AbstractOBJECTIVES: To evaluate the long-term remission efficacy and safety of isotretinoin in the treatment of Behcet's disease (BD). PATIENTS and METHODS: This single-blind, controlled therapeutic study was conducted in the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Baghdad Teaching Hospital from February 2011 to January 2012. Thirty patients with BD were included in this work. Each patient received isotretinoin 20 mg orally once daily for 3 months. They were assessed at week 2 and then monthly depending on the Clinical Manifestation Index (CMI) and to record any side effects. At week 12, isotretinoin was stopped and patients were given placebo therapy in a form of glucose capsules for another 3 months. RESULTS: Thirty patients were tre

The topic of the research tagged (narrative structure and its impact on building open and closed endings in the fictional film) is summarized by studying the mechanism of employing closed and open endings in the fictional film. novelist, then the need for it, as well as the objectives of the research and clarifying its limits as well as its importance. Then moving to the theoretical framework, which included three topics, where the first topic was entitled (the cinematic construction of the film narrative), either the second topic (the structure of complexity and narrative solutions), or the third topic dealt with the subject (the structure of the end and its relationship to the construction of the narrative). After completing the theore

         Melatonin is a potent scavenger of reactive oxygen species or free radicals like superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. The oxidation of hemoglobin to methemoglobin (meth-Hb) by oxidizing compounds has been widely studied. The present work was designed to evaluate the ability of different concentrations of melatonin to inhibit nitrite–induced oxidation of hemoglobin. Blood samples were obtained from apparently healthy individuals from which erythrocyte hemolysate was prepared. Different concentrations of melatonin (10^-9-1.0 mg/ml) were incubated for 10 min with the hemolysate, then to the resultant mixture 1 ml of sodium nitrite (final concentration 0.6 mM) was added, and the

An integrated GIS-VBA (Geographical Information System – Visual Basic for Application), model is developed for selecting an optimum water harvesting dam location among an available locations in a watershed. The proposed model allows quick and precise estimation of an adopted weighted objective function for each selected location. In addition to that for each location, a different dam height is used as a nominee for optimum selection. The VBA model includes an optimization model with a weighted objective function that includes beneficiary items (positive) , such as the available storage , the dam height allowed by the site as an indicator for the potential of hydroelectric power generation , the rainfall rate as a source of water . In a

Generally, direct measurement of soil compression index (Cc) is expensive and time-consuming. To save time and effort, indirect methods to obtain Cc may be an inexpensive option. Usually, the indirect methods are based on a correlation between some easier measuring descriptive variables such as liquid limit, soil density, and natural water content. This study used the ANFIS and regression methods to obtain Cc indirectly. To achieve the aim of this investigation, 177 undisturbed samples were collected from the cohesive soil in Sulaymaniyah Governorate in Iraq. Results of this study indicated that ANFIS models over-performed the Regression method in estimating Cc with R² of 0.66 and 0.48 for both ANFIS and Regre

Precise and interpretable classification of autism-related behaviors is important for initial diagnosis, personalized intervention, and support arrangements. This study proposes an interpretable machine learning (ML) model using Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) and Categorical Boosting (CatBoost) to classify behavioral patterns into four categories (normal, mild, moderate, and severe) associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) based on a custom 377-instance survey dataset from Iraqi parents and teachers of children aged 6-12. The model observes 16 key features across communication and social interaction, repetitive behaviors, language, and adaptive skills, preprocessed via interquartile range (IQR) outlier removal, me

Terahertz (THz) technology, which uses radiation lying between microwave and infrared in the electromagnetic spectrum, could revolutionize digital agriculture through terahertz’s ability to assess agricultural materials accurately and non-destructively. The review discusses notable developments in THz applications to digital agriculture: real-time crop monitoring, nutrient and disease detection, soil moisture and contaminant analysis, and supply chain traceability. The developments have emerged from studies in time-domain spectroscopy, imaging, machine learning (ML), and blockchain integration. Despite the promising advances in THz agricultural applications, limitations remain, such as limited penetration depth, high system costs, and ope

The energy requirements of corn silage harvesters and the application of precision agricultural techniques are essential for efficient and productive agricultural practices. The article aims to review previous studies on the energy requirements needed for different corn silage harvesting machines, and on the other hand, to present methods for measuring corn silage productivity directly in the field and monitoring it based on microcontrollers and artificial intelligence techniques. The process of making corn silage is done by cutting green fodder plants into small pieces, so special harvesters are used for this, called corn silage harvesters. The purpose of harvesting corn silage is to efficiently collect and store as many digestible nutrien

The absorption spectrum for three types of metal ions in different concentrations has been studying experimentally and theoretically. The examination model is by Gaius model in order to find the best fitting curve and the equation controlled with this behavior. The three metal ions are (Copper chloride Cu⁺², Iron chloride Fe^+3, and Cobalt chloride Co⁺²) with different concentrations (10^-4, 10^-5, 10^-6, 10^-7) gm/m³. The spectroscopic study included UV-visible and fluorescence spectrum for all different concentrations sample. The results refer to several peaks that appear from the absorption spectrum in the high concentration of all metal ions solution.