Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is an important respiratory bacterial pathogen, especially among children. It causes acute upper and lower respiratory infections.Objective: This study was aimed to measure anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies among hospitalized children who were admitted to hospital diagnosed with acute respiratory tract infections.Method: Automated ELISA technique was performed to detect anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies (IgM and IgG antibodies) in serum from 108 children less than 5 years old. The children were admitted to the Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Suleimani city/Kurdistan Region/Iraq because of acute respiratory tract infections. A questionnaire was designed to collect demographic and clinical data from those children.Results: IgM anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies were positive in 15 (13.9%) out of 108 children. The highest seroprevalence was found in the age group 25-36 months while the lowest is in the age group 1-12 months. M. pneumoniae infections were more common among males than females though results were statistically not significant, and attendance of kindergarten or nursery, residency, history of chronic diseases, history of contact with similar conditions, and family history of chronic diseases, they were all statistically not significant. The IgMseropositive children were suffering from bronchitis, croup, pneumonia, or other respiratory infections, in frequencies of 7 (46.6%), 4 (26.7%), 3 (20%), and 1 (6.7%) respectively. Increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, diagnosis of croup, and diagnosis of bronchitis were more frequent in M. pneumoniae infected group and the results were statistically significant. The IgG anti- M. pneumoniae antibodies were positive in 31 (28.8%) out of the 108 children, and the greatest IgG seroprevalence was highest in age group 49-60 months.Conclusion: M. pneumoniae is an important respiratorypathogen among hospitalized children in Sulaimanigovernorate/Kurdistan/Iraq, and nearly one third of childrenhad experienced M. pneumoniae infection by the age of fiveyears
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Zainab M. Al-Bahrani Department of Oral Diagnosis, College of Dentistry, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.Corresponding author: Zainab M. Al-Bahra...
Background: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is the
most common rheumatic cause of diffuse pain and
multiple regional musculoskeletal pain and disability.
Objective: is to assess the contribution of serum
lipoprotein (A) in the pathogenesis of FMS patients.
Methods: One hundred twenty two FMS patients
were compared with 60 healthy control individuals
who were age and sex matched. All FMS features and
criteria are applied for patients and controls; patients
with secondary FMS were excluded. Serum
Lipoprotein (A): [Lp(A)], body mass index (BMI), &
s.lipid profile were determined for both groups.
Results: There was a statistical significant difference
between patients &controls in serum lipoprotein
The growing use of tele
This paper presents a new secret diffusion scheme called Round Key Permutation (RKP) based on the nonlinear, dynamic and pseudorandom permutation for encrypting images by block, since images are considered particular data because of their size and their information, which are two-dimensional nature and characterized by high redundancy and strong correlation. Firstly, the permutation table is calculated according to the master key and sub-keys. Secondly, scrambling pixels for each block to be encrypted will be done according the permutation table. Thereafter the AES encryption algorithm is used in the proposed cryptosystem by replacing the linear permutation of ShiftRows step with the nonlinear and secret pe
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This study aimed to identify the employment of the social networking platform «Twitter» in the 2016 presidential campaign led by the Republican candidate, Donald Trump; and analyse his tweets through his personal account on «Twitter» for the period from: 10/ 8/2016 to: 11/ 8/2016 which represents the last month of the election campaign.
The study belongs to the type of descriptive studies using the analytical method through an analysis index that includes sub-categories and other secondary categories. The research has adopted the ordinary unit of information material (tweet) as an analysis unit for this purpose.
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Reading is one of the essential components of the English language. Countries that use English as a second language (ESL) sometimes have difficulties in reading and comprehension. According to many researches, mother tongue has proved some interferences with learning a second language. This study investigated the results of reading difficulties of young second language learners in terms of accuracy, comprehension, and rate using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability test. The study was carried out in one of the High Schools for Boys in Hyderabad, India and included Grade five, aged 10-12 years. In order to understand the reading difficulties of English as a second language, a qualitative approach was employed. Interview, reading tes
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In this work, varying compositions of SiO2 micro filler were added
with the Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and samples have been prepared
using film casting technique. The results have been analyzed and
compared for PVC samples with (1 wt%, 3 wt%, 5 wt% and 10 wt%)
SiO2 micro filler. Mechanical characteristics such as tensile strength,
elongation at break and Young`s modulus were measured for all the
samples, where the tensile strength was increased from 8.39 Mpa for
purified PVC to 16 Mpa for 3% SiO2/PVC composite. Also, thermal
conductivity measurement values illustrated that composite materials
have a good thermal insulation at 10 wt. %, thermal conductivity was
decreased from 0.1684 W/m.
An investigation was provided in this work for the host range of brown soft scale Coccus hesperidum Linnaeus in Baghdad Province. Five plant species were found infected by this insect, three of these species, Citrusaurantium L. (Rutaceae); Nerium oleander L. (Apocynaceae); Ficuscarica L. (Moraceae) reported earlier, and the remaining two, Dahlia pinnata Cav. (Asteraceae) and Myrtuscommunis L. (Myrtaceae) are recordedhere for the first time as host plants for this pest.
Regular sampling for six months from January to July 2012 were taken in small, shallow, perennial, standing ponds near the Greater Zab River, Gwer district, Erbil. A variety of physicochemical parameters were determined. Air and water temperature were falling between 15.2 - 34.7 ? C and 15.5 and 26.5 ?C. The waters are neutral (pH 7.38-8.27), hard, alkaline, salty, high in TDS and EC (892-966?S/cm, and rich in nutrients (NO3: 2.1-4.1mg/l, PO4: 0.33-0.62 mg / l , SO4: 24.7-80.2 mg / l ). The attention fixed on a filamentous blue- green algae Glaucospira Lagerheim, 1982) which is new to Iraqi flora. It is a filament (trichome), solitary, pale or yellowish blue – green, without sheath, Screw like coiled, motile, some of them are activ
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