Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory autoimmune disease of unidentified etiology, associated with articular, extra-articular and systemic manifestation that require long-standing treatment. Taking patient’s beliefs about the prescribed medication in consideration had been shown to be an essential factor that affects adherence of the patient in whom having positive beliefs is an essential for better adherence. The purpose of the current study was to measure beliefs about medicines among a sample of Iraqi patients with Rheumatoid arthritis and to determine possible association between this belief and some patient-certain factors. This study is a cross-sectional study carried out on 250 already diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis patients who attended to Baghdad Teaching Hospital/Medical City/Rheumatology department. The mean age of the patients was (50.8 ± 13.1 years). Belief about medicines was measured via the Arabic version of the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire. The majority of the patients (88%) had strong beliefs in the necessity of treatment (specific-necessity score greater than specific-concern). There was a significant direct correlation between age, male gender, number of other chronic disease, disease activity score 28 and clinical disease activity index with specific necessity, and direct correlation between clinical disease activity index with specific concern. Future studies should investigate how interventional approaches addressing these predictors may lead to improve beliefs about medicines among rheumatoid arthritis patients and their impression on disease control.
Modern automation robotics have replaced many human workers in industrial factories around the globe. The robotic arms are used for several manufacturing applications, and their responses required optimal control. In this paper, a robust approach of optimal position control for a DC motor in the robotic arm system is proposed. The general component of the automation system is first introduced. The mathematical model and the corresponding transfer functions of a DC motor in the robotic arm system are presented. The investigations of using DC motor in the robotic arm system without controller lead to poor system performance. Therefore, the analysis and design of a Proportional plus Integration plus Divertive (PID) controller is illustrated.
... 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 MoreTHE Schiff base reaction played an important role of the condensation reaction between 2-aminophenol and Glyoxylic acid in the presence of calculated amounts of KOH as a catalyst. The reaction has been carried out in ethanol under reflux and stirring condition for 3.5 hrs. All syntheses were carried out under hydrogen gas forming a new potassium (E)-1-hydroxy-2-(2-hydroxyphenylimino)ethanolate ligand type [NO2]. The ligand of the general formula K2[Mn(L2)] type and its Mnп complex K2[Mn(N2O4)] type, has been characterized by spectroscopic methods (F.T-I.R. and U.V-Vis.), elemental analysis (C.H.N) metal content, magnetic susceptibility measurement, Thin-layer chromatography (T.L.C), X-RD powder diffraction, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR molar conductanc
... Show MorePerfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a synthetic fluor-surfactant chemical used widely in products that resist oil, heat, grease, stains, and water. It is also used in producing other fluoropolymers. The main sources of exposure to PFOA are water, soil, and animal-origin food (meat, fish, and dairy products). The aim of this study to evaluate the renal function following oral gavage of sub-lethal dose of PFOA in diabetic and non-diabetic guinea pigs. The experiment run for 4 weeks, total of 40 male guinea pigs, (Cavia porcellus), were randomly selected and grouped into four equal groups. The first group (G1) served as the negative control; 2nd group (G2) alloxan induced diabetic, 3rd group (G3) non-diabeti
... Show MoreThe aim of present work is to improve mechanical and fatigue properties for Aluminum alloy7049 by using Nano composites technique. The ZrO2 with an average grain diameter of 30-40 nm, was selected as Nano particles, to reinforce Aluminum alloy7049 with different percentage as, 2, 4, 6 and 7 %. The Stir casting method was used to fabricate the Nano composites materials due to economical route for improvement and processing of metal matrix composites. The experimental results were shown that the adding of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) as reinforced material leads to improve mechanical properties. The best percentage of improvement of mechanical properties of 7049 AA was with 4% wt. of ZrO2 about (7.76% ) for ultim
... Show MoreThis study aimed to investigate the incorporation of recycled waste compact discs (WCDs) powder in concrete mixes to replace the fine aggregate by 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Compared to the reference concrete mix, results revealed that using WCDs powder in concrete mixes improved the workability and the dry density. The results demonstrated that the compressive, flexural, and split tensile strengths values for the WCDs-modified concrete mixes showed tendency to increase above the reference mix. However, at 28 days curing age, the strengths values for WCDs-modified concrete mixes were comparable to those for the reference mix. The leaching test revealed that none of the WCDs constituents was detected in the leachant after 180 days. The
... Show MoreAirlift reactors are widely used in the chemical and biochemical applications as effective contactors for mass and heat transfer. The main advantages of airlift contactor compared with simple bubble column are ease of construction, low shear rate, high capacity, good mixing and liquid circulation without mechanical agitators and circulating pumps.
In this work, growth characteristics of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae were studied in an internal loop airlift photobioreactor for biomass production. The bioreactor operated under batch and semi-continuous culture mode using commercially available 20:20:20+TE NPK fertilizer as nutrients. The experiments were conducted to evaluate the growth rate and biomass productivity of
... Show MoreSewer systems are used to convey sewage and/or storm water to sewage treatment plants for disposal by a network of buried sewer pipes, gutters, manholes and pits. Unfortunately, the sewer pipe deteriorates with time leading to the collapsing of the pipe with traffic disruption or clogging of the pipe causing flooding and environmental pollution. Thus, the management and maintenance of the buried pipes are important tasks that require information about the changes of the current and future sewer pipes conditions. In this research, the study was carried on in Baghdad, Iraq and two deteriorations model's multinomial logistic regression and neural network deterioration model NNDM are used to predict sewers future conditions. The results of the
... Show MoreSummary Kidney transplantation is widely performed nowadays as an optimal treatment of end stage kidney diseases. Complications such as stenosis in graft renal arteries anastomosis may occur. Different suturing techniques are available for renal artery anastomosis. We aimed to compare the incidence of renal artery stenosis of the transplanted kidney when two suture techniques (continuous or interrupted) used for renal artery anastomosis. Therefore, a retrospectively comparative study was conducted on 44 patients managed with kidney transplantation during the years 2009-2011. Patients assigned into two groups; first group included 20 patients namely, continuous suture group, and the second group included 24 patients in whom the allograft art
... Show MoreIn this study, a packed bed was used to remove pathogenic bacteria from synthetic contaminated water. Two types of packing material substrates, sand and zeolite, were used. These substrates were coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which were prepared by decomposition of Ag ions from AgNO3 solution. The prepared coated packings were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The packed column consisted of a PVC cylinder of 2 cm diameter and 20 cm in length. The column was packed with silver nanoparticlecoated substrates (sand or zeolite) at a depth of 10 cm. Four types of bacteria were studied: Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Pseudomonas aerugi
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