Substance use disorders are a widely recognized problem among hepatitis C-infected patients; moreover, substance abuse by intravenous injection is a common mode of transmission of the hepatitis C virus worldwide. The frequency of substance use disorders and their relation to hepatitis C infection are still unknown in Iraq. This cross-sectional study, conducted among a sample of hepatitis C- infected patients attending the Gastrointestinal Tract Center in Baghdad Medical City, aimed to examine the prevalence of substance use disorders, the sociodemographic characteristics of the abusers, and the relation between intravenous

Metabolic syndrome has emerged as an important health concern globally, especially in developing countries where urbanization and lifestyle changes are rapidly increasing. No reliable epidemiological information regarding the prevalence and risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome is available among Iraqi adults in primary health care (PHC) clinics. This study was designed to determine the prevalence rate of metabolic syndrome and identify potential risk factors among adults attending PHC centers in Baghdad. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study design was used, targeting 412 adult subjects selected randomly from multiple PHC centers in Baghdad. Sociodemographic, lifestyle, anthropometric, and biochemical data were col

The steel jetty selected for strengthening is in Baghdad city, over Tigris River, consists of 55 short spans, each of approximately 4 meters and one naviga-tional opening of 12 m. The bridge is 224 meters length and 8 meters in width. The strengthening system was designed to remove overstresses that occurred when the bridge was subjected to abnormal loads of 380 tons. A strengthening system which installed in spring 2008 was used where the main concept is to depend on added side supporting elements which impose reversal forces on the bridge to counteract most of the loads expected from the abnormal heavy loads. The bridge was load tested before and after the strengthening system was activated. The load test results indicate that the strengt

Regression testing is a crucial phase in the software development lifecycle that makes sure that new changes/updates in the software system don’t introduce defects or don’t affect adversely the existing functionalities. However, as the software systems grow in complexity, the number of test cases in regression suite can become large which results into more testing time and resource consumption. In addition, the presence of redundant and faulty test cases may affect the efficiency of the regression testing process. Therefore, this paper presents a new Hybrid Framework to Exclude Similar & Faulty Test Cases in Regression Testing (ETCPM) that utilizes automated code analysis techniques and historical test execution data to

Typhoid fever (TF) is a systemic infection caused by Salmonella Typhi (Salmonella Enterica) transmitted through contaminated water, food, or contact with infected individuals. In various infectious diseases, blood viscosity (BV) is affected by changes in hemoglobin concentrations and acute phase reactants. Inflammatory responses can lead to elevated plasma protein levels and further affect BV. This study aimed to investigate BV changes in patients with acute TF. A cross-sectional study was performed involving 55 patients with acute TF compared to 38 healthy controls. BV and inflammatory parameters were measured in both groups. TF patients showed reduced blood cells compared to healthy controls (p=0.001). Additionally, plasma total protein (

Two Prototypes of Transversely Excited at atmospheric pressure (TEA) Nitrogen laser systems (One Stage Blumlein Circuit and Two Stage Blumlein Circuit) were fabricated and operated. High voltage power supply with variable operating voltage (0-20 kv) and operating current (1-3A) was built and tested successfully. The gas flow rate of 15 L/ min and 10 L/ min for OSBC and TSBC was used. The performance of the fabricated systems was studied extensively reaching to the optimum operating conditions. The obtained laser output energy for the first system has linear relationship with the applied voltage. The maximum output energy was about (1.14 mJ) with (10.40) ns pulse duration and the half-wave divergence angle was about (0.1455 m rad). In the

Research in consumer science has proven that grocery shopping is a complex and distressing process. Further, the task of generating the grocery lists for the grocery shopping is always undervalued as the effort and time took to create and manage the grocery lists are unseen and unrecognized. Even though grocery lists represent consumers’ purchase intention, research pertaining the grocery lists does not get much attention from researchers; therefore, limited studies about the topic are found in the literature. Hence, this study aims at bridging the gap by designing and developing a mobile app (application) for creating and managing grocery lists using modern smartphones. Smartphones are pervasive and become a necessity for everyone tod

The creation and characterisation of biodegradable blend films based on chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol for application in a range of packaging is described. The compatibility between the chitosan and PVA polymers was good. Composite films had a compact and homogeneous structure, according to the morphology analysis. The mechanical test result of PVA/CH at concentrations 5% showed, that The higher values of TS recorded in sample (p1, with 40 MPa) while the lower values appeared in sample (p9, with 22.09 MPa), the TS decreased gradually as the amount of PVA increased in blend film. While the blend film of pure Chitosan exhibits a poor mechanical strength which makes it a poor candidate for packaging but Blending CH with PVA together improved