubble column. The results show that the absorption rate was increased with increasing volumetric gas flow rate, caustic soda concentration and solid loading. Mass transfer coefficient and interfac
... Show MoreThe protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica is a causative agent of amoebiasis, where it causes millions of cases of dysentery and liver abscess each year. Metronidazole is a drug of choice against amoebiasis. The drug is a choice because of its efficacy and low cost, but at the same time it causes several adverse side effects; therefore, it is important to find effective medications to treat amoebiasis without any complications or any side effects. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of different concentrations (50, 75 and 100 µg/ml) of silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) against trophozoites stages of E. histolytica in vitro. The results showed a significant decrease (p ? 0.05) in numbers of trophozoites stages after treated
... Show MoreReflective cracking is one of the primary forms of deterioration in pavements. It is widespread when Asphalt concrete (AC) overlays are built over a rigid pavement with discontinuities on its surface. Thus, this research work aims to reduce reflection cracks in asphalt concrete overlay on the rigid pavement. Asphalt Concrete (AC) slab specimens were prepared in three thicknesses (4, 5, and 6 cm). All these specimens were by testing machine designed and manufactured at the Engineering Consulting Office of the University of Baghdad to examine for the number of cycles and loads needed to propagate the reflection cracking in the asphalt concert mixture at three temperatures (20, 30, and 30°C). It was noticed that the higher thickness A
... Show MoreUnderstanding breaking news necessitates a special attention, since they are written with a special style. The study aims at identifying the difficulties faced by the Iraqi university EFL learners in comprehending English breaking news. The study included 10 fourth year students enrolled at the Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Anbar. Thus, a questionnaire as a research instrument, was sent online to the students. The questionnaire points were related to the identification of difficulties faced by the learners in comprehending English breaking news. The data of the study were (10) headlines selected purposively from Euronews website. The data were qualitatively analyzed based on quantifying the qua
... Show MoreThis work aimed to estimate the frequency of mitochondrial inborn errors of metabolism (MIEMs) in patients presenting with family history and IEM-picture who referred for advance IEM assay in Mosul province and Kurdistan region. This study was observational study conducted on 364 cases referred from different general /or private pediatric clinics with unexplained sign and symptoms and suspension of mitochondrial dysfunction. The study included 364 children with an age ranging from 1 month to 1 year. Started from January 2018 to January 2020. All patients referred with their full history review, notes about their clinical examination, and laboratory investigations including blood ammonia, serum lactate/ pyruvate, arterial blood gases. In
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