Antibiotic resistance pattern of HA-MRSA strains isolated from leukemia patients in Baghdad, Iraq

Digitalitzat per Artypla

Studying the Structural Behaviour of RC Beams with Circular Openings of Different Sizes and Locations Using FE Method

This paper aims to investigate the structural behaviour of RC beams with circular openings of different sizes and locations modelled using ABAQUS FEM software. Seven RC beams with the dimensions of 1200 mm×150 mm×150 mm were tested under threepoint loading. Group A consists of three RC beams incorporating circular openings with diameters of 40 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm in the shear zone. However, Group B consists of three RC beams incorporating circular openings with diameters of 40 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm in the flexural zone. The final RC beam did not have any openings, to provide a control beam for comparison. The results show that increasing the diameter of the openings increases the maximum deflection and the ultimate failure load decreases relative to the control beam. In the shear zone, the presence of the openings caused an increase in the maximum deflection ranging between 4% and 22% and a decrease in the ultimate failure load of between 26% and 36% compared to the control beam. However, the presence of the openings in the flexural zone caused an increase in the maximum deflection of between 1.5% and 19.7% and a decrease in the ultimate failure load of between 6% and 13% relative to the control beam. In this study, the optimum location for placing circular openings was found to be in the flexural zone of the beam with a diameter of less than 30% of the depth of the beam

Neurobiological observations of bone mesenchymal stem cells in vitro and in vivo of injured sciatic nerve in rabbit

The PKH26 is a fluorescent lipophilic dyes used for the study of Asymmetric cell Divisions (ASDs) and efficiently purifies the stem cell fraction. The aim of this study was to explore the neurobiological characteristics in vitro and in vivo and tracking fate of the transplanted rabbit Bone Marrow-Mesenchymal Stem Cells (rBM-MSCs). A fluorescent microscope was used to determine the changes in cell size, fluorescence intensity during tissue culture, track cell divisions and the distribution of PKH26 dye between daughter cells. The results showed the identification of ASDs based on fluorescence intensity of the PKH26 dye was distributed equally between daughter cells at each division in vitro. The labeling BMSCs with PKH26 showed within the wall of the neurons in the dorsal root ganglia in vivo. Labeled BMSCs which are fibroblastic-like cells in P4 showed oval shaped and less density than P2. Direct examine of the labeled BMSCs in the cryosections at 16 weeks post operation showed the BMSCs were differentiated and appeared as like Schwann cells in an anastomosed sciatic nerve in the Local Treated Group (LTG). In the Systemic Treated Group (STG) sections, the labeled BMSCs were migrated to the anastomosed sciatic nerve, ipsilateral lumber dorsal root ganglia resembling glial and stellate cells and some of the labeled cells migrated to the anterior horn of spinal cord (motor neuron). In conclusion, the biological behaviors of BMSCs in vitro and in vivo showed highly mitosis at P2, activated fibroblast-like cells, differentiated to functional myelinating Schwann-like cells in LTG. The BMSCs in STG migrated and engrafted at the dorsal root ganglia as a neuron and glial cell, glial cells and satellite in the spinal cord

Identification of adipogenesis and osteogenesis pathways of differentiated bone marrow stem cells in vitro in rabbits

Transdifferentiation is a process whereby a cell type committed to and progressing along a specific developmental lineage switches into another cell types. The objective of this study was to assess whether rabbit mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) precommitted to give mesenchymal cell lineage transdifferentiate in response to inductive extracellular cues to expand adult MSCs. Bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) obtained from ilium of adult male rabbit comprised heterogeneous groups of cells after seeding and growing in culture plates. After initial plating, the adherent cells exhibited small rounded, spindle-shaped and exhibited fibroblast-like morphology in reaching confluence. Rabbit BMSCs differentiated into adipocytes and osteocyte as a accumulation of intracellular lipid droplets and calcium deposition throughout the culture after 21 days

