Land use change, particularly the expansion of urban areas and associated human activities at the expense of natural and semi-natural areas, is a major ecological issue in urban areas around the world. Climate change being a very strong additional driver for changing the temperature and habitat in the cities. This also applies to Baghdad, Iraq, where urbanisation and climate change exerts a major pressure on the natural habitats of the city, and thus may affect the ability of city planners to adapt to future climate change scenarios. Here we present evidence of substantial growth in urban areas, increases in temperature, and degradation of natural vegetation within Baghdad city by using Remote Sensing techniques and an assessment for the

Objective: To determine the ability of uVDBP to discern SRNS from steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) in Iraqi children. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled children with SRNS (n=31) and SSNS (n=32) from the pediatric nephrology clinic of Babylon Hospital for Maternity and Pediatrics over three months. Patients' characteristics in terms of demographics, clinical data, and urinary investigations were collected. Quantitative analysis of uVDBP levels was undertaken via a commercially available ELISA kit. Results: The median uVDBP values were significantly higher (p-value<0.001) in the SRNS group (median=10.26, IQR=5.91 μg/mL) than in the SSNS group (median=0.953, IQR=4.12 μg/mL). A negative correlati

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a condition characterized by an elevation of oxidative stress, which has been implicated in diabetic progression and its vascular complications. Aim: Assessing the impact of gliclazide modified release (MR) versus glimepiride on oxidative stress markers, glycemic indices, lipid profile, and estimated glomerular filtration rate in uncontrolled type 2 diabetic patients on metformin monotherapy. Methods: This was an observational comparative study conducted in Thi-Qar specialized diabetic, endocrine, and metabolism center. Sixty-six patients were randomized into two groups based on the addition of the sulfonylureas (SUs). Group 1 (33 patients) was on gliclazide MR, whereas Group 2 (33 patients)

Background: Chief complaint of patients attending dental clinic represents the first step towards treatment plan. However, most of patients are not aware but the extent and severity of periodontal disease, which could be also, misdiagnose by the dentist. Aim of the study: To investigate whether reported chief complaint(s) are consistent with oral hygiene status Materials and methods: Records of 1102 patients, attending periodontics clinics in the college of dentistry/ university of Baghdad, were used to determine ten most commonly reported chief complaints. Sample of patients was further subdivided according to gender and age. In addition, plaque and gingival index were recorded to determine oral hygiene status. Results: Patients mostly

Vascular patterns were seen to be a probable identification characteristic of the biometric system. Since then, many studies have investigated and proposed different techniques which exploited this feature and used it for the identification and verification purposes. The conventional biometric features like the iris, fingerprints and face recognition have been thoroughly investigated, however, during the past few years, finger vein patterns have been recognized as a reliable biometric feature. This study discusses the application of the vein biometric system. Though the vein pattern can be a very appealing topic of research, there are many challenges in this field and some improvements need to be carried out. Here, the researchers reviewed

Zernike Moments has been popularly used in many shape-based image retrieval studies due to its powerful shape representation. However its strength and weaknesses have not been clearly highlighted in the previous studies. Thus, its powerful shape representation could not be fully utilized. In this paper, a method to fully capture the shape representation properties of Zernike Moments is implemented and tested on a single object for binary and grey level images. The proposed method works by determining the boundary of the shape object and then resizing the object shape to the boundary of the image. Three case studies were made. Case 1 is the Zernike Moments implementation on the original shape object image. In Case 2, the centroid of the s

A total number of 33 isolates of Pseudomoans aeruginosa were collected from different clinical samples, such as: burn, wound and urine from patients attending Al-Yarmouk teaching hospital and some private clinical laboratories in Baghdad city through the period from October to December 2016. On the other hand, 21 isolates of P. aeruginosa were collected from 38 different food samples; such as: vegetables and fruits, from different local markets in Baghdad city during the period from November to December 2016. All isolates were identified by using different bacteriological and biochemical assays and confirmed by Vitek-2 identification system. The antimicrobial susceptibility test for clinical and food isolates towards 17 antimicrobial a

The present investigation aims to determine the effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on biotransformation and antioxidant genes and the protective effects of curcumin, present in turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder (TMP). Specifically, the study included four groups of albino mice were fed for 30 days on diet Group I: Control, Group II: animals fed on the conventional basal diet supplemented with 0.5% food grade TMP that supplied 74 mg/kg total curcuminoids. Group III contained animals reared on conventional basal diet supplemented with 1.0 ppm AFB1 supplied by ground aflatoxin culture material (760 ppm AFB1). Finally, Group IV comprised of albino mice fed with basal diet supplemented with 1.0 ppm AFB1 and 0.5% TMP that supplied 74 mg/kg of the