Kurdistan Institution for Strategic Studies and Scientific Research

This paper investigates the impact of a roundabout's central island geometry on operational performance. A case study roundabout with an elliptical central island, characterized by major and minor axes of 63 and 44 meters respectively, is examined. Using SIDRA intersection software, two simulation models were developed, one with an elliptical shape and the other circular. The investigation commenced by assigning peak traffic volumes to both models, followed by the generation of twelve diverse scenarios. These scenarios encompassed gradual increases in lane volumes, spanning from levels of service A to F. Each approach received 100% of the assigned volume for one run and 75% for the other, with this allocation alternating in successive runs. The results demonstrated that at high degrees of saturation, the elliptical roundabout outperformed the circular roundabout in terms of delay and capacity. The performance index of the elliptical roundabout was 16.9% lower than that of the circular roundabout, confirming its superior performance. Moreover, recognizing the importance of accommodating heavy vehicles in urban settings, a parametric study was conducted. Eight additional simulation scenarios, encompassing varying heavy vehicle percentage (HV%) were executed. Results indicated at higher HV% levels, particularly around 8% and 12%, control delay increases by 28.9% and 35.2% for elliptical and circular roundabouts, respectively. These results confirm

Introduction Approximately 50% of patients with primary colorectal carcinoma develop liver metastases. This study investigates the possible molecular discrepancies between primary colorectal cancer (pCRC) and their respective metastases. Methods A total of 22 pairs of pCRC and metastases were tested. Mutation profiling of 26 cancer-associated genes was undertaken in 22/22primary-metastasis tumour pairs using next-generation sequencing, whilst the expression of a panel of six microRNAs (miRNAs) was investigated using qPCRin 21/22 pairs and 22 protein biomarkers was tested using Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA)in 20/22 patients’ tumour pairs. Results Among the primary and metastatic tumours the mutation rates for the individual genes are as follows:TP53 (86%), APC (44%), KRAS (36%), PIK3CA (9%), SMAD4 (9%), NRAS (9%) and 4% for FBXW7, BRAF, GNAS and CDH1. The primary-metastasis tumour mutation status was identical in 54/60 (90%) loci. However, there was discordance in heterogeneity status in 40/58 genetic loci (z-score = 6.246, difference = 0.3793, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, there was loss of concordance in miRNA expression status between primary and metastatic tumours, and 57.14–80.95% of the primary-metastases tumour pairs showed altered primary-metastasis relative expression in all the miRNAs tested. Moreover, 16 of 20 (80%) tumour pairs showed alteration in at least 3 of 6 (50%) of the protein biomarker pathways analysed. Conclusion The molecular alterations of primary colorectal tumours differ significantly from those of their matched metastases. These differences have profound implications for patients’ prognoses and response to therapy.

Unlabelled: The stylohyoid ligament begins when the styloid process extends from the petrous temporal bone in a thin bony protrusion. Eagle's syndrome (ES) is a condition related to either calcification of the calcifying the stylohyoid ligament or elongating styloid process The incidence of symptomatic ES is 0.16%, and it is more common in women. The reported study diagnosed ES and treated it surgically through transoral approach styloidectomy. Case presentation: A 39-year-old man who is a farmer and a driver was presented with complaints of ongoing, excruciating discomfort in the back of his left ear. Before the exam, he took a variety of drugs, various drugs 2 years without receiving a definitive diagnosis. Axial, coronal, and sagittal computed tomography scans of both petrous bones were analyzed, and the results showed aberrant styloid process elongation and calcification of the stylohyoid ligament. Discussion: ES, shares many symptoms with other regional illnesses. Physicians frequently misdiagnose cases of ES and treat them without providing a conclusive diagnosis or treatment. Conclusion: ES diagnosis can be difficult for otolaryngologists and primary care providers due to its similarity with other regional illnesses. However, surgical intervention can result in consistent and significant symptomatic improvement when correctly diagnosed. The case presented in the report was successfully diagnosed as ES and treated surgically through transoral approach styloidectomy.

Unlabelled: Despite being very infectious and fatal, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lacks a reliable and practical biomarker to assess how serious it will be. Aim: The current study aims to conclude the possibility of C-reactive protein (CRP) level serving as a biomarker for early prediction of COVID-19 infections. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 88 people participated who were infected with COVID-19, aged from 25 to 79 years old. Compare the CRP test range of all samples from patients who visited the hospital between January and April 2022. Results: All participants were confirmed to have COVID-19 through nasopharyngeal swab analysis and real-time polymerase chain reaction real-time polymerase chain reaction testing. Results showed that the majority of infected individuals had elevated CRP levels. A P-value of less than 0.05 indicated a significant difference in CRP levels between alive and dead patients. No significant difference in CRP levels was found between male and female patients. The average CRP level of deceased patients was 137.79 mg/l, while the average CRP level of survivors was 14.37 mg/l. The median interquartile range of deceased patients was also found to be significantly higher compared to survivors. Conclusion: In conclusion, serum CRP levels potentially predict the severity and development of sickness in patients with COVID-19 infections.

