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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 Oct 30 2018
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Physics
Optical properties of ZnO/MgF2 bilayer thin films prepared by PVD technique
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Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is considered as one of the best materials already used as a window layer in solar cells due to its antireflective capability. The ZnO/MgF2 bilayer thin film is more efficient as antireflective coating. In this work, ZnO and ZnO/MgF2 thin films were deposited on glass substrate using pulsed laser deposition and thermal evaporation deposition methods. The optical measurements indicated that ZnO thin layer has an energy gap of (3.02 eV) while ZnO/MgF2 bilayer gives rise to an increase in the energy gap. ZnO/MgF2 bilayer shows a high energy gap (3.77 eV) with low reflectance (1.1-10 %) and refractive index (1.9) leading to high transmittance, this bilayer could be a good candidate optical material to improve the performance

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Publication Date
Thu Jun 30 2022
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Science
Hydrochemical Assessment of water resources at Baquba City, Diyala Governorate, Eastern Iraq
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     For hydrochemical assessment of water resources at Baquba City, Diyala Governorate, four surface water samples were collected from the Diyala River and eight groundwater samples inside the city of Baquba. The samples were collected in the two periods, the dry period in October 2018 and the wet period in February 2019. The pH, EC, TH, turbidity, the major ions and trace elements (Fe, Cu, Co, Cd, Pb, Zn and Ni) were investigated. The results showed that the surface and groundwater are turbid, very hard and slightly brackish to moderately saltine in the groundwater, while it is hard to very hard and fresh in surface water. Heavy element analyzes revealed contamination of surface water samples and groundwater with the elements Cadmi

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Publication Date
Mon Jan 01 2024
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Assessment of Traditional Asphalt Mixture Performance Using Natural Asphalt from Sulfur Springs
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This research utilized natural asphalt (NA) deposits from sulfur springs in western Iraq. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of an asphalt mixture incorporating NA and verify its suitability for local pavement applications. To achieve this, a combination of two types of NA, namely soft SNA and hard HNA, was blended to create a binder known as Type HSNA. The resulting HSNA exhibited a penetration grade that adhered to Iraqi specifications. Various percentages of NA (20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%) were added to petroleum asphalt. The findings revealed enhanced physical properties of HSNA, which also satisfied the requirements outlined in the Iraqi specifications for asphalt cement.

Consequently, HS

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Publication Date
Thu Jun 09 2022
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Pharmaceutical Sciences ( P-issn 1683 - 3597 E-issn 2521 - 3512)
Microencapsulation of Green Coffee Beans (Coffea canephora) Extract using Whey Protein Concentrate
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Coffee bean contains bioactive compounds including caffeine and chlorogenic acid (CGA) that have a stimulant effect and are used for combating fatigue and drowsiness, and enhancing alertness. However, when the coffee bean was processed in the form of green coffee bean (GCB) extract, it has an unpleasant flavour and limitations instability, activity, and bioavailability. This study aimed to produce microcapsules of the GCB (Coffea canephora) ethanolic extract containing considerable amounts of the bioactive compounds for nutraceutical supplements. The GCB ethanolic extract was microencapsulated by spray drying using a whey protein concentrate (WPC) biopolimer. The particle size (PSA), morphology (SEM), and physicochemical charact

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Publication Date
Mon Jan 28 2013
Journal Name
Spie Proceedings
Enhancement of security for free space optics based on reconfigurable chaotic technique
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Free Space Optical (FSO) technology offers highly directional, high bandwidth communication channels. This technology can provide fiber-like data rate over short distances. In order to improve security associated with data transmission in FSO networks, a secure communication method based on chaotic technique is presented. In this paper, we have turned our focus on a specific class of piece wise linear one-dimensional chaotic maps. Simulation results indicate that this approach has the advantage of possessing excellent correlation property. In this paper we examine the security vulnerabilities of single FSO links and propose a solution to this problem by implementing the chaotic signal generator “reconfigurable tent map”. As synchronizat

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Publication Date
Mon Feb 04 2019
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Physics
Rapid thermal oxidation of copper nanostructure thin film for solar cell fabrication
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In the present work is the deposition of copper oxide using the pulsed laser deposition technique using Reactive Pulsed Laser as a Deposition technique (RPLD), 1.064μm, 7 nsec Q-switch Nd-YAG laser with 400 mJ/cm2 laser energy’s has been used to ablated high purity cupper target and deposited on the porous silicon substrates recorded and study the effect of rapid thermal annealing on the structural characteristics, morphological, electrical characteristics and properties of the solar cell. Results of AFM likelihood of improved absorption, thereby reducing the reflection compared with crystalline silicon surface. The results showed the characteristics of the solar cell and a clear improvement in the efficiency of the solar cell in the

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Publication Date
Wed Dec 31 2014
Journal Name
Al-khwarizmi Engineering Journal
Energy Saving of Heat Gain by Using Buried Pipe Inside a Roof
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Abstract

    This work deals with a numerical investigation to evaluate the utilization of a water pipe buried inside a roof to reduce the heat gain and minimize the transmission of heat energy inside the conditioning space in summer season.     The numerical results of this paper showed that the reduction in heat gain and energy saving could be occurred with specific values of parameters, like the number of pipes per square meter, the ratio of pipe diameter to the roof thickness, and the pipe inlet water temperature. Comparing with a normal roof (without pipes), the results indicated a significant reduction in energy heat gain which is about 37.8% when the number of pipes per m

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Publication Date
Wed May 31 2017
Journal Name
Journal Of Engineering
Synthesis of Nanozeolite NaA from Pure Source Material Using Sol Gel Method
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In this work, the nano particles of Na-A zeolite were synthesized by sol –gel method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray  luorescence (XRF), Surface  area and pore volume, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results show that the nano A zeolite is with average crystal size is 74.77 nm., Si/Al ratio 1.03, BET surface area was 581.211m2/g and the pore volume for NaA was found equal to 0.355cm3/g.
 
 
 

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Publication Date
Thu Jan 27 2022
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Science
Shell model study of neutron rich 18-28O isotopes using effective interactions
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We employ a simple effective nucleon-nucleon interaction for sd-shell model calculations derived from the Reid soft-core potential folded with two-body correlation functions which take account of the strong short-range repulsion and large tensor component in the Reid force. Shell model calculations for ground and low lying energy states of neutron rich oxygen isotopes 18-28O are performed using OXBASH code. Generally, this interaction predicts correct ordering of levels, yields reasonable energies for ground states of considered isotopes and predicts very well the newly observed excitation energy of
in 26O. Besides, it produces reasonable energy spectra for 23-27O and compressed energy spectra for 18-22O isotopes. This is mainly due e

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Publication Date
Mon Feb 04 2019
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Physics
Investigation of Doppler broadening Compton scattering for aluminum element at different angles
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