Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation that is preventable but not curable. It is associated with persistent symptoms that cause a considerable burden on individual productivity at work, and daily activities, and reduced quality of life, also burdening the healthcare system and society. Objectives: The study aims to measure the burden of COPD on patients in terms of daily activities and work productivity. It also seeks to investigate some inflammatory biomarkers' levels and their correlation with selected outcomes. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated according to the GOLD guidelines at Kirkuk General Hospital's chest and Internal Medicine consultation clinics, and in private internist clinics in Kirkuk City, Iraq between January and April 2023. The Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI-COPD) measured the Burden of COPD. The symptom burden was assessed by the COPD assessment test (CAT). The level of IL-6 monoclonal antibodies was measured via a Roche Cobas 6000 analyzer and TNF-α using the ELISA sandwich technique. All these devices and machines were authorized by the Ministry of Health, Iraq. Results: The mean age was (54.1 ± 8.12) years, 62.5% being males and 37.5% being females; 41.7% were public sector employees, and 39.2% were self-employed. Due to COPD, the overall work loss was (45.9±18.91) days, the mean percentage of absenteeism was (10.9% ± 12.31%), activity impairment was (47.5% ±17.79%) among all patients, presenteeism was (40.8 ± 15.05%,) and COPD-related retirees were 14.2% of the study group. The mean CAT score (19.3±5.63) was high and the most troubling symptom among patients was chest tightness. WPAI-COPD scores were higher in older age and longer disease duration. The levels of biomarkers were above the reference ranges, the mean IL-6 level was (69.4 ± 35.29) pg/ml, and the mean TNF-α was (72.3 ± 22.45) pg/ ml. Conclusions: COPD patients exhibit a disease burden in terms of productivity loss at work and activity impairment that increases with aging and disease duration. COPD patients with low BMI are more prone to a decline in lung functions and to worse symptoms.
The way artists deal with body in their artistic works has had so many forms and methods, whether as an object for their drawings or as a material to create live artistic performances that relate to the idea of correspondence and interaction between different artistic categories such as: drama, dance, and painting as it is the case of the artist Marina Abramovic who has always used her body as an artistic unit to generate meaning and to perform her lively shows.
To go deeper into her career, our work was divided into 3 sections:
The first section was devoted to follow the main artistic stages that her body had gone through, starting with paintings she performed using concepts based on acting, simulation and nudity and ending wi
The aim of the research is to identify the reality of strategic planning in the National Insurance Company and its importance in building institutional work and to identify the requirements that enable this company to successfully implement strategic planning and the obstacles that limit its application and then achieve the marketing objectives of this company. This study started from the fact that there is a problem represented by the main question that was stated.  
... Show MoreThe objective of the study was to identify the effectiveness of a training program based on the employment of the educational portal in the development of the skills of the administrative body in the basic education schools in Dhofar Governorate. To achieve the goal, a training program was designed that includes the skills of the educational portal to be met by the administrative body and measuring its effectiveness. A questionnaire to identify training needs, and a notecard to evaluate performance. The study sample consisted of (70) individuals of the administrative staff. The researchers used the descriptive-analytical method to identify the training needs, design and build the training program and the experimental method for applying
... Show MoreThe aim of this research is to identify how to employ the social imagination and its representations in the paintings of the students of the Department of Art Education. Students of the Department of Art Education in the light of this tool, and the researcher reached a number of results, the most important of which are:
1. The indicator of the social imagination in the excitement of the artist and the recipient, because the representations are embodied in forms within the painting and close to reality.
2. An artistic sample of the representational imagination and the creative imagination was found to be more than the imaginary imagination.
3. Individual symptoms related to the term.
4. The representations of the socia
In this study, the effects of blending the un-branched acrylate polymer known as Poly (n-decyl acrylate), and the branched acrylate polymer known as Poly (iso-octyl acrylate), on the viscosity index (VI), and the pour point of the Iraqi base stocks 40, and 60 respectively, were investigated. Toluene was used as a carrier solvent for both polymer types. The improvement level of oils (VI, & pour point) gained by blending the oil with the acrylate derived polymers was compared with the values of (VI, and pour point) gained by blending the oil with a commercial viscosity index, and pour point improver. The commercial lubricant additive was purchased and used by Al-Daura Refineries. It consisted of an un-known olefin copolymer dissolved i
... Show MoreATAW Eqbal Abdul Ameer'. Shifaa Jameel Ibrahim?, HISTORY Of MEDICINE, 2023
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the concept of fuzzy logic ,its application in linguistics ,especially in language teaching and the fuzziness of some lexical items in English.
Fuzziness means that the semantic boundaries of some lexical items are indefinite and ideterminate.Fuzzy logic provides a very precise approach for dealing with this indeterminacy and uncertainty which grows (among other reasons) out of human behavior and the effect of society.
The concept of fuzzy logic has emerged in the development of the theory of fuzzy set by Lotfi Zadeh(a professor of computer science at the university of California) in 1965.It can be thought of as the application side of the fuzzy set theory. In linguistics, few scholars