Gender and culture are among the factors that influence the process of understanding and interpreting different types of communication, especially images. The current study, which is a part of a master’s thesis, aims at investigating the role of gender and culture in interpreting and understanding the caricatures that deal with women’s issues in Arab societies. To this end, the researchers adopted Barthes’ (1957) concepts of denotation and connotation in his theory of mythologies in addition to Langacker’s (1987) theory of (Domains). The research concludes that the female subjects have better cognitive abilities in investing the signs within the selected caricatures. The other factor the study reached to is that the respondents’ different cultures didn’t affect their way of dealing with the caricatures very much, so they supported the issues raised in the caricatures almost equally.
The background subtraction is a leading technique adopted for detecting the moving objects in video surveillance systems. Various background subtraction models have been applied to tackle different challenges in many surveillance environments. In this paper, we propose a model of pixel-based color-histogram and Fuzzy C-means (FCM) to obtain the background model using cosine similarity (CS) to measure the closeness between the current pixel and the background model and eventually determine the background and foreground pixel according to a tuned threshold. The performance of this model is benchmarked on CDnet2014 dynamic scenes dataset using statistical metrics. The results show a better performance against the state-of the art
... Show MoreInterleukin -33 is a new member of the IL-1 superfamily of cytokines that is expressed mainly by stromal cells.Its expression is upregulated following pro-inflammatory stimulation.Aim of the present study was to assess the serum IL-33 level and its relationship with inflammatory biomarker CRP in Iraqi females patients with celiac disease. Thirty five patients with celiac disease (CD) and thirty healthy individuals as control group were enrolled in this study,their age ranged (20-35) year.Anti-Gliadin IgA ,IgG and Anti-Tissue IgA ,IgG were estimated in all subjects as diagnostic parameters .ESR and CRP were assayed as inflammatory biomarkers. IL-33 was determined in patients and control groups.The results of the present study revealed a hig
... Show MoreBackground: Treatment modalities of acromegaly and disease control impact differently on glucose homeostasis and lipid changes, and consequently on cardiometabolic risk. Aim: To investigate the possible association of lipid profile changes with the glycemic control status in acromegaly patients treated with octreotide LAR. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 52 Iraqi patients with acromegaly treated with octreotide LAR and not using statins. Demographic, anthropometric, and clinical data were collected, as well as the duration of Octreotide LAR administration. The glycemic state was assessed and classified as DM, prediabetes, or normal. Plasma levels of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and non-HDL were evalu
... Show MoreBackground: In advanced diabetes mellitus, serum levels of the most hormones are altered due to several interplaying mechanisms. Objective: To assess the relation of serum leptin and lipid profile in type 2 diabetic nephropathy. Patients and Method: Serum leptin levels and its relation to lipid profile were estimated in 62 patients with type 2 diabetic nephropathy attending the National Diabetes Center in Al- Mustansiriya University, and (26) healthy individuals considered as control group. The diabetic patients were classified into three groups, (24) pathients with normoalbuminuria (21) patients with microalbuminuria and (17) patients with macroalbuminuria. Fasting plasma glucose, serum creatinine, Hb A1c %, lipid profile (Total c
... Show MoreInterleukin -33 is a new member of the IL-1 superfamily of cytokines that is expressed mainly by stromal cells.Its expression is upregulated following pro-inflammatory stimulation. Aim of the present study was to assess the serum IL-33 level and its relationship with inflammatory biomarker CRP in Iraqi females patients with celiac disease. Thirty five patients with celiac disease (CD) and thirty healthy individuals as control group were enrolled in this study,their age ranged (20-35) year.Anti-Gliadin IgA ,IgG and Anti-Tissue IgA ,IgG were estimated in all subjects as diagnostic parameters .ESR and CRP were assayed as inflammatory biomarkers. IL-33 was determined in patients and control groups.
... Show MoreRecently on the dermatological fields, the serum levels and the roles of Zn, Cu and Mg have been studied especially in acne vulgaris, but the results were controversial. The aim of the present study is to investigate a relationship between the severity of acne and the serum levels of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and magnesium (Mg) and to demonstrate the status of serum levels of zinc, copper, and magnesium in Iraqi male patients with acne vulgaris and to compare it with those of healthy controls.This case controlled study was conducted in the Department of Dermatology and Venerology and in the Poisoning Consultation Center of Baghdad Teaching Hospital between May 2009 to January 2010. Forty- five male patients with acne vulgaris, their a
... Show More339 individuals , were sorted from 22 samples collected from three sites in Tigris River including , Al- Sarafiya district (S1), Al- Jaderiyah district (S2) and Al-Za'afaraniya district (S3), in addition to one site in the irrigation canal of the Al- Jaderiyah campus of the University of Baghdad (S4) , and in Al- Jeish canal(S5) east Baghdad. The sorting results revealed that the highest number of individuals of 102 was recorded at S4, whereas the lowest number of 24 individuals was recorded at S2. Regarding the sites, site S4 was the richest site with 30% of the total number represented 16 species, while each of S3 and S5 had 8 species only with 17.11% and 28.60% of the total individuals number respectively. The values of Jaccared Sim
... Show MoreBackground: Pharmacists are essential in treating MS. Pharmacists' involvement and patient consultation may improve patient adherence and satisfaction. Aim: To evaluate the influence of pharmacist-led interventions (PLI) on medication adherence and satisfaction in patients with multiple sclerosis receiving disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). Methods: This study was conducted on patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis who were receiving DMTs and attended a neurological consultant clinic in the medical city of Baghdad. It was a pre-post-intervention study. Each patient underwent two educational sessions: the first session took place at the beginning of the study, after completing the Arabic version of the treatment satisfaction q
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