The duration of sunshine is one of the important indicators and one of the variables for measuring the amount of solar radiation collected in a particular area. Duration of solar brightness has been used to study atmospheric energy balance, sustainable development, ecosystem evolution and climate change. Predicting the average values of sunshine duration (SD) for Duhok city, Iraq on a daily basis using the approach of artificial neural network (ANN) is the focus of this paper. Many different ANN models with different input variables were used in the prediction processes. The daily average of the month, average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, cloud level and atmosp

Background: Obesity typically results from a variety of causes and factors which contribute, genetics included, and style of living choices, and described as excessive body fat accumulation of body fat lead to excessive body, is a chronic disorder that combines pathogenic environmental and genetic factors. So, the current study objective was to investigate the of the FTO gene rs9939609 polymorphism and the obesity risk. Explaining the relationship between fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) rs9939609 polymorphism and obesity in adults. Methods: Identify research exploring the association between the obesity risk and the variation polymorphisms of FTO gene rs9939609. We combined the modified odds ratios (OR) as total groups and subgro

Background: Vitamin D deficiency/ insufficiency is common in different age groups in both genders especially among pregnant women and neonates where it is associated with several adverse outcomes including preeclampsia and preterm delivery.   Objectives: To assess the extent of vitamin D deficiency/ insufficiency among mothers and their neonates and some factors related to it and identify some adverse outcomes of the deficiency/ insufficiency on neonates (preterm birth and low birth weight). Subject and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 88 Iraqi pregnant women and neonates admitted to “Al-Elwiya teaching hospital for maternity” in Baghdad- Al-Rusafah from 1st of June 2019 to 31st of August 2019. Dat

In their cross-sectional study, Al-Rubaye et al studied the extent of vitamin D (VD) deficiency/ insufficiency, factors affecting its degree, and the adverse outcomes of the altered VD status among a group of mothers and their neonates from Baghdad, Iraq. They found that 96.6% of the mothers had VD deficiency/ insufficiency compared to 86.4% in their neonates. Maternal VD levels and neonatal weights were significantly correlated with neonatal VD levels. We believe that the study results need to be revised. This is based  two points listed in this letter to editor

Background: Vitamin D deficiency/ insufficiency is common in different age groups in both genders especially among pregnant women and neonates where it is associated with several adverse outcomes including preeclampsia and preterm delivery.  

Objectives: To assess the extent of vitamin D deficiency/ insufficiency among mothers and their neonates and some factors related to it and identify some adverse outcomes of the deficiency/ insufficiency on neonates (preterm birth and low birth weight).

Subject and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 88 Iraqi pregnant women and neonates admitted to “Al-Elwiya teaching hospital for maternity” in Baghdad- Al

This research aimed to diagnose the perception based on Telecommunications of Iraq to the importance of activating knowledge management marketing in possession, as well as Indication of impediments to activate the management of marketing knowledge in the researched companies, also aimed to show the extent of the existence of significant differences in perception based on Telecommunications Iraqi importance of activating the management marketing knowledge in possession. To achieve the objectives of this research, the questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of telecommunications companies in the city of Sulaimaniya, was selected on the criterion according to the company's life in terms of seniority in the telecommunication

This study aims at identifying the reality of alternative assessment for teachers of the first cycle of the basic education in the Sultanate of Oman with respect to the degree of teachers' use of alternative assessment strategies, level of self-efficacy for alternative assessment strategies, and attitude towards alternative assessment, and their relationship with other variables. To achieve the aims of the study, a descriptive research approach was utilized. A 5-point self-rated questionnaire was developed. It consists of three sections: Actual use of alternative assessment strategies (21 items), self-efficacy for alternative assessment strategies (21 items), and attitude towards alternative assessment (27 items). The psychometric proper

s The study aims to identify the fairness in the distribution of municipal services between  municipal districts and areas, from point of view  of municipal chamber staff and from the point of view of the citizen. It also aims to identify factors affecting the fairness of the distribution of municipal services. Municipal services were being studied : hygiene and waste, water supply, sewer, creating gardens,  and street paving .Factors which  examined its impact on municipal services are: resources available to municipal chamber, the managerial  process at municipal chamber,  and factors in the external environment surrounding  municipal chamber.The results of the study showed that level of the e

Iron is one of the abundant elements on earth that is an essential element for humans and may be a troublesome element in water supplies.  In this research an AAN model was developed to predict iron concentrations in the location of Al- Wahda water treatment plant in Baghdad city by water quality assessment of iron concentrations at seven WTPs up stream Tigris River. SPSS software was used to build the ANN model. The input data were iron concentrations in the raw water for the period 2004-2011. The results indicated the best model predicted Iron concentrations at Al-Wahda WTP with a coefficient of determination 0.9142. The model used one hidden layer with two nodes and the testing error was 0.834. The ANN model coul