Background. To identify the most common retention protocols practiced by Iraqi orthodontists using a specially designed e-survey. Furthermore, this study aimed to assess the effect of sociodemographic factors on the participant’s choice. Methods. Two hundred and twenty-five questionnaires with 23 multiple choice questions were sent to members of the Iraqi Orthodontic Society. The questionnaire was organized into four sections representing information about sociodemographic status of the orthodontists, factors affecting the selection of the retention system, commonly used retainers in the upper arch and lower arch, and duration of the retention system. The chi-square test was used to test the significant association between different variable and sociodemographic factors. Results. The response rate was 87.5%. The majority of the respondents considered the original malocclusion (80.2%) and clinical experience (49.7%) as the main factors for choosing the retention protocol. In the maxillary arch, a combination of vacuum-formed retainer and fixed retainer (35%) was mostly applied; in the mandibular arch, a fixed retainer was mainly used (46.7%). Most of the respondents recommended initial full-time wearing of a removable appliance (78.2%), especially in the first 3–6 months (47.2%). According to the respondents, bonding a fixed retainer to all anterior teeth was most common (79.7%), fabricated, and adapted directly inside the patient’s mouth (75.1%). More than half used flowable composite (54.8%) and recommend leaving the retainer forever (53.8%). Most of the variables showed a statistically significant association between the sociodemographic factors and type, duration, and fabrication of the retainer used. Conclusions. A combination of removable and fixed retainers was commonly used in orthodontics retention, and sociodemographic factors significantly affected retainer choice.
In the present study, the aim was made to identify the relationship between thyroid autoimmunity (TAI) and female infertility. The study was performed on 30 infertile women and 22 age-matched healthy fertile control age (33 ± 5 years). Overall, serum prolactin (PRL), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) assay is the key test for the diagnosis and management of hypo and hyperthyroidism. Anti-TPO Ab and anti-TG Ab were measured. The mean ± SE of serum PRL (31.080 ± 3.06) ng/ml was significantly (P<0.05) higher in infertile group compared with control (16.191±1.36) ng/ml. Serum TSH was significantly (P<0.05) higher in infertile group (5.689 ± 1.12) μIU/ml compared to control group (2.282 ± 0.18) μIU/ml. The prevalence of positive
... Show MoreBackground: Age progression is regarded as a critical risk factor in morbidity and mortality because of a weakened immune system. Although various studies have dealt with electrolyte imbalance in COVID-19 patients, the outcomes of these studies were partially understood. Objective: The current study aims to determine some biochemical parameters in old Iraqi COVID-19 patients and highlight the outcomes according to the aging role in the development of COVID-19 by suggesting new mechanisms. Materials and methods: forty COVID-19 patients were enrolled in the current study and divided into two groups: Gm includes (20) men, and Gf includes (20) women. The parameters (Na+, K+, Cl-, LDH, and Hb ) were determined in sera of patients and c
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to establish a database of autosomal Short Tandem Repeat (aSTR) DNA allele frequencies for an Iraqi population living in Baghdad city as a reference, therefore, a total of 456 unrelated individuals were analyzed at 15 STR DNA markers (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D19S433, D2S1338, D16S539) included in the Kit from Applied Biosystems. The obtained results revealed that the Combined Matching Probability (CMP) was estimated at 1 in 3.3287 × 10-18, and the Combined Discrimination Power (CDP) was greater than 0.98600987, which is comparable to values obtained with the many other allele frequency databases used in forensic investigations. It can be con
... Show MoreFacing the Iraqi economy, a number of economic challenges that threaten the future of Iraq and the security of economic, political and social, such as poverty, unemployment, inflation and the dilapidated infrastructure and rising production costs and administrative and financial corruption, environmental pollution, water problems and the deterioration of agricultural and industrial production, etc., and over the seriousness of these challenges, they are intertwined and overlapping and growing worse, without the corresponding adoption of state strategies that will develop appropriate solutions and appropriate to resolve those challenges because of concern the subject of security and terrorism, which requires the development of an
... Show MoreThe License Plate (LP), is a rectangular metal plate that contains numbers and letters. This plate is fixed onto the vehicle's body. It is used as a mean to identify the vehicle. The License Plate Recognition (LPR) system is a mean where a vehicle can be identified automatically using a computer system. The LPR has many applications, such as security applications for car tracking, or enforcing control on vehicles entering restricted areas (such as airports or governmental buildings). This paper is concerned with introducing a new method to recognize the Iraqi LPs using local vertical and horizontal projections, then testing its performance. The attained success rate reached 99.16%, with average recognition time around 0.012 second for re
... Show MoreBreast cancer becomes a major threat to female health, many reports refer to a high incidence of breast cancer in Iraq; especially, in the last years. The micro RNA-370 molecules have not been reported in Iraqi cancer patients. Our objective in this study was to identify the expression of micro RNA-370 molecules in breast cancer patients as an early detection biomarker of breast tumors and detect its relation with clinicopathological characters of breast cancer patients. Fifty fresh tissue samples were collected from benign and malignant breast patients in addition to ten normal tissue samples collected as a control group, the age ranged was(19 - 77) years for patients. The miR-370 gene expression level was measured by the quantitative r
... Show MoreThis research aims to identify the role of radio advertising in promoting purchasing decisions of Iraqi audiences, especially that the placement of the announcement through the Iraqi radio stations dealt with a little of Iraqi researchers, and the goal of the research to know the extent of public exposure to the radio advertising through Iraqi radio and patterns of exposure,disclosure of the reasons for public hearing of the radio advertisement, identifying the most important factors influencing the decision to buy in the radio advertisement, this research is descriptive in terms of type as the researcher used the survey method,questionnaire and scale for data and information collection, the sample was selected according to the purp
... Show MoreThe wide spread of Computer Based Test in the Iraqi universities raised an important concern for some scholars thinking about integrating computers as an academic assessment tool before making big change in the examination systems, that concern is: how the computerized test score is effected in comparison to old paper and pencil . This paper researches whether test scores of Iraqi students varies in the computer, Pencil based tests, sixty-four postgraduate graduates from Iraqi universities. Thirty five female and twenty nine male, all graduated from colleges of science in specializations other than computer science and applying for postgraduate studies in the Iraqi
... Show More