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Rainfall trend analysis is essential for managing water resources, agriculture, disaster management, and climate change research. The current study aims to examine annual rainfall variability and trend over 38 meteorological stations in Iraq during the period (1980-2021) using three tests: linear regression analysis (LRA), Mann-Kendall (MK), and the innovative trend analysis (ITA). The results of the three different tests showed that most stations recorded a decreasing trend except for four stations in ITA, six stations in MK, and seven stations in the LRA test, which exhibit a positive trend. However, three stations, Emaidyah, Rabiah, and Biji, showed an increasing trend for all three tests. The ITA test recorded more significant results (14 stations) than the other two tests. The larger significant result appeared in the significance level of 95 % (nine in LRA, eight in MK, and five in ITA). The outcomes of the three trend-detection approaches by assessing the statistical significance levels, 90 %, 95 %, and 99 %, revealed no significant trend in 16 stations dispersed throughout the various climatic zones of Iraq. Only Emadiayah station indicated a positive trend at the significance of 99 %. The overall results showed that the ITA test outperformed the MK and LRA tests since it produced more significant results.

Vegetation cover is considered one of the most important factors that affect weather, climate, and the environment. This paper aims to study the correlation between land surface temperature and the Vegetation Indices using Landsat data in Duhok Governorate, Iraq. Landsat-8 images were taken for December, April, July, and October in 2019. Geographic Information System ArcGIS 10.2 package has been used to calculate the results. The Normalized difference vegetation index NDVI, Green ratio vegetation index (GRVI), and land surface temperature (LST) have been computed. The results showed that were a strong positive relationship between vegetation indices during winter, spring, summer, and fall seasons. The correlation coefficient values ranged from (0.9) in winter, (0.96) in spring, (0.95) in summer and (0.89) in autumn seasons. Also, the results showed a strong inverse correlation among LST and NDVI, GRVI indices during winter, spring, summer, and autumn seasons. The strongest correlation between land surface temperature and the Vegetation Indices was in the Spring Season. These correlations can be used to study vegetation health, drought.

Extreme rainfall is one of the environmental hazards with disastrous effects on the human environment. Water resources management is very vulnerable to any changes in rainfall intensities. A spatiotemporal analysis is essential for study the impact of climate change and variability on extreme rainfall. In this study, daily rainfall data for 36 meteorological stations in Iraq during 1981–2017 were used to investigate the spatiotemporal pattern of 10 extreme rainfall indices using RClimDex package. These indices were classified into two categories: rainfall total (PRCPTOT, SDII, R95p, R99p, RX1day, and RX5day) and rainfall days (CDD, CWD, R10, and R20). Depending on the mean annual precipitation data, the study area was divided into three climatic zones to examine the time series features of those 10 indices. Results showed a tendency to increase in precipitation toward the northwestern part of Iraq, and more than 70% of stations achieved a positive trend for most indices. The most frequent negative trend appeared in eight stations distributed in the western and southern parts of Iraq, namely (Heet, Haditha, Anah, Rutba, Qaim, Nukheb, Najaf, and Fao). A significant positive trend appeared obviously in PRCPTOT and R95p with a rate of 0.1–4.6 and 0.5–2.7 mm per year, respectively. Additionally, the least trend increasing appeared in all precipitation days indices specifically in R10 and R20. Time series analyses revealed a positive trend in all regions under study, except SDII in the southern region. The most significant rate of change was noticed in regions one and two (northern and middle parts of Iraq), particularly for PRCPTOT and R95p 3.26 and 2.45 mm per day, respectively. Only the northern and eastern regions of Iraq experienced a high probability of significant extreme rainfall.

Soil salinity is one of the most important problems of land degradation, that threatening the environmental, economic and social system. The aim of this study to detect the changes in soil salinity and vegetation cover for Diyala Governorate over the period from 2005 to 2020, through the use of remote sensing techniques and geographic information system. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and salinity index (SI) were used, which were applied to four of the Landsat ETM+ and Landsat OLI satellite imagery. The results showed an increase in soil salinity from 7.27% in the period 2005–2010 to 27.03% in 2015–2020, as well as an increase in vegetation from 10% to 24% in the same period. Also the strong inverse correlation between the NDVI and the SI showed that vegetation is significantly affected and directly influenced by soil salinity changes

The objective of this study was to estimate the height of roughness element (ZH) and zero-displacement length (Zd) for Baghdad city using remote sensing and GIS techniques and resources such as DEM, DSM, and shapefile. The difference between DEM and DSM produced digital height model which represents the height of the roughness element for the region, which was used to determine the zero-displacement height. The results showed that the variations in Zd values depend strongly on ZH. Rusafa had the highest Zd (15.8 m) while Dora had the lowest values (4.7 m). Thus, Baghdad city has medium density classification according to the results of Zd and ZH values.

