Principal Component Analysis Technique for Finding the Best Applicant for a Job

This paper focuses on the use of principal component analysis technique (PCA) in choosing the best applicant for a job in Cihan University-Erbil. Cihan University has a panel of judges (University staff) to help in choosing the applicants for a job by evaluating or rating each one on different scale of preference and different type of characteristics. This process usually creates complicated multivariate data structure, which consists of 25 applicants for a job rated by a panel of judges on 17 characteristics [25 rows, applicants, and 17 columns, characteristics]. PCA plays a crucial role in conducting impactful research as it offers a potent technique for analyzing multivariate data. Researchers can utilize this method to extract valuable information that aids decision-makers in problem-solving. To ensure the appropriateness of data for PCA, certain testing procedures are necessary. In this study, two tests, namely the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, were performed, and their significance is vital. The findings indicate that the data employed in this research are suitable for PCA. Scoring and ranking procedures as extra tools were used to see that applicant No. (1) is the first accepted for a job, applicant No. (17) is the second, applicant No. (12) is the third, and so on

The need for sustainable local management to solve the reality of increasing traffic congestions in Iraq

The need to find solutions based on sustainable methods for the transportation sector in Iraq has become an urgent necessity due to the ever-increasing volume of traffic congestion caused mainly by the increase in the number of vehicles and the total dependence on them for transportation in the absence of other alternatives. This increase in traffic congestion drains all of the fossil energy in addition to losses in time, health and comfort of users and those close to the roads. Also, it increases the costs in maintaining roads and vehicles, as well as the harmful effects on the environment. A number of literatures have been studied to explain the effects and causes of traffic congestion, especially in countries whose conditions are similar to Iraq. The roads and intersections in the city of Baghdad were monitored, and a number of experts were requested to discuss the causes. A sample questionnaire was conducted that included several levels and ages of Iraqi society to determine the sample's impression on a number of points affecting the local traffic congestion in Baghdad city. It was revealed through the questionnaire that there are four main causes for traffic congestion and there is a strong desire among Iraqis to own and drive vehicles, which led to a significant and continuous increase in their numbers, and this is one of the main causes of congestion

Physician Acceptance of Pharmacist Recommendations about Medication Prescribing Errors in Iraqi Hospitals

The objectives of this study were to measure the incidence and types of medication prescribing errors (MPEs) in Iraqi hospitals, to calculate for the first time the percentage of physician agreement with pharmacist medication regimen review (MRR) recommendations regarding MPEs, and to identify the factors influencing the physician agreement rate with these recommendations. Methods: Fourteen pharmacists (10 females and 4 males) reviewed each hand-written physician order for 1506 patients who were admitted to two public hospitals in Al-Najaf, Iraq during August 2015. The pharmacists identified medication prescribing errors using the Medscape WebMD, LCC phone application as a reference. The pharmacists contacted the physicians (2 females and 34 males) in-person to address MPEs that were identified. Results: The pharmacists identified 78 physician orders containing 99 MPEs with an incidence of 6.57 percent of all the physician orders reviewed. The patients with MPEs were taking 4.8 medications on average. The MPEs included drug-drug interactions (65.7%), incorrect doses (16.2%), unnecessary medications (8.1%), contra-indications (7.1%), incorrect drug duration (2%), and untreated conditions (1%). The physicians implemented 37 (37.4%) pharmacist recommendations. Three factors were significantly related to physician acceptance of pharmacist recommendations. These were physician specialty, pharmacist gender, and patient gender. Pediatricians were less likely (OR= 0.1) to accept pharmacist recommendations compared to internal medicine physicians. Male pharmacists received more positive responses from physicians (OR=7.11) than female pharmacists. Lastly, the recommendations were significantly more likely to be accepted (OR= 3.72) when the patients were females. Conclusions: The incidence of MPEs is higher in Iraqi hospitalized patients than in the U.S. and U.K, but lower than in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and Croatia. Drug-drug interactions were the most common type of MPEs in hospitals. Physician specialty and pharmacist gender and patient gender significantly influenced physician agreement with the pharmacist comments. Only one-third of the pharmacist recommendations were implemented. Phone drug applications would be helpful for daily hospital pharmacy practice. More pharmacist-physician collaboration is needed to address MPEs. Pharmacist-led MRR can identify and address MPEs to improve patient safety.   Type: Original Researc

