Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL). The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals of this study were to compare the QoL of Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseases modifying therapies(DMTs) administered orally, subcutaneously, and by slow infusion; namely, fingolimod,interferonB-1b, and natalizumab, respectively. And to assess the role of disability status, educational status, occupational status, MS duration, and treatment duration as a predictor for the QoL. Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS) questionnaire version 4 was used to assess QoL. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were tested by univariate and multivariate regression analyses to assess the contribution of these predictors to QoL. No significant differences were found in symptoms, thinking/fatigue subscales and FAMS total scores among the three DMTs. In conclusion: Iraqi MS patients using InterferonB-1b, fingolimod or natalizumab have a comparable low level of QoL. The expanded disability status scale (EDSS) is negatively associated with QoL of MS patients in all of the three therapies, while other predictors such as occupational status, educational status, smoking habit and MS duration have different impact in different treatments.
The aim of the current study was to develop a nanostructured double-layer for hydrophobic molecules delivery system. The developed double-layer consisted of polyethylene glycol-based polymeric (PEG) followed by gelatin sub coating of the core hydrophobic molecules containing sodium citrate. The polymeric composition ratio of PEG and the amount of the sub coating gelatin were optimized using the two-level fractional method. The nanoparticles were characterized using AFM and FT-IR techniques. The size of these nano capsules was in the range of 39-76 nm depending on drug loading concentration. The drug was effectively loaded into PEG-Gelatin nanoparticles (≈47%). The hydrophobic molecules-release characteristics in terms of controlled-releas
... Show MorePromoting the production of industrially important aromatic chloroamines over transition-metal nitrides catalysts has emerged as a prominent theme in catalysis. This contribution provides an insight into the reduction mechanism of p-chloronitrobenzene (p-CNB) to p-chloroaniline (p-CAN) over the γ-Mo2N(111) surface by means of density functional theory calculations. The adsorption energies of various molecularly adsorbed modes of p-CNB were computed. Our findings display that, p-CNB prefers to be adsorbed over two distinct adsorption sites, namely, Mo-hollow face-centered cubic (fcc) and N-hollow hexagonal close-packed (hcp) sites with adsorption energies of −32.1 and −38.5 kcal/mol, respectively. We establish that the activation of nit
... Show MoreBackground: The world is in front of two emerging problems being scarceness of virgin re-sources for bioactive materials and the gathering of waste production. Employment of the surplus waste in the mainstream production can resolve these problems. The current study aimed to prepare and characterize a natural composite CaO-SiO2 based bioactive material derived from naturally sustained raw materials. Then deposit this innovative novel bioactive coating composite materials overlying Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia substrate. Mate-rials and method; Hen eggshell-derived calcium carbonate and rice husk-derived silica were extracted from natural resources to prepare the composite coating material. The manufac-tured powder was characterized
... Show MoreAg-doped NiO thin films were fabricated by dip coating and subsequently annealed at 373, 473, 573, and 673 K to elucidate the influence of annealing temperature on their structural, morphological, optical, and NO2-sensing characteristics. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of polycrystalline Ag/NiO films, with progressively improved crystallinity and larger crystallite size at elevated annealing temperatures. Atomic force microscopy revealed a homogeneous surface morphology with grain growth, with the average grain diameter increasing from 26.40 to 34.2 nm. Optical analysis showed high visible-region transmittance (65–70%) and a gradual reduction in the optical band gap from 2.75 to 2.07 eV with increasing annealing temperature. Ga
... Show MoreTo evaluate the shear bond strength and interfacial morphology of sound and caries-affected dentin (CAD) bonded to two resin-modified glass ionomer cements (RMGICs) after 24 hours and two months of storage in simulated body fluid at 37°C.
Sixty-four permanent human mandibular first molars (32 sound and 32 with occlusal caries, following the International Caries Detection and Assessment System) were selected. Each prepared substrate (sound and CAD) was co
Advanced strategies for production forecasting, operational optimization, and decision-making enhancement have been employed through reservoir management and machine learning (ML) techniques. A hybrid model is established to predict future gas output in a gas reservoir through historical production data, including reservoir pressure, cumulative gas production, and cumulative water production for 67 months. The procedure starts with data preprocessing and applies seasonal exponential smoothing (SES) to capture seasonality and trends in production data, while an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) captures complicated spatiotemporal connections. The history replication in the models is quantified for accuracy through metric keys such as m
... Show MoreThe petroleum industry, which is one of the pillars of the national economy, has the potential to generate vast wealth and employment possibilities. The transportation of petroleum products is complicated and changeable because of the hazards caused by the corrosion consequences. Hazardous chemical leaks caused by natural disasters may harm the environment, resulting in significant economic losses. It significantly threatens the aim for sustainable development. When a result, determining the likelihood of leakage and the potential for environmental harm, it becomes a top priority for decision-makers as they develop maintenance plans. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the risks associated with oil and gas pipeli
... Show MoreForms of knowledge with no direct link to survival—religious knowledge foremost among them—have long posed a challenge to evolutionary theory: the cost of belief in unseen deities is difficult to justify under natural selection, in the way that the cost of three-dimensional vision is not. This study locates the source of the difficulty in an epistemological assumption inherited from classical philosophy: that consciousness produces knowledge as a correspondence to reality, and therefore that some knowledge lies beyond the function of survival. Against this, it proposes the concept of "cartographic knowledge": consciousness is a multi-mechanism adaptive apparatus whose function is not to mirror reality but to draw a functional map of the
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