This study designed to evaluate the effect of Erythritol injection in decreasing of abortion rate in local breed ewes. Fifty pregnant ewes from local breed aged 2–4 years with a history of abortion except G1, were fed ad libitum hay and grains with water. The study was carried out in Salah Aldein province at special farm at a period of July–November 2022. These animals were tests for brucella by using rose Bengal and ELISA at zero day for confirmation; these animals were divided into 5 groups: G1 was brucella −ve and pregnant at 60 days, G2 was brucella +ve and pregnant at 60 days, G3 brucella+ve pregnant animals and treated by antibiotics gentamicin 10%, 3 ml/animal for 3 days, G4 brucella +ve and pregnant and giving erythritol, 10 ml S/C of 10% solution (solve in water and glycerol), and G5 was brucella +ve, and all pregnant and giving Erythritol+ gentamycin 10%, 3 ml/animal for 3 days. The experiment takes 12 weeks. Blood was withdrawn at different times of experiment (0, 2 weeks and end of experiment). The seroprevalence of brucellosis was shown that all animals at G4 and G5 where seropositive after 14 days of experiment, at end of pregnancy the seropositivity were highly significantly in G4 and G5 as compared with another groups. The current results showed that percentages of abortion were higher in G2, followed by G3, while it has been reduced significantly in G4 and G1. In conclusion, Erythritol alone can decrease the rate of abortion by making the bacteria extracellular far from placenta and evading of infection by immunity and/or gentamicin injection. Also, erythritol can be used as elicit diagnosis of brucellosis in latent infected animals.

Using a safe and easy-to-apply economic focculant to replace alum is necessary to expand and enhance the water quality in rural regions where traditional water treatment is unavailable. The seed of Moringa oleifera is locally available in large volumes and is feasibly economical. A compatibility and applicability research of the easily accessible local Moringa oleifera seed extract (MOSE) was conducted to examine its potential utilization to lessen various degrees of water turbidity at 30±2 °C. The study concerns the optimum dosage of MOSE to give high turbidity removal efciency in the water. Experiments were carried out for nine turbidity samples: 5, 10, 15, 30, 50, 70, 100, 200, and 300 NTU. The turbidity removal efciency of up to 89% was achieved for high initial turbid water 300 NTU. However, for low turbid water, its potential efciency declined. The results demonstrate that the de-oiled extract is substantially more efcient than the crude extract in agglomerating colloidal particles of low initial turbidity samples and achieved up to 76% removal rate. The results of the ANOVA confrmed that the regression model was signifcant at (p<0.05) for residual turbidity after the treatment process. The study also demonstrates that a pseudo-frst-order kinetic model matched well the nature of the removal of colloidal particles with MOSE in water to form focs. The study also indicates that the characteristics of water treated with crude MOSE produce little change in electrical conductivity and salinity. However, the hardness and alkalinity of water decreased signifcantly depending on the initial hardness and the amount of MOSE applied (p<0.05).

The rise and extensive spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a growing concern, and a threat to the environment and human health globally. The majority of current AMR identification methods used in clinical setting are based on traditional microbiology culture-dependent techniques which are time-consuming or expensive to be implemented, thus appropriate antibiotic stewardship is provided retrospectively which means the first line of treatment is to hope that a broad-spectrum antibiotic works. Hence, culture-independent and single-cell technologies are needed to allow for rapid detection and identification of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and to support a more targeted and effective antibiotic therapy preventing further development and spread of AMR. In this study, for the first time, a non-destructive phenotyping method of optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy, coupled with deuterium isotope probing (DIP) and multivariate statistical analysis was employed as a metabolic fingerprinting approach to detect AMR in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) at both single-cell and population levels. Principal component-discriminant function analysis (PC-DFA) of FT-IR and O-PTIR spectral data showed clear clustering patterns as a result of distinctive spectral shifts (C–D signature peaks) originating from deuterium incorporation into bacterial cells, allowing for rapid detection and classification of sensitive and resistant isolates at the single-cell level. Furthermore, the single-frequency images obtained using the C–D signature peak at 2,163 cm ⁻¹ clearly displayed the reduced ability of the trimethoprim-sensitive strain for incorporating deuterium when exposed to this antibiotic, compared to the untreated condition. Hence, the results of this study indicated that O-PTIR can be employed as an efficient tool for the rapid detection of AMR at the single-cell level.

