BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is considered a highly infectious and life threatening disease. OBJECTIVE: The present paper aims to evaluate various aspects of preventive measures and clinical management of the scheduled visits for orthodontic patients to the dental clinics during the outbreak of COVID-19, and to assess how orthodontists dealt with this challenge. METHODS: Orthodontists in private and public clinics were invited to fill a questionnaire that addressed infection control protocols and concerns about clinical management of patients in the clinics during the pandemic. Frequncies and percentages of the responses were obtained and compared using Chi-square tests. RESULTS: About 77% of those working in private clinics, and 63% of those working in private and governmental clinics performed room disinfection following each patient. In case of patients needing urgent management and have active infection, 56% of the participants provided care under high infection control measures; on the contrary, 64% provided symptomatic intervention including orthodontic wax, analgesics and sometimes mouthwash. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the orthodontic treatments. All pre-cautionary measures have to be made available in the clinic in order to minimize the spread of viral infection with continuous dental health care training.
The humid and warm conditions in greenhouses provide an excellent environment for pests’ living conditions, and therefore, they provide ideal medium for alien introductions. Molluscs are among the most significant pests that infest plastic covered greenhouses. To identify and report their mollusc species, 23 greenhouses in Iraq were surveyed between March 2023 and April 2024. Of these, 11 were found to be infested with snails. A total of 158 specimens were collected and morphologically identified to seven species: Monacha obstructa (L. Pfeiffer, 1842), Eobania vermiculata (O.F. Müller, 1774), Xeropicta krynickii (Krynicki, 1833), Rumina decollata (Linnaeus, 1758), Polygyra cereolus (Megerle Von Mühlfeld, 1818), Cochlicella barba
... Show MoreThe survey and checklist of invasive species of the insects in some different localities of Iraq are revised; 24 invasive species were documented until December 2018 during the current investigations. The species distributions, common names and synonyms are given.
The current investigation included all of exotic species in Iraq, which are not collected during this study.
The present work presents design and implementation of an automated two-axis solar tracking system using local materials with minimum cost, light weight and reliable structure. The tracking system consists of two parts, mechanical units (fixed and moving parts) and control units (four LDR sensors and Arduino UNO microcontroller to control two DC servomotors). The tracking system was fitted and assembled together with a parabolic trough solar concentrator (PTSC) system to move it according to information come from the sensors so as to keep the PTSC always perpendicular to sun rays. The experimental tests have been done on the PTSC system to investigate its thermal performance in two cases, with tracking system (case 1) and without trackin
... Show MoreThis study aimed at identifying how children express the emerging coronavirus in general and according to their age groups (4-13 years) by analyzing 91 of their drawings published online, using the descriptive content analytical approach. The results showed that children's artistic expression of the virus came according to the concepts and ideas they carried about the virus for the age groups of (4-7 years) and (7-9 years), while it came according to visual perception for age groups (9-11 years), and from (11-13) years. Also, most children were aware about the presence of the virus and its widespread around the world, but (99%) of them do not realize the seriousness of the virus. It was confirmed that between (25-34%) of children were su
... Show MoreThis study aims to test whether the institutions listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange have a significant correlation between the level of conservative accounting practice with the level of market share returns during the Coronavirus pandemic period as one of the policies to confront the economic repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, the sample included institutions listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange during the 2019 and 2020 years, i.e., the period before the Coronavirus pandemic and during the Coronavirus pandemic for the purpose of comparison. The market value to book value model was used, and the study found that conservative institutions had achieved the highest level of market share prices compared to non-conservat
... Show MoreThe study showed that there are (28) plant families present in Al-Razzaza Lake. The families are (Amaranthaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Aizoaceae, Apiaceae, Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Boraginaceae, Capparaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Cistaceae, Colchicaceae, Convolvulaceae, Cynomoriaceae, Fabaceae, Frankeniaceae, Lamiaceae, Liliaceae, Malvaceae, Orobanchaceae, Plantaginaceae, Poaceae, Polygonaceae, Ranunculaceae, Solanaceae, Tamaricaceae,Typhaceae, Zygophyllaceae). Asteraceae family is the largest number of species found in abundance in this lake, followed by the Fabaceae family.
The genus Hafnia, a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae, consists of Gram negative bacteria that are occasionally implicated in both intestinal and extraintestinal infections in human. This genus contains only a single species (Hafnia alvei). Methods The above bacterium was identified from 250 bacterial strains which were isolated from 220 urine samples of patients with urinary tract infection. Results One H. alvei strain was isolated from an elderly patient, and identified by conventional biochemical tests and API20E system at the first time in Iraq. Antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that this strain is sensitive to Cefotaxime, Ciprofluxacine, Chloramphenicol, Doxycycline and Trimethoprim-sulfamethaxzole, while it is resistant t
... Show More