Background: During Ramadan, Muslims fast throughout daylight hours. There is a direct link between fasting and increasing incidence of infections. Antibiotic usage for treatment of infections should be based on accurate diagnosis, with the correct dose and dosing regimen for the shortest period to avoid bacterial resistance. This study aimed to evaluate the practices of physicians in prescribing suitable antibiotics for fasting patients and the compliance of the patients in using such antibiotics at regular intervals. Materials and methods: An observational study was carried out during the middle 10 days of Ramadan 2014 in two pharmacies at Baghdad. A total of 34 prescriptions (Rx) for adults who suffered from infections were examined. For each included Rx, the researchers documented the age and sex of the patient, the diagnosis of the case, and the name of the given antibiotic(s) with dose and frequency of usage. A direct interview with the patient was also done, at which each patient was asked about fasting and if he/she would like to continue fasting during the remaining period of Ramadan. The patient was also asked if the physician asked him/her about fasting before writing the Rx. Results: More than two-thirds of participating patients were fasting during Ramadan. Antibiotics were prescribed at a higher percentage by dentists and surgeons, for which a single antibiotic with a twice-daily regimen was the most commonly prescribed by physicians for patients during the Ramadan month. Conclusion: Physicians fail to take patient fasting status into consideration when prescribing antibiotics for their fasting patients. Antibiotics with a twice-daily regimen are not suitable and best to be avoided for fasting patients in Iraq during Ramadan – especially if it occurs during summer months – to avoid treatment failure and provoking bacterial resistance. Keywords: fasting, Ramadan, antibiotics, dosing regimen
Semantic segmentation is an exciting research topic in medical image analysis because it aims to detect objects in medical images. In recent years, approaches based on deep learning have shown a more reliable performance than traditional approaches in medical image segmentation. The U-Net network is one of the most successful end-to-end convolutional neural networks (CNNs) presented for medical image segmentation. This paper proposes a multiscale Residual Dilated convolution neural network (MSRD-UNet) based on U-Net. MSRD-UNet replaced the traditional convolution block with a novel deeper block that fuses multi-layer features using dilated and residual convolution. In addition, the squeeze and execution attention mechanism (SE) and the s
... Show MoreSoftware-defined networking (SDN) presents novel security and privacy risks, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In response to these threats, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) have emerged as effective approaches for quickly identifying and mitigating anomalies. To this end, this research employs various classification methods, including support vector machines (SVMs), K-nearest neighbors (KNNs), decision trees (DTs), multiple layer perceptron (MLP), and convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and compares their performance. CNN exhibits the highest train accuracy at 97.808%, yet the lowest prediction accuracy at 90.08%. In contrast, SVM demonstrates the highest prediction accuracy of 95.5%. As such, an
... Show MoreCassava, a significant crop in Africa, Asia, and South America, is a staple food for millions. However, classifying cassava species using conventional color, texture, and shape features is inefficient, as cassava leaves exhibit similarities across different types, including toxic and non-toxic varieties. This research aims to overcome the limitations of traditional classification methods by employing deep learning techniques with pre-trained AlexNet as the feature extractor to accurately classify four types of cassava: Gajah, Manggu, Kapok, and Beracun. The dataset was collected from local farms in Lamongan Indonesia. To collect images with agricultural research experts, the dataset consists of 1,400 images, and each type of cassava has
... Show MoreUltra-High Temperature Materials (UHTMs) are at the base of entire aerospace industry; these high stable materials at temperatures exceeding 1600 °C are used to manage the heat shielding to protect vehicles and probes during the hypersonic flight through reentry trajectory against aerodynamic heating and reducing plasma surface interaction. Those materials are also recognized as Thermal Protection System Materials (TPSMs). The structural materials used during the high-temperature oxidizing environment are mainly limited to SiC, oxide ceramics, and composites. In addition to that, silicon-based ceramic has a maximum-use at 1700 °C approximately; as it is an active oxidation process o
The importance of research is to be considered by highlighting the tax policy in Iraq which extended for successive measurement of the amount of tax receipts for respective periods, the research problem represents security, economic and political issues that Iraq suffered which were very difficult since Nineties of the last century until now that led to a lake of clarity in tax policy trends, volatility in it and finally reflected on the tax revenues increase or decrease. One of the main recommendations of the research is: (The necessity to develop a deliberate strategy for tax policy in Iraq which should take into account financial, economic, and social goals in appropriate way).
Objective: preparing exercises for the third intensity zone for strength and speed for the legs, and identifying their effect on some physiological and biochemical indicators for (the level of lactic acid concentration, the concentration of sodium bicarbonate, the concentration level of (potassium K+) and (sodium Na+) in the blood, and the number of breathing times (RF) Research methodology: the experimental research method was adopted by designing the experimental and control groups on a sample of Army Sports Club players amounting to (16) players, deliberately selected (100%) from their community using a comprehensive enumeration method, and then divided into two groups of equal number, After determining the tests for physiologica
... Show MoreThe study aimed at designing a training program by using training for the anaerobic differential threshold stand and the effects of those trainings on the variables of (Concentration of Lactic Acid and LDH Enzyme, VO2 MaX and Cortisol Hormone). The Researchers used the experimental program with one-group style. Also, they used a sample with (8) men-players in a (free 400 m men-runners) and they used many instruments and procedures, most notably the training-program prepared for 10 weeks and for 3 training units weekly, (70-90 min) for each unit. They used the training intensity from 85-100% of the player's ability. After finishing the training program and doing some pre-tests and post-tests then statistically checking the results, the resea
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