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

BACKGROUND: The rapidly growing knowledge regarding factors controlling tumour growth, with the new modalities of therapy acting on the biological activity of the tumours draw the attention of most cancer researches nowadays and represent a major focus for clinical oncology practice. For the detection of HER2/neu protein overexpression and gene amplification, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in-situ hybridisation (ISH) is the recommended techniques, respectively, with high concordance between the two techniques. The current United Kingdom recommendations for HER2/neu testing are either for a two-tier system using IHC with reflex ISH testing in equivocal positive cases, or a one-tier ISH strategy. AIM: To compare the results of HER2/neu gene s

Background: Suppression of quorum sensing (QS) that regulates many virulence factors, including antimicrobial resistance, in bacteria may subject the pathogenic microbes to the harmful consequences of the antibiotics, increasing their susceptibility to such drugs. Aim: The current study aimed to make an aqueous crude extract from the soil Proteus mirabilis isolate with the use of the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique for its analysis, and then, study the impact of the extract on clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methods: Preparation of crude extracts from P. mirabilis (both organic and aqueous), which were then analyzed by GC-MS to detect the bioactive ingredients. Furthermore, the extract’s capability to i

Mutations in genes encoding proteins necessary for detoxifying oxidative stress products have been predicted to increase susceptibility to lung cancer (LC). Despite this, the association between waterpipe tobacco smoking (WP), genetic polymorphisms, and LC risk remains poorly understood. This is the first study to explore the relationship between WP tobacco smoking and these genetic factors. Previously, we investigated the association of GSTP1 SNPs (rs1695-A/G and rs1138272-C/T) with LC in Iraqi males who smoke WP. Here, we expanded our analysis to include GSTM1 (active/null) and GSTT1 (active/null) genotypes, both individually and in combination with GSTP1 SNPs. Multiplex PCR and RFLP-PCR assays were utilized to determine the genotypes of

Combining different treatment strategies successively or simultaneously has become recommended to achieve high purification standards for the treated discharged water. The current work focused on combining electrocoagulation, ion-exchange, and ultrasonication treatment approaches for the simultaneous removal of copper, nickel, and zinc ions from water. The removal of the three studied ions was significantly enhanced by increasing the power density (4–10 mA/cm2) and NaCl salt concentration (0.5–1.5 g/L) at a natural solution pH. The simultaneous removal of these metal ions at 4 mA/cm2 and 1 g NaCl/L was highly improved by introducing 1 g/L of mordenite zeolite as an ion-exchanger. A remarkable removal of heavy metals was reported

The reaction paths of the C-C and C-H bond cleavage in the anthracene and phenanthrene aromatic molecules are studied by applying the ab-initio DFT method. It is found that the C-C bond cleavage proceeds via a singlet aromatic transition state, compelled through a disrotatoric ring opening reaction. A suprafacial H atom shift follows the transition state, leading to the formation of a methylene -CH2 and an acetylenic or allenic moiety. The calculated activation energies for anthracene range from 158.81-208.90 kcal/mol and the reaction energies from 96.106-156.976 kcal/mol. For phenanthrene, the energy values are 157.39-202.34 kcal/mol and 62.639-182.423 kcal/mol, respectively. For the C-H cleavage reactions, the calculated reaction energies

The study aimed at designing compound exercises using added weight on some skill abilities in youth soccer players aged (17 – 19) years old. The researcher sued the experimental method on (30) players aged (17 – 19) years old from Al Zawraa Sport Club. The subjects were divided into three groups and the training program was applied for (8) weeks with (3) training sessions per week. The data was collected and treated using proper statistical operations to conclude that compound exercises with weights between improved the subjects compared to the groups that did not use the added weights. Finally, the researchers recommended the necessity of using compound exercises using added weights during training sessions for youth soccer pla

Many studies have evaluated the effect of platelet rich plasma (PRP) in the treatment of non-union fractures but few studies have investigated their effect on the union of femoral neck fractures or their functional outcome in young adults. The aim of this study was to evaluate the union time and functional outcome in young adult patients with femoral neck fracture managed by three cannulated screws injected with PRP and those managed by fixation only. This prospective study included 24 patients diagnosed with femoral neck fractures within 24 hours of presentation. Twelve cases in group A were managed by closed reduction and three cannulated screws fixation injected with PRP; twelve patients in group B were managed only by closed reduction a

     Cadmium oxide CdO thin films were prepared by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique at varying number of dippings. The CdO thin films were prepared from a source material of Cadmium acetate and ammonium hydroxide solution deposited on glass substrate at 95℃.    The prepared thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and UV-Visible spectrometry. The XRD analysis reveals that the films were polycrystalline with cubic structure having preferential orientation along (1 1 1), (2 0 0), (2 2 0), and (3 1 1) planes. While the tests of the scanning electron microscopy and the atomic force mic