This study calculated the surface roughness length (Zo), zero-displacement length (Zd) and height of the roughness elements (ZH) using GIS applications. The practical benefit of this study is to classify the development of Baghdad, choose the appropriate places for installing wind turbines, improve urban planning, find rates of turbulence, pollution and others. The surface roughness length (Zo) of Baghdad city was estimated based on the data of the wind speed obtained from an automatic weather station installed at Al-Mustansiriyah University, the data of the satellite images digital elevation model (DEM), and the digital surface model (DSM), utilizing Remote Sensing Techniques. The study area was divided into 15 municipalities (Rasheed, Mansour, Shulaa, Karrada, Shaab, Adhamiyah, Sadre 2, Sadre 1, Rusafa, Alghadeer, Baghdad Aljadeedah, Karkh, Kadhumiya, Green zone, and Dora). The results indicated that the variations in Zo depend strongly on zero-displacement length (Zd) and the roughness element height (ZH) and wind speed. The research results demonstrated that Baghdad Aljadeedah has the largest (Zo) with 0.43 m and Rasheed has the lowest value of (Zo) with 0.19 m.; the average (Zo) of Baghdad city was 0.32 m.

Evaluation of drought characteristics in Iraq by analysis annual growing season of Self-Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (SC-PDSI) for three climatic zones using run theory method. The efficiency of SC-PDSI for drought monitoring was examined from compared with Rainfall Departure from the mean (RD) for three zones (Arid and Semi-Arid, Steppes and Desert) for the period 1981-2015, were derived from Climatic Research Unit (CRU). The spatial interpolation techniques in ArcGIS package has been used, to cover the whole extent of country and extracting the zones. Statistical methods were applied to compute the probability of drought events at every zone. The results showed the years 1999, 2000, 2008 and 2009 experienced droughts in all zones except the desert zone where was experienced severe drought in 2012, while the years 1982 and 1988 experienced received precipitation above-average in all zones. The values of standard deviation of precipitation were compared with precipitation anomalies for each zone, the drier seasons are (2007-2008) and (1998-1999) in all Zones. The wetter seasons are (1987-1988) in Arid and Semi-Arid and Steppes zone, (1994-1995) and (1997-1998) are wetter seasons in Desert zone. Using run theory, the steppes zone have experienced more severe droughts than other zones evaluated in this study and the most susceptible areas to dry spell are steppes and Arid and Semi-Arid Zones during study period. While the desert zone experienced less droughts.

The Present study investigated the drought in Iraq, by using the rainfall data which obtained from 39 meteorological stations for the past 30 years (1980-2010). The drought coefficient calculated on basis of the standard precipitation index (SPI) and then characteristics of drought magnitude, duration and intensity were analyzed. The correlation and regression between magnitude and duration of drought were obtained according the (SPI) index. The result shows that drought magnitude values were greater in the northeast region of Iraq.

Temperatures are important factors that have an impact directly and indirectly on human, so the attention to this aspect certainly will be in the interest of human life. In this research, the land surface temperature was estimated for different regions in Iraq, using the thermal Band of ETM+ sensor mounted in the Landsat 7 satellite. By using ERDAS 8.4 software, the thermal images are converted to thematic maps which represent land surface temperatures. The results showed that the estimated land surface temperatures are 29.7°C, 31.8°C, 17°C, 17.8°C, 17°C, 20.6°C and 30.2°C for Al-Mousl , Taleafer, Al-Ramadi, Heet, Kerbela, Al-Hai and Al-Basrah stations respectively. Also the results show that there is high correlation between the estimated and the observed data with a difference of 1-2°C.

