Background: Directly observed therapy-short course (DOTS) had been adopted by World Health Organization (WHO) as hopeful strategy for treatment of tuberculosis (TB) since early nineties. Iraqi health authorities started DOTS implementation since 2001 in Baghdad. Coverage expanded gradually till 100% in 2004. War and unstable security condition hit Iraq since March 2003. Objective: The objective of this study was To evaluate the DOTS implementation program in Baghdad in different periods including 2 unstable periods for proper assessment of war and instability on treatment of TB. Patients and methods: This study had been conducted in Baghdad during four different periods (before and during 2003 war, after war; without and with DOTS). Direct interview with patients, and follow up of their treatment were done. Results: The results reveled that78% of patients were in active age groups, 62% of them were males. Surprisingly, direct observation was not achieved in those who were treated under DOTS in the whole periods. Patients treated under DOTS in the 1st and 4th periods showed much better sputum conversion rate after 2 month treatment (88.7 %in 1st and86.5% in 4th periods` patients) than those treated under DOTS during war (45.9% or Non-DOTS 75.6%). A better cure rate also found in patients of both periods (64.9% in 1st and 63% in 4th period) than patients in other periods ( 11% in 2nd% and 43.6% in the 3rd one) .Conclusions: DOTS strategy played important role in improving registration and curing of TB cases in Baghdad. War and unstable security conditions got a destructive effect on treatment of TB patients regardless the followed strategy. Involvement of private medical sector and other governmental and nongovernmental organization can improve TB treatment outcome.
Measuring the efficiency of postgraduate and undergraduate programs is one of the essential elements in educational process. In this study, colleges of Baghdad University and data for the academic year (2011-2012) have been chosen to measure the relative efficiencies of postgraduate and undergraduate programs in terms of their inputs and outputs. A relevant method to conduct the analysis of this data is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The effect of academic staff to the number of enrolled and alumni students to the postgraduate and undergraduate programs are the main focus of the study.
Preserving the Past and Building the Future: A Sustainable Urban Plan for Mosul, Iraq
The availability of low- cost adsorbent namely Al-Khriet ( a substance found in the legs of Typha Domingensis) as an agricultural waste material, for the removal of lead and cadmium from aqueous solution was investigated. In the batch tests experimental parameters were studied, including adsorbent dosage between (0.2-1) g, initial metal ions concentration between (50-200) ppm (single and binary) and contact time (1/2-6) h. The removal percentage of each ion onto Al-Khriet reached equilibrium in about 4 hours. The highest adsorption capacity was for lead (96%) while for cadmium it was (90%) with 50 ppm ions concentration, 1 g dosage of adsorbent and pH 5.5. Adsorption capacity in the binary mixture were reduce at about 8% for lead a
... Show MoreWithin this research, The problem of scheduling jobs on a single machine is the subject of study to minimize the multi-criteria and multi-objective functions. The first problem, minimizing the multi-criteria, which include Total Completion Time, Total Late Work, and Maximum Earliness Time (∑𝐶𝑗, ∑𝑉𝑗, 𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥), and the second problem, minimizing the multi-objective functions ∑𝐶𝑗 + ∑𝑉𝑗 +𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥 are the problems at hand in this paper. In this study, a mathematical model is created to address the research problems, and some rules provide efficient (optimal) solutions to these problems. It has also been proven that each optimal solution for ∑𝐶𝑗 + ∑𝑉𝑗 + 𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥 is an effic
... Show MoreConcerns about the environment, the cost of energy, and safety mean that low-energy cold-mix asphalt materials are very interesting as a potential replacement for present-day hot mix asphalt. The main disadvantage of cold bituminous emulsion mixtures is their poor early life strength, meaning they require a long time to achieve mature strength. This research work aims to study the protentional utilization of waste and by-product materials as a filler in cold emulsion mixtures with mechanical properties comparable to those of traditional hot mix asphalt. Accordingly, cold mix asphalt was prepared to utilize paper sludge ash (PSA) and cement kiln dust (CKD) as a substitution for conventional mineral filler with percentages ranging fro
... Show MoreThe Internet of Things (IoT) has significantly transformed modern systems through extensive connectivity but has also concurrently introduced considerable cybersecurity risks. Traditional rule-based methods are becoming increasingly insufficient in the face of evolving cyber threats. This study proposes an enhanced methodology utilizing a hybrid machine-learning framework for IoT cyber-attack detection. The framework integrates a Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) for optimal feature selection, a customized synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) for data balancing, and a systematic approach to hyperparameter tuning of ensemble algorithms: Random Forest (RF), XGBoost, and CatBoost. Evaluations on the RT-IoT2022 dataset demonstrat
... Show MoreActivated carbon (AC) is a highly important adsorbent material, as it is a solid form of pure carbon that boasts a porous structure and a large surface area, making it effective for capturing pollutants. Thanks to its exceptional features, AC is widely used for purifying water that is contaminated with odors and removing dyes in a cost-effective manner. A variety of carbonic materials have been employed to prepare AC, and this study aimed to evaluate the suitability of utilizing waste mango and avocado seeds for this purpose, followed by testing their efficacy in removing dye from aqueous solutions. The results indicate that using waste mango and avocado as AC is technically feasible, achieving dye removal percentages of 98% and 93%,
... Show MoreAbstract Background: Timely diagnosis of periodontal disease is crucial for restoring healthy periodontal tissue and improving patients’ prognosis. There is a growing interest in using salivary biomarkers as a noninvasive screening tool for periodontal disease. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic efficacy of two salivary biomarkers, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and total protein, for periodontal disease by assessing their sensitivity in relation to clinical periodontal parameters. Furthermore, the study aimed to explore the impact of systemic disease, age, and sex on the accuracy of these biomarkers in the diagnosis of periodontal health. Materials and methods: A total of 145 participants were categorized into three groups based
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