Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of preliminary school students toward smoking in Baghdad

Background: Early smoking considered as a major challenge for health promoters, as well it is socially not acceptable, thus interventions must tackle childhood starts of smoking. Aim: Assessing the knowledge and attitude of preliminary students towards tobacco use.  Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted among 2195, 5th grade students from 30 preliminary schools in Baghdad (15 from each side Karkh & Rusafa) during November 2014. They were selected by multistage sampling technique. Results:  Participated students age ranged between (10-13) years and (51.9%) of them were girls, (54.3%) of their parents were nonsmoker while the rest reported that both or one of them are smokers, direct and indirect risks of cigarette  smoking were known by (82.4%) and (66.2%) respectively, and (70.8%) of students’ families were found to wear their kids from smoking hazards, while more than (50%) of them have received health education massages from their teachers. Sitting near smoker person was not in favor of (86.2%) of the participants, as (51.4%) considered it religiously inconvenient and (34.6%) considered smoking as a sign of no self-confidence. At last, (73.7%) of the surveyed students agreed with smoking prohibition in public places while (25.8%) opposed that. Conclusion: In spite of the high percentage of students’ parents were smokers; nevertheless, risks of smoking are well known by the surveyed students and they showed positive attitudes toward smoking prohibition in public places. Parental advising for quit smoking and urging teachers to educate their students about smoking hazards are thought to be the right action

Use of Randomized Complete Block Design to Demonstrate the Impact of Types of Fertilizer on the amount of Rice Production

The interest in agriculture since ancient time is one of the priorities of human being because of their relationship and direct contact in his life in terms of providing food for himself and his animals, which was relied upon to produce the daily foodstuff in addition to being used for his travels is vital, so the development of this interest depending on the years and states tried hardly to reach the highest agricultural production to cover the growing of population and provide food for them and building a strong economy which in turn leads to the creation of investment in the areas of all agricultural (tangles form the user - the product), which in turn moves the economy, which prevents the country such as Iraq from a country a yield economy depends entirely on the oil only to country multi-sector (different), especially in the long term in mapping the state in economic development, development and access as an inevitable result of sustainable development with a basis of the individual and the community all that is not only through scientific studies and accurate drawing to the road-related agricultural production to determine the causes of failures and try to resolve the dilemmas facing this important production and achieve food security as this was our search for simple rice crop and the effects of fertilizer on the production of a society based on the course of the Iraqi reality

A Study and Critique of whether Context can be Regarded as a Rule in the Light of Quran Tafsirs

Received: 2020-01-30   |   Accepted: 2020-06-09  Any rule has its own features that context does not have it, hence not entitled to be called a rule. The nature of context and its signification can be proved based on the views of linguists, lexicographers, rhetoricians, men of letters, jurisprudents (faqihs), and experts in the principles of jurisprudence. The greatest evidence can be found in the works of such Quran interpreters as Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Allama Tabatabaie, and Martyr Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr who cited contexts but never regarded them as a rule. Some experts went astray in regarding context as a rule, hence several objections and ambiguities have been raised. A descriptive-analytical paper, the present work seeks to prove that context cannot be regarded as a rule, hence its signification is proved. In addition, there are also answers to other queries: whether context falls within linguistic or cognitive category, whether it is merely a kind of signification, a reminder, an index, or whether their authority pertains to the apparent cases.   © Habibnezhad, S.A; Zargoush Nasan, A.J; Bekhrad, M. (2021) A Study and Critique of whether Context can be Regarded as a Rule in the Light of Quran Tafsirs. Biannual Journal of Comparative Exegetical Researches, 6 (12) 133-160.  Doi: 10.22091/PTT.2020.3988.149

Linear Damage Rule Life Prediction for Stress Controlled Fatigue-Creep Interaction of Aluminum Alloys

The fatigue-creep interaction performance of 5086 and 6061-T651 aluminum alloys were investigated for specimens tested under control stress rotating bending at a stress ratio R=-1 and 250°C temperature. The fatigue endurance limit for both alloys reduced at 250°C. The fatigue and creep damage was evaluated based on the linear damage rule, where the fatigue damage was determined as the number of cycles to failure and the creep damage was evaluated based on the time applied experimentally for low to high and high to low amplitude stress. The cumulative fatigue-creep interaction damage was found to around 0.5 i.e DF +Dc =0.5 Fatigue – creep interaction lives predicted by the linear damage rule were compared to the actual lives. The results show that the linear damage rule gave an overestimated predictions

Design and optimization of microstrip filtering antenna with modified shaped slots and SIR filter to improve the impedance bandwidth

