Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are the two most important types of anemia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Functional iron deficiency in ACD can be attributed to overexpression of the main iron regulatory hormone hepcidin leading to diversion of iron from the circulation into storage sites resulting in iron-restricted erythropoiesis. The aim is to investigate the role of circulating hepcidin and to uncover the frequency of IDA in RA. The study included 51 patients with RA. Complete blood counts, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, ferritin, and hepcidin- 25 were assessed. ACD was found in 37.3% of patients, IDA in 11.8%, and combined (ACD/IDA) in 17.6%. Serum hepcidin was higher in ACD than in control and the other groups (P ≤ 0.001). It was strongly and positively correlated with ferritin (P < 0.001), while hemoglobin, serum iron, and total iron binding capacity were negatively correlated with hepcidin (P = 0.016, 0.022 and <0.001, respectively). High serum hepcidin was significantly associated with ACD in RA. IDA alone or combined with ACD was encountered in about a third of patients.
Bacterial meningitis is a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. It is crucial for clinical and public health care, as well as disease control, to identify the meningitis-causing agent promptly. Between June 2021-February 2022, a total of 100 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood samples were collected from suspected cases of meningitis admitted to Raparin Paediatric Teaching Hospital, Erbil city-Iraq. Cytochemical, cultural, and biochemical tests were conducted, and confirmed by molecular techniques. Bacterial culture findings were positive in 7% of CSF samples and just one positive among blood samples. The most common pathogens found by cultural characteristics and VITEK 2 Compact System were Staphylococcus sciuri in two
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Regression testing is a crucial phase in the software development lifecycle that makes sure that new changes/updates in the software system don’t introduce defects or don’t affect adversely the existing functionalities. However, as the software systems grow in complexity, the number of test cases in regression suite can become large which results into more testing time and resource consumption. In addition, the presence of redundant and faulty test cases may affect the efficiency of the regression testing process. Therefore, this paper presents a new Hybrid Framework to Exclude Similar & Faulty Test Cases in Regression Testing (ETCPM) that utilizes automated code analysis techniques and historical test execution data to
... Show MorePharmaceutical companies assign a budget for activities and promotions that aim to change the prescription habits of the physicians to choose the most suitable medications for their patients, which will eventually grow their sales. The study's objectives were to explore physicians' and medical representatives' perspectives on the criteria of impactful professional PP and the factors influencing the interaction between physicians and medical representatives. Qualitative in-depth interviews with flexible probing techniques were carried out in 2023. A semi-structured, open-ended interview questionnaire was used to interview physicians and medical representatives (MRs) from different private clinics in several governorates in Iraq. Ten physicia
... Show MoreThe need to constantly and consistently improve the quality and quantity of the educational system is essential. E-learning has emerged from the rapid cycle of change and the expansion of new technologies. Advances in information technology have increased network bandwidth, data access speed, and reduced data storage costs. In recent years, the implementation of cloud computing in educational settings has garnered the interest of major companies, leading to substantial investments in this area. Cloud computing improves engineering education by providing an environment that can be accessed from anywhere and allowing access to educational resources on demand. Cloud computing is a term used to describe the provision of hosting services
... Show MoreThis review delves deep into the intricate relationship between urban planning and flood risk management, tracing its historical trajectory and the evolution of methodologies over time. Traditionally, urban centers prioritized defensive measures, like dikes and levees, with an emphasis on immediate solutions over long-term resilience. These practices, though effective in the short term, often overlooked broader environmental implications and the necessity for holistic planning. However, as urban areas burgeoned and climate change introduced new challenges, there has been a marked shift in approach. Modern urban planning now emphasizes integrated blue-green infrastructure, aiming to harmonize human habitation with water cycles. Resil
... Show MoreThe mind map represents a system to solve problems including design problems, because it depends on employing the complex and purposeful mental activity, which starts from a desire based on the search and investigation in order to reach integrated results of scientific thinking, utilizing the objective view of the scientific and practical aspects from various angles. This visual system can develop thinking and shorten the retrieval time of the previous information in order to employ it in the solution finding system, that it evokes past experiences and relates them to current situations, then enables the user to choose a suitable solution for the problems. This visual, educational and circulatory means, at the same time, has speci
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Abstract
Natural gas is characterized by features that made from it a fuel and a raw material for many industries. Deepening its position as a favorite fossil supplier between other types of fossil fuel is the efficiency, diversity of its uses, low costs and compatibility with the environment which leads to increasing of its uses then increased global demand. So, the natural gas must take its place as an important resource in Iraq and participate the oil in the economic development process of building and financing of the general budget.
Iraq is planning to continue of increasing the export capacity of raw oil to meet ambitious production targets emanating from the mai
... Show MoreIn this work, measurements of activity concentration of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) isotopes and their related hazard indices for several materials such as crude oil, sludge and water in Ahdeb oil fields in Waste governorate using high pure germanium coaxial detection technique. The average values for crude oil samples were174.72Bq/l, 43.46Bq/l, 355.07Bq/l, 264.21Bq/l, 122.52nGy/h, 0.7138, 1.1861, 0.601 mSv/y, 0.1503mSv/y and 1.8361 for Ra-226, Ac-228, K-40, Ra eq, D, H-external and H-internal respectively. According to the results; the ratio between 238U to 232Th was 4, which represents the natural ratio in the crust earth; therefore, one can be strongly suggested that the geo-stricture of the
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