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.
Water pollution as a result of contamination with dye-contaminating effluents is a severe issue for water reservoirs, which instigated the study of biodegradation of Reactive Red 195 and Reactive Blue dyes by E. coli and Bacillus sp. The effects of occupation time, solution pH, initial dyes concentrations, biomass loading, and temperature were investigated via batch-system experiments by using the Design of Experiment (DOE) for 2 levels and 5 factors response surface methodology (RSM). The operational conditions used for these factors were optimized using quadratic techniques by reducing the number of experiments. The results revealed that the two types of bacteria had a powerful effect on biodegradable dyes. The regression analysis reveale
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study was to determine the influence of environmental pH on production of biofilms and virulence genes expression in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Among 303 clinical and environmental samples 109 (61 + 48) isolates were identified as clinical and environmental P. aeruginosa isolates, respectively. Clinical samples were obtained from patients in the Al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad city, Iraq. Waste water from Al-Yarmouk hospital was used from site before treatment unit to collect environmental samples. The ability of prod
The objective of this work is to investigate the performance of a conventional three phase induction motor supplied by unbalanced voltages. An effort to study the motor steady state performance under this disturbance is introduced. Using per phase equivalent circuit analysis with the concept of symmetrical components approach, the steady state performance is theoretically calculated. Also, a model for the induction motor with the MATLAB/Simulink SPS tools has been implemented and steady state results were obtained. Both results are compared and show good correlation as well. The simulation model is introduced to support and enhance electrical engineers with a complete understanding for the steady state performance of a fully loaded induc
... Show MoreA comparative study was done on the adsorption of methyl orange dye (MO) using non-activated and activated corn leaves with hydrochloric acid as an adsorbent material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were utilized to specify the properties of adsorbent material. The effect of several variables (pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, amount of adsorbent and contact time) on the removal efficiency was studied and the results indicated that the adsorption efficiency increases with the increase in the concentration of dye, adsorbent dosage and contact time, while inversely proportional to the increase in pH and temperature for both the treated and untreated corn leaves. The equi
... Show MoreBackground: There are several diseases in the body following recovery from COVID-19 infection because this virus operates on human genes in various types of peripheral tissue in the human body. It penetrates host cells via Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptors and may have effects on bone remodeling, leading to osteopenia or osteoporosis, which are characterized by low bone mineral density, resulting in diminished bone strength. Bone Alkaline Phpsphatase is an enzyme released into the bloodstream as a soluble homodimer after being cleaved by a phospholipase and can be utilized as a biomarker of bone development. Objective: This research was designed to investigate the alteration of bone homeostasis balance in Iraqi post-COVID-19
... Show MoreThis study was undertaken to diagnose routine settling problems within a third-party oil and gas companies’ Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG) regeneration system. Two primary issues were identified including; a) low particle size (<40 μm) resulting in poor settlement within high viscosity MEG solution and b) exposure to hydrocarbon condensate causing modification of particle surface properties through oil-wetting of the particle surface. Analysis of oil-wetted quartz and iron carbonate (FeCO₃) settlement behavior found a greater tendency to remain suspended in the solution and be removed in the rich MEG effluent stream or to strongly float and accumulate at the liquid-vapor interface in comparison to naturally water-wetted particles. As su
... Show MoreEco-friendly concrete is produced using the waste of many industries. It reduces the fears concerning energy utilization, raw materials, and mass-produced cost of common concrete. Several stress-strain models documented in the literature can be utilized to estimate the ultimate strength of concrete components reinforced with fibers. Unfortunately, there is a lack of data on how non-metallic fibers, such as polypropylene (PP), affect the properties of concrete, especially eco-friendly concrete. This study presents a novel approach to modeling the stress-strain behavior of eco-friendly polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete (PFRC) using meta-heuristic particle swarm optimization (PSO) employing 26 PFRC various mixtures. The cement was partia
... Show MoreHard-grade asphalt binders, such as AC 20–30, offer excellent resistance to permanent deformation but are inherently brittle, making them highly susceptible to fatigue and low-temperature cracking. While polymer modification addresses these issues, virgin polymers remain expensive. Despite the growing interest in recycled plastics, the rheological impact of complex waste streams, specifically polyvinyl chloride (PVC) derived from flex banners containing plasticizers, on excessively stiff binders within the complete Superpave Performance Grading (PG) framework remains critically underexplored. This study introduces a novel valorization approach by utilizing solvent-extracted flex banner waste (WPVC) as a dual-action modifier. It leverages
... Show MoreBackground: Bone defect healing is a multidimensional procedure with an overlapping timeline that involves the regeneration of bone tissue. Due to bone's ability to regenerate, the vast majority of bone abnormalities can be restored intuitively under the right physiological conditions. The goal of this study is to examine the immunohistochemistry of bone sialoprotein in order to determine the effect of local application of bone sialoprotein on the healing of a rat tibia generated bone defect. Materials and Methods: In this experiment, 48 albino male rats weighing 300-400 grams and aged 6-8 months will be employed under controlled temperature, drinking, and food consumption settings. The animals will be subjected to a surgical procedure o
... Show MoreThe present research was conducted to reduce the sulfur content of Iraqi heavy naphtha by adsorption using different metals oxides over Y-Zeolite. The Y-Zeolite was synthesized by a sol-gel technique. The average size of zeolite was 92.39 nm, surface area 558 m2/g, and pore volume 0.231 cm3/g. The metals of nickel, zinc, and copper were dispersed by an impregnation method to prepare Ni/HY, Zn/HY, Cu/HY, and Ni + Zn /HY catalysts for desulfurization. The adsorptive desulfurization was carried out in a batch mode at different operating conditions such as mixing time (10,15,30,60, and 600 min) and catalyst dosage (0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1, and 1.2 g). The most of the sulfur compounds were removed at 10 min for all catalyst ty
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