Synchronization of Monostatic Radar Using a Time-Delayed Chaos-Based FM Waveform

There is no doubt that chaotic systems are still attractive issues in various radar applications and communication systems. In this paper, we present a new 0.3 GHz mono-static microwave chaotic radar. It includes a chaotic system based on a time-delay to generate and process frequency modulated (FM) waveforms. Such a radar is designed to extract high-resolution information from the targets. To generate a continuous FM signal, the chaotic signal is first modulated using the voltage control oscillator (VCO). Next, the correct value for the loop gain (G) is carefully set when utilizing the Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) at the receiver, so that the instantaneous frequency that reflects a chaotic state variable can be reliably recovered. In this system, the PLL synchronization and radar correlation are enough to recover the echo signal and detect the target. The finding indicates that the system can be implemented with no need to use the complete self-synchronization or complex projective synchronization schemes as compared to the existing chaotic radar systems. The simulation results show that the short-time cross-correlation of the transmitted and reconstructed waveforms is good and satisfactory to detect the target under various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels and with less complexity in the design

CYP2D6 Genotype in Relation to Liver Toxicity Due to Tetrabenazine in Iraqi Patients with Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders

Abstract The  common types of movement disorders are ; dystonia which is a syndrome  of  repetitive muscle contractions. While , Huntington disease is autosomal dominant progressive neurodegenerative disorder, which is characterized by involuntary movements (“chorea”). Tetrabenazine therapy has been shown to effectively control this movements compared with placebo. Design the proper dosing approach for patients treated with tetrabenazine with genotype polymorphisms and their hepatic effect on patients. A prospective case controlled study was carried on 50 patients whom    divided into 2 groups :first group involved 25 patients who had chorea, and group 2 included  patients with dystonia, whom treated with (tetrabenazine) for three months. In addition to control group involved 25 healthy subjects . Blood samples were collected at the beginning and after three months  to assess  liver function  in relation to genetic polymorphism of CYP 450 2D6 enzyme for both groups and measuring the plasma concentration of tetrabenazine , alpha and beta  dyhdrotetrabenazine. The results show a significant CYP 450 2D6 enzyme polymorphism. And elevations of liver enzymes in the patient indicate hepatotoxicity of tetrabenazine and its metabolites, Determination a genotype of the CYP 450 2D6  genes in Iraqi patients, in relation  to the safety and efficacy of tetrabenazine 

Modulation of cytokine production from cultured mononuclear cells of leukemia patients by Hypericum triquetrifolium Turra methanolic extract

The effect of Hypericum triquetrifolium Turra (Family: Hypericaceae) methanolic extract on an in vitro cytokine release (IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-17A and IFN-γ) from cultured mononuclear cells was determined. The cells were obtained from acute lymphoblastic (ALL) and acute myelogenous leukemic (AML) Iraqi patients. Two concentrations (1.146 and 1.719 µg/ml) of the extract were tested. They were correspondent to 20 and 30%, respectively of the plant IC50 (5.73 µg/ml). Chemical analysis of the extract showed its richness in flavonoids (115.73 µg/ml). Assessments of cytokine levels in supernatants of cultured cells revealed that ALL, AML or control cells responded differently to the plant extract in their production of IL-2, IL-10, IL-17A and IFN-γ, but leukemic cells were better than control cells in their response, while there was no effect on IL-4 production. The results suggested that H. triquetrifolium methanolic extract exerted immunomodulatory effects on cultured cells

DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND TESTING OF A PARABOLIC TROUGH SOLAR CONCENTRATOR SYSTEM FOR HOT WATER AND MODERATE TEMPERATURE STEAM GENERATION

