Background: obesity is a major global health problem with more than 200 million obese men and almost 300 million obese women. Melatonin is a well-known molecule for its involvement in circadian rhythm regulation and has multiple pathological actions including control of appetite, sleep wake cycle and metabolic syndrome.

Aim: to estimate the effect of melatonin supplements on obese patients on a calorie restricted diet in comparison to patients on lifestyle measures only in the form of weight loss, waist circumference and sleep quality.

Subjects and Method: one hundred patients with body mass index > 24 were collected, fifty patients were starte

The optical absorption data of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon was analyzed using a Dunstan model of optical absorption in amorphous semiconductors. This model introduces disorder into the band-band absorption through a linear exponential distribution of local energy gaps, and it accounts for both the Urbach and Tauc regions of the optical absorption edge.Compared to other models of similar bases, such as the O’Leary and Guerra models, it is simpler to understand mathematically and has a physical meaning. The optical absorption data of Jackson et al and Maurer et al were successfully interpreted using Dunstan’s model. Useful physical parameters are extracted especially the band to the band energy gap , which is the energy gap in the a

Recently The problem of desertification and vegetation cover degradation become an environmental global challenge. This problem could be summarized as as the land cover changes. In this paper, the area of Al- Muthana in the south of Iraq will be consider as one of Semi-arid lands. For this purpose, the Ladsat-8 images can be used with 15 m in spatial resolution. In order to over Achieve the work, many important ground truth data must be collected such as, rain precipitation, temperature distribution over the seasons, the DEM of the region, and the soil texture characteristics. The extracted data from this project are tables, 2-D figures, and GIS maps represent the distributions of vegetation areas, evaporation / precipitation, river levels

Alginate from Large brown seaweeds act as natural polymer has been investigated as polymer and has been added to concrete in different percentages ( 0% , 0.5% , 1% and 1.5% ) by the cement weight and the study show the effect of using alginate biopolymer admixtures on  some of the fresh properties of the concrete (slump &  the density  fresh) also in the hardened state (  Compressive strength , Splitting tensile strength  and Flexural strength ) at 28 days. The mix proportion was (1:2.26:2.26) (cement: sand: gravel) respectively and at constant w/c equal to 0.47. The results indicate that the use of alginate as a percent of the cement weight possess a positive effect on fresh properties of co

Porcelain is one of the most important ceramic materials with a wide range of traditional and technical applications. Since most mixtures of porcelain have a high sintering temperature, bentonite has been added in this research to improve the characteristics of sintering and burning. The porcelain mixture consisted of the following Iraqi raw materials: 30% wt kaolin, 30 wt% non-plastic clay (grog), 10% wt sodium feldspar, 10 wt% potassium feldspar and 20 wt% flint. After the mechanical mixing process and transfer the powder mixture to the slurry by adding distilled water, then different weight percentage of the sodium bentonite(0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10) wt% was added. The specimens were prepared by using the solid casting m

The permanent deformation of flexible pavement represent serious problem in hot climate region. Numerous efforts are devoted to mitigate this distress such as modifying asphalt binder by polymers. The present study demonstrate the effect of utilizing four types of polymers to reduce the permanent deformation, these polymers are Polyethylene Wax (PEW), Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR), Ethylene Propylene Dien Monomer (EPDM) and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA). The prepared mixtures composed of 4.9 % of 40/50 asphalt binder, 12.5 mm nominal aggregate maximum size and limestone dust as filler. The permanent and resilient strains have been recorded when the cylindrical specimens, 101.6 mm in diameter and 203.2 mm in height, tested by repeated loa

This research deals with study of the effect of additives on rheological properties (yield point, plastic viscosity ,and apparent viscosity) of emulsions. Twenty seven emulsion samples were prepared; all emulsions in this investigation are invert emulsions when water droplets are dispersed in diesel oil. The resulting emulsions are called water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions. The rheological properties of these emulsions were investigated using a couett coaxial cylinder rotational viscometer (Fann-VG model 35 A), by measuring shear stress versus shear rate. It was found that the effect of additives on rheological properties of emulsions as follow: the increase in the concentration of asphaltic material tends to increase the rheological propertie

Background: Psoriatic arthritis is a type of arthritis that can often affect some patients who suffer from psoriasis. Approximately 40-50% of individuals with psoriatic arthritis have the HLA-B27 genotype

Objective: To investigate whether we could confirm the role of HLA-B27 alleles and psoriatic arthritis in Iraqi Arab Muslims patients.

Method: A cross sectional case control comparative study included thirty Iraqi Arab Muslims who had psoriatic arthritis that consulted the Dermatological and Rheumatological Department in AL-Kindy Teaching Hospital from November 2014 to June 2015. HLA-genotyping for HLA-B27 were assessed. A control group consisted of fifty-one healthy vol

This study was carried out to measure the percentage of heavy metals pollution in the water of the Diyala river and to measure the percentage of contamination of these elements in the leafy vegetables grown on both sides of the Diyala river, which are irrigated by the contaminated river water (celery, radish, lepidium, green onions, beta vulgaris subsp, and malva). Laboratory analysis was achieved to measure the ratio of heavy element contamination (Pb, Fe, Ni, Cd, Zn and Cr) using flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer during the summer months of July and August for the year 2017. The study showed that the elements of zinc, chromium, nickel and cadmium were high concentrations and exceeded. The maximum concentration of these