Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease. Inflammation leads to joint damage and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of inflammation in many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the usefulness of NLR to detect inflammation in RA, and its correlation to RA disease activity indices and some hematological parameters. A cross-sectional study involving 24 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are using MTX participated in this study. All patients were clinically evaluated using disease activity score of 28 joints (DAS28) and simplified disease activity index (SDAI), whereas functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire di

     Community detection is an important and interesting topic for better understanding and analyzing complex network structures. Detecting hidden partitions in complex networks is proven to be an NP-hard problem that may not be accurately resolved using traditional methods. So it is solved using evolutionary computation methods and modeled in the literature as an optimization problem.  In recent years, many researchers have directed their research efforts toward addressing the problem of community structure detection by developing different algorithms and making use of single-objective optimization methods. In this study, we have continued that research line by improving the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm using a

In this paper, we propose a new and efficient ferroelectric nanostructure metal oxide lithium niobate [(Li1.075Nb0.625Ti0.45O3), (LNTO)] solid film as a saturable absorber (SA) for modulating passive Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL). The SA is fabricated as a nanocomposite solid film by the drop-casting process in which the LNTO is planted within polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene [P(VDF-TrFE)] as host copolymer. The optical and physical characteristics of the solid film are experimentally established. The SA is incorporated within the cavity of EDFL to examine its capability for producing multi-wavelength laser. The experimental results proved that a multi-wavelength laser is produced, where stable four lines with central

Background: COVID-19 is a disease that started in Wuhan/China in late 2019 and continued through 2020 worldwide. Scientists worldwide continue to research to find vaccines, treatments, and medication for this disease. Studies also conenue to find the pathogenicity and epidemiology mechanisms. Materials and Methods: In this work, we analyzed cases obtained from Alshifaa center in Baghdad/Iraq for 23/2/2020-31/5/2020 with total instances of 797, positive cases of 393, and death cases of 30. Results: Results showed that the highest infection cases were among people aged between 41-45. Also, it was found that males' number of cases was more than females. In contrast, death cases were significantly higher in males than females. It was not

The recent advancements in security approaches have significantly increased the ability to identify and mitigate any type of threat or attack in any network infrastructure, such as a software-defined network (SDN), and protect the internet security architecture against a variety of threats or attacks. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) are among the most popular techniques for preventing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on any kind of network. The objective of this systematic review is to identify, evaluate, and discuss new efforts on ML/DL-based DDoS attack detection strategies in SDN networks. To reach our objective, we conducted a systematic review in which we looked for publications that used ML/DL approach

Background: Patients with decompensated cirrhosis are often given therapeutic and prophylactic drugs. Polypharmacy raises both the likelihood of prescription errors and the complications associated with drugs. Clinical pharmacists are excellent at recognizing, addressing, and preventing clinically significant drug-related problems.

Objectives: Identification types of pharmacist interventions to address drug-related problems in patients with decompensated cirrhosis and assess the acceptance/implementation of these recommendations. And identify patient factors associated with accepting pharmacist recommend

The objectives of the study were to identify the incidence rate and characteristics of adverse drug events (ADEs) in nursing homes (NHs) using the ADE trigger tool and to evaluate the relationships between resident and facility work system factors and incidence of ADEs using the System Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model. The study used 2 observational quantitative methods, retrospective resident chart extraction, and surveys. The participating staff included Directors of nursing, registered nurses, certified nurse assistants (CNAs). Data were collected from fall 2016 to spring 2017 from 11 NHs in 9 cities in Iowa. Binary logistic regression with generalized estimated equations was used to measure the association

Objective: To identify barriers to healthcare access, to assess the health literacy levels of the foreign-born Arabic speaking population in Iowa, USA and to measure their prevalence of seeking preventive healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study of native Arabic speaking adults involved a focus group and an anonymous paper-based survey. The focus group and the Andersen Model were used to develop the survey questionnaire. The survey participants were customers at Arabic grocery stores, worshippers at the city mosque and patients at free University Clinic. Chi-square test was used to measure the relationship between the characteristics of survey participants and preventive healthcare services. Thematic analysis was

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the patient satisfaction to hospital services and identify factors that influences this satisfaction.