Background: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most commonly encountered valve lesion in modern clinical practice. Severe mitral regurgitation may cause systolic dysfunction. Left ventricular ejection fraction may not be an accurate measurement of LV function in patients with mitral insufficiency. Myocardial performance index (MPI) is a simple non invasive measure of myocardial function. Methods: The study involved 50 patients with valvular mitral regurgitation and 50 healthy subjects as a control group. Transthoracic echocardiography was carried out for all patients and control group. The echocardiographic measurements included left ventricular end diastolic and end systolic dimensions, left atrial diameter, ejection fraction (EF), and myoca

The investment decision, a critical decision for each investor as it involves risks and uncertain returns, so investors should avoid cases of uncertainty associated with the final decisions they are involved, and the problem of research in individual differences and differences in the behavior of individual investors and reflect the impact of this investment decision in the Iraqi market for securities. Therefore, the research aims to understand and analyze the impact of determinants of investor behavior as an independent variable in investment decision-making as a dependent variable in the Iraqi market for securities, and the research started from two main hypotheses to explore the influence and correlation between research varia

Sepsis is a major cause of death worldwide among hospitalized patients, however, an accurate and advanced identification method is associated with improved sepsis patient survival. This Retrospective study carried out in Sulaimani pediatric teaching hospital from January 2014 to July 2015 and aimed to compare the effectiveness of VITEK 2 system with traditional manual procedures for identification of pathogenic bacteria in patients with a serious disease like sepsis. The positive blood cultures were divided into two groups; 138 positive cultures identified by conventional manual methods and 104 positive cultures identified by automated VITEK 2 system. The results showed that VITEK 2 system identified 16 genera and 30 species whereas only

This study aimed for isolation and identification of Candida glabrata and identifying some virulence factors. The distribution of patients with candidemia thrush showed that the age group 50-65 years old recorded the highest incidence of candidiasis in female and male with leukemia by 50% and 37.9 % respectively compared to the lowest incidence of candidiasis in the age group under 17 years old in female and male 8.8% and 13.5%, respectively. While the age group between 5-8 years was high, reaching 18 cases of oral candidiasis and 42% of children with leukemia compared with the age group, which was the least, that reached 9 cases, 21%. The highest incidence of C. glabrata was 59 isolates of females and males with leukemia, while C. kefyer w

A theoretical model is developed to determine time evolution of temperature at the surface of an opaque target placed in air for cases characterized by the formation of laser supported absorption waves (LSAW) plasmas. The model takes into account both plasma dynamics and time variation of incident laser pulse (i.e. pulse shape or profile).Shock tube relations were employed in formulating plasma dynamics over target surface. Gaussian function was chosen in formulating the pulse profile in the present modeling

Twelve species from Brassicaceae family were studied using two different molecular techniques: RAPD and ISSR; both of these techniques were used to detect some molecular markers associated with the genotype identification. RAPD results, from using five random primers, revealed 241 amplified fragments, 62 of them were polymorphic (26%).

    ISSR results showed that out of seven primers, three (ISSR3, UBC807, UBC811) could not amplify the genomic DNA; other primers revealed 183 amplified fragments, 36 of them were polymorphic (20%). The similarity evidence and dendrogram for the genetic distances of the incorporation between the two techniques showed that the highest similarity was 0.897 between the va

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are of potential interest because of their effective antibacterial and antiviral activities. Capping agents are used for exhibiting a better antibacterial activity than uncapped Ag NPs. There are very few reports that have shown the usage of AgNPs for in-vivo antibacterial therapy. Citrate-capped silver nanoparticles were synthesized chemically by citrate reduction method; the size of Cit-AgNPs was determined by an atomic force microscope (AFM) and was between 15-90 nm. Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) isolates were the only sensitive species to Cit-AgNPs. MICs and MBC of Cit-AgNPs were determined by using A. baumannii. The results showed an additive effect of Cit-AgNPs. Four mice groups were infected with

Background: Assessment is an important part of the learning cascade in education. Students realize it as an influential motivator to direct and guide their learning. The method of assessment determines the way the students reach high levels of learning. It has been documented that one of factor affecting students’ choice of learning approach is the way how assessment is being performed. Many methods of assessment namely multiple choice questions, essay questions and others are mainly used to assess basic science knowledge in undergraduate education. Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare multiple choice questions (MCQ) and essay questions (EQ) (record the success and failure rate of multiple choice questions (MCQ) and essay quest

Prosopis farcta has been used traditionally for several diseases as cardiovascular, kidney, diabetes, bacterial infection and it has diuretic activity. This study was designed to evaluate the diuretic effects of P. farcta extract in comparison with spironolactone and hydrochlorothiazide in normal and hypertensive rats.Forty eight rats, were divided into Two groups. The First group was consist of Twelve normotensive rats, to represent the control group and normal treated group receiving 50 mg/Kg of P. farcta extract; Six rats in each group.

The Second group involved 36 hypertensive rats, were divided into six subgroups, each of six rats. The First subgroups served as a positive control, the Second, Third