Diabetes mellitus is a common health problem worldwide counting about 1.2 million cases in Iraq in 2015. Taking in account of the patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication had been reported to be one of the most important factors that affects adherence where holding positive beliefs about medications is a prerequisite for intentional adherence. The aim of the current study was to investigate and assess beliefs about medicines among type 2 diabetic patients and to determine possible association between this belief and glycemic control as well as some patient-specific factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 380 (mean age 56.58± 10.06 years) already diagnosed T2DM patients who attended the National Diabetes Center, Al-Mustansiriya University – Baghdad/ Iraq during December-2016 to March-2017. Belief about medicine was assessed by using an arabic version of the questionnaire. The patients had a stronger agreement with the mean necessity scale (19.29) than the mean concern scale (14.27). The majority of the patients (76.3%) had strong beliefs in the necessity of anti-diabetic treatment for maintaining good control of diabetes (scores of specific-necessity was greater than score of specific-concern). However, (18.4%) of the patients reported strong concerns about the anti-diabetic treatment (scores of specific-concern greater than score of specific-necessity). The small number of the patients (5.3%), have equal scores for specific-necessity and specific-concern scores. The patient's belief about medicine was found to be poor predictor of good glycemic control.
Antibiotic resistance is the major growing threat facing the pharmacological treatment of bacterial infections. Therefore, bioprospecting the medicinal plants could provide potential sources for antimicrobial agents. Mimusops, the biggest and widely distributed plant genus of family Sapotaceae, is used in traditional medicines due to its promising pharmacological activities. This study was conducted to elucidate the antimicrobial effect of three unexplored Mimusops spp. (M. kummel, M. laurifolia and M. zeyheri). Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying such antibacterial activity were studied. The Mimusops leaf extracts revealed significant antibacterial activities against the five tested bacter
... Show MoreActive learning is a teaching method that involves students actively participating in activities, exercises, and projects within a rich and diverse educational environment. The teacher plays a role in encouraging students to take responsibility for their own education under their scientific and pedagogical supervision and motivates them to achieve ambitious educational goals that focus on developing an integrated personality for today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders. It is important to understand the impact of two proposed strategies based on active learning on the academic performance of first-class intermediate students in computer subjects and their social intelligence. The research sample was intentionally selected, consis
... Show MoreVirtual reality, VR, offers many benefits to technical education, including the delivery of information through multiple active channels, the addressing of different learning styles, and experiential-based learning. This paper presents work performed by the authors to apply VR to engineering education, in three broad project areas: virtual robotic learning, virtual mechatronics laboratory, and a virtual manufacturing platform. The first area provides guided exploration of domains otherwise inaccessible, such as the robotic cell components, robotic kinematics and work envelope. The second promotes mechatronics learning and guidance for new mechatronics engineers when dealing with robots in a safe and interactive manner. And the thir
... Show MoreBackground: A Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) internal derangement (TMJID) is a disruption within the internal aspects of the TMJ in which the disc is displaced from its normal functional relationship with the mandibular condyle, after which the articular portion of the temporal bone causes joint dysfunction, joint sound, malocclusion, and locking of the mouth. Conservative and invasive techniques can be used for the treatment of TMJID. A platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection is a simple, less invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of internal derangement. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of PRP injections in decreasing or eliminating pain, clicking, and limitation of mouth opening in patients with TMJID after th
... Show MoreThis study used a continuous photo-Fenton-like method to remediate textile effluent containing azo dyes especially direct blue 15 dye (DB15). A Eucalyptus leaf extract was used to create iron/copper nanoparticles supported on bentonite for use as catalysts (E@B-Fe/Cu-NPs). Two fixed-bed configurations were studied and compared. The first one involved mixing granular bentonite with E@B-Fe/Cu-NPs (GB- E@B-Fe/Cu-NPs), and the other examined the mixing of E@B-Fe/Cu-NPs with glass beads (glass beads-E@B-Fe/Cu-NPs) and filled to the fixed-bed column. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), zeta potential, and atomic forces spectroscopy (AFM) techniques were used to characterize the obtained particles (NPs). The effect of flow rate and DB15 concent
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to identify the effect of particle size and to increase the concentration of Iraqi bentonite on rheological properties in order to evaluate its performance and to know if it can be used as drilling fluid without additives or not. In this study, Iraqi bentonite was carried out by mineral composition (XRD), chemical composition (XRF) and Particle size distribution (PSD), and its rheological properties were measured at different particle size and concentration. The results showed that when the particle size of Iraqi bentonite decreased, and the rheological properties were increased with increased concentration of Iraqi bentonite. Also, Iraqi bentonite was unable to use as drilling fluid without certain additives.
... Show MoreBackground: Medication reconciliation can include medication reviewing and providing counseling and a list of all the medications during every transition of care. Objectives: to explore in-depth the perspectives of Iraqi physicians and pharmacists regarding the necessity of medication reconciliation at hospital discharge and identify the possible benefits and challenges that could face its implementation. Subjects and Methods: A qualitative study included semi-structured interviews with pharmacists and physicians working at a public teaching hospital in Iraq. The interviews were conducted face-to-face from February to March 2023. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data generated from the interviews. Results: In th
... Show MoreThe aim of research is to identify the effect of using Waks strategy upon acquiring the psychological concepts and mind habits for students in the college of education. An experimental design with a partial adjustment of two experimental and control groups as well as a posttest were employed. The researcher divided the study sample into two groups: group one consisted of (38) students to represent the experimental group that was taught according to the waks strategy, and group two consisted of (35) students to represent the control group that was taught according to the traditional method. The sample was chosen based on some variables namely (Intelligence, Prior knowledge). The researcher has designed the research tools as th
... Show MoreIn the present study, the growth and total lipid contents of two oleaginous fungal isolates Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus fumigatus were compared in different nitrogen and organic carbon sources. Artificially the fungi were cultured on media consisting of various mono- or di- or polysaccharides and peptone or yeast extract as elementary sources for carbon and nitrogen, respectively. Media containing sucrose /yeast extract or glucose/ yeast extract were the most effective for lipid production from fungal, during two weeks incubation period, the highest biomass of dry weight was (19.6 , 18.8) g / L , (25.8 , 30.5) g /L and lipid yield (1, 0.97 )g/L, (0.65, 0.65) g/ L for two isolates Aspergillus terreus
... Show MoreIn this research , we study the inverse Gompertz distribution (IG) and estimate the survival function of the distribution , and the survival function was evaluated using three methods (the Maximum likelihood, least squares, and percentiles estimators) and choosing the best method estimation ,as it was found that the best method for estimating the survival function is the squares-least method because it has the lowest IMSE and for all sample sizes