BACKGROUND: Coronavirus current pandemic (COVID-19) is the striking subject worldwide hitting countries in an unexplained non-universal pattern. Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine was an adopted recent justification depending on its non-specific immune activation properties. Still the problem of post-vaccine short duration of protection needs to be solved. The same protective mechanism was identified in active or latent tuberculosis (TB). For each single patient of active TB, there are about nine cases of asymptomatic latent TB apparently normal individuals living within the community without restrictions carrying benefits of immune activation and involved in re-infection cycles in an excellent example of repeated immunity training sessions of the whole community. AIM: We aimed to asses the correlation between TB burden and COVID-19 mortality in all affected countries having different BCG vaccination policies. METHODS: Publicly available data were extracted for 191 countries including population size, TB estimations, national BCG vaccination policy, the World Health Organization regions and economic classification, and COVID-19 mortality and number of cases. The analysis was performed using Spearman’s correlation test. RESULTS: Significant large negative correlation (−0.539, p < 0.001) was found between TB prevalence and COVID-19 mortality rate worldwide. Medium negative significant correlations were found between TB cases and COVID-19 mortality in the high and lower middle-income countries, and those having current BCG vaccination programs (−0.395, p = 0.001, −0.365, p = 0.015, and −0.476, p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Countries with high TB prevalence have higher chances of protection against COVID-19 mortality through the theory of widely distributed natural immune activation within community. Confounders should be assessed separately.
Objective(s): In the present study, glycerin is used as a substitute for tin-foil and cold mold seal (Alginate mould seal)
in the process of curing heat and cold-cure acrylic resin denture base against stone and plaster.
Methodology: 60 specimens were prepared from heat-cure acrylic resin and cold-cure acrylic resin denture base. The
study includes 12 groups of specimens depending on the type of processing, investment material and type of
separating medium that are used in curing process. Each group of them contains 5 specimens for each test.
Some of physical properties of the processed acrylic denture base that (water sorption and solubility) have been
compared with those processed using tin-foil and tin-foil substitut
Assessing performance efficiency is critical to the management need for oversight, planning, and continuous periodic evaluation of the multiple activities of Northern Cement State Company in order to determine the level of achievement of the objectives set, and to correct the deviations and delays that the evaluation shows and limitation of liability. What cannot be measured cannot be managed. The aim of this research is to highlight the impact of using BSC, financial and non-financial, to give comprehensive and clear picture of the company's performance and to measure the quality of its performance by using six-sigma and the level of deviations in achieving the planned goals. Therefore, four-key hypotheses were formulated for th
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This Research aims for harnessing critical and innovative thinking approaches besides innovative problem solving tools in pursuing continual quality improvement initiatives for the benefit of achieving operations results effectively in water treatment plants in Baghdad Water Authority. Case study has been used in fulfilling this research in the sadr city water treatment plant, which was chosen as a study sample as it facilitates describing and analyzing its current operational situation, collecting and analyzing its own data, in order to get its own desired improvement opportunity be done. Many statistical means and visual thinking promoting methods has been used to fulfill research task.
... Show MoreAryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is a potent ligand for AhR and a known carcinogen. While AhR activation by TCDD leads to significant immunosuppression, how this translates into carcinogenic signal is unclear. Recently, we demonstrated that activation of AhR by TCDD in naïve C57BL6 mice leads to massive induction of myeloid derived-suppressor cells (MDSCs). In the current study, we investigated the role of the gut microbiota in TCDD-mediated MDSC induction. TCDD caused significant alterations in the gut microbiome, such as increases in Prevotella and Lactobacillus, while decreasing Sutterella and Bacteroides. Fecal transplants from TCDD-treated
... Show MoreExtreme conditions will cause the water level of high fill canal segment to change suddenly, which will affect the velocity and pore pressure of the slope. A 9 km irrigation earth canal in the city of Alsyahy, 15 km away from Al-Hilla city, and branching off from the left side of Shatt Al-Hilla at 57 km, was studied. The aim of this work is to study and analyze the effect of rationing system on the Birmana earthen canal during rapid drawdown case. Finite element modeling with Geo-Studio software was used in the present study to analyze the combined seepage and slope stability for three cycles. The resulting minimum safety factor obtained from the analysis using the saturated and
The research aims to identify the effect of the training program that is based on integrating futuristic thinking skills with classroom interaction patterns on mathematics teachers in order to provide their students with creative solution skills. The research sample consisted of 31teachers (15 teachers for the experimental group and 16 for the control groups). The researcher developed a measure for the academic self-efficacy consisting of (39) items. Its validity, reliability, coefficient of difficulty and discriminatory power were estimated. To analyze the findings, the researcher adopted the Mann-Whitney (U) test and the effect size, and the findings were as follows: There is a statistically significant difference at the significance leve
... Show MoreThis study aims to explore the impact of the interaction of the university leadership and the university organizational environment on the performance level of the staff at Al-Maaqal university. This university was chosen as a field of study because it is a new university and needs studies that develops and contributes to improve its overall performance. The problem defined by the following question: to what extent does the interaction of the university leadership and the university organizational environment affect the performance level of the teaching staff at AlMaaqal University?). The method of this study adopted a major hypothesis in which there is a statistically significant effect of university leadership and university environment o
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The aim of the research is to evaluate the practice of banking departments for strategic foresight represented by its dimensions (environmental scanning, future vision, scenarios, reconfiguration) and its relationship to the organizational brilliance represented by dimensions (brilliance of leadership, brilliance of service and innovation, brilliance of knowledge, brilliance of employees), as the research was applied in A number of private Iraqi commercial banks represented by (Baghdad, Iraqi Investment, Iraqi Middle East Investment, Commercial Gulf, Ashur International Investment, Al Mansour Investment, Via Iraq Invest
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