Bayesian methods for analysing pesticide contamination with uncertain covariates

Two chemical properties of pesticides are thought to control their environmental fate. These are the adsorption coefficient k(_oc) and soil half-life t(^soil_1/2). This study aims to demonstrate the use of Bayesian methods in exploring whether or not it is possible to discriminate between pesticides that leach from those that do not leach on the basis of their chemical properties, when the monitored values of these properties are uncertain, in the sense that there are a range of values reported for both k(_oc) and t(^soil_1/2) - The study was limited to 43 pesticides extracted from the UK Environment Agency (EA) where complete information was available regarding these pesticides. In addition, analysis of data from a separate study, known as "Gustafson's data”, with a single value reported for k(_oc) and t(^soil_1/2) was used as prior information for the EA data. Bayesian methods to analyse the EA data are proposed in this thesis. These methods use logistic regression with random covariates and prior information derives from (i) available United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data base values of k(_oc) and t(^soil_1/2) for the covariates and (ii) Gustafson's data for the regression parameters. They are analysed by means of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation techniques via the freely available WinBUGS software and R package. These methods have succeeded in providing a complete or a good separation between leaching and non-leaching pesticide

Correlation between Breast Self-Examination Practices and Demographic Characteristics, Risk Factors and Clinical Stage of Breast Cancer among Iraqi Patients

BACKGROUND: Breast Cancer (BC) is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women globally. The disease can be cured with limited resources if detected early. Breast self-examination (BSE) is considered a cost-effective feasible approach for early detection of that cancer in developing countries. AIM: To determine the correlation between BSE performance and demographic characteristics, risk factors and clinical stage of BC among Iraqi patients. METHODS: This retrospective study included a total of 409 female patients diagnosed with BC at the Referral Training Center for Early Detection of Breast Cancer and the National Cancer Research Center in Baghdad. The studied variables included the age of the patient, occupation, marital and educational status, parity, history of lactation, contraceptive pill intake, family history of cancer and the clinical stage of the disease. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that the most important predictors for practicing BSE was family history of BC or any other cancers (OR = 3.87, P = 0.018) followed by being a governmental employee (OR = 1.87, P = 0.024), history of contraceptive use (OR = 1.80, P = 0.011) and the high level of education (OR = 1.73, P = 0.004). On the other hand, there was no significant correlation between the practice of BSE and the BC stage at the time of presentation. CONCLUSION: There is a relatively poor practice of BSE among Iraqi patients diagnosed with BC. It is mandatory to foster the national cancer control strategies that focus on raising the level of awareness among the community through public education as a major approach to the early detection of cancer in Iraq

Health-related quality of life as measured with EQ-5D among populations with and without specific chronic conditions: A population-based survey in Shaanxi province, China

© 2013 Tan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Introduction: The aim of this study was to examine health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as measured by EQ-5D and to investigate the influence of chronic conditions and other risk factors on HRQoL based on a distributed sample located in Shaanxi Province, China. Methods: A multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method was performed to select subjects. EQ-5D was employed to measure the HRQoL. The likelihood that individuals with selected chronic diseases would report any problem in the EQ-5D dimensions was calculated and tested relative to that of each of the two reference groups. Multivariable linear regression models were used to investigate factors associated with EQ VAS. Results: The most frequently reported problems involved pain/discomfort (8.8%) and anxiety/depression (7.6%). Nearly half of the respondents who reported problems in any of the five dimensions were chronic patients. Higher EQ VAS scores were associated with the male gender, higher level of education, employment, younger age, an urban area of residence, access to free medical service and higher levels of physical activity. Except for anemia, all the selected chronic diseases were indicative of a negative EQ VAS score. The three leading risk factors were cerebrovascular disease, cancer and mental disease. Increases in age, number of chronic conditions and frequency of physical activity were found to have a gradient effect. Conclusion: The results of the present work add to the volume of knowledge regarding population health status in this area, apart from the known health status using mortality and morbidity data. Medical, policy, social and individual attention should be given to the management of chronic diseases and improvement of HRQoL. Longitudinal studies must be performed to monitor changes in HRQoL and to permit evaluation of the outcomes of chronic disease intervention programs. © 2013 Tan et al.National Nature Science Foundation (No. 8107239

Survival analysis modeling with hidden censoring

There are well-established survival analysis methodologies for data sets that are complete, with accurate information on censoring. But what if they are not complete? In this article we consider how to analyze cases where “hidden censoring” occurs, where individuals have effectively left the study but the hospital is unaware of this. We develop a new Markov chain-based methodology for generating survival curves and hazard functions, and demonstrate this using a breast cancer data set from the Kurdistan region of Iraq