doaa a. hamad

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that causes a variety of clinical symptoms in humans. It is a facultatively heteroxenous, polyxenous protozoon that has evolved several potential transmission routes within and between the host species. Infections caused by Toxoplasma gondii are more frequently seen in immunocompetent patients. The infection acquired by the mother during pregnancy puts the fetus at risk of congenital infection due to the parasite transmission across the placenta. The severity and frequency of infection are determined by the gestational age of the mother at the time of infection. The objective of this research was to study the toxoplasmosis infection in women, and to estimate the relationship between T. gondii infection and parameters including abortion time, chronic diseases, and age.

The case-control study was conducted on 50 healthy women (pregnant and non-pregnant) as control group and 135 women with abortion experience as case group at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq from December 2021 until March 2022. The questionnaire was used to gather information from the women. The participant's name, age, gestational age, address, medications taken, medical history, previous abortions, and the date the sample was taken were all included. Under sterile conditions, five milliliters of the venous blood were drawn from each woman. The ELISA test was used to determine the level of anti-T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies in serum samples.

The anti-Toxoplasma IgM and IgG antibodies were found to be positive in 51% and 8% of the cases, respectively. However, the anti-T. gondii antibodies seroprevalence was 59% in women who had abortion.  The healthy women had 0% for all antibodies.

Despite reporting the high rates of infection among women who had single abortions, the current study found no significant association between the percentage of infection and the number of abortions. The cause of high incidence among women who had abortion could be due to decrease in the immune system function.

In Egypt, conserving irrigation water and raising crop output are significant concerns. Egypt's climate ranges from semi-arid and arid to desert. The number of summer legumes cultivated on a per-capita basis is declining. Excessively applied nitrogen (N) mineral fertilization and irrigation water are widespread agricultural techniques that harm the quality of the soil and the surrounding environment. It should be possible to increase overall agricultural yield while working with scarce agricultural resources through intercropping. In developing countries, intercropping is the most common farming system for increasing and maintaining agricultural production. As a widely spaced crop, maize provides ample opportunity for the practice of intercropping. Legumes are well-known for their effectiveness as intercropping companions. In light of this information, an investigation into the possibility of intercropping maize with legumes, specifically groundnut and green gram, was carried out. Seeds for groundnuts and green grams were sown between rows of paired row maize. The results demonstrated that the intercropping system had no considerable impact on maize grain and straw yields. However, there was a substantial disparity in total biomass production between the experiments; maize and groundnut (2:3) recorded the highest yield, followed by groundnut (2:2) and green gram (2:3). The land equivalent ratio (LER) unequivocally demonstrated the benefits of intercropping, and the highest LER was achieved by growing maize and groundnut (2:1).

Cloze tests are gap-filling tests designed to measure overall language ability and reading comprehension in a second language. Due to their ease of construction and scoring, cloze tests are widely used in the context of second and foreign language testing. Previous research over the past decades has shown the reliability and validity of cloze tests in different contexts. However, due to the interdependent structure of cloze test items, item response theory models have not been applied to analyze cloze tests. In this research, we apply a method to circumvent the problem of local dependence for analyzing cloze tests with the Rasch model. Using this method, we applied the Rasch model to a cloze test composed of eight passages each containing 8-15 gaps. Findings showed that the Rasch model fits the data and thus it is possible to scale persons and cloze passages on an interval unidimensional scale. The test had a high reliability and was well-targeted to the examinees. Implications of the study are discussed.

A C-Test is a gap-filling test for measuring language competence in the first and second language. C-Tests are usually analyzed with polytomous Rasch models by considering each passage as a super-item or testlet. This strategy helps overcome the local dependence inherent in C-Test gaps. However, there is little research on the best polytomous Rasch model for C-Tests. In this study, the Rating Scale Model (RSM) and the Partial Credit Model (PCM) for analyzing C-Tests were compared. To this end, a C-Test composed of six passages with both RSM and PCM was analyzed. The models were compared in terms of overall fit, individual item fit, dimensionality, test targeting, and reliability. Findings showed that, although the PCM has a better overall fit compared to the RSM, both models produce similar test statistics. In light of the findings of the study, the choice of the best Rasch model for C-Tests will be discussed.

 Most men have prostate cancer (PC), the second leading cause of death. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Internet-based hope therapy on coping strategies in men with PC.

 A quasi-experimental research with a pretest-posttest design and a control group was used in this study. 317 men with PC were referred to the King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2020. Following the participants' voluntary selection, the pre-test stage was performed, and they were given the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Subjects were chosen by simple random sampling and divided into two groups of 25 experimental and control subjects. Before taking the post-test, the experimental group received hope therapy training. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and SPSS software.

 There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups regarding stress (F = 57.495, P < 0.001), problem-oriented strategy (F = 33.041, P < 0.001), excitement strategy (F = 28.491, P < 0.001), and circuit avoidance strategy (F = 87.138, P < 0.001) variables. As a result, it can be concluded that the intervention was effective, and the experimental group outperformed the control group in the post-test stage.

 Hope therapy has a good effect on reducing stress in patients with PC and can be used to reduce the negative psychological consequences and increase effective coping strategies with stress.