chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease with episodes of exacerbation. Variable factors including infectious pathogen can predispose for this exacerbation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of intestinal protozoa in COPD exacerbation. A total of 56 patients with COPD were included in this study. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the frequency of exacerbation during the last 6 months: those with ≤1 exacerbation (32 patients) and those with ≥2 exacerbations (24 patients). Stool specimens from each patient were collected two times (one week interval) examined for intestinal parasite. In univariate analysis, rural residence and parasitic infection were more common among patie

Background: Axillary lymph node (ALN) enlargement with diffuse cortical thickening and conserved echogenic hilum may represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Sonographic strain elastography may help the characterization of borderline ALN. 

Aim: To evaluate the strain elastography of borderline ALN and to calculate a cutoff value of strain ratio (SR) that can identify suspicious ALN with the highest sensitivity and specificity to reduce unnecessary invasive procedures. 

Subjects and Methods: A prospective study included 45 patients who attended the Breast clinic in Oncology Teaching Hospital with borderline axillary lymphadenopathy (intact hilum and diffusely thic

This review focuses on conservation agriculture (CA) and its effects on increasing the soil’s resistance to erosion. CA involves minimum soil disturbance (minimum tillage/ no-till), diversified crop rotation, and maintenance of the soil cover to increase soil fertility and reduce erosion. CA reduces soil loss by up to 90% and water erosion by approximately 50 to 70% from runoff as it increases the health of the soil, yield of crops, and water-retention capacity of the soil by incorporating soil organic matter and promoting biodiversity. Crop rotation prevents the replenishment and depletion of soil nutrients by atmospheric fixation of nitrogen/biological nitrogen fixation. Controlled traffic farming (CTF) is a new strategy in which travel

The monitoring weld quality is increasingly important because great financial savings are possible because of it, and this especially happens in manufacturing where defective welds lead to losses in production and necessitate time consuming and expensive repair. This research deals with the monitoring and controllability of the fusion arc welding process using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model. The effect of weld parameters on the weld quality was studied by implementing the experimental results obtained from welding a non-Galvanized steel plate ASTM BN 1323 of 6 mm thickness in different weld parameters (current, voltage, and travel speed) monitored by electronic systems that are followed by destructive (Tensile and Bending) and non

              In light of the general inadequacy in the performance of the economic units operating in Iraq, and the contemporary developments in all the various sciences, Iraqi economic units have become obligated to use modern technologies applied around the world. Keeping abreast of these developments is done by moving away from traditional methods of evaluating performance and applying approved and accepted methods of evaluating performance. This will lead to an increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of the activities of economic units. In addition, this drives to reduce production costs. Accordingly, this study aims to clarify the application of the balanced scor

This study aims to determine the extent to which Palestinian elites use digital diplomacy to confront the Israeli narrative by exploring the motives for usage, patterns, essential digital diplomatic tools, and achieved satisfactions. The study adopted a survey methodology and employed a questionnaire distributed to a sample of 110 Palestinian political and media elites.
The study arrived at several key findings, including: Palestinian elites allocate a substantial (%67) of their efforts towards employing digital diplomacy as a response to the Israeli narrative. The foremost platforms employed for this purpose are Facebook and Twitter. The primary motivation for utilizing these digital platforms is to present

This study aims at evaluating the performance of MA students in the College of Education for Women in using the digital transformation and identifying the significant difference in performance evaluation according to the variable of academic qualification (Master or PHD). In order to achieve the aim of the research the researcher prepared a questionnaire of 20 items, and this happens after the researcher's getting acquaintance of the literature of previous studies related to the variable of the research. The apparent validity of the items was examined by exposing them to 10 juries specialized in education, psychology and evaluation and measurement. The stability of the items was examined via two methods, the test-repetition and half-divisio

This work aims to show the nature of the relationship between management by walking around  (the independent variable) and strategic renewal (the dependent variable), as well as it shows the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable. Questionnaire items were considered the main tool for data collection by three basic aspects. The first involved the personal data of the respondents, while the second included items related to management by walking in five dimensions, and the third is strategic renewal items by addressing four dimensions. The tourism sector, while the community has six Excellent grade hotels was taken into account in this wor

Abstract: In this paper, a U-shaped probe with a curvature diameter of half a centimeter was implemented using plastic optical fibers. A layer of the outer shell of the fibers was removed by polishing to a D-section. The sensor was tested by immersing it in a sodium chloride solution with variable refractive index depending on solution concentrations ranging from 1.333 to 1.363. In this design, the sensor experienced a decrease in its intensity as the concentration of the solution increased. The next step The sensor was coated with a thin layer of gold with a thickness of 20 nm, and the sensor was tested with the same solutions which resulted in a shift in wavelengths where the shift in wavelength was 5.37 nm and sensiti

The research aims at identify the role of the electronic trading system used in the Iraq stock exchange to promote trading activity for the stocks of listed companies in this market.

To prove the hypothesis of research, it was selected the main trading indicators for the market to be a main field in test the research hypothesis.it was selected as the period of time for (9)years span between the years (2005-2013) because they represent the first two articles of equal time periods represent aperiod that preceded the introduction of electronic trading system  while the second represents the period of time that followed 

The research found a number of conclusions but the mo