Reading strategies are of interest for what they reveal about the ways readers manage their interaction with written texts and how these strategies are related to text understanding, acquisition ,storage ,and retrieval of information .In EFL comprehension lessons, the students try to work out interpretations of the meaning related to the written word through the usage of different comprehension strategies. Yet, there are moments where the participants in the classroom fail to reach a successful understanding of the passage read despite the guidance of the teacher. The present research aims at investigating and identifying moments of comprehension failure and reasons behind them .It also aims at specifying the different strategies used in terms of type and number of occurrences. It is hypothesized that some students in EFL classrooms fail to understand parts of written texts because they do not use any kind of strategy at particular stages of the comprehension process. The samples selected for the research are the two sections of first year students in the Department of English language, College of Arts and Letters in Cihan University. Each section included 30 students who study comprehension as a basic course ,through their first academic year, in an average of 3 hours per week. Eight comprehension lessons have been recorded and the passages discussed during these lessons , were chosen from the students' text book ‘’Practice & Progress’’ by L.G. Alexander, 1967. The research provides a brief overview of the studies related to the process of reading comprehension .It also illustrates the ways many linguists identified the factors contributing to understanding written texts during the previous years. This is followed by mentioning the general strategies that are used by learners of the English language with explanation of their meaning and role in comprehending written texts. Section two presents the analysis of the recorded lessons. Though the discussions of eight passages were recorded, only three of them were included in the research due to shortage of space. Moments of comprehension failure are specified by the letters (CF) with reference to the reason. Types of strategies used during the lessons are identified as well. Finally, it is concluded that the students sometimes fail to grasp the meaning of some lines or parts of a text because they don't use certain strategies .The analysis of the lessons also shows that the strategies that are mostly used by the students, in their attempt to understand what they read, are: using prior knowledge, inferring meaning, questioning, visualizing, and determining importance which are used in sequence and number of occurrences that differ from one text to another .On the other hand, strategies like synthesizing and summarizing are hardly ever used in some texts and never used in others. The research also illustrates the significant role of the teacher that contributes to the students’ critical thinking and understanding of the written text
Different frequency distributions models were fitted to the monthly data of raw water Turbidity at water treatment plants (WTPs) along Tigris River in Baghdad. Eight water treatment plants in Baghdad were selected, with raw water turbidity data for the period (2008-2014). The frequency distribution models used in this study are the Normal, Log-normal, Weibull, Exponential and two parameters Gamma type. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to evaluate the goodness of fit. The data for years (2008-2011) were used for building the models. The best fitted distributions were Log-Normal (LN) for Al-Karkh, Al-Wathbah, Al-Qadisiya, Al-Dawrah and, Al-Rashid WTPs. Gamma distribution fitted well for East Tigris and Al-Karamah
... Show MoreThe Growth Differentiation Factor -15 (GDF-15) is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily. İt represents an example of the stress response cytokines. It's mostly found in cardiac myocytes, adipocytes, macrophages, endothelial cells, and vascular endothelial cells, whether they're generated normally or not. GDF-15 levels have increased and are associated with cardiovascular risk. Aim of the study: To investigate the correlation between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) with the level of plasma GDF-15 in a group of hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: A case-control study involved 90 individuals, 60 hypertensive patients (36 on ACE inhibitors and 24 on ARBs)
... Show MoreBackground: Sex variations in coronary artery disease (CAD) are well documented. However, sex differences in coronary artery calcium (CAC) and its role in the detection of coronary artery stenosis remain controversial. Objective: To assess the impact of sex variation on coronary artery calcification and its efficacy in predicting coronary artery stenosis. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study including 230 consecutive patients with suspected CAD (120 men and 110 women) referred for coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). The study analyzed sex-based differences in the sensitivity and specificity of coronary artery calcification (CAC) for detecting moderate to severe stenosis across various coronary arteries
... Show MorePesticides serve a crucial function in contemporary farming practices, safeguarding agricultural crops against pest infestations and boosting production outputs. However, indiscriminate use has caused environmental and human health damage. This study aimed to develop and validate a gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) methodology for the direct and routine analysis of spiromesifen residues in soil, leaves, and tomato fruits. The proposed method prioritizes simplicity by avoiding derivatization steps, offering advantages over existing approaches that utilize lengthy multi-step extraction or derivatization prior to GC analysis. A key novelty of this work is the development of a QuEChERS extraction coupled directly to GC-FID
... Show MoreThe current study included, studying the ability of eight genera of plants belong to Brassicaceae family, Brassica tournifortii, Cakile Arabica, Capsella bursa – pastoris,Carrichtera annua, Diplotaxis acris, Diplotaxis haru , Eruca sativa and Erucaria hispanica to accumulate ten heavy metals Cadmium, Chromium , Copper, Mercury, Manganese ,Nickel ,Lead ,and Zinc . Plant leaves samples were collected from Al-Tib area during spring of 2021.The data demonstrated that, the highest conc. of Cd was 2.7 mg/kg in Diplotaxis acris leaves and lower value was 0.3 mg/kg in Cakile Arabica leaves. For Co, the highest conc.was 1.3 mg/kg in Capsella bursa – pastoris leaves, whereas the lower value was 0.5 mg/kg in Cakile arabica leaves. As for Cr ele
... Show MorePolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a prevalent condition in women of reproductive age. It is characterized by androgen excess and chronic anovulation. Some trace elements, macroelements, and heavy metals have been linked to pathophysiological mechanisms of PCOS .
To study the alterations in the serum levels of the trace element manganese (Mn), some macroelements, magnesium(Mg) and calcium (Ca), and the heavy metals cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb), in obese and non-obese PCOS patients; and the association of these alterations with some of the hormonal changes occurring in PCOS.
The study was carried out at Kamal Al-Samarrai Hospital (Center for Infertility treatment and in vitro Fertilization "IVF") Baghdad- Iraq. Eig
... Show MoreMicrofibers released by synthetic clothes have a significant negative effect on the environment. Several solutions have been proposed and evaluated for their effectiveness, but studies have failed to address the human-centered aspects of these products. In this research, the possibilities and needs from a consumer perspective for a new filtering system for domestic washing machines were examined. First, a quantitative (questionnaire) and a qualitative (interviews and observations) exploration were done to understand the desired requirements from a user perspective. Next, the acceptance of various existing solutions for microfiber catching was investigated. To verify these requirements, a new concept was designed and evaluated with a
... Show MoreBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength (SBS) and adhesive remnant index (ARI) of different orthodontic adhesive systems after exposure to aging media (water storage and acid challenge). Materials and methods: Eighty human upper premolar teeth were extracted for orthodontic purposes and randomly divided into two groups (40 teeth each): the first group in which the bonded teeth were stored in distilled water for 30 days at 37°C, and the second group in which the bonded teeth were subjected to acid challenge. Each group was further subdivided into four subgroups (10 teeth each) according to the type of adhesive system that would be bonded to metal brackets: either non-fluoride releasing adhesive (NFRA),
... Show MoreSince cancer is becoming a leading cause of death worldwide, efforts should be concentrated on understanding its underlying biological alterations that would be utilized in disease management, especially prevention strategies. Within this context, multiple bodies of evidence have highlighted leptin’s practical and promising role, a peptide hormone extracted from adipose and fatty tissues with other adipokines, in promoting the proliferation, migration, and metastatic invasion of breast carcinoma cells. Excessive blood leptin levels and hyperleptinemia increase body fat content and stimulate appetite. Also, high leptin level is believed to be associated with several conditions, including overeating, emotional stress, inflammation, obesity,
... Show More