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Numbness of the Mind Paradigm in Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake and Iraq’s After the Quake
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Haruki Murakami (1949-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer whose works have been translated into fifty languages and won him plenty of Japanese and international awards. His short stories are well constructed in a weird realistic manner and are mixed with elements of surrealism. His novels and short stories fall under the genre of magical realism. One of the major revolving themes that Murakami wrote about was the haunting feeling of emptiness and disconnectedness in a world which seems to care much for materialism and self-interests.

    The paper explores two of Murakami’s short stories in his book After the Quake (2000) and the relevance of their themes and characters to Iraq after the quake. Literally, Iraq may never have witnessed a real earthquake, but one can say its metaphorical meaning has a great implication upon the lives of its people. The reference to Iraq after the quake in this paper would focus on the aftermath of the 2003 War such as: the feeling of disconnection among people, disinclination in life, feelings of deprivation and depreciation, and the corruption of leaders and politicians. Likewise, though Murakami’s short stories chosen in this paper do not deal with the actual earthquake, its implications can be felt as we read the stories. His characters witness a sense of disconnectedness and the feeling of being unappreciated even when they do the hardest and most dangerous jobs.

    Two of Murakami’s short stories “UFO in Kushiro” and “Super Frog Saves Tokyo” are tackled to show the paradigm and comparison between the lives of these characters (that are actually a reflection of Japanese lives in mid 1990s) and the restricted depressing life of the Iraqis in the postwar era of the 2003 War. Both have experienced fragmentation, despair and lack of self-worth due to the reasons that are explained in this paper. The Iraqis however, may have experienced a deeper suffering where one can say they have reached a state of the numbness or enslavement of the mind and feelings. The paper also highlights that animosity should be dissipated from the hearts of people specifically in politicians and top leaders. Though it is a complicated world, man should conceive that the prosperity of mankind rests in his own hands. Cherishing the diversity of cultures and understanding each other’s moral principles are the means to diminish evil in order to reach the desired bliss.

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Publication Date
Mon Jul 03 2017
Journal Name
University Of Sheffield
The interaction of Porphyromonas gingivalis with host epithelial cells and its relevance to periodontal disease
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Periodontitis is one of the most prevalent bacterial diseases affecting man with up to 90% of the global population affected. Its severe form can lead to the tooth loss in 10-15% of the population worldwide. The disease is caused by a dysbiosis of the local microbiota and one organism that contributes to this alteration in the bacterial population is Prophyromonas gingivalis. This organism possesses a range of virulence factors that appear to contribute to its growth and survival at a periodontal site amongst which is its ability to invade oral epithelial cells. Such an invasion strategy provides a means of evasion of host defence mechanisms, persistence at a site and the opportunity for dissemination to other sites in the mouth. However, p

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Publication Date
Wed Jan 30 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of The College Of Education For Women
Creative thinking and its relationship to solving the problems of professional skills For kindergarten teachers
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Current search aims to identify the creative thinking of the kindergarten teachers and
solving professional problems among kindergarten teachers skills, and whether the level of
creative thinking in solving professional problems, according on marital status years of
service academic achievement of teachers as well as to identify the correlation between the
two variables the current sample consisted of (300) teachers to achieve the objectives of the
stndy , the researcher used two measures, one to measure creative thinking and the other to
measure the solution to the problems of professional kindergarten teachers skills. It has been
shown. validity and reliability of the two measures. The present stndy aims to identif

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Publication Date
Wed Dec 18 2019
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Detecting Keratoconus by Using SVM and Decision Tree Classifiers with the Aid of Image Processing
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 Researchers used different methods such as image processing and machine learning techniques in addition to medical instruments such as Placido disc, Keratoscopy, Pentacam;to help diagnosing variety of diseases that affect the eye. Our paper aims to detect one of these diseases that affect the cornea, which is Keratoconus. This is done by using image processing techniques and pattern classification methods. Pentacam is the device that is used to detect the cornea’s health; it provides four maps that can distinguish the changes on the surface of the cornea which can be used for Keratoconus detection. In this study, sixteen features were extracted from the four refractive maps along with five readings from the Pentacam software. The