This paper presents a new compact microstrip filtering antenna with modified shaped slots to improve the impedance bandwidth. The proposed microstrip filtering antenna consists of three parts; the monopole radiating patch antenna, the SIR filter, and the feeding microstrip line. The design structure is achieved on one sided glass epoxy FR-4 substrate with dielectric constant ε_r = 4.4 and thickness of h = 1.6 mm. The design procedures of the proposed filtering antenna starts from the second order Chebyshev low pass filter prototype. The simulation results throughout this article are done by a computer simulation technology (CST) software. The simulated results have been achieved show good performance of S11-parameter and broad side antenna gain on +z-direction. This design has two transmission zeros at 5.4 GHz and 7.7 GHz, and bandwidth (B.W) of about 1.66 GHz so; it is suitable for high speed data communication. This design has good skirt selectivity

CFD Investigation of Empty Flanged Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbine

Enclosing a wind turbine within a Flanged diffuser is an innovative mean to increase the power harvested by turbine blades and it is among the most effective devices for increasing wind turbine energy. The geometric parameters of the empty flanged diffuser contribute efficiently to increase mass flow in the diffuser, hence improve the turbine performance. The study presents developed models of the geometrical parameters of an empty flanged diffuser that suitable for a scaled-down (1-6.5) horizontal axis wind turbine, the geometry parameters were involved the diffuser length, diffuser angle, flange height and flange angle. The geometrical models were verified and CFD investigated in 2-D and 3-D domains. Results obtained from CFD simulations show that when using a compact size of flanged diffuser within optimum geometrical parameters can give well acceptable for flow velocity increase at suggested place for the turbine rotor install where the increase in flow velocity is due to lower pressure at the outlet of the diffuser. As there is also a significant effect of the flange angle on increasing the flow velocity inside the diffuser where the rate of increase in wind velocity at turbine position was calculated for two flange angles (0 ÌŠ and 5 ÌŠ ) . In another hand, the results also provided information on the velocity contours and velocity streamlines around diffuser geometry

IoT-based healthcare-monitoring system towards improving quality of life: A review

The Internet of Things (IoT) is essential in innovative applications such as smart cities, smart homes, education, healthcare, transportation, and defense operations. IoT applications are particularly beneficial for providing healthcare because they enable secure and real-time remote patient monitoring to improve the quality of people’s lives. This review paper explores the latest trends in healthcare-monitoring systems by implementing the role of the IoT. The work discusses the benefits of IoT-based healthcare systems with regard to their significance, and the benefits of IoT healthcare. We provide a systematic review on recent studies of IoT-based healthcare-monitoring systems through literature review. The literature review compares various systems’ effectiveness, efficiency, data protection, privacy, security, and monitoring. The paper also explores wireless- and wearable-sensor-based IoT monitoring systems and provides a classification of healthcare-monitoring sensors. We also elaborate, in detail, on the challenges and open issues regarding healthcare security and privacy, and QoS. Finally, suggestions and recommendations for IoT healthcare applications are laid down at the end of the study along with future directions related to various recent technology trends

Laparoscopy in management of appendicitis in high-, middle-, and low-income countries: a multicenter, prospective, cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgical emergency worldwide. Differences between high- and low-income settings in the availability of laparoscopic appendectomy, alternative management choices, and outcomes are poorly described. The aim was to identify variation in surgical management and outcomes of appendicitis within low-, middle-, and high-Human Development Index (HDI) countries worldwide. METHODS: This is a multicenter, international prospective cohort study. Consecutive sampling of patients undergoing emergency appendectomy over 6 months was conducted. Follow-up lasted 30 days. RESULTS: 4546 patients from 52 countries underwent appendectomy (2499 high-, 1540 middle-, and 507 low-HDI groups). Surgical site infection (SSI) rates were higher in low-HDI (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.33-4.99, p = 0.005) but not middle-HDI countries (OR 1.38, 95% CI 0.76-2.52, p = 0.291), compared with high-HDI countries after adjustment. A laparoscopic approach was common in high-HDI countries (1693/2499, 67.7%), but infrequent in low-HDI (41/507, 8.1%) and middle-HDI (132/1540, 8.6%) groups. After accounting for case-mix, laparoscopy was still associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42-0.71, p < 0.001) and SSIs (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.14-0.33, p < 0.001). In propensity-score matched groups within low-/middle-HDI countries, laparoscopy was still associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.23 95% CI 0.11-0.44) and SSI (OR 0.21 95% CI 0.09-0.45). CONCLUSION: A laparoscopic approach is associated with better outcomes and availability appears to differ by country HDI. Despite the profound clinical, operational, and financial barriers to its widespread introduction, laparoscopy could significantly improve outcomes for patients in low-resource environments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02179112