Introduction: Although it is discouraged, community pharmacy customers can obtain oral corticosteroids (OCSs) without prescriptions from some community pharmacies in Iraq. Medication abuse is defined as the use of medication for non-medical reasons. Objectives: The study aimed to determine demographics, beliefs, and perceptions associated with the abuse of oral corticosteroids for non-illness reasons among community pharmacy customers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in fall 2018 in four provinces in Iraq. Customers of 19 community pharmacies asking for OCSs for themselves without a prescription were administered a paper survey. This study used the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to measure the relationship between the motivational factors and the abuse of OCSs. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationships between the use of OCSs for non-illness and six TRA factors: Normative belief, behavioral belief, evaluation of the behavior, motivation to comply, subjective norms and attitude toward behavior. Results: The study enrolled 141 participants (98 women and 43 men) taking asking for OCSs without prescription. Dexamethasone was the most commonly used OCSs (59.6%). Friends were the primary recommenders for corticosteroids abuse (28.4%). The main reasons for using OCSs were to increase appetite and gain weight (53.9 %). Approximately one-third (36.2 %) of the participants gained weight after using OCSs. The regression analysis of the TRA variables showed two factors were significantly related to the abuse of OCSs. Age had a significant inverse relationship with the abuse of OCSs and the "good appearance" belief had a significant positive association with OCS abuse. Conclusion: Some Iraqi community pharmacy customers use non-prescribed oral corticosteroids to increase appetite and gain weight. Improve body appearance represents the dominant incentive that urges people to use OCSs without prescription. Health officials and healthcare practitioners need to promote people's awareness about the risks of misusing OCSs through education programs and advertisements in public health settings, media, and social media. Article Type: Original Research
A hybrid Gas-Enhanced and Downhole Water Sink-Assisted Gravity Drainage (GDWS-AGD) process has been suggested to enhance oil recovery by placing vertical injectors for CO2 at the top of the reservoir with a series of horizontal oil-producing and water-drainage wells located above and below the oil-water contact, respectively. The injected gas builds a gas cap that drives the oil to the (upper) oil-producing wells while the bottom water-drainage wells control water cresting. The hybrid process of GDWS-AGD process has been first developed and tested in vertical wells to minimize water cut in reservoirs with bottom water drive and strong water coning tendencies. The wells were dual-compl
This study presents the debonding propagation in single NiTi wire shape memory alloy into linear low-density polyethylene matrix composite the study of using the pull-out test. The aim of this study is to investigate the pull-out tests to check the interfacial strength of the polymer composite in two cases, with activation NiTinol wire and without activation. In this study, shape memory alloy NiTinol wire 2 mm diameter and linear fully annealed straight shape were used. The study involved experimental and finite element analysis and eventually comparison between them. This pull-out test is considered a substantial test because its results have a relation with behavior of smart composite materials. The pull-out test was carried out by a u
... Show MoreForest cover in Mosul Province experienced significant changes following the 2014 occupation. These changes can be effectively analyzed using multitemporal remote sensing imagery. This study aims to evaluate the ability of multi-temporal Landsat 8 images and the Forest Canopy Density (FCD) model to detect changes in forest canopy density in a protected forest in Mosul Governorate during the period from 2014 to 2025. The remote sensing data used in this research are Landsat 8 images captured on March 21, 2014, and April 4, 2025. The method employed is FCD modeling, which produces pixel-level canopy density estimates. The results of the FCD model are then used to analyze changes in canopy density following the occupation. The findings of this
... Show MoreThe study aims to evaluate sustainable traffic management strategies for congested intersections in medium-sized Iraqi cities, with a focus on Al-Sa’a Intersection and Al-Jari Street in Hit City. These nodes face severe traffic congestion, delays, and infrastructure limitations that compromise urban mobility and sustainability. A multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) framework was employed to analyze three categories of interventions—engineering, planning, and administrative—based on five weighted criteria: traffic efficiency (40%), delay reduction (25%), cost (20%), environmental impact (10%), and social acceptance (5%). The methodology combined field data collection (traffic counts, travel time, and delays), GIS-based spatial analysis, an
... Show MoreLaboratory studies were conducted at the biological control unit, college of Agriculture, University of Baghdad to evaluate some biological aspects of the predator Chilocorus bipustulatus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), which is considered one of the most important predators on many insect pests, especially the scale insect, Parlatoria blanchardi, (Homoptera: Diaspididae) on date palms. The results showed that biological parameters of the predator were varied according to different degree of temperature. Egg incubation period was significantly different and reached to 7.5 and 5.44 day at 25 and 30°C respectively, Fertility was the same 100% at both temperature degrees. Larval growth periods were 17.41 and 16.12 day as well as the mortality
... Show MoreThe study involved preparing a new compound by combining between 2- hydroxybenzaldehyde and (Z)-3-hydrazineylideneindolin-2-one resulting in Schiff bases and metal ions: Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) forming stable minerals-based-Schiff complexes. The formation of resulting Schiff bases is detected spectrally using LC-Mss which gave corresponding results with theoretical results, 1H-NMR proves the founding of N=CH signal, FT-IR indicates the occurrence of imine band and UV-VIs mean is proved the ligand formation. On the other hand, minerals-based-Schiff was characterized using the same spectral means that relied with ligand (Schiff bases). Those means gave satisfactory results and proved the suggested distinguishable geometries
... Show Morefication of benzaldehyde (C6H5CHO) and O- amino aniline O-C6H4(NH2)2 in ethanol with 8- Hydroxyquinoline (8HQ) . Formed compounds were acquired of 1:1:2 molar proportion reactions for metal ions and ligands (L) and 2(8HQ) during reaction for MCl2 .nH2O salt products complexes conformable into the forms [M(L)(8HQ)2] ,where M = Mn(II),Co(II) and Ni(II). Whole the compounds were identified during the basis of their; FT-IR and U.V spectrum, melting point, molar conduct, identify of the percentage from the metal at the complexes via flame (AAS), C, H and N content of the Schiff base (L) and metal complexes were analysis and magnetic susceptibility menstruations. A hexagonal coordinated metal complexes were proposed to the separated complexes of
... Show MoreThis paper presents a comparison study on thermal performance conic cut twist tape inserts in laminar flow of nanofluids through a constant heat fluxed tube. Three tape configurations, namely, quadrant cut twisted tape (QCT), parabolic half cut twisted tape (PCT), and triangular cut twisted (VCT) of twist ratio= 2.93 and cut depth= 0.5 cm were used with 1% and 2% volume concentration of SiO2/water and TiO
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