Effect of Nursing Job on Fertility Potential of Nurses in Babylon Province

Objective: The aim of the study: To study the effect of nursing job on nurses fertility potential. Back ground: Fertility potential refers to the ability of couples to reproduce and depends on both female and male partners. Human Fertility Potential is a very sensitive process which can be influenced by many factors such as jobs opportunities.  Fertility potential can be measured by ovarian reserve markers. Methods: This is a case control study conducted in Hilla Teaching hospital and Babylon teaching hospital for maternity and pediatric; form: May 2015 - November 2015.  Fifty women were included in this study working as nurses in gynecological and obstetric department (Number =50) and eighty-one women as a control group (Number = 81). Assessment of effect of nursing job was done by standard questionnaire and basal Hormonal levels (follicle stimulating hormone, estradiol hormone, prolactin hormone and thyroid stimulating hormone) were determine women by using (mini VIDAS) method. Result: There is a significant difference in the residence, educational level, menstrual cycle regularity between nurses and control group (p<0.05). Significant differences (p<0.05) were identified in cycle day two serum level of Estradiol and Prolactin hormones, between the nurses group and control group . Conclusion: Nurses working in gynecological and obstetric wards are liable for the effects of shift work which may disturb circadian rhythm and may cause cycle irregularities and alter endocrine function and possibly the regulation of reproductive hormones and fertility. Key words: Fertility potential, follicle stimulating hormone, estradiol hormone, prolactin hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, nursing job

EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION OF AN OPENLOOP CONTROLLED PERMANENT MAGNET SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR DRIVE USING ADAPTIVE NEURAL NETWORKS

When a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) is utilized for applications where high dynamic performance is not a requirement, a simple open loop control strategy can be used to control them. PMSMs however are prone to instability when operated open loop in a variable speed drive, particularly at mid-frequencies/speeds. This paper presents an open-loop control strategy based on a direct adaptive neural network controller is developed for efficiency optimization of open-loop controlled PMSM drive. Stability constraints of the drive system which was previously reported are used to maintain both stable and highly efficient operation of the drive system. The adopted neural network can be viewed as a method for nonlinear adaptive system identification, relying on pattern recognition of stability limits and maximum obtainable efficiency. Results from computer simulation show that a stable and highly efficient operation can be maintained for the drive system under study irrespective of load and supply variations. The obtained results are also found in correlation with previously reported experiments and observations

Deep learning inspired feature engineering for classifying tremor severity

Bio-signals pattern recognition systems can be impacted by several factors with a potential to limit their associated performance and clinical translation. Among these factors, selecting the optimum feature extraction method, that can effectively exploit the interaction between the temporal and spatial information, is the most prominent. Despite the potential of deep learning (DL) models for extracting temporal, spatial, or temporal-spatial information, they are typically restricted by their need for a large amount of training data. The deep wavelet scattering transform (WST) is a relatively recent advancement within the DL literature to replace expensive convolution neural networks models with computationally less demanding methods. However, while some studies have used WST to extract features from biological signals, it has not been investigated before for electromyogram (EMG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals feature extraction. To investigate the hypothesis of the usefulness of WST for processing EMG and EEG signals, this study used a tremor dataset collected by the authors from people with tremor disorders. Specifically, the proposed work achieved three goals: (a) study the performance of extracting features from low-density EMG signals (8 channels), using the WST approach, (b) study the effect of extracting the features from high-density EEG signals (33 channels), using WST and study its robustness against changing the spatial and temporal aspects of classification accuracy, and (c) classify tremor severity using the WST method and compare the results with other well-known feature extraction approaches. The classification error rates were significantly reduced (maximum of nearly 12 %) compared with other feature sets

Evaluation of a task-based community oriented teaching model in family medicine for undergraduate medical students in Iraq

BACKGROUND: The inclusion of family medicine in medical school curricula is essential for producing competent general practitioners. The aim of this study is to evaluate a task-based, community oriented teaching model of family medicine for undergraduate students in Iraqi medical schools. METHODS: An innovative training model in family medicine was developed based upon tasks regularly performed by family physicians providing health care services at the Primary Health Care Centre (PHCC) in Mosul, Iraq. Participants were medical students enrolled in their final clinical year. Students were assigned to one of two groups. The implementation group (28 students) was exposed to the experimental model and the control group (56 students) received the standard teaching curriculum. The study took place at the Mosul College of Medicine and at the Al-Hadba PHCC in Mosul, Iraq, during the academic year 1999–2000. Pre- and post-exposure evaluations comparing the intervention group with the control group were conducted using a variety of assessment tools. RESULTS: The primary endpoints were improvement in knowledge of family medicine and development of essential performance skills. Results showed that the implementation group experienced a significant increase in knowledge and performance skills after exposure to the model and in comparison with the control group. Assessment of the model by participating students revealed a high degree of satisfaction with the planning, organization, and implementation of the intervention activities. Students also highly rated the relevancy of the intervention for future work. CONCLUSION: A model on PHCC training in family medicine is essential for all Iraqi medical schools. The model is to be implemented by various relevant departments until Departments of Family medicine are established