Self-adaptive software can assess and modify its behavior when the assessment indicates that the program is not performing as intended or when improved functionality or performance is available. Since the mid-1960s, system adaptivity has been extensively researched, and during the last decade, many application areas and technologies involving self-adaptation have gained prominence. All of these efforts have in common the introduction of self-adaptability through software. Thus, it is essential to investigate systematic software engineering methods to create self-adaptive systems that may be used across different domains. The primary objective of this research is to summarize current advances in awareness requirements for adaptive strategies and their performance management based on an examination of state-of-the-art methods described in the literature. This paper reviews self-adaptive systems in the context of requirement awareness and summarizes the most common methodologies applied. At first glance, it examines the previous surveys and works about self-adaptive systems. Afterward, it classifies the current self-adaptive systems based on six criteria. Then, it presents performance management in the current adaptive systems and then evaluates the most common self-adaptive approaches. Lastly, the self-adaptive models are evaluated based on four concepts (requirements description, monitoring, relationship, dependency/impact, and tools).

The boundary between the Kolosh and Sinjar Formations (BKS) studied along the northwestern side of Haibat Sultan Mountain near the village Kalka Simaq, Sulaimani area, Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Here, we reported, for the first time, on a new investigation of stratigraphy and calcareous nannofossils that dated the BKS back to the Thanetian Stage of the Late Paleocene. Furthermore, we assigned the boundary as a transitional zone between both formations that show a gradual change of facies and refute the previous unconformity at the boundary. The continuous deposition and conformability through the boundary ascertained according to the biostratigraphic zonation of calcareous nannofossils, which indicates the coincidence of the upper part of the Kolosh Formation to the NP7-NP8 nannofossil Zone (58.8–57.4 Ma), whereas the overlaying transitional zone (BKS) corresponds to the NP8-NP9 Zone (57.4–57.0 Ma) and the lower part of the Sinjar Formation to the NP9 Zone (57.0–55.8 Ma). The acme of Fasciculithus tympaniformis is located at the top of the BKS, indicating the NP9 Zone of the Late Paleocene. Additionally, the present study recorded the last occurrence of Prinsius martinii and Prinsius bisulcus, in the NP9 Zone, in the transitional zone of BKS, and in the lower part of the Sinjar Formation; it also supported by the occurrence of microfossils and macrofossils. The transitional zone is characterized by high energy with intermittent turbidity influxes and developed/progressed when detritus supply is decreased, and the carbonates deposited. The study offered the diachronicity of deposition of the Sinjar Formation along the paleo-strike of Iraqi Zagros Foreland Basin; it attributed to basin physiography and turbidity influx into the shelf of the basin. The depositional environment of BKS determined as a carbonate–siliciclastic shelf that changed to an open lagoon and patchy reef during the deposition of the Sinjar sediments.

The Coronavirus, known as COVID-19, which appeared in 2019 in China, has significantly affected global health and become a huge burden on health institutions all over the world. These effects are continuing today. One strategy for limiting the virus's transmission is to have an early diagnosis of suspected cases and take appropriate measures before the disease spreads further. This work aims to diagnose and show the probability of getting infected by the disease according to textual clinical data. In this work, we used five machine learning techniques (GWO_MLP, GWO_CMLP, MGWO_MLP, FDO_MLP, FDO_CMLP) all of which aim to classify Covid-19 patients into two categories (Positive and Negative). Experiments showed promising results for all used models. The applied methods showed very similar performance, typically in terms of accuracy. However, in each tested dataset, FDO_MLP and FDO_CMLP produced the best results with 100% accuracy. The other models' results varied from one experiment to the other. It is concluded that the models on which the FDO algorithm was used as a learning algorithm had the possibility of obtaining higher accuracy. However, it is found that FDO has the longest runtime compared to the other algorithms. The link to the covid 19 models is found here: https://github.com/Tarik4Rashid4/covid19models

Background The Kurds as an ethnic group are believed to be a combination of earlier Indo-European tribes who migrated and inhabited a mountainous area thousands of years ago. However, as it is difficult to describe the precise history of their origin, it is necessary to investigate their population relationship with other geographical and ethnic groups. Results Seventeen Short Tandem Repeat markers on the Y chromosome (Y-STR) included in the AmpFLSTR™ Yfiler™ PCR Amplification Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) were used to type DNA samples from the Sorani (Central) Kurdish population in Sulaymaniyah province. One hundred fifty-seven haplotypes were obtained from 162 unrelated male individuals. The highest and lowest gene diversities were DYS385a/b (GD = 0.848) and DYS392 (GD = 0.392), respectively. The haplotypes were used to predict the most likely haplogroups in the Sulaymaniyah population. Conclusion Haplogroup prediction indicated predominance (28%) of subclade J2 (44/157) in the Sorani Kurds, northeast of Iraq. The pairwise genetic distance results showed that the Kurdish group clustered along with Asian populations, whereas the furthest countries were Europeans and Africans.

