Previous studies in Euro-American countries have shown that patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection have increased levels of neuropsychiatric symptoms. While chronic hepatitis C virus infection has been reported in Arab countries such as Iraq, there is little studies about the neuropsychological burden associated with chronic hepatitis C among patients in the Arab region. The aim of the current study was to measure the prevalence and level of severity of depression, anxiety and stress among a sample of chronic hepatitis C patients in AL-Najaf province /Iraq. The current study was cross-sectional study carried out on (110) already diagnosed chronic viral hepatitis C patients who attended the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Center/Al-Sader Medical City/Najaf/Iraq during November 2018 to May 2019. In addition, (100) apparently healthy subjects were included as a control group. The Arabic version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to assess mental health. Both the prevalence rates and severity levels of depression, anxiety and stress were significantly higher in chronic hepatitis C patients compared to the control group (P<0.001). Stress level is negatively correlated with age and is significantly more in single. Anxiety level is less with a higher level of education. Depression was significantly higher in those having children. The study indicates that the presence of chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with a higher risk of psychological burden. Accordingly, meeting the psychological needs of such patients would need to be addressed.
The thermal and electrical performance of different designs of air based hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collectors is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The circulating air is used to cool PV panels and to collect the absorbed energy to improve their performance. Four different collectors have been designed, manufactured and instrumented namely; double PV panels without cooling (model I), single duct double pass collector (model II), double duct single pass (model III), and single duct single pass (model IV) . Each collector consists of: channel duct, glass cover, axial fan to circulate air and two PV panel in parallel connection. The temperature of the upper and lower surfaces of PV panels, air temper
... Show MoreQuadrotors are coming up as an attractive platform for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research, due to the simplicity of their structure and maintenance, their ability to hover, and their vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability. With the vast advancements in small-size sensors, actuators, and processors, researchers are now focusing on developing mini UAV’s to be used in both research and commercial applications. This work presents a detailed mathematical nonlinear dynamic model of the quadrotor which is formulated using the Newton-Euler method. Although the quadrotor is a 6 DOF under-actuated system, the derived rotational subsystem is fully actuated, while the translational subsystem is under-actuated. The der
... Show MoreThe present study aims to get experimentally a deeper understanding of the efficiency of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets applied to improve the torsional behavior of L-shaped reinforced concrete spandrel beams in which their ledges were loaded in two stages under monotonic loading. An experimental program was conducted on spandrel beams considering different key parameters including the cross-sectional aspect ratio (
A total of nine swab samples were collected from inflamed teeth and gingiva of human’soral cavity from a dentist clinic in Baghdad. All specimens were cultured in Mitis Salivarius agar medium and the isolated bacterial pure colonies werethen identified by using VITEK2. Three samples were diagnosed and identified as Staphylococcus lentus. One of the three isolates which showed a distinctive heavy growth on the media was selected for further analysis in this study. Paper disk diffusion method was used to detect the antibacterial activityof three of mouthwash solutions (Zak, Colgate and Listerine). The results showed that “Colgate†was the most active solution with antibacterial activity compared with the other two s
... Show MoreThe effect of substitution of Ni on Cu in (Bi0.8Pb0.2)2(Sr0.9Ba0.1)2 Ca2Cu3-x Nix O10+? for (x=0,0.1….1,2,3) superconductor system and sintering time has been investigated .The samples were prepared by solid-state reaction methods. The results show that the optimum sintering temperature is equal to 850 ºC, and the sintering time is equal to 140 h. The highest transition temperature (Tc) obtained for (Bi0.8Pb0.2)2(Sr0.9Ba0.1)2 Ca2Cu3-x NixO10+? composition was 113 with x=0.8 Phase analyses of the samples by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed an orthorhombic structure with a high Tc phases (2223) as a dominant phase and low Tc phase (2212) in addition to some impurity phases.
Dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) can be described as the presence of contact with the discharge of one or more insulating layers located between two cylindrical or flat electrodes connected to an AC/pulse dc power supply. In this work, the properties of the plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system without and with a glass insulator were studied. The plasma was generated at a constant voltage of 4 kV and fixed distance between the electrodes of 5 mm, and with a variable flow rate of argon gas (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5) L/min. The emission spectra of the DBD plasmas at different flow rates of argon gas have been recorded. Boltzmann plot method was used to calculate the plasma electron temperature (Te), and Stark broadeni
... Show MoreBackground: Calcaneus is a spongy cancellous bone with rich blood supply , its fracture heals more rapidly providing no occurrence of infection and soft tissue injury around ,no gross malposition of fragments. The associated pain leads to a major impairment in life quality. The aim of treatment for calcaneal fractures is the decrease of pain and rebuilding of walking ability for patients with normal foot shape and the ability to wear normal foot wear. To reduce complications, a minimally invasive technique for the treatment of displaced intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus was preferred to use. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the closed reduction and percutaneous K. wire fixation of displaced intra-art
... Show More<p>Analyzing X-rays and computed tomography-scan (CT scan) images using a convolutional neural network (CNN) method is a very interesting subject, especially after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this paper, a study is made on 423 patients’ CT scan images from Al-Kadhimiya (Madenat Al Emammain Al Kadhmain) hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, to diagnose if they have COVID or not using CNN. The total data being tested has 15000 CT-scan images chosen in a specific way to give a correct diagnosis. The activation function used in this research is the wavelet function, which differs from CNN activation functions. The convolutional wavelet neural network (CWNN) model proposed in this paper is compared with regular convol
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