Biometric identification and recognition for IRIS using Failure Rejection Rate (FRR) / Musab Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Rawi

Iris recognition is reckoned as one of the most reliable biometrics for identification purpose in terms of reliability and accuracy. Hence, the objectives of this research are new algorithms development significantly for iris segmentation specifically the proposed Fusion of Profile and Mask Technique (FPM) specifically in getting the actual center of the pupil with high level of accuracy prior to iris localization task, followed by a particular enhancement in iris normalization that is the application of quarter size of an iris image (instead of processing a whole or half size of an iris image) and for better precision and faster recognition with the robust Support Vector Machine (SVM) as classifier. Further aim of this research is the integration of cancelable biometrics feature in the proposed iris recognition technique via non-invertible transformation which determines the feature transformation-based template protection techniques security. Therefore, it is significant to formulate the noninvertibility measure to circumvent the possibility of adversary having the capability in guessing the original biometric providing that the transformed template is obtained. At any process of recognition stage, the biometric data is protected and also whenever there is a compromise to any information in the database it will be on the cancelable biometric template merely without affecting the original biometric information

Response Characteristic of Cable Stayed Bridges under Static Loading and Due to the Earthquakes in Longitudinal Direction

This paper presents the dynamic (earthquake response) analysis of cable stayed bridges under different types of static loading and due to longitudinal directions of earthquake base excitations. The deck and the tower of the bridge were idealized by discrete element idealization scheme (space frame element) with warping considered as a seventh degree of freedom. For comparison purposes, the discrete element with six degrees of freedom (warping neglected) were also used to model the structure under investigation. The cables were modelled by the nonlinear truss elements. It was found that the warping becomes of significant influence on the behaviour of the bridge deck only if the deck is acted upon by loading that is coupled with initial torsional moment

The Issues in Which Sibawayh Made a Mistake in the Book ``Ea'arab of the Qur'an'' for An-Nahas/A Grammar Study

This study sheds light on the issues in which Sibawayh made a mistake in the book ``Ea'arab of the Qur'an'' for An-Nahas, a grammatical study, where I enumerated these issues and edited them by presenting and discussing the evidence and then concluded them with the opinion of the researchers, with a clear statement of misleading. All this stems from justice and truth, far from fanaticism or inclination toward one scholar without another. The research was divided into an introduction and a preface that included a brief translation of Mark Al-Nahas and a definition of confusion both linguistically and idiomatically, then the issues that Al-Nahas made mistakes in Sibawayh and the issues in which other scholars were mistakenly transferred to Sibawayh. Finally, a conclusion that included the most important results extracted from the research and a list of the most essential approved sources. Keywords: Al-Nahas, Sibawayh, mistake, mubrad, Basroun, Kufi

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of mothers about complementary feeding for infants aged 6-12 months in Anbar Province, Iraq

Background: The understanding of what mothers think about breastfeeding helps in developing successful breastfeeding promotion programs. This study aims to assess the maternal knowledge, attitude, and practice about the complementary feeding for infants aged 6-12 months. Methods: A cross-sectional study designed to interview 219 mothers with children between 6-12 months. Data was collected between 1st March and 30th April 2019 from ten maternal and child health clinics (MCHCs) in Anbar Province, Iraq. SPSS version 16.0 was recruited to analyze the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as Chi-square used to present data with the significance level set at less than 0.05. Results:  The mean age of respondents was 27.76 ± 6.3 years, and 31% were at the primary school level. Two third (66.82%) of the surveyed mothers exclusively used breastfeeding to feed their infants. Most women (84.09%) have the correct knowledge about the best time to start complementary food. The vast majority of women (93.64%) refused to give vitamins to children even with signs of malnutrition. Conclusion: Although exclusive breastfeeding is common among mothers of the western region in Iraq, there is still a considerable percentage depend on the mixture of breastfeeding and bottle feeding. The positive impact of the family and society on mothers was evident. However, more attention should be given to improve knowledge, attitude, and practice through qualified healthcare providers

