The rapid and uncontrolled expansion of urban sprawl in Baghdad, particularly after 2003, has significantly transformed the city's landscape. This expansion stems from socio-political instability, a lack of affordable housing, and inadequate urban planning frameworks. As informal settlements encroach on agricultural lands, the city's infrastructure—including water, sanitation, and transportation systems—faces mounting pressure. This situation presents critical challenges to the sustainability of Baghdad’s public services and the quality of life for its residents. This study aims to evaluate the impact of unregulated urban sprawl on Baghdad’s public services and infrastructure, focusing on how informal growth has undermined the city's capacity to deliver essential services. Through the analysis of household and stakeholder survey data, the study highlights critical shortcomings in service delivery and infrastructure within the Al-Dora district. Moreover, the research proposes actionable recommendations to enhance urban planning and governance, addressing the socio-environmental consequences of unregulated growth. The findings emphasize the severe strain urban sprawl has exerted on Baghdad’s public services, with critical deficiencies observed in water supply, electricity access, healthcare services, and transportation networks, particularly in informal settlements. Stakeholders identified institutional barriers, such as poor coordination and insufficient policies, as major obstacles to managing this growth. The study underscores the urgent need for urban planning reforms, strengthened governance, and the integration of modern technologies like GIS to monitor and control urban sprawl. These recommendations aim to foster a sustainable urban future for Baghdad, ultimately improving the quality of life for its residents. Copyright: ©2024 The authors.
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
... Show MoreThe linear segment with parabolic blend (LSPB) trajectory deviates from the specified waypoints. It is restricted to that the acceleration must be sufficiently high. In this work, it is proposed to engage modified LSPB trajectory with particle swarm optimization (PSO) so as to create through points on the trajectory. The assumption of normal LSPB method that parabolic part is centered in time around waypoints is replaced by proposed coefficients for calculating the time duration of the linear part. These coefficients are functions of velocities between through points. The velocities are obtained by PSO so as to force the LSPB trajectory passing exactly through the specified path points. Also, relations for velocity correction and exact v
... Show MoreBackground: Gastroesophageal reflux disease, is a quite prevalent gastrointestinal disease, among which gastric content (excluding the air) returns into the oral cavity. Many 0ral manifestations related t0 this disease include tooth wear, dental caries also changes in salivary flow rate and pH. This study was conducted among gastroesophageal reflux disease patients in order to assess tooth wear in relation to salivary flow rate and pH among these patients and the effect of gastroesophageal reflux disease duration on this relation. Materials and methods: One hundred patients participate in this cross-sectional study for both genders and having an age range of 20-40 years old, patients had been endoscopically identified as having gastroeso
... Show MoreAn analysis of three selected wells in the Ain Zala oil field (AZ-16, AZ-17, and AZ-24) in the northwestern part of Mosul Governorate. In terms of biostratigraphy, it consists of planktonic and suspended foraminifera, which comprise 37 species belonging to 17 genera. Based on the recorded planktonic foraminifera, three main biozones were identified: Globotruncana aegyptiaca Partial Zone, which refers to the age of the Late Campanian, Gansserina gansseri Partial Range Zone, which indicates the age of the Early Maastrichtian, and Abathomphalus mayaroensis Interval Zone, which indicates the age of the Late Maastrichtian. The Abathomphalus mayaroensis Interval Zone is divided into four subzones: Racemiguembelina fructicosa Partial Range
... Show MoreBackground Due to the intermittent, nonlinear, and uncertain behavior of renewable energy sources (res) such as solar and wind, grid stability and reliability require very high forecasting and optimization skills as widely reported in the literature. Traditional optimization methods work very well in small or static systems but are suffer difficulty on large-scale, dynamic and stochastic renewable environment due to their NP-hard nature. Methods The framework introduces the concept of a Machine Learning-Assisted Hybrid Cuckoo Search (ML-HCS) that combines CS with a hybrid metaheuristic and integrates Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks for forecasting based on both regression models of LSTMs and hybrid optimization algorithm
... Show MoreBackground: 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
... Show MoreObjective: 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
... Show MoreThe application of physiological oxygen (physoxia) concentrations is becoming increasingly commonplace within a mammalian stem cell culture. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) attract widespread interest for clinical application due to their unique immunomodulatory, multi-lineage potential, and regenerative capacities. Descriptions of the impact of physoxia on global DNA methylation patterns in hMSCs and the activity of enzymatic machinery responsible for its regulation remain limited. Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-hMSCs, passage 1) isolated in reduced oxygen conditions displayed an upregulation of SOX2 in reduced oxygen conditions vs. air oxygen (21% O2, AO), while no change was noted for either OCT-4 or NA
... Show MoreBreast cancer is highlighted in recent research as one of the most prevalent types of cancer. Timely identification is essential for enhancing patient results and decreasing fatality rates. Utilizing computer-assisted detection and diagnosis early on may greatly improve the chances of recovery by accurately predicting outcomes and developing suitable treatment plans. Grading breast cancer properly, especially evaluating nuclear atypia, is difficult owing to faults and inconsistencies in slide preparation and the intricate nature of tissue patterns. This work explores the capability of deep learning to extract characteristics from histopathology photos of breast cancer. The research introduces a new method called SMOTE-based Convolut
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