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
An experiment was conducted to study how SAE 50 engine oil contaminated with diesel fuel affects engine performance. The engine oil was contaminated with diesel fuel at concentrations of 0%, 1%, and 3%. The following performance characteristics were studied: brake-specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, friction power, and exhaust gas temperature. Each treatment was tested three times. The three treatments (0%, 1%, and 3%) were analyzed statistically with a one-way ANOVA model at the 5% probability level to determine if the three treatments produced significant differences in engine performance. The statistical results showed that there were significant differences in engine performance metrics among the three treatments. The 3
... Show MoreThe goal of our study is to perform detailed multiband surface photometry of the spiral galaxy NGC 4448 and its brightest star-forming regions. The structure and composition of the stellar population in the surface brightness galaxy NGC 4448 was studied using BVR CCD photometry. The observations were obtained on the 1.88 m optical telescope of Kottamia Astronomical Observatory (KAO), Egypt. A two-dimensional decomposition of the galaxy bulge and disk components is carried out. A powerful star forming region is observed near the galactic center. Based on the positions of the various components of the galaxy in two color diagrams. From the observations, the surface brightness profiles, Ellipticity profiles, position angle profiles and colo
... Show MoreThe present study investigates the notion of untranslatability where the concept of equivalence is reconsidered since the misconceptions, related to the said concept, inevitably lead to the emergence of untranslatability. Identifying equivalence as relative, approximate and necessary identity makes the notion of untranslatability a mere theorization. The objectives of the present study are (1) to investigate the notion of untranslatability in terms of the misconceptions associated with the concept of equivalence (2) to examine the possibility of translatability from Arabic into English focusing on culture-bound euphemistic expressions in the Quran as an area of challenge in translation. Data on the translation of culture-bound euphemistic e
... Show MoreThis study aims to investigate the effect of changing skins material on the strength of sandwich plates with circular hole when subjected to mechanical loads. Theoretical, numerical and experimental analyses are done for sandwich plates with hole and with two face sheet materials. Theoretical analysis is performed by using sandwich plate theory which depends on the first order shear deformation theory for plates subjected to tension and bending separately. Finite element method was used to analyse numerically all cases by ANSYS program.
The sandwich plates were investigated experimentally under bending and buckling load separately. The relationship between stresses and the ratio of hole diameter to plate width (d/b) are built, by
... Show MoreIn recent decades, breeding deer populations in Iraq have expanded significantly in size and distribution. Owing to their role in pathogen transmission, these deer populations pose a risk to the livestock industry. However, little is known about the parasitic infection status of the breeding deer and the surrounding environment in Iraq. Atotal of 150 deer faecal samples were collected from male and female deer of various ages from four regions of Iraq and examined microscopically for intestinal parasites. Microscopic analysis revealed the presence of seven intestinal parasite species: Entamoeba spp. (48%), Giardia duodenalis (17%), Toxocara spp. (12%), Balantidium coli(9%), Taenia spp. (9%), Strongyloides spp. (3%) and Trichostrongy
... Show MoreEven though in recent decades a bulk of studies have been accomplished on the use of communicative language teaching (CLT) in English as a foreign language (EFL) environments, fairly a limited numbers of studies precisely dealt with investigating the attitudes of language teachers, students and supervisors concerning the principals of CLT in the context of Iraq. Henceforth, this study was designed to delve into the attitudes of teachers, learners and supervisors about the implementation. To this end, the study was accomplished using a mixed method design. The present study was carried out in two phases: designing and using a questionnaire plus interviewing the teachers, students and supervisors (51 language learners, 41 teachers and
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