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The Burden of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease COPD in Stable Patients and its Association with Inflammatory Biomarkers and Body Mass Index
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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.

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Publication Date
Tue May 28 2019
Journal Name
Al-khwarizmi Engineering Journal
Treatment of Waste Extract Lubricating Oil by Catalytic Cracking Process to Produce Light Fractions
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The catalytic cracking of three feeds of extract lubricating oil, that produced as a by-product from the process of furfural extraction of lubricating oil base stock in AL-Dura refinery at different operating condition, were carried out at a fixed bed laboratory reactor. The initial boiling point for these feeds was 140 ºC for sample (1), 86 ºC for sample (2) and 80 ºC for sample (3). The catalytic cracking processes were carried out at temperature range 325-400 ºC and initially at atmospheric pressure after 30 minutes over 9.88 % HY-zeolite catalyst load. The comparison between the conversion at different operating conditions of catalytic cracking processes indicates that a high yield was obtained at 375°C, according to gasoline pr

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Publication Date
Sun Jun 01 2025
Journal Name
Journal Of Physics: Conference Series
Searching Ground State Properties of some Light Proton-Rich Nuclei Using Whittaker Wave Functions
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Abstract<p>In this work, the Whittaker wave functions were used to study the nuclear density distributions and elastic electron scattering charge form factors for proton-rich nuclei and their corresponding stable nuclei (<sup>10,8</sup>B, <sup>13,9</sup>C, <sup>14,12</sup>N and <sup>19,17</sup>F). The parameters of Whittaker’s basis were fixed to generate the experimental values of available size radii. The Whittaker basis was connected to harmonic-oscillator basis through boundary condition at match point. The nuclear shell model was opted with pure configuration for all studied nuclei to compute aforementioned studied quantities except <sup>10</sup></p> ... Show More
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Publication Date
Sun Jun 15 2025
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Laser
Performance Enhancement of Metasurface Grating Polarizer Using Deep Learning for Quantum Key Distribution Systems
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Metasurface polarizers are essential optical components in modern integrated optics and play a vital role in many optical applications including Quantum Key Distribution systems in quantum cryptography. However, inverse design of metasurface polarizers with high efficiency depends on the proper prediction of structural dimensions based on required optical response. Deep learning neural networks can efficiently help in the inverse design process, minimizing both time and simulation resources requirements, while better results can be achieved compared to traditional optimization methods. Hereby, utilizing the COMSOL Multiphysics Surrogate model and deep neural networks to design a metasurface grating structure with high extinction rat

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Publication Date
Thu Dec 09 2021
Journal Name
Journal Of Polymer Research
A new generation of cable grade poly(vinyl chloride) containing heavy metal free modifier
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Abstract<p>Many additives are used to improve the performance of cables in terms of increasing their flame retardancy, thermal stability, thermal conductivity, and other characteristics. Unfortunately, most of these additives contain heavy metals. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to introduce a material representing a new generation of environmentally friendly heavy metal-free stabilizers for cable grade poly(vinyl chloride) that can compete with traditional materials in terms of performance and distinctive properties. This unique additive is Oxydtron, a synthetic silicate or simply nanocement. The tests performed are rheological properties represented by a capillary rheometry analysis, limiting o</p> ... Show More
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Publication Date
Wed Dec 28 2022
Journal Name
Structural Concrete
Enhancement of RC T‐beams toughness using laced stirrups reinforcement for blast response predictions
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Abstract<p>The dynamic behavior of laced reinforced concrete (LRC) T‐beams could give high‐energy absorption capabilities without significantly affecting the cost, which was offered through a combination of high strength and ductile response. In this paper, LRC T‐beams, composed of inclined continuous reinforcement on each side of the beam, were investigated to maintain high deformations as predicted in blast resistance. The beams were tested under four‐point loading to create pure bending zones and obtain the ultimate flexural capacities. Transverse reinforcement using lacing reinforcement and conventional vertical stirrups were compared in terms of deformation, strain, and toughness changes of the tes</p> ... Show More
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Publication Date
Wed Mar 10 2021
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Performance Evaluation of Mobility Models over UDP Traffic Pattern for MANET Using NS-2
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  The current study presents the simulative study and evaluation of MANET mobility models over UDP traffic pattern to determine the effects of this traffic pattern on mobility models in MANET which is implemented in NS-2.35 according to various performance metri (Throughput, AED (Average End-2-end Delay), drop packets, NRL (Normalize Routing Load) and PDF (Packet Delivery Fraction)) with various parameters such as different velocities, different environment areas, different number of nodes,  different traffic rates, different traffic sources, different pause times and different simulation times .  A routing protocol.…was exploited AODV(Adhoc On demand Distance Vector) and RWP (Random Waypoint), GMM (Gauss Markov Model), RPGM (Refere

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Publication Date
Tue Jun 30 2015
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Chemical And Petroleum Engineering
Improving Treatment Performance of Dissolved Air Flotation System by Using Ionic Liquids as Surfactants
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The effect of three ionic liquids viz., 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (ILE), 1-hexyl-3-metylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (ILF) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (ILG) when used as surfactants on the performance of dissolved air floatation (DAF) was investigated.

   Experiments were conducted at a temperature of 30-35 ºC, 10ppm ferric chloride as coagulant, 50% recycle ratio, pH 8, and 10 minutes treatment time  to find oil and grease (OG) and turbidity removal efficiencies at saturation pressure (2-6) bar.

ILs were used at concentration of 50 µl/liter of treated water in two positions in DAF system; the saturation vessel and the treatment tank. The performance using ILs

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Publication Date
Sat Mar 26 2016
Journal Name
Journal Of Materials Science: Materials In Electronics
Hydrothermal deposition of CdS on vertically aligned ZnO nanorods for photoelectrochemical solar cell application
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Publication Date
Tue Dec 25 2018
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering Science And Technology
RIETVELD TEXTURE REFINEMENT ANALYSIS OF LINDE TYPE A ZEOLITE FROM X-RAY DIFFRACTION DATA
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Publication Date
Mon Dec 20 2021
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Effective Solution of University Course Timetabling using Particle Swarm Optimizer based Hyper Heuristic approach
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The university course timetable problem (UCTP) is typically a combinatorial optimization problem. Manually achieving a useful timetable requires many days of effort, and the results are still unsatisfactory. unsatisfactory. Various states of art methods (heuristic, meta-heuristic) are used to satisfactorily solve UCTP. However, these approaches typically represent the instance-specific solutions. The hyper-heuristic framework adequately addresses this complex problem. This research proposed Particle Swarm Optimizer-based Hyper Heuristic (HH PSO) to solve UCTP efficiently. PSO is used as a higher-level method that selects low-level heuristics (LLH) sequence which further generates an optimal solution. The proposed a

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