Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive airflow limitation that is preventable but not curable. It is associated with persistent symptoms that cause a considerable burden on individual productivity at work, and daily activities, and reduced quality of life, also burdening the healthcare system and society. Objectives: The study aims to measure the burden of COPD on patients in terms of daily activities and work productivity. It also seeks to investigate some inflammatory biomarkers' levels and their correlation with selected outcomes. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study on 120 stable COPD patients who were diagnosed and treated according to the GOLD guidelines at Kirkuk General Hospital's chest and Internal Medicine consultation clinics, and in private internist clinics in Kirkuk City, Iraq between January and April 2023. The Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI-COPD) measured the Burden of COPD. The symptom burden was assessed by the COPD assessment test (CAT). The level of IL-6 monoclonal antibodies was measured via a Roche Cobas 6000 analyzer and TNF-α using the ELISA sandwich technique. All these devices and machines were authorized by the Ministry of Health, Iraq. Results: The mean age was (54.1 ± 8.12) years, 62.5% being males and 37.5% being females; 41.7% were public sector employees, and 39.2% were self-employed. Due to COPD, the overall work loss was (45.9±18.91) days, the mean percentage of absenteeism was (10.9% ± 12.31%), activity impairment was (47.5% ±17.79%) among all patients, presenteeism was (40.8 ± 15.05%,) and COPD-related retirees were 14.2% of the study group. The mean CAT score (19.3±5.63) was high and the most troubling symptom among patients was chest tightness. WPAI-COPD scores were higher in older age and longer disease duration. The levels of biomarkers were above the reference ranges, the mean IL-6 level was (69.4 ± 35.29) pg/ml, and the mean TNF-α was (72.3 ± 22.45) pg/ ml. Conclusions: COPD patients exhibit a disease burden in terms of productivity loss at work and activity impairment that increases with aging and disease duration. COPD patients with low BMI are more prone to a decline in lung functions and to worse symptoms.
Aim: surface modification of titanium using fiber laser 1064 nm to enhance the bond strength to resin cement. Material and Methods: thirty titanium discs of 0.6 cm x 0.3 cm (diameter and thickness respectively) were categorized after preparation into three groups (n=10) as follows: control group with no surface treatment and two test groups were treated with fiber laser after estimation the appropriate parameters in the pilot study which are 81 ns pulse duration, 30,000 Hz frequency, 50 µm spot size and 10,000 mm/s scanning speed and different average power values (10 W and 20 W) depending on the tested group. Titanium discs surface characterization was performed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), a
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Early detection of eye diseases can forestall visual deficiency and vision loss. There are several types of human eye diseases, for example, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, arteriosclerosis, and hypertension. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) which is brought about by diabetes causes the retinal vessels harmed and blood leakage in the retina. Retinal blood vessels have a huge job in the detection and treatment of different retinal diseases. Thus, retinal vasculature extraction is significant to help experts for the finding and treatment of systematic diseases. Accordingly, early detection and consequent treatment are fundamental for influenced patients to protect their vision. The aim of this paper is to detect blood vessels from
... Show MoreWe demonstrate that the selective hydrogenation of acetylene depends on energy profile of the partial and full hydrogenation routes and the thermodynamic stability of adsorbed C2H2 in comparison to C2H4.
The cytotoxicity of different concentrations of purified methionine γ- lyase from Pseudomonas putida on cancer cell lines (RD, AMN3 and AMGM) at 96 hr was studied. The bacterial enzyme with concentration 1000µg/ml was revealed highly cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines in comparison with other concentrations whereas slight cytotoxicity was observed on normal cell (REF).
The increasing availability of computing power in the past two decades has been use to develop new techniques for optimizing solution of estimation problem. Today's computational capacity and the widespread availability of computers have enabled development of new generation of intelligent computing techniques, such as our interest algorithm, this paper presents one of new class of stochastic search algorithm (known as Canonical Genetic' Algorithm ‘CGA’) for optimizing the maximum likelihood function strategy is composed of three main steps: recombination, mutation, and selection. The experimental design is based on simulating the CGA with different values of are compared with those of moment method. Based on MSE value obtained from bot
... Show MoreThe importance of the current research lies in the importance of teaching competencies and the ability of the teacher to deal and success in his educational career. The research aimed to identify the degree of teaching competencies according to Hermann model of physical education teachers in Baghdad governorate. The descriptive method using the survey method was used on a randomly selected sample of 462 teachers and 314 school principals. After the completion of the survey, the Hermann scale forms were distributed to the teachers. The forms of the teaching competency scale were distributed to their school principals as the direct supervisors of the teachers' evaluation. After completing the survey, the results of each scale were classified
... Show MoreIn the current analysis, the effects of circumferential scratches along the inner surface of a 170ᵒ -arc partial journal bearing has been numerically investigated. Their impact on the thermo-elasto-hydrodynamic performance characteristics, including maximum pressure, temperature, deformation, and stress, has been examined thoroughly. The ANSYS Fluent CFD commercial code was employed to tackle the iterative solution of flow and heat transfer patterns in the fluid film domain. They are then applied to the ANSYS Static Structure solver to compute the deformation and stress resulted in the solid bearing zone. A wide range of operating conditions has been considered, including the eccentricity ratio ( ) and scratch depth (
... Show MoreThis work deals with thermal cracking of three samples of extract lubricating oil produced as a by-product from furfural extraction process of lubricating oil base stock in AL-Dura refinery. The thermal cracking processes were carried out at a temperature range of 325-400 ºC and atmospheric pressure by batch laboratory reactor. The distillation of cracking liquid products was achieved by general ASTM distillation (ASTM D -86) for separation of gasoline fraction up to 220 ºC from light cycle oil fraction above 220 ºC. The comparison between the conversions at different operating conditions of thermal cracking processes indicates that a high conversion was obtained at 375°C, according to gasoline production. According to gasoline produ
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