Leishmaniasis is endemic ofIraq in both cutaneous and visceral form. The available tools for diagnosis and detection of Leishmaniaare nonspecific and may interfere with other species. In this study, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has been used to identify Iraqi isolate of visceral leishmaniasis (MHOM/ IQ/2005/MRU15) which a previously diagnosed by classical serological tests. PCR amplificationwas carried out using species-specific primers of Leishmania donovani. Four primer pairs of mini-circle DNA and ITS-1 were used.13A/13B, which is used to identify Leishmaniaas a genus, NM12, LITSR/L5.8S and BHUL18S, were used to detect the sub species of L. donovani.The result ofPCR
... Show MoreSerine Palmitoyltransferase SPT is the key enzyme in the de novo sphingolipids biosynthesis pathway in eukaryotes, including the intracellular parasite Leishmania. Previous studies showed that this enzyme SPT is expressed only in divided promastigote forms and it is non-essential in the amastigotes form of Leishmania major, which is known as the old world leishmaniasis. In this study we have studied the viability of new world lesihamniasis, Leishmania mexicana. Cytotoxicity test used to determine the effect of the SPT inhibitor myriocin which did not significantly affect the viability of the two forms of the in vitro cultures of the parasite p<0.05, procyclic promastigotes and amastigotes, in which cell viability for miltefosine trea
... Show MoreBackground: Urolithiasis and hypertension are prevalent and clinically significant conditions in the Middle East, both influenced by shared metabolic and environmental risk factors. Understanding the potential association between them is important for guiding prevention strategies. Objective: To explore the relationship between urolithiasis and hypertension in a sample of Iraqi adult patients. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at Alkindy Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, from September 2024 to March 2025. Participants included 237 patients with confirmed urinary tract stones and 244 controls confirmed to be stone-free, matched for age and sex. Exclusion criteria included secondary hypertension, chronic kidney di
... Show MoreAspect-based sentiment analysis is the most important research topic conducted to extract and categorize aspect-terms from online reviews. Recent efforts have shown that topic modelling is vigorously used for this task. In this paper, we integrated word embedding into collapsed Gibbs sampling in Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Specifically, the conditional distribution in the topic model is improved using the word embedding model that was trained against (customer review) training dataset. Semantic similarity (cosine measure) was leveraged to distribute the aspect-terms to their related aspect-category cognitively. The experiment was conducted to extract and categorize the aspect terms from SemEval 2014 dataset.
In this paper, a robust invisible watermarking system for digital video encoded by MPEG-4 is presented. The proposed scheme provides watermark hidden by embedding a secret message (watermark) in the sprite area allocated in reference frame (I-frame). The proposed system consists of two main units: (i) Embedding unit and (ii) Extraction unit. In the embedding unit, the system allocates the sprite blocks using motion compensation information. The allocated sprite area in each I–frame is used as hosting area for embedding watermark data. In the extraction unit, the system extracts the watermark data in order to check authentication and ownership of the video. The watermark data embedding method is Blocks average modulation applied on RGB dom
... Show MoreAny software application can be divided into four distinct interconnected domains namely, problem domain, usage domain, development domain and system domain. A methodology for assistive technology software development is presented here that seeks to provide a framework for requirements elicitation studies together with their subsequent mapping implementing use-case driven object-oriented analysis for component based software architectures. Early feedback on user interface components effectiveness is adopted through process usability evaluation. A model is suggested that consists of the three environments; problem, conceptual, and representational environments or worlds. This model aims to emphasize on the relationship between the objects
... Show MoreThe present study aimed at examining the factors that affect the choice of A major among a sample of BA fe(male) students at the levels 3-8 in King Abdulaziz University (KAU), in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. To meet this objective, a descriptive survey method was used together with a questionnaire that consisted of 4 axes to answer the central question: What are the factors affecting the choice of a major at the university? Results have shown that the item that measured the students’ ability to choose the major ranked (First); it was concerned with the effect on the students' choice of his/her major in the university. On the last position and with respect to this effect came the professional tendencies and desires. Results have also shown tha
... Show MoreThe aim of study was to explore pharmacist insights toward the impact of prospective implementation of the national health insurance program on patients, providers and Iraqi health system.
This was a qualitative study including semi-structured face-to-face (mostly) interviews with experienced pharmacists. The interview guide included open-ended questions about the impact of the national health insurance program on patients and healthcare providers at three levels: quality of services, costs, and frequency of visits. Potential challenges were also discussed. Interviews were conducted in four provinces from March to May 2022. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview findings and generate themes and subthemes.
The
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