According to the European Union Water Framework Directive requirements, diatom metrics were used to assess the ecological status of surface waters in the Gaziantep central catchment (Turkey). A total of 42 diatom taxa were identified. A few environmental factors (especially lead, copper, orthophosphate, and chromium) played significant roles on the distribution of diatom assemblages among the sampling stations. The first two axes of the canonical correspondence analysis elucidated 91.6 % of the species–environment correlations with 13.9 % of the cumulative variance of species. The applied diatom indices (TIT – Trophic Index Turkey, TI – Trophic Index, and EPI-D – Eutrophication and/or Pollution Index-Diatom) showed different results

Objectives: To assess the quality of life for adult patients with peptic ulcers in the city of Sulaimani.
Methodology: A descriptive study, using the assessment approach was conducted on patients with peptic ulcer
disease from January 12th, 2009 to September 30th, 2009. A purposive "non-probability" sample of (100) paƟents
(males and females) with peptic ulcers who attended Kurdistan Center for Gastroenterology and Hepatology were
selected for the study. A questionnaire was adapted from the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire
(1998) for the purpose of the study. It is comprised of (3) parts that included sociodemographic characteristics form,
medical history form and adult peptic ulcers patients' qu

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate anemia among lactating women and their children less than 2 years of
age.
Methodology: The study was done on (148) lactating mothers and their children under 2 years of age in the primary
health care center at AL-Salam Quarter/Baghdad from l/10/2009 to 15/10/2010.
Result: This study recommends that there is a significant relationship between anemic mothers and their children. The
study also revealed that there is (77.8%) from nursing mothers in the age groups (25-29) who suffered from anemia,
while (23.1%) for the age group (20-24) did not have anemia
Recommendation: We encourage the use of breast milk or iron-fortified infant formula only for any milk-based part
of

The atmospheric air cold plasma has been used to manufacture gold nanomaterials for treating parasitic leishmaniasis. This study experimentally assessed the treatment of Leishmania parasites (L. donovani and L. tropica) by gold nanoparticles. Specifically, atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma was generated using different diameters (1.0, 2.8, 3.8 and 4.3 mm) of high voltage electrode. Aqueous gold tetrachloride salts (HAuCl4·4H2O) were used as precursor to produce gold nanoparticles. UV-vis spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction were conducted for characterization of the nanoparticles. The optimum condition (a diameter of 1 mm) was chosen to prepare gold nanoparticles, where the grain size was found to be 17 nm. Accordingly, the nanoparticle

Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is one of the critical factors that affect the determination of earthquake intensity. PGA is generally utilized to describe ground motion in a particular zone and is able to efficiently predict the parameters of site ground motion for the design of engineering structures. Therefore, novel models are developed to forecast PGA in the case of the Iraqi database, which utilizes the particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach. A data set of 187 historical ground-motion recordings in Iraq’s tectonic regions was used to build the explicit proposed models. The proposed PGA models relate to different seismic parameters, including the magnitude of the earthquake (Mw), average shear-wave velocity (VS30), focal depth (FD

Background: Type two diabetic patients have higher risk of cardiovascular and periodontal disease. Furthermore, patients with more severe periodontal disease have higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to assess the association between periodontal health status and the risk of vascular disease in type 2 diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: One hundred type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and fifty apparently healthy males were enrolled in this study. Oral examinations conducted were; plaque Index, calculus index, gingival index, probing pocket depth, and clinical attachment level. For the assessment of vascular risk, arterial stiffness index was used. Results: According to arterial stiffness index, type 2 diabetic p

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of respiratory airways characterized by distinctive history of respiratory symptoms due to variable airflow obstruction which reverses either spontaneously or in response to certain medications. Acetylcholine is a parasympathetic neurotransmitter which plays fundamental roles in the development of persistent asthma. Treatment guidelines recommend using medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids in addition to another controller bronchodilator instead of using high doses inhaled steroid alone for treatment of moderate to severe persistent asthma. The inhaled long acting muscarinic antagonist, tiotropium, was approved recently to control unresponsive asthma to inhaled corticosteroid with or without a long