Background: Nursing interventions tailored to the smoking triggers in patients with non-communicable chronic diseases are essential. However, these interventions are scant due to the nature of factors associated with smoking cessation and the poor understanding of the effect of nurse-led intervention in Iraq.Purpose: This study aimed to determine the dominant smoking triggers and examine the effects of a tailored nursing intervention on smoking behavior in patients with non-communicable chronic diseases.Methods: Convenience samples of 128 patients with non-communicable chronic diseases, male and female patients, who were 18-70 years old, were recruited in this quasi-experimental, randomized comparative trial in the outpatient clinic in one major teaching hospital in Baghdad City, Iraq. The intervention included simple yet specific instructions that were given both orally and in written form to the study samples to enable them to manage their craving to smoke for 6 weeks. The smoking triggers were assessed using Why Do You Smoke questionnaire. Participants were randomly allocated to receive either the nurse-led intervention or standard care. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, logistic regression, and two-sided tests.Results: Stress reduction was the dominant smoking trigger among subjects. The percentage of participants who were either able to completely quit smoking or reduce the number of smoked cigarettes per day (n=19, 29.7%; n=28, 43.8%, respectively) was greater in the study group than those in the control group (n=5, 5.8%; n=5, 5.8%, respectively). Study findings demonstrated significant differences in the inability to improve readiness to quit smoking between the intervention group and control group (p=0.000) at the sixth-week follow-up.Conclusion: The tailored nursing intervention was effective for a successful achievement of smoking reduction and cessation among patients with non-communicable chronic diseases, and a potential to equip nurses in clinical settings to support patients to achieve this is recommended.
Background: The first and second choice for vascular access in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) is radio cephalic and brachio cephalic arteriovenous fistula (AVF).In patients with failed previous AVF e or poorly visualized or impalpable cephalic veins, the basilic vein can be mobilized and superficialized to create an AVF with the brachial artery.Objective: The aim of this study is to report our experience at the Vascular Surgery Department/ Surgical Specialty Hospital in brachio-basilic (BB) vascular access for hemodialysis.Methods: From January 2006 to December 2009, 31 patients with ESRD whose cephalic veins were thrombosed or impalpable or had previous unsuccessful vascular access procedures were referred to the Vascular
... Show MoreThe use of credit cards for online purchases has significantly increased in recent years, but it has also led to an increase in fraudulent activities that cost businesses and consumers billions of dollars annually. Detecting fraudulent transactions is crucial for protecting customers and maintaining the financial system's integrity. However, the number of fraudulent transactions is less than legitimate transactions, which can result in a data imbalance that affects classification performance and bias in the model evaluation results. This paper focuses on processing imbalanced data by proposing a new weighted oversampling method, wADASMO, to generate minor-class data (i.e., fraudulent transactions). The proposed method is based on th
... Show MoreAn aircraft's landing stage involves inherent hazards and problems associated with many factors, such as weather, runway conditions, pilot experiences, etc. The pilot is responsible for selecting the proper landing procedure based on information provided by the landing console operator (LCO). Given the likelihood of human decisions due to errors and biases, creating an intelligent system becomes important to predict accurate decisions. This paper proposes the fuzzy logic method, which intends to handle the uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in the landing phase, providing intelligent decision support to the pilot while reducing the workload of the LCO. The fuzzy system, built using the Mamdani approach in MATLAB software, considers critical
... Show MoreIn the current work various types of epoxy composites were added to concrete to enhance its effectiveness as a gamma- ray shield. Four epoxy samples of (E/clay/B4C) S1, (E/Mag/B4C) S2, (EPIL) S3 and (Ep) S4 were used in a comparative study of gamma radiation attenuation properties of these shields that calculating using Mont Carlo code (MCNP-5). Adopting Win X-com software and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), µ/ρ revealed great compliance with MCNP-5. By applying (µ/ρ) output for gamma at different energies, HVL, TVL and MFP have been also estimated. ANN technique was simulated to estimate (µ/ρ) and dose rates. According to the results, µ/ρ of all epoxy samples scored higher than standard concrete. Both S2 and S3 samples having h
... Show Morecontent Analysis for Some Type of Pillows used in Iraqi houses
The research aims to find ways to minimize the use of quantities of chemical fertilizers in agriculture in order to get to an environment that is free of contaminants. Magnetized water technology used in the experience of planting seeds of tomatoes Thomson type to obtain a higher efficiency to absorb fertilizer NRK in the protected environment of the period from February to June. Magnetized water system used locally made levels Gaues (4800,2500,1500) concentrations of 50 to 100% for each level and the rate of (4) replicates, and results indicated that the severity of the magnet (4800 Gaues) and a concentration of 50% gave the highest percentage of tomato fruit size and intensity ( 1500 Gaues) and a concentration of 100% did not give any inc
... Show MoreA study of characteristics of the lubricant oils and the physical properties is essential to know the quality of lubricant oils. The parameters that lead to classify oils have been studied in this research. Three types of multi-grades lubricant oils were applied under changing temperatures from 25 oC to 78oC to estimate the physical properties and mixture compositions. Kinematic viscosity, viscosity gravity constant and paraffin (P), naphthenes (N) and aromatics (A) (PNA) analysis are used to predict the composition of lubricants oil. Kinematic viscosity gives good behaviors and the oxidation stability for each lubricant oils. PNA analysis predicted fractions of paraffin (XP), naphthenes (XN),
... Show MoreThis research aims to analyse the problem of organizations in general and universities in particular, in dealing with �quality subjects� in a world where these organizations face the risks of becoming side lined and possibly vanished without looking for solutions that allow them to move in an open arena where change becomes the key to those solutions. Change here must be strategic and planning must adopts a way for organizations to develop mechanisms to manage change itself. Management leaders play a central role in achieving the principle required to chart new trends for universities in dealing with quality as a strategy that allows excellence and competition in light of the success of the processes of change. Change through reengineer
... Show MoreBackground: Surface treatment of machined dental zirconia for enhancement of the adhesion to resin cement, using Er,Cr:YSGG Laser. Materials and Methods: Total number of 42 zirconia disc specimens (9 mm diameter, and 2 mm height) was sintered according to the manufacturer instruction. They are divided into six groups, each group of seven samples. Laser groups (Experiment parameters) were depend on laser total irradiation time, pulse duration, and power. Group (A): 20 sec., 60 µs pulse duration. Group (B): 30 sec., 60 µs pulse duration. Group (C): 40 sec., 60 µs pulse duration. Group (D): 20 sec., 700 µs pulse duration. Group (E): 30 sec., 700 µs pulse duration, with different powers used (1, 1
... Show More