Objective: Apelin and visfatin are adipokines secreted from adipose tissue that play important roles in regulating blood pressure. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the effects of candesartan versus enalapril on apelin, visfatin, and lipid profiles in hypertensive patients. Methods: In this case-control study, 120 participants were enrolled in four groups; Healthy people, newly diagnosed hypertensive patients, and enalapril- and candesartan-treated patients. Results: Serum apelin levels were significantly lower and visfatin levels were significantly higher in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients compared with the control group (p=0.0015, p=0.0175 respectively). Moreover, apelin levels were higher and visfatin levels were lower in the candesartan-treated patients compared with the newly diagnosed group (p=0.0487, p<0.0001 respectively). Interestingly, apelin levels were non-significantly higher and visfatin levels were significantly lower in enalapril- treated patients compared with the newly diagnosed group (p<0.0001). Conclusions: Lower apelin and higher visfatin levels are associated with newly diagnosed patients with hypertension. Interestingly, the findings suggest that ACE inhibition and angiotensin receptor blockade by enalapril and candesartan, respectively, positively regulate apelin and visfatin levels in hypertension. Specifically, candesartan regulates these adipokine to a greater extent than enalapril. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate of the spatial analyses of the correlation coefficient between Particulate matter PM2.5 and meteorological parameters in Iraq Using remote-sensing data and meteorological Parameters datasets for the period 2003–2020. PM2.5 is one of the primary air pollutants across the world. Quantifying interactions between meteorological conditions and PM2.5 concentrations is essential to understanding the variability of PM2.5. The spatial variations of the relationships between the annual average PM2.5, the annual average rainfall, temperature wind speed, and pressure were evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient model. The results indicated that there were positive correlations between PM2.5 concentrations and both temperature and wind, while there was a negative correlation with pressure. As for rainfall, there were positive correlations in some areas and negative in others. The results also showed that the most associated factor with PM2.5 is wind. it becomes clear to us that the correlations between fine particles and meteorological factors differ according to the regions, the terrain, the local climate, human and natural differences, and weather changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall trend analysis is essential for managing water resources, agriculture, disaster management, and climate change research. The current study aims to examine annual rainfall variability and trend over 38 meteorological stations in Iraq during the period (1980-2021) using three tests: linear regression analysis (LRA), Mann-Kendall (MK), and the innovative trend analysis (ITA). The results of the three different tests showed that most stations recorded a decreasing trend except for four stations in ITA, six stations in MK, and seven stations in the LRA test, which exhibit a positive trend. However, three stations, Emaidyah, Rabiah, and Biji, showed an increasing trend for all three tests. The ITA test recorded more significant results (14 stations) than the other two tests. The larger significant result appeared in the significance level of 95 % (nine in LRA, eight in MK, and five in ITA). The outcomes of the three trend-detection approaches by assessing the statistical significance levels, 90 %, 95 %, and 99 %, revealed no significant trend in 16 stations dispersed throughout the various climatic zones of Iraq. Only Emadiayah station indicated a positive trend at the significance of 99 %. The overall results showed that the ITA test outperformed the MK and LRA tests since it produced more significant results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: This Study aimed to determine the frequency of sensory neuropathy in the feet of asymptomatic people with type II diabetes mellitus. METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional Study was conducted at the medical department of MTI/Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, between April - October 2022. A total of 133 patients were observed using a non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Patients aged 25-60 years who had type II diabetes mellitus for more than one year were included, while patients with vitamin B12 deficiency who used multivitamins were excluded from the study. SPSS version 20 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Age-wise distribution 25-30 Years (4.5%), 31-40 Years (21.8%), 41-50 Years (45.9%), and 51-60 Years (27.8%) (mean 45.56±3.3). Gender-wise, 104 (78.2%) were male and 29 (21.8%) were female. Regarding education level, 57 (42.9%) were illiterate, 46 (34.6%) had secondary education, and 30 (22.6%) had higher education. Residency status indicated 105 (78.9%) from urban areas and 28 (21.1%) from rural areas. Socioeconomic status was distributed as follows: 53 (39.8%) with a monthly income >100,000 Rs, 46 (34.6%) with an income range of 50,000 to 100,000 Rs, and 34 (25.6%) with an income range

Background: The Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has a profound impact worldwide, with approximately 75.7 million individuals suffering and around 32.7 million individuals dead attributed to AIDS-related causes. HIV/AIDS impacts the gastrointestinal system with various symptoms influenced by infections, and the introduction of modern Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has significantly changed the prevalence of these GI disorders. Objective: This study aimed to determine the frequency of endoscopic findings in HIV patients with dysphagia. Study type, settings & duration: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of General Medicine, Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Medical Teaching Institute (MTI), Peshawar from July to December 2020. Methodology: The study included 136 HIV-infected patients with dysphagia who underwent upper GI endoscopy. All patients underwent upper GI endoscopy following informed consent. The baseline Information, including demographic data, including age, gender, and duration of HIV infection, was collected for each patient. Data analysis was performed using (SPSS) version 23. Results: According to the findings, gastric erythema (18.4%), Candida esophagitis (30.1%), peptic ulcer (9.6%), hiatal hernia (21.3%), erosions (5.1%), and Candida antral gastritis (16.9%) were the most frequent endoscopic findings. The mean age of the patients was 43.316±6.92 years, the mean duration of HIV infection was 12.632±5.26 months, and the mean weight was 80.345±6.56 Kg. Conclusion: According to the study's findings, most HIV patients who experienced gastrointestinal symptoms also had opportunistic infections and altered upper GI mucosa. Early endoscopic and histological evaluation is recommended for these individuals in order to support fast detection and treatment of upper GI issues, ...........