Regulation of lymphangiogenesis by interleukin-7 (IL7) and the association with lymphatic metastasis in human breast cancer

The lymphatic system constitutes a major route for cancer cells to spread to the regional lymph nodes. Lymph node metastasis is considered to be a key prognostic factor in determining patients' prognosis in many solid tumours including breast cancer. However, studies on the lymphatic system had been very limited mainly due to the lack of biological and molecular markers that distinguish between blood and lymphatic vessels. The last few years however, have witnessed the identification of several novel molecular markers that are considered to be specific to the lymphatic endothelium. The detection of these specific lymphatic markers has lead to the identification of the existence of intra- tumoural lymphatics and lymphangiogenesis (formation and growth of new lymphatic vessels) within tumours. Lymphangiogenesis is now considered to play a major role in cancer lymphatic spread in many tumours including breast cancer. It is thought that the production of some vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) like VEGF-D, by cells within tumours could stimulate the generation of new or existing lymphatic vessels thereby provide a direct conduit for cancer cells to spread to the regional lymph nodes. The current knowledge of the regulation of lymphangiogenesis and the production of the vascular endothelial growth factors within the tumour microenvironment is still very poor. To this end, we sought to identify a potential regulator of lymphangiogenesis. The results presented here demonstrated that amongst the many cytokines and growth factors tested, Interleukin-7 (IL-7) could indeed regulate lymphangiogenesis either directly via stimulating endothelial cell growth or indirectly via upregulating the expression of VEGF-D in these cells. The specificity of this effect of IL-7 was demonstrated by using neutralising antibodies and ribozyme trangenes. In addition to endothelial cells, IL-7 was also found to have a direct effect on breast cancer cells. The detection of a fully functional receptor for IL-7, IL-7R, in these cells had enabled us to study the effects of IL-7 on breast cancer cells as well. IL-7 induced the growth of breast cancer cells and also upregulated the expression of VEGF-D in these cells. Dissection of the signalling pathways of IL-7 in both endothelial and breast cancer cells revealed that IL-7 exerts these effects mainly via a Wortmannin sensitive pathway. Clinically, IL-7 and its downstream signalling pathway signalling molecules levels of expression were correlated with higher lymphatic metastatic rate in human breast cancer. Additionally, breast cancers with higher levels of IL-7 were found in patients with the poorer prognosis and worst survival. Therefore, it is concluded from these data that IL-7 plays an adverse effect in breast cancer metastasis. This effect of IL-7 is mediated via two arms acceleration of lymphangiogenesis and stimulating breast cancer cells growth. Inhibition of IL-7 signalling by using monoclonal antibodies, blocking agents to IL-7 or to one of its main intermediates could indeed be used as a way of targeted therapy to tackle metastatic spread of tumours particularly by the lymphatic route

Prevalence of Osteoporosis in 100 Iraqi Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Case Control Study

Back ground: In recent years, survival of patients with systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) has raised significantly so long-term complications, as osteoporosis, are currently of major importance. Objective: To assess the prevalence of osteoporosis in Iraqi patients with SLE. Patients and Methods: This case control study was conducted on 100 SLE patients and 100 healthy controls matched in age, sex, and body mass index. Bone mineral density (BMD) obtained at the lumber spine (L1-L4) and right and left femurs using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) machine (Dexxum). Osteoporosis was diagnosed according to WHO guidelines criteria for diagnosis of osteoporosis and Z-scores was used in premenopausal women and men younger than 50 years. Results: Mean age of SLE patients was 32.01±10.14 years and 32.46±6.29 years in the control group. Females represented 91% of patients and 92% of controls. The mean BMI of patients was 27.41±6.04 kg/m2 compared to 28.8±5.26 kg/m2 of controls. There was no statistical significant differences between both groups in demographic characteristics (P>0.05). BMD at lumbar spine was significantly lower in SLE patients than controls (82(82%) vs 61(61%), p< 0.001, OR (95%CI): 3.04(1.59-5.81).Of those patients with low BMD, 46% had osteoporosis. Additionally, BMD at total femur was significantly lower in SLE patients than controls (59 (59%) vs 24(24%), p<0.001, OR (95%CI): 4.56(2.48-8.37). Of those patients with low BMD at total femur, 15 (15%) had osteoporosis. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed non-significant association between low BMD in SLE patients and various baseline characteristics (P>0.05). Conclusions: Prevalence of osteoporosis in Iraqi patients with SLE was 46% at lumbar spine and 15 % at total femur. This may suggest to do early screening for low BMD in patients with SLE for early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Keywords: SLE, Osteoporosis, Dual x-ray absorptiometry, Bone mineral densit

