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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
Sun Feb 10 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of The College Of Education For Women
The Effect of Using Reciprocal Teaching on Improving College Students' Achievement in Reading Comprehension
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Reciprocal Teaching is an interactive method that is used to improve reading comprehension. Using this teaching strategy, teachers and students take turns leading discussions regarding sections of text using the four strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing. This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of using reciprocal teaching on improving female college students' achievement in reading comprehension. To fulfill the aim of the study, the researcher has adopted two null hypotheses: first, there is no significant difference between the achievement of students' who practice the reciprocal teaching technique and that of students who do not practice it. Second, there is no statistically significant difference

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Publication Date
Mon Apr 01 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery
Pain Reduction in Extensive Apical Surgery of the Anterior Maxilla: A Comparative Clinical Study
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Publication Date
Wed Jul 05 2023
Journal Name
Pharmacia
Evaluation the anti-inflammatory effect of Omega 369 against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in mice
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Background: Acetaminophen (N-acetyl-para-aminophenol, or APAP) poisoning, whether intentional or accidental, is a major general health problem, with its toxicity prevalence significantly increasing in many countries. Currently, acetaminophen is considered one of the main causes of acute liver failure globally.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective effect of Omega-3,6,9 against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in albino male mice.

Methods: Thirty-five albino male mice were randomly divided into five groups: Group 1 (the negative control) received liquid paraffin orally at a dose of 10 ml/kg for t

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Publication Date
Thu Jul 17 2025
Journal Name
Journal Of Baghdad College Of Dentistry
The effect of tooth shape ratio on mandibular incisors arrangement in Iraqi adult subjects
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Background: This study aimed to assess the effect of tooth shape ratio on mandibular incisor arrangement. Materials and methods: The sample included dental casts of some dental students and orthodontic patients having Class I dental and skeletal patterns with normal occlusion and severe crowding. The sample was divided into two groups according to the severity of crowding into: group I had Class I normal occlusion with mild or no crowded mandibular dentition and group II had Class I malocclusion with severe crowded mandibular dentition. Each group comprising of 40 subjects (20 males and 20 females). The mesio-distal and facio-lingual crown diameters were measured manually for each cast using modified vernier caliper gauge. Descriptive sta

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Publication Date
Sun Jun 03 2018
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Diversity Measurement Indices of Diatom Communities in the Tigris River within Wasit Province, Iraq
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The study was conducted to measure diatom species diversity in the lotic ecosystem across the Wasit Province for 12 months. The quantitative study of diatoms (phytoplankton) was investigated in the Tigris river. The density of algae was ranged from 60989 cell×103/l to 112780.82 cell×103/l in the five sites. These algae were belonging to 39 genera. The richness index values ranged from 1.53 at site 5 in January 2016 to 6.34 at site 1 and June2015. Shannon-Weiner diversity index (H´) was 2.33 in February 2016 and 3.72 in June 2015 both values at site 3, whereas Evenness index was 0.54 at site 5 in March2016 and 0.98 at site 1 in both August2015 and May2016. The lack of homogeneity of the appearance of species indicates the dominance of a

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Publication Date
Mon Dec 01 2014
Journal Name
Al Mustansiriyah Journal Of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Evaluation of the Predisposing Factors for Recurrent Respiratory Tract Infections in Iraqi Pediatric Patients.
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Recurrent respiratory tract infections are responsible for about 85% of all diseases in childhood, and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to evaluate the main causes underlying recurrent respiratory tract infections in 176 pediatric patients aged 2 month to 4 year and weight from 4 to11 kg referred to the child center hospital and Al-sader hospital prospective study.All parents were given information sheet which then analyzed and the percentage of incidence of causes were recorded, we found that higher % related to many causes; mostly related to the parent like poor family education, mother carelessness, incomplete vaccination, other related to empirical diagnosis, and short course of t

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Publication Date
Sat May 09 2015
Journal Name
International Journal Of Innovations In Scientific Engineering
USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK TECHNIQUE FOR THE ESTIMATION OF CD CONCENTRATION IN CONTAMINATED SOILS
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The aim of this paper is to design artificial neural network as an alternative accurate tool to estimate concentration of Cadmium in contaminated soils for any depth and time. First, fifty soil samples were harvested from a phytoremediated contaminated site located in Qanat Aljaeesh in Baghdad city in Iraq. Second, a series of measurements were performed on the soil samples. The inputs are the soil depth, the time, and the soil parameters but the output is the concentration of Cu in the soil for depth x and time t. Third, design an ANN and its performance was evaluated using a test data set and then applied to estimate the concentration of Cadmium. The performance of the ANN technique was compared with the traditional laboratory inspecting

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Publication Date
Fri Dec 01 2023
Journal Name
Iop Conference Series: Earth And Environmental Science
Population Density of Bemisia tabaci on Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annuum) Varieties in the Greenhouse
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Abstract<p>We conducted an experiment in a greenhouse at the research station belonging to the Department of Plant Protection / Ministry of Agriculture, in Abu Ghraib area during the spring and autumn season 2022-2023, to study the population density of the whitefly on two varieties of sweet pepper plant (Charisma and Sierra Nevada). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design “RCBD” with three replicates for each variety. The results showed that in spring season the population density of <italic>B. tabaci</italic> eggs and nymphs reached the peak in the last week of May, which where 2.667 and 4.444 individual / leaf, respectively while the population density </p> ... Show More
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Publication Date
Thu Apr 01 2021
Journal Name
Applied Soft Computing
Evolutionary multi-objective set cover problem for task allocation in the Internet of Things
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Publication Date
Mon Oct 01 2018
Journal Name
World Journal Of Pharmacy And Pharmaceutical Sciences
THE ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECT OF FLAXSEED EXTRACT ON SELECTIVE ORAL PATHOGENS - COMPARATIVE IN VITRO STUDY
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Flaxseed from the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum), which has been cultivated for domestic use since prehistoric times. This study aims to investigate presence of antibacterial effect of flaxseed extract against selected oral pathogen in-vitro.