Orang drink is the most popular flavored drink consumed in Iraq, and it can be found in markets of all sizes and in all regions, exposing it to a wide range of storage temperature and storage time. In this work, the impact of temperature and storage duration was studied on three different local brands of Orange drink with Low-to-No nectar content; all were packed in Laminated Aseptic Cartons (LAC). Samples were stored in a fixed and controlled temperature environment ranging between 10°C and 50°Cfor a period of 5 weeks and the samples were tested for the values of Brix, Titratable Acidity (TA) and pH at the beginning and at the end of each week. The findings revealed that there was no statistically significant difference found (p > 0.05), which showed that there is low-to-no evidence that the selected range of storage temperature and time in this study significantly affected the values of Brix, TA and ph.

The present study focuses on the Chia Gara Formation that is part of the oil-prone sedimentary formations of Northern Iraq, being under extensive scientific concern in recent years. The Chia Gara Formation is considered one of the major source rocks of the prolific Kirkuk oil field of Northern Iraq, consisting of alternating layers of bituminous limestones and calcareous shales that were deposited during Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous. The studied sequence from the Miran-2 well (depth 2250–2315 m) comprises mostly argillaceous limestones with calcite and quartz being the main minerals with variable amounts of clay minerals, K-feldspars, pyrite, gypsum, and anhydrite. TOC wt% ranges between 0.73 and 7.24 wt%, pointing to a significant variation regarding organic matter content. The average random vitrinite reflectance (VRo) is 1.00% and the average value of solid bitumen random reflectance (BRo) is 0.73%. Solid bitumens and bituminite (the latter corresponding to kerogen type II) are the predominant organic particles, particularly in the bottom to middle part of the Formation, whereas alginite occurs subordinately. Additionally, the common occurrence of vitrinite fragments indicates a significant terrestrial input (kerogen type III). Organic petrography proved to be the most important tool to provide with clear-cut results regarding the organic matter characteristics. Chia Gara Formation was deposited in a shallow marine palaeoenvironment probably shelf-slope, under reducing conditions. In particular in Miran-2 the studied strata are within the oil window, and the obtained results provide a better understanding of the organic matter type and maturation of this highly prolific and productive Formation.

Determining the physical and chemical properties of airborne dusts in occupational settings is essential for assessing their potential toxicity as well as the effectiveness of respiratory protective equipment and dust mitigation measures. Here, we report the first successful QEMSCAN ® automated mineralogical analysis of potentially toxic PM 4 and PM 2.5 dust from deep coal mines in Poland and Slovenia. QEMSCAN ® was setup to automatically delimit 100,000 ‘particles’ per sample, based on average atomic number contrast, subject these to X-ray elemental analysis at points in a grid pattern (0.5 µm spacing), assign a mineral name to each point and then output the results as particle size, shape, mineralogy and mineral associations data and as mineral maps. The dusts were prepared as dispersions on a polyethylene sheet so that coal particles, with a slightly higher BSE signal, could be recognized from their substrate. Samples were analyzed repeatedly and in different orientations to determine the effects of sample geometry and topography. QEMSCAN ® mineral identifications were manually checked using standard SEM X-ray elemental analysis. From a pilot study of Polish and Slovenian coal dust samples, PM 4 and PM 2.5 contain varying proportions of coal, quartz and other silicates, sulphides, sulphates, carbonates, oxides and other minerals, and notable concentrations of fly-ash particles. That some of these components may be toxic when inhaled, particularly the quartz and fly-ash, highlights the need for larger scale and wider ranging studies. The further potential of the newly developed QEMSCAN ® methodology is discussed.

One of the popular metaheuristic search algorithms is Harmony Search (HS). It has been verified that HS can find solutions to optimization problems due to its balanced exploratory and convergence behavior and its simple and flexible structure. This capability makes the algorithm preferable to be applied in several real-world applications in various fields, including healthcare systems, different engineering fields, and computer science. The popularity of HS urges us to provide a comprehensive survey of the literature on HS and its variants on health systems, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and suggest future research directions. In this review paper, the current studies and uses of harmony search are studied in four main domains. (i) The variants of HS, including its modifications and hybridization. (ii) Summary of the previous review works. (iii) Applications of HS in healthcare systems. (iv) And finally, an operational framework is proposed for the applications of HS in healthcare systems. The main contribution of this review is intended to provide a thorough examination of HS in healthcare systems while also serving as a valuable resource for prospective scholars who want to investigate or implement this method.