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Publication Date
Wed Nov 16 2022
Journal Name
F1000research
Pattern changes of cutaneous dermatoses among Iraqi women preceding and during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Background: We compared the pattern of cutaneous dermatoses among Iraqi females of all ages between 4 months preceding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the same months 1 year later within the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, that targeted all female patients attending an outpatient clinic for dermatology and venereology in Al-Kindy teaching hospital, Baghdad between October 2019 to the end of January 2020, and the same 4-month duration 1 year later (October 2020 to the end of January 2021) after the COVID-19 peak period had passed and there was no or partial curfew to exclude seasonal impact.

Results

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Publication Date
Sat Feb 09 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of The College Of Education For Women
١١٦ Academic Specialization and its relationship to job performance of The officials ofBaghdad University Presidency
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The aims of this research is to investigate : The nature of academic specialization of the officials of Baghdad University Presidency , Level of job performance of the officials of Baghdad University Presidency through job performance appraisal form per year , Differences in the levels of job performance of the officials of Baghdad university presidency , according to the variables (sex , academic specialization , the current work , the duration between the date of graduation and the date of appointment , service duration) , The relationship of academic specialization of the officials of Baghdad university presidencywith their job performance . The researcher has followed the analytical descriptive mode to achieve the aims of this resear

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Publication Date
Tue Jul 01 2014
Journal Name
Political Sciences Journal
Political pluralism between rejection and acceptance Astrobiological study of the most prominent contemporary Islamic trends
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التعددية السياسية بين الرفلض والقبول دراسة نظرية لأبرز الاتجاهات الاسلامية المعاصرة

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Publication Date
Sun Mar 15 2020
Journal Name
Journal Of Baghdad College Of Dentistry
The impact of dental environment stress on caries experience, salivary flow rate and uric acid
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Background: Several pathologies of the oral cavity have been associated with stress. Dental students need to gain assorted proficiencies as theoretical knowledge, clinical proficiencies, and interpersonal dexterity which is accompanied with high level of stress. Uric acid is the major antioxidant in saliva. The aim of this study is to assess the dental caries experience among dental students with different levels of dental environment stress in relation to physicochemical characteristics of whole unstimulated saliva.

Materials and Methods: the total sample is composed of 300 dental students (73 males, 227 female) aged 22-23 years old, from collage of dentistry / university of Baghdad, from the 4t

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Publication Date
Wed Feb 01 2023
Journal Name
International Journal Of Advanced And Applied Sciences
Application of the updated DeLone and McLean IS success method to investigate e-CRM effectiveness
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Information and communication technology has a significant influence on employee procedures. Businesses are investing in e-CRM technologies, yet it is difficult to assess the performance of their e-CRM platforms. The DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success framework can be modified to the current e-CRM assessment difficulties. The new framework's different aspects provide a concise framework for organizing the e-CRM key metrics identified in this study. The purpose of this study is to apply and verify that the Updated DeLone and McLean IS Model can be employed to explain e-CRM adoption among employees, along with the extended Updated DeLone and McLean Model with its five output factors, namely system quality, service quality,

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Publication Date
Wed Mar 30 2022
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Chemical And Petroleum Engineering
Study the Optimization of Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Treatment by Successive Electrocoagulation and Electro-oxidation Systems
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In this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current density (C

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Publication Date
Tue Aug 18 2020
Journal Name
Journal Of Petroleum Exploration And Production Technology
Integrated reservoir characterization and quality analysis of the carbonate rock types, case study, southern Iraq
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Abstract<p>The reservoir characterization and rock typing is a significant tool in performance and prediction of the reservoirs and understanding reservoir architecture, the present work is reservoir characterization and quality Analysis of Carbonate Rock-Types, Yamama carbonate reservoir within southern Iraq has been chosen. Yamama Formation has been affected by different digenesis processes, which impacted on the reservoir quality, where high positively affected were: dissolution and fractures have been improving porosity and permeability, and destructive affected were cementation and compaction, destroyed the porosity and permeability. Depositional reservoir rock types characterization has been identified de</p> ... Show More
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