Background: The occurrence of seizures in bacterial meningitis is important, as it has been reported to increase the risk of complications; however, its frequency and predictors are not well studied yet. Objective: To assess the frequency, clinical, and biochemical predictors of seizures in children with acute bacterial meningitis. Method: A cross-sectional study recruited confirmed acute bacterial meningitis cases based on positive CSF culture and sensitivity among children aged 2 months to 15 years admitted to the Central Child Teaching Hospital emergency department in Iraq. Patients were divided into two groups based on seizure at presentation time. Demographic characteristics [age, gender, residence, duration of fever and disease, presenting complaints and antibiotic intake]; hematological [WBC, neutrophils] Lymphocyte, N/L ratio, packed cell volume, platelets, blood sugar, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices were compared between groups. Results: Seizures had a frequency of 18% among the 122 children and were significantly higher in younger cases with female predominance. By multivariate analysis and odds ratio (OR), predictors for seizure were as follows: CSF lymphocytes (OR=0.25, 95%CI=0.08–0.26), lethargy (OR=8.15, 95%CI=1.03-68.65), headache (OR=0.09, 95%CI=0.02-0.45), neck stiffness (OR=0.07, 95% CI=0.01-0.61) and poor feeding (OR=4.8, 95%CI=1.21–18.97). Conclusions: CSF lymphocytes reliably predicted seizure with good sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 73%. Lethargy and poor feeding had the highest odds as clinical predictors of seizures. Together, those results can help with risk stratification and allocate resources for high-risk cases to improve patient outcomes
In this paper the method of singular value decomposition is used to estimate the ridge parameter of ridge regression estimator which is an alternative to ordinary least squares estimator when the general linear regression model suffer from near multicollinearity.
Study of the development of an activated carbon nanotube catalyst for alkaline fuel cell technology. Through the prepared carbon nanotubes catalyst by an electrochemical deposition technique. Different analytical approaches such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine the structural properties and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), were used to characterize, Mesh stainless steel catalyst substrate had an envelope structure and a large surface area. Voltages were also obtained at 1.83 V and current at 3.2 A of alkaline fuel cell. In addition, study the characterization of the electrochemical parameters.
Recently, a new secure steganography algorithm has been proposed, namely, the secure Block Permutation Image Steganography (BPIS) algorithm. The new algorithm consists of five main steps, these are: convert the secret message to a binary sequence, divide the binary sequence into blocks, permute each block using a key-based randomly generated permutation, concatenate the permuted blocks forming a permuted binary sequence, and then utilize a plane-based Least-Significant-Bit (LSB) approach to embed the permuted binary sequence into BMP image file format. The performance of algorithm was given a preliminary evaluation through estimating the PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) of the stego image for limited number of experiments comprised hiding
... Show MoreThe main objective of this study is to introduce a systematic design procedure for short-span segmental beams following a sophisticated ACI 440.2R-17 design procedure. The general aspects of innovative short-span segmental beams are easy to fabricate, economical and rapidly placed in pre-specified positions. Short-span segmental beams fabricated from individual precast plain-concrete blocks and CFRP plates. Recently, experimental tests performed on short-span segmental beams, by the authors, investigated CFRP plate-bonding, CFRP plate cross-sectional area, the thickness of plate-bonding epoxy resin, surface-to-surface condition of concrete blocks, as well as, interface condition of the bonding surface. The experimental program comprises tes
... Show MoreBackground: ?-L-Fucose is a methyl pentose sugar similar to L-galactose except for the loss of alcohol group on carbon number 6. The objective of this study is to evaluate the biochemical and antioxidant effect of intracrevicular injection of fucose into rabbits periodontium, throughout measuring the levels of total protein (TP), total fucose (TF), protein bound fucose PBF) , Malondialdehyde (MDA) , and vitamin C in sera of fucose injected rabbit groups. ) Materials and Methods: The existing study was carried out on 55 male rabbits and were divided randomly into three groups ; first group was injected with 50µl of 150mM fucose solution into gingival sulcus ; second group was injected with 50 µl of normal saline ; while the third group was
... Show MoreThe present study included the physico-chemical parameters of Lesser-Zab river and its effects on Tigris river. Monthly water samples were taken from the two rivers during January to October 1999.There were no signifcant difference in water temperatures. Both rivers were fresh to oligohalin, alkaline and very hard. Close values were determined in total suspended solids in both rivers with little increasing during rainfall period and high discharge. Water was well areated and over saturation was recorded in several occasions. Dissolved oxygen values of Tigris river were influenced by Lesser-Zab. Cations were more dominant than anions in both rivers. In Lesser-Zab, the anions were increased during spring season and declined in summer which t
... Show MoreThe study aims to evaluate the removal of sulfur content from Iraqi light naphtha produced in Al-Dora refinery by adsorption desulfurization DS technique using modified activated carbon MAC loaded with nickel Ni and copper Cu as single binary metals. The experiments were carried in a batch unit with various operating parameters; MAC dosage, agitation speed, and a contact time of 300 min at constant initial sulfur concentration 155 ppm and temperature. The results showed higher DS% by AC/Ni-Cu (66.45)% at 500 rpm and 1 g dosage than DS (29.03)% by activated carbon AC, increasing MAC dosage, agitation speed, and contact time led to increasing DS% values. The adsorption capacity of MAC results was recorded (16, 15, and 20) mg sulfu
... Show MoreThis study is aimed to use the aerobic packed bed in biotreatment of the wastewater which is discharge from AL-KARAMA teaching hospital in Baghdad. The performance of packed-bed treatment method was examined for elimination of the organic compounds from wastewater under aerobic conditions. In this research different parameters were studied. They were: inoculums concentration, circulation rate of wastewater through the bed, packing type and the temperature. Results showed that the system efficiently removed about 82% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 80% of the Biological oxygen demand (BOD). Percent reduction in turbidity was about 92% and reduction in nitrate concentration was about 87%. It was found that best performance of the pack
... Show MoreThe research is concerned about studying the absorption spectrum of the solution coumarin dye C47. The chloroform solvent was used with C47 dye in three different concentrations 10-4, 10-5 and 10-6 M. The laser dye solution was prepared by dissolving the required amount of dye in chloroform alcohol, while studying absorption spectrum before and after irradiation with gamma ray by cobalt-60 source 60Co at exposure time, which are 0, 4, 6 and 18 hours with different absorbed doses 0, 136, 204 and 612 Gy. The results show that red shift in the absorption spectrum was increased by increasing the concentration of laser dye solutions , while the increase of gamma dose led to increase the red shift after irradiation, as the exposure period and irr
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