Colorectal cancer is known for its substantial impact on global morbidity and mortality, with higher prevalence in developed regions. This study delves into the potential treatment advantages of resveratrol (RSV) in addressing colorectal cancer. Apoptosis and gene expression associated with apoptotic factors were explored using Caco-2 cells, a pertinent model for colorectal adenocarcinoma. The effect of RSV on Caco-2 cell viability was investigated using MTT assay and neutral red uptake assay. The level of generated ROS was high in cells exposed to RSV. Likewise, the enzyme superoxide dismutase, responsible for converting ROS into hydrogen peroxide, was concurrently elevated. The effect of RSV on DNA damage was examined through the TUNEL assay. The gene expression analyses for pro-apoptotic elements were studied using qRT-PCR. Furthermore, the impact of RSV on the migration of Caco-2 cells was conducted through a wound-healing assay. Our results reveal RSV’s cytotoxicity on Caco-2 cells, showing dose-dependent inhibition of viability, indicating its promise as a treatment agent. The induction of cell death by apoptosis is substantiated by DNA damage. Notably, the upregulated expression of caspase-3, Bax, and p53 genes suggests RSV’s potential to modulate key apoptosis-related elements. In addition, RSV displayed an inhibitory effect on cellular migration, a significant (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01) in cancer metastasis. These findings underscore RSV’s potential to be a multifaceted therapeutic agent targeting apoptosis and metastatic processes in colorectal cancer.

Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a spherical rod-shaped Gram-negative non-lactose fermenting (Coccobacilli, Aerobic bacteria) bacteria. It is a member of the Moraxellacea family. A. baumannii is a pathogenic, opportunistic organism that infects humans in society and hospitals. In particular, patients with immune system defects are at risk, especially those with burn infections and those hospitalized in intensive care (ICU). It plays a vital role in many illnesses, including septicemia, pneumonia, meningitis, soft tissues, skin infection, endocarditis, and urinary tract infection (UTI). The current study included immunological evaluation of infection with A. baumannii. In the current study, 150 blood samples were obtained as follows: 100 blood samples were collected from infected individuals with A. baumannii admitted to hospitals in Baghdad. Fifty blood samples were obtained from healthy individuals and considered as the control. 10 ml of blood samples were collected from the venous blood of the participants. A. baumannii was collected and isolated from infected patients and diagnosed by traditional methods, using different culture media (MacConkey agar, blood agar, and Chromogenetic agar) and by biochemical assays, then the bacteria diagnosis was confirmed using the VITEK 2 ID-GN cards. Microscopic examination and culture diagnosis of bacteria were conducted, and the diagnosis was confirmed by complete biochemical examinations using VITEK2 Compact System. Assessments included the serum level of IL-17A and TNF-a for hospitalized patients infected with A. baumannii. The study recorded a significant increase in the serum level of IL-17A for patients infected with A. baumannii (479.83±26.21 pg/ml) compared to control subjects (69.32±4.53 pg/ml). The recorded data showed a significant increase in the serum level of TNF-a for patients infected with A. baumannii (98.05±28.89 pg/ml) compared to control (1.40±25.12 pg/ml). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a misfortune for crops. Wheat is a staple crop and its sustainability and adequate supply are vital to food security around the world. The development of drought-tolerant cultivars in wheat is a major challenge to breeders, therefore there is dire need of time to determine the genetic components of drought tolerance in wheat crop. To overcome intense drought stress, wheat plants undergo certain morphological and physiological changes and develop certain genetically adaptive mechanisms. Since wheat is an allotriploid with three sub-genomes, its adaptability molecular mechanisms to drought, particularly needs scientific attention. Here, we systematically and comprehensively reviewed the causes of wheat drought tolerance and the consequences for wheat physiology and genetics. The quantitative trait loci (QTL), which be function on the control of wheat drought tolerance, were comprehensively summarized by a meta-analysis and total 75 meta-QTLs (MQTLs) were identified. In addition, we summarized the genes tightly involved in wheat drought tolerance, and several important genes were selected to elucidate signaling networks related to the wheat drought tolerance. This review is integral to growing suitable strains in the worldwide arid regions to improve wheat yields under recent global climate change scenarios.

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