The heterogeneous lithological components of the Middle Jurassic Sargelu Formation in the Atrush field of the high folded zone were examined using rock samples, conventional wireline logs, mud logs and well test results throughout two wells. The Sargelu Formation is 45 m thick and has been divided into three units based on lithological characteristics and shale volume. The upper unit of the Sargelu Formation is composed of argillaceous limestone with intercalation of dolostone and anhydrite beds. The middle unit of the Sargelu Formation is composed of organic rich laminated shales, which contain residual bitumen, whilst the lower unit of the formation is dominated by argillaceous limestones. Lithological variation, mineralogy and organic matter contents are shown to be essential factors in controlling the reservoir matrix porosity and permeability. The maximum matrix porosity and permeability were observed within the dolomite plug samples (13.40%, 10.40 mD) and the lowest values were recorded in the anhydrite samples, both found in the upper unit of the Sargelu Formation. The fracture permeability is three orders of magnitude higher than the matrix permeability and the hydrocarbon production is predominately derived from the fractured intervals throughout the Sargelu Formation. The interconnected fracture pathways are influenced by the lithological variation and mineralogical components of the formation along with the tectonic position of the field. It was found that as the confining pressure increased the fracture permeability reduced. The different lithologies were also found to be sensitive to increases in the confining pressure. The clastic shale rich rocks are most sensitive to increases in confining pressure, whilst the more carbonate rich rocks showed the lowest variation as a function of confining pressure.

Severe droughts and mismanagement of water resources during the last decades have pro�pelled authorities in the Kurdistan Region to be con�cerned about better management of precipitation which is considered the primary source of recharg�ing surface and groundwater in the area of interest. The drought cycles in the last decades have stimu�lated water stakeholders to drill more wells and store uncontrolled runof in suitable structures during rainy times to fulfll the increased water demands. The optimum sites for rainwater harvesting sites in the Qaradaqh basin, which is considered a water-scarce area, were determined using the analytical hierar�chy process (AHP), sum average weighted method (SAWM), and fuzzy-based index (FBI) techniques. The essential thematic layers within the natural and artifcial factors were rated, weighted, and ntegrated the northern and around the basin’s boundary, while unsuitable areas cover northeastern and some scat�ter zones in the middle due to restrictions of geology, distance to stream with the villages, and slope crite�ria. The total harvested runof was 377,260 m3 from all the suggested structures. The proposed sites may provide a scientifc and reasonable basis for utiliz�ing this natural resource and minimize the impacts of future drought cycles.

Machine Learning (ML) is a part of Artificial intelligence (AI) that designs and produces systems, which is capable of developing and learning from experiences automatically without making them programmable. ML concentrates on the computer program improvement, which has the ability to access and utilize data for learning from itself. There are different algorithms in ML field, but the most important questions that arise are: Which technique should be utilized on a dataset? and How to investigate ML algorithm? This paper presents the answer for the mentioned questions. Besides, investigation and checking algorithms for a data set will be addressed. In addition, it illustrates choosing the provided test options and metrics assessment. Finally, researchers will be able to conduct this research work on their datasets to select an appropriate model for their datasets.

The competitive advantage of aspect oriented programming (AOP) is that it improves the maintainability and understandability of software systems by modularizing crosscutting concerns. However, some concerns, such as logging or debugging, may be overlooked and should be entangled and distributed across the code base. AOP is a software development paradigm that enables developers to capture crosscutting concerns in split-aspect modes. Additionally, it is a novel notion that has the potential to improve the quality of software programs by removing the complexity involved with the production of code tangles via the usage of separation of concerns. As a result, it provides more modularity. Throughout its early development, some believed that AOP was easier to build and maintain than other implementations since it was based on an existing one. The statements are predicated on the premise that local improvements are easier to implement. Additionally, without appropriate visualization tools for both static and dynamic structures, cross-cutting challenges may be difficult for developers and researchers to appreciate. In recent years, AspectJ has begun to enable the depiction of crosscutting concerns via the release of IDE plugins. This article explains aspect oriented programming and how it may be used to improve the readability and maintainability of software projects. Additionally, it will evaluate the challenges it presents to application developers and academics.

O-PTIR was used for simultaneous collection of infrared and Raman spectra from clinical pathogens associated with bloodstream infections.