Background: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an autoimmune vesiculobullous mucocutaneous disease with life-threatening consequences. Rituximab (RTX) has recently emerged as an effective treatment for PV. Objectives: This study aims to determine changes in neutrophil and platelet counts for PV patients treated with RTX or corticosteroids combined with Imuran (azathioprine). Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Dermatology at Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. Thirty PV patients received two types of treatment: 15 patients were administered RTX and 15 patients took corticosteroids with Imuran (azathioprine). Neutrophil and platelet counts were detected at the hospital laboratory. Results

Four major factories (Petroleum Refineries Company, Detergents Plant, Thermal Power Plant, and Gaseous Power Plant) are located to the north of Baiji City. They release pollutants in form of gases, liquids and solids; they find their way to the surrounding environment. To assess the environmental pollution of the area, 18 samples of surface soil distributed around the industrial establishments were collected and analyzed to determine the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) components which are often targets in the environmental checking. Identification and quantification of the 16 PAHs components was accomplished using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) had a model Shimadzu LC-10 AVP. The total concentratio

Total quality management  considers one of the modern scientific entrances  which practiced by productivity service organizations alike to provide appropriate quality required outputs according to the needs and desires of customers manage , enable the organization seeking to continue and grow in light of the increasing competition from the satisfy and provide the appropriate total quality management requirements whenever led to face risks that they may have  in a manner in which they can be addressed and find ways to avoid them in the future when repeated.                          &n

Species of genus Chrotogonus (surface grasshoppers) are phytophagous and damaging to various economical important plants in their seedling stages. In order to know the biodiversity of surface grasshoppers, the detailed study has been conducted from four provinces of Pakistan. During this study, biodiversity, taxonomy, diagnosis, morphometric analysis, habitat, global distribution, and remarks of each species have been described. Total of 826 specimens were collected and sorted out into three species and three subspecies: C. (Chrotogonus) homalodemus homalodemus (Blanchard, 1836), C. (Chrotogonus) homalodemus (Blanchard, 1836), C. (Chrotogonus) trachypter

BP algorithm is the most widely used supervised training algorithms for multi-layered feedforward neural net works. However, BP takes long time to converge and quite sensitive to the initial weights of a network. In this paper, a modified cuckoo search algorithm is used to get the optimal set of initial weights that will be used by BP algorithm. And changing the value of BP learning rate to improve the error convergence. The performance of the proposed hybrid algorithm is compared with the stan dard BP using simple data sets. The simulation result show that the proposed algorithm has improved the BP training in terms of quick convergence of the solution depending on the slope of the error graph.

Abstract

            Sovereign wealth funds are an important tool for achieving economic stability and avoiding the local economy from external shocks, including the shocks of international oil prices. The spread of these funds is the result of large current account surpluses in many Asian and oil-exporting economies. These surpluses are due to higher commodity prices Has led to a rapid accumulation of foreign assets in central banks. Many countries with rent economies face the problem of their dependence on non-renewable natural resources, especially the oil countries, including Iraq. Oil revenues are more than 97% of oil exports, so they suffer from structural imbal

Background: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci have become a major problem in recent times and have been reported increasingly around the world. Lytic phages infect bacteria leading to rapid host death with limited risk of phage transduction, underlining the increasing interest in potential phage therapy in the future. Objective (s): The aim of this study is to use phage therapy as alternative approach for treatment of Enterococcus faecalis infections that recorded as MDR in Iraq to tackle this problem. Materials and Methods: Thirty E. faecalis isolates were collected from patients with different infectious diseases such as urinary tract infection (UTI), diabetic foot, septicemia, and wound infections. The isolation of specific l

This work is the first study of the Curculionoidea fauna from Kurdistan region of Iraq, based on the intensive survey in different localities of Kurdistan from March 2016 to November 2017. In total, 41 species belonging to 28 genera, 21 tribes and 3 families were collected and identified, including 25 species newly recorded for the Iraqi fauna.

General distribution, collecting localities and methods, with plant association data for each species are given.

Suzanne Collins’ novel  The Hunger Games suggests a new logic of victory and set a distinguished focus on the unique personality of her heroin which brings to the mind the permanent correlation between all moral values. The Hunger Games World seems to be much more like one big bowl as it links the past, present, and the future. An Intertextual reference is interwoven in the present research as it brings Golding’s Lord of the Flies to the surface, and it highlights certain similarities between the two texts. In which Ralph, Piggy and Simon in Golding’s Lord of the Flies are the incarnations of stable moral values and hope of surviving ethics and rules in a chaotic and turmoil world. The event