Previous studies in Euro-American countries have shown that patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection have increased levels of neuropsychiatric symptoms. While chronic hepatitis C virus infection has been reported in Arab countries such as Iraq, there is little studies about the neuropsychological burden associated with chronic hepatitis C among patients in the Arab region. The aim of the current study was to measure the prevalence and level of severity of depression, anxiety and stress among a sample of chronic hepatitis C patients in AL-Najaf province /Iraq. The current study was cross-sectional study carried out on (110) already diagnosed chronic viral hepatitis C patients who attended the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Center/Al-Sader Medical City/Najaf/Iraq during November 2018 to May 2019. In addition, (100) apparently healthy subjects were included as a control group. The Arabic version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to assess mental health. Both the prevalence rates and severity levels of depression, anxiety and stress were significantly higher in chronic hepatitis C patients compared to the control group (P<0.001). Stress level is negatively correlated with age and is significantly more in single. Anxiety level is less with a higher level of education. Depression was significantly higher in those having children. The study indicates that the presence of chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with a higher risk of psychological burden. Accordingly, meeting the psychological needs of such patients would need to be addressed.
This research deals with the most important heritage in Iraq, which are the Iraqi marshes, especially Abu Zarag marsh in Al-Nasiriyah city south of Iraq. The research is divided into two parts. The first part deals with evaluating the water quality parameters of Abu Zarag marsh for the period from December 2018 to April 2019 which is the flooding season. The parameters are Temperature, pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Alkalinity, Total Hardness, Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, Sulfate, Nitrate. The second part is a comparison between the water quality parameters during the recent period with the same period during the previous years from 2014 to 2019. The results are
Nuclear emission rates for nucleon-induced reactions are theoretically calculated based on the one-component exciton model that uses state density with non-Equidistance Spacing Model (non-ESM). Fair comparison is made from different state density values that assumed various degrees of approximation formulae, beside the zeroth-order formula corresponding to the ESM. Calculations were made for 96Mo nucleus subjected to (N,N) reaction at Emax=50 MeV. The results showed that the non-ESM treatment for the state density will significantly improve the emission rates calculated for various exciton configurations. Three terms might suffice a proper calculation, but the results kept changing even for ten terms. However, five terms is found to give
... Show MoreAccurate calculation of transient overvoltages and dielectric stresses from fast-front excitations is required to obtain an optimal dielectric design of power components subjected to these conditions, which are commonly due to switching and lightning, as well as utilization of power-electronic devices. Toroidal transformers are generally used at the low voltage level. However, recent investigations and developments have explored their use at the medium voltage level. This paper analyzes the model-based improvement of the insulation design of medium voltage toroidal transformers. Lumped and distributed parameter models are used and compared to predict the transient response and dielectric stress along the transformer winding. The parameters
... Show MoreIn this work, enhancement to the fluorescence characteristics of laser dye solutions hosting highly-pure titanium dioxide nanoparticles as random gain media. This was achieved by coating two opposite sides of the cells containing these media with nanostructured thin films of highly-pure titanium dioxide. Two laser dyes; Rhodamine B and Coumarin 102, were used to prepare solutions in hexanol and methanol, respectively, as hosts for the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles and thin films were prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The enhancement was observed by the narrowing of fluorescence linewidth as well as by increasing the fluorescence intensity. These parameters were compared to those of the dye only and the dye solution
... Show Moreβ-Adrenergic blocking agents, mostly comprising of β-amino alcohols, are of pharmaceutical significance and have received major attention due to their utility in the management of cardiovascular disorders including hypertension, angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmias and other disorders related to the sympathetic nervous system. Most compounds available for clinical use belong to the aryloxypropanolamine series, which is considered the second generation of β-blocking agents. The present study includes the synthesis of compounds with an N-substituted oxypropanolamine moiety attached to the 1, 3, 4-thiadiazole derivatives. According to this information, eight compounds were synthesized and characterized by IR spectra and elemental m
... Show MoreIn order to improve the effectiveness, increase the life cycle, and avoid the blade structural failure of wind turbines, the blades need to be perfectly designed. Knowing the flow angle and the geometric characteristics of the blade is necessary to calculate the values of the induction factors (axial and tangential), which are the basis of the Blade Element Momentum theory (BEM). The aforementioned equations form an implicit and nonlinear system. Consequently, a straightforward iterative solution process can be used to solve this problem. A theoretical study of the aerodynamic performance of a horizontal-axis wind turbine blade was introduced using the BEM. The main objective of the current work is to examine the wind turbine blade’s perf
... Show MoreLED is an ultra-lightweight block cipher that is mainly used in devices with limited resources. Currently, the software and hardware structure of this cipher utilize a complex logic operation to generate a sequence of random numbers called round constant and this causes the algorithm to slow down and record low throughput. To improve the speed and throughput of the original algorithm, the Fast Lightweight Encryption Device (FLED) has been proposed in this paper. The key size of the currently existing LED algorithm is in 64-bit & 128-bit but this article focused mainly on the 64-bit key (block size=64-bit). In the proposed FLED design, complex operations have been replaced by LFSR left feedback technology to make the algorithm perform more e
... Show MoreIn this work, pure and Ag-doped nickel oxide (NiO) thin films were deposited on glass substrates with different dopant concentrations (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 wt.%) by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) technique at room temperature. These films were annealed at temperature of 450 °C. The structural and optical properties of the prepared thin films were studied. It was found that annealing process has lead to increase the transmittance of the deposited films. Also, the transmittance was found to increase with doping concentration of silver in the deposited NiO films. The optical energy gap was decreased from 3.5 to 3.2 eV as the doping concentration was increased to 0.4 %.