Risk factors for pre-term birth in Iraq: a case-control study

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth (PTB)is a major clinical problem associated with perinatal mortality and morbidity. The aim of the present study is to identify risk factors associated with PTB in Mosul, Iraq. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted in Mosul, Iraq, from 1(st )September, 2003 to 28(th )February, 2004. RESULTS: A total of 200 cases of PTB and 200 controls of full-term births were screened and enrolled in the study. Forward logistic regression analysis was used in the analysis. Several significant risk associations between PTB and the following risk factors were identified: poor diet (OR = 4.33), heavy manual work (OR = 1.70), caring for domestic animals (OR = 5.06), urinary tract infection (OR = 2.85), anxiety (OR = 2.16), cervical incompetence (OR = 4.74), multiple pregnancies (OR = 7.51), direct trauma to abdomen (OR = 3.76) and abortion (OR = 6.36). CONCLUSION: The main determinants of PTB in Iraq were low socio-economic status and factors associated with it, such as heavy manual work and caring for domestic animals, in addition to urinary tract infections and poor obstetric history

Acute Diarrhea; Admitted Children; Clinical Trial; Zinc Supplementation

Introduction: Acute diarrhea remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among infants and young children as well as an important determinant of growth faltering in the world. Significant proportions of children who suffer from diarrhea are malnourished with depleted micronutrient stores. Diarrhea also leads to excess loss of micronutrients such as zinc and copper. Methods: This study was a clinical trial. The samples were collected from the children admitted. The children were randomly assigned to zinc and control groups among which zinc group received 2 mg/kg of zinc supplementation daily. A questionnaire was utilized as the research instrument containing the demographic information as well as number of stools and duration of admission. Results: After starting supplementation, the mean duration of diarrhea was 3.7±0.95 days in the zinc group and 4.6±1.8 days in the control group, showing a significant difference (P0.05) except on the sixth day. Conclusion: Zinc supplementation reduces the duration of acute diarrhea in admitted 1-60 month old children but has no effects on severity of acute diarrhea except on the sixth day of diarrhea duration

Mobile acquisition and monitoring system for improved diabetes management using emergent wireless and web technologies

Presented is a mobile-health (m-health) system architecture utilizing Bluetooth and web technologies for remote health data acquisition and monitoring. The proposed system aims at improving chronic disease management and diabetes in particular using a combination of existing patients’ medical sensors, PDAs and PDAs-related Bluetooth technology. This offers a relatively low-cost solution compared to equivalent customized health data acquisition systems. At the patient end, the health data is acquired serially from the medical sensors and sent to the mobile devices using Bluetooth connectivity. The acquired data are then transmitted to a remote health hub using core IP network. Design and implementation of the Wireless Data Acquisition Module (WDAM), wireless connectivity protocols, and architecture of the remote health hub applications are presented in this paper. The distributed nature of the proposed system allows for continuous acquisition and monitoring of patients’ data anytime, anywhere and by anyone with modest technological background. Likewise, the patient’s health providers can continuously monitor the acquired data of their patients for better disease management. Performance of the developed data acquisition system is assessed experimentally and seamless data acquisition and monitoring have been demonstrated

Mobile acquisition and monitoring system for improved diabetes management using emergent wireless and web technologies

Presented is a mobile-health (m-health) system architecture utilizing Bluetooth and web technologies for remote health data acquisition and monitoring. The proposed system aims at improving chronic disease management and diabetes in particular using a combination of existing patients’ medical sensors, PDAs and PDAs-related Bluetooth technology. This offers a relatively low-cost solution compared to equivalent customized health data acquisition systems. At the patient end, the health data is acquired serially from the medical sensors and sent to the mobile devices using Bluetooth connectivity. The acquired data are then transmitted to a remote health hub using core IP network. Design and implementation of the Wireless Data Acquisition Module (WDAM), wireless connectivity protocols, and architecture of the remote health hub applications are presented in this paper. The distributed nature of the proposed system allows for continuous acquisition and monitoring of patients’ data anytime, anywhere and by anyone with modest technological background. Likewise, the patient’s health providers can continuously monitor the acquired data of their patients for better disease management. Performance of the developed data acquisition system is assessed experimentally and seamless data acquisition and monitoring have been demonstrated

Diagnosis of some helminthic eggs in faeces of ducks and geese in Ninevah governorate, Iraq

This study included the inspection of 80 faecal samples for each of ducks and from geese from different region of Ninevah governorate from December 2008 to July 2009. Mixed infection was the most predominant being 44.92% and 22.66% in ducks and geese respectively. Parasitic examination revealed the presence of 17 species or genera of internal warm in ducks and 12 species or genera of internal warm in geese. The most common nematode recovered in ducks and geese was Capillaria represented with 38.75% in ducks and 42.5% in geese, while the common trematode species were Noticotylus attenuatus represented with 10% in ducks and 17.5% in geese. Raillietina represented with 22.5% and 50% in ducks and geese respectively as a major cestodes genus recovered