Improving students’ use of argumentation is front and center in the increasing emphasis on scientific practice in K-12 Science and STEM programs. We explore the construct validity of scenario-based assessments of claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) and the structure of the CER construct with respect to a learning progression framework. We also seek to understand how middle school students progress. Establishing the purpose of an argument is a competency that a majority of middle school students meet, whereas quantitative reasoning is the most difficult, and the Rasch model indicates that the competencies form a unidimensional hierarchy of skills. We also find no evidence of differential item functioning between different scenarios, suggesting

Laser assisted skin wound closure offers many distinct advantages over conventional closure
techniques. The objective of this in vitro experimental study, carried out at the Institute of Laser for
Postgraduate Studies/Baghdad University, was to determine the effectiveness of 980 nm diode laser in
welding of human skin wounds. Multiple 3-4 cm long full thickness incisions in a specimen of human
skin obtained from the discarded panniculus of an Abdominoplasty operation were tried to be laser
welded using a 4 mm spot diameter laser beam from a 980 nm diode laser at different laser parameters
and modes of action. The tensile strength at the weld site was analyzed experimentally. Although laser
assisted wound welding did

      In this work, we introduced and studied  a new kind of soft mapping  on soft topological spaces with an ideal, which we called  soft strongly generalized mapping with respect an ideal I, we studied the concepts like SSIg-continuous, Contra-SSIg-continuous, SSIg-open, SSIg-closed and SSIg-irresolute mapping  and  the relations between these kinds of mappings and the composition of two mappings of the same type of two different types, with proofs or counter examples

Background: laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is getting popularity for the treating of symptomatic gall bladder disease; conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy (OC) is also common.

Objective : To find out the prevalence of causes, risk factors of conversion from LC to OC among  patient suffering from gall bladder disease, and  to explore the most common causes of conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy.

Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the department of general surgery at Alkindy teaching hospital from first of January 2016 to the end of December 2017 .Nine hundred twenty patient were included. Patient age, gender, his

Background: The world health organization estimates that worldwide 2 billion people still have iodine deficiency Objectives: Is to make comparison between the effect of identification of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) and non-identification of the nerve on incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury (RLNI) in different thyroidectomy procedures.

Type of the study: cross –sectional study.

Methods: 132 patients with goiters underwent thyroidectomy .Identification of RLN visually by exposure were done for agroup of them and non-identification of the nerves for the other group. The outcomes of RLNI in the two groupsanalyzed statistically for the effect of

To finalize any construction investment project, it would be necessary to identify the most significant problems and obstacles that lead to project reluctance and stalling. Unexpected events and conflicts may have disrupted these strategies and impacted project development. Due to the high initial investment costs of construction projects, crises can have an immediate impact, resulting in significant financial losses. The 2014 financial crisis was one of the most prominent crises that Iraq faced, which prompted the researcher to identify and evaluate those obstacles through this research and questionnaires using Pareto scientific theory to exclude factors that do not contribute to project lag. It was discovered that 28 o

  The present study was conducted on spring-fed(Abdullah Abu-Nadjem Oasis)west of AlDewanyah province,Iraq. ,during Winter 2007.    The results indicate that water quality was neutral tend to be slightly alkaline pH was 7.7 and 7.4 for station(1)and station (2) respectively.   Total hardness value of water about 1520 and 1488 mg/l.for two stations respectively ,This high values of hardness may be due to Calcium ions 397.5 and 395.5mg/l.for two stations. According to Salinity values (1.58 - 2.22) ‰(ppt) ,water of oasis may be classified as brackish water, the oasis water was well aerated dissolved oxygen was 5.3 and 7.4 mg/l.     On the other hand about (58) algal taxa were recorded

Modeling the microclimate of a greenhouse located in Baghdad under its weather conditions to calculate the heating and cooling loads by computer simulation. Solar collectors with a V-corrugated absorber plate and an auxiliary heat source were used as a heating system. A rotary silica gel desiccant dehumidifier, a sensible heat exchanger, and an evaporative cooler were added to the collectors to form an open-cycle solar assisted desiccant cooling system. A dynamic model was adopted to predict the inside air and the soil surface temperatures of the greenhouse. These temperatures are used to predict the greenhouse heating and cooling loads through an energy balance method which takes into account the soil heat gain. This is not included in

Background: Dental caries is a disease occurs in the world in both developed and developing countries, it is still widespread among children and it can be controlled but not eliminated , most of tooth loss occurs due to dental caries and its complications. The aim of this study was to estimate the occurrence, and severity of dental caries and treatment needs among kindergarten children in Al-Basrah governorate. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 1000 kindergarten children at age of 4-5 years old (445 boys and 555 girls) from urban areas in Al-Basrah city. Diagnosis and recording of dental caries and treatment needs were done according to the criteria of WHO (1987). Results: The percentage of dental caries was (80.8%) of the tota

Objectives: To assess the qualifications and performance of newly graduated pharmacists and explore factors that affect their performance in public hospitals. Methods: This qualitative study included face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with hospital practitioner pharmacists. It was conducted between March and May 2023 in Kerbala province, Iraq. The participating pharmacists were selected purposefully because they had three or more years of work experience at governmental hospitals. The audio-recording interviews were transcribed. Thematic analyses were used to generate themes and subthemes from the interviews. Results: Twenty-seven hospital pharmacists participated in this study. The study found that there are several factors t