Three parabolic trough collectors, with its two axes sun manual tracking system were designed, constructed, and operated in order to generate hot water and moderate temperature steam. An experimental investigation for testing the performance of a PTC is presented. The tests have been carried out in NAJAF climatic conditions (32.02 N, 44.33 E) during selective days of August. The thermal performance of PTC evaluated according to the Standard ASHRAE 93-1986 (RA 91) and the efficiency curve for the PTC was estimated. In the performance analysis of the PTC array, the effects of collector inlet temperature, ambient conditions, two cases for glass receiver and the variation in mass flow rate of the working fluid were investigated.A peak efficiencies close to (50% and 18.8%) were obtained for solar collectors with evacuated and non-evacuated glass receiver respectively at higher flow rate. The collector efficiency equation that is obtained in the present work agrees with other researches. http://dx.doi.org/10.30572/2018/kje/090103

Late Age Dynamic Strength of High-Volume Fly Ash Concrete with Nano-Silica and Polypropylene Fibres

The dynamic behaviour of high-volume fly ash concrete with nano-silica (HVFANS) and polypropylene fibres at curing ages of 7 to 90 days was determined by using a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) machine. At each curing age, the concrete samples were laboratory tested at different temperatures conditions under strain rates reached up to 101.42 s−1. At room temperature, the results indicated that the dynamic compressive strength of plain concrete (PC) was slightly higher than HVFANS concrete at early curing ages of 7 and 28 days, however, a considerable improvement in the strength of HVFANS concrete was noted at a curing age of 90 days and recorded greater values than PC owing to the increase of fly ash reactivity. At elevated temperatures, the HVFANS concrete revealed a superior behaviour than PC even at early ages in terms of dynamic compressive strength, critical strain, damage and toughness due to increase of nano-silica (NS) activity during the heating process. Furthermore, equations were suggested to estimate the dynamic increase factor (DIF) of both concretes under the investigated factors

Determination of the Dynamics of Thunderstorms Through the Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate and Environmental Lapse Rate

This research aims to determine the types of thunderstorms formed in the thickness of the cloud (determine the Dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR) and Environmental lapse rate (ELR)) in the case of precipitation during the day. Data were taken by Temperature, Dew point, Atmospheric Pressure, and Height from re-analysis by the (ECMWF) for the heights (0-18000) m, the levels of pressure (1000-100) mbar, low cloud cover data, and the characteristic days ((18, 24, 27) February, 28 April, and 25 November) of the year 2018 for Baghdad station were chosen to obtain the largest possible number of clouds and their diversity to use them in calculating the cloud cover and weather stability in terms of calculating the daily change, temperature, dew point in addition to calculating the low cloud cover with altitude and atmospheric instability. The Sigma Plot program was used in this research to determine the base of clouds and thunderstorms. The change in temperature, Dew point, clouds base, and altitude was determined, then the cloud thickness, types, and classification were calculated. The clouds found are strong thunderstorm clouds characterized by thickness and height, such as the clouds of Nimbostratus (Ns) and Cumulonimbus (Cb)

Amlodipine downregulates gene expression that involved in the signaling pathways of coagulation process in COVID-19 patients: An observational clinical study

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has the property of activating the coagulation process, which is responsible for producing thrombotic events which is considered as one of the most serious COVID-19 complications. Hypertension is a hazard factor for COVID-19 complications, and people who are treated with calcium entry blockers may halt the occurrence of thrombotic events. to evaluate the effect of amlodipine on some genes involved in the activation of the coagulation procedure in COVID-19 patients with hypertensive. observational, cross-sectional study. This study was carried out in the Department of Pharmacy at Al-Kut University College in Wasit, Iraq, in conjunction with Al Zahraa Hospital from June 2021 to March 2022. A total of 45 COVID-19 patients participated in this study who were grouped into as follows: Group I (n = 23) who had no previous history of hypertension and Group II (n = 22) who had previous hypertension and were treated with amlodipine. Expression of the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), coagulation factor V (F5), and methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (NADP+ dependent) 1 Like (MTHFD1L) genes was determined. P values were calculated by Chi-square test for categorized facts and the Mann–Whitney test for incessant data. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Group II patients had significantly lower levels of CaSR, F5, and MTHFD1L gene expression compared with the corresponding levels in Group I patients. The expression level of MTHFD1L was elevated significantly in patients who had currently high blood pressure compared with normotensive patients in both the groups. Amlodipine is preferred in hypertensive patients who have COVID-19 because it attenuates the levels of gene expression that have an impact on the coagulation process