Haruki Murakami (1949-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer whose works have been translated into fifty languages and won him plenty of Japanese and international awards. His short stories are well constructed in a weird realistic manner and are mixed with elements of surrealism. His novels and short stories fall under the genre of magical realism. One of the major revolving themes that Murakami wrote about was the haunting feeling of emptiness and disconnectedness in a world which seems to care much for materialism and self-interests.

    The paper explores two of Murakami’s short stories in his book After the Quake (2000) and the relevance of their themes and characters to Iraq after the q

Background: Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease globally. Trace elements such as copper and zinc have a role in many biochemical reactions as micro source, their metabolism is profoundly altered in neoplastic diseases especially breast cancer which is ranked as the first of female cancersObjective: The aim of the present study is to study the impact of body mass index and some trace elements in Iraqi women with breast cancer.Patients and methods: The group of the study consisted of 25 breast cancer patients; their age range was (25–65) years recruited from the Al-Kadhimia Teaching Hospital and 25 apparently healthy women age matched, over a period of 6 months from January 2015 until June 2015. After the diagnosis was m

In many oil-recovery systems, relative permeabilities (kr) are essential flow factors that affect fluid dispersion and output from petroleum resources. Traditionally, taking rock samples from the reservoir and performing suitable laboratory studies is required to get these crucial reservoir properties. Despite the fact that kr is a function of fluid saturation, it is now well established that pore shape and distribution, absolute permeability, wettability, interfacial tension (IFT), and saturation history all influence kr values. These rock/fluid characteristics vary greatly from one reservoir region to the next, and it would be impossible to make kr measurements in all of them. The unsteady-state approach was used to calculate the relat

Efficacy of Oregano Essential Oil Mouthwash in Reducing Oral Halitosis: A Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trial, Mohamed Saeed M Ali, Ayser Najah Mohammed*

The genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae: Theridiidae) is a worldwide distribute genus (Graudins et al., 2001), it includes a group of species commonly referred to as widow spiders. It's considered a taxonomically complex genus as the status of several forms had not been properly evaluated and specific boundaries are not well defined or understood (Levi, 1959; 1967; Garb et al., 2001), therefore, in multiple cases, populations has been uncritically referred to as different taxa. Discriminating between Latrodectus species using morphology has always been problematic (Levi, 1983), it is difficult taxonomically and readily separated from members of other Theridiid genera (Mirshamsi, 2005). The Genus Asagena Sundevall, 1833 was revalidat

Background: Community pharmacists endure significantly elevated levels of work-related stress and depression, posing a threat to their overall well-being and possibly affecting the quality of patient care. Objectives: To explore workplace-associated stress and depression in Iraqi community pharmacists. Methods: This observational study was conducted using a cross-sectional design. Information was gathered through the utilization of an internet-based survey. The study involved a community pharmacist with a minimum of one year of experience working at community pharmacies. The survey utilized pre-validated questionnaires. The level of stress experienced was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)-10, while the level of depression was

The aim of the currnet study to examine the effect of subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) in diabetic patients on coagulation parameters. This retrospective case–control study involves 130 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), divided into 65 T2DM with newly diagnosed SCH and 65 euthyroid (EUT) T2DM patients without SCH. Fibrinogen (FIB) was significantly higher in SCH (508.2 ± 63.0 mg/dL) than EUT (428.1 ± 44.8 mg/dL). In the SCH patients, FIB correlated with several parameters, such as age (β = 0.396), body mass index (β = 0.578), glycated hemoglobin (β = 0.281), and activated partial thromboplastin time (β = 0.276). In conclusion SCH in DM patients appears to increase the magnitude of coagulopathy.

Social factors may affect the available sources of toxic substances and causes of poisoning, and these factors may change over time. Additionally, understanding the characteristics of poisoning cases is important for treating such patients. Therefore, the present study investigated the characteristics of poisoning cases in Baghdad Poisoning Consultation Center (PCC) and Forensic Medicine Institute (FMI). Data on all poisoning cases reported in PCC and FMI during 2013 were retrospectively obtained from medical records. Total of 1131 reports of poisoning cases (1082 from PCC and 49 from FMI) were analyzed according to age, sex, geographical distribution and causes of poisoning according to the type and class of poisoning agent. The results

The kaizen is considered as one of the most important modern techniques which has been adopted by various economics entities especially manufacturing firms and its beginnings return to the middle of the earlier century that has been used by companies like Toshiba, Matsushita Electric, and Toyota. Which realized that these modern techniques would make a total change in the competitive environment and started qualifying and its staff in such away that enables them to go along with this unique environment. The continuous improvement (Kaizen) depends on the small continuous improvements in the product and the production operations during the production stage. Consequently, the research problem is represented in the improperly of the budg