knowledge and attitude of Iraqi women in reproductive age group about risk factors in pregnancy

Improved knowledge among women about maternal risk factors significantly reduced the likelihood of adverse events in pregnancy and childbirth. This study aimed to explore Iraqi women's knowledge and attitudes about maternal risk factors in pregnancy. A multicenter cross-sectional survey was conducted from 01 January to 31 March 2019 among women of the reproductive age (15-49 years). A convenient sampling technique using a semi-structured questionnaire was recruited to interview the sample. SPSS version 16.0 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square test) were used to present data with the significance level considered at <0.05. Data of 250 women underwent final analysis. The mean age of respondents was 27.76 (±6.3 years). Most of the respondents (79.9%) correctly knew the maternal risk factors in pregnancy. A large percentage of women knew that poor nutrition, anemia (95.6%), smoking and passive smoke (95.6%), and obesity (85.2%) during pregnancy are risk factors affecting the fetus’ health. However, about 40.0% of women thought there was no harm during pregnancy, and therefore there was no need for medical check-ups regularly. In bivariate analysis, there was a significant association between knowledge and level of education. The higher the level of education, the greater the women's knowledge about risk factors such as malnutrition and anemia (P=<0.001), obesity (P=0.04), diabetes (P=0.002), repeated urinary tract infection (P=0.017), Rh incompatibility (<0.001), history of previous cesarean section (P=0.010), smoking and passive smoking (P=0.014) and evidence of bleeding (P=0.001). In conclusion, Iraqi pregnant women demonstrated a good level of knowledge about the risk factors during the pregnancy

A new compact wideband MIMO antenna – the double-sided tapered self-grounded monopole array

We present a new compact wideband multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna—the double-sided 4-port arm-tapered self-grounded monopole array, briefly referred to as the butterfly antenna, in the communication. The antenna is very compact with low correlation between ports and high diversity gain. The genetic algorithm optimization scheme has been employed in the design. Simulation results have been verified against measurements. The measured reflection coefficients at all ports are below -7 dB over 0.5–9 GHz and below -4.5 dB over 0.4–0.5 GHz and 9–15 GHz. The measured correlation coefficients are below 0.4 over 0.4–15 GHz and lower than 0.1 in most of the frequency band. This new MIMO antenna is developed as a transmit antenna in reverberation chambers, and we believe that it will find more applications in other systems, such as micro base station antennas in wireless communication systems

Urokinase -type Plasminogen Activator System in Human Breast Cancer

Abstract Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1(PAI-1) are essential for metastasis, and overexpression of these molecules is strongly correlated with poor prognosis in a variety of malignant tumors. This study revealed direct correlation between immunohistochemical expression of uPA with pathological stage. No significant association of immunohistochemical expressions of uPA, uPAR and PAI-1 with immunohistochemical expressions for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor -2 (HER-2/neu), and direct association between immunohistochemical expressions of (uPA and uPAR) as well as between immunohistochemical expressions of (uPA and PAI-1 Introduction Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in wome