Background: Otitis media with effusion is a common and important pediatric clinical problem; it is the leading cause of hearing impairment in children. Medical treatment remains controversial. Aim: To evaluate the usefulness of using topical nasal steroids in the treatment of otitis media with effusion. Patients and Methods: Between November 2019 and October 2022, a prospective controlled clinical study was carried out in the department of otolaryngology at Al-Jerrahat Teaching Hospital in Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq. This study comprised 40 patients with bilateral otitis media with effusion (23 males, 17 females). Two groups were created for the patients. Patients in group A (20 patients) were treated with mometasone furoate nasal spray; 1 puff (50 µg) in each nostril daily for 2 weeks, while the 20 patients in group B were treated with saline nasal spray; 1 puff in each nostril daily for 2 weeks. At the end of the first and second weeks of treatment, otoscopic examination was used to monitor the patients. At the end of the second post-treatment week, pure tone audiometry and tympanometry were performed again. Normal otoscopic results, a type A tympanogram, and enhanced pure tone hearing threshold average to be ≤20 dB HL within 0, 5, 1, and 4 KHz were used to characterize resolution of OME. The association between two means was determined using an independent sample t-test, while the association between categorical variables was determined using an X2-test. Results: At the end of 2nd post-treatment week, there was no significant difference regarding improvement of otitis media with effusion regarding otoscopic, audiometric, and tympanometric results in both groups (P-value >0.05). Conclusion: Topical nasal steroid is unuseful for the treatment of otitis media with effusion in the short-term.
Developing routes to produce cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from high-lignin wood residues is essential for expanding sustainable nanocellulose feedstocks. In this work, Meranti (Shorea sp.) sawdust was valorized into CNCs by integrating ammonium persulfate (APS) pretreatment with subsequent sulfuric acid hydrolysis. To establish a severity map and define an operating window, APS pretreatment severity was systematically varied by adjusting APS concentration and the sawdust-to-APS (solid-to-liquid) ratio, and its influence on CNC structural properties was evaluated. APS pretreatment partially disrupted and oxidized the lignocellulosic matrix, enabling acid hydrolysis to liberate crystalline cellulose domains. XRD analysis confirmed th
... Show MoreArcology is a new vision of urban design for densely populated settlements. It is referred to as the urban formation aimed at achieving the highest level of utilization in the least area of land to reduce human impact on the environment. Moreover, the integration of this formation with the environment will work to reduce energy consumption, and achieve an economy that is characterized by adaptation and self-sufficiency, leading towards sustainable urbanism. The current study deals with this new concept in sustainable urban design, in an attempt to investigate its impact on traditional urban formation and to make a comparison between them. The lack of a clear conception of the term ‘arcology’ and comparing it with the organic compact urb
... Show MoreAg-doped NiO thin films were fabricated by dip coating and subsequently annealed at 373, 473, 573, and 673 K to elucidate the influence of annealing temperature on their structural, morphological, optical, and NO2-sensing characteristics. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of polycrystalline Ag/NiO films, with progressively improved crystallinity and larger crystallite size at elevated annealing temperatures. Atomic force microscopy revealed a homogeneous surface morphology with grain growth, with the average grain diameter increasing from 26.40 to 34.2 nm. Optical analysis showed high visible-region transmittance (65–70%) and a gradual reduction in the optical band gap from 2.75 to 2.07 eV with increasing annealing temperature. Ga
... Show MoreThe study evaluated endophytic communities associated with five oil-bearing plants, including sesame, corn, sunflower, olives and castor, which were collected from Baghdad and Diyala (Iraq), evaluated their oil production capacity and identified metabolites from the lipid fraction. Out of 151 isolates were collected from 21 taxa. Aspergillus niger showed the highest frequency (6.62 %), while the genera Aspergillus and Fusarium were the most dominant endophytes. The highest oil yield was identified and recorded in Aspergillus terreus (24.12 %). While the lowest oil yield was observed in Sclerotinia spp. (3.96 %). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of A. terreus revealed a profile dominated by pentadecyl acrylate (2
... Show MoreIn this manuscript, the effect of substituting strontium with barium on the structural properties of Tl0.8Ni0.2Sr2-xBrxCa2Cu3O9-δcompound with x= 0, 0.2, 0.4, have been studied. Samples were prepared using solid state reaction technique, suitable oxides alternatives of Pb2O3, CaO, BaO and CuO with 99.99% purity as raw materials and then mixed. They were prepared in the form of discs with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a thickness of (0.2-0.3) cm under pressures 7 tons / cm2, and the samples were sintered at a constant temperature o
... Show Moreفي هذا البحث تم تحضير المركبات المعدنية الجديدة لأيونات البلاتين (الرباعي) و الذهب (الثلاثي) مع ليكاند قاعدة مانخ جديد مشتق من السيبروفلوكساسين . تم استخدام المعقدات بعد ذلك كمصدر لتحضير جزيئات عن طريق ترسيب المعقدات على مسام دقائق السيليكا النانوية. Si/Au2O3 Si/PtO2 تم تشخيص الليكاند و معقداته
... Show MoreThis paper aimed to investigate the effect of the height-to-length ratio of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls when loaded by a vertical load. The finite element (FE) method was implemented for modeling and analysis of URM wall. In this paper, ABAQUS, FE software with implicit solver was used to model and analysis URM walls subjected to a vertical load. In order to ensure the validity of Detailed Micro Model (DMM) in predicting the behavior of URM walls under vertical load, the results of the proposed model are compared with experimental results. Load-displacement relationship of the proposed numerical model is found of a good agreement with that of the published experimental results. Evidence shows that load-displacement curve obtained fro
... Show MoreThe results of research to reach the conditions that prevents the emergence of primary or secondary voids and achieve worker benefit from molded by almost 100%, which was the situation that cast poured in a mold heated and insulated from all sides to achieve freezing directional full starting from the region remote from the casting and ending then. Has also been compared to the microscopic structure of the resulting castings of various molding conditions, as these conditions have achieved the best sound microscopic structures.